Free Health News

Health Reform Made Simple

2010-03-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

Reduces the deficit by $30 billion over first 10 years without CLASS Act and $103 billion over first 10 years with CLASS Act. Continues to reduce the deficit over second 10 years.

Provides that Institute of Medicine, through two studies, will make recommendations on how to fix the Medicare payment system, regarding geographic variations as well as changing the system to reward value and quality. CMS will implement IOM recommendations unless disapproved by Congress.

Includes more extensive provisions on lowering costs over the long-term, such as requiring HHS to set specific benchmarks for expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs. If pilots prove successful, HHS is directed to expand them on a large-scale basis. Promotes quality not quantity with financial incentives for collaborative care, primary care, and prevention and wellness.

Establishes a Center for Medicare Innovation to empower the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to pursue additional payment and delivery system reforms.

Creates a Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund, providing $34 billion in mandatory funding over the next 10 years, for such programs as community-based prevention programs and a child obesity program. Establishes a grant program to help small employers create or strengthen workplace wellness programs.

Exempts 86% of businesses from requirement--those with payrolls below $500,000; provides only graduated penalty for firms with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,00.

In 2013, firms with up to 25 employees can enter the Exchange; in 2014, firms with up to 50 employees; in 2015, firms with up to 100 employees; in 2015 and beyond, Commissioner can allow larger employers as appropriate.

The wealthiest 0.3% of Americans would pay a surcharge on the portion of their income above $500,000 (individuals) and $1 million (couples). This would affect the top 1.2%of those with small business income.

Reduces the donut hole by $500 and institutes a 50% discount for brand-name drugs in the donut hole, effective 2010. Phases out the donut hole by 2019.

Requires the Secretary of HHS to negotiate drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries.

Establishes a voluntary state incentives grant program to encourage states to implement “certificate of merit” and “early offer” alternatives to traditional medical malpractice litigation.

Ends blanket exemption from anti-trust laws.

Requires health plans to allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance policy up to their 27th birthday.

To fill the gap before the Exchange is available, creates an insurance program with financial assistance for those uninsured for several months or denied policy due to preexisting conditions.

Allows individuals to keep their COBRA coverage until the Exchange is up and running.

Effective immediately, discourages excessive price increases by insurance companies through review of rate increases.

Creates a long-term care insurance program to be financed by voluntary payroll deductions to purchase community-based services and supports for adults who become functionally disabled.

Reauthorizes the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, whose last authorization expired in 2001, and includes key provisions to better ensure access to quality health care for Native Americans.

Allows for the creation of State Health Insurance Compacts – permitting states to enter into agreements to allow for the sale of insurance across state lines when the state legislatures agree.

Childhood Obesity Linked to Heart Risk

2010-03-02T00:17:00.000-08:00

In the U.S., 14% of 2-to-5-year-olds are considered overweight, or at the 85th percentile or greater of weight for height in their age group. Obese children as young as age 3 show signs of an inflammatory response that has been linked to heart disease later in life, researchers said, in a finding that is likely to further stoke concerns about childhood obesity. The results suggest that obesity-related disease processes may start earlier than previously believed. Nearly 30% of obese 3-to-5-year-olds had elevated blood levels of C-reactive protein—a widely studied marker for inflammation—compared with 17% of healthy-weight kids of the same age. The disparities widened as children aged, according to the study, which is being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

C-reactive protein, or CRP, has been shown to help predict risk of heart disease, stroke and death under certain conditions, according to the American Heart Association. Previous studies have found that overweight and obese adults show elevated levels of CRP, but less has been known about CRP in children.

The study examined three markers that measure different aspects of inflammation, including CRP, in more than 16,000 children nationwide between the ages of 1 and 17. By ages 15 to 17, CRP was elevated in about 60% of obese teens, compared with 18% of teens of healthy weight. The increase was even more pronounced for very obese kids, with nearly 43% of young children and 83% of teens showing CRP elevation. A similar pattern of elevation was observed for the other two inflammatory markers, though one of the markers wasn't elevated in obese children until the age of 6.

The concern of finding CRP elevation in such young children is that its effects could be cumulative. Future research is needed to investigate whether that is the case, and also whether losing weight could reduce CRP response in kids, according to Dr. Skinner. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Anthem Blue Cross sued over rate increases

2010-03-02T00:09:00.000-08:00

A consumer group filed a lawsuit against Anthem Blue Cross, accusing the insurer of raising rates to force members into policies with higher deductibles and lower benefits. Consumer Watchdog accuses Anthem of violating state law by failing to offer policyholders comparable coverage and minimize rate hikes after the company directs customers to alternative plans when closing out existing plans.

San Rafael resident Mary McNamara Feller, a plaintiff in the suit, which was filed in Ventura County, said she had to do something after Anthem last month proposed raising rates on the policy covering her and her husband nearly 39 percent to $1,658 a month. She said the company offered her the option of switching to a policy with a higher deductible and skimpier benefits by a specific deadline, but also told her she could stay in her current policy. The company notified her of the enormous premium increases in her plan after the deadline had passed.

Anthem, which is owned by WellPoint Inc., has come under state and federal scrutiny for hiking the rates of its 800,000 individual policyholders, or those not covered through a group plan, by as much as 39 percent. The increases were scheduled to take effect sooner, but the company agreed to delay them until May 1 to allow the state time to investigate.

California authorities have little power over rates, but Consumer Watchdog's lawsuit relies on a 1993 state law that requires an insurer to offer enrollees a comparable alternative plan. The suit accuses Anthem of forcing older and sicker members, who are unable to switch carriers, to pay higher and higher premiums until they accept inferior coverage or drop coverage altogether.

Studies confirm treatment may help peanut allergy

2010-03-02T00:04:00.000-08:00

A daily dose of peanut powder could help some children who are allergic to peanuts, according to a pair of U.S. studies that confirm earlier findings, offering hope that a treatment could come soon. In one study, teams at Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences gave 15 children tiny, but increasing, doses of peanut powder and compared them with eight children who got a placebo.

At the end of the year-long study, children given the treatment were on average able to tolerate 15 peanuts before having an allergic reaction.When you take the daily dose it changes your immune system in a certain way and it raises the threshold of how much food it takes to cause a reaction.

In the second study, 12 children treated with peanut powder from age 32 months to 5 years old were monitored to see whether they could safely eat peanuts after the daily treatment stopped. The children were off the treatment for a month before they were given peanuts.

Nine of the 12 now have peanuts in their diets, the researchers reported at a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in New Orleans.

The research builds on previous studies, in which children were able to tolerate the treatment for more than two years and four appeared to be freed of their peanut allergies.The results are encouraging but more research is needed before an effective treatment can be developed.

H1N1 flu continues to kill

2010-02-05T22:25:00.000-08:00

According to the CDC, the H1N1 virus is still the overwhelmingly predominant flu virus in circulation. Of the 124 million doses of vaccine made available in the United States, 70 million Americans -- 23.4 percent of the population -- have gotten the vaccine, a CDC survey estimated. Federal health officials urge that more Americans get vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus, sometimes referred to as swine flu, which continues to kill. Most states are reporting only sporadic or local flu activity but the virus is still a threat.

The CDC estimates that 7,880 to 16,460 H1N1-related deaths occurred between April, when the virus emerged, and December 12. 37 percent of children younger than 18 have been vaccinated, though not all of them are fully protected. Children have been among the populations hardest hit by the virus. Nine pediatric deaths were reported to the CDC in the past week and the agency estimates that 830 to 1,730 children have died from complications of the virus since April.

Health officials continue to encourage vaccination because they say it's the best way to protect against infection and because there are still several months left in the flu season, which typically ends in May. But a Harvard School of Public Health survey published Friday reports that nearly half of Americans (44 percent) say they believe the outbreak is over. Only 32 percent said they were concerned that someone in their immediate family would contact the disease, down from 40 percent in December. The survey of 1,419 adults, carried out January 20-25, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.24 percentage points.

Health Concerns in Haiti after Quake

2010-01-17T23:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti left some 300,000 people homeless. Many are clustering in public places without food, clean water or sanitation. It's the perfect environment for the spread of communicable disease. The earthquake decimated Haiti's capital just days ago. But it's an eternity in terms of getting medical care to the injured.

Medicine and medical supplies, even sterile needles and thread to close wounds, are urgently needed. Meanwhile, doctors are doing the best they can with the shortage of equipment. Help has been arriving. A U.S. aircraft carrier, equipped with supplies, operating rooms and water purifiers, has arrived in Port-au-Prince. The challenge is to get supplies to where they are needed. International agencies estimate that up to three million people - a third of the population - may need emergency relief, a daunting task for any country, but especially an impoverished one like Haiti.

A small number of the injured have been flown to the U.S. for treatment. Some have made it to hospitals across the border in the Dominican Republic or to other countries such as Jamaica. Crush injuries, head trauma, puncture wounds, burns and broken bones require urgent critical care before blood clots develop or infections set in. Surgeons, orthopedists, burn specialists and others are needed in large numbers.

Although bodies are decomposing on the streets, they are not a health threat. Health officials are more concerned about large numbers of people living in public spaces without clean water or sanitation. Health experts are also concerned about hungry people eating contaminated food, and that the weakened immune systems of so many malnourished people could make them even more vulnerable to disease.

Spice Compounds Stem Tumor Growth

2010-01-09T18:59:00.000-08:00

Compounds derived from two spices -- pepper and turmeric -- could help prevent breast cancer by limiting the growth of stem cells that promote tumor growth, a new study shows.

When curcumin (from turmeric) and piperine (from black peppers) were applied to breast cells in the laboratory, the number of stem cells decreased, but there was no change in normal cells, say researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study appears online in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. The researchers indicated that the finding that curcumin and piperine are effective against stem cells but not toxic to normal breast tissue has important implications for women. Previous studies have looked at the two dietary compounds as potential cancer treatments, but this was the first to suggest that they may prevent cancer by targeting stem cells. The finding came with a warning, however. The compounds were tested only in a laboratory and not in people, and the researchers cautioned against anyone adding curcumin or piperine supplements to their diets.

Swine Flu Vaccine Recall

2009-12-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Vaccine maker Sanofi-Aventis is recalling four lots of its pediatric H1N1 swine flu vaccine because it is not as potent as it should be, U.S. officials said. A spokesman for the CDC said the recall represents less than 1% of the more than 95 million vaccine doses available for order in the U.S. by the states. The recalled vaccine is specifically packaged for use in children ages 6 months to nearly 3 years. There is no safety concern and children vaccinated from the lots already will not need to be re-vaccinated, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC said the four lots were discovered as part of a quality assurance testing program and that the company had also notified the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Also Canadian doctors have been advised not to use a batch of 170,000 swine flu vaccines after six reports of serious allergic reactions among recipients, but there are no similar reports from other countries, pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline stated. Authorities routinely monitor vaccines for any signals of problems, such as the allergic reactions that do occur, rarely, every year. Six people in Canada had suffered an allergic reaction, the batch contained about 170,000 doses. It was not immediately clear how many had been administered, although Vail said the majority had been.

Despite the recall, the CDC said the vaccine lots in question do not pose any safety risk. The agency added that children who received the vaccine do not need to be revaccinated, as the vaccine should still be effective against the virus.

Cure for Sickle Cell

2009-12-10T21:37:00.000-08:00

Sickle cell disease, which affects primarily people of African descent, is caused by a genetic mutation that gives red blood cells a sickle shape, hindering their ability to carry oxygen and causing them to clog blood vessels. It can cause stroke, severe pain and organ damage -- especially to the lungs, kidneys and liver -- and can be fatal.

Researchers have for the first time performed a successful bone marrow transplant to cure sickle cell disease in adults, a feat that could expand the procedure to more of the 70,000 Americans with the disease and possibly some other diseases as well.

About 200 children have been cured of sickle cell with transplants, but the procedure was considered too harsh for adults with severe sickle cell disease. Now a team from the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University is reporting today in the New England Journal of Medicine that it has developed a much-less-toxic transplant procedure and used it to cure nine of the first 10 patients studied.

Ineffective Cancer Drugs Made Effective

2009-12-06T23:22:00.000-08:00

Medical scientists at University of Oklahoma found a way to turn ineffective new cancer drugs into efficient cancer fighters. Researchers at the university's Health Sciences use their patented chemical compound SHetA2 to "trick" cancer cells into responding to new treatments and undergoing cell suicide.

This discovery means that we can use our non-toxic cancer prevention pill to improve treatment for people who already have cancer. The new chemotherapy drugs are antibodies that bind to cell surface receptors called 'death receptors. The binding of the antibodies activates the death receptors in cancer cells and causes cell suicide with little harm to normal cells. Many cancers, however, are resistant to the antibodies. SHetA2 treatment can make ovarian and kidney cancer cells sensitive to the death receptor antibodies and kill the cancer.

The research appears in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.

US medical Mammogram Recommendation

2009-12-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

The heads of a high-level US medical panel acknowledged Wednesday they "fumbled the message" about when women should begin having routine screening mamograms in a controversial report last month. "We communicated very poorly," Diana Petitti, vice chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), said during an hours-long grilling by lawmakers about the report, which caused a firestorm when it was published in a medical journal two weeks ago.

In the report, the task force said there was "evidence that the net benefit of having regular screening mamograms was small for women aged 40 to 49." It recommended that regular mammograms to screen for breast cancer start at 50 instead of the currently recommended 40 and that women have them every two years instead of annually.

The advise was almost immediately denounced by doctors who warned that if it were followed more women would die from breast cancer, which already claims some 40,000 lives a year in the United States. Petitti agreed that one of the task force's main recommendations was that women age 50-74 should have a mamogram every other year, but was less unequivocal than the report that women start routine breast cancer screening later in life.

Symptoms of Swine Flu

2009-11-29T20:46:00.000-08:00

How do I know if I have the flu?

You may have the flu if you have some or all of these symptoms:
Fever *
cough
sore throat
runny or stuffy nose
body aches
headache
chills
fatigue
sometimes diarrhea and vomiting
*It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever.

If you get sick with flu-like symptoms this flu season, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people except to get medical care. Most people with 2009 H1N1 have had mild illness and have not needed medical care or antiviral drugs and the same is true of seasonal flu.

However, some people are more likely to get flu complications and they should talk to a health care provider about whether they need to be examined if they get flu symptoms this season. They are:
People at High Risk for Developing Flu-Related Complications
Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
Adults 65 years of age and older
Pregnant women
People who have:
Asthma
Neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions [including disorders of the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerve, and muscle such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy (seizure disorders), stroke, intellectual disability (mental retardation), moderate to severe developmental delay, muscular dystrophy, or spinal cord injury].
Chronic lung disease (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD] and cystic fibrosis)
Heart disease (such as congenital heart disease, congestive heart failure and coronary artery disease)
Blood disorders (such as sickle cell disease)
Endocrine disorders (such as diabetes mellitus)
Kidney disorders
Liver disorders
Metabolic disorders (such as inherited metabolic disorders and mitochondrial disorders)
Weakened immune system due to disease or medication (such as people with HIV or AIDS, or cancer, or those on chronic steroids)
People younger than 19 years of age who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy
There are emergency warning signs. Anyone who has them should get medical care right away.

What are the emergency warning signs?
In children
Fast breathing or trouble breathing
Bluish skin color
Not drinking enough fluids
Not waking up or not interacting
Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough
Fever with a rash
In adults
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
Sudden dizziness
Confusion
Severe or persistent vomiting

Are there medicines to treat 2009 H1N1?
Yes. There are drugs your doctor may prescribe for treating both seasonal and 2009 H1N1 called “antiviral drugs.”

Oseltamivir (Tamiflu®) is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in children 1 year of age or older. Recently, FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the use of Tamiflu ® in children younger than 1 year of age for infection due to the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.

Zanamivir (Relenza®), is approved for treatment in children 7 years and older, but is licensed only for use in people without underlying respiratory or heart disease, including people with asthma.

These drugs can make you better faster and may also prevent serious complications. This flu season, antiviral drugs are being used mainly to treat people who are very sick, such as people who need to be hospitalized, and to treat sick people who are more likely to get serious flu complications. Your health care provider will decide whether antiviral drugs are needed to treat your illness. Remember, most people with 2009 H1N1 have had mild illness and have not needed medical care or antiviral drugs and the same is true of seasonal flu.

Christmas shopping is bad for your health!

2009-11-26T22:14:00.000-08:00

Our wallets will not be the only thing suffering as we buy presents this Christmas. The mind and body will also be put under dangerous levels of stress, a study has found. Christmas shopping increased blood pressure to dangerous levels in 50 per cent of shoppers. This can lead to hypertension, which can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney problems.

Even low levels of hypertension are linked with migraines, panic attacks and osteoporosis. Heart rates increased by an average of 10 per cent during Christmas shopping!!

Moneysupermarket researchers asked 15 men and 15 women to purchase a variety of gifts within 75 minutes. Men felt twice as stressed post shopping, while women were almost three times as stressed. Heart rates increased by an average of 10 per cent during Christmas shopping.

Lower Breast-Cancer Risk with Mushrooms and Green Tea

2009-11-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

A recent study reported in the International Journal of Cancer suggests that women who eat large amounts of mushrooms and drink a lot of green tea may be at lower risk for developing breast cancer. The research trial included more than 2,000 Chinese women, with 1,009 breast-cancer patients (aged 20-87) and an equal number of healthy women matched for age. Each woman completed a detailed dietary questionnaire citing specific foods consumed.

The researchers found that the greater the mushroom consumption (both fresh and dried), the lower the breast-cancer risk. Those who ate the greatest amounts of fresh mushrooms (10 grams or more per day) were about 2/3 less likely than those who ate none at all to develop breast cancer. Subjects who ate 4 grams per day saw their breast-cancer risk fall by half.

Interestingly, the women decreased their risk even more if they also drank green tea daily. The breast-cancer risk of women who consumed both mushrooms and green tea was 11 percent, compared to 18 percent for women who didn't consume either food. The study used green tea, which is a "younger" tea but which still has caffeine.

While this study has not nailed down a cause-and-effect relationship, it is the first to link high dietary consumption of mushrooms and green tea to reduced breast-cancer risk. In addition, those participants who ate at least 10 grams of mushrooms per day saw the greatest reductions in their risk.

Lab-created skin helps wounds heal

2009-11-04T22:01:00.000-08:00

Doctors who specialize in wound management are growing skin to help people save their limbs and extremities. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are extracting collagen -- a protein that makes up 75 percent of skin -- from donated skin and creating grafts, or patches, that can induce a patient's own skin to grow. The donated skin can come from a variety of sources: anything from a pig's pancreas to a baby's foreskin.

In most cases, a scrape or cut mends itself or can be helped along with a Band-Aid and some antibiotic cream. These injuries heal because our skin is designed to repair itself. Yet in the case of large or deep wounds, the skin doesn't heal because it has become so infected, it turns gangrenous and can't grow new cells.

The idea behind these collagen grafts is to create a sort of scaffolding into the wound, upon which a patient's cells can attach and grow. Although these collagen patches can be used to treat the wounds of soldiers and burn patients, they are more commonly prescribed for people who suffer from peripheral artery disease, pressure ulcers and diabetes.

World first swine flu found in cat

2009-11-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

The domestic shorthair, a 13-year-old castrated male, apparently caught H1N1 off its owners that had previously contracted the deadly virus.

This is the first cat that we are aware of with the pandemic H1N1. After ruling out most common causes of respiratory diseases, a team of university and state vets looked at the family history of the owners and guessed swine flu might be the cause. After five days of tests, their fears were confirmed. Cats have previously been diagnosed with H5N1, a virus commonly known as bird flu that spread from poultry to humans, but this is thought to be a first for swine flu and has possible implications for the feared pandemic.

The danger of an infected cat spreading the A(H1N1) virus to humans or to other cats was unknown but didn't appear to be high. The prevalence of the disease in the cat population was also unknown, but the vet said he believed more cats will now be tested and confirmed to have the virus. The cat owner, an employee at the Iowa vet school, insisted on anonymity and is not revealing the pet's name.

Are swine flu shots safe?

2009-10-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

As the first shipments of swine flu vaccine arrive in the U.S., our readers expressed concern about the safety of the new shots. The testing on this vaccine was faster, but no less thorough than testing on other vaccines. It went through the same set of procedures. It was done in a hurry, but health officials said they didn’t cut any corners. There is no reason to believe that the H1N1 vaccine is any more dangerous than seasonal vaccine, which is given to about 100 million people each year. There is initial testing of safety and efficacy that’s done in a few hundred people. By necessity you can’t do it in thousands and thousands of people. So far, the vaccine seems to be safe in those people. To see a rare side effect, if there is one, you’d have to immunize hundreds of thousands of people.

On the off chance that there could be a rare side effect, there are huge monitoring systems in place. They'll detect any side effects pretty quickly, especially in the military, where service members are required to get the vaccine. Since the health of the military members is followed very closely, if something were to happen, we’d see it there first. In addition, electronic medical records kept by big hospitals and health insurance groups are being monitored for any evidence of side effects.

The government is making a big effort to point out that a certain number of things happen every day to people — miscarriages, heart attacks, seizures — and just because somebody gets one of these things right after they get a flu shot does not necessarily mean it’s a result of the flu shot.

Health OVERHAUL closer than EVER!!

2009-10-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

Eight months in office, Barack Obama has now pushed closer than any other president in generations to creating a basic health care safety net for working Americans. Yet the fate of legislation delivering on his goal is far from certain: Republicans are nearly unified in opposition, Democrats hardly united in support.

The 10-year, $900 billion bill would remake one-sixth of the U.S. economy, clearing a path to health insurance for millions who don't have it now. It would be financed by reducing Medicare and Medicaid payments to health care providers, and by ordering new taxes and fees that are already meeting resistance. Insurers would no longer be able to turn away those in poor health.

The government-run plan doesn't appear to have the votes to clear the Senate. In the House, it's the other way around. A bill that doesn't include a government plan to compete with private insurers won't get off the floor, Democratic leaders say. The House plan taxes the wealthy to pay for subsidies needed to make health coverage affordable for millions who are now uninsured. The Senate instead taxes the health care haves — those with expensive insurance plans.

Still, the wrangling obscures considerable agreement on what the health care system would look like after it's reengineered. Some of the outlines have emerged:

• Although government will play a bigger role than it does now, most people will still be covered by private insurance plans sponsored by their employers.

• Medicaid will be expanded to cover more low-income people, including childless adults for the first time.

• Self-employed people and those working for a company that doesn't provide health insurance will be able to buy coverage through new insurance purchasing pools called exchanges. Government would provide tax credits for many middle class people. Insurers participating in the exchanges will have to take all applicants and will be limited in what they can charge those who are older and sicker.

• Medicare would adopt a new philosophy geared to better coordinating care for seniors with chronic illnesses and trying to keep them out of the hospital.

Summer Salads that help you Live better!

2009-09-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

Nature has the perfect plan in providing the right foods for the season and summer foods tend to be on the cooling side, helping prevent overheating. One item to note: Eating raw food all the time requires more energy for digestion and tends to put out the digestive fire, so don't forgo the stove altogether. As you will see below, many of these salads require some cooking, as well.

1. Classic Beet Salad
Steam beets and slice into a salad of mixed greens, sliced avocado, and a handful of pine nuts and walnuts. If you want to bulk up the salad, add crumbled soft tofu or shredded chicken.

What is this salad doing for you?
This is an all-in-one anti-aging salad. Beets contain powerful nutrients that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and cancer, especially colon cancer. The avocado and pine nuts are healthy fats and walnuts have omega-3 fatty acids, which bring heart health benefits.

2. Cooling Cucumber Salad
Thinly slice cucumbers, removing the peel if you prefer, and toss with red onions. Let this sit for 30 minutes, then top with apple cider vinegar mixed with Dijon mustard.

What is this salad doing for you?
Cucumbers are a cooling food and also a natural diuretic, helping to hydrate you and lower the pressure in your arteries. The vinegar has antiseptic and antibiotic properties and may also help to reverse hardening of the arteries, as well as dissolve gall stones and kidney stones.

3. Tomato Basil Salad
Cook whole cherry or grape tomatoes in olive oil over medium-high heat until they are lightly browned. Cool, and then toss with fresh basil. For dressing, combine olive oil, vinegar, and a pinch of fresh oregano.

What is this salad doing for you?
Cooking partially breaks down your food, making the nutrients accessible to your body's systems; for example, lycopene, an essential carotenoid antioxidant that has been found to reduce the risks of heart disease, macular degeneration, as well as prostate and other cancers, is more available in cooked tomatoes than uncooked. Basil is filled with luteolin, a bioflavonoid that studies have shown to be the best protection of cell DNA from radiation.

4. Fennel and Dried Plum Salad
Combine sliced fennel, sautéed or raw, and dried plums on a plate. Drizzle with a ginger vinaigrette. (Olive oil, vinegar and minced ginger, if you are making yourself.)

What is this salad doing for you?
This salad soothes digestion and supports weight loss. Fennel helps digestion in two ways: It stimulates the production of gastric juices and also calms the nervous system, regulating the action of the muscles that line the intestine. Packed with vitamin C and essential minerals like potassium and magnesium, dried plums contain a perfectly balanced proportion of soluble and insoluble fibers, ensuring bowel regularity and preventing insulin resistance—making them a great ingredient for weight management.

5. Asian Carrot Salad
Combine shredded carrots, green onion, and sprouts (alfalfa, red clover, daikon radish, and bean sprouts will all work). Dress with sesame oil and rice vinegar. Then sprinkle sesame seeds over the top. For extra kick, add a small amount of grated ginger or chili pepper.

What is this salad doing for you?
Carrots are antioxidant-rich foods filled with beta-carotene, beneficial to eye health. Sprouts are packed with many nutrients with a bounty of health benefits. And sesame oil, the oil most commonly consumed oil by Chinese centenarians, is rich in phytic acid, the antioxidant that may prevent cancer. Studies have also indicated that one variety of sesame oil, called lignan sesamin, radically reduced cholesterol levels in the bloodstream and liver of rats.

6. Watercress with Tofu Dressing
To make the tofu dressing, combine 1/2 pound of plain tofu with a 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 teaspoon of rice or apple vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of tamari soy sauce (or a pinch of salt), and 1 tablespoon of tahini. Simply blend until creamy and drizzle over a bed of salad greens.

What is this salad doing for you?
Watercress contains a rich supply of vitamins A and E as well as the minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese, phosphorous, iodine, and zinc. It is also a natural diuretic that cools you down, and helps alleviate excess water retention and the bloated sensation that comes with it.

Health Insurance Reform - 2009

2009-08-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

Health reform must be built on three fundamental principles: It must lower the skyrocketing cost of health care; guarantee choice of doctors and plans; and assure quality affordable health care for every American. A public option would achieve those goals and give the American people more choices. It would foster greater competition; lower costs; and give consumers a greater variety of affordable choices.

Health Insurance Reform will end current forms of rationing, not expand it. First, there is widespread rationing in today’s system. Right now, decisions about what doctor you can see and what treatment you can receive are made by insurance companies, which routinely deny coverage because of cost or the insurance company rules. Health reform will do away with many of those rules that result in rationing today.

Health Insurance Reform will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because you have a pre-existing condition; prevent them for canceling coverage because you get sick; ban annual and lifetime limits on coverage, which often force people to pay huge sums out of pocket if they develop a serious illness; and prevent discrimination based on gender.

The majority of the initiatives that would pay for reform will come from cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. We want to take money that is already being spent on health care and re-allocate it toward reforms that lower costs and assure quality affordable health care for all Americans.

The cuts we are talking about involve spending that currently does not improve care for Americans. For example, we would save $177 billion in unwarranted subsidies to the insurance industry in the next ten years and put that money into actual care for people. These and other reforms will strengthen and stabilize Medicare.

But it’s not enough to stop there. Health insurance reform must also encourage the kinds of reforms we know will save money in the long run: preventive care; computerized record-keeping; and comparative effectiveness studies to expose wasteful procedures and hospitalizations and give doctors the tools to make the right treatments for you.

We currently spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care. Health insurance reform will make a short-term investment of roughly $100 billion a year to lower costs and relieve the crushing financial burden that is eating into family budgets, forcing families into bankruptcy, making it hard for businesses to expand and grow, and preventing the government from using your tax dollars to create jobs, improve education, rebuild our infrastructure. Health insurance reform would be fully paid for over 10 years, and it would not add one penny to the deficit.

Let’s also remember that we can’t afford not to reform health care. The cost of inaction is too high. Health care spending has grown in recent years three times faster than average wages. Premiums have doubled in this decade. Out of pocket costs for people with insurance have gone up by 32 percent. Businesses are buckling under health care costs. One out of every six dollars in this country is spent on health care. Soon it will be one in five. If we do nothing, in 30 years, one third of this country’s economic output will be tied up in the health care system. Health care is the fastest-growing item in the federal budget. It is absolutely unsustainable. These costs are crushing families and businesses, keeping wages flat, stunting our economic growth, strangling our government. We have to bring costs under control now.

American families with insurance pay a hidden tax of roughly $1000 for the cost of caring for people without insurance. As more Americans become insured, that hidden tax will begin to disappear. In addition, covering everyone will put downward pressure on costs. Bringing younger, healthier people into the system will spread the risk. As more Americans become covered, insurance companies will compete for their business. That will begin to lower costs. And health insurance reform will create stability and security for everyone. If you lose or change jobs you will have the peace of mind of knowing that you will always be able to find an affordable health insurance option for your family.

The health insurance exchange is a marketplace that will offer affordable high-quality health insurance options. It will provide relief to families who have no insurance or do not get adequate insurance at work and cannot afford to buy it in the costly individual or small group market. It is also for small businesses that cannot afford small group health insurance. It is one-stop shopping that will enable you and your family to find a plan that is right for you.

For workers at big companies with group coverage, you can keep what you have with new protections against unfair insurance regulations that could limit your coverage if you get sick. And if you lose your job, move or decide to leave that company, you will know that there will be high-quality affordable health insurance options available for you on the exchange.

Sleep is Good for your health

2009-07-05T00:51:00.000-07:00

Sleep is made up of different stages. The ten-minute period of light sleep (drifting off from wakefulness) is called Stage One. Stage Two is deeper and lasts about 20 minutes. Stages Three and Four come after this, and are types of deep sleep.

Deep sleep is the part of sleep that our body and brain needs to recover from the day. It's sometimes called delta sleep, after the delta waves the brain generates. We don't dream during this time. After about 90 minutes of deep sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep begins.
During a normal night, people usually cycle through the various stages several times. Problems arise when the pattern of cycles is broken.

Are we getting enough?

Those of us who don't have the luxury of an afternoon nap still tend to get sleepy at about this time. Interestingly, people who increase their night-time sleep find that this afternoon 'dip' disappears. A ten-minute nap at lunchtime is just as effective.

Sleep problems, including dozing off, can be a symptom of many other conditions, from problems with the thyroid gland to depression - and even occasionally rare sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. So it's important to speak with your GP if you're currently experiencing insomnia or another sleep problem, since it could be indicative of another condition.

Sleep and mood are interlinked in intriguing ways that are still not understood. But a satisfying sleep, like a satisfying meal, can leave one happy and content - with room perhaps for just a little more.

For more info. go to http://www.freehealthfacts.com

What holds men back from going to the Doctor?

2009-07-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

When it comes to their health, men are notoriously apathetic about seeking help. Sometimes embarrassment gets in the way. Often, though, it's because of outdated attitudes such as "pull yourself together", which don't help men at all.

Another common reason why men delay seeking help is the false belief that if they ignore something, it will go away. In fact, most health problems are simply and easily treated, but the longer they're left, the less this is true. Not only is early treatment more likely to be successful, but it also means less worry and fewer sleepless nights.

Unlike women, men don't usually ask each other for advice about health problems, but they should, because it might save a lot of unnecessary worry.

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money can buy a faster liver transplant

2009-06-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

This week it was reported that Steve Jobs, the CEO and cofounder of Apple, underwent a liver transplant two months ago. One detail concerning Jobs's transplant seemed odd: The surgery took place at a hospital in Tennessee, some 2,000 miles from Jobs' home in northern California. Why Tennessee?

The answer sheds light on the intricacies of the organ transplant system, as well as why it's sometimes easier for people with significant financial resources to get an organ transplant. (Jobs' estimated net worth: $5.7 billion.)

Livers are a scarce resource. In any given year, only about one-third of the people on the national transplant waiting list receive one, and as of late June, more than 16,000 people were on the list.

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FDA Warnings on Zicam

2009-06-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to stop using and discard three zinc-containing Zicam intranasal products. The products may cause a loss of sense of smell.

The Zicam intranasal zinc products are widely sold in pharmacies, other retail stores, and on the Internet. Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs, Kids Size, has already been discontinued, but FDA is concerned that consumers may have the product in their home. FDA has special concerns regarding use of intranasal zinc in children. Children may experience a loss of sense of smell but may be less likely to communicate the condition.The agency has received more than 130 reports of anosmia—the loss of sense of smell—associated with use of these three Zicam products.

Many people who experienced a loss of sense of smell say that the condition occurred with the first dose, although some people have reported loss of sense of smell after later doses. FDA is concerned that the loss of sense of smell may be permanent.

Obesity Can make you die 10 years faster

2009-03-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Being obese can take years off your life and in some cases may be as dangerous as smoking, a new study says. British researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed 57 studies mostly in Europe and North America, following nearly one million people for an average of 10 to 15 years. During that time, about 100,000 of those people died.

The studies used Body Mass Index (BMI), a measurement that divides a person's weight in kilograms by their height squared in meters to determine obesity. Researchers found that death rates were lowest in people who had a BMI of 23 to 24, on the high side of the normal range.

Health officials generally define overweight people as those with a BMI from 25 to 29, and obese people as those with a BMI above 30.

The study was published online Wednesday in the medical journal, Lancet. It was paid for by Britain's Medical Research Council, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and others.

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Darfur faces Meningitis Crisis

2009-03-18T22:39:00.000-07:00

A meningitis outbreak is threatening the lives of tens of thousands of people in Darfur, according to an aid agency expelled from the country last week. Humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), says it was preparing to vaccinate around 100,000 people in southern and western Darfur against meningitis, when it was told to leave the country.

The country's Ministry of Health officially declared a meningitis outbreak on March 2 at the Kalma Camp, which shelters more than 90,000 refugees in southern Darfur. The vaccination campaign was due to begin on March 7, but it is now unclear if or when it will resume, as reports of government harassment of aid workers continue. Thousands of unvaccinated refugees and villagers are now exposed to the airborne disease in densely populated camps and villages throughout Sudan.

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Strees can cause Cancer

2009-03-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Evidence from epidemiological studies suggests that chronic depression and/or a paucity of supportive personal relationships may be risk factors for the development and progression of some kinds of cancer. For example, one study of women with ovarian cancer suggests that stress and low social support may be related to certain growth factors in the tumor microenvironment—the place where cancer cells interact with surrounding cells. In some new studies from Eric Yang and Ron Glaser and others, melanoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and multiple myeloma tumor cells have receptors for the stress hormones norepinephrine and epinephrine, and when cancer cells are exposed to these stress hormones in the laboratory, the cancer cells produce factors that favor the spread of the tumor cells; if this happens in the body, it could increase the risk for metastases.

More broadly, chronic severe stress can disrupt sleep and appetite, effectively pushing the production of stress hormones that fuel long-term or persistent inflammation—and inflammation may promote certain kinds of tumor cells to proliferate. It's important to emphasize that this doesn't mean that stress causes cancer. But stress is bad for your body in many ways, and some kinds of physiological stress responses like heightened inflammation or overproduction of some stress hormones may actually be good for certain kinds of cancers.

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The SpineCor Brace is Unique

2009-03-15T18:49:00.000-07:00

Spinecor Scoliosis Brace is the first and only truly dynamic brace, which provides a progressive correction of Idiopathic Scoliosis from 15 degree Cobb angles and above. Traditional rigid braces are non-dynamic and create muscle atrophy.

It is the only brace that preserves normal body movement and growth and allows normal activities of daily living. In fact, patients with the SpineCor brace are encouraged to be physically active while wearing the brace.Spinecor Brace can be worn comfortably and easily under clothing. This is particularly appreciated by younger patients, to whom aesthetics are extremely important.

Its comfortable and non-visible nature leads to better patient compliance, particularly among children. Greater compliance leads to a better prognosis for your childs scoliosis.

For more on spinecor Brace go to http://www.scoliosisspecialists.com/
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E. Coli is Coming!!

2009-03-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

Food safety officials are gearing up for E. coli season, the period each year when the potentially deadly bug starts to show up more often in ground beef.
Running from April through September is what scientists call "high-prevalence season" for E. coli 0157, a toxin-producing bacteria that can cause kidney failure and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as many as 70,000 people may be stricken by E. coli every year.

Scientists still do not fully understand the phenomenon but suspect it is related to the warmer weather. In the run-up to E. coli season, the USDA this week took a step toward improving the government's testing of ground beef to help prevent another deadly outbreak.

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Green tea lower breast cancer risk

2009-03-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Women who get plenty of mushrooms and green tea in their diets may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, new study findings suggest. The study, of more than 2,000 Chinese women, found that the more fresh and dried mushrooms the women ate, the lower was their breast cancer risk.The risk was lower still among those who also drank green tea every day.

It's known that the rate of breast cancer in China is four- to five- times lower than rates typically seen in developed countries — though the rate has been climbing over the past few decades in the most affluent parts of China.

Lab research has shown that mushroom extracts have anti-tumor properties and, in animals, can stimulate the immune system's cancer defenses. For its part, green tea contains antioxidant compounds called polyphenols that have been shown to fight breast tumors in animals.

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Plastic Water Bottles are killing us!!

2009-03-12T18:15:00.000-07:00

There's a new study from Germany out today that tested the water in those bottles and found estrogenlike compounds, most likely leaching out from the plastic. These water bottles don't contain the notorious chemical bisphenol A, which is found in hard water bottles, baby bottles, and the plastic coatings of metal cans. (Studies of BPA indicate that high exposures could increase the risk of reproductive health problems and possibly breast, prostate, and ovarian cancers, which is why six leading baby bottle makers last week decided to ban it from their products.) The soft bottles do, though, contain other estrogenlike compounds, still unidentified, that could have the same harmful effects as BPA.

The researchers from Goethe University sampled 20 brands of bottled water packaged in plastic and glass bottles and found that 78 percent of the samples packaged in plastic bottles had high amounts of chemicals called "endocrine disrupters," compared with 33 percent of those bottled in glass. I was surprised to learn that even the spring water bottled in glass containers had these chemicals, so I called on an expert to tell me why. "Birth control pills, hormone therapy medications, and a host of contaminants can all get into our water supply, and we haven't figured out a way to affordably filter them out," explains Patricia Hunt, a geneticist and reproductive biologist at Washington State University who is well versed on the new study.

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Baby Boomers with HIV

2009-03-11T16:28:00.000-07:00

As people in developing and industrialized countries increasingly live longer, healthier lives, why do the scant data that exist suggest a surprisingly high prevalence and incidence of HIV among individuals 50 years of age and over (“older individuals”)? Older individuals are rarely included in Demographic Health Surveys (DHS). In the last 5 years, only 13 of 30 surveys included older males and none included older females. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the United States of America (USA) does not collect data from people older than 49. There is a dearth of prevalence data; what about incidence?

Incidence could be determined via case reporting, serologic incidence assays or modelling. Developing countries have limited case-reporting systems, but industrialized countries do better. In the USA, case reporting from 2003 to 2006 shows the proportion of older HIV-positive individuals has climbed from 20% to 25% and numbers of cases have risen in all 5-year age bands from 45 years to 65 years and older;1 using serology, 11% of 2006 incident cases are in older individuals.2 In WHO’s European Region, 8% of reported cases in 2005 are older.3 Similar data from the developing world are unavailable, and modelled incidence data are not publicly available.

We have calculated prevalence by age, using UNAIDS’ estimated numbers of cases of HIV and United Nations population estimates, by country. One finds a consistent pattern that prevalence in older individuals is one-quarter to one-third that of the 15–49-year age group. We have debated with our colleagues whether these findings are surprising. Most of us think “yes”.

This is particularly so because prevalences for this age group are deceptively low. There is little appreciation that the older the individual, the faster the progression from HIV infection to AIDS.1,4,5 The effect is considerable, linear and remains after adjusting for all-cause mortality.4,5 For example, there is a life expectancy of more than 13 years in people infected at age 5–14. This declines to 4 years in those infected at age 65 or older.5 Waning immunity with age may be the reason. Since incidence is indirectly related to duration of disease, prevalence in those aged 50 and above should be approximately doubled to be compared with those in the 15-24 year age group. While long-available antiretroviral therapy (ART) could increase prevalence among older individuals in industrialized countries, this is not true of the developing world, where ART was introduced later.

Is the epidemiology of HIV in older individuals of purely academic interest? No, because understanding risk factors leads to interventions. Intriguingly, the Alpha Network in Africa has shown that in many sites, secondary peaks of HIV incidence appear at older ages.6 Why might older individuals be becoming infected? We can only conjecture. In a systematic literature search, we found only one, limited, epidemiological study exploring HIV acquisition in older individuals, from urban USA.

Sexual activity of older individuals in the developing world is barely researched. Many older individuals everywhere are sexually active, although interest in sex and frequency of vaginal intercourse decline with age.7 Since 1998, erectile-dysfunction drugs have been extending the sex life of many older individuals and, at the same time, may be extending the HIV epidemic into older age groups. Many studies show that older individuals are less likely than their younger counterparts to practise safer sex. While erectile dysfunction is common and erectile-dysfunction drugs are widely distributed in developing countries,8 no study has been done of their possible impact on the HIV epidemic, although their use in industrialized countries has been associated with risky sexual practices.9 Whether HIV-positive men should be prescribed these drugs has been debated.10

If sex is the main cause of HIV infection in older individuals and many older individuals are not having penetrative intercourse, then the risk of acquiring HIV per sexual act in these individuals must be high. We can only speculate what the reasons may be. The thinning of vaginal mucosa with age may play a role; for both sexes, the prevalence of antibodies against herpes simplex virus 2 increases with age,11 indicating continual risky sexual behaviour and enhanced risk of HIV transmission.

While sexual activity is the most likely mode of transmission, research is required to establish the relative contribution of different risk factors and modes of transmission.

One consistent finding is the failure to consider HIV as a cause of illness in older individuals. These individuals have a shorter time from diagnosis to onset of AIDS,1 reflecting both age-related faster progression to AIDS and doctors’ failure to consider HIV as a diagnosis. Screening is less common for older adults, who are assumed not to be at risk.

HIV prevalence and incidence in the over-50-year-olds seem surprisingly high and the risk factors are totally unexplored. Understanding the epidemiology of HIV infection in older individuals can lead to interventions to make these years safer and more enjoyable.

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Man Dies After Taking 23 Vodka Shots

2009-03-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

A Florida man died Tuesday after taking more than two dozen shots of cherry vodka within a half hour, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office. Eric Morris, 26, was allegedly taking part in a drinking game with another patron at an adult nightclub, Angels Show Bar, in Seffner, Fla., just hours before he died, according to police.

"Apparently other bar patrons were describing the shots as 'cherry bombs,'" said Callaway, referring to a shot of liquor that is typically made by combining cherry-flavored vodka with Red Bull, a popular energy drink. While Morris' drinking buddy, who police declined to identify, stopped playing the game after a few shots, Morris kept going. Moments after being refused more alcohol, Morris staggered away from the bar where he had been drinking and collapsed, according to police.

After failed attempts to resuscitate the 6-foot-4, 210 pound man, patrons called 911 and Morris was transported to a local hospital where he died at around 7 p.m., just two hours after police estimate the partying began.

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Depression is Hard on the Heart

2009-03-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

Severe depression may silently break a seemingly healthy woman's heart. Doctors have long known that depression is common after a heart attack or stroke, and worsens those people's outcomes. Monday, Columbia University researchers reported new evidence that depression can lead to heart disease in the first place.

The scientists tracked 63,000 women from the long-running Nurses' Health Study between 1992 and 2004. None had signs of heart disease when the study began, but nearly 8 percent had evidence of serious depression.

The depressed women were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death — death typically caused by an irregular heartbeat, concluded the 12-year study, published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. They also had a smaller increased risk of death from other forms of heart disease.

The big surprise: Sudden cardiac death seemed more closely linked with antidepressant use than with the depression symptoms the women reported.

That might simply mean that women who used antidepressants were, appropriately, the most seriously depressed, cautioned lead researcher Dr. William Whang. But he said the finding merited more research.

Studies of the newer antidepressants most often used today so far haven't signaled a risk of irregular heartbeat, and some even have suggested protection, noted Dr. Redford Williams of Duke University, a specialist in how psychosocial factors affect health.

The drug question aside, Williams said the work adds to growing evidence that depression is an independent risk factor for heart disease — on top of the classic risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and smoking.

The predominantly white Nurses' Health Study may underestimate it, Williams said. "If anything, the impact in African-American women is probably greater," he said, adding that it's time for the next step: A study testing whether properly treating depression lowers the risk.

Why might depression have that effect? The study found that the more severe the women's reported depression symptoms, the more likely she was to have traditional heart risk factors. Also, stresses like depression have been linked to such physical effects as a higher resting heart rate.

Perhaps a more straightforward reason: Depression can make people do a worse job taking care of themselves. Indeed, the American Heart Association last year recommended that everyone who already has heart disease be regularly screened for depression — because depressed patients may skip their medications, sit indoors instead of exercising, and eat particularly poorly.

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Causes of Recurring Headaches

2009-03-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

The most common type of headache is called a tension headache, which feels like tightened muscles around the head, neck and shoulders and can last for several minutes or even days. Tension headaches are sometimes caused by stress, muscle stiffness or clenching or grinding one's teeth. Less commonly, cluster headaches can cause sudden sharp pains repeatedly over a period of several weeks at a time.

Migraine headaches are often severe enough to interfere with one's usual activities and may be paired with vomiting or extreme sensitivity to noise or light. Sinus infections also frequently cause headaches, often on the forehead or over the cheeks, with increased pain when one leans forward or lies down.

In some people, certain foods can trigger migraines or other headaches. This problem is usually not a true food allergy, which involves the immune system, but rather an intolerance or sensitivity. Symptoms from food sensitivities may start about 30 minutes to several hours after eating the offending food, which may explain why some people get these headaches while sleeping. Common food triggers include monosodium glutamate (MSG), some food dyes, tyramine (a substance found in aged cheeses, red wine, beer and overripe fruit), pickled foods, some processed meats and caffeine from coffee, tea or chocolate. On the flip side, the absence of certain foods (such as skipping meals and having a low blood sugar, or suffering from "withdrawal" after the regular intake of caffeine) can cause headaches as well.

For headaches that keep recurring, see your doctor and be ready to report details about the quality of the headache (such as whether they are sharp, dull or throbbing in nature), the severity of the pain, the frequency of the headaches and whether the headaches are related to any activities such as sleep, exercise or eating certain foods. It's also helpful to note if other parts of the body are affected (such as eye pain, cold symptoms or vomiting). Finally, let your doctor know what medications or remedies you are taking (since some of these can cause headaches as a side effect) as well as what you do that makes the headaches better.

Although most headaches are not caused by an underlying medical problem, headaches can sometimes reflect serious conditions such as a brain tumor or bleeding inside the head. It's important to seek medical care right away if a headache is sudden and extremely painful, appears after trauma to the head or is associated with abnormal nerve or muscle function (such as vision problems, slurred speech, weakness of the arms or legs, seizures or confusion). Tests may be performed to check for any medical problems that need immediate treatment.

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Obama Wants Stem Cell Research to Continue

2009-03-08T23:09:00.000-07:00

US President Barack Obama is expected to lift restrictions on federal funding for research on new stem cell lines. Officials say Mr Obama will authorise the move by executive order on Monday, a major reversal of US policy. Ex-President George W Bush blocked the use of any government money to fund research on human embryonic stem cell lines created after 9 August 2001.

Scientists say stem cell research will lead to medical breakthroughs, but many religious groups oppose the research. Correspondents say the policy change is part of President Obama's pledge to make clear that his administration wants scientific research to be free from political interference.

It expected that his announcement about federal money will be accompanied by a promise that what he calls "sound science" will be respected by his administration. It is also thought that the announcement is timed to allow an adequate period for health officials to draw up research guidelines before a deadline for government stimulus money runs out.

Stem cells are cells with the capacity to turn into any other type of human cell, be it bone, muscle or nerve cell. One embryo can provide a limitless supply because the cell lines can be grown indefinitely. But the use of human embryonic stem cells in research is controversial with some campaigners saying it is unethical. Researchers have also been developing techniques to create stem cells without using embryos, by modifying other types of cell.

The move to lift the ban on federal funding was welcomed by stem cell researchers. The restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists

The federal funding ban has meant that scientists have been forced to separate any privately-funded stem cell research from their government-funded activity. Mr Obama made it clear during the presidential election campaign that, if elected, he would reverse the Bush administration's decision. President Bush had twice vetoed congressional attempts to have the ban lifted. President Bush and other social conservatives argued that the embryos are human life and therefore should not be destroyed.

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Stop Cancer from Spreading

2009-03-07T23:04:00.000-08:00

Scientists say they have discovered a way to stop cancer spreading to other parts of the body. Cancer metastasis, where the cancer spreads from its original location, is known to be responsible for 90% of cancer-related deaths.

Institute of Cancer Research scientists have found that an enzyme called LOX is crucial in promoting metastasis, Cancer Cell journal reports. Drugs to block this enzyme's action could keep cancer at bay, they hope. The researchers studied breast cancer in mice, but are confident that their findings will apply to humans with other cancer types too.

LOX (lysyl oxidase) works by sending out signals to prepare a new area of the body for the cancer to set up a camp. Without this preparation process the new environment would be too hostile for the cancer to grow. Lead researcher Dr Janine Erler described the discovery as "the crucial missing piece in the jigsaw that scientists have been searching for." She said it was the first time one key enzyme has been identified as responsible for effectively allowing the cancer to spread. "If we can interrupt the body's ability to prepare new locations for the cancer to spread to, we can effectively prevent cancer metastasis. "Cancer metastasis is very difficult to treat and this new discovery provides real hope that we can develop a drug which will fight the spreading of cancer," she said.

Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK's science information manager, said: "A better understanding of how cancer spreads is crucial to improving the treatment of the disease. This research takes scientists a step closer to understanding this major problem - the next stage will be to find out if the LOX protein can be switched off to stop cancer spreading."

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Fast-Food Restaurants Cause Stroke

2009-03-06T14:39:00.000-08:00

The risk of stroke increases with the number of fast-food restaurants in a neighborhood, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2009.

After statistically controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors, researchers found:

Residents of neighborhoods with the highest number of fast-food restaurants had a 13 percent higher relative risk of suffering ischemic strokes than those living in areas with the lowest numbers of restaurants. The relative risk of stroke increased 1 percent for each fast-food restaurant in a neighborhood. However, the researchers said the discovery of increased risk only demonstrates an association, it does not prove that fast-food restaurants raise stroke risk.

“The data show a true association,” said Lewis B. Morgenstern, M.D., lead author of the study and director of the University of Michigan’s stroke program and professor of neurology and epidemiology in Ann Arbor. “What we don’t know is whether fast food actually increased the risk because of its contents, or whether fast-food restaurants are a marker of unhealthy neighborhoods.”

Neighborhoods with large numbers of the restaurants are prime areas for stroke prevention programs, Morgenstern said. “We need to consider targeting communities that have a lot of fast-food restaurants as places where we can improve health.”

The fast food-stroke association emerged from data gathered in the ongoing Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi (BASIC) project, which has identified strokes occurring in Nueces County, Texas, since Jan.1, 2000. This report examined 1,247 ischemic strokes that occurred from the study’s start through June 2003.

Nueces County has 262 fast-food restaurants, defined by the researchers as having at least two of four characteristics: rapid food service, takeout business, limited or no wait staff and payment required before receiving food.

The team used the 64 U.S. Census Bureau tracts in Nueces County — from which they obtained demographic and socioeconomic data — as proxies for neighborhoods. Researchers determined the number of fast-food establishments in each tract, and then sorted the tracts into four groups based on number of fast-food restaurants. Neighborhoods with the lowest numbers of fast-food restaurants (less than 12) were in the 25th percentile and those with the highest numbers (greater than 33) were in the 75th percentile.

The epidemiological study supports previous research that suggested a link between fast food and cardiovascular disease — to which some fast-food chains have responded by including more nutritious options to their menus.

Morgenstern said the report needs to be confirmed and expanded by similar studies of the correlation between fast-food restaurants and stroke in other cities.

“We need to start unraveling why these particular communities have higher stroke risks,” Morgenstern said. 0Is it direct consumption of fast food? Is it the lack of more healthy options? Is there something completely different in these neighborhoods that is associated with poor health?”

Each year about 780,000 people have a new or recurrent stroke. Of all strokes, 87 percent are ischemic, which result from a blocked artery in the brain or an artery feeding blood to the brain.

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Want Snore?

2009-03-06T14:31:00.000-08:00

If you're kept awake at night by someone who snores, you're not alone. And, snoring becomes more common as we age — by age 60, more than half of adults snore.

The log-sawing vibrations are often the result of air trying to move through narrowed or floppy, soft passages in the mouth, throat and nose. Other times, the air is obstructed by anatomical abnormalities, such as over-sized tonsils or uvula — that boxing-bag like thing that hangs in the back of the throat.

Fat in the neck area can constrict airway passages and lead to increased snoring. And, as we age, the soft tissue inside the mouth and palate can sag, just as wrinkles develop with aging skin.

Home Remedies

Sleep Position

Experts recommend starting by adjusting your body position: Try to sleep on your side. Many people snore only when they're on their backs.

Avoiding Alcohol

Alcohol and sedatives can relax the palate of your mouth and decrease the opening in the throat, which leads to snoring.

Over-The-Counter Fixes

Dental Appliances

Dental appliances are designed to pull the tongue forward to prevent constriction in the back of the mouth.

But many people spit them out, says Malekzadeh, and it's not an effective option if you can't keep it in your mouth.

Custom-fitted dental appliances, crafted by a dentist or oral surgeon, can be effective for some snorers.

Treating A Stuffy Nose

If you have trouble breathing through your nose, over-the-counter decongestants or breathing strips that adhere to your nose could help, says Stacey Ishman, an ENT doctor and the director of the Center for Snoring and Sleep Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.

When Snoring Turns Dangerous

Sometimes, snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea, a potentially serious disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. Sleep apnea is more common in overweight people, though normal weight people can also develop it.

For someone who is already prone to sleep apnea, weight gain can increase the risk, says Ishman. Fat "pads" can constrict the airway and lead to snoring, or in cases of sleep apnea, a complete collapse of the airway.

Additionally, researchers are looking into how snoring may increase the risk of memory issues, mood disorders and learning problems — in part because snoring can interrupt rest.

A few studies have also found an association between snoring and higher rates of cardio-vascular risk factors including high-blood pressure.

It's impossible to say what amount of snoring, and over what period of time, is dangerous, says Ishman. "But we feel comfortable saying that if you can do something to treat the snoring we think it's going to reduce your risk factors."

When Is Surgery Recommended?

Experts say there are many factors to consider. But, generally speaking, doctors recommend surgery when anatomical problems are causing excessive snoring.

The Nose

For example, some people have a deviated septum, which is when the thin wall that separates the right and left side of your nose is displaced to one side. When a deviated septum is severe, it can block one side of your nose and reduce airflow.

ENTs also perform surgeries on people who have over-sized "turbinates," or shelves on the inside the nose.

"These shelves help warm and clean the air" says Malekzadeh, "but if they're big or become enlarged they can crowd the nasal cavity."

The surgery shaves the bone in the nose down to a normal size. After the surgery, the reduced turbinate ridges open up space so air can move through unobstructed.

The Mouth And Throat

An adult tonsillectomy, the removal of the tonsils, is a common treatment for sleep apnea. It entails about a two-week recovery period.

When sleep apnea isn't the cause, snoring is often considered a "cosmetic" problem and most treatments are not covered by insurance companies.

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"superfood" of the moment is the açai berry

2009-03-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

First it was blueberries, then the pomegranate, and now the "superfood" of the moment is the açai berry, a fruit native to South America that is harvested from trees in the Amazon rainforest. In Brazil, Colombia and Suriname, açai (pronounced "ah-sigh-ee") has been used both medicinally and as a food for hundreds of years. More recently, Americans have been gulping down gallons of açai juice in an effort to court good health.

One of the companies cashing in this trend is MonaVie, a juice that blends the potent açai berry with 18 other fruits—including grape, passion fruit, kiwi, pomegranate, banana, blueberry and cranberry. It's packaged in a chic wine bottle that retails for about $40 (although the products are sold only through multilevel marketing, not in stores). The MonaVie website includes links to several research studies that extol the antioxidant-rich virtues of the açai berry, but they are very careful not to make any outrageous health claims. According to the studies they cite, the açai berry outscores every other fruit and vegetable on the ORAC scale, a measurement which ranks the antioxidant activity of various foods. "The freeze-dried açai found in MonaVie has an antioxidant capacity that is 15 times higher than blueberries, and research has shown that drinking four ounces of MonaVie Active daily can help enhance your body's antioxidant capacity and ability to fight free radicals," explains a MonaVie spokesperson. (MonaVie, citing their proprietary formula, doesn't reveal how much açai juice is in their beverage.)

But even though the company is careful with any claims, it can't control what committed users have to say about the product. A quick Web search reveals numerous Web sites dedicated to praising the powers of drinking juice made from açai berries. The açai converts claim that the purple elixir can perform all manner of health miracles—improve stamina; make skin look younger; lower blood pressure; alleviate joint pain; eradicate hot flashes, migraines and gout; improve sleep; and help autistic children function better. And although MonaVie is one of the biggest names in the açai game, it's not the only player. Other açai products are available online (such as Viva! Açai, which sells for $24.95 for a 32-day supply), and the shelves at stores like Whole Foods hold other açai juices (such as Bossa Nova, which sells for $2.99 for a 10-ounce bottle, and Sambazon Açai, $2.69 for a 10.5-ounce bottle).

So far, most of the studies done on the açai berry have been done in the lab—analyzing the nutrient content of the so-called superfood. What is known is that the berry is packed with good stuff: antioxidants (including flavonoids similar to those found in red wine), amino acids, monounsaturated oleic acid, fiber, and phytosteroids. What all that means is that açai berries do have the potential to have several positive health benefits. These include anti-inflammatory effects (which could, in theory, help with arthritis pain), cancer prevention, improving elasticity of the arteries, and preventing cholesterol from oxidizing and adhering to the artery walls.

The bottom line? Most experts agree that the açai berry probably does qualify as a superfood thanks to its rich antioxidant and nutrient profile. But we remind consumers that there is no health magic bullet. "If you still smoke, drink, don't exercise and eat fast food, drinking a few ounces of açai juice every day isn't going to keep you healthy," says PJ.

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Overhaul of U.S. Health Care System

2009-03-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

Obama made his remarks while addressing a group of lawmakers, doctors, hospital officials and advocates at a White House summit on health care reform -- one of the president's top domestic priorities.

In a surprising and emotional moment, Obama was joined by Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, a longtime advocate of health care reform who has been battling brain cancer. Kennedy has been largely out of the public eye in recent months.

"We cannot delay this discussion any longer," Obama said. "Health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative. If we want to create jobs, rebuild our economy, and get our federal budget under control, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year."

"Now is the time for action," Kennedy later added. The pressing need for health care reform "challenges all of us to really do the best we can. ... This time we will not fail."

Among other things, Obama is seeking to set aside $634 billion in a health-care reserve fund over the next 10 years to help move the country closer to the goal of universal coverage. He also would require senior citizens making more than $170,000 annually to pay a greater share of their prescription drug costs under Medicare. Watch Obama talk about his plan to revamp health care »

"This isn't a luxury; this is a necessity," Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told CNN's "American Morning" on Thursday, explaining that health care reform is a must for the U.S. to get its "economic ship steady."

"Health care costs are exploding. Many people are bringing in less income every month and seeing their premiums go up at the same time. It's affecting the bottom line and businesses. It's also affecting the fiscal well-being of our country," Barnes said.

"So this is something we have to do, because of the tough economic times, and we feel like we've learned lessons from the past that are going to help us get health care reform on the president's desk for his signature this year." Watch Obama's prescription for U.S. health care woes »

Obama's new health and human services secretary nominee, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, was not in attendance at the summit, though Nancy-Ann DeParle, the newly announced health care czar, was there.

A senior administration source said Wednesday officials realize that this is an "ambitious timeline," and that "we've put a lot on the grill," but that they think it's a critical issue that needs immediate attention.

One out of three Americans under 65 went without health insurance at some point during 2007 and 2008, according to a report released Wednesday by the consumer advocacy group Families USA. An estimated 46 million Americans currently lack health insurance.

"The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes," Obama said.

After Obama spoke, the summit attendees broke into five groups to discuss options in more detail.

DeParle and top economic advisers, such as Lawrence Summers and Peter Orszag, are moderating the group sessions. After those groups meet, the participants will gather again, and Obama will take questions, much like he did during last week's fiscal responsibility summit.

The administration also is planning to hold five regional health care summits in the weeks ahead to help sell Obama's health care plan, according to administration officials.

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Smokeless Tobacco better for you

2009-03-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

Smokeless tobacco use by adolescent boys in the United States increased from 3.4 to 4.4 percent from 2002 to 2007, according to a federal government report released Thursday.

At the same time, use of smokeless tobacco in the past month among all people older than 12 remained in the 3.0 to 3.3 percent range. About 7.8 million people 12 and older reported using smokeless tobacco in the past month in 2007, according to the report, Smokeless Tobacco Use, Initiation and Relationship to Cigarette Smoking: 2002 to 2007.

The report is based on data from approximately 405,000 people ages 12 and older who took part in nationwide surveys on drug use and health conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Smokeless tobacco products include tobacco or tobacco blends that are chewed, placed in the mouth outside the gums, or inhaled or snorted through the nose.

The report also found:

Among current smokeless tobacco users, 85.8 percent used cigarettes at some time in their lives, and 38.8 percent used cigarettes in the past month.
Among persons who had used both smokeless tobacco and cigarettes in their lifetime, 31.8 percent started using smokeless tobacco first, 65.5 percent started using cigarettes first and 2.7 percent initiated use of smokeless tobacco and cigarettes at about the same time.

Males (6.2 percent) were more likely than females (0.4 percent) to be current smokeless tobacco users.

Some smokers believe switching to smokeless tobacco will help them quit smoking, but the report found that 88.1 percent of daily smokers who started using smokeless tobacco were still smoking six months later.

"These findings and the medical literature indicate that using smokeless tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking," Eric Broderick, the agency's acting administrator, said in a government news release. "We need to make everyone aware that all forms of tobacco use can cause nicotine addiction, cancer and death."

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Anti HIV Vaginal Gel

2009-03-05T15:13:00.000-08:00

US researchers have found that a compound widely used as an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory agent effectively blocked infection of the non-human primate version of HIV in monkeys; a step that is being heralded as a breakthrough in developing a version that works in humans to help prevent a devastating disease that affects about 33 million people around the world.

The discovery is published as an advanced access online paper in the 4 March issue of Nature and was the work of Drs Ashley Haase and Pat Schlievert, principal and co-investigator, respectively, in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Minnesota, and colleagues.

Haase, Schlievert and colleagues discovered that a compound called glycerol monolaurate (GML) applied as a vaginal gel stopped transmission of the nonhuman primate version of HIV, known as SIV.

It is not a cure and the drug still has to undergo trials to prove it is safe and effective in humans. The US Food and Drug Administration recognize it is safe and has approved it as an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory agent in food and cosmetics.

Haase said in a press statement that:

"After 25 years, an effective vaccine for HIV is still on the distant horizon, so not only vaccines, but all research into ways to prevent the continued spread of this lethal virus, remain critically important."

"If GML as a topical microbicide can add to our prevention, it could contribute to saving millions of lives," said Haase.

Haase, Schlievert and colleagues applied GML as a vaginal gel to five monkeys and they also had five other monkeys as controls that were not treated with GML.

An hour later they injected the treated and untreated monkeys with an infectious dose of SIV, and four hours after that the treatment group received the GML gel again and both groups had a second dose of the virus.

The monkeys were monitored for a further two weeks: the normal progression of the virus once an animal in infected is that two weeks later, the bloodstream would contain hundreds of millions of virus particles. Monkeys showing no evidence of infection were treated again at the two week mark: the treatment group with GML and viral doses, and the control group just with the viral doses.

After receiving four large doses of the virus, none of the GML treated group showed any evidence of acute infection while five of the control group had contracted SIV.

The researchers think that sexual exposure to SIV causes the monkey's immune system to rush T-cells to the scene and this is the advantage that SIV seeks. Like its human equivalent HIV, SIV uses the T-cells as fuel to help itself replicate locally and then spread to the rest of the body.

Halting this natural immune response could be the key to preventing transmission and rapid spread, and "that's where GML comes in," said Haase.

They decided to try GML because in 1992 Schlievert began using it to treat toxic shock syndrome, a potentially lethal bacterial infection, and more recent studies have shown that it works against a number of toxins and microbes and it also blocks cytokines and chemokines, molecules that help to trigger immune responses.

So they decided to try GML as a way to stop SIV/HIV transmission since it appeared to be an effective way to hold back the immune response that the virus relied on for survival.

The researchers think GML has potential as a vaginal gel to prevent HIV transmission to women, which is the route the virus now takes for most of the new cases arising throughout the world.

Haase said there was still a lot of work to be done before GML can safely and effectively be used to prevent HIV infection in women, including more animal testing, and testing dosing and delivery methods that make it easy for women to use. Longer term studies will also be needed to check for other infections that don't show themselves until months afterwards.

Schlievert said GML is cheap and widely used in foods and cosmetics and it would not be difficult to formulate it for vaginal use.

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Older Americans Lack Adequate Nutrition

2009-03-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

Researchers analyzed data from more than 6,200 people in four ethnic groups -- white, black, Hispanic and Chinese. More than half of the participants took supplements, and those most likely to use supplements were older, women, white and college-educated. The most common supplements were calcium and vitamin C.

Dietary intake of calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin C was similar between those who took supplements and those who didn't, but there were differences in median dietary intake levels between the different ethnic groups. Chinese Americans tended to have the lowest dietary intakes of all micronutrients, particularly calcium. Blacks also had significantly lower dietary intakes of calcium than whites and Hispanics.

The researchers also evaluated differences between high-dose supplements and multivitamins. High-dose calcium was associated with users meeting recommended daily allowances (RDA) or adequate intake (AI) for all ethnic groups.

However, some high-dose supplements could cause users to exceed their Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs). For calcium, 15 percent of high-dose users exceeded the UL compared with 1.9 percent of multivitamin users and 2.1 percent of non-users. For magnesium, 35.3 percent of high-dose supplement users exceeded the UL, compared with zero percent of both multivitamin users and non-users. For vitamin C, 6.6 percent of high-dose users exceeded the UL, compared with zero percent of both multivitamin users and non-users.

The researchers also found that potassium intake was well below the RDA in both supplement users and non-users. This suggests it may be necessary to reformulate supplements to deliver higher potassium doses, they said.

"The present study indicates a clear association between meeting RDA/AIs and supplement use for calcium, magnesium and vitamin C," wrote Pamela J. Schreiner, professor and director of graduate studies in the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota, and her colleagues.

"However, even with the assistance of dietary supplements, many middle-aged and older Americans are not getting adequate nutrition, and there was no association between supplement use and meeting the AI for potassium," the researchers concluded. "In addition, those taking high-dose vitamin supplements were more likely to exceed the UL for that nutrient. Future studies should explore dietary supplementation along with other methods to improve nutrition in middle-aged and older Americans."

The study was published in the March issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

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Egg Eaters at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

2009-03-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

In a long-term study of 57,000 U.S. adults, researchers found that those who ate an egg a day were 58 percent to 77 percent more likely than non-egg-eaters to develop type 2 diabetes.

The findings, published in the journal Diabetes Care, do not necessarily mean that eggs themselves put people on a path to diabetes, according to the researchers. But they do suggest it is wise to limit your egg intake.

"Based on the current data, our recommendations would be to consume eggs in moderation and not to exceed six eggs per week," lead researcher Dr. Luc Djousse, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, told Reuters Health.

The study does not explain exactly why eggs are linked to diabetes, but cholesterol may play a role. The study participants' daily cholesterol intake was also related to diabetes risk, and when the researchers factored this in, the relationship between egg intake and diabetes weakened.

In animal studies, high-fat diets have been shown to raise levels of blood sugar and the sugar-regulating hormone insulin -- suggesting a way that a cholesterol-heavy diet might promote diabetes.

According to Djousse, it's important for people at risk of type 2 diabetes -- due to factors like family history and obesity -- to pay attention to their overall cholesterol intake, and not just cholesterol from eggs.

Even more important, he noted, is a focus on overall health -- maintaining a normal weight, exercising regularly and eating a well-balanced diet -- rather than any one food or nutrient.

He pointed out that eggs also contain important nutrients like protein, vitamins and minerals, and "good" unsaturated fats.

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Soda's Link to Heart Attacks!

2009-03-03T12:14:00.000-08:00

New research linking soda consumption with an increased risk of heart disease is sparking concern among nutrition researchers and physicians who say the findings could give consumers the wrong idea about their favorite fizzy beverages.

Carbonated soft drinks, rarely the darlings of nutrition research, have been implicated by previous research in childhood obesity, diabetes and other ills -- problems compounded by the growing consumption of these beverages in recent years.

Now a new study published in the current issue of the journal Circulation suggests that drinking a soda or more per day -- even if it's a diet soda -- is associated with an increase in other risk factors for heart disease.

The study's researchers report that those who said they drank a soda or more per day had a 31 percent greater chance of developing obesity, a 30 percent increased risk for gaining inches around the waist, a 25 percent chance of developing high blood sugar levels and a 32 percent greater chance of developing lower "good" cholesterol levels.

"This study further emphasizes the importance of lifestyle measures for preventing metabolic disease," said Ramachandran Vasan, senior author of the Framingham Heart Study and one of the authors of the current study.

But Vasan, who is also a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, added that the link found in the study between diet soda and heart ills was unexpected.

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kids lead levels are below 20 years ago

2009-03-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

kids have high lead levels than 20 years ago, new government research reports — a testament to aggressive efforts to get lead out of paint, water and soil.

Lead can interfere with the developing nervous system and cause permanent problems with learning, memory and behavior. Children in poor neighborhoods have generally been more at risk because they tend to live in older housing and in industrial areas.

Federal researchers found that just 1.4 percent of young children had elevated lead levels in their blood in 2004, the latest data available. That compares with almost 9 percent in 1988.

"It has been a remarkable decline," said study co-author Mary Jean Brown of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's a public health success story."

The 84 percent drop extends a trend that began in the 1970s when efforts began to remove lead from gasoline. The researchers credited continuing steps to reduce children's exposure to lead in old house paint, soil, water and other sources.

The study was being released Monday in the March edition of the journal Pediatrics. It is based on nearly 5,000 children, ages 1 to 5, who were part of a periodic government health survey.

The government considers levels of at least 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood to be elevated, although research has shown that levels less than that can still cause problems including attention and reading difficulties. There is no known "safe" level, the study authors noted.

Caroline Cox, research director of the Center for Environmental Health, a California-based advocacy group, noted that lead poisoning "is entirely preventable."

"There's no reason even one child in the United States should be poisoned by lead," Cox said. "It's great there aren't as many now as there were, but there are still too many."

By 2004, racial disparities among children with blood-lead levels higher than 10 micrograms had mostly disappeared: About equal numbers of white, black and Mexican-American children had levels in that range.

However, disparities at lower levels remained. For example, almost 18 percent of white children had levels of less than 1 microgram per deciliter, versus 11 percent of Mexican-Americans and 4 percent of blacks.

Children from lower-income families also had higher lead levels than those from wealthier families.

Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a lead specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who wasn't involved in the government study, said lead levels have probably continued to decline since 2004. But the findings show "we need to still continue to be aggressive" with prevention efforts, he said.

Lead-based paint in old housing, which can contaminate house dust and soil, is the main source. Children also can be exposed to lead in water, mostly from old plumbing pipes, as well as toys and certain folk medicines.

The CDC recommends that pregnant women and young children avoid housing built before 1978 that is undergoing renovation. Other recommendations include regularly washing children's hands and toys; frequent washing of floors and window sills, where paint dust can collect; and avoiding hot tap water for drinking, cooking and making baby formula. Hot tap water generally contains higher lead levels from plumbing than cold water.

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Treating drug-addicted doctors, the new time....

2009-03-03T01:03:00.000-08:00

Doctors who become addicted to alcohol and other drugs can be treated successfully and returned to medical practice with the help of special programs that couple referral to treatment and monitoring with rapid responses to noncompliance, University of Florida researchers report. The study is the first national-level analysis of such Physician Health Programs, and confirms they are effective alternatives to simply punishing drug-addicted doctors. The findings are published in the March issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

More than three-quarters of doctors enrolled in state programs stayed drug-free over a five-year monitoring period. The results were the same regardless of whether the doctor’s drug of choice was alcohol, crack cocaine, prescription drugs or other substances.

In general, rates of illicit drug use are lower among physicians than the general public, but rates of prescription misuse are five times higher among physicians, according to a 2008 review Gold co-authored in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry.

Gold and others conclude that drug problems in doctors are related to medical specialties that put them in regular contact with drugs of addiction, ease of access to drugs, stress and lack of early detection. Addiction also appears linked to physician-suicide.

Physician Health Programs are not addiction treatment programs, however. Instead, they provide intensive, long-term case management and monitoring. Fifty-five percent of doctors enrolled are mandated formally by a licensing board, hospital, malpractice insurance or other agency. The rest are informally “mandated” by others such as employers, families and colleagues. Doctors sign contracts agreeing to abstain from drugs or face intensified treatment, being reported to their medical licensing boards or losing their license.

The programs aim to save the lives and careers of addicted physicians, and to protect the public by addressing substance use among doctors. They are also are an effective way to remove noncompliant doctors from the practice of medicine.

Program measures include group and individual therapy, residential and outpatient programs, surprise workplace visits from monitors, and links to 12-step programs of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Doctor-patients get care not just for drug problems, but also for accompanying medical or psychiatric disorders. They pay for their treatment, drug tests and follow-up care.

The research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, evaluated 904 physicians admitted to 16 state-run Physician Health Programs from 1995 to 2001. Collaborators included founding National Institute of Drug Abuse Director and former drug czar Dr. Robert Dupont, A. Thomas McLellan, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Lisa Merlo, of UF.

Previous studies have shown that in individual states, and on a small scale, the programs are effective. The current study, first reported at the Betty Ford Institute, has the largest sample of physicians ever followed, and over the longest period.

Doctors in the programs had to abstain from alcohol or other drugs, and were tested frequently at random for five or more years. If tests revealed they had returned to substance abuse, swift action was taken — doctors were reported to the medical board, which could lead to loss of their licenses.
Often, with the support of peers and growing realization that treatment is working, physician-patients’ motivations change from simply wanting to obey the rules to wanting to change their lives, Teitelbaum said.

One-fifth of doctors were reported to their board during treatment and monitoring — some more than once with multiple disciplinary actions taken.

But 78 percent of doctors in the programs had no positive drug tests during five years of intensive monitoring. And five to seven years after starting treatment, 72 percent were actively practicing medicine, without drug abuse or malpractice.

Eighteen percent left medical practice, while others relapsed into drug use. Three percent of those who didn’t complete their programs had substance-related deaths or committed suicide.

Although the programs employed a variety of approaches, the researchers found that success was not related to specific therapists or modes of therapy, but rather to the long-term nature of the treatment.

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One Drug May Help to Stop Drinking and Stop Smoking!

2009-03-03T00:54:00.000-08:00

A popular smoking cessation drug dramatically reduced the amount a heavy drinker will consume, a new Yale School of Medicine study has found. Heavy-drinking smokers in a laboratory setting were much less likely to drink after taking the drug varenicline compared to those taking a placebo, according to a study published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

The group taking varenicline, sold as a stop-smoking aid under the name Chantix, reported feeling fewer cravings for alcohol and less intoxicated when they did drink. They were also much more likely to remain abstinent after being offered drinks than those who received a placebo, the study found.

Additionally, there were no adverse effects associated with combining varenicline with alcohol in the doses studied. When combined with low doses of alcohol, varenicline did not change blood pressure or heart rate, nor did it seem to induce nausea or dizziness.

"We anticipate that the results of this preliminary study will trigger clinical trials of varenicline as a primary treatment for alcohol use disorders, and as a potential dual treatment for alcohol and tobacco use disorders," said Sherry McKee, associate professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study. Smokers are more likely to drink alcohol and to consume greater quantities of alcohol, and they are four times more likely to meet criteria for alcohol use disorders. Diseases related to tobacco use are the leading causes of death in alcoholics.

"A medication such as varenicline, which may target shared biological systems in alcohol and nicotine use, holds promise as a treatment for individuals with both disorders" according to McKee.

McKee said that 80% of participants receiving varenicline did not take a drink at all, compared to 30% of the placebo group. The findings suggest that varenicline has the potential to be at least as effective in reducing drinking as naltrexone, another drug found to reduce alcohol consumption in heavy drinkers. Unlike naltrexone, varenicline is not metabolized by the liver and may be safe to use by those with impaired liver function, a frequent consequence of heavy alcohol use, McKee said.

Other Yale authors of the study are; Emily L.R. Harrison, Stephanie S. O'Malley, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, Julia Shi, Jeanette M. Tetrault, Marina R. Picciotto, Ismene L. Petrakis, Naralys Estevez, and Erika Balchunas.

The study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health.

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Shot Are Better!!

2009-03-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

After reviewing the medical records of more than one million members of the United States military over a three-year period, researchers have found that conventional intramuscular shots reduced doctor visits for flulike symptoms by up to 54 percent, while an intranasal vaccine curbed flu-related visits by just 21 percent at best.

The intranasal vaccine, FluMist, is primarily marketed for use in children and is believed to be more effective than the conventional vaccine for them. But FluMist is the only nasal spray flu vaccine approved in the United States, and it is increasingly popular among adults.

The results echo findings from previous studies, which reported that conventional flu shots were more effective in adults. The new study was posted online Monday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

“Our results are consistent with other studies and data — they’re in the same ballpark,” said Dr. Zhong Wang of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center in Silver Spring, Md., who is the primary author of the study.

Military personnel who received flu shots in the 2004-05 flu season had 54.8 percent fewer health care visits for flulike symptoms and pneumonia than those who received no vaccine, 30.7 percent fewer visits the following year and 28.4 fewer visits in 2006-07, the researchers found.

By contrast, those who took the inhaled vaccine had 20.8 fewer visits than the unvaccinated population in 2004-05, 12 percent fewer visits the next year and 10.7 percent fewer visits in 2006-07.

In 2004-05, military personnel who took the inhaled vaccine were actually more likely to end up in the hospital with influenza or pneumonia than those who received no vaccination, the study found.

But the nasal spray was more effective in adults who were being vaccinated against flu for the first time. People in this group had up to one-third fewer health care visits than those who were not vaccinated, the study found.

The new study has limitations, the authors acknowledged. It was not a randomized clinical trial but a weaker look-back study, which used the Defense Medical Surveillance System database to gather health care information about active military personnel ages 17 to 49.

Dr. Chris Ambrose, the director of medical affairs for MedImmune, which makes FluMist, said studies showed that in children it was actually more effective than the conventional vaccine. One study of 4,000 children ages 2 to 5 reported a 54 percent reduction in flu cases among those who received FluMist, compared with those who received the traditional vaccine.

“The important thing to us is that very different results have been seen in children,” Dr. Ambrose said.

The Army has used flu shots since the 1950s to curb the spread of the disease among personnel living in crowded conditions. But FluMist, approved for adults up to age 49, has been gaining in popularity in recent years, and it made up almost half of flu vaccinations among the military personnel studied in the most recent year, up from one-third in 2004-05.

Last week, two teams of scientists reported that they had found an antibody that attacks both seasonal flu virus and the H5N1 pandemic flu strains. The discoveries could lead to new treatments and, possibly, the development of a flu vaccine that would not have to be changed each year.

Clinical trials to prove that the antibody is safe in humans could begin within three years

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Flu strain proves resistant to medication

2009-03-02T20:16:00.000-08:00

A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that the H1N1 subtype of influenza A viruses commonly proved resistant to the popular drug oseltamivir.

Oseltamivir, sold commercially in the United States as the drug Tamiflu, is produced by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, and is the main antiviral remedy on the market.

But during the 2007-2008 flu season last year, the Tamiflu-resistant strain of the virus accounted for fully one in five cases of flu in the United States.

Preliminary data during the current 2008-2009 influenza season shows that the virus's resistance to the Tamiflu continues to be high and that the drug-resistant strain of the flu continue to have a high incidence.

Equally worrying is the virulence of this particular strain of flu. Data last year for 99 individuals infected with oseltamivir-resistant influenza found that five of the patients had to be hospitalized, four of whom died.

The authors wrote that the worrisome development "has highlighted the need for the development of new antiviral drugs and rapid diagnostic tests that determine viral subtype or resistance."

In an editorial accompanying the study, David Weinstock of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and Gianna Zuccotti of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital said that the findings also show that researcher can never become complacent when treating the scourge.

"New surprises await in the perpetual struggle with influenza," they wrote.

"One thing is certain -- the organism will continue to evolve."

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