Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Fla Panhandle county reports West Nile death - Sacramento Bee

A Florida Panhandle county says one person has died after becoming infected with West Nile virus.

Dr. John Lanza of the Escambia County Health Department tells the Pensacola News Journal ( http://on.pnj.com/Ucshlz) that the patient was a county resident.

There have been 10 cases of West Nile in Escambia this year.

Neighboring Santa Rosa County on Tuesday confirmed its second case of West Nile.

Health officials are warning residents to reduce their exposure to mosquitos, which can infect humans with the virus.

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20 Minutes of Exercise Cuts Kids' Diabetes... - ABC News

Just 20 minutes of exercise a day can protect kids from diabetes, according to a new study.

This clinical trial, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, randomly assigned 222 overweight, inactive kids to one of three activity groups for 13 weeks.

The first two groups underwent 20 or 40 minutes of daily aerobic exercise in an after-school program. The third group went about their usual routines.

The researchers found that 20 minutes of exercise for just a few months was helpful compared to no exercise at all, said the lead author of the study, Catherine L. Davis, a professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia.

Those kids who were active for just 20 minutes a day were more fit, had less body fat, and had better markers for diabetes risk when compared to kids who weren't active.

The authors also found that health effects of exercise were the same for boys and girls and for different races.

Predictably enough, the study also found that more exercise is better. Kids who exercised longer had even less body fat and better values for markers of diabetes risk.

What was surprising is that these benefits occurred even without changing what kids ate.

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"This study helps to isolate the benefit of exercise in cutting down on diabetes risk and obesity in kids," said study co-author, Dr. B. Adam Dennis, an endocrinology fellow at Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta, Ga.

More research is needed to see if these results last, caution the researchers.

Dr. David L. Katz, editor-in-chief of the journal Childhood Obesity, said the study shows "even a little bit of physical activity might be the difference between a child developing diabetes or not." Katz was not involved with the study.

These findings could help policymakers when it comes to redesigning physical activity opportunities at the local, national, and global level.

"I hope these findings will provide an impetus for changes in communities around the U.S. and the rest of the world that will focus attention on children's health," Davis said. "This can be done by providing welcoming, safe physical activity programs for children of all skill levels."

This school-based study suggests that the "physical" may need to be put back into "education." Davis suggested that schools are a natural focus for exercise programs. While the creation of after-school exercise programs might be necessary to ensure 40 minutes of daily exercise, she said, 20 minutes a day of exercise can be achieved during regular school activities, like recess and gym class. She added that exercise is not just useful in cutting back diabetes risk and obesity, but it is also good for kids' brains. She cited a related study that showed that exercise improved cognition and math skills in kids.

Short exercise breaks in the classroom can easily be included during the school day, said Katz, who is also the co-creator of an in-class exercise program that offers online, free resources for educators.

This study had an unusually low drop-out rate -- perhaps because the activities were simple, fun, and appealing to kids of all athletic abilities, Davis said. The researchers also used low-cost prizes to reward kids for effort rather than performance.

Dummies can stunt children's emotional development - Telegraph.co.uk

However, a baby with a pacifier in their mouth is less able to mirror those expressions and the emotions they represent.

The effect is similar to that seen in studies of patients receiving injections of Botox to paralyse facial muscles and reduce wrinkles.

Botox users experience a narrower range of emotions and often have trouble identifying the emotions behind expressions on other faces. Professor Paula Niedenthal, who led the study, said: "By reflecting what another person is doing, you create some part of the feeling yourself.

"That's one of the ways we understand what someone is feeling - especially if they seem angry, but they're saying they're not; or they're smiling, but the context isn't right for happiness. "We can talk to infants, but at least initially they aren't going to understand what the words mean.

"So the way we communicate with infants at first is by using the tone of our voice and our facial expressions. That work got us thinking about critical periods of emotional development, like infancy.

"What if you always had something in your mouth that prevented you from mimicking and resonating with the facial expression of somebody?"

The researchers found six and seven-year-old boys who spent more time with pacifiers in their mouths as young children were less likely to mimic the emotional expressions of faces peering out from a video.

College-aged men who recollected more pacifier use as kids scored lower than their peers on common tests measuring emotional intelligence.

"What's impressive about this is the incredible consistency across those three studies in the pattern of data," Prof Niedenthal said.

"There's no effect of pacifier use on these outcomes for girls, and there's a detriment for boys with length of pacifier use even outside of any anxiety or attachment issues that may affect emotional development."

Girls develop earlier in many ways, according to Prof Niedenthal, and it is possible that they make sufficient progress in emotional development before or despite pacifier use.

It may be that boys are simply more vulnerable than girls, and disrupting their use of facial mimicry is just more detrimental for them.

"It could be that parents are inadvertently compensating for girls using the pacifier, because they want their girls to be emotionally sophisticated. Because that's a girly thing," Niedenthal continued.

"Since girls are not expected to be unemotional, they're stimulated in other ways. But because boys are desired to be unemotional, when you plug them up with a pacifier, you don't do anything to compensate and help them learn about emotions."

Suggesting such a simple and common act has lasting and serious consequences is far from popular. "Parents hate to have this discussion," Prof Niedenthal said.

"They take the results very personally. Now, these are suggestive results, and they should be taken seriously. But more work needs to be done."

Sussing out just why girls seem to be immune is an important next step, said the study team. Prof Niedenthal said: "Probably not all pacifier use is bad at all times. We already know from this work that night time pacifier use doesn't make a difference, presumably because that isn't a time when babies are observing and mimicking our facial expressions anyway. It's not learning time."

Health Buzz: Childhood Obesity Linked to BPA, Study Suggests - U.S. News & World Report

Study: Children With Higher Levels of BPA Twice as Likely to be Obese

The BPA food packaging chemical may be tied to childhood obesity, suggests a study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a plastics chemical that's been used in food packaging, metal can linings, and medical goods since the 1960s, reports the Associated Press, and traces of the chemical can be found in most Americans. Although government officials have deemed BPA to be safe in low levels, the latest study revealed that children with the highest levels of BPA in their urine were twice as likely to be obese than those with the lowest levels. While the study raises provocative questions about the link between environmental chemicals and obesity, its researchers clarify that their findings don't prove that BPA causes weight gain in children. There are many other reasons why children become obese, says study author Leonardo Trasande, associate professor in pediatrics, environmental medicine, and health policy at New York University. "Clearly unhealthy diet and poor physical activity are the leading factors contributing to obesity in the United States, especially in children," he told the AP.

The importance of healthy dieting and an active lifestyle is especially evident this week, as another study released Tuesday projects that half of American adults will be obese by 2030. In every state, obesity would reach at least 44 percent by 2030, and over 60 percent in 13 states, predicts the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Hidden Risks of Chronic Stress

According to a recent American Psychological Association poll, nearly a quarter of Americans confessed to currently feeling under "extreme stress." Respondents especially blamed money, work, and the economyâ€"a feeling 50-year-old Sue Wasserman knows all too well. In February, the public relations manager left Atlanta after her job was eliminated by a corporate restructuring and took a new post in Asheville, N.C. When that proved a bad fit, she struck out on her own as a freelance writer and publicist. Though Wasserman is thrilled some days to be living near the Blue Ridge Mountains, the uncertainty of her income overwhelms her. "There's a sense of forebodingâ€"of 'What did I just do?' " she says.

Short periods of tension can actually be beneficial to people, sharpening thinking and heightening physical response in situations where performance counts, such as business meetings or athletic competitions. But experts are clear that when individuals are routinely under assaultâ€"over money, health woes, a daily freeway commute, whateverâ€"a biological system that was designed to occasionally fight or flee a predator gets markedly out of balance. "The body's delicate feedback system starts to malfunction," says David Spiegel, director of the Center on Stress and Health at Stanford University.

Stress has been found to play a role in so many diseases of modern lifeâ€"from asthma, depression, and migraine flares to heart attacks, cancer, and diabetesâ€"that it likely accounts for more than half of the country's healthcare-related expenses, says George Chrousos, a distinguished visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health. In March, Chrousos spearheaded a conference on "The Profound Impact of Stress" in Washington, D.C., to educate policymakers and the public. [Read more: Hidden Risks of Chronic Stress]

What Your Poo Says About You

As I get older, I've noticed that my friends are talking more about subjects we once considered taboo, writes U.S. News blogger Tamara Duker Freuman. Maybe it's the Facebook effect, or perhaps the loss of bodily shame associated with going through childbirth. Maybe it's a function of having young kids at home, so the subject of bodily functions becomes as common as the weather. Whatever it is, I'm finding that the topic of poo comes up in conversation. A lot.

The truth is, this doesn't bother me a bit. It's not a coincidence that I wound up working as a dietitian in a gastroenterologist's office. I've long been fascinated by the digestive process in general, and the intestines in particular. My favorite diagram of the gutâ€"a veritable road map of the windy, twisty turns through the small intestine into the colon that marks the site of each nutrient's absorption along the wayâ€"is faded and dog-eared from my frequent and intense study. Some consult tea leaves to read clues into the universe. I consult poo.

To be clear, only a medical doctor can diagnose diseases, and I have no such credential. If your poos are of concern, you should always consult your doctor. However, I've discussed enough poos in the context of their owners' diets to become pretty good at helping my patients hone in on what dietary factors may be behind their bathroom woes. And if you're not too squeamish to continue, I thought I'd share some of my bestâ€"ahemâ€"nuggets.

1. Strangely-colored poos: Green or yellow poos generally hint at rapid transit, or poos passing abnormally fast through your intestines. Poo gets its typical brown color from bile, a greenish emulsifier that's secreted by your liver and gallbladder to aid in the digestion of fats. [Read more: What Your Poo Says About You]

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Extreme heat, cold trigger fatal heart attacks - Times of India

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Extreme heat, cold trigger fatal heart attacks

Extreme heat, cold can trigger fatal heart attacks (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)

Extremes of temperatures during heat waves or cold spells could trigger premature deaths from heart attacks, according to a new study by Australian researchers.

The findings are important because of how the body responds to temperate extremes, the growing obesity trend and the Earth's climate changes, said Cunrui Huang, who led the study as doctoral scholar at the School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane.

Exposure to extreme temperatures can trigger changes in blood pressure, blood thickness, cholesterol and heart rate, according to previous research, the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes reports.

The study is the first in which researchers examined the link between daily average temperature and "years of life lost" due to cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Years of life lost measures premature death by estimating years of life lost according to average life expectancy, according to a QUT statement.

"With increasing rates of obesity and related conditions, including diabetes, more people will be vulnerable to extreme temperatures and that could increase the future disease burden of extreme temperatures," Huang said.

Researchers collected data on daily temperatures in Brisbane, Australia, between 1996 and 2004 and compared them to documented cardiovascular-related deaths for the same period.

Brisbane has hot, humid summers and mild, dry winters.

The average daily mean temperature was 68.9 degrees Fahrenheit (20.5 degrees Celsius), with the coldest one percent of days (11.7 degree Celsius) characterised as cold spells and the hottest one percent (29.2 degree Celsius) heat waves.

Per one million people, 72 years of life were lost per day due to CVD, researchers said. Risk of premature CVD death rose more when extreme heat was sustained for two or more days, researchers found.

"This might be because people become exhausted due to the sustained strain on their cardiovascular systems without relief, or health systems become overstretched and ambulances take longer to reach emergency cases," said Adrian G. Barnett, study co-author and associate professor of biostatistics at QUT.

"We suspect that people take better protective actions during prolonged cold weather, which might be why we did not find as great a risk of CVD during cold spells."

Spending a few hours daily in a temperate environment can help reduce heat- and cold-related illnesses and deaths, Barnett said.

Obesity report predicts staggering weight gain, higher costs for health care - Chicago Tribune

September 18, 2012|By Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune reporter

  • Johnathan McCamey has lost 70 pounds since the beginning of the year by changing his diet and working out regularly.

Johnathan McCamey has lost 70 pounds since the beginning of the year by changing his diet and working out regularly. (Phil Velasquez, Chicago Tribune)

Over the last year, residents of Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood have been working on the community's obesity problem. For starters they conducted a "walk-ability" study and realized that the community would be more walk-able if the lines on several area crosswalks were repainted and a viaduct cleaned out.

They even held a 5K walk/run to raise money to renovate the neighborhood's Kelly Park so families could exercise more.

"We feel like we're all in this together," said Sara Reschly, president of the Kelly Park Advisory Council. "If we have any shot at reducing obesity it will take a combined effort of everybody pulling together."

That's one of the main points of a new report released Tuesday that offers sobering projections for an adult obesity rate in the United States that's expected to increase dramatically in Illinois and around the country by 2030.

The report, by Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, estimates that by 2030, all 50 states could have obesity rates above 44 percent. In Illinois, the rate could nearly double from 27.1 percent now to 53.7 percent. Obesity-related health care costs in Illinois could jump more than 16.1 percent.

This is the ninth year that "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2012" has given an annual state-by-state analysis of the country's ever-expanding waistline. But this is the first time the report addresses adult obesity two decades from now.

Along with staggering increases in obesity, the report predicts jumps in related diseases and health care costs.

Nationally, about two-thirds of adults and a third of children are currently overweight. About 35 percent of adults are obese or have a body mass index, or BMI, over 30.

Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, said the only way to change the country's obesity trajectory is for government, residents, faith-based organizations and the private sector to pull together.

He said that if the projections sound alarmist, consider this: "Since just 1991, most states have gone from being between 10 and 15 percent (for adult obesity) to where we are now, with many above 30 percent."

Levi said that while the trust is keeping an eye on experiments throughout the country aimed at reducing obesity, such as New York's ban last week on large sugary drinks, the organization is stopping short of calling for mandates. Rather, it's looking at what local and state governments can do to remove obstacles so residents can make healthier choices.

"We do know that for kids, one less sugar-sweetened beverage a day can make a big difference in their health," Levi said. "But if you look at the tobacco experience in getting people to quit smoking, the industry was taxed and regulations were used but ultimately the culture had to change."

The reports say that if states decrease average BMI by only 5 percent, every state could spare millions of residents serious health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, obesity-related cancers and arthritis.

The report estimates that Illinois could save more than $28 billion in 20 years.

But Elissa Bassler, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Illinois Public Health Institute, said it's important to understand that the 5 percent decrease in BMI would only reduce future obesity rates in the state to about 47 percent.

"We would save money and lives, but that in no way eliminates the problem," Bassler said. "We still have very bad health outcomes and health care costs."

This month, the institute launched the "Rethink Your Drink: Healthy Beverage Toolkit for Healthcare." It's a blueprint that hospitals can use to eliminate sugary beverages.

"It's not enough to wag your finger and say eat less and exercise more," Bassler said. "This is such a tremendous problem that it's going to take us changing the social condition rather than telling individuals they don't have the willpower to lose weight."

The report predicts that over the next two decades, 13 states could have rates above 60 percent and 39 states could have rates above 50 percent. Mississippi is on pace to have the highest obesity rate at 66.7 percent, and Colorado would have the lowest at 44.8 percent.

In Illinois, according to the report, obesity could contribute to more than 1.5 million new cases of Type 2 diabetes; more than 3 million new cases of coronary heart disease and stroke; more than 3 million new cases of hypertension; and nearly 500,000 new cases of obesity-related cancer.

The report estimates that across the United States, the cost of treating preventable obesity-related illnesses will increase by $48 billion to $66 billion per year by 2030. Researchers place current costs at $147 billion to nearly $210 billion annually.

Color, size and smoking affect tattoo removal - Fox News

As growing numbers of people rue the tattoos they got in their youth, a new study has found that tattoo removal is less likely to succeed if the person is a smoker, the design contains colors such as blue or yellow and is larger than 12 inches.

The study is believed to be the first research that looked at several factorsâ€"which included tattoo size and location on the bodyâ€"involved with successful tattoo removal, according to the researchers.

The standard procedure for removing tattoos currently is treatment with a laser called a Q-switched laser, or QSL, applied over a number of sessions. But the technique can lose its effectiveness depending on certain variables, according to the study, published online on Monday in the American Medical Association's Archives of Dermatology.

Smoking, for instance, can reduce by 70 percent the chance of successfully removing a tattoo after 10 treatment sessions.

Dermatologists have long known certain colors are easier to remove than others, but the findings on the impact of smoking on tattoo removal are new.

The research was conducted at a laser-surgery center in Milan, Italy, from 1995 through 2010. There were 352 people in the study, of which 201 were men, with a median age of 30 years old.

As many as 22 percent of U.S. college students have at least one tattoo, according to background information in the study, and about half of people who get tattoos later try to have them removed.

In order to remove tattoos, patients must undergo about 10 laser treatments several weeks apart. The light from the laser targets pigments in the ink of the tattoo and helps the ink break down. Over time the ink is removed through the body's lymphatic system. Each treatment costs about $200 and isn't covered by insurance.

Overall, the study found about 47 percent of people had their tattoos successfully removed after 10 laser treatments and it took 15 treatments to remove tattoos from 75 percent of patients.

Black and red pigments in tattoos were most easily removed. All-black tattoos had a 58 percent successful-removal rate, while tattoos with black and red pigments had a 51 percent success rate after 10 treatments. The presence of other colors such as greens, yellows or blues reduced the chances of effective removal of a tattoo by as much as 80 percent, the study found. Other factors that reduced the procedure's success included a design larger than 12 inches or one located on the feet or legs.

Click for more from The Wall Street Journal.

Childhood Obesity Linked to BPA - Fox News

The BPA chemical used in food packaging might be linked to childhood obesity, a new study suggests, but the researchers say their findings don't prove it's the cause.

While most people have traces of the plastics chemical in their bodies, the study found that children with the highest levels in their urine were twice as likely to be obese as those with the lowest.

There are other factors that could explain the results, and many reasons why children gain too much weight, the researchers said.

"Clearly unhealthy diet and poor physical activity are the leading factors contributing to obesity in the United States, especially in children," said lead author Dr. Leonardo Trasande of New York University.

Clearly unhealthy diet and poor physical activity are the leading factors contributing to obesity in the United States, especially in children

- Dr. Leonardo Trasande of New York University.

But the study does hint that causes of childhood obesity may be more complicated, he added. He said it is the first national research to tie a chemical from the environment to childhood obesity, and seems to echo what some studies have seen in adults.

One puzzling result: Significant differences were detected only in white children. For black and Hispanic kids, obesity rates were similar for those with the lowest levels of BPA as those with the largest amount. The researchers couldn't explain that finding.

The study was released Tuesday and is in Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

BPA, or bisphenol A, has been used since the 1960s and become so widespread that it's found in virtually all Americans. Government health officials have deemed low levels of it to be safe, but haven't been able to decide what amount of BPA â€" if any â€" would be a health concern.

BPA is used to make hard plastics for food and beverage containers and many consumer goods and for metal can linings. Environmental groups have worried it interferes with children's development. Makers of baby bottles and sippy cups stopped using it, and this year the Food and Drug Administration announced it could no longer be used in those baby products.

Some experimental studies on animals have found that BPA can aid obesity by disrupting metabolism and helping to make fat cells larger. And studies have suggested a possible tie between urinary BPA levels and obesity-related illnesses in adults, including diabetes and heart disease.

In the new study, Trasande and his colleagues used information from an annual federal health survey, which includes weighing and measuring participants and taking blood and urine samples.

Their study involved more than 2,800 children ages 6 through 19, who took the survey in the years 2003 through 2008. They compared BPA levels in their urine to their weight, and divided them into four groups based on BPA amounts.

The key finding: About 22 percent of the children with highest levels of BPA were obese, compared to just 10 percent of kids with the lowest levels.

Was the reverse true? Did the heaviest kids have more BPA in their urine, and the thinnest kids less? Yes, Trasande said. But he did not include those numbers in his study, and declined to provide them.

The study raised more questions than it answered:

â€"The body excretes the chemical in a matter of hours. It's possible that the study is simply indicating that heavier kids are more likely to have recently consumed something from a BPA container.

â€"Only one urine sample was taken from each child, and the youngest children in the study were 6. What isn't known is how much BPA they were exposed to when they were infants â€" the time in life when the chemical theoretically could have had the greatest effect in triggering weight gain.

All this means is that the study raises some interesting questions, but at this point it's impossible to say BPA causes childhood obesity, said Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a federal agency involved in research on BPA.

"It's a hypothesis that needs further exploration," she said.

The American Chemistry Council, which represents chemical manufacturers, called the study speculative and noted lab animal studies that found no evidence that BPA causes obesity.

"Attempts to link our national obesity problem to minute exposures to chemicals found in common, everyday products are a distraction from the real efforts under way to address this important national health issue," the organization said in a statement.

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Obesity in Massachusetts, and releated health costs, could rise dramatically ... - Boston.com

The number of obese adults in Massachusetts, along with related diseases and health care costs, could rise dramatically over the next two decades if actions aren’t taken now to change the trend, according to a new report.

Nearly half of adults in Massachusetts -- 49 percent -- are projected to be obese by 2030 if the current trajectory continues, concludes the report released Tuesday by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, two non-profit organizations that focus on improving health.

Fewer than a quarter of adults in the state, approximately 23 percent, were reported to be obese last year, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By 2030, Massachusetts could save roughly $14 billion in cumulative obesity-related health care costs, the report estimates, if the state were more aggressive in its anti-obesity programs.

It suggests that all states could prevent many obesity-related diseases, and significantly reduce related health care costs, if they helped residents reduce their body mass index, which is a calculation that uses height and weight to estimate a person’s body fat. An average of 5 percent reduction in body mass index, or BMI as it is commonly known, among adults in Massachusetts could potentially reduce obesity-related health care costs by about $5 billion by 2020, the report said.

The report recommended several policy changes be adopted nationwide to attack obesity, including updating nutrition standards for snack foods and beverages in schools -- actions Massachusetts has taken -- making physical education and physical activity a priority, and more robust support for healthy nutrition in federal food programs that help low income families.

An average 5 percent reduction in body mass index among adults in Massachusetts, the report said, would translate to approximately 77,000 fewer cases of type 2 diabetes, 65,000 fewer instances of heart disease and stroke, and nearly 76,000 fewer cases of high blood pressure.

As high as the obesity numbers are in Massachusetts, there are fewer obese adults here than in most other states, the report said. Only Hawaii and Colorado, had lower current obesity rates. The state with the highest rate was Mississippi, at 35 percent, followed by Louisiana with 33 percent.

Kay Lazar can be reached at klazar@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKayLazar.

Police officer who died of West Nile remembered - KSLA-TV

HOPE, AR (KSLA) -

This week the Hope Arkansas Police Department is remembering one of their own. Sgt. David Johnson (D.J.) passed away last weekend. He's one of more than 100 people who have died from the West Nile virus in the U.S. this year.

However, this wasn't the first time Johnson wrestled death. Two years ago he beat it... Thanks to his close friend and fellow officer, Sgt. Daniel Oller. The two friends who shared an office and a love for police work also shared a kidney. When Johnson needed a transplant to save his life a few years ago, Oller gave his without hesitation.

"I had a brother that had leukemia, and he passed away when he was 8 years old," explained Oller.

Back then, Oller donated bone marrow to give his brother a little more time.

"When I heard about D. J. I thought a lot about that and how it was a bad situation that was easier for my family because people cared enough to do something to help us," he said.

Oller got tested to see if he was a match even though at the time he didn't think he would be.

"I had heard people say it's pretty rare for a black person to match up with a white person close enough to where they could donate the kidney. We were over a 90% match on everything. He (the surgeon) told me that was the closest match between a black male and a white male who were unrelated that he had ever seen."

Hope Arkansas Police Chief J. R. Wilson says their unlikely match brought the community together in an incredible way, breaking down racial tensions in the small Arkansas town.

"Events like what Sgt. Oller and Sgt. Johnson did make all the difference in the world because people see that now we live in a new age, we live in an age where white people, black people, Hispanic people, we want to be together and we're coming together as a community," said Wilson.

He thinks that's one reason why Johnson's last few years were so important. He got to teach others what he and Oller already knew. While they weren't blood, they were brothers.

Johnson's funeral will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church in Hope, Arkansas.

Copyright 2012 KSLA. All rights reserved.

Study suggests link between BPA, childhood obesity - Arizona Daily Star

2012-09-19T00:00:00Z Study suggests link between BPA, childhood obesityThe Associated Press The Associated Press

NEW YORK - A provocative new study suggests a connection between the BPA chemical used in food packaging and childhood obesity, but the researchers say their findings don't prove it's the cause.

While most people have traces of the plastics chemical in their bodies, the study found that children with the highest levels in their urine were twice as likely to be obese as those with the lowest.

There are other factors that could explain the results, and many reasons why children gain too much weight, the researchers said.

"Clearly, unhealthy diet and poor physical activity are the leading factors contributing to obesity in the United States, especially in children," said lead author Dr. Leonardo Trasande of New York University.

But the study does hint that causes of childhood obesity may be more complicated, he added. He said it is the first national research to tie a chemical from the environment to childhood obesity, and seems to echo what some studies have seen in adults.

One puzzling result: Significant differences were detected only in white children. For black and Hispanic kids, obesity rates were similar for those with the lowest levels of BPA as those with the largest amount. The researchers couldn't explain that finding.

The study was released Tuesday and is in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

BPA, or bisphenol A, has been used since the 1960s and become so widespread that it's found in virtually all Americans. Government health officials have deemed low levels of it to be safe, but haven't been able to decide what amount of BPA - if any - would be a health concern.

BPA is used to make hard plastics for food and beverage containers and many consumer goods and for metal can linings. Environmental groups have worried it interferes with children's development. Makers of baby bottles and sippy cups stopped using it, and this year the Food and Drug Administration announced it could no longer be used in those baby products.

Some experimental studies on animals have found that BPA can aid obesity by disrupting metabolism and helping to make fat cells larger. And studies have suggested a possible tie between urinary BPA levels and obesity-related illnesses in adults, including diabetes and heart disease.

Uterus transplants, from mother to daughter, lift hope - Philadelphia Inquirer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Two Swedish women are hoping to get pregnant after undergoing what doctors are calling the world's first mother-to-daughter uterus transplants.

Specialists at the University of Goteborg said they performed the surgery over the weekend without complications but added that they won't consider it successful unless the women give birth to healthy children.

"That's the best proof," said Michael Olausson, one of the surgeons.

One of the unidentified women had her uterus removed many years ago because of cervical cancer, while the other was born without a womb. Both are in their 30s.

They will undergo a year of observation before doctors attempt to help them get pregnant via in vitro fertilization, in which embryos created with eggs from their own ovaries will be implanted in their wombs.

Researchers around the world have been looking for ways to transplant wombs so that women who have lost a uterus to cancer or other diseases can become pregnant.

Fertility experts hailed the Swedish transplants as a significant step but stressed it remains to be seen whether they will result in successful pregnancies.

Even if the approach works, it is unclear how many women will choose such an option, given the risks and the extreme nature of the operation compared with, say, using a surrogate mother.

Turkish doctors last year said they performed the first successful uterus transplant, giving a womb from a deceased donor to a young woman. Olausson said that woman was doing fine, but he did not know if she has started fertility treatment.

In 2000, doctors in Saudi Arabia transplanted a uterus from a live donor, but it had to be removed three months later because of a blood clot.

For a year, doctors will monitor how the two patients respond to the antirejection drugs needed to stop their immune systems from attacking the donated wombs.

After a maximum of two pregnancies, the wombs will be removed so the women can stop taking the drugs, which can have side effects such as high blood pressure and diabetes and which may also raise the risk of some types of cancer.

James Grifo, an infertility expert at New York University, questioned how a fetus would be affected by the immune-suppressing drugs.

"Some people will always be willing to take the risk, but there are issues that need to be addressed before you expose a fetus to these medicines," he said. Grifo and colleagues at NYU abandoned a uterus-transplant program "because some issues seemed insurmountable."

In Sweden, Olausson said antirejection drugs had not proved harmful to fetuses when the mother has undergone other organ transplants.

Chemical in plastic linked to obesity - Times of India

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Chemical in plastic linked to obesity

Chemical in plastic linked to obesity (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)

Children and adolescents with higher concentrations of urinary bisphenol A (BPA), a manufactured chemical found in consumer products, had significantly increased odds of being obese, a study has found.

Leonardo Trasande, M.D., M.P.P., of the NYU School of Medicine, New York City, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing.

"In the U.S. population, exposure [to BPA] is nearly ubiquitous, with 92.6 per cent of persons 6 years or older identified in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) as having detectable BPA levels in their urine. A comprehensive, cross-sectional study of dust, indoor and outdoor air, and solid and liquid food in preschool-aged children suggested that dietary sources constitute 99 per cent of BPA exposure," the study noted.

"In experimental studies, BPA exposure has been shown to disrupt multiple metabolic mechanisms, suggesting that it may increase body mass in environmentally relevant doses and therefore contribute to obesity in humans," it said.

BPA exposure is plausibly linked to childhood obesity, but evidence is lacking.

Dr. Trasande and colleagues conducted a study to examine association between urinary BPA concentrations and body mass in children. The study consisted of a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sub-sample of 2,838 participants, ages 6 through 19 years, randomly selected for measurement of urinary BPA concentration in the 2003-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

Controlling for race/ethnicity, age, caregiver education, poverty to income ratio, sex, serum cotinine level, caloric intake, television watching, and urinary creatinine level, children in the lowest urinary BPA quartile had a lower estimated prevalence of obesity (10.3 per cent) than those in quartiles 2 (20.1 per cent), 3 (19.0 per cent), and 4 (22.3 per cent).

Compared with the first quartile, participants in the third quartile had approximately twice the odds for obesity. Participants in the fourth quartile had a 2.6 higher odds of obesity.

Further analyses showed this association to be statistically significant in only 1 racial subpopulation, white children and adolescents. The researchers also found that obesity was not associated with exposure to other environmental phenols commonly used in other consumer products, such as sunscreens and soaps.

"To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association of an environmental chemical exposure with childhood obesity in a nationally representative sample," the researchers wrote.

The findings appeared in the latest issue of JAMA.

Pacifier Use Can Lead To Emotional Problems In Boys - Medical News Today

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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 19 Sep 2012 - 0:00 PDT

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The emotional development of baby boys may be damaged if they use pacifiers, because using these common objects actually stops babies from experimenting with facial expressions when they are very young.

University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have associated frequent use of pacifiers with impairing boys' ability to express emotional maturity after conducting 3 separate investigations.

The trial, published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology, is the first of its kind to link psychological outcomes to pacifier use.

In the past, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have recommended to control the amount of pacifier use among babies and children. Previous research has determined that stopping the use of pacifiers may encourage breast feeding. Pacifiers have also been been associated with dental abnormalities. In addition, a 2008 study suggested that there is a link between pacifier use and ear infections.

Paula Niedenthal, lead author of the study and a professor of psychology at UW-Madison, explained:

"By reflecting what another person is doing, you create some part of the feeling yourself. That's one of the ways we understand what someone is feeling - especially if they seem angry, but they're saying they're not; or they're smiling, but the context isn't right for happiness."

It has long been known that people of every age imitate the actions of others, including body language, facial expressions, and movements, and these acts of mimicry are very important learning tools for babies to begin expressing their emotions.

Niedenthal continued: "We can talk to infants, but at least initially they aren't going to understand what the words mean. So the way we communicate with infants at first is by using the tone of our voice and our facial expressions."

When a baby has a pacifier in their mouth, it is difficult for them to be able to copy the actions of the adults or children they are trying to mimic, therefore making it harder for them to learn to express their own emotions.

These results are much like those seen in studies examining the effects of Botox injections, which immobilize the use of facial muscles, and rid the face of wrinkles. Individuals who use Botox have a smaller range of emotions and usually have a hard time recognizing which facial expressions represent certain emotions in others.

"The work got us thinking about critical periods of emotional development, like infancy," said Niedenthal, who has received support for his work from the French Agence Nationale de le Recherche. "What if you always had something in your mouth that prevented you from mimicking and resonating with the facial expression of somebody?"

The authors discovered that boys aged 6 and 7 who used pacifiers regularly as babies or young children were not as likely to copy emotional expression they saw in others in a video they were asked to watch.

Men of college age who self reported using pacifiers often when they were babies had lower scores on tests regarding perspective-taking, a large part of empathy.

The researchers administered a common emotional intelligence test to a group of college students, in order to calculate how the individuals come to conclusions when they are evaluating others' moods. Lower scores were linked to the men who reported the most pacifier use.

"What's impressive about this is the incredible consistency across those three studies in the pattern of data. There's no effect of pacifier use on these outcomes for girls, and there's a detriment for boys with length of pacifier use even outside of any anxiety or attachment issues that may affect emotional development," continued Niedenthal.

The report says that girls may not have these same results from pacifier use because they develop earlier in a variety of ways, suggesting that the girls probably make progress emotionally before pacifier use, or regardless of it. Boys may be more vulnerable than girls, indicating that pacifier use would affect them significantly more.

The idea of pacifier use having such detrimental consequences does not sit well with parents.

The researcher commented:

"It could be that parents are inadvertently compensating for girls using the pacifier, because they want their girls to be emotionally sophisticated. Because that's a girly thing. Since girls are not expected to be unemotional, they're stimulated in other ways. But because boys are desired to be unemotional, when you plug them up with a pacifier, you don't do anything to compensate and help them learn about emotions.

Parents hate to have this discussion. They take the results very personally. Now, these are suggestive results, and they should be taken seriously. But more work needs to be done."

She continued: "Probably not all pacifiers use is bad at all times, so how much is bad and when? We already know from this work that nighttime pacifier use doesn't make a difference, presumably because that isn't a time when babies are observing and mimicking our facial expressions anyway. It's not learning time."

The authors note that the next step in their research is to discover why girls seem to not be affected by pacifier use in the same way boys are, or how they make up for it. Niedenthal calls this type of inspection "dose response".

"I'd just be aware of inhibiting any of the body's emotional representational systems. Since a baby is not yet verbal - and so much is regulated by facial expression - at least you want parents to be aware of that using something like a pacifier limits their baby's ability to understand and explore emotions. And boys appear to suffer from that limitation," concluded Neidenthal

Written by Christine Kearney

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NJ to see highest increase in obesity-related health care costs in US by 2030 - NorthJersey.com

Tuesday, September 18, 2012    Last updated: Tuesday September 18, 2012, 7:33 PM

New Jersey has one of the lowest adult obesity rates in the country but is on track by 2030 to see the highest increase â€" 34.5 percent â€" in obesity-related health care costs among states, according to a study released Tuesday.

FILE PHOTO

But the study, by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, estimated that if New Jerseyans shed even a bit of weight â€" an average of 5 percent of each person’s body-mass index â€" the health care savings would top more than $470 million by decade’s end.

Losing weight could also help prevent tens of thousands of cases of Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, cancer and arthritis, according to the ninth annual “F as in Fat” report about obesity in America.

The report found that even though present-day New Jersey tips the scales lower than other states, obesity costs could rise faster in the future as the state grays.

“As the population ages, they’re likely susceptible for gaining weight and subject to more obesity-related chronic conditions,” said Albert Lang, a spokesman for Trust for America’s Health.

In attempting for the first time to itemize the potential dollar savings of obesity prevention and intervention efforts, the report’s authors calculated how many cases of diabetes, stroke, heart disease and other obesity-related illnesses could be prevented if the residents of each state lost 5 percent, on average, of their body-mass index, a measure of weight in relation to height. That amount translates into a 6-foot-tall, 200-pound man losing about 10 pounds.

In New Jersey, the savings are projected at $471 million by 2020 and nearly $1.4 billion by 2030.

With much of the national debate over health care focused on controlling costs, the report’s authors argue that a big part of that push needs to include enlisting schools, communities, employers and government agencies to join together in promoting lifestyle changes.

“We really cannot afford as a nation to let our obesity rates continue to grow,” said Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health.

The report estimates that the medical cost of adult obesity in the country is at least $147 billion per year. Of that, $61.8 billion is paid by Medicare and Medicaid, the government health care programs for senior citizens and the poor, respectively. The average annual cost to treat a child for obesity under Medicaid is $6,730, while the average health cost for all children covered by Medicaid is $2,446.

Sudbury man is second to die from EEE - Addison County Independent

SUDBURY â€" A second man from the area has died from Easter equine encephalitis.

Scott Sgorbati, 49, of Sudbury died of the mosquito-borne disease, the Vermont Department of Health announced on Tuesday evening. He was a furniture installer who was said to be in very good health before contracting the disease and being hospitalized last month.

Sgorbati’s death follows the death of 87-year-old Richard Breen of Brandon, who also contracted EEE in August and who died Sept. 4.

Two weeks ago, the Scott Sgorbati Family Aid Fund was established at the National Bank of Middlebury to help Sgorbati’s family. Within days it had raised more than $900.

In announcing Sgorbati’s death, Health Commissioner Dr. Harry Chen tried to reassure Vermonters.

“I want to remind Vermonters that this is a very rare virus. On average there are only six cases nationwide each year,” Chen wrote in a press release. “It can lead to life-threatening illness for about a third of all people infected. So while exposure is extremely rare, it is a very serious illness.”

People who are infected with EEE can develop two types of illness. One has a sudden onset and is characterized by chills, fever, malaise, and joint and muscle pain, and lasts about one to two weeks. The more severe illness affects the central nervous system and causes fever, headache, irritability, restlessness, drowsiness, convulsions and coma.

Until Breen and Sgorbati became infected, EEE was unknown in humans in Vermont. The first animal cases of the disease appeared in emus in Brandon about a year ago.

After Breen’s death, state officials sprayed insecticide in Brandon, Sudbury, Leicester, Whiting, Cornwall and Salisbury in order to kill the species of mosquito that carries EEE.

“No amount of mosquito mitigation will eliminate the risk,” Chen wrote. “There will be a very small risk of exposure to EEE until after the first hard frost. What’s important right now is that Vermonters are aware of EEE and take steps to avoid exposure.

“We continue to advise all Vermonters to take the following actions to protect themselves from mosquito bites and risk of infection from EEE and West Nile virus,” he continued. “Limit the amount of time spent outdoors at dawn and dusk. Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants outside when mosquitoes are active. Use insect repellents labeled as being effective against mosquitoes. Remove standing water around your house.”

Chen took pains to point out the unusual circumstance of having two people in the same area die from EEE.

“I want to remind you that this is a very rare disease,” he wrote. “Having two Vermonters die from EEE is tragic and â€" I am sure â€" difficult for family members to understand.

“Once again, I want to offer my condolences to the families of Mr. Sgorbati and Mr. Breen on behalf of the state of Vermont.”

Survey: By 2030, half in most states will be obese - Philadelphia Inquirer

NEW YORK - We Americans already know how fat we are. Can it get much worse?

Apparently, yes, according to an advocacy group that predicts that, by 2030, more than half the people in the vast majority of states will be obese.

Mississippi is expected to retain, for at least two more decades, its crown as the fattest state in the nation. The report predicts 67 percent of that state's adults will be obese by 2030; that would be an astounding increase from Mississippi's current 35 percent obesity rate.

The new projections were released Tuesday by Trust for America's Health with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The trust regularly reports on obesity to raise awareness, mostly relying on government figures.

The group's dismal forecast goes beyond the 42 percent national obesity level that federal health officials project by 2030. The group predicts that every state would have rates above 44 percent by then, although it didn't calculate an overall national average.

About two-thirds of Americans are overweight now. That includes those who are obese, a group that accounts for about 36 percent. Obesity rates have been holding steady in recent years. Obesity is defined as having a body-mass index of 30 or more, a measure of weight for height.

Trust officials said their projections were based in part on state-by-state surveys from 1999 through 2010 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The phone surveys ask residents to self-report their height and weight; people aren't always so accurate about that.

The researchers then looked at other national data tracking residents' weight and measurements and made adjustments for how much people in each state might fudge the truth about their weight. They also tried to apply recent trends in obesity rates, along with other factors, to make the predictions.

Trust officials said they believed that their projections were reasonable. And New York City's health commissioner agreed. "If we don't do anything," said Thomas Farley, a physician, "I think that's a fair prediction." His city recently banned supersize sugary drinks.

The trust projects that by 2030, 13 states would have adult obesity rates above 60 percent, 39 states might have rates above 50 percent, and every state would have rates above 44 percent.

Even in the thinnest state - Colorado, where about one-fifth of residents are obese - 45 percent would be obese by 2030.

Perhaps more surprising, Delaware is expected to have obesity levels nearly as high as Mississippi. Delaware now is in the middle of the pack in self-reported obesity rates.

The report didn't detail why some states' rates were expected to jump more than others. It also didn't calculate an average adult obesity rate for the entire nation in 2030, as the CDC did a few months ago. But a researcher who worked on the trust's study acknowledged that report's numbers point toward a figure close to 50 percent.

CDC officials declined to comment on the new report.

Whichever estimates you trust most, it's clear that the nation's weight problem is going to continue, raising the number of cases of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health.

By 2030, medical costs from treating obesity-related diseases are likely to rise $48 billion, to $66 billion per year, his report said.

The ongoing debate about health care focuses on controlling costs, Levi said. " . . . We can only achieve it by addressing obesity. Otherwise, we're just tinkering around the margins."

Kansas, Missouri on track for Top 10 in obesity - Kansas City Star

By ALAN BAVLEY

The Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star

Updated: 2012-09-19T06:17:51Z

 People walk on the street, Thursday, July 7, 2011, in Montpelier, Vt. National statistics show that Vermont is dropping from its perch near the top of national rankings of the least obese states. In 1995, 13.4 percent of Vermonters were considered obese. Now the figure is 23.5. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Toby Talbot

People walk on the street, Thursday, July 7, 2011, in Montpelier, Vt. National statistics show that Vermont is dropping from its perch near the top of national rankings of the least obese states. In 1995, 13.4 percent of Vermonters were considered obese. Now the figure is 23.5. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

  

Listen up, Kansas and Missouri. If we keep eating the way we have been, by 2030 nearly two-thirds of us are going to be obese. That’s seriously fat and unhealthy.

We’ll also rank among the 10 fattest states in the nation.This alarming news came in a study released Tuesday forecasting that if the United States stays on its high-calorie trajectory for the next 18 years, more than 60 percent of adults in 13 states will be obese, and there will be no states at all where fewer than 44 percent of adults are obese.By comparison: Right now, in the fattest state in the nation, Mississippi, the adult obesity rate is 34.9 percent.Not all the statistics appearing in “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future,” a report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, are so bleak. Researchers for the two nonpartisan health organizations also calculated what would happen if we reduced our body fat even slightly: millions of people would be spared from obesity-related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis, and health care bills would be billions of dollars lower.“There’s things we can do to change the future,” said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America’s Health. “We know how to prevent this; we know how to reverse this course.”In a news conference Tuesday, Levi and Michelle Larkin, deputy director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Group pointed to a variety of local initiatives that could be applied elsewhere: From healthful school lunches â€" no sugary drinks or deep-fried foods â€" that have helped cut obesity among Philadelphia children, to successful efforts to lure supermarkets with fresh fruit and vegetables into Kansas City, Kan.But unless the efforts in what Levi termed “pockets of change” become the norm, the future will weigh heavily on us.In the previous two decades, the nation’s obesity rates tripled, Levi said. In the next two decades they may double if current trends continue.By 2030, Kansas and Louisiana will tie for seventh fattest state, with 62.1 percent of adults obese. Missouri will be close behind in ninth place with an obesity rate of 61.9 percent. That represents a doubling in both Kansas and Missouri of the percentage obese.Mississippi will remain fattest in the nation in 2030 with 66.7 percent of adults obese. At the bottom of the list will be relatively trim Colorado, with 44.8 percent obese. Colorado also was the leanest state in 2011, but only 20.7 percent of adults were obese.“We haven’t totally woken up to this problem,” said Kansas City Health Department director Rex Archer. “We can’t afford as a nation to have more than half of our adults obese.”Increasing levels of overweight generally bring on more health problems, Archer said. Obesity is the term applied to levels of overweight that pose the most serious health risks. The most frequently used measure of body fat is the body mass index, or BMI, a calculation based on a person’s height and weight. A BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal. A BMI of 30 or higher is obese.For example, normal weight for a person who is 5 feet, 8 inches tall is 122 to 164 pounds. At 197 pounds or more, the person is obese.By one estimate cited by the new report, obesity in the U.S. will contribute to more than 6 million new cases of Type 2 diabetes, 5 million cases of heart disease and stroke and 400,000 cases of cancer over the next 20 years.But this disease burden could be reduced significantly if states cut their average BMIs by just 5 percent, the report said.In Kansas, for example, dropping that much body fat would mean there would be 77,000 fewer Type 2 diabetes cases by 2030 and a cumulative savings of $2.4 billion in health care costs. In Missouri, those lost pounds would mean 180,000 fewer cases of diabetes and a savings of $5 billion.Archer put much of the blame for the obesity epidemic on persuasive marketing by the “fast food-junk food industry.”“Short of a marathon runner with a tapeworm you can’t eat the kinds of meals being sold without gaining weight,” he said.The stresses of poverty also make people more susceptible to the allure of junk food, Archer said. People living in poor neighborhoods also have less access to fresh healthful foods. Fear of crime keeps the poor from going outdoors to exercise.“It’s not that people in some states have less willpower than people in other states. It’s that the social environment is different,” Archer said.Living in rural areas also makes obesity more likely, said Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Long distances to destinations mean more driving and less walking. Farm mechanization means less heavy manual labor.“These people work hard, but they’re not burning up calories the way their predecessors did,” Moser said.Earlier this month, Moser and other state officials gathered in Topeka for the Kansas Summit on Obesity, which generated a long list of recommendations including adding more physical activity at schools, improving community walking programs and working with retailers to increase access to healthful foods.Locally, work already is under way. Wyandotte County has attracted at least four supermarkets in the past two years and more are anticipated.The county Unified Government also is working to improve sidewalks and bike trails.Health departments in Jackson County are using a $700,000 federal Community Transformation Grant for such initiatives as promoting walking to school and encouraging corner grocery stores to stock fresh produce.Reducing obesity “really depends on what we collectively do or don’t do,” Archer said.

To reach Alan Bavley, call 816-234-4858 or send email to abavley@kcstar.com.

Obesity Linked to Bisphenol A Urine Levels - Environment News Service

NEW YORK, New York, September 18, 2012 (ENS) â€" Obese children and teens have higher levels of the chemical bisphenol A in their urine, researchers at New York University School of Medicine have found.

The synthetic chemical has been banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration  from sippy cups and baby bottles. Still, the chemical continues to be used as an internal coating for aluminum cans, such as those containing soda.

“To our knowledge, this is the first report of an association of an environmental chemical exposure with childhood obesity in a nationally representative sample,” the authors write.

girl soda can

Aluminum drink cans are lined with bisphenol A. (Photo by Sasha)

“This is the first association of an environmental chemical in childhood obesity in a large, nationally representative sample,” said lead investigator Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, associate professor of pediatrics and environmental medicine.

“Our findings further demonstrate the need for a broader paradigm in the way we think about the obesity epidemic. Unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity certainly contribute to increased fat mass, but the story clearly doesn’t end there,” said Trasande.

Analysis showed the association between obesity and BPA urinary levels to be statistically significant in only one racial subpopulation, Caucasian children and adolescents.

The researchers found that obesity was not associated with exposure to other environmental phenols commonly used in other consumer products, such as sunscreens and soaps.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a low-grade estrogen that was until recently found in plastic bottles labeled with the number 7 recycling symbol, and is still used in aluminum drink cans.

Manufacturers say it provides an antiseptic function, but studies have shown the chemical disrupts multiple mechanisms of human metabolism that may increase body mass.

BPA exposure also has been associated with cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, neurological disorders, diabetes and infertility.

The authors wrote, “In the U.S. population, exposure [to BPA] is nearly ubiquitous, with 92.6 percent of persons six years or older identified in the 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey as having detectable BPA levels in their urine.”

“A comprehensive, cross-sectional study of dust, indoor and outdoor air, and solid and liquid food in preschool-aged children suggested that dietary sources constitute 99 percent of BPA exposure,” the investigators wrote.

Using a sample of nearly 3,000 children and adolescents, ages six through 19 years, randomly selected for measurement of urinary BPA concentration in the 2003-2008 NHANES, Dr. Trasande and his co-authors, Jan Blustein, MD, PhD, and Teresa Attina, MD, PhD, MPH, examined associations between urinary BPA concentrations and body mass.

After controlling for race/ethnicity, age, caregiver education, poverty to income ratio, sex, serum cotinine level, caloric intake, television watching, and urinary creatinine level, the researchers found children with the highest levels of urinary BPA had 2.6 times higher odds of being obese than those with the lowest measures of urinary BPA.

baby can soda

Young soda drinker (Photo by Bella Catalina)

Among the participants with the highest levels, 22.3 percent were obese compared with 10.3 percent of the participants with the lowest levels.

“Most people agree the majority of BPA exposure in the United States comes from aluminum cans,” Dr. Trasande said. “This data adds to already existing concerns about BPA and further supports the call to limit exposure of BPA in this country, especially in children. Removing it from aluminum cans is probably one of the best ways we can limit exposure. There are alternatives that manufacturers can use to line aluminum cans.”

The researchers wrote in their study that advocates and policy makers have long been concerned about BPA exposure.

“We note the recent FDA ban of BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups, yet our findings raise questions about exposure to BPA in consumer products used by older children,” they wrote.

Last year, the FDA declined to ban BPA in aluminum cans and other food packaging, announcing ‘reasonable steps to reduce human exposure to BPA in the human food supply’ and noting that it will continue to consider evidence on the safety of the chemical.

The study appears in the September 19 issue of “Journal of the American Medical Association,” which is dedicated to the theme of obesity.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2012. All rights reserved.