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Syringe

Best of the Web: Why is type 1 diabetes on the rise? Could it be Gluten?


The Heart Scan Blog
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:52 UTC
Type 1 diabetes, also called "childhood" or "insulin-dependent" diabetes, is on the rise.

Type 2 diabetes, or "adult," diabetes, is also sharply escalating. But the causes for this are easy-to-identify: overconsumption of carbohydrates and resultant weight gain/obesity, inactivity, as well as genetic predisposition. A formerly rare disease is rapidly becoming the scourge of the century, expected to affect 1 in 3 adults within the next several decades.

Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, generally occurs in young children, not uncommonly age 3 or 4. Type 1 diabetes also shares a genetic basis to some degree. But the genetic predisposition should be a constant. Obviously, lifestyle issues cannot be blamed in young children.
Then why would type 1 diabetes be on the rise?

For instance, this study by Vehik et al from the University of Colorado documents the approximate 3% per year increase in incidence in children with type 1 diabetes between 1978 and 2004:

type 1 diabetes in children
© Vehik et alIncrease in incidence in children with type 1 diabetes between 1978 and 2004

(From Vehik 2007)

This is no small matter. Just ask any parent of a child diagnosed with type 1 diabetes who, after recovering from hearing the devastating diagnosis, then has to stick her child's fingers to check glucose several times per day, mind carefully what he or she eats or doesn't eat, watch carefully for signs of life-threatening hypoglycemic episodes, not to mention worry about her child's long-term health. Type 1 diabetes is a life-changing diagnosis for both child and parents.
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Pills

Memory Loss Can Be Caused By Over-The-Counter Drugs

Leo Galland, M.D.
Huffington Post
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:47 UTC
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Did you know that common over-the-counter drugs or prescriptions can cause memory loss and cognitive impairment?

Mild cognitive impairment is a common, age-linked condition that is often an early sign of Alzheimer's disease. Its cardinal symptom is forgetfulness or impairment of short-term memory.

Numerous drugs have been shown to produce mild cognitive impairment (MCI). They may create or aggravate Alzheimer's-type symptoms.

(NOTE: You should NOT stop taking medications without first consulting your physician.)

Most of the drugs that cause MCI have a property called "anti-cholinergic." They inhibit activity of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which plays a critical role in memory and cognitive function.
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Info

Why a Food's Glycaemic Load is a Better Measure Than its Carbohydrate Content


drbriffa.com
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:55 UTC
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© eglycemicindex.comThe glycemic index, or GI, ranks carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100 according to their effect on blood sugar levels.
When glucose (a sugar) is absorbed from the gut into the bloodstream, a healthy pancreas will secrete the hormone insulin in response. One chief effect of insulin is to reduce blood sugar levels by facilitating the transfer of sugar into the body's cells. This is a critically important function, and without it sugar levels can rise to dangerously high and even fatal levels. Insulin is essential to life. But, as is the way, we can always get too much of a good thing. In the long term, high levels of insulin can predispose the body to a range of health issues including obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

With this in mind it does make sense to avoid eating much in the way of foods that disrupt blood sugar, and therefore insulin, levels.

The 'macronutrient' most renowned for its effect on blood sugar is carbohydrate - a term that encompasses sugars and starch. Much of the sugar and starch we consume in our diets is digested down to glucose prior to absorption.
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Health

Study links hypoxia and inflammation in many diseases


University of Colorado Denver
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:55 UTC
University of Colorado researchers focus on how the body adapts.

When the body is deprived of oxygen during a major surgery, the kidneys, heart muscles or lungs can be injured as a result. The problem is that lack of oxygen can lead to inflammation.

Yet some athletes deliberately train at high altitude, with less oxygen, so they can perform better. Their bodies adapt to the reduced oxygen.

Now a doctor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine has explored the relationship between lack of oxygen, called hypoxia, and the inflammation that can injure or kill some patients who undergo surgery. In a liver transplant, for example, the surgery and anesthesiology can go perfectly yet the new liver will fail because of hypoxia.

"Understanding how hypoxia is linked to inflammation may help save lives of people who have survived a major surgery only to be faced with potential harm to major organs," says Holger K. Eltzschig, MD, PhD.
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Attention

Pesticides May Block Male Hormones

Marla Cone & Environmental Health News
Scientific American
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:36 UTC
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© FedCenter.govEndocrine Disruptors: Many agricultural pesticides disrupt the normal function of male hormones, according to new tests.
Many agricultural pesticides disrupt male hormones, according to new tests.

Many agricultural pesticides - including some previously untested and commonly found in food - disrupt male hormones, according to new tests conducted by British scientists.

The scientists strongly recommended that all pesticides in use today be screened to check if they block testosterone and other androgens, the hormones critical to a healthy reproductive system for men and boys.

"Our results indicate that systematic testing for anti-androgenic activity of currently used pesticides is urgently required," wrote the scientists from University of London's Centre for Toxicology, led by Professor Andreas Kortenkamp.

Thirty out of 37 widely used pesticides tested by the group blocked or mimicked male hormones. Sixteen of the 30 had no known hormonal activity until now, while there was some previous evidence for the other 14, according to the study, published online last Thursday in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
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Alarm Clock

FDA Report: Alarming Amounts of "Superbugs" in Supermarkets

Melanie Warner
bnet.com
Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:36 UTC
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© Flickr kaibara87
A federal government report on antibiotic resistance reveals that superbugs in meat is a much more common and widespread problem than anyone would like to admit. New strains of hearty, antibiotic resistant salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter bacteria appear to be showing up in alarmingly high percentages of the chicken, turkey, pork and beef we buy at the supermarket.

These findings come from a little-noticed report the FDA released back in December. The report, which was dumped onto the FDA's web site without so much as a mention or a press release, compiles data from 5,236 samples of chicken breasts, ground turkey, ground beef and pork chops that were taken in 2008. It's unclear why the FDA either waited or took so long to release the info.

On her blog, Maryn McKenna, author of a book about antibiotic resistance called Superbug and the first person to write about the report, summarized some of the findings: In 2008, 45% of salmonella on chicken were resistant to the antibiotic tetracycline and 30% were immune to penicillins. Among enterococci bacteria on chicken, 65% were resistant to tetracycline and more than 90% to lincosamides, which include the everyday drug clindamycin.
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Pills

Best of the Web: Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong

Sharon Begley
Newsweek
Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:44 UTC
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© Jacob Thomas

If you follow the news about health research, you risk whiplash. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol, then - after more study - it doesn't. Hormone replacement reduces the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women, until a huge study finds that it doesn't (and that it raises the risk of breast cancer to boot). Eating a big breakfast cuts your total daily calories, or not - as a study released last week finds. Yet even if biomedical research can be a fickle guide, we rely on it.

But what if wrong answers aren't the exception but the rule? More and more scholars who scrutinize health research are now making that claim. It isn't just an individual study here and there that's flawed, they charge. Instead, the very framework of medical investigation may be off-kilter, leading time and again to findings that are at best unproved and at worst dangerously wrong. The result is a system that leads patients and physicians astray - spurring often costly regimens that won't help and may even harm you.

It's a disturbing view, with huge im-plications for doctors, policymakers, and health-conscious consumers. And one of its foremost advocates, Dr. John P.A. Ioannidis, has just ascended to a new, prominent platform after years of crusading against the baseless health and medical claims. As the new chief of Stanford University's Prevention Research Center, Ioannidis is cementing his role as one of medicine's top mythbusters. "People are being hurt and even dying" because of false medical claims, he says: not quackery, but errors in medical research.

Comment: While it is true that being morbidly obese or severely underweight can shorten a lifespan, the jury properly should still be out on smoking. In fact, if Dr. Ioannidis' principles were applied to smoking studies, it's likely that 99% of them would have to be thrown out.

See Let's All Light Up!

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Syringe

Johnson & Johnson Recall Watch: 70,000 Syringes of Injectable Antipsychotic Pulled

Katherine Hobson
The Wallstreet Journal
Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:32 UTC
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Johnson & Johnson is recalling 70,000 syringes preloaded with its Invega injectable anti-psychotic drug, the WSJ reports. Cracks have been found in the syringes that could theoretically lead to infections or under-dosing in users of Invega Sustenna, though the company said that risk is low. (One report of an adverse event in Australia may be linked to the problem.)

We've been keeping tabs on J&J's string of recalls, which cost it about $900 million in sales last year. Here's a running list:
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Syringe

60 Lab Studies Confirm Cancer Link to a Vaccine You Probably Had as a Child

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:42 UTC

Dr. Maurice Hilleman made astounding revelations in an interview that was cut from The Health Century -- the admission that Merck drug company vaccines had been injecting dangerous viruses into people worldwide.

Bear in mind that Dr. Hilleman was the developer of Merck's vaccine program. He developed over three dozen vaccines, more than any other scientist in history. He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He received a special lifetime achievement award from the World Health Organization. Hilleman was one of the early vaccine pioneers to warn about the possibility that simian viruses might contaminate vaccines.

Sources:
The PPJ Gazette February 6, 2011
Paging Dr. Gupta, CNN Health February 1, 2011
PR Log January 24, 2011
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Family

World Bank warns of soaring food price dangers

Larry Elliott
Guardian UK
Fri, 18 Feb 2011 05:35 UTC
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© Romeo Gacad/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesIncreases in the price of rice – a staple for many of the world's poor – have been moderate, the bank said
A spike in global food prices has pushed millions more into poverty since last summer, said World Bank president Robert Zoellick

The World Bank has given a stark warning of the impact of the rising cost of food, saying an estimated 44 million people had been pushed into poverty since last summer by soaring commodity prices.

Robert Zoellick, the Bank's president, said food prices had risen by almost 30% in the past year and were within striking distance of the record levels reached during 2008.

"Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world," Zoellick said. "The price hike is already pushing millions of people into poverty, and putting stress on the most vulnerable, who spend more than half of their income on food."
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