Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Obesity rates steady?

I just read an article about how obesity rates seem to be leveling off. If this is true, we should see about no change in the next few years. This is to be expected sooner or later I would have to think. It only can get so out of control really. I guess it can always get worse, but it is already way out of hand. Everywhere you look you see high levels of obesity. It makes me wonder if people just don't care or what it is.

I don't see how it can get a whole lot worse than it currently is. I know it can be fairly difficult to lose weight and whatnot, but I really think the positive side and health benefits would be worth it as motivation, but I guess not. I don't think it will get much worse than it already is. I think the predictions that it is leveling off are correct. It will be quite interesting to see what it is like in ten years or so. There could possibly be a big difference one way or the other, or maybe there won't be much difference at all. Who knows?

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Aids vicitims overestimated

The United Nation's AIDS fighting agency has over estimated the victims of this disease by about six million people. However, there is still a significant number of people that have this virus. Now, the estimate is somewhere around 23 million people. A lot of these come from South Africa, which is known for being highly infected with the virus.

AIDS has yet to create an epidemic anywhere besides Africa. Although we haven't found a cure for it yet, we have been making some progress on developing drugs that slow it down, and make it less effective. The downside to some of these drugs is how your immune system is negatively affected, and you can become more susceptible to common infections and other viruses. Because of the way AIDS works, it is very hard to find a real cure for it, so we will have to see if someone can develop a cure over time.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Serious side-effects for Chanitx?

When you try your hand at quitting smoking, the last thing thing you are expecting as a side effect are suicidal tendencies. The Food and Drug Administration has been receiving some reports of odd behavior and such lately, and they are going to be investigating this drug, Chanitx, which is the drug that has been involved in these reports. This drug was approved last year for use, and it is still being used. However, the users are recommended to be monitored for changes in behavior.

There is really no proof of such activity, and only a few cases that can be used as any type of evidence from what I have read. I think the link is pretty weak and the drug doesn't really have a suicidal side effect. It will be investigated, and they will find out everything with time I'm sure.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

America loves their sodas

Americans love soda, so how better to appeal to them then with crazy holiday flavors. How might a nice, refreshing ham flavored soda appeal to you? Or how about such flavors as Sugar Plum, Egg Nog, or Christmas Tree flavored soda? If these sound like a great idea to you and you want to get your hands on them, they will be available during this year's Christmas season. If those flavors don't sound so great to you, perhaps you would be tempted by the Hanukkah edition. This pack comes with such flavors as Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins, Jelly Doughnut, and also Latkes sodas.All of these are being produced by Jones Soda company, which is located in Seattle and obviously known for producing a very strange variety of sodas.

Jones Soda co. has produced other crazy flavors in the past, so they are by no means new to this game. Last year they had some different kinds of sodas such as Sweet Potato, and also Antacid soda, neither which sounds too appetizing. I think I will have to pass on these odd sodas myself. Somebody must be buying them, though, as they keep on making new ones.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Clinton talks about America's obesity problem

We have been hearing a lot from Hillary Clinton lately,however Bill has been speaking out against the fight of obesity recently. Bill has been speaking and dealing with this issue many times for a few years now, and he advocates health awareness to the society because of the current condition it is now finding itself in. A whopping two thirds of American adults are currently overweight, and over a third of America's children are also overweight. Of course you do not need anyone to tell you any of this. All you must do is look around you, and you can easily see it for yourself.

Former president Bill Clinton has been working with some health groups and awareness agencies, but it is quite hard to succeed when people really don't care about the obesity problem. People are aware that they are overweight, but a lot of them either don't care or are not willing to do what it takes to control it. He says that he thinks this obesity problem could easily collapse our nation, and I personally wouldn't go that far, but I think it is obviously a problem that needs some serious work.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Bad luck for transplant recipients

Four Transplant recipients in Chicago got HIV and Hepatitis C along with the organs, which is a very rare case since the donors are checked for such viruses. Current testing procedures may prove to be inadequate, and this may spark a new revision in testing procedures.

There were only four organs taken from this donor, so there won't be any more cases of this, but this incident is very unfortuneate for the recipients. What is thought to be life-saving turns out to be life threatening instead, which is a terrible thing indeed.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Memory loss patient

I'm always reading around in the health news to see the interesting stories and new technologies that are advancing constantly. Recently, I found an interesting story of a man who suffered memory loss problems, and those are always quite interesting to me. There was a man that had been complaining about insomnia and memory loss problems over the last few months, but then one day he just flat out lost his memory.

He went to the doctor and had various tests performed on him. It ended up being caused by a cancer he had, in which his antibodies were attacking his healthy brain cells. This, in turn, caused severe memory loss.

After chemotherapy and other treatments, his memory has started to return over time, and hopefully he makes a full recovery. These problems are always hard for doctors to solve, and luckily he got a good doctor that could figure out the cause behind the problems.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Health news in presidential election

Health care is always in the news as the 2008 presidential election gets closer and closer. It has just recently been in the news with the Barack vs Hillary war for democratic nomination. Bill has been saying that she has been getting credited with the bad points to the health care system, but that she shouldn't be getting the blame. He said that he should be receiving more of the blame than her.

It seems Barack has been exploiting this fact that her role in the health care system has been working very well, so it needs to have a new influence on it. One of Hillary's main focuses has been on health care so far, so it is a good point to make if it can potentially weaken her campaign.

I don't think it will have much affect on her campaign, though. She has a very solid support base, and they probably think she just needs more time for success. I don't think this attempt will have much success, but we'll have to wait and see.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The Brainbow...new discovery by harvard

Harvard researchers and scientists have just found a way to make various cells in the brain be visible as different colors, so they could view and study it better. They can use animals for the experiments since their brain operates similarly to ours, which just may allow them to make new discoveries.

I don't know a huge amount about biology, but this new breakthrough may prove to be a significant discovery in medical science when more effort and work is put into it. If the scientists are able to map out the brain better, they will be able to get a better understanding of how it works. Therefore, they may be able to find new cures and other positive benefits.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Smoking is now far from Convenient

Every time I look through the news it seems like more and more laws are being passed to limit where smokers are given the right to smoke. Many laws have been passed to restrict smoking indoors in public places such as stores, restaurants, and even some bars. I think it's ridiculous to make smoking in bars illegal. In the other places, I support the new laws...but bars?? I don't smoke so this new series of laws doesn't affect me, but I just find the bar restriction comical.

Today, I was reading about how some cities in California have passed laws against smoking indoors in apartments and condominiums. That must be rough for smokers in those areas. You can't even smoke in your own home anymore. These laws have been passed to protect the other people and their children from the lingering smoke, and I agree with the laws. It will be interesting to see if all these new laws have any affect on the amount of newly starting smokers, but I doubt they will.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Atkin's diet

Seems like all the rage on the Atkin's diet is slowing down. It's about time. People just want to take the easy way out, and they don't care about the health benefits. Any diet where fruits and vegetables are prohibited isn't exactly healthy in my book. If you want to just eat fats and protein all day and overload your kidneys with protein be my guest, but down the road when you start having health problems stemming from this diet you will wish you chose a safe alternative. When did limiting calories and getting exercise go out of style?

Friday, November 2, 2007

Juicers make milk?

I never knew that I could make milk with a juicer, but it appears to be quite easy. I am going to try to make the rice milk once I get a juicer, but I'm still looking into which one to purchase. All you have to do is cook some rice, juice it, then strain it. This also works with almonds, soy beans, and oats. I don't know about anything else, but I'm going to give it a shot. I don't drink much milk anyways, and it always expires before I get to it, so this should prove to be a nice alternative. Rice milk is supposed to taste sweet, which will be interesting. Well, I'm off to go look at some juicers.