Purple Medical Blog
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com
Medical News and Information That You Can Use2006-01-09T23:46:48Zen-USHighCholesterol: What is Cholesterol and What to do About Cholesterol
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/highcholesterol-what-is-cholesterol.html
<h1>High Cholesterol: What is Cholesterol and What to do About Cholesterol</h1>
<h1>Natural Remedies and Reading a Food Label
Trans Fats Increase LDL Cholesterol: The Kids With a Cholesterol of 1000</h1>
Imagine if you will, a person with high cholesterol.<strong> Very high </strong>cholesterol. Recommendations for the "bad" LDL cholesterol vary but generally 100 or less is satisfactory. <span style="background-color:yellow;">Now imagine a person with an LDL of 500 or 1000.<strong> Finally, imagine they are just twelve years old</strong>! </span>That's the situation that confronts people who have a genetic problem with cholesterol disposal called <strong>Familial Hypercholesterolemia</strong>. Their bodies don't have the full mechanism for dealing with cholesterol LDL and as a result they are at very increased risk of heart attacks.<br><br>
FH is less severe in people with just one gene for it <strong>but people with the homozygous (double gene dose)
variety of familial hypercholesterolemia can even have a heart attack in the teens or twenties if no treatment is provided</strong>. Luckily there are ways of dealing with familial hypercholesterolemia such as medication and a <strong>blood "cleansing" procedure called LDL Apharesis</strong>. Read the story of a woman who had two angioplasty procedures and a coronary artery bypass <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3223254.stm">They Wash the Cholesterol Out of My Blood</a>.<br><br>
<h1>Trans Fat Acts to Increase Bad Cholesterol: What is Cholesterol and Why The Body Manufactures Cholesterol</h1>
Cholesterol is not all bad. <span style="background-color:yellow;">The body enlists cholesterol to synthesize important molecules that it needs, molecules like the male and female hormones testosterone and estrogen</span>, not to mention Vitamin D as well as constituents of the body's cell membranes. Cholesterol is also involved with the bile that is released to help digest a meal. <span style="background-color:yellow;">Because cholesterol is a lipid, it is soluble in oil but not very soluble in water so it is transported in the relatively watery blood aboard a transport molecule</span>. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver and travels out of the liver aboard lipoprotein particles called VLDL which are then converted to LDL, short for Low Density Lipoproteins. <strong>Our body makes most of our cholesterol but we also get cholesterol from food we eat. Foods high in animal fat and foods that are high in saturated fats, cholesterol and trans fats are likely to raise LDL, the "bad cholesterol</strong>". As of January, 2006 food labels are mandated to list trans fats. See <a href="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-trans-fat-labels-meanread-them.html">What Trans Fat Labels Mean: Read Them and Get Healthy</a><br><br>
<h1>David Letterman Atherosclerosis and How Unstable Plaque May Lead to Heart Attack</h1>
The popular entertainer, David Letterman, who has had coronary artery bypass was apparently aware of high cholesterol levels. See the story <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/604476.stm">Heart Scare for Letterman</a>. <strong>High levels of the "bad cholesterol" LDL in the coronary arteries increase the chances of atherosclerosis</strong>. <span style="background-color:yellow;">Atherosclerosis refers to a process that occurs in the <strong>inner lining</strong>, the <strong>endothelium</strong>, of the arteries where complexes of cells and cholesterol called <strong>plaques</strong> develop within the artery walls</span>. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry the oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body. The heart muscle has it's own arteries, coronary arteries, that feed it a steady flow of oxygen rich blood. <span style="background-color:yellow;">Doctors often say that high cholesterol can "clog an artery" but the reality is probably more complex. Cells have receptors on their surfaces that trap LDL in the bloodstream and then internalize them for cellular use. LDL particles are major actors in an intricate process where LDL particles accumulating within the inner walls of the coronary arteries are possibly the linchpin of an intricate dance that can lead to a heart attack</span>. The story of the relationship between cholesterol, atherosclerosis and heart disease has been built over the decades..See <a href="http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/sept2003/cholesterol/century.html">Cholesterol A Century of Research</a><br><br>
<h1>Coca Cola Launches Minute Maid Heart Wise Juice: Foods to Lower Cholesterol: Margarine and Salad Dressing Too!</h1>
David A. Jenkins, of the University of Toronto and colleagues tested a vegetarian diet to lower cholesterol. See <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000C594C-D1D7-1F1D-B4FD80A84189EEDF">Diet May Cut Cholesterol As Much As Drugs Do</a>. Plant sterols are molecules found in plants that resemble cholesterol and compete in the intestine with cholesterol for absorption. They have been demonstrated to lower cholesterol.<br><br>
Coca Cola has introduced Minute Maid Heart Wise Juice containing Cargill Corowise phytosterols. <a href="http://www.corowise.com/">Cargill Corowise Phytosterols Information</a> A number of other foods having plant sterols are on the market with names like <a href="http://www.benecol.com/home2.jhtml">Benecol</a> and <a href="http://www.takecontrol.com/getknow/default.htm?faq.htm&3">Take Control</a>. The Australian Medical Journal published <a href="http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/176_11_030602/S122.html">Cholesterol-lowering with plant sterols</a> See also the (not so) <a href="http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2000/000418.htm">New USDA Study Shows Plant Sterols Lower Cholesterol</a> and <a href="http://www.aafp.org/afp/20000901/tips/11.html">Sterol-Containing Margarines and Lower Cholesterol Levels</a>
<h1>Does Garlic Lower Cholesterol and What Impact Do Oats Have?</h1>
It's not hard to figure out how garlic prevents infection. You eat it and nobody will come within 10 feet but what about reports that garlic can lower cholesterol? According to an analysis reported here <a href="http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/970004118.html">Garlic and Cholesterol</a> <span style="background-color:yellow;">there was a mild cholesterol lowering effect attributed to garlic but apparently it's not very dramatic</span>. Read<a href="http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/tpoats.html"> FDA Allows Whole Oat Foods to make Health Claim On Reducing Risk of Heart Disease</a>
<h1>Plaque in Coronary Artery Wall Seems to be Linchpin of Coronary Artery Disease: Inflammation</h1>
In the classic explanation of the dangers of high cholesterol, high cholesterol leads to the narrowing of the coronary arteries and a plaque may break off and block or occlude the artery. The result is <strong>little or no blood flow to the part of the heart being supplied by that artery and a heart attack</strong>. As Dr. Peter Libby points out <span style="background-color:yellow;">sometimes a plaque grows so large that it virtually halts the blood flow in an artery and generates a heart attack or stroke. (he means a stroke caused by a blockage, a thrombotic stroke, but there's also another kind called a hemorrhagic stroke which is due to bleeding) <strong>Yet only 15% of heart attacks happen in this way. By carefully examining vessel walls of people who died from heart attacks, pathologists have demonstarted that most attacks occur after a plaque's fibrous cap breaks open"
attracting a blood clot that leads to the blockage of the artery.</strong></span>
See the fascinating and instructive article by Dr. Libby <a href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000150D9-DBD1-1CEB-93F6809EC5880000">Atherosclerosis The New View</a>.
Dr. Libby, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has pointed out that the cholesterol lowering drugs seem to decrease the number of coronary events such as heart attacks even though angiograms don't necessarily show a decrease in the stenosis or narrowing of the artery. See the more technical article <a href="http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/91/11/2844?maxtoshow=&HITS=40&hits=40&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=libby&searchid=1070211776376_4946&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=40&search_url=http%3A%2F%2Fcirc.ahajournals.org%2Fcgi%2Fsearch&journalcode=circulationaha#SEC1">Molecular Bases of the Acute Coronary Syndromes </a>
<h1>Cholesterol Was Molecule of the Month in 1997</h1>
<h1>Cholesterol Up Close</h1>
Tired of centerfolds? Check out the vital statistics of this sexy molecule from when <a href="http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/mom/cholesterol/default.html">cholesterol was molecule of the month</a> and if you need even more details look at <a href="http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/Cholesterol.html">a more recent exposition of cholesterol</a> from Kimball's Online and from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute <a href="http://www.hhmi.org/bulletin/sept2003/cholesterol/index.html">Cholesterol Up Close</a>
<h1>The Good Cholesterol, the Bad Cholesterol: HDL and LDL</h1>
<h2>The Lipid Profile Blood Test and Blood Tests to Predict Cardiac Risk</h2>
When people talk about the good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol they are refering to HDL and LDL. <span style="background-color:yellow;">HDL and LDL are lipoproteins, structures created from cholesterol and protein that travel to and from the liver carrying cholesterol. I've mentioned LDL, that is tagged with the moniker "bad cholesterol" but HDLs are called the good cholesterol <strong>because high levels of HDL seem to decrease coronary heart disease risk</strong></span>. Routinely doctors say that the HDL acts to carry away the bad cholesterol from the artery walls, however, there is also evidence that HDLs may interfere with LDL oxidation. Oxidation of LDL refers to a chemical process that happens on the LDL and is believed to be one of the steps in the process that leads to heart attack.
The <strong>Lipid Profile blood test </strong>that you take at the doctor's office provides values including:
<li>Total cholesterol
<li>HDL good cholesterol
<li>LDL bad cholesterol
<li>Triglycerides
In addition <strong>other blood tests may give more data about cardiac risk including</strong>:
<li>C reactive protein
<li>homocysteine
<h1>Risk Factors: More Risk Factors For Heart Disease The More You Want to Lower Your Cholesterol</h1>
You will see different numbers listed for desirable levels of cholesterol depending on where you look. What is true is that it is even more desirable to have lower levels of bad cholesterol when you have risk factors for heart disease.
<strong>Risk factors for heart disease include</strong>:
<li>cigarette smoking
<li>high blood pressure
<li>family history of heart disease
<li>high cholesterol
<li>overweight
<li>diabetes
<h1>Interactive Guide on How to Read a Food Label</h1>
Take this <a href="http://nhlbisupport.com/chd1/FoodLabel/foodlabel.htm">Interactive Quiz from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute "Using the Food label" </a>and you can read <a href="http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/chol/wyntk.htm">High Blood Cholesterol: What You Need to Know</a> from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute with recommendations for cholesterol levels.
<h1>Meds for Cholesterol: Statins The 500 Pound Gorilla of Cholesterol Meds and Zetia the New Kid on the Block</h1>
Right now the most "popular" class of cholesterol meds are the statins. There are six statins on the market with the newest contender being Crestor (rosuvastatin). The others include:
<li>Lipitor (atorvastatin)
<li>Mevacor (lovastatin)
<li>pravastatin
<li>fluvastatin
<li>simvistatin
<span style="backgound-color:yellow;">Statins reduce the quantities of LDL Cholesterol. Statins block the manufacture of cholesterol in the liver by interfering with an enzyme that orchestrates cholesterol production,HMGCoa Reductase. That's why statins are called HMGCoa Reductase Inhibitors</span>. Enzymes are chemicals called proteins that act all over the body to speed up chemical reactions. Statins work in the liver. That's why they get a blood test to check liver function when someones starts a statin and why they monitor liver function. <span style="color:yellow;">A rare but dangerous possible side effect of statins is <strong>rhabdomyolysis</strong> characterized by muscle pain and weakness. One statin, cervistatin, was removed from the market because of problems with this phenomenon. It's the breakdown of muscle tissue and requires immediate emergency intervention. It may be the result of drug interactions between statins and other medications which result in high concentrations of the drug</span>.
<h1>Zetia Ezetimibe: The New Kid on the Block</h1>
Ezetimibe is a whole different ball game when it comes to lowering cholesterol. Zetia works in the intestine to block cholesterol absorption, not in the liver like statins. So potentially it may have fewer side effects. The downside is that so far it seems to be a mild cholesterol reducer. A combo ezetimibe/statin is in the works that seems to have synergistic properties.
<h1>Niacin</h1>
Niacin is a B vitamin. It can lower cholesterol and triglycerides and raise HDL. The trouble with niacin is the side effects. Hot flashes are a big problem for niacin users and sometimes they are so unpleasant that people just won't use niacin.
Niacin can also interact with other drugs and it can raise blood sugar. Always talk with your doctor if you are contemplating using niacin.
Also check out <a href="http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1996/12_96/heart.htm">Heart Attack Counterattack: Fighting Back Against Heart Disease</a></li>r2006-01-06T18:34:00ZHigh Cholesterol: What is Cholesterol and What to do About Cholesterol
Natural Remedies and Reading a Food Label
Trans Fats Increase LDL Cholesterol: The Kids With a Cholesterol of 1000
Imagine if you will, a person with high cholesterol. Very high cholesterol. Recommendations for the "bad" LDL cholesterol vary but generally 100 or less is satisfactory. Now imagine a person with an LDL of 500 or 1000. Finally, imagine they are just twelve years old! That's the situation that confronts people who have a genetic problem with cholesterol disposal called Familial Hypercholesterolemia. Their bodies don't have the full mechanism for dealing with cholesterol LDL and as a result they are at very increased risk of heart attacks.
FH is less severe in people with just one gene for it but people with the homozygous (double gene dose)
variety of familial hypercholesterolemia can even have a heart attack in the teens or twenties if no treatment is provided. Luckily there are ways of dealing with familial hypercholesterolemia such as medication and a blood "cleansing" procedure called LDL Apharesis. Read the story of a woman who had two angioplasty procedures and a coronary artery bypass They Wash the Cholesterol Out of My Blood.
Trans Fat Acts to Increase Bad Cholesterol: What is Cholesterol and Why The Body Manufactures Cholesterol
Cholesterol is not all bad. The body enlists cholesterol to synthesize important molecules that it needs, molecules like the male and female hormones testosterone and estrogen, not to mention Vitamin D as well as constituents of the body's cell membranes. Cholesterol is also involved with the bile that is released to help digest a meal. Because cholesterol is a lipid, it is soluble in oil but not very soluble in water so it is transported in the relatively watery blood aboard a transport molecule. Cholesterol is manufactured in the liver and travels out of the liver aboard lipoprotein particles called VLDL which are then converted to LDL, short for Low Density Lipoproteins. Our body makes most of our cholesterol but we also get cholesterol from food we eat. Foods high in animal fat and foods that are high in saturated fats, cholesterol and trans fats are likely to raise LDL, the "bad cholesterol". As of January, 2006 food labels are mandated to list trans fats. See What Trans Fat Labels Mean: Read Them and Get Healthy
David Letterman Atherosclerosis and How Unstable Plaque May Lead to Heart Attack
The popular entertainer, David Letterman, who has had coronary artery bypass was apparently aware of high cholesterol levels. See the story Heart Scare for Letterman. High levels of the "bad cholesterol" LDL in the coronary arteries increase the chances of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis refers to a process that occurs in the inner lining, the endothelium, of the arteries where complexes of cells and cholesterol called plaques develop within the artery walls. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry the oxygenated blood away from the heart to the body. The heart muscle has it's own arteries, coronary arteries, that feed it a steady flow of oxygen rich blood. Doctors often say that high cholesterol can "clog an artery" but the reality is probably more complex. Cells have receptors on their surfaces that trap LDL in the bloodstream and then internalize them for cellular use. LDL particles are major actors in an intricate process where LDL particles accumulating within the inner walls of the coronary arteries are possibly the linchpin of an intricate dance that can lead to a heart attack. The story of the relationship between cholesterol, atherosclerosis and heart disease has been built over the decades..See Cholesterol A Century of Research
Coca Cola Launches Minute Maid Heart Wise Juice: Foods to Lower Cholesterol: Margarine and Salad Dressing Too!
David A. Jenkins, of the University of Toronto and colleagues tested a vegetarian diet to lower cholesterol. See Diet May Cut Cholesterol As Much As Drugs Do. Plant sterols are molecules found in plants that resemble cholesterol and compete in the intestine with cholesterol for absorption. They have been demonstrated to lower cholesterol.
Does Garlic Lower Cholesterol and What Impact Do Oats Have?
It's not hard to figure out how garlic prevents infection. You eat it and nobody will come within 10 feet but what about reports that garlic can lower cholesterol? According to an analysis reported here Garlic and Cholesterolthere was a mild cholesterol lowering effect attributed to garlic but apparently it's not very dramatic. Read FDA Allows Whole Oat Foods to make Health Claim On Reducing Risk of Heart Disease
Plaque in Coronary Artery Wall Seems to be Linchpin of Coronary Artery Disease: Inflammation
In the classic explanation of the dangers of high cholesterol, high cholesterol leads to the narrowing of the coronary arteries and a plaque may break off and block or occlude the artery. The result is little or no blood flow to the part of the heart being supplied by that artery and a heart attack. As Dr. Peter Libby points out sometimes a plaque grows so large that it virtually halts the blood flow in an artery and generates a heart attack or stroke. (he means a stroke caused by a blockage, a thrombotic stroke, but there's also another kind called a hemorrhagic stroke which is due to bleeding) Yet only 15% of heart attacks happen in this way. By carefully examining vessel walls of people who died from heart attacks, pathologists have demonstarted that most attacks occur after a plaque's fibrous cap breaks open"
attracting a blood clot that leads to the blockage of the artery.
See the fascinating and instructive article by Dr. Libby Atherosclerosis The New View.
Dr. Libby, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has pointed out that the cholesterol lowering drugs seem to decrease the number of coronary events such as heart attacks even though angiograms don't necessarily show a decrease in the stenosis or narrowing of the artery. See the more technical article Molecular Bases of the Acute Coronary Syndromes
The Good Cholesterol, the Bad Cholesterol: HDL and LDL
The Lipid Profile Blood Test and Blood Tests to Predict Cardiac Risk
When people talk about the good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol they are refering to HDL and LDL. HDL and LDL are lipoproteins, structures created from cholesterol and protein that travel to and from the liver carrying cholesterol. I've mentioned LDL, that is tagged with the moniker "bad cholesterol" but HDLs are called the good cholesterol because high levels of HDL seem to decrease coronary heart disease risk. Routinely doctors say that the HDL acts to carry away the bad cholesterol from the artery walls, however, there is also evidence that HDLs may interfere with LDL oxidation. Oxidation of LDL refers to a chemical process that happens on the LDL and is believed to be one of the steps in the process that leads to heart attack.
The Lipid Profile blood test that you take at the doctor's office provides values including:
Total cholesterol
HDL good cholesterol
LDL bad cholesterol
Triglycerides
In addition other blood tests may give more data about cardiac risk including:
C reactive protein
homocysteine
Risk Factors: More Risk Factors For Heart Disease The More You Want to Lower Your Cholesterol
You will see different numbers listed for desirable levels of cholesterol depending on where you look. What is true is that it is even more desirable to have lower levels of bad cholesterol when you have risk factors for heart disease.
Risk factors for heart disease include:
Meds for Cholesterol: Statins The 500 Pound Gorilla of Cholesterol Meds and Zetia the New Kid on the Block
Right now the most "popular" class of cholesterol meds are the statins. There are six statins on the market with the newest contender being Crestor (rosuvastatin). The others include:
Lipitor (atorvastatin)
Mevacor (lovastatin)
pravastatin
fluvastatin
simvistatin
Statins reduce the quantities of LDL Cholesterol. Statins block the manufacture of cholesterol in the liver by interfering with an enzyme that orchestrates cholesterol production,HMGCoa Reductase. That's why statins are called HMGCoa Reductase Inhibitors. Enzymes are chemicals called proteins that act all over the body to speed up chemical reactions. Statins work in the liver. That's why they get a blood test to check liver function when someones starts a statin and why they monitor liver function. A rare but dangerous possible side effect of statins is rhabdomyolysis characterized by muscle pain and weakness. One statin, cervistatin, was removed from the market because of problems with this phenomenon. It's the breakdown of muscle tissue and requires immediate emergency intervention. It may be the result of drug interactions between statins and other medications which result in high concentrations of the drug.
Zetia Ezetimibe: The New Kid on the Block
Ezetimibe is a whole different ball game when it comes to lowering cholesterol. Zetia works in the intestine to block cholesterol absorption, not in the liver like statins. So potentially it may have fewer side effects. The downside is that so far it seems to be a mild cholesterol reducer. A combo ezetimibe/statin is in the works that seems to have synergistic properties.
Niacin
Niacin is a B vitamin. It can lower cholesterol and triglycerides and raise HDL. The trouble with niacin is the side effects. Hot flashes are a big problem for niacin users and sometimes they are so unpleasant that people just won't use niacin.
Niacin can also interact with other drugs and it can raise blood sugar. Always talk with your doctor if you are contemplating using niacin.
Also check out Heart Attack Counterattack: Fighting Back Against Heart Disease
]]>Blind Golfing:How Visually Impaired Play Golf and Have Fun
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/blind-golfinghow-visually-impaired.html
<h1>Blind Golfing:How Visually Impaired Play Golf and Have Fun</h1>
<h2>Israeli Golfer Zohar Sharon Swings to Victory </h2>
<h2>How Blind Golf is Played</h2>
<a href="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/A-703107.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/A-701947.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<span style="font-size: 200%;color: purple; font-weight: bold; font-family: Times, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: .8em;">Z</span>ohar Sharon, an Israeli who suffered eye damage while in the Army took up golfing after losing his vision. Sharon is one of a number of visually impaired persons who have become avid golfers.
See <li>
the video <a href="http://xtramsn.co.nz/sport/0,,12052-5133937-300,00.html">Blind Golfer Scores Hole in One</a> and<li> <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/golf/12/25/bc.glf.blindgolfer.ap/">Grass Always Green Sharon Earns Title</a><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/golf/12/25/bc.glf.blindgolfer.ap/"></a> as well as <li> <a href="http://geoffandwen.com/Blind/newsarticle.asp?u_id=1810">Blind Golf Champion not Afraid of Challenge</a> and<li>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/golf/disability/newsid_4419000/4419885.stm">Simon Cookson is Britain's Top Blind Golfer</a> and <li> <a href="http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Golf/Canadian/2004/08/14/583202.html">Playing By Ear</a><br><br>
For more about this sport<li> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/golf/disability/newsid_2125000/2125409.stm">What is Blind Golf</a> and <li>
<a href="http://www.blindgolf.co.uk/howdone.php">English Blind Golf Association</a>r2005-12-29T05:31:00ZBlind Golfing:How Visually Impaired Play Golf and Have Fun
Israeli Golfer Zohar Sharon Swings to Victory
How Blind Golf is Played
Zohar Sharon, an Israeli who suffered eye damage while in the Army took up golfing after losing his vision. Sharon is one of a number of visually impaired persons who have become avid golfers.
See
Study of Hangover Cures Says They Don't Work
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/study-of-hangover-cures-says-they-dont.html
<h1>How to Avoid a Hangover: Study of Hangover Cures Says They Don't Work</h1>
<h2>Study of Hangover Cures Published in Medical Journal Says No Evidence Hangover Cures Work</h2>
"<span style="font-size: 200%;color: purple; font-weight: bold; font-family: Times, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: .8em;">R</span>esearchers in Europe wanted to know what if any studies had been done to measure the effectiveness of "hangover cures". They searched the medical literature to find studies that examined how well putative hangover cures work. They looked for "randomised controlled trials of any medical intervention for preventing or treating alcohol." They reported the results they found in the <strong>British Medical Journal</strong>.<br><br>
The substances reviewed in the studies ranged from propranalol ( a blood pressure medicine) to artichokes. The upshot? "No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover. The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol induced hangover is to practise abstinence or moderation."
You can read it for yourself at <a href="http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7531/1515?ehom">Interventions for preventing or treating alcohol hangover: systematic review of randomised controlled trials</a>r2005-12-23T22:30:00ZHow to Avoid a Hangover: Study of Hangover Cures Says They Don't Work
Study of Hangover Cures Published in Medical Journal Says No Evidence Hangover Cures Work
"Researchers in Europe wanted to know what if any studies had been done to measure the effectiveness of "hangover cures". They searched the medical literature to find studies that examined how well putative hangover cures work. They looked for "randomised controlled trials of any medical intervention for preventing or treating alcohol." They reported the results they found in the British Medical Journal.
The substances reviewed in the studies ranged from propranalol ( a blood pressure medicine) to artichokes. The upshot? "No compelling evidence exists to suggest that any conventional or complementary intervention is effective for preventing or treating alcohol hangover. The most effective way to avoid the symptoms of alcohol induced hangover is to practise abstinence or moderation."
You can read it for yourself at Interventions for preventing or treating alcohol hangover: systematic review of randomised controlled trials]]>Real Life Jurassic Park: Extinct Species Could Once Again Walk The Earth
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/real-life-jurassic-park-extinct.html
<center> <h1>JURASSIC PARK REDUX:...Mammoth Might Walk the Earth as Scientists Think They Can Figure Out Gene Map of Wooly Mammoth</h1></center><br><br>
<center><h3>May Decipher Complete Map of the Genes of a Mammoth..Might Be Able to Produce Live Mammoth Some Say</center></h3>
"<span style="font-size: 200%;color: purple; font-weight: bold; font-family: Times, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: .8em;">M</span>apping the DNA of a woolly mammoth means a Jurassic Park-like resurrection of an extinct species could theoretically happen, say a group of Canadian and American researchers." <br><br>
<em>Using well-preserved remains of a mammoth jaw, and high powered gene sequencing technology they expect to have the complete sequence soon.</em>...."Using a sequencing machine at Penn State University, the researchers should have a complete genome of the Ice Age mammal in about a year, a first for an extinct mammal." "Dr Stephan Schuster, of Pennsylvania State University, one member of the team that announced the new work in the journal Science, See <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1123360v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=wooly+mammoth&searchid=1135358119618_7589&FIRSTINDEX=0&journalcode=sci">Metagenomics to Paleogenomics: Large-Scale Sequencing of Mammoth DNA</a>, said that it may be possible to genetically alter an elephant to turn it into a mammoth."
See
<li><a href="http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=3734">Woolly Mammoth Genome Comes to Life</a>
<li><a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/15208">Scientists Sequence DNA of Woolly Mammoth</a>
<li><a href="http://www.mcmaster.ca/research/sciencecity/poinar.htm">Anthropologist Hendrik Poinar and the Mammoth DNA</a>
<li><a href="http://www.bx.psu.edu/miller_lab/">Miller Lab: Penn State University Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics</a>
<li><a href="http://www.bmb.psu.edu/faculty/schuster/schuster_lab/home.html">Dr. Stephan C. Schuster Lab Page</a><br><br>
<li> <a href="http://odeo.com/audio/575298/view">Audio Podcast About Wooly Mammoth Genome</a>
<li>
<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0408_050408_woollymammoth.html">Woolly Mammoth Resurrection, "Jurassic Park" Planned</a>
<li>
<a href="http://www.uoregon.edu/~joet/thornton-wsj.html">Resurrecting Genes Helps Scientists Learn About Extinct Species</a>
<li>
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/12/20/mammoth-woolly051220.html">Woolly Mammoth DNA Offers Extinction Clues</a>
<li>
<a href="http://smh.com.au/news/world/mammoth-task-lies-ahead-to-recreate-an-ice-age-giant/2005/12/20/1135032020014.html">Mammoth Task Lies Ahead to Recreate an Ice Age Giant</a>
<li><a href="http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/resources/sequenced_genomes/genome_guide_p4.shtml#wolinella_succinogenes">A Quick guide to Sequenced Genomes</a>r2005-12-20T21:19:00Z
JURASSIC PARK REDUX:...Mammoth Might Walk the Earth as Scientists Think They Can Figure Out Gene Map of Wooly Mammoth
May Decipher Complete Map of the Genes of a Mammoth..Might Be Able to Produce Live Mammoth Some Say
"Mapping the DNA of a woolly mammoth means a Jurassic Park-like resurrection of an extinct species could theoretically happen, say a group of Canadian and American researchers."
Using well-preserved remains of a mammoth jaw, and high powered gene sequencing technology they expect to have the complete sequence soon....."Using a sequencing machine at Penn State University, the researchers should have a complete genome of the Ice Age mammal in about a year, a first for an extinct mammal." "Dr Stephan Schuster, of Pennsylvania State University, one member of the team that announced the new work in the journal Science, See Metagenomics to Paleogenomics: Large-Scale Sequencing of Mammoth DNA, said that it may be possible to genetically alter an elephant to turn it into a mammoth."
See
The CALERIE Study: Eat Less Live More
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/calerie-study-eat-less-live-more.html
<h1>Can Eating Less Food and Consuming Fewer Calories Help People Live Longer?.... The Calerie Study Seeks The Answer</h1>
<h3>Should Ponce De Leon Just Have Gone on A Diet? Key to Longevity: Not Fountain of Youth But Fork of Youth? </h3><br><br>
<span style="font-size: 200%;color: purple; font-weight: bold; font-family: Times, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: .8em;">A</span>n expanding volume of scientific research seems to imply that eating fewer calories and eating less is associated with living longer. It has been reported for many years that chronic calorie restriction without nutritional defiencies increases the length of life.<li><a href="http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/aug2002/nia-01.htm">Three Physiological Measures Linked To Longevity in Men</a> and <li> <a href="http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/2004/07/09/calorierestriction.php"> See Eat Less, Live Longer? The Quest to Learn Why Slashing Calories Extends Life</a> and <li> <a href="http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/28346?fulltext=true&print=yes">Aging: A Biological Perspective</a><br><br>
Calorie restriction seems to help prevent some age-related chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in a variety of animals.Is this true in humans? <br><br>
<h2>CALERIE Eat Less Live More</h2>
CALERIE <a href="http://calerie.dcri.duke.edu/index.html"> Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy </a> is an ongoing study with human volunteers that hopes to discover whether people who eat less live longer. <br><br>
<h1>Calorie Restriction for Long Life Paradigm Known for 6o Years</h1>
To quote from an article <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11795522&dopt=Abstract">Caloric Restriction in Primates</a> <span style="background-color:yellow">"Dietary caloric restriction (CR) is the only intervention conclusively and reproducibly shown to slow aging and maintain health and vitality in mammals. Although this paradigm has been known for over 60 years, its precise biological mechanisms and applicability to humans remain unknown</span>. We began addressing the latter question in 1987 with the first controlled study of CR in primates (rhesus and squirrel monkeys, which are evolutionarily much closer to humans than the rodents most frequently employed in CR studies). To date, our results strongly suggest that the same beneficial "antiaging" and/or "antidisease" effects observed in CR rodents also occur in primates. These include lower plasma insulin levels and greater sensitivity; lower body temperatures; reduced cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and arterial stiffness; elevated HDL; and slower age-related decline in circulating levels of DHEAS. Collectively, these biomarkers suggest that CR primates will be less likely to incur diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and other age-related diseases and may in fact be aging more slowly than fully fed counterparts. Despite these very encouraging results, it is unlikely that most humans would be willing to maintain a 30% reduced diet for the bulk of their adult life span, even if it meant more healthy years. " <br><br><br><br>
<h1>What is it about Eating Fewer Calories That Increases Longevity also the New England Centenarian Study</h1>
<br><br>
<span style="background-color:yellow">So scientists have been trying to determine what if anything is happening in caloric restriction that would prolong life</span>.
See <li> <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-08/hms-mdt081903.php">Molecules Discovered that Extend Life in Yeast, Human Cells</a> and <li> <a href="http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/05.08/13-calories.html">Eating Less and Living Longer:
Can’t We Find an Easier Way? </a> <li> plus
<a href="http://www.hms.harvard.edu/news/releases/0503sinclair.html">Gene That Extends Lifespan In Yeast Points To Paradigm Shift In Longevity Research May Explain Life Extension Via Calorie Restriction</a><br><br>
Look at <li><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/03/anti.aging.diet/"> Study: Lean Diet May Mean Long Life</a> and also <li><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/01/health/main517257.shtml">Eat Less Live Longer</a> as well as <li> <a href="http://www.nia.nih.gov/news/pr/2003/0428.htm">Meal Skipping Helps Rodents Resist Diabetes, Brain Damage</a> and also see<a href="http://www.nia.nih.gov/news/pr/2003/0210.htm"> Fasting Forestalls Huntington’s Disease in Mice</a> and also <li> <a href="http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/11_03/sirtuin.shtml">Protein Structure Provides Clue to Long Life</a> <br><br>
<h1>New England Centenarian Study</h1>
On a related note examine the <a href="http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Departments/HomeMain.asp?DepartmentID=361">New England Centenarian Study </a>at Boston University School of Medicine that tries to figure out factors that help people to live longer.r2005-12-18T19:01:00ZCan Eating Less Food and Consuming Fewer Calories Help People Live Longer?.... The Calerie Study Seeks The Answer
Should Ponce De Leon Just Have Gone on A Diet? Key to Longevity: Not Fountain of Youth But Fork of Youth?
An expanding volume of scientific research seems to imply that eating fewer calories and eating less is associated with living longer. It has been reported for many years that chronic calorie restriction without nutritional defiencies increases the length of life.
Calorie restriction seems to help prevent some age-related chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in a variety of animals.Is this true in humans?
Calorie Restriction for Long Life Paradigm Known for 6o Years
To quote from an article Caloric Restriction in Primates"Dietary caloric restriction (CR) is the only intervention conclusively and reproducibly shown to slow aging and maintain health and vitality in mammals. Although this paradigm has been known for over 60 years, its precise biological mechanisms and applicability to humans remain unknown. We began addressing the latter question in 1987 with the first controlled study of CR in primates (rhesus and squirrel monkeys, which are evolutionarily much closer to humans than the rodents most frequently employed in CR studies). To date, our results strongly suggest that the same beneficial "antiaging" and/or "antidisease" effects observed in CR rodents also occur in primates. These include lower plasma insulin levels and greater sensitivity; lower body temperatures; reduced cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and arterial stiffness; elevated HDL; and slower age-related decline in circulating levels of DHEAS. Collectively, these biomarkers suggest that CR primates will be less likely to incur diabetes, cardiovascular problems, and other age-related diseases and may in fact be aging more slowly than fully fed counterparts. Despite these very encouraging results, it is unlikely that most humans would be willing to maintain a 30% reduced diet for the bulk of their adult life span, even if it meant more healthy years. "
What is it about Eating Fewer Calories That Increases Longevity also the New England Centenarian Study
So scientists have been trying to determine what if anything is happening in caloric restriction that would prolong life.
See
On a related note examine the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University School of Medicine that tries to figure out factors that help people to live longer.]]>
What Trans Fat Labels Mean:Read Them and Get Healthy
http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-trans-fat-labels-meanread-them.html
<h1>What Trans Fat Labels Mean: Read Them and Get Healthy </h1><hr>
<h3>New Law Putting Trans Fat Contents on Labels Goes Into Action: Even Vegetable Oil Can Raise Your Cholesterol</h3>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/trans1-777790.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/trans1-776866.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<hr>
As of January,2006 putting labels with trans fat content on food is not just a good idea, it's the law. <strong>That's good because trans fats in food lead to increased cholesterol in people.</strong> Kellogg (with undoubtedly many more to follow) has announced that they will use a modified soybean vegetable oil that has less trans fats.<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2005-12-09-kellogg-fat_x.htm">Kellogg to Reduce Trans Fat in Products</a><br><br>
Major Food Sources of Trans Fat for American Adults</br>
(Average Daily Trans Fat Intake is 5.8 Grams or 2.6 Percent of Calories)</br>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/trans fatpict-727433.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://purplemedicalblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/trans fatpict-726142.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a> </br>
<span style="font-size: 200%;color: purple; font-weight: bold; font-family: Times, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: .8em;">P</span>rocessed, fried and baked foods stay fresher longer and resist heat better when the oil in them is treated by a chemical process called <span style="font-weight:bold;">hydrogenation</span>. Basically, more hydrogen molecules are added to the oils that are used in food making. So even though an oil can be a vegetable oil, it may be hydrogenated and result in hydrogenated vegetable oil. Hydrogenation of oil causes the creation of <span style="font-weight:bold;">trans fats</span></br></br>
<form>
<ol>
<li>
Doctors and nutrition gurus want people to stop eating trans fats. In fact, the FDA is mandating that trans fat content should be
available on food labels. What is so bad about trans fats anyway?<p>
<input type='button' value='A' onClick='alert("Trans fats are known to raise LDL, the bad cholesterol")'>
Trans fats raise bad cholesterol levels<p>
<input type='button' value='B' onClick='alert("Not only do trans fats raise bad cholesterol they lower the HDL good cholesterol")'>
Trans fats lower good cholesterol levels<p>
<hr><p>
<li>
What foods contain trans fats?<p>
<input type='button' value='A' onClick='alert("Yes dairy and meat products do have some trans fats but processed foods can contain much more trans fats see the other answers")'>
Dairy and meat products<p>
<input type='button' value='B' onClick='alert("Processed snack and fried foods can contain lots of trans fats because the process used to manufacture the oil can create trans fats")'>
Processed snack foods and fried foods<p>
<hr><p>
<li>
Why should animal products contain trans fats? They are not maufactured.<p>
<input type='button' value='A' onClick='alert("Maybe they are but that is not the reason that animal products have trans fats")'>
The farmers are feeding trans fats to their herds<p>
<input type='button' value='B' onClick='alert("Yes the natural digestive system produces some trans fats")'>
The digestive system of the animals produces some trans fats naturally<p>
<hr><p>
<li>
What foods can harbor a high content of trans fats?<p>
<input type='button' value='A' onClick='alert("Yes and more")'>
potato chips<p>
<input type='button' value='B' onClick='alert("Yes and more")'>
french fries<p>
<input type='button' value='C' onClick='alert("Yes and more")'>
donuts<p>
<input type='button' value='D' onClick='alert("Yes and more")'>
crackers<p>
<input type='button' value='E' onClick='alert("not if it is not fried")'>
rice<p>
<hr><p>
</ol><br>
<center><font size=-2>Another Quiz by QuizMaker</font></center><br>
See <a href="http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/transfat.html#unhide">Trans Fat Now Listed With Saturated Fat and Cholesterol on the Nutrition Facts Label</a><br><br>
and </form><a href="http://www.umm.edu/features/transfats.html">More about Trans fats from the University of Maryland</a>r2005-12-12T02:12:00ZWhat Trans Fat Labels Mean: Read Them and Get Healthy
New Law Putting Trans Fat Contents on Labels Goes Into Action: Even Vegetable Oil Can Raise Your Cholesterol
As of January,2006 putting labels with trans fat content on food is not just a good idea, it's the law. That's good because trans fats in food lead to increased cholesterol in people. Kellogg (with undoubtedly many more to follow) has announced that they will use a modified soybean vegetable oil that has less trans fats.Kellogg to Reduce Trans Fat in Products
Major Food Sources of Trans Fat for American Adults
(Average Daily Trans Fat Intake is 5.8 Grams or 2.6 Percent of Calories)
Processed, fried and baked foods stay fresher longer and resist heat better when the oil in them is treated by a chemical process called hydrogenation. Basically, more hydrogen molecules are added to the oils that are used in food making. So even though an oil can be a vegetable oil, it may be hydrogenated and result in hydrogenated vegetable oil. Hydrogenation of oil causes the creation of trans fatsMore about Trans fats from the University of Maryland]]>
Zohar Sharon, an Israeli who suffered eye damage while in the Army took up golfing after losing his vision. Sharon is one of a number of visually impaired persons who have become avid golfers.
See 
Processed, fried and baked foods stay fresher longer and resist heat better when the oil in them is treated by a chemical process called hydrogenation. Basically, more hydrogen molecules are added to the oils that are used in food making. So even though an oil can be a vegetable oil, it may be hydrogenated and result in hydrogenated vegetable oil. Hydrogenation of oil causes the creation of trans fats
More about Trans fats from the University of Maryland]]>