Archive for August, 2009

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Toxic fish in U.S. streams tell the true cost of coal emissions

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Alex SalkeverAlex Salkever RSS Feed
Aug 20th 2009 at 2:30PMFiled under: Energy, Healthcare
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The coal lobby got a well-deserved kick in the pants yesterday when the U.S. Geological Service released study results showing shockingly widespread mercury contamination in freshwater fish. The USGS netted fish from 291 streams across the country, in the largest study of its kind to date, and the results were both depressing and staggering. Every fish caught in the study had some mercury in its body; two-thirds had amounts well above detectable thresholds. And 27 percent had levels of contamination greater than recommended safety levels for consumption by humans who eat average amounts of fish.

The main source of mercury introduced into the environment is coal-fired power plants, according to The New York Times. Mercury is a known neurotoxin that can cause birth defects, tremors, speech impairment, and brain damage, and it’s hard to eliminate from the body once consumed.

This should be a clarion call to Congress to mandate advanced scrubbing technologies to remove more mercury from power-plant emissions.

Ken Salazar, secretary of the Interior, doesn’t mince words in the study’s release: “This study shows just how widespread mercury pollution has become in our air, watersheds, and many of our fish in freshwater streams. This science sends a clear message that our country must continue to confront pollution, restore our nation’s waterways, and protect the public from potential health dangers.” (more…)

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Probiotics May Prevent Colds in Children

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Could bacteria present naturally in the body and sometimes added to food or dietary supplements keep colds at bay?

In a study done in China, small children who drank a mixture of such bacteria – known as probiotics – in milk twice a day during the winter and spring had fewer colds, needed fewer antibiotics, and missed fewer days of school than other children who drank plain milk instead.

Researchers have shown in some studies that probiotics can benefit those who are already ill with various conditions, and the bacteria are thought to boost the immune system’s response to invaders. Whether they were effective at preventing sickness, however, was unclear.

The study in China involved 326 children, ages 3 to 5 years, who were randomly assigned to three different groups: one given milk with a bacterium called Lactobacillus acidophilus mixed in, another that received the same organism along with a strain of another bacterium, Bifidobacterium animalis, and a third that received just milk with placebo.

The test formulas were given twice daily, from November 2005 to May 2006, by school officials during the week and by parents or guardians on weekends.

In the journal Pediatrics, the researchers report that compared to the placebo group, the Lactobacillus group had 53 percent fewer fevers, 41 percent fewer cough episodes, and 28 percent fewer runny noses.

The Lactobacillus/Bifidobacterium group had even larger reductions in symptom rates: 72 percent fewer fevers, 62 percent fewer coughs, and 59 percent fewer runny noses.

For example, that meant 66 fevers in the plain milk, 31 in the Lactobacillus group, and 18 in the combined probiotic group. All of the groups were comparable in size, at about 100 children. (more…)

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Pain Relievers Like Tylenol, Advil to Carry ‘Bolder’ Warnings of Liver Damage, Stomach Bleeding

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Over-the-counter pain relievers such as Tylenol and Advil will carry new, bolder warnings about the risk of liver damage or stomach bleeding, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.

Products containing acetaminophen, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol, will carry a prominent package warning about the risk of severe liver damage if consumers take too much of the drug or take it with too much alcohol.

Separately, other painkillers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDS, will carry bold warnings about the risk of stomach bleeding, the FDA said. Such drugs include Bayer AG’s aspirin products, Wyeth’s Advil and Johnson & Johnson’s Motrin.

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Ah-Choo! Preventing Seasonal Allergies in Children

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Dr. Manny Alvarez is the managing health editor for FoxNews.com
Forty percent of U.S. children have seasonal allergies. When a parent has allergies, his or her child will probably have them too.

Most allergies tend to appear in childhood. So, if you have seasonal allergies as an adult, you probably started getting them as a kid.

As children, boys get ore allergies than girls, but as they get older, women usually catch up to men.

Even though we say allergies are seasonal, they can occur year-round. In the spring you can get allergies to grass and pollen, and in the fall you can get allergies to ragweed and molds and spores of different kinds.

Allergies occur when pollen, mold or dust kick your immune system into high gear, triggering a release of histamines, those chemicals that are mostly responsible for the sneezing, the runny nose, the itchy throat, and the watery eyes.

If teenagers weren’t properly exposed to their environment as children, their immune system won’t be able to recognize as harmless the pollen, dust and mold spores around them every day.

Your immune system is essentially a system of specialized cells and organs that protects you from outside threats such as viruses, bacteria and other biological outsiders.

It is during the first decade of life that it learns which biological intrustions it needs to protect you against.

What this means is, if you don’t get exposed to many of the harmless biological threats in your environment during your first decade of life, if you do not challenge the immune system early, you may pay the price with seasonal allergies and asthma throughout the rest of your life.

I’m talking about the dangers of over protecting our children. Some of this overprotection has been institutionalized in the form of widespread use of antibiotics, vaccinations against various diseases, cleaner food and water, and better living conditions. (more…)

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Dust exposure after 9/11 linked to high asthma rates

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

By Karen Pallarito
About 1 in 7, or 13.5 percent of adults who encountered intense dust clouds after the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11 were later found to have asthma, compared with just 8.4 percent who had no dust cloud exposure, researchers in Atlanta and New York City reported on Tuesday.
Among rescue workers, the asthma risk was highest for those who worked on the pile on September 11.

1 of 2 Likewise, among various groups of people connected to the Twin Tower collapse, rescue and recovery workers were more likely to have a diagnosis of asthma (12.2 percent) than passers-by (8.4 percent).

The results are from a survey, conducted from November 2006 through December 2007, to assess the health status of more than 46,000 adults five to six years after the disaster. Health.com: Bad air day? Here’s how to survive

That such a horrific event left lasting physical and emotional scars is, perhaps, no great surprise. Among adults with no prior diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 23.8 percent have reported symptoms after September 11, and the prevalence of symptoms has increased over time, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The mental health effects, which can be debilitating and often chronic, “seem to be the largest health problem coming out of 9/11″ says Lorna Thorpe, Ph.D., the deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Division of Epidemiology and one of the coauthors of the study. “But immediately after the 9/11 event, I don’t think there was a clear understanding of what the physical impacts would be.” Health.com: Is your child’s asthma under control? Take this test

People in the vicinity of the collapse had “the potential to inhale huge amounts of particulate matter,” observes Joan Reibman, M.D., an associate professor of medicine and environmental medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and the director of the school’s Bellevue Asthma Center, who was not involved in the study. “We think that could act as a real irritant to the airways.” (more…)

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States Resist Cancer Vaccine Mandate

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Monday, May 21, 2007ATLANTA – For a time, Georgia was poised to become the latest state to require preteen girls to be vaccinated against a virus that causes cervical cancer.

A powerful state Republican lawmaker proposed making the vaccine mandatory for girls entering sixth grade, and the governor included $4.3 million in his budget to make it available to some 13,000 girls whose family’s insurance policies wouldn’t cover it.

But state lawmakers nixed the plans after aggressive lobbying by religious conservatives, who argued that vaccinating young girls could promote promiscuity. The human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer is transmitted through sexual contact. (more…)

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Childhood Radiation Increases Risk of Breast Cancer

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

The results of a study confirm that girls who undergo radiation for cancer in childhood have an increased long-term risk of developing breast cancer, regardless of their age at the time of treatment.

When such treatment included a high dose to the ovaries, however, women seemed to be protected against future breast cancer risk.

Radiation is a common, and highly effective, treatment for cancers such as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and adolescents and adults who receive such treatments are known to be at higher risk of developing breast cancer late in life, Dr. Peter D. Inskip of the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues note in their report.

Inskip’s team studied 120 women diagnosed with cancer when they were younger than 21 years old, were treated between 1970 and 1986, and survived for at least 5 years.

Those cases were each compared with four women who developed cancer at the same age but did not receive radiation. (more…)

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State Testing Well Water After Florida Community Reports Unusually High Number of Brain Cancer Cases

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Tuesday, August 04, 2009
THE ACREAGE, Fla. – State experts will be drawing water samples from wells in a central Palm Beach County community where residents have complained about an unusually high number of brain cancer cases. (more…)

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Wyeth paid ghostwriters to pen journal articles on hormone replacement therapy

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

August 6, 2009 – 9:59am ET | By Anne ZiegerIn a practice that is proving to be sadly common, it appears that drugmaker Wyeth paid ghostwriters to prepare dozens of articles on hormone replacement therapy that were published in journals under physicians’ names, according to reports appearing in The New York Times.

This practice, in which drug companies pump up their reputation by paying for journal coverage favorable to them, has been under investigation for some time by various regulatory bodies, and Sen. Chuck Grassley asked Wyeth about the practice in December. (more…)

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Strength Workouts Help Seniors Function Better

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

 

Health.com

Strength training can help older people function better and reduce pain for those suffering from arthritis, according to a review of the medical literature.

But more information is needed on the safety of progressive resistance training for frail seniors or those recovering from illness, the reviewers conclude.

People typically get weaker as they get older, which can lead to disability and increase their risk of falling, Drs. Chiung-ju Liu of Indiana University in Indianapolis and Nancy K. Latham of Boston University point out in The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

Progressive resistance training, in which a person uses weights, elastic bands or exercise machines to strengthen their muscles by doing progressively tougher exercises, offers promise in helping people to maintain their strength as they age, Liu and Latham report.

However, the researchers say, more information is needed on how this kind of training effects people’s functioning in the real world and whether it’s safe for people with health problems or disability.

To investigate, they looked at 121 randomized controlled trials involving 6,700 people. In most studies, participants did high intensity exercises two or three times a week. All of the trials compared progressive strength training with no exercise, or with another type of exercise such as aerobic training. (more…)

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