Dog Health

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) -- Doctors didn't know cigarettes were bad and thought high blood pressure could sometimes be good when homemaker Helen Vaughn was lured by a 1948 newspaper ad to join one of history's most important medical studies.

At the time, Vaughn's main attraction to the Framingham Heart Study was its free medical exams. Sixty years later, Vaughn is nearing 91 and the landmark study has moved well past exposing the health risks of cigarettes and high blood pressure to ambitious new work to discover the genetic factors behind health and disease.

On Thursday, researchers marked the study's 60th anniversary year by highlighting new research and thanking Vaughn and the study's three generations of participants. It's a legacy that early volunteers never anticipated.

"I'm very, very lucky to be part of this study, which is known all over the world," Vaughn said.

The federal government launched the study in 1948 amid an epidemic of heart disease. The idea was to compile reams of health data on a group of people in their 30s, 40s and 50s, and hope that over time links would emerge between their lifestyles and heart health.

Framingham, a town of about 67,000 about 20 miles west of Boston, was chosen for its mix of ethnic groups and blue- and white-collar workers, as well as the availability of volunteers. Its population at the time the study began was about 29,000.

About 5,200 people signed up for detailed physical exams every two years that included all manner of poking and prodding, including tests for mental dexterity. Now conducted in collaboration with Boston University, the study counts more than 14,000 participants in its three generations, and officials are already talking about recruiting a fourth generation.

The unprecedented amount of data led Framingham researchers to publish more than 1,200 scientific papers, including findings that are now basic building blocks for good health, weighing on people's minds every time they reach for an extra dessert.

Among the discoveries: Cigarette smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and diabetes raise the risk of heart disease, and physical exercise lowers the risk.

The study's importance has given participants a level of fame in the medical community. On Thursday, study participants recalled being treated with awe and respect by doctors they met in far-flung places.

"When health researchers hear the words `Framingham study,' it's like 24-carat gold," said Mike Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "The consistency and data that's come from that long period cannot be replaced."

The move into the field of genetics is a whole new horizon, said Dr. Daniel Levy, director of the study, which is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The new program, called Framingham SHARe, seeks to link data from the study to ongoing research into disease.

Scientists know just a small proportion of the genes most strongly linked with certain diseases. DNA and 60 years of clinical information from people in the Framingham study will strengthen the ability to identify new associations, and help scientists narrow down which genes go with which diseases. That can pave the way for huge advances in prevention and treatment, they say.

"When we find something in Framingham, you know you're finding something that's likely to be seen in the general population," said Dr. Christopher O'Donnell, director of SHARe. "It's a real-life laboratory if you will, of the genetics of disease."

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On the Net:

Framingham Heart Study: http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org

© 2007 The Associated Press.

LONDON (AP) -- Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a "probable" cause of cancer. It is a surprising step validating a concept once considered wacky. And it is based on research that finds higher rates of breast and prostate cancer among women and men whose work day starts after dark.

Next month, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization, will add overnight shift work as a probable carcinogen. The American Cancer Society says it will likely follow. Up to now, the U.S. organization has considered the work-cancer link to be "uncertain, controversial or unproven."

The higher cancer rates don't prove working overnight can cause cancer. There may be other factors common among graveyard shift workers that raise their risk for cancer.

However, scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the circadian rhythm, the body's biological clock. The hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumor development, is normally produced at night.

If the graveyard shift theory eventually proves correct, millions of people worldwide could be affected. Experts estimate that nearly 20 percent of the working population in developed countries work night shifts.

Among the first to spot the night shift-cancer connection was Richard Stevens, a cancer epidemiologist and professor at the University of Connecticut Health Center. In 1987, Stevens published a paper suggesting a link between light at night and breast cancer.

Back then, he was trying to figure out why breast cancer incidence suddenly shot up starting in the 1930s in industrialized societies, where nighttime work was considered a hallmark of progress. Most scientists were bewildered by his proposal.

But in recent years, several studies have found that women working at night over many years were indeed more prone to breast cancer. Also, animals that have their light-dark schedules switched develop more cancerous tumors and die earlier.

Some research also suggests that men working at night may have a higher rate of prostate cancer.

Because these studies mostly focused on nurses and airline crews, bigger studies in different populations are needed to confirm or disprove the findings.

There are still plenty of skeptics. And to put the risk in perspective, the "probable carcinogen" tag means that the link between overnight work and cancer is merely plausible.

Among the long list of agents that are listed as "known" carcinogens are alcoholic beverages and birth control pills. Such lists say nothing about exposure amount or length of time or how likely they are to cause cancer. The American Cancer Society Web site notes that carcinogens do not cause cancer at all times.

Still, many doubters of the night shift link may be won over by the IARC's analysis to be published in the December issue of the journal Lancet Oncology.

"The indications are positive," said Vincent Cogliano, who heads up the agency's carcinogen classifications unit. "There was enough of a pattern in people who do shift work to recognize that there's an increase in cancer, but we can't rule out the possibility of other factors."

Scientists believe having lower melatonin levels can raise the risk of developing cancer. Light shuts down melatonin production, so people working in artificial light at night may have lower melatonin levels.

Melatonin can be taken as a supplement, but experts don't recommend it long-term, since that could ruin the body's ability to produce it naturally.

Sleep deprivation may be another factor in cancer risk. People who work at night are not usually able to completely reverse their day and night cycles.

"Night shift people tend to be day shift people who are trying to stay awake at night," said Mark Rea, director of the Light Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, who is not connected with the IARC analysis.

Not getting enough sleep makes your immune system vulnerable to attack, and less able to fight off potentially cancerous cells.

Confusing your body's natural rhythm can also lead to a breakdown of other essential tasks. "Timing is very important," Rea said. Certain processes like cell division and DNA repair happen at regular times.

Even worse than working an overnight shift is flipping between daytime and overnight work.

"The problem is re-setting your body's clock," said Aaron Blair, of the United States' National Cancer Institute, who chaired IARC's recent meeting on shift work. "If you worked at night and stayed on it, that would be less disruptive than constantly changing shifts."

Anyone whose light and dark schedule is often disrupted - including frequent long-haul travelers or insomniacs - could theoretically face the same increased cancer risk, Stevens said.

He advises workers to sleep in a darkened room once they get off work. "The balance between light and dark is very important for your body. Just get a dark night's sleep."

Meanwhile, scientists are trying to come up with ways to reduce night workers' cancer risk. And some companies are experimenting with different lighting, seeking a type that doesn't affect melatonin production.

So far, the color that seems to have the least effect on melatonin is one that few people would enjoy working under: red.

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American Cancer Society's list of known and probable carcinogens from IARC and National Toxicology Program: http://tinyurl.com/2kl5ab

International Agency for Research on Cancer: http://www.iarc.fr/

© 2007 The Associated Press.

GENEVA (AP) -- A new form of the deadly Ebola virus has been detected in an outbreak in western Uganda that has so far killed 16 people, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Tests conducted by a national lab in Uganda and confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the virus belongs to a different subtype than the four already known, said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.

"We are very concerned about this because it does not present (symptoms) in exactly the same way as other Ebola strains," he said, adding that the new subtype appeared to be associated with vomiting, which does not usually occur in Ebola patients.

Dr. Sam Zaramba, director general of Uganda's health service, said on Thursday that laboratory tests in South Africa and the United States had confirmed 51 Ebola cases, and of those, 16 patients died.

The first case was reported on Nov. 10 in Bundibugyo district, 200 miles west of the capital, Kampala, Zaramba said.

Ebola typically kills most of those it strikes through massive blood loss, and has no cure or treatment. It is spread through direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person, or objects that have been contaminated with infected secretions.

Word of a new strain "is an important discovery for the scientific community," Pierre Formenty, a WHO expert on hemorrhagic fevers, told The Associated Press.

Improved disease surveillance was bound to turn up new forms of Ebola, he said, and "different subtypes cause different types of disease."

"This could be a milder strain of the disease, but we still need additional information to confirm that," Formenty said.

The three main subtypes usually kill 50 to 90 percent of infected patients. A fourth subtype, Reston, does not cause any symptoms and is not fatal.

Hartl said the outbreak in Uganda was not currently being linked to cases elsewhere. The outbreak in Uganda occurred near the country's western border with Congo. WHO and local officials said last week that an Ebola outbreak there, which killed six people, had been contained.

The last previous outbreak of Ebola in Uganda occurred in October 2000 when 173 people died and a total of 426 people were diagnosed with it in the north of the country.

The World Health Organization says more than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and Congo. Primates, hunted by many central Africans for food, can carry the virus.

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Associated Press Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this report.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used an appearance at one of the nation's largest evangelical churches Thursday to sketch a broad agenda to take on disease around the globe, calling it "the right thing to do."

The centerpiece of a speech laced with Biblical references and reflections on her own faith was a call to spend billions of dollars to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases at home and abroad. She said she would try to stamp out malaria deaths in Africa within eight years.

Money and government alone cannot solve the problems, she said. AIDS "is a problem of our common humanity, and we are called to respond with love, with mercy and with urgency," she said.

With the presidential campaign intensifying in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Clinton was alone among leading candidates to fly to coastal California to appear at Saddleback Church in Orange County, where pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren convenes a conference each year to highlight the global threat posed by HIV/AIDS.

Earlier this week Clinton released her proposal to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, which focuses in part on fighting the spread of the illness in minority communities. As president, she would double the HIV/AIDS research budget at the National Institutes of Health - to $5.2 billion annually - and spend at least $50 billion within five years around the globe.

On Thursday, speaking to about 1,700 conference attendees, she said as president she would also call for spending $1 billion a year to address malaria infection in Africa. She set a goal of eradicating malaria deaths in Africa by the end of her second term.

Many Christian conservatives dread the possibility of another Clinton White House, a point of agreement in a year when prominent leaders in the movement have divided their loyalties among GOP contenders.

There was a sprinkle of criticism from conservatives in response to Clinton's appearance at the church, but it was muted compared to last year when more than a dozen conservative leaders signed a letter urging Warren to rescind an invitation to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who supports abortion rights. The church defended his appearance.

Warren is theologically and socially conservative, but he is known for avoiding the scrum of partisan politics. The author of "The Purpose-Driven Life" has devoted much of his time in recent years mobilizing evangelicals to fight AIDS in Africa.

The speech gave Clinton a chance to appear on stage with the popular pastor - who greeted her with a hug - as well as talk at length about her own faith.

"I've been raised to understand the power and purpose of prayer," she said at one point.

Warren thanked her for attending. "We invited all of them to come, but she was the one who showed up," he said.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- When Frank Moran shot a mule deer during a hunting trip in Montana, there was no question what he would do with the venison. Moran took the deer to a meat processor, paid $70 for butchering and returned home to Sacramento, Calif. When the venison had been ground and wrapped, it went into a freezer at the Gallatin Valley Food Bank in Bozeman.

In the coming months, the Montana food bank and other charities nationwide will distribute thousands of pounds of game meat provided by hunters. Sportsmen have donated their kills for years, but this hunting season the meat comes at a time of rising need, with food banks across the country reporting increases in the number of people asking for help.

"Believe me, (game) is a valuable product," said Ross Fraser of America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network, a Chicago-based relief organization with more than 200 food-bank affiliates nationwide. "High-protein foods are the hardest foods for our food banks to come by."

Fraser said he does not know how much game is donated to food banks. In Montana, the Butte Emergency Food Bank reported it received 7,500 pounds of game in 2006 and nearly as much this year, including meat from six elk killed illegally and confiscated by state wardens.

Moran, a retired school facilities planner, shot his deer Nov. 19 during a professionally guided hunt that was a gift from his son.

"Based upon the time I was going to be in Montana, if I'd wanted to have it butchered and packaged and ready for me to take home, I didn't have that kind of time," Moran said recently. He would have donated the meat to charity anyway, he said.

The Department of Agriculture reported this month that an estimated 35.5 million people in the United States lacked the money to buy food during at least some point in 2006. The figure, which does not include homeless people, is up from 35.1 million in 2005.

Food bank operators say their client lists are growing.

The Food Bank of Southwest Georgia has estimated an increase of between 10 and 20 percent in requests for assistance. The Butte Emergency Food Bank had 1,238 clients listed in October, the largest number for that month in at least three years, manager Joanne Cortese said.

Some food banks in Ohio and New York are concerned about reductions in their supplies, as is the New Hampshire Food Bank, which has reported a reduction of 40,000 pounds compared with last year.

The Montana Food Bank Network recently tried to step up donations of game by launching Montana Hunters Against Hunger, encouraging sportsmen to donate wild meat and covering the tax-deductible costs of processing. Some processors also give discounts when preparing game that will be donated, and sometimes the charities help cover the bill. The hunting group Safari Club International also provides assistance.

At the Butte food bank, a qualifying household with one or two people can get 50 pounds of free food - about a week's supply - every 30 days. Of that, 1 pound will be meat, likely game.

Cortese, who received a bill of $847 for the processing of the six confiscated elk, said she was happy to have stocked the freezer with about 1,000 pounds of meat for such a price.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks requires that donated game be from a legal hunt and that no money can exchange hands. The state imposes no meat-inspection requirements on donated game and said it had no documented cases of health problems associated with the meat.

For ease in processing and fairness in distribution, game destined for food banks is packaged as ground meat.

"We can't really give steaks to one family and ribs to someone else," Cortese said.

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On the Net:

America's Second Harvest: http://www.secondharvest.org

© 2007 The Associated Press.