Health briefs

FDA clears more orange juice imports WASHINGTON: Health regulators cleared more orange juice imports from five countries after testing for the fungicide carbendazim, but made no mention of samples from top grower Brazil, which accounts for half of US juice imports. The Food and Drug Administration said 19 of the 45 samples it had taken since testing began on Jan. 4 were safe, but the remainder were “pending analysis and/or are under compliance review.” A spokeswoman declined to specify where those samples originated, but traders said they feared many may be from Brazil, where carbendazim is widely used. Goal for Alzheimer’s drug by 2025 ‘too ambitious?’ CHICAGO: The US government has set a deadline of 2025 for finding an effective way to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, an ambitious target considering there is no cure on the horizon and one that sets a firm deadline unlike previous campaigns against cancer or AIDS. A panel of Alzheimer’s experts this week has been fleshing out the first comprehensive plan by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fight Alzheimer’s disease, an effort mandated by the National Alzheimer’s Project Act signed into law by President Barack Obama last year. Fears of mutant virus escape halt bird flu study NEW YORK: Researchers studying a potentially more lethal, airborne version of the bird flu virus have suspended their studies because of concerns the mutant virus they have created could be used as a devastating form of bioterrorism or accidentally escape the lab. In a letter published in the journals Nature and Science on Friday, 39 scientists defended the research as crucial to public health efforts, including surveillance programs to detect when the H5N1 influenza virus might mutate and spark a pandemic. Docs more likely to suspect abuse in poor kids NEW YORK: When a toddler has a broken bone, pediatricians may be more likely to suspect abuse if the family is lower-income, a new study finds. Researchers found that pediatricians who read a fictional case report of a toddler with a leg fracture were more likely to suspect abuse if the child was described as coming from a lower-income family. Overweight linked to acne in teen girls NEW YORK: Overweight girls in their late teens were twice as likely as their normal-weight peers to report having a lot of acne in a large new survey of Norwegian teenagers that did not find the same link in boys. Some 3,600 young people in Oslo, aged 18 and 19, provided information on their pimples, weight, diet and other health and lifestyle factors. Study links sleep apnea and sudden deafness NEW YORK: Sudden hearing loss might be tied to an underlying sleep disorder that interrupts breathing, suggests a new study from Taiwan. Consulting a large health insurance database, researchers found that people who’d suffered sudden deafness were more likely to have a previous diagnosis of sleep apnea than a comparison group without hearing loss. Pomegranate seed oil fails to cool hot flashes NEW YORK: In the first clinical trial of pomegranate seed oil as a treatment for menopausal hot flashes, women taking the supplement twice a day for 12 weeks got no more relief than women taking a placebo pill containing sunflower oil. Pomegranate seed oil has been marketed as an alternative remedy for menopausal symptoms, because it is rich in plant compounds, called phytoestrogens, that mimic estrogen.