Richard J. Egan, the EMC co-founder and former US ambassador to Ireland, shot himself at his Boston home at 73. His family said he had been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in May. Self-inflicted gunshot wounds accounted for 53 percent of US suicides completed in 2005.
Food Consumer
Environment
Pollutants in fish linked to high risk of diabetes
Great Lakes boat captains who ate more fish carried more DDE in their blood and were more likely to develop diabetes, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. DDE comes from DDT, banned in the US 37 years ago but still persistent in the region.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes:Crunchy Zucchini and Potato Cakes
Zucchini and russet potato cakes bound with bread crumbs and egg and topped with Parmesan, from the American Institute for Cancer Research. The notes cover picking firm russets and storing them unwashed in a dry, dark, ventilated place rather than the refrigerator.
Miscellaneous
Identity Theft: Get to know how to protect yourself
After thieves stole Ben Bernanke's wife's handbag at a Washington DC Starbucks and wrote checks on the account, this piece relays FTC steps: place a fraud alert with TransUnion, Equifax or Experian, review your credit reports for at least a year, and close tampered accounts in writing.
Disease
H1N1 in Chicago
Chicago's health department confirmed 1,557 cases between April 24 and July 25, 2009. The attack rate was highest in children aged 5 to 14, fourteen times the rate for adults 60 and older, and 13% of patients were hospitalized, supporting vaccination aimed at the young.
Disease
Asthma greater risk for COPD than smoking: report
A Lancet editorial reports chronic asthma carries a greater risk of developing COPD than smoking does, and argues occupational dusts, chemicals and indoor and outdoor air pollution deserve more weight. COPD is the world's fourth leading cause of death.
Biotech
GMOs in foods
A primer on genetic engineering: how genes are moved between unrelated species in ways conventional breeding cannot achieve, and what combinations have been tried, from spider genes in goats to fish genes meant to give tomatoes and strawberries frost tolerance.
Miscellaneous
Two lottery players win $333 million jackpot
Two players, one in California and one in New York, split a $333 million Mega Millions jackpot on Friday, each taking $166.5 million or $103.4 million as cash. It ranks as the third largest jackpot; the odds of winning are one in 175,711,536.
Food
Your heart is sweet enough
Nancy Appleton's newsletter welcomes the American Heart Association's call to cut added sugar from an American average of 22 teaspoons a day to 9 for men and 6 for women. The authors still consider that threshold too high, but say it threatens soda makers.
Agriculture
10 Ways Growing an Organic Garden Can Help Your Health and Budget
Ten arguments for growing your own organic food: studies finding more minerals and nutrients, lower grocery bills, less pesticide exposure for children, slowing the 3 billion tons of topsoil eroded yearly, protecting groundwater polluted in 38 states, and cutting farming's energy use.
Food
141 reasons sugar ruins your health
An excerpt from Nancy Appleton's book Suicide by Sugar lists claimed harms of sugar, among them suppressed immunity, disturbed mineral balance, lower HDL, chromium and copper deficiency, hyperactivity in children, hypoglycemia and premature aging.
Nutrition
Kennedy Death Puts Spotlight on Brain Cancer
Senator Edward Kennedy died Tuesday after a year with malignant glioma, despite surgery at Duke, chemotherapy and radiation. Neurosurgeon Anthony Caputy explains why surgeons wake patients mid-craniotomy to map speech and motor areas. Doctors still do not know what causes brain tumours.
Miscellaneous
Letter from President Barack Omaba regarding Edward Kennedy
A letter from President Obama mourning Senator Ted Kennedy, recalling five decades in which Kennedy's name appeared on major civil rights, health and economic legislation, and the warmth and friendships he kept across party lines in the Senate.
Disease
2009 H1N1 Flu: Situation Update
A CDC update counting 8,843 hospitalizations and 556 deaths from 2009 H1N1 across 52 reporting states and territories. For August 16-22, 2009, flu activity was stable or rising, with increases in the Southeast, and hospitalization rates were similar to or below seasonal flu.
Food
Soy Reduces Cholesterol in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes
A Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine item on a Journal of Nutrition crossover trial: 29 adults with type 2 diabetes who ate 40 grams of soy protein a day lowered LDL cholesterol and their LDL-to-HDL ratio more than when they ate milk protein.
Drug
Study Reveals Limitations of Tamoxifen
In a Cancer Research study of 1,100 women with estrogen-sensitive tumors, five years of tamoxifen cut recurrence risk by 60 percent. Those same long-term users were four times more likely to develop a rare, aggressive breast cancer that is not estrogen sensitive, which tamoxifen cannot treat.
Nutrition
Some Radiation Testing Unnecessary
An analysis of insurance claims reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found two-thirds of filers had undergone at least one test exposing them to radiation, and a fifth of that group received moderate to high doses. Radiation causes 2% of all cancers, the article notes.
Disease
Swine flu targets 5 to 14 age group
A CDC report on 1,557 Chicago cases found children aged 5 to 14 caught H1N1 at 147 per 100,000, and were 14 times more likely than adults 60 and over to get sick or be hospitalized. Attack rates ran higher among Hispanics, blacks and Asian/Pacific Islanders for reasons unknown.
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