Weight Loss Diet And Exercise: Jan 21, 2013

Monday, January 21, 2013

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Flu Stretches Hospitals, Drug Supplies Nationwide

Jan. 10, 2013 -- The early flu season has turned severe in some parts of the country, stretching health care providers and drug supplies.

According to the latest numbers from the CDC, there’s now widespread flu activity in 41 states. New York City and 29 states are reporting a high number of cases of flu-like illness.

So far this flu season, 2,257 people have been hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed flu. Eighteen children have died.

The number of deaths attributed to both pneumonia and the flu is still below epidemic levels.

How much worse will it get? When will it be over? No one can say.

“Seasonal flu is a big deal -- always. It’s always going to be a problem. This year may be a very big problem,” says William Hanage, PhD, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. “We don’t know yet.”

Most flu seasons last about 11 to 12 weeks. “We’re at about week five,” says Curtis Allen, a press officer at the CDC. “Even that 11 to 12 weeks is not a hard and fast number. The saying in the influenza world is that if you’ve seen one flu season, you’ve seen one flu season. Each one is different.”

Across the Northeast, emergency rooms have seen an influx of patients showing flu-like symptoms. In some cases, patients who come in coughing are being directed to other areas, including outside tents, to keep them from infecting others.

“We’re opening additional work spaces and areas to take care of patients,” says Robert Glatter, MD, an emergency doctor at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “It’s almost as concerning as the 2009 outbreak of H1N1. We’re getting concerned about the severity, especially because of how ill people are.”

Since Christmas, Glatter says Lenox Hill has seen a spike in flu cases. Many of the victims are elderly and their symptoms tend to be severe: aches, chills, cough, fevers, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Already, Boston has had 10 times as many confirmed cases as it had last year, prompting the city’s mayor to declare a public health emergency there. Health centers around the city are offering free flu shot clinics to those people who haven’t yet been vaccinated.

That offer may be good only while supplies last, however. The health department in Somerville, a Boston suburb, says it ran out of flu vaccine on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Sanofi SA, the largest flu vaccine manufacturer in the U.S., confirmed that it had sold out of four of the six formulations of Fluzone vaccine, including a dosage that’s given to children. Another manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, says it expects to have adequate doses of its vaccine for another month.

View the original article here

DASH Diet Ranked Best Overall -- See What's Second

Jan. 9, 2013 -- The best diet plan for overall health may not cost a thing.

A new ranking of diets by U.S. News & World Report gives top honors for best overall diet to the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.

Originally developed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to lower blood pressure, the diet plan is available free online.

Experts also ranked top diets in seven other categories, including weight loss, diabetes, heart-healthy, commercial, easiest to follow, plant-based, and healthy eating.

Weight Watchers won best weight loss diet as well as easiest to follow and best commercial diet.

The DASH diet tied with The Biggest Loser diet as the best diet plan to prevent and manage diabetes. The DASH diet was also named best diet for healthy eating, while the Mediterranean diet won best plant-based diet.

The rankings are based on reviews of 29 diets by a panel of experts in diet, nutrition, obesity, food psychology, diabetes, and heart disease.

The panel rated each diet’s effectiveness in the following seven categories:

How easy it is to followShort-term weight lossLong-term weight lossNutritional completenessSafetyDiabetes prevention and managementHeart disease prevention

Cost of the diet was not considered in the rankings.

Researchers then converted the experts’ ratings to scores and stars from 5 (highest) to 1 (lowest).

The results showed many diets that topped the rankings are already household names, like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. But others, such as the DASH and TLC diets, are lesser-known plans developed by government researchers.

Here are the top overall and best weight loss diets, and what the experts had to say about them. There were three-way ties in the top five in both categories based on the diets’ star ratings.

1. DASH Diet (4.1 stars) -- The blood-pressure-lowering diet beat out other better-known diets for its nutritional completeness, safety, ability to prevent and control diabetes, and promote heart health.

2. TLC Diet (4.0 stars) -- The National Institutes of Health created the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes diet to lower cholesterol levels. Experts say it’s a well-rounded, healthy diet, but it requires a “do-it-yourself” approach as opposed to the hand-holding provided by some commercial diet plans.

3. Mayo Clinic Diet (3.9 stars) -- This diet plan got high marks for its safety and nutrition. Experts say it is moderately effective for weight loss.

3. Mediterranean Diet (3.9 stars) -- With an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and other healthy foods, the diet got some of the highest scores for nutrition. But experts say some Americans might have a problem sticking to a diet that requires giving up processed foods and sugary drinks.

3. Weight Watchers (3.9 stars) -- Experts said the commercial weight loss diet plan was the easiest to stick to thanks to a strong emphasis on emotional support.

View the original article here