The American Association of Health Plans is taking a tiny step toward reversing years of insurance-industry resistance to paying for experimental treatments. The managed-care industry's trade group will recommend that its members help pay the costs of some clinical trials. But don't expect your request to go unchallenged just yet. Its report is due in October. Your mother was right when she told you to eat your spinach.
Antioxidants disarm toxic molecules that can lead to age-related illnesses.
While this is the first time the antioxidant potential in foods has been quantified, the scores do not necessarily mean the nutrients will be absorbed into the bloodstream, notes John Allred, professor of nutrition at Ohio State University. But in one test, patients who doubled their fruit and vegetable servings boosted the antioxidant capability in their blood by 13 percent to 15 percent. Researchers now hope to pin down the connection between foods high in antioxidant capacity and better health in old age. More than 8 out of 10 child-safety car seats are used improperly. That's the shocking news from the National Safe Kids Campaign's study of the restraints of 17,500 children.