• Study Teens use medicines to get high

• Exercise diet reduce fatty liver in obese teens

• Stephen Wright charged with Ipswich murders other suspect released

Study Teens use medicines to get high

WASHINGTON - Teens increasingly are getting high with legal drugs like painkillers and mood stimulants, and they're turning to cough syrup as well, says a government survey released Thursday.
The annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, conducted by the University of Michigan, showed mixed results in the nation's longtime campaign against teen drug abuse.

It found that while fewer teens overall drank alcohol or used illegal drugs in the last year, a small but growing number were popping prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin and stimulants like http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDAHome.html
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/
Partnership for Drug Free America: http://www.drugfree.org/

Exercise diet reduce fatty liver in obese teens

NEW YORK - Efforts to help obese children become more active and eat better can help reduce the amount of fatty tissue in their livers.
Known medically as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, this condition is becoming increasingly common as the prevalence of obesity increases, Dr. Ana R. Damaso and colleagues from the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil note in their report. There are currently no drugs available to reverse fatty liver disease, which can progress to cirrhosis, even among young patients, the doctors add.

They set out to determine whether a 12-week program including nutrition education and two one-hour exercise sessions per week would have any effect on fatty liver in a group of 73 obese teens.

At the study's outset, 52 percent had fatty liver disease on the right side of the organ, and 48 percent had fatty liver on the left side. After the program, the prevalence of fatty liver disease on both sides fell significantly to 29 percent.

After the intervention, obese teens had less fat surrounding their abdominal organs and, on average, their weight and body mass index were reduced; 48 percent lost weight, while 48 percent maintained their weight and 4 percent gained weight.

One important aspect of the findings, Damaso and colleagues point out, is how common fatty liver disease is among obese adolescents. There is evidence that gradual weight loss is the best way to reduce fatty liver disease, they add, while sudden, large-scale weight loss may actually worsen liver function and lead to liver failure.

Additional studies are needed, they conclude, to investigate the long-term effectiveness of lifestyle interventions and cholesterol-lowering drugs in fighting fatty liver disease.

SOURCE: European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, December 2006.

Stephen Wright charged with Ipswich murders other suspect released

LONDON - Police charged a 48-year-old truckdriver with the murder of five prostitutes in Ipswich, and released another suspect they had brought in for questioning.
"Stephen Wright ... has been charged with the murder of all five women," Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull told a news conference.

Wright, who was arrested on Tuesday morning, will remain in police custody overnight and appear before Ipswich Magistrates' Court on Friday.

"We've made the decision that there is sufficient evidence and authorised that Stephen Wright ... be charged with the murder" of the five women, said Michael Crimp, a senior prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service, also at the news conference.

A second man, 37, whom British police did not identify, was released Thursday evening "on police bail pending further inquiries," Gull said. He had been widely identified by media as Tom Stephens, a supermarket worker, who was arrested on Monday.

Gull added: "There have been significant ongoing inquiries and interviews during the period that these men have been in custody."

The murdered women are Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29. Adams and Nicol were found in a stream while the other three were found in woodlands.

The naked corpses of the five drug-using women were found over a 10-day period earlier this month.

Cause of death has only been established in two of the five deaths in Ipswich -- Clennell died of "compression to the neck" and Alderton died from "asphyxiation."

None of the corpses showed signs of having been subjected to significant trauma or serious sexual assault before dying.

The cases have triggered comparisons with the "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, convicted of the murders of 13 women between 1975 and 1980, and Jack the Ripper, who killed five east London prostitutes in 1888.

Almost 500 officers have been assigned to what has become one of Britain's biggest-ever manhunts, with 350 drafted in from 31 police forces around the country, including Northern Ireland.

Police have been analysing thousands of hours of closed-circuit television footage in the hope of piecing together the final movements of the women. They earlier released footage of the last known movements of Alderton, who was three months pregnant, in the hopes of jogging witnesses' memories.

On Wednesday judicial officials formally opened inquests into four of the deaths, using the opportunity to appeal for more public help to find the culprits. The inquests were adjourned pending the police investigation.

An inquest into the death of the fifth sex worker was similarly opened and adjourned last week.

Under English law, an inquest is called if a person dies of unnatural causes, and is designed to find where, when and how the person died.

Ipswich is normally a quiet town and has never before witnessed a murder inquiry on such a scale. It has a population of about 140,000 and is the capital of Suffolk county.

As police investigations continued, Britain's Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, warned the country's newspapers and broadcasters to show restraint in reporting the prostitutes' killings.
In particular he urged them to beware of prejudicing a future trial, by refraining from speculation about suspects or material which "asserts or assumes, expressly or implicitly" a person's guilt.