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El Paso, Texas Planned Parenthood May Shift HIV/AIDS Programs To Other Organizations To Refocus Its Services
The Planned Parenthood Center of El Paso has begun to refocus its services on family planning and women"s health, and likely will shift its HIV/AIDS support programs to other providers that specialize in such services, according to the local agency"s board president, the El Paso Times reports. According to the agency, 56 percent of the center"s budget was earmarked for HIV/AIDS programs, while 30 percent was for family planning and primary health care. Lynn Salas, board president of the El Paso Planned Parenthood, said, "The [Planned Parenthood Federation of America] felt our AIDS/HIV programs had grown so much we were not focusing enough on the core mission, and we began in mid-March to plan the changes we are still working out" (Valdez, El Paso Times, 6/3).
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Thousands Of Older People Dying Prematurely From Cancer, Say Researchers
As many as 15,000 people over 75 could be dying prematurely from cancer each year in the UK, according to research presented today at the National Cancer Intelligience Network (NCIN) conference.
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Health Warning After Lancashire Workers Catch Legionnaires' Disease, UK
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies in Lancashire to ensure they carry out regular, simple checks to protect employees from Legionnaires" disease.
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Hope For Treatment Of The Metabolic Syndrome Offered By Natural Hormone

Angiotensin 1-7, a hormone in the body that has cardiovascular benefits, improves the metabolic syndrome in rats, according to a new study. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society"s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. "No specific form of medical therapy for the metabolic syndrome presently exists," said the study"s lead author, Yonit Marcus, MD, a PhD student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. "But an estimated 20 to 25 percent of the world"s adult population has the metabolic syndrome." The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that raise the risk of developing heart disease, stroke and diabetes. A diagnosis of the metabolic syndrome comes from having at least three of the following: increased waist circumference (abdominal obesity), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, high triglycerides (fats in the blood), high blood pressure and high blood glucose (blood sugar). The renin-angiotensin system and its key player, the hormone angiotensin II, normally help control blood pressure, but when overactive, this hormone likely contributes to the development of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. A product of angiotensin II metabolism, a hormone called angiotensin 1-7, counteracts many of the negative effects of excess angiotensin II, including high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms), according to Marcus. With the other researcheres, Marcus examined whether angiotensin 1-7 has a beneficial effect on the metabolic syndrome, using an established model of the syndrome, "the fructose-fed rat." In this model, rats are fed a diet heavy in fructose sweetener, and over time they develop similar characteristics to the human metabolic syndrome. One month of treatment with angiotensin 1-7, administered by an infusion pump, did not affect body weight in the fructose-fed rats. However, treatment did significantly lower the high fasting insulin levels that the fructose diet raised, the investigators reported. Angiotensin 1-7 also significantly improved components of the metabolic syndrome, by greatly decreasing triglycerides and blood sugar levels, compared with those of control rats that received no angiotensin 1-7 treatment. "These results offer a new potential hope to treat the metabolic syndrome," Marcus said. Aaron Lohr The Endocrine Society


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