The Agonist - Health Issues

Social factors key to ill health

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:34:14 -0700

August 28

BBC - Social factors - rather than genetics - are to blame for huge variations in ill health and life expectancy around the world, a report concludes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has carried out a three-year analysis of the "social determinants" of health.

The report concludes "social injustice is killing people on a grand scale".

Cells switch identity in biological breakthrough

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:57:33 -0700

Cambridge, MA | August 27

AP - Talk about an extreme makeover: Scientists have transformed one type of cell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.

The cell identity switch turned ordinary pancreas cells into the rarer type that churns out insulin, essential for preventing diabetes. But its implications go beyond diabetes to a host of possibilities, scientists said.

Drug trials in India under investigation after 49 babies die at leading hospital

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:54:47 -0700

Rhys Blakely | Bombay | August 20

London Times - India has become the leading destination for international pharmaceutical companies to outsource clinical trials, largely because of the diverse genetic pool offered by its population and the low cost of doing business.

Clinical trials on human beings are forecast to become a £1 billion-a-year industry in India by 2010. According to the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, GlaxoSmithKline, the London-listed pharmaceutical giant, and Johnson & Johnson, its US-based peer, are the two leading groups engaged in testing new drugs in India, each conducting 22 trials over the past year. More

What's a few dead babies from poor women in India to those pharmaceutical giants?

Back pain eased by good posture

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:24:27 -0700

Aug 20

BBC - Low back pain is one of the most common conditions seen by GPs

Long-term back pain can be relieved through encouraging sufferers to adopt good posture through the Alexander technique, say UK researchers.

The technique teaches patients how to sit, stand and walk in a way that relieves pain by focusing on their coordination and posture.

Until now there had been little evidence of the therapy's long term effectiveness.

The latest work is published in the British Medical Journal.

Ya think?

NYC bus workers file suit against diesel companies

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:37:48 -0700

Matthew Sweeney | Aug 19

AMNY(Newsday) - For 32 years, Connor Hartnett worked in bus depots throughout the city with little or no ventilation. Diesel fumes from hundreds of idling buses were so thick he often couldn't read the identification numbers on the vehicles. "There were times you couldn't see the buses," said Hartnett, 73, who retired in 1992 and now has inoperable lung cancer and a heart condition.

Yesterday, Hartnett and 17 others filed suit against diesel engine manufacturers, claiming that exposure to the particulate matter in the emissions caused their severe illnesses. Hartnett's attorneys estimate that he was exposed for 42,960 hours during his time as a bus driver and shifter. Other in the case had more exposure, like mechanics Vincenzo Mancio and Joseph Ganz, who are now deceased from cancer and heart problems and are represented by family in the law suit.

Lawyers for the workers said that a Washington, D.C. appeals court ruling made a causal link between exposure to diesel fumes and illness. Although medical studies had linked diesel emissions to illnesses, no legal link had been made until that decision.

Survivors of 1918 pandemic still protected

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:55:30 -0700

Maggie Fox | Washington | August 18

Reuters - Antibodies from survivors of the 1918 flu pandemic, the worst in human memory, still protect against the highly deadly virus, researchers reported on Sunday.

The findings by a team of influenza and immune system experts suggest new and better ways to fight viruses -- especially new pandemic strains that emerge and spread before a vaccine can be formulated.

First Rule of SAPRO Is...Don't Talk About SAPRO

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:38:04 -0700

Good news: Pressure from Rep. Waxman to enforce Dr. Kaye Whitley's subpoena to testify on how the DOD is preventing and responding to incidents of sexual assault in the military have paid off: after first blocking her from attending a House committee's hearing, the Pentagon is allowing Whitley to testify. Bad news: the DOD continues to ignore a very specific responsibility they have been tasked with in order to fully address this issue.

I expect that people find it hard to deal with emotionally sensitive issues. I may even expect that many people would want to shield themselves from it.

But I won't tolerate elected and appointed officials who run and hide when they not only have the power to do something about it, they have the explicit responsibility of doing something about it.

And when that issue concerns protecting women in the military from sexual assault, it should be absolutely unacceptable for the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO), to shirk their responsibilities of doing all they can to address what is a very serious issue, which includes participating in a congressional hearing on why so many alarming reports have been surfacing about the sexual assault rate in the military.

HHS Secretary Tries to Dispell Our Fears About Defining Contraception as Abortion...By Refusing to Discuss it.

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:30:02 -0700

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt is awfully proud of the controversy from the recent draft regulation on what he calls “Physician Conscience:”

“I’m delighted to announce that with the help of Planned Parenthood, my blog -- for the first time -- received more visits than my teenage son’s MySpace page.”

Congratulations, Mr. Leavitt! But what about our fear that your new regulation will redefine contraception as abortion -- and reduce access, especially among low-income women, to birth control?

Why women can't sniff out Mr Right when they take the Pill – and how it affects us all

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:07:13 -0700

Jeremy Laurance | Newcastle, England | August 13

The Independent - It was an experiment that involved sweat, love... and could have ended in tears. When 100 women were asked to sniff 100 men's sweaty shirts in the interests of discovering the secrets of sexual attraction, they found the contraceptive Pill disrupted their ability to select the ideal partner.

Body odour plays an important part in mate selection but the Pill appears to interfere with a woman's sense of smell, undermining her capacity to make the best choice, researchers said.

Can the little blue pill treat a stroke?

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:07:22 -0700

ALEXANDRA SHIMO | August 6

MacLeans - As a 46-year old woman, René Jarinski is not your typical Viagra user. In fact, to understand why she and some other stroke victims have been prescribed the drug off-label...

...Ten studies conducted over seven years supported the (Silver and Chopp) findings: sildenafil (AKA Viagra) caused the animals to produce more neurons, more synaptic connections and to regrow the nerve cells in the brain damaged by the stroke. The Viagra-fed rodents recovered more quickly from the stroke-induced brain injuries: they were smarter, more coordinated, and had better memory function than the control group.

Screw the diet,

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:13:23 -0700

just screw.

Low vitamin D may raise death risk

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:43:01 -0700

Andrew Stern | Chicago | August 12

Reuters - Adults with a vitamin D deficiency are more likely to die than adults who have high levels, another indication of the nutrient's vital role in guarding against ailments from heart disease to cancer, US researchers said yesterday.

The report follows several recent studies that have shown vitamin D may protect against a host of ailments, including heart disease, cancers of the colon and breast, diabetes, and tuberculosis.

Scientists identify another piece of the weight-control puzzle

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:56:33 -0700

Bradford Lowell, MD, PhD | Boston | August 10

NIH - Controlling body weight is a complicated process, as any frustrated dieter might attest. But as scientists continue to investigate the brain's intricate neurocircuitry and its role in maintaining energy balance, they are forming a clearer picture of the myriad events that lead to weight gain and weight loss.

In the August 10 on-line issue of Nature Neuroscience, a study led by scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) identifies another piece of this complex puzzle, demonstrating that the neurotransmitter GABA --one of the master communicators among neurons – plays a role in controlling energy balance.

"Body weight maintenance is made up of three basic stages," explains the paper's senior author Bradford Lowell, MD, PhD, an investigator in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at BIDMC whose laboratory is working to identify the specific neurocircuits responsible for controlling food intake and/or energy through functional neuroanatomical mapping studies.

"In the first stage, the brain receives sensory input from the body [including information provided by circulating hormones such as leptin and ghrelin and from fuels such as glucose and fatty acids]," says Lowell, who is also a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

In the second stage, he adds, the brain integrates this sensory information with cues it has received from the environment (such as aromas and other enticements) along with information gathered from the organism's emotional state. Then, in the final stage, the brain's neurocircuitry takes over, enabling the brain to make appropriate alterations in food intake and energy expenditure in order to maintain energy balance – and prevent weight gain and obesity.

Previous work had primarily focused on identifying the neuropeptides involved in this process. And indeed, this group of neurotransmitters often proves essential to maintaining energy balance – but not always.

more at link

Children still dying in booming Asian economies

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:43:58 -0700

Randeep Ramesh | Delhi | August 6

The Guardian - The growing gap between rich and poor in booming Asian economies has left behind "vast numbers of mothers and children", putting millions of lives at risk, according to a report by Unicef, the United Nations children's agency.

Unicef said more than 40% of the world's children who died before their fifth birthdays in 2006 were living in the Asia-Pacific. It urged governments to face up to "inequities in access to healthcare and huge disparities in health outcomes".

"The divide between rich and poor is rising at a troubling rate within sub-regions of the Asia-Pacific," says the report, titled State of Asia Pacific's Children 2008.

The report says there were 2.5 million child deaths in India and China, the two fastest-growing major economies in the world, accounting for nearly a third of all global child deaths. In India the figure was 2.1 million, whereas in China it was 415,000.

More than 56,000 in U.S. infected with AIDS each year

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:12:32 -0700

Washington | August 3

Reuters -

New estimates show that least 56,000 people become infected with the AIDS virus every year in the United States -- 40 percent more than previous calculations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday.

The CDC stressed that actual infection rates have not risen but said better methods of measuring newly diagnosed infections and extrapolating these to the general population led to the higher estimates.

"CDC's first estimates from this system reveal that the HIV epidemic is -- and has been -- worse than previously known. Results indicate that approximately 56,300 new HIV infections occurred in the United States in 2006," the CDC said in a statement.

"This figure is roughly 40 percent higher than CDC's former estimate of 40,000 infections per year, which was based on limited data and less precise methods."

AIDS conference to bring together top scientists

One of the largest conferences in the 27-year history of AIDS was set to open here Sunday with an expected turnout of 22,000 scientists, policymakers and grassroots workers.

The International AIDS Conference, which is held every two years, runs in the Mexican capital until Friday, and coincides with a relative lull in the war against the disease.