UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Drug makers halt branded gifts to doctors

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The U.S. drug industry has agreed to stop giving branded gifts like pens to doctors to counter the idea they unduly influence medicine, an industry group says.

"It's not just the pens -- it's the paper on the exam table, the tongue depressor, the stethoscope tags, medical calipers that might be used to interpret an EKG, penlights," Dr. Robert Goodman, an internal medicine physician at New York's Montefiore Medical Center, told The New York Times.

"Practically anything you can put a name on is branded in a doctor's office, short of branding, like a Nascar driver, on the doctor's white coat," said Goodman, founder of No Free Lunch, a non-profit group that encourages doctors to reject drug-company giveaways.

The voluntary moratorium, drawn up by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to start Jan. 1, still lets drug makers underwrite lunches for doctors and their staffs and sponsor restaurant dinners for doctors, as long as the meals are accompanied by educational presentations.

About 40 drug makers have signed on to the code, the industry group said.

Last year, besides giving doctors nearly $16 billion in free drug samples, drug companies spent more than $6 billion on sales activities such as doctor office visits, mealtime presentations and branded pens and other handouts, healthcare information company IMS Health Inc. said.

New smoking ban at government offices

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. government workers will be prohibited from smoking in federal building courtyards or within 25 feet of doorways and air-intake ducts, a new rule says.

The policy, to be implemented within six months, also bans designated smoking rooms in federal buildings, General Services Administration said.

The rule replaces a 1997 executive order signed by U.S. President Bill Clinton that banned smoking in federal buildings but permitted smoking in designated rooms and nearby outdoor areas.

"We see this as a major victory," American Lung Association media relations Director Heather Grzelka told The Washington Post.

But National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley said the new rule "fails to recognize" smoking is a disabling addiction for some employees. She told the Post the union might request agencies sponsor programs to help employees quit smoking.

The GSA regulation cites studies showing secondhand smoke is harmful to anyone exposed to it. The agency also notes 26 states already ban smoking in state government buildings and 19 states ban smoking in all private workplaces.

The new policy doesn't apply to prisons and other federal buildings in which people are "voluntarily or involuntarily residing," a public notice in the U.S. Federal Register said.

The policy also lets agency heads establish "limited and narrow exceptions that are necessary to accomplish agency missions."

The lung association is concerned this might let smokers establish new footholds in federal buildings, Grzelka said.

Whole Foods pulls wrongly marked kids food

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Whole Foods Market Inc. has pulled three "gluten-free" products for children because the items actually contain the substance, the Texas grocery chain said.

The chain, with 273 U.S. stores, also said it would create a strict "gluten-free" definition and begin monitoring its items so such problems don't recur.

Three products made for Whole Foods by Wellshire Farms Inc. of Swedesboro, N.J. -- Chicken Bites Dinosaur Shaped, chicken corn dogs and beef corn dogs -- contained between 116 and 2,200 parts per million of gluten, a Chicago Tribune investigation found.

While the federal legal definition of gluten-free is imprecise, most experts view it as containing less than 20 parts per million, the newspaper said.

Gluten -- a protein found in wheat, rye and barley -- can cause allergic reactions in people with wheat allergies and severe abdominal pain in those with celiac disease, a disorder of the small intestine.

Whole Foods initially refused to remove the products, saying Wellshire Farms was responsible for ensuring the items were safe and legal.

But after receiving about 20 consumer complaints or inquiries, including from people who thought "gluten-free" meant zero gluten, Whole Foods pulled the products from its U.S. stores, the Tribune said.

Wellshire Farms now has a batter supplier that guarantees less than 20 parts per million of gluten, owner Louis Colameco said.

The Wellshire Farms Web site lists all products in its Wellshire Kids line as "gluten-free."

Study: Thinking too much leads to obesity

QUEBEC CITY, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The stress of thinking causes overeating, with heavy thinkers seeking out more calories than their excessive thinking used up, a university study found.

A research team supervised by Angelo Tremblay of Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada, measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks -- relaxing in a sitting position, reading and summarizing a text and completing a series of memory, attention and vigilance tests on a computer, the researchers reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

After 45 minutes at each activity, the students were invited to eat as much as they wanted from a buffet.

Even though the researchers had already determined that each session of intellectual work required only three calories more than the rest period, the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarizing a text and 253 more calories after the computer tests, the researchers said.

Blood samples taken before, during and after each session revealed the intellectual work caused much bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels than rest periods.

"These fluctuations may be caused by the stress of intellectual work, or also reflect a biological adaptation during glucose combustion," hypothesized Jean-Philippe Chaput, the study's main author.

The body may spur food intake to restore its glucose balance, the only fuel the brain uses, he said.

"Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact that we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized countries," Chaput said.