The Daily HIT

Even after having taught clinical nutition for a couple of years, I have to confess I found this truly stunning. If you have ever wondered why obesity is epidemic in the United States (not to mention heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and diseases of the gall bladder and kidney), wonder no more. Just click through these 20 [...]

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Good news here. The overall decline is somewhat greater among men than women, and masks some real differences in the rising and falling rates of particular cancers. Colon cancer declined, apparently due to increased screening to catch pre-cancerous cases early. But researchers also attribute the increased rates of Hodgkin’s disease, melanoma, and kidney cancer to [...]

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From the New America Foundation, a good starting point for the discussions on health care reform that we’re about to leap into over the next year or so. Here are the five myths. At first glance, some of these may seem like truths rather than myths. Read the full article for details, including solidly sourced [...]

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This Washington Post article tells a curious tale, in which the fast food giant brings mothers behind the scenes and does its best to sell them on the virtues of French fries and other “healthy” items. The mothers are skeptical yet intrigued. Overall, it looks like at least a partially successful gambit on the part of McDonald’s [...]

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The mechanism isn’t entirely clear but the risk of diabetes clearly rises as egg consumption rises. Here are the statistics for men: 9% for less than one egg a week (hazard ratio 1.09, 0.87 to 1.37) 9% for one egg a week (HR 1.09, 0.88 to 1.34) 18% for two to four eggs a week [...]

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Gingko biloba, the leaf of an ancient tree native to China, has been shown to improve blood flow to the legs and to the brain. It was therefore hoped that it might help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s-type dementia in older people. Early trials had shown some promise. But the largest clinical trial to date [...]

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This may be the first instance in which a legislative body in the United States whose jurisdiction includes farming areas has banned the growing of GMO (genetically modified organism) foods. The UPI story emphasizes that this is at least partly due to the fact that pollen from GMO farms can easily contaminate nearby organic farms, destroying their ability [...]

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This is happening because people enduring economic difficulties don’t see a better choice. Spam is cheap and its shelf-life approaches infinity. Through war and recession, Americans have turned to the glistening canned product from Hormel as a way to save money while still putting something that resembles meat on the table. Now, in a sign of [...]

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Dr. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, this week outlined health priorities for the world’s governments, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a focus on meeting the health needs of disadvantaged populations, even in times of economic crisis. A previous effort to use health as the route to socioeconomic development, launched in 1978, was followed [...]

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In at least some cases, the magnetic therapy device NeuroStar yields dramatically positive effects. The Washington Post reports on one man’s experiences: Newman gave up his job in Florida and in 2005 moved to Philadelphia, where he signed up for the magnetic therapy trial at the University of Pennsylvania. Weeks after the treatments began, Newman [...]

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