From NHTSA

U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Effective July 1, 2000, Florida eliminated the legal requirement that all motorcycle riders wear helmets. State law now requires helmet use only by riders under the age of 21, or older riders who do not carry at least $10,000 of medical insurance. Observational surveys and crash reports indicated that helmet use dropped substantially following the law change. Motorcyclist fatalities increased by 81 percent comparing 2001-2003 to 1997-1999, compared to +48 percent nationally. Non-fatal serious injuries began increasing in the first six months of 2000, increased by 32 percent in the first year following law repeal. There was a 40 percent increase in the number of injured motorcyclists who were admitted to hospitals. Admissions for head injuries increased by 82 percent. The average head injury treatment cost increased by almost $10,000, to $45,602. In 1998 and 1999, the acute care hospital charges for head-brain-skull principal injury cases per 10,000 registered motorcycles were $311,549 and $428,347 respectively. The comparable figures for 2001 and 2002 were $605,854 and $610,386, adjusted for inflation. Time series analysis showed a statistically significant increase in fatalities while controlling for changes in motorcycle registrations. Similar analyses also showed significant increases for Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas. Florida crash reports also indicated that helmet use declined markedly among riders under age 21, who were still covered by the law. Fatalities in this age group nearly tripled in the three years after the law change. Comparing the 30 months before and after the law change, there was an increase of 55 percent in the average annual number of motorcyclists killed (181 to 280, respectively). Registrations increased an average 33.7 percent in this time period. Some of the increases in fatalities and other injuries in Florida were probably due to this increased ridership. The expected number of motorcycle fatalities as a result of the increase in registrations was 242. The actual number who died in 2002 was 301, 56 (+24 percent) more motorcycle fatalities than expected as a result of increased registrations alone. Nationally in 2001 and 2002, motorcycle miles of travel declined compared to earlier years.

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

This was obviously the wrong thing to do. The only ones benefiting from this are people waiting for organs for transplantation.

From American Medical Association

“Today’s FTC reports on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco reiterate what we’ve known for a long time: too much money is spent on tobacco marketing without enough regulation. In 2004 and 2005 alone, the tobacco industry spent an exorbitant $27.7 billion to market their deadly products to the American people. That same money could pay for virtually every smoker in America to receive a full course of nicotine treatment to help them quit. We strongly support giving the FDA authority to regulate the manufacture, sale, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products.”

“Doctors see the detrimental health effects of smoking daily. Patients suffer from many chronic and fatal diseases related to tobacco use, such as cancer, heart disease, and emphysema. Smoking remains the number one preventable cause of death in the United States, killing roughly 1,200 Americans every day - many more than those who die from drugs, motor-vehicle crashes, fires, AIDS, homicides and suicides combined.

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

Why has is taken so long. Cigarettes kill close to half a million Americans each year and our

export of this highly addictive and lethal drug kills millions. We cannot be proud of ourselves.

From Reuters

A fatty acid found in fish may help thwart the buildup of brain proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, a study in mice suggests.

In Alzheimer’s disease, lesions known as “plaques” and “tangles” form in the brain, due to the abnormal clumping of two proteins called beta-amyloid and tau. The mouse study found that a diet rich in the fatty acid DHA might interfere with this process.

DHA, short for docosahexaenoic acid, is a type of omega-3 fatty acid found mainly in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, and to a lesser extent in seaweed, eggs, organ meats and DHA-fortified foods.

While the new findings come from studying mice, they complement studies in humans that have linked higher fish intake, as well as higher blood levels of DHA, to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Such research suggests that the animal findings might well translate to people, Dr. Frank LaFerla, the senior author on the new study, told Reuters Health.

He and his colleagues at the University of California at Irvine report their results in the Journal of Neuroscience. Several co-authors on the study are with Martek Biosciences Corp., a Maryland-based company that makes a DHA product used in a range of infant formulas, foods and supplements.

For their study, the researchers used mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s-like plaques and tangles. At the age of 3 months, the animals were placed on one of four diets.

One diet mimicked the typical American diet, with low amounts of omega-3 fats and far higher levels of omega-6 fats, which are found in various vegetable oils, eggs and meat. The other three diets were rich in omega-3 fatty acids; one was supplemented with DHA only, while the other two had added DHA and omega-6 fats.

After 9 months, the study found, mice on the diet supplemented with DHA alone had lower levels of beta-amyloid and tau in their brain tissue than the animals in the other three groups.

The researchers also discovered that DHA may confer its benefit by lowering levels of an enzyme needed to generate beta-amyloid.

What’s needed now, according to LaFerla, are clinical trials involving people with early-stage Alzheimer’s to see whether DHA supplements can slow the progression of the disease. Martek has just launched such a study, he said.

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

This is important news. Simmply stated, DHA is a fundamental player key in the game of Alzheimer’s risk reduction. Note that this study was sponsored by Martek whose DHA is actually not derived from fish, but rather from algae (a vegetarian source). We watch with excitement as more and more food products are becoming available in stores that are enriched with this source of high quality, non-fish derived DHA, free of any risk of mercury or PCB contamination.

They’re not taking or being prescribed meds that ease side effects, study finds

From HealthDay

Many multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the United States are not taking or being prescribed immunomodulatory agents (IMAs) to treat the disease, even though the drugs reduce the frequency of relapse and slow disease progression.

There are six types of IMAs approved for sale in the United States.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researchers reviewed more than 6.7 million visits by MS patients to family doctors and neurologists between 1998 and 2004.

The study found that about 62 percent of patients seen by neurologists and 92 percent of patients seen by family doctors were not taking IMAs.

The study was published online in BMC Medicine.

“When we looked at patients who are being seen by family practitioners and by neurologists, we were surprised at the number of people who are not benefiting from drugs proven to help reduce the side effects of MS,” neurologist and study co-author Dr. Cormac O’Donovan said in a prepared statement.

“Our study could not determine exactly why these FDA-approved drugs were not being prescribed for the treatment of MS,” O’Donovan added.

“Some individuals may have mild symptoms at first and decide to defer treatment. Other factors may be that physicians are not as familiar with the newer drugs on the market and the risk-to-benefit ratio,” he said. “Some patients may not even be aware of the pros and cons of IMAs or were advised by their physician that they did not meet the criteria for taking the drug. The increased use of IMAs by neurologists probably reflects greater awareness of the drugs’ availability and their use by specialists who more often treat patients with MS. We need to spend time looking further into the issue.”

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

Well howdy do! Patients have a mind of their own and choose not to take medications some of which cause flu-like symptoms in over 70 % of people taking them.

From EWG Report

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) today released results of the most extensive tests to date of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) levels in farmed salmon consumed in the United States. EWG bought the salmon from local grocery stores and found seven of 10 fish were so contaminated with PCBs that they raise cancer-risk concerns, relative to health standards of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Salmon farming has made salmon the third most popular fish in America

and comprises 22 percent of all retail seafood counter sales. However, EWG analysis of government data also found that farmed salmon are likely the most PCB-contaminated protein source in the current U.S. food supply.

EWG analysis of state-of-the-art fish consumption data derived from 20,000 adults from 1990 through 2002 shows that roughly 800,000 US adults are 100 times over their lifetime allowable cancer risk by eating this contaminated salmon.

PCBs were banned in the U.S. in the late 1970s and are among the dirty dozen chemical contaminants slated for global phase-out under the UN treaty on persistent organic pollutants. PCBs are highly persistent, and they have been linked to cancer and impaired fetal brain development.

Farmed salmon are fattened with ground fishmeal and fish oils that are high in PCBs. As a result, salmon farming operations that produce inexpensive fish unnaturally concentrate PCBs and have a higher fat content. Farmed salmon contains 52 percent more fat than wild salmon, according to USDA data.

Wild Alaskan salmon eat Pacific Ocean fish that are naturally lower in persistent pollutants, and they carry less fat than farmed salmon.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has control over store-bought fish, uses PCB safety standards set in 1984. For recreationally caught fish, the EPA employs a more recent standard that reflects current scientific concerns about PCBs and is 500 times safer than the FDA’s.

FDA could not have predicted the rise of the farmed salmon industry when it set its PCB safety standard decades ago, said EWG Vice President for Research Jane Houlihan. The industrys growth has been rapid and unexpected, but it is having a real public health consequence.

EWG called for more resources to be given to the FDA so it can move quickly to conduct a study of PCB contamination in farmed salmon - and make all the results public. This testing is critical, because FDA will be unable to act to lower public exposure to PCBs in farmed salmon until they conduct these studies. Congress should also pass a funding increase for FDA to support this testing.

In the meantime, EWG recommends that consumers choose wild instead of farmed salmon, and they should eat an eight-ounce serving of farmed salmon no more than once a month. Consumers should also trim fat from the fish before cooking - and choose broiling, baking, or grilling over frying, as these cooking methods allow the PCB-laden fat to cook off the fish.

Wild salmon dominated the market just ten years ago. Now, six of every 10 salmon fillets sold in stores and restaurants are from fish raised in high-density pens in the ocean, managed and marketed by the salmon farming industry. Before salmon farming, PCB exposure was declining, but the trend is now being reversed due to farmed fish.

When Congress banned PCBs in 1976, no one contemplated that 20-odd years later we would have invented a new industry that re-concentrates these toxins in our bodies, said Houlihan.

Dr. Perlmutter’s comment:

To my readers, please note that this was published back in 2003. Nonetheless, it is still critically important information and I would urge you to visit the link.