Ontario KingFisher Cantaloupe Recall - Potential Salmonella

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is warning the public not to consume some KingFisher brand cantaloupes because they may be contaminated with salmonella.

The affected produce was distributed in cartons of six or nine cantaloupes and bears stickers with the following information:

KingFisher Brand

Produce of U.S.A.

UPC 0 33383 11600 6

4050

Fisher Ranch Corp., Blythe, CA, 92225

These cantaloupes were distributed in Ontario and sold between May 16 and June 2.
Consumers who have purchased whole cantaloupes or in-store products containing pieces of fresh cantaloupes and are not sure of the brand should inquire at the place of purchase to verify if the stores have received the affected product.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the affected cantaloupes.

Consumption of food contaminated with this bacteria may cause salmonellosis.

In young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, salmonellosis may cause serious and sometimes deadly infections.

In otherwise healthy people, salmonellosis may cause short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

The importer, Gambles Ontario Produce Inc. of Toronto, is voluntarily recalling the affected cantaloupes from the marketplace.

The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.

Source: Canadian Press

Iron Age

Weight training helpful to elderly and patients with heart failure, experts say

Pumping a little iron can help elderly nursing home residents and heart failure patients gain strength for everyday life, the American Heart Association says, expanding on earlier advice.

"Those folks are capable of exercise training benefits and certainly resistance training is part of that," said Mark Williams, who led the group that wrote the new guidance published Monday online in the journal Circulation.

Williams said resistance training, whether it's lifting weights or doing sit-ups, should be used as a complement to aerobic exercise.

"A lot of people after having a heart attack or heart failure think they need to 'take it easy,"' said Dr. Amit Khera, director of cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He said broader guidance should help reassure doctors and patients that it's probably OK for most people to start exercising after heart trouble.

Khera said cardiac patients using weights are often restricted to lighter weights of about one or two kilograms for the first couple of weeks.

The heart association statement cited one study of a 10-week period of resistance training among nursing home residents with an average age of 87 that resulted in improvements in strength and stair-climbing power. In a study of older women who were heart failure patients, 10 weeks of resistance training resulted in a 43 per cent increase in muscle strength and a 49 per cent increase in the distance covered in a six-minute walk.

The statement also notes that elderly people and women who suffer from coronary heart disease (a narrowing of the small blood vessels to the heart), or are frail can benefit from workouts including resistance training because they build muscle strength.

Resistance weight training includes using one's body for weight resistance by doing things like abdominal crunches to using resistance-cord exercises, dumbbells, wrist weights or weight machines.

It's been known for some time that resistance training is good for everyone, from those with chronic diseases to healthy people. Resistance training for heart patients has been gaining momentum for the last two decades or so, said Williams, professor of medicine in the cardiology division at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb.

Tom Simerly, 57, of suburban DeSoto, who had a procedure to open a clogged artery seven weeks ago, started rehabilitation a week after he got out of the hospital. Though lackadaisical about exercise before, Simerly said that he's noticed improved strength as he goes to rehab three days a week. He works out on a treadmill, stationary bicycle and has graduated from free weights to weight machines.

"The whole regimen has been really good," said Simerly, who works for a Dallas engineering firm. "My stamina's better. I sleep better. I feel better about myself. I've lost some weight."

Dr. Art Labovitz, cardiology director at St. Louis University School of Medicine, said that despite increasing knowledge about the benefits of resistance training, the public perception is likely that it's largely off-limits for heart patients.

"I think probably the conventional wisdom is that if you have a heart condition, you can't lift weights," Labovitz said.

He added that there may be some circumstances where a heart patient shouldn't do such training.

The statement recommends that those who do resistance training start out slow, setting the resistance or weight load at a moderate level to achieve the prescribed repetition range without straining. Elderly people should start with a low level of resistance. As progress is made, they should first increase the number of repetitions before adding weight or resistance.

Resistance weight training can help heart patients resume activities from their daily life by building muscle strength, said Jenny Adams of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital.

"The truth of the matter is when you ask these patients what their goals are, they want to lift their grandkids, work in the yard," Adams said.

source: CBC.ca

Elderly Sleeping Pill Addiction

Half of elderly patients become chronic sleeping pill users

Half of elderly patients prescribed a type of sleeping pill upon release from hospital are chronic users of the drug six months later, finds a study released Monday.

The study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) found that half of elderly patients who were prescribed benzodiazepines for the first time in hospital were still using the drug six months later.

Benzodiazepines are a commonly prescribed drug in Canada, with millions of prescriptions each year. The drug is commonly prescribed in hospital to help patients cope with anxiety and insomnia.

The drug's side-effects include lingering daytime sedation and cognition problems, which are intensified in older patients. Benzodiazepines have been linked to motor vehicle collisions and to falls and related injuries, and can be addictive.

From April 1992 to March 2005, the study tracked seniors 66 and older who had not been prescribed benzodiazepine drugs in the year before hospitalization.

Of almost 12,500 patients prescribed the sleeping pills during the study, more than 6,100 were still taking the drug during the next six months.

The study also identified patients who were at high-risk of becoming chronic users. People at risk included patients who were:

• Women.
• Admitted to the intensive care unit of non-surgical wards.
• Hospitalized longer.
• Diagnosed with additional illnesses.
• Previously diagnosed with alcoholism.
• Prescribed more medications.

Older individuals had a lower risk of becoming chronic users.

Study highlights health-care weakness

Dr. Chaim Bell, the lead author of the study and an ICES adjunct scientist, says the study revealed an area of health care that could be improved. Patients who were not taking benzodiazepine before their hospitalization continued to receive and take the drug after discharge, risking a chronic addiction.

"The issue that I really want to highlight is the transition, the continuity of care from hospital to community," he told CBC.ca. "We need medication reconciliation, looking at what medications people are on before hospitalization, what they're prescribed during hospitalization, and reconciling things when they're discharged."

Bell says there needs to be better co-ordination between the hospital and personal doctors to help patients transition from treatment in hospital to home, and to help reduce the risk of new chronic users.

As well, initiatives such as the development of electronic medical records and formal medication lists may help to further reduce the risk.

source: CBC.ca

Weight Training Rejuvenates Aging Muscles

Weight training reverses aging damage in muscles: study

Healthy seniors benefit from strength training by rejuvenating their muscle tissue, say Canadian and U.S. researchers who found the proof at the molecular level.

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, director of the neuromuscular and neurometabolic clinic at McMaster University in Hamilton and Simon Melov of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, Calif., compared tissue samples from 25 healthy older men and women who did six months of weight training and a similar group of 26 younger people.

The researchers looked at the molecular "fingerprint" of aging in mitochondria, the powerhouse that supplies energy to cells. Studies suggest poor mitochondrial function is involved in the loss of muscle mass and function commonly seen in older people.

Older adults showed a decline in gene activity for mitochondrial function, but exercise was linked to a reversal back to levels similar to those of younger adults, the team reports in Wednesday's issue of the journal PloS One.

Before exercise training, the older adults were also 59 per cent weaker than the younger adults, but after the training, their strength was only 38 per cent weaker.

After four months of follow up, most of the older adults were no longer exercising at a gym but continued to do resistance exercise at home by lifting soup cans or elastic bands.

"They were still as strong, they still had the same muscle mass," Tarnopolsky said in a release. "This shows that it's never too late to start exercising and that you don't have to spend your life pumping iron in a gym to reap benefits."

Aging reversal

While aging studies on worms, fruit flies and mice have shown similar results, Melov said the researchers were surprised at the extent of the results in humans.

"The fact that their 'genetic fingerprints' so dramatically reversed course gives credence to the value of exercise, not only as a means of improving health, but of reversing the aging process itself, which is an additional incentive to exercise as you get older."

The younger participants were 20 to 35 with an average age of 26, while those in the older group were all over 65 with an average age of 70. Both groups were similar in terms of diet and exercise, and none took medication or had diseases that affect mitochondrial function.

The hour-long resistance training sessions were done twice a week on standard gym equipment, involving 30 contractions of each muscle group.

Tissue samples were taken from the thigh muscle, and the strength test was based on knee flexion.

Future studies are planned to determine if resistance training has any genetic impact on organ tissues. The researchers also want to determine whether endurance training such as running or cycling affects mitochondrial function and aging.

Source: CBC.ca