Hospital trusts need to do more to tackle the problem of foreign patients who avoid paying for NHS care, a senior doctor has said as an investigation revealed millions of pounds were owed for treatment.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, said trusts must put in place arrangements "that ensure people cannot exploit the system".

His comments came after an investigation revealed almost £40 million could be owed to NHS hospital trusts in England by foreign patients who were not eligible for free care.

Freedom of Information (FoI) requests by Pulse magazine revealed the average unpaid debt for the provision of care to foreign nationals was £230,000 in the 35 trusts which responded.

If this figure was the same across all 168 English acute trusts, the total debt would be almost £40m, the magazine claimed.

The FoI requests showed St George's Healthcare Trust in South London had the largest outstanding debts, totalling £2m from £3.55m invoiced to foreign nationals for health treatment from April 2009.

Barnet and Chase Farm was next, with £488,000 outstanding from invoices worth £934,000.

The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust collected 24% of the £419,000 owed to it, the figures showed.

A spokesperson for St George's told Pulse: "A high percentage of our patients require life-saving trauma, neuroscience, cardiovascular or paediatric care.

"We're working hard to improve the way we record overseas patients and the debt recovery rate."

Foreign nationals residing in the UK are entitled to free treatment on the NHS, but visitors from outside are expected to either have health insurance or the bill is sent to their country of origin.

Dr Vautrey told the magazine: "Hospital trusts must put in place arrangements that ensure people cannot exploit the system.

"However, we need to be careful that we are not putting barriers in place that prevent people from getting access to healthcare. It can be quite challenging.

"It is too simplistic to call it health tourism. The reality is a lot more complex."

The investigation comes days after campaigners warned GPs had too much freedom to register sick foreigners who may not be entitled to expensive British healthcare.

Migration Watch UK claimed family doctors could decide whether to take on patients without identity documents and give them free treatment which should not be available to them.

The group's chairman Sir Andrew Green said: "To allow such easy and potentially hugely-expensive access without any entitlement must be stopped at once, otherwise the NHS risks becoming the World Health Service."

Last year, FoI requests from Tory MP Chris Skidmore showed £42m in unpaid debts for treatment of foreign patients had been written off by primary care and foundation trusts.

Since the age of 4, swimming has been the love of Rita Goldberg's life. But she never thought she could turn that love into a million-dollar business. Now, 60 years later, she's the head of a successful swim school on two continents and recently started offering franchises.

As a young adult in Manchester, England, Goldberg thought she'd have to put the thrills of childhood swimming and joys of high school competitive swimming behind her once she "grew up." But when she was in her early 30s, someone asked her to help with a new swim club. "I fell back in love with the whole thing again," Goldberg said. "The passion rose in the teaching aspect rather than the personal training aspect."

But Goldberg didn't get the idea to start her own business until she accompanied a friend's child to a swimming lesson and saw that the teacher was providing lessons out of a pool built in his garage. "I thought, 'This is absolutely what I want to do,'" she said. "It was the proverbial light switch."

Goldberg and her husband sold their home and bought an old Victorian house that had ample parking and a huge basement to build a pool in. After breaking through resistance in getting a business permit and bank loan, Goldberg opened British Swim School. Her innovative teaching methods proved to be a huge hit, and her emphasis on water survival and safety allowed her to teach children as young as ages 2 to 3.

After realizing her marriage was ending, Goldberg decided to start over. She moved to the United States with not much more than a suitcase and relaunched the business from scratch. Franchising since October, British Swim School is soon opening its 17th location and teaches more than 3,000 students weekly.

Do you remember the first time you ever swam?

I can't remember the feeling of my first ballet class, but that I do remember. I remember being in the shallow area and saying to whoever I was with, "I'm swimming." And they said, "your feet are on the bottom," and I said, "no, I'm swimming." It was an incredible feeling. It was magnificent. I felt incredibly happy, because I was floating. I still go into the ocean and feel that same feeling. It's just special. There's something wonderful about being weightless in water.

And as you got older and continued to swim, did you ever think you could make a living at it?

Absolutely not. It never entered my head throughout my early adult life. I thought I'd go into nursing. The thought never even touched me. Swim schools didn't exist back then.

Was that a problem when you did decide to start one?

It was an absolute nightmare. There were problems with permissions -- the business was so unique, no one knew what to do with it. It made sense to nobody but me. I had to find someone on the Manchester Council who would fight for me. I went to 31 counselors who would not listen to me and the 32nd did. So eventually we got permission, which was an amazing feeling -- this is a woman who had never been in business. I never thought I could do this.

Did you also run into problems getting financing?

I went with a business plan to all the big banks, and they were very kind but said, "sorry, this is an unusual venture and we don't know where you would fit, and therefore, we can't give you a business loan." Every one of them refused me.

So how did you get funding?

At that particular time on TV, there was a program that vaguely resembles today's "Shark Tank," and the final 10 were interviewed on TV and the experts funded them. I sent them my business plan because I had nothing to lose. Then, about two or three months later, I got a letter from the television company saying whilst I did not win the chance to come on TV, I did come in the final 20, and the final 20 got a guaranteed business loan from Barclay's Bank for 10,000 pounds, which in 1980 was probably equivalent to $150,000 now. I had to go back to the same bank manager who refused to give me a loan previously, and he laughed and said, "I have no choice. I have to give you this loan now."

And you were able to finally build your pool?

We built a pool in the basement of the house, which was an engineering miracle. The back of the house was the reception, cafe, snack area, with changing rooms. We lived in the front of the house. The business started off with an absolute bang. We took 100 bookings the first day. And it's still there, still going. My ex-husband is still running it. We're on the second, probably not far from the third generation we're teaching.

But you got divorced and left England and your business for the United States? Why did you decide to do that?

I got on a plane with a suitcase and said, "I'm taking off for a year, and I'll see what happens after that." Sometimes things don't work out and the best way to change them is to put distance between you, and that's what I did. I was married very young and having never been on my own, I didn't know how life would be for me. But I knew I had to change things, and my boys were grown and had their own life. It was time to move on.

I had no money. For me to get my money out of Britain, I would have had to make my ex sell the house and business, and honestly I did not want to do that -- it would have been a devastating thing for him, and it just wasn't that kind of divorce. I literally just left it all.

How did you start over again here?

I had developed a method of teaching, and America was so advanced, I couldn't imagine it not being here, but I couldn't find it. So the germ of developing the business here began that first year, and the next step was to figure out how I could do that legally. My husband and I decided we could use the route of opening a subsidiary of the Swim School I had in England over here. I found a fitness center that was opening and joined with them and began a swim school there with 17 children, and by the middle of the summer had 300. So we burst into action again. Once you prove to the government that you are viable and employ Americans for a year, you can get [a green card].

And how did America treat you as an entrepreneur as compared to Britain?

It's very, very different. If you were entrepreneurial and a woman in the '80s in England, it was an oddity -- you were regarded as strange. People here admire the entrepreneurial spirit. They admire success and strong women. Doing things here once I was a legal citizen was a tremendously different experience. I don't know what it's like there today, but if you showed signs of success there back then, people would think, she's got a big head. If you show signs of success here today, people think, wow, isn't she great.

When did you decide to franchise?

About three years ago. We moved into a couple locations, one in Maryland and two in New Jersey, and it was difficult to control the locations. We came to realize that ownership is the only way to make this successful and would be a positive way to make these locations that we had work so much better. I hope that young people who love swimming will know there is a great business they can afford, where they can enjoy going to work every day.

And now you get to see kids experience the same joy you felt as a kid?

Absolutely. I see that almost daily, when a child realizes he can swim. I recently went out to monitor a class and there was a 3-year-old boy who had been coming two weeks and he was miserable, not a happy camper at all. I just happened to be there to watch this little boy's face as he realized, "I can do this." The light switch went off that this is great, not horrible. It was lovely. It took me back to that feeling. You can't change human nature. Every generation has the feeling it's reacting differently to the world, but there are certain things in life that never change.

We are so fortunate in our industry. I don't know of anything else like it, where there is a definite line of not being able to do it to doing it. Seeing that is what feeds you.

Do you go out in the water and experience that joy of swimming yourself?

I get in the water when I'm stressed, when I'm happy, when I'm tired. If you can submerge me and let me swim for half an hour, it's fantastic. I don't think there's anything in the world quite like it. I've never lost my love for it ever.

Entrepreneur Spotlight

Name: Rita Goldberg
Company: British Swim School
Age: "60-something"
Location: Sunrise, Fla.
Founded: 1981 in the United Kingdom, 1994 in the United States
Employees: 30-40 corporate employees, 2 franchisees
2012 Projected Revenues: $2.2 million
Website: www.britishswimschool.com

If you thought finding a fly in your soup was enough to turn you off your meal, try finding a maggot in your canned mushrooms or caterpillar remains in your spinach salad. Just about everyone has heard a horror story when it comes to food and insects, and part of that might be thanks to relaxed policies when it comes creepy crawlers and governmental food agencies.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the body overseeing the protection of public health by assuring the safety and security of food consumed in America. However, due to what's described as by Organic Gardening as "a lax food-safety loophole," the FDA permits a certain degree of insects, such as worms or aphids, so long as their presence doesn't compromise the aesthetic quality of the food.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has some rules about labels when it comes to bugs and food with which produce can be sold. For example, for cabbage, 10 aphids on a head can still equal a no.1 grading during inspection, but any presence of worms on an edible portion of the head bumps a crop down to a no.2 grading.

Here's a compilation of the eight bugs you might be unintentionally eating according to the FDA's "The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods that present no health hazards for humans" guide. Story continues below:

TEXT VERSION OF SLIDESHOW HERE

In some countries, the consumption of insects is a common practice, since they're an excellent source of affordable protein. However, many people aren't quite ready for dinning on mealworms sautéed in a marinara sauce or flies instead of french fries. Back in 2008, Vancouver's Vij's, recently rated Canada's best restaurant by Vacay.ca, made headlines for offering cricket paratha . The crickets were ground and used as flour for the paratha, an Indian flatbread. Most recently, Starbucks announced that they would stop using a dye made out of ground-up beetles for their drinks.

To best avoid an unappetizing surprise when it comes to your food, take the time to inspect any produce while shopping and give all fruits and vegetables a thorough rinse just before cooking.

SLIDESHOW TEXT VERSION:

• If you thought aphids were only a threat to your tulips and roses, think again. The number of whole aphids that the FDA deems permissible varies from vegetable to vegetable. On the low end, you can expect about 30 whole aphids/100 grams in Brussels sprouts and about 60 of the little buggers in frozen broccoli.
• Also known as thunderblights or corn lice, thrips are winged pests and are about a millimetre in length. They feed by sucking out the nutrients in the vegetables you'd find in a frozen vegetable mixture. You can expect to find no more than 50 of them in every 100 grams of canned or frozen spinach or in a package of sauerkraut.
• There's a good chance that you'll be able to spot if your food is laced with velvet mites since they're bright red (see photo), but you might have trouble with their cousin, the white mite. The white mite can often be found in grains, but has also been known to make its way into frozen vegetables too. Expect to find no more than 75 of them in your canned mushrooms.
• Unless you're a Casu marzu connoisseur, the thought of maggots in your food is enough to make you throw up. If so, you'd best pass up canned mushrooms, which allow 20 maggots for every 100 grams of drained mushrooms, according to FDA standards.
• There's a good chance you've seen a fruit fly before, buzzing around a fruit basket or a wine glass left out too long. There's also a good chance that you've been ingesting these flies with your fruit juice, since there's about five flies in every 1 cup of juice.
• If you've ever wanted a reason to buy dried black-eyed peas instead of the canned variety, thank the Cowpea curculio. It's a type of larva that eventually grows into a small brown weevil, and there's about five of them in every can of peas.
• You'd think it would be hard to miss out on something like a caterpillar in your food, but just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there. Such is the case with spinach, which can be dotted with caterpillar larvae and larval fragments.
• The next time you're shucking corn, keep an eye out for the corn ear worm, which fortunately doesn't go for the kernel, but rather, the silk in the husk. You'll also want to double-check canned corn since these worms tend to leave traces of their skin and larvae where ever they go.

By Scicurious
(Click here for the original article)

Only a few weeks ago I looked at a study on fast food consumption and depression, and only a few days ago I talked about a brand new study looking at high fat diets and protection from heart attack damage. And today, we’ve got another study on high fat diet, this time in mice, and depressive-like behavior. What is the effect of a high fat diet? Well, it appears to be getting more complicated with each new study.

But it this study, at least, it looks like diet-induced obesity might produce depressive-like effects in mice. But how the diet is doing that is not so well defined.

Sharma and Fulton. “Diet-induced obesity promotes depressive-like behaviour that is associated with neural adaptations in brain reward circuitry” International Journal of Obesity, 2012.

Several studies in humans have found a correlation between obesity and the development of depression. But it’s important to keep in mind that correlation is not causation. Many people who become obese also have other things going on (socioeconomic status, family history, comorbid disorders) which can influence the development of depression. In order to determine if obesity itself is causing depression, you first have to deliberately cause obesity in a controlled population.

And this is where mice come in. Using a specialty high fat and high sugar diet, Sharma and Fulton fed up a set of mice for 12 weeks, until they were significantly fatter than control mice. They then looked at behavioral tests for anxiety and depression.

What you can see above are different behavioral tests. The top two panels represent the elevated plus maze, a plus shaped design with two open arms and two closed arms. Mice prefer to stay in the closed arms of the maze, because they prefer darkness and small spaces. The more anxious a mouse is, the more time he will spend in the closed arms. In this case, the mice fed on a high-fat diet spent more time in the closed arms of the maze.

In the second set of bars, the open field, the findings were similar. The mouse is placed in a large open field. He will usually stay out of the center, preferring the more protected edges and corners. The more anxious a mouse is, the more he will stay to the edges of the field. Again, the high-fat diet mice stayed on the edges more than normal mice suggesting that high-fat diets make mice more anxious.

However, anxiety tests are not depression. For their main depression measure (the bottom set of bars), the authors used the forced swim test, where a mouse is placed in a bucket of water and swims for a few minutes. After a while it will realize it can’t get out and begin to float, a sign of “behavioral despair”. Mice given antidepressants will swim more and float less, and mice showing depressive-like behavior will float more. In this case, the high fat diet mice floated more than control mice, which the authors suggest is depressive like behavior.

High-fat diet mice showed other alterations as well. Depressive-like behavior has been correlated in the past with changes in stress-responses, so the authors looked at the stress hormone corticosterone (which is cortisol in humans). High-fat diet mice showed slightly higher corticosterone, but much higher levels after stress, suggesting that they may be more sensitive to stress than normal mice.

The authors also looked at alterations in reward pathways like the nucleus accumbens and striatum, and found significant changes. Though changes in these areas are not usually correlated with depressive-like behavior, they have been shown in other high fat studies and are thought to relate to differences in how animals eating high fat diets process rewards.

From these data the authors conclude that their high-fat diet obesity produced depressive-like behavior. And while I think the preliminary data has potential, I also think there could be improvements.

First off, they did not look at other tests of depressive-like behavior in mice, such as sucrose drinking or novelty-induced hypophagia. The forced swim test could be confounded by the fact that fat mice might have a harder time swimming.

Secondly, I would have liked to see more work done in areas which are known to be correlated with depressive-like behavior. For example, chronic stress is associated with depressive-like behavior and decreases in neurogenesis, something which can be improved with antidepressants. Does a high-fat diet produce decreases in neurogenesis? Changes in reward-related areas are fine, but that’s only one aspect, and not really what people focus on for depressive-like behavior.

Third, I think I would like to see this study performed…before the mice are fat. They gave the diet for 12 weeks and got fat mice, and that’s fine, but this diet also begins to produce things like insulin resistance typical of type 2 diabetes. And previous studies have shown that type 2 diabetes is also associated with depressive-like behavior, which could influence their results. I wonder what would happen after 6 weeks of high fat diet, when they’ve had plenty of exposure but aren’t yet obese?

Finally, like any good scientist, I wonder: what is the mechanism? HOW exactly does a high fat diet or obesity lead to depressive behavior? Is it the corticosterone and stress levels? If so, how is a high fat diet influencing the HPA axis? If not, what else is changing? Dopaminergic systems and reward are nice but are certainly not the whole story. Future studies will have to tell. But it does make me wonder what a high fat and high sugar diet might be doing, and what exactly is going on.

Sharma, S., & Fulton, S. (2012). Diet-induced obesity promotes depressive-like behaviour that is associated with neural adaptations in brain reward circuitry International Journal of Obesity DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2012.48

I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 5 January. Ductal Carcinoma In Situ, or DCIS as it's known, is the fastest growing form of breast cancer today, thanks to new developments in mammography. But at Stage 0, level 1, it's also the smallest, earliest form. (This is a cancer that was, until recently, known as "pre-cancer".)

In an age of high-speed Internet, iPads and 5.9 billion mobile phone subscriptions, it's safe to say the online world has replaced the newspaper as the chief of the media landscape. But there's some good news for those in the print media industry: young people still read newspapers.

According to a data by GfK MRI, a German company specializing in media and consumer research in the United States, those between the ages of 18-24 are on track with adults when it comes to moderate newspaper reading.

Roughly 52 per cent of young adults are picking up newspapers at least once a month and at times, read the dead-tree edition of the news fourteen times a month, reports NPR. Yes, actually reading, as in not noticing newspapers on a table, not using newspapers to line bird cages and not using newspapers for paper-mâché art but reading newspapers for the sake of seeking new information.

SEE: Other uses for newspaper. Story continues below:

The data published also reveals that young adults remain on par with their older counterparts, except when it comes to heavy readership (those who read a newspaper at least 25 times a month) with only eight per cent of millennial doing so, compared to 20 per cent for adults.

The gap in readership still applies in Canada, with baby boomers holding onto 81 per cent of the total weekly readership, compared to millennials who only hold 74 per cent of the weekly total readership, according to the latest data from the Newspaper Audience Databank.

Despite the dominance of digital media, some millennials say that they’re attached to paper due to trust and ease of use, noted a separate 2011 study by TRU, a youth research group. The study found that: 65 per cent of the 600 young adults surveyed said that "it is easier for me to view or read something on paper than to read it on a computer screen or some other tech device."

The first UK clinical trials of an electronic eye implant designed to restore the sight of blind people have proved successful and "exceeded expectations", scientists said today.

Eye experts developing the pioneering new technology said the first group of British patients to receive the electronic microchips were regaining "useful vision" just weeks after undergoing surgery.

The news will offer fresh hope for people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP) - a genetic eye condition that leads to incurable blindness.

Retina Implant AG, a leading developer of subretinal implants, fitted two RP sufferers with the wireless device in mid-April as part of its UK trial.

The patients were able to detect light immediately after the microchip was activated, while further testing revealed there were also able to locate white objects on a dark background, Retina Implant said.

Ten more British sufferers will be fitted with the devices as part of the British trial, which is being led by Tim Jackson, a consultant retinal surgeon at King's College Hospital and Robert MacLaren, a professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford and a consultant retinal surgeon at the Oxford Eye Hospital.

They said: "We are excited to be involved in this pioneering subretinal implant technology and to announce the first patients implanted in the UK were successful.

"The visual results of these patients exceeded our expectations. This technology represents a genuinely exciting development and is an import step forward in our attempts to offer people with RP a better quality of life."

The patients will undergo further testing as they adjust to the 3mm by 3mm device in the coming months.

Robin Millar, 60, form London, is one of the patients who has been fitted with the chip along with 1,500 electrodes, which are implanted below the retina.

The music producer said: "Since switching on the device I am able to detect light and distinguish the outlines of certain objects which is an encouraging sign.

"I have even dreamt in very vivid colour for the first time in 25 years so a part of my brain which had gone to sleep has woken up!

"I feel this is incredibly promising for future research and I'm happy to be contributing to this legacy."

The subretinal implant technology has been in clinical trials for more than six years with testing also taking place in Germany. Developers are planning to seek commercial approval following the latest phase of testing.

David Head, head of charity RP Fighting Blindness, said: "The completion of the first two implants in the UK is very significant and brings hope to people who have lost their sight as a result of RP."

RP is an inherited condition which gets worse over time and affects one in every 3,000-4,000 people in Europe.

We've had the girls, now it's time for the men behind bars to to shine.

The vote has been taken on the top 50 most beautiful women in prison, and it would simply be shallow not to give the boys a look in.

They may be in the Big House but these guys all seem hell bent on making the most of their time. They're exercising, studying and looking to make new friends.

In the number one spot, we present Shaunte Oliver, a 31-year-old chess player who is looking for someone "to share smiles with".

Fluent in Spanish and "a lil Hebrew", Shaunte wants to know what inspires you. In second place is Cody Jonas, who asks "Are you willing to take my hand as I travel this lonely journey?".

Scroll down for a gallery of the best looking men behind bars, as voted by Huffington Post UK

SEE ALSO:

• Meet-An-Inmate.Com: Ranker Rates Top Most Beautiful Women Behind Bars (PICTURES)

• FHM 100 Sexiest Women In The World: Tulisa Crowned Winner (PHOTOS)

• FHM 100 Sexiest Women In The World 2012: Party (PHOTOS)
• After FHM Names Tulisa Sexiest Woman In The World... Here's The 100 Sexiest Women In Paintings

• Miss Travel Dating Website: Who Needs Money, Beautiful People Travel For Free!

• Sea Captain Date: Finding Love On The Ocean Online

The usual disclaimers apply but the site adds: "Even though these men and women are in prison, it doesn't mean that they are bad individuals. The majority of these inmates are fun, loving, clever, reliable, sexy and very passionate."

Arlen Bischke, who set up the site in 1988, does not recommend using the site to land a serious relationship.

In the FAQ section of the site, he admits: "The odds of everything working out are slim. There are just too many obstacles. I recommend the site for a friend/pen pal basis. It can be a lot of fun writing an inmate. I recommend not to send money to inmates.

"These men and women are inmates and are usually in prison for good reason. This is meet-an-inmate.com, not meet-a-girl-scout.com!"

The site also points out inmates do not have access to the internet, and that all correspondence is via the US Mail.

While the profiles featured do not include details of criminal convictions, that information can be found at Free Inmate Locator.

Courtesy of meet-an-inmate.com, we present the top 50 hottest men behind bars.

Test Drive: Each week, the Huffington Post Canada's Living team will try out something that has sparked our curiosity, and as long as we live to tell the tale, we'll let you know all about it.

The Contender: LeRoy's Gourmet Flavored Ketchup

Cost: Approximately $6 each

What It Is: Figuring Heinz et al had the classic ketchup market cornered, LeRoy's, a Milwaukee-based company, set out to innovate. They concocted flavours such as Dill & Celery, Homemade Chili, Mustard & Spice, Smokey Mesquite and Beer & Onion (two additional flavours, Crispy Bacon and Ghost Pepper & Aged Cheddar came out earlier in 2012).

Available in select stores in the U.S., and hoping to arrive in Canada this summer, the ketchups are meant for anything from fries to burgers to chips -- or any other recipe incorporating this favoured condiment.

So, did these ketchup chemists come up with a winner or are these the New Coke of the condiment world?

Putting It To The Test: Curious about the flavoured condiments trend taking off, 16 intrepid writers and editors from HuffPost Canada hustled to the kitchen to taste some ketchup.

They slathered the red stuff over Hero Burger fries and went to town, scoring each sauce on a scale of one to five.

Click through the slideshow to see check out the buzz.

Judges' Scores:

Dill & Celery:
Score: 2.8 - opinions landed on both sides of the spectrum
Comments:
"Dill not so hot when paired with tomato..."
"The dill is very distinguishable and certainly stands out... Delicious, or should I say dillicious?"
"If I wanted celery, I'd have the real thing ;(."

Homemade Chili:
Score: 2.5 - smack in the middle, without any true love
Comments:
"Too paprika-y"
"Love spicy stuff and this was fine. Could've been spicier."

Mustard & Spice:
Score: 3.4 - creeping towards the upwards end of the scale
Comments:
"Now I don't have to mix ketchup and mustard!"
"Nice taste overall. Reminds me of Pogo Sticks or hot dogs at the ball game = good times!"

Smokey Mesquite:
Score: 4.1 - almost unequivocal love from everyone
Comments:
"Strong smokey notes up front with a hint of mesquite that lingered pleasantly!"
"Just the right amount of liquid smoke made this one addictive."
"Yummm" (Editor's note: With three 'm's!)

Beer & Onion:
Score: 2.6 - a taste that came as a surprise to many
Comments:
"Rather offensive. I love beer and onions, just not together!"
"Fave - super awesome - would go well with what ketchup actually goes with."
"Tastes like neither beer nor onion. But is that the worst breath combo ever or what?"

The Verdict:
Smokey Mesquite!
The BBQ-licious ketchup was the biggest crowd-pleaser by far and away.
Sorry, Homemade Chili. We're shelving you.

Have a suggestion for a Test Drive? Tried something you loved or hated? Let us know on Twitter at @HuffPostCaLiv, or in the comments below.

Bosses at the UK's first privately-run NHS general hospital have insisted they will improve standards despite claims that they will need to make "eye-watering" savings, amid criticism from unions about the scale of profits they could make.

The statement from the chief executive of Circle, the company in charge of Hinchingbrooke Health Care Trust in Cambridgeshire, comes as the Health Service Journal (HSJ) publishes a report today saying the hospital will need to make surpluses of at least £70 million over the next decade if it is to clear its debts and meet Circle's contracted share.

A letter deposited in the House of Commons library by Earl Howe, a junior health minister, and uncovered by the
HSJ, details for the first time the terms of the deal to hand running of the hospital to Circle.

A statement from the HSJ said: "The first £2 million of any year's surplus goes to Circle; the company then takes a quarter of surpluses between £2 million and £6 million, and a third of surpluses between £6 million and £10 million.

"The terms mean the trust, which has an annual income of around £100 million, will need to make a surplus of at least £70 million to clear its debts. 44% of that money would go to Circle."

Circle began its 10-year management franchise at the struggling Huntingdon-based hospital in February in what is seen as a potential model for other hospitals across the country.

Christina McAnea, head of health at Unison, called on the company to stick to assurances that it would not take a profit until debts are paid off.

She said: "Any surpluses should be going directly into improving patient care or paying off the hospital's debt, securing its future for local people - not ploughed into making company profits.

"Instead patients and staff are facing drastic cuts.

"The hospital was already struggling, but the creep in of the profit motive means cuts will now be even deeper.

"Whilst this hospital was the first to be transferred into private hands, it may not be the last."

Ali Parsa, chief executive of Circle, did not comment on the scale of possible cuts but said the management team was committed to improving service and would not "share the rewards" until this goal had been achieved.

Mr Parsa said: "Projections in the bid process showed the potential losses facing Hinchingbrooke in the coming years could reach many tens of millions.

"We have been tasked to stop taxpayers losing this money.
"Our plan is not only to do this and make the hospital sustainable, but to turn it into one of the best district general hospitals in the country.

"Only when we succeed in our ambitious goal will there be rewards to share fairly between our partnership, which includes Hinchingbrooke staff, our start-up backers and the local health economy.

"Circle has always re-invested profits back into building our partnership and services, and will continue to do so."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said that, had the deal with Circle not been agreed, Hinchingbrooke Hospital may have had to close.

She added: "Far from simply making a profit, Circle have already set out that they plan to repay the trust's past deficit of £39m.

"Not only are they heavily incentivised to do this by receiving a share of any surplus over £2 million, but they must also fund the first £5 million of any losses while they are managing the trust.

"Any fee that Circle receives isn't all profit - Circle must meet the ongoing cost of delivering the deal and indeed any costs they incurred in bidding for the contract.

"This process, which was started under the previous Government, will deliver improved patient care and will put the hospital on a sustainable financial footing for the future."

More than 200 confirmed cases of measles on Merseyside have contributed to the worst outbreak of the disease since 1988, according to the Health Protection Agency.

The independent body said there have been 214 laboratory-confirmed cases since January, while 92 probable cases are being investigated.

It is the worst outbreak in the metropolitan area since the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine was introduced in 1988 and at least 39 of the confirmed cases have needed treatment in hospital.

Half the cases registered on Merseyside so far this year are children under the age of five, with another 30% aged 15 or over.

The majority of the confirmed cases have been in Liverpool and neighbouring areas such as Knowsley and Sefton.

Measles is a "very infectious" illness which spreads quickly among children and adults who are not vaccinated, and can
lead to serious complications and, on rare occasions, death.

Symptoms include fever, cough, a runny nose, red eyes and a red rash.

Dr Roberto Vivancos, a consultant with the Health Protection Agency in Cheshire and Merseyside, said: "It is obvious from these statistics that people who are not fully vaccinated are not just at risk themselves, but they pose an infection risk to others, such as defenceless babies and toddlers who are too young to be vaccinated.

"Measles should not be treated lightly, but it is an avoidable illness and we strongly advise parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated.

"Our advice to unprotected teenagers and young adults is to arrange vaccination through your family doctor. It is never too late to be vaccinated."

The average time most doctors spend with their patients during each visit is just 20 minutes, according to 2009 estimates by the National Center for Health Statistics. And a survey last year by health care consultant group Press Ganey determined that before patients even get in to see a doctor, they've waited an average of 23 minutes.

But while health care professionals have offered advice on how to minimize waits and how to make the most of your one-on-one time with a doctor, few have ever addressed a hurdle that many black patients may face -- racial bias.

In a study published in a March issue of the American Journal of Public Health, researchers found that two-thirds of doctors harbored "unconscious" racial biases toward patients. When those biases were present, researchers found that doctors tended to dominate conversations with African-American patients, pay less attention to their personal and psychosocial needs and make patients feel less involved in making decisions about their health.

"It's been really extensively shown that minorities don't receive the same quality of health care as whites in the United States," said Lisa A. Cooper, M.D., M.P.H., a professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "I've been interested in the extent to which that is accounted for by the fact that a lot of minorities see physicians who are different from them culturally and racially, and that there might be some problems with cultural misunderstandings or miscommunication."

Preliminary research by Cooper and her team confirmed what experts have known for years, but her latest study sought to explain what is driving the biases and the disparity in care that happens as a result. She also said she hoped the study would uncover ways in which doctors and patients can work together to help close the gap in quality of care.

In the study, Cooper first measured doctors' attitudes about race, which she said may mimic those of the general population. Physicians in the study were asked to complete two versions of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a computer-based tool that measures how quickly a participant associates good or bad words with people of each race. If an individual associates the good words with a particular race at a faster rate, that person is considered to have a subconscious preference toward the race, Cooper explains. The second version of the IAT asked physicians to assign words to each race that represent medical compliance and reluctance. Researchers also analyzed the audio recordings of doctor-patient visits and issued patients a questionnaire after their appointment.

What the study revealed -- that the doctors had a moderate implicit bias against blacks and more strongly associated whites with compliance -- was perhaps most surprising to the doctors themselves, who thought they harbored no preference for blacks over whites and had overall positive attitudes about race.

"These doctors work in the inner city [of Baltimore], for the most part, and are interested in providing care to minority and socially disadvantaged patients, so these doctors are not racist," Cooper said. "They're not people who consciously have negative attitudes towards minorities."

John Hoberman, professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas and author of "Black & Blue: The Origins and Consequences of Medical Racism," said he disagrees. "Mainstream American medicine has absorbed traditional racial stereotypes about African Americans and produced misguided interpretations of black children, elderly black people, black athletes, black pain thresholds and other aspects of black minds and bodies," he said.

For Hoberman, the medical community is in denial about its biased attitude, and black patients are continuing to pay the price. "The American medical establishment does not readily absorb either historical or current information about medical racism," he said. For this reason, he added, "racial enlightenment will not reach medical schools until the current race-aversive curricula include new historical and sociological perspectives."

Medical school is precisely where another group of John's Hopkins researchers say subconscious biases toward patients are bred. A study they published last year showed that medical students may actually “learn” to treat nonwhite patients differently than white patients by way of medical school itself.

But regardless of how and why these biases come about, the impact they have on those precious 20 minutes patients get with a doctor is key. Indeed, a recent University of Washington study found that subconscious racial bias influenced the type of pain medication pediatricians chose for hypothetical African-American patients.

When Shenekia Loud sought answers to her son's illness a few years ago, she said she received little support from the doctors she saw. "He was getting sicker and sicker until he ended up in a DKA state and a coma," she said, explaining that her son had been misdiagnosed for Type 1 diabetes. She said her diligence as a mom and a pre-med student ultimately saved her son's life.

Loud's experience with the medical community prompted her to start her own health care concierge company, a group of health care advocates that she said are on hand to explain what a patient is feeling or experiencing when a lack of knowledge or cultural barriers get in the way.

Making doctors aware of their bias is the most effective approach to improving health care, Dr. Cooper said, though she does make the following recommendations for patients:

• Speak up. When presented with the findings of their subconscious racial bias toward patients, many of the doctors in Cooper's study said they were unaware it had actually dictated the way they acted. Many planned to be more aware about lecturing patients, talking slowly to them or giving little attention to their social and emotional needs. Cooper recommends stepping in when it feels like doctors might be checking out.
• Assume the best. Cooper stresses the word "unconscious" in her research and said that while there was a 15 percent drop in levels of respect when patients experienced bias of some kind, "trust levels and ratings of respect were pretty high across the board." That, she said, might indicate that "unconscious" bias is not the same as ill intent.

Welcome to "You Tried It," a series of video posts from top trainers, who will share clips from their popular workout DVDs. Please try the moves outlined in the clip above and tell us what you think in the comments!

You might be familiar with our popular series, "We Tried It" in which Healthy Living editors try one of the myriad fitness classes on offer in New York City -- from the wacky to the hardcore. We have so much fun and we want to bring the fun to you as well.

Jill Miller, a yoga and fitness therapy expert and the creator of Yoga Tune Up, released a series of "Quickfix Rx" DVDs with solutions for achy knees, sore shoulders and more. In this clip, she demonstrates moves to stretch and elongate your neck. Try it out and let us know what you think.

Do you do yoga regularly? Would you add the video to your repertoire?

By Rose Eveleth
(Click here for the original article and podcast)

Sound and touch may seem completely separate, except possibly when playing the game Operation. But it turns out that the two senses are actually quite entwined: a new study finds that people with hearing issues often also have problems with touch.

Researchers compared sets of twins, some identical and some fraternal. The identical twins, obviously, have the same genome and thus the same mutations. The fraternal twins have genetic differences. Other subjects in the study were congenitally deaf.

To determine how acute their hearing was, the subjects reported whether they could hear various high frequencies. To evaluate touch they were asked to differentiate different surfaces with their fingertips. 

The research revealed that touch sensitivity was highly heritable and connected closely with hearing ability. The better the twins could sense touch, the better they could hear, and vice versa. One in five subjects that had congenital deafness also had a poor sense of touch. The research is in the journal Public Library of Science Biology. [Henning Frenzel et al., "A Genetic Basis for Mechanosensory Traits in Humans"]

Next the researchers want to figure out which genes are faulty. After all, addressing the problem could kill two birds with one stone.

Quebec lovers of lingerie rejoice! Victoria's Secret has finally announced they will be opening a store in your province.

Set to open this summer, the 11,000 square foot store will be located in the Carrefour Laval Shopping Centre in Laval. The store will feature a wide assortment of the brand's signature bras, panties and sleepwear as well as their much-coveted swimwear and beauty lines.

Some 2,650 square feet of the store will be dedicated to Victoria's Secret PINK collection -- a collegiate-inspired line of undergarments and loungewear.

The Victoria’s Secret Carrefour Laval location will open on August 30, at 3035 Boul, Le Carrefour. Regular store hours will be Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

For more info, click here.

Check out some scenes from Victoria's Secret's 2011 Fashion Show.

Patricia Krentcil, the New Jersey mom who is accused of letting her 5-year-old daughter go in a tanning booth, is pleading not guilty to the charges, according to news reports.

"My client is 150 percent innocent," Krentcil's attorney, John D. Caruso, told CBS News. "That child was never in that tanning booth."

The case is prompting new attention to "tanorexia" -- an addiction to tanning -- that some speculate Krentcil, 44, may have, ABC News reported. The owner of the tanning salon that Krentcil reportedly frequented said that the mom tanned about 20 times a month, and about five days a week.

Dermatologist Dr. Joshua Zeichner, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, explained the situation to the the New York Daily News:

Going to a tanning salon 20 times a month, frankly, is insane, especially with all of the public education and awareness campaigns on the dangers of tanning beds and skin cancers. It may be she has an addiction to tanning, which actually now has a name — tanorexia. She may need help to treat not only the damage to her skin, but also what is going on with her psychologically.

When a person tans, the skin undergoes cell damage from ultraviolet radiation (whether from the sun, or from a tanning bed). This radiation can lead to skin cancer, not to mention physical effects like wrinkles and brown spots, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

The Skin Cancer Foundation reported that indoor tanning is extremely dangerous, with indoor tanners having a 74 percent increased risk of developing melanoma, compared with people who've never set foot in an indoor tanning machine.

Tanning can actually be addictive, in that it produces brain chemicals called endorphins that provoke feelings of happiness, WebMD explained. The web publication cited a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study, showing that when these endorphins are blocked in people who frequently tan, they actually experience feelings of withdrawal like shakes and nausea.

"Addicts live in constant fear of fading," Dr. Amy Wechsler, New York-based dermatologist and psychiatrist, told WebMD. "Suddenly they feel fatter, older, even sicker. It explains the extremes they go to to keep it up."

TIME reported on a 2010 study in the journal Archives of Dermatology, which explored the link between tanning and addiction. The researchers found that every single one of the college students they surveyed who reported themselves as heavy tanning bed users knew about the skin cancer risks from tanning, yet 98 percent of them said that the knowledge of those risks didn't stop them from tanning.

"If tanning results in relaxation and reduced anxiety, this behavior would tend to be repeated -- similar to meditation or yoga for other people," Dr. Thomas Weigel, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, told TIME, adding, "there is logic to the correlation between 'tanning addiction' and anxiety."

For more on Krentcil's case, watch the ABC News video above.

Mothers come in all different shapes and sizes. They each have their own personalities and quirks. So why is it okay to gift them the same things (like flowers or chocolates) to show them you care?

And, hello: not everyone likes bedazzled Hello Kitty cellphone covers (like your friend's mom did last year).

For unique Mother's Day finds that will put a smile on your mom's face, check out the 20 items below.

SAN FRANCISCO — Lab workers at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs medical center will be urged to get vaccinations for the diseases they study as a precaution as investigators continue looking into a researcher's death after he handled a rare strain of bacteria, officials said Thursday.

Richard Din, the meningitis research associate who died Saturday in a possible lab exposure, wasn't vaccinated for the illness despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to the contrary. Nonetheless, the VA's Harry Lampiris said a vaccine may not have protected Din, 25, because he was helping to develop a vaccine for a meningitis strain resistant to vaccine.

Lampiris also said about 70 people who came into contact with Din recently – including family members, co-workers and medical personnel who treated him – received antibiotic treatments that are "100 percent effective" in combatting infection.

Din, who lived on San Francisco's Treasure Island, fell ill with a headache and other flu-like symptoms about two hours after leaving work Friday evening, Lampiris said.

He awoke Saturday feeling worse and with a rash all over his body, and he was rushed to the VA hospital by friends.

Lampiris said Din lost consciousness in the car and died in the hospital of a heart attack at about 2 p.m. The vaccine-resistant strain of bacteria was found in his bloodstream.

Lampiris said it is unclear how Din was exposed to the bacteria because he had a reputation as a safe, by-the-book research associate at the VA hospital's Northern California Institute for Research and Education. Lampiris said lab workers are expected to wear gloves and gowns, and they do their work behind a protective "safety cabinet," or hood, while isolating the bacteria.

"He was an excellent lab worker and very fastidious," said Lampiris, chief of infectious disease at the San Francisco VA research institute. Lampiris said there were no signs of spills or mechanical failure in the lab where Din worked, which was decontaminated and temporarily closed pending investigations.

Officials with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration have opened a joint investigation into Din's death. The CDC is researching whether the bacterial strain found in Din's bloodstream is the same strain he worked with in the lab.

Cal-OSHA spokeswoman Erika Monterroza said her office has six months to conclude its investigation and can levy fines if workplace regulations were violated.

"We're very early in the process," she said.

So-called laboratory-acquired infections are "rare occurrences," according to CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. But they do happen.

According to a 2005 paper published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology – the most recent study of its kind – 16 cases of probable laboratory-acquired meningitis occurred worldwide between 1985 and 2001, and eight of them were fatal.

Other infections also occur, including a Chicago researcher who died in 2009 after exposure to bacteria that causes the plague, and a University of Illinois student who came down with a mild case of cow pox the next year after a laboratory exposure. The CDC reported last year that 73 people in 35 states were infected with salmonella in lab-associated incidents between August 2010 and March 2011.

The CDC also reported to Congress that seven researchers were infected with a so-called "select agent" between 2003 and 2009. Select agents include dangerous pathogens such as small pox and anthrax but not meningitis.

"Laboratory-acquired infection represents an occupational hazard unique to laboratory workers, especially those in the microbiology laboratory," Kamaljit Singh of Chicago's Rush University Medical Center concluded in a 2009 scientific paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Singh estimated that 500,000 lab workers handle dangerous germs in the United States.

So you're at home working hard, and you hear these strange noises coming from the window.

You go over and what you see, you're totally not expecting: two raccoons going at it!

That's what happened to this guy, who's got it all on tape in a video going viral.

Boy, were these two critters sheepish when they got busted -- but nonetheless they didn't change position!

Click here to get the new issue of 2 For Couples!

SEE: More shots of animal love:

If you love watching the calm, sea waves swishing around your feet on holiday, you could soon experience this blissful feeling by swapping your sunbed with an actual bed - as a Dubai hotel is set to takes on a new design challenge.

This sci-fi spaceship-shaped ‘Water Discus Hotel’, imagined by a team of designers from the Deep Ocean Technology (DOT) group, will be aimed at sea-loving holidaymakers who’ll have the ocean at their feet (literally).

While this would not be the first hotel to dream up the 'underwater room' concept (the Rangali Island Resort in Maldives got there first), they would be the first to offer more than one under-the-sea bedrooms.

Rooms will also contain special lighting that illuminates the sea life on the other side of the window, allowing guests to see even the tiniest fish and creatures.

The hotel itself will appear to be half-submerged in the sea and guests will be able to stay in rooms up to 10 metres below sea level.

“Water Discus Hotels comprise two discs - an underwater and above-water one. This combination will allow guests to admire the depths of the ocean while making the most of the warm climate,” states the DOT website.

“The two parts of the structure are connected by three solid legs and a vertical shaft containing a lift and stairway. The size of each disc has been adjusted to local conditions.”

The company say the design has been “inspired by ageless dreams - created by modern technology”, and they hope to make it a reality soon.

“People have wanted not only to sail across the seas but also to explore the depths of the oceans since time immemorial. Today, the advent of new technology made the heart of the ocean a setting not only for diving, but also for luxurious holidays. Now the innovative concept of Water Discus Hotels makes it all possible.”

Would you like to sleep in an underwater bed?