<img alt=“llamas.jpg” src=“https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/nm\/spoonful\/llamas.jpg” width=“250” height=“174” align=“right” border=0 hspace=“10px”\/><\/p>\n
— Forget The Biggest Loser<\/a>\u2014try The Biggest Salt Reducer. If Americans reduced their daily salt intake by half a teaspoon, researchers estimate<\/a> that up to 99,000 heart attacks and 92,000 deaths would be avoided. The findings follow New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg\u2019s initiative<\/a> to reduce salt in restaurant dishes and packaged food by 25% over the next five years; Bloomberg hopes the campaign will spread to other cities and states. (NYTimes<\/a>)<\/p>\n — Pfizer is making further inroads into China, saying it hopes to add 900 representatives by the end of the year for 3,200 total. Pfizer isn\u2019t the first, however: Last year, Eli Lilly said<\/a> it would be hiring hundreds in China, while cutting 35,000 jobs overall; similarly, Novartis said<\/a> it plans to put $1.25 billion toward research and development in China. (FiercePharma<\/a>)<\/p>\n — A review<\/a> of 23 studies found that insulin pumps are better than injections among patients with type 1 diabetes. People with pumps had, on average, lower levels of a marker for blood sugar than their counterparts who injected insulin. The findings lend support to developing an artificial pancreas, which you can read about in our recent blog post<\/a>. (Reuters<\/a>)<\/p>\n — Llama antibodies can identify all seven forms of highly dangerous botulinum neurotoxin, according to research<\/a> in PLoS One. The llamas\u2019 flexible antibodies<\/a> work well as markers and could lead to treatment against this toxin in the event of a terrorist attack, researchers say. Yes, you read correctly: Llamas\u2014a recent star of YouTube<\/a>\u2014are the new warriors in the fight against terrorism. (ScienceDaily<\/a>)<\/p>\n