Health News Online: Bellco Health staying put, expanding in Amityville
Joint Juice Announces the State of America’s Joint Health
Today Joint Juice, Inc., a leading San Francisco-based nutrition company, announces the latest results from its online joint health assessment[1], revealing the U.S. states with the best – and worst – joint health. As people across America recently made New Year’s resolutions to improve their fitness, Joint Juice encourages them to remember take care of their joints as they get in shape. According to findings, Hawaii came out on top as the state with the best joint health, tied with Washington D.C. and Arkansas. Maine was at the bottom of the list, earning the distinction of the state with the worst joint health.
“Joints are the foundation of an active and healthy lifestyle, yet are often overlooked,” said David Ritterbush, Chief Executive Officer of Joint Juice, Inc. “We are on a mission to educate Americans about the importance of joint care by continuing to provide educational tools such as our joint health assessment, and offering innovative products to help people continue to do their favorite activities.”
Since the launch of the joint health assessment in 2010 on the Joint Juice website nearly 10,000 people have taken the test to evaluate their personal joint health. The results incorporated data from participants in all 50 states. The illustrative joint health assessment created by Kevin R. Stone, M.D., renowned orthopaedic surgeon and Joint Juice, Inc. founder evaluates the condition of an individual’s joints based on a series of 15 questions regarding diet, exercise, lifestyle, Body Mass Index (BMI), and joint health history. Interspersed throughout the assessment are tips from legendary quarterback Joe Montana, who shares his story about how Joint Juice combined with a healthy lifestyle has helped him stay active. Results were collected from June 2010 through December 2011, and summarized in five categories: Excellent, Good, Average, Below Average, and Poor.
In 2012, Joint Juice, Inc. will continue their partnership with Joe Montana for the second consecutive year to encourage Americans to focus on their joint health so they can get back to doing the activities that they love to do. The nationwide campaign will offer tips, tricks, and exercises to help people get on a path to healthier joints.
To learn more about joint health or to take the Joint Juice® joint health assessment, please visit jointjuice.com.
Supermarkets accused of exploiting loopholes to undermine alcohol pricing laws
MSPs have accused supermarkets of “undermining the spirit” of alcohol discounting laws by slashing their prices and encouraging online purchasing.
Legislation came into force in October last year banning volume sales of alcohol, with the aim of stopping “irresponsible promotions” such as two for one deals and group discounts on wine.
However loopholes in the law mean retailers are still able to offer such discounts on internet sales made in England, and have been able to sell the same bottles of alcohol for whatever the combined discount price was to begin with.
Members of Holyrood’s Health Committee raised the issue with representatives from Asda and Tesco today during a session on the Scottish Government’s proposals for minimum alcohol pricing.
SNP MSP Jim Eadie asked: “Do you accept that there are many people who feel that you are not abiding by the spirit of the legislation that was introduced by the Parliament?
“The one thing that you did almost immediately when certain promotions were banned was to introduce bottles of wine for £3.33.”
Mr Eadie said the supermarkets had been accused of “undermining the spirit of the legislation” by “slashing prices and encouraging online purchasing”.
He continued: “It does leave the impression with the wider health community in Scotland who are widely focused on what is the biggest public health challenge facing this country, that your companies are putting their profits before the health of the people of Scotland.”
David Paterson, head of regional affairs at Asda, replied: “The clear intention of the quantity discount ban was to reduce any incentive for a customer to buy a larger amount of alcohol than they had intended to.
“That was the clear and unequivocal objective.
“We made it very clear particularly in the last Alcohol Bill that when you intervene in a market which is part of a wider UK single market, there are a number of unintended consequences and they cannot be wished away.
“So in the same sense that I have seen attacks on other retailers about the use of online, it seems a bizarre situation to me that there are companies based solely in England that can continue to sell alcohol at whatever price they want but that in some sense companies that are in Scotland and invest here shouldn’t also be able to do that. There has to be a level playing field.”
He added: “I think it’s worth saying that we didn’t slash our prices and we haven’t driven customers online. We don’t have an online alcohol offering.”
Labour MSP Dr Richard Simpson continued to press the supermarkets on the issue.
He said: “We may not have written the legislation correctly and I am not saying you are incorrect in terms of the law. I think we failed to understand fully when we passed that Bill that it would not end volume discounting.
“The spirit of the law was quite clear, that we wanted to ban discounting for volume, and yet the supermarkets particularly – and also the small stores – are still selling on a volume discounting basis.”
Dr Simpson asked the supermarkets how they would respond to minimum pricing.
Emma Reynolds, government affairs director for Tesco, said: “In a competitive market, if you do want action on price, it needs to be government-led and through legislation because we are in the business of competing for the best possible offers for customers.
“That is why we have said we’ll be constructive in government-led discussions on price.”
Mr Paterson said there were already rules about when and where retailers can sell alcohol, alongside the ban on quantity discounts.
He added: “When you get to a point where the price is set, we will have one of the most restrictive alcohol retailing regimes in the world, and it will be quite clear how you deal with that.”
Mr Paterson said Asda would abide by any laws passed by Holyrood.
The session also took evidence from a number of other representatives from the drinks industry including the Scotch Whisky Association, Diageo, Tennent Caledonian Breweries (UK) Limited, the National Association of Cider Makers, the Scottish Beer and Pub Association and the Scottish Licensed Trade Association.