health news

New avian influenza strain found in China

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A new strain of bird flu that can infect and kill animals has been discovered in chickens

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a new virus called H7N7 in chickens

A new strain of bird flu that can infect and kill animals has been discovered in chickens in poultry markets in China, according to a new study.

Having studied samples from birds for the H7N9 virus, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said genetic tests suggested that the virus entered domestic ducks from wild birds and then infected chickens, which are probably the origin of infection in humans, says the study published Wednesday in the journal `Nature`, Xinhua reported.

The research team also discovered a new virus called H7N7 in chickens. Laboratory tests showed H7N7 was also able to cause severe pneumonia in ferrets – a domesticated form of the European polecat – which are usually used as proxies for humans in flu research.

Zhu Huachen, one of the leading authors of the paper, told Xinhua that H7 viruses probably transferred from ducks to chickens on at least two independent occasions and that re-assortment with H9N2 viruses generated the H7N9 outbreak lineage.

Although the H7N7 virus carries only some of the molecular markers present in the human H7N9 isolates, the authors suggested the current pandemic threat could extend beyond H7N9 viruses, and that long-term influenza surveillance was essential for early warning of new viruses and inter-species transmission events.

The H7N9 bird flu has killed 45 people on the Chinese mainland since the first human infection was confirmed in late March this year, a health official said last week.

 

Genes inherited from mother may induce ageing process

Genes inherited from mother may induce ageing process

A new research has found that ageing is determined not only by the accumulation of changes during our lifetime but also by the genes we acquire from our mothers.

There are many causes of ageing that are determined by an accumulation of various kinds of changes that impair the function of bodily organs.

Of particular importance in ageing, however, seems to be the changes that occur in the cell`s power plant – the mitochondrion.

This structure is located in the cell and generates most of the cell`s supply of ATP which is used as a source of chemical energy.

“The mitochondria contains their own DNA, which changes more than the DNA in the nucleus, and this has a significant impact on the ageing process,” Nils-Goran Larsson, Ph.D., professor at the Karolinska Institute and principal investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, and leader of the current study alongside Lars Olson, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute, said.

“Many mutations in the mitochondria gradually disable the cell`s energy production,” Larsson said.

For the first time, the researchers have shown that the aging process is influenced not only by the accumulation of mitochondrial DNA damage during a person`s lifetime, but also by the inherited DNA from their mothers.

“Surprisingly, we also show that our mother`s mitochondrial DNA seems to influence our own aging,” Larsson said.

“If we inherit m DNA with mutations from our mother, we age more quickly,” the researcher added.

The study is published in the journal Nature.

 

Pringles Potato Chips contain Cancer causing Chemical – Facts

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One of the most hazardous ingredients in potato chips is not intentionally added, but rather is a byproduct of the processing.

 

To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the notion that they come from actual potatoes in any recognizable way.

The Pringles Company (in an effort to avoid taxes levied against “luxury foods” like chips in the UK) once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips.

 

So if they’re not made of potatoes, what are they exactly? The process begins with slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape.

This dough-like substance is then rolled out into an ultra-thin sheet cut into chip-cookies by a machine.

According to io9:

“The chips move forward on a conveyor belt until they’re pressed onto molds, which give them the curve that makes them fit into one another.

Those molds move through boiling oil … Then they’re blown dry, sprayed with powdered flavors, and at last, flipped onto a slower-moving conveyor belt in a way that allows them to stack.

From then on, it’s into the cans … and off towards the innocent mouths of the consumers.”

I suspect nearly everyone reading this likely enjoys the taste of potato chips. However, they are clearly one of the most toxic processed foods you can eat—whether they’re made from actual potato shavings or not.

Potato Chips are Loaded with Cancer-Causing Chemical

One of the most hazardous ingredients in potato chips is not intentionally added, but rather is a byproduct of the processing.

Acrylamide, a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, is created when carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, whether baked, fried, roasted or toasted. Some of the worst offenders include potato chips and French fries, but many foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 212°F (100°C) may contain acrylamide. As a general rule, the chemical is formed when food is heated enough to produce a fairly dry and brown/yellow surface. Hence, it can be found in:

Potatoes: chips, French fries and other roasted or fried potato foods

  • Grains: bread crust, toast, crisp bread, roasted breakfast cereals and various processed snacks
  • Coffee; roasted coffee beans and ground coffee powder. Surprisingly, coffee substitutes based on chicory actually contains 2-3 times MORE acrylamide than real coffee

Beware: Baked Chips May Be WORSE than Fried!

If you think you can avoid the health risks of potato chips by choosing baked varieties, which are typically advertised as being “healthier,” think again. Remember that acrylamide is formed not only when foods are fried or broiled, but also when they are baked. And according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on acrylamide levels in foods, baked chips may contain more than three times the level of acrylamide as regular chips!

Interestingly, the same trend holds true for other foods, too, which suggests that baking processed potatoes at high temperature may be one of the worst ways to cook them. For instance, according to the FDA’s data, Ore Ida Golden Fries contained 107 ppb of acrylamide in the regular fried version and 1,098 when baked. So remember, ALL potato chips contain acrylamide, regardless of whether they are natural or not; baked or fried. Likewise, they will ALL influence your insulin levels in a very negative way.

Acrylamide is Not the Only Danger

Acrylamide is not the only dangerous genotoxic compound formed when food is heated to high temperatures.

A three-year long EU project, known as Heat-Generated Food Toxicants (HEATOX), whose findings were published at the end of 2007, found there are more than 800 heat-induced compounds, of which 52 are potential carcinogens. In addition to their finding that acrylamide does pose a public health threat, the HEATOX scientists also discovered that you’re far less likely to ingest dangerous levels of the toxin when you eat home-cooked foods compared to industrially or restaurant-prepared foods.

Additionally, the HEATOX findings also suggest that although there are ways to decrease exposure to acrylamide, it cannot be eliminated completely.

According to their calculations, successful application of all presently known methods would reduce the acrylamide intake by 40 percent at the most—which makes me wonder whether chip manufacturers have really succeeded at this point in reducing acrylamide levels to within legal limits… There’s no updated data as of yet, so there’s no telling whether they’ve been able to comply with the 2005 settlement.

For more in-depth information about acrylamide, I recommend reading the online report Heat-generated Food Toxicants, Identification, Characterization and Risk Minimization.  In general however, just remember that cooking food at high temperatures is ill advised. A few of the most well-known toxins created in high-temperature cooking include:

Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs): These form when meat is cooked at high temperatures, and they’re also linked to cancer. In terms of HCA, the worst part of the meat is the blackened section, which is why you should always avoid charring your meat, and never eat blackened sections.

  • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs): When fat drips onto the heat source, causing excess smoke, and the smoke surrounds your food, it can transfer cancer-causing PAHs to the meat.
  • Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs): When food is cooked at high temperatures (including when it is pasteurized or sterilized), it increases the formation of AGEs in your food. When you eat the food, it transfers the AGEs into your body. AGEs build up in your body over time leading to oxidative stress, inflammation and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease.

Sources and References

  • io9 October 21, 2001

This was written by Dr. Joseph Mercola, and published at Mercola

 

Lowa Woman takes Tapeworm to lose weight:

A dieter in Iowa ordered a tapeworm off the Internet in a desperate bid to lose weight and then told her doctor about her extreme weight loss measure.

Lot of people is more worried about their weight and obese. They take lot of measures to loss weight or whatever the tips they heard. The physicians warn them to take advised tips and not what they heard or by own

Some children and youngsters tried some tips on their own without their parent’s knowledge.
A dieter in Iowa ordered a tapeworm off the Internet in a desperate bid to lose weight and then told her doctor about her extreme weight loss measure.

Her physician was stumped by the news and with little clue what to do next he called the Iowa Department of Public Health for help.
Iowa’s Public Health Department medical director Dr. Patricia Quinlisk told the (doctor) to prescribe an anti-worm medication and then issued a warning to health workers about the dangerous practice.

say ‘no’ to tapeworm diet

She said: “Ingesting tapeworms is extremely risky and can cause a wide range of undesirable side effects, including rare deaths,” she wrote.
“Those desiring to lose weight are advised to stick with proven weight loss methods; consuming fewer calories and increasing physical activity.”

 

Measles Alert: Texas Health Officials urge people to be immunized

State health officials asked health care providers to take potential steps on patients with measles symptoms, especially in North Texas.

Texas health officials have issued a measles alert and urge people to be immunized after a dozen cases were reported this year.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said 11 cases were confirmed with Measles alert. In the last week 6 were suffered in Tarrant County, but county Public Health officials updated that number a total of nine cases.

Dallas and Denton reported two measles cases, Harris County has one. Agency officials say Texas had six reported cases of measles in 2011.

State health officials asked health care providers to take potential steps on patients with measles symptoms, especially in North Texas.

Measles is a airborne disease and easily spreads through coughing and sneezing.

Child suffered with Measles

Tarrant County Public Health experts traced some of the area’s measles cases to an adult who had traveled outside the U.S., the agency said. Further details about the person and where he or she traveled were not immediately released.

“Measles is so contagious that if one person has it, 90 percent of the people close to that person who are not immune or vaccinated will also become infected with the measles virus,” according to state health officials.

People should check their immunization status with their health care provider, the agency said.

Insulin inhaler could replace diabetic injections

An Insulin Inhaler delivers powdered insulin with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes

An inhaled insulin device made by MannKind Corp proved more effective than injected and oral treatments in trials, potentially improving the quality of life for millions of diabetics and creating a multi-billion dollar opportunity for the company.

The product, Afrezza, is a whistle-sized inhaler that delivers powdered insulin to adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. This ease the use of insulin compared to regular shots, it has the potential to capture a big share of the global insulin market.

The number of diabetic patients is increasing worldwide and is projected to cross half a billion by 2030. According to a July report by Transparency Market Research, the global insulin market is expected to reach $32 billion in 2018.

MLV & Co analyst Graig Suvannavejh expects Afrezza to get regulatory approval; to market the company successfully.

He estimates U.S. and European sales of about $3 billion for Afrezza by 2025.

The inhaled insulin market has seen high-profile commercial failure in the past. Pfizer Inc withdrew Exubera in 2007 due to poor sales. The large size of the device and a high price were blamed for its failure.

Suvannavejh said a potential partner for MannKind could come from among such major diabetes players as Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, French drugmaker Sanofi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck & Co Inc, Eli Lilly & Co and Johnson & Johnson.

 

Chemical used in plastics make children obese

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Researchers found that children with higher BPA levels were more likely to have an abnormal waist circumference-to-weight ratio.

 

Children who have higher levels of Bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastics, make children to become obese and have abnormal waist circumference, a new study has suggested.

The University of Michigan researchers studied the levels of BPA in children`s urine and measured body fat, waist circumference, cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors.

Previously BPA was widely used in manufacturing of polycarbonate and epoxy resins used in a variety of products for children, including baby bottles, protective coatings on metal food containers, plastic toys, and dental sealants.

Donna Eng, M.D., author of the study and recent graduate of the Pediatric Endocrinology Fellowship at C.S. Mott Children`s Hospital, said that studies in adults had shown an association between high BPA levels and obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but little was known about its effects in children.

The study found that higher odds of obesity, defined as a BMI above the 95th percentile on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth curves, was associated with higher levels of urinary BPA.

Researchers also found that children with higher BPA levels also were more likely to have an abnormal waist circumference-to-weight ratio.

The study did not find significant associations of BPA with any other chronic disease factors, including abnormal levels of cholesterol, insulin or glucose levels.

Eng said that their study suggested a possible link between BPA exposure and childhood obesity. We therefore need more longitudinal studies to determine if there is a causal link between BPA and excess body fat.

Joyce Lee, M.D., M.P.H, associate professor of Pediatrics at C.S. Mott Children`s Hospital, said that they were surprised that their study did not find a link between BPA and measures of cardiovascular and diabetes risk, which has been established among adults.

She said that based on the results, BPA may not have adverse effects on cardiovascular and diabetes risk, but it`s certainly possible that the adverse effects of BPA could compound over time, with health effects that only later manifest in adulthood.

Smart phones cause rise in Myopia – warns Eye Surgeon

Operating Smartphone’s at a close proximity keeps the genes well beyond and the short-sightedness would be stabilized. This is known as `epigenetics`.

Smartphone’s have changed our lives easier but there is a flip side too. They cause eye problems like vision impairment, says a leading laser eye surgeon.

Surgeon David Allambym has revealed that Smartphone’s have caused cases of myopia (short-sightedness) among young people to surge.

Allamby, founder of Focus Clinics, has reported a 35 percent of people are suffering with advancing myopia, due to the launch of Smartphone’s in 1997, and warns that Myopia in young adults could increase by 50 percent within 10 years.

Half of Britons own Smartphone’s and spend an average of two hours per day using them. Combined with the amount of hours spent in front of a computer screen, laptop, tablet and television, it means that particularly young people and children are at risk of permanently damaging their vision.

New research found that the average Smartphone user holds the handset 30 cm from their face, with some people holding it just 18 cm away, compared to newspapers and books, which are held 40cm away from the eyes.

According to Allamby, watching and operating Smartphone’s at a close proximity keeps the genes well beyond and the short-sightedness would historically have stabilized, around the age of 21. This is known as `epigenetics`. Myopia used to stop in our early 20s but now we see it progressing throughout the 20s, 30s, and even into our 40s.

“If things continue as they are, I predict that 40-50 percent of 30-year-olds could have myopia by 2033 as a result of smart phones and lifestyles in front of screens, an epidemic we call Screen-Sightedness.

Parents and people should limit screen time wherever possible even by going outside without their phone for a period of time each day, and also seriously consider the age at which they give their children a Smartphone,” Allamby said.

It is predicted that by 2014 children aged 12 to 17 years will be the second biggest market for Smartphone’s behind 18-24 year olds.

 

China Will Stop Harvesting Prisoners’ Organs for Transplants

China remains the only country in the world that still systematically uses organs extracted from executed prisoners in transplant operations, a practice that has drawn widespread.

China announced it will begin to phase out the practice from November in light of international criticism, a senior official said on Thursday.

China remains the only country in the world that still systematically uses organs extracted from executed prisoners in transplant operations, a practice that has drawn widespread

Many Chinese view the practice as a way for criminals to redeem themselves. But officials have recently spoken out against the practice of harvesting organs from dead inmates, saying it “tarnishes the image of China”.

The health ministry will begin enforcing the use of organs from voluntary donors allocated through a fledging national program at a meeting set to be held in November, former deputy health minister Huang Jiefu, who still heads the ministry’s organ transplant office, told Reuters.

“I am confident that before long all accredited hospitals will forfeit the use of prisoner organs,” Huang said.

The first batch of all 165 Chinese hospitals licensed for transplants will promise to stop using organs harvested from death row inmates at the November meeting, he added.

ETHICAL STANDARDS:

An Australian-trained liver transplant surgeon, Huang said the China Organ Transplant Committee will ensure that the “source of the organs for transplantation must meet the commonly accepted ethical standards in the world“.

That effectively means the use of prisoner organs at approved hospitals will come to an end, but the timeframe remains indefinite, he added.

China has launched volunteer organ donor programs in 25 provinces and municipalities with the aim of creating a nationwide voluntary scheme by the end of 2013.

By the end of 2012, about 64 percent of transplanted organs in China came from executed prisoners and the number has dipped to under 54 percent so far this year, according to figures provided by Huang.

At a meeting in August last year, Huang, deputy health minister at the time, told officials that top leaders had decided to reduce dependency on prisoners’ organs, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Reuters.

Rights groups say many organs are taken from prisoners without their consent or their family’s knowledge, something the government denies.

So far, more than 1,000 organ donors have come through the new system, benefiting at least 3,000 patients, Huang said.

 

Researchers decoded the gene of chronic mountain sickness

Tibetans

peoples living at high elevations of Andes mountain , South America, are maladapted and suffer CMS. The disease is characterized by an array of neurologic symptoms, including headache, fatigue, sleepiness and depression.

 

 

A study provides information about the genetic basis of people who living in high altitudes, and needs CMS treatment.

More than 140 million people have permanently settled on high-altitude areas, ranging from African and Asia to South America. The low-oxygen conditions in these areas present a challenge for survival, and the geographically distinct populations have adapted to cope with hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen in the blood.

Particularly peoples living at high elevations of Andes mountain , South America, are maladapted and suffer CMS. The disease is characterized by an array of neurologic symptoms, including headache, fatigue, sleepiness and depression.

Often, people with CMS suffer from strokes or heart attacks in early adulthood because of increased blood viscosity (resistance to blood flow that can result in decreased oxygen delivery to organs and tissues).

Past studies of various populations show that CMS is common in Andeans, occasionally found in Tibetans and absent from Ethiopians living on the East African high-altitude plateau.

Therefore, the researchers dissected the genetic mechanisms underlying high-altitude adaptation by comparing genetic variation between Peruvian from the Andes region with CMS and adapted subjects without CMS, using whole genome sequencing.

They identified two genes, ANP32D and SENP1, with significantly increased expression in the CMS individuals when compared to the non-CMS individuals, and hypothesized that down-regulating these genes could be beneficial in coping with hypoxia.

The researchers therefore looked at genetic orthologs – corresponding gene sequences from another species, in this case the fruit fly – to assess the impact of observed genetic changes on function under conditions of hypoxia.