| Vol.
I, No. 5 | Cabin
Fever / Town Meeting | Feb.
19th, 2001 |
Health
& Medicine Vital
Signs: Questioning Assumptions Sometimes we confuse
theories or assumptions with fact. This seems particularly true when it comes to
Health & Medicine. ... Below are examples of
research that challenges what we might ordinarily take as the “truth.” It
May Not Be Just Love That Money Can’t Buy ...  |
A
Danish study published in The British Medical Journal found that “people
with a history of mental illness and a high income are at greater risk of
committing suicide than their lower income counterparts.”
These findings go against the commonly held assumption that that lower
socioeconomic status is a risk factor for suicide. The researchers
studied over 800 suicides.
.
They did not
overturn the belief that low socioeconomic status increases the risk for
mental illness that leads to hospitalization. Nor did the study point
to the reason for this finding. But researchers theorized that
"Richer people with a mental disorder may be more suicidal before they
are admitted to hospital or they may feel more stigmatized,
vulnerable, and shameful about having a mental illness." In
addition, the attempt to make sense of the findings noted that "In
Denmark there are no private psychiatric hospitals or clinics. Perhaps
treatment focuses on people from lower social classes as most patients are
from this background, and perhaps patients from higher income groups are
less likely to be admitted.”
. Cholesterol
... More or Less
.
Many people
who are watching their weight or cholesterol have been taught that “fat is
bad.” Fat does have twice as many calories per gram as protein or
carbohydrate, so a diet high in fat will be high in calories. But the
bad rep fat has received in the recent past may prove to be somewhat
undeserved.
.
A study reported in the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition for February found that, contrary to current nutritional
wisdom, decreasing fat in your diet is not the best way to lower “bad”
cholesterol. A McGill team studied low-fat, low-fat/low-calorie, and
low-calorie diets. They discovered that simply restricting fat did not
lead to lower cholesterol or weight loss. But the low-fat/low-calorie
and the low-calorie diets did reduce cholesterol and weight.
.
"The
present findings suggest that energy restriction [reduced caloric intake]
rather than fat restriction results in a lipid profile as favorable as that
seen after the low-fat, low-calorie diet," the researchers concluded.
. A
Crack in the Gene Code ... and a few Surprises Two
competing teams of scientists announced this month that they were the first
to interpret the human genome sequence. Their discoveries may provide
the basis for tremendous gains in medicine. But there were also some
unexpected findings, among them:
.
How
similar humans are to each other ... That there are no significant genetic
differences among races ... And, perhaps most surprisingly, that there are
fewer differences between the genomes of humans and fruit flies than had
been previously thought.
.
It had long
been estimated that humans have about 100,000 genes. Fruit flies
weighed in at 13,000, and roundworms at 19,000 genes. But it turns out
we humans have only some 30,000 genes, many of which, in fact, are
repetitive or even considered 'junk'. And, to top things off, not only
do we have less than twice as many genes as the primitive roundworm, but we
have far more genes in common with other animals than had ever been
imagined. According to The New York Times, "Dr. J.
Craig Venter, president of Celera and lead author of the paper in Science,
said he had found only 300 human genes that had no counterpart in the mouse
genome. On this basis, he said he expected the chimpanzee to have
almost the identical set of genes as humans…" Humbling.
. *******
******* If you would like to submit
something for our Health & Med section, don't hesitate to let us know.
Simply e-mail us at health@downstreetmagazine.com.
The e-mail should contain your name, address, and a phone number where we can
reach you. You may also send a copy of your proposed article. The
text can either be included in the body of the e-mail, or you can send it as an
attachment in just about any word processing format. If your piece is
accepted, we will pay a small honorarium for your interest & your
time. [See Freelancers
Wanted for more details.] *******
******* If you would like to advertise in this
section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising
Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com. *******
*******
|
