Dirty Money: A Microbial Jungle Thrives In Your Wallet

You may have heard that dollar bills harbor trace amounts of drugs.

But those greenbacks in your wallet are hiding far more than cocaine and the flu. They're teeming with life.

Each dollar bill carries about 3,000 types of bacteria on its surface, scientists have found. Most are harmless. But cash also has DNA from drug-resistant microbes. And your wad of dough may even have a smudge of anthrax and diphtheria.

In other words, your wallet is a portable petri dish.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/23/305890574/dirty-money-a-microbial-jungle-thrives-in-your-wallet

iAnd currency may be one way antibiotic-resistant genes move around cities, says biologist Jane Carlton, who's leading the Dirty Money Project at the New York UniversitThe project offers an in-depth look at the living organisms shacking up on our cash. One goal of the work is to provide information that could help health workers catch disease outbreaks in New York City before they spread very far.

Statins May Lead Some Patients to Pig out: Study

Ten years of U.S. data suggest cholesterol-lowering statins are giving patients a license to pig out.

Calorie and fat intake increased among statin users during the decade — an indication that many patients might be abandoning heart-healthy lifestyles and assuming that drugs alone will do the trick, the study authors said.

They said the goals of statin treatment should be to help patients achieve benefits unattainable by other methods, "not to empower them to put butter on their steak."

Statins may keep cholesterol low even if people eat less healthy food and slack off on exercise, but those bad habits can contribute to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and other problems that are bad for the heart. The study was published online Thursday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Dr. Rita Redberg, the journal's editor, said the study "raises concerns of a potential moral hazard of statin use," in addition to already known potential side effects risks including muscle aches and diabetes.

"Statins provide a false reassurance," she said. "People seem to believe that statins can compensate for poor dietary choices and sedentary life."  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/statins-lead-patients-pig-study-23463139

Could More Coffee Lower Your Odds for Diabetes?

Drinking more coffee might lower your risk for type 2 diabetes, a new large U.S. study suggests.

People who boosted their daily java intake by more than one cup over four years reduced their diabetes risk, while adults who drank less coffee in that time frame saw their odds for diabetes rise, the study of over 123,000 adults found.

"It looks like there is a dose-response relationship between increasing coffee consumption and a lower risk of diabetes," said lead researcher Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

"Basically, the more coffee, the lower the risk of diabetes," Hu said. "People who drink three to five cups of coffee a day enjoyed a significant reduction in type 2 diabetes risk."

However, people can drink too much coffee, particularly those who don't respond well to caffeine, Hu cautioned. Caffeine, a stimulant, keeps some people awake, and can also cause the heart to speed up.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_145878.html

Your Digestive Tract's Surface Is the Size of a Studio Apartment

The inner surface of your gastrointestinal tract is as large as a small studio apartment, or between about 100 and 130 square feet, according to a new study.

While that may seem impressive, it's much smaller than previous estimates that put it at between about 600 to 1000 square feet, or as large or larger than a tennis court.

The Swedish researchers used special microscopic techniques to determine the size of the gastrointestinal tract, which is about 16 feet long in a normal adult, but contains many folds and protrusions.

The small intestine accounts for the greatest part of the gastrointestinal tract's surface area, the researchers said. The large intestine accounts for only about 6.5 square feet while the mouth, esophagus and stomach amount to about 3 square feet, according to the researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

"It may appear to be simply a curious fact, but the dimensions of the inner surface of the gastrointestinal tract are important for the uptake of nutrients and drugs, and the new information will help us understand how the mucous membrane protects the body from harmful factors in the intestinal contents," study co-author Lars Fandriks said in a university news release.

Colleague Herbert Helander explained why previous estimates were wrong.

"The gastrointestinal tract is a dynamic system that is difficult to access in the abdominal cavity, and this makes it difficult to measure," he said in the news release. "Since the past measurements were carried out either during post mortems or during abdominal surgery, when the tissue is relaxed, it is easy to obtain misleading measurements."

The researchers noted that their estimate is for healthy average adults, and that the actual surface area of the digestive tract differs from person to person and is affected by factors such as diet and lifestyle.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_145876.html

Kids' Genetic Risk for Obesity Rises With Age, Study Finds

As children get older, genes appear to play an increasing role in whether some kids become heavier than their peers, a new study indicates.

Researchers looked at 2,556 pairs of twins in England and Wales when they were aged 4 and 10. The investigators focused on 28 genetic variants known to be associated with obesity risk.

The study also looked at each child's body-mass index (BMI), which is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight, at both ages.

The results indicated that the influence of the genetic variants rose over the years. In other words, genes appear to be responsible for 43 percent of the difference in size among kids at age 4, but 82 percent of the difference in size among kids at age 10, the study authors pointed out.

The findings, published in the current issue of the journal Obesity, confirm results from previous studies, according to the researchers.

"Our results demonstrate that genetic predisposition to obesity is increasingly expressed throughout childhood," study co-leader Dr. Clare Llewellyn, of the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, said in a university news release.

"This underlines the importance of intervening at an early age to try to counteract these genetic effects and reduce childhood obesity," she added.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_145864.html