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Thursday • November 13, 1997
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The Battalion
EALTH & SCIENCE
FDA to weigh benefits of new baldness pill
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WASHINGTON (AP)—Poppinga
ill to regrow hair? It sounds too good
o be true, but balding men may soon
get that option.
The Food and Drug Adminis
tration’s scientific advisers will de
cide Thursday whether to let Mer
ck & Co. sell the first anti-baldness
pill to American men, whose only
hope now is to slather Rogaine on
their scalps.
Merck’s Propecia is a once-a-day
pill that promises to help regrow hair
—and prevent more from falling out
— by suppressing a hormone that
shrinks hair follicles.
It’s not a miracle cure, cautions
Dr. Ronald Savin, a dermatologist
in New Haven, Conn., who helped
test the drug.
The new hair “is not like any
body ever had when they were 13,”
Savin said. But "it is an obvious dif
ference. ... I’ve got to tell you, I’ve
seen the pictures — the before and
after — and it’s impressive.”
Propecia actually is a lower
dose of a popular drug that men
already use for enlarged prostates,
called Proscar. For the merely hair-
impaired, Merck says a safe dose is
1 milligram a day of the active in
gredient, finasteride, not the 5-
milligram Proscar pills that
prostate patients take.
And although women suffer hair
loss, too, Merck says Propecia can
never be used by them — the threat
of birth defects is too great. Doctors
even tell women not to touch the pills
for fear the drug could be absorbed
through their skin.
Some 40 million American men
suffer hair loss. Until now, their
only option was Rogaine, a non
prescription drug sold in the
shampoo aisle. It helps about 25
percent of users grow back moder
ate amounts of hair, but stop using
it and the balding resumes.
Merck on Thursday will show the
FDA’s scientific advisers studies of
1,553 men that found 86 percent of
those who took Propecia grew more
hair or maintained the amount they
had, compared with just 42 percent
of men who took a dummy pill.
More significant to Savin was
that Propecia helped preserve
what hair men had left, even if
they didn’t grow any more.
He said investigators spent two
years counting the hairs in specific
sections of men’s scalps, and those
who didn’t get Propecia treatment
lost 2.5 percent of their hair every
year, while hair counts were stable for
the treated men.
But the big question for the FDA
panel, whose advice the government
typically follows, is whether using a
pill that affects hormones is safe for a
simply cosmetic problem.
Merck says side effects includ
ed decreased libido and impo
tence in 2 percent of the men who
took Propecia, a number the com
pany will portray as insignificant,
particularly because 1.3 percent of
men who took a dummy pill re
ported the same problems.
Propecia works by blocking pro
duction of a testosterone-related
hormone called dihydrotestos
terone, or DHT, that causes hair loss.
Scientists knew to investigate the
drug because studies of a group of re
lated men in the Dominican Repub
lic who naturally have very low con
centrations of DHT never go bald,
Savin explained.
While Propecia can cut men’s
DHT levels by 60 percent, nobody
knows how today’s balding drug, Ro
gaine, actually works. But it’s not hor
monal, and it is applied directly to the
scalp, leading Savin to predict that
men may one day try using the two
drugs together to see if they get a bet
ter effect.
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Studies reveal
potential of
drug combos
for asthmatics
(AP) — Modest doses of inhaled steroids
combined with other drugs control asthma
as well as or better than high doses of
steroids, while reducing the risk of side ef
fects from long-term use, two studies found.
Steroids reduce the frequency of asthma
attacks. But daily use over a few years has
been linked to osteoporosis and cataracts in
older adults and slowed growth in children.
And the effects over decades of use are un
known because the drugs are so new.
T\vo studies published in Thursday’s New
England Journal of Medicine looked at drug
combinations that might allow asthma suf
ferers to get by with lower doses of steroids.
“Taking two medications in modest quan
tities seems to improve control of the disease
while reducing the possible long-term side
tffects,” said Dr. Gilbert D’Alonzo, a profes
sor of medicine at Temple University in
Madelphia who was not involved in either
study.
Asthma afflicts 14 million to 15 million
Americans, causing thousands of emergency
hospitalizations and killing more than 5,000
people a year.
Inhaled steroids—the first-line approach
to treating moderate or severe asthma — re
duce the chronic lung inflammation that
makes it hard for patients to breathe.
One of the studies looked at formoterol,
an inhaled airway-relaxing type of drug
known as a long-acting beta-2-agonist, in
combination with the inhaled steroid budes-
onide.The study, led by Dr. Romain Pauwels
at University Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, in
volved 852 patients ages 17 to 70 at hospitals
in Europe and Canada.
After a year of treatment, patients getting
formoterol and low doses of budesonide had
fewer symptoms, better lung function and
more asthma attack-free days than those get
ting moderate doses of budesonide alone.
However, the higher dose of budesonide was
more effective at preventing the most severe
asthma attacks.
The combination of formoterol and a
moderate dose of budesonide proved to be
the best treatment of all.
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Health Tips
A flu shot from the A.P Beutel Health Center
can help students stay healthy and not miss tests
or classes.
Influenza, called the flu, is an upper respira
tory infection which can cause fever, chills, cough,
headache, sore throat and muscle aches. The flu
is common in the United States from December
to April.
Sharon Davila, R.N.B.S. with Nursing Services
at the health center, said the influenza vaccine is
important because many students go to classes
sick with the flu.
"While the vaccine does not guarantee that
you won’t get the flu, even if you do get sick, your
illness will be milder,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Preven
tion said that college students should be vacci
nated in order to prevent breakouts of the flu. It
is especially important that anyone with diabetes,
asthma, anemia, lung disease, kidney disease or
heart disease and any woman more than three
months pregnant get the shot.
It is best to get the vaccine between Sep
tember and mid-November because it takes one
to two weeks before the vaccine begins to pro
tect the body. The vaccine offers protection for
one year.
The A.P Beutel Health Center is offering flu
shots to students, faculty and staff. The shot
costs $7 for students and $13 for faculty and
staff. The shots are available Monday through Fri
day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and an appointment is
not necessary.
Contributed by Margaret Griffith, health education
coordinator at the A.P. Beutel Health Center
Researchers: Cholesterol-lowering drugs
impact even healthy middle-aged adults
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — For
the first time, doctors have
shown that cholesterol-lower
ing drugs can help even healthy
middle-aged people with ordi
nary cholesterol levels reduce
their risk of heart trouble by
more than one-third.
A major study released
Wednesday looked at the use
of these drugs among men and
women — mostly in their 40s,
50s and 60s — whose total
cholesterol levels were around
220. A reading of 220 is consid
ered somewhat higher than
ideal but is average for Ameri
can adults.
Researchers said the find
ings mean that cholesterol
medicines should be consid
ered for an additional 8 million
Americans who until now
would not have been thought to
need this treatment. These
drugs typically cost about $100
a month.
The study, conducted on
6,605 men and women, was
stopped earlier than planned
last summer after researchers
found that the treatment signif
icantly reduced the risk of first
time heart attacks and serious
chest pain.
The results were released by
Dr. Antonio M. Gotto Jr., dean of
Cornell University Medical Col
lege, at a meeting of the Ameri
can Heart Association.
The study is the latest to
show the power of a 10-year-old
class of medicines called statins
to protect the heart by lowering
cholesterol.
Until now, the drugs have
been reserved largely for peo
ple with significantly elevated
cholesterol or those who clear
ly have heart disease already.
In these people, cholesterol
lowering drugs have been
shown to reduce their risk of
heart disease by more than
one-third.
The study was conducted at
Lackland Air Force Base in San
Antonio and the ^University of
North Texas Health Sciences
Center in Fort Worth on men
and women who are consid
ered very healthy and at low
risk for heart problems. Men
between 45 and 73 and
women between 55 and 73
were put on diet and exercise
programs and randomly as
signed to take either Mevacor
or dummy pills.
Merck & Co., which makes
Mevacor, paid for the research.
Mevacor is known generically
as lovastatin and is the oldest of
five similar statin drugs on the
market in the United States.
At the start, average total
cholesterol levels were 221. The
participants’ LDL levels — the
so-called bad cholesterol —
ranged from 130 to 190—while
their good HDL was under 50.
Among volunteers getting
Mevacor, total cholesterol lev
els dropped to an average of
184.
After five years of follow-up,
267 people had suffered a heart
attack or serious angina pain or
died of cardiac arrest. Overall,
the chance of these problems
was 36 percent lower among
those taking Mevacor.
The benefits were most im
pressive for women, whose risk
fell 54 percent, compared with
34 percent for men.
The study also found that
the need for angioplasty or by
pass surgery was one-third low
er in people getting Mevacor.
“This extends the benefits to
millions of adults who are not
currently considered candi
dates for cholesterol-lowering
therapy,” Gotto said.
Visit our web site: -2 weeks of schedules, -email Bill and Ron.
http://www.howdyags.com
CHECK THE WEB SITE FOR THE MOST UP TO DATE INFORMATION!!
SCIENCE
CHEM
102
CHEM
107
PHYS
218
CHEM
101
PHYS
201
8-10
PM
10 PM-
MID
MON
Nov 17
CH
19, 20
TUE
Nov 18
CH
16, 17
WED
Nov 19
THU
Nov 20
PRAC
TEST
PRAC
TEST
MATH
151
PHYS
208
9-11
PM
4-6 PM
OR
11 PM-
1 AM
BUSINESS
FINC
341
6-10
PM
MON
Nov 17
TUE
Nov 18
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ATTENTION
SENIORS
GRADUATING
IN MAY
English 210 & 301 (Tech Writing)
Force Dates
Wednesday, December 10
Thursday, December 11
Friday, January 16
Forcing Hours for AH Dates
9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
and 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
1. Make sure you have the correct prerequisite
(English 104 or equivalent).
2. Come to Blocker 224 during the force dates and
times listed above.
3. Bring a letter on department stationary from your
academic advisor stating that you are graduating in
the semester for which you are registering.
No forces will be done during pre-registration
or after January 16.
You must come in during these dates to get a seat.
If you can’t make these dates, send a representative with
your letter and a list of preferred times.
Forcing Information line: 862-7724
Web Site:
_ http://engserve.tamu.edu/files/writingprograms/rulesforforcing.html
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Welcome To
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Authentic European food so
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You sip a superb glass of wine, made close by.
Your spirits soar. Your taste buds rejoice.
You’ve found palate nirvana and you can
drive here in less than ten minutes.
Open for lunch 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.,
Wednesdays - Saturdays,
Sunday Lunch: Noon to 2:30,
no reservations required
Dinnen Thursday, Friday
and Saturday evenings by reservation.
This is how it should be. This is how it is.
The Vintage House Trattoria at Messina Hof.
(409) 778-9463