Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Features | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland…
- VIRGINIA NEWS | WVEC.com | News for Hampton Roads, Virginia
- “Assisted Dying” Defeated, for Now
- A Woman’s Diet Influences her Chance of Twins
- Guards and Detainees Clash at Guantanamo
- The Brain’s Executive Is An ‘event Planner’

Features | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland…
Press-Enterprise - Press-Enterprise (subscription) - May 20, 2006
Surveys show that only about one-third of parents discuss their alternative-medicine use on children with their doctors. As many as half of the children in the United States and Canada may be taking natural health products, Vohra said. There are some studies on complementary- and alternative-medicine use with children, but more are needed, she said. Among those mentioned as useful are peppermint, chamomile and ginger for soothing children's upset stomachs, and probiotics for easing diarrhea. The jury is still out on Echinacea, Vohra said. “I wouldn't have people assume everything is safe if it comes from nature, and don't assume it's all bunk. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle,” she said… Her book offers remedies for 25 common ailments among infants, children and adolescents, including eczema, allergies, diaper rash and diarrhea. Jennifer Tan, a Murrieta-based aromatherapist and certified infant massage therapist, uses herbal cough syrup and oscillococcinum, a homeopathic medicine, to decrease the duration and intensity of flu symptoms for her children, ages 2, 7 and 9. “My husband and I believe that herbal, homeopathic and other natural products are just as effective as other medicines, yet have few or no negative side effects,” said Tan, who grows herbs to make her own remedies. “We want our children's immune and other systems to work on their own with support and assistance from nature, rather than be suppressed by antibiotics and other prescriptions. The more we learn about and utilize alternative therapies, the more we are impressed with the results.

VIRGINIA NEWS | WVEC.com | News for Hampton Roads, Virginia
WVEC.com - WVEC.com (subscription) - May 20, 2006
It was on that trip that he met a cousin who had just given birth despite being very sick. The father had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. Gado and his family prayed with the woman, giving her whatever medicine they were carrying. But three weeks after he returned to the U. , Gado received word that the woman had died. The family assumes the father died in captivity and the baby was born with AIDS… So I just look at that and that tells me there has to be a God. Some people have a hard time reconciling science with religion, but that isn’t a problem for Gado. “I believe that the nature of who God is is made evident in science,” Gado said. The nature of who Gado is, however, is something the running back tried to cover up while working at Bellin Hospital in the offseason. Most of the time, he got away with it. Gado didn’t tell patients who he was because he didn’t want to put himself above the rest of the hospital staff. And he didn’t want people to think he was just playing doctor for the sake of good public relations.

“Assisted Dying” Defeated, for Now
Zenit News Agency - May 20, 2006
– Euthanasia cannot be controlled. Experience in the Netherlands clearly shows that there is a progression from assisted suicide to voluntary or involuntary euthanasia. — Euthanasia would change the nature of medicine. Euthanasia would split the medical profession, leading many doctors who conscientiously object to be excluded from specialties where euthanasia becomes part of the normal range of services. Not a civilized option

The campaign leading up to the parliamentary vote also saw many personal testimonies by handicapped people or those who had suffered serious illnesses, warning against the temptation to make it easy for people to choose suicide. In the Observer newspaper on May 7, David Williams, now 51, told how when he was 35 he was diagnosed with a tumor and was given only a few years to live. Williams said if doctor-assisted suicide had been available he would have considered it, “purely on the basis of the suffering my wife was going through.

A Woman’s Diet Influences her Chance of Twins
Newswise - Newswise (press release) - May 20, 2006
By comparing the twinning rate of vegan women, who consume no animal products, with that of women who do eat animal products, Gary Steinman, MD, PhD, an attending physician at Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center in New Hyde Park, NY, found that the women who consume animal products, specifically dairy, are five times more likely to have twins. The study is published in the May 2006 issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine, available May 20. The Lancet recently published an invited comment by Dr. Steinman on dietary influences on twinning in the journal’s May 6 issue. The culprit may be insulin-like growth factor (IGF), a protein that is released from the liver of animals — including humans — in response to growth hormone, circulates in the blood and makes its way into the animal’s milk. IGF increases the sensitivity of the ovaries to follicle stimulating hormone, thereby increasing ovulation… Some women are just genetically programmed to make more IGF than others. Twinning rates in these demographic groups parallel the IGF levels. “This study shows for the first time that the chance of having twins is affected by both heredity and environment, or in other words, by both nature and nurture,” said Dr. These findings are similar to those observed in cows by other researchers, namely that a woman’s chance of having twins appears to correlate directly with her blood level of insulin-like growth factor. “Because multiple gestations are more prone to complications such as premature delivery, congenital defects and pregnancy-induced hypertension in the mother than singleton pregnancies, the findings of this study suggest that women contemplating pregnancy might consider substituting meat and dairy products with other protein sources, especially in countries that allow growth hormone administration to cattle,” said Dr.

Guards and Detainees Clash at Guantanamo
Washington Post - May 20, 2006
panel pressed the United States to close Guantanamo, saying the indefinite detention of terror suspects violates the ban on torture. “This illustrates to me the dangerous nature of the men we have detained here,” the detention center’s commanding officer, Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, told reporters in a teleconference, describing Thursday’s attack. The clash, which took place the same day two detainees attempted suicide elsewhere in the camp, was among the most violent incidents reported at the isolated detention center, where the U. holds about 460 men suspected of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban… Tests indicated he had taken an overdose of drugs similar to the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition. Early in the afternoon, guards searching the prison for contraband prescription medicine found another detainee “frothing at the mouth” from an overdose of drugs. He was also hospitalized in stable condition, the admiral said. In the early evening, guards spotted a detainee in Camp Four _ a medium security, communal-living unit for the “most compliant” prisoners _ appearing to get ready to hang himself with a bed sheet in the room he shared with nine detainees. The apparent suicide attempt “was a ruse to get the guards to enter the compound,” Harris said. The detainees had made the floor slippery with feces, urine and soapy water and attacked 10 members of Guantanamo’s quick-reaction force with fan blades, pieces of metal and broken light fixtures, Harris said.

The Brain’s Executive Is An ‘event Planner’
Medical News Today - May 20, 2006
The distinction is significant, said the researchers, because it yields new basic insight into a central function of behavioral planning in this higher brain region, called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). The researchers, led by Hajime Mushiake of Tohoku University School of Medicine, reported their findings in the May 18, 2006, issue of Neuron. They concentrated on a brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which many studies have shown to be involved in such higher brain functions as planning. However, noted the researchers, few studies have analyzed the specific nature of the behaviors that are planned. “To achieve a behavioral goal in daily life, we often need to plan multiple steps of motor behavior that involve selection of a series of actions,” wrote the researchers. “The question arises: how are individual neurons within the PFC involved in the planning of multistep behaviors? More specifically, does the activity of PFC neurons during the process of planning reflect the multiple movements required during future actions or the individual future events that occur as a result of the actions?” To study the detailed activity of neurons in the lateral PFC during planning, the researchers fitted monkeys with recording electrodes that could measure activity in the region’s neurons… The researchers, led by Hajime Mushiake of Tohoku University School of Medicine, reported their findings in the May 18, 2006, issue of Neuron. They concentrated on a brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), which many studies have shown to be involved in such higher brain functions as planning. However, noted the researchers, few studies have analyzed the specific nature of the behaviors that are planned. “To achieve a behavioral goal in daily life, we often need to plan multiple steps of motor behavior that involve selection of a series of actions,” wrote the researchers. “The question arises: how are individual neurons within the PFC involved in the planning of multistep behaviors? More specifically, does the activity of PFC neurons during the process of planning reflect the multiple movements required during future actions or the individual future events that occur as a result of the actions?” To study the detailed activity of neurons in the lateral PFC during planning, the researchers fitted monkeys with recording electrodes that could measure activity in the region’s neurons. They then taught the monkeys to perform a complex task in which the animals were required to manipulate joysticks to move a cursor on a computer screen from a starting point to a goal. Importantly, the researchers required the monkeys to maneuver the cursor within a maze to reach the goal and to perform those maneuvers in a discrete stepwise fashion with pauses in between.