Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.health,americast.usa-today.health From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: health Fri, Sep 18 1992 Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 04:43:57 EDT Message-ID: 09-18 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update Sept. 18-20, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network STUDY SEARCHING FOR NURSES: A recruitment effort is under way to find volunteers for the largest study ever on preventing heart disease and cancer in women. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, hope to enroll 40,000 post-menopausal, healthy nurses with no history of heart disease or cancer, to test the risks and benefits of beta-carotene, vitamin E and low doses of aspirin over at least five years. (For more, see special package on Women below.) WAL-MART REJECTS AIDS VIDEO: Magic Johnson's AIDS information video, rejected as too graphic by Los Angeles schools, also has been nixed by the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Virtually every other retailer has agreed to stock it, says Arsenio Hall, co-host and executive producer of the "Time Out." Proper use of a condom is demonstrated, using a finger. "I just want to get this out there," says Hall. LUNCHES NOT HEALTHY ENOUGH: The government is dumping too much fatty milk, cheese and meat in the national school lunch program to support politically important farm groups, Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, a consumer group, said Thursday. The group also said in a report that the Agriculture Department is not providing enough fresh fruits and vegetables and that lunches are not nutritious enough. GM HEALTH CARE PLAN UNVEILED: General Motors' white-collar employees got details of the company's new health care plan Thursday. Chairman Robert Stempel and President Jack Smith addressed employees on a nationwide closed-circuit television hookup. The automaker told white collar workers last month they'd have to start paying part of their health care premiums for the first time since the 1960s. BREAST CANCER STUDY MONEY DUE: The Senate is expected to pass an appropriations bill Friday that would provide $1 million for a study of Vermont and other states that have a high rate of breast cancer. The provision is in the 1993 spending bill for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wants to secure funding for a comprehensive review of breast cancer cases. EARLY ATTEMPT WAS QUASHED: When President Bush in June vetoed a National Institutes of Health reauthorization bill, he killed legislation by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy and Independent Bernard Sanders that would have authorized money for the study and a national cancer registry. A bill expected to pass Friday would provide $1 million for a study of states with high rates of breast cancer. CANCER IMAGING AGENT IS TESTED: Immunomedics Inc. announced Thursday favorable clinical results of its monoclonal antibody-based imaging agents to detect colorectal cancers, lung cancers and lymphomas. Immunomedics' colorectal cancer imaging agent, ImmuRAID-CEA, identified occult cancers in more than 70% of patients in whom tumors were strongly suspected but undetected by conventional imaging. SPAIN OKS SALE OF CENTOTOXIN: Centocor Inc. Thursday said the Spanish government approved the sale it Centocor's flagship drug, HA-1A:Centotoxin. That means all large Western European nations have approved the drug, said President David P. Holveck. HA-1A:Centotoxin is used to treat patients with septic shock and with a presumptive diagnosis of the blood infection Gram-negative bacteremia. NATURAL HEALTH RETURNS: East West magazine has been reincarnated. With a new name and new attitude, Natural Health concentrates more specifically on alternatives to "orthodox technical medicine," says editor Thomas Rawls. This includes everything from diet to therapy to acupuncture. Among the articles in the September:October issue: Kundalini meditation and herbal remedies for a cornucopia of ills. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON WOMEN: LETTERS ALREADY SENT OUT: Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston sent out 1.5 million letters this week to state nursing associations across the country. The researchers are looking for nurses to take part in a study of women's diseases. The $17 million study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will complement what has been learned in an ongoing study of 22,000 male physicians. RESULTS FROM MEN COMPARED: Researchers have already found that low doses of aspirin reduced risk of heart disease in men. The Women's Health Study "will allow us to make recommendations for women based on data on women, rather than by generalizing from the study on men," says researcher Julie Buring. BREAST CANCER WILL BE INCLUDED: While the focus is on the risk for heart disease and cancer, other questions also will be studied, Buring says, including the relation of breast implants to connective-tissue disorders and breast cancer, and whether aspirin is related to prevention of migraines. Letters of invitation will be sent to all potentially eligible nurses. (End of package.) Health Editor: Kate Coughlin. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM