Contraceptive pill linked to depression

New research shows women taking the oral contraceptive pill are almost twice as likely to be depressed than those who do not.

The Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre studied 60 women, and found that those taking the pill containing both oestrogen and progesterone were almost twice as likely to be depressed as those who did not.

The centre's director, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, is urging clinicians to be aware of the psychiatric side effects of the pill.

But she says more research is needed to understand how hormones effect moods.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is advising women to continue taking their contraceptive medication, despite the research findings.

AMA vice president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal says if women on the pill are feeling depressed, they should discuss their concerns with their GPs.

Proposed new FDA drug safety demands under fire

Proposed new safety regulations at the US Food and Drug Administration will require considerable extra work while providing little benefit to public health, according to a survey of top drug companies to be published today.

The survey of 14 pharmaceutical and biotechnology groups by BearingPoint, a consultancy, concludes moves to increase reporting to the regulator of "suspected adverse drug reactions" identified by pharmaceutical companies during clinical trials will be ineffective.

The concerns come at a time when the FDA is under pressure to reinforce drug safety in the wake of recent health scares including side effects of a class of anti-inflammatory drugs called cox-2 inhibitors.

The FDA rule changes that are out for consultation - known by insiders as "the tome" - would trigger extra reporting procedures by drug companies to regulators if a possible causal relationship "cannot be ruled out" between a serious side-effect and a patient taking a company's drug.

That increases the burden of proof from the current requirement, which requires expedited notification to the FDA if there is "a reasonable possibility" that the drug caused the adverse event.

Drug companies estimated the change would double their caseload, and impose extra need for highly-qualified drug safety employees to contact patients who report problems.

Courtesy of Financial Times 2/28/2005

Steve - Why are we not surprised? Should we not just keep the status quo and allow increased deaths and side-effects from drugs? What Big Pharma is really saying here is that they will have to put more dollars into research instead of marketing, which will hurt the bottom line.

Breakfast For the Heart

Mom may have been right when she said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. A small study suggests that skipping that morning meal may be a bad move for the heart, and possibly the waistline.

UK researchers found that when healthy, lean women skipped their morning meal, it raised their cholesterol levels and diminished their bodies' sensitivity to insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels.

On top of that, the women tended to eat more calories on breakfast-free days -- suggesting that over the long haul, skipping breakfast could spur weight gain.

Dr. Hamid R. Farshchi and his colleagues at the University of Nottingham in the UK report the findings in the February issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Along with past evidence, he said, the new findings suggest that making time for breakfast is likely to have long-term health benefits.

Courtesy of Reuters 2/25/2005

10 Voters on Panel Backing Pain Pills Had Industry Ties

Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.

If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8 that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1 for Vioxx's return.

Courtesy of the New York Times 2/25/2005

Vitamin E supplements effective in raising skin antioxidant levels

Supplements of either natural or synthetic source vitamin E almost double the levels of this important antioxidant on the skin’s surface, report researchers this month, providing the first strong evidence for the role of vitamin E supplements in skincare.

The new study, funded by vitamin maker BASF and first reported at a major conference on vitamin E last year, reveals for the first time a potential delivery mechanism for dietary vitamin E reaching the skin via sebaceous gland secretion.

Researchers led by Professor Jens Thiele at the Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago had previously shown that sebum contains the highest concentrations of alpha-tocopherol found in human skin and accounts for the high levels of vitamin E found in the outermost layers of the skin and in skin surface lipids.

The theory was tested on 24 healthy volunteers, randomized to receive a daily supplement of either 400 mg synthetic alpha-tocopherol or natural source alpha-tocopherol for two weeks.

Serum alpha-tocopherol levels were significantly increased as early as 12 hours after the first supplements were taken, peaking on day seven, with an average increase of 76 per cent and 79 per cent, respectively.

Sebum levels remained unchanged during the first 14 days of supplementation but after two weeks, both vitamin E groups saw alpha-tocopherol levels in sebum increase by 87 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively.

“The results suggest that sebaceous gland secretion is a major mechanism leading to site-specific differences,” write the researchers in a special issue of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2004; 1031: 184).

Steve - This study was posted not so much for the content, but for whom the study was funded. Just like with drug companies who fund their own studies, one must proceed with caution when vitamin manufacturers fund their own studies, as is the case here. Hopefully, now that one study was done, other independent research can be done on this topic.

Healthy schools cut obesity rate in half: study

Schools that offer healthy living programs can cut their students' obesity rates in half and help lower their risk of disease later in life, says a new Canadian study released Wednesday.

Launched in 2003, the Children's Lifestyle and School-Performance Study (CLASS) shows that students attending schools with a comprehensive healthy living program eat more fruits and vegetables, and that only four per cent of these students are likely to be overweight or obese -- compared to 10 per cent for those attending schools without such a program.

The study was funded by the non-profit Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and appears in the March edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

It surveyed 5,200 fifth-graders in nearly 300 Nova Scotia schools, along with their parents and school principals.

Magnesium may protect against colorectal cancer

High levels of dietary magnesium may help protect women from developing colorectal cancer, shows a Swedish study.

Using a population-based prospective cohort of 61,433 women, researchers at the Karolinska Institute found that women with the highest intakes of the mineral had a 40 per cent lower risk of developing the disease than those with the lowest intakes.

"This population-based prospective study suggests that a high magnesium intake may reduce the occurrence of colorectal cancer in women,” conclude Susanna Larsson and colleagues in the 5 January issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (293, pp86-89).

The findings are significant as researchers have recently identified a deficiency of the mineral in European populations.

Approximately 150,000 people in the US are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year. The cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death, and the risk of contracting it increases with age.

Protein emerging as bone health factor

Researchers at the government-funded Agricultural Research Service are currently completing a third human clinical study investigating the impact of protein on bone health.

Their findings to date show that protein at both high and ‘normal’ levels have no impact on bone health markers. The new study shows that protein may actually increase calcium absorption when the mineral is at low levels.

“I think we’re going to see the dogma that high protein diets harm calcium absorption reversed,” said Fariba Roughead, lead author of one of the latest studies in this area.

Some Nutritionists believe that protein may leach calcium from the bones as a result of the body’s attempt to neutralize the acid ash or sulphate produced when protein is metabolized.

Yet studies carried out over the last two years suggest that the impact of protein on bones is in fact positive.

In 2003, the ARS team reported that a high-meat diet, consisting of 20 per cent of daily calories as protein, (about 117 grams, including 10.5 ounces of meat), had no adverse effect on calcium retention nor on biomarkers for bone breakdown in postmenopausal women, even when they were only receiving half the recommended calcium intake.

Last year a team from the Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University took the debate one step further, showing that protein could actually help bone health.

They reported that men and women who increased their dietary protein by an average of 58 grams of protein a day had 25 per cent higher levels of bone growth factor and lower levels of a marker of bone resorption compared with controls.

New results from the ARS team, not yet published, look set to confirm protein’s benefit to bone health.

The team has however seen no benefit on calcium uptake from a soy isoflavone-rich diet.

Bonnie - This nutritionist has been saying for years that protein is ESSENTIAL for bone health, not the other way around. It's nice to see the pendulum swing back our way.

Children 'harmed' by vegan diets

Putting children on strict vegan diets is "unethical" and could harm their development, a US scientist has argued.

Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service, attacked parents who insisted their children lived by the maxim "meat is murder".

Animal source foods have some nutrients not found anywhere else, she told a Washington science conference.

The Vegan Society dismissed the claims, saying its research showed vegans were often healthier than meat eaters.

Professor Allen said: "There have been sufficient studies clearly showing that when women avoid all animal foods, their babies are born small, they grow very slowly and they are developmentally retarded, possibly permanently."

"If you're talking about feeding young children, pregnant women and lactating women, I would go as far as to say it is unethical to withhold these foods [animal source foods] during that period of life."

She was especially critical of parents who imposed a vegan lifestyle on their children, denying them milk, cheese, butter and meat.

"There's absolutely no question that it's unethical for parents to bring up their children as strict vegans," she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

She said the damage to a child began while it was growing in the womb and continued once it had been born.

However, the claims have been dismissed by the Vegan Society in the UK.

In a statement, it said increasing numbers of people were opting for a plant-based diet.

Kostana Azmi, the chief executive officer, said: "The vegan diet can provide you with more energy, nutrition, and is bursting with goodness."

She said plant sources were sometimes a safer, and cheaper source of nutrients.

For instance, animal sources of omega-3 oils, needed for the development of the brain and nervous system, were often contaminated with pollutants, such as mercury in fish.

In addition, the vegan diet was often a healthier alternative. She said dairy and meat products were rich in saturated fat, while plant based diets were low in it.

The society does recommend that vegans supplement their diet with vitamin B-12 pills.

The US Agricultural Research Service is part of the US Department of Agriculture.

Courtesy of BBC News 2/21/05

Bonnie - I have been saying this forever. I believe putting children on strict vegan diets may be causing their children permamnent physical, mental, and emotional damage. There is no possible way that a child can develop properly as a vegan. I have seen it too many times in my practice.

Panel says Vioxx can return to market

Merck & Co. Inc.'s withdrawn arthritis drug Vioxx is safe enough to rejoin Pfizer's rival pain relievers Celebrex and Bextra on the U.S. market, an advisory panel said after concluding that all three medicines posed some level of heart risk. By 17-15 vote, in a stunning turnaround for Vioxx, assures lower litigation costs for Merck, which previously were estimated to exceed $20 billion dollars. Vioxx was withdrawn in September by Merck after a study showed the drug doubled heart attack and stroke risk compared with a placebo in patients who took it for at least 18 months. The FDA in most cases follow's the advisory panel's advice.

Steve - I guess killing an estimated 50,000 people is not enough. We should be outraged, yet, we find ourselves not surprised. Why shouldn't we expect this to happen?

Vioxx will no longer be a blockbuster drug, but that is not the point. The only thing Merck was interested in was to assure that Vioxx was not removed from the market by the FDA, which would have increased their litigation costs exponentially.

Antidepressant Safety Debate May Include Adult Patients

The yearlong debate over whether antidepressant drugs increase the risk of suicide in some children may soon widen to include adults, as English and Canadian scientists are reporting findings from three new analyses of suicide risk in people over age 18 who have taken the medications.

The new findings are mixed, and apparently contradictory, and likely to encourage both patient advocates who believe that antidepressants like Prozac have hidden dangers, and manufacturers who insist that the medications are safe, experts said.

One of the reports, an analysis of data on antidepressants from previous studies, found that adults taking the drugs were twice as likely to attempt suicide as those receiving a dummy pill or other treatments, but no more likely to complete the act.

The two other reports found no significant link between the medications and suicide. Suicide attempts occurred in less than 0.5 percent of the more than 200,000 people included in the three studies.

All three papers appeared yesterday in the online version of The British Medical Journal.

Courtesy of the New Yor Times 2/18/05

Vitamin D May Ward Off Prostate Cancer

Getting a little sunshine may be one way for men to cut their risk of prostate cancer. A large study presented at a cancer conference Thursday found that men with higher levels vitamin D in their blood were half as likely to develop aggressive forms of the disease than those with lower amounts.

Doctors see little harm in getting the 15 minutes a day that the body needs to make enough of this nutrient.

The study, which involved nearly 15,000 men in the Physicians' Health Study at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, found that men who consumed a lot of calcium had modestly higher rates of prostate cancer.

The new findings fit with that notion, because too much calcium lowers vitamin D, and are especially believable because researchers got them by measuring blood samples rather than relying on what men said they ate — an imprecision that has hurt past studies of food and cancer risk.

Courtesy of Associated Press 2/18/05

Bonnie - For those of us who live in cold climates and do not get daily sunshine, cod liver oil is the most bioavailvble form of vitamin D, and you get extra omega 3's to boot!

Diet for the 21st century? Go back 10,000 years

A commmentary by some of the world's top nutritional geneticists, which appeared in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, recommend that adhering to a "cave-man" diet, similar to what our ancestors ate before the introduction of agriculture and animal domesticity, could ameliorate humans' epic rate of disease. Dr. Loren Cordain and Dr. S. Boyd Eaton, two of the top researchers in the field, believe that human disease is so prevalant because our diet has changed so drastically over the last 10,000 years. Our genes are simply unable to evolve fast enough to keep up with dietary change.

Bonnie - Eureka! If ever you need to read a commentary, this is it. It is a Bonnie Blueprint! I have been an ardent supporter of S. Boyd Eaton's work for many years, as well as Loren Cordain recently. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines should have paid more attention to these brilliant researchers.

Government to find what makes kids unhealthy

The federal government is launching a 21- year National Children's Study, in which researchers will track 100,000 kids in 96 counties from birth to their 21st birthdays to discover what makes them unhealthy.

More than 2,4000 scientists have helped design the $2.7 billion project, the largest and most expensive long-term children's study in history.

Courtesy of Jim Ritter at the Chicago Sun-Times

Bonnie - My tax dollars are being spent on this? We're going to have to wait 21 years to find out why are children are unhealthy? They could just read my book, Our Children's health, and get the answers right now!

Green tea's action on bladder cancer

Green tea extract is able to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone, researchers have found for the first time, adding further support to its potential as a cancer prevention agent.

The UCLA team has also uncovered more about how green tea extract counteracts the development of cancer. This could allow researchers to work out which people could benefit from the extract.

Numerous epidemiological and animal studies have suggested that green tea extract provides strong anti-cancer effects in several human cancers, including bladder cancer.

In the new study on bladder cancer cell lines, scientists demonstrated that the plant extract interrupts a process that is crucial in allowing bladder cancer to become invasive and spread to other areas of the body.

The findings, published in the 15 February issue of Clinical Cancer Research, “add a new dimension in understanding the mechanisms of green tea extract," said senior author JianYu Rao.

Epidemiological studies have also shown selenium and vitamin E to decrease the risk of bladder cancer.

A glass of wine a day keeps women's heart risk at bay

Researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found that women who had already suffered a heart attack or had heart surgery for blocked arteries had higher Heart Rate Variability (HRV) if they drank moderately than if they were teetotal.

HRV measures the intervals between heartbeats, with lower rates being associated with higher risks of heart disease and death.

"We found that women who drank five grams or more of wine a day had increased Heart Rate Variability," Professor Staffan Ahnve told Reuters by telephone.

More importantly the results were strongly seen with wine, with little effect from beer or spirits.

The results were published Tuesday in the British Medical Association's specialist journal Heart.

Courtesy of Reuters 2/15/05

Flu Shots for Elderly May Not Save Lives

The flu vaccinations that doctors hoped would save the lives of fragile elderly people have apparently failed to lower death rates, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Based on U.S. mortality rates from 1968 to 2001, the study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found no correlation between increasing vaccination rates after 1980 and declining death rates in any age group.

"We conclude, therefore, that there are not enough influenza-related deaths to support the conclusion that vaccination can reduce total winter mortality among the U.S. elderly population by as much as half," study author Lone Simonsen wrote in The Archives of Internal Medicine.

Bonnie - I rest my case!

ADHD drug Adderral pulled in Canada

The popular drug, which has been linked to 20 sudden deaths worldwide, mostly in children, was taken off the Canadian market Wednesday, sparking questions about whether kids in the USA should be using it.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory on its Web site saying that the rate of sudden death for children on Adderall XR is no higher than for those not on the drug. But children with heart defects could be at higher risk.

Parents are making decisions about stimulants such as Adderall XR with few facts, says Julie Magno Zito, an epidemiologist at the University of Maryland. There are no good long-term studies of such medicines, she says. Rare side effects of a drug won't surface in short studies unless they include a huge number of kids, such as in a national HMO, and that kind of study hasn't been done on Adderall XR, Zito says.

About 700,000 children in the USA take Adderall XR, a timed-release stimulant, and 300,000 use Adderall, a version that often needs to be taken more than once a day, according to Shire Pharmaceuticals Group PLC, maker of the drug.

Steve - Strattera, another drug used for attention deficit, has recently been linked to liver problems (Blog - 2/3/05)

Study Questions Prostate Cancer Treatment

According to the authors of an editorial in last month's Journal of Clinical Oncology, "the bottom line is that most men diagnosed with the disease (prostate cancer) today can expect to live as long as, or longer than, men their age without the disease. Given the many uncertainties about this disease, this information alone will be helpful for clinicians and their patients when discussing treatment options and when considering what life will be like, living as a prostate cancer survivor.

Period analysis of 180,000 men diagnosed between the ages of 65 to 74 years from 1990 2000 —the age group representing the highest number of prostate cancer diagnoses—show little or no excess mortality associated with a diagnosis of prostate cancer. The overall conclusion of the investigators is that period analysis of survival in prostate cancer shows that most patients diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States no longer have excess mortality compared with the general population. This information will be welcome news to patients at the time of diagnosis."

Steve - Wow - first, the Prostate Cancer Antigen (PSA) serum screening is renedered useless, and now this? Another predicition has come to fruition. There could have been countless unecessary procedures and surgeries avoided over the last few decades. Over the years, we have shown many of our male clients reserach that procedures for certain prostate cancers are unnecessary. Those of you who have had a friend of family member go through this are aware of the debilitating, life-lasting side effects.

Meditation May Help Lower Blood Pressure

A study of 150 black men and women in the San Francisco area compared the effects of twice daily meditation, muscle relaxation and health education classes. Women who meditated showed the greatest benefit.

The transcendental meditation study is the latest in a number conducted by researchers affiliated with the Maharishi University of Management, founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian cleric best known for teaching the Beatles about eastern religion in the 1960s. Numerous studies of other meditation techniques by researchers at other schools have also found benefits for those suffering from conditions ranging from arthritis to cancer.

Dr. Frank Staggers, a study co-author, said the idea for the study stemmed from successful results achieved after he asked patients with high blood pressure to use relaxation techniques. Staggers, who is black, said many of the patients at the Oakland clinic are black and suffer from high blood pressure.

Women who meditated had both blood pressure readings drop about seven points while the other two groups registered drops of about one point one and three points. The findings were less supportive for meditating men, according to the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health, which funded the meditation study.

Courtesy of Associated Press 2/14/05

Men who meditated had a .2 point increase in their systolic reading and a 4.7 point drop in their diastolic reading while those who practiced muscle relaxation registered drops of 2 points and 3.1 points. Men in the health education group recorded drops of about .9 and 2 points.