Courageous diplomat lauded
IT was Dr Feng Shan Ho (1901-97), Chinese consul-general in Vienna, who saved several thousand Jews in Nazi-occupied Austria from the Holocaust by issuing them with Chinese visas in 1938 and 1939.
Beating baldness with surgery
IT'S not uncommon for balding people to have a line of hair remaining at about the level of the ears.
Hospitals co-operate in neurology
RENJI Hospital announced last week it will be co-operating with the Shanghai Neural Studies Institute attached to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Heart attack risk not seen with fen-phen
CHICAGO - Dieters who took the since-recalled drug cocktail known as fen-phen raised their risk of developing a heart valve problem but were not at higher risk of suffering a heart attack, a study said on Tuesday.
A-Z of fashion from lgerdo
GUCCI shoes with Louis Vuitton bag or Christian Dior suit and Fendi bag... Which should it be?
Treatment for tired eyelids on tired eyes
EVERY woman knows wrinkles will first appear around her eyes. But do you know the reason?
Study links milk, ice cream to prostate cancer
SAN FRANCISCO - New data from a long-term study suggest a possible link between consumption of dairy products, including whole and skim milk, cheese and ice cream, and an increased risk of prostate cancer, researchers from Harvard School of Public Health said on Tuesday. "We are not recommending a drastic change in dietary intake of dairy products, but we did find a small to moderately increased risk," said Dr June Chan, research fellow at the school's department of epidemiology. Out of the 20,885 men tracked for 11 years in the Physicians' Health Study, 1,012 developed prostate cancer, she said. Based on dietary questionnaires, the investigators found a moderate elevation of risk of prostate cancer in men who consumed higher amounts of dairy products. Chan suggested it could be the calcium in dairy products that is responsible for the higher cancer risk. Calcium can suppress levels of the most active form of vitamin D. The study also found that men who drank more than six glasses of milk a week had lower levels of this potentially protective form of vitamin D than men who drank few than two glasses of milk a week. "There has been growing interest in the role of vitamin D and prostate cancer," Dr Donald Coffey from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore said. There has been speculation calcium may play a role in the progression of a localized cancer into a metastatic, or spreading, disease. Coffey noted that many men looking to cut their odds of getting the disease are taking vitamin E supplements and eating more tomatoes as "just in case" measures after recent research has suggested protective effects from lycopene, an antioxidant found in large quantities in tomatoes, and vitamin E. The Physicians' Health Study found that a high consumption of dairy products raised the risk factor for prostate cancer to about 1.3, or a 30 per cent increase. By comparison, smoking raises a person's risk of contracting lung cancer by 15-30 times. Chan noted that other studies, such as the Health Professionals Study of 1998, found a fairly strong link - about 3-4 times - between calcium supplements and prostate cancer risk. "Our study did not follow supplement consumption, but men who do not have an actual clinical need for supplements might want to be cautious," she said. Chan added that more research is needed to confirm these findings, and to clarify the underlying biological mechanisms, such as where in the disease process the calcium may be acting. (Agencies via Xinhua)
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