Man lives to 112 despite junk-food diet

George Johnson, considered California's oldest living person at 112 and the state's last surviving World War I veteran, had experts shaking their heads over his junk food diet.

"He had terrible bad habits. He had a diet largely of sausages and waffles," Dr. L. Stephen Coles, founder of the Gerontology Research Group at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Friday.

The 5-foot-7, 140-pound Johnson died of pneumonia Wednesday at his Richmond home in Northern California.

"A lot of people think or imagine that your good habits and bad habits contribute to your longevity," Coles said. "But we often find it is in the genes rather than lifestyle."

Johnson, who was blind and living alone until his 110th birthday when a caregiver began helping him, built the Richmond house by hand in 1935. He got around using a walker in recent years.

Johnson was the only living Californian considered a "supercentenarian," a designation for those ages 110 or older, Coles said. His group is now in the process of validating a Los Angeles candidate who claims to be 112 years old.

Coles participated in an autopsy Thursday that was designed to study Johnson's health.

"All of his organs were extremely youthful. They could have been the organs of someone who was 50 or 60, not 112. Clearly his genes had some secrets," Coles said.

"Everything in his body that we looked at was clean as a whistle, except for his lungs with the pneumonia," Coles said. "He had no heart disease, he had no cancer, no diabetes and no Alzheimer's.

"This is a mysterious case that someone could be so healthy from a pathology point of view and that there is no obvious cause of death."

The family was in favor of an autopsy. Relatives said Johnson wanted them to allow it if it would help science.

Born May 1, 1894, Johnson's father managed the Baltimore and Ohio Railway station in Philadelphia.

Johnson was working in 1917 as a mail sorter for the U.S. Post Office when he was drafted into the Army. The war ended a year later, and he never served in combat.

Two years later, he and his wife moved to Northern California.

"It was a great adventure in those days. We were young and wanted the experience," Johnson said in a March interview with the Contra Costa Times.

The couple settled in Fresno and remained there until 1935, when they bought property in Richmond. They used lumber salvaged from dismantled buildings to build their house.

During World War II, Johnson worked at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond and later managed the heating plant at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland.

He remained in good health and continued driving until he was 102, when his vision began to fail.

Johnson's wife died in 1992 at the age of 92. The couple had no children.

Mass. boy dies from mosquito-borne virus

A 9-year-old boy from Middleborough died Thursday from eastern equine encephalitis, the first fatality from the mosquito-borne virus in the state this year.

John Fontaine developed a fever Aug. 18 and was hospitalized two days later. He died Thursday afternoon, said Christine Powers-Perry, a spokeswoman for Children's Hospital in Boston.

The grade school student played youth football and was "like every other 9-year-old. Happy to be there. A joy to be around. Fun to watch grow," said Jim Muirhead, the program director for Mitchell Memorial Club Youth Football and Cheerleading program.

Middleborough was among the communities in southeastern Massachusetts that have undergone two rounds of aerial spraying to kill the mosquitoes that carry the virus. The first round of spraying Aug. 8 reduced the mosquito population by at least 60 percent, officials said.

The boy could have contracted the virus as early as Aug. 8, but probably got the virus the following week, according to state health officials.

John's former teammates joined more than 100 people at the Sacred Heart Church in Middleborough to mourn his death.

"It's a terrible tragedy," the boy's coach, Bill Fuller, told WLVI-TV, "this kid was 9 years old."

Two other people — a 52-year-old woman from Lakeville and a 23-year-old man from Acushnet — have contracted the virus this year.

Four people have died in the state from the virus in the last four years. There were four human cases last year, all in Plymouth County.

The virus is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. Symptoms range from mild flu-like illness to encephalitis — inflammation of the brain — coma and death. According to state health officials, about three of every 10 human cases is fatal.

Study finds mercury fillings not harmful

Silver fillings used to patch cavities aren't dangerous even though they expose dental patients to the toxic metal mercury, federal health researchers said Friday.

The
Food and Drug Administration reviewed 34 recent research studies and found "no significant new information" that would change its determination that mercury-based fillings don't harm patients, except in rare cases where they have allergic reactions.

The FDA released a draft of its review ahead of a two-day meeting next week to discuss the safety of mercury used in dentistry.

Consumer groups opposed to its use disputed the FDA's conclusions. The groups plan to petition the agency for an immediate ban on use of the cavity-filler in pregnant women.

"The science is over. There is no safe level of exposure," said Charles Brown, a lawyer for one of the groups, Consumers for Dental Choice. "The only thing standing between this and a ban is politics. They are still pretending it is a scientific question, but it isn't."

Amalgam fillings, also called silver fillings, by weight are about 50 percent mercury, joined with silver, copper and tin. Dentists have used amalgam to fill cavities since the 1800s. Today, tens of millions of Americans receive mercury fillings each year. Amalgam use has begun to decline, however, with many doctors switching to resin composite fillings, considered more appealing since they blend better with the natural coloring of teeth.

With amalgam fillings, mercury vapor is released through tooth-brushing and chewing. In general, significant levels of mercury exposure can permanently damage the brain and kidneys. Fetuses and children are especially sensitive to its harmful effects.

Scientists have found that mercury levels in the blood, urine and body tissues rise the more mercury fillings a person has. However, even among people with numerous fillings, exposure levels are well below those known to be harmful, the report said.

"If substantial scientific evidence showed that dental amalgam posed a threat to the health of dental patients, we would advise dentists to stop using it. But the best and latest available scientific evidence indicates that dental amalgam is safe," Dr. Ronald Zentz, senior director of the American Dental Association's council on scientific affairs, said in prepared remarks to be delivered Wednesday to the joint meeting of FDA experts on dental products and neurology.

Among those expected to address the joint panel is Rep. Diane Watson (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who has introduced legislation that would effectively ban the use of mercury in dental fillings by 2008. Watson will press the FDA for a ban and call on the agency to study the environmental impact of dental mercury, spokesman Bert Hammond said.

Also on the legislative front, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and other Senate colleagues have asked
President Bush's nominee to head the FDA about the safety of mercury fillings. An Enzi spokesman said the lawmaker has yet to receive Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach's answers to those questions.

Meanwhile, representatives of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and Alzheimer's Association are expected to testify that there is no known scientific evidence to connect mercury fillings and the two diseases that are the focus of their respective groups. And Swedish and Canadian experts are to discuss how their countries regulate amalgam fillings.

The meeting likely won't be the last word in the drawn-out fight over mercury fillings. As early as the 1840s, dentists were squabbling over whether gold or mercury-silver fillings were better — a feud that led to the disbanding of the first national dental society in the United States, according to a March article in the Journal of the California Dental Association.

Some "night owl" teens may have sleep disorder

As school doors open across the country, teenagers should be sure to adjust their summer sleep schedule to their new school schedule, experts advise. In other words, they should start hitting the sack earlier so that they will be able to awake earlier and be alert in morning classes.

But for teens with a sleep disorder known as delayed sleep phase syndrome, this solution may not be so simple.

"A lot of teens have a tendency to want to go to bed later; despite this, they still need eight to nine hours of sleep," Dr. Grace Pien, of the University of Pennsylvania's Division of Sleep Medicine, told Reuters Health. She noted that "recent research shows they don't perceive their need to sleep quite as acutely as younger or older adults may."

"For teens who really have a lot of trouble getting to sleep until 2, 3 in the morning," she added, "these are the kids who need to be evaluated by a sleep specialist."

Delayed sleep phase syndrome, which, Pien noted, "is a disorder where people may think they have insomnia," affects between 7 percent and 16 percent of adolescents and young adults. It is less common among older adults.

Among those affected by the disorder, the body's circadian rhythm allows them to stay awake long past what may be considered a normal bedtime. The condition can be diagnosed through an interview with a trained professional and his or her evaluation of the patient's sleep log.

There is no cure for this sleep disorder, but it can be treated by behavioral modification, such as restricting the consumption of caffeinated beverages, not exercising during or near bedtime hours and limiting light exposure from computer screens and television screens at night, the researcher said.

In some cases, Pien added, teens may need to undergo bright light therapy, to help realign their body's clock to regular sleep hours, or receive medication.

Teenagers without the disorder may also need to perform some behavioral modification to get themselves back on a normal sleep schedule after summer, "by moving their bedtime back a little each day until they get back in the right cycle, and sticking to it," Pien said.