MORE LAUGHABLE RESEARCH INTO SMOKING

The brainiacs below found that physically active people are more likely to ATTEMPT to give up smoking. What does that tell us? Nothing that I can see. If they also SUCCEEDED at giving up that might be interesting. I am going to have to give up reading the crap that is the medical literature one day. How much of it can I stand? Or does the April 1 date below tell us something? I sorta hope it does. It's certainly an appropriate date for what they have published

Characteristics of Physically Active Smokers and Implications for Harm Reduction

By Wayne K. deRuiter et al

Objectives: We sought to establish the prevalence of physical activity among smokers, whether or not physically active smokers were more likely to attempt cessation, and who these physically active smokers were.

Methods: We used logistic regression to contrast physically active and inactive smokers in a secondary data analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.1.

Results: Physically active smokers represented almost one quarter of the smoking population. Compared with physically inactive smokers, physically active smokers were more likely to have attempted cessation in the past year. Physically active smokers were more likely to be young, single, and men compared with their inactive counterparts. Income had no influence in distinguishing physically active and inactive smokers.

Conclusions: Skepticism persists regarding the practicality and potential risks of promoting physical activity as a harm-reduction strategy for tobacco use. We found that a modest proportion of the daily smoking population was physically active and that engagement in this behavior was related to greater cessation attempts. Interventions could be developed that target smokers who are likely to adopt physical activity.

American Journal of Public Health, April 1, 2008






THIS IS NOT EVEN AN ATTEMPT AT OBJECTIVE SCIENCE

The old secondhand smoke religion defended below. Note that the aim was to "generate locally relevant data to motivate the development of tobacco control policies". That sure is frank: No attempt at objectivity. The conclusion is foreordained. What gets published in the medical journals never ceases to amaze me. And the research is crap. All they showed is that people living with smokers had more exposure to smoke. As if we didn't know that already! There is NOTHING in their findings that supports their conclusions.

Secondhand Smoke Exposure Among Women and Children: Evidence From 31 Countries

By Heather Wipfli et al.

Objectives: We sought to describe the range of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) among women and children living with smokers around the world and generate locally relevant data to motivate the development of tobacco control policies and interventions in developing countries.

Methods: In 2006, we conducted a cross-sectional exposure survey to measure air nicotine concentrations in households and hair nicotine concentrations among nonsmoking women and children in convenience samples of 40 households in 31 countries.

Results: Median air nicotine concentration was 17 times higher in households with smokers (0.18 micrograms/m3) compared with households without smokers (0.01 micrograms/m3). Air nicotine and hair nicotine concentrations in women and children increased with the number of smokers in the household. The dose-response relationship was steeper among children. Air nicotine concentrations increased an estimated 12.9 times (95% confidence interval=9.4, 17.6) in households allowing smoking inside compared with those prohibiting smoking inside.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that women and children living with smokers are at increased risk of premature death and disease from exposure to SHS. Interventions to protect women and children from household SHS need to be strengthened.

|American Journal of Public Health, April 2008, Vol 98, No. 4, 672-679

Brunettes bag the billionaires, blondes get the barmen

These frequencies probably just reflect the frequencies of the different hair colours in the respective populations. And with hair colour very changeable and changing, it is in any case hard to know what is being surveyed here

It's official, if you're a brunette like Carla Bruni, you're more likely to marry a successful man than your blonde counterparts. Experts at LOVE@LYCOS the dating channel of Lycos.co.uk analysed the WAG's hair colour of the world's top 100 billionaires to determine if there is a predominant hair colour wealthy men seen to go for. The majority by a long way were brunettes, with 62% of billionaires marrying women with brown hair.

The results went on to show that fair haired ladies come in a poor second with only 22% of the world's top billionaires marrying blondes. Women with black hair lag behind in third place, enticing on 16% of the world's wealthiest, whilst carrot-tops come in last.

Source






Drug to fight aggressive breast cancer now subsidized in Australia

The breast cancer treatment, Tykerb, has been placed on the the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), making it cheaper for women affected by an aggressive form of the disease. Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced today that from May 1, Lapatinib, known commercially as Tykerb, would be subsidised under the scheme's arrangements. Tykerb had been found to slow the progress of and improve symptoms associated with advanced HER-2 positive breast cancer, Ms Roxon said. "Without any subsidy, the medicine would cost women between $3500 and $4000 each month," she said. "Lapatinib will be available to people with HER-2 positive metastatic or advanced breast cancer for whom other treatments have proved ineffective."

The drug is used in treating a particularly aggressive form of disease known as advanced HER-2 positive breast cancer. "HER-2 positive breast cancer is an aggressive form of cancer that particularly impacts upon younger women," Ms Roxon said. "Around 87 per cent of patients diagnosed with advanced breast cancer will die from the disease within five years. "About 2000 Australians are diagnosed with HER-2 positive breast cancer each year. "HER-2 positive breast cancer is one that has spread to distant parts of the body (metastasised) or which cannot be removed with surgery."

Ms Roxon said breast cancer was the most common cancer in women and affected 14,000 Australians per year. In 2004, more than 2600 people died from the disease in Australia.

An international study released in 2006 found that Tykerb and the chemotherapy drug Xeloda in combination were effective in women who had failed to react to Herceptin. The combination slowed down the disease's progression compared to chemotherapy alone and reduced the risk of the cancer spreading to the brain. The therapy has already been approved for use in the US and overseas analysts have predicted that Tykerb could eventually record annual global sales of about $A4.5 billion.

Source

Moronic body of psychologists doubts that it upsets a kid to see animosity between his or her parents

Feminists at work, no doubt. Women are ENTITLED to alienate their children from their father, you see

Child custody determinations in scores of Family Court decisions could be challenged following a ruling debunking parental alienation syndrome, a controversial diagnosis of the effects on a child when one parent denigrates the other. The Psychologists Board of Queensland last month disciplined prominent Brisbane clinical psychologist William Wrigley, saying he had acted unprofessionally in giving evidence about parental alienation syndrome to the court. An investigation found that Dr Wrigley's evidence three years ago, which had led to a mother losing custody of her two children, constituted "professional conduct that demonstrates incompetence or a lack of adequate knowledge, skill, judgment or care".

The Australian understands that Dr Wrigley has identified the syndrome as a factor in other cases to the Family Court. So have psychologists and psychiatrists throughout Australia. The syndrome was diagnosed in 1985 by US clinical psychiatrist Richard Gardner, an advocate of a father's right to custody, even in cases where he had been accused of abuse. He argued that some parents who criticise other parents or step-parents in front of children were guilty of psychological abuse. Dr Gardner's theories remain highly controversial among psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists, who claim they are simplistic or erroneous.

The complaint was lodged by the Brisbane mother who lost custody of her two children in 2005 when Family Court judge Neil Buckley determined, acknowledging the evidence of Dr Wrigley, that she had affected the children with the syndrome. Justice Buckley said Dr Wrigley's reports provided a "comprehensive and balanced assessment" of all relevant issues. "It has to be said that in terms of objectivity, professionalism, fairness and balance, his reports are in stark contrast to those provided by (other professionals)," he said.

The board advised Dr Wrigley on March 3 of its unanimous decision that he had "acted in a way that constituted unsatisfactory conduct" for "referring to an unrecognised syndrome in his reports". "It was inappropriate for the registrant (Dr Wrigley) to either diagnose the children or state there was a likelihood the children could develop parental alienation syndrome, as it is not a recognised syndrome," it said. "To diagnose a patient as suffering from or demonstrating a potential to develop an unrecognised syndrome is contrary to the code of ethics." However, the board advised that details of the disciplinary action not be recorded on the public register because it was "not within the public interest". The board told The Australian it was precluded by law from commenting on the disciplinary action taken against Dr Wrigley.

Family Court Chief Justice Diana Bryant last year posted on the family law court website a "fact sheet" about the syndrome, which said the malady was used in evidence, but warned that it was not accepted as "a psychiatric disease". Chief Justice Bryant's notice cited several cases "where PAS has been rejected or not accepted as a concept". The cited cases, with names excluded, included the controversial matter for which Dr Wrigley was disciplined by the psychologists board.

Source







Apples shown to reduce heart disease, cancer risk (?)

The original report does not seem to be available online anywhere, but no doubt it is more of the antioxidant religion based on epidemiological speculation and self-reports. That it was produced by a "dietician" rather than by an academic does not inspire confidence. Academics are unreliable enough ...



APPLES are a "nutrition powerhouse" and really do keep the doctor away, according to a new health report. The comprehensive review of scientific research published in the past 10 years, has found apples are one of the only foods identified to reduce the risk of heart disease and certain cancers – two of the biggest causes of death in Australia. Apples are also associated with asthma protection, can reduce the risk of type II diabetes and help with weight loss.

The report also found that apples have the highest antioxidant content of all Australia's popular fruits. The author of The Apple Report, dietitian Shane Landon said yesterday: "Not only does an apple have around 1½ times more antioxidants than a 75g serve of blueberries, it has more than twice the antioxidants of a cup of tea, about three times the antioxidants of an orange and almost eight times the antioxidants of a banana. "We often hear about new foods hitting the supermarket shelves that have had this or that nutrient added to them during processing, but apples are a natural nutrition powerhouse," Mr Landon said.

Australians eat around one apple a week, but if everyone ate just one more serve of fruit or vegetables every day, the Australian Fruit and Vegetable Coalition estimates more than $150 million a year would be saved on healthcare costs for cardiovascular disease alone. "The research is compelling and the health message is simple – we must get back to basics," Mr Landon said. "An apple a day is a very good start."

Meanwhile, breast implants, deodorant and coffee are extremely unlikely to cause cancer, according to a new risk report designed to allay panic that everything can be carcinogenic. The new risk assessment developed by an Australian cancer specialist puts in perspective the risks of contracting the disease from a range of agents, including dental fillings, marijuana and cured meats.

Cigarettes, alcohol, deliberate exposure to sunlight and some relatively rare cancer drugs sit in the highest risk bracket for proven carcinogens, said Professor Bernard Stewart, from the University of NSW and South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Health. Among the "likely" risks were marijuana, solarium use, eating large quantities of processed meats and living near a waste dump.

The professor all but ruled out risk for a range of other rumoured carcinogens including artificial sweeteners, coffee, deodorant, dental fillings, breast implants and fluoridated water. "No one should seriously lose sleep or change their behaviour in respect of these very, very unlikely things," he said.

Source

WHEN IS A CONTROL GROUP NOT A CONTROL GROUP?

One day I am going to find a research report in the medical journals that renders me speechless. The one below came close. A persuasive research report requires a control group and the study below has one. But it is a useless control group. The Tai Chi exponents could more usefully have been compared with themselves before undertaking the program. Instead BOTH groups undertook the program and it is their responses which are reported below. What was needed was for the control group to complete some program that was NOT Tai Chi but which was equivalent in degree of exertion, time spent etc. I would not pass this as as an adequate research design from a third-year student. It is utterly and completely brainless. Yet here is it in a medical journal. I am sure the public believe that medical research is conducted according to the highest standards. I am inclined to think that it is the field where standards are lowest.

Regular Tai Chi Chuan exercise improves T cell helper function of type 2 DM patients with an increase in T-bet transcription factor and IL-12 production

By Shu-Hui Yeh et al.

BACKGROUND-- Exercise has been shown to be beneficial in treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM); its benefit to immune function, however, remains to be determined.

OBJECTIVE-- This study investigated the effect of a 12-week course of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) exercise on T cell helper (Th) reaction in type 2 DM patients.

DESIGN AND METHODS -- This study was a case-control design. Thirty pairs of type 2 DM patients and normal age-matched adults completed this study. Fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, mediators (IL-12, IL-4 and TGFfO) and transcription factors (T-bet, GATA-3 and FoxP3) of Th1/Th2/T regulatory (Treg) reaction were measured before and after a 12-week TCC exercise program.

RESULTS -- Fasting glucose and HbA1c levels in the participating type 2 DM patients were significantly higher than age-matched controls before exercise. After the TCC exercise, HbA1c levels in type 2 DM patients significantly decreased (7.59 ­Ó 0.32 vs. 7.16 ­Ó 0.22 %; P= 0.047), along with a significant increase of blood IL-12 levels (5.96 ­Ó 1.10 vs. 12.96 ­Ó 3.07; P = 0.035). To probe molecular Th1/Th2/Treg reaction, we found that type 2 DM patients had lower T-bet, but not GATA-3 or FoxP3 expression than normal controls before TCC exercise. After the 12-week TCC exercise, T-bet expression significantly increased in type 2 DM patients.

CONCLUSIONS -- A 12-week TCC exercise program decreases HbA1c levels, along with increase of the Th1 reaction. A combination of TCC with medication may provide even better in both metabolism and immunity of type 2 DM patients.

Br J Sports Med. 2 April 2008




Australian doctors welcome new schizophrenia drug

HEALTH experts have welcomed a drug introduced to treat schizophrenia. They hope the Federal Government's decision to subsidise the atypical antipsychotic Invega, which reduces the worst side effects of older-style drugs, will encourage patients to keep taking their medication and help them re-integrate into society.

Dr Harry Hustig has been treating eight patients with Invega (paliperidone) as part of a clinical trial at Glenside Psychiatric Hospital in Adelaide. He said studies showed three-quarters of schizophrenics stop taking their drugs within two years because of side effects such as shaking, sexual dysfunction, restlessness, sedation and weight gain, while others turn to alcohol and drug abuse.

Pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag said Invega adjusted the imbalance of two brain neurotransmitters - dopamine and serotonin - involved in schizophrenia and used innovative delayed-release technology to ensure a continuous level in the bloodstream over a 24-hour period. Invega became available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme last week and is expected to save the taxpayer up to $1 million over five years.

Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW chief executive Rob Ramjan said: "Some argue there is no need for medication in mental health and it's a socially constructed concept but the illness is horrendous. "If you have spent time with someone having an acute episode they're going through torture."

Schizophrenia affects 1 to 2 per cent of the population. It typically develops in adolescence or early 20s and causes hallucinations, paranoia, delusions, hearing "voices" and psychosis.

Source

A father's legacy to a child's health may start before conception and last generations (?)

The idea that characteristics acquired during the lifetime can be passed on genetically is known as Lamarckism. Its best known exponent was Stalin's Trofim Lysenko and the whole idea is now generally ridiculed. Studies with rodents do however suggest that some characteristics caused by chemical exposure can be passed on to offspring even though the DNA remains unchanged. Such phenomena are now called "epigenetic" influences. I will not attempt to make any comment on the rodent studies but I think that the studies in humans mentioned below are unconvincing. The studies are epidemiological so are intrinsically capable of many explanations. Attributing the differences observed to epigenetic effects is therefore pure supposition.

The lack of insight below is in fact rather pathetic. Take this sentence: "the team found that babies of teenage fathers, but not middle-age men, had an elevated risk of still birth, low birth weight, and other birth problems". What does that tell you? It tells me that underclass people reproduce earlier and have more health problems and that they pass those problems on in the normal way. What we are seeing in the data, in other words, is simply the underclass influence. That early childbirth is to a large extent an underclass phenomenon and that lower social rank tends to go with poorer health is well established. So the idea that the differences are passed on "epigenetically" is in fact the least parsimonious explanation and so should have its throat cut by Occam's razor.

Pregnant women know the drill. Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't eat too much fish. Take vitamins. Mothers have long shouldered the responsibility, and the blame, for their children's health. Fathers don't usually face the same scrutiny.

How a man lives, where he works, or how old he is when his children are conceived doesn't affect their long-term health, scientists used to think. But growing evidence suggests that a father's age and his exposure to chemicals can leave a medical legacy that lasts generations.

Animal studies demonstrate that drugs, alcohol, radiation, pesticides, solvents, and other chemicals can lead to effects that are handed from father to son. Human studies are less clear, but some show that fathers play a role in fetal development and the health of their children.

Teenage dads face increased risk that their babies will be born prematurely, have low birth weight, or die at birth or shortly afterward, a new study in Human Reproduction shows.

Babies of firefighters, painters, woodworkers, janitors, and men exposed to solvents and other chemicals in the workplace are more likely to be miscarried, stillborn, or to develop cancer later in life, according to a review in the February Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology.

Fathers who smoke or are exposed at work to chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons put their children at risk of developing brain tumors. And, older fathers are more likely to have children with autism, schizophrenia, and Down syndrome and to have daughters who go on to develop breast cancer.

Though some of these observations are decades old, attitudes lag even further behind, says Cynthia Daniels, a political scientist at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in New Jersey. Dads aren't held accountable if something goes wrong during fetal development. Since men make new sperm every 74 days, people used to reason, the genetic slate is wiped clean every couple of months. And even if a man makes defective sperm, the "all-or-nothing" view of reproduction holds that damaged sperm don't fertilize eggs. No harm. No foul.

So no one bothers to remind men to protect themselves against environmental toxins. There are no images of "crack dads" and "crack babies" in the media like those of women who harm developing fetuses with drug and alcohol use, Daniels said in February at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Boston....

Older dads also have a higher risk of fathering children with rare mutations that cause dwarfism or a premature aging disease called Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome.

But sometimes aging fathers pass along traits that can't be traced to only a single mutation. Fathers 40 and older have an increased chance that their children will develop complex disorders such as autism or schizophrenia. There is growing evidence that those disorders are caused by defects in many genes and the way genes are turned off and on.

Scientists don't yet understand the changes that age induces in sperm-making germ cells, and environmental exposure presents an even bigger mystery. People come in contact with a plethora of chemicals every day. But it is no easy task to sort out exactly which ones, or which combinations, cause heritable problems. The effects chemicals and radiation may have on offspring don't always follow predictable patterns either.

And when researchers do find a clear link between a father's lifestyle and his children's health, it's not always clear what the data mean. "What we can say is that we identified a group of fathers with adverse outcomes for their fetuses, but we don't have an idea of the mechanism," says Shi Wu Wen of the University of Ottawa in Canada and one of the lead authors of the study showing that babies of teenage fathers have a greater risk of birth problems.

Wen and his colleagues examined birth records for more than 2.6 million babies born between 1995 and 2000 to married, first-time, 20-something mothers in the United States. Looking at the husbands' ages, the team found that babies of teenage fathers, but not middle-age men, had an elevated risk of still birth, low birth weight, and other birth problems. The study was published online Feb. 6 in Human Reproduction.

More here




THE NON-SURPRISE OF THE WEEK

A health characteristic is strongly genetically inherited! How revolutionary!

Blood Pressure Change and Risk of Hypertension Associated With Parental Hypertension

By Nae-Yuh Wang et al.

Background: Parental hypertension is used to classify hypertension risk in young adults, but the long-term association of parental hypertension with blood pressure (BP) change and risk of hypertension over the adult life span has not been well studied.

Methods: We examined the association of parental hypertension with BP change and hypertension risk from young adulthood through the ninth decade of life in a longitudinal cohort of 1160 male former medical students with 54 years of follow-up.

Results: In mixed-effects models using 29,867 BP measurements, mean systolic and diastolic BP readings were significantly higher at baseline among participants with parental hypertension. The rate of annual increase was slightly higher for systolic (0.03 mm Hg, P = .04), but not diastolic, BP in those with parental hypertension. After adjustment for baseline systolic and diastolic BP and time-dependent covariates-body mass index, alcohol consumption, coffee drinking, physical activity, and cigarette smoking-the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval [CI]) of hypertension development was 1.5 (1.2-2.0) for men with maternal hypertension only, 1.8 (1.4-2.4) for men with paternal hypertension only, and 2.4 (1.8-3.2) for men with hypertension in both parents compared with men whose parents never developed hypertension. Early-onset (at age ~55 years) hypertension in both parents imparted a 6.2-fold higher adjusted risk (95% CI, 3.6-10.7) for the development of hypertension throughout adult life and a 20.0-fold higher adjusted risk (95% CI, 8.4-47.9) at the age of 35 years.

Conclusion: Hypertension in both mothers and fathers has a strong independent association with elevated BP levels and incident hypertension over the course of adult life.

Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(6):643-648..

IS YOGA GOOD FOR YOUR HEART?

Apparently it is no better than other forms of exercise as far as hardening of the arteries is concerned. But sedentary people have more hardening. The study below is extremely limited, however. It relies on self-report, the sample size was small and included obvious but unknown selection biases and the groups were also nutritionally different. I don't think I would have mentioned it except that it was reported in "The Times" of London. It actually proves nothing. Abstract below:

The influence of physical activity and yoga on central arterial stiffness

By Courtney M Duren

Purpose: Central arterial stiffness is an accepted risk factor for cardiovascular disease. While aerobic activity is associated with reduced stiffness the influence of practicing yoga is unknown. The aims of this study were to: 1) evaluate arterial stiffness in middle-aged adults who regularly practiced yoga, performed regular exercise, or were inactive, 2) evaluate the reproducibility of arterial stiffness measured in the left and right carotid artery and by pulse wave velocity (PWV).

Methods: Twenty six healthy subjects (male and female, 40-65 yrs old) were tested on two separate days. Carotid artery distensibility (DC) was measured with ultrasound. Physical activity was determined by questionnaire.

Results: Yoga and aerobic subjects had similar physical activity levels. Yoga and aerobic groups were not different in either DC (p = 0.26) or PWV (p = 0.21). The sedentary group had lower DC and higher PWV compared to the aerobic and yoga groups (both, p < 0.001). Stiffness measures were reliable day to day (coefficients of variation ~2.5%) and similar between left and right arteries (CV = 2.2%).

Conclusion: Physical activity was a strong predictor of both measures of arterial stiffness, although other factors such as nutritional status need to be accounted for. An independent effect of practicing yoga could not be detected. Stiffness measures were reproducible and left and right sides were consistent with each other.

Source






TERROR? OBESITY? WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE AUCTION

Should you be more scared of hoodies or terrorists? Ought global warming make us shiver more than the Cold War? Welcome to the apocalypse auction, where experts and authorities bid up their pet threats to public safety. In competing to win headlines, they all seem to lose a sense of perspective.

Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police chief, now claims that "youth violence" is the greatest "threat to the whole of London, perhaps with the exception of terrorism". Only "perhaps"? After all, Sir Ian has previously said that Islamic terrorism poses a threat to London "far graver" than the Second World War. Prime Minister Gordon Brown prefers to compare terrorism today to the Cold War. Are we to conclude that the hoodies now present "perhaps" as big a threat to our society as the Luftwaffe or the Red Army?

But hold your four horsemen of the apocalypse a minute. An army of experts led by Sir David King, until recently the chief government scientist, has declared global warming an even bigger threat than terrorism. Should we focus all our fears on that instead? Then again, that might underestimate the threat of the enemy within our waistbands, since the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, has pronounced obesity "a potential crisis on the scale of climate change".

To recap the bids. Youth violence is perhaps as big a threat as terrorism, which is a far graver threat than the Nazis, but not as hot as global warming, which is the same size threat as obesity. We await news of more new little Hitlers and Stalins lurking out there.

What purpose is served by this apocalypse auction? Who does it help to compare the tragic killing of 11 London teenagers this year with a terrorist threat? Come to that, how can it further our understanding of Islamic terrorism - which killed 52 people in London in 2005 - to claim that it is more serious than the wartime Blitz that left 43,000 Londoners dead?

And how complex issues such as climate change and obesity might be clarified by overheated, fat-headed comparisons is anybody's guess.

As they compete to make a media impact, experts raise the scaremongering stakes ever higher. New research even claims that mobile phones are "more dangerous than smoking". (Maybe they'll ban mobiles in public...) The likely results of this my-risk's-bigger- than-yours talk will be to raise public anxieties further - and lower public trust in anything that officials say.

These comparisons are not only odious, but dangerous. In fact, it is surely no exaggeration to suggest that the apocalypse auction might pose a bigger threat to rational discussion than, er, anything else that ever happened before.

Source






Food Fascism hits New Zealand kids



Children in a New Zealand school have been banned from bringing cakes to share on their birthdays, due to new government healthy eating guidelines. Pupils at Oteha Valley primary school north of Auckland have been told they are allowed to celebrate their birthdays, but the cake must stay at home, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported. The Ministry of Education has been on a fat-busting crusade, introducing sweeping guidelines against unhealthy food in New Zealand schools.

Oteha Valley has a large number of pupils born in September and October, and there can be up to four cakes a week in some classes, principal Megan Bowden told the paper. It had come to the point where parents thought they were required to provide a cake for their child's birthday. The school has advised parents in a newsletter to stop sending cakes to school from the next term.

A Ministry of Education spokesman told the newspaper the government guidelines only applied to food sold on the premises, and schools did not need to monitor food brought in from outside.

Source

Stupid food Fascism

Inadvertent leaders in economic research, public school officials seem dedicated to discovering again and again just what it is that sparks the creation of a black market. What have they found? Restricting goods that school kids want inspires many of them to foray into the world of underground entrepreneurship.

California school officials have discovered -- surprise! -- that banning "junk food" creates economic opportunities for kids willing to take a few risks in smuggling and peddling contraband. The lesson comes courtesy of the drive to promote healthy eating, or else, among the nation's pudgy youth. Golden State officials have cracked down on unapproved foodstuffs and put their official weight behind healthier -- but less popular -- alternatives.

"It's created a little underground economy, with businessmen selling everything from a pack of skittles to an energy drink," said Jim Nason, principal at Hook Junior High School in Victorville. This has become a lucrative business, Nason said, and those kids are walking around campus with upwards of $40 in their pockets and disrupting class to make a sale.

The results could have been predicted by an economist or student of history who has paid even cursory attention to repeatedly thwarted efforts by government officials to restrict people's access to goods and services that they want. The situation in California (and in Boulder, Colorado, earlier) not only emulates the reaction to Prohibition and drug bans -- it directly reflects students' response to junk food bans elsewhere. Says the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph:

The situation echoes that in the UK where a similar drive to promote healthy eating sparked a playground black market in junk food with pupils trading snacks and fizzy drinks and the most organised staging lunchtime runs to local shops and McDonald's to fill junk food orders.

British officials shocked by widespread resistance to their efforts are considering barring students from leaving campus at lunch, and even preventing fast-food restaurants from opening near campuses -- schemes intended to further restrict the flow of contraband. Considering, though, that flat-out outlawing marijuana and heroin has failed to cut off the supply, it's hard to see how tighter restrictions on legal products can do anything more than slightly raise prices (and profit margins) on goods smuggled through school doors.

Oddly enough, surreptitious peddling of cokes and candy may offer public school students the best economic education they're likely to receive in tax-supported institutions. School officials may barely be able to teach kids to read and write, but they're offering an excellent lesson in the hurdles faced by any effort at prohibition and the inevitability of the underground economy.

Source







'Lung cancer' gene discovered

Nice to see medical researchers debating the pathway of causation -- instead of just assuming that it is obvious

A CLUSTER of genes that influence the risk of developing lung cancer has been found, offering insights that could lead to new treatments and ways of helping people to quit smoking. People who inherit a particular genetic variant are 30 per cent more likely to develop lung cancer than those who do not; in those who inherit two copies of the variant, the risk rises by up to 80 per cent.

However, the link between the disease and a genetic region that holds three nicotine receptor genes has divided the three independent teams that have identified it, which disagree over its relationship with smoking. The largest of the studies, from deCODE Genetics, an Icelandic company, found that the increased risk occurs entirely because the variant makes smokers more likely to become addicted and to smoke more heavily.

A French group, however, found that the raised risk applies to people who have never smoked as well as to smokers, suggesting that the gene may have a biological effect independent of its impact on tobacco use.

The third study, led by Richard Houlston, of the Institute of Cancer Research in Sutton, Surrey, also found an independent effect, though this was studied only in current and former smokers. Further research will be needed to settle the issue.

Whatever the explanation, variations in a region of chromosome 15 appear to be sufficiently important to account for nearly one in five cases of lung cancer, and for one in ten cases of peripheral artery disease (PAD) - a circulatory disorder also linked to smoking. That is because while the variant adds only slightly to individuals' risk, it is very common. About 44 per cent of people of European descent carry one copy and another 11 per cent have two copies. As well as its effect on the risk of lung cancer, each copy raises the risk of PAD by 20 per cent. Even if the variant does affect non-smokers, however, all three studies agreed that its impact will be far outweighed by that of smoking.

Paul Brennan, of the French National Institute of Cancer, said that before genetics are considered, smokers have a lifetime risk of lung cancer of about 15 per cent, compared with 6 per cent for former smokers who quit by middle age, and less than 1 per cent for non-smokers. The risk rises to 23 per cent for smokers with the most vulnerable genetic profile, but hardly falls at all for smokers with the least susceptible genotype, who still have a 14 per cent lifetime risk.

This is still about ten times greater than it is for people who have never smoked, but who have two copies of the variant, according to Dr Brennan's results. "If people don't smoke, the background risk is so low that having one or even two copies really doesn't make a difference," he said.

One of the most interesting aspects of the findings, which are published in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, is that they show how a disease that clearly has a strong environmental component can also be affected by genetics.

In a commentary for Nature, Stephen Chanock, of the US National Institutes of Health, and David Hunter, of Harvard Medical School, said that the results could have important medical implications. "We may be able to evaluate smoking-cessation treatments informed by knowledge of a person's genetic predisposition to start smoking or to nicotine addiction, and thus add new weapons to the anti-smoking arsenal," they said.

Source

Lowering "bad" cholesterol does not help

Below is a popular summary of some recent research, followed by a paragraph from the Editorial in the prestigious medical journal concerned (NEJM). The brainiacs found a combination of existing drugs that lowered cholesterol by 27% but the outcome for the patients was unaltered. The original journal abstract can be read here. The results will be no surprise to those who are not of the cholesterol religion

A heavily promoted heart drug endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) may be worthless, according to a newly published trial. Ezetimibe (Ezetrol) was recommended by NICE last year for patients with inherited high cholesterol, to be used in conjunction with a statin drug such as simvastatin. But results published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented yesterday at the American College of Cardiology annual scientific session in Chicago show that it may add nothing to the effectiveness of the statin.

The trial is highly controversial, with claims that it was deliberately suppressed by the drug's manufacturers and released only in response to congressional pressures. The data were made public in January by Merck and Schering-Plough, which makes the drug, but this is the first formal publication. Ezetrol is hugely successful. It is advertised heavily in America, where its sales exceed $5 billion. In the United Kingdom in 2006 - before the NICE endorsement - more than a million prescriptions for Exetrol were written out, worth more than œ40 million. The trial does not show that Ezetrol is damaging, and confirms that it reduces "bad" LDL cholesterol. The assumption was that it would add to the benefits already proven for simvastatin, producing a double-drug with even better lifesaving effects.

The new trial was designed to compare the effects of simvastatin alone with simvastatin plus Ezetrol in slowing the progression of coronary artery disease in patients with familial hyper-cholesterolaemia - a condition in which a tendency to high cholesterol levels is inherited. This was done by measuring the degree of blockage of the arteries in more than 600 patients given either plain simvastatin, or simvastatin plus Ezetrol, for two years. The result was that adding Ezetrol did nothing to slow the progress of the disease. Plaque build-up on the artery walls was the same in patients who took the combination as it was in those who took simvastatin alone.

Earlier studies have shown that plaque build-up is a good proxy for death rates. The more plaque, the more deaths. So most cardiologists will conclude that prescribing Ezetrol is unlikely to prolong the lives of their patients. Other trials are in progress that will measure actual outcomes, such as deaths or heart attacks, but they are not likely to be published before 2011. Until then, says an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, it seems prudent to encourage patients whose cholesterol levels remain high despite an optimal dose of statins "to redouble their efforts at dietary control and regular exercise". Other drugs such as niacin, fibrates and resins should be considered if diet, exercise and a statin have failed.

The results throw the whole science of cholesterol reduction into question. [Again] Until now the greater the reduction, the better. But the trial has shown that it is possible to reduce bad cholesterol significantly and yet come out no better, and maybe worse. That is a shock.

In the US the waters have been muddied by claims that Merck and Schering-Plough completed the trial two years ago but did not publish the results until a congressional inquiry was launched. The trial was completed in April 2006, but both companies say it is time-consuming to analyse scans taken of carotid arteries and they only knew of the results early in January. Executives have denied selling shares in the companies before the trial was made public. Peter Kim, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said: "We stand behind ezetimibe and our science, which has brought these cholesterol-lowering medications to millions of patients around the world." A spokesman for NICE said that it would be looking at the results of the study.

Source

Excerpt from the NEJM editorial

"The ENHANCE trial was conducted in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, a condition characterized by high levels of LDL cholesterol. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either simvastatin alone or a combination of simvastatin plus ezetimibe. Combination therapy resulted in LDL cholesterol levels that were 27% lower than those achieved with monotherapy, and C-reactive protein levels were also significantly lower with combination therapy. Unexpectedly, however, the trial showed that despite increased lowering of LDL cholesterol in the group that received ezetimibe, the rate of progression of atherosclerotic disease, as measured by intima–media thickness, was the same in the two study groups. It is this paradox, which is at odds with our traditional understanding of the relationship between LDL cholesterol and atherosclerosis, that has puzzled investigators and clinicians alike. The paradox and other important questions that are raised by the trial, including the rationale for the use of carotid intima–media thickness as a surrogate end point, are discussed in detail by Brown and Taylor in an accompanying editorial."




Fasting could help fight cancer

Worth a try


A pilot study is about to start on cancer patients to see if fasting can make chemotherapy more effective, and with fewer side effects such as deafness and hair loss. Making chemotherapy more selective has been a research goal of cancer scientists for decades. Doctors could control the spread of cancers much better, and even cure some, if chemotherapy was not so toxic to the rest of the body

But now an alternative way to improve the treatment has been found, not by targetting chemotherapy at cancer cells with a "magic bullet" but by making normal cells tougher, providing a "magic shield", either by fasting or by drugs to mimic the effects of fasting. Fasting for as little as 48 hours protects healthy cells against chemotherapy, according to a study by a team led by Dr Valter Longo at the University of Southern California, which is preparing to test the method on a small group of bladder cancer patients. The pilot clinical study is planned at the university's Norris Cancer Centre within six months.

Mice given a high dose of chemotherapy after fasting continued to thrive, reports the team, which includes Lizzia Raffaghello at Gaslini Children's Hospital in Genoa, Italy. The same dose killed half the normally fed mice and caused lasting weight and energy loss in the survivors. Test tube experiments confirmed normal human cells were two to five times more resistant than cancer cells to chemotherapy after a short period of starvation. In yeast, the difference was up to 1000 fold. "If we get to just a 10-20 fold differential toxicity with human metastatic (spreading) cancers, all of a sudden it's a completely different game against cancer," Dr Longo says. "My hope is that many places around the world will carefully design small clinical trials on starvation and protection against chemotherapy."

He adds that the effects of starvation can also be mimicked by a drug and this approach will also be tested. "We have identified a drug target and drug as well as a modified diet that appear to work almost as well as starvation. Naturally this is the best way to go because a period of starvation longer than 48 hours may be required but would not be possible (in humans) to obtain the same remarkable effects observed in mice" says Dr Longo.

" This is a very important paper. It defines a novel concept in cancer biology," comments cancer researcher Prof Pinchas Cohen, University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA. "In theory, it opens up new treatment approaches that will allow higher doses of chemotherapy. It's a direction that's worth pursuing in clinical trials in humans."

Dr Felipe Sierra, director of the Biology of Aging Program at the National Institute on Ageing, adds, "This is not just one more anti- cancer treatment that attacks the cancer cells. To me, that's an important conceptual difference." The team stresses that fasting is not the same as malnourishment, when inadequate nutrients are taken in, and can easily be tolerated given progress in cancer care. "We have passed the stage where patients arrive at the clinic in an emaciated state. Not eating for two days is not the end of the world," Dr Sierra says. "This could have applicability in maybe a majority of patients," adds David Quinn, of USC Norris Hospital and Clinics, who is preparing the trial with Dr Longo.

The initial trial will study if a 48 hour starvation is sufficient to generate protection, without the risk of making the patient too weak and even more sensitive to chemotherapy. The finding chimes with a range of work on the anti ageing effects of calorie restriction. Dr Longo had been introduced to this idea 15 years ago by the late Roy Walford of UCLA, who showed that a nutritious diet that is low in calories can make a range of species live longer. Dr Longo's team later demonstrated that the anti-aging effect of calorie restriction is caused in part by the ability of cells to become resistant to stress.

The calorie restriction/starvation based method is effective not only because it protects cells but because of Dr Longo's discovery that the same genes that decrease this stress resistance are the ones involved in cancer. "By definition, cancer cells do not require growth factors for growth and do not respond well to anti-growth orders," he says. "Thus, starvation provides an order to all cells to go into a "anti-chemotherapy protected mode" but the only cells that do not respond are cancer cells."

Source

Groan! Another cellphone phobic

An as yet unpublished study so we will see what remains of it after peer review. Anything that is popular will ALWAYS be in the sights of the attention-seekers

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation. The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks. It draws on growing evidence - exclusively reported in the IoS in October - that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Professor Khurana - a top neurosurgeon who has received 14 awards over the past 16 years, has published more than three dozen scientific papers - reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones. He has put the results on a brain surgery website, and a paper based on the research is currently being peer-reviewed for publication in a scientific journal.

He admits that mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours". He believes this will be "definitively proven" in the next decade. Noting that malignant brain tumours represent "a life-ending diagnosis", he adds: "We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation." He fears that "unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps", the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

"It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana's study as "a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual". It believes he "does not present a balanced analysis" of the published science, and "reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews".

Source





Blood pressure drugs cut stroke deaths in elderly

Sounds reasonable

Drugs used to lower blood pressure can cut the death rate from strokes in the elderly by almost 40 per cent, an international study has found. Around 4000 people in several countries, including Australia, were surveyed over two years for the survey which found for the first time that treating blood pressure in elderly patients could give them a new lease of life. "The issue of the elderly is obviously becoming more important as the population ages and blood pressure does rise with age in our society," said Melbourne-based Professor Stephen Harrap, president of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia.

"There has been a tendency to think perhaps it's part of growing old and we shouldn't be as aggressive in treating it in an 80-year-old as in someone who is aged 40. "But what this study shows is you should - and the benefits are in terms of lives saved in this particular study."

Prof Harrap said that every year, more than 53,000 Australians suffered strokes, more than half of them over 75. And more than 75 per cent of those elderly Australians suffered from high blood pressure, which was a major contributor to fatal heart attacks and stokes. But until now, the medical profession had been reluctant to treat high blood pressure in the elderly for fear of causing complications. But thiazide-like diuretics, which work on the kidneys, used in conjunction with ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) inhibitors, had produced a dramatic 39 per cent increase in the survival rate following strokes, he said. The blood pressure lowering treatment also cut the overall death rate by more than 20 per cent.

"The thiazide-like diuretics are particularly good in the elderly," Prof Harrap said. "As we get older, our kidneys aren't as good at getting rid of salt from the body and when we eat our routine diets we tend to build up a bit of salt and that can put your blood pressure up."

Stroke and heart attacks accounted for around one third of all deaths in Australia and elderly people with high blood pressure should not just accept the condition as part of the ageing process, Prof Harrap said. "Doctors would be more inclined to treat with this information, so that's a win-win," he said.

The results of the global study were revealed today at the American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago. The results have also been accepted for publication in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. The study had been scheduled to run for five years with half the participants receiving the blood pressure lowering medication and half a placebo. But the huge improvement in life expectancy in those receiving the treatment prompted the researchers to terminate the trial early and extend treatment to all participants. "Those people who were not receiving the treatment were dying more frequently and it was unethical to continue," Prof Harrap said.

Source