• Another natural remedy bit the dust, or at least failed to meet expectations, in the major medical journals. Two major health supplements mostly popular in the West for sore joints — glucosamine plus chondroitin sulfate — failed to measure up to scientific scrutiny. A federally-funded study compared the supplements either alone or together against Celebrex (celecoxib) or placebo in more than 1,500 people with knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. According to a report in New England Journal of Medicine, the combination was no better than placebo for relieving mild pain. But placebo was pretty effective with more than 60 per cent of patients reporting that pain decreased by at least 20 per cent.Smoking could take you the root canal way• Smoking was always considered to be dangerous for your heart. Now it can be a danger to your teeth as well. According to a study in the Journal of Dental Research, men who smoke cigarettes are about twice as likely to require root canal treatment as those who have never smoked. The study, which lasted for almost three decades, says the risk for cigarette smokers increased with more years of smoking and decreased with length of abstinence, suggesting a dose-response relationship. There, however, is a variation when it comes to smoking cigar and pipe - although linked to periodontal disease and tooth loss, it was not significantly associated with root canal treatment, according to an online report to be published in the April issue of the Journal of Dental Research. Depressed kids likely to turn to Ecstasy as adults• Children who are anxious or depressed are at a risk of having the illegal party drug Ecstasy when they are older, a study in the British Medical Journal has suggested. Dutch scientists studied 1,500 children (nine years old on an average) in 1983. When they went back 14 years later, those who had shown signs of anxiety or depression as children were found to be at an increased risk of using the drug. The team of researchers from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam looked at the 1,580 children as part of a long-term population study. Older mothers more likely to have non-identical twins• Older women have are more likely to have non-identical twins because their hormones tend to go into overdrive — multiple ovulations in the same menstrual cycle — according to a Dutch study in the Journal of Human Reproduction. This was the first documentation that as women age, rising levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) cause multiple follicular growth in natural cycles, thereby contributing to twinning, the researchers said. — Compiled by TOUFIQ RASHID
