HealthBeat
Baseball great’s death renews push to ban chewing tobacco
The death of Major League Baseball great Tony Gwynn has prompted public health organizations to once again push the league to ban chewing tobacco. The 54-year-old San Diego Padre all-star died last month of cancer in his salivary gland. Gwynn’s death came after two surgeries to remove malignant growths inside his right cheek, where Gwynn […]
July 17, 2014 3:22 pm
Safe sun exposure apps
Want to avoid sunburn while at the beach? There’s an app for that. Smartphones are offering apps that predict how much UV exposure you’re getting and track when you may need to reapply your sunscreen. The New York Times took a look at some of the sun exposure apps on the market and what they […]
July 16, 2014 5:42 pm
Kids and hot cars don’t mix
Leaving kids in hot cars – or even warm cars – is never a good idea. Tragic stories of kids dying from heat stroke after being left in too-hot cars remind us of that all too often. But, according to a new national survey, an alarming number of parents say they have left their children […]
July 9, 2014 4:27 pm
Americans are stressed out
Nearly half of the people included in a nationwide survey said they’ve had a major stressful event in the past year, with most people pointing to health-related problems as the cause of the stress. NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a poll on stress this spring, surveying […]
July 7, 2014 3:07 pm
Hold the salt
A review of meals from the top restaurant chains found restaurants have decreased the amount of sodium in their meals slightly but progress has been slow and unsteady. The Center for Science in the Public Interest reviewed 136 meals from 17 restaurant chains. On average, the restaurants reduced sodium by 6 percent between 2009 and […]
July 3, 2014 2:55 pm
Nail-biting health issues
Biting your fingernails doesn’t only make your nails look bad. It can also make you feel bad. Time magazine readers asked whether biting your nails was dangerous or just gross. The magazine went to the experts, who said nail biting is dangerous for a number of different reasons. Nails harbor germs, in particular a family […]
July 2, 2014 6:05 pm
One in 10 adult deaths due to excessive drinking
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found excessive alcohol consumption accounts for one in 10 deaths among working-age adults. Excessive alcohol consumption includes binge drinking (five or more drinks on an occasion for men; four or more for women), heavy weekly alcohol consumption (15 or more drinks per week for […]
June 26, 2014 4:29 pm
Kids’ cereals: Sugar by the pound
It’s no surprise that some kids’ cereals contain a lot of sugar. But just how much sugar do they contain? According to a report by the Environmental Working Group, children’s cereals are, on average, 34 percent sugar by weight. Environmental Working Group analyzed 1,556 cereals on the U.S. market. The group found that 92 percent […]
June 24, 2014 5:24 pm
Insuring the uninsured
Nearly 60 percent of people who purchased health plans through insurance exchanges were uninsured prior to purchasing their plan, according to a new survey. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted the survey from early April to early May, after the close of the open enrollment period. The survey includes people who purchased plans inside and outside […]
June 19, 2014 4:37 pm
U.S. health care ranks last, again
The U.S. health care system ranks last – not an unfamiliar position – among industrialized countries, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The 2014 report looks at the health care systems in 11 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The U.S. came […]
June 16, 2014 4:11 pm