Smoking contributes to a host of medical problems that even extend to shoulder
afflictions, a new study concludes.
Reporting at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic
Surgeons, researchers from Indianapolis and Durham, N.C., said that smokers are less
likely to benefit fully from rotator cuff tear repair surgery than nonsmokers.
Researchers looked at the cases of 235 surgery patients.
``The majority of nonsmokers _ 84 percent _ had good to excellent results from
their surgery,'' said Dr. Gary Misamore of the Methodist Sports Medicine Center in
Indianapolis. ``In contrast, 35 percent of smokers had good to excellent results.
Cigarette smoking has a detrimental effect on the healing of soft tissues and bone.''
The study also found that smokers experienced more pain than nonsmokers both
before and after surgery.
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Taking vitamins E and C as supplements may provide some protection against
loss of mental abilities later in life, a study published in the journal Neurology
suggests.
The study followed nearly 3,400 Japanese-American men above the age of 70 who
participated in a heart health program at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.
Researchers found that men who regularly took the vitamin supplements scored higher
on mental acuity tests.
``We believe antioxidants like vitamin E and C may protect against vascular
dementia by limiting the amount of brain damage that persists after a stroke,'' said
Dr. Kamal Masaki, the study author. ``The supplements may also play a role in
providing protection against brain cell and membrane injury involved in many aging-
related diseases, thus resulting in significantly higher scores on mental performance
tests in later life.''
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Going to an endodontist for root canal treatment is less painful if the
patient is given spa-like relaxation aids, a dentist reported to the annual meeting
of the American Association of Endodontists.
Dr. Andre Mickel of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland divided 200
volunteers into groups that received relaxation aids such as a warm eye mask and a
massaging pillow compared to a group that got no special help in relaxing.
The relaxed patients consistently reported less pain than the control group,
Mickel reported.
``We found some important physiological changes in people using these
techniques,'' he said. ``There is a direct correlation between anxiety and pain
threshold.''
