XTEND-15sec-NEWSt
27th January 2006
Please click on the summary link of interest:
Bird flu viruses carry unique genes: studyn1
An article published by Reuters and posted by Yahoo today refers to a study carried out by a research team at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
The researchers used a collection of samples of 11,000 influenza viruses, including 7,000 avian influenza viruses, assembled by St. Jude's Dr. Robert Webster over 30 years.
"We have sequenced a diverse sampling of 336 avian influenza viruses from this collection including isolates from ducks, gulls, shorebirds and poultry collected in North American, Eurasian, and Australasian countries, primarily during the years 1976 to 2004," the researchers.
To read the full article please click here.
Warren Matthews comments: We included this article because of the general paranoia about bird flu in the media. Avian flu virus's have always been around and they always will be. The current strand has been around since 1997 and has killed 150 odd people worldwide in the 8 years since. Compare this with more than 30,000 deaths each year in the US alone from ordinary flu's, and it makes you wonder what all the fuss is about?
Is it from vested interests who are doing very nicely from the 'panic'? I will leave you to be the judge on that. By the way, Tamiflu doesn't seem to work for people who contract the bird flu. The last three people who contracted the bird flu in Vietnam were all given Tamiflu at the earliest possible stage. Two of them still died though. It is quite well known in scientific circles that Tamiflu won't help because it is a totally different type of virus and yet billions of dollars are being spent on it.
The world is full of viruses, and always will be. The only way to protect yourself against viruses and/or any disease is to ensure that you are healthy and have a strong immune system. That means in addition to good food, exercise and lifestyle choices, the avoidance of drugs which will compromise your immune system.
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FDA Mulling OTC Sale of Fat Blocking Pill (Xenical)...n2
WASHINGTON - A pharmaceutical company that seeks federal approval for over-the-counter sales of a prescription diet pill that blocks the absorption of fat faces questions on the pill's potential for creating vitamin deficiencies and encouraging abuse.
Two Food and Drug Administration advisory committees are to discuss on Monday allowing over-the-counter sales of orlistat, which GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare proposes to market as Alli (pronounced "ally"). That version would be half the dose of the prescription form of the drug, known as Xenical, which won FDA approval in 1999.
For the rest of the article click here.
Warren Matthews comments: This would be bad news if it is approved for OTC sales. It's use could certainly be subject to abuse! But…wait…it should be OK, because Steve Burton, GlaxoSmithKline's vice president of weight control says that they recommend users take extra multi-vitamins whilst they are using Xenical. Also, he says, "we believe there is a very low potential for misuse and abuse. But we need to be vigilant,"
In support of this, Dr. Howard Eisenson, director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C. suggests "The unpleasantness of the drug's side effects, including "involuntary leakage" of undigested fat, should limit its abuse"
Hmm... if you need to lose weight this should be a last resort and only done in conjunction with a competent nutritionist. Oh... better take our Total Balance as well to offset the blockage of nutrients which this drug is renowned for.
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Health Coverage for Aging Baby Boomers... surveyn3
The Commonwealth Fund has carried out a survey on the medical coverage for adults aged 50 - 65. It makes some pretty sobering reading. To read the article click here.
Warren Matthews comments: What struck me with this report is that 60% of the people that they surveyed between the ages of 50 and 65 were suffering from a chronic disease. That is amazing, and very sad as virtually all of them are avoidable. If you are one of the 40% who is free from any chronic condition, make the effort to stay that way. This means good food…no processed food, good exercise and of course a good supplement foundation using our Total Balance and Omega 3 DHA/Esters :)
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Important notice: All material provided within XTEND-15sec-NEWS is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not to be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken solely on the contents of this publication. Consult your physician or a qualified health professional on any matters regarding your health and wellbeing or on any opinions expressed within this newsletter. The information provided in this newsletter is believed to be accurate based on the best judgment of the editor but the reader is responsible for consulting with their own health professional on any matters raised within.
Bird flu viruses carry unique genes: study (Full Article)full1
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Thu Jan 26, 2:01 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists may have found out what makes the H5N1 influenza virus so deadly -- bird flu viruses have a gene that may make them especially destructive to cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
All the bird flu viruses studied by the team at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis had the gene and none of the human influenza viruses did, they said.
People infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus in Vietnam and Thailand had the "avian" version of the flu virus, as did the victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed tens of millions of people globally, the researchers said.
But the influenza viruses that cause the normal seasonal human misery, and those that caused the less deadly 1957 and 1968 human flu pandemics, do not carry the avian genes.
The finding, published in the journal Science, may provide a way to identify the more dangerous viruses and may also help companies trying to make better flu drugs, said St. Jude's Clayton Naeve.
"We documented a clear difference between bird viruses and human viruses. You need much more work to demonstrate this actually contributes to virulence in nature," Naeve said in an interview.
Naeve and his colleagues have been working to sequence the genomes of all known influenza viruses. No one has done this, even though flu viruses have just eight genes and are relatively simple organisms, the researchers said.
"This is information we expect will be very important in understanding the attributes of this virus -- how it will cross from birds to humans. We are releasing this data so that other investigators worldwide can mine it for information," he said.
VIRUS COLLECTION
The researchers used a collection of samples of 11,000 influenza viruses, including 7,000 avian influenza viruses, assembled by St. Jude's Dr. Robert Webster over 30 years.
"We have sequenced a diverse sampling of 336 avian influenza viruses from this collection including isolates from ducks, gulls, shorebirds and poultry collected in North American, Eurasian, and Australasian countries, primarily during the years 1976 to 2004," the researchers said.
The H5N1 virus has been found in birds for decades but it first was seen to infect people in 1997, in Hong Kong. Since it resurfaced in 2003, it has infected at least 152 people and killed 83 of them, according to the World Health Organization.
It has killed or forced the culling of hundreds of millions of birds.
H5N1 does not yet pass easily from person to person but experts fear it will mutate into a form that does so, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions or tens of millions.
One factor will be just what genetic changes the virus makes, and no one can predict what they will be. But Naeve's team may have identified two proteins to watch.
They are called NS1 and NS2, for non-structural protein, and they are only made once the virus has infected a cell.
The avian versions seem to allow the virus to do much more damage to a cell than the human versions of NS, Naeve said.
"We were surprised to see a lot of variation in this NS protein. That was the clue. We felt it must be playing an important biological role," he said.
It is possible that a mutation that would allow a flu virus to more easily infect people will weaken the NS protein, Naeve said. But no one knows.
To see the balance of the article please go to...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060126/hl_nm/birdflu_virus_dc
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FDA Mulling OTC Sale of Fat Blocking Pill (Full Article)full2
By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer Sat Jan 21, 4:26 PM ET
WASHINGTON - A pharmaceutical company that seeks federal approval for over-the-counter sales of a prescription diet pill that blocks the absorption of fat faces questions on the pill's potential for creating vitamin deficiencies and encouraging abuse.
Two Food and Drug Administration advisory committees are to discuss on Monday allowing over-the-counter sales of orlistat, which GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare proposes to market as Alli (pronounced "ally"). That version would be half the dose of the prescription form of the drug, known as Xenical, which won FDA approval in 1999.
An FDA reviewer found the drug is a "safe and effective weight loss agent," but held off on recommending whether the Nonprescription Drugs and the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs advisory committees should in turn recommend to the FDA that it approve the drug for sale without a prescription.
The drug acts by blocking the absorption of about one-quarter the fat a patient consumes. That fat is then passed out of the body in stools, which can be loose or oily as a result.
In six-month clinical trials, obese subjects who took orlistat lost on average 5.3 pounds to 6.2 pounds more than did those who were given dummy pills, according to FDA documents released Friday.
FDA reviewer Dr. Karen Feibus said the primary concern with the drug is its potential to create vitamin deficiencies, since its use also would block absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like D, E, K and beta-carotene.
The company recommends patients take multivitamins when using the drug, said Steve Burton, GlaxoSmithKline's vice president of weight control. Whether that would happen remains unclear: at least 47 percent of the people involved in trials of the drug did not take multivitamins as recommended, the FDA said.
Orlistat may also block some drugs, including cyclosporine, used to prevent rejection of kidney, liver and heart transplants. Orlistat shouldn't be taken with that drug, the FDA said.
Furthermore, just 35 percent of diabetes patients in a study correctly stated the drug was not appropriate for them to use, according to agency documents.
The regulatory agency also is concerned about increased potential for abuse or misuse of the prescription-free version of the drug, especially among bulimics or binge-eaters who could develop vitamin deficiencies due to chronic use of the drug. There are at least four published reports of women suffering from bulimia using the prescription form of the drug as a purgative. An estimated 22 million people worldwide have used the drug.
"We believe there is a very low potential for misuse and abuse. But we need to be vigilant," Burton said.
The unpleasantness of the drug's side effects, including "involuntary leakage" of undigested fat, should limit its abuse, said Dr. Howard Eisenson, director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C.
"I think to some extent, the side effects will limit the potential for abuse, because the side effects are uncomfortable or messy," said Eisenson, adding he has no financial ties to the drug or its manufacturer.
The company plans to limit sales of the drug to adults. It expects women to make up 80 percent of the expected market for the drug, which would cost consumers an estimated $12 to $25 a week.
The company intends to package Alli as part of an overall diet and fitness program. The program would emphasis eating a lower-fat diet, to both cut calories and curtail the drug's effect on a user's stools.
United Kingdom-based GlaxoSmithKline's U.S. operations are based in Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park, N.C.
The company declined to share sales projections, but said that 130 million Americans are overweight or obese and that consumers spend $23 billion each year on weight-loss strategies.
Click here to read the full article.
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Health Coverage for Aging Baby Boomers: Findings from The Commonwealth Fund Survey of Older Adults (Full Article) Overview
The combination of rising out-of-pocket health care costs and sluggish wage growth threatens workers' ability to save for retirement. This is particularly true for adults ages 50 to 64, or "baby boomers," whose per capita health care expenditures are more than twice those of younger adults. In this new analysis of The Commonwealth Fund Survey of Older Adults, the authors explore the extent and quality of health insurance coverage for baby boomers in the workforce. Among their key findings: older adults have high rates of chronic health conditions; many have unstable insurance coverage; those who have low income, individual coverage, or no insurance spend a substantial share of their income on coverage and health care and have reduced access to care. Survey respondents also expressed interest in new Medicare savings accounts and early participation in Medicare.
Executive Summary
Employers are responding to rising health insurance premiums by shifting more of their costs to employees in the form of greater premium contributions, higher deductibles, larger copayments, and slower wage increases. Some employers, particularly small firms, are dropping coverage altogether. The combination of rising out-of-pocket health care costs and sluggish wage growth threatens workers' ability to save for retirement. This is particularly true for older adults ages 50 to 64, or "baby boomers," whose per capita health care expenditures are more than twice those of younger adults.
This report presents a new analysis of The Commonwealth Fund Survey of Older Adults that explores the extent and quality of health insurance coverage for baby boomers who are in the workforce, with a special emphasis on those with low and moderate incomes.
Among the key findings are:
Older adults have high rates of chronic health conditions. The incidence of chronic conditions increases dramatically with age, placing older adults at greater risk of incurring high medical costs than younger adults. Sixty-two percent of 50-to-64-year-olds in working households reported they had at least one of six chronic conditions. High blood pressure, arthritis, and high cholesterol were the most common problems, with about 30 percent of respondents citing any one.
Many working older adults have unstable health insurance coverage. One-fifth of older adults in working families were either uninsured at the time of the survey or had histories of unstable coverage since age 50. Older adults in working households with low and moderate incomes report particularly high rates of unstable coverage. More than one-half (54%) of older adults in working households with incomes under $25,000 and one-third (33%) of those with incomes between $25,000 and $39,999 said they had a time when they went without health insurance coverage.
Older adults with low income, with individual coverage, or with no insurance spend substantial shares of their income on coverage and health care.
Premiums. More than half (55%) of older adults with coverage on the individual market spend $300 or more per month, or $3,600 or more annually, on premiums. In contrast, only 16 percent of older adults with employer coverage spend in excess of $3,600 per year on premiums. Nearly two of five insured working older adults with household incomes under $40,000 spend 5 percent or more of their income on premiums and nearly one-quarter (23%) spend 10 percent or more. More than three of five (62%) older adults with individual coverage said that it was very or somewhat difficult to afford their premiums compared with about one-quarter (26%) of those with employer coverage.
Deductibles. Despite their higher premiums, nearly half (48%) of older adults with individual coverage have per-person annual deductibles of $1,000 or higher. In comparison, about 8 percent of older adults with employer coverage face deductibles of $1,000 or more per year.
Out-of-pocket costs. Thirty-eight percent of uninsured older adults and 37 percent of older adults with coverage through the individual market spent $1,000 or more per year on out-of-pocket health care costs, including prescription drugs. In contrast, 21 percent of older adults with employer coverage spent $1,000 or more. Older adults in low- and moderate-income working households are also more likely to spend a large share of their income on out-of-pocket costs than are those in higher-income households.
Older adults who are uninsured, have individual coverage, and have low or moderate incomes have reduced access to care. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of older adults in working households reported at least one cost-related access problem. Fifty-four percent of uninsured older adults and 30 percent of older adults with individual coverage reported at least one access problem. Older adults of low or moderate income were also more likely to report cost-related access problems.
Older adults report high rates of medical bill problems. More than one-third (35%) of older adults in working households either had a medical bill problem in the last 12 months or were paying off accrued medical debt. The problem was most severe among uninsured older adults.
Older adults are concerned they will not be able to afford health care. Two-thirds (66%) of older adults in working households said they were very or somewhat worried they might not be able to afford needed medical care in the future.
Older adults would be interested in new Medicare savings accounts and participating in Medicare early. A substantial majority of older adults in working families (71%) said they would be interested in having 1 percent of their earnings deducted from their paychecks and placed into an account, which could later be used to pay for long-term care or other health services that Medicare does not cover. In addition, 72 percent of older adults in working households said they would be very or somewhat interested in enrolling in Medicare before age 65.
To read the balance of the article please click here.
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