Tag Archives: public

Study details cancer-promoting mechanisms of overlooked components in secondhand smoke

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal PLoS One explores two of these low-molecular-weight (LMW) PAHs — 1-methylanthracene (1-MeA) and 2-methylanthracene (2-MeA) — and shows that while they don’t necessarily cause cancer, 1-MeA promotes conditions that will likely allow cancer to grow. "There’s a big distinction between initiating cancer and promoting it," says Alison Bauer, PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and assistant professor at the Colorado School of Public Health. Her study showed that in a mouse cell model using a progenitor cell of lung cancer, the LMW 1-MeA promoted inflammation and increased mitogenic pathways, both of which are linked to tumor promotion. 2-MeA, while nearly structurally identical, did not…

Number of new primary care physicians in US ‘abysmally low’

Fewer doctors in the United States are choosing to become primary care physicians – especially in rural areas of the country, Medical Daily reported. In fact, the rate at which U.S. medical schools are producing primary care physicians is “abysmally low,” said Dr. Candice Chen, from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Human Services. Chen and her fellow researchers studied a group of nearly 9,000 doctors who graduated from more than 750 different residency sites between 2006 and 2008. Less than a quarter of these doctors chose to become primary care physicians after their residencies, and less than one in 20 chose to work in rural areas of the country, according to Medical Daily. Additionally, 198 of the 759 medical institutions studied failed to graduate a single doctor who went on to practice in a rural area. “If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians, the shortage in primary care – especially in remote areas – will get worse,” Chen told reporters. “The study's findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation's need for primary care physicians.” Some experts believe the country's medical education system will need to change to fix the shortage. An editorial published in the New York Times suggested that the U.S. educate future doctors for free to eliminate the large debt most medical students incur. The program would be funded by issuing penalties to any doctor who chose to pursue a specialty outside of primary care. Click for more from Medical Daily.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/number-new-primary-care-physicians-in-us-abysmally-low/

How safe is Splenda? Group urges caution for artificial sweetener

The artificial sweetener sucralose (sold under the brand name Splenda) could potentially pose health risks, so it needs to be better understood before the sweetener should be assumed to be safe, one advocacy organization says. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit watchdog group, said today that it was downgrading its safety rating of sucralose from “safe” to “caution,” meaning that the additive “may pose a risk and needs to be better tested.” The change was spurred by a recent study from researchers in Italy that found that sucralose caused leukemia in mice, according to the CSPI. This study has not been published, and needs to be reviewed by other scientists to determine whether the findings are credible. While sucralose may turn out to be safer than other artificial sweeteners, “the forthcoming Italian study warrants careful scrutiny before we can be confident that the sweetener is safe for use in food, said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. The CSPI recommends people avoid the artificial sweeteners saccharin (Sweet N Low), aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal), and acesulfame potassium (Sunett and Sweet One). The issue of whether artificial sweeteners pose health risks is controversial. Many of the studies showing risks, including the new Italian study, have been done in animals, and it's not known whether the same effects would be seen in humans. In addition, rodents, like humans, may develop cancer as a result of old age, and not exposure to chemical additives. This issue has caused some to question the results of studies showing that aspartame-fed rats are at increased risk for cancer over their lifetimes. Even the CSPI says that it considers drinking diet soda, which often contains artificial sweeteners, to be safer than drinking regular soda. Regular soda “poses the greater and demonstrable risks of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, gout, tooth decay, and other health problems,” the CSPI said in a statement. To avoid both the risks of sugar and artificial sweeteners, the CSPI recommends drinking water, seltzer water, flavored unsweetened waters, seltzer mixed with some fruit juice or unsweetened iced tea. It's worth noting that the CSPI also gives caffeine a safety rating of “caution.” Caffeine “keeps many people from sleeping, causes jitteriness, and affects calcium metabolism,” the CSPI says. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/how-safe-is-splenda-group-urges-caution-for-artificial-sweetener/

Walking after meals may reduce diabetes risk

Doctors have long recommended exercise to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, especially in those at high risk for the condition. But a new study found that doing a short walk right after you eat may be the simplest and most effective strategy, especially for older adults. The study,  published in Diabetes Care, found that a 15-minute walk about a half an hour after each meal was as effective at reducing blood sugar as a single 45-minute morning or late afternoon walk.  But researchers found that the quick walk after dinner was even more effective than the longer afternoon walk in lowering blood sugars (glucose) over night into the next day. “The post-meal exercise was especially efficient at lowering the 3-hour post-dinner blood sugar glucose,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Loretta DiPietro, chair of the department of exercise science at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The study also found that the most effective time to go for a post-meal walk was after the evening meal. Dinner is usually the largest meal of the day, causing the greatest rise in blood sugar, which lasts into the night and the next morning. These affects were significantly reduced by the after dinner walk.    This is an important finding for older people. As you age, your insulin response to help shuttle sugar out of the bloodstream becomes sluggish. Insulin levels also start to fall in the afternoon and into the evening, adding to the weaker response to sugars you consume. Many people end up sitting around after dinner and going to bed with very high blood sugar levels – which according to DiPietro – is the worst thing you can do. When you exercise, contracting muscles help to clear sugar from the blood and get it stored in the muscles or liver. In this study, older adults walked at a moderate pace, not a brisk walk and not a leisurely stroll. This study, though small, was one of the first to look at the timing of exercise. The general recommendations are to get 150 minutes of exercise a week or at least 30 minutes five days a week. But the study looked at what happened a half an hour after a meal, during the time when sugar begins to flood the blood stream. “When you look at the data, you can see the blood sugar started to go up after a meal, and the exercise abruptly halted that upward rise in blood sugar,” said DiPietro. Though the findings need to be confirmed in larger trials, they are important for those with prediabetes and older individuals. An estimated 79 million Americans have prediabetes but most have no idea they are even at risk. “It may be easy for older adults to take a short walk or combine walking after a meal with running errands or walking the dog,” said DiPietro. The findings may be important for others including pregnant women who are at risk of gestational diabetes.  And if you overindulged in a meal, going for a brisk walk may help your body get rid of that excess sugar more efficiently.Laurie Tarkan is an award-winning health journalist whose work appears in the New York Times, among other national magazines and websites. She has authored several health books, including “Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility.” Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/walking-after-meals-may-reduce-diabetes-risk/

Public health crisis in Mexico as breastfeeding rates drop, experts claim

Despite the well-known advantages to breast milk and vigorous campaigns around the world championing breast as best, Mexican mothers say the bottle is better. In a dramatic decline over the past six years, today only one in seven mothers in Mexico breast-feeds exclusively in the first six months, the standard recommended by the World Health Organization. That leaves Mexico with nearly the lowest level of breast-feeding in Latin America. Experts call it a public health crisis for a country where millions still live in extreme poverty, dirty water threatens the health of many families and education is poor. Mother's milk is richer in nutrients and antibodies that protect newborns from infections. Mexico has the highest infant mortality rate among the world's 40 largest economies. Between 2005 and 2010, breast cancer deaths increased twice as fast as Mexico's female population, with some experts blaming declining rates of breast-feeding; studies show it cuts a woman's risk of cancer by 50 percent or more. Officials blame an invasion of baby food ads, little regulation of formula companies and the failure of doctors to promote breast-feeding for an overreliance on formula. “Mexico has become the example of what not to do. It's the strongest case of a setback in breast-feeding,” said Marcos Arana Cedeno, a child nutrition expert and health adviser for the state of Chiapas. Feeding newborns with breast milk can save lives in developing nations, where children have higher chances of dying from diarrhea and pneumonia. The WHO has recommended for the past decade that infants be given only breast milk for the first six months. The percentage of Mexican moms who nurse their babies that long fell from 22 percent in 2006 to 14 percent last year, according to a Health Department survey. Only the Dominican Republic has a lower rate of breast-feeding in the region, at 8 percent. Other nations have improved their numbers, led by Brazil and Colombia, which in the past two decades more than tripled the percentage of mothers breast-feeding - to 47 percent in Colombia and 39 percent in Brazil. For many mothers drawn into the urban workforce, nursing a baby while juggling a job is too difficult. “I had to go back to work and I wasn't going to be able to breast-feed him for long. That's why I chose formula,” said Ruth Gonzalez, a clothing company manager. Gonzalez nursed her baby boy, Luis, only at night, after work. He drank formula during the day, and went off breast milk completely after a month. “Formula was just easier,” she said. Yet, even in traditional rural areas, the trend is downward. Breast-feeding fell by half in poor, rural areas, where babies are exposed to more sanitation problems, according to the Health Department survey. Nutritionists complain that Mexico has not adopted laws to meet guidelines adopted by WHO in 1981, which asked countries to restrict companies from providing free samples of formula or approaching new mothers to push their product. “It really is a tragedy,” said Teresa Gonzalez de Cossio, a nutritionist who researches breast-feeding at the National Institute of Public Health. “There is no one making sure we are following international codes. The country is not setting any goals regarding breast-feeding.” Countries such as Brazil and the United States have long stressed the importance of breast-feeding. The U.S. has improved its rate of mothers who exclusively breast-feed for the first six months to 16 percent in 2012 from 11 percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most New York City hospitals no longer hand out promotional samples of formula and ask new mothers to participate in talks on why human milk is better. Portland, Maine, started a campaign asking businesses to make mothers feel welcome to breast-feed wherever they want. Brazil reversed a decline in breast-feeding in the 1980s by strictly limiting advertising by baby food companies and airing prime-time informational spots with national celebrities to dispel myths, such as that women with small breasts were incapable of nursing. Mexico lets companies self-regulate on following the WHO guidelines. It has rules that say hospitals and doctors should guide new mothers through breast-feeding, but it doesn't enforce them. Dr. Rufino Luna Gordillo, the Health Department's deputy director of maternal and newborn care, said Mexico is renewing periodic checks of breast-feeding practices at public and private hospitals, a policy born in the early 1990s that had fallen by the wayside. “It's clear that these efforts have not been enough to get to the ideal breast-feeding levels,” Luna said in a written statement. “We need to debunk many myths about breast-feeding, limit the abuse of infant formula makers ... and award companies that offer nursing rooms.” Some new mothers say they didn't receive any help on breast-feeding after giving birth and say nurses, without seeking permission, offered formula to newborns at the nursery. In addition, with half of the babies born in Mexico via cesarean-section, many mothers struggle to nurse in the first hours and days after surgery. With little government promotion of breast-feeding, myths proliferate: sagging breasts do not provide healthy milk, or that nursing babies will spoil them. Pediatricians also hear women say that they want to stop breast-feeding so they won't lose their perky breasts. “In Mexico, breast-feeding is not a normative behavior,” said Chessa Lutter, the Pan American Health Organization's regional adviser for food and nutrition. “You are going to see probably walking down the street in Mexico City a lot more bottle-feeding than you are breast-feeding.” Advocates for breast-feeding say big business is to blame. They claim doctors are plied with gifts by formula makers to get them to help introduce infant formula to newborns. Elia Rangel, mother of a 9-month-old girl, Samantha, said a family physician told her not to breast-feed after six months. “We don't have information that is up to date,” she complained. “I came across a doctor at a public hospital who asked me how old Samantha was. She was 7 months. He told me, `Breast milk is no good; it can even harm her.' I was like, `Wow, where did you get this information?'” The government says it discourages the unnecessary use of formula, but Mexico's own Social Security Institute, whose logo shows a mother breast-feeding, provides formula to women even without a medical need if they present a doctor's note. As long ago as 1993, a study warned that Mexico needed to review that policy because of the high cost in both financial and health terms. The government still pays about $35 million a year on cans of infant formula from the Swiss-based food company Nestle, which receives more than 96 percent of the public money spent on formula. Nestle and the U.S.-based Mead Johnson, the two main baby food companies in Mexico, responded in statements that they support the WHO's code for breast-milk substitutes and comply with the law. They say they don't advertise food for babies less than 1 year of age or discourage mothers from breast-feeding. Nestle said it “does not give free supplies of infant formula to hospitals” and cited a 1992 “self-regulatory agreement” that the industry signed with Health Department to end the provisions of formula samples to Mexico's hospitals and doctors. Chris Perille, spokesman for Mead Johnson, said the company tells health professionals about the benefits of their products but doesn't break the rules. “Our work with these experts is conducted in accordance with the highest standards of ethics and integrity, and in compliance with all applicable laws, professional requirements and industry guidelines,” Perille said in a statement.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/06/public-health-crisis-in-mexico-as-breastfeeding-rates-drop-experts-claim/

Group therapy helps rape victims in poor countries

Group therapy works better than individual support for women in low-income countries who have been victims of sexual violence, according to the results of a new study done in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The method has already been shown to be effective in wealthier countries. Because measures of depression, anxiety, general functioning and post-traumatic stress disorder improved faster with group therapy, the technique may be useful in other countries were war and unrest often contribute to sexual violence, researchers reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We're giving them the skills to rethink the meaning they're giving to their thoughts and feelings” about their attack, lead author Judith Bass of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore told Reuters Health. The study “offers promising evidence” that a form of group therapy can help women who have been exposed to sexual violence, Charlotte Watts and her colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine wrote in a linked editorial. In the DRC, 40 percent of women have been victims of some type of sexual violence. The researchers evaluated 157 women in seven villages who were offered one individual session and 11 group sessions of so-called cognitive processing therapy. “The women were being taught to identify what thoughts are not helpful to them,” Bass explained. “Thinking 'It's my fault' is not helpful to them. And it involves how to deal with that and get over some of these thoughts that are keeping them from healing.” Those women were compared with 248 women in eight villages who received individual support that included counseling and sympathetic listening. Women in both treatment groups improved even though each village had at least one major security incident during the trial, including attacks and armed robberies. But the improvement was most pronounced with group cognitive therapy. On a combined scale of depression and anxiety, where the worst score was 3 and the best was 0, women in the cognitive therapy group went from 2.0 at the outset to 0.8 at the end of treatment. Six months after treatment their average score was 0.7. The respective scores for women receiving individual support started at 2.2, dropped to 1.7 and eventually fell to 1.5. After six months, 9 percent of group therapy participants and 42 percent of women who received individual support still likely had a diagnosis of depression or anxiety, Bass and her colleagues found. The study did not include the most severe cases - seven of the 494 women screened for the study were found to be severely suicidal and were treated immediately. “Despite illiteracy and ongoing conflict, this evidence-based treatment can be appropriately implemented and effective,” the researchers concluded. “Given the high rates of sexual violence globally, and especially in conflict-affected countries such as the DRC, this finding is very important,” the Watts team wrote in its editorial. “Rape during war is not unique to the DRC; indeed, it affects many, if not most, countries that are at war, including several African states and, more recently, countries in the Middle East.” The study was funded by the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development Victims of Torture Fund. “We do this because we see mental health as such a large cause of disability and dysfunction,” Bass said. “We want to improve people's health. But when you have such high rates of rape and violence, and such a high rate of mental health problems, it's an often-neglected piece in the bigger development picture.”source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/06/group-therapy-helps-rape-victims-in-poor-countries/

France to ban electronic cigarettes in public

France will ban electronic cigarette smoking in public places by imposing the same curbs enforced since 2007 to combat tobacco smoking, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. Amid mounting global concern over the public health implications of so-called e-cigarettes, Touraine said they faced the same fate as traditional ones: a ban on smoking in public spaces and sales to minors and a blackout on media advertising. In a country where the pungent waft of Gaulloises and Gitanes once seemed an unassailable part of cafe culture, smokers have long been banished to outdoor terrace seats. The near-odorless electronic alternative - battery-driven devices that allow users inhale odorless nicotine-laced vapor rather than smoke - are gaining ground in no-go zones such as bars, cafes, trains, waiting rooms and offices. A government-commissioned report said this week that around 500,000 people in France had turned to e-cigarettes, which are designed to look like cigarettes although some come in different colors, and recommended a crackdown on public use. Health officials in many countries say the impact of electronic cigarettes on health needs further study. Another worry they cite is that the electronic alternative will increase the general temptation to smoke, including enticing those who have quit to start again, or that smokers may use them alongside rather than instead of regular cigarettes. “This is no ordinary product because it encourages mimicking and could promote taking up smoking,” said Touraine, who announced her plans at a news conference. In the United States, the number of smokers who have tried out e-cigarettes doubled to one in five in 2011 and the number of all adults trying it doubled too, to 6 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In France, a country of 66 million, the government says tobacco smoking kills some 66,000 people a year and another 5,000 are killed through passive exposure to smoke. The expert in charge of the French report advised against an outright ban on e-cigarettes, however, saying they still seemed safer than tar-laden tobacco. Electronic cigarettes, whose invention is widely credited to a Chinese pharmacist a decade ago, usually comprise disposable cartridges of liquid such as propylene glycol that is easily turned to vapor and can contain artificial flavors alongside concentrated liquid nicotine.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/31/france-to-ban-electronic-cigarettes-in-public/

Heat-related deaths may increase with climate change

Heat-related deaths in New York City's borough of Manhattan may rise about 20 percent over the next decade, according to a new study. Researchers at Columbia University in New York analyzed the relationship between daily temperatures and temperature-related deaths across all seasons between 1982 and 1999 in Manhattan, which comprises the most densely populated county in the United States. The findings were published online May 19 in the journal Nature Climate Change. Using projections from 16 global climate models, the scientists found that the number of heat-related deaths in the city could increase by 20 percent by the 2020s, and in some worst-case scenarios, could rise by 90 percent or more by the 2080s, said study co-author Patrick Kinney, an environmental scientist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. [Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming] To make their estimates, Kinney and his colleagues used the 1980s as a baseline, during which about 370 Manhattan residents died yearly from overheating. With this figure as a reference, a 20 percent increase could mean 74 additional yearly heat-related fatalities in Manhattan by the 2020s. “What we found was that there could be some benefits, in terms of reduced fatalities in the wintertime because of warmer temperatures, but our analysis suggests that those benefits are outweighed by extra fatalities that will occur in the hotter times of the year,” Kinney said. Mercury rising Daily readings in Manhattan's Central Park demonstrate that average monthly temperatures have increased 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) between 1901 and 2000. Last year was the warmest year on record in Manhattan, and projections predict rising temperatures over the next six decades, the researchers said. In 2011, 206 people died due to extreme heat in the United States. “The warming that's anticipated from climate change is happening throughout the year, so the months that are already hot like June, July and August are going to get hotter, but months that are more moderate, like May and September, may become uncomfortably hot or fatally hot,” Kinney explained. In their study, Kinney and his colleagues applied climate models to two scenarios: one that assumed rapid global population growth with limited efforts to control emissions, and another that assumed slower population growth combined with technological advances to decrease emissions by the year 2040. The researchers found that both projections pointed to increases in temperature-related fatalities. “It was a little surprising that no matter which climate model we used, and which scenario of greenhouse gases we used, they all consistently showed this effect of increasing fatality risk in the future,” Kinney said. More of the same And Manhattan is not alone, Kinney added. The trend toward more fatalities is also expected for other cities, particularly in the northern United States. “Climate models of future temperatures do vary a bit from place to place, but generally the story is pretty much the same,” Kinney said. The effects are not limited to cities, but heat waves are typically more severely felt in densely populated areas. This is because cities tend to concentrate heat, with buildings and pavement surfaces soaking up heat during the day and releasing it at night, the researchers said. “This serves as a reminder that heat events are one of the greatest hazards faced by urban populations around the globe,” study co-author Radley Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia University, said in a statement. The way of the future The researchers acknowledge uncertainties in their projections, including that heat's effects could be made better or worse with changing demographics, and how fatalities may be prevented with better infrastructure or public policies. Still, the findings suggest that cities and governments need to do more to address the potential dangers posed by heat waves, said Richard Keller, an associate professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved with the study. “We have needed to rethink the dangers of heat for years,” Keller said. “The Chicago heat wave of 1995, and especially the European heat wave of 2003 both caused catastrophic excess mortality.” Major federal programs provide heating assistance in the winter, but there is no concomitant program for cooling assistance in the summer, Keller said. Kinney said that to combat the effects of deadly heat waves, cities can open community cooling centers, plant trees or construct “green” roofs. The new findings demonstrate the importance of developing strategies to adapt to future higher temperatures. “Heat is a major and often underestimated killer,” Keller said. “While we evacuate in the face of hurricanes and floods, we tend to ignore extreme heat, with deadly consequences. The 2003 heat wave killed nearly 15,000 people in France alone eight times the mortality associated with Hurricane Katrina.” Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/23/heat-related-deaths-in-nyc-may-increase-with-climate-change/