White House Severely Edited Climate Change Testimony
The White House "eviscerated" testimony prepared for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding's appearance Tuesday before a Senate hearing on the impact of climate change on health, the Associated Press reported.
Six pages of details about specific diseases and other health problems that that could flourish in a warmer climate were deleted from a draft of the testimony, which was obtained by the news agency Wednesday.
One CDC official familiar with the draft version said "it was eviscerated," the AP reported. The version delivered by Gerberding focused on the CDC's preparations to deal with the effects of climate change. She did tell the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that climate change "is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans."
The White House denied that it had "watered down" Gerberding's testimony.
-----
Study Offers New Data on Virus-Cancer Link
New information about how viruses can contribute to the development of certain kinds of cancers is outlined in a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal PLoS One.
It's long been known that viruses are linked with certain cancers, including cervical, throat and liver cancer. This new study found that viruses can cause healthy cells to die while promoting the growth of cells with cancerous properties. When this process is constantly repeated, it can result in rapid growth of abnormal cells and the start of cancer, CBC News reported.
"We believe a separate mechanism may be at play in which cellular insult, such as infection with a virus, selects a few pre-existing mutated clones of cells, promotes their further growth and multiplication, eventually leading to the emergence of fully cancerous cells," Dr. Preet Chaudhary, a professor of medicine, said in a prepared statement. "Consequently, similar to the role played by natural selection during evolution, excessive cell death, rather than its absence, may be a defining force that drives the initial emergence of cancer."
-----
Vibration May Help Fight Fat in Young
Young mice placed on a vibrating platform for 15 minutes a day every day for 15 weeks had 30 percent less fat accumulation than mice placed on a stationary platform, says a study that suggests that vigorous exercise may not be the only way to fight weight gain in the young.
The study authors said this type of mechanical stimulation may influence stem cells to become muscle or bone cells instead of fat cells, Agence France-Presse reported. The study appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If similar results can be achieved in humans, this approach may help in efforts to combat childhood obesity, suggested the team of researchers led by Clinton Rubin, a professor of bioengineering at Stony Brook University in New York state.
"Everybody thinks of obesity as a metabolic or fat-burning disorder, but our study suggests there may also be a developmental element," said Rubin, who added that using this vibration method may offer a drug-free way of controlling susceptibility to obesity in young people, AFP reported.
"It won't make fat kids skinny, but it could control their propensity for getting heavy," he said. "And if we can inhibit fat in the young, we can reduce susceptibility for diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life."
-----
Report Calls for Medicare-Run Drug Plan
A Medicare-operated drug plan would be more affordable, comprehensive and stable than current Medicare Part D drug plans run by private insurers, concludes a report released Tuesday by Consumers Union and the Medicare Rights Center.
The report, which calls for the creation of a Medicare-run drug benefit, said there are numerous independent studies that show that the current drug benefit -- available only through private insurers -- is unnecessarily costly, has coverage gaps, is unstable, and leaves consumers vulnerable to marketing fraud.
A Medicare-administered drug benefit that harnesses the purchasing power of 43 million beneficiaries could lower drug prices and reduce the overall cost of the program, according to the report.
"Day after day we see men and women with Medicare unable to get the medicine they need because of the confusing and exploitative marketplace that dominates the for-profit drug offerings from private insurance companies," Robert M. Hayes, president of the non-profit Medicare Rights Center, said in a prepared statement. "It's time for Congress to offer a Medicare-administered drug benefit option that would benefit consumers' health and pocketbooks and bring down the program's cost for taxpayers."
On Tuesday, a bill was introduced in Congress that would utilize price negotiation and other factors to give older adults and people with disabilities the choice of a stable, consistent and affordable drug coverage plan.
-----
Too Much Medicinal Marijuana May Increase Pain
Patients who smoke large amounts of marijuana for pain relief may actually experience more, not less, pain, according to a University of California study. Researchers found that moderate use of the drug appears to have the most beneficial effect.
The study included 15 healthy people who were given injections of capsaicin -- the "hot" chemical in chili peppers -- under their skin in order to induce pain. The participants were then given different strength doses of cannabis to smoke, BBC News reported.
After 45 minutes, those who smoked a moderate dose said their pain was much better, while those who smoked a strong dose reported worse pain.
The researchers said their findings could have implications for the way medicinal marijuana is offered to patients, BBC News reported.
A number of countries have made it legal for patients to use medicinal marijuana.
-----
Living Near Highway Raises Risk of Premature Birth
Women who live within 200 meters of a highway are at increased risk of having a premature baby or a low birth weight infant, concludes a Canadian study that examined 100,000 births in Montreal between 1997 and 2001.
The researchers at Quebec's Institute of Public Health found that women living close to highways "were 15 to 20 percent more likely to deliver prematurely or have a low birth weight baby compared to mothers living away form the highway. They (the babies) are a little bit more sick, have more infections," lead author Dr. Melissa Genereux told CBC News.
The study will be published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
The findings add to a growing body of evidence that suggests that living near major highways may be linked to a number of health risks, including cancer and respiratory illness, Louis Drouin, a physician in charge of urban environment issues in Montreal's public health department, told CBC News.
No comments:
Post a Comment