Study: Smoking doubles risk for stroke

Compared to people who don't smoke, smokers face twice the risk of stroke and they are likely to have that stroke nearly a decade sooner, a Canadian study finds.

But within two years of quitting smoking, the risk for stroke or heart disease drops to non-smoker levels, the researchers said.

"Stroke is preventable," said Dr. Mike Sharma, deputy director of the Canadian Stroke Network (CSN), in a CSN news release. "This study highlights the sizable role smoking has on stroke. Quitting smoking, controlling blood pressure, following a healthy diet and being physically active significantly reduce the risk of stroke."

In conducting the study, to be presented Monday at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Ottawa, researchers examined 982 stroke patients over roughly two years. The researchers found the average age of stroke victims who smoked was 58 -- nine years younger than the average age of the non-smokers.

Smoking causes atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque inside the blood vessels, and increases the risk of blood clots. The study's authors said smokers have double the risk of a stroke caused by a dislodged blood clot (ischemic stroke) and four times the risk of a stroke caused by a ruptured blood vessel (hemorrhagic stroke) than people who don't smoke.

"The information from this study provides yet another important piece of evidence about the significance of helping people stop smoking," said study co-author Dr. Andrew Pipe of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, in the news release. "It also alerts the neurology community to the importance of addressing smoking in stroke patients."

The study also showed smoking increases the risk for complications from stroke and the likelihood of subsequent strokes. To prevent this from happening, the researchers said several initiatives are needed, including:

Limiting children's access to tobacco

Curbing the use of illegal tobacco products

Monitoring prices for tobacco products

Systematically helping smokers quit

Establishing an integrated smoking cessation unit within the health community

"It is critical for governments to continue to wage the battle against tobacco industry products," concluded Dr. Michael Hill, Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson, in the news release.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Tanning beds may be even riskier than thought

Indoor tanning beds may be even more likely to cause skin cancer than previously believed.

New research published online Oct. 6 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggests that the main type of ultraviolet rays used in tanning beds -- UVA1 -- may penetrate to a deep layer of skin that is most vulnerable to the cancer-causing changes caused by UV rays.

The new study comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers banning the use of tanning beds among children under 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics is on record that it supports such a ban.

In the study, 12 volunteers were exposed to UVA1 and UVB rays on their buttocks. (One difference in the waves is length: UVB waves are shorter.)

The UVA1 was more damaging to the skin's basal layer then the UVB light. The UVA1 induced a type of lesion called thymine dimers on the deeper basal layers of the skin. UVB radiation caused more of these lesions, but they did not go as deep, and thus may be less likely to cause the changes linked to skin cancers.

"The doses we used were comparable for erythema -- sunburn -- for UVA and UVB. That would be roughly equivalent to the doses needed for tanning in each spectrum," said study co-author Antony R. Young, a professor at the St. John's Institute of Dermatology at King's College School of Medicine in London.

"Indoor tanning is like smoking for your skin," said Dr. Doris Day, a dermatologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It's the single worst thing you can do in terms of skin cancer and premature aging."

Many indoor tanning salons advertise that tanning beds can help boost the body's production of vitamin D, known as the sunshine vitamin because skin makes it when exposed to the sun's rays. "This is nonsense and an excuse," Day said. "We know people burn in tanning beds and that UVA and UVB are toxic."

Teens are particularly vulnerable, she said. "They are immortal in their mind, and skin cancer and aging seem a long ways away." Melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, "is not an old person's disease," she said. The new study provides "a little bit more muscle in helping to warn people about the dangers of tanning, but an FDA ban is what we need," she added.

"I do think there should be legislation on sunbed use under 18 years of age," said Young, who added that such use is already prohibited in England.

John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group representing the industry, said that if there was science to back up many of these claims, the FDA would have acted by now. The agency has been mulling these claims since March 2010, he noted.

What's more, the new study is about ultraviolet radiation, not tanning beds, he said. "Tanning beds have the same ratio of UV waves as the sun. UVA-1 is the primary wave length emitted by the sun, too," he said. "The sun and indoor tanning pose the same risks and benefits if you don't burn. There is no science that shows non-burning exposure to sun or a sun lamp causes cancer."

Dr. Heidi A. Waldorf, director of Laser and Cosmetic Dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said that the new study adds to the body of evidence about the damaging effects of the sun's rays. "This finding fits with our understanding of UVA as the deeper penetrating 'aging' rays," she said. "The data is important as we discuss regulatory changes in the labeling of broad-spectrum sun protection products and as we educate patients, particularly young women, about the dangers of indoor UVA tanning beds."

The FDA now requires sunscreens to have a minimum sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 and be labeled as broad spectrum to show that that protect against both UVA and UVB waves.

'Flipped' classrooms take advantage of technology

POTOMAC, Md. – Step into Stacey Roshan's Advanced Placement calculus class some morning and two things become apparent: The students don't seem stressed-out, as AP students often do. And the teacher is barely teaching.

Sitting in pairs, students poke at their iPads waiting for class to begin. But in place of a long-winded lecture there's Roshan, a petite brunette with a broad smile, moving through the room, urging students to take out their homework.

In a word, Roshan has "flipped" her class.

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Pressed for time and struggling to reach a generation raised on YouTube, Roshan, like a growing number of teachers, digitally records her lessons with a tablet computer as a virtual blackboard, then uploads them to iTunes and assigns them as homework. In class the following day, she helps students work out exercises and answer knotty questions.

It's the latest way technology is changing teachers' jobs — in this case it's literally turning their workday upside-down. But teachers say flipped, or upside-down, classes offer greater control of material and more face time with students.

In many cases, software allows students to chat online while watching the videos. Tegrity, a Silicon Valley firm that specializes in flipped instruction, allows students to time-stamp lecture notes. It boasts more than 1million student users, many of them in higher education.

Flipped classrooms have even attracted the attention of funders such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has become a major backer of Khan Academy, a non-profit repository of nearly 2,400 free instructional videos that teachers use to teach everything from pre-algebra to Augusto Pinochet's Chile.

"It's about changing the dynamic of how you deliver the instruction," says Roshan, who teaches at the private Bullis School near Washington, D.C. She began flipping her AP calculus classes last fall after finding she couldn't cover all the required material. Even topics she covered "didn't really all sink in."

Roshan now finishes the course a month in advance and uses the extra time for review. The number of students scoring a perfect "5" on the AP exam has risen, she says. Students watch lessons at home, sometimes two or three times, and replay confusing sections. If they're still confused, they query a friend. If that doesn't work, they ask Roshan the following day.

"I always tell them, '(The) first, best option is to solve the problem on your own. But if you can't, ask your partner. And then you should ask me third, because by asking your partner, at least you're going to have to work through the problem because neither of you is an expert in it yet. Neither of you is going to know the answer right off the bat.'"

On a recent morning, she weaved between desks, chatting quietly with students, then strode to the whiteboard, popped the top off a black marker and wrote the capital letters "IVT."

"I have a request to go over the intermediate value theorem," Roshan said. "It's a really complicated name for something really simple. You guys want to go over it right now?" No one protested, so she launched into the lesson: She talked, she drew, she took students' questions. She drew some more. Start to finish, the lesson lasted three minutes and 25 seconds. Back to homework.

Lisa Nielsen, author of the new book Teaching Generation Tech, says flipped classrooms show a lot of potential, but she worries that many low-income students don't have reliable Internet or computer access at home. She also says lectures are rarely the best way to teach. Flipped classrooms "could lead us down the path of doing more of something that doesn't work because it gives us more time to do it."

Frank Noschese, a physics teacher at John Jay High School in Cross River, N.Y., says anything that gives teachers more face time with students is "a good thing." But he says lecturing, even at a leisurely pace, is still bad pedagogy. "It's just kind of 'Lecture 2.0.'"

Roshan disagrees. She says it's all about helping students understand difficult material. Flipping the classroom, she says, has made her students more independent, less-stressed learners, because for many students, the hardest part is applying the lesson to problem sets.

"In an English class, you send the kids home to read a passage, and then in class you discuss that passage," she says. "Why in math class am I more or less having them read the passage in class?"

First Occupy Wall Street — Now Occupy the Fed

Perhaps surprising to some, many conservatives sympathize with the Occupy Wall Street protesters because they understand the motivating factors behind the protests: increased costs on everyday items, unemployment, inflation, etc. However, those conservatives recognize that much of the anger of the protesters is directed at the wrong target. The real enemy, they contend, is the Federal Reserve, and it is for that reason that those conservatives have chosen to use the momentum of the Occupy Wall Street protests to stage Occupy the Fed protests instead.


One organizer, known only as “Anonymous A99,” announced the first operation targeting the Fed, called “Operation Empire State Rebellion,” on March 12. The announcement explained that the movement was intended to be a “decentralized non-violent resistance movement.” Anonymous A99 said of the intent of the organizers:


Above all, we aim to break up the global banking cartel centered at the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund, Bank of International Settlement and World Bank.


We demand that the primary dealers within the Federal Reserve banking system be broken up and held accountable for rigging markets and destroying the global economy, effective immediately.


As a first sign of good faith, we demand Ben Bernanke step down as Federal Reserve chairman.


Until our demands are met and a rule of law is restored, we will engage in a relentless campaign of non-violent, peaceful, civil disobedience.”


Those protests commenced on June 14, and took place in over 20 cities, but were scarcely reported on by the mainstream media. In some areas, they have been going on ever since.


More recently, protests against the Federal Reserve have been launched by a number of groups, including some which were part of the Occupy Wall Street protests.


One leader of the demonstrations against the Federal Reserve is blogger and radio personality Alex Jones. His website, infowars.com, issued a press release advertising the protests, which read:


Public sentiment has shifted — against the trends of Washington and Wall Street — and now, against the private Federal Reserve bank which controls or influences so much of the world’s finances. Whereas only a few years ago many Americans were unaware of the true nature of the shadowy organization, recent polls confirm that the public overwhelmingly wants to audit and even abolish the Federal Reserve bank.


Explaining the growing animosity towards the Federal Reserve, Jones continues:


By striking at the root of the true problems, we can attempt to reign in the predatory banking powers that plague our nation and begin to restore the Republic.


The Federal Reserve banking system is at the root of that problem and a perpetual impediment towards ending the global economic crisis that continues to grow.


The Federal Reserve has been harshly criticized by a number of individuals and groups, particularly those who are proponents of Austrian economics. GOP presidential contender Ron Paul has been a leading advocate of eliminating the Federal Reserve and restoring the free market economy. He has spent virtually his entire political career vocalizing his disdain for the unconstitutional system.


In 2002, Paul said of the Federal Reserve:


Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle- and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve's inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people.


Paul has often addressed how the Federal Reserve continues to serve the needs of a few, while imposing negative consequences on the average American:


Though the Federal Reserve policy harms the average American, it benefits those in a position to take advantage of the cycles in monetary policy. The main beneficiaries are those who receive access to artificially inflated money and/or credit before the inflationary effects of the policy impact the entire economy. Federal Reserve policies also benefit big spending politicians who use the inflated currency created by the Fed to hide the true costs of the welfare-warfare state. It is time for Congress to put the interests of the American people ahead of the special interests and their own appetite for big government.


Above all, Paul notes that the Federal Reserve is an unconstitutional establishment that has ultimately stripped Congress of powers that were assigned to it by the Constitution:


Abolishing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy. The United States Constitution grants to Congress the authority to coin money and regulate the value of the currency. The Constitution does not give Congress the authority to delegate control over monetary policy to a central bank. Furthermore, the Constitution certainly does not empower the federal government to erode the American standard of living via an inflationary monetary policy.


According to Paul, it is the policies of the Federal Reserve that have driven people to protest: “It is no wonder they are up on Wall Street raising Cain because they know the system is biased against the average person.”


Protesters outside of the Federal Reserve were seen bearing signs targeting the Fed’s destructive economic policies, as well as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. One protester held a sign of Bernanke wearing Muslim garb that read, “Osama Bin Bernanke.”


In Chicago, anti-Fed protesters have been stationed outside of the Federal Reserve bank since September 24. On Monday, nearly one dozen people sat outside of the Federal Reserve Bank with protest signs and hampers filled with food and blankets. The demonstrators claim that so much has been donated to them that they have actually begun to give the excess food and blankets to homeless people.


In Dallas, hundreds of protesters marched from Pike Park to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, demanding change.


Clearly, at least in some instances, Ron Paul’s assertions that the Fed has driven people to the streets to protest are true, but the protests have become so widespread that it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine who is behind them and what their political philosophies are.


Some media outlets are reporting that the Wall Street protesters are “libertarian,” which could be true of those who have focused their attention on the Federal Reserve.


However, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York include a number of unions and socialist groups which hold very different political stances from libertarians. Their list of demands have included more big government and more regulation, items that would not be supported by libertarian-minded or conservative demonstrators.


Likewise, The New American's Alex Newman has revealed that leftist billionaire George Soros' money has been tied to the Occupy Wall Street protests.


In other words, the protests have encompassed a wide spectrum of political philosophies.


According to The Daily Campus, a publication of the Southern Methodist University, those present at the Dallas protest hailed from a variety of backgrounds: “Followers of the Tea Party movement, Ron Paul supporters, and the Dallas Young Democrats all had strong showings.”


Whether the protests against the Federal Reserve will help to bring about major change remains to be seen, but some analysts contend it is encouraging just to see people turn their attention to the Federal Reserve and finally take notice of the type of destruction it has imposed on the American people.


We contacted John Birch Society President John McManus, who said, "Targeting the Federal Reserve is correct inasmuch as there is no constitutional justification for its existence and it possesses enormously harmful powers. But it was created by Congress and, therefore, can be abolished by Congress. Demonstrating against the Fed by camping out in the streets, especially if funding for such activity comes from the likes of George Soros, should be labeled a counterproductive exercise. These demonstrations seem designed to deflect attention and anger away from the Fed's creator, the Congress

Tell them the CFPB needs a director

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can't do its job until Senate Republicans do theirs.

Add your name to the call for Republicans to stop blocking a vote to confirm Richard Cordray as director of the bureau, and let the CFPB protect ordinary Americans from the abuses of Wall Street.

For more on why it's important that we protect consumers from Wall Street's abuses, check out our video from the one-year anniversary of Wall Street reform this past July.

Study: Some stressed moms get hostile, some seem insensitive

Parenting is often stressful, but new research shows why chronic stress impairs the way mothers react to children.

Researchers measured the physiological stress responses of 153 mothers (about half low-income, half middle- to upper-income) and found that those facing ongoing stress, such as depression or poverty, were either more harsh and hostile or more insensitive and neglectful toward their toddlers.

The study, published online in the journal Development and Psychopathology, shows chronic stress disrupts the body's natural stress response, which is to react and then recover, says lead author Melissa Sturge-Apple, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester in New York.

Researchers used a wireless electrocardiograph monitor to analyze changes in mothers' heart rhythms as children were placed in a mildly distressing situation and then observed the pairs during play. They also asked questions about symptoms of depression.

Mothers with more depressive symptoms showed heart rate patterns that began higher and rose during their toddlers' distress. After being reunited, moms' heart rates remained elevated and their actions were more hostile, such as making derogatory comments in an angry tone. Mothers in poverty had heart rates that began lower and rose little during their child's distress. During play, they were more likely to ignore their kids and not respond when toddlers wanted attention.

"Mothers with higher levels of depressive symptoms were more reactive; the ones in poverty were more likely to be less reactive," Sturge-Apple says.

The body handles stress either by heightening reactions or shutting down; what's counterintuitive, she says, is that those more likely to be depressed aren't withdrawn but rather hostile and angry.

Those results confirm what sociologist Robin Simon of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., found in a 2010 study published in the journal Social Forces. She sees a clear link between depression and anger and hostility.

"They're already in a funk, so they're going to be more reactive. At the same time, greater reactivity to parental stress may be why they're depressed," she says.

Economist Julieta Lugo-Gil, a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research Inc. in Princeton, N.J., also has studied low-income mothers. Her analysis of 2,089 mothers with kids 14 months to 3 years was published in 2008 in the journal Child Development.

It found that factors such as the mother's education and literacy level and whether she lived with the child's father help her be more sensitive and supportive when a child is upset.

"If you have less resources, then the quality of the interaction is not as good," she says

CDC: 18 people dead in listeria outbreak tied to cantaloupe

The death toll in the listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupes from a Colorado farm rose to 18 and could continue to climb, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
About 100 people in 20 states have become sick from the outbreak, the CDC said.
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The federal agency has confirmed five deaths in both Colorado and New Mexico, two each in Kansas and Texas, and one each in Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
Wyoming's Health Department said it confirmed a death in that state linked to the outbreak, but the CDC did not include that case in its count.
The outbreak has been linked to Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes sold by Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo. The cantaloupes were recalled Sept. 14, and no melons under the recall should still be on store shelves. The first illnesses began after July31.
Symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to develop in someone who has eaten contaminated food, so illnesses could continue to show up into November, the CDC said.
Most of the contaminated melons should be out of the food supply by now. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration said any cantaloupes not from Jensen Farms are safe to eat.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Tuesday that her agency is investigating the cause of the outbreak.
The FDA and CDC have had teams in Jensen Farms fields and packing sheds, testing the soil, water and surfaces for clues. Listeria bacteria grow in moist, muddy conditions and are often carried by animals.
Listeria is a rare but dangerous bacteria that kills approximately 30% of its victims and can send up to 90% of the elderly people who get it to the hospital.
It can cause mild illnesses in pregnant women, but it can also result in stillbirths or miscarriages. In the past, listeria has been most strongly linked to deli meats and soft cheeses, not produce.
The outbreak is the deadliest in the USA in the past 10 years. The second deadliest was the salmonella outbreak in peanut products linked to the Peanut Corp. of America in 2008. That outbreak killed nine people and sickened more than 700.
Before then, the deadliest food-borne illness outbreak was in 1985, when a Mexican-style cheese contaminated with listeria from Jalisco Products killed 18 people and sickened 86 others. That outbreak resulted in four miscarriages, the CDC said.
Contributing: The Associated Press