European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 11, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday March 11, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 health & science news heavy drinkers get warning on painkillers new York a persons who drink heavily should be wary of a drug often used in non aspirin painkillers scientists say in the Wake of research show ing that the drug could cause serious liver damage. Even when such alcoholics seek Only pain Relief they can develop liver damage that resembles what others get when they attempt suicide by overdosing on the sub stance called acetaminophen said or. Stanley Benja min chairman of the gastroenterology department at Georgetown University medical Center. The substance is used in tylenol and other aspirin free medications such As anacin 3, Datril and Papadol. A spokesman for the maker of tylenol said the risk of liver damage is shown Only among chronic alcoholics who exceed the recommended daily dose of acetaminophen. Benjamin is co author of a review published in the March Issue of the annals of internal Medicine of 25 alcoholics who developed the liver damage. Nineteen cases were taken from previous studies. Alcoholics should be cautioned about the use of acetaminophen while they persist in heavy consumption of alcohol the authors wrote. The  that acetaminophen is toxic in lower doses in alcoholics than it is to other people or. Martin Black head of the liver unit and professor of Medicine and pharmacology at the Temple University school of Medicine said wednesday. The studied patients weren t there with the intent of killing themselves Benjamin said. They were there trying to get rid of their headache or backache or  five patients died but Benjamin said that should not be taken As indicating a death rate. The role if any of acetaminophen in those deaths is not known he said. Nor do scientists know How much an alcoholic must drink to prime your liver to induce injury like that seen in the 25 patients he said. Black who wrote an editorial accompanying the study said we believe it is very heavy drinking rather than just regular use of alcohol. But there really is no Good quantitative data on How much you require to get to that  or. Thomas n. Gates medical director of the Mcneil consumer products co., maker of tylenol said he would urge that alcoholic patients not exceed the recommended doses on the package Labelling. The company has been considering putting such a warning on the Label that accompanies tylenol and its cold medications that contain acetaminophen he said. Gates said 17 of the patients studied reported taking More than the recommended maximum dose of 4 Grams a Day and the average intake among those who died was More than 10 Grams a Day. The recommended daily maximum equals about 12 regular strength tylenol Tab lets or eight extra strength tablets or new caplets. Black replied that some of the patients were within the recommended dose and that those that exceeded the so called maximum dose certainly weren t aware that if they were to exceed it they May develop severe liver  he said he believes that for alcoholics daily con sumption above 3 Grams certainly has the potential for causing  the risk of liver damage should be spelled out clearly on labels of products containing acetaminophen he said. Con fact ens wearers warned of Cornea ulcers new York a although extended Wear Contact lenses Are approved for wearing up to 30 Days straight optometrist or. Richard Baron of Decatur ind., tells patients one week is tops. Minneapolis ophthalmologist or. Fred Erick Wuest warns Lens wearers listen to your eyes. If they Hurt take the lenses  and australian optometrist or. Brien Holden recommends this approach for instructing patients in the responsibilities of Lens Wear look if you Don t follow these rules you can lose an  following instructions for care and wearing of extended Wear lenses is indeed important for minimizing a wearer s risk of corneal ulcers Eye specialists say. Or. Perry Binder chief of ophthalmic surgery and research at Sharp Cabrillo Hospital in san Diego noted that few ulcers appeared in studies in which patients were carefully screened and instructed in proper care. That s just Good evidence that if you do proper care the problem is going to be very very Low he said. Why would any patient fail to perform proper care Why am i six months late for my dental appointment asks St. Louis optometrist or. Frank Fontana. We All get careless. That s a human nature  some specialists also blame Lack of proper instruction by fitters. One important Rule is to recognize human Eye ligaments Iris ciliary muscle conjunctiva Chicago Tribune graphic source world Book encyclopedia americana sclera Choroid Retina area of sharpest vision Blind spot optic nerve Central canal symptoms of possible ulcers and immediately remove the Lens and seek care if they arise Eye experts said. What starts out As a minor sign of a Little irritation in a relatively Short period of time could become a serious problem said Cornea specialist or. Arthur Boru Choff of the Massachusetts Eye and ear infirmary. Binder sums up the symptoms As a sep redness sudden change in vision or pain. That s the time to take the Lens out immediately and Call your doctor he said. Some experts add tears to the list. Another important step is proper clean ing and disinfecting of the lenses which includes washing the hands. You can use All the great disinfectants in the world said optometrist Fontana but if your hands Are dirty or contaminated your Lens is contaminated As soon As you touch  just How often to remove the lenses for cleaning and disinfection is a judgment for each wearer s Eye care practitioner said optometrist or. Richard Lippman of the food and drug administration. That is part of Fra s approval for a maximum wearing time of 30 Days he said. Eye specialists interviewed by the associated press frequently recommended that patients remove the lenses for cleaning and sterilizing and leave them out Over night every week or two weeks. The experts also emphasized the importance of going for periodic checkups after lenses Are fitted. After several visits a few weeks apart in the first six months after fitting the lenses optometrist Fontana wants to see his patients every six months. I want to make sure you Don t have the soldering Little ulcer starting or other diseases beginning he said. Practitioners have their own responsibilities in guarding against ulcers such As fitting properly after weeding out inappropriate patients including those with inadequate tear production or eyelid infections experts said. Some Eye experts also look Forward to lenses that will transmit More oxygen to the Cornea s protective outer layer especially when the Eye is closed. Decreased oxygen Supply reduces the Cornea s Resis Tance to infection Binder said. What we really need is to make a Lens that s not going to change the physiology of the Eye said Binder. We re very close to that. Once that s achieved this problem will decrease  study analyses relation of personality to heart attack san Francisco a a new study of heart attack victims has some encouraging words for those hard driving people dubbed Type a personalities. As expected the study found that Type a men had More heart disease. But it also concluded they survive second heart attacks better than the More easygoing Type b. The findings were disputed by a Man who helped develop the theory of the relationship Between personality types and heart attacks. According to the report presented at an american heart association meeting the Type b was almost twice As Likely to die from a second heart attack As Type a. I would not have anticipated this finding said David r. Ragland one of the researchers who presented the report. Apparently Type a subjects seem to survive heart disease better Over time said Ragland a psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley school of Public health. The study found that about 19 percent of both Type a and Type b men died within 24 hours of a heart attack but of the victims who survived the advantage shifted in favor of Type a. The findings by Ragland Richard j. Brand and or. Ray h. Rosenman were termed ridiculous by or. Meyer Friedman of it. Zion Hospital in san Francisco a Pioneer in developing the theory of the relationship of personality types and heart attacks. The 257 men involved in the report were among the 3,154 initially healthy men Friedman and Rosenman now with Stanford research Institute International Stu died for 8 it years starting in 1960 to find out How health behaviour and environmental factors contributed to heart disease. In the Book Type a behaviour and your heart and in scientific journals Friedman and Rosenman reported in the Early 1970s tha Type a men had about twice the risk of developing heart disease that Type b s had. The men studied by Ragland Rosenman and Brand a us Bio statistics professor developed heart disease Between 1960 and 1969. They tracked Down the status of All but two of the men through 1982 and found that 35 percent had died of heart disease. Analysis of those who died and those who lived showed that 18 of 93 Type a s who had heart attacks and eight of the 42 Type b s with heart attacks died within 24 hours. In each Case the immediate death rate was about 19 percent. Yet among Type a s who lived at least a Day after a heart attack the survival was 1.72 better than among Type b s. Friedman said his original criteria for sorting a s from b s May have been flawed. We were really Lucky to get any effect at All in the original analysis which said impatience and hostility were the Hallmarks of a Type a. Why we Are. Learning new diagnostic procedures All the  Ragland said he does t know Why a Type a would survive better. He said it May have something to do with Superior coping abilities when confronted with a major illness. Perhaps Type a s adhere More closely to medical advice he suggested. The paper was delivered during the association s con Ference on cardiovascular disease epidemiology