With cold and flu season underway, doctors say you should try soaking in Epsom salt before you reach for an expensive over-the-counter drug. This naturally-occurring mineral will ease muscle aches and help you get a good night’s rest, so you can recover faster. Some doctors say it will even speed healing by detoxifying your body [...]
A new report released today based on research by Emory University Health Care Economist Ken Thorpe, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), shows increasing obesity rates in Pennsylvania and across the country will result in higher health care spending for states and individuals. The study, which was commissioned by UnitedHealth [...]
According to the National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, conducted annually by Mercer and released today, many employers feared that health benefit cost growth would spike in 2009 as employees, worried about keeping their jobs and health coverage, consumed more health services than usual. In fact 2009 saw the lowest annual increase in a decade, [...]
With Plavix’s gurney on the golf course, Cialis’ twin bath tubs and Ambien’s rooster in the office, many drug commercials make for great water cooler conversations but do they translate into more conversations in the physician’s office? And if so, are those conversations positive or negative – improving disease awareness and brand requests, or raising [...]
New data confirms the rate of chronic kidney disease is inching upward, keeping pace with the rising rates of diabetes. In late September, the U.S. Renal Data System published its 2009 Annual Data report, which shows the incidence of chronic kidney disease in the U.S. Medicare population is now 9.8%, up from 8.7% reported in [...]
A new survey finds that 54 percent of Americans say they do not consistently take prescriptions as instructed even though 87 percent believe prescription medicines are important to their health – pointing to a growing public health problem. The survey examining prescription adherence was released today by Prescription Solutions, a pharmacy benefit management organization and [...]
The Grocery Shopping Network announced today the addition of UCook, an iPhone app that empowers shoppers with the digital weekly specials circular from their favorite grocer, and a rich interactive recipe database with nutritional information, plus a shopping engine. The first version is free and is connected to a growing list of grocery stores across [...]
When a medical bill arrives in an Ohio resident’s mailbox, its side effects usually include procrastination, confusion and concern. That’s the conclusion of an Intuit survey that asked Ohioans how they feel about healthcare finances. The Healthcare in Ohio survey, found Ohioans confused about what they were being asked to pay and why they owed [...]
Science now offers us ever more advanced ways to understand and control pain. But with those new treatments come new questions about the use (and misuse) of state-of-the-art technology and how far pain management can and should go. Is pain a symptom or a disease? How much pain should be relieved? Can reducing pain be [...]