Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Autism Signs Appear in Babies’ First Year (Health Key)
The social disengagement that is the hallmark of autism-spectrum disorders begins to appear in the second half of a baby’s first year of life, according to a new study. But Californiaresearchers found that parents typically do not notice the decline in their child’s behavior until well into his or her second year.
The study, published in the Journal [...]
HEALTH ALERT: Breast-Feeding Could Save Babies Live & Billions of Dollars (Yahoo! News)
The lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women breast-fed their babies for the first six months of life, a cost analysis says.
Those startling results, published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics, are only an estimate. But several experts who reviewed the [...]
Obama Now Says “Drill, Baby, Drill! Article And Video Looking At His Stunning Reversal (Huffington Post)
President Obama announced today a new energy policy that will open up waters along the southern Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and part of Alaska to offshore oil and gas drilling.
The new policy represents a reversal not only of the current moratorium on any new oil drilling off most U.S. shores, but also [...]
Obama To O.K. Oil And Gas Drilling Off US Coast. The Dream Of George W. Bush Will Finally Come True (The Washington Post)
The Obama administration will approve significant oil and gas exploration off America’s coasts, including a possible sale two years from now of leases off the Virginia shore, administration officials said Wednesday.
The move, which President Obama will announce Wednesday morning with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at Andrews Air Force Base, ends a long-standing moratorium on oil [...]
Staying Healthy Means An Active Sex Life Too! (The Washington Post)
Here’s another reason to try to stay healthy: It extends your sex life as you age, according to a new study.
Stacy Tessler Lindau and Natalia Gavrilova of the University of Chicago analyzed data about health and sexual activity collected by two nationally representative surveys. The surveys involved 3,032 adults aged 25 to 74 and 3,005 [...]
Potentially Harmful Chemicals In Household Goods Kept Secret Under Law (The Washington Post)
Of the 84,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States — from flame retardants in furniture to household cleaners — nearly 20 percent are secret, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, their names and physical properties guarded from consumers and virtually all public officials under a little-known federal provision.
The policy was designed 33 years [...]
Artificial Sweetners: Are They Any Good For You?
The Internet is flooded with rumors that artificial sweeteners are dangerous to your health. Is there any truth to these rumors? Should you worry?
A short introduction to intense sweetness:
Sweet tasting foods are rare in nature. Fruits and vegetables have some sweetness to them, but they’re also packed with lots of fiber, water, micronutrients and phytochemicals, [...]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – Opinion: Local Governments Can Lead Fight Against Climate Change (Huffington Post)
Leaders from around the world gather, in a quest for a global pact to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and tackle the single greatest challenge of our time.
I am joining them, to discuss the urgency of their efforts, the economic opportunities we can seize, and the tremendous role of subnational governments in climate-change mitigation.
Some pundits have described [...]
Few Changes For Millions In Health Bill (The New York Times/MSNBC)
Now that the Senate has caught up with the House by passing a sweeping health care bill, lawmakers are on the verge of extending coverage to the tens of millions of Americans who have no health insurance.
But what about the roughly 160 million workers and their dependents who already have health insurance through an employer? [...]
Medical Charts: The Senate vs. The House on Health Care Reform (Yahoo!)
Early Christmas Eve morning, Senators are due to vote aye or nay on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as their vision of how to reform health care in America.
The House wrangled its version last month. While President Obama says the two proposals are 95% “identical,” that 5% difference has spurred some [...]
