Public Health

It's well known that serious air pollution can cause of all kinds of nasty health problems - headaches, nausea, allergic reactions, chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer and heart disease counted among them. But according to new statistical correlation, it can also make unborn children stupid at small levels.  An analysis by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) carried out in Krakow, Poland correlated prenatal exposure to pollutants and children's cognitive development by age 5. Writing in Environmental Health Perspectives, they claim that children…

Modest weight loss appears to reverse many of the damaging changes often seen in the immune cells of obese people, particularly those with Type 2 diabetes, according to a new research. The recent study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology Metabolism looked at 13 obese people with Type 2 diabetes or prediabetes who were limited to a diet of between 1000 and 1600 calories a day for 24 weeks. Gastric banding was performed at 12 weeks to help restrict food intake further. The results showed an 80% reduction of pro-inflammatory T-helper cells, as well as reduced activation of other…

In the last two decades there has been a dramatic rise in the use of psychotropic medications to treat children. One in every fifty Americans is now considered permanently disabled by mental illness, and up to eight million children take one or more psychotropic drugs. But there is little evidence available to warrant the widespread use of psychotropic drugs for children, and little long term data regarding its long term impact on development. The authors of a new study in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy say the mental health field is currently designed to treat adults with…

A common treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes could one day help smokers avoid lung cancer, say scientists at the National Cancer Institute. Metformin decreases levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and circulating insulin, which is important in patients with type 2 diabetes. Early laboratory research presented at the American Association For Cancer Research's annual meeting shows that the drug may also inhibit tumor growth as well. "This well tolerated, FDA-approved diabetes drug was able to prevent tobacco-carcinogen induced lung tumors," said Phillip A. Dennis, M.D., Ph.D…

Attempting to eradicate disease is not a good use of public health dollars, say researchers writing in Proceedings of The Royal Society B. Instead, the emphasis should be placed on reducing the prevalence of diseases in areas most affected by them. What's more, the scientists argue, new research shows that the most at-risk populations can be identified using just three variables. A great diversity of local mammals and birds in a region, a large human population and ineffective disease control efforts point to a high-prevalence of disease. Climate plays a role in determining how many…

In 2009, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company launched a dissolvable nicotine product called Camel Orbs. The mint look-a-likes are intended as a temporary form of nicotine for smokers in settings where smoking is banned, but a team of overzealous health mullahs from Harvard and the CDC claim the pellets could lead to accidental nicotine poisoning in children. Writing in Pediatrics, the researchers point out that last year just under 7,000 out of 2.2 million calls to poison control centers were tobacco-related poisoning among children five years of age and under. Small children can experience…

A new British Medical Journal editorial claims that banning trans fats would protect the public and save lives by preventing thousands of heart attacks and deaths every year. The policy recommendation follows calls by public health specialists to eliminate the consumption of industrially-produced trans fats in the UK by next year. Action by the UK might also produce larger benefits by inspiring other developed and developing countries to take similar measures to protect their citizens' health, the authors conclude. Trans fats (trans fatty acids) are solid fats found in margarine, biscuits,…

The next generation of doctors and other health professionals does not like fat people. In fact, they like fat people even less than the rest of the population, according to a study published in Obesity. Scientists at the Universities of Manchester and Hawaii and Yale University suggests that medical and allied health professions need to present a balanced view of the causes of, and treatment for, obesity when training young professionals in order to reduce the strong prejudice towards obese people. Emphasizing the "uncontrollable" causes of weight gain, such as exposure to junk food…

New research conducted by Cardiff University scientists suggests that good parenting is still the best way to prevent teenage smoking. The three-year-study of 3,500 11 to 15 year-olds found that children whose fathers regularly talk with them about 'things that matter' are less likely to take up smoking during early adolescence. The findings were presented today at the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference. Only children who had never smoked at the time the study began took part. As well as their smoking, children were also asked about the frequency of parental communication…

a new review published in the April issue of The Cochrane Library suggests that restrictions on smoking in public reduce secondhand smoke exposure, heart attacks, and improve a number health indicators. Researchers searched for studies of situations where a legislative ban had been introduced, or restrictions on smoking had been applied to populations. They considered data from 50 studies that monitored at least the first six months after a policy change had been implemented. "Taken together, the benefits for workers and the reduction of hospital-related morbidity are impressive," says…