MMM, INGREDIENTS

Science has a habit of making connections that test the world's
capacity to compartmentalize its knowledge. Smoking is terrible for
people, without question, killing them prematurely through heart
disease and cancer; but, according to research at Duke University
Medical Center, nicotine counters such brain disorders as
schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease. Coffee drives high blood
pressure, but its anti-oxidants help guard against some chronic
diseases. Heavy consumption of alcohol can damage the liver, but
moderate consumption of red wine, with the cholesterol-lowering
resveratrol bequeathed it by the grape skins, may improve one's
health -- as might moderate consumption of other alcohol, according
to some studies.

The smoking of marijuana, for all the damage it can do to the lungs,
has been known to ease the pain of glaucoma, even if scientifically
quantifying that relief remains elusive. Now comes word from the
Scripps Research Institute in California that THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana, may halt the progression of Alzheimer's
disease by, to quote the Reuters item, "preserving levels of an
important neurotransmitter [called acetylcholine] that allows the
brain to function." The Harper government, which has just taken an
axe to the funding of research into the medical use of marijuana as
part of $1-billion in cuts, may find more than a few people pressing
the latest edition of Molecular Pharmaceutics into its hands.

Really, there's no telling where the next advance will come from.
Chocolate is heavy in saturated fats and sugar, neither of them great
as a steady diet, and a study this year in the journal Sexual
Medicine cast doubt even on its reputed value as an aphrodisiac. But
a study published last year by the American Heart Association found a
daily 100-gram serving of dark chocolate helped to lower blood
pressure and ward off gallstones. The positive ingredient is
flavonoids, found in other foods as well, such as soybeans.
Chocolate, soybeans -- hey, it's your choice.

And, if you're sitting down today to a turkey dinner and pumpkin pie,
spare a thought for the humble cranberry sauce at meal's edge.
Natural chemicals in the cranberry have been found to lower HDL, the
so-called good cholesterol. The berry fights urinary tract infections
and, according to the journal Caries Research, may work toward dental
health by making it tougher for bacteria to adhere to teeth. Heck,
even those who work with cranberries benefit; Jack Bell, a Canadian
who made a fortune in cranberries near the Vancouver airport, died
last February at the ripe old age of 92.

The downside? Cranberries contain sugar and natural acids that eat
away at minerals in the teeth, and, according to the journal
Endicronology, the fungicide vinclozin, which is licensed for use in
Canada on cranberries (and strawberries, lettuce and canola), has
induced tumours in pregnant rats and harmed subsequent generations.
Perhaps, in the end, we don't want to know about the turkey and the
pumpkin. Science can't be trusted to specialize in good news.