Public Health

The U.S. Memorial Day weekend ushers in the start of the summer grilling season but  University of Missouri School of Medicine wants to throw some cold water on your flames - by warning the public about the dangers of cleaning with wire-bristle brushes. Coupled with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declaring hot dogs as hazardous to your health as plutonium, grilling food just got a lot less fun - unless you have any critical thinking. But hazard is not risk and the University of Missouri is scare-mongering about something that has happened 1,600 times since 2002.…

It's known that many patients die after getting sepsis but it's unclear if the increased risk of death (30 days to 2 years after sepsis) is because of sepsis itself or because of pre-existing health conditions the patient had before acquiring the complication. Patients with more medical problems are more likely to develop sepsis. Sepsis is a complication of infection. The body releases chemicals in the bloodstream to help fight off infection, but sometimes those chemicals can damage the body, leading to organ failure and a dramatic drop in blood pressure. Sepsis is treated with antibiotics…

Last week I wrote about  how a consensus statement released by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) on criteria for identifying endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) supported a risk-based approach to identifying and managing EDCs, but ironically, the EU nevertheless seems stubbornly committed to taking a hazard-only based approach to the issue.  Such a decision is likely to lead to fewer choices and higher costs for European consumers without resulting in any real public health benefits. Very much concerned about the direction that the European Commission might…

Last week I wrote about  how a consensus statement released by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) on criteria for identifying endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) supported a risk-based approach to identifying and managing EDCs, but ironically, the EU nevertheless seems stubbornly committed to taking a hazard-only based approach to the issue.  Such a decision is likely to lead to fewer choices and higher costs for European consumers without resulting in any real public health benefits. Very much concerned about the direction that the European Commission…

Few alternative therapies are more divisive than homeopathy. Whenever I write about the subject, I get bucket-loads of hate mail. Somehow, homeopathy has the power to touch raw nerves and strong emotions. And it makes fallacies appear like mushrooms after the rain: ·         It has stood the test of time. ·         It is approved even by Nobel Prize winners. ·         It has millions of satisfied customers. True, many consumers use homeopathy; but most do not even understand…

Fortifying the U.S. food supply with folic acid was not associated with a decline in certain birth defects that researchers expected to see in California, a finding likely to contribute to an ongoing debate about the future of the fortification program. The study of more than 1.3 million California births and pregnancies spanning two decades is published in Birth Defects Research Part A. The research examines neural tube defects, which affect a baby's brain and spine, and which were the intended target of fortification with folic acid, a B vitamin. However, neural tube defects were already…

It used to be a truism that when people stopped smoking, they were likely to gain weight, but the reasons for it were cloudy. Did people replace the mechanism of smoking with candy and food, or did nicotine suppress body weight gain independent of food intake. In other words, was it speeding up metabolism A new paper in Nicotine&Tobacco Research using rats says it is the latter. Caution is always warranted in these sorts of studies, since mainstream media tends to hype animal model findings without ever noting that rats are actually not little people. In rats self-administering a…

Inflammation occurs naturally in the body but when it goes wrong or goes on too long, it can trigger disease processes. Uncontrolled inflammation plays a role in many major diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. A new study has identified food stuffs that can help prevent chronic inflammation that contributes to many leading causes of death. Their correlation claims diets rich in fruits and vegetables, which contain polyphenols, protect against age-related inflammation and chronic diseases. Cell-to-cell communication Polyphenols are abundant…

Slama et al. (2016) recently published a paper on issues relevant to setting regulations for endocrine disrupting substances in the European Union.1   The authors discuss options associated with these issues, briefly described as use of interim criteria, or use of the World Health Organization definition of endocrine disruption by itself or with additional categories of strength of evidence or chemical potency. We agree with several points of the authors, but we also found some errors.  The European Union is said to be the first major authority to develop a strategy for the…

Diagnoses of celiac disease (CD), an autoimmune disease, are increasing, no real surprise after not one but two bestselling food books based on suspect studies claimed wheat is poison. There have always been actual celiac patients, of course, but many doctors would go their whole careers without meeting one. Today, if someone presents symptoms, they will find someone willing to sign off on it, which has added to celiac numbers. But 20 percent of America is not celiac, yet 20 percent of Americans have been educated by advertising to be worried about gluten, and that has turned into a $6…