Planned Parenthood 'conned' government, Tory MP says

Another Saskatchewan MP is calling for the government to cut funding to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, accusing the organization of being deceitful and conning the Conservative government.

Maurice Vellacott, a Conservative MP from Saskatoon-Wanuskewin, alleges in a strongly worded press release that the international women's health organization will be using Canadian aid money to perform abortions.

The Canadian funding is for projects in countries where abortion is tightly restricted. The projects approved are sex education and contraception programs.

The press release says Vellacott is commenting on "IPPF’s deceitful language on abortion to con the Canadian government for taxpayer dollars."

"The IPPF is trying to dupe us into believing that because Canadian taxpayer dollars are going to countries where abortion is supposedly illegal, the money won't be spent on abortions," he says in the statement.

He said it's naive to think the organization won't be promoting abortion, even in the countries where it's illegal.

A spokesman for International Planned Parenthood firmly rejected Vellacott's assertions.

"IPPF is absolutely clear: no Canadian money will be used for any abortion-related services in any of the five countries that [the Canadian International Development Agency] has announced funding for," Paul Bell said in a written statement to CBC News.

"This includes advocacy for access to safe abortion services in countries where it is highly restricted."

Bell pointed to World Health Organization data that show there are 21 million unsafe abortions performed every year, and to a study released Tuesday that suggested cutting money to family planning programs resulted in less access to contraception and more abortions.

The UN estimates 215 million women want contraception but don't have access to it, he said.

"Restricting laws and access to safe abortion services does not reduce abortion rates, it just makes abortion clandestine and unsafe. This impacts the poorest women most, since even in countries where abortion is restricted, those with money can either find someone to perform an abortion safely in their country or they can travel to another country."

Vellacott says the controversy over the funding will "exposed the lies and destructiveness of IPPF’s agenda."

"It exposes what this abortion giant is surreptitiously trying to achieve worldwide.

"It's still not too late to stop this $6-million misappropriation of Canadian taxpayer funds, because IPPF does not meet the criteria of our commendable maternal and child health care initiative. IPPF will be doing abortions by another name," he said.

Vellacott was joining fellow Saskatchewan Conservative MP Brad Trost, who said Wednesday that anti-abortion activists would have to be more aggressive to get the government to listen to them.

Trost said last April that the Conservative government had "de-funded" International Planned Parenthood because of petitions by anti-abortion activists. The group's Canadian funding lapsed in 2009 without being renewed until last week.

Trost told Rosemary Barton, on CBC's Power & Politics, the prime minister's office hasn't tried to stop him from speaking out on the issue.

An official called him after he tweeted that he was going to post a response on his website, but neither the prime minister's office nor the whip's office, whose officials are in charge of caucus discipline, criticized him for his comments, he said.

"They do understand this is an issue caucus members have fairly strong opinions on," Trost said, adding he's going to encourage more Conservative MPs to go public if they oppose abortion.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Denmark introduces 'fat tax'

Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world's first tax on foods containing saturated fat.

The Danish government is applying a surcharge to foods with more than 2.3 per cent saturated fats, in a bid to combat obesity and heart disease.

The new tax will be levied on food such as butter, milk, cheese, pizza, oils and meat. It means customers will be paying about $3 more per kilogram of saturated fats in a product.

Prices rose Saturday in many grocery stores as the tax came into force, while some customers cleared out shelves earlier in the week to stock up on fatty favourites.

Food industry managers have complained that the tax will be a bureaucratic nightmare.

in 2004, Denmark declared war on trans fats, making it illegal for any food to have more than two per cent of the artery-clogging oils. Austria has a similar law. In July 2010, Denmark imposed a tax on sugary junk food.

About 10 per cent of Danes are considered obese. Britain is the fattest nation in Europe; one third of children and nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese.

More than one in every four Canadian adults and almost one in 11 children are obese, with a body mass index of more than 30, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Energy drink sales ban has campus buzzing

The University of New Hampshire's short-lived decision to ban the sale of nonalcoholic energy drinks has created more buzz than the caffeinated beverages themselves.

Within four days of announcing it would ban the sale of Red Bull and three other drinks, the university first delayed and then abandoned the plan altogether. The backtracking highlights both the drinks' popularity among young adults who use it for both study and play, and the extent to which college administrations have become entangled with the beverages' promotion.

UNH initially said it would stop selling the drinks beginning in January, apparently a first. The university said the ban would further President Mark Huddleston's goal of making the campus the nation's healthiest by 2020 and cited the dangers of mixing the drinks with alcohol.

But Huddleston issued a statement Thursday saying that there was no clear evidence that the drinks are exacerbating alcohol abuse and that sales data showed students aren't purchasing multiple servings, which might have suggested binge drinking.

"I do not now see a clear rationale for eliminating an option that our students say they want," he said.

Students weren't happy about the idea of a ban and said it would have done little to curb alcohol problems, since students buy the energy drinks off campus.

Sophomore Corrin Murphy sent her roommate a text message Monday as soon she heard about the ban. On Tuesday, her epidemiology class discussed whether students would seek out prescription drugs if they could no longer buy energy drinks.

And it was the first thing her friends brought up Wednesday morning, when she sat down in the student union building with a can of Red Bull to get ready for a chemistry quiz.

"Every class I've been in, everyone's been in an uproar," she said. "I haven't seen anyone who's for it."

Huddleston's statements delaying and then reversing the ban made no mention of input from energy drink manufacturers, though Red Bull said it was working with UNH "to find a resolution."

UNH said a total of 60,000 drinks — including the other brands — were sold on campus last year, or one-half of 1 percent of retail sales. Officials would not comment on the university's ties to Red Bull or further discuss what led to the ban and its reversal, but the company's promotions have been a big part of students' activities.

The company, with the administration's blessing, brought a motorcycle show to the university's spring picnic, had Red Bull skydivers drop into the football stadium at the start of the homecoming game, and gave away a snowboard and lift pass prize package to students. It has similar relationships with hundreds of other colleges and universities.

UNH also is one of nearly 700 campuses participating in Red Bull's "stash" contest, in which students search for four-packs of the drinks around campus in hopes of winning prizes worth a total of $224,000 US. Last fall, a Red Bull student "brand manager" at UNH organized a skateboarding competition, with a case of Red Bull given to winners in several categories, according to an article in the student newspaper.

"We have so many Red Bull-sponsored events," said Murphy, who keeps a 24-pack of Red Bull in her room and said she frequently sees fliers advertising campus events sponsored by Red Bull.

Energy drinks are the fastest growing U.S. beverage market, with sales expected to top $9 billion US this year, according to a report published in the medical journal Pediatrics in February. Hard figures are hard to come by, but those sales skew toward younger consumers, said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. Consumption is heaviest among 18- to 35-year-olds, he said.

Despite the rise in sales, little national research has been done on consumption by college students, said Cecile Marczinski, assistant professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University.

Red Bull emphasized that its products and other mainstream energy drinks meet federal safety regulations.

"College students consume Red Bull Energy Drink because it works," the company said. "The benefits of Red Bull tie in naturally with the daily activities of college students as the product delivers energy and the ability to focus."

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Smoking rates vary among workers

Smoking is more common in the mining and food service industries than in other occupations, according to a U.S. government report.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's report looked at cigarette smoking prevalence among 113, 000 adults from 2004 to 2010. Smoke-free workplace policies could help reduce smoking and improve employee health, U.S. researchers say. Peter Morrison/Associated Press

By industry, smoking was lowest in the education services industry such as among teachers and librarians (9.7 per cent) and highest in the mining and food services industries (30 per cent), the report's authors said.

Higher levels of smoking were observed among workers aged 18 to 24 years, male workers, those with high school or less education, those with no health insurance coverage, and those living below the federal poverty level.

Also, some people who work outdoors are less likely to face the kind of indoor smoking bans seen in white-collar workplaces like schools, hospitals and office buildings, said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC.

The authors called for employers to take steps to reduce smoking and improve employee health, decrease absenteeism, and reduce use of health care resources.

These measures include:

100 per cent smoke-free workplace policies.Easily accessible help for those who want to quit.Health insurance with little or no co-payment for cessation treatments.

For decades, the biggest smokers by profession in the U.S. have been roofers, drywall installers, brick and stone masons and other workers in construction trades.

But health officials have warned construction workers may be at higher risk from smoking, especially if they are exposed to asbestos since studies suggest people who work with asbestos are more likely to develop lung cancer if they also smoke.

Smoking can also be more dangerous for miners who might ignite methane gas with matches or cigarette lighters.

The report's authors acknowledged drawbacks of the study, such as self-reports of smoking that were not backed up with biochemical tests.

The study was published in this week's issue of the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

With files from The Associated Press Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Organic grape tomatoes recalled for salmonella

People shouldn't eat certain organic grape tomatoes because they may be contaminated with salmonella, federal food officials say.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned people not to consume Organic Grape Tomatoes, sold in plastic clam shell containers and supplied by Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce of San Diego, Calif.

The affected product is Limited Edition 10.5 oz (298 grams) organic grape tomatoes. The label says Product of Mexico and bears the code 0 33383 65592 5.

The tomatoes were distributed in British Columbia and Ontario and possibly in other provinces.

No illnesses associated with the products have been reported.

Food contaminated with salmonella may not look or smell spoiled, but eating these foods may cause illness. In young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, the salmonella may cause serious and sometimes deadly infections, CFIA said.

In otherwise healthy people, the illness may lead to short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Long-term complications may include severe arthritis.

The importers are voluntarily recalling the product.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Listeria warning for type of Strubs smoked salmon

Ontario's chief medical officer of health is warning people not to eat a Strubs brand of smoked salmon because it may be contaminated with Listeria.

It's identified as ready to eat smoked salmon, Lot Identifier: 09192011 and distributed in 250 gram vacuum packs, the agency said in a release Thursday. The processing plant is in Toronto but the extent of the distribution across Ontario is not known.

It is sold in supermarkets, grocery stores or delis and people should throw it out or return it to the retailer. There have been no reported illnesses.

Dr. Arlene King says people at high risk for listeriosis, such as the elderly, pregnant women and those with weak immune systems should not eat the salmon.

Listeria can cause listeriosis, a serious but rare illness. Listeriosis usually manifests as mild flu-like illness and symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, cramps, severe headache, constipation or fever.

More severe illness may result in meningitis and blood infection in newborns and adults.

For public inquiries call ServiceOntario, INFOline at 1-866-532-3161 (Toll-free in Ontario only)

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Night owl teens at greater risk for obesity

Children and teens who go to bed late and wake up late are more likely to be overweight than their peers who go to bed early and rise early, Australian researchers suggest.

For the study, 2,200 Australians aged nine to 16 kept track of their bedtimes, wake times as well as time spent watching TV, playing videogames or using computers. They also wore pedometers to record their physical activity levels, and weights were measured.

When they went to sleep was key to the results.

Those who went to bed late and got up late were 1.5 times more likely to become obese than those who went to bed early and got up early, even when they got the same amount of sleep, Carol Maher, a post-doctoral fellow with the University of South Australia, and her co-authors reported in Saturday's issue of the journal Sleep.

The late-nighters were almost twice as likely to be physically inactive and nearly three times more likely to sit in front of screens for more than guidelines recommend, racking up nearly an hour more of these sedentary activities.

"This study shows that the teenagers that have that pattern of late to bed, late to wake up don't have as good health outcomes," Maher told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.The time teens go to bed is linked to their risk of being overweight. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

The findings contradict opinions that it is normal for teenagers to get into a sleeping pattern of staying up late and sleeping in, or advisable to adjust school times to fit in with a teenager's sleep patterns, she said.

Since the study was observational in design, it is difficult to determine what could be causing the effect, said CBC's medical specialist Dr. Karl Kabasele.

"What's not clear is perhaps maybe it's the kids who like to do exercise who just choose to get up early and go to bed early," Kabasele said. "Kids who stay up late can't really exercise."

The study's authors said that young people who are attracted to physical activity may choose to get up early to take part in early morning training sessions or to walk or bike to school. Similarly, young people who prefer screen time may choose to stay up late to watch TV or log on to social networking.

External factors in the home may also make a difference, such as parents' need to leave early for work, siblings' activities and household rules around bedtime, the researchers said.

The findings point to the importance of having parents encourage healthy habits in their children, Kabasele said.

Dr. Louise Hardy, a senior research fellow at the Prevention Research Collaboration based at the University of Sydney, studied childhood obesity rates in New South Wales.

There is a strong association between sedentary activities such as television viewing and obesity, Hardy said.

The researchers "haven't got dietary data, but it would be interesting to see if those children going to bed late are actually in front of a television or maybe they're social networking where they can get their hands off the computer to eat."

The investigators called for long-term studies to confirm how bed and wake time habits may affect weight, as well as experiments that manipulate bedtimes to shed light on the possible cause-and-effect mechanisms.

The study was funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging; the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; and by the Australian Food and Grocery Council, an industry sponsor that the researchers said played no role in preparing the manuscript.

With files from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Vancouver's Insite drug injection clinic will stay open

Vancouver's controversial Insite clinic can stay open, the Supreme Court said Friday in a landmark ruling.

In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that not allowing the clinic to operate under an exemption from drug laws would be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The court ordered the federal minister of health to grant an immediate exemption to allow Insite to operate.

"Insite saves lives. Its benefits have been proven. There has been no discernible negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada during its eight years of operation," the ruling said, written by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

If Insite wasn't allowed to operate it would prevent injection drug users from accessing the health services offered at the facility, threatening their health and their lives, the ruling said. Withdrawing the exemption would even undermine the purpose of the federal drug law, which includes public health and safety, the court said.

The Supreme Court said that if the health minister, currently Leona Aglukkaq, receives applications for more exemptions, she must continue to exercise her discretion and aim to strike a balance between charter rights and protecting public health and safety.

Where there is no evidence that a supervised injection site would have a negative impact on public safety, the minister "should generally grant an exemption," the court said.

The Conservative government is opposed to the Insite operation, and when it came to power it dropped harm reduction from the national anti-drug strategy. Aglukkaq said Friday the government's investments are targeted at prevention and treatment.

"Although we are disappointed with the Supreme Court of Canada's decision today, we will comply," Aglukkaq said in question period. "We believe that the system should be focused on preventing people from becoming drug addicts."

Aglukkaq said the government planned on reviewing the decision.

While the ruling is a victory for Insite, the Supreme Court said it "is not a licence for injection drug users to possess drugs wherever and whenever they wish."

"Nor is it an invitation for anyone who so chooses to open a facility for drug use under the banner of a 'safe injection facility,'" said the court.

Supporters of Insite immediately celebrated their victory and expressed relief over the decision.

"This has been the most incredible battle," NDP MP Libby Davies said at the court in Ottawa minutes after the decision. She said Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been opposed to Insite based on partisan and ideological principles and never recognized its benefits. It saves lives, she said.

"The Conservative government has been relentless in their opposition, so today's decision by the court just feels like an incredible victory. It feels like a great day," she said. Insite is in her riding and she said she was thinking of her constituents who use the clinic.

Davies was at the court in Ottawa with Dean Wilson, one of her constituents who used the clinic and helped launch the original court case. A former heroin addict who has been clean for two years, he said he supports more clinics like Insite in other cities, but only if it's right for that community. The floodgates shouldn't necessarily open because of the ruling, he said.

"You need the nurses on side, you need the city on side, you need the local police department on side," the 55-year-old said.

Wilson said he wants to offer an olive branch to the federal government so that all sides can work together to support what he called a gold standard in health services.

In Vancouver a large crowd of supporters at the supervised drug injection site on East Hastings Street in the city's troubled Downtown Eastside site burst into cheers after learning of the ruling on Friday morning.

Joe Arvay, the lawyer who fought the federal government and won, was one of the crowd of health officials, social activists and Downtown Eastside residents.

"Obviously great happiness, great relief — we were nervous. It could have gone the other way," said Arvay.

Dr. Julio Montaner of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS said the decision sends a strong message that addiction is a medical condition, and the charter rights of Insite's clients trump the federal Conservative government's wish to shut the facility down.

"Mr. Harper, you had an opportunity to do the right thing. You chose not to do it for whatever ideological or moral restraints you are operating under. The time has now come for you to move on, and accept the rulings of the court," said Montaner.

Dr. Patricia Daly, the public health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, said the decision by the top court should finally put to rest the debate over whether Insite is safe.

"For those who doubt it, I have to say during my 20 years in public health I have never seen more evidence supporting a public health practice as we have had published around Insite," said Daly.

"I don't think that there is any doubt in the medical community and in the public health community that this service works and it is evidence-based," said Daly.

Dr. Evan Wood with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, was also on hand to celebrate the decision.

"I think on a personal level there's a degree of happiness with the decision, to say the least, just because we've seen improvements in the health of so many of our patients. And we're aware of the research that programs like Insite save tax dollars," said Wood.

"In terms of the public disorder and public injecting, those issues obviously would have gotten a lot worse if it had to close," he said.

Montaner noted the federal government didn't lose everything in this case when the high court ruled in favour of Ottawa on a jurisdictional issue, saying it has jurisdiction over health-care delivery at Insite.

But he did not anticipate that would prevent any other province or regional health authority from setting up its own supervised injection facility.

Bernie Pauly with the School of Nursing at UVic said the question of jurisdiction will still need some parsing by lawyers. But she said this decision is a boost for those who would like to see a similar facility in Victoria.

"Absolutely, the obstacles are removed, and we have our city, our health authority, are all in support of harm reduction, and so it means we have to move forward. There is no reason not to," said Pauly.

B.C.'s Health Minister Michael de Jong called the ruling "a wise and humane ruling by a unanimous bench."

"Today's ruling will allow the doctors, nurses and staff at Insite to continue to deliver care in a safe environment with a stable future," said de Jong.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson issued a statement applauding the decision.

“I am very pleased to see today’s ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada in favour of Insite," said Robertson.

“Addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue. Research, and now the law, confirms our position that safe injection sites such as InSite perform an important health-care role in the lives of people living with chronic addiction-related problems," said Robertson.

Health groups, including the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Public Health Association, also applauded the decision.

Insite, supported by the City of Vancouver and the B.C. government, provides sanitary conditions for addicts while they inject drugs, medical supervision to help monitor for overdoses, clean needles and counselling for those seeking rehabilitation.

The clinic does not supply any drugs.

Insite has supervised more than one million injections, according to the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and there has never been a death at the facility. The health authority says there have been more than 1,400 overdoses and that medical staff were able to intervene successfully in all cases.

A study published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that overdose deaths had declined by 35 per cent in the area of Insite, on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, since the clinic had opened, compared to a nine per cent drop in overdoses city-wide.

The B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has said that since Insite opened, there's been a 30 per cent increase in the number of addicts who enter detox.

Other Canadian cities, such as Victoria and Toronto, have said they want to open their own safe-injection clinics, modelled on Insite.

Insite was granted a three-year exemption from the possession and trafficking provisions of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act when it first opened its doors in 2003.

It was granted two extensions but the Conservative government made it clear in 2008 that it did not support another exemption, and court proceedings were launched to try to save the clinic. Lawyers for the federal ministry argued that the government should not be in the business of facilitating illegal drug use.

The federal health minister at the time was Tony Clement, now Treasury Board president, and the Supreme Court agreed with lower court decisions that found his decision to withdraw the exemption violates Section seven of the charter because it contravenes the principle of fundamental justice.

DV.load('http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/254069-ruling-canada-v-phs-community-services-society.js', { width: 458, height: 600, sidebar: false, container: "#DV-viewer-254069-ruling-canada-v-phs-community-services-society" });With files from the CBC's Rik Jespersen and The Canadian Press Accessibility Links

View the original article here

McDonald's to show calories on UK menus

McDonald`s restaurants in Britain are showing the calorie count for each item on the menu. Ed Ou/AP

More than 1,000 McDonald's restaurants in Britain are displaying the calorie count of each fast food item on their menus as part of a government-led program to fight obesity.

McDonald's said the counts will be displayed on wall-mounted menu boards from Sept. 4 in all of its 1,200 U.K. restaurants.

The chain is one of several food companies partnering with the British Department of Health to encourage customers to adopt a healthier diet. It has also promised to remove artificial trans fats from its products, although it did not sign up to a salt reduction pledge.

McDonald's is already displaying calorie menu boards in New York City.

Other chains that have signed up to the British calorie display program include KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Most Nunavut toddlers lack healthy diet: studies

More than half of Nunavut's Inuit preschool-aged children are lacking adequate daily nutrition, a new pair of studies suggests.

Research published this month in the Journal of Nutrition and the International Journal of Circumpolar Health showed that 56 per cent of Nunavut Inuit households with a young child were considered "child food insecure" in a dietary health survey.

The surveys, conducted in 16 Nunavut communities in 2007-08, also showed that seven out of 10 households with a child between the ages of three and five were "food insecure".

Child food insecurity rates in the survey sample were 10 times higher than national figures reported in the Canadian Community Health Survey, in which about five per cent of households were considered child food insecure.

Dr. Grace Egeland, a McGill University associate professor in the school of dietetics and human nutrition, was the lead author for both papers.

The data should be used to help those characterized as food insecure plan how to improve their diets, she says.

"What's happening is that these stressors in the communities are having an impact on nutritional status, and over the long term, we would anticipate it would have implications on health," Egeland said.

"These are subtle changes in diet that over the long term can have negative consequences."

Food insecurity has been associated with lower education, household income and social assistance, according to Egeland.

The information for both reports was gathered as part of an Inuit Health Survey for International Polar Year.

Data from 1,901 households were considered in the Journal of Nutrition report. The other report, which focused more on preschoolers' dietary characteristics, considered data collected from 388 participants.

The International Journal of Circumpolar Health report concludes that both traditional foods and foods purchased from markets are needed in order for children to be considered food secure.

"Support systems and dietary interventions for families with young children are needed," the report adds.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Montreal heart researcher stripped of status

A prominent researcher with the Montreal Heart Institute has been stripped of his lab, privileges and status following an investigation into scientific misconduct.

The institute launched an investigation earlier this year after two studies by Dr. Zhiguo Wang were retracted from prominent scientific journals.

Those studies, conducted in 2007 and 2008, explored irregular heart rhythms. The research was done at the cellular level and did not involve patients.

Dr. Zhiguo Wang At the time, Wang blamed the error on a mix-up of images used to illustrate the data. He said the research itself was solid and had been reproduced.

On Friday, the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) said its investigation found Wang “deviated from MHI’s ethical standards of proper scientific conduct and his responsibilities as a researcher.”

Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, director of the MHI Research Centre, said the hospital had concerns with how images used in the research were manipulated -- and that it must enforce strict scientific standards.

Wang has been stripped of his privileges at the institute and his lab has been closed.

MHI also requested retractions of three additional published articles, but did not disclose any further details of its investigation.

Wang could not be reached for comment Friday.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funded one of the studies retracted earlier this year. The other was funded by the Canadian Diabetes Association.

CIHR said it has frozen Wang's funding.

They're also considering additional measures, which could include barring the researcher from applying for future grants.

Based on the MIH findings, the Canadian Diabetes Association said Wang is no longer eligible for their grants.

with files from Canadian Press Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Banned e-cigarettes on sale in Regina stores

Electronic cigarettes are illegal and unreliable as a quit-smoking tool, according to Health Canada, but they’re still easy to buy in Regina stores.

The cigarettes, commonly called e-cigarettes, contain cartridges of flavoured liquid that is vapourized and inhaled. They're marketed as an alternative to smoking tobacco.

They’re available online, although Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulate the cigarettes as drugs, have not approved them for sale.

In Regina, smoke shop owner Ashok Brahmania says he sells about 15 e-cigarette kits a week. He also say he’s been assured they’re legal.

“It has to be approved by Health Canada, and it seems to me I asked our supplier,” he said. “This one is approved by Health Canada.”

In fact, Health Canada says it doesn’t approve any form of electronic cigarette for sale in Canada. And there is no proof e-cigarettes help smokers give up tobacco, the department says.

Janice Burgess of Regina, who helps people quit smoking, says not enough research has been done on electronic cigarettes. She worries the vapour is a risk to others, just as second-hand tobacco smoke is.

“People around the person using the e-cigarette will be exposed to whatever is in the liquid cartridge,” she said.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Four confirmed West Nile cases in Que.

The number of reported human cases of the West Nile virus in Quebec is now up to four.

That's the most human cases than the province has seen in the last six years.

In all confirmed cases, the infection was found when the patients donated blood. They were all reported in August.

Dr. Horacio Arruda of the province’s public health department said the recent cases shouldn't be cause for panic.

This is the time of year when human cases typically start to emerge.

"It just reminds us that this disease exists it can exist again so be careful, especially if you are in the risk groups," he said.

Authorities say all the cases are in southwestern Quebec, including the greater Montreal area.

Humans become infected with West Nile when they are bitten by a disease-carrying mosquito.

While many infected people suffer only mild, flu-like symptoms, people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk for developing more serious health effects like meningitis and encephalitis.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the first reported human cases of West Nile in this country were in 2002.

The following year, there were 1,400 human cases reported.

The annual numbers have dropped significantly since that time.

with files from Canadian Press Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Fewer antibiotics prescribed to kids

The push to get pediatricians to stop prescribing antibiotics for the wrong illnesses is paying off a bit, a new U.S. government report found.

Since the early 1990s, there's been a 10 per cent drop in prescription rates for antibiotics for kids 14 and younger, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

Antibiotics are often used — but don't work — against viral illnesses like colds and flu. Antibiotics fight infections caused by bacteria. Misuse can lead to antibiotic resistance.

Experts say doctors inappropriately prescribe antibiotics more than 50 per cent of the time, and more often with respiratory infections.

The CDC found larger declines — about 25 per cent — in how often doctors used antibiotics against sore throats, colds and some other upper respiratory infections. But there was no significant change in how often they prescribed the drugs for ear infection, bronchitis and sinusitis.

The new findings represent progress, but also suggest that doctors are still prescribing antibiotics too often, said Dr. Lauri Hicks, a CDC epidemiologist who worked on the study.

"The bad news is we still have a long way to go," she said.

The CDC study was the government's first look at the issue in about a decade. It was based on an annual survey of doctors' offices, and compared rates from 1993-1994 to 2007-2008.

The improvement could be partly driven by rapid diagnostic tests that help doctors pinpoint whether a sore throat is caused by a virus or strep bacteria, CDC researchers said. The study also found fewer parents took their kids to doctors for upper respiratory infections, which could be thanks to a vaccine against pneumococcal bacteria that became available in 2000.

A public health campaign about antibiotics may have also had some impact, CDC officials said.

Doctors have not always followed recommendations to cut back on antibiotics, partly because of pressure from parents, said Dr. Kenneth Bromberg, chairman of pediatrics at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York.

Moms and dads who have been up with sick, screaming infants in the middle of the night tend to expect more from a doctor than advice to keep an eye on the problem. Often, they want antibiotics, and may not stop at one doctor to get them, he said.

"In this new age of consumerism, they will go somewhere else and get what they want," Bromberg said.

The taxing nature of ear infections may be why the CDC didn't find a decrease in the antibiotic prescribing rate for that problem, he added.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Human gut bacteria seem to be picky eaters

People who eat a diet high in fats and animal protein tend to have a different group of bacteria flourishing in their gut compared with those who eat a mostly plant-based diet, researchers have found.

Researchers suspect that the microbes within us affect our vulnerability to infectious disease and interact with the immune system. The new study was part of the scientific effort to try to understand how bacteria interact with their human hosts. One type of bacteria preferred the guts of people eating a carnivorous diet high in saturated fat while another type of bacteria thrived on a carbohydrate-based diet. Elise Amendola/Associated Press

Either of two specific types of microbes seem to take over the human gut and dominate, the study in this week's online issue of the journal Science suggests.

Bacteroides prefer the guts of people eating a carnivorous diet high in saturated fat while another type of bacteria, Prevotella thrive on a carbohydrate-based diet.

In the study, researchers collected stool samples from 98 subjects who also filled in questionnaires about their diet.

Dr. James Lewis of the University of Pennsylvania and his co-authors then used gene sequencing technology to examine the genetic code of bacteria from the participants' colons. That's how they found the two groups of bacteria, known as enterotypes.

In the second part of the experiment, 10 healthy, non-obese Americans stayed in a hospital for 10 days as part of a controlled eating study. Half ate high-fat, low-fiber diet, and the other ate a low-fat, high-fibre diet.

The investigators found that although the gut microbial communities changed slightly within 24 hours of the diet switch, peoples' enterotypes stayed largely the same over the 10-day study.

"Changes were significant and rapid, but the magnitude of the changes were modest, and not sufficient to switch individuals between the enterotype clusters associated with protein/fat and carbohydrates," the study's authors said.

The findings complement those of a recent study that compared the diet of European children who eat a typical Western diet high in animal protein and fat to children in Burkina Faso, who eat a high carbohydrate diet low in animal protein, the researchers said.

In that study, the Bacteroides enterotype dominated in the European samples whereas the African samples were dominated by Prevotella — the same pattern as in the latest study.

Other differences between Europe and Burkino Faso could explain the findings but diet offers "an attractive potential explanation," Lewis and his co-authors said.

Their next step is to determine whether those with the Bacteroides enterotype have a higher incidence of diseases associated with a Western diet, and whether long-term diet changes can lead to a lasting switch to the Prevotella enterotype.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

New swine flu strain sickens 2 U.S. kids

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the new virus contains a gene from the H1N1 swine flu that caused a worldwide scare two years ago, plus parts of other viruses that have infected pigs. Jessica Rinaldi/Associated Press

A new strain of swine flu has shown up in two children in Pennsylvania and Indiana who had direct or indirect contact with pigs.

The virus includes a gene from the 2009 pandemic strain that might let it spread more easily than pig viruses normally do.

So far, there's no sign that the virus has spread beyond the two children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.

"We wanted to provide some information without being alarmist," because people have contact with pigs at fairs this time of year and doctors should watch for possible flu cases, said Lyn Finelli, the CDC's flu surveillance chief. "We're always concerned when we see transmission of animal viruses to humans."

People rarely get flu from pigs — only 21 cases have been documented in the last five years — and it's too soon to know how infective this virus will be, she said.

The new strain is a hybrid of viruses that have infected pigs over the last decade and a gene from the H1N1 strain that caused the pandemic two years ago. It is the first combination virus to turn up in people since the pandemic, said Michael Shaw, a lab chief at the CDC. It's classified as an H3N2 virus.

The first case was an Indiana boy under age five who was sickened in late July. He had no contact with pigs, but a caretaker did in the weeks before the boy fell ill. He was hospitalized and has recovered, and no other family members appear ill.

The second case was a Pennsylvania girl, also under age five, who had contact with pigs at an agricultural fair last month. She, too, has recovered, and health officials are investigating reports of illness in other people who went to the fair. No additional cases have been confirmed so far.

The viruses in the two children were similar but not identical. Both were resistant to older flu medicines but not to Tamiflu or Relenza.

The gene from the 2009 pandemic is one of the things that makes this new strain worrisome, said Dr. John Treanor, a flu specialist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

"There is some evidence that that gene is particularly important for transmission from person to person," he said.

This year's vaccine, which is the same as last year's, likely would not protect against the new swine strain, Treanor and Finelli said. They are encouraged that so far it does not appear to have spread easily between people, and that local health officials detected and reported the novel strain so quickly.

"Maybe it will be no big deal but it's important to keep track of this," Treanor said.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

China charges 5 after chemical dump in reservoir

Five people including managers of two companies in China have been charged in connection with a massive dumping of toxic waste into the Chachong Reservoir that could affect the drinking water for tens of millions of people.

The dumping of more than 5,000 tonnes of hexavalent chromium-contaminated waste allegedly occurred between April and June, and came to light after 77 livestock, mostly sheep, died after drinking from a local pond.

The arrests and charges were announced Sunday at a news conference in Qujing City by authorities in southwest Yunnan Province.

Chen Jun, deputy mayor of Qujing City, said among those charged are managers of the Luliang Chemical Industry Company Ltd. and the Sanli Fuel Company Ltd..

According to China Daily, a Luliang Chemical Industry employee and two employees from a coal company are also charged.

The dumping of more than 5,000 tonnes of hexavalent chromium-contaminated waste allegedly occurred between April and June, and came to light after 77 livestock, mostly sheep, died after drinking from a local pond.

Government officials initially denied the contamination of the reservoir, which feeds into the Pearl River — one of China's longest and most valuable waterways.

At the time, officials said they had contained and cleaned the chromium-contaminated soil and water, but they now say the cleanup won't be complete until the end of 2012.

Hexavalent chromium is easily absorbed by the body, and can cause vomiting, abdominal pain, dermatitis and eczema. Short-term and long-term contact or inhalation poses a cancer risk.

Yunnan province is a major producer of vegetables and other farm products for Hong Kong and southern China.

The Hong Kong secretary of health says authorities are testing vegetables for any signs of contamination.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Are NHL enforcers' addictions, depression a result of on-ice brain trauma?

Neurosurgeon Robert Cantu and his team at Boston University study the brains of deceased athletes. They have already examined the brains of Reggie Fleming, an enforcer in the '60s, and Bob Probert, an enforcer who retired in 2002 after 16 NHL seasons and died in July 2010 of a heart attack.

Cantu and his research team Ann McKee, Robert Stern and Chris Nowinski found that both Fleming and Probert had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by blunt impact to the head.The researchers also examined the brain of Dave Duerson, a former National Football Leaguye player who committed suicide in February. Duerson also had CTE.

The brains were studied at the Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, a collaboration between Boston University Medical School and the Sports Legacy Institute, which was co-founded by Cantu.

In the interview, Cantu explains that addiction, depression and anxiety may result from CTE.

In the last four months, three National Hockey League enforcers have died tragically. In May, Derek Boogaard died from a combination of too many painkillers and alcohol. Rick Rypien, was found dead in his home in Alberta on Aug.15, an apparent suicide, and, most recently, Wade Belak was found dead in a Toronto hotel on Aug. 31.

On Friday Lorraine Belak, Wade's mother, confirmed to CBC that her son suffered from depression. Rypien also dealt with depression.

Cantu and his team have examined Derek Boogaard's brain but the results are not yet public.

CBC News: What is it about NHL enforcers that could possibly explain the recent deaths of Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak?

Robert Cantu: We've studied several deceased NHL players who were enforcers and the two that we brought public so far — Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert — both died with chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Dr. Robert Cantu explained to CBC News that because of their role, NHL enforcers are likely to have suffered concussions, which can lead to the brain disease CTE. Vernon Doucette/Boston University PhotographyWe have also had a number of brains come to us, mostly from NFL players who committed suicide, and their brains have shown chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

So anytime I hear of an athlete who has had a lot of head trauma who commits suicide, I am immediately concerned that chronic traumatic encephalopathy may have played a role. And I would like to study their brain to see whether the presence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy is there.

What is it that happens to a brain that suffers, perhaps repeated, damage from concussion or hard blows?

The ultimate hallmark of CTE is the abnormal hyper-phosphorylated tau protein deposit that can be stained for and identified. Tau is throughout the brain, though it is in particular locations in greater concentrations.

The medial temporal lobe is the area of highest concentration. That medial temporal lobe has functions of:

memory,impulse control,addiction,emotions,depressionand anxiety.

So when that area of the brain is damaged, you have problems in those areas and that's what we see with CTE.

Looking at the brains you've examined, of athletes that have died, why would CTE be a factor in a suicide?

Because the difficulty handling impulses and the difficulty with emotions, especially depressive emotions, are impaired with CTE. That's why depression is very common with CTE.

Georges Laraque, the Montreal Canadiens tough guy, spoke about the enforcer role in a CBC interview Thursday. He said that a lot of enforcers find the pressure tough to deal with and so use drugs and alcohol to cope, and develop problems as a result. What are your thoughts on that?

The medial temporal lobe, as I said, is associated with addictive behaviours and alcohol and drug abuse are addictions. So it is very consistent. And we find that addictions are very common in people with CTE and we find that some of the brains that come our way, came our way not because of a conscious suicide but because somebody was involved with drugs and/or alcohol and the combination became lethal.

So it could be an accidental combination, or driving while impaired, that sort of thing?

Yes.

What about the pattern, are enforcers more or less likely to suffer from concussions?

Derek Boogaard's death on May 13 was ruled accidental, the result of a toxic mix of alcohol and the powerful pain killer oxycodone. Boogaard, right, fights Jody Shelley at a Nov. 4, 2010 hockey game in Philadelphia. Matt Slocum/Associated PressI have seen a number of enforcers in my practice. They tell me that about one out of every four or five times that they fight they suffer what sounds to me like a concussion, meaning they get stunned or they have other post-concussion symptoms.

And they tell me they go to the penalty box and they never tell the training staff they've had a concussion. And they don't complain of their symptoms because they are afraid if they do they will be replaced, their job will be lost.

How common are athlete suicides?

I don't think we have a real good handle on that. There is evidence to suggest that it is less common than it is in non-athletes at the high-school level, that playing sports improves one's self esteem and gives a better chance not to have depression overtake them. Some high school athletes commit suicide, so it's not an absolute protection. We don't have a good handle.

Do you have a better handle with professional athletes?

According to Dr. Cantu, addictions and depression are very common in people with CTE. Vernon Doucette/Boston University PhotographyNo, except that we're beginning to keep closer score, if you know what I mean, and we don't like what we're finding.

We've not had a good data system for recording athletic suicides. It's something that really is needed.

In addition to the data set on athlete suicides, what else should be done to reduce the number of athlete suicides?

Just like there's concussion education mandated by the new legislation in many U.S. states, that education should include a bit about, if you have depression or overwhelming sadness, that you seek help. There are suicide hotlines and crisis control situations available to people.

In other words, we don't ever want to study another brain that came to us by way of suicide.

Will we study them? Of course, but we do not want them to come to us because of that.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Chocolate could reduce heart risk by a third

Eating more chocolate could reduce the risk of developing heart disease by 37 per cent, a report in the British Medical Journal suggests.

Researchers at Cambridge University compiled an analysis after looking into seven studies of about 114,000 people and found that people who consumed the most chocolate had a 37 per cent lower risk of developing heart disease and a 29 per cent lower risk of suffering a stroke than those who consumed less chocolate.

The studies looked at the consumption of dark chocolate as well as milk chocolate, chocolate drinks and other chocolate confectionaries.

"Cocoa products containing flavonol have been known to have an encouraging potential to help prevent cardio-metabolic disorders," the report said.

Oscar Franco, a clinical lecturer in public health, and one of the authors of the report added that it is more than just one element in chocolate that makes it beneficial.

"[There are] antioxidants, flavonoids, it's many things that come together," Franco said. "What we see with elements is they are complex structures that have many factors, many chemicals that come together, interact with each other, so they can produce a beneficial effect."

The authors did not suggest a specific amount of chocolate to consume in order to lower the risk of cardio-metabolic disorders.

"We were not able to quantify the exact quantity or the frequency so how frequently you would [need to] consume chocolate," Franco said, "What we found were that the beneficial effects occur if you consume chocolate at least more than twice per week."

Although the analysis suggests a certain benefit to eating higher quantities of chocolate, eating too much chocolate can still have harmful effects, especially in popular, commercialized products that contain high sugar and fat which could lead to weight gain, a higher risk of hypertension, diabetes and general cardiovascular disorders.

"Moderation is key," Franco added. "Everything in excess will have a deleterious effect on your health."

Although the study seems to show that consumption of chocolate products seem to be associated with a "substantial reduction in the risk of cardio-metabolic disorders" Oscar Franco, a clinical lecturer in public health, along with this colleagues at Cambridge University said further experimental studies are needed.

Authors also do not advocate stopping regular and already established diets regarding the prevention of heart disease but rather the advice is to continue consuming high levels of fruits and less meat.

Franco suggests that the idea of finding a positive effect of chocolate isn't just a way of justifying the popular dessert but is a concept that "goes back centuries to the times of the Mayans and Aztecs" — groups who were known to use chocolate for a variety of purposes including prevention of heart problems, coughs and even aphrodisiacs.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Vitamin A could save 600,000 kids' lives a year

Vitamin A supplements can save the lives of children in low- and middle-income countries, a new review suggests.

The evidence is so strong that it would be unethical to continue comparing the supplements to placebo, say researchers who analyzed the findings of 43 randomized trials involving more than 215,000 children aged six months to five years.

Vitamin A must be obtained from the diet. It helps form and maintain healthy skin, teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, mucus membranes, and skin, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health.

Vitamin A was associated with reducing mortality in children by 0.76 times.

"Comparable with previous reviews, this review shows that vitamin A supplementation is associated with large and important reductions in mortality for children in low- and middle-income countries," Dr. Evan Mayo-Wilson of the Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention at the University of Oxford and his co-authors wrote in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.

"This adds substantively to previous reviews in providing a plausible pathway and indicating that vitamin A supplementation reduces the incidence of and mortality from diarrhea and measles."

The World Health Organization estimated that as many as 190 million children younger than five may be vitamin A deficient globally.

Reducing deaths with vitamin A supplements in these children could equate to more than 600,000 lives saved each year, the researchers estimated.

In a journal editorial accompanying the research, Andrew Thorne-Lyman and Wafaie Fawzi from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston supported the recommendation for vitamin A supplementation, saying that although more research is needed in how to more effectively provide supplementation to those who need it, placebo trials are no longer necessary.

"Most national vitamin A programs supplement children twice a year, yet evidence suggests that more frequent supplementation could reduce mortality even further," they wrote.

"Research into alternative dosing approaches and delivery mechanisms, with proper evaluation, might enable programs to be more effective."

The active form of vitamin A is found in liver, whole milk and some fortified foods.

The review was funded by the World Health Organization's Department of Nutrition for Health and Development.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Cost of aging population on health care 'overblown'

Fears that Canada's aging population could lead to soaring health-care costs may be greatly exaggerated, say researchers, who suggest that the predicted "grey tsunami" may turn out to be more like a "grey glacier."

Two studies by health economists at the University of British Columbia say other factors are driving up health-care costs -- primarily the growing use of specialists, increasing diagnostic tests for the elderly and higher consumption of ever more costly drugs.

One study, by Steve Morgan, examined total health-care spending in British Columbia from 1996 to 2006, the most recent years for which complete data were available. The other study by Kimberlyn McGrail analyzed statistics on visits and fees paid to B.C. physicians during the same time period.

Both studies found that the per-capita cost of health care rose, even after adjusting for inflation and population changes. They concluded that neither the sharpest rise in cost nor the larger share of the increase was driven by the aging population, but by factors that can be controlled by health-care providers or policy-makers.

"British Columbia's demographics are reasonably representative of the rest of Canada, so these figures show that nationwide, the health-care system is as sustainable as we want it to be," Morgan said in a release.

Both he and McGrail, whose papers were published Monday in the journal Healthcare Policy, noted that spending and visits to general practitioners declined during that period. However, the use of specialists — including those focused on diagnostic procedures — went up.

McGrail said the increased costs may reflect an evolving health-care system, not necessarily an expanding one.

'Such growth is well within the reach of expected economic growth and productivity.'—Steve Morgan, researcher

"There is no single cause for this shift — it's the result of millions of treatment and referral decisions by thousands of clinicians," she said. "But it does reflect that patients are receiving a different style of care than they used to. They are seeing more different doctors and are having more tests done."

For his study, Morgan looked at total spending on acute-care hospitals and physician-provided medical services, which make up the core of government-funded health care in Canada. For comparison, he analyzed prescription drug spending, which for the most part is not publicly funded.

During the 10-year period, per-capita spending on hospital care and doctor visits increased only slightly faster than the overall 17 per cent inflation rate. In contrast, per-capita spending on prescription drugs rose by 140 per cent.

Population aging caused expenditures on hospital care, medical care and prescription drugs to grow by less than one per cent a year. And despite the aging of the baby-boom generation, Morgan's projections suggest the demographic's impact will remain the same over the next 25 years.

"Such growth is well within the reach of expected economic growth and productivity," he said.

The impact of the aging population is less severe than most people assume because populations age more gradually than individuals, Morgan said. Compared to young people, the elderly are less likely to receive costly interventions for adverse health events, so the greying of the population could actually lead to reduced costs for acute care towards the end of life, he added.

McGrail's study suggests a perceived physician shortage in the province may have resulted from a gradual increase in diagnostic procedures for elderly patients at the expense of "hands-on" care for the general population.

People under age 25 reduced their doctor visits by 6.5 per cent during the study period, while visits by those 75-plus went up by 18.2 per cent. Spending on diagnostic services went up across all age groups, but for those over 75 the spending increase was significant: up 64 per cent over the study period.

While the number of visits a typical patient made to a particular physician dropped, there was an overall increase in the number of different physicians that a patient saw per year.

"Patients are seeing more different doctors, fewer times each, but overall having more contact with physicians," said McGrail. "We don't know if this shift in services has actually led to better outcomes and higher quality of life, or if we are simply giving people more tests and more diagnoses."

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Obesity deterrents by governments called for

Taxing sweetened drinks such as pop and limiting junk food ads for children could help curb obesity worldwide, researchers say in a medical journal series.

This week's issue of the Lancet includes a series on trends in obesity, which increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers.By taxing sugar-sweetened beverages, governments could make it easier for children to make healthy choices, researchers say. iStock

"By imposing tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and limiting marketing of unhealthy foods to children, governments can lead in making it easier for children to make healthy choices," said the lead author of one of the papers, Steven Gortmaker, a professor of the practice of health sociology at Harvard School of Public Health.

Increasing taxes and marketing restrictions have helped in tobacco control and likely would work in reducing consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks, the researchers suggest.

Obesity is often defined in terms of the body-mass index or BMI, a measure of heights and weights. In adults, a BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.

A second paper in the series projected that if present trends continue, about half of men and women in the U.S. will be obese by 2030.

Some 32 per cent of men and 35 per cent of women are now obese in the United States, Claire Wang at the Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia University in New York and her co-authors said.

In Britain, obesity rates are projected to be between 41 to 48 per cent for men and 35 to 43 per cent for women by 2030, up from 26 per cent for both sexes now.

"An extra 668,000 cases of diabetes, 461,000 of heart disease and 130,000 cancer cases would result ," for the U.S. and U.K. combined, Wang's team wrote.

Beyond compromising the healthy, productive lifespan of populations, the increases in obesity could add an estimated $48 to $66 billion US a year in the U.S.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Vaccines largely safe, U.S. review says

Vaccines can cause certain side-effects, but serious ones appear very rare, and there's no link with autism and Type 1 diabetes, the U.S. Institute of Medicine says in the first comprehensive safety review in 17 years.

The report isn't aimed at nervous parents. And the side-effects it lists as proven are some that doctors long have known about, such as fever-caused seizures and occasional brain inflammation. Serious side-effects from vaccination appear very rare, according to a new report. Reed Saxon/Associated Press

Instead, the review comes at the request of the U.S. government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which as the name implies, pays damages to people who are injured by vaccines. Federal law requires this type of independent review as officials update side-effects on that list to be sure they agree with the latest science.

"Vaccines are important tools in preventing serious infectious disease across the lifespan, from infancy through adulthood. All health-care interventions, however, carry the possibility of risk and vaccines are no exception," said pediatrician and bioethicist Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., who chaired the institute panel.

Still, this week's report stresses that vaccines generally are safe, and it may help doctors address worries from a small but vocal anti-vaccine movement. Some vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, are on the rise.

"I am hopeful that it will allay some people's concerns," Clayton said.

The review echoed numerous other scientific reports that dismiss an autism link.

But it found convincing evidence of 14 side-effects:

Fever-triggered seizures, which seldom cause long-term consequences, from the measles-mumps-rubella, or MMR, vaccine.MMR also can cause a rare form of brain inflammation in some people with immune problems.The varicella vaccine against chickenpox sometimes triggers that viral infection, resulting in widespread chickenpox or a painful relative called shingles. It also occasionally can lead to pneumonia, hepatitis or meningitis.Six vaccines — MMR and the chickenpox, hepatitis B, meningococcal and tetanus-containing vaccines — can cause severe allergic reactions known as anaphylaxis.

Vaccines in general sometimes trigger fainting or a type of shoulder inflammation.

There's suggestive evidence but not proof of a few other side-effects, including anaphylaxis from the human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine and short-term joint pain in some women and children from the MMR vaccine.

On the other hand, the report cleared flu shots of blame for two long-suspected side effects: Bell's palsy and worsening of asthma.

That doesn't mean there aren't other side-effects — the review couldn't find enough evidence to decide about more than 100 other possibilities. Some vaccines are just too new to link to something really rare.

Another example: Flu shots have long come with a caution about rare, paralyzing Guillain-Barré syndrome, but Clayton said research hasn't settled if that's a coincidence since the disorder is more common during the winter.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, which runs the vaccine compensation program, is reviewing the report but said it's too early to predict if it will prompt changes to the injury list.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

U.S. teens on Facebook more likely to use drugs

American teens who spend time on Facebook and other social media sites are at increased risk of smoking, drinking and drug use, a survey suggests.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University conducted the back-to-school survey of 1,006 teens who answered questions about their use of social media, TV viewing habits and substance abuse.

The findings suggested that compared those aged 12 to 17 who spend no time on social networking sites in a typical day, teens who do were:

Half of respondents who said they've seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs on Facebook and other social networking sites first saw such pictures when they were 13 years of age or younger. It's not being old-fashioned for parents to limit and monitor their teens' use of social media like Facebook, a youth addictions psychiatrist says. CBC

"The relationship of social networking site images of kids drunk, passed out, or using drugs and of suggestive teen programming to increased teen risk of substance abuse offers grotesque confirmation of the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., the founder of the centre and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

"The time has come for those who operate and profit from social networking sites like Facebook to deploy their technological expertise to curb such images and to deny use of their sites to children and teens who post pictures of themselves and their friends drunk, passed out or using drugs," he added in a statement.

Social media allows people to be exposed to images and stories of substance abuse at a younger age, said Dr. Shimi Kang, a youth addictions psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor at the University of British Columbia who works with those aged 12 to 24.

Since young people are highly sensitive to what their peers are doing, seeing many images of drinking and substance abuse and partying may lead them to think the behaviour is normal.

"A scenario could be a young 13-year-old girl who spends three hours on Facebook," Kang said.

"More than half of the stuff she's going to be reading and seeing is going to involve substance abuse of people within her age group. If the cool girls or the popular people are posting this, she's going to believe number one, it's normal and number two, that's acceptable."

Alcohol advertising on social media is another potential factor.

Parental controls are another aspect of the association between social media use and substance abuse. Moms and dads who do not allow any use of social media may also have zero tolerance towards drugs and alcohol, Kang said. And youth who are less involved in extracurricular activities are more likely to use social media.

Canada's anti-drug strategy suggests that parents be knowledgeable, communicate with their teens, and watch for signs of changes.

Setting limits on teens' use of social media is important, Kang said.

"In my 10 years of practice, what young people have told me is when their parents limit things in a healthy way, they find that they're able to better maintain a balance," she said. "Don't be afraid to limit and monitor the social media use. It's not being old- fashioned or out of touch. It's the same parenting principles that we'd apply to anything."

Kang also advised youth to recognize that social media like Facebook and Twitter aren't real life, but a filtered image with benefits and drawbacks that need to be recognized.

While the study was well designed, it draws associations and not a cause-and-effect relationship between social media use and substance abuse, Kang said. She noted the findings likely would apply in Canada, with two exceptions: difference in legal drinking ages and slight variations in ethnocultural demographics between the two countries.

With files from CBC's Amina Zafar Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Health Canada warns not to acquire semen online

Health Canada is again warning Canadians of the potential danger of using donated semen for assisted conception from questionable sources, specifically off the Internet.

Donations procured through unreliable means like ordering off the Internet may not be safe due to the possibility they have not been properly screened and tested, the agency said.

Untested semen could pass on HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Chlamydia and Hepatitis B and C to mothers and unborn children, it warned.

This second warning, following one issued in December 2010, comes in "light of media reports involving the advertisement of 'fresh' donor semen over the Internet, and websites advertising such services," the release said.

It further warned that this semen has not been processed and cryopreserved [frozen] and very well might not have been tested.

There are regulations for acquiring semen for assisted conception. Distribution of "fresh" semen is prohibited in Canada. Donors are required to be screened and tested before donating and six months after donating. The semen is guaranteed for a minimum of six months in order to lessen the risk of passing on any infectious disease.

A list of semen processors and importers are kept by Health Canada and are subject to regular inspections.

Health Canada adds that Canadians considering using donor semen should always consult with health care professionals.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Ontario Liberals promise doctor house calls

Ontario's Liberals are promising to bring back medical house calls if re-elected, in a bid to court voters prior to the Oct. 6 election.

Ontario's Liberals are promising to bring back medical house calls for some Ontario residents if re-elected. (The Canadian Press)

Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews said Sunday the program, for those with mobility issues or severe illnesses, would cost the province about $60 million a year.

"House calls are coming back to Ontario, so anyone who has difficulty getting to appointments will be cared for right in their homes," Matthews said at the home of an 83-year-old Toronto woman.

"It makes it easier for them to stay comfortably where they want to be."

The party said the program would offer a range of services including visits by a doctor, nurse or occupational therapist, as well as phone and online consultations.

The Liberals said the program would cut costs for long-term care, which costs about $150 per day a patient but can grow to $1,000 a day in a hospital.

Matthews says the province will have to work with health providers to develop the program, and is uncertain how many new nurses or social workers would be required.

With files from The Canadian Press Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Deadly bird flu on rise

The UN warns that wild bird migrations have brought a mutant strain of bird flu back to some countries that were previously virus-free. Kin Cheung/ Associated Press

The United Nations warned Monday of a possible resurgence of the deadly bird flu virus, saying wild bird migrations had brought it back to previously virus-free countries and that a mutant strain was spreading in Asia.

A mutant strain of H5N1, which can apparently sidestep defences of existing vaccines, is spreading in China and Vietnam, The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement Monday. It urged greater surveillance to ensure that any outbreaks are contained.

Last week, the World Health Organization reported that a 6-year-old Cambodian girl had died Aug. 14 from bird flu, the eighth person to die from H5N1 avian influenza this year in Cambodia.

Vietnam suspended its springtime poultry vaccination this year, FAO said. Most of the northern and central parts of the country where the virus is endemic have been invaded by the new strain.

Elsewhere, FAO says bird migrations over the past two years have brought H5N1 to countries that had been virus-free for several years, including Israel, the Palestinian territories, Bulgaria, Romania, Nepal and Mongolia.

Accessibility Links

View the original article here

Boxing deemed too dangerous for underage athletes

Paediatrics urge against children entering the boxing ring because the brains of underage athletes are more susceptible to injury. (Andrew Vaughn/Canadian Press) While the debate over hits in minor hockey rages on, pediatricians are calling attention to another sport they say threatens kids' and teens' health: boxing.

Amateur boxing may not be as rough as the professional prizefights seen on TV, but it still presents a high risk of head injury, Canadian and American pediatricians argue in a new statement.

The position paper published Monday by the Canadian Paediatric Society and the American Academy of Pediatrics calls for underage athletes — whose brains are more vulnerable to injury — to stay out of the ring.

Other sports such as hockey and football may cause more injuries overall, but boxing "is a sport where intentional blows to the head are rewarded," said Dr. Claire LeBlanc, one of the paper's Canadian authors.

That makes it particularly dangerous for children and teens, she said.

Calgary super middleweight boxer Dustin Sutley says he trains to avoid hits to the head. John Spittal/CBC"The amount of time to recover from a single concussion for a child or youth takes longer than an adult," she said.

Calgary super middleweight boxer Dustin Sutley, 26, said he has known since he was a teenager that the sport can be dangerous.

But he said a big part of his training focuses on how to avoid those hits to the head.

"I mean you look at a sport like football, that's not an impact sport, it's a collision sport. Those are car crashes. You have 250-pound guys clashing into each other," he said.

But Dr Laura Purcell, who co-authored the position paper, dismisses the argument that other contact sports are as dangerous as boxing.

"What we're saying in this paper is that boxing results in more admissions to hospital than judo, karate or wrestling," she said.

And the safety equipment boxers wear makes no difference, she added.

"There is no evidence in the literature that any type of headgear will prevent concussions," she said.

With files from CBC News Accessibility Links

View the original article here

As Astral Projection-help for beginners

Astral projection can be simply referred to as according to the experience of the body. This is when the soul, the mind or imagination is the possibility of leaving the body. This idea actually scares many people, and many go find a synonym for death. However, the very small number of people actually unknown is indeed very rampant phenomenon. Takes place when we sleep. In our State of the dream or in the world, we believe that the astral, we are not actually knowing anything about it. This article basically shows how astral projection for beginners.

Above all, to know how to do with the need to learn astral projection meditation. Meditation is indeed a key component of this visit is due to one must be able to put your body to sleep without ending up sleeping at the end. Therefore, the mind has to be wide-awake while the unit must be Sleeping. Recalls that somehow partially trance state. Further, the practice of meditation will allow one to perform astral projection or travel.

During the science as I do "astral projection, the person must be familiar with the great atmosphere. When planning to go to the astral adventure, one must be in place which is convenient and yet Serene. Make sure the place you choose is not one that is readily susceptible to distraction. One must developers everything that could potentially be a distraction, such as a telephone or TV.

Typically, one of the things that prevent one from going into this whole fears about it. One can finally chilled by what he or she intends to do. Usually the worry is that when the soul leaves the body, and might not come back. It really is not true. One note that astral projection is usually the thing that happens in our dreams, unknowingly.

When planning to go through astral projection, one of its intentions very clear. The best way is to tell yourself what you are going to do. One must affirm he wants to do this. One do this perfectly before meditating.

Now on to the actual astral projecting stage, one must be prepared as easy and peaceful. Has one after reaching a specific phase of trance, one Try to leave his or her body. One try to slide from the body or even uprising from it for that purpose. Visualizing phenomena in the Head you can do this. Everybody performs this otherwise. Best P40 multiple times in order to place it finally right every time.

One is taken from his body, gets one free to adventure in the world, astral. It could do everything his wishes.

Now the main problem is returning. Ordinary fear is that one that one may not be able to return to his physical self. One can actually simply the wonder is returning. One will immediately awareness. These are only simple information on how to perform astral projection.

Brian is the Publisher of astral travel. For more Great tips on how to do astral projection, visit http://www.astraltravelguide.info/

View the original article here

Remain Sane and even positive through injury

Inspiration for this article comes from the question that I posted on social networks, while lowilem for operators to write about. A friend of mine "replies asking the best way to exercise after suffering from an injury to his upper back. As I was replying to her she had joked that it was not whether it would contribute to a good article yet cenilaby the information anyway. After her examination, she asked for, I realized I have the great subject to write about! Now other there with similar problems, you can read on and informed.

Many of us have been injured in some way shape or form in our life. Happens to the best of us, whether we may have caused us or remain happy recipient of one life's curve balls. The question is how we have to continue Making efforts in order to stay fit even in the presence of being hurt? I have several thoughts and tips for sharing that I hope to inspire and enable any of the reading is to focus on the process of healing the injury instead of debilitation.

Hint: 1

Get the facts

I have met many people who have stopped all physical activity due to injury. Sometimes, depending on the damage itself, this may be what you need to do. But to say that you have an injury-and-mouth disease. Does this mean that any movement must come from a complete halt? Of course not! Or simply communicate with a trusted professional, and learn what the healing looks like from how much time you may need to rest in appropriate therapy to cure wounds. Armed with facts, you know what not to do and even more importantly, what can still be done! If you love to jog, but no, this doesn't mean you can't work out. You can build the upper part of the body and good cardio routine that impact low arm exercises. On the right guidance, you'll learn how to rebuild the strength of the appropriate techniques in Your feet and knees and hips additional support. Knowledge is power and understanding allows you to learn about creative ways to be strong of these at a time when the body needs extra tlc.

Tip-2

Remain free from limiting beliefs

As you know, suffer, we have a set of supports life. You have heard this quote by Charles r. Swindoll, "life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how can we react to it? Damage to consider backup and reassess strategy so as to provide new opportunities. Do you know anyone who suffered injured knee? I know a few and had endure some substantial surgical and after care to recover. As a result, some of these people have given up altogether usefulness because it was unable to participate in the exact actions as much loved and ended with mass. This is an example of succumbing to limiting beliefs. With an abundance of other muscles, joints and exercises available is imperative to understand that it is not necessarily the damage itself, which you can store as much as the person perception limit down. If what we want is suitable, then everything we have to do is to examine what we can do vs. we can show in a given time. Ask what some reliable medical is safe and beneficial during the recovery process, and then do it! This is a way to remain connected to the well-being. All you need to know the healing seeks to work wonders in conjunction with actions of good behavior and thoughts!

Tip-3

Become knowledgeable about nutrition

Here's a secret. Approximately 80% of our efforts in order to remain fit and healthy are derived from the sound nutrition. Maintenance, lean mass (muscle) and rapid metabolism of blood sugar is stable storage system by using routine, delivering us nutrient dense food that makes us feel alive and DE-ENERGIZED! Our body usually have fuel in our bloodstream maintaining about 3 hours worth of survival, then chaos hits! Our body keep fat fear famine and breaks down precious muscle freed more energy to feed the nervous system, because it is getting from food. The food tends to bring about creative and heavier than energy (nutritional food not junk weighs you down) when browsing through healthy recipes. This act alone constitute a specific direction something tasty and rewarding! While only a fresh, vibrant and colorful foods around it we nourish us properly at the right time for the right reasons, throughout the day, we can then be strong during the healing up according to the best of circumstances.

Tip-4 concentrate only on what you can do

I know I guy who had MS for years. He was told by his doctor that he could remain in the wheelchair for the rest of his life and never. Unexpected is the seemingly resonate well with him since more than a decade later, it is not only very successful, award winning and highly qualified personal trainer, but he also travels around for speaking engagements to offer the general public of hope, inspiration and education about this challenging disease. Didn't focus on the limitations, but instead, she decided there was another dimension to be created, and he did just that. It was easy? Probably not but this is not what makes the victory even sweeter? Injuries happen, and sometimes perform or is contraindicated, or might require changes, but it is our attitude that helps us live or prepares us to die! The human body contains within it a wonderful, healing ability, so if being a competent and healthy people is the ultimate desire, I am happy that is all the space to download! Surround yourself with anything that inspires "Yes you can" messages and healthy wellness creation out of "dis-ease".

I had broken My ankle sprained toe and many years ago while playing tennis. I was on a path which fits this prejudice and certainly not on the agenda! The entire ordeal resulted in few weeks worth of inactivity i, which went on the road to my knee. Boy I feel that the initial setback in implementing! Unable to work, bored and lonely is stuck at home, I had almost convinced me that life was as a cruel trick on me, so I laid around, ate pizza and felt useless. Then one day something smiesznego have occurred. I noticed that my leg. He was strong and shapely because everything had to be taken to make up for the brunt of the injured leg. Liked what I saw and ran with it! I shall concentrate on walking again and again, getting into the swing of things. The injury healed and matched lean legs to the pretty one, and many years later, it is as if it never happened. You can see, and may have sunk back to the frame in mind, that focuses on victim yet but has chosen to highlight interesting and positive aspect of the damage, and got busy healing. Beauty of being human is our ability to make choices!

What is the moral of this story, while injuries happen for many reasons, it is for us to decide where to direct our attention during the healing process. My friend has been sufficiently responsible for information on its back, and continue on its size and a healthy lifestyle. This is the inspiration! When we surround ourselves and think what can we preferred to create instead of "none" we see, everything is possible! Yes, if you were ... nothing to obtain facts, ditch the limiting beliefs, becoming erstwhile nutrition useful, acquire attitudes "I do" and "get busy" healing!

A Gore is a writer and certified personal training specialist (CPTS).

In addition to many years in the industry relevance of its constant education and personal experience of your own weight-add reliability problems and heart to its Council.

View the original article here

The importance of obtaining the proper amount of sleep

Sleeping eight hours per day has many health benefits, and in this article, I'm going to discuss some of them. There are a lot of research on sleep and the effects of the human body and their find quite fascinating and very interesting. For example, a good nights sleep IFRSs for the first time actually may result in the loss of mass, which I find hard to believe, sort of,. I have always said that if slept less and are active, it led to the loss of mass.

Actually if you get the proper amount of sleep will have less appetite, since certain chemicals that tend to regulate or manage our appetite which do not work well in the body, if there is a Lack of sleep.

Another advantage of a good nights sleep is a better memory. While they are sleeping your brain is actually working and, like a computer processing information, which allows memory to enhance productivity each day. It is similar to a computer, download and if you do not download the sentence or memory tends to somewhat chaotic and readability, thus reducing the effectiveness of the memory. The fact that the appropriate amount of sleep improves sharpness or alertness is quite obvious. Sleep in a well resumes up sharp and with energy. I am sure we all have experienced this feeling.

Another advantage of getting the proper amount of sleep is that it reduces their likelihood of heart attack. Most of the attacks, the heart's place in the morning, and apparently, if you do not get enough sleep that you have higher blood pressure as sleep tends to impact your blood vessels.

Also like many other organs in the body of sleep allows body sort of auto repair. This aspect of sleep to find aesthetically pleasing. I have always said that the body repairs itself in some way while sleeping. This being so, as always, we exposed the harmful environmental factors, such as air pollution, too much sun, too much alcohol, etc. and during Sleeping unit has the ability to perform its maintenance, resulting in fewer diseases and problems. Now here is something very interesting. Proper sleep, you can reduce the cancer probably institution.

Apparently there is a link to the light and a chemical called Melatonin, which protects us from cancer. Darkness allows our body to produce appropriate amounts of Melatonin, so it is extremely important for you to sleep in a dark room. Can I sleep with the TV on — I think better change this habit. Although there are many other obvious benefits to obtain the proper amount of sleep, but I want to mention the very important, that is, the benefits of taking a NAP. There are many scientific studies that indicate that the daily NAP. It is shown that the persons who take regular NAPS tend to live longer and have a lower incidence of cancer and heart disease. This website aims to provide low cost insurance and provide information on how you can maintain and improve health. This topic is a fascinating and deserves Great distributed more attention. I realize that it is difficult to get eight hours of sleep per night. I'm not even close, but we should try.

We are prepared to conclude insurance low cost with the most comprehensive coverage possible. My articles are mainly focused on the protection and improvement.

View the original article here