Science News: Autism & Vaccines, Soda & Cancer

Two big science stories to address:

1) Last week The Lancet (impact factor 28.4; that’s big) retracted a controversial 1998 article linking MMR vaccinations to the onset of autism after almost 80% of the original authors wrote letters to the journal requesting a retraction.

2) Today in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention there was a study involving 60,500 Chinese and they discovered a link between drinking as little as two (2) cans of soda a week and 80% increase in pancreatic cancer.

Let’s address both of these.

1) http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/56008/title/Journal_retracts_flawed_study_linking_MMR_vaccine_and_autism


2) http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/current pg#447

Hands Up Heads Down!

Or hands up, heads up, and most importantly butts up!

"...a handful of epidemiological research groups around the world, and big names such as Ulf Ekelund of the epidemiology unit of the UK's Medical Research Council and James A. Levine of the US's Mayo Clinic, are trying to shift the debate about obesity. As well as talking about exercise, they want to discuss sitting." (1)

These large studies tell us something intuitively obvious: a job which requires you to constantly be moving (or at least standing) is better for your health presupposing your baseline is permitting, i.e. no arthritis, no orthostatic hypotension, no joint disorders, etc.

How many hours do you stand during the day?

According to the same article where the quotation was found, Donald Rumsfeld is quoted to say he stands for 8-10 hours a day but enemy combatants are only required to stand for 4 hours at a time as a measure of their incarceration in our prisons.

Perhaps the fitness of a nation should be assessed by the "flabbiness" of its citizens asses?

1) Stand up to the insidious dangers of sitting down

By Simon Kuper, in the Financial Times. Accessed at ft.com

Published: January 23 2010 02:00 | Last updated: January 23 2010 02:00

Tuesday Morning Quarterback - Who is this guy, and why does he write for ESPN?

I occasionally read this column when the headline catches my attention, and numerous times the author has brought up good points, only to have them be quite short and easy for people to skip over.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/100105&sportCat=nfl

Today he discusses two issues that I think are worthy of discussion, under the following headings:

Do Coaches Need To Be Coached?

Newspapers -- To Survive, Ignite Corporate Controversies That Require Image Advertising

I think the former applies to the discussion we had previously on the violence of sport in America, specifically in regards to Jarrod's comment that football in its current form is likely due to change in the near future, and this may be a big part of it. Considering the discussion on concussions, I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more attention than it has. I think his section on this should've been enlarged to an entire column and put on the front page.

The latter is an issue I hadn't fully considered. He's mostly just saying that newspapers have benefitted from controversial issues over the last year (mostly health care reform). But how much of a role do they play in the formation of these controversies?

Finally, to get back to the title of the post, I just looked the author up on Wikipedia, and he's actually the editor of the New Republic, and writes frequently on space and environmental topics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Easterbrook

Healthcare revisited

This was a hot topic last time. Now with the Senate passing its bill, what are some thoughts on the current legislation? Both the House and Senate have bills. Can we call this an accomplishment for citizens?

Endocrine Disruptors and Public Health, NY Times Article

A lot of stuff we've been saying all along.

"Likewise, asthma rates have tripled over the last 25 years, Dr. Landrigan said. Childhood leukemia is increasing by 1 percent per year. Obesity has surged. One factor may be lifestyle changes — like less physical exercise and more stress and fast food — but some chemicals may also play a role.

Take breast cancer. One puzzle has been that most women living in Asia have low rates of breast cancer, but ethnic Asian women born and raised in the United States don’t enjoy that benefit. At the symposium, Dr. Alisan Goldfarb, a surgeon specializing in breast cancer, pointed to a chart showing breast cancer rates by ethnicity.

“If an Asian woman moves to New York, her daughters will be in this column,” she said, pointing to “whites.” “It is something to do with the environment.”"

Kristof, Nicholas. Cancer From the Kitchen? A New York Times Article accessed on their website December 6, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06kristof.html?_r=2

Is Sanjay Gupta a fraud?

So this guy was at the marathon this morning promoting his new book Cheating Death. I of course have not read this book, but the premise as supposed by a reading of the title makes it seem like this man is setting up a straw man in matters of inevitability. I'll take a look at it the next time I'm at Border's and give a more thorough review.

In the meantime, I found this:

http://crooksandliars.com/2007/07/11/michael-moore-vs-sanja-gupta/

It seems Sanjay Gupta, Larry King, and Wolf Blitzer were all involved in a bit of a soiree after Sicko came out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpKoN40K7mA

My gut feeling (for what that's worth) tells me that Gupta is a bit of a drone and I'm not sure how he's qualified to be a journalist (neurosurgeons aren't as smart as you think, I speak from experience, it's really more about effort and capability to deal with attrition). But let's examine this idea more closely; if I remember correctly this man was in line at one point to be our next surgeon general (a job that pays ~200k/year less than neurosurgeon and probably .5-1.0 million less than CNN analyst). He declined I believe.

Dara O'Rourke and Consumer Reporting

He seems to be the main person responsible for this: http://www.goodguide.com/

Let's study this and see if what we're buying is as nice as we think it is. Apparently Organic foods might night be as organic as we think (how many times can these companies perpetrate blatant lies to the public and get away with it?)

::Cough Cough Sneeze::

"What are the mid-range and long-term outlooks for production and distribution of the U.S. influenza vaccine supply?

Both the mid–term and long-range outlooks for the U.S. influenza vaccine supply appear very positive. Six companies are currently licensed to produce influenza vaccine in the U.S. market (sanofi pasteur, Inc., MedImmune Vaccines Inc., Novartis Vaccines, CSL Biotherapies, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, and ID Biomedical Corporation), many of whom are working to expand their production capacities." (1)

MedImmune was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2007, (2) ID Biomedical was acquired by glaxo in 2005. (3)

Pay attention to the fear propagated in the news and you could get rich (see graph above of glaxosmithkline stock since flu scare in march of this year).

1) Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Supply and Distribution in the United States, Center for Disease Control Webs

2) AstraZeneca to acquire MedImmune for $58 per share in a fully recommended, all-cash transaction with a total enterprise value of $15.2 billion, MedImmune Corp Website

07/04/23/astrazeneca-to-acquire-medimmune-for-58-per-share-in-a-fully-recommended-all-cash-transaction-with-a-total-enterprise-value-of-15-2-billion

3) GlaxoSmithKline To Acquire ID Biomedical Corporation, Pharmaceutical Processing Web

Healthcare

Let's assess our understanding of the current debate, then I'll recommend an MPR piece featuring a leading expert.

If you look at the history of healthcare reform in this country then the current debate can be put into context. Background reading: http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/24/6/1679). We've been at this for quite a while and never have we come close to a socialized or universal healthcare. We've been left with a series of compromises instead (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.). It actually seems more complicated than I thought when listening to Ted Marmor this morning. I may have to read his book. For now, let's ask what we think we know and what actions we might like to be taken and then what we think Congress/President are doing and how close that is to the reality we'd like to see.


MPR: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/25/midmorning2/

Kessler and The End of Overeating

Remember when this guy was on Bill Maher?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF4EoLa7l78

Why is the potential firestorm that this guy wants (against the food industry), not the same as it was in the 90s with the cigarette companies and nicotine? I had this discussion at work today and one of the doctors brought up a really good point.