Public Health

You have 60 days to make a difference. That's the amount of time the USDA is going to allow for comments on its amendments to add 38 inorganic ingredients to organic food. Sound like it doesn't make sense? Here's why it does, according to the USDA. The 38 minor ingredients contained in the interim final rule are non-organic, agricultural ingredients that may be considered for use in an “organic” processed product. A minor ingredient cannot comprise more than 5 percent of an “organic” product. Before an organic handling operation can consider using a non-organic, agricultural minor…

Researchers at UCSD have patented a strategy for developing a human vaccine to prevent against Human Cytomegalovirus (hCMV) infection and disease. CMV, a type of herpes virus, is the leading viral cause of birth defects and a serious problem in patients with compromised immune systems. The body’s natural immunity doesn’t protect against infection by the virus, estimated to be present in 50 to 75 percent of all adults. “Until now, scientists haven’t been able to develop a vaccine to protect against CMV,” said Deborah H. Spector, Ph.D., UCSD Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and…

Drinking your coffee black or decaffeinated to keep cholesterol in check? Think again. Cafestol, a compound found in coffee, elevates cholesterol by hijacking a receptor in an intestinal pathway critical to its regulation, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the July issue of the journal Molecular Endocrinology. In fact, cafestol is the most potent dietary cholesterol-elevating agent known, said Dr. David Moore, professor of molecular and cellular biology at BCM, and Dr. Marie-Louise Ricketts, a postdoctoral student and first author of the report.…

The obesity epidemic has become a major public health problem in both industrialized countries and the developing world. Recent studies suggest that the major development of persistent adiposity is established already at pre-adolescence. The fact that obesity is mainly determined before puberty implies that preschool detection of children at risk is essential along with individual prevention programs. A Swedish study reports a protocol that detects with high precision which pre-adolescent children will be obese later using only weight and height data. Protocol assessment according to the…

Obese and very obese patients have a lower risk of dying after they have been treated for heart attacks than do normal weight patients, according to research published in the European Heart Journal today. Researchers in Germany and Switzerland found that amongst patients who had received initial treatment for a specific type of heart attack, those that were obese or very obese were less than half as likely to die during the following three years as patients who had a normal body mass index (BMI). Dr Heinz Buettner, head of interventional cardiology at Herz-Zentrum, Krozingen, Germany, who led…

More good news for coffee is making the "it" drink for 2007. People who drink coffee are less likely to develop an involuntary eye spasm called primary late onset blepharospasm, which makes them blink uncontrollably and can leave them effectively ‘blind’, according to a study published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The effect was proportional to the amount of coffee drank and one to two cups per day were needed for the protective effect to be seen. The age of onset of the spasm was also found to be later in patient who drank more coffee – 1.7 years for each…

In California, you can't smoke a cigar in Morton's Of Chicago after a great steak any more. It's too dangerous to the health of the waitresses and waiters. Legislators have recently tried to institute carseats practically until children are teenagers because of concerns about their safety. Yet some adult film performers are put at risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases because their employers prohibit the use of condoms. If employers won't protect them, is it time to regulate the porn industry? The San Fernando Valley in California generates about $1 billion annually in revenue…

Great news for imbibers. A new study suggests that alcohol may protect against rheumatoid arthritis and more of it is better than less. The study says three glasses of wine, for example, has positive effects but 10 glasses a week is even better. An increased alcohol (ethanol) consumption of three or more units per week was associated with a decreased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (odds ratio 0.5, 95%; confidence interval 0.4 – 0.7). The findings could improve understanding of the effects of lifestyle on the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and pave the way for new…

The consumption of sweetened soft drinks by children has more than doubled between 1965 and 1996 but few studies have been able to investigate the link between diet and the body’s energy balance control systems in early life. Now scientists at Aberdeen’s Rowett Research Institute have been able to model how the young body responds to overeating. The need for a better understanding of what is happening to the body’s energy balance control mechanisms during the development of obesity is becoming increasingly important as we struggle, and often fail, to treat weight gain with weight-loss diets…

he first and only over-the-counter product for weight loss approved by the Food and Drug Administration will be available Friday, June 15. Orlistat, known by the brand name Alli, works by decreasing the amount of fat absorbed by the body. It is the OTC version of Xenical, a prescription weight loss pill. The good news: Orlistat has been tested and the prescription version has been used since 1999. Last fall Dr. James Anderson, head of the UK College of Medicine Metabolic Research Group, and his colleagues examined the effects of OTC strength (60 mg) orlistat on mildly to moderately…