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The Danger Of Acetaminophen

It has long been known that too much acetaminophen can cause liver damage, but the alarming extent of the problem has just been documented. A new study has found that overdosing on acetaminophen, the most widely used non-prescription analgesic, was responsible for 39 percent of 308 cases of acute liver failure in the United States.

Most cases of liver toxicity from acetaminophen reported by the Acute Liver Failure Study Group, a consortium of 17 centers specializing in liver diseases, were accidental. Seventy-nine percent were women. "We don’t know if this is because women take more acetaminophen-containing drugs than men do, or if it’s because they are smaller," says Dr. William M. Lee, the principal investigator and professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

"We were surprised to find that the number of people with liver damage from acetaminophen was three times the cases involving other prescription drugs," Lee says. He cautions people to be careful of how much they take and read the labels of all over-the-counter products taken together. Mixing acetaminophen-containing medicines for cough, sleep and pain can add up to a dangerous dose. Most people in this study had taken more than 4,000 milligrams of the drug. The study of cases over a 41-month period was reported in the December 17, 2002 issue of The Annals of Internal Medicine.

Earlier last year, a preliminary report of this study’s findings prompted a US Food and Drug Administration committee to advise that over-the-counter products containing acetaminophen, such as Tylenol and other pain relievers and cough-and-cold remedies, carry a stronger warning label than they currently do.

Diet May Trigger Acne After All

For years, it was widely believed that certain foods, such as chocolate and French fries, made acne worse. Then, dermatologists said food didn’t cause pimples. Now, get ready for another about-face. According to a study in the December 2002 issue of the Archives of Dermatology, the Western diet may be a reason 79 percent to 95 percent of American teenagers have acne. Researchers spent seven weeks examining the skin and lifestyle of village people on Kitava island, Papua New Guinea. No acne was found in the more than 1,200 people studied, including 300 15- to 25-year-olds.

Unlike the typical modern teenagers of today, Kitava islanders are physically active and eat a low-fat (20%), high-carbohydrate (70%) diet of mostly roots, fruits and vegetables, which keeps their insulin levels low. The researchers found no acne in a group of 115 Ache people in Paraguay either. They also eat a low-glycemic diet, but don’t eat animal protein.

Studies have shown that when insulin levels in the blood peak, a series of hormonal events increases production of testosterone and several potent growth factors. Testosterone stimulates sebum, or oil, production in the pores. The growth factors cause an overgrowth of cells lining the pores, which creates a plug, keeping the oil in. "It’s like a balloon with no outlet that then becomes infected and causes acne," says Loren Cordain, a co-author of the study and a specialist in evolutionary medicine at Colorado State University. High-glycemic foods that increase insulin and are implicated in acne include white flour, sugar and potatoes – ubiquitous in the West, says Cordain. And about that chocolate and French fries? He says that it’s not the fat that’s the problem, it’s the sugar.

Even A Little Alcohol Can Impair Drivers’ Decision

With 38 percent of all traffic deaths involving alcohol, many states in the US have lowered the legal limit of alcohol in the blood to 0.08 percent. But is that low enough? A new study done at Texas A & M University found that drinking only one or two beers can significantly impair driving skills, especially one’s ability to make split-second decisions.

The study compared the driving performance of 19 men and women while they were sober and after they had drunk an alcoholic beverage that brought their blood-alcohol level to 0.04 percent, half the legal limits in some states. A 120-pound woman can reach the 0.04 percent level after only one beer; for 150-pound man, it may take two beers. The driving tests included recovery from a skid, steering, braking smoothly and several other maneuvers. The non-driving exercises involved balance, vision and reaction time tests. At a level of 0.04 percent, the drivers’ ability had declined significantly. Not surprisingly, their scores got worse as their blood-alcohol level increased.

The study demonstrates that a person doesn’t have to appear drunk to be a danger on the highway. "I’ve seen people who can pass the standard tests of walking a straight line for nine steps and standing on one leg (after drinking) and still not be able to drive well. They can still mess up in a decision-making situation," says Maurice E. Dennis, director of the Center for Alcohol and Drug Education Study at Texas A & M in College Station, Texas.

Diet Drinks Help Limit Weight And Blood Pressure

People who turn to artificial sweeteners to lose weight may be on the right track. For the first time, a long-term study comparing diet drinks and foods with those containing sugar found that overweight men and women consuming sugar, mostly in drinks, gained weight and their blood pressure increased. The comparison group that consumed artificial sweeteners lost a little weight, and their blood pressure remained stable. The findings were unexpected, report the researchers, because other studies have found that people who eat less sugar tend to eat more fat and so, are likely to gain weight. Research also shows that people who eat food flavored with saccharin gain weight.

For 10 weeks, nutrition researchers in Denmark supplemented the usual diets of 41 overweight people with either sucrose, mostly as beverages or with artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, acesulfame K, cyclamate and saccharine. The amounts of calories of fat and protein were the same. People in both groups took in more food and drinks over 10 weeks, but those in the sugar group consumed the most. At the end of the 10-week study, those in the sugar group gained about 3.2 pounds more on average than the sweeteners group.

According to Anne Raben and her colleagues at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Frederiksberg, the sugar group may have tipped the scales because calories in fluids are less satisfying than those in solid foods, making it easier to consume too many in sweet drinks.

Nuts Do Help The Heart (But Watch Your Waist)

Scientists learned more than a decade ago that eating nuts lowers the risk of heart disease, and since then, a number of studies have shown that almonds, walnuts, and peanuts help lower the amount of artery-blocking LDL cholesterol in the blood. The trouble is, nuts are also high in calories – and that has kept many experts from urging people to eat more nuts. But Canadian researchers decided to look at whether exchanging nuts for some other healthful snack would be worthwhile. The results came out strongly in favor of the nuts.

For three months, 27 volunteers, whose average age was 64, consumed the same amount of calories. For one month, their daily diet included a two-handful dose of almonds; another month, they ate a daily snack of a handful of almonds and half of a low-fat, whole-wheat healthy muffin; and during the third month, they had the full muffin snack every day and no nuts. The subjects had a two-week period between the months, during which they resumed their usual diets.

After one month of eating the full portion of almonds, the subjects’ LDL or so-called bad cholesterol decreased by 9.4 percent on average. One month after eating the half-dose of almonds and half a muffin, their LDL cholesterol dropped by 4.4 percent. There was no change in their cholesterol levels after a month of snacking on the healthy muffin and no nuts. None of the men and women gained or lost a significant amount of weight on any of the three diets.

The unsaturated fats in the nuts have been given most of the credit for lowering cholesterol but Dr. David J.A. Jenkins, director of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, says that the vegetable protein in almonds may also be cholesterol lowering. What’s not healthful, says Jenkins, the lead author, are nuts roasted in hydrogenated fats and coated with salt.