Health Highlights: Dec. 26, 2007

Anyone with questions about the recall may contact Cardinal Health customer service at 800-625-6627.

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'Fertility Diet' Book Causes Controversy

Harvard School of Public Health researchers may be feeling the heat from a controversial new book that suggests a link between diet and human fertility, theBoston Globereported Wednesday.

While "The Fertility Diet" doesn't make a direct claim that the new Harvard plan is a cure for infertility, the book's title, media hype and public statements by its authors make a case for a strong insinuation, the newspaper reported.

The authors studied more than 17,000 women who recorded their dietary habits and their attempts to become pregnant. The researchers concluded that women had a lower risk of infertility caused by the lack of a viable monthly egg if their diets included monosaturated fats (i.e., olive oil instead of trans fat); vegetable proteins (in beans and nuts, rather than animal fats); whole grains instead of carbohydrates that cause a rapid rise in blood sugar; some whole milk products (ice cream in moderation); multivitamins containing folic acid; and iron (from foods and supplements), the newspaper said.

The newspaper reported that the book seems to go beyond establishing a statistical correlation between diet and fertility. "We have discovered 10 simple changes that offer a powerful boost in fertility for women with ovulation-related infertility," theGlobequoted the book's authors as saying.

And in a Dec. 10 interview withNewsweek, the authors said their diet plan was aimed at preventing and "reversing" infertility, the newspaper reported.

Critics of the book worry that some women could blame themselves if they did not get pregnant, or worse -- fail to see a doctor for needed medical guidance.

"This book is blatantly irresponsible," theGlobequoted Dr. Gil Wilshire, a reproductive endocrinologist at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia, Mo., as saying. "I will be having women who wasted one, two, three years of their lives with imprecise, ineffective treatment. Those are precious years you can't get back."

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Russian Farm Culls 600,000 Chickens to Block Bird Flu