WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Agriculture Departmentis within bounds to bar meatpackers from testing slaughter cattlefor mad cow disease, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a 2-1ruling on Friday.

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef LLC, a small Arkansas packer,filed suit on March 23, 2006, to gain access to mad-cow test kits.It said it wanted to test every animal at its plant to assureforeign buyers that the meat was safe to eat.

Three U.S. cases of mad cow disease, a fatal neurologicalinfection, have been reported, the last in March 2006. People cancontract a human version of the disease by eating infected meats.Most nations banned U.S. beef after the first case, in December2003, but trade has been restored for the most part.

There are a lot of different types of asthma medications, and among those types, there are a variety of choices in individual medicines. No one asthma medication is right for every person who has asthma. Inhaled steroids are the treatment of choice, according to national treatment guidelines, but even they are not the right choice for everyone. And even if they are, which one? Are there differences? Do they all work the same?

I answer questions here and at other asthma websites about medications all the time, and one thing is clear — many people don’t really understand why certain asthma medications have been prescribed for them or what their medications actually do. This is dangerous — first off, because you need to understand your medicine to be able to use it correctly and effectively. And secondly, because when you are an informed consumer, you can be more involved in asthma treatment decision making.

If you have just been diagnosed with mild persistent asthma and your family doctor has just prescribed Advair or Symbicort, you might question that choice. Combination drugs such as those inhalers are usually reserved for people with more severe forms of asthma that hasn’t responded to inhaled steroids alone.

Our Drugs Guide, Dr. Mike Bihari, has written a great article, “15 Questions to Ask Your Doctor about Your Medications” that I think you’ll find helpful in learning more about the asthma medications you take. Don’t live in the dark any longer!

OTTAWA (Reuters) – One person has died and 87 aresick with salmonella food poisoning from tainted cheese in theCanadian province of Quebec, health officials said on Friday.

The outbreak comes amid consumer alarm over a massive recall byMaple Leaf Foods Inc of ready-to-eat meats. An outbreak oflisteriosis food poisoning from deli meats produced at thecompany’s Toronto plant has been linked to the deaths of 15people.

Quebec public health director Horacio Arruda said the salmonellaoutbreak had no connection to the Maple Leaf case. Three brands ofcheese were being recalled after an unusually high number ofsalmonellosis cases were reported.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – While influenzavaccination does provide protection against catching the flu, itdoes not have a major impact on death in the elderly, contrary towhat some studies have suggested, a new study suggests.

In prior studies, an impressive 50 percent reduction in deathfrom any cause had been noted in elderly people who got a flu shot,but some researchers were skeptical of this degree of benefit,suggesting that it may have been the result of the “healthy usereffect.” The new study supports this line of thinking.

The study included more than 700 elderly people, half of whomhad gotten a flu shot and half of whom had not. After controllingfor a variety of factors that were largely not considered or simplynot available in previous studies, the researchers concluded thatany death benefit “if present at all, was very small andstatistically non-significant and may simply be a healthy-userartifact that they were unable to identify.”

As a parent of a child with asthma, you might worry that active play, exercise or sports may be harmful for your child, that it will aggravate your kid’s asthma symptoms. After all, don’t you sometimes feel breathless when you exert yourself? Isn’t that likely to be even worse for someone with asthma?

The answer to those questions is probably not. In general, experts recommend that kids with asthma play actively and participate in sports as much as they want to. It won’t make their asthma worse. And it will help them to be healthier overall, as there are many benefits from exercise.

A new study, due to be published soon in the European Respiratory Journal, found scientific evidence that exercise is not harmful for children with asthma. Here are the highlights:

• Conducted at the University of Porto in Portugal
• 34 kids with persistent asthma, all around age 13, participated
• Participants did a 12-week exercise program consisting of twice-weekly, 50-minute exercise sessions
• Regular testing, including airway inflammation tests, lung function measurements, and IgE measurements, were done

Results: Kids in the training group showed evidence of increased endurance and exercise tolerance as kids in a control group (who did not exercise). This is encouraging, but the kids who trained did NOT show any improvements in airway function or asthma symptoms, even though their IgE levels were lower. So, although the exercise had clear health benefits overall for the kids, it did not do anything to make asthma or asthma inflammation better or worse.

But the point you should take away from this study is that exercise will NOT harm your child with asthma, so he / she should be encouraged to act like every other kid, which means to run and play at will. Admittedly, this is a very small study, but it contributes to the already existing body of evidence that even kids with asthma should be active.

More: Asthma in Kids | Tips for Talking with Your Kid About Asthma

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Dysfunction in aportion of the brain may explain some of the symptoms offibromyalgia syndrome, researchers suggest in a paper published inthe Journal of Rheumatology

Dr. Yasser Emad, of Cairo University, Egypt, and colleagues usedproton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to examine the function ofthe hippocampus in 15 patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and in10healthy women who were the same age as the other patients.

The hippocampus is located deep in the front portion of thebrain involved in regulating emotions and memory. Functionally, thehippocampus is part of the olfactory cortex, which is important tothe sense of smell. The name is from the Greek hippos (horse) =kampos (a sea monster), based on its shape, which resembles aseahorse.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An outbreak of an unusualstrain of Salmonella that put 286 people into the hospital appearsto be over in the United States, federal health officials said onThursday.

They said jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico were the mainsource and said the outbreak shows there is more need formonitoring fresh fruits and vegetables.

“It appears that this outbreak is over,” Dr. Robert Tauxe of theU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters on atelephone briefing.

“Preliminary epidemiologic and microbiologic results to datesupport the conclusion that jalapeno peppers were a major vehicleby which the pathogen was transmitted, and serrano peppers alsowere a vehicle. Tomatoes possibly were a vehicle, particularlyearly in the outbreak,” the CDC said in its weekly report on deathand disease.

Autumns Unwelcome Visitors

We’ve roughed the spring months, trudged through another smoggy summer, and before we know it, fall will be here. With fall comes our yearly visitor, ragweed. As the most common allergen of the late summer/early fall months, ragweed is not affected by high gas prices. Each plant produces up to a billion grains of pollen, and these particles can travel hundreds of miles by simply hitching a ride with a passing breeze. In addition to ragweed, mold can also be an issue for some of us. Mold often flourishes as dead leaves accumulate in damp piles at the edge of our yards or by the street. Lastly, firing up the furnace for the first time can also unsettle dust mites and blow them and their allergenic byproducts throughout our homes.

While packing up all of our belongings and children (don’t forget the children!) and moving to the beach or the mountains might seem like a good idea, packing is not as much fun as it sounds and unpacking is something that usually takes us months, if not years, to complete. Besides it is a buyers market when it comes to houses, and relatives generally aren’t too keen on boarding extended family for months at a time. So what other alternatives do we have?

Ideally, keeping track of the pollen count is a great idea. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology tracks pollen counts on their site, and many times the local weather now includes this information in their broadcasts. While indoors, a HEPA certified air purifier can eliminate dust, spores and pollen from the home, and when the leaves need to be raked a Respro Aero mask can keep pollen and mold spores out. After finishing be sure to shower before bed to keep from transplanting these allergens onto your bedding. Cleaning the ducts, before using the furnace for the first time each fall, can eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of contaminants that would be blown throughout the home. Once the ducts are clean you can continue to keep pollen, dust, and smoke from circulating throughout the house by using vent filters.

With temperatures cooling off, the kids going back to school and the holiday season just around the corner, fall can be a great time of the year. Allergies should never be a reason for us not to enjoy what each season has to offer, and by keeping a few things in mind we can more fully enjoy all times of the year.

LONDON (Reuters) – New screening tests andeffective vaccines from Merck & Co and GlaxoSmithKline maketackling cervical cancer in poor countries a real possibility forthe first time, researchers said on Thursday.

Experts who presented their findings at a conference in Genevasaid the vaccines against the disease could be cost-effective butsubsidies or new prices would be needed for developing countries toafford the medicines.

“Efforts are needed now to adapt the current price of thevaccines so they meet what individual countries can afford,”Francesco Xavier Bosch of the Catalan Institute of Oncology inBarcelona told the World Cancer Congress.

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines has a lowerincidence of HIV than most of its neighbors despite sharing many ofthe risks, but health officials warned on Thursday that many newcases were now coming to light.

A spate of new HIV cases suggests that the Philippines’situation might be more accurately described as “hidden andgrowing,” said Mario Villaverde, an undersecretary in theDepartment of Health.

“More recent statistics have already indicted a more or lessabrupt change in the number of people afflicted,” he said, on thesidelines of a conference on HIV/AIDS in nine Asian countriesdeemed to have low prevalence of the disease.