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.