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September 17, 2003

U.S. Leads Campaign to Curb Antibiotic Use

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading a campaign to cure antibiotic fever in America. The agency, partnering with major health organizations, is hoping to stem the tens of millions of antibiotic prescriptions that are requested -- and filled -- to treat viral infections, for which they are useless. "Antibiotics are powerful drugs. In fact, sometimes we imagine they are wonder drugs that can treat any infections," Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. "But the truth is antibiotics only work against bacteria, not the viruses that cause colds and flu. It's so important to get smart about antibiotic use and work with your doctor to get the right remedy during this cold and flu season." The government and the health groups are growing concerned over antibiotic resistance. In the last decade, almost every type of bacterium has gotten stronger and more resistant to drugs because of antibiotic overuse. The campaign, launched Wednesday at a meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in Chicago, will include TV and radio spots as well as print ads. [Source: Health Day]

September 17, 2003

World's Oldest Person Celebrates Another Birthday

A Japanese woman believed to be the world's oldest person turned 116 today. Kamato Hongo, born in 1887, is a legend in her country for her habit of sleeping for two days, then staying awake for two days at a time. Though she has outlived her husband and three children, she still has four other children, 27 grandchildren, 57 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-great grandchildren, the Associated Press reports. Quoting a Web page devoted to Hongo, the wire service cites her secret to longevity: "Not moping around," it says. [Source: Health Day]

September 17, 2003

There's Something Fishy About This Vaccine

Researchers in Singapore say they have created zebrafish that can produce vaccines in their muscles, creating the possibility that future inoculations may be edible. The BBC reports that this technological advance could be advanced further to other, more commonly eaten types of fish like salmon. Researchers from the National University of Singapore genetically modified the zebrafish so that they produced a hepatitis B vaccine, according to the BBC. They now plan to infect some animals with the virus to see if eating the fish has a protective effect. Previous efforts to get vaccines in plants and animals have failed because they don't contain enough protein, but zebrafish are loaded with protein, the scientists said. There's one hitch, assuming it works at all: Vaccinees must eat the fish raw. [Source: Health Day]

September 17, 2003

Group Unveils List of Worst Snack Foods for Kids

No doubt you and your junk-food-loving child will recognize at least some of the products on a new list of the worst school snacks, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The sugar- and fat-laden list includes Coca-Cola and Pepsi sodas, Hostess snack cakes, Kit Kat Big Kat candy bars, Chips Ahoy! and Oreo cookies, and Starburst Fruit Chews, the Associated Press reports. Long-time school cafeteria staples -- chocolate and other flavors of whole milk -- also made the advocacy group's list due to their high saturated fat content. CSPI is urging schools to forgo unhealthy snacks in favor of foods like unsweetened applesauce, fat-free chocolate milk, 100 percent fruit juices, granola bars and raisins. It wants Congress to authorize the U.S. Agriculture Department to restrict junk food sold in school vending machines and cafeterias. The food industry, asserting there's room in the average person's diet for all types of food, counters that decisions about whether to allow junk food in schools should continue to rest with local school boards and parents, the AP reports. [Source: Health Day]

Sex hormones explain why men get more heart attacks than women

Aging is good news for medicare

New warning for smokers

Sage could make you a sage

Sex hormones explain why men get more heart attacks than women

HealthWorld Online - September 16, 2003

Sidney (dpa) - Men have more heart attacks than women because of their sex hormones, researchers in Australia said Tuesday. They found that male sex hormones, or androgens, activate the genes that stimulate the production of cholesterol in arteries. None of these genes were activated in women. Martin Ng, a cardiologist at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said the finding might lead to gender specific treatments for coronary heart disease. "Male sex hormones stimulate genes that promote coronary artery disease in men but in a very surprising finding, when we used the same male sex hormones in women, we found that nothing happened, even though both men and women have male sex hormones," Dr. Ng told Australia's ABC Radio. The finding helps explain why men are five times more likely to have a heart attack than women. The results of the two-year study have been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The lower risk factor for women has customarily been put down to the higher levels of oestrogen in women. But Dr. Ng said his study showed this to be wrong.

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Aging Is Good News for Medicare

HealthWorld Online - September 16, 2003

More "golden years" do not cost the health care system more: Whether people are healthy at age 70 and live independently for many more years or are sickly and die sooner, their medical costs are about the same, federal researchers say. The findings have big implications for taxpayers, because they suggest that the outlook for Medicare as baby boomers grow old is not as dire as some policy-makers have feared. Given projections that the baby boom generation will bankrupt the Medicare trust fund in about 25 years, politicians and economists have wondered whether the increasing longevity of seniors would increase or reduce Medicare spending. The answer is neither, say researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics. They found that medical expenses from age 70 until death averaged $140,700, with little difference between active senior citizens and disabled ones - except for those already in a nursing home. "The basic lesson of our study is that although healthy people live longer, they don't cost more in the long run," said Jim Lubitz, acting chief of the Aging Studies Branch in the statistics center's Office of Analysis, Epidemiology and Health Promotion. Lubitz said the study, reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine, should give a boost to efforts by government and doctors to encourage middle-aged and elderly people to improve their health. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor and health economist at Princeton University, said 70-year-olds today have far fewer disabilities than their counterparts a couple of decades ago, when economist Victor Fuchs first reported that longevity does not affect health care spending much. Reinhardt said the new study provides updated numbers on those costs.

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New warning for smokers

HealthWorld Online - September 16, 2003

Cigarette smokers who down dark beers, red wines and common foods might face a miniversion of a potentially serious drug side effect that hits people who mix those foods with certain anti-depressant drugs. That possibility emerged from a study that found that chemicals in cigarette smoke cause bodywide plunges in a key enzyme called monoamine oxidase, or MAO. John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, an anti-smoking group based in Washington, noted that scientists have long known that the 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke travel throughout the body. But their effects, such as destroying MAO, is a newly emerging field, he noted. Fowler's team used a computerized imaging technique called PET scanning to compare MAO levels in the hearts, kidneys and other organs of smokers and non-smokers. Smokers, they found, have about 40 percent less MAO in those organs. Fowler said it results from chemicals in tobacco smoke that block MAO. A family of anti-depressant drugs called MAO inhibitors has the same effect, preventing MAO in the brain from breaking down neurotransmitters that create a sense of well-being. But in the digestive system, MAO destroys tyramine, a chemical found in aged cheeses; aged, pickled, or smoked meats such as salami; yeast extracts; tap and dark beer; red wine; sauerkraut; and avocado. Without MAO, tyramine can build up to toxic levels, causing headache, sweating, palpitations and possibly leading to a heart attack or stroke. Conventional wisdom is that MAO must be almost 100 percent out of action for problems with tyramine-rich foods to occur, Fowler said. But she added that the 40 percent inhibition by tobacco smoke could be causing milder problems in smokers who eat tyramine-rich foods.

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Sage Could Make You a Sage

Yahoo Health News - August 29, 2003

FRIDAY, Aug. 29 (HealthDayNews) -- A centuries-old belief that sage improves memory seems to be confirmed in a British study published in the current issue of l Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behaviour. The finding may have implications for efforts to treat Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites). Scientists from the Medical Plant Research Centre (MPRC) at the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria found that healthy, young adults who took sage oil performed much better in a word recall test than those given a placebo. The study included 44 women and men between the ages of 18 and 37. They were given either capsules containing sage oil or a placebo and then tried the word recall test. The people who took the sage oil consistently had better results than those who took the placebo. Earlier research by MPRC scientists found sage inhibits an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which breaks down the chemical messenger acetylcholine. People with Alzheimer's experience a decline in acetylcholine. The MPRC scientists believe it may be a combination of chemicals in sage oil that affect AChE. Those oils may also have antioxidant, estrogenic and anti-inflammatory properties, which are also considered beneficial in Alzheimer's therapy. The nerve and memory benefits of sage were extolled by noted herbalists of the 1500s and 1600s and, centuries ago, people took sage for memory loss.

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