Health & WellnessS


Health

China's rural migrants are new front in AIDS fight

Lucy Hornby
Rueters
Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:51 UTC
Certain groups in the Chinese population, such as male migrants, are at increasingly higher risk of AIDS.
China Aids
© RuetersA woman flies kites with red ribbons during a World AIDS Day event in Beijing November 30, 2008.
Read More...
Magnify

Global AIDS crisis overblown? Some dare to say so

Maria Cheng
Associated Press
Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:46 UTC
As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs. They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted.

"AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University.

Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada, goes further. He argues that UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the fight against the disease, has outlived its purpose and should be disbanded.
Read More...
People

Swiss approve pioneering legal heroin program for addicts

Balz Bruppacher
Associated Press
Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:40 UTC
A pioneering Swiss program to give addicts government-authorized heroin was overwhelmingly approved Sunday by voters who simultaneously rejected the decriminalization of marijuana. Sixty-eight percent of voters approved making the heroin program permanent. It has been credited with reducing crime and improving the health and daily lives of addicts since it began 14 years ago.

Only 36.8 percent of voters favored the marijuana intitiative.

Olivier Borer, 35, a musician from the northern town of Solothurn, said he welcomed the outcome in part because state action was required to help heroin addicts but legalizing marijuana was a bad idea.
Read More...
Alarm Clock

FDA Draws Fire Over Chemicals In Baby Formula

Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post
Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:15 UTC
Public health groups, consumer advocates and members of Congress blasted the Food and Drug Administration yesterday for failing to act after discovering trace amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula sold in the United States.

"This FDA, this Bush administration, instead of protecting the public health, is protecting industry," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA budget. In an interview, DeLauro said she wants the agency to disclose its findings and to develop a plan to remove melamine from formula. "We're talking about babies, about the most vulnerable. This really makes me angry."
Read More...
Butterfly

Bone finding may point to hope for osteoporosis

Gina Kolata
New York Times
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:23 UTC
Bone formation appears to be controlled by serotonin, a chemical previously known mainly for its entirely separate role in the brain, researchers are reporting.

The discovery can have enormous implications, osteoporosis experts say, because there is an urgent need for osteoporosis treatments that actually build bone.

Osteoporosis affects 10 million Americans over age 50. It results in bone loss, and its hallmark is fragile bones that break easily. With one exception, current treatments only slow further bone loss rather than increase bone formation. The exception, parathyroid hormone, given by injection, is recommended only for short-term use and costs about $6,700 a year.
Read More...
Cheeseburger

Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's

Michael Kahn
Reuters
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:56 UTC
Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement.
Read More...
Bad Guys

Whitewashing! FDA sets safe level for infant formula contaminant

Justin Pritchard
Associated Press
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:55 UTC
WASHINGTON - Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula.

Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical isn't present. They insisted the formulas are safe.
Read More...
Health

Brains More Distracted, Not Slower with Age

Aimee Cunningham
Scientific American
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:21 UTC
Brains slow down as they become more easily distracted
Read More...
Info

Alzheimer's Gene Slows Brain's Ability To Export Toxic Protein


ScienceDaily
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:49 UTC
The only known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease slows down the brain's ability to export a toxic protein known as amyloid-beta that is central to the damage the disease causes, scientists have found.

The research, published Nov. 13 by the Journal of Clinical Investigation, provides new clues into the workings of a protein known as apolipoprotein E4, or ApoE4. People who carry two copies of the gene have roughly eight to 10 times the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease than people who do not.

The new results mark a step toward resolving a longstanding question that scientists have had about exactly how ApoE4 increases a person's risk for the disease. The findings point to differences in the way that amyloid-beta is removed from the brain depending on which ApoE protein is involved.
Read More...
Sheeple

Further dumbing down of the masses: Australia seeks comment on fluoride in bottled water


Water Technology Online
Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:42 UTC
Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a bi-national government regulatory agency, is seeking public comment on a proposal that would allow beverage manufacturers to add fluoride to bottled water.

The agency undertook review of the matter after the Australian Beverages Council Ltd. applied for approval of the voluntary addition of fluoride, at a level of 0.6 - 1.0 milligrams per liter (total of naturally occurring and added fluoride), to bottled water. According to the Foods Standards agency, this level aligns with the fluoride levels in fluoridated tap water, considered to have a "history of safe use."

If approved, bottlers adding fluoride to their bottled water would be required to indicate on the label that the product contains added fluoride. "This requirement will assist consumers to make an informed choice," the agency said.
Read More...