Recently in Surveillance Category

Again, we see the scams perpetrated by the OTC vitamin companies. Over-the-counter fish oil capsules are usually 300 milligrams of eicosopentanoic acid (EPA) and docosohexanoic acid (DHA) each; the dosage needed to reduce triglycerides is over 3,000 milligrams of EPA and DHA, or greater than 10 capsules. Researchers are using a highly purified form of fish oil made only of EPA.

Sugar should be controlled like alcohol and tobacco to protect public health, according to a team of UCSF researchers, who maintain in a new report that sugar is fueling a global obesity pandemic, contributing to 35 million deaths annually worldwide from non-communicable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Many of the interventions that have reduced alcohol and tobacco consumption can be models for addressing the sugar problem, such as levying special sales taxes, controlling access, and tightening licensing requirements on vending machines and snack bars that sell high sugar products in schools and workplaces. These recommendations show the tendency of some people interest in public health Gotten the seven deadly sins of public health noted in Harvey Fineberg's monograph published this week by the Institute of Medicine which include Sloth, Greed, Ignorance, Complacency, Timidity, Obstinacy & Arrogance. The tendency of some academics to lose touch with reality of what goes on outside the University is typical in things that laws change behaviors, they rarely do.  Further, once an item is made into a wall there is a tendency to tamper with it that every possible opportunity making the original intent far worse than anticipated. The recommendations in this research is would move us even farther toward total “Nanny” state.  

Drinking three cups each day for six months lowered both diastolic and systolic blood pressure by 2 to 3 mm, according to Jonathan Hodgson, PhD, of the University of Western Australia in Perth, and colleagues. Following a randomized trial that included 95 men and women ages 35 to 75 (mean age 56 for men and 57 for women) who were regular tea drinkers. Comment: It is important to differentiate between statistically and clinically significant results. This was a poor study using a small population who were already tea drinkers and with very small numbers when the subgroup were divided by age and sex, and no history given of length and strength of previous tea drinking.

A new analysis has found that a substantial number of lung and colorectal cancer patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed.
The investigators determined smoking rates around the time of diagnosis and five months after diagnosis in 5,338 lung and colorectal cancer patients. At diagnosis, 39 percent of lung cancer patients and 14 percent of colorectal cancer patients were smoking; five months later, 14 percent of lung cancer patients and 9 percent of colorectal cancer patients were still smoking. A substantial minority of cancer patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed. <strong>Comment:</strong> Adverse behaviors are very difficult to prevent, even when it is clear that they may be an imminent cause of death.

Boston, Mass; because of care advances, more infants and children with previously lethal health problems are surviving. Many, however, are left with lifelong neurologic impairment.  The researchers analyzed KID data from 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006, encompassing 25.7 million hospitalizations of children age 0 to 18. Of these, 1.3 million hospitalizations were for children with neurologic conditions, primarily cerebral palsy and epilepsy. Comment: not only does the cost of care go up as neurologically damaged children increase in age but the cost to the educational systems for these children in school is often in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. More effort needs to go into prevention to reduce cerebral palsy and prevent other neurological damage. Perhaps consideration should be given to the preconceptual counseling as children pass through puberty to understand how pregnancy can be dangerous to them and their offspring, without considering family history and potential genetic injury..

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2012) — The use of statins in postmenopausal women is associated with increased diabetes risk, according to a study published Online First by the Archives of Internal Medicine. In this study, researchers used WHI data through 2005 and included 153,840 women without diabetes and with a mean (average) age of 63.2 years. While this is a reminder that many useful medications have side effects and that men's health and women's health before this data is a retrospective analysis of cohort has all the limitations associated with such studies and needs confirmation with a prospective blinded study before policy recommendations can be considered.

This consensus statement is the result of significant studies published in the article quoted below, and the risk of one hour of sexual activity the week is said to be less than one per 10,000 person years of exposure. While additional guidelines are provided such as the risk from extra marital sex and likelihood that if you cannot climb two sets of stairs without getting angina you may have a problem, the data gives very little information that can be used for a specific individual unless an extensive cardiovascular workup is performed.  Such costs may well be prohibitive while it is unlikely that a person who really wants to indulge in sexual activity is going to be deterred by this study, despite all the warnings in the Viagra and similar commercials. Circulation.  2012: published online before print Jan. 19 , 2012,

The Washington Post (1/19, Brown) reports, "About 20 percent of American adults suffer some sort of mental illness each year, and about five percent experience a serious disorder that disrupts work, family or social life, according to a government report released Thursday" by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)." One has to consider how mental illness is diagnosed and  that deviations from a totally sedate life without any deviation towards either anxiety or depression is rare. I found this just another of those statements that shows how adverse the American public is toward risk and how so many people want a specialist to provide a pill for any deviation from normal, whatever that is. Sure statements as the above only increase the cost of healthcare with no evidence that there is any benefit.

in a report in Medpage today we learn that 100 headphone-wearing American pedestrians have been struck by trains, cars, or other vehicles since 2004. The question should be at what level of injury and death in a population over 300 million should new protective (restrictive) laws they developed. This is no different to the current questions about the use of cell phones and texting technology in motor vehicles. When people injure themselves due to their own behaviors this is different from when they injure others, even then there needs to be consideration about when the government is responsible for individual behaviors.  There is little data to show that many interventions have worked other than the use of seatbelts in cars and the intensive advertising about the danger of smoking..

If new guidelines are adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 200000 more children would be need to be treated for lead poisoning. Previously, the standard for lead poisoning was ten micrograms per deciliter of blood and a reduction to 5 µg is being considered. However rather than being enthused that 200,000 more children need to be treated, why is it so hard to focus on prevention. More than 40 years ago in Portsmouth, Virginia, the City Council required that no rental housing 's be leased without first checking for potential lead poisoning and remediation before occupancy. Many millions of children, particularly those in inadequate housing would not have been subject to lead poisoning and reduced mental capacity and adverse behaviors. It is high time that CDC focus more on prevention of lead poisoning than just reducing the testing level for lead poisoning.