From the office of Robert S. Grimshaw Jr MD FACP Internal Medicine 3535 Hill Blvd Yorktown Hts NY 914 962-3180 NEWS Recognized Provider  “With Distinction” by the American Diabetes Association/National Committee for Quality Assurance 2/99-2/02

50      February  1999

And More on LYMErix: A new 2 month vaccination schedule seems to be as effective as the year-long series just licensed.  That good piece of news comes from the vaccine’s lead investigator and the physician generally thought of as the discoverer of Lyme, Tuft’s University’s Dr. Allen Steere.  The 2-month schedule was examined in a 702 patient study by SmithKline Beecham’s Dr. Dennis Parenti.  Levels were just as good as in the longer schedule.
Dr. Steere recommends the last dose of vaccine be given in April if possible, to have the highest blood antibody levels in time for the peak Lyme season of late May through July.
The New Pill: No Extra Stroke Risk  That’s the word from a pooled analysis of women taking the low-dose oral contraceptives in the journal Stroke.  The authors still recommend that patients with a migraine history should probably not take the Pill -- their stroke risk was double that of women who never had used the Pill.

Alzheimer’s and Homo-cysteine May be Linked:
A report in Archives of Neurology shows that patients with memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease had significantly elevated levels of homocysteine and reduced levels of folate and vitamin B-12.  The authors studied 164 patients.  Those with elevated levels of homocysteine were 4 1/2 times more likely to have Alzheimer’s.  This metabolic by-product of protein digestion can be lowered with folic acid, vitamin B-6 and vitamin B-12 treatments.


Folate Multivitamins May
Reduce Colon Cancer Risk is the conclusion of an analysis of Boston’s famed Nurses’ Health Study.  Harvard’s Dr. Meir Stampfer

and colleagues reviewed 88,756 women finding those who took a multi containing at least 400 mcg of folic acid daily for at least 15 years had a 75% reduction in colon cancer rates; 200 mcg daily was protective, but less so.
And Aspirin May Prevent Hereditary Colon Cancer according to test tube work by Dr. Richard Fishel et al at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.  Aspirin and sulindac (an anti-inflammatory) suppressed the gene instability that causes hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer.