Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by the editors of HealthDay:
New Asthma Action Plan for Minorities in
U.S.
A federal action plan to improve asthma care and prevention in racial
and ethnic minorities in the United States was announced Thursday.
Asthma affects nearly 26 million Americans, especially minority
children and children in poor families. For example, asthma affects 16.5
percent of Puerto Rican children and 16 percent of black children, more
than double the rate among white children, according to an Environmental
Protection Agency news release.
“The report is a blueprint for how we can work together to reduce
asthma disparities and help ensure children with asthma get the right care
with the right support,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius said in the news release.
“One key factor that is so critical to controlling a child’s asthma is
access to health care. Uninsured people with asthma are less likely to
take the preventive medicine they may need to keep their condition under
control, making them more likely to suffer an attack. That’s why we are
focused on expanding access to care,” she said.
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Exercise May Boost Heart Risk for Some:
Study
Exercise may actually be bad for some healthy people, new research
suggests.
A group of experts analyzed data from six exercise studies involving
nearly 1,700 people and found that about 10 percent of the participants
actually got worse on at least one of four measures related to heart
disease: blood pressure and levels of insulin, HDL cholesterol, and
triglycerides, The New York Times reported.
About seven percent of the participants got worse on at least two of
the measures.
The researchers don’t have an explanation for their findings, published
Wednesday in the online journal PLoS One.
“It is bizarre,” said lead author Claude Bouchard, a professor of
genetics and nutrition at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, part
of the Louisiana State University system, The Times reported.
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FDA Denies Name Change for High Fructose Corn
Syrup
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has rejected a bid to give high
fructose corn syrup a more wholesome-sounding name.
The sweetener has developed a bad reputation in recent years and the
Corn Refiners Association submitted an application in 2010 to have it
renamed as “corn sugar” on nutrition labels, CBS News and the
Associated Press reported.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Corn Refiners Association said
the FDA rejected its application on “narrow, technical” grounds.
The association also launched a marketing campaign claiming that high
fructose corn syrup is actually a form of sugar and has the same
nutritional value as granular table sugar. In a lawsuit filed last year,
the Sugar Association said the campaign is misleading, CBS/AP
reported.
The FDA’s decision confirms his group’s argument that sugar and high
fructose corn syrup are two distinct products, said Dan Callister, a
lawyer for the Sugar Association.
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