Yeshiva World News

Measles Deaths Fall But Vaccine Gaps Threaten Progress

Fatal cases of measles have fallen by nearly 75 percent globally since 2000, but big outbreaks in Asian and African states with low vaccination rates jeopardize progress towards eradication, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The highly-contagious disease is a leading cause of death among young children around the world, especially the poor, malnourished and unvaccinated, it said. Measles has been virtually eliminated in North and South America, and the western Pacific ...

Risk To All Ages: 100 Kids Die Of Flu Each Year

Twenty flu-related deaths have been reported in children so far this winter — one of the worst tolls this early in the year since health officials began keeping track. Still, experts say that doesn't mean this year will turn out to be unusually deadly. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, and it's not clear that will happen this year. The deaths have included a 6-year-old girl in Maine, a 15-year-old Michigan boy who loved robotics and a tall high school senior from Texas ...

CVS Stops Putting Tylenol In Some Stores To End Supply Holes

If you cannot find Tylenol pain reliever at your local CVS store this flu season, it might be because that store is no longer stocking it. CVS this month changed how it stocks Tylenol at its stores in the wake of manufacturing problems at the drug's maker, Johnson & Johnson, that have disrupted supplies for more than three years. Under the new plan, CVS will try to have Tylenol in stores in each market, but will not have it in every store, spokesman Michael DeAngelis said. The ...

Nachas

For the last 17 years as a health professional, I have spent a great deal of time trying to educate and motivate others to make the necessary changes to improve their health and quality of life. But as we all know, it is up to the client to take the information and decide to make the necessary changes. It takes courage, time and a lot of hard work to make those changes and when clients are successful we celebrate! Personally, I get a lot of nachas and inspiration from past and present clients ...

Flu Outbreak: Why Are So Many Not Getting Vaccinated?

The following is a Fox News article: Two words are at the top of most American’s minds this winter: flu season. According to the most recent weekly flu advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. is experiencing a particularly nasty flu season this year, with 29 states reporting high levels of “influenza-like illness.” More specifically, the proportion of people visiting doctors and physicians for flu-like symptoms has climbed from 2.8 percent to ...

Flu Outbreak Is Set To Be One Of The Worst In A Decade

A nationwide flu outbreak that has already caused the deaths of at least 18 children and clogged emergency rooms in many states is provoking great alarm across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that this year's flu season is expected to be one of the worst the country has seen in 10 years. Not even at its peak yet, the season “is stacking up to be moderate to severe,” Tom Skinner, a spokesperson for the CDC, said. “In the past 10 years we have seen ...

Report: Death Rates From Cancer Still Inching Down

Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday. Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer. "There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups. But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces ...

Health: Let’s Do the Math – Part II

In last week’s column, we discussed the fact that more than two thirds of the American population is now overweight, obese or extremely obese.  Our youth, ages 2-19 have an overweight-obese rate of just over 50%.  And with this (and the sedentary lifestyle that accompanies most overweight and obese people) comes a myriad of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, and emotional issues such as depression.  As we get older, ...

CDC: Data Shows Worsening Flu Season

Health officials say this flu season is shaping up to be one of the more severe in recent years. Earlier reports indicated that this could be a bad flu season, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the data now confirm it. In the last week of December flu was widespread in 41 states; flu-related child and infant deaths climbed to 18 and outpatient visits for flu symptoms had jumped to 5.6 percent. The CDC's Tom Skinner says "people who come down with the flu can be ...

Health: Let’s Do the Math - Part I

Since the obesity and overweight epidemic began, there has been no shortage of articles written speculating as to why we are more overweight and sicker than any previous generation and there has been tens of millions of dollars spent trying to find the answer. More than two thirds of the American population is now overweight, obese or extremely obese. Our youth, ages 2-19 have an overweight-obese rate of just over 50%. And with this (and the sedentary lifestyle that accompanies most overweight ...

US Approves J&J Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment

U.S. health regulators have approved a new Johnson & Johnson drug for patients with tuberculosis who do not respond to other treatments, the company said. The drug is the first in 40 years to tackle the disease using a new mechanism of action, according to J&J. The drug blocks an energy-producing enzyme that tuberculosis bacteria need to survive. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, chemically known as bedaquiline and called Sirturo, on Monday following a ...

U.S. Teen Smoking Declines To Record Low In 2012

Cigarette smoking among American teenagers dropped to a record low in 2012, a decline that may have been partly driven by a sharp hike in the federal tobacco tax, researchers said on Wednesday. An annual survey of about 45,000 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades found that the overall proportion of those saying they had smoked in the prior 30 days fell by just over a percentage point to 10.6 percent. "A one percentage point decline may not sound like a lot, but it represents ...

How to use Meal Replacements

The world has changed greatly in the last 40 years.  I am sure that there are many of you who recall a time when everyone ate three meals a day and it was likely that you ate breakfast and dinner with your family together at the table.  But that was when the world was a different place.  Today’s world is more demanding of our time and no matter what we do in life, we are expected to produce more and be more efficient.  This creates time-pressures that didn’t used to exist, and as a ...

Dealing with an Overweight Child - Part II

Part I of this article covered child and adolescent obesity –  the fact that it’s reached epidemic proportions both in the United States and Israel, and the broad steps we can take to help stem the tide. Part II focuses on the specific ways in which we can help ensure not just our children’s future good health, but our as well. As much as bad eating habits play a role in childhood obesity, the first positive step for children is to get them to be active and exercise. We live in a ...

Dealing with and Overweight Child - Part 1

If one of more of your children is overweight or obese, you are in good company. In the United States, approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2-19 are obese. In Israel, about 13% are either overweight or obese. Since 1980, the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents has almost tripled. Today, about 1 in 3 American kids and teens is overweight or obese - nearly triple the rate since 1963. With good reason, childhood obesity is now the #1 health concern ...

Yad Eliezer Takes Hundreds Of Children From Southern Israel To Jerusalem Zoo

What’s wrong with this picture? It looks like a beautiful day at the zoo! The problem is that it’s early December and these children should be in school. They would be if their schools had not been closed due to the barrage of rockets that has bathed southern Israel over the last week. Shai Kedem, an employee of the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, estimates that there were seven to ten thousand visitors in the zoo today, most of them from southern Israel. “This is what the zoo looks like during ...

ISRAEL: Routine Medical Exam Reveals 23 LBS Growth

A resident of northern Israel in his 60s complained to his doctors that despite genuine efforts to lose weight including a serious diet he has been unsuccessful. The patient added that to his astonishment, he has even gained weight. After checking his patient, including a visual exam and palpating his abdominal area the doctor referred his patient for additional testing. The tests led to surgery and the removal of an abdominal growth weighing 10.5kg (23 lbs) and measuring 35cm (13.7 ...