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 Thu, Sep 24 1992 Date: Thu, 24 Sep 92 04:37:35 EDT Message-ID: 09-24 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update Sept. 24, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network TEST CAN HEAD OFF DEFECTS: From a single embryonic cell, doctors have successfully diagnosed a test-tube baby's risk for cystic fibrosis, implanted unaffected embryos and delivered a healthy baby girl, researchers say. The procedure could free parents who might pass genetic defects to their children from a tough decision: Aborting a fetus or carrying to term an affected child. (For more, see special Embryo package below.) GENITALS ARE NAMELESS: A lot of kids don't know what to call their genitals. A study in October's Child magazine shows only 30% of boys and 21% of girls know the proper words for their genitals. Kids interviewed for the study were between one to four years old. Many were taught no names for genitals at all or learned colloquial names. KEY ALZHEIMER'S FINDING MADE: A simple detection test for Alzheimer's disease may soon be a reality. The new possibilities come from a breakthrough in research on a substance called beta amyloid protein. A study in Nature magazine suggests the build-up of beta protein is too much of a good thing, similar to the build-up of cholesterol. Researchers are now trying to find a drug to lower levels of the protein. EMBRYOS FREED OF DISEASE: Researchers have come up with a way to detect cystic fibrosis in a test-tube embryo and produce a healthy baby. The procedure involves removing a cell from embryos that could lead to the disease. Doctors say the technique could free parents at risk from passing genetic defects to their children. WOMEN ADVISED NOT TO SMOKE: U.S. women will have to wait years for results from some of the major new studies on women's health. But scientists say there are things women can do in the meantime to have a healthy life. The best advice is don't smoke. Smoking not only causes lung cancer, it contributes to heart disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, miscarriages, premature births and infant deaths. MORE BABIES BREASTFED: More moms are breastfeeding. Ross Laboratories shows nearly 54% breastfeed in hospitals. That's up from 51% two years ago. The increase was largest among groups tending to breastfeed least. That includes black mothers, less educated mothers and younger mothers. GET FLU SHOTS EARLY: Federal health officials are suggesting people get flu shots a little earlier this year. The recommended time to begin getting flu shots was November. But last year's flu season hit early and caught the nation off guard. So officials are encouraging people to get shots in mid-October. The measure is purely preventative - they expect flu will come on time in December this year. SENATE VOTES FOR LIMITS: The Senate Wednesday took a preliminary step toward health-care reform, voting to impose federal standards on group insurance policies and to limit increases in premiums. The health amendment was added by voice vote to a catchall $32.5 billion tax bill whose fate is in doubt because President Bush has declined to tell lawmakers whether he will accept some of the bill's tax hikes. LEUKEMIA LINK PROBED: A theory for how some leukemias arise in humans may receive renewed consideration. In the University of California San Francisco study, chronic viral infection caused cells of the mouse immune system to multiply out of control and led to a mouse form of the cancer. The findings suggest an explanation for an association between human immune diseases and leukemia. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON EMBRYO: DETECTION COMES EARLY: Dr. Mark R. Hughes, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, with researchers from Hammersmith Hospital, London, first tried test a test-tube baby's risk for cystic fibrosis with three British couples, all at risk of having children with cystic fibrosis. Hughes says they were able to diagnose inherited diseases within three days after an egg is fertilized in the laboratory. CELL REMOVED FROM EMBRYO: Three days after the parents' sperm and eggs were mixed in vitro, researchers removed a cell from resulting embryos - at that time the size of a grain of sand, says the New England Journal of Medicine. They genetically amplified the cells' DNA to check for the CF defect. Non-affected embryos were implanted in two of the women. Only one got pregnant, giving birth to a non-affected girl. TRIAL BEING DONE: Methodist Hospital, Houston, has begun a trial with 10 couples at risk to pass on genetic diseases like hemophilia, Tay-Sachs disease and muscular dystrophy. When offered as routine, the test would probably add less than $2,000 to in vitro costs, now at $5,000 to $13,000. (End of package.) Health Editor: Michele Coleman. (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