America’s Health Rankings

Paul over at Healthy Reader wrote about the results of the United Health Foundation’s 2006 edition of “America’s Health Rankings: A Call to Action for People and Their Communities”. The report documents the lack of significant progress in improving health status, a trend they have been following since 2000. Nevertheless, the report concluded that America’s overall health improved slightly in 2006 [1].

Minnesota leads the list of healthiest states, followed by Vermont, New Hampshire, Hawaii and Connecticut. Louisiana is at the bottom of the list and has consistently ranked 49th or 50th since 1990.

Merck Focuses on Traditional Chinese Medicine for Cancer Drugs

Merck recently announced that it will collaborate with Hong Kong-based Chi-Med, a pharmaceutical firm that focuses on researching, developing, manufacturing and selling pharmaceuticals, health supplements and other consumer health and personal care products derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine and botanical ingredients, to develop new cancer drugs.