Daily Rounds: Explosive Medicare Debate; Uterus Transplant; Veggie Names; Pacifiers Emotionally Stunt Boys?

Medicare battle heats up California House race (Kaiser Health News/Politico) - CARMICHAEL, Calif. – "When Republican Rep. Dan Lungren faced a crowd of tea party supporters and Democratic detractors at a recent town hall meeting here, the arguments showed how explosive the Medicare debate can get in the hottest races in the country. At La Sierra Community Center, the long line of seemingly irritated constituents made clear just what is on the minds of voters here: the Republican proposal to give future beneficiaries, those 55 and younger, a fixed amount of money to buy Medicare coverage from the government or private insurance companies."

Swedish doctors claim pioneering uterus transplant (AP) — "Two Swedish women are hoping to get pregnant after undergoing what doctors are calling the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants. Specialists at the University of Goteborg said they performed the surgery over the weekend without complications but added that they won't consider it successful unless the women give birth to healthy children. "That's the best proof," said Michael Olausson, one of the surgeons."

Power punch broccoli? New names spice up veggies (ABC News) - "Forget plain old carrots and boring broccoli. Rebranding these veggies as "X-ray Vision Carrots" or "Power Punch Broccoli" helps more kids eat healthy at school, according to a new study. The study, published in the Journal Preventive Medicine, exposed more than 1,000 kids in seven New York elementary schools to lunchtime veggie choices with and without innovative names like "Silly Dilly Green Beans" or "Tiny Tasty Tree Tops." Students in the study ate twice as much veggies if they had new labels compared to veggies listed only as 'Food of the Day.'"

Heavy pacifier use may lead to emotionally stunted boys, study reports (The Los Angeles Times) - "You may want to think twice before sticking that pacifier back in your baby boy's mouth: Three new studies, published Tuesday as a single research report, find that heavy pacifier use leads to stunted emotional development among males...So what's the link? Infancy is considered a "critical period" for many human skills and capacities, including emotional and interpersonal development. That means that if we don't have the right exposure or the right experiences when we're little, we may never have them at all. And if infants have pacifiers in their mouths all the time, they are unable to mimic faces and have social interactions that rely on facial expressions — both believed to be essential building blocks of social and emotional development."