Health News - Friday, February 23, 2007
Most Americans are not aware of the dangers associated with the popular prescription and over-the-counter pain reliever acetaminophen, U.S. researchers report. Acetaminophen is found in Tylenol, many combination pain and cold medications, and a number of prescription drugs, including Vicodin, Darvocet, Tylox, Percocet and Lorcet.
Excessive use of acetaminophen, whether it be a large single dose or long-term overuse, can lead to severe liver damage that may require a liver transplant or cause death. In fact, acetaminophen overdose is now the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States. This study, which appears in the January/February issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, surveyed 104 patients who were visiting a general internal medicine clinic at the University of Michigan Health System. Continue reading
Over-wrapping infants, especially during the cold winter months when the flu and other infections are at their peak, can increase the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), say experts from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of death in infants under one year of age.
Many parents and caregivers are not aware that over-wrapping, which can lead to thermal stress, is a risk factor for SIDS. And when over-wrapping is combined with infections and unsafe sleep positions -- two other risk factors for SIDS -- you have a recipe for disaster, Dr. Ann Halbower, director of the Children's Center Sleep Disorders Program at Johns Hopkins, said in a prepared statement. Continue reading
About one in three American adults is trying to lose weight at any given time, and while their track record for trying is good, their track record for succeeding is not. Within five years, most dieters will regain the weight they lost. And, after five years, they may even weigh more than when they started the original weight-loss effort, some studies have found.
But weight-loss researchers have begun to uncover insights into what makes some dieters succeed while others fail. While there are no hard-and-fast rules that work for everyone, there are ways to maximize your success the next time you decide to drop those excess pounds -- maybe for good. A strategy for success begins with getting realistic, experts say. Continue reading
Men who consume large amounts of "heme" iron in their diets have an increased risk of developing gallstone disease, according to findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Heme iron, one of two types of iron found in foods, is bound to either the blood protein hemoglobin or the muscle protein myoglobin. While heme iron, which comes from consumption of meat, poultry, and fish, contributes a smaller portion of iron to typical western diets than non-heme iron, it is more readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract. Experimental studies have shown that excessive iron intake can promote gallstone formation, Dr. Chung-Jyi Tsai, of the University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, and colleagues state. "However, the effect of long-term consumption of heme and non-heme iron on the risk of gallstones is unknown." Continue reading
Diets high in alpha-linolenic acid may promote strong bones, the results of a small study suggest, and contrary to what many people believe, you don't need to eat fish or take fish oil tablets to raise levels of this omega-3 fatty acid. Omega-3 fatty acids are a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid, or PUFA. Most guidelines recommend consuming diets high in PUFAs and low in saturated fats.
"Our findings suggest that by eating plant sources of alpha-linolenic acid, such as walnuts and flaxseed oil, you can strengthen bones," senior author Dr. Rebecca L. Corwin, from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, told Reuters Health. "This is good news for people who don't like fish." The new findings, which appear in the Nutrition Journal, are based on a study of 23 subjects who consumed one of three diets, provided by the researchers, over 6-week periods. The diets included an average American diet, which was low in PUFAs; a diet high in alpha-linolenic acid; and a diet high in linoleic acid, a PUFA of the omega-6 group. Continue reading
A few mugs of spearmint tea could help women combat excess facial and body hair, Turkish researchers report. Women with excess body hair, a condition known as hirsutism, who drank two cups of the herbal tea a day for five days showed significant reductions in their levels of free testosterone, Dr. Mehmet Numan Tamer and colleagues from Suleyman Demirel University in Isparta report.
Typical treatments for hirsutism target excess levels of male hormones, and include oral contraceptives to prevent the production of these hormones or drug treatment to block the body's response to them, Tamer and his team point out in the journal Phytotherapy Research. The researchers previously noted that drinking peppermint tea seemed to lower the libido in some men, which prompted them to investigate spearmint as an anti-hirsutism treatment. Hirsutism is characterized by excessive hair growth on the face, breasts and belly, and affects about 5 percent of women. It is thought to be related to the body's level of androgens (male hormones). Continue reading