An 80-year old woman is dead and nine are sick after succumbing to fumes emanating from a Georgia McDonald’s bathroom. [More]
health
Study: Chocolate Cuts Risk Of Heart Disease And Strokes
By 8.30.11
A new study seemingly paints chocolate as a wonder drug: It can apparently cut your risk of heart disease by 37%, reduce the risk of a stroke by 29% and drop your chance of developing diabetes by 31%. The catch? The study, out this week in the British Medical Journal, doesn’t involve randomized controlled trials. [More]
Triple Double Oreo Hits Shelves, Crushes Them
By 8.17.11
The new Triple Double Oreo is now on the market, bringing one layer of vanilla and one layer of chocolate creme sandwiched between three cookie layers straight to your face. [More]
Study: After 25, After Every Hour Of TV Watched, Lifespan Drops By 22 Minutes
By 8.16.11
Your mom was right. Watching TV is killing you, albeit indirectly. A new study found an association between people watching loads of TV and living shorter lives. So, it’s one of those correlation/causation dealios. Even still, the results were disturbing. By tracking death rates and lifestyle survey responses, the study found that for people over 25, for every hour of TV watched, their lifespan shortened by 22 minutes. [More]
28 Get Rabies Shots After Apt Complex Infested With Bats
By 8.8.11
28 different people have had rabies shots as a precaution against the horde of bats that have infested a Baltimore-area apartment complex. [More]
Make Sure The Nursing Home Isn't Dosing Grandma Into Submission
By 8.3.11
A pill is just so much easier. Drug ’em up and shut ’em up. Rather than deal with all the individual needs of elderly persons with dementia in their care, some nursing homes are dosing them with powerful antipsychotics. Not only have the folk not received a diagnosis that the medicine was designed to treat, not only does the drug turn them into zombies their families don’t recognize, but the FDA has warned that using antipsychotics on older patients with dementia nearly doubles their risk of death. [More]
What If Food Labels Looked Like This?
By 8.1.11
Maybe the real reason Americans are so fat is because our food labels are so ugly. If they were easier on the eye to read, maybe more people would read them and make better eating choices. That was the idea in mind behind a recent design contest at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Journalism aiming to give the standard government-mandated food label a much-needed makeover. The winning entry uses colored boxes for each ingredient that are sized in proportion to how much of each is inside the package. [More]
There's Arsenic In The Apple Juice
By 7.21.11
With all the things on your mind, the last thing you need to worry about is whether the apple juice you finally convinced your kid to drink has arsenic in it. But an independent lab test of several different brands of apple juice, sponsored by Food & Water Watch and Empire State Consumer Project found a sample of Mott’s Apple Juice contained 55 parts per billion of arsenic, exceeding the EPA tolerance level of 10 parts per billion. The FDA does not have a set tolerance level for juice. [More]
SouperSalad Store Shuts Down After Blade Found In Salad
By 7.20.11
Waiter, there’s a blade in my salad. Albuquerque health inspectors slapped a red dot of shame on a SouperSalad restaurant after they followed up complaints from a diner who said he found blades in his greens. [More]
Co-Eds Say It's Sexier If You Have Health Insurance
By 7.19.11
According to a new survey, 90% of college students say that they were attracted to someone and then found out they had health insurance, they would be more likely to be more attracted to him or her. So forget shopping for sexy lingerie, or perfecting your conversational skills, if you really want to attract the ladies or the fellas, you should call a health insurance broker or get a job with health benefits. [More]
How To Appeal A Health Insurance Denial
By 7.15.11
Getting your health insurance claim denied can feel like insult added to injury, but if you take these steps you can get your claim “rehabbed,” and get your money. [More]
Mom Turns Summer Vacation Into Crusade For Cleaner Playgrounds At Fast Food Joints
By 7.13.11
Anyone who thinks playgrounds are clean either doesn’t remember being a kid or is seriously deluding themselves. But one Arizona mom is so fed up with the crap-tastic conditions at the playgrounds found at fast food restaurants that she’s turned her summer vacation into a research project. [More]
Exercise In The Urban Jungle For Free
By 7.8.11
If you’re looking to cut expenses, here’s an argument for cancelling that gym membership. NYT profiles one guy who does all of his exercising outside, at no cost, in the middle of Manhattan. The jungle gyms, trails, and tracks of East River Park give him all the workout he needs, five days a week, in all weather. His hands are calloused from doing pushups on the sidewalk and at 48, 5 ft 8, and 185 pounds, he’s in top shape. So why bother dealing with early termination fees and snooty mirror gazers when you can enjoy being outside, for free? [More]
Fat Gets You High
By 7.8.11
A new study finds that eating fatty foods triggers the release of endocannabinoids in the body, which are marijuana-like chemicals. And the feeling they give you makes you want to continue eating more fatty food. [More]
How Nasty Is Your Bottled Water?
By 7.6.11
Does your bottled water taste funny? It’s not just that it’s probably only tapwater. Environmental Working Group rated 173 brands of bottled water based on their sourcing information, purification, testing, and how transparent the information on their label and website was. Turns out, some of the biggest brands in bottled water are, well, a little murky. [More]
Cheerwine-Filled Krispy Kremes Are Back, Tennessee Can Bite In Too
By 6.30.11
The lovechild of a bottle of Cheerwine soda and a Krispy Kreme doughnut is back for seconds. It’s the Cheerwine-filled Krispy Kreme! The doughnut maker has brought back these two classic Carolina flavors that were such a hit last year for a one-monthly only run starting in July. And this year they’ve expanded the deploy zone to also include Tennessee. [More]
Exercising Before Eating Doesn't Increase Fat Burn
By 6.28.11
Contradicting common advice, a new study says that exercising before eating doesn’t increase the amount of fat you burn. You could even be hurting your body! [More]
Text 4ER411 To Find Nearby ER With Shortest Wait
By 6.17.11
A new service called “ER Texting” lets you send a text message to 4ER411 and get a report on the expected wait times at nearby emergency rooms. [More]
