Health & Medicine
Garlic Comes Up Short
For adding flavor to food, garlic can't be beat. For cutting cholesterol, it's not so hot. That's the verdict of a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine: The herb had no effect on blood cholesterol levels. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine studied 192 adults with moderately high levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. Participants were randomly assigned to regularly consume a crushed clove of raw garlic (mixed into condiments on a sandwich), a garlic supplement, or a placebo. Neither the supplements nor the raw garlic had any impact on LDL or any other cholesterol measures. Christopher Gardner, a nutrition scientist at Stanford and an author of the study, says other garlic-is-good-for-you claims, including protection against heart disease and possibly cancer, merit further investigation. As for cholesterol, the stinking rose is only likely to work if the taste makes you eat more heart-healthful foods.
A Quiet but Very Busy Virus
About 1 in 4 females ages 14 to 59 is infected with the sexually transmitted virus responsible for genital warts and cervical cancer. That's according to a new survey in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 7.5 million women between the ages of 14 and 24 carry the human papillomavirus, about 60 percent more than suggested by previous studies. The survey also found that women ages 20 to 24 are the most likely to be infected. The four strains that the new HPV vaccine—recommended for girls and women ages 11 to 26—protects against were found to occur in 3.4 percent of women. Most of those infected with HPV have benign strains that cause no symptoms and usually disappear on their own. The new estimate "gives us a platform to measure trends and changes over time, such as the effectiveness of prevention strategies like the HPV vaccine," says study leader Eileen Dunne, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC. —Deborah Kotz
Easy Does It on the Pain Relievers
Men who take over-the-counter pain relievers may want to read a new study in last week's Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers report that men who took nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (a class that includes Advil) six to seven days per week had a 38 percent higher risk of high blood pressure than nonusers. Those who took acetaminophen, such as Tylenol, had a 34 percent increased risk; aspirin-takers, a 26 percent higher risk. These drugs "are being used much more frequently than they need to be," says senior author Gary Curhan, a nephrologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He advises men to discuss the risk and benefits of their pill-popping patterns with their doctors. — Sarah Baldauf
Diabetic Teens Better Their Record
Good news for kids with type 1 diabetes. A study in the March issue of the Journal of Pediatrics found that some teens have gotten better at keeping their blood sugar under control and have had fewer trips to the emergency room, among other pluses. The improvements coincided with the adoption in recent years of more intensive diabetes management strategies like using insulin pumps that deliver the hormone continuously and improved types of insulin. Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin. About 1 in 500 children has type 1 diabetes in the United States, accounting for 85 percent of all pediatric cases.
The study followed more than 400 youths ages 8 to 16 in two groups for two years, the first starting in 1997 and the second in 2002. At the end of that time, nearly half the kids in the second group met blood glucose target levels, compared with 30 percent in the first group. Children in the second group also had 24 percent fewer visits to the emergency room. "I'm most encouraged by the improvements in the outcomes and the reduction in complications," says study coauthor Lori Laffel, chief of pediatrics at the Joslin Diabetes Center and associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. — Michelle Andrews
This story appears in the March 12, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.