Month: March 2014

WHO-proposed sugar recommendation comes to less than a soda per day

The World Health Organization wants you to stop eating so much sugar. Seriously. In draft guidelines proposed this week, WHO is encouraging people to consume less than 5% of their total daily calories from sugars. The organization’s current guidelines, published in 2002, recommend eating less than 10% of your total daily calories from sugars.

Most Americans still consume much more. Our sweet tooth increased 39% between 1950 and 2000, according to the USDA. The average American now consumes about three pounds of sugar each week. “There is increasing concern that consumption of free sugars, particularly in the form of sugar-sweetened beverages, may result in … an increase in total caloric intake, leading to an unhealthy diet, weight gain and increased risk of noncommunicable diseases,” WHO said in a statement.

Of particular concern, WHO said, is the role sugar plays in causing dental diseases worldwide. For an adult at a normal body mass index, or BMI, eating 5% would be around 25 grams of sugar — or six teaspoons. That’s less than is typically found in a single can of regular soda, which contains about 40 grams of sugar.

To find the amount of calories from sugar in a product, multiply the grams by 4. For example, a product containing 15 grams of sugar has 60 calories from sugar per serving, according to the American Heart Association. If you eat 2,000 calories a day, that’s 3%.

WHO’s proposed guidelines apply to sugars added to foods by manufacturers, as well as those found naturally in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrates. They do not apply to those found in fresh produce.

“Much of the sugars consumed today are ‘hidden’ in processed foods that are not usually seen as sweets,” the WHO website states.

Did you know sugar is often added to your frozen pizza? How about your bread, soup, yogurt and mayonnaise? As consumers became more concerned about the amount of fat in their food, manufacturers went out of their way to make low-fat items — often substituting sugar to preserve the taste.

Choosing foods with fewer added sugars at the grocery story may soon get a little easier. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed several changes to the nutrition labels you see on packaged foods and beverages.

The proposed labels would also note how much added sugar is in a product. Right now, it’s hard to know what is naturally occurring sugar and what has been added by the manufacturer.

The WHO guidelines will be open for public comment until March 31. Then WHO will finalize and publish its recommendations.

Source: CNN news

Malnutrition On the Rise for Children in the North

Some 100,000 children, including Nigerian refugees fleeing attacks from the extremist sect Boko Haram, are suffering from acute malnutrition in northern Cameroon. Hospitals are overwhelmed. Health officials and United Nations agencies have been visiting the children and are promising assistance.

Badyne Mansto cries as her five-year-old child is buried near her house in Maroua, northern Cameroon. She told VOA the child lost weight and died at a private hospital two hours after she was admitted. She blamed the staff for not attending to her immediately when she arrived.

Hospital staff say they are overwhelmed. Mamha Catherine is one of them.

“As you can see, there are so many patients than we can attend to. We lack infrastructure, we lack staff, so what is certain is that some of the children whose lives may have been saved will end up dying,” she said.

Dire situation

Aiida Maimonatou, who is at the hospital with her baby, is getting impatient. She said when her first child was not well, she took him to a traditional healer and he died. Now she has brought her second child to the hospital because the government is asking people not to go for traditional treatment. But, she says, “since I came here, nobody has attended to me.”

Among the malnourished children are Nigerian refugees fleeing from the Islamist militant sect Boko Haram. At their camp in Menowo in Mayo Tsanaga Division where 7,000 refugees live, more than 300 children are suffering.

Comfort Manda, who said she fled Borno State, said she has lost a child to malnutrition.

“My brother, it is very difficult. I don’t know what to tell you, but the situation that I met here is so deplorable that I don’t know what to do now,” said Manda. “I came in from Nigeria and my two children are sick, I have taken them to the hospital and find it difficult to provide their medicine. One of them already died and I am still struggling with one of them. I do not know what will happen at the end. Added to this, there is no food, there is no water and when children are sick they drink a lot of water. We are not able to have even water to give our children. It is very difficult.”

Dr. Ndansi Elvis said the crisis is aggravated because refugees have to compete with the local population for food and water.

“These people come and there is competition for food. And when there is competition for food, there is also limited supply and the prices go up. And there is the problem of early marriages. You will not expect that a 17-year-old who has a child actually understands the nutritional needs of a child as much as a mature woman,” said Elvis.

“It’s astonishing that this is a public health problem but little attention is given to it. I go through the budget of the Ministry of Public Health for this year and I don’t think that even up to 500 million CFA franc [$1 million] has been allocated for any program as far as malnutrition is concerned,” Elvis continued.

Jean Mark Eding of Doctors Without Borders said a number of factors are contributing to the increasing number of malnourished children this year.

“The first thing is the absence or insufficient food for the children,” he said. “There are also environmental factors, like droughts, floods, dykes that give way, insects that destroy crops and reduce food production.”

UNICEF says large sectors of Cameroon’s population lack access to basic health services, safe water, sanitation facilities and basic education. The agency is appealing for funds to prevent and combat malnutrition. Its officials and other United Nations agencies have been visiting the malnourished children and promising to help as soon as they get the funds.

Source: All Africa

Toddler’s FaceTime Saves Mom After Dog Bite

While toddlers using tablets and smartphones may be too much for some, 2-year-old Bentley Toone’s FaceTime expertise turned him into his mother’s hero.

The boy’s mother, Laura Toone, had taken a walk when a foster dog she was caring for attacked one of her dogs. She tried breaking up the fight but the dog nearly bit one of her fingers off.

“I begged my daughters to call 911 and they’re four and they were quite afraid to even touch the phone because it was covered in my own blood,” she said Friday from her home in Tucson, Ariz.

Toone continued to lose blood and felt like she’d pass out soon. But Bentley saved the day.

“Here comes my son from the kitchen bringing me our dish towel,” she said. “He wiped off the blood himself and proceeded to call my friend on FaceTime.”

Bentley, an avid iPhone player, is known for making his share of prank FaceTime calls. It’s encouraged some of his mother’s friends, like Connie Guerrero, to usually ignore the ring.

“Something inside of me just told me that I needed to answer this FaceTime,” Guerrero recalled. “All I could see was his little forehead and I said, ‘hi, Bentley,’ and it was quiet for a little bit and then I hear Laura screaming.”

Guerrero then called 911 and Bentley unlocked the door when firefighters arrived. Toone said she has since taught their three children how to call 911.

Source: abc news

Oh Baby: Giving Birth 10 Times May Reduce Mom’s Cancer Risk

Women who give birth to 10 or more children may have a reduced risk of cancer, a new study from Finland suggests. Researchers examined cancer risk in nearly 5,000 Finish women who gave birth at least 10 times before 2010.

Over a three-decade period, there were 656 cases of cancer in these women, about 200 fewer cases than would be expected based on cancer rates in the general Finnish population, the study found.

In fact, the rate of new cancer cases was 24 percent lower among women who delivered 10 or more babies compared to those in the general population, the researchers said.
This overall reduction in cancer risk came mainly from decreased rates of breast cancer and gynecological cancers, including ovarian and endometrial cancer (cancer of the uterus lining). For these cancers, the rate of new cancer cases was about 50 percent lower in women with 10 or more deliveries, compared to the general population.

The researchers aren’t sure whether the findings apply to women who have just one, two or three children, but plan to conduct another study to find out, said study researcher Dr. Juha Tapanainen, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Helsinki University Central Hospital.
Pregnancy and cancer risk

In the study, women who had 10 or more babies were about five years younger when they gave birth to their first child, compared to average Finnish women. It’s known that becoming pregnant at a young age helps protect against breast cancer, Tapanainen said.
Women who give birth before age 20 have about half the risk of breast cancer as those who give birth for the first time after age 30, according to the National Institutes of Health. Some researchers hypothesize that this is because pregnancy speeds up the process of breast cell maturation, and that mature cells are more resistant to cancer, Tapanainen said. So, women who have children at younger ages develop mature, cancer-resistant breast cells sooner.

Previous studies have also found that giving birth to at least five children reduces the risk of breast cancer. This may be because pregnancy halts the menstrual cycle, so the breast cells of women who have many pregnancies are exposed to less estrogen, according to the American Cancer Society. (Exposure to estrogen is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer.)

The halting of ovulation, and the hormone changes that period in life causes, may also play a role in the reduced risk of ovarian and endometrial cancers.
Many women in the new study who had 10 or more children were members of the Laestadian movement, which is part of the Lutheran Church in Finland, the researchers said. Women in this group are similar to average Finnish women in terms of their lifestyle, but their religion prohibits the use of contraceptives.

Studies on the effect of hormonal contraceptives on cancer risk have been inconclusive, but some studies suggest that the contraceptives reduce the risk of ovarian and endometrial cancer. Thus, it’s possible that if Laestadian women in the study also took contraceptives, and still had multiple pregnancies, it would even further reduce their risk of these cancers, Tapanainen said.

Risks of many pregnancies

The study further linked having 10 babies with a reduced risk of basal cell skin cancer, and an increased risk of thyroid cancer. But the researchers don’t know the reason for this link.

Researchers noted that women who are able to have 10 or more children are likely healthier than women in the general population. But this factor alone is unlikely to explain the link between having 10 babies and the reduced risk of these cancers, Tapanainen said.

In general, the findings suggest that having more children doesn’t result in an increased occurrence of cancer, Tapanainen said. The protective effect is seen after five births, and is even greater with 10 births, Tapanainen said.
Despite the reduced risk of cancer, giving birth to five or more children does come with its own dangers, increasing the risk of pregnancy complications, such as premature birth and hemorrhaging after delivery.

Source: Yahoo news

Traffic pollution may alter structure of the heart; promote heart failure

Traffic air pollution has been linked to poor health in the past – with wheezing, coughing, and watery eyes just the tip of the iceberg. Later studies have also established a relationship between pollution and a host of heart problems, including left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure, among others. However, a new study, from the University of Washington’s Medical Center in Seattle, has now found that air pollution emitted from traffic sources also changes the structure of the heart’s right ventricle – further increasing the risk of heart failure for residents’ of pollution-dense areas.

“Although the link between traffic-related air pollution and left ventricular hypertrophy, heart failure, and cardiovascular death is established, the effects of traffic-related air pollution on the right ventricle have not been well studied,” said the study’s lead author Peter Leary, MD, MS, of the UW Medical Center in a press release. “Using exposure to nitrogen dioxide as a surrogate for exposure to traffic-related air pollution, we were able to demonstrate for the first time that higher levels of exposure were associated with greater right ventricular mass and larger right ventricular end-diastolic volume. Greater right ventricular mass is also associated with increased risk for heart failure and cardiovascular death.”

The study observed the health patterns of 3,896 individuals who participated in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, each of whom had no prior history of cardiac disruption or disease. All of the test subjects had previously undertaken magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, with authors observing their levels of exposure to pollutant nitrogen oxide in the year leading up to the scan.

On average, the study found that a higher incidence of exposure to nitrogen oxide coincided with a five percent increase (around one gram) in right ventricular mass and a three percent increase (4.1 mL) in right ventricular end-diastolic volume. The researchers combed through a range of differentiating factors that could have skewed the data before confirming their findings, including variations in lung disease, socioeconomic standing, inflammation, and left ventricular mass and volume.

“The morphologic changes in the right ventricle of the heart that we found with increased exposure to nitrogen dioxide add to the body of evidence supporting a connection between traffic-related air pollution and cardiovascular disease,” said Leary. “The many adverse effects of air pollution on human health support continued efforts to reduce this burden.”

It should be noted, however, that while increased exposure to nitrogen oxide led to a notable change in the heart’s structure, the findings have not definitively been linked to traffic air pollution. However, the researchers are confident that these recent findings are aligned with previous studies on the matter, and serve to strengthen beliefs that traffic air pollution is detrimental to cardiovascular health.

The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Source: Tech Times

‘Penicillin Girl’ Genean Hixon dies at 82

A woman whose breakthrough treatment with penicillin during World War II led to modern medical practices died March 1, two days before her 83rd birthday.

Genean Hixon, better known in the 1940s as the “Penicillin Girl,” was at the age of 12 one of the first American civilians to be treated with what The Denver Post called the “mysterious miracle drug” in a series of articles on her progress.

Hixon, born Genean Smith on March 3, 1931, was hospitalized on July 24, 1943, with severe osteomyelitis — a bone disease that at the time was seemingly incurable and potentially fatal.

Hixon’s daughter, Connie Hixon Davis, said her mother spent more than four years in hospital beds in her teens, but was saved early on by the penicillin treatment.

“Interestingly, she developed an allergy to penicillin and couldn’t take it in her later years,” Connie said.

Hixon was diagnosed with liver cancer in December, which led to her death. She is survived by a large family including her husband Donald, 87, a brother Gerald Smith, 79, four children, 11 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Throughout her life, Genean remained as avid a reader and seamstress as when she was cooped up in Denver General hospital as a young woman.

She received fan mail and, once, a bouquet of roses from an unknown soldier during the penicillin treatment, which drew hopeful eyes from around the globe.

“It is the first time such a quantity of the new drug, produced under extreme difficulties as a form of mold, has been released for a case of this nature in this region,” The Denver Post wrote on Oct. 18, 1943. “Denver General hospital has thus become the center of a medical experiment of worldwide interest.”

Connie said her mother’s father, Claude Smith, managed with the help of a doctor interested in Genean’s case to persuade the National Research Council to share the precious, new drug with his ailing daughter. The U.S. reserved penicillin primarily for military use until after the war.

Bennie Lindeque, a professor of orthopedics at the University of Colorado Denver, said the approach used in Hixon’s treatment is standard practice for curing osteomyelitis today.

Source: Chicoer Breaking news

Is microwaving food safe? 7 nutrition myths debunked

Microwave ovens became a common feature of Australian kitchens around the same time as lime green benchtops and burnt orange stoneware.

But while modern microwaves have shed the wood veneer panelling, some people still have concerns about food safety.

So what happens when you nuke your food in a microwave oven? Well, for a start you’re not nuking it: you’re actually heating it with low frequency electromagnetic energy, the energy is lower than light, another form of electromagnetic energy, says Bob Steele from Food Science Australia.

Microwaves penetrate more deeply than light, and heat food by rapidly vibrating water molecules. When a microwave oven is turned off, there are no microwaves left behind in either the oven or the food.

Unlike ionising radiation from nuclear energy, low frequency electromagnetic energy (microwave ovens use a frequency of around 2,450 Mhz) has “little or no ability to break strong chemical bonds,” Steele says.

For this reason, there is not any substantiated evidence it causes undue chemical changes in food and creates toxins, he says.

But what about nutrition? The majority of research suggests microwave cooking is just as nutritious as other methods and may have some benefits.

“In general, because you are able to heat food much more rapidly, retention of vitamins is higher,” Steele says. And nutrient retention, especially for the water soluble vitamins B and C, is better than other cooking methods such as boiling where the water soluble vitamins are often thrown out with the water.

In fact, microwave heating has been used to improve extraction of nutrients from foods. Work at CSIRO has shown better bio-accessability of anti-oxidants in microwave heated foods.

As foods cooked in microwaves don’t brown, microwave cooking also helps to retain amino acids such as lysine, he says.

Microwave warnings

There are, however, some things you should watch out for.

One of these is the use of non-approved plastics to hold hot food. The main concern is that some plastics, such as those used as yoghurt containers, can melt, potentially resulting in serious burns, says Steele.

Non-food approved plastics should never be used. Look for containers with the international food-safe symbol (see pic below). While, in the past there has been some concern with non-food approved plastics like PVC contaminating food, this is unlikely to happen with food-approved plastics that are clearly marked with the words “microwave safe”.

These plastics are designed to withstand high temperatures. However, even these can fail in a microwave oven, so never heat cooking oil in plastic containers as the temperatures can easily exceed the melting point of the plastic and potentially cause serious burns.

Uneven heating can be another major problem – not only can it allow the growth of micro-organisms, it can also cause scalding.

Domestic microwave ovens should never be used to sterilise foods. Low temperatures and uneven heating mean you can not be guaranteed that pathogenic spores have been inactivated, he explains.

Safety tips

Steele’s top tips for safe microwave cooking are:

  • always read the instructions on the packet
  • never reheat food more than two minutes (because of the risk of scalds)
  • never heat fats or cooking oils in a microwave oven – the temperatures can easily become excessive and may melt even the most resistant plastic container
  • always allow one to two minutes standing time to allow heat to even out
  • always use plastics approved for food use in a microwave oven. These are marked with the international food contact symbol (see left) and the phrase ‘microwave safe’.
  • always be careful – use a glove to remove the container from the oven.
  • And while independent testing of microwaves indicates that radiation leakage is uncommon for new models, older models could be a health hazard if the door is damaged or doesn’t fit properly.

So even though retro is back, it might be time for that old microwave to go.

Source: abc news

Drug company refuses to give lifesaving medication to 7-year-old boy

Seven-year-old Josh Hardy has survived four bouts of kidney cancer, heart failure and a bone marrow transplant. But now, he is fighting for his life once again, after a drug company denied him access to a medication that could cure him of a potentially deadly virus.

In an attempt to save her son’s life, Josh’s mother, Aimee Hardy, has launched a grassroots campaign to encourage drug manufacturer Chimerix to allow her son to have the medication he so desperately needs.

“I want to be by his bedside, holding his hand, telling him, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ but because of this unwillingness to release this drug, I have to leave him and come talk to you and it infuriates me,” Hardy, from Fredericksburg, Va., told Peter Johnson Jr. on Fox and Friends.

Josh had been cancer-free for two years when a bone scan in November 2013 revealed he had developed a bone marrow disorder as a result of his earlier cancer treatments. In January 2014, he underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., but he subsequently developed adenovirus – an acute infection that can be deadly in people with compromised immune systems.

“Normally, Josh’s immune system would be able to handle the adenovirus if his immune system was set free,” Hardy wrote on her son’s CaringBridge.org page. “The challenge is his immune system can’t be set free yet because his body is still trying to adapt to the new bone marrow cells. So to keep the body from killing the new cells, they have to suppress the immune system, thus creating ideal conditions for adenovirus to advance. Catch 22.”

Doctors at St. Jude recommended Josh be treated with Brincidofovir – an antiviral drug that has been proven to clear up adenovirus in children within two weeks. However, Brincidofovir has not yet been approved by the FDA, so Josh hasn’t been able to gain access to the medication.

Chimerix, the company that manufactures Brincidofovir, has given hundreds of patients emergency access to the medication in the past, but they have since stopped this practice saying ‘they cannot afford it,’ according to Johnson Jr. However, Chimerix has received more than $72 million in federal funding to develop Brincidofovir.

“As we progressed to larger and more complex safety trials, we made the decision two years ago to stop the program and focus resources on earning FDA approval,” said Kenneth Moch, the CEO of Chimerix.

As Josh’s health continues to worsen, the Hardy family has launched a campaign to convince the company to allow Josh to receive the drug through a ‘compassionate use’ program – in which a drug company can allow a seriously ill patient to receive access to an unapproved drug.

“I feel that it’s just an excuse and we need them to totally change their stance, not only for us but for hundreds or even thousands of people that need [this drug],” Hardy told Fox and Friends. “…To me, [it’s] almost a crime to not make it available to everyone who needs it.”

Moch said his company has received hundreds of phone calls and emails in support of Josh. A Twitter campaign utilizing the hashtag #savejosh has also been launched to support Josh’s cause.

However, when Johnson Jr. asked Moch off camera if a visit to Josh’s bedside might help change his mind, Moch said it would not – much to the distress of Josh’s mother.

“He would see a frail little boy who has a very weak voice and has a hard time staying awake, because he’s in so much pain and to combat the pain he has to be on a lot of pain medication, so he’s drowsy,” Hardy said. “It’s horrible for us as parents to see, because he’s a vibrant, strong little boy, and even though he is frail, he has a very strong will about him. But things just keep stacking against him, and we just want to do everything we can to give him the opportunity to make a full recovery.”

To help save Josh, Hardy is encouraging supporters to call Chimerix at 919-806-1074; supporters can also e-mail compassionateuserequest@chimerix.com

SourcE: fox news

Silk-based surgical implants could help heal broken bones

Researchers have developed surgical plates and screws which may not only offer improved bone remodeling following injury, but can also be absorbed by the body over time, eliminating the need for surgical removal of the devices.

Co-senior author Samuel Lin, MD, of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, said that unlike metal, the composition of silk protein may be similar to bone composition, asserting that silk materials are extremely robust.

Lin and co-senior author and Tufts chair of biomedical engineering David Kaplan, PhD, used silk protein obtained from Bombyx mori (B. mori) silkworm cocoons to form the surgical plates and screws. Produced from the glands of the silkworm, the silk protein is folded in complex ways that give it unique properties of both exceptional strength and versatility.

To test the new devices, the investigators implanted a total of 28 silk-based screws in six laboratory rats. Insertion of screws was straightforward and assessments were then conducted at four weeks and eight weeks, post-implantation.

Lin said because the silk screws are inherently radiolucent [not seen on X-ray] it may be easier for the surgeon to see how the fracture is progressing during the post-op period, without the impediment of metal devices.

He said that having an effective system in which screws and plates ‘melt away’ once the fracture is healed may be of enormous benefit.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: zee news

 

Skin cancer may up risk of other cancers

People who have had common skin cancers may be at an increased risk of developing melanoma and 29 other cancer types, a new study has warned. Individuals who had nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) were at increased risk for subsequently developing other cancer types, and this association was much higher for those under 25 years of age, researchers said.

NMSC is the most common type of skin cancer. It is relatively easy to treat if detected early, and rarely spreads to other organs, they said. “Our study shows that NMSC susceptibility is an important indicator of susceptibility to malignant tumours and that the risk is especially high among people who develop NMSC at a young age,” said Rodney Sinclair, professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

“The risk increases for a large group of seemingly unrelated cancers; however, the greatest risk relates to other cancers induced by sunlight, such as melanoma,” said Sinclair. Compared with people who did not have NMSC, those who did were 1.36 times more likely to subsequently develop any cancer, including melanoma and salivary gland, bone, and upper gastrointestinal cancers.

Survivors younger than 25 years of age, however, were 23 times more likely to develop any cancer other than NMSC. In particular, they were 94 and 93 times more likely to get melanoma and salivary gland cancer, respectively. “Our study identifies people who receive a diagnosis of NMSC at a young age as being at increased risk for cancer and, therefore, as a group who could benefit from screening for internal malignancy,” said Sinclair.

Researchers hypothesised that people who develop skin cancers later in life do so as a result of accumulated Sun exposure, while those who develop skin cancer at a younger age may do so as a result of an increased susceptibility to cancer in general. To investigate this, they stratified the risk ratios by age and discovered that young people with NMSC are more cancer-prone.

The researchers constructed two cohorts: one of 502,490 people with a history of NMSC, and a cohort of 8,787,513 people who served as controls. They followed up with the participants electronically for five to six years, and 67,148 from the NMSC cohort and 863,441 from the control group subsequently developed cancers.

They found that for those who had NMSC, the relative risk for developing cancers of the bladder, brain, breast, colon, liver, lung, pancreas, prostate, and stomach remained consistently elevated for the entire period of the study, and the risk for cancers of the brain, colon, and prostate increased with time.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Bio-markers & Prevention.

Source: Indian Express