Health Highlights: June 11, 2008
June 12 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
U.S. Life Expectancy Hits New High
Life expectancy in the United States hit a record high in 2006 of 78.1 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Life expectancy rose to new highs for white males (76), black males (70), white females (81) and black females (76.9).
In addition, the age-adjusted death rate fell to 776.4 deaths per 100,000 people from 799 in 2005, the agency said in a prepared statement. Death rates for many of the leading causes of death fell significantly in 2006, including a 12.8 percent drop in deaths from flu and pneumonia.
Deaths from lower respiratory disease fell 6.5 percent from 2005 to 2006, cases of stroke fell by 6.4 percent, heart disease by 5.5 percent, diabetes by 5.3 percent, and deaths from HIV/AIDS declined 4.8 percent from 2005.
The preliminary infant mortality rate for 2006 fell to 6.7 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, a 2.3 percent drop from the 2005 figure of 6.9, the CDC said.
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AP: Paul Newman Has Cancer
Actor Paul Newman has cancer, the Associated Press reported, citing Newman's longtime business partner.
"I know that it's a form of cancer," the wire service quoted writer A.E. Hotchner as saying, although he didn't specify the type of cancer. He said Newman was still undergoing treatment.
Newman put out a statement Tuesday that he was "doing nicely," but didn't address speculation that he had cancer.
Appearing last month at a practice for the Indianapolis 500 car race, Newman appeared to have lost a significant amount of weight, the AP said.
In the 1980s, Hotchner partnered with Newman to start "Newman's Own," a salad dressing company that has branched out to other food products. By 2007, the company had contributed more than $200 million in profits to charity, according to the "Newman's Own" Web site.
Hotchner told the AP that Newman had an operation a few years ago "somewhere in the area of the lung."
"Everybody is hopeful," he said of Newman's prognosis. "That's all we know."
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Bottles With Bisphenol A Safe: FDA Official
Plastic baby bottles and water bottles made with a chemical called bisphenol A are safe, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration official.
While small amounts of bisphenol A can be released as plastics break down, the levels of exposure is safe, Dr. Norris Alderson, the FDA's associate commissioner for science, said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported.
"Although our review is ongoing, there's no reason to recommend consumers stop using products with (bisphenol A)," Alderson told a House subcommittee.
The chemical has come under intense scrutiny. In a recent draft report, the U.S. National Toxicology Program said animal studies suggest bisphenol A may cause changes in behavior and the brain, and reduce birth weight and survival in fetuses, the AP reported.
The Canadian government plans to ban bisphenol A in baby bottles, and proposed U.S. legislation would ban the chemical in children's products.
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Chemical Changes May Identify Defects That Lead to Cancer
Subtle changes in cell chemicals may help identify people at risk for cancer before they actually develop the disease, according to researchers at the U.K. Institute of Food Research.
They detected these changes in apparently normal cells taken from the intestines of bowel cancer patients, BBC News reported.
"We looked at changes in 18 genes that play a role in the very earliest stages of colorectal cancer and detected clear chemical differences in these genes in otherwise normal tissue in cancer patients," said lead researcher Professor Ian Johnson. "This represents a new way to identify defects that could eventually lead to cancer."
The study was published in the British Journal of Cancer.
While this is an interesting finding, it requires much more research, Henry Scowcroft, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, told BBC News. He noted the chemical changes detected in the normal cells could occur in response to already having cancer or to cancer treatment.
