The TRUTH about all those dodgy health claims, by one of Britain's top researchers

By PROFESSOR LESLEY REGAN

From vitamin supplements to detox kits, alternative medicines to supermarket foods, we are bombarded every day with extravagant claims about the health benefits of the products we put into our shopping baskets. But can we trust those claims? That's what renowned scientist Professor Lesley Regan sets out to discover in a fascinating new television series.

She's the researcher whose investigation into anti-ageing products caused shockwaves in an industry built around impressive claims that are rarely properly researched - and sparked a stampede for Boots No 7 Protect and Perfect serum, which she identified as one of the few beauty creams that actually worked.

Now, Professor Regan is applying her trademark scientific training to examine the health credentials of an even wider range of products for her latest BBC2 series. And not only has she discovered some bestsellers have little evidence backing them up, she believes many companies are, in fact, touting spurious claims. Here, she shares a few of her intriguing findings...

WEIGHT LOSS AIDS

In Britain, we now spend £10 million a year on diet pills and patches. But while prescription weight loss tablets have real science behind them, do over-the-counter varieties too? When I set about trying to find out by asking the producers of popular diet products to send me details of their research, many companies flatly refused.

The Pink Patch said no evidence of its effectiveness actually exists, while Formoline L112 said they couldn't provide a copy as their research hasn't ever been published. Lipobind sent research results showing the tablets do bind with fat - but admitted they were yet to investigate whether the pills actually help people lose weight.

Only one company sent a paper showing a clear link between weight loss and their product - a herbal diet pill, called Zotrim, which makes you feel full. Their research had been published in a reputable journal and conducted with a control group to compare any placebo effect. Although statistics were not included, these are said to be significant. Yet I would still like to see more evidence as the study has never been repeated.

But even when diet pills are shown in studies to help weight loss, the results can still be meaningless. The secret is in the small print. For the instructions usually say that pills must be taken alongside a low-calorie diet and an exercise plan. They even say they should be taken before meals with a large glass of water - which will act as a bulking agent and stop you eating so much.

To prove this point, I developed my own diet pill and asked 17 overweight people to try it for a month, alongside a balanced diet and a sensible exercise plan. More than 70 per cent of the volunteers lost weight and believed the tablets had worked. Unbeknown to them, though, the tablets were simply sugar, a placebo - which shows the power of mind over matter. Yet I could easily use my results to launch an impressive marketing campaign, - as many companies do.

Diet and nutrition books are another minefield. There are 54,000 such books published worldwide, yet the authors need no qualifications and their diets are rarely scientifically proven. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. Readers must bear in mind that just because a diet book is published, doesn't mean the plan actually works.

DIET-FRIENDLY FOODS

Foods marketed at dieters are proliferating, with supermarket shelves stocked full of foods for different eating plans - low fat, low carb, low calorie, high protein. But consumers must make sure they carefully read the label as these claims can be very misleading. We assume products labelled 'reduced fat' and 'light' will be better for us - but they can still be relatively high in fat and calories.

The only regulation in place is that foods labelled 'low fat' must contain 3 per cent or less fat, and 'fat free' must not contain more than 0.5 per cent fat - so these are usually a good buy. It's worth comparing nutrition labels, though, as 'low fat' could still contain more calories than standard versions.

Food manufacturers are always trying clever ways to make their foods appear healthy. An advert for Jaffa Cakes claiming they only contain one gram of fat each was recently banned by the Advertising Standards Authority because a cake weighs only 10 grams - meaning they actually contain 10 per cent fat.

And processed foods marketed as healthy are often anything but. This is because they contain large amounts of sugar and salt, and, through processing, have lost many of their nutrients.

'Whole grain' is another marketing craze, and although whole grain foods are healthy, just because something contains fibre doesn't mean much. A product must be high or rich in fibre to have any real benefit.

But some prepared foods can actually be a healthier option than fresh. For example, frozen peas contain more nutrients than fresh peas. This is because fresh peas lose a lot of their goodness during the time it takes to transport them from field to shop to dinner plate.

VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTS

As a population, we also spend millions of pounds on vitamin supplements. But the simple truth is that people with a balanced diet don't need them, as even manufacturers admitted to me. Yet it is usually consumers who already have a balanced diet - the worried well - who take them, while those who have poor diets, and so could benefit from supplements, don't bother.

The result is that often people taking vitamin supplements end up getting far more of a vitamin than they actually need - which can do more harm than good. Evidence shows some nutrients have a range of adverse effects at high doses. A study of pregnant women taking 1,000mg of Vitamin C showed they gained no benefit but had an increased prevalence of premature delivery.

And the evidence which vitamin manufacturers cite as showing the benefits can be rather more complicated than it seems. For example, Immunace, which reportedly boosts the immune system, claims to have been proven in a 'ground breaking trial' - but when I asked for this research, I discovered it had actually been carried out on HIV positive people in Bangkok.

Another Vitabiotics product, Visionace, a supplement to maintain good eyesight, claims to have been independently verified, but again the research was not done on healthy recruits but on people with a specific eye condition called Marginal Dry Eye. Experts say you can't compare the benefits of someone with a damaged immune system or poor eyesight to healthy people.

The only vitamin worth taking is folic acid for pregnant women. That is scientifically proven to be beneficial: nothing else is.

Yet standing in a pharmacy, staring at the array of different varieties, even I sometimes start wondering about them myself. That is the result of the mass hysteria which clever marketing has created.

One supplement which has grown increasingly popular is fish oils, which people now generally believe can make you smarter. Yet the evidence is far from unanimous. EYEC market their fish oils as being beneficial for all children - yet their data comes from a study showing the supplement boosted the performance of a group of children with special needs.

Indeed, a new marketing trend which causes me some concern is the targeting of children. Or rather their parents, who are led to believe certain breakfast foods can improve their children's performance. In fact, the crucial thing is for kids to eat something in the morning, and it doesn't much matter what . .

PAINKILLERS

The power of perception means a lot of products succeed where, scientifically, they should fail. The marketing is so powerful that people actually believe the benefits are occurring when they are not. This is particularly obvious in painkillers. Aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen can be bought very cheaply, yet people choose expensive branded versions which cost ten times as much yet have the same basic ingredients.

Some luxury brands promise to perk people up but simply contain added caffeine. People would be just as well off buying the cheap paracetomal and drinking a cup of coffee.

Often, painkillers are said to target different issues such as migraine, period pain or back ache. Yet as far as I can see, there is actually nothing different about them.

Again, with pain relief, it is often perception that matters. I carried out a study on a rugby team which took two painkillers, believing one to be their usual favourite brand and one a cheaper version. They thought the former worked much better - but in fact they were both their favourite painkiller.

Research shows, too, that the larger a pill the better it is perceived to work, and the reason most painkillers are sold in packs to be taken two at a time - rather than simply double the dose in one tablet - is because people believe two pills work better than one. It is quite extraordinary the effect perception alone can have on pain - and manufacturers know that.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

I believe that similar effects explain the burgeoning alternative medicine industry. A popular part of this is homeopathy, which nine million people trust to work for them. But, in fact, the solution sold is a highly diluted liquid, meaning only a very slim chance of the dose containing any active ingredients. And while practitioners wear white labcoats and surround themselves with an aura of science, there is in fact no real scientific backing for their remedies.

Again, I tested the placebo effect of homeopathy, giving insomniacs my own 'homeopathic sleep remedies' - in fact simply sugar balls. Yet the volunteers reported 'remarkable' effects and actually slept better, simply due to believing in the tablets and wanting them to work.

Herbal supplements, on the other hand, can be highly effective. Echinacea is proven to help fight infections and garlic can lower cholesterol - though the benefits of Evening Primrose Oil and Ginseng are rather less certain.

But because herbal remedies are so powerful, they can have sideeffects and need to be treated with respect. Consumers' belief that natural means safe is wrong. They can also interfere with normal medication. For example, St John's Wort can interfere with the body's ability to absorb the contraceptive pill, and so stop it from working.

DETOX PACKS

Detox products that claim to work through herbal ingredients should be treated with suspicion as most appear ineffective. When I spoke to people who design these products, nobody could even tell me what these packs are actually supposed to be detoxing. After all, our kidneys and liver are brilliantly effective at detoxing themselves already.

The packets tell people to stop drinking alcohol or caffeine and to eat healthily while taking them - which is likely to bring far more health benefits than the actual detox supplement. People would be better off simply following the advice and forgetting the product. Detox products are typical of the way many health and beauty companies are not interested in basing their developments on science - only their advertising campaigns. Yet customers assume the products they are buying are properly proven and researched. That is why we all need to be more enquiring about the products we buy. If the claims sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Although I have investigated as a scientist, anyone can seek out information about what they are being told by companies about a product. When spending money we should ask ourselves: 'What is the science behind this? Where is the evidence?' If there is none, then step away. If consumers become savvier and more questioning, then manufacturers will soon realise they need to provide better science - and better products.

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THE GENETIC DIMENSION OF HEIGHT AND HEALTH

It may be no tall tale: A few inches taller or shorter could signal a risk for some diseases. It is discreetly not mentioned below but the overall balance is in favour of tall people

From Danny Devito to Yao Ming, the world is filled with short people and tall people and everyone in between. While factors such as nutrition influence height differences, much of that variation depends on genes. After all, both of Ming’s parents were basketball stars, and Devito’s were not.

But the genes that made Ming grow to 7 feet 6 inches and Devito stop growing several feet shorter could be important for more than sports. Changes in how height genes work could not only add or subtract a few centimeters from leg length, but could also affect underlying cell biology in ways that can lead to disease, recent research suggests.

Statistical studies find that shorter people are more likely to get heart disease, diabetes and osteoarthritis. Other studies show that the same genes that make healthy cells multiply to make a person grow taller can also make cancer cells proliferate in tumors. On the other hand, genes that make bones grow longer can form extra cartilage in joints, protecting them from the ravages of osteoarthritis.

The long and short of it is that height genes might affect health as well as height — although scientists don’t completely understand how.

Some genes that have been implicated in determining height have been well-studied for their connections to particular diseases, but not as well-studied for how they affect height. And while statistical links between height and disease are robustly documented, scientists don’t completely understand if or how the same genes could set the foundation for both height and disease.

Pinning down that connection could have payoffs for treating disease and ensuring health.

“When you take a kid to the pediatrician, the first thing they do is measure the child’s height,” says geneticist Guillaume Lettre of Children’s Hospital Boston and of the Broad Institute, in Cambridge, Mass. He is coauthor of a study that identified several genes associated with height.

Growing too fast or too slow could be a sign of health problems such as hormone imbalances. But if the genes controlling height were well known, pediatricians could easily determine whether a short-for-their-age child simply inherited the gene variants that denote a more diminutive stature, or actually has a more serious condition, Lettre says.

Linking height genes to health is difficult, though, because details of the genetic pathway to height are complex. Many genes work together to create normal variations in height. So far, the suspicion that height genes affect health is supported mostly by statistical studies.

In 2001, for instance, epidemiologist David Gunnell of the University of Bristol in England and colleagues found that taller people can face a 20 to 60 percent greater risk for various cancers, including of the breast, prostate and colon.

Last year, epidemiologist Luisa Zuccolo, also of Bristol, followed up on Gunnell’s work with a study focused on the link between height and prostate cancer. The risk of developing prostate cancer increased by 6 percent for every 10 centimeters over the median height of the 1,357 men in the study, Zuccolo and colleagues reported in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Despite the link, height was still less of a risk factor than age and family history, but “understanding why height is associated with prostate cancer could help us to understand its causes,” Zuccolo says.

One molecule that taller people have in abundance compared with shorter people is insulin-like growth factor 1, or IGF-1. The insulin-like molecule stimulates the growth of cells and tissues, and higher levels of the molecule have also been linked to the incidence and progression of several different types of cancer. IGF-1 can bind to the tumors of cancers of the breast, prostate and bladder, stimulating the growth of tumor cells. Zuccolo speculates that the IGF-1 gene could link height and prostate cancer.....

A height and cancer suspect

Genome-wide association studies offer one way to sift through the human genome by comparing genomes of thousands of people for variations associated with a specific trait. To hunt for height genes, researchers try to identify genetic variations that crop up more often in shorter people or taller people.

So far, several studies have related about 40 different genes to height. But more genes are likely to be found, says Gonçalo Abecasis, a statistical geneticist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who collaborated on two of the studies. “There are lots of different genes that each only make a small contribution to height,” he says.

The researchers expect that the list of height genes will run into the hundreds. “We’re making progress, but there are many more height genes to find,” says geneticist Michael Weedon of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, England.

Weedon and his colleagues used genome-wide association studies to identify height gene candidates and found that the gene at the top of their list is also a well-known cancer gene. Variants of the high-mobility group A2 gene, called HMGA2, correlated with small variations in height within a population of just over 19,000 people, the researchers reported in Nature Genetics in 2007. That study was the first evidence that small variations in the gene could produce normal height differences among people.

“Sometimes it’s hard to link the gene you find to a height-related function — but this one was easy,” says Lettre, a coauthor on the study.

Scientists already knew that rare HMGA2 mutations could have severe effects on body size. Take 13-year-old Brenden Adams of Ellensburg, Wash., for example. An average-sized newborn, Adams began growing faster than anyone could explain and now stands 7 feet and 3 inches.

At first, doctors couldn’t figure out why. Then they took a look at his chromosomes. A portion of one copy of Adams’ chromosome 12 is inverted, as if a piece of the chromosome had broken off, flipped around and then reattached. The genes on this inverted section seemed to be undamaged — except for where the chromosome broke, which turned out to be at HMGA2.

Azra Ligon and Brad Quade of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston studied Adams’ case. They aren’t sure exactly how the change to HMGA2 is making Adams grow so much, but they speculate that the chromosome inversion disrupted the normal regulation of the gene.

The HMGA2 gene encodes a protein that activates other genes by rearranging how DNA is stored. To package huge amounts of DNA inside each cell, the DNA is twisted and coiled into the chromosomes, then compacted in an orderly fashion so that the correct section is easily available when needed. The HMGA2 protein recognizes and binds to specific twists in chromosomes in order to activate the genes needed for a wide array of biological processes, including the growth and proliferation of cells.

Weedon and colleagues speculate that mutations in the HMGA2 gene can affect how much of the protein is produced.

Previous work also showed that the HMGA2 gene is active only during embryo development in both mice and people. In mature tissues, gene
activity was almost undetectable, a sign that the gene may not have much effect on the later stages of growth and
development.

“It seems that the contribution of this gene is laid down early in life,” says geneticist Peter Visscher of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia.

But the gene does get turned on at later stages in cancerous cells. HMGA2 proteins are found in the tumors of several different types of cancer, including those of the breast, pancreas and lung, suggesting that the gene may help cancer cells grow and proliferate. But scientists don’t know whether the increased risk of cancer in taller people has anything to do with differences in the HMGA2 gene. While HMGA2 is implicated in both cancer and height, “the mechanistic dots have not yet been connected,” says Lettre.

“Right now, we fall short of explaining exactly how HMGA2 controls height,” he says. “We don’t know exactly how variations in HMGA2 that correlate with height could affect how the gene works.”

And while genes such as HMGA2 are already well-characterized because of their roles in disease or development, little is known about many of the height genes that the statistical studies turn up.

Figuring out what these genes do could explain the links between height and disease. “We’re not there yet,” says Abecasis. “But when you start looking at all these different genes, you find that they are linked to lots of different things.”

Adds Lettre: “We’re interested in learning more about how genes control height. But we’re hoping that some of the height genes will have other effects on health too.” That would help the scientists gain insights into the biological processes of growth. “Time will tell, but that is certainly a hope.”

The short path to osteoarthritis

Taller people may be at a higher statistical risk of cancer, but short people face height-related disease risks too.

A gene called growth differentiation factor 5, or GDF5, is related to height; it encodes a protein important for bone and cartilage growth and skeletal development. Geneticist Karen Mohlke of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her colleagues found that slight differences in the GDF5 gene caused differences of about 0.3 to 0.7 centimeters in height. The people on the shorter end of these differences were more likely to have the particular GDF5 variant associated with osteoarthritis, a type of arthritis caused by the breakdown of cartilage in joints.

People with lower levels of the GDF5 protein have shorter bones and less cartilage in their joints. Shorter people are more susceptible to osteoarthritis because they have less cartilage to wear down.

“It makes sense that a reduction in GDF5 would decrease bone growth and lead to reduced height,” says Gonçalo Abecasis, a statistical geneticist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a coauthor of the study, which was published in Nature Genetics in 2008. “And as well as this, there would be less cartilage in the joints, which could increase susceptibility to osteoarthritis,” he says.

More here

Drug that prevents prostate cancer may be here within a year

The evidence for any effect of the drug is quite weak. Only small differences were shown

The world's first drug to prevent prostate cancer could be on sale in as little as a year. In tests, Avodart cut cases in men at high risk of the disease by almost a quarter. Researchers described the results as exciting and said in time the drug could be widely used to stave off the cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in British men, with almost 35,000 cases a year and 10,000 deaths. It is curable if caught early but conventional treatments, including drugs, surgery and radiotherapy, carry a risk of side-effects including loss of libido and impotence. Options for stopping the disease from developing in the first place are limited to following a healthy diet.

Researcher Gerald Andriole, of Washington University School of Medicine in the U.S., tracked the health of 8,200 men aged between 50 and 75 for four years. All were judged to be at high risk of prostate cancer. Blood tests had showed them to have high levels of PSA - a protein linked to the cancer - but biopsies had declared them to be free of the disease.

Half took Avodart and half took a dummy drug. After two years, prostate cancer was found in 17.2 per cent of men who took the placebo, compared to 13.3 per cent who took Avodart. After four years, the disease was diagnosed in another 11.8 per cent of men taking the dummy drug but just 9.1 per cent of those on the active drug.

Overall, Avodart cut the development of prostate cancer by 23 per cent. Dr Andriole said it was likely the drug had zapped tumours that started out too small to be detected by biopsy. 'I think the medication caused some of those cancers to shrink and probably caused a lot of them to grow a lot slower,' he said. The researcher said the drug could be used to keep the cancer at bay in men who, like those in the trial, had high PSA levels but negative biopsies.

Avodart is made by GlaxoSmithKline which funded the study. The drug is already approved to treat enlargement of the prostate and could be cleared to prevent cancer in as little as a year. Side-effects such as impotence and the development of 'man breasts' are relatively rare but do occur.

Experts welcomed the study but said more work was needed to show if Avodart was effective in prostate cancer prevention. Professor Jonathan Waxman, of Imperial College London, said a four-year-trial was too short to prove the real worth of the drug. He said: 'The disease is very common and to have something you could put in the water to decrease the risk of getting the disease would be very important but I'm not sure it's this drug.' He added there was clear evidence a healthy diet helped prevent the disease. Vitamin D may also be beneficial.

And statins may offer protection too. Cholesterol-busting drugs taken by millions of men to cut their risk of heart attacks and stroke may also ward off prostate cancer. A 15-year study of almost 2,500 men aged between 40 and 79 found that only 6 per cent of those taking statins were diagnosed with the disease - a third of the figure for the non-statin users. [That's because you have to be pretty healthy to tolerate statins in the first place]

Urologist Dr Rodney Breau said: 'In recent years it has been suggested statin medications may prevent development of cancer. However, until now, there has been limited evidence to support this theory.'

Researchers at the the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota also found statin users had less than half the chance of developing an enlarged prostate and the problems in passing urine associated with it. However, they told the American Urological Association's annual conference that more research was needed to prove statins were pivotal in prostate health.

Elsewhere, a study has shown that vitamin D could also provide a powerful weapon against the cancer. A daily dose cut or stabilised signs of the disease in 60 per cent of patients monitored. The effect was as dramatic as that achieved by some cancer drugs. Vitamin D however is much cheaper --costing pennies a tablet.

Researcher Professor Jonathan Waxman, of Imperial College London, stressed patients should not start taking the vitamin without first speaking to their GP and they should continue with conventional treatments.

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'Bleach bath' benefit for eczema

The effect here appears to be quite strong -- as it should be. Bleach is a strong germicide

Adding bleach to the bath may be an effective treatment for chronic eczema, US researchers say. In a study of 31 children, there was significant improvement in eczema in those who had diluted bleach baths compared with normal baths. The Pediatrics study also showed improvements were only on parts of the body submerged in the bath.

UK experts stressed the treatment could be extremely dangerous and should only be done under the care of a specialist.

Children with bad eczema suffer from chronic skin infections, most commonly caused by Staphylococcus aureus, which worsen the eczema that can be difficult to treat. Some children get resistant MRSA infections. Studies have shown a direct correlation between the number of bacteria on the skin and the severity of the eczema. It has been shown that bacteria cause inflammation and further weaken the skin barrier.

In the study, researchers randomly assigned patients who had infection with Staphylococcus aureus to baths with half a cup of sodium hypochlorite per full tub or normal water baths for five to 10 minutes twice a week for three months. They also prescribed a topical antibiotic ointment or dummy ointment for them to put into their nose - a key site for growth of the bacteria.

Eczema severity in patients reduced five times as much as those on placebo. But there was no improvement in eczema on the head and neck - areas not submerged in the bath.

"We've long struggled with staphylococcal infections in patients with eczema," said study leader Dr Amy Paller, from Northwestern University in Chicago. She added they saw such rapid improvement in the children having bleach baths that they stopped the study early. "The eczema kept getting better and better with the bleach baths and these baths prevented it from flaring again, which is an ongoing problem for these kids. "We presume the bleach has antibacterial properties and decreased the number of bacteria on the skin, which is one of the drivers of flares."

Professor Mike Cork, head of dermatology research and a consultant at Sheffield Children's Hospital, said antiseptic baths had been used as a treatment for eczema for quite a while but the trial was important because it highlights the benefits from reducing bacteria. "But people should not start putting bleach in their children's bath. "Bleach used incorrectly could cause enormous harm to a child with atopic eczema while, in the hands of an expert, it can as this trial indicates lead to benefit."

He added the trial highlighted the need for children with uncontrolled eczema to be referred to a specialist for treatment.

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Fat is the new smoking

Do you have a spare tire? Some bulges? Do your thighs rub together? Do you have a big gut? Well, be prepared to be ostracized.

They already did a number on smokers. It used to be you could smoke almost anywhere, from the supermarket to your workplace. And then they started passing laws until you now have to go to smoke areas which are usually outside and away from everywhere else. Even though OSHA had to admit that second-hand smoke in the workplace cannot affect people except under extreme conditions.

“Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)…It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded.” -Letter from Greg Watchman, Acting Ass’t Sec’y, OSHA, to Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997

But relentless anti-smoking ads and a successful attempt to ban smoking in most movies and TV has resulted in smokers being made social pariahs. So now they are going after fat people. The arsenal of mendacity and fraud they’re using comes in many forms. The latest broadside is to link obesity to global warming.

HIGH rates of obesity in richer countries cause up to a billion extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, compared with countries with leaner populations, according to a study that assesses the additional food and fuel needs of the overweight. The finding is particularly worrying, scientists say, because obesity is on the rise in many rich nations. “Population fatness has an environmental impact,” said Phil Edwards, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “We’re all being told to stay fit and keep our weight down because it’s good for our health. The important thing is that staying slim is good for your health and for the health of the planet.”

So do China and India have less greenhouse gas emissions than Canada and Germany? After all, China and India have “thinner” people. The answer is of course, no. This is a false claim like many of those the AGW crowd makes. But making false statements didn’t stop the anti-smoking crusaders who made it seem like smoking a cigarette automatically gives you get lung cancer. And it’s gotten so bad many places are using their anti-smoker bias to deny smokers their civil rights. Using the same logic, they can start doing that to the “obese.”

Mind you, the obesity epidemic burst onto the scene when the government changed their obesity ratings by using a bogus Body Mass Index (BMI) chart so off base that muscular people like The Rock or Arnold Schwarzenegger would suddenly be rated obese. Many athletes are rated as obese under these standards. But the media naturally just ran with the press releases that claimed there was a sudden obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. And then came the articles stating it was causing health costs to soar and something must be done about it.

They are using the obese as a scapegoat for health costs. And now airlines are making fat people pay double for air fare. The reason fat people spill over into the next seat is because they keep making the seats narrower. They have been doing that for years. And suddenly, with the obesity epidemic, it “became a problem.” If you read the comments on some of the articles talking about it there are lots of rabble saying things like “Good! Make those fatties pay triple!”

Be careful what you wish for. If they get away with doing this to people out of shape, they will find some other group to target next and soon you may be in the crosshairs. Everywhere you look they are trying to ban something and make a group out to be the fault of it all. If you’re a conservative, the Obama DHS is calling you a domestic terrorist. Some in the MSM are calling you greedy racists.

As long as we let others define us as something we’re not, they will get away with it. It’s time we stop letting them do that.

SOURCE






Viagra faces minuscule rival

In one of the first medical applications of nanotechnology – the science of tiny particles – scientists have developed a fast-acting treatment for impotence that could rival Viagra. The drug’s minute particles can be absorbed directly through the skin, causing a sexual response within minutes. The treatment has so far only been tested in animals but the researchers behind it say the same approach could also benefit humans.

Viagra and other drugs have to be taken orally, meaning they take some time to be digested and then have effects throughout the body. Some users can suffer side-effects such as headaches, facial flushing and indigestion.

The nanoparticle approach, by contrast, worked in less than 10 minutes and its effects seem to be limited to the relevant parts of the body, according to the researchers. Kelvin Davies of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who oversaw the research, said the results showed the potential for “nano-medicines”. He said the nanoparticles “can facilitate transport of erectogenic agents. It localises the therapeutic impact without the potential consequences due to systemic absorption”.

In the study, to be published today at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, Davies and his colleagues loaded the nanoparticles with nitric oxide, a chemical that occurs naturally in the body where it makes blood vessels expand and fill with blood. They applied the particles to the skin of rats bred to suffer from impotence. They observed a rapid and strong response.

The potential market for such drugs is extensive. Viagra has become one of the world’s most popular medicines with about 40m pills prescribed in Britain alone since its launch in 1998. Many more have been obtained from online pharmacies.

Some believe such treatments benefit relationships pointing to the fact that about a fifth of marital breakdowns are at least partly linked to men suffering erectile dysfunction. Other evidence has, however, shown that such drugs give older men the confidence to start new relationships with younger women and quit the marital home.

Viagra has been cited in many split-ups, including that of of Wendy and Johnny Kidd, parents of the models Jodie and Jemma and the first marriage of the comedian Vic Reeves.

SOURCE

Fat is the new smoking

Do you have a spare tire? Some bulges? Do your thighs rub together? Do you have a big gut? Well, be prepared to be ostracized.

They already did a number on smokers. It used to be you could smoke almost anywhere, from the supermarket to your workplace. And then they started passing laws until you now have to go to smoke areas which are usually outside and away from everywhere else. Even though OSHA had to admit that second-hand smoke in the workplace cannot affect people except under extreme conditions.

“Field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that under normal conditions, the components in tobacco smoke are diluted below existing Permissible Exposure Levels (PELS.) as referenced in the Air Contaminant Standard (29 CFR 1910.1000)…It would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that any individual PEL would be exceeded.” -Letter from Greg Watchman, Acting Ass’t Sec’y, OSHA, to Leroy J Pletten, PHD, July 8, 1997

But relentless anti-smoking ads and a successful attempt to ban smoking in most movies and TV has resulted in smokers being made social pariahs. So now they are going after fat people. The arsenal of mendacity and fraud they’re using comes in many forms. The latest broadside is to link obesity to global warming.

HIGH rates of obesity in richer countries cause up to a billion extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, compared with countries with leaner populations, according to a study that assesses the additional food and fuel needs of the overweight. The finding is particularly worrying, scientists say, because obesity is on the rise in many rich nations. “Population fatness has an environmental impact,” said Phil Edwards, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “We’re all being told to stay fit and keep our weight down because it’s good for our health. The important thing is that staying slim is good for your health and for the health of the planet.”

So do China and India have less greenhouse gas emissions than Canada and Germany? After all, China and India have “thinner” people. The answer is of course, no. This is a false claim like many of those the AGW crowd makes. But making false statements didn’t stop the anti-smoking crusaders who made it seem like smoking a cigarette automatically gives you get lung cancer. And it’s gotten so bad many places are using their anti-smoker bias to deny smokers their civil rights. Using the same logic, they can start doing that to the “obese.”

Mind you, the obesity epidemic burst onto the scene when the government changed their obesity ratings by using a bogus Body Mass Index (BMI) chart so off base that muscular people like The Rock or Arnold Schwarzenegger would suddenly be rated obese. Many athletes are rated as obese under these standards. But the media naturally just ran with the press releases that claimed there was a sudden obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. And then came the articles stating it was causing health costs to soar and something must be done about it.

They are using the obese as a scapegoat for health costs. And now airlines are making fat people pay double for air fare. The reason fat people spill over into the next seat is because they keep making the seats narrower. They have been doing that for years. And suddenly, with the obesity epidemic, it “became a problem.” If you read the comments on some of the articles talking about it there are lots of rabble saying things like “Good! Make those fatties pay triple!”

Be careful what you wish for. If they get away with doing this to people out of shape, they will find some other group to target next and soon you may be in the crosshairs. Everywhere you look they are trying to ban something and make a group out to be the fault of it all. If you’re a conservative, the Obama DHS is calling you a domestic terrorist. Some in the MSM are calling you greedy racists.

As long as we let others define us as something we’re not, they will get away with it. It’s time we stop letting them do that.

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Viagra faces minuscule rival

In one of the first medical applications of nanotechnology – the science of tiny particles – scientists have developed a fast-acting treatment for impotence that could rival Viagra. The drug’s minute particles can be absorbed directly through the skin, causing a sexual response within minutes. The treatment has so far only been tested in animals but the researchers behind it say the same approach could also benefit humans.

Viagra and other drugs have to be taken orally, meaning they take some time to be digested and then have effects throughout the body. Some users can suffer side-effects such as headaches, facial flushing and indigestion.

The nanoparticle approach, by contrast, worked in less than 10 minutes and its effects seem to be limited to the relevant parts of the body, according to the researchers. Kelvin Davies of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who oversaw the research, said the results showed the potential for “nano-medicines”. He said the nanoparticles “can facilitate transport of erectogenic agents. It localises the therapeutic impact without the potential consequences due to systemic absorption”.

In the study, to be published today at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association, Davies and his colleagues loaded the nanoparticles with nitric oxide, a chemical that occurs naturally in the body where it makes blood vessels expand and fill with blood. They applied the particles to the skin of rats bred to suffer from impotence. They observed a rapid and strong response.

The potential market for such drugs is extensive. Viagra has become one of the world’s most popular medicines with about 40m pills prescribed in Britain alone since its launch in 1998. Many more have been obtained from online pharmacies.

Some believe such treatments benefit relationships pointing to the fact that about a fifth of marital breakdowns are at least partly linked to men suffering erectile dysfunction. Other evidence has, however, shown that such drugs give older men the confidence to start new relationships with younger women and quit the marital home.

Viagra has been cited in many split-ups, including that of of Wendy and Johnny Kidd, parents of the models Jodie and Jemma and the first marriage of the comedian Vic Reeves.

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Addicted to fat, sugar? Retrain your brain

Kessler is too much of a nut even for California. He was unceremoniously fired last year as Dean of the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. So treat his colourful assertions with caution. "Conditioning" might have some small role but your weight is mostly genetically determined

Food hijacked Dr. David Kessler's brain. Not apples or carrots. The scientist who once led the government's attack on addictive cigarettes can't wander through part of San Francisco without craving a local shop's chocolate-covered pretzels. Stop at one cookie? Rarely. It's not an addiction, but it's similar, and he is far from alone. Kessler's research suggests millions share what he calls "conditioned hyper- eating," a willpower-sapping drive to eat high-fat, high-sugar foods even when they're not hungry.

In a book being published next week, the former Food and Drug Administration chief brings to consumers the disturbing conclusion of numerous brain studies: Some people really do have a harder time resisting "bad" foods. It's a new way of looking at the obesity epidemic that could help spur fledgling movements to reveal calories on restaurant menus or rein in portion sizes.

"The food industry has figured out what works. They know what drives people to keep on eating," Kessler says. "It's the next great public-health campaign, of changing how we view food, and the food industry has to be part of it." He calls the culprits foods "layered and loaded" with combinations of fat, sugar and salt, and often so processed that you don't even have to chew much.

Overeaters must take responsibility, too, and basically retrain their brains to resist the lure, he cautions. "I have suits in every size," Kessler writes in "The End of Overeating." But, "once you know what's driving your behavior, you can put steps into place" to change it.

At issue is how the brain becomes primed by different stimuli. Neuroscientists increasingly report that fat-and-sugar combinations in particular light up the brain's dopamine pathway, the same pleasure-sensing spot that conditions people to alcohol or drugs. Where did you experience the yum factor? That's the cue, sparking the brain to say, "I want that again!" as you drive by a restaurant or plop down before the television.

"You're not even aware you've learned this," says Dr. Nora Volkow, chief of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a dopamine authority who has long studied similarities between drug addiction and obesity. Volkow is a confessed chocoholic who salivates just walking past her laboratory's vending machine. "You have to fight it and fight it," she says.

Conditioning isn't always to blame. Numerous factors, including physical activity, metabolism and hormones, play a role in obesity. The food industry points out that stores and restaurants are giving consumers more healthful choices, from substitutions of fruit for french fries to selling packaged foods with less fat and salt.

Kessler, now at the University of California-San Francisco, gathered colleagues to help build on that science and learn why some people have such a hard time going healthier. First, the team found that even well-fed rats will work increasingly hard for sips of a vanilla milkshake with the right fat-sugar combo but that adding sugar steadily increases consumption. Many low-fat foods substitute sugar for the removed fat, doing nothing to help dieters eat less, Kessler and University of Washington researchers concluded.

Then, Kessler culled data from a major study on food habits and health. Conditioned hypereaters reported feeling loss of control over food, a lack of satiety and were preoccupied by food. About 42 percent of them were obese, compared with 18 percent without those behaviors, says Kessler, who estimates that up to 70 million people have some degree of conditioned hypereating.

Finally, Yale University neuroscientist Dana Small had hypereaters smell chocolate and taste a chocolate milkshake inside a brain-scanning MRI machine. Rather than getting used to the aroma, as is normal, hypereaters found the smell more tantalizing with time.

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Eating disorders hitting five-year-olds

This is appalling. The only reasonable explanation for this recent upsurge is the recent upsurge in government persecution of "incorrect" eating: The "obesity" war. As with so many government programs, the unintended consequences are dire. Government should butt out of what people eat as weight is mostly genetic anyway.

EATING disorders are biting deeper into childhood, an expert has warned after conducting a study which included a five-year-old with the potentially fatal condition. Sloane Madden says demand for critical care beds at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, has surged over the past 12 months for children who were severely malnourished because of an Early Onset Eating Disorder (EOED).

The condition commonly linked to teenage girls was now becoming increasingly prevalent in Australian girls, and boys, aged 10 to 12 and even younger, he said. "Our own experience at the children's hospital, we have had a 50 per cent increase in demand for beds, and we haven't seen that increase in demand in hospitals looking after older adolescents with eating disorders,'' Dr Madden said. "At the moment, we have eight children in the hospital where we normally take six and we've got another five waiting for beds. "What we are seeing clinically, and what is being reported anecdotally around the world is that kids are presenting in greater numbers at a younger age,'' he said.

It was not just a case of the children being fussy eaters, said the Westmead-based child psychiatrist, as speaking to the children revealed a desire to be "thinner''. "They certainly will tell you that they believe that they are fat, that they want to be thinner, and they have no insight into the fact that they are malnourished and they are literally starving themselves to death,'' he says.

"And the parents when they see us are really quite terrified but they are extremely grateful that someone is finally taking their child's illness seriously.''

Dr Madden says children are often "medically unstable'' when brought to hospital with very low blood pressure, heart rate and temperature which "basically is putting them at risk of dying''. They often needed to be tube-fed, and placed on anti-depressant or anti-psychotic medication, but if treated early their chance of full recovery was were good.

However, Dr Madden's study of all Australian children with EOED from 2002 to 2005 shows there is a trend to late diagnosis diagnosis, meaning children being hospitalised with more more physical complications. "It makes us very concerned that these children are being misdiagnosed, or they are being diagnosed late and not being referred for appropriate care,'' he says.

Of the 101 cases of EOED uncovered by the study, there were 74 girls and 25 boys aged five to 13 (gender was not specified in two cases). Extrapolating this data, Dr Madden estimates Australia's incidence of EOED now stands about 1.4 cases for every 100,000 children aged five to 13 years. Of those, 1.1 cases would require a hospital intervention, according to the research published in the latest edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.

The number of cases is expected to rise, Dr Madden says, unless there is a change in the media's obsession with fat and weight. "I think that there needs to be a move away from this focus on weight and numbers and body fat, and a focus on healthy eating and exercise,'' he says. "You can see that in current (television) programs like The Biggest Loser, where it is all about numbers and weight, it's not helpful for those people and it's certainly not helpful for this group of kids.''

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The anti-salt craze again

I know of no deaths that can non-speculatively be traced to excess salt intake but I can show you lots from hyponatremia (too little salt). See e.g. here

Most of the salt we eat in our diets is hidden in the likes of processed foods and ready-made meals such as sandwiches. And that's the rub with salt. No matter how much we cut back during cooking and at the table, we are still likely to exceed the recommended daily maximum of 6g because 85 per cent of our intake is buried in places we least expect it - in everything from our favourite sarnies [sandwiches], to biscuits, cereals, curries and crisps.

We don't need any additional salt in our diet and it only became popular when we got used to the taste after using it to preserve foods. It may enhance flavour, but it also increases your odds of developing high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke [speculation only] - so much so that some experts now refer to it as a toxin.

Salt has been vying with smoking and obesity as the new Public Enemy No 1 since the Food Standards Agency launched a campaign to cut national consumption. The organisation believes that half the British population are currently eating too much of it, and that cutting consumption by the equivalent of just half a teaspoonful a day could prevent as many as 70,000 strokes and heart attacks every year.

Most people in Britain are already well aware of the [supposed] link between salt intake and high blood pressure, and the resulting damage to the circulation that leads to stroke and heart attack, and have started to cut back. Salt sales are down from 55,000 tonnes a year in 1985 to less than 30,000 tonnes a year today, but the impact on the amount that we actually consume has been negligible because the drop pales into insignificance when compared with the 220,000 tonnes added every year to processed or pre-prepared foods such as sandwiches.

Reducing the amount of salt consumed at home is relatively easy. The palate quickly adjusts in much the same way that it does when you stop taking sugar in tea or coffee, and within four to six weeks most people no longer miss it. Unfortunately their efforts are rarely rewarded because the vast majority of their salt daily intake is likely to be hidden in processed foods and spotting this is very difficult.

And then there is the artery- clogging fat. You could be forgiven for thinking that a Marks & Spencer Vegetarian Cheese and Chutney Sandwich would be a healthy option for a quick bite when you are in a hurry. Yet, according to Which?, it contains more fat than a Big Mac, and more calories than you care to think about.

But fat and salt make foods palatable and tasty, and encourage you to buy them. Until we all adapt our palates to a low- salt, low-fat diet, don't expect the retailers to discontinue their most profitable lines without enormous amounts of pressure. And until they do, and I wouldn't hold your breath, read all labels carefully and choose accordingly.

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Pancreatic cancer therapy 'hope'

Promising early results for a drug for pancreatic cancer have been reported by a team of UK and US scientists. The drug, which targets a molecule called PKD involved in tumour growth, also seemed effective in animal tests on lung cancer, the researchers said. The findings are especially encouraging because there are few treatments available and survival is poor. Human trials should start within 18 months, the American Association for Cancer Research conference was told.

PKD is a family of molecules called kinases which provide a signalling function between the outside and inside of the cell. Also involved in cell survival and the formation of new blood vessels, PKD was discovered to be potentially key target in tumours by UK researchers some years ago. A team at Cancer Research Technology Ltd - a company owned by Cancer Research UK - then developed molecules which would inhibit the effects of PKD. The latest results on the resulting drug, known as CRT0066101, show it inhibits the growth of pancreatic tumours in mice and works in lung cancer models. It is thought that future studies may show the drug to be effective on a wider range of cancers.

Human trials should be starting after safety studies have been completed, they researchers said. CRT's discovery laboratories director Dr Hamish Ryder said the team focused on pancreatic and lung cancer tumours because they are cancers with a "significant unmet medical need".

Dr Sushovan Guha, who leads the laboratory at MD Anderson Cancer Center and collaborated in the project, added he was optimistic about the drug's potential. In addition to killing cancer cells, it is hoped the drug will stop tumours growing and spreading by blocking blood vessel growth. "This would mean it offers a double action treatment but this needs to be proved through further work."

Sue Ballard, the founder of Pancreatic Cancer UK, said the disease caused 5% of cancer deaths but only received 1% of disease funding. "There is a great lack of really effective treatments, surgery gives the best chance if done early but even in that situation it can recur or spread. "This research is in the very early stages but anything that's starting to show promising results is vitally needed."

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Britain's chief medical attention-seeker is at it again

She quotes no proof of the evils of computers that she discusses because she has none. It is all just her speculation, full of "might be"s and "could be"s. She appears to have no children herself but somehow knows all about them. My son was a heavy computer user since he was a tot but he is now in adulthood very sociable and socially popular. He also has a degree in mathematics and is making good progress towards his doctorate in the subject. So a fat lot of harm heavy computer use did him! Computers can bring kids together. I have seen plenty of examples of it. The lonely nerd would probably be lonely anyway. The lady below needs to get out more. She might learn something. She has probably never even heard of a LAN party. If she had, her discussion below would not have been so unbalanced. As it is, she is just farting at the mouth below

Can you imagine a world without long-term relationships, where people are unable to understand the consequences of their actions or empathise with one another? Such conditions would not only hamper our happiness and prosperity - they could threaten our very survival. Yet this imagined existence isn't as far away as it seems. It is a plausible future. For we are developing an ever deeper dependence on websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Second Life - and these technologies can alter the way our minds work.

As a neuroscientist, I am aware of how susceptible our brains are to change - and our environment has changed drastically over the past decade. Most people spend at least two hours each day in front of a computer, and living this way will result in minds very different from those of past generations. Our brains are changing in unprecedented ways. We know the human brain is exquisitely sensitive to the outside world - this so-called 'plasticity' is famously illustrated by London taxi drivers who need to remember all the streets of the city, and whose part of the brain related to memory is generally bigger than in the rest of us as a result. Indeed, one of the most exciting concepts in neuroscience is that all experience leaves its mark on your brain.

But while adults' brains can change, it is children who are most at risk, for their brains are still growing - and may not have yet had a full range of experiences in three dimensions. Yet 99 per cent of children and young people use the internet, according to an Ofcom study. In 2005, the average time children spent online was 7.1 hours per week. By 2007, it had almost doubled to 13.8 hours. As an expert on the human brain, I am speaking out as I feel we need to protect the young.

Of course, this idea may not be welcomed - when someone first linked smoking and lung cancer, people didn't like that idea; some derided them because they enjoyed smoking. But parallels could well be drawn with this, and I believe similar precautionary thinking should be set in train, as in turn was needed for sunbathing and carbon emissions. We must take this issue of computers seriously because what could be more important than the brains of the next generation?

Three areas of computing are likely to have the most marked effect - social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, imagined online societies such as Second Life, and computer games.

Facebook turned five years old in February. Arguably, it marks a milestone and a highly significant change in our culture - millions of individuals worldwide are signing up for friendship through a screen. Half of young people aged eight to 17 have their own profile on a social networking site. But two basic, brain-based questions still need to be addressed. First, why are social networking sites growing? Secondly, what features of the young mind, if any, are threatened by them?

In modern life, the appeal of social networking sites to children is easy to understand. As many parents now consider playing outside too dangerous, a child confined to the home can find at the keyboard the kind of freedom of interaction that earlier generations took for granted in the three-dimensional world of the street. Though to many children screen life is even more appealing. Philip Hodson, a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, suggests that: 'Building a Facebook profile is one way that individuals can identify themselves, making them feel important and accepted.'

Social networking sites satisfy that basic human need to belong, as well as the ability to experience instant feedback and recognition from someone, somewhere, 24 hours a day. At the same time, this constant reassurance is coupled with a distancing from the stress of face-to-face, real-life conversation. Real-life chatting is, after all, far more perilous than in the cyber world as it occurs in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever responses, and it requires a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and even to physical chemicals such as pheromones.

None of these skills is required when chatting on a networking site. In fact, one user told me: 'You become less conscious of the individuals involved (including yourself), less inhibited, less embarrassed and less concerned about how you will be evaluated.' In other words, Facebook does not require the subtleties of social skill we need in the real world. Not only will this impair individuals' ability to communicate - and build relationships - it could completely change how conversation happens.

Maybe real conversation will give way to sanitised screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf. Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and personal involvement of real-time interaction.

Other aspects of brain development may also be in line for a makeover. One is attention span. If the young brain is exposed to a world of action and reaction, of instant screen images, such rapid interchange-might accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the past decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for Methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for ADHD.

A second difference in the young 21st-century mind might be a marked preference for the here-and-now, where the immediacy of an experience trumps any regard for the consequences. After all, when you play a computer game, everything you do is reversible. You can switch it off or start again. But the idea that actions don't have consequences is a very bad lesson to learn, when in life they always do. And in games the emphasis is on the thrill of the moment. This type of activity can be compared with the thrill of compulsive gambling.

The third possible change is in empathy. This cannot develop through social networking because we are not aware of how other people are really feeling - we cannot pick up on body language when we are communicating through a screen. As a result, people could become almost autistic. One teacher wrote to me that she had witnessed a change over the 30 years she had been teaching in the ability of her pupils to understand other people and their emotions. She pointed out that previously, reading novels had been a good way of learning about how others feel and think....

More speculative rubbish here






Aspirin now under attack!

Kids worldwide have been given this stuff for generations -- but suddenly it's wrong. But again it's all speculation

Children under 16 should not be given the ulcer treatments Bonjela or Bonjela Cool mint gel because of potential health risks, the medicines watchdog warns today. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued a precautionary alert on pain relief gels for the mouth that contain salicylate salts. These have the same effect on the body as aspirin, which is not recommended for those under the age of 16.

Bonjela is among the pain relief gels that contain the salts, which have been linked to Reye’s syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal condition in children. It is thought [There a lot of silly things thought. I have pretty silly thoughts myself at times] that a previous viral infection, such as flu or chickenpox, and exposure to aspirin could cause Reye’s syndrome, a metabolic disorder that can cause serious liver and brain damage.

The MHRA said that Bonjela’s adult formulations — designed to relieve the pain and swelling caused by mouth ulcers and denture and brace sores — were not recommended for children, but that Bonjela Teething Gel was safe. In a statement, the Agency added: “This is a precautionary measure only and there are no new safety concerns.

“The advice is being introduced due to a theoretical risk that these products could increase the possibility of a child developing Reye’s syndrome — a rare but serious condition,” the agency said. “There are a number of options and alternative treatments for pain associated with teething and mouth ulcers. If parents, carers or young people are unsure how best to treat these problems they should ask a GP, health visitor, dentist or pharmacist.” [Eating peanuts rapidly cures any mouth ulcers I get. So there's some free advice]

As of April 16, three suspected serious adverse drug reaction reports were received by the MHRA in association with the use of oral gels containing choline salicylate. All three cases were in children and all ended up in hospital. However, Reye’s syndrome was not confirmed in any child. The MHRA also received another four reports of vomiting or diarrhoea in children after the use of Bonjela, three of which related to the child being given the gel for teething pain. All made a full recovery.

June Raine, the MHRA’s director of vigilance and risk management of medicines, said the advice brought the products into line with others containing aspirin. “We are not aware of any confirmed cases but, when there are alternatives available, any risk is not worth taking. The new advice is to stop using these products in children and young people under 16, and to use alternative treatments.

“For infants with teething there is helpful advice in the Department of Health’s Birth to Five publication.” Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of Bonjela, said that it had redesigned packaging to make it easier for consumers to choose the right gel in light of the new recommendations. Bonjela and Bonjela Cool will now be clearly labelled Adults and Children over 16 and the packaging for Bonjela Teething Gel has also been changed. The company added: “There have been no confirmed cases of Reye’s syndrome associated with Bonjela or Bonjela Cool, which remain safe and effective treatments for adults and children 16 years and over.

“The MHRA’s new advice on oral salicylate gels for use in under-16s does not affect Bonjela Teething Gel . . . has been specially formulated to provide targeted relief without the use of salicylates.”

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Food giant cutting salt content

Economic suicide in pursuit of a chimera. People LIKE salt so many will buy other brands. Salt is also a major preservative so Unilever will have to use more of other preservatives -- and wait for the shrieks about that! Then they will have to cut the preservatives. Then people start dying of food poisoning. Then Unilever gets hit with huge wrongful death lawsuits. Unilever managers are betting the company on this. I'm glad I'm not a shareholder

FOOD giant Unilever said it would cut the salt in almost all its 22,000 products, claiming it was the first to set comprehensive salt reduction goals to boost public health. "Unilever's aim is to reduce the salt content of its products by the end of 2010 to help people reach the daily recommended dietary intake of six grams (of) salt per person," the company statement said.

Unilver's Australian brands include Continental, Flora and Streets.

A further reduction would lower this to five grams by 2015 in line with World Health Organisation guidelines. "Unilever is the first food company that sets worldwide goals for salt reduction across its entire product range," the company claimed.

Marketing vice-president Gaby Vreeken described the plan as "ambitious", but said it could and should be done to prevent cardiovascular disease and deaths attributed to high salt intake. "The challenge lies in achieving these results without compromising on the flavour, quality and shelf life of our products," said Ms Vreeken. The company said it would use other spices and aromatic herbs.

About 75 per cent of total salt intake comes from processed foods like bread, cheese, meat, sauces and soups.

"Consumers will be more likely to adapt their taste preference to lower levels of salt if the food industry as a whole reduces salt levels," said Unilever.

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The fast food junkie who ate nothing but McDonald's and lost weight

It's not the usual diet recommended to drop those stubborn remaining pounds, but Doug Logeais ate only McDonald's for a month and lost weight. The 40-year-old was determined to get rid of the flab, but also wanted to treat himself by eating at his favourite fast-food restaurant - albeit the healthy option. And amazingly after sticking with his bizarre diet for 30 days, he lost 15lbs - shedding more than half in the first week alone.

'I've tried every diet in the book, but the only way for me to lose weight was eating at McDonald's every day,' said Logeais, who had no involvement from the fast food giant in his experiment. 'I'm not kidding - only McDonald's, 30 days, breakfast, lunch and dinner. 'The slogan at McDonalds is 'I'm Lovin' It'. For me it's 'I'm Losin' It' because the weight just came right off,' he added.

Logeais's experience is in stark contrast to that of filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. In his famous 2004 documentary, Super Size Me, Spurlock limited himself to eat only McDonald's food for 30 days. As a result the 32-year-old Spurlock gained 24-and-a-half pounds, a 13 per cent body mass increase and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction and liver damage. [But Spurlock gorged himself]

Fortunately for Logeais, from San Diego, California, he was able to overcome his lifelong battle with the bulge. 'I've struggled with my weight my whole life and if someone said something worked for them I would try it the next day,' he said. 'But ultimately it just wouldn't work for me. I've been carrying about 30 extra pounds for about eight years and I couldn't get rid of it no matter what I tried.

'Right after I turned 40 I knew I had to lose some weight - I looked on the internet and checked my BMI, my Body Mass Index, and because I'm 5ft 9in and weighed about 215 pounds it said I was obese. 'I knew I had to do something different.'

Part of his problem had been that every time he went on a diet he was unable to avoid the pull of stepping into his favourite fast-food chain, so he came up with a solution. 'I thought if I could actually eat at McDonalds and lose weight I'd incorporate the best of both worlds - I'm eating at my favourite place and I'm losing weight. So that's where this whole project started,' he said.

Key to his diet was that although he was dining in a fast-food chain he was being very careful with what he actually consumed - with occasional treats. 'I would always go for the healthier option, but I would once in a while go for a chocolate chip cookie or the chicken McNuggets. Those are great. 'But everything in moderation. If you go in there you don't always have to order a Big Mac with large fries. The whole thing is everything in moderation. 'There is good food in almost any restaurant you go in to,' he added.

But there was one food that made it particularly hard to stick to. 'The place smells like French fries - and I love 'em, they have the best fries - but I haven't had French fries in 30 days. 'They have a great breakfast burrito, with sausage and egg,' he said of his diet choices.

'For lunch I would have either a grilled chicken snack wrap or a side salad. 'And for dinner I would always go for one of their larger salads.

However it wasn't just all down to following a McDonald's diet. 'You can't just eat this and lose weight - you have to exercise as well,' he said. 'There's a lot of cardio that went into this, and a lot of sit-ups as well. I am doing an hour of cardio in the morning, which is either running up a mountain or working out with a trainer three times a week.'

Ultimately, he insists that as quirky as his diet exercise may first sound, it all comes down to basic principles. 'There's no secret here - it's all about diet and exercise,' he added.

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Stay slim to save the planet

The latest excuse for fatty-bashing. It won't stop the fatties eating, though

Overweight people eat more than thin people and are more likely to travel by car, making excess body weight doubly bad for the environment, according to a study from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler," and food production is a major source of greenhouse gases, researchers Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts wrote in their study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

"We need to be doing a lot more to reverse the global trend toward fatness, and recognize it as a key factor in the battle to reduce (carbon) emissions and slow climate change," the British scientists said.

They estimated that each fat person is responsible for about one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions a year more on average than each thin person, adding up to an extra one billion tonnes of CO2 a year in a population of one billion overweight people. The European Union estimates each EU citizen accounts for 11 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

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British Fast food police: Caribbean takeaway closed down for opening too close to schools

The hit squad had prepared their raid long in advance. At 10am eight police officers, some in anti-stab vests, joined three council employees on the doorstep of the Bamboo Joint takeaway. Their mission? To stamp out the practice of selling jerk chicken within 400 metres of a secondary school.

Yesterday, the Jamaican cafe in Leytonstone, East London, became the first takeaway in the country to be given a closure order under guidelines banning the sale of fast food near educational establishments. Its owners were given three days to shut up shop. They were informed by Waltham Forest Council that their small premises, on a busy high street, was not only within 400 metres of a secondary school but also within 200 metres of a primary school and 100 metres from a public park. The action is intended to combat child obesity by reducing the number of shops selling unhealthy fast food near schools and parks.

Co-owner Maureen Farrell, who opened the Bamboo Joint six weeks ago, said she felt she was being victimised by a council which was acting 'completely over the top'. 'They told us that it's because we are too near a school, but this street is full of takeaways selling fish and chips and burgers. 'It's ridiculous. They just arrived here this morning and told us they were shutting us down. It looks like we are terrorists or something. 'But all we are doing is selling good food. It's not even unhealthy. We sell Jamaican-style rice and peas, and jerk chicken. 'It is not greasy stuff. And we hardly have any schoolchildren in here at all.'

The bylaw was introduced by Labour-dominated Waltham Forest in March and applies only to those takeaways yet to receive planning permission. It prevents them from opening close to one another and puts a limit on the total number in the borough's town centres. The fast food ban has not been adopted nationwide but its progress is being monitored by other local authorities who could copy it.

Council leader Clyde Loakes said: 'This fast food outlet has not got planning permission and has absolutely no chance of getting it, because of its proximity to a park and a school, so we're closing it down. 'A lot of fast food outlets do their business with schoolchildren, in competition with the healthy schools agenda. We have a responsibility to look beyond the next year or two to the health of our children and young people.'

The Metropolitan Police was unable to explain why it had such a strong presence in the raid.

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Will blueberries make you slim?

They will if you are an obesity-prone rat, apparently. This appears to be an unpublished study so the findings must be treated with caution at this stage. Was it a double-blind study, for instance?



Eating blueberries could help you lose weight, scientists revealed yesterday. Already regarded as a 'superfood' because of their high vitamin and antioxidant content, the berries may also have the power to trim excess fat from our bodies. Experts in the U.S. who carried out the latest study into the berries' health benefits, believe they may change the way the way we processes fat and sugar in our diet.

Their findings were presented to the Experimental Biology convention in New Orleans after tests on obese rats. Researchers found that if the animals were given meals enriched with blueberries, they lost fat from their stomachs. Belly fat is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. The rats also showed improved blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol.

Although the tests were carried out on rats, scientists from the University of Michigan hope they have implications for human health. The results offered 'tantalising clues' to the potential of blueberries to reduce cardiovascular disease and Metabolic Syndrome which can lead to heart attacks, diabetes and strokes.

In the tests, researchers used freeze-dried blueberries crushed into a powder. The rats' food contained just two per cent of the preparation. Even though the rats belonged to a breed which is prone to obesity, after 90 days they had less abdominal fat than those on a normal feed. They also showed lower cholesterol and 'improved fasting glucose and insulin sensitivity which are measures of how well the body processes glucose for energy,' the team said. The benefits 'were even better when combined with a low-fat diet', their report added, giving rats lower body weight, less overall fat and healthier livers.

The effect is thought to be due to the high level of phytochemicals - naturally occurring antioxidants - that blueberries contain. Lead researcher Mitchell Seymour, of the university's Cardioprotection Research Laboratory, said: 'Blueberry intake affected genes related to fat-burning and storage.

Dr Steven Bolling, a heart surgeon and head of the laboratory, added: 'Our findings in regard to blueberries and the naturally-occurring chemicals they contain, show promise in mitigating health conditions.'

Blueberries are rich in vitamins C and E, as well as other antioxidants such as anthocyanins and phenolics. They help protect the body against degenerative diseases. Another study recently found that blueberries contained a chemical called pterostilbene which could help prevent colon cancer.

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Bid to help obese lose weight with Ventolin

THE main ingredient in Ventolin, the drug that has been used to treat asthma sufferers for 40 years, could soon help obese people shed up to five kilograms a week. An Australian firm is in talks to develop a slow-release capsule form of salbutamol, known as r-salbutamol, which it claims can reduce body weight by 2 to 3 per cent a week and could be on the market in three years. Stirling Products says it could prove to be a "massive blockbuster" because salbutamol had been proven safe and obesity and its related illnesses were soaring in Western countries.

Salbutamol administered to asthmatics acts on smooth muscle to reduce bronchial spasms, but managing director Peter Boonen said a capsule form of the drug could "turn off fat receptors". "It will move weight fairly rapidly, but it won't be available over the counter," he said. "Doctors will prescribe it for 14 days, then review progress."

Salbutamol is a beta-2 agonist, which has the same effect on the adrenergic system as exercise, resulting in weight loss, an increase in muscle mass and a reduced appetite. It is rapidly excreted in urine but tolerance usually develops within days. It has been listed as a fat-loss drug on bodybuilding websites and some athletes report taking up to 16 milligrams a day, but it has never gained ground as a credible treatment for obesity because the long-term side effects of oral r-salbutamol have not been tested on humans.

Stirling has tested the drug on obese rats and beagle dogs but is awaiting confirmation on a deal with a pharmaceutical company before applying to the Therapeutic Goods Administration for approval to conduct human trials.

"Short-term drug therapy can't be the long-term solution to a chronic problem," said Louise Baur, the director of weight management services at the Children's Hospital at Westmead.

R-salbutamol is being tested as a growth enhancer in pigs with a trial due to start in Canada next month. It is expected to improve lean meat yields for pork producers.

Months ago, Stirling was promoting r-salbutamol as a treatment for obese dogs and cats, but Mr Boonen said that since the company's restructure in February, the focus was now "more on humans". "Is everyone screaming for a drug for their fat kitten? I'd say the answer to that is no." Stirling has also scuttled plans to produce bottled water for pets. It had announced it would sell about $US20 million ($27.8 million) worth of PetQuench in three years, but Mr Boonen said: "If you want water for your dog, you get it out of the tap so there was no market for it."

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Official cake looniness in Britain

Can a cake kill you? According to the Government it can. The Department of Health has just spent £500,000 on advertisements that demonise, of all the things they could demonise, a small, iced cake. These ads, aimed at mothers and placed in women's weekly magazines, show a photograph of a healthy young girl biting into a type of fairy cake. The doomy caption underneath reads: 'Is a premature death so tempting?'

Not quite as tempting, perhaps, as beating health ministers with the paddle attachment on your mixer until they howl for mercy or form soft peaks, whichever happens first.

Unsurprisingly, the ads - part of a £75 million health campaign - have been rubbished by critics ranging from parents and chefs such as Delia Smith to the National Obesity Forum. All concur that a homemade cake at a party as an occasional treat for a child is absolutely fine. Making such cakes look like poison will, ultimately, only prove to be counterproductive and frighten children in the process.

And really, it is not home baking that is the difficulty here, it is the haunting lack of it - and other basic cooking skills - that is at the root of the problem.

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Treatment that zaps prostate cancer cells developed by scientists

Powerful particles that seek out and burn up prostate cancer tumours are being developed by British scientists. The treatment would allow doctors to treat the cancer at the same time as spotting it. It could also allow earlier diagnosis, raising the chances of survival and cutting the number of distressing side-effects. The first patients could be given the treatment in three years and it could be in widespread use in ten.

The condition is the most common cancer in British men, with 35,000 cases a year and 10,000 deaths. It is curable if caught early, but conventional treatments – including drugs, surgery and radiotherapy – carry the risk of side-effects including loss of libido and impotence.

In addition, the blood test used to diagnose the disease is unreliable, meaning that fledgling cancers can be missed until they have spread to other parts of the body and are much harder to treat.

The breakthrough by scientists at Leicester University centres on tiny particles capable of seeking out and destroying prostate cancer cells. The particles, each one-fiftieth the width of a human hair, are armed with molecules that stick to the surface of prostate tumour cells. They are also magnetic so they show up on MRI scans allowing the cancer to be detected. After the tumour is spotted, the nanoparticles are zapped with radio waves, releasing a burst of heat that kills the cancer cells.

Although the work is at a very early stage, scientists believe it could lead to the cancer being detected a year before the patient notices symptoms. Researcher Dr Glenn Burley said: 'The nanoparticles are a lot more sensitive and targeted so they can spot smaller changes in the gland which would not show up in a blood test. 'The earlier you can detect tumours the better. With conventional treatment there's also a significant delay between diagnosis and treatment but nanoparticles could save time, depending on the length of waiting lists, because they kill the tumour at the same time.'

Co-researcher Dr Wu Su said the treatment could cut the need for surgery and costs to the NHS. He added: 'Prostate cancer cure rates have been predicted on early diagnosis and treatment. 'The technology we're developing offers the potential of both identification and early treatment of prostate cancer in a selective manner.' The technique could also be used to detect and burn up breast, bowel and liver cancer cells, researchers believe.

John Neate, of the Prostate Cancer Charity, gave a cautious welcome. He said: 'Even if the research does have a positive result, we will have to wait some years before answers from this study might arrive by the hospital bedside, but every journey starts with the first step.' Mr Neate added: 'It is promising that the increasing profile of prostate cancer over recent years has attracted new scientific interest.

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Irresponsible medical scares over vaccines bear fruit

London suffering from shocking rise in rare 'Victorian' diseases

London is suffering a startling rise in diseases associated with Victorian times, official figures reveal today. Rare infectious illnesses including typhoid, whooping cough and scarlet fever have soared by 166 per cent in the past two years, with the number of cases of mumps - a disease easily prevented with vaccine - rising from 125 in 2007 to 393 last year - an increase of 214 per cent. Justine Greening, the shadow minister for London, said infection rates in the capital are markedly higher than the national averages.

The rise could be a result of parents refusing the MMR jab after now-debunked claims in 2001 that it might be linked to autism. Mumps can lead to hearing loss and damage the nervous system in adults.

The figures also showed cases of the highly-contagious whooping cough have quadrupled in the five years to 2007, from 63 to 252. Symptoms include choking spells and vomiting and can cause death, especially in young infants. Meanwhile cases of scarlet fever, which causes high fevers, rashes, and severe damage to internal organs, are up 153 per cent since 2005, with 501 infected in London last year. Typhoid, which is associated with poor sanitation and hygiene, has risen steadily since 2004, from 45 to 127 cases per year.

The Conservatives claimed the Government was partly to blame for failing to invest enough in public health and to appoint school nurses. Ms Greening, MP for Putney, said: 'The rise of these highly infectious and potentially fatal diseases in our city is truly alarming. 'The Government must do more to ensure the public health of Londoners.'

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Diabetics in stem-cell trial go for years without insulin jab

Patients with type 1 diabetes who received an experimental stem-cell treatment have been able to go as long as four years without needing insulin, researchers say. Stem-cell transplants have effectively "reversed" the condition and freed a small group of patients from the need to have daily injections to control their condition.

Type 1 diabetes, also known as "insulin-dependent" diabetes, occurs when the body loses the ability to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Distinct from type 2 diabetes that is associated with obesity, it is usually diagnosed in childhood and typically requires lifelong insulin therapy in the form of injections or pumps. But patients given a transplant of stem cells made from their own bone marrow have regained the ability to produce the vital hormone, and have managed to cease their insulin injections for an average of are involved in the production of natural insulin in the body, Dr Burt said. One patient did not use insulin for four years, four patients remained insulin-free for three years and three patients for two years, and four patients did not use insulin for more than a year after treatment with the stem cells, Dr Burt said.

To find out if the change was lasting the research team measured levels of C-peptides, a marker that shows how well the body is producing insulin. They found levels increased "up to 24 months after transplantation and were maintained until at least 36 months". Even in the group that had to restart insulin there was a significant increase in C-peptide levels that lasted at least two years. "At the present time [it] remains the only treatment capable of reversing type 1 diabetes mellitus in humans," the team wrote. A potential drawback is that it is likely to work only within three months of the diagnosis of diabetes in patients, before the immune system has destroyed all the body's own islet cells.

Iain Frame, director of research at the charity Diabetes UK, said: "Preliminary findings from this small study were reported in 2007. Although this remains an interesting area of research, the importance of a limited extension to this study should not be overstated - this is not a cure for type 1 diabetes. "As we said in 2007, we would like to see this experiment carried out with a control group for comparison of results and a longer-term follow-up in a greater number of people."

He added: "It is crucial to find out whether this is associated with the timing of the treatment or possible side-effects of it rather than the stem cell transplant itself. "It would be wrong to unnecessarily raise the hopes of people living with diabetes about a new treatment for the condition on the back of the evidence provided in this study."

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Post-op transfusions for cardiac patients ‘wasting blood supplies’

Blood transfusions routinely carried out after heart surgery could be wasting vital blood supplies and putting patients at risk, researchers suggest.

Cardiac surgery uses almost ten per cent of all donor blood in Britain. Although the benefits of red-cell blood transfusions for managing life-threatening bleeding are clear, researchers at the University of Bristol believe that routine transfusions given after cardiac operations may be unnecessary and cause more medical problems than they solve. Most decisions to transfuse after surgery are made on the basis of a patient’s haemoglobin level, regarded as a measure of the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen around the body.

The level of haemoglobin that causes a doctor to transfuse varies widely and research in non-cardiac surgical fields has shown that lowering the level that “triggers” transfusion reduces the chance of developing deadly infections, blood clots or kidney failure as well as the use of blood, they suggest.

The new research, funded by a £1 million grant from the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA), will examine if withholding blood transfusions until a patient reaches a lower haemoglobin threshold will improve the outcome for cardiac surgery patients and also reduce hospital costs.

Gavin Murphy, a senior lecturer in cardiac surgery at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, who will lead the study, said: “Unnecessary blood transfusions increase healthcare costs both directly, because blood is an increasingly scarce and expensive resource, and indirectly, due to complications associated with transfusion. “Transfusion may cause complications by reducing patients’ ability to fight off infection and respond to the stress that surgery puts on the body, as well as [rarely] by transmitting viral infections present in donor blood.”

The research will take the form of a randomised controlled trial at several hospitals across the UK. Patients identified from both outpatient and in-patient waiting lists will be invited to take part before surgery takes place.

Barnaby Reeves, Professorial Research Fellow in Health Services Research at the University of Bristol, said: “The primary outcome will be the number of patients affected by sepsis, stroke, heart attack or kidney failure during the first three months after surgery. “We believe that withholding transfusion until the lower haemoglobin level is reached will reduce both complications and hospital costs.”

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Doctors hail 'miracle jab' that will heal adult's bones as fast as children's

An injection that spurs adults' bone into healing as quickly as children's could revolutionise the treatment of fractures, doctors believe. The drug teriparatide more than doubles the speed at which broken bones mend - and greatly reduces pain, a study found. Researchers described some of the recoveries as 'miraculous', with patients confined to wheelchairs by long-standing fractures able to walk again.

They say teriparatide, which is already used to prevent osteoporosis, could have a profound impact on the treatment of broken bones. Given once a day as an injection at home, it could be used to mend fractures that have resisted healing, as well as common and painful breaks for which there is currently no treatment other than letting nature take its course. Pensioners and those in late middle age are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries, as bone loses its ability to heal with age. But professional athletes, soldiers and others who need to recover from bone damage as quickly as possible for their career could also find it useful.

Studies show that teriparatide, also known as Forsteo, works by boosting production of stem cells - 'master' cells with the ability to turn into other cell types, including bone and cartilage. Researcher Dr J Edward Puzas said: 'In many people, as they get older, their skeleton loses the ability to heal fractures and repair itself. 'With careful application of teriparatide, we believe we've found a way to turn back the clock on fracture healing through a simple, in-body stem cell therapy.'

The researchers, from the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York State, were alerted to the possibilities of the drug when treating people with osteoporosis, or brittle bones. Dr Susan Bukata said: 'I had patients with severe osteoporosis, in tremendous pain from multiple fractures throughout their spine and pelvis, who I would put on teriparatide. 'When they would come back for their follow-up visits three months later, it was amazing to see not just the significant healing in their fractures, but to realise they were pain-free - a new and welcome experience for many of these patients.'

The researchers tried the drug on 145 patients with unhealed fractures, half of whom had been in pain for at least six months. After two to three months of injections, 93 per cent of the fractures healed and pain was greatly eased, a recent meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society heard. Dr Bukata said: 'It takes three to four months for a typical pelvic fracture to heal. But during these three months, patients can be in excruciating pain because there are no medical devices or other treatments that can provide relief. 'Imagine if we can give patients a way to cut the time of their pain and immobility in half. 'That's what teriparatide did in our initial research. 'We saw complete pain relief, callus (cartilage) formation and stability of the fracture in people who had a fracture that up to that point had not healed.'

The team are now comparing the recovery of pelvic fracture patients given teriparatide for four months with another group given a dummy drug. But the need for further largescale trials means even if all goes well, teriparatide is around six years from being routinely used to mend breaks.

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