A Dutch virologist warned hospital workers and health officials in Bangkok that pigs which feed on chicken droppings could catch bird flu. In turn, the infected pigs could pass the bird flu to humans....

Bird flu can infect pigs - (United Press International)

The disorder — fragile X-associated tremor-ataxia syndrome — causes tremors, balance problems and dementia that become progressively more severe with age.

This is the same Fragile X, as in Fragile X syndrome that causes retardation. (though in this case, according to the article it's a "proto-mutation" - I'm going to guess that implies the mutated segment is repeated more times than is correct, but not so much as to cause full-on Fragile X syndrome) This would therefore mostly be an issue for men in families with a history of Fragile X syndrome.

Women are at significantly less risk because they have a 2nd X chromosome, which would usually be free of mutation. Though it should be possible for a woman to be affected if both her X chromosomes had Fragile X mutations.

Anyway, a new neurodegenerative disease. You don't hear that every day.

New neurodegenerative disease identified

A US fertility specialist told a packed press conference in London on Saturday he had implanted a cloned human embryo in a woman's womb, reigniting controversy over attempts to create the world's first cloned human.

Scientists scorn new human clone

For her, it's a familiar message. Before joining the department, Ms. Harrison was director of public relations for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the beef industry's largest trade group, where she battled government food safety efforts, criticized Oprah Winfrey for raising health questions about American hamburgers, and sent out press releases with titles like "Mad Cow Disease Not a Problem in the U.S."

Eric Schlosser, Auther of Fast Food Nation coments on the USDA's handling of mad cow disease.

And I'm still not eating beef.

The Cow Jumped Over the U.S.D.A.

Dec. 30: The Bush administration announced it would ban the herbal weight-loss supplement ephedra from the marketplace because of concerns about its effects on health. The ban would take effect in 60 days.

My one and only experience with ephedra was awful. I took half a dose of one of those ephedra-based diet pills to stay up and study for an exam in college. I had hours of heart palpitations and panic attacks.

Timeline: Ephedra

The dozens of overdoses in the past two years — including at least five deaths in which the abuse of over-the-counter medicines was a factor — reflect how medicines such as Robitussin and Coricidin are becoming more popular as recreational drugs for kids as young as 12, police and doctors say.

Please. People were drinking Robitussin when I was in high school, way more than 2 years ago. It was no big secret. I never did it, since it never seemed like it would be a particularly fun high. I didn't see the point.

Of course I think there used to be a Robitussin that didn't have anything in it other than DXM. The scary thing about the pills is that high doses of everything else in them can be even more damaging than just the high doses of DXM. (which is, in it's own right, bad enough for your nervous system.)

Thank you USA Today for your silly fear-mongering. This is not news.

Youths risk death in latest drug abuse trend

A study by the Center for Public Integrity, a D.C. watchdog group, found that only 43 percent of all meat products recalled by their manufacturers from 1990-1997 was recovered. The rest of the meat—some 17 million pounds—was eaten by unsuspecting consumers. Yet Congress fought off efforts by the Secretary of Agriculture during that time to get the authority to issue mandatory recalls of contaminated meat.

A whole article full of stomach-turning factoids. We're eating this stuff?

Slaughterhouse Politics

You may remember Howard Lyman as the guest that caused a number of texas cattle ranchers to sue Oprah for making disparaging comments about beef. Oprah won, by the way.

I saw him when he spoke as part of the Spitfire tour when it came to MTSU. I couldn't bring myself to eat red meat for weeks. And I should have given it up for good then. I've certainly given it up now.

I am not a vegetarian. I probably never will be (though who knows). But I have the biology and chemistry background to know exactly how disgusting and harmful factory farm practices are. Antibiotics and growth hormones do not belong in food.

The question we must ask ourselves as a culture is whether we want to embrace the change that must come, or resist it. Are we so attached to the dietary fallacies with which we were raised, so afraid to counter the arbitrary laws of eating taught to us in childhood by our misinformed parents, that we cannot alter the course they set us on, even if it leads to our own ruin? Does the prospect of standing apart or encounttering ridicule scare us even from saving ourselves?

Howard Lyman: MAD COWBOY

"Did you consider a morning-after pill when you found out the condom broke?" I asked. Lakeesha looked at me blankly. Like almost 85 percent of students who get abortions, Lakeesha hadn't heard of this method, which has been available in the United States for more than 25 years and is about 75 percent effective. The regimen is exceedingly simple: Within three days of unprotected intercourse, pills of Plan B are taken twice.

An editorial on the need for more widespread information and availability of emergency contraception.

Until it's available over the counter, if you are a woman who's sexually active and relying on condoms and/or spermicides, talk to your doctor, get a prescription for an emergency contraceptive, Plan B or Preven, fill it, and keep it in your medicine cabinet or bedside table just in case.

To be sure, no reasonable person likes abortions. We should agree that anything that reduces the number of abortions is a good thing.

Prevention, not abortion

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first-ever weight-loss drug for children. Hoffman-La Roche's Xenical (orlistat) is now permitted to treat obese 12- to 16-year-olds, the company said in a statement.

On the one hand, I suppose that this is a necesary intervention, considering the prevalence of obesity in adolescents, and the related huge increase in incidence of "adult" diseases like Type-2 diabetes in kids.

But really, this isn't going to solve anything. Parents need to make their kids dietary health a priority. Get them off their buts and out from in front of the TV, and most of all, cut foods made with high-fructose corn syrup and other high glycemic index sweeteners out of kids diets. Oh, and heavily processed saturated fats, those can go too.

Eating better, and feeding your kids better is not that hard, it just takes planning ahead a little bit. Here's a crock pot, quit whining about not having time to cook. Make more than you need every time you cook, you have a freezer, don't you?

High quality dark chocolate is yummy and a great source of anti-oxidant flavonoids. Ho Ho's are a great source of... well, nothing really.

I feel sick every time articles quote parents who "don't have time" to feed their kids good food. I have a strict rule about cooking, no more than two pans and half an hour of my active attention to make the entirety of dinner. And I usually end up with enough to feed 2 people for 2 or 3 days. And I work the kind of long hours companies push on single people who "have more time for work." And tell the paper about how much time you have to watch your child get sick with diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease before *you* do.

Just because there's a pill for it, doesn't mean the pill is the right solution. Especially for children. We learn our eating habits at home. What's going to hapen when these kids go off of their weight-loss drugs?

First Weight-Loss Drug for Children Approved