Researchers have a new clue about why a widely used AIDS drug has certain side effects such as mysterious fat deposits, they reported on Monday.

Parallels between the side effects of protease inhibitors -- a critical component of HIV drug cocktails -- and genetic conditions that cause early aging may help explain the often debilitating fat deposits and other results, they said.

Protease inhibitors can cause metabolic problems such as an unhealthy buildup of cholesterol in the blood, high blood pressure, and increased risk of diabetes.

They also trigger a condition called lipodystrophy -- a strange redistribution of body fat that gives some patients wasted cheeks and limbs, and a so-called "buffalo hump" of fat on the back of the neck.

Doctors have long been mystified by how protease inhibitors and other HIV drugs cause such effects, which occur in tens of thousands of drug takers worldwide, said Dr. Charles Flexner at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who was not involved in this study.

In an attempt to shed light on this, a group at the University of California Los Angeles and Purdue University in Indiana treated mouse and human cells with protease inhibitor, and found that they accumulated a particularly clumpy form of a protein called prelamin A.

The drug triggered this by blocking the action of another protein -- called ZMPSTE24 -- that converts prelamin A into its useful form, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cells with lower levels of ZMPSTE24 to begin with were particularly affected by the protease inhibitor.

Purdue University's Christine Hrycyna, who worked on the study, said that blocking this protein might contribute to the metabolic side effects of protease inhibitors.

Patients with early aging syndromes, including Hutchinson-Gilford progeria, have symptoms that mimic the side effects, and the same protein is clumped in their cells, said Hrycyna. But how this might affect metabolism is not clear, she said.

"The side effects are probably due not to just one simple thing," Hrycyna said.

"I think this paper may provide new insights into possible mechanisms for some of the side effects of protease inhibitors," added Flexner.

The researchers also tested some of the other drugs that are commonly used in AIDS cocktails, known as highly active antiretroviral therapy or HAART.

But the other drugs did not cause the same protein accumulation, even though they can cause similar side effects in people, the researchers wrote.

"They are probably due to a combination of all these different drugs," Hrycyna added.

The researchers now want to see if their theory holds true in HIV patients, and if versions of protease inhibitors that do not block ZMPSTE24 as much might cause fewer side effects in these patients.

The various anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, which are used to treat arthritis and other painful conditions, differ in the risks of heart attacks and stroke, according to a report in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. Much of the difference seems to depend on how the drug interacts with aspirin, which is commonly given to prevent heart attacks.

"Traditional NSAIDs, and ibuprofen in particular, do have the potential to interact with the effects of aspirin," Dr. Michael E. Farkouh from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York told Reuters Health. "For patients at high (risk of heart attack and stroke), this interaction is serious since these patients require aspirin to prevent" these cardiovascular problems.

Farkouh and associates investigated cardiovascular outcomes in high-risk patients with arthritis treated with ibuprofen, naproxen, or lumiracoxib. Their analyses were based on data for over 18,000 participants in the TARGET (Therapeutic Arthritis Research and Gastrointestinal Event Trial) study.

Among patients taking low-dose aspirin, the risk of death, heart attack, or stroke at 1 year was more common with ibuprofen than with lumiracoxib, the authors report, but did not differ significantly between naproxen and lumiracoxib.

Among patients not taking low-dose aspirin, there was no difference in outcomes between ibuprofen and lumiracoxib, the report indicates, but there were fewer cardiovascular events among those taking naproxen rather than lumiracoxib.

"For patients at high cardiovascular risk, naproxen is the drug of choice," Farkouh said. "It has the best overall safety record."

SOURCE: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, June 2007.

A protein in blood points to rising amounts of a particularly lethal form of body fat around organs, scientists say.

As levels of retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4) rise, so do levels of "inter-abdominal fat" linked to an increased risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the researchers say.

"Increased inter-abdominal fat is known to be associated with cardiovascular risk," said study co-author Dr. Barbara B. Kahn, chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston.

Reporting in the July issue of Cell Metabolism, her team noted that increased "deep belly" fat around organs has long been linked to an increased risk for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. "The regulation of this protein may tell us completely new information about what really causes type 2 diabetes," said Kahn, who is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

In the study, the researchers found that the amount of RBP4 in the blood accurately reflected the amount of fat surrounding the abdominal organs. That means that "RBP4 might be able to be used as a marker to indicate cardiovascular risk," Kahn said.

She stressed that RBP4 is not a cause of obesity. However, increased levels appear be associated with this particular type of abdominal-fat obesity.

In the study, Kahn and colleagues looked at biopsy samples of abdominal fat from 196 people. They found that more RBP4 is made in visceral (deep belly) fat compared with the subcutaneous fat that lies just beneath the skin. In addition, blood levels of RBP4 are greater in people who are obese. These people have double or triple the amount of RBP4 compared with normal-weight people.

"The gene expression of RBP4 is increased more in visceral adipose [fat] tissue -- the adipose tissue surrounding the internal organs -- than it is in the subcutaneous adipose tissue," Kahn said. So, levels of RBP4 are higher in people who have a so-called "visceral pattern" of obesity compared with people that have a subcutaneous pattern of obesity, she said.

In earlier research, Kahn's team also found that the levels of RBP4 were elevated in people with insulin resistance, people who are obese, and people with type 2 diabetes. This was also the case in healthy people with a family history of diabetes.

According to Kahn, there's ongoing research into drugs that could lower RBP4 levels.

But there's another tried-and-true means of lowering RBP4, she added.

"Levels can also be regulated by physical exercise," Kahn said. In prior research, her team showed that "people who benefited from an exercise program lowered their levels of serum RBP4 when they got more insulin-sensitive," she said.

Kahn had also shown in earlier research that teens who went on a low-carbohydrate diet along with an exercise program lowered their RBP4 levels.

One expert thinks that lowering RBP4 levels might help treat heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

"This study suggests that RBP4 can be a good biomarker to quantify visceral adiposity, which is closely linked to metabolic syndrome," said Dr. Tae-Hwa Chun, from the Department of Internal Medicine, Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University of Michigan. "This article also supports the notion that all the fats are not equal in their functions."

In experiments with mice, RBP4 decreases insulin sensitivity of muscle and liver tissue, which is considered a precursor to diabetes, Chun said.

"It is still not clear whether RBP4 regulates insulin sensitivity by controlling retinoic acid metabolism or by directly acting on muscle or liver cells," Chun said. "The drug Fenretinide, which is shown to lower RBP4 levels, has been already used as a chemotherapeutic agent for cancer. The side effects of the drug, however, need to be carefully weighed against its possible benefit for metabolic diseases."

In another report published in the same issue of the journal, a research team led by Bruce Spiegelman of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston identified a gene called PRDM16 that regulates the production of so-called "brown fat" in mice. Brown fat is a type of fat that actually generates heat and counters obesity caused by overeating.

"Brown fat is present in mice and in human infants, where it keeps them warm by dissipating food energy as heat, instead of storing it as 'white' fat," Spiegelman said in a prepared statement. "Human adults don't have much brown fat, but there is some, and from a therapeutic perspective, the question is whether that pathway can be reactivated."

The researchers hope their discovery will lead to new ways of treating obesity in humans.

Fewer high school students are having sex these days, and more are using condoms. The teen birth rate has hit a record low.

More young people are finishing high school, too, and more little kids are being read to, according to the latest government snapshot on the well-being of the nation's children. It's good news on a number of key wellness indicators, experts said of the report being released Friday.

"The implications for the population are quite positive in terms of their health and their well-being," said Edward Sondik, director of the National Center for Health Statistics. "The lower figure on teens having sex means the risk of sexually transmitted diseases is lower."

In 2005, 47 percent of high school students — 6.7 million — reported having had sexual intercourse, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate of those who reported having had sex has remained the same since 2003.

Of those who had sex during a three-month period in 2005, 63 percent — about 9 million — used condoms. That's up from 46 percent in 1991.

The teen birth rate, the report said, was 21 per 1,000 young women ages 15-17 in 2005 — an all-time low. It was down from 39 births per 1,000 teens in 1991.

"This is very good news," said Sondik. "Young teen mothers and their babies are at a greater risk of both immediate and long-term difficulties."

The birth rate in the 15-19 age group was 40 per 1,000 in 2005, also down sharply from the previous decade.

Education campaigns that started years ago are having a significant effect, said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based nonprofit group that focuses on prevention of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

"I think the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the efforts in the '80s and '90s had a lot to do with that," Wagoner said of the improved numbers on teen sex, condoms and adolescent births.

"We need to encourage young teens to delay sexual initiation and we need to make sure they get all the information they need about condoms and birth control," he said.

The report was compiled from statistics and studies at 22 federal agencies, and covered 38 key indicators, including infant mortality, academic achievement rates and the number of children living in poverty.

Other highlights:

_The percentage of children covered by health insurance decreased slightly. In 2005, 89 percent of children had health insurance coverage at some point during the year, down from 90 percent the previous year.

_The percentage of low birthweight infants (born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces) increased. It was 8.2 percent in 2005, up from 8.1 percent in 2004.

_More youngsters are getting reading time. Sixty percent of children ages 3-5 (and not in kindergarten) were read to daily by a family member in 2005, up from 53 percent in 1993.

_The percentage of children who had at least one parent working year round and full-time increased to 78.3 percent in 2005, up from 77.6 percent the previous year.

_More young people are completing high school. In 2005, 88 percent of young adults had finished high school — up from 84 percent in 1980.

The report was released by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics — a consortium of federal agencies that includes the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Census Bureau and the Administration for Children and Families.

In the month after a surprising analysis revealed possible heart risks from the blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, reports of side effects to federal regulators tripled.

The sudden spike is a sign that doctors probably were unaware of the drug's possible role in their patients' heart problems and therefore may not have reported many such cases in the past, several experts said.

It also shows the flaws of the safety tracking system and suggests that a better one might have detected a potential problem before the drug had been on the market for eight years.

Avandia is used to control blood sugar, helping more than 6 million people worldwide manage Type 2 diabetes, the kind that is linked to obesity. These people already are at higher risk for heart attacks, so news that the drug might raise this risk by 43 percent was especially disturbing.

In the 35 days after May 21, when the New England Journal of Medicine published the analysis on the Internet, reports of heart attacks, deaths and hospitalizations leaped. The sharp rise in reports of heart problems appears in data obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request to the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Only five heart attacks were reported in the 35 days before the study, compared with 90 in the same period afterward. Heart-related hospitalizations went from 11 to 126. The reports involve rosiglitazone, sold as Avandia and Avandamet.

Reporting a drug's side effects is voluntary, and only a crude indication rather than a scientific measure of how many problems patients are actually having. The FDA relies on this unenforced system once a drug is on the market. Critics say it leads to haphazard oversight in which problems can be missed because doctors don't connect the dots between a drug and symptoms they see in an individual patient.

With Avandia, the published analysis likely led to more cases being reported, said Vanderbilt University diabetes specialist Dr. Alvin C. Powers.

"Now, patients and their doctors are much more aware of the possible link between Avandia and cardiovascular disease. This is good — this is going to help us going forward to determine whether or not this drug is safe," he said.

The drug's manufacturer, British-based GlaxoSmithKline PLC, insists that the drug is safe and effective.

"This is a very well-known phenomenon," where news reports lead to increased reporting, said company spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne. "It's good that there's awareness of the reporting system, but drawing conclusions on such data is inappropriate."

The FDA plans hearings on safety concerns about the drug on July 30. In the meantime, diabetes experts have advised users of the medication to talk to their doctors and not to immediately discontinue it.

The side effects reported range from as minor as a blister to as serious as sudden cardiac death. Most of the reports the AP reviewed seemed to involve serious side effects, and rosiglitazone was listed by the FDA as the "primary suspect" rather than other medicines the patient may have been taking.

There was a total of only 50 adverse event reports in January and 73 in February. From April 16 to May 21, when the study was published, 121 events were reported, including 11 deaths. In the 35 days after the study, 357 events were reported, including 38 deaths.

"You really can't infer anything about incidence rates from that," because the spike in reports is likely due to the "publicity effect" of the study, said Dr. David Graham, an FDA drug safety expert.

Dr. David Nathan, chief of diabetes care at Massachusetts General Hospital, agreed, saying it was "not conceivable" that only five people among the 1 million Americans taking Avandia had heart attacks in the month preceding the May 21 study, as the FDA reports suggest.

"It just heightens the concern about the poor reporting we have," said Nathan, who has received speaker fees from Glaxo and other drug companies. Powers and Graham have no financial ties to any diabetes drug makers.

The issue has roiled the medical community and sparked congressional probes into whether the FDA is properly investigating safety issues. The FDA issued a "safety alert" about the drug only after the May 21 study came out, even though Glaxo had informed the agency of its own analysis of heart risks nearly a year beforehand and possibly as early as 2005.

Avandia's label warns about possible heart failure and other heart problems when taken with insulin. The drug also raises LDL, or bad cholesterol, and can cause fluid retention and weight gain.

China, reeling from a series of health scandals, told food and drug companies on Friday to put safety first and warned the growing problem could threaten social stability in the world's most populous nation.

The revelations have grabbed global attention after patients in Panama died from poisonous ingredients in medicine and pets died in the United States from substandard feed, while tainted Chinese toothpaste was found in Central America and elsewhere.

"Companies are the people with the first line of responsibility for food and drug safety, and must strengthen management, uphold the law in their operations, honestly follow regulations and guarantee safety," food and drug watchdog chief Shao Mingli said.

"Food and drugs are special products, and manufacturers and sellers cannot only go after economic gain," Shao told a work meeting, according to a statement on the watchdog's Web site (www.sda.gov.cn).

"Ensuring food and drink safety for the public is our unshirkable responsibility," he added.

This week, domestic media reported on dumplings found to have been stuffed with cardboard scraps and bogus rabies vaccines.

With the Beijing Olympics just over one year away, officials also said a specially developed food quality control system would be employed at 39 Olympic test events starting August 8.

Public fears about food safety grew in 2004, when at least 13 babies died of malnutrition in Anhui province, in eastern China, after they were fed fake milk powder with no nutritional value.

These incidents could provoke unrest, Shao said, echoing a warning given by a colleague last weekend.

"Food and drug safety is critical to the people's health and lives, and is critical for social stability and harmony," said Shao, whose predecessor, Zheng Xiaoyu, was executed on Tuesday for corruption.

"This issue can easily morph into a much larger one and directly affect the image of local governments and the state, affect social stability and harmony as well as socio-economic development," Shao added.

The growing list of food safety scandals has prompted the army to step up checks on where its rations come from, a state newspaper said on Friday.

The People's Liberation Army -- whose 2.3 million servicemen make it the world's largest military -- will only be allowed to order food from suppliers who pass local government hygiene and safety tests, the official China Daily said.

"To strengthen food safety is to guarantee the PLA's combat capacity," it quoted Zhou Pengjun, an official at the General Logistics Department, as saying.

Canteens have to install more dishwashers, food will be sampled regularly and most staff will not be allowed to share food from common dishes as is the usual custom in China, the report said.

The army has also pledged to share information with civilian food and safety officials, the newspaper added.

More than 120 people who ate from the same booth at the Taste of Chicago food festival last week became ill, at least nine of them with salmonella poisoning and 10 who were hospitalized, the health department said Thursday.

The Chicago Department of Health was investigating the cases and confirmed that nine were caused by salmonella bacteria. The number could increase because lab results are pending in some of the cases.

The 126 people all ate at the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth, which served cucumber salad over hummus, grilled lamb and beef, pomegranate barbecued chicken and baklava.

It was the first confirmed outbreak of a food-borne illness associated with the Taste of Chicago in at least 20 years, the health department said in a release. The 10-day outdoor festival, which ended Sunday, brings out food from more than 70 restaurants and concerts.

Mike Bambouyani, manager of Pars Cove, said the restaurant is cooperating with health officials to determine the cause of the outbreak.

Officials inspected the restaurant and were interviewing and testing restaurant workers who handle food. The bacteria could have been transmitted by food handlers or could have come from a food ingredient, officials said.

Salmonella can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections, especially in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline Plc's widely used drug for treating type 2 diabetes, increased the risk of heart death by 64 percent and the risk of heart attack by 43 percent, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The news about Avandia, also known as rosiglitazone, triggered a freefall in GSK's shares, which closed off more than 5 percent on the London Stock Exchange. The stock slide continued on the New York Stock Exchange, falling $3.67 per share, or more than 6 percent.

Glaxo said it strongly disagreed with the conclusions of the report, which was based on an analysis of other studies.

"Unfortunately, rosiglitazone appears to increase, rather than decrease, the most serious complication of diabetes, heart disease," Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nissen and colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic analyzed 42 clinical trials involving close to 28,000 patients and said more than 65 percent of the deaths among diabetic patients in the trials of the drug could be attributed to heart disease.

"Unless this can be refuted, which I rather doubt, then this is going to seriously damage one of the cornerstones of Glaxo going forward," said Paul Diggle, an industry analyst at Nomura Code Securities in London.

But Glaxo disagreed. "GSK stands firmly behind the safety of Avandia when used appropriately, and we believe its significant benefits continue to outweigh any treatment risks," the company said in a statement.

CALL FOR FDA ACTION

In a commentary accompanying the study, Dr. Bruce Psaty of the University of Washington and Dr. Curt Furberg of Wake Forest University called for U.S. regulators to take action, saying, "...the rationale for prescribing rosiglitazone at this time is unclear."

"Unless new data provide a different picture of the risk-benefit profile, regulatory action by the Food and Drug Administration is now warranted," they wrote.

Avandia was approved by the FDA in 1999 to help patients with diabetes keep blood sugar levels within safe limits. Since then, 60 million prescriptions have been written for the drug, the researchers said. It has annual sales worth $3 billion.

The findings are based on analysis of published data from clinical trials that compared the risk of heart attack and heart disease-related death in patients on Avandia with patients who took a placebo or other diabetes drugs.

"The results of this analysis raise serious concerns about the cardiovascular safety of rosiglitazone," Nissen said in a statement.

He said the study was limited because it did not include access to original data, which would have shown how long it took for patients to have a heart-related problem.

Nevertheless, he said the analysis raised a red flag.

"Patients and providers should consider the potential for serious adverse cardiovascular effects of treatment with rosiglitazone for type 2 diabetes," Nissen said.

Diabetes is caused by high levels of blood sugar or glucose when the body experiences defects in the production of insulin, or in the way cells use insulin. This in turn allows too much glucose to enter the body's cells.

Patients with diabetes are at higher risk of heart disease, kidney failure, nerve damage, blindness and other eye diseases.

In February, GlaxoSmithKline warned U.S. doctors that the drug increased the risk of bone fractures in the feet and upper limbs.

Avandia competes with Merck & Co. Inc.'s Januvia, the first in a new class of diabetes drugs that the U.S. company has already been promoting as superior to Avandia, and with Actos, a drug made by Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd..

Nearly 21 million people in the United States have diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with type 2 diabetes accounting for up to 95 percent of the cases.

(Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler in London)

The widely prescribed diabetes drug Avandia is linked to a greater risk of heart attack and possibly death, a new scientific analysis revealed, and the U.S. government issued a safety alert Monday.

The Food and Drug Administration urged diabetics taking the pill to talk to their doctors, but stopped short of forcing a sharper warning label on the drug sold by GlaxoSmithKline PLC of London.

More than 6 million people worldwide have taken the drug since it came on the market eight years ago. Pooled results of dozens of studies revealed a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack, according to the review published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Experts said the overall risk was small and cautioned people not to stop taking the drug on their own but to talk to their doctors.

The company downplayed the report of heart risks, saying the analysis by Dr. Steven Nissen and statistician Kathy Wolski at the Cleveland Clinic is not definitive scientific proof. In a conference call Monday, Dr. Lawson McCartney who leads Glaxo's diabetes drug development, said the company is not seeing "anything like" the problems reported in the medical journal.

"We remain very confident in the safety and of course in the efficacy of Avandia as an important diabetic medicine," McCartney said.

The government will take no immediate action on a label change or other measures regarding the drug, said Dr. Robert J. Meyer of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Some data suggests "that there is a potentially significant increase in the risk" but there also is risk if patients switch drugs or do not keep their blood-sugar under control, an FDA statement says.

FDA officials acknowledged that Glaxo submitted information last August indicating some increased risk from the drug but that other studies were contradictory. However, several members of Congress expressed alarm and said they would hold hearings on the safety issues.

Avandia is used to treat Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, which is linked to obesity and afflicts 18 million Americans and 200 million people worldwide. This form of diabetes occurs when the body does not make enough insulin or cannot effectively use what it manages to produce.

Avandia helps sensitize the body to insulin and was considered a breakthrough medication for blood-sugar control.

Worried patients should not quit Avandia on their own and should discuss concerns with their doctors, wrote Drs. Bruce Psaty and Curt Furberg in an editorial in the New England Journal. Psaty is with the University of Washington in Seattle and Furberg is with Wake Forest University.

However, to the extent that the new analysis shows valid risks, the drug "represents a major failure of the drug-use and drug-approval processes in the United States," they said.

When the drug was approved, "evidence was at best mixed" on its benefit, wrote the two doctors. Both have been frequent critics of the FDA's failure to spot dangers in the drug approval process and its conduct in the case involving Vioxx. The popular arthritis medicine sold by Merck & Co. was taken off the market in 2004 when heart problems came to light after it had been taken by millions of people

Several experts said Avandia was another example of the FDA failing to detect a safety problem early enough.

Glaxo's shares trading in the United States fell $3.85, or 6.6 percent, to $53.89 in afternoon trading.

The report on the diabetes drug's risks follow Glaxo's $2.5 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer over the release of data on the safety and effectiveness of its drugs. Spitzer, now New York governor, accused Glaxo of fraudulently withholding some results of studies that had examined the safety of prescribing the antidepressant Paxil to children.

GlaxoSmithKline disputed that it attempted to mislead anyone, and said it has always been in favor of widespread disclosure of clinical trial results.

The company's clinical trials registry (http://ctr.gsk.co.uk) is available to the public, although the reports within it are highly technical and may appear incomprehensible to an untrained reader.

Despite questions as to whether early screening for prostate cancer is accurate, new research suggests it continues to be important.

And even more encouraging news indicates that statins, drugs designed to lower cholesterol, might also reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer. Both sets of findings were presented Sunday at the American Urological Association's annual meeting, in Anaheim, Calif.

Screening for prostate cancer has become controversial, particularly the issue of whether a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test is useful as an early detector of malignancy. Two studies presented at the conference indicate it is still worthwhile to have such a test.

In one study, Dr. Hans Lilja, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and colleagues found that PSA testing of men in their 40s was predictive of developing prostate cancer later. In fact, the higher the initial PSA, the greater was the probability that the cancer would be aggressive, the research showed.

As recently as last month, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that PSA tests "perform poorly in distinguishing between those who develop a lethal prostate cancer from those at low or no risk of disease progression."

But among the patients in the Sloan-Kettering study, risk for prostate cancer was concentrated, with 89 percent of advanced cancers occurring in men with the top 10 percent of PSA levels, the researchers found.

Lilij thinks that men should have an initial PSA test when they are in their 40s rather than waiting. "It is surprising that this marker can predict cancer 20 years later," he said. "We should focus our efforts on those men who are on the highest risk for cancer."

Another study found that among patients who had a radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate and some of the tissue surrounding it), those who had been screened for prostate cancer were more likely to have malignancy confined to the prostate, compared with men who had not been screened.

"Patients should be screened," said lead researcher Dr. Alexandre E. Pelzer, from the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria. "Screening reduces mortality from prostate cancer by 50 percent in our part of Austria, where screening is done, compared with other parts of the country where it isn't," he said.

Another debate in prostate cancer care is whether patients diagnosed with the disease should be treated immediately or whether watchful waiting is best.

In one study, Dr. Marc A. Dall'Era, and colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, found that it was not possible to predict how fast the cancer would progress among the study subjects who had what was termed low-risk prostate cancer.

In the study, more than 400 men had their cancer watched monthly. "Among the men on active surveillance, about 28 percent progressed," Dall'Era said. "Over five years, none of the men died from prostate cancer," he added.

Men who opted for treatment were those who had the highest grade tumors, Dall'Era added.

In another study, Dr. Bradley A. Erickson, from Northwestern University, and colleagues collected data on 347 older men who selected watchful waiting. Among these men, 36 percent showed progression and/or underwent secondary treatment. Overall mortality was 30 percent, with 8 percent dying from prostate cancer.

"Men who were more likely to die were those with higher PSA and those whose cancer progressed," Erickson said. "This is the first study to that gives us a natural history of PSA screening."

In a second group of studies, researchers presented evidence that statins might reduce prostate cancer risk.

In the first report, Dr. Janet Colli, and colleagues from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, were able to make an association between declining prostate cancer rates in the United States and statin use.

The researchers said they found the declining death rates were most noticeable among white men who used statins. "There was a very strong correlation between declining prostate cancer mortality rates and declining high cholesterol levels in white males," Colli said.

Colli thinks statin use may be one reason for this decline in prostate cancer mortality. "Future studies are needed to determine the effect of statins on prostate cancer," she said.

In a second study, a research team led by Dr. Robert J. Hamilton, from Duke University Medical Center, found statins lower PSA levels. "In 1,200 men, we found an average 4.1 percent decline in PSA after starting their statin," Hamilton said. "The PSA dropped more if the patient was on a higher dose of a statin."

Moreover, men whose PSA was highest saw the greatest drop in PSA levels after starting statins, Hamilton said. "These men had an average of a 15 percent drop in their PSA," he noted.

Hamilton said studies need to be done to see if statins actually protect against prostate cancer. He added the concern that statins may not prevent cancer, but rather mask the malignancy through the decline in PSA levels, so some prostate cancers may go undiagnosed.

In a third study, a group headed by Dr. Teemu J. Murtola from the University of Tampere, Finland, collected data on 78,484 Finnish men between the ages of 55 and 67.

They found that there were fewer cases of prostate cancer among men who used statins. "There was a dose-dependent reduction in prostate cancer among users of statins, but not among users of other cholesterol drugs," Murtola said. "The overall risk of prostate cancer was around half of that of non-statin users."

In addition, Murtola's team found that PSA levels were also lower among study subjects without cancer who used statins.

"The association of statins with the reduced risk of prostate cancer should be made known to men taking statins," Murtola said.

As a capable young woman, Casey Han felt compelled to choose respectability and success. But it was glamour and insight that she craved. A Korean immigrant who'd grown up in a dim, bluecollar neighborhood in Queens, she'd hoped for a bright, glittering life beyond the workhorse struggles of her parents, who managed a Manhattan dry cleaner.

Casey was unusually tall for a Korean, nearly five feet eight, slender, and self-conscious about what she wore. She kept her black hair shoulder length, fastidiously powdered her nose, and wore winecolored lipstick without variation. To save money, she wore her eyeglasses at home, but outside she wore contact lenses to correct her nearsightedness. She did not believe she was pretty but felt she had something—some sort of workable sex appeal. She admired feminine modesty and looked down at women who tried to appear too sexy. For a girl of only twenty-two, Casey Han had numerous theories of beauty and sexuality, but the essence of her philosophy was that allure trumped obvious display. She'd read that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis advised a woman to dress like a column, and Casey never failed to follow that instruction.

Seated in the spacious linoleum-covered kitchen of her parents' rent-controlled two-bedroom in Elmhurst, Casey looked out of place in her white linen shirt and white cotton slacks—dressed as if she were about to have a gin and tonic brought to her on a silver tray. Next to her at the Formica-topped table, her father, Joseph Han, could've easily passed for her grandfather. He filled his tumbler with ice for his first whiskey of the evening. An hour earlier, he'd returned from a Saturday of sorting laundry at the Sutton Place drop shop that he ran for Mr. Kang, a wealthy Korean who owned a dozen dry-cleaning stores. Joseph and his daughter Casey did not speak to each other. Casey's younger sister, Tina—a Bronx Science Westinghouse finalist, vice president of the Campus Christian Crusade at MIT, and a premed—was their father's favorite. A classical Korean beauty, Tina was the picture of the girls' mother, Leah, in her youth.

Leah bustled about cooking their first family dinner in months, singing hymns while Tina chopped scallions. Although not yet forty, Leah had prematurely gray hair that obscured her smooth pale brow. At seventeen, she'd married Joseph, who was then thirty-six and a close friend of her eldest brother. On their wedding night, Casey was conceived, and two years later, Tina was born.
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Now it was a Saturday night in June, a week after Casey's college graduation. Her four years at Princeton had given her a refined diction, an enviable golf handicap, wealthy friends, a popular white boyfriend, an agnostic's closeted passion for reading the Bible, and a magna cum laude degree in economics. But she had no job and a number of bad habits.

Virginia Craft, Casey's roommate of four years, had tried to convince her to give up the habit that taxed her considerably while she sat next to her brooding father. At the moment, Casey would've bartered her body for a cigarette. The promise of lighting one on the building roof after dinner was all that kept her seated in the kitchen—her bare foot tapping lightly on the floor. But the college graduate had other problems insoluble by a smoke. Since she had no job, she'd returned to her folks' two-bedroom on Van Kleeck Street Seventeen years earlier, in the year of the bicentennial, the family of four had immigrated to America. And Leah's terror of change had kept them in the same apartment unit. It all seemed a bit pathetic.

From the book FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES by Min Jin Lee. Copyright (c) 2007 by Min Jin Lee.

Old-fashioned barbershops are few and far between. For a shop in Roanoke, it's time to say good-bye to the old and make way for the new.

After nearly 40 years, it's as if time has stood still at the Highland Park Barbershop in the historic Old Southwest neighborhood. Randy Leftwich grew up in the neighborhood. He received his first haircut at the shop. That's why he doesn't want to see it go.

But Melinda Kantor wants to give the place a facelift. She wants to move her skin care consulting business into the building. "Skin care is the way of the future, everyone needs to have sun protection every day. That is something I can get out there and preach. Hopefully I can help. I already have clients in the neighborhood, hopefully more will come my way," says Kantor.

Many community members have been fighting the change. However, a petition against Kantor was unsuccessful. The Roanoke Zoning Board approved Kantor's application six to one.

Kantor says she's elated and can't wait to start making some changes. She plans to close her current business in a month. Kantor hopes to have renovations complete in the new building by mid-Summer.

Skin care is not to be taken lightly, especially when it comes to getting older. Skincare-News.com's latest article, "Two of a Kind in Anti-Aging Skin Care: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Aging", explains the phenomenon of not just one, but two types of aging.

If these terms don't sound familiar, the concepts are pretty simple to grasp:

In a nutshell, intrinsic aging happens naturally in the aging process. This aging begins in our mid-20s. Extrinsic aging happens when the skin is exposed to outside factors, such as excessive sun exposure.

While intrinsic aging can't be avoided, extrinsic aging is one that everyone should be very aware of:

Extrinsic aging is one of the main contributors to premature aging and the chances of this happening to someone in entirely in that person's hands. The majority of premature aging is caused by sun exposure. Even just the smallest amounts of sun on unprotected skin can result in freckles, age spots, spider veins, fine lines and wrinkles and rough, leathery skin.

Anti-aging products help out greatly in preserving youth but the age old preventive measures also apply:

To prevent extrinsic aging, avoid tanning in salons or out in the sun, wear protective clothing and try to avoid being out in the sun during 10:00am and 4:00pm when the sun's rays are strongest. If the latter is impossible, then be sure to apply sunscreen no matter what season it is.

According to the Skincare News Team's sources, it is possible to age gracefully, whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic, as long as a good daily skin care regimen is implemented along with the best anti-aging and sun care products.

Skincare-News.com covers all skincare and beauty topics from head to toe. Check out these latest articles:
"Skin Care & Beauty Basics - Part 1: Get to First Base…Foundation, That Is"

http://www.skincare-news.com/articles.php?ArtID=257

Too many women are intimidated by makeup and skin care. They say practice makes perfect so why not give it a shot? Put your makeup fears aside and check out these tips to help you get the flawless look you've been craving.

"Growing Impatient With the Hands of Time"
http://www.skincare-news.com/articles.php?ArtID=254

Do you feel as if you have done everything you can to improve your skincare, and yet you are still battling the years on your skin? Your problem may be solved more simply than you think!

"The Aging Neck…Skincare's Forgotten Frontier!"
http://www.skincare-news.com/articles.php?ArtID=258

Ever notice how the older we get the more often we choose a scarf or turtleneck to wear? Let's be honest, we're not doing it to be fashion forward. From now on, let's solve the problem of that aging neck, and not by hiding it behind knit and silk. Read this article and find out a few ways other than plastic surgery to start sporting a firm, beautiful, and glowing neck. Who wants to look like a turkey, when you can look like a swan?

"Skin Care & Beauty Basics - Part 3: How to Be a Powder Puff Girl!"
http://www.skincare-news.com/articles.php?ArtID=260

Powder is the finishing touch after applying the rest of your makeup. Read on to see how you can make the most out of the powder you use and learn tips to help you get it right every time.

About SkinCare-News.com -- Your Source for Intelligent Skin Care
Skincare-News.com is the online source for consumers seeking intelligent beauty and skin care news, advice, tips and articles. Founded in 2005, SkinCare-News.com features articles, news items and frequently asked questions on skincare and beauty related issues. SkinCare-News.com is located in Sacramento, California but receives visitors from all around the world. For more information, visit http://www.skincare-news.com.