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How to Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease and Alzheimer’s
Jan. 14
It is one of the greatest fears of growing old: losing your memory to Alzheimer’s disease.
An estimated 4.5 million Americans have the disease and the number is growing. But who are those most at risk? Researchers are now discovering a direct link between Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
This link between brain damage and heart damage was discovered during a series of autopsies more than 20 years ago. While working in the Kentucky medical examiner’s office, Larry Sparks was checking brain tissues looking for early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. He noticed that those who had the telltale plaques of Alzheimer’s had one thing in common: “I took the slides � and put them into two piles, those with heart disease and those without heart disease. And all the plaques and tangles showed up in the pile with heart disease,” said Sparks, who is now a scientist with Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona. That finding, for the first time, suggested heart disease could be a forerunner of brain disease. “The link between heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease is growing in strength every few months,” said Bill Thies, the scientific director of the Alzheimer’s Association. “And we predict it will continue to grow.”
“I’m not surprised that there’s a relationship,” he said. “The heart is the organ that supplies essential elements to many parts of the body, and the brain is just one of the first.”

Risk Factors
A series of studies has revealed that the very same risk factors for heart disease also put people at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
In one study, people with high cholesterol in their 40s and 50s were three to five times more likely to become demented in their 60s and 70s. “We found that excess cholesterol in the blood,” Sparks told ABCNEWS, “leads to increased cholesterol in the brain and that increased production of cholesterol in the brain promotes production of plaques.”
High blood pressure � above 140/90 � also increases the risk of Alzheimer’s by damaging blood vessels. “They become more stiff and this may lead to a decrease in the nutrients that can get to the brain and feed cells in the brain,” said Lenore Launer, chief neuroepidemiologist at the National Institute on Aging. Moderate smoking � 10 to 20 cigarettes a day � according to some research, can double or triple the chances of becoming demented. “With every cigarette you smoke, there’s probably an increased risk,” Launer told ABCNEWS. And preliminary Obesity research suggests the more overweight you are at 70 years of age, the greater your Alzheimer’s risk. The good news, researchers say, is that this is the first set of risk factors they’ve identified that people can actually do something about. Medications and lifestyle changes that have been used to promote heart health may actually protect brain health as well.
Source: ABCnews.com

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Dieters seek alternatives to ephedra: Side effects of many substitutes unknown, FDA warns
Updated: 5:46 p.m. ET Jan. 12, 2004
People who think ephedra helped them lose weight are looking to new ingredients with names like guarana, bitter orange and green tea extract to replace the soon-to-be-banned dietary supplement.
There’s little proof yet that ephedra alternatives actually burn pounds, and scientists warn that some come with health considerations of their own, including an ephedra mimic that might interact dangerously with medicines the dieter also swallows.
“There are a number of, quote-unquote, `ephedra substitutes’ on the market now where even less is known about potential side effects,” Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan cautioned in an interview last week.
The FDA will pull ephedra off the market soon and wants consumers to stop immediately using the herbal stimulant, which is linked to 155 deaths and dozens more heart attacks and strokes.
Many consumers are ignoring that advice. There has been a run on remaining ephedra supplements since FDA’s warning two weeks ago, even though studies show ephedra helps people lose only a few pounds more than dieting alone.

Users eye ingredients
Still, as January ushers in postholiday diets, Americans are turning to the burgeoning ephedra-free market, too. Topping the lists of new ingredients are caffeine-containing supplements, some that deliver the buzz of at least three cups of coffee in one dose. Not all mention caffeine on the label; consumers may have to learn herbal aliases such as guarana and green tea to ensure they don’t get caffeine jitters by taking multiple supplements.
The ingredient drawing the most attention is bitter orange, which McClellan says the FDA is monitoring closely because it contains synephrine, a stimulant chemically similar to ephedra.
Also called citrus aurantium, the peel of this very sour “Seville orange” is found in some foods like orange marmalade.
“It’s not as potent as ephedra unless you take it in much higher doses,” says Mark Blumenthal of the American Botanical Council.
But some scientists note that synephrine can increase blood pressure and constrict blood vessels, as ephedra does, and question whether using it with caffeine could worsen those effects the way taking ephedra with caffeine does.
“There’s not really a reason to think citrus aurantium will be safer,” says Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman of Georgetown University, an expert on herbal supplements.
More worrisome, she says, is that bitter orange could interact dangerously with prescription or over-the-counter drugs.
Why? It’s related to a longtime warning against taking medications with grapefruit juice. Grapefruit contains a natural chemical that inhibits one of the body’s drug-metabolism routes so that some medicines build up to dangerous levels, and bitter orange contains even more of that drug-boosting substance, says Fugh-Berman.
Studies to date show bitter orange inhibits metabolism of at least two drugs, the popular over-the-counter cough medicine dextromethorphan and the prescription blood-pressure drug Plendil.
As for shedding pounds, there’s no evidence in people yet that it works.

Other ephedra alternatives:
Green tea extract. Green tea typically contains less caffeine per cup than coffee, plus many antioxidant vitamins.
Caffeine itself can be a mild appetite suppressant, and proponents say there may be other substances in green tea that could slightly speed calorie burning. There’s no evidence yet that green tea causes weight loss, but Fugh-Berman calls the possibility interesting and says the substance probably is harmless.
Guarana, used in a popular Brazilian soft drink, contains two to three times as much caffeine as coffee, Blumenthal says. Other caffeine-containing supplements are kola and mate.
Garcinia, also called hydroxycitric acid. A Journal of the American Medical Association research review found no good evidence of weight loss.
“Starch-blocking” pills promise to help starchy foods pass through the body with less calorie absorption. Most are made with kidney-bean extracts not thought to be harmful. Supplement giant Metabolife International cites a small study that found users dropped slightly more weight than regular dieters, but the research has not been published.
Old-fashioned fiber works on the same principle and can fill people up so they eat less, notes Fugh-Berman. But she says it’s impossible to get as much fiber in a pill as from a glass of Metamucil, made with the soluble fiber psyllium.
Bladderwrack, an herb that contains a lot of iodine, which could cause or worsen thyroid disease, notes a recent supplement review by University of Montana pharmacists. Germany, which strictly regulates herbal medicines, lists bladderwrack as unapproved, citing the health risk and lack of evidence that it burns pounds.
Source: The Associated Press

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Time For A New Pediatrician?
NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2004
One of the best ways to ensure your child stays healthy is to have a good pediatrician.
The Saturday Early Show’s Dr. Mallika Marshall provided some advice on finding the right doctor for your child and deciding when it may be time to choose a new one.
After parents, your child’s doctor is one of the most important people in his or her young life. A pediatrician is the guardian of your child’s health. Marshall says there are many chronic conditions that start in childhood and if you don’t have a good doctor, these illnesses may not get detected, which could spell long-term trouble for the child. Marshall says to switch if you are in any way unhappy with your pediatrician. And when initially looking for one, be very selective.
Marshall suggests you look for the following qualities when choosing a pediatrician:
Good Talker: Your pediatrician will probably be leaving you with instructions once the exam is over. Marshall says it’s very important that your doctor speak in a way that you can easily understand and that he or she uses terms that are recognizable. The doctor’s advice will be of no use if you can’t make out what was said.
Patient Disposition: In today’s world of managed care, doctors are busier than they have ever been. That said, Marshall says you want a pediatrician who will sit and listen to your concerns and not rush you out of the examining room. Marshall advises that you make a list of topics you would like the doctor to address. The list will make you better prepared to make good use of your time with the doctor.
Strong Support Staff: Doctors rarely work alone. They are often part of a larger practice, which includes nurses, practitioners and various other staff members. Marshall says often you will spend more time with the support staff than you will with the doctor. So make sure these people are competent and that you get along with them.
Easily Accessible: Children don’t just get sick Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. You need a doctor who can tend to your child when there is an emergency over a weekend or on a holiday. This doesn’t mean your doctor will be at your beck and call. But a good pediatrician will either help you directly or refer you to another competent medical professional during these off hours.
Qualified Partners: There will be times that your child may get sick while your regular doctor is away. You want to make sure that the other doctors in the practice are just as qualified and are also as easy to deal with on a personal level. There is nothing worse than being a parent of a sick child and having to deal with an unfamiliar doctor who is not considerate of your concerns.
Marshall says to switch pediatricians as soon as you no longer feel comfortable having your child under your current doctor’s care. While it may take a little time to find a new doctor, she says it will be well worth the effort.
And she says one of the best ways to find a good pediatrician is by asking friends who can give you a first-hand account of how the doctor works. Another good person to check with is your obstetrician. And you can always get a recommendation from your hospital. Before you begin going to the new doctor, Marshall recommends scheduling a short “meet and greet,” so that everyone is on the same page.
Source: cbsnews.com

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A Very Special Brain
Jan. 7, 2004
The brain, the most complex of all organs, defines us in more ways than we can even think about. There are about 35,000 genes in the brain, and if only a few of those are missing, the result can be devastating and fascinating.
Williams Syndrome is a rare birth defect in which about 20 genes are missing. Six years ago, correspondent Morley Safer reported on people diagnosed with Williams Syndrome. Their stories were so fascinating that 60 Minutes II decided to go back to see how they�re doing.
But first, here�s a look back at 1997 in this 60 Minutes classic.
——————————————————————————–
Gloria Lenhoff remembers more than 1,000 songs, yet she can�t add 5 plus 4. Michael Williams can play almost anything, yet he can�t go out the door without getting lost. Meghan Finn studies music in college but can�t tell left from right.
60 Minutes met these remarkable people at a music camp in Massachusetts — people with profound disabilities but with an equally profound passion for music. They often have unusual, almost elfin features. Their IQs average in the 60s, but they have the social skills of talk show hosts, what�s been called �cocktail party personalities.�
To a stranger, any sense of their handicap quickly disappears, and one is overwhelmed by their friendliness and openness.
�Music is a huge part of my life. To me, music is like soup. Music comes down to your throat. It feels so warm. So music is like soup. It tastes good,� says Meghan.
Gloria says she can sing in 25 languages: �I could sing in Macedonian, Korean, Yiddish, you name it.�
Among the things that seem to be common among people with Williams is extremely sensitive hearing. It�s remarkable. They can even hear whispering.
But part of that really sensitive, acute hearing is a negative reaction to loud noises. For example, thunder sounds like a cannon going off to Meghan: �Just shot off, right next to our house, and it made me cry so hard.�
For the most part, they are among the happiest people you�ve probably ever met. And they can�t stop smiling. But are they really happy most of the time?
�Yes, I am,� says Bob. �I am, too,� adds Jason Dennis.
——————————————————————————–
Michael Williams had always known he was different, but he only learned last year that his condition had a name. For the first time, at the music camp, he met other people just like him.
�Somehow, I felt that I fit in,� says Michael, who is most comfortable at the piano. But as a child, his parents never dreamed that he would be capable of handling the complexities of the instrument.
�My other kids had piano lessons. He didn�t, we didn�t think he could do it. After they went out to play, he would sit down � for hours on end, for days on end. And all of a sudden, one day he played a song,� says Frank Williams, who admits he was devastated when his son was born and he clearly wasn�t normal.
But that changed a long time ago. �We were blessed,� says Michael�s father.
�The opportunity to study an individual with Williams Syndrome is exciting. It provides a window on brain development,� says Dr. Barbara Pober, who runs a Williams Syndrome clinic at the Yale University School of Medicine. �We can learn an awful lot about what it means to have a handicap from folks with Williams Syndrome.�
And what it means to be shunned and isolated. Last year, Meghan tried living in a college dorm. While she did make a few friends, her mother, Liz Costello, says she had a rough time: �She doesn�t fit in. She knows she doesn�t fit in. That�s very hard.�
——————————————————————————–
Since that story first aired, we�ve learned more about Williams Syndrome. Most people who have it are not only using different parts of their brain when they listen to music, they�re using more of it than the rest of us. And they are more engaged emotionally.
Michael Williams is still most comfortable at the piano. 60 Minutes II caught up with him in September performing at a retirement home in upstate New York.
We also went back to see some of our Williams friends when they got together for one last time at that music camp in Massachusetts. Ben, a very grown-up 17-year-old, plays the drums. Gloria has made two CDs, and now sings in 30 languages. Jason is playing the drums and working part-time at a video store.
And Meghan is living in California, and attends regular classes at a local college, where she�s learned to ignore people who make fun of her. �I�m not gonna be pushed or shoved or anything like that � because nothing�s gonna pass me by. I�m a tough woman,� she says.
And, we met two new faces, both pianists and composers: Tori, 22, and Alec, 18. Alec was barely two months old when his mother, Lori Swaezey, sat him down next to her while she played a jazz piece on the piano.
�When I came to a certain whole note in the piece, he matched the note, and just sang, �Ooh.� I looked at him and he smiled like crazy and was kicking his legs,� recalls Swaezey. �I couldn�t believe it. I knew there was some very spooky connection with music at that point.�
——————————————————————————–
While there�s no question that those 20 missing genes can have a devastating effect on the lives of people with Williams, it also seems to create an undeniable bond among them.
�When I�m with, like, all of these people that are around me right now, I feel like I fit in,� says Tori. �I feel safe. All these guys have taught me not be negative and you know, I�m just happy.�
And they have remained positive through tremendous adversity. In Ben�s short life, he�s already been through five major surgeries to correct heart and spinal problems � problems that can be common for people with Williams. His mother, Terry Monkaba, told Safer that music got him through a very tough, young life.
�From when he was very small, music was the thing that calmed him down. And music is what taught him to walk. He didn�t walk, he marched to music when he was 4-and-a-half,� says Monkaba, who admits it�s been difficult for them as a family. �Benjamin has a two-years younger brother who has really been angry for many years because he was cheated out of a regular brother. So it makes family life, you know, very difficult.�
When we last met Dr. Pober, she was running a Williams Syndrome clinic at Yale. In June, she left for further genetic study, but her connection with Williams patients remains strong. Since our first story, the human genome project has been completed. Geneticists now know that most people with Williams are missing the same 20 genes. And they think they know why they are so engaged by music.
�There was a very recent study that had individuals with Williams Syndrome listen to music, and then had controlled individuals listen to music and compared the areas of the brain that were activated,� says Pober. �Folks with Williams Syndrome activated more brain areas and not the same area that you or I would activate. So, it was an overall greater activation � The underlying differences could explain why persons with Williams Syndrome are so much more connected to music. Seem to respond to music differently.�
——————————————————————————–
The great tragedy of Williams, however, is that they know they�re ill. �They�re smart enough to know they�re different. And that is a great hardship for most adolescents and adults,� says Pober.
In Meghan�s case, her mother says she�s accepted that she will never have children, but still has great anxiety about being alone.
�She said to me a couple of years ago, �You know, mom, I just wanna have someone that I can grow old with, too. And have somebody, you know,�� says Liz Costello. �And so, she has a friend who has Williams Syndrome who�s, she�s engaged to be married. And she said, �Part of me is so happy and the other part of me is so sad �cause I don�t have anyone.� But you know, who knows what the future�s gonna bring? You know, who knows?�
Last summer, with her mother looking on, Meghan recorded a song for her own CD. �I sometimes ask myself why are we going through this CD thing, but boy, it�s magical. It�s just magical,� says Meghan�s mother.
�She has a disability. She�s not a savant. There are many things she can�t do, she won�t be able to do. But you know, she has something that when she sings, people love to listen to her.�
Source: cbsnews.com

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Pneumonia: What Lurks in the Lungs
Jan 6, 2004
Now that fear of the flu has reached SARS-like proportions, it’s time to remember that influenza season is also pneumonia season. In fact, some pneumonias can be caused by the flu, or follow an influenza infection. Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that most commonly affects older people but can also affect children and younger adults. While pneumonia caused about 62,000 deaths in the United States in 2001, it can usually be treated with antibiotics.
And a preventative vaccine exists for pneumococcal pneumonia, the most common type of pneumonia. But like the flu vaccine, this year there is a limited supply of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
Below, pneumonia researcher Michael Fine, M.D., a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the VA-Pittsburgh Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, discusses the different types of pneumonia and why prevention or early treatment is best.

What is pneumonia?
It’s an infection of the respiratory tract that is typically characterized by a broad array of signs and symptoms. The infection is usually termed community-acquired pneumonia to differentiate it from that acquired in the hospital.
The lungs are comprised of very tiny sacs called alveoli. This is where the oxygen that we inhale comes into contact with circulating blood through capillaries, or tiny blood vessels, and where the oxygen is exchanged. In pneumonia, those tiny sacs become filled up with infectious material.

Who is at highest risk for pneumonia?
Among adults, risk increases with age. So the older you are, the greater the likelihood to get pneumonia. If you’re a smoker, you have a slightly greater increased risk because smoking diminishes the lung’s capacity to fight infection.
Anyone who is a drug abuser or an alcoholic, who has impaired levels of consciousness that can affect the gag reflex, would be at increased risk because they can inhale their own throat secretions. Patients who are immunocompromised for one reason or another, whether they’re taking systemic corticosteroids for something like asthma or if they’re receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy for cancer, would be at increased risk.

What are common symptoms?
The symptoms can really be divided into two categories: typical respiratory symptoms and nonrespiratory symptoms. Respiratory symptoms would include cough, coughing up mucus, shortness of breath and chest pain. A less common respiratory symptom would be coughing up blood.
Then there are a variety of nonrespiratory symptoms, the most common of which�and probably the number-one symptom overall�is fatigue, which is present in about 90 percent of patients. You can also get headache, muscle aches, abdominal pain, fever and chills.
And, it’s possible to be asymptomatic, but quite unlikely. But frequently, in the elderly, the symptoms are subtle. For example, patients who are older may not have a severe temperature. They also may have more atypical symptoms, such as abdominal pain, rather than classic pulmonary symptoms.

What is meant by walking pneumonia?
That’s a lay term and it refers to a mild case, perhaps in a younger person, that can safely be treated in the outpatient setting.

What causes pneumonia?
We usually think of infectious causes and, within that category, there are both bacteria and viruses. In adults we think bacteria first because it’s more prevalent.
Within the types of bacteria, there are the bacterium called Streptococcus pneumonia, which causes pneumococcal pneumonia, and then there’s one called Haemophilus influenzae. These are probably the first and second-most common causes. Haemophilus influenzae may be more common in smokers and patients who have underlying chronic emphysema or bronchitis.
Viruses probably account for 20 percent to 25 percent of community-acquired pneumonia in adults. And in children, there’s a much greater likelihood that the pneumonias are caused by a virus than a bacteria.
The influenza virus can cause pneumonia, though not frequently. And following influenza, patients also become more susceptible to developing bacterial pneumonia.
And then there are a variety of less common organisms that cause pneumonia such as Mycoplasma, Legionella and Chlamydia. There are many other causes that are probably infectious but we can’t uncover what the actual agent is.

Is it possible to have the bacterial and viral pneumonias at the same time?
Yes, it’s possible to have bacteria and a virus or two types of bacteria at one time. Probably 10 percent to 15 percent of infections are due to that type of bacterial co-infection.

Do the symptoms vary depending on the types of pneumonia you have?
Traditional wisdom said yes, but in fact when people have looked at that, it’s really impossible to differentiate the cause of the pneumonia based on the symptoms.

How is pneumonia usually diagnosed?
The diagnosis requires the presence of some of the clinical symptoms. And then in adults, the gold standard is to obtain a chest X-ray and to find a shadow called an infiltrate on the chest X-ray.
When you take an X-ray of the lungs, usually the air shows up as a very dark, almost black, space on the chest X-ray. When the lungs become filled up with this infectious material, it looks white on the X-ray and that’s what’s called the infiltrate.

Do you think that chest X-rays are being done as often as they should be?
Unfortunately, if you’re a physician practicing in the community, particularly in a rural setting, there may not be access to X-rays. So I think there may be a tendency in certain parts of the country to treat with antibiotics based on symptoms without ever formally establishing the diagnosis. So I think we may be under-utilizing chest X-rays to make the diagnosis.

How is pneumonia spread?
Most cases of pneumonia that are bacterial in origin are not necessarily transmitted from person to person. These bacteria actually reside in people’s normal respiratory tract systems: in their throats, their pharynx, their nose. Everybody has a small content of material from the throat that gets into the lungs, and then normally the person’s defense mechanism sweeps that out. But sometimes the body isn’t able to defend against that and that’s when the infection starts.
Some types of viral pneumonia, however, can be transmitted by droplets, so if you cough or breathe on someone, they are transmittable. But most cases of bacterial pneumonia are not passed from person to person that way.

How is pneumonia treated?
In adults, it’s typically treated with antibiotics. For patients who are healthy enough to be treated in their own homes, usually we treat them for seven to 10, sometimes up to 14 days with antibiotics by mouth.
About one million of the four million cases nationally require hospitalization. Patients in the hospital typically get a course of intravenous antibiotics. The duration of that course of intravenous antibiotics really depends upon their response to therapy. Once their vital signs begin to normalize and their temperature begins to come down and they have adequate oxygen in their blood, then we switch them from intravenous to oral antibiotic therapy.

What happens if pneumonia isn’t treated?
What happened before the advent of penicillin and antibiotics is that many patients got better without treatment. But those who were immunocompromised or either aged or very young or frail often died from pneumonia. Even now, with antibiotics, the average mortality rate is probably somewhere between 5 percent and 15 percent.
The average age of an adult with pneumonia is in the 60s. So many of these patients have additional underlying medical illnesses that pneumonia often makes worse.
For example, if the oxygen doesn’t reach the tissues and someone has heart disease, it can lead to cardiac complications. People with pneumonia can also develop secondary respiratory failure and respiratory complications and complications of their kidneys or their liver.

How long is someone usually sick with pneumonia?
We actually have done long-term studies and found that patients may still be fatigued a month later. And probably a quarter to a half of patients may even be fatigued up to 90 days or more.

How is pneumonia prevented?
There are several ways to prevent pneumonia. Number one is to try to get people to stop smoking. Number two, there are several vaccines, specifically the flu vaccine, because during flu season the incidence of pneumonia goes up because you can have a post-influenza bacterial infection.
There’s a vaccine against pneumococcus, the number-one cause of pneumonia in adults. And that’s generally recommended for patients who are over the age of 65 or higher-risk patients, patients who would be immunocompromised for one reason or another who are less than age 65.

Are many pneumonias resistant to antibiotics?
One of the things that we have to be concerned about in this country is the overuse of antibiotics. One of the reasons that it’s so important to establish an accurate diagnosis of pneumonia is that for many other things that mimic pneumonia such as bronchitis, there’s no good evidence that antibiotics improve patient’s outcomes. But they do increase resistance to certain organisms.
In this country, over the past 10 to 15 years, we’ve seen a tremendous growth in resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae or pneumococcus, the number-one cause, as well as Haemophilus influenzae, to penicillin and cephalosporin types of antibiotics that were traditionally used to treat these types of infection.

Do you see any solution to this problem?
The solution is to try to make an accurate diagnosis, and only treat infections when you’ve made an accurate diagnosis. We do have newer, stronger antibiotics that are available now that can be used for those situations. But it’s hard to know ahead of time when a patient will be infected with a resistant strain.

At what point should someone go to the doctor or the emergency room?
Anyone who has a cough-related illness with fever or shaking chills; anyone who has a cough-related illness with symptoms of wheezing or shortness of breath; and anyone who has a cough-related illness with or without fever who’s immunocompromised, extremely elderly, or pregnant, should be in touch with their doctor.
Source: ABCnews.com

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No rush to vegetarianism yet: Mad cow scare hasn’t changed eating habits
Updated: 4:56 p.m. ET Jan. 02, 2004
Droves of Britons gave up meat during England�s mad cow outbreak in the 1980s, but since the discovery of an infected cow in Washington state American vegetarians mostly have been careful not to take advantage of a situation that could cost lives and cripple a $40 billion industry.
�I caution vegetarians from using mad cow disease as a recruiting tool,� said Joseph Connelly, editor of San Francisco-based VegNews magazine. �Mad cow disease is not a good thing no matter how you look at it.�
Vegetarians generally eat no meat, fish or poultry. Vegans eat no animal products at all, including dairy and honey.
Though vegetarian headcounts are imprecise, Britain�s meat-free population surged following its bout with mad cow, which killed 143 people, according to Tina Fox, spokeswoman for the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom.
She estimates up to 10 percent of the population is vegetarian, and up to 40 percent has reduced its meat consumption.
Vegetarian businesses and advocacy groups mostly say the discovery of mad cow in the United States still is too isolated to prompt people to change their diets.

No human cases resulting from outbreak
�We�re not really at that stage,� said Charles Stahler, co-director of the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group. �They haven�t shown that anyone is sick, so it�s really very different here.�
For now, the discovery of one sick cow mostly will steel the minds of existing vegetarians.
�It�s giving them another good reason to stay firm in their beliefs,� said Carla Davis, managing editor of Glen Allen, Va.-based Vegetarian Times magazine, which has a monthly circulation of 300,000.
Vegetarianism has been on an upswing in the United States. Vegetarian Resource Group estimates there are roughly 5.7 million adult vegetarians, up from about 2 million a decade ago.
Johanna Dwyer, a nutrition professor at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., attributes that to a growing awareness of healthy eating styles, and wider availability of better tasting vegetarian foods.
But she doesn�t think mad cow will spur more converts on its own, since many vegetarians have philosophical reasons, such as animal rights, that influence their food choices.
�That means buying into a whole bunch of things more than a health concern,� she said. �Some people may want to go meatless because of that, but I don�t think it will be many.�

Few changes in shopping habits reported
Natural foods grocers, including giants Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats, said sales data aren�t in yet, but so far shopping habits don�t appear to have changed.
“I’ve seen nobody coming in panicking, saying ‘I have to become a vegetarian,” said John Hutchins, manager of the Concord Food Co-Op in Concord, N.H. �But if this keeps going I wouldn�t doubt if more people start experimenting.�McDonald�s, Burger King and Wendy�s say hamburger sales remain unaffected.
The appearance of mad cow has some vegetarian businesses considering how they will address the issue.
�I definitely wouldn�t try and tell people to eat vegan because of mad cow,� said Tim Boissy, whose 5-year-old Los Angeles business Vegin� Out makes home deliveries of vegan meals. �But I would kind of use it as a tool to educate people a little bit, to try to help them look at new alternatives.�

‘MAD to eat meat’
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals seems less concerned about appearing political. The Norfolk, Va.-based animal rights group already has activists around the country distributing information about vegetarianism outside restaurants and launched a new ad campaign: �You would have to be MAD to eat meat.�
Bruce Friedrich, the group�s spokesman, said demand for PETA�s free vegetarian starter kits � a pamphlet of recipes and advice for changing one�s diet � has been so strong the group called in employees from vacation to handle the requests � 10,000, up from the usual 4,000.
�The USDA and the meat industry are playing Russian roulette with the health of the American people, and the national consciousness is being awakened� he said. Though meat-and-potatoes Americans may not be rushing to change their own ways, there is one aspect of the population that is adapting. Amid concerns (which federal regulators say are unfounded) that tainted animal products could get into pet food, some vegetarians have decided that what is good for them is good for their furry friends. �I�m just not going to take that chance anymore,� said Vineeta Anand, a vegetarian from Alexandria, Va., who says she�s changing the diet of her 16-year-old cat, Cheetah.
Source: msnbc.com

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