Health News: FDA takes on sugar in food labels ♦ 3D digital scanning shortens denture-fitting time from days to minutes ♦ Some Vietnam vets currently have PTSD 40 years

FDA takes on sugar in food labels Food labels should contain more detail about how much sugar is in a product, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. It's proposed a rule to require that food labels not only say how much sugar is in a product, but what percentage the sugar adds to the daily recommended intake.

Some Vietnam vets currently have PTSD 40 years after war ended While it has been 40 years since the Vietnam War ended, about 271,000 veterans who served in the war zone are estimated to have current full posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) plus subthreshold war-zone PTSD and more than one-third have current major depressive disorder.

Device keeps donor livers healthy outside the body until transplant A deceased donor liver has been preserved and kept healthy outside the body in a device that mimics the body’s physiological functions and successfully transplanted into a human, for the first time in Ontario

3D digital scanning shortens denture-fitting time from days to minutes Dentures, known as false teeth, are prosthetics constructed to replace missing teeth. Fitting removable dentures is a long and painful process in which a patient has to visit the clinic multiple times so that soft and hard plastic material, resembling silly putty, can be used to take exact measurements of her mouth. Failure to take exact measurements causes discomfort and pain. Now researchers report that this time can be cut way back with the use of 3D digital scanning techniques

Low birth weight combined with unhealthy adult lifestyle may increase type 2 diabetes risk People who are a low weight at birth and have unhealthy habits as adults, such as eating nutritionally poor diets or smoking, may have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than people born at an average weight who live similar lifestyles.

Immune System Research: Vitamin A directs immune cells to intestines ♦ Role of microbiota in preventing allergies ♦ Scientists find molecular switch that creates long-term immunity

Organ transplant rejection may not be permanent Rejection of transplanted organs in hosts that were previously tolerant may not be permanent, report scientists. Using a mouse model of cardiac transplantation, they found that immune tolerance can spontaneously recover after an infection-triggered rejection event, and that hosts can accept subsequent transplants as soon as a week after. This process depends on regulatory T-cells, a component of the immune system that acts as a 'brake' for other immune cells.

Vitamin A directs immune cells to intestines A key set of immune cells that protect the body from infection would be lost without directions provided by vitamin A, according to a recent study. A team of researchers found retinoic acid is necessary for two of the three types of innate immune cells that reside in the intestine to find their proper place.

Role of microbiota in preventing allergies The microbiota is involved in many mechanisms, including digestion, vitamin synthesis and host defense. It is well established that a loss of bacterial symbionts promotes the development of allergies. Scientists have succeeded in explaining this phenomenon, and demonstrate how the microbiota acts on the balance of the immune system: the presence of microbes specifically blocks the immune cells responsible for triggering allergies.

Scientists find molecular switch that creates long-term immunity Researchers have identified a protein responsible for preserving the antibody-producing cells that lead to long-term immunity after infection or vaccination.

Health News: Smartphones Quickly and accurately diagnoses disease ♦ Unsafe food ’growing global threat ♦ Predicting chronic pain in whiplash injuries

 Smartphones Quickly and accurately diagnoses disease and monitors treatment remotely Researchers from Florida Atlantic University and collaborators have identified a new biosensing platform that could be used to remotely detect and determine treatment options for HIV, E-coli, Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria  

Unsafe food ’growing global threat Eating food contaminated with bugs leads to more than half a billion cases of illness a year, the World Health Organization warns. It says this "global threat" contributed to 351,000 deaths in 2010. Unsafe foods, for example undercooked meat, can cause 200 problems - from diarrhoea to cancer

Innovative strategies needed to address US transplant organ shortage As the United States faces transplant waiting lists that continue to grow longer over time, there is increasing debate about the proper way to incentivize living donations. Due to organ shortages, thousands of Americans are on transplant waiting lists for 5 or more years as their health deteriorate

Generous welfare benefits make people more likely to want to work, not less Generous welfare benefit levels make people who are not in employment more likely to want to work rather than less. "Many scholars and commentators fear that generous social benefits threaten the sustainability of the welfare state due to work norm erosion, disincentives to work and dependency cultures,". "This article concludes that there are few signs that groups with traditionally weaker bonds to the labor market are less motivated to work if they live in generous welfare states."

Predicting chronic pain in whiplash injuries While most people recover from whiplash injuries within a few months, about 25 percent have long-term pain and disability for many months or years. Using special MRI imaging, scientists identified, within the first one and two weeks of the injury, which patients will develop chronic pain and disability. This is the earliest these patients have been identified and will enable faster treatment. The imaging revealed large amounts of fat infiltrating the patients' neck muscles, indicating rapid atrophy.