By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer Fri Mar 23, 3:41 AM ET
LONDON - New "landmark" research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.
In research published Friday in The Lancet magazine, Professor David Nutt of Britain's Bristol University and colleagues proposed a new framework for the classification of harmful substances, based on the actual risks posed to society. Their ranking listed alcohol and tobacco among the top 10 most dangerous substances.
Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use. The researchers asked two groups of experts — psychiatrists specializing in addiction and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise — to assign scores to 20 different drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD.
Nutt and his colleagues then calculated the drugs' overall rankings. In the end, the experts agreed with each other — but not with the existing British classification of dangerous substances.
Heroin and cocaine were ranked most dangerous, followed by barbiturates and street methadone. Alcohol was the fifth-most harmful drug and tobacco the ninth most harmful. Cannabis came in 11th, and near the bottom of the list was Ecstasy.
According to existing British and U.S. drug policy, alcohol and tobacco are legal, while cannabis and Ecstasy are both illegal. Previous reports, including a study from a parliamentary committee last year, have questioned the scientific rationale for Britain's drug classification system.
"The current drug system is ill thought-out and arbitrary," said Nutt, referring to the United Kingdom's practice of assigning drugs to three distinct divisions, ostensibly based on the drugs' potential for harm. "The exclusion of alcohol and tobacco from the Misuse of Drugs Act is, from a scientific perspective, arbitrary," write Nutt and his colleagues in The Lancet.
Tobacco causes 40 percent of all hospital illnesses, while alcohol is blamed for more than half of all visits to hospital emergency rooms. The substances also harm society in other ways, damaging families and occupying police services.
Nutt hopes that the research will provoke debate within the UK and beyond about how drugs — including socially acceptable drugs such as alcohol — should be regulated. While different countries use different markers to classify dangerous drugs, none use a system like the one proposed by Nutt's study, which he hopes could serve as a framework for international authorities.
"This is a landmark paper," said Dr. Leslie Iversen, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University. Iversen was not connected to the research. "It is the first real step towards an evidence-based classification of drugs." He added that based on the paper's results, alcohol and tobacco could not reasonably be excluded.
"The rankings also suggest the need for better regulation of the more harmful drugs that are currently legal, i.e. tobacco and alcohol," wrote Wayne Hall, of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, in an accompanying Lancet commentary. Hall was not involved with Nutt's paper.
While experts agreed that criminalizing alcohol and tobacco would be challenging, they said that governments should review the penalties imposed for drug abuse and try to make them more reflective of the actual risks and damages involved.
Nutt called for more education so that people were aware of the risks of various drugs. "All drugs are dangerous," he said. "Even the ones people know and love and use every day."
Friday, March 23, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Activity Levels Key to Childhood Obesity
9 minutes ago
WEDNESDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of activity -- especially a lack of moderate and vigorous exercise -- play an important role in the development of childhood obesity, says a British study that compared the amount of fat in children to their levels of physical activity.
ADVERTISEMENT
University of Bristol researchers used special techniques to measure the fat mass and activity-related energy expenditure of 5,500 children.
The results showed consistently that the less active children were, the greater their fat mass. This effect was stronger in boys than in girls. The statistical association between fat mass and low activity levels was greater for moderate and vigorous activity than for total activity, the study found.
They acknowledged that their study had certain limitations, but the researchers said encouraging children to be more active should be a major part of efforts to fight the childhood obesity epidemic.
The study is published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.
More information
The American Heart Association has more about physical activity and children.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4596
WEDNESDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- Low levels of activity -- especially a lack of moderate and vigorous exercise -- play an important role in the development of childhood obesity, says a British study that compared the amount of fat in children to their levels of physical activity.
ADVERTISEMENT
University of Bristol researchers used special techniques to measure the fat mass and activity-related energy expenditure of 5,500 children.
The results showed consistently that the less active children were, the greater their fat mass. This effect was stronger in boys than in girls. The statistical association between fat mass and low activity levels was greater for moderate and vigorous activity than for total activity, the study found.
They acknowledged that their study had certain limitations, but the researchers said encouraging children to be more active should be a major part of efforts to fight the childhood obesity epidemic.
The study is published in the current issue of the journal PLoS Medicine.
More information
The American Heart Association has more about physical activity and children.
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4596
Friday, March 16, 2007
Diabetes Epidemic Spreading Worldwide: Experts
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter Fri Mar 16, 11:47 PM ET
FRIDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- More than two-thirds of the world's estimated 246 million diabetics come from less-affluent developing nations, and more must be done to curb a disease that now rivals
HIV/
AIDS in terms of suffering and death around the globe.
That sobering assessment was offered by experts gathered at this week's Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum in New York City, which included keynote speaker former President
Bill Clinton. The conference is one of the largest such gatherings ever of scientists, health-care advocates and government leaders focused on the issue.
"This truly is an epidemic," warned Dr. Martin Silink, president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), which represents more than 200 diabetes associations across 158 countries. "Seventy percent of the global burden of diabetes is now in developing countries, even though that seems paradoxical. People think that it should be in the developed world where there is access to fast food and lots of obesity."
But rapid lifestyle changes are affecting the health of people in China, India, South America, and elsewhere, he said. "As their economies develop, diabetes is now subverting the gains of economic development," Silink said.
The issue has gained such urgency that the
United Nations' General Assembly in December passed a global resolution to encourage the prevention, treatment and care of diabetes. The U.N. has only passed one such disease-targeted resolution before, when it vowed to fight HIV/AIDS.
Some statistics from the IDF:
* By 2025, the number of people with diabetes is expected to rise to 380 million worldwide, with 80 percent living in the developing world.
* Each year, another 7 million people develop diabetes, while 3.8 million die of diabetes-linked causes.
* In many countries in Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean, diabetes already affects 15 percent to 20 percent of the adult population.
* India now has the largest number of diabetics (almost 41 million) in the world, followed by China (nearly 40 million), the United States (19.2 million) and Russia (9.6 million).
* Diabetes increasingly affects the young or middle-aged, with more than half of diabetics in developing countries between the ages of 40 and 59.
According to the experts, a "perfect storm" of genetics and social change is driving the spread of obesity-linked type 2 diabetes in poorer countries. Visitors to today's China quickly notice McDonald's, KFC and other fast-food outlets springing up in major cities. At the same time, the foot and bicycle are making way for the car on urban streets.
Scientists have also long understood that Asians, Hispanics and blacks are more vulnerable, genetically, to develop type 2 disease compared with those of European descent.
"They simply don't have to get as obese as a European to get diabetes," Silink explained. Among non-Europeans, even a relatively modest increase in abdominal fat -- the so-called "spare tire" -- can trigger changes that lead to insulin insensitivity and diabetes.
"The risk of diabetes in a European starts rising after a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of about 25 or 26," the normal threshold for overweight, Silink said. "But for a person coming from Bangladesh or India, that risk curve starts after a BMI of just 22," he said.
A person who is 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighs 145 pounds has a BMI of 22.
Too often, expensive, pay-as-you-go health-care systems in developing countries mean diabetes isn't even detected until it reaches crisis levels, Silink added. The results -- prolonged disability, amputation, even death -- can destroy a family's income.
Urban stress is another factor driving the epidemic, as the world's poor seek employment in cities, Silink said. For reasons that remain unclear, "we know that simply moving from a rural environment to a city doubles your risk of diabetes without any change in body mass," he said. "And if you have to go to a 'mega-city' -- a population of over 10 million -- the risk probably rises fourfold."
Another expert said it's not too late to put the brakes on this developing crisis, however.
Dr. Alan Moses was the former chief medical officer of Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center and is now associate vice president of medical affairs at pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which sponsored the conference.
"We tend to think of the costs associated with diabetes and worry that putting appropriate resources into diabetes is going to cost more," he said. "But diabetes is one of the few conditions where when you improve health, you actually reduce the cost burden on society. It should be viewed as an investment with a real return."
Certain steps taken by governments in the developed world are already helping. For example, Sen. Guy Barnett of Australia, himself a type 1 diabetic, said his government is moving to change what he labeled an "obesinogenic" environment Down Under.
Along with the United States, "we are one of the fattest countries on Earth," Barnett told reporters at a press conference held Wednesday. "But for governments everywhere, (diabetes) is a monster that is getting bigger and bigger."
With one in 10 Australian children now obese, the Australian government has mandated healthy school lunches, boosted funding for after-school physical activity programs and negotiated with fast-food giant McDonald's to make menus healthier. Former U.S.
President Clinton helped broker similar deals with food companies last year to keep unhealthy sodas and snacks out of American schools.
Those and other initiatives can and should be tested in countries worldwide, Silink said. In one sense, he said, developing countries have a real edge on the West, since "they are still in the process of developing their new towns, their urban centers.
"So, in terms of town planning, societal engineering, they have a chance to engineer it for health and not for conditions that are detrimental to human health," Silink said. "It's up to the diabetes world to work with the various organizations to make this happen."
More information
Find out more about diabetes at the American Diabetes Association.
HealthDay Reporter Fri Mar 16, 11:47 PM ET
FRIDAY, March 16 (HealthDay News) -- More than two-thirds of the world's estimated 246 million diabetics come from less-affluent developing nations, and more must be done to curb a disease that now rivals
HIV/
AIDS in terms of suffering and death around the globe.
That sobering assessment was offered by experts gathered at this week's Global Changing Diabetes Leadership Forum in New York City, which included keynote speaker former President
Bill Clinton. The conference is one of the largest such gatherings ever of scientists, health-care advocates and government leaders focused on the issue.
"This truly is an epidemic," warned Dr. Martin Silink, president of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), which represents more than 200 diabetes associations across 158 countries. "Seventy percent of the global burden of diabetes is now in developing countries, even though that seems paradoxical. People think that it should be in the developed world where there is access to fast food and lots of obesity."
But rapid lifestyle changes are affecting the health of people in China, India, South America, and elsewhere, he said. "As their economies develop, diabetes is now subverting the gains of economic development," Silink said.
The issue has gained such urgency that the
United Nations' General Assembly in December passed a global resolution to encourage the prevention, treatment and care of diabetes. The U.N. has only passed one such disease-targeted resolution before, when it vowed to fight HIV/AIDS.
Some statistics from the IDF:
* By 2025, the number of people with diabetes is expected to rise to 380 million worldwide, with 80 percent living in the developing world.
* Each year, another 7 million people develop diabetes, while 3.8 million die of diabetes-linked causes.
* In many countries in Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean, diabetes already affects 15 percent to 20 percent of the adult population.
* India now has the largest number of diabetics (almost 41 million) in the world, followed by China (nearly 40 million), the United States (19.2 million) and Russia (9.6 million).
* Diabetes increasingly affects the young or middle-aged, with more than half of diabetics in developing countries between the ages of 40 and 59.
According to the experts, a "perfect storm" of genetics and social change is driving the spread of obesity-linked type 2 diabetes in poorer countries. Visitors to today's China quickly notice McDonald's, KFC and other fast-food outlets springing up in major cities. At the same time, the foot and bicycle are making way for the car on urban streets.
Scientists have also long understood that Asians, Hispanics and blacks are more vulnerable, genetically, to develop type 2 disease compared with those of European descent.
"They simply don't have to get as obese as a European to get diabetes," Silink explained. Among non-Europeans, even a relatively modest increase in abdominal fat -- the so-called "spare tire" -- can trigger changes that lead to insulin insensitivity and diabetes.
"The risk of diabetes in a European starts rising after a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of about 25 or 26," the normal threshold for overweight, Silink said. "But for a person coming from Bangladesh or India, that risk curve starts after a BMI of just 22," he said.
A person who is 5-feet, 8-inches tall and weighs 145 pounds has a BMI of 22.
Too often, expensive, pay-as-you-go health-care systems in developing countries mean diabetes isn't even detected until it reaches crisis levels, Silink added. The results -- prolonged disability, amputation, even death -- can destroy a family's income.
Urban stress is another factor driving the epidemic, as the world's poor seek employment in cities, Silink said. For reasons that remain unclear, "we know that simply moving from a rural environment to a city doubles your risk of diabetes without any change in body mass," he said. "And if you have to go to a 'mega-city' -- a population of over 10 million -- the risk probably rises fourfold."
Another expert said it's not too late to put the brakes on this developing crisis, however.
Dr. Alan Moses was the former chief medical officer of Harvard's Joslin Diabetes Center and is now associate vice president of medical affairs at pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, which sponsored the conference.
"We tend to think of the costs associated with diabetes and worry that putting appropriate resources into diabetes is going to cost more," he said. "But diabetes is one of the few conditions where when you improve health, you actually reduce the cost burden on society. It should be viewed as an investment with a real return."
Certain steps taken by governments in the developed world are already helping. For example, Sen. Guy Barnett of Australia, himself a type 1 diabetic, said his government is moving to change what he labeled an "obesinogenic" environment Down Under.
Along with the United States, "we are one of the fattest countries on Earth," Barnett told reporters at a press conference held Wednesday. "But for governments everywhere, (diabetes) is a monster that is getting bigger and bigger."
With one in 10 Australian children now obese, the Australian government has mandated healthy school lunches, boosted funding for after-school physical activity programs and negotiated with fast-food giant McDonald's to make menus healthier. Former U.S.
President Clinton helped broker similar deals with food companies last year to keep unhealthy sodas and snacks out of American schools.
Those and other initiatives can and should be tested in countries worldwide, Silink said. In one sense, he said, developing countries have a real edge on the West, since "they are still in the process of developing their new towns, their urban centers.
"So, in terms of town planning, societal engineering, they have a chance to engineer it for health and not for conditions that are detrimental to human health," Silink said. "It's up to the diabetes world to work with the various organizations to make this happen."
More information
Find out more about diabetes at the American Diabetes Association.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Diabetes and severe depression raise risk of death
By Karla Gale Fri Mar 9, 2:51 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Heart disease, diabetes, and depression can be a deadly combination, according results of a study that suggest that, in people with coronary artery disease, the presence of diabetes or depression increases the risk of dying from heart disease.
The risk is even higher when both diabetes and severe depression are present, investigators reported today at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Budapest, Hungary.
Dr. Lana L. Watkins and her associates at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina studied 907 patients with coronary artery disease, which occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (coronary arteries) become hardened and narrowed.
A total of 325 of the patients also had type 2 diabetes. All of the study subjects were assessed for depression using a standard 21-item inventory.
During more than four years the patients were followed, 135 patients died.
The researchers found that depression and diabetes were both associated with increased death, independent of age, gender, body weight, and heart function.
Among diabetics with coronary artery disease, having severe symptoms of depression further increased the risk by roughly 25 percent, the investigators report.
However, the investigators were surprised to find that mild depression did not affect survival, Watkins noted.
"The bottom line is that the excess risk is confined to diabetic patients with coronary artery disease and moderate-to-severe depression," Watkins said.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Heart disease, diabetes, and depression can be a deadly combination, according results of a study that suggest that, in people with coronary artery disease, the presence of diabetes or depression increases the risk of dying from heart disease.
The risk is even higher when both diabetes and severe depression are present, investigators reported today at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Budapest, Hungary.
Dr. Lana L. Watkins and her associates at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina studied 907 patients with coronary artery disease, which occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (coronary arteries) become hardened and narrowed.
A total of 325 of the patients also had type 2 diabetes. All of the study subjects were assessed for depression using a standard 21-item inventory.
During more than four years the patients were followed, 135 patients died.
The researchers found that depression and diabetes were both associated with increased death, independent of age, gender, body weight, and heart function.
Among diabetics with coronary artery disease, having severe symptoms of depression further increased the risk by roughly 25 percent, the investigators report.
However, the investigators were surprised to find that mild depression did not affect survival, Watkins noted.
"The bottom line is that the excess risk is confined to diabetic patients with coronary artery disease and moderate-to-severe depression," Watkins said.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Office workers most at risk from blood clots: study
Mon Mar 12, 12:09 AM ET
WELLINGTON (AFP) - Office workers who spend long hours at their desk may be more prone to potentially fatal blood clots than passengers on long-haul flights, according to research cited Monday.
A study by Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington found that a third of patients admitted to hospital with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were office workers who spent long periods at a computer.
A total of 34 percent of the sample of 62 people admitted with blood clots had been seated at their desks for long periods, compared with 21 percent of patients who had recently travelled on long-distance flights, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported.
DVT is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs. The clots can travel to the heart, lungs or brain, causing chest pain, breathlessness or possible death from a heart attack or stroke.
The condition has been dubbed "economy class syndrome" because passengers sitting on long-haul flights without space to stretch out were considered as most at risk.
Studies found clots formed in 10 percent of air travellers at high risk of the condition and one percent of all passengers.
Treatment is through blood thinning drugs which can take months.
Beasley said some office workers who developed clots sat at their screens for 14 hours a day.
"Some of them were going three to four hours at a time without getting up," he said.
The problem was most common in the information technology industry and in call-centres, he added.
The study is to be presented later this month at the annual conference of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and will also be published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
WELLINGTON (AFP) - Office workers who spend long hours at their desk may be more prone to potentially fatal blood clots than passengers on long-haul flights, according to research cited Monday.
A study by Professor Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington found that a third of patients admitted to hospital with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) were office workers who spent long periods at a computer.
A total of 34 percent of the sample of 62 people admitted with blood clots had been seated at their desks for long periods, compared with 21 percent of patients who had recently travelled on long-distance flights, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported.
DVT is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs. The clots can travel to the heart, lungs or brain, causing chest pain, breathlessness or possible death from a heart attack or stroke.
The condition has been dubbed "economy class syndrome" because passengers sitting on long-haul flights without space to stretch out were considered as most at risk.
Studies found clots formed in 10 percent of air travellers at high risk of the condition and one percent of all passengers.
Treatment is through blood thinning drugs which can take months.
Beasley said some office workers who developed clots sat at their screens for 14 hours a day.
"Some of them were going three to four hours at a time without getting up," he said.
The problem was most common in the information technology industry and in call-centres, he added.
The study is to be presented later this month at the annual conference of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and will also be published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Half ton man continues weight loss
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Mar 8, 7:47 AM ET
SAN NICOLAS DE LOS GARZA, Mexico - A man who once weighed well over a half ton left his house for the first time in five years Wednesday — wheeled outside on his bed to greet neighbors and see a mariachi band. "The sky is beautiful and blue and what I want is to enjoy the sun," said Manuel Uribe, who had once been certified by doctors as weighing 1,235 pounds. Though still unable to leave his bed, Uribe has lost 395 pounds since he began a high-protein diet a year ago. He now weights about 840 pounds.
To celebrate the milestone, six people pushed Uribe's wheel-equipped iron bed out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered. Then, a forklift lifted him onto a truck and the 41-year-old rode through the streets of San Nicolas de los Garza, a Monterrey suburb.
With dozens of reporters and photographers in tow, Uribe traveled along, passing the town's plaza and church and waving at clusters of people eager to get a glimpse of him.
"It fills me with joy to see he's getting better and getting a little sun," Uribe's neighbor Guadalupe Guerra said. "I would go crazy if I had to be inside my house for so many years."
Uribe was a chubby kid and weighed more than 250 pounds as an adolescent. In 1992, he said his weight began ballooning further.
Since the summer of 2002, Uribe has been bedridden, relying on his mother and friends to feed and clean him.
He drew worldwide attention when he pleaded for help on national television in January 2006. Afterward, an Italian and a Spanish doctor both visited and offered gastric bypass surgery.
But Uribe chose to accept help from Mexican nutritionists working with the Zone diet. He says he will stick to that diet until he reaches his goal of 265 pounds.
"My goal is to leave the house on my own but I know that will be a long process," he said. Doctors say it may take between three and four years for Uribe to reach his goal.
Uribe said he plans to start a foundation to help overweight people get medical assistance and teach them about healthy eating habits.
SAN NICOLAS DE LOS GARZA, Mexico - A man who once weighed well over a half ton left his house for the first time in five years Wednesday — wheeled outside on his bed to greet neighbors and see a mariachi band. "The sky is beautiful and blue and what I want is to enjoy the sun," said Manuel Uribe, who had once been certified by doctors as weighing 1,235 pounds. Though still unable to leave his bed, Uribe has lost 395 pounds since he began a high-protein diet a year ago. He now weights about 840 pounds.
To celebrate the milestone, six people pushed Uribe's wheel-equipped iron bed out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered. Then, a forklift lifted him onto a truck and the 41-year-old rode through the streets of San Nicolas de los Garza, a Monterrey suburb.
With dozens of reporters and photographers in tow, Uribe traveled along, passing the town's plaza and church and waving at clusters of people eager to get a glimpse of him.
"It fills me with joy to see he's getting better and getting a little sun," Uribe's neighbor Guadalupe Guerra said. "I would go crazy if I had to be inside my house for so many years."
Uribe was a chubby kid and weighed more than 250 pounds as an adolescent. In 1992, he said his weight began ballooning further.
Since the summer of 2002, Uribe has been bedridden, relying on his mother and friends to feed and clean him.
He drew worldwide attention when he pleaded for help on national television in January 2006. Afterward, an Italian and a Spanish doctor both visited and offered gastric bypass surgery.
But Uribe chose to accept help from Mexican nutritionists working with the Zone diet. He says he will stick to that diet until he reaches his goal of 265 pounds.
"My goal is to leave the house on my own but I know that will be a long process," he said. Doctors say it may take between three and four years for Uribe to reach his goal.
Uribe said he plans to start a foundation to help overweight people get medical assistance and teach them about healthy eating habits.
Man, 91, challenges Jack LaLanne, 92
Wed Mar 7, 10:12 PM ET
LEWISTON, Maine - All of that Florida sun must be getting to Maine snowbird Roland Fortin. The 91-year-old has laid down a challenge to box fitness guru Jack LaLanne, who's 92. Fortin, former "cut man" for retired boxing champ Joey Gamache, said the idea for the four-round bout was hatched at the Tropical Gym in Pompano Beach, where Fortin works out during the winter in Florida.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale ran the challenge in a half-page ad that gym owner Troy Eckonen took out for Super Bowl Sunday. The purpose, he said, was to let seniors know it's not too late to get in great shape like Fortin.
"Florida is like the waiting room to the casket," Ecknonen said.
So far, the publicity stunt is working for the Tropical Gym, where membership is up. But LaLanne hasn't taken Fortin up on the challenge to enter the ring.
LaLanne's spokeswoman learned of the boxing challenge when she was contacted Tuesday by a reporter from the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston.
"That's not quite his cup of tea," Liz Cardenas said Wednesday from California. Besides, she said, LaLanne is too busy traveling for public appearances, and he no longer performs athletic feats for which he was known earlier in his career.
Despite the rebuff, Eckonen has not abandoned the idea. He said he plans to deliver the ad to fight promoter Don King to see if he's interested.
"It'd be a gentleman's fight, obviously," Eckonen said.
Fortin, a widower who has wintered in Florida since retiring from the funeral business decades ago, doesn't think either man would get hurt in a brief square-off. "He'd knock me down, I'd knock him down," he said.
LEWISTON, Maine - All of that Florida sun must be getting to Maine snowbird Roland Fortin. The 91-year-old has laid down a challenge to box fitness guru Jack LaLanne, who's 92. Fortin, former "cut man" for retired boxing champ Joey Gamache, said the idea for the four-round bout was hatched at the Tropical Gym in Pompano Beach, where Fortin works out during the winter in Florida.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale ran the challenge in a half-page ad that gym owner Troy Eckonen took out for Super Bowl Sunday. The purpose, he said, was to let seniors know it's not too late to get in great shape like Fortin.
"Florida is like the waiting room to the casket," Ecknonen said.
So far, the publicity stunt is working for the Tropical Gym, where membership is up. But LaLanne hasn't taken Fortin up on the challenge to enter the ring.
LaLanne's spokeswoman learned of the boxing challenge when she was contacted Tuesday by a reporter from the Sun Journal newspaper in Lewiston.
"That's not quite his cup of tea," Liz Cardenas said Wednesday from California. Besides, she said, LaLanne is too busy traveling for public appearances, and he no longer performs athletic feats for which he was known earlier in his career.
Despite the rebuff, Eckonen has not abandoned the idea. He said he plans to deliver the ad to fight promoter Don King to see if he's interested.
"It'd be a gentleman's fight, obviously," Eckonen said.
Fortin, a widower who has wintered in Florida since retiring from the funeral business decades ago, doesn't think either man would get hurt in a brief square-off. "He'd knock me down, I'd knock him down," he said.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Woman awakens after 6 years, slips back
Wed Mar 7, 9:47 PM ET
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A woman who went into a vegetative state in November of 2000 awoke this week for three days, spoke with her family and a local television station before slipping back on Wednesday. "I'm fine," Christa Lilly told her mother on Sunday — her first words in eight months. She has awakened four other times for briefer periods.
"I think it's wonderful. It makes me so happy," Lilly told television station KKTV-TV. She also got to see youngest daughter, Chelcey, now 12 years old, and three grandchildren.
Her neurologist, Dr. Randall Bjork, said he couldn't explain how or why she awoke.
"I'm just not able to explain this on the basis of what we know about persistent vegetative states," he said.
A vegatative state is much like a coma except her eyes remain open.
"The good Lord let me know she's alright, he brings her back to visit every so often and I'm thankful for that," said Minnie Smith, her mother and caregiver after Christa slipped back into the vegetative state.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A woman who went into a vegetative state in November of 2000 awoke this week for three days, spoke with her family and a local television station before slipping back on Wednesday. "I'm fine," Christa Lilly told her mother on Sunday — her first words in eight months. She has awakened four other times for briefer periods.
"I think it's wonderful. It makes me so happy," Lilly told television station KKTV-TV. She also got to see youngest daughter, Chelcey, now 12 years old, and three grandchildren.
Her neurologist, Dr. Randall Bjork, said he couldn't explain how or why she awoke.
"I'm just not able to explain this on the basis of what we know about persistent vegetative states," he said.
A vegatative state is much like a coma except her eyes remain open.
"The good Lord let me know she's alright, he brings her back to visit every so often and I'm thankful for that," said Minnie Smith, her mother and caregiver after Christa slipped back into the vegetative state.
Holy Cow! Meat-loving calf eats Indian chickens
4 minutes ago
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighbourhood dogs.
But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.
"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh told Reuters by phone from Chandpur village, about 240 km (150 miles) northwest of capital Kolkata.
The family decided to stand guard at night on Monday at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.
"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.
Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.
"We think lack of vital minerals in the body is causing this behaviour. We have taken a look and have asked doctors to look into the case immediately," Mihir Satpathy, a district veterinary officer, said by phone.
"This strange behaviour is possible in some exceptional cases," Satpathy said.
Hundreds of villagers flocked to Chandpur on Wednesday to catch a glimpse of Lal, enjoying his bundle of green grass for a change.
"The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth," Ajit added.
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighbourhood dogs.
But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.
"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh told Reuters by phone from Chandpur village, about 240 km (150 miles) northwest of capital Kolkata.
The family decided to stand guard at night on Monday at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.
"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.
Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.
"We think lack of vital minerals in the body is causing this behaviour. We have taken a look and have asked doctors to look into the case immediately," Mihir Satpathy, a district veterinary officer, said by phone.
"This strange behaviour is possible in some exceptional cases," Satpathy said.
Hundreds of villagers flocked to Chandpur on Wednesday to catch a glimpse of Lal, enjoying his bundle of green grass for a change.
"The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth," Ajit added.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
FDA set to approve controversial cow drug: report
Sat Mar 3, 10:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Food and Drug Administration may be poised to approve a controversial antibiotic for cattle despite fears it could hurt human health, The Washington Post reported in Sunday's edition.
The drug, called cefquinome, is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, a class of antibiotics used for a range of human diseases including serious gastrointestinal diseases in children and meningitis.
The fear is that using such drugs in animals can lead to the emergence of new drug-resistant "superbugs" which will be immune to similar drugs when used in people.
The overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals has already helped such bacteria evolve, and infectious disease experts have been warning doctors to use them more judiciously.
The FDA's own advisors, the Veterinary Medical Advisory Committee, voiced such concerns when they voted in September to reject approval of cefquinome by InterVet Inc. of Millsboro, Del., which makes it.
Yet the Post quoted experts as saying the FDA was moving toward approval anyway, overriding the advice of the panel, the American Medical Association and other health groups.
The Post said the FDA was being pressured to approve the drug because of an internal guidance document called "Guidance for Industry #152" on how to weigh threats to human health from by proposed new animal drugs.
It quoted experts saying the rule makes it difficult for the FDA to deny a new animal drug unless it is likely to threaten the effectiveness of an antibiotic critical in treating food-borne illness.
Edward Belongia, an epidemiologist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin, said that made it difficult for the FDA to say no to some drugs, according to the newspaper.
"The industry says that 'until you show us a direct link to human mortality from the use of these drugs in animals, we don't think you should preclude their use,"' it quoted Belongia as saying.
"But do we really want to drive more resistance genes into the human population? It's easy to open the barn door, but it's hard to close the door once it's open," he was quoted as saying.
InterVet developed cefquinome to treat bovine respiratory disease, the most common disease in cattle. But more than a dozen antibiotics are on the market for the respiratory syndrome, and all are still effective.
The disease becomes a problem for cattle raised on intensive farms, and when they are packed into trains for shipment.
In January, New York Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Rules Committee, sent the FDA a letter asking it not to approve the drug. She is a microbiologist.
"Over the past several years, the integrity of the FDA's drug review process has been called into question amid allegations that your agency has put the interests of industry and politics above science," Slaughter wrote at the time.
"Given the recent outbreaks of
E. coli and other food borne illnesses across the nation, it is hardly the time to ignore the advice of scientists, and potentially impair our ability to treat deadly infections," she wrote.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Food and Drug Administration may be poised to approve a controversial antibiotic for cattle despite fears it could hurt human health, The Washington Post reported in Sunday's edition.
The drug, called cefquinome, is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, a class of antibiotics used for a range of human diseases including serious gastrointestinal diseases in children and meningitis.
The fear is that using such drugs in animals can lead to the emergence of new drug-resistant "superbugs" which will be immune to similar drugs when used in people.
The overuse of antibiotics in both humans and animals has already helped such bacteria evolve, and infectious disease experts have been warning doctors to use them more judiciously.
The FDA's own advisors, the Veterinary Medical Advisory Committee, voiced such concerns when they voted in September to reject approval of cefquinome by InterVet Inc. of Millsboro, Del., which makes it.
Yet the Post quoted experts as saying the FDA was moving toward approval anyway, overriding the advice of the panel, the American Medical Association and other health groups.
The Post said the FDA was being pressured to approve the drug because of an internal guidance document called "Guidance for Industry #152" on how to weigh threats to human health from by proposed new animal drugs.
It quoted experts saying the rule makes it difficult for the FDA to deny a new animal drug unless it is likely to threaten the effectiveness of an antibiotic critical in treating food-borne illness.
Edward Belongia, an epidemiologist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin, said that made it difficult for the FDA to say no to some drugs, according to the newspaper.
"The industry says that 'until you show us a direct link to human mortality from the use of these drugs in animals, we don't think you should preclude their use,"' it quoted Belongia as saying.
"But do we really want to drive more resistance genes into the human population? It's easy to open the barn door, but it's hard to close the door once it's open," he was quoted as saying.
InterVet developed cefquinome to treat bovine respiratory disease, the most common disease in cattle. But more than a dozen antibiotics are on the market for the respiratory syndrome, and all are still effective.
The disease becomes a problem for cattle raised on intensive farms, and when they are packed into trains for shipment.
In January, New York Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Rules Committee, sent the FDA a letter asking it not to approve the drug. She is a microbiologist.
"Over the past several years, the integrity of the FDA's drug review process has been called into question amid allegations that your agency has put the interests of industry and politics above science," Slaughter wrote at the time.
"Given the recent outbreaks of
E. coli and other food borne illnesses across the nation, it is hardly the time to ignore the advice of scientists, and potentially impair our ability to treat deadly infections," she wrote.
Latin American hearts suffer from obesity, stress
By Ed Stoddard Tue Mar 6, 9:01 AM ET
DALLAS (Reuters) - Abdominal obesity is a bigger heart attack risk factor in Latin America than elsewhere, partly because of surging consumption of junk foods loaded with sugar and fat, researchers reported on Monday.
Stress and high blood pressure are other risk factors having a disproportionate impact on the region while smoking is also taking a heavy toll on Latin American hearts, according to a study published this week in the journal Circulation.
"Interventions to encourage lifestyle changes that target those risks could have a large impact on heart attacks in the region," said Dr. Fernando Lanas, professor of medicine at the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, Chile.
"Compared with other areas of the world ... we were surprised to find how much higher the (risk factors were) for abdominal obesity and stress," Lanas said.
The study was part of INTERHEART, a global analysis of heart attack risk factors compared by region.
It examined 1,237 patients admitted with a first heart attack to a medical facility in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Mexico. They were matched by age and gender and compared to a control group of 1,888 people.
Those in the control group had no history of heart problems or chest pain.
RAPID SHIFT IN DIET
The participants were surveyed about smoking, diet, high blood pressure and psychosocial factors.
Waist-to-hip ratios -- which indicate the amount of fat in the abdomen -- were among the physical measurements taken.
"Latin America differed from other regions studied in INTERHEART by having a larger proportion of heart attack risk due to high blood pressure, abdominal fat and permanent stress," the
American Heart Association, which publishes Circulation, said in a statement.
In an accompanying commentary Sidney C. Smith Jr., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Science and Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, wrote that high energy-dense foods such as highly sugared drinks and fatty fast foods were taking developing regions by storm.
"In Latin American countries and many others with developing economies, there has been a rapid shift in diet to increased consumption of high energy-dense foods and caloric beverages," Smith wrote.
And when people drink calorie-containing beverages, they do not eat less to compensate, Smith said.
Researchers said such observations underscored the need for major lifestyle and behavioral changes in Latin America.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and is attributable to more than one quarter of all deaths in Latin America, the Heart Association said.
"Risk factors were similar in the various Latin American countries studied, with most of the heart attack risk explained by tobacco use, abnormal lipids, abdominal obesity and high blood pressure," it said.
DALLAS (Reuters) - Abdominal obesity is a bigger heart attack risk factor in Latin America than elsewhere, partly because of surging consumption of junk foods loaded with sugar and fat, researchers reported on Monday.
Stress and high blood pressure are other risk factors having a disproportionate impact on the region while smoking is also taking a heavy toll on Latin American hearts, according to a study published this week in the journal Circulation.
"Interventions to encourage lifestyle changes that target those risks could have a large impact on heart attacks in the region," said Dr. Fernando Lanas, professor of medicine at the Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, Chile.
"Compared with other areas of the world ... we were surprised to find how much higher the (risk factors were) for abdominal obesity and stress," Lanas said.
The study was part of INTERHEART, a global analysis of heart attack risk factors compared by region.
It examined 1,237 patients admitted with a first heart attack to a medical facility in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Guatemala and Mexico. They were matched by age and gender and compared to a control group of 1,888 people.
Those in the control group had no history of heart problems or chest pain.
RAPID SHIFT IN DIET
The participants were surveyed about smoking, diet, high blood pressure and psychosocial factors.
Waist-to-hip ratios -- which indicate the amount of fat in the abdomen -- were among the physical measurements taken.
"Latin America differed from other regions studied in INTERHEART by having a larger proportion of heart attack risk due to high blood pressure, abdominal fat and permanent stress," the
American Heart Association, which publishes Circulation, said in a statement.
In an accompanying commentary Sidney C. Smith Jr., director of the Center for Cardiovascular Science and Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, wrote that high energy-dense foods such as highly sugared drinks and fatty fast foods were taking developing regions by storm.
"In Latin American countries and many others with developing economies, there has been a rapid shift in diet to increased consumption of high energy-dense foods and caloric beverages," Smith wrote.
And when people drink calorie-containing beverages, they do not eat less to compensate, Smith said.
Researchers said such observations underscored the need for major lifestyle and behavioral changes in Latin America.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and is attributable to more than one quarter of all deaths in Latin America, the Heart Association said.
"Risk factors were similar in the various Latin American countries studied, with most of the heart attack risk explained by tobacco use, abnormal lipids, abdominal obesity and high blood pressure," it said.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Health Tip: Take a Nap
1 hour, 38 minutes ago
(HealthDay News) -- Napping is a great way to help revive yourself if you're sleepy, tired or stressed.
Here are some of the ways napping can improve your physical and emotional well-being, courtesy of the National Sleep Foundation:
* A nap can improve alertness and productivity by reducing chances for accidents and mistakes.
* A nap can make you feel more alert immediately, and may prolong alertness for up to a few extra hours later in the day.
* Because a nap often feels like a luxury, it offers the emotional benefits of helping you feel rejuvenated, relaxed, and less stressed.
(HealthDay News) -- Napping is a great way to help revive yourself if you're sleepy, tired or stressed.
Here are some of the ways napping can improve your physical and emotional well-being, courtesy of the National Sleep Foundation:
* A nap can improve alertness and productivity by reducing chances for accidents and mistakes.
* A nap can make you feel more alert immediately, and may prolong alertness for up to a few extra hours later in the day.
* Because a nap often feels like a luxury, it offers the emotional benefits of helping you feel rejuvenated, relaxed, and less stressed.
Obesity May Trigger Earlier Puberty for Girls
6 minutes ago
MONDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- Childhood obesity may lead to earlier onset of puberty for girls, a U.S. study concludes.
The study of 354 girls from 10 different regions in the United States found that increased body fat in girls as young as age 3 and large increases in body fat between the age of 3 and the start of first grade were associated with earlier puberty, defined as the presence of breast development by age 9.
"Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in girls," study lead author Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan, said in a prepared statement.
Her team published the findings in the March issue of Pediatrics.
Lee noted that girls in the United States are entering puberty at younger ages than they were 30 years ago. Over that same time, there's been a significant increase in obesity rates among American children.
"Previous studies had found that girls who have earlier puberty tend to have higher body mass index (BMI), but it was unclear whether puberty led to the weight gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty. Our study offers evidence that it is the latter," said Lee, who is also assistant professor in the department of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the U-M Medical School.
"Beyond identifying how obesity causes early puberty, it's also important to determine whether weight control interventions at an early age have the potential to slow the progression of puberty," she noted.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more about puberty.
MONDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- Childhood obesity may lead to earlier onset of puberty for girls, a U.S. study concludes.
The study of 354 girls from 10 different regions in the United States found that increased body fat in girls as young as age 3 and large increases in body fat between the age of 3 and the start of first grade were associated with earlier puberty, defined as the presence of breast development by age 9.
"Our finding that increased body fatness is associated with the earlier onset of puberty provides additional evidence that growing rates of obesity among children in this country may be contributing to the trend of early maturation in girls," study lead author Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan, said in a prepared statement.
Her team published the findings in the March issue of Pediatrics.
Lee noted that girls in the United States are entering puberty at younger ages than they were 30 years ago. Over that same time, there's been a significant increase in obesity rates among American children.
"Previous studies had found that girls who have earlier puberty tend to have higher body mass index (BMI), but it was unclear whether puberty led to the weight gain or weight gain led to the earlier onset of puberty. Our study offers evidence that it is the latter," said Lee, who is also assistant professor in the department of pediatrics and communicable diseases at the U-M Medical School.
"Beyond identifying how obesity causes early puberty, it's also important to determine whether weight control interventions at an early age have the potential to slow the progression of puberty," she noted.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more about puberty.
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