Deleted Scenes: Vitamin D doesn?t disappoint

Vitamin D doesn?t disappoint

Vitamin D seems to be living up to high expectations

By Nathan Seppa

Web edition: April 8, 2013

Vitamin D seems to be living up to high expectations

By Nathan Seppa

Web edition: April 8, 2013

Vitamin D seems to be living up to high expectations. A spate of 2013 studies has found that the vitamin may yield benefits in groups ranging from pregnant women to members of the military to kids in a dentist chair.

Six recent reports offer a sampling of the evidence:

• An analysis of 24 clinical trials in children finds that kids getting vitamin D supplements had a 47 percent reduced risk of dental caries, researchers report in Nutrition Reviews.
• A study of 242 healthy adults getting daily calcium supplements shows that those who also took modest vitamin D supplements of 800 IU per day saw their blood pressure decrease. Their top blood pressure number fell by 10 points on average after a year and their bottom BP number fell by four points. Writing in Nutritional Influences on Bone Health, the researchers also report that the vitamin D folks saw their heart rate decline from 74 to 70 beats per minute. The calcium-only group saw no improvement on average.
• A 28-year study in which Danish scientists monitored the health of nearly 10,000 people finds that those who developed a tobacco-related cancer during that time had vitamin D levels at the study outset of 14.8 nanograms per milliliter of blood on average, compared with 16.4 ng/ml on average for everyone else. That report shows up in Clinical Chemistry.
• BMJ reports in a review of 31 studies that pregnant women with vitamin D levels of less than 30 ng/ml had an increased risk of developing a complication such as preeclampsia or gestational diabetes.
• Low vitamin D levels may hamper metabolism in blacks. A study in Nutrition Research finds that adult blacks averaged vitamin D of only 14.6 6 ng/ml compared with 25.6 ng/ml on average in whites. Blacks were also more likely to have insulin resistance, a condition in which cells fail to use the hormone insulin efficiently to process glucose. But when researchers compared groups with similar vitamin D levels, the differences in insulin resistance disappeared. That suggests that the higher burden of insulin resistance in blacks is at least in part the result of low vitamin D, they conclude.
• Very low vitamin D might be linked to suicide risk. An analysis of military service members finds that people who committed suicide appear to have similar vitamin D levels on average compared with those who don?t. But a closer look finds that people with the very lowest levels, less than 15 ng/ml, were roughly twice as likely to commit suicide as people with vitamin D ranging from 17 to 41 ng/ml. That study appears in PLoS One.
• ??

If well-stocked bins in pharmacies are any indication, news of vitamin D?s benefits is reaching the mainstream. Public health leaders have responded unevenly to such data, however. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which is charged with advising the government and the public on health matters, declared that 20 ng/ml was the minimum blood concentration of vitamin D for bone safety. The IOM also bumped up the daily recommended intake, but only slightly to 600 to 800 IU for most adults (1/1/11, p.14; 7/16/11, p. 22).

The Endocrine Society, the oldest and largest group devoted to hormone research, cited ample research in upping the ante several months later and calling for vitamin D intake levels two to three times higher than IOM?s.

Not all vitamin D studies show a benefit. It?s also difficult to randomly assigned people to get specific amounts of a vitamin that can be obtained from sun exposure. Can the benefits of vitamin D be oversold? Possibly. But one thing is clear: So far, 2013 is shaping up to be a very good year for the sunshine vitamin.

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Citations

S. Afzal et al. Low plasma 25-hydroyvitamin D and risk of tobacco-related cancer. Clinical Chemistry. Volume 59, 2013, in press.
doi: 10.1373/clinchem.2012.201939. [Go to]

F. Aghajafari et al. Association between maternal serum 25-hydroyvitamin D level and pregnancy and neonatal outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. BMJ. Volume 346, 2013. [Go to]

P. Hujoel et al. Vitamin D and dental caries in controlled clinical trials: systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews. Volume 71, 2013, p. 88.
doi: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00544.x. [Go to]

M. Pfeifer. Effects of vitamin D and calcium supplementation on heart rate and blood pressure in community-dwelling older individuals. Nutritional Influences on Bone Health. 2013, p. 343. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4471-2769-7_33. [Go to]

J. Umhau et al. Low vitamin D status and suicide: A case-control study of military service members. PLoS One. Volume 8, 2013. [Go to]

S. Williams et al. Association of racial disparities in the prevalence of insulin resistance with racial disparities in vitamin D levels: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2001-2006). Nutrition Research. In press, 2013. [Go to]

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Suggested Reading

N. Seppa. The power of D. Science News. Volume 180, July 16, 2011, p. 22. Available online: [Go to]_

N. Seppa. Vitamin D targets increased. Science News. Volume 179, Jan. 1, 2011, p. 14. Available online: [Go to]

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349526/title/Vitamin_D_doesnt_disappoint

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Hooters sued by former waitress in war over wig

Amy Langfield , NBC News ? ? ? 4 hrs.

Following brain surgery, your main worry should not be whether you?ll get fired at work for refusing to wear a wig that scrapes your scar. But former Hooters waitress Sandra Lupo contends in a lawsuit that?s what happened when she declined to don a wig and her hours were reduced so much, she was forced to quit.

She filed a disability discrimination lawsuit in Missouri against Hooters of St. Peters, LLC and Hooters of America LLC and is seeking $25,000 for mental and emotional distress, plus punitive damages, attorney fees and other relief.

"Hooters of America believes the lawsuit is without foundation, denies the accusations and has filed a motion that the lawsuit be dismissed," the company said in a statement to NBC News. Hooters, in an April 5 response to the court, denies most of her statements and says ?its actions were taken for legitimate, nondiscriminatory business reasons.?

Hooters is a privately held chain of restaurants that bank on attractive waitresses wearing short shorts and cleavage-hugging shirts.

Lupo, who had been working at the Hooters of St. Peters, Mo., since 2005, was in her last six weeks of nursing school and was at her computer in June 2012 when she felt tingling and numbness on her left side. ?I was bleeding out in my brain,? she told NBCNews.com.

She spent a week in the hospital following her July 2 surgery and was visited by her Hooters manager, according to her suit filed on the Circuit Court of St. Charles County.

The lawsuit claims that her store manager told her ?she could return to work as soon as she was capable, and that, she could wear a ?chemo cap? or any other items of jewelry to distract from her lack of hair and the visibility of her cranial scar.?

Her hair had been cut to ?-inch for the surgery.

On July 16, Lupo?s doctors gave her the all-clear to return to work. Soon after, she met with her manager and the Hooters' regional manager, who said she would be required to wear a wig at work, according to Lupo?s lawsuit.

Hooters? April 5 filing does not address whether any of its employees told Lupo to wear a wig. It says that her manager ?informed her she would need a head covering.?

At the time of the meeting, Lupo protested that she was unable to afford a wig, which can cost from several hundred to several thousands of dollars, according to her claim.

When she did return to work July 21, wigless, she was told a wig was required. She then borrowed a wig but it ?caused extreme stress to her body because of the surgery and the healing wound,? according to the suit.

Hooters then reduced her hours ?to the point that Plaintiff could not earn an income, thereby forcing Plaintiff to quit,? according to the suit. ?It is and has been the routine custom, policy and practice of Defendants to reduce their employees? hours which forces them to voluntarily resign thereby making them ineligible for unemployment compensation.?

The Hooters filing specifically denies that allegation.

After Lupo said she could not wear the wig, Hooters stopped scheduling her for as many hours, she said.

?I actually had to beg for one shift a week,? Lupo said. Pre-surgery, she was working several days a week while finishing nursing school. She had also trained staff and worked promotions for the restaurant, but no alternate duties were offered to her.

?They refused to accommodate it,? she said.

Today she is recovered, graduated and working as a registered nurse.

?Justice,? she said, is the main goal of the lawsuit.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a85a09e/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Chooters0Esued0Eformer0Ewaitress0Ewar0Eover0Ewig0E1C9279586/story01.htm

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Dancing With the Stars Recap: Aly Raisman Goes For Gold!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/dancing-with-the-stars-recap-aly-raisman-goes-for-gold/

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Olympic satire races against dramas in top British TV awards

LONDON (Reuters) - A television satire that lampooned organizers of the 2012 London Olympics was in a head-to-head race against two dramas as the most nominated shows in Britain's top TV awards on Tuesday.

The satire "Twenty Twelve" received four nominations in the British Academy Television Awards as did the Hitchcock drama "The Girl" and romantic series "Last Tango in Halifax".

Three actors from "Twenty Twelve" were competing for best performance in a comedy program - Jessica Hynes, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Bonneville - while the show on public broadcaster BBC was also nominated for best Situation Comedy.

The Olympic opening ceremony aired on BBC1 was also nominated for an award, in the Sport and Live Event category, alongside the Olympics Super Saturday on BBC1, Channel Four's Paralympic cover and Wimbledon's Men's Final broadcast by BBC1.

Actors from the most nominated drama series were competing for the top acting awards handed out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' (BAFTA) in its annual TV prizes.

Tony Jones from "The Girl" shown on BBC2 was up against Derek Jacobi from "Last Tango in Halifax" on BBC1 for Leading Acting.

The four-man field also included Ben Whishaw, best known as the gadget guy Q in the James Bond movie "Skyfall," for his portrayal of Richard II on BBC2, and Sean Bean for playing the transvestite Tracie in "Accused" on BBC1.

Sienna Miller in "The Girl" was competing against Anne Reid from "Last Tango in Halifax", Rebecca Hall from period drama "Parade's End" and Sheridan Smith from "Mrs Biggs" about the wife of the great train robber Ronnie Biggs for Leading Actress.

The International Award was a contest between the Danish crime drama "The Bridge" on BBC4, the post 9/11 psychological drama "Homeland" on Channel 4, and Sky's fantasy epic "Game of Thrones" and New York quirky comedy "Girls".

An ITV expose about the late TV presenter Jimmy Savile who, posthumously, was found to have carried out sex crimes on an unprecedented scale over six decades, was nominated for best Current Affairs show.

Also competing in this category was a Panorama special about Britain's hidden housing crisis, a documentary called "The Shame of the Catholic Church" on BBC2 and the second nomination for Arab news channel Al Jazeera's "What Killed Arafat?"

Among the leading channels, BBC2 led the field with a total of 26 nominations, followed by BBC1 with 22, Channel 4 with 16, and ITV with 10.

The BAFTA TV awards, sponsored by Arqiva, will be announced on May 12.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/olympic-satire-races-against-dramas-top-british-tv-104229096--sector.html

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Is North Korea on the brink of war?

Kim Jong Un on horseback in an undated photo (KNS/Getty Images)

Politicians and pundits painted a pretty bleak picture of the situation in North Korea on the Sunday talk-show circuit, with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham predicting a "major war" breaking out if Kim Jong Un attacks South Korea.

"The North Koreans need to understand if they attack an American interest or an ally of this country, they're going to pay a heavy price," Graham said on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday. "I could see a major war happening if the North Koreans overplay their hand this time, because the public in South Korea, the United States, and I think the whole region, is fed up with this guy."

"I think we have to convince this new, young, inexperienced leader that he's playing a losing hand," Michele Flournoy said. "The only way out of the box to get the economic development he wants, to get the progress that he wants, is to ratchet back the rhetoric. Come back into compliance with the international obligations."

Since assuming power in late 2011, the provocative Kim has defied U.N. sanctions by continuing to develop North Korea's missile program.

"He's kind of reckless right now," U.S. Gen. James Thurman, the top U.S. military commander in South Korea, said on ?This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on ABC. "If they decided to, you know resume hostilities, I think we've got to be ready to go."

Earlier Sunday, U.S. officials said Thurman?who was expected to travel to Washington this week to appear before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees?will stay in Seoul as "a prudent measure."

When asked to speculate on the outcome of a war, Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: "The North loses and the South wins, with our help. That's what happens."

[Related: Rodman says Kim Jong Un wants Obama to ?call him?]

On "Meet The Press," former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson called Kim's leadership "belligerent," but cautioned against U.S. military action.

"I think the goal should not just be to calm them down, to cool the rhetoric down," Richardson said. "The goal has to be [to] get North Korea back to the negotiating table on nuclear proliferation, on de-nuclearization. They have to do it, because that whole Asian area is a tinderbox."

Greta Van Susteren, who has visited North Korea three times, said negotiation is not something on the minds of most North Koreans.

"The whole time we were there, all we saw was preparation for war," Van Susteren said. "If you go inside, they have been at war with us since the early 1950s. They think that every single one of us is spending every Saturday night sitting around planning how to get them while we're busy ordering pizzas and Chinese food carryout, they think that we're getting ready for war."

Graham said the United States needs to keep its eye on Syria, too.

"Crazy people and nuclear weapons who proliferate those weapons throughout the world, who support terrorist organizations, are incredibly dangerous," Graham said. "That's why we need to stop Syria from getting chemical. Chemical weapons need to be controlled in Syria; the ayatollahs in Iran are just as crazy as this guy in North Korea."

He added: "This could be a nightmare in the making with these chemical weapons falling into radical Islamists. The number of radical jihadists on the ground in Syria today is growing every day this war goes on."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/north-korea-kim-jong-un-war-201715650.html

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Academy of Country Music Awards 2013: List of Winners!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/academy-of-country-music-awards-2013-list-of-winners/

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Gunmen ambush police boat in Nigeria oil region

By Tife Owolabi

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerian militants have ambushed a police boat in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, leaving 12 officers missing and presumed dead, security officials said on Sunday.

The ambush came days after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main delta militant group prior to a 2009 amnesty, threatened to restart attacks in retaliation for the jailing of leader Henry Okah by a South African court.

Police Commissioner Kingsley Omire said the ambush was carried out by militants once loyal to Kile Selky Torughedi, who headed MEND's southern wing, but denied there was a link to the threat by the group, whose attacks cut oil production in Nigeria by around half before the amnesty.

He instead blamed a dispute between the gunmen and the government over their amnesty payments - underscoring the fragility of the peace that has been achieved in the delta by paying off thousands of militants to silence their guns.

The government is keen to wind the amnesty payments down but fears that as soon as it does the militancy will restart.

Omire said the boat carrying 50 police officials was heading to a funeral late on Friday when it developed engine problems in one of the winding creeks of the swampy delta region that is home to Africa's biggest oil industry.

"The craft developed engine problem was now isolated and the officers became soft target for some hoodlums, who we have confirmed were part of a militant group that was supposed to be enjoying an amnesty," Omire said.

A Nigerian security source, who could not be named, said the 12 were very likely all dead. Omire said all others on the boat were safe.

Any resurgence of militant activity would be a blow to President Goodluck Jonathan, who helped negotiate the amnesty and who is from the same Ijaw ethnic group as most of the militants. His administration's security forces are already stretched by an Islamist insurgency in the north.

It would also be a major headache for multinational oil companies such as leading operator Royal Dutch Shell, already contending with industrial scale oil theft by armed gangs that saps up to a fifth of Nigeria's 2 million barrel-a-day output, according to some government estimates.

While attacks in the Niger Delta region have been fewer since the amnesty, kidnapping, piracy, large-scale oil theft and pipeline sabotage still occur on a near daily basis.

However, MEND threatened on Thursday to restart "a plague of attacks" in an emailed statement signed by Jomo Gbomo, a pseudonym used by the group, in response to Okah's jailing.

He was sentenced to 24 years in prison on March 26 for masterminding two deadly car bombings in the Nigerian capital in 2010 that killed at least 10 people.

MEND has been largely inactive since most of its militants agreed to the amnesty, although the group claimed an attack on crude oil pipeline owned by Italian oil and gas group Eni in April last year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-ambush-boat-nigeria-oil-region-12-police-075341209.html

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