Kids given healthier snacks eat fewer calories






NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Kids given a combination of cheese and vegetables will eat only about a quarter as many calories as those given potato chips, according to a new study.


“Like it or not, children like foods that are energy-dense and not those that are nutrient-rich. That is because children are still growing. That is basic physiology,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of the Nutritional Sciences Program at the University of Washington, who was not part of the study.






The findings may not be surprising, but they suggest that swapping out potato chips for cheese or vegetables then might help reduce the amount of calories kids eat at snack time, said Adam Brumberg, one of the authors of the study and the deputy director of the Food and Brand Laboratory at Cornell University.


“If you put into the rotation (healthier snacks) you can have a significant impact on weekly caloric intake,” he suggested.


The study, which was funded in part by the cheese maker Bel Brands USA, involved 183 kids in 3rd through 6th grade.


Each of the kids was put in a room to watch TV and eat a snack – 45 kids were given potato chips, 36 were offered cheese, 59 were given raw vegetables and 43 were given cheese and vegetables.


After 45 minutes the researchers measured how much food the children had eaten.


They found that kids in the chip group ate by far the most calories – 620 on average.


Kids ate 200 calories of cheese, 60 calories of vegetables and 170 calories of the combination cheese-and-vegetables snack.


“Children tend to eat the foods they like – and one measure of preference is the amount eaten. So chips and cheese beat raw vegetables hands down. Why am I not surprised?” said Drewnowski in an email to Reuters Health.


The findings might be obvious, but they also reveal that kids felt full after eating fewer calories of the cheese and vegetables than after eating the potato chips.


“One thing that was crucial about this study is there was no restriction on the quantity. No one in the snacking conditions ate everything,” said Brumberg.


In other words, the kids ate until they felt full, and for the potato chip group that meant eating a lot more calories than the cheese-and-veggies group.


To put those 600 potato chip calories into perspective, a moderately active eight-year-old boy should eat about 1400 to 1600 calories a day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


ROLE OF RESTRICTION?


Brumberg said there’s a lot of conflicting information regarding nutrition and ways to get kids to eat healthy, but restricting kids’ diets to only the healthiest of foods might not be the right approach.


“We think that for most people restrictions are setting up an opportunity for you to fail,” he said.


For some families, restricting snacks to only the healthiest ones is not even possible.


Drewnowski pointed out that children from low income families are affected the most by obesity, and “red bell peppers at $ 3.99 per pound are not going to solve that problem.”


Brumberg suggested that parents should still let kids have the foods they prefer, but limit them.


“The most effective way, we believe, is to put (healthy snacks) in the rotation. Don’t take away everything that they love, but reduce calories over the week,” he said.


SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ZVutRp Pediatrics, online December 17, 2012.


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Hurting Spaniards pin hopes on Christmas lottery






MADRID (AP) — After another brutal year of economic hardship, Spaniards across the country are hoping for relief when the country’s famed Christmas lottery — the world’s richest — pays out €2.5 billion ($ 3.3 billion) in tax-free awards on Saturday.


Almost everyone in the country of 46 million people will be glued to live TV to watch school children sing out the winning numbers for the lottery that pays out maximum prizes of €400,000 ($ 529,840) and many more for smaller amounts. The top prize is dubbed “El Gordo” (“The Fat One”) and is likely to be won by hundreds if not thousands of players.






Unlike other big lotteries that generate just a few big winners, Spain‘s lottery — now in its 200th year — has always aimed for a share-the-wealth-system rather than a single jackpot, and thousands of numbers yield at least some kind of return.


The Christmas lottery is so popular that there are frequently three €20 ($ 26) tickets sold for every Spaniard, and the lottery itself is the unofficial kickoff of the holiday season.


“A lot of people win,” said Pablo Foncillas, a marketing professor at the IESE Business School in Madrid. “It’s really common even if you don’t win to get a free ticket. So many people win that people just keep on playing. Everyone knows someone who’s won, even if it’s only a little bit.”


Hundreds of players lined up daily to buy tickets this week outside the Dona Manuelita lottery store in Madrid, which has often sold winning tickets. Before Spain’s property-led economic boom collapsed in 2008, they had hoped to win so they could buy a small apartment or a car. Now people said they need the money just to hang on to what they have and avoid being evicted or having cars repossessed.


Betting that tickets from Dona Manuelita stood a better chance of winning, unemployed construction company office manager Miguel Angel Ruiz drove 165 kilometers (102 miles) to buy for a pool of players including his wife and relatives.


“We’re buying more hoping we’ll hit it so we can emerge from poverty,” said Ruiz, 39. “Before the crisis, lottery winnings were to buy an apartment or a car, and now it’s to pay debts.”


Diego Sanbrano, let go from his waiter’s job two months ago, said the Spanish lottery isn’t about getting rich and never working again.


“It’s to pay off debts and straighten out your life,” he said. “You pay the mortgage and make the car payment, and then maybe you have a little left over to go somewhere on vacation.”


Since so many people chip in to buy tickets in groups, the top prizes frequently end up being handed out in the same small town or in one city neighborhood. Last year’s top winning number hit for 1,800 tickets in the northern town of Granen, population 2,000. Townspeople shared about €700 million ($ 925 million), and the rest of the €1.8 billion ($ 2.4 billion) was doled out in smaller prizes around Spain.


The Dec. 22 lottery began in 1812 and last year sold an estimated €2.7 billion ($ 3.6 billion) in tickets with per-capita spending of about €70 ($ 92) just for the Christmas lottery.


Spain holds another big lottery Jan. 6 to mark the Feast of the Epiphany. It is known as “El Nino” (The Child), in reference to the baby Jesus.


But the crisis will hit El Nino and all lotteries going forward. Until now, lottery winnings have been free from taxation. Waves of austerity measures imposed by the government this year to prevent Spain from asking for public finances bailout like those for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have translated into higher taxes. Lottery winnings above €2,000 ($ 2,640) will face a 20 percent tax in 2013.


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Kenya police: 28 people killed in clashes






NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A police official says 28 people have been killed in clashes between farmers and herders in south-eastern Kenya.


Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent the attacks, said Friday that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the Orma herding community, called Kipao, at dawn in the Tana River Delta.






The latest deaths in a tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year’s general elections, according to the U.N.


At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in September and October.


Animosity between the two communities over land and water resources has existed for decades.


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Facebook tests $1 fee for messages to non-friends






SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook says it is testing a service that will charge users $ 1 to guarantee that messages they send to people they are not connected to arrive in users’ inboxes, rather than in an often-ignored folder called “other.”


Launched in 2011, the “other” folder is where Facebook routes messages it deems less relevant. Not quite spam, these include messages from people you most likely don’t know, based on Facebook’s reading of your social connections. Many users ignore this folder.






Now, users will be able to pay $ 1 to route their messages to non-friends. Facebook said Thursday that it is testing the service with a small percentage of individuals — not businesses — in the U.S.


“For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox,” Facebook said in an online post. “For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them.”


The company says charging for messages could help discourage spammers.


In October, Facebook unveiled another feature that lets users pay if they want more people to read their updates. For $ 7, users can promote a post to their friends, just as advertisers do.


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Martha Raddatz, Hot Off Debate Performance, Promoted at ABC News






NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Martha Raddatz, widely praised for her moderation of the vice presidential debate in October, has been given an expanded role as ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent. Jonathan Karl, meanwhile, will become the network’s new chief White House correspondent, filling the void left by Jake Tapper‘s exit to CNN.


Raddatz will replace Tapper as the primary substitute for George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” and will contribute regularly to the Sunday morning show’s roundtable. Karl will also serve as a substitute and regularly appear on the roundtable.






Tapper departed ABC in part because he has long been interested in hosting “This Week” full-time, but Stephanopoulos has no plans to give up the hosting job, a person familiar with the situation told TheWrap.


ABC News President Ben Sherwood announced the new assignments for Raddatz and Karl on Thursday, soon after CNN announced Tapper’s hiring.


Karl has investigated wasteful federal spending, covered elections, and served as the network’s senior national security correspondent.


Raddatz has reported from the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House, and from conflict zones worldwide, including Afghanistan and Iraq.


But she has been perhaps most celebrated for keeping the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan on course after the moderator of the first presidential debate, Jim Lehrer, was accused of letting the candidates run amok.


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AP IMPACT: Big Pharma cashes in on HGH abuse






A federal crackdown on illicit foreign supplies of human growth hormone has failed to stop rampant misuse, and instead has driven record sales of the drug by some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, an Associated Press investigation shows.


The crackdown, which began in 2006, reduced the illegal flow of unregulated supplies from China, India and Mexico.






But since then, Big Pharma has been satisfying the steady desires of U.S. users and abusers, including many who take the drug in the false hope of delaying the effects of aging.


From 2005 to 2011, inflation-adjusted sales of HGH were up 69 percent, according to an AP analysis of pharmaceutical company data collected by the research firm IMS Health. Sales of the average prescription drug rose just 12 percent in that same period.


___


EDITOR’S NOTE — Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the second of a two-part series.


___


Unlike other prescription drugs, HGH may be prescribed only for specific uses. U.S. sales are limited by law to treat a rare growth defect in children and a handful of uncommon conditions like short bowel syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome, a congenital disease that causes reduced muscle tone and a lack of hormones in sex glands.


The AP analysis, supplemented by interviews with experts, shows too many sales and too many prescriptions for the number of people known to be suffering from those ailments. At least half of last year’s sales likely went to patients not legally allowed to get the drug. And U.S. pharmacies processed nearly double the expected number of prescriptions.


Peddled as an elixir of life capable of turning middle-aged bodies into lean machines, HGH — a synthesized form of the growth hormone made naturally by the human pituitary gland — winds up in the eager hands of affluent, aging users who hope to slow or even reverse the aging process.


Experts say these folks don’t need the drug, and may be harmed by it. The supposed fountain-of-youth medicine can cause enlargement of breast tissue, carpal tunnel syndrome and swelling of hands and feet. Ironically, it also can contribute to aging ailments like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.


Others in the medical establishment also are taking a fat piece of the profits — doctors who fudge prescriptions, as well as pharmacists and distributors who are content to look the other way. HGH also is sold directly without prescriptions, as new-age snake oil, to patients at anti-aging clinics that operate more like automated drug mills.


Years of raids, sports scandals and media attention haven’t stopped major drugmakers from selling a whopping $ 1.4 billion worth of HGH in the U.S. last year. That’s more than industry-wide annual gross sales for penicillin or prescription allergy medicine. Anti-aging HGH regimens vary greatly, with a yearly cost typically ranging from $ 6,000 to $ 12,000 for three to six self-injections per week.


Across the U.S., the medication is often dispensed through prescriptions based on improper diagnoses, carefully crafted to exploit wiggle room in the law restricting use of HGH, the AP found.


HGH is often promoted on the Internet with the same kind of before-and-after photos found in miracle diet ads, along with wildly hyped claims of rapid muscle growth, loss of fat, greater vigor, and other exaggerated benefits to adults far beyond their physical prime. Sales also are driven by the personal endorsement of celebrities such as actress Suzanne Somers.


Pharmacies that once risked prosecution for using unauthorized, foreign HGH — improperly labeled as raw pharmaceutical ingredients and smuggled across the border — now simply dispense name brands, often for the same banned uses. And usually with impunity.


Eight companies have been granted permission to market HGH by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which reviews the benefits and risks of new drug products. By contrast, three companies are approved for the diabetes drug insulin.


The No. 1 maker, Roche subsidiary Genentech, had nearly $ 400 million in HGH sales in the U.S. last year, up an inflation-adjusted two-thirds from 2005. Pfizer and Eli Lilly were second and third with $ 300 million and $ 220 million in sales, respectively, according to IMS Health. Pfizer now gets more revenue from its HGH brand, Genotropin, than from Zoloft, its well-known depression medicine that lost patent protection.


On their face, the numbers make no sense to the recognized hormone doctors known as endocrinologists who provide legitimate HGH treatment to a small number of patients.


Endocrinologists estimate there are fewer than 45,000 U.S. patients who might legitimately take HGH. They would be expected to use roughly 180,000 prescriptions or refills each year, given that typical patients get three months’ worth of HGH at a time, according to doctors and distributors.


Yet U.S. pharmacies last year supplied almost twice that much HGH — 340,000 orders — according to AP’s analysis of IMS Health data.


While doctors say more than 90 percent of legitimate patients are children with stunted growth, 40 percent of 442 U.S. side-effect cases tied to HGH over the last year involved people age 18 or older, according to an AP analysis of FDA data. The average adult’s age in those cases was 53, far beyond the prime age for sports. The oldest patients were in their 80s.


Some of these medical records even give explicit hints of use to combat aging, justifying treatment with reasons like fatigue, bone thinning and “off-label,” which means treatment of an unapproved condition. In other cases, the drug was used “for an unknown indication,” meaning that the reason for treatment wasn’t clear.


Even Medicare, the government health program for older Americans, allowed 22,169 HGH prescriptions in 2010, a five-year increase of 78 percent, according to data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to an AP public records request. And nearly half the increase came in one year: 2007.


“There’s no question: a lot gets out,” said hormone specialist Dr. Mark Molitch of Northwestern University, who helped write medical standards meant to limit HGH treatment to legitimate patients.


And those figures don’t include HGH sold directly by doctors without prescriptions at scores of anti-aging medical practices and clinics around the country. Those numbers could only be tallied by drug makers, who have declined to say how many patients they supply and for what conditions.


The AP approached every U.S.-authorized manufacturer to ask what efforts they make to market responsibly and prevent abuse. Only one HGH supplier, Novo Nordisk, agreed to an interview.


“We’re doing our level best to make sure that the right patients are getting the right medicine at the right time,” said company spokesman Ken Inchausti.


He said the company is aware of the abuse issue. He said if patients apply for assistance from the company’s patient-support hub, prescriptions will be flagged for review if they are missing the most rigorous test or an endocrinologist’s signature. He said the company won’t sell HGH directly to doctors accused of bad practices and does not deal with anti-aging clinics.


Representatives of other FDA-approved HGH makers insist they do not encourage use by bodybuilders or athletes or wealthy baby boomers trying to recapture their youth. But some said they are largely powerless to control who uses their medications or why.


“Lilly cannot restrict the actions of distributors, pharmacies or doctors,” Eli Lilly spokeswoman Kelley Murphy said in a written statement.


That argument doesn’t fly for critics like Dr. Peter Rost, a retired Pfizer executive who filed a whistleblower lawsuit over the HGH marketing practices of Pharmacia, which later merged with Pfizer. He said drug companies are simply looking the other way and betting that their profits will eclipse the cost of any fines.


They view it as “good business,” he said.


___


PEDDLED ON INTERNET


Type “human growth hormone” into any Internet search engine, and it will spit back countless websites with overblown promises of smoother skin, better sex, weight loss and even renewed body organs.


Any doctor who actually prescribes the drug for those purposes is taking a legal risk.


FDA regulations ban the sale of HGH as an anti-aging drug. In fact, since 1990, prescribing it for things like weight loss and strength conditioning has been punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison.


Such marketing claims are routinely made at hormone clinics like Palm Beach Life Extension, whose owners are among 13 people now awaiting trial on federal charges in Florida in a steroids and HGH distribution case brought last year.


“Grow YOUNG with Us!” screamed a banner on the company’s now-defunct website, which advertised that HGH can reduce body fat, improve vision, strengthen the immune system, aid kidney function, lower blood pressure and enhance memory and mood.


The clinic arranged to have its clients’ prescriptions filled at Treasure Coast Pharmacy, in Jensen Beach, Fla.


In 2009, the FBI recorded a phone call between the pharmacy’s owner, Peter Del Toro, and a doctor in Elkton, Md., who was cooperating with agents after being implicated in a related steroid-distribution case.


Their talk, documented in a court filing, illustrates how things often work in the networks of pharmacies and clinics that drive HGH sales.


Patients submitted a medical history form by mail and took a blood test. But in most instances, the indictment said, the evaluation was a sham: One doctor was charged with giving a clinic a pad of blank, signed prescriptions to save him the chore of signing off on each diagnosis. He got $ 50 for every drug order bearing his name, the indictment said.


Dr. Rodney Baltazar, the Maryland physician cooperating with the FBI, sometimes consulted briefly with patients via webcam. But he made it clear in the call that those evaluations were perfunctory at best.


Baltazar was a gynecologist, not an endocrinologist. He said he knew “a little bit” about HGH and testosterone, which are often prescribed in tandem, but he relied largely on clinic salespeople to set doses.


The pharmacist coached the doctor: Keep detailed medical charts documenting that patients are taking the drug for at least some kind of health problem, just in case the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ever came calling.


“Because somebody questions you, you want to be able to say, ‘Here, look at his chart. You know, he’s got fatigue. He’s got, you know, a decreased sex drive. He’s got increased body fat. He has some — some slight depression, probably.’ Whatever his signs and symptoms are.”


None of these conditions is a legal reason to prescribe HGH. But the pharmacist said that most investigators will be satisfied and move on “because there’s guys that are just selling stuff basically like a boiler room.”


Del Toro was arrested along with 12 other people in September 2011 on charges that they distributed steroids and human growth hormone to people who had no legitimate medical need. He is awaiting trial. His lawyer declined to comment. Baltazar was sentenced to six months in prison for involvement in steroid distribution schemes.


At the height of the crackdown in 2007, the federal government went after Pfizer in a case involving anti-aging clinics. The company paid $ 34.7 million in fines to settle the case — 11 percent of the company’s annual revenue from the drug.


___


TROUBLED HISTORY


Blockbuster U.S. sales of HGH represent the latest frustration in 25 years of government efforts to control abuse of the growth drug made infamous by sports scandals.


First marketed in 1985 for children with stunted growth, HGH was soon misappropriated by adults intent on exploiting its modest muscle- and bone-building qualities. Congress limited HGH distribution to the handful of rare conditions in an extraordinary 1990 law, overriding the generally unrestricted right of doctors to prescribe medicines as they see fit.


Despite the law, illicit HGH spread around the sports world in the 1990s, making deep inroads into bodybuilding, college athletics, and professional leagues from baseball to cycling. The even larger banned market among older adults has flourished more recently.


For years, cheaper supplies from unauthorized foreign factories, particularly in China, fed the market via direct and Internet sales that sidestepped the medical establishment.


Though such shipments were banned under other law, the imports initially attracted little attention because they were usually labeled as raw pharmaceutical ingredients, which compounding pharmacies are allowed to bring into the country.


That flow began to be curtailed in 2006, when U.S. drug authorities stepped up efforts to block shipments at the border.


A handful of pharmacies across the country were hit with criminal charges over their handling of HGH. Federal prosecutors charged China’s biggest HGH maker, GeneScience Pharmaceutical, with illegally distributing its Jintropin brand in the U.S. The company’s CEO pleaded guilty in 2010.


With illicit supplies crimped, many pharmacies stopped selling unauthorized HGH. But tens of thousands of adult abusers began buying pricey U.S.-approved HGH that remained available in abundant supply, the AP found in its analysis of sales data.


Thus, pushed by a powerful demand, sales of U.S.-approved brands have swelled far beyond expected levels for a drug approved in just a handful of rare conditions.


Dr. Robert Marcus, a retired hormone specialist who left HGH manufacturer Eli Lilly and Co. in 2008, said that company was bent on stopping foreign counterfeits, not on cutting off abusers. “That’s where their major level of frustration was — pharmaceutical fraud — rather than focusing on people who were using growth hormone illegitimately,” he said.


Dr. Jim Meehan, of Tulsa, Okla., who has used HGH to treat aging problems and sports injuries, said the federal clampdown “never seemed to affect my patients and their ability to get Omnitrope, Tev-Tropin” and other government-approved brands.


The big drug companies have applauded the foreign crackdown and urged the government to do even more to combat sales of fake or fraudulently labeled HGH. In 2004, Bruce Kuhlik, speaking for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, told a federal task force that unauthorized drug importation “is inherently unsafe” and industry representatives used Chinese HGH imports as their poster child.


In 2007, as the HGH embargo gained momentum, authorized makers picked up 41 percent more HGH orders, raising their annual total from 245,000 to 345,000, according to the analysis of the IMS Health data. Similarly, most of the drug’s sales boom happened in the first two years of the crackdown, with 46 percent inflation-adjusted growth in yearly sales to $ 1.1 billion.


Steve Kleppe, of Scottsdale, Ariz., a restaurant entrepreneur who has taken HGH for almost 15 years to keep feeling young, said he noticed a price jump of about 25 percent after the block on imports. He now buys HGH directly from a doctor at an annual cost of about $ 8,000 for himself and the same amount for his wife.


Despite higher prices, the business has expanded in recent years largely on the strength of sales to healthy adults who can afford to indulge their hope of retaining youthful vigor.


___


GROWING OLD


Many older patients go for HGH treatment to scores of anti-aging practices and clinics heavily concentrated in retirement states like Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California.


These sites are affiliated with hundreds of doctors who are rarely endocrinologists. Instead, many tout certification by the American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine, though the medical establishment does not recognize the group’s bona fides.


The clinics offer personalized programs of “age management” to business executives, affluent retirees, and other patients of means, sometimes coupled with the amenities of a vacation resort.


The clinics insist there are few, if any, side effects from HGH. Mainstream medical authorities say otherwise.


A 2007 review of 31 medical studies showed swelling in half of HGH patients, with joint pain or diabetes in more than a fifth. A French study of about 7,000 people who took HGH as children found a 30 percent higher risk of death from causes like bone tumors and stroke, stirring a health advisory from U.S. authorities.


For proof that the drug works, marketers turn to images like the memorable one of pot-bellied septuagenarian Dr. Jeffry Life, supposedly transformed into a ripped hulk of himself by his own program available at the upscale Las Vegas-based Cenegenics Elite Health. (He declined to be interviewed.)


These promoters of HGH say there is a connection between the drop-off in growth hormone levels through adulthood and the physical decline that begins in late middle age. Replace the hormone, they say, and the aging process slows.


“It’s an easy ruse. People equate hormones with youth,” said Dr. Tom Perls, a leading industry critic who does aging research at Boston University. “It’s a marketing dream come true.”


Some scientific studies of HGH have found modest benefits: some muscle and bone building, as well as limited fat loss, but nothing like the claims of the anti-aging industry. And some of the value credited to HGH may instead come from testosterone, which is routinely provided with HGH by anti-aging doctors and sports suppliers.


Endocrinologists say it’s natural for the body to produce less growth hormone as people age beyond their early 20s, because they aren’t growing anymore. Only a tiny number of adults with extraordinarily low HGH levels — perhaps several thousand of them — are believed to suffer real deficiencies that can properly be treated with the hormone.


Still, anti-aging doctors routinely diagnose otherwise healthy middle-aged people with an HGH deficiency, simply because their levels are lower than in young adults. “Basically anyone going through midlife,” can benefit from the drug, declared one prescriber, Dr. Howard Elkin, of Whittier, Calif., who has himself competed as a bodybuilder.


Dr. Kenneth Knott, of Marietta, Ga., said HGH helps his older patients feel “more vibrant” and look “more alive.”


Like many anti-aging doctors, he diagnoses patients by testing for a blood component called insulin growth factor, which is indirectly tied to HGH. Endocrinologists use a more authoritative test that stimulates the pituitary gland to make HGH itself. Nearly all insurers insist on this stimulation testing, and that’s why clinic patients almost always pay for HGH out of their own pockets.


Bob Vitols, a 50-year-old lab assistant at a veterinary medicine company in Lincoln, Neb., is a rare exception. His unusually generous health plan isn’t allowed to challenge a doctor’s prescription.


Four years ago, Vitols began feeling run down. So he Googled his symptoms on the Internet, decided he had a hormone deficiency, and sought out a clinic.


One doctor put him on testosterone replacement therapy. A second clinic added HGH after diagnosing him with osteopenia, a mild bone thinning common in aging adults. It is not, however, a condition that can properly be treated with HGH.


Despite the diagnosis, the treatments — which can cost $ 10,000 per year — have been covered by his health insurance, he said. He takes Genotropin, the HGH made by Pfizer. His prescriptions are filled via mail order by CVS Caremark Corp., one of the largest dispensers of prescription drugs in the U.S.


Vitols said the drug changed his life: his mood is better, and he isn’t burning out every day at 2 p.m. “I feel like I could walk outside and just walk through a fence — and come out fine on the other side,” he said.


His experiences with the drug haven’t all been positive, though. Vitols said he initially developed elevated liver enzymes and went to a specialist, who told him to stop taking hormones immediately.


Instead, Vitols said, he adjusted his dosage, and the problem disappeared.


He also dumped the specialist:


“I could tell he was against hormones right at the start,” Vitols said.


___


Associated Press Writer David Caruso reported from New York and AP National Writer Jeff Donn reported from Plymouth, Mass. AP Writer Troy Thibodeaux provided data analysis assistance from New Orleans.


___


AP’s interactive on the HGH investigation: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2012/hgh


___


The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate(at)ap.org


EDITOR’S NOTE _ Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the second of a two-part series.


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Call for tougher banking reforms







Government plans to ring-fence the banks – trying to protect retail banking from the riskier investment side – “fall well short of what is required”, a report has warned.






The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards wants the government to “electrify” the fence so banks cannot make holes in it.


The government’s bank reforms will go before Parliament early next year.


The Treasury said it was committed to reforming the banking sector.


Vickers recommendations


The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, known as the Banking Commission for short, was asked by Chancellor George Osborne to study the draft version of the government’s Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill.


This follows last year’s recommendation by the Independent Commission on Banking, which was led by Sir John Vickers.


Sir John concluded that ring-fencing was the best way to protect “core” retail banking activities from any future investment banking losses, such as were seen during the global financial crisis.


The government’s proposed bill also spells out rules to protect depositors and prevent the use of taxpayer money for bailouts, thereby curtailing banks’ perception they are “too big to fail”.


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AAA-rating


The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower’s debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is minuscule.




The bill hinges on three main aspects:


  • ring-fencing or protecting retail banking

  • ensuring that bank losses fall on bank creditors and not depositors or taxpayers

  • making banks better able to absorb losses

Ring-fencing would ensure that retail services of a struggling lender can be carried on independently and smoothly even if authorities let the rest of the group fail.


For example, in the case of a failing banking group, regulators could sell off its core activities – thereby maintaining continuity for depositors – while allowing the rest of the organisation to go through a bankruptcy process.


Secondly, the proposed bill wants to rank retail deposits (but not pension liabilities) ahead of the claims of other bank creditors in the event of a bank insolvency.


Thirdly, banks are to hold a sufficient capital buffer – as outlined by global regulators – which means that if banks do fail, losses can be absorbed by shareholders and other creditors rather than the taxpayer.


“Electrification”


Under the draft legislation, the Treasury would have the authority to decide which banks ring-fencing should apply to, as well as specific activities to be undertaken, within ring-fenced banks.


The Prudential Regulation Authority, which will become the UK’s regulator for deposit-taking institutions in April under the Bank of England, would have the power to ensure the ring-fenced bank to carry on with its business.


But there has been much debate over whether to enforce a full separation between retail and investment activities – that is, a break-up. The recommendation by Sir John stopped short of such action.


Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Banking Commission, said that the “electrification” of the ring fence should include the regulator being able to force the full separation of a bank’s retail and investment divisions, if the lender was found to be trying to break the fence.


“The proposals as they stand [in the Bill], fall well short of what is required,” he said.


“Over time, the ring-fence will be tested and challenged by the banks. Politicians too could succumb to lobbying from banks and others, adding to pressure to put holes in the ring-fence.”


Continue reading the main story
  • The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards was appointed in July following the Libor scandal and other episodes that damaged the reputation of banks in the UK

  • It includes MPs and peers and is chaired by Andrew Tyrie, who also heads the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee

  • Members include the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby

  • It heard evidence from major figures in the banking sector

  • Evidence included a warning from RBS boss Stephen Hester that ring-fencing banks’ retail and investment arms could increase the risk of institutions needing to be rescued

  • But Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins told the commission that his bank was “embracing” the ring-fencing proposal

  • The commission has also heard from Paul Volcker, a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, about his US proposals to ensure bank safety


He added: “For the ring-fence to succeed, banks need to be discouraged from gaming the rules. All history tells us they will do this unless incentivised not to.”


“That is why we recommend electrification. The legislation needs to set out a reserve power for separation – the regulator needs to know he can use it.”


Anthony Browne, the chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), welcomed the report, but warned that uncertainty over banks’ prospects could have a negative impact on their ability to lend.


“The risk here is creating uncertainty. If it’s perpetually hanging over the banking sector that individual banks or the whole sector could be broken up at some point, then it’s going to be difficult to return to having an investable banking sector that can be customer-focused and globally competitive and do what it should be doing, which is lending to homeowners and businesses,” he said.


Ed Balls, Labour’s shadow chancellor said: “As Ed Miliband and I said at the Labour conference this year, if the letter and spirit of the Vickers proposals are not delivered and we do not see cultural change in our banks, full separation will be necessary.


“The Commission is clearly right to say the jury is still out and to demand a reserve power for full separation of the banks.”


‘Consensus commitment’



The Commission’s report comes a month after Mr Osborne urged its members not to send the government’s proposed reform “back to square one” by “unpicking” the consensus on how it should be carried out.


A Treasury spokesman said on Thursday evening: “The government is committed to reforming the financial sector and putting in place a regulatory structure that learns the lessons of the past and protects taxpayers in the future.”


“It has been committed to building consensus and has consulted widely on these reforms over the last two and half years. The Banking Reform Bill is the next step in that.


“The government is grateful to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards for its scrutiny of the draft bill and notes that it, ‘welcomes the government’s action to bring forward legislation to implement a ring-fence’.”


The spokesman added that the government would study the report and respond in detail when the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill is formally introduced to Parliament early next year.


BBC News – Business





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State Department security chief leaves post over Benghazi






WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday its security chief had resigned from his post and three other officials had been relieved of their duties following a scathing official inquiry into the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.


Eric Boswell has resigned effective immediately as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a terse statement. A second official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Boswell had not left the department entirely and remained a career official.






Nuland said that Boswell, and the three other officials, had all been put on administrative leave “pending further action.”


An official panel that investigated the incident concluded that the Benghazi mission was completely unprepared to deal with the attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.


The unclassified version of the report, which was released on Tuesday, cited “leadership and management” deficiencies, poor coordination among officials and “real confusion” in Washington and in the field over who had the authority to make decisions on policy and security concerns.


“The ARB identified the performance of four officials, three in the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of (Near Eastern) Affairs,” Nuland said in her statement, referring to the panel known as an Accountability Review Board.


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accepted Boswell’s decision to resign effective immediately, the spokeswoman said.


Earlier, a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Boswell, one of his deputies, Charlene Lamb, and a third unnamed official has been asked to resign. The Associated Press first reported that three officials had resigned.


PANEL STOPS SHORT OF BLAMING CLINTON


The Benghazi incident appeared likely to tarnish Clinton’s four-year tenure as secretary of state but the report did not fault her specifically and the officials who led the review stopped short of blaming her.


“We did conclude that certain State Department bureau-level senior officials in critical positions of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of leadership and management ability appropriate for senior ranks,” retired Admiral Michael Mullen, one of the leaders of the inquiry, told reporters on Wednesday.


The panel’s chair, retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering, said it had determined that responsibility for security shortcomings in Benghazi belonged at levels lower than Clinton’s office.


“We fixed (responsibility) at the assistant secretary level, which is, in our view, the appropriate place to look for where the decision-making in fact takes place, where – if you like – the rubber hits the road,” Pickering said after closed-door meetings with congressional committees.


The panel’s report and the comments by its two lead authors suggested that Clinton, who accepted responsibility for the incident in a television interview about a month after the Benghazi attack, would not be held personally culpable.


Pickering and Mullen spoke to the media after briefing members of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee behind closed doors on classified elements of their report.


Clinton had been expected to appear at an open hearing on Benghazi on Thursday, but is recuperating after suffering a concussion, dehydration and a stomach bug last week. She will instead be represented by her two top deputies.


Clinton, who intends to step down in January, said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations, which include stepping up security staffing and requesting more money to fortify U.S. facilities.


The National Defense Authorization Act for 2013, which is expected to go to Congress for final approval this week, includes a measure directing the Pentagon to increase the Marine Corps presence at diplomatic facilities by up to 1,000 Marines.


Some Capitol Hill Republicans who had criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attacks said they were impressed by the report.


“It was very thorough,” said Senator Johnny Isakson. Senator John Barrasso said: “It was very, very critical of major failures at the State Department at very high levels.” Both spoke after the closed-door briefing.


Others, however, took a harsher line and called for Clinton to testify as soon as she is able.


“The report makes clear the massive failure of the State Department at all levels, including senior leadership, to take action to protect our government employees abroad,” Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.


Senator Bob Corker, who will be the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the new Congress is seated early next year, said Clinton should testify about Benghazi before her replacement is confirmed by the Senate.


Republicans have focused much of their firepower on U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who appeared on TV talk shows after the attack and suggested it was the result of a spontaneous protest rather than a premeditated attack.


The report concluded that there was no such protest.


Rice, widely seen as President Barack Obama’s top pick to succeed Clinton, withdrew her name from consideration last week.


(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Christopher Wilson)


World News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Nexus 4 ad touts Photo Sphere as the go-to app for avoiding holiday family photo headaches [video]









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Why “Les Misérables” Looks Like a Holiday Box-Office Smash






LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Moviegoers are storming online ticketing sites in advance of the Christmas release of “Les Misérables,” and the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical has all the makings of a holiday smash.


With a cast that includes Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, expectations are enormous, but based on advance tracking, so is the box-office potential.






The film, made for a reported $ 61 million, is poised to gross as much as $ 26 million over its opening weekend, according to BoxOffice.com.


The site predicts that the movie should pick up multiple Oscar nominations and that awards attention combined with a rabid fan base of musical theater lovers will have it beguiling moviegoers well into the new year.


Ultimately, it estimates that “Les Misérables” will rack up as much as $ 136 million at the domestic box office.


It’s well on its way. Early ticket sales at Fandango indicate that “Les Misérables” has the potential to be this holiday’s breakout smash, despite stiff competition from the likes of Tom Cruise’s “Jack Reacher” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” both of which open over the next seven days.


Fandango also reports that the film has smashed records to become the company’s top advance-ticket seller among all Christmas Day releases, surpassing its previous record-holder, 2009′s “Sherlock Holmes”


It is also the largest advance-ticket seller among movie musicals in its history, supplanting 2006′s “Dreamgirls.” By mid-day Wednesday, “Les Misérables” was outpacing all other films, even current releases like “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” and was responsible for 40 percent of ticket sales at Fandango.


“There’s such a history and good will surrounding the stage musical and this is a film version people have been anticipating for such a long time, that it has turned into the movie event of the holiday season,” Dave Karger, Fandango’s chief correspondent, told TheWrap.


“We’re bullish on it,” added Phil Contrino, editor of BoxOffice.com. “Based on all the early reviews, this sounds like a crowd-pleaser. When a musical hits, it becomes a beast at the box office.”


He noted that “Mamma Mia!,” which arrived with less awards pedigree and was derived from a more dimly known stage show, grossed $ 609.8 million globally, because audiences loved the music.


Movietickets.com did not release any pre-sales information for holiday releases. However, recent surveys it performed of more than 4,000 customers indicate that there is a great deal of enthusiasm for the musical.


Of the major holiday releases, 52 percent of those polled said they were most excited to see “Les Misérables.” That was followed by 24 percent for “Django Unchained,” 16.5 percent for “Jack Reacher” and 7.5 percent for “The Guilt Trip.”


To be sure, not all of the “Les Misérables” reviews have been kind. In TheWrap, Alonso Duralde faulted the wobbly vocal talents of the leads and the director’s penchant for close-ups of his emoting stars.


“Director Tom Hooper (‘The King’s Speech’) piles one terrible decision upon another, with the result being a movie so overbearingly maudlin and distorted that it’s one of 2012′s most excruciating film experiences,” Duralde wrote.


Yet, audiences at screenings have been nearly rapturous in their response. Fandango’s Karger notes that at a recent screening for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that he attended, the crowd broke into applause at four different points during the film and gave Jackman and Hooper lusty ovations.


Given that “Les Misérables” tackles such topics as revolution, poverty and prostitution it seems like dark fare for the season, but Karger argues that the film provides enough uplift to appeal to moviegoers looking to get into the yuletide spirit.


“There are scenes of such intense suffering and despair in the movie, but at the end you are left with a profound feeling of love and that gives it a holiday feel,” Karger said. “It’s a slog through the mud to get there, but when the movie’s over you leave the theater with a wonderful sense of hope.”


If Karger is right then Universal, which is distributing “Les Misérables,” will be feeling very festive when Christmas rolls around next week.


Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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