In one, freelance writer Ben Harder and I decided to dispense with all that sensible "moderation" advice about taking small portions and eschewing the gravy and pie.

Instead, we set out to learn what the science of human eating behavior tells us about conditions that make us prone to gorge or exercise restraint. Things like... the size of your plate. The color of your tablecloth. The tightness of your clothes. And more. Read and enjoy.

(We shouldn't have to say this, but we will: These are not necessarily serious suggestions, friends! But they do present an interesting window into eating psychology.)

The other is filled with info about turkeys -- nutritional profile of different parts of the bird, how to read a label, what's allowed to be added to turkeys and what isn't. As if you cared much about that stuff on the day itself. But, as freelance writer Karen Ravn said in the article's intro, the rest of the year, you might. 

--Rosie Mestel

Photo credit: Bill Hogan / Chicago Tribune

According to the CDC, swine flu activity is widespread in 43 states now, down from 46 last week, but health officials fear a resurgence as people travel around the country for the holidays, carrying their germs with them.

During the week ending Nov. 6, prescriptions for the four antiviral drugs used in combating swine flu fell by nearly 15% to 472,415, the lowest number in several weeks, according to Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions of Bridgewater, N.J. The company provides data about prescriptions for the drug to the Food and Drug Administration and independently prepared an analysis for The Times, using a tool called Pharmaceutical Audit Suite.

During the same week in California, however, prescriptions for the four drugs -- more than 90% of them for Tamiflu -- climbed 17.4% to 17,672. The California Department of Public Health reported Thursday that hospitalizations and deaths in the state were declining, but that information is from a week later than the drug data.

During the first week of November, prescriptions for the antiviral drugs rose nearly 26% to 7,394 in the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana area; rose 26.5% to 1,436 in the Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario area; and rose 33.5% to 2,635 in the San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos area. Most other areas of the state showed similar increases.

Quest Diagnostics of Madison, N.J., which manufactures a genetic test for swine flu and also uses the test in its commercial testing laboratories, said demand for the test has fallen since Oct. 27 after several weeks of strong demand. In specimens it tested in its own facilities up to Nov. 10, the number that tested positive for swine flu virus has been dropping in all age groups except for people over 65. The decline suggests that many of the patients seeking tests had other respiratory infections. In the over-65 group, the percentage of positive tests has tripled since late August and is now at 14%, the company said. The proportion of positive tests for swine flu has dropped across the country except for the Northeast, where it has doubled in the two weeks ending Nov. 10.

In other swine flu news:

-- Health authorities around the world have been on the lookout for cases of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu virus, fearing that a wide spread of resistant strains would make treating infections much more difficult. So far, about 50 cases have been identified, including two clusters observed this week -- a group of four cases in North Carolina and a group of five in Wales. All four of the North Carolina patients were hospitalized and were very ill with underlying severely compromised immune systems and multiple other complex medical conditions, according to researchers from the Duke University Medical Center. Three of the four died. No details have been released about how the patients caught the resistant virus or whether there was any contact among them.

Five patients at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff were identified with Tamiflu-resistant swine flu infections, and three of them appear to have caught it in the hospital. The only previous case in which transmission of a resistant virus is thought to have occurred involved two youths at a North Carolina camp this summer. In other patients, the virus developed resistance while they were being treated and they did not pass it on to anyone. Two of the five patients have recovered, one is in critical care, and two are receiving normal care.

-- A batch of about 170,000 doses of swine flu vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline has been recalled in Canada after health officials noticed an unusually high number of allergic reactions to the vaccine. Most of the cases involved immediate anaphylactic reactions to the vaccine, and recipients were treated on site by medical personnel at the immunization clinics. No lasting effects of the allergic reaction have been observed. Glaxo said it is investigating the batch to see if there is anything unusual about it.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

As today's story noted: "Human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer and infects half of all young women within a few years of sexual activity's start, also causes cell changes called dysplasia. Those abnormal cells are typically removed before they become cancerous. But such treatment may not be necessary."

Here's an overview of cervical dysplasia from the Women's Health Channel. It notes that up to 70% of mild cases resolve on their own.

The likelihood of progression depends on the amount of dysplasia. Here's what the site says about the stages.

And here are some questions and answers about human papillomaviruses, which have also been linked to cancers of the anus, penis, vulva and vagina -- and to genital warts. The information is from the National Cancer Institute. Of note: There are more than 100 types of HPV;  some are considerably more likely to cause cancer than others.

It states: "Both high-risk and low-risk types of HPV can cause the growth of abnormal cells, but only the high-risk types of HPV lead to cancer. Sexually transmitted, high-risk HPVs include types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, and 73. These high-risk types of HPV cause growths on the cervix that are usually flat and nearly invisible, as compared with the external warts caused by low-risk types HPV–6 and HPV–11. HPV types 16 and 18 together cause about 70% of cervical cancers."

The Gardasil vaccine can protect against some, including types 16 and 18, but not all.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: The HPV vaccine protects against four strains.

Credit: European Pressphoto Agency

Currently, teeth whiteners, which commonly use hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide as the active ingredient, are neither drug nor cosmetic device nor medical device, according to the dental association.

The ADA wants the FDA to put the chemicals in a category and evaluate them for safety.

Depending on the outcome of that evaluation, the whitening compounds could be available on an unrestricted, over-the-counter basis or, if determined to be at the upper end of risky, could be restricted to prescription-only availability.

“Without appropriate regulation, the application of chemically-based tooth whitening/bleaching agents may result in harm to both hard and soft tissues in the mouth,” the ADA said in a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

Dr. Ron Zentz, senior director of the ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs, said the FDA was supposed to have classified whiteners years ago but never finished the task.

Zentz said there was no particular tipping point for the ADA’s request, but the letter to Hamburg notes that a lot of business is being transacted outside of dentists’ offices, with potential harm to consumers – not to mention to dentists’ bottom lines. 
  
“The tremendous expansion of products available directly to consumers and application of products in venues such as shopping malls, cruise ships, and salons is troubling since consumers have little or no assurance regarding the safety of product ingredients, doses or the professional qualifications of individuals employed in these non-dental settings,” the letter states.

-- Andrew Zajac

Photo illustration credit: Los Angeles Times

Researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs' Northern California Health Care System and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond analyzed details of the thousands of people who have competed in the race from 1974 through 2007. About 3,459 runners have finished the race since its inception, but the profiles of those men and women have changed. Many more women, for example, are competing: from 1986 to 1988, women made up 10% to 12% of the field, but since 2001 that has almost doubled to 20% to 22% of all runners.

Competitors are older too -- the average age of male and female race starters has gradually increased since 1986. In 1986, the average male runner was 41, but between 2000 and 2007 the average runner was 45 to 47. Researchers chalk those statistics up to the fact that more women age 40 and up and more men age 50 and up have been competing, and also fewer men under 50 have entered the race.

From the very first race, the average age of the top five finishes has risen from the early 30s to the late 30s. While the top five men have shown only minor changes in finish times between 1979 and 2007, not so for the women -- they've improved 37 minutes every 10 years from 1980 through 2007. That means the differences in finish times between the top five men and women have gotten smaller by 4% per decade, to about 14% in 2007. The researchers note that there was a 12% time difference between top five finish times for men and women in both the 2007 Hawaii Ironman competition and the 2007 New York City Marathon.

The study appears in the December issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.

-- Jeannine Stein

Photo credit: Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times

The antipsychotic medication risperidone is approved for those with autism to reduce irritability, and many other medications are widely used to rein in the defiance and explosive behavior that often come with a PDD diagnosis. But a group of researchers, spurred by the National Institute of Mental Health, set out to see if parent training could help children already on medication to further temper their negative behaviors, and bring an added measure of peace to their families.

Compared with kids on medication alone, the behavior of children whose parents got a battery of training sessions improved more and by several measures. The success of the program prompted the authors of the study — researchers from Ohio State University, Indiana University, Yale University and the University of Pittsburgh as well as with NIMH — to declare they will make the parent-training manual, homework assignments and therapist scripts broadly available. Their study is published in the Journal of the American College of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry

"Because parents are the agents of change, parent training is less expensive than many other forms of psychosocial intervention," the researchers concluded. The growing population of kids with PDD, they added, makes the availability of "effective behavioral interventions" an urgent need.

Over 24 weeks, the parents of children with pervasive developmental disorder attended as many as 17 sessions, 60 to 90 minutes long, aimed at teaching them to help the child acquire and consolidate self-management and communication skills and to be more flexible and compliant. Parents learned to use visual schedules to ease transitions, to use positive reinforcement effectively, to teach their kids how to communicate their needs and be more flexible. A behavior therapist came to the home twice and made two telephone calls to answer questions and give support. 

— Melissa Healy

Even though levels have declined, however, they are still "higher than peak activity in many years," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of  the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Officials fear, moreover, that flu activity will pick up as people travel around the country for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately, she said, there are little data from seasonal flu on which to base predictions because such data are usually not prevalent so early in the year. Respiratory disease in general, however, does tend to increase early in the year after travel for the Christmas holidays. "We don't really know what is going to happen," she said.

There were an additional 21 laboratory-confirmed pediatric deaths last week, bringing the total for the year to 171 -- compared with 40 to 50 in a normal flu season. Fifteen of the deaths were confirmed to be caused by swine flu and the other six were confirmed to be caused by influenza A and are assumed to be swine flu. Overall, about two-thirds of the children who have died suffered from underlying conditions, such as asthma, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.

As for the swine flu vaccine, "we are not where we want to be, but it is quickly being ordered and shipped," Schuchat said. As of this morning, 54.1 million doses have become available, 11 million more than were available last Friday, she said. About half of the doses shipped so far have been given to children, she said, and "the vast majority have gone to people who self-identified as being in a priority group." She said CDC will report data next week about potentially adverse events, "but so far we haven't seen any signals of unusual occurrences with swine flu vaccine or seasonal vaccine that would prompt us to feel urgent interventions are needed."

Schuchat also said that the agency is closely monitoring reports of an unusual strain of the swine flu virus that has been observed in some patients in Norway. The unusual strain has been seen sporadically in locations around the world, including the United States, she said, but so far there is no evidence that the mutation involved will make the virus more lethal or increase its resistance to the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Take a look at this chart offered up by the American Dietetic Assn. The first thing that pops out is the sodium content. The word "wow" comes to mind. Field Roast Celebration? 710 milligrams per serving. The always adorable Tofurky? (It's a fun word, admit it.) 510 milligrams.

There's also a comparison to the more traditional turkey -- you know, the kind made from a turkey -- but that's more for idle curiosity. Nutrition info in such decisions tends to be beside the point.

Here's the news release if you want the chart summarized for you. And more on sodium from the American Heart Assn.

One more fact: A serving of turkey breast without skin has only 52 milligrams of sodium.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: I dunno... Maybe sodium isn't so bad...

Credit: Los Angeles Times

 Today's story: Group recommends less frequent Pap tests 

The women who should be worried, physicians point out, are those who remain under-screened.

Half of the women who die from cervical cancer never had a Pap test, and 10% had not been screened in the five years before detection.

Overall, about 20% of U.S. women don’t get regular Pap tests, and 40% fail to get regular mammograms, said Dr. Edward Partridge, an oncologist at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. He’s the chairman of the cervical cancer screening guidelines panel for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

“The biggest problem is women who don’t get screened at all,” he said. “That is where your breast cancer is. That is where your cervical cancer is.”

-- Shari Roan

Here's what our colleagues at L.A. Now report: H1N1 deaths and hospitalizations slowed last week in state.

Health officials, of course, advise against relaxing your guard.

— Tami Dennis

Go here to read about -- and watch a "Good Morning America" interview with -- a member of the task force, Dr. Timothy Wilt, who defended the panel's conclusions.

According to the report, Wilt said, among other things: "Cost is not considered at all. This is about providing high-quality healthcare for the individual [and] providing the information they need to know to make an informed decision.... The information is based on eight very large, randomized, controlled trials of mammograms in women, a series of six different databases and a variety of other studies."

It'll be interesting to see what doctors do with this information as the weeks and months unfold. Check out this article in U.S. News and World Report outlining what three physicians (a gynecologist, a family physician and an internist) say they will do when counseling patients of that age set -- recommend annual mammograms, advise against them or something in between?

Want more reaction? Read a column by Susan Perry in the MinnPost. She is taken aback by all the anger.

And here's a TV interview of a breast cancer survivor Christi Rich, who was diagnosed at age 47. She's against the new guidelines, arguing that her breast cancer would have been undetected under them.

The proposed measure would replace those terms with "intellectual disability" and "individual with an intellectual disability."

The Arc of the United States — the nation's largest and most active advocacy group for those with intellectual and related developmental disabilities — calls the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" "outdated" and "stigmatizing." The group applauds the measure, which was proposed by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), and says it's high time that federal language was updated.

" 'Retard,' 'retarded' and 'retardation,' once accepted medical terms, are now used only to insult and demean people," said Peter V. Berns, chief executive of the Arc, in a statement supporting Mikulski's proposal. He added, "Changing how we talk about people with disabilities is a critical step in promoting and protecting their basic civil rights."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already use the updated term, as does the Office of the President — to which the Committee for People With Intellectual Disabilities reports. But some landmark laws — including the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Higher Education Act and the law known as No Child Left Behind — still use the terms.

The measure replicates a law recently passed by the Maryland State Assembly. As they deliberated, state lawmakers heard from 13-year-old Nick Marcellino, whose sister, Rosa, has an intellectual disability. "Some say we shouldn't worry about the words, just the way we treat people. But when you think about it, what you call people is how we treat them. If we change the words, maybe it'll be the start of a new attitude toward people with intellectual disabilities."

Mikulski has dubbed her measure Rosa's Law, in honor of Nick's sister.

There are 7 million people living with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in the United States, and the origins of their disabilities are legion, ranging from birth injury, illness, genetic defect (a term that some may also challenge) and environmental factors. A recent post here at Booster Shots talked about a raft of medications now under study in the treatment of Down syndrome and about a survey that found that 60% of parents of offspring with the disorder would likely take a pass on such a treatment if it became available.

So, is it political correctness run amok, or is it a group's right of self-determination to stipulate (by law, no less) how they should be referred to? There are plenty of precedents to point to. But some will resist being dictated to when it comes to language.

— Melissa Healy

Here's ...

The news release from Stanford University.

The abstract from the study, based on an analysis of a large national database and published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.

And more on pregnancy and MS (from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society) and on pregnancy and epilepsy (from the Epilepsy Foundation).

Both MS and epilepsy are relatively common in women of child-bearing years. And the findings should provide some reassurance to those with the conditions who are pregnant -- or contemplating becoming so.

-- Tami Dennis

Advanced Cell Technology Inc., a Santa Monica-based biotech company with labs in Massachusetts, announced today that it has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval to test retinal cells grown from stem cells in 12 people with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy.

The disease is a childhood version of macular degeneration and affects about one in 10,000 kids. Patients typically begin to lose their central vision between the ages of 6 and 20. As SMD progresses, things may look blurry and distorted, and patients may have trouble adjusting to low light. About half of victims are legally blind by age 50. There is no cure.

Most cases occur when children inherent a faulty version of the ABCA4 gene or the CNGB3 gene from both parents.  As a result, the photoreceptor cells in the retina don’t get enough fuel, and they atrophy.

ACT hopes to reverse this by supplying patients with new retinal pigment epithelium cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. The RPE cells have been shown to improve vision in animals, with one study restoring eye function in sick rats and mice to “near-normal” levels. Another study boosted rats’ vision to 70% that of healthy animals. No adverse side effects were found in any of the company’s pre-clinical studies, Dr. Robert Lanza, ACT’s chief scientific officer, said in an interview.

ACT proposes a Phase I/II trial designed to assess the safety and tolerability of its RPE cells. The company and its collaborators would like to recruit a dozen patients with advanced SMD at three sites: the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Ore.; the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester; and the UMDNJ – New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

Amid much fanfare, Geron Corp. received FDA approval in January to use specialized nerve cells made out of human embryonic stem cells to treat a handful of patients paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. Those plans are on hold while the company conducts pre-clinical studies to address some safety concerns about its cells, known as GRNOPC1. Last month, Geron said it expected to initiate its clinical trial in the third quarter of 2010.

Since their creation in 1998, human embryonic stem cells have been a highly controversial area of medical research. The cells are derived from days-old human embryos, which gives them the ability to grow into any type of cell in the body. Some scientists – like those at ACT and Geron – envision using them to grow replacement tissues to treat sick patients. But many people are troubled by the fact that the stem cells are typically made by dismantling and destroying human embryos.

ACT has tried to sidestep the ethical debate by using a different method to create its stem cell lines. Instead of using an entire embryo, the company figured out a way to remove only a single blastomere cell from a three-day-old embryo and turn it into a cell line. Such single-cell biopsies are routinely performed in fertility clinics to screen embryos for devastating genetic diseases, and the procedure leaves the embryo intact. The RPE cells that would be used in the clinical trial were grown from one of the company’s single-blastomere cell lines, Lanza said.

The company is also making and testing RPE cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. So-called iPS cells behave like embryonic stem cells but are made by reprogramming mature cells taken from children or adults, not from embryos. However, the reprogramming process currently involves viruses and genetic manipulation techniques that make the cells unsuitable for human therapies.

Lanza said ACT decided to target Stargardt’s macular dystrophy first because it has been designated an “orphan disease” and could benefit from a faster regulatory review. The FDA has 30 days to respond to the company’s filing, made Wednesday, and the clinical trial could begin early next year.

If all goes well, the company plans to seek permission to use its RPE cells to treat age-related macular degeneration, Lanza said. That disorder is much more common, and it destroys the central vision of an estimated 1.75 million Americans.

-- Karen Kaplan

Photo: Scientists from Advanced Cell Technology remove a single cell from a days-old embryo, which was used to create a line of human embryonic stem cells. Stem cells made this way were grown into eye cells that the company hopes will treat patients with Stargardt's macular dystrophy. Credit: Associated Press photo/Advanced Cell Technology

She said fewer than a dozen suspected cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome have been reported following vaccination. "Only a few of these Guillain-Barre cases may be linked to the pandemic vaccine," she said. "Illness has been transient and patients have recovered." Guillain-Barre has been a particular concern because many cases occurred during the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign, although none were definitively linked to the vaccine. That has led to the belief in some quarters that the vaccine is worse than the illness.

Kieny said that at least 80 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed to 16 countries, and at least 65 million have been administered so far. Those figures may be conservative, however, "because immunization campaigns are underway now in 40 countries. Overall, she said, the WHO has received reports of one adverse event for every 10,000 doses of vaccine. Among those reports, five out of 100 have been for serious events, for an overall rate of five serious events for every 1 million vaccinations. Many of those events were allergic reactions among people with unsuspected allergies to eggs.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

Premature ejaculation is generally defined as ejaculation that occurs within a minute after insertion of the penis into the vagina, causing distress to both parties. The condition is thought to affect as many as one in three U.S. men ages 18 to 59, about twice as many as those who suffer from erectile dysfunction. Some antidepressant-like drugs, such as dapoxetine, have been approved in a few countries to treat the condition, but the Food and Drug Administration rejected it because of long-term side effects. Some physicians prescribe anesthetic creams like EMLA cream for off-label use to delay ejaculation, but such creams require 45 minutes to work and the man must use a condom to prevent the anesthetic from numbing the woman.

Plethora Solutions of London and Sciele Pharma Inc. of Atlanta have developed a spray anesthetic, called PSD502 or Tempe, that contains lidocaine and prilocaine dispensed by a metered aerosol. It is applied five minutes before intercourse, and it selectively numbs the head of the penis.

The new trial, led by Dr. Michael G. Wyllie of Plethora enrolled 256 patients at 38 centers in the U.S., Canada and Poland. Their average duration of intercourse was less than 0.6 minutes. Two-thirds of the participants used PSD502; the rest were given a placebo. Wyllie reported today at a San Diego meeting of the Sexual Medicine Society of North America that men receiving the drug increased their intercourse time to an average of 2.6 minutes, compared with an increase to only 0.8 minutes in the placebo group. The benefits persisted for the three months of the study and both men and women reported greater satisfaction with their sexual experiences. No significant adverse effects were observed.

The company expects to apply for FDA approval of the drug in the first quarter of 2010, Sciele Chief Executive Patrick Forteau said.

-- Thomas H. Maugh II

They're asked to assess the science on mammograms, they duly do so and come out with advice that's unpopular — suggesting that regular mammograms are not advisable for most women under 50 (not a new debate) and not advisable for women over 50 every year — and now everyone's beating up on them. 

They even dared to suggest that breast self-exams are not helpful (also not a new debate).

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seemed to distance herself from their conclusions and advice by telling the American people to "keep doing what you have been doing for years — talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions and make the decision that is right for you."

That's not enough for the American College of Radiology.

It "is pleased to see that Secretary Sebelius has reaffirmed that mammography is a vital and lifesaving tool in the battle against breast cancer. We strongly urge women and providers to continue to adhere to the current American Cancer Society and American College of Radiology policies regarding mammographic screening," it says in a statement.

(Did anyone actually think that the task force was saying mammograms are a total waste of time and that women should never, ever get them?)

But the college also wants the task force to reverse its recommendation:

"As the task force is referenced in healthcare reform legislation as a significant factor in determining which preventative services may be offered under government 'insurance exchanges' outlined in the legislation, we ask that the secretary officially ask the task force to rescind their mammography recommendations in order to avoid confusion as healthcare reform moves forward."

—Rosie Mestel

The nation as a whole, which has a pre-term birth rate of 12.7%, got a D.

Prematurity is the No. 1 cause of newborn death and is linked to complications such as learning, behavior and feeding problems, as well as a heightened risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Even late pre-term births (34 to 36 weeks instead of the full-term number of 40) raises risks. Elective cesarean sections have caused the rates of late pre-term birth to rise in recent years.

Read the report at the March of Dimes website.

--Rosie Mestel

Photo credit: Loyola University Medical Center via Getty Images

Seriously. "My message to women is simple. Mammograms have always been an important lifesaving tool in the fight against breast cancer, and they still are today. Keep doing what you have been doing for years — talk to your doctor about your individual history, ask questions and make the decision that is right for you."

Here's her full statement.

(Enjoy the fallout, task force folks! You're on your own!)

If you want to know more about that panel, check it out here.

By the way, it's sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an agency that — we'll say it if few others will — is known for producing excellent work based on science, not emotion. That agency is within, yep, the Department of Health and Human Services.

Here's the original story: Mammogram guidelines spark heated debate

Plus a blog post on the reaction: Don't like those new mammogram recommendations? You're not alone

And here's today's story: Mammography outcry points to trouble for healthcare reform: Some Republicans say the new recommendations are an example of "rationing" that would take place under President Obama's plan to save money by basing treatment on experts' advice.

— Tami Dennis

Photo: HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she wanted to address recent confusion head on. Address it, she did. Clear it up? Perhaps not.

Credit: Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images

A new study finds that their schedule may cause cops to develop metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms including high blood pressure, insulin resistance and high trigylcerides that advance development of such conditions such as stroke, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

The research, published in the current issue of Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health, focused on 98 police offers who were part of the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress study, which began in 2003. The participants had their blood pressure checked, took a blood test and had their waist circumference measured. They also filled out a questionnaire focusing on lifestyle choices such as sleep habits, physical activity, and smoking and alcohol use.

Researchers discovered that in general, those on afternoon and midnight shifts were younger than those working during the day, and predominately male. Overall, 30% of the police officers on the night shift had metabolic syndrome. In the general population, that number was 21%, taken from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. The younger officers on the night shift (average 36.5 years) also had higher rates of metabolic syndrome than age-matched men and women in the general population, who came in at 24%.

Waist circumference was larger and HDL "good" cholesterol levels were lower among night shift cops compared to the general population and to officers working day and evening shifts. Officers working nights who got less than six hours of sleep had higher averages of metabolic syndrome factors than day shift workers.

"One potential explanation for this unusual finding is that midnight shift officers were most likely to be sleep deprived because of difficulties associated with day sleeping," said John Violanti, the study's lead author, in a news release. The research associate professor at the University of Buffalo's department of social and preventive medicine added, "Sleep debt has been shown to have a harmful impact on carbohydrate metabolism and endocrine function, which could contribute to metabolic disorders."

In the study, the authors wrote, "Information gained through this study may be useful to aid further investigation of not only police officer health, but also the health of those in other first-responder occupations."

--Jeannine Stein

Photo credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times