HEALTH Tidbits

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Some Seniors Taking Human Growth Hormone

 

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- As many as 50,000 otherwise healthy seniors are

getting daily injections of synthetic human growth hormone each year.

Some seniors swear the hormone reduces fat, makes them more active and

increases libido, but some researchers say this practice, for which

the users pay between $5,000 and $10,000 a year, can have serious and

potentially deadly side effects, USA Today reported.

 

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of

synthetic growth hormone for boys likely to become adults shorter than

5-foot-3 and girls likely to be shorter than 4-foot-11. When growth

hormone is prescribed for adults, it's considered " on-label, " and a

doctor can prescribe the hormone if it will benefit the patient for a

FDA-specified condition such as patients who have lost their pituitary

gland because of a tumor or for patients suffering from AIDS. However,

some seniors can get the synthetic grown hormone, " off-label, " for no

specific condition except that a doctor feels a patient will benefit.

 

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Canadian Drug Shortage Blamed on U.S.

 

OTTAWA, Quebec (UPI) -- Canadian pharmacists say they are experiencing

a shortage of prescription drugs because of a surge in drug sales to

U.S. patients. Barry Power, a director of the Canadian Pharmacists

Association, told the BBC that supply problems are being reported more

frequently and are continuing for longer periods than before Internet

pharmacies were created.

 

Health Canada Assistant Deputy Minister Diane Gorman issued a

statement saying the federal agency " regards this as a very serious

matter " and requests " information regarding early indications of

drug-supply problems " or " trends regarding drug supply, safety

concerns or impacts on human resources which may pose risks to

Canadians' health. " The Canadian International Pharmacy Association,

which represents Canadian pharmacies offering U.S. mail-order services

over the Internet, estimates total sales by its members will reach

about $800 million this year, with more than $1 billion in sales

projected for 2004. The association estimates Canada currently has

between 120 and 140 Internet pharmacies, compared with 10 in 1999.

Several pharmaceutical companies have threatened to limit sales of

patent-protected prescription drugs to Canada.

 

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Bottled Water Faces Scrutiny

 

By Julia Watson, United Press International

 

Illinois State Sen. Susan Garrett, chair of a health subcommittee,

held a public hearing last week to consider the safety and regulation

of bottled water. Next month, an Illinois judge is expected to decide

whether to accept a proposed $12 million settlement of a class-action

lawsuit against Poland Spring Water that charged that its water was

neither naturally pure, nor from protected sources, nor was it from

deep in the Maine woods nor even from a spring.

 

Class action suits over bottled waters have been brought in five other

states. Garrett wants to determine whether there is a case for the

Illinois Department of Public Health having a greater role in

supervising bottled water as a health issue. The fact that bottled

water may not be as wholesome as it proclaims itself must be worrying

to purists prepared to pay as much for their water as for their wine

-- which is what they have to do if they are in the market for a

bottle of Wattweiler from France's Vosges area, featured on the menus

of top Paris restaurants at nearly $10.

 

France may be best known for its Evian, Volvic, Badoit and Perrier

waters -- the last of which faced its own health inquisition a few

years ago. But it boasts at least 47 bottled waters, some of which

sound like a baby line-up at a mass naming ceremony. Have you ever

slaked your thirst on a glass of crystal-clear Carola, Julia,

Faustine, Cesar, Arvie, or Soria? Truly chic Parisians at the French

capital's desperately fashionable Waterbar in the basement of the

equally " now " shop Collette, opt to drink Chateldon, one of 57

sparkling and 36 still waters from around the world that appear on the

bar's water-focused menu.

 

A soft, sparkling water, bottled at source since 1650 in the

Department of Puy de Dome, it was a favorite of Louis XIV, the Sun

King. He was such a fan of mineral waters he created the corps of

officers of the goblet on horseback -- Officiers du Gobelet a Cheval

-- who would gallop off to Forges in Normandy to rush its fresh spring

waters back to the sovereign. Chateldon's label bears his sun symbol

of approval.

 

Though its annual sales of 363,000 bottles represent only a tiny

percentage of total sales in France of bottled water, its audacious

price makes it highly desirable among the water-guzzling elite who

rave over the subtlety of its " mouth feel, " the standard by which the

savvy respond to the size, number and distribution of bubbles in fizzy

water and the lack of them in still. Top restaurants charge roughly $7

a bottle, though buying it for home drinking from the few exclusive

supermarkets that stock it costs only about $1.50. Still, that is more

than twice the price for other bottled waters.

 

A 2001 survey by the World Wildlife Fund found 89 billion liters of

bottled water drunk worldwide annually, at a value in U.S. dollars of

about $22 million. Benjamin Franklin is thought to have been the

first American to import bottled water into the United States, in

1785. Between 1976 and 2001, per capita consumption in the U.S. rose,

according to Beverage Marketing Corp. of New York, from 1.6 to 19.5

gallons. That's an awful lot of water to monitor for consumer safety

and regulation.

 

But perhaps those who wish to be absolutely sure of the cleanliness of

their water should stick to Australia's " Cloud Juice, " made, according

to its label, from " 7,800 drops from the purest rain. "

 

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Study - Mixed Race Kids Suffer More Ills

 

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (UPI) -- A new study involving 90,000 adolescent

U.S. students indicates those who considered themselves to be of mixed

race suffered more illnesses. Researchers at the University of North

Carolina-Chapel Hill said such children were found to be more likely

than others to suffer from such illnesses as depression, substance

abuse, sleep problems and various other health problems.

 

The study, conducted in cooperation with the National Institutes of

Health, found it did not matter what races the students identified

with, the risks were higher for all of them if they did not identify

with a single race. The new findings were derived from data compiled

as part of the UNC-based National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent

Health, the largest and most comprehensive survey of teen-agers ever

conducted in the United States. The study appears in the November

issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

 

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Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.