Archive for the ‘Adolscent Health’ Category

On November 13, 2009 the FDA issued notification to 30 manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages that it intends to look into the safety and legality of their products. “The increasing popularity of consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages by college students and reports of potential health and safety issues necessitates that we look seriously at the scientific evidence as soon as possible,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs. The problem is that caffeine has not been approved by the FDA to be added to alcoholic beverages. However, some substances which are Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS), or have been subject to prior sanction, are legality able to be used as food additives. For a substance to be GRAS, there must be evidence of its safety at the levels used and a basis to conclude that this evidence is generally known and accepted by qualified experts. Thus, the FDA is giving these companies 30 days to produce data to support that the use of caffeine in their products is GRAS or have been previously sanctioned. Click here for a full list of companies and products affected. [via FDA]

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Today’s Daily Dose comes from the current issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers found, after following over 238 thousand women over the course of 40 years, that women who had a BMI of 30 or greater at the age of 18 had more than twice the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), compared to women with a BMI between 18.5 and 20.9. “Our results suggest that weight during adolescence, rather than childhood or adulthood, is critical in determining the risk of MS,” said study author Kassandra Munger, ScD, of the Harvard School of Public Health. The study authors theorize the link between obesity and MS may be that obese women tend to have lower vitamin D levels (higher vitamin D levels are thought to reduce the risk of MS). In addition, fatty tissue can produce substances thought to affect immune and cellular function which may be associated with MS. [via Medical News Today]

Calculated your BMI.

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Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of US-based non-profit health and environmental groups just released a report regarding contamination of Halloween face paints by heavy metals. Although the CDC recommends against using cosmetics which contain lead on children, there’s no way of telling whether the paints contain toxic metals since they are not required to be listed on product labels (there is no legal requirement to list them because they’re considered contaminants, not  ingredients). The group looked at 10 children’s face paint brands and found:

• 10 out of 10 children’s face paints contained lead at levels between 0.05 and 0.65 parts per million (ppm).
• 6 out of 10 children’s face paints contained nickel, cobalt and/or chromium at levels between 1.6 to 120 ppm (this is much higher than the industry safety standard of 1 ppm said the report). These metals can be allergens in children.
• Snazaroo Face Paint contained some of the highest levels of lead, nickel and cobalt found in the study. This product carries the words “non-toxic” and “hypoallergenic” on its label.

Continue reading at Medical News Today.

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Research from Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity shows that cereals which are most aggressively marketed to children are also the least healthy, as measured by an Oxford University nutrition scoring system. The researchers also found that none of the cereals targeted to children in the US meets the nutrition standards required to advertise to children in the UK. Among other findings, cereals marketed directly to children have 85% more sugar, 65% less fiber and 60% more sodium than cereals marketed to adults. Even more shocking, (but perhaps should not be a surprise) is that all cereals marketed directly to U.S. children meet the cereal industry’s own nutrition standard for “better-for-you” foods. These include: Cocoa Puffs (44% sugar), Cap’n Crunch (44% sugar), Froot Loops (41% sugar), Lucky Charms (41% sugar) and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (32% sugar). Cereal companies spend nearly $156 million dollars annually on marketing their cereals to children on television. [via Medical News Today]

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The FDA recently announced the approval of a second HPV vaccine for the U.S. market. Cervarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, is the sole competitor to rival vaccine Gardasil, produced by Merck & Co. The vaccines differ in the strains of HPV they guard against, but both will fight the two most common strains that cause 70% of cervical cancers. At the same time, however, the FDA also granted approval for Merck’s Gardasil to be used in preventing genital warts (not genital cancer) in boys and men ages 9 through 26. But, do our children need yet another vaccine? You be the judge. Both vaccines are expected to net their respective companies over $1 billion per year in the coming years. [via ABC News]

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Some researchers believe the popularity of indoor tanning among adolescent girls in recent years may be behind a recent increase in melanoma rates among U.S. women aged 15-39. Melanoma is a dangerous type of skin cancer. This has prompted the FDA to recommend to indoor tanning operators that teenagers be limited to three or fewer sessions in the first week of tanning. However, a new study published in the Archives of Dermatology shows that only about 11% of operators followed these guidelines, and 71% of tanning bed operators said they would allow a teen to tan seven days a week. “Exposure to UV radiation from indoor tanning lamps has been linked with both melanoma and squamous cell cancer, and first exposure before age 35 years may increase melanoma risk by as much as 75 percent,” said the study authors. [CBS News]

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Simone Davis, a 17 year-old British girl has been denied US permanent residency because she refused to take the Gardasil vaccine, which protects against a few strains of HPV and reduces the risk of cervical cancer. Since 2008, the US government has required that female immigrants between the ages of 11 to 26 applying for permanent residency or refugee status receive Gardasil, which was approved by the FDA in 2006. According to the 1996 Immigration and Naturalization Act girls and women within a specified age group must receive vaccinations against certain specified diseases “and any other vaccinations recommended by the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. Said Davis, “I am only 17 years old and planning to go to college and not have sex anytime soon. There is no chance of getting cervical cancer, so there’s no point in getting the shot.” A devout Christian, Simone has taken a virginity pledge and plans to attend Pensacola Christian College, where she was conditionally accepted, pending her legal status. The vaccine is not mandated for girls or women who are already legal US residents. [via ABC News]

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Since the introduction of their Gardasil vaccine (marketed for the prevention of cervical cancer in women), pharmaceutical giant Merck has been wanting to expand the vaccine’s use to include males. Currently, the vaccine is approved for use in girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. If Merck has its way Gardasil will be used in boys and men ages 9 to 26 as well. In documents posted online, the FDA said the vaccine prevented genital warts in males 90 percent of the time. Based on this the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is supporting the use of Gardasil in males. However, it is unlikely that the use of the vaccine will prevent a significant amount of penile and anal cancers, compared with cervical cancer. Cancer of the penis and anus are extremely rare, with less than 2,000 cases reported annually. Gardasil was approved for women in 2006 and had sales over $1 billion last year. [via CBS News]

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The FDA has released an analysis of electronic cigarettes which shows that they contain a variety of dangerous toxins, some of which are found in real cigarettes. E-Cigarettes are battery-operated devices, some of which are made to look like real cigarettes, complete with glowing red LED lights and simulated puffs of smoke. When turned on, they heat up a solution of nicotine in propylene glycol to deliver a fine mist of nicotine to the smoker. The problem is that many contain nitrosamines (the same carcinogen found in real cigarettes), as well as diethylene glycol, the poisonous ingredient in antifreeze. E-cigarettes are available at thousands of retail stores. Over this past year their sales have grown from about $10 million to $100 million, according to the Electronic Cigarette Association, the industry’s trade group. They come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate, mint and apple, which could make them appealing to children and adolescents. [via the Houston Chronicle]

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If you know anything about American college life you know that sleep is often a rarity. Between the activities, festivities, oh, and the education sleep is sometimes not a top priority. Thus, the findings of a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health should not be of any surprise – that only 30% of college age students get at least eight hours of sleep per night (the average required for young adults). Furthermore, on weeknights, 20% of students stay up all night at least once a month and 35% stay up until 3 a.m. at least once a week. Sleep deprivation can induce extra stress on the body, lead to weight gain, not to mention impair the cardiovascular and immune systems. Even more jarring, more than 60% of students have sleep-wake cycle disturbances and many take drugs and alcohol regularly to help them do one or the other. [via Medical News Today]

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