Health Buzz: E. Coli Blamed for 2 Deaths and Other Health News
E. Coli Blamed for 2 Deaths
Fairbank Farms has voluntarily recalled nearly 546,000 pounds of ground beef products that may be linked to an E. coli outbreak responsible for two deaths, Reuters reports. In all, 28 people have become ill and 16 were hospitalized with E. coli infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The suspect meat was sold in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia. The CDC says all but three of those sickened were in northeastern states, according to Reuters. The meat products were stamped "EST 492." News of the latest E. coli outbreak comes months after House passage of a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration more authority to regulate the food industry and prevent outbreaks of food-borne illness.
[Photo Gallery: 10 Riskiest Foods Regulated by the FDA.] [Read: Riskiest Foods: 3 Tips for Protecting Your Family From Illness and Just How Safe Is Our Meat?]
Lifestyle—Not Just Genes—May Contribute to Alzheimer's Risk
You might think of Alzheimer's disease as a genetic condition that you can do nothing to avoid. But that may not be the case, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz writes. New research published yesterday in the Archives of General Psychiatry suggests that Alzheimer's is partly driven by inflammation, a process over which we do have some control. In the study of 206 volunteers whose parents developed dementia late in life, Danish researchers found that compared with those whose parents didn't have Alzheimer's, the volunteers were more likely to have high blood pressure and high levels of inflammatory proteins called cytokines.
While the researchers note that 60 percent of an individual's Alzheimer's risk appears to be driven by genes, the rest may be due to changeable lifestyle factors, Kotz writes. Early interventions like identifying and treating hypertension, for example, might prevent late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Read more.
[Read: Chronic Inflammation: Reduce It to Protect Your Health and Building a Diet That Lowers Inflammation.]
Teens Think Drinking on MySpace, Facebook Is Real
Teenagers spend lots of time on MySpace, Facebook, and other social media sites talking about what they do. Often that talk is about underage drinking, risky sexual activity, and violence, U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute writes. But does it describe their actual activities, or is it just bragging?
About half of teenagers' social media posts refer to drinking, sex, or violence, according to Megan Moreno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. That discovery, which was reported earlier this year, left Moreno wondering if all that chatter was reality or trash talk. She's still working on answering that question, but she has found out this: Kids do think that what they see on social media sites is real, and the younger they are, the more they believe it. That's important, because teenagers are powerfully influenced by the behavior of their peers. Read more.
[Read: What Parents Don't Know About How Their Kids Use Facebook, MySpace and Mastering MySpace Dangers: 10 Tips for Concerned Parents.]
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