TUESDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthDay News) -- A new tool for diagnosing anemia related to chronic illness and diseases of iron overload has been developed by U.S. researchers.

Both anemia and iron overload have various causes.

"It is hard to diagnose the anemia of chronic disease. Having an assay for hepcidin would make it much easier, and it would also help in diagnosing iron overload diseases," study senior author Jerry Kaplan, a professor of pathology and assistant vice president for research at the University of Utah Health Sciences, said in a university news release.

THURSDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- Community-based health programs aimed at diet, exercise, smoking prevention and other known risk factors for chronic diseases could cut health-care costs in the United States by $16 billion a year, a new report says.

"We worked with economists at the Urban Institute who looked at health-care costs associated with these chronic diseases," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Washington-based Trust for America's Health, which issued the report. "They estimated a 5 percent reduction in these chronic diseases to derive these savings."

June 12 '08
Living with a chronic disease (chronic fatigue syndrome) has been one of the biggest challenges I have faced in life. At 53 years old, and dealing with fatigue for 8 years, I still find it hard to give myself permission to rest. But I'm improving. I have to relax and breath deeply and say it's ok. I read a lot and pray. I would love to hear how others are dealing with this kind of fatigue. I have a good Doctor (who is the 2nd Naturopath that I'm trying) and we are slowly making progress.