Health Tips

CONSUMER GUIDE TO DRUGS

People past their 50th birthday take an average of eight different prescribed drugs in one year, researchers say. More than a quarter of patients past 65 are prescribed one or more drugs. All those medicines may not mix well, researchers caution. Some mixes, in fact, may cause an adverse reaction. As people age, some drugs become ineffective or more toxic. Agents in commonly prescribed drugs may cause daytime drowsiness, mental confusion, loss of coordination and other potentially troublesome side effects. And even vitamin and mineral supplements may counteract or even react dangerously with prescribed medications, said Dr. Simeon Margolis, editor of The Johns Hopkins Consumer Guide to Drugs. Consumers need to educate themselves about which drugs do not mix with grapefruit juice, which herbal drugs do not go well with prescription drugs and which prescription drugs present a health-threatening combination. The book offers information on more than 2,300 brand-name and 700 generic prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The focus is on medicines used to treat the 100 most common conditions affecting people over 50: cancer, blood disorders, dental and oral disorders and diseases of the digestive system, ears, nose and throat, eyes, heart and lungs, said Margolis, professor of medicine and biological chemistry at Johns Hopkins.

ROBOT'S WAY TO REHABILITATION

A 30-inch robot is adding a new dimension to stroke rehabilitation. The robot, named MIT-Manus, exercises patients' limbs, as a physical or occupational therapist would, researchers said at the American Stroke Association's 27th International Stroke Conference in San Antonio. In the study, stroke survivors with limited use of one arm performed robot-directed movement exercises. They regained some ability to lift their arm up to give years after the stroke, said lead author Susan Fasoli of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The robot could be ideal for home therapy because it can be programmed remotely by hooking it up to a phone line," she said. The research suggests that robot-assisted sensorimotor therapy could help survivors recover movement even years after the stroke. The traditional view has been that most recovery will happen within the first six months, so physical and occupational therapy is concentrated during this time, Fasoli said.

CHILDHOOD STROKE DEATHS DECLINE

A study shows a decline in the number of children who die from stroke. But black children still have a higher death rate than do other youngsters, researchers found. Fewer adults are dying from stroke, as well, scientists said. The reasons may be related to more people controlling known risk factors such as hypertension and smoking. But these factors do enter the picture when it comes to children. "Childhood stroke deaths are poorly understood," said lead author Dr. Heather Fullerton of the University of California, San Francisco. "You can't turn to the risk factors important for strokes in adults, such as hypertension, a poor diet or diabetes, and apply them to kids." Only a few small studies have examined childhood stroke deaths, which are far less common than adult stroke mortalities, Fullerton said. Known risk factors for childhood strokes caused by bleeding include brain tumors or vascular malformations, hemophilia, cancer and sickle cell disease. Risk factors that contribute to childhood strokes caused by blockages include meningitis, encephalitis, congenital heart disease and certain blood clotting disorders. The new study showed stroke deaths among children declined by 58 percent between 1979 and 1998. Black children were twice as likely to die from strokes caused by intracerebral bleeding as were other children. Further research is needed to find out why, Fullerton said.

CLONING ADULT CELLS

Scientists have shown that mature adult cells theoretically could be cloned, but the process is so inefficient as to make it impractical. Rudolf Jaenisch and team at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research say their findings shed light on the question, do clones derived from adult cells, like Dolly the sheep, develop from a fully mature adult cell or from rare stem cells found in adult tissues? The researchers showed for the first time that the adult cells can form clones, but the process is so inefficient, it is more likely that elusive stem cells, which exist in tiny numbers along with the mature adult cells, are actually the ones to form clones, Jaenisch said. "This finding tells us something about the nature of the genome of adult cells; these cells are ... difficult to clone. This is important to know, if adult cells are going to be cloned for personalized cell therapy," Jaenisch said. Therapeutic cloning involves removing the nucleus, the genetic command center, of an egg and replacing it with the nucleus from an adult donor cell. Ideally, the egg resets the developmental clock of the nucleus back to a state compatible with early embryonic growth. The cells growing in culture give rise to embryonic stem cells that genetically match the donor and have the potential to become any tissue in the body. In theory, these ES cells may be used to treat diseases, such as diabetes or spinal cord injury, without the complications of organ rejection, researchers said in an online publication of the journal Nature.

(EDITORS: For more information about DRUGS, call 203-570-8253; about ROBOT'S, call 210-582-7159; about STROKE, call 210-582-7159; about ADULT, call 617-258-9183.)