BLOOMINGTON — What began as a State Farm Insurance Cos.’ effort to increase its number of African-American policyholders has become a life-improving program for 700,000 Americans.
State Farm on Thursday celebrated the success so far of Dr. Ian Smith’s 50 Million Pound Challenge — which State Farm sponsors nationwide — as well as the insurer’s employee wellness program, Live Well Be Well.
On hand for Thursday’s celebration at State Read the rest of this entry »

afloat, officials said.
But finding that right mix seems to be a challenge for state leaders.
The future of the OSU Medical Center and its residency program for OSU’s osteopathy program has been widely debated this past week.
has a one-year agreement with Hillcrest Healthcare Systems, a division of
, to operate the hospital. Hospital officials say the facility would function best as a publicly owned hospital. More than half of the patients Read the rest of this entry »

Shannon Simmons, a new mother, wanted to lose some excess baby weight.
Jim Murphy, recently retired, hoped to tone up and lose a few pounds.
Both found success sweating buckets at boot camp.
These intensive fitness programs are popping up all over Southwest Florida. These one-hour sessions push participants to their limit.
Murphy, 54, attends boot camp three mornings a week at Sanibel Fitness Center. He recently signed up for a third month. Read the rest of this entry »

The first anniversary of the Beijing Olympic Games will be celebrated nationwide on Aug 8 with music and dance but the date will also be used every year to promote physical activity.
The State Council, the Cabinet, has named Aug 8 as the National Fitness Day, starting this year, the State General Administration of Sport said Tuesday.
“The move is to meet people’s need for doing sports and to further help promote sports among people,” sports minister Read the rest of this entry »

An ubiquitous ingredient in plastics has been linked to diabetes and heart disease in adults, according to a study being released today, heightening concerns about the widespread use of the chemical BPA.
Otherwise known as bisphenol A, BPA is the chemical once studied as a synthetic form of estrogen, but more recently known to leach out of some plastic water bottles and baby bottles, and that is found in all kinds of plastic products.
“We’re talking Read the rest of this entry »

Kellogg, of Battle Creek, Mich., said it hadn’t received any complaints or discovered any problems with the crackers, but took the action as a “precautionary measure” after one of its peanut paste suppliers, Peanut Corp. of America, announced a nationwide recall of peanut butter made in a Georgia plant.
The company is “removing product from retail store shelves and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory Read the rest of this entry »

The U.S. Department of Justice has revised its methodology for tracking violent crimes, resulting in data that more accurately reflects the rates of gender-based crimes against American women.
New data released Dec. 18 as part of the Bureau of Justice Statistics annual Crime Victimization Survey indicate much higher rates of sexual assault and domestic violence in 2007 compared to data from 2006, due to the change of methodology, including more Read the rest of this entry »

– Concerns about health care, food and vaccine safety added to the anxieties Americans felt this year. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom — medical advances in stem cell research have scientists hoping for better transplant surgeries in the future. Here are the top health stories of the year:
This year’s advances in stem cell research could revolutionize organ transplants.
A Colombian woman received a trachea transplant using her own stem cells Read the rest of this entry »

Contacts:
The Fraser Institute – Media Contact
Nadeem Esmail
Director of Health System Performance Studies
(403) 216-7175; ext 222
Email: nadeem.esmail@fraserinstitute.org

The Fraser Institute
Dean Pelkey
Director of Communications
(604) 714-4582
Email: dean.pelkey@fraserinstitute.org
Website: www.fraserinstitute.org
mailto:nadeem.esmail@fraserinstitute.org
mailto:dean.pelkey@fraserinstitute.org

http://www.fraserinstitute.org

Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Southeast Asian countries should strengthen their regulations to shield people from potentially harmful food and agricultural products that move easily across borders in the era of free trade, health officials said Thursday.
The scandal over tainted Chinese milk and dairy products was expected to be raised in a two-day meeting of health ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila, Read the rest of this entry »