Health Headlines - June 2

CDC Offers Severe Weather Safety Tips

Extreme summer weather can pose a threat to health and safety, warned the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in an advisory issued Friday. Soaring temperatures, summer storms, and drought can lead to illness, injury and death, the agency said.

The CDC noted that June 1 marks the start of the hurricane season, and that National Hurricane Center experts predict higher-than-average hurricane activity this year in the Atlantic region.

If your area is under a hurricane watch or warning, you should:

• Learn about your community's emergency plans, warning signals, evacuation routes, and emergency shelters.
• Make plans to protect people with special needs, older adults, and pets.
• Stock your home and vehicle with emergency supplies, including medications.
• Secure or protect potential home hazards.
• Stay tuned to your radio or television for the latest information.

Extreme heat is another summer health hazard. The CDC said people should take appropriate measures, including: drinking more water and other nonalcoholic fluids; staying indoors, preferably in a location with air conditioning; and wearing lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing.

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Diet Rich in B6, B12, and Folate May Reduce Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Eating a diet that contains high levels of vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and folate may help reduce the risk of deadly pancreatic cancer, says a study in the June 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research.

Researchers analyzed data from four large studies and concluded that people with normal or below-normal body weight decreased their risk of pancreatic cancer by up to 81 percent if they consumed high levels of vitamin B6, vitamin B12 and folate, compared to people who did not eat high levels of these nutrients or were overweight.

"All we can say is that a person who has reason to be concerned about the risk of developing this cancer, which is relatively rare but quite deadly, should maintain a normal weight and eat their fruit and vegetables," lead investigator Dr. Eva Schernhammer, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said in a prepared statement.

Oddly, Schernhammer and her colleagues also found that people who got these same nutrients from multivitamins (not from foods directly), and whose blood showed traces of the nutrients, were 139 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.

"This is a preliminary, but intriguing, finding because it suggests that something in the vitamins may fuel pancreatic cancer growth," she said.

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Outlining Delivery Options May Cut Caesarean Rates

Providing pregnant women with more information about their delivery options may reduce Caesarean section rates, says a U.K. study in the British Medical Journal.

The study included 742 women who were divided into three groups: traditional care; those who used a computer program that outlined the risks and likely outcomes of different delivery methods; and those who used a computerized decisions-analysis system.

That system asked the women to determine what value they placed to the possible outcomes of the different delivery methods and then provided them with a "preferred option" that was based on their responses. The women then discussed the recommended option with a health professional, BBC News reported.

The study found that 37 percent of the women who used the decisions-analysis system opted for vaginal birth, compared to 30 percent who received traditional care, and 29 percent of those who used the other computer information program.

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Nursing Home Accelerates Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's: Study

Moving to a nursing home speeds up cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease patients, say researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

They followed 432 Alzheimer's patients who lived in the community at the start of the four-year study. During the study, 155 of the participants were placed in nursing homes.

All participants showed a gradual cognitive decline, but many who were placed in a nursing home showed a more rapid decline. Conversely, people who had day care for three-to-four days a week at the beginning of the study did not show the same levels of decline.

"The findings suggest that the transition from the community to a nursing home is particularly difficult for people with Alzheimer's disease and that those planning for their care should consider the possibility that experience in adult day care programs may help prepare affected persons for institutional living," study author Robert S. Wilson, a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, said in a statement.

The study appears in the June issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

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More Illnesses Reported From Tainted Peanut Butter: CDC

More than 200 new cases of people becoming ill from tainted peanut butter in the United States have been recorded since the last figures were released three months ago, the Associated Press reported.

In March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 425 cases of illness in 44 states had been linked to Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter tainted with salmonella. On Thursday, the CDC said there have now been 628 cases in 47 states since last August.

The tainted peanut butter was made by Omaha-based ConAgra Foods at its Sylvester, Ga. plant. Company officials said moisture in the plant probably helped promote the growth of the bacteria, which later tainted the peanut butter, the AP reported.

Consumers should throw out Great Value or Peter Pan peanut butter with a product code on the lid that begins with "2111." The lids or jars can be returned to the place of purchase for a refund.

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FDA Issues Flu Vaccine Approval Guidelines

Final guidelines for the rapid development and approval of pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines have been released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The documents recommend using recent technologies such as cell culture and recombinant manufacturing to enhance the development and evaluation of vaccines. They also recommend adding substances (novel adjuvants) that improve human immune response to vaccines.

Further, the documents outline conventional and accelerated processes for vaccine approval. The conventional approach requires companies to provide clinical evidence that a vaccine actually prevents influenza.

Clinical trial data also are required for accelerated approvals, but companies may use a biological indictor -- such as immune response to a vaccine -- to predict effectiveness. Additional clinical trials must then be conducted to verify the vaccine's effectiveness, the FDA said.