Anti-biotic\’s Side Effect occurred on 2008-01-29
2008.01.01 — Women Who Stay Religious Less Likely to Have Anxiety Disorder
January 01, 2008
Women Who Stay Religious Less Likely to Have Anxiety Disorder
TUESDAY, Jan. 1 (HealthDay News) — Women who stop being religiously active are three times more likely to suffer generalized anxiety disorder than women who have always been religiously active, researchers report.
In contrast, the researchers found that men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression compared with men who had always been religiously active.
“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness,” study co-author Joanna Maselko said in a prepared statement. She is an assistant professor of public health at Temple University.
Maselko and her team analyzed data from 718 adults who shared details of their religious activity in youth and adulthood. They found that a majority of the respondents changed their level of religious activity between childhood and adulthood. The data is published in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
According to Maselko, the gender differences in the relationship between religious participation and mental health may be tied to social networks. Women are more likely to build them through their religious activities, and then to feel the loss of those networks when they stop attending church, she explained.
Slightly more than one-third of the women reported always being religiously active. Half said they had not been active since childhood. About 7 percent of the women who were always religiously active could be categorized as having generalized anxiety disorder, compared with 21 percent of those who had ended their religious activities.
People with generalized anxiety disorder experience worries and concerns out of proportion to their daily lives, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The disorder is diagnosed if the worries do not abate after six months. About 6.8 million Americans suffer from the disorder, which can seriously interfere with sleep and relaxation. Women are two times more likely to suffer from anxiety disorder than men.
“Everyone has some spirituality, whether it is an active part of their life or not; whether they are agnostic or atheist or just ‘non-practicing.’ These choices potentially have health implications, similar to the way that one’s social networks do,” Maselko said.
More information
For more on spirituality and health, go to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
– Madeline Vann
SOURCE: Temple University, news release, Jan. 1, 2008
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2008.01.01 — Resolve to Get Enough Zzzzs This Year
January 01, 2008
Resolve to Get Enough Zzzzs This Year
TUESDAY, Jan. 1 (HealthDay News) — Making and keeping a New Year’s resolution to sleep better could help you achieve other health goals, experts at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine say.
“There is growing medical literature showing that many of us in today’s 24/7 society are not getting the basic sleep we need every day,” Dr. Ron Kramer, a physician at the Colorado Neurology Institute’s Sleep Disorders Center in Englewood, Colo., said in a prepared statement.
“At the same time, there is increasing evidence from human sleep researchers that chronic lack of even a few hours of sleep a night can result in significant health consequences,” he said. “These consequences include an increased risk of accidents; fatigue that makes you prone to depressive symptoms or not enough energy to exercise; and even chemical changes that stimulate your brain to eat more and to eat more salty and sugary food.”
“Resolve to sleep well this year, and you may find that the energy to exercise and the self-control for healthy eating may then more easily follow,” said Kramer.
Adults need seven to eight hours of sleep each night, while teens should sleep about nine hours per night. School-aged children require between 10 to 11 hours a night, and children in preschool need between 11 and 13 hours a night, according to the AASM.
Wondering if you’re getting the shuteye you need? The society offers seven key signs that you need more sleep:
- Depending on an alarm clock — and repeatedly smacking the snooze button — to wake up in the morning.
- Driving drowsy or falling asleep at the wheel.
- Drinking more than one cup of coffee a day to stay alert.
- Making mistakes that could be avoided with better concentration.
- Forgetting things more easily.
- Feeling blue, anxious or frustrated.
- Becoming sick more frequently. Sleep is necessary for a strong immune system.
These problems can be resolved with more and better sleep, according to the AASM, which offers these tips on getting a good night’s sleep:
- Follow a consistent bedtime routine.
- Establish a relaxing setting at bedtime.
- Get a full night’s sleep every night.
- Do not go to bed hungry, but don’t eat a big meal before bedtime either.
- Avoid alcohol, foods or drinks that contain caffeine, and any medicine that has a stimulant, prior to bedtime.
- Avoid any rigorous exercise within six hours of your bedtime.
- Make your bedroom quiet, dark and a little bit cool.
- Get up at the same time every morning.
More information
To learn more about how to improve your sleep habits, visit the American Academy of Family Physicians.
– Madeline Vann
SOURCE: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, news release, December 2007
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2008.01.01 — Health Tip: Make Reading a Daily Activity
January 01, 2008
Health Tip: Make Reading a Daily Activity
(HealthDay News) – Developing reading and communication skills is a vital part of a child’s growth.
The Nemours Foundation offers these suggestions for encouraging a daily dose of reading:
- Keep a book or magazine with you, and encourage your child to read while running an errand or waiting for an appointment.
- Have your child read you recipes while you cook dinner, or read recipes aloud to other children.
- Encourage your child to read magazines, catalogs and other mail you receive.
- Encourage family members to write letters or emails to your child.
- Have your child read aloud to you while you clean the house or do other chores. Or, read to her while she does her chores.
– Diana Kohnle
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2008.01.01 — Health Tip: Cosmetics Safety
January 01, 2008
Health Tip: Cosmetics Safety
(HealthDay News) – Some cosmetic products can cause irritation, rashes or even infections, especially if shared with others.
Here are some suggestions to prevent problems from using cosmetics, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
- Never allow other people to borrow your makeup, which can spread bacteria and other germs.
- When trying on makeup at a store, always use a new applicator, or ask the salesperson to clean it with alcohol before using.
- To prevent bacterial growth, keep your makeup closed tightly, and store it in a cool, dry place. Avoid exposing makeup to sun and other forms of direct light and heat.
- If you have an eye infection, stop using makeup until the irritation clears. Discard any makeup you used when you had the infection.
- Throw away old makeup, and any makeup that turns color or develops an odor.
- Try not to inhale powders or aerosol products, which can irritate or damage the lungs.
– Diana Kohnle
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2008.01.01 — Health Highlights: Jan. 1, 2008
January 01, 2008
Health Highlights: Jan. 1, 2008
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Saline Gargle May be Able to Identify Head and Neck Cancer
Gargling in the morning may be much more beneficial than merely freshening your breath, according to a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore.
According to the report in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal Clinical Cancer Research, Johns Hopkins scientists have found that a saline solution used for gargling can identify genetic markers for head and neck cancer, especially for those at highest risk – heavy smokers and alcohol drinkers.
According to a Johns Hopkins news release, 211 head and neck cancer patients and 527 individuals without cancer of the mouth, larynx or pharynx, were asked to brush the inside of their mouths and then rinse and gargle with a salt solution.
Lead investigator Dr. Joseph Califano said researchers were able to filter out cells thought to contain one or more chemically altered genes found only in head and neck cancers.
And while the tests weren’t 100 percent accurate in identifying malignancy, they did provide strong genetic indicators in those patients who has head and neck cancer. “Few tests can be perfect 100 percent of the time in identifying both normal and cancerous cells,” says Califano, an associate professor of otolaryngology — head and neck cancer and oncology at Johns Hopkins. “Because head and neck cancers are not widespread, it makes more sense to screen those at high risk and to focus on a tests ability to accurately rule out healthy people,” he says in the news release.
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Female Testosterone Drug Being Tested
The University of Virginia has joined 99 other medical research facilities in testing a new drug that could help women who have lost interest in sex.
According to the Associated Press, researchers at the UVa Health System will begin prescribing a drug that uses the male hormone testosterone to heighten a woman’s libido. About one-third of American women are believed to be affected by hypoactive sexual disorder, the decline in the desire for sexual activity.
The drug, called LibiGel and made by BioSante Pharmaceuticals Inc., is still being tested for safety and effectiveness before it is submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval.
The UVa Health System testing isn’t for the general population, Dr. Anita Clayton, a psychiatrist who will supervise the study, told the AP
Only 25 women between the ages of 30 and 65 will be enrolled, she said, and they must have had both ovaries surgically removed and be taking an estrogen supplement. Finally, she said, they must display symptoms and concern about lack of sexual desire.
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Authorities Search for Passengers Who Sat Near TB Victim
Health officials continued a 17-state search for airline passengers who may have been exposed to a woman who was diagnosed with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, yet flew from India to San Francisco with a stopover in Chicago earlier this month, USA Today reported.
The 30-year-old Nepal native, who lives in Sunnyvale, Calif., took American Airlines flight 293 from New Delhi, India, to Chicago on Dec. 13, then flew on to San Francisco. She had been diagnosed with TB in India and showed symptoms of TB on the flight, including a fever, the newspaper said.
About a week after the flight, she checked into Stanford University Hospital. A spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the woman “was at the extreme end of the severity of the disease.”
The woman is now said to be “stable and doing well,” a hospital spokesman told the newspaper.
She was seated in row 35 on the India-to-Chicago flight. The CDC said 44 passengers may have been close enough for potential exposure, though their risk is considered small. The agency recommended that all of them be tested for TB now and again in about 10 weeks.
A CDC spokesman said that between June 2006 and June 2007, the agency was involved in about 100 similar investigations, USA Today reported.
In May, an Atlanta attorney with TB triggered an international health scare after flying to and from Europe for his wedding, despite warnings from U.S. health officials not to fly. In November, officials announced that they didn’t think Andrew Speaker had infected any fellow passengers. Speaker was released from a Denver hospital in July after completing treatment.
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Drug Makers Investigated Under Alleged Iraqi Kickback Scheme
Global pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca are being investigated by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office as part of an investigation into alleged bribes paid to the government of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
A third international drug firm, Eli Lilly, also is being investigated over alleged breaches of a United Nations humanitarian program that allowed Iraq to trade oil for food, Agence France Presse reported.
All three companies, denying any wrongdoing, said they were cooperating fully with the investigation.
A 2005 U.N. audit, led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, found that the Saddam regime demanded bribes from as many as 2,000 foreign firms doing business in Iraq under the oil-for-food program, AFP reported.
The Iraqi regime allegedly swindled millions of dollars from the program, the news service said.
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Bush Signs Extension of Child Health-Care Program Into Law
President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that would extend a controversial children’s health insurance program, after twice denying attempts to expand its reach.
The extension of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) should provide states with funds to cover those enrolled through March 2009, the Associated Press reported. Bush and Republican legislators contend the program will cover families that currently fall into a coverage gap — earning too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance.
But Democrats, with the support of some Republican legislators, were pushing hard for an expansion of the program to cover an estimated four million more children, the AP said. Their proposal, which would have added $35 billion to SCHIP coffers, was to have been paid for by an increase in the tobacco tax.
But Bush claimed that the Democrats’ plan ignored the nation’s neediest children. He also objected to the tax increase and what he described as a move toward more government-funded health care.
The current program covers about 6 million children, but Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday said her party won’t stop “until 10 million children receive the health-care coverage they deserve.”
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FDA Warns of Norovirus in Louisiana Oysters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers to avoid eating raw oysters harvested from the West Karako Bay area of Louisiana between Dec. 3 and 21 because they may carry a potentially deadly pathogen called norovirus.
“FDA has received reports of norovirus infection in seven individuals who ate raw oysters on Dec. 13 at a restaurant in Chattanooga, Tenn.,” the agency said in a statement released Saturday. “Test results from two of the ill patients were positive for norovirus,” they add, and tests of oysters harvested from West Karako Bay and served at the restaurant also tested positive for the virus.
Norovirus infection presents with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps, along with fatigue, fever, chills, and headache. The illness usually passes within 48 hours but can be serious for the very young, the elderly, or those with compromised immune systems.
According to the FDA, the infected oysters were distributed by Bon Secour Fisheries in Alabama to the restaurant in Chattanooga, and the shellfish may “still [be] available in other retail and food service settings.”
The agency notes that cooking (boiling or steaming) oysters destroys norovirus.
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2008.01.01 — Happy Marriage Eases Wife’s Workday Tension
January 01, 2008
Happy Marriage Eases Wife’s Workday Tension
TUESDAY, Jan. 1 (HealthDay News) — Coming home to a loving spouse and a good marriage helps working women shake off the stress of the day, new research confirms.
Men, on the other hand, often drop their stress at the door when they come home, regardless of the state of their union, reported psychology researchers.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, followed 30 married, parenting couples, with each partner employed in full-time jobs.
Over a three-day period, each of the 60 spouses completed a single survey about their satisfaction with their marriage and twice-daily questionnaires about their day. The researchers also took saliva samples four times a day (early morning, late morning, afternoon and evening) to test for cortisol, a hormone released by the body under stress.
“At least as far as women are concerned, being happily married appears to bolster physiological recovery from work,” lead author Darby E. Saxbe said in a prepared statement. “After a tough day at the office, cortisol levels dropped further among happily married women than less happily married ones. Less happily married women also showed a flatter daily pattern of cortisol release, suggesting that they are rebounding less well from everyday stress.”
The researchers found that women in marriages who felt they were happily married saw a greater reduction in cortisol levels when they came home at the end of the work day than women who were less happily married. Cortisol levels in men dropped at the end of the day regardless of their satisfaction with their marriage.
Long-term elevated cortisol levels have been associated with a host of maladies, including depression, burnout, chronic fatigue syndrome, relationship problems, poor social adjustment and possibly even cancer, according to the researchers.
This is the first study to examine daily cortisol levels with respect to marital satisfaction, said the researchers, who called for further research into the link between marriage and physical stress. The researchers suggested that people in happy marriages may have a more even balance of household responsibilities and may generally welcome an evening retreat from the world more than women in unhappy marriages.
The study is published in the January issue of Health Psychology.
More information
For more on stress management, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
– Madeline Vann
SOURCE: University of California, Los Angeles, news release, Jan. 1, 2008
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2008.01.01 — Children Who Sleep Less Weigh More
January 01, 2008
Children Who Sleep Less Weigh More
TUESDAY, Jan. 1 (HealthDay News) — Children who get less than nine hours of sleep a night are more likely to be overweight or obese, new research shows.
Sleep-deprived kids also have more than a 3 percent increase in body fat on average compared to youngsters who sleep for more than nine hours nightly.
The researchers also reported that children’s sleep patterns vary by season and day. Children sleep fewer hours in the summer and on weekends, according to the study.
Researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand studied the sleep patterns of 591 seven-year-old children using actigraphy — a movement-based, noninvasive method used to study sleep-wake patterns and circadian rhythms. The children were assessed at birth, at one year of age, at three-and-a-half years and at seven years.
The team found that the children slept 10.1 hours on average. They slept fewer hours on weekend days than on weekdays, in the summer and when bedtime was set as after 9 p.m. They also slept fewer hours if they had no younger siblings.
In addition to increased weight and body fat, shorter sleep periods correlated with more emotional volatility, reported the research team.
“Sleep is important for health and well-being throughout life,” said lead author Ed Mitchell in a prepared statement. “Few studies have objectively measured sleep duration. In this large study of sleep in seven-year-olds, there was considerable variation in duration of sleep. Sleep duration was 40 minutes longer in winter than summer and was 31 minutes longer on weekdays than on the weekend. Short sleep duration was associated with a threefold increased risk of the child being overweight or obese. This effect was independent of physical activity or television watching. Attention to sleep in childhood may be an important strategy to reduce the obesity epidemic.”
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children in preschool sleep between 11 and 13 hours a night and school-aged children between 10 and 11 hours of sleep a night.
The academy suggested that parents give their children an opportunity to get the recommended amount of sleep by keeping a consistent bedtime routine in a relaxed setting. Children may also sleep better if they have a parent to relate to before bed, instead of TV or video games. Food, drinks and medicines that contain caffeine are all enemies of sleep, according to the academy.
The study is published in the January issue of Sleep.
More information
To learn more about healthy children and sleep, visit the American Academy of Pediatricians.
– Madeline Vann
SOURCE: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, news release, Jan. 1, 2008
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2008.01.02 — Testosterone Supplements Provide Little Benefit
January 02, 2008
Testosterone Supplements Provide Little Benefit
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 2 (HealthDay News) — Testosterone supplements increase lean body mass and decrease body fat in men over age 60 who have unusually low testosterone but do not improve strength, mobility or mental abilities, researchers report.
Testosterone levels normally decrease as men age, although the amount of decrease varies among men. Losing testosterone is associated with a loss of muscle mass, strength, mental facility and bone mass as well as an increase in body fat, the team noted in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Clinical trials of the effectiveness of testosterone supplementation have not been conclusive, added the team from the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands.
They analyzed quality of life and health data from 207 men between the ages of 60 and 80 who had lower than average testosterone levels. Participants took 80 milligrams of testosterone or a placebo twice daily for six months. The men did not know whether they were taking testosterone or the placebo.
The researchers found that the men who took testosterone had more lean body mass and less fat than their peers but no increase in mobility of strength. Although not statistically significant, the men taking testosterone were slightly more likely to have metabolic syndrome by the end of the study. Metabolic syndrome is a predictor of type 2 diabetes and is characterized by obesity and unhealthy cholesterol levels.
Men taking testosterone also had improved insulin sensitivity but lower levels of “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Testosterone supplementation was associated with an increase of creatinine in the blood, as well as hemoglobin and hematocrit, measures of red blood cell health. There were no negative effects of testosterone on prostate health, reported the researchers.
“This study is, as far as we know, the largest study of testosterone supplementation with the most end points and a randomized, double-blind design. Adherence was high, and the dropout rate was low,” the authors wrote in a prepared statement. “The findings in this study do not support a net benefit on several indicators of health and functional and cognitive performance with six months of modest testosterone supplementation in healthy men with circulating testosterone levels in the lower range.”
More information
To learn more about building strength through strength training, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
– Madeline Vann
SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, news release, Jan. 1, 2008
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2008.01.02 — Scientists Report Refinements to Brain Surgery
January 02, 2008
Scientists Report Refinements to Brain Surgery
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 2 (HealthDay News) — New so-called mapping technology will enable surgeons to perform brain surgery with less damage to parts of the brain that govern language, researchers report.
As a bonus, brain researchers may also get a more detailed “map” of the language centers of the brain.
The new technique, described in the Jan. 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is called “negative brain mapping.” After a neurosurgeon has removed part of the skull, the surgeon stimulates small sections — approximately 1 centimeter square — using a bipolar electrode. This method relies on knowledge of brain areas that contain no language function, compared to the traditional method that requires identification — with the patient’s participation — of areas that control speech, naming or articulation, the researchers said.
According to the researchers, the benefits of this new approach include reducing the amount of skull that has to be removed and reducing the amount of time a patient has to be awake.
The neurosurgeons developed and tested this technique over the course of eight years. They used the method on 250 patients (146 men and 104 women) who had gliomas, a common and deadly form of brain tumor. All tumors were in the dominant hemisphere of their brain.
Surgery to remove brain tumors, such as gliomas, can often result in indirect damage to parts of the brain that control language ability, the researchers said.
When the researchers followed up after a week after surgery, they found that three out of four (77.6 percent) of the patients had the same degree of language function they had prior to surgery. After six months, only 1.6 percent of patients had worse language skills.
The researchers also found that the anatomy of language varied significantly between patients. This information could be useful to people suffering from brain disorders, including seizures and stroke-related damage, that affect language, according to the research team.
“This study represents a paradigm shift in language mapping during brain tumor resection,” senior author Dr. Mitchel Berger, chairman of the University of California, San Francisco Department of Neurological Surgery and director of the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center, said in a prepared statement. “Not only have we proven this technique can be safely relied upon for brain tumor resection, we have shown functional language organization to be much more diverse and individualized than previously thought.”
More information
To learn more about brain and spinal chord cancers, visit the American Cancer Society.
– Madeline Vann
SOURCE: University of California, San Francisco, news release, Jan. 2, 2008
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