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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1983)
Friday, April 15, 1983/The Battalion/Page 15 mpotence linked o ulcer drug use s Conii_ possililt ike,” as lion agaa can fmf of slan about hgl ionedmij ' looliai ?rnanceii next [on eve it »| y chalhf whether ti ce presid B United Press International BOSTON — Fifty percent of Imen who took high doses of common ulcer medication be- ime impotent and had swollen, ittler breasts after just a few piths of treatment, a study lid Thursday. All the symptoms dis- :ared after the drug cimeti- , the most commonly pre- ed drug in the nation, was iscontinued, said the study in i New England Journal of hdicine. It found cimetidine inhibited ction of the male sex hor- e androgen, causing impo- Je and breast changes in 11 |l men who were treated for Ire peptic ulcers that require ive doses of the medication. The symptoms were re- led in men taking three to times the normal daily dose and probably are not common, said a researcher from the Na tional Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. “This study proves the anti androgen effects can occur in people,” said Dr. Robert T. Jen sen. “I think it will not be very common, though.” The drug is commonly pre scribed for ulcers that plague one in 10 men and one in 25 women in the United States, Jensen said, and has replaced the use of antacids and surgery for ulcer patients. However, only one in 10,000 ulcer patients has the peptic ulcer that requires the massive doses taken in the study. Peptic ulcers are caused by a tumor that makes the stomach produce up to 25 times the nor mal amount of acid. “It used to be that all these patients died because they just burned holes in their stomachs,” Jensen said. Nine of the men studied be came impotent, five completely so. Nine had breast changes, and Five had gynecomastia, excessive development of the male breast. “Most of the men who had gynecomastia were bothered only minimally by it, but nearly all who became impotent wanted to discontinue cimeti dine and try some other form of therapy including total gastrec tomy (surgical removal of the stomach),” the researchers said. They said switching the pa tients to ranitidine, another drug that blocks the secretion of gastric acids and allows the ulcers to heal, stopped the side effects. ixed hormone pill more beneficial I United Press Internationnl BOSTON — Government Hors Thursday cautioned mien against taking birth con- pills high in the hormone estin because they said it in- blood cholesterol levels #Bthe risk of heart attacks and trokes. ^^^■Vomen taking oral con- ■.ictptives high in estrogen and bpinenstruating women who ■ estrogen pills had lower IcM levels of harmful choles- f S n»H aiK ' higher levels of a type s ®;. '■cholesterol that protects "n H 11S| heart disease, the resear- ner reported. atKOMwTliis study confirms pre ps work that shows estrogens : noindic lit Foret is said lit Capt. ' Shirltt I mission H deskjok wife w him onikl eofcta| iday’s one series of effects that ight be regarded as beneficial, iile progestin may have rse af fects on blood choles- rols,” said Dr. Basil Rifkin of [ational Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The results were consistent with previous studies that found women taking estrogen after menopause had a much lower rate of deaths from all causes, including heart disease, he said. “If one pill is as effective as another in preventing pregnan cies, you may as well go on the one that has a mixture of hor mones that doesn’t have adverse ef f ects and may have a beneficial effect,” he said. The results of the nationwide study of 374 women taking the pill, 284 women taking estrogen after menopause and 1,086 women taking no hormones were reported in the New Eng land Journal of Medicine. Rifkin said women using low- estrogen, high-progestin birth control pills had 24 percent higher levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol ong reclaims perch erlooking New York , one oi i. nudeat trryinguL vhen it United Press International noon IfW YORK — Proving you about5 f' 1 keep a good gorilla down, Jellis Ait ft Kong was back on top of le Empire State Building 'hursday. I the "rfB'he 10-story, 2,500-pound ednestb' Sr balloon was inflated : lowerfd-Kiesday night to almost a helicop' 1 uaner-mile into the sky, after hewretkjle than a week of problems King him back on his perch. ^ jhe inflation of the balloon arked the 50th anniversary of e original King Kong movie. ^ Jfltheof the Film Kong climbed U12-story skyscraper, then e world’s tallest, with Fay rat in his hand. In 1976, Kong, this time in a e by Dino DeLaurentis, cation climbed to the top of the World Trade Center with Jessica Lange in his gigantic hand. That was before she won an Academy Award for “Tootsie.” Robert Vicino, creator of the latest version of Kong, said he and crews would put the “finishing touches” Thursday on the balloon beast — “turn his arm around a little, things like that,” he said, adding that Kong would probably stay up about a week. Vicino said he may even in flate Kong right on the street after his reign atop the Empire State Building. “I feel relieved, over whelmed, extremely excited and mostly thankful that God was lis- to me, the Vicino third tin said. ; % Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity Announces Their Seventh Annuall FIGHT NIGHT Slide zz i k ) Friday, April 22 & Saturday, April 23 Brazos County Pavillion (East Bypass at Tabor Rd.) Boxing between Dorms — Corps — Fraternities — Student Organizations — TAMU Students Plenty of Food & Beer Available Admission: Tickets available at: Pother’s Book- $ 3 00 presale store, Texas Aggie Bookstore, Tri $ 4 00 gate State Sporting Goods & Suds FIGHT TIMES: Fri. Apr. 22 Fri. Apr. 22 6 p.m.-Midnight Sat. Apr. 23 12 noon-5 p.m. Semi-finals Admission FREE at this time. Sat. Apr. 23 6 p.m.-Midnight FINALS than non-users. LDL has been shown to contribute to heart dis ease. The women on those pills also had “significantly lower” levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol that protects against heart disease by carrying the fatty deposits out of the sys tem, Rifkin said. “Thus, hormone prepara tions that simultaneously elevate LDL levels and decrease HDL levels cause the most concern,” the researchers said. The study also found signifi cantly higher levels of the pro tective HDL cholesterol in all nonmenstruating women, young and old, who were taking estrogen. 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Gift Certificates and Layaw' w tening “They say charm.” The effort, which began 10 days ago, touched off a cham pagne celebration on the “Kong- course,” the landmark build ing’s concourse renamed by Kong spokesman Dan Wolfson. Kong was just a silhouette against the illuminated tower of the Empire State Building Wednesday night. He was ex pected to exert his full terror Thursday. Arthur Novell, a publicist for the project, said he had been getting calls from all over the city and New Jersey: “He’s 84 feet high. How can you miss him?”