Health Highlights: March 28, 2008

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments,
compiled by editors of HealthDay:

FDA Seeks $2.2 Million Penalty from Hearing
Aid Maker

Hearing aid maker Advanced Bionics LLC is being penalized $2.2 million
by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for alleged violations including
failing to adhere to manufacturing standards and for failing to notify the
agency that it had changed suppliers, the FDA said Friday.

The Sylmar, Calif., company makes a device called the HiRes90k
Implantable Cochlear Stimulator. The device is surgically implanted behind
the ear to treat profound hearing loss in both adults and children.

The agency%26#39;s legal complaint alleges that the company exposed device
users to unnecessary health risks by failing to follow standard
manufacturing procedures and by distributing devices that contained a
component provided by an unapproved vendor.

The complaint says Advanced Bionics shipped hearing aids in violation
of the law between January 2005 and July 2006. At least some of the
alleged violations occurred after a 2001 inspection, which had found
similar failures that the company had promised to correct, the agency
said.

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Brain Changes Affect Teen
Behavior

Natural changes in adolescents%26#39; brains affect their cognition, emotion
and behavior, say U.S. National Institute of Mental Health researchers,
who used MRI to examine the brains of volunteers.

The researchers found that brain gray matter increases in volume until
the early teens, then decreases until old age. The findings appear in the
April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Adolescence is a time of substantial neurobiological and behavioral
change, but the teen brain is not a broken or defective adult brain,"
wrote researcher Dr. Jay N. Giedd.

The findings come from the NIMH Longitudinal Brain Imaging Project,
which began in 1989.

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New Test Recommended to Determine
Cardiovascular Disease Risk

The way doctors treat patients at risk for cardiovascular disease may
change after Friday%26#39;s release of new guidelines from the American Diabetes
Association and the American College of Cardiology.

The guidelines say an additional test should be added to the standard
cholesterol test used to determine cardiovascular disease risk. The
guidelines endorse the use of advanced lipoprotein testing by nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) as a more accurate method to determine risk and
to check whether LDL ("bad") cholesterol-lowering therapies are having an
effect in patients.

NMR lipoprotein testing measures the number of LDL particles, which
carry cholesterol through the body, rather than cholesterol levels alone.
Studies have shown that it%26#39;s the number of lipoprotein particles present
in the blood, not the amount of cholesterol carried by these particles,
that form blockages inside arteries.

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Stroke Hospitalizations Higher Among U.S.
Blacks

Black Americans and people living in the Southeast have the highest
rates of stroke hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries in the
United States, says a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services.

The report -- Atlas of Stroke Hospitalizations Among Medicare
Beneficiaries -- also found that a large number of beneficiaries live in
counties where there is no access to care, or inadequate choices for
emergency care when they suffer a stroke.

About 21 percent of counties had no hospital, 31 percent had a hospital
without an emergency department, and 77 percent had a hospital with no
neurology services.

The atlas provides county-level maps of stroke hospitalizations for
blacks, whites and Hispanics. It showed the that stroke hospitalization
rate for blacks is 27 percent higher than for the U.S. population in
general, 30 percent higher than for whites, and 36 percent higher than for
Hispanics.

"The atlas highlights that where you live can determine how you live,
regarding your ability to take part in activities that reduce your risk of
stroke," study lead author Michele Casper, an epidemiologist at the CDC%26#39;s
Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, said in a prepared
statement.

"Examples of community conditions that can influence a person%26#39;s risk
for stroke include the availability of affordable healthy food, safe
options for physical activity, access to high quality health care, and
anti-smoking legislation and polices," Casper said.

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CF Drug Shows Promise

An investigational oral drug called VX-770 showed promising results in
treating cystic fibrosis (CF) patients who carry the G551D mutation of CF,
the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation said.

The drug is being co-developed by the foundation and Vertex
Pharmaceuticals Inc.

A 14-day phase 2a trial of 20 patients found that they showed
significant improvements in several key indicators of CF, including lung
function, nasal potential difference measurements, and sweat chloride
(salt) levels. The findings suggest that the drug improves function of
what is known as the CFTR protein.

This is the first time any potential therapy has been shown to improve
abnormal sweat chloride levels in CF patients. Excessive sweat chloride is
a key clinical indicator of CF.

"These early results are an extraordinary endorsement of our
hypothesis -- that small molecules can correct the basic defect and affect
the clinical indicators of cystic fibrosis," Robert J. Beall, president
and CEO of the foundation, said in a prepared statement.

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FDA Issues Warning About %26#39;Total Body Formula%26#39;
and %26#39;Total Body Mega Formula%26#39; Supplements

Consumers should not buy or consume the Tropical Orange and Peach
Nectar flavors of "Total Body Formula" or the Orange/Tangerine flavor of
"Total Body Mega Formula" because these liquid dietary supplements may
cause problems including significant hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea,
joint pain and fatigue, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The products have been recalled by the distributor, Total Body
Essential Nutrition of Atlanta, and the FDA is analyzing samples of the
products to identify the cause of the problems. It%26#39;s suspected the
products contain excessive amounts of selenium, which can cause the
symptoms shown by some consumers. Only small amounts of selenium -- a
trace mineral -- are needed for good health.

The FDA received reports from the Florida Department of Health about 23
people who suffered serious reactions seven to 10 days after using these
products. The FDA is also investigating reports of similar cases in
Tennessee.

Consumers with these products should stop using them and throw them
away. Anyone who has had adverse reactions after taking the products
should consult a health care professional, the FDA said.

For more information, call the FDA%26#39;s Food Safety Hotline at
1-888-SAFEFOOD.

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Brain Able to Detect Calorie Content of Food:
Study

Even when the brain can%26#39;t sense taste, it can still detect the calorie
content of food, say Duke University researchers, who genetically altered
the brains of mice so that they lost their ability to taste the
"sweetness" in foods.

When the mice were given a choice of two solutions -- one sweetened
with sugar, the other with the non-caloric sweetener sucralose -- they
showed a strong preference for the sugar solution, CBC News
reported.

This suggests that calorie content, not taste, guided their choice,
said the researchers, who also found that consuming the sugar solution
activated reward circuits in the brains of the mice. The study appears in
the journal Neuron.

"Our findings suggest that calorie-rich nutrients can directly
influence brain reward circuits that control food intake independently of
palatability or functional taste transduction," the researchers wrote.

The study results may help in efforts to treat obesity, CBC News
reported.