A. The Many Causes
Of Osteoporosis
Narrator: This is Science Today. Osteoporosis,
a disease marked by an abnormal loss of bone density,
is most common in post-menopausal women genetically
prone to the disease. But UCLA specialist, Dr. Aurelia
(AH-RELL-EAH) Nattiv (NA-TEEV) says young women
should also be aware of the risks.
Nattiv: Especially women that have disordered
eating patterns. Not only the anorexic and bulimic
individuals, but also women who chronically diet
and the low weight and restrictive eating can lead
to significant bone loss at a young age which is
alarming because we don't have a good treatment
right now if they continue to stay at a lower weight.
Narrator: Other risk factors include over-exercising
which can lead to a loss of menstruation.
Nattiv: It's a low estrogen state that's
similar to the post-menopausal women and there's
an accelerated bone loss in this younger age group.
So not only do they have bone loss, but they may
never reach their peak bone density.
Narrator: Nattiv recommends women at high
risk have a bone density test; increase their calcium
intake and not over-exercise. For Science Today,
I'm Larissa Branin.
B. How To Combat Halitosis
Clark: Everyone has halitosis at some time
in their life.
Narrator: This is Science Today. Dr. Glenn
Clark of UCLA's School of Dentistry, says halitosis,
or bad breath, can be caused by a number of metabolic
disorders, such as diabetes or liver disease. But
the main culprit is plaque, which Clark says is
easier to control.
Clark: It's really this simple: Brush your
tongue until it's pink and floss your teeth until
it doesn't bleed. And if you do those things, then
generally, you control 90 percent of halitosis.
Cleaning the tongue, though, is not part of most
people's routine. And it's not that people don't
want to do it, it's that they don't see the connection.
Narrator: Another way to control halitosis
may be in the form of a soon-to-be developed hand-held,
bad breath detector.
Clark: I think it has real value because
it's a simple concept and you should be able to
sell people a breath analyzer that they can buy
like they buy a pocket calculator.
Narrator: Clark expects the UCLA clinic,
will receive the first prototype of such a device.
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C. A Dual Purpose Drug
For Schizophrenia
Narrator: This is Science Today. A drug
widely used to treat symptoms of schizophrenia,
including hallucinations, has also been found to
improve a patient's short-term memory. UCLA neuropsychologist
Michael Green says the drug is called risperidone
(RIS-SPEAR-A-DONE).
Green: We can't say it works for everybody.
We can say that when patients are treated with this
drug, on average, they do better on working memory,
than patients treated with a standard drug.
Narrator: And Green says such improvements
in cognitive function can greatly help these patients
get along in society.
Green: Let's say we didn't get much sleep
for a couple nights. Let's say we're taking prescription
medication that makes us groggy. Under those conditions,
we don't function very well, We're not as sharp,
we don't do well at work and we don't do as well
in maintaining the social context in our life. So
it's easy to imagine that if this was a stable and
constant problem, that we wouldn't be as effective
in our world.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
D. Is The Future Of
Health Care Just In Our Mind?
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers
now have concrete data that the brain, namely the
frontal cerebral cortex, has a lot to do with regulating
the immune system. Neuroscientist Marian Diamond,
of the University of California, Berkeley says her
laboratory findings offer much hope in the future
treatment of illness.
Diamond: We can save hundreds of billions
of dollars of people having all this medical care,
if they can learn to control their own immune systems
and keep healthy.
Narrator: Diamond's findings directly linked
the frontal cortex to the thymus gland, which produces
germ-fighting T-cells. Researchers have long suspected
such a link .
Diamond: When people get depressed, they
get sick. We've shown this and we've shown that
if we have animals living in enriched environments
with lots of objects to play with, lots of friends,
the cortex increases. so they're ways in which we've
got a big picture in what we're doing, but we're
trying to get a biological mechanism for what has
been known for centuries.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
E. Women In The Workforce:
A Wake-Up Call
Narrator: This is Science Today. Occupational
health experts at the University of California,
Davis found that women lawyers working 45 to 70
hours per week had a three-fold increase in miscarriage.
Dr. Mark Schenker says many of the women studied
felt they had to put off having a child in order
to succeed. And between high stress and increasing
age, Schenker says these women were at high risk
of miscarriage.
Schenker: What we seem to be doing is putting
the burden on the individual to say you have to
make a choice and it's either/or and we're not giving
you any support or flexibility in that regard.
Narrator: Instead, Schenker says the law
profession should be considering the health of its
workers.
Schenker: I don't think this is an either/or
situation. I think the message is this is an issue
of the health of women in the workforce and that
the institutions, the professions, need to look
at this as a way that addresses that. 0:15
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa
Branin.
