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Slimming products:  misleading advertisements on Internet

Until 70% of the advertisements praising the merits of slimming products, on Internet, are misleading or don’t give any information sufficiently. The report is the same for the products destined to the hold of weight.

It is what a étude1 achieved by English researchers indicates. They analyzed the content of about hundred advertisements on the slimming products appearing on 540 Internet sites. Besides, they bent on 360 sites that praise the merits of products aiming to make increase the muscular mass.

From a grid of analysis, the researchers valued the quality of the information of the advertisements according to nine criterias, of which the put forward kindness, the security of the products, the risks that they include and the presence of scientific proofs.

In general, 70% of the studied advertisements offered an information of mediocre quality to average.

Among the misleading allegations that are the most often registered on the slimming products, one recovers the promises of ” “permanent weight loss  (28%) and of ” fast results”  (18%).

Concerning the products destined to the hold of weight, all promise the acquirement of ” more voluminous muscles” or a ” gain by force”. Not less 40% the announced products evoke scientific proofs without giving the references.

The warnings that should be registered on a product

The risks of use of a product to middle or long term.
A loss of weight should not exceed 1 kg (2,2 lb) per week.
A régime reduces in calories should not be followed during more of one month.
The secondary effects as the somnolence, the interruption of the menstrual cycle, the loss of hair, etc. The necessity to consult a physician according to his/her/its state of health.

Few advertisements display some warnings:  only 16% of the slimming products contain some. Worse again, 92% of the products destined to the hold of weight not at all make mention of the relative risks to the presence of steroids or of.

Tool for the consumers

The authors also noticed that few advertisements gave an information of quality as for the holding and bordering of the specific diets of which they make the promotion.

The authors consider pursuing their research while submitting their grid of assessment to consumers. They wish to adapt it thereafter so that she/it becomes accessible to a large public anxious to measure the quality of the advertisements that they recover on Internet better.

To the United States, more than 60% of the internauts use Canvas to look for information on the régimes and the programs of thinning, indicate the researchers.

Of the ingredients. sometimes illegal - of which it is necessary to itself

Slimming products:  My Huang, picolinate of chromium, tiratricol,acides aristolochiques.

Produced for muscular gains:  steroids, gammahydroxybutyrate of sodium (GHB), 1,4-butanediol.

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To be getting the belly, even moderately, would increase the risks to endure cardiovascular unrests. It is when the surplus of weight concentrates in the abdominal region that the risks to suffer from cardiac illnesses increase the more, according to a survey.

The Texan researchers studied a cohort of 2 744 topics while comparing various measures of the obesity. They discovered the forerunner signs, a major reason of cardiovascular accidents, with the help of tests of medical imagery.

The measures of the obesity were about the indication of bodily mass (IMC), the waist measurement and the report tower of taille/tour of hips. They confronted these data then to the chalky deposits in the arteries of the topics and to the accumulation of plate in their aorta. One knows that the deposits of calcium in the arteries as well as the plate (accumulation of fat matters that precedes a chalky deposit) predispose to the cardiovascular unrests, notably to the infarctus and to the cerebral vascular accident.

According to their results, the topics of which the report tower of taille/tour of hips was raised presented a lot more forerunner signs than those whose stomach was flatter. Such an interrelationship has cannot be established for those that had an elevated IMC or a strong waist measurement.

The site where concentrates the fat matters probably has more importance that the hold of weight in herself, underline the authors of the survey. Brief, if one managed to keep his/her/its flat stomach, the risks to endure cardiovascular unrests could be least.

These are Canadian researchers that, since 2005, had concluded to the importance of the report tower of taille/tour of hips to value the risks more precisely to endure cardiovascular unrests. They had studied more than 27 000 topics coming from 52 different countries then.

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Since the start of the academic year 2008, the little girls of 9 years and more will be able to be vaccinated free against the virus of the human papillome (VPH). The measure, that will cost 70 millions of dollars on four years, has for goal ” to warn the girls against the cancer of the collar of the uterus »1.

The minister of Health and the social Services, Philippe Couillard, made this announcement at the time of the disclosure of the struggle strategy against the cancer for the next five years.

The girls who will make themselves vaccinate against the VPH the next year will receive the GardasilMC vaccine, marketed by Merck. It is the Committee of immunization of Quebec that will see to the implantation of the vaccination program.

While vaccinating the little girls before they have their first sexual intercourse, Quebec wishes to warn them against the infections in the VPH. The vaccine offers an immunization against four stumps of the VPH, of which two are present in 70% of the cases of cancer of the collar of the uterus. It can flow out however from 20 years to 30 years before the cancer is audible. The VPH is as responsible for the apparition of genital warts.

The 70 millions of dollars that will be allocated to this program of vaccination will come from the federal government. In January 2007, this one put 300 millions of dollars at the disposal of the provinces anxious to create a program of vaccination against the VPH.

To Quebec, one values to 40 millions the cost of the implantation of the program, for the first year. One foresees to inject 10 millions then for the three following years.

The individual cost of the vaccine, that includes three injections, adjoin the 500 $THAT. But the number of injections rest to specify. ” One knew that the vaccine could be efficient from two doses:  will it be two or three doses that will be recommended? There is not anything settled of one point of medical view”, indicated the journalist of minister Philippe Couillard, Dominique Breton.

To Quebec, one estimates that 75 women die of the cancer of the collar of the uterus every year.

Strategies to fight against the cancer

Otherwise, Philippe Couillard announced a plan of struggle against the cancer, that will require an investment 75 millions of dollars from 20122.

Among about sixty orientations foreseen to this plan, one recovers the setting up of a Québecois register of the cancer, the backing of the interdisciplinary teams in oncology and in palliative care, as well as the increase of the number of nurses pivots.

The government hears to lead campaigns of sensitization also to make better know the programs of tracking, of which the mammography for the breast cancer and the test of Papanicolaou (Pap) for the cancer of the collar of the uterus.

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The Canadian pediatricians recommend to the pregnant women, and to those that nurse, to take a supplement of D vitamin every day in order to avoid the deficiencies during the winter. This recommendation is also worth for the babies.

According to a document of principles that the Canadian Society of pediatrics has just emitted (SCP), ” the mothers and the Canadian babies, notably those of the collectivities of the Big North, don’t receive enough vitamin D »1.

A deficiency in D vitamin ” can put serious dangers for the development of the fetus and the infant”, sustain the pediatricians. This deficiency is avoidable, they judge, thanks to supplements ” who can also protect the babies against some illnesses from the childhood and the adult age.”

The Canadian Society of pediatrics recommends to the pregnant women and those who nurse to ask their physician ” if they should take supplements of 2 000 UI per day.”

She/it also proposes to give to the babies nursed a daily supplement of 400 UI per day and ” two times this dose to the babies of the Big North (from a latitude of 55 degrees) during the months of winter (of October to April).”

Besides, the SCP recommends that the babies with the dark skin, exposed little in the sun or whose mother endures a deficiency in D vitamin receive supplements of D vitamin during the winter, whatever is their place of residence.

In his/her/its statement, the SCP recalls that the D vitamin participates in the regulation of the cellular growth, to immunity and to the cellular metabolism. The rickets, an illness joined to the deficiency in D vitamin, home present in Canada, especially within the populations inuites and the First nations, she/it specifies.

Prudence in Health Canada

Reacting to the statement of the SCP, Health Canada sustains that he is ” premature to emit a new recommendation before having done a structural detailed exam on the advantages and the innocuité of this vitamin »2.

Currently, Health Canada recommends a supplémentation in D vitamin of 200 UI per day for the adults of 19 years to 50 years, including to the pregnant women or that nurse. For the 50 years and more, one proposes 400 UI. Besides, the federal Ministry advises the 2 years and more to drink 500 ml (two cups) of milk per day to get a sufficient contribution of D. vitamin

However, Health Canada pushes its recommendations on the nutritional contributions of reference of the Institute Medicine of (IOM) of the United States. However, the recommendations of the IOM for the D vitamin go back up to 1997.

To Canada, the maximal contribution supportable of D vitamin is fixed in 2 000 UI per day, for the adults. This doorstep is thrown however into question by number of scientifiques3.

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The cashew nuts would be even more susceptible than the peanuts to cause serious allergic reactions. It is what of the English researchers who have just published the results of a étude1 led by 141 children suffering from allergy to the peanut believe or to the cashew nut.

The English allergists compared the medical files of 47 children whose most serious allergic reaction was assigned to the cashew nut to those of 94 others that had an important allergic demonstration caused by the peanut. According to their results, there would have been eight times more of screaming breathing episodes at the children allergic to the cashew nut that at the other.

Besides, the serious cardiovascular symptoms (as the disruptions of the cardiac rhythm or the falls of the arterial tension), were 14 times more frequent at the first that at the second. On the whole, 21% of the children of the group cashew nut had had serious allergic reactions against 1% of the children of the group peanuts.

The physicians should prescribe a treatment of emergency systematically in case of allergy to the cashew nut, believe the researchers, since these symptoms are associated to a risk raised of crisis potentially fatal anaphylactique. The auto-injector of épinéphrine (adrenaline), best-known under the name of EpiPen®, constitute the emergency treatment indicated in case of crisis anaphylactique.

The number of allergies to the cashew nuts is in growth since some years. This walnut is more and more present in our food, what would explain the increase of allergic reactions, believe the researchers. One now finds it in a vast range of desserts and sweet, in several dishes of Asian inspiration, in pestos, of the cereals to eat lunch, of the bars of cereals, of vinaigrettes, of sauces, or even in shampoos and the bodily lotions.

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Researchers of the prestigious Clinic Mayo in the United States think that the consumption of linen seeds could relieve the puffs of heat associated to the menopause.

They led a test pilote1 by 28 women ménopausées that endured puffs of heat and that preferred not to resort to the replacement hormonotherapy. The breast cancer would be raised more at the women who take some hormones to the menopause.

According to the researchers, the consumption of 40 g per day of ground seeds of linen, during six weeks, would have had the effect of reducing half the puffs of heat of which stood the participants. These results justify that one now leads a clinical test with structural placebo on a bigger number of topics, they estimate.

Of the different results

In 2005, a team of the academic hospitable Center of Quebec (University Laval), under the direction of the Dre Sylvie Dodin, published the results of a clinical test with placebo led by 199 women ménopausées2. The participants consumed, during one year, 40 g per day of ground seeds of linen or a placebo (germ of wheat).

Compared to the placebo, the seeds of linen had the effect of lowering the blood rates of cholesterol. There was not a difference however on the puffs of heat that decreased of about 30% in the two groups.

The effect placebo is always the order of about 30% in the clinical tests carrying on the puffs of heat, explain the Dre Dodin. According to her, it is possible that the hold of linen seeds reduces the number and the intensity of the heat puffs during the menopause. It is however difficult to measure the size of this effect, she/it adds. ” Our results would have been maybe more conclusive, she/it makes notice, if the test had been about women of which the puffs of heat were more frequent and more intense. ”

” Such a present dietary intervention a certain interest, she/it underlines, since the seeds of linen have, otherwise, of the interesting effects for the health of the women, notably on the profile lipidique. ”

The researchers assign the effects of the linen seeds to the lignanes that they contain, of the phytoestrogènes that would have an action antioestrogénique and that, one thinks, could protect against the breast cancer.

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