A new study from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us About US Health Care, has shocking findings about the life expectancy in the US. The study found 15-year survival rates for men and women ages 45 and 65 have fallen in the US compared with 12 other countries over the past 30 years. From 1975 - 2005, the US was making steady gains in the 15 year survival rate, but other countries have made even greater gains which has caused us to slip...

[caption id="attachment_652" align="aligncenter" width="397" caption="People who live in the gray northerly areas are at relatively greater risk for vitamin D deficiency."][/caption] According to a 2009 study by Harvard and University of Colorado most of us do not have sufficient levels of vitamin D. The study was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and cited: 70% of whites are vitamin D insufficient 90% of Hispanics are vitamin D insufficient 97% of blacks are vitamin D...

[This is an article by Kim Wilbur, operations manager for a local company. Kim's first entry can be read here - "Why Employee Drug Test? A True Story."] [caption id="attachment_646" align="alignright" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] As mentioned previously, I never thought about drug testing our employees. With such a small staff and no history of issues like the ones with Miss Perfect, it never crossed my mind. But after all of the time spent interviewing and training her, not to mention...

Of all the sports that have had doping or drug scandals in the past ten years, cycling is the one sport that seems unable to get over it. In the nineties, baseball taught us about creatine. A few years ago, Marion Jones taught us to remember that cheating in sports does have real consequences, as she headed off to jail after lying to federal agents about her steroid use. And today, top cyclist Alberto Contador reminds us that cycling just cannot shake its reputation as a doping-addled sport. At...

The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) is ratcheting up their efforts against prescription drug abuse (see Yahoo News): We have reported on various aspects of the prescription drug problem before (see our blog entry on fraudulent prescriptions for example). The DEA's call for the voluntary removal of prescription medications that are no longer needed from folks' homes is not new, exactly - on a smaller scale, police departments have done this around the country. Last weekend marked a...

Although some may be tired of politics this time of year, we can't help but mention that Former President Bill Clinton was on Letterman last night, discussing among other things a non-political issue - heart health. The video below shows him talking about his heart problems and dietary efforts to combat heart disease. Amazingly, Former President Clinton has cut out all cholesterol from his diet. Did you know this was possible? Let's learn more about the diet that sources say was based on the...