Worldwide search for asthma clue

By Rebecca Harrison
BBC Horizon

Tristan da Cunha offers a great chance for scientific study

In the middle of the South Atlantic, 1,500 miles from any other land mass lies the most remote inhabited island in the world, Tristan da Cunha.

This in itself is quite extraordinary, but the island is also unique for an entirely different reason - half of its 261 residents suffer from asthma.

Dr Noe Zamel, of the University of Toronto, first recognised this phenomenon when he met the islanders after they were evacuated to Britain in 1961, when the island's volcano erupted.

Studying for his PhD at the time, Dr Zamel was part of the team of scientists assembled to learn everything they could about this unique population.

"I was in charge of doing the pulmonary function tests and I was amazed that every second Tristanian that I tested had evidence of airway obstruction caused by asthma" said Dr Zamel.

After the volcano calmed, the islanders returned home, followed eventually in 1993 by Dr Zamel. His quest was to discover what was behind the asthma pandemic.

No air pollution

Dr Zamel knew the island was pristine.

"From the air pollution point of view, Tristan da Cunha is the safest place in the planet. There is basically no industry and the winds are so strong that the air here is as pure as it can be."

So the answer, Dr Zamel deduced, must lie in their genes.

With only seven surnames amongst the entire island, the population has a very homogenous gene pool.

Rates of asthma are very high on Tristan da Cunha

"So with the smaller sample size we could achieve what would be required with thousands and thousands of other populations," he said.

By analysing the islanders' genes Dr Zamel achieved what would have been impossible with any other population - the isolation of one particular gene - known as ESE3.

This gene is involved with the deposition of collagen in the airways. If the gene is faulty then the airway walls are thickened and constricted, making it more difficult to breathe.

Barbados clue

However, Dr Zamel's discovery in Tristan da Cunha is exceptional, and it does not explain the allergy explosion in the rest of the world.

Professor Gideon Lack, the Head of Paediatric Allergy at Guys and St Thomas' , explains the extent of the problem.

Dr Zamel is carrying out research on Tristan da Cunha

"Twenty percent of schoolchildren carry an asthma inhaler. That's one in five children," he said.

"Similar numbers of young children, 20%, suffer symptoms of eczema. About thirty to forty percent of patients suffer hay fever."

At least part of the answer behind the allergy explosion in the rest of the world may lie on the sundrenched shores of Barbados.

Barbados has so many people suffering from asthma that part of the A&E ward in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown is dedicated entirely for patients coming in with asthma attacks.

Dr Harold Watson who runs this asthma bay explains the degree of the problem.

"In a typical busy day we can see 30 asthma patients per eight hour shift passing through."

Modern home

Associate Professor Kathleen Barnes, of Johns Hopkins University, has been investigating why the island has become so allergic in recent years.

"Barbados really is a microcosm of what's happening globally, it's gone through a very rapid period of change over a very short period of time," she said.

Allergies are the price we pay for our modernization over time Professor Kathleen Barnes Johns Hopkins University

Over the past 20 years, Professor Barnes and her team have analysed the homes on the island in minute detail, collecting dust samples, and monitoring allergen levels.

Professor Barnes' results are enlightening. "We believe that in the modern home there are a variety of factors that contribute to this exposure.

"Indoor carpeting, better upholstered furniture and so on. All of these things combined contributed to these higher levels of allergen."

Studies such as this are illustrating that the modern home that many of us desire is greatly increasing our exposure to allergens, the substances that induce allergies such as dust mites.

The people of Tristan da Cunha are only part of the jigsaw that is the global allergy explosion.

It is hoped that with the discovery of the gene that contributes to asthma, medications will be developed to target the disease worldwide.

With Dr Zamel's latest visit to the island, accompanied by the Horizon team, he collected more DNA samples to further his studies.

However, it is clear that the answer does not only lie in our genetics.

'Price we pay'

Like the people of Barbados, we are changing our environment so rapidly that our bodies simply can not keep pace.

Dr Barnes goes on to explain: "Allergies are the price we pay for our modernization over time.

"This convergence if you will of various environmental factors, rapid changes in the domestic environment, changes in lifestyle due to rapid modernisation - all of the cars on the streets and the pollution that comes from these cars.

"It's sort of this perfect storm if you will."

Many of us are living the dream, the Western lifestyle. However, with more than 300 million asthmatics worldwide, and a third of all adults in the UK affected by allergy, perhaps this dream is at the cost of our own health.

Horizon: Allergy Planet is on BBC Two, on 9 December at 2100GMT.

The Story of Asthma Island is on BBC Four, on 9 December 2200GMT.

source: bbc

link to the original post:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7766656.stm


Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

http://waterfrontlife.blogspot.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

Mediterranean Diet Enriched With Nuts Cuts Heart Risks

MONDAY, Dec. 8 (HealthDay News) -- In older adults at risk for heart disease, a Mediterranean diet plus daily servings of mixed nuts may help manage metabolic syndrome, according to a Spanish study.

Metabolic syndrome describes a group of health problems that includes abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high glucose levels -- all of which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Previous research suggests that a Mediterranean diet -- which includes lots of cereals, vegetables, fruits and olive oil, moderate consumption of fish and alcohol, and low intake of dairy, meats and sweets -- lowers the risk of metabolic syndrome.

This new study included 1,224 people, ages 55 to 80, at high risk for cardiovascular disease. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The control group received advice on a low-fat diet while the other two groups received quarterly education about the Mediterranean diet. One of the Mediterranean diet groups received one liter per week of virgin olive oil, while the other group received 30 grams per day of mixed nuts.

At the start of the study, 61.4 percent of the participants met criteria for metabolic syndrome. After one year, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome decreased by 13.7 percent in the mixed nut group, by 6.7 percent in the olive oil group, and by 2 percent in the control group.

There were no weight changes in any of the groups over the one-year study period. But the number of people with large waist circumference, high triglycerides or high blood pressure significantly decreased in the Mediterranean diet/mixed nuts group compared with the control group. This suggests that the Mediterranean diet with mixed nuts improves certain features of metabolic syndrome, such as oxygen-related cell damage, insulin resistance, and chronic inflammation, the researchers said.

"Traditionally, dietary patterns recommended for health have been low-fat, high-carbohydrate diets, which generally are not palatable. The results of the present study show that a non-energy-restricted traditional Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts, which is high in fat, high in unsaturated fat and palatable, is a useful tool in managing the metabolic syndrome," concluded Dr. Jordi Salas-Salvado, of the University of Rovira i Virgili, and colleagues.

source: usnews.com

link to the original post:
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/12/08/mediterranean-diet-enriched-with-nuts-cuts-heart.html


Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

http://waterfrontlife.blogspot.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's

1 of 1Full Size

LONDON (Reuters) - Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement.

"We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors ... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's."

Alzheimer's disease is incurable and is the most common form of dementia among older people. It affects the regions of the brain involving thought, memory and language.

While the most advanced drugs have focused on removing clumps of beta amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain, researchers are also now looking at therapies to address the toxic tangles caused by an abnormal build-up of the protein tau.

In her research, Akterin focused on a gene variant called apoE4, found in 15 to 20 percent of people and which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer's. The gene is involved in the transport of cholesterol.

She studied mice genetically engineered to mimic the effect of the variant gene in humans, and which were fed a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months -- meals representing the nutritional content of fast food.

These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an abnormal build-up of the protein tau as well as signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory storage, Akterin said.

"All in all, the results give some indication of how Alzheimer's can be prevented, but more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public," she said.

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Catherine Bosley)

source: reuters.com

link to the original post:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AR48G20081128?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews


Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

http://waterfrontlife.blogspot.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

Ex-surgeon Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. espouses a noninvasive cure for heart disease

Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. and his wife Ann, in pink, consult with a couple interested in his plant-based diet for coronary heart disease, in the kitchen of his home.

Read excerpts from the book: "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure."

Esselstyn's rules to live by

• No meat, poultry, fish, dairy products or oils

• Eat vegetables (except avocado), fruits, legumes and whole grain products.

His Web site: Heartattackproof.com

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr. has no qualms about stepping inside the nation's No. 1 heart hospital and dishing on angioplasty.

Invasive treatment is a mainstay of cardiac care, and it pays the bills. It's also what's wrong with medicine, says the retired Cleveland Clinic surgeon who has been affiliated with the hospital for 40 years.

Esselstyn has turned his life's work to demonstrating that heart disease doesn't need to exist in the first place. And if it does, it can be reversed. The remedy is a plant-based diet, he says.

Learn to live with no meat, no fish, no dairy or oils of any kind, and make yourself "heart-attack proof."

Most doctors would agree a strict vegetarian diet is good for the heart. But the idea that a diet free of animal products and fat can cure the No. 1 killer in America is a point of debate among doctors.

Drug companies are in fierce competition to find a cholesterol drug that does what Esselstyn argues can be done better through diet. The call to attack artery-clogging plaque naturally is a challenge to the medical profession and an unspoken threat to the bottom line of the medical industry.

But Esselstyn has the audacity to take his message to Cosgrove Country, where Clinic chief Toby Cosgrove is building a glassy new center for heart treatment while also trying to build a reputation for prevention and wellness programs.

One recent morning, Esselstyn slipped on a white lab coat and told a group assembled in a Clinic classroom that treating heart disease with stents and statins is not the answer. He implored them to accept that the body, given the right fuel, can restore coronary arteries damaged by the fatty Western diet.

Why a stent when the right diet will do?

Esselstyn, a stalky 6-foot-3 former Olympic gold medalist, pointed to white branches of the heart's plumbing system illuminated on an overhead screen. They were X-rays of arteries belonging to patients who took up his nutrition program. The X-rays showed vessels narrowed by disease that appeared to open after patients shunned burgers and fries for greens and grains.

"Why do you have to have an operation or stent?" Esselstyn asked rhetorically. "Your body can do this so simply."

Esselstyn and his wife, Ann, have followed a plant-based, oil-free diet for more than 20 years. He has studied a number of heart patients under his counsel during that time and reports their remarkable success in a recently published a book called "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease."

He lives in Pepper Pike and is part of a small fraternity of prevention activists who say a vegetarian diet can protect the heart, the best known of whom is best-selling author Dr. Dean Ornish.

"What really keeps me on fire about this is we have an epidemic of disease in this country that doesn't need to exist," Esselstyn said in an interview. "It's so ridiculously simplistic to turn around this epidemic, it's scary."

A diet that calls for extreme discipline

Simplistic perhaps, but demanding. The Esselstyn diet means never saying you ate "pretty good," or you only had a little ice cream.

The Esselstyn file

• Age: 74

• Member of Yale rowing team that won gold medal in 1956 Olympics.

• U.S. Army surgeon during the Vietnam War.

• Married to Ann Crile Esselstyn (above), granddaughter of Cleveland Clinic co-founder Dr. George Crile.

• Cleveland Clinic surgeon for 31 years.

• Quote: "I became disillusioned with a lot of what we were doing in medicine. No matter how many operations I did, I wasn't doing anything for the next victim."

Every forkful of fat, he says, causes an immediate biochemical assault on the endothelium, the lining of the arteries. White blood cells collect there, gobbling up bad cholesterol and creating fatty deposits over time.

For many people, especially those who smoke or have other risk factors, accumulation of plaque is a time bomb for a coronary event.

It might take something like that to convince an average meat-eater to adopt the Esselstyn diet. Even then, you wonder how many people at a heart attack survivors' convention would line up at his table.

Many doctors might agree with Esselsytn, but few are likely to push the no-mercy diet on patients, simply because it's thought to be unachievable.

"This diet is looked at as extreme as you can get, so many physicians instead of going to the extreme, go somewhere in the middle," said Dr. Joe Crowe, director of the breast center at the Clinic.

Crowe has followed Esselstyn's program since he suffered a heart attack at age 44 in 1996. He learned a new way of eating and said that once your taste buds adjust, you stop liking the taste of fat. You learn which restaurants to eat at and how to navigate social functions, which for Crowe involves moving stuff around the plate "so it looks like I've eaten something."

He was lean and healthy, with no sign of heart trouble when his heart attack struck. He learned that the lower third of a main artery leading to the front of his heart was significantly narrowed. They call this vessel the "widow maker." Crowe wasn't a candidate for surgical intervention, so he turned to Esselstyn. Two-and-a-half years later, an angiogram showed the diseased artery was normal.

A need for large-scale trials?

Esselstyn has meticulously followed more than a dozen patients with advanced coronary disease who adopted his program. He writes in his book that patients saw cholesterol levels plummet and their angina disappear. After five years, 11 patients who underwent follow-up angiograms had stopped or reversed progression of the disease, he wrote.

"Patients with heart disease and their families, their greatest fear is when the next shoe is going to drop," Esselstyn said. "This is a very powerful gift they have given themselves and their families."

He counts cardiologists among those who have come knocking at his door for help. But he is first to admit he has not won a large number of believers at the Clinic. He tiptoes carefully on the subject of how his mantra plays there.

Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Clinic, said Esselstyn's premise is unproven because nobody has conducted a rigorous study to show whether diet alone can reverse coronary disease.

"This is the reality," Nissen said. "We do the large-scale trials that somebody has to fund."

Nissen also cautioned that there is no "one-size-fits-all" answer for patients at risk for heart trouble. "I generally advise patients don't go out and buy a book and decide that's what you're going to do," he said.

But medicine should be a forum for different ideas, Nissen said.

On that count, the Clinic has made room for Essesltyn in his second career (he retired from surgery in 2000). He is part of the hospital's new Wellness Institute, headed by celebrity health guru Dr. Michael Roizen.

Esselstyn's wife, Ann, who is granddaughter of Clinic co-founder George Crile, is also a partner in his efforts. She authored a chapter in the book and contributed a volume of recipes, from banana french toast to veggie stuffed peppers.

Ann asks people she meets right off what they ate for lunch.

Together they counsel patients in their home, hosting four-hour sessions on how to shop, cook and eat in ways that most people never contemplated.

Ann accompanied her husband on his recent Clinic lecture, cradling a bundle of leafy greens to demonstrate the art of stripping leaf from stem.

Who knows? In an institution known for the best cardiac treatment in the world, kale and collard greens might be just what the doctor ordered.

The Case for Real Food

More than just vitamins? (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

Is there more to a carrot than beta carotene? Is lycopene the best we get from tomatoes? And when we heap our plates with salmon, are we serving up something other than omega-3s?

For years the scientific community has viewed individual vitamins and nutrients as the best that food has to offer. Nutrition studies have isolated beta carotene, calcium, vitamin E and lycopene, among other nutrients, in order to study their health benefits in the body.

But now, after several vitamin studies have produced disappointing results, there’s a growing belief that food is more than just a sum of its nutrient parts. In a recent commentary for the journal Nutrition Reviews, University of Minnesota professor of epidemiology David R. Jacobs argues that nutrition researchers should focus on whole foods rather than only on single nutrients. “We argue for a need to return to food as the source of nutrition knowledge,” writes Dr. Jacobs with co-author Linda C. Tapsell, a nutrition researcher at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

Dr. Jacobs believes that nutrition science needs to consider the effects of “food synergy,” the notion that the health benefits of certain foods aren’t likely to come from a single nutrient but rather combinations of compounds that work better together than apart. “Every food is much more complicated than any drug,’’ said Dr. Jacobs. “It makes sense to want to break it down. But you get a lot of people talking in the popular press about carbohydrates and fats in particular as if they were unified entities. They’re not. They’re extremely complicated.’’

The narrow focus on the health effects of single nutrients stems from the earliest days of nutrition research. In 1937, two scientists won a Nobel Prize for identifying vitamin C as the essential component in citrus fruit that prevents scurvy. The finding spurred interest by the scientific community to study other biologically active nutrients in foods.

For as long as observational studies have shown that diets rich in fruits and vegetables, unsaturated fat and fish, among other things, are associated with better health, nutrition researchers have been busily deconstructing these foods to identify the most potent nutrients. For example, vitamin E has been widely studied as a heart protector.

But attributing the broad health benefits of a diet to a single compound has proven to be misguided. Several studies have suggested an association between diets rich in beta carotene and vitamin A, for instance, and lower risk for many types of cancer. But in a well-known 1994 Finnish study, smokers who took beta carotene were found to have an 18 percent higher incidence of lung cancer. In 1996, researchers gave beta carotene and vitamin A to smokers and workers exposed to asbestos. But the trial had to be stopped because the people taking the combined therapy showed markedly higher risks for lung cancer and heart attacks.

Since then, studies of other vitamins, notably vitamins E and B, have also failed to show a benefit. Manufacturers say the problem is that vitamins are too often examined in sick people while the real benefit may be in preventing disease. But Dr. Jacobs notes that the better explanation may simply be that food synergy, rather than the biological activity of a few key nutrients, is the real reason that certain diets, like those consumed in the parts of the Mediterranean and Japan, appear to lower the risks of heart disease and other health problems.

“People ask me what vitamins they should take,’’ said Dr. Jacobs. “I say ‘Don’t take any. Just make sure you have a nutrient-rich diet.’ ’

source: ny times

link to the original post:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/the-case-for-real-food/



Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

http://waterfrontlife.blogspot.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

California economy loses $28 billion yearly to health effects of pollution

Email Picture

David McNew / Getty Images

The downtown L.A. skyline is visible through smog from the 110 Freeway.

Most of the losses are attributable to 3,000 annual deaths, a Cal State Fullerton study says. The study underscores the economic benefits of meeting federal air quality standards.

Louis Sahagun
November 13, 2008

The California economy loses about $28 billion annually due to premature deaths and illnesses linked to ozone and particulates spewed from hundreds of locations in the South Coast and San Joaquin air basins, according to findings released Wednesday by a Cal State Fullerton research team.

Most of those costs, about $25 billion, are connected to roughly 3,000 smog-related deaths each year, but additional factors include work and school absences, emergency room visits, and asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses, said team leader Jane Hall, a professor of economics and co-director of the university's Institute for Economics and Environment Studies.

• 

  Diesel trucks

  
  
• 

  The problem of particulate pollution

  
  

• 

  Photos: Smog in L.A., then and now

• OPINION: Gov.'s last climate hurrah

The study underscores the economic benefits of meeting federal air quality standards at a time when lawmakers and regulators are struggling with California's commitment to protecting public health in a weak economy.

The $90,000 study does not propose any particular action. But in an interview, Hall said, "We are going to pay for it one way or the other. Either we pay to fix the problem or we pay in loss of life and poor health. . . . This study adds another piece to the puzzle as the public and policy-makers try to understand where do we go from here."

The California Air Resources Board is scheduled to vote Dec. 11 on whether to adopt broader rules that would force more than 1 million heavy-duty diesel truckers to install filters or upgrade their engines. Truckers and agribusiness have argued against stricter regulation, saying it is too expensive for them to invest in clean vehicles at a time of economic uncertainty.

Mary Nichols, chairman of the air resources board, said the findings will "be useful to all of us. Our board members hear on a regular basis from constituents who are concerned about the costs of regulations, and seldom hear from people concerned about their health because they are collectively and individually not as well organized."

In the meantime, the two regions continue to pay a steep price for generating air pollution ranked among the worst in the country. In the South Coast basin, that cost is about $1,250 per person per year, which translates into a total of about $22 billion in savings if emissions came into compliance with federal standards, Hall said. In the San Joaquin air basin, the cost is about $1,600 per person per year, or about $6 billion in savings if the standards were met.

The savings would come from about 3,800 fewer premature deaths among those age 30 and older; 1.2 million fewer days of school absences; 2 million fewer days of respiratory problems in children; 467,000 fewer lost days of work and 2,700 fewer hospital admissions, according to the study.

The study noted that attaining the federal standard for exposure to particulates would save more lives than lowering the number of motor vehicle fatalities to zero in most of the regions examined.

The hardest hit were fast-growing communities in Kern and Fresno counties, where 100% of the population was exposed to particulate concentrations above the average federal standard from 2005 to 2007. High rates of exposure were also found in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, where diesel soot is blown by prevailing winds and then trapped by four mountain ranges.

Considered the most lethal form of air pollution, microscopic particulates expelled from tailpipes, factory smoke stacks, diesel trucks and equipment can penetrate through the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Exposure to these fine particles has been linked to severe asthma, cancer and premature deaths from heart and lung disease.

"In the South Coast basin, an average 64% of the population is exposed to health-endangering annual averages of particulates," Hall said, "and in the most populated county -- Los Angeles -- it is 75%.

"In most years, the South Coast and San Joaquin basins vie with the Houston, Texas, area for the worst air pollution trophy, but this year we took it back," she said. "That's not a prize you want to be handed. Essentially, imported T-shirts and tennis shoes are being hauled to Omaha and the big-rig diesel pollution stays here."

Nidia Bautista, community engagement director for the Coalition for Clean Air, described the findings as "staggering, and a reminder that health is too often the trade-off when it comes to cleaning the air."

Angelo Logan, spokesman for the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, put it another way: "At a time when government is handing out economic stimulus packages, we could use an economic relief package to help us deal with environmental impacts on our health, families and pocketbooks."

Hall agreed. "This is a drain that could be spent in far better ways," she said.

Sahagun is a Times staff writer.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

source: la times


link to the original post:
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-pollute13-2008nov13,0,5432723.story


Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

www.LasOlasLifestyles.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

EU Environment Committee Approves Ban of Highly Toxic Pesticides

(Beyond Pesticides, November 7, 2008) The European Parliament’s environment committee has passed new measures aimed at reducing use and toxicity of pesticides used on crops throughout the European Union (EU). If approved by Parliament at the end of the year, the EU will be on its way to reducing pesticide use by 85 percent by 2013. The measure faces significant backlash from the chemical industry and conventional farmers, but committee members (MEPs) remain firm that the restrictions are both important and possible to do. An official report published last month found record levels of pesticide residues on EU food, giving momentum to pesticide restrictions.
One adopted regulation will cause a list of approved “active substances” to be drawn up, according to which pesticides will be registered at a national level. It also allows EU states to be stricter than the allowable list. One amendment says, “Member states may establish any pesticide-free zones they deem necessary in order to safeguard drinking water resources. Such pesticide-free zones may cover the entire Member State.”
The second approved measure, passed on to Parliament by EU agricultural ministers in June, bans “certain highly toxic chemicals,” those being endocrine disrupting, genotoxic, carcinogenic or toxic to reproduction. Neurotoxic and immunotoxic chemicals may also be banned where they pose a significant risk. Provisional approval may be given to any of these chemicals if it “is needed to combat a serious danger to plant health.” This resolution states that “Member states should monitor and collect data on impacts of pesticide use, including poisoning incidents, and promote long-term research programmes on the effects of pesticide use.”
It also argues that, “In other places such as residential areas, public parks, sports and recreation grounds, school grounds and children’s playgrounds, and in the vicinity of public healthcare facilities . . . the risks from exposure to pesticides of the general public are high. Use of pesticides in those areas should, therefore, be prohibited.” It urged member states to promote alternatives, even saying, “A levy on pesticide products should be considered as one of the measures to finance the implementation of general and crop-specific methods and practices of Integrated Pest Management and the increase of land under organic farming.”
The report, by Christa Klass, passed 58-3, with two absentions. It also set quantitative targets. “Active substances of very high concern” and “toxic or very toxic” pesticides will be subject to “a minimum 50% reduction.” It also bans aerial spraying in general, allowing exceptions by approval, and restored a demand for buffer zones to the text.
While industry interest groups protested the restrictions, claiming yields will fall and prices will rise, MEPs and public health advocates dismissed them. “Human health must be given better protection,” said British MEP Caroline Lucas. “With today’s vote, MEPs have rejected industry scaremongering, and sent a clear message that they want to see a reduction in the use of dangerous chemicals.”
“We think these proposals are a step in the right direction,” said the Soil Association’s Lord Peter Melchett. “They could go further and the British government should be pushing for them - not opposing them.” According to the BBC, a final vote could come in December or January.

Sources: Parlamento Europeo, EU Observer, The Telegraph, BBC

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=881

Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

www.LasOlasLifestyles.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

'Anti-Aging' Pill Makes Mice Mighty

Eric Bland, Discovery News

Mighty and Mini | Discovery News Video

Nov. 7, 2008 -- Eat more than you should. Stay skinny. Run twice as far. Those are the big claims coming from a new drug study from Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass. This latest study clears the way for human clinical trials of SRT1720, often touted as an "anti-aging pill."

SRT1720 activates the same receptor as the much-discussed resveratrol, the chemical in red wine that may slow some effects of aging. Both resveratrol and SRT1720 are being tested as a way to treat type-two diabetes first, and possibly other age-related diseases, later.

"We are very excited by these results," said Michelle Dipp of Sirtris. "These compounds are mimicking calorie restriction and exercise while lowering levels of glucose and insulin in mice. It's a game changer."

The European scientists overfed two groups of mice by about 40 percent. For a person, that would be close to eating 3,000 calories a day, enough to pack on significant weight.

Related Content:

---

Howstuffworks.com: Can I Eat Anything I Want as Long as I Drink Red Wine?
Eric Bland's Blog: Interior Design
Discovery Tech: IM Interviews, Videos, Blogs, and Beyond

---

The mice were first divided into a control group and test group. The test group was given two doses of SIRT1720: 100 mg or 500 mg.

After 15 weeks of eating the high-calorie diet, the control mice gained significant weight. The mice taking 500 mg of the drug, however, gained no weight. The cholesterol levels of the mice on the drug also improved.

The animals' exercise habits were also recorded. Mice without SRT1720 ran for roughly half a mile. Mice given 100 mg ran roughly seven-tenths of a mile. And mice on 500 mg of SRT1720 were able to run a full mile, twice the distance of untreated mice.

Dipp won't speculate on the drug's upper limits, other than to say that tests have shown that above 500 mg, its effects plateau. SRT1720 has no known side effects.

The research, led by Johan Auwerx at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, was published this week in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The new study echoes results published earlier in Nature with resveratrol, the chemical in red wine that led to much discussion about the "French paradox," the seeming ability of French people to eat high-calorie meals, with a glass of red wine, and remain thin. (To get the levels in the study, a person would have to drink dozens of bottles a day.)

SRT1720 is about 1,000 times more powerful that resveratrol, say the researchers. The two chemicals are not related structurally, but both influence the same chemical pathway in the body -- in particular, a type of receptor called SIRT1.

SRT1720 is more powerful than resveratrol because the body doesn't break the drug apart as quickly as it does resveratrol, making it more efficient at binding to the receptors.

The SIRT1 receptor is also activated during caloric restriction diets, which have been shown to lengthen life span in multiple animal models, and during exercise.

SIRT1 receptors are found in mitochondria, often called the powerhouse of the cell because of all the energy they produce.

Cells start out with lots of mitochondria. As the body ages, the mitochondria start to die off or fail.

While more research is needed to prove the connections, mitochondria are suspected to contribute to age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's. Sirtris hopes SRT1720 will eventually be approved to treat these age-related diseases as well.

SRT1720 would be used as a therapeutic drug, not a preventative measure. "The FDA doesn't have a clear approval path for disease prevention," said Dipp. "It does have paths for treating disease, however, and that's what we are going after."

Rafael de Cabo, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health who studies SRT1720's life-extending effects on mice but was not involved in the European study, says that the results are "fantastic and well done."

Still, he urges patience; mice are very different creatures than humans, and more research needs to be done before SRT1720 or its weaker counterpart, resveratrol, are taken by humans.

"I always get the same question [about resveratrol]; how much should I take?" said de Cabo. "I don't take it, and until we have more data, I don't think other people should take it either."

source: discovery.com

Fort Lauderdale Blog and Real Estate News
Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

www.LasOlasLifestyles.com
www.FortLauderdaleLiving.net

Studies show rise in birth defects, infertility among men

Sonja Puzic, Windsor Star
Published: Thursday, November 06, 2008

Are males becoming an endangered species?

That's the question scientists and researchers have been pondering since alarming trends in male fertility rates, birth defects and disorders began emerging around the world.

More and more boys are being born with genital defects and are suffering from learning disabilities, autism and Tourette's syndrome, among other disorders.

Male infertility rates are on the rise and the quality of an average man's sperm is declining, according to some studies.

But perhaps the most disconcerting of all trends is the growing gender imbalance in many parts of heavily industrialized nations, where the births of baby boys have been declining for many years.

What many scientists are calling the most important -- and least publicized -- issue surrounding the future of the human race will be highlighted in a CBC documentary that features two Windsor researchers who've studied the phenomenon.

Titled The Disappearing Male and premiering tonight at 9 on CBC-TV, the documentary includes interviews with Jim Brophy and Margaret Keith, adjunct sociology professors at the University of Windsor.

They have been studying the decline in the birth of male children in the Aamjiwnaang First Nation community located next to the infamous Chemical Valley, Canada's largest concentration of petrochemical plants, near Sarnia.

A paper co-authored by Keith and published three years ago in the U.S. journal Environmental Health Perspectives suggests that exposure to various chemicals produced by industrial plants surrounding the Aamjiwnaang reserve land may be skewing the community's sex ratio.

The researchers looked at the community's birth records since 1984 and saw "a dramatic drop in the number of boys being born in the last 10 years, particularly in the five-year period between 1998 and 2003," Brophy said.

Of 132 Aamjiwnaang babies born between 1999 and 2003, only 46 were boys. Typically, about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls in Canada.

High miscarriage rates and a unusually high number of children suffering from asthma were also noted by researchers.

Although the link between pollutants and human reproduction has not been firmly established, there is growing evidence that the birth sex ratio can be altered by exposure to certain chemicals, such as dioxin, PCBs and pesticides. Brophy said studies done in the United States, Japan and Europe seem to support the theory that the so-called endocrine disrupting chemicals have a particular effect on males.

Some of these chemicals are found in commonly used products such as baby bottles and cosmetics. They can also cause miscarriages and a "whole host" of disorders in a male child, Brophy said.

Brophy said soil and water contamination in and around the Aamjiwnaang reserve had been documented before, including in a University of Windsor study that found high levels of PCBs, lead, mercury and various chemicals in the area in the late 1990s. Accidental chemical spills in the area have not been uncommon.

But it wasn't until the Aamjiwnaang birth ratio study was published that the global science community really took notice.

"It triggered ... calls from scientists and researchers from around the world who had been looking at this issue in Europe and the United States," Brophy said. "Aamjiwnaang became almost the poster child."

While Brophy has not seen The Disappearing Male documentary yet, he believes the story of the Aamjiwnaang community will be "the focal point."

He said the documentary also includes interviews with "some of the foremost experts in the world" on environmental effects on reproductive health.

Brophy and Keith have also studied other occupational and environmental exposures to pollutants, including the link between breast cancer and certain types of jobs in the Windsor-Essex region.

source: windsor star

Fort Lauderdale & Real Estate News Blog
Rory Vanucchi
www.LasOlasLifestyles.com
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

Eating fish twice a week may help diabetes patients

By Mary Brophy Marcus, USA TODAY

Centering supper around a fish dish at least twice a week might help people with diabetes lower their risk of kidney disease, a study suggests.

In the November issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, British researchers analyzed the records of more than 22,300 middle-aged and older English men and women who were part of a large European cancer study. They wanted to examine the effect of eating fish on kidney disease.

BETTER LIFE: Recently diagnosed with diabetes? Follow these steps

The study subjects had answered questionnaires about their diet habits, including how much fish they ate a week, and had provided urine samples, which were analyzed for the presence of a protein called albumin, an indicator of kidney damage.

The researchers reported that of the 517 study subjects who had diabetes (most of whom had type 2), those who on average ate less than one serving of fish each week were four times more likely to have albumin in their urine than people with diabetes who ate fish twice a week.

"Protein in the urine is one of the earliest signs of kidney disease, a serious complication of diabetes," says study co-author Amanda Adler, an epidemiologist with the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

Adler speculates that the nutrient content of fish may affect kidney function and improve blood glucose control. But what kind of fish makes the biggest health splash wasn't determined.

"We didn't ask about the type of fish people ate, but in this bit of England people eat cod, plaice, haddock, canned tuna. Even fish and chips would have been included," she says.

Susan Spratt, assistant professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology at Duke University Medical Center, says it's too early to recommend diet changes based on the findings, noting that cause and effect are hard to determine in this type of epidemiological study. "People who eat fish might have other healthier habits," she says.

To prove fish could be a kidney disease-fighting factor in diabetes, clinical trials would be required in which people with diabetes ate fish and others did not, she says. "But it wouldn't hurt patients to eat more fish," says Spratt, who recommends fish oil to lower triglycerides in her diabetes patients who do not respond to or tolerate other therapies.

For dinner, stick with low-fat broiled and baked recipes, she says.

source: usa today

Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog & Homes For Sale

Rory Vanucchi

RoryVanucchi@gmail.com

www.LasOlasLifestyles.com

Cleveland Clinic opens in West Palm Beach

Cleveland Clinic in Florida opened a new West Palm Beach office at the CityPlace Tower on Monday.

The nonprofit, which has its Florida hospital in Weston, will have 30 employees and a host of advanced medical imagining equipment in the 25,000 square feet. That includes eight full-time doctors. With some doctors rotating up from Weston, 11 specialties will be covered, CEO Dr. Bernardo Fernandez said.

“This office is in reaction to the many years of patients traveling down here from northern Florida,” he said.

Radiologists at the Weston facility will read images taken in West Palm Beach. Surgeries will be referred to the Weston hospital, which will run on the same medical record system.

As for Cleveland Clinic in Florida’s local hospital, there’s been a dip in elective and cosmetic procedures because of the economy, but demand in other areas remains strong, Fernandez said. Plans are under way for future expansion in Weston, he added.

source: South Florida Business Journal

Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Blog & Homes for Sale

Rory Vanucchi
RoryVanucchi@gmail.com