CORNELIUS – Pat Berch, owner of Lake Norman Nutrition, and Marianne Hendrix, 15-year Our Towns Habitat for Humanity volunteer, will team up in May to host a Weight Loss Challenge to raise money for the housing organization and help area residents start a health and wellness campaign.

The challenge is scheduled to run May 1-22. You can register online at www.ourtownshabitat.org. Entry fee is a $20 donation to Our Towns Habitat for Humanity. Read the full story

The MURDOCK Study aims to enroll 50,000 area residents for a long-term health study. (MURDOCK Study/N.C. Research Campus)

By JENNIFER MONTAGUE
DavidsonNews.net

KANNAPOLIS – So you think scientists and doctors are the only ones who make the exciting advances in medicine and disease treatments? Not so—you can play an important role, too, as subjects of the studies and trials that are a major component of medical research.

At the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, researchers are conducting one of the largest general population health studies in recent memory. The MURDOCK Study Community Registry, is a joint venture with David H. Murdock, who provided the name and the funding, and the Duke Translational Medicine Institute. MURDOCK is an abbreviation for Measurement to Understand the Reclassification of Disease of Cabarrus/Kannapolis. Its goal is to create a bank of medical information and tissue samples from 50,000 participants in this region. Researchers can then use this information to gain a better understanding of many different kinds of diseases. Read the full story

The Town of Davidson website has added its first blog – titled “Healthy Davidson.” Davidson Healthy Living and Wellness Supervisor Leslie Willis will be posting to the blog on “opportunities for healthy living around town and will encourage residents to get up, get moving and get involved in the community,” the town said in an announcement this week. Read the full story

Jan Riebe of Gateway Therapeutic Massage held a grand opening reception Thursday for her Gateway Therapeutic Massage. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

Health and wellness have long been important to Jan Riebe, but it wasn’t until four years ago that a career change gave her the chance to get hands-on. Six months ago she went out on her own, opening Gateway Therapeutic Massage on Davidson Gateway Drive.

“Health and well-being have always been my passions,” Ms. Riebe said Thursday, during a grand opening reception. Read the full story

Caitlyn Boyle

Charlottean Caitlin Boyle, editor of the “Operation Beautiful” campaign to end “fat talk” and promote positive body image, will speak Thursday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lilly Family Gallery of Davidson College Chambers Building.

The 27-year-old Ms. Boyle is the author of the book “Operation Beautiful: Transforming the Way You See Yourself One Post-it Note at a Time.” She is a longtime HealthyTippingPoint.com blogger about healthy lifestyle, and “Operation Beautiful” was launched from that blog in June 2009. Read the full story

Runners have a variety of theories about winter training, such as the idea that you burn more calories in cold weather or it’s easy to get dehydrated. Triathlete magazine interviewed John Castellani, a physiologist at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass., so help separate the truths from the lies.

LINK: “Does Winter Running Burn More Calories?”

Neti pots have become a popular remedy for colds and sinus congestion, but health officials are warning people to use them properly in the wake of recent deaths.  For some, the thought of rinsing one’s nose is enough of a deterrent from using a neti pot. But the problem is not the idea of washing your nose – it’s what kind of water you use. In two widely reported cases  last year people used tap water, instead of distilled or sterilized water and wound dying of of water-borne brain-eating amoeba. Read the full story

Scientists are debating the newsworthiness of a recent discovery that has the potential not to help, but to hurt. Researchers last July in the Netherlands created an airborne version of a dangerous flu virus- in essence “tweaking it genetically to make it more contagious,” according to the New York Times. Now, U.S. government advisers are urging that scientists keep the research private – so it can’t be used by terrorists or other bad guys.

LINK: Dec. 27, 2011, New York Times, “Science debate persists on deadly flu made airborne.”

To help, Davidson Parks & Rec starts a Walking Club

By LESLIE WILLIS

Many articles in health magazines feature celebrities and models who participate in yoga, jogging, or kickboxing. They make it appear as if people are doing nothing but exercising all day long.

Many newspaper articles have appeared, reporting on research about chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer along with one of the major underlying chronic conditions, physical inactivity. But the reality of today’s society and our health is often very different. Read the full story

Mosquitoes can carry West Nile virus and other illnesses.

It’s tick and mosquito season, and with that comes the threat of disease. A report on National Public Radio this week warned that budget problems have forced some states to trim funding for mosquito research and disease prevention.

Here in Mecklenburg County, health experts say there a many things we can do at home to prevent illnesses spread by mosquitoes or ticks. Read the full story