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Chicago workers can expect to pay 12.4 percent more in health insurance premiums and out of pocket costs next year, according to a report from Lincolnshire-based Hewitt Associates.

The average employee cost, including premiums and out-of-pocket costs such as co-pays and co-insurance, will rise to $4,520 from $4,022 last year, the company said. That includes $2,286 in premiums and $2,234 for out-of-pocket costs.

For Chicago employers, the average cost per worker will rise 8.7 percent to $9,791, including employee contributions to premiums. That’s the highest increase since a 9.7 percent rise in 2006. Nationally, costs are expected to rise 8.8 percent next year.

Among factors driving the higher costs, employers are seeing an increase in the amount of charges and frequency of catastrophic claims as slower hiring has left employers with older workforces more prone to costly medical conditions, the human resources consulting and outsourcing company said.

Hewitt also estimates that health care reform requirements that dependents be covered to age 26 and the elimination of certain lifetime and annual limits contributed 1 percent to 2 percent of the increase. Most of the positive effects of the reform law won’t be felt for a few years, according to Ken Sperling, Hewitt’s health care practice leader.

Got milk?
A new study from Israeli researchers found that dieters who drink a lot of milk lost more weight than people who consumed little to no calcium regardless of the rest of their diet.

Participants lost about 12 pounds at the end of the two-year study. Those who drank the least amount of milk and milk products lost about seven pounds.

More than 300 overweight middle-aged adults participated in a study that evaluated a variety of diets. Vitamin D serum levels were found to increase as participants lost weight.

Vitamin D helps to absorb calcium in the bloodstream, and can be obtained from sunlight, milk, fatty fish, and eggs.

Researchers are putting a tag on obesity. Doctors have known that medical bills are higher for the obese, but a report from George Washington University finds that's only a portion of the real-life costs.

The researchers added in factors such as employee sick days, lost productivity, even the need for extra gasoline-- and found the annual cost of being obese is $4,879 for a woman and $2,646 for a man.

That's far more than the cost of being merely overweight -- $524 for women and $434 for men.

The study's co-author Christine Ferguson says the difference found between the sexes suggests that larger women earn less than skinnier women, while wages don't differ when men pack on the pounds.

Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades.

What do you think is the key to good health? Good eating habits are not enough to bring in good health. It has to be complemented with a regular workout routine. But the sad fact is that most of us don’t realize this and end up making poor lifestyle choices. This leads to a handful of illness and health issues like heart diseases and diabetes. But there are instances where certain health conditions become unavoidable. However you need to make wise choices and do everything to stay fit and healthy.

• A healthy person would surely have a healthy body mass index. There are chances of getting heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers if you become obese or overweight. Hence it becomes necessary to maintain a healthy weight. At fit camps, people are taught to stay healthy with a stable BMI.

• People try to break away from doing workouts putting the blame on time constraints. But you have to overcome the sluggishness and start an exercise routine. Boot camps insist on proper exercise and as the end result weight loss follows. Apart from the weight loss beneficial factor, the cardio workouts contribute to a healthy heart and lungs functioning. The exercise routine should include 30 minutes workouts three times a week.

• Healthy habits make a man fit and fine and it is absolutely a personal choice to remain in good shape. A variety of health conditions can be attributed to smoking and alcohol abuse like lung cancer, liver cirrhosis etc. the golden rule of thumb is to quit smoking and make the alcohol intake in moderate quantities.

• There is a saying that a man is what he eats. This is true as on the whole the health of a person is determined by his eating habits. If you wish to stay fit and healthy, evaluate your eating habits and modify them. High fat foods, fried foods and fast foods are an absolute ‘no-no’. Trade in unhealthy snacks like cookies, potato chips and candy. All this should be replaced by fruits, vegetables, nuts and wheat crackers.

• It has been proved that detoxification is an excellent way to flush out the harmful toxins from the body. You can begin a detoxification program as there are many herbal detox teas are available. Furthermore, water has the immense capability to remove toxins from the body. So make it a point to drink at least eight to ten glasses of water per day.


source:http://www.prlog.org/10851321-how-to-stay-fit-and-healthy.html

Shrek, Dora the Explorer, and other lively TV and movie stars beloved by children have been moonlighting as junk-food pitchmen in recent years. And they're good at it.

Fifty percent of children say that food from a package bedecked with a cartoon celebrity such as Shrek tastes better than the same exact food from a plain package, according to a new study.

And when given a choice, the vast mass of kids pick the food from the cartoon-adorned package as a snack, the study found.

The use of TV and movie characters on food packaging is "premeditated to access certain feelings, memories, and associations," says Dr. Thomas Robinson, M.D., a professor of child health at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. "If you associate certain products with things that are otherwise considered fun, it's going to make those products seem more desirable."

Cartoon characters tend to appear on junk food, which makes health experts even more concerned about the magnetic effect they have on kids. Although characters such as Dora and SpongeBob SquarePants have been used to market fruits and vegetables, they are most often used on chips, candy, and other unhealthy snacks. SpongeBob has even hawked Kentucky Fried Chicken.


"Parents may not set out to buy unhealthy products," says the lead author of the study, Christina Roberto, M.S., a doctoral student at Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, in New Haven, Connecticut. "But kids can be really, really persuasive. They see them and they want them, and it gets difficult to have that battle in the grocery store."

In the study, which is in print this week in the journal Pediatrics, Roberto and her colleagues presented 40 children ages 4 to 6 with paired samples of graham crackers, gummy fruit snacks, and baby carrots. Each pair of sample foods was identical down to the clear packaging, except that one of the packages had a sticker of Shrek, Dora the Explorer, or Scooby Doo on it.

Between 50 percent and 55 percent of the children said that the food with the sticker on it tasted better than the same food in the plain package. (The percentage varied with each food.) And between 73 percent and 85 percent selected the food in the character packaging as the one they'd prefer to eat as a snack.


"Marketers know that cartoon characters sell food products; that's why they use them," says Marion Nestle, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University. "This study really nails it down. Now we have evidence for asking--no, requiring--food marketers to stop using cartoons to market junk foods to kids."

The American Psychological Association and other organizations have likewise called for the abolition of all marketing of food products to children, a stance that Robinson says is reasonable.

"Young children, particularly under the age of 7 or 8, really don't understand the persuasive intent of marketing," he says. "That seems inherently unfair, and something we should protect children from, just like we protect them from other things we think are beyond their cognitive ability, like pornography."

new ways to deal with picky eaters

Using the power of cartoon characters for good--to market healthy foods--may be less effective than restrictions on junk-food marketing, Roberto says. The cartoon characters had the least influence on children's preferences when they were on the package of baby carrots, she notes.

"It might be that they're not used to seeing [the characters] on vegetables," Roberto says. Or it might be that kids already know that "a carrot is a carrot is a carrot," she adds, whereas they're not sure how a specific brand of graham cracker or gummy snack will taste.

Is it Baby Fat or Obesity?

Food and beverage companies in the U.S. spend more than $1.6 billion each year to attract children's attention, and 13 percent of that is spent on character licensing and similar cross-promotion efforts, according to Federal Trade Commission data cited in the study.

But the calls for reform have had some impact. The use of licensed characters on food products declined between 2006 and 2008, according to research conducted by the Rudd Center.

"It's good to see the voluntary work on this," says Roberto. "But we'd like to see more."

When Hayley Okines arrives home after a serious day at school she would have more reason to complain than most. The 12-year-old suffers from the quick aging disease progeria, an extremely rare condition that affects one in eight million people.

But despite suffering from arthritis, having little hunger and intriguing a cocktail of pills morning and night, the youth refuses to be beaten.

Her mother Kerry, told the Mail Online: 'I'm so proud of Hayley. No matter what life throws at her she just gets on with it. She doesn't let her arthritis stop her and runs around with her friends and she is very good at taking her medication.'

Hayley's life story is the subject of a documentary to be broadcast on Five tonight. When she last featured in the channel's 'Extraordinary People' series in 2007 she was about to take part in a pioneering medical trial in America.

Her parents from Bexhill, East Sussex, were hideously aware that the average lifespan for a child with progeria is only 13 years old and Hayley was devastated when she lost her best friend to the disease in 2006.



Hayley was well enough to attend her local secondary school and astonished her family by how well she adapted to her new surroundings.

Kerry said: 'We were worried because of the sheer size of the school and of rough and tumble because Hayley is quite fragile. But she settled in quickly and has made a couple of new friends as well. She is particularly good at science and maths.

'She also had her first sleepovers this year and the girls enjoyed chatting and playing on the Nintendo Wii and doing all the usual girly things.'

Kerry who has two other children - Louis, 8 and Ruby, 5 - is now hoping to organise a UK reunion for children with progeria, after the annual U.S event was cancelled due to a lack of funding.

Although they have managed to raise £4,000 to host the event they are still £14,000 short of their target.

'We're desperate not to cancel the event and have even looked at getting a bank loan,' Kerry said.


'We've already had families of 18 children with progeria say they would like to attend and we're hoping that a sponsor might come forward to help.

'It means so much to the children to meet others with the same condition.'

Kerry and her husband Mark will be taking Hayley back to Boston in July for another check-up and are confident Hayley will continue to deal with whatever life throws at her.

'Hayley just gets on with her life,' Kerry said.

'She is a fighter and has achieved a great deal in a short time.'

The riskiest foods

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has issued a list of the top 10 FDA-regulated foods linked to outbreaks since 1990. (That includes produce, seafood, egg, and dairy products, but not meat.)

Be aware of the risk, but don’t avoid these types of food. “They are everywhere and are part of a healthy diet,” says CSPI staff attorney, Sarah Klein.

Leafy greens

Yes, they’re you’re favorite go-to salad greens—lettuce, escarole, endive, spinach, cabbage, kale, arugula, and chard.

But they also caused 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness since 1990. (Remember bagged spinach in 2006?)

Greens can be contaminated by manure, dirty water rinses, or unwashed hands before you even purchase them.

To avoid getting sick, wash produce and prevent cross-contamination (improper handling of meat in the kitchen can spread bacteria to other types of food, including greens) by washing hands and using separate cutting boards.

Eggs

This breakfast favorite has been linked to 352 outbreaks since 1990, most often due to Salmonella bacteria.

The bacteria can lurk inside the egg, so proper cooking is key (which kills the germs). Avoid eating any products containing raw eggs, including cookie dough.

“Our food supply is safe,” says Craig Hedberg, PhD, of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis. “There is roughly one illness for every three to four thousand meals served,” he says.

Still, “raw food items like eggs may have contamination and need to be handled properly.”

Tuna

This type of fish can be contaminated by scombrotoxin, which causes flushing, headaches, and cramps.

If it is stored above 60 degrees after being caught, fresh fish can release the toxin, which cannot be destroyed by cooking (and is unrelated to mercury contamination or other problems related to tuna and other fish).

Tuna has been linked to 268 scombroid poisoning outbreaks since 1990.

“You just can’t cook out all the things wrong with food supply right now,” CSPI's Klein says.

Oysters

Before being transformed into a pricey delicacy, oysters lurk on the ocean floor doing what they do best—filter feeding.

And if the water they are filtering is contaminated, so are the oysters. (Or they can be contaminated during handling.)

If served raw or undercooked, oysters can contain germs—mostly a gut-churner called norovirus and a bacterium known as Vibrio vulnificus—that can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Potatoes

A freshly scrubbed spud that’s properly cooked is unlikely to cause illness. But watch out for potato salad.

Cross contamination—the transfer of germs from one type of food, usually meat, to another—can be the source of the problem.

Potato-related outbreaks of illness have been traced to germs like Listeria (which can live on deli counters ), Shigella, E. coli, and Salmonella.

Cheese

While restaurants are a key source of other food-related outbreaks, most people who get sick from cheese do so from products consumed at home.

Cheese can be contaminated with bacteria like Salmonella or Listeria, which can cause miscarriages.

Ice Cream

I scream, you scream. We all scream from ice cream? Ice cream has been linked to 75 outbreaks caused by bacteria like Salmonella and Staphylococcus since 1990, according to the CSPI.

The largest outbreak occurred in 1994, when a batch of pasteurized ice cream premix was transported in a Salmonella-contaminated truck, and then used to make ice cream without re-pasteurizing.

“People are making ice cream at home and using raw eggs in the household,” explains Hedberg.

Tomatoes

Although tomatoes were found “not guilty” in a 2008 outbreak that sickened thousands (the culprits were jalapeno and Serrano peppers), this summer favorite has been linked to at least 31 outbreaks.

“Lettuce or tomatoes may be contaminated, but once they enter a household, you can make sure that you don’t allow the bacteria to grow and multiply,” says Hedberg.

To do this: wash hands for 20 seconds with warm water and soap before and after preparing fresh produce; wash fruits and vegetables under running water just before eating, cutting, or cooking, even if you plan to peel it before eating; and keep fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw separate from other foods.

Sprouts

While sprouts are practically the poster child for healthy food, they can also be vulnerable to bacterial contamination.

The seeds used to produce the sprouts can be contaminated in the field, and water and warm growing conditions that encourage germination can also boost bacterial growth.

The FDA and CDC recommend that the elderly, young children, and those with weakened immune systems avoid eating raw sprouts.

Berries

Another common source of food poisoning is berries, including strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

A 1997 outbreak that sickened thousands of children via school lunches was traced to hepatitis A-contaminated frozen strawberries (possibly from a farm worker in Baja California, Mexico).

Other cases—linked to imported raspberries from Chile and Guatemala—have been caused by a germ called Cyclospora, which causes severe diarrhea, dehydrations, and cramps.