Experts Offer Tips to Cut Kids' Screen Time During Summer

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If Colonoscopy Picks Up Cancer Risk, Get Next Screen in 5 Years: Study

HealthDay – 6 mins ago WEDNESDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) -- People who have had a colonoscopy during which a high-risk potentially cancerous polyp was removed may not need another colonoscopy for five years, German researchers report.

If this suggestion were to be adopted, it would be a change from the current recommendation in the United States, which calls for another colonoscopy three years after a high-risk polyp -- one that is likely to become cancerous -- is removed.

"This is a case control study, so they didn't follow a group of individuals over time to assess the impact of polyp removal," said Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancers at the American Cancer Society.

That kind of patient follow-up, however, did take place in the study that established the current U.S. recommendations for colonoscopy, he noted.

In addition, while the German study looks at the odds of cancer developing over time, the older study that set the U.S. guidelines looked at the odds of a new polyp developing, Brooks said.

"The time frames they are recommending are something that might be considered, but you cannot make changes in current guidelines based on this study," he said.

The report was published online July 23 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

For the new study, a team lead by Dr. Hermann Brenner, at the German Cancer Research Center, in Heidelberg, looked at medical records of more than 2,500 people who had a cancerous polyp removed and compared them to nearly 1,800 people without such polyps.

They compared surveillance intervals of less than three years, three to five years, and six to 10 years before receiving another colonoscopy.

Looking at the risk of finding colorectal cancer, even for those with high-risk polyps, "strong, statistically significant risk reduction by 60 percent was seen for the less-than-three-years time window and by 50 percent for the three-to-five-years time window," the researchers wrote.

This was true for men, women, young and old, they added.

Their results suggest that surveillance colonoscopy could take place five to 10 years after the a low-risk polyp was found and removed, and possibly also be prolonged to five years for high-risk polyps, the researchers concluded.

The current recommendation for people with high-risk polyps is to have another colonoscopy three years after the polyp was removed, Brooks said.

If new polyps aren't found, then another colonoscopy isn't needed for 10 years, he said.

The 10-year span between colonoscopies is the recommendation for anyone who has a normal colonoscopy, Brooks added.

The advantage of extending the time between colonoscopies from three to five years in patients with high-risk polyps is the use of resources, he said.

The problem is that doctors don't follow the current guidelines.

"If we could get clinicians just to follow the current recommendations we could expand our resources considerably," Brooks said. "Right now far too many people are getting colonoscopies done at intervals that are not recommended by anyone's guidelines."

Some people who have had high-risk polyps get a colonoscopy every year. Many people who have normal colonoscopies get another after five years, Brooks said.

All the evidence shows that colonoscopies every five years is much too frequent, he said.

"We are doing far too many colonoscopies on people who are in the system, but there are at least 40 percent of adults at risk who have never been screened," Brooks said. "If you're 50 and older and never been screened -- get screened."

More information

For more about colon cancer, visit the American Cancer Society.

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IHASCO Introduce the National Display Screen Equipment Training Month

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2012.

(1888PressRelease) May 27, 2012 - The Interactive Health and Safety Company (iHASCO), a leading UK supplier of Health and Safety training, have taken the initiative and made May the month to get on top of workplace DSE training - optimising seating position and workstation layout, screen position, keyboard and mouse use to help prevent headaches, eyestrain and health problems associated with poor posture. The beauty of our DSE training is its simplicity - a small adjustment to your chair backrest could make all the difference.

Are you sitting comfortably? How often do we really think about how we sit at work? In our hectic daily schedule, it's often just a case of get to the office, sit down, head down and get on with it. But everyone who habitually uses a computer at work, even if they work from home should have Display Screen Equipment Training - it's the law and it really makes sense. Each year statistics from the Health and Safety Executive bear out concerns with the most commonly reported illnesses - the sort of problems exacerbated by poor posture and typing position, such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) - accounting for more than half of all absences from work. Last year that was about 9 million days lost. That's a LOT of time off!

Bradley Worsfold, director of the Interactive Health and Safety Company warns that: "The majority of people don't realise the long-term damage their sitting position could be doing to their backs. It's because the discs that make up your back have very little nerve supply, so any pressure or stress from poor posture aren't felt straightaway - in fact you may not feel anything for a long time, the problem simply builds and builds over time and then all of a sudden an awkward movement can result in agony. A simple adjustment to your workstation layout may be all that's needed to help you sit with a better posture and that's one of the areas highlighted in our DSE training programme."

The exponential rise in the use of computers and the very static nature of this sort of work means that a large proportion of people are sitting in relatively stationary positions for much of the day. This is often without taking the time to correctly adjust their chair and screen height or distance, or getting the keyboard and mouse in the right position - it's just storing up problems for the future. If the screen is badly set up with characters which are difficult to see - too small, not sharply formed or with poor contrast, or if your workstation is in such a position that the screen or even the desk surface is subject to glare, eye-strain and headaches can start to become a problem too.

It's the same with laptops; in fact posture can be even more of a challenge when using a laptop. How often do we put a laptop on the seat beside us and then turn sideways to use it? How often do we use a laptop in poor lighting or cramped positions? Display Screen Equipment training should also include looking at noise, lighting, temperature and humidity - the environment should be comfortable to work in. Trying to concentrate with incessant, regular or even irregular loud noise is very distracting and can be extremely stressful. Everyone who works at a desk for a good part of their working day simply needs to spend a few moments at the start of each day ensuring their own comfort.

And why not set May as the month to complete the training, and then remember each May to repeat a full self-assessment of the work area? The Display Screen Equipment Training programme from the Interactive Health and Safety Company is available on free trial. It includes, not only the training required, but also a full personal workstation assessment, the results of which are stored and concerns flagged up in an easy-to-read downloadable format, enabling managers to deal with them promptly. It is available both ONLINE and on CD-ROM. With prices starting at

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Ob/Gyn Visit a Good Time to Screen for Heart Disease: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 45 mins ago MONDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- Women should be screened for heart disease -- a leading cause of death among women in the United States -- during routine visits to obstetrics and gynecology clinics, a new study suggests.

Researchers from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City found that heart screenings performed during visits to obstetrician/gynecologists could help identify women with undetected risk factors for the condition. In addition, the screenings could significantly increase awareness among women about heart disease prevention and treatment, the researchers added.

"There is a real disparity in the medical community where we tend to think heart disease is a disease of men, and historically we have not done a very good job of screening women for cardiovascular risk factors," the study's principal investigator, Dr. Roxana Mehran, director of interventional cardiovascular research and clinical trials at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said in a news release from the American College of Cardiology.

"It often doesn't occur to women that they could have a heart problem until their symptoms are very advanced, so we have to think differently and be creative about how we identify, educate and treat women at risk," Mehran explained.

In conducting the study, the researchers asked 10 ob/gyn clinics to put a screening program in place to identify women with symptoms or risk factors for heart disease. Over the course of two years, more than 2,200 women completed a one-page survey on traditional and gestational heart disease. Women who were never screened for heart disease before also had their blood pressure taken.

The program revealed that 69 percent of the middle-aged women screened had heart disease risk factors. Meanwhile, 42 percent also had symptoms of the condition. The investigators also found that 18 percent of the women screened considered their ob/gyn to be their primary health care provider.

Among the women in the study, a significant number either had never been checked or were unsure if they had been checked for high blood pressure (21 percent), high cholesterol (38 percent) or high blood sugar (19 percent). Following the screenings, 25 percent of the women were referred to a primary care physician or another specialist for further treatment for heart disease.

"We found a real lack of awareness among many of these women that they had risk factors, including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Ob/gyn practices have an incredible opportunity to make an impact on heart disease in women by screening, educating and directing women to the right providers, so we hope to see continued research in this area," Mehran said.

The study authors noted that more research involving a larger group of women is needed to determine if screenings at ob/gyn clinics improve outcomes among women with heart disease.

The study findings were scheduled for presentation Sunday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago. The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about heart disease in women.

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