A single bone mineral density (BMD) test given 15 years earlier predicted a woman’s risk of developing fractures to her spine over time, according to the largest and longest prospective study of osteoporosis.

The study, published in the Dec. 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and led by investigators at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, also found that women who had a spinal fracture at the start of the study were four times more likely to have another fracture. In fact, more than half of the women with low BMD and existing spinal fractures developed new fractures over the 15-year study period, raising concerns about the impact of so-called “silent” fractures to the spine.

“Spinal fractures are the hallmark of osteoporosis, but one of the problems with diagnosing them is that they often have no symptoms,” said Jane Cauley, Dr.P.H., professor of epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. “Many women may be walking around with multiple fractures and not even know it. Our study raises concerns about the impact of these fractures on quality of life by putting women at risk for subsequent fractures, but it also provides evidence that a simple and non-invasive bone density test can help identify those at risk.”

The findings are based on 2,300 women over the age of 65 enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF), a longitudinal, multi-site study initiated in 1986 to learn more about the risk factors and causes of osteoporosis. For the current study, investigators from five institutions took lateral radiographs of the thoracic and lumbar spines of research participants and measured their BMD and body weight. Researchers found that by year 15 of the study, 18 percent of the women had experienced spinal fractures. They also found that 25 percent of women who began the study with low BMD developed spine fractures, compared to only nine percent of women with normal BMD.

According to Dr. Cauley, the study’s results demonstrate the importance of BMD testing for women over the age of 50. About 700,000 spinal fractures occur each year in women in this age group, and 75 percent of these fractures occur without symptoms. Spinal fractures result in chronic back pain and increased risk of other fractures, including those in the hip.

“Women don’t have to end up with dowager’s hump, the hallmark of osteoporosis,” said Dr. Cauley. Dowager’s hump indicates that a woman has endured multiple spine fractures. “Osteoporosis is not an inevitable consequence of aging. Under-diagnosis remains a major problem. There are several effective treatments for osteoporosis that can prevent subsequent fractures, so it is vitally important to recognize these fractures with repeat spine films over time.”

Based on the results of the study, Dr. Cauley and colleagues are developing a risk model to help physicians better identify women who are more likely to have a silent spine fracture and who may benefit from treatment.

Source: UPMC

Twelve healthy subjects in their 60s and 70s showed a different pattern of brain activations during thirst and satiation than did 10 healthy subjects in their 20s who drank the same amounts and underwent imaging with positron-emission tomography (PET).

Dysfunction in activated neural regions could help explain why older adults show the dangerous tendency toward reduced drinking in response to dehydration.

San Antonio and Australian researchers reported the PET study of thirst in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.

The team has conducted a series of studies to catalog brain activations to basic physiologic necessities such as thirst, body temperature regulation, air hunger and pain relief.

“These are self-sensations that have very strong motivational power,” said co-author Peter T. Fox, M.D., professor and director of the Research Imaging Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

PET imaging measures brain function rather than picturing anatomical structure. In this latest PET study, researchers noted a less robust cerebral blood flow in a region called the anterior midcingulate cortex in the older study participants compared to the younger subjects.

The study is by researchers at the Health Science Center, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, the Howard Florey Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the Baker Heart Research Institute, also in Australia.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $576 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.

Information is taken from: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Christmas and New Year are great times to share one or two drinks with friends, but the AMA is urging people to avoid binge drinking if they want to stay clear of the emergency department this holiday season.

AMA President, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, said many Australians associated heavy drinking with the festive season, but that people could still have a good time without putting their health at risk.

“Excess alcohol consumption is responsible for billions of dollars worth of illness and tragedy in Australia each year,” Dr Capolingua said.

“Alcohol abuse is the cause of many chronic health problems including cardiovascular disease, obesity, liver disease, and brain damage, and can lead to serious health risks such as acute alcohol poisoning.

“In addition to what it’s doing to your body, excessive drinking can be the cause of all kinds of accidents, and no one wants to spend any time in a hospital emergency department.”

Dr Capolingua said there were a number of simple steps people could follow to ensure they have a fun night and a safe night.

“If you are going to be drinking during the holiday season, drink responsibly, don’t exceed the recommended number of standard drinks, and arrange for a lift from a taxi or designated driver.”

The National Health and Medical Research Council currently recommends an average of four standard drinks per day for men and two per day for women, and everyone should have one or two alcohol free days each week.

Dr Capolingua said it was important for people to check what a standard drink is so they can properly moderate their drinking. 100 mls is the standard drink for wine and 30mls for a spirit.

“Most people measure their drinking by how many glasses they’ve had, how long they have been drinking for, or how drunk they feel,” Dr Capolingua said.

“A standard drink is smaller than many people think, and this creates the danger that people might think they are more sober than they are.

“Pre-mixed cans or bottles can be misleading because they can contain varying amounts of alcohol, and you should always check the label to know how much alcohol you’re consuming.”

Source: Australian Medical Association

The beauty of nature is partly due to the uniformity of leaf and flower size in individual plants, and scientists have discovered how plants arrive at these aesthetic proportions.

Researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich have discovered that cells at the margins of leaves and petals play a particularly important role in setting their size.

“The remarkable uniformity of leaves and flowers helps us to tell different species apart, such as daisies and marguerites, which look very similar otherwise. We are now uncovering how the genetic blueprint of a species tightly controls the size of leaves and flowers”, says Dr. Michael Lenhard, who led the research.

The cells at the margins seem to secrete a mobile growth signal that keeps the cells throughout the leaf dividing. The more of this signal is produced, the larger the leaves and flowers get.

Surprisingly, this signal seems to be distinct from the classical and well-studied plant hormones that are known to influence growth and development.

“As the signal only seems to come in from the margins, we suggest it gets diluted as the leaf or petal grows. Once the concentration falls below a certain threshold, the cells in the leaf or petal stop dividing. This would be a simple way of measuring the size of a growing organ”, says Dr. Lenhard. “It’s a bit like adding more and more tonic to a gin and tonic until you can no longer taste the gin.”

Strikingly, animals seem to use the same principle of dilution for measuring size, for example of the wings in a fly, although the molecules used are very different.

Efforts are under way to use this discovery to increase leaf growth in biofuel crops for the generation of sustainable energy and to boost the yield of fruits and seeds.

Source: Norwich BioScience Institutes

Are the holidays bumming you out?

Ceridian LifeWorks, a leading provider of employee assistance programs (EAP) and health and productivity solutions, examined inbound call volume to its service centers and found that calls related to depression, stress management, family relationships, suicide and personal finance spike in January, following the holiday season.

“As we navigate the holiday season, the thermometer drops and the blues-o-meter climbs,” said Ceridian LifeWorks product manager Catherine Macpherson. “On the home front, people are confronted with more family and financial issues than any other time of the year, putting them at higher risk for the blues. At work, the problem can be exacerbated by pressure-packed work environments as many scramble to finish up tasks before the holidays.”

Macpherson encourages employees to consider the following practical tips to combat holiday stressors, a major contributor to holiday blues.

- Laugh. Humor is a powerful release.
- Shout. Shout to yourself or out loud when alone.
- Exercise. Sweat it out.
- Play. Spend time with your kids, play a board or video game.
- Cry. This is a natural release. Let it happen.
- Work. Do physical work. Chop wood, shovel or clean the house.
- Turn off. Shut down your email indicator and the phone.
- Stretch. Relieve the tension in your muscles.
- Sleep. Take a nap or go to bed early. Being overtired can amplify stress.
- Call. Phone a friend or family member.
- Seek Help. Don’t be afraid to seek professional counseling when things get overwhelming.

“Problems related to holiday blues take a serious toll on employee productivity - an issue that we know costs employers millions of dollars every year,” said LifeWorks senior vice president Zachary Meyer. “The good news is that there are effective ways for employers to control the negative impact of the holiday blues.”

Meyer shares the following tips to help reduce stress and depression in the workplace during the holiday season.

- Reflect on the state of your business in prior holiday seasons. Review the numbers, your notes and employee absence data to determine if your business has suffered. Ask yourself the following questions: Were there resource issues due to an increase in employee absence up to the holidays? Does absence data from prior years show a higher incidence of employees being late or leaving early?

- Create a Plan. Mitigate the risk that these issues will reoccur. If you see a seasonal increase in attendance issues, consider putting attendance incentives in place. One example, offer a bonus for perfect attendance.

- Focus employee resources. People are more productive when they have fewer projects. Examine business priorities and projects. Are there certain activities that have higher priority and others that can be put off?

- Find a healthy balance between holiday work and play. Manage the frequency of holiday celebrations in the workplace. Allowing employees to acknowledge the holidays is a wonderful way to boost coworker camaraderie and employee morale. Too many parties, however, can distract employees from their work and exacerbate holiday burnout.

Information is taken from: Ceridian

A brain chemical that makes us sleepy also appears to play a central role in the success of deep brain stimulation to ease symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s disease and other brain disorders. The surprising finding is outlined in a paper published online Dec. 23 in Nature Medicine.

The work shows that adenosine, a brain chemical most widely known as the cause of drowsiness, is central to the effect of deep brain stimulation, or DBS. The technique is used to treat people affected by Parkinson’s disease and who have severe tremor, and it’s also being tested in people who have severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Patients typically are equipped with a “brain pacemaker,” a small implanted device that delivers carefully choreographed electrical signals to a very precise point in the patient’s brain. The procedure disrupts abnormal nerve signals and alleviates symptoms, but doctors have long debated exactly how the procedure works.

The new research, by a team of neuroscientists and neurosurgeons at the University of Rochester Medical Center, gives an unexpected nod to a role for adenosine and to cells called astrocytes that were long overlooked by neuroscientists.

“Certainly the electrical effect of the stimulation on neurons is central to the effect of deep brain stimulation,” said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., Ph.D., the neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Neurosurgery who led the research team. “But we also found a very important role for adenosine, which is surprising.”

Adenosine in the brain is largely a byproduct of the chemical ATP, the source of energy for all our cells. Adenosine levels in the brain normally build as the day wears on, and ultimately it plays a huge role in making us sleepy - it’s the brain’s way of telling us that it’s been a long day, we’ve expended a lot of energy, and it’s time to go to bed.

The scientists say the role of adenosine in deep brain stimulation has not been realized before. Even though scientists have recognized its ability to inhibit brain cell signaling, they did not suspect any role as part of DBS’s effect of squelching abnormal brain signaling.

“There are at least a dozen theories of what is happening in the brain when deep brain stimulation is applied, but the fact is that no one has really understood the process completely,” said Robert Bakos, M.D., a neurosurgeon at the University of Rochester and a co-author of the paper, who has performed more than 100 DBS surgeries in the last decade. “We’ve all been focused on what is happening to the nerve cells in the brain, but it may be that we’ve been looking at the wrong cell type.”

Nedergaard’s team showed that the electrical pulses that are at the heart of DBS evoke those other cells - astrocytes - in the area immediately around the surgery to release ATP, which is then broken into adenosine. The extra adenosine reduces abnormal signaling among the brain’s neurons.

The team also showed that in mice, an infusion of adenosine itself, without any deep brain stimulation, reduced abnormal brain signaling. They also demonstrated that in mice whose adenosine receptors had been blocked, DBS did not work; and they showed that a drug like caffeine that blocks adenosine receptors (the reason why caffeine helps keep us awake) also diminishes the effectiveness of DBS.

“It may be possible to enhance the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation by taking advantage of the role of agents that modulate the pathways initiated by adenosine,” said Nedergaard. “Or, it’s possible that one could develop another type of procedure, perhaps using local targeting of adenosine pathways in a way that does not involve a surgical procedure.”

The latest work continues Nedergaard’s line of research showing that brain cells other than neurons play a role in a host of human diseases. ATP in the brain is produced mainly by astrocytes, which are much more plentiful in the brain than neurons. Astrocytes were long thought of as simple support cells, but in recent years, Nedergaard and colleagues have shown that they play an important role in a host of diseases, including epilepsy, spinal cord disease, migraine headaches, and Alzheimer’s disease.

The research on DBS came about as a result of a presentation Nedergaard made to colleagues about her research on astrocytes. Bakos linked her detailed description of astrocyte activity to what he sees happening in the brain when deep brain stimulation is applied. Based on Bakos’ experience in the operating room and with funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Nedergaard went back to the laboratory and analyzed the effects of deep brain stimulation in a way that no one had ever before considered.

“The correlation between what we see in the clinic and Dr. Nedergaard has found in the laboratory is really quite startling,” said Bakos. “All the credit goes to her and her team. This has been a nice interchange of information between the clinic and the laboratory, to speed a discovery that really could have an impact on patients.”

Source: University of Rochester Medical Center

Intensive rehabilitation training for patients with spinal cord injuries can stimulate new branches growing from severed nerve fibers, alongside compensatory changes in the brain, say Canadian researchers.

Most importantly, it could lead to restoring hand function and the ability to walk.

A study recently published in the journal Brain highlights the remarkable benefits of rehabilitation training after a cervical spinal cord injury-something that has been overshadowed in recent years by the promise of cutting-edge stem cell research.

“It may be that it is neglected because it seems so simple,” says the study’s senior author Karim Fouad of the University of Alberta.

“Some people take very desperate steps when they are paraplegic. They go to other countries to receive treatments like stem cell transplantations, and most of these approaches are not really controlled trials. They undergo a lot of risk and spend a lot of money, when in fact they could see more benefits with fewer risks from sustained, intensive rehab training.”

The study led by Fouad shows that when animal models with incomplete spinal cord injuries received intensive training over many weeks on a reaching task which they were able to do before their injuries, they performed significantly better than their untrained counterparts. In fact, the animals trained post-injury nearly doubled the success rate achieved by the untrained animals.

“Research has found that after incomplete spinal cord injury, there is a moderate amount of recovery based on a rewiring process, a response of the nervous system to the injury,” says Fouad. “This is a naturally occurring process. What we found is that intensive rehabilitation training actually promotes this naturally occurring process. It actually enables changes in the brain and spinal cord similar to a repair process.”

“The way the animals succeeded in the grasping task post-injury was not the way they did it before. They compensated. They adapted. They developed a new way to do it. What people with these injuries can take from this is that you don’t have to do things the way you used to do them before- what matters is that you attempt, practice hard and find your own adaptive strategy.”

Source: University of Alberta

Over a 15 year period, women with low bone mineral density and a previous vertebral fracture had an increased risk of a new vertebral fracture compared to women with normal bone mineral density and no previous fracture, according to a study in the December 19 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association.Vertebral fractures are the most common osteoporotic fracture, with prevalence estimates of 35 percent to 50 percent among women older than 50 years. About 700,000 vertebral fractures occur each year in the United States, according to background information in the article. Women with low bone mineral density (BMD) and previous vertebral fractures have a greater risk of new vertebral fractures over the short-term, but their risk of vertebral fracture over the long-term is uncertain.

Jane A. Cauley, Dr.P.H., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues examined the absolute risk of new vertebral fractures by spine and hip BMD and previous vertebral fracture status over 15 years of follow-up in a group of 9,704 white women, who were recruited at four U.S. clinical centers and enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures. Of these, 2,680 attended a clinic visit an average of 14.9 years after entering the study. The average age of the women was 68.8 years at entry and 83.8 years at follow-up.

The researchers found that of these 2,680 women, 487 (18.2 percent) experienced a new vertebral fracture, including 163 (41.4 percent) of the 394 with a previous vertebral fracture at baseline and 324 (14.2 percent) of the 2,286 without a previous vertebral fracture at baseline. Women who experienced a new fracture also weighed less, were more likely to have a positive fracture history and a previous vertebral fracture at study entry, and less likely to report estrogen use at baseline.

Women with a previous vertebral fracture at baseline had more than four times the odds of experiencing a new vertebral fracture over follow-up compared with women without a previous vertebral fracture at baseline. The risk was greatest among women with two or more previous fractures at baseline.

Low BMD was a strong predictor of new vertebral fracture. About one-third of women with a low hip BMD measurement had a new vertebral fracture, compared with about 10 percent of women with normal BMD. The absolute risk of vertebral fractures was 56 percent among women with both a previous vertebral fracture and BMD in the osteoporotic range. In contrast, women with normal BMD and no previous fracture had an absolute risk of about 9 percent.

“Our results support the recommendation that older women with a prevalent vertebral fracture should be treated for osteoporosis irrespective of BMD. Treatment of women with prevalent asymptomatic vertebral fractures with bisphosphonates and selective estrogen receptors modulators has been shown to decrease fracture incidence,” the authors write.

Information is taken from: The Journal of the American Medical Association.

A chair that undulates, a mouse that vibrates, a monitor suspended over a desk on a movable arm. These are some of the kinds of newfangled ergonomic products that Alan Hedge, international authority on office ergonomics, studies to see if they can prevent repetitive motion injuries among the estimated 100 million people who now use computers in the United States.

“One-third to one-half of all compensatory injuries are repetitive-motion injuries associated with office-type work,” says Hedge, professor of design and environmental analysis in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology.

Back injuries also account for one-third of all workplace injuries. A decade ago most of these were associated with heavy lifting. Today they are mostly caused by people sitting for longer periods of time — often in front of a computer.

The younger onset of computer use makes the current rate of compensatory damage claims the canary in the coal mine. There is typically a 10- to 15-year latency before injuries start to develop, Hedge has found. In the early 1990s he showed that the average age of workers reporting carpal tunnel syndrome was late 30s to early 40s; last year, he found the average age of onset had dropped to the mid-20s and even younger for some people.

“Now kids are using computers at age 2, so by the time they enter the workforce they’ll already be primed for injuries,” Hedge says. “This is very serious because an injury can become life-changing; carpal tunnel, for example, is not curable. They’ll have to manage this chronic condition for the rest of their lives.”

To better determine how design concepts can prevent such injuries, Hedge’s Cornell Human Factors and Ergonomics Research Group studies innovative products. Among his recent projects:

* Vibrating mouse: To see if a vibrating mouse could prevent upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders in computer users by signaling people to take their hand off the mouse to avoid overuse, Hedge and graduate student Chris Moe reported at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting in October 2007 that although subjects do remove their hands more often with a vibrating mouse than with a conventional mouse, they tended to hold their hand just above the mouse.

“This position is potentially more detrimental because of a potential increase in static muscle activity required to hover the hand,” Hedge says, concluding that people should rest their hands on a flat surface when they feel the vibration.

* Undulating chairs: Another study examined whether a seat that made a continuous massaging, wavelike movement at an adjustable rate would alleviate back pain in people whose pain increases when they are seated. Although his findings were mixed, Hedge and graduate student Erin Lawler concluded that the movable seat was a concept with promise, particularly for individuals with back problems.

* Movable arms for monitors: A third study looked at how suspending a flat panel computer monitor on a movable arm affects people’s comfort, posture and preference. Hedge and graduate student Kathryn Boothroyd found that people unanimously liked the monitor arm because they could adjust their LCD screen, and it gave them more room on their desktop for documents.

“We saw fewer complaints about neck problems and about the workstation because people had more space,” says Hedge. He was surprised, however, that users liked the versatility of the movable arm to show others what was on their screen. “This simple design change in screen adjustability has many potential benefits associated with it,” Hedge concludes.

“Everything we do can be summed up in the phrase: Good ergonomics is great economics,” Hedge says. “More than 90 percent of a company’s costs are people costs, so making small investments in improving the workplace by using good ergonomic products pays huge dividends.”

Source: Medical News Today

Provided they stick to the same guidelines about alcohol consumption as younger adults, regular moderate drinking poses no additional risks to the over 65s, and may even bring health benefits, according to two studies from the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England.Researchers assessed the drinking levels of over 13,000 older people in England and the US and looked at the effects on physical disability, mortality, cognitive function, depression, and well-being. They concluded that moderate drinking is fine for the over 65s - and in some cases is better than not drinking at all.

This will be good news to the elderly who want to get into the festive spirit, and who until now have lived by the commonly held belief that they have to reduce their alcohol consumption as they get older.

“We are not advocating that elderly people should go out and get ridiculously drunk,” said Dr. Iain Lang, lead author of the two studies from the Peninsula Medical School. “What we are saying is that current guidelines on drinking for the elderly are too conservative, and that a couple of drinks a day will do no harm, and will in fact have a more beneficial affect on cognitive and general health than abstinence.”

Research showed that 10.8 per cent of US men, 28.6 per cent of UK men, 2.9 per cent of US women and 10.3 per cent of UK women drank more than the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommended limit for people aged 65 and over. The research also showed that those drinking on average more than one to two drinks a day achieved similar health results as those drinking on average more than zero to one drink a day. The worst results were in those who did not drink at all and in those who were heavy drinkers.

The shape of the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of disability were similar in men and women.

Said Dr. Lang: “The upshot of this research is that ‘a little of what you fancy does you good.’ There is no reason why older people should not enjoy a tipple this Christmas, as long as they are sensible about it. Previous research has shown that middle-aged people can benefit from moderate drinking - these findings show the same applies to the over-65s.”

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2007 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) understands that many Americans enjoy cooking foods that are family favorites and mailing these items to family and friends. Others choose to order food from catalogs, over the Internet or by phone. So the gift is in the mail, but is it safe?

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recommends that consumers take preventative steps to ensure that perishable foods be packaged and shipped to maintain a safe temperature so that mailed food items reach their final destination safe for consumption, whether the items are sent to domestic or foreign addresses.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), perishable food held at unsafe temperatures is one of the top causes of foodborne illness. Foodborne bacteria that may be present on perishable food grow fastest at temperatures between 40 °F and 140 °F, also known as the “Danger Zone,” and those bacteria can double every 20 minutes. Pathogenic bacteria may not affect the taste, smell or appearance of a food so the recipient may not be able to tell that a food has been mishandled or is unsafe to eat.

Perishable foods, such as meat, poultry, fish and soft cheeses must be kept at or below 40 °F to remain safe. These foods can only be safely held at room temperature for two hours, so tolerating a week or more in the mail without a cold source is unsafe. If these foods aren’t kept cold during delivery, the food may become unsafe and cause foodborne illness when eaten.

The following food safety tips will help the purchaser and recipient determine if their perishable foods ordered on Internet or by mail order catalog have been handled properly and continue to Be Food Safe:

• Make sure the company sends perishable items, like meat or poultry, cold or frozen and packed with a cold source and in foam or heavy corrugated cardboard.
• The food should be delivered as quickly as possible — ideally, overnight. Make sure perishable items and the outer shipping package are clearly labeled “Keep Refrigerated” to alert the recipient.
• When receiving a food item marked “Keep Refrigerated,” open it immediately and check its temperature. The food should arrive frozen or partially frozen with ice crystals still visible. Even if a product is smoked, cured and/or fully cooked, it still is a perishable product and must be kept cold. If perishable food arrives warm — above 40 °F as measured with a food thermometer — notify the company. Do not taste or consume the suspect food.
• Tell the recipient if the company has promised a delivery date, or alert the recipient that “the gift is in the mail” so someone is ready to receive it. Don’t have perishable items delivered to an office unless you know it will arrive on a work day and there is refrigerator space available for keeping it cold.

Food safety specialists at USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline offer the following advice for sending non-refrigerated food gifts through the mail:

• Dried food items including beef or poultry products such as jerky, dried fruits, canned nuts, dehydrated soups or drink mixes, and commercially packaged trail mix are safe to mail. Bacteria can’t grow in foods preserved by removing moisture.
• Canned meat and fish specialties, dips and cracker spreads also make nice treats. Recipients should be cautioned not to use any cans that appear to be damaged or swollen.
• Condiments such as hot sauce and Cajun seasonings in packets or unbreakable jars are great gifts for aspiring chefs and spice lovers. Foods should not be mailed in glass containers because they can break during delivery.
• Dense and dry baked goods such as fruit cakes and biscotti are good choices for mailing because they will not mold. Other suitable baked goods include commercially packaged cakes, cookies and crackers shipped in airtight tins.
• When mailing baked goods like sugar cookies or homemade candies, wrap each piece individually and pack items in Styrofoam packing peanuts or foam to help cushion food during the trip. Place the food gifts in a sturdy box and seal it securely with packing tape.
• Hard candies and homemade sweets such as pralines and toffee are safe to mail because their high sugar content prevents bacterial growth.

As an alternative to homemade gifts, some families may wish to send mail order foods. Shelf stable beef “summer sausages,” cheeses, cakes and other snacks can be ordered on the Internet or through mail order catalogs.

Information is taken from: FSIS resource.

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has warned about a possible salmonella contamination of ground beef sold at Safeway food stores.

The FSIS public health alert issued on 20th December, follows a multi-state investigation by the Arizona Department of Health Services, the California Department of Public Health, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), of outbreaks of 38 cases of salmonellosis or infection by Salmonella, in Arizona (16 cases), California (18 cases), Idaho (1 case) and Nevada (3 cases).

Public health officials carried out a case controlled epidemiological investigation of the different outbreaks after finding the bacteria had the same genetic fingerprint. The pattern was spotted in the PulseNet database that is kept by the CDC. The database is a way of pooling lab results on a national scale to help identify large scale outbreaks.

The contamination is thought to have occurred in beef that was ground and sold at Safeway supermarkets between 19th September and 5th November 2007, in the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and New Mexico.

Despite an exhaustive investigation, FSIS said it was not able to identify specific establishments and track down lot and product codes, which would have led to a specific product recall, so it decided to issue a general alert instead. The federal agency said there is no reason to believe the products are still on sale.

Consumers who bought fresh ground beef products from Safeway supermarkets between 19th September and 5th November and put them in the freezer should throw them away.

This outbreak involves a relatively rare strain of the bacteria called Salmonella Newport which is resistant to many commonly prescribed drugs and causes the same symptoms as other strains of Salmonella including diarrhoea, stomach cramps, vomiting and fever within 8 to 72 hours.

Because this strain of Salmonella is multi-drug resistant, it could increase the risk of treatment failure in some people, who may need to go to hospital.

Salmonellosis is usually disagreeable rather than dangerous. It can be life-threatening however to those with weakened immune systems such as infants, the elderly and persons with HIV infection or undergoing chemotherapy.

To reduce your chance of getting a foodborne illness, you should always take care when handling and preparing raw meat. Here is a reminder:
Wash hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling raw meat and poultry.

• Wash cutting boards, dishes and utensils with hot soapy water.
• Clean up spills straight away.
• Keep raw meat out of contact with other food that will not be cooked.
• Don’t let raw meat drip onto other food in the refrigerator; keep it in a leak proof container.
• Use separate cutting boards for raw meat, poultry, egg products and cooked foods.
• Cook raw meat to a minimum internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Centigrade).
• Raw poultry should be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Centigrade).
• Get a food thermometer so you can measure internal temperature correctly.
• Put raw and cooked meat and poultry in the refrigerator within two hours of being bought or cooked, or within 1 hour on hot days.

Source: FSIS news.

Do you want to protect yourself and your relatives from being attacked by millions of germs? Do you use soap, tooth paste and washing powder with antibacterial effect? If this is true, then all your cosmetic and hygienic chemicals are almost sure to contain Triclozan. Triclozan was invented in 1965 and it was used in washing powders to take away bad smell. Soon enough this chemical was added to soap, tooth-paste, creams, lotions and thousands of other things. Thanks to advertisements we all know that Triclozan has a lot of health-giving properties. It has a strong anti-germ effect and is proved to kill bacteria instead of simply washing ‘em away.
But this chemical has some serious drawbacks and I am intended to tell you about them:

• It is a scientifically proven fact that there is no difference between “ordinary” soap and that with Triclozan. Anti bacterial soap should be used only when your hands are damaged and have wounds. In all other cases normal soap is more preferable.

• Continuous use of triclozan containing chemicals may lead to permanent triclozan resistance. This fact may lead to a higher risk of bacterial and viral diseases. As triclozan resistance decreases the effect of other antibiotic medications.
• Triclozan reacts with chlorine contained in the water and harmful chloroform is generated. Chloroform is a carcinogen that doesn’t add any health to our organisms. Besides that, another dangerous poisonous chemical could be formed Dioxin; it is very dangerous to people’s health.

Triclozan containing chemicals are more expensive than their “ordinary” competitors and have doubtful benefits. So try to avoid excessive usage of such dangerous household and hygienic chemicals. Most doctors prescribe a course of antibiotics for prophylaxis of viral and bacterial diseases. One or two courses of Amoxil, Cipro or Zithromax annually, guarantees you a good well-being and wonderful mood. Never put you health at stake, using dangerous chemicals.

Depressive states are quite frequent in our modern busy lives. More and more people are suffering from its negative factors. Relatives and people we love suffer from our depressions as well. There is a huge variety of antidepressant drugs that are used all over the world to defeat depression but recent researches showed that this psychological disorder could be treated and avoided by means of active life and going in for physically active sports.

Motion activity stimulates brain to produce a natural antidepressant that helps to overcome depression. This antidepressant protein called VGF is natural to the body and doesn’t have any side effects in comparison with synthetical drugs. Physical activity stimulates the brain just as electrical therapy. ET may be dangerous to your health so it is obvious that sport is the best and most harmless way to defeat depression. It is widely known that sport helps to improve one’s mood but reasons for such an effect were not known until recent time. Even severe depressions could be cured by physical activity due to its unique effects on the brain and nervous system. If you do physical exercises regularly, metabolism of your organism improves greatly, and neuron plasticity increases.

So lead a healthy active life and you will avoid depressions and get rid from this problem once and for all. Stay healthy.

It’s not a secret that lack of physical activity and passive way of life causes excessive weight. But it has been just discovered that the longer you sit in front of TV the higher blood pressure you have. Children are believed to be more prone to this phenomenon. Statistics shows that it is dangerous for children from 4 to 15 to spend more than 3 hours watching television. The risk of hypertension is increased with the amount of hours spent in front of TV set. Scientists believe that children should be controlled by their parents very carefully in order to lead a healthy life in future. The time of TV watching and using a PC should be limited to 3-4 hours a day. In case of strong necessity try to make pauses every hour. Close your eyes and relax for a min. of 5 minutes. Don’t let your children spend hours in front of monitor or TV. Remember, active life is 100% guarantee for your children to lead full and healthy lives. Hypertension is one of the main factors that cause heart attacks which may lead to death.

To tell you the truth, I spend a lot of time in front of my PC and watch TV more than 4 hours a day, too. And I have normal weight, blood pressure and good eyesight. I go in for sports 3 times a week and lead an active life. So I can’t be a good example concerning the topic. But “clever” people are sure about the danger of television, so be careful with your TV.