TUESDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) — Nearly half of the counties in
the United States lack a single obstetrician-gynecologist, a situation
that may worsen as medical school graduates gravitate toward metropolitan
areas, a new study indicates.

More than 9.5 million Americans live in areas without
obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns); this scarcity is more prevalent in
rural pockets of the country, and particularly in the Midwest and South.
However, some experts feel the spotty distribution of these specialists —
who assist in the births of 4 million babies each year and tend to the
reproductive health of millions of women — isn’t necessarily a
problem.

“If there’s not an obstetrician in one county, but there’s one in the
next county, then it may not affect patient care at all,” said Dr. Erin
Tracy, an ob-gyn at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who was not
involved in the study. “It’s a striking statistic . . . but I’m not sure
how it affects actual access to care.”

The study, authored by University of New Mexico researcher Dr. William
Rayburn, is scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) annual meeting in San Diego.

Rayburn and his colleagues gathered data from the 2010 U.S. County
Census File for adult and reproductive-age women and from the ACOG
membership roster. They found that about 33,300 ob-gyns were practicing
in the United States in 2010, representing 5 percent of a total of
661,400 physicians.

The average number of ob-gyns per 10,000 women dropped significantly
from counties with cities in them to those with smaller towns and rural
areas. Forty-nine percent of the country’s 3,143 U.S. counties lacked a
single ob-gyn, the investigators found.

“You’re going to get less of every [medical] specialty, the more rural
you get. That’s going to be true across the board,” explained Dr. Jill
Rabin, chief of ambulatory care, obstetrics and gynecology, and head of
urogynecology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

“But generally you can find, within a reasonable driving distance,
someone using cutting-edge technology,” Rabin added. “I can’t tell you
that’s true in every instance, but there are ob-gyns practicing in
significant proportions in small- or mid-size towns.”

The study authors wrote that the uneven distribution of ob-gyns may
worsen as newly graduated medical residents cluster in metropolitan areas,
and they suggested that the government offer incentives to lure physicians
to underserved areas.

But Rabin noted that some government programs already exist to pay for
medical training for doctors who agree to serve in designated rural areas.
Also, some family practitioners in these areas deliver babies, “so they
take up the slack for us,” she said.

The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings
should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed
journal.

More information

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has more information about
employment for ob-gyns.

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

South Korea has intensified a crackdown on the smuggling of capsules from China containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, taken by some as a cure for disease or a way to boost sexual performance, a customs official said Tuesday.

The gruesome practice came to light Sunday when Korea Customs said it had uncovered 35 attempts to import a total of 17,451 such capsules since last August.

The pills — filled with the dried and powdered flesh of foetuses or dead infants — were intercepted in the mail or in customs searches at airports.

The customs service said that apart from ethical questions the capsules were contaminated with “super bacteria” and other disease-causing organisms.

Most pills were sent from the northeastern Chinese cities of Yanji and Jilin as well as cities including Qingdao and Tianjin at the request of customers in South Korea, it said.

Some were hidden in packages of legitimate drugs to disguise their contents.

Officials now closely monitor flights from “certain Chinese regions” and inspect all the luggage of all passengers far more often than before, Kim Soo-Yeon, a Korea Customs official in charge of customs clearance told AFP.

Bringing in such pills breaches a regulation banning items that “violate social dignity and customs”, he said.

No organised attempts to smuggle in the capsules have so far been detected, Kim said, and most offenders were individual travellers. Some claimed they were unaware of what they were carrying.

“It’s not just human-flesh pills. We also target other similarly banned but popular items like seal penises and bear gall bladders,” said Kim, referring to items favoured by middle-aged men as libido enhancers.

“We have drastically stepped up resources in these efforts…even risking great inconvenience to visitors from these regions,” he said.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper said the human-flesh capsules sell for 40,000-50,000 won ($35-44) each at some oriental herbal medicine shops.

Experts say the practice stems from a superstitious belief that eating body parts of young infants will give one special physical strength or cure disease.

“It is a bizarre…practice, just like a belief that eating the penis of actively-mating seals or drinking the bile of strong bears will help your libido,” Ha Ji-Hyun, a psychiatrist at Konkuk University medical centre, told Chosun.

Maeil Business Newspaper urged the Chinese government Tuesday to crack down on producers of the human-flesh capsules and impose heavy punishments, calling the practice “truly shocking.”

“No government in the world could possibly understand the Chinese government for letting such an inhuman practice go unpunished,” it said in an editorial.

It added that desperate cancer patients and construction workers from China undertaking gruelling work were the main customers in the South.

“I’m trembling with shock that people who eat such stuff are my compatriots,” one anonymous South Korean Internet user commented. Another called the practice “absolutely hideous”.

(HealthDay News) — Gardening is a great form of exercise, but it
can also leave you with a painful backache.

The American Council on Exercise suggests how to garden without hurting
yourself:

• Use correct posture and form.
• Warm up before you garden with a 10-minute walk.
• Make sure all of your movements are smooth and steady.
• Keep your abdominal muscles taut.
• Lift with your legs (never your back).
• Don’t twist your back while digging.
• Breathe regularly. Exhale when you lift, and inhale as you lower a
  heavy load.

Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the battle against obesity, just about everything is on the table, from creating healthier kids’ meals to nagging people to exercise.

Specialists meeting in Washington on Tuesday are looking for a blueprint on reducing America’s weight problem as they debate what strategies should be a priority.

Today, just over a third of adults are obese. A government-funded study suggests that by 2030, 42 percent will be. That’s not nearly as many as experts once predicted, before years of the rapid rise in obesity rates began leveling off. But Americans aren’t getting thinner either.

Experts are looking beyond government policies to unusual partners. Frozen vegetable maker Birds Eye, for instance, is beginning a $6 million campaign to encourage kids to eat their veggies.

China is investigating claims vegetable sellers are spraying cabbage with harmful formaldehyde to keep it fresh, an official said on Tuesday, in yet another food safety scare to hit the country.

Dozens of vegetable dealers in the eastern province of Shandong, a major vegetable supplier, are using the chemical to keep produce fresh on the way to market, media and Internet reports said this week.

Formaldehyde — commonly used as a preservative for laboratory specimens and embalming — can be fatal if ingested and is also a cancer-causing substance.

A local government official confirmed the practice and said authorities had started an investigation.

“We are investigating this matter,” an official from Dongxia town — where the practice was originally uncovered — told AFP. He declined to give details.

The practice is widespread in Shandong and neighbouring Hebei province, especially in warmer months, the official Xinhua news agency has reported.

“It’s a common practice to keep the cabbage fresh. Otherwise, the vegetables stacked tightly in the trucks would rot in two to three days,” a farmer in Dongxia was quoted as saying.

Cabbage is a staple of the Chinese dining table, especially in the country’s north.

Chinese media say formaldehyde is used on other products, such as seafood and mushrooms. Officials say some sellers do not use costly refrigerated trucks for vegetable transport.

China’s government has repeatedly vowed to improve food safety as people grow increasingly alarmed about the quality of what they eat, but scandals still occur due to weak enforcement and unscrupulous business practices.

Milk was at the centre of one of China’s biggest food safety scandals in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.

Last year, authorities arrested more than 30 people over the sale of cooking oil made from leftovers taken from gutters.

More recently, employees of a leading Chinese poultry company sold diseased ducks to consumers, while a major dairy producer sold milk with high levels of a cancer-causing toxin, caused by cows eating mouldy feed.