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Misc. News
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L.etter to E.ditor
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Nov 3, 2006, 10:45
D.iet & H.ealth
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C.ancer
Nutritionist: Drinking too much milk promotes cancer growth After 27 years of animal studies, Dr. T. Collin Campbell, Emeritus professor from Cornell University, came to a shocking conclusion that drinking too much milk promotes cancer growth. The details were revealed in his book titled "China Study". Dec 8, 2006, 22:47
F.ood & H.ealth
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T.echnologies
Mushrooms Have a Future in Fighting a Fowl Parasite Wide use of a mushroom extract to protect poultry against a major parasitic disease is now closer, thanks to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist and her South Korean colleagues. Dec 8, 2006, 09:38
F.ood & H.ealth
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Agri. & Environ.
Pesticides linked to high risk of pediatric cancers Rare pediatric cancers have been found not so rare in a potato-farming community of 14,000 residents on the western tip of Canada's Prince Edward Island, Global and Mail reported Wednesday Dec. 6. Dec 7, 2006, 21:34
F.ood & H.ealth
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L.aws & P.olitics
Congress Passes Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act Passage of the STOP Act represents a long-overdue acknowledgement of the need to do more as a nation to address the harm caused by underage drinking. Unlike illicit drugs, for which we have a comprehensive government-wide strategy, there has been no credible national plan to combat alcohol problems, Dec 7, 2006, 19:01
D.iet & H.ealth
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C.ancer
High Protein Diets May Boost Cancer Risk Eating a low-protein diet may protect against certain cancers, while a diet high in protein may increase the risk for malignancies, a new study suggests. Dec 7, 2006, 14:36
Misc. News
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C.onsumer A.ffair
Cereal prices surge to highest levels in decade Cereal prices, particularly for wheat and maize, have reached levels not seen for a decade, according to FAO’s latest Food Outlook report. Dec 7, 2006, 14:32
D.iet & H.ealth
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B.ody W.eight
Nasal spray intended to treat obesity A Boston company named Compellis Pharmaceuticals said that it obtained an initial patent for a nasal spray that aims to treat obesity by blocking the olfactory activity in the nose, Boston.com reported Wednesday Dec. 6. Dec 7, 2006, 11:17
Misc. News
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C.onsumer A.ffair
Not to pile on Taco Bell, but how many times does lightening need to strike? In early December, 2000, Lake County Florida Health Department (LCHD) learned of seven hepatitis A cases, including five hospitalizations, in Lake and neighboring Sumter Counties in a two week span. During the previous two years, the total number of known hepatitis A cases in Lake County was twenty-two. Dec 7, 2006, 10:34
F.ood & H.ealth
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L.aws & P.olitics
FDA investigating E. colo 0157 infections linked with Taco Bell The Food and Drug Administration is assisting in the investigation of an outbreak of E. coli O157 infection in consumers associated with eating food from several Taco Bell restaurants in Northeastern states. Dec 6, 2006, 23:31
D.iet & H.ealth
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C.hildren & W.omen
Infants & Fluoride: New Warning from Dentists In a little-noticed but dramatic turnaround, the nation's leading fluoride advocate, The American Dental Association (ADA), issued an alert on November 9th urging parents to avoid fluoridated water when reconstituting infant formula. Dec 6, 2006, 15:46
Misc. News
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C.onsumer A.ffair
Taco Bell Removes Green Onions From Its Restaurants (HealthDay News) -- Preliminary tests have linked the E. coli outbreak at Taco Bell restaurants in three northeastern states to samples of green onions possibly contaminated with a harsh strain of the bacteria. Dec 6, 2006, 13:04
D.iet & H.ealth
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C.ancer
Eating greens may cut skin cancer risk Skin cancer survivors may halve their chance of relapse by eating lots of leafy green vegetables, a new Australian study suggests. Dec 6, 2006, 11:50
Misc. News
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C.onsumer A.ffair
Schools Getting Raw Deal from Bottlers Most school beverage deals aren't very lucrative, raising an average of only $18 per student per year, according to the first-ever multi-state analysis of school systems' contracts with beverage companies. Dec 6, 2006, 11:11
F.ood & H.ealth
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L.aws & P.olitics
Raw milk advocate says government made a big mistake Michael Schmidt, living off nothing but raw milk and water for almost two weeks, was cited as saying the provincial government is messing with the wrong man, adding, "They made a big mistake. They should have known that I'm very determined, and that the public is too well educated to buy all their crap. Dec 6, 2006, 11:07
F.ood & H.ealth
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L.aws & P.olitics
Give consumers choice in milk If consumers want raw milk so badly, then government should, according to this editorial, relax the rules and make it available. Dec 6, 2006, 11:00
Misc. News
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Non-f.ood Things
Minnesota Tops State Health Rankings For the fourth straight year, Minnesota has taken first place in state health rankings in the annual United Health Foundation report, which also found Americans 0.3 percent healthier in 2006 than they were last year. Dec 5, 2006, 16:47
F.ood & H.ealth
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L.aws & P.olitics
FSIS to Hold a Public Meeting to Help Define 'Natural' Label The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced a public meeting to discuss a petition to establish a definition for the voluntary claim "natural" and to gather comments on conditions under which the claim should be allowed to be used on the labels of meat and poultry products. Dec 5, 2006, 16:38
Misc. News
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R.ecalls & A.lerts
Cleugh's Frozen Foods Inc. Recalls Frozen Strawberries Sold to Jamba Juice Cleugh's Frozen Foods Inc., Salinas, CA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SunOpta Inc. (NASDAQ-STKL) (TSX-SOY), today announced a voluntary recall of frozen strawberries sold exclusively to Jamba Juice for use in strawberry smoothies Dec 5, 2006, 16:21
Misc. News
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R.ecalls & A.lerts
Jamba Juice Issues Alert Regarding Strawberry Smoothies Jamba Juice of San Francisco, CA in consultation with the FDA is notifying the public that smoothies containing strawberries which were sold at its Jamba Juice stores in Arizona, Southern Nevada and Southern California between November 25 - December 1, 2006, may have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Dec 5, 2006, 16:20
D.iet & H.ealth
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G.eneral H.ealth
Anorexia nervosa: what you need to know
A person with anorexia (a-neh-RECK-see-ah) nervosa, often called anorexia, has an intense fear of gaining weight. Someone with anorexia thinks about food a lot and limits the food she or he eats, even though she or he is too thin. Dec 5, 2006, 16:14
D.iet & H.ealth
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G.eneral H.ealth
Bulimia: What you need to know Bulimia (buh-LEE-me-ah) nervosa, often called bulimia, is a type of eating disorder. A person with bulimia eats a lot of food in a short amount of time (binges) and then tries to prevent weight gain by getting rid of the food, called purging. Dec 5, 2006, 16:09
F.ood & H.ealth
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L.aws & P.olitics
NYC Trans Fat, Calorie Labeling Initiatives Approved Congratulations to the New York City Board of Health, Health Commissioner Tom Frieden and Mayor Michael Bloomberg for adopting these bold new measures to promote the public’s health. When New York City's major chain restaurants comply with these sensible new regulations, I hope they make the changes nationwide. Dec 5, 2006, 13:17
13 June, (foodconsumer.org) - Japanese researchers have created a new vaccine against Alzheimer's disease that proved to be safe and effective in mice with an animal form of the disease. The new gene-based vaccine could constitute an important step in the fight against the debilitating illness.
Dr. Yoh Matsumoto, the lead researcher of the team that developed and tested the vaccine at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience said that the vaccine could be a milestone provided it does not cause side effects like the other vaccines, which were developed for Alzheimer's disease.
He was referring to the fact that a clinical trial for a vaccine had to be called off in 2003 after 18 of the 298 patients developed swelling in their brains. In that trial, doctors had speculated that exposing the human immune system to small amounts of beta-amyloid could cause it to destroy the "rogue" protein. Beta-amyloid is a protein thought to initiate the buildup of plaques in the brain that is the primary finding in Alzheimer's disease.
However in that trial, doctors found that in 6 percent of the patients, the immune system overreacted and damaged the brain itself.
In the current study, the Japanese team tinkered with the DNA that is thought to cause cells to produce extra beta-amyloid, thus engaging the immune system to attack the protein. Additionally when the vaccine was administered to mice there were no noticeable side effects.
The findings appear in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new vaccine works by targeting the genes responsible for the overproduction of amyloid-beta peptides, which are believed to be the main cause for Alzheimer's disease, although this theory is not universally accepted.
The researchers worked on the anti-amyloid vaccines, which deliver amyloid peptide to the body to provoke an anti-amyloid immune response. Basically this means that the immune system is alerted to the fact that some unwanted proteins could start production. The immune system stores this information and when the protein or the amyloid productions starts, it destroys them.
"DNA vaccines are given by intramuscular injection, which stimulates the production of anti-amyloid-beta antibodies," Matsumoto said.
In the lab mice, researchers tried out two regimens; preventive and therapeutic, to test the efficacy of the vaccine. In the preventive regimen, the mice started receiving injections at 3 to 4 months of age, before any plaques had developed, whereas in the therapeutic regimen, the mice received injections starting at 12 months of age, six months after plaques started forming.
* In the Preventive Regimen, the researchers found that the vaccinated mice had 15.5 percent less plaque accumulation at seven months of age, and 38.5 percent less accumulation at 18 months of age than the mice, which were not vaccinated.
* In the Therapeutic Regimen, they found that the vaccinated mice had 40 percent to 50 percent less plaque accumulation at 18 months of age than the unvaccinated mice.
In contrast to the 2003 trial, the Japanese researchers found that long-term administration of DNA vaccines, which do not contain prepared antibodies, did not cause inflammation or swelling of the brain.
"In contrast to peptide vaccination, DNA vaccination induces low levels of antibodies for a relatively long period, so the immune-system stimulation is very mild," Matsumoto said. "This is very important to avoid the side effects such as encephalitis that developed after peptide vaccination."
He added that his team is now testing the DNA vaccine on aged monkeys. Matsumoto hopes that in future DNA vaccines will be used to prevent Alzheimer's disease in high-risk patients and treat both early and advanced disease.
However he is realistic as well, "In the early stage, we highly expect that DNA vaccination will prevent disease progression and, hopefully, normalize brain function," he said. "In advanced cases, however, neuronal loss and brain atrophy are very severe and irreversible. So it may be difficult to obtain clinical improvement with DNA vaccination."
Current research however is not completely focused on DNA vaccination. In a research report released last year, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston found that a nasal-spray vaccine containing Protollin and glatiramer acetate was effective in mice.
These medicines are already approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and they stimulated microglial cells, which dissolved amyloid-beta plaques. In the Boston study, the vaccine reduced plaque accumulation in mice by 73 percent and did not cause encephalitis or brain swelling.
Matsumoto said that the Boston study's mechanism was different from the current one, "However, in our unpublished data, we also observed the similar microglial activation after our DNA vaccinations. So the final step -- amyloid-beta reduction -- may be identical between this vaccine and our vaccines."
Alzheimer's Disease
* Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia among older people. Initially it involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory, and language, affecting these processes in varying ways.
* Scientists think that as many as 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, which usually manifests itself after the age of 60 years.
* According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders And Stroke, the disease characterized in the brain by abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (neurofibrillary tangles) composed of misplaced proteins.
* Initially the only symptom may be mild forgetfulness, which can be confused with age-related memory change, but as the disease progresses, patients begin to have problems speaking, understanding, reading, or writing.
* There is no cure for AD and no way to slow the progression of the disease.
