The Daily HIT

Following up on yesterday’s story in which British authorities are seriously considering removing obese children from their parents’ custody, here’s a story of a weight loss camp for young people that seems to be showing some success.
But as the title of the New York Times article about this summer camp, “Priced Out of Weight Loss Camp,” makes [...]

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This is a most disturbing story.
Citing the need to protect children’s health, government authorities in England and Wales are seriously considering the most dire of actions, removing the most obese children from their parents’ homes in order to protect them from heart disease, diabetes and other dangerous diseases.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents 400 [...]

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It’s always encouraging to see nontoxic therapies shown to be effective for elders, a population more overmedicated than any other.
Tai chi, derived from the Asian martial arts tradition, involves a series of slow, gentle movements.
Oregon Research Institute senior scientist Fuzhong Li said senior community centers in Lane County, Ore., successfully adopted an evidence-based Tai Chi program to prevent [...]

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Current rates of obesity in Western nations are dangerous and unsustainable.
Because obesity correlates so closely with diabetes and heart disease, countries such as the United States (where two-thirds of the adult population are overweight or obese) face massively increased health expenditures in the coming years, not to mention more widespread individual suffering from these conditions.
Largely due [...]

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New research by investigators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a higher than expected rate of people arriving at hospital emergency rooms with adverse allergic reactions to antibiotics.
The solution, the researchers say, is to decrease the number of prescriptions by using these powerful medications only in cases where they are likely to [...]

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The research on the sunshine vitamin continues to broaden. A vitamin once considered only as a means for the body to absorb calcium turns out to be far more. For women with chronic pain, vitamin D makes a difference. This effect does not appear to hold for men, suggesting a hormonal mechanism.
This finding was not [...]

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Somehow, it seems reasonable that the drug that kills more Americans than any other (400,000 a year) should be under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. However, the tobacco interests have been able to prevent this for decades.
That time may be coming to an end.

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I have to confess that I have been out of the loop when it comes to the “cookie diets” described in this article. 
If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
 

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The only companies that can do this sort of thing are those that have a product that is life-or-death for some customers, and whose prices are unregulated. The press and members of Congress are starting to notice.
To start with the most extreme example:
Among the examples: Questcor Pharmaceuticals last August raised the wholesale price on Acthar, [...]

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Evidence continues to mount that a diet rich in vegetables and fruits helps prevent (and treat) virtually every major disease.
Here, a new study confirms the link between the Vitamin C in these foods and the prevention of diabetes.

In a study of middle-aged and older men and women, those with the highest blood levels of vitamin C [...]

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