Health News

American Academy of Pediatrics Advises Ban on Raw Milk

 

The health claims related to drinking raw milk have not been verified by scientific evidence, and therefore do not outweigh the potential health risks that raw milk poses to pregnant women and children, according to a policy statement issued Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s leading pediatrics organization.

The organization went even further than advising against drinking raw milk by also endorsing a nationwide ban on the sale of raw dairy products.

That recommendation, the organization stated, was based on the plentiful data regarding the burden of illness associated with raw dairy, especially among pregnant women and children, along with the “strong scientific evidence” that pasteurized milk promises the same nutritional value.

While anyone can fall ill from drinking raw milk contaminated with bacterial pathogens, it is especially risky to pregnant women, infants, the elderly, and immune compromised individuals, the statement said.

Before U.S. dairies began pasteurizing milk in the 1920s, raw dairy products caused a significant portion of foodborne illness, including hundreds of outbreaks of tuberculosis and infections such as Brucella abortus, streptococcal species and intestinal pathogens. Today, raw dairy is more commonly associated with E. coli, Campylobcater and Salmonella outbreaks.

According to the academy, 79 percent of raw dairy outbreaks involve at least one person under 20 years old.

Of 121 dairy-related outbreaks reported between 1993 and 2006, 73 (60 percent) were linked to raw dairy, despite only about 3 percent of the dairy products consumed in the U.S. being unpasteurized. And, in those outbreaks, 13 percent of raw dairy drinkers were hospitalized, while only 1 percent of pasteurized dairy drinkers were.

Pregnant women who consume raw dairy products are statistically at five times greater risk of contracting infections of toxoplasma, E. coli or Listeria, which may cause consequential neonatal infections such as sepsis or meningitis.

“In summary, the AAP strongly supports the position of the FDA and other national and international associations in endorsing the consumption of only pasteurized milk and milk products for pregnant women, infants, and children,” the AAP stated.

Source: food safety news

Doctors perform C-section on woman who wasn’t pregnant

Officials in southeastern Brazil say doctors performed a cesarean section on a 37-year-old woman only to discover that she wasn’t pregnant.

Simone Carvalho is a spokeswoman for the Health Department of the coastal city of Cabo Frio. She said Tuesday the woman told doctors at the city’s Woman’s Hospital she was 41 weeks pregnant and in pain.

Carvalho said one reason doctors believed she was pregnant was because “she had the symptoms associated with pregnancy like an enlarged abdomen and nausea.”

Carvalho said “doctors could not hear the baby’s heartbeat and feeling its life was in danger ordered an emergency cesarean after which they discovered it was a false pregnancy.”

The spokeswoman added the woman “was so convinced she was pregnant, that she altered her prenatal tests that showed otherwise because she was convinced the results were wrong.”

Source: fox news

 

7 Natural Ways to Ease Back Pain

 

1. Capsaicin

Capsaicin is the substance in chili peppers that gives them their red-hot “burn” when you eat them.  Researchers have found that when this substance is used in a cream and smoothed onto the skin, it reduces the levels of a neurochemical compound that transmits pain signals. In a recent study, pain sufferers who were given capsaicin cream experienced more pain relief than those who were given a placebo.

2. Willow bark

The bark of the white willow tree (Salix alba) contains a substance called salicin, which the body can convert to salicylic acid. This is the same compound that aspirin becomes once it’s been metabolized by the body. Salicylic acid is believed to be the active compound in aspirin that relieves pain and inflammation, making white willow tree bark a possible natural alternative to the painkiller.

vitamin B 12

There is some evidence that vitamin B12 may help relieve back pain. In a recent study, Italian researchers gave either vitamin B12 or a placebo to people who suffered from lower back pain. They found that the vitamin B12 users experienced a statistically significant reduction in their level of pain and disability. They were also less likely to use painkillers than those given the placebo.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine practice designed to unlock energy pathways that are causing pain. British researchers found that pain sufferers who received acupuncture reported less pain and less worry about their pain compared to people receiving standard care. After two years, the acupuncture group was significantly more likely to report being pain-free and less likely to use painkillers.

   Chiropractics


Chiropractors use spinal manipulation to restore joint mobility and relieve pain. To do this, these doctors of chiropractics manually apply a controlled force to joints that have become damaged or constrained by muscle injury, inflammation, and pain. These “adjustments” have been found in many studies to relieve pain and muscle tightness and encourage healing.

Yoga


Yoga is the practice of physical postures or poses that are designed to have specific effects on the mind, body, and spirit. A study of people with chronic mild low back pain compared patients who did Iyengar yoga to those who received only back education. After 16 weeks, investigators found that there was a significant reduction in pain, disability, and use of pain medication in the people who did yoga.

Balneotherapy

Balneotherapy is one of the oldest forms of pain relief. This type of therapy involves bathing or soaking in warm water or mineral water to relieve pain. A recent study looked at balneotherapy’s effectiveness for low back pain and found promising benefits. But balneotherapy may not be for everyone. People with heart disease should not use it unless they are under the supervision of a physician.

Source: health line

Diabetes Drug Won’t Help Obese Kids Keep Off Weight

Few children who become obese are able to lose and keep off weight with diet and exercise alone, leading some doctors to prescribe drugs, such as the diabetes drug metformin, to treat childhood obesity. However, a new study suggests that metformin may not help kids and teens without diabetes lose weight over the long term.

The study, which reviewed information from previous research, found no evidence that children and teens who took the drug lost more weight after one year than those who did not take the drug.

While some adolescents who took the drug did experience short-term weight loss (six months or less), the effect was modest, and it’s not clear whether such limited weight loss would actually improve their health, the researchers said. [Lose Weight Smartly: 7 Little-Known Tricks That Shave Pounds]

Given the current evidence, metformin has not been shown to be superior to other weight-loss treatments for kids, such as diet and exercise, the researchers said.

“Unfortunately, this drug is not going to be the answer,” said study researcher Marian McDonagh, of Oregon Health & Science University. Overall, the drug does not appear to provide enough weight reduction for children to experience meaningful health benefits in the long term, McDonagh said.

Still, it’s possible that certain groups of children, such as those who are very obese, may benefit from taking the drug. A large study is needed to identify these groups, the researchers said.

The study analyzed information from 14 previous studies (eight in the United States and others in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Europe, Iran and Turkey), which included a total of 946 children ages 10 to 16 who did not have diabetes. The children’s body mass indices (BMIs) ranged from 26 to 41. In most studies, children who took metformin also engaged in lifestyle changes aimed at helping them lose weight.

On average, children who took metformin for six months achieved a 3.6 percent greater reduction in their BMI compared with those who practiced lifestyle changes alone.

However, studies in adults suggest that, in order for a weight-loss treatment to lead to meaningful improvements in health down the road, it needs to reduce BMI by 5 to 10 percent, McDonagh said.

Children in the studies who took metformin for a year saw about the same decrease in BMI as those who practiced lifestyle changes alone. And after one year, both groups started to slip back to their original weight.

The researchers would like to see more studies on weight-loss treatments that involve a child’s entire family. It’s possible that family-based interventions may help children lose more weight — whether they are taking a drug or not — than interventions that don’t consider the child’s family, McDonagh said.

Metformin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat children and adults with Type 2 diabetes.

Source: Fresh news

‘Baby Illusion’ Makes Family’s Youngest Seem Tiny

The youngest child in a family may be perpetually the baby, according to new research showing that moms literally perceive their littlest as smaller than he or she really is.

This “baby illusion” often shatters suddenly upon the birth of another child, researchers wrote today (Dec. 16) in the journal Current Biology. In a survey of 747 moms, more than 70 percent reported their first child suddenly seemed larger and older upon the birth of a second baby.

“Contrary to what many may think, this isn’t happening just because the older child just looks so big compared to a baby,” Jordy Kaufman of the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said in a statement. “It actually happens because all along, the parents were under an illusion that their first child was smaller than he or she really was. When the new baby is born, the spell is broken, and parents now see their older child as he or she really is.”

To get to the heart of the illusion, Kaufman and colleagues asked mothers to estimate the height of one of their children on a blank wall. The researchers then compared the marks made by mom with the kid’s actual height. Some of the kids were older siblings, while others were either the youngest in their family or were only children.

Moms routinely underestimated the size of their youngest or only kids, the results revealed. On average, only children or youngest children were seen as almost 3 inches (7.5 centimeters) shorter than they really were. In contrast, moms were right on target in estimating their older children’s height.

The illusion could be beneficial for kids and parents alike, as seeing their youngest as more vulnerable than they really are could prompt parents to pour more resources into that child — an important key to survival in a family where multiple kids need attention. The findings also might lend credence to the idea that birth order helps shape personality.

“The key implication is that we may treat our youngest children as if they are actually younger than they really are,” Kaufman said. “In other words, our research potentially explains why the ‘baby of the family’ never outgrows that label. To the parents, the baby of the family may always be ‘the baby.'”

Source: live science

Deadly human MERS virus infects camels

Scientists have proved for the first time that the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed 71 people can also infect camels, strengthening suspicions the animals may be a source of the human outbreak.

Researchers from the Netherlands and Qatar used gene-sequencing techniques to show that three dromedary, or one-humped camels, on a farm in Qatar where two people had contracted the MERS coronavirus (CoV) were also infected. The study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal on Tuesday.  confirms preliminary findings released by Qatari health officials last month. Camels are used in the region for meat, milk, transport and racing.

But the researchers cautioned it is too early to say whether the camels were definitely the source of the two human cases – in a 61-year-old man and then in a 23-year-old male employee of the farm – and more research is needed.

“This is definitive proof that camels can be infected with MERS-CoV, but based on the current data we cannot conclude whether the humans on the farm were infected by the camels or vice versa,” said Bart Haagmans of Rotterdam’s Erasmus Medical Centre, who led the study with other Dutch and Qatari scientists.

He said a further possibility is that humans and camels could have been infected “from a third as yet unknown source”.
“The big unknown is the exact timing of infections, both in the persons and in the camels,” he added. Both the men infected in Qatar recovered.

Scientists around the world have been searching for the animal source, or reservoir, of MERS virus infections ever since the first human cases were confirmed in September 2012.

Globally to date, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says there have been 163 laboratory-confirmed human cases of MERS, including 71 deaths. The WHO is also aware of around a dozen other probable but unconfirmed MERS cases in people.

In humans, MERS cause coughing, fever and pneumonia, which can be fatal. Cases have so far been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Tunisia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain.

British researchers who conducted some of the first genetic analyses on MERS last September said the virus, which is from the same family as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, is also related to a virus found in bats.

In the Qatar study, researchers collected clinical samples – including nasal swabs, blood and rectal swabs, as well as stool samples – from 14 dromedary camels living in a barn in Qatar where in the previous week, the 61-year-old owner of the barn had been diagnosed with MERS infection.

The samples were sent to laboratories in the Netherlands for genetic analysis and antibody testing, which confirmed the presence of MERS in three of the animals.

Researchers said the virus gene sequences were very similar – although not identical – to those identified in the two people from the same site.

They also noted that all 14 of the camels tested had antibodies to MERS, suggesting the virus might have been circulating among the animals for some time, allowing most of them to build up immune protection against infection.

Since they were not able to say definitely whether the virus had passed from the camels to humans, or the other way, the researchers stressed they also could not rule out that other common livestock species, like cattle, sheep and goats, or other animals, may be involved in the spread of MERS.

To help find more answers, they said, researchers should aim to plot detailed case histories of all human cases of MERS, including any exposure to animals or animal products as well as links with other infected people. Reuters
Source: the Nation

water from US fracking sites had levels of chemicals

The study, published on Endocrinology, analysed 39 water samples from Garfield County in Colorado, an area that has more than 10,000 drilling sites. It found that a number of them contained endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).

According to the study, “Of the 39 unique water samples, 89%, 41%, 12%, and 46% exhibited estrogenic, anti-estrogenic, androgenic, and anti-androgenic activities, respectively. Our data suggest that natural gas drilling operations may result in elevated EDC activity in surface and ground water.”

The endocrine system regulates hormones in the organism, including those related to metabolism, mood, growth and sleep. A disruption of the system can have various consequences, including cancer, development and sexual disorders and even birth defects.
Susan Nagel, one of the authors from the University of Missouri, said, “More than 700 chemicals are used in the fracking process, and many of them disturb hormone function.

“With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure.”
The process of extracting gas from shale rocks, known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, has been often criticised for its possible consequences over water contamination.

However, it caused a drop of gas prices in the US and has been praised by the UK government as well, as a ‘transition fuel’ towards a cleaner energy system – as it emits less greenhouse gases than conventional fossil fuels.

The debate in the UK is still going on between those supporting it – including David Cameron, who recently wrote to the European Commission asking it not to oppose fracking developments – and those opposing it on environmental and economic grounds.

Source: blue and green tomorrow

Researchers Turn To Bears To Understand Obesity:


Although obesity statistics have somewhat leveled off in recent years, the global burden of this epidemic continues to rear its ugly head at adults and children. Scientists at the U.S. drug maker Amgen Inc. are experimenting with an unorthodox new study method that implores the help of an animal with one of nature’s biggest appetites: the grizzly bear. After watching Yogi Bear on TV, Dr. Kevin Corbit decided to uncover how the chubby cartoon character stayed healthy while gorging on food in preparation for hibernation.

The Washington State University Bear Center was established 27 years ago and served as one of the world’s only research facilities where grizzly bears can be thoroughly examined. Bears are either born at the university or taken from national parks where they were in danger of being euthanized due to close contact with humans. A research team headed up by Dr. Corbit is in the middle of two-year study in which they are drawing blood, running biopsies for fat deposit, and monitoring the heart of 12 grizzly bears.

Dr. Corbit and his colleagues were particularly interested in how a grizzly bear’s cholesterol and blood pressure spikes after they take in upward of 100 lbs. of fruit, nuts, and salmon, yet somehow remain healthy. Not only do grizzly bears lose this weight rapidly after hibernation, but they are also unaffected by the health conditions most obese humans experience such as a heart attack, stroke, or diabetes.

Findings revealed that each bear was able to adjust their hormone insulin sensitivity, which controls the amount of fat and sugars that are broken down and stored away for energy during hibernation. Grizzly bears experience high insulin sensitivity while preparing for hibernation; however, a few weeks into hibernation they completely shut off their insulin sensitivity. Dr. Corbit told The Wall Street Journal that sequencing the bear’s genome “would really accelerate the discovery research for bears.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity on a worldwide scale has doubled since 1980. Over 200 million men and 300 million women over the age of 20 were considered obese in 2008. Around 2.8 million adults die each year as the result of an obesity-related condition, making it the fifth leading cause of death around the world. Forty-four percent of obese people also develop diabetes, 23 percent suffer from heart disease, and between seven percent and 41 percent are affected by a certain type of cancer.

Source: medical daily

EU issues warning on potential health risk from insecticides

European health authorities warned on Tuesday that two insecticides, including a widely-used chemical made by Bayer, may affect the developing human brain and should be more tightly controlled to limit human exposure.

The products – acetamiprid and imidacloprid – belong to a popular class of insecticides called neonicotinoids, which have recently been in the spotlight due to links with plunging populations of bees. Imidacloprid is one of the most widely used insecticides in the world.

The European Union voted in April to ban three neonicotinoids – including imidacloprid which is primarily manufactured by Bayer – for two years amid safety and environmental concerns.

In Tuesday’s move, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended that guidance levels for exposure to the products be lowered while further research is carried out to provide more reliable data on so-called developmental neurotoxicity.

“Acetamiprid and imidacloprid may adversely affect the development of neurons and brain structures associated with functions such as learning and memory,” EFSA said in a statement from its Rome headquarters.

“Some current guidance levels for acceptable exposure to acetamiprid and imidacloprid may not be protective enough to safeguard against developmental neurotoxicity and should be reduced.”

A spokesman for the European Commission, which asked EFSA to carry out the assessment, said it would give Bayer and the makers of acetamiprid an opportunity to comment on the findings.

“In principle, the next step would then be to amend the reference values,” said Commission health spokesman Frederic Vincent, adding that EU government officials would begin the process at a meeting in March.

In response, Bayer’s CropScience division said it saw no link between imidacloprid and developmental neurotoxicity in humans, and said EFSA had based its concerns on an inconclusive 2012 study that used tests on rat cell cultures.

“EFSA itself recognizes the limitations of this publication. Bayer CropScience has also evaluated the publication and can confirm that few conclusions can be drawn from it,” the statement said.

Source: reuters

Superbug Strain of E. coli Endangers the Lives of Millions

New research shows how antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli evolved from a single source.A single strain of Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is responsible for millions of bacterial infections in women and the elderly, according to new research released today.

The strain, H30-Rx, has the unprecedented ability to spread from the urinary tract into the blood, giving rise to sepsis, the most lethal form of infection.

The new report suggests that H30-Rx may be responsible for 1.5 million urinary tract infections (UTIs) and tens of thousands of deaths annually in the U.S. alone. Researchers say the strain poses a threat to more than 10 million Americans who suffer from UTIs.
The research, published in the American Society for Microbiology’s journal mBio, shows how this bacteria has evolved from a single strain, allowing it to get around the most potent antibiotics available.

Tracing the E. coli Family Tree
The research was led by Lance B. Price, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. He’s also an associate professor in the Pathogen Genomics Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix, Ariz.

He and fellow researchers James R. Johnson of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Minnesota, and Evgeni V. Sokurenko of the University of Washington School of Medicine, focused on the ST131 group of E. coli.

ST131 strains are a common cause of bacterial infections, but they have become untreatable with standard antibiotics.

The team used advancing genomic techniques to discover that bacteria in the ST131 strains are genetic clones that have all evolved from a single strain of E. coli. Using whole-genome sequencing—which spells out each molecule in a bacteria’s DNA—researchers analyzed samples of E. coli from patients and animals in five countries gathered between 1967 and 2011. They then created a family tree to trace how the antibiotic-resistant clones evolved.

“Astoundingly, we found that all of the resistance could be traced back to a single ancestor,” Price said in a statement. “Our research shows this superbug then took off, and now causes lots of drug-resistant infections.”
For example, researchers said that a strain known as H30 cloned itself into H30-R. This evolved to become fully resistant to the second-generation antibiotic ciprofloxacin, which was considered a wonder-drug when it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1987. From there, the clones evolved into H30-Rx, which is resistant to even third-generation antibiotics like cephalosporins.

“This strain of E. coli spreads from person to person and seems to be particularly virulent,” Johnson said in a release. “This study might help us develop better tools to identify, stop or prevent its spread by finding better ways to block the transmission of the superbug, or by finding a diagnostic test that would help doctors identify such an infection early on—before it might have the chance to turn lethal.”

Dr. William Schaffner, immediate past-president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the new research will change the way problematic strains of E. coli are handled.

“It’s fascinating that they’ve identified a dominant strain of resistant E. coli. We previously thought these strains became resistant independently,” Schaffner, who was not involved in the study, told Healthline. “Resistant E. coli are slowly yet surely becoming a problem for those of us who treat infections.”

Source: health line