The Meat-eaters’ Last Stand

Defending eating habits seems to be a primal instinct for people.  These days Westerners are running out of excuses for their gluttony.  Well-read people no longer believe meat is necessary to meet our protein needs or that milk is the favored source of calcium.  With the crumbling of these two time-honored battle fronts the vitamin B12 issue has become the trendy topic whenever a strict vegetarian (vegan) diet is discussed.  Since the usual dietary source of vitamin B12 for omnivores is the flesh of other animals, the obvious conclusion is that those who choose to avoid eating meat are destined to become B12 deficient. There is a grain of truth in this concern, but in reality an otherwise healthy strict vegetarian’s risk of developing a disease from B12 deficiency by following a sensible diet is extremely rare—less than one chance in a million.

Spyros Andreopoulos
San Francisco Chronicle

The latest news questioning the usefulness of mammograms may be more dangerous than helpful to your health

MEDICAL STORIES in the news media perform a vital function, informing the public and shaping its ideas and expectations of medical care.

But sometimes, media medicine can be dangerous to your health.

Fred Charatan, Florida

An independent panel of US medical experts that writes information for the National Cancer Institute's online database (cancer.gov) has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to show that mammography prevents deaths from breast cancer.

The panel, known as the PDQ screening and prevention editorial board, is going to rewrite its assessment of mammography for the institute's website in March.

It reached its conclusion after reviewing the work of Ole Olsen and Peter Gçtzsche of the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Attention, shoppers: Stop picking up dead “Babes” and “Wilburs” at the grocery store! Here are our top 10 reasons to keep pork off your fork and put delicious Babe-free alternatives on your shopping list instead.

Porking You Up

Tom Chorneau, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

One day after California became the first state in the nation to ban toys containing toxic plastic softeners, supporters of the measure announced plans Monday to help at least nine other states - and perhaps even Congress - enact similar laws.

The movement to ban phthalates began in San Francisco last year when the city's Board of Supervisors imposed the nation's first restrictions on consumer products that contain the chemical compounds, which have been linked to hormone problems in laboratory animals.

Study says firms tried to suppress dangers of secondhand smoke.

By Dorsey Griffith - Bee Medical Writer

Cigarette makers tried to undermine evidence that secondhand smoke causes cardiovascular disease, according to a review by a UC Davis physician of scores of once-secret tobacco industry documents.

The report published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation discredits research paid for by the tobacco industry as attempts to put corporate viability above public health and to downplay scientific findings on the role of secondhand smoke in heart disease.

Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer by Dean Ornish in the September 2005 issue of The Journal of Urology found, “Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of early, low grade prostate cancer in men.”  A total of 93 men with elevated PSA levels (4 to 10 ng/ml), with a Gleason score of less than 7, and who had not undergone conventional treatments, were split into two groups.  For one year, one group followed a low-fat vegan diet and the other continued with the American diet (control group).  Because of a rise in PSA levels or signs of disease progression, 6 in the control group eventually underwent conventional therapy (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) – none in the vegan diet group required further treatment. PSA decreased 4% in the vegan diet group and rose 6% in the control American-diet group. 

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Toddlers who breathe polluted air are far more likely to be diagnosed with bronchitis than children living in cleaner environments, U.S. and Czech researchers reported on Thursday.

They found a component of pollution known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, was strongly linked with cases of bronchitis among children aged 2 to 4 and a half.

The study is one of the first to look at PAHs, which are produced when fuels that contain carbon such as wood, coal, diesel or tobacco are burned.

Eating Meat By Elizabeth Somer, MA,RD

Several studies show that meat, which has a high amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, can increase the risk of heart disease in both men and women. The risk of developing heart disease among meat-eaters is 50 percent higher than that of vegetarians. In fact, researchers have found that the longer and more often people eat meat, the greater their risk of heart disease. Consequently, people who adopt a vegetarian diet early in life have a lower risk of heart disease than do people who wait until after age 50 to switch from meat to beans.

Nail products like nail polish, polish removers and artificial nail products contain a host of toxic chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer, reproductive harm, occupational asthma and other negative health effects.  Nail salon workers are particularly at risk for exposure, as they work with these products all day every day, often in poorly ventilated spaces.  The good news is that certain nail polish manufacturers are beginning to reformulate their products to remove some of the toxic chemicals like dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde and toluene.  Nail salon workers can also take steps to lessen their exposure to chemicals from nail care products.

What You Can Do: