Regarding high levels of lead in blood

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women with high levels of lead in their blood are likely to die sooner -- particularly from heart disease -- than their counterparts with low lead levels, new research indicates.
Those with lead concentrations above 8 micrograms per deciliter of blood were 59 percent more likely to die of any cause, and three times more likely to die of heart disease, than women with lower blood lead levels.
Results of the most recent US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2001-2002) indicate that average blood lead levels have declined sharply -- relative to earlier surveys -- to 1.45 micrograms per deciliter.
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Caution with multivitamins

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than 30 percent of multivitamins tested recently by ConsumerLab.com contained significantly more or less of an ingredient than claimed, or were contaminated with lead, the company reports.
ConsumerLab.com, based in White Plains, New York, is privately held and provides consumer information and independent evaluations of products that affect health and nutrition. According to the company, it is neither owned by nor has a financial interest in any companies that make, distribute or sell consumer products.
Several multivitamin products tested, including three for children, exceeded tolerable upper limits established by the Institute of Medicine for ingredients such as vitamin A, folic acid, niacin and zinc, according to the report posted on http://www.consumerlab.com/.

The waist size influence a person's risk of heart failure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Both body mass index (BMI) and waist size influence a person's risk of being hospitalized with heart failure or dying of the condition, new research shows.
"This study reinforces the importance of maintaining a healthy body weight through diet and exercise," Dr. Emily B. Levitan of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a researcher on the study, told Reuters Health.
In heart failure, the organ becomes too weak to pump blood efficiently through a person's body, leading to fatigue, swelling of the legs, and difficulty breathing. Heart failure is the top cause of hospitalization among Americans 65 and older, Levitan and her colleagues note in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation.
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Go to Nicotine replacement

LONDON (Reuters) - Nicotine replacement therapy can help smokers quit even when they do not think they are ready, researchers reported on Friday.
Smokers who do not yet want to quit but are prepared to reduce their smoking are twice as likely to stop in the long term if they use nicotine replacements to help them cut down gradually, the University of Birmingham team reported.
"Until now experts have advised people not to reduce their smoking but to quit abruptly," Paul Aveyard, one of the researchers, said in a telephone interview. "The worry has been that advising reduction will somehow deter people from the better alternative, which is stopping right now," he added.
The team reviewed seven trials involving nearly 3,000 people. Overall, 6.75 percent of those using some type of nicotine replacement were able to go six months without smoking -- twice as many as those who were given placebos.
Studies suggest half of those who manage six months without smoking will maintain it for the rest of their lives.
Aveyard said the review also looked into the safety of smoking while using nicotine replacements, something which had previously been advised against, and found there was no suggestion of any serious health problems.
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Omega 3 Diet Reduce Cancer Risk

LONDON (Reuters) - An omega 3 fatty acid found in fish oils reduced the size of tumors in mice and made a chemotherapy drug more potent while limiting its harmful effects, Egyptian researchers reported on Thursday.
The findings, published in publisher BioMed Central's peer-reviewed Cell Division journal, add to evidence showing a range of health benefits from eating the fatty acids found in foods such as salmon.
A.M. El-Mowafy and colleagues from Mansoura University in Egypt looked at how an omega 3 fatty acid called docosahexanoic acid, or DHA, affected solid tumors growing in mice and how well it interacted with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin.
In March, U.S. researchers showed that a diet high in omega 3 fatty acids -- the kind found in fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring and sardines -- protected against advanced prostate cancer even in men more at risk of the disease.
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Sleep problems may lead to Suicide

LONDON (Reuters) - People who suffer chronic sleep problems are more likely to think about suicide or actually try to kill themselves, researchers said on Wednesday.
The more types of sleep disturbances a person had -- such as waking up too early, difficulty falling asleep or lying awake at night -- upped the odds of suicidal thoughts, planning a suicide, or attempting it, researchers told a conference.
"People with two or more sleep symptoms were 2.6 times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those without any insomnia complaints," Marcin Wojnar, a researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the Medical University of Poland, who led the study, said in a statement.
"This has implications for public health as the presence of sleep problems should alert doctors to assess such patients for a heightened risk of suicide even if they don't have a psychiatric condition."
According to the World Health Organization, some 877,000 people worldwide kill themselves each year. For every suicide death, anywhere from 10 to 40 attempts are made, the U.N. agency estimates.
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Germy Mouth May not be Dentist business Alone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People with the germiest mouths are the most likely to have heart attacks, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
A study that compared heart attack victims to healthy volunteers found the heart patients had higher numbers of bacteria in their mouths, the researchers said.
Their findings add to a growing body of evidence linking oral hygiene with overall health.
Oelisoa Andriankaja and colleagues at the University at Buffalo in New York were trying to find if any particular species of bacteria might be causing heart attacks.
Their tests on 386 men and women who had suffered heart attacks and 840 people free of heart trouble showed two types -- Tannerella forsynthesis and Prevotella intermedia -- were more common among the heart attack patients.
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