All the news fit to fear

Happy Friday.

Do any of you watch the ABC Evening News?  That sharp-looking young man always starts the broadcast with an earnest look on his face as he energetically chops the air with his hands while saying, "Several breaking stories as we come on the air tonight!"

To help you enter the weekend with a suitable sense of impending doom, here's the week's recap of health news from the Army Public Health Center.

• from our ace cub reporter in Pulaski, the Congo is dealing with their 10th Ebola outbreak since it first started killing people in the '70s.  This area already suffered from millions killed in savage ethnic wars in the late '90s.  
• Reuters reported that 1,000+ children tested positive for elevated lead levels between 2011-2016 by the Army, but test results were not reported to state health departments -- a violation of state laws.  Four Senators want to know why, and what the Army is going to do to improve its procedures.  The sites were mostly family housing unit located on Army bases in Georgia, Texas, Kentucky and New York.
• hearing aids are expensive, which is why so few people who need them do not get them (you know who we're talking about).  For several years now we've been waiting for new, low-cost hearing aids to be made available to the public without having to go to a doctor first.  That reality is inching closer.
• researchers at George Washington University and Texas Children's Hospital are developing a vaccine for human parasites like hookworm and liver flukes (shudder)
• remember the valsartan recall?  China trying to kill us all by putting impurities into your heart medicines?  Check out the update titled, "Toxim at heart of drug recall".  Valsartin now comes with traces of a carcinogen (N-nitrosodimethylamine)...no extra charge. 
• 32 different children's medicines are being recalled because of "microbial contamination".  The medicines were made by King Bio company in North Carolina.
• Chinese pig farmers have culled more than 20,000 animals trying to stem the spread of African swine fever -- for which there is no cure.
• Looks like the National Institute of Health is sketching out the parameters of what is going to be called "cannabis-use disorder" -- previously known as reefer-madness!
• All exercise improves mental health.  Read that again to be sure it sinks in, then go look at the article on the 3-year study of 1.2 million adults that found that every form of activity helps maintain a positive attitude (reduce stress, depression, etc.).  Cycling is the best solo activity, but team sports are the best overall choice to banish a bad day.
• related to that story above -- even short bouts of activities can reduce the bad health effects of sitting too long.  Moving about every once in a while reduces levels of fat in the blood and concentrations of glucose and insulin. 
• vaping is being linked to DNA damage, increasing one's risk of cancer. 
• frequent home moves increase psychosis in children.  Now we all know the impact of living with a bunch of gypsies!
• China has embarked on an anti-smog campaign.  Some reports indicate that a few folks in Beijing actually saw the sky last month.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week.  Get outside and enjoy the early Fall weather!

Joe

the week's news (10 Aug 2018)

And in this week's recap:

• as if we didn't have enough blood-sucking parasites latching onto us, to include politicians, a new tick has crossed the border.  The Asian long-horned tick is spreading from the eastern seaboard, and based on its track record in Asia, it kills 15% of its victims.  In a related story farther down in the newsletter, every state in the USA now has confirmed cases of Lyme disease.
• carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than its been in 800,000 years.  I'm sure we'll be told that there is nothing to worry about.
• scientists have discovered that viruses -- thought to stalk their victims as lone wolves -- can actually form wolf packs hidden from the body's immune system by a fatty membrane that disguises their nature. 
• remember that romaine lettuce E coli outbreak?  The FDA believes that cattle may have contaminated water upstream that was used to water the lettuce downstream.
• Almond Breeze almond milk may have been "contaminated" by cow milk -- Holly take note
• In the most important news of the week:  inducing labor at 39 weeks may help keep moms and babies both alive.  Saw this on the news the other night.  The USA is actually not doing that well in keeping moms or their newborns alive during delivery -- especially during C-sections, and 1 in 3 births are done via C-section.  But inducing labor a week early was demonstrated to reduce bad outcomes like hemorrhages.
• over-hydration can kill you.  Holly was talking about this just last night.
• recall studying the Trinity Test?  That was the site of the first atomic bomb detonation in New Mexico.  A study of the impact on area residents will be released in spring of 2019.  Expect to see a nightmare of rare cancers and heartbreak.
• Scott Pruitt, before he thankfully left the EPA in disgrace, denied a petition by environmental groups to discontinue use of a pesticide -- chlorpyrifos --  on fruit, vegetable and nut crops.  A US Circuit Court denied his denial and ordered the EPA to ban the substance.   Bye, Scoot...don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

The World's Health - 3 Aug 2018

Recapping the week's health news

• Mother Nature is both wonderful and strange.  A new species of the Ebola virus has been discovered in bats in Sierra Leone. 
• We knew that bacteria can change and adapt to antibiotics developed to combat them.  Now there's evidence that multidrug-resistant superbugs are evolving to render useless our alcohol-based wipes and hand sanitizers, such as those used at home and in hospitals.
• Officially Scary As Hell:  the USDA has basically granted all China processing plants blanket approval to export processed chicken to the U.S. for consumption.  And nobody has to label Country of Origin.  There's no USDA inspector to be found anywhere in the huge expanses of China.  You may want to consider only buying fresh chicken, and avoid chicken from restaurants and bagged in stores.  The tales emerging from China's processing plants are absolutely horrifying.
• In case you didn't get the memo, do not eat salads from McDonalds.  Cyclospora has now sickened 286 people across 15 states.
• And, don't eat salads and wraps from Krogers, Trader Joe's, and Walgreens...they have Cyclospora, too.
• Keep walking.  Those people who take a 'break' from exercising, such as walking less than 2,000 steps a day, develop what scientists are calling, "metabolic derangement" that leads to increased blood sugar levels, decreased sensitivity to insulin, worsening cholesterol, and decreased muscle mass.  This can be reversed by simple becoming active again...mostly.
• Recall the China vaccine scandal from last week's news?  They've arrested 18 employees -- to include the chairwoman -- of the company that falsified data and made ineffective vaccines for rabies, diphtheria, whooping cough, and tetanus.
• Someone has figured out how to make a 3-D printed gun.  A gun that's untraceable.  So far, they've been blocked to releasing/selling those plans into the internet, but how long do you think that will last?

https://phc.amedd.army.mil/Periodical%20Library/APHWeeklyUpdate3August2018.pdf