Survey Suggests Eating Less Meat Eases Blood Pressure
If you’re 60 or older and want to avoid high blood pressure, cutting back on meat may be a good idea, suggests a researcher who studied blood pressure in vegetarians and non-vegetarians.
In the study, published recently in Nutrition Reports International, researchers compared the blood pressures of 61 vegetarians with 29 non-vegetarians. All subjects were age 60 or older and members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Nearly all abstained from alcohol, coffee and cigarettes.
Chris Melby, an assistant professor of health promotion at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and one of the researchers, said blood pressure among the vegetarians averaged 124/71 while non-vegetarians averaged 135/74. Some were on anti-hypertensive medication. In comparison, a national survey found the average blood pressure in the same age group, some on medication, was 143/81. Pressures of 140/90 or lower are considered in the normal range for persons over age 60, Melby said.
Many other studies have also found lower blood pressure in vegetarians, he noted. “I personally believe the major reason vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure is that they are leaner. The vegetarian diet does provide some protection against excess body fat. And vegetarians may also exercise more.”
Non-Stick Contacts
When are contact lenses like frying pans?
When they contain fluorinated polymers, a Teflon-like material that reduces troublesome protein buildup.
Now part of some gas-permeable lenses prescribed for daily or extended wear, fluorinated polymers “make the surface (of the lenses) slick and very resistant to protein deposits,” said Ronald Herskowitz, an optometrist and vice president of technical affairs for Wilmington, Mass.-based Polymer Technology Corp, a subsidiary of Bausch & Lomb and one of several manufacturers of the new lenses. The polymers also aid in oxygen permeability, he added, and “that translates to a lack of the ‘dry and gritties.’ ”
Jay Schlanger, a Los Angeles optometrist, calls the new lenses “the next logical step.” Best candidates are those with dry-eye problems, red eyes or those who need more oxygen permeability. He suggests that patients who wear gas-permeable lenses consider switching to fluorine-containing lenses when their current lenses need replacing.
New IUD Due
A new, copper-coated intrauterine device, the Copper T 380A (ParaGard), should be available by the end of April, said Rod Mackenzie, chairman of the board of GynoPharma Inc., the New Jersey-based manufacturer of the device.
IUDs have not been generally available in the U.S. since early 1986, when manufacturers withdrew them from the market due partly to fear of liability suits.
The life expectancy of the new IUD is about four years, Mackenzie said, and the effectiveness is comparable to that of oral contraceptives.
Ideal Candidates
But the new IUD isn’t meant for every woman. Ideal candidates, Mackenzie said, are women who have had at least one pregnancy (because they are less likely to expel the device) and who are involved in a mutually monogamous relationship (to reduce exposure to sexually transmitted disease, which can lead to infection and tubal damage).
Dr. Charles March, a Glendale gynecologist and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the USC School of Medicine, said the new device is superior to previous ones, but warned that IUDs are not problem free.
