Health

FDA sets 'safe' levels for melamine in baby formula - CNN.com

Posted by Jeff from CNN

Make sure your baby is getting enough melamine: "Amounts of the industrial chemical melamine or the melamine-like compound called cyanuric acid that are below 1.0 ppm [1,000 parts per billion] do not raise public health concerns," said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

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Why the Economic Crisis Shouldn't Mean Putting Off Health Care | Health and Wellness | AlterNet

Posted by Shemuses from Alternet

We can't afford not to tackle our health care crisis. Many have speculated that the health care reform promised during the election will have to be put off in the face of our severe economic crisis. Others warned that comprehensive reform will be impossible given the budget gaps and believe piece-meal reform is the most we can hope for. Still others believe the new president will not be able to tackle comprehensive health care reform in his first year for political reasons.

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Obese travelers in Canada get 2 seats, pay for 1

Posted by Jeff from Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Canada's largest airline is trying to figure out which obese and disabled passengers will be eligible for additional seats at no charge after the country's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the airlines. The Canadian Transportation Agency issued an order last January requiring Air Canada and other domestic airlines to make additional seats free to disabled or obese passengers who need extra room.

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Pro-Anorexia Groups Spread to Facebook

Posted by Jeff from Newsweek

A Web page labeled "Ana Boot Camp" recently offered its members a seemingly irresistible proposition: a 30-day regimen designed to help them drop some serious pounds, no exercise needed. The catch was that the group's members were to vary their daily caloric intake from 500 (less than half the daily minimum requirement for women recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine) to zero. They were supposed to track their progress, fast to make up for the days they accidentally "overate" and support each other as they worked toward their common goal of radical weight loss.

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My Father Gave My Mother AIDS

Posted by robynoratocom

Mom had a headache that wasn't going away. In fact, it was getting worse. Mom never complained about anything, ever. Maybe that's why my parents got along so well. But now she began to cry about her head hurting and aspirins not helping. Dad took mom to the doctor, who said, "Just a headache. Go home and ride it out."

They were obedient patients that trusted doctors... until mom's headache got so bad she couldn't talk or walk. Rushing mother to the emergency room, dad demanded some test that revealed a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma. Two weeks after the surgery dad told all of us to pray for mom.

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A toke a day keeps memory loss at bay

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

Small doses of marijuana improve the function of aging brains, scientists find. Turns out a few dances with Mary Jane can do wonders for an aging brain. Yes, a daily toke in later-middle and old age can help slow memory loss, or the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests. It's a pre-emptive strike, one not effective at reversing previous memory loss. But aging boomers still shouldn't go overboard, researchers say. In tests on lab rats, all it took was the equivalent of one human puff.

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Bloggers sore over Motrin ad

Posted by Shemuses from Globe and Mail

Don't mess with the mommy bloggers. That's a lesson the makers of Motrin have been learning the hard way over the past two days, after a blogosphere campaign forced the company to pull a viral web ad and issue a public apology. On Saturday, U.S. pharmaceutical company McNeil Consumer Healthcare posted an ad on the Motrin website aimed at moms who may be suffering back pain from carrying their babies in baby slings or baby-Bjorn-style carriers. The ad begins with a female voiceover, musing, "Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion. I mean, in theory it's a great idea."She goes on to list her aches and pains, concluding, "I mean I'll put up with the pain because it's a good kind of pain; it's for my kid. Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom..."

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