Arizona Center for Advanced Medicine - Martha M. Grout, MD, MD(H)

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November 2007 Health in the News Archive

[ Monthly Index of New Briefs ]

Drinking Water with Hormone Mimickers

November 2007

Uranium, the heaviest naturally occurring element, is well known as a radioactive toxicant capable of damaging the kidneys and DNA. A new study has shown for the first time that uranium also acts as an estrogen mimic in mice at concentrations below the U.S. EPA's safety limit of 30 µg/L in drinking water.

Researchers gave female mice water laced with a proportionate concentration of uramium and consistently found resulting estrogen-like effects. There were fewer primary and more secondary ovarian follicles among adult females. In mice where the ovaries had been removed, researchers found higher uterine weights and accelerated vaginal opening (indicators of earlier puberty onset).

"Our data support the conclusion that uranium is an endocrine-disrupting chemical and populations exposed to environmental uranium should be followed for increased risk of fertility problems and reproductive cancers," The current study is of immediate relevance to the Navajo Nation of Arizona and New Mexico, where many rural Navajo water supplies currently contain uranium at concentrations exceeding the U.S. EPA standard. The uranium boom of the 1950s and 1960s left thousands of abandoned mine sites and derelict milling operations on Navajo lands. Uranium mining has been banned there, but there are active efforts to revive uranium mining in the Navajo town of Crownpoint, New Mexico. The findings may also soon apply to other populations living amid the uranium boom now under way in central Colorado, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.

Navajo miners work the Kerr-McGee uranium mine, 7 May 1953. Today, uranium from unremediated abandoned mines contaminates nearby water supplies. (AP Photo)

Dr Grout's Comment:

We know heavy metals exhibit estrogenic properties (Dyer 2007). Several heavy metals stimulate proliferation of MCF-7 human breast cancer cells. And we keep wondering why fertility is going down, why the incidence of confused gender expression is going up, why our population is getting so many estrogen-sensitive tumors…

E. Coli in Meat

November 2007

WASHINGTON - One federal inspector calls it the "E. coli loophole." Another says, "Nobody would buy it if they knew."

The officials are referring to the little-discussed fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed it acceptable for meat companies to cook and sell meat on which E. coli, a bacterium that can sicken and even kill humans, is found during processing.

The "E. coli loophole" affects millions of pounds of beef each year that tests positive for the presence of E. coli O157:H7, a particularly virulent strain of the bacterium.

The agency allows companies to put this E. coli-positive meat in a special category -- "cook only." Cooking the meat, the USDA and producers say, destroys the bacteria and makes it safe to eat as precooked hamburgers, meat loaf, crumbled taco meat and other products.

USDA regularly tests for E. coli in slaughtering plants, but only on meat that packing companies have already deemed free of E. coli, agency inspectors say. USDA officials say they do not track how much meat is put into "cook only" categories, but interviews with a half-dozen inspectors suggested it is a significant amount.

As one inspector said, "The government keeps putting out that we've reduced E. coli by 50 percent and all of that. And we haven't done nothing. We've just covered it up."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

Some USDA inspectors are saying the "cook only" practice means that higher-than-appropriate levels of E. coli are tolerated in packing plants, raising the chance that clean meat will become contaminated. They say the "cook only" practice is part of the reason for this year's sudden rise in incidents of E. coli contamination.

The USDA maintains there is no risk from beef that is fully cooked; cooking meat above 160 degrees Fahrenheit kills pathogens such as E. coli.

But many people want medium-rare beef. Cooking food denatures the proteins. Cooking eggs and meat at high temperatures (overcooking by another definition), produces a chemical compounds called PhIP or HCAs, which studies increasingly link to breast cancer.

This unfortunate situation underscores a fundamental difference in standard feedlot beef versus organic beef. To learn about that, see our Library articles:
Kid Food-What Is It?
Salmon & Red Meat

More Doctors Take Supplements Than General Public

November 2007

The landmark "Life...supplemented" Healthcare Professionals (HCP) Impact Study found that more than three quarters of U.S. physicians (79 percent) and nurses (82 percent) recommend dietary supplements to their patients. The study also shows that an almost equal number -- 72 percent of physicians and 89 percent of nurses -- personally use vitamin, mineral, herbal and other supplements either regularly, occasionally or seasonally, which is a higher percentage than the 68 percent (1) of adults who report they take nutritional or dietary supplements.

The number of physicians recommending dietary supplements to their patients is highest among obstetrician/gynecologists (OB/GYNs) (91 percent), followed by primary care physicians (84 percent).

"Given the current state of the science, it is not surprising that increasing numbers of healthcare professionals are incorporating dietary supplements into their personal health routines. However, the fact that only 25 percent of physicians actively counsel patients regarding their dietary supplement use demonstrates an on-going and concerning problem that requires more outreach and education," said Tieraona Low Dog, M.D, director of education, Program in Integrative Medicine, and clinical assistant professor, Department of Medicine, University of Arizona Health Sciences.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

This is a case of good news, bad news. The good news is that the mainstream medical community is increasingly recognizing the value of nutrition. The less good news is that you have to be careful which supplements you buy.

Mother Nature designed vitamins for example with many co-factors – enzymes, antioxidants, trace element activators, amino acids and trace minerals. Yet most multi-vitamins appeal to the eye with a list of vitamin "parts," many of which are synthesized, manufactured. We see words like "pure" and we think that is good. Ascorbic acid for example is "pure" vitamin C. But it is fractionated, devoid of co-factors. It is better than nothing, but not as good as what is found in whole foods.

The problem with replacing nutrients using whole foods is that it is almost impossible to eat that much food without gaining huge amounts of weight. So… when we replace nutrients, it is important to take supplements.

This new HCP study was paid for the leading trade association for the dietary supplement industry. Buyer beware! Not all supplements are equal. If the supplements are made according to Good Manufacturing Practices and have the GMP certification, you are at least guaranteed that what is in the supplement is actually what is written on the label.

Diabetes Prescriptions Double in 3 Years

November 2007

Driven by huge increases among tween and teen girls, pediatric prescriptions for type 2 diabetes drugs doubled from 2002 through 2005, according to findings presented at this week's annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Washington, D.C.

The study used data on prescription drug use among insured children served by St. Louis-based Express Scripts. Researchers found that "from the beginning of 2002 to the end of 2005, the percentage of U.S. kids on diabetes drugs doubled from about 0.3 per 1,000 children to about 0.6 per 1,000 children." This trend was fueled by "a 166 percent increase among girls aged 10-14, and a 135 percent increase among girls aged 15-19." No similar trend was found among young boys, and the researchers could not explain why the increase occurred.

Dr. Grout's Comment:

What planet do those researchers live on? Does the word "sugar" ring a bell here? I think so. In some circles, diabetes is called, "the sugar disease." Diabetes and obesity are cousins you could say, and we have an explosion in childhood obesity as well. Supersized portions of soda pop and junk food and less exercise don't help kids much either.

Why the greater increase in girls than boys boys? There is no clear answer. However, remember that girls generally mature earlier than boys. When they mature, girls gain more fat tissue (breasts, thighs and hips), while boys gain more muscle tissue. This fact could certainly contribute to the increased incidence of diabetes in girls.

More Americans with Chronic Kidney Disease

November 2007

The number of Americans with chronic kidney disease is on the rise, and diabetes and high blood pressure linked to obesity appear to account for most of the increase, according to a study published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lead author Dr. Josef Coresh, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues, collected data on 15,488 people in the 1988 to 1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). The researchers then compared these people with 13,233 people who participated in the 1999 to 2004 NHANES survey. In addition, they compared the levels of chronic kidney disease between the two groups. The research team found that "[t]he prevalence of protein in urine, and a reduction in the glomerular filtration rate, both increased from the first to the second survey."

Furthermore, "the prevalence of chronic kidney disease increased from 10.0 percent in the 1988 to1994 survey, to 13.1 percent in [the] 1999 to 2004 survey," possibly "due to more cases of high blood pressure and diabetes being diagnosed."

Dr. Grout's Comment:

This is a clear sign of death by diet and lifestyle. Diabetes and high blood pressure are largely diseases of diet. Metabolic syndrome – and the insulin which feeds it – contributes to diabetes and high blood pressure. Most Americans eat a lot of refined bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, cookies, and such and they break down quickly into sugar in the body.

Also, aspirin and some prescription drugs can do damage to kidneys.