Scientists begin recruiting mothers-to-be in North Carolina and New York this week for the largest study of U.S. children ever performed — aiming eventually to track 100,000 around the country from conception to age 21.

“We are embarking on the road to discovering the preventable causes of the major chronic diseases that plague American children today,” Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, one of the lead researchers, declared Tuesday.

Nearly a decade in the planning, the ambitious National Children’s Study tackles a major mystery: How the environment — everything from a pregnant woman’s diet to a child’s exposure to various chemicals — interacts with genetics to affect youngsters’ health and development.  This type of study is great and looks to providing important data for the next generation.

The fear of resistant infectious bacteria is rising.  These can spread rapidly across countertops, stethoscopes, and catheters. These “superbugs” infect up to 1.2 million patients a year in the United States, according to a 2007 report from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, and they’re quick to evolve defenses against even the most powerful antibiotics.

Now scientists in Scotland have come up with an alternative to antibiotics, which may effectively stop bacteria in its tracks. Janice Spencer and a team of researchers at the University of Strathclyde are developing nylon sutures coated with bacteriophages–viruses, found naturally in water, that eat bacteria while leaving human cells intact. New research by the Scottish team found that phage-coated sutures effectively stemmed infection in live rats.

Bacteriophages are not a recent discovery. During World War II, Russian doctors used cocktails of these viruses to treat soldiers infected with bacteria such as dysentery and gangrene. However, researchers soon turned their attention from bacteriophages to the rapidly rising field of antibiotics, developing new classes of antibiotics to combat ever-more-resistant strains of bacteria.

In water, these natural-born killers are extremely effective at eating up bacteria. The virus binds to bacteria and injects its DNA, replicating within its host until it reaches capacity, whereupon it bursts out, killing the bacteria in the process.

Obtaining bacteriophage-laden water samples is easy, says Spencer. The challenge is in keeping virus molecules active out of water. In dry environments, the virus’s proteins tend to fall apart in a matter of hours, rendering them ineffective against bacteria. Spencer and her colleagues isolated bacteriophages from water samples and developed a novel method to keep them active.

The team chemically bound bacteriophages to microscopic polymer beads by first breaking the surface of the polymer. Then the researchers added a linker molecule to the polymer’s surface, which in turn binds to bacteriophages and keeps them from falling apart. To test the virus’s virulence, the team first made small incisions in live rats, then infected them with Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), one of the most resistant strains of bacteria found in hospitals. Half of the rats were stitched up with sutures that were coated with polymer-bound bacteriophages. The other rats were closed up with untreated sutures.  Sounds like an exiciting step forward.

For the first time in Britain, researchers at Newcastle University said they had created human-animal hybrid embryos, amid a political row over a disputed embryo research bill in parliament. According to the northern English university, the research, which was first presented at a lecture in Tel Aviv on March 25, has yet to be published or verified, with a spokesman for the university telling AFP that the institution “wouldn’t claim it to be final at all.”

The revelation comes with British MPs engaged in a fierce battle over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which allows the creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s governing Labour Party conceded in March that its party lawmakers with moral or ethical objections would be allowed to vote against parts of the proposed legislation when it comes before parliament this year.

The embryos were created by injecting DNA taken from human skin cells into eggs derived from cow ovaries with almost all their genetic material stripped away, and lasted for three days in a laboratory. The Newcastle University spokesman said that the research would likely be published in “months rather than weeks”. At present, researchers wanting to create such embryos have to apply for a license from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which currently regulates the practice in Britain, and hybrid embryos have to be destroyed after 14 days. The government says that the scientific advantages of allowing the creation of hybrid embryos for research purposes could help millions of people to recover from illness or disease.

Religious leaders, however, have argued against the bill, with the leader of Catholics in Scotland, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, using his Easter Sunday sermon to brand the bill a “monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life” which will allow experiments of “Frankenstein proportion”.  Can flying people be just a few decades around the corner?

What are anabolic steroids?

Anabolic steroids are drugs that are mostly synthesized from the male reproduction hormone - testosterone. They have been banned by most sports ruling bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, because of dangers linked to abuse and the potential for an unfair competitive advantage.

Their precise effect on the human body is still a matter of scientific debate and more long-term research studies are needed to determine the associated risks.  Anabolic steroids are controlled substances in the USA, UK, Canada and parts of Asia and can be taken in tablet form or injected via syringe.

One thing for sure is that they have made a huge splash as of late in the mainstream news and it is a real eye-opener for those in major sports.

Government regulators said Friday the connection between Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug Chantix and serious psychiatric problems is “increasingly likely.”

Government regulators said Friday the connection between Pfizer’s anti-smoking drug Chantix and serious psychiatric problems is “increasingly likely.” The Food and Drug Administration began in November investigating reports of depression, agitation and suicidal behavior in patients taking the popular twice-daily pill.

The agency’s announcement comes two weeks after Pfizer added stronger warnings to the drug. In doing so, the company stressed that a direct link between Chantix and the reported psychiatric problems has not been established, but could not be ruled out.  Since most anti-smoking drugs are typically used as anti-depressants this should come as no surpise to anyone.

The price of fruits and vegetables is climbing faster than inflation, while junk food is actually becoming cheaper, the findings of a new study suggests. Using retail prices at major supermarket chains in Seattle, researchers at the University of Washington found that low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods — mainly fruits and vegetables — were far more expensive, calorie for calorie, than sweets and snack foods.

Moreover, the average price of the lowest-calorie foods — including green vegetables, tomatoes and berries — increased by almost 20 percent over 2 years. In contrast, in the same time period there was a 2-percent dip in the cost of the most calorie-laden fare, such as butter, potato chips, cookies and candy bars.  This is really no suprise, you just have to go to McDonalds for a value meal to see the low price of unhealthy food.

Corruption and poor oversight have undermined South Africa’s fight against HIV/ Aids, a new report says .  The authors, the Institute of Security Studies and Transparency International, say there has been a “potentially lethal cocktail of mismanagement”.

They blame South Africa’s president for questioning the link between HIV and Aids and say his stance has had an impact on the whole health system.  South Africa has the highest incidence of Aids in the world.  The report, titled A Lethal Cocktail, says 30% of the population is infected.

Politicisation of the disease has created numerous channels for abuse and is undermining attempts to counter it, the report says.  The authors conclude that it has become difficult to disentangle corruption from mismanagement and system failure as the root causes of the poor response to Aids.

Much of the responsibility is laid at the door of President Thabo Mbeki, whose well-known questioning of the link between the HIV virus and Aids has resulted in activists labelling him an “Aids denialist”.  The report says that his stand has had an impact throughout the health system, creating numerous channels for abuse.

The authors cite an example of a doctor dismissed for allowing a rape charity to use a disused hospital, because they were distributing anti-retroviral drugs.  Over-all it is a bad report for all of South Africa and brings up some glaring problems.

One of the hottest technologies for people using cannabis for medical conditions is a vaporizer. Vaporization is a technique used to avoid the irritating respiratory toxins found in marijuana smoke. This is achieved by heating cannabis to a temperature so that the psychoactive ingredients evaporate without causing combustion.

There are many types of vaporizers on the market and doing some research on what the best one for you budget is a good idea. When I looked I found many types including cheap lightbulb vaporizers and the more expensive volcano type vaporizer. This is a great technology for those needing to take medicinal cannabis.

According to a survey published on Nov. 1 in the journal Health Affairs, one-third of U.S. adults believe that the U.S. health-care system has to be rebuilt completely—double the percentage who want a dramatic overhaul in the six other nations whose residents took part in the survey. The U.S. ranked dead last on the question whether more than minor system changes were needed.

The nonpartisan New York City-based Commonwealth Fund, which studies health-care issues, interviewed 12,000 adults in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain, Australia, and the U.S. this spring to get a handle on actual patient experiences and perceptions. The results paint a damning picture of user satisfaction with the American health-care system and could provide fodder in a Presidential campaign where health care is expected to play a major role (BusinessWeek.com, 9/17/07). All the countries in the survey except the U.S. have universal health coverage, and the percentage of GDP the U.S. spends on medical care is about twice as high as the other six.

Despite their country’s higher spending, U.S. patients were the only ones to report serious problems paying bills (19%). Plus, 30% of patients paid $1,000 or more out-of-pocket over the past year, while the percentage of patients laying out that much in the other six ranged from 4% (Britain) to 19% (Australia). Nearly two out of five U.S. adults and 42% of those with chronic illnesses skipped medications or did not see a doctor when sick because of cost. Those rates are much higher in the U.S. than in any other country.

“The U.S. often stands out [in the survey] for negative care experiences,” says lead author Cathy Schoen, Commonwealth Fund senior vice-president. In a Commonwealth study released last year, the U.S. received low grades (BusinessWeek.com, 9/21/06) in outcomes, quality of care, access to care, and efficiency, compared with other industrialized nations.

According to Schoen, the more negative or costly the experience, the more negative the overall perception of the health-care system. Dissatisfaction with the U.S. system crosses socioeconomic lines, too. Both high- and low-income respondents had similarly negative views of the U.S. health-care system, Schoen notes.

Though they’re not happy with aspects of the system, U.S. residents are about as confident as those of other nations that they would get high-quality care and the best drugs and medical technology. The Netherlands consistently scored higher in all three categories. Still, U.S. patients can’t count on speedy access to care; 51% said they could not get an appointment (BusinessWeek.com, 6/22/07) the same or the next day when they were sick. Only Canada scored worse, with 64% saying they had to wait.

Once in the health-care system, 32% of U.S. patients suffered medical mistakes, the highest rate of the seven nations. That could be because the U.S. ranked last when it came to their doctors having access to their medical records at the time of an office visit.  I saw the movie Sicko so this survey comes as no suprise to me.  I am glad I am a Canadian.

Teenagers who feel relaxed after their first drags on a cigarette are most likely to become addicted to smoking, a sign that some people’s brains are more susceptible to nicotine, researchers have discovered.  This is bad news in the fight for teenage smokers.

While peer pressure and other factors may lead young people to try smoking, it is the brain’s response to that first dose of nicotine that likely most determines who gets addicted, according to DiFranza’s report published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American  Experiencing a feeling of relaxation in response to the first cigarette was the strongest predictor of addiction, the study found.

The study said one theory suggests nicotine suppresses pathways in the brain that generate the feeling of craving, which is experienced as relaxation. That in turn creates a craving for nicotine when the drug is absent.

Over the four years of the study between 2002 and 2006, 11 interviews were conducted with each of 1,000 teenagers attending public schools in six Massachusetts communities.  Of the 217 who tried smoking during the study, nearly one-third reported feeling relaxed after inhaling for the first time, and two-thirds of them became addicted to smoking.

Overall, 83 of the 217 participants who tried cigarettes became smokers.  Other risk factors for addiction among first-time smokers was a depressed mood, a novelty-seeking personality, and familiarity with “Joe Camel,” the animated character used to advertise Reynolds American Inc’s Camel brand, the study said.  “The Joe Camel campaign was discontinued in August of 1997 as our subjects entered 2nd grade (around age 7), suggesting that the deleterious effects of cigarette advertising persist long after the exposure,” the study said.

Among the traits that protected students from becoming addicted were being involved in extracurricular activities which is not surpising because they are probably more rounded individuals which inturn would help them make better life choices.