Press Releases Saturday 14 November 1998
No 7169 Volume 317
Please remember to credit the BMJ as source when publicising
an
article and to tell your readers that they can read its full text on
the
journal's web site (http://www.bmj.com).
If your story is posted on a website please include a link back to
the source BMJ article (URLs are given under titles).
(1) NUT EATERS HAVE GOOD HEARTS
(2) WHO IS
TO BLAME WHEN PATIENTS ARE DENIED EXPENSIVE
TREATMENTS?
(3) PAINFUL
BIRTHS FOR BABIES COULD LEAD TO VIOLENT
SUICIDE IN ADULTHOOD
(1) NUT EATERS HAVE GOOD HEARTS
(Frequent nut consumption and risk
of coronary heart disease in women:
prospective cohort study)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/317/7169/1341
Eating nuts on a regular basis can help to reduce risks of coronary
heart
disease, according to a paper published in this week's BMJ. Dr
Frank Hu
and colleagues from Harvard School of Public Health studied the effects
of
eating nuts on over 86,000 (86,016) women aged 34 to 59 years of age
in the
USA from 1980 - 90.
Over this 10 year period the researchers found that those women who
ate
nuts more than five times a week were around a third (35 per cent)
less
likely to suffer from coronary heart disease. Even after taking
account of
other confounding factors (such as general diet and exercise) they
found
that the reduction was still significant.
Hu et al suggest that the protective effect of nuts may be due to the
unsaturated fats that they contain which have beneficial effects on
serum
lipids which in turn help to reduce cholesterol. They also suggest
that
other potentially protective constituents in nuts include vegetable
protein, magnesium, vitamin E and potassium. They conclude that
nuts can
be included as part of a healthy diet.
Contact:
Dr Frank Hu, Research Associate,
Department of Nutrition,
Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston, USA
email: Frank.Hu{at}channing.harvard.edu
Frank.Hu{at}channing.harvard.edu Frank.Hu{at}channing.harvard.edu
(2) WHO IS TO BLAME
WHEN PATIENTS ARE DENIED EXPENSIVE
TREATMENTS?
(Primary care groups and the right
to prescribe)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/317/7169/1361
Christopher Newdick from the Department of Law at the University of
Reading
writes in this week's BMJ that since the NHS began, general practitioners
(GPs) have had a duty under their Terms of Service to prescribe medicines
to their patients on the basis of need. But with so many new
and expensive
drugs available he warns that the new primary care groups will have
to
operate within cash limits and therefore some patients will have to
go
without.
Newdick ponders the legal position for GPs: what is the
nature of their
duty to prescribe expensive medicines when the cost of doing so would
exceed their imposed budget and moreover, who is to blame when patients
are
denied access to expensive medicines? Newdick says that the UK
Government
White Paper entirely avoids this issue and he feels that "..pressurising
the Government to make a positive contribution to this debate is
irresistible".
Contact:
Christopher Newdick, Reader in Health Law,
Department of Law,
University of Reading,
Reading Berkshire
email: c.newdick{at}reading.ac.uk
(3) PAINFUL BIRTHS FOR
BABIES COULD LEAD TO VIOLENT
SUICIDE IN
ADULTHOOD
(Obstetric care and proneness of
offspring to suicide as adults:
case-control study)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/317/7169/1346
Minimising pain and discomfort for an infant during birth seems to be
of
importance in reducing the risk of committing suicide by violent means
in
later life, claim a team of researchers from Sweden in this week's
BMJ.
Professor Bertil Jacobson and Professor Marc Bygdeman from the Karolinska
Institute studied 645 babies born in Sweden between 1945 and 80, of
whom
242 had gone on to commit suicide by violent means as adults between
1978
and 95.
They discovered that off-spring who subsequently committed suicide were
more likely to have been exposed to birth complications and were subjected
to twice as many interventions at birth than their siblings.
They also
found that the mothers of these babies were, on average, given fewer
painkillers.
The authors conclude that obstetric procedures should be chosen to minimise
pain and discomfort to the infant if an increased risk of suicide by
violent means is to be avoided, but that their findings need further
corroboration.
Contact:
Professor Bertil Jacobson,
Department of Medical Engineering,
University Hospital,
Huddinge, Sweden
email: bertil.jacobson{at}labtek.ki.se
FOR ACCREDITED JOURNALISTS
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London WC1H 9JR
(contact Jill Shepherd;pressoffice{at}bma.org.uk)
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Advancement of Science
(http://www.eurekalert.org)
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