New York Fashion Week starts Thursday, and there will be more on display than new fabrics and color combinations. The runway shows will be the first to take place under an updated set of health initiatives for models, which was released last month by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The guidelines attempt to address the “overwhelming concern about whether some models are unhealthily thin, and whether or not to impose restrictions in such cases.” The new guidelines say models should be at least 16 years old to participate in a show. It also encourages greater awareness of the risks and signs of eating disorders. Backstage at the fashion shows should be tobacco-free and also address underage drinking by prohibiting alcohol, according to the guidelines.  Models who may have an eating disorder should seek professional help and should not continue modeling unless they have a professional’s approval, according to health initiative. “Designers share a responsibility to protect women, and very young girls in particular, within the business, sending the message that beauty is health,” according to a statement signed by CFAD’s Diane von Furstenberg and Steven Kolb. The health initiative also urges more education about the warning signs of eating disorders – workshops for the industry on how the disorders arise and treatment. It will not be policing different runway shows; the purpose is to bring “awareness, education, and safety,” according to the statement. The council’s guidelines also say that nutrition and fitness education should be provided, and that healthy meals, snacks, and water should be available backstage and at shoots. The National Eating Disorders Association commended the council for taking the models’ health into consideration, but it says the measures don’t go far enough. “Although these guidelines are good ‘suggestions,’ no real health protections exist in this industry for those under 18. That is particularly worrisome in an industry that is not only known for extreme thinness – in fact, it’s practically required – putting its models at dramatically increased risk of developing an illness that has the highest mortality rate of any other mental illness,” said Lynn Grefe, president and CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association. The fashion industry has been under criticism for perpetuating impossible standards of female beauty. Isabelle Caro , a former fashion model who posed in a provocative ad campaigning against anorexia died in November 2010 after a long battle with the eating disorder.  In 2007, an Israeli model, Hila Elmalich died weighing less than 66 pounds. Filed under: Body Image , Women’s Health Tagged: Madison Park – CNNhealth.com Writer/Producer

By Sarah I did it! Triathlon mission accomplished! Going in, I’d estimated I’d finish the whole thing in around 1:40. The part I was most nervous about was the swim, as I’ve only really just learned to swim this year and 400 meters (the race distance) still feels pretty long to me. But I told myself that the worst that can happen is I freak out, can’t control my breathing, and have to doggy paddle the whole way. I could survive that. On the morning of the race I got up super-early, ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and drank a cup of coffee. When I arrived at the race site I set up my bike on the rack and laid out my socks, shoes, heart rate monitor, shirt, sunglasses, and helmet—in that order. Next, I listened to a few rowdy songs to get myself pumped up, then headed down to the starting line on the beach. When the whistle blew I ran into the lake alongside 99 other people. I started swimming, but was really nervous and kept bumping into people. I gulped some water, freaked out, and, just as I’d feared, had to doggy paddle! But finally, about two thirds of the way through, I calmed myself down enough to swim the rest. Good thing I’d prepared myself! I shook it off (check out my post-swim race pic!) and the rest of the race was great. I biked really hard, so when I started my run I was very tired. I took it easy during the first half, allowing myself to recover a bit, then did the second half as fast as I could. I finished in 1:31! Then, as planned, I ate a cheeseburger. Delicious! Now I’m home and vacation is over and I am focusing hard on food. I’ve planned and shopped, and the key for this week is to limit the eating to structured meals and snacks and to write every single thing down. Given what I accomplished this week, I should be able to handle that!

We can’t all afford to go to luxurious health clubs with Olympic-sized pools, indoor tennis courts, and live DJs spinning during spin classes, so we learn to live with the basics. But here are some things that are absolute deal breakers when it comes to a gym, and if these sound all too familiar, it’s time to start shopping for a new one. You have to share your shower with soap scum, mildew, and spiders. You’ve seen more clothes worn by people at the beach than at your gym. Most of the equipment is older than your grandmother. Your locker is just big enough to fit one sneaker and a granola bar. When you tell a staff member they’re out of towels, they point to the dirty hamper and say, “No we’re not.” The only fitness class offered is taught by someone who constantly forgets to work your left side, sings along to Lady Gaga instead of calling out instructions, calls you fat for motivation, and chews gum while teaching. It’s so crowded that you have to put your name on a list to use a treadmill a week in advance. Your monthly membership costs more than your rent or mortgage. Every few months you’re greeted by a huge sign on the front door that reads, “Closed due to lice.” The place smells like a nasty combination of feet, B.O., flatulence, sweat, and rubber. Alright, some of these might be slight exaggerations, but if you’re thinking about switching gyms now is the time: many sports clubs offer discounts at the end of the year.

The Obama administration announced yesterday that a dozen more states have crossed the first big threshold in setting up health insurance exchanges — including seven of the states that are suing the administration to overturn the health-care law passed last year. Under the 2010 law, the state-run exchanges will be launched in 2014, opening a marketplace where private insurers compete to offer health plans to the uninsured and to small businesses. If a state hasn’t established a framework for the exchanges by 2013, the federal government will step in and run it. Some 26 states have challenged the law on constitutional grounds, and the Supreme Court is expected to decide the matter by the end of June. In the meantime, all but one state — Alaska — have taken federal money to plan their exchanges. Yesterday, the administration said 12 states had reached the next stage and have qualified for additional money. Seven of the states — Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan and Nebraska — are part of the Supreme Court challenge. The others that reached the threshold are Delaware, Hawaii, New Mexico, Tennessee and Vermont. Another 16 states reached this stage earlier in the year, including more who are participating in the challenge. Republican governors have faced tough choices over how far they want to cooperate with a law they oppose. The administration also said yesterday that states are eligible for grants even if they don’t expect to have their exchanges ready by 2014. That could be important next year if the Supreme Court upholds the exchanges, and if the 2012 elections favor Democrats for both the White House and state executive mansions. Image: iStockphoto

If you have short hair or short layers that won’t stay back in your ponytail, a headband is a must when working out. You can spend $12 on a good one, but you can also make one for yourself (or your fit friends and relatives) for under $2 and in less than 15 minutes. Keep reading to learn how. View Slideshow ›

You probably know that strength training is important, but do you know if you are strength training enough? Or how many days you should rest in order to give your muscles ample time to rest and repair? Before grabbing your dumbbells, read up on tips for starting a strength training routine safely. View Slideshow ›

It seems like just yesterday that Congress passed a one-year fix for Medicare reimbursement cuts. Unfortunately, time has flown, and we find ourselves back on the “doc fix” watch — though this year, there’s a 24.7% cut looming. (Last year, it was 20%; every time cuts are put off, cuts for the next potential round get bigger.) The current (and unsustainable) payment formula pegs the increase in Medicare reimbursement to the GDP. That’s problematic, since growth in health-care spending outstrips growth in GDP . Automatic cuts kick in if spending reaches a certain level. The deficit-reduction supercommittee, which wrapped up last week without an agreement on budget cuts, failed to find a long-term solution to the problem. As the Associated Press reports , Congress must act before Jan. 1 to keep physicians from facing the cuts, and their options include both one-year and two-year fixes. But they must be paid for — about $22 billion for the one-year and $35 billion for the two-year fix. And these are just patches until a far pricier permanent solution is found. We’ll keep tabs on the doc fix goings-on as the deadline approaches. Image: iStockphoto

Physically fit older men and women show fewer age-related changes in their brains, new research shows, buttressing medical evidence that regular exercise can preserve key parts of the brain involved in attention and memory. By analyzing aerobic fitness and neural differences, researchers at the University of Arizona found a clear relationship between exercise and healthier aging brains, they reported in a new study. The more physically fit the elderly person they studied, the fewer age-related brain changes the researchers could find. In all, they studied 58 men and 65 women between 50 and 89 years old, matching patterns of neural activation against performance on treadmill tests. “Better brain aging is associated with better physical fitness,” said psychologist Gene Alexander at the University of Arizona’s Brain Imaging, Behavior & Aging Laboratory, who led the study team. The research findings, presented this week at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., come amid a growing global epidemic of senior moments. In the U.S., a generation of 78 million baby boomers is turning 60 at the rate of about 8,000 a day. By 2025, those over 60 years old worldwide are expected to outnumber the young for the first time in history, according to United Nations population figures. All told, about 2 billion people are trying to cope with the normal neural side effects of aging. Even healthy brains progressively shrink with age. Genes linked to brain function become less active. As the sheathing of nerves thins, the normal electrical signaling of major neural circuits goes slightly haywire. For the elderly, a good night’s sleep also loses its restorative power as brain wave states are disrupted, new research shows. In recent years, researchers have highlighted how regular aerobic exercise can help stave off the mild cognitive failings of normal aging, and spur the growth of new neurons in areas associated with memory and learning. “Your level of physical fitness may be an important factor in delaying brain aging,” Alexander said. Photo: Bloomberg News

As the rains raged on in 1340s Europe, most of the crops rotted, leading to food shortages in a colder environment. Amidst the malnourished population, rodents, fleas and perhaps even lice were spreading a disease that had most likely never before infected humankind, and would wipe out up to half of Europe within five years. This is the vision of the Black Death that scientists put forth in a new study in the journal Nature . For the first time ever, they have reconstructed the genome of an ancient disease based on skeletal remains. They found out that the medieval plague is not so genetically different from its modern descendant, a disease that exists today in certain parts of the world. They are both caused by variations of the bacteria strain Yersinia pestis but the kind they discovered in the medieval remains appears to no longer exist . "They’re almost identical," said the study's senior author Johannes Krause of the University of Tübingen, Germany, at a press teleconference Tuesday. "Even a mother and a child show more [genetic] differences than the ancient Black Death strain and the modern plague strain." Researchers examined skeletons from East Smithfield  Cemetery in London, where approximately 2,500 Black Death victims were buried in mass graves. They looked at the inner pulp chamber of teeth of individuals buried at this site. That’s where there remains, even after hundreds of years, a dark black powdery material composed of dried blood and nerves. This is a gold mine for DNA excavators. The next step is separating the DNA of the disease from human DNA, other bacterial DNA and whatever else might be in there from the soil. They then used the modern version of the plague bacteria strain, Yersinia pestis, to look for its ancestor. They found the ancient Black Death strain in three individuals and a close variation in a fourth skull. It's expected that a pathogen will undergo mutations during an outbreak, Krause said. Researchers published their initial proof of concept in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August . This new study shows the nearly complete genetic reconstruction of the Black Death. The new evidence suggests that the Black Death was the first time plague had infected humans. That would mean Plague of Justinian in 541 A.D. may have been an entirely different pathogen. Alternatively, it could have been caused by an extinct strain of Yersinia pestis. The Black Death may have come from China and spread along the Silk Road to the ports of Italy and France, where it traveled throughout continental Europe. Most of the victims were poor, since many wealthy people fled to country homes and shielded themselves from the disease. People at that time had no idea what this disease was or how to treat it. But in later outbreaks, cultural adaptations helped lower virulence, Krause said. "They had developed quarantine, they had developed some kind of first aid and how to treat patients with the symptoms," he said. Today, there are about 2,000 cases per year, worldwide, on average, of the modern version of the plague. Rats and rat fleas, like in medieval times, seem to spread it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . And the World Health Organization has called it a "reemerging infectious disease.” Modern antibiotics can treat the plague today, and probably would have effectively controlled the outbreak of the Black Death, according to scientists. Unfortunately for millions of Europeans, tetracycline wasn’t invented until 1952.

Moving Forward: Pfizer and a group of researchers are waiting for permission to initiate a human study in the U.K. of a possible treatment for age-related macular degeneration that is derived from human embryonic stem cells, the WSJ reports . It’s a sign that research on the controversial cells is moving forward into actual clinical studies. Off Limits: A new California law says that if you’re a teenager, tanning beds will be off limits starting Jan. 1 — even if you have permission from your parents, Reuters reports . Gov. Jerry Brown yesterday signed a law banning minors from using the beds. No “Captive Supplier”: Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Rebien Sorensen defended his company’s 2010 stand-off with Greece over planned cuts to reimbursements for some insulin products, saying Novo couldn’t be a “captive supplier,” the WSJ reports . Novo and other pharma companies are facing tough negotiations over prices with cash-strapped governments, particularly in southern Europe. How it Differs: Florida’s health insurance exchange, which is set to launch in early 2012, differs in key ways from those to be offered under the health-care overhaul law, Kaiser Health News reports . It will focus on small businesses and won’t allow individuals to participate, won’t require plans to have a package of essential benefits and won’t issue subsidies or tax credits to those purchasing coverage. In addition, there would be participation fees for plans and insurance agents that participate in the exchange, KHN says. Image: iStockphoto