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 Tue, Apr 21 1992 Date: Tue, 21 Apr 92 05:41:43 EDT Message-ID: 04-21 0000 DECISIONLINE: Health USA TODAY Update April 21, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network NEW SOURCE OF TAXOL FOUND: A researcher has found a new source for an anti-cancer drug that had been available only by harvesting rare Pacific yew trees. The University of Kansas said Monday that Lester A. Mitscher, professor of medicinal chemistry, found the drug taxol in the leaves of a closely related Asian yew tree. The discovery could mean an increased supply of taxol and preservation of the Pacific yew. RATIONAL RECOVERY GIVES OPTION: Rational Recovery Systems is a secular mental health program for those who want to stop drinking, but are turned off by the suggestion they need divine intervention to help, says founder Jack Trimpey. It is also a program for those who "want to be free from the recovery process itself - who do not want to attend meetings for the rest of their lives." (For more, see special Recovery package below.) PANEL SAYS DDI SHOULD BE USED: The AIDS drug DDI has proven itself, at least as a backup to AZT, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said Monday. The panel recommended DDI's approval last year because early tests were promising. Since then, a yearlong study showed many patients with advanced HIV stayed healthier if they switched to DDI from AZT. MONEY BUYS WAY INTO SCHOOLS: Tuesday's "Dateline NBC" (10 EDT:PDT) looks into medical schools in Mexico and the Caribbean and finds that money talks. At one school in Mexico, correspondent Brian Ross says, "Class had been under way for five weeks. I had nothing more than a high school education and I didn't know any Spanish. I was accepted quicker than it takes to get a margarita in a downtown cafe." HEALTH PAMPHLET AVAILABLE: A pamphlet on health is available from the National Consumers League. It is called "Taking Charge of Your Health." To get a copy, send $1 to National Consumers League, 815 15th St. N.W. No. 928-N, Washington, D.C. 20005. MINNESOTA HAS PLAN FOR UNINSURED: Minnesota's new HealthRight plan will subsidize coverage for the uninsured in the state. The plan, which could be a model for other states, is to be signed into law by Gov. Arne Carlson by Friday. HealthRight will begin signing up families with children this fall and will be fully open to Minnesota's estimated 370,000 eligible uninsured by 1994. AIDS KILLING MORE IN ARIZ.: AIDS is now the fifth leading cause of death for young adult Arizonans, replacing heart disease, state health officials said Monday. AIDS accounted for 8% of 1990 deaths of those between ages 20 and 44. The leading cause of death is automobile accidents. HORMONE DOESN'T HELP STRENGTH: An athlete taking synthetic human growth hormone could pass tests designed to detect steroids, but the hormone won't help build muscle or bone any better than exercise, says a study by Kevin Yarasheski of Washington University. He tested 16 men for 12 weeks, putting them through a weight-lifting program. Those given growth hormones gained no more strength than those who hadn't. ALZHEIMER'S DRUGS TO BE STUDIED: Researchers hope to lessen the emotional and financial strain on many Americans by unlocking secrets involving memory loss in patients with Alzheimer's disease in a study at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Four drugs will be studied, two that showed "very encouraging" results in previous studies, said Dr. Richard A. Margolin, director of Geriatric Psychiatry. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON RECOVERY: SYSTEM USES PSYCHOLOGY: Founder Jack Trimpey says Rational Recovery is program of self-determination for people who want to stop drinking, but "to whom the `Twelve Steps' don't make any rational sense." The Twelve Steps is used by Alcoholics Anonymous. Rational Recovery stresses "rational emotive therapy," psychological techniques that tries to correct thinking that keeps people in self-destructive patterns. DRINKERS AREN'T POWERLESS: Trimpey believes drinkers are not powerless victims of a disease, but actively choose to drink and are responsible for what they put in their mouths. "I have considerable voluntary control over my facial muscles," he says. But he really doesn't care if alcoholism is a "disease or an astrological phenomenon. The worst thing to do is to tell someone that they have a hopeless disease. SPIRITUAL PART TURNS OFF SOME: Trimpey says that although members insist AA is not religious, those who reject the "God part" are made to feel as if they're either "not quite ready to get serious, copping out, making excuses, misguided or spiritually deficient." AA is a "good program," he says, for those whom it can help. But he estimates only 15% "of those who attempt AA stick with it." MEMBERS RUN MEETINGS: Members of Rational Recovery attend 90-minute meetings once or twice a week for about a year. The goal is first to be weaned from booze and then from the therapy itself. Groups have professional advisers, but they don't run meetings. Members try to identify and correct each other's irrational thinking, with the help of written guides. To learn more, write RRS, Box 800, Lotus, Calif. 95651. (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