99,000 DIE YEARLY FROM PREVENTABLE HOSPITAL INFECTIONS

As many as 99,000 Ameicans die yearly from hospital-acquired infections, state laws are finally forcing hospitals to report the infections.

Early data released by CDC today suggest this is cutting infection rates. But the data paint a bigger picture. Despite the huge size of the problem, most hospitals in most states still haven't come to grips with it.

That's going to change, says Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

"All 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico recently published state action plans to reduce hospital-acquired infections," Sebelius says in a news release.

Its a good start. But it's been a struggle just to get the starting line, says Lisa McGiffert, who as campaign manager for Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project, lobbies states to pass laws requiring public reporting of in-hospital infections.

"When we started, we thought hospitals knew their infection rates and were keeping them secret," McGiffert tell WebMD. "But they were not tracking them at all. If you are not aware of somethig you can't stop it. Where hospitals have been forced to face this and count it, it has created a sea change. The main thing this means is that the CDC has finally embraced public reporting as a component of prevention Strategies."

Carbs Against Cardio

More evidence that refined carbohydrates, not fats, threaten the heart. Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take home message from the U S government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled, and heart disease is still the country's biggest killer. Now a spate of new research, including a meta analysis of nearly two dozen studies, suggest a reason why: investigators may have picked the wrong culpit. Processed carbohydrates, which many Americans eat today in place of fat, may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease more than fat does-a finding that has serious implication for new dietary guidelines expected this year.

In March the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a meta-analysis-which combines data from several studies-that compared the reported daily food intake of nearly 350,000 people against their risk of developing cardiovascular disease over a period of five to 23 years. The analysis, overseen by Ronald M Krauss, director of atherosclerosis research at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Insitute, found NO ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE AMOUNT OF SATURATED FAT CONSUMED AND THE RISK OF HEAR DISEASE.

The findings joins other conclusions of the past few years that run counter to the conventional wisdom that saturated fat is bad for the heart because it increases total cholesterol levels. That idea is "based in large measure on extrapolations, which are not supported by the data," Krauss says.

One problem with the old ligic is that "total cholesterol is not a great predictor of risk," says Meir Stampfer, a professor of nutrition and epidermiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Although saturated fat boosts blood levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, it also increases "good" HDL cholesterol. In 2008 Stampfer co-authored a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that followed 322 moderastely obese individuals for two years as they adopted one of three diets: a low-fat, calorie-restricted diet based on American Heart Association guidelines; a Mediterranean, restricted-calorie diet rich in vegetables and low in red meat: and a low carbohydrate, nonrestricted-calorie diet. ALTHOUGTH THE SUBJECTS ON THE LOW-CARB DIET ATE THE MOST SATURATED FAT, THEY ENDED UP WITH THE HEALTHIEST RATIO OF HDL TO LDS CHOLESTEROL AND LOST TWICE AS MUCH WEIGHT AS THEIR LOW FAT EATING COUNTERPARTS.

The Cancer Fighting Potential of Flaxseed

Flaxseed lignans might offer protection against breast, prostate, colon, and skin cancers while the soluble fiber they contain could help maintain steady blood sugar levels, found a review of research into the seed.
An article, published in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, evaluated current research on flaxseed and any poential benefits it may have against diabetes and certain cancers.
Flaxseed has been the focus of increased interest in the field of diet and disease research due to the potential health benefits associated with some of its biologically active components: oil containing approximately 59 per cent a-linolenic acid (ALA) and the presence of plant lignan secoisolariciresinol diglycoside (SDG).
SDG once ingested, is conveted in the colon into active mammalian lignans, entreodiol (END) and enterolactone (ENL)which have show promise in reducing gtrowth of cancerous tumors, especially hormone sensitive one such as those of the breast, endometrium, and prostate.
The best way to take flaxseed is to grind it up with a coffee grinder such as one that can be purchased at Walmart.