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) Act F.A.S.T. and save someone’s life
Every 45 seconds, someone in the United States experiences a stroke. Yet, despite being the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult disability in this country, fewer than one in five Americans can recognize a symptom of a stroke. In addition, some people still believe that this condition is simply a “stroke of fate," not realizing that stroke is preventable and treatable. The facts are startling:• About 780,000 Americans each year suffer a new or recurrent stroke. That means, on average, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds
• On average, every three to four minutes someone dies of stroke
• Of every five deaths from stroke, two occur in men and three in women.
May is National Stroke Awareness Month and the National Stroke Association is urging people to take charge of their health by knowing the signs and symptoms of a stroke, asking their doctors about stroke prevention and adopting healthy lifestyle habits. More>>
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) Comfort zone: Health care at Children's Hospital
When she needed surgery to correct a heart defect, Julie Ogg was admitted to Nationwide Children's Hospital -- where she had been treated for years. She enjoyed her room, with its brightly painted walls, butterflies on the ceiling and round-the-clock airing of Disney movies. "Being in the hospital is generally depressing," she said. "Those things made it less institutional. It's a general atmosphere of hope." Ogg, however, wasn't a child when she had the surgery a decade ago. She was a 26-year-old wife.The resident of Greenfield is among a growing number of adults being treated at the hospital -- many of them former child patients who outlived their youth but not their conditions.
They continue their treatment there, where their doctors are based and where the surroundings are familiar. More>>
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) Trail offers smooth sailing for inline skater's training
There's a little boy still living inside the grown-up Gary Blank as he zooms along on roller skates at 20 mph on Constitution Trail.It's the lad who tied on his uncle's hand-me-down roller skates with the outdated wooden wheels back in the 1970s and '80s and raced around the wooden track at Orbit Roller Rink in Palatine, where he grew up. The rink staff tried to shout, "Slow down!" over recorded organ music blasting in the background."I was already a speedster back then," laughed Blank, 34, a computer network administrator at BOPI, a printing company in Bloomington. "Then I outgrew the skates. I was really bummed out."Today, Blank puts on high-end speed skates, bends at the waist and puts his hands behind his back like the speed skaters who compete at the Olympics. He races along the Twin Cities' linear park several times a week.Blank cross-trains on ice skates at the Pepsi Ice Rink at Bloomington's U.S. More>> - (
) Alli: controversial new diet pill
America is a country seemingly fixated with two conflicting ideas: eating and being thin. While Americans are encouraged by advertisements to eat out, the media presents those same consumers with a thin ideal of beauty. With such conflicting messages, it's easy to see why so many Americans turn to diet pills. Dieting Americans now have a new option: Alli, the first ever dietary weight loss supplement that has been approved by the FDA for over the counter use. Alli is different from other diet pills in that it works to prevent the body from absorbing fat that is consumed. Many believe that this idea is revolutionary because fat contains double the amount of calories as carbohydrates or protein. GlaxoSmithKline, the makers of Alli claim that the pill, along with exercise and a diet that is low in calories and fat, can help people increase the amount of weight that they lose by about fifty percent more than diet and exercise alone. More>> - (
) 'Little old granny' a trend in drug trade
Ruth Davis banked on looking like just another granny in the slow lane.But the 65-year-old Floridian was on business. A high-dollar delivery - 33 pounds of premium pot - was locked up in the trunk of her rented Chevy Impala. She set her cruise on 74 as she headed north on Interstate 95 through Johnston County, N.C., bound for New York.
A North Carolina trooper got in her way that morning last December and, by chance, stumbled across a new type of drug mule.
"I'm not someone you'd think would be doing this," Davis said this week during an interview at the Johnston County jail. "I guess that's why it was such a brilliant plan."
She's the newest face of the drug mule: frosted hair and crows feet. From 2006 to 2007, the number of people over 60 charged with trafficking drugs in North Carolina state courts nearly doubled. More>>
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) (AFX UK Focus) 2008-05-23 20:45 Frontier Airlines to charge 2nd bag fee, raise other costs
DENVER (AP) - Frontier Airlines passengers will pay more for a second checked bag, an unaccompanied child's ticket and oversized equipment under changes announced by the carrier Friday as it struggles with rising fuel costs.Frontier also will begin prohibiting pets from traveling in passenger cabins and implement additional policy changes as it works through restructuring under bankruptcy protection.
The changes should come as little surprise because similar steps have been announced by many airlines in recent weeks to battle persistently high fuel costs. Just this week, American Airlines said it would charge passengers for a single checked bag.
"We have taken numerous proactive steps to keep our fuel costs as low as possible without impacting our customers," Frontier Chief Executive Sean Menke said in a statement. More>>
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) Premarket Movers: GTXI AAPL SKIL
(AP:NEW YORK) Shares of biopharmaceutical company GTx Inc. dropped in Friday premarket trading after the company said a trial of its prostate cancer drug candidate Acadopene will continue, meaning that the drug has yet to meet effectiveness goals.
GTx said an independent group determined that a clinical trial of Acadopene should continue. The trial could have been stopped early if the drug met predetermined levels of effectiveness.
The stock shed $2.56, or 15.8 percent, to $13.68, in the premarket session, having finished at $16.24 Thursday.
Cowen and Company analyst Eric Schmidt said the move shows the drug did not reduce the incidence of prostate cancer by 28 to 30 percent, or more, compared with a placebo.
"The news is disappointing as it suggests acadopene is less likely to succeed in this very large, underserved market opportunity," he wrote in a note to clients. More>> - (
) Simple recipes for gluten-free diet
If you're going gluten-free, or just learning to cook for someone who is, bookstores and the Web are suddenly awash in recipes to help you with the challenge.One recent addition is Danna Korn and Connie Sarros' Gluten-free Cooking for Dummies (Wiley, $19.99). The authors offer a chatty, comfortable but thoroughly informative primer on how people with wheat sensitivities can still enjoy a full range of foods.
Among the authors' 150 recipes are flatbread, waffles, spinach pie, cookies, cakes, lasagna and numerous other dishes you might assume weren't possible on a gluten-free diet.
If in addition to being gluten-free you also happen to be vegan (no animal products), Susan O'Brien has you covered with her cookbook, The Gluten-Free Vegan (Marlowe & Company, $16.95). More>>
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) Strike a pose - there's a style of yoga for everyone
For the uninitiated, a yoga class is a yoga class is a yoga class.But did you know there are dozens of styles of yoga? Some will challenge your body with vigorous moves and heated rooms while others focus on a gentle practice of physical alignment and breathing techniques. And all combine physical moves and a meditative aspect to help bring focus and clarity to the mind.
Most styles of yoga taught in the United States are based on hatha yoga, according to Yoga Journal, one of many periodicals devoted to the practice. Hatha focuses mainly on asanas (postures or poses) and breath work but also encourages a deeper mind-body awareness.
But how do you choose the proper yoga class? Perhaps it's best to start with what you hope to get out of it.
"For every goal - flexibility, stress reduction, weight loss, healing - people are going to find what they need (in yoga)," said Alison Olson, fitness director and personal trainer at Focus on Fitness in Framingham. More>>