Here are some of the latest health and medical news
developments, compiled by the editors of
HealthDay:
Take Statins With Junk Food, UK Experts Suggest
Handing out cholesterol-lowering statin drugs with fast food may
help reduce heart disease risks caused by the fatty meals, suggest
U.K. researchers.
"Statins don't cut out all of the unhealthy effects of burgers and fries. It's better to avoid fatty food altogether," said Dr. Darrel Francis, of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, Agence France-Presse reported.
"But we've worked out that in terms of your likelihood of having a heart attack, taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it," he added.
Francis and colleagues say their proposal is similar to asking
people wear seatbelts when in a car.
But the idea was questioned by Peter Weissberg, medical director
of the British Heart Foundation, who noted that eating junk food
has a number of unhealthy effects beyond raising cholesterol,
AFP reported.
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Diabetes Involved In About 20 Percent of Hospitalizations
In 2008, diabetes was involved in nearly one in five
hospitalizations in the United States and hospitals spent $83
billion caring for diabetes patients, says a federal government
report.
That amount is 23 percent of the total spent by hospitals to
treat all conditions in 2008, according to the latest
News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality.
The $83 billion in diabetes care included costs associated with
more than 540,000 hospital stays specifically for diabetes and 7.2
million stays for patients with diabetes and diabetes-related
conditions such as heart disease, kidney damage, infection, or foot
or leg amputation.
On average, hospital stays for people with diabetes cost 25
percent more than for patients without diabetes -- $10,937 vs.
$8,746, said the report. The highest hospitalization rate for
diabetes was in the South (2,829 per 100,000 people) and the lowest
was in the West (1,866 per 100,000).
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China Improving Food and Drug Safety: FDA
The safety of foods and drugs exported from China is improving,
according to the head of U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The country has been strengthening oversight of exporters since
a number of scandals involving companies selling fake or dangerous
food and drug products including infant formula, vaccines and dog
chow, the
Associated Press reported.
Chinese officials are pursuing a "common agenda" to improve
manufacturing practices and regulation of supply systems for the
food and drug industries, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said
Friday as she completed a visit to China.
"I leave feeling very encouraged by the partnership we've developed here. This is a priority for China as it is for the United States," she said, the AP reported.
Previous scandals involving Chinese-made products included dairy
products that contained the industrial chemical melamine and
tainted batches of the anti-clotting medicine heparin.
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Frozen Fruit Pulp Linked To Typhoid Fever Outbreak: FDA
Frozen mamey fruit pulp has been linked to an outbreak of
typhoid fever in the United States, say federal officials.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said seven cases
have been confirmed (four in Nevada and three in California) and
two more California cases are being investigated. Five people have
been hospitalized, the
Associated Press reported.
Five of the victims drank milkshakes or smoothies made with
frozen mamey fruit pulp. In four of those cases, the pulp was made
by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus, N.J. A sample from a package sold
in Las Vegas tested positive for the bacteria that causes typoid,
the FDA said.
Mamey, a reddish tropical fruit grown mainly in Central and
South America, is also known as zapote or sapote, the
AP reported.
Typhoid fever is a life-threatening illness that is rare in the
U.S., with only about 400 cases a year. Most U.S. patients catch
the disease while traveling abroad.
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California Lawsuit Targets Bounce Houses With High Lead
Levels
Nine companies that make children's inflatable "bounce houses"
are being sued by the state of California because some of the
structures have unsafe levels of lead.
Tests showed that the vinyl in the inflatable structures contain
lead levels that exceed both state and federal standards, according
to a suit filed Wednesday by California Attorney General Jerry
Brown, the
Associated Press reported.
One bounce house had lead levels more than 70 times above the
federal limit.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the companies from selling the
contaminated materials and Brown also wants rental companies to
post warnings about lead levels in the bounce houses, the
AP reported.
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