Low-Fat Diet Doesn't Reduce Diseases in Women

By JENNIFER CORBETT DOOREN
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
February 8, 2006; Page D5

WASHINGTON -- Following a low-fat diet doesn't cut the rate of colon cancer and stroke, nor does it significantly lower the incidence of heart disease and breast cancer, according to a study of postmenopausal women.

But researchers and health experts say the study results shouldn't be viewed as an invitation to adopt a high-fat diet, partly because all of the women were relatively healthy upon enrollment and there was a focus on cutting total fat and not just the "bad" trans or saturated fats.

The study covered eight years and more than 48,000 women who are part of a larger, federally funded study known as the Women's Health Initiative, which researches ways to prevent heart disease, osteoporosis and breast and colon cancer in women. The study was funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and marks the first time that major diet findings have been released.

The results are being published as three separate studies today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The women in the study, aged 50 to 79, were enrolled starting in 1993. About 40% of the women in the study were assigned to a low-fat diet and about 60% were in the so-called control group, where they ate a normal diet. The low-fat diet group was instructed to eat no more than about 20% of their total calories daily in fat and to strive for five servings of fruits and vegetables and six servings of grains daily.

The other women weren't instructed specifically how to eat but were given some educational materials about a healthy diet. Women in both groups weren't required to exercise or told to restrict total calories to a certain level.

But most women in the low-fat group didn't stick to it. By the six-year mark of the study, the low-fat group was consuming about 29% of total calories from fat and women in the normal diet group averaged about 37% of calories from fat, making for a smaller difference in the two groups than researchers were hoping for.

The study showed that women in the low-fat group had a 9% lower risk of getting breast cancer, but researchers said the finding wasn't statistically significant and could have been due to chance.

Ross Prentice, a researcher and professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington, and other researchers said it is possible that a longer period is needed before any positive impacts of a lower-fat diet would be found on cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

www.wsj.com

Did I just hear a collective cheer?

Recognizing a Stroke

During a BBQ a woman stumbled and took a little fall - she assured
everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and just
tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up
and got her a new plate of food - while she appeared a bit shaken up,
she went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Her husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken
to the hospital - (at 6:00pm, she passed away.) She had suffered a
stroke at the BBQ - had they known how to identify the signs of a
stroke perhaps she would still be alive today.

>

It only takes a minute to read this- Recognizing a Stroke

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3
hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said
the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed and getting to the
patient to a hospital within 3 hours.



RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps. Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify.
Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim
may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the
symptoms of a stroke.



Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three
simple questions:

1. *Ask the individual to SMILE.

2. *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

3. *Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. . .
It is sunny out today) If he or she has trouble with any of these
tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the
dispatcher.



After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could
identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers
urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented
their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting
last February. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt
diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.



A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10
people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

Please take a minute and share this article with as many friends as
possible - you could save their life.

Pupils being different sizes is one indication too. I had an eye injury once and they dialated it to check the retina. I had a doctors appointment later that day and freaked him out.

That's what he told me after he saw my pupils and I explained.

Odd pupils are a sign of a concussion too.

I did not know that.

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/sym/pupil_symptoms.htm

# Possible causes of symptom: Pupil symptoms: The following medical conditions are some of the possible causes of Pupil symptoms as a symptom. There are likely to be other possible causes, so ask your doctor about your symptoms.

* Some causes of pupil dilation include:
o Illicit drugs
o Emotion
o Drug overdose (type of Adverse reaction)
o Medication overdose (type of Medical misadventure)
o Certain medications
o Certain eyedrop medications
o Brain injury
o Stroke
o Brain tumor
o Coma
o Adie's syndrome - causing one pupil to react more slowly than the other.
o Blindness
o Third nerve palsy
o Eye nerve irritation
* Some causes of pupil contraction include:
o Long-sighted
o Iritis
o Horner's syndrome - usually one eye pupil affected.
o Certain drugs
* Some causes of pupil shape changes include:
o Iritis
o Normal genetic variation
o Multiple sclerosis
o Brain tumor
o Syphilis

Conditions listing symptoms: Pupil symptoms: The following list of conditions have 'Pupil symptoms' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.
A
# Addiction ... glassy eyes
# Amphetamines ... pupil dilation
B
# Botulism food poisoning ... dilated pupils
C
# Concussion ... dilated pupils, normal pupil response to light
E
# Eye neuropathy ... reduced pupil response, reduced pupil constrictions, reduced pupil constrictions, reduced pupil dilation, reduced pupil dilation
G
# Grand mal seizures ... dilated pupils
H
# Head injury ... pupil changes
# Heart attack ... dilated pupils
I
# Iridocorneal Endothelial Syndrome ... pupil distortion
R
# Rabies ... Pupil dilation
S
# Septo-Optic Dysplasia ... pupil dilation in response to light
# Shock ... dilated pupils

Advice from the experts on 'Evidence Based Medicine'
By Stephen Buchanan, MD
Friday, February 17, 2006


For some time now the healthcare community has been moving in the direction of "evidence-based medicine." Most people would assume that is what we had been doing all along. The problem is that due to the complexity of the human body, many things in medicine are counter-intuitive. Ideally all the recommendations that we as physicians make are based on information derived from very well-designed scientific studies. A great example of how this went wrong is the history of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

For decades it had been observed that women are less likely than men to have heart attacks, but that after menopause they start to increase their risk. It was thought that perhaps their decreased estrogen post-menopause would explain the increased risk. We thought that by giving women estrogen we could reduce the risk of heart attack. The original studies looked good; women on estrogen replacement appeared to be healthier. But these were not well-designed studies. For example, the Nurses Health Study in 1985 was based on a questionnaire sent to nurses and concluded that those on estrogen were less likely to have heart attacks. The problem with this is that these women were not randomly selected. At that time more health-conscious women tended to be on hormone replacement. So they were probably thinner, less likely to smoke, more likely to exercise and therefore it was not the estrogen that caused them to have less heart attacks, but their other lifestyle choices that made the difference. Therefore the study had a bias built into it - the people on estrogen replacement were healthier to begin with, not healthier due to estrogen. Finally, in 2002 the Women's Health Initiative Study made it clear that HRT actually increases risk for heart attack, breast cancer, blood clots, pulmonary embolism and possibly ovarian cancer.

How did the Women's Health Initiative accomplish this? They had the gold standard of study designs: the double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial. What this means is that neither the patient, nor the doctor knew if a study participant was taking placebo or HRT; only the computer knew. This avoids bias. The patients are randomly assigned to take either the drug or placebo, thus avoiding the bias where healthier people end up in one group or another. It was also a large trial involving 161,000 patients, so results are more likely to be meaningful. For example if you flip a coin four times it might come up heads three times, thus leading you to believe that you have a 75 percent chance of getting heads when you flip a coin. But if you flipped it 1,000 times you are far more likely to get the true 50 percent result. In other words, studies of large numbers of patients are far better than studies of a few patients for drawing accurate conclusions Continue Article

Ivory Soap under the Bed Sheets and Nocturnal Leg Cramps!

Peter H. Gott, MD

Soap trick gets high praise



DEAR DR. GOTT: Once again, I have learned how little we know.

I had been practicing medicine in Pasadena, Calif., for 43 years when I retired in 2002. In 2003, I had an extensive laminectomy for spinal stenosis. About a year after the operation, I began to experience lower-leg cramps and tingling at night. After months of complaining to my wife, she told me about your article on using a bar of Ivory soap under the lower bedsheet. To my great surprise, the problem disappeared.

Our son, an orthopedic surgeon, was told about this, and he was skeptical. But just last week he called to read me a letter from one of his patients who had told him about her nocturnal leg cramps of several years' duration. Out of frustration, my son told her about the "soap under the sheet" trick. She was writing to my son saying the leg cramps disappeared. She was ever so grateful.

So here you have a series of three more happy people — my son's patient, my wife and me. In fact, my son wishes to write an article on the soap trick for the local newspaper.


Thanks to you, the world is a better place. Congratulations on your continuing good work.


DEAR READER: Yours is not the first letter I have received about the beneficial effects of soap-under-the-sheet therapy. But it is certainly the most articulate because, as you know, orthopedic surgeons are a tough bunch to convince about any nonoperative therapy. (Just kidding.)

In view of the avalanche of letters from grateful readers, I wish I knew why this bizarre therapy works. But it does, at little cost and no risk.

Thanks for your compliments

Hi Judy

I thought I'd pass on this info.

My aunt was having some frightening experiences recently. A medicine she was taking was causing her to have halluncinations. In her case, she would see alot of people come into her house and they would start puttering around. She knew they weren't really there, but it was quite scarey. She thought maybe the pain medicine her chiropractor was giving her was causing it - but her chiropractor said, "No, that wouldn't cause that to happen." She sent my aunt to the pharmacist and he recognized a pill she was taking to be a trouble-maker, so he sent her to her doctor to see what he thought. The doctor agreed. He said many people have side effects after taking this medication - some see bugs crawling on the walls, etc. He took her off the pill and everything's fine again. The medicine that caused the trouble is DETROL.
I really think the doctor should have warned her, since he knew hallucinations can be a common side effect of this medicine.

MORE INFORMATION IS BETTER THAN LESS, IMO.

Thanks for the info, Carol,

It often takes detective work to determine 'side effects' of not only medicine and things that we ingest, but things that affect the outside of our bodies as well. Never having any allergies in my life (with the exception of a couple of break-outs from poison ivy, I'm now battling itchy "bites" and can't determine the source. So I'm keeping a journal trying to figure out. I first thought it was insect bites because I was spending a lot of time in tropical areas, but when I broke out in the dead of winter in a cold climate, I had to rule that out. I'm mystified. Any ideas?

My first thought was the sand fleas...but you nixed that.

Maybe, eczema? Sometimes I have a bit of a problem with that in the winter.

Chiropractors in Illinois cannot prescribe controlled medications. They can only sell what is available over the counter. But many OTC meds and homeopathic meds can interact with prescriptions.

Judy

My aunt has told me about her having a spell of itching - maybe like what you have. It was hives. She had a very bad case of it for quite awhile. Her hives were due to stress.

Wow hallucinations from Detrol. I NEVER would have thought of that, and it is something a client of mine is on so it's important to know. I've found that drug companies have to warn for so many minor and rare side effects that it takes away from the common and numerous side effect's warnings.

If one person in a million gets a side effect it's on the warning list, even if the medicine isn't necessarily the cause, then the list ends up so long that either nobody could take the medicine, or you just end up discounting the whole thing. Almost every med has more or less the same slew of warnings, give or take a couple. You really need to monitor every new med for yourself, because they ALL have side effects.

It surprised me too. According to her doctor, it was fairly common, so I think he should have warned her. It was very frightening and she has a bad heart as it is.

I know what you mean about warnings going overboard. Everyone is different and some people would probably imagine they were suffering side effects even if they weren't...but, IMO, it's better to know what side effects have been documented so you can contact your doctor if you're experiencing an abnormality. Probably more people would be prone to ignore a side effect until it becomes a real problem, when it could have been dealt with, and corrected, at once if they had contacted their doctor.

So where can I get Detrol?

Check with Limbaugh.

yeah why isnt that fat tub of sh_t in prison?

On CNN a viewer wrote in that the government should give kids all the fruits and vegetables they can eat for their school lunch and call it the "No Child Left With a Fat Behind".

Crawl-through colon




People will be able to crawl through a 40-foot-long, 4-foot-tall colon at Mary Washington Hospital this week.

The "Colossal Colon," affectionately nicknamed "CoCo," is part of a display to raise awareness of colorectal cancers and encourage people to be screened.

After lung cancer, colon cancer is the most deadly cancer. But if caught early, it's one of the most treatable types of cancer.

"It gets everyone talking about colorectal cancer, which is the first step in eliminating colorectal cancer," said Irene Summers, director of the Endoscopy Center at Mary Washington Hospital, which is sponsoring the display and guest speakers in an annual awareness event. "We're talking about our colon, rectum and anus. You gotta get past that."

One of the morning's visitors said he realized the importance of early detection of cancer.

"Some people don't like getting checked, and they don't think it's important enough," said Tim Carpenter, an EMT who works for Spotsylvania County and the hospital. Carpenter cruised the colon while he was checking his work schedule at the hospital.

Carpenter said the colon was a good idea for visual learners.

Inside 'CoCo' are displays about various diseases that affect the colon, such as diverticulitis, Crohn's disease, polyps and cancer.

The giant intestine is a project of the Colon Club, which was founded in 2003 by Molly McMaster, a colon cancer survivor who was diagnosed on her 23rd birthday.

McMaster has appeared on the "Today" show twice, where the Colossal Colon made its debut. (Host Katie Couric's husband died of colon cancer.)

Since then, it's been traveling around the country.

Fredericksburg-area colon cancer survivors came out to see the Colossal Colon at the hospital yesterday.

Jerry Lewis, a Stafford County resident, was with his wife and grandchildren, and said he knew about the importance of being screened. Like many who are diagnosed, Lewis had no symptoms.

"It's important for everybody to have it done," he said.

Another survivor, Debbie Spencer, said she tells her friends and family to get screened.

And she said a colonoscopy really isn't that bad. The procedure normally involves anesthesia.

"The worst part is drinking the prep beforehand," said Spencer, a Fredericksburg resident. "It's like drinking ocean water, but it could save your life."

To complement the Colossal Colon, Polyp Man was there--polyps are almost always the beginning of cancer.

Wearing a bright red polyp outfit, Elizabeth Jones wasn't shy about talking to people about colon cancer.

"If I see people trying to ignore me, that's when I really go after them," said Jones, the surgical services administrative assistant at Mary Washington Hospital's Endoscopy Center.

The Endoscopy Center opened in February 2005, and this year's event, which will be going on until Saturday, was also a type of anniversary celebration for the center.

Summers said the Virginia Department of Health and Medicorp pitched in to make the event possible.

The American Cancer Society also provided brochures and materials for the five-day event.

Terri Levandoski, regional mission delivery director for the American Cancer Society, said the division's No. 1 priority is to increase the colorectal screening rates of people over 50 from 43 percent to 65 percent by 2010.





http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/03...03082006/173688




Af first glance this may seem funny - it's certainly not something I would want to do - but, the idea behind it is too important to brush off.

It's vitally important for all to have their colon checked regularly. Colon polyps are common. Early removal can save you from having to endure what will come if small polyps are not removed. Having a colonoscopy is a simple thing - really. If requested, you can even sleep right through it. Small polps are easily removed and removal causes absolutely no pain at all.

I've had a couple of small polyps removed and several of my family members and friends have too. One of my brothers waited too long and is now going through chemo treatments to fight back the three cancer tumors in his liver. He waited until he was 50 yrs. old and it was too late. Colon cancer does run in my family, so I'm quick to make sure I'm regularly checked; but even if it doesn't run in your family, colon polyps can occur in anyone, and benign ones left unchecked most likely will change into cancerous polyps. Even if they're not cnacerous, they will block your colon and can cause more to form.

I would suggest everyone having a colonoscopy between 40-45 yrs. of age, just so you'll have knowledge of how healthy, or unhealthy, your colon is, then take it from there.

Simpsons did it.

Drivers Who Ought To Be In Bed

The lab that does forensic work for the state
of Wisconsin says it found the insomnia drug Ambien
in the blood of 53 drivers who police say exhibited
extreme cases of erratic behavior at the wheel.

Are there really people out there who have been driving in their sleep? And then claimed they couldn't remember where they had been?

CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports that is what some people are claiming after taking Ambien, the most popular insomnia medication in the U.S.

Over 26 million prescriptions were sold last year, ringing up more than $2 billion in sales for the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, the third largest drug company in the world.

Regan reports new research indicates Ambien's popularity could be contributing to accidents on the roads.

Forensic toxicologist Laura Liddicoat – reporting on tests on blood samples of 2,300 impaired drivers in the state of Wisconsin - says that in 53 of the most extreme cases of erratic behavior at the wheel, the drivers had one thing in common: they all had Ambien in their blood.

They wouldn't have, she says, if they'd been taken the drug the way it is supposed to be used – for a full night's sleep.

"Ambien has a very short half life and a quick elimination period," Liddicoat explains. "If it's taken as directed, there will be no drug left in the blood after eight hours of sleep, or at least a very low amount of the drug, so therefore it really should not be seen in drivers."

The fact that it is turning up in the lab, says Liddicoat, shows that drivers are either "not taking it before going to bed, and/or they are taking large amounts of the drug. We certainly know that in one case, there were at least seven to ten pills taken... So that's certainly not one pill before bed, or, as instructed."

"The driving was so bizarre - such as driving on the opposite side of the road, having head-on collisions," says Liddicoat of the cases sent to her office for testing. "Simply bizarre behavior - it wasn't simply weaving in the lane."

Liddicoat, supervisor of the state of Wisconsin's lab for alcohol and drug tests in impaired driving and death investigations, says the drivers were disoriented and suffered from memory loss.

Sean Joyce, who says he took Ambien, tells CBS News that those symptoms are all too familiar.

"I woke up in a cell with no memory of what happened," says Joyce, talking about an incident last year when, on a flight to England, he suddenly tore off his shirt and threatened other passengers.

"I'd gone berserk on the plane, I couldn't breathe," says Joyce, whose defense is the claim that he was under the influence of Ambien.

In a written statement, Sanofi-Aventis told CBS News that while "rare adverse events of sleepwalking have been reported... When taken as prescribed, Ambien is a safe and effective treatment for insomnia."

In press releases last year and in 2004 discussing Ambien - whose chemical name is zolpidem tartrate – Sanofi-Aventis said it is "indicated for the short-term treatment of insomnia," and there is "a low occurrence of side effects" associated with short-term use.

In May 2004, the drug company also said a 12-week clinical trial found no evidence of patients developing a tolerance or needing a dose escalation, demonstrating that Ambien "may be beneficial with long-term, intermittent use."

The company warns new users of the drug to "use caution in the morning when engaging in activities requiring complete alertness until you know how you will react to this medication." Sanofi-Aventis also says "in most instances, memory problems can be avoided" if Ambien is taken only when a patient is able to set aside enough time for a full night's sleep – defined as seven to eight hours - before the patient needs to be active again.

Sanofi-Aventis also points out that the medication is non-narcotic, a non-benzodiazepine – a class of drugs commonly used in older sleep medications such as Halcion, ProSom and Restoril - and the "safety and efficacy of zolpidem," the drug's active ingredient, "has been reinforced by 17 years of real-world use."

The problem, one expert told CBS News, is that Ambien and other sleep aids have become the first choice for the treatment of even mild insomnia. He says patients are taking too high a dose for too long a time - and that can lead to serious side effects.

Another problem, reports Regan, is that a lot of people are not just taking Ambien – they are mixing it with other drugs, or they are taking alcohol – and when you combine all those things together, that's trouble.


Article

Wow! Everyone is different. I have a friend who took Ambien for awhile (his sleep pattern was out of whack) and it was quite powerful. He would be out like a light shortly after taking it. I can imagine how one could be affected if they took more than one pill, or didn't get the full eight hours of sleep recommended (not many full time working people do get eight hrs. of sleep ).

One time, I took 2 Nighttime Tylenols at work during my break and immediately fell asleep. I never took that again. One never knows how even over the counter drugs can affect you - let alone a potent drug like Ambien.


*****

Other Good News/Bad News:

WASHINGTON -- A multiple sclerosis drug pulled from the market a year ago because of a rare but life-threatening side effect is on track to return - but with some strong restrictions on how it's used.

Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended Wednesday that the government let Tysabri's manufacturers resume sales - but only to patients enrolled in a mandatory registry designed to track, if not minimize, the risk of a rare brain infection linked to the drug.

The FDA usually follows its advisers' recommendations, and agency drug chief Dr. Robert Temple signaled it would do so with Tysabri.

"Devastating diseases often are treated by drugs that have problems of their own," Temple noted.

But he cautioned that deciding to take Tysabri would be "a tough decision," because as many as one in every 1,000 users might get the brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Perhaps more troubling, there's no evidence that early detection of PML improves chances of survival.

"It may not kill you all the time, but it doesn't leave you in very good shape," Temple warned. "I think our major objective will be to explain as clearly as possible to people the nature of the risk and its severity."

The move delighted patients who had clamored for a second chance at Tysabri because, while not a cure, it does work differently than standard treatments for nerve-damaging multiple sclerosis.

"We have our hope back," said Christy Cooksey-Dressell, who told FDA's advisers how her mother, Janet Dressell, improved so much after a single Tysabri dose that she abandoned her walker - but now, 13 months later, is deteriorating badly again.

Only one other prescription drug, the irritable bowel treatment Lotronex, has ever returned to the market after being pulled because of dangerous side effects.

Tysabri's manufacturers voluntarily stopped sales last year, only four months after FDA initially approved the drug, because three users were diagnosed with PML. Two of them died.

Now, calling the risk remote and the drug's promise great, manufacturers Biogen Idec and Elan Corp. want to resume sales, and pledged Wednesday to work closely with the FDA on a risk-management program.

Multiple sclerosis afflicts about 350,000 Americans. The cause is unknown and there is no cure. The most common form causes periodic flare-ups of symptoms, which include trouble seeing and walking.

Recently published studies found that Tysabri cut the rate of relapse by as much as two-thirds, and reduced the number of people whose MS got worse. It appears to work by blocking destructive immune cells leaving the bloodstream and entering the brain, where they can inflame and damage nerves.

PML, the apparent side effect, is caused by a common virus that usually lies dormant. When it does cause disease, the most common victims are people with very weak immune systems, such as AIDS patients.

The question for would-be Tysabri users is how big a risk PML really poses. The one-in-1,000 risk that Temple cited could be higher, depending on the overall health of Tysabri users and how long they take the drug - or it might ultimately turn out to be lower.

Dr. Karl Kieburtz of the University of Rochester, who chaired the FDA advisory committee, cautioned that there are complicating factors: Clinical trials of Tysabri have included fairly young people whose MS wasn't too severe. And PML's symptoms are hard to distinguish from those of an MS relapse, because the two diseases both attack the coating of nerve cells.

All those unknowns helped push FDA's advisers to call for fairly stringent restrictions, Kieburtz said. In addition to a mandatory patient registry, the drug should be administered only in specially designated sites, such as infusion centers, trained in Tysabri's use - and only to patients with relapsing MS who take no other MS medicines.





http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500AP_MS_Drug.html

Wouldn't it be nice to be as sleepy at night when you go to bed as you are in the morning when it's time to get up?

Bad news for your health
Study cites flaws in TV reporting
By JOHN FAUBER and SUSANNE RUST
jfauber@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Mar. 8, 2006

Can TV news be hazardous to your health?


While health and medical news is a popular topic on local television newscasts, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Michigan found that the typical story was only 33 seconds long, lacked specifics and, in a few cases, contained egregious and sometimes potentially deadly errors, according to an exhaustive analysis of 1,799 TV health stories.

"Most of the stories were not useful, but not overly harmful," said lead author James Pribble, an emergency room physician and lecturer at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Good or bad, health reporting appeared to be a high priority among Milwaukee area TV stations, which ranked 11th out of 50 markets in terms of the number of stories, researchers said. Milwaukee was ranked the 31st-largest market at the time.

The study, which was led by Pribble and Ken Goldstein, a UW political scientist, examined 2,795 news broadcasts during October 2002. Nearly 1,800 of those broadcasts featured health stories, accounting for 11% of the news portion of late evening newscasts analyzed. The report was published in the March issue of the American Journal of Managed Care.

"We all like criticizing local news," said Goldstein. "And it's easy. But, I also think there's blame to go around."

He said health officials should learn how to talk to the media so that the important points of their research - the meaning, relevance, context - are laid out clearly.

He said doctors and researchers should take lessons from politicians who have been trained to talk to the media, such as learning to use sound bites.

"They can learn better to package what they want to say," he said.

The report says only 27% of all stories relied on interviews with health professionals.

Goldstein also said that accountability for errors in TV health reporting was low. That is partly because, unlike political reporting or community reporting, viewers may not catch the errors. And corrections are not generally delivered on air.

Jim Lemon, news director of Milwaukee's WITI-TV (Channel 6), said he did not think the study's general criticism of local TV health coverage applied to his station.

He said the station's local medical stories were considerably longer than 33 seconds. He noted that the station has a full-time medical reporter, Julie Feldman.

"I expect her to know what she is talking about," Lemon said. "There has never been a question about accuracy in her stories."

Representatives of the three other major network-affiliated Milwaukee TV stations could not be reached for comment.

The study found that the most common general medical conditions reported on included infectious disease, cancer, injury or poisoning, and circulatory disease. According to the researchers, these categories coincide with common causes of death and illness in the United States.

However, the specific topics highlighted in each of these fields were not necessarily relevant.

For instance, the researchers said 79% of 316 stories about infectious disease covered just four topics - West Nile virus, food contamination, smallpox and the treatment of warts using duct tape. Only six were about HIV, and four of those cited a study that said lemon juice might be useful in preventing transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. One story actually said lemon juice may be a substitute for costly HIV medications.

"This is an outrageous error," Goldstein said.

Considering that only 1% of the population who contract West Nile actually develop severe disease, the reporting seems to have been excessive, the researchers said. However, they did note that the virus was still relatively "new" at the time, and that might account for its prevalence. The researchers also noted that while the stories appeared frequently, the reports did not put the disease into perspective - explaining the risk or incidence of the disease - and generally did not include preventive measures to avoid contracting the disease.

The researchers also said some of the stories provided inaccurate information and potentially dangerous advice.

Here are a few examples:

• In the story about lemon juice and AIDS - which came from an Australian laboratory study, in which researchers exposed sperm, egg and HIV in a petri dish to lemon juice - one station's broadcast suggested that lemon juice might be an effective contraceptive.

All but one of the lemon juice stories failed to mention that the research was based on laboratory findings and did not involve human testing.

• Another story recommended that parents use their finger to remove an item lodged in a choking child's throat, a technique that could actually push the item farther down the victim's air pipe.

• One story said exercise could cause cancer.

• One of the most-covered stories was about removing warts with duct tape, which the authors said was a topic of "questionable public health value."

Pribble said newspapers have some of their own problems when it comes to health news, although they do a better job than TV. For instance, the Journal Sentinel ran a short version of the duct tape story on page 5 of its main section.

"They (newspaper errors) are not as glaring," Pribble said. "It may be that they have more space or they give opposing views."
Unless they are the NY Times, Boston Globe, LA Times, USA Today



From the Mar. 9, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Hospital Link Could Catch Outbreaks Early
By BETSY MCKAY
March 9, 2006; Page B1

Epidemiologists in North Carolina spent two weeks in 2001 sifting by hand through more than 5,000 medical charts and 700 laboratory reports to rule out the possibility that Bob Stevens, the first person to die in the anthrax attacks that year, fell ill on a family visit to their state.

That search today probably would take minutes. Within a few weeks, 113 hospitals in North Carolina are expected to be linked to an electronic database that state officials scour at least twice a day for warning signs of infectious-disease outbreaks. The system, already up and running in 72 hospitals, recently helped health officials diagnose an illness at a college sorority as a food-borne infection rather than a stomach virus about 12 hours after the first students sought medical care.

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is developing a similar -- but national -- electronic surveillance system called BioSense that is designed to help health officials spot an outbreak soon after infected people show up at emergency rooms. By the end of the year, BioSense is expected to link 250 hospitals in more than 30 cities to servers at the CDC's Atlanta headquarters. CDC officials will look at disease patterns in several major metropolitan areas at once. State and local health officials will be able to tap into the system to review data collected on symptoms and diagnoses of illnesses in their area.

At least 100 local or state disease-surveillance programs in the U.S. already crunch data daily on everything from school absenteeism to pharmacy sales of diarrhea medication to the incidence of flu and other common illnesses, according to the CDC. These programs are generally run by state and local health departments, and they won't be a part of BioSense.


With the growing pace at which avian flu is spreading globally, health officials are looking to make bigger strides in the rapid detection of infectious outbreaks. Since the beginning of February, the H5N1 avian flu virus has spread in animals to several more countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, raising the specter of more human infections.

In the event of a bioterrorism attack, or if the bird flu breaks out in the U.S., "we would have broad, rich data that would show us how big it is, where it's spreading, how fast," says Blake Caldwell, a senior adviser to the CDC who is leading the development of BioSense. The system could also help evaluate whether the public-health response is working. The federal government spent $50 million in 2005 on BioSense, and the CDC says it expects to receive another $50 million this year.

But sifting through all the data that pour in from hospitals can be daunting, even electronically. And some electronic databases aren't connected to doctors' offices, often the first stop for patients, so those infected by diseases with the highest threat to overall public health still could slip through the safety net. Public-health officials also acknowledge that computers aren't necessarily going to outsmart doctors, since symptoms such as fever and cough could indicate a variety of problems ranging from a routine, 24-hour bug to avian flu.

Despite the limitations, real-time electronic monitoring of symptoms seen by emergency-room doctors is a huge leap forward. For decades, doctors mailed handwritten reports that were used by federal officials to track diseases. Paper surveillance systems were becoming inefficient, but the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and rapid spread of bird flu and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, made them obsolete.

New York, which has one of the earliest electronic monitoring systems, hasn't limited itself to emergency room data. Collecting information from ambulance dispatches starting in 1998 gave New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene officials a "one- to two-week earlier indication of community-wide influenza than we could get from providers and labs," says Farzad Mostashari, an assistant commissioner who helped create the city's system. The program now collects data from 50 hospitals that account for 90% of emergency-room visits in New York City, he says.

Considered one of the most advanced disease-detection programs in the U.S., the North Carolina Hospital Emergency Surveillance System was started by state public-health officials and a trade group of North Carolina hospitals. A rudimentary version collected data from only six hospitals. But the anthrax attacks made health officials realize they needed a more sophisticated system.

Mr. Stevens had visited about eight counties in the state, and officials handchecked medical files to see if any people in the places he visited had reported symptoms of inhalation anthrax. "We were waking people up in the middle of the night," for information, says Leah Devlin, director of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. (It turned out that the anthrax that killed him was mailed to the supermarket-tabloid office in Boca Raton, Fla., where Mr. Stevens worked.)

The North Carolina system secured $3.4 million in federal funding earmarked for bioterrorism defense after Sept. 11, to expand into a statewide, 24-hour public health radar-like system. The new system allowed them to monitor symptoms, and technology from a Durham, N.C., company, MercuryMD Inc., made it possible for them to pull up and review patient records if they needed more information.

Participating hospitals were given $5,000 each toward the personnel and technology costs of linking their computers and the state network. Meanwhile, public-health officials persuaded the North Carolina legislature to pass a law that took effect last year requiring hospitals that keep patient information in electronic form to report 22 "data elements" -- such as age, sex, body temperature and symptoms -- at least once every 24 hours -- to the state public-health department.

The electronic-surveillance systems have raised questions about potential intrusion on patient privacy, but some officials say existing public health laws already give them access to the same data in a public-health investigation. "We didn't have to expand our public-health authority," says Steve Cline, chief of epidemiology for North Carolina's division of public health.

Link

Man Who Weighed 1,000 Pounds Down to 400


SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Patrick Deuel, who once weighed more than 1,000 pounds, has lost another 81 pounds in a surgery that removed a mass of fat and skin hanging from his midsection.

"He's doing well," said Dr. Fred Harris, who performed the surgery Tuesday.

The mass, called a pannus, made it difficult for Deuel, 43, of Valentine, Neb., to walk.

Surgery to remove it had been scheduled for January, but the procedure was postponed when Deuel got the flu.

With the surgery, Deuel now weighs about 400 pounds.

He could lose even more through exercise, said Harris.

"But if Patrick never lost another pound, I'd be a happy camper," Harris said.

When Deuel came to Sioux Falls for gastric bypass surgery in 2004, he weighed 1,072 pounds.

He was so large his bedroom wall had to be cut out to extract him from his home. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance with extra-wide doors and a ramp-and-winch system that had to be dispatched from Denver.

Gastric bypass surgery, a stomach stapling procedure, was thought to be his best chance for permanent weight loss.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HAL...-03-09-07-20-12

US cigarette sales drop to 55-year low
Thu Mar 9, 2006 9:43 AM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of cigarettes sold in the United States in 2005 fell to the lowest level in 55 years largely due to enforcement of marketing restrictions imposed on the tobacco industry, the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) said on Wednesday.

According to federal tobacco tax figures, cigarettes sales slid 4.2 percent from 2004 levels in the largest one-year percentage decrease since 1999, the group said in a statement.

The attorneys general said 378 billion cigarettes were sold in the United States in 2005, the lowest number since 1951.

The drop continues an eight-year decline in cigarette smoking since the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between U.S. states and the tobacco industry that settled state lawsuits over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses, the NAAG said.

Overall, cigarette sales have plunged more than 21 percent since the agreement, which raised cigarette prices and severely restricted industry marketing practices, the organization said.

"It is not a coincidence that cigarette sales are down and fewer people are smoking. The Master Settlement Agreement was designed to protect the public and reduce cigarette consumption -- and it does just that," said Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell.

The major companies that signed the MSA are Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.; British American Tobacco Plc's Brown & Williamson unit; and Lorillard, which trades as Carolina Group and is part of Loews Corp.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers cigarette smoking to be the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. About 440,000 people die each year from lung cancer and other diseases related to tobacco use.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle....KING.xml&rpc=22

xlent

Deep Vein Thrombosis

DVT caused by poor air quality in jets, say scientists


DVT, the potentially fatal condition dubbed "economy class syndrome", can be caused by poor air quality in passenger aircraft, scientists have shown for the first time.

In a study that will have major implications for the airline industry, the World Health Organisation said it was not just sitting still that causes Deep Vein Thrombosis.

Research to be published today in The Lancet shows that passengers who spent eight hours in an aircraft had a greater likelihood of suffering fatal blood clots than those who had sat in a seat on the ground for the same amount of time.

DVT was first linked to air travel in 1954 and recent studies have suggested that it can increase the risk of a fatal clot by up to four times. Until today it was widely thought that it was brought on by long periods spent in cramped seats without exercise.

Many airlines responded with information cards advising passengers on the exercises to do during a flight to minimise the risk.

Farrol Kahn, the director of Aviation Health, a non-profit body that deals with air travel health issues, said: "This is a very significant study in that for the first time it establishes a solid link between air travel and DVT."

DVT is the formation of blood clots within blood vessels, often in the large, deep veins in the lower legs.

The condition can block the flow of blood and cause tissue damage, and can be fatal if a clot breaks away and reaches the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism.

Around 100,000 people get DVT in Britain each year, of which some 10 per cent are thought to develop it from air travel. The condition kills 500 to 1,000 people each year.

The World Health Organisation commissioned researchers from Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam to measure blood-clotting in 71 volunteers before, during and after eight-hour flights.

The same individuals were also monitored in similar seats on the ground for eight hours while they watched films and during normal daily life to see whether the only different factor - the relatively low-pressure, low-oxygen content of air on a passenger jet - made a difference.

Prof Frits Rosendaal, of Leiden University, said the findings indicated that flightassociated factors led to increased generation of thrombin - the blood-clotting marker - after air travel.

A British Airways spokesman said: "We welcome research into deep vein thrombosis and look forward to reading this paper in full. We encourage passengers to remain active during a flight." Article

The people keep getting bigger and the seats in the plane keep getting smaller and closer together.

Vaccine could stop MS in its tracks


THE immune cells that attack the brains and nerves of people with multiple sclerosis could be turned into a weapon against the disease.

This month sees the beginning of a trial of a personalised vaccine for MS, designed to rein in and destroy the renegade white blood cells that attack myelin cells lining the brain and nerves of patients.

To make the vaccine, PharmaFrontiers of Woodlands, Texas, takes blood from an MS patient and extracts a sample of these renegade cells. The cells are then multiplied and weakened with radiation before being re-injected into the patient, whose immune system will then recognise them as damaged and attack them, sometimes wiping them out completely, according to the results of earlier trials. The immune system will also attack healthy renegade cells, which have the same markers on their surface. In one trial of 15 people with MS the rate of new flare-ups was reduced by 92 per cent.

If this success is repeated in the new trial it might mean that regular shots could slow or even arrest progression of the disease. "If that's the case, the earlier we can do it after diagnosis the better," says David McWilliams of PharmaFrontiers. In the current trial, 100 patients will receive the treatment and 50 a dummy treatment. The vaccine would only need to be injected four times a year, while other MS drugs need to be given on a weekly or daily basis.

However, since all previous attempts to develop a vaccine for MS have failed, Richard Rudick of the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research in Cleveland, Ohio, is cautious about its prospects. "None have worked so far. This one may, but we don't yet know."

In the meantime, good news may await MS patients in the US. This week the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to lift its ban on prescribing Tysabri following new evidence on its safety and effectiveness. Tysabri, which is twice as effective at quelling symptoms as any other MS drug available, was pulled a year ago after three people taking it died from rare brain infections.

The superiority of Tysabri over existing, beta-interferon treatments was shown by three separate studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine last week (vol 354, p 899, p 911 and p 924). "With interferons, we've normally seen roughly a one-third reduction in the relapse rate," says Rudick, who led one of the studies. "With Tysabri, we saw more than a two-thirds reduction."





http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health...925423.800.html





A friend of mine's son has MS, my cousin's son's wife has it and I also knew a woman who finally died from MS. The doctors believe my friend's son's condition was caused from stress - he's now legally blind and there are many days he can't walk. My cousin's wife's condition was genetic - her sister also has the disease. My cousin's wife gets along rather well, most of the time. I hope this drug will be all it seems.

I hope it does too, this is a horrible illness and usually strikes in the prime of life!

Fresh fears over Atkins diet


Woman In Coma After Diet
Updated: 11:49, Friday March 17, 2006

There are new fears about the controversial Atkins diet after a woman fell in to a coma.

The 40-year-old was admitted to a hospital after a near fatal build-up up of dangerous acids.

She told doctors she had lived off meat, salads, cheese and had lost 19lbs in a month.

Doctors say the woman may have fallen ill because of her strict adherence to the low-carbohydate diet.

The diet calls for people to ditch foods such as rice and potatoes in preference for high-protein products such as meat.

Doctors from New York University wrote in The Lancet journal the woman developed a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis, a build-up of acids called ketones in the blood.

She was vomiting several times a day and became short of breath.

However, some outside experts said the case is rare and does not reflect a major health threat associated with low-carb diets.

"I think this is an isolated case. The idea that serious ketoacidosis could be triggered by a low-carb diet does not happen very often," said Dr Paul Clayton, president of the forum on food and nutrition at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

The Atkins Foundation - a medical research charity run by Atkins' widow, Veronica - said ketoacidosis was not triggered by diet and could only occur if the patient had an "abnormal clinical metabolic condition."

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-13514417,00.html

It seems a lot of people have been desperate to discredit Adkins. Moreso than most diets. This one occassion making the media leads me to believe there is still concerted effort to stop Adkins and push some other agendas in the process.

Right you are! Adkins works and so does the South Beach Diet, which is another low carb diet. Dr. Adkins proved so many doctors and nutritionists wrong that they never forgave him and tried to discredit him at every turn. They even blamed his diet for killing him when he fell on ice and had a head injury.

I haven't used either diet, but I know the AMA likes to shoot down anything that isn't accompanied by regular payments... I mean visits, to a doctor.

Penny wise and pound foolish. Typical Bush.

The food industry makes us sick with their additives and preservatives, the medical industry makes a pill to mask the symptoms of illness, and around and around we go...

On the flip side, Mr. evangelical can make the tax cuts for the rich permanent.

Well folks, where are his priorities?

One day you're complaining about the deficit, but make any cut anywhere, and you complain about the cut. When is the rest of the world going to do their share on research?

This isn't so much about research, as it is about prevention.

Spending less on prevention costs you and me more in the long run so it's just stupid.

As for where to cut the budget, the bogus wars would be a good start. Haliburton skims more than the entire cancer money budget every week in Iraq. How about we cut back on that?

Geez. I wonder if these bushlovers ever get tired of complaining about the lefties "complaining".

Money is always limited. It's a standard complaint.

Your Blackberry Is Safe Now ... But Is Your Medicine?



According to Abraham Lincoln "the patent system added the fuel of interest to the fire of genius." And although the U.S. Patent Law continues to serve this purpose, it is now showing its age and is in need of reform.


The Blackberry patent litigation process has received considerable attention, but the negative consequences of an outdated patent system go beyond technology. U.S. patent law's principle of inequitable conduct is being exploited in unintended ways with unforeseeable consequences, threatening the viability of pharmaceutical development.


Patent applicants are required to pursue applications "with candor, good faith, and honesty." The violation of this duty, along with intent to mislead the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), may constitute inequitable conduct and may render a granted patent unenforceable.


Declaring a patent unenforceable on the grounds of inequitable conduct requires clear evidence that the applicant committed any of the following three actions:

(1) affirmative misrepresentation of a material fact,

(2) failure to disclose material information, or

(3) submission of false material information.

The courts weigh the materiality of the information provided (or withheld) against the evidence of intent to mislead the PTO in order to obtain the patent. Weighed against high materiality, a lower threshold of intent can be found to constitute inequitable conduct.


The ongoing litigation regarding the painkiller OxyContin® illustrates the dangers of a too-liberal application of inequitable conduct. Purdue Pharma L.P., the patent holder, sued generic manufacturer Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. for patent infringement. The U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York ruled that, although Endo infringed Purdue's patent, the patent was unenforceable on the grounds of inequitable conduct.


The inequitable conduct ruling was based upon a particular assertion that Purdue made during the prosecution of the patent application. Purdue claimed that their researchers had "surprisingly discovered" that a four-fold range of dosages of the drug would treat "about 90%" of patients. When this statement was made, the company did not have empirical evidence to support it; rather it was based on the knowledge and insight of the scientists.


The district court determined that the context of Purdue's claim suggested the existence of clinical data and that the lack of such data constituted the withholding of material information. It found the withholding of that information to be of a high enough level of materiality and of deceptive intent to declare the patent unenforceable.


This ruling shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the medical discovery process works. Medical scientists publish and share potentially ground-breaking elements of their research (a surprising discovery, if you will) with the international scientific community. Disclosure is a fundamental part of the peer-review scientific process. Under these circumstances, a property right over a potentially valuable medical invention or discovery is needed before moving forward on the research project.


The Court of Appeals upheld the finding that Purdue withheld material information but determined the materiality did not meet the threshold necessary to invalidate a patent. It recommended the trial court "reweigh its materiality and intent findings to determine whether the sanction of unenforceability due to inequitable conduct is warranted." Though far from resolution, the appeals court has sent the right message to the trial court: a high level of materiality is crucial to invalidate a patent. Nevertheless, the damage is already done.


Once generic drugs enter the market, price structure is affected in a permanent way and damages include both past and future lost profits. The consequences for Purdue have been devastating. Prior to Endo's patent infringement, OxyContin® represented 90 percent of sales in 2003. Research projects were abandoned or put on hold, the company's value was harmed, and almost 2,000 jobs were lost. If the trial court finds that Purdue's patents are indeed valid, the potential monetary cost for Endo and Teva (another OxyContin® infringer) would be measured in billions of dollars. The awarded damages could be the largest in the history of patent litigation.


Above all, the ruling dangerously threatens the patents of numerous medical inventions and drugs, and thereby future medical innovation. Whether an invention is based on insight or clinical data "does not by itself affect patentability." Therefore, a precedent of patent unenforceability based on the Purdue litigation casts inventions based on experience and judgment in an unfavorable light.


The certainty of patentability for an invention based on insight has been shaken, and future biomedical innovation will suffer. The case highlights a system that offers exploitable loopholes to patent infringers and shows just how badly reform is needed. A legal system that is hard to understand and whose interpretations are unpredictable hinders productive endeavors.


The Patent Reform Act 2005 introduced by Representative Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), which is currently on hold in Congress, should be revived. This legislation incorporates several recommendations made in a 2004 report published by the National Academies of Science: "A Patent System for the 21st Century." The report concluded that "in view of its cost and limited deterrent value," inequitable conduct doctrine should be eliminated or radically reformed.


An erratic application of the inequitable conduct precept has potential for great economic damage and may hinder innovation. An opinion of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a separate case (Burlington Industries v. Dayco Corporation) states that "the habit of charging inequitable conduct in almost every major patent case has become an absolute plague." A plague that needs to be eradicated.

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=032206C

BSD Medical seeks FDA OK for device


MAR. 24 10:11 A.M. ET BSD Medical Corp., a maker of equipment that uses radio frequencies and microwaves to help treat cancer, said Friday it asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow commercial sales of its BSD-2000 cancer treatment in the United States.

Developed specifically to allow treatment access for cancer located deep in the body, the BSD-2000 delivers precision-focused radio frequency energy in cancerous tumors. That action heats cancerous tissue to the point of hyperthermia, breaking down tumor resistance to radiation and chemotherapy.

BSD Medical said thousands of cancer patients have been treated with the BSD-2000 in the United States and other countries.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialne...me_down&chan=db

LISTEN UP GUYS!

Testicles may provide a better kind of stem cell
By Mark Henderson


Men may be carrying in their testicles an almost limitless supply of spare part cells for treating disease and injury, research has suggested.

Scientists in Germany have successfully isolated a new kind of stem cell from the testes of adult mice that can grow into a full range of tissue types, offering a possible alternative to embryonic stem (ES) cells for medical therapies.

If the findings are repeated in people, it could become possible to harvest the cells from testicles and grow them into specialised tissues for treating conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and paralysis.

As the cells would come from the patient’s own body, they would be a precise genetic match and would not risk rejection. This source of tissue would thus remove any need for therapeutic cloning.

The study will be published next week in Nature.

www.timesonline.co.uk/health

Pregnancy, Estrogen and Women

Pregnancy Q & A & more!

Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.
A: So what's your question?

Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?
A: Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.

Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college.

"ESTROGEN ISSUES"


10 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE "ESTROGEN ISSUES"

1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2. You're adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.
3. The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.
4. Your husband is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.
5. You're using your cellular phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says: "How's my driving-call 1- 800-".
6. Everyone's head looks like an invitation to batting practice.
7. Everyone seems to have just landed here from "outer space".
8. You can't believe they don't make a tampon bigger than Super Plus.
9. You're sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.
10. The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday..

TOP TEN THINGS ONLY WOMEN UNDERSTAND

10. Cats' facial expressions.
9. The need for the same style of shoes in different colors.
8. Why bean sprouts aren't just weeds.
7. Fat clothes.
6 Taking a car trip without trying to beat yourbest time.
5. The difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell.
4. Cutting your hair to make it grow.
3. Eyelash curlers.
2. The inaccuracy of every bathroom scale ever made.

AND, the Number One Number One thing only women understand:

1. OTHER WOMEN

Like to Learn Things?

Like to Play Games?

Here's a Game to play and learn about Blood Types. Click Here

Interesting site. I'm AB, so I don't worry much.

Sometimes being rare isn't such a good thing.