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More Salt, Fewer Whole Grains: USDA Eases School Lunch Nutrition Rules

by | Dec 7, 2018 | Education, Food & Drink, Health & Medicine | 0 comments

The Trump administration is giving schools more flexibility in the meals they serve. Critics say the rollback on school lunch rules is bad for kids’ health.

I don’t read a shred of rational logic in any part of this decision. It’s nearly incomprehensible that this rollback could be justified by anyone with a straight face. When the logic is hard to see, the real reason is almost always one thing. Money.

School lunches are healthier than they were five years ago. But Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says schools need more flexibility in serving meals that kids will eat.

“If kids are not eating what is being served, they are not benefiting, and food is being wasted,” Perdue said in a statement announcing a rule that is set to be published later this month.

The rule will give administrators more leeway in serving up white breads, biscuits, tortillas and white pastas by requiring that only half of the grains served in school meals each week be whole-grain rich. Currently schools are only allowed to serve whole grain-rich breads and pastas unless they get a waiver. In addition, the administration is putting the brakes on the targets developed during the Obama administration to cut back on sodium.

Read the full article. More Salt, Fewer Whole Grains: USDA Eases School Lunch Nutrition Rules –

Toxic metal cadmium found in chain stores’ jewelry for adults

by | Oct 11, 2018 | Health & Medicine | 0 comments

This is why costume jewelry is best avoided. Certainly, anything from China.Stick with quality metals and designs from individual artisans, you know, or at least, have a reputation.

October 11, 2018, CBS News

LOS ANGELES — Jewelry with the toxic metal cadmium is showing up on the shelves of national retailers including Ross, Nordstrom Rack and Papaya, according to newly released test results.

Analysis done for the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health revealed some jewelry sold with women’s dresses and shirts was nearly pure cadmium, which can cause cancer and reproductive harm after prolonged exposure.

Consumer advocates were hopeful cadmium had disappeared from the U.S. jewelry market following changes prompted by a 2010 Associated Press investigation that found Chinese manufacturers were using the metal to make kids’ jewelry. States including California outlawed cadmium in children’s jewelry, and testing by the center found the chemical had virtually disappeared from jewelry by 2012.

No laws address cadmium in adult jewelry, however, and last year the center decided to check those products. Lab testing found 31 adult jewelry items purchased from retail stores were at least 40 percent cadmium, and most were more than 90 percent, according to results shared exclusively with the AP.

California’s law allows no more than 0.03 percent cadmium in children’s jewelry. The precise health risk from the tested jewelry is unclear because researchers did not assess whether small amounts shed when the jewelry is handled and worn.

Over time, cadmium accumulates in the body and can damage the kidneys and bones. Most exposure happens by ingesting small amounts or by breathing it, most commonly through tobacco, which can contain cadmium. Researchers also have documented some absorption through skin contact, though the phenomenon is not well-studied.

Michael Harbut, a practicing doctor who as a university professor has researched cadmium’s cancer-causing properties, noted that contact can trigger skin rashes including psoriasis.

“Cadmium is bad,” said Harbut, who teaches at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine. “Given a choice between wearing something with cadmium in it, or wearing something without cadmium in it, I would take the product without cadmium.”

The Oakland-based nonprofit bought all the test samples in the San Francisco Bay Area this year or last. The extent to which contaminated jewelry is in stores elsewhere isn’t clear, though a national retailer would not typically limit a product to just one region.

The center said the problem should not be underestimated because of the limited market sampling.

“If you’re the person that buys and is wearing that jewelry, you don’t really care whether it’s a common problem or a rare problem,” said Caroline Cox, senior scientist at the center. “You have a problem.”

Brent Cleaveland, executive director of the Fashion Jewelry and Accessories Trade Association, said he does not believe the test results suggest a larger problem. Most major retailers have a stringent system for testing and analyzing what they sell, he said.

Most of the tainted items were sold at Ross, which operates more than 1,400 stores in 38 states. One pendant from a necklace chain was 100 percent cadmium, according to the testing.

In a written statement, Ross said it is committed to protecting its customers and has “addressed this issue with our supplier.” The retailer would not say whether it pulled suspect jewelry from stores.

The brands found with high cadmium levels in Ross stores include Tacera and Vibe Sportswear.

Xinwei Xie, chief executive officer at Trend Textile Inc., which owns Tacera, declined to comment when reached by phone. The Skate Group Inc., which owns Vibe Sportswear, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Papaya said it considers cadmium in its products a serious problem. It operates more than 100 retail locations nationwide.

Steven Kim, an attorney representing Papaya, said the company has recalled the products where contamination was found and stopped buying from the manufacturer in China.

“Our manufacturers are required to represent and warrant that their products are in legal compliance,” Kim said. “Papaya is very strict and stops doing business with any manufacturer which fails to comply.”Nordstrom spokeswoman Emily Sterken said the company is “reaching out to these vendors to make them aware of the situation and get more information on these items.”The Center for Environmental Health has long used California law to force companies to reduce levels of harmful materials in consumer products, including cadmium and lead in jewelry.

Under the state’s Proposition 65, businesses must inform consumers about significant exposures to chemicals that cause cancer or other reproductive harm. The nonprofit has settled Proposition 65 claims against 36 companies, including Gap Inc. and Target Corp., which agreed to not sell jewelry with more than 0.03 percent cadmium.

That limit for children’s jewelry took effect after the AP reported in 2010 that some Chinese jewelry manufacturers were substituting cadmium for lead, the use of which Congress clamped down on following a string of imported-product safety scandals.

The jewelry industry helped write voluntary U.S. standards following the AP investigation, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission did not mandate any cadmium limits.

Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/toxic-metal-cadmium-found-in-chain-stores-jewelry-for-adults/

Alcohol and Cancer Risk

by | Sep 17, 2018 | Food & Drink, Health & Medicine | 0 comments

I still drink, but way less than I used to. I started gradually to move away from it some two years ago. I love a good red, but more than a glass is a rarity for me these days. Martinis? Mixed drinks? Beer? Love’em all, but I just get plastered so easily with two or more of anything, that, I started wondering, what am I doing this to myself for? I feel better without the levels I used to consume. Better 24/7.

I think the research and connections are coherent. The risk is there, and I think it is better to err on the side of caution all around. Alcohol is a toxin. Plain and simple.

Sooo, after you read the NIH guidelines, what this means is, almost every martini is going to count as two drinks, and, you can bet the farm that any glass of wine you pour yourself at home will count as two drinks. Read on and then ask yourself if you are considered a moderate or heavy drinker? Whaaahahahahaha! 😀 😀

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a standard alcoholic drink in the United States contains 14.0 grams (0.6 ounces) of pure alcohol. Generally, this amount of pure alcohol is found in

  • 12 ounces of beer
  • 8-9 ounces of malt liquor
  • 5 ounces of wine
  • 1.5 ounces, or a “shot,” of 80-proof distilled spirits (liquor)

These amounts are used by public health experts in developing health guidelines about alcohol consumption and to provide a way for people to compare the amounts of alcohol they consume. However, they may not reflect the typical serving sizes people may encounter in daily life.

According to the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020, individuals who do not drink alcohol should not start drinking for any reason. It recommends that if alcohol is consumed, it should be done in moderation and defines moderate alcohol drinking as up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men. Heavy alcohol drinking is defined as having 4 or more drinks on any day or 8 or more drinks per week for women and 5 or more drinks on any day or 15 or more drinks per week for men. Binge drinking is defined as consuming 4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more drinks for men in one sitting (typically in about 2 hours).

For the rest of this from the NIH>National Cancer Institute website, click here>

More Screen Time For Teens Linked To ADHD Symptoms

by | Jul 17, 2018 | Family, Health & Medicine, Technology/Internet | 0 comments

Definitive, preventative action from responsible parties, should not be postponed because there is not a direct connections proven.
Open eyes see the way teens, already behave – necks bent, preoccupied checking their phones, bizarrely concerned with every post on social media, or checking their scores from online gaming.

Common sense is losing ground.

July 17, 201812:25 PM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

Most teens today own a smartphone and go online every day, and about a quarter of them use the internet “almost constantly,” according to a 2015 report by the Pew Research Center.

Now a study published Tuesday in JAMA suggests that such frequent use of digital media by adolescents might increase their odds of developing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“It’s one of the first studies to look at modern digital media and ADHD risk,” says psychologist Adam Leventhal, an associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California and an author of the study.

When considered with previous research showing that greater social media use is associated with depression in teens, the new study suggests that “excessive digital media use doesn’t seem to be great for [their] mental health,” he adds.

Previous research has shown that watching television or playing video games on a console put teenagers at a slightly higher risk of developing ADHD behaviors. But less is known about the impact of computers, tablets and smartphones.

Because these tools have evolved very rapidly, there’s been little research into the impact of these new technologies on us, says Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan, who wrote an editorial about the new study for JAMA.

Each new platform reaches millions of people worldwide in a matter of days or weeks, she says. “Angry Birds reached 50 million users within 35 days. Pokémon Go reached the same number in 19 days.”

Research into their effects hasn’t been able to keep pace with the technological evolution, she adds.

“So it’s nice to finally to have some evidence on longer term impact that [these technologies are] having on children,” says Radesky.”I think it shows that something is going on, that there is an association, even if small, between these type[s] of media use habits throughout the day with emerging inattention, trouble with focusing, resisting distraction, controlling your impulses.”

The study followed 2,587 10th graders in schools in Los Angeles county over two years. The teens showed no symptoms of ADHD at the beginning of the study. By the end, teens with more frequent digital media use were more likely to have symptoms of ADHD.

The researchers assessed the students using a standardized questionnaire for ADHD symptoms, including nine symptoms each for inattention and hyperactivity. Students with six or more symptoms in either category were counted as having symptoms of the disorder, based on criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders.

During the two years of the study, the researchers surveyed the teens every six months and asked them about the frequency of their participation in 14 different kinds of online activities such as texting, sharing on social media and streaming videos or music.

About half of the students said they check social media sites and text many times every day.

“These results show that teens are really attached to their [digital] technologies, throughout the day,” says Radesky, who wasn’t involved in the new study. “It really captured the pervasive design that so many of these mobile technologies have taken on.”

By and large, students who frequently used six or more activities had a higher likelihood of developing ADHD symptoms.

For instance, among the 51 students who frequently did all 14 online activities, 10.5 percent showed ADHD symptoms over the course of the study. And of the 114 teens who frequently did seven digital activities, 9.5 showed symptoms. In contrast, only 4.6 percent of the 495 kids who didn’t do any of the activities frequently had new ADHD symptoms over the two-year period.

In other words, teens who were high frequency users of seven or 14 digital media platforms were more than twice as likely to develop ADHD symptoms than teens who did not use any media platform at a high frequency rate, notes Leventhal.

He and his colleagues statistically controlled for other potential confounding factors like family income level, race/ethnicity and pre-existing mental health conditions.Leventhal is quick to caution that his study does not prove that being plugged into their devices caused ADHD among teens. “We don’t know that,” he says.

Showing ADHD symptoms is not the same as ADHD diagnosis,which is a multi-step process that involves a clinician in addition to the questionnaire. The study did not diagnose any of the kids with ADHD.

The study doesn’t prove causation — it finds an association. Still, because the study involved students who did not show symptoms in the beginning, the results give some cause for concern, Leventhal says. “To have 10-ish percent [of the high frequency media users] have the occurrence of new symptoms is fairly high,” he says.

Starting the study with kids who did not have ADHD at baseline was “a smart choice.” notes Radesky. “It helps reduce the chicken and egg situation.”

One of the strengths of the study is that it included a large number of teens from a diverse backgrounds, because “sociodemographic diversity has been a limitation of prior studies on digital media,” she writes in the JAMA editorial.

While the study doesn’t show that all children are at risk of developing problems with attention and hyperactivity, “there is probably a sub-sample of kids who are more vulnerable,” notes Radesky.
For example, the study found that children with mental health problems were more likely to develop these symptoms.

“That’s important because those are the kids who are doing their emotional expression online,” says Radesky. “They might be getting into more drama online, getting into more cyber bullying. And that can definitely be dysregulating and affect your ability to focus on things.”

However, the study did have some limitations, she notes.

“There are other things changing over time that might explain the results you’re seeing,” she says. “In this case, they did not collect data on teenagers’ sleep. They didn’t have information on what the family dynamics were like at home, you know how involved were the parents? … How much media is being used at home by the parents?”

Previous studies have shown that social media use is associated with disturbed sleep, which could itself affect children’s ability to focus in school and that might manifest in ADHD-like symptoms.
Similarly, “the more parents are on their phone, the more teens are likely to be as well,” adds Radesky.

Radesky, who co-wrote the American Academy of Pediatrics’ media use guidelines, says that she recommends parents and their children pause and reflect on how they use media, so children can understand the benefits and pitfalls of their online habits.

“I’d really like teenagers to develop a sense of tech savviness … so they don’t all feel this pressure to be online constantly in order to feel social relevance or acceptance,” she says.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/17/629517464/more-screen-time-for-teens-may-fuel-adhd-symptoms?sc=17&f=1001&utm_source=iosnewsapp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=app

Anthem Says Eye Surgeons Should Monitor Cataract Anesthesia Themselves

by | Feb 20, 2018 | Health & Medicine | 0 comments

Royal Australian Navy Lt. Elizabeth Livingstone and Singapore Army Maj. Paul Zhao perform cataract surgery aboard the hospital ship USNS Mercy during a visit to Quy Nhon, Vietnam in 2010.

There is no way I would allow ANY doctor to administer anesthesia on me instead of anesthesiologist. This is awful and should not be tolerated.States and medical associations should organize and fight back on this, in Washington, if necessary.

Michelle Andrews, NPR

If you need cataract surgery, your eye surgeon may have to do double duty as your anesthetist under a new policy by health insurer Anthem. In a clinical guideline released this month, the company says it’s not medically necessary to have an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist on hand to administer and monitor sedation in most cases.

Some ophthalmologists and anesthesiologists say the policy jeopardizes patient safety, and they are calling on Anthem to rescind it.

“The presence of anesthesia personnel is one of the key ingredients in the patient safety and effectiveness of cataract surgery today,” says Dr. David Glasser, an ophthalmologist in Columbia, Md., who is secretary for federal affairs at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, a professional group for eye physicians and surgeons. “An ophthalmologist cannot administer conscious sedation and monitor the patient and do cataract surgery at the same time.”

Read the full article>