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FATTY FISH Remember good cholesterol and bad cholesterol? It turns out there are good fats and bad fats too--although all fats still contain nine calories a gram. Health experts are increasingly intrigued by a group of good fats called omega-3 fatty acids. What's good about them is that they lower the level of triglycerides (one of the bad fats) and decrease the risk of suffering a blood clot. Salmon, sardines and tuna are so full of omega-3 fatty acids that the American Heart Association for the first time recommended that everyone eat two 3-oz. servings of fatty fish each week.
FIBER Three big studies concluded that a diet rich in fiber-- found in whole-grain cereals, fruits and vegetables--won't necessarily protect you against colon cancer. Study participants who consumed as much as 35 g of fiber a day were just as likely to develop precancerous growths in the intestines as those who were addicted to processed food. But fiber still has its benefits: it helps lower blood pressure, moderates cholesterol levels and combats Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes.
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GENE THERAPY Programs in several medical centers were either put on hold or severely restricted following the 1999 death of Jesse Gelsinger, 18, the first American known to have died as a direct result of gene therapy, an attempt to replace defective genes with normal ones. Meanwhile, doctors in France successfully used gene therapy to treat four infants suffering from a congenital immune disorder.
GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS Millions of bushels of genetically modified corn, approved for animal feed but not for human consumption, turned up in Taco Bell taco shells and other food products. Though most of the food was recalled before it was eaten, the high-tech mix-up increased public skepticism about so-called Frankenfoods. In the meantime, public-health experts still have high hopes for golden rice, a strain that's genetically enriched with a precursor of vitamin A and could help prevent blindness in hundreds of thousands of children in impoverished countries each year.
GENOME Five years ahead of schedule, scientists announced they had sequenced the 3.1 billion pairs of biochemical letters of human DNA, the coded instructions for building and operating a fully functional human. Fierce rivalry between J. Craig Venter, the prickly head of a private genetics company, and Dr. Francis Collins, leader of a government consortium, fueled the lightning-fast pace.
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HEART A powerful new clot-busting drug, tenecteplase, reduced treatment time for heart-attack victims from 90 minutes to just 5 seconds. Clinical trials showed the drug to be as effective as the standard clot buster t-PA and easier to use, since it can be administered in one quick injection instead of an hour-and-a-half infusion. Tenecteplase, which was approved by the FDA last June, is also longer acting and specifically targets blood clots, rather than indiscriminately thinning the blood. Good news for the more than 1.1 million Americans each year who suffer a heart attack.
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