Public Health

Botulinum Toxin A is a commonly used cosmetic treatment, where the drug paralyzes small muscles in the face to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.   If you have ever seen someone who looks normal and then suddenly looks like The Joker, you have seen Botox in action.   A new study by researchers at the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, is raising questions about the therapeutic use of botulinum toxin A.The study found that animals injected with Clostridium Botulinum type A neurotoxin complex (BOTOX, Allergan, Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada) experienced muscle weakness in…

The presence of toxic lead in used consumer products is extremely widespread and at levels far beyond safe limits, researchers conclude in a new study.  Research recently found that lead and cadmium were present in cartoon character drinking glasses and now the new study has found that many other items available for purchase throughout the United States – such as toys, home décor items, salvage, kitchen utensils and jewelry – contain surface lead concentrations more than 700 times higher than the federal limit. The results were published in The Journal of Environmental Health.…

Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE), University of Copenhagen have published the results of the world's largest diet study, called called Diogenes. Like anything obvious, the formula is simple but the application can be difficult for those who already have a weight problem; if you want to lose weight, you should maintain a diet that is high in proteins with more lean meat, low-fat dairy products and beans and fewer finely refined starch calories such as white bread and white rice. Maintaining that diet, you can eat until you are full without counting calories and without…

Science told us that vitamins are good. The polluted environment and the stress of modern living result in more free radicals than evolution has prepared us for; supplementing is fine. I swallowed it – literally! Science tells us that supposedly “natural” supplements are also just out of molecules and that I am an esoteric mystic if I look into any childish natural stuff. It turned out that what we bought as vitamin E was for a long while pure alpha-tocopherol, not the mix of tocopherols from a natural diet. The cheap stuff still is pure alpha, and you buy it in many products without even…

With the big holidays just around the corner, thousands of folks are about to get their first taste of the TSA's new virtual strip search machines - X-ray body scanners. Privacy issues may be the main concern for most people, but the safety of these things has some people worried. Back in April, a group of UCSF professors with a range of expertise in x-rays and biology wrote a letter to White House advisor John Holdren (PDF) raising some potential safety concerns about the TSA's X-ray scanners. The gist of the letter was not to make accusations, but to raise key questions about safety that…

Most chefs don't know how many calories are in the dishes they prepare.   7 percent were not at all familiar and 49 percent were only somewhat familiar.   Taste is what people pay for at $50 a sitting, not a nanny, yet restaurants could play an important role in helping to reduce the growing obesity epidemic by creating reduced-calorie meals, according to Penn State researchers.  They surveyed chefs, restaurant owners, and culinary executives from across the country to assess their perceptions of serving healthy foods in restaurants.   In the survey, 72 percent of the 432…

Children who participate in oral sex in the 9th grade will be having intercourse by the 11th, according to results of a new survey conducted by researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Merced.   Solution: Sex education should include oral sex, they conclude. With results likely to shore up opposition to having sex education in schools at all, the study debunks the notion that oral sex acts as a protective measure delaying the onset of further sexual activity.   Study results are published online by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and will appear in…

Alcohol is the most dangerous drug in the UK by a considerable margin, according to a Lancet study, beating heroin and crack cocaine (second and third place, respectively). The study will "reopen calls for the drugs classification system to be scrapped and a concerted campaign launched against drink," an article in the Guardian notes. Led by the sacked government drugs adviser David Nutt with colleagues from the breakaway Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, the study says that if drugs were classified on the basis of the harm they do, alcohol would be class A, alongside heroin and…

If you had $3,000, free money given to you with no strings attached, to bid on value you want to have most, how would you spend the money? If the first thing that popped into your mind as you read that sentence was, "Wow, this is an interesting component of sex ed in high school these days," then you've already read the Star Tribune story1. As I discussed in a recent article, Hennepin County in Minnesota received a $17 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reduce teenage pregnancy by providing kids both sex education and life skills training. The money…

Chiquita Brands has announced that following years of intensive research and investment,  FreshRinse(TM) technology is ready to go.   Yes, for those of you who can't be bothered to wash even your pre-packaged salad, this can be a real time saver.    Their claim; it dramatically reduces microorganisms on leafy greens and better maintains freshness. They claim that FreshRinse(TM) is a scientifically validated advancement for fresh produce safety that delivers a substantial reduction in microorganisms on leafy greens, including superior microbial efficacy against such…