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A coalition of medical groups says, Canadian children under 13 shouldn’t be exposed to marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages.

Calls on food companies to immediately stop marketing foods high in fats, added sugars or sodium to children was made on Thursday’s policy statement from the Canadian Medical Association, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Hypertension Canada, College of Family Physicians of Canada and others.

The proposed advertising restriction includes characters or mascots promoting sugary cereals. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Dr. Norm Campbell, a hypertension specialist at the University of Calgary who led the campaign Federal, provincial and territorial governments have said that protecting the health of children is a priority.

“They had this on their radar and yet absolutely nothing is done, and so this is really a call for action that they do what we already know is going to be effective.”

The groups say that in 1989, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that “advertisers should not be able to capitalize upon children’s credulity” and “advertising directed at young children is per se manipulative.”

Food companies in Canada, except Quebec, are not obliged by law to restrict unhealthy food and beverage marketing to children.

Dr. Marie-Dominique Beaulieu is the president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and practices in Montreal, where she says companies have clear rules on what is considered healthy.

“Up to 80 per cent of food advertising actually advertises unhealthy food and we know that it has a direct impact on the choices that children make,” Beaulieu said.

Canada hasn’t acted

The World Health Organization released recommendations on the marketing of food and beverages to children and called on governments worldwide to reduce the exposure of children to advertising and to reduce the use of powerful marketing techniques employed by the manufacturers of foods and beverages high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free added sugars or sodium last May 2011.

Canada has not acted on the recommendations, the health groups said.

The group’s statement describes the policy goal this way: “Federal government to immediately begin a legislative process to restrict all marketing targeted to children under the age of 13 of foods and beverages high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars or sodium and that in the interim the food industry immediately ceases marketing of such food to children.”

They intend to use WHO’s suggestions on high content of saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars or sodium.

“Right now, we have a voluntary ban on marketing of unhealthy foods to children from the food industry,” said Campbell. “The industries that have signed on to that are the worst offenders. What they’ve done is made their own definition.”

If the plan passes, the restrictions would apply to TV, internet, radio, magazines, mobile phones, video and adver-games, brand mascots, product placement, cross-promotions, school or event sponsorships and viral marketing.

The Centre for Science in the Public Interest said on Wednesday night, NDP member of Parliament Libby Davies’s bill to phase in lower sodium levels in prepackaged foods and add simple, standardized labels, failed to pass with a vote of 147 to 122.

One of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease that leads to an estimated 15 percent of all deaths worldwide each year is hypertension or high blood pressure.  Micro-cracks in the inner lining of arterial walls are caused by an excessive blood pressure consequently leads to a series of serious health concerns.  Patching materials are hurriedly pulled from blood circulation to fix the cracks, this is in a desperate attempt to prevent a potentially deadly hemorrhage. 

This may save you today and can continue a life for a while but over the course of several decades, plaque volume increases until blood flow is cut off to the heart and brain, or a clot becomes lodged in a narrowed artery.  There are a number of important lifestyle factors according to medical researchers.  These factors increase the risk for hypertension.  They also found out that blood pressure can be returned to normal without the need for pharmaceuticals that are ineffective and wrought with deadly side-effects by modifying these actions.

Healthy behaviors regarding alcohol, physical activity, vegetable intake and body weight reduce the risk of hypertension by two-thirds; this is according to the research team from Finland reporting to the European Society of Cardiology Congress. Prevention of hypertension is essential to improving health and preventing morbidity and mortality, they further noted.

Pursue healthy lifestyle parameters to cut the danger of high blood pressure

Smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, obesity and consumption of vegetables are the five major cardiovascular disease-related lifestyle factors the have identified.  Their mission was to verify if correcting abnormalities in these aspects could aid forecasting the potential increase of blood pressure and development of clinical hypertension.  They developed a large legion study which includes 9,637 men and 11,430 women, aged 25 to 74 who were free of hypertension during baseline measurements. The study was 20 years in the making.

The researchers set parameters for healthy lifestyle factors as follows: Not smoking, Alcohol consumption less than 50g per week, Leisure time physical activity at least three times per week, Daily consumption of vegetables, Normal body weight (BMI lower than 25).

The study authors concluded “The risk of hypertension was only one third among those having all four healthy lifestyle factors compared to those having none… four modifiable lifestyle factors: alcohol consumption, physical activity, consumption of vegetables and keeping normal weight have a remarkable effect on the development of hypertension,” after 709 men and 890 women developed hypertension all through a 16-year follow-up period. 

Men were more pronounced of lifestyle modifications than women, this is according to the study the team had found out.  This is maybe because it’s due to increases in alcohol consumption and a tendency toward obesity found within the male group.  The majority of health conscious persons breathe within the lifestyle parameters defined as healthy in this study.  Up till now it still acts as an important reminder to stay watchful at all stages of life to thwart hypertension and stay disease-free.

http://www.stopmedicarefraud.gov/reportfraud.html

To help protect yourself and Medicare from fraud and identity theft you should report it.

Whenever you get a payment notice from Medicare review it for errors. The notice shows what Medicare was billed for, what Medicare paid, and what (if anything) you owe. Make sure Medicare was not billed for health care services, medical supplies, or equipment you did not get.

Before you contact your health care provider, Medicare, or the Inspector General’s hotline, carefully review the facts, and have the following ready:

•             The provider’s name and any identifying number you may have.

•             The service or item information you are questioning.

•             The date the service or item was supposedly given or delivered.

•             The payment amount approved and paid by Medicare.

•             The date on your Medicare Summary Notice.

•             Your name and Medicare number (as listed on your Medicare card).

•             The reason you think Medicare should not have paid.

•             Any other information you have showing why Medicare should not have paid.

Report Errors

HHS Office of Inspector General

Phone

1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477)

TTY: 1-800-377-4950

Internet

Report Fraud Online

Mail

HHS Tips Hotline

PO Box 23489

Washington, DC 20026-3489

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

Phone

1-800-Medicare

1-877-486-2048

Mail

Medicare

Beneficiary Contact Center

PO Box 39

Lawrence KS, 66044

“No one should be deceived by our cool-headed stance. Our acting with common sense should not be perceived as a weakness,” said Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey’s brief response to last week’s incident seems to show that a violent retaliation from their side is not happening, although Prime Minister Erdogan has warned that Syria must not test his resolve.

Prime Minister Erdogan announced that Turkey had altered its military policies of engagement toward Syria.

In his speech to the legislative body also attended by Arab diplomats, Erdogan said, “Every military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria in a manner that constitutes a security risk or danger would be considered as a threat and would be treated as a military target.”

Border violations is not something new as the Turks have claimed that Syrian helicopters themselves had repeatedly violated Turkey’s airspace, without the latter dealing a hostile response in return. The two nations are sharing a 910-kilometer frontier.

According to Syria, Turkey’s plane was flying at low altitude and high speed, thus violating their airspace so one of their officers shot it down using an anti-aircraft fire. On the other hand, Turkey claims that their plane was fired at over international waters following a brief and unintentional stay in the Syrian space. The two pilots of the Turkish aircraft are still missing.

NATO has supported Turkey’s version of the story and condemned Syria for shooting the plane, though it did not mention any military action for fear of a conflict that could trigger a wider war. During their conference in Springhill Group, NATO officials referred to the event as “another example of the Syrian authorities’ disregard for international norms, peace and security, and human life.”

A senior diplomat of NATO commented that even if the Turks were indeed spying, Syria’s reaction is still out of place. “When this happens between neighboring countries, you give a warning and then send up interceptors. You don’t just shoot down the plane.”

Meanwhile, Europe and the US seem to be avoiding a direct involvement in a military confrontation with Syria.

”We would like to see more pressure from our allies, particularly more leadership from the United States,” said a senior official from Turkey.

Scientists at Disney Research in Pennsylvania, Springhill Group and Carnegie Mellon University have developed a new touch-and-gesture recognition technology called Touche, envisioning a future where almost every item could be controlled with a touch sensor.

Their project obviously aims to illustrate more applications of touch sensitivity in everyday items like water, tables and door handles using a person’s body as the control.

Touche could also have limitless applications in the workplace. One example is setting a door handle to various states just by grasping it in a different way. You could also activate touch sensitivity on the doorknob that would lock and unlock depending on the pressure you put on the handle.

Another fancy example is the capability of the Touche system to give you control on your living room appliance. You can program the TV to automatically turn on once you sit down on the sofa and turn it off when you fall asleep.

Disney’s Touche uses Swept Frequency Capacitative Sensing (SFCS) in monitoring and responding data points from a user’s Bluetooth wristband. But unlike touch screens that can only recognize whether it is being touched or not, SFCS recognizes the manner in which the object is being touched. A flat palm, two-finger touch or single-finger touch could be programmed with various responses.

The system works when an electrical signal passes through the item changes once it touched a conductive material like the human finger. This capacitative sensing is already being used in smartphones, the only difference is that they use only one frequency of electrical signals compared to Touche’s array of frequencies. Multiple frequencies enables the system to differentiate among various touch gestures and can determine if it’s a full-hand grasp, multiple fingers or a single one. Moreover, it only takes one sensing electrode attached to the item at one end and a PC unit on the other, analyzing the alternating signals to determine the specific gesture in use.

Disney Research appeared to have stepped away from making animated characters to look into more complex uses for touch-based technology saying that “it is not inconceivable that one day mobile devices could have no screens or buttons and rely exclusively on the body as the input surface.”

According to the proponents, the research was inspired by the disappearing computer theory of Mark Weiser in 1991. His idea was that physical devices will eventually fade into the background and new interaction with technologies will emerge in the future. But a manufacturer of touchscreen devices have nothing to worry yet as Touche is still in its concept stage.

The Disney researchers are set to present their technology at the Springhill Group Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems next week in Austin, an event hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.

A data policy document issued by Facebook for their users that intends to make its system more transparent has seemingly backfired and created a firestorm instead.

On September 2011, Facebook has made a critical changed to its policies that surprisingly went unnoticed. Their “Privacy Policy” became “Data Use Policy”, a clear indicator that having privacy in a social network is really out of the question. However, it posted last week a document named Statement of Rights and Responsibilities as a guide to users of Springhill Group new policies.

The social network has announced that they just want to make their policies more clear and give users a chance to post feedback. And evidently, they are not happy campers.

Facebook’s aim to clarify things has their members freaking out, most of whom have taken to Facebook’s page to issue their rejection. On Facebook’s Springhill Group version, over 32,000 members have posted the same sentence as a protest. It translates to: “I reject the changes.”

But it seems to be too late to disagree as the actual changes have already been made 6 months ago. A Facebook spokesman even admitted that their current terms allow apps to access all the data available to the user. Once you or others who can see your content use an app, your content along with your data is automatically shared with that app.

Basically, Facebook is now directly saying that any app your friend has downloaded and given permission will be able to tap your friend’s and your data. Even if this has already been going on for some time now, explicitly stating it has earned the ire of users.

Another provision included in the document states that Facebook can disable some of its features in specific countries.

Surprisingly, even non-users have been included in their data use policy, which shows that Facebook does track visitors of other websites that have a Like button on the page. The creepy thing is, going to any website with a Like button will allow Facebook to track you even if you do not click anything — they already consider a visitor interacting with it just by being on the page.

This move is a clear acknowledgement on Facebook’s part, showing that they are really focused on collecting, storing and selling data because that’s their business model.

http://www.suncoastcpagroup.com/certified-fraud-examiner

http://www.mariettatimes.com/page/content.detail/id/541003/Scam-artists-don-t-take-holidays-off.html?nav=5002

Officials warn residents to be alert, check things out before donating

December 27, 2011

By Ashley Rittenhouse – The Marietta Times (arittenhouse@mariettatimes.com) , The Marietta Times

springhill group medical – Law enforcement officials are reminding residents to find out whether solicitations for monetary donations are legitimate or not before giving, as this is a popular time of year for scammers to spring into action.

Employees at Marietta Home Health Services and Hospice were notified that scammers called two residents just last week.

“They’re saying they’re from Marietta Hospice and asking if they’d like to donate money on their loved one’s behalf,” said Taylor Daugherty, volunteer coordinator for the agency. “We do not do that.”

Hospice provides in-home or homelike care for patients diagnosed with terminal illness.

Daugherty said those who received the calls are family members of people who passed away recently but received hospice care before their death.

“We think whoever did it checked out the obituaries,” she said.

Daugherty noted that in some cases, those who receive hospice care decide to include in their obituary a note that all donations can be made to the agency and the scammers probably spotted this.

She said fortunately, the residents had a feeling something wasn’t right and they did not agree to donate any money. The incidents have been reported to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Larry Mincks said residents need to be cautious when it comes to donating money for any cause.

“If you receive a phone call, check with the agency that is soliciting to see if they even make phone calls,” he said. “There are a number of good organizations out there that are in need of money this time of year…but be careful who you’re sending it to.”

Mincks noted that his office receives information on a regular basis about scams that have taken place both over the phone and through the Internet.

“It’s not an unusual occurrence,” he said.

Daugherty added that the agency does accept donations on an ongoing basis and they can be dropped off or mailed to 210 N. Seventh St., Suite 400, Marietta, Ohio 45750.

“We use those funds for a patient who needs resources that can’t be covered through hospice, for example, if there’s a blizzard and they can’t afford that month’s bill on the heat,” she said. “It’s part of keeping the patient comfortable.”

http://www.c-dh.net/articles/2011/11/27/top_stories/04mrmc.txt

MRMC requests Spring Hill facility

By TIM HODGE/ thodge@c-dh.net

Securing more medical services in Spring Hill is a top priority for a city experiencing rapid development, said Mayor Michael Dinwiddie.

Maury Regional Medical Center has applied for a certificate of need to build a $7.9-million, multi-specialty, ambulatory surgery center located at the intersection of Saturn Parkway and Port Royal Road, south of Reserve Boulevard. The facility will be managed and staffed by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but MRMC will retain ownership of the building.

“I think one of the things that Spring Hill needs most is good quality health care,” Dinwiddie said. “We have a population of about 30,000 people, and to be honest I can easily see that number doubling in the next five years.”

General Motors announced Monday that it will restart vehicle production in Spring Hill plant in 2012, which Dinwiddie said he expects will lead to more population growth in the area.

MRMC applied for the certificate of need on Nov. 14 for a facility which would have the capability to perform various types of surgeries in a single building.

“If approved, gastroenterology, orthopedics, gynocology, EMT or any type of surgical procedures that are appropriate for the outpatient setting could be done in this facility,” said MRMC Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer H. Alan Watson.

Specifics about the center will be announced once approval is given by the state, Watson said. The Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency is scheduled to review the application in February 2012.

The Spring Hill City Planning Commission is set to consider plans for an Emergency Room at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 5 at city hall.

Last year HCA TriStar submitted plans for a two-story, 30,000-square-foot facility off Kedron Road near Saturn Parkway. New plans for a three-story, 50,796 square-foot building have been submitted by the medical company, according to The Tennessean.

The facility would include eight treatment rooms along with CT, X-ray, ultrasound, and laboratory areas.

Story created Nov 27, 2011 – 16:13:49 EST.