The Community Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) recommends the use of combined diet and physical activity promotion programs to provide counsel and support to patients at increased risk for type 2 diabetes. A systematic review of 53 studies describing 66 programs found strong evidence that such programs are effective for reducing new onset diabetes. A separate review of economic evidence (28 studies) found these interventions to be cost-effective. The recommendation statement and evidence reviews are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Culture
Conservationists tend to spend their time worrying about protecting forests, catching poachers or keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. But all these things (and more) are driven by humans. Given that it’s easier and cheaper to reduce the human birth rate than it is to address these other issues, why aren’t conservationists more concerned about keeping our population down?
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is making $100 million per year scaring people about food and other science. It isn't helping the public be any safer, it is just making people enjoy food less, according to a new study.
Snacking is the new American pastime. According to the recent report from Mintel, nearly all Americans (94 percent) snack at least once a day and 50 percent of adults snack two to three times per day with 70 percent agreeing that anything can be considered a snack these days.
Surgeries related to overuse elbow injuries, i.e. Tommy John Surgery, are more common among youth athletes than previously believed, according to research presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Outcomes following the arthroscopic repair of rotator cuff tears in older athletes appears to be successful a majority of the time, according to research presented today at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
"Seventy-seven percent of our patients who had an arthroscopic repair of a full thickness rotator cuff tear, were able to return to their sport at a similar level of intensity," said lead author, Peter Millett, MD, MSc, from the Steadman Philippon Research Institute in Vail, Colorado.
Don't expect your social worker to ask you about your religious beliefs.
New research by a Baylor University professor shows that licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs), who account for the largest number of clinically trained helping professionals, believe that discussions about their clients' religion and spirituality can often lead to improved health and mental health, but practitioners are not integrating these conversations into their counseling sessions.
After examining decades of data, researchers from the University of Colorado Denver have found that a lack of education may be as deadly as smoking.
The study, which included researchers from New York University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, examined population data going back to 1925 to determine how education levels affected mortality over time.
For every life saved by Norway's Breast Cancer Screening Programme, five women are over-diagnosed, and have to go through an operation to remove a tumour that otherwise never would have caused problems.
The Norwegian government spends NOK 574 million per screening round to check women between the age of 50 and 69 for breast cancer. An ongoing debate between Norwegian and international researchers and doctors considers the wisdom of offering periodic breast cancer screenings.
A recent study looked at marijuana and alcohol use in people between the ages of 18 and 24. It’s probably not surprising that the results show a drastic increase in alcohol consumption in people just over 21, the minimum legal age to drink in the United States.
What University of Illinois economist Ben Crost found remarkable is that, at the same age, there was an equally dramatic drop in marijuana use. “Alcohol appears to be a substitute for marijuana. This sudden decrease in the use of marijuana is because they suddenly have easy access to alcohol.”
Poor sanitation practices, such as open defecation, in pregnant women are linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes in two rural areas of Odisha state, India, according to a study published by Bijaya K Padhi from the Asian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar, and colleagues in this week's PLOS Medicine.
Bringing reusable bags to the grocery store often means you are an environmentally friendly shopper. But it also influences the very things you buy. According to a new study in the Journal of Marketing, bringing your own bags makes you more likely to purchase organic food--and junk food as well.
Drinking alcohol while pregnant is common, ranging from 20% to 80% among those questioned in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, reveals a study of almost 18,000 women. Women across all social strata drank during pregnancy, the findings showed. But expectant mums were significantly more likely to be drinkers if they were also smokers.
Weather is frequently portrayed in popular music, with a new scientific study finding over 750 popular music songs referring to weather, the most common being sun and rain, and blizzards being the least common. The study also found many song writers were inspired by weather events.
The study, led by the University of Southampton, together with the Universities of Oxford, Manchester, Newcastle (all part of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research) and the University of Reading analysed the weather through lyrics, musical genre, keys and links to specific weather events.
Across the entire world, women can expect to live longer than men. But why does this occur, and was this always the case?