Public Health

The traditional Mediterranean diet provides substantial protection against type 2 diabetes, according to a study published on bmj.com today. The Mediterreanean diet is rich in olive oil, grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fish, but low in meat, dairy products and alcohol. Current evidence suggests that such a diet has a protective role in cardiovascular disease, but little is known about its role on the risk of developing diabetes in healthy populations. The SUN prospective cohort study involved over 13 000 graduates from the University of Navarra in Spain with no history of diabetes, who…

Do you ever get the feeling that science figures out a problem a few years after the fact, but then discovers that their methods for fixing the problem are also hopelessly outdated or just plain wrong, which puts us back another several years and at that point we may as well just give up and have wine with breakfast and hot fudge brownie sundaes for dinner? We know that Americans are fat. (If you don't believe me, look down - do you have a lap?) We also know that kids are getting fatter, which leads to a whole host of problems that will further tax our already overburdened health care…

There was no significant increase in the prevalence of obese children and teens in the U.S. between 1999 and 2006, in contrast to the increase that had been reported in prior years, according to a study in the May 28 issue of JAMA. “In the United States, the prevalence of overweight among children increased between 1980 and 2004, and the heaviest children have been getting heavier,” the authors write. Cynthia L. Ogden, Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Hyattsville, Md., and colleagues updated the most recent national estimates of the prevalence of pediatric high…

Poor blood vessel function is recognized as an early stage indicator of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. For more than 20 million Americans living with diabetes, these vascular impairments can eventually lead to heart disease and stroke, the cause of death for two-thirds of those who suffer from diabetes. Despite good diabetes control and medical treatment, adults with the disease often continue to experience vascular dysfunction. This has led scientists on a search for novel medical or nutritional options to improve the health and quality of life for people with diabetes.…

Obesity experts today questioned Burger King's commitment to improve its standards on marketing to children on the day it launched its new 'Indiana Jones' campaign in the US with toys, internet games and scratch competition prizes. They fear the new campaign running on children's cable channels such as Nickelodeon and Disney will in effect promote the overall brand range including another Indiana Jones special - the Indy Double Whopper being sold in the USA at $4.29. The standard Double Whopper contains almost 1000 kcalories and a heart-stopping 30 grams of saturated fat. Burger King's latest…

A University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study of nearly 2,220 pneumonia patients finds that men who come to the hospital generally are sicker than women, and have a 30 percent higher risk of dying over the next year, despite aggressive medical care. Researchers further found significant differences in immune system response to infection, leading to speculation that future pneumonia treatments could be gender-based. The University of Pittsburgh researchers evaluated data from 1,136 men and 1,047 women with symptoms of pneumonia who were treated at 28 hospital emergency departments in the…

High-salt diets may not increase the risk of death, contrary to long-held medical beliefs, according to investigators from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. They reached their conclusion after examining dietary intake among a nationally representative sample of adults in the U.S. The Einstein researchers actually observed a significantly increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) associated with lower sodium diets. The researchers analyzed data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), which was conducted by the…

Women who breast feed for longer have a smaller chance of getting rheumatoid arthritis, suggests a study published online ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The study also found that taking oral contraceptives, which are suspected to protect against the disease because they contain hormones that are raised in pregnancy, did not have the same effect. Also, simply having children and not breast feeding also did not seem to be protective. The researchers compared 136 women with rheumatoid arthritis with 544 women of a similar age without the disease. They found that that…

Obesity is increasing in epidemic proportions in most countries and poses a public health problem by enhancing the risks for cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased sharply for both adults and children since the 1970s. Data from two National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys show that among adults aged 20-74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15 percent (in the 1976-80 survey) to 32.9 percent (in the 2003-04 survey). The two…

A review of scientific data in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) finds that, in some cases, stun guns may stimulate the heart in experimental models. This evidence is contrary to current views that stun guns only affect skeletal muscles. Dr. K. Nanthakumar and colleagues point out that most theoretical and some experimental studies reveal that cardiac stimulation does not occur with stun gun discharges. However, experimental studies on pigs by 3 independent groups of investigators found that “a stun gun discharge can stimulate the heart” depending on the location of the stun gun…