Health & Wellness
Tim Lister
CNNTue, 28 Oct 2008 22:53 UTC
© Peter Parks / AFP / Getty Images
The Director of Hanwei Eggs was contrite. "We solemnly apologize to consumers," said Han Wei. "We apologize to the distributors. We solemnly declare that our company has never purchased melamine. We have never adopted melamine to the feeds or products." But somehow melamine got into eggs produced at the company's plant in Dailin in northeast China.
Melamine is a chemical used in making plastics and fertilizer. But in recent times, it has become the badge of shame for the Chinese food industry after being illegally added to food products to suggest they contain a higher level of protein. U.N. officials are concerned that melamine has been introduced to animal feed and may turn up in chicken, pork, farmed fish and other products.
Tainted eggs from Hanwei were discovered in Hong Kong late last week; melamine was present at nearly double the maximum permissible level.
The brains of people who commit suicide are chemically different to those who die from other causes, a Canadian study has suggested. Researchers analysed brain tissue from 20 dead people and, in those who killed themselves, they found a higher rate of a process that affects behaviour.
Writing in Biological Psychiatry, they said it appeared environmental factors played a part in the changes. And they said the discovery opened up a new avenue of research.
Elderly people who have a positive outlook, lower stress levels, moderate alcohol consumption, abstention from tobacco, moderate to higher income and no chronic health conditions are more likely to thrive in their old age, according to a study in the October issue of The Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.
The first study of its kind, researchers from Portland State University, the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Oregon Health & Science University, and Statistics Canada surveyed 2,432 older Canadians about their quality of life. The few who maintained excellent health over an entire decade were considered "thrivers." Most previous studies have been based on one-time surveys and have focused on factors that contribute to poor health.
"Important predictors of 'thriving' were the absence of chronic illness, income over $30,000, having never smoked, and drinking alcohol in moderation," said Mark Kaplan, DrPH, lead author and professor of community health at Portland State University. "We also found that people who had a positive outlook and lower stress levels were more likely to thrive in old age."
WASHINGTON - A mysterious hemorrhagic disease that has killed three people in South Africa and forced others into isolation appears to be a never-before-seen strain of a virus known as an arenavirus, an expert said Monday.
Two nutrition experts argue that you can't take marketing campaigns at face value
With America's obesity problem among kids reaching crisis proportions, even junk food makers have started to claim they want to steer children toward more healthful choices. In a study released earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 32 percent of children were overweight but not obese, 16 percent were obese, and 11 percent were extremely obese. Food giant PepsiCo, for example, points out on its website that "we can play an important role in helping kids lead healthier lives by offering healthy product choices in schools." The company highlights what it considers its healthier products within various food categories through a "Smart Spot" marketing campaign that features green symbols on packaging. PepsiCo's inclusive criteria--explained here--award spots to foods of dubious nutritional value such as Diet Pepsi, Cap'n Crunch cereal, reduced-fat Doritos, and Cheetos, as well as to more nutritious products such as Quaker Oatmeal and Tropicana Orange Juice.
© Ellen Nakashima -- The Washington Post Photo
George Church says his project could tell participants what diseases might lurk in their future.
George Church wants to put his personal genetic blueprint online for all to see -- the sequence of chemical bases that make him who he is, a lanky scientist of Scottish ancestry who has dyslexia, narcolepsy and motion sickness.
And he wants 99,999 other people to follow suit.
The Harvard genetics professor's Personal Genome Project is an attempt to build the only public genomic database that connects genes with diseases. With it, he believes, scientists could correlate more easily many millions of genetic variants with medical and other traits, from asthma to acne, eye color to perfect pitch.
An international team of researchers has shown that mercury is another important factor in cardiovascular disease as it changes the way arteries work. One of the possible sources of exposure of humans to mercury is by eating contaminated fish.
Geraldine Gittens
Herald.ieMon, 27 Oct 2008 18:43 UTC
Residents of a West Dublin housing estate, which lies next to a phone mast, are calling on the HSE to conduct a full health assessment in the area after an apparently large number of cancer diagnoses.
Neighbours in St Ronan's Gardens, Neilstown, and leaders of Mast Action Clondalkin (MAC) are continuing to voice their concerns about the mobile phone mast which stands in their local garda station.
"We did a survey of 150 houses and 38 people in those houses had cancer," says Gino Kelly, a member of MAC. "It's a very preliminary study but we went around and asked questions."
Brandon Keim
WiredThu, 26 Apr 2007 17:09 UTC
Modern humans are bacteria-killing machines. We assassinate microbes with hand soap, mouthwash and bathroom cleaners. It feels clean and right.
But some scientists say we're overdoing it. All this killing may actually cause diseases like eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and even diabetes. The answer, they say, is counterintuitive: Feed patients bacteria.
"Probiotics (pills containing bacteria) have resulted in complete elimination of eczema in 80 percent of the people we've treated," says Dr. Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., a practicing physician and former member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. Pizzorno says he's used probiotics to treat irritable bowel disease, acne and even premenstrual syndrome. "It's unusual for me to see a patient with a chronic disease that doesn't respond to probiotics."
Comment: This is indeed the tip of the iceberg. For more information you are invited to visit our
forum discussion.
Scientists have expressed genes from snapdragon in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes high in health-protecting anthocyanins.
Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments found at particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry. Scientists are investigating ways to increase the levels of health-promoting compounds in more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.
© John Innes Centre
Purple, high anthocyanin tomatoes and red wild-type tomatoes.
"Most people do not eat 5 portions of fruits and vegetables a day, but they can get more benefit from those they do eat if common fruit and veg can be developed that are higher in bioactive compounds," says Prof Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre.
Comment: This is indeed the tip of the iceberg. For more information you are invited to visit our forum discussion.