Poultry Import Bans Could Affect Flu Reporting: U.S. Official
Countries should be cautious in banning poultry imports because excessive measures may make some nations reluctant to report avian flu outbreaks, says a U.S. agriculture official who held talks with Chinese officials about coordinating anti-bird flu strategies.
"If countries overreact and are overly punitive in their reaction when this disease is reported, that reduces the incentive for other countries to report," Charles Lambert, a U.S. deputy undersecretary of agriculture, said at a news conference.
He said that Chinese agriculture and quarantine officials agreed to increase information exchanges and technical cooperation with the U.S., the Associated Press reported.
Both China and Vietnam have banned poultry imports from countries with bird flu outbreaks. American producers sell $500 million worth of poultry a year to China, Lambert said.
In other news, Vietnam banned raw blood pudding and poultry-raising in major cities and China' largest drug maker is negotiating with Swiss drug maker Roche for permission to produce Roche's anti-flu drug Tamiflu, the AP reported.
New Vitamin D Pill Improves Prostate Cancer Survival
Taking an experimental, high-dose vitamin D pill in combination with chemotherapy can help extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer, says a study presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Cancer Conference in Paris.
The study of 250 patients found that those who took the DN-101 pill with chemotherapy lived about eight months longer than men who took a placebo with chemotherapy.
"When DN-101 is added to chemotherapy, it provides a significant improvement in survival for advanced prostate cancer patients. DN-101 extends lives and it may also protect against side effects of chemotherapy, providing a one-two punch in cancer therapy," Dr. Thomasz Beer, national leader of the clinical trial and director of the Prostate Cancer Program at the Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) Cancer Institute, said in a prepared statement.
"This is both surprising and pleasing. A cancer treatment that improves survival and decreases toxicity is exceedingly rare," Beer added.
DN-101 was designed specifically as a cancer therapy. It's a form of calcitriol, a naturally occurring hormone and the biologically active form of vitamin D.
Both Beer and OHSU have significant financial interest in Novacea, the maker of DN-101.
Health Insurer to Cover Depression Management
Major insurer Aetna is expected to announce Wednesday that it will begin paying for a depression management program in dozens of medical offices in the United States, The New York Times reported.
Depression is one of the most common and costly health problems in the country, and Aetna's move is seen as a response to employers who point to depression as a major cause of worker absenteeism and low productivity.
The Aetna plan will pay additional fees to primary care doctors when they screen patients for depression and provide follow-up consultations for patients who are prescribed anti-depressants or are referred to psychologists or psychiatrists, the Times reported.
The company reasons that the added costs of identifying and treating depression can help prevent even greater financial costs, including higher medical expenses that often occur when diabetes, heart disease and other chronic health problems are compounded by depression.
About 33 million Americans are treated for depression each year and at least one in six Americans suffer depression at some point in their lives. It's estimated that depression causes a total economic loss of more than $83 billion a year in the United States, the newspaper reported.
Generic Drug Could Stretch Tamiflu Supply
A generic drug called probenecid could help "double" the supply of the influenza drug Tamiflu, which is in high demand due to fears about a potential global outbreak of avian flu, says a report released Tuesday by the journal Nature.
Administering probenecid alongside Tamiflu prevents Tamiflu from being excreted in urine, meaning that half-doses of Tamiflu would provide sufficient protection, according to an emergency medical specialist who reviewed safety data on Tamiflu.
Probenecid appears to double the number of hours that Tamiflu's active ingredient remains in the blood and doubles its maximum blood concentration.
Probenecid prevents many drugs, including antibiotics, from being removed from the blood by the kidneys. It was used during the Second World War to stretch penicillin supplies and is still widely used alongside antibiotics in hospital emergency rooms and in treating patients with syphilis and gonorrhea.
Because probenecid is already widely used, there are few safety considerations, some doctors told Nature. However, others noted that even with the use of probenecid, a major increase in flu drug production is still required to cope with an influenza pandemic.
Diabetic Black Men Have Less Heart Disease, Researchers Say
Black men with diabetes have dramatically lower amounts of coronary artery disease than diabetic white men, a surprise outcome announced by investigators at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Tuesday.
Dr. Barry Freedman and colleagues report in the December issue of Diabetologia that African-American men had significantly lower levels of calcified atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary arteries and the carotid arteries in the neck that supply blood to the brain.
"This striking result was observed despite black subjects having higher levels of conventional risk factors for heart disease," said Freedman in a prepared statement. "These risk factors would normally be expected to promote coronary artery disease in the black participants."
The results came from the Diabetes Heart Study, made up of North Carolina families in which at least two siblings have type 2 or non-insulin-dependent diabetes. The Wake Forest investigators recruited 1,000 white participants from 369 families and 180 blacks from 74 families for the research.
Freedman pointed out that the study was the first to compare blacks and whites who had type 2 diabetes for differences in atherosclerosis. The amount of plaque was measured using high-speed computed tomography (CT) scans.
"Hardening of the arteries appears to be a different disease in blacks and whites. We have demonstrated this in diabetic subjects; other groups have shown it in people with hypertension," said Freedman. "We should be studying what causes these biologic differences. Perhaps inherited or genetic influences may contribute to these differences."
Food Fact:
Soy to the world.
Think soy is boring? Edamame just might change your mind. Baby green soybeans are unlike tofu or soy milk in taste, look and feel, but are just as packed with protein and protective soy isoflavones. Edamame are sold frozen in the pod or shucked. Cook for 7 or 8 minutes in boiling water until tender. Serve plain as a snack or add to stir-fries, bean salads or vegetables mixes. A 1/4-cup serving contains about 110 calories and 9 grams of protein.
Fitness Tip of the day:
Speak up.
Chatting on the phone? It's the perfect time to get active! Stand up, switch the phone to speaker, and pace during long conversations and conference calls. While your hands are free, try a little lifting with a dumbbell set.
FAQ of the day:
Can I take a pill to get the benefits of soy food?
In order to get the benefits of soy, a supplement alone won't do. You'll need to eat soy food, for both soy protein and soy isoflavones, to get the full range of health benefits. Pills will just give you the isoflavones. Only soy foods like tofu, tempeh, soy milk and soy protein powder provide both.
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