• F.D.A. Announces Stricter Rules on Tanning Beds

The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced stricter regulation of tanning beds. The agency said it would require manufacturers to put a black-box warning on the tanning beds stating that they should not be used by anyone under the age of 18, but stopped short of banning their use by minors. Recent studies have shown that the risk of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, is 75 percent higher in people who have been exposed to ultraviolet radiation from tanning beds. Manufacturers will also have to assure the FDA and consumers that tanning beds do not deliver too much ultraviolet radiation and that timers intended to prevent the overuse of the tanning beds work properly. (NY Times)

• Study: Over 1 in 3 Adults Worldwide are suffering from Obesity

The world isn’t getting smaller; it’s getting rounder. That’s according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 published in The Lancet. In 1980, there were 857 million people on the planet who were either overweight or obese. Thirty-three years later, the comparable figure was 2.1 billion. The proportion of men who were overweight or obese rose from 28.8% in 1980 to 36.9% in 2013, while the proportion of women increased from 29.8% to 38% during the same period, the report said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that being overweight will increase your risk of life-threatening conditions including coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer. (Los Angeles Times)

• Amsurg to Buy Sheridan Healthcare for $2.35B

Nashville-based Amsurg Corp. is expanding its business model with the purchase of Florida-based Sheridan Healthcare for $2.35 billion. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014, will allow Amsurg to take advantage of the growing physician outsourcing market, which is Sheridan’s specialty. Sheridan is a leading provider of outsourced physician services to hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and other health care facilities, primarily in the areas of anesthesiology, children’s services emergency medicine and radiology. Amsurg said the deal will allow the company to cover 38 states and have a total addressable market of nearly $70 billion. (The Tennessean)

• Samsung Unveils Health Wristband

Samsung Electronics Co unveiled a wristband that it claims can give a range of real-time health and fitness information. At a press event in San Francisco, the world’s biggest handset maker announced Simband, a new “investigational” device that can be used to measure body temperature, blood oxygen levels, motion and other metrics on a continuous basis. Samsung’s vice president of digital health Ram Fish said the prototype “smart” band is not intended to be sold as is but serve as a “foundation” for third party developers to build a device that incorporates optical, acoustic and electronic sensors. (Reuters)

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