Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • P2

2 rida un 15 20 12 ampa ay imes PSC Gues column Rao usun uru In medicine, science meets art Recent talk that supplements can kill you, citing a recent European publication, made people ve ry apprehensive, confused and ven scared. No wonder or decades, we were told that calcium supplements are ood for bone health. ow they sa i can kill you by increasing he incidence heart at tacks and strokes. I either of the conclusions really true A revious article published in British edical ournal supported the conclusion from this European tudy that calcium supplements can be harmful. But a tudy published in Archive of Internal edicine the I owa Wo me ealth Study October 2011) came up with the opposite conclusion.

is is nothing ne w. or years, we ha ve heard pposing on- clusions about beneficial health ef fects of chocolate, eggs, shrimp, several vitamins, many minerals, glucosamine, fish oil, folic acid and ven aspirin. he I owa omen ealth Study reported that in older women, several commonly used dietar vitamin and mineral supplements, especially iron, were associated with increased mortality risk ex cept for calcium and vitamin which decreased death rate. ost of the contradictor and controversial conclusions come from obser vational studies. I these population studies, a lot of information is gathered looking for association between dif ferent things.

Th at does not prove cause-and-ef fect relation between any two partic ular factors. Ma ny other unrecognized confounding fac tors can af fect the conclusions. holesterol is one of the xam ples. or decades, he medical community believed that estrogen supplementation can protect against heart at tacks in postmenopausal women. Simple obser vations led to that intuitive conclusion.

act one: enstru- ating women are mostly spared from heart at tacks because of the protective ef fect of estrogen. ac two: trogen ends to reduce bad holesterol and i ncrease ood cholesterol. act three: Low levels of bad cholesterol and high ood cholesterol reduce the incidence heart at tacks. A equals B. equals C.

So, A should equal C. So we thought for decades. It works in mathematics, not necessarily in medicine. When tested in controlled clinical trials, costing millions of dollars, the results turned out to be opposite. ormone supplementation did not decrease hear at tacks.

It caused more strokes, blood clots and breast cancer nti-aging are a big tempting business, until one realizes that some of them may prevent aging by killing a person early a is considered the ke ingredient for ood health. If it is natural, it must be good for you. In realit so many natural things can literally kill you or disable you. Lead, arsenic, merc ur and poison ivy are all perfectly natural. The human body is complex and nature is ver complicated, which makes the practice of medicine dif fic ult.

Ev er body and ver ybody is dif fer- ent. We thought enes controlled ever ything discovered DN A and decoded the entire genome. We thought we conquered the secrets of nature. hen we found out there are things called epi- genomes hat control enes, which are ve ry usceptible to environmental i nfluences, thus altering one destiny in a ver short period of time. oo much of a ood thing is not necessarily bet ter (e.g salt).

Little of a bad thing may not necessarily be that bad. What one person perceives as stress is someone else timulus. So, what is the a swer? Can calcium supplements ill ou? May be, maybe not. It depends who is taking it (age, ender other medical conditions, tc. in wha orm, i what streng th and for what reason.

Th at is where your personal physician comes into the picture, to make judgment calls weighing the benefits versus th risks. Th at is the art of medicine. We also need xpensive and ethical, oc used and prospective clinical trials to dif ferentiate between claims and facts. Th at i the cost of edicine. Dietar supplementation (at an estimated cost of $20 billion annually) should be reser ved fo preventing or correcting deficiency rather than promotin wellness.

here is definitely no controversy about the beneficial ef fect of balanced diet with more fruits and vegetables and regular xercise. Dr Rao usunuru, a practicing cardiologist in udson, is a member of ational Leader ship Committee of Clinical Cardiology Council of the American eart Association and a past member of the advisory council for the ational eart, Lung and Blood Institute at the ational Institutes of ealth Musunuru ta mpab ay om pinion Yo ur etters Share our opinions go to tampabay ters Pr op er en al ti es ca cu rt ai bu lli es We do ha ve a bullying problem in asco, but bullying can be topped or ver nearly topped. First of fense will require a mee ting with the parents of the acc used and the principal. The consequence will be a wo- day in-school suspension. Seco nd of ense will require another meeting with the arents and the principal and would result in five ays out-of-school suspension.

Third of fense will require another meeting with the principal and the bully would be xpelled from that partic u- lar school, but ot the district. his would result in the parents being responsible for ge tt in their child to the assigned school without transportation. his will also apply to bullying in school, of school grounds, acebook, text messaging or any other ype of communication. oe Fr at to, udson Blame mis placed fo kids ecisions une 14 ett er St or ow ne ha a re sp on sibi li ty to In esponse to he statement about ak parents (me) being so quick to blame the tore owners for selling spice, let me be clear he store is fully responsible for selling synthetic marijuana to a child. The la has an age requirement to purchase it, 18.

Ja ke is not 18. here are aw out here that are supposed to protect our oung eople. ou ha ve to be 21 to purchase alcohol, you ha ve to be 18 to purchase tobacco and 18 to purchase synthetic marijuana. The tore is selling poison to kids. A cohol is regulated tobacco is regulated, synthetic marijuana is not.

The manufacturers are skirting the la by calling it incense, not for huma consumption. They know full well kids are smoking it. ou simply need to pull up their social edia pages to confirm this. eens are smoking spic because it is ava ilable in vir tu- ally ver corner tore. eens are smoking it because it is legal, and if it legal it can be that harmful, correc A boy rain does not fully develop reasoning skills until age 25.

They ha ve to rely on our community to help make ood decisions. A local, family-owned tore is part of the communit therefore it should protect the children. olleen Suojanen, ew ort Richey Thin be fo re ou (m is pl ac e) la me I was aghast at the let ter writer opinion on this scar subject. It sounds like he not a ware of a teenage mind-set when it comes to being urious and believing t-happen-to- me at titude and the writer also doesn fully understand this synthetic drug is loaded with chemicals that can, and do, produce unnatural ef fects and serious harm in the body and ind. alcohol and cigaret tes are legal, but there are trict restrictions and warnings that shoul prevent teens from ge ting their hands on it easily here are ag limits for a reason.

By 18, a person should be able to make a better decision before using these destructive products. But, there is no la preventing a teen from ge ting their hands on it way too easily here also is deception i selling this drug The store owner sells it as potpourri. In this case, it is up to the government and the adults in charge, shop owners included, to stop this unfathomable practice. Children ha ve been harmed and ven ied. Please some research, and do some ood, before you misplace your perception of blame.

N. Galasso, oliday YO UR OICE UNT Yo may submit a letter to the editor or possible publication through our website at tampabay.com/letters, or by faxing it to (7 27) 8696233, or by mailing it asco Times 11321 U.S. 19, Po rt Richey, FL 34668. ou must include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited or clarity, taste and length.

DELIVER Call to subscribe, report delivery problems, or billing inquiries, vacation hold or other customer service. For redelivery of paper call 6 a.m.- 10 a.m. and Sun. 7 a.m.- 11 a.m. Po rt asco 7 27) 849-4338 esley Chapel oll-F ree 1-800-333- 75 05 WITCHBO ARD Po rt asco 7 27) 849-0044 esley Chapel (813) 909-4600 elecommunications device or the hearing impaired 7 27) 869-6205 NE WS asco News (7 27) 869-623 8 esley Chapel Bureau 813) 909-460 6 eddings 800) 333- 75 05 ext.

8 73 5 Po rt Richey AX 7 27) 869-623 3 esley Chapel AX 813) 909-4611 EMAIL THE ASCO TIMES ST AFF Bridget Hall Grumet Editor C. T. Bowen Editor of editorials inda Raab North Suncoast arketing manager Jim Thompson Regional i rculation a nager North ncoast uby Sidoff Pa co advertising a nager AD VER TISIN lassified Retail esley Chapel (813) 909-4603 (813) 909-4603 Port Richey (727) 869-6272 (727) 869-6219 Internet (727) 892-2237 Obituaries 800) 333- 75 05 t. 8 51 8 tampaba y. co Pa sco imes Po rt Richey Of fice 11321 U.S.

19 Po rt Richey, FL 34668 esley Chapel Of fice 26240 Golden Maple Loop esley Chapel, FL 33543.