Health Benefits

After years of being relegated through the purgatory of forgotten foods, kale has found itself in the spotlight for the first time in decades and is ready to prove it belongs there permanently. A crop of the ancients, kale has been cultivated for over 2,000 years and was the precursor to modern-day cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Easy to plant, harvest and propagate, kale was a favorite of both the Romans and the Greeks. The leafy green fell out of favor in many cultures in the last century, as more exotic cruciferous vegetables became popular.

The stories of marathon runners collapsing and dying at the finish line are enough to scare anybody thinking of participating in one of the 26.2 mile races popular around this time of year. But a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers has found the risk of deaths at marathon races is pretty low. Not impossible, but not all that likely either. A runner's risk of dying during or soon after the race is about .75 per 100,000 the research found. Men were twice as likely to die as women.

The former chief operating officer of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington has called on the organization to reverse its recent decision to change health benefits for employees' spouses, a move designed to avoid legitimizing same-sex marriage. Tim Sawina, who was until last year one of the group's highest-ranking executives, called the elimination of spousal health benefits "devastating" and "wrong" in a letter Wednesday to the governing board of the social service organization.

After years of being relegated through the purgatory of forgotten foods, kale has found itself in the spotlight for the first time in decades and is ready to prove it belongs there permanently. A crop of the ancients, kale has been cultivated for over 2,000 years and was the precursor to modern-day cabbage, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. Easy to plant, harvest and propagate, kale was a favorite of both the Romans and the Greeks. The leafy green fell out of favor in many cultures in the last century, as more exotic cruciferous vegetables became popular.

Red wine surrendered a clue to its health benefits in a study suggesting Madiran, a traditional French wine, may be brimming with one of the more valuable ingredients for protecting the heart. Scientists found the most potent form of polyphenols, which help reduce the risk of artery damage, in Madiran, and lesser amounts in other wines from southwestern France and Italy's Sardinian province of Nuoro. People in those regions also tend to live longer than those in surrounding areas, according to the study, in yesterday's issue of the journal Nature.

In a sad reunion, former executives of Maryland Cup hav been trooping through Baltimore, the old company town, to give depositions on a lawsuit underscoring the tumultuous changes that followed the company's sale to Fort Howard Co.The suit was brought by Robert Gable, a retiree whose fingers were cut severely in a 1989 household accident. With his severed fingertips wrapped in a towel, Mr. Gable was rushed to Carroll County General Hospital. There, fast-working surgeons reattached the pieces.

Even as state-mandated health benefits come under their severest attack in years, scores of people urged legislators to add four more such benefits.The appeals were made yesterday before the Economics Affairs Committee in the House of Delegates. If the proposals are enacted, health insurers would be required to provide coverage for the preventive care of children, care for new born and newly adopted children, treatment for certain types of mental illnesses, and mammography to detect breast cancer.

Three in 10 Americans say they or someone in their household have at some time stayed in a job mainly to keep the health benefits, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll that provides some of the strongest evidence yet of pervasive concern about the costs of medical insurance and care.This phenomenon, becoming known around the country as "job lock," was most prevalent in middle-income households, suggesting the rising potency of health care as a political issue.Half the people say the nation's health care system needs fundamental changes and another 40 percent go even further, saying it must be completely rebuilt, the survey found.

Anne Arundel County government has made sure Richard Mullins has oneless worry when he leaves for the Persian Gulf Friday.Before a crowd of county workers adorned with yellow lapel ribbons and waving little American flags, County Executive Robert R. Neall announced yesterday that employees called to active duty in the gulf will keep their health insurance benefits for at least one year. "They won't have to be concerned about paying medical bills or changing doctors. We thought that was the least we could do," Neall said.

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is considering a tax on workers' health benefits to finance medical coverage for more than 30 million uninsured Americans, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan says.The approach, which Sullivan refers to as a "tax cap," would make employer-paid health benefits above a certain dollar amount subject to tax as personal income."We are looking at a number of strategies, such as a 'tax cap' on employer-provided health care to provide funds for those who don't have [insurance]

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s recent column on health care shows a talent for bending facts to fit ideology ("A blow to employer-based coverage," April 1). He quotes a 2011 analysis by McKinsey & Company that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) would decrease the number of employers who offer health insurance. He failed to mention that this report was one outlier among a number of other economic reports done by independent think tanks (Rand, Urban), the Congressional Budget Office and a health benefits firm (Mercer)

Thanks to Bob Ehrlich for the long article in Sunday's paper that makes plain, without actually stating it, the big difference between Republicans and Democrats on health care ("A death-knell for employer-funded insurance," April 1). Republicans find the pre-reform status quo acceptable, in which thousands of people died annually, in this wealthy country, for lack of health insurance. Democrats do not, and would like to see the U.S. join the rest of the industrialized world in guaranteeing health care for its citizens.

There is something wrong with the U.S. We marvel at the increasing mental intelligence of people living in India and China, especially in the cyber field, and how they provide technical assistance to so many American companies. And we wonder, why? In the U.S., children grow up with denigrating terms as "geeks" or "nerds" to label such high-achievers while adulating stars on the athletic field who earn big bucks for performance on professional sports teams. There is nothing wrong with sports and the health benefits which accompany the activity.

Maybe it's time we change the name of the birth control pill. What Rush Limbaugh doesn't understand is that women are not always about men. The so-called "pill" has been out for over 50 years now, and we aren't going to give it up. It changed our lives. We are in control, and it's not always about not getting pregnant. It really should be called "the regulator," or perhaps the "health pill. " There are many benefits for going on this course of medicine. We can control our periods (something men don't understand)

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center provides a guest post to The Baltimore Sun's health blog Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth), which is reprinted here. This week, Elaine Pelc weighs in on teas. There are many health claims surrounding tea. Some have stronger supporting evidence than others. Tea can be broken down into five types: white, green, black, oolong and herbal. The first four are all created from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis bush and are categorized based on their levels of oxidation, which means a change in chemical structure when exposed to oxygen.

Superfood cocktails: Fruits, vegetables and, oh yeah, alcohol, too "Superfood" has become a health (and marketing) buzz word in recent years. Foods such as blueberries, acai berries, oranges, tomatoes and dark leafy greens are densely packed with nutrients, so upping your intake can give you a nutritional boost. Of course, man cannot live on multigrain bread alone -- we like our cocktails too, and some inventive mixologists have found ways to add superfoods to their libations.

The Columbia Association has followed the lead of the Howard County school system and government by offering full health benefits to domestic partners of the same sex. The association implemented the policy after the Howard chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays inquired this year about the possibility of the association offering the benefits. "We felt that would be a positive step in the right direction, in making those benefits available," association President Maggie J. Brown said.

I work for a company that gives medical benefits to workers who are at least 60 years old with 10 years of service. As of this month, I will have worked six months into the 10th year. But a rumor is circulating that our division will be sold before the end of my 10th year. A former colleague advised me that as long as I have worked 1,000 hours into the 10th year, I will be "grandfathered" for the remainder. Can you tell me if this is a federal or state law or a mandatory company policy?

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz shouldn't require more than a nanosecond to dismiss any notion of appealing an independent arbitrator's ruling that two Baltimore County police officers should not be denied health benefits for their same-sex spouses. That the county chose to deny that coverage in the first place is a mistake of the previous administration that need not be repeated. County residents may recall that it was nearly two years ago that Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler issued a letter stating that Maryland should recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

Two Baltimore County Police officers who were denied health benefits for their same-sex spouses have won their cases before an arbitrator, the first disputes of this kind to be decided in the department. Officers Margaret Selby and Juanika Ballard got the word on Tuesday that an independent arbitrator ruled in their favor, meaning the county must provide health benefits to the women whom they each married out of state in the summer of 2009. In a 10-page opinion, the arbitrator ruled that the county violated the terms of the union contract by denying the benefits in August 2010.