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Outlawing drugs like marijuana censors science, researchers say

The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive substances amounts to scientific censorship and is hampering research into potentially important medicinal uses, leading scientists argued on Wednesday. Laws and international conventions dating back to the 1960s have set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades, they argued in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience. “The decision to outlaw these drugs was based on their perceived dangers, but in many cases the harms have been overstated,” said David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. In a statement accompanying the Nature Reviews paper, he said the laws amounted “to the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo”. “The laws have never been updated despite scientific advances and growing evidence that many of these drugs are relatively safe. And there appears to be no way for the international community to make such changes,” he said. “This hindering of research and therapy is motivated by politics, not science.” Nutt and Leslie King, both former British government drugs advisers, and co-author David Nichols of the University of North Carolina, called for the use of psychoactive drugs in research to be exempted from severe restrictions. “If we adopted a more rational approach to drug regulation, it would empower researchers to make advances in the study of consciousness and brain mechanisms of psychosis, and could lead to major treatment innovations in areas such as depression and PTSD,” Nutt said. Nutt was sacked as a government adviser in 2009 after publicly criticizing the government for ignoring scientific advice on cannabis and ecstasy. He has conducted a small human trial using psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms. His study, using volunteers, suggested the drug had the potential to alleviate severe forms of depression in people who did not respond to other treatments. But in April, Nutt said his plans to conduct the first full clinical trial to explore psilocybin as a treatment had stalled because of stringent rules on the use of illegal drugs in research. The scientists said their call for reform had been endorsed by the British Neuroscience Association and the British Association for Psychopharmacology.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/outlawing-drugs-like-marijuana-censors-science-researchers-say/

Vegetable fats tied to less prostate cancer spread

After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, men who eat a diet high in vegetable fats, such as those in nuts and olive oil, may be less likely to have their disease spread, a new study suggests. Researchers found that replacing some carbohydrates with those healthy fats was also tied to a lower risk of dying from any cause during the study. But the opposite was true for saturated and trans fats often found in meat and processed foods. “A lot of doctors will simply say, ‘Cut out fat,'” after a prostate cancer diagnosis, said Dr. Stephen Freedland, a urologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. But this study challenges that advice, said Freedland, who wrote a commentary on the findings. “It actually says, if you eat more fat, albeit the right kind of fat,… you're less likely to die of not only prostate cancer, but really of any cause, which really flies in the face of this ‘low-fat, low-fat, low-fat' mantra that we've been told for decades now,” he said. Researchers tracked 4,577 men who were diagnosed with localized prostate cancer during a large study of health workers beginning in 1986. Those men filled out questionnaires every four years on how often they ate or drank about 130 different types of foods and beverages. Over the next eight to nine years, 315 men developed lethal prostate cancer - cancer that spread to other parts of the body or killed them - and 1,064 died from any cause. Men who reported getting the highest proportion of their daily calories from vegetable fat - more than 21 percent - after their diagnosis were about one-third less likely to die during the study than those who ate the least vegetable fat. And they had a borderline lower risk of developing lethal cancer. On the other hand, men who ate a similar amount of animal fat tended to be more likely to die during follow up, from prostate cancer or anything else, than those who skimped on animal meat. Erin Richman of the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues found that switching 10 percent of daily calories from carbohydrates to vegetable fat was linked to a 29 percent lower risk of lethal prostate cancer and a 26 percent lower chance of dying from any cause. But replacing 5 percent of those calories with saturated fat, or just 1 percent with trans fat, was tied to a 25 to 30 percent higher risk of death during the study period, according to findings published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. “The benefit was really when you were replacing refined carbohydrates with (things like) olive oil and nuts,” Richman said. She said vegetable fats contain antioxidants and may reduce inflammation in the body, thereby making it harder for cancer to spread. The American Cancer Society estimates about one in six U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, and one in 36 will die of the disease. Because how animals are fed and how meats are cooked may both affect cancer risks associated with eating animal fats, Freedland said, “It becomes difficult to say, ‘Animals are bad; vegetables are good.' It's not that simple.” He recommends that men with prostate cancer cut out simple sugars and processed foods, as that is one of the easiest ways to get to a healthy weight. But not all fat should go. Richman agreed. “I think there's enough established benefit that you're not going to do any harm by adding nuts or olive oil,” she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/11/vegetable-fats-tied-to-less-prostate-cancer-spread/

Birth control pills tied to lower ovarian cancer risk

Women who use birth control pills are less likely to develop ovarian cancer later in life, a new analysis of past studies suggests. Researchers pooled data from 24 studies and found birth control pill users had a 27 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And longer use seemed to be tied to more protection. “It reinforces that there is a positive relationship between the use of oral contraceptives and ovarian cancer prevention in the general public,” said Dr. Laura Havrilesky, who led the study at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. “I think it adds some scientific weight to that relationship.” However, the review paper can't prove that using oral contraception lowers a woman's risk of disease - because there could have been other, unmeasured differences between women who took birth control pills and those who didn't, researchers noted. About one in 72 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer during her lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease is often caught at an advanced stage, and the majority of women who are diagnosed will die from ovarian cancer. So researchers are eager to find ways to lower a woman's chance of developing it in the first place. Eating a healthy diet and maintaining a normal weight may be one way to do that. Some studies have suggested that using birth control pills - which contain the hormones estrogen and progestin or progestin only - may also lower a woman's risk over the long run. To clear up that picture, Havrilesky and her colleagues combined data from 24 studies that compared thousands of women who took birth control pills for various lengths of time, at a range of ages, with those who didn't use oral contraception. Any use of birth controls pill was linked to a lower risk of ovarian cancer, they found. Women who were on birth control pills for 10 years or longer were half as likely to develop the disease as those who didn't use them at all, the study team reported Wednesday in Obstetrics & Gynecology. If birth control pills themselves were responsible for that reduced risk, the researchers calculated that 185 women would have to use it for five years to prevent one case of ovarian cancer. But, because none of the studies randomly assigned women to take birth control pills or not - each woman made the decision with her own doctor - it's not clear that the contraceptives, themselves, explain the whole cancer difference. Use caution The researchers said there hasn't been enough time to study how the specific hormone formulations in contemporary birth control pills affect ovarian cancer risk decades down the line. Because of that and other limitations, women should use “considerable caution” when figuring the new findings into their own personal decisions about birth control, they wrote. What's more, other research suggests women who take birth control pills are at a higher risk of developing cervical cancer, said Eduardo Franco, head of cancer epidemiology at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. “It is the sort of thing that requires a frank conversation between a woman and healthcare provider,” Franco, who wasn't involved in the new research, told Reuters Health. He said the findings are not surprising and that many doctors are convinced birth control pills do lower ovarian cancer risk. “I don't think there's a question of the link,” Franco said. What's important, he added, is “understanding the caveats that come with the reduced risk of ovarian cancer.” “What we've got right now may be the best evidence that we ever are able to have. I don't necessarily think that it is enough to tell a physician to have their patients use oral contraceptives solely for the purpose of preventing ovarian cancer,” Havrilesky told Reuters Health. “But I think it's enough to say this is a possible advantage in women who are considering use of oral contraceptives” for birth control or other medical reasons, she said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/07/birth-control-pills-tied-to-lower-ovarian-cancer-risk/

SurvivorLink: Online tool helps child cancer survivors maintain healthy lives

Ansley Riedel was just 10 months old when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. She immediately began radiation and chemotherapy, undergoing treatment up until she was a little older than 3-and-a-half years old.  Then, after receiving a second bone marrow transplant from her 4-month-old baby brother in July of 1991, Riedel reached the goal that every cancer patient hopes to achieve: Remission. “We celebrate what we call my second birthday,” Riedel told FoxNews.com, regarding the special occasion. Nearly 21 years later, Riedel is doing better than ever – but she hasn’t forgotten her time spent in the hospital so many years ago.  Though she was only a toddler at the time, her bout with cancer ultimately inspired her to become a nurse in order to help others like herself. “I remember a lot of the clinic visits – the routine of going to the clinic, getting labs, some of my hospital stays,” Riedel said. “I remember my nurses a lot, which is why I chose to become a nurse.  They were really like my first group of friends that I got to know really well.” While Riedel was ultimately able to turn her cancer into a source of inspiration, post-cancer life has still had its fair share of difficulties. The radiation treatment Riedel underwent at such a young age has had a lasting impact on her health. Between the ages of 10 and 14, Riedel had to receive daily shots of growth hormone because her development had been stunted by treatment.  She also takes a daily medication for low thyroid function – something her doctors speculate may have been affected by radiation. “There’s a lot of unknown because I was so young,” Riedel said. “I have to be pretty careful with my teeth.  The radiation kind of damaged my permanent teeth, so I’m more susceptible to cavities.  I see more of a specialist for my regular cleanings. My roots were damaged and I couldn’t have braces because of that.” The health setbacks Riedel has had to face are not uncommon for cancer survivors.  While radiation and chemotherapy are meant to kill fast-growing cancer cells, they can also damage healthy cells in the heart, kidneys, lungs and more in the process. “Obvious problems cancer survivors have are endocrine (issues), growth hormone deficiency, low thyroid, problems beginning puberty and fertility,” Dr. Lillian Meacham, a pediatric endocrinologist and director of the Cancer Survivor Program at the Aflac Cancer Center in Atlanta, told FoxNews.com.  “They can have…problems related to scarring of the lungs or damage to the heart muscle.  We have to be vigilant about almost every organ to be sure that we are looking out for these problems, mainly because we want to preserve quality of life and decrease health care costs.” For children diagnosed in the 1960s with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is the most common form of childhood cancer, the chance of survival was only 10 percent. Fortunately, chances of survival have increased to 80 percent today. Therefore, finding ways to help cancer survivors maintain a healthy lifestyle post-cancer is an ever increasing necessity. To address this need, Meachem and others at the Aflac Cancer Center have created SurvivorLink, an online tool that aims to improve cancer survivors’ quality of life.  According to its website, SurvivorLink hopes to increase awareness about the long-term health needs of child cancer survivors, as well as create a patient portal, which will provide patients with easy access to all their relevant health information. “When kids come to the survivor clinic, we give them a Survivor Health Care Plan – which details what they need throughout their lives to stay healthy,” Meachem said. “They can upload that into this website, so let’s say they move to North Carolina or Montana, they can share their documents to new health care providers.  It’s like having an electronic chart they carry with them at all times.” Riedel is currently in the process of filling out her patient profile on SurvivorLink, and she said she likes how it is specifically tailored to her own personal needs. “One of the good things about SurvivorLink is it’s based on your diagnosis and based on your protocol.  Depending on how much chemo you had, it will tell you specifically that for this one chemo, these are the big side effects and long term things that can result.” As someone who is still actively involved in health care, Riedel is very passionate about increasing knowledge and communication among cancer survivors and their health care providers.  For her, easy access to information is essential for a long and healthy life. “The main message is just to get informed and get help if you need to – but really be an advocate for yourself,” Riedel said. “If you take care of yourself, then other people are going to be more willing to work with you.” Click for more on SurvivorLink.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/05/survivorlink-online-tool-helps-child-cancer-survivors-maintain-healthy-life/

Statins linked to muscle pain, sprains

Cholesterol-lowering drugs could be tied to more muscle problems than researchers previously believed, a new study hints. Researchers compared two groups of similar people enrolled in military health insurance and found those taking a statin were about 10 percent more likely to have muscle pain, sprains or strains. Past studies have tied the popular cholesterol drugs to muscle weakness as well as the rare muscle-wasting disease rhabdomyolysis. The new study expands on those findings and suggests the muscle-related side effects of statins might be broader, researchers said. However, they don't prove statins caused the pain and injuries seen among some patients. “I would strongly recommend that no one should stop taking statins based on this study… simply because statins have been life-saving for many patients,” said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Ishak Mansi. However, he said side effects including muscle injuries are something to think about for people who are discussing with their doctor whether they really need to be on a statin. And they're another reason to try to maintain a healthy lifestyle - including exercising and not smoking - to avoid needing drugs in the first place, he added. Mansi, from the VA North Texas Health Care System in Dallas, and his colleagues compared the health records of two groups of patients who were the same age and had the same types of medical conditions. People in one group had been prescribed a statin in late 2004 and 2005; those in the other group never took statins during the study period. The researchers tracked the medical records of each of those patients - about 14,000 in total - through early 2010 for signs of muscle problems. They found 87 percent of statin users had some type of muscle or joint problem - including arthritis and muscle injuries - compared to 85 percent of people who didn't take a statin. Strains, sprains and dislocations, in particular, were reported for 35 percent of people on a statin, compared to 32.5 percent of those not taking a cholesterol-lowering drug. And medical records showed muscle pain among 73.5 percent of statin users, versus 71.5 percent of non-users, Mansi's team reported in JAMA Internal Medicine. Mansi said those proportions are a bit higher than usual both in the statin and non-statin groups - possibly because his study included military members and veterans, who are more likely to get injured. The researchers calculated that 37 people would have to be treated with statins for one more to have a muscle strain or sprain, and 58 people for one more case of muscle or joint pain. About one-quarter of U.S. adults aged 45 and older take statins to protect against heart attacks and strokes. The drugs are especially recommended for people with diabetes or a history of cardiovascular problems. Dr. Paul Thompson, chief of cardiology at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, said his own research suggests about 5 percent of people will have muscle problems related to statin use. “We think it's a much bigger problem than it's given credit for,” Thompson, who wasn't involved in the new study, said. However, he said, those muscle problems don't seem to be permanent. “I encourage people to not worry about the possibilities of muscle troubles,” he said. “If they get muscle troubles, we'll stop the drug, and it will go away.” Mansi agreed that people “don't need to be excessively worried” about muscle pain or injuries tied to statins, but that they're something to consider. “Patients need to discuss with their doctors the benefit-risk ratio of statins for them specifically,” he said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/05/statins-linked-to-muscle-pain-sprains/

Costco recalls frozen berries linked to hepatitis outbreak

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating an outbreak of hepatitis A linked to a frozen organic berry mix sold by an Oregon company. The FDA and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 30 illnesses are linked to Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend, which contains pomegranate seed mix. Illnesses were reported in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California. Several of those who fell ill reported buying the berry mix at Costco, according to CDC. A Costco spokesman said Friday that the company has removed the product from stores and is attempting to contact members who purchased the product since late February. Hepatitis A is a contagious liver disease that can last from a few weeks to several months. People often contract it when an infected food handler prepares food without appropriate hand hygiene. Food already contaminated with the virus can also cause outbreaks. The government has not announced a recall, but the CDC recommended that retailers and other food service operators should not sell or serve Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend. Nine of the people who have been sickened were hospitalized, according to the CDC. Preliminary tests from two cases suggest this is a hepatitis A strain rarely seen in North America, but is found in the North Africa and Middle East regions. The FDA said it is inspecting the processing facilities of Townsend Farms of Fairview, Ore., which sold the mix. Bill Gaar, a lawyer for Townsend Farms, said the frozen organic blend bag includes pomegranate seeds from Turkey, and are only used in the product associated with the outbreak. “We do have very good records, we know where the (pomegranate seeds) came from, we're looking into who the broker is and we're sourcing it back up the food chain to get to it,” Gaar said. He said Townsend Farms believes Costco is the only customer who bought the product, though they are checking to see if any other retailers may have sold it. Hepatitis A illnesses occur within 15 to 50 days of exposure to the virus. Symptoms include fatigue, abdominal pain, jaundice, abnormal liver tests, dark urine and pale stool. Vaccination can prevent illness if given within two weeks of exposure, and those who have already been vaccinated are unlikely to become ill, according to CDC. CDC said all of the victims are older than 18, ranging from 25 to 71 years old. The first illnesses were reported at the end of April. The same genotype of hepatitis A was identified in an outbreak in Europe linked to frozen berries this year, the CDC said, as well as a 2012 outbreak in British Columbia related to a frozen berry blend with pomegranate seeds from Egypt. In addition to the United States and Turkey, the agency said the Townsend Farms berries also included products from Argentina and Chile.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/03/costco-recalls-berries-linked-to-hepatitis-outbreak/

Pork industry hunts for deadly pig virus

The sudden and widespread appearance of a swine virus deadly to young pigs - one never before seen in North America - is raising questions about the bio-security shield designed to protect the U.S. food supply. The swine-only virus, the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDV), poses no danger to humans or other animals, and the meat from infected pigs is safe for people to eat. Though previously seen in parts of Asia and Europe, the virus now has spread into five leading hog-raising U.S. states. How it arrived in the United States remains a mystery. While the U.S. imports millions of pigs each year from Canada, it imports pigs from virtually no other country, and no Canadian cases of PEDV have been confirmed. Veterinarians and epidemiologists say pigs are infected through oral means, and that the virus is not airborne and does it not occur spontaneously in nature. In recent years, with the emergence of dangerous pathogens such as H1N1, also known as swine flu, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, the United States and other countries have sought to secure defenses both on the farm and at the national borders to protect against barnyard epidemics. “We're just trying to get a handle on what's happening,” said Tom Burkgren, executive director of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians. “It's like drinking water out of a fire hose. We're getting hits from all over the place.” Overall numbers of confirmed cases and mortality rates are not yet available, though anecdotal evidence suggests there are devastating losses for farms that are hit. “If you've got it, it's bad,” said Mark Greenwood, vice president of agri-business capital at AgStar Financial Services, who said none of his clients have been affected. “I spoke to a farmer in the Midwest who had it show up in a 2,000-head barn of pigs, and had a 40 percent death loss.” A spokeswoman for U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service told Reuters the agency is working with state agencies and pork industry officials to discover where the virus originated. THE VIRUS SPREADS Confirmed cases have been reported in five hog-raising states including Iowa, the largest U.S. hog producer with 20 million hogs, according to the USDA. While only seven farms have had confirmed cases since May 17, more cases are expected as labs sift through samples, say sources investigating the outbreak. Colorado, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota reportedly have positive tests for PEDV, according to state veterinarians and agriculture department officials, and the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa. PEDV, most often fatal to very young pigs, causes diarrhea, vomiting and dehydration. It also sickens older hogs, though their survival rate tends to be high. Known as a “coronavirus” because of the crown-like spikes on its surface, the virus afflicted China in recent years and killed more than 1 million piglets. PEDV is spread most commonly by pigs ingesting contaminated feces. Investigators are focused on physical transmission, perhaps a PEDV infected pig, equipment marred with feces, or even a person wearing dirty boots or with dirty nails. The mystery about how the virus entered the United States is raising concern about potential holes in the bio-security shield designed to protect the U.S. food and farming sectors. “Like everything else, we screw up from time to time,” said Ronald L. Plain, professor of agricultural economics at University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. “We know so little about the transmittal of this virus. We can't be sure if it's happening because of something we're supposed to do right and didn't - or by some mechanism we don't know that we're supposed to do differently.” Initial reporting about the virus may have been delayed, say sources, because its symptoms can be confused with a more common malady, transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE). Also, states are not required to report cases of PEDV to the federal government, and farmers are not required to report to state veterinarians. As part of its assessment of the situation, USDA will email epidemiological surveys to swine veterinarians who are dealing cases of PEDV. Meanwhile, the veterinarians are sending samples to diagnostic labs, where technicians are scrambling gathering the tools needed to check the samples for PEDV - supplies many labs did not have prior to the outbreak. While most farmers are taking a wait-and-see approach, some told Reuters they are turning away unnecessary visitors and double checking to ensure their safety protocols are being followed. LOOKING NORTH The search for leads also has turned to the nation's borders and ports of entry - specifically, Canada, where the United States imported 5.7 million head of live hogs last year. Canada has never had a confirmed case of the virus, though it does not test for it, government officials said. “Canada has very effective import measures in place to address this risk,” said Dr. Rajiv Arora, senior staff veterinarian for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's foreign animal disease section. Canada can import live breeding pigs, under permits, from either the United States or the European Union, Arora said. The animals are quarantined by CFIA for a period of time, then inspected and tested - although not for PEDV - before released. Canada imported C$1.7 million ($1.6 million) worth of live swine in 2012, including both slaughter-ready and breeder pigs, according to Canada's Agriculture Department. CHINA HARD HIT Veterinarians and agricultural epidemiologists in the United States are drawing grim lessons from the devastating effect PEDV has had in other countries where it has hit. The first reports of suspected PEDV came in 1971 in the United Kingdom. As years passed, PEDV spread across parts of Europe and Asia. Veterinary researchers later concluded that lax bio-security measures contributed to PEDV's spread in Asia. One of the worst known outbreaks of the virus hit China's pig herds in late 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal. Vaccines had limited effectiveness and PEDV over ran southern China killing more than 1 million piglets. The death rate for virus-infected piglets ranged from 80 percent to 100 percent. Biosecurity measures in the U.S. food supply have been beefed up over the years, and especially after the outbreaks of mad cow disease and swine flu. Both outbreaks posed risks to human health. Today, trucks carrying live animals are supposed to be cleaned before entering and leaving farms. At commercial hog operations, visitors routinely shower and change clothing before stepping into a barn. Overseas visitors typically wait several days before being in the presence of a commercially raised hog. But the food shield is not impermeable. “If it becomes clear that this is not a novel way for to be transmitted, and that there had to be physical contact, that's going to be a major concern,” said William Marler, a leading food-safety attorney. “It means that there was a failure in the system.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/29/pork-industry-hunts-for-deadly-pig-virus/

African-Americans experience longer delays between diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer

To see if there is a difference in the time from cancer diagnosis to initiation of treatment for African American men compared with Caucasian men with prostate cancer, Ronald Chen, MD, MPH, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his colleagues analyzed data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare registry, which links cancer diagnosis data to a master file of Medicare records. Their analysis included 2,506 African American and 21,454 Caucasian patients diagnosed with early (non-metastatic) prostate cancer from 2004 to 2007 and treated within 12 months of diagnosis…