Womens Health - Archives

• Vitamins Reduce Aids Symptoms in Tanzanian Pregnant Women
  A steady diet of vitamin supplements worked to reduce symptoms of AIDS in a group of Tanzanian women who stayed with the regimen for more than five years, according to a news release from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences.
  Author: Jeremy Gruber - Date: July 19, 2004



• Multivitamins During Pregnancy and After Birth Delay Progression of HIV In Women
  Multivitamin supplements containing high doses of the vitamin B complex, as well as vitamins C and E, given to HIV-infected women during pregnancy and for more than 5 years after they gave birth reduced the symptoms of AIDS, according to a study of Tanzanian women supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, both of the National Institutes of Health. The supplements also bolstered counts of disease-fighting immune cells, and modestly lowered HIV levels in the blood.
  Author: Denise Villebrun - Date: July 15, 2004



• Vista Medical to introduce vitamin regimen for weight reduction surgery patients
  
  Vista Medical Technologies, Inc., today announced that it will introduce a line of vitamins, under the trademark VistaMins, at the 18th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS). VistaMins are specifically formulated to provide morbidly obese patients, who have undergone gastric bypass surgery, with a convenient method of maintaining compliance with their essential post-surgical vitamin regimen. VistaMins are endorsed and will be promoted by the entertainer Carnie Wilson, whose very successful weight loss following minimally invasive gastric bypass surgery in August 1999, has received considerable media attention and has been a source of inspiration to many morbidly obese people considering similar surgery.
  
  Alan C. Wittgrove, M.D., of the Alvarado Center for Surgical Weight Control in San Diego, who performed the surgery on Carnie Wilson, said, "the long-term success of gastric bypass surgery depends on maintaining lifestyle changes after surgery. The disciplined intake of a specific vitamin regimen is one of the key elements which contribute to ongoing health and success. The VistaMins formulation and convenient "daily dosage" packaging are designed to help patients and their doctors sustain and monitor compliance."
  
  John R. Lyon, President and CEO of Vista Medical Technologies, said, "The introduction of VistaMins is part of our strategy to extend our range of products and services for the surgical weight reduction market, which we entered last year with the Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgery (LBS) Program. There are now 18 participating LBS Centers providing minimally invasive gastric bypass surgery, supported by an omni-media patient awareness campaign developed by our partner Spotlight Health, and featuring Ms. Wilson. We believe that VistaMins, which will be made available to patients through participating surgeons as well as directly via the internet, will be a real contribution in aiding compliance with the mandatory vitamin regimen which patients are required to follow."
  
  Author: Sara Collin - Date: December 10, 2003



• UMDNJ researchers are testing nitroglycerin ointment
  Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) are testing a nitroglycerin ointment as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy to prevent osteoporosis in postmenopausal women.
  Author: Sara Collin - Date: December 10, 2003



• Oats offer benefit to blood vessel health in insulin-resistant adults
  A new study presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in San Francisco suggests that oats provide significant benefits to blood vessel health in insulin-resistant type adults. The study indicates that oats may improve endothelial function in both men and women who have abdominal obesity and high triglycerides, both of which are early features of the insulin resistance syndrome also known as Syndrome-X, a cluster of factors associated with diabetes and cardiovascular risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many as 47 million Americans may suffer from Syndrome-X.
  Author: Sara Collin - Date: December 10, 2003



• Folic Acid - A Healthy Start To Life
  On average two babies every month are born with a neural tube defect (NTD) in Northern Ireland, the most common of these being spina bifida. The Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland today launched a major public information campaign that highlights the importance of folic acid in helping to reduce the number of babies born with a NTD.
  Author: Sara Collin - Date: May 11, 2005



• Folate may play role in preventing breast cancer
  Building upon preliminary data, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have documented that high folate (vitamin B9) and vitamin B6 levels may improve a woman’s chances of preventing breast cancer. Additionally, researchers observed that adequate folate levels may be particularly important for women who are at higher risk of breast cancer due to higher alcohol consumption. The new findings are the latest results from the landmark BWH-based Nurses’ Health Study, and appear in the March 5 issue of The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
  Author: Sara Collin - Date: December 10, 2003



• High levels of vitamin A intake may increase risk of hip fractures in older women
  Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have found that long-term diets high in vitamin A may increase the risk of osteoporotic hip fractures in postmenopausal women. These findings are the latest results from the BWH-based Nurses Health Study and will appear in the January 2, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
  Author: Doug Murphy - Date: December 10, 2003



• Japanese discover first new vitamin in 55 years
  
  Japanese scientists have discovered a new vitamin that plays an important role in fertility in mice and may have a similar function in humans, the research leader said on Thursday.
  
  A research team led by Takafumi Kato confirmed that pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), a substance discovered in 1979, can be categorized as a vitamin.
  Mice deprived of PQQ suffer reduced fertility and roughened fur, the Tokyo-based Institute of Physical and Chemical Research said in a news release. Vitamins that have an important effect on mice usually act in the same way in humans, Kato said.
  
  "There are many possible factors behind the drop in fertility," Kato said. "We need more research to find out exactly what is happening to these mice and what would be the effect on humans."
  
  PQQ is the first new vitamin to be discovered since 1948, the institute said. Vitamins are defined as organic substances needed in small quantities for health and growth. They must be obtained from food as they cannot be produced by the body.
  
  
  Author: Sara Collin - Date: December 10, 2003