Online Features
Health & Wellness
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Making heads or tails of health care plan options
Health insurance is confusing – regardless of whether your employer provides your insurance, you qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, or if you are footing the bill yourself for private insurance. If you’re in the market to buy insurance on your own, you may worry you might be turned down due to a pre-existing medical con...
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Good sleep is essential to leading a healthy life
It’s no secret that getting a good night’s sleep has tremendous health benefits such as improved learning and productivity, protection against serious illnesses, more energy and a better mood. But what you may not know is that not getting enough sleep can have a destructive impact on health, work and overall quality of life. In today’s fast-paced society, many people think it is OK to forego getting enough sleep. Whether it’s due to stress, lifestyle choices or chronic sleep disorders like ...
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Better romance to beat the seasonal blues
(BPT) - As spring struggles to break through in much of the country, many of us can’t help being affected and feeling comfort food, sitcoms and even chocolate aren’t enough to lift our mood. Relationship expert Ian Kerner, Ph.D, the author of five books on sex and relationships, including “Sex Recharge,” shares how to ...
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New technologies offering hope for those with tinnitus - or ringing in the ears
(BPT) - If you experience a constant ringing in your ears that’s bothersome at best and debilitating at worst, you are far from alone. Tinnitus affects roughly one in five Americans and about 16 million people have serious tinnitus that requires medical attention. It’s also the most common disability for military vete...
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When ordinary distraction is something more: diagnosing ADHD
(BPT) - What parent hasn’t had to call a child’s name more than once to get his attention? Or wondered how she can still be “bouncing off the walls” at the end of a long, tiring day. Moments of intense activity or occasional inattention are typical kid behavior, but for some children the problem is extreme and impairing...
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Stroke around the world: the shocking truth
If there’s one thing people of different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds have in common, it’s health. Many health threats on the minds of Americans are also issues for people in nations across the world. The silent killer known as stroke not only ends an American life every four minutes, it kills 6 million people around the globe every year. A stroke occurs when an obstruction or rupture in a blood vessel disrupts blood flow to the brain. It can occur as an ischemic stroke, the most...
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Finding inspiration in basketball
(BPT) - If you love March basketball, here’s how to use the time and energy you spent on choosing a winning bracket to live your own hoop dreams. Step 1: Put down the remote. If you enjoy the game enough to watch others play, it stands to reason that basketball will be an enjoyable way for you to get cardiovascular ex...
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Medical device innovations lead to extraordinary advances
From custom prosthetics to minimally invasive surgery, innovations in medical devices are leading to some astonishing advances. One example: an artificial heart that uses plastic tubes instead of heart valves to move blood in and out of two plastic ventricles. Implanted in more than 1,000 patients, this plastic heart ...
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Helping the brain use alternative fuel may ease symptoms of Alzheimer's
(BPT) - Whether a patient faces a simple health problem, such as a head cold, or one as complex as Alzheimer’s disease, relieving the symptoms is often as important as resolving the issue itself. Yet for the more than 5 million Americans affected by Alzheimer’s, treating the symptoms is even more vital. Some of the ear...
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Iron matters for patients with chronic kidney disease
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major health problem in the United States, impacting more than 25 million Americans, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Kidneys perform many important functions in the body, including regulating and controlling the production of red blood cells. When kidneys are not fully func...
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Sleep in America: Exercise your right to sleep [Infographic]
The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) conducted the 2013 Sleep in America Poll showing that 1 in 4 people report their overall sleep quality as “bad.” On average, people say they need 7 hours and 17 minutes to function at their best throughout the day. The quality of our sleep is affected by our physical activity levels, as well as five other common sleep issues, including tossing and turning, lack of support that leads to back pain, sleeping too hot or too cold, partner disturbance and mattre...
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Paula Deen encourages you to take a walk in her footsteps and start seeing diabetes in a new light
(BPT) - Over the past year, Paula Deen and her sons, Bobby and Jamie, have partnered with Novo Nordisk on Diabetes in a New Light(R), a national initiative to help adults find simple ways to manage everyday challenges associated with type 2 diabetes. Through Diabetes in a New Light(R), they have developed delicious diab...
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national news
Lawyer Cliff Sloan faces tough assignment: Closing Guantanamo

The interior of an unoccupied communal cellblock is seen at Camp VI, a prison used to house detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo BayBy Steve Holland and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cliff Sloan has represented Jon Bon Jovi's band in legal matters and argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, he has perhaps his toughest assignment: Helping to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Washington attorney was named on Monday as the State Department's Guantanamo Bay envoy, a central player in President Barack Obama's renewed push to make good on a 2008 campaign promise to shut the installation where the United States holds terrorism suspects. ...


2013-06-17 20:09:29 -0500
Airlines' performance improves, lags other industries: U.S. poll

A passenger plane approaches to land as other aircraft taxi to the runway at the San Diego International Airport in San Diego, CaliforniaBy Chris Michaud (Reuters) - U.S. consumers are more satisfied with airlines in recent years but the industry still gets relatively low marks, mainly due to the onboard experience, according to a new customer poll released on Tuesday. The American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveys some 70,000 U.S. customers annually on more than 40 industries ranging from apparel and hospitals to banks and insurance, found only television and internet service providers ranked lower. ...


2013-06-18 00:16:15 -0500
Lawyers probe jurors for hidden agendas in Trayvon Martin murder case

Trayvon Martin's parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin on the fifth day of jury selection at Seminole circuit court in SanfordBy Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - A white man with a chest-length gray beard wrote in a questionnaire for prospective jurors that he could keep an open mind about George Zimmerman's guilt or innocence but he failed to mention the $20 donation he made to the murder defendant's legal fund. The donation came to light in open court Monday under questioning by state prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda. "Don't you have a stake in this already?" Rionda asked the man. ...


2013-06-18 00:18:00 -0500
Snowden: U.S. ‘not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me’
Edward Snowden, America's most-wanted whistle-blower, says the truth about the government spying program he revealed will eventually come out, regardless of what happens to him. "All I can say right now is the US Government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me," Snowden wrote in a live [...]
2013-06-17 09:42:20 -0500