Cocaine in Water? I Prefer Wine!

By Dr. W. Gifford Jones

Monday, July 31, 2006

Going camping in Newfoundland in August? If so, don't paint your toenails with bright blue, blueberry-scented nail polish. A report in The Medical Post shows this can be hazardous to your health. According to the Post, a young woman, while camping, was attacked by a mouse. The mouse bit her toe, refused to let go, and was finally killed with a broom. But what provoked the attack?

In late August Newfoundland is rife with blueberries which constitute a large portion of a mouse's diet. The mouse, apparently spotting the toe sticking out of a blanket, smelled the scent, and sank it's teeth into what it thought was a juicy blueberry.

The good news; it wasn't a black bear!

Are hair dyes dangerous? I've often wondered. A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology should make women sit up and take notice. Researchers at Yale University found that women who have been colouring their hair for 25 years or more show an increased rate of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The study, conducted by Dr. Tongzhang Zheng, included 601 women, between the ages of 21 and 84 years, who were diagnosed with varying subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma doubled during the last 30 years and no one knows why.

Dr. Zheng says women using the darkest hair dyes for more than 25 years were twice as likely to develop this malignancy. Fortunately, the risk of developing lymphoma is very low. Consequently, the doubling of the risk by the use of hair dye still makes the risk of lymphoma unlikely.

What's the best treatment to ease the pain of those suffering from arthritis of the knee? Acetaminophen, better known by the brand name Tylenol, or glucosamine? A European study followed patients who took 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine daily and those using 1,000 milligrams of acetaminophen 3 X a day. Researchers concluded that patients using glucosamine experienced more relief.

Dr. Wilhelm Aicher, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Tuebingen Medical School, in Germany, noted that many physicians were looking for alternatives to acetaminophen. They were concerned about elevated liver enzymes in patients using acetaminophen over long periods of time. In the European study 19 per cent of those taking this painkiller developed abnormal liver enzyme levels.

Here's a real bummer. Irish researchers say our bottoms are getting too big and needles have failed to keep pace with this obesity. Unfortunately, our bottoms are increasingly used for injections of painkillers, vaccines, medication and even anti-cancer drugs. The Irish study showed that in 68 per cent of cases standard length needles only reach fatty tissue that has fewer blood vessels for absorption. This means patients either fail to get the maximum benefit of the medication or none at all. There are two solutions, longer needles that reach more vascular muscle, or consumption of fewer calories.

Want to prevent pneumonia? A study at the University of Buffalo found that germs in dental plaque can be inhaled into the lungs causing pneumonia. Researchers showed that bacteria in the lung fluid of those contracting pneumonia and the bacteria in the dental plaque had the same genetic material. All the more reason for regular brushing and dental floss.

A study in the American Journal of Epidemiology advises pregnant women to stay out of hot tubs. Dr. Kun Li, of Kaiser Permanente, in Oakland, California, studied 1,063 pregnant women who used hot tubs or Jacuzzis. He found they were twice as likely to have a miscarriage.

Dr. Li says, "Heat is very high stress for the body and this leads to dysfunction of enzymes and organs and that the higher the temperature of the water the greater the risk of miscarriage".

I was recently sipping wine in one of the beautiful squares of Milan, Italy. I didn't know at the time that there are more cocaine users living along the Po River than imagined. Scientists tested the river for cocaine's main urinary metabolite, benzoylecgonine. They calculated that 40,000 doses of cocaine are consumed every day in the Po valley. Researchers suggested this type of sampling could be a tool in estimating a city's drug use.

I left for Canada happy I was drinking wine, not the Milanese water.

W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com

My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:

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Pre-2008 articles by Gifford Jones

Canada Free Press, CFP Editor Judi McLeod