An argument that fasting rests an overtaxed digestive system, set against the practice's place in Christian Lent, Ramadan and Jewish tradition, and Zen priest Norman Fisher's New York Times account of a Puget Sound retreat where participants gave up both food and speech.
Food Consumer
Miscellaneous
FDA's mercury ruling defies ALL scientific reasoning
The FDA classified dental amalgam as a class II device without the precautions for pregnant women and children that a court settlement had required, contradicting its own expert panel. Charles Brown of Consumers for Dental Choice says the agency broke its word, bowing to industry.
Drug
Half of kids given flu drug have side effects
Studies of 103 children found 51 to 53% had at least one side effect from Tamiflu: nausea in 29%, stomach pain or cramps in 20%, sleep problems in 12%, and neuropsychiatric effects such as nightmares in nearly one in five. A British Medical Association expert says the drug is overused in mild cases.
Drug
What you need to know about breast implants
After police identified a murdered woman by the serial number on her breast implants, the piece reprints FDA background on the saline-filled and silicone gel-filled implants approved for augmentation and reconstruction.
Vitamins
Depression linked to low levels of vitamin D in the blood
A study of 527 Japanese municipal employees found that in November, people whose serum vitamin D fell in the highest quartile were 49 percent less likely to report depressive symptoms, with the strongest link for severe depression. No association appeared for July.
Lifestyle
Pregnant women, children under five need flu treatment
WHO says doctors should not wait for test results before treating suspected H1N1 and should give oseltamivir as soon as possible to severely ill or worsening patients, including pregnant women and children under five. Healthy people usually recover in a week untreated.
Drug
Antidepressant Therapy: Risky for Pregnant Women?
A joint report from the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology finds doctors still unsure whether SSRIs pose significant risk in pregnancy. Both urge women to weigh risks with their doctors, and flag patients who should not stop treatment.
Government
FDA Thwarts Marketing of Ibuprofen Pain Relief Ointments
The FDA sent warning letters to six companies selling ibuprofen ointments, a form the drug has never been cleared for. Marketers claim the gels avoid the stomach and cardiovascular risks of pills; the agency says no verifiable proof backs that. The firms have two weeks to respond.
Drug
Canadian Study Encouraging to Medical Heroin Backers
A Canadian trial in the New England Journal of Medicine divided 251 heroin addicts among methadone, medical heroin and the painkiller Dilaudid. Sixty-seven percent of those given heroin stayed in treatment, against 48 percent on methadone. Up to a quarter of addicts respond poorly to methadone.
Miscellaneous
Tips on Coping with Unemployment Stress
Extended unemployment predicted later depressive symptoms in an American Journal of Public Health analysis of youth surveyed from 1979 to 1994, and WebMD reports 80% of Americans feel financial stress. The piece suggests daily exercise and a news fast to blunt it.
Dining
Campbell's lowers salt in tomato soup
Campbell's reformulated its 1897 tomato soup with sea salt, cutting sodium 32 percent to 480 mg a serving from 710. That is still about 21 percent of the suggested daily allowance per bowl; CDC says most Americans eat twice the recommended amount of salt.
Lifestyle
Stay fit and live longer
Among 4,400 adults given treadmill tests between 1986 and 2006, the least fit were twice as likely to die over the next nine years as people only 20 percent fitter, researchers report. Recent activity offered the greatest protection, and it is never too late to start.
Disease
Key Flu Indicators
CDC's FluView for August 9-15, 2009 found influenza activity down slightly from the previous week but still above normal for summer. Hospitalization rates stayed low, two states reported widespread activity, and nearly all viruses identified were the new 2009 H1N1.
Government
CDC Guidance for Businesses and Employers To Plan and Respond to the 2009–2010 Influenza Season
CDC guidance tells employers outside health care what to do to slow seasonal and 2009 H1N1 flu at work and keep operating through the 2009-2010 season, including extra measures if conditions worsen and new advice on when a worker who is ill may return.
Drug
Diabetes drug linked to increased risk of heart failure
A cohort study of 40,000 Canadian diabetes patients aged 66 and older found significantly lower rates of heart failure and death with pioglitazone than rosiglitazone, though heart attack rates were similar. The authors stop short of calling pioglitazone safer.
Chemical
MSU research supports calls to study health benefits of nitrate, nitrite (press release)
Michigan State's Norman Hord challenges health standards that treat nitrates and nitrites in food as harmful, arguing that as they occur in plants they may benefit cardiovascular health. Between 70 and 80 percent of nitrates in most diets come from vegetables.
Miscellaneous
Prostate Cancer Treatment Choices
Options run from watchful waiting to removing the prostate or radiation, with proton therapy costing around $100,000. The author says prostate cancer kills an estimated 35,000 US men a year and cites reporting that no serious study shows high-tech treatments keep men alive longer.
Environment
Spices work like valium hammer on pests
Murry Isman of the University of British Columbia says a blend of rosemary, clove, thyme and peppermint oils kills ants, roaches, flies and other pests by blocking octopamine in the insect's nervous system. It breaks down in water within 24 hours.
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