Health News: Diet To Lower Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Ranked Easiest ♦ Sheffield shop’s booze licence revoked after illegal alcohol seized ♦ New potential treatment for colorectal cancer discovered

Diet To Lower Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Ranked Easiest US News and World Report has just released its compiled survey on the Best Diets of 2016. Guess what? DASH diet continues to stay on top as the easiest to follow diet out of 38 popular healthy diets evaluated by health experts. The magazine surveyed a number of well-renowned experts who ranked the diets based on health benefits, nutritional

Sheffield shop’s booze licence revoked after illegal alcohol seized A Sheffield off-licence owner has been caught selling illegal booze in his shop – just six weeks after he was convicted for similar offences. Jigar Patel has had his licence revoked in relation to two off-licences he owned after Trading Standards inspectors found illegal alcohol. The illicit booze was discovered on sale just six weeks after Patel was convicted of similar offences …

New potential treatment for colorectal cancer discovered A small molecule drug combined with chemotherapy may deliver a synergistic benefit for colorectal cancer patients, new research suggests. has demonstrated the efficiency of a small molecule drug, PRIMA-1met, in inhibiting the growth of colorectal cancer cells. Colorectal cancer is the cancer of the large intestine

One hookah tobacco smoking session delivers 25 times the tar of a single cigarette As cigarette smoking rates fall, more people are smoking tobacco from hookahs: communal pipes that enable users to draw tobacco smoke through water. A new meta-analysis shows that hookah smokers are inhaling a large load of toxicants

Children's Health: Teen marijuana use down despite greater availability ♦iVruses flourish in guts of healthy babies ♦ Time spent outdoors results in decreased rate of nearsightedness

Viruses flourish in guts of healthy babies Bacteria aren't the only nonhuman invaders to colonize the gut shortly after a baby's birth. Viruses also set up house there. The study is one of the first surveys of viruses that reside in the intestine, beginning the work of defining a healthy gut virome.

Racial disparities in pain of children with appendicitis in EDs Black children were less likely to receive any pain medication for moderate pain and less likely to receive opioids for severe pain than white children in a study of racial disparities in the pain management of children with appendicitis in emergency department.

Teen marijuana use down despite greater availability Marijuana use among American high school students is significantly lower today than it was 15 years ago, despite the legalization in many states of marijuana for medical purposes, a move toward decriminalization of the drug and the approval of its recreational use in a handful of places.

Hookah tobacco smoking seems to be increasing in both prevalence, frequency Nearly one in five recently surveyed high school seniors report having smoked tobacco from a hookah in the past year, and more than a third of them reported smoking hookahs often enough to be considered regular users. The findings add to evidence that hookah use among adolescents is increasing in both prevalence and frequency.

Additional time spent outdoors by children results in decreased rate of nearsightedness The addition of a daily outdoor activity class at school for three years for children in Guangzhou, China, resulted in a reduction in the rate of myopia (nearsightedness, the ability to see close objects more clearly than distant objects,

Kids and Tobacco Use Kids and Tobacco Use

The number of kids smoking cigarettes is down—but the number using other tobacco products is way up. That’s the word from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), co-conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“This is the only nationally representative survey of middle and high school students that focuses exclusively on tobacco use,” says Benjamin J. Apelberg, Ph.D., branch chief of epidemiology at FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

Survey results provided a national snapshot of what tobacco products today’s middle and high school youth are using, as well as emerging trends over time.

The key findings include:

• In 2014, one in four high school students and one in 13 middle school students reported being tobacco users (using one or more tobacco products in the previous 30 days).
• Of the then-current 4.6 million youth tobacco users, 2.4 million reported using e-cigarettes.
• Between 2011 and 2014, the percentage of students reporting current use of cigarettes decreased from 15.8% to 9.2%.
• Between 2011 and 2014, hookah use among high school students doubled and e-cigarette use increased even more dramatically.
• In 2014, nearly 2.2 million students reported using two or more tobacco products.

Since the survey started collecting data on e-cigarettes in 2011, in 2014 their current use for the first time surpassed current use of every other tobacco product, including conventional cigarettes.

“One thing the study confirms for us is that the tobacco product landscape has changed dramatically,” Apelberg says. “Middle and high school kids are using novel products like e-cigarettes and hookahs in unprecedented numbers, and many are using more than one kind of tobacco product.”

It’s something of a good news/bad news picture, says FDA epidemiologist Catherine Corey. “While we’re glad to see cigarette smoking decreasing in middle and high school youth, the increase in the use of e-cigarettes and hookahs undermines progress in reducing tobacco use among kids,” she says.

Nicotine Can Affect the Developing Brain

Nicotine is dangerous and highly addictive for kids at any age, whether it comes from an e-cigarette, hookah, cigarette or cigar. Because the brain is still developing, adolescence appears to be a particularly vulnerable time. Research has clearly demonstrated that exposure to nicotine at a young age increases the chance that kids will become addicted. In addition to nicotine exposure, tobacco use can be harmful due to the numerous other chemicals present in tobacco products that can cause disease.

“Youth should not use tobacco in any form,” Apelberg says.

At this time, FDA has regulatory authority over cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco. The agency is in the process of finalizing a rule that would extend its authority to regulate additional products that meet the legal definition of a tobacco product, such as electronic cigarettes, cigars and hookahs. FDA is also proposing a minimum age of 18 for buying tobacco.

How You Can Help

FDA’s tobacco compliance and enforcement efforts range from training and education to monitoring compliance with the law and initiating advisory and enforcement actions. In addition, the agency inspects tobacco retailers to ensure, among other things, that retailers are checking IDs and not selling regulated tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18.

Consumers can help FDA by reporting potential violations of the agency’s rules for tobacco products, either online or by phone at 1-877-CTP-1373