L'Oreal's 'Pill for Grey Hair' Raises Concerns

Ralf Nau/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- When news broke that L'Oreal was developing a pill to prevent grey hair, it made headlines around the world. But scientists say the pill, which has not yet been formulated, produces more questions than answers.

Bruno Bernard, head of the Hair Care, Quality and Color team at L'Oreal, first spoke about the cosmetic company's research, telling the Daily Mail the pill will be based on a fruit extract that mimics an enzyme called TRP-2, which isn't present in hair follicles.

TRP-2 helps make pigment-producing cells called melanocytes. In theory, the presence of TRP-2 could prevent hair from going gray.

"Ideally you would take [the pill] for your whole life, but realistically we'd encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey because we don't think it can reverse the process once it has started," he told the UK paper. "We have a watertight proof of concept, and we think it will have a market among men as well as women."

Dr. Jonathan Zippin, a dermatologist at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, told ABC that this kind of preventative solution to grey hair is "really difficult to prove" because some people never go grey, and others only grey a little bit.

If researchers gave the pill to someone who never got grey hair, there would be no way to know if it was because of the pill or not. In addition, there are several unanswered questions about a pill that alters pigment, Zippin noted, especially if it would affect the diagnosis of melanoma by making moles look atypical.

In a statement released Tuesday, L'Oreal briefly described its research efforts, but made no mention of a pill or the alleged 2015 release date widely reported by several media outlets.

"L'Oreal has demonstrated and published in peer-reviewed journals the protective role of the enzyme TRP-2. Its absence in hair follicle melanocytes is likely linked to progressive greying," the statement reads. "Experts in the field confirm that substances mimicking TRP-2 activity might be of value to fight hair greying."

At this point, reports of a pill to prevent grey hair seem "a little premature," according to L'Oreal spokesman Jonathan Maher.

Clearly a pill for grey hair is several years away, but with additional study, Zippin says L'Oreal's research could be "very promising."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Iowa Reports State's First Illness Linked to Listeria

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DE MOINES) – The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has reported the state’s first illness linked to the listeria outbreak associated with cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in Colorado.

The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) would not identify the woman, other than to say she is an adult between the age of 18 and 40 living in Northwest Iowa. IDPH Medical Director Dr. Patricia Quinlisk said the woman, who has since recovered, had been infected with a strain of listeria monocytogenes that matched the strain detected in cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in Colorado -- the place at the center of the investigation into the listeriosis outbreak.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified 100 cases associated with the outbreak in 20 states as of Monday morning, prior to Iowa's inclusion on the list. Nationwide, the case is the third known to have involved women who were pregnant when they fell ill. The CDC reported Tuesday that two other women were pregnant at the time they were infected and that their pregnancies were being monitored.

According to the CDC, pregnant women are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to get the bacterial infection, and roughly 17 percent of listeriosis cases occur during pregnancy.

The CDC lists foods such as hot dogs, luncheon meats and certain cheeses as listeria risks for pregnant women. Cantaloupes are not generally considered to be unsafe. That, along with the fact that the incubation time of the illness can be lengthy, has confounded investigators.

Listeria can cause fever, stiffness in the neck, confusion and vomiting. The elderly and those with weakened immune systems are at a greater risk for serious symptoms. However, not everyone who is exposed to the bacteria develops illness, Quinlisk said -- a fact that makes tracking the source of such infections even more difficult for investigators.

Although there have other listeria outbreaks in recent years, this is the first one attributed to whole cantaloupes, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

FDA: Cancer Drug Avastin, May Cause Ovarian Failure

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) – According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), treatment with Roche Holding AG’s cancer drug Avastin might have a detrimental effect on fertility in some women.

A new warning detailing the risk of “ovarian failure” was recently added to Avastin’s label, and doctors are now recommended to warn women of child-bearing age of the risk before they start treatment.

Ovarian failure means that there is a possibility that ovaries will stop releasing eggs regularly.

Avastin is most commonly used to treat certain types of lung, brain, kidney, colon and breast cancers, and though it is currently approved to treat each of the aforementioned cancers, the company is currently fighting to keep the FDA’s approval for breast cancer.

The pending decision from the FDA commissioner on whether to take away its approval for breast cancer is separate from the recent announcement about the drug's label revision -- part of routine practice. The FDA often revises drug labels when new data or side affects arise.

In a statement, Roche's Genentech unit said it "takes patient safety very seriously and consistently reports new safety information about our medicines, collected through clinical trials and in the postmarketing setting" to the FDA. The company also added that it is planning to send healthcare professionals a letter that would discuss any new labeling changes.

The updated information regarding ovarian failure came from a clinical trial of a study of 179 women with colon cancer. In addition to being treated with chemotherapy regimen, Folfox, half the women also received Avastin. Of those who received Avastin, 34% experienced ovarian failure compared to 2% of those not taking Avastin.

Ovarian function was restored to about 20% of the women after the Avastin treatment was stopped.

The FDA report also added that "Long-term effects of Avastin exposure on fertility are unknown.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Sex of Companions Affects Eating Habits

BananaStock/Thinkstock(INDIANA COUNTY, Ind.) -- It's not just the company we keep that influences how much we eat. A new study suggests it's the sex of the people around us that leads us to consume more or less food.

Researchers from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of Akron found that the average number of calories college students consumed varied depending on whether they ate with men, women or a mixed-sex group.

According to the study, on average when men eat with women they tend to consume more calories than when they are eating with other men. In contrast, women tend to consume fewer calories with men than if they were with women.

The study's lead author, Molly Allen-O'Donnell, a graduate student at Indiana University, sat at an eatery on the Indiana campus during lunch and dinner times over a 10-day period. She observed what foods students bought and who their dining companions were.

The results, she explained, suggest that food strongly influences the impressions people form of each other. For white, college-age females, eating less is a way to seem more feminine when men are around, and for college-age males, eating more when around women is a way to appear more masculine. Men, whether unconsciously or consciously, don't want to be seen as light eaters, especially in front of women.

"The theory is you're more aware of gender when you're with the opposite gender and may want to prove your gender more," Cottingham said.

"In a mixed group, women may think they're being judged if they eat more calories," said Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y.

Ayoob says it is also a possibility that women consume more calories when they are with other women because they are more relaxed, or that people eat fewer calories in groups because they are too busy talking and being social and aren’t as focused on eating.

Alex McIntosh, a sociology professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, has done extensive research on eating behavior. He said it's a well-known idea that food helps form strong impressions of people in a variety of situations.

Because of the power of social relationships, they should be considered when educating the public about better nutrition.

But giving people the nutritional information they need is also key, because even though people may eat less or eat healthier around certain groups of people, they may not make the same when they're alone.
"Restraining themselves when in a group doesn't mean that's all the food they're going to consume," said Ayoob. "People may eat very sparingly in a group and then hit the ice cream and chips at home."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Conjoined Twins: Doctors Debate Ethics of Separation Surgery

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(CLEVELAND) -- The decision to separate conjoined twins would be easy if it guaranteed a better life for both babies.  But the possibility of one or both twins dying or becoming severely disabled because of the surgery or the separation's effects weighs heavily on parents and doctors, according to a new report.

Two-year-old twins joined at the head were the focus of the report on the bioethics of separation surgery.  The girls, who were unnamed, shared kidneys and veins that drain blood from their brains, making separation surgery a risky undertaking unlikely to benefit both of them equally.  But leaving them joined could also threaten their health, not to mention their independence.

"In this case, every ethical principle is sort of turned on its head," said Dr. Devra Becker, a plastic surgeon at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland and senior author of the report published Monday in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal.  Those principles, including informed consent, the duty of doctors to heal and avoid harm, and the tenet that health care resources should be distributed fairly, form the framework of Becker's report.

The girls traveled with their parents to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland from Italy for separation surgery.  They are craniopagus twins -- the rarest form of conjunction affecting one in 2.5 million births.  Based on published cases, the odds of both twins surviving separation surgery are 33 percent -- the same odds for both twins dying.

"Few will debate the benefit of separation if the surgical risk is [zero].  Similarly, few will advocate for separation if the procedure guarantees the deaths of the twins," Becker and colleagues wrote in the report.  "The ethics of separation becomes more complex when the morbidity of separation lies between [zero] and 100 percent or if one twin will benefit more from the separation than the other."

Following the risky, not to mention expensive procedure, the larger twin would need a kidney transplant or lifelong dialysis to live.  The smaller twin would be at risk for brain damage.  But left together, the girls were at risk for kidney failure and cardiovascular disease.

The procedure could also give both twins the chance for a normal life.

After thoroughly weighing the risks and benefits, the Italian twins' parents and the medical team decided to move forward with the procedure.  The larger twin, who would be left without kidneys, would go on dialysis until she was strong enough for a transplant.  And the risk of brain damage in the smaller twin would be minimized by doing the procedure in stages.  The benefits of separation for both twins, both medical and otherwise, outweighed the risks.

But during the procedure, the surgeons noticed the layer of tissue covering the twins' brains was dangerously tight -- a twist that tipped the risk-benefit scale.  The surgery was aborted, and both twins recovered.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

More Deaths Confirmed from Cantaloupes in Listeria Outbreak

Medioimages/Photodisc/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- In what's been deemed by public health officials as the deadliest outbreak of food-borne illness in more than a decade, the number of people sickened by listeria-tainted cantaloupes has gone up yet again.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Tuesday that 100 illnesses, including 18 deaths, have now been reported; that’s up from the 15 deaths and 84 illnesses that were confirmed on Friday.

Illnesses from the recalled melons, which came from Jensen Farms in Colorado and were sold under the name Rocky Ford cantaloupes, have been reported in 20 states: Colorado (5), Kansas (2), Maryland (1), Missouri (1), Nebraska (1), New Mexico (5), Oklahoma (1), and Texas (2).

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Texting Can Double a Driver's Reaction Time, Study Finds

Hemera/Thinkstock(COLLEGE STATION, Texas) -- We've all been told texting while driving is very dangerous, but a new study released Wednesday finds it's even worse than you might think.

The Texas Transportation Institute found that texting behind the wheel can more than double a driver's reaction time, whether sending or receiving a text message.  Drivers who didnt't text were found to react between one and two seconds, while drivers who did took at least three to four seconds.

Most texting-related accidents in the U.S. involve teenagers who, the institute says, die in traffic accidents by numbers that would fill a commercial airliner every week for a year.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

PANDAS: Strep Throat Can Lead to OCD in Children

Courtesy of Kelly Bossman(CLAYTON, N.C.) -- Karli Bossman was a happy 5-year-old from Clayton, N.C., who loved going to kindergarten, until one day in 2008 when the easy-going child suddenly became obsessive and defiant.

She ripped off her socks and underwear because they "hurt" and insisted on wearing pajamas.  And Karli refused to get in the car because she was afraid it would run out of gas.

At first, her parents thought the little girl was being bullied, but after checking with her teachers, that was not the case.  What was so frightening was how quickly her behavior changed.

The little girl also had an irrational fear of elevators and was scared to go to bed at night for fear she would have a bad dream.

It took two years and 14 doctors to finally figure out what was wrong.  Karli, who'd had at least 19 cases of strep throat in the last three years, had developed PANDAS -- pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection.

Symptoms include obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) -- general anxiety, emotional mood swings, rages and oppositional defiance behavior.  Some children have learning disabilities and lose fine motor skills movement.

"It's not a rare disorder, it's just rarely diagnosed," said Dr. Denis Bouboulis, an immunologist from Darien, Conn., and one of the top experts on PANDAS.  "There are a lot of children actually misdiagnosed as having a primary psychiatric symptoms, when, in fact they are autoimmune and organic."

The disorder was first described in the mid-1990s, but has only recently been recognized by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).  For years, medical experts thought the link between a strep throat and OCD was only coincidental.

But in 2009, a Columbia University study confirmed that a strep infection could cause PANDA symptoms like OCD behavior and Tourette syndrome tics in mice.  According to that research, those psychiatric disorders affect 25 percent of adults and more than 3 percent of all children.

Scientists think that PANDAS and its quick onset use the same pathways as rheumatic fever, affecting the part of the brain that controls movement and behavior in a phenomenon known as molecular mimicry.

Karli's journey, which continues today as her family strives to find an effective treatment, involved many misdiagnoses, including the use of antipsychotic drugs that have side effects like tremors and weight gain.

Now, the mother of four wants to try intravenous immune globulin (IV IG) treatment that was pioneered by Bouboulis.  That helped Lauren Johnson, the Chesapeake, Va., girl who sneezed 12,000 times a day because of an OCD tic.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Andrew Zimmern on What’s Wrong and Right with American Food

Michael N. Todaro/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- He’s known for biting into a frog’s beating heart and chomping on water crickets, but for Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern, what’s really disgusting is the buttered, battered blasphemy peddled by Paula Deen, Sandra Lee and their peers.

“With people like Paula, with people like Sandra Lee, and other people who represent those types of foods and eating and lifestyle, I think it’s not bad that they’re saying, ‘Hey you should try this,’ it’s that they’re not saying ‘Don’t eat it all the time,’” Zimmern told ABC News on Sunday at the New York Food & Wine Festival’s Carts in the Parc event to benefit the Food Bank of New York City. In short: If Paula Deen’s going to teach you how to make fried butter balls, she should also teach you to indulge in them maybe a couple times in your life.

“It’s the same problem I have with the fast food industry," Zimmern said. “There’s nothing wrong with getting a hamburger sometimes. There’s nothing wrong with getting chicken fingers. What’s wrong is commoditizing food to the point where it’s poisonous, cheapening it to the point that anyone can afford it and selling it as something that you should eat all the time. I think that’s very dangerous.”

“Those of us that have a very large platform have a responsibility to tell other people what they’re thinking and feeling,” he continued. “People want to know where I travel, they want to know what I believe in, they want to know how I live my life. This is how I live my life,” he said, holding up a palm-sized Italian pork slider, “Right size portions, despite my un-right sized appetites of all types.”

Zimmern’s appetite took him and his Travel Channel show through the U.S. for the seventh season of Bizarre Foods, which premieres in January.

But his biggest takeaway from filming: Americans need to slow down.

“For peace of mind and for comfort, it’s important to get back to that time when we were up with the sun, down with the sun,” he said. “Eating with the seasons. Spending more time with community and family. I think we’ve lost that.”

Meanwhile, one of the fellow celebrity cooks Zimmern called out is moving in the other direction.

“Our jobs are to service the over-extended homemaker, this is what the show Semi-Homemade is all about,” Food Network host Sandra Lee said in a statement to ABC News. "It offers solutions -- it does not micro-manage the viewers ‘common sense’ (we assume they have it when it comes to their diets).” Deen did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Can Diets Disrupt Cancer Cells?

Duncan Smith/Thinkstock(BOSTON) -- In the medical world, there have been many claims for anti-cancer foods. Now researchers are studying not what those foods might do to cancer cells, but the effect they might have on the environment around the cancer.
 
Experts are saying that an understanding of the tumor environment could aid doctors in developing new prevention methods and treatment for cancer, according to a USA Today report.

For example, researchers are investigating the benefits of "anti-cancer" diets that may help regulate both inflammation and new blood vessel growth. "Anti-inflammatory" diets include those common in Asia and Mediterranean countries -- fatty fish, soy, green leafy vegetables, whole grains, and even green tea.  

Doctor William Li of the Angiogenesis Foundation in Boston says, "There are things we can do as individuals that don't involve doctors and that may influence the microenvironment."  

For example, researchers have studied non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, such as aspirin, as a way to reduce the risk of colon and breast cancer. At UCLA, doctors are studying the effect of drugs called "beta-blockers" on breast cancer patients. The drugs cause a "fight-or-flight" response in the nervous system.  Early studies of patients who took the drugs before and after breast cancer diagnosis showed a lower risk of relapse and death. These findings were first reported in USA Today.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio