*Four MS Articles Inc. Drug*

[Guest guest]

I only know what is written below. Adam:

Testosterone gel may help men with MS

04:22 PM PDT on Sunday, October 22, 2006

JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

Steenberg loves the outdoors, but when doctors diagnosed him

with multiple sclerosis four years ago, even the simple tasks became

exhausting.

" Just finding myself extremely tired a lot. I couldn't make it through a

day without napping, " he said.

About half of all MS patients also have memory problems.

" I definitely noticed some of the memory going. Calling somebody

immediately after calling them and not knowing who was on the phone

anymore, " he said.

Neurologist Rhonda Voskuhl says there's no approved treatment to

prevent memory failure.

" What we don't have are drugs that would be going to the brain or spinal

cord and protecting those nerves, " she said.

A testosterone gel might help. In a small study, 10 men with MS applied

it to their shoulders once a day for a year.

" What they reported most is that they felt better, that they had more

energy and less fatigue, " said Voskuhl.

The gel improved their immune systems and all the patients performed

better on memory tests. MRI scans also showed parts of the brain that

normally decline in MS actually slowed.

" We're excited about these findings because we're actually would be

describing the first neural protective drugs for MS, " said Voskuhl.

Steenberg noticed a difference.

" The increased energy and mental alertness were the biggest, the biggest

changes for me, " he said.

Researchers are expected to study whether estrogen provides the same

memory benefits in female patients.

http://www.king5.com/health/stories/NW_102206HEKmsgelSW.648a1f8c.html

Vegetables May Boost Brain Power in Older Adults

23/10/2006 9:46:00 PM

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MONDAY, Oct. 23 (HealthDay News) - Want to preserve your mental edge as

you age? Vegetables - particularly green, leafy ones - will do the trick

if you eat three servings a day, new research shows.

Vegetables May Boost Brain Power in Older Adults

But the research also suggests that the same effect is not found in

those who eat lots of fruit.

" It's a modest effect, " said Martha Clare , associate professor at

Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and lead author of the study.

" People who consumed two or more vegetables a day had a 35 to 40 percent

decrease in the decline in thinking ability over six years. That's the

equivalent of being five years younger in age. "

The study results are published in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal

Neurology.

' team studied 3,718 research participants 65 or older who live in

the south side of Chicago. Sixty-two percent were black, 38 percent were

non-Hispanic white, and 62 percent were female.

" We used a complete food questionnaire of 139 different food items, "

said. " We asked about their usual intake and assessed the

frequency of intake. " During the six-year study, the participants

received at least two cognitive tests that measured their memory and

thinking speed.

" By far, the association with a slower rate of decline was found in the

group that ate high amounts of green, leafy vegetables, " said.

Such foods included lettuce and tossed salad, spinach, kale and collards.

The study also found that the slowdown in cognitive decline was greatest

in the oldest people who ate at least two more vegetable servings a day.

Because the cognitive tests measured overall thinking ability, the

benefits of eating vegetables may translate into an easier time with

such everyday tasks as remembering phone numbers and names and balancing

checkbooks, said.

suspects that vegetables may help protect memory and thinking

speed because they contain high amounts of vitamin E, an antioxidant

that can help reduce the damage caused by free radicals, unstable oxygen

molecules generated by normal metabolism that can damage neurons in the

brain and contribute to dementia.

" We had found in previous studies that vitamin E in food protected

against cognitive decline and the development of Alzheimer's disease, "

she said.

Her previous research also had shown that consumption of healthy fats,

such as the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats found in foods such

as olive oil, were similarly protective.

" When we eat vegetables, we tend to put the good fats on them, such as

an oil-based salad dressing on salads, healthy-fat mayonnaise on cole

slaw, and healthy-fat margarine on vegetables, " said. " Such fats

help us to absorb the vitamin E, and perhaps are also beneficial to the

brain. So that's one plausible explanation of why vegetables are good

for you. "

' study also found that high consumption of fruit had no effect on

thinking ability. A similar large-scale study, the Nurses' Health Study,

also found that high vegetable consumption, but not high fruit

consumption, was associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline.

One of the most common antioxidants found in fruit, vitamin C, has not

been consistently shown to protect the brain, said. Most of her

study participants consumed fruit such as oranges, grapefruits, apples

and bananas, which are high in vitamin C.

It's possible that some fruit may contain compounds that counteract

antioxidants. Further studies are needed to determine whether fruit is

brain-protective, she said.

As for eating vegetables, said it's too soon to say for sure that

they actually preserve the brain from age-related decline. " But it's

encouraging to see that it appears to slow the rate of decline, " she

said. " We know that eating vegetables is important for chronic diseases.

So this might be one more reason why you should eat your vegetables. "

In her next study of the same group of Chicago residents, hopes

to examine whether high vegetable consumption helps protect against

Alzheimer's disease. Results are expected in the next year, she said.

Dallas is program director for epidemiologic studies of

Alzheimer's disease at the National Institute on Aging. " It may be

premature to discount the role of fruit consumption in maintaining

cognitive health, " he said, citing recent research showing that weekly

consumption of three or more servings of fruit and vegetable juices was

associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's.

" Further research will be needed to take account of how the fruit is

prepared, as peeling may greatly reduce the amounts of antioxidants

available, " said.

" I anticipate that further research will refine what we know about the

relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and cognitive

function, helping to determine more definitively the types and amounts

of foods that may preserve cognition, " he added.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct24/0,4670,MercuryVaccines,00.html

Government Rejects Vaccine Petition

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer

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WASHINGTON - Federal health officials won't put new restrictions on the

use of a mercury-based preservative in vaccines and other medicines,

denying a petition that sought the limits because of health concerns.

A group called the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs petitioned the Food

and Drug Administration in 2004 seeking the restrictions on thimerosal,

citing concerns that the preservative is linked to autism. In a reply

dated Sept. 26 but made public only Tuesday, the FDA rejected the

petition.

" Only a small number of licensed and approved products still contain

thimerosal, and the available evidence supports FDA's conclusion that

all currently licensed vaccines and other pharmaceutical drug products

containing thimerosal are safe, " Dr. Shuren, the FDA's assistant

commissioner for policy, wrote in denying the petition.

" We're not accepting that answer, " said Dr. Mark Geier, one of the

petitioners. The group now plans to seek a court order that would force

the FDA to withdraw thimerosal from all vaccines and medicines unless

the agency can show the preservative is safe, Geier said.

Thimerosal, about 50 percent mercury by weight, has been used since the

1930s to kill microbes in vaccines. There have been suspicions that

thimerosal causes autism. However, studies that tracked thousands of

children consistently have found no association between the brain

disorder and the mercury-based preservative. Critics contend the studies

are flawed.

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Since 2001, all vaccines given to children 6 and younger have been

either thimerosal-free or contained only trace amounts of the

preservative. Thimerosal has been phased out of some, but not all, adult

vaccines as well.

Most doses of the flu vaccine still contain thimerosal, though

manufacturers produce versions free of the preservative for use in

children. The FDA said it was in discussions with those manufacturers to

increase the supply of thimerosal-free flu vaccine.

There also are minute amounts of mercury, as thimerosal or

phenylmercuric acetate, in roughly 45 eye ointments, nasal sprays and

nasal solutions, the FDA said. Various antivenoms for black widow and

snake bites also contain thimerosal.

Bob Geldof In T.O. Boosting Stem Cell Research

Wednesday October 25, 2006

Sir Bob Geldof has an amazing history.

He went from rock star to world crusader, creating the first super group

to aid hunger in Africa. Since his " We Are The World Days " he's been the

world, adding Live Aid, Live 8 and other major fundraisers to his

inventory.

So what could bring this icon to Toronto on Wednesday?

The answer is the opening of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative

Medicine. It's headed by one of the world's leading experts on the

controversial area of stem cells, Dr. Gordon Keller.

And it's become another pet cause for the former Boomtown Rat, who has

friends with Alzheimer's disease and Multiple Sclerosis, conditions that

experts believe can both be helped and alleviated with stem cells.

They're essentially cells that haven't decided what they want to be when

they grow up. And that means they can be used to repair and regrow

almost any tissue in the body, something akin to human spare parts.

" Here you have a cell that you can tell to make any cell type in our

body in a culture dish, " explains Keller.

Geldof is impressed and is advocating for more widespread use of the

technology. " You can tangibly feel the unfolding century when you come

to places like this, " he marvels.

But not everyone agrees it's such a big step forward, especially for

those who have religious concerns. They complain that the cells come

from unborn embryos. And that makes the harvesting mortally wrong.

" Embryonic stem cell research has been unsuccessful, " argues

Hudson of the Right To Life. " We can't use it in human patients. It's

diverting resources away from adult stem cell research, which is much

more viable. "

The dispute has been ongoing for years and despite Geldof's hearty

endorsement and assurances from many medical experts that it may be the

so-called magic bullet that can cure a host of diseases, it remains

mired in controversy and stuck in an ethical limbo.

Family depending on stem cells for help

<http://www.citynews.ca/news/features_4720.aspx>

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