Jane Lynch has not sealed a deal with Disney to star in "The Muppets" movie

Jane Lynch has not sealed a deal with Disney to star in "The Muppets" movie. In contrary to recent news which said that she will portray a prison guard, the 50-year-old "Glee" actress claims she has not been

approached for the project yet.




"I'm not doing the Muppets movie. They haven't asked me," Lynch tells The Hollywood Reporter at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's 39th annual gala fundraiser on Saturday night, November 13. She, however, will not turn down the offer if she is given the chance, stating "I would do it if they asked me."




Starting rumor of Lynch's casting in "The Muppets" was The Wrap. Beside unveiling her alleged role, the site reported that Danny Trejo has been cast as a prisoner with Donald Glover landing a small role in the movie.Zach Galifianakis additionally has been said to portray a new character called Hobo Jo.




"The Muppets" is currently in production and Slash Film got its hand on some set pictures of the movie. The exclusive shots show Jim Henson Studios on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood which has been transformed into Muppet Studios, a real life movie studio where the Muppets used to film shows.




Starring Jason Segel who also writes the script along with Nicholas Stoller, the family comedy will follow a man named Gary, his girlfriend Mary and his life-long brown puppet best friend Walter who must round up and convince the now retired entertainers from the original Muppet Show to help save the famous television studio that the original variety series was filmed in. Villainous Tex Richman is due to take over the property, and wants to destroy the theater and drill for oil underneath.

Modern lifestyle & Vitamin D

Every cell in the body has a vitamin D receptor protein. It's estimated that upwards of 2,000 genes are directly or indirectly regulated by vitamin D.

It’s known that vitamin D is necessary for proper bone formation and maintenance. But recent decades have seen a torrent of studies suggesting that vitamin D can also affect many other aspects of health; some scientists have come to consider the daily recommended intake of 400 international units of vitamin D far too low. Michael Holick is a biochemist and endocrinologist at Boston University who has spent a career researching the effects of vitamin D (which is actually not a vitamin but a hormone precursor).

How much vitamin D do we need?

Children should be taking at least 400 to 1,000 international units of vitamin D as a supplement every day, and adults should take 1,500 to 2,000 IU.

What about pregnant or breast-feeding women?

We tested pregnant women who were taking a prenatal vitamin containing 400 IU of vitamin D each day and drinking two glasses of fortified milk, and found that 76 percent of them — and 81 percent of their newborns — were still vitamin D deficient at the time of giving birth. We also estimate that most breast-feeding women are vitamin D deficient, and they pass along deficient milk to their infants.

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased risks of infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, cognitive decline, Parkinson’s disease, asthma, mood disorders and even diabetes. Is there biological evidence to show how vitamin D could influence so many conditions?

Sure.
For example, we know that immune cells called macrophages activate vitamin D, which causes cells to make defensin proteins that specifically kill infective agents like tuberculosis bacteria. A Japanese study recently found that children receiving 1,200 IU of vitamin D each day reduced their risk of getting the flu by almost 50 percent. Every tissue and every cell in the body has a vitamin D receptor protein. It’s estimated that upwards of 2,000 genes are directly or indirectly regulated by vitamin D.

Have there been clinical trials showing the utility of vitamin D?

Absolutely. For instance, a trial of postmenopausal women showed that taking vitamin D over four years reduced their risk of cancer by 60 percent.




Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble secosteroids, the two major physiologically relevant forms of which are vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Vitamin D without a subscript refers to either D2 or D3 or both. Vitamin D3 is produced in the skin of vertebrates after exposure to ultraviolet B light from the sun or artificial sources, and occurs naturally in a small range of foods. In some countries, staple foods such as milk, flour and margarine are artificially fortified with vitamin D, and it is also available as a supplement in pill form.
Food sources such as fatty fish, mushrooms, eggs, and meat are rich in vitamin D and are often recommended for consumption to those suffering vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin D is carried in the bloodstream to the liver, where it is converted into the prohormone calcidiol. Circulating calcidiol may then be converted into calcitriol, the biologically active form of vitamin D, either in the kidneys or by monocyte-macrophages in the immune system. When synthesized by monocyte-macrophages, calcitriol acts locally as a cytokine, defending the body against microbial invaders.
When synthesized in the kidneys, calcitriol circulates as a hormone, regulating, among other things, the concentration of calcium and phosphate in the bloodstream, promoting the healthy mineralization, growth and remodeling of bone, and the prevention of hypocalcemic tetany. Vitamin D insufficiency can result in thin, brittle, or misshapen bones, while sufficiency prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults, and, together with calcium, helps to protect older adults from osteoporosis. Vitamin D also modulates neuromuscular function, reduces inflammation, and influences the action of many genes that regulate the proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of cells..

Dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement, is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantity in a person's diet. Some countries define dietary supplements as foods, while in others they are defined as drugs or natural health products.
Supplements containing vitamins or dietary minerals are included as a category of food in the Codex Alimentarius, a collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety. These texts are drawn up by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an organization that is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).


'17th century diseases' caused by low levels of vitamin D, is rearing its ugly head in Britain after 80 years, and modern lifestyle is to blame.

It is thought that extensive use of sunscreens, children playing computer games and watching TV rather than being outdoors and a poor diet are to blame.

Children from all backgrounds are being affected now and the disease is not limited to the poor as it was in Victorian times, reports the Telegraph.

Nicholas Clarke, professor of paediatric orthopaedic surgery at the University of Southampton in UK, and colleague Justin Davies, paediatric endocrinologist, have checked over 200 children for bone problems.

More than 20 percent of them have significant deficiencies. "A lot of the children we've seen have got low vitamin D and require treatment," said Clarke.

"This is almost certainly a combination of the modern lifestyle, which involves a lack of exposure to sunlight, but also covering up in sunshine, and we're seeing cases that are very reminiscent of 17th century England."

Prof Clarke says vitamin D supplements should be more widely adopted to halt the rise in cases. Vitamin D is found in oily fish and eggs and margarine, cereals and milk can be fortified with it.

The vitamin is vital for the absorption of calcium needed for strong bones and teeth.

Some 59.1 million people in the United States reported having no health insurance

US lack health insurance
In the first quarter of 2010, some 59.1 million people in the United States reported having no health insurance for at least part of the preceding 12 months, a study published Wednesday says.

That was up 400,000 compared to the whole of 2009 and up nearly three million from 2008, when 56.4 million Americans were uninsured for at least part of the year, the study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

The uninsured in the United States are seven times as likely as those with health coverage to forgo health care due to the high cost, and that can lead to poorer health and greater medical expenditures in the long term, the study said.

President Barack Obama's signature health care reforms became law at the beginning of 2010, when interviews to gather data used in the study were conducted.

Under the health care reform law, coverage will be expanded for millions of uninsured Americans and insurance companies are barred from refusing coverage to Americans with pre-existing medical conditions.

But many provisions of the law do not kick in until several years from now.

Health insurance in the United States is usually provided by employers, and unemployment has risen from 8.5 percent of the workforce in March last year nearly 10 percent this year.

The government-funded Medicare program provides near-universal coverage for senior citizens, and expansions to Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program have increased coverage for under-18s.

But 8.7 million children in the United States spent part of the year prior to the study uninsured, and 3.4 million had been without health coverage for more than a year at the time of the interview for the study.

Nearly 10 times as many adults -- 30.4 million -- went without coverage for more than 12 months in the first quarter of this year, pushing the number of long-term uninsured adults in the United States up by 1.1 million at the beginning of this year compared to all of 2009.

How to Choose a Health Insurance Plan: 12 Helpful Tips
Choosing the right health coverage has never been easy, and the health reform law has made things more complicated—especially for those choosing among plans provided by their employer. Besides sorting through differences in premiums, deductibles, and copayments, you need to consider new provisions in the law that have recently kicked in and could impact your coverage for the coming year. The following tips can help clear away the confusion, and help you choose the right plan during the open enrollment season.


1. Check for grandfather exemptions. If your employer makes no substantial changes to your insurance plan, it may be "grandfathered in" and not subject to certain required provisions in the health reform law. These include free coverage (with no copay) for preventive services like blood pressure or depression screening, smoking cessation programs, and immunizations. Plan materials will indicate whether or not the plan is grandfathered, along with the benefits it provides.

[Healthcare Reform Alters Choices for 2011]

2. Decide which plan type best meets your needs. There are generally three types of plans: health maintenance organizations (HMO), preferred provider organizations (PPO) and point-of-service plans (POS). An HMO requires that you use physicians within a specific network, giving you less flexibility but a more affordable cost. A PPO allows you to stay in-network or go out of network for a heftier fee; out-of-pocket costs are usually higher for PPO's than for HMO's. POS plans combine elements of HMO's and PPO's. They give you the option to pay more for venturing out of network, but usually require you to choose a primary care physician within the network and get a referral from that physician before seeing any specialist.

[Best Insurance Plans: The Honor Roll]

3. Identify changes before re-enrolling. That could save you from dealing with unexpected costs if your benefits have changed. Coverage for a particular service such as chiropractic care may have disappeared, or the cost of covering your spouse may have increased. So it could pay to change plans. More likely, your monthly premiums have gone up, due to rising healthcare costs.

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4. Make adjustments to your current plan or consider switching. Take into account whether your needs have changed. If you're planning a family, you might need maternity coverage, for example, or perhaps you'd like to add an adult child back onto your insurance. All plans are now required to cover children up to age 26, though grandfathered plans may exclude these young adults if they have access to health benefits through an employer. Adult children, like those under 18, can no longer be rejected for having pre-existing conditions like asthma or cancer.

5. Factor in your favorite doctors. Before electing a different plan, check to see that your primary care physician and specialists are in its provider network. Women in non-grandfathered plans now have the freedom to see an obstetrician-gynecologist without a referral, but they still need to make sure any doctor they choose participates in their plan's network if they have an HMO or don't want to face extra fees if their plan is a POS.

6. Size up the cost. Compare the total cost of various plans using an online calculator, a tool offered by many employers. If you are young and healthy, you may want to trade pricey monthly premiums for a higher deductible (paying more out-of-pocket before coverage starts). Be sure to factor in copays (the physicians' fees) and coinsurance (your share of the cost for prescriptions or hospitalization).

7. Don't get lured by those new freebies. While new plans now require you to pay nothing for certain routine preventive care, you might not need to switch off your old plan to reap this benefit. Many plans were already offering preventive services at minimal or even no cost prior to the passage of health reform, says Randall Abbott, a senior healthcare consultant with Towers Watson, a global consulting firm based in New York.