A “100 percent natural” product sold over the Internet to cure impotence contains sildenafil, better known as Viagra, researchers have found.
Viagra is legally available by prescription only and should not be taken with medications containing nitrates. Nitrates are found in medications used to treat angina as well as in some recreational drugs. Plummeting blood pressure could lead to a heart attack or stroke.
Alberto J. Sabucedo of the chemistry department at Florida International University in Miami analyzed capsules called Actra Rx, sold by Body Basics. He found a compound with the same molecular mass as sildenafil. Sabucedo outlined his findings in the Feb. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating.
Frank Estrada, chairman of the board of Body Basics, wrote in a letter: “The manufacturer has unequivocally assured us that Actra-Rx does not contain sildenafil.”
Black teens smoke, stop
Most black teens try smoking cigarettes, but they’re much less likely than whites and Hispanics to become regular smokers as adolescents and young adults, new research finds.
The Rand Corp. study of 6,000 youths ages 13 to 23 is published in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health. It found that 62 percent of black youths had lighted up by age 13, compared with 69 percent of Hispanics, 52 percent of whites and 36 percent of Asian-Americans. But by age 15, just 7 percent of blacks had become regular smokers, compared with 20 percent of whites and Hispanics and 8 percent of Asian-Americans. Researchers attribute the drop-off in part to parental disapproval and fewer smoker friends.
Shape-changing brain
European researchers have found that human brains actually change shape while learning a complicated skill. Brain scans of 24 volunteers revealed that gray matter expands as people learn how to juggle, then retracts as they fail to practice.
Physical brain changes “challenge our view of the human central nervous system,” said Dr. Arne May, a study co-author and a researcher at the University of Regensburg in Germany. “Human brains probably must be viewed as dynamic, changing with development and normal learning.”
The study appeared in a recent issue of Nature.
