Eat your vegetables -- they're good for your bones!

``A variety of salads, herbs and cooked vegetables that are common in the human diet can alter bone metabolism,'' state Drs. Roman C. Muhlbauer and Feng Li of the University of Bern, Switzerland. ``If this also happens to humans, then including an appropriate amount of these vegetables in the daily diet could be an effective and inexpensive way to decrease the incidence of osteoporosis.''

Muhlbauer and Feng fed male rats 1 gram of dry onion per day for 4 weeks. Compared with rats that did not receive onion-spiked feeds, these rats had significant increases in bone mineral content and density.

Onion and a variety of other veggies also slowed down bone resorption, the loss of minerals from the bones that characterizes osteoporosis. A number of vegetables and vegetable mixtures produced significant effects on the rate of bone loss, including 500 mg daily each of onion and Italian parsley, for example, and 100 mg each of ``a mixture of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, arrugula (rocket), onion, garlic, wild garlic, common parsley, Italian parsley, and dill.''

To study these effects in animals more similar to postmenopausal women, the most frequent victims of osteoporosis, Muhlbauer and Feng looked at female rats who had their ovaries removed. The increase in bone resorption caused by removing the ovaries was significantly slowed by feeding the animals onion, and the more onion they received each day, the slower their bone loss.

Interestingly, soybeans and milk powder -- foods thought to help slow the process of osteoporosis -- had no effect on the rats' rate of bone resorption. The study is published in the September 23rd issue of the journal Nature.

SOURCE: Nature 1999;401:343-344.

Traces of gasoline additive found in humans

Reporting their findings in the September 20th issue of Chemical Research in Toxicology, researchers from North Carolina and Sweden write that they found two metabolites (break-down products) of MTBE in men who volunteered to inhale small quantities of the additive.

In the study, four men were asked to breathe air containing MTBE for 2 hours while riding exercise bicycles. Every 20 seconds, the researchers monitored their heart rates and other physiologic factors. Two metabolites of MTBE were found in their urine, suggesting that the additive was broken down in the body, according to the report.

While similar studies have found these metabolites in rodents, this is the first time they have been identified in humans, the investigators note. The research team plans to use the new findings to develop a mathematical model to study how varying levels of MTBE affect humans.

Throughout the world, MTBE is combined with gasoline to add extra oxygen, which makes fuel burn more cleanly and reduces air pollution. While the implications of the new findings are still unclear, it has been noted that at high exposure levels, MTBE may cause kidney and liver tumors is some laboratory rodents. Headache, nausea, nasal and eye irritation have been reported among humans who live in areas where MTBE-oxygenated gas is used, the study authors note.

In 1994, 20.6 million tons of MTBE were produced, according to information cited in the study.

``These kinds of results are important to obtain so they can be incorporated into models to understand the potential risk of human exposure,'' researcher Susan C.J. Sumner, of the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, told Reuters Health. ``We haven't solved the MTBE case yet, but the new data fits into the overall picture,'' she said.

SOURCE: Chemical Research in Toxicology 1999;148:274-280.

In Canada we have an additive called MMT. This has been banned in almost all the States and is in only 1% of American Gasoline. In Canada it is in 100% of the gas sold. Thanks to NAFTA we may not ban it and put the American company out of business.
 
MMT has been shown to gum up the Air Polution control devices on the cars, one of the reasons it's banned in the US. It also affects our brains, shown to drop our IQ levels and bring on other Alzheimer type symptoms.

Attention deficit drug withdrawn in Canada

Canadian health authorities advised patients on Wednesday that they should contact their physicians to discuss alternative treatments but stressed that patients should not stop taking the drug until they discuss treatment with their physicians.

According to Health Canada, the drug will continue to be available with restrictions through Canada's Special Access Programme. Regulatory authorities said that they would continue to evaluate new safety data from the program and from reports worldwide.

There have been 16 cases of severe adverse liver effects reported worldwide that might be associated with use of Cylert. Abbott and Canadian authorities have issued a letter to physicians and pharmacists to inform them of the withdrawal, which they intend to complete on September 30. In addition, they noted that in patients taking the drug, liver complications might not become evident for months and urged physicians to continue monitoring liver function of patients who receive the drug through the special access program.

An Abbott spokeswoman told Reuters Health on Thursday that Canada is the only country in which the drug is being recalled. She said that the company had discussed the issue with the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year and changed the labeling of Cylert to add a recommendation of liver monitoring. The North Chicago, Illinois-based company also issued a letter to approximately 150,000 physicians in the US informing them of the label changes.

The spokeswoman said that the 16 cases are the total number of suspected cases linked to adverse liver effects since the drug went on the market in 1975. She declined to give sales figures for Cylert.

In Thursday morning trading, shares in Abbott dropped 3/4 to 41-1/2.

Severe chronic fatigue syndrome has poor prognosis

In the first-of-its-kind study, Dr. Nancy F. Hill and colleagues found that only 1 of 23 patients recovered fully during 4 years of follow-up after being diagnosed with severe chronic fatigue syndrome, according to the 1994 criteria for the disorder.

Hill and others at New Jersey Medical School in Newark studied the progress of these patients to examine the natural course of severe chronic fatigue syndrome.

While only one of the patients recovered fully, nine demonstrated improvements in their clinical symptoms during the study, the investigators say in the September issue of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. And those who improved clinically also demonstrated improvements in mood.

However, of the 15 patients characterized as ``disabled'' at the start of the study, 12 were still unable to work at the last follow-up. In the group as a whole, 13 patients remained severely ill.

In addition, only one patient was found to have an underlying medical condition during the study, demonstrating that ``covert'' causes of severe chronic fatigue syndrome are rare. In fact, the authors believe it is unlikely that the hypothyroidism diagnosed in this patient was responsible for her fatigue.

SOURCE: Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 1999;80:1090-1093.

Get Ready for Genetic Profiling

Health experts at the European Cancer Conference in Vienna say doctors in the near future will keep your entire personal health profile not in a filing cabinet but on a plastic "smart card." With the genetic information on the card, physicians hope to be able to help you design a lifestyle that will keep you hale and hearty.

Scientists have already developed techniques for identifying genes responsible for some common forms of lung, breast, bowel and prostate cancer, and this could soon be extended to cover heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. "We will be able to tailor-make treatments specific to an individual type of cancer," says Professor Gordon McVie, director of the Cancer Research Campaign in Britain.

Diane Bachelor, of the National Cancer Institute in Holland, says the day will come when information from the microchip card can be fed into a computer, which will "analyze the data, predict and diagnose illness and prescribe the necessary treatment. Current diagnostic and treatment measures will become obsolete."

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