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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia (general mental deterioration) in the United States today. AD occurs primarily, though not exclusively, in the elderly. Although there currently is no established way to prevent or cure AD, a new report by the American Council on Science and Health(ACSH), Alzheimer's Disease: A Status Report For 2002, points out that the current spate of research into new diagnostic methods and pharmaceutical treatment holds hope for the future.

One brief programming note:

Plague! Run for your life!
But wait: a plague doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world. We might feel less anxiety about such things if we appreciated the strides science has made and will continue to make in fighting some horrible-sounding scourges.
MMR and Chickenpox

MEMO TO:
Producers "60 Minutes"
555 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
From:
Dr. Elizabeth Whelan
President, ACSH
RE: Your Segment on PCB's in Anniston, Alabama - 11/10/02
The CBS/60 Minutes segment which aired on November 10, 2002 - citing public health risks of environmental exposure to PCBs - was completely lacking in scientific merit.

The search for elevated rates of disease among soldiers exposed to Agent Orange is never-ending, and since diseases do not occur at a perfectly uniform rate throughout the population, occasionally there's bound to be a disease that's unusually common among the vets. (For more on the variation in disease rates, see ACSH's booklet on Cancer Clusters.)

A New York City ban on smoking in bars goes into effect this coming Sunday, and a statewide ban goes into effect four months later. Some see it as reasonable regulation. Others condemn smoking but question the rationale for the regulations. And some see it as a direct blow against liberty. The differing opinions were nicely summed up by the article "Pataki Inks Strict Smoking Law" in today's New York Sun, which quoted, among others, ACSH's own Jeff Stier:

Last week, President Bush signed a bill allocating $15 billion for AIDS drugs in Africa (and funding efforts against tuberculosis and malaria). In his State of the Union address earlier this year, Bush said of the AIDS initiative that "seldom has history offered a greater opportunity to do so much for so many." It's good to hear some cost-benefit analysis being employed even on a grandiose government project, one that could easily be sold with nothing more than a tug at the heartstrings. With luck, it will pay off in millions of saved lives.

"If plaintiffs were able to flesh out this argument...it may establish that the dangers of McDonald's products were not commonly well known."
Federal judge Robert Sweet, explaining that lawyers for obese patrons who are suing McDonald's, blaming the restaurant for making them fat, have failed to make their case but have thirty days to file an amended complaint (as noted by CNN).

You can have all sorts of irresponsible fun with statistics, but James Bond video games may be more educational, as I learned over the holidays.

This weeks brings news that Osama bin Laden may be alive, audiotaping new denunciations of the West, and planning new terror attacks. It also brings word that weapons inspectors may be allowed back into Iraq. It seems like a fitting time, then, to ask what we know about biological weapons that might used by our enemies, starting with anthrax, and what we know about ability to defend against such attacks. It's also a good time to hear a few words from Dara Friedman, who worked for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tracking anthrax during the 2001 attacks.

Europeans, out of some romantic rebellion against America and high technology, were shunning U.S.-grown food containing G.M.O.'s [genetically-modified organisms] even though there is no scientific evidence that these are harmful. But practically everywhere we went in Davos, Europeans were smoking cigarettes with their meals, coffee or conversation even though there is indisputable scientific evidence that smoking can kill you.
Thomas Friedman, in his February 2 New York Times column.

For some reason, Marion Burros of the New York Times seems to have it in for food irradiation. In an article published in the Times on January 29 ("The Question of Irradiated Beef in Lunchrooms"), Ms. Burros and some authorities she quotes mislead readers about the proposed irradiation of beef used in school lunch programs.

Golden Ages, like most any mythic memory, are less about the past than about the present and a set of ideological guidelines meant to transform it. Tradition sanctifies. If it is alleged that some herbal medicine has been used for thousands of years, then it is thought it must have some efficacy that modern medicine cannot match. After all, that which is of ancient vintage has not only survived the test of time but has the added virtue of being closer to nature.

[Editor's note: Little more than an hour after ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan appeared on the Today show this morning to condemn the idea of a "fat tax" on certain foods, letter writer Aaron Sugarman sent in the following lengthy condemnation. We salute Sugarman's speed and his passion for the issue. TS]
Dr. Whelan,
It is shameful that you would use your position in what I consider to be the pseudo-science, or junk-science, community to attempt to discredit true scientific reality.
You are thoroughly disappointing as a human being.

Parthenogenesis, potentially useful as a stem cell creation method, may be considered ethically acceptable by some who previously opposed stem cell and cloning research. Since parthenogenesis involves the division of egg cells that haven't been fertilized and thus do not have a unique, new DNA code anti-cloners are less inclined to view the resulting cell clusters as human embryos.

Smokers shorten their lives by an average of seven years, according to insurance actuarial tables (one of humanity's greatest inventions and a model for rational calculation that the rest of the culture would do well to imitate). At least, seven years is what studies suggest is the handicap insurance companies are putting on smoking. Insurance companies normally don't officially open their actuarial tables to outside inspection, since those numbers are the basis of all the gambling-like choices the companies make about who to charge how much, the odds of having to pay out, and so forth.

At a press conference in New York City, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) released two new books on terrorism preparedness and response.

Products containing Olestra, the zero-calorie fat substitute, will no longer bear a label informing consumers of purported unpleasant gastrointestinal (GI) side effects. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), after reviewing a six-week study that involved 3000 people, ruled that Olestra "caused only mild, infrequent GI effects," according to an FDA press release. The FDA also decided to continue the requirement for food manufacturers to add vitamins A, D, E, and K to counteract Olestra's effects on the absorption of these specific vitamins.

Anyone who has ever perused the ads for various dietary supplements online or in magazines must be familiar with claims that the product in question is "clinically proven" or is "scientifically proven" to be safe, effective, and a cure for whatever ails one or at least that "research has shown" this is so. We at ACSH have written in the past about the weakness of the regulatory scheme for dietary supplements. We've noted that supplement manufacturers, unlike producers of pharmaceuticals, don't have to prove their products either safe or effective before marketing them.

This month, attorney John Banzhaf, who for years has litigated against tobacco, purportedly in an effort to protect public health, announced his intention to solve another public-health problem obesity by suing fast-food restaurants.
Banzhaf declared that cigarettes were not, after all, the only legally available product that is both addictive and hazardous when used as intended, and that cigarette manufacturers were not the only ones who covered up the hazards of their product.

In 2001, the Surgeon General issued a call to action in response to what has come to be known as the "obesity epidemic." The call to action heightened public debate over obesity, which causes health problems that threaten to reverse many of gains made in recent decades against heart disease, several forms of cancer, and various chronic health problems. While much is being done to combat obesity as a whole, the most dramatic part of the epidemic has remained hidden.

When tests on a cow slaughtered near Yakima, Washington, tested positive earlier this week for what is known in lay terms as "Mad Cow Disease," consumers were understandably bewildered and anxious. What did this mean for their food selection and health?
Is it safe to eat beef? Is the USDA falling down on the job and allowing an infectious agent into our food supply?

Are you surprised to learn that each cup of eggnog you sipped merrily over the holiday season set you back 306 calories per cup? And that slice of pecan pie, another holiday favorite, cost you anywhere between 500 and 800 big ones at the calorie counter. If you ate a large tub of popcorn (with butter) and an accompanying 32-ounce Coke at the movie theatre over the holidays, then you satisfied a 2,000-calorie per day intake requirement in a single sitting.
Were you unaware of how many calories you were packing away or did you know and continue eating anyway?

An Italian perspective on the transcultural obesity debate:
Nations used to compete over trade and military spheres of influence. These days, it is hard to find a country that does not claim it is the fattest in the world.