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**1. KELLY KENNEY, director of POSITIVE CHANGES OF HARTFORD, a clinical hypnosis center: "We live in a world of portion distortion -- super size, grande, and all-you-can-eat restaurants. Though many Americans have difficulty managing their weight, it's not for lack of trying. An estimated 50 million will go on diets this year, seeking advice from books, TV diet gurus and support groups. While some will succeed, as few as five percent manage to keep the weight off. Weight reduction through calorie-restricted dieting ultimately is not effective. Behavior change can only really work. Building a lifelong maintainable lifestyle works. There are no magic ways to keep pounds off permanently. Obesity is a chronic condition that requires lifelong attention."
**2. MERILEE KERN, MBA, author and founder of KERN COMMUNICATIONS: "Childhood obesity is reaching epic proportions, as are the typical food servings dished up to our nation's youth -- much to their naive delight. The old adage remains true: ignorance is bliss, but it's time for our children to get educated on the relationship of lifestyle and health. Rather than hemming and hawing about the problem, children must learn how to recognize and, in turn, circumvent the constant stream of negative societal influences that make our kids' poor choices almost inevitable. Simply put, they are easy prey, and society is setting them up for failure. Attention must also be paid to the array of American entrepreneurs working to stem the escalating problem of childhood obesity through innovative and sound solutions."
ROUND-UP: ORGANIC FOOD LAWS (continued)
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**1. DR. BECKY GOLDBURG, senior scientist at ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE, is a trained ecologist and is active in public policy issues concerning food production -- primarily ecological and food safety issues concerning aquaculture (fish farming), antibiotic use in agriculture, organics and agricultural biotechnology. Goldburg serves on USDA's National Organic Standards Board, on EPA's Pesticide Policy Dialogue Committee, on the steering committee of the COMPASS program on marine science, as an advisor to the Luce Foundation's Environment Program, and as a stakeholder in the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.
_____LEADS
**1. HEALTH: NEW TREATMENTS FOR DIABETIC KIDNEY DISEASE. DR. MARK OKUSA, nephrologist and professor of medicine at the UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA Health System, has won two grants totaling $1.2 million over four years to test whether certain drugs can interrupt the inflammatory process that occurs in diabetic kidney disease: "These drugs act on receptors for the compound adenosine. We've been working with drugs affecting the adenosine system in acute kidney injury since the mid-1990s. Why not take these concepts and apply them to treat chronic kidney disease?" Key members of the Okusa lab at the university, including Dr. Alaa Awad and Mrs. Liping Huang, have found that adenosine drugs can prevent some of the most serious symptoms of diabetic kidney disease. "In our laboratory research, these compounds have already shown marked decrease in inflammation, including a decrease in urinary protein loss, a decrease in kidney scarring and an improvement in kidney function," Okusa said. Okusa's grants are from the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
**2. HEALTH: FOUR KEY LIFESTYLE FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT FERTILITY. MARK P. LEONDIRES, M.D., FACOG, medical director at REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE ASSOCIATES OF CT: "Few Americans can count themselves 'viceless.' Whether it's having a glass or two of wine with dinner, a mid-day cigarette break or even a couple of cups of coffee to get going in the morning, the majority of us indulge in at least one less-than-healthy pleasure. But for couples trying to achieve pregnancy, many of these lifestyle choices can make getting pregnant much more difficult. It's precisely because of the intricacy of the process, and the delicate balance of hormones and timing involved, that we need to take a hard look at lifestyle as a key factor in infertility."
**3. HEALTH: THE IMPACT OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE ON HUMANS. RALPH M. GARRUTO, professor of biomedical anthropology at BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, is heading up a study to monitor the health implications of a group of people who are known to have consumed venison infected with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). Recently discovered in both wild and captive deer herds in New York, CWD is similar to mad cow disease in that it concentrates in the spinal cord and brain, and is caused by a virtually indestructible mutated protein called a prion: "We don't know if CWD can be transmitted to humans. So this group, some of whom we know for sure ate infected meat, offers us a unique opportunity. I'm hoping the study will allow us to determine if this disease can affect humans in the same way mad cow disease has been shown to cause neurological disease in those who consume infected beef." The study focuses on a group of people who attended a Sportman's feast in Verona, N.Y., in spring 2005.
**4. SPORTS MEDICINCE: NEWS ABOUT JOINT REPLACEMENT. KEVIN PLANCHER, M.D., MS, FACS, FAAOS, leading New York-area orthopaedist, sports medicine expert and official orthopaedic surgeon of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard teams: "New technologies and techniques in joint replacement -- from shatter-resistant, long-wearing ceramic hips to partial knee-replacement procedures -- offer patients more options today than ever before. Many of the advances in joint replacement surgery are targeted specifically to baby boomers between the ages of 40 and 60. Most fitness-related injuries -- and even osteoarthritis of the joints -- can be treated and controlled with rest, medications and other non-invasive interventions. However, the degeneration of the joints of the knee and hip -- the most taxed joints in the body -- to the point of failure is not uncommon. Since the more we use our joints the more quickly they wear out, active 'boomers' are more likely to need joint replacements sooner rather than later."
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