Health Beat - brief notes - Brief Article

Clean out your medicine cabinet once a year, recommends Candy Tsourounis, assistant clinical professor of pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco. "If a medication has expired, throw it out. If there is no expiration date, get rid of it after one year." To keep track, write the date of purchase on any label without an expiration date. The primary reason for such diligence is that many active ingredients in prescription drugs, diet supplements, and herbal medication may break down over time and lose their potency. Moreover, she stresses the importance of keeping medication in the containers they come in, since the amber-colored plastic protects drugs from light and keeps out oxygen, elements that can decompose active ingredients.

Drinking water or tea and eating slower are two often over-looked tools to help people stay on weight management plans, says Diane Hester, director of clinical nutrition services, Stanford (Calif.) Hospital and Clinics. A glass of water or cup of tea about 10 minutes before every meal helps the body begin to feel full without taking in a single calorie. Since it requires at least 20-30 Minutes for the body to start to digest and satisfy the appetite, "By eating slowly, less food and calories are eaten in the amount of time it takes to process the food and begin feeling full."

Incorporating soy protein into a daily diet helps fight coronary disease. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration indicates that research shows that, when included in a low-fat and -cholesterol diet, soy protein could lower total blood cholesterol and low-density (LDL or "bad") lipoprotein cholesterol levels without adversely affecting high-density ("good") lipoprotein levels. High total blood cholesterol and LDL are proven risk factors for coronary disease.

Psychological stress can increase the levels of some hormones in the blood, research at Ohio State University, Columbus, shows. This, in turn, can slow the delivery of certain compounds--cytokines--to injury sites, causing a delay in the healing of wounds.

The Pill has many health benefits besides preventing pregnancy, points out Susan Cox, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. These include preventing Ovarian and uterine cancer: regulating the menstrual cycle; reducing the risk of benign cysts and fibroid tumors; preventing ectopic pregnancies and ovarian cysts: treating acne; and decreasing the incidence of pelvic inflammatory disease.

Harvesting veins for use in by-pass surgery through a small incision in the leg has been shown to be less invasive and less painful than the traditional long incision, according to surgeons at Yale-New Haven (Conn.)Hospital. The smaller incision results in a lower risk of infection and a faster return to movement for patients.

Breast-fed infants may have up to a 30% lower risk of developing some forms of childhood leukemia when compared with babies who are bottle-fed, a study at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, Minneapolis, has found.

Taking a newborn's temperature with an infrared thermometer under the arm is just as reliable as with a rectal thermometer, researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus, maintain. Another advantage is that it takes less time to get a reading from an infrared model.

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