Public Health

A new executive summary of an upcoming report adds to vegetarian claims that a normal human diet affects pollutant nitrogen emissions, climate change and land-use across Europe. The executive summary of the European Nitrogen Assessment Special Report on Nitrogen and Food, 'Nitrogen on the Table' wants Europeans to decrease their consumption of meat and dairy products. It estimates how much cutting down on meat and dairy in European diets would reduce nitrogen air, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, while freeing up large areas of farmland for other purposes. It also attempts to…

In American politics there is a comfortable détente about which science craziness to allow under the big tents - Republicans are okay if their members won't accept evidence of climate science or evolution while Democrats are fine if their voters don't accept the science behind food, energy and medicine.  Sure, there is some overlap - 3 Republicans in Congress joined 52 Democrats in trying to get a Federal warning label for GMOs pushed through, and plenty of Democrats have campaigned against any climate change regulation - but those are exceptions. Generally, if you want to find an anti-…

Alcoholism and depression are the right and left hands of a heartbreaking condition that often includes both. Nearly half of people in treatment for alcohol addiction exhibit co-occurring depression. And of people treated for major depressive disorder, nearly 40 percent will struggle with alcoholism at some point in their lives. Not only do these two challenges tend to happen together, there’s strong evidence they may actually create each other. Depression makes addiction; addiction makes depression. If you treat one without treating the other, the challenge that remains can cause relapse of…

A long-term study of a cohort of young people, 12,000 people now six years old, from Iceland to Greece, who have been tracked from birth and whose diets and allergies have been recorded, is evaluating maternal diet’s impact on food allergy in later life is expected to uncover causes of allergy in children. Some pointers are already evident, they note. Compared to the UK, Israeli children typically eat nuts at an earlier age and have fewer allergies, which suggests that such dietary habits may have a protective effect against nut allergies later on. “This means that the current advice that…

Sid Salter, director of public affairs at Mississippi State University, writes in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger that labels have gone too far.  He is worried about a bill from Democratic State Senator Bill Monning, which would put a warning label on soft drinks and other sugary beverages. A Democrat engaging in social authoritarianism barely even gets noticed in this state so it won't be big news unless people start paying more for Big Gulp's. We love to slap warning labels on things and declare it will save $120 billion in health care costs or some other suitably cosmic number.  That…

 A meta-analysis that included 14 randomized controlled trials with a total of 626 adult participants found that  whey protein, either as a supplement combined with resistance exercise or as part of a weight-loss or weight-maintenance diet, may provide men and women benefits related to body composition. Included weight loss studies that used whey protein to replace calories in the diet showed participants had a decrease in body weight of 4.2 kg (9.2 pounds), on average, compared to baseline values with whey protein intake. Additionally, after analyzing muscle protein synthesis…

Want to reduce jet lag? A new app called Entrain claims it is the first to use a numbers-based approach  to "entrainment," the scientific term for synchronizing circadian rhythms with the outside hour. It's based on work by  Danny Forger, a professor of mathematics at the University of Michigan, and Kirill Serkh, a doctoral student at Yale University.    Entrain is built around the premise that light, particularly from the sun and in wavelengths that appear to our eyes as the color blue, is the strongest signal to regulate circadian rhythms. These…

A review based on full internal reports of 20 Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and 26 Relenza (zanamivir) trials found that Tamiflu (the antiviral drug oseltamivir) shortens symptoms of influenza by half a day but there is no good evidence to support claims that it reduces admissions to hospital or complications of influenza. Evidence from treatment trials confirms increased risk of suffering from nausea and vomiting and when Tamiflu was used in prevention trials there was an increased risk of headaches, psychiatric disturbances, and renal events. Although when used as a preventative treatment, the…

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/tilapia_fatty_acid_combination_wo... http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/04/09/truth-about-tilapia/

When you’re sober, it’s so easy to tell yourself you’ll have just one drink. Or if you’re trying to be honest with yourself, you say you’ll stop at two; maybe two is enough to feel it, but not enough to have any consequences. But what happens when you finish that second drink? How do your sober intentions hold up against the reality of that buzz waiting just inside the fridge or on the shelf? In short, can you really stop at one or two or does that one drink wreck any willpower you had earlier in the evening until you finish the rest of the alcohol in the house...and go looking for more? This…