Germ Hotbeds in the House

Someone in your house have the sniffles? Watch out for the refrigerator door handle. The TV remote, too. A new study finds that cold sufferers often leave their germs there, where they can live for two days or longer.

Scientists at the University of Virginia, long known for its virology research, tested surfaces in the homes of people with colds and reported the results Tuesday at the nation's premier conference on infectious diseases.

Doctors don't know how often people catch colds from touching germy surfaces as opposed to, say, shaking a sick person's hand, said Dr. Birgit Winther, an ear, nose and throat specialist who helped conduct the study.

Two years ago, she and other doctors showed that germs survived in hotel rooms a day after guests left, waiting to be picked up by the next person checking in.

For the new study, researchers started with 30 adults showing early symptoms of colds. Sixteen tested positive for rhinovirus, which causes about half of all colds. They were asked to name 10 places in their homes they had touched in the preceding 18 hours, and researchers used DNA tests to hunt for rhinovirus.

"We found that commonly touched areas like refrigerator doors and handles were positive about 40 percent of the time" for cold germs, Winther said.....more

Half of U.S. Doctors Give Placebo Treatments

About half of American doctors in a new survey say they regularly give patients placebo treatments — usually drugs or vitamins that won't really help their condition. And many of these doctors are not honest with their patients about what they are doing, the survey found.

That contradicts advice from the American Medical Association, which recommends doctors use treatments with the full knowledge of their patients.

"It's a disturbing finding," said Franklin G. Miller, director of the research ethics program at the U.S. National Institutes Health and one of the study authors. "There is an element of deception here which is contrary to the principle of informed consent."

The study was being published online in Friday's issue of BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.

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The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice's blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents' blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is "no doubt" produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

"Now that we know hydrogen sulfide's role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension," said Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., a co-author of the study detailed in the Oct. 24th issue of the journal Science. ...more

Even Mild Sleep Apnea Increases Heart Risks

People with even minimally symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of impaired endothelial function and increased arterial stiffness, according to a study from the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine in the UK.

“It was previously known that people with OSA severe enough to affect their daytime alertness and manifest in other ways are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but this finding suggests that many more people—some of whom may be completely unaware that they even have OSA—are at risk than previously thought,” said lead author of the study, Malcolm Kohler, M.D.

The study will be published in the first issue for November of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

“Only one out of approximately five subjects with [clinically defined OSA] complains of excessive daytime sleepiness in population studies,” wrote Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho, M.D., Ph.D. in an editorial in the same issue of the Journal. “[I]t is now recognized that OSA triggers a cascade of biological reactions, including increased sympathetic activity, systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, and metabolic alterations that are potentially harmful to the cardiovascular system.”

To determine the exact nature of some of these effects, Dr. Kohler and colleagues performed a controlled, cross-sectional study to assess differences in endothelial function (often a harbinger for cardiovascular problems to come), arterial stiffness and blood pressure in patients with minimally symptomatic OSA. They compared 64 patients who had proven OSA to matched control subjects without OSA.

Their findings suggested that minimally symptomatic OSA is a cardiovascular risk factor to a degree not previously known.

“In our study, the augmentation index, a measure of central arterial stiffness that independently predicts cardiovascular events in high-risk populations, was significantly higher in patients with minimally symptomatic OSA compared to matched controls,” said Dr. Kohler. “We also found impaired endothelial function as indicated by decreased vascular reactivity of their arteries compared to control subjects without OSA.”

The difference in arterial stiffness between OSA patients and control subjects, Dr. Kohler said was “comparable in size to the effect seen after four weeks’ continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy in patients with moderate to severe symptomatic OSA.”

This suggests that asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with OSA may enjoy a cardiovascular benefit from CPAP therapy.

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Cell Phones Fry Sperm

Men who are heavy users of cell phones have up to 40 percent lower sperm counts than lighter users, according to a new Australian study which demonstrated that DNA in semen is damaged after 16 hours of exposure to cell phone radiation.

Researchers at the University of Newcastle created a device that irradiated sperm with radio waves set at the same frequency as cellular phone calls. “After 16 hours of exposure, there was clear evidence of DNA damage,” said study spokesman Professor John Aitken, who characterized the damage as high levels of DNA fragmentation.

The fragmentation is caused, the researchers say, by oxidative stress, which occurs when the generation of free radicals outstrips the body’s anti-oxidant defenses. DNA fragmentation has in the past been tied to oxidative stress brought on by infection, aging, and smoking, but until this time little research with cell phones had been carried out.

DNA damage in sperm has been linked to a decrease in fertility, an increased risk of disease in offspring such as childhood cancer, and also to neurological conditions such as bipolar disorder and autism.

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Junk Food Causes a Third of Heart Attacks

Diets heavy in fried foods, salty snacks and meat account for about 35 percent of heart attacks globally, researchers reported on Monday.

Their study of 52 countries showed that people who ate a "Western" diet based on meat, eggs and junk food were more likely to have heart attacks, while those who ate more fruits and vegetables had a lower risk.

The study supports previous findings that show junk food and animal fats can cause heart disease, and especially heart attacks.

Dr. Salim Yusuf at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and colleagues questioned more than 16,000 patients, 5,700 of whom had just suffered a first heart attack.

They took blood samples and had each patient fill out a detailed form on their eating habits between February 1999 and March 2003.

They divided the volunteers into three groups.

"The first factor was labeled 'Oriental' because of its high loading on tofu and soy and other sauces," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Circulation.

"The second factor was labeled 'Western' because of its high loading on fried food, salty snacks, and meat intake. The third dietary factor was labeled 'prudent' because of its high loadings on fruit and vegetable intake."

People who ate more fruits and vegetables had a 30 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to people who ate little or none of these foods, they found.

People eating a Western diet had a 35 percent greater risk of heart attack compared to people who consumed little or no fried foods and meat. Those eating the "Oriental" diet had an average risk of heart attack compared to the others.

The finding is important because it has not been clear if it is food per se or something else driving heart attack risk. Rich diets may be associated with a richer lifestyle that includes little or no exercise, for instance.

But the researchers note that heart disease is no longer an affliction only of the rich.

"Approximately 80 percent of the global cardiovascular disease burden occurs in low- and middle-income countries," they wrote.

The tofu-rich diet could be neutral rather than protective because it is high in sodium, they said. High sodium intake can raise blood pressure and the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Coffee Shrinks Breasts

Swedish researchers at Lund University have found a clear link between the amount of coffee a woman drinks and the size of her breasts. Amazingly, drinking three or more cups of coffee each day could cause a woman’s breasts to shrink!

Oncologist Helena Jernstrom noticed that large-breasted women were more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but found that drinking at least three cups of coffee reduced their risk of developing breast cancer. She began looking for a link and found a gene in half of all women that relates to coffee intake and breast size. The researchers also studied almost 300 women, quizzing them about their coffee intake and their bust measurements.

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Gastric Bypass Reduces Heart Risks

The risk faced by obese people of having a heart attack or other cardiovascular "events" is reduced substantially after they undergo gastric bypass surgery to lose weight, according to a recent study.

The take-home message is that "bariatric surgery can be considered as a means to reduce cardiovascular risk (in obese patients) after conservative treatment options have failed," Dr. John A. Batsis told Reuters Health.

Batsis, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire and his colleagues identified six studies that looked at cardiovascular risk after bariatric surgery for obesity. The risk was estimated from standard tables that assigned a score for factors such as weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Depending on how the patients' risk was assessed, the researchers found that gastric bypass reduced the risk for a future cardiovascular event anywhere from 8 percent to 79 percent, compared to not having the procedure, the team reports in the American Journal of Cardiology.

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Avoid Flu Shots With the One Vitamin that Will Stop Flu in Its Tracks

Another influenza season is beginning, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will strongly urge Americans to get a flu shot. In fact, the CDC mounts a well-orchestrated campaign each season to generate interest and demand for flu shots.

But a recent study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine found that vaccinating young children against the flu appeared to have no impact on flu-related hospitalizations or doctor visits during two recent flu seasons.

At first glance, the data did suggest that children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years derived some protection from vaccination in these years. But after adjusting for potentially relevant variables, the researchers concluded that "significant influenza vaccine effectiveness could not be demonstrated for any season, age, or setting" examined.

Additionally, a Group Health study found that flu shots do not protect elderly people against developing pneumonia -- the primary cause of death resulting as a complication of the flu. Others have questioned whether there is any mortality benefit with influenza vaccination. Vaccination coverage among the elderly increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now, but there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza or pneumonia.

There is some evidence that flu shots cause Alzheimer’s disease, most likely as a result of combining mercury with aluminum and formaldehyde. Mercury in vaccines has also been implicated as a cause of autism.

Three other serious adverse reactions to the flu vaccine are joint inflammation and arthritis, anaphylactic shock (and other life-threatening allergic reactions), and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralytic autoimmune disease.

One credible hypothesis that explains the seasonal nature of flu is that influenza is a vitamin D deficiency disease.

Vitamin D levels in your blood fall to their lowest point during flu seasons. Unable to be protected by the body’s own antibiotics (antimicrobial peptides) that are released by vitamin D, a person with a low vitamin D blood level is more vulnerable to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.

Studies show that children with rickets, a vitamin D-deficient skeletal disorder, suffer from frequent respiratory infections, and children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get a cold. The increased number of deaths that occur in winter, largely from pneumonia and cardiovascular diseases, are most likely due to vitamin D deficiency.

Unfortunately, now, for the first time, flu vaccination is also being pushed for virtually all children -- not just those under 5.

This is a huge change. Previously, flu vaccine was recommended only for youngsters under 5, who can become dangerously ill from influenza. This year, the government is recommending that children from age 6 months to 18 years be vaccinated, expanding inoculations to 30 million more school-age children.

The government argues that while older children seldom get as sick as the younger ones, it's a bigger population that catches flu at higher rates, so the change should cut missed school, and parents' missed work when they catch the illness from their children.

Of course, this policy ignores the fact that a systematic review of 51 studies involving 260,000 children age 6 to 23 months found no evidence that the flu vaccine is any more effective than a placebo.

Sources:

• LewRockwell.com October 3, 2008

• EMS Responder September 9, 2008

• WebMD October 6, 2008

• Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine October 2008; 162(10):943-51

Plastics Chemical Linked to Disease in Adults

Bisphenol A or BPA, a chemical found in plastics, has been linked to some of the most deadly and rapidly increasing medical conditions in American adults.

A research team from the University of Iowa, the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Exeter, and the University of Plymouth found evidence that links BPA to heart disease and diabetes in adults. BPA, which is used in polycarbonate plastic products such as refillable water bottles, some plastic eating utensils, compact disks and many other everyday products, is one of the world’s most widely-used chemicals.....more