‘Early growth’ linked to asthma

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20 January 2012 Last updated at 08:21 GMT Researchers studied over 5,000 children Babies who grow rapidly in the first three months of life may be more likely to develop asthma as children, say Dutch researchers.

They found "accelerated weight gain" was linked to a higher chance of symptoms such as wheezing.

The study of 5,125 children by the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam suggested no connection with earlier impaired growth in the womb.

Asthma UK said parents should keep following official baby-feeding advice.

The origins of asthma are still not fully understood, although many researchers believe there is some connection with the way the foetus develops and grows through pregnancy.

The study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine compared pregnancy and baby records measuring foetal and postnatal weight gain.

'Critical period'

The babies were then followed up at yearly intervals and their parents questioned about breathing symptoms, as the presence of these can be a reasonable indicator of whether or not a child will go on to develop full blown asthma.

They found that, compared with babies whose growth followed the normal pattern in the months after birth, babies who gained weight rapidly were 44% more likely to suffer wheezing, 22% more likely to have shortness of breath and 30% more likely to have persistent phlegm.

There was no apparent relationship between the fast-growing babies and being underweight in the womb.

Although routine foetal measurement can be imprecise, this suggested that the sudden weight gain was not necessarily the baby "catching up" from reduced growth in the womb.

Dr Liesbeth Dujits said that early infancy might be a "critical period" for asthma development.

She said: "We know that low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of asthma symptoms, but the effects of specific foetal and infant growth patterns had not been examined yet.

"Our results suggest that the relationship between infant weight gain and asthma symptoms is not due to the accelerated growth of foetal growth-restricted infants only.

"While the mechanisms underlying this are unclear, accelerated weight growth in early life might adversely affect lung growth."

Leanne Metcalf, from Asthma UK, said that while the study offered more insight into the possible development of asthma, it was too early for parents to change the way they cared for their children.

"This is an interesting preliminary study, but parents should follow existing advice from health professionals when it comes to feeding their babies in the first few months.

"We know that early life does appear to influence the risk of developing asthma later on, but there are a lot of other potential factors that have to be taken into consideration."

Source BBC

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Salmonella linked to pine nuts sickens 42

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WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 27, 2011 1:47pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is recalling Turkish pine nuts linked to a salmonella outbreak that has made 42 people ill in six states, health authorities said on Thursday.

The pine nuts were sold in the bulk foods departments of most Wegmans stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland between July 1 and October 18, the Rochester, New York, company said in a statement on the Food and Drug Administration website.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a total of 42 people in Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Georgia had fallen ill after eating the nuts.

New York had the greatest number of cases, with 26 people reported ill, the CDC said in a statement.

The recall of 2.5 tons of nuts resulted from an investigation by the CDC. The company is working with the CDC, the FDA and state and local public health and agriculture officials on the matter, Wegmans said.

The nuts were imported by Sunrise Commodities of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Salmonella bacteria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Greg McCune)

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Alcohol linked to better survival after heart attack

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n">(Reuters) - Women who drank anywhere from a few alcoholic drinks a month to more than three a week in the year leading up to a heart attack ended up living longer than women who never drank alcohol, according to a U.S. study.

The findings, which focused on more than 1,000 women and were published in the American Journal of Cardiology, add to mounting evidence that alcohol, regardless of the type of drink, can be good for the heart.

"One thing that was interesting was that we didn't see differences among different beverage types," said Joshua Rosenbloom, a student at Harvard Medical School who led the study.

"The most recent evidence suggests that it's the alcohol itself that's beneficial."

There was a similarly reduced risk of dying within the follow up period whether the women drank wine, beer or hard liquor, Rosenbloom and his colleagues found.

"One drink a day is a really good target, assuming that a person can be disciplined about that," said James O'Keefe, a cardiologist at St. Luke's Health System in Kansas City, Missouri, who was not involved in the study.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,200 women hospitalized for a heart attack. They asked questions about how many alcoholic drinks the women usually consumed, along with other health and lifestyle questions.

After at least 10 years of follow up, the team found that 44 out of every 100 women who had abstained from alcohol had died, while 25 out of every 100 light drinkers and 18 out of every 100 heavy drinkers had died.

This translated to about a 35 percent lower chance of dying during the follow up period for women who drank, compared to those who didn't.

In an earlier study including men and women, O'Keefe found that people who continued to drink moderately after having a heart attack had better health than those who abstained.

"You don't need to assume that people need to stop drinking once they develop heart disease," he said.

"The problem is that alcohol is a slippery slope, and while we know that a little bit is good for us, a lot of it is really bad." SOURCE: bit.ly/uU3Eor

(Reporting from New York by Kerry Grens at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

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IVF Linked to Ovarian Tumors. Should Women Worry?

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When TV host Giuliana Rancic was recently diagnosed with breast cancer after two rounds of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), cancer specialists were widely quoted as saying that there's no evidence that the large hormone doses involved in fertility treatment contribute to breast cancer. The link between IVF and ovarian cancer, however, was muddier.

Part of the problem when studying IVF and ovarian cancer risk is that infertile women already have a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer than women who are able to conceive naturally, so it's difficult to figure out whether it's the infertility or the IVF that may raise ovarian cancer risk.

MORE: The Case of Giuliana Rancic: Is There a Link Between IVF and Cancer?

Now a study of 25,152 Dutch women with fertility problems — 19,146 of whom underwent IVF, while the rest did not — is the first to try to get around that problem. The researchers found that after about 15 years of follow-up, women who had undergone IVF, which requires hormones to stimulate the ovaries, were twice as likely to have developed an ovarian malignancy, compared with the non-IVF group.

Most of that increase in risk was driven by "borderline" ovarian tumors, however. These are tumors that may turn into cancer and require surgery to remove the ovary, but are rarely life threatening. The IVF group was nearly twice as likely to have a borderline tumor as the general population, and more than four times as likely as the subfertile comparison group.

"Our data clearly show that ovarian stimulation for IVF is associated with an increased risk of borderline ovarian tumors and this risk remains elevated up to more than 15 years after the first cycle of treatment," study author Flora van Leeuwen, head of the department of epidemiology at The Netherlands Cancer Institute, said in a statement.

So, how worried should women be? Not terribly. The absolute risk of ovarian tumors was very low. Researchers found just 61 ovarian malignancies in the IVF group, 31 of which were borderline tumors. In the Netherlands, the researchers note, the cumulative risk of ovarian malignancy, including borderline tumors, is 0.45% in women aged 55. "If our results are true, we would estimate a 0.71% risk for women who underwent IVF," they write — a less than 1% chance.

MORE: Mind-Body Programs Boost Pregnancy Rates for IVF Patients

The other 30 malignancies in the IVF group were invasive cancer. Although the women receiving fertility treatment had more invasive cancers than the comparison group, the difference was not statistically significant, the study found.

Further, the overall rate of ovarian malignancies did not rise with increasing numbers of IVF cycles, suggesting that ovarian stimulation is not causally linked to cancer.

"The main message is that women who have had IVF shouldn't be alarmed. The incidence of ovarian cancer was extremely low," Curt Burger, a co-author of the study published in the medical journal Human Reproduction, told the BBC.

Meredith Melnick is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @MeredithCM. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Bad eyes 'linked to time indoors'

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25 October 2011 Last updated at 01:05 GMT Natural light exposure is just one potential factor in a child's eyesight. The time children spend outdoors could be linked to a reduced risk of being short-sighted, research suggests.

An analysis of eight previous studies by University of Cambridge researchers found that for each additional hour spent outside per week, the risk of myopia reduced by 2%.

Exposure to natural light and time spent looking at distant objects could be key factors, they said.

The studies involved more than 10,000 children and adolescents.

Researchers are presenting their findings at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in Florida.

Dr Justin Sherwin and his research team concluded that short-sighted children spent on average 3.7 fewer hours per week outdoors than those who either had normal vision or were long-sighted.

But they said the reasons why were not yet clear.

They expected to find that children who spent more time outdoors also spent less time doing activities like reading, studying or playing computer games, but no such link was found in two of the eight studies which looked at this relationship.

Continue reading the main story

Any increase in time spent outdoors must be weighed against exposure to UV radiation.”

End Quote Dr Justin Sherwin University of Cambridge However, Dr Sherwin said they would now need more precise data to try to understand which factors, such as increased use of distance vision, reduced use of near vision, natural ultraviolet light exposure or physical activity, are most important.

There are also other factors to consider, he said.

Risk and benefit

"Any increase in time spent outdoors must be weighed against exposure to UV radiation - and the increased risk of skin cancer, cataracts and other cancers.

"On the other hand, increasing outdoor physical activity could protect against diabetes and obesity, vitamin D deficiency and osteoporosis, for example," he said.

Short-sightedness is a common eye condition that causes distant objects to appear blurred, while close objects can be seen clearly.

Myopia is the medical term for short-sightedness.

It is much more common today in the UK and the United States than it was just 30 to 40 years ago. Approximately 1-2% of five- to seven-year-olds in the UK have myopia.

About five million British people are short-sighted and some 200,000 of them will be seriously short-sighted.

In some parts of Asia, more than 80% of the population suffers from short-sightedness.

Short-sightedness results from excessively long growth of the eyeball, or a steeply curved cornea.

Dr Susan Blakeney, optometric adviser at The College of Optometrists, said children were normally born long-sighted.

"As they grow they become less long-sighted so that by the time children stop growing their eyesight should be perfect.

"If a child is not born long-sighted enough then they will overshoot and end up short-sighted. This tends to happen around puberty.

"There are numerous factors which could influence that journey - the question is what is the key bit that really makes a big difference."

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Shunning water linked to high blood sugar

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A glass of tap water is served at a restaurant in New York June 10, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK | Mon Oct 24, 2011 3:22pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who drink less than a couple of glasses of water each day may be more likely to develop abnormally high blood sugar, a new study suggests.

When someone's blood sugar levels are high, but not high enough to fit the definition of diabetes, doctors often consider that person to have "pre-diabetes" -- which puts them at risk of developing the disease itself.

In the new study, adults who drank only half a liter of water -- about two glasses -- or less each day were more likely to develop blood sugar levels in the pre-diabetes range, versus people who drank more water.

But whether simply drinking water will cut your risk of blood sugar problems is still up in the air.

The findings show a correlation between water intake and blood sugar, but do not prove cause-and-effect, said senior researcher Lise Bankir, of the French national research institute INSERM.

Still, it is plausible based on biology, Bankir told Reuters Health in an email.

A hormone called vasopressin is the potential missing link, according to the researchers.

Vasopressin -- also known as antidiuretic hormone -- helps regulate the body's water retention. When we are dehydrated, vasopressin levels go up, causing the kidneys to conserve water. But research suggests that higher vasopressin levels may also elevate blood sugar.

There are vasopressin receptors in the liver, the organ responsible for producing glucose (sugar) in the body, Bankir explained. And one study found that injecting healthy people with vasopressin caused a temporary spike in blood sugar.

"There are good arguments to suggest that there could be a real cause-and-effect relationship in the association we have found," Bankir said, "but this is not a proof."

The findings are based on 3,615 French adults who were between the ages of 30 and 65, and had normal blood sugar levels at the outset. About 19 percent said they drank less than half a liter (17 ounces) of water each day, while the rest drank up to a liter or more.

Over the next nine years, 565 study participants developed abnormally high blood sugar and 202 developed type 2 diabetes.

When the researchers looked at the participants' risk according to water intake, they found that people who drank at least 17 ounces of water per day were 28 percent less likely to develop high blood sugar than those who drank less than that amount.

There was no strong statistical link between water intake and risk of developing diabetes, however.

One obvious explanation for the connection with high blood sugar would be that people who drink little water may instead be reaching for sugary drinks -- which could lead to weight gain and impaired blood sugar control.

But Bankir and her colleagues accounted for sugary drinks and alcohol, as well as people's body weight at the start of the study, their reported exercise levels and certain other health factors. And the link between low water intake and high blood sugar persisted.

However, they could not account for everything, including generally healthy or less-healthy eating habits.

"Healthier behaviors correlating with higher water drinking could account for the observed association," the researchers write.

As for why there was no link between water intake and diabetes itself, Bankir said that the number of diabetes cases in the study was "too small to get a significant result." A larger study might have been able to detect a statistically significant link, she noted.

Further studies are needed to confirm the findings on blood sugar, according to Bankir.

But for now, she said, replacing sugary, high-calorie drinks with water would be a good idea for anyone. "In Western countries, the consumption of sugar is surely too high and contributes to obesity," Bankir said.

"Drinking less of them (sugary drinks) and more pure water can only be good in my view," she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/quKw3E Diabetes Care, online October 12, 2011.

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Kids' daytime wetting accidents linked to ADHD

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By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:12pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who wet themselves are more than four times as likely as other kids to also have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to the results of a new German study.

"I think a lot of us have known this for a long time," that children with ADHD also struggle with bladder control, said Dr. Peter Jensen, a professor of psychiatry and psychology and the vice chair for research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

But there are few studies that have looked specifically at the link between the two disorders, said Jensen, who was not involved in the German research.

ADHD is a common behavioral disorder that involves problems paying attention and controlling impulses, and has been diagnosed in nearly one out of every 10 children in the United States.

About two or three out of every 100 seven-year-olds have daytime wetting accidents, the authors note in their study.

The researchers, led by Dr. Alexander von Gontard at Saarland University Hospital in Homburg, Germany, surveyed the parents of more than 1,300 children five to seven years old.

They found that 49 of the kids wet themselves during the day, and 18 of them -- nearly 37 percent -- also had symptoms of ADHD.

Of the 1,194 children who did not have incontinence, just 40 of those -- or about three percent -- screened positive for ADHD.

When the researchers took into account factors that might skew the numbers, such as younger age or a developmental disability, they concluded that the risk of ADHD among kids who wet themselves is four times greater than among their schoolmates.

The study, published in the Journal of Urology, did not determine whether one condition causes the other, nor if they share the same underlying causes.

Jensen said that ADHD is tied to a delay in brain maturation, and perhaps that delay could also affect good control over going to the bathroom.

Children with ADHD also struggle to manage multiple activities, and might neglect to address the urge to pee while they're occupied with other tasks, he speculated.

Previous studies have found a link between ADHD and bed wetting, but the current study did not see a higher risk for ADHD among kids who had accidents at night.

The authors write that earlier work might not have factored in developmental problems in the children studied, which could increase the proportion of children who wet the bed.

The authors point out that "in clinical practice children with (incontinence) and ADHD have a much lower response rate to treatment than those with incontinence alone due to a lower compliance."

Jensen told Reuters Health this means that physicians and parents need to have more patience in treating wetting problems among children with ADHD.

SOURCE: bit.ly/ney7Tw The Journal of Urology, online September 23, 2011.

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Kids' daytime wetting accidents linked to ADHD

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By Kerry Grens

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:12pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who wet themselves are more than four times as likely as other kids to also have attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to the results of a new German study.

"I think a lot of us have known this for a long time," that children with ADHD also struggle with bladder control, said Dr. Peter Jensen, a professor of psychiatry and psychology and the vice chair for research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

But there are few studies that have looked specifically at the link between the two disorders, said Jensen, who was not involved in the German research.

ADHD is a common behavioral disorder that involves problems paying attention and controlling impulses, and has been diagnosed in nearly one out of every 10 children in the United States.

About two or three out of every 100 seven-year-olds have daytime wetting accidents, the authors note in their study.

The researchers, led by Dr. Alexander von Gontard at Saarland University Hospital in Homburg, Germany, surveyed the parents of more than 1,300 children five to seven years old.

They found that 49 of the kids wet themselves during the day, and 18 of them -- nearly 37 percent -- also had symptoms of ADHD.

Of the 1,194 children who did not have incontinence, just 40 of those -- or about three percent -- screened positive for ADHD.

When the researchers took into account factors that might skew the numbers, such as younger age or a developmental disability, they concluded that the risk of ADHD among kids who wet themselves is four times greater than among their schoolmates.

The study, published in the Journal of Urology, did not determine whether one condition causes the other, nor if they share the same underlying causes.

Jensen said that ADHD is tied to a delay in brain maturation, and perhaps that delay could also affect good control over going to the bathroom.

Children with ADHD also struggle to manage multiple activities, and might neglect to address the urge to pee while they're occupied with other tasks, he speculated.

Previous studies have found a link between ADHD and bed wetting, but the current study did not see a higher risk for ADHD among kids who had accidents at night.

The authors write that earlier work might not have factored in developmental problems in the children studied, which could increase the proportion of children who wet the bed.

The authors point out that "in clinical practice children with (incontinence) and ADHD have a much lower response rate to treatment than those with incontinence alone due to a lower compliance."

Jensen told Reuters Health this means that physicians and parents need to have more patience in treating wetting problems among children with ADHD.

SOURCE: bit.ly/ney7Tw The Journal of Urology, online September 23, 2011.

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Smoking linked to earlier menopause

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By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 14, 2011 12:38pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who smoke may hit menopause about a year earlier than those who don't light up, according to a new look at past research.

That's important because the age at which women stop getting their periods may influence their risk of bone and heart diseases as well as breast cancer.

Study author Volodymyr Dvornyk, from the University of Hong Kong, said that women "should be aware of this effect and possible health consequences" of smoking, in addition to its other known risks.

He and his colleagues scanned the literature and found that women who were current smokers hit menopause a year earlier, on average, than non-smokers.

That data came from six studies including about 6,000 women in the U.S., Poland, Turkey and Iran. Non-smokers hit menopause between age 46 and 51, on average, depending on the study population. In all but two of the studies, smokers were younger -- between 43 and 50, overall.

Dvornyk and his colleagues also analyzed five other studies that used a cut-off age of 50 or 51 to group women into "early" and "late" menopause. Out of more than 43,000 women in that analysis, women who smoked were 43 percent more likely than nonsmokers to have early menopause.

"Our results give further evidence that smoking is significantly associated with earlier (age at menopause) and provide yet another justification for women to avoid this habit," the researchers wrote in the journal Menopause.

Both early and late menopause have been linked to health risks. Women who hit menopause late, for instance, are thought to be at higher risk of breast cancer because one risk factor for the disease is more time exposed to estrogen.

However, the "general consensus is that earlier menopause is likely to be associated with the larger number and higher risk of postmenopausal health problems, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, Alzheimer's disease, and the others," Dvornyk told Reuters Health in an email.

Overall, he added, early menopause is also thought to slightly raise a woman's risk of death in the years following.

Jennie Kline, an epidemiologist from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York, said there are two theories for why smoking might mean earlier menopause.

Smoking may have an effect on how women's bodies make, or get rid of, estrogen, she said. Alternatively, some researchers believe certain components of cigarette smoke might kill eggs.

Dvornyk's team didn't have information on how long women had been smoking or how many cigarettes they smoked each day, so the researchers couldn't determine how either of those factors may have affected age at menopause.

For that reason, and a lack of data on other health and lifestyle factors linked to menopause, this analysis may not be enough to resolve lingering questions on the link between smoking and menopause, they added.

Alcohol, weight and whether or not women have given birth may each also play a role in when they hit menopause -- but the evidence for everything other than smoking has been mixed, Kline, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

She said it's possible the same factors that influence age at menopause may determine whether or not women are still able to get pregnant when they hit their late thirties, or whether they have trouble with infertility.

Still, Kline said, "There are way better reasons to stop smoking than worrying about menopause," such as reducing the risk of heart disease and lung cancer.

SOURCE: bit.ly/nM27LT Menopause, online September 19, 2011.

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Vitamin E pills linked with prostate cancer risk

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In this Monday, Oct. 10, 2011 photo, Joe Latina, 71, is shown on his porch at his home in Ashtabula, Ohio. Latina participated in a study involving vitamin E pills. Vitamin E pills are linked with an increased risk for prostate cancer, according to follow-up data from a study aiming to see if the supplements could prevent the disease but halted when there were signs of possible harm. Men who had been randomly assigned to take vitamin E were 17 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than those given dummy pills, the follow-up report found. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) In this Monday, Oct. 10, 2011 photo, Joe Latina, 71, is shown on his porch at his home in Ashtabula, Ohio. Latina participated in a study involving vitamin E pills. Vitamin E pills are linked with an increased risk for prostate cancer, according to follow-up data from a study aiming to see if the supplements could prevent the disease but halted when there were signs of possible harm. Men who had been randomly assigned to take vitamin E were 17 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than those given dummy pills, the follow-up report found. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) In this Monday, Oct. 10, 2011 photo, Joe Latina, right, 71, walks with his wife, Rita, along the shores of Lake Erie in Ashtabula, Ohio. Joe Latina participated in a study involving vitamin E pills. Vitamin E pills are linked with an increased risk for prostate cancer, according to follow-up data from a study aiming to see if the supplements could prevent the disease but halted when there were signs of possible harm. Men who had been randomly assigned to take vitamin E were 17 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than those given dummy pills, the follow-up report found. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) In this Monday, Oct. 10, 2011 photo, Joe Latina, 71, is shown on his porch at his home in Ashtabula, Ohio. Latina participated in a study involving vitamin E pills. Vitamin E pills are linked with an increased risk for prostate cancer, according to follow-up data from a study aiming to see if the supplements could prevent the disease but halted when there were signs of possible harm. Men who had been randomly assigned to take vitamin E were 17 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than those given dummy pills, the follow-up report found. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)eval("var currentItemd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 1;");eval("var nextd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;");eval("var previousd57851005a80479aaeeb90a12c70b9ff = 0;"); CHICAGO (AP) — There is more evidence that taking vitamin E pills can be risky. A study that followed up on men who took high doses of the vitamin for about five years found they had a slightly increased risk of prostate cancer — even after they quit taking the pills.

Doctors say it's another sign that people should be careful about using vitamins and other supplements.

"People tend to think of vitamins as innocuous substances, almost like chicken soup — take a little and it can't hurt," said lead author Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic. The study shows that is not true.

"If you have normal levels, the vitamin is probably of no benefit, and if you take too much, you can be harmed," Klein said.

Men randomly assigned to take a 400-unit capsule of vitamin E every day for about five years were 17 percent more likely to get prostate cancer than those given dummy pills. That dose, commonly found in over-the-counter supplements, is almost 20 times higher than the recommended adult amount, which is about 23 units daily.

The results mean for every 1,000 men who took vitamin E, there were 11 additional cases of prostate cancer, compared with men taking dummy pills.

The study was actually launched to try to confirm less rigorous research suggesting vitamin E might protect against prostate cancer. Overall, about 160 of every 1,000 U.S. men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime.

Risks increase as men age. Detection can be tricky since symptoms such as frequent urination can also be caused by harmless conditions, and doctors disagree about the benefits of screening tests. Treatment is also complex since some slow-growing prostate cancers are not deadly but some procedures, including surgery, can damage sexual function and cause incontinence.

Just last week, a government-convened panel of experts recommended against routine PSA screening for prostate cancer. That draft advice is open for public comment.

What should vitamin E users do, given the new study results? About 13 percent of American men take it, according to a supplement trade group.

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, says they should stop taking large doses and talk to their doctors about risks and benefits from prostate cancer screening. Smaller doses, typically found in multivitamins, are probably fine, said Brawley, who was not involved in the research.

Vitamin E is found in foods such as nuts, seeds and vegetable oils. The nutrient helps nerves, muscles, blood vessels and the immune system function.

Vitamin E supplements have long been promoted for disease prevention, but scientific research has disproven many claims and suggested they might increase risks for some conditions, including heart failure.

Brawley noted that the study echoes previous thinking on beta-carotene, which once was thought to protect against cancer but more recently has been linked with increased risks for lung cancer, especially in smokers.

"There should be a global warning that ... excessive use of vitamins has not been proven to be beneficial and may be the opposite," Brawley said.

Experts generally agree that foods are the best sources for vitamins.

The new research appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. The National Cancer Institute and National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine paid for the multimillion-dollar study.

Joe Latina, a cabinet shop owner in Aurora, Ohio, was among study participants. He said researchers gave him pills they said "might slow down prostate cancer." Now 71 and cancer-free, he says he doesn't know whether he was given vitamins or dummy pills.

Latina said he "was kind of surprised" by the study results, but is not stressing out over the possibility that he still might get cancer.

"I'm a positive thinker," he said. "I'm not walking around saying, 'Oh my God, the other shoe is going to drop. I don't think I have any way to control it."

The study involved more than 35,000 healthy men aged 50 and older, from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. They were randomly assigned to take daily vitamin E or selenium supplements, both pills or dummy pills. The study was halted after about five years when there were signs of no benefit and a possible increased risk for prostate cancer in vitamin E users. The researchers continued tracking the men even after they stopped taking pills.

The follow-up found that a potential link between selenium and diabetes was a false alarm, but it confirmed signs of a vitamin E-prostate cancer link. Over a total of about seven years, there were 76 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed per 1,000 men, versus 65 cases in men given dummy pills.

"The implications of our observations are substantial," the study authors said.

The results suggest that extra risks associated with taking relatively high doses of vitamin E continue even after supplements are stopped. The researchers said it is unclear how vitamin E would harm the prostate.

There was no increased risk for men who took both vitamin E and selenium, suggesting that selenium might somehow counter the harmful effects of vitamin E, the study authors said.

Duffy MacKay of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement makers' trade group, said the study shouldn't be interpreted as questioning the benefits of vitamin E as an essential nutrient, and he said there is evidence that many Americans don't get enough.

___

Online:

JAMA: http://www.jama.ama-assn.org

National Cancer Institute: http://www.cancer.gov

PSA recommendations: http://www.ahrq.gov

__

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner .

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21 deaths now linked to listeria in cantaloupe

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health authorities say a nationwide outbreak of listeria in Colorado cantaloupes is now responsible for 21 deaths and the number may continue to grow.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reported new deaths in Indiana and New York. The CDC also confirmed a death in Wyoming that state officials reported last week. CDC said 109 people have been sickened in the outbreak — including the 21 dead — in 23 states from California to the East Coast.

The agency previously reported five deaths in Colorado, five in New Mexico, two in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. CDC said it is also aware of one miscarriage associated with the outbreak.

The death toll in the cantaloupe outbreak is now tied with a 1998 outbreak of listeria in hot dogs and possibly deli meats made by Bil Mar Foods, a subsidiary of Sara Lee Corp. That outbreak was also linked to 21 deaths. The deadliest outbreak in the United States before that is believed to have been listeria in Mexican-style soft cheese in 1985, which was linked to 52 deaths.

CDC officials have said the symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to show up and that they expect more illnesses through October.

Jensen Farms in Holly, Colo., recalled the tainted cantaloupes earlier this month after they were linked to listeria illnesses. They were shipped all over the country but should be off store shelves by now. The last cases of cantaloupes were shipped Sept. 10, and its shelf life is about two weeks.

The Food and Drug Administration has said state health officials found listeria in cantaloupes taken from Colorado grocery stores and from a victim's home that were grown at Jensen Farms. Matching strains of the disease were found on equipment and cantaloupe samples at Jensen Farms' packing facility in Granada, Colo.

The company has said they shipped the cantaloupe to around half of U.S. states, but added that they aren't sure where the cantaloupe went because it has been sold and resold. Thus, many companies may not even know if they bought or distributed the fruit. Fruit Fresh Up, Inc. of Depew, N.Y., issued a recall Thursday of 4,800 individual packages of cut cantaloupes, three weeks after the original recall and several days after the melons surpassed their freshness date.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said this week that the agency is still investigating the cause of the outbreak. Officials have said they are looking at the farm's water supply and possible animal intrusions among other things to figure out the source of the problem. Listeria bacteria grow in moist, muddy conditions and are often carried by animals.

Officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration say that any cantaloupes not from Jensen Farms are safe to eat. The recalled cantaloupes may be labeled "Colorado Grown," ''Distributed by Frontera Produce," ''Jensenfarms.com" or "Sweet Rocky Fords." Not all of the recalled cantaloupes are labeled with a sticker, the FDA said.

Government health officials said this is the first known outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe. Listeria is generally found in processed meats and unpasteurized milk and cheese, though there have been a growing number of outbreaks in produce.

Listeria is rare but more deadly than well-known pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. While most healthy adults can consume listeria with no ill effects, it can kill the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. It is also dangerous to pregnant women because it easily passes through to the fetus. The CDC said the median age of those sickened is 77, and most ill people are over 60 years old.

Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms.

The CDC has reported illnesses in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Colorado has the most illnesses, with 32 sickened. Texas has 16 reported illnesses, New Mexico has 13 and Oklahoma has 11.

___

Online:

CDC on cantaloupe outbreak: http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/index.html

FDA on cantaloupe recall: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/CORENetwork/ucm272372.htm

Center for Science and the Public Interest, "Super Safe Your Kitchen": http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/safekitchen.pdf

___

Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MCJalonick

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How That Food You Throw Out Is Linked To Global Warming

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The greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste amount to 135 million tons a year, a company has found.

iStockphoto.com

The greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste amount to 135 million tons a year, a company has found.

It's funny how some people are embarrassed by the state of their refrigerator – perhaps because it's full of beer and condiments and nothing else.

For me, it's the guilt of seeing off-color sausage or slimy lettuce disintegrating in my refrigerator drawer. Sadly, I am just another American prone to wasting food. Collectively, we waste about 55 million tons of the stuff a year, or 40 percent of the food supply, researchers estimate.

For the guilt-ridden food wasters among us, a little company out of Oregon recently found a way to poke us to shop more prudently. They've crunched the numbers to show how the greenhouse gas emissions from the production, transport and disposal of all the food we could eat — but don't — adds up.

 

CleanMetrics builds software that does life cycle analysis for companies and organizations who want to measure and reduce their environmental impact. Last year, Kumar Venkat, the company's founder and president, was asked by the Environmental Working Group to measure the climate impact of meat consumption, which resulted in its Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change & Health.

That project got him thinking about other emissions associated with food, and wasted food in particular, Venkat tells The Salt. So he gathered USDA's estimates of food loss from retail and consumers for 2009. And when he fed it into his software he found that food waste is responsible for 135 million tons of greenhouse gases every year, or about 1.5 percent of all emissions.

So how does that break down for a family or an individual? The average family is responsible for about 1,800 pounds of emissions from food waste, while an individual contributes about 440 pounds a year, Venkat found. A typical car, meanwhile, emits about 9,000 pounds a year. The emissions from food waste don't include food eaten in restaurants or the energy used in cooking or packaging wasted food, however.

Enlarge USDA and CleanMetrics Corp.

Greenhouse gas emissions from wasted food: Comparing commodities

USDA and CleanMetrics Corp.

Greenhouse gas emissions from wasted food: Comparing commodities

But all this food that goes to rot isn't evenly distributed across the grocery store. For example, we waste about 35 percent of the chicken, fish and fruit we produce, while we only waste about 15 percent of the nuts and legumes on the market, according to USDA.

And some foods also have a much bigger impact on the climate than others. "If you compare beef to tomatoes, beef has a much higher footprint," says Venkat. "So if you're going to reduce waste, you need to prioritize."

And by the time the food has reached you, the consumer, a lot of those emissions are already on their way to the atmosphere. Venkat says that nearly 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions come from producing and processing food.

But not only does food waste make a sizable contribution to global warming – it's also a lot of money. Venkat calculated that if household food waste could be cut in half, a family of four could save $600 a year. And since there are no regulations that force companies or individuals to reduce their emissions yet, the opportunity to save money is probably the best incentive to reduce food waste there is, says Venkat.

But most people will always have some food waste no matter how hard they try to avoid it, and so the next best thing to do is compost it. That, at least, will keep it out of a landfill, where huge piles of decomposing material generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

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Leek soil linked to E. coli cases

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30 September 2011 Last updated at 00:31 GMT By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News Richard Westcott reports on the findings

Soil stuck on leeks and potatoes may have been the source of an E. coli outbreak in the UK earlier this year, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

There were 250 cases scattered across England, Wales and Scotland between December 2010 and July 2011.

The Food Standards Agency said it was a "myth" that dirt did no harm.

The HPA stressed that the vegetables were safe to eat, but reminded people to ensure their food was washed.

Most of the cases were mild, but 74 people needed to go to hospital and one patient, who had underlying health problems, died.

Details of the outbreak were reported weekly to health professionals, but have only just been publicised to the general public.

A spokesperson said: "At the outset it was not clear what was causing the outbreak and we had no information that would have enabled the public to take any steps to protect themselves."

The disease was caused by a rare strain of E. coli called O157 PT8 which is different from the strain that caused the widespread outbreak in Germany.

'Timely reminder'

Infected people were 40 times more likely to have been in a household where loose leeks were handled and 12 times more likely to have been in a household which bought sacked potatoes than people who stayed infection-free.

Dr Bob Adak, head of the HPA's outbreak control team, said: "The vegetables could have carried traces of contaminated soil.

"It is possible people caught the infection from cross-contamination in storage, inadequate washing of loose vegetables, insufficient hand washing after handling the vegetables or by failing to thoroughly clean kitchen equipment, utensils or surfaces after preparing the vegetables."

Dr Andrew Wadge, chief scientist at the Food Standards Agency, said: "It's sadly a myth that a little bit of dirt doesn't do you any harm.

"Soil can sometimes carry harmful bacteria and, although food producers have good systems in place to clean vegetables, the risk can never be entirely eliminated.

"This outbreak is a timely reminder that it is essential to wash all fruits and vegetables, including salad, before you eat them."

Leek and potato soil linked to E. coli outbreak

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Leek soil linked to E. coli cases

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30 September 2011 Last updated at 00:31 GMT By James Gallagher Health reporter, BBC News Richard Westcott reports on the findings

Soil stuck on leeks and potatoes may have been the source of an E. coli outbreak in the UK earlier this year, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

There were 250 cases scattered across England, Wales and Scotland between December 2010 and July 2011.

The Food Standards Agency said it was a "myth" that dirt did no harm.

The HPA stressed that the vegetables were safe to eat, but reminded people to ensure their food was washed.

Most of the cases were mild, but 74 people needed to go to hospital and one patient, who had underlying health problems, died.

Details of the outbreak were reported weekly to health professionals, but have only just been publicised to the general public.

A spokesperson said: "At the outset it was not clear what was causing the outbreak and we had no information that would have enabled the public to take any steps to protect themselves."

The disease was caused by a rare strain of E. coli called O157 PT8 which is different from the strain that caused the widespread outbreak in Germany.

'Timely reminder'

Infected people were 40 times more likely to have been in a household where loose leeks were handled and 12 times more likely to have been in a household which bought sacked potatoes than people who stayed infection-free.

Dr Bob Adak, head of the HPA's outbreak control team, said: "The vegetables could have carried traces of contaminated soil.

"It is possible people caught the infection from cross-contamination in storage, inadequate washing of loose vegetables, insufficient hand washing after handling the vegetables or by failing to thoroughly clean kitchen equipment, utensils or surfaces after preparing the vegetables."

Dr Andrew Wadge, chief scientist at the Food Standards Agency, said: "It's sadly a myth that a little bit of dirt doesn't do you any harm.

"Soil can sometimes carry harmful bacteria and, although food producers have good systems in place to clean vegetables, the risk can never be entirely eliminated.

"This outbreak is a timely reminder that it is essential to wash all fruits and vegetables, including salad, before you eat them."

Leek and potato soil linked to E. coli outbreak

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Diabetes again linked to colon cancer risk

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By Amy Norton

NEW YORK | Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:33pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new research review confirms that people with diabetes have a somewhat increased risk of colon cancer -- but the reasons for the connection, and what should be done about it, remain unclear.

Combining the results of 14 international studies, researchers found that overall, people with diabetes were 38 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer than those who were diabetes-free.

There was also a 20 percent increase in the risk of rectal cancer, though that appeared to be confined to men.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, do not prove that diabetes directly contributes to colon cancer in some people.

The results come from observational studies in which people with diabetes were found to have a higher risk of colon cancer than those without diabetes. In most of the studies, the researchers adjusted for at least some factors that might explain the link -- like older age, obesity and smoking -- and the diabetes-cancer connection remained.

However, there could still be other explanations.

"I think we can make the statement that diabetes is consistently associated with colorectal cancer," Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved the study, told Reuters Health in an email.

"The cause-and-effect aspect is a bit difficult to consider since diabetes is such a complex disease," said Giovannucci, who studies the underlying causes of colon cancer.

He said it seems likely that some aspect of diabetes contributes to colon cancer, but it's not certain what.

One theory is that hormones are involved.

People with diabetes tend to have high levels of the blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin, as well as related hormones called insulin-like growth factors. Those hormones cause cells to grow and spread, and that may include cancer cells.

Whatever the mechanism, if diabetes does contribute to colon cancer, it's not clear what the implications would be.

People with diabetes are not advised to get colon cancer screening any more often, or at a younger age, than people without diabetes, said Dr. Hiroki Yuhara, who led the new study while based at the University of California, Berkeley.

And it's not clear if that advice will change at any time in the future, Yuhara told Reuters Health in an email.

Experts recommend that most people start colon cancer screening at the age of 50, with any of several tests -- including stool tests that look for hidden blood, or invasive tests like sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.

People with certain risk factors for colon cancer -- like inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease or colitis) or a strong family history of the cancer -- are told to start screening earlier. Diabetes is not currently considered one of those risk factors.

And there's evidence that the link between diabetes and colon cancer risk may be weakening.

A study published last year by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS) found that among more than 184,000 older Americans followed for 15 years, men with type 2 diabetes were about one-quarter more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer than diabetes-free men were.

But that increase in risk was modest and, the researchers said, smaller than past studies had suggested.

What's more, there was no similar increase seen among women with type 2 diabetes. (The study was not included in the current analysis, which considered studies published from the 1990s through 2009, from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan.)

The ACS researchers speculated that the findings might reflect better diabetes control among Americans -- and women, in particular -- in recent years. A separate government study had shown that U.S. women with diabetes improved their long-term blood sugar control between 1999 and 2004.

In theory, better blood sugar control would mean lower insulin levels, which might affect colon cancer risk.

But that's speculation. For now, Giovannucci recommended that people focus on maintaining a healthy weight and getting regular exercise: Obesity is a risk factor for both diabetes and colon cancer.

According to Yuhara, people with diabetes should be aware of the link to colon cancer risk, and follow their doctors' advice on screening for the cancer.

It's estimated that just over 101,000 Americans will be diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011, while almost 40,000 will be told they have rectal cancer, according to the ACS. The average American has about a 1 in 20 lifetime chance of developing either cancer.

SOURCE: bit.ly/qJa6tK American Journal of Gastroenterology, online September 13, 2011.

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Irish dancer's baldness linked to hair pinning

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28 September 2011 Last updated at 15:24 GMT By Nuala McCann BBC News Pinning Irish dancing wigs to the hair may lead to hair loss, doctors warn The hair pins used to secure extravagant Irish dancing wigs may have led to a teenager's hair loss, two Irish doctors have warned.

In the Irish medical magazine, Hospital Doctor, they asked young Irish dancers to beware of pinning on heavy ringleted wigs.

Dr Sally Jane O'Shea and Dr Aoife Lally of St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, pointed to the case of a 16-year-old girl, who had a history of hair loss over three years.

However, Irish dancing teacher Linda Doherty from LegenDerry dancing school said she had never heard of the problem before.

"There is a risk with hair extensions and wigs and my heart goes out to this girl. But it's the first time I have heard of something like this," she added.

The teenager involved said she had found two distinct patches of hair loss on her head, but the hair grew back within two months.

A year later, the same thing happened but the hair grew back again. However, after a third bout of hair loss which lasted seven months, she attended the clinic.

The doctors discovered that she was a keen Irish dancer. They found that the pattern of her hair loss coincided with the annual Irish national dancing competitions.

"The sites of alopecia corresponded to those to which a wig, worn as part of her costume, had been fixed with hair clips," the doctors noted.

"Not only that, but March/April was the peak time for dancing national competitions."

They concluded that the girl had developed "traction alopecia" as a result of this hair pinning, which had eventually developed into scarring alopecia.

"Although initial hair loss is non-scarring, with repeated trauma, scarring alopecia may develop, which is similar to the clinical history of our patient," the doctors said.

They said it was surprising that more cases had not been described to date and they added that this unusual case "should be considered in patients of this age with similar interests".

The report appeared in issue 8 of Hospital Doctor of Ireland 2011, a clinical medical journal aimed at secondary care in Ireland which is edited by Shauna Rahman.

Ms Doherty, who has been an Irish dancer since the age of six, said she believed wigs were a safer alternative to hair styling.

"When the pupils buy wigs they are shown how to fit them safely and common sense tells you that you shouldn't wear them 24/7," she added.

"But for me it was quite a relief when I started to wear wigs. Before then I had to use rollers, which I think are worse for the hair."

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Diabetes again linked to colon cancer risk: study

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n">(Reuters) - People with diabetes have a somewhat increased risk of colon cancer, an international study said -- but the reasons for the connection, and what should be done about it, remain unclear.

Researchers headed by Hiroki Yuhara, at the University of California, Berkeley, combined the results of 14 international studies and found that, overall, people with diabetes were 38 percent more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer than those who were diabetes-free.

There was also a 20 percent increase in the risk of rectal cancer, though that appeared to be confined to men, according to the findings, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

"These data suggest that diabetes mellitus is an independent risk factor for colon and rectal cancer," Yuhara and his colleagues wrote.

The findings do not prove that diabetes directly contributes to colon cancer in some people.

The results come from observational studies in which people with diabetes were found to have a higher risk of colon cancer than those without diabetes. In most of the studies, the researchers adjusted for at least some factors that might explain the link -- like older age, obesity and smoking -- and the diabetes-cancer connection remained.

"I think we can make the statement that diabetes is consistently associated with colorectal cancer," said Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health, who was not involved in the study.

"The cause-and-effect aspect is a bit difficult to consider since diabetes is such a complex disease," he told Reuters Health in an email.

He said it seems likely that some aspect of diabetes contributes to colon cancer, but it's not certain what.

One theory is that hormones are involved.

People with Diabetes tend to have high levels of the blood-sugar-regulating hormone insulin, as well as related hormones called insulin-like growth factors. Those hormones cause cells to grow and spread, and that may include cancer cells.

If diabetes does contribute to colon cancer, it's not clear what the implications would be.

People with diabetes are not advised to get colon cancer screening any more often, or at a younger age, than people without diabetes, said Yuhara.

It's also not clear if that advice will change at any time in the future. Experts recommend that most people start colon cancer screening at the age of 50.

People with certain risk factors for colon cancer, such as a strong family history of the cancer, are told to start screening earlier. Diabetes is not currently considered one of those risk factors.

And there's evidence the link between diabetes and colon cancer risk may be weakening.

A study published last year by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS), and not included in the current analysis, found that among the 184,000 older U.S. residents followed for 15 years, men with type 2 diabetes were about one-quarter more likely to be diagnosed with colon cancer than diabetes-free men were.

But that increase in risk was modest, and smaller than past studies had suggested. In addition, there was no similar increase seen among women with type 2 diabetes.

The ACS researchers speculated that the findings might reflect better diabetes control among U.S. residents -- and women in particular -- in recent years. In theory, better blood control would mean lower insulin levels, which might affect colon cancer risk.

For now, Giovannucci recommended that people focus on maintaining a healthy weight and getting regular exercise.

The analysis included studies published from the 1990s through 2009, from the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan. SOURCE: bit.ly/qJa6tK

(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

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Kansas firm recalls cantaloupe linked to Listeria outbreak

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n">(Reuters) - A Kansas-based food processor recalled hundreds of pounds of fresh-cut cantaloupe on Friday because of possible Listeria contamination linked to melons from Colorado that were blamed for an outbreak that has killed eight people.

Carol's Cuts was recalling 594 pounds of cantaloupe packaged in 5-pound trays and as an ingredient in fruit medleys distributed in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, a recall notice posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website said.

In addition to the eight deaths, a total of 55 people in 14 states have been sickened from Listeria-tainted cantaloupes traced to melons grown at Colorado-based Jensen Farms Inc and sold under the brand name Rocky Ford.

"The Carol's Cuts recall is part of a larger recall involving cantaloupe traced to Rocky Ford cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms," the recall notice said.

"Consumers who may have the recalled Carol's Cuts product in their possession should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund or destroy it," it added.

The Food and Drug Administration said last week the tainted cantaloupes were shipped to 17 states. Not all states that have received shipments of the melons appear to have seen infections.

The recall notice said the fruit in the Carol's Cuts recall, which had use-by dates of September 19 at the latest, was sold to institutional customers including restaurants and may have been used in salad bars or as a fruit menu item.

The Colorado company linked to the outbreak, Jensen Farms, has voluntarily recalled its cantaloupes shipped between July 29 and September 10.

Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterial strain found in the tainted cantaloupes, thrives at low temperatures, the CDC said on its website. Infection can be particularly dangerous for elderly people, pregnant women and patients with weakened immune systems, health officials said.

Previous Listeria outbreaks linked to produce were traced to sprouts and celery.

(Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. FDA warns about cantaloupe linked to illness, deaths

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers on Thursday not to eat cantaloupe grown in part of Colorado after two deaths from what it said was the first Listeria outbreak traced to the melon.
Jensen Farms, grower of the cantaloupe in the Rocky Ford region of Colorado, voluntarily recalled the melons earlier in the week. The melons were sent to at least 17 states.
A specific strain of Listeria, a bacteria that can lead to a deadly flu-like illness, was found as the cause of 22 Listeriosis cases and traced back to the Jensen Farms cantaloupe, the FDA said.
Food-borne Listeria outbreaks are typically associated with deli meats and hot dogs, the FDA said. The only two produce-based outbreaks of listeria were from sprouts in 2009 and fresh-cut celery in 2010, according to the FDA.
In the current outbreak, people were infected in seven states -- 12 in Colorado, four in New Mexico, two in Texas, and one in Oklahoma, Nebraska, Indiana and West Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In Colorado, a man filed a lawsuit against Jensen Farms and Wal-Mart Stores Inc after falling ill from a cantaloupe he purchased from one of the retail giant's stores, law firm Montgomery Little & Soran, PC said on Thursday.
Charles Palmer, 71, said in the complaint filed in El Paso County District Court that he has been hospitalized for more than two weeks with Listeriosis after eating cantaloupe grown by Jensen Farms in Colorado's Arkansas Valley.
Palmer was rushed to a hospital on August 31 after his wife said he was unresponsive days after eating a cantaloupe bought at a Colorado Springs Wal-Mart, the lawsuit said.
Greg Rossiter, spokesman for Wal-Mart, said the company wishes Palmer well, and was conducting an investigation.
He said that out of "an abundance of caution," the retailer pulled all Rocky Ford cantaloupes from its shelves after officials identified the Colorado connection.
Jensen Farms voluntarily recalled all the cantaloupes it shipped to 17 states between July 29 and September 10, Ryan Jensen, a partner in the farm, said in a statement.
"Jensen Farms continues to stay committed to the highest levels of food safety and maintains many third party safety audits, as we have for many years," he said. "We continually look for ways to enhance our protocol."
Palmer's attorney, William Marler, said in a statement that the farm and Wal-Mart have "a public responsibility to all consumers to sell and distribute food that is free and clear of all adulterants."
"In this case, a lapse in food safety assurance has relegated an innocent man to a hospital bed for a long time," he said.
The FDA specifically cautioned older adults, people with immune system diseases and pregnant women from eating cantaloupe grown in the Rocky Ford region.
The recall was in effect for Illinois, Wyoming, Tennessee, Utah, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The FDA said the cantaloupe might be in other states as well.
(Additional reporting by Keith Coffman in Colorado; Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Pattern of drinking linked to alcohol's effect on heart health

For the first time, new research shows that patterns of alcohol consumption - a drink or two every night, or several cocktails on Friday and Saturday nights only - may be more important in determining alcohol's influence on heart health than the total amount consumed.
In the journal Atherosclerosis, scientists found that daily moderate drinking - the equivalent of two drinks per day, seven days a week - decreased atherosclerosis in mice, while binge drinking - the equivalent of seven drinks a day, two days a week - increased development of the disease. Atherosclerosis, or the hardening and narrowing of arteries, is a serious condition that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
While population studies support an association between alcohol and cardiovascular disease, they've relied on self-reported data, which is not always accurate or reliable. According to study authors, this is the first study to provide concrete evidence linking drinking patterns to the development of vascular disease, and the nearly 15 percent of Americans who binge drink - as estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - should take note.
"People need to consider not only how much alcohol they drink, but the way in which they are drinking it," said lead study author John Cullen, Ph.D., research associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "Research shows that people have yet to be convinced of the dangers of binge drinking to their health; we're hoping our work changes that."
Scientists don't yet understand how moderate alcohol consumption benefits cardiovascular health or how heavy drinking episodes hurt it.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge or "at-risk" drinking as consuming more than four drinks on any day for men, and more than three drinks on any day for women. Understanding how much alcohol is in a "standard" drink is also critical, something the institute is promoting through its new "Rethinking Drinking" campaign.
Health care professionals also need to be aware that drinking style matters and should address the issue when discussing alcohol consumption with patients, especially those who are at higher risk of atherosclerosis or who have suffered a heart attack in the past, added Cullen.
"This evidence is very interesting because it supports a pattern of drinking that is emerging in clinical studies as both safe and seemingly most protective against heart disease - frequent consumption of limited amounts of alcohol. This certainly backs up widespread clinical guidelines that limit drinking to one drink daily for non-pregnant women and two drinks daily for men," said Kenneth Mukamal, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies the role of dietary and lifestyle factors, particularly alcohol consumption, on the incidence of cardiovascular and neurovascular disease.
In the study, mice in the "daily-moderate" group were fed ethanol equivalent to two drinks every day of the week, mice in the "weekend-binge" group were fed approximately seven drinks on two days of the week and mice in the control group were fed a non-alcoholic cornstarch mix. All mice were put on an atherogenic diet, which Cullen equates to a high-fat Western diet - think fried food every day - to encourage the development of atherosclerosis, which forms when fatty deposits or plaque collect on the inner walls of the arteries, causing them to narrow.
Levels of LDL or "bad" cholesterol plummeted 40 percent in the daily-moderate drinking mice, but rose 20 percent in the weekend-binge drinking mice, compared to the no-alcohol controls. High levels of bad cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease, and past studies show that every 10 percent increase in LDL results in a 20 percent increase in atherosclerosis risk.
Surprisingly, levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol went up in both the moderate and binge drinking groups, which Cullen speculates is an acute or short-term effect.
The volume of plaque, as well as the accumulation of immune cells that promote inflammation and consequently contribute to the narrowing of arteries, decreased in the moderate mice compared to no-alcohol mice. The opposite occured in the binge-drinking mice: Plaque volume and the number of inflammatory immune cells grew.
Another unexpected yet noteworthy finding was that the binge drinking mice gained significantly more weight than the moderate and control mice. Though all mice started at approximately the same weight and consumed similar amounts of food over the course of the study, the binge mice gained more than three times as much weight as the moderate mice and about twice as much weight as the control mice.
Building on this study, Cullen is investigating genes that are turned on or off following moderate and binge drinking episodes to determine if they influence outcomes.
The research was supported in part by the Founders Affiliate of the American Heart Association, which supports research exploring new ideas to combat cardiovascular disease. Founders Affiliate research committee chair Lucy Liaw, Ph.D. said these first-time findings could have far-reaching public health implications. "The discoveries of Dr. Cullen's group show that binge drinkers may have increased risk of developing atherosclerosis and experiencing weight gain. Because obesity is also a risk factor for disease, binge drinking may have a strong negative impact on cardiovascular health," said Liaw, who is also a member of the AHA national research committee.
The study was also funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Cullen, Weimin Liu, M.D., Ph.D., Eileen Redmond, Ph.D. and David Morrow, Ph.D. from the Medical Center contributed to the research.
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.

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