The Case of the Missing Study of Depo Provera and Osteoporosis

The mystery of the osteoporosis problems associated with Depo Provera goes back many years.

Depo Provera was approved by the FDA in 1992. This approval took place after many years of denial of approval and great concern over the impact on bone density. Thus, part of that approval process was a requirement (or agreement) that Upjohn (which then became Pharmacia & Upjohn, then became Pfizer) was to do additional studies of the long term affects on bone mass density loss as a result of long term use of Depo Provera.

A review of the research publications does not reveal such a study. Note, I say, a review of the published research does not reveal this study.

In digging for the answer to the study that is missing, I able to find an FDA publication of the CV (resume) of a Dr. Diane F. Merritt. And as it turns out, on Dr. Merritt's CV is a mention of just the sort of study that was promissed to the FDA in 1992.

Dr. Merritt's 2004 CV lists "Assessment of Bone Mineral Density in Women Receiving Depo-Provera Contraception Injection." 1995-2002. So it appears that in 1995 a study was begun, and in 2002 it was concluded. This was not something that was not completed, because it is listed on a 2004 CV of Dr. Merritt.

Thus, Dr. Merritt did a study and the study was finished 2 years before the label was changed on Depo Provera. A label change was made by Pfizer in November 2004, telling women (and doctors) that long term use of Depo Provera might not be advisable, as it could be causing long term and possibly non-reversible bone loss -- osteoporosis.

But there has been no publication of the results of Dr. Merritt's study. The only thing is a mention in the package insert for Depo Provera that a 7 year long study showed that there could be long term and permanent losses of bone mass as result of usage of Depo Provera.

Why has Pfizer not released the actual results of Dr. Merritt's study? Where is the data? What does it show? How much does it make clear what is so clear to so many women who used this drug long term. That is can cause very serious and very permanent damage to their bones.

by
It only takes a minute, or a cursory glance, at the list of physical symptoms associated with a snoring problem to quickly embrace this funny sounding noun/verb into the class of serious health problems.

Here is just an opening list of the health concerns that could occur from snoring problems (and remember, please, that we're just looking at physical snoring problems right now; emotional problems come later!).

*sleep apnea (described on the following page)

*heart disease

*stroke

*headaches throughout the day (due to poor quality sleep and poor airflow through trachea)

*night sweats

*heartburn

*swollen legs and arms (due to lack of oxygen flow)

*an overall weakened immune system

*hearing loss (if the snoring problem is very loud; remember, snoring can be as loud as a passing jet!)

*And more...

In addition, most of us assume that snoring problems are associated with adulthood; and, as such, that the physical ailments noted above are limited to adults. This is not the case at all, since many children and adolescents snore (particularly those with related airflow inhibiting conditions, such as asthma).

If you, the reader are not a snorer, but have lived with (or currently live with) a first class snorer, you might find yourself shedding a tear or two as you read this section. That's because often overlooked in the whole snoring discussion are those people who don't snore.

These are the husbands, the wives, the kids, the nanny, the siblings, the in-laws, and even the neighbors who have found themselves on the receiving end of a chain saw, or a lawn mower (the sounds of a snorer), that tended to start at around 10:00 pm, and continued - unabated! - Until about 7:00 am the following morning.

For such people, trying to fall and stay asleep was not merely an exercise in stress coping; it was an exercise in crisis management!

The Emotional Symptoms:

It's not at all overly dramatic to suggest that the emotional costs of living with someone with a snoring problem are as severe, or possibly even more severe, as the physical toll associated with snoring problems. This is because snoring can lead to a disturbing array of emotional problems, including:

*lack of sleep, leading to depression and anxiety

*marital breakdown and divorce, due to lack of sleep and lack of

*empathy (remember, the partner with the snoring problem doesn't often know the pain that they are unwittingly causing!)

*eviction by a landlord and the resulting humiliation (this may sound funny, but some people have literally been kicked out of their homes because of their snoring problem!)

*warring roommates and neighbors

*job loss, due to inability to concentrate and focus (because of sleeplessness)

*memory and retention problems due to sleeplessness

And within these problems (and this just a simple list, an entire book can be filled to document the real life emotional damage caused by snoring) are a host of painful mental states that infect both the guilty snorer, and the enraged non snorer.

These unproductive emotional states include:

*frustration

*anger

*feelings of violence

*helplessness

*desperation

*frustration

*exhaustion

*growing resentment

*lack of confidence and self-esteem

And let's not forget the millions of non snorers who drive cars or operate heavy machinery; without a solid night of sleep, some of them can (and regrettably do) put both themselves and others at risk.

Indeed, the emotional problems associated with snoring are, unfortunately, less discussed; especially since the snorer himself or herself isn't aware that he/she is causing so much unintentional emotional damage! Yet, as you can easily see (perhaps even in reflecting upon your own life), the emotional costs of being a snorer or living with someone who has a snoring problem can be severe and incalculable.

by
Prescription or over-the-counter antibiotics like Stri-dex or Oxywork kill the bacteria which, with oil, causes acne.

For an even more surefire acne treatment, your doctor may suggest chemical skin peeling, removal of scars by dermabrasion or laser, or removal or drainage of cysts.

Synthetic Vitamin A derivatives, or retinoids, are for severe acne, which take the form of redness, nodules and cysts. Retinoids include creams and gels such as Retin-A and isotretinoin pills - Accutane. Accutane is an effective acne treatment in that it works to reduce the size and production of oil glands in the skin. Its effects are unbeatable and last a long time - six months - which is why it is so expensive ($450 per bottle). Pregnant and sexually active women must avoid retinoids, because they cause severe birth defects.

Laser resurfacing is the newest way to remove acne and acne scar tissue, among other uses. It is showing itself to be a very effective means of clearing up acne permanently, and is quickly surpassing dermabrasion in popularity. It works by vaporizing unwanted tissue, clearing the way for new healthy skin cells to grow.

by
The greater the incline angle on the treadmill the more muscle activity, greater body motion and more exertion. This is the principle of the incline treadmill which brings in fat loss, good body sculpting results and loss of calories results. People desire to achieve these as to maintain healthy bodies that look great.

The more the incline on the treadmill, the greater the calories will be burned on the treadmill simply because walking at an incline on the treadmill causes more muscle activity and greater range of motion. Incline treadmill engages the lower body muscle group, forces people to incline at each step, exert themselves and significantly burn more calories than walking on a flat surface of the treadmill. With the incline treadmill people can enhance their total body sculpting as never before.

Objectives of fat loss, burn calories and better heart health can be achieved using the incline angle of the treadmill. Incline treadmill workouts can be done while watching TV and there is no need to go outdoors for walking. People can get a healthy cardio workout with walking at a brisk pace on a treadmill and then increase the incline with no side effects. This will reduce lower back injury problems and knee problems incurred while running or walking on outdoor concrete.

Adjustable resistance cardio cables during exercise increases the calorie burning potential by providing total upper-body resistance workout as people walk or run on the incline treadmill. Treadmill at an inclined angle operates smoothly with no effects or problems and enables individual to walk or run on it and achieve workout results.

Treadmill stress starts with individuals walking on a treadmill at an easy walking pace and then increasing the incline angle after every few minutes. This makes the individual do more work and is similar to walking up a gradual inclined hill.

With increase in the treadmill incline, larger steps are compensated by leaning forward from the waist which puts the center of gravity forward more and increases the use of muscles to maintain the forward lean of the upper torso. This burns more calories and provides a good workout. Beginners on a treadmill are advised to initially walk on the flat surface of the treadmill and over time they can increase the speed and incline several times higher than what they began with on the treadmill.

Workouts over the incline treadmill all the time can generate negative effects on ankles and tendons. People should avoid and restrict themselves to 10% inclination on the treadmill. People should take care that they don't overdo themselves while using the treadmill at incline angle and stress themselves. People should stop the workout on the incline treadmill if the speed and the incline start causing problems to shins, calves or even heart.

Incline treadmill is an effective and ideal solution to lose fat, burn calories and achieve body sculpting results. However, individuals should take care so as to avoid over stressing or over working on the inclined treadmill which may create problems for them.

by
European researchers found rising levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a now-banned class of chemicals with about 200 toxic byproducts, in the blood was associated with rising levels of DNA damage to sperm. Among men with the highest levels of PCBs in their blood, up to 60% of their sperm displayed signs of damage.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, PCBs are synthetic compounds that were used in the past as coolants and lubricants for a variety of equipment. In 1977, their manufacture was banned due to health concerns. However, items such as lighting and electrical devices made before 1977 may still harbor PCBs.

Read more:
Obesity in non-diabetic women was linked to higher levels of the SCD1 gene, an enzyme that speeds up the accumulation of fatty acids and causes muscles to burn less fat, according to a study published in tomorrow's Cell Metabolism journal.

Muscle cells from obese tissue continued to amass extra fat when researchers isolated the cells in a laboratory, suggesting that these muscles are ``inherently programmed'' to accumulate fat.

Read more: Last Updated: Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 23:14 GMT 00:14 UK
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Fungi 'antibiotics' for superbugs
Image of Streptococcus
Streptococcus causes diseases such as pneumonia
Scientists believe they may have found powerful new antibiotics in fungi that could fight drug-resistant bacteria.

The protein compound or peptide which lives in a fungus found in northern European pine forests is as powerful as penicillin and vancomycin, they say.

When tested in the lab, "plectasin" killed Streptococcus bacteria including strains that are now resistant to conventional antibiotics.

The Danish and US researchers' findings are published in Nature.

Read more:
Dr. J. Robin Warren, 68, and Dr. Barry J. Marshall, 54, overturned a dogma that had been embraced by physicians for decades by isolating a spiral-shaped bacterium called Helicobacter pylori from humans and ultimately demonstrating that it could produce serious lesions in the stomach.

The researchers “produced one of the most radical and important changes in the last 50 years in the perception of a medical condition,” said Lord Robert May of Oxford, president of the Royal Society. “Their results led to the recognition that gastric disorders are infectious diseases, and overturned the previous view that they were physiological illnesses.”

Read more:
“This is the first treatment that we have to reduce the brain injury in these children,” one of the study’s authors, Seetha Shankaran of Michigan’s Wayne State University, told Reuters.

She estimated that the cooling, which should be initiated within hours after birth, could prevent many cases of death, blindness and other disabilities in the 1,700 full-term infants born in the United States each year whose brains were temporarily cut off from blood or oxygen.

Read more:
Previous studies had suggested that the medicines, called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), could help prevent several types of cancer.

But prolonged use of such drugs has also been shown to cause heart problems.

Read more:
As women age, their stockpile of immature eggs, called oocytes, diminishes through cell death, eventually leading to infertility. In studies with frog oocytes, the Duke researchers found that the nutrient storehouse, or yolk, plays a key role in regulating the survival of these cells. Depleting the nutrients triggers apoptosis - programmed cell death - and adding nutrients prolongs the life of eggs, they found. The study offers potential for developing oocyte-protective therapies for women undergoing chemotherapy, as well as potential targets for improved infertility treatments, the researchers said.

"This discovery provides a basic science underpinning for understanding the mechanisms of oocyte death and a way to identify potential clinical treatments," said Sally Kornbluth, Ph.D., senior study author and an associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center.

Read more:

“They key to treating and curing breast cancer is to catch it early,” said Louis Harrison, M.D., Chair of the ASTRO Communications Committee and a radiation oncologist at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. “There are several effective treatments for this disease and it's important for women with breast cancer to consult with several cancer specialists, including a radiation oncologist, to decide on the best treatment for the woman's type of cancer and lifestyle.” For more information on treatments for breast cancer, visit

Read more:
The research team has now identified crucial genes in a range of common cancers that have been reported to predict a patient's response to treatment. This follows the team's earlier success in studying a tumor suppressor gene associated with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in children.

By using a simple test developed at the Institute, they can rapidly detect the presence or absence of these tumor suppressor genes in the patient's cancer cells. Tumor suppressor genes are linked to a variety of cancers including lung, breast, renal, colorectal, pancreatic, gastric, lymphoma and malignant melanoma.

Read more:
"The success of vaccines in controlling disease has been profound. Many diseases that formerly raged unchecked are now under control and others have been eliminated in parts of the world. Despite this success, infectious diseases continue to be public health problems particularly in developing countries where vaccines are unavailable, unaffordable, or both," says James Kaper of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, co-author of the report, Vaccine Development: Current Status and Future Needs.

Read more:
The researchers said the nutritional problem may be more in the home than at school.

You can read about this study in The British Medical Journal.

Last week the UK Government said ‘junk' food will be banned in all schools.

Read more:
The first big study of a cervical cancer vaccine has proved 100 per cent successful — a “stunning result”, according to one specialist. The results offer hope that women may be spared the indignity of under-going regular smear tests to detect early signs of the disease.

“We’re breaking out the champagne”, said Eliav Barr, head of clinical development for the drug, which is manufactured by Merck under the name Gardasil. “To have 100 per cent efficacy is something that you have very rarely.”

Read more:
The additive - also known as NutraSweet - is found in Diet Coke, Candarel, Pepsi Max, Ribena Light, Muller Light strawberry yoghurt, Wrigley's Extra Spearmint chewing gum and many other products.

Fears about its safety have been raised by the Italian-based European Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, which identified a link to cancer and leukaemia in studies with rats.

Its research, published yesterday, has prompted the European Food Safety Authority to order an expert review of the data "as a matter of high priority".

But the study has been rubbished by two of the producers of aspartame, NutraSweet of America and Ajinomoto in Japan.

They say it has been consumed by hundreds of millions of people around the world for over 20 years and there is no evidence to suggest it causes cancer in humans.

Read more:
The Department of Health said the move meant the lives of 1,000 women a year in England could be saved - the same number saved by the national breast screening programme.

But women who have been diagnosed before Wednesday will not be automatically tested for the HER2 receptor, which indicates whether a patient may benefit from Herceptin, the DoH said.

Herceptin is controversial because many women are unable to access the drug. Currently, it is only licensed for use in advanced breast cancer, although doctors can use their discretion to prescribe it in other exceptional cases.

An application for a licence for its use in early breast cancer is expected to be submitted by makers Roche in February next year.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said that from Wednesday all women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer would be tested for suitability for treatment with Herceptin. This means that once the drug receives its licence, it will be fast-tracked for use throughout the NHS.

Read more:
Most kidney transplants use organs taken from cadavers. But doctors prefer using organs from live donors, because the success rates are higher.


In a live-donor practice used increasingly in the U.S. over the past few years, a patient who needs a kidney is matched up with a compatible stranger; in return, the patient must line up a friend or relative willing to donate an organ to a stranger, too.

The practice is particularly useful in cases where a kidney patient's friends or relatives are willing to donate an organ to their loved one but are not a suitable match.

In the first U.S. success-rate study of what are called "kidney paired donations," Johns Hopkins University researchers tracked 22 patients who received kidneys from living strangers.

Of the 22 transplants, only one failed, because of clotting problems unrelated to organ rejection. That patient eventually received a kidney from a dead donor. Four patients also had treatable immune-system reactions. There were no deaths.

The patients were followed, on average, for 13 months, although two were followed only one month.

Read more:
The benefit may stem from antioxidants called flavonols that are found in chocolate (and fruits and vegetables), write the researchers in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

But smokers shouldn’t count on chocolate for heart health. The best bet is to quit smoking, states a news release from the American College of Cardiology.

Read more:
Even if you are one of the lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don't congratulate yourself — keep watching that waistline.

Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men became obese.

"You cannot become complacent, because you are at risk of becoming overweight," said Ramachandran Vasan (search), an associate professor of medicine at Boston University (search) and the study's lead author.

He and other researchers studied data gathered from 4,000 white adults over 30 years. Participants were between the ages of 30 and 59 at the start, and were examined every four years. By the end of the study, more than 1 in 3 had become obese.

Read more:
A look back at 314 consecutive individuals with chronic back pain attributed largely to work-related causes who participated in the 8- to 15-week exercise program showed that many of them saw improvement in their ability to move and had less pain.

The active exercise program worked better than popular passive back pain remedies such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation and hot packs.

“Restorative exercise was effective in improving self-reported functional ability and reducing pain intensity in a sample of patients with spinal complaints,” Dr. Vert Mooney of the Spine and Sport Foundation in San Diego, told the annual meeting of the North American Spine Society in Philadelphia.

Read more:
Overall, Americans’ death rates from cancer have dropped 1.1 percent a year since 1993, a trend that continued in 2002 — the most recent figures available — researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Rates of new cases are holding steady for men. But a small but stubborn increase in female diagnoses continues — 0.3 percent a year since 1987 — fueled mostly by steadily rising rates of breast and thyroid cancer, melanoma and lymphoma.

Surprisingly, another fairly rare malignancy is becoming more common: liver cancer. The report found annual increases of 3 percent among white men, 4.5 percent among black men, 3.7 percent among white women and 5 percent among Hispanic women.

It’s not clear what’s spurring the rise; one factor may be hepatitis infections.

Read more:
Within the childhood obesity outbreak is an increasing number of overweight 2-year-olds, according to pediatrics experts. In an effort to address the problem, the American Heart Association is offering this advice to parents: Children 2 and older should eat mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat and non-fat dairy products, beans, fish and lean meat.

“These guidelines are not that different from what you as a parent should be following,” said Lona Sandon, a dietitian and assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Kids will follow the example of their parents if the example is there.”

Read more:
Most proposed dietary changes are unlikely to be harmful -- less meat and fat, more fish, fruits and vegetables. And they may protect against heart disease.

So should people who are worried about cancer follow these guidelines?

Dr. Barnett Kramer of the office of disease prevention at the National Institutes of Health said: "I think a lot of the public is completely unaware that the strength of the message is not matched by the strength of the evidence."

But Dr. Arthur Schatzkin of the National Cancer Institute said people want answers, even if they are not definitive.

Read more:
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found that two ephedra-free diet supplements increased the heart rates of 10 healthy volunteers, and one also raised their blood pressures. These effects are similar to what has been seen with ephedra, an herbal stimulant that was banned in the U.S. last year after reports linked it to heart attacks, strokes and at least 155 deaths.

The supplements, sold as Advantra Z and Xenadrine EFX, both contain extracts of bitter orange, known scientifically as Citrus aurantium. The botanical, which has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine for digestive problems, has emerged as one of the major replacements for ephedra in over-the-counter weight-loss products.

Citrus aurantium contains a compound called synephrine that, like ephedra, stimulates the central nervous system and may boost metabolism.

But there has been little research to show that supplements containing bitter orange extract are either safe or effective, Dr. Christine A. Haller, the lead author of the new study, said in an interview.

Read more: If you read weight loss advice in diet books, magazines, or on the Internet, you might conclude that a vegetarian diet is a guaranteed way to lose weight. Although surveys show that vegetarians tend to weigh less than meat-eaters, you may not experience sustained weight loss by turning vegetarian.

A recent study compared the eating habits of people before and after they began eating vegetarian. After following a self-selected vegetarian diet for six months, the calorie consumption of these people dropped by almost 200 calories per day.

Their weight did not change, but people seemed to be leaner. There were reductions in their waist and hip measurements, as well as their skinfold measure of body fat stores.

Read more:
Doctors don’t yet know whether the cases of Guillain Barre syndrome are related to the shot, called Menactra, or are coincidence, the Food and Drug Administration emphasized Friday.

The government recommends the vaccine for adolescents and college freshmen living in dormitories, and FDA said there was no reason to change that advice — but it alerted the public as a precaution.

Read more: A team at Australia's University of Queensland found antiretroviral drugs stopped the parasite that causes malaria from growing.

These drugs also worked on parasites that had developed resistance to common malaria drugs, laboratory tests showed.

The researchers said their findings were particularly important for areas where both HIV and malaria were rife.

Read more: Chloroquine was hugely successful in combating the disease when launched in the 1950s - but the malaria parasite gradually became resistant.

Now Australian researchers have found combining the drug with another preparation, Primaquine, seems to restore its effect.

New Scientist magazine reports that new malaria drugs are needed badly.

The parasite which causes the disease - Plasmodium falciparum - has proved extraordinarily adept at evolving to combat many of the drugs currently on the market.

And those that are in use, known as artemisinin-based combination therapies, are expensive - and thus not readily available in the poorest countries where need is greatest.

Read more:
Holmes recalled that he didn’t bat an eye when the doctors proposed an experimental radiation and drug procedure to help boost these cells, even though it had been tested almost solely in mice. “As long as there was any percentage of hope, I just shot for that,” he said of the decision he made last year. “I felt privileged to be a human guinea pig.”

Findings published in the Sept. 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that the new therapy pioneered at Stanford University School of Medicine has paid off for Holmes and other lymphoma and leukemia patients. Holmes became the 40 th person to undergo this procedure after Stanford researchers had shown that it could boost the relative levels of regulatory T cells in the immune system of mice — an effect that turned out to be beneficial before undergoing a hematopoietic (blood) stem cell transplantation, a common treatment for blood cancers.

Blood stem cell transplantation replaces the cancerous blood cells of a leukemia or lymphoma patient with those from a healthy donor. The transplantation cures the cancer, but in up to 80 percent of the cases there is a potentially deadly side effect: The donor’s incoming immune cells attack the patient’s body as “foreign” in what is known as graft-versus-host disease.

The new method tested at Stanford appears to retain the desired result of the transplantation — killing the cancerous cells — without inducing the acute form of graft-versus-host disease. “It allows you to throw out the one effect but not the other,” said Samuel Strober, MD, professor of medicine (immunology and rheumatology) and the senior author of the study.

Read more: N
His new study to be published Tues. Sept. 6 by Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association shows that, regardless of their cholesterol level, men can cut by half their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease if they are physically fit.

Other Queen’s members of the team, from the School of Physical and Health Education, are Chris Ardern and Ian Janssen. Researchers Timothy Church and Steven Blair from the Cooper Institute Centres for Integrated Health Research in Dallas, Texas, are also on the team.

The primary aim of the study was to analyze the effectiveness of last year’s modifications to the guidelines from the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP ATP III) for lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol to predict death from cardiovascular diseases.

Read more:

Dr Meunier is one of seven UQ winners in the 2005 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards announced on September 22 as a highlight of UQ Research Week 2005. He receives $80,000 in the awards.

As one research strategy, he is taking advantage of the exquisite selectivity of powerful nerve toxins such as botox or glycerotoxin to selectively dissect basic nerve cell (neuronal) processes in Australian Research Council funded research.

“Botox is the most potent neurotoxin currently known,” Dr Meunier said.

“It derives from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism (food poisoning).

Read more:
Medical specialists from IOF noted that with Asia’s aging population, it is expected that the burden of osteoporosis will increase dramatically if no preventive action is taken

Dr Khunying Kobchitt, president of the IOF member society Thailand Osteoporosis Foundation, and professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand remarked that osteoporosis is already a huge health problem in Asia, and getting more serious every day—in 45 years (by 2050), one out of every two fractures in the world will occur in Asia. All women and men should take immediate action to review their life styles and take the IOF One Minute Osteoporosis Risk Test.

Read more:
Workouts to build biceps and triceps this week:

1) Bicep Curls using resistance tube: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and feet pointing forward. Now, press the resitance tube under the feet and hold on to the handles firmly, holding the arms close to the body. Lift the fists towards the shoulders while exhaling and take the fist as close to the shoulder as possible. Inhale as the arm is releases.

Recommended Sets: For Beginners: Three set of six to eight repititions.

For Intermediate level: three set of 12 to 16 reps.

For Advanced Level: Three sets of 16 to 24 reps.

Tip: Exhale on the exertion and inhale on the relaxation . Never lock the elbow joint.

2) Triceps workout using resistance tube: Maintain the same position as being mentioned above and bend forward from the hips so that your chest is parallel to the floor. Keep the abdominal muscles tight so the back gets support. Lift both elbows to the side and hold them as high as possible. The elbow should point upwards. Extend the forearm and fist towards the back of the room. Feel the tension in the muscles on the back of the arm.

Tip: Exhale while taking the arm upwards and inhale as the arm comes down.

3) Maintain the starting stance and bring both forearams half way up, keeping them parralel to the floor. The fists should be pointed upwards. Just curl the fist up and down several times in a controlled move of the small wrist joint.

Tip: Make sure to keep the wrist in line with the forearm.

by
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, and an estimated 90 percent of lung cancer cases are tobacco-related, according to background information in the article. Despite efforts to prevent people from beginning smoking and to encourage smoking cessation, the overall prevalence of cigarette smoking is still high and many smokers are unable or unwilling to completely quit.

Read more:
Hand washing would ‘break the chain', said Prof. Oxford. He said that over the past few decades we have become lax about personal hygiene. Unfortunately, microbes are using this route more and more to spread infection.

Prof. Oxford put the following in order of importance:

1. Hand washing.
2. Cleaning surfaces with disinfectant.
3. Cleaning equipment that is shared, such as tables, telephones, door knobs, desks and arm rests.

Read more:
There are many places to go to learn about treadmill reviews. Most of these treadmill reviews go over several aspects. Some treadmill reviews go over the ease of use and functionality of the treadmill. Other treadmill reviews go over the price of the treadmills. Other treadmill reviews just go over comparing the different brands of treadmills. Some great web sites to go to for treadmill reviews are treadmilldoctor.com and treadmillreviews.net. Both of these websites have very thorough treadmill reviews.

We will go over the top 3 treadmill that were listed in the treadmill reviews. These treadmills are listed as the best buys. The first treadmill is in the below $1000 category. It is the Smooth 5.15. This treadmill has an excellent 2.5 HP motor which is never found in treadmills priced this low. It also comes with a 10 year warranty which is also never found in treadmills priced this low.

The second treadmill is in the best mid priced category. This is the Sole F83 priced at $1799.99. This treadmill has a nice 3.0 HP ultra torque motor. It also has several extended warranties. Lastly, this is a folding treadmill with several safety features that are not available with most folding treadmills. It is said to be more stable than most non folding treadmills.

Lastly, we have the best premium treadmill. This treadmill is the Landice L7 Pro Sports trainer. This treadmill is priced at $3095.00. It has a 3.0 HP Baldor motor, which may treadmill enthusiasts know is one of the best motors to have. This treadmill is made with aircraft quality aluminum and hardware. It can support a person up to 500 pounds! It also comes with a life time warranty, which suffices to say, no other treadmill can beat.

Those were the treadmill reviews for the top 3 treadmills for the year 2005. If you would like to hear the treadmill reviews of the dozens of other kinds of treadmills, simply go to one of the websites listed above to get some great information about them. All of the treadmill reviews on these websites are incredibly accurate and quite helpful. Now that you know how to learn about treadmills, it is time you got out there and picked one out! You will be glad you did!

by
This process causes putrefied, nasty materials to stay in the colon too long and old fecal matter starts to harden and stick to the colon. Over 2.5 million North American's suffer from constipation. Most North Americans are storing 5 to 10 pounds of old fecal matter in their bodies. We are all subject to this problem, even the rich and famous. It has been documented that John Wayne had 40 pounds of built up fecal matter in his colon and Elvis Presley had 60 pounds of built up fecal matter when he died.

You could say we are all full of s_ _ t!

Now, you are probably wondering what causes constipation? Basically the causes are our life style. We lack fiber and water in our diet, eat junk food, lack of exercise, advanced age and bowel disorders. It may also be the side effects of iron supplements, some drugs or pain killers.

Dr. Bernard Jensen D.C. PhD. says "poor bowel management lies at the root of most peoples health problems". This is because the poisons back up in the system polluting our inner environment. We call this auto intoxication or self poisoning.

The following conditions can be related to constipation; allergies, bad breath, foul spelling gas and stools, diarrhea, sluggish elimination, irregular bowel movements, frequent congestion, colds, viruses, frequent headaches, general aches and pains, intolerance to fatty foods, low energy, low back pain, low resistance to infection, needing to sleep a long time, pain in liver or gallbladder, P.M.S., breast soreness, vaginal infection, skin problems, boils, pimples or acne.

Some healers in the natural world have implicated constipation as a contributing factor in the following diseases and disorders; Appendicitis, diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, benign tumors, I.B.S. (including spastic bowel ulcerative colitis & Crohn's disease, gout, rheumatoid arthritis and obesity. Let's face it, this doesn't sound healthy.

To rid the body of this condition you need to change your lifestyle and cleanse your body; for the lifestyle changes, I refer you to the free E-Book, "9 Steps To A Healthy Vibrant Life", Step Four "Examining Your Life Style". The book as available at www.herbs4health.net. Remember, you must increase your water and fiber!

Now it is time to cleanse the body and cleanse the body and cleanse the body. Any time we have a life style disease it is safe to say the first step is to cleanse. The cleanses are also in the book "9 Steps To A Healthy Vibrant Body". The Colon Cleanse is excellent and very inexpensive. These cleanses can be done fairly often, if needed. I recommend two cleanses a year for maintenance of good health.

There are also some herbs that help activate the bowel and they are; parsley, black seed, cascara and worm wood. You might also find relief using Psyllium Husk as this contains dietary fiber.

Does colon cleansing look like a cure all to a lot of lifestyle diseases? It is! cleansing your colon will remove a lot of poison from your body and it will help you assimilate the goodness from your vitamins and minerals. This and a better lifestyle will give you a healthy, vibrant body.

@ 2005

Taniguchi's group used a mouse model to show that a subset of cells known as natural killer T (NKT) cells instigates the rapid destruction of the islet cells. NKT cells become activated -- likely in response to the stress of the transplant procedure -- and produce an inflammatory molecule called interferon (IFN)-gamma, which helps to activate the auto-reactive T cells. In mice that lack NKT cells or are unable to produce IFN-gamma, the transplanted cells survived.

The group went on to show that multiple doses of a drug (called alpha-galactosylceramide), which activates NKT cells in single doses, caused these cells to produce less IFN-gamma. The decreased IFN-gamma production protected the transplanted islet cells. The authors thus suggest that multiple doses of the same compound, currently in clinical trials in humans, might help prevent the early loss of transplanted islet cells in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes.

Read more: Bolstering the diet with fruits, vegetables and legumes rich in plant-based estrogens tends to protect against lung cancer, researchers report in an analysis published today.

Conducted by a team of cancer-prevention researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the analysis marks one of the few studies - and to date the largest - to examine dietary effects on lung tumor development. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in men and women in the United States.

Plant-based estrogens, or phytoestrogens, come in three main classes: isoflavones, lignans and cumestrans, with isoflavones and lignans the most widely seen in nature. All act as weak estrogens with varying capacities to influence the life and death of cells.

Isoflavones, the most common, are found in a range of foods, especially soybeans, chickpeas, yams and red clover. Lignan sources include spinach, broccoli, tea, carrots and rye grains. Cumestrans are found in beans, peas, spinach and sprouts.

"Basically we found that people with lung cancer were less likely to consume these foods," said Matthew Schabath, a postdoctoral fellow specializing in cancer prevention.

Read more: If completed as planned tomorrow (Wednesday) at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver, it would be the second such transplant in that city and the 16th nationally set up through Canton-based MatchingDonors.com.

Read more: Cardiologists studying potential heart problems know it's a one in a quarter million longshot, but still a scary situation. "Adolescents that die suddenly, during sporting activity, every year in accidents."

It happened when 8-year-old Matthew Surcy died after he collapsed at football practice. He had an undiagnosed heart ailment.

Dr. Sam Mobarek says most victims of sudden adolescent cardiac death are, "young, normal body weight. For some reason it's predominately male, for some reason it's predominately African-American. For whatever reason, it most commonly happens between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m."

Read more: Radiologist Dr. Gordon Randall is now the patient during an eye exam. In his line of work, vision is everything. So when he needed cataract surgery, he turned to Dr. Michael Kelly of the Kelly Eye Center in Raleigh.

"Now I don't have the lens I was born with. I have artificial lenses in both eyes," Randall said. "But thanks to great technology they're as good as the lenses I was born with."

Read more:
The fines end a six-month investigation of the South Bend hospital's cancer program.

The women were burned in February and March of 2004 when a medical device incorrectly exposed them to radiation on their inner thighs. The incidents were not reported until a year later.

The NRC says the hospital has changed its procedures so the mishap won't happen again.

Read more:
Their study is the latest in a line of studies to be published on the health benefits of this fruit, originally native to the Middle East.

Much of the recent focus has been on heart health properties but already by 2001, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology had reported that pomegranate seed oil triggered apoptosis in breast cancer cells.

University of Wisconsin researchers have also shown that the antioxidant-rich pomegranate is effective against tumours in mouse skin.

In the new trial, a team from the same institute found that an extract of the fruit had a dose-dependant effect on human prostate cancer cells cultured in laboratory dishes.

Read more:
"The important message in our study is that we observed that cardiovascular risk is not clearly increased unless hypertension is present in these overweight and obese subjects," said Athanases Benetos, M.D., Ph.D., of the Medical School of Nancy. "In our population, if the subject didn't have hypertension we didn't find that the subject had an increased risk of cardiovascular disease."

But in men and women who were both overweight and hypertensive there was a doubling of the risk for fatal heart attacks and strokes, reported Dr. Benetos and colleagues in the Sept. 13 issue of Hypertension, Journal of the American Heart Association.

Read more:
Periodontal, or gum disease comes about when bacteria gets in between and under teeth, digging into the root of the tooth and gum. Periodontal disease can affect other parts of the body as well, as those with the disease have been shown to be more likely to develop infections and cardiovascular disease.

Researchers from the University of Kentucky and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill examined 400 adults in their 20s that planned on keeping their wisdom teeth. Over 60 percent showed signs of oral infection and one in four subjects were diagnosed with periodontal disease even though they did not overtly possess any of the symptoms related to the disease.

Read more:
An NHS report claims that new 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scanners, which produce three-dimensional images of the heart, could help slash the country's appalling heart disease death rate.

The document claims the CT machines provide a crucial early warning for patients at risk of heart attacks by detecting the early stages of blockages in the heart's arteries.

Experts say the machines could help save nearly 2,000 lives every year by diagnosing patients before they suffer fatal heart attacks.

Every year more than 11,400 adults die as a result of coronary heart disease, one of the highest rates in Europe. About 20% of those who die have no idea about their illness until it's too late.

Read more:
A team in the Netherlands looked at the relationship between left or right-handedness and cases of breast cancer in more than 12,000 middle-aged women who were born between 1932 and 1941.

The researchers also took body measurements and assessed risk factors such as economic status, smoking habits, family history of breast cancer and reproductive background.

The study, published online by the British Medical Journal, found left-handed women were more than twice as likely to develop pre-menopausal breast cancer as right-handed women.

Read more:
Among women over 40 who had diabetes, 45% had not had it diagnosed, the Healthcare Commission reported.

The NHS watchdog carried out an audit in 2003-4 of 250,000 patients in the country, covering 1,700 GP practices and 47 hospital trusts.

More than 1.7m people in England have diabetes - 75% of whom are type 2, which is linked to obesity.

Campaigners said the NHS must make sure people are identified before long-term complications took effect.

Read more:
"We found that soy food consumption was associated with a significantly lower risk of fracture, particularly among women in the early years following menopause," conclude researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

Soy contains isoflavones -- natural, plant-based estrogen-like compounds that experts believe might help strengthen bones.

Read more:
The researchers show that Orencia offered pain relief and increased movement in arthritis patients who had exhausted other treatment options.

"This drug works where others haven't," researcher Mark Genovese, MD, says in a news release. He is the associate chief of the immunology and rheumatology division at Stanford's medical school and an associate professor of medicine at Stanford.

Read more: Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug May Improve Function