For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links
Articles Index 3
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| 20 | 4/28/02 |
Prolonged use of hormone therapy is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer and may increase in the risk of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots. Hormone replacement therapy did not slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, ease the symptoms of major depression or counter urinary incontinence. |
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| 20a | 4/30/02 |
Rather than protecting women from heart attacks and strokes, hormone therapy may increase their risk in the first few years. One of the studies found signs of a heart risk. |
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| 19 | 4/27/02 |
The harm of a zero-tolerance policy is that it allows an institution to declare it has dealt with a problem. Faced with evidence of wrongdoing, Americans are quick to resort to seemingly easy, absolutist policies. Crime should of course be punished, the most serious crimes the most severely. But zero tolerance is not about crime; it is a way to make ourselves feel that we have done the right thing while actually allowing wrong things to continue unimpeded. It is the lazy person's response to serious social problems. |
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| 18 | 4/24/02 | The worst written
article I've found on the web "Bacterial 'Sex' Made Plague Deadly, Study
Finds" An example how to make a somewhat difficult subject more difficult to understand |
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| 17 | 4/24/02 | Why French Fries and
Bread May Cause Cancer? Basic foods eaten by millions around the world such as bread, biscuits, potato chips and french fries contain alarmingly high quantities of a substance believed to cause cancer |
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| 16 | 4/23/02 | New Viagra Cream
"BEFAR" World's first topical treatment for erectile dysfunction has been unveiled |
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| 15 | 4/22/02 | First 20 Years in
Life Key to Cancer Risk
Lifestyle during the first 20 years of life is a more important factor than genetics when defining the risk of cancer. |
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| 14 | 4/22/02 | Why High-Protein Diet
May Be Bad? Dehydrates
High-protein diets place such a strain on the kidneys that even very fit athletes can become dehydrated. |
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| 13 | 4/18/02 | Why Teens'
Self-Esteem Linked to Virginity Loss? Self-esteem appears to be linked to when young teens lose their virginity, new study findings suggest. |
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| 12 | 4/16/02
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Why Young Love May
Cause Later Depression? University of North Carolina research suggests that teenage romance may have a profound influence on depression later. |
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| 11 | 4/14/02 |
Part 3 of 3 |
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| 10 | 4/12/02 | What Is
Post-Orgasmic Syndrome? Men developed influenza-like symptoms within minutes of having an orgasm. It is like having a serious flu. This happens as soon as they have an orgasm. |
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| 09 | 4/11/02 |
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| 08 | 4/10/02 | How Circumcision Cuts
Cancer Risk Study indicates that circumcision of men at high risk of penile HPV infection may reduce the overall risk of cervical cancer among their female partners by 50% or more. |
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| 07 | 4/10/02 |
Butter poaching a lobster follows a critically important first step: par-cooking, which lets the chef remove the lobster from its shell. It is impossible to extract raw lobster from its carapace, Mr. Keller explained, but a very brief blanching, enough to kill the lobster without actually cooking it, frees the flesh. |
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| 06 | 4/10/02 |
"I wanted to find a way to cook lobster gently, so it wouldn't be tough," Mr. Keller said. "I don't remember seeing it done anywhere else, and this made perfect sense to me. Who in America hasn't had lobster with melted butter?" |
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| 05 | 4/10/02 | Why Successful Women
Can't Get Married, Part 2 of 3? Nowadays the rule of thumb seems to be that the more successful the woman, the less likely it is she will find a husband or bear a child. For men, the reverse is true. |
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| 04 | 4/10/02 | Why Successful Women
Can't Get Married, Part 1 of 3? For years, women have been told they could wait until 40 or later to have babies. But a new book argues that's way too late. |
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| 03 | 4/4/02 |
Bombers gloat in Gaza as they see goal within reach: No more Israel A leadership unyielding, determined and increasingly confident of achieving their goal, the eradication of Israel as a Jewish state. |
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| 02 | 4/4/02 |
Suicide bombings are immensely empowering to many people in the Middle East who no longer believe that their governments can do anything to relieve their humiliation and improve their conditions. |
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| 01 | 4/3/02 |
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www.skfriends.com |
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links April 28, 2002Why
Prolonged use of hormone therapy is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer and may increase in the risk of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots. Hormone replacement therapy did not slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, ease the symptoms of major depression or counter urinary incontinence. New York TimesThe latest verdict on hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women raises disturbing questions, not only for millions of women who have been taking the drugs but also for doctors who have been recommending their use for purposes that now appear inappropriate. Hormones have long been prescribed to relieve symptoms of menopause like hot flashes and night sweats, for which they are undeniably effective. But doctors have also prescribed estrogen, either alone or in combination with progestin, to prevent or mitigate heart disease, Alzheimer's, severe depression, bone fractures from osteoporosis and urinary incontinence. These other presumed benefits have sometimes been critical in women's decisions on whether to undergo hormone replacement therapy, and for how long. Prolonged use of hormone therapy is thought to increase the risk of breast cancer, so it was comforting to think that this risk was more than offset by a wide range of benefits. That, alas, has now been called into question by an international panel of experts whose findings were recently reported by The Times's Denise Grady. Their report, financed by the National Institutes of Health and a private foundation in Italy, found some clear benefits from hormone therapy. Hormone replacement remains the most effective pharmacological treatment for menopause's symptoms, and it has been shown to prevent the bone loss associated with osteoporosis, though no trials have determined whether it also reduces fractures. But the panel concluded that many other presumed benefits did not hold up when examined in rigorous clinical trials. The group found no evidence so far that the hormones protected against heart disease. In fact, some trials have shown an increase in the risk of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots. Nor did hormone replacement therapy slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, ease the symptoms of major depression or counter urinary incontinence. The main lesson from this turnaround is the importance of conducting clinical trials of medical treatments whenever feasible. Most of the evidence suggesting wide benefits from hormone replacement therapy came from observational studies, in which large numbers of women were followed for years, and those who chose hormone therapy were compared with those who did not. But such studies have an inherent weakness. One can never be sure that the women who choose a treatment and stick with it are not inherently healthier than those who shun the treatment. Far more certain results can be obtained from controlled clinical trials in which half the patients are randomly assigned to get the hormone and half are assigned to receive a dummy pill or other treatment, making the groups more comparable. A final judgment on hormone replacement must await the results, in the next four to five years, of a large clinical trial being conducted by the National Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, women who need to decide on a course of treatment must recognize that while hormones remain the best way to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, the benefits of prolonged use to prevent other ailments appear questionable. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/28/opinion/28SUN2.html?pagewanted=print&position=bottom April 30, 2002Weighing Risks and Benefits of Hormone TherapyRather than protecting women from heart attacks and strokes, hormone therapy may increase their risk in the first few years. One of the studies found signs of a heart risk. By DENISE GRADY New York TimesThe patient is 60, and she has been happily taking estrogen for 20 years, ever since her uterus and ovaries were removed. Now, she would like to stop. But when she tries, she is miserable. Hot flashes leave her drenched in sweat, sometimes as often as every half hour, and she seems to be getting more uncomfortable every day. Much as she wants to get off the hormone, she tells her doctor, "Right now, I'm ready to just scream and say, `Oh, please, just put me back on it.' " Frequent hot flashes can be debilitating; if they play havoc with sleep, fatigue can then lead to depression and forgetfulness. There is no better treatment for hot flashes than estrogen, most doctors agree. Why, then, does this woman want to quit? According to an article last week in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the patient, Mrs. W., is concerned about the possible risks of long-term hormone therapy. Her biggest fear is breast cancer, because her sister and grandmother have had the disease and she herself has had several breast cysts. Although there is no evidence of an increased breast cancer risk for women who use hormones for less than five years, studies suggest that taking them longer is associated with a 30 to 60 percent increase in risk. For women like Mrs. W., who have had their uteruses removed, hormone replacement therapy consists of estrogen alone. But for other women, estrogen alone can cause uterine cancer, and so the estrogen is given along with another hormone, progestin. Breast cancer is not the only concern for women taking either type of hormone therapy. The article in the medical journal, by Dr. Deborah Grady, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of California in San Francisco, describes several other side effects, including relatively minor ones like uterine bleeding and breast soreness, and more serious problems like a tripling of the risk of blood clots and a 40 percent increase in the risk of gallbladder disease, which affects 1 in 10 Americans; the risk increases with age, and in women is twice as great as in men. Blood clots are far less common, though; over all, they occur in only 1 to 2 women in 10,000 who do not use hormone therapy, so a tripling of the risk does not result in a huge number. But the risks are higher in women who already have coronary artery disease. Estrogen increases the risk by stimulating the liver to produce more of the substances that it normally makes to promote clotting. Estrogen's risks have long been recognized, but until recently many doctors and patients assumed the risks were outweighed by benefits, which were thought to include a decreased risk of heart attacks, strokes, broken bones, urinary incontinence, severe depression and Alzheimer's disease. But rigorous studies in recent years have cast doubt on some of the benefits that many women and their doctors took for granted. Most of the data comes from studies involving the type of estrogen in the drug Premarin, the most widely used brand of hormone replacement in the United States. The hormone, conjugated equine estrogen, is extracted from the urine of pregnant horses. An international panel of experts who evaluated hormone therapy released part of a position paper last month stating that clinical trials had found no evidence that estrogen could treat or prevent urinary incontinence, major depression or memory loss in Alzheimer's disease. It is still being studied in Alzheimer's, however, the paper noted. And the paper added that although estrogen clearly prevents bone loss, whether that translates into preventing fractures has not been studied in a large controlled trial. For treating osteoporosis and preventing fractures, there is stronger evidence for other drugs: raloxifene and a class of drugs called bisphosphonates, which includes Fosamax. As for cardiovascular disease, three studies have suggested that rather than protecting women from heart attacks and strokes, hormone therapy may increase their risk in the first few years. Women with heart disease or risk factors for it, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, are now advised not to depend on estrogen but to take drugs meant specifically to lower blood pressure and cholesterol. But one of the studies that found signs of a heart risk, the Women's Health Initiative, a clinical trial involving more than 27,000 women, is still under way and is expected to provide more information about cardiovascular disease and hormones in 2006. "We haven't had the last word on this," said Dr. Nanette Wenger, chief of cardiology at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and an editor of the International Position Paper on Women's Health and Menopause, to be issued in June by the National Institutes of Health and the private Giovanni Lorenzini Medical Science Foundation of Italy. But women want advice now. Many doctors say that given hormone therapy's known risks and the dearth of evidence for life-saving benefits, they can recommend it only to women who have severe symptoms like hot flashes and vaginal dryness, or low bone density and who do not have known risk factors like a history of heart disease, strokes or blood clots. And then, doctors say, the best course may be to use the hormones for a few years at the height of their symptoms, and taper off gradually. "For some women, symptoms disrupt their professional lives and their sex lives, and that's important," Dr. Grady said. "Hormone treatment is reasonable therapy. But you don't have to take it for the rest of your born days." Estrogen therapy has been in use for about 50 years, and the pendulum has swung back and forth several times. In the late 1960's and early 70's, it was regarded as the fountain of youth. Then it was accused of causing uterine cancer, and rehabilitated when it was found that adding progesterone could cut the cancer risk. In the 80's and early 90's, studies of women who chose to take hormone replacement suggested that it could prevent heart disease. But the increased risk of breast cancer also became apparent, and more recent studies have failed to confirm any cardiovascular benefit. Dr. Isaac Schiff, the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "There is controversy, and there are good people with great intentions on both sides of the fence. What is sad is, here's a drug that's been around for so many years, and we know so relatively little about it. It was used and introduced without really being studied in a rigorous scientific way. We're learning as we go along. We really suffer from a lack of information, a lack of good science." Like Dr. Grady, Dr. Schiff said the strongest reason for using hormone replacement was to treat symptoms that a woman finds intolerable. Hot flashes often diminish after three to six months and go away entirely after a few years. But in some women they persist longer. Dr. Schiff said he had done a study in which temperature probes placed on women's faces found that their skin temperature rose 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit, and occasionally even 5 degrees, during hot flashes. He said one of his patients was the first female leader in her profession. "At every meeting she was the only woman," Dr. Schiff said. "She chaired meetings with men, and when she would get hot flashes, they saw it as blushing or a sign of weakness. She said: `I can't afford that. I'm taking estrogen till I retire.' " But what, then, is a woman like Mrs. W. to do, when she tries to give up estrogen and finds that she feels miserable? Dr. Grady suggested a more gradual tapering of the dose than Mrs. W. had tried, perhaps reducing the dose one day a week and then proceeding slowly. "The worst thing you can do is stop cold turkey," Dr. Schiff said. Most women are able to taper off. In fact, most women do so on their own. "Out of every 100 who start, after a couple of years only 20 are still taking it," Dr. Schiff said. But he and Dr. Grady say there are some women who seem to feel simply awful without estrogen, and for them the relief may well outweigh the risks. Some get help from other nonhormonal drugs, though none work as well as estrogen. Some women try soy protein and herbal products, but Dr. Grady said there was not evidence from controlled trials to recommend them. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/30/health/womenshealth/30HORM.html
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links April 27, 2002What's wrong with zero-tolerance? Priests and the Hypocrisy of Zero ToleranceThe harm of a zero-tolerance policy is that it allows an institution
to declare it has dealt with a problem. Faced with evidence of wrongdoing,
Americans are quick to resort to seemingly easy, absolutist policies.
Crime should of course be punished, the most serious crimes the most
severely. But zero tolerance is not about crime; it is a way to make
ourselves feel that we have done the right thing while actually allowing
wrong things to continue unimpeded. It is the lazy person's response to
serious social problems. By ALAN WOLFE, NY Times BOSTON Zero tolerance is a particularly American response to wrongdoing. There are no calls for zero tolerance in Europe, only astonishment at the ways in which Americans go about dealing with their demons. One can only wonder, therefore, what Pope John Paul II thought when he first heard American cardinals advocating a policy of zero tolerance for sexual abuse on the part of priests. In the current crisis involving those priests, the Vatican has gotten many things wrong. Not until recently did it understand the seriousness of the crisis, and it continues to believe that the problem is pedophilia, not cover-up. Vatican officials are too quick to blame the problem on a culture of permissiveness or the attractiveness of the Catholic priesthood to homosexuals. The gap between ordinary American Catholics and the Vatican, which opened up in 1968 when the pope issued an encyclical against birth control, will only widen as a result of the scandals that began in Boston. But on one issue, the Vatican is correct: It rejected a zero-tolerance policy for sexual abuse in the priesthood. Had such a policy been adopted, it would have made it easier for cardinals and bishops who had ignored the problem of abusive priests for years, and who were complicit in transferring them to new assignments, to say that they had taken strong corrective measures. And many priests who never did anything wrong could have lost their ministries because of false charges against them. The harm of a zero-tolerance policy in this context and in others is that it allows an institution to declare it has dealt with a problem. Faced with evidence of wrongdoing, Americans are quick to resort to seemingly easy, absolutist policies. If kids steal, if high school students cheat, if college students shout racial epithets the overwhelming desire is for an unambiguous response. Excuses will not be heard, exceptions will not be considered, forgiveness will not be available. Crime should of course be punished, the most serious crimes the most severely. But zero tolerance is not about crime; it is a way to make ourselves feel that we have done the right thing while actually allowing wrong things to continue unimpeded. It is the lazy person's response to serious social problems. Indeed, the notion of zero tolerance seems reserved for bad conduct that has long been accepted with a wink. When officials reach for zero tolerance, it is because they once tolerated what they now seek to forbid. The point most often is not to catch wrongdoers or offer solace to victims; it is to protect officials, psychologically or legally, from scrutiny of their past complicity. It is used as a quick way to end debate about truly meaningful solutions. Officials tend to urge a policy of zero tolerance knowing full well that nothing much will happen as a result of their newly tough stance. Some students will be expelled when zero-tolerance policies are adopted, just as some priests will be defrocked. But in nearly all cases, these will be sacrificial offenders, meant to set examples, because little proof need be offered of the harms their acts caused. Unrepentant wrongdoers will hide and continue their abuses as soon as the period of heightened public awareness ends, as it inevitably will. This kind of policy appears to be the opposite of the libertarian approach that makes no judgment on individual actions. But it is in fact quite similar. The libertarian position is that government should not be in the business of making distinctions between good or bad personal actions. Advocates of zero-tolerance policies would also make it possible for officials to avoid making difficult but necessary distinctions in the realm of human behavior. Perhaps the Vatican rejected a policy of zero tolerance for the most principled of reasons. But considering the popularity of the idea in the United States, and the fact that among the worst offenders in this scandal are priests and their superiors, the leadership of the American church may choose another path. The president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory, indicated as much when he told reporters that he favors zero tolerance for all abusers, past and future, and that he expects the conference to endorse such a policy at its meeting in June. Experience in other contexts has proved the folly of this approach. For
the church to adopt it now would be yet another sign that it is not
serious about meaningful reform. Alan Wolfe is a professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/27/opinion/27WOLF.html?pagewanted=print&position=bottom
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links The worst written article I've found
on the web "Bacterial 'Sex' Made Plague Deadly, Study Finds" An example how to make a somewhat difficult subject more difficult to understand By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A single swapped gene -- traded in the closest thing bacteria have to sex -- turned a relatively innocuous microbe into the agent of the Black Death, researchers said on Thursday. They said the gene allows Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, to survive in the guts of fleas and thus to be passed from rats to people. Plague wiped out more than a quarter of Europe's population in the 14th century and still kills an average of 10 to 15 people every year in the United States, with between 1,000 and 3,000 cases reported every year globally. It causes symptoms ranging from fever to characteristic black "buboes" that are actually swollen, tender lymph glands. The closest relative of Yersinia pestis is a gut bacteria called Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. "Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is transmitted, like all other enteric (gut) bacteria, by the fecal-oral route through contaminated food and water," Joseph Hinnebusch, a researcher at Rocky Mountain Laboratories who led the study, said in a telephone interview. "It causes gastroenteritis, diarrhea, sort of like shigella and salmonella," he added, naming two common causes of food poisoning. "Yet that is the closest relative of Y. pestis." Writing in the journal Science, Hinnebusch and colleagues said they looked at a gene carried by Y. pestis but not by Y. pseudotuberculosis. It was thought the gene produced a toxin -- which would explain why plague is so much more deadly than the stomach upset. GENE MAKES FLEA GUT COZY In fact, Hinnebusch said, the gene has a more complex function. It controls production of an enzyme known as PLD, which allows Yersinia to survive in the gut of a flea. "It is known that the flea gut is a hostile environment," said Hinnebusch, whose lab is part of the U.S. National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. "The flea takes a blood meal and starts to digest it immediately. It seems to be a fairly hostile environment for bacteria to survive in." But, through an unknown mechanism, PLD lets the bacteria survive, so it can multiply in the flea and be transmitted when it bites a rat -- or a human. The bacteria then gets into the blood and causes plague. Furthermore, PLD clearly is not a gene that Yersinia developed on its own. "If (you) look at the DNA sequence of this enzyme, it is clear that it is not typical Yersinia DNA," Hinnebusch said. "It is most closely related to similar genes in soil bacteria and in plants. So it seems pretty clear that this gene was transferred from an unrelated cell." Bacteria are known to do this, sometimes promiscuously, in a process known as horizontal transfer. For a life form that reproduces mostly by splitting, it is the closest thing to sexual reproduction, which gives plants and animals their ability to evolve and change with each generation. Picking up this gene could have been the single most important factor in turning a stomach bug into an agent of mass killing, Hinnebusch said. "A scene that you can imagine is that once Yersinia was able to survive in the flea gut, there would be the occasional rodent in which the disease caused septicemia (infection of the blood) and so a flea could have picked it up," he said. This would have led to selective pressure. Variants of Yersinia that were better able to invade blood, and those that were more virulent, would have survived better, and come to dominate. Only when people learned that fleas were the plague carriers and developed basic hygiene measures were they able to defeat it. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020425/sc_nm/science_plague_dc_
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links Why French Fries and Bread May Cause
Cancer? Basic foods eaten by millions around the world such as bread, biscuits, potato chips and french fries contain alarmingly high quantities of a substance believed to cause cancer By Peter Starck STOCKHOLM (Reuter) - Basic foods eaten by millions around the world such as bread, biscuits, potato chips and french fries contain alarmingly high quantities of acrylamide, a substance believed to cause cancer, Swedish scientists said on Wednesday. The research carried out at Stockholm University in cooperation with experts at Sweden's National Food Administration, a government food safety agency, showed that heating of carbohydrate-rich foods, such as potatoes, rice or cereals formed acrylamide, a much studied substance classified as a probable human carcinogen. The research was deemed so important that the scientists decided on the unusual step of going public with their findings before the research had been officially published in an academic journal. "I have been in this field for 30 years and I have never seen anything like this before," said Leif Busk, head of the food administration's research department. Findings unveiled at a news conference called by the food administration showed that an ordinary bag of potato chips may contain up to 500 times more of the substance than the top level allowed in drinking water by the World Health Organization. French fries sold at Swedish franchises of U.S. fast-food chains Burger King Corp and McDonald's contained about 100 times the one microgram per liter maximum permitted by the WHO for drinking water, the study showed. One milligram, or 0.001 grams, contains 1,000 micrograms. KNOWN HAZARD The Environmental Protection Agency classifies acrylamide, a colorless, crystalline solid, as a medium hazard probable human carcinogen. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, acrylamide induces gene mutations and has been found in animal tests to cause benign and malignant stomach tumors. It is also known to cause damage to the central and peripheral nervous system. "The discovery that acrylamide is formed during the preparation of food, and at high levels, is new knowledge. It may now be possible to explain some of the cases of cancer caused by food," Busk said. "Fried, oven-baked and deep-fried potato and cereal products may contain high levels of acrylamide," the administration said. "Acrylamide is formed during the preparation of food and occurs in many foodstuffs...Many of the analyzed foodstuffs are consumed in large quantities, e.g. potato crisps, french fries, fried potatoes, biscuits and bread." Among products analyzed in the study were potato chips made by Finnish company CHIPS ABP, whose shares fell 14.5 percent to six-month lows, as well as breakfast cereals made by U.S. Kellogg, Quaker Oats Co, part of PepsiCo Inc, and Swiss Nestle, and Old El Paso brand tortilla chips. "For us, these are completely new findings which have never before been known to the world's foodstuffs industry," CHIPS ABP said in a statement to the Helsinki stock exchange. Stefan Eriksson, marketing manager Burger King's subsidiary in Sweden, told Reuter by telephone: "We have received the information and we are evaluating what it will mean." Spokesmen for the other companies mentioned in the research were not immediately available for comment. NO PRODUCTS WITHDRAWN Margareta Tornqvist, an associate professor at Stockholm University's department of environmental chemistry, said the consumption of a single potato crisp could take acrylamide intake up to the WHO maximum for drinking water. Busk said, however, that the product analysis based on more than 100 random samples was not extensive enough for the administration to recommend the withdrawal of any products from supermarket shelves. "Frying at high temperatures or for a long time should be avoided," Busk said, adding: "Our advice to eat less fat-rich products such as french fries and crisps, remains valid." He said the findings applied worldwide, not only to Sweden, as the food raw materials used in the analyzes had showed no traces of acrylamide. Swedish authorities had informed the European Commission (news - web sites) and EU member countries, Busk said. "It is the first time we have come across such a result. We will evaluate this study and look at it but it is important to say that Sweden has not withdrawn any products from the market," said European Commission spokeswoman Beate Gminder. "Therefore we'll have to see what the scientific evaluation by our side and by scientists in the member states will bring about," she said. Liliane Abramsson-Zetterberg, a toxicologist at the Swedish food administration, said: "The cancer risk from acrylamide is much higher than (the levels) we accept for known carcinogens." But smoking, which is known to cause cancer, remained a bigger risk, she said. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020424/sc_nm/health_food_cancer_dc_
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99992213 April 29, 2002Fried CarcinogensNew York TimesThe Swedish government caused consternation in food circles last week by announcing that many cooked foods that are staples of Western diets contain a probable carcinogen at levels that no one suspected would be there. The substance is acrylamide, a chemical used in making plastics. It has caused cancer in rats and mice and is presumed likely to do so in humans as well. The Swedes believe the toxin is formed when starchy foods are fried or baked at high temperatures or for long periods. They found it in a wide array of commonly eaten foods, including French fries, potato chips, biscuits, crackers, breakfast cereals, popcorn and bread. It did not show up in boiled or uncooked foods. The importance of these findings by scientists at the University of Stockholm and the Swedish National Food Administration has yet to be determined. Acrylamide is clearly not a substance one wants to find in food. It can cause neurological, genetic and reproductive damage as well as cancer at high enough doses. If the findings are right, the Swedes estimate that acrylamide might be causing several hundred cancer deaths a year in their small nation, which implies that thousands of cancer deaths in this much larger country might be attributable to acrylamide. But the Swedish report is based on a small number of food samples, the levels of acrylamide found varied considerably, and the findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The Swedes are capable scientists and were clearly alarmed enough to put out a warning even before the data is published. But they were not so sure of themselves that they took any immediate action to change their own food supply or processes. They simply urged the European Union, other food safety agencies and the food industry to explore the issue. The Food and Drug Administration and American food companies will need to assess the Swedish data and conduct their own investigations to determine if acrylamide is a potential threat in this country. If it is, the agency will have to set limits on the amount permissible in food, and manufacturers will need to alter their cooking processes to minimize the hazard. Consumers, for their part, have long been told to eat more fruits and vegetables and cut down on deep-fried foods. Now they may have another reason to do so. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/29/opinion/_29MON3.html
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links New Viagra Cream "BEFAR" World's first topical treatment for erectile dysfunction has been unveiled By Brian Walker HONG KONG (Reuter) - The world's first topical treatment for erectile dysfunction has been unveiled in Hong Kong, giving an intriguing new treatment option to impotence sufferers. The new medicated cream, branded "Befar," promises a safer and quicker treatment for impotence than Viagra. BEFAR photo After quietly selling the drug in China since last July, NexMed, a small biotechnology company based in New Jersey says it is ready to bring the medicated cream to the rest of Asia, and eventually the U.S. Befar uses the active ingredient Alprox-TD, a derivative of alprostadil, developed by NexMed. Alprostadil has been used to treat erectile dysfunction for several years around the world, but until now has been administered via injection directly into the penis. "The drug has been proven very effective, but it was just too painful to apply because you have to inject into the parts," Dr. T. Tom Wu, Managing Director of NexMed (Asia) Limited told Reuter Television. "We are the first non-invasive drug that is very user-friendly." A NEW DELIVERY METHOD FOR AN OLD DRUG Alprox-TD works by widening the blood vessels in the penis, allowing it to be engorged with blood. But users of Alprostadil have reported side effects including persistent erection, known as priapism, in which erections can become painful after lasting several hours. NexMed claims that clinical tests in the U.S. have shown that 83 percent of men suffering erectile dysfunction reported satisfaction with the topical treatment. Alprox-TD also reportedly begins to cause erection within minutes, much faster than many alternatives. But urologist Dr. Peter Chan Siu Foon of the Chinese University in Hong Kong says that onset times for reactions to topical treatments can be difficult to predict, but actually may be conducive to better sex. "Sex and lovemaking is not a mechanical event, so to wait half an hour is not such a bad thing and can lead couples to focus on foreplay which will enhance their love life," said Dr. Chan. CROWDED MARKETPLACE Many new medicines are scrambling to get into the burgeoning anti-impotence drug marketplace in the next few months. NexMed is hoping to get a headstart on the competition by getting into niche markets like China now and moving into bigger marketplaces like the U.S. later "For an independent pharmaceutical, it really makes sense for us to try to get registered in a territory that we think it will be accepted," said Wu. "Since it's an old drug with a new application, it's much easier to receive approval." The company says that Befar provides several key health and convenience benefits which should help it compete with industry titan Pfizer Inc's Viagra. As a topical lotion it should hold less risk of interacting with other ingested medicines. Because it is applied directly to the penis, NexMed also claims that it works within minutes rather than the hour or so it can take Viagra to take effect. COMPANY NEEDS TO BAG A WINNER NexMed is now beginning phase III clinical development testing for Alprox-TD in the U.S., and is also completing study of a similar product for women called Femprox, aimed at treating female sexual arousal disorder. But the company needs a hit soon, according to its auditors. PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a recent filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission that it had "substantial doubt" about NexMed's financial viability in light of its negative cash flow and lack of products on the market. NexMed spokeswoman Deborah Carty told Reuter Monday that at its current rate of spending, it can't last until the end of the year. But Wu said that NexMed is in discussions with a number of U.S. pharmaceutical companies about licensing U.S. marketing rights to Befar and he has total confidence in the business strategy. If the new drug catches on, the rewards could be substantial. The market for erectile dysfunction drugs was US$1.6 billion in 2001 and industry watchers say it could triple in the next three years. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020423/sc_nm/health_nexmed_impotence_dc_1
An Age-Old Quest Could Be at an End: Chinese Hail Viagra "BEFAR"By ELISABETH ROSENTHALSHENZHEN, China Buy a pack of gum or a bottle of water in the departure lounge of the Shenzhen airport and if you are male the saleswomen may well make you another offer: from under the counter comes a pack of four bright blue pills. "Weige," two chirped in unison, plopping it on the glass top for inspection and using the Chinese nickname for Viagra. "Cheap and real," one whispered of the precious contraband, glancing around nervously. No matter that Viagra is theoretically available only by prescription in China. In this go-go "special economic zone" of Shenzhen, along the Hong Kong border, nearly every sex shop, every pharmacy even a large number of candy stores and soda stands also offers the wonder drug, or convincing counterfeits. There is also a generous selection of domestically concocted "male power enhancers" on display, potions that generally contain small amounts of Viagra's essential ingredient combined with traditional remedies deer penis, goat penis, dog penis. In the West, Viagra has met the medical needs of a group of generally older men suffering from sexual problems. In China, the drug has been greeted as the holy grail of a 2,000-year-old quest for substances to give all men greater sexual prowess. "People in China pay a lot of attention to this problem," said Dr. Ma Xiaonian, chairman of the Beijing Sexuality Education and Research Association. "Chinese accept the idea that you can eat something to make up for what you lack and for thousands of years men have taken things made from deer penis or snakes or dog penis," Dr. Ma said. "So now they have something that works!" Ever since Viagra was approved for sale in China nearly two years ago, it has taken the country by storm, and its official name, Wanaige, has been replaced by the affectionate nickname weige, pronounced WAY-guh and literally meaning "great elder brother." In Chongqing, veterinarians last year fed Viagra to a species of endangered tiger in the hopes of raising the males' interest in breeding. (Tt didn't work.) On a brighter note, animal rights groups say Viagra has probably saved innumerable seals from slaughter, reducing the demand for medicines containing seal penis. In the last two years, Viagra has become a popular gift for that boss who has everything, replacing fine cigars and Remy XO. Last year, Li Zongsheng, one of China's most popular songwriters, immortalized the drug in the hit pop song "Rather Worried Recently." "In my dream the light is very dim," he sings, describing a 50-year-old man's fantasy about a Japanese porn star. "I've searched everywhere. Can't find my little blue pill." Predictably, this unquenchable demand has resulted in a proliferation of counterfeits. "Most of the Viagra sold in stores and on the Internet is fake," said Wang Hai, a consumer advocate in Beijing, who has investigated counterfeits. "Some are just starch and some are the same ingredient as the real product." In March, police officials announced the breakup of one of many reported Viagra rings, this one in the city of Fenghua in coastal Zhejiang Province. It had sold half a million fake Viagra tablets in the previous nine months, the state press reported. In a survey by The Shanghai Evening Post last year, 2,000 retail
outlets in that city reported selling an average of four pills a day
8,000 tablets daily. At the time of the survey,
Surveys by Chinese health authorities in several cities have found that more than 80 percent of "man power-enhancing products" also contain some sildenafil. Dr. Ma said those products were aimed at the many older men who were more comfortable taking traditional Chinese medicine than a foreign pill. This deception means that such "power enhancers" may actually offer men in need some real help. But the secret addition can also be dangerous for men with certain conditions, like heart disease. Viagra seems nearly omnipresent here in Shenzhen, a town of flashy clubs and fancy apartments, where flocks of traveling businessmen woo girlfriends and keep mistresses. At a concession at the railway station, it sits nestled between combs and candy bars. At the small sex shop opposite the luxury Shangri-La Hotel, the middle-aged matron matter-of-factly ran down the products in her display: "real weige," that is, counterfeit weige containing the real ingredients, and an almost identically packaged pill that she said had the same effect but was made from herbs. At one drug store, the small blue boxes of weige shared space by the cash register with an eclectic collection of things like Deer Penis Rejuvenescence (ingredients: deer penis, cattle penis, royal jelly), and Blue-Gold for Men (sheep penis, ox penis, sea lion penis, dog penis, deer penis, ginseng). But a pharmacy assistant, a Ms. Chen, especially recommended a concoction called Turtle Deer Magical Elixir, in a deep blue box with large characters proclaiming, "Hao Ting" "Super Erect." "When Viagra first came out, it was all anyone wanted, but now many people prefer this," she said. "Though Chinese medicines act more slowly, they are safer and have fewer side effects. And they're cheaper too." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/23/international/asia/23CHIN.html
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Risk
Lifestyle during the first 20 years of life is a more important factor than genetics when defining the risk of cancer STOCKHOLM (Reuter) - Lifestyle during the first 20 years of life is a more important factor than genetics when defining the risk of cancer, two Swedish studies on first- and second-generation immigrants show. "Birth in Sweden sets the Swedish pattern for cancer development irrespective of the nationality of descent," said the abstract of one of the studies due to be published on May 10 in the International Journal of Cancer. The survey of some 600,000 immigrants, who came to Sweden in their 20s and became parents in this country, showed that their cancer risks did not differ significantly from the cancer risks of the populations in their native countries. But second-generation immigrants born in Sweden had a different risk profile than their parents and had a similar cancer incidence as native Swedes, another study of some 600,000 immigrants, mainly from Europe and North America, showed. "Internationally, there are clear differences between cancer risks. But these differences disappear within one generation, so environment must clearly be a significant cancer factor," Professor Kari Hemminki of the Karolinska Institute university hospital told Reuter Monday. As the first 20 years of a person's life were so important in defining the risk of incurring cancer, possible preventive means should be aimed during that period, he said. For some types of cancer it was clear why the risks were different between the generation who spent their first 20 years outside Sweden and their children born in Sweden. For example, the risk of lung cancer decreased among second-generation immigrants because Swedes tended to smoke less than people in many other countries. The higher risk of stomach cancer among first-generation immigrants compared with their children and native Swedes could be linked to eating habits, vitamin deficiencies and use of salt--all factors linked to this type of cancer, Hemminki said. Darker skinned second-generation immigrants were as prone to contract skin cancer as blond Swedes, and much more so than their own parents, due to a similar sun bathing style among youths regardless of origin. The studies were made using the Swedish Family Cancer Database, which contains information on all people born in Sweden after 1931 and their parents. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020422/hl_nm/cancer_lifestyle_1
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Dehydrates
High-protein diets place such a strain on the kidneys that even very fit athletes can become dehydrated By E. J. Mundell NEW ORLEANS (Reuter Health) - High-protein diets place such a strain on the kidneys that even very fit athletes can become dehydrated, according to researchers. "Personally, I would not recommend a protein intake of over 2 grams of protein per kilogram of weight per day, as it may have negative long-term effects," said researcher William Forrest Martin, a graduate student at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. He presented the findings here Monday at the Experimental Biology 2002 conference. High-protein diets have surged in popularity in recent years for their purported potential for quick weight loss. Most of these plans promise prompt results if devotees fill up on steak, bacon, fried eggs and other high-protein foods, while cutting back on carbohydrates such as potatoes, pasta, vegetables and fruit. But the diets have their critics. For example, the American Heart Association recently issued a report that found that there was "no scientific evidence" that the diets actually worked to keep pounds off over the long term, and they may trigger unwanted side effects such as fatigue or dizziness. In their study, Martin and his colleagues sought to determine the effects of such diets on hydration--the body's ability to distribute and retain a healthy amount of water. They had five very fit endurance runners consume low-, medium- and high-protein diets over three successive 4-week periods. During the high-protein diet phase, participants consumed about 30% of their total calories from foods such as eggs, steak and "power bars." Blood tests conducted on the athletes 3 weeks into the diets revealed "that increasing protein intake led to a progression toward hypo- (low) hydration, and that a greater strain was placed upon the kidney due to the excessive levels of protein intake," according to Martin. Speaking with Reuter Health, he explained that increased protein intake leads to an excess build-up of nitrogen in the blood. "In the end, the nitrogen ends up at the kidney in the form of urea where it needs to be filtered out and excreted in the urine." The excessive urination triggered by high protein intake can easily lead to a hypohydrated state, even in the absence of symptoms. In fact, all of the runners in the study said they felt no more thirsty while on the high-protein diet compared with other regimens--even though their levels of hydration had fallen to below healthy levels. Based on the findings, Martin advised active individuals to avoid getting a large percentage of their calories from meat, eggs and other protein-rich foods. But "if one does embark on a diet greater than about 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, I would suggest they increase their daily fluid intake to protect against dehydration," he said. According to the American Dietetic Association, the average adult should consume between 8 to 12 cups of water per day. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020422/hl_nm/protein_diets_
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Virginity Loss? Self-esteem appears to be linked to when young teens lose their virginity, new study findings suggest By Keith Mulvihill NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - Self-esteem appears to be linked to when young teens lose their virginity, new study findings suggest. And self-esteem seemed to play a different role for each gender. While girls with higher self-esteem were less likely to have sex early, the researchers found, the opposite was true for boys. Previous research has examined the various negative consequences of early sexual intercourse in adolescents, but few studies have aimed to identify the role self-esteem plays when young people choose to begin having sex. In the current study, lead investigator Dr. Gregory D. Zimet of Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and colleagues evaluated 188 students when they were between the ages of 12 and 14 and were in the seventh grade. The study participants had identified themselves as virgins in a questionnaire that also measured various aspects of their self-esteem. Nearly 2 years later, the same teens, now in aged 14 to 16 and in ninth grade, were surveyed again with the same questionnaire. "Self-esteem functioned differently for boys and girls in terms of its relationship with the initiation of sexual intercourse," Zimet told Reuter Health in an interview. "Seventh-grade girls with high self-esteem were less likely to subsequently initiate intercourse, whereas seventh-grade boys with high self-esteem were more likely to initiate intercourse," he said. While the researchers propose several possible explanations for the findings in their study, which is published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, Zimet told Reuter Health that they have no definitive explanation. "In a sense," he said, "the different findings from boys and girls may reflect the larger society's differential attitudes about sexuality based on gender. "Given that sexual behavior among girls has often been characterized by society as more socially deviant, it may be that high self-esteem in girls acts as a protective factor by helping them to resist peer pressure to become sexually involved before they are ready," Zimet noted. "Also, girls with low self-esteem may initiate a sexual relationship in order to feel better about themselves, by providing themselves with the comfort derived from intimacy and/or a sense of maturity," he suggested. "In contrast, given that sexual behavior among boys has often been characterized as more acceptable, early sexual initiation for boys may be seen as a badge of honor," Zimet pointed out. Also, those boys who have higher self-esteem may be more socially confident and more likely to find willing partners than boys with low self-esteem, he explained. The results of this study, according to Zimet, suggest that sex education programs should consider the complex, gender-specific nature of self-esteem and "not assume that 'one-size-fits-all."' He added, "Clearly, it makes little sense to try to lower the self-esteem of young adolescent boys. However, the findings do suggest that helping girls to feel more self-confidence and self-respect may help them to delay initiation of sexual intercourse." SOURCE: Pediatrics 2002;109:581-584. Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020418/hl_nm/teens_sex_1&printer=1 April 23, 2002Behavior: Of Sex, Self-Esteem and 9th GradeBy ERIC NAGOURNEY New York TimesSelf-esteem appears to play an important role in determining whether young teenagers are sexually active, but it has a different effect on boys and girls, researchers have found. Among girls, strong feelings of self-esteem were most often predictive of how long they kept their virginity. Among boys, the researchers found, the better the self-esteem, the more likely it was for the boys to later say they were sexually active. "I think we were a little surprised at how clear the effect was," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Gregory D. Zimet, a pediatrics professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The article appeared in a recent issue of Pediatrics. The lead author was Dr. Jennifer M. Spencer. The study, which looked at children 12 to 16, offers a window into the murky world of teenage sexuality. The researchers said they could not be sure what the results meant, though they suggested that the study offered evidence that the double standard among girls and boys remained strong when it came to sex. When it came to ascertaining the degree of sexual activity, the researchers had nothing to go on but the word of the students being surveyed. Still, the authors said the link between self-esteem and sex appeared clear, and even seemed to play a more important role than how far along the students were in puberty. The study was based on a survey of 188 Indianapolis-area seventh graders who reported being virgins. The students, who were given personality assessments tests to measure self-esteem, were interviewed again in ninth grade. The researchers found that boys with high self-esteem were 2.4 times as likely to say they had had sex as the boys with low-self esteem. But girls with high self-esteem were three times as likely to report being virgins as the girls with low self-esteem. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/23/health/psychology/23BEHA.html
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Depression? University of North Carolina research suggests that teenage romance may have a profound influence on depression later. By Alison McCook NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - New research suggests that teenage romance may have a profound influence on depression later in adolescence. In a small sample of eleventh grade girls, the risk of becoming depressed later in adolescence was related to the quality of the girls' first romantic relationship, reported researchers from the University of North Carolina at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence in New Orleans. The results are based on a survey of 54 girls that focused on their current levels of depression, their age during their first romantic relationship, and the amount of intimacy and companionship they felt from that relationship. The authors found that girls who felt they had a less than ideal relationship based on measures of intimacy and companionship were more likely than others to be depressed during their late adolescence. Researchers have only begun to examine romantic relationships in adolescence, lead author Suzanne Levy told Reuter Health, so there is much to be learned. However, this study shows that the type of relationship may have a bigger impact than the age at which a girl begins dating. "Maybe it's more the experience during that first relationship, not just the age," she said. Other aspects of the dating experience that are important to examine, Levy added, are how much time the couple spends alone versus in a group, whether they venture out on dates or only see each other in school, and how aware parents are of the relationship. Interestingly, Levy found that, contrary to what she expected, parental support of early relationships did not help teens ward off later depression. However, Levy cautioned that these results do not mean that there is nothing parents can do. The authors measured parental support of dating relationships by asking adolescents if their parents supported dating now, and not during those first relationships; therefore, Levy explained, this study could not show if parental support had changed over the years. And 54 people may not be a large enough group to detect the positive effects parents can have on relationships. "I think there's lots of ways parents can help--we're just not sure of those ways yet," Levy said. In another presentation at the same conference, researchers showed that teens who are more preoccupied with romantic thoughts--both in early and middle adolescence--are more likely to be depressed and exhibit aggressive behaviors like acting out. "Perhaps these romantically preoccupied teens exhibit a ruminative style of coping, which then in turn leads to symptoms of psychopathology, whereas their non-preoccupied peers tend to distract themselves more from romantic thoughts," lead author Laura Keys of the University of Vermont speculated in an interview with Reuter Health. The study is based on questionnaires given to 81 seventh graders and 74 tenth graders. The researchers found that both boys and girls with relatively more romantic thoughts were more likely to be depressed or act out, but girls reported more romantic thoughts than boys. In addition, younger children with many romantic thoughts were more likely than romantically preoccupied tenth graders to act out, exhibiting what are known as externalizing behaviors, or have symptoms of depression. "In other words, romantic preoccupation is linked to depressive symptoms and externalizing behaviors in teens, but even more so for young adolescents," Keys explained. The lead authors of both studies cautioned that their results only establish links between factors, and do not show that one factor causes the other. For example, Levy said that the teens in her study who are depressed are perhaps more likely to look back on their previous relationships and rate the experience as less intimate than it really was. Keys added that teens who already have behavioral problems or symptoms of depression may be more likely to seek out romantic experiences and think about them more. Both agreed that more research is needed into adolescent relationships, but that interest in the topic appears to be growing. "It looks like researchers are starting to realize what an important role romance plays in the teenage years," Keys said Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020416/hl_nm/depression_love_1&printer=1
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Reproduce on Demand, Part 3 of 3
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links April 11, 2002 What he discovered was a way to predict the outcome of virtually any kind of strategic interaction. Today, the idea of a "Nash equilibrium" is a central concept in game theory. Mr. Nash's contribution was far more important than the somewhat contrived analysis about whether or not to approach the most beautiful girl in the bar. By HAL R. VARIAN New York TimesSo what did John Nash actually do? Viewers of the Oscar-winning film "A Beautiful Mind" might come away thinking he devised a new strategy to pick up girls. Mr. Nash's contribution was far more important than the somewhat contrived analysis about whether or not to approach the most beautiful girl in the bar. What he discovered was a way to predict the outcome of virtually any kind of strategic interaction. Today, the idea of a "Nash equilibrium" is a central concept in game theory. Modern game theory was developed by the great mathematician John von Neumann in the mid-1940's. His goal was to understand the general logic of strategic interaction, from military battles to price wars. Von Neumann, working with the economist Oscar Morgenstern, established a general way to represent games mathematically and offered a systematic treatment of games in which the players' interests were diametrically opposed. Games of this sort zero-sum games are common in sporting events and parlor games. But most games of interest to economists are non-zero sum. When one person engages in voluntary trade with another, both are typically made better off. Although von Neumann and Morgenstern tried to analyze games of this sort, their analysis was not as satisfactory as that of the zero-sum games. Furthermore, the tools they used to analyze these two classes of games were completely different. Mr. Nash came up with a much better way to look at non-zero-sum games. His method also had the advantage that it was equivalent to the von Neumann-Morgenstern analysis if the game happened to be zero sum. What Mr. Nash recognized was that in any sort of strategic interaction, the best choice for any single player depends critically on his beliefs about what the other players might do. Mr. Nash proposed that we look for outcomes where each player is making an optimal choice, given the choices the other players are making. This is what is now known as a Nash equilibrium. At a Nash equilibrium, it is reasonable for each player to believe that all other players are playing optimally since these beliefs are actually confirmed by the choices each player makes. It's a nice theory. But is it true? Does it describe actual behavior in actual games? Well, no. Game theory is an idealization: it analyzes how "fully rational" players should play if they all know they are playing against other fully rational players. That assumption of "full rationality" is the problem with game theory. In real life, most people even economists are not fully rational. Consider a simple example: several players are each asked to pick a number ranging from zero to 100. The player who comes closest to the number that is half the average of what everyone else says wins a prize. Before you read further, think about what number you would choose. Now consider the game theorist's analysis. If everyone is equally rational, everyone should pick the same number. But there is only one number that is equal to half of itself zero. This analysis is logical, but it isn't a good description of how real people behave when they play this game: almost no one chooses zero. But it's not as if the Nash equilibrium never works. Sometimes it works quite well. Two economists, Jacob Goeree and Charles Holt, recently published a clever article, "Ten Little Treasures of Game Theory and Ten Intuitive Contradictions," that exhibits a number of games in which the Nash theory works well, and then show that what should be an inconsequential change to the payoffs can result in a large change in behavior. In their simplest example, two players, whom we will call Jacob and Charles, independently and simultaneously choose an amount from 180 cents to 300 cents. Both players are paid the lower of the two amounts, and some amount R (greater than 1) is transferred from the player who chooses the larger amount to the player who chooses the smaller one. If they both pick the same number, they both are paid that amount, but no transfer is made. So if Jacob chooses 200 and Charles chooses 220, the payoff to Jacob is 200+R and the payoff to Charles is 200-R. If Jacob thinks Charles will say 200, then Jacob will want to announce 199. But if Charles thinks Jacob will announce 199, then Charles should say 198. And so on. The only consistent pair of beliefs is when each thinks the other will say 180. When Mr. Goeree and Mr. Holt performed this experiment with R=180, nearly 80 percent of the subjects picked 180, which is the Nash prediction. When they set R=5, and reran the experiment (with different subjects), however, the outcomes were completely reversed, with nearly 80 percent choosing 300. Findings of this sort have stimulated the development of "behavioral game theory," which tries to formulate a theory of how to understand games involving real people, rather than those mythical "fully rational" people. Consider, for example, the "guess half the average" game described earlier. Oscar, a simpleminded player, might think that any number between zero and 100 is equally likely, so he would guess 50. Emmy, who is more sophisticated, might figure that if lots of people were like Oscar and say 50, then she should say 25. Tony, who is yet more sophisticated, figures that if lots of people think like Emmy, then he should say 12 or 13. And so on. An economist named Rosmarie Nagel ran a game like this a few years ago and found that the choices do tend to cluster around 50, 25 and 12. In fact, the winning choice turned out to be close to 13, a number chosen by about 30 percent of the players. In this game the best strategy wasn't the Nash equilibrium, but it wasn't so far away from it either. Back to picking up girls. In the movie, the fictional John Nash described a strategy for his male drinking buddies, but didn't look at the game from the woman's perspective, a mistake no game theorist would ever make. A female economist I know once told me that when men tried to pick her up, the first question she asked was: "Are you a turkey?" She usually got one of three answers: "Yes," "No," and "Gobble-gobble." She said the last group was the most interesting by far. Go figure. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/business/11SCEN.html
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Study indicates that circumcision of men at high risk of penile HPV infection may reduce the overall risk of cervical cancer among their female partners by 50% or more. NEW YORK (Reuter Health) - A man who is circumcised appears to have less risk for contracting penile human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, which may lead to a reduced risk of cervical cancer for his female partner. HPV can cause genital warts in men and women, and has been linked to cancers of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus and penis, according to the study, which is published in the April 11th issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites). To investigate whether male circumcision might cut the risk of HPV in both men and women, Dr. Xavier Castellsague of the Hospitalet de Llobregat in Barcelona, Spain, and an international team of researchers evaluated the prevalence of HPV infection in more than 1,900 couples living in five different countries. Penile HPV was detected in 166 (20%) of the 847 uncircumcised men and in 16 (6%) of the 292 circumcised men, the authors report. After adjusting for age of first intercourse and lifetime number of sexual partners, among other factors, the investigators found that being circumcised reduced a man's risk of HPV infection by 63%. In addition, the authors report that monogamous women whose male partners had six or more sexual partners and were circumcised had a 58% reduction in their risk for cervical cancer. "The current study indicates that circumcision of men at high risk of penile HPV infection may reduce the overall risk of cervical cancer among their female partners by 50% or more," Dr. Hans-Olov Adami of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, write in an accompanying editorial. "If we assume that 25% of men around the world are circumcised, then the general adoption of circumcision might lead to a further reduction in the incidence of cancer of the cervix of 23% to 43%," they add. Adami and Trichopoulos point out that regular use of condoms may also prevent the sexual transmission of HPV and therefore prevent cervical cancer. "The use of condoms can, at least in theory, be targeted to men involved in high-risk sexual behavior," they write. Adami and Trichopoulos conclude that "whether interventions intended to increase the rate of circumcision are a realistic and quantitatively important addition to other strategies to combat cancer of the cervix remains to be documented." SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine 2002;346:1105-1112, 1160- Source: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020410/hl_nm/cancer_circumcision_1 April 11, 2002Male Circumcision Is Found to Reduce Cervical Cancer By DENISE GRADY New York TimesCircumcising men may significantly reduce the rate of cervical cancer in women by decreasing the spread of a sexually transmitted virus that causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer, researchers are reporting. A study being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine provides important scientific evidence for a link that scientists have long suspected. The new findings are based on 1,913 couples in five countries, including 977 couples in which the woman had cervical cancer and 936 couples without cancer. Researchers found that circumcision made a difference if the man had had six or more sex partners, which made him more likely to have contracted the cancer-causing human papilloma virus, or H.P.V. In those couples, the risk of cervical cancer was more than double if the man was not circumcised. The findings may not apply to couples in which the man has had fewer than six sex partners, because he is less likely to be carrying H.P.V. The researchers say uncircumcised men may be more likely than others to contract H.P.V. because the lining of the foreskin is especially vulnerable to the virus. Their study, which used DNA testing to look for penile H.P.V. infection in the men, found that uncircumcised men were about three times as likely as circumcised men to be infected. Of the 1,913 men in the study, 1,215 had had six or more partners and 1,543 were not circumcised. The researchers, led by Dr. Xavier Castellsague of the Llobregat Hospital in Barcelona, used data from seven studies in Brazil, Spain, Thailand, Colombia and the Philippines. H.P.V. is common, and 20 million Americans are thought to be infected. The virus has about 100 strains, including 30 that are sexually transmitted. Not all the strains can cause cervical cancer, and even when women contract a strain that does, most eliminate the virus from their bodies without developing cancer. Some doctors recommend condoms to prevent H.P.V., but others say they may not work as well for this virus as they do for other infections. In the United States, there are about 13,000 cases of cervical cancer a year and 4,100 deaths. Doctors often say it is a disease that no woman should die of. It is easily cured if detected early by a Pap test, and the death rate in North America has declined in the past decade. Worldwide, there are about 466,000 cases of cervical cancer a year. Each year, 231,000 women die of the disease, mostly in developing countries, and in some of those countries the death rate is not declining. An editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine noted that worldwide, 25 percent of all men are circumcised. It also said that in the United States in the 1970's about 80 percent of all newborn boys were circumcised, but that the rate had dropped since then because medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics said the procedure did not have enough benefits to recommend its routine use. Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, a professor of cancer prevention and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and a coauthor of the editorial, said the new study provided a medical argument for circumcision. Dr. Trichopoulos said that on the strength of the study, if he had a newborn son he would have him circumcised. If the global circumcision rate could be increased to about 75 percent, he said, it could lead to a 23 percent to 43 percent drop in the incidence of cervical cancer. But Dr. Trichopoulos said he doubted that such a rate would ever be reached, because of costs and other factors. "This is an area where you have political and religious sensitivities," he said. Dr. Carol L. Brown, a gynecologic oncologist and expert on cervical cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, said that a study like the one being reported today should be done in this country before doctors considered making recommendations about circumcision in the United States. "This data is good, but we have different populations," Dr. Brown said, adding that H.P.V. strains may differ, that circumcision rates are relatively high and that it cannot be assumed that the findings would be the same in the United States. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/health/11MALE.html
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links April 10, 2002 New York Times Recipe: Par-Cooked Lobsters for Butter-Poached Lobster Butter poaching a lobster follows a critically important first step: par-cooking, which lets the chef remove the lobster from its shell. It is impossible to extract raw lobster from its carapace, Mr. Keller explained, but a very brief blanching, enough to kill the lobster without actually cooking it, frees the flesh. Time: 30 minutes 3 1 1/2- to 2-pound live lobsters 1. Place lobsters in a container with tight-fitting lid. Cover with cold water, remove lobsters and measure water. Pour water into another large pot, and add 1 tablespoon vinegar for every quart of water. Boil. 2. Return lobsters to lidded container. Pour the hot water over them, cover and steep 2 minutes for 1 1/2-pound lobsters, 3 minutes for 2-pound lobsters. Remove lobsters. Reserve water in container. 3. Pull off lobster claws and knuckles, and return to hot water for 5 minutes. Twist off tails, and discard bodies. 4. Snip through bottom sides of tail shells with shears. Remove meat. Discard shells. Cut tail meat in half lengthwise. Remove vein running through top of meat. Place meat on a platter lined with paper towel, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. 5. Remove claws from hot water. Twist off knuckles, and reserve. Hold claw, pull down on small pincer and pull it off. Use heavy shears to snip shell at knuckle end enough to open it; remove meat in one piece. Add to platter with tail meat. 6. Use shears to snip through the knuckle shell, pry open and remove meat. Add to the platter. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/10/dining/102LREX.html
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links April 10, 2002A Chef Invents a Lobster Dish - Butter-Poached Lobster, and Pots Start Boiling All Over "I wanted to find a way to cook lobster gently, so it wouldn't be tough," Mr. Keller said. "I don't remember seeing it done anywhere else, and this made perfect sense to me. Who in America hasn't had lobster with melted butter?" By FLORENCE FABRICANT New York TimesIN the fall of 1999, after five years serving an inventive Butter-Poached lobster dish at the French Laundry, his celebrated restaurant in Yountville, Calif., the chef Thomas Keller published the recipe. "Butter-Poached lobster," he wrote at the beginning of his instructions in "The French Laundry Cookbook," "is extraordinarily versatile." No kidding. The recipe hit bookstores in 1999, and since then Butter-Poached lobster has spread from its original home in the Napa Valley to restaurants across the country and as far afield as Vancouver, the Bahamas and London, sometimes in variations that Mr. Keller would scarcely recognize. Now, threatening to become as commonplace as a tuna tartare appetizer or a molten chocolate cake dessert, the dish is achieving status as a main course, like a culinary Birkin bag. But unlike the tartare and the cake, whose origins have been muddied by the currents of memory and evolution, the source of today's Butter-Poached lobster is quite clear: Mr. Keller. "I wanted to find a way to cook lobster gently, so it wouldn't be tough," Mr. Keller said. "I don't remember seeing it done anywhere else, and this made perfect sense to me. Who in America hasn't had lobster with melted butter?" Most chefs who have put Butter-Poached lobster on their menus, including Rick Moonen of Oceana in Manhattan and Michael Kramer of McCrady's in Charleston, S.C., readily credit Mr. Keller with creating the dish. "I saw butter poaching in Thomas Keller's book," said Gerry Hayden, the executive chef at Aureole in Manhattan, where he serves what he calls butter-braised lobster with either truffle coulis or a coconut curry broth. Mr. Hayden acknowledges that the technique he uses is essentially the same one Mr. Keller described in his book. Butter poaching a lobster follows a critically important first step: par-cooking, which lets the chef remove the lobster from its shell. It is impossible to extract raw lobster from its carapace, Mr. Keller explained, but a very brief blanching, enough to kill the lobster without actually cooking it, frees the flesh. "Most of the time they tell you to boil a lobster so many minutes depending on the size," he said. "But it can toughen, and even if it doesn't, you can forget about trying to reheat the meat without it getting rubbery." Mr. Keller pours boiling water with a little vinegar over his lobsters. Other chefs blanch them in boiling water for just a minute or two. Treated this way, lobster meat can be kept refrigerated for as long as several hours, until just before serving time. The final cooking takes minutes. The process, Mr. Keller wrote in the cookbook, "loads the flavor of butter into the meat and cooks it so slowly and gently that the flesh remains exquisitely tender so tender some people think it's not completely cooked." The lobster emerges glistening and lush-textured from its butter bath, which is not simply melted butter but what chefs call a beurre montι. Before the lobster is put in its pot, butter is whisked bit by bit into a few tablespoons of simmering water or other liquid like wine or stock, so its milk solids do not separate as they would if the butter were melted on its own. The butter can be infused with spices and other seasonings. For three one-and-a-half-pound lobsters, Mr. Keller uses nearly a pound of butter. The lobster meat is allowed to cook slowly in it for five to six minutes. For his dish at the French Laundry, Mr. Keller combines the cooked lobster with tender leeks, a sheet of contrastingly crisp potato and a tart-sweet deep-ruby beet glaze. "I've always liked pairing lobster with leeks and beets, but now think I've found the perfect interpretation," he said. But that hasn't stopped him from coming up with seasonal variations, like the one shown in the inset photograph, with carrot emulsion and spring pea shoots. Mr. Moonen of Oceana also changes his version of the dish with the seasons, and is about to introduce Butter-Poached lobster with asparagus flan, morels, pea shoots and black-truffle vinaigrette on his spring menu. Mr. Kramer, of McCrady's in Charleston, features Butter-Poached lobster with foie gras, poached pear and a black truffle-riesling sauce. The dish is available with sweet white corn and leek ragout, petits lardons and a lobster bisque at La Folie in San Francisco. Brandon Wolff, the executive chef at Dream Dance, a casino restaurant in Milwaukee, combines his herb-Butter-Poached lobster with saffron risotto and beurre blanc. In Reno, Nev., high rollers dining at the White Orchid in the Peppermill Hotel Casino can indulge in sweet Butter-Poached lobster with truffled potato, spring vegetable medley and chive butter. If you start with Butter-Poached lobster, as Mr. Keller noted, almost anything goes. Still, he probably never imagined Butter-Poached lobster with Kobe beef, seared foie gras and maitake mushroom egg foo yong, all in a balsamic-soya reduction, which is what the dish has morphed into at the Woodlands Resort and Inn in Summerville, S.C. Not every chef attributes the inspiration for butter poaching lobster to Mr. Keller. Indeed, William Morris, the executive chef at the new Lure in Manhattan, said he stole the idea from Mr. Moonen, giving the recipe a second-generation pedigree, since Mr. Moonen readily acknowledges Mr. Keller as his muse. David Walzog, who serves Butter-Poached Maine lobster with parsley couscous and a brandy lobster sauce at the Monkey Bar in Manhattan, said the idea came from his mentor, Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar and Grill, who he said taught him to use a butter bath for cooking vegetables. At Le Papillon in San Jose, Calif., the executive chef, Scott Cooper, said he dreamed up Butter-Poached lobster served atop roasted veal loin in a chive jus because he wanted a dish to pair with red wine. He said that the butter poaching was his variation on olive oil poaching, which he learned before he went to Le Papillon. Brent Pollock, the executive chef at Azie in San Francisco, said he got the idea from Donnie Masterton, the previous chef there, who he said learned it at Tavern on the Green in New York when Patrick Clark, who died in 1998, was the executive chef. Instead of being poached, the shelled lobster is drenched with butter and roasted in a slow oven for about five minutes. Roland Passot, the executive chef at La Folie in San Francisco, said he thought he remembered chefs butter poaching lobster in France, and he noted that the technique is similar to the one used to make confit: slow poaching in fat. "It's a much better technique than the old way of doing lobster," he said. Gordon Ramsay, the Michelin three-star chef in London, who also serves Butter-Poached lobster at Claridge's, offered the same confit comparison. He said his source was Michel Bras, in France. But a certain amount of Kellerization still applies to his version, Mr. Ramsay acknowledged, because he exchanged chefs with Mr. Keller's restaurant a few years ago. Taking credit for originating a recipe or a dish is risky. Save for a few exceptions the invention of lobster Newburg in the late 1800's at Delmonico's restaurant in New York, for example it is rare to find something truly new under the heat lamp. People have concocted, cooked and combined ingredients without recording the results ever since the first takeout menu for haunch of saber-toothed tiger was slipped into the cave. No one should assume, for example, that the fennel sorbet or truffle ice cream on a cutting-edge tasting menu is a chef's brilliant new creation. As Elizabeth David, the English food writer, wrote in her book "Harvest of the Cold Months: The Social History of Ice and Ices" (Viking, 1994), both dishes were made in 18th-century France. Indeed, while Mr. Keller may have come up with his butter poaching technique independently, his preparatory step has been around for years. A number of lobster recipes in the 1984 edition of Larousse Gastronomique, for example, call for preliminary blanching. It's also the way Jean-Georges Vongerichten has always started the lobster that is prepared with Thai herbs at Vong. None of that should bother Mr. Keller. After all, the potatoes he serves with his Butter-Poached lobster at the French Laundry have a pedigree, too. They were created at Maxim's in Paris, which opened in 1893 Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/10/dining/10LOBS.html
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links
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For more site articles, see also
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Links For years, women have been told they could wait until 40 or later to
have babies. But a new book argues that's way too late Listen to a successful woman discuss her failure to bear a child, and the grief comes in layers of bitterness and regret. This was supposed to be the easy part, right? Not like getting into Harvard. Not like making partner. The baby was to be Mother Nature's gift. Anyone can do it; high school dropouts stroll through the mall with their babies in a Snugli. What can be so hard, especially for a Mistress of the Universe, with modern medical science devoted to resetting the biological clock? "I remember sitting in the clinic waiting room," recalls a woman who ran the infertility marathon, "and a woman--she was in her mid-40s and had tried everything to get pregnant--told me that one of the doctors had glanced at her chart and said, 'What are you doing here? You are wasting your time.' It was so cruel. She was holding out for that one last glimpse of hope. How horrible was it to shoot that hope down?" The manner was cold, but the message was clear--and devastating. "Those women who are at the top of their game could have had it all, children and career, if they wanted it," suggests Pamela Madsen, executive director of the American Infertility Association (A.I.A.). "The problem was, nobody told them the truth about their bodies." And the truth is that even the very best fertility experts have found that the hands of the clock will not be moved. Baby specialists can do a lot to help a 29-year-old whose tubes are blocked or a 32-year-old whose husband has a low sperm count. But for all the headlines about 45-year-old actresses giving birth, the fact is that "there's no promising therapy for age-related infertility," says Dr. Michael Soules, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and past president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). "There's certainly nothing on the horizon." This means, argues economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett in her new book, Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children (Talk Miramax Books), that many ambitious young women who also hope to have kids are heading down a bad piece of road if they think they can spend a decade establishing their careers and wait until 35 or beyond to establish their families. Even as more couples than ever seek infertility treatment--the number of procedures performed jumped 27% between 1996 and 1998--doctors are learning that the most effective treatment may be prevention, which in this case means knowledge. "But the fact that the biological clock is real is unwelcome news to my 24-year-old daughter," Hewlett observes, "and she's pretty typical." Women have been debating for a generation how best to balance work and home life, but somehow each new chapter starts a new fight, and Hewlett's book is no exception. Back in 1989, when Felice Schwartz discussed in the Harvard Business Review how to create more flexibility for career women with children (she never used the phrase Mommy Track herself), her proposals were called "dangerous" and "retrofeminist" because they could give corporations an excuse to derail women's careers. Slow down to start a family, the skeptics warned, and you run the risk that you will never catch up. And so, argues Hewlett, many women embraced a "male model" of single-minded career focus, and the result is "an epidemic of childlessness" among professional women. She conducted a national survey of 1,647 "high-achieving women," including 1,168 who earn in the top 10% of income of their age group or hold degrees in law or medicine, and another 479 who are highly educated but are no longer in the work force. What she learned shocked her: she found that 42% of high-achieving women in corporate America (defined as companies with 5,000 or more employees) were still childless after age 40. That figure rose to 49% for women who earn $100,000 or more. Many other women were able to have only one child because they started their families too late. "They've been making a lot of money," says Dr. David Adamson, a leading fertility specialist at Stanford University, "but it won't buy back the time." Recent Census data support Hewlett's research: childlessness has doubled in the past 20 years, so that 1 in 5 women between ages 40 and 44 is childless. For women that age and younger with graduate and professional degrees, the figure is 47%. This group certainly includes women for whom having children was never a priority: for them, the opening of the work force offered many new opportunities, including the chance to define success in realms other than motherhood. But Hewlett argues that many other women did not actually choose to be childless. When she asked women to recall their intentions at the time they were finishing college, Hewlett found that only 14% said that they definitely did not want to have children. For most women Hewlett interviewed, childlessness was more like what one called a "creeping nonchoice." Time passes, work is relentless. The travel, the hours--relationships are hard to sustain. By the time a woman is married and settled enough in her career to think of starting a family, it is all too often too late. "They go to a doctor, take a blood test and are told the game is over before it even begins," says A.I.A.'s Madsen. "They are shocked, devastated and angry." Women generally know their fertility declines with age; they just don't realize how much and how fast. According to the Centers for Disease Control, once a woman celebrates her 42nd birthday, the chances of her having a baby using her own eggs, even with advanced medical help, are less than 10%. At age 40, half of her eggs are chromosomally abnormal; by 42, that figure is 90%. "I go through Kleenex in my office like it's going out of style," says reproductive endocrinologist Michael Slowey in Englewood, N.J. Hewlett and her allies say they are just trying to correct the record in the face of widespread false optimism. Her survey found that nearly 9 out of 10 young women were confident of their ability to get pregnant into their 40s. Last fall the A.I.A. conducted a fertility-awareness survey on the women's website iVillage.com. Out of the 12,524 respondents, only one answered all 15 questions correctly. Asked when fertility begins to decline, only 13% got it right (age 27); 39% thought it began to drop at 40. Asked how long couples should try to conceive on their own before seeking help, fully 42% answered 30 months. That is a dangerous combination: a couple that imagines fertility is no problem until age 40 and tries to get pregnant for 30 months before seeing a doctor is facing very long odds of ever becoming parents. In one sense, the confusion is understandable: it is only in the past 10 years that doctors themselves have discovered the limitations. "I remember being told by a number of doctors, 'Oh, you have plenty of time,' even when I was 38," says Claudia Morehead, 47, a California insurance lawyer who is finally pregnant, using donor eggs. Even among fertility specialists, "it was shocking to us that IVF didn't work so well after age 42," admits Dr. Sarah Berga, a reproductive endocrinologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "The early '90s, to my mind, was all about how shocked we were that we couldn't get past this barrier." But even as doctors began to try to get the word out, they ran into resistance of all kinds. One is simply how information is shared. Childlessness is a private sorrow; the miracle baby is an inevitable headline. "When you see these media stories hyping women in their late 40s having babies, it's with donor eggs," insists Stanford's Adamson, "but that is conveniently left out of the stories." The more aggressive infertility clinics have a financial incentive to hype the good news and bury the facts: a 45-year-old woman who has gone through seven cycles of IVF can easily spend $100,000 on treatment. But even at the best fertility clinics in the country, her chance of taking a baby home is in the single digits. In hopes of raising women's awareness, ASRM launched a modest $60,000 ad campaign last fall, with posters and brochures warning that factors like smoking, weight problems and sexually transmitted infections can all harm fertility. But the furor came with the fourth warning, a picture of a baby bottle shaped like an hourglass: "Advancing age decreases your ability to have children." The physicians viewed this as a public service, given the evidence of widespread confusion about the facts, but the group has come under fire for scaring women with an oversimplified message on a complex subject. "The implication is, 'I have to hurry up and have kids now or give up on ever having them,'" says Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. "And that is not true for the vast majority of women." Gandy, 48, had her first child at 39. "It was a choice on my part, but in most ways it really wasn't. It's not like you can create out of whole cloth a partner you want to have a family with and the economic and emotional circumstances that allow you to be a good parent. So to put pressure on young women to hurry up and have kids when they don't have those other factors in place really does a disservice to them and to their kids." To emphasize a woman's age above all other factors can be just one more piece of misleading information, Gandy suggests. "There are two people involved [in babymaking], and yet we're putting all the responsibility on women and implying that women are being selfish if they don't choose to have children early." She shares the concern that women will hear the research and see the ads and end up feeling it is so hard to strike a balance that it's futile to even try. "There is an antifeminist agenda that says we should go back to the 1950s," says Caryl Rivers, a journalism professor at Boston University. "The subliminal message is, 'Don't get too educated; don't get too successful or too ambitious.'" Allison Rosen, a clinical psychologist in New York City who has made it her mission to make sure her female patients know the fertility odds, disagrees. "This is not a case of male doctors' wanting to keep women barefoot and pregnant," she says. "You lay out the facts, and any particular individual woman can then make her choices." Madsen of A.I.A. argues that the biological imperative is there whether women know it or not. "I cringe when feminists say giving women reproductive knowledge is pressuring them to have a child," she says. "That's simply not true. Reproductive freedom is not just the ability not to have a child through birth control. It's the ability to have one if and when you want one." You can trace the struggle between hope and biology back to Genesis, when Abraham and Sarah gave thanks for the miracle that brought them their son in old age. "She was the first infertile woman," notes Zev Rosenwaks, the director of New York Presbyterian Hospital's infertility program. "It was so improbable that an allegedly menopausal woman could have a baby that her firstborn was named Isaac, which means 'to laugh.'" The miracle stories have fed the hope ever since, but so does wishful thinking. "It's tremendously comforting for a 34- or 36-year-old professional woman to imagine that she has time on her side," says Hewlett, which can make for resistance to hearing the truth. This is the heart of Hewlett's crusade: that it is essential for women to plan where they want to be at 45 and work backward, armed with the knowledge that the window for having children is narrower than they have been led to believe and that once it begins to swing shut, science can do little to pry it open. And Hewlett argues as well that employers and policymakers need to do more to help families make the balancing act work. "The greatest choice facing modern women is to freely choose to have both, a job and a family, and be supported and admired for it, not be seen as some overweening yuppie." As it happens, Hewlett knows from personal experience. She says she didn't set out to write about how hard it is for professional women to be moms. She planned to do a book celebrating women turning 50 at the millennium and to look at what forces had shaped their lives. Then she discovered, in interview after interview with college deans and opera divas, a cross section of successful women in various fields, that none of them had children--and few of them had chosen to be childless. Many blamed themselves for working too hard and waiting too long--and waking up to the truth too late. "When I talked to these women," she recalls, "their sense of loss was palpable." Hewlett had spent most of her professional life writing and lecturing on the need for business and government to develop more family-friendly workplaces; she has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. And she has had children and lost them and fought to have more. As a young Barnard professor with a toddler at home, she lost twins six months into her pregnancy: If only, she thought, I had taken time off from work, taken it easier. A year and a half later, she writes, she was turned down for tenure by an appointments committee that believed, in the words of one member, that she had "allowed childbearing to dilute my focus." Hewlett was lucky: she went on to have three more children, including Emma, to whom she gave birth at 51 using her own egg and infertility treatments. Hewlett says she understands "baby hunger." At least she understands it for women. Men, she argues, have an unfair advantage. "Nowadays," she says, "the rule of thumb seems to be that the more successful the woman, the less likely it is she will find a husband or bear a child. For men, the reverse is true. I found that only one-quarter of high-achieving men end up without kids. Men generally find that if they are successful, everything else follows naturally." But that view of men doesn't quite do justice to the challenges they face as well. Men too are working harder than ever; at the very moment that society sends the message to be more involved as fathers, the economy makes it harder--and Hewlett's prescription that women need to think about having their children younger leaves more men as primary breadwinners. They would be fathers as far as biology goes, but they wouldn't get much chance to be parents. "A lot of my friends who are men and have had families are now divorced," Stanford's Adamson admits. "When you ask them what happened, the vast majority will say, 'Well, I was never home. I was working all the time. I didn't pay enough attention to my family. I wish I had, but it's too late now.'" Hewlett still insists that men don't face the same "cruel choices" that women confront. "Men who find that they have no relationship with their adult kids at least have a second chance as grandfathers," she argues. "For women, childlessness represents a rolling loss into the future. It means having no children and no grandchildren." While her earlier books are full of policy prescriptions, this one is more personal. She salts the book with cautionary tales: women who were too threatening to the men they dated, too successful and preoccupied, too "predatory" to suit men who were looking for "nurturers." The voices are authentic but selective; taken together, it is easy to read certain passages and think she is calling for a retreat to home and hearth, where motherhood comes before every other role. Hewlett replies that she is simply trying to help women make wise choices based on good information. She is not proposing a return to the '50s, she says, or suggesting that women should head off to college to get their MRS. and then try to have children soon after graduation. "Late 20s is probably more realistic, because men are not ready to commit earlier than that. And the 20s still needs to be a decade of great personal growth." She recommends that women get their degrees, work hard at their first jobs--but then be prepared to plateau for a while and redirect their energy into their personal lives, with the intention of catching up professionally later. "You will make some compromises in your career. But you will catch up, reinvent yourself, when the time is right." The problem is that Hewlett's own research argues otherwise: in her book all of the examples of successful women who also have families gave birth in their 20s. These women may escape the fate of would-be mothers who waited too long, but they encounter a whole different set of obstacles when it comes to balancing work and family. Biology may be unforgiving, but so is corporate culture: those who voluntarily leave their career to raise children often find that the way back in is extremely difficult. Many in her survey said they felt forced out by inflexible bosses; two-thirds say they wish they could return to the work force. Much would have to change in the typical workplace for parents to be able to downshift temporarily and then resume their pace as their children grew older. Hewlett hopes that the war for talent will inspire corporations to adopt more family-friendly policies in order to attract and maintain the most talented parents, whether male or female. Many of her policy recommendations, however, are unlikely to be enacted anytime soon: mandatory paid parental leave; official "career breaks" like the generous policy at IBM that grants workers up to three years' leave with the guarantee of return to the same or a similar job; a new Fair Labor Standards Act that would discourage 80-hour workweeks by making all but the very top executives eligible for overtime pay. Hewlett calls herself a feminist, but she has often crossed swords with feminists who, she charges, are so concerned with reproductive choice that they neglect the needs of women who choose to be mothers. In the history of the family, she notes, it is a very recent development for women to have control over childbearing, thanks to better health care and birth control. But there's an ironic twist now. "In just 30 years, we've gone from fearing our fertility to squandering it--and very unwittingly." The decision of whether to have a child will always be one of the most important anyone makes; the challenge is not allowing time and biology to make it for them. Reported by Janice M. Horowitz, Julie Rawe and Sora Song/New York Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,227528,00.html
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For more site articles, see also Index 1 - Index 2 - Index 4 - Index 5 and Links April 4, 2002 Why now may be the end of Israel Bombers gloat in Gaza as they see goal within reach: No more Israel A leadership unyielding, determined and increasingly confident of achieving their goal, the eradication of Israel as a Jewish state. By JOEL BRINKLEY New York TimesGAZA, April 3 The leaders of Hamas, the militant Islamic movement responsible for the most deadly suicide attacks in Israel in the last week, are pleased and satisfied just now. "Our spirit is high, our mood is good," said Ismail Abu Shanab, one of the organization's leaders. If Israel attacks Gaza, as it has areas of the West Bank, he and the other leaders would likely be principal targets. For now, they live and operate here openly. By their estimation, the organization's two recent attacks the one at a Seder on Passover night in a Netanya hotel that killed 25 people, and the other in a Haifa cafe that killed 15 were the most successful they have ever made. That is true partly, Mr. Shanab said, because Hamas is now using weapons-grade explosives instead of home made bombs manufactured using fertilizer, a fact the Israelis have confirmed. "Forty were killed and 200 injured in just two operations," another of the leaders, Mahmoud al-Zahar, said with a smile. What's more, Hamas believes that the Palestinian Authority has given up on negotiating with Israel, negotiations that Hamas virulently opposed. That has led to a budding alliance between Hamas and Fatah, the organization headed by Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, despite years of bitter and sometimes violent feuding. Mr. Arafat "is Palestinian and I am Palestinian," said Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas. "We have the same problem now. Israel is our enemy." Sammy Abu Samhadanah, a Fatah commander here, said Hamas was carrying out attacks "because they did not want a peace agreement. "But now," he added, "we have a common enemy." Hamas, the second most popular Palestinian movement, behind Fatah, is directed by a "steering committee," as Dr. Zahar put it, with five principal members. Interviews with four of them a cleric, an engineer and two medical doctors showed a leadership unyielding, determined and increasingly confident of achieving their goal, the eradication of Israel as a Jewish state. They are almost welcoming of the Israeli attacks in the West Bank because they believe that the military campaign will generate more recruits for Hamas. Already, the leaders say, they have more than enough recruits for suicide attacks. The political leaders, as they call themselves, are obviously prosperous and live in large, comfortable homes here in Gaza City with big families. The exception is Sheik Yassin, who uses a wheelchair and lives in a compound in the slums of the city with guards, assistants and office workers. Dr. Zahar, a surgeon, has a table tennis set in his vast living room, for his seven children. All of them offer their opinions in calm, cheerful tones suggesting that they view their positions as unremarkable. The leaders insist that they are not involved in directing specific attacks. But they say they do decide when their followers should attack and when they should back off. Last fall, just after Sept. 11, the steering committee decided that "our resistance in Israel might be confused with what was happened in the U.S.," said Mr. Abu Shanab, the engineer. So the suicide bombing and other attacks were stopped. "It lasted three weeks," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the fourth leader. But then after a particularly bloody day in Gaza during which Israelis killed several Palestinians, Dr. Rantisi added, the attacks resumed. On Oct. 3, gunmen burst into an Israeli settlement in Gaza, Alei Sinai, where they shot and killed a young couple and wounded 15 others. Hamas took responsibility. Dr. Rantisi, who appears in public more often than any of the others, said that, to generate attacks, he makes public statements that are heard by his followers, as he did recently when he said in a television interview: "The gates of resistance are open totally." Those statements are heard by Hamas's military wing, he says, "and they listen because we are the political leaders." Some analysts here suggest that the leaders' roles are actually more direct. During the 45-minute interview in Sheik Yassin's compound, for example, aides twice brought him urgent news about developments in Ramallah, and he issued clear, direct orders. The goals of Hamas are straightforward. As Sheik Yassin put it, "our equation does not focus on a cease-fire; our equation focuses on an end to the occupation." By that he means an end to the Jewish occupation of historical Palestine. Hamas wants Israeli withdrawal from all of the West Bank and Gaza, the dismantling of all Israeli settlements and full right of return for the four million Palestinians who live in other states. After that, the Jews could remain, living "in an Islamic state with Islamic law," Dr. Zahar said. "From our ideological point of view, it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine." Mr. Shenab insisted that he was not joking when he said, "There are a lot of open areas in the United States that could absorb the Jews." The Hamas leaders are clearly enamored of the suicide attacks carried out by their followers. "It is the most effective strategy for us," said Dr. Rantisi. "For us it is the same as their F-16," the attack fighters used by the Israeli military. For them, the crowning achievement so far was the attack on Passover eve. "That was a great success," said Mr. Shenab. "We don't have an army, but we showed that one person can do more than an army and in the middle of a big alert by the Israelis." That night, the Israeli police and the military were on full alert to stop suicide bombers. "That showed that if we suffer, our enemy suffers more," he added. Sheik Yassin said: "The Palestinian people are not the same as they were in 1967," when Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza, "or during the first intifada," from 1987 to 1991. "At that time nobody knew how to make explosives. "But now," he added, "everybody knows, and Israel will never be stable again." On the night of the Passover attack, Dr. Zahar released a statement saying it was intended in part to shut down the cease-fire negotiations then under way, directed by Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, the American special envoy. In the interview today, Dr. Zahar explained, "the Zinni mission was bad for us" because, under the proposed terms of the cease-fire, groups like Hamas would be disarmed and their leaders arrested. "Besides," Dr. Rantisi said, "we in Hamas believe peace talks will do no good. We do not believe we can live with the enemy." The budding alliance with Mr. Arafat's Fatah faction does not mean that Hamas and Fatah will carry out attacks together, just that they will not interfere with each other. In the past, Fatah security officials have occasionally arrested Hamas members at the behest of the Israeli government; Dr. Zahar points to bullet holes in his living room ceiling that were left following one assault by Fatah forces. "But now," said Mr. Abu Samhadanah, the Fatah commander, "we are not going to arrest them." Mr. Shanab said: "We disagree with Fatah on the legitimate right of return of our refugees and many other things. "But for now, we are going to postpone those problems." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/international/middleeast/04HAMA.html
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