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Sugar cane cholesterol treatment doesn't
work, German study says
By Lindsey Tanner, May 17,
2006.
CHICAGO (AP) - German research casts doubt
on the effectiveness of a sugar cane-based
ingredient sold as a cholesterol treatment
in One-A-Day vitamins and other products
marketed in dozens of countries.
The substance, called policosanol, worked
no better than dummy pills in German adults
with high levels of LDL cholesterol, the
bad kind that can clog arteries and lead
to heart problems.
Even in high doses, policosanol derived
from Cuban sugar cane produced no meaningful
changes in cholesterol levels during 12
weeks of treatment, said lead author Dr.
Heiner Berthold of the German Medical Association's
drug commission.
Most previous studies that reached the
opposite conclusion were sponsored by a
company founded by Cuba's National Center
for Scientific Research to market policosanol,
the German researchers said. The Cuban scientific
centre didn't respond to requests for comment.
The German study involving 143 people appears
in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association.
Patients were randomly assigned to get
policosanol in various doses or dummy pills
for 12 weeks. There was no difference in
the levels of LDL in volunteers in either
group.
Berthold, executive secretary of the German
Medical Association's drug commission, said
his research doesn't rule out that policosanol
might be effective in different ethnic groups
or that other formulations might have different
effects.
But he believes the product's claims have
been overstated because there's no "mechanism
of action" to explain how it might
lower cholesterol.
Policosanol is a combination of alcohols
that come from plant wax. Cuban sugar cane-based
policosanol is sold in more than 40 countries,
mostly as a cholesterol treatment, the researchers
said. Other sources for the ingredient include
wheat germ, rice, bran and beeswax. Policosanol
products are widely available on the Internet
and in stores.
Bayer Consumer Care uses sugar cane-based
policosanol in its One-A-Day Cholesterol
Plus vitamins and calls it "the leading
complete multivitamin specially formulated
with heart-supporting nutrients."
Bayer spokeswoman Tricia McKernan said
the study "was not designed to address
a claim that along with diet and exercise,
policosanol can help maintain healthy cholesterol
levels already within the normal range."
"Bayer makes only the latter claim,
and agrees with the authors that consumers
should always discuss their cardiovascular
risk profile with their doctor," McKernan
said.
Policosanol is marketed in Cuba as a natural
medicine called PPG with purported benefits
including lowering cholesterol levels, boosting
energy and weight loss.
Juventud Rebelde, the Communist Youth newspaper,
reported last year that about 250,000 people
in Cuba take PPG and that it is exported
to various other countries.
Andrew Shao, vice-president of scientific
and regulatory affairs at the Council for
Responsible Nutrition, a trade group for
dietary supplement makers, said the new
research "is only one study" and
not the final word on policosanol.
Associated Press writer Anita Snow in
Havana contributed to this report.
Castro says he will resign if US can
prove he's wealthy
HAVANA, 16 (AFP) - Cuban President Fidel
Castro said he would offer his resignation
if his arch-rival, the United States, can
prove that he has a huge personal fortune
as claimed by Forbes magazine.
"If they prove that I have an account
abroad, I will resign from my position,
from my current responsibilities,"
Castro, who has ruled Cuba for 47 years,
said in a lengthy television and radio appearance.
Earlier this month, Castro was listed by
Forbes as the seventh wealthiest ruler with
900 million dollars.
The American magazine cited former Cuban
officials as saying that Castro had skimmed
profits from a Havana convention center,
retail conglomerate Cimex and vaccine and
pharmaceutical products firm Medicuba to
amass his fortune.
Forbes noted, however, that "Castro,
for the record, disagrees, insisting his
personal net worth is zero."
China, Canada seek crude off Cuba, but
not US
By Carlos Batista. AFP Friday
May 12, 2006.
HAVANA (AFP) - China will send 12 hi-tech
rigs to drill for oil in Cuban waters of
the Gulf of Mexico, officials have confirmed,
irking US lawmakers that US firms cannot
prospect in nearby US waters.
Cuba has stepped up work on a total of
36 new oil wells with Chinese companies
and Canada's Sherritt, about four kilometers
(2.5 miles) off the north coast, officials
said privately.
The communist Cuban government is generally
tight-lipped about oil matters but this
week has been more public.
The party newspaper, Granma, gave uncharacteristic
front page play to news of the well, drilled
to a record depth for Cuba, near Varadero
east of Havana.
And diplomatic sources on Thursday said
that India's ONGC Videsh and Norway's Norsk
Hydro would join forces with Spain's Repsol
to seek crude in the Gulf of Mexico.
That news came as US lawmakers, with oil
prices soaring, grumbled ever more loudly
about rivals prospecting in Cuban waters
while US environmental laws make it all
but impossible for US firms to do so in
nearby US waters, even as the US embargo
locks them out of Cuba.
In Washington Thursday, two Republican
US lawmakers submitted a bill that would
in effect ease the US economic embargo by
allowing US firms to operate in Cuban waters.
"The American public would be shocked
and stunned that as this country faces a
serious energy crisis at home, countries
like China, India, Canada, Spain and Norway
are exploring and drilling 50 miles off
the US coast," said Republican US Senator
Larry Craig of Idaho.
US companies would be allowed to engage
in any transaction necessary and could travel
for business purposes without a special
license from the US government, said Craig,
joined by congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona.
"China, as our National Security Strategy
points out, is trying to lock up resources
around the world, and they are locking up
resources in our own backyard where we can't
even compete and play ball," argued
Craig.
US media have reported that China was involved
in the prospecting but Cuba has not announced
a Chinese deal as such.
The deal with ONGC Videsh and Norsk Hydro,
to be signed officially in Havana May 23,
technically is not a new contract.
"Those companies are joining the existing
one with Repsol to share risks," a
European diplomat told AFP privately.
Repsol has rights to six of the 59 prospecting
areas the Cuban government has been auctioning
off since 1999. It carried out its first
drilling in 2004 and while oil was found,
Repsol said the crude was not of commercial
grade.
Since then Repsol has been looking for
partners to share the investment burden,
and ONGC Videsh and Norsk Hydro each will
be picking up 30 percent of the expenses,
other sources said.
The gulf's waters were divided into economic
exclusion zones of the United States, Mexico
and Cuba under a deal that is still in effect
signed during the government of then-US
president Jimmy Carter.
Among other companies with prospecting
rights if not projects there are Canada's
Sherritt International and Brazil's state
oil giant Petrobras.
Cuba has invited US firms to take part
but the US economic embargo bars them from
doing so.
Cuba produces about a third of the oil
it consumes, with the rest imported under
favorable terms from a key ally Venezuela.
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