Health Headlines - October 5

FDA Moves to Tighten Mad Cow Measures

Animal-feed producers must eliminate certain high-risk cattle materials -- including brains and spinal cords of cows older than 30 months -- from feed for all animals, including chickens, pigs and pets, according to new U.S. government rules intended to prevent mad-cow disease.

Most of the proposed regulations have already applied to cattle feed since 1997, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

The feed rules are important because the only way cattle are known to get mad cow disease is from eating feed containing contaminated cattle remains.

There have been two confirmed U.S. cases of mad cow: a Texas cow in June and a Canadian-born cow in Washington state in 2003. The consumption of tainted meat can lead to a fatal disorder in people called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which killed about 150 people during an outbreak in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly in Great Britain.

Bush Weighs Using Military to Enforce a Bird Flu Quarantine

President Bush said Tuesday he would consider using the military to enforce a quarantine if an avian flu epidemic were to break out in any part of the United States.

"The best way to deal with a pandemic is to isolate it and keep it isolated in the region in which it begins," Bush said during a wide-ranging news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

The Associated Press reported that Bush was asked if his recent talk of giving the military the lead in responding to large natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina was, in part, due to his concerns that state and local agencies aren't up to the task of a flu outbreak.

"Yes," he replied.

Such a decision could require a change in law, and some in Congress and the states worry it would increase the power of the federal government at the expense of local control, the AP said.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has led to the deaths of approximately 60 people in Asia and millions of birds over the past two years. Experts worry that the lethal germ could mutate, making it more easily passed from animals to people, leading to a long-predicted pandemic.

Many Women Lack Knowledge of Gynecological Cancers: Poll

Although 54 percent of American women believe they're at risk for developing a gynecological cancer, 58 percent are unaware of any factors that can reduce their risk. And 47 percent can't name any symptoms of gynecological cancers, says a new poll released by the Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF) and Research! America.

The telephone survey of 800 women also found that 46 percent did not know any risk factors for gynecological cancers, and 19 percent could not name any test for female reproductive cancers. Only 3 percent mentioned a pelvic exam, which is recommended annually for women over age 18.

Of the women who could name risk factors, 20 percent cited genetics or family history and 11 percent cited exposure to certain viruses/sexually transmitted diseases or having multiple sex partners.

Of the women who said they knew about ways to reduce risk, 13 percent said regular check-ups/Pap tests and 12 percent cited a healthy lifestyle/diet.

The survey also found that 51 percent of the women said, other than their doctor, they would go to the Internet for information about reproductive cancers.

"The poll findings show that women face a lack of knowledge about gynecologic cancers. Particularly alarming is that half of the women polled could not name a single symptom, since early detection is critical to successful treatment. In this case, lack of awareness leads to unnecessary deaths, so we must work even harder to educate women and help save lives," GCF chairman Dr. Karl C. Podratz said in a prepared statement.

Cycle Saddles Squeeze Male Libido

If you're a man, cycling may be great for your overall health, but it can put the squeeze on your love life, suggest a number of new studies that are summarized in three articles in the September issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

These dozen or so new studies support earlier research that cycle saddles can cause impotence in men. Some of these latest studies concluded that the more a man rides, the greater his risk of impotence, or loss of libido, The New York Times reported.

Another of the new studies found that mountain bikers can suffer saddle-related trauma that results in the formation of small calcified masses inside the scrotum.

Some kinds of saddles cause more damage than others and even saddles specially designed to prevent damage to the sex organs can be harmful, some of the researchers concluded.

The findings show there's no longer any question about whether bicycle saddles can cause erectile dysfunction, Dr. Steven Schrader, a reproductive health expert who studies cycling at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

"The question is, what are we going to do about it?" he said in an interview with the Times.

He stressed that the findings don't mean men should stop cycling and he added that men who cycle occasionally or only for short periods don't need to be concerned. As for riders who spend long hours in the saddle, the bicycle industry needs to design safer saddles for them, Schrader said.

Majority of U.S. Seniors Don't Understand Medicare Drug Plan

Many American seniors don't understand the new Medicare prescription drug program and don't intend to sign up, says a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll.

The poll of 275 people age 65 and older found that 61 percent said they don't understand the program and 37 percent said they understand the program at least somewhat. Those are about the same percentages as in polls conducted in July and August, USA Today reported.

The latest poll, taken last week, also found that 54 percent of the seniors said they don't plan to join the program, which starts Jan. 1, while 24 percent said they will sign up for coverage. Twenty-two percent had no opinion.

"The (poll) numbers suggest an abysmal program. This benefit was designed to make it impossible for consumers to understand it," Robert Hayes of the Medicare Rights Center advocacy group told USA Today.

However, Medicare officials said the poll results were encouraging. They noted that insurers only started this week to market specific drug plans.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Fund released a study Tuesday saying that a comprehensive benefits option for U.S. Medicare beneficiaries would simplify drug coverage, eliminate the need to purchase multiple benefit plans, and enable employers to offer a lower-cost alternative for retiree benefits.

Adding such a comprehensive Medicare Extra -- or Part E -- to Medicare would also help beneficiaries save money and would address the confusion surrounding the Medicare Part D drug benefit, the study said.

Protect your baby!

Moms-to-be need to keep certain foods off-limits. Alcohol, caffeine and artificial sweeteners top the list; take a timeout until after your pregnancy. Ditto for soft cheeses (feta, goat, brie, camembert, blue-veined cheeses such as Roquefort, and all cheeses with unpasteurized milk or milk products; raw, rare or smoked fish, poultry or meat (sushi, tartar, carpaccio, smoked salmon); deli meats and cold cuts; and fish with high mercury levels.

Prime exercise time.

You can burn a lot of calories watching sports on TV. Or a movie, or a game show or anything else -- just park a high-quality exercise bike, treadmill or stair climber in front of the tube and exercise away. You'll never even notice how hard you worked, and whatever you spend on the equipment can be more cost-effective than a gym membership you never use.

How does dairy fit into a diet?

They can make it easier -- or make it harder. The key is dairy fat, which, like all fat, has lots of calories. An 8-oz. glass of whole milk has 150 calories, while the same amount of fat-free milk has only 85. Similarly, a 1/4 cup of regular sour cream has 100 calories, while the same amount of fat-free sour cream has only 70. Your best bet is to make sure all your diary products are low-fat (no more than 3 grams total per serving) or fat-free.