The Inuit, or Eskimo, population of Canada has a lower rate of death from cardiovascular disease than their Northern European counterparts. Is it because fish dominates their diet? Three recent studies support the claim that the omega-3 fatty acid found in fish can reduce the risk of death from heart disease. Now the U.S.
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Agricultural literacy is at a low level in the land of plenty. There may be a law that dictates an inverse relationship between abundance and knowledge about the source of the abundance. We do not burden ourselves with factual information about that which we take for granted, namely, food, health, and a comfortable life in a non-threatening world. As long as the fridge is full, the car always starts, and the TV keeps entertaining, why bother to know what makes all that happen?
This is how CNN (and most other media, including the New York Times, which ran a front-page, above-the-fold story) reported the "kissing cousins" story early in April:
"An unrelated couple has about a 3 percent to 4 percent risk of having a child with [birth defects]. But for close cousins who are married, that risk jumps only 1.7 percent to 2.8 percent, the study said."
"The Quist and Chapela study is a testament to technical incompetence."
That's a description of a study that was retracted by Nature, which had argued that genetically-modified corn was spreading out of control in Mexico. This quote comes from Matthew Metz, one of several scientists who co-authored a critique of the Nature study.
Recent news stories have cast doubt on the validity of a widely used index Body Mass Index, or BMI as an indicator of overweight, obesity, and associated health risks. It's really kind of fun to read some of these headlines and stories, like the ones that point out how members of leading college basketball teams would qualify as overweight if their BMIs were evaluated according to current government standards. So, if these active, fit, and presumably healthy young men would register as overweight on the Body Mass Index, the index must not be too accurate, right?
Michael Judge's commentary about our nation's schizophrenic attitudes about alcohol was right on the mark ("Drinks All Around; It's Our 'Sacred Rite'," editorial page, March 27) .
Given that our society prefers simple "good" vs. "bad" dichotomies on most social issues, alcohol, no matter what the pattern of use, consistently gets the "bad" rap despite the overwhelming collection of medical data confirming that regular, moderate use of alcohol by those of middle age and older contributes to long life and good health.
All right, we admit we've added one more lawsuit to an already litigious universe, but we did it for a good reason: to draw attention to absurd California regulations.
Have you noticed that nearly every square inch of California is now covered with stickers warning you that the state of California is aware of "known" carcinogens on the premises? Thank Proposition 65, a regulation under which anything that can even plausibly be called a cancer risk to lab rats at incredibly high doses must be decked out in this fashion.
One of the freedoms we Americans hold dear is freedom of choice we want to be free to choose where we live, our type of transportation, what we wear (or don't), who our leaders are, and what we eat and drink. And in most cases, we really do have a lot of choice. Nowhere is this more true than with respect to food. It would be nice, however, if we could make reasonable, informed choices about our diets. Since most of us aren't nutrition experts, we rely on those who are to help us make at least some of those choices, at least some of the time.
Concern about weight and the drive to be thin increase the risk that girls will become daily smokers by the time they're eighteen or nineteen years old, according to a new study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The study appeared in the June 2002 issue of Preventive Medicine.
Science strives for objectivity, but public health, by definition, involves human preferences and is subject to political forces, sometimes quite nutty ones. Decisions about one's own health can be made in a fairly rational, individualistic manner (does this cut look bad enough to warrant a trip to the doctor's office?), but collective decisions (are enough people vaccinated to prevent a plague?) inevitably become political ones.
In light of the latest recall of ground beef because of contamination by potentially lethal E. coli O157:H7 bacteria, scientists and physicians associated with the American Council on Science and Health today urged consumers to demand that such products be irradiated to prevent future illnesses.
Spared from worry about whether they will have enough to eat today or a roof over their heads tomorrow, most Americans have the luxury of worrying about the hazards that may be lurking in their air, water and food as a result of all this progress and affluence.
Pizza can be a source of goodly amounts of a variety of benficial ingredients, according to scientists and physicians associated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Despite this, the self-styled consumer group, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is attacking this American favorite because it can also contain substantial amounts of fat and calories.
It may have been the best-attended appropriation subcommittee hearing in the history of the House of Representatives. Was it a discussion about how much money will go to education or even homeland defense? No, members of Congress and the media crowded to witness superstar Julia Roberts' request earlier this month for $15 million of research funding for the rare, albeit serious Rett Syndrome. The International Rett Syndrome Association cites 3,000 United States cases of the neurological disorder, which prevents patients from communicating or controlling their body movements.
To the Editor:
Attempts to ban "junk food" from schools are not the answer to childhood obesity (front page, May 20). How will school officials define junk foods? A serving of potato chips and half an avocado each has about 15 grams of fat and 160 calories. Will schools ban avocados?
It's extra calories, from any source, that contribute to obesity. So is it a lack of nutrients that makes a food "junk"? If so, would vitamin fortification alter the category?
"The science is very rigorous and this really does give a green light to MMR [the vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella]...The science on this issue is over; the scientific debate is dead."
Dr. Anna Donald, hired by the British Medical Association to review vaccine research, after completion of the review (reported by the Associated Press, June 12). Also see ACSH's report on vaccines. Our report was a retort to increasingly popular anti-vaccination scare campaigns.
Letter published in The Weekly Standard July 29, 2002
According to a Reuters report (see http://www.msnbc.com/news/761583.asp), the often lamented increase in spending on pharmaceuticals is slowing: "By 2005 and 2006, the spending growth rate is expected to drop to 13.5 percent from increased use of generics and thin product pipelines from branded drug companies."
From a November 16, 2001 article by Theresa Kilen in North Carolina's Elkin Tribune, recounting an elementary school assembly to discuss bioterrorism fears:
[A] student asked if a person could get smallpox and anthrax at the same time.
"Yes," [Dr.] John Williams answered. "But I would have to compare the chances of that happening to a person having a bomb dropped on them and getting hit by a train at the same time."
It's astonishing how quickly a gullible press, starting with former ABC News science reporter Michael Guillen, rushed to cover the Raelian UFO cult's recent announcement that they had overseen the live birth of a human clone. No peer review, no evidence the cult just made an announcement and the press eagerly spread the word. Not surprisingly, the press soon had to cover the embarrassing news that the cult will not be making the reported clone available for verification by independent tests.
Obesity rates in the U.S. and other nations both developed and developing have been rising dramatically over the past two decades, and this is certainly a matter of public health concern. Lately, attention has been focused on a particularly alarming trend not only are there more obese American adults, but there are increasing numbers of obese children and teens. Weight is increasing at younger ages, as is the appearance of obesity-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus. But how to stop this trend?
ome foods that are typically part of the American diet are labeled "bad," and consumers are sometimes urged to avoid them religiously. One prominent example is eggs. Because egg yolks are high in cholesterol, their consumption has sometimes been depicted as leading directly to high blood cholesterol levels and heart disease. But that depiction of eggs glosses over the very positive nutritional roles that eggs can play in the diet.
Forget anthrax and terrorism. Public health experts have uncovered a more pernicious threat to Americans' health and safety the suburbs. According to researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and university public health departments, developers are forcing tens of millions of unwitting Americans into dangerous suburban developments that isolate us from our neighbors, stress us out, make us fat, kill pedestrians, and fill our air with auto-generated smog.
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