VIDEO: The high cost of health care is deterring parents from taking their children to the doctor or buying prescription medication, regardless of how much money they make or whether they... Click here for more information. DENVER – The high cost of health care is deterring parents from taking their children to the doctor or buying prescription medication, regardless of how much money they make or whether they have health insurance, according to a study to be presented Sunday, ...

KDH Defense Systems, Inc. (KDH), a leading manufacturer of American-made custom body armor solutions for military, law enforcement and federal agencies, today announced that the Company will sponsor an online promotion, "Body Armor Saves Lives - Save Story Contest," where law enforcement officers, federal agents, Soldiers and Marines can share their personal stories of how body armor saved their lives. "In recent months, we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty," stated David Herbener, President ...

DENVER – Most injured children are not being treated at pediatric trauma centers, arguably the most appropriate location of care for young patients, according to a study to be presented Monday, May 2, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver. Regional trauma centers, especially those with pediatric qualifications, have resources and expertise to provide emergency medical services to young patients with severe and life-threatening injuries. Trauma centers are designated as Levels I through IV, with Level I centers capable of providing the highest ...

DENVER – Trying to figure out what's going on inside the mind of an adolescent can be challenging, to say the least. A new study shows that simply asking them what they wish for could be eye-opening. The question: "If you could have three wishes, what would they be?" is included on a questionnaire designed to be given to adolescent patients before a doctor's visit. The survey, which is part of the American Medical Association's Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services program, also includes questions about medical history, health, school, safety and substance use. ...

DENVER – Nutrition during the first days or weeks of life may have long-term consequences on health, potentially via a phenomenon known as the metabolic programming effect, according to a study to be presented Monday, May 2, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver. Metabolic programming is the concept that differences in nutritional experiences at critical periods early in life can program a person's metabolism and health for the future. In this study, researchers compared growth, body composition and blood pressure in three groups of healthy, ...

Young black men who have sex with men (MSM) get infected with HIV nearly five times more often than MSM from other races, even though they don't have more unprotected sex. The discrepancy has long mystified public health experts but a new study by investigators at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere now offers a possible explanation for it. The study found that young black MSM -- a group that includes openly gay and bisexual men, as well as those who have sex with men but do not identify themselves as gay or bisexual -- select partners and judge these partners' HIV status in ...

Reston, VA (April 28, 2011) — The latest American College of Radiology white paper, Strategies for Radiologists in the Era of Health Care Reform and Accountable Care Organizations, published in the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, offers strategies for successful radiologist participation in accountable care organizations (ACOs). ACOs are intended to create incentives for health care providers to work together to treat an individual patient across care settings — including doctor's offices, hospitals and long-term care facilities. There ...

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (5/2/2011) – Multitaskers who think they can successfully divide their attention between the program on their television set and the information on their computer screen proved to be driven to distraction by the two devices, according to a new study of media multitasking by Boston College researchers. Placed in a room containing a television and a computer and given a half hour to use either device, people on average switched their eyes back and forth between TV and computer a staggering 120 times in 27.5 minutes – or nearly once every 14 seconds, Carroll ...

Reston, VA (April 28, 2011) — A summary of the National Council on Radiation Protection's (NCRPs) workshop on the appropriate use of computed tomography (CT) in emergency medicine, and a list of recommendations from participating organizations to help control the inappropriate use of CT in the emergency department, is now available via the May issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. As a generalization, the benefit-risk estimates for CT scanning favor its use over most other imaging procedures and many other types of diagnostic technology. However, ...

Contact: Sherry D. Gibbs SDGibbs@cmh.edu 816-346-1340 Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics 2 tests better than 1 to diagnose diabetes in overweight children More than two-thirds of high-risk patients missed if recommended hemoglobin A1C test used alone Kansas City, MO – May 2, 2011 – A new study found that the recommended blood test may not be enough to catch type 2 diabetes in overweight children, missing more than two-thirds of children at high-risk for the condition. Researchers from Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics found that performing two tests – both ...

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J., May 2, 2011 – Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that new Phase III data showed that patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension, who were dosed once-daily with tafluprost, Merck's investigational, preservative-free prostaglandin analogue ophthalmic solution, experienced a reduction in intraocular pressure (IOP) comparable to patients taking twice-daily preservative-free timolol maleate, a beta-adrenergic antagonist. These findings were presented for the first time at the Association ...

Nobody likes paying taxes but the IRS will go to great lengths to ensure they get every penny owed. This includes implementing wage garnishments on taxpayers, which can be humiliating as well as stressful. This is the situation Alonzo (San Bernardino, CA) found himself in which compelled him to contact Blue Tax for help. Since the experts at Blue Tax deal with wage garnishments regularly, they knew exactly how best to proceed with Alonzo's case. What Blue Tax quickly discovered was that the client owed a balance of $7,000 to the IRS. A notice of levy had been sent ...

ENERCA is a European Network for Rare and Congenital Anaemias funded by the European Commission and coordinated by IDIBAPS - Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. Its main purpose is offering an improved public health service to medical practitioners and patients in every aspect of rare anaemias. Recently this year this network published in the American Journal of Hematology (AJH) a series of recommendations for disease management and prevention of complications of sickle cell disease (SCD) in children. With this of publication ENERCA is willing to give clinical guidance to professional ...

A new study of itch adds to growing evidence that the chemical signals that make us want to scratch are the same signals that make us wince in pain. The interactions between itch and pain are only partly understood, said itch and pain researcher Diana Bautista, an assistant professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. The skin contains some nerve cells that respond only to itch and others that respond only to pain. Others, however, respond to both, and some substances cause both itching and pain. If itch and pain are closely linked, ...

Since SwingLifeStyle launched its Twitter account, more swingers are tuning in to the microblogging site for instant updates in the swinger world. Recently SwingLifeStyle has launched a swingers blog that became an overnight success with thousands of followers in a few days. Swingers are tuning in to Twitter to receive updates from the blog postings as well as other swinger related events. -I have my mobile phone hooked up to twitter and SwingLifeStyle so I don't miss any swinger parties - Mike Hatcher Most of the followers on Twitter enjoy the instant party updates ...

With their discovery, the scientists Johan Lindgren, Per Uvdal, Anders Engdahl, and colleagues have demonstrated that remains of type I collagen, a structural protein, are retained in a mosasaur fossil. The scientists have used synchrotron radiation-based infrared microspectroscopy at MAX-lab in Lund, southern Sweden, to show that amino acid containing matter remains in fibrous tissues obtained from a mosasaur bone. Previously, other research teams have identified collagen-derived peptides in dinosaur fossils based on, for example, mass spectrometric analyses of whole ...

In one of his songs Bob Dylan asks "How many years can a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea?", and thus poses an intriguing geological question for which an accurate answer is not easily provided. Mountain ranges are in a constant interplay between climatically controlled weathering processes on the one hand and the tectonic forces that cause folding and thrusting and thus thickening of the Earth's crust on the other hand. While erosion eventually erases any geological obstacles, tectonic forces are responsible for piling- and lifting-up rocks and thus for forming ...

Statins may be best known for their ability to reduce cholesterol, but a research report appearing in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (http://www.jleukbio.org) shows that these same drugs could also play a crucial role in the reduction of lung damage resulting from severe abdominal sepsis and infection. "We hope that this study will not only provide new knowledge about the complicated pathophysiology behind abdominal sepsis, but also form the basis for more effective and specific treatment options for patients with severe infections," said Henrik ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Lichen, those drab, fuzzy growths found on rocks and trees, aren't as cuddly and charismatic as kangaroos or intriguing as opossums, but they could be a fungal equivalent, at least evolutionarily. A Duke research team has found that lichen that seem identical in all outward appearances and produce the same internal chemicals are in fact two different species, one living in North America and one in Australia. They're an example of "convergent evolution," in which two species evolve separately but end up looking very similar, like the Tasmanian wolf and the ...

Tampa, Fla. (May 2, 2011) – Brazilian researchers, reporting in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (20:3) (now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/ ), discovered difficulties in establishing a genetically diverse line of human embryonic stem cells (hES) to serve the therapeutic stem cell transplantation needs of the diverse ethnic and genetic Brazilian population. According to the study's corresponding author, Dr. Lygia V. Pereira of the Molecular Genetics Laboratory at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, pluripotent human ...

For many practical applications involving lasers, it's important to be able to control the direction of the laser beams. Just ask Han Solo, or the captain of the Death Star. Researchers from North Carolina State University have come up with a very energy-efficient way of steering laser beams that is precise and relatively inexpensive. "In many cases, it is much easier to redirect a laser beam at a target than to steer the laser itself. We intended to develop a way to do this efficiently and without moving anything," says Dr. Michael Escuti, an associate professor of electrical ...

As graduation day approaches for high school and college students alike, parents must deal with the "empty nest syndrome" that accompanies a child leaving home. Empty Nest Syndrome has been recognized by the psychological community as feelings of depression, sadness, and/or grief experienced by parents and caregivers after children come of age and leave their childhood homes. Licensed family counselor and author Jay Fitter says the devastation to parents is very real, but can be dealt with by implementing a few proactive measures. In his book "Respect ...

April 29, 2011 -- Road warriors who travel for business two weeks or more a month have higher body mass index, higher rates of obesity and poorer self-rated health than those who travel less often, according to researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The study, conducted by Andrew G. Rundle, DrPH and Catherine A. Richards, MPH, drew data from medical records of more than 13,000 employees in a corporate wellness program provided by EHE International. Nearly 80% of employees traveled at least one night a month and 1% traveled more than 20 ...

Tampa, FL (May 2, 2011) -- A protein associated with Alzheimer's disease clogs several motors of the cell transport machinery critical for normal cell division, leading to defective neurons that may contribute to the memory-robbing disease, University of South Florida researchers report. In a new study published online in the journal Cell Cycle, scientists at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute. the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and Indiana University also suggest that the protein beta amyloid (amyloid protein) may cause neurons in the brain to malfunction ...

Menlo Park, Calif. — Scientists have engineered a cheap, abundant alternative to the expensive platinum catalyst and coupled it with a light-absorbing electrode to make hydrogen fuel from sunlight and water. The discovery is an important development in the worldwide effort to mimic the way plants make fuel from sunlight, a key step in creating a green energy economy. It was reported last week in Nature Materials by theorist Jens Nørskov of the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University and a team of colleagues led by Ib Chorkendorff ...