Buckle Your Children Up! Although child deaths resulting from motor vehicle crashes fell 43% in the United States between 2002 and 2011, car accidents still claim the lives of over 9,000 American children each year. Researchers working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) believe that nearly a third of these deaths can…

Half of All Cancer Deaths Could be Avoided! According to the World Health Organization (WHO), early detection could cut the worldwide cancer death rate in half. Experts note the leading preventable risk factors for cancer development are tobacco use, obesity, excessive alcohol consumption, sedentary activity, unhealthy diet, sexually transmitted diseases, and air pollution. The WHO…

Are Chemicals Used in Food Packaging Harmful? A new report warns that chemicals used in the production, storage, and processing of packaged foods may be harmful to your health over the long-term. The authors of the report note that food manufacturers regularly use small and regulated amounts of chemicals in food packaging known to cause…

The Average Obese Person Exercises Less Than Four Hours Per Year! Using data from a 2005-2006 United States government survey on nearly 2,600 adults, researcher Dr. Edward Archer at the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham calculated that the average obese women gets just one hour of vigorous exercise per…

Amazing! Scientists from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy have announced the first known instance of an amputee “feeling” the world via a state-of-the-art sensory-enhanced artificial hand. Sensations felt by the “hand” are converted into electrical impulses that communicate with the patient via wires…

Hygiene and Diabetes? Researchers at the University of Helsinki Children’s Hospital believe the rise in auto-immune diseases, like type 1 diabetes and allergies, may be linked to a corresponding rise in hygiene standards. The so-called “hygiene hypothesis” suggests that less bacterial exposure during childhood may hinder the development of a child’s immune system. The researchers…

Excessive Alcohol Consumption. Nearly forty million American adults drink too much alcohol, although most are not considered alcoholics. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, high weekly use is considered 15 or more drinks for men and eight or more drinks on average for women. Excessive alcohol consumption causes premature death (79,000 deaths…

Alarming Rate of Overweight and Obese in Developing Countries. In the last three decades, the amount of overweight and obese people in developing countries has skyrocketed from 250 million to almost one billion people. In comparison, richer nations have seen a rise from 200 million to 600 million overweight and obese people over the same…

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Cardiovascular Problems. There is concern that long-term, untreated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may increase a person’s risk of developing cardiovascular health problems. Researchers detected the presence of myocardial ischemia in 17% of the participants with PTSD but only 10% of participants without PTSD. Biological Psychiatry, December 2013

Inflammatory Proteins? A recent study shows there is an abnormal amount of an inflammatory protein called PAR2 in the abdominal fat tissue of overweight and obese people. Previous research has shown that PAR2 is also increased on the surface of human immune cells by the excessive consumption of fats and sugars. This finding links obesity…