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                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. II, Issue 34                                April 1, 1993
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                        CURE, Ltd.

                           Addictions

"A recent statistical analysis reports that a lifetime smoker's
lifespan averages 18 years less than a nonsmoker's." --Michael
Petti, MD. (How Much Does Smoking Shorten Your Life?, Morning
Herald, 3/19/93)

Onetime trucking magnate, onetime Philadelphia Eagles owner,
four-time husband, all-time worst blackjack player this side of
Vegas, Leonard Tose has failed more often than the savings and
loan industry. In the mid-80s he was the highest of the high
rollers in Atlantic City. Casinos like the Sands sent limos,
helicopters, even a Lear jet to shuttle him to his own blackjack
table. The best part for Tose wasn't the luxurious transportation
or the front-row seats to Sinatra. It was the free drinks. (Know
When to Hold 'Em, Know When to Fold 'Em, Newsweek, 3/15/93)

"It seems to make perfect sense--if cigarettes rob Americans of
their health, why not tax them more to help pay for the
insurance? One answer: Because revenues from tobacco taxes are
crumbling like the ash on a cheap cigar, along wit the percentage
of Americans who smoke." (Sin Tax Income Drops with Sin, Morning
Herald, 3/19/93)

Dr. Pietr Hitzig, a specialist in internal medicine, says
Fenfluramine and Phentermine, used in curbing the appetites of
obese patients, can curb the cravings of alcoholics and may
ultimately be used to treat other obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
(Generic Drugs Used to End Alcohol Cravings, Daily Mail, 3/25/93)

Kicking the Habit:

So you want to quit smoking. Join the club--a club that includes
about a third of the 60 million smokers in the US, who say they
want to kick an expensive, unhealthy, life-threatening habit.
(Help Is Available for Smokers, Daily Mail, 3/25/93)

"If the urge (to smoke) comes over me, I can't say that it's
physical. What I'm missing is socializing with one of my best
friends. I don't have that friend anymore. It's gone. I buried
that friend. I miss that camaraderie." --Harry Younger, 41, who
quit smoking January 12 after a 28-year "friendship" with
cigarettes. ('Quitters' Say It's Not Easy, Daily Mail, 3/25/93)

                          AIDS Addenda

"Arthur Ashe was a first-class athlete and a first-class human
being. He accomplished what many people try and fail to do--he
made a difference." (Ronni Berman, Arthur Ashe, letter-editor,
People, 3/15/93)

"Arthur Ashe...(was) a person who traveled the lofty road, yet
refused to be lofty; who was gifted, but embraced the less
gifted; who lived with praise while praising others; who sought
to elevate rather than denigrate--all decidedly difficult things
to do...Ashe was not a star; he was a constellation." (Maceyo
Vaughn, Ashe's Legacy, letter-editor, Newsweek, 3/15/93)

Researchers report in the journal Nature that after an HIV
infection starts, the virus congregates in the lymphoid organs,
such as the tonsils, adenoids, and lymph nodes, infecting key
blood cells and killing cells that filter out viruses. The
discovery demonstrates the need for drug therapy to begin at
diagnosis. (AIDS Virus Hides in Lymph Nodes, Daily Mail, 3/25/93)

                        Blue Cross Blues

In a letter to Frank Gunther, Jr., chairman, Blue Cross and Blue
Shied of Maryland, state Attorney General, J. Joseph Curran
advises the insurer's board of directors to "carefully examine"
the report of a US Senate subcommittee "to determine whether BCBS
should file suit...(against ex-executives) seeking restitution
and damages for the benefit of the corporation." (Curran: Blues
Should Consider Suing Former Officers, Daily Mail, 3/25/93)

                            Care Less

"Canada saves money not by treating fewer patients but by
treating the average patient less expensively." --Donald
Redelmeier, Wellesley Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, whose study
found that U.S. hospitals treat sicker patients. "Frostbite of
the nose is not as expensive to treat as a shotgun wound to the
belly," Dr. Redelmeier quipped. (Canadian Hospital Stays Less
Expensive than U.S., Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

Out of $28.5 million in budget cuts proposed by West Virginia
House Finance Chairman Bob Kiss (D-Raleigh), more than $22.8
million would be slashed from the Department of Health and Human
Resources, largely from the state's portion of Medicaid health
care for the poor and persons with disabilities. For each state
dollar cut from Medicaid three dollars in federal funds will be
lost. "Every idea meets with criticism from some corner," House
Speaker Chuck Chambers (D-Cabell) says. "We want to increase
funding for the more important things." Other proposed cuts
include privatizing the Colin Anderson Center for the mentally
retarded ($1.7 to $2 million), privatizing Welch Emergency
Hospital ($2 million), and cutting $1 million in state aid to
county health departments. CURE Comment: Guess we know who's NOT
important in the politicians' eyes. (Cuts Would Hit Health
Hardest, Daily Mail 3/19/93)

A West Virginia Senate Finance Subcommittee recommends cost-
control measures for the state's Medicaid program, including
requiring the poor and elderly to pay a part of the costs. A
voluntary tax on physicians, hospitals, and other health-care
providers will expire July 1 because it violates federal
standards. (Panel Eyes Medicaid Cost Controls, DM, 3/19/93)

                         Doctor, Doctor

The American Society of Internal Medicine (ASIM)'s call for
government to set a goal of having 50% of all physicians involved
in primary care so that "costs would be lower" may be one-upped
by Hilary Clinton. "How do we get quickly to reverse the ratio of
70 percent specialists to 30 percent generalists?" she asked a
Tampa, Florida forum rhetorically. CURE Comment: Well, before
they shoot specialists, I hope someone looks on the effect on the
quality as well as the cost of care. Goals have a nasty habit of
becoming quotas. (Despite Great Demand, Ranks of GPs Declining,
Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

                          Family Affair

"A terrible, terrible crime has been committed against my
daughter." --Woody Allen. "I'll always stand by my children."
--Mia Farrow. "The Yale group, despite Ms. Farrow's request,
declined to meet with people whose information would've been
vitally important to their findings, including MS. Farrow's older
children and an eyewitness to part of the abuse." --Eleanor
Alter, Mia Farrow's attorney. (Allen Says He's Been Cleared by
Child Sexual Abuse Experts, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

The Pennsylvania Department of Health expands its Newborn
Screening Program to include testing for Maple Syrup Urine
Disease, which affects the way the body metabolizes protein,
creating toxic levels of amino acids in the blood that interfere
with brain functions. While the disease is found in one out of
225,000 American babies, the Commonwealth's rate is one in
80,000, as it occurs often in Mennonites. Diet and medicine to
control the disease should be started during the first week of
postnatal life. (Newborns Screened for Disease, DM, 3/25/93)

                        Food for Thought

In Japan, where millions of vending machines dispense beer,
cigarettes, and pornography, something more wholesome is now on
display in the lighted windows--fresh vegetables, (Vending
Machines Dispense Veggies, Daily Mail, 3/18/93)

President Clinton may never live down his campaign-trail
reputation as a junk food junkie but when it comes to capital
cuisine his tastes are turning distinctly highbrow, with menu
choices at some of DC's poshest eateries including carpaccio,
bresola, risotto, and a chorizo and black bean terrine. Grandpa
Jones, how do y'all say "yum, yum" in Eye-talian? (Clinton
Shedding Image as a Junk-Food Junkie, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

Candida albicans drunken syndrome is cited by the attorney of
Marjorie Minor, charged with drunken driving in Wisconsin. The
syndrome mainly affects women consuming large amounts of sugar
and antibiotics and produces alcohol through gastrointestinal
fermentation. (Did Food Make Woman Drunk? MH, 3/19/93)

Women who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables reduce their risk
of stroke by more than a half (54%). Men with diets rich in
antioxidant vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene are 30% less likely
to die of heart disease. (Diet Lowers Stroke Risk, MH, 3/19/93)

                      Health Plans and Pans

"Every day, a small army of health-care experts streams into the
Old Executive Office Building next to the White House...Their
mission, conducted under a rigorous code of secrecy, is to create
a new health care system...Potentially the biggest piece of
social engineering every attempted in America,...it will require
720 separate decisions by Bill Clinton. And,  every single one of
those policy choices is likely to make somebody angry...How
should long-term nursing care be defined? Will it include only
the elderly, or will younger people with diseases like multiple
sclerosis be eligible? If long-term care were offered to everyone
who needs it, says an aide, it could cost...$150 billion a year."
(Eleanor Clift, Health Care: Covert Operation, Newsweek, 3/15/93)

"No one is looking beyond the next four or five years to the
population changes that will fundamentally drive federal spending
in the next century...An aging America. An older population means
Medicare costs more. People get sicker, and their illnesses are
more expensive...Health insurance for the uninsured...In 1992, an
estimated 35 million Americans lacked health insurance...Long-
term care. Older Americans already fear being bankrupted by
nursing home care. As more Americans age, the anxieties will rise
and so will the pressure for government help...The items listed
above would cost about $200 billion annually." (Robert Samuelson,
What Clinton Isn't Saying, op ed, Newsweek, 3/15/93)

                           Hear, Here

Last spring, Marlee Matlin was in Oregon shooting Hear No Evil, a
thriller (premiering March 26) in which she plays a deaf athletic
trainer stalked by a killer. After a romantic clinch with co-
star, D.B. Sweeny, Matlin 27, notices her real-life leading man,
Kevin Grandalski, 28, staring aghast. "You look like you've seen
a ghost," Marlee, hearing-impaired since she was 18 months old,
says to Kevin in sign language. Grandalski, a suburban Los
Angeles traffic cop who learned to sign in college to fulfill his
language requirement, signs back: "I didn't know you had to kiss
him." (Law and Ardor, People, 3/15/93)

"Jumping rope is good exercise, but suddenly jumping into a
heavy-duty, high-impact aerobics routine can create balance and
hearing problems." --Hoskare Sekhar, MD, New York University
School of Medicine. (Heavy Aerobics Can Damage Ears, MH, 3/19/93)

                          Heart Savers

Researchers at Duke University say reviving patients whose heart
stop beating in hospitals costs "more than $150,000 per
survivor." CURE Comment: If we don't resuscitate any hospital
patients it won't cost anything but lives and what are they worth
to the checkbook euthanasia clique any way? (CPR Study Finds
Revival Costs Soaring, Morning Herald, 3/18/93)

In a 90-minute operation at Georgetown University Medical Center
Dr. Al Solomon implants a silver dollar-size pacemaker just below
Defense Secretary Les Aspin's collarbone. Aspin, 54, has
obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a congenital condition
in which the heart muscle thickens impairing its ability to pump
adequate volumes of blood. The pacemaker relieves his symptoms by
reducing the force of his heartbeat. (Aspin Fitted with Small
Pacemaker, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

                         Heart Stoppers

Heart attacks claim a half million US lives a year. A study finds
people are 20% more likely to suffer a heart attack on their
birthday than on others days of that week. The suspected culprit?
Overindulgence. (Birthdays More Blue, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

                         Medicine Chest

"This is a baby step but it is in the right direction." --Gary
Oderda, University of Utah, member of a Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) advisory panel that recommended tacrine 10
to 0 for FDA approval, which is expected within weeks. Tacrine,
to be marketed as Cognex by Warner-Lambert would be the first
drug used to directly treat Alzheimer's disease. (Alzheimer's
Drug Gets Endorsement, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

20 million Americans suffer from migraines. Glaxo promises to
give Imitrex, an injectable medicine that "cures migraine
headaches" free to those who cannot pay. Already available in
more than 25 nations, Imitrex went on sale in the US on March 29.
(Glaxo Introduces Migraine Drug, Daily Mail, 3/19/93)

Dr. Vincent Fulginitti, chairman of a federal advisory panel
recommending a national immunization tracking system, says it
should be as easy to access a child's immunization records as his
birth certificate. The plan begs the question of who will pay for
the vaccines needed to immunize children. (Federal Panel Endorses
National Vaccine Plan, Morning Herald, 3/19/93)

                          Mental Health

"Of all the hormonal indignities women suffer, PMS, or
premenstrual syndrome, has made for the most fervid political and
legal debate." Lawyers pose PMS-based defenses for violent
crimes, with women's groups arguing heatedly on both sides. A
task force of the American Psychiatric Association concludes that
women with severe PMS actually have a psychiatric disorder,
"premenstrual dysphoric disorder" (PMDD). (Is It Sadness or
Madness?, Newsweek, 3/15/93)

"How is Western medicine examining the mind-body connection? We
visited the University of Massachusetts Medical Center at
Worcester, for example, where Dr. John Kabat-Zinn teaches
patients with crippling pain to 'scan' their bodies, moving
consciously through the painful areas until they can 'relax' into
their discomfort. They learn yoga to change their physical
posture, which can change attitudes and feelings toward their
suffering. He teaches them not to fight chronic pain, but to
control the body so it can live with pain more tolerably. More
than 6,000 people have completed the clinic's program, and 72%
reported moderate to significant improvements after one year."
(Bill Moyers, Mind Over Medicine, interview, People, 3/15/93)

                            Old Story

"'Blow Some My Way,' Bob Shank's My Turn essay defending smoking
as a preventive to long life (Feb. 22) was, for all its wry
humor, chillingly close to the truth on one point. Our society
has yet to figure out what to do with its seniors--ship them to
Florida, herd them into bingo parlors, or confine them in
retirement enclaves and nursing homes." (Brenda Ollman, How to
Avoid a Long Life, letter-editor, Newsweek, 3/15/93)

Dr. William Rogers, University of Alabama, reports clot-busting
medicines such as TPA and streptokinase save twice as many lives
among elderly patients treated than among younger patients. Yet a
Genetech-sponsored study of 147,000 men and women treated for
heart attacks over the past two years at more than 900 hospitals
finds one quarter of patients over 75 are denied the life-saving
drugs SOLELY because of age. CURE Comment: If speaking out about
this sort of agist euthanasia is evangelism, call me the preacher
man. (Study: Many Elderly Heart Attack Victims Denied Adequate
Treatment, Daily Mail, 3/19/93)

According to Families USA, 4.25 million seniors and Americans
with disabilities living below the poverty line are eligible for
government help to pay out-of-pocket medical bills. But 1.8
million (42%) have received no benefits, although many have been
eligible for at least two years. An additional million became
eligible for lesser benefits in January and February and the 27-
page application may keep many of them from applying too. (Many
Seniors Aren't Taking Federal Benefits, Daily Mail, 3/26/93).

                         Research Review

"We haven't slain Goliath. But we certainly feel like a David
who's been introduced to the slingshot." --Teepu Siddique,
neurologist, Northwestern University, on a study led by Dr.
Robert Brown, Massachusetts General Hospital, which identified a
gene that makes some families susceptible to the neuromuscular
disorder ALS. (A Big Break in Lou Gehrig's Disease, Nwk, 3/15/93)

"If it can happen with animals, can it happen with humans? We're
doing research to answer that. It clearly raises my concern that
silicone gel might cause immune system disease." --Dr. Myron
Harrison, chief medical officer, Dow Corning Corporation. A
million American women have had the implants, about 80% for
cosmetic reasons. (Dow Corning Study Links Implants to Immune
Disorders, Daily Mail, 3/19/93)

                           School Daze

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports over 70,000
classrooms in one of five US schools have unacceptable high
levels of radioactive radon gas. The level of the gas implicated
in lung cancer is more than double the EPA standard in 10,000
classrooms. (EPA: Many Schools Have Too Much Radon, MH, 3/19/93)

"It's really rewarding to see the light bulb come on. The first
time they know they've written a good paragraph or read a book,
they realize they have achieved and they know they'll be able to
go through life and keep achieving." --Diana Meckstroth,
University High School, Morgantown, WV, named teacher of the year
by the West Virginia Learning Disabilities Association. (State
Disabilities Group Names Monongalia County Teacher Year's Best,
Daily Mail, 3/25/93)

                        Telling Headlines

Berkeley Seeks Mutual Aid Pact with Maryland Ambulance, MJ, 3/19
Medicaid Debate Turns on Tax Credit, Daily Mail, 3/25
Medical Exec Proposes Health Care Bill, Daily Mail, 3/19
Panel Nears [WV] Medicaid Solution, Daily Mail, 3/18
WV Senate OKs Medicaid Program, Daily Mail 3/26/93

                     Wish We'd Said That...

     The Medicare buy-in is an unfilled promise. Now, a
     million or more Americans are eligible for protection.
     But we fear that many of them will fall between the
     cracks rather than actually getting the protection.
     (Ron Pollack, Families USA)

                        Glad We Didn't...

     Employers workers' comp insurance premiums have more
     than doubled since 1988. THe only permanent solution is
     to tighten elegibility for benefits so that...gold-
     brickers are prevented from sponging off their fellow
     citizens. (editorial, Martinsburg Journal)

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street,
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).