http://preferredbypete.com/ en Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:17:07 GMT vBulletin 60 http://pbp2.static-cdn.com/green/misc/rss.png http://preferredbypete.com/ http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24264-farmers-24-hour-milk-filling-station.html Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:39:11 GMT BERLIN (Reuters) - A German dairy farmer has come up with a novel way to drum up new business -- he opened a "milk filling station."

The "Milchtankstelle" near Cologne in the town of Neunkirchen-Seelscheid dispenses the output of 78 cows from a stainless steel vending machine. Customers can either bring their own empty containers or buy milk bottles to fill up.
"I only had a few customers before I opened the station because they had to come at set milking times, which was a problem," dairy farmer Bruno Stauf told Reuters. "Now they can buy my milk whenever they want."
The milk filling station is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customers can select the amount of milk they want to purchase at a price of 70 cents per liter. They insert the money, put their container under the nozzle and press a button.
"We were no longer getting very much for our milk from the local dairy," Stauf said, who like many dairy farmers in Germany has felt the squeeze of downward pressure on prices at discount supermarkets.
"For half a year were only getting 20 cents per liter and when it's like that, you have to do something else," Stauf said.
At 70 cents a liter, the milk from the filling station is more expensive than at some supermarkets, but Stauf, 55, points out the advantages of tapping a machine for fresh milk.
"There's a lot more protein and fat in it because it is not treated like the milk you get in normal supermarkets," he said.
Stauf said he invested 12,000 euros on his "milk filling station" but was confident it would pay off in the long run. His station is about 30 km outside of Cologne, one of Germany's biggest cities.
"Customers say that the milk on sale in supermarkets doesn't taste good any more," he said. "Supermarkets work on improving the shelf life, but people just want fresher milk. People come from as far away as Cologne to buy milk from my station."
(Writing by Michelle Martin, editing by Paul Casciato)

B hunter ]]> Health News buttman302 http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24264-farmers-24-hour-milk-filling-station.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24263-mystery-eye-problem-dairy-show-caused.html Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:37:21 GMT SYDNEY (Reuters) - The cause of a mystery eye ailment that struck about 50 visitors to a dairy pavilion at an agricultural show in Australia has been... SYDNEY (Reuters) - The cause of a mystery eye ailment that struck about 50 visitors to a dairy pavilion at an agricultural show in Australia has been traced -- to cow urine.

The Royal Adelaide Show had to close its dairy cattle pavilion after an rising number of people reported sore eyes when visiting the judging marquee.
Officials from the South Australia (SA) Health Department were called in to investigate and found the cause of the outbreak was stagnant cow urine.
Show spokeswoman Michelle Hocking told local reporters that a recent spell of wet weather may have created conditions within the pavilion where ammonia from cow urine was released.
About 30 people were treated on site by volunteers from the first aid group St. John Ambulance but about 20 went to the emergency department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
"From our institutional memory we can't recall an incident of this nature before," Peter Jackson from the St. John Ambulance told Reuters.
(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

WOW!!
B hunter:dirol: ]]> Health News buttman302 http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24263-mystery-eye-problem-dairy-show-caused.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24213-how-hearts-triathletes-adapt.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:31:32 GMT How the hearts of triathletes adapt

NUREMBERG, Germany, -- A doctor in Germany says the hearts of triathletes' adapt well if resistance and endurance training are combined.
Triathletes compete in multisport events consisting of swimming, cycling and running.
Dr. Michael Lell at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany says endurance training includes running and swimming. Weightlifting, he says, is an example of resistance training while cycling is a combination of both.
He notes excessive training in either resistance or endurance leads to specific heart adaptations and extreme endurance training is thought to be associated with a predisposition to sudden cardiac events.
"Cardiac adaptations in elite triathletes in our study were not associated with sudden cardiac death," Lell says in a statement."The hearts of the triathletes in our study are stronger and able to manage the same workload with less effort."
The study, published in Radiology, finds the triathletes' resting heart rates were 17 percent lower than those of the control group.
Lell and colleagues conducted cardiac magnetic resonance imaging to compare the heart structures of 26 top national and international professional male triathletes -- mean age 27.9 -- to that of 27 male controls -- mean age 27.3 -- who were recreational athletes who exercised not more than 3 hours per week. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24213-how-hearts-triathletes-adapt.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24212-people-happiest-saddest-relationships.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:30:51 GMT People happiest/saddest from relationships

BUFFALO, N.Y., -- Individual achievements like schooling or career may take most of one's effort but our best and worst experiences involve others, U.S. researchers say.
Study co-author Shira Gabriel of the University at Buffalo, principal author Lisa Jaremka, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mauricio Cavallo, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, say the study findings run contrary to implications of previous research.
"Most of us spend much of our time and effort focused on individual achievements such as work, hobbies and schooling," Gabriel says in a statement. "However this research suggests that the events that end up being most important in our lives, the events that bring us the most happiness and also carry the potential for the most pain, are social events -- moments of connecting to others and feeling their connections."
The research involved 376 study subjects, who participated in four studies. One study involved college students asked to describe the most positive and negative emotional experiences of their lives. Overwhelmingly, the study subjects described social events. The same study using middle-age participants had similar results.
The third study provided evidence that the strong emotional impact of interdependent -- or social -- events reported in the first two studies was not due to social events being more salient than independent events.
The fourth study finds social events gain their emotional punch from the need to belong.
The findings are published in Self and Identity. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24212-people-happiest-saddest-relationships.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24211-most-disadvantaged-african-american-men.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:30:12 GMT *Most disadvantaged, African-American men* CHICAGO, -- The most needy and least helped of the U.S. disadvantaged are most likely to be... Most disadvantaged, African-American men

CHICAGO, -- The most needy and least helped of the U.S. disadvantaged are most likely to be African-American men, researchers suggest.
Waldo E. Johnson Jr., an associate professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration, says black men suffer in a variety of ways, including being stereotyped as reckless and having little regard for their children.
Most African-American men do not fit this stereotype and fulfill their responsibilities to both their families and society but the stereotype persists, often fueled by the media, Johnson says.
Johnson is the editor of "Social Work With African American Males: Health, Mental Health and Social Policy," recently published by Oxford University Press -- a collection of studies detailing the disadvantages that black men face and ways they can be helped. The book says:
-- African-American boys are more likely to experience difficulty in school and are less likely to graduate than any other group.
-- African-American male youths are likely to grow up in single-parent homes and not have fathers living at home with them and as a result develop male role models from the media.
-- Black males, even as boys, are more likely than other male peers to suffer from stress-induced depression and other physical and mental health problems. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24211-most-disadvantaged-african-american-men.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24210-chronic-pain-sufferers-helped-marijuana.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:29:33 GMT *Chronic pain sufferers helped by marijuana* MONTREAL, -- Marijuana, or cannabis, may be an effective treatment for chronic pain, a Canadian... Chronic pain sufferers helped by marijuana

MONTREAL, -- Marijuana, or cannabis, may be an effective treatment for chronic pain, a Canadian researcher suggests.
Dr. Mark Ware of the McGill University Health Center and McGill University in Montreal says marijuana may offer relief to patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain.
The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, not only finds medical marijuana at a low dose offered modest pain reduction in patients suffering from chronic neuropathic pain, but also improved patients' mood and improved sleep. Effects were less pronounced in marijuana strains containing less than 10 percent of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol.
"The patients we followed suffered from pain caused by injuries to the nervous system from post-traumatic -- e.g. traffic accidents -- or post-surgical -- e.g. cut nerves -- events, and which was not controlled using standard therapies," Ware says in a statement. "This kind of pain occurs more frequently than many people recognize, and there are few effective treatments available. For these patients, medical cannabis is sometimes seen as their last hope."
Ware and colleagues conducted trials in which patients who smoked marijuana at home -- using a pipe three times daily over a period of five days -- were monitored daily for their responses. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24210-chronic-pain-sufferers-helped-marijuana.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24209-legionnaires-outbreak-points-fla-hotel.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:28:53 GMT *Legionnaires outbreak points to Fla. hotel* MIAMI, -- A faulty water system at a Miami luxury hotel probably caused an outbreak of... Legionnaires outbreak points to Fla. hotel

MIAMI, -- A faulty water system at a Miami luxury hotel probably caused an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease that killed an English tourist last year, officials said.
Bacteria that causes the respiratory disease was detected in water samples at the Epic Hotel, a 411-room luxury residence on Miami's Biscayne Boulevard, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Wednesday.
"A causal relationship is likely because of the extent of the contamination found in the hotel," a report said.
In September 2009, an English tourist who stayed at the Epic before a Caribbean cruise became ill on board ship and was rushed back to a Miami hospital but died.
At least nine other cases, including several in European tourists, were reported over the next two months.
Health officials linked the cases to the hotel and briefly closed it down in December.
Health inspectors determined the hotel's water filters had stripped chlorine from the water, allowing the bacteria to grow. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24209-legionnaires-outbreak-points-fla-hotel.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24092-man-gets-new-kidney-transplant-chain.html Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:36:17 GMT Man gets new kidney in transplant 'chain'

SAN DIEGO, -- San Diego doctors say a patient awaiting a kidney transplant has a new organ after his wife donated hers -- but to a stranger, not to her husband.
Oscar and Rita Ayub were participants in a National Kidney Registry live-saving effort that finds donors for people who need a kidney, but only if they have a partner willing to donate one of their kidneys to a stranger, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday.
They were part of a transplant chain of donations involving 21 donors and 21 recipients in seven states. Each person in need of a kidney had a donor partner -- a relative, friend, co-worker or possibly a stranger -- whose kidney was not a match for them.
The National Kidney Registry, founded in 2007, uses sophisticated computer analysis to match donors with recipients.
The New York non-profit is the largest such paired-exchange kidney transplant program in the United States.
Kidneys transplant recipients in the United States typically wait four years or more to find a matching donor, even when a loved one wants to help.
The registry now has 2,000 donors in its system and plans to expand, Executive Director Thomas Mollo said.
"We've done 178 transplants," he said. "Each hospital has to come into the system with a recipient and a donor, so we can continue to pay it forward."
The Ayubs said they hope their experience would encourage others not to be fearful about donating an organ.
"They're giving life to somebody else, like she gave to me," Oscar said as he reached for Rita's hand. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24092-man-gets-new-kidney-transplant-chain.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24091-pa-firm-recalls-8-500-lbs.html Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:35:38 GMT *Pa. firm recalls 8,500 lbs. of beef* *WYALUSING, Pa., -- A Pennsylvania company is recalling about 8,500 pounds of ground beef products that... Pa. firm recalls 8,500 lbs. of beef

WYALUSING, Pa., -- A Pennsylvania company is recalling about 8,500 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O26, federal officials said Saturday.
The U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a release on its Web site that the ground beef products produced by Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. of Wyalusing, Pa., may have reached BJ's Wholesale Club outlets in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
The ground beef was shipped to distribution centers in Connecticut and Maryland in 42-pound cases that had a "use/freeze by" date of "07/01/10," the identifying product code "W69032" and the establishment number "EST. 9400" inside the USDA inspection mark.
However, the beef was then repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different retail brand names. The agency said it didn't have the product codes for those packages.
The possibly tainted beef was produced June 11.FSIS became aware of the problem on Aug. 5 when the agency was notified by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources of an E. coli O26 cluster of illnesses. Two cases were identified in Maine and one in New York.
People were reported to have gotten ill June 24 to July 16. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24091-pa-firm-recalls-8-500-lbs.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24090-man-dubbed-hippo-man.html Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:34:47 GMT A 41-year-old man in China has been dubbed "Hippo Man" after a facial tumor grew so large it pushed his eyes to the side of his head, AOL News reported.

Fei Jianjun noticed a tiny, red bump on the tip of his nose last year, but he "didn’t pay much attention" to it at first, he said.

Fei’s tumor grew into the size of a human fist and it now covers half of his face, which has resulted in him not being able to breathe through his nose. He said he did not seek medical treatment when the tumor began to grow because he is so poor, but a local hospital in Changchun, Jilin province offered him free surgery.

"I try my best not to go out, as my family is too poor to compensate others if I scare them and make them sick," Fei said.

Fei’s doctor said without surgery and medical treatment, he would likely die within six months.

"We will give him radiation therapy first to shrink the tumor underneath, and then we'll perform plastic surgery on him," said Dr. Zhang Jianjun, of Jilin Military
General Hospital. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24090-man-dubbed-hippo-man.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24089-spouses-dont-become-more-alike-their.html Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:33:38 GMT Spouses don't become more alike in their personalities as their marriage progresses, contrary to perceptions.

Rather, spouses often seem similar in character because they start out that way, a new study suggests. People tend to pick their partners based on shared personality traits, researchers say. The findings are published in the November issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Surveying Spouses

Researchers know spouses are more similar to each other than to random people, but there's debate about how this happens.

"This could reflect spouses' influence on each other over time, or this could be what attracted them to each other in the first place." said study author Mikhila Humbad, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Michigan State University.

The current work analyzed the data of 1,296 married couples, one of the largest such studies to date, Humbad said. Participants had been married from two years to 19 years.

The participants answered 198 questions to assess their personality and behavior, including whether they were ambitious, sociable, easily upset, physically violent or someone who likes to plan ahead.

Opposites Don't Attract

There was no association between the length of the relationship and similarity of personalities within couples.

The conclusion: Spousal similarity is better explained by partner selection than by gradual convergence of personality.

The one exception to this pattern was aggression. "It makes sense if you think about it," Humbad said. "If one person is violent, the other person may respond in a similar fashion and thus become more aggressive over time."

The research could have implications for future spouses as well as their offspring. "Marrying someone who's similar to you may increase the likelihood that you'll pass those traits on to your children," Humbad said. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/24089-spouses-dont-become-more-alike-their.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23827-study-motor-vehicles-make-americans-fat.html Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:30:19 GMT Study: Motor vehicles make Americans fat KNOXVILLE, Tenn., European countries with high rates of walking and cycling have fewer obese people than... Study: Motor vehicles make Americans fat
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., European countries with high rates of walking and cycling have fewer obese people than Australia and the United States, U.S. researchers found.

David Bassett Jr. of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville said "active travel" -- bicycling or walking -- fosters healthier communities compared with regions where cars are the favored way to get around.

Bassett and colleagues conducted a study on "active travel" in the United States and 15 other countries. They linked more than half of the differences in obesity rates among countries to walking and cycling rates, finding places with the highest walking and biking rates have fewer obese people.

In addition, about 30 percent of the difference in obesity rates among U.S. states and cities was also linked to walking and cycling rates.

"A growing body of evidence suggests that differences in the built environment for physical activity (e.g., infrastructure for walking and cycling, availability of public transit, street connectivity, housing density and mixed land use) influence the likelihood that people will use active transport for their daily travel," the study said.

"Moreover, land-use policies should foster compact, mixed-use developments that generate shorter trip distances that are more suitable for walking and biking."

The findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23827-study-motor-vehicles-make-americans-fat.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23826-lack-b-vitamin-linked-dementia.html Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:29:07 GMT Lack of B vitamin linked to dementia DAVIS, Calif., An analysis of blood samples shows lower levels of folate -- a B vitamin -- was linked to... Lack of B vitamin linked to dementia
DAVIS, Calif., An analysis of blood samples shows lower levels of folate -- a B vitamin -- was linked to symptoms of dementia and poor brain function, U.S. researchers say.

Nutritionist Lindsay Allen at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Davis, Calif., says it is known B vitamins -- such as B-6, B-12 and folate aid -- nourish the brain but how these vitamins and brain are related remains to be discovered.

Allen and study leader Mary Haan of the University of California, San Francisco, are investigating nutrients and decline in brain function using data from the multiyear Sacramento Area Latino Study on Aging. The study began in 1996 with nearly 1,800 Hispanic volunteers -- ages 60-101.

The analysis of volunteers' blood samples shows folate was linked to symptoms of dementia and poor brain function -- impairments that were detectable even though less than 1 percent of the volunteers were actually deficient in folate.

Women, but not men, with low blood levels of folate were more than twice as likely to have symptoms of depression, also known to affect brain function, the researchers say. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23826-lack-b-vitamin-linked-dementia.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23825-isotope-shortage-evokes-medical-concerns.html Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:28:21 GMT Isotope shortage evokes medical concerns BALTIMORE, U.S. doctors say they are concerned about a shortage of imported radioactive material used to... Isotope shortage evokes medical concerns
BALTIMORE, U.S. doctors say they are concerned about a shortage of imported radioactive material used to diagnose heart conditions and other problems.

The Baltimore Sun reported the U.S. supply of technetium has been low for the past 15 months, ever since its main supplier, a Canadian nuclear reactor, shut down temporarily. That's left medical staff looking for alternatives to the workhorse isotope, which sometimes are more costly and are of lower quality.

The Sun said many medical operators in the field are calling for domestic production as well as development of other technology. Although back in operation, the Ontario reactor is aging and scheduled to go offline for good in 2016, the report said.

Technetium-99m is made from molybdenum-99, the Sun reported. A third of the world supply comes from the Chalk River reactor owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. The United States imports smaller quantities from the Netherlands and other sources.

The isotope is used in most of the nation's 20 million annual nuclear medicine procedures, the Sun said. Half of those tests involve cardiac imaging such as "stress tests."

Dr. Vasken Dilsizian, chief of the nuclear medicine division and director of cardiovascular nuclear medicine and PET imaging at the University of Maryland Medical Center, told the Sun: "There is a parallel to our concern about our dependence on foreign oil. Only, in this case the parent isotope has a short half-life, further limiting where we can get it from." ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23825-isotope-shortage-evokes-medical-concerns.html http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23778-trauma-care-effective-cost-effective.html Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:05:35 GMT Trauma care effective, and cost-effective BALTIMORE, Trauma center treatment is expensive but the benefits, in terms of lives saved and quality of... Trauma care effective, and cost-effective
BALTIMORE, Trauma center treatment is expensive but the benefits, in terms of lives saved and quality of life-years gained, outweigh the costs, a U.S. researcher says.

Ellen MacKenzie of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Injury Research and Policy in Baltimore says the added cost of treatment at a trauma center versus non-trauma center is $36,319 for every life-year gained or $790,931 per life saved. By way of comparison, a cost of $50,000-$100,000 a year is often cited as acceptable for renal dialysis.

The report found trauma center care is cost-effective for all patients taken together, and is of particular value for people with very severe injuries and those younger than age 55.

To determine cost-effectiveness, the researchers calculated the cost per life saved, cost per life-year gained and cost per quality-adjusted life-year gained. A total of 5,043 patients contributed to the cost-effectiveness analysis from 69 participating hospitals -- 18 trauma centers and 51 non-trauma centers -- in 14 states.

"Taken together with our previous work demonstrating the effectiveness of trauma centers in saving lives, the results unequivocally support the need for continued efforts and funding for regionalized systems of trauma care in the United States," MacKenzie said.

The study is published in the Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care. ]]> Health News aalard http://preferredbypete.com/health-news/23778-trauma-care-effective-cost-effective.html