The American Voice Institute of Public Policy Presents

Personal Health

Joel P. Rutkowski, Ph.D., Editor
December 6 , 2003

Personal Health - November 15-21

 

  1. Chic-Chi's Faces Five Lawsuits over Hepatitis

  2. Chi-Chi's Exec Calls Restaurants Safe

  3. FDA Approves Third Pill for Impotence

  4. Facts and Figures About Headaches

  5. Doctors Look at 'Chronic Daily Headaches'

  6. Villagers Contract AIDS From Blood Sale

  7. Man Dies During Weight-Reduction Surgery

  8. Is It a Cold or Sinusitis?

  9. Paralysis Breakthrough

  10. Internet Info on Matters of the Brain

  11. The Use-It-Or-Lose-It Defense

  12. Alcohol Alters Insulin Levels

  13. Are Short People Prone to Hearing Loss?

  14. Buckwheat Good for Diabetics

  15. Coral Reefs May Be Healthier Than Thought

  16. U.S. Syphilis Rate Up for Second Year

  17. Red Cross Drive Gets 3M Blood Donations

  18. Panel Suggests Electronic Health Records

  19. HIV-Positive Man Appeals for Transplant

  20. An Alternative to Warfarin

  21. Stomach Relief for People With Chronic Pain

  22. Breast Tumors Removed Without Major Surgery  

  23. Synthetic Marijuana Eases Alzheimer's Agitation

  24. Western Diet Link to Intestinal Cancer Studied

  25. It's What We Swig That Makes Us Big

  26. Researchers Probe Possible New Therapy for Hypertension

  27. More Details on Proteins Linked to Breast Cancer

  28. Canada Scaling Back SARS Screening

  29. FDA May Require Tests for Drugs for Kids

  30. Mental Health Agency Cited on Research

  31. Gov't Develops Broad Plan to Fight Autism

  32. EU Parliament Urges Stem Cell Research

  33. Study Praises U.S. Anti-Smoking Program

  34. Large Breast Cancer Tumors Rose in 1990s

  35. Two New Drugs Offer Hope for Psoriasis Sufferers

  36. Middle Age Poundage Weighs Heavy on Later Years

  37. Predicting the Progression of Cystic Fibrosis

  38. Newer Drugs May Help Elderly Schizophrenics

  39. Cases of West Nile Virus in Horses Drop

  40. White Men Survive Prostate Cancer Longer

  41. Human Trials Start on Ebola Victims

  42. Instant Screening of Newborns Urged

  43. Concussion Victims Are Prone to Another

  44. Colleges Expand Mental Health Services

  45. Report: Arkansas Remains Unhealthy State

  46. Agency Says Cancer Plagues Appalachians

  47. Vioxx Has No Effect on Arteries

  48. Shocking Sore Shoulders Back to Health

  49. Tracking of Medication Errors Rising

  50. Genetic Link to Iron Overload Disorder Found

  51. Step on a Sharp Object?

  52. Targeting Toxoplasmosis

  53. CDC: Flu Season Is Going Strong in U.S

  54. Simple Test Helps Identify Lung Killer
  55. Is Smallpox Behind AIDS Immunity?

  56. Mammograms After 65 Can Save Lives

  57. Timing Everything in Early Heart Attack Treatment

  58. Diet Can Alter Risk of Kidney Stones

  59. Skin Cancer, More Serious Cancers Linked

  60. Rainy Day Blues?

  61. Chinese Worry About Another SARS Outbreak

  62. Feds Worried on Playground-Cancer Link

  63. Winter Chill Can Be Tough on Your Toes

  64. Cold Hands and Power Tools a Bad Fit

  65. FDA OKs 1st Chewable Contraceptive

 

Chi-Chi's Faces 5 Lawsuits Over Hepatitis

 

Associated Press

November 23, 2003

 

Five lawsuits have already been filed against the Chi-Chi's restaurant chain over a hepatitis A outbreak that has killed three people and sickened more than 600, and scores of other lawsuits are likely to follow.

But legal experts say two key issues facing the company could determine whether victims and their families get the settlements they seek: insurance and bankruptcy.

The Mexican restaurant chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 8, citing cash flow problems, a month before the hepatitis outbreak was confirmed.

On Friday, a bankruptcy judge gave limited approval to Chi-Chi's plans to begin paying some expenses for those sickened in the outbreak — up to $20,000 per claim. He did not, however, fully approve Chi-Chi's plan to pay $500,000 on an insurance deductible so the company could tap into as much as $51 million in liability insurance it may need to settle claims. A hearing is set for Tuesday on the matter.

None of the lawsuits filed so far are on behalf of those who died in what is the biggest known hepatitis A outbreak. It, like other recent outbreaks in Georgia and Tennessee, was blamed on tainted green onions.

Another outbreak, which sickened 16 people in North Carolina, probably stemmed from the same source as the Georgia outbreak, according to a report by Georgia's health department obtained by The Associated Press.

The Georgia outbreak had previously been traced to green onions shipped from Mexico, and the report said a single Atlanta Farmers' Market distributor provided green onions from California suppliers to three Georgia restaurants where multiple people got the liver infection.

Federal health officials said Friday that green onions from Mexico probably were responsible for the Pennsylvania outbreak, but stopped short of saying they came from one of three Mexican companies known to have supplied the onions blamed for other outbreaks.

If Chi-Chi's does not emerge from Chapter 11, some hepatitis plaintiffs might find themselves waiting in line for pennies on the dollar behind the chain's other creditors, said Chicago attorney Robert Clifford, who led a group of plaintiffs who settled multimillion-dollar claims after a US Airways flight crashed near Pittsburgh in 1994. US Airways emerged from Chapter 11 about a year before the crash.

"If, at the end, you've got a bankrupt defendant who did it, these people are going to get (shortchanged)," he said. "Bad things happen to good people every day in America."

Also unclear is whether Chi-Chi's has enough insurance to settle the cases in the same fashion as other restaurants that faced similar food poisoning lawsuits.

Hundreds of people sued the Jack in the Box fast-food chain after it served hamburger tainted with E. coli in 1993 that killed three children and sickened hundreds.

The burger chain offered to pay medical bills and some lost wages. Still, the linchpin to settling the lawsuits was $100 million in liability insurance, said William Marler, a Seattle attorney who has filed three of the five Chi-Chi's lawsuits so far.

Chi-Chi's has stated in bankruptcy documents that it has $51 million in liability insurance — about half as much as Marler believes the company will need.

Marler represents some 80 people who contracted hepatitis A or received shots to prevent it after eating at the restaurant, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The three suits Marler has filed have been put on hold by a judge to protect creditors of the Louisville, Ky.-based chain.

Chi-Chi's attorney David Ernst of Portland, Ore., refused to discuss liability issues.

"It is absolutely within the best interests of Chi-Chi's to do right by its customers," Ernst said. "But that (insurance and lawsuit settlement) part of it is not like the Jack in the Box case — we have to comply with the bankruptcy court."

Pittsburgh attorney Robert Peirce, who has filed two suits, said his clients want more than reimbursement for doctor bills and missed work.

"Pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life are important," Peirce said. "But I don't want clients looking for some big payday, because that's not what I'm here to do."

 

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Chi-Chi's Exec Calls Restaurants Safe

 

Associated Press

November 22, 2003

 

State and federal health officials said Saturday that Pennsylvania's hepatitis A outbreak is winding down, even as the number of those infected climbed over 600. The investigation shifted to how green onions linked to the outbreak became contaminated.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., met Saturday with Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites), and state health officials at a community college near the Beaver County Chi-Chi's restaurant where the outbreak was first confirmed Nov. 3.

"We do feel like this particular outbreak has been successfully ended," Gerberding said, although the number of cases probably will rise over the next few days as lab test results come back.

With 605 infections and three deaths confirmed, health officials have found no secondary cases — meaning all those infected were sickened at the restaurant by the scallions, not through contact with infected people. Most of the green onions were used in a mild salsa and a cheese dip.

Hepatitis A is a virus that attacks the liver and can cause fever, nausea, diarrhea, jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain and loss of appetite. Hepatitis A usually clears up on its own in about two months.

Nearly 10,000 people have been screened for the virus and more than 9,100 received antibody injections, which prevent hepatitis A from taking hold within the first 14 days of exposure.

Specter, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that controls the CDC's budget, called health officials' work stopping the virus the "gold standard of response."

What remains is pinpointing how the onions were tainted.

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) already has identified eight brands of Mexican-grown green onions believed to have caused the Pennsylvania outbreak. Green onions also are suspected of causing outbreaks in Georgia and Tennessee that have sickened more than 330 people, and the strains of hepatitis A found in those states and Pennsylvania are very similar.

But the FDA has yet to determine how and where — from the onion fields to the Chi-Chi's northwest of Pittsburgh and more than a dozen restaurants in the other states — the contamination occurred.

Chi-Chi's chief operating officer Bill Zavertnik flew to Pittsburgh on Saturday to read a short statement saying federal and state health officials found no wrongdoing by the company.

"There is currently no industry-accepted means of testing produce for the hepatitis A virus, and beyond that, there is no possible way to wash hepatitis A off contaminated green onions," he told reporters. Zavertnik, who did not take questions, said the chain did everything possible to prevent the outbreak.

But a food safety expert said grocery stores and restaurants have to do more than just properly handle fresh vegetables — they also need to ensure their suppliers are safe.

 

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FDA Approves Third Pill for Impotence

 

Associated Press

November 21, 2003

 

A third pill to treat impotence was approved for sale in the United States on Friday, intensifying competition in a billion-dollar slice of the drug market.

The new pill will be sold under the name Cialis. It joins Viagra, the oral drug that went on the market in 1998, and Levitra, which was approved earlier this year by the Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites).

All three drugs act on an enzyme that helps prompt and maintain erections by relaxing muscles in the penis and blood vessels. The duration and onset of the drug action is different, however, with each pill.

Cialis, manufactured by Eli Lilly & Co., was found in studies to stay longer in the body than Viagra. Studies suggest that a 20 mg dose of Cialis is active for 24 to 36 hours. In France, where the drug has been on the market for some time, Cialis is called "Le weekend" pill. Levitra and Viagra reach their full effectiveness in an hour, on average.

Some market studies suggest that about 30 million men over the age of 40 have symptoms of impotence. The sales of Viagra last year were reported at $1.2 billion.

Cialis, whose chemical name is tadalafil, was tested in trials with 4,000 men. The studies found that it helped promote erection within a half hour and enhanced that ability for up to 36 hours.

The drug is not recommended for patients on some heart medications, such as nitroglycerin tablets or some alpha blockers, because the combination can cause a sharp drop in blood pressure. This can cause fainting or even death in some men.

Recommendations call for dosage limitations of Cialis for patients with kidney or liver disorders. The drug should not be taken by men for whom sexual activity is inadvisable because of heart conditions.

The most common reported side effects from clinical trials of Cialis were headache, indigestion, back pain, muscle aches and flushing.

 

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Facts and Figures About Headaches

 

Associated Press

November 21, 2003

 

A few figures on headaches from the Mayo Clinic and National Headache Foundation (news - web sites).

·        _ One in eight Americans suffers from recurring, severe headaches and migraines that interfere with daily life.

·        _ About 15 percent of women and 7 percent of men suffer from migraine headaches.

·        _ Seventy percent of migraine sufferers are found to have some sort of headache history in their family tree.

 

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Doctors Look at 'Chronic Daily Headaches'

 

Associated Press

November 21, 2003

 

They are excruciating headaches that last for days and return at a moment's notice. Often, they surface in the teenage years and last through much of adulthood.

It's a condition that has existed for centuries, doctors say. But only recently has it been given a name: "chronic daily headaches," or CDH, defined as migraines or neck- and head-squeezing tension headaches that are present 15 or more days each month.

Some might think it sounds like just another excuse to skip school. But young people such as Rachel Gohmann, an 18-year-old college freshman from St. Cloud, Minn., know how serious the condition can be.

Blinding headaches that often left her bedridden caused her to miss more than 100 days of her senior year of high school — with her worst migraine lasting nearly a month.

Medication and a tutor helped her make it to graduation. But, now a freshman at St. Cloud State University, she's still missing some classes and making at least one trip a month to the emergency room, where she's given narcotic drugs that help her sleep.

"And that's a good month," Gohmann says.

Doctors say that anywhere from 1 percent to 5 percent of the population, including young people, suffer from chronic daily headaches.

Roughly an equal number of boys and girls suffer from them in the elementary years. But once adolescence hits, young women are about three times as likely to have them, partly due to hormonal changes related to menstruation.

Other factors, such as a family history of headaches, stress and depression, also can play a role for both genders.

"It's really sad because these headaches take all the pleasure out of life at a time when high school and college students should be enjoying their lives," says Dr. Michael Cutrer, a neurologist who specializes in primary headache disorders at the Mayo Clinic.

If left untreated, he says, the severity of the headaches often increases — making it imperative that treatment begin in the early years.

Gohmann is one of Cutrer's many young patients. She says that when she first started getting the headaches last year, her friends didn't really understand.

"There was confusion about why I was gone so much; they thought I'd gotten in with a bad crowd," says Gohmann, an honors student who wants to be a psychologist. "They thought I was making it up."

Abigail Rey experienced much the same response from her doctor in Virginia when she first got bad headaches five years ago.

"My doctor said to just deal with it," says the 16-year-old, who now lives in Shoreline, Wash., and has since found a physician to treat her chronic migraines.

When Rey moved, she started seeing Dr. Sheena Aurora, co-director of the headache clinic at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.

Aurora says it's not unusual for people, especially teens, to avoid treatment, partly because the public and even some doctors don't understand the condition — or that treatment is available.

She says even some parents don't believe their children's headaches are so bad.

"They just think they're complaining — that it's not a real disorder, things like that," Aurora says. "But if it's interfering with the quality of life — keeping them from everyday activities — then it's probably time to seek help."

Still, even the most experienced of headache specialists say that finding relief for chronic daily headaches isn't always easy.

The director of the pediatric headache clinic at the University of Maryland Hospital for Children in Baltimore says that at least half the young patients who come to see him suffer from chronic daily headaches.

"These patients remain complex and perplexing," says Dr. Jack Gladstein, who founded the Maryland clinic in 1989.

Often, it is a matter of trying various migraine medications. Among the most common are prescription drugs called "triptans," which are marketed under such names as Maxalt, Amerge, Imitrex and Zomig. They're taken at the onset of a headache.

Because chronic headaches often run in families, some doctors give their young patients drugs that have worked on relatives. Others also have found that antidepressants sometimes help, since depression can be an underlying factor. And some accompany the use of prescription drugs with acupuncture or botox injections to relax stiffened head and neck muscles.

Doctors say it's also important that their young patients stay on a regular sleep schedule and avoid stress and skipping meals.

Gohmann has tried all of it — and says a new triptan medication seems to be helping. Still living at home because of the headaches, she's still hoping she'll be able to go away to college.

In the meantime, she's discovered that several of her classmates — and even some of her professors — have trouble with severe headaches, too.

"We swap horror stories," Gohmann says. "It helps when people understand."

___

On the Net:

American Council for Headache Education: http://www.achenet.org

National Headache Foundation (news - web sites): http://www.headaches.org

 

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Villagers Contract AIDS From Blood Sale

 

Associated Press

November 21, 2003

 

Dozens of villagers in northeastern China have contracted the AIDS (news - web sites) virus by selling blood and at least 20 have died, a human rights organization said Friday.

Blood tests have proven that 62 villagers from Soudengzhan in Jilin province are HIV (news - web sites)-positive, part of a total of 300 people who may be infected, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

"It is urgent to get the spread of disease under control in the area," said Frank Lu, who runs the organization.

Government officials at various levels have covered up the infections to protect Liu Baozhong, party secretary of Soudengzhan, who has been singled out for praise by former President Jiang Zemin (news - web sites), Lu said.

"It is because of this that officials have covered up this serious matter," he said. "AIDS is spreading in that town and other places around the country."

A woman who answered the telephone at the Soudengzhan town government said only that "no one has contracted AIDS here." She would give only her family name, Yao.

At Jilin's city health bureau, which oversees Soudengzhan, a man who answered the telephone said he "hadn't heard anything about the cases." He refused to give his name.

About 1 million people in China are HIV-positive, mostly intravenous drug users and people infected from blood-buying schemes in central China. Chinese officials and the United Nations (news - web sites) warn that 10 million people could be infected by 2020 without more effective prevention.

Thousands of villagers sold their blood to the donation station after it opened in 1992, the center said. The station closed three years later, it said, but did not give a reason or provide more details.

In the central province of Henan, thousands were infected with the AIDS virus by an unsanitary blood-buying industry in the 1990s, when dealers bought blood from villagers and pooled it, mixing healthy blood with HIV-infected blood.

They extracted plasma, a blood component with medical uses, and re-injected the rest back into the sellers.

 

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Man Dies During Weight-Reduction Surgery

 

Associated Press

November 21, 2003

 

A nursing assistant died while undergoing stomach reduction surgery, and the hospital said Thursday it is suspending such operations while it investigates.

Brett Davey, spokesman for Roger Williams Medical Center, would not say went wrong during the surgery or whether any doctors would be disciplined.

Robert Messa Jr., 27, who worked at the hospital, died Tuesday about a half-hour into the laparoscopic gastric bypass operation, Davey said.

It was the third death among the 340 gastric bypass procedures performed at the hospital over the past three years, chairman of surgery Paul Liu said.

Liu said the hospital will stop performing both open and laparoscopic procedures. The newer laparoscopic technique uses smaller incisions and leads to less scarring and quicker recovery.

He said the doctor who performed the surgery has not been suspended. He would not identify the doctor, but said he's "very experienced."

Liu would not disclose a cause of death, saying the hospital is awaiting autopsy results. The state Department of Health is also looking into the incident.

Last month, Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital stopped performing the laparoscopic procedure after a 38-year-old woman there died after the staple gun apparently misfired during the procedure.

Gastric bypass surgery aids (news - web sites) weight loss in a morbidly obese patient by shrinking the stomach from the size of a football to the size of an egg.

"I think what's happening is the fact that it's become so visible with celebrities and others who have had it done ... the numbers who are having it done are going up dramatically, and I think the true risk of this procedure is becoming more known," said Dr. Vincent Pera, director of the weight management program at Miriam Hospital in Providence.

Pera said the death rate for gastric bypass surgery is one in 200.

The smaller stomach pouch is created by stitching or stapling part of the stomach closed. A part of the small intestine is bypassed to reduce nutrient absorption, causing the patient to lose weight. Typically, patients lose 70 percent to 80 percent of their excess body weight in about a year.

But the surgery comes with risks, including postoperative complications that can include blood clots floating to the lungs or stomach juices leaking into the blood and causing infections.

Though the procedure is commonly known as stomach stapling, the hospital would not confirm whether staples were used during Messa's procedure.

 

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Is It a Cold or Sinusitis?

 

Janice Billingsley

HealthDay Reporter

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- As the days grow shorter and the night air colder, that means one thing -- the start of the common cold season with all its attendant symptoms.

Like stuffy nose. Headaches. Post-nasal drip.

But it's also prime time for one of the most common chronic health conditions in the country -- sinusitis, whose symptoms include stuffy nose, headaches and post-nasal drip.

So how do you tell what ails you?

With difficulty.

"It's very hard for patients to distinguish between a cold and sinusitis because very often the symptoms are the same," says Dr. Stanley Blaugrund, chairman of the department of otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Nasal congestion, a runny nose, bad breath, facial pain, headache and night cough are all signs of both maladies. The symptoms are caused by swelling of the sinus passages so they can't drain the fluid that builds up there, Blaugrund says.

With a cold, the swelling typically goes down in three days to a week, allowing the mucus to pass through and out of the nose and giving people relief from their symptoms.

Sinusitis occurs, however, when the swelling persists, blocking the nasal passages so the mucus has no way of escaping, leaving the sinuses vulnerable to infection.

"The majority of these illnesses are just colds," says Dr. George Zalzal, professor of otolaryngology and pediatrics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

"But if the symptoms last for 10 days or more, you could be dealing with sinusitis," Zalzal says.

Sinusitis is one of the most common chronic health problems in the United States, affecting about 37 million people a year, according to the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. If not treated properly, the condition can become acute, lasting anywhere from three to eight weeks, or chronic, lasting for months or even years, doctors say.

So health experts recommend going to the doctor sooner rather than later if you suspect sinusitis. This is particularly true for children, says Zalzal.

"For children, especially if a child is very young, any symptom that lasts beyond two or three days, particularly a cough or a fever, could be a sign of something else as well," such as sinusitis or bronchitis, he says. des/factsheets/chemicals/1file.htm

 

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Paralysis Breakthrough

 

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- Brazilian scientists claim they've restored feeling to people who have been paralyzed for at least two years, says a report in Chemistry and Industry magazine.

The scientists harvested stem cells from the blood of 30 people with spinal cord injuries. The stem cells were reintroduced to the patients' bodies by injecting them into the artery supplying blood to the area of spinal cord damage.

After a few months, 12 of the patients responded to electrical stimulation of their paralyzed limbs, the report says.

The claim has raised some eyebrows.

"Nothing like this has been done in humans before, but the worry is that human studies have tended to be unscientific," Sam Pfaff, a professor of molecular biology at the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences, comments in the Chemistry and Industry report.

The Brazilian research may also pose ethical problems.

"Our concern is that stem cells have the potential to keep growing. They may even do more harm than good," Pfaff says.

The Brazilian research is currently being reviewed for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about paralysis.

 

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Internet Info on Matters of the Brain

 

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) has launched a new public Web site for people seeking information about a variety of neurosurgical information.

"We have organized the information on this site using state-of-the-art navigational tools. This information can better prepare a patient for a neurosurgical consult, but it does not replace medical advice from a board-certified neurosurgeon," Dr. Robert Harbaugh, editor of the new Web site, says in a prepared statement.

The Neurosurgery Today Web site provides the public with credible neurosurgical information crafted by AANS neurosurgeons. Through the site, people can become better informed about disorders of the central nervous system and how they can be treated.

"Neurosurgeons report that more and more people are using the Internet as a primary tool for obtaining information about their condition, or that of a friend of family member," Thomas A. Marshall, AANS executive director, says in a prepared statement.

"This new site's design is more convenient for those who are researching disorders of the nervous system and potential neurosurgical treatments," Marshall says.

More information

Here's where you can find the Neurosurgery Today site.

 

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The Use-It-Or-Lose-It Defense

 

Amanda Gardner

HealthDay Reporter

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- With all the talk of amyloid precursor protein, gene alleles and cholinesterase inhibitors, some Alzheimer's researchers have bucked the trend by setting their sights on something far simpler:

The daily crossword puzzle.

A June 19 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that activities that require mental energy -- such as reading, playing board games, doing crossword puzzles and playing bridge -- may help stave off Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City followed 469 senior citizens for an average of five years. And they found the more a person pursued one of these brain-teasing activities, the less likely they were to develop a dementia, including Alzheimer's.

For instance, older people who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a risk for dementia that was 47 percent lower than those who only tried the puzzle once a week.

Although previous studies have obtained similar results, it was never clear whether the people who weren't reading or playing bridge actually had early Alzheimer's.

This study, on the other hand, excluded everyone who developed a dementia during the first seven years of the study, which ran from 1980 to 2001. The puzzlers and readers who ended up in the study probably had been engaging in those activities over a lifetime, says study author Dr. Joe Verghese, an assistant professor of neurology at Albert Einstein.

The next question is why the mental gymnastics seem to pay off.

Although not proven, some experts subscribe to a use-it-or-lose-it theory, also known as the cognitive reserve theory.

"According to this theory, by engaging in cognitive stimulating activities or being highly educated or having a mentally challenging occupation is building a buffer against the disease," Verghese explains.

And why is that?

Possibly because tasks that require mental energy help with new cell formation and with making new connections in the brain.

"It's almost like if you do regular physical exercise and you build up muscle strength, then if you get sick you will be able to resist the effects of sickness," Verghese says. "The cognitive reserve theory suggests that maybe the same thing happens to the brain.

"For the most part," he adds, "everyone has an equal chance of developing Alzheimer's. If you engage in cognitive-stimulating activities, more cells or more cell connections form so when the disease starts attacking cells it has to destroy more cells."

 

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Alcohol Alters Insulin Levels

 

Serena Gordon

HealthDay Reporter

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- Kicking back with a few glasses of wine after dinner may be relaxing, but it might not be so good for your health, say Australian researchers.

In a study in the November issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, researchers found drinking the equivalent of three glasses of white wine after eating a carbohydrate-laden meal caused insulin levels to drop.

Insulin is a hormone necessary for the body to process sugar (glucose) and starches. Without enough insulin, the body's cells don't get the energy they need, the researchers say. People with diabetes either don't produce any insulin or don't produce sufficient levels of the hormone. A lack of insulin is one cause of diabetes. Normally, when you consume food, your blood glucose levels immediately rise and, in response to that rise, the body produces insulin to process the glucose.

"[Our findings] suggest that drinking white wine on its own after a meal may alter glucose metabolism and produce a pseudo-diabetic condition," says study author Anna Kokavec, a research psychologist affiliated with La Trobe University in Bundoora, Australia. "There is possibly no safe level of white wine consumption and this may extend to other commercially available alcohol products. Furthermore, white wine is probably not a product that should be recommended for consumption by diabetics."

Others aren't convinced, however.

"There is nothing in this study that is relevant to advice that physicians should give their patients about the consumption of white wine," says Dr. Kenneth Hupart, chief of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y.

Kokavec and her colleagues recruited eight nondiabetic males between the ages of 19 and 22 years for this study. All were admitted binge drinkers. None were obese.

The researchers had the volunteers eat non-vegetarian pizza -- the study does not specify how much pizza each person consumed -- and drink a nonalcoholic soft drink. Then they were asked to drink three average-sized glasses of wine slowly over 90 minutes.

Blood glucose and insulin levels were measured before the study participants ate and then again at 45 minutes, 90 minutes and 135 minutes after eating.

Insulin levels dropped quickly after the consumption of wine, in some cases to a very low level, Kokavec says. Glucose levels also dropped.

Hupart points out that insulin and glucose levels normally drop off as a meal is processed by the body. He suggests a better measure of how alcohol affects insulin and glucose levels would be to compare these levels in people who drink wine after a meal to people who don't.

"This study does not show any effect that is medically relevant," he adds.

Kokavec, however, says that "any disruption in energy metabolism or utilization could have serious consequences to the health of the individual. The efficient regulation of insulin is vital in meeting the energy needs of cells located largely outside the brain and any disregulation in insulin could lead to some cells being starved of energy, which could cause serious disease."

Hupart does say it's wise for people with diabetes to limit their alcohol consumption, especially people who are taking medications to control their diabetes. Hupart suggests discussing your alcohol consumption with your doctor.

More information

To learn more about how alcohol affects people with diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association or the Joslin Diabetes Center.

 

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Are Short People Prone to Hearing Loss?

 

Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- If you are short, you may be predisposed to hearing problems.

That's the conclusion of a new study by Swedish researchers that appears in the Nov. 22 issue of the British Medical Journal.

"The potential for adult hearing problems may develop during the prenatal period," says study author Marie-Louise Barrenas, an associate professor of otorhinolaryngology at the Goteborg Pediatric Growth Research Centre of Goteborg University.

This appears to be particularly prevalent among shorter-than-average adults, she adds.

Barrenas' findings are based on the "thrifty phenotype theory," which says that events before birth -- such as malnutrition or exposure to alcohol or nicotine -- may cause disease in adulthood.

"This may also be the case for hearing loss," she says.

Barrenas's team tested the hearing of 479 men, aged 20 to 64, who were exposed to noise in their jobs. Then they randomly selected 500 other men born in 1974. For both groups of men, the researchers collected data on height, weight, exposure to noise, heredity for hearing loss and other medical disorders, including use of medication.

The researchers report that among the randomly selected men, short men were twice as likely to have hearing loss. They also found shortness was associated with a family history of hearing loss. However, there was no association with exposure to noise and hearing loss in this group.

Among the workers, the researchers found short workers had worse hearing than expected for their age. Short workers were also three times more likely to have hearing loss compared with taller workers. In addition, short workers were 12 times more likely than taller workers to be taking medication.

During the fetal period, there are factors that can affect growth, Barrenas says. So when you are born shorter than normal, that may affect your health as you grow older, she adds.

In the fetus, a low level of the growth hormone (IGF-1) might be a marker for adverse events, leading to a reduced number of cells at birth, which may cause shortness and the risk for early onset of age-related problems, Barrenas notes.

Barrenas's group is continuing its research by looking at adults who were born short for gestational age. "We are finding similar results," she says.

"We are looking for hearing treatment to prevent sensorineural hearing loss," Barrenas notes. "If we can show an association between growth disturbances and hearing, we think that we might be able to treat sensorineural hearing loss with growth stimulating substances."

"Our goal is to have a treatment instead of hearing aids," she says.

Dr. Thomas Murry, a professor of clinical otolaryngology head and neck surgery at Columbia University, says the Swedish study is very interesting but is "open to many critical factors, none the least of which is the type of noise exposure the subjects were exposed to.

"We are only at the beginning of studies that relate problems such as hearing loss to nonauditory factors such as growth, types of medicines and early childhood activities -- especially early childhood middle ear infections. Additional studies of factors such as early childhood health are very important in ascribing hearing-loss causes," he says.

More information

To learn more about hearing loss, visit the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

 

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Buckwheat Good for Diabetics

 

HealthDayNews

November 21, 2003

 

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDayNews) -- Buckwheat may help people with diabetes better manage their condition.

That's the conclusion of a Canadian study in the Dec. 3 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

University of Manitoba researchers found that extracts of buckwheat seed fed to diabetic rats lowered their blood glucose levels by 12 percent to 19 percent.

"With diabetes on the rise, incorporation of buckwheat into the diet could help provide a safe, easy and inexpensive way to lower glucose levels and reduce the risk of complications associated with the disease, including heart, nerve and kidney problems," study leader Carla G. Taylor, an associate professor in the department of human nutritional sciences, says in a prepared statement.

"Buckwheat won't cure diabetes, but we'd like to evaluate its inclusion in food products as a management aid," Taylor says.

But she says that until studies are done on humans with diabetes, it's not clear how much buckwheat flour or extract a person would have to consume to gain a beneficial effect on glucose levels.

More information

Here's where you can learn more about controlling diabetes.

 

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Coral Reefs May Be Healthier Than Thought

 

Associated Press

November 20, 2003

 

An inspection of deeper-water Caribbean coral reefs found them healthier than previously believed, scientists said.

A three-year survey of 20 coral reef areas in the western Atlantic found those in 20 feet to 65 feet of water had an average of 26 percent living coral cover.

Previous studies in both shallow and deep water have found as little as 15 percent coral cover, said Robert Ginsburg, a professor of marine geology and geophysics at the University of Miami.

However, the new study used more consistent methods. "There were no data done in the same way," Ginsburg said of earlier studies. "That's really our contribution, to have done all of the surveys in the same method."

The results were published in the July edition of the Smithsonian journal "Atoll Research Bulletin," which is just being distributed.

British researchers in July released their own study on the health of coral reefs across the whole Caribbean basin. The scientists found coral cover had declined by about 80 percent in some areas. In others, the cover had dropped from 50 percent to only about 10 percent in just three decades.

The new study found the healthiest coral reefs were far from land — or next to small populations. The healthiest were the Flower Gardens near Texas, the Windward Netherlands Antilles east of Puerto Rico, and Bonaire and Los Roques islands north of South America.

The healthy reefs likely benefited from favorable water quality, and isolation from land and people.

Areas of damaged reefs were scattered across the Caribbean — near populated areas and in remote areas, according to the study.

"The stressors on these reefs are not simply associated with where people live," said Philip Kramer, assistant research professor of geology at the University of Miami.

Damaged reefs suffered from a combination of problems, including disease, overfishing and other human damage, global warming (news - web sites) and weakening from the warmer waters of El Nino.

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On the Net:

Atlantic Gulf and Rapid Reef Assessment: http://www.coral.noaa.gov/agra/index.html

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu

 

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U.S. Syphilis Rate Up for Second Year

 

Associated Press

November 20, 2003

 

The nation's syphilis rate has climbed for the second year in a row, mostly because of an increase in cases among gay and bisexual men, the government said Thursday.

Between 2001 and 2002, the syphilis rate rose 9.1 percent from 2.2 cases per 100,000 people to 2.4 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) said. The rate had dropped every year between 1990 and 2000 before reversing course.

The actual increase in cases was small — 759 more people, for a total of 6,862 new cases — but the rise among gay and bisexual men has caused concern that the public health safeguards and safe-sex practices adopted over the last two decades during the AIDS (news - web sites) epidemic continue to crumble.

"The vast majority of the United States is not seeing any syphilis at all," said Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of sexually transmitted diseases. "We're seeing syphilis rise primarily in groups of gay and bisexual men."

Syphilis cases in the West soared 64.3 percent (1.4 cases per 100,000 to 2.3) between 2001 and 2002 and climbed 54.5 percent in the Northeast (1.1 cases per 100,000 to 1.7 per 100,000), a rise caused in part by outbreaks in these regions' major cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Miami.

But the CDC also reported that prevention efforts appeared to be working in the South, which for the first time since 1984, no longer accounts for half of the country's syphilis cases. Also, women and non-Hispanic blacks saw a decline for the 12th consecutive year.

In the past two years, the government has repeatedly warned that gays and bisexuals may be letting down their guard against sexually transmitted diseases. About 40 percent of the new cases are from these groups, the CDC said.

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On the Net:

www.cdc.gov

 

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Red Cross Drive Gets 3M Blood Donations

 

Associated Press

November 20, 2003

 

The American Red Cross (news - web sites) collected more than 3 million blood donations during a six-month nationwide campaign, a spokeswoman said.

The Red Cross on Thursday formally ended a traveling campaign that visited more than 300 communities to educate people about the need for a continually replenished blood supply and encourage donation.

During the campaign, 3.1 million blood donations were made, a spokeswoman said; the goal was 3 million.

The nation needs 38,000 blood donations a day — almost 14 million a year — to treat patients suffering trauma, cancer and other diseases. Sixty percent of the population is eligible to donate blood but only 5 percent do, causing periodic shortages.

To find a donation site, contact the Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE LIFE or America's Blood Centers at 1-888-USBLOOD. Each of the organizations collects almost half the nation's blood supply.

 

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Panel Suggests Electronic Health Records

 

Associated Press

November 20, 2003

 

Computerized health records could significantly cut dangerous medical mistakes, but government-created standards are needed to spur a seamless network accessible nationwide, a scientific group that advises the government said Thursday.