Health

Diabetes has been called “the chronic epidemic of the millennium.” Our panel looks at why this is so, changes in management of this disease, and promising research in the field.

GUESTS:

A growing number of Americans are doing their jobs outside the usual confines of the office. And that includes doctors – the multi-billion dollar telemedicine industry is opening up new avenues for patients and for providers in New Hampshire.

Like many kids with autism, Hunter Picknell has trouble expressing himself.

“His primary form of communication is sign language, but there’s certain things he can’t do with his hands and fingers because of his motor-planning issues,” says Melissa Hilton, Hunter’s mother.

“He makes kind of his own sign language, which is very idiosyncratic. We often joke around and say it is sign language with an accent.”

Starting in the 1980s, public health experts began sounding the alarm: Americans were getting way too heavy.  And of special concern: children, and the particular impact of obesity on them: increased risk for both short and long term ailments such as heart disease, type two diabetes, and a host of social and psychological problems.  Today, it’s been 30 years, and childhood obesity rates have doubled since those first warnings, with doctors saying this problem early in life also closely predicts whether a child will have a healthy weight into adulthood, and a five times greater chance of bei

About a decade ago, Marion Nestle made waves when she published her groundbreaking book “Food Politics,” now considered by many to be one of the founding documents of the movement to reform the American food system.   In it, Nestle criticized the high quality, low quantity eating habits encouraged by the food industry and how many lawmakers in Washington have been influenced by the deep pockets of big agriculture and big food.

Any insurance plan sold in the online exchange would first face a public hearing under a bill before State Senators. The measure comes in reaction to Anthem’s decision to cut out 10 of the state's 26 hospitals for plans sold on the new marketplace, a move many lawmakers and consumers say they were blindsided by.

The company defends the decision, saying it helped lower costs by 25%.

Bringing a child into a world means making a lot of decisions – getting the baby’s room ready, taking childbirth classes, and, of course, picking a name.

With so much going on, one very important decision often falls off the radar: finding the right pediatrician.

Reporter Michael Brindley and his wife have been busy making all these decisions, with the birth of their daughter last month.

Chances are at least a few of us have once again vowed to eat healthy in the new year. And, chances are, those of us who have made that resolution will run into a big challenge: how do you eat healthy when you're eating out?

Susan Laughlin of New Hampshire Magazine has been pondering this very question, and she has some encouraging tips - mostly related to soup.

New Year’s Eve is a day of indulgence, the last chance to gorge on delicious treats and beverages before cleaning the slate. What’s on your menu tonight? Does it involve kale or Siracha, or a Cronut? According to our guest J.M. Hirsch, food editor at the Associated Press, those were among the hottest foods of 2013.

With the world’s population growing larger every year, demand for meat, dairy and eggs is on rise. Some worry that the global demand for animal products will soon outstrip our ability to produce them. But one San Francisco startup thinks it can change the way we shop by convincing the meat-loving population that its vegan products are not only cruelty-free and environmentally sound, but cheaper and tastier than the real thing.

Since Edward Jenner’s discovery of a smallpox vaccine in the 18th century, vaccinations have at times been controversial. Today, while vaccines have been proven to inoculate against a host of dangerous diseases, the debate continues. We’ll look at what underlies this debate today.

GUESTS:

 A new study from the Dartmouth Atlas Project finds many children in northern New England receive potentially unneeded medical care that could have harmful side effects.

Researchers compared data for a range of care across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine for children under age 18.

In 1984 Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act to address the nation’s critical organ donation shortage and improve the organ matching and placement process. The act made it illegal for anyone to give or acquire an organ for material gain. Now, almost three decades later, the act is making headlines again but this time in response to the push to rescind a ruling by the U.S. court of appeals for the ninth circuit. The court ruled that certain types of bone marrow donors could be compensated. Now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is attempting to overturn the decision, arguing that bone-marrow is subject to the 1984 act and as such, may not be compensated.

Dr. Sally Satel is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine; she examines mental health policy as well as political trends. She wrote the article “Why It’s Okay To Pay Bone-Marrow Donors” for Bloomberg.com.

In the new movie “Delivery Man,” Vince Vaughn discovers that his “donation” has been used hundreds of times without his knowledge. Far-fetched plot? Maybe not. The United States does not track sperm donations. We have no idea how many there are, how often they're donated, nor how many children are born from those donations. Rene Almeling is an assistant professor of sociology at Yale. She wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times about “The Unregulated Sperm Industry.”

We all know laughter can be contagious. But can it be a good workout?  A form of therapy?  Even a skill?  Many happy devotees think, yes. Inspired in part by the growing popularity of laughter yoga, filmmaker and journalist Albert Nerenberg hosted the first official laughing contest in Montreal back in 2011. He’s also the director of the 2009 documentary, Laughology.

You may be familiar with the ordeal of introducing children to broccoli and spinach.  Two new studies suggest that finicky eaters might have picked up their discriminating habit in the womb. Forget genetics, personal responsibility, and discipline. Your taste for junk food and soda may have a lot to do with how your mother satisfied her cravings.

Kristin Wartman, is a food, politics and health journalist. She recently wrote about the new science of food choices for the New York Times.

Star Trek's seemingly miraculous 'tricorder' is a device which can measure anything from a patient's vital signs to geological activity with the push of a button. Now, a company called Scanadu has developed a device called the 'Scout,' which they hope can be as useful for the health industry as tricorders were on the Enterprise. We talked with the company's co-founder to learn more. 

Although new cases of Hepatitis-C have drastically decreased in the United States since peaking in the 1980’s, the blood-borne disease which primarily attacks and destroys the liver, kills more Americans annually than AIDS.

Andrew Pollack covers business and biotechnology for the New York Times. We read his article “Hepatitis-C, a Silent Killer, Meets Its Match,” in which Pollack describes a new series of treatments about to enter the market that could effectively do the impossible: wipe out Hep C.