Community Blood Center of the Carolinas has listed its public blood drives for this month in the Lake Norman area. Read the full story

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Toxic chemicals in the air, water and even in our food are exposing Americans to “grievous harm,” the a presidential cancer advisory panel said Thursday. The group said in a report released Thursday that the problem is underestimated and the government isn’t doing enough to address it.

The advisory group noted in its report that although overall cancer cases and deaths have declined, cancer remains a major health problem. In 2009, the report says, approximately 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease.

The report says we need to pay more attention to the environmental factors that contribute to the disease.

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Senior center offers a free program to help seniors manage their concerns about falls

“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Comedians and entertainers have poked fun at that statement many times, but the truth is the fear of falling is a major and legitimate concern to senior citizens and their families.

To address this, the North Mecklenburg Senior Center is hosting a free 16-hour class in May titled “A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls.” Director Joanne Ahern says that the award-winning, evidence-based program, developed at Boston University, is designed to reduce the fear of falling and increase the activity levels of older adults who have concerns about falls. Read the full story

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People who play “brain-training” computer games might as well be playing “Mario Kart,” a recent study suggests. The journal Nature reports this week that a six-week study of people who played online “brain” games showed no gain in intelligence.

“There were absolutely no transfer effects” from the training tasks to more general tests of cognition, said Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the Read the full story

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