U.S. Edition
Close to 1 in 5 young adults has high blood pressure, according to a new study, much higher than previous estimates of around 4 percent.
"We wanted to look at the health of young adults in America , and the first thing we looked at was blood pressure," said Kathleen Mullan Harris, a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the lead study author. "The prevalence is quite high – 19% – and we found this rather surprising," she said.
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The World Health Assembly decided this week to give researchers three more years to study the smallpox virus before talking about destroying existing live samples. This is the fifth delay; the decision to destroy the known stockpiles of the variola virus, which causes smallpox, was first put forth in 1996.
Health officials from 192 countries have been meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, since May 16 to discuss a multitude of health issues. The debate over the destruction of the smallpox virus began last Friday and continued on Monday, but two camps – one for and one against the destruction of these smallpox virus samples – emerged again.
But according to the head of the U.S. delegation, Dr. Nils Daulaire, support for preserving the virus came from countries who in previous years had called for the destruction of the smallpox stocks. Daulaire, director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tells CNN that the resolution calling for more time to research this virus had 27 co-sponsors. Most resolutions that go through the Health Assembly have somewhere between 3 and 10 sponsors, he said.
Every weekday, a CNNHealth expert doctor answers a viewer question. On Wednesdays, it's Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.
Asked by Cleester of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
I am generally a very healthy woman. I frequently wake up at night with painful cramps in the thighs and the back of my legs below the knee. What causes cramps and how can I get rid of them? FULL POST
Editor's note: CNN contributor Amanda Enayati ponders the theme of Seeking Serenity: The quest for well-being and life balance in stressful time.
Graduation just passed, but I still have no job. And in a few weeks, I’ll have nowhere to live either, and so I’m moving back in with my parents to continue my job search, which I first started almost a year ago. I am so stressed out that I haven’t been sleeping. Sometimes I get so anxious, I have difficulty breathing.
That’s a direct quote from a recent college graduate in New York who did not even want his first name used. “I’m so wigged out, I’m feeling paranoid,” he said.
What was remarkable was that in almost a dozen conversations I had with graduates from all over the country these past few weeks, many kept using virtually the same language over and over again. The commonality of sentiments among people who did not know one another was striking. And though there was a smattering here and there of the hopeful - those who had jobs secured - they seemed by far the exception.
There is stress - and a lot of it - rampant among a population that might normally be quite exuberant right about now: four carefree years of college behind them, hard-earned degrees in hand, a warm breeze blowing through their still-full heads of not-graying hair as they embark upon that heady adventure known as the rest of their lives.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.