Posts Tagged ‘Add new tag’

According to an analysis released by The Commonwealth Fund this week, private insurance premiums for employer-sponsored coverage will rise by 94% by the year 2020. This is on top of the 119% increase that has already occurred between 1999-2008. These premium increases were greater than four times the rise in family incomes during the same period, even prior to the current recession. And these are only the premiums alone, not including out-of-pocket costs – deductibles, co-pays, and miscellaneous fees – which have also risen. This is why medical bills have become the number one cause in 62% of bankruptcies. Yet, instead of reining in cost and saving us money, private insurance companies will continue to increase their premiums. Regardless of how we end up dealing with our current health care situation, any genuine reform must counter the rising cost of health insurance premiums. [via The Commonwealth Fund]

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New research by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that the risks associated with texting while driving is much more dangerous than previously thought. In fact, texters have a 23-fold increase in crash rate, compared to those who do not text. This was the first study to video tape drivers inside their vehicles to document this dangerous driving distraction. “In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices — enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.” Americans send out hundreds of billions of text messages each year. The number of those sent out while driving is unknown. However, motor vehicle accidents due to texting is increasingly becoming a large public health concern. [ via New York Times ]

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A new global arms race is happening – one with the goal of keeping us safe from mosquitoes. Scientists are devising methods to thwart the malaria-carrying bug by employing laser technology. Incidentally, some of these scientists were the original brains behind the Star Wars program that was to shield the US from Soviet nuclear arms during the Cold War. The eventual application of this technology may be to draw laser barriers around houses or villages that could kill or blind the flying critters, thereby reducing malaria transmission. Malaria remains a global health threat that kills one million people each year.

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The results of a 20-year-long study has been published in the March 9th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers followed over 45,000 men and assessed their vitamin C intake throughout the length of the study and found that for every 500 milligram increase in vitamin C consumption, men’s risk for gout appeared to decrease by 17 percent. Men in the study who took 1,500 mg per day had a 45 percent less risk of gout, compared to those who took less than 250 mg per day. The researchers conclude that “Given the general safety profile associated with vitamin C intake, particularly in the generally consumed ranges as in the present study…vitamin C intake may provide a useful option in the prevention of gout,”

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The popular children show Sesame Street will be launching a new program in Nigeria to teach kids about HIV/AIDS. The show is called “The Adventures of Kami and Big Bird” and will feature Kami, a character from the South African version of Sesame Street. Kami is HIV-positive and an AIDS orphan. The show is expected to reach about 30,000 Nigerian children.

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As counter intuitive as it might sound,  swimming lessons have been thought to increase a child’s risk of drowning. However, in this month’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a study shows that children between the ages of 1 to 4 appear to have a lower risk of drowning if they have taken formal swimming lessons. The authors state that “Previous concerns have been raised about the potential for swimming lessons to increase the risk of drowning, either through increased exposure to water or through decreased parental vigilance as parents become more confident in their child’s swimming ability.”  However, these new results show that swimming lessons can, in fact, save lives.

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New research from San Francisco State University is thought to be the first to show that sighted and blind people use the same facial expressions in response to certain emotional states. By studying both sighted and blind Olympic athletes the researchers found that 85 percent of silver medalists, regardless of visual ability, showed the same “social smile”, where only the mouth smiles – compared with a “real” or Duchenne smile (named after the 19th century French neurologist who discovered that a smile which results from true happiness involves not only the mouth but also the eyes). “Individuals blind from birth could not have learned to control their emotions in this way through visual learning so there must be another mechanism,” said the researchers. This is why they believe that some facial expressions may be intrinsic, not learned.

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