Vitamin C may not treat gout: study

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Daily vitamin C supplements don't lower uric acid as much as drugs used to treat high levels of the acid that's responsible for gout, says a new study from New Zealand.

"It's not that the vitamin C didn't reduce the uric acid level at all, it's just so small that it wouldn't make a difference from the patients' perspectives," said Dr. Lisa Stamp, the study's lead author from the University of Otago in Christchurch.

Previous studies had found that people who eat the most vitamin C were at a decreased risk for developing gout, a form of arthritis caused by the crystallization of uric acid in joints. It's believed the vitamin increases the amount of uric acid excreted through a person's urine.

Few studies, however, have looked at whether vitamin C would lower uric acid levels in people already suffering with the pain and swelling of gout, or if it would lead to additional uric acid reductions in people who are already on medication.

For the new study, which was published in Arthritis & Rheumatism and funded by The Health Research Council of New Zealand, the researchers recruited 20 gout patients who were already on medicine and another 20 who were not.

The 20 participants who were on medication were taking allopurinol, which is marketed as Aloprim and Zyloprim. They were told to either increase their dose of the medicine or also take 500 milligrams of vitamin C supplements every day.

The 20 participants who were not already taking medication were either started on allopurinol or told to take a 500-milligram vitamin C supplement every day.

At the beginning of the eight-week study, the amount of uric acid in the participants' blood was 9 milligrams per deciliter on average. The researchers said a healthy uric acid level falls below 6.5 milligrams per deciliter.

In both cases, participants who started taking vitamin C - with or without medication - did not see a significant decrease in uric acid levels.

There was, however, a significant decrease in the uric acid levels of people who started on allopurinol - about 3 milligrams per deciliter - and in those who were on the drug but increased their doses - about a 1.6 milligrams per deciliter decrease.

"It still appears you're probably better off taking whatever uric acid lowering treatment your doctor would prescribe," Stamp said.

OBESITY AND BEER

She added that there could be a few reasons why they didn't see an association between vitamin C and decreased uric acid levels.

"It may be that just in gout patients that the effect of vitamin C would be too weak," she said.

But Dr. Tim Bongartz, a rheumatologist from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said it's difficult to make any firm conclusions from the new study, because it would take about 200 participants in each group to see a difference.

"So the results of the study don't tell you much," said Bongartz, who was not involved with the new study.

He added that even if the study could reproduce the results of past studies of people without gout, it probably wouldn't bring people's uric acid levels below the threshold of 6.5 milligrams per deciliter. But it doesn't mean medication is the only answer.

"It does not always have to be medication. There are many other measures that can help people drop uric acid levels. The most important one is in obese individuals to drop weight," Bongartz said.

Another way, according to both Bongartz and Stamp, is to cut back on alcohol - especially beer.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/14uAxjS Arthritis & Rheumatism, online May 16, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vitamin-c-may-not-treat-gout-study-203743884.html

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VH1 sets 'Gossip Table' for June 3

By Tim Molloy

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - VH1 will air the new pop culture morning show "The Gossip Table" beginning Monday June 3, the network announced Tuesday.

The 9 a.m. show will group together five gossip columnists each weekday morning in June. It will fill in while "Big Morning Buzz Live with Carrie Keagan" is on summer break.

The gossips are Rob Shuter from "The Today Show" and NaughtyButNiceRob.com, Marianne Garvey from the New York Daily News, Noah Levy from In Touch, Chloe Melas from HollywoodLife.com, and Delaina Dixon from DivaGalsDaily.com.

The series is created and executive produced by Shane Farley and is the first show from his production company Cypress E Productions. Farley also produced "Big Morning Buzz."

"With the world's obsession on all-things gossip, it's important that we bring something very different to 'The Gossip Table,'" said Farley. "Rob, Marianne, Noah, Chloe and Delaina are the best in the business, and I'm confident that viewers are going to love to hear breaking stories each and every day from them."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vh1-sets-gossip-table-june-3-231451643.html

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Scotland says better off without Britain, but with the pound

By William James

LONDON (Reuters) - Ending Britain's 306-year rule would allow Scotland to reverse generations of economic mismanagement and free its lawmakers to boost economic growth, say Scottish nationalists campaigning to split from the UK.

Independence would not only bring the long-standing and sometimes-troubled union to an end, but allow tax cuts and investment focused on boosting exports to spur growth on the Scottish side of the border.

In an attempt to sour support for independence ahead of a Scottish referendum in September 2014, Britain's rulers have issued a flurry of warnings in recent months about the dangers of Scotland scrapping its union with England.

Scotland, according to the British government, would have trouble keeping the pound, its economy would be dangerously exposed to the vicissitudes of the oil market and its banking sector would be vulnerable to a Cyprus-style debt crisis.

But the Scottish government hit back at those gloomy views with a report entitled "Scotland's Economy: The Case for Independence" which said years of shoddy London policies had cost Scotland 19,000 new jobs and hampered growth for decades.

"The UK government's economic policies have been holding Scotland back for generations," said Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. "Only with the powers of independence can Scotland meet its full potential."

Scotland's $190 billion economy -- roughly the size of New Zealand's -- makes up about 8 percent of the United Kingdom's $2.4 trillion economy, according to most international measures and Scotland's own economic forecasts.

Opinion polls show about a third of Scottish voters want independence, while nearly 60 percent want to stay part of Britain.

KEEP THE POUND

Scotland said that if granted independence it wanted to keep using the British pound under a currency union arrangement and strengthen ties with the European Union, steps which it said could increase exports by 50 percent over four years.

"A currency union would provide the full flexibility to vary tax and spending decisions to target key opportunities and challenges in Scotland," the report said.

It cited tourism, food and drink and manufacturing as some of the industries that would benefit from independence and the freedom to deal directly with partners in Europe and beyond.

Opponents of independence in London have warned Scotland it would have to renegotiate European Union membership as a separate sovereign state and that its share of North Sea oil revenues would also be the subject of discussion.

Alistair Darling, a Scottish politician who served as finance minister under the Labour government between 2007 and 2010, said the economic case for an independent Scotland was "totally unconvincing".

He said oil, gas and renewable energy sectors were dependent on large UK subsidies and that Scotland's financial sector relied heavily upon access to the rest of the British market.

The remaining oil and gas reserves of the North Sea could be worth up to $2.28 trillion according to Scottish government analysis, and the report backs creating a Norwegian-style oil wealth fund to cushion the blow of any future economic shocks.

"Nothing lasts for ever but we know that oil and gas resources are going to last a long time," said Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party.

An independent Scotland could attract investment by cutting corporation tax, simplifying regulatory structures and providing incentives for companies to invest in training their workers.

A three percent cut in corporation tax could boost economic output by 1.4 percent and raise employment by 1.1 percent by attracting investment over the next 20 years, the report said.

Scotland could also save money with a trimmed down regulation system compared to that of the UK, that created greater certainty for industries and higher levels of protection for consumers, the report said.

($1 = 0.6570 British pounds)

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scotland-says-better-off-without-britain-pound-164525121.html

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Joe Francis: 'Retarded' jury should be 'shot dead'

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

4 hours ago

AP file

Joe Francis in 2009.

"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis has some choice words for the jury who found him guilty of falsely imprisoning three women in his California home. They're "mentally retarded" "stupid idiots" who are "jealous" of him and should be "put in jail" or even "lined up and shot," or so Francis told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview.

"I want that jury to know that each and every one of you are mentally f--ing retarded and you should be euthanized because, as Darwin said, you have naturally selected yourself," Francis told interviewer Stephen Galloway. "You are the weakest members of the herd. Goodbye! And if that jury wants to convict me because I didn't show up, which is the only reason why they did, then, you know, they should all be lined up and shot!"

Francis, 40, was found guilty May 6 of three counts of false imprisonment and one of assault likely to cause great bodily injury. Three students who Francis said he met at the bar and restaurant Supperclub Los Angeles were involved, but Francis says he was just being nice to the women when he invited them to his home.

"It just proves that any celebrity in Hollywood should never give a ride home to any girls," he said. "They (say they) got their head slammed on a tile floor and they were imprisoned here for hours. They said it was here on the tile floor. I don't see any tile right here."

Hollywood Reporter: 'Girls Gone Wild' mogul breaks his silence

Prosecutors say Francis could face five years, though legal sources told The Hollywood Reporter such a sentence was unlikely. "At the most I could get 90 days of anger management," Francis said.

The Hollywood Reporter recites his other brushes with the law, which include jail time in Florida and Nevada, a successful defamation lawsuit from Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn, indictments for tax evasion and filming underage girls, a ban on entering the Santa Monica offices of his own company, and a claim by a Los Angeles Times reporter that he pinned her to the car and twisted her arm so hard it brought tears.

Hollywood Reporter: How to Keep a Celebrity Sex Tape Off the Web

"Anybody who criticizes me, anybody who -- it's just a jealous guy, Francis told Galloway. "Everybody who says, 'Oh, Joe Francis is this' -- look at their penis and tell me if it's small."

Juries hate him because they want his life, he thinks. "I have private jets, I have a great life, I'm a good-looking guy," Francis said. "I'm not conceited, but like -- look, I have girls around me all the time, whatever I want. I make a lot of money. It's a great life. If I wasn't me, I'd f--ing hate me."

Francis will be sentenced in July.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/girls-gone-wild-founder-calls-jury-retarded-says-they-should-6C10020903

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Watch Chris Hadfield MacGyver Up a Game of Space Darts

You thought Chris Hadfield turned his back on us when he left the ISS earlier this month, didn't you? For shame, internet patron, for shame. Hadfield may be safely back on Earth, but the otherworldly videos continue to surface. And in this one, you get to see him make himself a game of darts MacGyver style. In zero gravity. On a spaceship. Because he is Chris Hadfield, and he can do anything.

Over on Tested.com, Jamie Hyenman and Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame lead us on this tour of an ISS astronaut's attempt at downtime. And when you're in outer space, having fun is, apparently, a job all its own. [Tested]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/watch-chris-hadfield-macgyver-up-a-game-of-space-darts-508962446

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U.S. says Korea tensions relatively low, despite missile tests

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Monday appeared to play down North Korea's six short-range missile launches over the past three days, describing tensions on the Korean peninsula as relatively low.

Pyongyang has defended its short-range missile launches as legitimate military drills. The North frequently fires short-range missiles, although the current spate of launches has drawn criticism from South Korea. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday called the launches provocative.

Pentagon spokesman George Little acknowledged U.S. concerns that the launches could be construed that way but said, "I'm not ready to make the call yet."

North Korea test-fired a long-range rocket in December, a move that critics said was designed to test technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North conducted its third nuclear test in February and it ratcheted up threatening rhetoric in April during U.S.-South Korean military drills.

But tensions have subsided since then, Little noted.

"A few months ago, we saw underground nuclear tests, we saw long-range missile tests, we saw heated rhetoric," Little said. "So I think we can safely say that we remain in a period of tensions that are relatively on a small scale by comparison."

The comments came the same day the U.S. military announced it would test-fire its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile on May 21.

The last scheduled test of the missile was scrapped in April because of concerns over tensions with North Korea.

The Minuteman III test launch will take place between 3:01 and 9:01 a.m. (PST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The unarmed missile is expected to travel 4,190 miles to the Marshall Islands, the Air Force's Global Strike Command said in a statement.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-says-korea-tensions-relatively-low-despite-missile-182040317.html

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Warriors Fans Killed in Shooting After Playoff Loss

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/05/warriors-fans-killed-in-shooting-after-playoff-loss/

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