Wednesday, June 9.1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Health
Coffee may lower risk of gallstones
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — A few cups of regular coffee per day might help prevent gallstones.
A study found that men who drank two to three cups a day had a 40 percent lower risk of gallstones than those who did not drink regular coffee. Men who drank four or more cups a day had a 45 percent lower risk.
But hold the decaf: Only coffee with caffeine stimulates contractions in the gallbladder and lowers cholesterol in bile that can form painful gallstones.
Exactly why is unclear. Caffeinated tea and soda don't have the same effect, the researchers reported in the June 2 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.
"I wouldn't actually say we would recommend that people take up coffee just to prevent gallstones," said Dr. Michael F. Leitzmann of the Harvard University School of Public Health. "But it's OK to continue
drinking it. Coffee doesn't cause any other major diseases."
Leitzmann said lack of physical activity and being overweight are the two main causes.
Gallstones are painful deposits of cholesterol in the gallbladder, the organ under the liver that stores bile. They affect about 20 million Americans and cause 800,000 hospitalizations each year, researchers said.
The researchers followed 46,008 men from 1986 through 1996. The men, who were 40 to 75 in 1986, were participants in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which is looking at diet and lifestyle factors and their effect on diseases.
Dr. Thomas Magnuson, a professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University, has conducted animal research that reached similar conclusions about the link between coffee consumption and gallstones.
"But further research that is to be done to see what that link is and what it is in coffee that causes that relationship," Magnuson, said.
Breast cancer study released
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — A study of 37,000 women found that taking hormones after menopause does not increase the risk of breast cancer, except for some uncommon forms of the disease that are slow-growing and highly treatable.
Researchers said the findings are good news because they add to evidence that the benefits of hormone supplements outweigh any increased risk of breast cancer.
Millions of women take hormones to ease the symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes. The hormones are also known to reduce the risk of heart disease, brittle bones and possibly even mental decline.
Previous studies have indicated that women who take hormones — specifically estrogen — after menopause are more likely to develop breast cancer. Other studies have found no link.
This was the first hormone study to categorize cases of breast cancer according to whether they were
slow-growing or fast-growing.
"When a woman weighs the risk of breast cancer vs. the benefit of possibly reducing cardiovascular disease and reducing risk of osteoporosis, this just provides further evidence for the benefit," said Dr. Susan N. Gapstur, a cancer epidemiologist at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago who led the study.
The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
It may help explain the conflicting data in other studies and why hormone takers survive breast cancer more often than non-takers.
The researchers analyzed data on 37,105 subjects ages 55 to 69. From 1985 to 1996, a total of 1,520 cases of breast cancer developed among the women.
Women who took hormones and women who didn't had no difference in their risk of getting the fast-growing, life-threatening tumors that make up 85 percent to 90 percent of all cases of breast cancer.
Rite Aid sued for out-of-date supplies
The Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — Rite Aid, the nation's third-largest drugstore chain, stocked store shelves in California with expired condoms, baby formula and infant medications, prosecutors said yesterday.
Prompted by a consumer's complaint in January, investigators found more than 200 outdated products in about 50 of the chain's 660 stores in California. Some of the condoms were four years past their expiration date. Merced County District Attorney Gordon Spencer said.
"What is most astounding and disconcerting is that Rite Aid did not alert their customers," Spencer said, even as they bragged in commercials that customers were the kev to their success.
Prosecutors from Merced, Alameda and Santa Barbara counties and the city of San Diego filed a consumer protection lawsuit asking a judge to order Rite Aid to make restitution to victims and to pay civil penalties, which could run to $2.500 for each expired item sold.
Prosecutors had no reports of infants falling ill from outdated products, but they cautioned that formulas lose their nutritional value over time, and that condoms and spermicides lose their effectiveness after their expiration dates pass.
Rite Aid said its policy has always been to pull items off shelves 30 days before they expire; last month, that was changed to 60 days. Karen Rugen, a Rite Aid representative, said the company also posted signs advising customers that if they purchased expired infant formula, it would be replaced with fresh formula free of charge.
"We're surprised and disappointed that a handful of attorneys have decided to take this action, despite everything we have done since we were first informed of the incidents," Rugen said.
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