Exoskeleton rolled out to U.S. rehab centers
Engineer Thomas Dwyer stands with the new Bionic Exoskeleton next to Amanda Boxtel during its launch at the Excel Center on Oct. 21, 2011 in London, England. The bionic device developed by Ekso Bionics is a wearable, battery-powered robotic exoskeleton, designed to aid wheelchair users and those who have suffered from spinal chord injuries to stand and walk.
(Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)(CBS News) Patients with spinal cord and other mobility-inhibiting injuries have a new hope in the form of Ekso, a commercially-available prosthetic exoskeleton that's already been distributed to some of the premier rehab centers around the country.
PICTURES: Rob's miracle: Paralyzed man's first steps
VIDEO: Paralyzed woman walks with exoskeleton
Essentially, Ekso is a ready-to-wear robotic prosthesis that functions as a second pair of legs. With the help of a trained therapist, patients are strapped in and can begin sessions immediately. Motors rest on each hip, which are powered by a lithium ion battery that lasts up to three hours. Also, over 30 sensors that work together on the device to enable life-like walking. If the left crutch is moved forward, the on-board commuter knows to move the right leg and vice-versa.
Continue »CDC: Only 13% of Americans have high cholesterol
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(CBS/AP) Health officials say only 13 percent of U.S. adults have high total cholesterol, an impressive number for a country where two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese.
Screen kids' cholesterol? New guidelines say yes
Green tea may lower bad cholesterol
What's worse than bad cholesterol? Meet ultra-bad cholesterol
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its latest cholesterol report Tuesday. The numbers come from interviews and blood tests of nearly than 6,000 U.S. adults in 2009 and 2010.
Continue »Study: Stress more harmful to women's hearts
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(CBS News) Heart disease is the country's No. 1 killer of men and women, taking almost 600,000 lives each year. A new study that looked at stress as a risk factor for heart problems found mental stress can be much harder on a woman's heart compared to a man's.
Heart attacks in women: greater death risk, fewer feel chest pain
Women feel more pain than men, study finds
Women lag behind men in life expectancy gains: Study
For the research that was presented this Tuesday at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology's annual meeting in San Diego, Penn State College of Medicine researchers recruited 17 healthy adults, about half of which were female, looking for the effects stress had on the heart's blood flow. Typically when heart rate and blood pressure increase, blood flow to the heart increases so it can pump harder.
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Study confirms dark chocolate's heart benefits
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(CBS News) Previous research has linked eating dark chocolate to healthy heart benefits such as reduced risk for stroke and heart disease. A new study that compared dark chocolate against white chocolate adds to the evidence of why eating dark chocolate may help your health.
Eating lots of chocolate helps people stay thin, study finds
Chocolate curbs stroke in women, study suggests: What about men?
So long, king-sized Snickers: Mars to set calorie limit on chocolate
For the study, presented August 24 at the Experimental Biology 2012 conference in San Diego, researchers assigned 31 "fortunate" subjects to eat a daily serving of 50 grams of either dark chocolate (which contained 70 percent cocoa) or white chocolate (0 percent cocoa) for 15 days. The researchers performed a battery of blood tests on the participants before and after the study, and found those who ate dark chocolate had lower blood sugar (glucose) levels, lower levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and higher levels of HDL (good) cholesterol.
Continue »Scientist claims "G-spot" discovery in new study
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Does a woman's G-spot actually exist? Study has answer
"This study confirmed the anatomic existence of the G-spot, which may lead to a better understanding and improvement of female sexual function," Ostrzenski, who had previously been a professor of gynecology at Florida International University, said in a written statement.
Continue »Calif. mad cow disease: Reason for concern?
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(CBS News) A cow's positive test for mad cow disease has prompted health officials to alert a concerned public that humans are not at risk for contracting the deadly human variant of the disease.
VIDEO: Mad cow disease discovered in Calif.
New case of mad cow disease discovered in California; First since 2006
A dairy cow in California tested positive for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), the first case since 2006, CBS News reported on Tuesday. If a human eats meat contaminated with BSE, they can contract a form of the degenerative brain disease called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) that rapidly decreases a person's mental health and movement ability. To date, there have not been confirmed human cases of this type of CJD in the U.S., but a massive outbreak of mad cow disease in the U.K. that peaked in 1993 was blamed for the deaths of 180,000 cattle and more than 150 people. CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports there have been three deaths in America tired to mad cow disease but all three victims had spent many years eating beef overseas.
Continue »Pizza Hut Middle East creates cheeseburger crust
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(CBS News) You're no longer the top dog, pizza with a hot dog stuffed crust.
Pizza Hut Middle East offerings now include the "Crown Crust Cheese Burger" pizza and "Crown Crust Chicken Fillet" pizza. "The most royal pizza ever!" the ad proclaims.
Pizza Hut unveils hot dog stuffed crust pizza, Burger King offers bacon sundae
So, how does one go about creating a cheeseburger pizza? Mini cheeseburger patties are set along pizza crust and covered with melted cheese. Then the round center of the pizza is topped with beef and vegetables and drizzled with Pizza Hut's special sauce.
Study: Resistance training may stave off dementia
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Daily physical activity protects against Alzheimer's, even in adults over 80
Antioxidant supplements ineffective against Alzheimer's, study shows
Aricept study shows benefits for moderate, severe Alzheimer's patients
A new study published on April 23 in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that using a senior's exercise program - especially those that focus on resistance training - may be able to slow dementia. Exercise improved executive cognitive processes of selective attention, conflict resolution and associative memory, and problems in these areas are "robust predictors" of mild cognitive impairment that lead to dementia, the researchers said.
Continue »Doctors: Teens drink hand sanitizer to get drunk
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(CBS News) Would you drink hand sanitizer? The idea may sound repulsive to most people, but California doctors are warning parents of what may be a fast-growing dangerous trend after six local teenagers were hospitalized in separate incidents with alcohol poisoning from drinking the soapy stuff.
Popular "cinnamon challenge" has potential to be deadly
Dangerous "games" that may harm kids and teens
The Los Angeles Times reported some of the teenagers used salt to separate the alcohol from the sanitizer using instructions found online. If a liquid hand sanitizer contains 62 percent ethyl alcohol, that means a "drink" can be as high as 120 proof, whereas a shot of hard liquor such as whiskey or vodka is typically 80 proof.
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Washington D.C. bus riders get meningitis scare
One of Washington Metropolitan Area Transporation Authorities' latest 7000 series New Flyer bus in service at Minnesota Avenue.
(Credit: Facebook/Metro Forward)(CBS News) Washington D.C. residents are on alert after a bus operator came down with viral meningitis.
The bus driver last worked on Friday morning on a bus assigned to the 14th Street Line on Route 52 and 54, and it is not believed he went on any other bus during his shift, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Before that, he had been on vacation. The vehicles in question have been removed from service to be sanitized, and all 164 buses in the fleet were to be disinfected Monday night.
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