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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 30, 1997)
I ■-vT- A prii 30, 1997 » I' iif P oru and O bserver P agi A4 Study finds aerobic exercise reduces aging pain Stretch more and you hurt less. A study o f older people finds fle xib il ity training reduces the pain that comes with aging. “One seems to go with the other,” said researcher Abby C. K in g o f Stanford University Medical School. “ And seniors say pain is the single most important thing that affects quality o f life.” K in g and her colleagues studied residents o f the Sunnyvale, C alif., area. The 67 women and 36 men had an average age o f 70. H alf took part in moderate-intensity aerobics such as w alking and low-impact aerobic dance, plus strength-training exer cises using elastic bands. The other group was assigned to stretching and flexibility exercises. Both groups met about one hour twice a week in class and did sim ilar workouts at home twice a week more After a year, the stretching and flexibility group reported that they were living with less pain, while the fitness and strength group was re porting a bit more pain. K in g said. Those who did three or four days a week o f stretching and flexibility had significant reductions,” she said. An activity that could reduce pain is important for seniors because they "are invariably dealing with chronic pain,” K in g said. H a lf o f the people in the study were arthritics, a pro portion sim ilar to that o f the general population in the age group, she said Men had proportionately greater increases than women in flexibility, but that’s because men had further to go. K in g said Men were less flexible a, the start and apparently needed the exercises more, she said. For instance, men in the flexibility arm o f the study had a 14 percent gain in a sit-and-reach test, while women improved 6 percent, she said Experts are not sure exactly why people get more creaky as they get older, said Stanford colleague W ill iam L . Haskell But much o f it re sults sim ply from literally not ex tending themselves, he said. “ It’s a downward spiral effect With lack o f use, muscles and ten- New rules to fight emissions With little room for landfills, Japan bums most o f its trash Now. fears are in cre a sin g that the country’s incinerators are spread ing highly toxic dioxin emissions that may be causing health prob lems. Complaints o f numbness, d izzi ness and rashes have become com mon in areas with a high density o f incinerators, and a citizens’ group says infant mortality rates are ris ing in one Tokyo suburb. Dioxin has been linked to can cer. birth defects and other health problems, and dioxin pollution has been the subject o f hundreds o f lawsuits in the United States. Government studies show that 80 to 90 percent o f dioxin emis sions in Japan come from incinera tors that burn three-fourths o f the country's garbage. I he rest is bur ied in landfills. Japanese media reports say di oxin levels in the breast m ilk o f women living around the plants are week it w ill impose limits on dioxin emission levels from waste incin erators. But critics say the new rule w ill have little effect because no punishment is provided for offend ers. “ It’s a positive step, but there’s no way o f knowing if they w ill be able to enforce the measures,” said Shitaba. Still, many protesters say that government intervention can go only so far in reducing the danger o f dioxin emissions. "Japanese people have to be come aware o f the urgency o f the problem ,” said Y o k o Tom iyanta o f the Japan Consum ers A s so c ia tion. “ It ’s essential that in d iv id u als learn once again how to re-use products instead o f ju st throw ing them aw ay.” Earlier this month, the health ministry said 72 o f the 1,150 incin erators that replied to its survey were emitting more than the rec ommended limit for dioxins. higher than among women in other industrial nations. Japanese researchers have linked ingestion o f dioxins through breast m ilk to low levels o f thyroid hor mones in infants. Some are investi gating the possibility that this may affect children’s ability to learn. In the T o k y o suburb o f Tokorozawa, a city with 48 incin erators, residents are worried that dioxin may be behind a recent rise in the infant mortality rate. M ichio Tanahashi, a geophysi cist who campaigns against dioxin emissions, discovered from govern ment statistics that Tokorozaw a’s infant mortality rate in the past nine years has been as much as 70 percent higher than the average for the rest o f the state. “The death rate for new-born ba bies shot up in direct relation to the increase in waste incinerators in the area,” said activist Hatsue Shitaba. Under mounting pressure, the central government announced this Depression brain problem found Brain scans o f people with de pression or manic-depression found that a tiny area o f the brain was shrunken, suggesting a place to look for biological roots o f the disorders. The area, which lies about three inches behind the bridge o f the nose, was found to be 39 percent smaller than usual in manic-depressive pa tients and 48 percent smaller than normal in patients with depression. Both sets o f patients in the study had inherited tendencies toward the illnesses, revealed because each had a parent or sibling who was also affected. Scientists don’t know yet whether the shrinkage is a cause or an effect o f the disorders, said researcher Dr. Wayne Drevets o f the University o f Pittsburgh Medical Center. Previous studiesof both disorders have found other anatomical abnor malities in the brain. Drevets and co-authors present the new work in the April 24 issue o f the journal Nature. The shrunken areas also showed decreased brain cell activity, prob ably as a result o f the shrinkage, he said. It’s no, clear just what kinds o f cells are m issing to produce the shrinkage, he said. Procter & Gamble, others plan Website on animal testing research C IN C IN N A T I (A P ) - Procter & Gamble Co. said it and other organi zations w ill develop an Internet site for exchange o f information about how to reduce the use o f animals in product testing. P& G said it would be part o f a coalition that w ill develop a site on the World Wide Web. Other coali tion members include the Humane Society o f the United States, the Center for Alternatives for Anim al Testing at the Johns Hopkins U ni versity School o f Public Health, the U .S. Department o f Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes o f Health The Website w ill allow scientists, educators, veterinarians and others to obtain information about alterna tives to animal use in product test ing. An im al-rights activists have criti cized Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble for years because o f the com pany’s continuing use o f ani mals in product testing. The com pany has said it is w orking to reduce the number o f laboratory animals it uses, but would not provide specific numbers. irth pill danger exaggerated Birth control pills do not increase the risk o f hear, attacks. World Health Organization researchers re ported Friday. The study follows research that shows the pill does not increase the risk o f a stroke although some types can increase the very small risk o f a blood clot. Neil Poulter and colleagues at University College, London Univer sity, along with researchers at twenty-one other institutions in Asia, Europe. Latin America and Africa, gathered information on 368 women aged between 20 and 44 who had heart attacks. Women who already had some risk factors for heart attacks-such as smokers and those with high blood pressure—further increased that risk when they took the pill. But women with no other risks do not have more heart attacks on the pill than women not taking it, they wrote in the Lancet medical journal. tempt to make them even safer than earlier pills, plum m eted-as did the stocks o f com pan ies that make them. But Poulter says the risks are very tiny to begin with. “ I think the key thing is perspec tive,” said Poulter. “ These risks are still small. They are still less than you would see in pregnancy.” Last week Jan Rosing and col leagues a, Maastricht University in the Netherlands said they had shown contraceptive pills interfered with the body's chemical mechanism for preventing clots. Tests on blood plasma showed women who took birth control pills had a “ significantly decreased sen sitivity" to activated protein C (A P C ), a vital anticoagulent in the blood. Th is could explain the effect on thrombosis. But overall researchers say the pill is very safe and the risks are lower than those associated with pregnancy. “ Very few (heart attacks) were identified among women who had no cardiovascular risk factors and who reported that their blood pres sure had been checked before oral contraceptive use,” they wrote. The risk was only “ substantial" - -more than four cases per 100,000 women—in women over 35 who smoked Early versions o f the pill, firs, made widely available in the 1960s, did cause women to have more heart attacks. But contraceptives have since been re-formulated with less oestrogen and have been shown to be much safer Las, year the British government caused a global panic by issuing advice about the newest, third-gen eration pills. They were found to double the risk o f a deep vein thrombosis—a blood clot in the leg veins. Sales o f the pills, formulated with the hormone progestagen in an at- Advertise For Diversity Advertise In (Lite ^Jnrtlanh (Ohsrruev Call: 503-288-0033 i dons shorten,” Haskell said. "And if you exercise less, if you become more creaky , that's an impediment to fur ther exercise ” Differences in exercise style may contribute to this, H askell said. Women historically have,ended more toward movement exercises such as aerobic dance, while men tended to ward muscle-building exercises such as weigh, training, he said. Arthritis also becomes more com mon with age, but range-of-motion exercises often are prescribed to keep the joints moving as smoothly as possible, Haskell said. Flexibility problems such as find ing it difficult to bend to open a drawer, or to pu, on a pullover shirt. might not star, interfering with qual ity o f life until 75-80 years o f age, Haskell said Just the same, seniors who want to stay active ought to start working early on flexibility, he said “ It’s very important for people in their 50s to begin to think about maintaining their flexibility so they don't approach this threshhold of disability," I tasked said. “ 1 o restore function at an older age is a Io, more difficult than to maintain it." Sim ple stretching is still no sub stitute for exercise, which also ought to be done. K in g said. The stretch ing group lost strength over the year, compared with the aerobics-weights group, which gained strength, she said. "Ify o u don’t use it, you lose it, even over one year, she said. Ihe study supports the idea that a comprehensive program o f aerobics, strength and stretching is best, com mented Russell R Pate o f the U ni versity o f South Carolina, who was no, involved in the research. "There’s no magic bullet, no single type o f exercise that provides all the ben efits associated with different forms of exercise,” he said. Ihe research highlights the need for people to work on flexibility, Pate said. Flexibility tends to be the most often ignored o f the three, he said. Regu lar, thorough stretch ing may retard the loss o f flexibility over time, Pate said. Ring implant surgery offers new vision Tin y, transparent rings implanted into the cornea may be the newest hope for nearsighted adults fed up with glasses and contacts. The p lastic rin gs, w hich are slightly thicker than a contact lens, would be an alternative to perma nent vision correction procedures such as radial keratotomy and laser treatments. The rings are designed to be per manent but can be removed i P ’ cheaper procedures are developeu -. if wearers don’t like them. Doctors at Em ory University in Atlanta and nine other health cen ters across the country are complet ing tests on the rings before they go to the Food and Drug Adm inistra tion for approval. If approved, they ’re expected to help people who have mild near sightedness - about 20 million adults. “ It's certainly an extremely in triguing alternative.” said Dr. Roger Steinert o f H arvard U n iversity. "These are quite successful, but they are not perfect.” Doctors implant two crescent shapes to form a ring around the cornea, a clear window that covers the pupil and iris. Em ory doctors have implanted them in about 42 of the 45 patients in the study. Clem m ie Perry, an 1RS equal- opportunity counselor, wanted to get rid o f her glasses, which often give her headaches because she constantly put them on and o ff to study reports. "After a while, taking them on and o ff gives me such a headache, I just have to keep them on,” said Perry, 49, o f College Park, Ga. She chose the rings over irrevers ible surgery. Some 30,000 people have sought the laser surgery called photorefrac- tive keratectomy, in which a blast of light helps to reshape the cornea. About 250,000 people a year get radial keratotomy, in which a doctor makes several incisions in the cor nea to flatten it. Patients typically pay $1,500 to $2,000 per eye for laser surgery, while radial keratotomy costs $ 1,000 to $1,500 an eye. KeraVision Inc. o f Fremont, C alif., which makes the rings, said the cost o f the rings would be comparable to radial keratotomy. “ I wasn’t sure about the lasers,” said Ms. Perry. "I was really com forted in the fact that these could be taken out if they didn’t work.” The rings took 10 years to de velop. They are made o f a type o f plastic that is used in lens implants in cataract surgery. Here's how it works: Patients get anesthetic eye drops to numb the eye, but are awake dur ing the procedure. The doctor clamps the lids open, mops o ff the eye and uses a machine to mark with ink the spots for the rings. Using a tiny spatuia, the doctor inserts the crescents into pockets cu t' into the cornea. The procedure takes about 30 minutes. Dr. H. Dwight Cavanagh, vice chairman o f ophthalmology at the University o f Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said the rings likely won’t replace laser surgery. “ I tell my patients that there aren’t any bad d e v ice s h ere,” said Cavanagh. “ It’s just knowing the good and bad things about each de vice and m aking a choice.” “There’s always going to be a better, faster, lighter and cheaper way to correct vision,” said Steinert. “ But it’s like buying a computer. You havetodecide whatyoucan live with or wait for something better to come along.” Red Cross Manager Sets Vision Drew Ross was recently named Marrow Donor Services Manager for Am erican Red Cross Pacific North west Regional Services. A s manager, Ross directs and co ordinates regional operations for the National Marrow Donor Program and Am erican Red Cross local Donor Center. Ross has more than 13 years expe rience. He previously served as d i rector o f Marrow Program in R ich mond, Va. Ross received extensive medical Drew Ross and recruiting training through the United States Arm y; Coordinator Training and Computer Program Training, through the National Mar row Donor Program in Minneapolis, Minn, and Business Administration in Richmond, Va. "M y vision is for our donor center to be the premier center in the western United States," Ross said. "M y goal is that the donors and fam ilies we work with always know they are our number one priority and our reason for being here."
