|
|
 |
|
|
Friday, April 04, 2003
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
|
|
| |
The Weapon We Gave Iraq - Depleted Uranium: "Iraqi researchers say that the epicentre ("Ground Zero") for DU effects is around the city of Basra, in southern Iraq. It was here, in 1991, that U.S. and coalition jets ravaged the retreating Iraqi army, leaving behind the smoldering hulks of thousands of vehicles. The U.S. and British air forces expended an estimated 300 tonnes of depleted-uranium ammunition in and around this area; it has since been dubbed the "Highway of Death."
The preponderance of birth defects among children born in the Basra region over the past decade defies explanation....
Should U.S.-led forces again invade Iraq, and should Canadians join them (something that has not been ruled out by Defence Minister John McCallum), they would probably move from Kuwait straight up the Highway of Death to Basra. The aerosol from the depleted-uranium-coated shells has long since dissipated from the hulks of Iraqi vehicles along the road. But Iraqi scientists believe the particles remain in the desert sands. Uranium possesses a radioactive half-life of 200 million years; it would still pose a serious risk.
Despite increasing evidence linking DU to degenerative health disorders, the British and U.S. militaries steadfastly refuse to suspend their use of such weapons."
|
|
|
|
Friday, January 10, 2003
|
|
|
|
Saturday, December 28, 2002
|
|
| |
Automakers Block Crash Data Recorders: "Highway safety could be vastly improved if black boxes that record information about car crashes were standardized, experts say, but they contend that vehement objections from the automobile industry are thwarting efforts to set a standard."
|
|
|
|
Saturday, December 21, 2002
|
|
| |
US blocks cheap drugs agreement: "The deal was agreed by 143 countries. The United States has blocked an international agreement to allow poor countries to buy cheap drugs. This means millions of poor people will still not have access to medicines for diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis. US negotiators say the deal would allow too many drugs patents to be ignored. "
|
|
|
|
Thursday, December 19, 2002
|
|
| |
Military Seeking Ways to Skip Sleep: "To strive toward creating the no-sleep soldier, DARPA has funded a multi-tiered program from tinkering with a soldier's brain using magnetic resonance to analyzing the neural circuits of birds that stay awake for days during migration. The hope is to stump the body's need for sleep -- at least temporarily."
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
|
|
| |
The Heavy Cost of Chronic Stress: "Prolonged or severe stress has been shown to weaken the immune system, strain the heart, damage memory cells in the brain and deposit fat at the waist rather than the hips and buttocks (a risk factor for heart disease, cancer and other illnesses), said Dr. Bruce S. McEwen, director of the neuroendocrinology laboratory at the Rockefeller University and the author of a new book, "The End of Stress as We Know It." Stress has been implicated in aging, depression, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, among other illnesses." [detailed summary of recent research]
|
Doctors Rethinking Treatments for Sick Sinuses: "The disillusionment with surgery occurs as recognition is increasing that other common remedies for chronic sinus disease like antibiotics, steroids, antihistamines and decongestants also are falling short of expectations. Researchers say they are beginning to suspect that they have to rethink the underlying causes. Instead of allergies and infections, long considered the primary culprits, doctors are asking why sinuses become sick in the first place. Increasingly, they are looking at inflammation or the responses of the immune system."
|
Run or Walk by the Book:
Running: The Athlete Within, by Dr. David Costill and Dr. Scott Trappe.
The Complete Runner's Day-by-Day Log and Calendar, by John Jerome.
The Complete Walker IV, by Colin Fletcher and Chip Rawlins.
"These three books are excellent for anyone interested in running or walking. Taken as a whole, they cover every aspect of each activity "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
|
|
| |
A Terrifying Video Becomes a Best Seller: "ANSON W. SCHLOAT, the president of Human Relations Media, has an unexpected hit on his hands, a 26-minute video called "Dying High: Teens in the ER," which has become the hot teaching tool in Westchester County."
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
|
|
| |
Statins: Miracles for Some, Menace for a Few: "hailed as miracle drugs for their ability to prevent deaths from heart attacks by lowering cholesterol... but... sometimes cause serious side effects. The most serious involves the muscles, a disorder called rhabdomyolysis, rare but debilitating and deadly if not detected in its early stages."
|
|
|
|
Monday, December 09, 2002
|
|
| |
Don't Blame Columbus for All the Indians' Ills: "the general health of Native Americans had apparently been deteriorating for centuries before 1492. That is the conclusion of a team of anthropologists, economists and paleopathologists who have completed a wide-ranging study of the health of people living in the Western Hemisphere in the last 7,000 years. The researchers, whose work is regarded as the most comprehensive yet, say their findings in no way diminish the dreadful impact Old World diseases had on the people of the New World. But it suggests that the New World was hardly a healthful Eden....
researchers attributed the widespread decline in health in large part to the rise of agriculture and urban living. People in South and Central America began domesticating crops more than 5,000 years ago, and the rise of cities there began more than 2,000 years ago.
These were mixed blessings. Farming tended to limit the diversity of diets, and the congestion of towns and cities contributed to the rapid spread of disease. In the widening inequalities of urban societies, hard work on low-protein diets left most people vulnerable to illness and early death."
|
|
|
|
Thursday, December 05, 2002
|
|
| |
Eating less for longevity: "Reduce an animal's intake of calories by 30% and it will live 30% longer than those on an ordinary diet. Now scientists want to know if the same severely restricted diet that has produced dramatic results in laboratory experiments in animals will work in humans. In September, the National Institute on Aging began scientific trials involving about 200 people at three locations in Louisiana, Massachusetts and Missouri. "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
|
|
| |
Study Suggests Mercury in Vaccine Was Not Harmful: "small but groundbreaking study of infants who received vaccines containing a mercury-based preservative has found that the levels of mercury in their blood were well within federal safety limits. The study, reported on Saturday in the British medical journal The Lancet, also found that infants excrete the mercury much faster than expected, suggesting that it does not build up from one vaccination to the next."
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
|
|
| |
Dietary Advice Takes On Mediterranean Flavor: "a diet like the one consumed by heart-healthy people along the Mediterranean: rich in vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts, unsaturated vegetable oils and protein derived from fish, beans and chicken, not red meat. "Compelling" evidence for this view was thoroughly reviewed last week in The Journal of the American Medical Association by Dr. Frank B. Hu and Dr. Walter C. Willett, nutrition and epidemiology experts at the Harvard School of Public Health, who have followed tens of thousands of Americans for decades to uncover relationships between diet, habits and health."
|
|
|
|
Sunday, December 01, 2002
|
|
| |
Eating meat 'may still pose CJD risk': "Muscle and flesh of cattle and sheep may harbour deadly levels of prions that cause variant CJD. This stark prospect, raised by the Nobel Prize winner who first discovered that these infective particles can cause brain illnesses, suggests eating meat may still pose a serious health risk. The prospect that a timebomb may still be ticking in our kitchens was raised by Stanley Prusiner, who revealed yesterday that experiments at the University of California in San Francisco had shown that scrapie-infected mice have unexpectedly high concentrations of prions in their muscles. "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
|
|
| |
Justice Dept. Seeks to Seal Vaccine Papers: "Lawyers for the families said they were outraged by today's move. They said the government was trying to prevent families from obtaining damaging information about the preservative, which could later be used against drug companies in civil courts."
|
|
|
|
Monday, November 25, 2002
|
|
| |
Whose Hands Are Dirty?: Bob Herbert "Last week the Senate approved legislation to establish a Department of Homeland Security and it will soon be signed into law by the president. Buried in this massive bill, snuck into it in the dark of night by persons unknown (actually, it's fair to say by Republican persons unknown), was a provision that -- incredibly -- will protect Eli Lilly and a few other big pharmaceutical outfits from lawsuits by parents who believe their children were harmed by thimerosal. Now this has nothing to do with homeland security. Nothing. This is not a provision that will in any way protect us from the ferocious evil of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. So why is it there? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the major drug companies have become a gigantic collective cash machine for politicians, and that the vast majority of that cash goes to Republicans. Or maybe it's related to the fact that Mitch Daniels, the White House budget director, is a former Eli Lilly big shot. Or the very convenient fact that just last June President Bush appointed Eli Lilly's chairman, president and C.E.O., Sidney Taurel, to a coveted seat on the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council."
|
|
|
|
Sunday, November 24, 2002
|
|
| |
Nurses' Association Says in Study that Big Hospital Chain Overcharges Patients for Drugs: "Tenet Healthcare, already under scrutiny for receiving unusually high Medicare payments in recent years, apparently charged patients high prices for drugs as well, according to a new analysis by the California Nurses Association to be released tomorrow. In recent years, Tenet-owned hospitals have raised their drug prices to roughly eight times actual costs, the association said. Tenet, one of the nation's largest commercial hospital chains, has come under intense scrutiny for the unusual amount of special Medicare payments it has received in recent years. By raising prices sharply at some of its hospitals, particularly in California, Tenet received hundreds of millions of dollars in special payments. "
|
|
|
|
Saturday, November 23, 2002
|
|
| |
Madison Ave. Plays Growing Role in Drug Research: "The three largest advertising companies -- Omnicom, Interpublic and WPP -- have spent tens of millions of dollars to buy or invest in companies like Scirex that perform clinical trials of experimental drugs. One advertising executive calls it "getting closer to the test tube." Ad agency executives say they do nothing to distort the research process. But critics worry that science is being sacrificed for the sake of promotion.... Dr. Thomas Bodenheimer of the University of California at San Francisco has been critical of drug company involvement in clinical trials."
|
|
|
|
Thursday, November 14, 2002
|
|
| |
Study Says a Protein May Be Better Than Cholesterol in Predicting Heart Disease Risk: "inexpensive blood test for a protein linked to artery disease may be better than a cholesterol test at predicting a person's risk for a heart attack or stroke, researchers are reporting today. The test, for the substance, C-reactive protein, may help identify people who have an increased risk even though they do not have high cholesterol. About half of the people with heart disease have normal cholesterol levels"
|
The Kind of Noise That Keeps a Body on Balance: "In a series of experiments, healthy 75-year-olds stood on a platform that transmitted randomly varying vibrations to the soles of their feet. With these good vibrations, the subjects reflexively adjusted their balance until they swayed about the same amount as 25-year-olds who did not receive the random signals. Younger people who used the vibrating system also swayed less. James J. Collins, a professor of biomedical engineering who led the research group, attributed the improvement to stochastic resonance, a well-known phenomenon in which random noise enhances the detection of weak signals. In this case the noise made the nerves in the feet more sensitive and better able to detect the kinds of pressure changes that occur when the body goes slightly out of balance and puts more pressure on one part of the foot."
|
|
|
|
Monday, November 11, 2002
|
|
| |
The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory: "Halsey attended a meeting to discuss thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative that at the time was being used in several vaccines -- including the hepatitis B shot that Halsey had fought so hard to have administered to American babies. By the time the dust kicked up in that meeting had settled, Halsey would be forced to reckon with the hypothesis that thimerosal had damaged the brains of immunized infants and may have contributed to the unexplained explosion in the number of cases of autism being diagnosed in children. That Halsey was willing even to entertain this possibility enraged some of his fellow vaccinologists, who couldn't fathom how a doctor who had spent so much energy dismantling the arguments of people who attacked vaccines could now be changing sides. But to Halsey's mind, his actions were perfectly consistent: he was simply working from the data. And the numbers deeply troubled him. ''From the beginning, I saw thimerosal as something different,'' he says. ''It was the first strong evidence of a causal association with neurological impairment. I was very concerned.'' "
|
An Animal's Place: "The industrialization -- and dehumanization -- of American animal farming is a relatively new, evitable and local phenomenon: no other country raises and slaughters its food animals quite as intensively or as brutally as we do. Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to do it this way. Tail-docking and sow crates and beak-clipping would disappear overnight, and the days of slaughtering 400 head of cattle an hour would come to an end. For who could stand the sight? Yes, meat would get more expensive. We'd probably eat less of it, too, but maybe when we did eat animals, we'd eat them with the consciousness, ceremony and respect they deserve. "
|
Beyond Anger: Studying the Subconscious Nature of Rage: "The popular notion is that rage is an undesirable but completely controllable emotion. As with drug abuse, the theory goes, one can just say no to it; take an anger management course and get a grip. But what many people don't realize is that the human brain comes hard-wired for anger and rage. There is strong recent evidence from neuroscience that people share this ancient emotional neural circuitry with all kinds of animals.... Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard Medical School has reported that up to 40 percent of depressed patients experience anger attacks, which subside in about 70 percent of the subjects who are successfully treated."
|
|
|
|
Monday, October 14, 2002
|
|
| |
Duct tape zaps warts: "patients wore duct tape over their warts for six days. They removed the tape and used an abrasive on the spot. The tape was reapplied, and treatment continued for two months or until the wart went away. The tape irritated the warts, and that apparently caused the immune system to attack them. "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
|
|
| |
A squad of American soldiers was patrolling the Iraqi border, when they came across a badly mangled dead body. As they got closer, they found it was an Iraqi soldier.
A short distance up the road, they found a badly mangled American soldier in a ditch on the other side of the road, struggling to breathe. They ran to him, cradled his bruised head and asked him what had happened.
"Well," he whispered, "I was walking down this road, armed to the teeth when I came across this heavily armed Iraqi border guard. I looked him right in the eye and shouted, 'Saddam Hussein is a moronic, deceitful, lying piece of trash!'"
"He looked me right in the eye and shouted back, 'George W. Bush is a moronic, deceitful, lying piece of trash too!'"
"We were standing there shaking hands when the truck hit us."
|
|
|
|
Sunday, August 25, 2002
|
|
| |
Alzheimer's in America: The Aluminum - Phosphate Fertilizer Connection: "The phosphate fertilizer industry seems to be the common thread in Alzheimer's - and maybe also in thyroid and mad cow type diseases. Aluminum by itself may not cause Alzheimer's, but in combination with the radioactive products of the phosphate fertilizer industry, it could be wreaking havoc on our health." [Provocative commentary, but jumbled and hard to evaluate.]
|
|
|
|
Friday, July 12, 2002
|
|
| |
The Anthrax Files: "When someone expert in bio-warfare mailed anthrax last fall, it may not have been the first time he had struck. So while the F.B.I. has been unbelievably lethargic in its investigation so far, any year now it will re-examine the package that arrived on April 24, 1997, at the B'nai B'rith headquarters in Washington D.C."
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, July 10, 2002
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, July 09, 2002
|
|
|
|
Monday, July 08, 2002
|
|
| |
Many Gay Men in U.S. Unaware They Have H.I.V., Study Finds: "5,719 men who were interviewed at dance clubs, bars and other places frequented by gays in Baltimore, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Seattle. It tested the men for exposure to the AIDS virus, finding that 573 had H.I.V. Of those, 440, or 77 percent, had said they were unaware they were infected. "
|
What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? Long article from NYT magazine. First half is sensationalist and misleading, but second half presents strong data indicating that dietary "sugar and starch" may be worse for obesity and heart disease than dietary fat.
"what happens when we eat carbohydrates -- in particular sugar and starches like potatoes and rice, or anything made from [refined] flour, like a slice of white bread. These are known in the jargon as high-glycemic-index carbohydrates, which means they are absorbed quickly into the blood. As a result, they cause a spike of blood sugar and a surge of insulin within minutes. The resulting rush of insulin stores the blood sugar away and a few hours later, your blood sugar is lower than it was before you ate. As Ludwig explains, your body effectively thinks it has run out of fuel, but the insulin is still high enough to prevent you from burning your own fat. The result is hunger and a craving for more carbohydrates. It's another vicious circle, and another situation ripe for obesity. "
[I understand that caffeine has the same effect - causes a spike of blood sugar followed by a surge of insulin. I wonder if it is part of the syndrome too?]
"... The gist of the glycemic-index idea is that the longer it takes the carbohydrates to be digested, the lesser the impact on blood sugar and insulin and the healthier the food. Those foods with the highest rating on the glycemic index are some simple sugars, starches and anything made from [refined?] flour. Green vegetables, beans and whole grains cause a much slower rise in blood sugar because they have fiber, a nondigestible carbohydrate, which slows down digestion and lowers the glycemic index. Protein and fat serve the same purpose, which implies that eating fat can be beneficial, a notion that is still unacceptable. And the glycemic-index concept implies that a primary cause of Syndrome X, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity is the long-term damage caused by the repeated surges of insulin that come from eating starches and refined carbohydrates. This suggests a kind of unified field theory for these chronic diseases, but not one that coexists easily with the low-fat doctrine."
"... Atkins also noted that starches and sugar were harmful in any event because they raised triglyceride levels and that this was a greater risk factor for heart disease than cholesterol. "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
|
|
| |
The Poison Is Arsenic, and the Suspect Wood: "chromated copper arsenate, or C.C.A., the predominant wood preservative in the United States and the subject of an emerging body of product liability lawsuits around the country... prevents decay and repels termites. It also contains arsenic... The Environmental Protection Agency and manufacturers of treated wood advise consumers not to use wood with surface residue; to wear gloves, a dust mask and goggles while sawing; to saw outdoors; and never to burn the wood."
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
|
|
| |
Physically Abused Children Recognize the Face of Anger: "Being attuned to the emotions of others is a way to adapt to the dangerous environment of an abused child's home... But when the children move on to other settings, where the people around them behave more rationally, their perceptual systems fail to make the shift. Instead, Dr. Pollak said, they may see anger when it is not there, or spend so much time scanning for the signs of impending rage that they miss other important social clues. "This could be a reason why these children end up developing interpersonal difficulties," he added.... it may be possible to modify the tendency of abuse survivors to overinterpret anger."
|
|
|
|
Sunday, June 02, 2002
|
|
| |
An Early Sign of Alzheimer's Brings Fear, and New Insight: "The signs of mild cognitive impairment are an inability to form memories for events that just happened and a slight shrinking of the hippocampus, the area of the brain where these memories are laid down. On a memory test, a patient may be able to repeat a string of unrelated words -- red, Oldsmobile, cabbage -- but then fail to recall even one of them 10 minutes later.... Their prognosis is not good. Mild cognitive impairment may be caused by other disorders, especially depression. But when no such cause is found, it has been shown in studies to lead to full-blown Alzheimer's, with its additional impairments in reasoning and thinking, in at least 80 percent of cases. Patients with mild cognitive impairment progress to Alzheimer's at a rate of 12 percent to 15 percent a year, the studies show; for people of similar ages without mild cognitive impairment, the rate is about 1 percent a year. Nothing has been shown to slow brain cell death. "
|
Study Finding Celebrex Safer Was Flawed, Journal Says: "Doctors should be informed, they added, that the conclusion that Celebrex was safer than drugs like ibuprofen had been contradicted. "The flawed findings published in the original article appear to be widely distributed and believed," "
|
|
|
|
Thursday, May 30, 2002
|
|
| |
Nicotine-Laced Water May Soon Be in Stores: "in June, drugstores and convenience stores around the country could begin carrying Nico Water, bottles of nicotine-laced water that are the latest entry in a long line of products intended to help smokers get their nicotine fix through less carcinogenic means. But Nico Water is landing squarely in the middle of a debate about whether products that contain nicotine, but do not claim to help smokers kick the habit, should be classified as dietary supplements or drugs. "
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
|
|
| |
Why Angry People Can't Control the Short Fuse: " those who scored highest in hostility on a standard personality test were nearly five times as likely to die of heart disease as their less hostile classmates.... people prone to anger need time to calm down and collect their thoughts."
|
Performance: A Quick Power Nap's Benefits: "performance dropped by more than 50 percent in 10 subjects who stayed awake the whole time. The 10 people who napped for an hour in the early afternoon were able to restore their performances. The 10 people who napped briefly rebounded a bit."
|
Heroics for Humble Broccoli: "chemical found in broccoli and broccoli sprouts shows promise as a potential treatment for Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that causes ulcers and raises the risk of stomach cancer, according to a study being published today in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris tested the chemical, sulforaphane, in mice and human cells under laboratory conditions.... The amount of sulforaphane used in the study was "comparable to what one might expect to be consumed by a person eating a diet rich in cruciferous vegetables," like broccoli, cabbage or kale, he said, adding that broccoli contains far more of the chemical than other vegetables and that broccoli sprouts are even more potent. "
|
Prevention: Clean Ways to Combat Asthma: "Combining a "supercleaning" technique developed for lead abatement with periodic pest control can sharply reduce the cockroach allergens that have been linked to high rates of asthma in urban areas, according to a new study."
|
New Drug for Malaria Pits U.S. Against Africa: "With resistance to old malaria drugs spreading, African officials want to start using a relatively new Chinese remedy so powerful that some experts consider it a miracle drug. Because more than 2,000 African children die of malaria each day, doctors there are clamoring for the drug, and the World Health Organization recommends it. But the United States generally opposes using it in Africa yet. An adviser to the Agency for International Development in Washington, Dennis Carroll, said the medicine, artemisinin, probably represented "the best long-term option." But, he added, the drug is expensive and hard for poorly educated people to take correctly. It needs, he said, more testing in infants and is "not ready for prime time." Other experts say delays will cost too many lives because the drugs now in use are rapidly losing their effectiveness. Artemisinin was first refined 30 years ago in China from the qinghaosu plant, used in fever remedies for 2,000 years."
|
|
|
|
Thursday, May 23, 2002
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
|
|
| |
Ancient Tool of Survival is Deadly for the Heart: " the preponderance of evidence has indicated a strong relationship between what can be summed up as excessive emotional stress and an elevated risk of developing and dying of heart disease. Now in a comprehensive review published this year in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the underlying physiology that explains these and other factors linked to heart disease was detailed "
|
Runner's High? Endorphins? Fiction, Some Scientists Say: "only now are a few researchers rigorously examining exercise as an addictive behavior. They are finding that exercise, in rats at least, may actually be addictive but that it is not at all clear that the crucial brain chemical is an endorphin."
|
|
|
|
Monday, May 20, 2002
|
|
| |
For Sleep-Deprived, a Dream Drug?: "Notwithstanding the FDA's protests, there is every indication that modafinil is effective in keeping healthy people awake. It may soon be common for shift workers, soldiers and truck drivers to pop the pills before embarking on long journeys or difficult projects. Nancy Wesensten, a researcher at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, has shown that healthy people who have been kept awake for 54 hours -- more than two nights -- still function effectively when given modafinil. " - Give them to all your workers and double your profits!
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
|
|
| |
Study Finds Far Less Pesticide Residue on Organic Produce: "The first detailed scientific analysis of organic fruits and vegetables, published today, shows that they contain a third as many pesticide residues as conventionally grown foods. The findings, published in the Food Additives and Contaminants Journal, confirmed what consumers of organic food have taken for granted but did not settle the argument over whether organic food is safer than conventional food treated with chemical pesticides."
|
|
|
|
Monday, May 06, 2002
|
|
| |
Techniques: Babies Who Cry Before Sleeping: "parents were taught how to let the babies cry longer, until they learned to go to sleep on their own. After two months, the group that got instruction reported much more improvement than the group that did not -- 53 out of 76 versus 36 out of 76. And women in the instruction group reported fewer signs of depression."
|
Resistance: Avoiding Ear-Infection Drugs: " parents who sought treatment for their children's ear infections were given antibiotic prescriptions, but with a twist. They were asked not to fill them for 48 hours unless the symptoms worsened. The parents were also given pain medications, including ear drops. Doctors have long known that the infection, acute otitis media, can be treated without antibiotics. Concern over the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has led to an effort to reduce the use of the drugs."
|
Dodging Peanuts: To Some, a Lifelong Challenge: "Peanuts are the leading cause of fatal and nearly fatal food allergy reactions. Although allergies to peanuts were once considered rare, surveys indicate that the incidence has been rising in recent years.... millions of susceptible children are being exposed to peanut proteins long before their immune systems are able to handle them. In fact, when peanuts are eaten in pregnancy and lactation, some children may become sensitized to the allergenic proteins before birth or, more likely, through breast milk. "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, April 30, 2002
|
|
| |
Letters: "an alternative hypothesis consistent with the data is that the [hormone] replacement therapy protects against heart disease, begun soon after menopause. In several years, when final results of the trial are published, we should have sufficient data to discriminate between these hypotheses"
|
Male Circumcision Is Found to Reduce Cervical Cancer: "Researchers found that circumcision made a difference if the man had had six or more sex partners, which made him more likely to have contracted the cancer-causing human papilloma virus, or H.P.V. In those couples, the risk of cervical cancer was more than double if the man was not circumcised. The findings may not apply to couples in which the man has had fewer than six sex partners, because he is less likely to be carrying H.P.V. ... because the lining of the foreskin is especially vulnerable to the virus. Their study, which used DNA testing to look for penile H.P.V. infection in the men, found that uncircumcised men were about three times as likely as circumcised men to be infected. "
|
Alternative Medicine Is Finding Its Niche in Nation's Hospitals: "By affiliating with Dr. Chopra, the center is also capitalizing on perhaps the best-known name in alternative medicine. "What Dr. Chopra gives us is immediate brand," said Scott Regan, senior vice president for marketing and strategic planning. But, he said, "the Chopra name brings instant credibility or lack thereof, depending on which side you're on." Memorial expects to invest about $250,000 in the center for the first three years, including licensing Dr. Chopra's name and training about a dozen staff members in his methods."
|
Asking if Obesity Is a Disease or Just a Symptom: "Many studies have demonstrated that short-term weight loss has beneficial effects on risk factors such as high blood pressure and cholesterol," the institute writes in its description of the study. "However, observational studies have raised concerns about negative effects of weight loss and weight cycling. Some of these studies suggest increased, not decreased, mortality; however, most cannot distinguish voluntary from involuntary weight loss."
|
|
|
|
Monday, April 29, 2002
|
|
| |
Outbreak of Drug-Resistant Strep Bacteria: "Researchers in Pittsburgh have reported an outbreak of a strain of Group A streptococcus, the bacterium responsible for strep throat and a number of other infections, that is resistant to the commonly prescribed antibiotic erythromycin. "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, April 24, 2002
|
|
| |
In Public Health, Definitive Data Can Be Elusive: "The most recent turn in the estrogen debate occurred when a prestigious group of 28 scientists and doctors, authors of the International Position Paper on Women's Health and Menopause, said hormone replacement therapy's established benefits were much more limited than many doctors and women had believed. Estrogen can ease hot flashes and night sweats in women going through or who have passed through menopause, and it can stem the bone loss that accelerates with menopause. But, the group said, it remains to be established whether it protects against heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, broken bones from osteoporosis, severe depression and urinary incontinence, "
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
|
|
|
|
Monday, April 08, 2002
|
|
| |
Bush Seeks Voluntary Steps by Industry to Reduce Work Injuries: "Democratic lawmakers and union leaders were quick to attack the new policy, calling it toothless and far weaker than the Clinton administration regulations that a Republican-dominated Congress repealed 13 months ago, with President Bush's encouragement. Business groups, on the other hand, were mostly pleased. "
|
So You Lost Your Job. Feel Better Now?: ""short-lasting economic downturns are good for health ... There are various possible explanations, none of which are completely convincing," Professor Ruhm said. One fairly obvious factor is that people who are not working are less likely to be injured or killed on the job. Another is that traffic congestion and pollution, both of which present health risks, often rise when the economy booms and subside when the economy swoons. While recreational drinking doesn't seem to change much in recessions, heavy drinking declines, perhaps because booze hounds have less money in their pockets, the professor found. The number of smokers also falls. Finally, when the economy is cooling, people have more time to take care of their health, by exercising, say, or eating at home rather than scarfing down fast food. "
|
|
|
|
Thursday, April 04, 2002
|
|
| |
Therapies: A Dose of Red Pepper to Soothe Gastric Distress: "Dr. Bortolotti said he believed that the chemical in red pepper, capsaicin, worked by blocking nerves that transmit pain signals from the gut to the brain. But he cautioned that anyone considering using red pepper should first check with a doctor to rule out underlying gastric disorders. "
|
Sweet Taste of Kicking Sugar Habit: "i read "Lick the Sugar Habit" by Dr. Nancy Appleton... Sugar is "more of a pharmaceutical drug than it is a nurturing food," she writes. "Your sugar cravings are a direct indication that sugar is at work destroying your body... One common characteristic of sugar addiction is that one taste . . . leads to a craving for more, the same way certain drugs create cravings.""
|
|
|
|
Saturday, March 30, 2002
|
|
| |
Out of the Black Box of Phobia. Most of her adult life she suffered from phobias. Then she discovered supported exposure therapy, in which the therapist accompanies you into whatever situation you're afraid of. By Ruth Lippin (former associate of Roger's?).
|
An AIDS Skeptic in South Africa Feeds Simmering Doubts. Peter Mokaba has a new, controversial calling: explaining why the world should stop worrying about South Africa's AIDS epidemic. "H.I.V.? It doesn't exist.. The kind of stories that they tell that people are dying in droves? It's not true. It's not borne out by any facts. ... Antiretrovirals, they're quite dangerous. They're poison actually." ... the questions that Mr. Mbeki raised still simmer within the ruling party.
|
|
|
|
Friday, March 29, 2002
|
|
| |
Seizure-Alert Dogs May Get Seeing-Eye Status in Florida: " study of patients and their seizure-alert dogs by the University of Florida's epilepsy clinic in 1998 determined that some dogs do detect seizures, but the scientists did not have the money to investigate whether early detection was a spontaneous reaction or trainable behavior. "
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
|
|
| |
From Algeria to a Dream: Elias Adam Zerhouni: "In the 1980's, Dr. Zerhouni, then an associate professor of radiology at Johns Hopkins University, found a way to use magnetic fields to create a grid ... that could track the heart. ... Today, as expected, President Bush announced that Dr. Zerhouni was his choice to become the next director of the National Institutes of Health. For Dr. Zerhouni, who was born in Algeria and came to the United States 27 years ago "
|
A Man of Many Professions: Richard Henry Carmona. Dr. Richard H. Carmona, the man chosen by President Bush to be surgeon general of the United States, has an M.D. and a master's degree in public health, but he also has experience in law enforcement and on the battlefield, which may help him cope with the threat of biological terrorism.
|
|
|
|
Monday, March 25, 2002
|
|
| |
Home Remedy for Cough: "1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 Tablespoon honey, 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 2 Tablespoons water" [she says it tastes terrible, but I think it tastes a lot better than Robutussin!]
|
When It Comes to Exercise, Little Things Mean a Lot: "America's alarming girth growth, say Blair and numerous other health experts, is directly related to "physical activity being engineered out of daily life." Blair says the average adult expends about 300 to 700 fewer calories per day than our parents did.... our society has created a "toxic environment" that discourages movement. "
|
|
|
|
Friday, March 22, 2002
|
|
| |
Yeast Infection: The Pitfalls of Self-Diagnosis: "only a third of the women buying over-the-counter vaginal antifungal product had accurately self-diagnosed their conditions. An additional 21 percent of the customers studied did in fact have vaginal yeast infections but also had second infections for which the medication was not helpful. Nearly 19 percent had bacterial vaginosis not amenable to antifungal therapy, 12 percent had other conditions, and nearly 14 percent had no vaginal infections at all."
|
Disease stalks new megacities: "Two leading British development groups gave warning yesterday that sanitation in many of the world's cities is in crisis and will dramatically worsen with the continuing growth of cities and slums. Poor sanitation.. has become a development scandal: 2.5 billion people, 40% of the world's population, lack access to even the most minimal toilet facilities and up to 6,000 children a day die from water-borne diseases which could be eradicated cheaply and quickly"
|
Bush Acts to Drop Core Privacy Rule on Medical Data: "proposal would repeal a provision widely viewed as the core of the Clinton rules: a requirement that doctors, hospitals and other health care providers obtain written consent from patients before using or disclosing medical information for treatment, the payment of claims or any of a long list of "health care operations," like setting insurance premiums and measuring the competence of doctors."
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
|
|
| |
Bad Medicine: Krugman oped " Medicare payments have already been squeezed beyond their limits, to the point where recipients can't find doctors willing to take them. Something will have to give, and soon. "
|
|
|
|
Friday, March 15, 2002
|
|
| |
Study Says Mammograms Cut Death Risk: "the tests reduce the risk of dying from the disease by one-fifth. The study, made public today by a Swedish team, said the benefits of screening were greatest for women older than 55"
|
|
|
|
Monday, March 11, 2002
|
|
| |
Study flips importance of blood pressure readings: "While many doctors still focus on diastolic readings, recent research has suggested that the top, or systolic, measure, is more important, especially in the elderly. The new study extends those findings to men age 52 on average."
|
|
|
|
Tuesday, March 05, 2002
|
|
| |
Tomato Sauce Cuts Cancer Risk: "those who ate at least two meals a week containing tomato products lowered their risk of prostate cancer by 24 to 36 percent. "
|
Study Ties Lung Cancer, Air Pollution: " Long-term exposure to the air pollution in some of America's biggest metropolitan areas significantly raises the risk of dying from lung cancer and is about as dangerous as living with a smoker"
|
|
|
|
Thursday, February 28, 2002
|
|
| |
Annual Injection May Stop Osteoporosis: " An annual injection of a drug that blocks brittleness in bones may stop osteoporosis, according to a study being published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine"
|
|
|
|
Sunday, February 24, 2002
|
|
| |
The Care They Need: "As one of his final acts in office, Surgeon General David Satcher called attention to one of the most alarming public-health issues in America: the medical neglect, abuse and disenfranchisement of 7 million Americans with mental retardation."
|
|
|
|
Monday, February 18, 2002
|
|
| |
Mammograms and Personal Choice: "As a fiftysomething woman and an epidemiologist tracking the data, I believe that for now women 50 to 69 should stay the course and continue to have regular mammograms. But we ought not to dismiss concerns about flaws in the existing data, and women should know why experts are not speaking with a single voice. The evidence is far from perfect. That is not the same as saying there is good evidence that mammography doesn't work. Rather, the evidence that mammography does work is weaker than we used to think. We also need to recognize that each of us weighs benefits and risks differently. "
|
Alzheimer's May Be Linked to Normal Diet Byproduct: "Homocysteine is an amino acid, a building block of proteins. Its levels can rise when people eat a diet heavy in animal protein and few fruits or leafy vegetables. Fruits and vegetables can lower the levels by providing B vitamins, folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12, which help convert homocysteine to other amino acids that are not harmful. Homocysteine, like cholesterol, has also been linked to heart disease and strokes. "
|
|
|
|