Vitamin C; mattress picks for low back pain; & other news

Judy Paley, MD

"We should really be focusing on healthy diets," says Dr. Marc Penn of the Cleveland Clinic. He goes on to add: "The concept of vitamin supplements to overcome bad dietary habits is not a valid thesis, at least with vitamin E and beta carotene." The trade association for the dietary supplement industry calls Dr. Penn's report "irresponsible, overinterpreted, and old news disguised as something new for publicity purposes." The last word on vitamin supplementation has clearly not yet been spoken. Read on below for the latest on vitamin C.

This information is intended to be general in nature and should not be relied upon for specific treatment. If you need medical attention, please contact your personal physician's office for an appointment.

C notes

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued guidelines regarding the use of antioxidants and cardiovascular health. Beta-carotene got a definite thumbs-down*, vitamin E received a neutral rating, and vitamin C got the no-good-evidence-for-this-one grade. New scientific findings suggest, however, that even blue ribbon panels need to reconvene and reassess at regular intervals.

London researchers sorted through blood samples from 1,214 old Brits. Those with the highest levels of circulating C (ascorbate) were half as likely to pitch over dead in the four years that followed compared to the C-deficient. Investigators were reluctant, however, to recommend dietary supplements as a way to pump up the seniors as previous studies on this strategy have been disappointing. Instead, they encouraged all of us, especially the elderly, "to maintain a diet rich in a variety of antioxidant micronutrients."

In a second study, data from 85,000 health professionals in the Nurses' Health Study was revisited, this time with regards to incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) and use of vitamin supplements. During 16 years of follow-up, women who used vitamin C supplements were nearly one-third less likely to develop CHD than were nonusers. But just to confuse matters further, there was no significant association between intake of vitamin C from diet alone and occurrence of CHD.

So cover all options. Take C, eat oranges.

*Doctors in Cleveland recently performed a meta-analysis on the use of beta-carotene supplements. This is one of those study of studies that combines many trials into one, allowing for the analysis of loads of patients and much data. Beta-carotene use was compared to none in over 140,000 people, and a significant increase in all-cause mortality was found in the active treatment group. Of particular note is the fact that cigarette smoke destabilizes the beta-carotene molecule making its use among smokers even more risky.

Vestra for Eeyore

"Good morning, Little Piglet," said Eeyore.
"If it is a good morning," he said.
"Which I doubt," said he.
"Not that it matters," he said.
-----A.A. Milne, "Winnie-the-Pooh"

Winnie-the-Pooh's pessimistic friend Eeyore could use a new attitude. A small study found that even a single dose of Vestra (reboxetine), a not-yet-released antidepressant, might set the gloomy donkey free from his negative world view. Researchers doled out a Vestra or a placebo pill to a group of healthy volunteers and put them through a series of tests involving emotionally charged word lists and pictures of facial expressions. The Vestra bunch was all over the cheery words and smiley faces whereas the control group showed no such preference.

Just what kind of silly science is this?

Spanish researcher eyes bedroom furnishings

Dr. Francisco Kovacs turned his bedroom eyes towards mattress quality and published the results of his study in this month's issue of The Lancet, a British medical Journal. If you are a firm believer in unyielding mattresses, you may want to soften your views. Nights spent on a medium-firm mattress--investigators used the European Committee for Standardization Scale to rate the bed improved self-assessed pain scores in patients with low back discomfort significantly better than hours spent snoozing on a board-of-a-bed. Participants assigned to the softer mattresses were twice as likely to report less pain in bed, less pain on rising, and less daytime disability.

Dr. Kovacs notes that a survey of orthopedic surgeons indicated that three out of four recommend a firm mattress to their low back pain patients. This now appears to be a hard act to follow.

Genes lead to tight jeans

Gad, what makes some of us so fat? Could it be that pesky GAD2? French scientists have discovered that one variant of the appetite-stimulating gene called GAD2 may play a role in the tendency to overeat. They scanned the whole darned genome of both obese and normal weight adults and identified two alleles of GAD2. One form of the gene protected against weight gain and the other promoted it.

GAD2, nestled on chromosome 10, speeds up the production of a protein called GABA, which stimulates the appetite center of the brain. Persons with the hyperactive form of GAD2 produce gobs of GABA in the hypothalamus which increases hunger. "The discovery that this one gene plays a role in determining whether someone is likely to overeat could be crucial in understanding the continued rise in obesity rates around the world," said lead researcher Professor Philippe Froguel.

Dr. Paley welcomes comments and questions at her femailhealthnews@aol.com address. For more information on her free weekly newsletters about women's health, go to www.femailhealthnews.com.