|
The Adventures of
the Toxic Twins
HAMBURG —
Results from a new German
study sound more like science fiction than hard science.
The study, in the June issue of the Journal of Occupational
and Environmental Medicine, shows that twinning
is more common in regions with toxic waste incinerators.
Results suggest that women living near an incinerator
were more than twice as likely to give birth to twins
-- 5.3% compared to 1.6% and 2.3% in women in two less
polluted regions.
Little ladies get short shrift
BRISTOL, UK —
As if the inferiority
complex wasn't bad enough, the vertically challenged
now have to contend with an increased risk of coronary
heart disease (CHD). According to an article in the
June issue of Heart, the risk of CHD decreases
with each extra 4.3cm in leg length. The researchers,
who looked at 4,286 postmenopausal petite women, believe
that the increased risk is due to environmental factors
that affect height and could possibly signal heart disease
in the future.
Take 50cc and call
me in the hereafter
WASHINGTON —
Public Citizen, an American
health and safety watchdog group, is calling for doctors
who participate in executions to be stripped of their
licenses. Doctors routinely attend lethal injection
executions in order to give the 'correct' doses of sodium
thiopental to stultify, pancuronium bromide to paralyse,
and finally potassium chloride to kill the 'patient.'
It's a tricky ethical issue because in the absence of
medical expertise, the executions are more likely to
be long painful affairs.
Devil's dandruff set up for a fall
LONDON —
A cocaine addiction
vaccine is in the early clinical trials stage. The vaccine,
developed by the Xenova Group, aims to neutralize the
effect of the drug by preventing it from reaching the
brain. To do this, the vaccine promotes development
of antibodies that wrap around the cocaine derivative,
cholera protein, making it too bulky to penetrate the
blood-brain barrier. An earlier clinical trial showed
42% of cocaine addicts kept their noses clean after
six months. Unfortunately, there's a fear that the vaccine
is less effective among heavy users as the body's antibody
secretion couldn't keep up with their snorting habits.
Quixotic Dixie doc takes on lawyers
Charleston, SC
— Taking
his cue from the Bard's maxim, "the first thing we do,
let's kill all the lawyers," South Carolina surgeon
Dr Chris Hawk tried do the next best thing, urging fellow
docs at the American Medical Association (AMA) not to
treat malpractice attorneys except in emergencies. Though
the measure was voted down, the fact that it came to
this shows litigation is a major issue for US docs.
To wit, a recent AMA public statement: "Our nation's
medical liability system is broken." Dr Hawk said he
hoped the measure would pressure US trial lawyers to
clean up their litigious act.
Asthma CAMP is a
success
ST LOUIS —
Long term use of inhaled
corticosteroids has been suspected of interfering with
the natural production of steroids in kids. A new study,
from the June issue of Pediatrics on the effect
of budesonide use on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal
(HPA) axis function, should put doctors' fears to rest.
Sixty three kids with mild to moderate asthma enrolled
in the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) were
given 400Ág of budesonide daily over three years;
a control group was given placebo. The study found that
serum cortisol levels in the test group were not affected.
The runt of the litter
BRISTOL, UK —
The youngest of a large
family is the least likely to thrive, according to results
from Children of the 90s, a large Bristol University
study tracking the growth of 11,700 infants. The second
and third babies in a family were only slightly more
likely than the first-born to be slow-growers, but a
fourth child showed twice the risk of failing to thrive.
The study defined 'failure to thrive' as being among
the lowest 5% of weight gainers. Surprisingly, the authors
found no connection between a baby's failure to thrive
and its parents' socio-economic status.
Golden brown number
yields baker's dozen
PORTLAND, ME
— Move over
Atkins, there's a new fad diet in town -- and it's a
carb-for-all. Hoping to get in on the Da Vinci craze
inspired by Dan Brown's bestselling thriller, The
Da Vinci Code, baker Stephen Lanzalotta used the
value of phi, the golden number, to figure out what
proportion of food people should be eating. It roughly
breaks down to 52% carbs, 20% protein and 28% fat. Mr
Lanzalotta's diet is getting some support from credible
sources like the American Dietetic Association.
Potent breath
CHIPPENHAM, UK
— Patients
looking for a new way to freshen up should be on the
lookout for an erectile dysfunction inhaler being tested
by Vectura, a small UK pharmaceutical company. So far,
clinical trials have shown the drug to work rapidly
-- within three to eight minutes -- and effectively,
with 59% of the men able to get erections. No serious
side effects have been reported as of yet. The active
ingredient is apomorphine hydrochloride, the same as
Uprima, a popular ED pill in Europe.
If I could read your
mind
SAN DIEGO —
University of California
neurobiologists have developed a new way of processing
EEG data to get a snapshot of brain activity. EEG and
MRI images have always given us fuzzy images over a
span of seconds. The new technique uses a supercomputer
to filter the neurological wheat from the chaff, yielding
a sharper image of individual brain signals. The researchers
hope this technology will lead to better understanding
of disorders like epilepsy and autism. Their study was
published in the June 15 issue of Public Library
of Science Biology.
Zit-zapping therapy worth zip
ANN ARBOR —
Pulsed dye laser treatment
has been shown to do little to improve acne vulgaris,
say the authors of a study in the June 16 issue of JAMA.
Researchers applied one or two laser treatments to one
side of the subjects' faces. After 12 weeks, they saw
no difference between the treated and untreated sides.
Fourteen of the original 40 test subjects were so discouraged
that they dropped out before the study was finished;
those who stuck around saw no improvement either.
|
