Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Health Headlines - October 31

KFC to Stop Using Trans Fat-Laden Cooking Oil

Fast-food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken announced Monday that as of April 2007 it will no longer use trans fat-laden hydrogenated soybean oils to cook chicken and other food products at all 5,500 of its U.S. restaurants. Instead, the restaurant chain will use healthier low linolenic soybean oil, the Associated Press reported.

"We've tested a wide variety of oils available and we're pleased we have found a way to keep our chicken finger lickin' good -- but with zero grams of trans fat," KFC President Gregg Dedrick told the AP. He said most chicken products would move over to the safer oil, although certain other items, such as biscuits, will still use trans fats while KFC looks for other alternatives.

KFC was recently sued over high levels of trans fats in its foods. Trans fats are considered so harmful that the American Heart Association recommends eating less than 2 grams per day. Currently, just one KFC extra crispy chicken breast contains 4.5 grams of trans fat.

The Wendy's restaurant chain has already switched to trans fat-free cooking oil. McDonalds made the same promise years ago, but has not yet followed through on that pledge, AP reported.

The KFC announcement comes on the same day that the New York City Board of Health holds its first public meeting on a proposal to forbid restaurants from serving food that contains artificial trans fats, the AP reported.

If it goes ahead, it would be the first such ban in the U.S.

New York City health officials say trans fats -- which significantly boost levels of so-called "bad" cholesterol -- are so unhealthy that food that contains them belong in the same category as food spoiled by rodent droppings, the AP reported.

"This is something that we'd like to dismiss from our food supply," Dr. Robert H. Eckel, immediate past president of the American Heart Association, told AP.

Trans fats contribute to about 30,000 U.S. deaths a year, according to Harvard Public School of Health researchers.

Gene Variant Linked to Schizophrenia

People with a variant of a gene called neuregulin are more likely to develop symptoms of schizophrenia, say researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K.

The study included 200 young people, ages 16 to 25, who were at high risk for schizophrenia but did not have any symptoms at the start of the study. All the participants had two or more relatives with the condition, which is known to run in families, BBC News reported.

The volunteers were tracked for 10 years. Those with the variant of the neuregulin gene were much more likely to develop symptoms of schizophrenia -- such as paranoia or hearing voices -- during the study.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, may help in the development of new treatments for schizophrenia.

Brain scans also showed that volunteers with this gene variant were more likely to have abnormal brain activity in the frontal and temporal regions -- areas often associated with schizophrenia, BBC News reported.

"These results help us to understand how a gene might alter brain function and then cause symptoms, and could represent a target for treatments in the future," said lead researcher Dr. Jeremy Hall of the division of psychiatry at Edinburgh University.

Molecule Stops Sperm Development

American and Italian scientists are working on a male contraceptive that stops the development process of sperm.

They tested a recently developed molecule called Adjudin in male rats and found that it blocked connections to Sertoli cells which "nurture" developing sperm, making the rodents infertile, BBC News reported.

This effect was achieved using relatively low doses of the molecule. There were no obvious side effects and the infertility was reversible, the researchers said. Their findings appear in the journal Nature Medicine.

When sperm are developing, they sit next to Sertoli cells, which nurse sperm cells and help them grow. If the connection between sperm cells and Sertoli cells is broken, it causes infertility.

The scientists said more research is needed in order to determine if the molecule is equally effective and safe in men, BBC News reported.

Air Study Shows Link Between Asthma, Diesel Emissions

A New York University study that had school children in the South Bronx -- a high density urban area -- carry air pollution monitors in their backpacks has found a link between motor vehicle exhaust fumes and increased incidence of asthma and other respiratory ailments.

The New York Times reports that average daily exposure to fine particle pollution exceeded U.S. government standards on 18 days of the 69 days the measurements were taken over a three year period.

"I think it's an indicator that these kids are being exposed to very high fine-particle concentrations on a fairly regular basis," the Times quotes NYU researcher Dr. George Thurston as saying. Particularly damaging appears to be diesel exhaust fumes. The children in the study live and go to school near a number of expressways in the South Bronx.

About 5-to-10 percent of the fine particle pollution was from diesel exhaust, but Thurston told the newspaper that its effect on the children caused doubling of symptoms like wheezing on days with heavy truck traffic.

Officials hope to use the study findings to help create new vehicle pollution standards in new York State.

Who is Grumpiest After Arising in the Morning?

In the United Kingdom, "the wrong side of the bed" is more often indicative of a woman's mood than a man's, according to a study done by the Sleep Council, an organization in the UK promoting better sleep habits. The study was timed to be released as Daylight Saving Time ended and most people had an extra hour's sleep over the weekend.

British women have a 10 per cent edge in saying they're more likely to wake up in a bad mood than men, the Sleep Council says in a news release. The survey found that 24 percent of the men said they never wake up in a bad mood as opposed to 14 percent of the women.

And women say they remain grumpy longer than men. Thirteen percent said it took them between two and four hours to get over their bad mood compared to 10 percent of the men.

Not getting a good night's sleep appears to be the key, according to Sleep Council spokesperson Jessica Alexander, with 24 percent of the respondents citing stress as a major factor.

But it wasn't either men or women who fell in the largest group that woke up in the worst mood, the survey found. It was teenagers.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Health Headlines - October 30

Air Pollution Study Shows Link Between Asthma Incidence and Diesel Emissions

A New York University study that had school children in the South Bronx -- a high density urban area -- carry air pollution monitors in their backpacks has found a link between motor vehicle exhaust fumes and increased incidence of asthma and other respiratory ailments.

The New York Times reports that average daily exposure to fine particle pollution exceeded U.S. government standards on 18 days of the 69 days the measurements were taken over a three year period.

"I think it's an indicator that these kids are being exposed to very high fine-particle concentrations on a fairly regular basis," the Times quotes NYU researcher Dr. George Thurston as saying. Particularly damaging appears to be diesel exhaust fumes. The children in the study live and go to school near a number of expressways in the South Bronx.

About 5-to-10 percent of the fine particle pollution was from diesel exhaust, but Thurston told the newspaper that its effect on the children caused doubling of symptoms like wheezing on days with heavy truck traffic.

Officials hope to use the study findings to help create new vehicle pollution standards in new York State.

Who is Grumpiest After Arising in the Morning?

In the United Kingdom, "the wrong side of the bed" is more often indicative of a woman's mood than a man's, according to a study done by the Sleep Council, an organization in the UK promoting better sleep habits. The study was timed to be released as Daylight Saving Time ended and most people had an extra hour's sleep over the weekend.

British women have a 10 per cent edge in saying they're more likely to wake up in a bad mood than men, the Sleep Council says in a news release. The survey found that 24 percent of the men said they never wake up in a bad mood as opposed to 14 percent of the women.

And women say they remain grumpy longer than men. Thirteen percent said it took them between two and four hours to get over their bad mood compared to 10 percent of the men.

Not getting a good night's sleep appears to be the key, according to Sleep Council spokesperson Jessica Alexander, with 24 percent of the respondents citing stress as a major factor.

But it wasn't either men or women who fell in the largest group that woke up in the worst mood, the survey found. It was teenagers.

Hospitalization May Create Memory, Disorientation Problems for Older Patients

Older patients hospitalized for acute illnesses may undergo a subtle change that affects their ability to reason or remember.

These findings by a Harvard/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study also concluded that the lack of immediate recognition of cognitive decline by either medical professionals or family members could allow the patient to make the wrong decision about his or her medical treatment.

Dr. Sharon Inouye, director of the Aging Brain Center at Hebrew SeniorLife who led the study, which will appear in the December issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, said in a Harvard news release, "Acute illness can represent a life-altering event for an older person, yet the impact of acute illness on cognitive functioning has not been systematically examined."

Inouye and her team have developed an examination procedure that could detect the cognitive loss often missed through routine exams. Using the test, Inouye said that researchers had discovered 39 percent of the patients surveyed as having congnitive difficulties.

Skin Piercing Results in Removal of Teenager's Breast

What might be considered the ultimate bad result from the popular procedure of skin piercing has happened to an 18-year-old Indiana woman.

According to the Associated Press, Stephanie Edington decided to have her breasts pierced for her 18th birthday, and the resulting infection was so severe that doctors had to remove her left breast.

The wire service quotes Dr. Robert Goulet Jr., a professor at the Indiana University Cancer Center, as saying that the piercing created an entry point for necrotizing fasciitis, sometimes known as "flesh-eating bacteria," which can destroy tissue in a very short period of time. Compounding the young woman's condition, Goulet said, was that she was is diabetic, which left her susceptible to infection.

Edington's condition worsened after she had the piercings Aug. 29, the A.P reported, until she was taken to the hospital Oct. 14. "By the time she got here, the skin tissue was all pretty much completely dead," the wire service quotes Goulet as saying. "She was a very sick kid when she got here." She is on an aggressive antibiotic regimen, and Goulet said she was making good progess.

Smoke in Cars Threatens Kids' Health

The amount of secondhand smoke created when someone puffs on a cigarette in a car -- even with the windows rolled down -- is equivalent to being in a smoky bar and poses a serious health risk to children, New Zealand researchers say.

When the car windows are rolled up, the pollution is twice as bad as being in the smokiest bar, the Associated Press reported of the study's findings.

Researchers measured the amount of particulate released when a person smoked in the car. Particulate refers to tiny airborne particles that can get into the lungs. Air pollution studies have linked particulate to health problems.

Particulate levels were 199 micrograms per cubic yard when the windows were rolled down and 2,926 micrograms per cubic yard when the windows were rolled up. Researcher Richard Edwards noted that on a very smoggy day in a New Zealand city, particulate levels are between 35-40 micrograms per cubic yard, the AP reported.

The findings were published Friday as a letter in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

Edwards and his colleagues said smoking in a car poses a serious threat to children's health. They called for the New Zealand government to ban smoking in vehicles where children are passengers.

U.S. Trial Focuses Attention on Female Circumcision

An Atlanta court case is focusing attention on the growing practice in the United States of circumcising girls, the Associated Press reported.

With an influx of immigrants from certain parts of Africa, the ancient practice is slowly becoming more common in the United States, experts say.

The Atlanta case involves Khalid Adem, a 31-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia. He's charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children for allegedly using scissors to circumcise his daughter, who was 2 years old at the time of the incident in 2001, the AP reported.

It's believed to be the first U.S. criminal case involving the practice, say human rights observers. If convicted, Adem faces up to 40 years in prison.

As many as 130 million women worldwide had undergone circumcision as of 2001, according to the U.S. State Department. The procedure is often done using knives, razors, or sharp stones that, in many cases, have not been sterilized.

Female circumcision is most common in 28 African countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, and Somalia, experts told the AP.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Health Headlines - October 29

Hospitalization May Create Memory, Disorientation Problems for Older Patients

Older patients hospitalized for acute illnesses may undergo a subtle change that affects their ability to reason or remember.

These findings by a Harvard/ Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study also concluded that the lack of immediate recognition of cognitive decline by either medical professionals or family members could allow the patient to make the wrong decision about his or her medical treatment.

Dr. Sharon Inouye, director of the Aging Brain Center at Hebrew SeniorLife who led the study, which will appear in the December issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, said in a Harvard news release, "Acute illness can represent a life-altering event for an older person, yet the impact of acute illness on cognitive functioning has not been systematically examined."

Inouye and her team have developed an examination procedure that could detect the cognitive loss often missed through routine exams. Using the test, Inouye said that researchers had discovered 39 percent of the patients surveyed as having congnitive difficulties.

Skin Piercing Results in Removal of Teenager's Breast

What might be considered the ultimate bad result from the popular procedure of skin piercing has happened to an 18-year-old Indiana woman.

According to the Associated Press, Stephanie Edington decided to have her breasts pierced for her 18th birthday, and the resulting infection was so severe that doctors had to remove her left breast.

The wire service quotes Dr. Robert Goulet Jr., a professor at the Indiana University Cancer Center, as saying that the piercing created an entry point for necrotizing fasciitis, sometimes known as "flesh-eating bacteria," which can destroy tissue in a very short period of time. Compounding the young woman's condition, Goulet said, was that she was is diabetic, which left her susceptible to infection.

Edington's condition worsened after she had the piercings Aug. 29, the A.P reported, until she was taken to the hospital Oct. 14. "By the time she got here, the skin tissue was all pretty much completely dead," the wire service quotes Goulet as saying. "She was a very sick kid when she got here." She is on an aggressive antibiotic regimen, and Goulet said she was making good progess.

Smoke in Cars Threatens Kids' Health

The amount of secondhand smoke created when someone puffs on a cigarette in a car -- even with the windows rolled down -- is equivalent to being in a smoky bar and poses a serious health risk to children, New Zealand researchers say.

When the car windows are rolled up, the pollution is twice as bad as being in the smokiest bar, the Associated Press reported of the study's findings.

Researchers measured the amount of particulate released when a person smoked in the car. Particulate refers to tiny airborne particles that can get into the lungs. Air pollution studies have linked particulate to health problems.

Particulate levels were 199 micrograms per cubic yard when the windows were rolled down and 2,926 micrograms per cubic yard when the windows were rolled up. Researcher Richard Edwards noted that on a very smoggy day in a New Zealand city, particulate levels are between 35-40 micrograms per cubic yard, the AP reported.

The findings were published Friday as a letter in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

Edwards and his colleagues said smoking in a car poses a serious threat to children's health. They called for the New Zealand government to ban smoking in vehicles where children are passengers.

U.S. Trial Focuses Attention on Female Circumcision

An Atlanta court case is focusing attention on the growing practice in the United States of circumcising girls, the Associated Press reported.

With an influx of immigrants from certain parts of Africa, the ancient practice is slowly becoming more common in the United States, experts say.

The Atlanta case involves Khalid Adem, a 31-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia. He's charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children for allegedly using scissors to circumcise his daughter, who was 2 years old at the time of the incident in 2001, the AP reported.

It's believed to be the first U.S. criminal case involving the practice, say human rights observers. If convicted, Adem faces up to 40 years in prison.

As many as 130 million women worldwide had undergone circumcision as of 2001, according to the U.S. State Department. The procedure is often done using knives, razors, or sharp stones that, in many cases, have not been sterilized.

Female circumcision is most common in 28 African countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, and Somalia, experts told the AP.

British Twins Have Different Skin Color

No need to call Sherlock Holmes. The case of British twin boys who have different skin color is not a mystery, but a rare genetic occurrence, experts say.

The boys were born white but the skin of one of the boys got darker and the other's became lighter as they got older, mother Kerry Richardson told Britain's Sky News.

The mother is of mixed race -- Nigerian and English heritage -- while the twins' father is white.

This kind of situation is rare because the genes responsible for skin color normally mix together, said an Oxford University genetics expert. In the case of these twins, it seems that the genes for skin color didn't combine and the boys may have inherited different genetic codes from their mother, the Associated Press reported.

Experts Call for Increased Stenting After Heart Attack

Too many Americans are dying because doctors are slow to clear coronary arteries and install stents when heart attack patients arrive at hospitals, experts told cardiologists meeting in Washington, D.C.

They said that while it's true that many thousands of patients may die each year from overuse of stents, many more die because doctors are too slow to clear arteries and use stents, The New York Times reported Friday.

Stents are mesh cylinders that keep arteries open and after they've been cleared of plaque.

Experts at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting on Thursday said studies have shown that clearing blockages and installing stents increases the survival rates of heart attack patients, compared with relying on clot-busting drugs, the Times reported.

Despite that evidence, tens of thousands of American heart attack patients are treated at hospitals that don't have catheterization labs where stents are implanted. Patients at these hospitals are simply given drugs, rather than being transferred to medical centers that can do stenting procedures.

At many small hospitals that do have catheterization labs, stenting experts are not available during nights or on weekends. That means heart attack patients who arrive outside of weekday hours often receive only drugs, the Times reported.

Experts said the United States needs a nationwide policy of transferring patients, if necessary, so they can be quickly stented, and approach that's been effective in Denmark and Sweden, the Times said.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Health Headlines - October 28

Smoke in Cars Threatens Kids' Health

The amount of secondhand smoke created when someone puffs on a cigarette in a car -- even with the windows rolled down -- is equivalent to being in a smoky bar and poses a serious health risk to children, New Zealand researchers say.

When the car windows are rolled up, the pollution is twice as bad as being in the smokiest bar, the Associated Press reported of the study's findings.

Researchers measured the amount of particulate released when a person smoked in the car. Particulate refers to tiny airborne particles that can get into the lungs. Air pollution studies have linked particulate to health problems.

Particulate levels were 199 micrograms per cubic yard when the windows were rolled down and 2,926 micrograms per cubic yard when the windows were rolled up. Researcher Richard Edwards noted that on a very smoggy day in a New Zealand city, particulate levels are between 35-40 micrograms per cubic yard, the AP reported.

The findings were published Friday as a letter in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

Edwards and his colleagues said smoking in a car poses a serious threat to children's health. They called for the New Zealand government to ban smoking in vehicles where children are passengers.

U.S. Trial Focuses Attention on Female Circumcision

An Atlanta court case is focusing attention on the growing practice in the United States of circumcising girls, the Associated Press reported.

With an influx of immigrants from certain parts of Africa, the ancient practice is slowly becoming more common in the United States, experts say.

The Atlanta case involves Khalid Adem, a 31-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia. He's charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children for allegedly using scissors to circumcise his daughter, who was 2 years old at the time of the incident in 2001, the AP reported.

It's believed to be the first U.S. criminal case involving the practice, say human rights observers. If convicted, Adem faces up to 40 years in prison.

As many as 130 million women worldwide had undergone circumcision as of 2001, according to the U.S. State Department. The procedure is often done using knives, razors, or sharp stones that, in many cases, have not been sterilized.

Female circumcision is most common in 28 African countries, including Ethiopia, Egypt, and Somalia, experts told the AP.

British Twins Have Different Skin Color

No need to call Sherlock Holmes. The case of British twin boys who have different skin color is not a mystery, but a rare genetic occurrence, experts say.

The boys were born white but the skin of one of the boys got darker and the other's became lighter as they got older, mother Kerry Richardson told Britain's Sky News.

The mother is of mixed race -- Nigerian and English heritage -- while the twins' father is white.

This kind of situation is rare because the genes responsible for skin color normally mix together, said an Oxford University genetics expert. In the case of these twins, it seems that the genes for skin color didn't combine and the boys may have inherited different genetic codes from their mother, the Associated Press reported.

Experts Call for Increased Stenting After Heart Attack

Too many Americans are dying because doctors are slow to clear coronary arteries and install stents when heart attack patients arrive at hospitals, experts told cardiologists meeting in Washington, D.C.

They said that while it's true that many thousands of patients may die each year from overuse of stents, many more die because doctors are too slow to clear arteries and use stents, The New York Times reported Friday.

Stents are mesh cylinders that keep arteries open and after they've been cleared of plaque.

Experts at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting on Thursday said studies have shown that clearing blockages and installing stents increases the survival rates of heart attack patients, compared with relying on clot-busting drugs, the Times reported.

Despite that evidence, tens of thousands of American heart attack patients are treated at hospitals that don't have catheterization labs where stents are implanted. Patients at these hospitals are simply given drugs, rather than being transferred to medical centers that can do stenting procedures.

At many small hospitals that do have catheterization labs, stenting experts are not available during nights or on weekends. That means heart attack patients who arrive outside of weekday hours often receive only drugs, the Times reported.

Experts said the United States needs a nationwide policy of transferring patients, if necessary, so they can be quickly stented, and approach that's been effective in Denmark and Sweden, the Times said.

U.S. Government to Revise Physical Activity Guidelines

The U.S. government says it will develop new guidelines for physical activity and release them by late 2008. The goal is to help people live healthier lifestyles and slow soaring healthcare costs.

More than half of American adults don't get enough physical activity that offers real benefits, and about one-quarter aren't active at all in their leisure time, according to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

He noted that more than 60 million adults are obese and that lack of exercise is a factor in the $2 trillion that Americans spend on healthcare, the Associated Press reported.

The federal government already makes recommendations about exercise but the new guidelines will reflect the latest scientific findings about physical activity.

Establishment of new guidelines was recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine's Committee on Childhood Obesity.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Health Headlines - October 27

Wal-Mart Expands Low-Cost Generic Drug Program

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Thursday that it's expanding its $4 generic prescription drug program to 12 more states, bringing the total to 27 states.

A total of 2,507 Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market stores will offer the program, which charges $4 for a one-month supply of one of 314 different prescription medicines, the Associated Press reported.

Customer demand was the reason the company accelerated the launch of the program, which was introduced in Florida three weeks ago. Last week, Wal-Mart added 14 states to the list.

The states added Thursday were: Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota and Virginia, the AP reported.

States that were already in the program were: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont.

Ohio State Researcher Studies Student-Athletes' Hearts

An Ohio State University researcher plans to study athletes at the university to catalogue warning signs that could help predict sudden heart disease-related deaths in young athletes.

One in 200,000 athletes dies from heart disease while playing sports and there hasn't been enough research into the problem in the United States, Dr. Christine Lawless, of OSU's College of Medicine, told the Associated Press.

This month, a University of Toledo basketball player collapsed and died of a ruptured blood vessel to the heart during training.

"We're trying to prevent events like this from happening. They occur in people with undetected heart disease," Lawless said.

For the study, about 900 OSU athletes are being asked to volunteer to have physical exams, electrocardiograms and echocardiograms to determine if they have any heart abnormalities or defects, the AP reported.

Lawless is also trying to persuade high school and professional sports teams to take part in the study.

Take Steps to Prevent Fires During Home Heating Season

It's home heating season and people need to take steps to prevent carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and fires in their homes, say the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Consumers are urged to schedule a professional inspection of all fuel-burning heating systems, including furnaces, boilers, fireplaces, wood stoves, water heaters, chimneys, flues and vents.

"The best way to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning is to have a professional inspection every year and install working CO alarms in your home," Nancy Nord, CPSC acting chairman, said in a prepared statement.

"Carbon monoxide is a silent killer. This colorless, odorless, poisonous gas kills nearly 500 U.S. residents each year, five times as many as West Nile virus," Dr. Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, said in a statement.

Heating systems are the leading cause of CO poisoning in the United States, followed by vehicles that are left running in garages. Gasoline-powered generators that are used during power outages are another source of CO poisoning.

The CPSC also noted that home heating equipment is the second most common cause of residential fires. Cooking fires are the leading cause. Portable heaters, including space heaters, are the top cause of deaths in home heating equipment-related fires.

Many Americans Wouldn't Follow Flu Pandemic Restrictions

A new survey suggests that many Americans would not be willing or able to stay at home during a flu pandemic to help slow the spread of infection.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health surveyed 1,697 adults. About 25 percent said they could not afford to miss work for even a week and about 20 percent said they fear their bosses would force them to come to work even if they were sick and contagious, the Associated Press reported.

One in four respondents also said there's no one at home to care for them if they did get sick.

The findings suggest that these everyday concerns have to be factored into government plans to deal with a flu pandemic.

"If you want to contain the flu, you have to make it livable for people," to adhere to infection-control measures, study author and health policy specialist Robert Blendon told the AP.

"This is really a Catch-22 here. If you can't help the people make it at home, then the epidemic's going to get much more severe," he said.

Initially, about 94 percent of the respondents said they would stay home, away from other people, for seven to 10 days if they were sick during a flu pandemic, and 85 percent said they'd do so if there was a sick person in the household, the AP reported.

But doubts about their ability to adhere to such measures began to surface as the survey questions probed deeper.

The findings were to be presented Thursday at a meeting of public health officials.

AstraZeneca Halts Development of Stroke Drug

Drug maker AstraZeneca said Thursday that it's halted development of an experimental drug designed to reduce stroke-related disabilities because the drug -- NXY-059 -- failed the final stages of clinical trials.

The drug was a neuroprotectant meant to protect brain cells from damaging agents, Agence France Presse reported.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said NXY-059 failed on two key measures.

"These clinical trial results, while not without precedent given the challenging nature of the science, are disappointing for patients looking for new treatments for stroke and for AstraZeneca as we seek to build our research and development pipeline," said John Patterson, the company's executive director of development.

He said the results effectively dashed hopes that this kind of neuroprotectant approach would lead to an effective treatment for stroke, AFP reported.

'Off-Pump' Bypass Surgery Cuts Stroke Risk

"Off-pump" coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery reduces the risk of complications such as stroke and atrial fibrillation, says a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Traditionally, CABG has been performed using cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) but, in recent years, many cardiac surgeons have become interested in avoiding the use of CPB and doing off-pump CABG. About 280,000 CABGs are done each year in the United States.

The researchers analyzed data from 41 clinical trials that included nearly 4,000 patients who underwent CABG after 1999. They concluded that the off-pump method reduced the risk of certain complications. For example, the off-pump approach was associated with a 50 percent reduction in stroke; a 30 percent reduction in atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm); and a 48 percent reduction in wound infection.

The study appears in the November issue of the journal Stroke.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Health Headlines - October 26

Doctors Told to Limit Effexor Prescriptions

In order to reduce the risk of overdose, doctors should limit the amount of the antidepressant Effexor (venlafaxine) they prescribe to patients, drug maker Wyeth and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

The caution was issued in response to reports of deaths and serious injuries in patients who overdosed on Effexor. The FDA and Wyeth said most of those incidents occurred in patients who took Effexor with alcohol or other drugs, the Associated Press reported.

In a letter to doctors dated Oct. 17, Wyeth said physicians should prescribe the "smallest quantity of capsules consistent with good patient management." The letter was released Wednesday by the FDA.

The letter noted that the risk of a death from overdose may be greater with Effexor than with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and Lexapro, but the risk associated with Effexor may be less than that with older tricyclic antidepressants, the AP reported.

It's unclear whether the increased risk of dying from an overdose of Effexor can be attributed to the drug or to the characteristics of the patients taking the drug, Wyeth said.

Extra Pounds Weigh Heavily on Gas Mileage

Losing weight can help you save money at the gas pumps. That's the message from new research that found Americans' expanding waistlines are affecting gas mileage and causing them to burn 938 million more gallons of gasoline a year than they did in 1960.

Based on recent average gas prices of $2.20 a gallon, that means that Americans are spending about $2.2 billion more a year to lug their extra pounds around in their cars, the Associated Press reported.

And the researchers noted that 938 million gallons is enough to fill almost 2 million cars with gas for an entire year.

The study will appear in the October-December issue of the journal The Engineering Economist.

"The bottom line is that our hunger for food and our hunger for oil are not independent," study co-author Sheldon Jacobson of the University of Illinois, told the AP.

"If a person reduces the weight in their car, either by removing excess baggage, carrying around less weight in their trunk, or yes, even losing weight, they will indeed see a drop in their fuel consumption," Jacobson said.

In 2002, the average weight for American men was 191 pounds and 164 pounds for women. That's about 25 pounds more than the average in 1960, according to U.S. government figures. The researchers used those weight figures in their calculations, which also included 2003 data on Americans' driving habits for nearly 223 million cars and light trucks, the AP reported.

Water Helps Dieters Lose Weight

Replacing sugary drinks with water can help dieters lose an extra five pounds a year, and people who drink a couple of more cups of water a day can lose even more weight, suggests a U.S. study.

The study authors analyzed weight loss data on 240 overweight women, ages 25 to 50, who were using diet plans that restrict carbohydrate intake to varying degrees, USA Today reported.

Before they began their diets, the women in the study drank an average of two cans of sugary drinks (such as juice or soda ) a day -- a total of about 200 calories.

The study found that women who switched from sugary drinks to water lost an average five pounds more per year than dieters who didn't make the switch. Women who drank more than four cups of water a day lost an extra two pounds more than dieters who didn't drink that much water, USA Today reported.

The findings were presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society.

Scientists Test Dissolving Heart Stent

A stent designed to dissolve after it completes its task of propping open narrowed heart arteries is being tested by scientists.

The first human experiment with the dissolving stent is being conducted with 26 patients at hospitals in New Zealand and Europe, the Associated Press reported. The study is designed to test whether the stent is safe enough to be used in larger studies.

Thirty days after receiving the stents, all the patients are doing well, Dr. John Ormiston of Auckland, New Zealand, said Tuesday at a meeting of cardiologists in Washington, D.C.

The stent is made of the same kind of material as some dissolvable stitches but is designed to last longer than the stitches. Tests in animals suggest that the stent completely dissolves within two years, the AP reported.

Millions of people worldwide have received stents -- tiny metal-mesh tubes -- to hold open arteries after doctors have dealt with fatty deposits that clogged the arteries. The stents are viewed as a way to prevent heart attacks without the need for open-heart surgery.

However, recent research suggests that drug-coated stents -- the most popular type -- can cause potentially deadly blood clots months or years after they're placed in patients, the AP reported.

A stent that could do its job and then dissolve would be "a major milestone," Ormiston said.

Health Costs Hinder Americans' Ability to Save: Survey

Fewer than 20 percent of Americans are satisfied with the cost of health insurance and with costs not covered by insurance, and many say medical costs hinder their ability to save money, says a survey released Wednesday by the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) in Washington, D.C.

More than 50 percent said they were "not too satisfied" or "not at all satisfied" with healthcare-related costs, the Associated Press reported.

The ninth annual EBRI phone survey of 1,000 adults also found that 60 percent of the respondents rated the nation's healthcare system as "fair" or "poor."

Many of the respondents said rising healthcare costs are making it more difficult to save money. The 2006 survey found that 36 percent of respondents said they had to reduce contributions to their retirement savings plans, compared to 26 percent in 2005.

In addition, the 2006 survey found that 53 percent said they had to reduce contributions to other savings accounts and 28 percent said they had trouble covering basic expenses, compared to 45 percent and 24 percent, respectively, in 2005, the AP reported.

U.K. Docs Given Go-Ahead for World's First Full Face Transplant

Doctors in the United Kingdom have received permission to conduct the world's first full face transplant, but the London Royal Free Hospital team hasn't yet selected a candidate for the surgery, BBC News reported.

The hospital's ethics committee gave permission for the first transplant to take place within a few months.

Last November, a French woman became the first person to receive a partial face transplant.

The Royal Free Hospital team has been approached by about 30 patients who want full face transplants. The doctors will create a shortlist of adult candidates who meet the selection criteria for the surgery, which includes an assessment of how will they'll deal with the psychological effects of the transplant, BBC News reported.

Four patients will be selected and the transplants will be done at six-month intervals, said Dr. Peter Butler.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Health Headlines - October 25

Pumpkin Decoration Kits Pose Choking Hazard

About 97,000 pumpkin decoration kits sold at Target stores in the United States are being recalled because they contain small pieces that pose a choking hazard to young children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday.

The kits being recalled by Paper Magic Group Inc., of Scranton, Pa. are: Mr. Potato Head "Make a Monster Pumpkin"; Mr. Potato Head "Make a Fireman Pumpkin"; and Mrs. Potato Head "Make a Diva Pumpkin."

The kits contain small plastic pieces that are used to decorate pumpkins. The kits are labeled for children ages 2 and older. However, products with small pieces are not permitted to be sold for use by children under age 3.

No incidents or injuries have been reported. The kits were sold at Target stores across the U.S. from September through October for about $5. Consumers with the kits should return them to the nearest Target store for a full refund.

Smoking Doesn't Help Teen Girls Control Weight

Smoking does not help prevent weight gain in teenage girls, says a Canadian study that found that smoking and non-smoking teenage girls gain weight at exactly the same rate, the Globe and Mail reported.

"Smoking is not associated with any difference in weight (or height) in girls," said Igor Karp, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University in Montreal.

The study included 1,300 female and male students in Montreal who were 12 or 13 years old at the start of the study. They were followed for five years. The study found that 73 percent of the girls and 42 percent of the boys smoked.

The researchers also found that boys who smoke are thinner and shorter than those who don't smoke, which suggests that smoking actually stunts boys' growth, the Globe and Mail reported.

Smoking didn't seem to affect girls' height. This may be because girls reach puberty at an earlier age than boys and their growth spurt likely comes before they start smoking, Karp said.

The study was presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Vancouver.

Study Suggests Link Between Fat and Cancer

Fatty tissue may hinder the body's ability to destroy cells that can cause cancer, suggests a Rutgers University study that found that using surgery or exercise to make mice leaner helped them combat skin tumors.

It has long been known that overweight people are at increased risk of certain types of cancer, but scientists have been trying to understand the reasons why and whether losing weight can help reduce cancer risk or offer any benefits after a tumor has formed, the Associated Press reported.

Based on their findings in mice, the Rutgers team suggested that fat cells may secrete substances that impair the programmed death of genetically damaged cells, which is one of the body's main defenses against cancer. If damaged cells survive, they can become cancerous.

The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Much more research is needed in order to determine if cutting fat really helps fight cancer in humans, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, told the AP.

But this study, "certainly provides a biologic rationale or explanation about why weight loss may be helpful," he said.

FDA Expands Alert on Counterfeit Glucose Test Strips

Two additional lot numbers of counterfeit blood glucose test strips were announced Monday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This follows the initial alert issued on October 13 that counterfeit blood glucose strips were being sold for use with various models of One Touch blood glucose monitors sold by LifeScan, Inc.

The counterfeit test strip lot numbers are: One Touch Basic/Profile lot #272894A, 2619932, 2606340, and 2615211 (new); and One Touch Ultra lot #2691191 and 2691261 (new).

The counterfeit test strips could give incorrect blood glucose levels -- too high or too low -- which could result in a diabetes patient taking either too much or too little insulin and lead to serious injury or death, the FDA said.

For more information on how to identify the counterfeit test strips, go to Lifescan's Web site at www.lifescan.com/company/about/press/counterfeit.

Consumers with the counterfeit test strips should stop using them immediately and replace them, according to the FDA, which is still investigating the matter.

Cell Phones May Affect Male Fertility

Heavy cell phone use can harm a man's sperm count and quality, says a study by researchers in the United States and India.

They tracked 364 men being evaluated for infertility. The men were divided into three groups, based on their sperm count, Bloomberg news reported.

Among men whose sperm counts were within the normal range, those who used a cell phone for more than four hours a day produced an average of 66 million sperm a day, 23 percent less than men in the same group who never used cell phones.

The study also found that the proportion of sperm that possessed "normal forms" was 21 percent among the heavy cell phone users, compared to 40 percent among the men who didn't use cell phones, Bloomberg reported.

The findings were presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Single Stent Effective in Treating Bifurcation Lesions

A single stent may be just as effective as multiple stents in treating life-threatening heart artery blockages called bifurcation lesions, researchers report in the journal Circulation.

In such cases, doctors commonly insert stents in the major artery and in the side branch. But for the new study, researchers in Latvia gave one group of patients received stents in the major artery only (with optional stenting for the side branch), while another group of patients received stents in the main artery and in the side branch artery. After six months, there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of serious cardiovascular problems or deaths, the study found.

The single stent procedure takes less time to perform and requires less imaging time and a smaller amount of imaging agents, the researchers noted. Patients who have the single stent procedure also have lower levels of biomarkers that indicate heart muscle damage.

Bifurcation lesions occur in about 15 percent of patients who have balloon catheter procedures to restore blood flow to blocked or narrowed arteries.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Health Headlines - October 24

FDA Approves New Nasal Spray for Hay Fever

The nasal spray Omnaris (ciclesonide) has been approved for treatment of nasal symptoms associated with seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis -- better known as hay fever -- in adults and children 12 years of age and older, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.

The new drug is a corticosteroid, which are hormone-like drugs that suppress the body's immune response. The precise way Omnaris works is unknown, the FDA said.

The approval was based on the results of four clinical trials ranging in length from two weeks to a year. The trials found that patients who used Omnaris had 8 percent to 10 percent fewer hay fever symptoms than patients who used a placebo.

The most common side effects caused by the drug included headache, nosebleeds, and inflammation of the nose and throat linings, the FDA said.

Omnaris is made by Altana Pharma U.S. of Florham Park, N.J.

About 35 million Americans suffer from allergic rhinitis.

Drug Approved to Treat Both Sides of Bipolar Disorder

A new formulation of the schizophrenia drug Seroquel has been approved in the United States for the treatment of both manic and depressive episodes of bipolar disorders, making it the first drug of its kind, the Associated Press reported.

Serouquel was previously approved in the United States to treat acute manic episodes associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The new FDA approval, announced Monday, allows the drug to also be used to treat depressive episodes.

Drug maker AstraZeneca PLC has applied for similar approvals in Canada and the European Union, the AP reported.

Monday's FDA approval was based on the results of an eight-week study of 1,045 patients with bipolar disorder. The study found that patients who took the drug had greater improvement in bipolar depression symptoms, overall quality of life, and satisfaction related to functioning than patients who took a placebo, according to AstraZeneca.

The new Seroquel formulation uses a once-daily dose, while the current immediate-release tablets are approved for dosing two to three times a day, the AP reported.

Seroquel was introduced in 1997 and is one of the company's top selling drugs, with total sales of $2.8 billion last year. About seven million American adults have bipolar disorder.

Rare Genetic Disorder Linked to Lung Disease Risk

People with a rare genetic disorder called alpha-1 antitrypsin (A1AT) deficiency may be predisposed to developing lung disease and this could help explain the rapid decline in lung function among some World Trade Center (WTC) rescue workers, says a U.S. study.

Researchers tracked 90 rescue workers from October 2001 through 2005 and found that the 11 workers who were moderately or severely deficient in the A1AT protein experienced faster lung decline than other workers.

A1AT deficiency changes the ability of the lungs and liver to control the naturally occurring healing process, resulting in unchecked inflammation in those organs, the study authors said.

"Some with the defect will develop emphysema early, even without cigarette smoking. Others... may need to be exposed to additional environmental irritants in order to develop emphysema and other forms of obstructive airway disease," lead author Dr. Gisela Banauch, of Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said in a prepared statement.

The findings were presented Monday at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.

The study authors also said that a new rapid-response test could help identify patients with A1AT deficiency before they suffer significant lung damage.

Study Trims 'Freshman 15'

The term "Freshman 15" doesn't carry as much weight as previously believed.

It's been used to described how many extra pounds, on average, U.S. college students put on during their first year away from home -- the result of unlimited and unsupervised food choices. But new research suggests the weight gain is more like eight pounds or less, USA Today reported.

Researchers at Brown University Medical School studied data on 382 Brown students and 907 students at Purdue University. They found that male and female students at Purdue gained an average of 7.8 pounds during their freshmen year. Most of that weight was added in the first semester. The weight gain by the end of the sophomore year was 9.5 pounds for males and 9.2 for females.

The study also found that male students at Brown gained an average of 5.6 pounds during their freshman year, and female students gained an average of 3.6 pounds, USA Today reported.

The findings were released at the Obesity Society's annual meeting in Boston.

Even though first-year college students don't pack on as much weight as previously thought, nutritionists say there is still cause for concern.

"While most are not gaining the Freshman 15, many are gaining weight and aren't taking it off," lead researcher Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown told USA TODAY.

No Link Between Deaths, Flu Shots: Israeli Official

So far, investigators have found "no connection" between influenza vaccinations and the deaths of four people in Israel, says Health Minister Ya'acov Ben-Yizri.

However, the flu shots have been halted and will not resume until completion of the investigation, the Jerusalem Post reported.

All four victims -- ages 52, 67, 70 and 75 -- died from heart problems between one and five days after they received the flu vaccine, supplied by the Pasteur Institute of France. All the victims had existing health problems.

Three of them were residents of Kiryat Gat and were vaccinated at the same Kupat Holim Leumit clinic. The fourth victim received his flu shot at the Kupat Holim Meuhedet clinic in the city of Petah Tikva, the Post reported.

Over the past few weeks, more than 140,000 Israelis have received the flu vaccine. Due to a worldwide temporary shortage of flu vaccine, flu shots in Israel have been limited to people considered to be at high or very high risk of complications from the flu, such as pneumonia.

Government officials are worried that news of the deaths will discourage other people at high risk for flu complications -- the elderly, children ages six months to two years, and anyone with chronic disease or weak immune system -- from getting vaccinated once the flu shot program resumes.

Older Women Capable Mothers: Study

Women 50 and older who have babies are physically and mentally as "capable" as younger mothers, says a University of Southern California study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

The study of 150 women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s concluded that older mothers did not have higher stress levels or health risks than younger mothers, BBC News reported.

The findings suggest that criticism of women who have babies at an older age is based on prejudice rather than any evidence that they're less capable mothers than younger women, and that there is no reason to bar older women from having in-vitro fertilization, said researcher Anne Steiner.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Health Headlines - October 23

Chefs Serve Portions That Surpass Government Guidelines

Most restaurant chefs pay scant attention to calories when they decide how much food to put on a plate, a survey of 300 professional cooks in the United States finds.

Instead, USA Today reported Sunday, taste, presentation and customer expectations shape the size of an individual meal, and that serving is typically three to four times larger than what the U.S. government recommends. It also tends to be 60 percent more than what is usually served at home. Each American bought an average of 209 meals outside the home last year, the newspaper reported.

The survey results were presented at the Obesity Society annual meeting this weekend, in Boston.

Portion sizes have increased steadily since 1971, and there has been a spike in obesity rates during the same period, survey leader Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor who specializes in obesity research at Pennsylvania State University, told the newspaper.

Egg Salad Recalled in 17 states for Possible Contamination

Ballard's Farm Sausage Inc. announced Saturday that it has issued a 17-state recall of its egg salad because of possible contamination, the Associated Press reported.

Some company tests produced mixed results for Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in children and the elderly, and miscarriages and stillbirths in pregnant women, the wire service said.

The company has stopped making the egg salad until it can determine the cause of the contamination, Ballard President David Ballard told the AP. Meanwhile, consumers in the affected states can return the egg salad for a full refund.

The states involved in the recall are Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, the wire service reported.

Chinese Moss Eyed as Alzheimer's Treatment

The National Institute of Aging is conducting a national clinical trial to see if a plant commonly used in China for cognitive problems might work against Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

Chinese club moss is already sold in the United States as a nutritional supplement, but researchers give patients in the trial either a placebo or a dose of an alkaloid extract from the plant that is larger than what is currently available in stores. After the first phase of the trial, all patients take the extract for eight weeks and have the choice to continue taking it if they think it is helping them with their memory problems. Researchers also test the cognitive function of the volunteers during the course of the trial, the AP said.

The trial is one of several federally funded studies that will try to ascertain the effectiveness of alternative therapies for various health conditions; the National Institutes of Health has earmarked $300.5 million for such research in the 2007 budget year.

"That kind of data is completely missing today from most nutraceuticals," trial investigator Dr. Daniel Kaufer, a neurologist at the University of North Carolina, told the AP.

Governments Target Phony Diabetes Cures

American, Canadian and Mexican government agencies have launched a campaign to stop Internet advertisements for fraudulent diabetes cures and treatments.

About 180 warning letters and other advisories have been sent to online outlets in the three countries.

"The Internet can be a great source of information, but it also is a billboard for ads that promise miracle cures for diabetes and other serious diseases. Our advice to consumers: 'Be smart, be skeptical' when evaluating health claims online," Lydia Parnes, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said in a prepared statement.

As part of the crackdown, the FTC has sent warning letters for deceptive ads to 84 American and seven Canadian Web sites targeting U.S. consumers. It has also referred an additional 21 sites to foreign governments.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to 24 companies that market dietary supplement products touted to treat, cure, or prevent diabetes.

The FTC also has launched a new campaign to educate consumers on how to avoid phony diabetes cures. The American Dietetic Association will help distribute the information.

Canada Allows Silicone Breast Implants Back on Market

Canada will lift restrictions on the use of silicone gel breast implants, which were pulled from the market in 1992 due to health concerns that included suspected heart problems and autoimmune diseases.

Health Canada said Friday that it will allow plastic surgeons to use silicone gel implants for breast augmentation or for reconstruction in patients who have had breast cancer surgery, the Canadian Press reported.

The agency made the decision after a review by an expert panel and public hearings. In recent years, companies that make the implants have been lobbying to have them allowed back on the Canadian market.

Despite the ban, some 10,000 silicone breast implants in Canada been approved in the past two years under a special program that gives patients access to non-approved medical devices or drugs, the CP reported.

Silicone implants were also removed from the U.S. market in the early 1990s. In July 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told two companies it would allow them to resume U.S. sales of the implants if the companies met certain conditions. Neither company has yet received new marketing approval from the FDA.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Health Headlines - October 22

Chinese Moss Eyed as Alzheimer's Treatment

The National Institute of Aging is conducting a national clinical trial to see if a plant commonly used in China for cognitive problems might work against Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

Chinese club moss is already sold in the United States as a nutritional supplement, but researchers give patients in the trial either a placebo or a dose of an alkaloid extract from the plant that is larger than what is currently available in stores. After the first phase of the trial, all patients take the extract for eight weeks and have the choice to continue taking it if they think it is helping them with their memory problems. Researchers also test the cognitive function of the volunteers during the course of the trial, the AP said.

The trial is one of several federally funded studies that will try to ascertain the effectiveness of alternative therapies for various health conditions; the National Institutes of Health has earmarked $300.5 million for such research in the 2007 budget year.

"That kind of data is completely missing today from most nutraceuticals," trial investigator Dr. Daniel Kaufer, a neurologist at the University of North Carolina, told the AP.

Governments Target Phony Diabetes Cures

American, Canadian and Mexican government agencies have launched a campaign to stop Internet advertisements for fraudulent diabetes cures and treatments.

About 180 warning letters and other advisories have been sent to online outlets in the three countries.

"The Internet can be a great source of information, but it also is a billboard for ads that promise miracle cures for diabetes and other serious diseases. Our advice to consumers: 'Be smart, be skeptical' when evaluating health claims online," Lydia Parnes, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said in a prepared statement.

As part of the crackdown, the FTC has sent warning letters for deceptive ads to 84 American and seven Canadian Web sites targeting U.S. consumers. It has also referred an additional 21 sites to foreign governments.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to 24 companies that market dietary supplement products touted to treat, cure, or prevent diabetes.

The FTC also has launched a new campaign to educate consumers on how to avoid phony diabetes cures. The American Dietetic Association will help distribute the information.

Canada Allows Silicone Breast Implants Back on Market

Canada will lift restrictions on the use of silicone gel breast implants, which were pulled from the market in 1992 due to health concerns that included suspected heart problems and autoimmune diseases.

Health Canada said Friday that it will allow plastic surgeons to use silicone gel implants for breast augmentation or for reconstruction in patients who have had breast cancer surgery, the Canadian Press reported.

The agency made the decision after a review by an expert panel and public hearings. In recent years, companies that make the implants have been lobbying to have them allowed back on the Canadian market.

Despite the ban, some 10,000 silicone breast implants in Canada been approved in the past two years under a special program that gives patients access to non-approved medical devices or drugs, the CP reported.

Silicone implants were also removed from the U.S. market in the early 1990s. In July 2005, the Food and Drug Administration told two companies it would allow them to resume U.S. sales of the implants if the companies met certain conditions. Neither company has yet received new marketing approval from the FDA.

Embryonic Stem Cells Turned into Insulin Producers

A process to turn human embryonic stem cells into pancreatic stem cells that are able to produce insulin and other hormones has been developed by the California biotechnology company Novocell.

The research was published online Thursday by the journal Nature Biotechnology.

This represents an advance in efforts to use embryonic stem cells to replace the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed by the immune system in people with type 1 diabetes, The New York Times reported.

However, scientists still need to conduct years of research before this approach may lead to a therapy for people with type 1 diabetes, the newspaper said.

"[The study] provides some very strong evidence that it will be possible to make insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells from human E.S. (embryonic stem) cells in a culture dish," Dr. Mark A. Magnuson, a professor at Vanderbilt University, wrote in an e-mail message to the Times.

The Novocell team achieved an efficiency of cell conversion and insulin production in "orders of magnitude higher than anything previously accomplished," Magnuson said.

Meningitis Shot Boosts Risk for Paralyzing Condition

A new meningitis vaccine may slightly raise the risk for a paralyzing condition in young people who receive it, but experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there's an even greater risk of meningitis for individuals who go without the shot.

The condition in question, called Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), is characterized by increasing weakness in the legs. According to a report released Thursday in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the total added risk for GBS was 1.25 cases for every 1 million doses of the new vaccine, called Menactra.

Drug maker Sanofi Pasteur said it had already tested the vaccine on 10,000 people so far and found no cases of GBS. Menactra was first approved by the U.S. government in January of 2005, and the CDC soon recommended routine vaccination for students entering high school and college.

Between March 2005 and September 2006, 17 people, most of them teenagers, developed GBS within six weeks of receiving a Menactra shot. But experts say a certain number of those cases would have occurred naturally. Meningitis is much more prevalent than GBS, they added, so an unvaccinated youth has about 10 times the risk of getting the illness than a vaccinated youth does of contracting GBS.

In related news, a study published in the same journal finds that more than half of U.S. states report that they've reached the Healthy People 2010 goal of more than 95 percent coverage for each of the vaccines recommended for children starting kindergarten. The remaining states are making progress to achieve that goal, CDC researchers say.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Health Headlines - October 21

Governments Target Phony Diabetes Cures

American, Canadian, and Mexican government agencies have launched a campaign to stop Internet advertisements for fraudulent diabetes cures and treatments.

About 180 warning letters and other advisories have been sent to online outlets in the three countries.

"The Internet can be a great source of information, but it also is a billboard for ads that promise miracle cures for diabetes and other serious diseases. Our advice to consumers: 'Be smart, be skeptical' when evaluating health claims online," Lydia Parnes, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said in a prepared statement.

As part of the crackdown, the FTC has sent warning letters for deceptive ads to 84 American and seven Canadian Web sites targeting U.S. consumers. It has also referred an additional 21 sites to foreign governments.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to 24 companies that market dietary supplement products touted to treat, cure, or prevent diabetes.

The FTC also has launched a new campaign to educate consumers on how to avoid phony diabetes cures. The American Dietetic Association will help distribute the information.

Canada Allows Silicone Breast Implants Back on Market

Canada will lift restrictions on the use of silicone gel breast implants, which were pulled from the market in 1992 due to health concerns, including suspected heart problems and autoimmune diseases.

Health Canada said Friday that it will allow plastic surgeons to use silicone gel implants for breast augmentation or for reconstruction in patients who have had breast cancer surgery, the Canadian Press reported.

The agency made the decision after a review by an expert panel and public hearings. In recent years, companies that make the implants have been lobbying to have them allowed back on the Canadian market.

Despite the ban, some 10,000 silicone breast implants in Canada been approved in the past two years under a special program that gives patients access to non-approved medical devices or drugs, the CP reported.

Silicone implants were also removed from the U.S. market in the early 1990s. In July 2005, the Food and Drug Administration told two companies it would allow them to resume U.S. sales of the implants if the companies met certain conditions. Neither company has yet received new marketing approval from the FDA.

Study Looks at Risks of Ritalin in Preschoolers

The attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drug Ritalin does offer some benefits to children under age six with severe problems, according to researchers who conducted a long-term U.S. government-funded study.

However, the study also found that preschoolers required careful monitoring because they were more likely to develop side effects than older children who take the drug, the Associated Press reported.

About 40 percent of the 165 children who took low doses of the drug during the study suffered side effects and about 11 percent dropped out because of problems such as weight loss, irritability, slowed growth, and insomnia.

But the researchers concluded that the benefits of low-dose Ritalin treatment outweigh the risks for very young children with severe ADHD, the AP reported. Several of the researchers have financial ties to companies that make ADHD drugs, including Ritalin.

The findings appear in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

In the United States, Ritalin is not approved for use in children under age six. However, previous research has found that about 1 in 100 preschoolers have been prescribed Ritalin in what's known as "off-label" use, the AP reported.

Embryonic Stem Cells Turned into Insulin Producers

A process to turn human embryonic stem cells into pancreatic stem cells that are able to produce insulin and other hormones has been developed by the California biotechnology company Novocell.

The research was published online Thursday by the journal Nature Biotechnology.

This represents an advance in efforts to use embryonic stem cells to replace the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed by the immune system in people with type 1 diabetes, The New York Times reported.

However, scientists still need to conduct years of research before this approach may lead to a therapy for people with type 1 diabetes, the newspaper said.

"[The study] provides some very strong evidence that it will be possible to make insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells from human E.S. (embryonic stem) cells in a culture dish," Dr. Mark A. Magnuson, a professor at Vanderbilt University, wrote in an e-mail message to the Times.

The Novocell team achieved an efficiency of cell conversion and insulin production in "orders of magnitude higher than anything previously accomplished," Magnuson said.

Meningitis Shot Boosts Risk for Paralyzing Condition

A new meningitis vaccine may slightly raise the risk for a paralyzing condition in young people who receive it, but experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there's an even greater risk of meningitis for individuals who go without the shot.

The condition in question, called Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), is characterized by increasing weakness in the legs. According to a report released Thursday in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the total added risk for GBS was 1.25 cases for every 1 million doses of the new vaccine, called Menactra.

Drug maker Sanofi Pasteur said it had already tested the vaccine on 10,000 people so far and found no cases of GBS. Menactra was first approved by the U.S. government in January of 2005, and the CDC soon recommended routine vaccination for students entering high school and college.

Between March 2005 and September 2006, 17 people, most of them teenagers, developed GBS within 6 weeks of receiving a Menactra shot. But experts say a certain number of those cases would have occurred naturally. Meningitis is much more prevalent than GBS, they added, so an unvaccinated youth has about 10 times the risk of getting the illness than a vaccinated youth does of contracting GBS.

In related news, a study published in the same journal finds that more than half of U.S. states report that they've reached the Healthy People 2010 goal of more than 95 percent coverage for each of the vaccines recommended for children starting kindergarten. The remaining states are making progress to achieve that goal, CDC researchers say.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Health Headlines - October 20

Meningitis Shot Boosts Risk for Paralyzing Condition

A new meningitis vaccine may slightly raise the risk for a paralyzing condition in young people who receive it, but experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there's an even greater risk of meningitis for individuals who go without the shot.

The condition in question, called Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), is characterized by increasing weakness in the legs. According to a report released Thursday in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the total added risk for GBS was 1.25 cases for every 1 million doses of the new vaccine, called Menactra.

Drug maker Sanofi Pasteur said it had already tested the vaccine on 10,000 people so far and found no cases of GBS. Menactra was first approved by the U.S. government in January of 2005, and the CDC soon recommended routine vaccination for students entering high school and college.

Between March 2005 and September 2006, 17 people, most of them teenagers, developed GBS within 6 weeks of receiving a Menactra shot. But experts say a certain number of those cases would have occurred naturally. Meningitis is much more prevalent than GBS, they added, so an unvaccinated youth has about 10 times the risk of getting the illness than a vaccinated youth does of contracting GBS.

In related news, a study published in the same journal finds that more than half of U.S. states report that they've reached the Healthy People 2010 goal of more than 95 percent coverage for each of the vaccines recommended for children starting kindergarten. The remaining states are making progress to achieve that goal, CDC researchers say.

Most U.S. Doctors Counsel Teens About STDs

The majority of American doctors provide sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention advice/counseling to their adolescent patients, finds a study in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study of 3,000 doctors found that 90 percent reported that they usually or always recommend condoms for STD prevention, 76 percent recommend monogamy/limiting sex partners, and 54 percent recommend abstinence.

Among doctors who mostly see adolescents in their practice (at least 75 percent of their patients are under age 18), 93 percent said they provide STD prevention counseling and more than 50 percent said they specifically discuss human papillomavirus (HPV), which is linked to cervical cancer and is the most common STD among people younger than 25.

Most of the doctors agreed that consistent condom use, limiting sex partners, monogamy, and abstinence are effective methods of preventing HPV, but less than 25 percent of the doctors believed adolescent patients would adhere to such methods for the long term.

Wal-Mart to Expand Drug Program to 14 States: Report

Wal-Mart plans to expand a program that offers $4 prescriptions for some generic drugs to 14 more states, two weeks after introducing the offering in Florida, the Associated Press reported.

The nation's largest retailer said it will host news conferences Thursday with company executives and elected officials in the following states: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont, the AP said.

Wal-Mart described the initial program as an effort to save working Americans money on health care. Critics dismissed it as a publicity stunt to lure in shoppers and grab a larger share of the drug business. The company has also been the target of union-backed criticism of its worker benefits.

The Florida plan covers a month's supply of 314 prescriptions, consisting of 143 drugs in a variety of dosages and solid or liquid forms. Health-care experts said any price competition is welcome, but noted that generics are less of a concern to consumers than higher-priced brand-name drugs that are still under patent, the AP said.

Report Lists World's 10 Most Polluted Cities

Cancer, lung infections, and shortened life expectancy are among the threats facing people who live in the world's 10 most polluted cities, says a report released Wednesday by the Blacksmith Institute, an international environmental research group.

"Living in a town with serious pollution is like living under a death sentence. If the damage does not come from immediate poisonings, then cancers, lung infections, mental retardation, are likely outcomes," the report said.

It was compiled over seven years by a team of environmental and health experts, the Associated Press reported.

The 10 most polluted cities are: Dzherzhinsk, Norilsk and Rudnaya Pristan in Russia; Linfen, China; Haina, Dominican Republic; Ranipet, India; Mayluu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan; La Oroya, Peru; Chernobyl, Ukraine; and Kabwe, Zambia.

The report said most of the pollution in these cities comes from unregulated coal and lead mines or unrefined nuclear weapons manufacturing plants, the AP reported.

In some cases, solutions could be as simple as removing contaminated soil and reducing dust levels, said David Hanrahan, chief of global operations at the Blacksmith Institute.

Lilly Manipulated Sepsis Guidelines to Boost Drug's Sales: Doctors

Three U.S. government doctors say that drug maker Eli Lilly manipulated treatment guidelines for sepsis patients to promote the use of its drug Xigris instead of older, less expensive and equally effective treatments.

Sepsis is a potentially fatal blood infection.

In a letter published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the three doctors -- all senior investigators in the critical care department of the U.S. National Institutes of Health -- charged that when Lilly financed a task force called "Values, Ethics and Rationing in Critical Care," it implicitly criticized doctors for "rationing" Xigris due to its high cost, The New York Times reported.

The doctors noted that, in fact, evidence from clinical trials offers little support for prescribing Xigris under any circumstances.

In order to promote the use of Xigris, Lilly used "marketing strategies masquerading as evidence-based medicine," the doctors wrote.

In a statement, Lilly said it behaved properly and disclosed its role in funding a task force of scientists and doctors that developed treatment guidelines for sepsis, the Times reported.

Xigris was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001 but sales have fallen short of expectations in the United States and around the world. Currently, fewer than 150 patients a day receive the drug in the United States. It costs about $8,000 for a four-day course of treatment.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Health Headlines - October 19

Memory Loss a Concern for Many Older Americans

Many Americans -- 73 percent -- are concerned about memory loss but 30 percent of those people have not discussed the issue with anyone, including their doctors, according to a survey released Wednesday by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

Of those who did share their concerns, most confided in a spouse and only 24 percent had talked with their doctor.

The survey of 2,562 people, average age 69.9 years, who took part in the National Memory Screening Day in late 2005 found that far more women (74 percent) had concerns about their memory than men (29 percent).

Factors that persuaded the respondents to have a memory screening included: forgetfulness (50 percent); a desire to obtain a baseline score (56 percent); and having a relative with Alzheimer's disease (21 percent).

About 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and that number is predicted to increase to between 11.3 million and 16 million by 2050.

Bird-Flu Vaccine Trial Results a 'Milestone'

An H5N1 bird-flu vaccine created using a virus isolated in Vietnam in 2004 is able to neutralize antibodies from H5N1 viruses found in other countries, according to preliminary findings of tests in humans.

The results were released Wednesday by Sanofi Pasteur, the company that developed the vaccine. The findings suggest that vaccines based on older H5N1 strains may prove effective against newer strains of the virus, the Associated Press reported.

Previous tests in ferrets and mice indicated that this kind of vaccine cross-protection might be possible, but this is the first such evidence from human trials, said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's leading official on pandemic influenza viruses.

"This is a milestone for vaccine development," he said.

Stohr said the findings suggest that stockpiling vaccines makes sense and that people could be inoculated with a pre-pandemic vaccine and then receive a booster shot once a pandemic strain emerges.

More than a dozen companies worldwide are using the Vietnamese 2004 H5N1 strain in their efforts to develop vaccines to fight a possible global H5N1 bird-flu pandemic, the AP reported.

Even if an H5N1 vaccine protects against other H5N1 strains, it doesn't guarantee protection against a pandemic caused by other types of influenza viruses, warned one expert.

"We don't know if the next pandemic will be started by H5," Dr. Angus Nicoll, director of influenza coordination at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told the AP.

U.S. Considering Approving Food From Cloned Animals

The U.S. government appears to be moving closer to approving the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals, but critics say consumers have little appetite for such food.

A draft of Food and Drug Administration plans to regulate cloned animals and products derived from them should be released by the end of the year, the Associated Press reported.

In a statement, the FDA said it has "studies that show that the meat and milk from cattle clones and their offspring are as safe as that from conventionally bred animals."

Cloning allows breeders to do what they've always done -- select the best animals for breeding, says the biotech industry.

But the Consumer Federation of America says years of surveys suggest that consumers oppose animal cloning and won't buy cloned meat or milk even if the federal government says such food is safe, the AP reported.

And the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety said labels on food should inform consumers whether it came from cloned animals. The Biotechnology Industry Organization doesn't think that's necessary.

Many U.S. Hispanics Lack Health Insurance

More than one-third of Hispanics under age 65 in the United States don't have health insurance, including nearly two-thirds of those who aren't U.S. citizens and about a quarter of those who are citizens, says a report released Tuesday by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The report, based on a 2004 survey, looked at private and public health insurance among Hispanics overall and in three subgroups -- Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and "other Hispanics," which includes people of Cuban, Dominican, South or Central American, or Spanish birth or descent.

The report found that:

67 percent of non-citizen Mexican-Americans and about 50.5 percent of other non-citizen Hispanics are uninsured.
16 percent of Puerto Ricans living in the United States are uninsured. Virtually all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
About 12 percent of all non-citizen Hispanics have public health insurance, compared to about 30 percent of all Hispanics who are U.S. citizens.
Non-citizen Mexican-Americans are nearly three times less likely to have public-only health insurance than Mexican-Americans who are U.S. citizens - about 11.5 percent vs. 30 percent. Among other Hispanics, about 26 percent of citizens have public-only health insurance, compared to about 12 percent of non-citizens.

Study Says Teflon Chemical No Threat to Workers

A suspected carcinogen -- perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) -- used to make Teflon coatings doesn't harm humans, according to a long-term mortality study of 6,000 workers released this week by U.S. chemical maker DuPont Co.

The study found that people who worked at the company's Washington Works plant in West Virginia from 1948 to 2002 had lower death rates than the general population of West Virginia and the United States, Bloomberg news reported. The plant makes PFOA.

This study "supports a conclusion that there are no human health effects known to be caused by PFOA," Dr. Sol Sax, chief medical officer at DuPont, said in a prepared statement. "If health effects were associated with PFOA exposure, they almost certainly would be more prevalent among employees who are occupationally exposed to the compound."

Critics dismissed that conclusion.

"The notion that you are less likely to die if you work around PFOA is really misleading," Richard Wiles, senior vice president at Environmental Working Group, told Bloomberg. "Workers are generally more healthy than the population at large, so they (DuPont) aren't telling us anything we don't already know."

Last year, DuPont agreed to pay $107.6 million to settle claims that PFOA from the Washington Works plant tainted the drinking water of 60,000 people. The company also said it would pay as much as $235 million if DuPont-funded studies concluded that PFOA caused health problems.

Based on findings in animal studies, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advisory board has said that PFOA is a likely human carcinogen. The agency is still evaluating the effect that PFOA has on human health, Bloomberg reported.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Health Headlines - October 18

FDA Approves New Diabetes Drug

A new drug to treat type 2 diabetes was approved Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The drug Januvia (sitagliptin phosphate) is unlike any other oral drug for people with type 2 diabetes. It's designed to enhance the body's own ability to lower blood sugar levels. Clinical trials found that the drug works as well as older diabetes drugs, but causes fewer side effects such as weight gain, the Associated Press reported.

Januvia, which is made by Merck & Co., is expected to cost between $3 and $6 a day. Some older diabetes drugs cost 50 cents a day.

The new drug works by increasing levels of a hormone that tells the pancreas to produce more insulin to process blood sugar and also instructs the liver to stop making glucose. Januvia does this by blocking production of an enzyme (DPP-4) that inactivates this hormone, the AP reported.

"For the millions of Americans with type 2 diabetes, who continue to have inadequate blood sugar control, the approval of Januvia marks an important advance in the fight against diabetes," said Dr. Steven Galson, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

"We now have another new option that treats the disease in an entirely new way that can be added to existing treatment regimens to help patients gain more control over their blood sugar levels," Galson said.

About 20 million Americans have type 2 diabetes.

Study Warns About Caffeine Abuse

Caffeine abuse may be a growing problem among young Americans, suggests a three-year Northwestern University study of phone calls to the Illinois Poison Center in Chicago.

The researchers identified more than 250 cases of medical complications caused by taking caffeine pills or supplements. The average age of those who abused caffeine was 21, NBC News reported.

Caffeine alone was abused in 186 (68 percent) of the 250 cases and abused with other pharmaceutical products in 81 (29 percent) of the cases, the study said. It also found that the use of other pharmaceutical products along with caffeine abuse was significantly associated with hospitalizations.

"Part of the problem is that people do not think of caffeine as a drug, but rather as a food product," said researcher Dr. Danielle McCarthy. "We want people ingesting caffeine pills and supplements to know that caffeine is a drug, and overuse is potentially harmful, especially when mixed with other pharmaceuticals for euphoria. There is a trend in the pro-drug culture towards promoting legal alternatives to illegal drugs, and it can be very harmful."

The study was released Monday at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Former President Ford Released From Hospital

Former President Gerald Ford, 93, went home Monday after he spent five days in a California hospital for undisclosed medical tests.

Ford was admitted Oct. 12 to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. On Monday, he returned to his Thunderbird Estates compound about a mile from the hospital, his chief of staff, Penny Circle, said.

She did not disclose the types of tests conducted on Ford, the Associated Press reported.

In July, Ford received a cardiac pacemaker and had angioplasty, as well as the placement of stents, to increase blood flow in two of his coronary arteries. In July, he spent a few days hospitalized due to shortness of breath. Five years ago, the former president suffered two small strokes.

U.S. Military Plans to Resume Mandatory Anthrax Shots

The U.S. Department of Defense said Monday that it will resume mandatory anthrax vaccinations for more than 200,000 troops and defense contractors within 60 days.

The program was halted in October 2004 due to a lawsuit by six former or current service members who said the vaccine had not been proved safe or effective. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the vaccine final approval last December, which cleared the way for the Pentagon to resume the mandatory vaccinations, the Washington Post reported.

Under the program, anthrax vaccinations will be required for most military units and civilian contractors deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or South Korea and for those assigned to homeland bioterrorism defense.

However, a lawyer for the six plaintiffs said they plan to file a new lawsuit challenging the federal government's contention that human studies from the 1950s and more recent animal tests prove that the vaccine is safe and effective, the Post reported.

Consumers Need Better Info on Seafood: Report

Consumers need more complete information on the nutritional value and health risks associated with fish and shellfish, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine.

The report reviews the scientific evidence on seafood's benefits and risks and offers examples of how such information might be presented in a more easily understood way to the public. It calls for federal agencies to team up with state, local, and private groups to develop new informational tools and test them with consumers to make sure they work.

"Consumers need better guidance on making seafood choices," said Malden C. Nesheim, professor emeritus and provost emeritus at Cornell University, and chair of the committee that wrote the report.

Much of the evidence on seafood's health benefits and risks is preliminary or insufficient, the committee found. But, the panel confirmed that eating fish and shellfish may reduce people's overall risk for developing heart disease. It is not certain whether this is because substituting the lean protein of seafood for fatty cuts of meat reduces consumers' intake of saturated fat and cholesterol or because of the protective effects of omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in relatively high amounts in many fish species.

Many Americans Have Trouble Paying Medical Bills: Survey

A new survey found that 25 percent of Americans said that they or a household family member had trouble paying medical bills during the past year. That's the highest percentage in a series of polls since 1997.

Of the respondents who reported problems, 69 percent had health insurance.

The Health Care in America Survey of 1,201 adults was conducted between Sept. 7 and 12, 2006. Key findings include:

28 percent of respondents said that in the past year they or a family member have put off medical treatment because of the cost. Of those who delayed treatment, 70 percent said they needed care for a serious medical condition.
Among those with health insurance, 60 percent are worried about not being able to afford coverage over the next few years -- 27 percent said they are very worried.
54 percent of those without health insurance said they don't have it because they can't afford it.
80 percent said they're dissatisfied with the overall cost of healthcare to the nation. Cost came out ahead of quality when they were asked about their own healthcare.
The survey was conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation, ABC News, and USA Today.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Health Headlines - October 17

Flu Shots for Young Children in U.S. Delayed

A manufacturer's shipping delay means American children ages six months to 3 years old won't be able to get their flu shots until November and December, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced Monday.

The delay was announced by Sanofi Pasteur, the only maker of injectable flu vaccine (FluZone) approved for children ages 3 and younger. There will be an adequate amount of the vaccine, but pediatricians will have to wait until November or December to receive the bulk of their supply, the AAP said.

Through pediatricians, the AAP is distributing letters to parents explaining the delay and urging them to bring their young children back later in the year for their flu shots. The flu season doesn't peak until late December through March, so children still benefit even if they get the flu shot later than normal, the AAP said.

Experts say that flu shots are especially important for children ages 6 months to five years, people 50 and older, nursing homes residents, and people with certain chronic medical conditions. All these groups are at high risk of complications from the flu, the Associated Press reported.

Many Americans Have Trouble Paying Medical Bills: Survey

A new survey found that 25 percent of Americans said that they or a household family member had trouble paying medical bills during the past year. That's the highest percentage in a series of polls since 1997.

Of the respondents who reported problems, 69 percent had health insurance.

The Health Care in America Survey of 1,201 adults was conducted between Sept. 7 and 12, 2006. Key findings include:

28 percent of respondents said that in the past year they or a family member have put off medical treatment because of the cost. Of those who delayed treatment, 70 percent said they needed care for a serious medical condition.
Among those with health insurance, 60 percent are worried about not being able to afford coverage over the next few years -- 27 percent said they are very worried.
54 percent of those without health insurance said they don't have it because they can't afford it.
80 percent said they're dissatisfied with the overall cost of healthcare to the nation. Cost came out ahead of quality when they were asked about their own healthcare.
The survey was conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation, ABC News, and USA Today.

Many Doctors Unfamiliar with Heart Attack Treatment Guidelines

Many U.S. emergency room doctors and cardiologists aren't familiar with heart attack treatment guidelines, suggests a Cleveland Clinic-led study.

The findings are based on an Internet survey of 1,014 cardiologists and emergency room doctors conducted in late 2005. The researchers found that 61 percent of the respondents believed there was room for improvement in the treatment of heart attack patients and 24 percent said they weren't familiar with the current American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology heart attack treatment guidelines.

The survey also found that 84 percent of respondents were familiar with the recommended treatment of heart attack patients within three hours of the start of symptoms, but 20 percent said that patients who don't undergo a procedure to unblock a coronary artery within 90 minutes of arriving at hospital "rarely" or "never" receive the recommended therapy.

One-fifth of the respondents said the guidelines were impractical.

The findings were presented Monday at a meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Electrical Stimulation May Help Brain Injury Patients

Targeted electrical brain stimulation may benefit head-trauma patients in a permanent state of semiconsciousness, say U.S. researchers who used deep brain stimulation (DBS) to improve the condition of a 38-year-old man who'd been in a minimally conscious state for six years.

The researchers implanted electrodes into the man's thalamus, the part of the brain that's believed to help integrate the functions of other brain areas, the Washington Post reported. The team was led by neuroscientists from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, the Cleveland Clinic, and the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in N.J.

After six months of electrical stimulation sessions, the man showed significant improvement in his ability to move, communicate and function.

"These findings provide the first evidence that DBS can promote significant late functional recovery from severe traumatic brain injury," the researchers noted in a presentation Sunday at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta.

DBS has previously been shown to be effective in treating some patients with epilepsy, depression, Parkinson's disease, severe pain, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Bird Flu Virus May Have Infected Victim's Brain

Health officials in Indonesia are concerned that the H5N1 bird flu virus may have infected a 67-year-old woman's brain before she died of avian influenza on Sunday, Bloomberg news reported.

The woman from West Java province tested positive for H5N1 on Oct. 11, four days after she'd been hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. The woman's condition deteriorated after she developed an acute inflammation of the brain (encephalitis).

"Our concern is that the condition (encephalitis) was caused by a bird flu infection in her brain," Hadi Yusuf, one of the woman's doctors at Hasan Sadikin Hospital in the city of Bandung, told Bloomberg.

People infected with the H5N1 virus rarely experience neurological symptoms, noted virologist Menno de Jong.

Since 2003, the virus has infected 255 people in 10 countries, killing 59 percent (150) of them, Bloomberg reported.

American AIDS Activist Dies

Prominent American AIDS activist Jeff Getty -- who in 1995 received the first bone-marrow transplant from another species (a baboon) -- died of heart failure in California on Oct. 9. He was 49 years old.

The 1995 procedure at San Francisco General Hospital was done in the hope that the baboon's natural AIDS resistance would take hold in Getty. The baboon's bone marrow cells quickly vanished from Getty's system and the attempt proved unsuccessful, the Associated Press reported.

The experimental transplant, which was done before the advent of the antiviral drug combination therapy that keeps many HIV/AID patients alive today, ignited intense debate over the medical and moral implications of cross-species transplants.