Cellphone cancer warning falls lightly on US ears

NEW YORK   News last week that an arm of the World Health Organization said cellphones might raise the risk of brain cancer has been greeted by Americans mostly with a shrug of the shoulder – one that’s pinning a cellphone to the ear.

Google searches for “cancer” and “cellphones” spiked this week. And some people vowed to get headsets to shield themselves from radiation. But most seemed to either dismiss the warning as too vague, or reason that if the most useful device in modern life poses a serious health risk, then so be it.

“I was watching the news about it, and I thought, `I’m already screwed because I’ve been talking on the phone for seven years,'” said Genevieve Chamorro, a 31-year-old New Yorker who was shopping for a phone.

John Gottani, a manager at a cellphone store in New York, said he’s been selling phones for six years and has never heard anyone ask if they cause cancer. The only things customers really care about, Gottani said, are “if it works, and if it texts.”

The International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed dozens of published studies on cellphones and cancer before classifying cellphones as “possibly carcinogenic” on Tuesday. It’s a risk category that includes night-shift work, engine exhaust and coffee.

Studies haven’t been able to rule out a link between cellphones and cancer. But experts say that if there is a link, it’s unlikely to be strong. Cellphones emit weak radio waves, which, under the conventional understanding of physics, can’t wreak the same sort of cellular changes that sunlight and radioactivity can.

A common tip offered to those who want to reduce their exposure to cellphone radiation is to use a headset. Even wireless Bluetooth headsets reduce radiation exposure. Though they emit radio signals of their own, they’re much weaker than cellphone signals.

But there seems to be little rush to get Bluetooth headsets. They’ve been declining in popularity for at least four years, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. It’s also found that most headset owners don’t intend to replace the one they have when it wears out.

According to Strategy Analytics analyst Chris Schreiner, the main reason is that when you’re wearing a Bluetooth headset, you look like a person who’s wearing a Bluetooth headset.

“Style has always been a huge issue in terms of Bluetooth headsets,” Schreiner said.

On Twitter this week, the most common posts mentioning “headset” and “cancer” have been repeats of a joke from humor site Someecards.com: “I can’t decide between being seen wearing a Bluetooth headset or just getting brain cancer.”

Cellphones differ in how much radiation they emit. Proposals in a few states would force cellphone stores to display these radiation ratings.

But CTIA-The Wireless Association, the cellphone industry trade group, is fighting these moves. It says there’s no evidence the measured ratings have any correlation with risks. And cellphone manufacturers and carriers are showing no sign of breaking ranks with each other to use the ratings to their advantage – for instance, by touting “low-radiation phones.”

Spokesman John Walls said CTIA wouldn’t fight a manufacturer that wanted to market a “low-radiation phone.” But claiming a phone to be safer than any other would cross the line, he said.

“They’re all deemed safe by science,” Walls said.

Americans on average talk about 700 minutes a month on their cellphones, making them some of the most talkative people in the world, well ahead of Europeans.

In San Francisco, Chuck Luter, 42, said he doesn’t plan to change his habits as a result of the radiation warning. When the advertising-shoot prop stylist talks on his Sidekick phone, he usually uses the speakerphone, so it’s not close to his head.

And in any case, he texts more than he talks. Besides, he added, there are few alternatives to owning a cellphone.

“What are the other options? To not have one? To try to keep it all in your head? There are so many bad things for you – just add this to the pile.”

Alzheimer’s drug hits two forms of toxic protein

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Early studies suggest an experimental Alzheimer’s drug attacks free-floating bits of a protein called beta amyloid, a sign the drug may fight what some researchers consider to be the disease’s chief culprit.Bapineuzumab, being developed by Pfizer Inc and Johnson & Johnson, is among the most advanced in the search for effective treatments for Alzheimer’s, a fatal brain-wasting disease that affects 26 million people globally.Current drugs only address symptoms, and recent attempts by Eli Lilly and Co and Medivation Inc for a meaningful treatment have largely failed.

A small brain imaging study last year showed bapineuzumab was able to shrink solid clumps of beta amyloid in the brain by 25 percent in 28 patients.But several recent studies in mice and rats suggest that the much smaller floating, or soluble, pieces of beta amyloid found in cerebrospinal fluid – the clear, watery substance that bathes the brain and spinal cord — are the real bad actors in Alzheimer’s disease.

That has raised questions about whether bapineuzumab — an engineered immune-system molecule called a monoclonal antibody — is targeting the wrong thing.To study this, researchers at J&J did a series of studies in mice and cells. They suggested that the drug not only binds to soluble beta amyloid, but also may neutralize some of the protein’s ability to harm brain cells.

“We can feel very comfortable that it is engaging both soluble and insoluble forms,” said Gene Kinney, head of research for J&J’s Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, who worked on the studies presented at an Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease meeting in Barcelona on Thursday.In one study, the team showed that injecting the drug in mice bred to develop amyloid plaques helped them overcome learning problems.

“What it suggests is you’ve got an antibody approach that can interact with both forms of amyloid,” Kinney told Reuters in a telephone interview.Kinney is not ready to concede that soluble amyloid is more important than insoluble amyloid.

“In our minds there is significant evidence that both the soluble and insoluble forms contribute to the disease, and it is likely an ongoing process that occurs as patients progress,” he said.Bapineuzumab has had mixed results in a mid-stage clinical trials in people and the drug is now being tested in late-stage studies that aim to show whether it can prevent reasoning problems in people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s.

 

Speaking 2 languages may delay getting Alzheimer’s

WASHINGTON Mastering a second language can pump up your brain in ways that seem to delay getting Alzheimer’s disease later on, scientists said Friday.Never learned to habla or parlez? While the new research focuses mostly on the truly long-term bilingual, scientists say even people who tackle a new language later in life stand to gain.The more proficient you become, the better, but “every little bit helps,” said Ellen Bialystok, a psychology professor at York University in Toronto.

Much of the study of bilingualism has centered on babies, as scientists wondered why simply speaking to infants in two languages allows them to learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. Their brains seem to become more flexible, better able to multitask. As they grow up, their brains show better “executive control,” a system key to higher functioning – as Bialystok puts it, “the most important part of your mind.”But does that mental juggling while you’re young translate into protection against cognitive decline when you’re old?

Bialystok studied 450 Alzheimer’s patients, all of whom showed the same degree of impairment at the time of diagnosis. Half are bilingual – they’ve spoken two languages regularly for most of their lives. The rest are monolingual.The bilingual patients had Alzheimer’s symptoms and were diagnosed between four and five years later than the patients who spoke only one language, she told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Being bilingual does nothing to prevent Alzheimer’s disease from striking. But once the disease does begin its silent attack, those years of robust executive control provide a buffer so that symptoms don’t become apparent as quickly, Bialystok said.”They’ve been able to cope with the disease,” she said.Her work supports an earlier study from other researchers that also found a protective effect.What is it about being bilingual that enhances that all-important executive control system?

Both languages are essentially turned on all the time, but the brain learns to inhibit the one you don’t need, said psychology professor Teresa Bajo of the University of Granada in Spain. That’s pretty constant activity.That’s not the only area. University of British Columbia psychologist Janet Werker studies infants exposed to two languages from birth to see why they don’t confuse the two, and says bilingual babies learn very early to pay attention better.

Werker tested babies in Spain who were growing up learning both Spanish and Catalan. She showed the babies videos of women speaking languages they’d never heard – English and French – but with the sound off. By measuring the tots’ attention span, Werker concluded that babies could distinguish between English and French simply by watching the speakers’ facial cues. It could have been the different lip shapes.”It looks like French people are always kissing,” she joked, while the English “th” sound evokes a distinctive lip-in-teeth shape.Whatever the cues, monolingual babies couldn’t tell the difference, Werker said Friday at the meeting.

But what if you weren’t lucky enough to be raised bilingual? Scientists and educators know that it becomes far harder to learn a new language after puberty.Partly that’s because adults’ brains are so bombarded with other demands that we don’t give learning a new language the same attention that a young child does, Bialystok said.

At the University of Maryland, scientists are studying how to identify adults who would be good candidates to master a new language, and then what types of training are best. Having a pretty strong executive control system, like the lifelong bilinguals have, is among the good predictive factors, said Amy Weinberg, deputy director of the university’s Center for Advanced Study of Language.

But people don’t have to master a new language to benefit some, Bialystok said. Exercising your brain throughout life contributes to what’s called cognitive reserve, the overall ability to withstand the declines of aging and disease. That’s the basis of the use-it-or-lose-it advice from aging experts who also recommend such things as crossword puzzles to keep your brain nimble.”If you start to learn at 40, 50, 60, you are certainly keeping your brain active,” she said.(AP)

Woman can speak again after voice box transplant

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-A 52-year-old woman who underwent a rare voice box transplant has been reunited with the surgical team that helped restore her natural voice.Brenda Charett Jensen was in danger of having her real voice silenced forever because of vocal cord damage. She is now able to speak again.

Jensen reunited with her doctors Thursday in Sacramento, her first public appearance since undergoing the surgery last October.Doctors say Jensen is only the second person to undergo a successful larynx transplant in the United States.Jensen damaged her vocal cords more than a decade ago after she repeatedly pulled out her breathing tube while under sedation in the hospital. Before the latest operation, she “talked” with the help of a hand-held device that sounds an electronic voice.

She still breathes with the help of a tracheotomy tube and is relearning how to swallow.In 1998, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic restored the voice of Timothy Heidler after a motorcycle accident.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

A woman is able to speak again after she had a rare operation to replace her voice box, her doctors said.Brenda Charett Jensen, 52, will reunite on Thursday with the international team of surgeons who performed the transplant last October. Jensen is only the second person in the world to have a successful larynx transplant.Jensen damaged her vocal cords more than a decade ago after she repeatedly pulled out her breathing tube while under sedation in the hospital.Before the transplant, the Modesto woman “talked” with the help of a handheld device that sounds like an electronic voice, but always yearned to speak with her natural voice.

The operation last fall lasted 18 hours over two days. Doctors replaced her voice box, windpipe and thyroid gland with that of a donor who died in an accident. The surgery was led by doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center and included experts from England and Sweden.The team spent almost two years training for the operation, honing their skills using animals and human cadavers.

Two weeks after the transplant, Jensen voiced her first words in a hoarse tone: “Good morning” followed by “I wanna go home” and “You guys are amazing” to her doctors.Jensen has since been able to speak more easily, according to her doctors. She still breathes with the help of a tracheotomy tube and is relearning how to swallow. It’ll take some time before she can eat normally again.

UC Davis paid for much of Jensen’s hospital-related expenses, which were not immediately disclosed. Doctors and staff donated their time.Not everyone who loses their voice is eligible for a voice box transplant. It’s still considered experimental and recipients have to take anti-rejection drugs the rest of their lives. Jensen was a good fit because she was already taking the drugs after a kidney-pancreas transplant in 2006, doctors said.

Unlike life-saving heart or liver transplants, people can live many years without a voice box though a transplant would improve their quality of life. There haven’t been many voice box transplants done because they’re not covered by private or government insurance, said Dr. Gerald Berke of the UCLA Head and Neck Clinic, who had no role in Jensen’s care.

In 1998, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic performed the world’s first successful larynx transplant, restoring the voice of Timothy Heidler after a motorcycle accident.Three years later, Heidler was speaking with a perfectly normal voice, his surgeon wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.(AP)

President Fernando Lugo will undergo six chemotherapy sessions to treat his recently diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

ASUNCION, Paraguay’s government says President Fernando Lugo will undergo six chemotherapy sessions to treat his recently diagnosed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.A statement posted on the government’s website Wednesday says doctors in Brazil who are treating Lugo say the first session will be Thursday.Dr. Yana Novis of Sao Paulo’s Hospital Sirio Libanes says the remaining five sessions will be spaced out with one every three weeks.

The official website says Lugo will be able to carry out his normal presidential duties but will rest a day after each chemotherapy treatment.The 59-year-old leader was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma last week. Harvard University researchers found that his cancer is of a low malignancy.(AP)

Cold weather interfere Heart Patients

LONDON  very cold temperatures expected rise in blood pressure can lead to the heart and cause heart attacks.Based on a study in the Britsh Medical Journal, as quoted from the Guardian, Thursday (08/12/2010), one degree Celsius temperature drop associated with 200 more people who suffered a heart attack at 28 the next day

More people tend to have a heart attack during the winter. Extremely cold weather. People aged between 75-84 and who have congenital heart disease are people who are vulnerable and should get a warning when the temperature is decreased.Each year, approximately 141 000 people in the UK suffered a heart attack, 86 000 of whom died, which is one of the three of them died before reaching hospital.Khrishnan Bhaskaran, who led the study, if the cold temperatures in the UK that a lot of people having a heart attack.

He and his colleagues studied records of 84 010 patients with heart disease in 15 places in England and Wales during the years 2003-2006, found that the chill factor temperature is one of the causes, plus also the factor of air pollution.The British Heart Foundation said that research showed that the risk of heart attack during the winter, deserves attention.

Women Can't Wear Pants Long black color to avoid mosquito fever

Thai health authorities asked the young women in that country not to wear white elephant made of thin pants (leggings) black color in order to avoid dengue fever from mosquito bites. According to the local Health Ministry, the dark color on the pants which are popular among women in Thailand is very attractive to mosquitoes spreading dengue fever.

“The way people dress these days is very worrying, especially young children,” says Deputy Ministry of Public Health, Pansiri Kulanartsiri, in his statement on Sunday, August 8, 2010. He warned about the threat of the spread of dengue fever and warned that dengue-carrying mosquitoes attracted to a dark color clothes.

“I recommend that people no longer wear black leggings or other dark colored clothing to avoid attracting the attention of mosquitoes,” said Pansiri. Calling the leggings as a fashion phenomenon Korea, Pansiri adding that mosquitoes can bite through the skin with thin clothing. “Wear thick clothes like jeans, especially in times like the current rainy season,” said Pansiri.In the first seven months of this year, Thailand recorded 43 deaths and more than 45 thousand cases of dengue fever. The number increased by around 40 per cent from 31 929 cases and 30 cases of death in the same period last year.

Cases of dengue fever usually occurs during the rainy season which lasts from June until September in Thailand. Of the 43 deaths, 26 of them aged 10 to 24 years. This makes Thailand’s Health Ministry has warned the public about the dangers of pants worn leggings that many adolescents and young women lately.Dengue fever is an endemic disease in South Asia to East Asia, especially during the rainy season. Water is not flowing and clean urban environment that is not a fertile ground for mosquitoes to spread disease dengue fever

Mexico now is safe from the outbreak of H1N1 influenza

Mexico is now safe from the outbreak of H1N1 influenza, often called the flu Pig. Nevertheless, despite the alert status had been revoked about two weeks ago, the State government was determined not to Sombrero negligent in anticipating the re-emergence of the H1N1 outbreak, which last year killed many residents.Thus said the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) of Mexico, Patricia Espinosa. “Enabling alert in Mexico to take specific measures to prevent H1N1 recently revoked by the Health Ministry two weeks ago,” Espinosa said in a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa in Jakarta, Thursday, July 8, 2010.

“However, we continue to make efforts to prepare the health sector because (H1N1) can occur anytime,” added Espinosa.He continued, the mortality rate due to the H1N1 virus was not as high as previously feared. The Mexican government also set up institutions to deal with better people who contracted the virus.According to Espinosa, compared with previous years, cases of pneumonia or respiratory problems in Mexico, which is one of the symptoms of swine flu, the numbers have declined. “This means that the awareness of citizens to immediately went to the doctor are rising,” said Espinosa.According to the Associated Press news agency, swine flu could spread in over 200 countries with 17 800 claimed the lives of sufferers. In Mexico, where the first cases of H1N1 outbreaks, the disease infected 72 546 people and killing 1289 people.

Mexico is now safe from the outbreak of H1N1 influenza, often called the flu Pig. Nevertheless, despite the alert status had been revoked about two weeks ago, the State government was determined not to Sombrero negligent in anticipating the re-emergence of the H1N1 outbreak, which last year killed many residents.Thus said the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Minister) of Mexico, Patricia Espinosa. “Enabling alert in Mexico to take specific measures to prevent H1N1 recently revoked by the Health Ministry two weeks ago,” Espinosa said in a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa in Jakarta, Thursday, July 8, 2010.

“However, we continue to make efforts to prepare the health sector because (H1N1) can occur anytime,” added Espinosa.He continued, the mortality rate due to the H1N1 virus was not as high as previously feared. The Mexican government also set up institutions to deal with better people who contracted the virus.

According to Espinosa, compared with previous years, cases of pneumonia or respiratory problems in Mexico, which is one of the symptoms of swine flu, the numbers have declined. “This means that the awareness of citizens to immediately went to the doctor are rising,” said Espinosa.According to the Associated Press news agency, swine flu could spread in over 200 countries with 17 800 claimed the lives of sufferers. In Mexico, where the first cases of H1N1 outbreaks, the disease infected 72 546 people and killing 1289 people.

Electronic Glasses (PixelOptics), Eye Auto Focus Adjusting

Disease patients nearsightedness and farsightedness, soon not need glasses because mutually minus or plus a change of their injuries.Recently an American company, PixelOptics, managed to create an electronic glasses, with power-adjustable lens which is set according to user needs.Unlike traditional glasses that can only be fitted with a particular lens which is suitable for a myopic patient, the focus of these glasses can be altered at any time so they can see objects at various distances range, both near and far.

“We’ve developed these glasses over the last 10 years, said Peter Zieman, Director of European Sales, PixelOptics, as quoted from the Telegraph site.

According to him, glasses do not undergo many changes since first discovered by Benjamin Franklin, about 1780s. However, this finding could be a great solution for users spectacles.Then, how do these glasses work? Apparently these two lenses consist of a layer of liquid crystal capable of changing the refractive properties, based on the input electric current applied to the lens.

To adjust the focus of these glasses, these glasses provide three modes of operation: atomatis adjustment, manual on, or off manually.For manual mode, users stay pressing a button in the right frame glasses to find the right focus.However, the focal length lens can also be changed automatically, because a motion sensor that owned these glasses can detect eye movements of users. For example, when users are suddenly reading a book.

“Some kind of motion sensor that is used on the iPhone also allows these glasses detect when someone memabaca book or newspaper, and immediately changed the focus of the lens automatically,” said Zieman.In addition, the electronic spectacles is claimed to provide a wider viewing area than a regular progressive lenses. Not only that, PixelOptics also claimed to have fewer distortions of the progressive lens.According to the Telegraph, glasses that use hidden batteries, will go on sale later this year in the United States.

Cocoa-rich dark chocolate could be prescribed for people with liver cirrhosis in future

LONDON  Cocoa-rich dark chocolate could be prescribed for people with liver cirrhosis in future, following the latest research to show potential health benefits of chocolate.Spanish researchers said Thursday that eating dark chocolate capped the usual after-meal rise in abdominal blood pressure, which can reach dangerous levels in cirrhotic patients and, in severe cases, lead to blood vessel rupture.

Antioxidants called flavanols found in cocoa are believed to be the reason why chocolate is good for blood pressure because the chemicals help the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels to relax and widen.A study of 21 patients with end-stage liver disease found those given a meal containing 85 percent-cocoa dark chocolate had a markedly smaller rise in blood pressure in the liver, or portal hypertension, than those given white chocolate.

“This study shows a clear association between eating dark chocolate and (lower) portal hypertension and demonstrates the potential importance of improvements in the management of cirrhotic patients,” said Mark Thursz, a professor of hepatology at London’s Imperial College.The results were presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Vienna and follow a number of earlier scientific studies suggesting that dark chocolate also promotes heart health.Cirrhosis is scarring of the liver as a result of long-term damage. It is caused by various factors, including hepatitis infection and alcohol abuse.(Reuters)