The festive season has left most of us
heavier and therefore a bit penitent. But what’s the point of heartburn if we
resume rigorous dieting at home but thoughtlessly order in a greasy snack at
work? Do consider these tips to ensure you don’t derail from the health track
while meeting deadlines.

The
healthiest munchies

Of course, they happen to be fruits, dry
fruits and nuts—the blue-eyed boys of dietitians. But not all fruits are
equally low on calories. Consultant dietitian Mona Desai Mucadum recommends
watery fruits such as watermelons, or grapes as they are sweeter and higher on
fibre than pulpy ones. Thus a pomegranate, also rich in anti-oxidants, makes
more sense than a calorific banana. “Many office canteens offer fruit
lunches. Carry a few to your desk.” Also, before leaving home, stuff your
pockets with pistas, almonds and walnuts, and tiffins with figs, apricots and
super-nutritious dates.

In other words, always carry along
munchies

Who has the time, you may whine. But nothing is achieved
without effort and discipline, concur dietitians and nutritionists such as Dr
Vandana Bambawale. She finds it odd that while most of us are conscious about
what to wear to work, we remain starkly indifferent to what to eat. As Mucadum
says, “A samosa is a last-minute thought. Keep a snack ready at hand so
you don’t have to binge.”

What to
carry

Other than fruits and nuts, a pack of roasted channa is
an exciting (and cheap) option. Exciting, because it comes in flavours like
chaat, masala and mint.

For variety, carry a dry bhel of channa,
kurmura, popcorn, corn flakes, crushed khakhras and rock salt. Livelier
employees may also stuff in a little container of chopped onions, tomatoes,
chillies and pomegranate seeds as well as another of chutney. A wet bhel could
be rustled up in less than a minute. (Always stock wet and dry chutneys in the
fridge). But if the thought of “cooking” at work sounds outlandish, carry
a homemade snack.

A little
preparation helps

The stored chutney comes in handy with
fluffy idlis, as a sandwich spread or as a marinade. Dunk paneer chunks or
cauliflower florets in green coriander chutney as soon as you wake up, and
skewer them for a minute before stepping out.

Meat lovers could grill
or bake a lean piece of white meat marinated in yoghurt, ginger-garlic paste,
chillies and salt, suggests Mercy Mathew, instructor, food production and
nutrition, at Dadar Catering College. If short on time, make a quick vegetable
multigrain bread sandwich (a spread of grated paneer and cabbage is a lovely
idea).

Lightly steam French beans, cauliflower florets and sprouts
or simply slice a few carrots, cucumber and celery sticks.

Zero-effort
snacks

Those disinclined to the kitchen could pick a healthy
snack from the supermarket. Mini khakhras, for one, come in refreshing flavours
such as jeera, black pepper, methi, onions, tomatoes and even salsa, pav bhaji
and pani puri.

Then, baked chips of potatoes, sweet potatoes, beet,
carrots, tapioca, suran, purple Surti kand and ragi are surprisingly crisp and
delicious. (The chips can be easily microwaved at home on a lightly greased
baking dish.) An interesting but rigorous alternative involves soaking tuber
slices in “nut milk” before baking. Nut milk, elaborates nutritionist Dr
Vijaya Venkat, is prepared by grinding almonds, cashews or coconut flesh with
warm water. But this is more a weekend initiative).

Packs of low-fat
jaggery chikkis, bread sticks, baked sev and wafers, nut nuggets, sesame and
soya sticks, masala corn flakes, dried sprouts, and bajra and jowar strips taste
good too. As also, diet crackers, cookies and biscuits, pumpkin and sunflower
seeds, and flaxseed, if you like them. Consultant dietitian Sushila Sharangdhar
cautions that some “diet” foods may actually turn out to be greasy.
“Label reading is important. A pack may say a biscuit is made of flour but
won’t specify whether it is wholewheat or refined (maida).” Safely
avoid.

Cutting chai

Refuse the inviting cup of chai or coffee. Order a chaas,
salted lassi, or a fruit juice for your glucose shot. Now be proud of
yourself.

rucha.chitrodia@timesgroup.com

Remember WellCare? The company didn’t get much national attention until last fall, when FBI agents raided its Florida headquarters and the company’s stock fell more than 60%.

The company provides managed care to Medicare and Medicaid recipients, and it emerged that the investigation had something to do with alleged Medicaid fraud, but the details have remained sketchy.

A bit more information came to light this week, as prosecutors unsealed a guilty plea by a WellCare employee who participated in an “elaborate scheme” from 2002 to 2006, sending Medicaid inflated bills for behavioral health care services, the Tampa Tribune reports.

The employee didn’t act alone, and faces 10 years in prison.

That doesn’t sound like good news for the company, but the market had been bracing for something worse. The plea “supports our view that the scope of the investigation appears limited to Florida Medicaid behavioral health and that a settlement could fall at the lower end of the potential outcomes,” Goldman Sachs analyst Daryn Miller said in a note cited by Dow Jones Newswires.

The company said the scope and pace of the investigation remain confidential. WellCare’s stock was up nearly 3% yesterday on the news, even as global markets plummeted.

 
During a forum about health savings accounts on Friday, President Bush promoted expanded use of HSAs and raised concerns that the U.S. health care system is “drifting toward nationalization,” the Oklahoman reports. The forum was held at the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park Conference Center in Oklahoma.

During the forum, which included about 15 participants, Bush said that high-deductible health plans with HSAs, which allow individuals to take more responsibility for health care decisions, can help address the health care “crisis” in the U.S. He said that such health plans can encourage small businesses to provide health insurance for employees because they reduce overall health care costs for the companies. “There are two issues, it seems to me, facing small business,” he said, adding, “High taxes and health care.”

Jennifer Fogg — president and chief operating officer at Oklahoma City-based Asset Group Inc., a general construction contractor — said the company has begun to see benefits from offering workers HSAs. Fogg said, “Last year I paid almost $300,000 in employee benefits and having an HSA has actually helped me control costs,” she said. However, she added, “It takes a significant educational process. We have found historically that any time we make changes to the health benefit plan it is a challenge to the employees. They don’t like to have their health insurance program to be messed around with.”

Other speakers at the forum also reported positive experiences with HSAs, the Oklahoman reports. Small business owner Cher Bumps said that she contributes $1,000 to HSAs for single employees and $1,500 for married employees. Bumps said, “Most companies don’t finance employer contributing, which is why they haven’t been as popular” (Stafford, Oklahoman, 9/13).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Other news:

• Further Analysis From ATHENA Study Showed That Multaq(R)(Dronedarone) Reduced The Risk Of Stroke In Patients With Atrial Fibrillation
• OptumHealth Provides Free Counseling Help Line For People Coping With Hurricane Ike
• During Pregnancy Harmful Levels Of Lead In Blood Reduced By Calcium
• FDA Approves Testing To Explore Effectiveness Of Rapid Patient Cooling In Traumatic Brain Injury Cases
• New Research In WHO Report Points To A Link Between Solid Employment And Health

 Advanced age and race are among the factors that can affect whether a patient dies or suffers a stroke after carotid-artery surgery, a UT Southwestern physician involved in a multicenter study has found.

“This study identified 11 readily available, clinical risk factors that can help referring physicians, neurologists, surgeons and anesthesiologists better weigh the risks and benefits of carotid surgery for an individual patient,” said Dr. Ethan Halm, new chief of the William T. and Gay F. Solomon Division of General Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern and the study’s lead author. “You don’t want to cause a stroke to prevent a stroke.”

The new findings appear in the current online version of the journal Stroke.

Dr. Halm and colleagues used data from the New York Carotid Artery Surgery (NYCAS) study, which evaluated the outcomes of 9,308 carotid surgeries performed on elderly patients by 482 surgeons in 167 hospitals in New York state. It is the largest study of its kind to use clinically detailed data on a population-based study of carotid-surgery outcomes and risk factors in community practice. Dr. Halm recently left Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York to lead UT Southwestern’s general internal medicine division.

Carotid-artery surgery, one of the most common types of vascular surgeries performed in the U.S., involves opening the carotid artery in the neck and removing harmful plaque to restore blood flow to the brain. Although previous controlled trials have shown carotid surgery reduces the long-term risk of death or stroke in some patients, there is a chance the procedure could cause death or stroke.

The NYCAS study found that the overall risk of death or stroke in the first 30 days after surgery varied greatly according to a patient’s age, race, number of serious medical conditions, severity of carotid disease and acuity of neurological symptoms.

The statistical findings included:
Advanced age (defined in the NYCAS study as 80 years or older) increased the risk-adjusted odds of death or stroke by 30 percent;

Non-white patients were 83 percent more likely to have a negative outcome within 30 days;

Having coronary artery disease increased the odds of death or stroke by 51 percent; and

Having diabetes treated with insulin increased the odds of death or stroke by 55 percent.

In addition, the more serious the neurological symptoms a patient had from the blockage of the carotid artery, the higher the risk of negative outcomes. Patients who suffered a stroke or temporary stroke in the year before carotid surgery also had increased risks.

“Having one risk factor would not necessarily be a reason not to have the surgery, but having multiple risk factors, like being over the age of 80 with heart disease and diabetes, might tip the balance for many patients in favor of medical management,” Dr. Halm said.

The NYCAS study was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/surgery to learn more about clinical services in surgery at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Ethan Halm

Source: Erin Prather Stafford

UT Southwestern Medical Center

 Researchers in the Laboratory of Structural Sciences at Van Andel Institute (VAI) have determined how the hormone corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) precisely binds to its receptor. This detailed structural information can help drug developers design new drugs for anxiety, depression, and related disorders.

“There are a few drugs in development to treat anxiety, depression, and other conditions by targeting the cellular receptor that CRF binds to, but there are no drugs currently on the market,” said VAI Distinguished Scientific Investigator Eric Xu, Ph.D., who published his laboratory’s findings in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. “There is a lot of interest in this receptor as a drug target, and we are the first to determine the structural details necessary to develop an ideal drug.”

CRF is a hormone and neurotransmitter secreted by the hypothalamus area of the brain and is involved in stress response. CRF has been associated with anxiety, depression, and related disorders. The hormone’s receptor is a protein on the surface of a cell or in its interior that binds to the hormone, which allows the hormone to activate changes in the cell.

Using a technique known as X-ray crystallography, VAI researchers determined the molecular structure of the part of the CRF receptor that sticks outside of the cell and binds to CRF and other proteins in the same family. This detailed structural information can help drug developers engineer a drug that more perfectly fits to the receptor, making the drug more potent. Researchers determined the structure of the receptor in three different scenarios - one with nothing bound to the receptor, one with CRF bound to the receptor, and one that shows how the receptor binds to other proteins in the same family.

To determine the structure, researchers had to crystallize the hormone and receptor in these different scenarios, a process similar to letting salty water evaporate to form salt crystals but much more difficult. The lab used a unique method to do this that they recently developed to determine the structure of the parathyroid hormone (PTH) receptor, used to treat osteoporosis. PTH and CRF receptors are in the same family of proteins.

“There are many therapeutically important receptors in the same family as CRF and PTH,” said Xu, “and there is a good chance we may be able to apply our crystallizing method to even more members of this family going forward.”

Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996, Van Andel Institute is an independent research organization dedicated to preserving, enhancing and expanding the frontiers of medical science, and to achieving excellence in education by probing fundamental issues of education and the learning process.

http://www.vai.org

 At dinner time, parents will often tell their child to clean their plate. However, that old maxim might lead kids to eat more than they need, especially when portions are adult-sized or supersized.

In findings presented at The Obesity Society’s Annual Meeting on Oct. 7, children took more food when larger portions were made available to them.

Jennifer Fisher, Ph.D., associate professor of public health and researcher at the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University, and her research team observed 61 children between five and six years old to determine their eating habits when normal entrée portions (275 g) and “super-sized” entrée portions (550g) were offered. The children used either teaspoons or tablespoons to serve themselves.

They found that while children served themselves larger portions when the super-sized meal was available, portion sizes varied by gender, ethnicity, and parents’ reports of child feeding practices - all environmental influences on children’s eating behavior.

Fisher theorizes that having large amounts of food available conveys a social expectation about portion size that condones larger self-served portions.

“Seeing a large amount of food in front of you can lead you to believe that someone decided this portion was the right amount to eat,” she said. “These results suggest that children take cues from their eating environments when deciding how much is enough.”

There currently is very little research on what factors affect children’s eating habits, but Fisher’s team hopes to pinpoint some of these factors to determine how children’s eating patterns develop, which could help stave off unhealthy relationships with food later on in life.

“We are interested in the cues that children take from their eating environments when serving themselves,” said Fisher. “Many questions about children’s eating habits are as yet unanswered, such as whether large quantities of food and large utensils prompt children to eat more or if the size of children’s self-served portions influences their caloric intake.”

Fisher and her team are currently exploring a number of different avenues to determine the association between the amount of food children are served and the amount they’re actually eating.

“Our goal is to try to identify ways to promote healthful choices from an early age,” she said. “We want children to grow up with good eating habits, and without having to struggle with food issues into adulthood.”

Other authors on this study include Michael A. Grusak, Ph.D, and Sheryl O. Hughes, Ph.D, of the Children’s Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, and Leann L. Birch of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Penn State University. Funding for this research was provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Source: Renee Cree

Temple University

Two weeks before his second deployment to Iraq last September, Army Specialist Michael DeVlieger broke down.

‘Stretched Too Thin’

More than 600,000 Americans have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Psychological trauma is cumulative,” explained Dr. Paul Ragan, a former Navy psychiatrist who is an associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University. More deployments can mean more mental stress, and for some, more mental illnesses, he said.

Army surveys show that for those soldiers deployed once, the rate of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder is 12 percent. For those deployed three or more times, the rate is 27 percent.

“People who have psychiatric symptoms, actively symptomatic with PTSD or depression, are being sent back to the very situation that caused their PTSD and depression,” Ragan said.

The Army’s chief psychiatrist, Dr. Elspeth Ritchie, agrees with the Rand Corp.’s estimate that 300,000 service members have demonstrated post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Some are returning to the battlefront, although the Army is not keeping track of how many.

“I certainly would not want to lump all soldiers who have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and say they are impaired and not able to do their job,” Ritchie told Woodruff. “I think that would be very stigmatizing.”

 Comparing such diverse networks as the Internet and the human cell, Albert-László Barabási explains the mathematical foundation behind what he calls “the highly interconnected web of life.” Barabási will give a lecture titled “Network Science: From the Web to Human Diseases” at the University of Houston.

As part of the UH Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series, Barabási, Distinguished Professor and Director of Northeastern University’s Center for Network Science, will be speaking at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9 in Room 232 of Philip Guthrie Hoffman Hall on the UH campus. The hour-long lecture is free and open to the public.

In his talk, he will address how the evolution of such complex, seemingly incongruous networks is united by similar complexities. Barabási is known for using accessible language and concrete explanations laced with a special brand of humor.

“Recent studies indicate that the evolution of these complex networks is governed by simple but generic laws, resulting in apparently universal architectural features,” Barabási said. “I will discuss the amazing order characterizing our interconnected work, its implications on various phenomena - from robustness to complex systems - and its applications to communication and medicine.”

Barabási’s seminal studies on complex networks demonstrated the existence of common characteristics in a wide range of disciplines, including chaos and fractals, materials science, biophysics and social networks. He has published five books, six major review articles and nearly 200 research publications. He is a member of the American Physical Society and was awarded the prestigious John von Neumann Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.

Inaugurated in 1986 and administered by the UH Center for Public History, the Tenneco Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible by grants from Tenneco Inc. and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and physics department are co-sponsoring Barabási’s appearance.

WHO:

Albert-László Barabási, renowned physicist

WHAT:

Tenneco Distinguished Lecture

WHEN:

5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 9

WHERE:

University of Houston
Philip Guthrie Hoffman Hall
Room 232
Entrance 14 off Cullen Boulevard
http://www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/PGH.php

Source: Lisa Merkl

University of Houston

 Vitamin A is an essential nutrient involved in vision, growth, cellular differentiation, and immune function. Because vitamin A is fat-soluble, it is chaperoned through the body on carrier proteins. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a study funded by USDA and NIH, discovered that not only was one of the carrier proteins for vitamin A, retinol-binding protein (RBP), elevated in obese individuals compared to leaner controls, but some of it was not attached to retinol, the main circulating form of the vitamin. RBP that is not bound to vitamin A is called apo-RBP by vitamin A scientists. Their study will appear in the October 08 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine.

The research team led by Sherry Tanumihardjo, an associate professor of Nutritional Sciences, originally was interested in determining the degree of hypervitaminosis A in the cohort for preliminary data on excessive liver storage of the vitamin. Her graduate student, Jordan Mills, was interested in determining the retinol-binding protein concentrations. While the degree of hypervitaminosis A was remarkable at 4% prevalence for the obese cohort, the relationship of retinol to RBP was a more interesting discovery. The retinol to RBP ratio (retinol:RBP) was significantly lower in the obese subjects than nonobese subjects. This was attributable to more RBP circulating in the serum not bound to vitamin A. RBP was strongly associated with vitamin A in both groups, but more so in the nonobese individuals.

“A series of studies in mice and humans revealed a strong relationship between serum RBP and obesity-induced insulin resistance. While some studies validated these original observations of elevated RBP in obesity and insulin resistance in humans, others have not. Often lacking in these publications are data for serum retinol, arguably RBP’s most important physiological companion, representing a possible explanation for conflicting results,” said Mills. Tanumihardjo added, “Our results further the understanding of the relationship of retinol, RBP, and BMI and suggest that apo-RBP should be evaluated. Retinol:RBP may add new insights and be a better clinical diagnostic for potential insulin resistance than RBP alone.” The authors say, “This elevated serum apo-RBP may be adipose-derived and it is unknown whether it is a direct contributor to insulin resistance in obese individuals. Alternatively, apo-RBP from adipose may transport an unidentified ligand that is responsible for mediating insulin signaling.” Further research is needed to determine whether apo-RBP is bound to some other compound in circulation. Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, said “this interesting study, led by Dr. Tanumihardjo, opens the door to the determination of the role of apo-RBP in insulin resistance in obese individuals. This will be an important issue for those working on type 2 diabetes”.

Experimental Biology and Medicine is the journal of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. To learn about the benefits of society membership visit http://www.sebm.org/. If you are interested in publishing in the journal please visit http://www.ebmonline.org/.

Source: Sherry A. Tanumihardjo

Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine

 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is sponsoring a symposium to bring together professionals from the entertainment industry with top scientists and engineers to discuss collaborations between science and entertainment and explore new projects. Film producers Jerry and Janet Zucker and Patrick Soon-Shiong, chairman and CEO of Abraxis Bioscience Inc., will co-host the event with the Academy. Participants will include directors, producers, script writers, designers, art directors, show runners, and prop masters as well as scientists, health and medical professionals, and engineers. The symposium is part of an initiative called the Science and Entertainment Exchange that was developed by the NAS to facilitate a valuable connection between the two communities. The Exchange is endorsed by the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and Women in Film.

DETAILS: The symposium will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 19, from noon to 6 p.m. PST in the Creative Artists Agency Building, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles. Reporters must register in advance to attend; this event is not open to the public. For a complete list of speakers and agenda, visit http://www.scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/.

HIGHLIGHTED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
BONNIE BASSLER, director of graduate studies, department of molecular biology, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.

RODNEY BROOKS, Panasonic Professor of Robotics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and chief technical officer, iRobot Corp.

STEVE CHU, director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; professor of physics and professor of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley; and 1997 Nobel Prize winner in physics

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, astrophysicist; and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City

V.S. RAMACHANDRAN, director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

J. CRAIG VENTER, president, J. Craig Venter Institute

Source: Maureen O’Leary

National Academy of Sciences