Safety concerns have reduced the number of women on hormone replacement therapy,

Flaxseed for Menopausal Discomfort

Safety concerns have reduced the number of women on hormone replacement therapy, but flaxseed is rich in phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) that can take the heat out of hot flashes. At Laval University in Quebec, Canada, researchers gave 25 menopausal women HRT or flaxseed (1.4 ounces per day, mixed into food). After six months, flaxseed relieved hot flashes as effectively as HRT.

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VITAMIN B6 (Pyridoxine) Needed to produce hydrochloric acid

VITAMIN B6 (Pyridoxine) Needed to produce hydrochloric acid. Aids in absorption of fats, and protein. Mildly diuretic, helps prevent kidney stones. Helpful in treating allergies, arthritis, and asthma. HERBAL SOURCES: Alfalfa, catnip, oat straw.

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Echinacea Interactions with Drugs

Interactions 

Most herbs and supplements have not been thoroughly tested for interactions with other herbs, supplements, drugs, or foods. The interactions listed below are based on reports in scientific publications, laboratory experiments, or traditional use. You should always read product labels. If you have a medical condition, or are taking other drugs, herbs, or supplements, you should speak with a qualified healthcare provider before starting a new therapy
Echinacea  Interactions  with Drugs

Natural medicine practitioners sometimes caution that echinacea may lead to liver inflammation. There is not clear information from laboratory or human studies in this area. Nonetheless, caution should be used when combining echinacea by mouth with other medications that can harm the liver. Examples of such agents include anabolic steroids, amiodarone, methotrexate, acetaminophen (Tylenol®), and antifungal medications taken by mouth (such as ketoconazole). Echinacea may affect the way certain drugs are broken down by the liver.

In theory, echinacea's ability to stimulate the immune system may interfere with drugs that suppress the immune system (including azathioprine, cyclosporine, and steroids such as prednisone). Because clear human studies are lacking, people taking these drugs should consult a healthcare professional or pharmacist before using echinacea.

Based on one vague case report, taking echinacea along with amoxicillin may cause life-threatening reactions. However, the details of this case are not very clear.

Early information suggests that the use of echinacea with econazole nitrate cream (Spectazole®) on the skin may lower the frequency of vaginal yeast infections after treatment.

Many tinctures contain high levels of alcohol, and may cause nausea or vomiting when taken with metronidazole (Flagyl®) or disulfiram (Antabuse®).

Echinacea may also interact with anesthetics, antineoplastics, and caffeine. However, these potential interactions are not fully understood.

Exposures to the tobacco smoke

Old tobacco smoke does more than simply make a room smell stale — it can leave cancer-causing toxins behind, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

They found cancer-causing agents called tobacco-specific nitrosamines stick to a variety of surfaces, where they can get into dust or be picked up on the fingers. Children and infants are the most likely to pick them up, the team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California reported.

"These findings raise concerns about exposures to the tobacco smoke residue that has been recently dubbed 'third-hand smoke'," the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They suggested a good clean-up could help remove these potentially harmful chemicals and said their findings suggest other airborne toxins may also be found on surfaces.

"TSNAs (tobacco-specific nitrosamines) are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke ," Berkeley chemist Hugo Destaillats, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

"The burning of tobacco releases nicotine in the form of a vapor that adsorbs strongly onto indoor surfaces, such as walls, floors, carpeting, drapes and furniture. Nicotine can persist on those materials for days, weeks and even months."


The nicotine combines with another common compound called nitrous acid to form tobacco-specific nitrosamines or TSNAs, Destaillats and colleagues found.

Unvented gas appliances are the main source of nitrous acid indoors, and vehicle engines emit it too.

The researchers did laboratory tests with cigarette smoke, and also tested a 45-year-old pickup truck driven by a heavy smoker. The TSNA compound formed quickly if nitrous acids were around — notably in the truck compartment but also in rooms where cigarette smoke wafted.

It would be easy to ingest this new compound, they said, calling it "an unappreciated health hazard."

"Because of their frequent contact with surfaces and dust, infants and children are particularly at risk," they wrote.

"Nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco smoke, has until now been considered to be non-toxic in the strictest sense of the term," Kamlesh Asotra of the University of California's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, which paid for the study, said in a statement.

"What we see in this study is that the reactions of residual nicotine with nitrous acid at surface interfaces are a potential cancer hazard, and these results may be just the tip of the iceberg."

James Pankow, who also worked on the study, said it may raise questions about the safety of electronic cigarettes , or " e-cigarettes ." which produce a nicotine vapor but not smoke .

The researchers said regulators who have cracked down on second-hand smoke with smoking bans may decide to consider policies on third-hand smoke .

The vaccine fights the herpes simplex 2 virus (HSV2)

Worried that your partner has genital herpes? Well, a new approach to a herpes vaccine might rid you of any such troubles.

The vaccine fights the herpes simplex 2 virus (HSV2), which coexists with the humans it infects for long periods, only rarely causing bouts of sores, reports New Scientist.

The vaccine achieves this feat by suppressing its host's immune system, and this has meant attempts to use the virus itself as a vaccine have failed.

Now researchers at BioVex in Woburn, Massachusetts, have produced a vaccine by deleting five of the virus's genes.

"We hope this will unmask the virus to the human immune system," said Robert Coffin, chief executive of BioVex.

The altered virus neither causes disease nor suppresses our immune system.

The researchers found that animals that had been injected with the altered virus did not develop symptoms when exposed to normal HSV2.

BioVex will now begin clinical trials of the vaccine in London.

Coffin said that a vaccine would initially be offered to the sexual partners of people who carry genital herpes, and wider vaccination may also be a possibility.

http://www.medindia.net/news/New-Vaccine-for-Genital-Herpes-Shows-Promise-66302-1.htm


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