CHICAGO, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Users of Alli, the first
weight-loss drug approved for sale over-the-counter in the
United States, are finding what they likely suspected all
along: pills are no magic substitute for diet and exercise.
Yet as Americans engage in the New Year’s tradition of
resolving to shed pounds, the market for diet aids is expected
to remain firm, even as the economy is mired in recession.
Americans spend $30 billion a year on weight-loss Read the rest of this entry »

(RTTNews) - 
PSS World Medical, Inc. (PSSI:
), a provider of medical equipments and related products, Wednesday reported a fall in net income for the second quarter, hurt by higher costs and expenses.
Net income for the second quarter fell to $13.9 million from $14.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. On a per share basis, net income was $0.23, up from $0.22 in the same quarter of last year, primarily due Read the rest of this entry »

Children who want to be vegetarians need to “fill in the blanks” of their low-protein diets by eating alternatives to red meat, fish and poultry, experts say.
Good examples are soybeans, fortified soy milk and nuts. Those are important sources of the protein, iron, zinc, calcium and vitamin D that most kids get from meat.
has the much-needed vitamin B-12. And flaxseed is good for linolenic acid.
Vegetarian children who eat eggs and dairy products Read the rest of this entry »

The financial crisis roiling Wall Street and Main Street will make wide-ranging health reform all but impossible next year and perhaps for years to come.
So warn a growing number of policy analysts, including Joseph Antos, the Wilson H. Taylor scholar in health care and retirement policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
I asked Antos if he thought the presidential candidates leveled with the American people this Read the rest of this entry »

Hallways lined with paintings of beach scenes and pale-green fabric inspired by sea foam. High-definition televisions in every room. Large windows bathed in sunlight. Eucalyptus veneer giving a nod to the aromatic groves that fill local parks.
Sound like features of a boutique hotel in downtown San Diego? That would be a good guess, but wrong.
Try this: the region’s first new hospital since 1993.
Next week, Sharp HealthCare will open a $195 million, 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 »

Greensboro, NC — M
edical marijuana supporters are counting more Triad patients who need the drug.
Members of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network added seven more Guilford County people to their tally.
The group claims more than 150 people in the Tar Heel State already use medical marijuana or could benefit from it.
They aim to convince state legislators to provide legal access to the drug.
“We’re sick people, we’re not criminals,” Read the rest of this entry »

By Kevin Myrick, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
made its way to Rome today.
Owen Kinney, along with 20 other volunteers, were out in a 15-mile radius, the center of which is Floyd Medical Center, trying to find everything from a common cardinal to a yellow bellied sapsucker.
Kinney, a science teacher at the Darlington School, brought along a couple of his students and volunteers to the mountain campus at Berry College to see what they could Read the rest of this entry »

Sam Silverman is co-captain of his high school football team — a safety accustomed to bruising collisions. But that’s nothing compared with the abuse he gets for being a vegetarian.
“I get a lot of flak for it in the locker room,” said the 16-year-old junior at Westborough High School in Massachusetts.
“All the time, my friends try to get me to eat meat and tell me how good it tastes and how much bigger I would be,” said Silverman, who Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning traced to peanut products has sickened 666 people and is continuing despite one of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history, health officials said on Tuesday.
But the outbreak of salmonella is still only linked to nine deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement.
“To date, 19 clusters of infections in five states have been reported in schools and Read the rest of this entry »