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A.
Why Hormone Replacement is Not an Effective Prevention
Treatment
Narrator:
For over a decade, many post-menopausal women have
considered hormone replacement therapy the best
way to combat some of the more dangerous effects
of growing old. But a new report indicates that
estrogen replacement may not be effective in preventing
problems like heart disease, Alzheimer's and fractures.
Dr. Deborah Grady of the University of California,
San Francisco, says there are many reasons why estrogen
therapy should not be prescribed for prevention.
Grady:
One, and most importantly, you're taking a totally
healthy person who feels well. Do you have any chance
of making her feel better? No, not much. But you can
make them feel worse and you can cause them to develop
adverse effects and side effects.
Narrator:
Grady adds
that prescribing estrogen widely is ineffective -
and risky.
Grady:
Everybody's at risk and only a few of them are going
to benefit. And for this reason I really think that
the benefits should be proven in the best form of
research, which is the randomized trial.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Researchers Study the Hazards of Underwater Quakes
and Landslides
Narrator:This
is Science Today. Landslide-generated tsunamis, as
opposed to those caused by earthquakes, were once
considered pretty rare. But recent evidence indicates
that an underwater landslide caused a deadly 30-foot
tsunami, which devastated coastal villages off Papua
New Guinea in 1998. Casey Moore, a professor of Earth
Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz,
explains that tsunamis occur when there are rapid
changes on the seafloor.
Moore:
And that rapid change can be brought about by movement
of an earthquake fault that might uplift it or down
drop it. Or also, a huge landslide can cause a tsunami
- a submarine slide where part of the Earth drops
down suddenly and when it does that, then the water
surface gets disturbed.
Narrator:
Moore is part of an international team
studying an area that generates the most powerful
submarine quakes.
Moore:
We're
trying to study geologic hazards and I think the public
needs to appreciate that these efforts need a consistency
of effort that's going to go on for decades.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
Better, Safer Treatments in the Works for Lupus
Narrator:
This is Science Today. Lupus is an autoimmune disease,
meaning it's a disorder in which the body's immune
system essentially turns against itself. The disease
affects over a million Americans, the majority of
whom are women. At the University of California, San
Francisco's Clinical Trials Center, associate director
John Davis is working on developing safer treatments
for lupus.
Davis:
We have some effective treatments today, however they're
associated with significant side effects. The most
severe is infertility in young women because of our
cytotoxic therapies, osteoporosis, increased infections
because of the suppression of the immune system.
Narrator:
So, Davis is working on ways to target lupus more
effectively, including a targeted therapy that blocks
a negative interaction between the immune system's
B and T cells.
Davis:
As technology gets more advanced and we learn more
about the specific genes that are causing certain
elements of lupus, we are going to be able to do so
much more for patients.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
The Health Benefits of Spiritual Inner-Peace
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A recent study from the University
of California, Berkeley found that people who attend
church regularly tend to live significantly longer
than those who do not. Dr. Doug Oman, the study's
author, says that all denominations showed a similarly
close link between church attendance and longevity
- with one notable exception.
Oman:
Those who practiced non-Western religions, they
were less likely to attend services frequently. But
they didn't seem to suffer as much statistically,
suggesting that perhaps they were getting some of
those coping benefits and inner-peace benefits in
some other way.
Narrator:
Oman says
that this may mean that the connection is between
health and what he calls "spiritual coping methods"
- rather than actual church attendance. He says this
could lead to health practices that are spiritual
- but not religious.
Oman:
If you have the impulse to reach for a cigarette you
could repeat that mantra or holy name and perhaps
that spiritual ideal would be a spiritual coping method
that could help improve your health behavior that
way.
Narrator:
For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E.
How a Major Surgery Could Possibly Be Avoided
Narrator:
This is Science Today. A third of American women reach
the age of sixty having had a hysterectomy. In this
country each year, 600 thousand hysterectomies are
performed - but nearly all of them for benign problems
such as uterine fibroids or excessive bleeding. According
to Dr. Alison Jacoby of the University of California,
San Francisco, many hysterectomies could be avoided
with the use of non-surgical treatments.
Jacoby:
All too commonly women are recommended for hysterectomy
when they could maybe with some medical treatment
bridge the gap to menopause and not need surgery.
Typically using birth control pills or progesterone.
Narrator:
Fibroids are benign lumps in the uterus that can cause
bleeding and discomfort. But Jacoby says they are
not dangerous and their symptoms can be easily treated
without surgery.
Jacoby:
In the beginning when a person comes in, even if she
has fibroids, if her symptom is heavy bleeding usually
we try to use hormones to lessen the flow.
Narrator:
For
Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
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