QualityCounts.com Newsletter of 7/10/02

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In Search of Sleep - Newsweek, 7/15/02 - "There’s convincing evidence that untreated sleep disorders can increase the risk of high blood pressure, coronary-artery disease, heart failure and stroke. Hunt says researchers also think lack of sleep can up the odds of developing obesity and diabetes ... sleep is still largely ignored in the typical medical-school curriculum. As a result, people with sleep problems are too often incorrectly diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, like depression, or dismissively told that they should take a nice, long vacation"

Prozac vs. Placebos - Newsweek, 7/15/02 - "On average, people on placebos enjoyed an eight-point improvement on the 50-point Hamilton Depression Scale, while those on medication managed a 10-point improvement ... Those getting only a placebo response soon return to their misery ... But those responding to medication enjoy longer-term benefits"

Should We All Be Vegetarians? - Time, 7/15/02 - "a predominantly vegetarian diet may have beneficial effects for kidney and nerve function in diabetics, as well as for weight loss; that eating more fruits and vegetables can slow, and perhaps reverse, age-related declines in brain function and in cognitive and motor performance—at least in rats; that vegetarian seniors have a lower death rate and use less medication than meat-eating seniors; that vegetarians have a healthier total intake of fats and cholesterol but a less healthy intake of fatty acids (such as the heart-protecting omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil) ... But one paper suggested that low-protein diets (associated with vegetarians) reduce calcium absorption and may have a negative impact on skeletal health. And although several studies on Seventh-Day Adventists (typically vegetarians) indicated that they have a longer-than-average life expectancy, other studies found that prostate-cancer rates were high in Adventists, and one study found that Adventists were more likely to suffer hip fractures ..."

Losing Weight with Peanut Butter? - Dr. Weil, 7/10/02 - "a diet high in monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) with 34-36 percent of calories from fat reduced LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by 16-25 percent without lowering HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels. In contrast, the American Heart Associations diet with 25 percent of calories from fat, resulted in only a 12 percent reduction ... people on a diet including 35 percent of calories from MUFAs as well as those on a traditional low-fat, high carbohydrate diet lost an average of 11 pounds over six months. However, by 18 months, three times as many people on the MUFA diet remained with the program and kept off the lost weight while the others regained an average of five pounds each"

Growth-Hormone Treatment Led to CJD Death - ABC News, 7/10/02 - "Pascale Fachin died of CJD [a rare brain-wasting ailment] at the age of 30 years in June last year. She had received 6 months of hormone treatment to correct her height in 1985, a time when American laboratories had stopped providing such medication because of contamination risks" - Sounds like a good reason to avoid some of the off brands from Mexico and China.

Long Work Hours, Scant Sleep Linked to Heart Attack - ABC News, 7/10/02 - "Men who worked 61 hours a week or more, on average, during the past year were twice as likely to have a heart attack as the men who worked 40 hours a week or less ... the men who slept for 5 hours or less, on average, each working day during the previous year had twice the heart attack risk of men who got more than 5 hours of sleep nightly ... Long hours of work and little sleep are both known to increase blood pressure and heart rate"

U.S. to Require Trans Fat Labeling - ABC News, 7/10/02 - "The government is moving to require the listing of artery-clogging trans fat on food labels after a report from the Institute of Medicine found there is no safe level in people's diets"

Alternatives to HRT - WebMD, 7/10/02 - "A powerful class of drugs called statins reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood -- especially LDL, the so-called "bad" cholesterol. Statins have also been found to reduce stroke, may reduce osteoporosis, could be an adjunct treatment for cancer ... different proteins found in natural soy appear to interact with phytoestrogens -- plant estrogens -- to increase their cholesterol-lowering activity ... Limiting salt in the diet -- and walking 30 minutes a day -- can also lower blood pressure ... Fosamax and similar bisphosphonate medications are designed to prevent or treat osteoporosis ... Calcium and vitamin D supplements -- to the tune of 1,500 mg a day -- are recommended for older women and men ... 30 minutes of weight-bearing and strength-training exercise ... Soy seems to be an effective short-term treatment to quell hot flashes and night sweats ... Several studies published this year found evidence in favor of black cohosh, which is an herb and an ancient Native American remedy for hot flashes ... Antidepressants -- including Prozac and Effexor -- have been shown to cool hot flashes"

Cosmetics Full of Suspect Chemicals, Group Says - ABC News, 7/10/02 - "In a large-scale survey of just what chemicals can be found in people's blood, the CDC found surprisingly high levels of phthalates ... A panel of the National Toxicology Program found some phthalates -- which are a group of several different chemicals -- had clear reproductive effects in rats and mice"

Consumers Vulnerable to Fake Drugs - ABC News, 7/9/02 - "Seizures of adulterated or counterfeit drugs have increased drastically over the past 3 years, suggesting that a high volume of fake products is entering the US from Asia, Europe and other locations"

Hormone Therapy Causes More Harm Than Good - ABC News, 7/9/02 - "taking the combination therapy increased a woman's risk of invasive breast cancer by 26 percent, strokes by 41 percent, and blood clots by 100 percent ... the therapy did not decrease the risk of coronary heart disease, as was anticipated. In fact, women in the treatment group saw their risk of heart attack increased by 29 percent ... We do not have information yet on estrogen alone for women without a uterus, but we do know that at this time there is no increase in breast cancer" - See "Alternative News" on my estrogen page for alternatives.

Red Wine May Keep Prostate Cancer Cells in Check - ABC News, 7/9/02 - "Researchers from Spain found five different polyphenols--antioxidants found in red wine, tea, and certain fruits and vegetables--inhibited the growth of prostate cancer cells in a test tube and encouraged cancer cells to "commit suicide"--a natural process called apoptosis ... Their study examined the effect of five polyphenols found in red wine--gallic acid, tannic acid, morin, quercetin and rutin--on prostate cancer cells ... All five compounds inhibited cell proliferation and apoptosis"

Canadian Adults at Risk of Vitamin D Deficiency - ABC News, 7/9/02 - "More than one third of the group had blood levels of vitamin D that fell below optimum levels at least once during the year, but the actual proportion of adults with insufficient blood levels of vitamin D may be even higher. The study relied on a conservative threshold for vitamin D in the blood and was conducted in a city with one of the highest levels of sunlight exposure in Canada ... The darker a person's skin, the more difficult it is for him or her to obtain adequate vitamin D via sunlight"

Cholesterol drugs may work on brain - USA Today, 7/9/02 - "too much cholesterol in the blood can clog arteries in a process that can lead to a heart attack. But many researchers now think that high blood cholesterol also affects the brain ... Excess cholesterol may be instrumental in the formation of senile plaque ... That plaque, the hallmark of Alzheimer's, is an abnormal cluster of dead or dying brain cells and toxic proteins that short-circuit memory and other crucial brain functions ... People taking statins reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer's by nearly 80%" - Note: Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin. See VitaminShoppe red yeast rice products.

Short 'Power Naps' Found Best Performance Booster - ABC News, 7/8/02 - "10 minutes is the most effective nap length for improving performance for up to 3 hours afterward ... Immediately after the 10-minute nap participants showed increased alertness, both subjectively and in the performance measures, but not with the 30-minute nap ... after a 30-minute nap, participants were actually groggy for up to half an hour as a result of "sleep inertia," which occurs after longer sleeping periods ... After 2 to 3 hours, the 10-minute nap is still doing better than the longer naps"

Drug [Aricept] Slows Memory Decline - WebMD, 7/8/02 - "The study was designed to test the theory that age-related declines in brain function are at least partially caused by damage to a substance that relays messages between the brain cells responsible for memory and thought. Aricept works by blocking an enzyme that causes this loss of function to occur ... 18 pilots, average age 52, conducted seven, 75-minute practice flights on the stimulator during which they had to perform a complex series of tasks. After the initial session, half of the pilots took the drug for 30 days while the other half took a placebo ... The pilots then had to repeat the flight simulator test two more times to see if they had retained the earlier training. Overall, the performance of the Aricept group changed little. But the performance of the group that did not receive the drug declined"

Cholesterol Ups Stroke Risk in Young Women - ABC News, 7/8/02 - "Having even moderately high levels of cholesterol can really raise the risk of stroke in woman as young as 30 ... Cholesterol is controllable by lifestyle, and if it is really high, by [statin] drugs ... the average cholesterol level in the women, who ranged in age from 30 to 97, was 225 -- higher than the recommended level of 200 or less ... The younger the stroke patient, the more likely she was to have had high cholesterol ... an aggressive approach to identifying and controlling risk factors at an early age -- certainly long before women begin to be concerned about stroke -- is not only worthwhile, it is essential" - Note: Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin. See VitaminShoppe red yeast rice products.

Ulcer-Causing Bacteria Linked to Stroke - WebMD, 7/8/02 - "H. pylori causes ulcers in the stomach ... those who had suffered a stroke from a blocked large artery had significantly higher levels of the more potent strains of the bacteria ... The study also found that levels of a substance known as C-reactive protein (CRP) that indicates inflammation within the body were also higher in the stroke groups. But patients with the potent strains of H. pylori had the highest CRP levels ... treating patients with H. pylori infection may be an easy way to reduce the risk of stroke"

Soya May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk - ABC News, 7/6/02 - "Women eating a diet rich in soya products may be less likely to develop breast cancer ... Scientists have previously suggested that eating soya might contribute to the low rates of breast cancer in countries like China and Japan but research has proved inconclusive ... those who ate the highest amounts of soya protein were 60 percent less likely to have patterns of dense breast tissue known to be associated with a higher risk of breast cancer."

Young Vegans May Not be Getting Vital Nutrients - ABC News, 7/5/02 - "Because vegans shun all animal products, they may get too little of some nutrients found in meat and dairy products, such as calcium and vitamin B-12 ... vegans had dietary intakes lower than the average requirements of riboflavin (a B vitamin), vitamin B-12, vitamin D, calcium and selenium ... Even after the researchers included dietary supplements in their analysis, the vegans' intake of calcium and selenium remained low"

Exercise Tougher at Beginning of Menstrual Cycle - ABC News, 7/5/02 - "the levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone increase toward the end of the menstrual cycle ... in menopause the level of estrogen drops, and women frequently find that they can't keep weight off ... the women burned more fat for the same amount of exercise in the second half of the menstrual cycle, and that these women perceived the exercise and their recovery from it quite differently from those exercising in the first half of the cycle ... when levels of waste products like blood lactate, which causes a burning sensation in muscles, were tested, the levels were much higher after exercise in the early part of the menstrual cycle ... At the beginning of the month, both estrogen and progesterone are low, and that's when performance wasn't as good. In the second half of the cycle, when both hormones are high, that's when we're getting an increase in fat metabolism"

Zocor (Simvastatin) Saves Lives In High-Risk Patients, Regardless Of Cholesterol Level, Study In Lancet Shows - Diabetics, Women, Elderly Benefit In Largest Cholesterol Study Ever - Doctor's Guide, 7/5/02 - "simvastatin given daily at 40 mg reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by about one-fourth over the treatment period, which averaged 5.3 years ... When adjusted for non-compliance (inadvertent or deliberate failure to take medication) in the trial, investigators estimate that the risk reduction among this broad population is one-third ... Not only did we find that cholesterol-lowering treatment can protect a far wider range of people than was previously thought, but that the therapy we used in the study can prevent stroke as well as heart attack, in patients at risk of CHD even in people with already moderate or low cholesterol levels ... Patients with average or low cholesterol levels also achieved CHD risk reductions of about a quarter. When adjusted for non-compliance, Oxford researchers estimate that the risk of heart attack and stroke in this group would be reduced by one-third" - Note: Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin and is available at VitaminShoppe.

Natural Treatment for Male Pattern Baldness - New Hope Natural Media, 7/3/02 - "Those with male pattern baldness may increase hair growth by taking a preparation containing saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) and beta-sitosterol ... Conventional medicines used to treat male pattern baldness are designed to block the conversion of testosterone to DHT. Topical application of minoxidil (Rogaine®) and taking oral finasteride (Propecia®) have been shown to inhibit this conversion and to increase hair growth, but both medications have been linked with several adverse side effects, including fast heart rate, headaches, impotence, and decreased libido ... 400 mg of a standardized extract of saw palmetto and 100 mg of beta-sitosterol per day ... After about five months, hair growth in 60% of the men taking the herbal combination had improved compared with their initial evaluation. In contrast, only 11% of those receiving the placebo improved"

Outdoor activity was once a prescription for good health. No longer -US News & World Report, 7/8/02 - "Ten or 20 years ago, people believed there was a safe level for air pollution," says George Thurston, an associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine. No longer. Thurston and his colleagues recently reported that current levels of particle pollution are increasing the risk of death from lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. "In a typical air-polluted city, about 1 in 1,000 die of lung cancer who would not otherwise die,"

I receive my first order of Arimidex (see aromatization) and have been using it for about a week and I'm impressed with the results. I'm not sure if it's from the Arimidex or the increased testosterone/estrogen ratio but it gives you a significant lift in mood that I would describe as being about the equivalent of a cup of coffee but unlike coffee, it lasts all day. I've been taking a quarter tablet per day. I haven't noticed any negative side effects.