Weight Debate

Here are many suggestions from the internet that may help you remove annoying sticker labels and sticky residue off of the items you buy. Some of these sound a bit crazy. Be very careful with some of these suggestions, as they may damage the finish of certain items. Listed in alphabetical order.
1. Aftershave.
2. Axe deodorant.
3. Baby oil.
4. Baking soda – make paste with baking soda and water, apply to sticker, then wipe off.
5. Citrus adhesive remover.
6. Cooking oil – vegetable oil, peanut oil.
7. DesolvIt sold at Wal-Mart.
8. Dish soap. read more »

To help protect you, your family, and others from foodborne illnesses, take a few minutes to ensure your foods are safe.

Keeping food safe protects you and others from becoming sick by microorganisms such as Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and C. botulinum, which causes botulism. Keeping foods chilled at proper temperatures is one of the best ways to prevent or slow the growth of these bacteria. Your refrigerator temperature should be at or below 40° F (4° C), and your freezer temperature should be 0° F (-18° C). Check your refrigerator and freezer temperatures at least once a week with a refrigerator – freezer thermometer. Place one thermometer in the front of your refrigerator and one in the front of your freezer so you can read them easily. Some important food safety tips are: read more »

Taking simple steps to prepare for an unexpected terrorist attack or other emergencies can make a big difference to ensure the safety and well being of you and your family to make it on your own, or at least for a period of time, no matter where you are when a disaster strikes.

Local officials and relief workers will be on the scene after a disaster, but they cannot reach everyone immediately. You could get help in hours, or it might take days. Also, basic services such as electricity, gas, water, sewage treatment, and telephones may be cut off for days, or even a week or longer. read more »

What causes the noise when you crack your knuckles or a joint?
In a healthy joint, the bones are encased in smooth cartilage. Together, they are protected by a joint capsule lined with a synovial membrane that produces synovial fluid. The capsule and fluid protect the cartilage, muscles and connective tissues.

Your joints can make a variety of sounds, such as popping, cracking, grinding, and snapping. The joints that crack are the knuckles, knees, ankles, back, and neck.

There are different reasons why your joints make sounds:

• Escaping gases - Scientists explain that synovial fluid present in your joints acts as a lubricant. The fluid contains the gases oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. When you pop or crack a joint, you stretch the joint capsule. Gas is rapidly released, which forms bubbles. In order to crack the same knuckle again, you have to wait until the gases return to the synovial fluid.
• Movement of joints, tendons and ligaments - When a joint moves, the tendon’s position changes and moves slightly out of place. You may hear a snapping sound as the tendon returns to its original position. Also, your ligaments may tighten as you move your joints. This commonly occurs in your knee or ankle, and can make a cracking sound.
• Rough surfaces - Arthritic joints make sounds caused by the loss of smooth cartilage and the roughness of the joint surface.

Is it harmful to crack your knuckles or a joint?
If you are feeling pain when your joints pop, than you should seek a health care professional.

In terms of knuckle cracking, some studies show that knuckle cracking does not cause serious harm. Other studies show that repetitive knuckle cracking can do some damage to the soft tissue of the joint. It may also lead to a weak grip and a swelling hand.

Source from www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries

The idea that it’s natural for dogs to chew on bones is a popular one, but the fact is it is a dangerous practice and can cause serious injury to your pet.

“Some people think it’s safe to give dogs large bones, like those from a ham or a roast,” says Carmela Stamper, D.V.M., a veterinarian in the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the Food and Drug Administration. “Bones are unsafe no matter what their size. Giving your dog a bone may make your pet a candidate for a trip to your veterinarian’s office later, possible emergency surgery, or even death.”

“Make sure you throw out bones from your own meals in a way that your dog can’t get to them,” adds Stamper, who suggests taking the trash out right away or putting the bones up high and out of your dog’s reach until you have a chance to dispose of them. “And pay attention to where your dog’s nose is when you walk him around the neighborhood – steer him away from any objects lying in the grass.”

10 reasons why it’s a bad idea to give your dog a bone:

• 1. Broken teeth - This may call for expensive veterinary dentistry.
• 2. Mouth or tongue injuries - These can be very bloody and messy and may require a trip to see the veterinarian.
• 3. The bone gets looped around your dog’s lower jaw - This can be frightening or painful for your dog and potentially costly to you, as it usually means a trip to see the veterinarian.
• 4. The bone gets stuck in the esophagus - The esophagus is the tube that food travels through to reach the stomach. Your dog may gag, trying to bring the bone back up, and will need to see the veterinarian.
• 5. The bone gets stuck in windpipe - This may happen if your dog accidentally inhales a small enough piece of bone. This is an emergency because your dog will have trouble breathing. Get your pet to the veterinarian immediately!
• 6. The bone gets stuck in stomach - It went down just fine, but the bone may be too big to pass out of the stomach and into the intestines. Depending on the bone’s size, your dog may need surgery or upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, a procedure in which the veterinarian uses a long tube with a built-in camera and grabbing tools to try to remove the stuck bone from the stomach.
• 7. The bone gets stuck in intestines and causes a blockage - It may be time for surgery.
• 8. Constipation due to bone fragments - Your dog may have a hard time passing the bone fragments because they are very sharp and they scrape the inside of the large intestine or rectum as they move along. This causes severe pain and may require a visit to the veterinarian.
• 9. Severe bleeding from the rectum - This is very messy and can be dangerous. It’s time for a trip to see the veterinarian.
• 10. Peritonitis - This nasty, difficult-to-treat bacterial infection of the abdomen is caused when bone fragments poke holes in your dog’s stomach or intestines. Your dog needs an emergency visit to the veterinarian because peritonitis can kill your dog.

“Talk with your veterinarian about alternatives to giving bones to your dog. There are many bone-like products made with materials that are safe for dogs to chew on. Always supervise your dog with any chew product, especially one your dog hasn’t had before. And always, if your dog ‘just isn’t acting right,’ call your veterinarian right away,” says Stamper.

Source: www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates – April 20, 2010

Sunlight is one of the best sources of vitamin D!!

Vitamin D is an important nutrient that makes your bones stronger and helps prevent fractures.

You need about 20 minutes of sun each day, on the areas of your body that are normally exposed, such as your face and hands, to cause the chemical reaction in your skin that produces vitamin D.

Tips:
1. Sunlight that comes through glass, such as a window, will not cause your skin to make vitamin D.

2. You do not have to get 20 minutes of direct sun exposure all at one time. You can add up the minutes of exposure you get from things like walking to the end of your driveway to pick up your newspaper and walking through a parking lot to get to your car.

Caution:
If you can not get direct sunlight and decide to take vitamin D pills, ask your doctor for guidance. It would be virtually impossible to overdose on vitamin D from sun exposure, but vitamin D pills have harmful side effects if taken in excess.

Warning:
Remember… Despite the importance of the sun to vitamin D synthesis, it is wise to limit the exposure of your skin to sunlight and UV radiation from tanning beds. UV radiation is a carcinogen responsible for most of the estimated 1.5 million skin cancers and the 8,000 deaths due to metastatic melanoma that occur annually in the United States.

Too much exposure to UV rays from the sun can change skin texture and cause the skin to age prematurely, leading to skin cancer. UV rays also have been linked to eye conditions such as cataracts.

Summer has arrived, and so have the mosquitoes. Not only are mosquitoes a nuisance, they can cause disease in humans and animals. The most common mosquito-borne illness in the United States is the West Nile virus. The West Nile virus has affected all areas of the continental U.S., but areas of the West and South have been especially hit hard in recent years. Most cases occur from July through September.

West Nile virus that can cause serious, life-altering, and even fatal disease.

To help prevent West Nile virus infection, use insect repellent on exposed skin. Bug repellent makes it harder for mosquitoes and ticks to find you.

If the weather permits, wear long sleeves, long pants, and socks when outdoors. Mosquitoes may bite through thin clothing, so spraying clothes with repellent containing permethrin or another EPA-registered repellent will give extra protection. Use a permethrin spray on your shoes, and camping gear too. Don’t apply repellents containing permethrin directly to your skin, and don’t spray repellent on your skin under your clothing.

• Don’t use repellent on babies under 2 months old.
• Don’t spray repellent directly on your face. Instead, use your hands to carefully rub it on your face.
• Use a bug spray with 10 to 30 percent DEET. Check the label.
• You can also look for repellents with picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
• Insect repellent can help keep the bugs off of you when you are gardening.

Some Other Common Mosquito-borne Viruses

• Malaria
• Dengue Fever
• Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE)
• La Crosse encephalitis (LAC)
• Rift Valley Fever
• Yellow Fever

Keep Mosquitoes From Laying Eggs Near You
Mosquitoes need water to breed and grow. It doesn’t take much water and it doesn’t take much time. Almost anything that will hold water for one week or more can produce mosquitoes. Many places around your home may be causing mosquito problems. Get rid of places where water collects and mosquitoes won’t have a chance! Some examples are:

• Empty standing water from flower pots, buckets, barrels, and tires.
• Change the water in pet dishes and replace the water in bird baths weekly.
• Drill holes in tire swings so water drains out.
• Empty children’s wading pools and store on their side after use.

Drain standing water around your home and make sure screens on windows and doors are in good shape. Don’t forget to check the yard for containers that may collect water from rain or sprinklers and dump them out.

July 10, 2010

FRIDAY, July 9 (HealthDay News) – One step ahead of a planned government review of the safety of Avandia, new doubts surfaced Friday on a key trial that helped keep the blockbuster diabetes drug on the market.

A medical reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted remarks on the agency’s Web site Friday suggesting that drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline’s “mishandling” of trial results may have masked some cardiovascular effects of Avandia (rosiglitazone).

The official’s posting was part of a safety reassessment package prepared for next week’s advisory panel meeting that could determine the future of the controversial drug.

At issue in the review posting were the results of the landmark RECORD (Rosiglitazone Evaluated for Cardiac Outcomes and Regulation of Glycemia in Diabetes) trial, which was done by Glaxo at the FDA’s request. The results, announced in June of 2009, found that Avandia raised the risk of heart failure but not to a level of statistical significance. The study also concluded that the drug did not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or overall death.

In his posting, Thomas A. Marciniak, medical team leader of the division of cardiovascular and renal products at the FDA’s Center for Drug Control and Evaluation, said that “RECORD was inadequately designed and conducted to provide any reassurance about the (cardiovascular) safety of rosiglitazone” and that “RECORD suggests the (sic) rosiglitazone increases the risk for (heart attacks).”

Last June, Glaxo used the trial results to tout the drug’s safety.

“RECORD provides important and reassuring information about Avandia for physicians fighting diabetes,” said Dr. Ellen Strahlman, Glaxo’s chief medical officer, in a statement released at the time. “We believe that the results showed that Avandia is safe.”

On Friday, the company, in a prepared statement, said, “The RECORD study was conducted according to good clinical practices and the data are reliable… RECORD demonstrated that Avandia was not associated with an overall increase in cardiovascular hospitalization or cardiovascular death compared to metformin and sulfonylureas.”

But Dr. Kirk Garratt, clinical director of interventional cardiovascular research at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said Friday, “If the data from RECORD had truly been mishandled in some way, not only is it going to pretty well be the end of Avandia in the clinical world, but it’s going to put GlaxoSmithKline under the magnifying glass in an important way for clinicians going forward. They’ll lose credibility, and that’s tough to get back.”

“There is an alternative drug out there,” Garratt added. “From the clinical side, it’s a fortunate circumstance that we find ourselves in, since we have an alternative product that seems to have (little) risk associated with it.”

Actos (pioglitazone), made by Takeda, is in the same pharmaceutical class as Avandia. Both are medications known as thiazolidinediones (TZDs), which are blood-sugar-lowering drugs. Both are used by type 2 diabetics.

“The bulk of studies have suggested that Avandia is associated with greater cardiovascular mortality than the alternative, which is pioglitazone,” noted Dr. Ronald Goldberg, a professor of medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, on Friday.

This is only the latest in a series of conflicting information about Avandia’s heart risks. In November of 2007, the FDA added a boxed warning to the drug, saying that there was a potential risk of increased cardiovascular ischemic events. Patients also began receiving a medication guide explaining the risks.

But just last week, three studies emerged with conflicting conclusions about the drug’s safety. Two of them, published in major medical journals, found that Avandia did raise heart risks, while the third, released at the American Diabetes Association meeting, found no such connection.

Next week’s meeting will shed much-needed light on the matter.

When the advisory panel meets Tuesday and Wednesday, its options “range from allowing the continued marketing of Avandia and revising the label to remove the boxed warning, all the way to withdrawal from the U.S. market,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, explained at a packed news briefing late Thursday. “We’re asking them to pick one, vote on it and explain the rationale.”

But, according to the The New York Times, the panel will also be asked to decide whether a currrent Glaxo study comparing the safety of Avandia and Actos is ethical. The study is being done at the FDA’s request.

The FDA is not bound to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees but usually does.

Much of the current controversy, Garratt said, “probably reflects dissent within FDA. They’ve been debating this internally for a long time. This is probably just turning up the heat on that argument.”

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, told reporters on Thursday, “Obviously, we’re going to have to look at a lot of information and really understand the advice that we’re getting and try to make a decision as quickly as we can under the circumstances. This is an FDA decision.”

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency announced Friday morning that it would also review Avandia’s safety for use in Europe. The Associated Press reports that the review will be conducted by the agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use from July 19 to July 22.

More information:
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more on Avandia and Actos.

SOURCES: Kirk Garratt, M.D., clinical director of interventional cardiovascular research, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Ronald Goldberg, M.D., professor of medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; July 9, 2010, statement, GlaxoSmithKline; July 8, 2010 teleconference with Janet Woodcock, M.D., director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., principal deputy commissioner, FDA, and Jill Warner, acting associate commissioner for Special Medical Programs, FDA; Associated Press; New York Times.
Copyright © 2010 HealthDay

You can’t tell if food is done by looking at it. Use a food thermometer to be sure.

Temperature Rules for Safe Cooking
Make sure you cook and keep foods at the correct temperature to ensure food safety. Bacteria can grow in foods between 40 °F and 140 °F. To keep foods out of this danger zone, keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot.

Use a clean thermometer and measure the internal temperature of cooked food to make sure meat, poultry, and egg dishes are cooked to the temperatures listed below.

USDA Recommended Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures

Beef, Veal, Lamb, Steaks & Roasts – 145 °F

Fish – 145 °F

Pork (medium) – 160 °F
Pork (well done) – 170 °F

Ground meats – beef, veal, lamb, pork – 160 °F
Ground turkey, chicken – 165 °F

Egg dishes – 160 °F
Eggs – cook until yolk and white are firm.

Poultry breasts – 170 °F

Whole chicken, turkey, dark meat, duck and goose – 180 °F

Except for infant formula and some baby food, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that a store can sell food past it’s expiration date.

Product dating, such as “expired by”, “use by” or “best before” dates are not generally required by Federal regulations. This information is entirely at the discretion of the food manufacturer.

If a calendar date is used, it must express both the month and day of the month, and the year, in the case of shelf-stable and frozen products. If a calendar date is shown, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as “sell-by” or “use before.”

A principle of U.S. food law is that foods in U.S. commerce must be wholesome and fit for consumption. A “best by”, “use by” or expiration date does not relieve a firm from this obligation. A product that is dangerous to consumers would be subject to potential action by FDA to remove it from commerce regardless of any date printed on a label.

There is no uniform or universally accepted system used for food dating in the United States. Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, there are areas of the country where much of the food supply has some type of open date and other areas where almost no food is dated.

“Open Dating” is a calendar date, instead of a code, that is stamped on a product’s package to help the store determine how long to display the product for sale. It can also help the purchaser to know the time limit to purchase or use the product at its best quality. It is not a safety date.