Asthma Common Among Olympic Athletes

HealthDay – 3 mins 8 secs ago THURSDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Asthma and airway hyper-responsiveness are the most common chronic conditions among Olympic athletes, affecting about 8 percent of the competitors, according to a new study.

The Australian researcher suggested the conditions may be linked to the athletes' intense training, particularly those who participate in endurance sports or winter sports. The inhalation of cold air contributes to airway damage.

Airway hyper-responsiveness involves marked narrowing of the airways in response to some kind of outside trigger.

"Inhaling polluted or cold air is considered an important factor which might explain the cause in some sports, but not in all," explained study author Kenneth Fitch, of the University of Western Australia, in a university news release. "The quality of inhaled air could be harmful to the airways, but does not cause the same effect in all sports."

Fitch counted the number of athletes with asthma and airway hyper-responsiveness from the five Olympic games between 2002 and 2010. He identified the athletes by tracking the use of inhaled beta-2 agonists, an anti-asthma drug commonly used by top athletes.

In 2001, the International Olympic Committee recognized the increased use of the drug between 1996 and 2000, and issued a new rule requiring athletes to provide proof of their condition to safeguard the health of Olympic athletes, not as an anti-doping measure, according to the news release.

Fitch noted that athletes with asthma have routinely beaten their opponents. He added, however, there is no proof that treatments for the condition improved their performance. He suggested that training harder than other athletes could help explain why many athletes develop asthma or airway hyper-responsiveness as adults.

The study was published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides more information on asthma.

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Imaging Tests Up Among Advanced Cancer Patients

HealthDay – 1 hr 50 mins ago TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A new U.S. study finds that the use of diagnostic imaging tests in Medicare patients with advanced cancer has risen faster than among patients with early-stage cancer.

The costs of diagnostic imaging have increased more than the overall costs of cancer care, making diagnostic imaging the fastest-growing part of Medicare-reimbursed services, the researchers noted. Medicare is the U.S. government-funded health insurance program for people over 65 and certain other patients.

They added that cancer care costs are highest during the last year of life, but little is known about the use of high-cost imaging tests in cancer patients during their final year.

In this study, the researchers examined data on the use of CT, MRI, PET and nuclear medicine scans for Medicare patients with late-stage (stage 4) breast, colon, lung or prostate cancer between 1995 and 2006. Stage 4 cancer means the cancer has spread throughout the body.

The analysis revealed that most of the patients underwent imaging procedures during the course of their care, and that the use of imaging in late-stage cancer patients increased between 1995 and 2006.

The study was published July 30 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The increasing use of imaging in late-stage cancer patients may be due to a lack of guidelines in this area or the use of imaging to help doctors manage symptoms, detect disease progression and assess the effects of treatment, said Dr. Yue-Yung Hu and colleagues at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the University of Wisconsin.

While imaging often leads to appropriate measures to ease dying patients' suffering, it can also distract them from focusing on achievable end-of-life goals, cause them to spend more of their remaining time in medical care settings, and provoke anxiety, the researchers said.

Determining the most appropriate care for patients with late-stage cancer is complex, Drs. Robin Yabroff and Joan Warren, of the Health Services and Economics Branch at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, noted in an accompanying editorial.

"Physicians tend to overestimate survival for terminally ill cancer patients, which may influence their treatment and related imaging recommendations," they wrote in a journal news release. "Development of practice guidelines for advanced imaging in patients with stage IV disease, with explicit statements about the state of evidence will be critical, particularly for care outside of the window surrounding patient diagnosis."

More information

The American Cancer Society offers advice for cancer patients nearing the end of life.

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Researchers report more condom use among teenagers

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Genital warts on the decline among Swedish women

Reuters – 22 hrs ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Genital warts have been on the decline among women in Sweden after the country began offering subsidized HPV vaccinations to teenage girls in 2007, new research shows.

Rates of the sexually transmitted infection dropped by 17 percent among women ages 15 to 25 from 2006 to 2010, although there was no change among men over the same period.

The findings are "in all likelihood" a sign the vaccine is working, said Amy Leval of Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, who worked on the study. But they also suggest that not enough women have been vaccinated for men to be protected indirectly - a phenomenon known as herd immunity - she told Reuters Health by email.

Genital warts are caused by human papillomavirus, or HPV, which in rare cases can also lead to cervical, penile and anal cancers. Health authorities in the U.S. recommend that all preteen girls and boys get an HPV vaccine.

A U.S. expert without ties to the research welcomed the results from Sweden, but also sounded a cautious note.

"It's exactly what we would like to see," said Dr. Michael Brady, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "But it is a little early to suggest that we know this is a vaccine response."

It's possible that something else, such as better education or an increased media focus, could also have influenced how the disease spread during the study, Brady explained.

"In order to really document this was related to the vaccine, you have to look at those who got the vaccine and those who didn't," he said.

Leval said her work, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, is the first to use data from the entire population of a country to estimate the rate of genital wart infections. Such a study would not be possible in the U.S., because there are no nationwide data on the condition.

The Swedish researchers linked two national registries - one on prescription drug use and one on hospital visits - to get estimates of how many people ages 10 to 44 were treated for genital warts.

Their results are likely to be lower than the real rates because the registries don't include people who got non-drug treatments at private practices, such as having their warts frozen off.

Women were most at risk of a new infection around age 20, whereas the rate peaked a few years later in men.

Initially, there was little difference in yearly infection rates between men and women - at 399 and 387 per 100,000 people, respectively. But that began to change after 2007.

While genital warts appeared to become more common among men, the rate dropped off among women, particularly teenagers and young adults.

Leval said HPV vaccinations were recommended for Swedish women up to age 26 during the study, and partially subsidized for girls between 13 and 17.

Twenty-seven percent of girls between 17 and 19 years old were fully vaccinated, she said, and the rate of new infections dropped by a quarter in this age group.

"We see no decline among men yet, indicating no herd immunity effect here when the portion of the population vaccinated is only roughly one-third in the recommended age-groups," Leval said

She added that studies have found signs of herd immunity in men from Australia, where vaccine uptake in girls is about 80 percent.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least half of all sexually active people will catch genital HPV at some point, although the virus usually goes away on its own without causing any symptoms.

Researchers estimate that HPV types 16 and 18 are responsible for about 7,000 cases of cancer in men every year in the U.S. and 15,000 cases in women.

Clinical studies show HPV vaccines shield boys and girls against genital warts and cancers, although the protection isn't complete. U.S. health regulators have found no serious side effects apart from soreness at the injection site.

The new results suggest genital warts are the second-most common STI in Sweden after chlamydia, said Leval. This year, the Scandinavian country has replaced its earlier on-demand vaccination strategy with "a school-based and catch-up vaccination program," she added.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/NU1BPU Journal of Infectious Diseases, online July 18, 2012.

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Survey Finds Big Drop in Sexual Activity Among Black Teens

HealthDay – 14 hrs ago TUESDAY, July 24 (HealthDay News) -- Black teenagers in the United States have become much less sexually active over the past two decades, and those who do have sex appear to be more likely to use condoms, a new survey has found.

The declines are "dramatic," said report author Laura Kann, who studies adolescent health for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The numbers don't disclose anything about why black teens might have changed their behavior. "This tells us what kids do, but not why," Kann said.

Overall, teens of all racial and ethnic groups are about as sexually active as they were a decade ago. And the rate of condom use by teens -- just six in 10 used them the last time they had sex -- hasn't changed much since the 1990s.

By contrast, the numbers for black teens are strikingly different. The percentage who reported ever having sex fell from 82 percent in 1991 to 60 percent in 2011. Kann said the numbers coincide with drops in teen pregnancy and births.

Increased education about HIV/AIDS among blacks, leadership in the black community and a public health focus on black Americans could explain the change, Kann said.

The new CDC teen-sex survey also reveals that:

The percentages of students who've had sex have remained fairly stable over the last 20 years for Hispanic students (49 percent in 2011) and whites (44 percent in 2011).Overall, 47 percent of all teens surveyed said they'd ever had sex, down from 54 percent in 1991. The rate has barely changed since 2001.About one-third of students said they'd had sex within the past three months, and 15 percent said they'd had sex with four or more partners.The percentage of sexually active teens who use condoms grew from 46 percent in 1991 to 60 percent in 2011, although the number hasn't changed much in recent years. Black teens are more likely to use condoms: their rate is 65 percent.

The recent stabilization of condom use could have something to do with less focus on HIV, which has largely become a treatable disease, Kann said. Also, "the percentage of high school students overall who have had HIV education has dropped since 1997. That hasn't helped any either."

The new survey results come from the CDC's National Youth Risk Behavior Survey of students in grades 9 through 12 from both public and private schools. About 15,000 students take the surveys each year.

Jennifer Manlove, area director of Fertility and Family Structure with the Child Trends advocacy group in Washington, D.C., said the survey shows that much of the evolution toward less sexual activity occurred in the 1990s, even among black teens.

"There's been a little bit more since 2000, but not really that much. The big news in the 1990s was the real focus on the AIDS epidemic and a lot of attention given to that," she said.

Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Center, said the study "is a mix of good news and persistent causes for concern."

Nearly half of teens in this country are still sexually active, "and a third or more (of those) did not use condoms most recently," he said. "This means that a very large population of our young people remains vulnerable to all of the perils of unprotected sex, HIV included. So this report is not a cause for celebration. It tells of a job that can be done when we address it well, and of a mission far from accomplished that deserves our more devoted attention."

He added: "No child should get HIV because our society is squeamish about the readily available means of preventing that."

The survey findings were scheduled to be released Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C., and published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

More information

For more about teen sexual health, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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Decisions About Condom Use Among Gay Couples Vary by Race

HealthDay – 1 hr 41 mins ago SUNDAY, July 22 (HealthDay News) -- Decisions about condom use among gay couples vary by race, a new study reveals.

Although black gay couples tend to practice safe sex more often, researchers from San Francisco State University found they don't talk about it. However, white gay couples often do the opposite, they noted. Although these couples discussed condoms, they are more likely to have unprotected sex.

The study authors added their findings are significant since gay men account for the majority of new HIV cases in the United States.

In their report, the researchers examined the behaviors of male couples living in San Francisco and New York City.

They found black couples were more likely to use condoms than white couples, regardless of HIV status. The black couples said that having safe sex was an unspoken rule and condom use was expected.

"Research has shown that some of the fastest-growing HIV cases in the U.S. are among men in couple relationships and among black men. However, we studied black men with black partners and found that they are practicing safe sex," said study leader Colleen Hoff, a professor of sexuality studies, said in a news release from San Francisco State. "This suggests that being in a relationship isn't a risk factor for black men. We need to keep searching for other factors that may explain the high incidence of HIV among this demographic."

The study also revealed that most white couples did not use condoms, regardless of HIV status. These couples reported they came to this decision by talking about the risks and benefits of having unprotected sex. The researchers noted interracial gay couples were not in agreement on whether to use condoms.

White and interracial couples that included partners with different HIV status said the health of the partner with HIV was a big part of their decision to have safe or unprotected sex. Many of these couples believed that if the HIV-positive person is on medication and has a low viral load, they are less likely to spread the disease to their HIV-negative partner, the study found.

The researchers suggested this reflects the belief among some gay couples that advances in HIV treatment reduce the risks associated with the virus.

"When some individuals get tested and hear that they have a lower viral load, they might interpret that decreased risk as no risk and hence use no protection," Hoff said. "It's a calculated risk that they are taking."

Among gay couples that occasionally broke their agreement to practice safe sex, once again race played a role in how they handled the situation, the study showed. Black couples tended to discuss what happened, get tested for HIV and go back to using condoms. Meanwhile, white and interracial gay couples were more likely to continue having unsafe sex.

"We found that black and white gay men process the information they receive about HIV in different ways, and for black men using condoms is the default choice," researcher Chad Campbell said in a news release. "The black gay men we surveyed were aware of the high rates of HIV among their demographic and were taking steps to ensure they don't become another statistic."

The study was expected to be presented on Sunday at the International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on HIV among gay and bisexual men.

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HPV Vaccine Reducing Infections, Even Among Unvaccinated: Study

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Dangerous Rage May Be Common Among U.S. Teens

HealthDay – 8 mins ago MONDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- Almost two-thirds of U.S. teens have had an anger attack so severe they have destroyed property, or threatened or attacked another person, a new study finds.

When these attacks persist, the syndrome can be considered intermittent explosive disorder. One in 12 U.S. teens may have the condition, which usually surfaces in late childhood, the researchers say.

"This is one of the most common adolescent disorders in America, and the most important ignored disorder among youth in America," said lead researcher Ronald Kessler, a professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

"For reasons that are unclear to me,

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Vitamin D deficiency common among adolescents evaluated for weight-loss surgery

ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) — Most adolescents preparing for weight-loss, or bariatric, surgery are deficient in vitamin D, a new study demonstrates.

See Also:Health & MedicineDiet and Weight LossObesityVitaminVitamin DVitamin ADietary SupplementReferenceNutrition and pregnancyBody mass indexOverweightVitamin D

The results will be presented Tuesday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

"This is particularly important prior to bariatric surgery where weight loss and decreased calcium and vitamin D absorption in some procedures may place these patients at further risk," said study lead author Marisa Censani, M.D., pediatric-endocrinology fellow at Columbia University Medical Center, in New York City. "These results provide insight into prevalence and risk factors for pre-existing vitamin D deficiency in obese adolescents prior to bariatric surgery."

In the United States, weight-loss surgery is becoming an increasingly common procedure due to the obesity epidemic, which affects people of all ages, including children. One of the most common types is gastric-bypass surgery, which involves surgically removing a portion of the stomach, thereby reducing its size and ability to hold large amounts of food. While highly effective at controlling weight, weight-loss surgery presents certain challenges. One of the greatest post-surgical difficulties is maintaining adequate nutrition, particularly with respect to factors associated with bone development since adolescents have not yet reached their peak bone mass.

Vitamin D is found in foods such as eggs, milk, and fish, as well as the sun. The vitamin plays an essential role in regulating the amount of the minerals calcium and phosphorus circulating in the blood.

While previous studies have found an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency among adults evaluated for weight-loss surgery, whether this deficiency also occurred among morbidly obese adolescents remained unclear. Morbid obesity is defined in adults as having a weight-to-height ratio, or BMI, greater than 40; a healthy BMI is no more than 24.9.

In one of the first studies of its kind, Censani and her co-investigators found that more than half of adolescents undergoing evaluation for weight-loss surgery were vitamin D deficient, and 8 percent had severe deficiencies. Slightly less than one-fifth had adequate vitamin D levels. Patients with the highest BMIs were the most likely to be vitamin deficient.

In other findings, investigators identified several racial differences. African Americans were the most likely to be vitamin D deficient, while Caucasians were the least likely to have a deficiency. Specific percentages of vitamin D deficiency among racial subgroups were:

• 82 percent of African Americans

• 59 percent of Hispanics

• 37 percent of Caucasians

"These results support screening all morbidly obese adolescents for vitamin D deficiency, and treating those who are deficient, particularly prior to bariatric procedures that could place these patients at further risk," Censani said.

Investigators analysed the medical records of 236 adolescents who were being considered for bariatric surgery between March 2006 and June 2011. Of these patients, 219 provided medical records that included data on vitamin D levels. Sixty-five percent were female, their average age was 16 years, and average BMI was about 48. Forty-three percent were Caucasian, 35 percent were Hispanic, and 15 percent were African American.

Censani was supported by the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 5T32 DK 06552-07 in Pediatric Endocrinology.

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Brain-Injury Recovery Varies Widely Among Children

HealthDay – 4 hrs ago MONDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Although survival rates for children who sustain brain injuries have improved significantly, it remains difficult to predict how well these children will do in the long term, according to a new evidence review.

The recovery of children with brain injuries is complex, and outcomes may vary widely, the British researchers noted. Protecting these brain-injured children from infections and accidents should be a priority, they said.

The research, published online June 18 in CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, also found the age at which children sustain a brain injury will have an effect on their recovery. The authors suggested that the common belief that children's developing brains are more resilient may be naive.

"There is no single best approach to describing outcome after acquired brain injury during childhood, and the one chosen must be appropriate to the purpose at hand," Dr. Rob Forsyth, of the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University and Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, and colleagues wrote in a journal news release.

The researchers looked at pertinent English-language medical literature from 1966 to the present.

Not enough information is available to help doctors and families decide how to proceed with the children's treatment or, in some cases, withdraw care, the researchers said. Challenges to providing care for children with brain injuries should be considered, as should the cause of the injury.

Outcomes often are better following traumatic brain injuries than injuries sustained from oxygen deprivation, such as drowning or suffocation, the analysis found. The researchers said psychological issues these children may face later on could be masked by the initial recovery of their motor skills.

"Early injury alters the entire developmental trajectory, and effects can compound through childhood," the researchers wrote. "This is particularly clear in the literature surrounding pediatric brain injury, where sometimes impressive early motor recoveries obscure the characteristic emergence of cognitive and psychological

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Fewer Stillbirths Among Pregnant Women Vaccinated Against Flu

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"Pre-diabetes,"' diabetes rising among U.S. teens

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Tiny Tots in the Dentist's Chair Among Changes in Pediatric Dentistry

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Injury deaths drop among US kids: study

Injury deaths drop among US kids: …

Childhood deaths from injury have dropped almost 30 percent over the past decade, but suffocation deaths by infants and fatal poisonings among teens have risen, said a US study out Monday.

Despite the 29 percent decline, unintentional injuries are still the number one killer for US minors between the ages of one and 19, taking more than 9,000 lives in 2009, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The US rate of unintentional injury deaths among youths in 2004 was about twice that in other high-income countries in the the World Health Organization's European and Western Pacific Regions, it added.

Car crashes dropped by 41 percent from 2000-2009, but remained the leading accidental killer among this group. The CDC attributed the decline to improvements in child safety seats and better training for teen drivers.

"Despite this success, traffic crashes remain the leading cause of death for persons in age groups 5-19 years, accounting for 67 percent of unintentional injury deaths and 28 percent of deaths from all causes among those aged 15-19 years in 2009."

Poisoning deaths among those age 15 to 19 have been rising -- up 91 percent in 2009 compared to 2000 -- along with the rest of the US population, mainly due to overdoses of prescription drugs.

The higher infant suffocation rate -- up 54 percent from 2000 to 2009 -- "could be curbed" if more parents followed pediatricians' recommendations to have infants "sleep in safe cribs, alone, on their backs, with no loose bedding or soft toys," the study added.

However, the CDC pointed out that the apparent higher rate of infant suffocation could be a result of the change of death certificate classification over time.

Such deaths were often previously attributed to mysterious "sudden infant death syndrome," but recently, more of these deaths have been classed as "suffocation" as understanding of the syndrome has improved.

"Kids are safer from injuries today than ever before. In fact, the decrease in injury death rates in the past decade has resulted in more than 11,000 children's lives being saved," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden.

"But we can do more. It's tragic and unacceptable when we lose even one child to an avoidable injury."

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Suicide rates rising among Canadian girls: study

Reuters – 15 hrs ago (Reuters) - Suicide rates for female teens and pre-teens in Canada rose over the past few decades even though the overall number of youths who took their own lives was dropping, according to a Canadian study that covered nearly 30 years.

Researchers whose findings were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal also noted a change in the preferred methods of suicide, from guns or poisons to suffocation by strangulation.

"Our message is that all suicide is a tragedy and the trend is very disturbing," said lead author Robin Skinner, an epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa.

In 1980, 0.6 per 100,000 girls between the ages of 10 to 14 committed suicide, rising to 0.9 per 100,000 in 2008. But among girls 15 to 19 years old, the rate rose from 3.7 per 100,000 in 1980 to 6.2 per 100,000 in 2008.

Overall, suicide is the second leading cause of death for Canadians between 10 and 19 years old, after accidents.

Skinner told Reuters Health there was a small improvement in suicide rates for all Canadians in that age group between 1980 and 2008.

Whereas 6.2 of every 100,000 young Canadians killed themselves in 1980, the rate fell to 5.2 per 100,000 in 2008 -- in general, a 1 percent annual decline over nearly three decades.

The group found there was no significant change in the suicide rate for boys 10 to 14 years old. In 2008, 1.6 per 100,000 committed suicide. But the rate for those aged 15 to 19 fell considerably, from 19 per 100,000 in 1980 to 6.2 per 100,000 in 2008.

The study did not examine why the rates for girls increased over the 28-year period, or why that of boys dropped, but they did point out a steady rise among both sexes in deaths by suffocation.

Previous research has found that young people perceive hanging to be a "clean, quick and painless method" of suicide, according to the authors.

In addition, they write, a so-called "hocking game" has grown in popularity among kids and teens during the study period. It involves either strangling the throat or applying pressure to the chest to achieve euphoria from oxygen deprivation.

"The 'game' can turn deadly if the participant being choked is physiologically susceptible or if the pressure is not released quickly enough after the loss of consciousness," Skinner's team wrote.

"Deaths resulting from the 'choking game' have the potential to be misclassified as suicides, especially when the 'game' is played alone."

A commentary by Laurence Kirmayer, of the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, that accompanied the study suggested the increase in suicides among girls might be explained by the more lethal methods being used to attempt suicide in general.

"Girls tended to use poisoning not gunshots, hanging is potentially more lethal than poisoning, partly because people often use sublethal doses of pills or other substances," he told Reuters Health in an email. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/HdqVhu and http://bit.ly/Hj1ugM

(Reporting from New York by Andrew Seaman at Reuters Health; Editing by Elaine Lies and Paul Tait)

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Overuse Injuries Common Among Female College Athletes

HealthDay – 1 hr 1 min ago FRIDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- Overuse injuries account for more than one-quarter of all injuries suffered by U.S. collegiate athletes, a new study has found.

Women -- especially those who played field hockey, soccer, softball and volleyball -- accounted for the majority of the overuse injuries (62 percent).

For this study, researchers analyzed three years of data from male and female collegiate athletes participating in 16 team sports at the University of Iowa.

During the study period, 319 male athletes sustained 705 injuries and 254 female athletes suffered 612 injuries. Overall, 288 athletes reported more than one injury. Of all the injuries suffered by the athletes, 29 percent were overuse injuries and 71 percent were acute injuries.

Overuse injuries tend to occur gradually and are caused by repeated small injuries, without a single, identifiable event. Acute injuries -- typically suffered by athletes playing high-speed and full-contact sports such as football or hockey -- have specific and identifiable causes.

The most common overuse injuries were general stress (27 percent), inflammation (21 percent) and tendinitis (16 percent).

Overuse injuries were most common among athletes in low-contact sports that involve long training sessions or in which athletes repeat the same movement numerous times, such as long-distance running, rowing and swimming. Four women's sports in particular -- field hockey, soccer, softball and volleyball -- had the highest rates of overuse injuries.

The study appears in the April issue of the Journal of Athletic Training.

"Overuse injuries may present not only physical challenges, but also psychological ones that could significantly affect an athlete's recovery and performance," study co-author Tracey Covassin said in a journal news release.

"Understanding the frequency, rate and severity of overuse injuries is an important first step for designing effective injury-prevention programs, intervention strategies and treatment protocols to prevent and rehabilitate athletes with these types of injuries," Covassin said.

More information

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons has more about common sports injuries and conditions.

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Drug, Alcohol Abuse Common Among U.S. Teens, Study Finds

HealthDay – 21 mins ago MONDAY, April 2 (HealthDay News) -- Alcohol and drug use is common among American teens and more than 15 percent of them meet the criteria for substance abuse, a new study finds.

"Once again, we are reminded that in most instances experimentation with alcohol and drugs begins during adolescence," said Bruce Goldman, director of Substance Abuse Services at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y.

"Unfortunately, many youth are at risk of developing abuse and dependency problems due to factors including genetic predisposition, environmental availability, school difficulties, social/family problems and co-occurring psychiatric or behavioral disorders," added Goldman, who was not involved in the new study.

In the study, Joel Swendsen, of the University of Bordeaux in France, and colleagues analyzed data from a U.S. survey of more than 10,000 teens between the ages of 13 and 18. They found that more than 78 percent of the oldest teens had consumed alcohol, about 47 percent consumed at least 12 drinks a year, and about 15 percent met the criteria for alcohol abuse.

The study also found that 81.4 percent of the oldest teens reported the opportunity to use illicit drugs, 42.5 percent used drugs, and 16.4 percent were drug abusers.

The median age when teens started substance use was 14 for regular alcohol use or abuse with or without dependence, 14 for drug abuse with dependence, and 15 for drug abuse without dependence.

"Because the early onset of substance use is a significant predictor of substance use behavior and disorders in a lifespan, the public health implications of the current findings are far-reaching," the team wrote in the April issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

More must be done to make sure youth don't start out early on the road to substance abuse, Goldman said.

"It is imperative that families, schools, police, youth groups, and communities all join together to prevent or delay the onset of substance use as long as possible," he said. "Social norms have a very powerful impact on drug-use patterns. We need to create norms where substance use and availability, especially for young people, is not acceptable."

That means giving young people the resources to fight back, Goldman added. "Effective early intervention needs to be universally available to youth that are found to be using substance," he said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism offers advice on parenting to prevent childhood alcohol use.

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Melanoma Rates On the Rise Among Young Adults: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 44 mins ago SUNDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) -- New research highlights a dramatic increase in the rates of melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, among young adults, with young women being hit the hardest.

According to the study, the incidence of melanoma increased eightfold among young women and fourfold among young men from 1970 through 2009.

The findings come from a population-based study by Mayo Clinic researchers using records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a decades-long database of all patient care in Olmsted County, Minn. The researchers looked for first-time diagnoses of melanoma in patients 18 to 39 from 1970 to 2009.

Dermatologists said these findings mirror what they are seeing in their own practices.

And the study researchers pointed to the rise in the use of indoor tanning beds as one of the main reasons behind the trend, but childhood sunburns and ultraviolet (UV) exposure in adulthood may also contribute to melanoma risk. The findings appear in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Although the rates of melanoma have increased, the study did show that fewer people are dying from skin cancer. Researchers credit early detection of skin cancer and prompt medical care for the improved survival rates.

"People are now more aware of their skin and of the need to see a doctor when they see changes," Mayo Clinic dermatologist Dr. Jerry Brewer said in a statement. "As a result, many cases may be caught before the cancer advances to a deep melanoma, which is harder to treat."

Dr. Jennifer Stein, an assistant professor at the Ronald O. Perelman department of dermatology at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said that she is seeing a lot of young people, especially young women, with melanoma.

"Skin cancer awareness is up, and even though there is lots of information about the dangers of tanning beds, people still use them," Stein said.

Other risks for melanoma include a family or personal history of melanoma and large numbers of unusual looking moles. "People who have had a melanoma are at higher risk for having another," she said. "It is important to check your own skin at home and come in to see a skin doctor if you ever see anything you are worried about it."

How can you tell? Look for moles that follow the ABCD rule, said Dr. Alicia Terando, a surgical oncologist at Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital in Columbus. "'A' stands for asymmetry, meaning that one half of the mole is a different size than the other. 'B' is for border irregularity. 'C' stands for color. Melanomas are often brown, tan and black. The 'D' is for diameter. Most melanomas are greater than 6 millimeters in size. "A melanoma is the mole that stands out," she said. "It's the ugly duckling."

"Prevention is also important," Stein said. "Take precautions when in the sun, including wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sun-protective clothing and applying and reapplying sunscreen that protects against UVA and UVB rays."

Dr. Kavita Mariwalla, director of Mohs and Dermatological Surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, is concerned about the rising rates of skin cancer in young women.

"People know they should wear sunscreen and should not get burned, but there is a disconnect between that and tanning bed use," Mariwalla said. Tans are also being glamorized on reality shows like "Jersey Shore," she added.

As it stands, 36 states restrict indoor tanning use by minors. California became the first state to prohibit the use of indoor tanning devices for everyone under the age of 18, and many other states are considering such bans, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association, a trade group based in Washington, D.C., said that indoor tanning bed use shouldn't be singled out as a cause for the rise in skin cancer rates.

"The study itself has almost nothing to do with indoor tanning and the links they cite to indoor tanning are nothing but speculation," he said. "They attempt to make indoor tanning the story while ignoring other possible risk factors such as sunburning outdoors, sunscreens that for several decades did not block UVA, the more deeply penetrating ultraviolet wavelength, and more frequent travel to sunny vacations locations over the last decade where severe sunburns are more likely to occur."

More information

Learn more about melanoma at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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Skin cancer on the rise among young adults: US study

"Photo illustration. Skin cancer is on the rise among young adults, according to a US study published Monday that suggests indoor tanning beds and childhood sunburns may be to blame. (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)" title

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Obesity Rates Rise Among Mexican-Americans: Report

HealthDay – 39 mins ago WEDNESDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- The obesity rate among Mexican-American adults aged 20 to 74 increased from about 21 percent to nearly 35 percent between 1982 and 2006, a new federal report reveals.

In addition, the analysis of data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) and the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that Mexican-American adults born in the United States had a higher rate of obesity than those born outside the country.

And the obesity situation does not seem to be improving, based on the results of a recent NHANES study that reported that obesity prevalence had increased in 2009-2010 to over 40 percent among Mexican-American adults over 20 years of age, according to a news release from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new findings, published Wednesday in the CDC's National Health Statistics Reports, also revealed that the diabetes rate among Mexican-Americans aged 20 to 74 rose from 9.7 percent to 13.7 percent during the 1982-2006 study period.

Cheryl Fryar, of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, and colleagues noted that women consumed more carbohydrates than men in all the survey years but, overall, the consumption of carbohydrates increased from nearly 46 percent to 51 percent of calories among Mexican-American men and women.

Other findings on dietary and health changes among Mexican-Americans over the 25-year period include:

Protein consumption declined from about 17.3 percent to 15.8 percent of calories, and total fat intake decreased from 35.5 percent to under 32 percent of calories.The prevalence of high blood pressure remained relatively stable during the study period at about 22 percent.The percentage of Mexican-American adults with cavities fell from 90 percent to 83 percent.

"Monitoring trends in diet and health conditions among Mexican-American adults can inform the development of targeted prevention efforts to improve the health of this rapidly increasing population," the authors concluded in the report.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about Mexican American health.

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