pared the immune strength of vegetarians to those of people with typical omniverous diets. They took a blood sample from each subject and tested the ability of their white blood cells to destroy standardized samples of cancer cells. They found that the vegetarians had an enormous advantage. Compared to non-vegetarians, the white cells of vegetarians had more than twice the abilty to destroy cancer cells. National Cancer 1989 12:271 reported by Natural Medicines Society NMS News, Autumn
1996)


WET EARTH LINKED TO INCREASED INFANT MORTALITY
Leslie Munro, an 80-year-old retired mining enineer, has found a surprising link between wet ground and infant mortality. While studying soil conditions in connection with some property renovations, he incidentally noticed that infant mortality in an area with wet soil was one-third higher than the norm.

Finding this hard to believe, Mr. Munro spent 10 years confirming his observation by analysing mortality records in 620 areas throughout Britain. Six scientists, who spent three years going over his data, agree with his findings: the colder and wetter the ground, the higher the incidence of babies suffering colds and breathing problems. Middlesex University's committee on flood hazards plans to issue a full report in the spring. Mr. Munro proposes digging wells to dry out the ground. (Daily Mail ,18 November 1996)

It's a good thing they didn't use water voles, mink, or otters to study this phenomenon.


ASPARTAME SUSPECTED TO BE HARMFUL
Barbara Stevens, a Lancashire nursing home worker, started experiencing "severe shooting pains" in her left eye every time she downed a soft drink sweetened with aspartame (Nutrasweet). Her cure was simple: just avoiding all the foods that are sweetened with aspartame.

A paper in the Journal of Neuropathology by American Dr. John Olney has demonstrated a link with the rise in brain cancers since aspartame came into use. His methods and results have been criticized by the FDA and, more predictably by Nutrasweet. (Daily Mail 4 & 12 November 1996)


NEW HERPES VIRUS MAY CAUSE KAPOSI'S SARCOMA
The discovery of an eighth herpes virus, HHV8, by Columbia University epidemiologist Dr. Patrick S. Moore and pathologist Yuan Chang in 1994 set off a worldwide series of investigations among human populations to determine its affect on humans (not mice or monkeys although some idiot somewhere may also be doing that).

Dr. Moore is confident that HHV8 causes Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in people with weakened immune systems, but others, notably Dr. Robert Gallo (now of the Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore since leaving the National Institutes of Health following questions about his AIDS research) is skeptical because it has not been shown that injecting HHV8 into animals causes KS (as if that had anything to do with humans in whom it seems to occur among men, but not women - except in Africa, and among older Mediterranean men more than others). Other scientists suggest that HHV8's presence at the scene of the crime (on KS lesions) does not necessarily mean that it causes them.

In order to prove that the new virus was not part of the viral load most humans harbor, it was necessary to study diverse populations: people who attended a clinic for sexually-transmitted diseases; a group of virgin college women; random blood donors; hemophiliacs; surgical patients infected with HIV through blood transfusions; AIDS patients with and without KS; and transplant patients who must take immunosuppressive drugs. Results of these investigations indicated that infection with HHV8 is a precursor of KS, but not necessarily the sole cause. (Science News September 28, 1996 p.207)


ZINC SHORTENS COLDS
A study of the effects of zinc gluconate lozenges, marketed as Cold-Eeze, on the colds of 99 employees of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation found that the colds of those who got the real thing lasted an average of 4.4 days compared to 7.6 days for those who were given a look-alike placebo. (Annals of Inernal Medicine" 125:81 1996 reported in Nutrition Action Health Letter October 1996)


SERENDIPITOUS FINDING BENEFITS HEART PATIENTS
Tests begun in 1992 to determine whether Pfizer's angina drug, Norvasc, was safe for patients with congestive heart failure, found that it not only appeared to be safe but that the patients became more active and spent less time in the hospital.

"It was an unexpected finding," according to Dr. Peter Liu, a Toronto Hospital cardiologist.

A subsequent study of 1,000 Canadian and American patients with congestive heart failure indicated that those who were given the drug lived an average of six years compared to four years for those who were not guven the drug.

A larger study is underway at 200 Canadian and American hospitals. (The Vancouver Sun November 23, 1995)


CAN INSULIN PREVENT JUVENILE DIABETES?
That is the question physicians at the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases hope to answer. They will screen over 60,000 children in order to select the 830 most likely to develop juvenile, Type 1, or insulin- dependent diabetes (IDD). Those selected will be given a daily capsule of insulin cyrstals to see if that will stop the body's immune system from destroying its insulin-producing cells. The study is expected to continue for five years. (The Mesa Tribune September 10, 1996)

There have been some preliminary animal studies indicating it may work, but, as always,  nobody can tell whether it will work for humans until they try and see.

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