Kim’s public health blog

A special federal court declared that vaccines are not to blame for autism. The court ruled there was little if any evidence to support claims of a vaccine-autism link. One special master who decided the case called the evidence “weak, contradictory and unpersuasive.” While the special court expressed sympathy for the claims of the three families who brought the case, pediatricians welcomed the news. “Hopefully this decision will put an end to this sad chapter in the search for the cause and treatment of autism spectrum disorders,” says Leonard Rappaport MD, MS, chief of the Division of Developmental Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Maybe the first effective application of personalized treatment rather than using a single population standard. A set of 50 genes can be used to reliably identify the four known types of breast cancer, according to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions. Using this 50-gene set, oncologists can potentially predict the most effective therapy for each breast tumor type and thereby personalize cancer treatment for all patients. “Unlike a widely used genomic test that applies only to lymph-node negative, estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer, this new genomic test is broadly applicable for all women diagnosed with breast cancer,” says breast cancer specialist Matthew Ellis, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University.

Research published in Tobacco Control show that Educational campaigns informing pet owners of the risks of SHS exposure for pets could motivate some pet owners to quit smoking. It could also motivate these owners and non-smoking owners who cohabit with smokers make their homes smoke-free. Comment: A new twist on behavioral intervention. Addicts may not care for themselves,, but pets make a difference.

ScienceDaily — A tiny molecule found in most plant-based foods douses the flames before damaging lesions can form in the colon, according to a study by Texas AgriLife Research scientist Dr. Nancy Turner. Even better, the compound can be obtained easily by eating vegetables and fruit rather than by taking expensive prescriptions or supplements, Turner said.

ScienceDaily— We may be a long way off from using genetics to reliably gauge our risks for specific diseases, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in a study published on Feb. 5 in the online journal PLoS Genetics. Yet, many companies currently offer personalized genetic testing for diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and tout the ability of DNA testing to predict future health risks. The rapid discovery of new genetic risk factors is giving us vitally important insights into human health, but a strong association between these factors and disease risk may not reliably predict which health issues a specific individual will face in the future,” said Daniel E. Weeks, Ph.D., senior author and professor of human genetics and biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. “Our study indicates that even though we can paint a picture of our genetic makeup with current tests, this may not be enough to help us understand our individual risk for disease.” Comment: The message is Be cautious, the hucksters are at it again.

doctor, according to research published today by Cambridge University Press in the journal Epidemiology and Infection. A review article in the journal, written by several experts in their field, has highlighted the fact that fresh fruits and vegetables are increasingly recognized as a source of food poisoning outbreaks in many parts of the world. Comment: In many countries rather than using expensive nutrients vegetable fields are coved with various forms of annual and human fecal wastes (Organic farming) which not surprisingly leads to salmonellas infections when foods are eaten raw.

In numerous media outlets today, including the AMA’s Morning Letter, we are told that 99 variants of the rhinovirus have been sequenced and that the researchers involved believe they have found a way to combat a virus that mutates rapidly and is the bane of mankind. Comment: If so this will be a major public health step forward and hopefully lead to combating similar rapidly evolving viruses including the flu and HIV.

According to a study published in this month’s issue of the Archives of Neurology, “a diet laden with fish, olive oil, veggies, and other foods common in Mediterranean-style cuisine may help ward off mild cognitive impairment, sometimes called borderline dementia.” Unfortunately this is a retrospective study. We all know the difficulty of remembering past events. As one of the groups studied already had moderate dementia how reliable was their recall? While there are numerous studies that support the the Mediterranean diet we need prospective studies.

Another in the series of “How often do we need to repeat the message to make a point. Multivitamins do not have any impact on postmenopausal women’s risk of dying, getting cancer or cardiovascular disease, said the most extensive study to date on the subject, released Monday. The research examined 161,808 women, age 50 to 79, who took part in clinical trials on hormone therapy, dietary modification and vitamin D supplements, as well as 93,676 women who were part of an observational study.”Analyses revealed no significant associations between multivitamin use and the likelihood of developing cancer or cardiovascular disease, or of dying,” said the findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine [Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(3):294-304.] The fad for complementary medicines and efforts by the hucksters of OTC drugs continues unabated.

Vacationing at the shore led to a 5 percent increase in nevi (more commonly called “moles”) among 7-year-old children, according to a paper published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Comment: This was not a longitudinal study but because it will probably be given prominence in the media who like to scare people, this study should be taken with great caution.