Health News Tidbits - August


Fiber May Benefit Diabetes-
A study publsihed in the May 11th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine found that a high-fiber diet lowered diabetics' blood sugar levels. This experimental diet contained 50 grams of fiber a day, twice the recommended amount by the American Diabetics Association (ADA). An ADA task force expects to have new fiber recommendations out by January 2001.

Oats Reduce Cholesterol in Menopausal Women -
The study focused on menopauasal women who had dangerously high levels of LDL, the "bad" cholesterol. Women who ate two servings of oats a day as part of a low-fat diet reduced their LDL cholesterol levels nearly 4% more than those who did not eat oats. The study done by Linda Van Horn, Professor of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Medical School, followed the American Heart Association Step One Diet. Increased cholesterol levels are experienced by menopausal women.

B-12 Levels Low in 65+ Women -
A recent study of women age 65+ found that that depressed women often have low B-12 levels. Vitamin B-12 deificiency was found in almost 15% of non-depressed women, 17% of mildly depressed women, and as many as 27% of severly depressed women.

Coffee, Rheumatoid Arthritis Linked -
A new study raises the possibility that people who drink a lot of coffee might be more likely to develop the debilitating immune system disease rheumatoid arthritis. Commentary - this should not be big news considering that we have known for a long time that excess acid is one of the major arthritis agitaors. Coffee is one the highest acid substances in our diet.

Misuse of Antibiotics Fueled by Culture and Economics -
Current patterns of antibiotic use reflect cultural and economic forces as much as clinical need, according to an article in the July 18 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The article, "Cultural and Economic Factors That (Mis)Shape Antibiotic Use: The Nonpharmacologic Basis of Therapeutics," is accessible on the Annals of Internal Medicine Web site, http://www.annals.org.

The total cost of antibiotics include more than just the cost of the drugs but also their side effects and the often hidden cost of antimicrobial resistance:

• Antibiotics cost about $15 billion per year in the U.S., according to one study, and extra hospital costs associated with drug-resistant hospital-acquired bacterial infections in the U.S. is at least $1.3 billion annually, according to another government study.
• Of 51 million visits to physicians for "colds," upper-respiratory infections and bronchitis in the U.S. in one recent year, 50 percent to 66 percent resulted in an antibiotic prescription, even though these conditions usually do not require antibiotics.

Unfortunately, say the authors, such misuse affects not just the patients being treated but can affect the entire ecosystem. Overuse and misuse probably leads to development of so-called 'superbugs' resistant to known antibiotics, with dire consequences to humans.

Physicians who overprescribe antibiotics, prescribe stronger antibiotics than are needed, or prescribe antibiotics for viral infections (not susceptible to antibiotics) are one cause of the problem, but behind the doctors stands an array of forces that keep antibiotic consumption high. These include:

• drug companies' direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns to "persuade patients to demand newer, more costly antibiotics in clinical situations in which older, generic products, or no drug at all, would often work just as well"
• patients' and consumers' "drug hunger" for magic pills -- proof that their doctors are really doing something and also are not withholding treatment
• a medical training system that puts the least experienced doctors in the hospital in charge of prescribing drugs
• a health system that wants its physicians to be more "productive," see more patients per hour, minimize return visits, and get patients out of the hospital faster

Physicians' prescribing patterns can change, although most efforts to redirect prescribing to date have focused on reducing drug expenditures rather than on promoting appropriate prescribing, the authors say.

Despite a rather bleak picture of antibiotic misuse and emerging global antibiotic resistant microbes, the authors express "guarded optimism" for "the acceptance by prescribers and patients of a set of more rational attitudes toward antibiotic use."
Compliments of Intelihealth.

Vitamin E May Reduce Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Type-2 Diabetes -
Supplemental alpha-tocopherol (AT) given to type 2 diabetic patients decreases monocyte activity and soluble cell adhesion molecules, thereby possibly reducing the risk of macrovascular disease in this group, according to researchers from University of texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Compliments of Reuters

Study Examines Red Wine Antioxidant

Researchers believe they have unlocked the mystery of how an antioxidant found in grapes and red wine fights cancer. A study published Friday concludes that the compound resveratrol, which acts like an antibiotic to protect grapes from fungus, may turn off a protein that guards cancer cells from cancer-fighting therapies such as chemotherapy. The research may one day allow the compound itself to be used in cancer prevention and treatment, said Minnie Holmes-McNary, a nutritional biologist at the University of North Carolina's medical school in Chapel Hill. Resveratrol can be found in dozens of foods, including mulberries and peanuts. All wines have some resveratrol, but red wine seems to be its richest source. Their findings were published in the July issue of the journal Cancer Research. Compliments of The Associated Press.
                                           
Health News Tidbits - June
Health News Tidbits - July

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