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Baseline Dopamine Levels And Our Motivation To Eat Influenced By Fat Hormone
As we all know from experience, people eat not only because they are hungry, but also because the food just simply tastes too good to pass up. Now, a new study in the August 6th Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication, helps to explain how leptin, a hormone produced by fat tissue, influences that motivation to eat.

Link Between Vitamin D Insufficiency And Bacterial Vaginosis In Pregnant Women
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most common vaginal infection in US women of childbearing age, and is common in pregnant women. BV occurs when the normal balance of bacteria in the vagina is disrupted and replaced by an overgrowth of certain bacteria. Because having BV puts a woman at increased risk for a variety of complications, such as preterm delivery, there is great interest in understanding how it can be prevented. Vitamin D may play a role in BV because it exerts influence over a number of aspects of the immune system. This hypothesis is circumstantially supported by the fact that BV is far more common in black than white women, and vitamin D status is substantially lower in black than white women. This relation, however, has not been rigorously studied. To assess whether poor vitamin D status may play a role in predisposing a woman to BV, Bodnar and coworkers at the University of Pittsburgh and the Magee-Womens Research Institute studied 469 pregnant women. The results of their investigation are published in the June 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
News of the day
Suicide Rates Lowest On Record, England
The number of suicides in England are at an all-time low, Care Services Minister Phil Hope announced as he published the latest annual report on suicide prevention.
Oncology

Reports From The White House And Kaiser Family Foundation Address Health Care Disparities

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Health Czar Nancy Ann DeParle held a discussion of minority health issues at the White House yesterday, where Sebelius "said the Obama administration is committed to addressing the "alarming disparity in the delivery of quality health care"," which she said was necessary to lower costs, the Associated Press reports. The White House also "issued a summary report on minority health care showing that African-Americans are seven times more likely as whites to have HIV/AIDS, that blacks and Hispanics have diabetes rates nearly twice as high as whites, and that black men are 50 percent more likely than whites to have prostate cancer" (Evans, 6/9). Kaiser Health News adds that "among the ideas bandied about from the two dozen stakeholder groups, ranging from the National Hispanic Medical Association and the NAACP to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Coalition, were improving access to specialty care for minorities and making sure that doctors understand the patients they"re dealing with culturally, economically and gender-specifically" (Villegas, 6/9). A separate report released by the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access yesterday found that the "number of uninsured people seeking hospital care declined in fiscal year 2008," but "the cost of hospital stays for patients without insurance has soared more than 40 percent since 2005," the Hartford Courant reports. "Even with fewer uninsured, costs rose because hospital charges are increasing - typically 6 percent or more a year - and those without insurance are typically older and have more chronic illnesses." Cristine Vogel, commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access, said hospitals are trying to register patients for a Medicaid program in order to avoid a lack of insurance. The report "broke down how uninsured hospital stays are distributed by race. Hispanics, about 12 percent of the state"s population, account for about one quarter of uninsured hospital stays. Black people, about 10 percent of the population, represent 16 percent of the uninsured stays" (Gosselin, 6/10). Meanwhile, The Washington Post details findings from a Kaiser Family Foundation study released today. The report found, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as a federal Current Population Survey, that "there is a large disparity in the incidence of certain chronic diseases between black and white women." The study reflected health statistics in the states and the District of Columbia (Fears, 6/10). "Women of color in every state, including Georgia, generally lag behind their white counterparts when it comes to health and access to care," according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, based on the report"s findings. "Disparities exist across all states for basically all measures," said Cara V. James, lead author of "Putting Women"s Health Care Disparities on the Map: Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the State Level." She told the AJC that differences varied widely in some states. "In others, white women and women of color are struggling equally. James hopes the study will help states develop strategies to combat health inequities" (Poole, 6/10). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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