Cell phones don’t cause cancer, huge study says -

Cell phones don’t cause cancer, huge study says

Findings on 420,000 people in Denmark give gadget a clean bill of health
Mario Tama / Getty Images file
Cell phones beam radiofrequency energy that can penetrate the brain’s outer edge, which has raised questions about cancers of the head and neck, brain tumors or leukemia. Most research has found no risk.

WASHINGTON - A huge study from Denmark offers the laagsdhfgdf reassurance that cell phones don’t trigger cancer.

Scientists tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including 52,000 who had gabbed on the gadgets for 10 years or more, and some who started using them 21 years ago.

They matched phone records to the famed Danish Cancer Registry that records every citizen who gets the disease �" and reported Tuesday that cell-phone callers are no more likely than anyone else to suffer a range of cancer types.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the largest yet to find no bad news about the safety of cell phones and the radiofrequency energy they emit.

No end to the debate
But even the lead researcher doubts it will end the debate.

“There’s really no biological basis for you to be concerned about radio waves,” said John Boice, a Vanderbilt University professor and scientific director of the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md. “Nonetheless, people are.”

So Boice and colleagues at Copenhagen’s Danish Cancer Society plan to continue tracking the Danish callers until at least some have used the phones for 30 years.

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This so-called Danish cohort “is probably the strongest study out there because of the outstanding registries they keep,” said Joshua Muscat of Pennsylvania State University, who also has studied cell phones and cancer.

Reassurance ... for now
“As the body of evidence accumulates, people can become more reassured that these devices are safe, but the final word is not there yet,” Muscat added.

Cell phones beam radiofrequency energy that can penetrate the brain’s outer edge, raising questions about cancers of the head and neck, brain tumors or leukemia. Most research has found no risk, but a few studies have raised questions. And while U.S. health officials insist the evidence shows no real reason for concern, they don’t give the phones a definitive clean bill of health, either, pending long-term data on slow-growing cancers.

For the laagsdhfgdf study, personal identification numbers assigned to each Dane at birth allowed researchers to match people who began using cell phones between 1982 and 1995 with cancer records.

Among 420,000 callers tracked through 2002, there were 14,249 cancers diagnosed �" fewer than the 15,001 predicted from national cancer rates. Nor did the study find increased risks for any specific tumor type.

� 2007 . .

Retailers roll out low-cost health services - Personal Finance

Attention shoppers: Flu shots in aisle five

More retailers roll out low-cost health care services
Vanessa RichardsonContributor

Vanessa RichardsonContributor•document.write('')E-maildocument.write('');Lorie Vick of Orlando, Fla., had originally stopped at her local CVS drugstore to buy contact-lens solution, but then she saw signs for flu shots. She walked to the back of the store and saw the offer came from MinuteClinic, a mini-healthcare center next to the medicament counter that offered cures for minor ailments ranging from allergies to warts. Fifteen minutes later, Vick got her shot, and the next day she brought her teenage son Tim back for his.

"It would have taken twice or three times as long waiting at my doctor’s office, so this is great," Vick said.

Tim agreed and added, "You can look at more stuff here."

More people are heading to their local drug store instead of their family doctor for medical checkups. Establishments like MinuteClinic, Take Care and RediCare are taking up more space in major retail stores to diagnose, treat and write prescriptions for patients with common illnesses.

MinuteClinic, the nation’s largest operator of retail clinics, has 116 stores in 17 states and boasts of seeing more than 600,000 patients since it started in 2000. It was purchased by CVS last July. Other major retailers, eager to boost profits and customer share, are following suit. Target, Kroger, Wal-Mart and Walgreen are partnering with more than a dozen clinic operators to open thousands of in-store health care centers in the next two years.

Because many clinics just lease space in their stores, retailers don’t expect to make money from the health clinics themselves but rather from increased customer traffic before and after appointments.

They also increase retailers’ emphasis on health care, said Michael Polzin, spokesman for Walgreens, which will have TakeCare clinics in 60 stores by year’s end. "The medicament makes up two-thirds of our revenue so we consider ourselves a healthcare retailer anyway. These clinics add to our reputation of being more convenient and accessible to customers."

Cheap, convenient health care
The clinics are typically small, with one or two exam rooms, and are staffed by board-certified nurse practitioners or physician assistants, but usually have a physician's oversight. At Take Care clinics, for example, doctors review 10 percent of patient charts and visit clinics once a month. Clinics can treat anyone over the age of 18 months, but if an ailment is too serious, such as asthma or diabetes, clinics refer patients to a local doctor or emergency room.

No appointments are required, they are open evenings and weekends and visits often take no more than 15 minutes. If the wait is still too long, some clinics give out pagers so people can shop while waiting.

Patients know ahead of time what they’ll pay for their cure because prices are posted outside each center. For those with health insurance, MinuteClinic charges the office co-pay indicated on the insurance card; those paying out of their own pocket are charged between $49 and $59 per cure. That compares favorably that to a standard doctor’s visit, which could cost over $100.

Live Vote

Would you visit a medical clinic in a retail store?

Even though most Americans have yet to see these mini-clinics in their corner drugstores, those who have are pleased with the speedy, inexpensive care. A Harris Poll of 2,200 people found that while only 7 percent of respondents had visited a clinic, 89 percent of them were happy with the care they got.

Vicki Partridge paid $39 for a pregnancy agsdhfgdfing at an Early Solutions clinic in Taylor, Mich.,  during her lunch hour. She had gone there for pinkeye cure a month prior, so the nurse practitioner pulled up her files, saw that she had insurance and was allergic to penicillin. Partridge was in and out within 30 minutes, less time than it would have taken round-trip to her doctor’s office. "It was so worth not having to go through the hassle of making an appointment, and it was probably cheaper," she said.

CONTINUED: The future of medicine?1 | 2 | Next >

Steer clear of road rage on your commute - Mental Health

Road rage can churn in the calmest of hearts

Here??�s how to keep your blood pressure in check on your next commute
Ben Grefsrud / msnbc.com
By By Patrick Enright contributor

David Stallings isn't the kind of person you'd expect to succumb to road rage. He is calm and mild mannered, a longtime Zen Buddhist. Plus, he's professionally dedicated to safe transportation ??" he works for Seattle's Metro Transit.

But years ago, while trapped in traffic in his truck, he happened across his daughter's white plastic toy ray gun, complete with flashing lights. On a whim, he surreptitiously used it to zap a car that had just cut him off.

"I thought, 'Well, that's kind of satisfying,'" he says. The satisfaction lasted a year. Then, "it dawned on me that I was sort of giving vent to some of the same [aggression] that I was condemning."

Road rage and roadway congestion are familiar scenarios for millions of American drivers, and they're not getting any better. A 2006 Transportation Research Board report noted that congestion is increasing in intensity, extent and duration. Average one-way travel time for commuters in 2000 was 25.5 minutes, three minutes more than in 1990.

Certainly anecdotal reports of aggression behind the wheel are increasing. Consider the case of the Raleigh, N.C., driver who allegedly circled the block and ran down a pedestrian who had dared to yell at him to slow down. Or the driver who ran a fellow motorist off the road in Peoria, Ariz., for talking on his cell phone. Or the off-duty Detroit police officer facing charges for allegedly firing shots at an SUV driver who had accidentally hit his Dodge Magnum. And those are just incidents from the past few months.

Fight or flight
Exact figures for incidents of road rage are hard to come by, partly because the behaviors are difficult to define precisely. A 2002 survey done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 40 percent of drivers felt other drivers had become more aggressive in the past year, compared with 30 percent who felt that way in 1997.

Normally, when stress becomes overwhelming, experts suggest taking a break from the situation or setting aside time to exercise. But in a car, your options are limited. Seething? Don't forget to breathe-Get comfortable by loosening tight clothing or rolling down the window.-Distract yourself ??" listen to calming music or an audiobook.-Take a series of slow, deep breaths to reduce anger and stress.-Don't assume the worst, and realize that every driver makes mistakes.-Think of the big picture; an extra five minutes won't kill you. Driving aggressively might.-Treat other drivers with the same common courtesy you'd expect in the grocery aisle.

"Stress is a fight-or-flight reaction," says New York psychologist Carol Goldberg. "If [people] can't flee, like they're stuck in a traffic jam, they fight and get road rage."

So how can you keep from succumbing to blood-pressure-raising fury when you're crammed behind the wheel? These tips from experts can help you change your body and your mind:

Get comfortable. Gerry Matthews, a psychology professor at the University of Cincinnati who has studied driver behavior, says driver comfort "plays into driver fatigue and there's a close relationship between fatigue and stress. Stress makes you fatigued and fatigue makes you stressed." Adjust the temperature so you're not too warm, loosen your tie or other tight-fitting clothing and make sure your seat is positioned so you're relaxed to avoid the physical tension that comes with stress.

Distract yourself ??" but only a little. "Instead of honking your horn and trying to find shortcuts and giving everybody the finger, you could say, 'Look, I'm going to use this time productively,'" suggests Dr. Paul Rosch, president of the American Institute of Stress. Listening to soothing music, audiobooks or foreign-language tapes is a way for drivers to block out the annoyance of traffic. But be careful. As Matthews points out, talking on a cell phone, hands-free or not, "is distracting and dangerous when driving."

Breathe deeply. You don't need to be an expert in meditation to benefit from deep breathing. Rick Waranch, a part-time psychology faculty member at Johns Hopkins University, recommends simply taking seven or eight slow breaths per minute from the diaphragm, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Don't make assumptions. It's easy to think that the guy in the BMW cut you off maliciously, but that doesn't mean it's true. Social psychologists have a name for this kind of assumption: the fundamental attribution error. It's our tendency to ascribe behavior too much to underlying personality traits and too little to the particular situation. Maybe the Beemer driver is a doctor rushing to surgery to save a life. Assuming the worst will only add to your stress. Also, remember you're equally prone to mistakes. One study Matthews cites asked people to rate their own driving safety and the skills of other drivers. The result? "People overestimate ??� their driving ability," says Matthews.

Think of the big picture. Does it really matter if your 15-minute drive takes you 20 minutes, or if you let in that merging SUV? Rational thinking is difficult when you're seeing red, but with practice, it's doable. Waranch has helped several patients suffering from driving-related stress. "It's largely convincing yourself that it's pretty stupid to [drive aggressively], that it's unhealthy, and that it's not going to serve any purpose," he says.

Be self-aware. Knowing what triggers stress in you is key to reducing it, Matthews says. Accepting that other drivers are beyond your control can improve your attitude. It's also good to recognize that driving a car conveys a false sense of invulnerability and adds a degree of anonymity that can make the best of us behave less than graciously. Applying the common courtesy you'd exhibit in the grocery-store checkout line while on the road can make driving in traffic less confrontational and even collaborative.

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For Stallings, the toy gun wasn't the answer. His Buddhist leanings made breathing exercises a natural solution.

"It's a way not only to let [the irritation] go but to feel engaged ??� in a positive way," he says. "All you have to do is just kind of turn a corner."

Patrick Enright is a Seattle-based freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in , Mr. Showbiz, Wall of Sound, Movies.com and Seattle Weekly.

? 2007

Microsoft role complicates ‘$100 laptop’ - Tech News & Reviews

Microsoft role complicates ‘$100 laptop’

Company says it's uncertain whether it can fit Windows on the machines
Anja Niedringhaus / AP
Co-Founder and Chairman of the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nicholas Negroponte shows off the '$100 laptop' at a news conference.

By By Brian Bergstein

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - One of the most ambitious aspects of the "$100 laptop" project for schoolchildren in developing countries is the machines' open-source software platform, designed to be intuitive for kids.

That's why many people were taken aback last week when the founder of the nonprofit laptop project, Nicholas Negroponte, announced that buyers of the machine will be able to add Windows, the ultimate in proprietary software.

( is a joint Microsoft - NBC Universal venture.)

However, Microsoft Corp. says it's uncertain whether it can fit Windows on the laptops. Will Poole, who heads Microsoft's emerging-markets group, says the limited storage space (recently upped to 1 gigabyte of flash memory) and other original elements on the One Laptop Per Child program's "XO" computer aren't welcoming for Windows.

"I don't know how to get the thing to run on less than 2 gigs," he said. Plus, at least 10 custom drivers �" which tell an operating system how to interact with hardware �" need to be designed, Poole said.

Why does this matter? Because One Laptop Per Child is still negotiating with several governments to finalize orders for at least 3 million of the machines, the level at which the project's mass-distribution plans kick in.

And with the computers' price now up to $175 ($100 is the long-term goal), some officials might want Windows as a potential backup if the machines' alternative interface doesn't capture children's fancy as envisioned.

"We have had requests from government officials who are looking at that device, to ask us if it can run Windows," Poole said.

Negroponte seemed to deliver a definitive yes to that question: "We will run Windows," he said last week. Asked for elaboration, a spokesman for Negroponte wrote in an e-mail: "He was stating a fact �" not a hope or a desire."

But Poole said the answer should have been maybe: "I cannot make any promises," he said. "There's work still to be done. People should not bank on having Windows."

For his part, Negroponte wasn't touting Windows itself as much as user choice. He stressed the educational theories behind his project's original interface, which is open-source so as to let children tinker with it. He also said government ministers had not really been asking him about Windows on the machines, citing Egpyt as a rare exception. But he acknowledged that the potential to run Windows could reduce the risk for some buyers.

"He's playing to some purchasing minister somewhere," said Wayan Vota, who directs the Geekcorps international tech-development organization and follows the laptop project closely at his OLPCNews blog. Vota added that he hopes no XO buyers switch to Windows, because he believes Microsoft's software would be unable to utilize many of XO's innovations, including its radical power-saving capabilities and wireless networking functions.

Complicating the mix is an emerging little computer for the developing world from Intel Corp. _ the Classmate PC, which can run Windows or Linux. Intel expects its price to fall below $250 by the middle of the year and just signed a deal to sell 700,000 Classmates in Pakistan _ one of the countries that One Laptop Per Child hopes to reach.

Meanwhile, Microsoft recently announced a $3 Windows "starter edition" package for international governments that subsidize student computers.

After Negroponte's comments last week, representatives from his group objected to ' description that the nonprofit was "working with" Microsoft so Windows could run on the computers. Spokesmen for the project insisted that Microsoft was acting on its own accord, and that Microsoft got "beta" versions of the XO computers just like a lot of other companies have.

"OLPC has no working relationship with Microsoft nor does Microsoft get any special cure," said a statement from One Laptop's president for software and development, Walter Bender. "They are just another software company interested in the project. OLPC is aware that Microsoft wants to create a Windows platform for the laptop, but OLPC is not involved in that project in any way."

Certainly, Negroponte's and Poole's differing reports about Windows on XO indicate the camps are not exactly on the same page. But it's unclear whether they are as distant as the public-relations statement would hold.

Negroponte told a Linux convention in April 2006 that he had been discussing with Microsoft how Windows could run on the computers �" which is why he was displeased when Bill Gates pooh-poohed the laptop effort.

Click for related content'$100 laptop' to cost $175Microsoft extends XP supportReview: Vista, Microsoft's new Windows

More recently, Negroponte has been quoted as saying the laptops got an SD port �" where Secure Digital cards can be inserted, expanding the memory available �" so Windows could work. (Bender contradicted that, saying the SD port was added to provide extra space for photos taken with the computer's camera.)

"It is true that we have been working together," Microsoft's Poole said. "We have been having active, high-level conversations going on two years now."

Copyright 2007 . .

Doctors, insurers ask, ‘Who are you?’ - Nightly News with Brian Williams

More doctors, insurers asking, ‘Who are you?’

Medical identity theft, on the rise, can threaten lives as well as wallets
NBC VIDEO•Medical ID theft creates concerns
April 3: Medical ID theft is on the rise in the United States, and there’s more to be worried about than just the financial ramifications. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports.

Nightly News

By By Anne Thompson and Alex JohnsonNBC News

Anne ThompsonChief environmental correspondent•ProfileAndrew Brooke’s family knew something was screwy when they got a collection notice for unpaid bills for treatment of his work-related back injury, which included large prescriptions of the controlled painkiller Oxycontin.

“I’m looking at this bill, and I’m looking at my 3-week-old baby that can’t even hold his head up, and it’s just a sense of outrage,” said Andrew’s father, John Brooke, of Bothell, Wash., a suburb of Seattle.

Likewise, Jo-Ann Davis knew there was a mistake when a cop greeted her at the medicament where she had gone to pick up a prescription in early 2005.

“I’ve never even had a speeding ticket,” said Davis, a veterinary technician from Moon, Pa., near Pittsburgh.

Medical providers, it turned out, thought Andrew and Davis were other people. Their medical identities had been stolen.

These are not isolated incidents: In a report last year, the World Privacy Forum found that the number of Americans identifying themselves in government documents as victims of medical identity theft had nearly tripled in just four years, to more than a quarter-million in 2005.

Motives for medical identity theft can vary. Some thieves, as in these cases, are seeking controlled medications. Others are seeking federal money. A case that wrapped up in January in Southern California illustrates just how sophisticated such operations can be.

Five health care providers pleaded guilty to stealing more than $900,000 in 2003 by luring hundreds of elderly Vietnamese patients to a fake medical clinic in Milpitas, where they would offer free checkups. According to prosecutors, they would copy the patients’ Medicare records and then use the information to bill the government for phantom services.

Click for related coverageRead the full World Privacy Forum report (PDF)Check your records: State-by-state guide

Steep costs on money and lives
Of all the forms of identity theft, misappropriation of your medical records is among the most damaging. It’s not just the financial toll �" if your medical identity is stolen, erroneous entries can turn up in your records, which could end up killing you.

Get your medical records

All hospitals and most doctors have a release form you can use to request your records. Because state laws differ on how long such records must be archived, call the office to make sure your records still exist.

You can have your records sent to yourself or directly to a health care professional. If you do have the records sent to a health professional, let him or her know to expect the files.

In many cases, a letter may be all you need. It should include:

-Your birthdate-Your full name (including any information about name changes)-When you were seen -The specific information you want

Source: GeneticHealth.com

“If someone shows up in an emergency room and this has happened to them, they could receive improper treatment, and that is a real problem,” said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit research group.

For example, if an identity thief presents himself at the hospital in your name and is identified as having a different blood type, that blood type ends up registered in your medical history, with potentially disastrous consequences if you end up in a serious accident.

Or suppose you apply for a new job. Even if you’re fit as a fiddle, you could still fail a pre-employment medical screening or be rejected for company-provided health insurance because of the inaccurate presence of an ailment in your medical history that you don’t have.

It is also the most difficult type of identity theft to fix after the fact, because victims have limited recourse. Dixon found that medical identity theft typically leaves a trail of false information in medical records that can plague victims for years, because even if you manage to correct your records in one place, it’s almost impossible to track down everywhere they have been disseminated across the networks of medical providers, insurers and government agencies.

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Too many roadblocks
Five states �" California, Florida, Nevada, Arkansas and Delaware �" have recently passed or are considering laws to address breaches of medical information, but the privacy forum still recommends that everyone check his or her medical records for accuracy.

Live survey

Are you confident your records are safe?

Georgetown University’s Center on Medical Rights and Privacy maintains a state-by-state guide to checking your records. But if you find an error, trying to correct it can be a complex and sometimes fruitless task.

Alex JohnsonReporter•Profile

The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA, requires health care providers and insurers to give you access to your medical records and to give you a copy of their privacy practices. If your records are wrong, the act gives providers and insurers as long as 90 days to respond, but if they disagree with you, they don’t have to do anything.

Moreover, HIPAA doesn’t require medical providers and insurers to remove incorrect information; in fact, it says that if incorrect information leads to inappropriate treatment, the bad information should not be removed from your records, in order to preserve a paper trail.

CONTINUED: Authorities slow to prosecute1 | 2 | Next >

More weekend stroke patients die - Heart Health

Weekend stroke patients have higher death risk

14 percent increase may be tied to lack of expertise, resources, experts say

DALLAS - If you have a stroke, try to have it between Monday and Friday.

A Canadian study released on Thursday found that patients hospitalized for the most common kind of stroke on weekends had a higher death rate than those admitted on weekdays.

The “weekend effect” has been identified before in other conditions such as cancer and pulmonary embolism.

But this is the first major study to look at it in relation to ischemic stroke, which is caused by a clot that blocks blood flow in an artery in or leading to the brain.

“If the ‘weekend effect’ occurs in a socialized health care system (like Canada’s), it is likely that the effect may be larger in other settings,” said Dr. Gustavo Saposnik, director of the Stroke Research Unit Division of Neurology at the University of Toronto and lead author of the study.

The study, published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, looked at all ischemic stroke hospital admissions in Canada from April 2003 to March 2004.

It found that about a quarter of the 26,676 patients admitted to 606 hospitals over that time period were brought in on Saturdays and Sundays.

“After adjusting for age, gender and other medical complications, researchers found that patients admitted on the weekend had a 14 percent higher risk of dying within seven days of admission compared to patients admitted during the week,” the American Heart Association said in a statement.

The “weekend effect” was even greater when patients went to a rural hospital instead of an urban one, and when the doctor in charge was a general practitioner instead of a specialist, it said.

Researchers said the higher death risk might be linked to a relative lack of resources or expertise in hospitals during weekends. But they did not elaborate and said more study was needed.

Click for related contentProven methods to cut your heart attack riskSouped-up CT scan speeds up diagnosis

No one with stroke-like symptoms should hesitate to seek medical cure on weekends, they added.

“Although the differences in weekend admission found in this study may be real, the potential benefits of obtaining early cure would well outweigh the risk of waiting,” said Dr. Larry Goldstein, chair of the Stroke Council of the American Heart Association.

if (window.Health_StrokeQA) { displayApp(Health_StrokeQA); }

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.

Siegfried & Roy to tell all - Gossip: The Scoop

Siegfried & Roy ready
to let cat out of the bag

Plus: Ashlee Simpson a new
acid-reflux spokesperson?
NBC / AP file
Is America ready for "Siegfried & Roy: The Book"?

By By Jeannette Walls

Siegfried and Roy are ready to tell all.

Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, the hugely popular big cat tamers who were sidelined when Horn was mauled by a tiger last year, are secretly shopping around their joint memoir.

“They’re meeting with top publishers in the coming weeks,” says one insider. “It’s all very hush-hush, but apparently, they’re going to tell everything about their private and professional lives. We’re very excited about it.”

The source says the bidding will probably be in the seven-figure range.

Spokesmen for Siegfried and Roy didn’t return calls.

An ad for Ashlee?
Frank Micelotta / Getty ImagesAt least some people are pretty pleased with Ashlee Simpson’s lip synching debacle: the makers of medication for acid-reflux disease.

The teen crooner, explaining why she didn’t sing live on Saturday Night Live, said on the Today Show that her voice was hoarse because she had been suffering from “severe acid reflux.” And that makes marketers of acid reflux medications such as Nexium and Prevacid quite happy.

“Somebody of her high profile helps raise the profile of the disease,” David Albaugh of AstraZeneca �" makers of Nexium, the widely advertised “purple pill” �" told The Scoop. “Obviously, it’s good to have improved and increased awareness of acid reflux.”

“We believe that celebrities who talk about their experience with certain health conditions, such as acid reflux in this case, can help educate people on important health issues, as well as motivate people to talk to their doctors and get properly diagnosed and treated,” a spokeswoman for TAP, the company that makes Prevacid, e-mailed The Scoop in a statement. “We wish Ashlee Simpson the very best on her road to relief from acid reflux.”

RELATED STORIESAshlee Simpson busted for ‘SNL’ lip-synchingWalls: Simpson paying lip service to realitySimpson goes live at Radio Music Awards

Both companies, however, said that they have no plans at this time to ask Simpson to become their acid-reflux celebrity spokeswoman.

Notes from all over
Kevin Winter / Getty ImagesTom Cruise has a not quite impossible mission: he wants to climb Mount Everest. “That’s been a dream of mine,” the actor said at the American Film Institute, reports Zap2it.com. “I’m not a great climber, but I enjoy it.” Cruise also said he’d love to do a musical, and admits that he still sometimes sings and boogies in his underwear, like he did in “Risky Business,” saying that he calls it his “dance of freedom.”   . . . Hugh Grant joked about Julia Roberts’ “very big mouth” to Oprah Winfrey. “Literally, physically, she has a very big mouth,” Grant said of his “Notting Hill” co-star. “When I was kissing her I was aware of a faint echo.” When Winfrey defended Roberts as “one of the nicest people I ever met,” Grant deadpanned, “I wouldn’t go that far.”  . . .  Madonna used the F-word at her rabbi’s book party. The spiritual girl, speaking at the London launch for Rabbi Michael Berg’s “Becoming Like God,” at one point snapped at the crowd, “Turn those f----- mobile phones off.”

document.write("");Jeannette Walls Delivers the Scoopdocument.write(''); Mondays through Thursdays on

� 2006

Heartburn drugs linked to hip-fracture risk - Aging

Heartburn drugs tied to hip-fracture risk

Nexium, Prilosec may make it harder for body to absorb calcium, study says

CHICAGO - Taking such popular heartburn drugs as Nexium, Prevacid or Prilosec for a year or more can raise the risk of a broken hip markedly in people over 50, a large study in Britain found.

The study raises questions about the safety of some of the most widely used and heavily promoted prescription drugs on the market, taken by millions of people.

The researchers speculated that when the drugs reduce acid in the stomach, they also make it more difficult for the body to absorb bone-building calcium. That can lead to weaker bones and fractures.

Hip fractures in the elderly often lead to life-threatening complications. As a result, doctors should make sure patients have good reason to stay on heartburn drugs long term, said study co-author Dr. Yu-Xiao Yang of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

“The general perception is they are relatively harmless,” Yang said. “They often are used without a clear or justified indication for the cure.”

Some people find relief from heartburn with over-the-counter antacids such as Tums, Rolaids and Maalox. For others, these medicines do not work well. Moreover, heartburn can be more than a source of discomfort. People with chronic heartburn can develop painful ulcers in the esophagus, and in rare cases, some can end up with damage that can lead to esophageal cancer.

Dr. Sandra Dial of McGill University in Montreal, who was not involved in the study but has done similar research, said patients should discuss the risks and benefits with their doctors and taper off their use of these medicines if they can.

Nexium, Prevacid and Prilosec are members of a class of drugs known as proton pump inhibitors. The study found a similar but smaller risk of hip fractures for another class of acid-fighting drugs called H2 blockers. Those drugs include Tagamet and Pepcid.

The study, published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at medical records of more than 145,000 patients in England, where a large electronic database of records is available for research. The average age of the patients was 77.

The patients who used proton pump inhibitors for more than a year had a 44 percent higher risk of hip fracture than nonusers. The longer the patients took the drugs, the higher their risk.

Related storyElderly dying from falls more often, study findsVirtual dinners link elderly with faraway family'Use it or lose it' brain theory put to agsdhfgdf

The biggest risk was seen in people who took high doses of the drugs for more than a year. That group had a 2½ times greater risk of hip fractures than nonusers.

Yang said that for every 1,262 elderly patients treated with the drugs for more than a year, there would be one additional hip fracture a year attributable to the drugs. For every 336 elderly patients treated for more than a year with high doses, there would be one extra hip fracture a year attributable to the drugs.

Dr. Doug Levine of AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nexium and Prilosec, said the study does not prove that proton pump inhibitors cause hip fractures. It merely suggests a potential association, he said, adding that doctors need to monitor their patients for proper dosage and watch how long they take the drugs.

Dr. Alan Buchman of Northwestern University, who was not involved in the research, said the study should not change medical practice, since doctors already should be monitoring the bone density of elderly people taking the drugs and recommending calcium-rich diets to all patients.

“Most people are not taking enough calcium to start with,” he said. He also wondered if a similar result would have been found in a sunny climate, because vitamin D from sunshine helps with calcium absorption.

Also, Buchman said it not known whether the acid-fighting drugs prevent esophageal cancer. He said the risk of esophageal cancer has been exaggerated in the marketing of these drugs.

“I think the risk has been overplayed and scared the community,” Buchman said.

Heartburn medicines are heavily are advertised in “Ask your doctor about ...” commercials in this country, particularly during the evening news.

Nexium is the second-biggest-selling drug in the world, behind the cholesterol medicine Lipitor, with global sales totaling $4.6 billion last year, according to IMS Health, which tracks drug sales.

Yang and his co-authors disclosed in the paper that they have worked as consultants and received speaking fees from companies making acid-fighting drugs. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Gastroenterological Association/GlaxoSmithKline Glaxo Institute for Digestive Health.

Men in the study had a higher drug-associated risk of hip fracture than women, possibly because women may be more aware of osteoporosis and may get more calcium in their diets, Yang said. He plans more research on whether calcium-rich diets or calcium supplements can prevent the problem.

� 2006 . .

Got heartburn? Check your waistline - Nutrition Notes

Got heartburn? Excess weight may be to blame

Sufferers can feel better by altering diet, losing a little in the middle
Karen Collins, R.D.Special to

Karen Collins, R.D.

Are you suffering with serious heartburn? If so, your weight might have something to do with how you've been feeling �" and how you can feel better.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, is a common digestive disorder that can affect people of all ages. As recent studies continue to confirm the longstanding link between excess weight and GERD, soaring obesity rates are likely to lead to an increasing number of Americans who are affected by this disease.

The severe, frequent heartburn of GERD occurs when the muscle that acts as a valve between the esophagus and stomach doesn’t work properly, allowing stomach acids to back up into the esophagus, which can damage tissue.

One 2006 analysis of 20 studies, including more than 18,000 patients, showed that in the United States being overweight increased odds of developing GERD by more than 50 percent. Being obese more than doubled the odds.

Among more than 10,000 women analyzed in the Nurses’ Health Study, weight gain of more than about 10 to 20 pounds was linked with almost tripling the development of frequent heartburn symptoms.

The link between being overweight and risk of GERD is not new, but research is beginning to explain why it occurs. One recent study measured pressure within the stomach and found that each increase in body mass index (a measure of weight status) that corresponded to about a 10- to 20-pound weight jump was linked to a 10 percent increase in stomach pressure.

Test yourself •Is it heartburn or something else?Researchers suggest that excess body fat, particularly around the abdomen, increases pressure in the abdomen, which in turn increases pressure in the stomach. The pressure to the stomach pushes the sphincter muscle between the stomach and esophagus to open. Overeating might also increase that pressure, and so can pregnancy.

Frequent heartburn can be serious
A report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association on nutrition’s involvement in indigestion and heartburn noted that certain spices and acidic food and drink may cause pain in an esophagus already raw from stomach acid reflux. But these foods may take the blame for episodes that really are due to excessive portions.

Studies have also suggested that fatty foods may increase the tendency for reflux, yet research on fatty foods is unclear. In one small Italian study, for example, the total calories of meals increased the tendency for reflux over the next six hours, while raising fat content didn’t increase reflux if total calories remained the same.

With all the jokes about heartburn, it’s easy to regard it as just an uncomfortable inconvenience. Scientists say, however, that although occasional heartburn is not a worry, frequent heartburn can lead to serious complications if left untreated.

GERD is an established risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma, a type of esophageal cancer that has increased approximately 600 percent since 1971. If both obesity and GERD are present, the risk of this kind of cancer increases even more than seen with GERD alone.

Click for related contentTest your heartburn IQCalculate your BMICalories, not carbs, count for most dietersWhy raiding the fridge at night is a bad idea

There are a wide range of medications available to treat heartburn, some of which can be used together. If heartburn occurs several times a week, see your doctor. If the cause of heartburn is unhealthy eating habits or excess weight, it is probably hurting your health in other ways too.

Instead of trying to make unhealthy eating tolerable, it may be time to develop better eating habits and shape up to a healthy weight to reduce GERD and risk of esophageal cancer.

� 2007

Rosie O’Donnell won’t return to ‘The View’ - Television

Rosie O’Donnell won’t return to ‘The View’

Announcement comes two days after heated on-air fight with co-host
Yolanda Perez / AP
Elisabeth Hasselbeck, left, and Rosie O'Donnell sparred frequently on "The View," though they profess to be good friends off camera.

video•Rosie quits 'The View' early
May 25: With news that Rosie O'Donnell will not returning to 'The View,' Donald Trump comments on his feud with O'Donnell.

Rosie O’Donnell has fought her last fight at “The View.”

ABC said Friday she asked for, and received, an early exit from her contract at the daytime chatfest following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday. She was due to leave in mid-June.

It ended a colorful eight-month tenure for O’Donnell that lifted the show’s ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show creator Barbara Walters. O’Donnell feuded with Donald Trump and frequently had snippy exchanges with the more conservative Hasselbeck.

O’Donnell said last month she would be leaving because she could not agree to a new contract with ABC executives.

“Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at ‘The View,”’ Walters said. “I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change.”

In a statement, O’Donnell said that “it’s been an amazing year and I love all three women.”

No one was feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with Hasselbeck began over O’Donnell’s statement last week about the war: “655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?”

Talk show critics accused O’Donnell of calling U.S. troops terrorists. She called Hasselbeck “cowardly” for not saying anything in response to the critics.

“Do not call me a coward, because No. 1, I sit here every single day, open my heart and tell people what I believe,” Hasselbeck retorted, and their riveting exchange continued despite failed attempts by their co-hosts to cut to a commercial.

According to a New York Post report, O’Donnell’s chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing mustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in “The View” studios. ABC executives didn’t return repeated calls for questions on the incident Friday.

On Thursday O’Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner’s birthday. “The View” aired a taped show on Friday.

Related contentRosie’s ‘View’ won’t be the same without her Vote: Will you miss Rosie on ‘The View’?Political discussion turns personal on ‘View’Walters denies fight was ratings stunt  What do you think about her departure?

Slide show•Rosie through the years
From the ‘80s through ‘The View,’ a look at the feisty TV host’s careerOn her Web site, O’Donnell posted a scrapbooklike video on Friday with pictures and news clippings of her tenure at “The View.” Cyndi Lauper’s “Sisters of Avalon” played in the background.

A day earlier, she posted messages on her Web site indicating she might not be back.

“When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the work is done,” she wrote. “Any more would take away.”

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� 2007 . .

WP: Bug mutates into medical mystery - washingtonpost.com Highlights

Bug mutates into medical mystery

Antibiotics, heartburn drugs suspected
By By Rob Stein

WASHINGTON - First came stomach cramps, which left Christina Shultz doubled over and weeping in pain. Then came nausea and fatigue -- so overwhelming she couldn't get out of bed for days. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, the nastiest diarrhea of her life hit -- repeatedly forcing her into the hospital.

Doctors finally discovered that the 35-year-old Hilliard, Ohio, woman had an inagsdhfgdfinal bug that used to be found almost exclusively among older, sicker patients in hospitals and was usually easily cured with a dose of antibiotics. But after months of cure, Shultz is still incapacitated.

"It's been a nightmare," said Shultz, a mother of two young children. "I just want my life back."

Shultz is one of a growing number of young, otherwise healthy Americans who are being stricken by the bacterial infection known as Clostridium difficile -- or C. diff -- which appears to be spreading rapidly around the country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness.

That is raising alarm among health officials, who are concerned that many cases may be misdiagnosed and are puzzled as to what is causing the microbe to become so much more common and dangerous.

"It's a new phenomenon. It's just emerging," said L. Clifford McDonald of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "We're very concerned. We know it's happening, but we're really not sure why it's happening or where this is going."

Antibiotics to blame?
It may, however, be the laagsdhfgdf example of a common, relatively benign bug that has mutated because of the overuse of antibiotics.

"This may well be another consequence of our use of antibiotics," said John G. Bartlett, an infectious-disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "It's another example of an organism that all of a sudden has gotten a lot meaner and nastier."

•More health newsIn addition, new evidence released last week suggests that the enormous popularity of powerful new heartburn drugs may also be playing a role.

The antibiotics Flagyl (metronidazole) and vancomycin still cure many patients, but others develop stubborn infections like Shultz's that take over their lives. Some resort to having their colon removed to end the debilitating diarrhea. A small but disturbingly high number have died, including an otherwise healthy pregnant woman who succumbed earlier this year in Pennsylvania after miscarrying twins.

The infection usually hits people who are taking antibiotics for other reasons, but a handful of cases have been reported among people who were taking nothing, another unexpected and troubling turn in the germ's behavior.

The infection has long been common in hospital patients taking antibiotics. As the drugs kill off other bacteria in the digestive system, the C. diff microbe can proliferate. It spreads easily through contact with contaminated people, clothing or surfaces.

Infections double
There are no national statistics, but the number of infections in hospitals appears to have doubled from 2000 to 2003 and there may be as many as 500,000 cases each year, McDonald said. Other estimates put the number in the millions.

The emerging problem first gained attention when unusually large and serious outbreaks began turning up in other countries. In Canada, for example, Quebec health officials reported last year that perhaps 200 patients died in an outbreak involving at least 10 hospitals. Similar outbreaks were reported in England and the Netherlands.

After the CDC began receiving reports of severe cases among hospital patients in the United States -- and in people who had never, or just briefly, been hospitalized -- it launched an investigation.

In the Dec. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC reported that an analysis of 187 C. diff samples found that the unusually dangerous strain that caused the Quebec cases was also involved in outbreaks at eight health care facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

"This strain has somehow been able to get into hospitals widely distributed across the United States," said Dale N. Gerding of Loyola University in Chicago, who helped conduct the analysis. "We're not sure how."

But scientists do have a few clues. The dangerous strain has mutated to become resistant to a class of frequently used antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. That means anyone taking those antibiotics for other reasons would be particularly prone to contract C. diff .

"Because this strain is resistant, it can take advantage of that situation and establish itself in the gut," Gerding said.

Experts said the resistant germ's proliferation offers the laagsdhfgdf reason why people should use antibiotics only when necessary, to reduce both their risk for C. diff and the chances that other microbes will mutate into more dangerous forms.

"That's one theory for what's happening here," said J. Thomas Lamont of Harvard Medical School. "If we reduce the number and amount of antibiotics given for trivial infections like colds and stuffy noses, we'd all be a lot better off."

Overuse of antibiotics can make germs more dangerous by killing off susceptible strains, leaving behind those that by chance have mutated to become less vulnerable to the drugs. The resistant strains then become dominant.

High toxin levels
In addition to being resistant, the dangerous C. diff strain also produces far higher levels of two toxins than do other strains, as well as a third, previously unknown toxin. That would explain why it makes people so much sicker and is more likely to kill. In Quebec, C. diff killed 6.9 percent of patients -- which is much higher than the disease's usual mortality rate -- and was a factor in more than 400 deaths.

Adding to the alarm is evidence that the infection is occurring outside of hospitals. When the CDC began looking for such cases earlier this year, investigators quickly identified 33 cases in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania, including 23 people who had never been in the hospital and 10 women who had been hospitalized only briefly to deliver a baby, the agency reported this month. Eight of the patients had never taken antibiotics.

"This is the first time we've started to see this not only in people who have never been in the hospital but also in those who are otherwise perfectly healthy and have not even taken antibiotics," McDonald said.

"It's probably going on everywhere," he said.

It remains unclear whether the cases occurring outside the hospital are being caused by the same dangerous strain.

"We don't really know what's going on here," McDonald said. "We know it's changing in some ways; we know it's changing the kinds of patients it's attacking, and we know it's causing more severe disease. But we don't know exactly why."

Canadian researchers, however, have found one possible culprit: popular new heartburn drugs. Patients taking proton pump inhibitors, such as Prilosec and Prevacid, are almost three times as likely to be diagnosed with C-diff , the McGill University researchers reported in the Dec. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. And those taking another type called H2-receptor antagonists, such as Pepcid and Zantac, are twice as likely. By suppressing stomach acid, the drugs may inadvertently help the bug, the researchers said.

Whatever the cause, the infection often resists standard cure. That is what happened to Shultz, who had been taking antibiotics to help clear up her acne when C. diff hit in June. Because the bacterium can hibernate in protective spores, patients can be prone to recurrences. It can take multiple rounds of antibiotics -- or sometimes infusions of antibodies or ingesting competing organisms such as yeast or the bacteria found in yogurt -- to finally cure them.

"I'm trying to stay positive," Shultz said. "People tell me it does go away and I will get rid of it someday. I'm looking forward to getting my life back, but I'm not convinced I'll ever be normal again."

� 2007 The Washington Post Company

Water good, coffee bad? Ain??�t necessarily so - Health

Water good, coffee bad? Ain??�t necessarily so

These and other recent medical maxims have become generally accepted as the truth. Today contributor Dr. Judith Reichman dissects myth from fact
FREE VIDEOFeb. 23: In this Woman's Health segment, Dr. Judith Reichman examines the health facts surrounding water and coffee as well as other medical maxims.

Today show

Today show
By By Dr. Judith Reichman"Today" contributorTODAY

We??�ve heard the same prescriptions for good health repeated for years by our mothers, friends, in magazine articles and, oh yes, by our doctors.?� Are they true, and are they supported by current research??� On Today??�s Woman, Today show medical contributor Dr. Judith Reichman tells us that in some instances this it??�s good for you advice ain??�t necessarily so.?�

Water, water everywhere! Should I drink it all?
There??�s a prevailing opinion that there??�s no such thing as too much water.?� Does the advice drink eight glasses a day really hold water??� Many women believe that the more they drink, especially when it comes in designer bottles, the less they??�ll eat, the more they??�ll flush toxins from their bodies, and the moister and dewier their skin will be.?� Countless magazine articles have recommended eight glasses a day (two quarts) as the gold standard of liquid health.?� None of these suppositions bear medical scrutiny.?� A diligent review, published in the American Journal of Physiology, could neither locate the origins of this edict, nor any evidence to support it.?� The moisture in your skin will suffer only if you meet the medical standards for dehydration.?� There??�s no need to monitor the color of your urine or count your empty water bottles.?� We have a marvelous built-in hydration control.?� It??�s called thirst, which works through multiple hormones and sensors in our vascular system.?� Also, much of what we consume contains liquid, even though it??�s not water, and despite what you??�ve heard, coffee, caffeinated soft drinks and other fluids do count.?� Finally, there are good reasons not to overdo fluids.?� Many women complain of incontinence problems simply because their overfilled bladder contracts before they reach the toilet.?� Just like most vitamins, a deficiency of water is bad, but excess is unhelpful and can even be dangerous.?� If you take in fluid faster than your kidneys can process it, you could even end up with water intoxication, causing confusion, coma and even death.

What about other beverages??� Should we decaffeinate?
There??�s no question that caffeine is a powerful psychoactive drug.?� We use it as a mental stimulant (and today the act of drinking coffee in coffee shops has become a social stimulant for conversation, business meetings, and logging onto the Web).?� Caffeine prevents sleepiness and sharpens thinking by blocking the action of certain neurotransmitters and lift moods by affecting dopamine.?� It revs you up by promoting release of adrenaline, starting at doses lower than fifty milligrams, which is about the amount in a serving of black tea or cola.?� It has been shown to improve muscle coordination and strength if consumed just prior to exercise or an athletic event.?� It also increases energy expenditure, and to a very small extent helps us burn calories.?� Because it helps relax the airways of the lungs, caffeine is associated with fewer asthma attacks in asthmatics.?� And here??�s an effect we??�ve all noticed: it can act as a laxative.?� In fact, many women rely on their morning coffee to keep them on schedule from both a gastroinagsdhfgdfinal and daily activity perspective.?� Two to three cups a day may lower the incidence of Parkinson??�s disease (according to Nurses??� Health Study data) and seems to decrease gallstone formation, at least in men.?� However ??" and there??�s always a however ??" there can be some negative effects, although some of which we??�re warned about may be exaggerated.?� The following have been associated with caffeine and may give us pause in taking that second or third cup of coffee:

Miscarriage
There may be as much as a 30 percent increase in early miscarriage of normal pregnancies for women who drink one to two cups of coffee a day.?� One study has shown this goes up to 40 percent with four cups.?� There??�s also concern about caffeine consumption while trying to conceive.?� Some studies have shown infertility rates double for women who drink more than two and a half cups of coffee a day.Cancer, coffee and smoking
No cancer correlation to caffeine has been found, except that women who smoke often do so at the same time that they drink their coffee.?� There is no increase in breast cancer from caffeine, although some women find breast tenderness is worsened with increased caffeine consumption.?� Osteoporosis
There is no conclusive link between caffeine and osteoporosis, but if caffeinated beverages (without milk) preclude milk or calcium-containing fluid consumption, the lack of calcium intake will correlate with osteoporosis risk.Hypertension
Caffeine can raise blood pressure for a few minutes, and in some cases hours.?� However coffee consumption does not seem to cause ongoing hypertensive disorder.?� If you already have hypertension, however, a cup of coffee may temporarily raise your blood pressure and this could ultimately increase your more immediate risk of stroke.Heart disease
Caffeine can cause palpitations, irregular or fast heartbeat, and if you have an existing abnormal heart rate or heart disease, this could be a problem.?� One study found an increased risk of cardiac arrest in nonsmokers who consumed six or more cups of coffee a day.?� But in general we can??�t blame heart disease or heart attacks on reasonable caffeine consumption.Headaches
Caffeine can increase the effectiveness of headache medications (and many of the over-the-counter headache medications in fact combine caffeine with either aspirin or a Tylenol-like component).?� But these combined products can actually cause rebound headaches.?� To avoid this take a pill feel better, then worse cycle, over-the-counter medications with caffeine shouldn??�t be used for more than two days at a time.PMS
Caffeine acts as a diuretic and should decrease discomfort and bloat.?� But it can also cause a fall in blood sugar, which increases symptoms of PMS.?� There can be a three-fold increase in PMS if we drink more than three to four cups of coffee a day.Bladder conditions
Caffeine speeds the kidneys??� processing of fluid, so we have to go more frequently.?� It can also irritate the bladder, leading to certain forms of incontinence.?� Caffeine and sleep
Caffeine stimulates the brain and also affects levels of melatonin, which promotes sleep.?� It takes four to seven hours to metabolize caffeine.?� The older we are, the longer it takes.?� And if you are on birth control pills or estrogen, the half life of caffeine may be doubled.?� So an afternoon cup of coffee can cause late night insomnia.Caffeine and anxiety
High doses increase the level of brain chemicals associated with anxiety.?� Caffeine and heartburn
Even decaffeinated coffee can increase stomach acid production and affect the closing of the valve between the stomach and esophagus, leading to reflux and heartburn.?� If you do have this problem, you not only need to decaffeinate, but you need to de-decaffeinate, i.e. no types of coffee at all.

The bottom line
In summary, caffeine does make us feel better, more alert; we sometimes exercise better, even think better.?� But we should not be consuming it, especially more than one to two cups per day, if we have:

Irregular heartbeats or palpitationsSevere PMSSleep problemsBladder problemsAnxiety and/or panic attacks

If it??�s Tuesday, it must be Belgian chocolate! What, if any, is the harm?
There is, of course, another product that we love that also contains some caffeine: chocolate.?� We??�ve been told that it??�s fattening and not good for us.?� It will rot your teeth, cause acne, make you fat. ?� Are these warnings true??� And what about the recent proclamations that chocolate is, to some extent, a health food?

First, the caffeine in chocolate is not very strong.?� One chocolate bar contains less than a cup of coffee. Chocolate also contains a group of very healthy ingredients called flavinoids, which are antioxidants and are also contained in fruits, nuts and vegetables (and red wine).?� These flavinoids, which are present in the cocoa bean, can reduce the blood??�s ability to clot (like aspirin) and may also help to lower blood pressure. Part of the fat content in chocolate comes from steric acid, which works on the body like a healthy monounsaturated fat.?� There is even some evidence this may help protect against cavities.?� But remember, a cup of chocolate is very dense in calories, containing up to a thousand calories or more, whereas a cup of broccoli contains less than forty.?� Moreover, white chocolate contains no flavinoids. Dark chocolate, which is considered the healthiest, contains two to four times the amount of flavinoids that milk chocolate has.?� If you want to have a couple of pieces of dark chocolate a day, consider the calories in your total count, but in the end this may not be such an anti-health treat.

We??�ve been told women should take iron supplements. Is that true?
To start, it is very important to know that iron supplements are the most common cause of poisoning deaths among children, and overload is dangerous at any age.?� If you??�re not anemic, doses over forty-five milligrams can cause constipation, vomiting, nausea or diarrhea.?� While we have our periods and lose blood and deplete our iron stores, taking a multi-vitamin with a small amount of iron is acceptable. But as we get older and stop having periods this is not necessarily so.?� One out of two hundred and fifty people of Northern European descent (and also persons of other ethnic backgrounds) have a genetic disorder called hemochromatosis.?� In this condition, iron absorption is so efficient that there is build up of excess iron in the body??�s organs, which can cause serious liver, heart, thyroid and joint problems, as well as liver cancer. As women menstruate for thirty or forty years this problem may not show up until after menopause.?� Iron may also aid the formation of free radicals, those unstable agent disease-promoting molecules.?� In fact, one theory of why younger women have less heart disease than men is that prior to menopause women??�s mild iron deficiency acts as a cardiac shield against free radical damage.?�

Finally, in a recent report of the Nurses??� Health Study, in which they followed thirty-two thousand women for more than ten years, they found that those women with higher iron stores were found to be at increased risk for development of type 2 diabetes.?� Too much iron, as in too much of any supplement, can be harmful.?� So once you??�re menopausal, do not take a multivitamin with iron unless told to do so by your doctor after appropriate blood agsdhfgdfing.

The Pap smear ??" does it really need to be done every year?
After age 30 we can decrease the frequency of our Pap smears to every two to three years if our past routine Pap has been normal, we are in a monogamous relationship, don??�t smoke, don??�t take steroids, and are not DES-exposed ( meaning your mother took DES when she was pregnant with you).?� Nearly all cervical pre-cancer and cancer is due to the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which, although readily transmitted, is cleared by most women after a few years.?� If this virus is not cleared, it will take three years or more to cause mutations in the cervical cells leading to pre-cancer and cancer. Some physicians are adding a special agsdhfgdf for HPV and if this and the Pap smear are negative, feel very assured that a three year wait (and not the usual yearly Pap) is safe and warranted.

Are carbohydrates really as bad as Dr. Atkins said?
Once again, not necessarily. A recent review published in the Journal of the A.M.E.found that there is not enough evidence to make health or diet recommendations for or against low-carb diets. Another article, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that low-carb diets (with high fat and high protein) are more effective for weight loss in obese individuals when compared with low fat diets (fewer than twenty-five percent of calories from fat), but only during the initial three and six months. By the end of the year, those who stayed on the low-carb diet (and many couldn't) did not lose more weight. And those who succeeded in losing weight in the first place did so because they ate fewer calories. It??�s the total calories that count! The American Heart Association has not recommended a low-carb diet, stating that there is no evidence that the diet is effective long term in improving health. Against a strict restriction of carbs for weight control is a 12-year Harvard study of 74,000 women which showed that those who consumed more fruits and vegetables were 26 percent less likely to become obese than women who ate fewer fruits and vegetables over the same period of time.

Part of the puzzle is that not all carbs are created equal. Refined carbohydrates, such as white rice, white bread and of course sugar ??" and potatoes ??" cause rapid spikes in blood sugar and hence raise insulin levels. Insulin can then cause fat to accumulate in the body, especially around the waist, and wrong fats (triglycerides) to accumulate in the blood stream, contributing to plaque and heart disease. ?�Complex carbs (think whole grains that are not denuded during so-called "refining") are digested slowly and don't cause a sudden blood sugar surge. They also contain important fiber, vitamins and phyto (plant) chemicals. When you stop consuming these "made for us by nature" carbohydrates and substitute protein and fat, you can eventually cause considerable harm. In the short term you may feel tired, dizzy, nauseated and dehydrated. With time, lack of carb balance can lead to deficiencies in vitamins and minerals. A lack of fiber often results in constipation and this increases your risk for development of diverticulosis (weakened pouches that develop in the bowel wall) and possibly even colon cancer. A diet with the wrong fats, i.e. saturated fats found in meat and whole milk and the trans fats in many processed foods and margarines, will contribute to heart disease. Too much protein can lower absorption of calcium, leading to osteoporosis, and can stress your kidneys.

We don't need a general carb-out. ?�If you want to keep your weight down and stay healthy, do the known, right stuff: eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, and substitute whole grains, some nuts, and healthy oils for sugar, white starch and saturated fats.?� And of course, don't smoke, and make sure you exercise!

Dr. Judith Reichman has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for more than 20 years. She is a regular Today show contributor.

? 2007

Doctors discourage use of cough syrup - Cold & Flu

Doctors discourage use of cough medicine

Over-the-counter versions do little to relieve symptoms, experts say
Scott Olson / Getty Images file
Non-prescription cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective, a group of chest physicians say.

CHICAGO - Despite the billions of dollars spent every year in this country on over-the-counter cough syrups, most such medicines do little if anything to relieve coughs, the nation??�s chest physicians say.

Over-the-counter cough syrups generally contain drugs in too low a dose to be effective, or contain combinations of drugs that have never been proven to treat coughs, said Dr. Richard Irwin, chairman of a cough guidelines committee for the American College of Chest Physicians.

Drugstore shelves are crowded with cough syrups promising speedy, often non-drowsy relief without a prescription.

But the best studies that we have to date would suggest there??�s not a lot of justification for using these medications because they haven??�t been shown to work, said Irwin, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass.

The group??�s new cough cure guidelines discourage use of over-the-counter cough medicines. Irwin said that not only are such medicines ineffective at treating coughs due to colds ??" the most common cause of coughs ??" they can also can lead patients to delay seeking cure for more serious coughs, including whooping cough.

The guidelines strongly recommend that adults receive a new adult vaccine for whooping cough, approved last year.

Guidelines disputed
The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group for makers of over-the-counter medications, disputed the guidelines and said over-the-counter cough medicines provide relief to millions of people each year.

The guidelines were published in the January issue of Chest, the American College of Chest Physicians??� journal, released Monday. The recommendations have been endorsed by the college, the American Thoracic Society and the Canadian Thoracic Society.

Many popular over-the-counter cough medicines proudly advertise that they don??�t cause drowsiness, but Irwin said that is because they do not contain older antihistamine drugs that do help relieve coughs that are due to colds.

These antihistamines, including diphenhydramine ??" an active ingredient in Benadryl ??" are also available over the counter but are not marketed as cough medicines, he said.

Some over-the-counter cough syrups contain two drugs that have been shown to help relieve coughs caused by colds ??" codeine and dextromethorphan ??" but generally the doses are too small to be effective, Irwin said.

Vote

Do you think over-the-counter cough syrups work?

Dextromethorphan is in Robitussin, a top-selling over-the-counter cough syrup. It is among Robitussin ingredients that the (Food and Drug Administration) has found to be safe and effective, said Francis Sullivan, a spokesman for Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, which makes Robitussin.

Sullivan said Robitussin wouldn??�t be a top brand if people didn??�t feel it was efficacious.

Coughs can have numerous underlying causes, including asthma, allergies, severe heartburn, postnasal drip and bronchitis.

Dr. Edward Schulman, an American Thoracic Society representative on the guidelines panel, said patients should see their doctors for coughs that linger longer than three weeks or are accompanied by shortness of breath, which could indicate pneumonia or other serious conditions.

Coughs due to colds usually last less than three weeks. Drinking lots of fluids can help relieve these coughs, and so can chicken soup, Schulman said.

? 2007 . .

Questions remain in Anna Nicole Smith's death - TV

Questions remain in Anna Nicole Smith's death

Filan: We might not have seen the end of this investigation
NBC VIDEO•'The manner of death was accidental'
March 26: Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County, Fla., medical examiner, talks with 's Contessa Brewer about how he reached the conclusion that Anna Nicole Smith died from an accidental overdose.

COMMENTARYSusan FilanSenior legal analyst

Susan FilanSenior legal analyst

What do you get when you have a psychiatrist, a nurse, a body guard, and a boyfriend, plus a woman with 105 degree fever?   A death that should have been, and could have been prevented. 

When Anna Nicole Smith’s fever spiked to 105 degrees, why didn’t her psychiatrist, who prescribed antibiotics for her, take her to a doctor, to a hospital or call 911?   Why didn’t those closest to her insist that she get proper medical attention? 

Dr. Perper, the Broward County Medical Examiner who performed her autopsy, seemed satisfied with the explanation that she was an adult who had the right to say, “I don’t want a doctor, I don’t want to go to the hospital.”   But if someone is that ill, are they thinking straight?  If she knew her choice was to go to the hospital or to die, what would she have chosen?   If she was not suicidal, as Dr. Perper indicated, then she would have chosen to go to the hospital, not to die.  Anna Nicole was a person known to self-medicate, known to take too many prescriptions in too high a dose.   So why was she left alone, sick, in a hotel room that was a virtual pharmacy?

More from Susan FilanWho will get Anna Nicole's money?Death for killer of pregnant mom, children?Unfair: 10 years for consensual oral sex

Why didn’t Anna Nicole’s nurse check on her in her hotel room on Thursday, the day she died?   It seems she was left alone in her room from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. when she was found dead in her bed?  Why did Howard K. Stern, who awoke at 10:00 a.m., and had to help Anna Nicole to the bathroom because she was too weak to go alone, take his shower, dress and leave her?  

The medical examiner’s report seems to raise more questions than it answers.  Something does not add up for me.

It just doesn’t make sense that a 39-year-old woman, who had just given birth to a baby girl, who had just lost a son, who was so depressed she was on three antidepressant/anti-anxiety medications, who had a history of overmedicating and mixing prescriptions, of taking methadone, of swigging liquid chloral hydrate, would be left alone to die of an accidental drug overdose.

•Birkhead finally leaves Bahamas with daughter•Two Anna Nicole Smith diaries sell for $59,750•Anna Nicole mocks herself in final role•Birkhead says Howard K. Stern ‘a great help’

Here is what bothers me: On Tuesday, Anna Nicole Smith had a 105-degree fever.   Her psychiatrist, not her doctor, prescribed her with an antibiotic, but did not insist she go to the hospital.  No one did. 

I do not think we have heard the end of this.  I think we will see further investigations, lawsuits, and perhaps loss of medical licenses as a result of Anna Nicole’s tragic and preventable death.

� 2007

More than 80 at risk of meningitis - Infectious Diseases

More than 80 in 3 states at risk of meningitis

Warning follows N.H. college student's death from illness

CONCORD, N.H. - More than 80 people in three states may be at risk for meningitis after coming into contact with a University of New Hampshire student who died of the illness this week, health officials said.

The warning came amid another meningitis scare that shut down schools Thursday and Friday in three towns in Rhode Island.

The college student, 21-year-old Danielle Thompson, had been in her home state of Maine, as well as in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in the 10 days before she was admitted to a Dover hospital. She died of bacterial meningitis on Wednesday.

Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen said the state has identified 29 people in New Hampshire and 55 in Maine who should receive antibiotics. Officials were still tracking down how many people Thompson visited in Massachusetts.

No one has yet shown symptoms, Stephen said.

Click for related content

R.I. schools closed for meningitis scare

Bacterial meningitis can be spread through saliva, creating the most risk for people who shared food or drinks, kissed or used the same eating utensils. It causes an infection of fluid in the spinal cord and surrounding the brain, with symptoms include high fever, headache and stiff neck.

This case underscores just how serious this illness can be, Stephen said. More meningitis news from MSN Health

Reality Check: Meningitis

In Rhode Island, epidemiologists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are working with state officials investigating a possible case of meningitis and three cases of encephalitis that surfaced in public school children. One second-grader in Warwick died from encephalitis that was brought on by walking pneumonia.

Dr. David Gifford, director of Rhode Island??�s Public Health Department, said there have been an unusually high number of walking pneumonia cases in the children??�s communities.

As a precaution, classes for about 20,000 students in those communities ??" Warwick, West Warwick and Coventry ??" were cancelled Thursday and Friday while health experts investigate, Gifford said.

?� 2007 . .

What to do when you can't sleep - Sleep

When the gods of sleep have deserted you

Skip the pills and try these expert-recommended tips
Roy Morsch / Corbis
Turn off the TV?�??" and other distractions ??" when you're in bed, experts say.

MSNBC

Can't sleep? Nearly everybody's had a hard time falling asleep at least once, but 10 percent of the general population suffers insomnia regularly. Not only do they have a hard time falling asleep, but they awaken several times during the night and feel fatigued the next day.

The older you are, the more elusive the sleep gods can be. At least 25 percent of the elderly can't get a good night's snooze. When the sleep mask, aromatherapy and the white noise machine have failed, you don't have to pop a pill. Try these expert-recommended tips and you may find yourself snoozing soundly.

Eat, drink and be... awake
Avoid alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. A glass of wine with dinner won??�t do any harm, but a couple of nightcaps can disrupt the quality of your sleep once you've metabolized the alcohol, causing you to wake up halfway through the night.

Nicotine pumps up your blood pressure, making it difficult to relax.

Say no to caffeine anytime later than mid-afternoon. Caffeine is a stimulant that can last in your body for five to eight hours. Some people can still feel the effects up to 12 hours later. It's not just the cuppa joe that can keep you awake ??" energy drinks, tea, chocolate and colas have caffeine.

Food can affect your slumber, so don??�t eat a heavy meal too close to bedtime. If you're sensitive to tomato products or spicy food, lying down can aggravate heartburn, which can make falling asleep more difficult or wake you up in the middle-of-the-night.

Back to the womb
INTERACTIVE?�Stages of sleep
Make sure your bedroom is comfortable, dark and quiet. Finding the right temperature is important. Many people tend to be more comfortable in a cooler bedroom because our body thermostats drop to their lowest levels during the night, experts say. When it's too hot or humid, people tend to awaken more frequently or get stuck in the light sleep stage.

If muggy nights keep you awake, consider a dehumidifier or an air conditioner. If you like it hot, while your partner prefers it cool, you can always try wearing warmer pajamas or keeping an extra blanket for yourself.

Don't bring your laptop to bed
Use the bed only for sleep and sex. If there's a TV in your bedroom, don't watch it in bed. Don't use your bed for work. Dragging your wireless laptop there brings with it all the stress and interruptions that come with it.

Worry time
Schedule some "worry time" during the day. Stress is a big reason people can't sleep at night, but if you give yourself just 15 minutes to address the source of your problems, you take the pressure off when you finally get into bed at night. Eliminate the conditioned anxiety that comes with trying to sleep by reassuring yourself that you will sleep or distracting yourself.

Click for related contentNBC's Robert Bazell: Study says skip the sleeping pillsQuiz: Are you sleep deprived?Message Board: Share your tips for getting enough Zzzs

If you're still anxious when you lie down, don't lie there obsessing about your inability to sleep. The harder you try, the more you'll become frustrated. If you're not asleep after five or 10 minutes, get out of bed. Going to another room may help ease anxiety about not falling asleep.

Make a routine
Go to bed at the same time every night. Practice nightime relaxation routines, such as muscle relaxation or meditation.

Save the Zzzs
Skip the nap. A 15-minute power nap can refresh you during the day, but any longer than that and you could find yourself struggling for slumber later.

Work out
Regular exercise is helpful against insomnia, but not within three hours of bedtime. Exercise is energizing and raises your body temperature. Try to arrange your workout either in the morning or late afternoon.

Source: National Institutes of Health; University of Pennsylvania Sleep Center; National Sleep Foundation

?� 2007 MSNBC Interactive