Diabetes on the Rise in U.S.

Survey Shows About 26 Million Americans Have Diabetes
By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News

Diabetes cases are rising rapidly in the U.S., with the disease afflicting 11.3% of American adults in the third quarter of 2009, according to a new Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey. That's an increase from 10.4% in the first quarter of last year.

That means about 26 million Americans have diabetes. Gallup-Healthways notes if current trends continue, more than 37 million will be living with the disease by the end of 2015.

Not coincidentally, the survey shows the U.S. obesity rate is up about 1 percentage point in quarter-over-quarter comparisons to 2008.

According to Gallup-Healthways, Americans who are obese are almost three times as likely as those who aren't to be diagnosed with diabetes.

"The upward trends in obesity rates almost certainly play a substantive role in the increase in diabetes rates over the same time period," the survey states. "More than one-fifth of obese adults [have diabetes]" -- or 21.2%, compared to 7.4% of non-obese people of comparable ages.

The survey, echoing results of many studies, says one of the best ways to reduce obesity is to exercise. Between January and September 2009, it reports a sharply higher incidence of diabetes among those who didn't exercise at least a half hour on any given day in the previous week.

According to Gallup-Healthways:

* 8% percent Americans with diabetes exercised at least 30 minutes a day, four to six times per week.
* 9.5% exercised at least half an hour daily in the previous week.
* 15% did not exercise at least 30 minutes in the week before they were surveyed.

"While exercise is seasonal and is expected to climb in the warmer months, year-over-year comparisons reveal a 2009 decline of 2.7 points in the percentage of American adults who say they are exercising at least 30 minutes three or more times per week, compared with 2008," according to Gallup-Healthways.

The 10 states with the highest increases in obesity from 2008-2009 have, on average, also seen a related increase of 0.5 percentage points in diabetes incidence, the survey shows. These states are Wyoming, Alaska, Minnesota, Maine, Idaho, Tennessee, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Texas.

The 10 states whose obesity rates have remained unchanged or decreased since 2008 have seen an average reduction in reported diabetes incidence of 0.3 percentage points. These states -- Delaware, Montana, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Louisiana, Virginia, Missouri, Nevada and Florida -- provide examples for future study to learn more about managing diabetes nationally, according to Gallup-Healthways.

The report was based on telephone interviews with 623,538 adults, 18 or older, conducted from January to September 2009 and has a sampling error of +/- 0.3 percentage points.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

Officials: Stay Calm on Swine Flu Vaccine

Swine Flu Vaccine Gap Is Closing, Health and Homeland Secretaries Say
By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

The H1N1 swine flu vaccine demand/supply gap is closing, two top administration officials said today.

The promise came in a joint appearance by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, held to soothe U.S. frustrations over the slow rollout of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine program.

H1N1 swine flu continues to sweep the nation -- and so do complaints about long lines and insufficient vaccine supplies.

"This is not a situation that calls for panic," Napolitano said. "The protection of the country as a whole is under way. ... The thing we have to do now is work our way through the sequence of events. That sequence is that states have opened 150,000 vaccination sites, and every day that goes by, more vaccine is being made available."

Napolitano and Sebelius said they understood Americans' frustrations over the slower-than-predicted availability of H1N1 swine flu vaccine. But they defended the decision to ship vaccine doses as soon as they became available, rather than waiting for production of enough vaccine to ensure a smooth-running program.

Sebelius noted that the original plan had been to start the vaccination program around Oct. 15. But advisory panels made up of nongovernment flu and infectious-disease experts urged the administration to release H1N1 swine flu vaccine as soon as possible.

"We made the decision when some early vaccine became available to push it out the door, even though it was in much smaller quantities than we had anticipated," Sebelius said. "Since Oct. 5, when we began vaccinating Americans, more than 23 million doses have become available and more is being processed every day. ... That pace is picking up. The early problems and production challenges have been fixed."

Those problems include:

* Early "seed" viruses did not grow well on hens' eggs.
* The yield of viral antigen per egg -- the key ingredient in a vaccine -- was lower than expected.
* Glitches plagued new "fill and finish" production lines manufacturers had added to speed vaccine production.
* Each state has a different plan for how to provide vaccine to its citizens. Some states were less prepared than others.

Such problems are the rule, and not the exception, for a biologic product that is made via a 50-year-old process.

"There is no question that production started more slowly than anyone would have liked, but frankly, many things that could have gone wrong actually have gone right," Sebelius said. "We want folks to remember that a safe and effective vaccine was the primary goal, and we have arrived at that end goal. The supply to states is steadily growing."

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

Build the Body You Want

Here's a sign of the times: You can actually hire people to come to your house and organize your closets. They'll also do your garage, your attic, and the shed in your backyard. These people are tough on pack rats. They ask questions like "Why do you have this box of dog leashes, but no dog?"

My job isn't all that different. As a trainer, if I see something in a client's workout -- or my own -- that doesn't belong there, I get rid of it. If I see a redundant exercise, it's gone. Disorganized workout? I organize it. And if I see a client doing a program he got out of some old bodybuilding magazine, I throw the whole thing out and start over.

I can't come to your gym and fix your workout (or organize your closets). But I can tell you what you need to know to organize your own regimen, based on your goals, your available time, and your experience. I'll even throw in six sample body building workouts for beginner through advanced lifters. Now, about those closets . . .
Goals

I assume the closet lady would start by asking, "What do you need this closet to do for you?" Me, I'd ask the same question, substituting the word "workout" for "closet." Usually, these goals fall into three categories:

Lose weight: If you're a beginner, start with a circuit routine in which you do 10 to 12 exercises one after the other, 10 to 15 repetitions per set, with little or no rest in between. Do two or three circuits.

If you're more advanced, try supersets. In these, you do two exercises back-to-back, rest 60 seconds, and then repeat once or twice. There are many ways to do supersets, but for fat loss, I'd like to see you use as much muscle as possible. One way is to pair exercises that work completely different muscles, such as squats and seated rows.

Build muscle: For most men, I recommend exercises that allow you to do eight to 12 repetitions per set. You can do them as straight sets-complete a set, rest about 60 seconds, do the next set of the same thing, and keep going that way until you've finished all your sets and are ready to move on to the next exercise.

If you have more experience, try supersets, but not the way you did them for fat loss. Pair synergistic exercises-two moves that work the same muscles. Usually, the first is a compound move to work a lot of muscles, the second a single-joint exercise to focus on one large muscle. So barbell bench presses might be followed by dumbbell flies. Shoulder presses could lead in to lateral raises.

Gain strength: There's no secret here-heavy weights, low repetitions (usually three to five per set for the most important moves, such as squats, deadlifts, and bench presses), and longer rest (up to 4 minutes) between sets. You don't have to do every exercise this way, of course. Start with low reps on your main moves, then do more repetitions with lighter weights and shorter rest periods on less important ones.

Source & Picture: www.menshealth.com

HPV Vaccine Gardasil OK'd for Boys

FDA Approves Gardasil to Help Prevent Genital Warts in Boys and Young Men
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

The FDA has approved the vaccine Gardasil to help prevent genital warts in boys and young men.

Gardasil is now approved for males ages 9 to 26 for the prevention of genital warts caused by two human papillomavirus (HPV) strains: HPV 6 and HPV 11.Those are two of the four HPV strains that Gardasil targets.

In September, an FDA advisory panel recommended Gardasil's approval to prevent genital warts in boys and young men. The vaccine wasn't up for consideration to help prevent cancer in males or to curb transmission of the HPV virus, which is sexually transmitted, to women.

Gardasil is not yet on the CDC's schedule of recommended vaccines for males. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will discuss that possibility at a meeting next week.

Gardasil, which is made by the drug company Merck, already has FDA approval for use in girls and young women ages 9 to 26. In females, HPV can cause cervical cancer.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

U.S. Pregnancy Rate Is Dropping

CDC Report Shows the Abortion Rate Also Declined Between 1990 and 2005
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

The U.S. pregnancy rate dropped by 11% from 1990 to 2005, a new CDC report shows.

According to that report, there were an estimated 6.4 million pregnancies in the U.S. in 2005, which works out to a rate of 103.2 pregnancies per 1,000 women ages 15-44, compared to a rate of 115.8 pregnancies per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 1990.

The 2005 pregnancy rate is close to the nation's pregnancy rate in 1976, when the CDC started tracking pregnancy data.

Other findings, published in the CDC's National Vital Statistics Report, include:

* Women in their 20s had the highest pregnancy rates from 1990 to 2005.
* Pregnancy rates dropped by 8% for married women and by 11% for unmarried women during 1990-2005.
* Pregnancy rates dropped for teens during 1990-2005, with a greater decline for teens ages 15-17, compared to older teens.

The data do not include the 2006 rise in teen birth rates reported earlier this year.

The estimated 6,408,000 pregnancies in the U.S. in 2005 include 4.14 million live births, 1.21 million induced abortions, and 1.06 million miscarriages or other fetal losses.

The abortion rate fell during the years studied. Among married women, seven out of 1,000 pregnant women got an abortion in 2005, down from 11 per 1,000 pregnant women in 1990. Among unmarried women, 31 per 1,000 pregnant women got abortions in 2005, compared to 48 per 1,000 in 1990.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

Staying Healthy in Tough Times

Try these cheap ways to boost health in a bad economy.
WebMD Feature
By Peter Jaret
Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD

With the economy ailing, lots of us are looking for ways to save money. Unfortunately, we may be looking in all the wrong places.

Scrimping and saving by putting off doctor’s visits? Not filling that prescription because it costs too much? Letting your gym membership lapse? Any one of those decisions could end up costing you dearly in the long run.

Luckily, there are plenty of cheap and effective ways to stick with a healthy lifestyle even in the face of an ailing economy.
Can’t afford that pricey gym membership?

That’s no excuse for becoming inactive. "You don’t have to go to a gym to get the wide range of health benefits of exercise," says Steven Blair, PhD, professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina.

Fitting in just 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity activities -- walking, gardening, even doing housework -- substantially reduces the risk of chronic diseases, according to the latest federal physical activity guidelines. Building and maintaining muscle strength may take a little more ingenuity. One option: learn a set of basic calisthenics that include push-ups, sit-ups, deep knee bends, and leg lifts. Another alternative: buy an inexpensive set of stretch bands, which can be used to do dozens of strength-building exercises.
Having trouble stretching your food budget?

A limited food budget is no reason to reach for junk food. "Some of the healthiest foods out there are actually the least expensive," says Kathy McManus, PhD, director of inpatient nutrition services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. A few examples:

* Beans. They’re a great low-calorie source of fiber and protein. And they cost pennies a serving, especially if you buy dried beans and soak them yourself. Add beans to pasta sauce, chili, or soup. Or serve them as a side dish, seasoned with your favorite spices.
* Peanuts. Rich in protein and heart-healthy oils, peanuts are a relatively inexpensive and filling snack. The lowest priced peanuts are typically found in the bulk food aisle.
* Homemade breakfast cereal. Instead of buying an expensive packaged cereal, make your own by combining whole oats and other grains, raisins, nuts and seeds bought in bulk
* Make-them-yourself beverages. Save money by skipping expensive bottled beverages and make your own by brewing up tea for iced tea or adding a splash of fruit juice to carbonated water.
* Frozen vegetables. If fresh vegetables are too expensive, head for the freezer aisle. “Because vegetables are flash frozen soon after being harvested, they may contain higher levels of antioxidants than fresh vegetables that are a day or two old,” says Allyson Mitchell, PhD, a crop scientist at the University of California at Davis. Another option: raise your own vegetables. More and more people are gardening, which offers not only a harvest of healthy foods but also a way to stay fit.

Cooking at home instead of eating out is another way to save money and stay healthy, especially when you skip processed foods and cook from scratch. Home-cooked meals tend to be lower in fat and salt than restaurant offerings. Surveys show that people who eat at home are less likely to be overweight or obese.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

6 Reasons Why Your Cold Lingers

Why Your Cold Won't Go Away, and What to Do About it
By Lisa Zamosky
WebMD Feature

It’s almost an annual rite of passage: Winter comes and despite your best efforts, you catch a cold. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s hard to slow down for a mere case of the sniffles. Many of us try to work straight through our colds and hope that, with minimal effort, the symptoms will get better quickly. Although that may sometimes be the case, it can also happen that pesky cold symptoms leave us feeling drained for what seems like an eternity.

Cold symptoms can vanish in as little as two days. Seventy percent of people who catch a cold feel better within a week, says Gary Rogg, MD, an internal medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. But it is not unusual to suffer from symptoms of the common cold for as long as two weeks.

Sometimes, it’s the things we do - or don’t do - that leave us feeling ill for longer than we expect. Why does your cold seem to be hanging on for longer than it should? Here are six possible reasons.
1. Lack of Rest

Sleep plays an important role in our immune system. In fact, a study published earlier this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine demonstrated that people who got less than seven hours of sleep per night were nearly three times more likely to catch a cold than were people who slept for eight hours or more.

Once you do have a cold, it will also take longer for it to clear up if you don’t get adequate rest.

"Most of society in general doesn’t want you calling in sick; they look down on you if you use your sick days," Rogg says. "But when you're sick, the ideal thing is to stay home and stay away from people and rest it out."
2. Low on Fluids

Fluids play an important part in your healing process as well. If your cold won’t go away, consider drinking more water, Gatorade, or juice.

A lack of fluids can cause discomfort and dehydration, particularly because your water demands increase when you’re sick, given the loss of fluids from drainage. In some circumstances, a lack of fluids in your system might contribute to prolonging your symptoms.

By drinking extra water when you’re sick, you’ll help to flush congestion out of your system, says Peter Katona, MD, associate clinical professor of infectious diseases at the University of California Los Angeles Health System.

"Increasing the amount of fluid in your system actually allows the mucus trapped in your nose and chest to flow better," Katona says.

But be warned, Rogg says. Drinking a lot of water, or taking an over-the-counter medicine such as Mucinex, which helps to loosen and thin the mucus that causes congestion rather than drying it out, may cause you to feel worse initially because the mucus is increasing in volume. Although this often creates more pressure, ultimately the mucus causing your discomfort will drain better than if you keep taking medications that dry you out.

"It’s like honey on the table you don’t clean up right away," Rogg says. "You squeeze water on it first. Then it comes off easier." (www.webmd.com)

10 Foods Most Likely to Make You Sick

Leafy Greens, Eggs, and Tuna Are Among Foods Mostly Like to Cause Food-borne Illness
By Todd Zwillich
WebMD Health News

Here's a surprise: Some of the healthiest foods may also be the most likely to cause food-borne illness.

That's the conclusion in a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The report shows leafy greens, sprouts, and berries are among the most prone to carry infections or toxins.

"We don't recommend that consumers change their eating habits," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, the CSPI's head of food safety programs. Instead, the group is trying to point out vulnerabilities in the nation's food safety system as it lobbies Congress to beef up enforcement.

The group analyzed CDC data on food illness outbreaks dating back to 1990. They found that leafy greens were involved in 363 outbreaks and about 13,600 illnesses, mostly caused by norovirus, E. coli, and salmonella bacteria.

The rest of the top 10 list included:

* Eggs, involved in 352 outbreaks and 11,163 reported cases of illness.
* Tuna, involved in 268 outbreaks and 2,341 reported cases of illness.
* Oysters, involved in 132 outbreaks and 3,409 reported cases of illness.
* Potatoes, involved in 108 outbreaks and 3,659 reported cases of illness.
* Cheese, involved in 83 outbreaks and 2,761 reported cases of illness.
* Ice cream, involved in 74 outbreaks and 2,594 reported cases of illness.
* Tomatoes, involved in 31 outbreaks and 3,292 reported cases of illness.
* Sprouts, involved in 31 outbreaks and 2,022 reported cases of illness.
* Berries, involved in 25 outbreaks and 3,397 reported cases of illness.

It is unclear how many of the outbreaks can be blamed on the foods themselves. The CDC's database can't discriminate between outbreaks caused by tomatoes, for example, vs. those caused by other ingredients in a salad. Foods like potatoes are almost always consumed cooked, so it is unlikely that potatoes themselves caused 108 outbreaks.

Still, Smith DeWaal called the list "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to food-borne illnesses in the U.S. Not all outbreaks are reported to public health authorities. In addition, the analysis focused only on foods regulated by the FDA; that leaves out beef, pork, poultry, and some egg products, which are policed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Consumers always want to know what they should do to avoid getting sick," says Sarah Klein, lead author of the report. She recommends "defensive eating," including keeping food cold and cooking it thoroughly, chilling oysters and avoiding them when raw, and avoiding raw eggs or using them in homemade ice cream.

Several bills that are circulating in Congress aim to crack down on food safety by requiring all food producers to keep written safety plans and giving the FDA more power to inspect plans and enforce rules.

"In a relative scale our food supply remains quite safe," says Craig Hedberg, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. The CDC says 76 million Americans get sick from food-borne illnesses each year.

"Because most people don't experience a bad outcome from a lapse in good behavior it's difficult to enforce," he says.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

Autism May Be More Common Than Thought

Survey Shows 1 in 91 Children May Have Autism Spectrum Disorder
By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News

About 1% of U.S. children, or about one in 91, may have autism or an autism spectrum disorder, according to two new national surveys.

The new estimate is a dramatic increase from the previously accepted number of one in 150. But experts who discussed the findings of the two new surveys -- one released today and the other due out before year's end -- urged caution in interpreting the new information about the developmental disorders.

A new survey by the CDC found that about 1% of U.S. children are affected by an autism spectrum disorder, says Ileana Arias, PhD, deputy director of the CDC.

No further details were available on the CDC survey, due to be released in full later this year.

The same prevalence, however, was found in the survey released today, says Michael D. Kogan, PhD, of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration. With his colleagues, Kogan drew on data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, a telephone survey of parents jointly conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration and the CDC.

The parents of more than 78,000 children ages 3 to 17 were asked if their child had ever been diagnosed with autism or other disorders on the spectrum, such as Asperger's syndrome or pervasive developmental disorder. If parents answered yes, they were then asked if their child currently had an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and if so, how severe the condition was -- mild, moderate, or severe.

In all, 1,412 said their children had ever been diagnosed with an ASD, and 913 said their child still had the condition. Next, Kogan's team took the number of children in the survey with ASD and the total number of children surveyed and computed estimates of autism spectrum disorder prevalence based on the general population.

''We estimate that the prevalence of ASD among children 3-17 in 2007 was around 110 in 10,000,'' Kogan says. "What this translates to is about one in every 100."

The survey also showed that white non-Hispanic children were more likely than black non-Hispanic or multiracial children to have the diagnosis, he says. Boys were four times as likely as girls to have ASD.

About 38% of the parents said they had been told previously their child had an ASD but that the child did not currently have the condition. The survey results are published in the journal Pediatrics.
Interpreting the New Autism Data

Experts are not certain what to make of the findings but urged caution in interpreting them. "In ASD, we don't know if the change in the numbers over time is a change in the actual condition," Arias says, or to other factors.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

Drinking Water Quality: What You Need to Know

Most of us don’t think about the water we drink. We turn on a tap, fill a glass, and drink. But how much water do you really need to drink every day? Is the water you're drinking safe or would bottled water be safer? What can you do if your tap water suddenly became contaminated? Read on to find out how much you know about the drinking water in your own home.
How Much Water Do You Need?

Your body weight is more than 50% water. Without water, you couldn’t maintain a normal body temperature, lubricate your joints, or get rid of waste through urination, sweat, and bowel movements.

Not getting enough water can lead to dehydration, which can cause muscle weakness and cramping, a lack of coordination, and an increased risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. In fact, water is so important that a person couldn’t last more than five days without it.

So how much water do you need? Enough to replace what you lose daily through urination, sweating, even exhaling. And your need for replacing water increases:

* In warm or hot weather
* With vigorous physical activity, such as exercise or working in the yard
* During bouts of illness, especially if you are vomiting or have diarrhea

You often hear that you need to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board recommended that women actually need 91 ounces of water daily, and men need 125 ounces.

The good news is if you’re healthy, you don’t really need to keep track of how much you drink. You can get enough water each day by drinking when you’re thirsty and consuming fluids like soup and drinks, with your meals. Just keep in mind that if you’re going to do something strenuous, like playing sports or running, you’ll need extra water before, during, and after.
Water Quality: Is Tap Water Safe?

You need to stay hydrated, that’s clear, but is the tap water in your home safe? It is if the water comes from a public water system in the United States, such as one run and maintained by a municipality. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to monitor all public water systems and sets enforceable health standards regarding the contaminants in drinking water.

When drinking water leaves a treatment plant on its way to your house, it must meet strict safety standards. That doesn’t mean that your water is free of all contaminants, but that the levels of any contaminants don’t pose any serious health risk.

Of course, accidents can happen. If the water supply becomes contaminated by something that can cause immediate illness, the supplier must promptly inform you. Suppliers also need to offer alternative suggestions for safe drinking water. In addition, they have 24 hours to inform customers of any violation of standards that could have major impact on health following a short-term exposure.

Source: www.women.webmd.com

Mean Girls: Why Girls Bully and How to Stop Them

Researchers are gaining more and more insights into what drives girl bullies -- and why they so desperately need help.
By Susan Davis
WebMD the Magazine - Feature

When I was in seventh grade, Helen arrived in my New England town. We locals had never seen anything like her. She was from New Jersey. She wore hip-hugger bell-bottoms, knew sexy line dances, smoked cigarettes, and had actually kissed a boy.

She was also mean. She befriended me initially -- perhaps because I lived next door and she needed a friend. But once she realized I was a shy bookworm, she dropped me. Then she laughed at my clothes (in my face) and started rumors about me (behind my back).

Eventually I learned to ignore her. But the pain of her rejection haunted me for years. It even made me distrustful of "girl groups" long into adulthood.

The topic of girl bullying is not new. Dozens of lay books and scholarly journals have explored the ways "relational aggression -- tactics such as exclusion, rumor mongering, and Internet harassment -- can damage girls' self-esteem. But only recently have researchers begun looking at what bullying does to the bullies themselves. The news is not good.
The Impact of Bullying

In the short term, girl bullies often are rejected by peers and lack meaningful relationships, notes Charisse Nixon, PhD, co-author of Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying and an assistant professor of developmental psychology at Pennsylvania State University in Erie.

In the long term, "these girls learn to manipulate people like chess pieces," Nixon says. "Unfortunately, this can harm their ability to have meaningful relationships and successful careers."

Some characteristics of a girl bully are jealousy, feelings of superiority, poor impulse control, and lack of empathy. Nixon believes girls bully when their basic needs of "ABCs, and me" -- acceptance (by self), belonging (among others), control, and meaningful existence -- are thwarted. "These needs apply to everyone," she notes, "children and adults." People will do what they need to do to get those needs met.
Prevent Bullying

Whatever the cause of bullying, researchers are now focusing on prevention -- including counseling to get at the root of the need to bully; teaching healthy communication skills; and introducing schoolwide antibullying programs.

What should you do if your daughter is accused of being a bully? Psychologist Charisse Nixon, PhD, offers these tips and advises seeking counseling if the behavior continues.

Discuss perspective. "Developmentally, adolescents often have no idea how their behavior hurts others."

Model healthy ways of dealing with conflict . "As grown-ups we are often unconscious of the ways we ourselves bully, like the way we gossip behind people's backs. But girls pick up on all that," says Nixon.

Make sure her basic needs are being met. These include acceptance and a sense of belonging. "If she's not getting what she needs, she'll find a destructive way to cope."

No antibullying programs -- or even caring adults -- existed to help my tormentor, Helen, who, I realized later, was having a hard time herself. She had just moved to a new school and her parents were divorced. No doubt she put me down to give her own social standing a leg up. It's a shame she had no better way.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

Living to 100 to Become Common?

Report Predicts Most Babies Born Since 2000 in Wealthy Countries Will Live to 100
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

Reaching the age of 100 may become pretty ordinary for most babies born in rich countries since 2000, according to a new report.

"If the pace of increase in life expectancy in developed countries over the past two centuries continues through the 21st century, most babies born since 2000 in France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., the USA, Canada, Japan, and other countries with long life expectancies will celebrate their 100th birthdays," states the report, published in The Lancet.

The report comes from researchers including Kaare Christensen, MD, of the Danish Aging Research Centre at the University of Southern Denmark.

Christensen and colleagues note that life expectancy in most developed countries keeps rising and shows no sign of slowing down. But they also point out that it remains to be seen if obesity, which has also been rising, will put the brakes on rising life expectancies.

Christensen's team predicts that societies will stop looking at life as consisting of three phases -- childhood, adulthood, and old age -- and start dividing "old age" into a "third age (young old)" and a "fourth age (oldest old)."

"Very long lives are not the distant privilege of remote future generations -- very long lives are the probable destiny of most people alive now in developed countries," write the researchers.

Will people be healthy in their "fourth age"? It may be too soon to tell.

Christensen and colleagues say there is "sparse" data on health among people age 85 and older. But they also point to earlier detection and better treatment of many conditions, including cancer and heart disease.

For the record, Japan has the world's longest life expectancy -- 83 years for babies born in 2007, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Life expectancy is 77.9 years for U.S. babies born in 2007, according to preliminary data from the CDC.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com

100 Worst Cities for Fall Allergies

McAllen, Texas, Tops the Asthma and Allergy Foundation's 2009 List of Fall Allergy Capitals
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

McAllen, Texas, is the worst city in the U.S. this year for fall allergies, according to the new list of "fall allergy capitals" selected by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Cities are ranked based on four factors: prevalence data, seasonal pollen, allergy medicine use per patient, and the number of board-certified allergists per patient.

Here is the full list of all 100 fall allergy capitals:

1. McAllen, Texas
2. Wichita, Kan.
3. Louisville, Ky.
4. Oklahoma City
5. Jackson, Miss.
6. Dayton, Ohio
7. Augusta, Ga.
8. Tulsa, Okla.
9. Knoxville, Tenn.
10. Little Rock, Ark.
11. Madison, Wis.
12. San Antonio
13. Dallas
14. New Orleans
15. Baton Rouge, La.
16. Charlotte, N.C.
17. St. Louis
18. Birmingham, Ala.
19. El Paso, Texas
20. Virginia Beach, Va.
21. Memphis, Tenn.
22. Chattanooga, Tenn.
23. Des Moines, Iowa
24. Austin, Texas
25. Greensboro, N.C.
26. Omaha, Neb.
27. Columbia, S.C.
28. Philadelphia
29. Kansas City, Mo.
30. New York
31. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
32. Richmond, Va.
33. Indianapolis
34. Allentown, Pa.
35. Cape Coral, Fla.
36. Bakersfield, Calif.
37. Nashville, Tenn.
38. Grand Rapids, Mich.
39. Syracuse, N.Y.
40. Tucson, Ariz.
41. Houston
42. Buffalo, N.Y.
43. Tampa, Fla.
44. Charleston, S.C.
45. Columbus, Ohio
46. Lakeland, Fla.
47. Riverside, Calif.
48. Orlando, Fla.
49. Toledo, Ohio
50. Atlanta
51. Milwaukee, Wis.
52. Detroit
53. Washington, D.C.
54. Jacksonville, Fla.
55. Las Vegas
56. Providence, R.I.
57. Scranton, Pa.
58. Los Angeles
59. Cincinnati
60. Pittsburgh
61. Sarasota, Fla.
62. Baltimore
63. Oxnard, Calif.
64. Akron, Ohio
65. Phoenix
66. Rochester, N.Y.
67. Modesto, Calif.
68. Albuquerque, N.M.
69. Palm Bay, Fla.
70. Hartford, Conn.
71. Boise City, Idaho
72. Chicago
73. New Haven, Conn.
74. Fresno, Calif.
75. Minneapolis
76. Lancaster, Pa.
77. Harrisburg, Pa.
78. San Francisco
79. Springfield, Mass.
80. Raleigh, N.C.
81. Youngstown, Ohio
82. San Jose, Calif.
83. Cleveland
84. Denver
85. Daytona Beach, Fla.
86. Bridgeport, Conn.
87. Colorado Springs, Colo.
88. Worcester, Mass.
89. Portland, Maine
90. Miami
91. Boston
92. Stockton, Calif.
93. Ogden, Utah
94. Salt Lake City
95. Sacramento, Calif.
96. Greenville, S.C.
97. San Diego
98. Seattle
99. Albany, N.Y.
100. Portland, Ore.

Source & Picture: www.webmd.com