Health Wrap for December 2006 | Cardiology, Cancer, Asthma, Trans-fat

There is a new warning for people with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators: Magnets may pose a serious health risk!

While common magnets for home and office use with low magnetic strength posed little risk, stronger magnets made from neodymium-iron-boron may cause interference with cardiac devices and pose potential hazards to patients.

These magnets are increasingly being used in homes and office products, toys, jewelry and even clothing.

The authors say physicians should caution patients about the risks associated with these magnets and they also recommend that the product packaging include information on the potential risks that may be associated with these types of magnets.

A new study suggest breast cancer patients who seek a second opinion might have one aspect of their treatment plan actually changed.

A University of Michigan study found more than half of breast cancer patients who sought a second opinion from a multidisciplinary tumor board received a change in their recommended treatment plan.

A multidisciplinary tumor board includes surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, radiologists and pathologists.

Overall, 52 percent of the patients evaluated had one or more changes in their recommendations for surgery.

The study authors found the initial treatment recommendations often did not consider new surgery techniques, such as delivering chemotherapy before surgery to make breast conservation possible or sentinel lymph node biopsy, a new technique to determine whether cancer has spread beyond the breast.

Thirty-two percent of patients had their surgery recommendations changed based on a multidisciplinary approach to surgical management.

The changes were a result of breast imaging specialists reading a mammogram differently or breast pathologists interpreting biopsy results differently.

Has infant healthcare gone to the dogs?

Maybe, when it comes to asthma.

A new University of Cincinnati study shows living in a home with multiple dogs may help reduce an infant’s risk for developing wheezing in the first year of life.

Infants living in homes with multiple dogs and high levels of endotoxins --bacterial contaminants in the dust-- were more than two times less likely to wheeze than other infants.

The authors don’'t yet know how and why exposure to high levels of bacterial endotoxin and multiple dogs in the home exert a protective effect in these high-risk infants from wheezing early in life.

You’'ve certainly heard by now that trans fats are bad for you.

Well, the issue has hit home with the Girl Scouts--.their cookies that is.

This year, all Girl Scout cookies – now have zero trans fats!
So yes, even those Samoas are trans fat free!

But, the girl scouts say the taste will not change at all…
And they even have a new sugar free little brownie.

Warning, however: don'’t eat a whole box of thin mints in one sitting. There are still calories in those cookies!

The new edition of Girl Scout cookies hits your neighborhood starting on Monday.