Santa Clara County, California became the first to ban toys in fast food meals for children. As CNN reports, county officials voted 3 to 2 to ban the plastic toys in any meals with more than 485 calories. County supervisor Ken Yeager said the decision was made in an effort to prevent “restaurants from preying on children’s love of toys
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As part of a national campaign against high blood pressure, Brazil’s minister of health Jose Temporao offered some tips for simple ways to improve health—among them, dancing, routine blood pressure screening, and more time in the sack, the Associated Press reports. Nearly a quarter of Brazilians had high blood pressure in 2009,
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Two studies out this week indicate that human papillomavirus (HPV) screening may be a more effective way than conventional pap smears to identify pre-cancerous cells, enabling women to intercept cervical dysplasia before it potentially develops into cancer.
Peppers are having a big week. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Center for Human Nutrition say that preliminary findings from a small study suggest that the chemical that gives spicy peppers their kick, capsaicin, may not only make you sweat when digging in to a hot dish, but may actually prompt your body to
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While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is mulling possible strategies for limiting sodium content in manufactured foods—in large part in light of a recent report from the Institute of Medicine highlighting the health problems associated with the nation’s salt habit and the pressing need to cut back—the New York City-led National
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At this point, most of us generally have a clue about the basics of staying in good health—eat well, exercise, don’t drink too much and don’t smoke. And plenty of research has been dedicated to exploring how failing on any of those fronts, or even more than one at a time, can be detrimental to overall health. Yet, for many people,
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A reflection of the still sagging economy, there was a slight overall drop (1%) in elective cosmetic procedures last year compared with 2008, but 12.5 million Americans still spent an estimated $10 billion on plastic surgery in 2009, according to data released this week by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Nine percent fewer
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When you get interrupted in the middle of something, it can be hard to regain your train of thought—which can be annoying if you’re knitting and lose count of stitches, for example, or you’re wandering through the office and lose track of whom you’d been headed to speak with. But when you’re interrupted while measuring medication for
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The relationship between well being and chocolate may be extensively addressed in conventional wisdom and pop culture but little scientific research has actually examined whether the food so intuitively linked to mood has any more concrete correlation. To remedy that, a team of researchers from the University of California at Davis and
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Despite the recent $700 million donation from Bill Gates to help eradicate polio around the globe, as of last summer the disease was spreading across Africa, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And last week the WHO confirmed at least 120 cases of polio in Tajikistan, the small country of about 7.3 million people that
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There was a lot of media coverage last week of a new strain of fungus found in the Pacific Northwest that one study showed was deadly to lab animals and has been linked to 6 human deaths and 15 other infections. While those are all grim figures—as is the news that the fungus could potentially be spreading from Vancouver Island,
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According to the Humane Society, nearly 40% of Americans own a dog, and roughly a quarter own more than one. Dogs provide us with companionship, protection, slobbery kisses, and recently, perhaps even clues for cancer treatments. So, it makes sense that owners want to give them some special rewards. Yet, though they may seem a natural
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While the overall benefits of antidepressants for certain patients continue to be debated, new research being presented this week at a meeting of the American Physiological Society in Anaheim, California indicates that …
