Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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NEW YORK (AP) — A huge international effort involving more than 100 institutions and genetic tests on 200,000 people has uncovered dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal further a person’s risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer, scientists reported Wednesday. It’s the latest mega-collaboration to learn more about the intricate mechanisms that lead to cancer. And while the headway seems significant in many ways, the potential payoff for ordinary people is mostly this: Someday there may be genetic tests that help identify women with...
Simple dandruff or Pityriasis is a dry scalp problem that can, believe it or not, be controlled with a healthy diet, cleansing, and brushing. 50 million people in the U.S. alone have dandruff and $300 million is spent on products to control it. Some of these commercial dandruff products are harmful as they contain cola tar and selenium sulfide. This chemical has been shown to reduce the production of skin tissue, and has been linked to hair loss as it dries hair out, and causes nerve damage. Seborrheic dandruff is a more severe condition that a...
SCOTTSBLUFF – Regional West Health Services recently announced the upcoming closure of its Restorative Care Unit (RCU). The unit, which opened 26 years ago to provide short-term skilled nursing, is closing due to declining usage and the need for major renovations to comply with new skilled nursing regulations. The last patients will be admitted to the RCU on March 30 and the unit will officially close on April 15, 2013. Hospital President and CEO Todd Sorensen, MD, MS, expressed regret that the decision had to be made. “For the past sev...
Your diet during a health crisis could be the determining factor for recovery time, and your recuperation level. Knowing the benefits of certain foods is a very important educational piece of information when facing a health crisis. Everything from a common virus causing a cold, to cancer, can be affected by the foods you eat. Environmental elements are certainly a factor, along with your emotional state, but the foods you eat may bring a greater emphasis to your recovery than most realize. Fresh fruits and vegetables, work with your body’s own...
NEW YORK (AP) — Despite Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bullishness, political realities and legal questions make for an uncertain future for one of the premier pieces of his legacy: a now-blocked ban on supersized sugary drinks. The city lost no time Tuesday getting started on the next round of the fight after a judge nixed the first-of-its-kind regulation. Bloomberg called the strongly worded court ruling a “temporary setback” and emphasizing that the city is confident about winning an appeal. He predicted that in the meantime, the novel regulat...
SCOTTSBLUFF – Regional West Physicians Clinic-Orthopaedics’ new surgeon, Eric Gardner, MD, may have a remedy for patients suffering from focal cartilage defects of the knee. During fellowship training at Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center, Dr. Gardner learned to perform cartilage restoration from his mentor, internationally-renowned knee surgeon and orthopaedic sports medicine specialist, Frank Noyes, MD. Dr. Gardner is now performing the procedure on select patients who have non-arthritic cartilage injuries in the knee. The tre...
As the 21st millennium begins, over 60 million Americans suffer from allergies. That’s roughly 20 percent of the population! That means 35 to 50 million Americans suffer from respiratory allergies, and the rest of the statistics have a great many categories. Changing seasons may promote allergic reactions, as our environments change due to Mother Nature. Defined as an inappropriate response to substances, that normally aren’t harmful, Allergies can most certainly wreak havoc on one’s schedule. Truly harmful substances like environmental polluta...
CHICAGO (AP) — Want to know your chances of dying in the next 10 years? Here are some bad signs: getting winded walking several blocks, smoking, and having trouble pushing a chair across the room. That’s according to a “mortality index” developed by San Francisco researchers for people older than 50. The test scores may satisfy people’s morbid curiosity, but the researchers say their 12-item index is mostly for use by doctors. It can help them decide whether costly health screenings or medical procedures are worth the risk for patients...
A spring cleanse is a breath of fresh air for your body after a long winter. It is important for vitality and rejuvenation after winter. Even with regular exercise through out winter, many people will feel energy low during the cold, dark months of winter. Our bodies still reflect the ancient seasonal need to harbor more fat during winter for survival. Many may experience mild depressions, with the shorter days, and having to stay inside, thus not being in the sun much. Our metabolism slows, as...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wal-Mart is putting special labels on some store-brand products to help shoppers quickly spot healthier items. Millions of schoolchildren are helping themselves to vegetables from salad bars in their lunchrooms, while kids’ meals at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and a glass of low-fat milk. The changes put in place by the food industry are in response to the campaign against childhood obesity that Michelle Obama began waging three years ago. More changes are in...
CHICAGO (AP) — Take a walk through a human brain? Fly over the surface of Mars? Computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world where a researcher wearing 3-D glasses can do all that and more. In the system, known as CAVE2, an 8-foot-high screen encircles the viewer 320 degrees. A panorama of images springs from 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels, conveying a dizzying sense of being able to t...
A chronic sinus infection is a daily energy drain. They can be very serious, as they can spread to your eyes, and your brain becoming life threatening. They can permeate through a bad tooth and cause you to lose the tooth. Getting rid of an infection is imperative! Your sinuses are thin, air-filled chambers in the cartilage around your nose, sides of your forehead, your eye sockets, and in your cheekbones. If your sinus openings are blocked, infected pus collects in these pockets then pain and swelling occur. Sinusitis is swelling of the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting the problem of fake drugs will require putting medications through a chain of custody like U.S. courts require for evidence in a trial, the Institute of Medicine reported Wednesday. The call for a national drug tracking system comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration warned doctors, for the third time in about a year, that it discovered a counterfeit batch of the cancer drug Avastin that lacked the real tumor-killing ingredient. Fake and substandard drugs have become an increasing concern as U.S. p...
Your brain makes up less than 3 percent of your body weight yet, uses over 25 percent of your oxygen, more than 25 percent of its glucose and 20 percent of your blood supply. With tens of billions of neurons, and more than 100 billion cells, your brain is a million times more powerful than any computer! It has been said that our brain cells do not regenerate, so once gone that’s it! New research however is proving we do produce new brain cells well into adulthood! Good news! The bad news..stress hormones stunt new brain cell development. Seroto...
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Scott Walker says he will propose increasing funding for mental health services across Wisconsin by $30 million. Walker told the annual meeting of the Wisconsin Counties Association on Wednesday that he’s been looking into the state’s mental health needs, but the effort took on added urgency following mass shootings in the state and across the country. Walker will propose the funding in his two-year state budget to be introduced on Feb. 20. He says the money will go into expanding services statewide that curre...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Student athletes need access to health care professionals, better-trained coaches and up-to-date equipment, a coalition of groups recommended Wednesday in a call to action aimed at protecting the nearly 8 million students participating in high school sports each year. The Youth Sports Safety Alliance of more than 100 groups released the proposed rules, which call for health providers such as athletic trainers or doctors available for every school, warnings about performance-enhancing substances for athletes and the creation of...
Getting your child involved in sports is an excellent way to encourage exercise and prevent childhood obesity. To determine what your child will enjoy participating in, help him / her decide by accompanying the child to different games and a variety of sports. The more sports and environments the child is made aware of, the higher the probability that the child will be able to pick a sport and enjoy it. It is important to make sure that the child’s sporting activity is age appropriate. In general, toddlers (aged 2-5) are too young to c...
In the last decade lung and respiratory diseases of all kinds have increased dramatically. Environmental, air, and water, pollutants seem to have reached the overload point on our general population, so congestion is more common than breathing free. During high risk seasons, studies show that over a third of all Americans have congestive colds every two or three weeks. Cold symptoms have been shown to frequently be your body’s attempt to cleanse itself of waste and toxins that have built up to the point where natural immunities can’t beat the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — International scientists who last year halted controversial research with the deadly bird flu say they are resuming their work as countries adopt new rules to ensure safety. The outcry erupted when two labs — in the Netherlands and the U.S. — reported they had created easier-to-spread versions of bird flu. Amid fierce debate about the oversight of such research and whether it might aid terrorists, those scientists voluntarily halted further work last January — and more than three dozen of the world’s leading flu researche...
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A new government survey suggests the number of people seeking emergency treatment after consuming energy drinks has doubled nationwide during the past four years, the same period in which the supercharged drink industry has surged in popularity in convenience stores, bars and on college campuses. From 2007 to 2011, the government estimates the number of emergency room visits involving the neon-labeled beverages shot up from about 10,000 to more than 20,000. Most of those cases involved teens or young adults, according to a...
Stress causes weight problems, low energy, depression, decreased immunity, and the list goes on and on. Over 20 million Americans suffer from health problems related to chronic stress. Ninety-five percent of the visits to health care professionals are stress-related. Everyone is affected by stress in one way or another. So, what are we to do? A very simple ways to relieve stress is deep breathing. It activates the relaxation centers of our brain, and reduces stress. It creates mental clarity, increased energy, and increases oxygen absorption. W...
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The early start to flu season that’s sweeping the country hasn’t spared Louisiana and Mississippi. While the outlook for the rest of the season isn’t clear, experts are encouraging people to take precautions such as getting a flu shot and making it a practice to wash hands often to prevent the spread of germs. Both states are among 29 reporting high levels of flu-like illness. Although 18 children nationwide have died from the flu since early October, none was in Mississippi or Louisiana. State epidemiologists in Louisia...
As many of you may be considering resolutions for the New Year I thought it might be a good time to advocate for better mental health! Research the following idea’s and chose the best options for your own mental health. As stated in my previous article there are some very real things you can do to help yourself. Chronic issues though may need other interventions such as counseling or medication, so be alert to this! Let’s start with depression. We live in a land locked area which has a very dry climate. This means we need extra sup...
It’s the New Year, and it’s also time for a flurry of resolutions. You’re probably thinking about how you can become healthier, be more pain-free, and move better than you do right now. Great thought! To help you along, here are 15 tips to improve your health this year: • A gradual, personalized exercise program that takes into account your anatomy and physiology is important. Your physical therapist can conduct an evaluation and assist with this. • Make yourself accountable to someone other than yourself. Log your exercises (either at home o...
Fruit and vegetable growers, both large and small, are becoming increasingly aware of the food safety issues related to field-grown produce, and the importance of food safety to consumers. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law in 2011, enhances the traceability of fresh produce grown in the United States, and creates greater responsibility for food safety to producers. The bill requires producers to evaluate hazards to their products, take steps to prevent contamination and to develop written food safety plans. The University...
