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Rethinking Hormones, Again
By RONI RABIN, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
Candace Talmadge was determined to get through menopause without using hormones, and she tried just about every alternative treatment she could find, like soy tablets, herbs and acupuncture, a chiropractor and even an anti-anxiety medication.
Two months ago, Ms. Talmadge's doctor suggested that she consider hormone therapy, and she relented.
"There are always risks to any medication you take, whether it's traditional or nontraditional," said Ms. Talmadge, 51, an author from Lancaster, Tex. "But I've been going through hell. I think my doctor's attitude was, 'Do the benefits for you, right now, outweigh the risks?' "
Three and a half years after a landmark study stunned physicians by finding that hormone therapy had serious risks and did not prevent heart disease in postmenopausal women, many women continue to turn to hormones for relief. Many gynecologists continue to prescribe them as a first-line therapy for severe menopausal symptoms.
Debates over the study's findings remain heated, with doctors divided between those who believe in the power of hormone therapy to protect the heart and relieve menopausal symptoms and those who think that any heart benefits have been discredited.
Some researchers are testing a new theory, that hormone therapy is beneficial for the heart when it is initiated early, during a narrow "window of opportunity" around the time of menopause and before women develop an excessive buildup of atherosclerotic plaque.
( Read More )
HINTS OF DIASPORA Archaeologists found the remains of at least 180 people – European, Indian and African – near the ruins of a colonial church in Campeche, Mexico.
At Burial Site, Teeth Tell Tale of Slavery
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
While remodeling the central plaza in Campeche, a Mexican port city that dates back to colonial times, a construction crew stumbled on the ruins of an old church and its burial grounds. Researchers who were called in discovered the skeletal remains of at least 180 people, and four of those studied so far bear telling chemical traces that are in effect birth certificates.
The particular mix of strontium in the teeth of the four, the researchers concluded, showed that they were born and spent their early years in West Africa. Some of their teeth were filed and chipped to sharp edges in a decorative practice characteristic of Africa.
Because other evidence indicated that the cemetery was in use starting around 1550, the archaeologists believe they have found the earliest remains of African slaves brought to the New World.
In a report to be published in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the archaeology team led by T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsin concluded, "Thus these individuals are likely to be among the earliest representatives of the African diaspora in the Americas, substantially earlier than the subsequent, intensive slave trade in the 18th century."
( Read More )
Where Science and Public Policy Intersect, Researchers Offer a Short Lesson on Basics
By CORNELIA DEAN, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 — Congress took a science class this month, and some experts would like to make it a regular part of the curriculum.
"It's not that we are inattentive; it's just that we have the war on terrorism, the Iraq initiative, Social Security, the budget, the list goes on and on," said Representative Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican and head of the House Science Committee.
Beyond that, Mr. Boehlert said, "everyone boasts that they are for science-based policy until the scientific consensus leads to an unwelcome conclusion, and then they want to go to Plan B."
So now, when scientific questions pervade legislation on issues like climate change and stem cell research, there is growing concern that Congressional misunderstanding can produce misguided policy.
To fight such misunderstanding, Mr. Boehlert and others sponsored the Jan. 23 briefing, organized by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard.
( Read More )
Really? The Claim: Baby Deliveries Are in Sync With the Moon
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
THE FACTS Is there any link between childbirth and the lunar cycle? Many ancient cultures looked upon the moon as a sign of fertility, and since Roman times people have blamed full moons for all sorts of human behaviors, hence the word lunacy, from the Latin word for moon.
But as mysterious and alluring as the link between full moons and births may sound, scientific studies suggest that it is more romance than reality.
( Read More )
The Tampa VAMC Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Tampa, Fla., is one of four special rehabilitation centers created to treat the most severely wounded soldiers. One of the soldiers, Sgt. Antwain Vaughn, was visited by his 1-month-old daughter, Liyah.
The Wounded: A New Kind of Care in a New Era of Casualties
By ERIK ECKHOLM, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
TAMPA, Fla. — Morning rounds at the Tampa veterans hospital, and a phalanx of specialists stands at Joshua Cooley's door.
Inert in his bed, the 29-year-old Marine reservist is a survivor of an Iraq car bombing and a fearsome scramble of wounds: profound brain injury, arm and facial fractures, third-degree burns, tenacious infections of the central nervous system. Each doctor, six in all on a recent day, is here to monitor some aspect of his care.
As they cluster at the threshold, one gently closes the door — not to shield their patient from bad news, but to avoid overstimulating the nervous system of a man whose frontal lobe has been ripped by shrapnel. Not that the news right now is good: Corporal Cooley is spiking a fever, presumably because of his newest problem, blood clots in his left leg.
The doctors sort through a calculus of competing interests. Should they prescribe a blood thinner to dissolve the dangerous clots, even though that could cause more bleeding in the brain? Or should they just wait? At this point, the doctors decide, the clots pose the greater risk.
Thousands of miles from the battlefield, intricate medical choices have become routine here, at one of four special rehabilitation centers the government created last year to treat the war's most catastrophically wounded troops.
"These soldiers were kept alive," said Dr. Steven G. Scott, the Tampa center's director. "Now it's up to us to try and give them some meaningful life."
With their concentrated batteries of specialists and therapists, these centers are developing a new model of advanced care, a response to the distinctive medical conundrum of the Iraq war. With better battlefield care and protective gear, the military is saving more of the wounded, yet the insurgents' heavy reliance on car bombs and buried explosives means the survivors are more damaged — and damaged in more different ways — than ever before.
( Read More )
By RONI RABIN, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
Candace Talmadge was determined to get through menopause without using hormones, and she tried just about every alternative treatment she could find, like soy tablets, herbs and acupuncture, a chiropractor and even an anti-anxiety medication.
Two months ago, Ms. Talmadge's doctor suggested that she consider hormone therapy, and she relented.
"There are always risks to any medication you take, whether it's traditional or nontraditional," said Ms. Talmadge, 51, an author from Lancaster, Tex. "But I've been going through hell. I think my doctor's attitude was, 'Do the benefits for you, right now, outweigh the risks?' "
Three and a half years after a landmark study stunned physicians by finding that hormone therapy had serious risks and did not prevent heart disease in postmenopausal women, many women continue to turn to hormones for relief. Many gynecologists continue to prescribe them as a first-line therapy for severe menopausal symptoms.
Debates over the study's findings remain heated, with doctors divided between those who believe in the power of hormone therapy to protect the heart and relieve menopausal symptoms and those who think that any heart benefits have been discredited.
Some researchers are testing a new theory, that hormone therapy is beneficial for the heart when it is initiated early, during a narrow "window of opportunity" around the time of menopause and before women develop an excessive buildup of atherosclerotic plaque.
( Read More )
HINTS OF DIASPORA Archaeologists found the remains of at least 180 people – European, Indian and African – near the ruins of a colonial church in Campeche, Mexico.
At Burial Site, Teeth Tell Tale of Slavery
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
While remodeling the central plaza in Campeche, a Mexican port city that dates back to colonial times, a construction crew stumbled on the ruins of an old church and its burial grounds. Researchers who were called in discovered the skeletal remains of at least 180 people, and four of those studied so far bear telling chemical traces that are in effect birth certificates.
The particular mix of strontium in the teeth of the four, the researchers concluded, showed that they were born and spent their early years in West Africa. Some of their teeth were filed and chipped to sharp edges in a decorative practice characteristic of Africa.
Because other evidence indicated that the cemetery was in use starting around 1550, the archaeologists believe they have found the earliest remains of African slaves brought to the New World.
In a report to be published in The American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the archaeology team led by T. Douglas Price of the University of Wisconsin concluded, "Thus these individuals are likely to be among the earliest representatives of the African diaspora in the Americas, substantially earlier than the subsequent, intensive slave trade in the 18th century."
( Read More )
Where Science and Public Policy Intersect, Researchers Offer a Short Lesson on Basics
By CORNELIA DEAN, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 — Congress took a science class this month, and some experts would like to make it a regular part of the curriculum.
"It's not that we are inattentive; it's just that we have the war on terrorism, the Iraq initiative, Social Security, the budget, the list goes on and on," said Representative Sherwood Boehlert, a New York Republican and head of the House Science Committee.
Beyond that, Mr. Boehlert said, "everyone boasts that they are for science-based policy until the scientific consensus leads to an unwelcome conclusion, and then they want to go to Plan B."
So now, when scientific questions pervade legislation on issues like climate change and stem cell research, there is growing concern that Congressional misunderstanding can produce misguided policy.
To fight such misunderstanding, Mr. Boehlert and others sponsored the Jan. 23 briefing, organized by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard.
( Read More )
Really? The Claim: Baby Deliveries Are in Sync With the Moon
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
THE FACTS Is there any link between childbirth and the lunar cycle? Many ancient cultures looked upon the moon as a sign of fertility, and since Roman times people have blamed full moons for all sorts of human behaviors, hence the word lunacy, from the Latin word for moon.
But as mysterious and alluring as the link between full moons and births may sound, scientific studies suggest that it is more romance than reality.
( Read More )
The Tampa VAMC Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Tampa, Fla., is one of four special rehabilitation centers created to treat the most severely wounded soldiers. One of the soldiers, Sgt. Antwain Vaughn, was visited by his 1-month-old daughter, Liyah.
The Wounded: A New Kind of Care in a New Era of Casualties
By ERIK ECKHOLM, The New York Times, January 31, 2006
TAMPA, Fla. — Morning rounds at the Tampa veterans hospital, and a phalanx of specialists stands at Joshua Cooley's door.
Inert in his bed, the 29-year-old Marine reservist is a survivor of an Iraq car bombing and a fearsome scramble of wounds: profound brain injury, arm and facial fractures, third-degree burns, tenacious infections of the central nervous system. Each doctor, six in all on a recent day, is here to monitor some aspect of his care.
As they cluster at the threshold, one gently closes the door — not to shield their patient from bad news, but to avoid overstimulating the nervous system of a man whose frontal lobe has been ripped by shrapnel. Not that the news right now is good: Corporal Cooley is spiking a fever, presumably because of his newest problem, blood clots in his left leg.
The doctors sort through a calculus of competing interests. Should they prescribe a blood thinner to dissolve the dangerous clots, even though that could cause more bleeding in the brain? Or should they just wait? At this point, the doctors decide, the clots pose the greater risk.
Thousands of miles from the battlefield, intricate medical choices have become routine here, at one of four special rehabilitation centers the government created last year to treat the war's most catastrophically wounded troops.
"These soldiers were kept alive," said Dr. Steven G. Scott, the Tampa center's director. "Now it's up to us to try and give them some meaningful life."
With their concentrated batteries of specialists and therapists, these centers are developing a new model of advanced care, a response to the distinctive medical conundrum of the Iraq war. With better battlefield care and protective gear, the military is saving more of the wounded, yet the insurgents' heavy reliance on car bombs and buried explosives means the survivors are more damaged — and damaged in more different ways — than ever before.
( Read More )
