About 57 million people, or nearly 1 in 5 Americans, likely had H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, between April 2009 and January 2010, the federal Centers for Disease Control said last week. Flu cases are in a bit of a lull right now, the CDC says on its website. But most cases seen continue to be the H1N1 variety.

About 11,700 deaths are suspected to be attributable to H1N1, the CDC. That’s fewer than than the 35,000 who die from flu in a typical year, the Los Angeles Times reported. But since swine flu tends to affect a younger population than a normal flu season, deaths among younger people have been higher than usual. Read the full story

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

As a lifelong athlete now past the 50 mark, the aches and pains that follow my Sunday morning pickup soccer games are a constant reminder of the limitations that come with aging. As I try to keep up with teens and twenty-somethings on the field, my brain remembers what I once could do; my body can’t do it it any longer. Pass the ibuprofen, please.

Some men think there’s another answer: hormones. The Sunday, Jan. 17, New York Times Magazine, has an article about a Sunday morning soccer player about my age – 51-year-old John Bellizzi – who uses vitamins and hormone injections to stay in the game. But, there are risks, the magazine notes. Read the full story

The World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the swine flu, or H1N1 virus, may be easing in the northern hemisphere, though it remains a threat. Read the full story

The H1N1 or swine flu virus has swept across the nation, but it has turned out to be one of the milder pandemics in recent history. Luck has played a part, the New York Times reports, but medical experts also say that a series of rapid but conservative decisions by federal officials worked out better than many had dared hope. “We did a lot of things right,” Dr. Andrew T. Pavia, chairman of the pandemic flu task force of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told the Times. Read the full story

SOURCE: Lake Norman Regional Medical Center
MOORESVILLE - Lake Norman Regional Medical Center will hold a free educational seminar “Boost Your Weight Loss: Is Surgical Weight Loss Right for You?” on Thursday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m., at the Statesville Civic Center, 300 South Center Street, in Statesville. Read the full story

SOURCE: Neil’s Compounding Pharmacy. Neil’s is a DavidsonNews.net advertiser.

Compounding provides a way for physicians and compounding pharmacists to customize prescriptions for their patients.

For example, compounding can be used to deliver children’s medication in the form of a skin cream or lollipop, or provide medications no longer commercially available or not available in the required dosage. For those patients who have a hard time swallowing a capsule, a compounding pharmacist can make a liquid suspension instead, or combine multiple medications into a single convenient dosage for hospice patients.

Compounding provides solutions not easily met by commercial products.
Compounding pharmacists also have helped patients who are experiencing chronic pain. For example, some arthritic patients cannot take certain medications due to gastrointestinal side effects. Working with their physician’s prescription, a compounding pharmacist can provide them with a topical preparation with the anti-inflammatory or analgesic their doctor has prescribed for them. Read the full story

National Institutes of Health press release

Women who maintain a healthy weight and who have lower perceived stress may be less likely to have chromosome changes associated with aging than obese and stressed women, according to a pilot study that was part of the Sister Study. The long-term Sister Study is looking at the environmental and genetic characteristics of women whose sisters had breast cancer to identify factors associated with developing breast cancer. This early pilot used baseline questionnaires and samples provided by participants when they joined the Sister Study.

Two recent papers published in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention show that factors such as obesity and perceived stress may accelerate the aging process.

“Together these two studies reinforce the need to start a healthy lifestyle early and maintain it,” said Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health. The researchers who published these papers are from the NIEHS which sponsors the Sister Study.

Read more on the National Institutes of Health website, CLICK HERE>

Scientists study possible cure for peanut allergies: small doses

Researchers at Duke University and Arkansas Children’s Hospital have found a potential breakthrough in the search for treating children with peanut allergies: Giving children small but increasing daily doses of peanuts. The study of the potential treatment is still in the early stages. READ MORE>

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

KANNAPOLIS – Billionaire developer David Murdock has given Duke University $35 million to begin a long-term study of human health, nutrition and disease. The long-term research project will be based at the North Carolina Research campus in Kannapolis, which Mr. Murdock is helping to develop. Read the full story