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E.Sakazakii Meningitis to become a notifiable disease

A potentially fatal form of meningitis in premature babies linked to contaminated milk powder should be made a notifiable disease according to a report released today.

5 Apr 2005

Vitamin E supplements speed up the development of latent cancers

Taking high-dose vitamin E supplements for an extended period doesn't protect against cancer; in fact, it may even speed up the development of latent cancers, according to a study by researchers from Hotel-Dieu de Quebec Research Centre and Universite Laval. Their results are published in the April issue of the prestigious Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

5 Apr 2005

Obesity costs California $21.7 billion a year

California businesses are feeling the financial pinch from employees with obesity-related health conditions, State Public Health Officer Dr. Richard J. Jackson announced today. The combined cost of physical inactivity, obesity and overweight totaled $21.7 billion in 2000, according to a new report, The Economic Costs of Physical Inactivity, Obesity and Overweight in California Adults, the first such research conducted for California.

5 Apr 2005

Study suggests that eating onions might help prevent bone loss and osteoporosis

Besides adding flavor to food, onions also may be good for your bones. Researchers at the University of Bern in Switzerland have identified a compound in the popular vegetable that appears to decrease bone loss in laboratory studies using rat bone cells.

5 Apr 2005

Zinc appears to help boys learn

Seventh graders given 20 mg zinc, five days per week, for 10 to 12 weeks showed improvement in mental performance, responding more quickly and accurately on memory tasks and with more sustained attention, than classmates who received no additional zinc.

4 Apr 2005

Dramatic evidence of the importance of visual cues in the control of food intake

The researchers served a free soup lunch to 54 adults, half of whom ate from normal 18-ounce soup bowls, while the other half ate from identical bowls that, unbeknownst to the participants, were slowly refilled through tubing connected to out-of-sight soup cauldrons.

4 Apr 2005

Effect of individualized diets on chronic disease risk

Today at the 2005 Experimental Biology Conference, the Dairy Council of California sponsored a thought-provoking symposium titled "Individualized nutrition as a tool to prevent and treat chronic disease."

4 Apr 2005

Peanuts back in fashion!

The peanut, has made a comeback and consumption has soared to its highest level in nearly two decades with more and more doctors recommending the nuts as part of a heart-healthy diet.

4 Apr 2005

Need for pediatricians to partner with community-based organizations

Pediatricians must look beyond the walls of the examining room and into their own communities to understand and confront the socioeconomic and environmental threats to the health of children and adolescents, such as poor nutrition, exposure to violence, and substance abuse.

4 Apr 2005

Scientists find how pneumonia bacteria get sugar boost to survive

Meningitis and pneumonia bacteria smash into our lungs and cells to steal sugar, which helps them survive, according to research presented from King's College and Guy's Hospital London, (Monday, 04 April 2005) at the Society for General Microbiology's 156th Meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

4 Apr 2005

How E.Coli became deadly to humans

Twenty-three years ago a harmless gut bacterium called E. coli developed the ability to kill people through food poisoning, bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure. Normally E. coli bacteria live in the intestine and don’t pose any danger, but some varieties can cause fatal food poisoning.

4 Apr 2005

Meth abuse and curbs on cold medicines

As states and Congress rush to put common cold, cough and allergy drugs behind the pharmacy counter to curb illegal methamphetamine production, no one has asked consumers what they think about these restrictions -- until now. Harris Interactive asked nearly 3,000 consumers about these and related issues in a national survey commissioned by the National Consumers League (NCL) and Food Marketing Institute (FMI).

4 Apr 2005

Mothers may cause girls to be picky eaters

Researchers at Appalachian State University have found that mothers who consumed more fruits and vegetables are less likely to pressure their daughters to eat and their daughters are less picky, eat more fruits and vegetables, eat fewer fats and sweets and are less likely to be overweight.

4 Apr 2005

Low levels of oral cannabis induces psychosis

Recreational cannabis use has previously been associated with psychotic reactions even in clinical situations where cannabis is administered orally at low doses, now Swiss researcher Dr. Bernard Favrat and colleagues at Institut Universitaire de Medicine Legale in Lausanne have confirmed this in the first such report, in closely monitored subjects participating in a clinical trial.

4 Apr 2005

$2.6 million complaint filed against Illinois by British Ecosse Hospital Products

Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois has had a legal complaint demanding nearly $2.6 million filed against him by a British wholesaler Ecosse Hospital Products Ltd. for 254,250 doses of a flu vaccine ordered by Blagojevich to provide thousands of flu vaccine doses for Illinois.

4 Apr 2005

New once a day asthma treatment approved by FDA

More than 5,000 people die from asthma each year in the United States. Although asthma deaths are infrequent, they have increased significantly during the last two decades.

4 Apr 2005

Soy is well accepted in school lunches

Childhood obesity is a national health concern and affects as many as 20 percent of school children. As part of the battle against obesity, the Illinois Center for Soy Foods at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has recently completed a pilot program, called ISOY, to demonstrate the nutritional benefits of including soy in the state's school lunch programs.

3 Apr 2005

Breakthrough in the understanding of the spread of cholera

Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholera and is spread by contaminated water and food. Scientists from the University of Haifa and Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, have reported in Environmental Microbiology, an important breakthrough in our understanding of the continental and intercontinental distribution of cholera.

3 Apr 2005

Patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain

Researchers from the Altoona Arthritis and Osteoporosis Center have announced that data presented at the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Pain Society suggest that patch therapy provides similar pain relief as oral medications for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain.

3 Apr 2005

Exposure to organochlorine compounds increases the risk of suffering colorectal cancer

A team of researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, The Catalan Institute of Oncology and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) have published a study indicating that exposure to organochlorine compounds, which we ingest in our diets, increases the risk of suffering colorectal cancer.

3 Apr 2005