Health Headlines - October 9

Another Manufacturer Warns of Defibrillator Problems

St. Jude Medical Inc. is warning doctors and patients that some of its older implantable defibrillators may suddenly lose power if exposed to significant levels of environmental radiation, the Associated Press reported Friday. Excessive environmental radiation occurs naturally, caused by decay in the earth's core.

Defibrillators are small devices that send electric jolts to the heart when the organ begins beating irregularly. St. Jude, headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., said the affected devices -- the Photon DR, Photon Micro VR/DR, and the Atlas VR/DR -- may soon be recalled by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An FDA spokesman was not available for comment, the wire service said.

Testing has indicated that about 60 of the 36,000 devices produced by St. Jude may be affected, the AP said. The problem lies with a faulty memory chip. The company has advised doctors to remove the device if they find it has been automatically reset because of a power drain.

In June, another defibrillator manufacturer, Guidant Corp. of Indianapoplis recalled 88,000 heart defibrillators, also because of electrical defects. The FDA is investigating whether Guidant deliberately withheld knowledge of the defects, HealthDay has reported.

Legionnaire's Disease Most Likely Cause of Canadian Nursing Home Deaths

Legionnaire's disease is most likely behind a recent series of deaths at a Toronto nursing home, city health officials said Friday.

On Wednesday, six more elderly residents at the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged died from the respiratory illness, bringing the total to 16 fatalities. Dr. David McKeown, chief medical officer for Public Health Toronto, said there could be more deaths before the lethal bacteria that causes the disease was contained, the Associated Press reported.

In all, some 70 residents, 13 employees and five visitors to the home have been stricken, and at least 45 remain hospitalized, the AP said.

After preliminary tests, officials had initially ruled out Legionnaires, but changed their minds after autopsy cultures came back positive, the wire service said.

Legionnaire's is a type of pneumonia named after it was first diagnosed in 1976 at a meeting of the American Legion in Philadelphia. Thirty-four people who attended that convention died from the disease. The germ grows in warm water and tends to harbor in plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems.

Politics Trumping Science in 'Plan B' Decision: Ex-FDA Consultant

Politics is overriding science in delaying approval of the "Plan B" contraceptive for over-the-counter sales in the United States, said Dr. Frank Davidoff, who cited the issue as his reason for resigning as consultant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee.

Davidoff, editor emeritus of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, resigned in September after the FDA said it was indefinitely delaying a decision on over-the-counter sales of Plan B, an emergency, morning-after contraception, the Associated Press reported.

The FDA announcement was made despite recommendations from scientists that Plan B is safe. Many U.S. religious conservatives oppose the drug.

"There wasn't any observable scientific or procedural reason for (the FDA) to first decline and then further delay the decision. I had to make the inference this was a decision that was made on the basis of political pressure, and it seemed to me that was unacceptable," Davidoff told the AP.

He's the second person to publicly resign over the Plan B issue. In late August, Susan Wood, the top FDA's top women's health official, also resigned in protest over the agency's handling of Plan B.

Lab Tests Confirm E. Coli in Prepackaged Lettuce

Laboratory tests found E. coli bacteria in two bags of Dole prepackaged lettuce, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The two bags that were tested had the same "best if used by" date as bags of Dole prepackaged lettuce suspected as the cause of an E. coli outbreak in Minnesota.

"As far as we know, this is the first time a laboratory has been able to isolate E. coli from lettuce in an outbreak," Kevin Elfering, the USDA's dairy, food and meat inspection director, told the Associated Press.

"This is the proverbial 'smoking gun' that we try to identify in every outbreak we investigate," Elfering said.

The Minnesota outbreak has resulted in 17 confirmed cases of E. coli and eight people have had to be hospitalized. One person developed a severe complication that can lead to kidney failure, the AP reported.

More Americans Are Becoming Active: CDC

Physical inactivity -- a risk factor for heart disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes -- has fallen an average of 0.6 percent per year during the past 11 years as more Americans find that it's wise to exercise, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

In 2004, the percentage of survey recipients who declared themselves "inactive" had fallen to decade-low rates of 21 percent of men and 26 percent of women, the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

While the trend is improving, too many people are still inactive, the agency said. Among people age 70 and older, 30 percent said they didn't exercise. In addition to being at high risk for the chronic diseases mentioned above, inactive older adults are also at greater risk of disability, loss of muscle mass, and falling, the CDC said.

Both the agency and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, such as brisk walking, on most, and preferably all, days of the week. Regular exercise, even if begun in a person's later years, can offer significant health benefits, the CDC said.

Illinois Gov. Proposes Universal Child Health Insurance

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is proposing to make Illinois the first state to offer universal health coverage for children, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

The Democratic governor's "All Kids" program would cover 250,000 of the state's children who currently lack health insurance, the wire service said. The plan would target families that don't earn enough for private coverage but earn too much for state-subsidized insurance.

The cost, estimated at $45 million in the first year, would be offset by using managed care programs to cut $56 million from the state's health programs, the AP reported, citing a statement from Blagojevich.

Parents of uninsured children would be able to buy insurance from the state with premiums and deductibles that are much lower than those offered by the private sector, the statement said.

Food Fact:
Prevent "pour" nutrition.

If you're not careful, you may pour veggies' vitamins and nutrients down the drain. Cooking vegetables in water significantly lowers the nutrient content because vitamins leech out. You wind up discarding some very nutritious cooking water! Steaming is your best option for cooking vegetables. The water makes no contact with the food and nutrient loss is minimized.

Fitness Tip of the day:
Walking tall.

Walking even just a few minutes every day can help regulate high blood pressure. According to the Surgeon General and the American Heart Association, adopting a routine of daily physical activity can help reduce your risk of developing high blood pressure, or help you lower it if it's already too high. Walking also significantly reduces your risk of dying from coronary artery disease or a heart attack (exercise has as much effect as quitting smoking), and makes your heart stronger and more efficient, so that it pumps more blood with each contraction.

FAQ of the day:
Do vegetarians need dairy?

If you adopt a more vegetarian eating style, you should be wary of relying too heavily on cheese for protein, because you'll end up eating too much fat. In fact, protein deficiency is uncommon among vegetarians in the U.S.; more often, vegetarians may be low in iron, calcium or zinc. Low-fat or fat-free dairy foods provide calcium along with protein, as do soy foods such as calcium-set tofu and soymilk. Dried beans, peas, lentils and soy foods are also good sources of iron and zinc, as are shellfish. Add variety to your protein sources, and other needs get filled, too!