Cincinnati will offer coverage for medically necessary transgender procedures under its employee health care plans beginning in 2015, according to city officials. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2014
To Protect Your Heart, Your Sodium to Potassium Ratio Is More Important Than Your Overall Salt Intake
Story at-a-glance
Research has again failed to find strong evidence that cutting salt intake reduces your risk for heart-related death
One observational study found that while higher sodium levels correlate with an increased risk for Continue reading
Phthalates: New Study Finds Common Chemicals May Lower Testosterone Levels
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A new study found reduced levels of circulating testosterone were associated with increased phthalate exposure in several key populations, including a 24-34 percent decline in testosterone levels in boys aged 6 to 12 Continue reading
Judge: Iowa Medical Board Can Bar Telemedicine for Abortion Care
On Tuesday, an Iowa judge ruled that the state Board of Medicine has the authority to ban the administration of medication abortion drugs via a telemedicine system, Bloomberg reports. Continue reading
Vitamin D for Depression, Dementia, and Diabetes
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Vitamin D can improve a number of brain disorders, including depression and Alzheimer’s disease
Seniors with severe vitamin D deficiency may raise their risk for dementia by 125 percent Continue reading
Should You Throw Away Your Pillows?
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Use the folding test to determine if your pillow needs to be replaced: fold your pillow in half, and if it stays folded instead of springing back into shape, it’s time to find a new one
Other sleep experts Continue reading
Entrepreneurs Set Sights on Self-Insured Market
As more companies migrate to self-funding, insurers are trying to meet demand with better outsourced management and new stop loss products. But a few startups with radical ideas are trying to beat them, offering new services to capitalize on frustration with the status quo. Continue reading
Connecting the Dots Between Pollution, Global Hunger, and Water Scarcity
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Industrial agriculture has removed massive amounts of valuable carbon from land, transferring it into air and water
Soils can hold vast amounts of carbon, and it can sequester it Continue reading
Best-Selling Toothpaste Contains Hazardous Endocrine-Disrupting Chemical
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Triclosan is an antibacterial chemical used in a wide variety of consumer products. Despite the pervasive use of this chemical, troubling questions linger about its potentially harmful effects, especially for children Continue reading
CMS to launch Medicare Set-Aside Calculator for Prescription Drug Costs
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to launch an online tool allowing workers compensation claim payers to determine how much money should be allocated for prescription drugs in Medicare set-aside accounts. Continue reading
Unlocking France’s Secrets to Raw Cheese
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In France, traditional cheese makers strive to understand the microbial communities in raw milk, and thereby in their cheese, in order to harness the natural power of beneficial microbes to keep the bad ones in check Continue reading
Back-to-School Vaccines: Know the Risks and Failures
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Unlike children in Canada and the European Union, American children must get dozens of doses of vaccines or they can’t get a public school education Continue reading
Physicians Reluctant To Use Data From Wearable Health Trackers
Most physicians are hesitant to use data from patients’ wearable health data trackers, according to experts in the digital health, health care and medical device industries, VentureBeat reports. Continue reading
How to Avoid GMOs
The best way to avoid genetically modified foods is to know which foods are genetically modified and which foods are not. It helps to understand the difference between heirlooms, hybrids, and GMOs. Continue reading
Reinventing Our Food System, One Small Farm at a Time
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The food you eat plays a major role in your health, and the health of the average American is a testament to the abject failure of processed foods to support good health Continue reading