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A prii 30, 1997 » I' iif P oru and O bserver
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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-
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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."