IN BRIEF (Page 19)

Drinkers' risk of stroke

A large study in China suggests heavy alcohol consumption may increase the risk of stroke in men and the researchers recommend heavy drinkers be targeted for prevention strategies. Published in the latest issue of the Annals of Neurology, the study involved 64,338 men aged 40 and over who participated in a national hypertension survey in 1991, when none of them had ever suffered from stroke.

Loneliness bad for health

Loneliness is linked with mental health and physical deterioration, according to a new study published Sunday.

While the toll of loneliness may be mild and unremarkable in early life, it accumulates with time, said the study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago. To test this idea, the scientists studied a group of college-age individuals and continued an annual study of a group of people who joined when they were between 50 and 68 years old.

When to spit the dummy

Toddlers who have reached the age of 2 should be weaned off their pacifiers, according to an article published in the Hamburg-based magazine, Junge Familie.

Continuing to use the pacifier can lead to problems with the child's teeth or speech. Frequent breathing through the mouth can also lead to ear infections. Pacifiers can also increase the rate of tooth decay as sucking dries out the inside of the mouth, reducing the saliva-level that helps prevent cavities forming.

Workouts build stronger hearts

The results of a new study may help explain why women's hearts benefit more from physical exercise than men's hearts do. Studies in exercising male and female mice found that moderate, long-term exercise provokes a sex-dependent cardiac change that is different for females. The findings, reported at an American Physiological Society-sponsored meeting in Austin, Texas, may eventually lead to improved treatment strategies for women and men with heart disease.

Deer hunting puts hearts at risk

Deer hunting could be a dangerous endeavor for men with heart disease or risk factors for it, research findings suggest. In a study of 25 middle-aged male deer hunters, researchers found that the activities inherent to hunting - like walking over rough terrain, shooting an animal and dragging its carcass - sent the men's heart rates up significantly.

Olive oil keeps blood clot-free

Eating foods prepared with olive oils that are rich in phenols, substances thought to have beneficial effects on the heart, may help ward off harmful blood clots in people with high cholesterol, Spanish researchers report. "Our findings provide new evidence of the healthy effects of virgin olive oil," Dr. Francisco Perez-Jimenez of Reina Sofia University Hospital in Cordoba and colleagues conclude.

Fighting cancer with green tea

Healthy subjects who received daily caffeine-free green tea extract capsules had an increased production of detoxification enzymes, which may provide some cancer-fighting benefits, study findings show. "Concentrated green tea extract could be beneficial to those who are deficient in the detoxification enzyme and shouldn't be harmful for those who have adequate detoxification enzyme," says lead investigator Dr. H.-H. Sherry Chow, of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Easing diabetic nerve pain

The case of man disabled by diabetes-related nerve damage and muscle weakness suggests that such symptoms can be markedly improved by infusions of immune globulin - a product derived from blood donations that contains high quantities of antibodies.

Japanese researchers describe the case in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Dr. Gen Sobue says that intravenous immune globulin or IVIg "was effective in improving severe pain symptoms and muscle weakness" in this patient.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/22/2007 page19)