Guidelines on pregnancy weight gain are faulted

Guidelines on pregnancy weight gain are faulted: "

A leading authority on exercise and nutrition during pregnancy says the updated guidelines on pregnancy weight gain fail to adequately address the obesity epidemic.

More than 60% of American women of childbearing age are overweight or obese and a large number of women gain too much weight during pregnancy. The first revision to pregnancy-weight guidelines since 1990 was issued last May by a panel convened by the Institute of Medicine. However, the committee voted to retain the 1990 guidelines (with the exception of putting an upper limit on weight gain for obese women) despite the rapid upswing in obesity rates.

In a commentary published in the January issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. Raul Artal, chairman of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health at St. Louis University, calls into question the guidelines and some of the scientific evidence used to support them. Artal, who co-authors the editorial with Dr. Charles L. Lockwood of Yale University and Dr. Haywood L. Brown of Duke University, said the IOM panel's concern that limiting weight gain might result in under-nourishment of women and their babies was no longer valid because the national rates of overweight and obesity have soared. Further, they write, the IOM failed to apply specific recommendations for each category of obesity: class I (BMI of 30 to 34.9), class II (BMI of 35 to 39.9) and class III (BMI of 40 or greater).

In the IOM guidelines, obese women are generally advised to gain 11 to 20 lbs. But Artal recommends obese pregnant women eat a nutrient-rich diet of between 2,000 and 2,500 calories a day, which would cap weight gain at about 10 lbs. He maintains that obese women can safely exercise and gain little or no weight during pregnancy while under a doctor's guidance.

The new guidelines also fail to acknowledge recent research demonstrating the long-term health repercussions on both women and their babies from excessive weight during pregnancy, the authors said.

"Gestational weight gain should reflect a balance between an optimal outcome for the fetus and mother alike," they wrote. "Reaffirmation of the IOM 1999 recommendations has the potential to amplify pregnancy-related risk for mother and fetus and long-term morbidities for women."

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

"

As EPA moves to crack down on smog, here's a closer look at its physical toll

As EPA moves to crack down on smog, here's a closer look at its physical toll: "

Photo: Sometimes, breathing deeply may not be a good thing. Shown here, Downtown Los Angeles shrouded in smog. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Dirty air can't actually be good for us. That seems logical enough. But many people may not know just how bad it can be. With the Environmental Protection Agency proposing stricter rules to improve the nation's air quality, we offer a quick refresher on the reasons for such concern.

-- In this recent Los Angeles Times story, which began with new studies linking air pollution to appendicitis and ear infections, writer Jill Adams reports:

Research on air pollution has been conducted worldwide for decades and is part of the basis for government regulation of air quality. Study after study has found more hospitalizations and higher death rates when certain pollutants are high. In addition to respiratory effects, research has established that air pollution increases the risk of cardiovascular events such as arrhythmia, heart attack and stroke, and the incidence of certain cancers.

Read more.

-- Here, staff writer Jeannine Stein explores the hazards to Angelenos, and outdoor exercisers in particular. She writes about the potentially hazardous effects of gasping dirty air:

Those effects, which can include coughing, a burning sensation in the lungs and shortness of breath, come from inhaling various particles from smoke and exhaust that make lung tissues swell and airway passages narrow. Brisk exercise exacerbates the effects (when and how severe those are vary from person to person). Because muscles need more oxygen to work, breathing rates increase by about seven times.... As a result, the lungs take in and expel double to triple the normal amount of air -- dramatically increasing their exposure to pollutants." This is especially problematic for people with coronary artery disease.

Read more.

-- Because air quality is often worse near freeways, Erin Cline Davis explores pollution's effects on those who live nearest L.A.'s automobile-heavy areas. She notes:

Everyone is familiar with the gray-brown haze that often blankets Los Angeles, and the fact that the city consistently ranks as one of the most polluted in America. But what many may forget is that the dismal reports of L.A.'s air pollution only capture the average amounts of toxins in the air, and that some places within the urban sprawl are far dirtier than others. Official numbers do not take into account the fact that pollutants are at much higher levels within a few hundred feet of the freeways that crisscross the city -- and for the adults and kids who live, work or go to school there, the effects add up.

Read more.

-- The California Environmental Protection Agency offers this look at the health effects of air pollution and these measures of current and recent air quality. Thursday wasn't a stellar one for the South Coast Air Basin.

As for the new move to improve air quality, here's that story from today's Los Angeles Times: EPA proposes nation's strictest smog limits ever

-- Tami Dennis

"

EPA proposal would tighten health standards for smog

EPA proposal would tighten health standards for smog: "The new limits would put L.A. and much of the rest of the country in violation, a designation that will require many counties nationwide to find new ways to cut pollution or face government sanctions.





The Environmental Protection Agency today proposed stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations.

"

The 9 Most Tested Lab Animals

The 9 Most Tested Lab Animals: "An anonymous reader writes 'Discover Magazine has this odd photo gallery in which they explain why certain animals are used in scientific research. Why are high-tech contact lenses always tried out in rabbits? Why do we study monogamy in prairie voles? Etc. They say of the 9 animals: 'Taken (or stitched) together, they form a kind of laboratory doppelganger for humans.''

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"

New Jersey Senate Defeats Gay Marriage Bill

New Jersey Senate Defeats Gay Marriage Bill: "New Jersey’s Senate has defeated a bill to legalize gay marriage, leaving it unlikely the state will have a gay marriage law in the very near future.


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State Senators Hear Cap-and-Trade Caveats

State Senators Hear Cap-and-Trade Caveats: "

Photo: Craig Miller

The dark underbelly of cap-and-trade was somewhat exposed in a four-hour hearing today before the Senate's Select Committee on Climate Change and AB-32 Implementation. AB-32, of course, is shorthand for California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates a carbon trading program be in place by 2012.

Here's my 'highlights reel' from the panel of experts who testified:

Mary Nichols, Chair, California Air Resources Board

- On carbon pricing: "There is no approach that does not involve administrative costs & headaches" but cap-and-trade "seems like a pretty good mix" of certainty provided by an enforced cap and market flexibility (versus an outright carbon tax of some sort).

- On California going "solo" with carbon trading (i.e. without the other states and provinces currently signed to the Western Carbon Initiative): The larger the territory, the more potential for "bad actors" but the greater the potential for meaningful savings & benefits to the economy.

Michael Wara, Stanford Law Professor

- On carbon offsets: "…difficult to administer;" to ensure real reductions, changes in behavior, has proven to be "a significant and ongoing challenge, in practice."

- California appears to be 'opting for prudent limits' on allowable offsets, at an anticipated 4%, versus more than 30% in the Waxman-Markey bill that has cleared the US House of Representatives.

- 'Very few [offset] programs have been run without controversy.'

Ken Alex, California Attorney General's Office

- On enforcement: 'Every system has cheaters, especially where billions of dollars are involved.'

- Cap-and-trade provides 'a permanent incentive for cheaters.' Unassailable data is essential for regulators.

- Regulators 'must have sufficient authority' to assess meaningful penalties. Alex, who was involved in sorting out the state's energy crisis of 2000-2001, recalled that 'million-dollar penalties were irrelevant.'

Dallas Butraw, Economist, Resources for the Future

- Warned against a 'phone book-sized' regulation.

- Cost of carbon emissions permits will be passed along to consumers but could be offset by tax breaks or a dividend system similar to what oil & gas companies pay to residents of Alaska.

David Harrison, Economist, NERA Economic Consulting

- On lessons from Europe: Despite a rocky start for the EU's 'pilot' program, the system for carbon trading in 27 countries has 'evolved over time' to become 'very successful.'

- The EU experience "really does show that cap & trade works. Emissions have been reduced."

- There is 'no silver bullet' for determining allocations; that in Europe has been a 'messy' and 'contentious' process.

- In spite of it all, the EU experience demonstrates that cap-and-trade is 'not perfect but it really is better than the alternatives,' and provides a good laboratory for California.

The committee, chaired by Fran Pavley (D-L.A.), also heard from several business and environmental groups. At one point a speaker from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) argued briefly with a utility representative about whether electric rates are actually higher or lower in California, compared to the nation as a whole (apparent compromise: rates may be higher but average bills are lower).

Utilities complained that the system, as proposed, forces power companies to bear the brunt of the burden. Business interests warned that unbridled implementation of AB-32 'could add to an already alarming increase in job losses,' claimed that the state has no authority to hold carbon permit auctions under AB-32, and asked for initial permits to be given away to industry. Environmentalists asked for the opposite, urging that 100% of initial permits be auctioned off, i.e. that emitters be made to pay for them.

Numerous speakers expressed nervousness over validity of carbon offset programs. Regarding the various schemes for carbon storage in forests or soil, Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said 'This one makes my head hurt.' There'll be a lot of Excedrin passed around before this is through.

"

Reasons To Be Cheerful: Seeing Stars

Reasons To Be Cheerful: Seeing Stars: "

By Adam Frank

When I was in Jr. High School I wanted to be an astronomer. So I asked my parents for a telescope and, being the kind parents they were, they bought me one for my birthday. All day I was out-of-my-head excited. I couldn't wait for it to get dark. Finally I was going to see the Universe as I knew it to be. Finally I was going to see the STARS. Forget those little pinpoints of light. That was for losers who didn't have telescopes. I was going to see huge plumes of fire erupting from off the rumbling surface of giant thermonuclear burning spheres of plasma.

Night fell. I set up the 'scope on the roof of my New Jersey home and turned it one of the 3 stars that came out at night. Slowly I got it in the sights of the little finder scope. Slowly I adjusted the focus. There it was, there it was ... a little pinpoint of light. Damn! Where were my plumes of plasma, my giant flares, my arcades of fire? It was that night that I became a theorist. Who needed a telescope. I had my imagination (the same statement was true of my love life then too).

It turns out that even with the best (single) telescope, stars are still too far away to appear as anything more than points of light.

Not anymore!

Thanks to the development of some very cool technology and advances in the process of infrared interferometry the face of the largest stars that are relatively close to us can now be resolved. I offer you this link for a picture of Betelgeuse, a giant star with a radius as large Jupiter's orbit. The image even shows distinct spots on the star's surface. (This sets my theorists heart aflutter. Are the spots due to large magnetic fields on the stars surface? Are they causing giant stellar flares that blast mass into space?)

After 50,000 years of human beings looking at the stars and making stories and myths and explanations for them, what does it mean to live in the first generation that can actually see them for what they are? To me its at least one reason to be cheerful in spite of everything else.

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"

UC Davis researchers find California autism clusters, but the cause is a bit of a surprise

UC Davis researchers find California autism clusters, but the cause is a bit of a surprise: "

UC Davis researchers searching for autism clusters in hopes of finding an environmental cause for the disorder have identified 10 clusters around the state, but the source of the clusters is not exactly what they expected. The clusters, including five in metropolitan Los Angeles and one in San Diego, are centered on regional developmental services centers in areas with highly educated parents, primarily Caucasians, with high incomes. In short, what they found were clusters of increased diagnostic rates for autism. In one respect, the results were not surprising because it has long been known that high-income, highly educated white parents are more likely to have their children diagnosed with autism and more likely to have them diagnosed at an early age.

"Looking at clustering is often a way to uncover leads about problems in the environment," said epidemiologist Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the senior author of the study. "Mapping has a long history of being a way to get clues" about causes of disease. She was, indeed, surprised by the findings -- "not that there are clusters with parents with higher education, but that it was so consistent across the board." In virtually every cluster they identified, the rate of autism was about twice as high within the cluster as in adjacent regions.

Hertz-Picciotto and her colleagues obtained birth records for 2,453,717 children born in the state between 1996 and 2000. By 2006, the children had all reached at least age 6, the age by which diagnosis of autism is generally accomplished. State records showed that about 9,900 autism cases were in the records of the Department of Developmental Services. The team reported in the journal Autism Research that they identified 10 clusters of autism among the 21 regional offices of the department and two potential clusters. The clusters were primarily in the high-population areas of Southern California and, to a lesser extent, in the San Francisco Bay area.

The clusters were:

-- The Westside Regional Center in Culver City, which serves western Los Angeles County, including Culver City, Inglewood and Santa Monica.

-- The Harbor Regional Center, headquartered in Torrance, which serves southern Los Angeles County.

-- The North Los Angeles County Regional Center, in Van Nuys, which serves the San Fernando and Antelope valleys. Two clusters were in this region.

-- The South Central Regional Center in Los Angeles, which serves Compton and Gardena.

-- The Regional Center of Orange County in Santa Ana.

--The Regional Center of San Diego County, which serves San Diego and Imperial counties.

-- The Golden Gate Regional Center in San Francisco, which serves San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties. There are two clusters in this area.

-- The San Andreas Regional Center in Campbell, which serves Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.

Increased incidence was also noted in two other regions, the Central Valley Regional Center in Stockton and the Valley Mountain Regional Center in Fresno. The incidence of autism was not as high in those regions, however.

Because the team analyzed birth locations and not the location of diagnosis, it is highly unlikely that the parents moved into the cluster regions to seek care, Hertz-Picciotto said.

"In the U.S., the children of older, white and highly educated parents are more likely to receive a diagnosis of autism or autism spectrum disorder," said lead author Karla C. Van Meter, who was a graduate student when the data were collected but is now at the Sonoma County Department of Public Health. "For this reason, the clusters we found are probably not a result of a common environmental exposure. Instead, the differences in education, age and ethnicity of parents comparing births in the cluster versus those outside the cluster were striking enough to explain the clusters."

The team is now looking elsewhere for possible causes. Some previous studies have hinted that exposure to pesticides may play a role and a study in Texas showed that exposure to mercury in the environment --but not in vaccines -- could be a causative agent. "We are casting a wide net, looking at everything we can--pesticides, medical conditions in the mother, medications, flame retardants, etc.," Hertz-Picciotto said. The problem, she conceded, is that, if the exposure is truly widespread, then linking it to autism will be very difficult.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Credit: UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute

"

The Physics Of Predicting Everything

The Physics Of Predicting Everything: "

Too complex for string theory. (Torsten Silz / AFP/Getty Images)

By KC Cole

My fellow bloggers are waging the good fight against the idea of reductionism -- the idea that the universe can be explained by an equation on a T-shirt -- and that physicists believe there is some 'Theory of Everything' that would do just that. Also, against the related idea that physicists somehow believe they can predict what will happen in the future based on this theory, or others.

Here's my problem: I've been writing about fundamental physics for more decades than I care to admit, and hardly ever have I heard -- or even read -- a physicist claim any such thing(s).

I'm not a scientist, so I come to this will a somewhat different perspective than my colleagues. Adam says that this claim -- that a theory describing the most fundamental level of reality (particles or strings or whatever) is all that you need to describe planets and people -- still holds a lot of currency in the halls he walks.

I'm sure that's true. But the physicists and cosmologists I talk with make it pretty clear that understanding the fundamental forces and particles will tell us nothing about love, music or even the brain of a snail, not even a single neuron. These things are simply too complex. So where does the notion that they think they can explain the universe on a T-shirt come from?

I fear part of the problem comes, oops, from exactly what I do: popularization. It's common for much to get lost in translation when 'science' gets out of the hallways and labs and into the media.

Here's a telling (and personal) horror story on how this misunderstanding gets ingrained in the public consciousness. In the 1980s, I wrote a story about string theory for The New York Times Magazine. It was mainly about the mathematics, though much of that got cut. The story began as a profile of Edward Witten, one of the most prominent physicists of the day (and still today).

Everything was fine with the piece until the Times decided to make it into a cover story. Then someone in the higher reaches of the paper looked at it and wanted to include an idea he'd heard about, if memory serves, at a party: the 'theory of everything' (which was equated in someone's mind with string theory).

I knew Ed Witten would hardly claim that string theory is a 'theory of everything.' But because the editors were now so keen on the idea, I had to ask him. His answer was something along the lines of: The only physicists who talk about a 'theory of everything' are those who have no real physics to do.

The cover line on the magazine? 'A Theory of Everything.'

As for prediction, I'll never forget the late physicist Phil Morrison telling me how fundamental physics can't even predict the path of a drop of water flowing over a fall. There are too many interacting parts. And even if you somehow put all the relevant information into a computer that could calculate the drop's path, the very gravitational presence of a computer so big could throw the calculation off. Computers have gotten a lot smaller since then, but the argument holds.

One often hears the term 'the theory predicts'; but this kind of prediction is not about gazing into the future. It's about looking for what already exists in the present. If your theory is right and it 'predicts' that there should be a black hole sitting in the center of your galaxy, and you find that black hole, then you've found a good piece of evidence to support your theory. But theory predicted what was already there, not what was going to come into being.

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New Pi Computation Record Using a Desktop PC

New Pi Computation Record Using a Desktop PC: "hint3 writes "Fabrice Bellard has calculated Pi to about 2.7 trillion decimal digits, besting the previous record by over 120 billion digits. While the improvement may seem small, it is an outstanding achievement because only a single desktop PC, costing less than $3,000, was used — instead of a multi-million dollar supercomputer as in the previous records."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Happy New Year, FDA! Now... resolve to regulate food package claims!

Happy New Year, FDA! Now... resolve to regulate food package claims!: "

Here's a New Year's resolution for the Food and Drug Administration courtesy of the consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest: Come down hard on misleading food labels.

Just in time for 2010, the well-known food cop group sent the FDA a 158-page report listing "the most egregious examples of false claims, ingredient obfuscations and other labeling shenanigans," as the CSPI press folks put it. The report, dubbed "Food Labeling Chaos," recommends a complete overhaul of labels to get rid of such problems as:

• Packaged foods that say they contain several servings when in all likelihood the entire contents will be consumed in one sitting;
  

• Products that proudly proclaim they contain no trans fats when they may contain a lot of saturated fat;
  

• Foods are promoted as supporting the immune system or supporting healthy arteries when there's scant evidence they're likely to do so.
  

CSPI recommends, among other things, that:

• The ingredients list should be reformulated so that, to name one example, all the different sources of sugars -- sugar, high fructose corn syrup, yada yada -- be grouped together, enabling consumers to get a better handle on just how much added sugar a product contains.
  

• Caffeine content should be added. (We recently wrote about that issue in the Health section.)
  

• Meat and poultry should have to disclose its nutrition information as well. Like, what about all that salty broth many cuts of meat are injected with?
  

• Serving sizes should be reworked to approach something a little realistic. Who's going to eat half a 2.5-ounce package of Fruity Snacks? Or half a microwaveable tub of "Healthy Choice" minestrone soup?
  

• Get rid of "qualified health claims" that allow companies to note weak health-nutrition links that aren't strongly supported by science, as well as the meaningless but optimistic-sounding statements such as "to help protect healthy joints," currently on a glucosamine-laced Minute Maid orange juice boxes.
  

• The whole nutrition facts and ingredients list panel could use a revamp, and the key nutrition information should be presented in a nice, clear way on the front of food packages.
  

The report contains a picture of the current nutrition facts label and a reworked one that CSPI thinks would be easier to parse.

To illustrate how misleading some packages can be, the report has a cute mock-up of a slice of fictitious "Tasty Living Double Chocolate Layer Cake" -- in a wrapper peppered with claims. "Made with whole wheat!" (How much whole wheat?) "High in Fiber!" (How is fiber defined?) "0 grams trans fat." (Yes, but it could be swimming in palm kernel oil...) "Supports Immunity!" (Um, cake does that how?) "All Natural" (a term the FDA has not defined). "Contains Cherries." (In picograms? nanograms? femtograms?)

Absurd -- except that we have lots of real-life silliness of that kind on our food packages today. I especially like the listed example of Gerber "Graduates," juice treats for preschoolers, in a package that is covered with pictures of whole fruits and that proclaims it's made with "real fruit juice concentrate and natural fruit flavors" and is "all natural." Each serving contains 17 grams of added sugar. Hardly any of the pictured fruits are in it. The main ingredients are corn syrup and sugar.

--Rosie Mestel

"

This new year, resolve to be happy

This new year, resolve to be happy: "

Instead of planning to lose weight, find a better job, be a better person (typical New Year’s resolutions, according to a recent Marist poll) why not use 2010 to focus on what’s really important – your own happiness?

Dropping a few pounds and getting a raise might seem like means to that end. And happiness itself might sound like a nebulous, unachievable goal. But happiness might be worth pursuing in its own right – and, according to recent research, could be a much more measurable and tangible goal than previously thought.

Want a primer on that special feeling? A three-part PBS series, "This Emotional Life," tonight will look at why we feel what we feel, through a scientific lens and through the wisdom of such celebrities as Larry David, "Seinfeld" co-creator: "I don't think it's that much of a mystery. If you don't have a job that you like, and you're not having sex, you're just not gonna be happy."

Show host Daniel Gilbert, who sat down with NPR today for an interview, said the larger point on relationships and happiness rings true. "If you're not involved in a relationship," the Harvard psychologist said, "then indeed we see that people who aren't in romantic relationships are less happy than those who are."

Perhaps happiness is contagious, too. In an article published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that the feeling created by absence of relationships -- loneliness -- spreads like a disease:

Results indicated that loneliness occurs in clusters, extends up to three degrees of separation, is disproportionately represented at the periphery of social networks, and spreads through a contagious process.

Another reason to pursue happiness and avoid loneliness this year – scientists say it’s just as important on the New Year’s resolution list as quitting smoking or losing weight. As Health reporter Melissa Healy blogged last month, loneliness can be as bad for your health as smoking and obesity.

One double-take worthy theory presented in the PBS show: That, controlling for health problems, older people are generally happier than younger people. Counterintuitive as that notion might seem, it’s been gaining strength in recent years. Health reporter Shari Roan found some logical explanations for the theory in a 2007 story:

[M]ost scientists now think that experience and the mere passage of time gradually motivate people to approach life differently. The blazing-to-freezing range of emotions experienced by the young blends into something more lukewarm by later life, numerous studies show. Older people are less likely to be caught up in their emotions and more likely to focus on the positive, ignoring the negative.

In a special to The Times, Marnell Jameson explores how scientists are starting to quantify and measure happiness -- and what their conclusions are. She starts with a quick quiz:

True or false:

___ I would be happier if I made more money, found the perfect mate, lost 10 pounds or moved to a new house.
___ Happiness is genetic. You can't change how happy you are any more than you can change how tall you are.
___ Success brings happiness.
Answers: False, false and false.

Want to find out why? Read Jameson's story, and check out the first part of “This Emotional Life” tonight, airing at 9 p.m. on KCET.

-- Amina Khan

"

Study Says Women With Mate Get Heavier

Study Says Women With Mate Get Heavier: "A large Australian survey found evidence that even among childless women, those who lived with a mate put on more pounds than those who lived without one.

"

EPA Announces Action Plans for Four Existing Chemicals

EPA Announces Action Plans for Four Existing Chemicals: "

EPA closed out 2009 by issuing “chemical action plans” for four chemicals: phthalates, long-chain perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in products, and short-chain chlorinated paraffins. For each chemical, the action plan provides a summary of existing hazard, exposure, and use information, an outline the risks that the chemical may present, and a description of the specific steps that the agency plans to take to address those risks. The plans indicate that Administrator Jackson was serious about moving forward with existing authorities even as TSCA reform is debated. While the plans are essentially simply expressions of future intentions, carefully caveated as one would expect from a federal agency, they are quite specific in some interesting ways. For example, they tend to emphasize the possibility of a regulatory ban or phase in discussing action under Section 6 of TSCA. Also, it was refreshing to see explicit discussion, albeit brief, about using alternatives assessment “as input to a regulatory action” in the phthalates action plan.

"

Should a Quadriplegic Mom Have Custody?

Should a Quadriplegic Mom Have Custody?: "Kaney O'Neill and David Trais will be in a Chicago courtroom this week, arguing over their five-month-old son, Aiden. Trais says that O'Neill is unfit to have custody of the boy because she is a quadriplegic."