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The idea that eating cocoa-rich, dark chocolate may offer greater health benefits than milk chocolate is not new. Cocoa is loaded with compounds called polyphenols that have been shown to help our bodies fend off inflammation and maybe even improve our moods. And now a small study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association offers evidence of another possible benefit: improving vascular health by increasing blood flow. Researchers studied patients with peripheral artery disease, or PAD, which affects about 20 percent of adults older than 70 in the U.S. and other Western countries. People who have PAD can...

As the U.S. debates ways to replace or improve Obamacare, Canada may offer a blueprint for reform. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has moved to transfer control from the federal government to the provinces and is opening up the socialized system to private clinics and doctors. “What we clearly need is experimentation with market reforms and private delivery options within the public system. ... that experimentation should occur at the provincial level,” Harper said a decade before winning a government majority in 2011. Now he's acting on his vision. This is relevant to the debate over health policy in America...

So far, 763 people have been infected with the virus - and 468 of these have died. Most of the cases have been in Guinea where the outbreak started. But it has since spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone and is now the biggest and most deadly Ebola outbreak the world has seen, say officials

A key former adviser behind President Obama's healthcare law said the traditional role of health insurers would be "dead" by 2025, predicting massive changes in the industry. "By 2025, insurance companies as we know them — taking in premiums and paying out — dead," Ezekiel Emanuel ... Emanuel, the older brother of former White House chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has long argued that health insurers will shift away an employer-based system. By 2025.. ... Most Americans currently receive health insurance through their employers. ObamaCare includes an employer mandate, which requires companies with 50 or more...

It looks like California chefs, bartenders and deli workers might be able to take off those hated rubber gloves. Gov. Jerry Brown was presented Thursday with AB2130 -- a "do-over" bill would repeal a law requiring those handling food that goes directly to diners wear gloves and mandating that they change those gloves with every new plate or fruit garnish on a drink. The law took effect in January, but following a backlash from the public and the foodservice industry, the state legislature voted to repeal the ban. "We're grateful the assemblyman was willing to roll (the bill) back, hit...

Most people hate cockroaches and would do just about anything to keep them out of their homes. But that is not the case for one woman. The South China Morning Post is reporting that Yuan Meixia in China shares her home with 100,000 cockroaches, which she considers her children. She breeds them and raises them so she can sell them to a pharmaceutical company, which uses them for medicine. She lives in separate home, but visits the breeding home everyday. She was inspired to start breeding them after she saw a program on television which talked about their potential healing...

The American people have been given a lot of bad information about the link between saturated fat, cholesterol, and heart disease. This misinformation is slowly being corrected, and more research is being done in the area, but most medical organizations still recommend low-fat diets as “heart healthy.” We consume a lot less fats, and as a result, a lot more carbohydrates. (An unintended side effect: This diet has been blamed for the large increase in type 2 diabetes in our society over the last few decades.) I predict that in 10 years the medical profession will make yet another dietary...

Fluoride, Teeth, and the Atomic Bomb by Chris Bryson & Joel GriffithsSome fifty years after the United States began adding fluoride to public water supplies to reduce cavities in children’s teeth, declassified government documents are shedding new light on the roots of that still-controversial public health measure, revealing a surprising connection between fluoride and the dawning of the nuclear age.Today, two thirds of U.S. public drinking water is fluoridated. Many municipalities still resist the practice, disbelieving the government’s assurances of safety.Since the days of World War II, when this nation prevailed by building the world’s first atomic bomb, U.S. public...

Hospitals across the country are struggling to deal with a shortage of one of their essential medical supplies. Manufacturers are rationing saline — a product used all over the hospital to clean wounds, mix medications and treat dehydration. Now drug companies say they won’t be able to catch up with demand until next year. ...“The Most Expensive Drug Shortage in History” The burden ultimately falls on hospitals, clinics, and dialysis centers to come up with their own workarounds. And all that staff time adds up. Hospitals spend $216 million a year on the labor costs of managing drug shortages, according...

The rapid decline in Americans' tobacco use has leveled off, and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling for new taxes, regulations and warnings to force Americans to kick the habit. In a new report, the CDC found that 50 million, or one in five, Americans use tobacco every day or some days, and 60 million, or one in four, “every day, some days or rarely.”It also revealed that the use of electronic cigarettes is surging, and and e-cigarettes now account for nearly 5 percent of the smoking market.Worse: Americans aged 18-24 showed up as the top...

BENTON COUNTY, Ark. —The Benton County Health Department is cracking down after a food-poisoning outbreak at the Walmart home office cafe

The public will have more time to weigh in on a federal proposal to regulate electronic cigarettes and other tobacco products. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that the public comment period slated to end July 9 is being extended an additional 30 days to Aug. 8 after getting lots of input on how to regulate e-cigarettes. Those are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. The FDA also proposed extending its authority to regulate cigars, hookahs, nicotine gels and pipe tobacco.

Many of the thousands of illegal immigrant children and teens crossing the United States border are carrying deadly contagious diseases that could easily create a major health crisis in this country, doctors say. In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Dr. Jane Orient, an internal medicine specialist and the Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), said that by admitting these huge groups of children who come from countries where medical screenings are minimal and hygiene is poor, the United States is at risk for epidemics of serious diseases and viruses that the nation has not...

Former Baylor standout center Isaiah Austin’s basketball career is over several days before the NBA Draft when doctors have diagnosed he suffers from Marfan syndrome. Marfan syndrome is caused by a genetic mutation that leads to problems in connective tissues throughout the body. One feature of Marfan syndrome is aortic enlargement, which can be life-threatening. According to The Marfan Foundation, about one in 5,000 people have Marfan syndrome. Some athletes have died on the court as a result of Marfan syndrome and associated aortic problems, among them noted Olympic volleyball standout Flo Hyman. Austin underwent a standard physical at the...

A strange catastrophe struck Spain's pig farmers in the spring of 2010. On 41 farms across the country—each home to between 800 and 3,000 pigs—many sows suddenly ceased bearing young. On some farms, all the sows stopped reproducing. On others, those that did become pregnant produced smaller litters. When investigators examined the sows and the semen that had been used to artificially inseminate them—it had been collected from different boar studs and refrigerated—they couldn't find anything wrong. The sperm cells weren't misshapen. None of the sows were diseased. No microbes or fungal toxins were detected in their feed or water....

Americans who have been out of work for a year or more are much more likely to be obese than those unemployed for a shorter time. The obesity rate rises from 22.8% among those unemployed for two weeks or less to 32.7% among those unemployed for 52 weeks or more.

These days you can order your coffee with anything from cow's milk to almond milk, but even in an experimental town like San Francisco, a camel's milk latte has yet to sound like anything but a joke. Southern California-based company Desert Farms is looking to change that. With its tongue-in-cheek slogan, "make every day a hump day," and its packaging emphasizing the health benefits of its product, the company is trying to turn camel's milk into the next big thing in dairy. Camel's milk isn't anything new to the Bedouins of the Middle East and Northern Africa, of course, who...

MONDAY, June 16, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Lower is not necessarily better when it comes to treating high blood pressure, researchers report.

Washington’s potato saga continues.While the House considers a bill to include the potato in the WIC (Women, Infants and Children) food nutrition program, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is echoing First Lady Michelle Obama’s claims that including the potato is an assault on science.“Republicans are even going after the nutrition for pregnant women and children, the WIC program. Mandating the WIC program include more white potatoes. You know, were talking about fruits, vegetables, whole grains and the rest, and they have an amendment that says more white potatoes than nutritionists recommend,” Pelosi said during her Thursday press conference.“These assaults...

A British medical journal announced a finding last month that might be the best news in the history of the world: Nearly one out of three people in the world is overweight. Members of the media responded to this thrilling discovery by lamenting the globe’s growing waistline. Pundits rushed to condemn widespread access to inexpensive food. Everyone seemed so excited to attack obesity that no one noticed the report’s incredible story of human achievement and hope. Throughout history, malnutrition and hunger-related health issues have killed more people than any other cause. Over the course of the past half-century, however, the...