September 1st, 2010

Nutrition quiz: Supplements to avoid
By SAM MCMANIS _Sacramento Bee _2010-09-01
Nutritional supplements are a $26 billion-a-year industry, but there is no Food and Drug Administration oversight. It's up to watchdogs like Consumer Reports to keep the public informed.
Recently, the magazine consulted clinical research and case reports to come up with its list of "12 supplements you should avoid." Take our quiz based on the list.
1. Kava, a South American plant, has been used to treat anxiety. But it's been shown to cause liver damage. Which of these countries has not banned the use of kava?
a) Germany
b) United States
c) Canada
2. Country mallow, used to treat allergies and bronchitis and to promote weight loss, contains ephedrine, an amphetaminelike stimulant banned by the FDA in 2004. What are among the possible dangers of ingesting the supplement?
a) heart attack
b) kidney failure
c) neurological disorders
3. Coltsfoot, a plant used to treat sore throats and as ...

September 1st, 2010

September 1st, 2010

September 1st, 2010

Three with disfiguring injuries learn to live with their new looks
By MARK ROTH _Pittsburgh Post-Gazette _2010-09-01
On Oct. 5, 1992, at 5:30 p.m., Louise Ashby was driving in Los Angeles. Newly arrived in Hollywood from Great Britain, the young actress was ready to seek her chance at stardom.
On April 5, 2003, at about 1 p.m., JR Martinez had been in Iraq for just a month when he was asked to drive the next stretch of road in his Army unit's Humvee.
And on March 7, Doug Surowiec was bicycling home to Beaver County, Pa., at 6:30 p.m. from a long Sunday trip into Ohio, enjoying the weather and the feeling of well-being from his strenuous exercise.
Within seconds of those moments, Ashby would go from a young beauty to a woman with a shattered face; Martinez would run over a land mine and be trapped in his burning vehicle; Surowiec would fly off his bicycle into a metal guardrail that would slice off his nose and lips.
In those horrible instants, the faces they had known disap ...

September 1st, 2010

Medical: Docs find different responses to stop-smoking treatments
By LEE BOWMAN _Scripps Howard News Service _2010-09-01
Addiction to nicotine is hardly a one-size-fits-all problem.
Scientists have a growing portfolio of evidence that tobacco smoke impacts the DNA of different people in different ways, that individual smokers inhale differently and, conversely, that tools used to try and break addiction don't work the same in everyone.
One study reported in July that humans have at least 323 genes whose expression levels are affected by smoking behaviors.
Researchers from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio studied white blood cells taken from 1,240 people, including 297 current smokers, to identify changes in gene expression from exposure to cigarette smoke.
"The scale at which exposure to cigarette smoke appears to influence the expression levels of our genes is sobering," said Jac Charlesworth, lead author of the study published in the British ...