Previous Medical News

2009/09/05

1.  Advice on when flu needs TLC or a doctor's care (CDC, 9/1/09)
When is swine flu just miserable and when do you need a doctor? Symptoms of any flu include fever of 100 degrees or more, cough, body chills, muscle aches, and congestion. Diarrhea and vomiting sometimes occur, particularly with the swine (2009 H1N1) flu. Everyone needs to stay home and rest, and get plenty of fluids. Signs to seek emergency care include shortness of breath, chest pain or pressure, confusion or seizures, persistent vomiting or inability to hold down liquids and bluish lips.

Who’s at risk from Swine flu: children under 2, pregnant women, people with health problems like asthma, diabetes and heart disease. Teens and young adults are also more vulnerable to swine flu.

First to be vaccinated: people 6 months to 24 years old, pregnant women, health care workers. Also a priority: Parents and caregivers of infants, people with those high-risk medical conditions previously noted.

The regular seasonal flu shot should be widely available in September. People over 50 are urged to be among the first to get that shot.

2.  Swine flu death higher in older kids
H1N1 appears to be taking a higher toll on school-age youngsters than on babies and toddlers. The reason may be because older children spend time at school and summer camp, exposed to more people than younger children kept at home. Almost two-thirds of the children who died with swine flu had epilepsy, cerebral palsy or other neurodevelopmental conditions. Other germs, working with swine flu in a one-two punch, were a big danger. A bacterial infection on top of the flu virus played a role in most of the deaths of otherwise healthy children.

3.  A Stem-Cell Discovery Could Help Diabetics (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 9/09)
Scientists have announced the first success in generating new populations of insulin-producing cells using skin cells of Type 1 diabetes patients from an embryo-free technique for generating stem cells. This is the first step toward building a treatment that could one day replace a patient's faulty insulin-making cells with healthy, functioning ones.

4.  Prostate cancer screening: More Harm Than Good? (Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 8/31/09)
Routine screening for prostate cancer has resulted in more than 1 million U.S. men being diagnosed with tumors who might otherwise have suffered no ill effects from them. Prostate cancer screening is a double-edged sword, catching serious cancers in a few but causing needless worry and expense for the majority of men, who may be getting treatment for tumors growing too slowly to do any harm. A U.S. expert panel last year urged doctors to stop screening men over 75, but doctors still disagree about the right approach to PSA screening.

5.  Tax junk food, drinks to fight child obesity? (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 9/09)
A strongly worded, controversial report on child obesity recommends that state and local governments tax junk food and soft drinks, give tax breaks to grocery stores that open in blighted neighborhoods and build bike trails.

6.  Heartburn Drugs OK With Plavix? (Lancet, 9/1/09)
Heart patients who take the anti-clotting drug Plavix may safely take an acid-reducing proton pump inhibitor (PPI) drug. PPIs, such as Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, and Protonix, are often given to reduce the risk of stomach or intestinal bleeding from anti-clotting drugs. However, there is a sub-group of patients who should avoid this combination because they are less sensitive to Plavix’s blood thinning effect. PPI use may be especially risky for a subpopulation of heart patients that’s genetically predisposed to have a reduced response to the anti-clotting drugs.

7.  Medicine-Laced Cocaine Kills 2, Sickens More Than 100 in U.S. (DEA, 9/1/09)
Nearly a third of all cocaine seized in the United States is laced with a dangerous veterinary medicine — a livestock de-worming drug that might enhance cocaine's effects but has been blamed in at least three deaths and scores of serious illnesses. The medication called levamisole has killed at least three people in the U.S. and Canada and sickened more than 100 others. It can be used in humans to treat colorectal cancer, but it severely weakens the body's immune system, leaving patients vulnerable to fatal infections.

8.  Binge drinking gives you a bigger beer belly than regular drinking (European Society of Cardiology, 9/1/09)
Binge drinking gives you a bigger beer belly than a regular tipple. Drinking a bottle of wine or five pints of beer in an evening instead of over the course of a week gives you a big waist.

9.  Alcohol a Motivator for Exercise? (American Journal of Health Promotion, 9-10/09)
People who drink alcoholic beverages on a regular basis may be more likely than teetotalers to exercise-- and the more they drink, the more likely they are to work out. A possible motivation is that people who consume alcohol recognize that it contains a fair number of calories, so they exercise to counteract caloric intake. Please don’t use alcohol to improve your exercise regimen. Health problems associated with heavy drinking outweigh benefits of more exercise. The study suggests that “responsible” drinking may be beneficial.

10.  Healthy habits prevent breast cancer (American Institute for Cancer Research, 9/1/09)
Nearly 40 percent of all breast cancer cases in the United States could be prevented if women kept a healthy weight, drank less alcohol, exercised more and breastfed their babies.

11.  Men who stay trim less apt to get prostate cancer (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 9/09)
Men who put on a significant number of pounds after their 20s face a higher risk of prostate cancer than those who remain close to their youthful weight.

12.  Lifestyle Changes Cut Breast Cancer Risk (American Institute for Cancer Research, 9/3/09)
More than 70,000 breast cancer cases a year in the U.S., or 40% of all cases, could be prevented with lifestyle measures like maintaining a healthy weight, eating well, exercising, and limiting alcohol consumption.

13.  Weight-Loss Surgery Breaks Families' 'Obesity Cycle' (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 11/09)
Obese mothers have children who are likely to be obese, but this new study concludes that weight-loss surgery can break the cycle. Women who had weight-loss surgery before becoming pregnant had children who were less likely to be heavy when compared with siblings who were born before the weight-loss surgery. The study findings show the importance of the intrauterine environment, which seems to trump even genes and the environment in which the child is raised.

14.  Too-Thin Thighs Unhealthy? (BMJ, 9/4/09)
Having thighs that are too skinny may be a sign of increased risk of death or heart disease. Death and cardiovascular disease were more likely for people with a thigh circumference of less than about 60 centimeters (23.6 inches), measured at the widest part of the thigh, just below the seat. But there was no advantage to having thighs bigger than that. Too little muscle may be the explanation.

15.  Stroke: Surgery Safer Than Angioplasty? (The Lancet Neurology, 8/29/09)
Surgery is safer and slightly more effective than balloon angioplasty for preventing strokes.

16.  Dad's age not a big player in child's autism risk (American Journal of Public Health, 9/09)
Studies that have suggested that older men are more likely to father autistic children have seriously overstated the risk.

17.  Tightwads and Spendthrifts Attract, Marry, Fight (University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, 9/2/09)
Tightwads are likely to tie the knot with individuals who throw caution to the wind when spending money, often to the detriment of the marriage. Opposites indeed attract. Tightwad or spendthrift participants indicated they were unhappy about their emotional reactions toward spending money. The more dissatisfied they were, the more likely each participant was to be attracted to individuals with opposing spending views. However, in the long run, the marriage of opposite spenders results in greater conflicts over money and lower marital satisfaction.

18.  Statin cuts heart problems after artery surgery (New England Journal of Medicine, 9/3/09)
People getting an artery unclogged or repaired were much less likely to die or have a heart attack afterward if they took preventive doses of the pills before and after their operations. Patients given Lescol had half the risk of having a heart attack or dying of a heart problem in the following month compared to those given dummy pills.

19.  Statins May Perform Better as a Solo Act (Annals of Internal Medicine, 9/1/09)
Statins may do their best work at lowering cholesterol levels alone. Researchers analyzed 102 published studies on the topic and found no benefit of combination therapy at reducing the risk of death, heart attack, stroke, or the need for bypass surgery over using high doses of statins alone to lower LDL.

20.  Mediterranean Diet Helps Control Diabetes (Annals of Internal Medicine, 9/1/09)
Eating a Mediterranean-style diet may help people with type 2 diabetes keep their disease under control without drugs better than following a typical low-fat diet.

21.  Combination implant appears to help more heart-failure patients: CRT-D (New England Journal of Medicine, 9/1/09)
The CRT-D, part automated defibrillator, part cardiac resynchronization device, reduced hospitalizations in milder cases. An implantable device that shocks an erratically beating heart and works to keep both ventricles beating synchronously reduced hospitalizations for heart failure by 41% in patients with mild to moderate disease.

22.  When Dementia is Treatable (U.S. National Library of Medicine, 9/4/09)
While dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease or brain damage from stroke are thought to be irreversible, some forms of memory loss may respond to treatment. Here is a list of treatable causes of dementia: brain tumor, infection, low levels of vitamin B12, a condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus, when a build-up of fluid presses on the brain and certain thyroid problems.

23.  Eating late at night adds weight: Late-night snacks could pack on the pounds (Obesity, 9/09)
When you eat affects whether the calories go to your hips or get burned off.

24.  Worry over job is worse for health than no job (Social Science & Medicine, 8/31/09)
Simply worrying about losing your job can cost you your health. And surprisingly, the effect is worse than actually losing your job. People who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health and were more depressed than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently.

25.  Drinking Too Much Coffee or Alcohol Linked to Irregular Heartbeat (European Society of Cardiology, 8/31/09)
Drinking more than 10 alcoholic drinks a week (less than 2 a day) or four cups of strong coffee each day can increase the risk of developing an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.

26.  Just a Few Whiffs of Smoke May Harm Your Heart (American Heart Association, 9/1/09)
Just a few whiffs of tobacco smoke or dirty air can have a profound negative impact on your heart’s health. Exposure to even a small amount of smoke -- whether it’s from your own cigarette or someone else’s -- greatly increases your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The same goes for breathing in air polluted with carbon monoxide emissions.

27.  Family history linked to acne in teens (Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 9/09)
Teenagers' odds of developing moderate to severe acne may depend largely on whether their parents had the problem. Some teens, and adults, develop more-extensive acne that may require treatment with topical prescriptions or oral medications like antibiotics or isotretinoin, a synthetic form of vitamin A.

28.  Recall: Two Eggo Products Recalled: Listeria (Kellogg Company, 9/2/09)
The recalled products are: