Teens Living in "Junk Food Wastelands"

Nutrition: Nearly 75 percent of California teenagers live and attend schools in neighborhoods where nearby junk food is plentiful but healthy food options are few, according to a new study by University of California-Los Angeles researchers examined by Joanna Lin for CaliforniaWatch.

National Debt: How might the health care industry be affected by the feared default on the U.S. national debt and the resulting end of Medicaid and Medicare payments? First "a pinch, then pain," Kaiser Health News reports.

Medical Devices: As the respected Institute of Medicine calls for more regulation of medical devices in a new report, the industry that makes them has already launched a public relations offensive to cast doubt on the report.

Stroke: An alarmingly high spike in the number of strokes in new moms and pregnant women  deeply concerns public health officials. A new report shows that strokes rose 47 percent for expectant mothers and 83 percent for women who had recently given birth between 1994-1995 and 2006-2007, although the overall numbers of women who suffer these strokes are small.

Addiction: На здоровье (Cheers)!  The Russian government officially rules that beer is an alcoholic beverage with stricter regulations that might stem the country's ever-rising rates of alcoholism. Previously it was classified as food.

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Photo credit: MC Quinn via Flickr