Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH Florida College of Medicine's Division of Vascular Surgery will participate in the American Vascular Association's annual nationwide early detection program. The division will offer free, comprehensive screenings for several noncardiac vascular diseases, including aortic aneurysms, carotid artery disease and peripheral arterial disease. The screenings are 8:30 a.m. through 5 p.m. May 13 at the USF Noninvasive Vascular Laboratory, Harbourside Medical Tower, 4 Columbia Drive, Suite 300 (next to Tampa General Hospital). Appointments required. Call (813) 259-0601.
IT HAS ALWAYS been easier to reduce "bad" cholesterol than raise "good" cholesterol. But until now, there haven't been highly effective therapies to increase low HDL, or high-density lipoprotein (the "good" cholesterol). Taking the vitamin niacin raises HDL somewhat, but many patients can't tolerate side effects, which include skin-flushing and headache. Cholesterol-lowering statins and exercise have only modest effects. In a small study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and Tufts University in Boston reported that taking 120 milligrams daily of a new drug called torcetrapib doubled levels of good HDL while reducing bad LDL. The study, funded by the universities and drug maker Pfizer, holds out the promise of a new avenue of heart disease treatment.
THE MORE PARENTS nurture their offspring, the more likely the children are to remain emotionally and physically healthy through old age. That's the conclusion reached by a team of researchers from the University of Albany in New York and the University of Michigan who analyzed a survey of 3,000 adults. Participants who had not received enough emotional support from their parents in childhood were more likely to report poorer physical health as adults than those who indicated they had been given plenty of emotional support. The ones who hadn't gotten enough nurturing were also more likely to suffer from depression or other emotional illnesses, said researcher Benjamin Shaw, an assistant professor of social behavior and community health at the Albany campus. The survey asked participants to rate their parents' involvement in six areas, including how much the parents had understood them and how much they had felt they could confide in them. The researchers also counted how many of 27 chronic health conditions - including urinary problems, diabetes, stroke, hypertension and sleeping problems - the participants suffered as adults. The survey participants ranged in age from 25 to 74.
THE AMERICAN COLLEGE of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued recommendations for the prevention and treatment of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Taking a multivitamin at the time of conception may decrease the severity of symptoms. Taking vitamin B6 or vitamin B6 plus doxylamine (an antihistamine) is safe and effective and should be considered a first-line treatment.