Did You Know? Gum Might Act as a Laxative?

Maybe this explains why only four out of five dentists recommend sugarless gum to patients who chew gum:

It turns out the first ingredient in most sugarless gums is a laxative: sweet-tasting sorbitol. There’s growing interest among medical providers in harnessing gum’s unintended powers to help patients whose insides are, well, gummed up.

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill researchers recently found that patients who chewed sugarless gum after bladder surgery were able to do their business several hours sooner than those who did not. The digestive tract goes on strike after most abdominal surgeries; it can take as long as to four days for things to get moving again. Many patients suffer uncomfortable swelling, nausea and even vomiting.

The study is just the latest to show off sugarless gum’s potential benefit to constipated patients. But prescribing it as a pre-emptive strike remains a sticky subject.

Brandon Roy, a general surgeon who practices in Raleigh, N.C., said some studies have found that gum makes no difference. Others have linked excessive sorbitol consumption to chronic diarrhea and dangerous weight loss.

Like that fifth dentist, Roy doesn’t recommend chewing gum to his patients, but he wouldn’t object if they wanted to give it a whirl.

“I’m an avid gum chewer myself,” said Roy, who claims no firsthand knowledge of sugarless gum’s laxative properties. “I couldn’t deny any of my patients that pleasure.”

Casual chompers can relax: The study found patients had to chew about a pack a day for sugarless gum to work its magic.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Jul/20080720Puls034.asp

Church launching Jesus for president campaign

Jesus Christ’s epic Sermon on the Mount, with its calls for peacemaking, helping the poor and working for justice, could well be compared to a modern political campaign speech in front of the multitudes in a modern stadium.Now a Gilbert church is launching a Jesus for President campaign and will conduct a two-month effort starting in August – parallel to the U.S. presidential campaign – that emphasizes a familiar issue in the 2008 campaign: change.

“Advocating for Change Since 33 A.D.” is the secondary theme of the campaign that Pastor Mark Connelly is launching this weekend at Superstition Springs Community Church at 4450 E. Elliot Road.

Members will be asked to put “Jesus for President” signs in their yards and wear buttons with the same appeal. And like all candidates, it will be promoted by a Web site, www.anewplatform.com.

“In the midst of political chaos and social inequality, Jesus ran a platform where people did not just lobby for change; they became change,” say the organizers of the campaign, which will be launched Aug. 9 and conclude Oct. 5.

Connelly isn’t saying who might have filled Jesus’ Cabinet almost 2,000 years ago – perhaps Peter as vice president, Paul as secretary of state and Judas Iscariot as the treasury secretary.

Connelly says he is capitalizing on the buzz of this year’s national presidential campaign by driving home the message that people should not look to politicians to remedy problems and “produce change for us.”

“Things don’t seem to be changing all that much depending on who is in office,” Connelly said. “What if Jesus were running for president? What would be the platform that he would be running on?”

The pastor said Christ’s platform can be best summed up in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5 and 6.

They are the heavily quoted biblical passages of the talk Jesus gave on a mountainside, beginning with the eight “beatitudes” – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven …”

The Sermon on the Mount has been called the “Charter of Christianity.”

While planning a late summer sermon series, the church’s staff looked to a book, “Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals” by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, which targets Christian skeptics and calls for them to immerse themselves in the world’s struggles to transform the planet as well as themselves.

“While we are not necessarily following what the book is about, we were inspired to take that direction,” said Brian Kaufman, the church’s communications director.

Sermons for four weekend services spread across nine weeks discuss new kinds of “issues, peacemaking, purity and righteousness.”

Superstition Springs Community Church, founded in 1995, puts a heavy emphasis on social justice issues, Kaufman said.

One target is sex trafficking in Arizona, Fiji and Africa.

“Ending human trafficking is one of our biggest ministries,” Connelly said.

They work to rescue teens, especially girls, from sex trades, then settle them in safe environments, he said.

One project includes developing a 43-acre village for girls in Fiji. Another center in either India or Jamaica is being explored.

Moreover, the church, which draws about 2,000 worshipers each weekend, has adopted an African village with 900 children who are AIDS orphans.

“We provide food, water, schools, community centers and shelters for these kids – and give them a second chance,” Connelly said. Ministries also include supporting transitional housing for the Valley’s homeless women and children.

The Jesus for President campaign, Connelly said, will stress that “we have to politically embody those changes and become the changes that we desire to see in our communities and our nation.”

Lasting change, he said, “emerges from the hearts of the people who have been transformed, rather than just seeking people to legislate for us.”

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/121150

Woman Shoots Herself While Trying to Kill Mice

POTTER VALLEY, Calif. —  A Mendocino County woman who was trying to kill mice in her trailer with a gun ended up shooting herself and another person.

The 43-year-old woman pulled out her .44-caliber Magnum revolver after she saw the mice scurrying across the floor of her trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, sheriff’s officials said.

But she accidentally dropped the gun, which went off as it struck the floor. The bullet went through the woman’s kneecap, bounced off the keys sitting on the belt loop of a 42-year-old man in the trailer and grazed the man’s groin before ending up in his coin pocket.

Authorities did not release the shooting victims’ names.

The mice escaped the shooting unharmed.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,378142,00.html

Woman, 91, Stuck Under Car for 2 Days

GREENDALE, Wis. —  A 91-year-old woman who had crawled under her car to look for her keys ended up stuck beneath an axle for two days until her mail carrier noticed letters piling up, police said.

Betty Borowski, of the Milwaukee suburb of Greendale, was found Tuesday and remained in a hospital in critical intensive care Friday, her niece Nancy DiMarco said. The hospital would not give an update on her condition Saturday.

Borowski, who lives alone, became stuck June 29 while looking for her keys; her head apparently got pinned by the axle, Greendale Police Chief Rob Dams said.

“She was pretty well wedged in there,” Dams said. “It looks like she crawled under headfirst.”

Borowski’s mail carrier noticed Tuesday that the previous day’s mail was still in her mailbox, police said. He rang the doorbell and then asked a neighbor whether he had seen Borowski lately. He hadn’t, so they called police.

Firefighters lifted the car with a jack and removed Borowski, who was dehydrated and confused.

It turned out her keys were in the car door.

Borowski appears to be recovering, DiMarco said, but may have suffered a minor heart attack while under the vehicle.

“If it wasn’t for people seeing a situation and following through … who knows?” she said. “She wouldn’t have made it about one more day.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,376824,00.html