Healthy News for Healthy Nation

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High cholesterol levels in your 40s may raise the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease decades later, according to a study underscoring the importance of health factors in middle age on risk for the brain ailment.

The study involving 9,752 people in northern California found that those with high cholesterol levels between ages 40 and 45 were about 50 percent more likely than those with low cholesterol levels to later develop Alzheimer’s disease.

The findings were presented on Wednesday at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago.

“Alzheimer’s disease does not happen overnight,” Dr. Alina Solomon of the University of Kuopio in Finland, who helped lead the study, said in a telephone interview.

“Alzheimer’s disease has a very long preclinical phase — a silent phase — when you don’t see any signs of the disease, but the disease is there. The pathological changes in the brain can sometimes develop over decades.”

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia among older people, and researchers have been working to understand its causes and risk factors.

The findings come just weeks after another study showed that having a big belly in middle age may greatly increase one’s risk of later developing Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.

Rachel Whitmer of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California who led that study also was involved in the new one on cholesterol levels.

“Cholesterol is just one piece of the puzzle. There are other risk factors like hypertension and obesity. The more risk factors you have, the higher the risk gets,” Solomon said.

Solomon said previous research had looked at the issue of high cholesterol levels in middle age as a risk factor for later development of dementia, but did not focus specifically on Alzheimer’s disease.

The people in the new study underwent detailed health evaluations between 1964 and 1973 when they were ages 40 to 45, including blood cholesterol measurements. The researchers then looked at the cholesterol measurements of the 504 people in the study who developed Alzheimer’s disease decades later.

High levels of cholesterol — a waxy, fat-like substance that occurs naturally in the body — in the blood can raise one’s risk of heart disease. Physical inactivity, obesity and a fatty diet can contribute to high cholesterol.

“The association between cholesterol and cardiovascular disease is well known. What we know now is that minding heart health may protect your brain as well,” Solomon said.

Exercise and eating more fruits and vegetables can lower cholesterol, and there are cholesterol-lowering drugs as well.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Miyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Thursday it had culled 3 million farmed birds and confirmed three more outbreaks of bird flu, as the country grapples with its worst avian influenza outbreak in four years.

In just two weeks South Korea has confirmed 15 cases of the deadly H5N1 strain, raising alarm as the highly virulent virus is spreading at its fastest rate since the country reported its first case in 2003.

The farm ministry said on Thursday it had seven new reports of suspected bird flu outbreaks at poultry farms in North and South Jeolla provinces, some 320 km (200 miles) south of Seoul, where the first bird flu recurrence for a year was reported earlier this month.

It also said it would slaughter hundreds of thousands of birds in the most severely affected southwestern part of the country, as it confirmed three new outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 in the area late on Thursday.

The country raised the risk level for bird flu to the second highest on Wednesday and sent 200 soldiers to kill and bury birds, as an outbreak was confirmed at a farm in Pyeongtaek, just 60 km south of Seoul, bringing the disease closer to the capital.

But South Korean authorities have come under heavy criticism as the highly pathogenic virus continues to spread, despite their rigorous efforts, and as they have failed to provide clear explanations for the cause of the fast spread.

The farm ministry said its quarantine work would focus on speeding up slaughtering and investigating possible causes of the spread such as migrating birds and transport workers who have been moving around affected sites and other parts of the country.

The fast-spreading outbreak has hit poultry consumption, posing a big threat to farmers already struggling with high animal feed prices.

Han told related ministers to consider helping farmers with tax benefits, financial assistance and budget spending.

South Korea, which estimates it will spend 32 billion won ($32.4 million) on quarantine work in the current outbreak, also plans to introduce insurance products that offer up to 2 billion won compensation if a human infection is reported following poultry consumption.

Chicken sales in the past 15 days have dropped 60 percent at four major retailers surveyed by the farm ministry, while prices of chicken and duck dropped up to 10 percent.

The country had seven bird flu outbreaks between November 2006 and March last year and 19 cases between December 2003 and March 2004, when it had to kill 5.3 million birds. No human deaths have been reported.

Some 240 human deaths have been reported globally from the H5N1 strain and 380 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to World Health Organisation data.

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)

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By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Following a traditional breast-feeding schedule appears more beneficial for early infant weight gain and is more supportive of continued breast-feeding than a “baby-led” routine, UK researchers report.

The traditional recommendations have been largely replaced by “baby-led” breast-feeding which advises letting infants feed for an unlimited time from the first breast and that both breasts need not be used at each feeding, Dr. C. Anne Walshaw and colleagues note.

“Such advice is not backed up by evidence-based lactation physiology,” Walshaw, of Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust, in Bradford, told Reuters Health.

After noticing poor weight gain among breast-fed babies after baby-led breast-feeding became more common, Walshaw and colleagues compared early weight gain in infants who were exclusively breast fed. Thirty one healthy mother/baby pairs followed the baby-led advice and a similar group of 32 mother/baby pairs followed the traditional breast-feeding advice.

The traditional breast-feeding approach involves breast-feeding using both breasts at each feeding for no more than 10 minutes per breast.

They found that infants were more likely to be exclusively breast-fed for up to 12 weeks when their mothers followed traditional rather than baby-led breast-feeding practices.

Furthermore, feeding more than 10 minutes from the first breast was associated with poor weight gain during the first 6 to 8 weeks of exclusive breast-feeding, the researchers report in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Traditional methods take advantage of the physiological mechanisms of breast-feeding, Walshaw said. The regular, short-term use of both breasts at each feeding conditions the let-down reflex. Moreover, draining milk from both breasts at each feeding inhibits the slowing of milk production in an unused breast, and takes advantage of the higher fat and protein content of early-released milk from each breast.

By contrast, baby-led breast-feeding can decondition the let-down reflex through prolonged suckling at each feed, and can gradually enhance lesser milk production by using only one breast at each feeding.

Walshaw and colleagues conclude that strategies encouraging breast feeding must heed lactation physiology.

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By Edith Honan and Joan Gralla

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday called on the U.S. government to pay $150 million a year to cover medical bills for workers and residents whose health suffered due to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The federal government created a $1 billion insurance fund to help ground zero workers sickened by the toxic fumes and dust released when the World Trade Center was destroyed.

The fund, however, has been hobbled by lawsuits and criticized for a lack of payments to sick workers.

The request for the health payments was among the top priorities for the mayor, who provided an update on Thursday for his second and last term that ends in 2010.

As home to numerous billionaires, the city regularly plays host to political fund raisers and Bloomberg said he wants donors to ask the country’s politicians to support his priorities.

“We need state and federal legislators who come to New York City for money to understand the city’s priorities — and to vote accordingly,” Bloomberg, an independent, said in a statement.

Bloomberg has lost some key battles with the state recently, including a plan to relieve traffic congestion and improve air quality by charging commuters $8 to drive into large parts of Manhattan during peak hours on weekdays.

Bloomberg, at a luncheon where he was joined by California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, listed the priorities that he wants donors to help him seek support.

In addition to funds for medical bills related to the 9/11 attacks, Bloomberg’s top priorities include getting more money for infrastructure, ranging from transportation to the water and sewer system.

A mayoral aide said that goal could be advanced if a federal infrastructure bank were created, an idea also supported by Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.

“America needs $1.6 trillion worth of infrastructure over the next five years, yet federal investment has been cut in half as a percent of gross domestic product since 1987,” said Schwarzenegger, in a statement with the two other officials.

The three politicians aim to build a coalition of state and local officials that will become a source of expertise on funding infrastructure. The Rockefeller Foundation, over the short-term, will fund the project.

“The coalition will work with the presidential candidates and the platform committees of the national political parties to ensure that the next president understands the enormity of the infrastructure crisis and is committed to increasing federal funding for infrastructure,” the statement said.

Bloomberg repeated some previous goals, including getting more money to improve security . He also wants to slice the city’s carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent by 2030 and sharply boost affordable housing by 2013.

(Reporting by Edith Honan and Joan Gralla; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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