Newest Health Care

Coming to a store near you: nine more reasons not to smoke.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday is set to release nine new graphic health warning labels for U.S. cigarette packs, representing the most significant change to cigarette packs in more than 25 years.

The new labels will take up half of a pack of cigarettes and also will appear on advertisements. Cigarette makers have until the fall of 2012 to comply.

Mandates for new warning labels were part of a 2009 law giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco. The announcement follows reviews of scientific literature, public comments and results from a study of 36 labels proposed last November.

The U.S.

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Tags: Labels, New Graphic, Warning Labels

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New analysis from the Institute of Medicine finds that fewer than half of all Americans see a dentist each year and millions live in areas where access to dental care is limited at best.

A severe shortage of dentists, especially in rural areas and minority settings, is contributing to the “persistent and systemic” barriers to oral health care, IOM’s report notes.

Various factors create barriers, preventing access for vulnerable and underserved populations, such as children and those on welfare and disability. The H

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Tags: Care, Care Needed

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The American Red Cross is sending out an emergency call for blood donations. In fact, the organization is so concerned about the low supply of some blood types that they’re entering donors in a special prize drawing.

In order to encourage blood donations this 4th of July weekend, the Red Cross is offering a $1,000 gas card as an incentive to anyone who donates blood from July 1 to July 4.

“If you come in to donate blood, you will immediately be entered in the drawing,” explained Red Cross spokesperson Vince Falsarella. “Some

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Tags: Blood Donation, Donation

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Gulping down eight glasses of water a day to be healthy is a delusion and always has been, according to Margaret McCartney, the author of an article published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal.

McCartney, a family doctor in Glasgow, Scotland, lampoons the recommendation to drink the equivalent of a two-litre pop bottle of water every day in the wake of a new international health initiative coming to the fore.

Hydration for Health promotes drinking more water for a healthier lifestyle, and that means six to eight eight-ounce glasses of H20.

McCartney points out the program is sponsored by French food giant Danone, which produces Volvic and Evian brands of bottled water.

“This is not only nonsense, but is thoroughly debunked nonsense,” McCartney writes, listing recently published studies that have found no scientific evidence that we need to drink that much.

“People still think that we’re all going to die or our kidneys will shrivel up if we don’t drink eight cups of water a day,” she tells Postmedia News.

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Living near fast-food restaurants appears related to an individual’s consumption of these foods whereas living near grocery stores and supermarkets appears generally unrelated to dietary quality.  Chicago, IL – infoZine – The federal government has made one of its priorities reducing “food deserts,” areas in which healthy food is difficult to find, according to background information to a report in the July 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. “Such policies stem from limited evidence that food resources are related to obesity and are inequitably allocated according to neighborhood wealth,” write the authors. Get more…

Tags: Availability Related, Related

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