Study Fear of new foods mostly genetic
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:40:46 GMTBy MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - Having trouble persuading your child to eat broccoli or spinach? You may have only yourself to blame. According to a study of twins, neophobia — or the fear of new foods — is mostly in the genes.
"Children could actually blame their mothers for this," said Jane Wardle, director of the Health Behavior Unit at University College London, one of the authors of the study in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Wardle and colleagues asked the parents of 5,390 pairs of identical and non-identical twins to complete a questionnaire on their children's' willingness to try new foods.
Identical twins, who share all genes, were much more likely to respond the same way to new foods than non-identical twins, who like other siblings only share about half their genes. Researchers concluded that genetics played a greater role in determining eating preferences than environment, since the twins lived in the same household.
Wardle said food preferences appear to be "as inheritable a physical characteristic as height."
Unlike nearly every other phobia, neophobia is a normal stage of human development.
Scientists theorize that it was originally an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect children from accidentally eating dangerous things — like poisonous berries or mushrooms.
Neophobia typically kicks in at age 2 or 3, when children are newly mobile and capable of disappearing from their parents' sight within seconds. Being unwilling to eat new things they stumble upon may turn out to be a lifesaver.
While most children grow out of the food fussiness by age 5, not all do. For parents of particularly picky eaters, experts encourage them not to cave in when their children throw food tantrums.
"Parents should not feel like they're doing something wrong if they keep trying but their child is not overjoyed to be eating Brussels sprouts," said Marlene Schwartz, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, who is not connected to the study.
While most people will eventually like any food — even one they initially disliked — after trying it about 10 times, more persistence may be needed when trying to convert a neophobic child.
"It's like learning to ride a bike," Schwartz said. "Some children have a harder time learning and it takes longer, but it's still worthwhile to teach them."
Other taste-related traits — like the ability to taste bitterness — are also inherited. Scientists have already identified the gene responsible, and have found that approximately 30 percent of Caucasians lack the gene and cannot taste bitterness.
Some experts think that neophobia is essentially a reflection of personality. People known as "sensation seekers," or those in search of new and intense experiences, tend to be willing to eat anything. Conversely, shy people tend to be reluctant to experiment with their palate.
"Food is just one kind of stimulus in the environment that people either approach or avoid," said Patricia Pliner, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.
Still, experts say that the environment parents create is crucial to determining their children's eating habits.
"It can't all be genetics," said Marcy Goldsmith, a nutrition and behavior specialist at Tufts University. "Parents need to offer their children new foods so they at least have a chance to try it."
Romney Mass. health plan can be copied
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:10:52 GMTBy GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON - Former Gov. Mitt Romney says other states can replicate Massachusetts' program of universal health care if the federal government creates an environment in which private health insurance can expand.
In a speech being delivered Friday to the Florida Medical Association, the Republican presidential contender is to declare he wants the government to help states lower premiums by deregulating their insurance industries.
Romney says Washington also should make tax changes so all people can use pretax dollars to buy coverage — as workers do who get coverage through their employers.
And he says the Medicaid program for people with low incomes should be overhauled. The goal should be to provide states with block grants so they can create insurance programs — freed from federal mandates — that are tailored to their individual needs.
In Massachusetts, a federal block grant was used to subsidize low-income insurance coverage, which, in turn, is being used to encourage residents to engage in more preventive and less emergency care. Similar grants were used nationally in 1996 so states had the freedom to restructure their welfare programs.
Romney's plan would help people buy private health insurance "in a way that builds on the experience in Massachusetts but doesn't force a one-size-fits-all approach on other states," said Sally Canfield, a Romney policy adviser who previewed the speech for reporters.
Health care has typically been an issue emphasized by Democratic candidates. The former Massachusetts governor has battled to claim it for the GOP by citing the 2006 measure he signed into law to help bring coverage to people who lack insurance.
On Thursday, Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined her own vision for covering the 45 million nationally who lack insurance, although Romney has preferred to deride as "Hillarycare" the universal health program she tried unsuccessfully to implement in 1993 while serving as first lady.
The overarching principle in Romney's national plan stems from the line in the Hippocratic oath: "Do no harm." The candidate says Americans like their existing system of employer-provided coverage, and he believes it needs only modifications to expand to the uninsured.
One slide in the presentation he plans to deliver states: "No Europe-like rationing."
While the presentation highlights features of the Massachusetts plan, Romney also distances himself from the government bureaucracy it created and its requirement that all state residents get coverage by July 1. He says states will be free to craft the specifics of their own programs.
Social and fiscal conservatives such as those Romney is courting generally favor fiscal discipline, loathe government bureaucracy and oppose federal mandates.
"We're not saying every state has to have a mandate," said Canfield, the Romney policy adviser. "Their uninsured may be a different slice than it was in Massachusetts."
WHO ties rising population new diseases
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:36:30 GMTBy ERICA BULMAN, Associated Press Writer
GENEVA - A ballooning world population, intensive farming practices and changes in sexual behavior have provided a breeding ground for an unprecedented number of emerging diseases, the U.N. health agency said Thursday.
AIDS and 38 other new pathogens are afflicting mankind that were unknown a generation ago, the World Health Organization said.
Though advances in science could account for the discovery of existing pathogens that were previously unidentified, WHO epidemics expert Dr. Mike Ryan said changes in human behavior and practices have produced more new diseases.
"We've seen a shift in trend that reflects a transition of human civilization," Ryan said. "The relationship to the animal kingdom, our travel, our social, sexual and other behaviors have changed the nature of our relationship with the microbial world and the result of that is the emergence of new pathogens and the spread of those pathogens around the world."
He noted that in the late 19th century, scientists discovered a range of agents causing ancient scourges such as anthrax, staphylococcus, tuberculosis and tetanus.
In the 1970s and 80s it wasn't pathogens experts were discovering but new syndromes: children getting sick with rashes and fever in the suburban areas of the Americas, people suffering from liver and renal disease after consuming undercooked meat.
"We've urbanized a world. We have moved people and food around that world at ever increasing speed," Ryan said. "We're not saying that's a bad thing. What we're saying is that we must recognize the risk we create in the process and invest to manage those risks."
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said one of the changes affecting human health was increasingly intensive poultry farming, which may account for the global spread of bird flu.
"It should not come as a surprise that we are seeing more and more disease outbreaks coming from the animal sector," Chan said.
She said the majority of the 39 new diseases came from animals, including Ebola, SARS, and bird flu.
Much of WHO's annual report on the state of the world's health was designed to convince governments to adhere to new, tighter International Health Regulations, providing the basis for the world to cooperate in combating frightening diseases.
WHO also said Thursday that it was working to fast-track improvements of food and products regulation in China, whose exports have become a source of safety concern in recent months.
"The Food and Safety department of the World Health Organization in Geneva has been working with the government of China to streamline their regulation of food and products," Chan said. "And actually they have been in touch with our colleagues again to take their initial discuss forward.
"The process has been going on for some time ... and recently we were approached to see in what way we can strengthen and fast-track that process."
Chan announced a special experts meeting in Beijing scheduled for mid-September.
"The government of China is committed to improving their system," she added.
Chinese exports have come under intense scrutiny, especially in the United States, China's most important export market. Regulators have turned up tainted pet-food ingredients, seafood and toothpaste with potentially dangerous chemicals and drugs.
FDA proposes new rules for sunscreens
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:03:04 GMTBy ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - It may be the summer of '09 or later before beachgoers can count on finding sunscreens to protect against the deeper, penetrating rays linked to wrinkles and cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed long-delayed rules covering the ingredients, labeling and testing of sunscreens that boast of protecting against both the sun's ultraviolet B rays, which cause sunburn, and the ultraviolet A rays that cause tanning but also are associated with more serious and longer-term damage.
The proposed rules keep in place the so-called SPF, or sun protection factor, numerical rating system for UVB protection, while tweaking the testing requirements. The FDA proposes capping the highest SPF value at 50, unless companies can provide the results of further testing that would support a higher number, implying better protection against UVB.
The proposal would add a requirement that sunscreen makers assess UVA protection in the laboratory and on people as well if they want to make any claim that their products protect against those rays, whose damage is rarely immediately apparent.
Until recently, most sunscreens sold in the United States have filtered out mostly UVB but not UVA rays — even if they promised broad protection.
The proposed rules would institute a four-star system to rate the UVA protection provided by sunscreens and spell out the protection level as "low," "medium," "high," or "highest."
"Under today's proposal, consumers will also now know the level of UVA protection in sunscreens, which will help them make informed decisions about protecting themselves and their children against the harmful effects of the sun," FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said.
A product's UVB protection would also be described, alongside its SPF rating. Both the UVA and UVB ratings would receive equal prominence on sunscreen labels.
Companies that choose not to do the UVA testing would have to label their products "No UVA protection," according to the proposed rules. The FDA assumes three-quarters of the estimated 3,000 sunscreens on the market would undergo such testing.
Schering-Plough Corp., maker of Coppertone, is reviewing the rules, spokeswoman Mary-Fran Faraji said.
FDA announced its intent to draft sunscreen rules in 1978 and published them in 1999. The agency then put them on indefinite hold until it could address issues concerning both UVA and UVB protection.
While the FDA said it would work to expeditiously finalize the rules, it will be at least several years before they take effect.
The agency will collect public comments for 90 days, make revisions as necessary and then publish a final rule. That rule, once it appears, would take effect only 18 months later — which puts it sometime in 2009, at earliest.
For Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, that's not soon enough.
"Not only should these rules have been released earlier but they should have a swifter deadline for implementation," said Blumenthal, who petitioned the FDA earlier this year to release the rules. "These rules should be mandatory so they help consumers next summer."
Under the rules, sunscreen labels also would be updated to further encourage sunbathers to reapply sunscreen as needed. And those sunscreens making any claim for water resistance would have to list, in minutes, how long the products block the sun's rays before they have to be reapplied following swimming, or simply sweating.
Blumenthal and others who pushed for the new rules have long been worried about sunscreens that claim to be "waterproof" or offer "all-day" protection.
The FDA rules also propose allowing sunscreens to combine avobenzone and other existing ingredients, which could lead to more products, agency officials said.
While increased sun exposure has been linked to an increased risk of cancer, the FDA has no data that show sunscreen use reduces that risk, FDA scientist Matthew Holman said. Instead, the FDA proposes updating labels to stress that beyond using sunscreen, limiting sun exposure and wearing protective clothing also can help in guarding against the sun's effects.
"We don't want to give people a false sense of security," said Portland, Ore., dermatologist Dr. Diane Baker, president of the American Academy of Dermatology. "That's why I think the extra warnings are very important."
Melanoma, the most lethal skin cancer, will strike almost 60,000 Americans this year and kill some 8,100.
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On the Net:
FDA consumer update on sunscreen:
http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/sunscreen082307.html
Survey Seniors have sex into 70s 80s
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:36:02 GMTBY MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer
An unprecedented study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky — willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. That may be too much information for some folks, but it comes from the most comprehensive sex survey ever done among 57- to 85-year-olds in the United States.
Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having sex in the previous year. And the drop-off has a lot to do with health or lack of a partner, especially for women, the survey found.
The federally funded study, done by respected scientists and published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, overturns some stereotypical notions that physical pleasure is just a young person's game.
"Most people assume that people stop doing it after some vague age," said sex researcher Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago.
However, more than half of those aged 57 to 75 said they gave or received oral sex, as did about a third of 75- to 85-year-olds.
"Bravo that the New England Journal of Medicine is publishing something like that. It's about time," said Ruth Westheimer, better known as sexpert Dr. Ruth, who has long counseled seniors on sex.
The survey involved two-hour face-to-face interviews with 3,005 men and women around the country. Researchers also took blood, saliva and other samples that will tell about hormone levels, sex-related infections and other health issues in future reports. They even tested how well seniors could see, taste, hear and smell — things that affect being able to have and enjoy sex.
Some results:
_Sex with a partner in the previous year was reported by 73 percent of people ages 57 to 64; 53 percent of those ages 64 to 75, and 26 percent of people 75 to 85. Of those who were active, most said they did it two to three times a month or more.
_Women at all ages were less likely to be sexually active than men. But they also lacked partners; far more were widowed.
_People whose health was excellent or very good were nearly twice as likely to be sexually active as those in poor or fair health.
_Half of people having sex reported at least one related problem. Most common in men was erection trouble ; in women, low desire , vaginal dryness and inability to have an orgasm .
_One out of seven men used Viagra or other substances to improve sex.
_Only 22 percent of women and 38 percent of men had discussed sex with a doctor since age 50.
The survey had a remarkable 75 percent response rate. Only 2 percent to 7 percent did not answer questions about sexual activities or problems, although a higher percentage declined to reveal how often they masturbate.
Why do this research? Sex is an important indicator of health, said Georgeanne Patmios of the National Institute on Aging, the study's main funder.
Sexual problems can be a warning sign of diabetes, infections, cancer or other health woes. Untreated sex issues can lead to depression and social withdrawal, and people may even stop taking needed medications because of sexual side effects, the researchers wrote.
Some of them did a landmark study of sexual habits in younger people a decade ago, but little is known about X-rated behaviors beyond Generation X.
"This subject has been taboo for so long that many older people haven't even talked to their spouses about their sexual problems, let alone a physician," said the lead author, Dr. Stacy Tesser Lindau, a University of Chicago gynecologist.
Many doctors are embarrassed to bring it up, and some may not know how to treat sexual dysfunction, said Dr. Alison Moore, a geriatrics specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who had no role in the study.
"Even among geriatricians, there can be an age bias that this is not as big a deal as some of the other things they come into us for," like heart problems or dementia, Moore said. "It gets lost in the shuffle."
The National Opinion Research Center, a university-affiliated private research firm, did the surveys in people's homes. Laumann, its chairman, has received research support from Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra.
Hundreds of questions were asked face to face; others, like the number of lifetime sex partners and frequency of masturbation, were asked in a questionnaire, and 84 percent of those were completed.
Most participants were married. But by the time they were 75 to 85, only 37 percent of women had spouses compared to 71 percent of men. Roughly 10 percent of those in the survey were black and more than 6 percent were Hispanic.
The proportion of each gender reporting giving and receiving oral sex "matched up perfectly," Lindau said. "This gives us pretty good reassurance that men and women are telling the same story."
Older people were generally sexually conservative. A small minority had more than one partner, and very few said they paid for sex.
Researchers also used state-of-the-art technology and products donated by several companies to test people's senses. Taste strips were used to see if people could distinguish between various tastes . Special devices were used to test the ability to smell certain scents, including a suspected pheromone — a smell thought to evoke sexual responses.
Scents and tastes "get under the skin to influence biology," and scientists wanted to know whether these senses diminish as people age, Lindau explained.
Niels Teunis, an anthropologist and researcher at the Institute of Sexuality, Social Inequality, and Health at San Francisco State University, said the survey bolsters the "use it or lose it" factor seen in previous studies.
"If you are doing it, you keep doing it. If you slack off in marriage like when you're in your 40s, it's hard to pick it up when you are older," he said.
Jack Menager, 83, and his wife, Elizabeth, 84, agree. The suburban Los Angeles couple say they have had a good sex life for nearly 60 years.
"It gives a person relief on any burdens or problems. It makes us forget everything — escape," he said, admitting that as physical endurance wanes "you have to work at it harder."
The couple takes twice daily walks, drinks wine in moderation and talks a lot, said his wife.
"I think it's important," she said of sex. "It just makes you feel close."
More men than women felt that way. Only 13 percent of men but 35 percent of women said sex was "not at all important."
Menopause has a big effect on women, and the drop-off of estrogen makes many of them less interested in sex, Dr. John Bancroft of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University wrote in an accompanying editorial.
But menopause also means women no longer have to worry about getting pregnant, and many have more time and feel freer after children are gone, notes Westheimer, the sex adviser.
At age 79, she said, "I don't ever answer personal questions" about sex. But she added, "I certainly have a zest for life."
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Associated Press Science Writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Early exposure to farm animals lowers IBD risk
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:34:49 GMTNEW YORK - Infants who are regularly exposed to farm animals appear to be less likely than others to develop inflammatory bowel disease in childhood, according to the findings of a German study published in the journal Pediatrics.
&;Approximately 12,000 children and adolescents in Germany suffer from inflammatory bowel disease ,&; write Dr. Katja Radon and colleagues at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. The recent increase in Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease, especially in industrialized countries, and its pronounced geographical variation, suggest that environmental factors contribute this condition.
The researchers examined the association between contact with farm animals in infancy and the development of Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis in childhood. Data were analyzed for 748 IBD cases (444 with Crohn's disease and 304 with ulcerative colitis) and 1,481 healthy &;control&; children.
The children with IBD were more likely than the control children to live in urban areas. Regular contact with farm animals during the first year of life was inversely associated with IBD, the investigators report.
Specifically, the children with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis were about 50 percent less likely to have regular contact with farm animals in infancy compared with the healthy children.
&;The results of this study indicate that farm animal contact during infancy, one of the major factors protecting individuals against childhood allergies, might also decrease the risk of juvenile IBD,&; Radon's team concludes. The findings also support the hypothesis that allergic diseases and IBD might have similar paths of development.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, August 2007.
