Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Diabetes Patent Breakthrough
- Rice Renews Talks in Mideast
- Who’d be a GP?
- Landis says he’ll prove he’s not guilty of doping
- Israeli Planes Pound Targets in Lebanon

Diabetes Patent Breakthrough
Red Herring - Jul 30, 2006
com #3 –>
Indus Biotech was granted a U. patent last week for a new molecule for diabetes treatment derived from fenugreek, a plant used in Indian food and traditional medicine. Most natural products are not considered legitimate drugs by the U. Food and Drug Administration because nature-derived chemicals can’t be standardized and reproduced consistently like synthetics. But Pune-based Indus says it has developed a proprietary process by which it can take any plant, isolate its chemical entities, keep them in a stabilized state, and then reconstitute them in a prescribed manner—even though isolated botanical inputs are normally prone to decomposition and rapid change.

Rice Renews Talks in Mideast
Washington Post - Jul 30, 2006
"Hezbollah, for its part, fired 90 Katyusha rockets across northern Israel on Saturday, lightly injuring five people. More aid arrived Saturday in Beirut for displaced Lebanese, estimated by international agencies to number as many as 750,000, or nearly a fifth of the population. Military transport planes from Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates landed with relief supplies and a Turkish warship brought in medicine and equipment urgently needed for dialysis patients in Lebanese hospitals. aid arrived on a Navy HSV-2 catamaran from Cyprus carrying blankets and medical kits. Cassandra Nelson, a spokeswoman for the relief group MercyCorps, said the U… Air and artillery attacks continued on the town, considered a key Hezbollah stronghold, and soldiers remained in the area, he said. Israeli military officials say more than 220 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in the air and ground operation, while the militant group puts that number at 35. Nehushtan said a main goal of Israel’s ground campaign, which has been slowed by Hezbollah fighters maneuvering through tunnels and firing from fortified positions, was to establish a narrow buffer zone along Israel’s northern border"Our aims are limited in nature. For one kilometer where we want to destroy the infrastructure that Hezbollah has built. Call it a perimeter," he said. "We haven’t set any rules for it yet, but we are now operating in that area across the border and there is no one there. This perimeter is where the main Hezbollah posts are located.

Who’d be a GP?
Guardian Unlimited - Jul 29, 2006
Who else is going to reassure you that your chesty cough isn’t lung cancer? Unless, of course, you do have lung cancer, in which case you’re talking to the right person. But treating people is just for starters. If you just want to indulge in medicine, you become a consultant so that everyone who walks through your door is merely a walking pathology. GPs need to have good communication skills as many of their patients are too embarrassed or ill-informed to explain the precise nature of their problems and it’s down to the doctor to decode the verbiage and make the diagnosis. Even then, your problems have only just begun. You’ll find yourself becoming a glorified social worker as the main reason half your patients come to you is because they have failed to access the relevant part of the local healthcare or social service provision. And, if your surgery is a primary healthcare trust, you’ll spend the rest of your time wondering how to give your patients the best possible care within the constraints of your budget… But treating people is just for starters. If you just want to indulge in medicine, you become a consultant so that everyone who walks through your door is merely a walking pathology. GPs need to have good communication skills as many of their patients are too embarrassed or ill-informed to explain the precise nature of their problems and it’s down to the doctor to decode the verbiage and make the diagnosis. Even then, your problems have only just begun. You’ll find yourself becoming a glorified social worker as the main reason half your patients come to you is because they have failed to access the relevant part of the local healthcare or social service provision. And, if your surgery is a primary healthcare trust, you’ll spend the rest of your time wondering how to give your patients the best possible care within the constraints of your budget. All of which makes the GP’s job description rather similar to that of a latterday saint, so it’s no real surprise that the government - despite one or two measures to reduce working hours - has found it tougher and tougher to convince medical students of the delights of general practice.

Landis says he’ll prove he’s not guilty of doping
augusta.com - Jul 30, 2006
“We will explain to the world why this is not a doping case but a natural occurrence,” Landis said Friday from the Spanish capital. Wearing a baseball cap turned backward and a white shirt with the name of his Phonak team, Landis lashed out at the media for characterizing his plight as a drug scandal and said he wanted to “make absolutely clear that I am not in any doping process. Later Friday, Landis’ personal physician sought to clarify the nature of the test result and the possible benefits of the hormone in question. “He does not have a high level of testosterone. That’s not been documented. He has a high ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone in his urine,” Dr. Brent Kay said on CNN’s “Larry King Live… “And it’s crazy to think that a Tour de France professional cyclist would be using testosterone, particularly in the middle of a race. Every sports medicine expert, physician, trainer, scientist that I’ve talked to in the last day, have really the same opinion, ‘No way. ‘”Landis, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, said he was shocked when told of the initial result. He said he had been tested six other times during the tour, and many other times during the year. The aggressive tack Landis and his supporters took Friday was a departure from his Thursday teleconference, when he said he expected to clear his name but not his reputation, and had no idea what might have caused the test result after the Tour’s 17th stage.

Israeli Planes Pound Targets in Lebanon
San Francisco Chronicle - Jul 29, 2006
-mandated multinational force that can provide stability in the region, according to a U. official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions. It also proposes disarming Hezbollah and integrating the guerrilla force into the Lebanese army, a commitment to resolve the status of a piece of land held by Israel and claimed by Lebanon, a no-go buffer zone be set up in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah returning Israeli prisoners, and the creation of an international reconstruction plan for Lebanon. Israeli Cabinet Minister Avi Dichter said on Israel radio Saturday that it was unacceptable for Lebanon’s government “to hide behind the claim that a terror organization is operating on their ground and they cannot stop it. ” He said Israel holds the government fully accountable for what Hezbollah is doing there and that “Lebanon is paying the full price these days. At least 445 Lebanese have been killed in the fighting that broke out July 12 after Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a cross-border raid… peacekeepers along the border, after an Israeli bomb killed four observers this week. With medicine, food and shelter still only trickling to the war zone in the south, the U. humanitarian chief called for a three-day truce to allow help get in and thousands of civilians trapped in the fighting to get out — a call that got no response.