Public Health

Hundreds of millions of people in the world suffer from allergies, and it is estimated that 300 million have asthma. In some countries, one in three children has asthma, and 80% of them also have other allergies. There are many guidelines and consensus documents about how to treat this disease but the dissemination and implementation of these are still major challenges.  "Despite available treatments, less than 50% of asthmatic children control their symptoms," according to Prof. Nikos Papadopoulos, EAACI Secretary General and Pediatric Asthma ICON Chair. "Pediatric asthma is a chronic…

The Environmental Working Group's annual "Dirty Dozen" report for 2012 has named the fruits and vegetables ranking highest in pesticide residue. Don't get all excited about shopping at Whole Foods to escape the problem, organic food has all kinds of pesticides, they are just 'natural', like strychnine, and the Environmental Working Group did not run any tests of their own, they did a review of government tests ("ranks pesticide contamination for 45 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of more than 60,700 samples taken from 2000 to 2010 by the USDA and the federal Food and Drug…

A new study suggests that your next hotel room stay may come with a bonus - someone else's fecal matter. Katie Kirsch, an undergraduate student at the University of Houston, presented the work at the 2012 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.  The study was designed as the first step in applying the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system to hotel room cleanliness. Originally developed by NASA, HACCP is a systematic preventive approach that identifies potential physical, chemical and biological hazards and designs measurements to reduce these risks…

Life-threatening allergic reactions in children, such as anaphylaxis, have increased 7-fold in the last decade and a third of all allergic shocks in children occur for the first time at school with teachers largely unprepared.  Today the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) launched its Food Allergy Campaign and the "International Minimum Standards for the Allergic Child at School" document pushes for minimum requirements for the safety of allergic children at school . The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of the sharp increase of anaphylaxis in…

Bloggers like Orac (his first post, his second post, his third post), Emily Willingham, Autismum and others have covered Autism One's latest quack cure, MMS, in detail. Emily set up a petition at Change.org, urging the Secretary of Health, Mexico; Federal Trade Commission; Jon Leibowitz, Chairman (Federal Trade Commission); US Food and Drug Administration; and Commissioner, US FDA (Margaret A. Hamburg) to "order cease and desist on selling, recommending, or administering Miracle Mineral Supplement, also known as MMS or sodium…

In the last few weeks there has been a sugar tsunami in the media. CBS reported about sugar toxicity. Mayor Bloomberg banned the serving of sugary drinks greater than 16 fluid ounces in New York City. The FDA turned down a request from the Corn Industry to re-name high fructose corn syrup as "corn sugar". And then there is that huge advertising campaign that denies that sweetened beverages are driving the obesity epidemic. But lost in this whirlwind of activity are several critical questions that have been overlooked and are critical to the debate. Here's one: Are all sugars and sweeteners…

Withania somnifera is one of the most valued medicinal plant in Ayurveda and other traditional systems of medicine (Shivani and Kumar, 2000). In Ayurveda, W. somnifera is regarded as one of the most useful herbs having ‘Vata’ pacifying properties (Singh and Kumar, 1998 and Singh et al., 2001). In recent times, it has attracted tremendous pharmacological research interests. The plant has been reported to have adaptogenic, anticancer, immunomodulatory, antioxidative and neurological effects (Schliebs et al., 1973; Ray and Gupta, 1994 and Dhuley, 2001). It is also considered efficacious in the…

Taylor Farms Retail, Inc. of Salinas, California is initiating a voluntary recall of Organic Baby Spinach following a random test conducted on a finished package by the USDA that found salmonella. Salmonella is a bacteria that can cause infection and symptoms, including diarrhea (sometimes bloody), stomach cramps and fever. Infection typically lasts a few days and most people recover without medical treatment but, because of that, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe there may be as many as 30 times the 42,000 cases reported each year in the U.S. alone. There have been no…

Sometimes you set out to test for antibiotics but get a bonus; in this case, diphenhydramine, arsenic, and fluoxetine. Yikes. Well, there is a science basis to some of what sounds pretty horrid in that opening sentence.  Small quantities of arsenic lead to fewer infections (be comforted that arsenic has a well-defined threshold where it is beneficial or harmful) and since arsenic is totally 'organic' it can just as easily be found in any animal on an organic farm too. Arsenic will build up in something like fingernails or feathers but it is not in the meat; if you are convinced it…

I'll tell you a secret a chef told me. That secret is...butter. There is a reason restaurants that seek to charge the same for 'healthy' fare end up being big flops; people feel cheated eating bean sprouts they can make at their house.  No one cares about how much butter is in a dish when they go to a restaurant because it is a night out, a special occasion.  Calories are basically unimportant and taste remains supreme.  We want to eat something prepared by someone who only cares what we think about its flavor. Obviously the human body was not designed to eat at a restaurant…