Nov 23, 2009 -
A couple of years ago, it seemed like toy recalls were being announced daily for choking or lead poisoning hazards. This holiday season, parents are being hit with major baby gear recalls. First Maclaren issued a voluntary notification that its hinges could hurt small fingers if a child's hands were holding on to the sides of a stroller during the opening or closing of it.
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Nov 20, 2009 -
It's a big movie weekend, for sure. With New Moon finally out, I've already committed myself to spend an afternoon at the theater — the only complication is that I'm not so fond of the movie-theater fare. It's an admittedly challenging place to stick to healthy food choices, since there usually aren't any to begin with.
- 14 Comments
Nov 17, 2009 -
Researching your health problems online can be a great way to educate yourself — or scare yourself silly. A whopping 97 percent of Fit readers 'fess up to doing some Internet sleuthing before heading to the doc. There's even a word for us: e-patients.
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Nov 16, 2009 -
The last thing mommy wants to do is add another worry to her already fret-worthy list, but this one may be worth noting. We all know that plastics can contain BPA and other harmful toxins, but we don't always know why they are hazardous. Fortunately, scientists are doing the dirty work for us and informing us of yet another reason to steer clear of items containing phthalates.
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Apr 04, 2008 -
A US government-funded medical information site that calls itself as the world's largest database on reproductive health has secretly begun to block searches on the word "abortion," hiding the nearly 25,000 search results available. People heading to the site looking for information would be hit with this exchange:
Search: Abortion
Answer: No records found by latest query.
The site is run by Johns Hopkins University and funded by USAID, a federal office that provides health-care funding to developing nations.
- 45 Comments
Nov 05, 2009 -
Tionne Watkins is better known to most as T-Boz, and a member of the former girl group TLC. Watkins has been extremely open about the fact that she lives with sickle cell anemia, but I was shocked to hear that she secretly battled a deadly brain tumor that led to a risky surgery.
Watkins discovered the grapefruit-size tumor in 2006 and faced the frustrating challenge of trying to find a doctor who would operate on her.
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Oct 26, 2009 -
When the concept behind the "Smart Choice" food labels was introduced, it sounded like a good idea. The goal was to provide easy to digest nutritional information on the front of food packages and the products bearing the label were to meet health guidelines — low calorie count, low in sugar. But when the green check mark made its debut this August, it seemed rather fishy that the cereal Fruit Loops, which lists sugar as its first ingredient, could score the "Smart Choice" badge of approval.
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Oct 20, 2009 -
After looking at the 100 largest metropolitan areas in America, Burlington, VT, came out on top as Self magazine's "fittest, healthiest, and happiest" city to live in for women. The magazine studied almost 8,000 different pieces of data in 50 categories and consulted a panel of experts to come up with its rankings. Information factored into the creation of this list includes rates of diseases, air quality, unemployment statistics, and health habits such as exercise and smoking.
- 7 Comments
Oct 15, 2007 -
There is no denying that the Internet is a valuable research tool when it comes to your health, but the web is also chock full of misinformation. So much so that in the year 2000 the American Medical Association requested that patients make a New Year's resolution not to go online to look up medical conditions. In seven years, however, things have changed.
- 14 Comments
Oct 14, 2009 -
I'm becoming a big fan of DailyBurn — a website that lets its users track workout, diet, and health goals in easy-to-read charts and graphs. There's a ton of great health and fitness information on the site and it has a social side that lets users interact with other members.
If you're not very tech savvy, don't be afraid.
- 18 Comments