Selected articles on health: Care of the elderly falling on shoulders of the young. Why we’re losing the battle against obesity? Whither the AMA? The big profits of non-profit hospitals.
Cut the growth in rates of obesity by just 1 percent a year over the next two decades, and you’ll slice health costs by $85 billion. Keep obesity rates at their current levels – which is well below a 33 percent increase being projected — save nearly $550 billion.
The recognition is part of Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative, which seeks to join community organizations, local cities, schools districts and public health agencies in efforts to reduce the leading causes of preventable death, such as obesity and tobacco use.
“I lost 90 pounds with the Lap-Band!,” read the billboards. Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? But there are serious risks with the weight-loss surgery promoted by these ads.
Experts want kids to exercise at least 60 minutes every day, but among all children, black girls are most likely to report they got no physical activity in the past week.
As obesity among young people continues to rise, a growing number of clinicians say that weight-loss surgery may be their best chance to take off significant weight. But although health plans frequently cover bariatric surgery in adults, coverage for patients under age 18 is spotty.
After 20 years of U.S. residency, rates of hypertension, diabetes and obesity rise sharply for Hispanic immigrants.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study suggests that, in postmenopausal women at least, dietary weight loss alone is effective while exercise alone is not effective — but both together are best of all.
The weights of young people in the U.S. remained fairly steady over the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — but then they began to put on pounds.
The percentage of adults in Washington state who are obese has more than doubled over the past two decades from 10 percent to more than 26 percent — and two-thirds, 62 percent, are either obese or overweight.
Why don’t physicians provide counseling to obese patients? — lack of financial incentives, lack of adequate training in weight management and counseling and language barriers.
Fewer than half of primary care physicians for adults talk to their patients about diet, exercise and weight management consistently.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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