Scottish Researchers: Facebook Causes Anxiety

According to Scottish researchers, having a lot of Facebook friends makes you stressed, not cool.

Dr. Kathy Charles and her team of Psychologists at Edinburgh Napier University studied 200 students and their Facebook habits and found that an unexpected number of users experienced some sort of negative effects from the social network.

Charles stated that, "Although there is great pressure to be on Facebook, there is also considerable ambivalence amongst users about its benefits."

Perhaps the most interesting piece of evidence found by the research is that a significant minority of users actually experience anxiety linked to Facebook. Users who had the most friends and invested the most time into the site were the ones likely to be stressed out from the website.

“An overwhelming majority of respondents reported that the best thing about Facebook was ‘keeping in touch’, often without any further explanation,” Charles explained. “But many also told us they were anxious about withdrawing from the site for fear of missing important social information or offending contacts.

In addition to the stress of missing important information, students reported stress coming from deleting unwanted contacts, pressure to be humorous and entertaining, and worrying about the proper type of etiquette towards different friends.

The study found that an astonishing 12% of Facebook users reported anxiety coming from the website. The majority of the students in this percentile reported having 30% more Facebook friends than the remaining 88%.

63% of respondents reported that they delayed replying to friend requests and 32% stated that rejecting friend requests made them feel guilty and uncomfortable.

In addition, 10% of the students reported that they disliked receiving friend requests.

Although the sample size is relatively small considering the giant population of Facebook users, the study definitely gives a different perspective as to the pros and cons of the frequent use of the website.

Many would argue that Myspace, Facebook and other social media websites have dislodged us from society and reality despite their purpose being the exact opposite. For those of you who do use Facebook, do you experience any kind of anxiety from the site?

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Keep Blood Glucose under Control

Health is the most precious wealth that we have. Ironically, many people are live in a wealthy, but they cannot enjoy their wealthy because of having a problem with their health. However, some people too late to keep their health, many of them get diabetes.

Recently, my friend lives with her uncle who is single for live. She has considered her uncle as her second father since he is the one who took care of her ever since. Last year, my friend took her uncle to the hospital for annual check up. She was expecting to hear a positive result. However, her uncle was diagnosed with diabetes. Her uncle must be on medication or else he would experience some attacks that related to his illness.

People who have diabetes sickness should always prepare their diabetic supplies at any time. Day after day, my friend has to work to earn more and more money to buy the medicines for maintaining her uncle blood glucose level. Monitoring the blood glucose level is also an important part of treating diabetic person. Presently, my friend is using the blood glucose strips to examine her uncle blood sugar level, if it is normal or above normal. Luckily, every time my friend buys those glucose strips over the Internet, she does not need to pay more for the blood glucose free meter. It means that she could save more money to treat her uncle. I hope her uncle can get his normal life back.

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Obesity May Diminish a Man's Chances of Becoming a Father

Recently, a new study suggests that being obese may diminish a man's chances of becoming a father, even if he is otherwise healthy.

Researchers found that among 87 healthy men ages 19 to 48, those who were obese were less likely to have ever fathered a child. They showed hormonal differences that point to a reduced reproductive capacity. Compared with their thinner counterparts, obese men had lower levels of testosterone in their blood, as well as lower levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), which are essential to reproduction.

Researchers explained that these relatively low levels of FSH and LH are suggestive of a "partial" hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. The testes do not function properly due to signaling problems in the pituitary gland or hypothalamus, two brain structures involved in hormone secretion in this condition.

Of the 87 men in the study, 68% had had a child. Pauli's team found that the average body mass index, or BMI, was lower among these men compared with those who would never fathered a child; in the former group, the average BMI was 28, which falls into the range for "overweight," while the average BMI for childless men was nearly 32 that falls into the "obese" range.

According to Dr. Eric M. Pauli and his colleagues at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, the findings suggest that obesity alone is an "infertility factor" in otherwise healthy men.

When the researchers assessed the men for several reproductive hormones, they figured out that the more obese a man was the lower was his LH and FSH levels. On the other hand, increasing obesity correlated with increasing estrogen levels.

Excess body fat, Pauli's team explains, may increase the conversion of testosterone to estrogen in a man's blood. Such hormone alterations could signal the brain to suppress LH and FSH production.

The researchers note that past studies have linked obesity with an increased risk of erectile dysfunction and dampened libido. Those impacts, they say, along with the hormonal alterations seen in this study, could act together to decrease an obese man's fertility.

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Drug Treatment Had Saved Her Life

A year before my friend’s father passed away, he had told my friend that she would be dead within a few months. She was only 18, and drugs had destroyed her life and her relationship. She went through three drug rehab programs and none of them worked. I remembered, she always went back to drugs and caused more damage. It seemed that she did not care about her life anymore. Then, suddenly her dad died, things have gone worst than ever, she spiraled own to the point where she no longer wanted to live. I thought her dad premonition almost became reality.

I was worried about her condition, I tried to help her, drove her to a drug rehab program, which is conducted by a trained professional. I have realized that it would not ease to take her to drug rehab. She always refused to accept my offer. I will never forget her response. She looked directly at me and said, “If I had completed this program, will you guarantee that I will stop to use drugs?”

Fortunately, someone had introduced me intervention technique to handle patient who was reluctant to enter into drug rehab. I remembered that he did not fill her full of unrealistic aims. He even did not try to offer her a quick fix. He only said, “Your family and friends love you, but you have to do what is needed.” Later on, she picked up the phone and called the drug rehab to complete drug detoxification program. I was surprised that she would make some progresses. It was a decision that could be as daunting and it could be frightening.

Now, she had graduated from that drug rehab over the years. The program had cleaned her body of all drug residues. She have learned that drug residues had been stored in her fatty cells and that the majority of her cravings were tied to small amounts of those residues releasing back into her blood stream. Moreover, the drug rehab taught her many useful practical life skills and helped her to realize about things that had led her to drugs. She no longer views herself as a drug addict. She is simply living her life in a productive way, and the power of drug addiction no longer has its hold on her. She no longer needs drugs, nor does she want them. If her father still alive, he would be proud with his daughter.

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Bullying Top Concern among Parents with Obese Child

According to the latest report, bullying is the top "health" concern among parents with obese and overweight children.

According to a report that released Monday by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, parents of these children, aged 6 to 13, also are much more likely than parents of children at a healthy weight to call bullying a top health issue for kids.

Dr. Matthew M. Davis, director of the National Poll on Children's Health, said in a university news release, "We found that parents with overweight or obese children actually view bullying as a greater problem than childhood obesity." He stated, since bullying is known to be a trouble for children with increased weight, bullying prevention programs will need to be mindful of obesity as a potential trigger for bullying behavior and of parents concerns surrounding this issue.

Overall, parents do not take childhood obesity lightly, ranking it the first among health concern for kids in the National Poll on Children's Health. The poll found, only two-thirds of parents actually enforce such limits with their children on junk food and time spent in front of a TV or computer screen. Still, many parents are talking with their children about increasing their physical activity and having healthier diets, which Davis said is a crucial first step in setting the stage for a healthier lifestyle.

Nearly two in five of the families polled included one or more obese or overweight child between the ages of 6 and 13. The poll also showed that children, who were overweight or obese, were almost twice as likely to have an obese parent as healthy weight children. According to Davis, an associate professor of general pediatrics and internal medicine at the U-M Medical School, in many families, obesity is a two-generation phenomenon among parents and their children. This trend could be the result of behaviors or genetics such as physical activity and eating habits that are shared among parents and their children.

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Frequent Use of Statins to Increase Prostate Cancer Risk

According to findings of a new study, use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, especially for long-term purpose, appears to raise the risk of prostate cancer among obese men.

According to Dr. Janet L. Stanford of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues, "Given the epidemic of obesity in the U.S. and the frequent use of statins, the positive association we observed raises substantial concern as to the safety of these widely prescribed agents."

In a population-based case-control study, the researchers have matched 1,001 men with prostate cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2005 with 942 age-matched cancer-free controls from King County, Washington. In addition, no overall association was observed between the risk of prostate cancer and the current or past use of statin treatment. Duration of statin use was also not associated with prostate cancer risk.

Stanford said, "We also found no evidence that use of a statin was associated with risk of developing more aggressive subtypes of prostate caner. Overall, we found no support for the current hypothesis that statin use may reduce risk of prostate cancer." She said that these findings warrant further investigation.

Nevertheless, the results do advice a significant increase in the risk of developing prostate cancer associated with current statin use and with longer durations of use among obese men. In addition, current use of a statin was associated with a 50% increase in risk of prostate cancer; and use for five or more years was associated with an 80% increase in risk of the disease; both of these risk estimates were statistically significant.

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Gardasil Prevents Cancers of the Vulva and Vagina

Federal health officials said on Friday that the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil also works to prevent cancers of the vulva and vagina, as they approved expanding its use to protect against those diseases as well.

In 2006, Gardasil was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of cervical cancer in girls and women ages 9 to 26. The vaccine works by protecting against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers. The HPV virus transmitted by sexual contact, causes genital warts that sometimes develop into cancer. For information, Gardasil is manufactured by Merck & Co., Inc. The vaccine is given in three doses over a six-month period, costs about $375.

According to Dr. Jesse Goodman, director of the FDA center that oversees vaccines, there is now strong evidence showing that the vaccine can help prevent vulvar and vaginal cancers due to the same virus for which it also helps protect against cervical cancer.

Some 15,000 women were followed for about two years as part of a clinical study. One group had been vaccinated with Gardasil, while the other had not. In the group that did not get the vaccine, 10 women developed precancerous vulvar lesions, and nine developed similar vaginal lesions because of HPV infection. Amazingly, no women in the Gardasil group developed such lesions.

The government estimates that there are 2,210 new cases of vaginal cancer and 3,460 new cases of vulvar cancer each year. Cervical cancer is more common, with an estimated 11,070 new cases each year and nearly 3,900 deaths.

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Asthmatic Children Face Barriers to Getting Fit

The authors of a new research review said that children with asthma face a number of barriers to participation in physical activity, from family beliefs to school disorganization to their own misperceptions about their symptoms.

According to Dr. Brian Williams of the University of Dundee in Scotland and colleagues conclude, physical activity is important to children with asthma, and efforts must be made to remove these barriers.

Research has shown that exercise can boost aerobic fitness in asthmatic children, and may have psychological advantages as well, they report in the journal BMC Family Practice. In addition, the overwhelming majority of studies show that people with asthma can participate in physical activity safely if medicated appropriately and can significantly improve their cardiovascular fitness and quality of life by doing so.

Williams and his team undertook a review of medical literature, including 61 studies in their analysis, to investigate the level exercise among children with asthma. In addition, several studies showed that children and young people with asthma do tend to be less active than their peers without the disease are. One study even found that pre-scholars with wheezing were less active compared with their classmates without asthma.

The researchers also found that many young people with asthma did not think they were able to participate fully in sports and physical activities. On the other hand, parents' beliefs the key of the matter is by helping their kids to manage their asthma effectively and to be physically active. However, parents could also hinder the effective management of their kids’ disease. Many unnecessarily restricted their child's physical activity because of lack of information or misinterpretation of advice given.

Teachers could also be part of the matter, largely because they frequently lack information on how to manage an asthma attack and thus they are overly cautious about activities children with asthma can pursue. The researchers add that kids may sometimes mistake breathlessness during exercise with an asthma attack.

Steps to help asthmatic children to become more active is providing accurate information to parents, teachers and school officials; and helping children with asthma feel more able to cope with their condition. Moreover, doctors also must strive with their young asthma patients to assist them understand which symptoms indicate a serious problem and which may simply be exercise related.

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Assisted Fertilization Threats May Be Due to Infertility

According to Norwegian researchers, the increased risk of poor health outcomes among single infants conceived through assisted fertilization may be due to causes of infertility rather than the procedure itself.

According the study authors, in general, single babies that conceived using assisted fertilization have worse health outcomes than spontaneously conceived infants. However, this difference is much smaller among women who have conceived both spontaneously and with assisted fertilization.

The researchers analyzed data on 2,546 women who conceived at least one child spontaneously and another after assisted fertilization, and compared them to 1.3 million women who conceived spontaneously and 8,229 women who conceived through assisted fertilization.

The researchers discovered that assisted fertilization conceptions were associated with a 25-gram lower mean birth weight, a two-day shorter gestation, a 26 percent increased risk of being small for gestational age, and a 31 percent increased risk of prenatal death.

Among women who had one child spontaneously and another with assisted fertilization, assisted fertilization conceptions resulted in babies that were nine grams lighter and that had a 0.6-day shorter gestation. Both babies were almost equally small for gestational age. However, the spontaneously conceived baby had an almost three times greater risk of prenatal death than the assisted fertilization baby.

According to Dr. Liv Bente and colleagues concluded in a news release, gestational age, birth weight, and risks for small gestational age babies, and preterm delivery, did not differ among infants of women who had conceived both spontaneously and after assisted fertilization. In addition, the adverse outcomes of assisted fertilization that the researchers noted compared with those in the general population could therefore be attributable to the factors leading to infertility, rather than to factors related to the reproductive technology.

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The Superiority of Yoga over Physical Activity

According to researchers from India report, Yoga is trusted to reduce hot flashes and night sweats among women going through menopause. Moreover, it also appears to sharpen their mental function.

The method to investigate whether yoga would help women with physical and cognitive symptoms of menopause was by randomly assigned 120 menopausal women, 40 to 55 years old, to yoga practice or simple strengthening and stretching exercises five days a week for eight weeks.

According to the researchers, the postures, breathing and meditation that included in the yoga intervention were goaled at one common impact, for an example, to develop mastery over modifications of the mind through slowing down the rate of flow of thoughts in the mind.

In the yoga group, women also listened to lectures on using yoga to control and manage stress and other yoga-related topics, while those in the control group heard lectures on diet, exercise, stress, and the physiology of menopause.

Dr. R. Chattha, of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana in Bangalore, India, and colleagues found that after eight weeks, women in the yoga group showed a significant reduction in night sweats, hot flashes, and sleep disturbances, while the women in the control group did not.

Both groups showed improvements in a test of concentration and attention, although improvement in the yoga group was significantly greater. In a test of intelligence and memory with 10 components, the yoga group improved on eight, while the control group improved on six. Amazingly, improvements were significantly greater in the yoga group than in the control group on seven of the subtests.

The researchers suggest that the currently study shows the superiority of yoga over physical activity in improving the cognitive functions that could be attributed to emphasis on correctness in breathing, synchronizing breathing with body movements, relaxation and mindful rest.

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Cialis to Help Treat Erectile Dysfunction

Whether you are a man that has problem with our sexual life, such as impotence or erectile dysfunction, you do not need to worry now, because I have good news for you. Recently, I have surfed over the Internet and found a site that can provide proven solution to break your sexual life matter. The site to provide such solution is named Centerformenshealth.com.

Centerformenshealth.com is a site to provide medicine product called Cialis. Cialis is a drug that has been licensed for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. It is suggested that a man who experiences erectile dysfunction or perhaps impotence to choose Cialis as a solution to counter the problem. A friend of mine ever said, “If a man decides to return his manliness, then he should not worry to consume Cialis.”

Since year 1999, Centerformenshealth.com has delivered high quality men's health care online with patient oriented services. Therefore, if you think that Cialis is useful to bring back your manliness, do not hesitate to visit Centerformenshealth.com to get more detail information about how to be a man.

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Two Genes May Stop HIV Infection

Recently, scientists have successfully isolated two genes that may prevent people from contracting HIV or at least slow the rate at which they develop AIDS.

The genes were isolated by comparing the genetic profiles of people in their first year of HIV infection with those who managed to resist infection despite repeated exposure to the virus. In addition, the "good" versions of the two genes were present in 12.2 percent of those who resisted infection compared with only 2.7 of patients in primary HIV infection. However, researchers are not yet sure, how this protection works.

One of the genes codes for a receptor on the surface of the immune system's natural killer cells, which destroy infected cells in the body. The other codes for a protein that binds the first gene and dampens the natural killer cell activity. Moreover, the most likely explanation is that HIV prevents the protein that dampens the killer cell activity from being expressed, allowing the killer cells to destroy cells infected with HIV.

Since this can happen very soon after the initial infection, people carrying those genes may be able to more efficiently destroy infected cells and lower their chances of developing AIDS. However, it seems that more research is needed to determine the exact mechanism behind the protection that researchers have observed. Undoubtedly, these findings have revealed a promising avenue. In the future, researchers’ findings could be used to somehow 'boost' the innate immune system and thus fight the virus as soon as it enters the body.

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Chronic Headache Sparked by Major life Changes

Major life changes may play a significant role in as many as a quarter of chronic daily headache cases that arise among otherwise healthy adult men and women.

According to Dr. Ann I. Scher, of Uniformed Services University, in Bethesda, Maryland, and her colleagues major life changes among 206 men and women who met criteria for chronic daily headache (180 or more headache days per year). Those people assessed similar reports from 507 men and women with "episodic" headache (2 to 104 headache days per year).

The investigators assessed changes in marital status, work, children's status, or residence; as well as deaths of family or close friends. They also inquired about self-defined "extremely stressful situations," such as ongoing individual illness, financial problems or that of a family member, or an ongoing abusive relationship. Moreover, compared with men and women with episodic headache, men and women with chronic daily headache were more likely to have experienced major life events in the 2-year period prior to the onset of their headache condition. The strongest predictor of chronic daily headache was an ongoing extremely stressful situation.

The researchers noted that a higher proportion of chronic daily headache among people 40 years and older. In this group, Scher said, "a change in work status was related to increased risk for chronic daily headache, while in contrast, those younger than 40 years showed a decreased risk for chronic daily headache after a job change." Moreover, these findings are generally consistent with prior research related to other chronic pain conditions.

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Hidden Benefits of Blue Pill

Although, Viagra's effect in women has been disappointing, new small study finds those on antidepressants may benefit from taking the little blue pills.

The study involving 98 pre-menopausal women found Viagra helped with orgasm. Viagra increases blood flow to sex organs. However, the advantages did not extend to other aspects of sex such as desire. For women on antidepressants with orgasm problems, this may provide some wonderful relief. However, it will not improve their arousal or desire.

Antidepressants can interfere with sex drive and performance even as the drugs help lift crippling depression. Switching drugs or reducing the dose can help. However, many people, men and women, stop taking them because of their sexual side impacts. More than half the people who take antidepressants develop sexual problems, prior studies have found, especially for people taking Celexa, Paxil, Prozac and other drugs that work by increasing the chemical serotonin in the brain.

Pfizer Inc. is currently has no plans to pursue FDA approval for using its drug Viagra as a treatment for female sexual dysfunction. Yet, the company ended its internal research on Viagra for women in 2004. While Viagra was found to be safe, the results were inconclusive.

The new findings are based on an eight-week experiment. The 98 women were using antidepressants successfully but were having sexual problems. Those women average age was 37. Moreover, the women agreed to attempt sexual activity at least once each week. Each time, they took a pill, not knowing whether it was Viagra or a matching dummy pill. While 72 percent of the women taking Viagra reported improvement on an overall scale, only 27 percent of the women taking the placebo reported improvement.

According to Leonore Tiefer, a psychologist of New York University School of Medicine, such industry-funded research has oversimplified women's sexual experience. Moreover, this new study funded by a Pfizer grant, found more side effects than benefits.

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Mississippi Tops State Obesity Ranking

According to a new government survey, the South tips the scales again as the nation's fattest region.

Not less than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee are suffered obese. In fact, experts blame Southern eating habits, poverty and demographic groups that have higher obesity rates. In addition, Colorado was the least obese, with about 19 percent fitting that category in a random phone call survey done last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Obesity is based on the body mass index, a calculation using height and weight. A 5-foot, 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30 that considered the threshold for obesity.

Based on the 2007 findings, the results are similar with the three previous years; Mississippi has had the highest obesity rate every year since 2004. However, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near the top of the list. So close that the difference between their rates and Mississippi's may not be statistically significant.

According to Dr. Miriam Vos, assistant professor of pediatrics at Atlanta's Emory School of Medicine, who heads CDC's nutrition, physical activity and obesity division, although the CDC study only surveyed adults, but results for kids are similar. Moreover, most of the studies of obesity and children show the South has the highest rates as well.

The question is why the South so heavy? According to Vos, the traditional Southern diet, high in fat and fried food, may be part of the answer. The South also has a large concentration of black women and rural residents, two groups that tend to have higher obesity rates. Furthermore, the study found that about 36 percent of black survey participants were obese, while 28.5 percent of Hispanics and 24.5 percent of whites were.

According to Naa Oyo Kwate, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, perhaps, high poverty rates in the South probably are another factor. In fact, nowadays, poor people tend to be obese: the cheapest foods tend to be calorie-heavy, and stores offering healthier, and more expensive, food choices are not often found in poor neighborhoods.

Now, the question is why Colorado so thin? The answer is because of Colorado is a state with a reputation for exercise. Colorado has plentiful biking and hiking trails, and an elevation that causes the body to labor a bit more.

CDC officials believe that the phone call survey of 350,000 adults offers conservative estimates of obesity rates, because it is based on what respondents said about their height and weight. Men usually overstate their height and women often lowball their weight.

Well, it seems that the heavier we are, the more we underestimate our weight, probably because we do not weigh ourselves as often.

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Viagra May Help Women Achieve Orgasm

Viagra, the drug that has helped the sex lives of many older men has proven in a small trial to also help women on antidepressants who experience sexual dysfunction.

The eight-week study (published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) found that Viagra, also known as sildenafil, helped women achieve orgasm. The study's authors wrote that, sildenafil treatment of sexual dysfunction in women taking SRIs was associated with a reduction in adverse sexual effects. However, the lead author of the study, Dr. H. George Nurnberg, of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, in Albuquerque, declined to be interviewed for this result.

According to the study, selective and nonselective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, such as Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft and Effexor, comprise up to 90 percent of the 180-million antidepressant prescriptions filled in the U.S. each year. However, while these medications are very effective at treating clinical depression, one of their known drawbacks is sexual side effects.

Previously, Nurnberg and his colleagues have reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, that Viagra was helpful for men who suffered from erectile dysfunction associated with the use of antidepressant medications.

In the recent study, undertaken at seven research centers, those researchers have turned their attention to women. The study included 98 women, half of whom received Viagra and half who received a placebo, who were told to take the pills before sexual activity.

According to the study authors, women taking Viagra reported an improved ability to reach orgasm and increased orgasm satisfaction. However, 43 percent of the women taking Viagra also reported headaches, versus 27 percent of those on placebo. Almost one-quarter of those using Viagra reporting flushing, while none of the women on placebo did, and 37 percent of women taking Viagra reported nasal congestion compared to 6 percent of women on placebo. Nausea and anxiousness were reported more often in the group-taking placebo.

According to Dr. Judi Chervenak, a reproductive endocrinologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, "The libido response in women is such a complex problem. If women are unhappy in a relationship, it can affect libido. If it hurts, it can affect libido. If she does not feel good about herself, it can affect libido. It's hard to tease all of those factors out."

Chervenak added, "There's no definitive answer to date on how antidepressants cause a lack of libido. It could be because they're affecting dopamine, and women may be experiencing changes in dopamine that indirectly affect vaginal lubrication and arousal and cause decreased blood flow." Moreover, she said, "It's an enticing study, and it makes me want to know more. Does it make me want to prescribe Viagra right off the bat? Not at this point. I would suggest first that patients keep a symptom diary, so we can figure out what their issue is. Is it arousal? Is it decreased blood flow? Is it an orgasm problem?"

Undoubtedly, the study has opened up many questions; further studies are still needed to find out more about the issue. On the other hand, a spokesperson for Pfizer, which manufactures Viagra, stated that the company has no plans to find approval for using the drug as a treatment for female sexual dysfunction. According to the spokesperson, the company ended its own research on Viagra for women in 2004.

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Health Tip: Keep Awake Behind the Wheel

People, who work the third shift, do not get enough sleep, and those who drive great distances each day or take sedating medications, are at greatest risk of drowsy driving.

Nevertheless, everyone is at risk of being impaired behind the wheel. The reason is that they are too tired. The National Safety Council offers these ideas to prevent drowsy driving:

• Get plenty of sleep before we head out on the road.
• Try not to drive between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.
• Keep the temperature inside the car cool and comfortable.
• If we start to feel tired, go to a safe area for a quick rest. Nevertheless, do not pull over at the side of the road.
• For long trips, start driving early in the morning, and plan to switch off driving with a friend.
• Take a quick break every 100 miles or so to have a snack, get some fresh air or just to stretch your legs.

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Genetic Variation Determines AIDS Risks in Blacks

Recently, new research discovers that people of African descent are much more likely to have a genetic trait that makes them more susceptible to infection with the HIV virus.

Scientists have estimated that the trait, which also provides protection against a form of malaria, might account for 11 percent of the HIV cases in Africa, which is the continent that hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic.

Overall, the finding shows how the past history of evolution and disease still affects people nowadays, said study co-author Matthew J. Dolan, of the Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center and San Antonio Military Medical Center. He added, "The benefit that the Africans got from a mutation that gave them some resistance to malaria has, statistically at least, rendered them some increased susceptibility to HIV."

Researchers have spent many years trying to understand why some people who are exposed to the AIDS virus are not infected. Interestingly, an estimated 70 percent to 90 percent of children born to infected mothers do not develop the disease, and some gay men have avoided it despite repeated exposure. Moreover, in the new study, a team of researchers studied more than 1,200 members of the U.S. military who became infected with HIV. They wanted to discover more about how genetics affects the disease.

The researchers discovered that a genetic trait, which is found in 90 percent of Africans and 60 percent of African-Americans, makes HIV infection 40 percent more likely. The trait is virtually nonexistent in whites. In addition, the trait also protects people against a form of malaria that is now uncommon.

According to Dolan, it seems that the genetic makeup of some Africans have evolved to give them protection against the form of malaria. Moreover, he added, unfortunately, the trait ultimately, "set up the African continent for increased susceptibility" to HIV. Dolan has measured that the increased susceptibility could account for millions of extra cases of HIV.

On the other hand, according to Dr. Sunil K. Ahuja, a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, people who have the trait live an average of two years longer with the disease once they get it, the researchers found. "It's a two-edged sword."

Rowena Johnston, vice president of research with the Foundation for AIDS Research, said the new finding provides even more evidence of an evolutionary struggle between humans and disease. Nevertheless, it will not be easy to make the information useful. She said, "Since any one individual has tens of thousands of genes, each of which may influence susceptibility in one direction or another, it's difficult to predict the outcome for any individual with any one particular genotype." Even if Africans or African-Americans discover they have this particular genetic trait, she asked, "What would they do with the information?" She added, as for using the new finding to develop a new anti-AIDS drug, which may be hard because of the limited effect of the genetic trait.

Read also:
South Africa to Ban Aids Vitamin Trials
U.S Plans for Large-Scale AIDS Vaccine

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Gene Test for Determining Lung Cancer Treatment

Canadian and U.S. researchers have taken movements toward developing a gene test to determine whether a patient's lung cancer is especially aggressive, or whether radical treatment can be avoided.

According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer death in women, with about 975,000 men and 376,000 women projected to die from it annually.

Recently, the researchers has reported that they analyzed lung cancer tissue from 442 people to confirm that measuring the activity of certain genes can help predict early on which cases may be the most deadly and which have a better prognosis. In addition, by knowing whether a person has an aggressive tumor, one likely to spread quickly and uncontrollably beyond the lungs, is important in determining the type of treatment needed.

According to those researchers, tracking gene activity, along with taking into account, clinical factors like the patient's age, sex and the tumor stage, in example, whether it had spread, made them better able to make a prognosis. Moreover, doctors are eager to come up with reliable paths to determine how aggressive a tumor is likely to be when a patient is in the earliest stages of lung cancer. In some cases, patients have aggressive tumors that could require additional types of potentially onerous treatment, while people with less invasive tumors may be able to avoid such treatment.

Patients whose lung cancer has not spread may not need more treatment after surgery to eliminate the tumor. However, if it can be shown a tumor is likely to be aggressive the patient could be a candidate for getting further intensive therapy that might include radiation and chemotherapy.

The aim is for a simple test assessing the activity of certain genes to determine the aggressiveness of a tumor. According to those researchers, they plan to refine the process, identifying crucial genes and testing more tissue samples. For information, the lung-cancer tissue samples came from six different institutions in the Canada and United States. In addition, the particular type of cancer involved in the study was lung adenocarcinoma, which often is caused by smoking.

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Tomato Scare Ending, But Fears Remain

Perhaps, the tomato scare has over, but it has taken a toll, it has cost the industry an estimated $100 million and left millions of people with a new wariness about the safety of everyday foods.

Half of consumers have changed their eating and buying habits in the past six months because those people are afraid they could get sick by eating contaminated food. Consumers also overwhelmingly support setting up a better system to trace produce in an outbreak back to the source, the poll found. The people who feel that way include the growers.

One of the largest tomato growers in the U.S, Virginia's East Coast Brokers, has been hammered by falling prices and slumping demand, although Virginia tomatoes were cleared early on, said sales manager Batista Madonia III. He said he has frustrated by the government's inability to find the root cause of the outbreak despite a nearly two-month long investigation.

The salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 1,200 people in 42 states since the first cases were seen in April. Madonia said, "I guarantee in that time frame, more than 1,000 people were injured slipping on a banana peel." In addition, the cause of the outbreak remains unknown. Hot peppers are under suspicion, and tomatoes have not been cleared everywhere.

According to the result of poll, three in four people remain confident about the overall safety of food, 46 percent said they were worried they might get sick from eating contaminated products. The same percentage said that because of safety warnings, they have avoided items they normally would have purchased.

According to Christy Taylor, a first-grade teacher from Sacramento, Calif., she has all but given up on supermarket produce and is buying most of her fresh vegetables and fruits at the local farmers' market instead. She (30), the mother of 2-year-old twin girls, said, "I see the same farmers every single week." Moreover, she added, "You meet the people and you see where the (produce) is coming from." She said that her twins love tomatoes and chomp on them as if they were apples. However, until the mystery of the tainted food is solved

The poll found that 80 percent of Americans concerned produce should be labeled. Therefore, it can be tracked through layers of processors, packers and shippers, all the way back to the farm. The lack of such a system frustrated disease detectives working on the salmonella outbreak. However, the industry is divided over mandatory tracing technology, and Congress is running out of time to act on any major food safety changes before the election. Moreover, they would support new federal standards for fresh produce. Poultry and meat have long been subject to enforceable federal safeguards. However, vegetables and fruits are not, although produce increasingly is being implicated in outbreaks.

According to Michael R. Taylor, a former senior federal food safety official who now teaches at George Washington University, the high level of uneasiness should not be taken lightly. He said, "When you have almost half the population avoiding certain foods because of safety concerns, that's very significant from the standpoint of economic impact for the people selling the food, and from the standpoint of peace of mind for consumers." In addition to the salmonella outbreak, this year has seen the largest ground beef recall in history, raising consumer concerns reflected in the poll.

The survey found gender, economic and racial gaps on attitudes about food safety. Moreover, women, who do most of the shopping, were more concerned than men were. For example, 39 percent of men said they were "very confident" that the food they buy is safe. Ironically, only 23 percent of women said they felt that way. However, men and women agreed on the need for better federal oversight.

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