Word: livers
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Gene therapy has been controversial since Jesse Gelsinger, an 18-year-old who suffered from a liver disease, died in a University of Pennsylvania experiment which used viral vectors to introduce genes last year...
...first clue is the "200C" on the label. What this means is that whatever active ingredient Oscillococcinum began with--in this case, duck heart and liver (no quack jokes, please)--has been diluted beyond all imagining. First, one part of the active ingredient is combined with a hundred parts of solvent. Next, the mixture is shaken and diluted again at one part per hundred--a process that is repeated a total of 200 times. Finally, sugar granules soaked in the resulting solution are enclosed in six capsules a box, good for two days of treatment...
...what's the catch? Well, apart from the fact that the drugs are expensive, averaging $3 a pill, and you would presumably have to take them for the rest of your life, they can, in rare cases, cause liver damage or a breakdown of muscle tissue. Anyone who is using statins needs to undergo periodic blood tests to check for signs of liver trouble. Most people on the pills report no complaints; those who do commonly list fatigue as the major side effect. Others refer to the peace of mind statins give them. "I feel safer," says Janet Brown...
Statins work by partly blocking an enzyme found in the liver that turns some of the foods you eat into cholesterol. (We couldn't live without some cholesterol; the body uses it to stabilize cell membranes and to manufacture many hormones.) To make up the shortfall, the body draws on the excess cholesterol found in the blood...
...indeed lower the level of triglycerides in the blood, they have a tendency to raise the level of LDL, or "bad cholesterol." No one knows if that's a healthy trade-off or for whom. Pregnant women in particular should be careful about fish-oil supplements. Taking cod liver oil, for example, can lead to an overdose of vitamin A, which can in turn cause birth defects. Some nutritionists speculate that omega-6 fatty acids--found in corn and many other vegetable oils--may limit the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. But here again, the evidence is incomplete...