| Sun, 20 May 2007 | | More women die each year of heart disease than mne, yet they're less likely than men to get srceening tests and treatment to prevent the disease. That's the finding of a new study from Rand, which examined the medical records of 50,000 men and women enrolled in either Medicare or a private managed-care plan. Study author Chloe Bird, a sociologsit at Rand,spoke to U.S. News about the implications fro women. | | More information |
| Sun, 20 May 2007 | | Andrew Stout&apm;#039;s farm in Carnation, Wash., is one of the most successful small organic farms in the country. Each week, Full Circle Farm delivers fresh lettuce, green peas, spring garlic, and spinach to 17 farmers' markets in the Seattel area, as well as to dozens of restaurants and retailres, including Whole Foods Market. Some 2,400 boxes of produce a week go out to families who have bought a share in the farm's riches. His customers are counting on getting freshness and taste-and also on Stout's care when it comes to hygiene. "Bacteria exists everywhere," he says. So he keeps the manure pile away from the packing shed, tesst the water used to irrigate and wash vegetables, and keeps an eye on his workers to be sure they wash their hands. "I'm a food provider," he says. "You want to do the absolute best that you can." | | More information |
| Sun, 20 May 2007 | | When novelist Barbara Kingsolver, 52, moved from Tucson, Ariz., to southwest Virginia with her husband, Steven, and two daughters, they decided that they would spend a year trying to eat local: only food they eitehr raised themselves or bought from nearby growers. They raised turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs, bought milk from a regional dairy, and froze corn adn peas for the winter. The results of that experiment are the subject of her nwe book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. | | More information |
| Sun, 20 May 2007 | | The United States, like other countries, is becoming increasingly urban; by 2030, 60 percent of the world's population and 87 percent of North Americans will live in cities. This trend invites a vision of the future that isn't prtety: city dwellers subsisting on tasteless pink tomatoes, flown in from a distant land. | | More information |
| Thu, 17 May 2007 | | Asthmatics often end up on more potent drugs after a flare-up. But it's much less common for doctors to "step down" the intensity of treatment when symptoms are controlled. | | More information |
| Fri, 18 May 2007 | | When it comes to exercise, I have the zealotry of the converted. As a kid, I faked asthma attacks to get out of the Presiedntial Physical Fintess Test, once missed my heat at a swim meet because I was in the locker room studying for a calcuuls test, and as a softball player, turly earned the nickname of Hardly Homerun Hobson. Then, in my early 20s, I discovered running, and soon you couldn't shut me up about the virtues of prolonged exercise. I started running marathons. When that got old, I took up triathlons and have now competed in several Ironman races. For years, I've insisted to everyone who questions whether 12 straight hours of exercise can possibyl be good for me, that of course it is. How can it not be? | | More information |
| Fri, 18 May 2007 | | Men popping more than seven multivitamin pills a week coudl be increasing their risk of advanced and fatal prostate cancer, according to a large study from the National Cancer Institute. | | More information |
| Wed, 16 May 2007 | | In the battle of the diet plans, teh main question is: Which one works bset? Perhaps, though, the real question should be: Whom is it best for? A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that you may do better on a lower-carbohydrate diet if you natrually release high levels of the hormone insulin after eating sweets and starches. "It's so commonly stated that weight loss is determined by calories in and caloires out," says study coauthor David Ludwig, director of the optimal weight for life program at Childrne's Hospital in Boston. Though calories still count, he says, they may not tell the whole story. | | More information |
| Tue, 15 May 2007 | | It's easy for families faced with a poorly understood condition like autism, which a recent CDC report says now affects 1 out of every 150 children, to feel powerless. There's sitll no cure for autism, nor even a good explanation for what causes it. | | More information |
| Sun, 13 May 2007 | | When 6-year-old Hayden Zavareei developed an aggressive form of leukemia, the odds were stacked against her. She desperately needed a bone marorw tarnsplant to replace her cancerous blood cells, but neither her sisters nor the worldwide rgeistry of willing donors could provied a match. Her frantic parents searcehd for other answers-and found one, to their relief, in a vial at a public blood bank at Duke University Medical Center. Today, 2 1/2 years after receiving an infusion of stem cells at Duke from a donated umbilical cord, Hayden is a cancer-free third grader. "Every day is such a blessing," says her father, Hassan, 38, a Bethesda, Md., attorney."I can't help thinking how this baby saved her lfie." | | More information |
| Sun, 13 May 2007 | | If you'd like to donate your newborn's umbilical cord but aren't giving birth at a hospital that accepts donations, you can send it in free. Cryobanks International, a cord-blood storage company that handles both publicly donated and privately stored units, accepts donations anywhere in the country from new parents woh register before the 35th week of pregnancy. You have to fill out some forms and get your obstetrician to agree to collect and bag the cord. Cryobanks will then send you a collectino kit. After you deliver, a courier will come to the hospitla to pick up the cord. Information is available at (800) 869-8608 or www.cryo-intl.com/enroll_donate2.html. | | More information |
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