Health Highlights: April 9, 2002

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Health Highlights: April 9, 2002



Pregnancy Weight-Gain Increases Breast Cancer Risk: Study

Oregon Teen Denied Transplant Coverage Dies

Public Still Down on Cloning: Survey

Fish Is Heart Food, Too

College Drinking Has Deadly Results, New Study Finds

St. John's Wort Weakens Anti-Cancer Drug

Green Tea Has No Effect on Prostate Cancer



Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of The HealthScout News Service:

Pregnancy Weight-Gain Increases Breast Cancer Risk: Study



New research suggests that women who gain too much weight during pregnancy have more to worry about than getting their figures back after delivery. In fact, says the study, weight gain during pregnancy puts women at an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life.



The research, presented today at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Francisco, showed that women who gained more than 38 pounds during pregnancy had a 40 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.



Extensive previous research has linked obesity in women with an increased risk of breast cancer.



The increased cancer risk in overweight women is believed to occur because fat cells produce estrogen and extra estrogen is linked to breast cancer. The researchers behind the latest study say the additional burst of estrogen women get during pregnancy may further boost the odds for breast cancer.



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Oregon Teen Denied Transplant Coverage Dies



An Oregon teenager with cystic fibrosis died from the disease yesterday after an unsuccessful battle to have the Oregon Health Plan cover the cost of a lung-liver transplant.



Authorities say 19-year-old Brandy Stroeder died of respiratory failure at Oregon Health & Science University hospital in Portland, reports the Associated Press.



The Oregon Health Plan, which provides state-funded health care coverage for low-income residents, said the transplant was experimental and refused to cover the $250,000 cost.



A community fund-raising effort led by millionaire motel magnate Mark Hemstreet was able to raise $300,000 for the teen's medical expenses, but an attempt to conduct a transplant in December was canceled when doctors detected traces of pneumonia in one of the donor's lungs.



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Public Still Down on Cloning: Survey



When it comes to the issue of cloning humans, the opinions of most are identically matched - - we're flatly opposed, but there are still differences in how the public feels about stem cell research.



That's according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which shows that people oppose the cloning of humans by a wide 4-1 margin, while the attitudes about stem cell research are split by a 43-35 margin, reports the Associated Press.



The researchers say the stem cell research findings are hard to gauge, however, because of the complexity of the issue and the difficulty in distinguishing such issues as whether the responses refer to research on stem cells from embryos or from adults.



The report is based on a survey of 2,002 adults taken between Feb. 25 and March 10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.



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Fish Is Heart Food, Too



If you want to reduce your risk of a heart attack by more than 20 percent, just eat a tuna fish sandwich once a month.



That advice emerges from two studies affirming the beneficial value of fish in the diet in preventing the kind of blockage of arteries that leads to heart attacks and to strokes, reports HealthScout News.



And while both studies come from Boston, "the land of the bean and the cod," cod is not high on the list of the best fish to eat. That's because the benefit comes from the omega-3 fatty acids, also called polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), says Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital and a co-author of the study that appears in tomorrow's issue of the Journal of the American Association.



While eating cod is not a bad idea, fish that are especially rich in PUFAs are mackerel, salmon, sardines -- and tuna, Manson says.



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Report Describes Deadly Consequences of College Drinking



About 1,400 college students die in alcohol-related accidents every year, and the problem contributes to 500,000 campus injuries annually, warns a new study by the federally supported Task Force on College Age Drinking.



In what its authors call the most comprehensive look ever at the consequences of college alcohol consumption, the report also says the problem contributes to 70,000 cases of sexual assault and date rape each year.



Researcher Kenneth Sher, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia, tells CBS News that adults often dismiss student drinking as a right of passage. "I think these findings point out that many people never get through this rite of passage safely," he says.



The report is among the first of 24 campus drinking studies to be sponsored by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.



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St. John's Wort Weakens Cancer Drug



The popular anti-depressant herb St. John's wort appears to stifle the effects of a powerful chemotherapy drug, Dutch researchers warn.



Scientists at the Rotterdam Cancer Institute say the effects of the drug Camptosar are reduced by about 40 percent among cancer patients who also take St. John's wort. In some cases, they told an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in San Francisco, St. John's wort can reduce the effects of the anti-cancer drug for weeks after someone stops taking the herbal supplement.



Past studies have indicated that vitamins and alternative supplements are used by as many as half of the people with serious forms of cancer, reports the Associated Press.



The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that the St. John's wort can also interfere with anti-AIDS medications known as protease inhibitors. It also may inhibit drugs used to treat heart disease and epilepsy, reports the AP.



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Green Tea Has No Effect on Prostate Cancer



Green tea had no effect on men who drank the equivalent of 12 cups daily in hopes of combatting advanced prostate cancer, reports HealthScout News of a 22-center Mayo Clinic study.



Earlier lab results indicated green tea held promise in combatting prostate cancer, which affects as many as 200,000 American men each year and contributes to some 32,000 deaths. It's the leading cause of death from cancer among men over 55, the American Cancer Society says.



The Mayo study, which was slated to run for four months, ended after just 30 days. Only one of the 42 men in the study experienced a positive result, with a 50 percent reduction in levels of prostate specific androgen, a blood test marker for prostate cancer. However, that change turned out to be only temporary. The remaining 41 men saw no improvement in their cancers.



The Mayo researchers presented their disappointing findings this week at the annual meeting of the American Cancer Research Association in San Francisco. However, additional research presented at the meeting indicated that green tea showed promise in inhibiting other diseases, including cancers of the esophagus and stomach.



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