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Tegaserod Therapy in Women With IBS
A large, international trial found that tegaserod was significantly more effective than placebo for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.
Dr. Jan Tack, of the Centre for Gastroenterological Research, University of Leuven (Belgium), and coauthors worked with physicians from 20 countries to randomize 2,660 female patients; 2,135 received tegaserod (6 mg twice daily) and 525 took the placebo for the initial treatment phase of 1 month.
After a treatment-free interval, the researchers re-randomized 983 patients (488 tegaserod, 495 placebo) who qualified for repeated treatment because they responded to the first treatment and then had a recurrence of IBS symptoms (Gut 2005;54:1707–13).
The researchers found that patients treated with tegaserod had better work productivity and quality of life than did placebo patients during both the initial therapy and repeated treatment. The drug, marketed as Zelnorm by Novartis, was initially approved in 2002 for IBS with constipation in women.
Due to subsequent concerns about overuse, the label advises physicians and patients to “periodically assess the need for continued therapy.”
Drinking Tea May Cut Ovarian Ca Risk
Tea consumption appears to reduce a woman's risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer, reported Dr. Susanna C. Larsson and Dr. Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
The researchers used dietary data collected from 66,651 Swedish women between 1987 and 1990 to examine a possible link between tea consumption and later development of ovarian malignancy.
They identified incident cases of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer that occurred over the intervening 14–17 years using a national cancer registry. A total of 301 of the women developed ovarian cancer.
Tea drinking was inversely correlated with the disease, so that the incidence of ovarian cancer decreased as the quantity of tea drinking increased. Women who drank at least two cups of tea daily showed a 46% lower risk of ovarian cancer than did those who did not drink tea (Arch. Intern. Med. 2005;165:2683–6).
These results closely replicate the findings of the Iowa Women's Health Study, which reported a 47% lower risk of ovarian cancer in women who drank tea weekly. “To our knowledge, the Iowa Women's Health Study is the only other prospective study that has examined the relationship between tea consumption and ovarian cancer risk,” Dr. Larsson and Dr. Wolk said. Polyphenols that are abundant in both green and black teas “have been extensively studied as cancer chemopreventive agents,” they added.
Catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins, and flavonols have been shown to inhibit carcinogenesis in laboratory and animal studies. It is possible that these polyphenols protect against cancer by their antioxidant effects. Some researchers have posited that they may also inhibit cell growth, induce apoptosis, or inhibit tumor angiogenesis, the investigators noted.
Puberty Feeds Body Dissatisfaction
Pubertal changes were more likely to trigger body dissatisfaction in white girls than in African American girls in a study of 331 girls, reported Tiffany Floyd, Ph.D., in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Previous studies have shown that body dissatisfaction during puberty is more common among girls than among boys—because pubertal changes conflict with the idealized image of the thin female—and that this increase in body dissatisfaction may promote depression.
However, additional research has shown that larger female body types are more desirable and acceptable among African Americans than they are among whites, wrote Dr. Floyd, of City College, New York, and her colleagues.
The study included girls in grades 4 through 9, with an average age of 12 years. Approximately 50% of the girls were African American.
Overall, white girls reported significantly more body dissatisfaction than did African American girls. Although pubertal status did not directly predict depression in either group, pubertal status significantly predicted body dissatisfaction among white girls in a linear regression analysis, which in turn predicted depressive symptoms.
Pubertal status failed to predict body dissatisfaction among African American girls, but body dissatisfaction significantly predicted depressive symptoms independent of pubertal status.
The girls were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory, the Body Dissatisfaction Scale, and the Pubertal Development Scale.
Tegaserod Therapy in Women With IBS
A large, international trial found that tegaserod was significantly more effective than placebo for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.
Dr. Jan Tack, of the Centre for Gastroenterological Research, University of Leuven (Belgium), and coauthors worked with physicians from 20 countries to randomize 2,660 female patients; 2,135 received tegaserod (6 mg twice daily) and 525 took the placebo for the initial treatment phase of 1 month.
After a treatment-free interval, the researchers re-randomized 983 patients (488 tegaserod, 495 placebo) who qualified for repeated treatment because they responded to the first treatment and then had a recurrence of IBS symptoms (Gut 2005;54:1707–13).
The researchers found that patients treated with tegaserod had better work productivity and quality of life than did placebo patients during both the initial therapy and repeated treatment. The drug, marketed as Zelnorm by Novartis, was initially approved in 2002 for IBS with constipation in women.
Due to subsequent concerns about overuse, the label advises physicians and patients to “periodically assess the need for continued therapy.”
Drinking Tea May Cut Ovarian Ca Risk
Tea consumption appears to reduce a woman's risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer, reported Dr. Susanna C. Larsson and Dr. Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
The researchers used dietary data collected from 66,651 Swedish women between 1987 and 1990 to examine a possible link between tea consumption and later development of ovarian malignancy.
They identified incident cases of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer that occurred over the intervening 14–17 years using a national cancer registry. A total of 301 of the women developed ovarian cancer.
Tea drinking was inversely correlated with the disease, so that the incidence of ovarian cancer decreased as the quantity of tea drinking increased. Women who drank at least two cups of tea daily showed a 46% lower risk of ovarian cancer than did those who did not drink tea (Arch. Intern. Med. 2005;165:2683–6).
These results closely replicate the findings of the Iowa Women's Health Study, which reported a 47% lower risk of ovarian cancer in women who drank tea weekly. “To our knowledge, the Iowa Women's Health Study is the only other prospective study that has examined the relationship between tea consumption and ovarian cancer risk,” Dr. Larsson and Dr. Wolk said. Polyphenols that are abundant in both green and black teas “have been extensively studied as cancer chemopreventive agents,” they added.
Catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins, and flavonols have been shown to inhibit carcinogenesis in laboratory and animal studies. It is possible that these polyphenols protect against cancer by their antioxidant effects. Some researchers have posited that they may also inhibit cell growth, induce apoptosis, or inhibit tumor angiogenesis, the investigators noted.
Puberty Feeds Body Dissatisfaction
Pubertal changes were more likely to trigger body dissatisfaction in white girls than in African American girls in a study of 331 girls, reported Tiffany Floyd, Ph.D., in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Previous studies have shown that body dissatisfaction during puberty is more common among girls than among boys—because pubertal changes conflict with the idealized image of the thin female—and that this increase in body dissatisfaction may promote depression.
However, additional research has shown that larger female body types are more desirable and acceptable among African Americans than they are among whites, wrote Dr. Floyd, of City College, New York, and her colleagues.
The study included girls in grades 4 through 9, with an average age of 12 years. Approximately 50% of the girls were African American.
Overall, white girls reported significantly more body dissatisfaction than did African American girls. Although pubertal status did not directly predict depression in either group, pubertal status significantly predicted body dissatisfaction among white girls in a linear regression analysis, which in turn predicted depressive symptoms.
Pubertal status failed to predict body dissatisfaction among African American girls, but body dissatisfaction significantly predicted depressive symptoms independent of pubertal status.
The girls were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory, the Body Dissatisfaction Scale, and the Pubertal Development Scale.
Tegaserod Therapy in Women With IBS
A large, international trial found that tegaserod was significantly more effective than placebo for irritable bowel syndrome with constipation.
Dr. Jan Tack, of the Centre for Gastroenterological Research, University of Leuven (Belgium), and coauthors worked with physicians from 20 countries to randomize 2,660 female patients; 2,135 received tegaserod (6 mg twice daily) and 525 took the placebo for the initial treatment phase of 1 month.
After a treatment-free interval, the researchers re-randomized 983 patients (488 tegaserod, 495 placebo) who qualified for repeated treatment because they responded to the first treatment and then had a recurrence of IBS symptoms (Gut 2005;54:1707–13).
The researchers found that patients treated with tegaserod had better work productivity and quality of life than did placebo patients during both the initial therapy and repeated treatment. The drug, marketed as Zelnorm by Novartis, was initially approved in 2002 for IBS with constipation in women.
Due to subsequent concerns about overuse, the label advises physicians and patients to “periodically assess the need for continued therapy.”
Drinking Tea May Cut Ovarian Ca Risk
Tea consumption appears to reduce a woman's risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer, reported Dr. Susanna C. Larsson and Dr. Alicja Wolk of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.
The researchers used dietary data collected from 66,651 Swedish women between 1987 and 1990 to examine a possible link between tea consumption and later development of ovarian malignancy.
They identified incident cases of invasive epithelial ovarian cancer that occurred over the intervening 14–17 years using a national cancer registry. A total of 301 of the women developed ovarian cancer.
Tea drinking was inversely correlated with the disease, so that the incidence of ovarian cancer decreased as the quantity of tea drinking increased. Women who drank at least two cups of tea daily showed a 46% lower risk of ovarian cancer than did those who did not drink tea (Arch. Intern. Med. 2005;165:2683–6).
These results closely replicate the findings of the Iowa Women's Health Study, which reported a 47% lower risk of ovarian cancer in women who drank tea weekly. “To our knowledge, the Iowa Women's Health Study is the only other prospective study that has examined the relationship between tea consumption and ovarian cancer risk,” Dr. Larsson and Dr. Wolk said. Polyphenols that are abundant in both green and black teas “have been extensively studied as cancer chemopreventive agents,” they added.
Catechins, theaflavins, thearubigins, and flavonols have been shown to inhibit carcinogenesis in laboratory and animal studies. It is possible that these polyphenols protect against cancer by their antioxidant effects. Some researchers have posited that they may also inhibit cell growth, induce apoptosis, or inhibit tumor angiogenesis, the investigators noted.
Puberty Feeds Body Dissatisfaction
Pubertal changes were more likely to trigger body dissatisfaction in white girls than in African American girls in a study of 331 girls, reported Tiffany Floyd, Ph.D., in a poster presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Previous studies have shown that body dissatisfaction during puberty is more common among girls than among boys—because pubertal changes conflict with the idealized image of the thin female—and that this increase in body dissatisfaction may promote depression.
However, additional research has shown that larger female body types are more desirable and acceptable among African Americans than they are among whites, wrote Dr. Floyd, of City College, New York, and her colleagues.
The study included girls in grades 4 through 9, with an average age of 12 years. Approximately 50% of the girls were African American.
Overall, white girls reported significantly more body dissatisfaction than did African American girls. Although pubertal status did not directly predict depression in either group, pubertal status significantly predicted body dissatisfaction among white girls in a linear regression analysis, which in turn predicted depressive symptoms.
Pubertal status failed to predict body dissatisfaction among African American girls, but body dissatisfaction significantly predicted depressive symptoms independent of pubertal status.
The girls were assessed using the Children's Depression Inventory, the Body Dissatisfaction Scale, and the Pubertal Development Scale.