Ra 4 Food - Health and Nutritional Tips

In one of the most significant advances in a decade, researchers say they have obtained powerful immune responses in 150 infants on whom the vaccine was tested, suggesting that it would be pro-active in defeating the group B type of the disease.An effective vaccine against meningitis B could virtually eliminate the devastating bacterial infection from Britain and other European countries. Vaccines against group C meningitis, which was introduced in 1999, and Hib meningitis in 1992, have reduced these causes of the disease by more than 90 per cent.

Head of the vaccine evaluation department at the Health Protection Agency in Manchester, Dr Rob Borrow said, “I believe we should be very excited indeed. Ten years ago we had success with a vaccine against group C disease but, so far, we have had no real prospect of controlling group B disease.

“There are 20,000 to 80,000 cases of meningitis B globally and roughly 1,200 cases in the UK each year, of which 10 per cent result in death. The prospect of one vaccine that protects infants worldwide against [meningitis B] would be a key achievement in global disease prevention of our time.”

Parents have lived in terror of meningitis for many years because it targets the young, strikes with unnerving speed and ferocity, and kills one in 10 of those it infects. Generally, survivors of the disease suffer permanent disability including deafness, neurological problems and loss of limbs.

The meningitis bacterium lives harmlessly in the noses and throats of one in 10 people but, for reasons that are not fully understood, can erupt into a life-threatening illness that causes inflammation of the membrane around the brain - the “meninges” - and leads to death within hours.

Group B is the dominant strain in England, accounting for 84 per cent of the 1,283 cases of meningococcal disease recorded last year.

Group B vaccines have been developed before and are in use in Cuba and New Zealand but these are only effective against the single strains circulating in those countries.

The new vaccine contains multiple “antigens” - bacterial proteins designed to counter different strains - developed from a study of 85 strains of group B disease. It has so far been tested against three “representative” strains in the current trial.

The 150 babies in the study were given the vaccine at ages two, four, six and 12 months. Laboratory tests on blood samples showed they had better than 85 per cent protection against the three strains.

The vaccine was developed by the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis, and is currently being tested by an independent team led by Elizabeth Miller, the head of the immunization department at the Centre for Infections - part of the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Dr Borrow, who heads the regional HPA laboratory in Manchester and is a member of the team, presented the findings to the European Society of Paediatric Infectious Diseases in Austria yesterday. He said the laboratory results for the group B vaccine were as good as those for the group C vaccine a decade ago “and we have now virtually eliminated group C disease”. He added: “I am confident this vaccine will provide broad protection against a range of strains of group B disease. We have full data on three strains and partial data on two more strains which are representative of other components of the vaccine.”

A third and final trial, involving hundreds of British children, began earlier this year. Assuming these tests are successful, it would still be “some years” before a vaccine was introduced, Dr Borrow said.

A spokesman for the Meningitis Research Foundation said: “This is really exciting news. It is what we have been working towards. If it goes through phase three trials [successfully], we will have cracked the Holy Grail. It will be virtually the end of the story on meningitis and it will put organizations like ours out of business.”

The vaccine was developed using a method called “reverse vaccinology” in which the genetic make-up of a single strain was first decoded. This yielded 600 novel proteins from which the vaccine was constructed, using genetic engineering to pick those that showed the greatest ability to stimulate the immune system.

A report was published recently by the Food Standards Agency into the possible causes of Nicarbazin residues in chicken.

 Nicarbazin is a coccidiostat used to treat a protozoan disease, coccidiosis that can be debilitating or even fatal to poultry. It is used as a feed additive to control the disease at a critical period of the birds’ lives but should not be used within five days of the birds’ slaughter. This ensures no appreciable residues of it remain in chicken for human consumption. It is combined in equal amounts with another coccidiostat, narasin, in the only UK-licensed product that contains nicarbazin, Maxiban.

The report follows a joint initiative the Government and the Food Standards Agency. The initiative was launched in response to people wanting veterinary medicine residues in food to be kept to a minimum. These residues are not particularly harmful to consumers and are avoidable with good farm practice.

From February 2007 to January 2008, farms sampled under the National Surveillance Scheme (NSS) were sent a questionnaire, by an independent project co-ordinator, seeking information regarding their feeding practices. The NSS check’s for residues of Nicarbazin in UK poultry, as required by EU law. These checks are undertaken by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate, and agency of DEFRA.

The study identified several possible factors as likely causes of detectable Nicarbazin residues in chicken. They all relate to the management of feed storage and distribution systems on farm.

Among the key recommendations are: maintaining current best practice advice, maintaining and updating training on the use of Nicarbazin on farms, ensuring farmers are aware of the precise amounts of Nicarbazin feed required and ensuring that both single and double bins are emptied of any remaining Nicarbazin containing feed before the five days withdrawal period before processing.

Residues can be found in poultry meat but are more common in poultry liver. Neither is a significant food safety risk at the levels found, but can be avoided with good farm practice.

A UK action level for residues has been set at 200 ?g/kg based on international Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) considerations. Residues over 1000 ?g/kg are investigated on-farm by Animal Health, as this amount suggests a possible failing in feed management.

This recent investigation considered all detectable residues, including those below 200 ?g/kg, which greatly increased the amount of data available to assess risk factors.

A new study is set to be launched tomorrow to study the developmental disorder, Autism. 

The new British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (Basis) will study 200 infants with autistic older siblings to see if any patterns emerge and whether they will also develop the condition.

The goal is to identify criteria that can be used to assess very young children’s risk of autism long before its symptoms become obvious. This information can then be used to screen infants so that interventions that could reduce the impact of the condition can begin at a much earlier stage in their development.

At this time, autism is generally diagnosed in the third year of life, but it is thought that much of the altered brain development that influences the condition begins much earlier. While the chances of developing an autistic spectrum disorder are about one in 100. Children with autistic older siblings are up to 10 times more likely to be affected.

In the study, which is being managed by the Babylab at Birkbeck, University of London, up to 200 families affected by autism will be recruited so that infants can be studied at regular intervals of development. Using a custom-designed “hairnet” that monitors electrical activity, the behavior of these children at 6, 12 and 18 months will be monitored and the results collated with the five other UK center’s involved.

Professor Mark Johnson, of the Birkbeck Babylab, who is leading the project said, “In the longer term, the aim is to develop possible interventions that might reduce the number of susceptible babies that go on to develop autism.

“The difficulty at the moment is that by the time we are able to confirm a diagnosis of autism, the condition has reached a stage where it is difficult to reverse the symptoms. This study will not only give us early warning signs: it will also tell us a great deal about why autism develops in the way that it does.

“That kind of information will be invaluable in developing therapies to arrest and perhaps even reverse the distressing patterns of atypical behavior which can blight the lives of families with children with autism.”

Educational program’s aimed at teaching parents how to interact with autistic children, are being trialed by a team at Manchester University.

The project is being launched ahead of a major international conference on autism research, which opens in London on Thursday and will be chaired by Professor Charman.

Professor Johnson said that early diagnostic tests and interventions remain several years away. “This is going to be a slow, exhaustive and painstaking process,” he said. “The distinctive differences in babies who may be at risk are likely to be subtle and very difficult to identify by standard behavioral observation. We wouldn’t expect the program to bear fruit till we have several year’s worth of information on our database.”

Primary school children could be banned from starting school unless they have had the MMR jab.

Under Labour plans, primary schools will have to demand proof from parents that their children have had the triple vaccine before they are allowed to register.

The proposal was drawn up by Mary Creagh, the MP in charge of the party’s health manifesto for the next election and has outraged doctors’ leaders, who call it “Stalinist” and counterproductive.

If the proposal is approved, it would see almost 100,000 children barred each year from schools in England and Wales based on current vaccination rates.

Last night the Tories accused Labour of playing politics with children’s lives, warning that such “authoritarianism” would alienate parents.

The head of Labour’s manifesto group on public health has suggested, parents would have to provide a certificate to prove that their children had the full range of jabs against measles, rubella and mumps.

The proposal would also apply to toddlers, as children under two would also be vaccinated each year against flu and have additional jabs to protect against chicken pox and winter vomiting virus.

Schools currently do not have to ask parents if their child has had the MMR jab and it is up to school nurses to check records. Children who had missed vaccinations would be forced to attend a “catch-up” session before schools starts and any Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children could face penalties.

In the US parents are threatened with jail if their children are not immunised.

Mrs Creagh will outline her plans this week in the Fabian Review, the quarterly magazine of left-wing think-tank the Fabian Society.

In the magazine, the MP for Wakefield said: “We have vaccination rates as low as 11 per cent in parts of London and cases of measles, mumps and rubella are rising sharply.

“Labour should imitate the successful-U.S. model to ensure no low income child was unvaccinated.

“There, children can only start school after proof of vaccination has been supplied by parents - except on religious and medical grounds.”

Mrs Creagh suggests expanding the NHS programme which already immunises toddlers against MMR, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, meningitis and pneumonia.

Chairman of the British Medical Association, Dr Hamish Meldrum claims forcing parents to have their children inoculated is “morally and ethically dubious”.

He said a “Stalinist approach” would backfire.

It is understood that the idea has not yet been discussed with the Prime Minister and last night Labour insisted it had no plans for compulsory vaccination.

Experts claim a third of all cancers in the UK could be prevented by changes in diet and lifestyle – amounting to 95,000 people a year.

 “When health charities talk about numbers, it can often be difficult to comprehend what that means,” said Professor Martin Wiseman of the World Cancer Research Fund.

 “We hope that by comparing it to something easier to imagine, like the capacity of Wembley [stadium], we can show the scale of the problem.”

 The WRCF estimate comes amid concern that growing waistlines, coupled with binge-drinking, lack of exercise and poor diet are fueling cancer.

 Cases of womb cancer have risen by a fifth over the past decade while kidney cancer went up by 14 percent. Both forms of cancer are strongly linked to obesity.

 Eat more fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and pulses along with exercising twice a day, for at least half an hour, is the advice for cancer prevention.

 Cases of mouth cancer, which is associated with smoking and drinking, have increased by almost a quarter in a decade.

  Around 285,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year and nearly 155,000 die.

 Professor Wiseman added, “We need to remember that for every single one of these cases, there is a devastating impact on the lives of people who are diagnosed and also on their families, not to mention the financial cost of treatment.

  “This is why we need to do more to promote the message that with relatively simple changes, people can make a real difference to their cancer risk.” 

 Smokers are also advised to quit, alcohol intake should be limited to one or two drinks a day and skin should be covered in the sun. 

 A landmark report issued by the World Cancer Research Fund last year also recommended avoiding processed meat - and limiting intake of red meat to 18oz (500g) a week - the equivalent of three steaks.

For years we’ve been hearing that a glass of wine a day will keep you healthy, but is it true, and does it apply to any type of wine?

 Research has found that red wine in particular can lower the risk of heart disease, provide protection against stroke, pancreatic cancer and helps fight e.coli, salmonella and listeria.

 So which are the healthiest wines?

 It has been long acknowledged that red wine is good for the heart but some varieties are better than others. Many people believe that it’s the reversetrol – a powerful antioxodent that come from the skin of the grapes – that  provides the health benefit, but you have to drink vast amounts of red wine to reap any benefit on a daily basis.

 Far more important are polyphenols, the chemical compounds in grape skin and seeds. These are natural antioxidants which protect the membranes of each cell.Other important elements of red wine are procyanidins, which help to reduce blood pressure, lower cholesterol and protect against hardening of the arteries.

 The Nuoro province in Sardinia and Mardiran in the Pyrenees are to wine growing regions that boast high concentrations of procyanindins. Wines from these area’s contain up to ten times more beneficial compound’s than there counterparts from South Africa, Australia an the United Sates.

 The main difference between white and red wine is how the skin of the grape is used. With red grapes, the skin is crushed along with the pulp but with white grapes the skin are separated.

 White wine contains potassium which may help lower blood pressure and contains other types of polyphenols which can help lower bad cholesterol.

 Last year, Italian scientists found that both red and white wines are effective anti-bacterial agents against strains of streptomorecoccus, which causes infections such as sore throats. The findings concluded that acids in the wine helped to destroy bacteria, but red was more effective.

 Scientists at the University of Milan believe because white wine contains the compounds tyrosol and caffeic acid, which act as anti-inflammatories and antioxidants, it could help prevent rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.

 White wine is the preferred option for migraine sufferers since it is low in the headache-inducing compound tyramine, unlike many red and rosé wines.

 If taken as part of moderate alcohol consumption, rosé can also have its benefits. A recent Danish study concluded that people who drink up to two and a half bottles of wine a week - roughly two glasses a day - have a lower risk of premature death than those who abstain from alcohol.

 So it looks like red wine has the edge somewhat but like anything alcoholic, wine should be enjoyed in moderation. You may not want to drink two bottles a night but a small glass every few days may be enough to keep your ticker ticking. 

A US study has found that people who sleep for fewer than six hours a night – or more than nine – are more likely to be obese.

 The study took place over two years from 2004 and surveyed 87,000 people door-to-door. The information was gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics who are part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.

 This research, the largest of its kind, adds to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don’t get proper sleep. Dr Ron Cramer, a Colorado physician and spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said, “The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don’t do so well.”

 The study’s lead author, Charlotte Schoenborn said, “Such surveys can’t prove cause-effect relationships, so — for example — it’s not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking”

 Smoking was highest for people who got under six hours of sleep, with 31 percent saying they were current smokers. Those who got nine or more hours were also smokers, with 26 percent smoking.

 About 33 percent of those who slept the less than six hours were obese and 26 percent for those who got nine or more. Normal sleepers were the thinnest group with obesity at 22 percent.

 Those who slept the more than nine hours were found to have the highest alcohol intake, however alcohol use for those who slept seven to eight hours was similar.

 James Gangwich, a respected sleep researcher at Columbia University noted, “Other studies have found inadequate sleep is tied to appetite-influencing hormone imbalances and a higher incidence of diabetes and high blood pressure…We’re getting to the point that they may start recommending getting enough sleep as a standard approach to weight loss and the prevention of obesity.”

  Organic foods have been rising in popularity of late with many customers willing to pay more for the assurance that they are eating pesticide free, honest food but is it true that by eating these foods you are any better off?

 Food scares are always a good thing for the organic food industry. When the nation gets up in arms about farmer’s continuing to use pesticides and ‘poisoning’ us. The sad truth is that Organic farmers use pesticides too.

  Well that is according to a report by environmental expert, Dr Rob Johnston, “organic farmers can treat fungal diseases with copper solutions. Unlike modern, biodegradable, pesticides copper stays toxic in the soil for ever. The organic insecticide rotenone (in derris) is highly neurotoxic to humans - exposure can cause Parkinson’s disease…. But none of these ’natural’ chemicals is a reason not to buy organic food.”

 Everyone’s favorite, the organic chicken, is guilty of ‘trade secrets’ as large studies in Europe have found the food-poisoning bacterium Campylobacter in 100 percent of organic chicken flocks but only a third of conventional flocks. This high level of infection among organic chickens could cross-contaminate non-organic chickens processed on the same production lines.

 Scary stuff right?

 If you can believe the statistic, less than 1 percent of food sold in Britain is organic. In 2006 Mintel (an independent retail consultancy) estimated that there were around £1.5 billion in organic sales. Pretty impressive yes, but when you compare that to the £104 billion the food sector made then a picture is beginning to form.

 Ultimately it’s up to yourself to make a choice. Believe the hype that organic food is the answer, or nip round to your local shop and grab yourself a microwave curry.

Breast feeding has been under scrutiny in recent years as to whether it improves the development and intelligence of the child.

Now researchers have found that it is actually the mothers who breast feed that are the ones who make the difference thus dispelling the myth.

The study that took place involved randomly assigning babies to two groups regardless of the mother’s characteristics and was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Dr. Michael Kramer of McGill University, Montreal said, “Mothers who breast feed longer or more exclusively are different from the mothers who don’t”.

“They tend to be smarter. They tend to be more invested in their babies. They tend to interact with them more closely. They may be the kind of mothers who read to their kids more, who spend more time with their kids, who play with them more”, he added.

The researchers measured the differences between the two groups using IQ tests administered by the children’s pediatricians and by the ratings of their teachers of their school performance in reading, writing, math and other subjects.

When the results were established the children from the breast-feeding group got the highest score.

The study was launched in the mid-90’s.

For those who suffer from epilepsy (or have a family member who suffers) the condition can literally change a person life forever. There are many task which are difficult and work positions which are out of bounds due to the chance of taking a seizure, but is there a way to control the condition? Does your diet have a major role to play?

Scientists have found that epileptic children can benefit from a high-fat diet which seems to alter the body’s metabolism and bring on similar conditions to that of starvation. While scientists are not exactly sure how the so called “ketogenic” diet actually works, it seems that the ketones which are produced by the body, when fat is broken down, have been shown to counter-act the condition,

The research centred around 146 children who suffered regular epileptic fits although by using the high-fat diet the number of fits fell by two thirds. This is something of a major breakthrough and while it may not be healthy to place an epileptic on a high-fat diet for life, the fact that scientists are nearing the reasons why it works can be used in the future. There are many who are now hopeful that by clarifying the process, which has an almost immediate impact, doctors may be able to produce a medicine which will alleviate the need for a high-fat diet.

Epilepsy is one of those illnesses which has been around for many years but seems to have fallen off the medical radar with very little change in treatments over the last 20 years. While is it very much early days for this new treatment it seems that this could potentially be one of the biggest breakthroughs in pursuit of a useful medication. As the number of epileptic sufferers continues to grow, the need for further assistance is growing each year.