Public Health
U.S. makes progress in tobacco control, group says
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The U.S. government took major steps toward curbing tobacco use in 2009 but still needs to do more to fight tobacco-related illnesses that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, the American Lung Association said on Tuesday.
The federal government earned a grade of “A” for giving the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco, including how companies market, manufacture and sell tobacco products, the advocacy group said in its annual report card on tobacco control.
The American Lung Association was a long-time advocate of granting FDA authority over tobacco. U.S. President Barack Obama signed the FDA tobacco legislation into law in June.
Healthy Older Adults with Subjective Memory Loss May be at Increased Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairm
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Healthy Older Adults with Subjective Memory Loss May be at Increased Risk for Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia
Forgot where you put your car keys? Having trouble recalling your colleague’s name? If so, this may be a symptom of subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), the earliest sign of cognitive decline marked by situations such as when a person recognizes they can’t remember a name like they used to or where they recently placed important objects the way they used to. Studies have shown that SCI is experienced by between one-quarter and one-half of the population over the age of 65. A new study, published in the January 11, 2010, issue of the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, finds that healthy older adults reporting SCI are 4.5 times more likely to progress to the more advanced memory-loss stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia than those free of SCI.
The long-term study completed by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center tracked 213 adults with and without SCI over an average of seven years, with data collection taking nearly two decades. Further cognitive decline to MCI or dementia was observed in 54 percent of SCI persons, while only in 15 percent of persons free of SCI.
Shanghai dairy shut after melamine scare: report
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A Shanghai dairy has been closed and three of its executives arrested for selling milk powder tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical responsible for the death of six children in 2008, Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhua said powder and flavouring products sold by the Shanghai Panda Dairy Company were found to contain illegally high traces of the toxic chemical, which is rich in nitrogen and enables producers to foil mandatory protein content tests.
The company’s warehouses were sealed off and authorities were currently overseeing the recall of the company’s products from seven other regions, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
American Diabetes Association Statement Regarding Senate Passing Of Health Care Bill
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The American Diabetes Association issues the following statement about the passing of HR 3590 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“The passing of health reform in the Senate is a historic moment for our nation and for all people affected by diabetes,” commented George J. Huntley, Chair of the Board, American Diabetes Association. “People with diabetes have earned an important victory today because the Senate bill eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions, guarantees issue of insurance, prevents insurance companies from dropping someone because of illness, eliminates lifetime caps on benefits, limits out-of-pocket expenses, and provides subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford insurance.
Texting driver six times more likely to crash
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Text-messaging drivers are six times more likely to get into an accident than drivers who do not text, researchers said in a study released on Monday.
The researchers say the study, using simulator vehicles and identical traffic scenarios, also found the risk of texting behind the wheel appeared to be significantly higher than talking on a cell phone while driving, another dangerous distraction.
“When people talk on the phone while driving they are four times more likely to get into an accident. Here we find another ... increase in this risk,” said researcher Frank Drews of the University of Utah, citing previous research.
Obama seeks drug imports outside of US health bill
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The White House pledged on Sunday to move forward on allowing imports of safe prescription drugs from nations like Canada where they are less expensive, but not in the healthcare reform legislation now before Congress.
The pharmaceutical industry’s powerful Washington lobbying group backs the healthcare reform legislation that is President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority, but its important support for that effort could evaporate if drug imports are included.
White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration will pursue the issue, but not in the healthcare reform bill.
Arizona State and Mayo Clinic Partner to Combat Metabolic Syndrome
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Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic in Arizona are joining forces in a partnership to investigate metabolic syndrome – a cluster of high-risk medical factors that include increased blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, excess body fat and abnormal cholesterol levels, which can lead to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Physicians, scientists and clinicians at the new ASU/Mayo Center for Metabolic and Vascular Biology will work together on solutions for this medical disorder. Research to better understand how insulin resistance affects the body’s blood vessels and metabolism will be an important part of the work at the new center, with facilities at the ASU Tempe campus and Mayo Clinic in Arizona, on the Scottsdale campus.
Lawrence Mandarino, Ph.D., a professor and founding director of the Center for Metabolic Biology at ASU, will direct the new joint venture.
Ask yourself, who really needs help in your family?
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In spite of his mom’s death from breast cancer two years ago, 14-year-old Damian appeared to be doing well. He was experiencing typical adolescent issues with independence and responsibility, but seemed to be working those out with his dad. Damian was starting to think about college, motivated by a desire to “always make my mom proud of me.”
I was a bit taken aback when I shared my impressions with his dad. He became very quiet and simply said “our family is not right. We need help.”
I finally realized that I was focusing on the wrong client. I stopped talking about Damian and instead questioned dad about how he was doing.
US teens ignore laws against texting while driving
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Karen Cordova, a 17-year-old high school student and part-time supermarket cashier, admits she sometimes texts friends while driving home from work late at night, lonely and bored.
The Arizona teenager knows it’s illegal in Phoenix and dangerous. She once almost drifted into oncoming traffic while looking at her phone.
But would a nationwide ban stop Cordova and her friends from texting in their cars? No way, she said.
Drug mistakes common in US kidney dialysis patients
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About 20 percent of kidney dialysis patients who undergo a procedure to open a blocked artery are given the wrong blood clot medicine, increasing the chances of significant bleeding, researchers said on Tuesday.
They said the findings suggest many doctors in the United States ignore warnings on drug labels, often putting patients at risk of serious harm or death.
“The results of this study illustrate the problem of medication errors in the United States, as well as the need to make patient safety a priority on the health care agenda,” Dr. Thomas Tsai of the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Physically active boys are smarter, study hints
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Jocks get new respect in a large Swedish study that suggests physically active teen boys may be smarter than their couch-potato counterparts.
The findings, the investigators say, have important implications for the education of young people. Increasing, not decreasing, physical education in schools can not only slow the shift toward sedentary lifestyles but, by doing so, reduce risk of disease and “perhaps intellectual and academic underachievement,” they concluded.
Dr. H. Georg Kuhn and colleagues from the Institute of Medicine at the University of Gothenburg wanted to know if aerobic (cardiovascular) fitness and muscle strength were associated with brain power and future socioeconomic status.
HIV-infected Chinese children struggle with stigma
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The second storey of this nondescript building in Fuyang city in China’s central province of Anhui houses HIV-positive orphans, but unlike many other similar establishments, there are no signboards outside.
Heavy stigma still surrounds the disease in China, and children - probably the most vulnerable group among AIDS patients - are almost invariably barred from schools and even abandoned by their parents and relatives.
Change is occurring, albeit slowly.
President Hu Jintao last year shook hands with AIDS patients to try and reduce some of the stigma. On World AIDS Day - December 1 - this year, he met with AIDS awareness volunteers, and spoke with patients by telephone.
Osteoarthritis increases aggregate health care expenditures by $186 billion annually
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Osteoarthritis (OA), a highly prevalent disease, raised aggregate annual medical care expenditures in the U.S. by $185.5 billion according to researchers from Stony Brook University. Insurers footed $149.4 billion of the total medical spend and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures were $36.1 billion (2007 dollars). Results of the cost analysis study are published in the December issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate 27 million Americans suffer from OA with more women than men affected by the disease. Forecasts indicate that by the year 2030, 25% of the adult U.S. population, or nearly 67 million people, will have physician-diagnosed arthritis. OA is a major debilitating disease causing gradual loss of cartilage, primarily affecting the knees, hips, hands, feet, and spine.
John Rizzo, Ph.D., and colleagues used data from the 1996-2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to determine the overall annual expected medical care expenditures for OA in the U.S. The sample included 84,647 women and 70,590 men aged 18 years and older who had health insurance. Expenditures for physician, hospital, and outpatient services, as well expenditures for drugs, diagnostic testing, and related medical services were included. Healthcare expenses were expressed in 2007 dollars using the Medical Care Component of the Consumer Price Index.
Professional pesticide use ups risk of nasal woes
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When people think about pesticides and health, cancer and birth defects probably come to mind. But new research shows pesticide exposure may contribute to a much more common affliction: itchy, runny, stuffy noses.
“Pesticides have more potential consequences than we’ve considered. There are a lot of things they can contribute to,” Dr. Jane A. Hoppin, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle, North Carolina, told Reuters Health.
Hoppin is part of a team of researchers who have been studying over 57,000 licensed pesticide applicators since 1993. They began publishing their findings in 2000. Most of the people included in the current investigation, known as the Agricultural Health Study, are farmers, while the rest are workers hired to apply pesticides to crops, seed and animals.
Feeding the Clock
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When you eat may be just as vital to your health as what you eat, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their experiments in mice revealed that the daily waxing and waning of thousands of genes in the liver—the body’s metabolic clearinghouse—is mostly controlled by food intake and not by the body’s circadian clock as conventional wisdom had it.
“If feeding time determines the activity of a large number of genes completely independent of the circadian clock, when you eat and fast each day will have a huge impact on your metabolism,” says the study’s leader Satchidananda (Satchin) Panda, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory.
The Salk researchers’ findings, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could explain why shift workers are unusually prone to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, high cholesterol levels and obesity.
