Rising rates of obesity will lead to dramatic increases in the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease, experts have predicted.

The biggest risk factor for all types of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common, is age. Obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol all increase the risk of dementia because they can lead to damage of the blood vessels in the brain, which in turn leads to the death of brain cells.

Better diet, more exercise and lower blood pressure would all help to reduce people’s risk of the condition.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6249174.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Kellogg Co. said it will increase the nutritional value of the cereals and snacks targeted at children or else stop marketing those products to them altogether.

Company brands such as Froot Loops cereal and Pop-Tarts toaster pastries that fall outside certain standards will either be reformulated or dropped from advertising that reaches audiences where at least half of the people are under age 12.

The change comes **after parents and advocacy groups worried about child obesity threatened a lawsuit**.

[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=106&sid=1166567 “Read the Story”) (AP via WTOP)

Chinese investigators say nearly 60 hospitals and pharmacies in north-eastern China have been using fake blood protein in patients’ drips.

Albumin, or plasma protein, is used to treat patients suffering from shock and burns and during open-heart surgery. Experts suggest that the fake product could be life-threatening for those already in a serious condition.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6742293.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Low-carbohydrate diets may increase the risk of people suffering bowel cancer, scientists have claimed.

Researchers said they had discovered a link between consuming carbohydrate and the production of a fatty acid in the gut that protects against colorectal cancer. The acid, called butyrate, is produced by bacteria and helps kill off cancerous cells. The researchers said they found low-carbohydrate regimes could cause a four-fold reduction in the cancer-fighting bacteria.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/6764169.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Nearly 60% of eligible children whose parents applied for Medicaid in Virginia went without health care for weeks or months because of a new federal rule intended to prevent undocumented immigrants from receiving coverage. While waiting for Medicaid, nearly half of the children younger than 2 who needed immunizations were unable to get them and 25% did not obtain medical care for an illness.

The reduced care is a consequence of the Deficit Reduction Act, a 2006 law that requires people who say they are citizens to provide proof such as a passport or the combination of a birth certificate and driver’s license. The federal law requires that the applications be processed within 45 days, but hundreds of children born in the U.S. waited weeks or months longer, primarily because their parents had trouble providing identity documents.

Another issue Virginia faces is a continued decline in the numbers of children in its Medicaid program since the rules went into effect, probably leaving them without health care. Between last summer and April 1, there has been a net decrease of 11,108 children enrolled in Virginia’s Medicaid program. That follows years of an average net increase of more than 1,000 children per month, including the 12 months immediately before the rule changes. In Virginia, 376,000 children are covered by the program.

[Read](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602478.html?nav=rss_health “Read the Story”) (Washington Post)

Exercising after meals can help promote weight loss by boosting hormones that suppress appetite, say UK scientists.

Thanks to these hormones, active people feel less hungry immediately after exercise, and this carries through to their next meal. Even when their meals were bigger, sporty people gained fewer calories overall because they burned off more.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6712923.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Researchers working with children from a deprived area of [Middlesbrough](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesbrough “Wikipedia’s Middlesbrough Page”) found that most of the nine and 10-year-olds were only aware of baked beans.

[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tees/6724237.stm “Read the Story”) (BBC)

Preschoolers today are more likely to have cavities than children did in the early 1990s, possibly because they are drinking more soda and juice drinks and less milk and water with fluoride, according to the most comprehensive government report on oral health in 25 years.

The percentage of children ages 2 to 5 who have had at least one cavity in their baby teeth was 28% in 1999-2004, up from 24% in 1988-1994.

Read (USA Today)

Dominated by doughnuts, pizza and foods-on-a-stick, the average school menu in West Virginia can read like the offerings at a glutton’s dream buffet. At one elementary school, a breakfast offering is “Pancake on a stick,” a variation on corn dogs with sausage and pancake batter, to be dipped in syrup. For lunch, pepperoni and cheese-stuffed pizza breads. Bologna sandwiches for snacks.

While the food choices may appear unhealthy, administrators say they are sneaking in nutrition to combat childhood obesity in a state where 13.7% of children were overweight in 2005. In schools across the state, fat and calories are being cut by furtively supplementing hamburgers with soy and subbing applesauce for shortening in cake.

The faux-junk food push is the nutritional equivalent of making airplane noises while zooming a spoonful of food into a child’s mouth: a dressy distraction intended to get children to clean their plates.

“The problem is we can’t always have our cake and eat it, too,” said Dr. Stephen Daniels, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

He worries that children who grow up eating faux fast foods may have trouble making good food choices as adults.

“There are ways to prepare healthy foods to make them more palatable, but I’m not sure we need to hide them in a doughnut or a hot dog,” he said.

Read (AP via USA Today)

Adults with serious mental illness treated in public systems die about 25 years earlier than Americans overall, a gap that’s widened since the early ’90s when major mental disorders cut life spans by 10 to 15 years.

Read (USA Today)