Alcohol said to have big role in cancer deaths

  

A study released Thursday by the American Journal of Public Health found:
Total deaths: Alcohol use accounts for 3.5 percent of all U.S. cancer deaths, or between 18,000 and 21,000 deaths a year.

Lost years: About 18 years of potential life are lost per cancer death. That means a person who died at age 60 from alcohol-related cancer would have otherwise probably lived to 78.

Number of drinks: The majority of alcohol-related cancer deaths occurred among those who drank more than three alcoholic beverages a day, but about 30 percent occurred in those who drank less than 1.5 drinks a day.

Even moderate alcohol use may substantially raise the risk of dying from cancer, according to a study released Thursday offering the first comprehensive update of alcohol-related cancer deaths in decades. 



"Alcohol has been known to be related to causing cancer for a long period of time. 

We talk about cancer prevention, screenings and tests. This is one of those things that seems to be missing in plain sight." 


In 2009, 18,000 to 21,000 people in the United States died of alcohol-related cancers, from cancer of the liver to breast cancer and other types, the researchers said. 

That's more than the number of people in the United States who die every year of melanoma (9,000 in 2009) or ovarian cancer (14,000 in 2009).

How alcohol contributes to cancer is not fully understood, the study notes. 

Previous research has shown alcohol appears to work in different ways to increase cancer risk, such as affecting estrogen levels in women and acting as a solvent to help tobacco chemicals get into the digestive tract. 

The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is the first major analysis of alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in more than 30 years. 



Researchers said the lack of recent research on the subject may contribute to a lack of public awareness of cancer risks.


"People are well aware of other risks, like the impact of tobacco on cancer, and are not as aware alcohol plays quite a bit of a role," said Thomas Greenfield, one of the study's authors and scientific director of Public Health Institute's Alcohol Research Group in Emeryville.


Researchers examined seven types of cancers known to be linked to alcohol use: cancers of the mouth and pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon, rectum and female breast. 


To link the cancer to alcohol use, they relied on surveys of more than 220,000 adults, 2009 U.S. mortality data, and sales data on alcohol consumption. 

Breast cancer accounted for the most common alcohol-related cancer deaths among women, with alcohol contributing to 15 percent of all breast cancer deaths. 


Among men, cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus accounted for the most alcohol-linked cancer deaths. 

The study drew some criticism.   

The study failed to take into account several important factors, such as the pattern of drinking rather than just the amount of alcohol consumed. He said consuming small, consistent amounts of alcohol is much healthier than occasional binge drinking. 

"They're mixing alcohol abuse, which leads to all of these cancers as they've clearly shown, with the casual drinker, where the risk is very small," said co-director of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research and  professor of medicine and public health at Boston University School of Medicine,  Dr. Curtis Ellison,
 

"Advice needs to be individualized," Klatsky said. "The advice one would give to 60-year-old man who has no problem with alcohol but is at high risk of heart disease due to family history is quite different than the advice we give to a 25-year-old woman whose mother died of breast cancer." 

The study's authors acknowledged alcohol can have health benefits but said alcohol causes 10 times as many deaths as it prevents. 

There's no known safe level of drinking, they said. 

"The safest level for cancer prevention is that people don't expose themselves to any potential risk," said Nelson of the National Cancer Institute. 

"The bottom line means for people who choose to drink, their cancer risk will be lower if they drink lower amounts." 

 

 

 

 

 

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Alcohol-said-to-have-big-role-in-cancer-4280659.php#ixzz2LETn4Jna

 Source:
Alcohol said to have big role in cancer - SFGate

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Alcohol-said-to-have-big-role-in-cancer-4280659.php

Coroner Links Mom's Death to Coca-Cola 'Addiction'

A New Zealand coroner has linked the death of a 31-year-old woman to her Coca-Cola addiction.
Natasha Harris died Feb. 25, 2010 from a cardiac arrhythmia, according to a 19-page coroner's report obtained by ABCNews.com. And while Harris, a mother of eight from Invercargill, New Zealand, was known to smoke heavily and skip multiple meals, coroner David Crerar concluded that the sugar and caffeine she got by drinking more than 2.6 gallons of Coca-Cola Classic per day was "a substantial factor" in her death.

"When all of the available evidence is considered, were it not for the consumption of very large quantities of Coke by Natasha Harris, it is unlikely that she would have died when she died and how she died," Crerar wrote in his report.

Harris's partner, Christopher Hodgkinson, said Harris would get headaches and act moody without her Coke fix, according to the coroner's report. Close friends said she would "get the shakes" and other withdrawal symptoms. Her heart would race, her liver was swollen, and her rotting teeth had to be removed. But, said the report, 

"the family did not consider that Coke was harmful due to the fact of it having no warning signs."

"Natasha Harris knew, or ought to have known and recognized, the health hazard of her chosen diet and lifestyle," Crerar wrote in his report, adding that fact that Harris had her teeth extracted several years before her death "should have been treated by her, and by her family, as a warning."

Dr. Christopher Holstege, chief of medical toxicology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said anything can be toxic in large enough quantities.

"In toxicology, everything comes down to dose. And it sounds as though she was certainly taking an excessive dose," he said, adding that drinking two gallons of soda per day with limited amounts of food can cause a dangerous imbalance in electrolytes. "You're also not getting essential nutrients when you're only drinking Coke. You're basically getting sugar, and you're going to be deficient in vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients."

Harris's reported Coke habit would have delivered more than 2.2 pounds of sugar daily, according to the coroner's report. She would have also ingested nearly a gram of caffeine, according to Coca-Cola's website.

"To me, it sounds like she was not a healthy woman in any way, shape or form," said Holstege.


Can too much caffeine kill you?

A spokesman for Coca-Cola expressed sympathy for Harris's family and disappointment that the coroner chose "to focus on the combination of Ms. Harris' excessive consumption of Coca-Cola, together with other health and lifestyle factors, as the probable cause of her death."

"Excessive consumption of one food or beverage - even water - to the exclusion of all others will not provide the essential nutrients an adult needs and is not recommended under New Zealand Food and Nutrition Guidelines," he said. 

"The safety of our products is paramount, and our promise is to deliver safe, quality beverages. All of our products have a place in an active, healthy lifestyle that includes a sensible, balanced diet and regular physical activity."

While the Coroner noted that the ingredients of Coke are "entirely legal" and "enjoyed by millions," he said the risks of high doses were not adequately communicated to consumers.

"The hazards to the health of the consumers of excessive quantities of sugar and caffeine contained in carbonated beverages could be more clearly emphasized," he wrote.



Source:
http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/moms-death-linked-coke-coroners-report-164723213--abc-news-health.html

 by Katie Moisse | ABC News Blogs 

Wheat Belly

A renowned cardiologist explains how eliminating wheat from our diets can prevent fat storage, shrink unsightly bulges, and reverse myriad health problems. Every day, over 200 million Americans consume food products made of wheat.

As a result, over 100 million of them experience some form of adverse health effect, ranging from minor rashes and high blood sugar to the unattractive stomach bulges that preventive cardiologist William Davis calls "wheat bellies."

According to Davis, that excess fat has nothing to do with gluttony, sloth, or too much butter: It's due to the whole grain wraps we eat for lunch. After witnessing over 2,000 patients regain their health after giving up wheat, Davis reached the disturbing conclusion that wheat is the single largest contributor to the nationwide obesity epidemic - and its elimination is key to dramatic weight loss and optimal health.

In Wheat Belly , Davis exposes the harmful effects of what is actually a product of genetic tinkering and agribusiness being sold to the American public as "wheat" - and provides readers with a user-friendly, step-by-step plan to navigate a new, wheat-free lifestyle.

Informed by cutting-edge science and nutrition, along with case studies from men and women who have experienced life-changing transformations in their health after waving goodbye to wheat, Wheat Belly is an illuminating look at what is truly making Americans sick and an action plan to clear our plates of this seemingly benign ingredient.



Wheat Belly 

"Flame Retardants" in Your Gatorade: Hazard, or Hype? | Healthy Living

By Sharecare Expert David L. Katz, MD

We have a long history of doing questionable things to vegetable oils -- and putting them in odd places in the food supply.

The best known and deservedly most notorious example to date is partial hydrogenation. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are formed when normally unsaturated oils are bombarded with hydrogen so that some but not all of those available bonds are "saturated" with it. The result is trans fat, which we now know to be, in essence, a slow poison, contributing to the risk of heart disease in particular. Partially hydrogenated oils became widespread in the food supply because they are inexpensive to make and act much like saturated fats, providing stability and heat tolerance. With time, we have come to learn that partially hydrogenated oils lengthen the shelf life of foods but are apt to shorten the shelf lives of people eating the food. They are still out there, but have gone from nearly ubiquitous to increasingly rare. Good riddance to them.

Is brominated vegetable oil (BVO) the new trans fat? No.

Trans fat has long been used in many products with a significant amount of oil in the mix. Exposure to trans fat has come in amounts of hundreds of milligrams, and even grams. Paracelsus, considered the father of toxicology, famously told us "the dose makes the poison." Our exposure to trans fat was, and still is, at dose levels clearly linked to bad health outcomes.

Dr. Oz: BVO and Your Health

In contrast, brominated vegetable oil is used in fruit-flavored soft drinks in amounts so tiny it often need not even be listed among the ingredients. BVO is measured in parts per million rather than grams or milligrams. Bromine is used to increase the weight of the oil so it doesn't rise to the top, and the oil then serves to keep fat-soluble citrus flavors in suspension. The result is probably an enhancement of the appearance of the drink and perhaps the taste.

BVO has been used in the making of soft drinks in the U.S. since the 1930s. It received the designation "generally recognized as safe" from the U.S. FDA in 1958, but this was revised in 1970, at which time restrictions were placed on the amount that can be used in food. The ingredient is now found in a variety of citrus-flavored beverages, including, but not limited to Gatorade, Mountain Dew, Powerade, Fanta and Fresca.

BVO is in the news because it has been "called out" as an ingredient in a flame retardant after a young girl noted it on the Gatorade ingredient list and did some investigating. It's true that BVO can be used in a flame retardant, but I'm not sure it's all that relevant. Elements that are an essential part of the human body can be mixed in some pretty toxic combinations as well. Some of what we are made of can be used to make pesticides and insecticides and other poisons, all depending on doses and what else is in the mix.

Detox Your Life

Is BVO dangerous? Possibly. Reviewing the relevant literature, I did find one case of harm linked to bromine in soft drinks, reported in 1997. A man consuming 2 to 4 liters a day of citrus-flavored soft drinks developed a neurological condition due to bromine excess. He was eventually diagnosed and treated, and he recovered.

I could find no other evidence of documented harm in people, although that of course does not rule it out. But since the ingredient has been in our beverages for nearly 100 years, we've had plenty of time to see harmful effects if they were occurring at a meaningful level. If they are occurring, they are subtle enough to fly mostly under the radar.

Since much of the focus has been on Gatorade, which is taking BVO out of its mix, I checked on the overall composition of their original "Perform" series drink. In 12 ounces, it has 80 calories, 160 milligrams of sodium and 21 grams of sugar. I really don't think we need BVO in this mix to raise concerns about it.

And that, frankly, is where I land. Animal studies suggest some possibility of harm from BVO. Bromine toxicity is known to occur in people, generally resulting from medications that contain bromine in much higher concentrations than soft drinks. So the case can be made for "why take a chance?". If we can get rid of the BVO, we might as well.

But while any harms of BVO are speculative, the public health toll of excess calories and sugar is well established. The question for the teenage girl concerned enough about ingredients to investigate BVO is: Why was she drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage in the first place? There is no BVO added to water.

I have long noted that we distort risks -- trivializing those we feel we can control (such as our sugar intake, or driving too fast, or texting while driving) and exaggerating those we feel we cannot (such as BVO). The Pulitzer-prize winning author Jared Diamond made that same point in this week's New Your Times.





Reduce Your BVO Exposure


I don't drink any of the products that contain BVO -- and wouldn't drink them if they didn't, either. If you are really drinking enough of the sugared or artificially sweetened citrus-flavored beverages in question to be at any genuine risk of harm from BVO, then my view is: You've got bigger, far better-documented things to worry about!














Source:
"Flame Retardants" in Your Gatorade: Hazard, or Hype? | Healthy Living - Yahoo! Shine

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/flame-retardants-gatorade-hazard-hype-225700621.html;_ylt=A2KLOzEQpwlRzRUATaghmolQ

Silicon Valley Worries About Addiction to Devices

NOTE:  This article is a few years old but is very much relevant now.  Have people learned to disconnect from their digital devices yet?  Live with more balance and digital detox to reboot your brain and your soul.Notice the effect that time online is having on your relationships and your productivity.  Interactive technology has addictive properties.
..................

Stuart Crabb, a director in the executive offices of Facebook, naturally likes to extol the extraordinary benefits of computers and smartphones. 

But like a growing number of technology leaders,he offers a warning: 
log off once in a while, and put them down.

In a place where technology is seen as an all-powerful answer, it is increasingly being seen as too powerful, even addictive.

The concern, voiced in conferences and in recent interviews with many top executives of technology companies, is that the lure of constant stimulation — the pervasive demand of pings, rings and updates — is creating a profound physical craving that can hurt productivity and personal interactions.

“If you put a frog in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, it’ll boil to death — it’s a nice analogy,” said Mr. Crabb, who oversees learning and development at Facebook.

People “need to notice the effect that time online has on your performance and relationships.”
The insight may not sound revelatory to anyone who has joked about the “crackberry” lifestyle or followed the work of researchers who are exploring whether interactive technology has addictive properties.

But hearing it from leaders at many of Silicon Valley’s most influential companies, who profit from people spending more time online, can sound like auto executives selling muscle cars while warning about the dangers of fast acceleration.

“We’re done with this honeymoon phase and now we’re in this phase that says, ‘Wow, what have we done?’ ” said Soren Gordhamer, who organizes Wisdom 2.0, an annual conference he started in 2010 about the pursuit of balance in the digital age. “It doesn’t mean what we’ve done is bad. There’s no blame. But there is a turning of the page.”


At the Wisdom 2.0 conference in February, founders from Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Zynga and PayPal, and executives and managers from companies like Google, Microsoft, Cisco and others listened to or participated in conversations with experts in yoga and mindfulness.

In at least one session, they debated whether technology firms had a responsibility to consider their collective power to lure consumers to games or activities that waste time or distract them.

The actual science of whether such games and apps are addictive is embryonic. But the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, widely viewed as the authority on mental illnesses, plans next year to include “Internet use disorder” in its appendix, an indication researchers believe something is going on but that requires further study to be deemed an official condition.

Some people disagree there is a problem, even if they agree that the online activities tap into deep neurological mechanisms. Eric Schiermeyer, a co-founder of Zynga, an online game company and maker of huge hits like FarmVille, has said he has helped addict millions of people to dopamine, a neurochemical that has been shown to be released by pleasurable activities, including video game playing, but also is understood to play a major role in the cycle of addiction.

But what he said he believed was that people already craved dopamine and that Silicon Valley was no more responsible for creating irresistible technologies than, say, fast-food restaurants were responsible for making food with such wide appeal.

“They’d say: ‘Do we have any responsibility for the fact people are getting fat?’ Most people would say ‘no,’ ” said Mr. Schiermeyer. He added: “Given that we’re human, we already want dopamine.”

Along those lines, Scott Kriens, chairman of Juniper Networks, one of the biggest Internet infrastructure companies, said the powerful lure of devices mostly reflected primitive human longings to connect and interact, but that those desires needed to be managed so they did not overwhelm people’s lives.

“The responsibility we have is to put the most powerful capability into the world,” he said. “We do it with eyes wide open that some harm will be done. Someone might say, ‘Why not do so in a way that causes no harm?’ That’s naïve.”

“The alternative is to put less powerful capability in people’s hands and that’s a bad trade-off,” he added.

Mr. Crabb, the Facebook executive, said his primary concern was that people live balanced lives. At the same time, he acknowledges that the message can run counter to Facebook’s business model, which encourages people to spend more time online. “I see the paradox,” he said.

The emerging conversation reflects a broader effort in the valley to offer counterweights to the fast-paced lifestyle. Many tech firms are teaching meditation and breathing exercises to their staff members to help them slow down and disconnect.

At Cisco, Padmasree Warrior, the chief technology and strategy officer and its former head of engineering, a position where she oversaw 22,000 employees, said she regularly told people to take a break and a deep breath, and did so herself. She meditates every night and takes Saturday to paint and write poetry, turning off her phone or leaving it in the other room.

“It’s almost like a reboot for your brain and your soul,” she said. She added of her Saturday morning digital detox: “It makes me so much calmer when I’m responding to e-mails later.”

Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist who lectures about the science of self-control at the Stanford School of Medicine (and has been invited to lecture at the business school at Stanford), said she regularly talked with leaders at technology companies about these issues.

She added that she was impressed that they had been open to discussing a potential downside of their innovations. “The people who are running these companies deeply want their technology and devices to enhance lives,” said Dr. McGonigal. “But they’re becoming aware of people’s inability to disengage.”

She also said she believed that interactive gadgets could create a persistent sense of emergency by setting off stress systems in the brain — a view that she said was becoming more widely accepted.

“It’s this basic cultural recognition that people have a pathological relationship with their devices,” she said. “People feel not just addicted, but trapped.”

Michelle Gale, who recently left her post as the head of learning and development at Twitter, said she regularly coached engineers and executives at the company that their gadgets had addictive properties.

“They said, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’ Or, ‘I guess I knew that but I don’t know what to do about it,’ ” recalled Ms. Gale, who regularly organized meditation and improvisation classes at Twitter to encourage people to let their minds wander.

Google has started a “mindfulness” movement at the company to teach employees self-awareness and to improve their ability to focus. 

Richard Fernandez, an executive coach at Google and one of the leaders of the mindfulness movement, said the risks of being overly engaged with devices were immense.
“It’s nothing less than everything,” he said, adding that if people can find time to occasionally disconnect, “we can have more intimate and authentic relationships with ourselves and those we love in our communities.”
Google, which owns YouTube, earns more ad revenue as people stay online longer. But Mr. Fernandez, echoing others in Silicon Valley, said they were not in business to push people into destructive behavior.

“Consumers need to have an internal compass where they’re able to balance the capabilities that technology offers them for work, for search, with the qualities of the lives they live offline,” he said.

“It’s about creating space, because otherwise we can be swept away by our technologies.”









Source:
July 23, 2012
Silicon Valley Says Step Away From the Device
By MATT RICHTEL

Silicon Valley Worries About Addiction to Devices - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/technology/silicon-valley-worries-about-addiction-to-devices.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Canadian Medicine: Pesticide punch

News and views from the editors of Parkhurst Exchange

Latest headlines

• Pesticide punch - Wednesday, June 15, 2011
• UBC hospice gets rubber stamp - Tuesday, June 14, 2011
• End of the line for the gravy train? - Friday, June 03, 2011

Wednesday, 15 June, 2011

Pesticide punch

Wading through the produce aisles

If you think apples don’t taste like they used to, you’re probably right. The Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/) has just updated its list showing pesticide levels in 53 types of produce, and apples – formally No. 4 of their “Dirty Dozen” – now weigh in at No. 1!

Researchers at Purdue University in Lafayette, IN, analyzed 51,000 pesticide residue tests done over 10 years (2000-2009) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Food and Drug Administration. 98% of the apples tested contained pesticides out of over 700 samples. And most of the fruit and veggies under scrutiny had been washed and peeled, in order to represent more realistic eating conditions.

Others that made the Dirty Dozen were celery, strawberries and peaches – which contained 57 different chemicals – along with greens such as kale, lettuce and hot peppers – treated with as many as 97 pesticides.

If we stick to Canada’s Food Guide we’d consume a minimum of five servings of Mother Nature’s bounty every day. By choosing these from the least contaminated foods we’d ingest less than 2 pesticides. However, picking them from the Dirty Dozen would up our daily pesticide intake to 14 different chemicals – some of which are associated with nervous system disorders, chronic problems including cancer, endocrine system dysfunction, and lower intelligence levels in kids – who may (along with those in the fetal stage) be the most vulnerable to the synthetic residues.

There’s also evidence that the phosphorus-rich fertilizers used in fields have contributed to the toxic blue-green algae blooms in our freshwater lakes, reported to cause vision loss and difficulty walking in some people who’ve been in contact with it, but that’s another story.

When organic produce isn’t readily available -- at the market, or due to budgetary constraints – these lists could be your best shopping companions.

Milena Katz

RE: calculating the percentage change in these pesticides brought about by processing= over 90%

McIntosh, Red Delicious, and Golden Delicious from two years of experimental spray programs using azinphos-methyl, chlorpyrifos, esfenvalerate, and methomyl were processed into frozen apple slices, applesauce, single-strength juice, and juice concentrate.
Residue levels were expressed as micrograms per 150 g of apple or the equivalent amount of apple product to calculate the percentage change in these pesticides brought about by processing. Producing single-strength apple juice reduced azinphos-methyl, chlorpyrifos, esfenvalerate, and methomyl residues by 97.6, 100, 97.8, and 78.1%, respectively.
Production of applesauce reduced all four compounds by ≥95%. Azinphos-methyl, chlorpyrifos, esfenvalerate, and methomyl residues were reduced in apple slices by 94.1, 85.7, 98.6, and 94.7%, respectively. Processing is shown to be very effective in reducing the levels of these pesticides.

Keywords: Pesticides; azinphos-methyl; chlorpyrifos; esfenvalerate; methomyl; apples; food processing; apple slices; applesauce; apple juice



source:

Reduction of Azinphos-methyl, Chlorpyrifos, Esfenvalerate, and Methomyl Residues in Processed Apples
M. J. Zabik,*† M. F. A. El-Hadidi,† J. N. Cash,‡ M. E. Zabik,‡ and A. L. Jones§
National Food Safety and Toxicology Center, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, and Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48823

Reply




Canadian Medicine: Pesticide punch

A vegan bodybuilding experiment: Joshua Knox

Published on Dec 5, 2012

www.tedxfremont.com A fateful blizzard on a drive to Tahoe led to a conversation about food and nutrition, which inspired bodybuilder Joshua Knox, a Google employee, to go vegan for a week. One week turned into a 1.5 year lifestyle experiment with bodybuilding and diet.





Source:
A vegan bodybuilding experiment: Joshua Knox at TEDxFremont - YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKX-gNv0AwU

Pharma groups hope for diet drugs binge - FT.com

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e3b72e0-4f57-11e2-a744-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2GEWnCwVu




As Christmas overeating gives way to under-fulfilled new year diets, the pharmaceutical industry’s appetite has been whetted for a fresh surge in business.

After years of caution and setbacks, several drug companies are preparing to capitalise on what they hope will be a surge in sales from prescription medicines linked to the growing global trend of obesity.










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“It has been a very challenged category, but there is a feeling we have to do something about obesity with the realisation that it is a medical epidemic,” says Peter Tam, president of Vivus, a California-based biotechnology company. Last autumn it launched Qsymia, the first weight loss drug to win US regulatory approval in 13 years.

In the coming weeks, Arena, another West Coast biotech, is set to launch its drug Belviq after receiving authorisation. A third, Orexigen, is preparing to submit for fresh regulatory approval for its experimental medicine Contrave after previous rejections.

“There has been a very significant and rather sudden shift in the views of the regulator over the past year,” says Simos Simeonidis, senior biotech analyst with Cowen. “Companies had been laying off staff and putting products on hold. Now there has been a resurgence and a lot of investor interest.”

Weight loss drugs have long been viewed with suspicion by healthcare specialists both because of their limited efficacy and the risks of side effects – factors which continue to haunt the field. Qsymia’s weight loss impact is slightly more than 10 per cent and Belviq’s less than 6 per cent – both when tested in ideal conditions with strong medical supervision.

Surgery more effective

Alongside diet and exercise, popping a pill may appear to be the easiest and most painless way to lose weight, writes Andrew Jack. But recent studies suggest that intrusive surgery is a more effective – and potentially even more cost effective – approach.

Prescription medicines, let alone over-the-counter drugs, are a lucrative business, sold on the back of consumer demand to tackle rising levels of obesity. Yet the side effects and low efficacy leave many specialists unconvinced of their value.

With obesity rates continuing to rise, such approaches have rarely led to any significant and sustained amount of weight loss. Furthermore, it may be many years before medical complications appear, making insurers reluctant to pay for drugs. They often limit their use to those who are already severely overweight, by which time reversal may be still more difficult.

In such extreme cases, bariatric surgery to physically reduce the size of the stomach and cut the appetite has offered considerable promise. It has won endorsement by institutions including the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the UK government’s medical watchdog that frequently rejects medicines for not being cost effective.

Even less palatable experimental options – so-called “transpoosians” – are also demonstrating promise. They involve the transplant of faecal matter from other individuals to boost bacterial flora in the guts, which are now seen as important in determining obesity.

While surgery is costly, complicated and places pressures on cash-strapped hospitals, its long term impact could yet outweigh the vast amounts spent today on medicines with limited impact.

Meanwhile, Wyeth, now part of Pfizer, is still fighting claims of heart valve defects and other problems linked to Fen-Phen, a combination of diet drugs withdrawn in 1997 for which it earmarked reserves of $21bn to cover settlements. Regulators subsequently pulled Abbott’s drug Meridia, and – in Europe – both Servier’s Mediator and Sanofi’s Acomplia, which was linked to suicidal feelings.

Only one prescription weight loss drug has remained on the market in the US: Roche’s Xenical, approved in 1999 and also now sold over-the-counter by GlaxoSmithKline as Alli. It appears relatively safe, but only modestly effective and brings unpleasant side effects including oily stools. That has limited its commercial success and frustrated attempts by GSK to find a buyer.

Mr Tam suggests that fresh interest in diet drugs by US regulators began in 2007 with studies on the significant impact of bariatric surgery in reducing not only obesity but related mortality. In recent months, he says high-level scientific meetings coupled with public discussion led by Michelle Obama, the US first lady, may have proved important in urging a more receptive attitude towards medicines.

For now, larger western pharmaceutical companies remain reluctant, with little in their late-stage pipelines except for Novo Nordisk of Denmark, the specialist diabetes company. It is currently testing expanded use of its injectable treatment Victoza for weight loss.

Japanese companies have proved more active: Eisai partnered with Arena and Takeda with Orexigen. Mr Simeonidis suggests this may reflect that until recently the investments in weight-loss biotech companies were “a free option” given high scepticism and low valuations. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see more involvement from big pharma now.”

For now, Mr Tam says Vivus is rebuffing alliances. “We have preferred to shake off suitors and do it alone to maintain value for our shareholders.” But he foresees the prospect ahead of using direct-to-consumer advertising and a larger scale sales force to market Qsymia to doctors – something likely to require a big pharma partner.

The path will not prove easy. Vivus had to agree a tight monitoring programme with US regulators to track each user, notably to avoid the risk of its use by pregnant women, since Qsymia can cause birth defects. The more aggressively any of the new diet pills are marketed, the greater the risks of misuse, failure to ensure the drug is accompanied by diet and exercise and danger of consumer disappointment.

Gary Palmer, chief medical officer in the US for Eisai, which will co-ordinate Belviq’s launch for Arena, says: “We are still considering whether to use direct-to-consumer advertising. Our approach will start with specialists. This is about being responsible and educating the physicians.”

Concerns linger about safety. Sidney Wolfe, head of the health research group at Public Citizen, a US consumer watchdog that has fought approval of the new drugs, wrote recently: “Obesity is unquestionably a serious public health concern, but that doesn’t give the FDA licence to ignore the scientific evidence.”

European regulators, stung by their recent bad experiences with Acomplia and Mediator, remain sceptical and have so far not approved the newer drugs. And many health insurers in the US remain cautious about reimbursing a medicine with modest efficacy and only potentially very long-term benefits – leaving consumers to pay out of pocket.

Donny Wong, head of metabolic disorders at Decision Resources, a market research agency, predicts rising obesity will increase demand in the years to come. But he warns: “Expectations are really sky high. Patients are expecting at 55 years old to go back to their ideal weight at 20, with a 15-20 per cent loss that is unachievable. They will very rapidly become disappointed.”





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Pharma groups hope for diet drugs binge - FT.com

 http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1e3b72e0-4f57-11e2-a744-00144feab49a.html#axzz2GEWFwBhx

Why Bodybuilding at Age 93 is a Great Idea: Charles Eugster at TEDxZurich - YouTube

Published on Nov 27, 2012

 

Of the recent changes that the human race has experienced, the increasing population numbers are especially dramatic and worrying coupled with the frightening great and continuous increase in obesity and the resultant diabetes pandemic. A particular amount of attention has been given to the rapid and continuing growth of longevity.

Yet our knowledge of the aging process is still very limited as what we observe is the result of a health-destroying lifestyle. Retirement creates invalids. Chronic disease is rampant in old age resulting in such enormous medical costs that should present trends continue, together with the diabetes pandemic, some countries could become bankrupt. Diabetes is already an international public health issue and inactivity is one of the biggest killers. The loss of wasted human potential and wealth is already immense.



Successful aging requires work, diet and exercise. The huge mental and physical potential of the aged remains unexplored. Bodies can now be rebuilt at any age and a new life started. Beauty kings and queens in the 80-year-old category or a beach body at the age of 94 are not impossible. We will all, regardless of age, have to take greater responsibility for our own health in order to confront the immense challenges confronting the human race.

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Why Bodybuilding at Age 93 is a Great Idea: Charles Eugster at TEDxZurich - YouTube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGgoCm1hofM

McDonald's Food Mummy Art Show - Update

McDonald's Food Mummy Art Show by Ben Campbell — Kickstarter

 

The project is to fund and enhance an art show featuring a wide variety of work created with and inspired by McDonald's Food. Conceptually, the reason behind the show is to comically highlight the parallels between Ancient Egypt, McDonald's Food, and Modern Society. Some of the more interesting pieces include a hamburger that is over a year old and a life sized mummy made of McDonald's food. Also I would like to incorporate different cultures based off of different fast foods like Taco Bell Aztecs, Pizza Hut Pompeii, and scurvy Pirates made from Long John Silver's.
A short explanation of the reasoning behind the show is as follows.
1. Ancient Egypt was preoccupied with achieving a form of immortality through odd customs such as constructing pyramids and mummification.
2. Modern society is preoccupied with achieving a form of immortality through odd customs such as celebrity status and the construction of corporations.
3. McDonald's is highly representative of American culture, even iconic.

4. McDonald's food doesn't decompose if left to dry out. Seriously, just google it. As such archaeologists from the future will be digging this stuff up thousands of years in the future. Especially if something cataclysmic happens to our society.

5. The questions. What could that something cataclysmic be? How can we prepare for it? Do we still want to invest in distractions and brainwashing instead of real solutions and in each other?
6. And finally, if we don't learn to laugh at ourselves future generations are going to do it for us.
Currently I have two McDonald's food mummies completed and would like to make many more. Other works include preserved hamburgers in commercial plastic cases, McDonald's food skulls, and large scale paintings. The funds generated here will be used to purchase more materials and to pay for gas to haul everything from place to place. Since I am based in Texas, the first shows will be within the state with later shows taking place across the country. If you are interested in booking the show for your gallery or you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Just in case some of you are unsure or on the fence about supporting this project, I'll talk a bit more about myself and what I would hope to accomplish with this and more in the future.
At my core I'm a joker who likes to get people thinking, always have been, always will be. With this Ancient McDonald's Food art show I feel that so far I have done just that and can carry it much further as it and my career develops. I've noticed when people begin to take themselves less seriously and can experience the humorous connections between what were once considered harsh realities, they become open and aware of newer, more vibrant solutions. As such I would like to bring my brand of humor to fields such as pop, geek, and internet culture.
By funding this project you will also be helping me lay the foundation for other really cool endeavors that will more directly impact the world around us in a positive manner as well. Apart from art, sociology, and pop culture I'm really drawn towards engineering, computer science, and architecture. Some of my particular interests include constructing efficient and beautiful geodesic domes for habitation/agriculture, robotics for agriculture, video games that harness our creativity into real world solutions, and all manner of manufacturing.
Lastly I'd like to give away pretty much all of the funds I will have acquired throughout my life and let the people decide how to use them through a social network I'm working on to allow the best, most logical, realistic, and ethical solutions (regardless of who came up with them) to become funded and brought into reality. This idea I feel could truly harness the internet for the betterment of the world at large and addressing potential cataclysms in ways we would be hard pressed to do otherwise.
Any amount helps, even $1 but if you want to really help me out I have some fantastic pieces that would fit well with any serious art collector. So if you're interested check it out, grab a piece of my art, and enjoy the ride.
Also for those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, you will only be charged if the full funding amount is reached. It's all or nothing, so you don't have to worry about your money going towards a project that will fizzle out. And besides that I intend on pursuing and developing this project no matter what happens with this Kickstarter, it would just make things go a bit quicker.
Thanks for your time,
-Ben

Coffee: a caffeinated chronicle

 

A brief history of coffee

Sunshine Green

According to legend, the first cup of coffee came into being in a most magical way. A goat-herd named Kaldi glimpsed the energizing effects of the unique, bright red berries in his flock and took it upon himself to test it out. Such revitalization inspired Kaldi to take the berries to a Muslim holy man. Scared, the holy man tossed them into a fire. Roasted beans were separated from the embers, ground, and dissolved in hot water, creating—you guessed it—the world's first cup of coffee.

Flower Encyclopedia

Coffee beans are derived from several species of the Coffea shrub—most commonly C. canephora and C. arabica. These plants may grow up to 5 feet tall and produce beautiful glossy, dark green leaves. The leaves then ripen to yellow, red, and finally black. Coffea plants are native to Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya, and subsaharan Africa. Today, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Colombia are the world leaders in coffee production, raising seedlings in nurseries before transferring them outdoors when they are between 6 and 12 months old.

Gimme Coffee

Each berry contains two seeds. It may be surprising to you that these seeds are white. Only when roasted do we see—and smell—the recognizable coffee bean (what I thought were little balls of wood when I was younger). Roasting occurs when the internal temperature of the bean reaches 200º C (392º F), causing caramelization, or starch breakdown, which browns the simple sugars. Acids and oils within the bean weaken, creating its characteristic bitter flavor. Caffeol, one such oil, is generated at 200º C and is largely responsible for coffee's flavor.

The coffee buzz
As you know, the energizing effects of coffee are due to caffeine, this nifty little chemical:

In the plant world, caffeine is a natural pesticide, protecting Coffea, tea plants, and other foods from certain insects. 

In the animal world, caffeine is a drug. A stimulant drug, to be precise.

Inside the body, the chemical adenosine circulates at very high levels. Adenosine is a nucleoside with two main roles:

1. Attached to a ribose sugar, it comprises one of the four constituents of the DNA backbone.

2. Attached to three phosphate groups, it exists as ATP, the energy currency of a living cell.

In addition to these roles, adenosine also acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter, believed to play a role in suppressing arousal, promoting sleep, and even inducing torpor in hibernating animals. Levels of adenosine increase throughout the day, which may explain why we become increasingly sleepier with each hour after awakening.

Caffeine is unique because it is both water- and lipid-soluble, allowing it to pass the blood-brain barrier and enter the nervous system. In the brain, caffeine works to counteract, or antagonize, the effect of adenosine. Because caffeine and adenosine have similar chemical structures, caffeine (below, red) can bind to adenosine receptors without activating them. In other words, caffeine is a competitive antagonist of adenosine. In this way, the sleep-inducing effect of adenosine (below, white) is blocked, promoting our lovely "coffee buzz."

How Stuff Works

Caffeine has a half-life of ~5 hours, meaning that after 5 hours, half of the caffeine you ingested has been metabolized; after 10 hours, 1/4 of the caffeine is still there—hence potential for a sleepless night if consumed too late in the day.

MUST...HAVE...COFFEE...

The Nutrition Post

Caffeine addiction is not difficult to attain. In response to blocked adenosine receptors, the body will make more. In turn, your body requires more caffeine to block the additional adenosine receptors. A person must drink more coffee, then, to obtain the same degree of wakefulness.

Effects of caffeine include: 

• Increased heart and respiratory rate

• Enhanced fatty acid breakdown and promotes free fatty acids in the bloodstream

• Raised blood pressure

• Increased stomach acid

• Increased urination (a diuretic effect)

• With very high levels can cause a jittery feeling, nervousness, agitation, ringing in the ears, and release of adrenaline

Withdrawal symptoms include headache, irritability, difficulty concentrating, drowsiness, and pain in the stomach and joints. Keep in mind: while these symptoms appear within 12-24 hours of withdrawal, it should all be over after one to five days. Willpower is key!

Coffee may make you lazy?

A study published online Wednesday in Neuropsychopharmacology found that "worker" rats—those who naturally worked harder for reward—were more likely to avoid hard worker when treated with caffeine or amphetamine.

Cocker and colleagues from the University of British Columbia created a rat cognitive effort task (rCET) which allowed rats to choose between an easy or hard task—rats who completed the hard task were doubly rewarded with sugar pellets. 

Those deemed "worker rats," when treated with caffeine or amphetamine, suddenly slacked off; conversely, "slacker rats" worked harder under amphetamine (but not cocaine).

Grad student Jay Hosking interprets these results in terms of human needs. "For some of us, coffee really does the trick for those long hours in the middle of the day, but for other people it makes them too jittery or aroused to concentrate on their work."

 

Cocker PJ, Hosking JG, Benoit J, and Winstanley CA (2012). Sensitivity to Cognitive Effort Mediates Psychostimulant Effects on a Novel Rodent Cost/Benefit Decision-Making Task. Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology PMID: 22453140

Related topics: adenosine, caffeine, coffee, sleep, stimulant

Is Exercise Harmful for Some People? | Healthland | TIME.com

 For some healthy people, exercise may actually increase heart risk, according to a paper published this week in the journal PLoS One.


The review of six previous studies on exercise found that working out worsened at least one measure of heart risk — blood pressure, insulin level or levels of HDL cholesterol or triglycerides — for about 10% of people. About 7% of people declined on at least two measures.

The lead author of the paper, Claude Bouchard, a professor of genetics and nutrition at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, told the New York Times that the finding was “bizarre.”


At the same time, the data, involving 1,687 people, showed that about 10% of people saw outsized gains in at least one measure of heart disease risk — some patients improved 20% to 50%. For other participants, exercise-related rewards ran the gamut, from none to some to significant benefits.


One of the authors of the study was on the committee that provided the scientific evidence underlying the government’s official exercise guidelines for Americans, which recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate activity.


The implication here is that the government’s physical activity guidelines are based on rather weak scientific data. The Times’ Gina Kolata writes:

The problem with studies of exercise and health, researchers point out, is that while they often measure things like blood pressure or insulin levels, they do not follow people long enough to see if improvements translate into fewer heart attacks or longer lives. Instead, researchers infer that such changes lead to better outcomes — something that may or may not be true.

Some critics have noted that there is no indication that those who had what Dr. Bouchard is calling an adverse response to exercise actually had more heart attacks or other bad health outcomes. But Dr. Bouchard said if people wanted to use changes in risk factors to infer that those who exercise are healthier, they could not then turn around and say there is no evidence of harm when the risk factor changes go in the wrong direction.

Still, the findings are no excuse not to exercise. For one thing, it’s still not clear why some people had adverse responses to working out. The results couldn’t be explained by how fit participants were (or later became), how strenuously they exercised, whether they were taking medications for blood pressure or cholesterol, or their age, race or gender. “I suspect the most important explanation here will be genomics,” Bouchard told the Boston Globe.

Researchers said it’s important to figure out who will benefit from exercise and who won’t, if we want to able to prescribe exercise individually for better health. “Identifying the predictors of such unwarranted responses and how to prevent them will provide the foundation for personalized exercise prescription,” they wrote.

But for healthy people, experts agree that exercise is a benefit overall. It improves mood, makes you stronger and preserves physical fitness as you age.

So, for now, the authors recommend that people continue exercising as before. If you’ve been sedentary and are starting a new exercise regimen, however, it would be a good idea to check in regularly with your physician to monitor measures of heart health.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/01/is-exercise-harmful-for-some-people/?iid=hl-article-mostpop1#ixzz1whrtI9EV

Is Exercise Harmful for Some People? | Healthland | TIME.com