Editor's note: Jeff Dauler, a radio host from Atlanta, Georgia, is one of seven CNN viewers selected to be a part of the Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge program. The "Lucky 7" is in Hawaii this week as part of their training for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon this September, alongside Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

My CNN Fit Nation teammates added a fourth "sport" to our triathlon while discussing the impact our shared journey was having on the people around us.

Denise Castelli's father was starting to eat healthy and lose weight. Carlos Solis' students were participating in a 100-mile club at his school. Glenn Keller's hometown of Burleston, Texas, created an entire 5k in his honor, to encourage the whole community to get healthy.

Swim. Bike. Run. Inspire.

This adventure isn't our own, but is shared with people within our reach. We were all thinking pretty selfishly when we accepted Dr. Gupta's challenge, and we've all been surprised by that aspect of the program.

My reach is a bit larger than the others on the team. I happen to be a personality on a radio show that's currently heard in three cities, and (knock on wood) does pretty well. Dr. Gupta joined the show in the studio this past January to announce my participation in the challenge, and the listeners responded in a big way ... but not really as I expected.
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The Federal Communications Commission says it plans to allocate spectrum bandwidth for use of body sensors that would monitor a patient's vital signs wirelessly.

The spectrum will work specifically with MBAN (medical body area network) sensor devices. Similar in size and shape to a Band-Aid, the sensors would be disposable and include a low-power radio transmitter, according to an FCC official.

The primary function is to monitor a patient's temperature, pulse, blood glucose level, blood pressure and respiratory health wirelessly.

"The benefits are clear: increased mobility, better care and lower costs," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski tells CNN.
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If you survived a 43-inch-long iron rod shot through your skull, people would still be talking about you more than 150 years later too.

Journey back a moment to September 13, 1848. Phineas Gage, 25, was working as a railroad construction supervisor in Vermont. In preparation for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad that was to be laid down, he was blasting and removing rock. But an explosion went awry, shooting a 13-pound iron rod through Gage's left cheek, passing behind his left eyeball and through his brain.

The fateful rod was found later "smeared with blood and brains," according to reports about the case.

Gage survived for almost 12 years after this accident, but people who knew him said he was no longer himself - he exhibited personality and behavior changes.

He couldn't come back to his railroad job, so he took up some manual labor jobs. He ended up traveling in New England and down to Valparaiso, Chile; his iron rod never left his side. He rejoined his family in San Francisco and died on May 21, 1860, probably because of seizures connected to the freak accident.

Now, scientists have new insights into Gage's brain.

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It's one of the most popular antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections, but a new study suggests for some people taking azithromycin, commonly referred to as a "Z-pack", could be very dangerous.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University looked at the records of thousands of Tennessee Medicaid patients over a period of 14 years.  They found a 2.5-fold higher risk of death from heart disease in the first five days of using Z-pack when compared to another common antibiotic or no antibiotics at all.

The study was published in the current edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

People with underlying heart problems seem to be especially vulnerable, says Wayne Ray, professor of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt and the study's lead researcher.
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During a recent debate addressing whether the United States should ban college football, an argument against the sport was summed up this way: Schools should not be in the business of encouraging young men to hit themselves over the head.

The reasoning behind that argument (by New Yorker magazine staff writer Malcolm Gladwell): Concussions are not what afflicts football, rather it is the cumulative effects of punishing, comparatively subtle, subconcussive hits.

"There isn't a helmet in the world that can be designed to take the sting out of those hits," said Gladwell, at the Intelligence Squared Debate hosted by Slate Magazine in New York last week. "What's the effect of all that neurological trauma? We know it's a condition called CTE."
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released their annual health report for 2011 on Wednesday. The report contains more than 150 data tables on the U.S. population's well-being, with a special focus on socioeconomic status.

Here are a few of the interesting tidbits we found. For more, visit www.cdc.gov.

The Bible Belt needs more doctors. On average, there were 25 physicians for every 10,000 people in the U.S. in 2009. The Northeast, Hawaii and Minnesota had the highest ratio of doctors to patients, while states in the South and Rocky Mountain-areas had fewer than 21 per 10,000.

Your education level affects your kids' weight. The CDC collected data on childhood obesity between 2007 and 2010. Where the head of the household had a college degree, 7 to 11% of children aged 2 to 19 were obese. But when the head of the household was a high school dropout, 22 to 24% of the children were obese.

Cigarette smoking is still on the decline. In 2010, 19% of U.S. adults smoked, down 2% from 2009. Over the last decade cigarette smoking among students in 12th grade has decreased from 33% to 22% for male students and from 30% to 16% for female students.

Fewer teens are giving birth. Between 1998 and 2008, birth rates declined 27% for teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17.
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Consumers may soon be able to test themselves for HIV and quickly learn the results in the privacy of their own homes following a unanimous approval recommendation from a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee on Tuesday.

The panel said the OraQuick In-Home HIV Test should be made available over-the-counter (OTC) saying the test is safe and effective and that the benefits far outweigh the potential risks.

If approved by the FDA, the test will be the first OTC test to be marketed for HIV or any infectious disease.  FDA advisory committee recommendations are not binding, but they are generally followed.

An estimated 1.2 million Americans are living with HIV, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.  One in five of those are unaware of their HIV status.  And about 50,000 new cases of HIV are reported each year.

OraSure Technologies, Inc., the manufacturer of this new test, also makes the already approved OraQuick ADVANCE Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody Test.

That test can only be used in a clinical setting and results are provided in 20 minutes.  The In-home test is a modified version where the individual swabs the upper and lower gums with a test pad device.  That device is then inserted into a vial of solution. Much like a pregnancy test, one line shows up if the test is negative, two lines means it's  positive.

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When Phil Kreitner’s wife Sherril Gelmon comes home and asks what he did all day, he has to pause to think. It’s hard enough to remember what he did five minutes ago. And where he keeps the different cereals he likes to mix in the morning.

Kreitner, 72, of Portland, Oregon, is one of many aging Americans living with mild cognitive impairment, a condition marked by memory impairment that may progress into the more severe Alzheimer’s disease. He’s participating in a clinical trial aimed at testing a treatment for dementia, and believes furthering research is critical for combating the brain disease.

"I walk around all [expletive] day telling myself 'Why can’t you remember that? You’ve got to remember that! Why aren’t you remembering that? How can you try to remember that?' ” says Kreitner, who was the subject of a CNN profile in 2011.

He’s excited that the Obama administration has committed to investing in more clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, with the goal of effective treatment and prevention by 2025. But when that deadline arrives, Kreitner isn't sure he'll still be around - he may not live to see the benefits of that research.
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If you're turning 50 or you're already there, colorectal screening is in your future.  Although you would only have to be screened every 10 years (if no polyps are found), the prospect of getting prepped for procedure is a big turn-off for many.  You've probably heard some of the horror stories about the pre-screening laxatives, the taste, the amount, the ensuing "cleansing."

But for those who are a little squeamish about all that liquid going in–and coming out, a new laxative free colonoscopy might be on the horizon.  A study of 605 adults published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows this type of colonoscopy has promise.

This new exam is called a laxative-free computed tomographic colonography (CTC) or virtual colonoscopy.  Study author Dr. Michael Zalis, Director of CT Colonography at Massachusetts General Hospital says the hope is that more people will find this preparation easier to stomach and result in more people getting this life-saving test.
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Sleepwalking isn't just a quirk of Homer Simpson and other cartoon characters who go on unconscious adventures. New research suggests it's even more common than you may think.

Researchers published a study in the journal Neurology involving more than 19,000 American adults, and found that nearly 30% had sleepwalked at some point in their lives. Far fewer said they experienced sleepwalking within the last year - only about 4% did. One percent had two or more episodes per month.

Dr. Maurice Ohayon of Stanford University and lead author of the study says sleepwalking can be risky business; some people can harm themselves or others while wandering about.
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