Eyespy

Eyespy brings you the latest quirky medical stories from around the world

It's news that might have George Bush leaping on the anti-GM bandwagon. Rather than use the technology to boost food crop production, Colombian drug barons have turned to GM (genetically modified) crops to increase cocaine yield--new strains of plants have been found to yield eight times greater than normal. The higher yields may be one of the reasons why cocaine prices have stayed low despite US and Colombian air attacks on farms. And recent reports in the United Kingdom even say that buying cocaine is cheaper than a cappuccino. Official Colombian figures claim, however, that the area under coca cultivation has halved since 2000, but evidence suggests production levels have been maintained (www.ft.com).

imagesource/rex

Sorry darling, my condom is in the wash tonight

Eyespy has heard some dubious excuses in her time for not wanting to wear a condom and usually treats them with scorn. But those reported in the paper "Fifty ways to leave your rubber," have made even her raise a neatly manicured eyebrow. The paper explores the many excuses men who have sex with sex workers in Kenya offer to rationalise unsafe sex. Observations made in bars, discos, and guesthouses in Mombasa fell into six categories: condoms are not pleasurable, they're defective, they're harmful, they're unnecessary, they're too hard to use, and external forces prohibit their use. Some of these barriers could be overcome with improved knowledge and the introduction of devices controlled by women. But focusing just on disease control is unlikely to have a positive impact in a world where the first aim is pleasure (Sexually Transmitted Infections 2004;80:430-4).

A group of volunteers are to undergo torture to see if faith eases pain. Headed by Baroness Greenfield, neurologists, pharmacologists, anatomists, ethicists, and theologians at Oxford University will examine the scientific basis of religious belief and whether it is anything more than a placebo. In the course of the study, volunteers will be subjected to painful experiments while being exposed to religious symbols or images. Their neurological responses will be measured to determine the efficacy of their faith in helping them to cope. Eyespy hopes that there's plenty of extra strength paracetamol on hand (www.timesonline.co.uk).

If you work for a pharmaceutical company and spot a "scruffy guy in a baseball cap" who asks too many questions, you'd better watch your step. Or so say six of America's largest pharmaceutical companies who have issued an internal memo to their staff saying as much. The reason? Documentary maker Michael Moore is working on a new film about the pharmaceutical industry, provisionally entitled Sicko. To try to capture alleged corporate corruption by Big Pharma on film, he's also allegedly paid doctors to install cameras in their offices. Underhand tactics--Eyespy thinks that the pharmaceutical industry might know a thing or two about that (http://film.guardian.co.uk/news).

charbonneau/bei/rex

Who's the Sicko?

Got the hiccups? Don't bother using the tried and tested method of holding your breath and counting to 10, simply slurp some vinegar. A BMJ reader was recently involved in trying to find the cure for a patient with intractable hiccups. The ear, nose, and throat department was sadly lacking in knowledge, but a quick Medline and internet search found numerous treatments, including conventional drugs such as chlorpromazine, phenytoin, and atropine, but also granulated sugar, phrenic nerve crush, hypnosis, and folk remedies, such as sneezing induced by black pepper and the induction of sudden fright. In the end, what worked was vinegar, supplied by the hospital canteen. The mechanism remains unclear (www.bmj.com).

Although it's no longer the Christmas period, Eyepsy thought that she would tell a miracle baby story anyway. A woman in Iasi, Romania, will make medical history when she gives birth to one of her twins two months after the first. Marcia Tescu was born with a double uterus. Dr Dragos Dragomir, who heads the Cuza Voda Hospital in Iasi, said, "This case is unique because women with a malformation like this cannot usually have babies in both wombs. Not only did a pregnancy occur in each uterus, but they evolved simultaneously, and one of the babies was born without affecting the other. Instead of being born minutes apart, these twins will be born months apart. One will have his birthday in 2004 and the other in 2005" (www.telegraph.co.uk).

If you're ever in clinic and someone blames their inability to shed some weight on "immunity to exercise," don't simply shrug it off as pseudoscience--they may have a point. In a study of 742 people, volunteers were put through an intense 20 week endurance training programme after having refrained from exercising for the previous six months. The team found that training improved maximum oxygen consumption, a measure of a person's ability to perform work, by on average 17%. But the most trainable volunteers gained over 40%, and the least trainable showed no improvement at all. Similar patterns were seen with cardiac output, blood pressure, heart rate, and other markers of fitness. But it was the change in insulin sensitivity that surprised the researchers. In 58% of the volunteers it improved after exercise, but in 42% it showed no improvement or, in a few cases, may have got worse. In the eight volunteers who showed the largest improvement in insulin sensitivity, 51 genes were expressed in muscles at double the levels of the eight people who showed the least improvement, and 74 genes were expressed at half the level (www.newscientist.com).



studentBMJ 2005;13:45-88 February ISSN 0966-6494