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Thyroid, Cholesterol Are Linked
Most Americans know by now that eating a diet high in saturated fat can raise cholesterol, a major risk factor for heart disease, which kills nearly 500,000 people a year and is the leading cause of death for both men and women. But what many people don’t know is that an underactive thyroid – the butterfly-shaped gland in…
Calculating The Risks Of Hormone Therapy
It takes a village, or so they say, to raise a child. Well, it’s beginning to take a whole village – and a high-tech one at that – to sort out the risks and benefits of hormone-replacement therapy. Luckily, there is such a village. It’s at New England Medical Center in Boston, where Drs. Nananda…
HPV Test Is Urged By Some
The Pap smear, used to detect cervical cancer, is done 50 million times each year in the United States and remains one of the best cancer-detection tools doctors have. In the 50 years since it was introduced in the United States, the death rate from cervical cancer has dropped by 70 percent. In poor countries…
The Saga Of Soy
Consumers Believe Soy Is Good Food, And Research Shows They’re Partly Right. Americans have fallen in love with the humble soybean. Convinced that in its many incarnations – tofu, soy milk, dietary supplements – soy can prevent everything from heart disease to hot flashes to cancer, consumers have sent soysales soaring. In the 12 months ending in October 1999, supermarket sales of soy foods…
The saga of soy. That soy is good is partly right
Consumers Believe Soy Is Good Food, And Research Shows They’re Partly Right. Americans have fallen in love with the humble soybean. Convinced that in its many incarnations – tofu, soy milk, dietary supplements – soy can prevent everything from heart disease to hot flashes to cancer, consumers have sent soy sales soaring. In the 12…
Facial Workouts Don’t, In Fact, Really Work At All
I sat there glued to the TV, trying to imitate the model on the video, who was cheerily flexing her zygomaticus muscles – which run from the cheekbone to the corners of the lips – and keeping the rest of her face relaxed. Not so easy. Then she worked her levator labii superioris, raising her…
FDA loosens reins
The US Food and Drug Administration once had the power to force manufacturers of over-the-counter dietary supplements, including herbal remedies, to prove those products were safe, if the agency felt such a pre-market review was warranted. That changed in 1994, when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which gives sellers of vitamins…
Go the medical route if herb doesn’t relieve depression
So, you’re depressed. Given that the Globe’s analysis showed that, at least in lab tests, there is considerable variation among St. John’s wort brands, should you take it at all? Buying any herbal remedy is basically a crapshoot. But the short answer is that if you try a brand of St. John’s wort and it…
How the Globe did its testing
Here’s how we tested some of the leading brands of St. John’s wort, the popular herbal antidepressant. We went to a CVS store in Cambridge, Mass., and bought the following products: CVS’ house brand; Natrol; NatureMade; Nature’s Resource; Quanterra; and YourLife. In addition, we obtained a bottle of Herbalife, which is sold privately through distributors….
St. John’s Wort: Less Than Meets The Eye
Globe Analysis Shows Popular Herbal Antidepressant Varies Widely In Content, Quality. We thought it would be easy. After all, we had just two seemingly simple questions: Does St. John’s wort, the popular herbal adtidepressant on which Americans spend $250 million a year, work – at least on rat brain cells in a test tube? And…
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