Women In The Habit Of Low Fat Diet Losses Chances Of Pregnancy

FIONA MacRAE

Women who keep to a low-fat diet when trying to conceive could be dramatically cutting their chances of pregnancy, according to a study.

Drinking a pint of semi-skimmed or skimmed milk or eating two pots of yoghurt a day almost doubles the risk of an increasingly common condition in which women stop ovulating.

Eating full-fat dairy products has the opposite effect. A bowl of ice cream a day was found to be enough to boost the chance of having a child.

The study carried out at the highlyrespected Harvard School of Public Health in Massachusetts involved nearly 19,000 women.

Jorge Chavarro, the report's author, advised would-be mothers to eat up to two servings of full-fat dairy foods a day. One serving equates to half a pint of milk, an ounce of cheese or half a cup of ice cream.

Yoghurt, cottage cheese and skimmed or semi- skimmed milk are classed as low fat, while whole milk, cream, ice cream, cream cheese and other cheeses count as full fat.

Dr Chavarro warned women however not to increase their overall calorie intake, or their intake of dangerous saturated fat.

"Once they have become pregnant, then they should probably switch back to low-fat dairy foods, as it is easier to limit intake of saturated fat by consuming low-fat dairy foods," he added.

The study tracked the health and diet of 18,555 women for eight years.

During that period, 438 of the women, who were aged between 24 and 42, were diagnosed with anovulatory infertility.

The condition, in which ovulation stops, accounts for a third of female fertility problems.

Scrutiny of the women's diets revealed a clear link between dairy food and anovulatory infertility, with low-fat products appearing to exacerbate it.

Those women who ate two or more servings of low-fat dairy foods a day were 85 per cent more likely to suffer from it.

Women who ate at least one serving of full-fat milk dairy food a day were 27 per cent less likely to have the condition. Adding half a pint of whole milk to the diet cuts the risk of ovulation problems by 22 per cent.

Women who ate ice cream at least twice a week were almost 40 per cent less likely to suffer from anovulatory fertility than those who rarely ate it.

Writing in the journal Human Reproduction, the researchers said they could not explain the results.

It is possible that dairy fat or the sex hormones in cow's milk boost fertility by affecting the balance of hormones involved in ovulation.

Both the fat and the sex hormones are at their highest in whole-fat products.

It is also possible that removing fat from dairy products raises the levels of a hormone thought to be behind many cases of anovulatory infertility.

Professor Adam Balen, of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: "It is an interesting finding but more research needs to be done. The main concern is obesity and the advice about not increasing calorie intake is key."

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The Hearing Impaired Wants To Be Heard

GARY CORSAIR,
DAILY SUN

A small but potentially vocal group is determined to dispel the notion that hearing-impaired people are content to sit on the sidelines and wait to be recognized.

The message on buttons worn by Hearing Loss Association members leaves no doubt that they want — rather, demand — to be recognized. The message: “Please face me. I’m hard of hearing.”

Hearing Loss Association of America members want to do more than be able to read your lips; they want everyone to hear the words coming out of theirs.

“HLAA helps hearing-impaired people become their own advocate,” says Wayne Cook, one of the organizers of the recently formed Lady Lake chapter.

Cook knows a thing or two about advocacy — and what HLAA members can accomplish when they join voices. Before moving to a home in the Village of Woodbury, Cook was a HLAA chapter president and state coordinator in Rhode Island. He also served on the state commission for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Cook saw firsthand the power Hearing Loss Association chapters can have when they have the support of members and the national organization.



“In Rhode Island, we passed a hearing-aid insurance bill,” Cook said. “That’s one thing we want to do in Florida. My wife and I just spent $12,000 on new hearing aids, and we don’t get anything. No help from Blue Cross Blue Shield, no help from our health care provider.”

While national and state Hearing Loss Association chapters monitor state and federal regulatory agencies, local chapters — like the one just formed — seek to improve the quality of life of each hearing-impaired person in the community they represent.

The help offered takes many forms.

“We provide information about devices to improve the lives of hearing impaired. We can tell them how the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) affects them, and how to approach different medical situations,” Cook said. “It’s all about empowering you. Things like making people understand you have the right to say, ‘Please look at me when you talk to me.’”

“Many people who move here don’t know where to go for help,” said Muriel Raine, a hearing-impaired Lady Lake resident who wants to help deaf people new to the area. “We will have that information to share with the group at our meetings.”

Raine, who moved from Minnesota, says the need for a HLAA chapter is greater than ever.

“For many years the local services were adequate, but we’re seeing a shift in baby boomers moving down here. And as they get older, more and more of them are experiencing hearing loss,” Raine said.

Initially the local Hearing Loss Association chapter will focus on getting information from people it hopes to serve. Once needs and concerns are identified, chapters call upon the state association, which then involves the national organization in obtaining support.

Fourteen HLAA chapters are chartered in Florida, but most are in major metropolitan areas far from Lake, Marion or Sumter counties.

“Tampa and Gainesville are the closest chapters,” said Debbie Cook, Wayne’s wife.

“We’re trying to get all chapters to participate in a grassroots effort,” Cook said. “We need to find out what the hearing-loss community wants. Is it insurance? More captioned movies? Job protection? Once we get all the info, we’ll take it back to the state council.”

Anyone interested in learning more about the Hearing Loss Association of America is invited to attend the local chapter's first meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Lady Lake Library, 225 W. Guava St.

For more information, call the Cooks at 751-6065.

Gary Corsair is a senior writer with the Daily Sun. He can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 7907, or gary.corsair@thevillagesmedia.com.

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30 Things You must Know About Fitness and Nutrition

1. Make your goal “Fitness for Life.”

You will be much more successful if you approach bodybuilding and fitness preparation not as a short-term goal (i.e. 12 weeks out), but rather as a lifestyle you inspire to maintain for the rest of your life.

2. Set specific, measurable, achievable goals

Use a training and nutrition log to record your starting point and to print periodic reports showing your progress.

¨ Body weight – How many pounds you weigh.

¨ Body composition – More important than knowing your body weight is knowing your body composition, which are your lean body mass in pounds and your body fat or fat mass as a percent of your total weight. Your lean body mass determines your basal metabolism. Your body fat percentage should be in a healthy range, as indicated on the chart below.

Body Fat Male Female

Very Low Under 11 Under 19

Low 11-14 19-22

Average 15-17 23-27

Fair 18-22 28-35

Unhealthy 22+ 35+

¨ Girth measurements – Measure your neck, upper arms, chest, waist, hips, thigh, and calves. Even if your weight doesn’t change maybe your proportions will.

¨ Blood pressure – Your blood pressure reading consists of two numbers (i.e. 110 over 70). The first or the top one is the systolic pressure. It measures how forcefully the heart pumps blood. When it is too high, your heart is working harder than it should. The second or bottom number is the diastolic pressure. It gauges the force of the blood flowing through fully relaxed arteries between heartbeats. A high number here could mean clogged or constricted blood vessels. A reading of 120/80 or lower is considered good. Repeated readings of 140/90 or above mean high blood pressure for which you should seek medical attention.

¨ Cholesterol – High cholesterol is a hidden killer. You won’t know if you have a problem unless you have yourself tested. Fortunately, these day’s cholesterol screens are readily available and inexpensive. If you don’t know your cholesterol find out. It should be below 220. If it is not you’re hardly alone but you should make a serious effort to bring it down through a combination of exercise and dietary changes.

¨ Resting heart range – Your resting heart range is a reflection of your cardiac health. Usually, the lower your heart rate the healthier your heart. Exercise, proper nutrition, and avoidance of tobacco, caffeine and alcohol will reduce your heart rate. By lowering your heart rate 10 beats per minute your heart will save over 5,000,000 beats per year.

¨ Recovery heart rate – This is the amount of time it takes your heart to return to normal the better your cardiac health.

¨ Strength – Muscular strength is defined as the amount of work a muscle can do in a single maximum effort. Common measures of muscular strength include a grip test, how many push-ups you can do, and how much you can bench press a percent of your body weight.

¨ Endurance – Aerobic endurance is defined as the capacity of the heart-lung system to deliver sufficient oxygen for sustained energy production while performing exercises which utilize large muscle groups.

¨ Flexibility – Poor flexibility is associated with increased risk for lower back injury, muscle strains, and poor orthopedic injuries. A good, consistent program of stretching before and after exercise will improve your flexibility. One of the standard ways to measure flexibility is the sit and reach test.

¨ Forced vital capacity (FVC) – This measure of your body’s respiratory health measures the volume of air you can inhale into your lungs and then exhale forcefully. It is affected by your fitness level, your age, your gender, your living environment and your smoking status. If you smoke, major improvement to your FVC will occur if you stop.

¨ Daily caloric expenditure – The amount of calories your body burns each day is known as your Daily Caloric Expenditure and takes into account your body type, your occupation and exercise program, and your digestive activity. This must be calculated first in order to design a meal plan consistent with your fitness goals.

3. Commit yourself for at least three months

The longest journey begins with a single step. Achieving your fitness goals is no different. Measure your progress each month and give yourself credit for the gains you have achieved.

Changes take place incrementally, but three months is long enough to make significant changes. You’ll be surprised how quickly steady incremental progress adds up. And, a series of goals met builds a track record of success, which can be very motivating.

4. Find an exercise routine you can sustain

Consistency is key. Find an exercise routine you can make a regular part of your life, week in and week out. While four to five workouts per week with time and proper nutrition is enough to get you contest ready.

Don’t make a mistake of starting off with great enthusiasm and intensity, burning out after a few weeks, and then quitting. Pick an exercise routine you can sustain.

5. Follow the formula for success

The only way to lose fat and gain muscle is through the following basic formula:

1. Build muscle through strength training 2. Build heart-lung capacity through aerobic training 3. Feed your body the nutrients it needs 4. Weave good health habits into your lifestyle

6. Visualize your workout

Professional athletes use visualization and so can you. Before each workout pause to collect your thoughts. Close your eyes and visualize yourself going through your routine, think about how great you will feel when you finish, then follow through on your visualization.

7. Discuss your fitness program with your doctor

A safe and effective fitness plan can be designed around almost any medical condition that may exist.

In addition, because the leading causes of death are lifestyle-related, doctors are increasingly taking an interest in helping patients improve their lifestyle as a way to reduce their risk. You are well advised therefore to obtain regular medical check-ups especially if you are over the age of 40.

8. Start with a brief cardiovascular warm-up

9. Stretch at least 4 of the major muscle groups

Many kinds of exercises have the effect of tightening the muscles. It is important to offset this by stretching at least four of the major muscle groups, namely your quadriceps (front of your leg), your hamstrings and glutes (the back of your leg and your buttocks) and your lower back and shoulders.

Proper stretching involves controlled elongation of a muscle through the full range of motion.

10. Train for muscular strength

The greatest fitness discovery in recent years is that everyone should strength train. In combination with aerobic exercise and flexibility training, strength training provides enormous fitness and wellness benefits.

11. Train aerobically

Aerobic exercise is any exercise where the cells metabolize fat, which requires oxygen. Low-intensity, rhythmic, continuous exercise using large muscle groups does this. Examples include running, jogging, aerobics, biking, etc. The key is getting your heart rate into your training zone for a minimum of 20 or more minutes at a time.

The longer you exercise in the heart rate training zone the more fat your body burns and the more you develop your heart-lung system and its ability to transport oxygen to the muscles, which in turn makes your body a more efficient fat burner.

12. Cool down properly

Cooling down is the process of returning your heart rate and other bodily systems to their normal functioning range. Benefit include:

13. Get adequate rest between workouts

A proper strength training workout, where you exercise to momentary failure will cause little micro tears in your muscles. This is what you feel as soreness.

It takes your body two to three days to recover. Therefore, you should rest at least two days between workouts. If you want to exercise daily, consider split body workouts.

14. Basic strength training topics

Start with the larger muscle groups and work down to the smaller ones – By pre-exhausting the larger muscle groups you will make it easier to isolate and properly exercise the smaller muscle groups. Many strength machines are designed to make it very easy to isolate muscles.

Set the load at a level you can lift 8 to 12 times – Studies have shown that this produces the fastest results. The point at which you can’t do one further repetition is called momentary muscular failure.

Line up – Adjust pads, seats, and any special adjustments so that your joints (elbows, knees, hips, etc.) line up with the pivot points or movements of arms of the equipment. This way you will get the maximum benefit possible.

Isolate the muscle group and use good form – Visualize the muscle group being exercised and keep it isolated. Do not let other muscles help out to get one last rep. This produces the best and safest results.

Rhythm – Raise the movement arm of the machines smoothly to the count of two, pause for one second, then lower it to the same count.

Breathing – Never hold your breath. Try to exhale during the contraction, inhale during the relaxation phase of the exercise.

Relax – Don’t clench your hands, grimace your face or grunt. You want your blood to go to the targeted muscle group, not to other, tensed up parts of your body.

15. Advanced strength training topics

Advance you weight appropriately – When you find you can do 12 or more repetitions of a given exercise with good form it is time to advance your weight. Choose a new weight that you can only lift 8 to 12 times with good form.

Do pre-exercise warm-up sets – Once you have become used to a particular exercise and have established your exercise weight, start doing pre-exercise warm-ups using 50% of the weight you intend to lift. Perform 10-12 repetitions for 2 sets with a 30-second rest in between sets. This will draw blood to the muscle being exercised and will prepare that muscle to work to capacity during your main exercise set.

16. The advantage of strength training machines

Strength training machines are designed to isolate each muscle group, and through the use of cams, pulleys, and other devices, to work that muscle group evenly through the full range of motion. This allows you to develop your strength evenly across the entire range of motion, something free weights don’t do well.

Strength training machines reduce the risk of injury because you don’t have to balance heavy weights. Strength training machines are quicker to set up. In most cases, inserting pins is all it takes to set the weight load.

17. The advantage of free weights

Free weights, specifically dumbbells and certain plate-loaded machines, allow you to work each side of the body independently. This can be helpful, if for example, you’ve had an injury or surgery and one side of your body is stronger than the other side.

During free weight exercises extra postural muscles are recruited for support. This helps develop coordination. Free weights give you more options to train and tend to be truer weight loads. Rods and pulleys can affect strength machines.

18. Heart rate training zone

The effect of exercise on your body is a function of the intensity of the exercise, which is commonly expressed in the percentage of maximum heart rate at which you are exercising.

The optimal range of exercise is generally thought to run from 60% to 90% of your maximum heart rate. At the lower end of the range you will be maximizing the training of your heart and lung system. At the upper end of the range you will be maximizing your ability to perform athletically.

There are several ways to calculate your heart rate training zone:

The simplest way is to subtract your age from 220 and multiply the resulting number by 60% to get the lower threshold and by 90% to get the upper threshold.

A more accurate method called the Karvonian Formula works as follows: Subtract your age from 220. From the resulting number subtract your resting heart rate. (This is your heart rate when you first wake up in the morning before you even get out of bed.) To get your lower heart rate training threshold multiply the resulting number by 60% and add you’re resting heart rate. To get your upper heart rate training zone threshold multiply the same number by 90% and again ad you’re resting heart rate.

You can measure your heart rate by taking your pulse for 10 seconds and multiplying the result by 6 or by taking your pulse for 15 seconds and multiplying the result by 4. Alternatively invest in a heart rate monitor (cost less tan $100) and you will have an excellent tool for measuring your heart rate during exercise.

19. Myths about exercise

It is common but misguided belief that the burn felt while exercising a muscle is a burning the fat stored next to that muscle. Not true. Exercising draws from fat stores all over the body. The burn is caused by a build-up of lactic acid, which is a by-product of the chemical reactions involved in producing muscle contractions.

It is common but misguided belief that women will get large unsightly muscles from weight training. Not true. Brief, hard workouts produce strength not excessive muscle. Women or men with oversized muscles owe their condition to genetics and bodybuilding workouts that use many sets and heavy weights.

20. Watch for signs of over-training

Over-training is a condition in which your exercise frequency, intensity, and duration are such that they can not be supported with proper nutrition and rest.

21. Eat 4 to 6 meals a day

When you eat your digestive system breaks down much of what you ate and releases it into your blood stream in the form of glucose or blood sugar.

As your blood sugar level rises, your body manufactures insulin, which keeps your blood sugar in a normal range by storing excess glucose in the fat cells.

Later on if you go a long time without eating your blood sugar level falls below normal and you may feel faint or cranky.

It is best to avoid such blood sugar peaks. The way to do this is to eat more meals each day.

22. Drinks a lot of water

Water suppresses the appetite naturally and helps your body metabolize stored fat.

How much is enough? The average person should drink eight 8-ounce glasses for every 25 pounds of excess weight. Overweight people should drink one additional glass for every 25 pounds of excess weight. The amount of water should also be increased if you exercise in hot or dry climates.

If possible, drink ice water, since the body uses up to 100 calories just warming the water to body temperature so it can be absorbed.

23. Get adequate fiber

Most Americans get far less than the 25 to 30 grams of dietary fiber recommended each day.

By choosing high fiber carbohydrates you can reduce the amount of calories (glucose) absorbed into the blood, but you can still get the proper nutrients. It just takes the body longer to digest foods high in dietary fiber. Plus, because the nutrients are harder to absorb from fiber, they are released more slowly providing a more stable source of nutrients.

Fiber also appears to reduce risk of colon cancer. It may also reduce the risks of cardiovascular disease because soluble fiber binds to cholesterol in the digestive tract and prevents it from being absorbed into the blood stream.

Increasing your fiber intake can have a noticeable effect on bowel movements and may cause some initial discomfort so adjust slowly.

24. Avoid highly processed foods

Food processing destroys the nutrients in a food but does not reduce their caloric content. In processed foods, and in most fat-free foods, you get exactly what you don’t want, calories without nutrients.

25. Limit your intake of alcohol

An ounce of alcohol contains 9 calories and no nutrients.

26. Limit your intake of saturated fats

Saturated are those fats that harden at room temperature. They are found in most animal products and in hydrogenated vegetable products. Saturated fats tend to raise the cholesterol level in the blood, which may lead to coronary heart disease. Diets high in unsaturated fats are believed to lower blood cholesterol. These fats are usually liquid oils of vegetable origin such as corn oil, cotten seed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oils.

27. Eat more complex carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are classified as simple, complex, or starch. They all contain the same glucose energy just in different quantities and molecular arrangements.

Simple carbohydrates are sugars and fruits.

They have relatively few glucose molecules so they are easily digested.

Complex carbohydrates include processed foods like breads, pastas, and cereals. They have hundreds of glucose molecules and digest more slowly.

Starchy complex carbohydrates are food like potato, corn, and rice. They have 1,000 or more glucose molecules and thus digest the slowest.

28. The basic weight gain or loss formula

A pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories.

A deficit of 500 calories per day will add up to about one pound of body fat lost per week.

You can create a 500-calorie per day deficit through a combination of three factors:

Burn calories through exercise – A good workout might burn 400 calories. Going from sedentary to three workouts a week would increase your consumption by 1,200 calories per week or approximately 170 calories per day.

Cut your daily intake slightly – A chocolate bar is around 200 calories. A beer is around 130 calories. A very slight adjustment in eating can reduce intake by 100 to 300 calories per day.

Raise your basal metabolism – Basal metabolism is the amount of calories your body burns to sustain itself (i.e. pump blood, breath, sit, walk, eat, sleep, etc.). This does not include the course of your exercise routine. Your basal metabolism is a function of your lean body mass (each pound of lean body mass consumes approximately 40 calories per day) and health of your cardio-respiratory system (i.e. the better shape your heart and lungs are in, the more calories you will burn). An additional five pounds of lean body mass will increase your basal metabolism approximately 200 calories per day.

29. A primer on nutrients

In order to achieve your goals your body needs a proper balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. The proper balance for you at a particular point in time depends on your current fitness level and your fitness goals.

Protein - consists of amino acid building blocks, which build and repair muscles, tendons, red blood cells and enzymes. Protein can also be used as an energy source if carbohydrates and fats are not available. Your goal is to protect your protein sources since no other nutrient can perform the same vital functions. Good sources of protein include chicken, fish, beef, dairy products, and legumes (beans). One gram of protein yields four calories.

Carbohydrates – (i.e. sugars, starches, and fiber) provide glucose and therefore are the body’s preferred fuel source. They are found in foods such as pasta, breads, potatoes, vegetables, dairy, legumes, and fruits. Sugars and starches are 100% digestible, which means that every calorie is converted to glucose. Fiber is indigestible plant material. Since the body can’t digest fiber the glucose never enters the blood stream and can never get stored as fat. High fiber carbohydrates are only 80% digestible. The remaining 20% just pass right through your body.

Fat – as used by the body for energy during normal activities and low to moderate exercise intensity. They are found in plant and animal foods such as nuts, seeds, oils, meats, and dairy. Moderate amounts of fat are a necessity. One of the primary purposes of dietary fat is to slow the digestive system so nutrients don’t enter into the blood stream too quickly, especially carbohydrates. Fat is also responsible for healthy skin, hair, and to lubricate joints so they don’t wear. It is a myth that dietary fat becomes body fat. The same holds true for excess carbohydrates and proteins.

Vitamins – are organic compounds present in small amounts in foods and needed in small amounts by the body as regulators of metabolic functions. Vitamins do not provide energy directly but they do act as catalysts helping trigger other metabolic reactions in the body.

Minerals – are inorganic compounds, which contribute to health and growth by playing a part in a variety of metabolic processes.

Water – performs many functions within the body as lubricating joints, regulating body temperature, protecting organs and tissues from shock, transporting chemicals and nutrients into the system, and then removing unwanted by-products.

30. Eating for particular goals

The amount and combination of nutrients you eat is key to achieving your fitness goals. To decrease body fat your caloric balance needs to be in a deficit of calories, but not so much that you cannibalizes muscle tissue or slows your metabolism.

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Another Mission Impossible

Don Teague
Correspondent NBC News

Stop by any big gathering of health care workers or educators, and you'll probably see Rachel Moyer sharing hugs and information with anyone who will listen.

Her personal mission is fueled by a memory she'll never forget — the day six years ago when her 15-year-old son collapsed during a high school basketball game.

"When we went into the locker room, he was laying on the floor," she recalls. "Gregory wasn't moving and he wasn't breathing, so I knelt down and held his head. I said, 'Greg, what's wrong? Why aren't you breathing, Greg?' I said, 'Breathe!'"

Greg Moyer never took another breath, one of an estimated 7,000 kids each year who die from sudden cardiac arrest.

An automated external defibrillator, or AED, could have restarted his heart, but like most American schools, Greg's didn't have one.

So Rachel Moyer started a nonprofit group, Parent Heart Watch, that's paid for more than 1,000 defribillators and lobbies states to require them in schools. Five states now do.

Some schools have failed to adopt these defibrillators over fears they'll shock someone who doesn't really need it, but the AED has a fail-safe built in. It only works if it's necessary.

Like on a hot night in Texas last September, when 17-year-old Matt Nader collapsed during a high school football game.

"I had no pulse, and my mom says I stopped breathing," recalls Nader.

But his team carried an AED and used it to save Matt's life.

Today, his hero is Rachel Moyer.

"You can stay in bed and not do anything because the grief is so overwhelming, or you can get out of bed and make a difference," she says.

One mother who has turned her loss into a mission.

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Patients Given Organs From Donor With HIV

ARIEL DAVID,
AP

Three patients at hospitals in Tuscany were mistakenly given organs from an HIV-positive donor, raising serious concerns about transplant procedures in Italy.

Medical officials in Florence, Italy, answer questions about the transplant of HIV organs to three patients.

A 41-year-old woman's kidneys and liver were taken after she died of a brain hemorrhage at Florence's Careggi hospital and were implanted due "to a tragic human error," the hospital said in a statement Monday. The director of the regional transplants agency said the patients' chances of infection are high.

The HIV test on the organs had come back positive, but "unfortunately the expert who did the report wrote down 'negative' for all the tests, including this one," said Careggi director Mauro Marabini.

The three patients have been told of the mistake and will undergo tests to determine if they have been infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The three were receiving anti-retroviral drugs.

"They asked immediately if the transplanted organ was working, and it was working perfectly," Marabini said. "They reacted quite calmly."

Franco Filipponi, director of the regional transplant agency, told the news agency ANSA that the likelihood of infection is high. "Even if the implanted organs do not carry blood the virus can still be present in some cells and can therefore be transmitted," he said.

Prosecutors in Florence opened an investigation, ANSA reported.

Health Minister Livia Turco pledged to improve safety measures once the inquiry was completed, but stressed that the transplant system has saved many lives. "I cannot hide my preoccupation for an excessive alarm that could reduce trust in this system and slow the growth of donations, leading to further damage for other patients," Turco said.

Italy's public health system is not new to scandal. Last month, authorities ordered nationwide inspections after a magazine report on Rome's largest hospital showed images of corridors soiled with dog feces and garbage, unguarded radioactive material, abandoned medical records and workers smoking next to patients.

Police found that about 17 percent of hospitals, mostly in southern and central Italy, had problems serious enough to recommend possible judicial investigations against 111 people.

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Snack Attack Gene Link

Another piece falls into place to explain expanding waistlines, reports Roger Highfield

A gene that plays a role in inflammation and fever has been found to regulate body weight too, by curbing our urge to snack at night.

When the gene is turned off, activity during the hours of sleep goes up, along with the drive to eat, a discovery that suggests a new way to tackle obesity.

The gene is the code for a protein switch that could, at the very least, help scientists to better understand obesity and its link with inflammation. However, if it can be flicked on by a drug, it could lead to new treatments to prevent the western world's ever expanding waistlines.

Researchers from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, report the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which link the protein to getting up during sleep ours for a bite to eat.

Led by neuroscientists Manuel Sanchez-Alavez and Prof Tamas Bartfai, the team discovered that mice genetically altered to lack a protein known as the EP3 receptor tend to be more active and to eat more, causing weight increases of up to 30 percent relative to mice with the protein.

The EP3 receptor is one of four types molecular switches that respond to a type of hormone, called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). The switch plays a role in inflammation, fever, fertility, and blood pressure. Scientists already know that it is possible to play with these switches because the drug ibuprofen givens pain relief this way.

The Scripps team was investigating the role of EP3 in inflammation and were studying mice that lack the protein and do not develop fevers. When the mice were four to five months old, the researchers made a startling discovery. The older mice still did not develop fever, but the researchers noticed that these mice were gaining a significant amount of weight.

"The experimental mice were clearly getting heavier than their wild type litter mates, the control mice," says Sanchez-Alavez. "We realised there was something interesting going on with these animals, so we started watching their behaviour at night and during the day."

During continuous monitoring of body temperature and activity, the researchers realised that the mice without the EP3 protein were more active during the light hours - the "night" for mice, which are nocturnal creatures, and, more importantly, were eating during this time.

The increased activity led to higher body temperatures, and thus more energy expenditure, but this did not burn enough extra calories to balance the additional amount they ate compared with normal mice, so the mice weighed 15 to 30 percent more than control mice. The next step will be to pinpoint which part of the body the protein has most effect on, to pinpoint the link between this gene and waistlines.

Prof Bartfai notes that inflammation seems to be linked to obesity and metabolic syndrome - a blend of obesity, high cholesterol and blood pressure and diabetes. The mice "may provide a very important animal model for determining the importance of inflammation in obesity and in the conversion of obesity to type 2 diabetes.

This could lead to the development of treatments that could prevent or reverse these conditions, he concludes.

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What Is Provoking THE AGE OF RAGE?

A MAN is shot dead while sitting at a bar in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Why? The gunman was annoyed by the loud music the victim was playing on his personal cassette player. A motorist is clubbed to death with a hockey stick at an intersection in Cape Town, South Africa. His attacker was apparently upset because the victim had flashed his lights at him. A British nurse living in Australia has her front door kicked in by an enraged former boyfriend; he soaks her with petrol, sets her on fire, and leaves her to die.

Are reports of rage—road rage, domestic rage, air rage—being blown out of proportion? Or like cracks in the walls of a building, are they just the visible warnings of a serious underlying problem? The facts indicate that the latter is true.

On the road, "reports of violent traffic incidents have increased nearly 7 percent per year since 1990," states a recent report from the American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety.

In the home, rage is rampant. For example, police in the Australian state of New South Wales witnessed a 50-percent increase in reported cases of domestic violence during the year 1998. Every fourth woman in that country who is married or lives in a de facto relationship has suffered violence by her partner.

In the air the story is similar. The threat of airline passengers' suddenly snapping and attacking staff, fellow passengers, and even pilots has prompted some of the world's major airlines to provide their cabin crews with special harnesses designed to bind violent offenders in their seats.

Why do growing numbers of people seem incapable of restraining their emotions? What prompts these acts of rage? Is it actually possible to control these feelings?

Why the Rise in Rage?

To have rage is to feel or exhibit intense anger. Acts of rage result when anger is allowed to build until it erupts in a violent outburst of emotion. "Violent traffic disputes are rarely the result of a single incident. Rather, they seem to be the result of personal attitudes and the accumulation of stress in the motorist's life," notes David K. Willis, president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Contributing to this accumulation of stress is the flood of information we are expected to absorb each day. The back cover of the book Information Overload, by David Lewis, observes: "Many workers today are sinking under a deluge of data . . . Overwhelmed by information, . . . they become stressed out, reckless, paralysed by analysis." Citing an example of this deluge of data, one newspaper noted: "A weekday edition of a newspaper contains as much information as the average person in the 17th century would be exposed to in their entire lifetime."

What we put in our mouths may also be nourishing anger. Two large-scale studies have shown that increased hostility is linked to cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and an unhealthful diet. These epidemic life-style habits fuel stress and frustration—frustration that erupts in the form of swearing, impatience, and intolerance.

Bad Manners and Movies

Commenting on the relationship between incivility and crime, Dr. Adam Graycar, director of the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), observes: "A renewed focus on respect and civility may be one of the most significant steps towards reducing petty crime." The institute advocates exercising patience, showing tolerance, and refraining from swearing. Failure to do so, it claims, can turn disorderly behavior into criminal behavior. Ironically, a form of relaxation chosen by many to relieve frustration and stress actually encourages intolerance and rage. How?

"Children and adults flock to cinemas to watch depictions of death and destruction. The market for violent videos is vast and lucrative. 'War toys' remain popular with many children, if not always with their parents. Televised violence is greatly enjoyed by many, both adults and children, and television has an important role in the transmission of cultural values," states an AIC report. How does this relate to outbursts of rage on the street and in the home? The report concludes: "To the extent that a society condones violence, the values of individuals within that society will develop accordingly."

Many individuals today would argue that venting anger is just a natural response to stress, an unavoidable reaction to our high-pressure, aggressive society. Is it true, then, that the popular notion, "When angry, let it out," is actually good advice?

Should Rage Be Controlled?

Just as an erupting volcano wreaks havoc on those living around it, so too a person who expresses intense anger harms those living around him. He also critically damages himself. In what way? "Acting on anger leads to even more aggression," states The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). According to research, men who manifest anger "are more likely to be dead by age 50 than those who do not."

The American Heart Association similarly states: "Men who experience outbursts of anger have twice the risk of stroke as men who control their tempers." These warnings are relevant to both sexes.

What advice really works? Notice the similarities between the advice of secular authorities and that of the most widely distributed authority on human relations, the Bible.

Manage Anger—Avoid Rage

Dr. Redford B. Williams states in JAMA: "The simplistic advice, 'when angry, let it out,' is unlikely . . . to be of much help. Far more important is to learn how to evaluate your anger and then to manage it." He suggests asking yourself: "(1) Is this situation important to me? (2) Are my thoughts and feelings appropriate to the objective facts? (3) Is this situation modifiable, so that I don't have to have this anger?"

Proverbs 14:29; 29:11 "He that is slow to anger is abundant in discernment, but one that is impatient is exalting foolishness. All his spirit is what a stupid one lets out, but he that is wise keeps it calm to the last."

Ephesians 4:26 "Be wrathful, and yet do not sin; let the sun not set with you in a provoked state."

Frank Donovan, in his book Dealing With Anger—Self-Help Solutions for Men, recommends: "Escaping anger—or, more specifically, escaping the scene and other people in your angry episode—is a strategy which has special importance and value at the higher levels of anger."

Proverbs 17:14 "The beginning of contention is as one letting out waters; so before the quarrel has burst forth, take your leave."

Bertram Rothschild, writing in the journal The Humanist, states: "Anger . . . is primarily one's personal responsibility. The reasons to become angry exist in our heads. . . . The few times anger worked for you pale in comparison to the multitude of times it made things worse. It is far better not to produce the anger than to experience it."

Psalm 37:8 "Let anger alone and leave rage; do not show yourself heated up only to do evil."

Proverbs 15:1 "An answer, when mild, turns away rage, but a word causing pain makes anger to come up."

Proverbs 29:22 "A man given to anger stirs up contention, and anyone disposed to rage has many a transgression."

Millions of Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide endorse the above counsel. We invite you to attend their meetings at your local Kingdom Hall and see for yourself that living by the Bible's advice actually works, despite our living in an age of rage.

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What Will Next Generation Retinal Implant Be Like?

Emily Singer
Technology Review

Scientists plan to test an implanted chip with four times the resolution of the previous version in people blinded by retinal degeneration.

On Thursday, scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) announced their plans to test an improved retinal implant in blind patients. The new implant has four times the resolution of the previous version, and scientists hope will improve patients' vision.

"My expectation, without really knowing what is going to happen, is that this will be useful for people in allowing them to find a lit doorway or the edge of an object when going into a room," says James Weiland, a scientist at USC involved in the project.

People with retinal-degeneration diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration, lose their sight as the cells in the eye that normally sense light deteriorate. Retinal implants can take over for these lost cells, converting light into neural signals that are then interpreted by the brain. Simpler versions of these devices, developed by researchers at USC and other institutions, have already been tested in humans, giving patients rudimentary vision, such as the ability to detect light and to occasionally distinguish between simple objects. One patient, for example, wears the device to her grandson's soccer games and reports that she perceives the sensation of the players' movement as they run by, says Weiland.

The device, developed by Mark Humayun and colleagues at USC, consists of a tiny chip dotted with hair-thin electrodes. When implanted in the retina, the electrodes transmit electrical signals from the chip to neural cells in the eye, which then send the message to the brain. A wireless camera mounted on glasses and a video processing unit worn on the belt capture and process visual information from the wearer's surroundings and wirelessly transmit those signals to the chip.

The new version of the implant, which the researchers have been working on for the past eight years, has nearly quadrupled the number of electrodes--from 16 to 60--and is about half the size of the previous model. The researchers recently received permission from the Food and Drug Administration to start human tests, which they plan to begin in the next few months.

Once the device is implanted, researchers will need to do extensive tests to figure out how to optimize it. "A camera gets at least tens of thousands of pixel information, and we need to transmit that to just 60 stimulating channels," says Weiland. "We have to figure out what is the most important information to keep."

Increasing implant resolution by a factor of four is significant, says E. J. Chichilnisky, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, CA. But compared with the human eye, the resolution is still very limited. "Imagine a camera with 60 pixels," Chichilnisky says. "You can't really see a face in an eight-by-eight image, or even a word. In the long run, we'll need hundreds or thousands of electrodes to get something interesting." Both Chichilnisky and the USC researchers are working with Second Sight Medical Products, the company based in Sylmar, CA, that is manufacturing the devices, on the next version of the implant. The third-generation device will have 500 electrodes, boosting resolution by a factor of almost 10.

But increasing the number of electrodes won't be the only hurdle in developing implants that can give blind people truly useful vision. Scientists also need to figure out how to electrically stimulate the retina in a way that the brain can interpret with high spatial resolution, says Joseph Rizzo, an ophthalmologist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and codirector of the Boston Retinal Implant Project. A ray of light, for example, stimulates retinal cells in a more precise and refined way than does the electric current coming from an electrode. "It doesn't matter if you have 10 or 1,000 electrodes," he says. "If you don't know how to use them, it doesn't matter."

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Do It Yourself - Breast Self-Exam (BSE)

Pam Stephan

Breast self examination (BSE) is to be performed in addition to an annual mammogram or a professional exam. Knowing your cyclical changes, what is normal for you, and and what the regular monthly changes in the breast feel like is the best way to keep an eye on your breast health.

Your breast is more than the part of you that fits into a bra cup, although that is where the largest part of the breast is. Breast tissue actually extends up under each arm towards the area of the armpit.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 15 minutes a month

Here's How:

1. Make a regular date for your BSE
   If you are pre-menopausal: Set a regular time to examine your breasts a few days after your period ends, when hormone levels are relatively stable, and breasts are less tender.
   If you are already menopausal: (have not had a period for a year or more), you can pick a particular day of the month to do the exam and then repeat your BSE on that day of each month.
2. Do a Visual Exam
   In the privacy of your bathroom, strip to the waist and stand before a mirror. You will need to see both breasts at the same time. Stand with your hands on your hips and check the appearance of your breasts. Look at size, shape, and contour. Note changes, if any, in the skin color or texture. Look at the nipples and areolas, to see how healthy they look. Raise your arms over your head and see if your breasts move in the same way, and note any changes.
3. Do a Manual Check on the Nipples
   Still facing the mirror, lower both arms. With the index and middle fingers of your right hand, gently squeeze the left nipple and pull forward. Does the nipple spring back into place? Does it pull into the breast? Note whether or not any fluid leaks out. Reverse your hands and check the right nipple in the same way.
4. Stand and Stroke
   Raise your left arm overhead, and use your right-hand fingers to apply gentle pressure to the left breast. Stroke from the top to the bottom of the breast, moving across from the inside of the breast all the way into your armpit area. You can also use a circular motion, being sure to cover the entire breast area. Take note of any changes in texture, color, or size. Switch sides and repeat.

5. Recline and Stroke
   Close your bedroom door and place a pillow on the bed so that you can lie with head and shoulders on the pillow. Lie down and put your left hand behind your head, and use your right hand to stroke the breast abd underarm, as in Step 4. Take note of any changes in texture, color, or size. Switch sides and repeat.

Tips:

1. Doing Step 4 in the shower is easiest, as wet skin will have the least resistance to the friction of your fingers.
2. Mark your calendar, to remind yourself to be regular about the BSE. This is a good way to prevent a panic attack, if you get off-schedule and find a normal cyclic change. Know your regular, normal changes.
3. Stay relaxed and breathe normally, because becoming tense will itself produce some knots.
4. Report any changes or unusual pain to your doctor or nurse practitioner. Keep a log of changes, if that helps you remember. Here is an overview on breast lumps.
5. Remember to have a regular clinical exam and a mammogram.

What You Need:

• A mirror which lets you see both breasts
• A pillow for your head and shoulders
• Privacy and time for your BSE

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Sexual Dysfunction And You MEN!!!

The majority of adults can recall times in their lives when they were troubled with low desire or problems with orgasms. Arousal difficulties increase with age. Sexual dysfunction may arise in the most well-adjusted and satisfied of couples. In 100 educated young couples Frank et al (1978) found that 50% of men had difficulties with erection, ejaculation or orgasm sometimes and 75% of women had problems with arousal or orgasm sometimes.

A minimum of information on sexual health and sexual disorders is necessary for every person. Especially because there are a lot of false and harmful ideas about it. Sometimes people even do not know what doctor they should apply to.

So what are sexual arousal disorders?

Sexual dysfunctions are disorders related to a particular phase of the sexual response cycle. For example, sexual dysfunctions include sexual desire disorders, sexual arousal disorders, orgasm disorders and others.

What are the causes of sexual disorders?

Many sexual arousal disorders are caused by striking poverty in the knowledge of anatomy and physiology. For example, sexual function weakens with the increase of years, and a man needs a longer foreplay for a more or less strong erection. A man who is not aware of this fact thinks that there is something wrong with his sexual health, panics and his sexual abilities indeed go down.
Very often the cause is lack of caress. Some people do not take into consideration their partners’ sexual preferences or simply do not know how to behave while making love, but accuse various diseases in their failures.

Not infrequently some psychologic factors, connected with a person’s sexual experience bring about sexual disorders. It can be, for example, fear of dissapointment or of being unskillfull, awkward or inexperienced.

The most frequent male sexual problem is erectile dysfunction (impotence), that is inability to have and mantain an erection necessary for intercourse.
One of the main impotence’s causes is decrease of testosterone production with the increase of years. According to some data, the amount of the hormones diminishes by circa 30-40 per cent in the period when a man is at the age between 48 and 70. Some scientists call the lowering of testosterone level male menopause or andropause.
Often (up to a quater of all cases) erectile dysfunction is caused by drugs that are taken for other diseases’ treatment and narcotics as well. The most harmful are anabolic steroids and antiandrogen medicines that contain estrogens. These drugs affect sexual health and weaken sexual desire and erection. Some other medicines also can affect erection, but their influence is not so strong. These are some diuretics, most antidepressants, some tranquilizers and other medicines. Men who take these drugs should be careful and inform their doctors about all abnormalities they observe.
Some men are very ashamed of discussing such problems with anyone and their unwillingness to visit a doctor prevents the latter from making the right diagnosis and prescribing possible successfull treatment.

Some men begin to take hormonal medications that are not only ineffective but moreover can provoke prostate cancer. Since only doctor can find out the cause of erectile dysfunction, you should apply only to him.

If the doctor does not reveal any organic defects in the patient (the main index for young men is morning erection, if penis is hard in the morning than this man’s disorder is nonorhganic). The most important thing is to get rid of anxiety and fear that aggravate the problem. Remember that the more efforts a man makes the more often he fails.
That is why sexologists begin the treatment with a temporary ban on sex life and redirect the partners’ attention from erection to other ways to please to each other.

There is a special exercise that is called perceptible focus. Partners must learn to focus their erotic perception on different parts of the body and not only on genitals. A man and a woman learn to caress each other in such a way that they turn each other on without touching genitals and breast. The intercourse is forbidden, so the man does not worry about erection. After a few days of such exercises step by step involving breast and genitals, a man has erection without any additional efforts.
This game not only helps a man get rid of erectial dysfunction, but makes the couple’s relationship better as well. This treatment is 75 per cent successfull. Other cases require a more complex and long lasting psychoterapy.

Sometimes erection’s quality is improved with special erectors that are sold in sex shops. Though these devices help and are quite easy to use, a doctor’s control is necessary. Erectors make erection stronger but can affect ejaculation at the same time.
To cut a long story short, there is no panacea. If you feel that there is something wrong with your erection, do not say “what can I do? This is my age.” Do not apply to self-treatment. You should visit your doctor. He knows what to do.

Other category of male sexual problems is ejaculation dysfunction. Early ejaculation means that ejaculation occurs too quickly: before intercourse or at the very beginning of it. That deprives both partners of pleasure, especially the woman. The causes of this dysfunction are various. Some sexologists consider that early ejaculation is the result of a negative early sexual experience, when a man had to make love in a hurry without necessary conditions and intimate atmosphere. Others think that early ejaculation is characteristic of young men who are often too sensitive. Actually, that is the problem of men of any age and it can occur in any situation.

Usually people think that a man suffering from early ejaculation should relax and try to forget it. Actually, he needs quite the opposite – a deliberate self-control. There is a special exercise called “start-stop technique”: a partner- woman makes the penis erected and when she feels that the man is ready to ejaculate she stops caressing the penis and erection weakens. If the exercise is repeated over and over, a man learns to control ejaculation himself and to make the period preceeding it longer. That helps him to get rid of anxiety and fears. Sometimes early ejaculation is treated with antidepressant drugs. These drugs must not be taken without a doctor’s prescriprion. Besides many other complications, antidepressant drugs can delay ejaculation and at the same time weaken erection.

Delayed ejaculation can be met much more seldom. Ejaculation is considered to be delayed if a man cannot finish the intercourse with emission of seminal fluid into vagina. Delayed ejaculation can be the result of various diseases affecting nervous system, diabetes and others. But the most frequent causes are psychological ones: fear of impregnating, inability to relax, etc. The main method of delayed ejaculation treatment is gradual lowering of a person’s sensibiliity to the situations that make him nervous. It is possible in most cases. The most important thing is to believe you can struggle with all troubles that affect your sexual health and prevent you from happy sex life.

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Science - Making Sex Sexier.

Allison Van Dusen and Matthew Herper

The race is on to find new treatments for sexual dysfunction. Since the dawn of time, people have looked toward elixirs and potions to improve their sex lives. Why else, after all, would one consume ground tiger penis, horny goat weed and Spanish Fly?

Perhaps because nearly one in five men in the U.S. suffer from erectile dysfunction, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Medicine. Some researchers have estimated that as many as 40 percent of U.S. women have low libido or inability to reach orgasm. Most quick fixes simply don't work, and some, like Spanish Fly — a supposed aphrodisiac derived from beetles that can cause kidney damage — are harmful.

But modern medicine has found ways — both proven and experimental — to improve your sex life. Might they help make this Valentine's Day more memorable?

That’s anyone’s guess. One place to start: old-fashioned remedies, which some say work best. Regular exercise can actually improve erectile function in most men, says Andrew McCullough, a urologist at New York University Medical Center, and we're talking jogging, not the acrobatic feats found in the back of a magazine. Not particularly athletic? Therapists say that paying attention to your feelings is as important as any pill, nose spray or cream.

"Have a really wonderful role-play with your partner, have a really great dinner out or watch a romantic movie together," says Robert Dunlap, who has researched aphrodisiacs at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. "The greatest aphrodisiac is your mind."

Hope in a bottle
But that's not stopping the $600 billion global pharmaceutical industry from trying to think up new sex drugs. Viagra, the little blue pill Pfizer launched a decade ago, brings in $1.7 billion in sales every year. Cialis, the longer-acting imitator made by Eli Lilly, rakes in another $1 billion, with several hundred million more for Levitra, from Bayer and Schering-Plough. Other remedies increase blood flow, like the penis injection Caverject, and bring in $30 million more.

A product that could improve women's sexual function might bring in even more money, if it were truly effective. So far, though, companies have been unsuccessful. Viagra failed in tests on women. Procter & Gamble tried to push a testosterone patch for female sexual dysfunction through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but in 2004 the agency balked, citing a lack of long-term safety data.

Now the idea of using testosterone as a sex-booster for women is being pushed by Lincolnshire, Ill.-based BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Its LibiGel is rubbed on the upper arm daily, delivering testosterone, which is thought to increase libido, to the bloodstream over time. The company just began late-stage trials, and, after discussions with the FDA, will start a big safety trial before submitting data to regulators in 2009.

Palatin Technologies, of Cranbury, N.J., is trying to get in on the game, developing a nose spray called bremelanotide to treat men and women with sexual dysfunction. Applied 10 to 15 minutes prior to sex, it travels through the central nervous system to increase blood flow in the penile or vaginal tissue. The company hopes to get FDA approval for men in 2009 and women around 2011. "On the female front, we've got a chance to be first to market," says CEO Carl Spana. "People wonder how many women will come in for treatment, but my gut tells me they will come in."

What really works
Right now, the treatment available for women with female sexual dysfunction that has been reviewed by the FDA is a handheld vacuum that can be used with a doctor's prescription to increase blood flow to the clitoris. Called Eros Therapy, it is made by NuGyn of Minnesota. Devices such as this go through fewer hurdles than drugs; the Eros device has been tested in several dozen people, compared with hundreds for a pill such as Viagra.

Joy Davidson, a Manhattan-based certified sex therapist, worries that all this technology may cause some people to ignore important cultural factors that can cause sexual dysfunction. "There are agendas here that are not health-based, they're profit-based," she says. "If you're not looking at these elements — the emotional, psychological and cultural — then giving somebody a so-called magic pill is not going to solve the problem."

Future fixes
Meanwhile, drug researchers keep coming up with even more out-there approaches. For instance, a gene therapy, which seeks to fix erectile function by altering the DNA of cells in the penis, then injecting them back in to the patient. It should work for six months, according to inventor Arnold Melman, the researcher at New York's Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has co-founded a tiny biotech, Ion Channel Innovations, to develop the product, which even he doesn't expect to reach the market before 2012. No gene therapy has ever been approved.

"People always say gene therapy doesn't work, but at one point it will," says Melman. "We think this is the one."

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The Sleeping Pill, "STILNOX" May NOT Be GOOD For YOU.

Holly Ife and Jane Metlikovec
Herald Sunday

MORE reports of bizarre and disturbing side effects from a popular prescription sleeping pill have emerged.

On Friday, the Herald Sun revealed that the Federal Government's adverse drug reactions advisory committee had received reports of hallucinations and amnesia in users of Stilnox.

Stilnox is a prescription sleep medication.

One ex-user, Simone Orkney, said yesterday she had a serious car accident last year after becoming addicted to the drug.

"I went on them about three years ago because I was doing shift work . . . I noticed that I would forget where I was when I was awake.

"I never said anything to my doctor because I thought the pills were doing what they were supposed to do.

"They made me feel good and I just kept taking them."

Ms Orkney said she had used the drug for several years -- far longer than the recommended four-week maximum.

Her car accident in April -- which she cannot remember -- and an ensuing three-month stay in hospital forced her to realise she was addicted to Stilnox.

"When I first started taking it, the doctor said it was non-addictive.

"But it is. Every drug is addictive for some people," Ms Orkney said.

Helen Loveless, 53, from Kaniva in the state's west, said she had been binge-eating and forgetting conversations since she began taking Stilnox four years ago.

"My husband would say to me: 'Were you a bit hungry last night?' And I wouldn't know what he was talking about," Ms Loveless said.

"He caught me many times eating toast and biscuits that I would not normally eat."

The grandmother also forgot conversations with family and friends after taking half a pill.

Maree, who asked that her surname not be used, originally had a similar reaction to the drug.

"In the morning, I would wake up and find dishes on the headboard. I worked out I had been up in the middle of night making snacks. At first I thought it was funny and pretty harmless.

"After about a week I got up during the night and got back into bed with an electric heater. I turned the electric heater on in bed with me."

Maree said she was lucky someone else in the house heard her and removed the heater.

"I have no objection to Stilnox. For the great majority of people there are no side effects and it is very effective."

But she warned those taking it for the first time to make sure someone was with them to monitor their behaviour.

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration, to which the advisory committee reports, said adverse reactions for a range of drugs were looked at every day.

In the case of Stilnox, side effects were very rare, she said.

"We decided to remind doctors of the side effects that are already known to ensure they were monitoring their patients closely, and ensure that patients only stay on the drug for a maximum of four weeks," the spokeswoman said.

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The Fringe Benefits Of Health Reforms

Jacob Sullum

How will President Bush's health insurance plan affect taxpayers? The answer depends on if they have medical coverage, where they get it and how much it costs. The president wants to eliminate the tax code's bias in favor of employer-provided medical coverage, which distorts the insurance market, promotes insecurity and raises health care costs, says the Washington Times.

This bias was created more or less by accident:

• During World War II, businesses competing to attract scarce workers got around wage and price controls by offering health insurance instead of higher pay.
• In 1943, the Internal Revenue Service decided not to count this increasingly popular fringe benefit as taxable income, a policy codified by Congress in 1954.

According to John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis:

• Someone in the 25 percent income tax bracket may receive a subsidy of close to 50 percent for employer-provided medical coverage, once you consider state income taxes and the 15.3 percent payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare.
• If he buys insurance on his own, he typically gets no tax break at all.
• The upshot is that most Americans get medical coverage through their employers.

In a system based on employer-provided insurance, people lose their medical coverage when they lose their jobs, a problem that becomes increasingly serious as they get older and sicker. At the same time, the seemingly free coverage makes health care more expensive for everyone.

Bush's solution to these problems is straightforward. He would reverse the policy of excluding health insurance from taxable income. To avoid an overall tax increase, he would give taxpayers with health insurance a standard deduction of $7,500 for individuals and $15,000 for families.

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A Prosthetic Arm That Acts Like a Real One

Emily Singer
Technology Review

Patients use nerves left intact after amputations to control prosthetic limbs.
A new technique that capitalizes on remaining nerves allows amputees to intuitively control their prosthetic limb, providing them with a much better level of control than traditional prosthetics.

In a paper published today in The Lancet, scientists at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago described a procedure to surgically transplant nerves from the shoulder to the upper-chest muscle of a woman who had lost her arm in a motorcycle accident. The rerouted nerves then grew into the muscle, which amplified the messages once sent to muscles in the arm and hand; those signals are read by sensors on the prosthetic limb and translated into movement. The patient also developed a surprising degree of sensory perception in the upper chest, which scientists say will be key in the next generation of prosthetics.

"It's encouraging to see that even after an amputation, the same intention to move the limb can be harnessed to control a prosthetic limb in much the same way that the limb was previously controlled," says Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, who wrote a commentary accompanying the paper.

Most artificial arms are controlled by remaining muscles near the amputated limb. But the devices can be frustrating and slow: the user must consciously contract those muscles to trigger a movement, and only one movement can be performed at a time. Todd Kuiken and colleagues at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago developed a new, more intuitive method for controlling prosthetics that capitalizes on remaining nerves, which still carry neural signals meant for the lost limb.

The scientists transplanted to the upper chest both motor and sensory nerves that, prior to the amputation, would have traveled from the shoulder to muscles in the arm and hand. In the months after the surgery, the transplanted nerves grew into the chest muscle, eventually triggering twitches in the shoulder muscle when the patient thought about moving her hand or elbow. Scientists then mapped the precise pattern of muscle activity that occurred when the patient mentally executed specific movements, such as grasping or moving the elbow. Liberating Technologies, a prosthetic-device company, then made a specialized prosthetic limb, which was programmed to sense muscle activity generated by the transplanted nerves and use it to control movement of a motorized elbow, wrist, and hand.

The patient was able to use her new arm within a few days, becoming four times as fast on movement tests as she was with her traditional prosthetic. She reported that the new device was much easier and more natural to use, and she could move the hand, wrist, and elbow simultaneously. "This is a really innovative approach and has the potential to improve the control that people using these myoelectric prostheses have," says Robert Kirsch , associate director of the Functional Electrical Stimulation Center at Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Medical Center, in Cleveland.

Perhaps one of the most exciting findings was the surprisingly refined sensory ability the patient developed in her chest. (The patient described in the paper was the third to undergo the nerve-transplantation procedure, but she was the first to have sensory nerves transplanted in addition to motor nerves.) When the area was touched, she felt as if her missing hand had been touched, and she eventually developed a faint sensation of her middle finger when touched on a particular part of her chest.

Scientists say this sensory ability is an important step for the next generation of prosthetic limbs. Sensors or haptics technology could be placed in the fingers of a robotic arm and transmit signals to the chest, allowing the patient to feel the sensation encountered by the prosthetic limb. This would provide the sensory feedback--not present in standard prosthetics--that allows us to grip a Styrofoam coffee cup without crushing it or put down a cup of soup if it's too hot. "Instead of doing commands like a robot, it might actually feel like a part of the body," says Kirsch.

Other scientists are now developing similar implantable devices, potentially allowing a finer level of control. Kirsch, for example, is developing a device that would be implanted onto the muscle to directly detect muscle activity and then wirelessly transmit the activity signals to a prosthetic, an approach that he says will provide more-stable input to the robotic limb.

Richard Normann, a neuroscientist at the University of Utah who has pioneered the development of small electrode arrays that can record sophisticated neural signals, is working on a device that, when implanted onto the nerve, could record signals from individual axons within the nerve fiber, thereby providing a more nuanced set of control signals. He hopes to have a working version to test in some of Kuiken's patients in about two years. "It is not unreasonable to believe an amputee could have an arm that he will come to believe and use just like an existing arm," says Normann. "It's not the reality today, of course, but it's not a fantasy anymore."

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Easy-to-Make Nanosensors For Cancer & Other Bioterror Attacks

Kevin Bulli
Technology review

Tiny electronics-based detectors could provide simple tests for cancer or bioterror agents.

One of the most compelling promises of nanotechnology are tiny detectors that could instantly screen for hundreds of toxins or pathogens. Bundled into small handheld devices, these sensors could provide fast alerts of bioterror attacks. They could also be used to quickly and precisely detect early signs of cancer, before the disease turns deadly. (See "Drugstore Cancer Tests.")

Now researchers at Yale University have developed ultrasensitive nanoscale sensors that are easy to manufacture. The sensors are based on semiconducting nanowires, which can detect single virus particles or ultra-low concentrations of a targeted substance, as other researchers have already shown. (See "Super-Sensitive Screen.") Nanowire sensor devices have proven difficult to mass-produce, however. For one thing, the methods used to make them are typically incompatible with those used to make the electronics that amplify and process the signals the nanowires generate.

In the process developed by Mark Reed, a professor of electrical engineering and applied physics, and his colleagues, nanowire sensors can be produced by methods compatible with the high-throughput techniques of the semiconductor industry. Sensors produced this way could be integrated with the electronics needed to process data, potentially leading to compact and relatively affordable devices.

Such sensors could be much smaller than standard optical-based detectors and simpler to use. Because the sensors would be based on an electronic signal, target molecules would not have to be chemically tagged with fluorescent molecules and then observed through bulky optical readers. Thousands of sensors could be packed into a hand-held device, which could produce results almost instantaneously.

To make their sensors, Reed and his colleagues used a process similar to the one used to pattern computer chips.

The researchers begin with commercially available films of silicon on top of an insulating material; then they use conventional techniques to lay down patterns of lines called masks that will determine the location of the nanowires. Next, they etch away the silicon not covered by the masks. Though the masks are not thin enough to produce nanowires, the researchers allow the etching to continue eating away at the material under the edges of the mask, finishing the task. Using the process, the researchers were able to make multiple nano sensors on the same chip.

In experiments described in this week's issue of the journal Nature, the sensors were used to detect a variety of things, including specific antibodies. The nanowires are first spotted with molecules designed to bind to the target antibody; when the target is present and the link is made, it causes the conductivity in the nanowire to change, creating a readable signal. Since the body's immune system produces minute amounts of antibodies in response to diseases such as cancer, the devices could be used for early diagnoses.

Although he will not specify when devices using the sensors will be available, Reed says it should be soon. "I work on a lot of things that I'll never see in my lifetime," he says. "This will happen in my lifetime."

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Can RNA Turn Genes On?

Jennifer Chu
Technology Review

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have found that RNA may be a potential tool in activating dormant genes.

This week, more than 700 scientists have flocked to the ski resort of Keystone, Colorado, for five days. But it's not the snow that's brought them together. Rather, it's something they find much more exciting: RNA--a tiny cousin of DNA that may be the key to developing genetic therapies for a huge range of diseases, including cancer, neurological and respiratory diseases, and HIV.

Nearly eight years ago, researchers Craig Mello, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Andrew Fire, of Stanford University's School of Medicine, discovered that RNA plays a crucial role in regulating gene expression: the ability to turn genes off. They won a Nobel Prize for their work in 2006 identifying the mechanism for a process called RNA interference, or RNAi. They found that RNA blocks a gene from delivering its message to proteins, essentially shutting down that gene. Since then, scientists around the world have run with the idea, finding ways for RNAi to turn off a variety of genes--in particular, those that cause disease. It's RNA's role in switching off genes that dominates the talks at this week's conference, titled "RNAi for Target Validation and as a Therapeutic."

However, not much is known about RNA's role, if any, in turning genes on. It's a phenomenon that researchers Bethany Janowski and David Corey stumbled upon a couple years ago, almost by accident. Their study, published in Nature Chemical Biology, provides evidence of RNA's genetic "on" switch, and they've presented their findings at this week's conference.

In 2005, Janowski and Corey, both at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, were studying the effects of RNA in turning off certain genes related to breast cancer. Specifically, they found that injecting RNA strands into cultures of human breast-cancer cells with high levels of progesterone receptors inhibited the gene that controlled for that receptor. (It's been found that varying levels of the hormone progesterone affects the growth of cancer cells.) As a result, the team observed a reduced level of progesterone production.

After a closer look, Janowski and Corey also found that a small number of RNA strands had the opposite effect, causing a slight increase in gene activation--an effect they did not expect. Investigating further, they isolated the activating RNA strands, then injected them into a culture of cancer cells with low levels of progesterone receptors. The result: RNA actually turned up gene expression for these receptors, stimulating the gene to produce more progesterone.

"It really goes against the dogma out there," says Janowski, assistant professor of pharmacology and lead author of the study. "The idea that RNA can be a major regulator is something that people have to get used to. But on a biological level, it makes perfect sense. If RNA can silence, it should be able to turn on."

The ability to turn genes both on and off may have major implications for the treatment of diseases. For example, the development of cancer may be partially due to mutations in genes that control cell growth. The body contains genes that are natural tumor suppressors. Mutations that silence these genes may result in uncontrolled cancer growth. Janowski and Corey believe that finding a way to turn these genes back on may stem the growth of tumor cells.

However, they say it's not clear exactly how RNA's genetic "on" switch works. In their experiments, the researchers injected RNA directly into cancer cells, where it interacted with specific genes to turn them on. Janowski says this may be a more direct method compared with conventional RNAi techniques, in which scientists inject RNA strands outside a cell to block messenger RNA--an intermediary molecule that delivers genetic information out of a cell to surrounding proteins that act out a gene's instructions.

"It's easier to turn something off by acting like a roadblock so the transcriptional machinery can't get past it," says Janowski. "But to activate it is harder to do."

Gordon Carmichael, professor of genetics and developmental biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center, studies RNA's role in regulating disease. While Carmichael did not attend the conference, he is familiar with the team's work and says the research is interesting, although puzzling. "The question arises as to whether the observed effects are general and, if so, how general?" he says. "There appear to be few genes that can be regulated this way."

In future studies, Janowski and Corey plan to explore the exact mechanism for RNA's genetic activating potential. They will also explore RNA's effect in turning on a variety of genes, including tumor suppressor genes, and they hope eventually to experiment on animal models. However, Janowski acknowledges that the team's work and its conclusions are preliminary.

Phillip Sharp, MIT professor and Nobel Prize-winning cancer researcher, advises a wait-and-see approach. Speaking from the RNAi conference in Colorado, Sharp says it may be a while before RNA's genetic "on" switch is as scientifically confirmed as its "off" switch. "There will have to be a lot of additional work before one can judge the importance of this finding," he says.

The University of Texas team, meanwhile, is optimistic. "Anything new will be a test of time," says Janowski. "People are pretty open to new ideas, but because this has been so entrenched, it will take people a while to get a handle on this."

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