Black News: Barack Obama Declares National Emergency for Swine Flu

President Obama has declared a national emergency to deal with the "rapid increase in illness" from the H1N1 influenza virus.

"The 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities," Obama said in a statement.

"Thus, in recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation, we are taking additional steps to facilitate our response."

The president signed the declaration late Friday and announced it Saturday.

Calling the emergency declaration "an important tool in our kit going forward," one administration official called Obama's action

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Black Health Tip: Avoid the Whites in Your Food

by Dr. Deborah Stroman, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Do you need a simple rule to begin a smart nutrition routine? Try to make a change in your diet by “avoiding the whites” – those additives that supposedly will make your food taste just right or have the right consistency. To live well and be healthy, we need to make changes that may feel uncomfortable at first and possibly illogical to friends and family.

Salt, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, accounts for nearly 150,000 premature deaths every year primarily due to complications from high blood pressure. We do need ~ 6g of salt per day to live. Sadly, the average intake of salt is between 9g and 10g a day! Salt is a commonly occurring mineral, the technical name of which is sodium chloride. It is the sodium part of salt that is important. Sodium helps to maintain the concentration of body fluids at correct levels. It also plays a central role in the transmission of electrical impulses in the nerves, and helps cells process nutrients.

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Healthy Living: Did you Know there are Natural Ways to Fight the Swine Flu?

In this episode of Medicine on Call, Dr. Elaina George speaks with Dr Maiysha Clairborne of Mind, Body, Spirit, Wellness. we spoke about natural approaches to prevent and treat swine flu. Overall natural remedies to reduce stress and promote overall wellness.

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Health News: 76 Children Die from Swine Flu in the US

From Yahoo News

Health officials said Friday that 76 U.S. children have died of swine flu, including 19 new reports in the past week — more evidence the new virus is unusually dangerous for the young.

The regular flu kills between 46 and 88 children a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That suggests deaths from the new H1N1 virus could dramatically outpace children's deaths from seasonal flu, if swine flu continues to spread as it has.

CDC officials say 10 more states, a total of 37, now have widespread swine flu. A week ago, reports suggested that cases might be leveling off and even falling in some areas of the country, but that did not turn out to be an enduring national trend.

"We are seeing more illness, more hospitalizations, and more deaths," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat said at a press conference Friday.

The new virus, first identified in April, is a global epidemic. The CDCdoesn't have an exact count of all swine flu deaths and hospitalizations, but existing reports suggest more than 600 have died and more than 9,000 have been hospitalized. Health officials believe millions of Americans have caught the virus.

The virus is hitting young people harder. Experts believe older people are suffering from it less, perhaps because they have a bit of immunity from exposure over the years to somewhat similar viruses.

 

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High Vaccine Costs Lead Some Doctors to Stop Giving them

Parents who bring their kids to Dr. G. Andrew McIntosh for the chicken pox vaccine are out of luck.

The family physician, who has a solo practice in Uniontown, Ohio, doesn't offer that shot because he can't afford it. Most insurers won't sufficiently cover the cost.

"It doesn't do me any good. I am losing money on [them]," he said. The chicken pox vaccine runs about $115, but insurers only cover between $68 to $83 of that.

McIntosh has also cut back on a handful of other critical childhood vaccines for the same reason -- including the measles, mumps and rubella, known as the MMR vaccine.

It costs him about $58 to buy an MMR shot, he said, while insurers pay about about $40.

 

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Are College Students Drugging Themselves to Death?

by Dr. Elaina George, Your Black World Medical Correspondent

According to a recent CNN report 7% of college students admit to using Adderall without a prescription. It is an amphetamine-like stimulant used to treat attention deficit disorders (ADD) and attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This drug, come to known as ‘vitamin A’, is taken by students to improve their grades. It is believed to help them study more efficiently by increasing the ability to stay awake and concentrate longer. It is more potent than caffeine or the old standbys No-Doze and Mountain Dew.

When prescribed by a physician for an individual with ADD or ADHD, Adderall is an effective and safe drug. Unfortunately, like many other prescription drugs such as Xanax, Valium, and Oxycontin, which have become easy to get on the Internet and on the black market, its ubiquitous use has taken away the fear factor. There is little regard for the potential side effects such as heart problems, stroke, tremors, and addiction.

In fact both prescription drugs and over the counter drugs have been reduced to quick fixes that are used to ‘make a problem go away’. There is a pervasive feeling that if it is a prescription drug or if it is sold over the counter, then it must be safe. This has been encouraged by the aggressive direct to patient marketing by the pharmaceutical industry.

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