Ephedra studies continue

Despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s announcement this week of its intention to ban the dietary supplement ephedra, another government agency will continue to study it.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine will continue to support two ongoing studies on how ephedra works, one at the University of California, San Francisco, and one at the University of Mississippi. The center, however, will not support any new studies. The center is part of the National Institutes of Health. Read more.

Still hungry for beef?

Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, says shoppers worried about mad cow disease should read labels. The labels “organic” and “biodynamic” on meat give the most assurance that the beef cattle were never fed animal byproducts, thought to be the chief cause of infection.

Find out what other meat labels mean at this site.

New test for mad cow

Would you pay 3 cents a pound more for beef if you knew the steer had tested negative for mad cow disease?

Dr. Stanley Prusiner thinks you should. He's the University of California San Francisco researcher who won a Nobel for discovering the infectious agent that causes mad cow and other brain-wasting diseases.

He founded a company to market a new rapid test he developed. The company is called InPro. Click on "Prion Science" to learn more about the test.

Very reassuring ... I think

GRAY: "... Can we say that there won't be a case of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in the United States? No. We can't say that. We can't say that there might not be a case of variant CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) in the United States, even when it can't be traced back to the United Kingdom or to Europe. But what we can say, even in the absence of zero risk, we all know there's no such thing as zero risk. What we can say after three years of study is we're confident that BSE is not going to become a major public health or animal health threat for the United States.

"With that, I'll turn the podium back to Secretary Veneman."

SECRETARY VENEMAN: "Thank you very much, Dr. Gray. ..."

-- George Gray of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, quoted in a transcript, "USDA & Harvard Announce Results of BSE Risk Assessment" on Nov. 30, 2001, on the U.S. Department of Agriculture web site

Halted anthrax shots have Spokane connection

"… the United States cannot demand that members of the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs."

-- U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in an injunction Monday halting compulsory anthrax shots for military personnel

There's a Spokane connection here. Hollister-Stier, a Spokane company, fills sterilized vials with the anthrax vaccine, which is made elsewhere.

More than 1 million people have received the anthrax vaccine from the Defense Department since 1998. Some service members have been court-martialed when they refused the series of six injections. Read more.

Laparoscopy better for appendectomy

Having your appendix removed with laparoscopic techniques has definite advantages over traditional surgery, according to a new study.

Researchers reviewed 43,000 patient records and found shorter hospital stays, a lower infection rate and fewer complications. The study was published in the January issue of the Annals of Surgery. Read the abstract.

In laparoscopy, surgeons make smaller incisions and use cameras to watch what they're doing under the patient's skin.

Total knee replacement affirmed

A National Institutes of Health consensus panel reviewed the available evidence on total knee replacement. The panel found that for folks with persistent knee pain and disability, the surgery is a safe and cost-effective way to restore movement and ease discomfort.

Patients should look for a hospital and a surgeon with experience performing large numbers of the surgeries. “Basically, the more they do, the better they do it,” said Dr. E. Anthony Rankin, chair of the panel and an orthopaedic surgeon at Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. Read the report.

'Expired' drugs safe

“… (M)edical authorities uniformly say it is safe to take drugs past their expiration date -- no matter how ‘expired’ the drugs purportedly are. Except for possibly the rarest of exceptions, you won't get hurt and you certainly won't get killed.”

-- from an online article by Richard Altschuler, posted on Medscape.com (requires a free, one-time registration)

Calculators galore

The University of Maryland School of Medicine has a number of health calculators on its web site, including one that purports to tell you the chances that your teenager is smoking marijuana. You answer 11 questions and it calculates the odds, based on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Other calculators include ones that figure your diabetes risk, your heart disease risk and your daily fiber intake requirement.

Support found for medical marijuana

A recent Gallup poll of 1,004 American adults found that 75 percent favor allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. Twenty-two percent said they were opposed. In mid-October, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case about whether doctors can talk to their patients about medical uses of marijuana, allowing states with laws recognizing pot’s medicinal benefits to stand. Doctors can prescribe marijuana in nine states.

Tips for preventing prostate cancer

Secretary of State Colin Powell underwent surgery today for prostate cancer. Read up on prostate cancer prevention and treatment at this National Institutes of Health web site. One prevention tip: Eat tomatoes.

Ready for a flu pandemic?

“So far, CDC has identified only 13 states that have a draft or complete plan for responding to a flu pandemic, and those plans have not undergone rigorous outside review. Federal, state and local officials say there are so many demands on public health officials and so few resources, that pandemic flu planning has not been a high priority. CDC itself has yet to complete a national pandemic flu response plan.”

-- from “Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health in the Age of Bioterrorism,” a report released Thursday by Trust for America’s Health

Positive attitude

POZ is an online magazine for HIV-positive people. The current issue includes an interview with playwright Tony Kushner about the HBO version of his “Angels in America,” an article on how to read HIV research and advice on treating three types of diarrhea. Not for the squeamish, but then, neither is AIDS.

Roses and brickbats

Slate’s Jack Shafer praises and pokes holes in a Los Angeles Times investigation of double-dipping scientists at the National Institutes of Health. Read what he has to say.

The ghostwriters in the machine

“Hundreds of articles in medical journals claiming to be written by academics or doctors have been penned by ghostwriters in the pay of drug companies, an Observer inquiry reveals.”

-- From a story in the Dec. 7 Observer (UK)

Read more.

Insider knowledge from women docs

In a survey, 99 out of 100 female obstetrician-gynecologists said the daily use of oral contraceptives to limit the frequency of monthly periods is safe for their patients. And more than half of the doctors surveyed had tried it themselves.

Birth control pills usually are taken for 21 days, followed by seven days of placebo pills. Menstruation can be delayed by continuing to take the real hormones instead of the placebo pills.

The Gallup Organization surveyed 301 women ob-gyns in September for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Other findings:

* To postpone pregnancy for themselves, the women ob-gyns were most likely to choose the pill as a contraceptive over any other method. Forty-nine percent of the doctors surveyed made that their top choice.

* When asked which method they'd choose if they didn't want any more children, women ob-gyns preferred the IUD (28 percent).

Gates takes on world's diseases

Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Tom Paulson completes a three-part series today on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's campaign for global health. Here's a link to Part One, which includes links to all three parts of the series.

So you've got the flu

Actually, I've got the flu and, no, I didn't get a flu shot this year. I'm staying home from work to avoid spreading the virus to others, drinking plenty of fluids (hot chicken broth tastes good) and napping. I won't be taking any of the anti-flu drugs after reading about the side effects in this flu fact sheet.

The Katie Couric effect

Would you believe there are waiting lists for a colonoscopy, a screening test for colon cancer recommended at age 50? The test was made popular by “Today” show’s Katie Couric, whose colonoscopy was televised three years ago.

An article in today’s New York Times looks at this and other forces driving the surge in colonoscopies, which have their own risk factors including bowel perforation.

Tips for avoiding colon cancer from the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance:

* Exercise daily -- even a small amount.
* Don't smoke.
* Keep your weight in check.
* Limit your alcohol intake.
* Talk to your doctor about nutrition, screening tests, family history of polyps or cancer and your personal risk factors.

Medicare debate not over yet

As President Bush signs the new Medicare bill into law today, Democrats reportedly are gearing up a campaign to overturn parts of the law. In Spokane, Democratic U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell plans to hold a town hall discussion with guest speaker Max Richtman of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare on Jan. 7 at a local senior center. (If you looked at this item earlier today and saw a different date, you're not going crazy. Organizers have postponed the event.)

Here at the newspaper, we're planning another online chat with an expert on the Medicare bill. Trudy Lieberman reports on health-care issues for Consumer Reports. She has won 10 National Press Club awards and co-authored "How to Plan for a Secure Retirement."

"I will give your readers an earful," she told me in an e-mail. "It's all the stuff AARP didn't tell them."

The chat with Lieberman will be at noon Pacific time on Dec. 16. Click here to post a question now. And click here to join the chat at noon Dec. 16.

Fun on the copy desk

Headline writers had a field day with news of the discovery of a 425-million-year-old fossilized sea creature with a penis.

My favorite, from Britain's The Mirror: "Fossilised shrimp has oldest winkle in world."

Read some of the headlines yourself.

What does this have to do with health? Laughter is good for you.

D.C. to install condom dispensers

"They're going to be as common as water fountains."
-- Ivan Torres, interim director of Washington, D.C.'s HIV/AIDS administration, quoted in a story in the Washington Post.

He was talking about the condom dispensers that will be placed in government offices where they'll be accessible to the public.

Cure for common cold? Keep looking

Echinacea doesn’t seem to work for kids with colds, according to federally funded research published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers at Seattle’s University of Washington and Bastyr University in Kenmore, Wash., found the herb did no better than placebo when given to children when they first got the sniffles. Read more.

Pro Bono work

Say what you want about celebrity do-gooder Bono. He does bring needed attention to important causes. He talked today about the spread of AIDS in Africa with Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Visiting Fellow Jackie Judd, former correspondent with ABC News.

View the archived webcast. Or enjoy the music at www.u2.com.

Guidelines target obesity

Doctors should screen their adult patients for obesity and being overweight, according to new recommendations released today by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Doctors also should offer intensive counseling in nutrition and exercise, along with behavioral interventions that can lead to sustained weight loss, the new guidelines say.

Are you overweight? You can calculate your own body mass index at this U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site.

How miserable are we?

Well, not as miserable as we were in 1960 -- at least according to the "health care misery index" devised by Rexford Santerre, a professor at the Center for Health Care and Insurance Studies at the University of Connecticut School of Business.

Santerre's index represents the percentage of Americans without health insurance plus the percentage by which the annual rise in medical costs exceeds general price inflation. Read his op-ed piece in today's New York Times.