Aliyah Baruchin | London | May 6

NYT - A formerly controversial high-fat diet has proved highly effective in reducing seizures in children whose epilepsy does not respond to medication, British researchers are reporting.

As the first randomized trial of the diet, the new study lends legitimacy to a treatment that has been used since the 1920s but has until recently been dismissed by many doctors as a marginal alternative therapy.

Olivia Rondonuwu & Ed Davies | Jakarta | May 7

Reuters - Indonesia is trying to defend the interests of poorer nations by refusing to share bird flu samples with the West and is locked in a cultural misunderstanding over the issue, Jakarta's health minister said on Wednesday.

Siti Fadillah Supari also said in an interview that a U.S. naval medical lab based in Indonesia for research into tropical diseases was barely benefiting its host country and was not being transparent in its operations.

"Poor countries sent the virus to the WHO (World Health Organisation) on behalf of humanity. But it was commercialised by the WHO," Supari said in her offices in central Jakarta.

Officials in Indonesia, the country with the highest number of human bird flu victims, have said they want to ensure equal access to any vaccines that are made against bird flu.

But U.S. Health Secretary Michael Leavitt said last month after visiting Jakarta that Indonesia also wanted payments.

May 6

ABC.net.au - There has been yet another potential breakthrough in the battle against flab, with a Swedish study finding that each year, 10 per cent of an adult human fat cells die and are replaced by new ones.

The scientists say their work shows that the turnover in fat cells is much quicker than previously thought and Australian researchers say the finding could have a significant impact on approaches to tackling obesity.

Many researchers have long thought that fat cells in adult humans die and are replaced, but they did not know how long this process took.

Roger Hickey has a great post at ourfuture.org on the "dangerous fraud" that is John McCain's healthcare plan. As I point out ad nauseam in The Real McCain, McCain's positions are not simply fraudulent. The "straight-talker" rarely limits himself to simple dishonesty.

First, read the email The McCain Campaign sent out today on this issue:

Berne | April 28

BBC - Key United Nations development agencies are meeting in Switzerland to try to develop solutions to ease the escalating global food crisis.

Led by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, officials want to mitigate the impact of the steep rise in staple food prices and prevent food shortages worsening.

Carolyn abraham | Toronto | April 24

The Globe and Mail - Scientists have found a way to reliably grow large quantities of heart cells from human embryonic stem cells - a feat that marks a significant step toward generating replacement tissue for failing hearts.

Using a recipe of growth-factor proteins that mimics heart development in a fetus, researchers from Canada, the United States and England were able to transform embryonic stem cells into cardiovascular progenitor cells - the most immature heart cell identified to date.

Steve Connor and Chris Green | April 24

Independent - After 25 years and billions of pounds, leading scientists are now forced to ask this question

Most scientists involved in Aids research believe that a vaccine against HIV is further away than ever and some have admitted that effective immunisation against the virus may never be possible, according to an unprecedented poll conducted by The Independent.

A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of Aids scientists after the failure of a trial of a promising vaccine at the end of last year. It just was the latest in a series of setbacks in the 25-year struggle to develop an HIV vaccine.

Vienna | April 20

(Reuters) - Global food price rises are leading to "silent mass murder" and commodities markets have brought "horror" to the world, the United Nations' food envoy told an Austrian newspaper on Sunday.

Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told Kurier am Sonntag that growth in biofuels, speculation on commodities markets and European Union export subsidies mean the West is responsible for mass starvation in poorer countries.

Ziegler said he was bound to highlight the "madness" of people who think that hunger is down to fate.

Susanne Rust | April 17

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - We bred them to protect us and warn us of impending trouble.

According to a new report, our pets are doing their job.

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental watchdog group, released a study Thursday showing that dogs and cats are carrying heavy burdens of many household chemicals - flame retardants, plasticizers and stain-resisting chemicals - in their blood and urine.

Many of these chemicals have been linked to illness, cancer and developmental delays in laboratory and companion animals. Some of these chemicals, such as lead and mercury, are also known toxins for people.

The study found that in some cases, the concentrations of chemicals in pets were more than 20 times higher than what's been detected in the typical adult.

CBC News | April 18

CBC - The federal government is expected to designate bisphenol A as a dangerous chemical on Friday, a day after a string of major retailers pulled plastic products containing the substance off their shelves.

Government sources confirmed to CBC that an announcement about the chemical, found in products such as plastic baby bottles and water bottles, could be made as early as Friday. Health Canada and Environment Canada have scheduled a news conference for 12:30 p.m. Friday to make an "important announcement."

Laura Bauer | April 17

The Kansas City Star - Some call them Generation Rx.

Since grade school, they’ve been taught by DARE officers to say no to alcohol, marijuana and other illegal drugs. But the message about prescription drug abuse hasn’t been as loud.

“We’re so worried about the meth, pot and other street drugs. And this isn’t street drugs,” said Kara Erickson, a nurse at Shawnee Mission South High School. “People view them as being safe. … And students are realizing, ‘Hey, there are drugs out here and they get them from their parents’ medicine cabinets.’ ”

Medical professionals and youth advocates say they haven’t done enough to attack the growing problem in middle and high schools. But on Wednesday at Shawnee Mission South, that might have begun to change.

The first high school in the country to kick off the “Smart Moves, Smart Choices” educational campaign, students got a lesson on the dangers of prescription drugs. It’s something junior John Coler says students across the nation need.

Graphic after the jump

Bush Must Be Taking Ambien ... He's Sleepwalking Through War:

http://www.democrats.us/beta/forum/view_topic.php?id=3007&forum_id=3

-

Wake up!

Steve Karnowski | Minneapolis | April 17

AP - The number of mysterious neurological illnesses among workers who processed pig brains at pork plants in three states has grown to as many as 24, and other possible cases are being evaluated, researchers said Wednesday.

Dr. Daniel Lachance, a Mayo Clinic neurologist, said there are now 18 confirmed cases among people who have worked at the Quality Pork Processors plant in Austin, Minn. That's up from 13 cases reported as of February.

Lachance also said there are now about five cases among workers at a pork plant in Indiana, compared with two confirmed earlier, and one recently identified case at a plant in Nebraska. Officials have not publicly named the Indiana and Nebraska plants.

The working hypothesis, he told reporters, is still that some of the brain tissue was turned into a fine mist during the process, and that the workers became exposed to it and somehow developed an autoimmune response that caused nerve damage.

Aproil 10

Science Daily - Scientists at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute have discovered a novel signaling pathway between three organs -- the gut, the brain, and the liver -- which lowers blood sugar when activated.

A team led by Dr. Tony Lam used a rat model to discover that fats can activate a subset of nerves in the intestine, which then send a signal to the brain and subsequently to the liver to lower glucose or sugar production. But eating a high-fat diet for just three days can interfere with this signal, disabling it so that it does not signal the other organs to lower blood glucose levels.

Frank Greve | Washington | April 11

McClatchy - Lots of people lunged for bottled water after they were told last month that tap water in many U.S. cities contains traces of pharmaceuticals.

"They wanted five-gallon bottles, half-liter cases — anything that wasn't municipal water," said Jennifer Brandon, who was taking phone orders for home-delivered Deer Park water the day the Associated Press story broke.

Responding to the public alarm, Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. called for a hearing on the federal response to drugs in drinking water, now set for Tuesday.

Despite the sudden clamor, however, many water-quality researchers kept doing what they'd done for years about contaminants in tap water: nothing. They kept drinking local tap or well water, a half dozen of them told McClatchy.

For one thing, they knew that bottled water is less regulated than municipal supplies are. The big reason, however, was that researchers were less anxious than senators and a public jolted by another new environmental scare for which risk and remedy are both unknown.

Allison Van Dusen & Ana Patricia Ferrey | April 11

Forbes - There are lots of reasons to envy residents of Northern Europe. Each day they get to take in raw, dramatic landscapes, stunning architecture and world-class shopping.

But, more important, they know a thing or two about health and wellness.

Forbes.com has found that the region is home to some of the world's healthiest countries, including top-ranking Iceland, Sweden and Finland.

Others that fared well include Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Denmark, Canada, Austria and the Netherlands.

"Historically, these countries had an ethic of having more of a nationalized health care system," says Kate Schecter, a program officer for the American International Health Alliance, a nonprofit that works to advance global health by helping nations with limited resources build sustainable infrastructure. "There's this mentality that health care should be a given right for citizens."

** In Depth: The World's 15 Healthiest Countries

Larry Margasak | Washington | April 11

AP - The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak.

Skeptical Democrats in Congress are demanding to see internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision. An epidemic of the disease, foot and mouth, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock industry.

One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and federal farm data to show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been considered for the new lab. ``Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?'' asked the nine-page document. It did not directly answer the question.

A simulated outbreak of the disease - part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called ``Crimson Sky'' - ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages.

Frederic J Frommer | Washington | April 11

AP - Dairy farmers stand to lose income if the government honors congressional demands for a total ban on downer cattle after a California slaughterhouse failed to keep them out of the food supply.

In 2004, the Agriculture Department banned cows too sick or injured to stand. But in finalizing the rule last year, the department called for cattle that get injured after they pass inspection to be re-evaluated to determine whether they are eligible for slaughter.

This year, an undercover video by the Humane Society of the United States showed workers at Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., dragging downer dairy cows with chains, shocking them with electric prods and shooting streams of water in their faces. The USDA shut down the plant, saying the company hadn't prevented downer cattle from entering the food supply.

Several lawmakers have since challenged the USDA to impose a total ban because downers pose a greater risk of illnesses such as mad cow disease.

London | April 9

AFP - Archaeologists conducting a major excavation at England's Stonehenge said they had made a key breakthrough that may help explain why the site was built, the BBC said Wednesday.

According to the broadcaster, which is funding the dig as part of a special programme to be broadcast in the autumn, the team of archaeologists has reached a series of sockets that once held bluestones, smaller stones, most of which are now missing, that made up Stonehenge's original structure.

The bluestones were transported from hills in Wales, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) away, and the researchers think they were brought to the iconic site on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, west England, because ancient people believed they had healing properties.

Leila Saralayeva | Osh, Kyrgyzstan | April 9

AP - Not long ago, she was a wife, mother and teacher. Now Dilfuza Mustafakulova is HIV-positive and has lost her husband and her job. Mustafakulova's baby son was among 72 children infected with the virus at two Kyrgyz hospitals. Sixteen mothers also have contracted it - in some cases by breast-feeding their children.

The scandal has led to charges of negligence against 14 medical workers in the impoverished former Soviet republic, where investigators suspect the children were infected by tainted blood and the reuse of needles.

Jeremy Laurance | April 9

Independent - Exaggerated claims are being made for new cancer treatments that are not justified by the evidence, scientists warned yesterday.

Drugs hailed as breakthrough treatments for cancer, Britain's biggest cause of death, may be less effective and cause more harm than suspected, they said.

A sharp increase in the number of trials being halted prematurely to deliver rapid results is undermining confidence in the drugs.

Public demand for access to new treatments, allied to the pharmaceutical companies' eagerness to bank profits, creates pressure on researchers to terminate trials as soon as a drug reveals a benefit. But that can be before the full results are in.

David Adam | April 9

The Guardian - Rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability, the UN's top humanitarian official warned yesterday after two days of rioting in Egypt over the doubling of prices of basic foods in a year and protests in other parts of the world.

Sir John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN's emergency relief coordinator, told a conference in Dubai that escalating prices would trigger protests and riots in vulnerable nations. He said food scarcity and soaring fuel prices would compound the damaging effects of global warming. Prices have risen 40% on average globally since last summer.

"The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe," Holmes said. "Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity."

Rotterdam, Holland | April 7

BBC - People who have had depression may be more prone to Alzheimer's disease, two studies suggest.

Dutch researchers found Alzheimer's was 2.5 times more likely in people with a history of depression.

Have you been BOINC'd yet? Maybe it's time.

Would you like to help cure cancer? Sounds hard, but it's really not. Simply download this program called BOINC, then select a project. I chose Rosetta because it computes the geometry of protein folding for disease research.

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

The BOINC program is very good at remaining in the background, out of your way. I have seen no performance penalties after running BOINC for the past several days. My computers (3 of them) seem unaffected, except that the processor, when I'm not using it, is calculating cures for cancer.

April 7

BBC - Two people have died in Spain after contracting the human form of "mad cow disease", variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), Spanish media has said.

The two died in the central region of Castilla-Leon, one three months ago and the other last week, regional health sources were quoted by news agency AFP.

The disease was first found in humans in 1995 and is thought to be transmitted in infected meat and bone.

One of the dead was 41 and the other was 26, Spanish national radio said.

The health department said these were not the first vCJD deaths in Spain but did not give details, Reuters news agency reported.