A new government survey indicates that the number of American households who have decided to get rid of the once-ubiquitous land-lane phone has hit another high: One in 4 households has a cell phone but no traditional landlines, a trend led by the young and the poor that is showing no sign of abating. The [...]

A new CDC study suggests that Americans may have reached the limits of human obesity. Americans, at least as a group, may have reached their peak of obesity, according to data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday. The numbers indicate that obesity rates have remained constant for at least five years among [...]

President Obama has declared that the swine flu, which is much less prevalent and deadly than the ordinary influenza virus, is an “epidemic” and a “national emergency.”  Silly as it sounds, it was the right call. President Obama has declared H1N1 swine flu a national emergency, clearing the way for his health chief to give [...]

Via Jason Kottke, I see the first plausible explanation for the otherwise odd fact that seniors, who are typically among the most susceptible to death from flu, are strangely immune to the “swine flu” epidemic. Confirming the first impressions of many American and Mexican doctors, federal health officials said on Wednesday that people born before [...]

CNN Breaking News: “23-month-old Texas child confirmed as first U.S. swine flu death, according to Richard Besser, acting director, CDC.” [UPDATE:  CNN now reports that, while this is the first death in the U.S., the child was a Mexican citizen brought to Houston for treatment, said Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Department of [...]

The Army is shutting down its entire recruiting operation in the wake of four suicides, Army Times reports. Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a stand-down of the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of the job is underway in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four suicides in [...]

There’s an obesity epidemic in Iraq that’s been fueled by the war, Tina Susman reports for the LAT. For most of the last five years, sectarian violence has drastically altered Iraqis’ lifestyles. Most retreated to the safety of their homes and became increasingly sedentary, rarely venturing out of their neighborhoods. To go out was to [...]

Stuart Buck notes that the 130 hospitalizations that resulted from the 943 reported cases of salmonella poisoning caused $100 million in losses to the U.S. tomato industry (and untold damage to the industry in Mexico). He calculates this at $770,000 per hospitalization and asks, simply, “Worth it?” Before you answer, you might want to factor [...]

Unless you sleep exactly the right amount, you are doomed, a new government study finds. People who sleep fewer than six hours a night — or more than nine — are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep [...]

A group of medical experts recommends calling obese kids “obese” even if it hurts their feelings. Doctors ought to quit using fuzzy terms to define children’s weight problems and instead refer to truly fat kids as overweight or obese, a committee of medical experts recommended. Less blunt terms used by the government and many doctors [...]

Via the AP: Peanut butter salmonella cases top 600 The number of people sickened since August by peanut butter tainted with salmonella has grown by more than 200, according to a new federal report. The outbreak, first reported in February, now includes 628 cases in 47 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said [...]

Don’t eat bagged spinach. Consumers nationwide should not eat fresh bagged spinach, say health officials probing a multistate outbreak of E. coli that killed at least one person and made dozens of others sick. Food and Drug Administration and state officials don’t know the cause of the outbreak, although raw, packaged spinach appears likely. “We’re [...]

Erick Erickson has a post at Redstate entitled, “Tramm Hudson Destroys Himself.” Hudson, is “the current front runner in the GOP primary in FL-13, the Congressional District being vacated by Katherine Harris.” The post includes a video of Hudson casually talking to an audience about how he learned growing up in Alabama that blacks can’t [...]

Well if you are a high school age boy you probably already know what Cathy Young has written. Are some kids having sex too soon, and with too many partners, for their own emotional and physical well-being? Almost certainly. But the majority do not inhabit the sexual jungle of worried adults’ imaginations. The teenage fellatio [...]

A new set of CDC guidelines suggests that all women of child bearing age be considered potentially pregnant. New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves — and to be treated by the health care system — as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon. [...]