HHS pandemic plan unlikely to receive adequate funding

Prompted by 2006 legislation, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its first National Health Security Strategy last month, hard on the heels of the H1N1 pandemic.

The plan is focused on protecting people’s health during a large-scale emergency, according to a statement from HHS, and includes 10 objectives and an implementation guide to assist public and private healthcare organizations prepare for and manage health threats.

The policy is unlikely to receive adequate funding in the near future, according to Joseph White, professor of public policy, epidemiology and biostatistics, and director of the Center for Policy Studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

“The details in the interim strategy seem reasonably well-considered, [but] the overall rhetoric is boilerplate,” says White. “There won’t be much result because the budget situation is awful, and there is unlikely to be real money.”

BIRD FLU PROMPTS NEW PLAN

The security strategy was mandated in the Pandemic and All Hazards Preparedness Act, passed shortly after the avian flu scare in 2005 and the SARS epidemic in 2003. The legislation directed the HHS secretary to develop the plan with an accompanying implementation process by 2009 and to revise the documents every four years. HHS stated, however, that it will update the implementation plan every two years to reflect advances in public health and medicine.

“As we’ve learned in the response to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, responsibility for improving our nation’s ability to address existing and emerging health threats must be broadly shared by everyone—governments, communities, families, and individuals,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “The National Health Security Strategy is a call to action for each of us so that every community becomes fully prepared and ready to recover quickly after an emergency.”

White believes this policy is, in part, the Obama administration’s attempt to better define duties between the HHS and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which joined the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11. Before the terrorist attacks, FEMA took an “all hazards” approach to disaster management, which included health epidemics, White says.

“A lot of serious public administration people whom I know said at the time that putting FEMA in DHS was a terrible idea,” he says. “So ‘all hazards’ was eliminated, and FEMA basically stopped paying attention to little things like hurricanes and epidemics.”

The goals of HHS’s strategy, such as building community resilience and strengthening and sustaining emergency response systems make sense, he says, but are unlikely to be high priorities.

“I’d be shocked if there is real money behind it,” he says.

Silent PPOs under scrutiny

There recently has been a national legislative trend to restrict or limit the use of “silent PPOs,” “non-directed PPOs,” “ghost PPOs,” or “blind PPOs,” all of which refer to the same thing. This has been a major legislative priority for the American Medical Assn, as well as state and local medical societies.

On November 23, 2008, the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) adopted model legislation aimed at regulating silent PPOs. Some states, such as Ohio and Florida, have already passed legislation restricting the use of silent PPOs and others may consider passing legislation similar to the model legislation in the next legislative session.

STATES NOT SILENT

For example, Texas recently considered, but did not ultimately pass, a silent PPO bill that would have strengthened the existing law. Texas has had a silent PPO law on the books since 1999, which provides that PPOs may not sell, lease or otherwise transfer data regarding the payment or reimbursement terms of the contract without the express authority of and prior adequate notification of the other contracting parties.

Texas may ultimately revisit the manner in which to regulate silent PPOs when the next legislative session convenes in 2011.

Because of increased regulatory attention in this area, contracting parties, including PPOs and providers, should consider monitoring any developments with respect to the regulation of silent PPOs.

Silent PPOs are many times described as arrangements whereby organizations access discounted rates for healthcare services from healthcare providers without contractual authorization from the providers.

LISTEN TO THE LEGISLATION

The model legislation adopted by NCOIL sets forth specific requirements for contracting parties, providing that a contracting entity may not grant access to a provider’s discount unless the provider network contract specifically states that the contracting entity may enter into an agreement with a third party. The legislation also provides that the third party accessing the provider network contract is contractually obligated to comply with the terms of the provider network contract.

Further, in an attempt to provide transparency, the model legislation contains certain disclosure requirements. For example, a contracting entity that grants access to a provider’s services and discounts must identify and provide to the provider, upon request, a list of all third parties to which the contracting entity has executed contracts or will grant access to the provider’s services and discounts, thereby allowing providers to determine if the networks and the discounts have been properly accessed.

Among other requirements, the model legislation also sets forth obligations for third parties that have been granted access to a provider’s healthcare services and discounts, and provides that unauthorized access to provider network contracts is an unfair insurance practice. Because the regulation of silent PPOs has received national attention as well as increased scrutiny in many states, contracting parties should continue to monitor any new developments.

This column is written for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice.

Abbott Cuts Use of Oil and Coal by 35 Percent

Abbott Cuts Use of Oil and Coal by 35 Percent

Blind may regain a useful level of vision

Inspired by the success of cochlear implants that can restore hearing to some deaf people, researchers at MIT are working on a retinal implant that could one day help blind people regain a useful level of vision.

The eye implant is designed for people who have lost their vision from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, two of the leading causes of blindness. The retinal prosthesis would take over the function of lost retinal cells by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.

Such a chip would not restore normal vision but it could help blind people more easily navigate a room or walk down a sidewalk.

“Anything that could help them see a little better and let them identify objects and move around a room would be an enormous help,” says Shawn Kelly, a researcher in MIT’s Research Laboratory for Electronics and member of the Boston Retinal Implant Project.

The research team, which includes scientists, engineers and ophthalmologists from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Boston VA Medical Center and Cornell as well as MIT, has been working on the retinal implant for 20 years. The research is funded by the VA Center for Innovative Visual Rehabilitation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Catalyst Foundation and the MOSIS microchip fabrication service.

Led by John Wyatt, MIT professor of electrical engineering, the team recently reported a new prototype that they hope to start testing in blind patients within the next three years.

Electrical stimulation

Patients who received the implant would wear a pair of glasses with a camera that sends images to a microchip attached to the eyeball. The glasses also contain a coil that wirelessly transmits power to receiving coils surrounding the eyeball.

When the microchip receives visual information, it activates electrodes that stimulate nerve cells in the areas of the retina corresponding to the features of the visual scene. The electrodes directly activate optical nerves that carry signals to the brain, bypassing the damaged layers of retina.

One question that remains is what kind of vision this direct electrical stimulation actually produces. About 10 years ago, the research team started to answer that by attaching electrodes to the retinas of six blind patients for several hours.

When the electrodes were activated, patients reported seeing a small number of “clouds” or “drops of blood” in their field of vision, and the number of clouds or blood drops they reported corresponded to the number of electrodes that were stimulated. When there was no stimulus, patients accurately reported seeing nothing. Those tests confirmed that retinal stimulation can produce some kind of organized vision in blind patients, though further testing is needed to determine how useful that vision can be.

After those initial tests, with grants from the Boston Veteran’s Administration Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health, the researchers started to build an implantable chip, which would allow them to do more long-term tests. Their goal is to produce a chip that can be implanted for at least 10 years.

One of the biggest challenges the researchers face is designing a surgical procedure and implant that won’t damage the eye. In their initial prototypes, the electrodes were attached directly atop the retina from inside the eye, which carries more risk of damaging the delicate retina. In the latest version, described in the October issue of IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, the implant is attached to the outside of the eye, and the electrodes are implanted behind the retina.

That subretinal location, which reduces the risk of tearing the retina and requires a less invasive surgical procedure, is one of the key differences between the MIT implant and retinal prostheses being developed by other research groups.

Another feature of the new MIT prototype is that the chip is now contained in a hermetically sealed titanium case. Previous versions were encased in silicone, which would eventually allow water to seep in and damage the circuitry.

While they have not yet begun any long-term tests on humans, the researchers have tested the device in Yucatan miniature pigs, which have roughly the same size eyeballs as humans. Those tests are only meant to determine whether the implants remain functional and safe and are not designed to observe whether the pigs respond to stimuli to their optic nerves.

So far, the prototypes have been successfully implanted in pigs for up to 10 months, but further safety refinements need to be made before clinical trials in humans can begin.

Wyatt and Kelly say they hope that once human trials begin and blind patients can offer feedback on what they’re seeing, they will learn much more about how to configure the algorithm implemented by the chip to produce useful vision.

Patients have told them that what they would like most is the ability to recognize faces. “If they can recognize faces of people in a room, that brings them into the social environment as opposed to sitting there waiting for someone to talk to them,” says Kelly.

More information: “Development and Implantation of a Minimally Invasive Wireless Subretinal Neurostimulator,” Douglas Shire, Joseph Rizzo, et al. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, October 2009.

Giving Back

On the surface, Kenny Spitler and Marcy Sasso would seem to be from two different mindsets, let alone two different parts of the country. But each has a passion for giving back to their communities — in two distinct ways — that can be infectious. And both stress the importance for ASCs to get involved in their local communities.

“We’re in the healthcare industry and in particular, in economic times that are tough as what we’ve been going through, the healthcare industry has still been strong,” says Spitler, senior vice president of development for HealthMark Partners in Nashville, Tenn. “So giving back to the community is essential, in my mind.”

Sasso, director of operations at the ASC of Union County, in Union Township, N.J., explains that giving back is paramount for ASCs, and not just to serve the community, either. “We as surgery centers, are often thought of as ‘cherry pickers,’ that we take the best cases from the hospitals. But we can provide exemplary service to everyone involved, physicians as well as patients.”

ASCs 2009

Spitler was given the task of organizing a volunteer project as part of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s 2009 annual meeting held in Nashville last April. Previous projects had volunteers planting sunflower seeds in New Orleans to remove lead that had seeped into the soil around the city after Hurricane Katrina, and cleaning up the grounds at the Fisher House in the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. But he wanted to do something that would give some tangible results to the volunteers participating.

“My biggest goal was I wanted to do something that’s going to endure,” notes Spitler. “I wanted something that would have a little more lasting effect for the Association.”

So he took 20 to 25 volunteers apiece in two shifts and went over to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee in nearby Antioch, to help decorate and landscape an outdoor play area for the 105 children who utilize their afterschool program. The groups built and stained benches and picnic tables, installed bird feeders and a bird bath, planted shrubs and flowers, and prepared a vegetable garden for the children to grow their own vegetables.”

“What they did was a fantastic beautification process,” states John Hamilton, Club director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, “one (that) the kids really love and the community sees it, too.”

And the impact on the children was almost immediate, says Hamilton. “I have heard the children say a few times since then, ‘This is our Club now. This is our home now because it looks like a Boys & Girls Club.’”

“Doing the work was great, but seeing the kids’ faces after it was all done, was really what it was all about,” Spitler declares. “Just complete joy.”

Hamilton also notes the enthusiasm of the volunteers was a key in making the project a success. “They really took the project, and were gung ho (about it.) They began work from the time they got off the bus, until the time they had to leave.”

“We probably wouldn’t have gotten this project done if it wasn’t for them, based on the economy and funding,” says Bob Jacobs, vice president of resource development for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee. He also points out that so much of this type of service relies on volunteers, which translates into these same children becoming more involved in these types of projects in the future.

Health Fair

When Sasso learned that Union Township, N.J., no longer had its annual community health fair due to the local hospital closing 18 months ago, she saw an opportunity for her ASC to get involved.

“Within three days, I had a unanimous vote from the owners to green light hosting the health fair,” says Sasso. The success of the health fair was due to the participation of physicians, staff members, family members and the Gateway Chamber of Commerce. “It turned a marketing event into an opportunity for saving lives and providing education for the community. The health fair was organized within a two month time frame, although she feels that six months preparation is optimal.

Sasso’s infectious attitude was able to rub off on to the community, where many of the medical and healthcare-related organizations contributed to the event. Twenty booths displayed health screenings, visual demonstrations for surgeries, fingerprinting and bike safety information for children, and most importantly, the chance for her ASC physicians to interact with the community.

“I had a woman tell me afterward that she was so grateful to talk with one of our surgeons for 15 minutes,” Sasso articulates. “Most people don’t get that amount of time, even in a consultation.”

In the end, hundreds of attendees paid a visit to the health fair over an afternoon that gave Sasso plenty of ideas on how to make next year’s event an even greater success.

“If anything, I think if I had six months to prepare, it will make a tremendous difference. I can attract more groups that weren’t able to participate this year,” she reveals. “We just have to communicate to various agencies to attract a broader audience, which of course we will. “This will definitely become an annual event for the ASC Give Back! I know it changed people’s lives. The staff feels very proud of the interaction and positive response from the community.”

Getting Involved

Spitler feels there needs to be a continued effort nationally from the ASC industry to participate in volunteering events like his. “If asked, most of the people in the industry are willing to give back. If there were an ongoing effort to perpetually do something from a charitable standpoint from the industry as a whole, I think it would be well received.”

He points to an event at this year’s annual meeting as an example. A couple of volunteers from the project were given the chance to speak to the general audience, asking for donations for the Boys & Girls Clubs. “There was $2,800 collected that day for the Boys & Girls Clubs,” says Spitler. “Another group bought toys and other items for the club.”

For local ASCs, Sasso suggests to start small. “You always have a little bit to give. Even if you don’t think you have the time, once you start this, hopefully you’ll have the same feelings that my staff and I have.” To go along with the health fair, the ASC of Union County has participated in such things as holiday toy drives, walks for autism and breast cancer patients, a bike ride for multiple sclerosis.

“Giving is such a contagious thing,” Sasso says.

Weight-Loss Drug Shows Promise and Other Health News

Experimental Weight-Loss Drug Successful in Clinical Trials

Contrave, an experimental weight-loss drug developed by Orexigen Therapeutics Inc., has been shown to significantly aid weight loss in three late-stage clinical trials, the Associated Press reports. Findings from two trials showed that patients lost on average 17.6 pounds and 17.5 pounds, respectively. A third trial involved people with type 2 diabetes and showed that patients lost on average 13.5 pounds, according to the AP. The three trials each lasted 56 weeks and about 3,800 patients in total participated. Orexigen announced that it plans to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration for Contrave in 2010. Common side effects of the drug included nausea and constipation. A few patients experienced more serious complications, including gallbladder infection and seizure.

Read about weight-loss ingredients the FDA says may endanger your health, along with 28 weight-loss products that contain them.

10 Salt Shockers That Could Make Hypertension Worse

Does too much salt cause high blood pressure, or doesn’t it? Two new studies out yesterday in the journal Hypertension tip the scales in favor of reducing sodium, particularly for those Americans—1 in 4—who have high blood pressure, U.S. News’s Deborah Kotz reports. One study found that reducing salt intake from 9,700 milligrams a day to 6,500 milligrams decreased blood pressure significantly in blacks, Asians, and whites who had untreated mild hypertension. Another study found that switching to a reduced-salt diet helped lower blood pressure in folks with treatment-resistant hypertension. Cutting sodium intake, though, involves a lot more than setting aside the salt shaker. Kotz lists 10 foods high in sodium that could make hypertension worse. The culprits include cottage cheese, which may pack more than 900 mg of sodium into a 1-cup serving, and dill pickles—one of which typically contains 830 mg of sodium, Kotz writes.

Find out whether drinking alcoholic beverages can spoil your plan to lose weight. In June, U.S. News dished about the high-calorie offerings of popular restaurant chains. And consider why you should avoid dining out: Researchers have found that restaurants are full of environmental cues—from plate size to bread condiments—that encourage us to eat more.

Is a Cash-Only or Direct-Pay Medical Practice Right for You?

With the unemployment rate above 9 percent and some 46 million Americans lacking insurance, the market for affordable healthcare is ripe. There’s a growing movement toward cash-only medical practices, which do away with third-party billing and waiting for reimbursement and put responsibility for payment squarely on the patient. Cash-only, or direct-pay, medical practices cater to the uninsured or those with high-deductible health plans that kick in only for major expenditures. Across the country, there are now 500 to 1,000 family medicine practices operating on a cash-only model, according to one experts estimate. The cash-only model is based on the idea that rather than charging higher, so-called retail rates for uninsured patients while negotiating discounted rates with insurance companies for covered patients, it’s fairer—and possible—to offer flat and reasonable rates to all, U.S. News’s January Payne reports.

Here are some tips on getting affordable health insurance for young adults, along with a quick guide to health insurance lingo. Consider 7 ways laid-off baby boomers can find health insurance.

Kidney Transplant Drug Warnings and Other Health News

FDA Requires Transplant Drug Labels to Indicate Infection Risk

The Food and Drug Administration will require a new warning on the labels of drugs used by kidney transplant patients, Reuter’s reports. The immunosuppressant medications Rapamune, Sandimmune, Neoral, Cellcept, and Myfortic increase patients’ risk of opportunistic infections, the FDA said in a statement on its website. For example, the BK virus can cause the kidney to be damaged or rejected. BK viral infections have also been linked to Prograf, another drug used by transplant patients. Its prescribing information, however, already indicates such risks, according to the FDA.

Consider 4 ways to avoid dangerous drug errors and 5 hazardous drug combinations you need to avoid.

Cancer and Supplements: What Vitamins, Herbs, and Botanicals Can (and Can’t) Do

Recent clinical trials suggest that supplements of single nutrients like vitamins B, C, and E and the mineral selenium do not, as once thought, prevent chronic or age-related diseases including prostate and other kinds of cancer. Some substances, like green tea and ginger, seem to have potential in preventing or helping to treat cancer, but they may also actually interfere with treatment or have other serious side effects, U.S. News’s Katherine Hobson reports. Hobson uncovers 5 reasons why researchers haven’t determined which vitamins, herbs, or botanicals help prevent or relieve symptoms of cancer—and offers guidance on what to do in the face of incomplete information.

One reason their effects are difficult to study is that the pills and capsules on health-food store shelves vary enormously in quality and dose. Moreover, the botanical—and then how it acts in the body—can vary depending on where it’s grown, how much sunlight it receives, the soil, and other factors, says one expert. That can make botanicals tough to standardize, which is essential in order to study and take advantage of their effects, Hobson reports. So what’s a person concerned about cancer prevention—or who is fighting the disease—to do? Two good databases of information on specific supplements are produced by the American Cancer Society and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Both outline the evidence for the role of herbals, botanicals, and vitamin or mineral supplements in preventing and treating cancer, plus any possible risks and drug interactions. Continue reading.

Learn what experts say on whether you can get vitamins and minerals through diet alone. Here’s the latest evidence for the use of vitamins and supplements.

Hormones Linked to Ovarian Cancer: What to Do

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a link between hormone use and ovarian cancer. In the study, which culled the health records of nearly 1 million Danish women, researchers found a 38 percent greater risk of ovarian cancer among women who were currently taking hormone therapy. The risks didn’t appear to be affected by the types of hormones women were taking, the dose, the duration, or whether they were taking estrogen alone or a combination of estrogen and progesterone. The actual increased risk of ovarian cancer was very low, however, U.S. News’s Deborah Kotz reports. Previous research has also found a link between hormones and ovarian cancer. How much should this latest news factor into a woman’s decision about taking hormones? The risk should inform decisions about hormone therapy, writes one expert. Another says that the heightened caution may be unnecessary. Read more.

Consider 3 reasons not to panic if you’re taking hormone replacement therapy. And read how three women are dealing with their hormone therapy dilemmas.

Feds Fight Medicare Fraud and Other Health News

Feds Fight Medicare Fraud

The government has indicted 53 people, including doctors, other healthcare workers, and patients, who allegedly tried to defraud the Medicare program, the Associated Press reports. Authorities say arrests in Miami and Detroit came after people claimed $50 million in treatments that were not necessary or not provided, according to the Washington Post. The indictments, announced yesterday at a news conference in Washington, are a signal that the administration considers the issue a top priority in its effort to reform the healthcare system, the Postreports.

Read how Medicare spending on patients varies widely by state and region. Experts say differences in spending exist largely because doctors’ treatment decisions are influenced by such local conditions as the availability of hospital beds, imaging centers, and the like. See why many seniors aren’t choosing the lowest-cost Medicare drug plans.

How Positive Psychology Can Increase Your Happiness

Roughly half of human happiness is genetically determined. Another 10 percent comes from your life circumstances, like how happy you are with where you live. But because people quickly adapt to changes, swapping Midwest winters for West Coast warmth, say, won’t lead to a lasting boost in life satisfaction, says one expert. What can give us a lasting boost is how we think and behave. U.S. News’s Lindsay Lyon reports how using positive psychology might increase your happiness—since, as it turns out, about 40 percent of our happiness may be under our conscious control. Positive psychologyexplores the factors that make life worth living, such as happiness, through the study of positive emotions, positive character strengths, and positive institutions.

Positive emotions are arguably the hallmark of happiness and can lead to upward spirals in mood and behavior, Lyon writes. One researcher has found that when we’re under the influence of positive emotions, our awareness expands. Evidence suggests that there’s a correlation between experiencing positive emotions in life and living longer. People who increase their “daily diet” of positive emotionsdevelop closer connections with others, strengthen their resilience and optimism, and become less depressed and more satisfied with life, compared with people who do nothing to experience them more frequently, Lyon reports.

Learn how positive psychology might help teach kids resilience and prevent them from later struggling with anxiety, depression, or other psychological problems.

‘Diets’ That Promote Health and Longevity

To live longer you may need to start eating more vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, and olive oil and avoiding too much meat, suggests a new study in which researchers analyzed which components of the Mediterranean diet showed health benefits. Eating lots of seafood and staying away from dairy products, however, did not seem to affect longevity.

U.S. News’s Katherine Hobson has reported how diet experts have increasingly embraced whole patterns of eating like the Mediterranean diet, Asian diet, and Latin American diet, which have been shown to promote health. Rather than trying to isolate individual vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that may have health benefits, researchers are increasingly looking at those conventional patterns of eating as models for healthful eating, Hobson reported. Research has associated the Mediterranean way of eating with a host of health benefits, including protection against diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

Craving the latest in diet news and trends? Check out U.S. News’s page on diet and fitness.

Dramatic Prostate Cancer Findings and Other Health News

Experimental Drug Shows Dramatic Prostate Cancer Benefit in 2 Patients

Medarex’s experimental drug, ipilimumab, in combination with surgery and other therapies, has been shown to eliminate prostate cancer in two patients who had an inoperable form of the disease, Reuters reports. The dramatic effects, announced by the Mayo Clinic, appeared online in its research magazine and are part of a larger ongoing study of 108 patients, according to Reuters. Ipilimumab is an antibody that may magnify the cancer-killing action of hormone therapy, which helps shrink prostate cancer. The combination of treatments helped shrink the patients’ tumors enough that they could have surgery. “This is one of the Holy Grails of prostate cancer research,” clinical trial leader Eugene Kwon, a Mayo Clinic urologist, said in a news release about the findings.

Learn how to prevent prostate cancer by losing weight or with medication—or perhaps by drinking green tea. Last week, a study showed green tea may help slow the progression of prostate cancer. Dealing with a diagnosis of prostate cancer poses dilemmas for many men.

Why Doctors Take Issue With Obama’s Health Reform Plan

When President Obama spoke about healthcare reform to the American Medical Association last week, doctors’ overtreatment of patients was one of his big themes. The president pointed to wide differences in the cost of treating comparable Medicare patients around the country as evidence that doctors are “using more treatments—treatments that, in some cases, they don’t really need; treatments that in some cases can actually do people harm.” But his diagnosis that this happens when medicine is pursued as a business, not a calling, is too simplistic, U.S. News’s Dr. Bernadine Healy reports.

While reducing costs in all regions of the country is the goal, forcing standardized cost expectations on different places without knowing the real reason behind cost variation may lead to undertreatment in areas with high populations of sick patients, Dr. Healy writes. Another contributing factor to the overtreatment problem is doctors’ fear of being sued if they don’t order additional tests or procedures. Unnecessary treatments increase the cost of medical care and insurance premiums for everyone, Dr. Healy writes.

Earlier this month, Dr. Healy wrote about 7 ways healthcare reform will affect you. In May, she voiced concern about how the proposed healthcare reform policies would be implemented. She discussedprivacy issues surrounding electronic medical records, comparative-effectiveness studies, and the public insurance option that would compete with private insurance plans.

Do Vitamins and Supplements Work to Fight Off Chronic Disease?

According to media reports yesterday, the National Institutes of Health will fund a study to determine whether vitamin D and fish oil can work as weapons in fending off cancer, heart disease, and stroke. The study, to be led by Harvard researchers, will also examine whether those dietary supplements can help with memory loss and depression, among other chronic and age-related illnesses.

Last December, U.S. News’s Katherine Hobson reported the latest research findings about vitamins and supplements. Studies suggest vitamin D, which promotes calcium uptake, may help fend off cancer and ward off infections. In May, researchers reported that low vitamin D levels may contribute to cancer development. Still, there isn’t enough evidence to prove that is true. Findings showing the value of theomega-3 fatty acids in fish oil, especially for heart-related conditions, continue to pile up. Last year, a study in the Lancet found a slightly lower rate of deaths and hospitalizations in heart-failure patients who took a daily 1,000-milligram fish oil supplement. Here’s how to get your omega-3s from many sources, one of which is fish oil supplements.

Nanoparticles’ Lung Risks and Other Health News

Are Nanoparticle Treatments Bad for Your Lungs?

Nanoparticles, tiny particles sometimes used in medicine and in consumer products, may have a toxic effect on the lungs, BBC reports. Researchers in China found that a class of nanoparticles called polyamidoamine dendrimers causes human lung cells to die. In an experiment in mice, however, the researchers were able to prevent cell death from nanoparticles. The findings are published in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology. Scientists are uncertain whether other types of nanoparticles cause lung damage. Past research found that most nanoparticles migrate to the lungs, according to BBC.

Learn how scientists are developing nanoparticles to treat cancer andother diseases. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a drug-delivery system using gold nanoparticles that, when exposed to infrared light, can release multiple drugs attached to their surfaces. The MIT researchers’ new technique could one day provide better therapeutic options for diseases like cancer and AIDS that are commonly treated with more than one drug.

We’re Living in a Pandemic: Now What Do We Do?

Since May, the H1N1 swine flu has been spreading readily in communities across North America. Yesterday, the World Health Organization officially declared it a pandemic. Flu experts are worried that the H1N1 virus could mutate and become more dangerous in its travels around the globe this summer, coming back to hit us hard in late summer or early fall, U.S. News’s Nancy Shute reports. Shute asks experts what parents should do during the pandemic.

Keep an eye on what happens in Australia and South America in the next few months, experts advise. Events there will give an early indication of what the risks might be like this fall, when the flu season usually starts in the United States. Also, check pandemic updates online at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Shute writes.

U.S. News’s Dr. Bernadine Healy has proposed 3 major actions the government needs to take now that could shape what happens if and when the new strain of flu returns in the fall. And explore whetheralternative remedies can help ward off swine flu. Here are 14 things you should know about swine flu and 5 ways to prepare your family.

Weapons Against West Nile Virus

Media reports yesterday warned that increased total rainfall this year across the country may lead to more mosquitoes and more cases of West Nile virus this summer. Every year since 2002, there has been a major West Nile epidemic, U.S. News’s January Payne reported last July. Prior to 1999, the virus did not exist in the United States. The virus can cause mild symptoms like rash, fever, headache, nausea, and muscle aches, but in more severe cases, symptoms can include coma, vision loss, and paralysis.

Payne got an expert’s tips on how to avoid mosquito bites (and West Nile virus), which include using insect repellants like DEET, picaridin, and oil of lemon eucalyptus. Last May, the CDC added IR3535, a chemical used in Europe for 20 years and sold in certain Avon products in the United States, to the list of safe and effective repellants. West Nile virus season usually begins in July and peaks in August.

Next Page »