Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.health From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: health Wed, Apr 8 1992 Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 05:46:40 EDT Message-ID: 04-08 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update April 8, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network NEW CONTRACEPTIVES IN WORKS: By 2000, women across the country might prevent pregnancy using steroid injections, insertable contraceptive rings or hormone-releasing patches worn like Band-Aids. On the drawing board: Vaccinations for men that inhibit sperm production; for women, egg production, says contraceptive researcher Dr. Daniel R. Mishell Jr. He cautions there is no perfect contraceptive on the horizon. (For more, see special Contraceptive package below.) LACTATING WOMEN NEED PROTEIN: Breast-feeding women need more protein than doctors have recommended in the past, says Dr. Kathleen Motil of the Agriculture Department's Children's Nutrition Center. A woman who eats too little protein could lose muscle while nursing. Doctors had thought the daily diet for a 140-pound lactating woman should include 70 grams of protein. But Motil recommends about 100 grams. RESERVATIONS FIGHT ALCOHOLISM: On reservations around the nation, tribal leaders are devising their own, sometimes drastic, remedies for the alcohol abuse that causes one in three Native American deaths and cripples new generations through fetal alcohol syndrome. Attempts to arrest the problem include fining pregnant women who drink and adding tribal rituals such as the "sweat lodge" to treatment programs. MANY POSTPONING NEEDED CARE: A new survey shows that over the last year about 18 million Americans did not get medical care for financial reasons. The survey was conducted between Jan. 31 and Feb. 24, 1992. Also found: About 7 million Americans were denied health insurance because of a prior medical condition. FEWER WHITES CHOOSE ADOPTION: The number of white unwed women putting their children up for adoption has dropped drastically in the last couple of decades, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, but the number of black unwed women doing so increased. Before 1973, 19% of whites did; that number was down to 3% for 1982-88. For black women, it was 2% before 1973, 0.2% from 1973-81 and up to 1% from 1982-88. ALLERGIES HIT DURING SLEEP: According to a Gallup Organization poll of 750 allergy sufferers for Chlor-Trimeton, 46% say they are affected by allergies when they sleep. Other times people are affected by allergies: During outdoor activity (44%); during exercise (30%); during household chores (27%); during social life (20%); and during romance (13%). ELDERLY OVERBILLED FOR CARE: Thousands of the USA's 34 million Medicare patients are being overcharged, witnesses told a Senate hearing Tuesday. Whether "errors" or fraud, patients get bills "Congress did not intend" them to pay, says Sen. William Cohen, R-Maine. He and Sen. David Pryor, D-Ark. are introducing a bill to make doctors pay refunds and mandate federal screening of all claims before payment. MINNESOTA COMMITTEE PASSES BILL: A plan to guarantee health care to all Minnesotans was passed by a House committee Tuesday. But the bill might be in trouble. Eliminated: A provision requiring hospitals and clinics to seek approval before making major expenditures. Supporters say the provision was designed to hold down soaring health care costs. But the health-care industry said it would be unfairly restricted. PEPTIDE COULD FLAVOR FAKE MEAT: A simple substance gives beef its distinct flavor and may be useful in improving the flavor of low-fat substitutes, an Agriculture Department researcher said Tuesday at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. The substance is a chain of eight amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Dubbed BMP - beefy-meaty peptide, it may be mass-produced as a powder. MEATY PEPTIDE FOUND IN 1978: Chemist Arthur Spanier said beefy meety peptide was first found in 1978 by Japanese researchers who used an enzyme to break down meat proteins. But Spanier recently found it in intact beef, prompting him to explore ways to increase its presence and its potential as a food additive. "The potential is there, a lot more testing needs to be done," Spanier said. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON CONTRACEPTIVE: USA BEHIND OTHER COUNTRIES: Contraceptive researcher Dr. Daniel R. Mishell Jr. says the USA lags behind other industrialized nations in getting contraceptives to market due to lawsuits against manufacturers and parochial attitudes toward sex. He sees a time when there will be safe injectable contraceptives that protect for three months. One has been sold in 90 countries, including Great Britain, since 1960. REMOVABLE RINGS IN WORKS: Mishell forsees the use of removable vaginal rings, smaller than a diaphragm, that continually release low doses of progesterone to prevent ovulation. He also expects skin patches will some day be on the market. They contain the same active agents as birth-control pills and are placed on the arm or inserted in the vagina for up to three weeks. FDA MAY ALLOW LOW-DOSE PILLS: Anne Colston Wentz, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago, says the Food and Drug Administration might one day allow the sale of low-dose birth control pills without a prescription. Wentz, a member of an FDA advisory committee, says, "I have heard, unofficially, that we are to consider the release of oral contraceptives over the counter." PILLS SEEN AS HASSLE-FREE: The reappraisal of birth control pills is under consideration largely because of increasing research showing they are almost hassle-free contraceptives that also offer protection against ovarian and endometrial cancer and pelvic inflammatory disease, Wentz said. (End of package.) Health Editor: Ed Kelleher. (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