UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

U.S. healthcare not ready for boomers

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. healthcare system is not ready for the baby boom generation moving into retirement, geriatric care specialists say.

Medical resources will be inadequate for the boomer generation -- the 35 million to 70 million that will be retiring in less than 20 years, the Washington Times reported Friday.

"The shortage will be disastrous. It's really scary," says Russell Bodoff, executive director of the Center for Aging Services Technology with the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

The health of U.S. adults age 65 and older has been improving since the early 1980s. However, diseases such as obesity and diabetes are increasingly prevalent among younger Americans, suggesting that future Medicare recipients might be less healthy than current ones.

The National Center for Health Statistics says 40 percent of U.S. adults age 45 to 64 have high blood pressure, while 36 percent are obese -- both risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

Biosensor could detect cancer types

NEWCASTLE, England, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The European Union has awarded a grant to international researchers, led by the University of Newcastle, to develop a biosensor to detect disease.

The $14 million grant for the sensor could help in early diagnosis and effective monitoring of cancers and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, reported the BBC Friday.

The technology is the same type that used in navigation systems and car airbags, but the vibrating disc is no bigger than a speck of dust.

The device identifies cancer markers, proteins or other molecules produced by cancer cells, which are distinct from proteins produced by healthy cells.

Locust breeding expected to rise

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Locust breeding is expected to accelerate in the months ahead, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said in a bulletin Friday.

Hordes of locusts can precipitate food crises by devouring crops, the report said.

Earlier this year, Niger experienced the worst infestation of locusts in more than a decade, which -- combined with a drought -- left millions of people threatened with hunger and malnutrition.

Small swarms of locusts were present in India and Pakistan in early December, but adults that escaped control operations reached the spring breeding areas in western Pakistan by mid-month, the U.N. agency said.

Small-scale breeding continued in western Mauritania and southern Algeria where limited ground control operations were required in both countries, the report said.

Researcher says women compete differently

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Research shows that U.S. women not only compete differently than men in the workplace, they also compete differently with each other.

"It's been such a taboo subject. To say women have problems with each other is seen as anti-woman, but it's not," said Nan Mooney, author of "I Can't Believe She Did That! Why Women Betray Other Women at Work."

"Women are afraid to raise a problem, so it goes underground, and it comes out in a twisted way. Why is it so hard to work with other women? Why are we so nasty to each other?"

Mooney said women aren't more competitive than men, but they compete differently -- they often shy from direct conflict for talking behind one another's backs, sabotaging success and feeling threatened by other women, reported USA Today Friday.

However, some researchers say the debate of women competing more passive-aggressively than men is misplaced because employees compete differently based on their personality, not on their sex and the issue perpetuates a negative and untrue stereotype.