US cigarette makers sue over graphic warning labels

Five tobacco companies have sued the US Food and Drug Administration over a new law that would force them to place graphic health warnings on their cigarette packets. The firms argue the plan violates their constitutional right to free speech, as it requires firms to promote the government's anti-smoking message. The FDA has not commented on the lawsuit. The new warnings will be required on cigarette packs from September 2012 - BBC

Saskatoon transplant pioneer celebrates 19 years of health

A Saskatoon woman has reason to celebrate. It was 19 years ago that Sherry Duncan Paterson underwent a double-lung heart transplant, making her a pioneer in the Canadian transplant world. 19 years ago, after the birth of her second daughter, Paterson was diagnosed with a rare disease called primary pulmonary hypertension. It's a serious condition of the lungs that forces the heart to work harder and can lead to heart failure and even death. "All of my symptoms of the disease had been masked by my pregnancy," says Paterson. "So it really hit me out of nowhere, so the news was really devastating to my whole family." At the time, doctors told Paterson her only hope was to undergo a double lung heart transplant. She was placed at the top of the wait list, and three months later received word a donor match had become available. Paterson was flown to London, Ontario, where she was given a new heart and set of lungs and was told to expect another five years out of life. "We just tried to cram so many memories and happy times into the five years," says Paterson. "I was thinking I wore myself out." But luckily for her family, five years became 10 and then 15. Now, 19 years later, Paterson is considered a pioneer in the transplant world. She's one of only a few to have done so well for so long after undergoing a multiple organ transplant - CTV

Fat 'disrupts sugar sensors causing type 2 diabetes'

US researchers say they have identified how a high-fat diet can trigger type 2 diabetes, in experiments on mice and human tissue. Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, they say that fat interferes with the body's sugar sensors. The authors argue that a deeper understanding of the processes involved could help them develop a cure. Diabetes UK said the study was interesting and a "theory worth investigating further". One of the main risk factors for type 2 diabetes is being overweight - rising obesity levels have contributed to a doubling of diabetes cases in the last 30 years

15-minute daily exercise is 'bare minimum for health'

Just 15 minutes of exercise a day can boost life expectancy by three years and cut death risk by 14%, research from Taiwan suggests. Experts in The Lancet say this is the least amount of activity an adult can do to gain any health benefit. This is about half the quantity currently recommended in the UK. Meanwhile, work in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests a couch potato lifestyle with six hours of TV a day cuts lifespan by five years. The UK government recently updated its exercise advice to have a more flexible approach, recommending adults get 150 minutes of activity a week. This could be a couple of 10-minute bouts of activity every day or 30-minute exercise sessions, five times a week, for example. Experts say this advice still stands, but that a minimum of 15 minutes a day is a good place to start for those who currently do little or no exercise. The Lancet study, based on a review of more than 400,000 people in Taiwan, showed 15 minutes per day or 90 minutes per week of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, can add three years to your life

Second Primary Health Bus benefits from golfing great, Sir Nick Faldo (Saskatoon)

SYNERGY 8 Community Builders and matching partner PotashCorp, with the help of six-time major championship winning golfer Nick Faldo, are joining forces to support St. Paul's Hospital Foundation and Saskatoon Health Region to purchase a new $360,000 Primary Health Bus for the community. The event will be held September 7-8 in Saskatoon and includes a Gala evening at Prairieland Park and a charity scramble at Moon Lake Golf & Country Club. For more information, please visit www.synergycommunitybuilders.ca or call 306-931-7544

Heart Healthy Children & Youth - Saskatchewan

Heart Healthy Children & Youth is the Heart and Stroke Foundation's response to the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, inactivity and other lifestyle choices that are putting Saskatchewan children at risk. This is a province-wide initiative aiming to inspire individuals, families, communities, businesses and governments to take collective action to help children become more physically active, eat healthier foods and be smoke-free. Canadian children may be among the first generation to have a shorter less healthy lifespan than their parents. Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 25 years and 29.1 per cent of Saskatchewan children are considered overweight or obese. At the same time, children are less active. According to Active Healthy Kids Canada, only 15 per cent of Saskatchewan children meet recommended levels for physical activity. And smoking rates among Saskatchewan youth are significantly higher than elsewhere in Canada, even among children as young as grade six.

To get involved, contact the Community Action Coordinator in your area at 1-888-473-4636 (toll-free):

* Candace Bloomquist, Central Saskatchewan bloomquistc@hsf.sk.ca
* Bill Ursel, South Saskatchewan urselb@hsf.sk.ca

Seniors in Canada overmedicalized, experts say

Seniors in Canada are overdrugged and overtested, to the detriment of both their health and the health care system, as billions of dollars are being spent that could more productively be spent elsewhere, several experts say. An array of factors is contributing to the overmedicalization of seniors, the experts add, including a simple desire of many patients for pharmaceutical solutions to prolong life or improve sexual performance; drugging seniors to make them manageable in health facilities; overuse of preventive medication; aggressive pharmaceutical industry marketing techniques; questionable clinical guidelines; and prescriptions to offset the effects of other prescriptions. Pharmacists filled an average 74 prescriptions per year for people aged 80 or over in 2005, as compared to 14 prescriptions per year for all other age groups, according to the latest available Statistics Canada data. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) says that in 2010, about 13% of seniors who took five or more prescription medications experienced a side effect that caused them to seek further health care services - CMAJ

Smoking increases heart risk more in women than men

Women who start smoking increase their risk of a heart attack by more than men who take up the habit, according to a review of more than 30 years of research. A study of 2.4 million people, published in the Lancet, showed a 25% difference in increased risk. The reasons are unclear, say researchers. The British Heart Foundation said the findings were "alarming" especially as women tended to smoke fewer cigarettes. The World Health Organization lists heart disease as the world's biggest killer, affecting more than seven million people each year

Cutting salt 'should be global priority'

The UN must make reducing salt intake a global health priority, say UK scientists. Writing in the British Medical Journal they say a 15% cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives around the world over the next decade. The report says practical steps to reduce consumption should be drawn up without delay. If voluntary measures do not work, the food industry should be compelled to cut salt levels, it says. The report - by researchers at the Universities of Warwick and Liverpool - says that after cutting tobacco consumption, getting people to eat less salt would be the most cost effective way to improve global health. The researchers say there is a "consistent, direct relation between salt intake and blood pressure". High blood pressure in turn is linked to heart disease, stroke and kidney problems

Poverty hurts cardiac rehab (USA)

Broken-up sidewalks, scary dogs in unfenced yards and heavy traffic can ruin a walk around the neighborhood. For heart attack survivors who need to exercise, such conditions can interfere with an important part of their rehabilitation. In a report published this week, researchers said they found that heart attack survivors who lived in low-income neighborhoods exercised less than heart attack survivors from wealthier neighborhoods. The findings weren't a surprise to Shireen Rajaram, the director of the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Center for Reducing Health Disparities. "We constantly hear complaints from our low-income communities that our neighborhoods are not supportive of walking, biking, just basically moving around," Rajaram said. Neighbors' behavior also can affect one's exercise habits, she said. "If nobody else is walking out on the street, if everybody else is suspicious of each other, you're less likely to go out," Rajaram said. The study of heart attack survivors' exercise habits was published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Wrist-worn device may detect cardiac arrest

A watch-sized device worn on the wrist successfully detected loss of pulse in an early-stage trial, a key step in developing a practical, noninvasive way to monitor patients at risk for sudden cardiac death, researchers said. In most patients participating in the phase I trial, the investigational device correctly signaled artificially induced pulselessness, though it had a false-positive rate of about 10%, according to John Rickard, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, and colleagues online in Heart Rhythm. Called the Wriskwatch, the device incorporates a piezoelectric disk strapped snugly against the wrist, such that it detects the arterial swelling at the radial pulse point. It can therefore identify episodes of pulselessness or ventricular fibrillation - MedPage Today

Bear chemical brings heart hope (UK)

A synthesised compound also found in bear bile may help the recovery of some people who have had a heart attack. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is already used to reduce cholesterol production, and to dissolve gallstones. Now a study by London's Imperial College has shown it could also treat potentially dangerous abnormal heart rhythms. Bear bile is used in many traditional Chinese medicines, but critics say the way it is collected is cruel - BBC

Canadian health system more efficient than U.S.: Study

The Canadian health-care system may be plagued by countless stories of lengthy wait times and crowded emergency rooms, but a new study shows the amount of time and money spent on administrative duties is a fraction of that required by the U.S. system. The study from the University of Toronto and New York's Cornell University says U.S. doctors pay an average of nearly $83,000 each for administrative costs associated with insurance documents. In Canada, for doctors based in Ontario that cost is significantly less at just over $22,200. In addition, nurses, medical assistants and other hospital staff dedicate nearly 21 hours per week to filing insurance papers and other duties required to push insurance claims through. For the same duties in Ontario, just 2.5 hours are spent each week. The findings of the study, published in the August edition of the journal Health Affairs, show that the "single payer" health-insurance system in Canada is largely responsible for the difference between countries

Simple device helps detect baby heart defects (UK)

Experts are calling for a simple piece of equipment that has been in most hospitals for years to be used on all newborn babies to help detect life-threatening heart defects. A major trial conducted in British hospitals has discovered that using pulse oximeters, a device which measures blood oxygen levels, dramatically increases the chance of identifying major heart faults. The simple, pain-free test has a detection rate of 92% when combined with traditional baby checks. Every year in Britain more than 5,000 babies are born with heart defects and, in the developed world, they are one of the leading causes of infant deaths - Sky News

Man with the plastic heart: dying Londoner saved by breakthrough

A London man will make medical history when he goes home after being given a plastic heart, it was revealed. The device, powered by a 13.5lb portable driver in a backpack, replaced 40-year-old Matthew Green's diseased heart to pump blood through his body. Mr Green, a father of one, was dying from "end-stage" failure of both chambers of his heart until the six-hour operation to put in the artificial heart at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge