Doctors teased apart abutting portions of Carl and Clarence Aguirre's brains at 10:32 p.m. after completing an incision around their skull, said Steve Osborne, a spokesman for the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center.

The boys survived, and doctors, nurses and technicians applauded in the operating room, said Osborne, who was in the operating room.

The twins' head-to-head operating tables were then pulled apart slightly to give the medical team more room as they continued their work.

Wednesday's surgery climaxed a number of gradual operations over the past ten months, a departure from the more common marathon operations that have separated other conjoined twins.

The operation continued after the separation. Doctors planned to reconstruct a membrane that covered the boys' brains and then cover their heads with skin, some of it from tissue expanders that had been planted beneath their scalps.

Doctors have warned that it will be months before the twins' conditions and the success of the separation can be fully assessed.

In the past, 구미출장마사지 - https://www.anmastar.com/%ea%b5%ac%eb%af%b8%ec%b6%9c%ec%9e%a5%ec%83%b5%c... separation was considered a success if both twins simply survived. But the hospital's goal for the boys, who have never been able to sit up, stand straight or look at each other's face, is "viable, independent lives."

During four major surgeries since October, the boys' separate-but-touching brains were gently pushed apart and the tangle of blood vessels they shared were cut and divided.

Between surgeries, the boys were given time to heal and to adapt to their rerouted circulation systems. Originally, veins near Clarence's brain were doing much of the circulation work for both boys, but scans showed dormant veins on Carl's side had "plumped up" and begun working in response to the surgery, lead surgeon Dr. James Goodrich said last week.

In Wednesday's operation, which began at 10 a.m., doctors cut a window into the skull and divided the last major vein the brothers shared, along with other blood vessels. About six hours into that procedure, they decided the boys were doing well enough to continue.

The doctors said last week that excessive bleeding or swelling in the brain would force a postponement - http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=postponement .

The boys' mother, Arlene Aguirre, and grandmother, Evelyn Aguirre, were at the hospital throughout the operation, getting periodic updates from the doctors.

They had sent the feisty, dark-haired boys into the operating room with tearful kisses at about 7:30 a.m. Arlene Aguirre placed a small statue of the Virgin Mary on her sons' gurney, and it stayed with them, on an instrument cart, through the surgery.

By Jim Fitzgerald

The response to the first two deaths ever in California from the rapidly spreading virus appears to be more prevention than panic, with few reports that the mosquito-borne illness is causing people to cancel outdoor plans or make drastic lifestyle changes.

"We're taking precautions, but you can only do so much," said David Wilson, 61, a neighbor of Morris Sternberg, the 75-year-old man who died Saturday from encephalitis caused - http://www.healthynewage.com/?s=encephalitis%20caused by the virus.

As of Wednesday, West Nile had infected 79 people in the state, mostly in Southern California, according to the state Department of Health Services. Last year, there were only three cases statewide and 춘천출장마사지 - https://www.anmaweb.com/%ec%b6%98%ec%b2%9c%ec%98%a4%ed%94%bc%ea%b1%b8%e2... no deaths.

Sternberg, a real estate agent in the small city of Grand Terrace, was the second person in California to die of the illness within a six-week period. Neighbors suspect he was bitten on his front porch, where he often sat in a hammock.

West Nile, which first hit the United States in 1999 in New York, has killed more than 560 people in the United States in the past five years as it marched westward. Last year was the first for the virus to appear in areas west of the Continental Divide.

This year, West Nile has sickened more than 400 people across the nation and resulted in seven deaths, according to data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus killed 262 people in the United States last year, from 9,858 overall cases.

California officials are telling residents what easterners have long done: Avoid mosquitoes by eliminating pools of stagnant water, wear long sleeves if outside at dusk or dawn, and use mosquito repellant that contains the chemical known as DEET.

Many are apparently following the advice. As of Memorial Day, sales of insect repellant - http://search.huffingtonpost.com/search?q=insect%20repellant&s_it=header... were up 17 percent in California over last year, and 9 percent nationally, according to the most recent data available from tracking firm A.C. Nielsen.

West Nile is carried by birds but only transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. About 20 percent of those bitten by an infected insect show flu-like symptoms, and less than 1 percent die from the illness, according to health authorities. There is no approved vaccine or treatment.

State public health officer Richard J. Jackson has warned of a significant West Nile season in California this year. So far at least, the warnings seem to have caused ripples of concern but not much more.

Park agencies throughout California have gotten phone calls with questions about the virus, but officials reported no mass cancellations, perhaps owing to the relative low risk of infection.

"You're more likely to have a bear try to break into your car," said Alexandra Picavet, a spokeswoman for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

The response to the first two deaths ever in California from the rapidly spreading virus appears to be more prevention than panic, with few reports that the mosquito-borne illness is causing people to cancel outdoor plans or make drastic lifestyle changes.

"We're taking precautions, but you can only do so much," said David Wilson, 61, a neighbor of Morris Sternberg, the 75-year-old man who died Saturday from encephalitis caused by the virus.

As of Wednesday, West Nile had infected 79 people in the state, mostly in Southern California, according to the state Department of Health Services. Last year, there were only three cases statewide and no deaths.

Sternberg, a real estate agent in the small city of Grand Terrace, was the second person in California to die of the illness within a six-week period. Neighbors suspect he was bitten on his front porch, where he often sat in a hammock.

West Nile, which first hit the United States in 1999 in New York, has killed more than 560 people in the United States in the past five years as it marched westward. Last year was the first for the virus to appear in areas west of the Continental Divide.

This year, West Nile has sickened more than 400 people across the nation and resulted in seven deaths, according to data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus killed 262 people in the United States last year, from 9,858 overall cases.

California officials are telling residents what easterners - http://www.encyclopedia.com/searchresults.aspx?q=easterners have long done: Avoid mosquitoes by eliminating pools of stagnant water, wear long sleeves if outside at dusk or dawn, and use mosquito repellant that contains the chemical known as DEET.

Many are apparently following the advice. As of Memorial Day, sales of insect repellant were up 17 percent in California over last year, 경주출장마사지 - https://www.anmaweb.com/%ea%b2%bd%ec%a3%bc%ec%98%a4%ed%94%bc%ea%b1%b8%e2... and 9 percent nationally, according to the most recent data available from tracking firm A.C. Nielsen.

West Nile is carried by birds but only transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. About 20 percent of those bitten by an infected insect show flu-like symptoms, and less than 1 percent die from the illness, according to health authorities. There is no approved vaccine or treatment.

State public health officer Richard J. Jackson has warned of a significant West Nile season in California this year. So far at least, the warnings seem to have caused ripples of concern but not much more.

Park agencies throughout California have gotten phone calls with questions about the virus, but officials reported no mass cancellations, perhaps owing to the relative low risk of infection.

"You're more likely to have a bear try to break into your car," said Alexandra Picavet, a spokeswoman for Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

The mutations occur in a gene called p53. "P53 tumor mutations have for several years been known to be associated with a poor prognosis for breast cancer," said study author Beth A. Jones, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. The report appears in the Aug. 9 online issue of Cancer.

"But this is the first population-based study that shows a clearly significant race difference in p53 tumor mutations, once you adjust for other factors such as tumor stage," Jones added.

Jones and 구리출장마사지 - https://www.anmapop.com/%ea%b5%ac%eb%a6%ac%ec%b6%9c%ec%9e%a5%ec%83%b5%cf... her team evaluated the breast tumors of 145 black women and 177 white women, looking for differences in the p53 gene. Although they found black women were more likely to have p53 gene mutations, they didn't find significant differences by race in any other cancer-related genes.

In the study, 24.5 percent of the black women had a p53 mutation, compared to 7.1 percent of the white women.

"Overall, the rates of breast cancer in African-American women are slightly lower than in white women," Jones said, "but the death rate from breast cancer in African-American women is slightly higher than in white women."

Discoveries of racial differences in genetic alterations such as the p53 gene mutation may explain why.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Lisa A. Newman, director of the Breast Care Center at the University - https://knoji.com/search/?query=University of Michigan, notes the largest magnitude of difference in outcomes for breast cancer within the United States have been observed between black and white women. For those under the age of 45, the incidence of breast cancer is higher in black women than in white women, Newman wrote.

"Numerous studies, for at least 50 years, have been showing that African-American women are more likely to die from breast cancer than white American women, " Newman said.

But researchers, she said, have never been able to sort out conclusively whether that is due to socioeconomic factors, poorer access to screening, diagnosis at an advanced stage or other factors. "Studies like this that look at some of the biological enhancers help us to figure out whether some women are more likely to develop inherently more aggressive tumors," Newman said.

Dr. Denise Johnson, advising dean and associate professor of surgery at Stanford University Medical Center, and a member of the African-American Outreach Committee for the American Cancer Society, praised the study.

"It isn't the first study on the topic, but it is the largest," she said.

Eventually, Johnson said, the finding may provide more tools to determine the outlook for a woman with breast cancer, especially if she has the gene mutation.

Still, Johnson said more study was needed. If the finding holds up, she added, perhaps a recommendation will someday be made to analyze the presence or absence of the p53 gene mutation in all women.

By Kathleen Doheny

That is changing now as companies develop markets for products they expect to satisfy both nutritionists and consumers. Imagine peeled baby carrots instead of candy, or crispy baked pita bread in place of those chips.

Healthy products, relegated to a few trays or maybe a row or two, if they were sold at all, are starting to take over entire machines. These offerings account for a small but growing share of the $3.3 billion business.

Companies hope to attract - http://www.savethestudent.org/?s=attract adults who have avoided vending machines because of the diet-busting temptations. Another focus is on schools, where parents and administrators would prefer that students much on raisins rather than powdered doughnuts.

A vending machine without candy bars and regular soda is a big step, said Mike Kiser, chief executive officer of Compass Vending Services, an industry leader based in Charlotte, N.C. "We've never had the courage to take out our best sellers," he said.

Compass is experimenting with a bank of food and drink machines lined up behind a plastic facade to look like a single unit. Products include granola bars, PowerBars, salads, energy drinks and smoothies.

Sodexho Vending reserves nine of a typical machine's 45 trays for healthy items, said Tom Smith, senior vice president of the company, based in Gaithersburg, Md. Examples are nuts and dried fruits, and low-sodium chips - http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=low-sodium%20chips .

As the companies see it, that offers a little something for all the different needs.

Busy workers may want to eat healthy if they are getting something from the machine because they are too busy for lunch, said Bill Mitchell, Sodexho Vending's director of program development.

Of course, there still is a place for candy. People still will want "a small indulgence" as a reward, he said.

Stonyfield Farm, an organic foods company in Londonderry, N.H., has 15 vending machines in California, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and has applications from schools in 36 states, spokeswoman Cathleen Toomey said.

To help fill the machines, the company rounded up products from a number of organic vendors. She said the company followed guidelines from a children's nutrition group, Kids First, to make sure the offerings were healthy.

The machines offer baked pita chips instead of potato chips, and yogurt drinks instead of soda, Toomey said. Students tested the products, and the company founder is sure "you can put a Coke machine alongside our machine and we will survive," she said.

School districts increasingly are looking for healthier snacks. In some cases, they are being pushed by state law that restricts what students can get from the vending machines. In other areas, healthier choices could be district policy.

Schools in Hopkins, Minn., will switch this school year to treats such as yogurt and carrot sticks, said Bertrand Weber, director of operations for the St. Paul-Minneapolis-area district's food service program.

There also will be standard snacks, but with a healthy edge - for 논산출장안마 - https://www.opmassage.com/9-nonsan instance, no trans fats, he said. Health experts say this kind of fat can clog arteries.

Weber said students already watch what they eat. Hopkins High School's Health Nut Cafe, which specializes natural and organic meals, accounts for half of the lunch business, he said.

By Ira Dreyfuss

While recipe books for diets like Atkins and South Beach are gospel for 광명출장마사지 - https://www.popanma.com/%ea%b4%91%eb%aa%85%ec%b6%9c%ec%9e%a5%ec%83%b5%cf... many in the United States, the American craze for low-carb versions of brownies, breads and pasta hasn't crossed the Atlantic to the Continent.

Only Britain, where junk-food habits and ample figures often mirror those of their American cousins, is turning into an island of low-carb fans.

"The Atkins Diet craze that has gripped America will not result in Germans eating more sausage and less potatoes," said Dr. Volker Pudel, director of nutrition psychology and research at the University of Goettingen in Germany.

"Just think about German breakfast. You cannot just have eggs without the bread, and you cannot eat butter without spreading it on bread. It just won't work in Germany, this diet," said Pudel in a telephone interview.

One reason for Europe's snub of low-carb diets like Atkins and South Beach might be need — or lack of it.

Europeans like to walk, even when they have no place to go.

An entire European family could make a picnic of canapés from the staggering high pile of cold cuts in just one New York deli sandwich. Italians return from abroad stunned by cherished U.S. dining habits like all-you-can eat restaurants and doggy bags - http://statigr.am/tag/doggy%20bags for all you can't eat.

"To give up a plate of pasta for a diet is, in my view, blasphemy," said Andrea Pargallo, a bartender in Napoleone bar on Piazza Venezia, as he served customers their morning cappuccino and cornetto (brioche).

"The Mediterranean diet is the best in the world. Indeed, we don't have all so many obesity problems like our friends across the ocean," said Pargallo, 31.

He was referring to Italy's staple diet, praised by nutritionists and built heavily around grains like rice and pasta and fruit and vegetables.

In France, where natives walk dogs with one hand and clutch a white-flour baguette in the other, pharmacist Niama Wallah said she was unfamiliar with the cutting-carbs approach to weight loss.

"But with the level of obesity that you have in America, it doesn't surprise me that people are going to such lengths to diet," said Wallah, who runs a pharmacy off the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

With Europeans so loyal to their linguine and so faithful to their pommes frites, European food manufacturers and supermarket chains haven't been plunging into low-carb product lines.

"We don't have low-carbohydrate products," said Omer Pignatti, a spokesman for Conad, a chain of supermarkets in Italy. "There isn't any on the Italian market and we don't foresee any such initiatives."

Surveys seem to bear out his assessment.

"We've seen low-carb to be an entirely U.S. phenomenon," said Lynn Dornblaser, director of consulting services for London-based Mintel International Group, Ltd.

Dornblaser was among those presenting a country-by-country survey of low-carb products at a food industry meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., earlier this month.

In the United States, the number of new low-carb products ballooned from two in 1999 to 1,329 so far this year, the survey found.

Continental Europe saw few such products being introduced until this year, when a U.S.-based company which sells low-carb bagels, buns, cheesecakes and other products, began offering its fare via the Internet to Europe.

In Britain, new low-carb products sharply rose from five last year to 159 in 2004. Among the items are "no-bread" sandwiches sold by a popular sandwich chain, Pret a Manger.

"We did this very much in response to basically the low-carb fever that was sort of coming over here," Nellie Nichols, Pret a Manger's head of food, said of the product, which is sold in square boxes to resemble sandwiches. "They are going down very, very well."

"Carbs have become the devil's work, haven't they?" said Matt Hind, 25, a trainee lawyer buying his lunch in central London. "I think people are always looking for quick fixes when it comes to weight."

With obesity a matter for mounting concern in Britain, the tabloids there sprinkle their pages with names of celebrities going low-carb, including, reportedly, singer Robbie Williams, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, actress Minnie Driver and food writer/celebrity chef Nigella Lawson.

Asked why low-carbs haven't caught on in most of Europe, Dornblaser, who works out of Mintel's Chicago office, said Europeans "have got a better understanding of portion control," as well as balance and variety in diet.

"In the U.S., rightly or wrongly, we like to have a magic pill."

By Frances D'Emilio

That is changing now as companies develop markets for products they expect to satisfy both nutritionists and consumers. Imagine peeled baby carrots instead of candy, or crispy baked pita bread in place of those chips.

Healthy products, relegated to a few trays or maybe a row or two, if they were sold at all, are starting to take over entire machines. These offerings account for a small but growing share of the $3.3 billion business.

Companies hope to attract adults who have avoided vending machines because of the diet-busting temptations. Another focus is on schools, where parents and administrators would prefer that students much on raisins rather than powdered doughnuts.

A vending machine without candy bars and regular soda is a big step, said Mike Kiser, chief executive officer of Compass Vending Services, an industry leader based in Charlotte, N.C. "We've never had the courage to take out our best sellers," he said.

Compass is experimenting with a bank of food and drink machines lined up behind a plastic facade to look like a single unit. Products include granola bars, PowerBars, salads, energy drinks - https://www.rewards-insiders.marriott.com/search.jspa?q=energy%20drinks and smoothies.

Sodexho Vending reserves nine of a typical machine's 45 trays for healthy items, said Tom Smith, senior vice president of the company, based in Gaithersburg, Md. Examples are nuts and dried fruits, and low-sodium chips.

As the companies see it, that offers a little something for all the different needs.

Busy workers may want to eat healthy if they are getting something from the machine because they are too busy for lunch, said Bill Mitchell, Sodexho Vending's director of program development - http://www.deer-digest.com/?s=program%20development .

Of course, there still is a place for candy. People still will want "a small indulgence" as a reward, he said.

Stonyfield Farm, an organic foods company in Londonderry, N.H., has 15 vending machines in California, Rhode Island and 김제출장안마 - https://www.opmassage.com/21-gimjee Massachusetts, and has applications from schools in 36 states, spokeswoman Cathleen Toomey said.

To help fill the machines, the company rounded up products from a number of organic vendors. She said the company followed guidelines from a children's nutrition group, Kids First, to make sure the offerings were healthy.

The machines offer baked pita chips instead of potato chips, and yogurt drinks instead of soda, Toomey said. Students tested the products, and the company founder is sure "you can put a Coke machine alongside our machine and we will survive," she said.

School districts increasingly are looking for healthier snacks. In some cases, they are being pushed by state law that restricts what students can get from the vending machines. In other areas, healthier choices could be district policy.

Schools in Hopkins, Minn., will switch this school year to treats such as yogurt and carrot sticks, said Bertrand Weber, director of operations for the St. Paul-Minneapolis-area district's food service program.

There also will be standard snacks, but with a healthy edge - for instance, no trans fats, he said. Health experts say this kind of fat can clog arteries.

Weber said students already watch what they eat. Hopkins High School's Health Nut Cafe, which specializes natural and organic meals, accounts for half of the lunch business, he said.

By Ira Dreyfuss

MALMO, Sweden Denmark's Emmelie de Forest has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune "Only Teardrops," despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, hippie-chic 20-year-old for the catchy love song that is driven by her deep, Shakira-like voice - http://photo.net/gallery/tag-search/search?query_string=Shakira-like%20v... . She received a total of 281 points in the glitzy music battle, which also featured a bizarre opera pop number from Romania, the comeback of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" star Bonnie Tyler and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.

"It was overwhelming and I could really feel the fans and the audience and the people in the arena," de Forest told reporters after the winners were announced early Sunday.

"Of course I believed in the song and I thought we had a great song, but that's the exciting thing with Eurovision, you never know what's going to happen," she added.

De Forest grew up in northern Denmark and has been singing since she was 14, touring around Denmark with the Scottish musician Fraser Neill. She said it is important to be persistent to succeed as a young musician.

"I just called and emailed like a lot of festivals, music places and a lot of times I got no, but you just have to believe in yourself and keep trying, trying, trying — be outgoing and talk to new people, just call them and don't be afraid," she said.

De Forest was followed by second-place winner Farid Mammadov of Azerbaijan, who got 234 points for the song "Hold Me," which he performed on top of a glass cubicle containing a male dancer. The Ukraine's Zlata Ognevich and her song "Gravity" finished third with 214 points.

Ognevich was carried onstage in Saturday night's finals by the tallest man in the U.S. — Ukrainian-born Igor Vovkovinskiy. Vovkovinskiy — who stands 7 feet, 8 inches (234 centimeters) — wobbled onstage in a fur and feathers, placing the fairy-like Ognevich on a rock where she stood for the rest of the performance.

The televised extravaganza, with an audience of 125 million worldwide, is now in its 58th year. Once again without fail, it produced a mix of bubble-gum pop songs, somber ballads, bagpipes, accordions and bizarrely kitsch musical productions.

In an opening video, soccer great Zlatan Ibrahimovic welcomed the viewers to the competition in his hometown Malmo, in southern Sweden. The Nordic country hosted the event because its contestant Loreen won last year with "Euphoria."

This year's event also saw the return to the international stage of two seasoned European stars. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" singer Bonnie Tyler represented Britain with the sleepy love ballad "Believe In Me," while Anouk, whose song "Nobody's Wife" was a big hit in Europe in the 1990s, performed the song "Birds" for The Netherlands. Tyler ended in 19th place, while Anouk finished in the 9th spot.

Finland's Krista Siegfrid provided this year's controversy, ending her bouncy pop number "Marry Me" with a girl-on-girl kiss that some interpreted as a stance promoting gay marriage. While it did not raise eyebrows in most parts of Western Europe — where Eurovision has long been a bastion of gay culture — the act jarred sensitivities in parts of eastern and southern Europe. Her cheesy tune didn't win the hearts of Europeans, however, and she ended up third to last with only 13 points.

Romanian opera singer Cezar gave one of the more remarkable performances. He resembled a Dracula reborn as a high-pitched vocalist, attempting a crossover opera pop number with techno beats and pyrotechnics that landed him in 13th place. Three muscular male dancers in red body paint were delivered out of a large red cape.

Two semifinals this week had whittled down the contestants from 40 to 26. The voting is shared equally between professional juries in all participating countries and viewers using their telephones to pick their favorites.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who watched the competition in Malmo Saturday, called it a unique event that unites Europe.

"We see the old Yugoslavia, now independent states, after a decade of war they always vote for each other in Eurovision, " Bildt told The Associated Press. "That I think is fun."

Having won five times, most famously with ABBA's Waterloo in 1974, Sweden is a veteran of Eurovision. It took the opportunity on Saturday to showcase some of its big music acts. At the opening of the competition, 군포출장마사지 - https://www.popanma.com/%ea%b5%b0%ed%8f%ac%ec%b6%9c%ec%9e%a5%ec%83%b5%cf... contestants marched into the stadium with flags, Olympics-style, accompanied by a choir singing a song especially composed by Swedish super DJ Avicii and ABBA members Bjorn Ulveaus and Benny Andersson. While contestants waited for the votes to come through, Swedish singer Sarah Dawn Finer sang ABBA's hit tune "The Winner Takes It All."

Yet the event — with a price tag of around 153.5 million Swedish kronor ($23 million) — didn't measure up to last year's lavish competition hosted by oil-rich Azerbaijan in its capital, Baku.

"We have attempted to host Eurovision with less money to show that it is possible to do this without it being too painful for the host country," said Jan-Erik Westman, a spokesman for host broadcaster SVT.

The festive atmosphere was visible throughout the city of Malmo on Saturday, where residents and visitors blended on the sunny streets waving the flags of their favorite countries.

While recipe books for diets like Atkins and South Beach are gospel for many in the United States, the American craze for low-carb versions of brownies, breads and pasta hasn't crossed the Atlantic to the Continent.

Only Britain, where junk-food habits and ample figures often mirror those of their American cousins, is turning into an island of low-carb fans.

"The Atkins Diet craze that has gripped America will not result in Germans eating more sausage and less potatoes," said Dr. Volker Pudel, director of nutrition psychology and research at the University of Goettingen in Germany.

"Just think about German breakfast. You cannot just have eggs without the bread, and you cannot eat butter without spreading it on bread. It just won't work in Germany, this diet," said Pudel in a telephone interview.

One reason for Europe's snub of low-carb diets like Atkins and South Beach might be need — or lack of it.

Europeans like to walk, even when they have no place to go.

An entire European family could make a picnic of canapés from the staggering high pile of cold cuts in just one New York deli sandwich. Italians return from abroad stunned by cherished U.S. dining habits like all-you-can eat restaurants and doggy bags for 광명출장마사지 - https://www.anmapop.com/%ea%b4%91%eb%aa%85%ec%b6%9c%ec%9e%a5%ec%83%b5%cf... all you can't eat.

"To give up a plate of pasta for a diet is, in my view, blasphemy," said Andrea Pargallo, a bartender in Napoleone bar on Piazza Venezia, as he served customers their morning cappuccino and cornetto (brioche).

"The Mediterranean diet is the best in the world. Indeed, we don't have all so many obesity problems like our friends across the ocean," said Pargallo, 31.

He was referring to Italy's staple diet, praised by nutritionists and built heavily around grains like rice and pasta and fruit and vegetables.

In France, where natives - http://www.medcheck-up.com/?s=natives walk dogs with one hand and clutch a white-flour baguette in the other, pharmacist Niama Wallah said she was unfamiliar with the cutting-carbs approach to weight loss.

"But with the level of obesity that you have in America, it doesn't surprise me that people are going to such lengths to diet," said Wallah, who runs a pharmacy off the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

With Europeans so loyal to their linguine and so faithful to their pommes frites, European food manufacturers and supermarket chains haven't been plunging into low-carb product lines.

"We don't have low-carbohydrate products," said Omer Pignatti, a spokesman for Conad, a chain of supermarkets in Italy. "There isn't any on the Italian market and we don't foresee any such initiatives."

Surveys seem to bear out his assessment.

"We've seen low-carb to be an entirely U.S. phenomenon," said Lynn Dornblaser, director of consulting services for London-based Mintel International Group, Ltd.

Dornblaser was among those presenting a country-by-country survey of low-carb products at a food industry meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., earlier this month.

In the United States, the number of new low-carb products ballooned from two in 1999 to 1,329 so far this year, the survey found.

Continental Europe saw few such products being introduced until this year, when a U.S.-based company which sells low-carb bagels, buns, cheesecakes and other products, began offering its fare via the Internet to Europe.

In Britain, new low-carb products sharply rose from five last year to 159 in 2004. Among the items are "no-bread" sandwiches sold by a popular sandwich chain, Pret a Manger.

"We did this very much in response to basically the low-carb fever that was sort of coming over here," Nellie Nichols, Pret a Manger's head of food, said of the product, which is sold in square boxes to resemble sandwiches. "They are going down very, very well."

"Carbs have become the devil's work, haven't they?" said Matt Hind, 25, a trainee lawyer buying his lunch in central London. "I think people are always looking for quick fixes when it comes to weight."

With obesity a matter for mounting concern in Britain, the tabloids there sprinkle their pages with names of celebrities going low-carb, including, reportedly, singer Robbie Williams, former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, actress Minnie Driver and food writer/celebrity chef Nigella Lawson.

Asked why low-carbs haven't caught on in most of Europe, Dornblaser, who works out of Mintel's Chicago office, said Europeans "have got a better understanding of portion control," as well as balance and variety in diet.

"In the U.S., rightly or wrongly, we like to have a magic pill."

By Frances D'Emilio

The Missouri tot is among the youngest of just a few dozen children to try an experiment in which doctors are adapting a new technology for adults' failing hearts to the special needs of their smallest patients.

It's too early to know how well the therapy, called cardiac resynchronization, will work. But so far, a handful of youngsters are doing so well they've been taken off the heart transplant waiting list, and the hope is that others improve enough to postpone that operation.

"At least in the short term, we can improve their symptoms and quality of life," predicts Rhee, the electrophysiology chief at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

Cardiac resynchronizers, which hit the market three years ago, can dramatically help many adults with heart failure. Their hearts are weakened by age, a survived heart attack or some other disease, and get flabbier as they struggle to pump blood through the body.

Pacemakers are best known for speeding up a sluggish heartbeat. The resynchronizers are souped-up pacemakers that work differently - because in heart failure, the struggling heart beats too fast. Instead, three wires that deliver electricity are threaded deep into various parts of the heart to make the pumping chambers, called ventricles, move together in rhythm, thus increasing their power.

Children's heart failure has very different causes. Some are born with an enlarged heart or suffer a heart-damaging viral infection. Others are born with structurally abnormal hearts, and surgeries to correct those birth defects can hurt the heart's electrical system in ways that, years later, show up as weakened pumping action.

Implanting the pacemaker can be very different, too. Very young children's blood vessels are too small to thread the wires through, requiring open surgery to put the pacemaker "leads" on the outside of the heart instead of the inside. Some hearts are so small they can handle only one wire.

"We have to bend the rules a little bit and come up with new ways to use this very powerful technique," says Dr. Anne M. Dubin, a pediatric electrophysiologist at Stanford University Medical Center.

Dubin tracked about 60 cases of cardiac resynchronization performed in U.S. children at 16 hospitals, the first attempt to count. Rhee's hospital has performed 12 more.

On average, resynchronization substantially improved the heart's pumping ability, called the ejection fraction, Dubin reported at a major heart - https://www.b2bmarketing.net/search/gss/major%20heart meeting in May. Rhee reports a doubling of that crucial measure.

But about 15 percent of the child patients suffer complications at the time of the pacemaker implant, Dubin found, ranging from wires slipping out of place to infection, a stroke and a death.

"We really don't know who to do this in yet," she cautions. Still, "it's very exciting because there are so many possibilities."

Patients like Damaris Ochoa are fueling supporters' drive to improve study of the experimental option.

Her sponge-like newborn heart never properly hardened into smooth muscle, and by age 4 months Damaris had only 10 percent heart function. On a ventilator awaiting a transplant, Rhee says the baby likely had weeks to live, and infant donor hearts are rare.

Transplant candidates require a laboratory heart test that lets Rhee take the extra step of mapping spots where electrical conduction seems abnormal. The test itself can be somewhat risky - a catheter poked a hole in Damaris' soft heart and she had to be resuscitated.

But Rhee found what he thought was the right spot, and implanted a resynchronizer lead through a small cut under her left arm. Another cut near the navel holds the device's battery.

Damaris was home in Kansas City a week later, and now at age 10 months has doubled her weight to 18 pounds and 청주출장마사지 - https://www.anmapop.com/%ec%b2%ad%ec%a3%bc%ec%b6%9c%ec%9e%a5%ec%83%b5%cf... crawls around the house chasing her four siblings. "It's like nothing was ever wrong," says her father, Oscar Ochoa.

"To reverse somebody who is that far gone is pretty much unheard of," says Rhee. "It's pretty gratifying."

By Lauran Neergaard