Medical enthusiasm for low-fat, low-cholesterol diets to avoid heart disease may be misplaced, researchers from the Boston University Medical Center report.
Amid all the concern about saturated fats, mono-unstaurated fats and so on, few pay attention to consumption of essential fatty acids, and that may prove the missing piece in the puzzle, say the Boston researchers in a study published in the August issue of the journal Metabolism.
For years scientists suspected that dietary shortage of essential fatty acids could play a role in heart disease, but they were never able to document that notion. But new highly sensitive biochemical tests now have associated low levels of essential fatty acids with heart disease in a small sampling of patients.
Further studies of large population will be needed to confirm the findings, but if confirmation comes, it will mean a complete rethinking of current dietary advice, said Drs. Edward N. Siguel and Robert Lerman, co-authors of the study.
Essential fatty acids, which the body cannot produce, evidently help regulate saturated fat and cholesterol production by the body. A shortage of these fatty acids may result in coronary artery disease, the authors reason.
“Unfortunately,” said Siguel, “essential fatty acids are difficult to obtain in processed foods as food manufacturers generally remove essential fatty acids because they shorten their shelf-life.”
NEWSPAPERS RECYCLED AS LAWN MULCH
Scattering wastepaper around the front yard sounds like a good way to annoy the neighbors, but it’s actually a new recycling scheme.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University have developed a process for turning old newspapers and magazines into small pellets that can be used as lawn mulch.
The mulch, which is spread over areas where grass seed is planted, expands when wet and contains some fertilizer to help grass seedlings start growing. Penn State researchers said their next project will be a process for turning junk mail into lawn mulch.
VETERINARIAN USES PROZAC ON DISTURBED DOGS
It is seldom a good idea for humans and their pets to share medications. Aspirin, for example, can kill a cat. But sometimes what’s good for his master may also benefit Fido, reports an Indiana veterinarian.
Prozac, the drug often prescribed to combat depression and compulsive behavior in humans, has helped in treating five canine patients with behavior disorders, reports Dr. Charles Sinclair, adjunct professor of Purdue University’s veterinary school.
Sinclair used the drug in combination with behavior modification techniques to treat an incessant tail-chaser and a dog who chewed on his cage so hard that teeth were broken.
“The idea is not to establish a lifetime relationship with the drug,” Sinclair said. “And the drug is not a cure-all. It’s used very selectively, in combination with behavior modification.”
RADAR DEVICE DETECTS STUDS, PIPES IN WALLS
An advanced radar technology developed at a national weapons laboratory may one day find its way into the handyman’s toolbox.
A prototype gizmo about the size of a television remote control that can sense where studs, pipes or wires are inside walls was demonstrated at the recent National Hardward Show in Chicago by Zircon Corp. of Campbell, Calif.
The device, is based on technology developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, provides a sensitivity far greater than anything available to the home handyman today.
Tom McEwan, a Livermore electronics engineer and inventor of the new technology, said that equipment available today to differentiate wires and pipes from studs buried within walls might cost $40,000. He estimated that once the new radar devices go into production, each could cost about $10 to make.
1-TOUCH POWER WINDOW MAY POSE CHILD HAZARD
One-touch powered car windows that are standard on many foreign luxury cars may pose a hazard to children, a researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin reported in the American Journal of Pediatrics.
Dr. Halim Hennes reported the case of a 10-year-old who was strangled and suffered brain damage when he reached inside a car to tune the radio and somehow hit the window button. The situation harkens back to injuries children suffered from automatic garage doors before they were required to stop upon meeting resistance. Such requirements don’t cover powered automobile windows, Hennes noted.
SURVEY FINDS U.S. MEN HAPPIER THAN WOMEN
On the whole American men are a happier lot than women, a national survey of more than 2,000 adults of all ages suggests.
The survey, conducted by Ohio State University researchers and presented at the recent meeting of the American Sociological Association, asked men and women in telephone conversations to recall how many times in the last week they had experienced sadness, happiness, anger, anxiety, malaise and physical aches and pains.
In every case except happiness, women reported more incidents of experience than men. Female respondents averaged 30 to 40 percent more of every other response and about 3 percent less happiness.
The results were adjusted for the tendency of women to more freely discuss their feelings than men, said John Mirowsky, one of the researchers. He concluded that the responses represent a real difference between male and female experience in America.
“The roles of women in our society put them under a lot of stress and strain,” he said.
