US health officials dropped the advice that schools close for two weeks over a single swine flu case, telling sick students to stay home instead, as most US cases proved mild. The country reported its first native death, a 33-year-old Texas teacher.
Food Consumer
Vitamins
B6 cuts colorectal risk
A Harvard study links adequate vitamin B6 to as much as a 60% lower colorectal cancer risk, above the 20% reduction earlier Scottish trials estimated. Patients with colorectal cancer showed high homocysteine, which tracks with low B6 and B12.
Food
Omega-6s found to be essential to heart health
William Harris of Sanford Research/USD reviewed about two dozen studies and found people eating the most omega-6 fats had lower rates of heart disease. He suggests replacing calories from saturated fat and carbohydrates with omega-6s, a position the American Heart Association shares.
Dining
Organic Wines, Vintage 3000 B.C.
Residues in wine jars from the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Scorpion I, dated to about 3100 B.C., held herbs and tree resins that researchers say may be the earliest known medicinal wine, pushing the use of resin as a wine preservative back some 1,500 years.
Agriculture
The Buzz about the Bees
Spanish researchers have isolated and treated Nosema ceranae, a microbe thought to be one cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, the National Academy of Sciences reports. USDA says hive losses of 30 to 90 percent began in 2006 and calls their magnitude highly unusual.
Minerals
Prenatal iron deficiency may delay brain maturation in preemies
In a study of 80 infants followed past 18 months, University of Rochester researchers found premature babies with low cord blood iron had abnormal maturation of the auditory nervous system. Dr. Sanjiv Amin says the delay may have implications for later language development.
Disease
Hypertension linked to learning disabilities and ADHD in children
In 201 children studied at the University of Rochester, those with high blood pressure were four times as likely to have a learning disability or ADHD: 28 percent had a learning disability and 20 percent had ADHD. Dr. Marc Lande says more research on the link is needed.
Sci-Tech
New techniques developed for TSE testing
ARS chemist Eric Nicholson and veterinarian Robert Kunkle extracted abnormal prions from formalin-fixed tissue using mild detergent, freeze-boil cycles and enzyme digestion. Accuracy begins to decline two years after preservation and is gone by six.
Miscellaneous
Ohio woman first to receive face transplant in U.S.
Connie Culp, 46, disfigured by a shotgun blast in 2004, can drink from a cup, eat solid food and smell again after surgeons replaced 80 percent of her face in a 22-hour operation. She still faces anti-rejection drugs and further procedures.
Cooking
Healthy Recipes: National Barbecue Month -Tofu Kabobs
AICR marks National Barbecue Month with baked tofu and bell pepper kabobs marinated overnight in mustard, vinegar, coriander and soy. The write-up offers tofu as a low-saturated-fat alternative to red meat. Four servings at 220 calories each.
Supplements
Omega-3s strike blow to heart failure
Researchers followed about 40,000 Swedish men aged 45 to 79 between 1998 and 2004 and found those eating the most omega-3s were up to 33 percent less likely to develop heart failure; one serving of fatty fish a week was linked to a 12 percent lower likelihood.
Food
The case against wine uncorked
A Dutch study following nearly 1,400 men over 40 years found wine drinkers lived about four and a half years longer than abstainers. The American Cancer Society counters with the Million Women Study, where low to moderate drinking raised risk of several cancers, including breast.
Politics
Proposed legislation targets school vending machines
Senators Tom Harkin and Lisa Murkowski co-authored a bill letting the USDA set rules for snack foods in school vending machines. Harkin says 32 percent of schoolchildren are overweight. Critics such as the National School Board Association call this a state and local matter.
Food
High-fat foods boost memory
UC Irvine researchers report that rats given the fat-derived compound OEA remembered water-maze tasks and unpleasant experiences better, apparently because OEA activates memory signals in the amygdala. Piomelli warns it may also drive long-term cravings for fatty food.
Chemical
Tips to avoid BPA exposure
Fetuses and babies take the most intense BPA doses, and tests have found BPA leaching from metal cans into every brand of liquid formula, so EWG recommends powdered formula where a baby tolerates it. Adults should avoid canned foods and skip polycarbonate plastic for warm food and drinks.
Miscellaneous
Jack Kemp dies of cancer
Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback, congressman and housing secretary, died of cancer at his Bethesda home at 73. He was diagnosed in January with late-stage cancer in multiple organs; which cancers is not known. President Obama and Bob Dole paid tribute.
Sci-Tech
Botulism Assay Quickly Detects Potent Foodborne Toxin
ARS biologist Larry Stanker and colleagues built monoclonal antibodies against serotype A botulinum toxin into an assay they say is 10 times more sensitive than the four-day mouse test, and are packaging it into a dipstick kit that works much like a home pregnancy test.
Agriculture
Swine flu studied since the 1960s
An early-outbreak tally: CDC listed 226 confirmed U.S. swine flu cases across 30 states, Bloomberg later 241 in 34, while WHO counted 898 cases in 18 countries, including 506 cases and 19 deaths in Mexico. Canada reported the virus in an Alberta swine herd.
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