Eating Cruciferous Vegetables May Curb Inflammation

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a study of more than 1,000 Chinese women, those who ate the most cruciferous vegetables had substantially less inflammation than those who ate the fewest.

Cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, bok choy, Brussels sprouts, kale and cauliflower, and eating them is often encouraged as a way to lower risk for heart disease and cancer.

Based on their findings, the study authors say the health benefits of these vegetables may be at least partly a result of their anti-inflammatory effects.

"Our group and others have found that consumption of fruits and vegetables, particularly cruciferous vegetables, was associated with lower total mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality - however, the potential mechanisms behind this association are not well understood," Dr. Gong Yang told Reuters Health by email.

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E-Cigarette-Related Poison Center Calls Surge

Calls to poison centers involving e-cigarettes have surged during the last 3 and half years, a new study shows.

The number of calls shot up from 1 per month in September 2010 to 215 per month in February 2014, researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in the April 4 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

"This report raises another red flag about e-cigarettes — the liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes can be hazardous," said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, in a CDC press release. "E-cigarette liquids as currently sold are a threat to small children because they are not required to be childproof, and they come in candy and fruit flavors that are appealing to children."

More than half (51.1%) of the calls to poison centers because of e-cigarettes involved children 5 years and younger, the researchers report. Many states do not restrict the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

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Multivitamins: Is the Jury Still Out?

Hello. This is Dr. JoAnn Manson, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Today I want to talk about multivitamins. Is the jury still out? Should we be recommending multivitamins for our patients? Do we know who is a good candidate and who is not?

It would be an understatement to say that there is a lot of confusion out there about multivitamins. This is surprising given the high prevalence of use of multivitamins. In the United States among women overall, more than one third use multivitamins; and among mid-life and older women, more than 50% use multivitamins.^[1] Thus, it is very important that we understand the balance -- the benefits and risks -- of the use of multivitamins. It is surprising that in the year 2014, there has not been a single completed large-scale randomized trial of multivitamins that includes women. I am talking about the full comprehensive multivitamins that contain at least 20 vitamins and minerals in the usual doses that would be achievable through diet. I am not talking about megadoses of individual, isolated micronutrients.

The one randomized trial that has been completed was the US Physicians Health Study-II,^[2,3] which included only men but suggested some benefits. The Physicians Health Study-II showed a modest (about 8%) reduction in cancer with use of a daily multivitamin, which could translate into quite a few cases of cancer prevented.^[2] Among the men who were aged 70 years and older, there was a statistically significant 18% reduction in cancer.^[2] The study also found about a 10% reduction in cataract risk and 10% reduction in cardiovascular disease.^[3] Findings suggested that the older men might do better than the younger men with multivitamin use. Overall results favored multivitamin use in men, but it is important to understand whether women may also benefit.

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Nighttime Light May Alter Circadian Rhythm, Lead to Obesity

"Innocuous" exposure to light at night alters circadian rhythms, which may in turn lead to weight gain, a new review suggests.

Clues that this might be a problem were first found in mice, which, when exposed to even low levels of light at night, "would shift their timing of food intake, and even though they were not eating any more calories, they were still gaining weight," coauthor Laura Fonken, PhD, from Ohio State University, Columbus, told Medscape Medical News.

"We think these results could be important to humans as well, [because] we all use computers late at night. We leave lights on late at night," she continued. "We have streetlights that come in our windows. All these different sources of light may be affecting the circadian system, which has consequences for metabolism."

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Pneumonia Protection With PCV-13 vaccine in the Elderly

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) offers moderate protection against the most common forms of pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia in healthy elderly people, a large prospective trial shows.

"Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are effective in preventing invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumonia in children, but vaccine efficacy has not been investigated in adults older than 65," said Marc Bonten, MD, professor of molecular epidemiology of infectious disease at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

"A clear medical need exists among adults to prevent pneumococcal disease, including pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia. Whether the benefit we demonstrated in individuals translates into an overall public health benefit needs further analyses," he said.

The study results were presented here at the 16th International Congress on Infectious Diseases.

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CDC Videos on Physical Activity

These videos help explain the guidelines, give you tips on how to meet them and show you how to do muscle strengthening exercises properly. 

SEE VIDEOS by the CDC

Alcohol Mouthwash use 'linked to oral cancer'

Mouthwash use 'linked to oral cancer': People who use products more than three times a day increase risk. Warning from Dr David Conway of University of Glasgow Dental School

Major study examined the health of 4,000 people across nine countries
British Dental Association argued results of study were not conclusive
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2596497/Mouthwash-use-linked-oral-cancer-People-use-products-three-times-day-increase-risk.html#ixzz2xvK0jyBV Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Heavy use of mouthwashes may lead to a higher risk of oral cancer, an expert claims.

Research suggests that people rinsing with such products more than three times a day have a greater chance of developing mouth and throat cancer.

Dr David Conway, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow Dental School, said people should not routinely use a mouthwash and stick to brushing and flossing instead.

Will Medicine Ever Become Safer?

Hello and welcome. I am Dr. George Lundberg and this is At Large at Medscape.

Hospitals are dangerous places. I no longer work in a hospital, and I try never to go to hospitals even to visit, unless, of course, I or my family were to become really sick and would obviously stand to benefit from hospitalization. I feel almost the same about surgicenters, free-standing emergency rooms, and urgent care facilities.

...

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine published the sentinel report To Err is Human, ^[2] still a best-seller. They pegged the annual number of American hospital deaths secondary to errors and adverse effects of treatment to be 44,000 to 98,000. In an interview earlier this year, I asked Lucian Leape whether that number still held. He said no, it was much larger. I asked whether we had made any progress. He said yes, but only in narrow fields.

In 2013, a new report^[3] in the Journal of Patient Safetyestimated American hospital deaths following adverse events at 210,000 to 440,000 per year. Medicare patients are reported to die at a rate of 180,000 per year from or with nosocomial infections and other medical care-related problems

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Wisely Choosing the Right Care

Hello and welcome. I am Dr. George Lundberg, at large for Medscape.

In about 1989, then-Secretary of Health and Human Services of the US government Dr. Louis Sullivan stated that between 30% and 40% of American medical care was unnecessary, wasted, or inappropriate. In 2013, Massachusetts health dignitaries stated that 30% of medical care in Massachusetts is unnecessary or inappropriate.

If they are correct, why have we in the American medical profession not fixed that in more than 20 years? Could it be that generation after generation of people who populate the system simply like it the way it is -- veritable pigs addicted to the money trough?

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