Show Section Tuesday September 24 2002 Page! The Herald Journal says hormones OK as long as you get the right kind Doc Chelation Os msifttiao’sil By Cindy Yurth staff writer therapy The hormone debate went local last week when Dr-- Roby Mitchell a Texas physician and PhD specializing in women’s health issues was invited to speak at Mt Logan Middle School by Larry’s Smithfield Pharmacy d Mitchell told the women dubious at best ' i 100-od- By Ed Blonz PtiD ' and 15 or so men gathered for his talk that there’s no reason for menopausal women to stop taking estrogen and progesterone — as long as they make sure they are the proper balance and as the as hormones are plant- long based Premarin a commonly prescribed estrogen is made from pregnant mares’ urine and is not quite the DEAR DR BLONZ: Is oral chelation effective in treating heart disease? If it does work after how long a period of time would the patient ' have to take the protocol again? — s "fiv ’rV f ’I s V 'll s ' s’ t it a i W j ' 't?!' r j ’ ? '’xWfs -- t V -- "V - ' ? a ' sA4 v s’ V H ' J vHl t Sr Imagine a world without shots: With today’s technology it’s not tdo far off Md-bas- AU Medlm-mun- 'I T4S a? V 4' ’ v v fc ("v ki r - ' iv " :: 'y-'''- v - A I r - 'r -- '?' : - ''sfo & t' vy f AP photos Y 4 ft t ' e Gaithersburg Inc is hoping the Food and Drug Administration will approve its nasal spray flu vaccine in time for the upcomingflu season Many doctors have eagerly awaited the spray vaccine saying the pain-fre- e method would encourage more vaccied 'V ft' - 'i1! dies Millions of diabetics aggravate their disease by skipping insulin injections Countless Americans would rather risk the flu than get inoculated against the virus each year Seeing financial promise in this fear of the needle several biotechnology companies are scrambling to develop alternative delivery systems including inhaled versions of injectable drugs v‘ ''s AN FRANCISCO (AP) — Everybody hates nee- - nations Each year about 70 million get today’s flu vaccine a shot in the arm Yet influenza still kills 20000 Americans and hospitalizes about 100000 annually according to the Centers for Disease Control ami Prevention Young children in particular are the primary transmitters of flu to parents grandparents and caregivers yet they rarely receive annual shots In the San Francisco area Inhale Therapeutics Systems Inc and Corp along with their respective pharmaceutical partners are racing to get their versions of inhaled insulin approved by the government If one or both companies succeed analysts and biotech executives believe drug makers will try to convert other X’ J - 'if v-- - t it-’- ’ X ! ’ Sf" ''brerfeT Richard Thompson above chief executive and president of Aradigm demonstrates the company’s insulin inhaler device at his office in Hayward Calif last Tuesday! The device uses special insulin capsules top and left which the device con- verts to an inhalabip aerosol It could free some diabetics from having to inject themselves with insulin Ara-dig- m See NEEDLES on B2 Mom was wrong dirt’s good for you fat-sol- u- Newspspsr Enterprise " :l- i ' £ mraoi?© us do i vi -- genated soybean oil it advertises that it has no trans fats When I called the company they mid uIt’s either one or the other” They reply that by law they can advertise no trans fats because there only a trace is used in the product When does a trace amount become a significant amount? I would be taking 365 tablespoons full of this stuff in a year That may be a tot of trans fats What do you think? — BG San Diego Cdif Dear BG: First I am pleased that you are having such success with this product Benecol is a commercial margarine that makes use of plant compounds known as stanol esters which have been found to help some individuals lower their blood cholesterol As you continue using this margarine include a daily tton200MadtoonAveNewYori(NY ' V ' ' DEAR DR BLONZ I have been taking Benecol margarine for more than two years I have had some success with it in that it has reduced my cholesterol (primarily LDL) While it does use partially hydro- Sand questions to: "On Nutrition” Ed v 4 of heart disease The National Institutes of Health has decided to allocate $30 million for a major clinical trial of chelation therapy Hopefully the research will provide even more definitive answers Your question however relates to oral chelation where the chelating substances are taken by mouth This approach is even more dubious as the compounds need to be absorbed to have an effect and EDTA is absorbed poorly While they are working their way through your digestive system the chelating compounds have an ability to grab onto essential minerals and usher them out of the body I wish I had some- thing more positive to say Blonz s’ ' ' serving of carotenoid-ric-h vegetables or fruits such as apricots can- taloupe carrots sweet potatoes pumpkins tomatoes spinach or broccoli This is good advice for most health-conscioindividuals but it’s of particular value for those using this type of margarine as the components that lower your cholesterol can also make certain ble nutrients such as die carotenoids less available to the body As for the labeling even though a product lists gsartially hydrogenated vegetable oil on its ingredient list it free if it can claim to be trans-f- at contains less than 12 gram of trans fats per serving iw t On nutrition - va v- - -- v - See HRT on B10 s dj general explanation of chelation therapy This approach makes use of compounds that have the ability to grab onto or chelate (KEY-lai- t) minerals such as lead magnesium zinc iron and calcium Chelation therapy usually involves the intravenous administration of a chemical known as EDTA and this approach has been used in cases of heavy metal poisoning is difficult however to find competent and reliable scientific support for the use of chelation therapy for heart disease I have yet to see much positive information about chelation therapy — with die exception of high praise from its propo- nents A recent study published in the Jan 23 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found no benefits of chelation theraclinical py in a placebo-controll- ed trial Despite the negative evidence chelation therapy continues to be used by some individuals seeking ah alternative approach to the treatment heart attack stroke and breast cancer — on “synthetic" hormones such as Prempro (one of the drugs studied) and on doctors' approach to HRT “In seven years of giving this lecture I've never once seen two women wearing the same pair of shoes” Mitchell said “You’re at by the human body “Women were telling us they didn’t want to be nags” quipped Mitchell Mitchell blamed the side effects of hormone replacement found in the recent Women's Health Institute study — increased incidence of pre-scribe- HC Newark NJ Dear HC: Let me start with a - same as human estrogen Mitchell estroargued while the plant-base- d gens are identical to those produced ' BOSTON (AP) t— Got allergies? Asthma? Maybe you should blame such a clean Moqj f°r keeping ' ' house j( - A surprising European1 study suggests that germs in household dust can actually help protect children from developing hay fever or asth- ' ' ma The findings published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine counter decades of conventional wisdom Doctqrs and parents long assumed that since dust can aggravate existing allergies it can probably make a growing child more susceptible to developing them in the first place Bat about 10 years ago doctors started seeing suggestions that dirt might actually be good for children “When it Was first proposed it ' seemed kind of ridiculous” said Dri Borman Edelman a respiratory spe- cialist for the American Lung Association “We hhd been teaching people that a dead environment was ' better” The theory is known as th4 hygiene hypothesis It holds that early bontact with some germs arms the maturing immune system against some allergic conditions much as vaccines protect against disease Some research in fact has suggested that children who are exposed early on to pets or to lots of other youngsters at day care are less likely to get colds or allergies later on Supporters of the theory suspect that indoor plumbing cleaner and more airtight homes and antibiotics i I have contributed to an Explosion in allergies in industrialized countries The US asthma rate rose about 74 percent between 1980 and 19 but decreased slightly by 1999 the most recent year available according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention About 105 million Americans have asthma and 248 million have hay fever The European researchers examined whether farm children in Switzerland Austria and Germany — who are exppsed to lots of germs from animal waste — have lower levels of asthma or other allergic conditions than other children The researchers checked health histories and measured bacterial levels in dust in the bedding of 812 children They found about double the 1 : : endotoxins -- bits of bacterial cell p walls from farm animals and other sources — in the bedding of farm children i Just 3 percent of farm children had the common type of asthma known as atopic and 4 percent had hay ' fever In other households 6 percent had atopic asthma and almost 1 1 percent hay fever Exposure to farming in the first year of life was espe- - daily protective V Whether on fanris or not tiiougih higher levels of germs were associated with lower risk of certain gic conditions Children with heavy germ exposure from bedding dust had about half the risk of atopic ' asthma and 60 percent the risk of hay fever compared with youngsters who had low exposure |