Comparing blood from 80 women who bore children with anencephaly or spina bifida to 409 who did not, Stanford researchers found women with the lowest choline levels were 2.4 times more likely to have a child with a neural tube defect. The highest levels carried the lowest risk.
Food Consumer
Food
Drinking wine may help protect against skin damage by radiation therapy
Among 348 Italian women having radiation for breast cancer, 13.6 percent of those who drank wine on treatment days had grade 2 or higher skin toxicity, against 38.4 percent of those who did not. Researchers credit antioxidants in wine.
Food
High fat diet impairs memory and physical performance
Rats fed a high-fat diet for nine days did worse on maze and treadmill tests than rats on a low-fat diet, a British study published by FASEB found. Cambridge physiologist Andrew Murray was cited as finding similar effects in people, but those results are unpublished.
Vitamins
Vitamin D Theory of Autism
John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council sets out his theory that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy or childhood causes autism, arguing it fits identical-twin concordance, the rise in cases alongside sun avoidance, the male predominance and higher rates among blacks.
Comments
Mayo Clinic DEAD Wrong on Diabetic Recommendations
Researchers at North Carolina State and the Mayo Clinic built a computer model weighing each diabetes patient's heart attack and stroke risk against the cost of statins to decide when to start treatment. Mercola answers the timing question with a flat never.
Drug
FDA: Don’t use glucose test strips if you are on biologic drugs
The FDA warned that certain glucose test strips, including Roche's Accu-Chek Comfort Curve and Abbott's Freestyle, can read falsely high in patients on biologic drugs, prompting insulin overdoses. The agency has received 13 reports of related deaths over 12 years, six of them last year.
Lifestyle
Weight lifting benefits breast cancer survivors
In 141 breast cancer survivors with stable arm lymphedema, slowly progressive weight lifting left limb swelling unchanged but halved flare-ups, 14 percent versus 29 percent, while easing symptoms and building strength. No adverse events were tied to the lifting.
Lifestyle
Young Women Look to Their Own Mothers for Parenting Advice
An Ohio State study of 1,133 young parents whose own parents were surveyed in 1979 found young women follow their mothers on reading, praising and spanking more closely than fathers follow theirs, though 1990s parents were more likely to drop spanking.
Drug
FDA Okays morphine based drug for pain management
The FDA approved King Pharmaceuticals' Embeda for moderate to severe pain. It pairs morphine with naltrexone to cancel the quick high abusers get from chewing pills. King says that makes abuse somewhat difficult, and warns the drug can still be abused like any narcotic.
Environment
Milford Citizens Told to Boil Tap Water
A test last Wednesday found E. coli and other fecal coliform bacteria in water from Echo Lake Reservoir. Water manager Henry Papuga told residents to boil tap water and throw out food and formula made with it; traces were gone by Sunday, but boiling continues until further notice.
Lifestyle
Stress Raises Belly Fat, Heart Risks
Wake Forest researchers found socially stressed monkeys secreted more cortisol and carried more visceral fat than calmer ones, even at matching weight and BMI. Stressed females put on belly fat as readily as males, losing their usual relative protection from plaque buildup.
Drug
FDA: Celltep raises severe anemia risk
The FDA now requires a warning that the kidney transplant drug can cause pure red cell aplasia, a severe anemia marked by extreme fatigue and pallor. The agency already required notice of infection risk and strongly discourages use during pregnancy.
Disease
2008-2009 Influenza Season Week 31 ending August 8, 2009
CDC surveillance for August 2-8, 2009: influenza activity decreased slightly but influenza-like illness stayed above normal for the season. A total of 7,511 hospitalizations and 477 deaths from novel H1N1 had been reported, and H1N1 made up 98 percent of subtyped influenza A viruses.
Drug
New chemical attacks tumor-fueling cancer cells
Whitehead and Broad Institute researchers report in Cell that salinomycin kills breast cancer stem cells, cutting their number more than 100-fold compared with paclitaxel and shrinking tumors in mice. Such cells resist current therapies and are thought to seed new tumors.
Drug
FDA Approves Drug for Shizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorder
The FDA has approved a Schering-Plough drug for schizophrenia and bipolar 1 disorder, due on the US market in the fourth quarter with a black box warning. Side effects run from sedation and weight gain to a higher death risk in dementia-related psychosis. One patient plans to try it.
Disease
Cancer deaths -- even in the young -- drop dramatically
Research in Cancer Research reports that U.S. cancer death rates have fallen since the early 1950s, with the steepest declines among adults aged 35 to 45. Each decade of births from 1925 to 1995 faced lower risk than the one before at nearly every age; lung cancer was the exception.
Food
Chocolate Good for Heart Health
A Swedish study in the Journal of Internal Medicine followed heart attack survivors aged 45 to 75 and found regular chocolate eaters three times less likely to have a second attack. Italian researchers separately linked chocolate to lower C-reactive protein.
Drug
Aspirin Blocks Recurrence of Colorectal Cancer
Among 1,279 people with non-metastatic colorectal cancer followed about 12 years, those taking aspirin before and after diagnosis were a third less likely to die of it, and those who started only after diagnosis fared better still. Aspirin inhibits COX-2, an enzyme found in these tumours.
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