Recent studies by Dr. Geetha Raghuveer at the University of Missouri at Kansas City have shown that the arteries of many obese children and teenagers are as thick and stiff as those of 45-year-olds. Said Raghuveer, “It’s possible that they will have heart disease in their 20s and 30s. While experts did not find the results surprising, they did view it as “alarming.”
****LA Times****Google.org, Google’s philanthropic unit, may now be able to predict flu outbreaks up to 10 days before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can. Google Flu Trends tracks how many people are entering phrases like “flu symptoms” and where those people are. Some public health experts say the Google data could help accelerate the response of doctors, hospitals and public health officials to particularly nasty flu seasons.
****The New York Times**** Online
WASHINGTON — The government has abandoned the original centerpiece of its $700 billion rescue effort for the financial system and will not use the money to purchase troubled bank assets. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday that the administration will continue to use $250 billion of the program to purchase stock in banks as a way to bolster their balance sheets and encourage them to resume more normal lending, but that the administration decided that using billions of dollars to buy troubled assets of financial institutions at the current time was “not the most effective way” to use the $700 billion bailout package.
****USA Today**** Online