Yum! Candy that fights cavities

Children everywhere may have scored a major coup this week in the eternal battle with parents over the consumption of candy, after new evidence found sweets made with the sugar substitute xylitol could actually reduce the risk of cavities.

But the findings are already creating some worry among leaders of Canada’s dental industry who are concerned candy companies could overstate the limited advantages of the sugar substitute to boost their products.

Although xylitol has been found to reduce the bacteria that cause cavities and tooth decay, some experts fear the evidence could dilute messages children receive about the critical importance of brushing, flossing and a proper diet.

globeandmail.com: Yum! Candy that fights cavities.

Ravers lose sight at laser show

Ravers lose sight at laser show

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow last week have lost partial vision after a laser light show burned their retinas, Russian health officials said on Monday.

Moscow city health department officials confirmed 12 cases of laser-blindness at the Central Ophthalmological Clinic, and daily newspaper Kommersant said another 17 were registered at City Hospital 32 in the centre of the capital.

Attendees at the July 5 Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Moscow, began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems, health officials told Reuters.

“They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80 percent, and regaining it is already impossible,” Kommersant quoted a treating ophthalmologist as saying.

That sucks.

Let them eat bugs

Green.view | Let them eat bugs | Economist.com

A new, abundant and environmentally friendly source of protein is creating some buzz

The world is getting hungrier. After years of falling food prices, eating is suddenly getting expensive. With price-tags now rising some 75%, the World Bank estimates that the soaring cost of food will push 100m people into poverty. What with rising fertiliser prices, increasing concerns about deforestation and unreliable rains brought on by climate change, how will we find new sources of nourishment?

Scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico have an answer: entomophagy, or dining on insects. They claim the practice is common in some 113 countries. Better yet, bugs provide more nutrients than beef or fish, gram for gram.

Yum!

One in four Chinese ‘overweight’

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | One in four Chinese ‘overweight’

More than 25% of adults in China are now considered overweight or obese, according to new research.

The findings, in the journal Health Affairs, blame declining physical activity and a more Western diet.

The report warns that obesity rates will double by 2028 if the Chinese government fails to take action.

Researchers say what is happening in China could be seen as a marker for what is going to happen in the rest of the developing world.

The Urge to End It – Understanding Suicide

The Urge to End It – Understanding Suicide – NYTimes.com

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem,” Albert Camus wrote, “and that is suicide.” How to explain why, among the only species capable of pondering its own demise, whose desperate attempts to forestall mortality have spawned both armies and branches of medicine in a perpetual search for the Fountain of Youth, there are those who, by their own hand, would choose death over life? Our contradictory reactions to the act speak to the conflicted hold it has on our imaginations: revulsion mixed with fascination, scorn leavened with pity. It is a cardinal sin — but change the packaging a little, and suicide assumes the guise of heroism or high passion, the stuff of literature and art.

Beyond the philosophical paradox are the bewilderingly complex dynamics of the act itself. While a universal phenomenon, the incidence of suicide varies so immensely across different population groups — among nations and cultures, ages and gender, race and religion — that any overarching theory about its root cause is rendered useless. Even identifying those subgroups that are particularly suicide-prone is of very limited help in addressing the issue. In the United States, for example, both elderly men living in Western states and white male adolescents from divorced families are at elevated risk, but since the overwhelming majority in both these groups never attempt suicide, how can we identify the truly at risk among them?

Very fascinating stuff.

Start your day with a square of chocolate

globeandmail.com: Start your day with a square of chocolate

It seems there’s truth to the proverb “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.” At least when it comes to losing weight.

According to researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va., starting the day with a big breakfast packed with protein – and yes, carbohydrates – can lead to significant weight loss.

Most studies indicate that low-carbohydrate diets (think Atkins and South Beach) worsen carbohydrate cravings, slow metabolism and result in weight regain. It’s estimated that only 5 per cent of low-carb dieters are successful after two years.

In this latest study, presented last month at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, researchers tested two low-calorie diets to see which one did a better job at helping people drop pounds and keep them off.

Ninety-four obese and physically inactive women followed either a 1,085-calorie, very low-carbohydrate diet or a 1,240-calorie, modified-carbohydrate “big breakfast” diet.

This is misleading. If you just consume 1,240 calories a day, you’re almost guaranteed to lose weight. It wouldn’t really matter what you are eating, because whatever it is, it’s not very much. The average calorie intake for a healthy individual should be about 2000-2500 calories a day.

Why Most Sunscreens Don’t Work

Why Most Sunscreens Don’t Work | Newsweek To Your Health | Newsweek.com

Sunscreens were seriously burned this month, when a new ranking of more than 700 sunscreen products found that 84 percent did not provide adequate sun protection. The study, conducted by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington-based nonprofit, looked at over 400 peer-reviewed articles on sunscreen ingredients. It found that many of the most popular sunscreens break down quickly in the sun or are not blocking many harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Rankings in the July 2007 issue of Consumer Reports revealed a similar problem: not all sunscreens are created equal. Rather, they found that sunscreens with the same sun protection factor (SPF) ran the gamut from “excellent” to “poor” in their overall ability to block ultraviolet rays.

While many people rely solely on SPF when selecting a sunscreen, these rankings show that the single number only tells half the story. SPF measures a sunscreen’s ability to block UVB rays. But it says nothing about its strength against UVA rays, an equally damaging form of radiation that causes wrinkles and, more seriously, skin cancer. And unlike UVB rays that cause sunburns, UVA rays do not leave an immediate mark.

Sunscreen that do work

StatsCan: BC has fewest number of overweight people

StatsCan: BC has fewest number of overweight people

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Across the country, smoking rates have stabilized, and obesity has leveled off. The latest numbers from the Canadian Community Health Survey on our weight and TV habits finds there’s a positive relationship between time spent in front of the TV and the likelihood of obesity among both Canadian men and women. The same goes for computer use.

But reading may not make you fat. Researchers were not able to associate that passive activity with extra weight for either sex. On the heartsmart streets of Vancouver, as it is for so many British Columbians, good health is a priority, especially for one man this morning. He says he’s not obsessive but he is conscious of it. He works in construction so by nature, so he is going all day, and he says he works out on the weekends.

The latest numbers show BC has the lowest percentage of smokers at 18%. That compares to just over one in five across the country. BC also has the lowest number of people Canada-wide who consider themselves obese.

I’m sure there’s a lot of obese people who don’t consider themselves obese.

Putting Meat in Its Place

The Minimalist – The Minimalist – Putting Meat in Its Place – NYTimes.com

LET’S suppose you’ve decided to eat less meat, or are considering it. And let’s ignore your reasons for doing so. They may be economic, ethical, altruistic, nutritional or even irrational. The arguments for eating less meat are myriad and well-publicized, but at the moment they’re irrelevant, because what I want to address here is (almost) purely pragmatic: How do you do it?

I’ve personally stopped minimized my consumption of red meat because its unhealthy and I don’t really like the taste of it anymore. I don’t like eating big slabs of meat like steaks but I’m ok if it’s cooked as part of a dish. I don’t think I can ever go straight vegetarian though.

Tomatoes removed from menus

globeandmail.com: Tomatoes removed from menus

Canadians heading out on their lunch breaks today may be surprised to find that one of the most common sandwich staples is no longer on the menu.

Restaurants and fast-food outlets across the country, including Tim Hortons, Subway, Burger King and Harvey’s, have stopped using raw tomatoes as the result of a growing outbreak of salmonella food poisoning in the United States.

The move follows an announcement by McDonald’s Canada that it would stop serving sliced tomatoes because of fears about possible salmonella contamination.

Since the middle of April, nearly 150 people in at least 16 U.S. states have fallen ill with a rare strain of salmonella after eating raw tomatoes.

I was in the US just a few days ago and had a taco (which contain tomatoes) from Taco Bell for lunch. I’m ok!

Operation Lets Muslim Women Reclaim Virginity

Operation Lets Muslim Women Reclaim Virginity – NYTimes.com

PARIS — The operation in the private clinic off the Champs-Élysées involved one semicircular cut, 10 dissolving stitches and a discounted fee of $2,900.

But for the patient, a 23-year-old French student of Moroccan descent from Montpellier, the 30-minute procedure represented the key to a new life: the illusion of virginity.

Like an increasing number of Muslim women in Europe, she had a hymenoplasty, a restoration of her hymen, the thin vaginal membrane that normally breaks during the first act of intercourse.

Gynecologists report that in the past few years, more Muslim women are asking for certificates of virginity to provide proof to others. That in turn has created a demand among cosmetic surgeons for hymen replacements, which, if done properly, they say, will not be detected and will produce tell-tale vaginal bleeding on the wedding night. The service is widely advertised on the Internet; medical tourism packages are available to countries like Tunisia where it is less expensive.

Antarctica base gets 16,500 condoms before darkness

Antarctica base gets 16,500 condoms before darkness

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported on Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

College Drinking and Heart Problems

College Drinking and Heart Problems – Fit Nation – TIME

In many ways, I was a pretty typical pre-med student. I studied hard with hopes of becoming a doctor, and on the weekends I drank socially with good friends. As I got older and passed through medical school and residency, my thirst for alcohol waned considerably. As it turns out, that may have been a good thing for many reasons. I didn’t know it at that time, but drinking heavily, even as far back as college, could have increased my risk of heart disease.

New research from the American Heart Association (AHA) reveals that college students who drink excessively can double their levels of something known as C-reactive protein (CRP), a biological marker for inflammation that has been associated with a higher chance of cardiovascular problems. The study asked 25 college students to complete surveys assessing CRP risk factors such as smoking, medication use and alcohol use. In case you’re curious (I was), heavy drinking was defined for the purpose of the study as three or more alcoholic drinks at least three days a week or at least five drinks two days of the week. Compared with those of moderate drinkers (two to five drinks at a time, one or two days a week), the CRP levels of heavy drinkers were more than double, placing them in the zone associated with a moderate risk of heart disease.

Meet miracle baby who was born twice

Meet miracle baby who was born twice – Health – MSNBC.com

When Chad and Keri McCartney say their infant daughter, Macie Hope, is born again, they aren’t referring to religion — the month-old miracle baby really was born twice.

The first “birth” was about six months into Keri McCartney’s pregnancy, when surgeons at Texas Children’s Hospital took the tiny fetus from Keri’s womb to remove a tumor that would have killed Macie before she was born.

The second time was on May 3, when the McCartneys welcomed their surgically repaired — and perfectly healthy — baby girl into the world.

Grilled Tuscan-style rabbit

globeandmail.com: Grilled Tuscan-style rabbit

Low in fat and easy to digest, rabbit is one of the healthiest meats you can eat – and it’s delicious