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07 Feb 2012 14:55

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U.S.: CDC: majority of Americans’ salt comes from bread

  • Too much salted dough? A report by the Center for Disease Control claims the majority of salt in the American diet comes from bread consumption. You might find this surprising, especially considering evidently high-salt items like potato chips rank far lower on the list (tenth, in fact). The CDC attributes this to people’s willingness to overindulge in those sorts of foods, which despite a lower salt content in general can smuggle a high sodium total into the body. Salt intake for an otherwise healthy adult is advised at no more than 2,300 milligrams per day, but the average American consumes 1000 milligrams more than that. (Photo by Charles Haynes) source

13 Jul 2011 23:04

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Tech: New AIDS prevention drug shows promising results

  • Headway in the fight against HIV: A drug called Truvada is effective in preventing AIDS contraction up to 73% of the time, according to two new studies carried out in Africa. The drug has been tested before with less stellar results, but researchers now suspect the earlier study may have been flawed. The catch with preventative drugs, of course, is that you have to remember to take them before the risk presents itself, but still, this is great news. source

03 Mar 2011 14:55

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U.S.: Memo to America: Simple as it sounds, sleep is important

  • 1 in 3 number of Americans surveyed by the Centers for Disease Control who reported inadvertently falling asleep at least once in a day
  • 1 in 20 number of Americans surveyed who admitted to falling asleep while behind the wheel of their car at least once in a month source

27 Feb 2011 22:15

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U.S.: Have you traveled lately? Bad news; there’s a measles threat, guys.

  • one New Mexico woman with a possible case of measles
  • three big-city airports she went through last week after leaving London
  • 1000’s of people could’ve gotten measles from her (yikes!) source

27 Jan 2011 14:14

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U.S.: CDC issues dire estimate of American diabetes

  • 105 million people with diabetes or prediabetes, CDC claims source

18 Jun 2010 11:37

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U.S.: People are abusing painkillers more than ever before

  • 145k number of emergency visits caused by the nonmedical abuse of painkillers of 2004
  • 305k number of emergency visits caused by the nonmedical abuse of painkillers in 2008
  • 111% the size of the increase; the CDC says urgent action is needed to limit further abuse source

24 Oct 2009 11:20

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19 Aug 2009 21:19

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U.S.: This report says we’re gonna live longer than ever. Awesome!

  • 78 the U.S. life expectancy, according to the CDC; don’t die early source

07 May 2009 21:25

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U.S., World: The CDC is unconvinced this swine flu scare is going away

  • As we look at the data so far, we’re not seeing any sign that this is petering out. We’re still in the upswing of what we call the epidemic curve. We see ongoing transmission and we expect that to continue.
  • Richard Besser • The acting director of the CDC, on the chances of swine flu … er, H1N1 … going away anytime soon. He notes that even if it seems like nothing on the individual level, its real danger lies in its scale – it could affect billions. He also notes that the number is still going up. • source

29 Apr 2009 10:16

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U.S., World: Five quick facts on swine flu that you should know

  • The swine flu virus was first isolated in 1930; this is not a new type of virus. source
  • The virus transferred from pigs to humans because it mutated. source
  • You can’t get swine flu from eating cooked pork or handling uncooked pork. source
  • Swine flu symptoms are essentially the same as regular flu strains. source
  • The last outbreak of swine flu happened in 1976. One died. source