Health stories in the news

Schools prepare to teach students during school closures

Lynn Thompson, Seattle Times’ Snohomish reporter, writes about efforts by some local schools to prepare emergency distance-learning plans so that students sent home during school closures can keep learning.

Thompson writes.

The U.S. Department of Education in August recommended that school districts develop a range of strategies to keep students learning. They include paper homework packets that parents could pick up, telephone check-ins, e-mail and video conferencing as well as higher tech options such as digital versions of textbooks and assignments and Web streaming of prerecorded classroom lessons.

The closure in spring of more than 700 schools around the country, including nine in Washington, after the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, has given new urgency to schools’ ability to keep students on task if schools have to shut down.

To learn more:

• Read Thompson’s article: Schools turn to new ways to teach kids during closures

NFL football players at high risk for dementia—report

A study commissioned by the National Football League finds that the leagues former players become demented at far higher rates than the general population including a rate that is 19 times higher than found for men ages 30 through 49, Alan Schwarz reports in the New York Times.

Schwarz writes:

The findings could ring loud at the youth and college levels, which often take cues from the N.F.L. on safety policies and whose players emulate the pros. Hundreds of on-field concussions are sustained at every level each week, with many going undiagnosed and untreated.

To learn more:

• Read Alan Schwarz’s article: Dementia risk seen in players in N.F.L. study.
• Read LocalHealthGuide’s story about Harborview’s new sports concussion program.
• Visit the Brain Injury Association of Washington: www.biawa.org

Congress investigates reports that many supplements contain steroids

New York Times reporters Natasha Singer and Michael Schmidt report that Congress is investigating whether current regulations are adequate to protect the public from the growing number products sold as dietary supplements that illegally contain potent testosterone-like steroid drugs.

They write:

Testifying on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on bodybuilding products, Travis T. Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, estimated that hundreds of illegal products containing steroids were now available in the United States.

To learn more:

• Read Singer and Schmidt’s article: Congress, Concerned About Steroids, Reviews Law on Dietary Supplements
• Read LocalHealthGuides article: Some body-building “supplements” contain dangerous, unapproved drugs, FDA

Tags: Brain Injury, Dementia, Supplements, Swine Flu

Category: News