Headlines (Scroll down for complete
stories):
1. More Than Half of Lipsticks Contain Lead
2. Statins Help Maintain Lung Function
3. Scientists Explain
Chocolate Cravings
4. Prostate Cancer Raises Hip Fracture Risk
by 800%
5. Using Spray Cleaners Weekly May Cause Asthma
1. More Than Half of Lipsticks Contain Lead
Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more
than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover
Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the
group said on Thursday.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red
lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring,
California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03
to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
Lipstick, like candy, is ingested. The Campaign for Safe
Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, environmental and women's
groups, said the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.
One-third of the lipsticks tested contained an amount of lead
that exceeded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's 0.1 ppm limit
for lead in candy — a standard established to protect children
from ingesting lead, the group said. Thirty-nine percent of the
lipsticks tested had no discernible lead, it said.
"It's critical that manufacturers reformulate their product,"
said Stacy Malkan, a co-founder of the coalition. "It's possible to
make lipsticks without lead, and all companies should be doing
that."
Lead can cause learning, language and behavioral problems such as
reduced school performance and increased aggression. Pregnant women
and young children are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure, the
group said in its statement. Lead has also been linked to
infertility and miscarriage, it said.
Procter & Gamble Co's makes Cover Girl brand and France's
L'Oreal is one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world.
Over the last three months, more than 20 million toys made in
China have been recalled, mostly due to the use of lead paint.
The coalition said that some less expensive brands it had tested,
such as Revlon, had no detectable levels of lead, while the more
expensive Dior Addict brand had higher levels than some other
brands.
The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association trade group said
in a statement that lead was a naturally occurring element that was
not intentionally added to cosmetics.
The FDA has "set strict limits for lead levels allowed in the
colors used in lipsticks, and actually analyze most of these to
ensure they are followed," the association's statement said. "The
products identified in the (CSC) report meet these standards."
L'Oreal's U.S. arm said its products are reviewed and tested by a
safety team that includes toxicologists, pharmacists and doctors.
"All the brands of the L'Oreal Group are in full compliance with
FDA regulations" as well as safety requirements in international
markets, L'Oreal USA said in a statement.
P&G said in a statement that the quantity of lead a consumer
might be exposed to from its lip product "is hundreds of times less
than the amount that she would get from eating, breathing and
drinking water."
"Lead builds up in the body over time and lead-containing
lipstick applied several times a day, every day, can add up to
significant exposure levels. The latest studies show there is no
safe level of lead exposure," said Dr. Mark Mitchell, president of
the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice.
Copyright Reuters
Editor's Note:
2. Statins Help Maintain Lung Function
Statins are known to be good for lowering cholesterol and maybe
even fighting dementia, and now they have another reported benefit:
they appear to slow decline in lung function in the elderly — even
in those who smoke. According to researchers in Boston, it may be
statins’ anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that help
achieve this effect.
Their findings were published in the second issue for October in
the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and
Critical Care Medicine.
“We hypothesized that statins would have a protective effect on
decline in lung function,” wrote Dr. Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., professor
of environmental epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, a
lead researcher on the study, the first to examine the relationships
between statins and lung function decline.
“The link between lung function and mortality and the reduced
levels of lung function in the elderly indicates the importance of a
possibility of reducing the rate of decline,” wrote Dr. Schwartz.
To investigate whether statins had an effect of loss of lung
function, the researchers used data from the ongoing and
longitudinal Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study, which
began in 1963. They analyzed 803 subjects who had had their lung
function measured at least twice between January 1995 and June 2005.
Both forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital
capacity (FVC) were measured. The study subjects also completed
questionnaires on pulmonary disorders, smoking and medication usage.
The investigators found that subjects taking statins experienced
a markedly slower annual decline in lung function. In FEV1, statin
users lost 10.9 ml on average, whereas nonusers lost an average of
23.9 ml each year — more than twice that of the statin group.
Similarly, statin users lost an average of 14 ml a year in FVC,
whereas nonusers lost an average of 36.2 ml.
To determine whether smoking status modified that effect, the
researchers also divided their subjects into four smoking groups:
never-smokers, long-ago quitters, recent quitters and current
smokers. “Within each smoking group, those not taking statins were
estimated to experience faster declines in FEV1 and FVC than those
taking statins,” wrote Dr. Schwartz, noting that the size of the
effect varied a bit with smoking status.
“Our results suggest (weakly) that long-term quitters and recent
quitters may be able to benefit more from statin use than other
groups,” Dr. Schwartz wrote.
But because of overlap between groups and the lack of
randomization and controls in this study, the researchers point out
that further data is needed before any definitive conclusions are
drawn. Their findings do, however, support the hypothesis that
statins reduce the annual loss of lung function that occurs with
age.
The researchers suggest that the observed effect may be
attributable to statins’ ability to reduce inflammation and
smoking-induced injury in the lung, as well as their capacity to
reduce serum levels of C-reactive protein, which relates to systemic
inflammation, and to protect against oxidative damage.
The research adds to a growing body of knowledge indicating the
positive effects of statin use beyond its cholesterol lowering
properties.
Editor's Note:
3. Scientists Explain Chocolate Cravings
If that craving for chocolate sometimes feels like it is coming
from deep in your gut, that's because maybe it is.
A small study links the type of bacteria living in people's
digestive system to a desire for chocolate. Everyone has a vast
community of microbes in their guts. But people who crave daily
chocolate show signs of having different colonies of bacteria than
people who are immune to chocolate's allure.
That may be the case for other foods, too. The idea could
eventually lead to treating some types of obesity by changing the
composition of the trillions of bacteria occupying the intestines
and stomach, said Sunil Kochhar, co-author of the study. It appears
Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Proteome Research.
Kochhar is in charge of metabolism research at the Nestle
Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The food conglomerate
Nestle SA paid for the study. But this isn't part of an effort to
convert a few to the dark side (or even milk) side of cocoa, Kocchar
said.
In fact, the study was delayed because it took a year for the
researchers to find 11 men who don't eat chocolate.
Kochhar compared the blood and urine of those 11 men, who he
jokingly called "weird" for their indifference to chocolate, to 11
similar men who ate chocolate daily. They were all healthy, not
obese, and were fed the same food for five days.
The researchers examined the byproducts of metabolism in their
blood and urine and found that a dozen substances were significantly
different between the two groups. For example, the amino acid
glycine was higher in chocolate lovers, while taurine (an active
ingredient in energy drinks) was higher in people who didn't eat
chocolate. Also chocolate lovers had lower levels of the bad
cholesterol, LDL.
The levels of several of the specific substances that were
different in the two groups are known to be linked to different
types of bacteria, Kochhar said.
Still to be determined is if the bacteria cause the craving, or
if early in life people's diets changed the bacteria, which then
reinforced food choices.
How gut bacteria affect people is a hot field of scientific
research.
Past studies have shown that intestinal bacteria change when
people lose weight, said Dr. Sam Klein, an obesity expert and
professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.
Since bacteria interact with what you eat, it is logical to think
that there is a connection between those microbes and desires for
certain foods, said Klein, who wasn't part of Kochhar's study.
Kochhar's research makes so much sense that people should have
thought of it earlier, said J. Bruce German, professor of food
chemistry at the University of California Davis. While five outside
scientists thought the study was intriguing, Dr. Richard Bergman at
the University of Southern California School of Medicine, had
concerns about the accuracy of the initial division of the men into
groups that wanted chocolate or were indifferent to it.
What matters to Kochhar is where the research could lead.
Kochhar said the relationship between food, people and what grows
in their gut is important for the future: "If we understand the
relationship, then we can find ways to nudge it in the right
direction."
Copyright AP
Editor's Note:
4. Prostate Cancer Raises Hip Fracture Risk by
800%
Men who have prostate cancer are on average four times more
likely to suffer a hip fracture, with rates rising to eight times in
men aged 50 to 65, according to a study of more than 60,000 men
published in the October issue of the urology journal BJU
International.
Danish researchers looked at 62,865 men aged 50 and over, with an
average age of just under 67.
15,716 had suffered a fracture of some description and 47,149
formed the non-fracture control group.
They discovered that prostate cancer made men 1.8 times more
likely overall to suffer a fracture and 3.7 times as likely to
suffer from a hip fracture. But the hip fracture risk was eight
times higher in men from 50 to 65 years of age. No increased risk of
vertebral fractures was found by the research.
“Our study showed that more than three per cent of hip fractures
in men aged 50 and over can be attributed to prostate cancer” says
lead researcher Dr Bo Abrahamsen from Copenhagen University
Hospital, Gentofte. “And the risk remains even when men have
recovered from the disease.”
The researchers - urologists and endocrinologists from Danish
hospitals attached to the University of Southern Denmark and
Copenhagen University — now plan to establish a multi-centre
initiative focussing on the early diagnosis and treatment of
osteoporosis in men with prostate cancer.
“Prostate cancer is now the cancer that men are most likely to
develop and is a leading cause of male deaths in Europe and the USA”
stresses Dr Abrahamsen.
“American research has also shown that men have a 17 per cent
chance of prostate cancer during their lifetime. And Danish research
has discovered that deaths from the disease have more than tripled
since the Second World War.
“Medical advances are improving survival rates, but the downside
is that treatment can lead to osteoporosis, where the bone loses
density and becomes more fragile. This is turn increases the risk of
fractures.”
The researchers used data from the Danish National Hospital
Discharge Register, the National Bureau of Statistics and the
National Prescription Database to identify patients aged 50 and over
who had suffered a fracture. They then used the same data to
identify an age-matched control group.
“Our research showed that the increased fracture risk became
apparent in the early stages after diagnosis and remained pronounced
even in long-term survivors” says Steen Walter, Professor of Urology
at Odense University Hospital.
“Men who received hormone therapy (ADT) or had their testicles
surgically removed to slow the progression of the disease were 1.7
times more likely to suffer a fracture.”
The authors point out that the research only covered the 15 per
cent of ADT doses issued on prescription. The majority of the doses
are issued by hospital departments, which means they cannot be
traced to individual patients. So the actual impact of ADT on
national fracture levels could be even greater.
Other issues were also found to lead to increased fracture rates.
“The study showed that the men in the fracture group were almost
three times as likely as the control group to have suffered a
previous fracture. They were also more likely to live alone and be
in a lower income group” says Dr Abrahamsen.
Editor's Note:
5. Using Spray Cleaners Weekly May Cause
Asthma
Using household cleaning sprays and air fresheners as little as
once a week can raise the risk of developing asthma in adults, say
researchers in Europe. Such products have been associated with
increased asthma rates in cleaning professionals, but a similar
effect in nonprofessional users has never before been shown.
“Frequent use of household cleaning sprays may be an important
risk factor for adult asthma,” wrote lead author Jan-Paul Zock,
Ph.D., of the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology at
the Municipal Institute of Medical Research in Barcelona, Spain.
The epidemiological study, the first to investigate the effects
of cleaning products on occasional users rather than occupational
users, appeared in the second issue for October of the American
Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine.
The investigators used baseline data from the first phase of the
European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS I), one of the
world's largest epidemiologic studies of airway disease, and
interviews conducted in the follow-up phase, ECRHS II. Altogether,
the study included more than 3,500 subjects across 22 centers in 10
European countries. Subjects were assessed for current asthma,
current wheeze, physician-diagnosed asthma and allergy at follow-up,
which took place an average of nine years after their first
assessment. They were also asked to report the number of times per
week they used cleaning products.
Two-thirds of the study population who reported doing the bulk of
cleaning were women, about six percent of whom had asthma at the
time of follow-up. Fewer than ten percent of them were full-time
homemakers.
The risk of developing asthma increased with frequency of
cleaning and number of different sprays used, but on average was
about thirty to fifty percent higher in people regularly exposed to
cleaning sprays than in others. The researchers found that cleaning
sprays, especially air fresheners, furniture cleaners and
glass-cleaners, had a particularly strong effect.
“Our findings are consistent with occupational epidemiological
studies in which increased asthma risk was related to professional
use of sprays among both domestic and non-domestic cleaning women,”
wrote Dr. Zock. “This indicates a relevant contribution of spray use
to the burden of asthma in adults who do the cleaning in their
homes.”
The design of the study was not intended to determine the
biological mechanism behind the increase in asthma with exposure to
cleaning sprays, but Dr. Zock and colleagues propose a number of
hypotheses, including the possibility that asthma is partially
irritant-induced, that sprays contain sensitizers that are specific
to asthma, and/or that an inflammatory response is involved in
asthma development. “There is a need for researchers to conduct
further studies to elucidate both the extent and mechanism of the
respiratory toxicity associated with such products,” noted Dr. Zock.
Despite the uncertainty of the biological mechanism, the findings
have important clinical relevance. “Clinicians should be aware of
the potential for cleaning products used in the home to cause
respiratory symptoms and possibly asthma,” wrote Kenneth D.
Rosenman, M.D., professor at Michigan State University, in an
editorial in the same issue of the journal.
The research may have also significant implications for public
health. “The relative risk rates of developing adult asthma in
relation to exposure to cleaning products could account for as much
as 15 percent, or one in seven of adult asthma cases,” wrote Dr.
Zock.
Editor's Note:
Editor's Notes:
