Health Buzz: Pilots' Antidepressants Cleared for Takeoff

April 2, 2010 RSS Feed Print

Pilots' Antidepressants Cleared for Takeoff

Beginning next week pilots can take off even if they are taking antidepressants, following a Federal Aviation Administration move to lift a ban on the drugs, Bloomberg reports. The new policy will permit pilots to use one of four antidepressants: Celexa, Prozac, Zoloft, and Lexapro. Once pilots are on medication for a year with success in treating their depression, they can seek FAA permission to fly. Bill Voss, president of the non-profit Flight Safety Foundation, tells Bloomberg the agency's policy change was a result of extensive study on depression and the side effects of the medications. "The FAA knows this is going to be a controversial ruling because of the stigma attached to depression," he said. "I'm sure they doubly did their homework."

[Read Do You Really Need That Antidepressant? and Chronically Depressed? What to Do When Antidepressants Don't Work.]

The Skinny on Fats: What the Latest Research Says About What You Should Be Eating

There are plenty of confusing topics in nutrition, but fats may take the cake. Are saturated fats like butter and animal fat terribly harmful? Should you worry about whether you're eating too much of one kind of polyunsaturated fat and not enough of another? What about olive oil? And shouldn't we be eating as little fat as possible, since so many of us are, well, fat? The distinctions are "enormously confusing unless you're a lipid biologist," says Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University. U.S. News's Katherine Hobson gives the skinny on fat.

First, toss out the notion that the lower the fat content in your diet, the better, Hobson writes. A certain amount of fat is essential to your body's functioning. And as you've probably heard, all fats are not alike in their effects on blood cholesterol levels, which can affect heart disease risk. Saturated fat, for example, generally increases levels of LDL, or "bad" cholesterol. But while this information was known when the surgeon general issued the first report on nutrition and health in 1988 and the National Academy of Sciences issued its own report in 1989, public health authorities felt that a message to reduce total fat would be best understood by the public. Read more.

[Read Get Ready for More Weight-Loss Drugs. But Will They Work? and Concerned About Your Cholesterol? 10 Ways to Lower LDL and Raise HDL.]

Genetic Tests For Autism Fall Short

Today is World Autism Awareness Day, as designatedby the United Nations. About 1 in 110 children has autism, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In March, U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute wrote about how tests to identify genetic causes of autism fail to help most patients.

About 90 percent of children diagnosed with autism will have no known genetic cause of their condition, Shute wrote. We simply don't yet have tests capable of finding the subtle genetic cues that play a role in autism, although children with more severe forms of autism or mental retardation are more likely to have identifiable genetic abnormalities.

"Undoubtedly, autism has a genetic basis," says Robert Marion, director of clinical genetics at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and author of Genetic Rounds. "The fact that we've poured billions of dollars into research and have come up with virtually nothing that is really helpful tells me that the mechanism involved in causing autism is different than the standard single-gene mutation" that people think of as causing a genetic disorder. Read more.

[Read How to Get Early Intervention Autism Therapy for Your Child and Vaccine Study Retracted, and Causes of Autism Remain Elusive.]

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