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Exercise Helps Patients With Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Counseling patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) on how to increase physical activity leads to health benefits that are independent of changes in weight. These findings are in a new study in the July issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). The article is also available online at Wiley Interscience.
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Last Call To Register For The Wellness Run For Diabetes UK
With entries for the 2009 Wellness Run closing on Sunday 17 May, families and individuals wanting to take part in the popular fitness run are being urged to register now.
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Health Information Technology Lobby Group Rallies Support For Certification Group; Critics Question Group's Ties
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has asked HHS to give the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology authorization to determine which electronic health records systems can receive funding from the economic stimulus package, the Washington Post reports. In a letter dated April 27 to HHS officials, HIMSS officials wrote, "To ensure continuity, recognize CCHIT as the certifying body" of EHRs.Some health care industry officials have raised issue with giving CCHIT the responsibility of certifying EHR products because of the commission"s associations with various IT and health care companies, the Post reports. CCHIT has ties with HIMSS, which played a role in its inception in 2004 and is now managed by Mark Leavitt, the former chief medical officer of HIMSS. In 2005, the commission received a three-year, $7.5 million contract from HHS.According the Post, Internal Revenue Service tax documents show that HIMSS technically paid Leavitt"s salary through 2008, which was reimbursed by CCHIT. However, Leavitt said he is accountable only to CCHIT"s board members and he "was not supervised by HIMSS." He said he expects CCHIT will be "the body or one of several certifying bodies that are recognized" by HHS in part because it already is tasked with certifying health IT products. According to Leavitt, some of the commission"s critics are IT vendors who have failed to meet CCHIT"s standards. The Post reports that the provision in the stimulus package that requires health care providers to demonstrate "meaningful use" of health IT has become an issue because federal officials, IT systems vendors, and physicians and patient advocates have not been able to reach a consensus on the definition of meaningful use. Under the provision, providers must demonstrate meaningful use of health IT in order to receive Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments for adopting the technology (O"Harrow, Washington Post, 5/21). Blumenthal
Sexual Health

BPA Chemical Leaches From Hard Plastic Drinking Bottles Into The Body, Study

New research from the US suggests that people who drink from bottles made of polycarbonate plastic, such as that used to make hard-plastic drinking bottles and baby bottles, have a considerably higher level of the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in their bodies compared to when they do not. The finding confirms concerns expressed by consumer groups and public health experts, that polycarbonate plastic bottles are an important of the BPA that finds its way into the human body. BPA has been shown to interfere with reproductive development in animals, and has been linked to cardivascular disease and diabetes in humans, among other things. The study was the work of senior investigator Karin B Michels, associate professor of epidemiology atHarvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and colleagues, and was published online in the May 12 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. Michels and colleagues found that participants who drank for a week from from polycarbonate bottles showed a two-thirds increase of BPA in their urine. Other studies have shown that BPA can leach from the container into the liquid, but this is the frist to show a corresponding increase of BPA in urine in humans. Hard plastic polycarbonate bottles are often used as refillable containers by students, campers and others (for instance people in gyms refill them from the water fountains). They are also used as baby bottles, although two months ago 6 manufacturers in the US said they would stop selling hard plastic baby bottles made with BPA. If a hard plastic bottle carries the recycling symbol showing the number 7, then it is most likely made of polycarbonate, since 7 is the category for "all other plastics", which includes polycarbonate (according to the SPI resin identification coding system). BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. Several studies have shown that BPA disrupts hormones in animals, leading to early sexual maturity, changes in development and organization of tissue in mammary glands and reduction in sperm in the affected organism"s offspring. The early stages of fetal development are thought to be the most vulnerable to harm from BPA, said the authors in a prepared statement. Michels said that: "We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds." "If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher," she added, explaining that is worrying because "infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA"s endocrine-disrupting potential". For the study, Michels and colleagues recruited 77 Harvard College students in April 2008. For the first week the participants went through a "wash out phase" where they only drank cold drinks from stainless steel bottles to purge their bodies of any lingering BPA. They were then each given two polycarbonate bottles and asked to use them and no other bottles for storing the cold drinks they drank for the following week. The participants gave urine samples at the end of the wash out week and the week they used the polycarbonate bottles. The results showed that their urine contained 69 per cent more BPA at the end of the polycarbonate week than at the end of the wash out week. The authors wrote that the participants" BPA levels were similar to those reported for the population at large. The students drank from the polycarbonate bottles in a "normal use setting", wrote the authors, and they did not wash them out in dishwashers or use hot water or hot liquids in them. This means the BPA levels might have been even higher if the participants had drunk hot liquids out of them, since heat increases the amount of BPA that leaches into the liquid (one of the reasons for the heightened concern around baby bottles). Canada banned the use of BPA in polycarbonate baby bottles last year. The authors called for more research to look into the effect of BPA on babies, and on reproductive disorders and breast cancer in adults. If you are concerned about whether the plastic bottles you use were made with BPA, you should contact the manufacturer. For instance we have noticed that some retailers have started saying on their websites that their mineral water is sold in plastic bottles made with PET plastic, or glass, and not polycarbonate. "Use of Polycarbonate Bottles and Urinary Bisphenol A Concentrations." Jenny L. Carwile, Henry T. Luu, Laura S. Bassett, Daniel A. Driscoll, Caterina Yuan, Jennifer Y. Chang, Xiaoyun Ye, Antonia M. Calafat, Karin B. Michels. Environmental Health Perspectives, online May 12, 2009. doi:10.1289/ehp.0900604 Harvard School of Public Health. Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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