Smokers with cancer could quit and double survival (AP)
GeorgeJ buzzed up: Haiti: life on the street facing hunger, despair (AP)
25 seconds ago 2010-01-22T08:54:50-08:00
Archive for the ‘Health&Research’ Category
Study finds US birth weights inch down a bit (AP)
WASHINGTON – U.S. newborns are arriving a little smaller, says puzzling new Harvard research that can’t explain why. Fatter mothers tend to produce heavier babies, and obesity is soaring. Yet the study of nearly 37 million births shows newborns were a bit lighter in 2005 than in 1990, ending a half-century of rising birth weights.
The change isn’t big: The average birth weight of full-term babies is just under 7 1/2 pounds, a drop of about 1.8 ounces, researchers reported Thursday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
That’s surprising considering doctor warnings about 9-pound, or bigger, babies. So the researchers double-checked.
The proportion born large for their gestational age dropped about 2 percent, which is good.
“What physicians are responding to is that the bigger babies are getting bigger,” said lead researcher Dr. Emily Oken of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. Plus, “babies are still bigger than they were 30, 40, 50 years ago. It’s just the trend seems to have flattened or reversed itself.”
That’s particularly true for women at lowest risk for too-small babies: White, well-educated, married non-smokers who got early prenatal care. Still, their babies, on average, weighed 2.8 ounces less over the study period.
Babies born too big are at increased risk of obesity and diabetes later in life. On the other hand, babies born too small may require intensive care right away and also be at risk for later chronic diseases. The proportion of babies small for their gestational age did increase slightly, by 1 percent, Oken said.
Moreover, babies’ length at birth suggests even full-term pregnancies are 2.5 days shorter than they used to be. That can’t account for all the weight change, and Oken couldn’t find a full explanation from the birth certificates she studied.
Oken excluded premature babies, as well as twins or other multiples, from her study. (Obese mothers also are at higher risk of having a preemie.) Yes, there are more scheduled cesarean sections or induced labors now, but her analysis concluded that wasn’t to blame.
But that’s not clear as induction often isn’t listed on birth certificates, and the study found a drop in babies born at 40 or 41 weeks gestation, noted Dr. Joann Petrini, an adviser to the March of Dimes.
Regardless, it’s too soon know what this drop means for babies but “we should keep vigilant” about any decline among the smallest newborns, Petrini said.
The study uses the most recent data available from official U.S. birth certificates.
Beware restaurant, frozen meal calorie counts, US study says (AFP)
Researchers at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy found that around half the dishes served in popular US restaurants delivered more calories than stated on the menu, with some packing double the stated energy value.
And the researchers found discrepancies in the portion sizes the restaurants said they were serving and the actual size of the meal that showed up on the diner’s plate, said the study published in the January edition of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
The researchers analyzed the calorie content of 18 side dishes and main courses from five popular sit-down restaurant chains — Applebee’s, Denny’s, Olive Garden, P F Chang’s and Ruby Tuesday — and 11 sides and main courses from fast food restaurants Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s.
Ten frozen meals bought at supermarkets were also analyzed.
On average, restaurant foods were found to contain 18 percent more calories than what was stated on the menu, and frozen meals averaged eight percent more calories than stated on their packaging.
“Those don’t sound like huge numbers but that really adds up over time,” said Susan Roberts, the study’s lead author.
“It’s the difference between maintaining your weight and gaining 10 pounds,” she told AFP.
Some of the restaurant items contained more than twice the calories listed on the menu, including P F Chang’s Sichuan-style asparagus.
It delivered 558 calories for a 348-gram serving rather than the 260 calories listed on the menu, according to the testing done by the Tufts researchers.
Frozen dinners fared somewhat better, but even there, three meals — including from Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisine — delivered around a quarter more calories than stated on the packet.
Restaurant side orders were among the biggest villains, often bringing more calories to the plate, and eventually the waist, than the main food item of a meal.
To illustrate the gravity of the problem, imagine ordering a veggie-cheese omelet at Denny’s with a side of dry toast.
The omelet is listed as being a 340-gram serving with 394 calories, but the dish analyzed in the lab by the Tufts team weighed in at 270 grams and 419 calories.
The seemingly innocuous side dish of dry toast was listed as weighing 28 grams and containing 97 calories.
But the dry toast analyzed by the Tufts team was two-and-a-half times heavier, at 72 grams, and packed 283 calories.
“If you’re getting 200 calories more, that’s the difference between weight loss and no weight loss,” Roberts said.
Roberts was inspired to do the study after writing a book called “The ‘I’ Diet,” which took the results of volumes of research she had done during decades as a nutrition scientist and crafted them into a weight-loss program.
“In the process of doing the book I decided to test the scientific menus on myself. I have two menu tracks: one, you cook everything yourself at home, and I did great on that. Lost lots of weight, it was easy.
“Then I switched over to the supermarket track — no cooking, just pick up the stuff in the supermarket or, if you go out, eat certain meals. Weight loss completely stopped.
“I came into the lab one day and said, ‘Something’s not right. I don’t believe the numbers in these foods.’”
A second study is being set up to delve more deeply into the truth behind the calorie-counts.
NYC asks food manufacturers to cut salt content (AP)
The health department planned to release on Monday draft guidelines suggesting the maximum amount of salt that should be in a wide variety of manufactured and packaged foods.
The recommendations call for sizable reductions in the sodium content of many products, from a 20 percent drop in peanut butter to a 40 percent decline in the salt content of canned vegetables.
Unlike the city’s recent ban on trans fat in restaurant food or rules implemented last year requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus, this initiative is purely voluntary.
But even though there will be no penalties for companies that ignore the guidelines, health officials say they think some manufacturers may be motivated to make changes.
“They all fully recognize that sodium is a major health problem that they need to address,” said the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley.
Seventeen national health organizations and 25 other city or state health agencies have joined with New York City in the effort, called the National Salt Reduction Initiative. It aims to reduce the average American’s salt intake by 20 percent in five years.
Everyone needs some salt in his or her diet, but experts say Americans now eat about twice as much as they should. That can lead to problems including high blood pressure and an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
The guidelines suggest that manufacturers lower salt content gradually over several years so consumers won’t notice, and they aren’t asking for big changes in every category.
For example, under the city’s standards, by 2014 no restaurant hamburger should contain more than 1,200 milligrams of salt. Nearly every burger sold by McDonald’s already meets that guideline, although there are exceptions like the double quarter pounder with cheese, which has 1,380 milligrams of salt.
The city isn’t suggesting that all products be less salty — there’s no call for a ban on New York’s beloved salt bagels.
Instead, Farley said, the city’s recommendations are intended to encourage companies to cut salt where it isn’t needed or just give consumers more low-salt options. He said he’s sure some processed-food manufacturers can cut salt content without making their products less tasty.
“We think people won’t notice,” he said.
Still, processed-food companies have historically been extremely reluctant to tinker with recipes, especially when dealing with a key ingredient like salt, where even minor adjustments can affect taste.
Health officials acknowledged that the program faces hurdles.
“It isn’t simple for them to just change the amount of sodium in their products,” said Farley.
And some of the changes the city is asking for are substantial. The target goals call for a 40 percent reduction in the amount of salt in breakfast cereals, a 25 percent cut for breads and cold cuts and a 30 percent reduction for salad dressing.
But, Farley said, simply asking the public to be more careful about what they eat hasn’t worked, in part because consumers have too few low-sodium choices.
“Eighty percent of the salt we eat is in the food already when you buy it,” he said. “Even if you are reading the back of a package, there is often no choice there.”
New York City’s program is modeled in part after a similar initiative in the United Kingdom that has been under way since 2003.
Concern over prostate cancer test
One in eight men screened for prostate cancer will test positive when they do not have the disease, a major European trial has shown.
A positive result can mean undergoing invasive tests such as biopsy as well as potentially unnecessary treatment.
Screening with prostate specific antigen (PSA) is not routinely offered in the UK but government experts are reviewing evidence from the study.
Cancer Research UK said men should talk about the pros and cons with their GP.
Early data from the European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer, which is being conducted in seven countries, showed in March 2009 that deaths could be cut by 20%.
But other recent evidence has cast doubt on the long-term benefits of screening, suggesting some men may end up being “over-treated” for slow-growing disease that would never cause a problem in their lifetime.
Now data from the Finnish part of the European trial has shown that for every eight men screened – tests are being done on a four-yearly basis – one ended up with a false positive result, even with a fairly high PSA threshold.
Those men who tested positive but were later found not to have cancer were twice as likely not to agree to screening in the future even though they were at risk of developing the disease later, the British Journal of Cancer reported.
‘Adverse effects’
The researchers have said more research is needed to make screening more accurate and to help pick out those who are most likely to have a true positive result.
Study leader, Dr Tuomas Kilpelainen, said: “I don’t think routine screening should be advised until more is known on the adverse effects and costs of screening.
“If a man has urinary tract symptoms and is concerned he could have prostate cancer, the most important thing is to consult a GP or a urologist.”
There is currently no organised screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK but men can request a PSA test if they want and demand is increasing.
Professor Julietta Patnick, director of the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes, said: “While the European trial, of which this Finnish study is a part, showed for the first time that prostate screening with PSA can save lives, it also suggested that 48 men would have to be treated in order to save one life.
“False positives are an issue for any screening programme, and this Finnish paper is very helpful at gaining an understanding of how they might figure in the context of prostate screening.”
Results from both the European trial and a large study being carried out in the US are due this year, Cancer Research UK said.
Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said the paper showed there were “two sides” to using PSA for prostate cancer screening.
“Although for some men detecting prostate cancer early through screening can be life-saving, on the other hand the test will be abnormal for around one man in eight without cancer being detectable at that time.
“For this reason, it is important that men in their 50s and 60s can to talk to their doctor about the pros and cons of having a PSA test and only have the test if they feel it is right for them.”
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