Healthy Living

Dole bagged salad recall due to salmonella risk

Christine Stomes — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:52:44 +0000

Dole is a known name to consumers for its popular food products including juices and salads. If you are regular consumer of Dole’s salad, check your refrigerator for use-by-date of the salad. Dole is recalling 756 cases of the company’s Seven Lettuces salad with a use-by date of April 11, 2012. The reason for recall is possibility of presence of Salmonella. No other Dole salad has been recalled.

How many states are affected by Dole’s recall?
The salads were sold in fifteen states, including Virginia.

How many cases of illness have been reported due to consumption of Dole salad?
Dole acknowledged that so far no illnesses have been reported.

Do we know UPC code for Dole’s recalled salad bags?
The Associated Press reports that the tainted Dole salad bags have UPC code 71430 01057 and product codes 0577N089112A and 0577N089112B.

Where do I locate UPC code and use-by-date for Dole salad?
The product code and use-by date are located in the upper right-hand corner of the package, while the UPC code is on the back of the package, below the bar-code.

Do check for the UPC code and use-by-date for Seven Lettuces salad that you recently bought and discard the bags that match given UPC codes.

Healthy Eating!

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Study shows that autistic children have much more nerve cells

Rupali Gupta — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:11:20 +0000

Researchers have found that autistic children have much more nerve cells than children without autism in a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex which is involved in processing social skills.

Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their synapses connect and organize; how this occurs is not well understood.

Parents usually notice signs in the first two years of their child’s life. The signs usually develop gradually, but some autistic children first develop more normally and then regress. About a third to a half of individuals with autism do not develop enough natural speech to meet their daily communication needs. Differences in communication may be present from the first year of life, and may include delayed onset of babbling, unusual gestures, diminished responsiveness, and vocal patterns that are not synchronized with the caregiver. In the second and third years, autistic children have less frequent and less diverse babbling, consonants, words, and word combinations; their gestures are less often integrated with words.

Brain cells
Brain cells are electrically excitable cells that process and transmit information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral ganglia. A number of specialized types of neurons exist: sensory neurons respond to touch, sound, light and numerous other stimuli affecting cells of the sensory organs that then send signals to the spinal cord and brain.

There are about 100 billion neurons in the brain.There are many types of neurons, varying in size from 4 microns (.004 mm) to 100 microns (.1 mm) in diameter. Their length varies from a fraction of an inch to several feet. There are many more glial cells providing support functions for the neurons.

Autistic children have much more nerve cells than normal children
A new study has found that excess of brain cells exists in children with autism.

In the research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), scientists at the University of California, San Diego, found that autistic children have about 67% more nerve cells in a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex than children without autism. The prefrontal cortex is involved in processing social skills, communication, cognitive functions and language — all areas in which autistic children often show abnormal development.

They studied the brains of seven autistic boys between the ages of 2 and 16 after their death and compared his analysis to the brains of six unaffected boys who died at similar ages. The excess of neurons was found with a surprise since in most cases, deficits in social skills in autistic children typically are linked to less nerve tissue/cells.

Equally significant is the fact that the excess of neurons in the prefrontal cortex are not formed after birth, but during early development in utero. That suggests that the changes responsible for autism are occurring much earlier than scientists had thought.

The lead researcher Courchesne concluded, “Knowing that we have a specific type of defect that occurs very early in development really helps us to focus and sharpen the next steps in research to determine what caused the excess and hopefully find new treatments that can help children and their families cope better with the symptoms of autism.”

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Study promises vaccine for metastatic Breast, Ovarian Cancer

Christine Stomes — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Researchers at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the National Cancer Institute have found that treatment for metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancers in women with a recombinant pox viral vaccine showed positive response.

Breast cancer
Breast cancer (malignant breast neoplasm) is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas.

Metastatic breast cancer is a stage of breast cancer where the disease has spread to distant metastases. It is a complication of primary breast cancer, usually occurring several years after resection of the primary breast cancer. Metastatic breast cancer cells frequently differ from the preceding primary breast cancer in properties such as receptor status, have often developed resistance to several lines of previous treatment and acquired special properties that permit them metastasize to distant sites, making them especially dangerous. The prognosis is often poor.

Ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from the ovary. Symptoms are frequently very subtle early on and may include: bloating, pelvic pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination, and are easily confused with other illnesses.

Most (more than 90%) ovarian cancers are classified as “epithelial” and are believed to arise from the surface (epithelium) of the ovary. However, some evidence suggests that the fallopian tube could also be the source of some ovarian cancers. Since the ovaries and tubes are closely related to each other, it is thought that these fallopian cancer cells can mimic ovarian cancer.

Vaccine for metastatic breast and Ovarian cancer
According to a trial published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, the clinical trials group at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the National Cancer Institute have found that treatment with a recombinant pox viral vaccine showed a positive response in both metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

James Gulley, M.D., Ph.D., director and deputy chief of the clinical trials group and colleagues enrolled 26 patients and assigned them to monthly vaccinations with the PANVAC vaccine, which contains transgenes for MUC-1, CEA and three T cell costimulatory molecules. These patients were already heavily pretreated, 21 of them receiving at least three prior chemotherapy treatments.

Among the 12 patients with breast cancer, median time to progression was 2.5 months and median overall survival was 13.7 months. Four patients had stable disease. For the 14 patients with ovarian cancer, median time to progression was two months and median overall survival was 15 months.

Mild injection-site reactions were the most common side effect after the vaccine treatment. However, Gulley said. ” More studies in the appropriate patient populations are required to adequately assess efficacy.”

The development of vaccine for metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer would be relief for cancer patients, especially if it can eliminate or at the least reduce the chemotherapy sessions. Hopefully a bigger clinical trial continue to show promise for cancer patients.

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Amperometer measures glucose levels from tears

Mark Lyall — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:50:10 +0000

There is ongoing effort to develop technologies to monitor glucose without the need of pricking your finger. Some of the technologies include, transdermal device, Raman spectroscopy through skin, fluorescent hydrogel, etc. Scientists have successfully developed an electrochemical sensor device that can measure blood sugar levels from tears instead of blood. This could save the world’s 350 million diabetes patients the discomfort of pricking their fingers for droplets of blood used in traditional blood sugar tests. A report appears in ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.

Glucometer
A glucometer is a medical device for determining the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood. It is used for home blood glucose monitoring (HBGM) by people with diabetes mellitus or hypoglycemia. A small drop of blood, obtained by pricking the skin with a lancet, is placed on a disposable test strip that the meter reads and uses to calculate the blood glucose level. The meter then displays the level in mg/dl.

Problems with diabetes and glucose testing
About 5% of the world’s population (and about 26 million people in the U.S. alone) have diabetes. The disease is a fast-growing public health problem because of a sharp global increase in obesity, which makes people susceptible to developing type-2 diabetes. People with diabetes must monitor their blood glucose levels several times a day to make sure they are within a safe range. Current handheld glucose meters require a drop of blood, which patients draw by pricking their fingers with a small pin or lancet. However, some patients regard that pinprick as painful enough to discourage regular testing.

Measurement of tear glucose levels with amperometer
Scientists at the University of Michigan have developed an electrochemical glucometer that has shown good results comparable to traditional blood glucose testing, but uses only 4–5 μL of tears. An amperometric needle-type electrochemical glucose sensor is deployed for tear glucose measurements in conjunction with a 0.84 mm i.d. capillary tube to collect microlitre volumes of tear fluid.

The sensor is based on immobilizing glucose oxidase on a 0.25 mm o.d. platinum/ iridium (Pt/Ir) wire and anodically detecting the liberated hydrogen peroxide from the enzymatic reaction. Inner layers of Nafion and an electropolymerized film of 1,3-diaminobenzene/resorcinol greatly enhance the selectivity for glucose over potential interferences in tear fluid, including ascorbic acid and uric acid.

The new sensor is optimized to achieve very low detection limits of 1.5 ± 0.4 μM of glucose (S/N = 3) that is required to monitor glucose levels in tear fluid with a glucose sensitivity of 0.032 ± 0.02 nA/μM (n = 6). Only 4–5 μL of tear fluid in the capillary tube is required when the needle sensor is inserted into the capillary.

Tests of the approach in laboratory showed that levels of glucose in tears track the amounts of glucose in the blood. “Thus, it may be possible to measure tear glucose levels multiple times per day to monitor blood glucose changes without the potential pain from the repeated invasive blood drawing method,” say the researchers.

This technology is an effort to reduce pain out of diabetic patients from pricking their fingers. Are you thinking would you rather cry by pricking your finger or to product tear to perform this tear test?

Healthy Monitoring!

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Is prenatal genetic testing a need for most of women

Rupali Gupta — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:13:23 +0000

Genetic testing (also called DNA-based tests) is among the newest and most sophisticated of techniques used to test for genetic disorders which involves direct examination of the DNA molecule itself. Other genetic tests include biochemical tests for such gene products as enzymes and other proteins and for microscopic examination of stained or fluorescent chromosomes. Genetic tests are used for several reasons, including prenatal diagnostic testing and newborn screening.

Genetic testing allows the genetic diagnosis of vulnerabilities to inherited diseases, and can also be used to determine a child’s paternity (genetic father) or a person’s ancestry. Normally, every person carries two copies of every gene (with the exception of genes related to sex-linked traits, which are only inherited from the mother by males), one inherited from their mother, one inherited from their father. The human genome is believed to contain around 20,000 – 25,000 genes. In addition to studying chromosomes to the level of individual genes, genetic testing in a broader sense includes biochemical tests for the possible presence of genetic diseases, or mutant forms of genes associated with increased risk of developing genetic disorders.

Do all women need Genetic testing before pregnancy
Geneticists in Maryland and New Jersey looked for cellular changes that are fatal and ones that are treatable and they decided to include close to 600 mutations found in more than 160 diseases in a single genetic screening test.

GenPath Women’s Health, part of N.J.-based Bio-Reference Laboratories, announced recently about the most comprehensive screen currently offered in a field of rare diseases, the test distinguishes itself by scanning for 95 disorders, including 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA lyase deficiency and cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis. They call it the Pan-Ethnic Carrier Screen as a way to signal to all women, regardless of ethnicity, that genetic-testing is important for them.

But do all women really need to undergo genetic testing? Many of the pregnant women undergo some kind of prenatal screening or testing of their fetus. But how many women undergo prenatal screening or testing of their fetus and how many women screening based on their ethnic background, although many are also screened for cystic fibrosis. Traditionally, certain ethnic groups — especially Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern European descent — have been advised to undergo carrier screening for various fatal conditions including Tay-Sachs and Canavan diseases.

Marc Grodman, CEO of Bio-Reference says, “There are a good number of ethnicities that have been ignored by genetic testing. Parents would want to know ahead of time about any increased risks in order to be prepared. The biggest fear about rare disorders is that a baby is born and no one can make a diagnosis. Just because it’s a hard decision and a hard process doesn’t mean we should shy away from asking the questions.”

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Parents beware! Dangerous sugar levels in beverages for kids

Christine Stomes — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 04:34:28 +0000

Yale University’s Rudd Centre For Food Policy & Obesity has found that many popular beverages for the kids in the market are having very high level of sugar. It has warned the parents not to be under a false notion of considering these healthy as an alternative to soft drinks.

These popular brands of beverages increase the risk of diabetes and obesity in the children up to the extent that even one 8 ounce bottle or pouch consumed daily, increase the chances of the child’s becoming obese by 60%.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture, a 4 to 8 year old kid should not consume more than 15 to 18 grams of sugar per day.

The researchers analyzed the popular brands of these beverages in the market and concluded that following brands were the culprits, listed in the increasing order of the sugar levels:

Powerdale Play, projected as sports drink, 10 ounce bottle contains 15 grams of sugar, the day’s requirement of sugar.
Capri Sun, a 6 ounce pouch contains 16 grams of sugar which gives 107% more sugar than required for the day.
Sunny D, an 8 ounce pouch contains 20 grams of sugar which gives 130% more sugar than required for the day.
Kool-Aid, a 6.8 ounce pouch contains 24 grams of sugar which gives 160% more sugar than required for the day.
Minute Maid, a 6.7 ounce pouch contains 25 grams of sugar which gives 175% more sugar than required for the day.
Arizona Kids, a 10 ounce bottle contains 27 grams of sugar which gives 180% more sugar than required for the day.
Hawaiian Punch, an 8 ounce serving contains 27 grams of sugar giving 193% more sugar than required for the day.

Kids like to consume these drinks and more often as a substitute to their regular meals. It is parent’s responsibility to keep an eye on the type of food children are consuming and advise them accordingly.

Healthy Parenting!

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Harmful chemicals reported in J&J baby shampoo

Rupali Gupta — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:32:26 +0000

Johnson and Johnson is a well known name in baby products and in fact many consumer prefer J&J baby products for their infants and children. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of health and environmental groups, has been urging the world’s largest health care company for 2 1/2 years to remove the trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals — dioxane and quaternium-15 that releases formaldehyde, from Johnson’s Baby shampoo, one of its prize products.

Johnson & Johnson has been claiming that they are eliminating these chemicals progressively, did not respond to the Group’s demands.

Now the group is urging consumers to boycott Johnson & Johnson baby products until the company commits to remove the chemicals from its baby products sold around the world.

Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said, “Johnson & Johnson clearly can make safer baby shampoo in all the markets around the world, but it’s not doing it. It’s clearly a double standard, something they can easily fix.”

Woodruff, a researcher on health effects of chemicals, said there is evidence that formaldehyde is associated with nose, lung and blood cancers such as leukemia. She said an infant’s scalp is more permeable than an adult’s, so exposure to the chemicals could cause more harm for babies than adults.

As per confirmed reports, one of the suspect chemicals, quaternium-15, is a preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, used as a disinfectant and embalming fluid, has already been declared a known human carcinogen by the U.S. National Toxicology Program. Formaldehyde also is a skin, eye and respiratory irritant

The second chemical, 1.4-dioxane, is considered a likely carcinogen. It’s a byproduct of a process for making chemicals more soluble and gentler on the skin.

Woodruff said, “You’re exposing a child during a very vulnerable period of development, when the effect may be worse.”

I am surprised that J&J has taken no action with respect to the toxic compounds present in its baby shampoo. Contact your pediatrics regarding use of J&J baby shampoo and be safe.

Healthy Parenting!

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CDC recommends be safe and enjoy Halloween

Christine Stomes — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:53:43 +0000

Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31, which includes activities such as trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films. Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, “Trick or treat?” The word “trick” refers to a (mostly idle) “threat” to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. In some parts of Scotland children still go guising. In this custom the child performs some sort of trick, i.e. sings a song or tells a ghost story, to earn their treats.

Safety suggested by CDC
Halloween is a favorite holiday for the kids. The streets will be full of ghosts, goblins, and princesses all in a hunt for candy. The National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised a few safety tips to be observed by all keep on this occasion:

1. Jaywalking and darting into traffic by children may cause accidents. Hence an adult or responsible teenager travels with the kids especially, if they are on foot to make sure they travel the route you want them to go and that they are safe.
2. Check the trick or treaters costume before they leave the house. If they are wearing a mask, be sure the eyeholes are big enough for them to see properly and accidents are avoided.
3. Make sure that child’s costumes are not dragging on the ground so that they can walk properly without getting entangled.
4. Use reflective tape so that they are visible to motorists and keep a flashlight handy so they can see in the dark.
5. Parents be sure to check the child’s candy to make sure it is safely wrapped, when in doubt throw it out, if the candy looks like it has been tampered.
6. If you are on the other side of the door and are the ones passing out candy, make sure your porch light is on.
7. Be sure that your drive way is clear so that no one trips on their way to your doorstep.

Already news is rolling in about children run down by cars when crossing the street to collect candies. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

Be safe and enjoy Halloween.

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Multiple Sclerosis is triggered by friendly bacteria residing in the gut

Christine Stomes — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 06:01:22 +0000

Gut flora consists of microorganisms that live in the digestive tracts and is the largest reservoir of human flora. The human body, consists of about 100 trillion cells, carries about ten times as many microorganisms in the intestines. The metabolic activities performed by these bacteria resemble those of an organ. It is estimated that these gut flora have around 100 times as many genes as there are in the human genome.

Bacteria make up most of the flora in the colon and up to 60% of the dry mass of feces, between 300 and 1000 different species live in the gut. The microorganisms perform a host of useful functions, such as fermenting unused energy substrates, training the immune system, preventing growth of harmful, pathogenic bacteria, regulating the development of the gut, producing vitamins for the host (such as biotin and vitamin K), and producing hormones to direct the host to store fats. However, in certain conditions, some species are thought to be capable of causing disease by producing infection or increasing cancer risk for the host.

Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms. Disease onset usually occurs in young adults, and it is more common in women. MS affects the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other effectively. Most likely MS occurs as a result of some combination of genetic, environmental and infectious factors, and possibly other factors like vascular problems.

MS is triggered by friendly bacteria residing in the gut
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich, Germany have found an astonishing evidence that suggests MS is triggered by natural intestinal flora, the so-called friendly bacteria that reside in the gut. They say the bacteria first activated the immune T-cells, then the B-cells, which resulted in an attack on the myelin layer in the brain, developing brain inflammation similar to MS. MS is an autoimmune disorder where the body’s own immune system attacks and damages the myelin sheath that insulates the axons which are like the “cabling” that connects nerve cells or neurons to one another.

They discovered this by allowing some of the genetically modified mice to continue with their normal gut bacteria intact, while removing the intestinal flora in the others and keeping them under sterile conditions.The mice that kept their gut bacteria developed MS-like symptoms.

But the mice that had their gut bacteria removed remained healthy, despite their genetic predisposition to MS. They also had fewer T-cells in their gut, their spleens produced fewer inflammatory substances like cytokines, and their B-cells produced few if any antibodies against myelin.

However, when they then inoculated these mice with normal gut flora, their T-cells and B-cells increased, as did their cytokine and antibody production, and they eventually developed symptoms and fell ill.

Senior researcher, Gurumoorthy Krishnamoorthy told, “It appears that the immune system is activated in two stages: to begin, the T cells in the lymph vessels of the intestinal tract become active and proliferate. Together with the surface proteins of the myelin layer, these then stimulate the B cells to form pathogenic antibodies. Both processes trigger inflammatory reactions in the brain which progressively destroy the myelin layer – a process that is very similar to the way multiple sclerosis develops in humans.”

The team now wants to investigate the complete microbial genomes of people with MS and compare them to people without MS.

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Avoid eating too much black licorice during Halloween – Warns FDA

Rupali Gupta — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 03:08:01 +0000

Licorice or Liquorice is the root of Glycyrrhiza glabra from which a somewhat sweet flavur can be extracted. The liquorice plant is a legume (related to beans and peas) that is native to southern Europe and parts of Asia. It is called “Mulethi” in Northern India. The flavor of liquorice comes mainly from a sweet-tasting compound called anethole. Much of the sweetness in liquorice comes from glycyrrhizin, a compound sweeter than sugar.

Glycyrrhizin is the main sweet-tasting compound from liquorice root. It is 30–50 times as sweet as sucrose (table sugar). Upon hydrolysis, the glycoside loses its sweet taste and is converted to the aglycone glycyrrhetinic acid plus two molecules of glucuronic acid. The acid form is not particularly water-soluble, but its ammonium salt is soluble in water at pH greater than 4.5.

Although sweet, the taste sensation of glycyrrhizin is different from that of sugar. The sweetness of glycyrrhizin has a slower onset than sugar has, and lingers in the mouth for some time. Unlike the artificial sweetener aspartame, glycyrrhizin maintains its sweetness under heating. Glycyrrhizin is used as a flavoring in some candies, pharmaceuticals, and tobacco products.

Health effects
Side-effects of glycyrrhizin use are related to the inhibition of cortisol metabolism within kidney and subsequent stimulation of mineralocorticoid receptors; can lead to hypertension and edema (water retention). Thus, consumption of black licorice can mimic disorders of excess aldosterone.

Too much liquorice consumption may cause serious health problems
On the occasion of Halloween, FDA has warned against eating too much black licorice, particularly for the people more than 40. Eating 2 ounces a day for two weeks may lead to hospitalization with complaints of arrhythmia or irregular heart rhythm.

The main problem that large consumption of glycyrrhizin can cause body’s potassium levels to drop, leading to abnormal heartbeat and high blood pressure.

The good news is that potassium levels roll back to normal once you stop eating black licorice, with no permanent health effects. You will be glad to know that many licorice-flavored products don’t actually contain any real licorice; they are usually flavored with anise oil instead.

FDA says, “No matter what your age, don’t eat large amounts of black licorice at one time. If you have been eating a lot of it and have an irregular heart rhythm or muscle weakness, stop eating it immediately and call your doctor.”

Halloween is a day to collect and eat candy. Try not to eat too much candy having black licorice and stay healthy.

Healthy Eating!

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