Causes of weight loss

Friday, April 13, 2012

New pregnancy risk for babies and moms: Overweight moms with moderately high blood sugar raise health risk

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2012) — Pregnant women who are overweight with moderately elevated blood sugar never set off any alarms for their physicians. The big concern was for women who were obese or who had gestational diabetes because those conditions are known to cause a host of health risks to the mom and baby.

See Also:Health & MedicinePregnancy and ChildbirthObesityDiet and Weight LossDiabetesTeen HealthMenopauseReferenceBirth weightBlood sugarNutrition and pregnancyHyperglycemia

But a new study shows these women who are just above average for weight and blood sugar are at a higher risk of bad pregnancy outcomes than previously known. In fact, this group is at higher risk than pregnant women who are obese with normal blood sugar or pregnant women who have gestational diabetes and a normal weight.

"These are women who have not been on our radar because they don't have gestational diabetes and aren't obese, but our study shows if you are one step away from each of those, you carry some significant risks," said principle investigator Boyd Metzger, M.D., a professor of medicine-endocrinology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "We need to address the combination of overweight and blood sugar of these women as urgently as we do for women who are obese or have gestational diabetes."

This group of women comprised about 6 percent of the total number of women in the study. Obese women made up 16 percent of the group and those with gestational diabetes accounted for 13.7 percent.

The study also found women who are both obese and have gestational diabetes are at a much higher risk of having an adverse pregnancy than women having only one of those conditions.

The paper, published in the April issue of Diabetes Care, is from the Hyperglycemia and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome (HAPO) Study and includes 23,316 women from nine countries.

One of the adverse outcomes for these mothers is having large babies, the result of fat accumulation. Large babies increase the risk of injury to the baby during vaginal delivery, increasing the likelihood of a Caesarean section.

The study found when the mothers are obese and have gestational diabetes, the babies weigh 340 grams more than babies of mothers with normal weight and blood sugar. When the mothers are overweight (but not obese) with above-average blood sugar levels, the babies weigh 214 grams more. Mothers of normal weight but with gestational diabetes have babies who weigh 164 grams more. And obese mothers with normal glucose levels have babies with an increased weight of 174 grams.

A pregnant woman's higher blood sugar level and weight also can lead to higher insulin and lower blood sugar levels in a newborn. In turn, these effects may eventually trigger obesity and diabetes, perhaps as early as childhood.

"The big message from this is when you look at the impact of nutrition, metabolism and weight on pregnancy outcomes, every woman - on her first prenatal visit -- should get a prescription for a session with a dietician and an appropriate healthy eating plan for her pregnancy," said Metzger, also the Tom D. Spies Professor of Metabolism and Nutrition at Northwestern's Feinberg School. "This doesn't happen, but it should, and insurance companies should reimburse it."

The research is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

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US adds clot risks to some birth control labels

US adds clot risks to some birth …

US health authorities on Tuesday ordered revised labels on some types of birth control including German pharmaceutical giant Bayer's Yaz pills to advise of a possibly higher risk of blood clots.

"Women who use birth control pills with drospirenone (like Yaz) may have a higher risk of getting a blood clot," said a new Yaz label on the US Food and Drug Administration website.

"Some studies reported that the risk of blood clots was higher for women who use birth control pills that contain drospirenone than for women who use birth control pills that do not contain drospirenone."

However, the regulatory agency pointed out that studies have shown mixed results.

"The studies reviewed did not provide consistent estimates of the comparative risk of blood clots between birth control pills that contain drospirenone and those that do not," the FDA said in a statement.

"The studies also did not account for important patient characteristics (known and unknown) that may influence prescribing and that likely affect the risk of blood clots," it added.

"For these reasons, it is unclear whether the increased risk seen for blood clots in some of the epidemiologic studies is actually due to drospirenone-containing birth control pills."

Drospirenone is a synthetic progestin which can suppress ovulation and thereby prevent pregnancy either when used alone or in combination with an estrogen component.

There are 11 approved versions of such pills on the US market, including names such as Gianvi, Loryna, Ocella, Safyral, Syeda, and Zarah.

In December, a panel of experts that advises the FDA urged stronger labeling on drospirenone-containing pills, voting 21-5 that the current labels did not adequately reflect the risks and benefits.

The panel was divided on the question of whether the benefits of such pills outweighed the risks, with 15 saying "yes" and 11 saying "no."

The pills have been marketed on the basis they help alleviate premenstrual symptoms, reduce acne and cause less weight gain than competitors. They have also been the focus of numerous lawsuits.

Two recent studies in the British Medical Journal found that drugs like Yaz and Yasmin increase the risk of serious blood clots three-fold or two-fold compared to earlier-generation oral contraceptives.

The European Medicines Agency concluded last year that such birth control pills carry a higher risk of venous thromboembolism and that warning labels should be updated accordingly.

However, it noted the overall risk of blood clot from any birth control method remains small and stopped short of advising women to stop taking pills containing drospirenone.

Yaz is the second biggest selling product made by Bayer, with $1.56 billion in global sales.

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Family planning group sues over exclusion from Texas program

Reuters – Wed, Apr 11, 2012 AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to stop enforcement of a new Texas rule that excludes the family planning organization from a program that provides cancer screenings, birth control and other health services to low-income women in the state.

The lawsuit filed by a group of Planned Parenthood clinics that do not provide abortions says the rule is unconstitutional and that it will lead to tens of thousands of women being unable to get preventive healthcare from their chosen provider.

"Worst of all my fears is that these women will forgo life-saving screenings, comprehensive exams, reliable birth control and other vital preventive healthcare services," Patricio Gonzales, CEO of Planned Parenthood Association of Hidalgo County in South Texas, told reporters on Wednesday.

Since the Texas Women's Health Program began in 2007, state law has technically banned its money from going to abortion providers or affiliates of abortion providers, but the state did not enforce the ban on affiliates.

In 2011, Texas notified the federal government of its intent to begin enforcing that ban, effectively excluding Planned Parenthood from the program.

Obama administration officials responded by saying they would not renew funding for the program because Texas was violating federal law by restricting freedom of choice of providers. The state is suing over that decision, and Texas Governor Rick Perry has accused the Obama administration of abandoning "these Texas women to advance its political agenda."

State officials say they want to continue the program - which is part of the Medicaid health program for the poor and disabled - and will work to extend federal funding or find a way to pay for it with state dollars. The federal government pays 90 percent of the $33-million-a-year program.

"Federal law gives states the right and responsibility to establish criteria for Medicaid providers so we're on firm legal ground," Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said on Wednesday.

Goodman said "this is not about allowing women to choose their provider." She pointed out that federal officials have waived the freedom of choice provision in all other Medicaid services in Texas.

Starting in May, providers who don't comply with the new rule will be removed from the program, Goodman said.

Gonzales said some of the Planned Parenthood centers would be forced to close.

Rene Resendez, 24, a college student in West Texas who is in the program, said that Planned Parenthood is important to her family because her mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer at Planned Parenthood when she was pregnant.

"Without the Women's Health Program and Planned Parenthood, I don't know what I would do, or where I would go for the cancer screenings and other services that I need," Resendez said.

(Reporting By Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Paul Simao)

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House panels turn budget axe to automatic cuts

Reuters – 4 hrs ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in six House of Representatives committees next week will dust off their past proposals for reducing the deficit as they try to replace some of the automatic spending cuts set to take place in January.

Under a directive in the House-passed budget plan from Congressman Paul Ryan, the panels have just two weeks to come up with $18.45 billion in savings for fiscal 2013 and a net $261 billion over 10 years.

Expected targets for cuts include food stamps, farm subsidies and crop insurance, federal employee pensions and health care. A repeal of President Barack Obama's health reform law would prevent new coverage expenses from occurring from 2014.

The proposed cuts, like the Ryan budget that prescribes them, have little chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But they will live on as campaign talking-points for both parties as November elections approach.

They also could complicate the annual passage of spending bills needed to keep the government running - raising the risk of a shutdown just weeks before the election.

Republicans believe that by making concrete proposals now, they will have an advantage in post-election negotiations over alternatives to some $98 billion in across-the-board spending cuts scheduled for January. The cuts were part of last year's deal to end Congress' debt limit standoff.

"It certainly puts their marker out on where they think the policy should be going," said Dan Holler, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington. "They're trying to set the tone, show the American people that they're serious and really be prepared, come 2013, to make the necessary choices."

Importantly, Republicans want to shield military and security spending from these cuts by shifting them to domestic programs. And fiscal conservatives want to demonstrate to voters even deeper spending cuts.

Senior Republican aides expressed confidence that the $18.45 billion in cuts can be identified and passed by April 27 from the House Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, Financial Services, Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform and Ways and Means committees. Congress returns from a two-week break on Monday.

"House Republicans have offered a credible plan to protect our national security. Now it is time for the Democrats who run Washington to do the same," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

FOOD SAVINGS

The House Agriculture Committee has been told to make the biggest contribution - $8.2 billion for fiscal 2013 and $33.2 billion over 10 years. The Ryan budget documents suggested that $30 billion of this could come from farm subsidies and federal crop insurance programs - steps that would be deeply unpopular in farm states.

House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas said the panel will meet its specified targets but is still determining sources of the savings.

"I think the key phrase is, they are suggestions," said Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican during a radio interview early this month. "The positive thing is we have flexibility in how to make recommendations."

Democrats say the cuts are far larger than advertised - $180 billion over 10 years when the math includes a proposal to convert food stamps to a block grant and to limit its spending.

The deadline to identify budget-cut targets "will only muddy the waters and is a waste of time," said Collin Peterson of Minnesota, the committee's Democratic leader.

The House and Senate Agriculture committee plan to begin work on a five-year, $480 billion farm bill in the next couple of weeks. Peterson said the job will be tougher because of the dissension created by having to vote on budget cuts before writing farm and food policy for coming years.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been ordered to find $2.2 billion in savings next year. It will likely reprise its past proposals to require larger pension contributions from federal employees and a plan to shrink the federal workforce by attrition and maintain a pay freeze.

An aide to the Energy and Commerce Committee said previous legislation would be a starting point to meet its target for $3.75 billion in savings next year. This includes tens of billions of dollars saved through medical liability reforms and repeal of certain funding streams for the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Representative Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said he expected to see "old standbys and favorites" in the Republican cuts. He added that the exercise was needed to appease Tea Party members and other fiscal conservatives in the House Republican caucus.

It will help show voters the differences between Republican and Democratic budget priorities, he said. Obama has proposed increasing near-term spending on education and infrastructure, while shrinking deficits through higher taxes on the wealthy.

"We'll watch this play out, recognizing that this is a dead end. But in the process it will once again reveal that their priorities are very out of touch with American people," Van Hollen told Reuters. "It's unfortunate that they appear willing to cut nutrition support for kids but refuse to eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets or big oil."

However, he cautioned that passage of the cuts could encourage House Republicans to "dig in" on negotiations over appropriations bills this summer, raising the risk of a shutdown standoff.

Democrats say that the Ryan budget's prescriptions will go below and "violate" a fiscal 2013 discretionary spending level of $1.047 trillion agreed to in the August debt limit deal. Republicans insist that this level was a cap, and they were not prevented from spending less.

(Additional reporting By David Morgan, Charles Abbott and Roberta Rampton; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Lisa Shumaker)

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Brazil lifts ban on aborting brain-damaged fetuses

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court on Thursday voted to legalize abortions of severely brain-damaged fetuses, loosening the law in the world's biggest Catholic country and a region where the spread of evangelical denominations in recent decades has maintained fierce opposition to abortion rights.

With only two of the 10 judges voting against lifting the ban, the decision marks a small but historic shift in abortion law in Latin America's biggest country. Brazil, like many countries in the region, has long banned abortions in all cases except pregnancies caused by rape and those which pose a threat to the life of the mother.

While private hospitals and illegal clinics have long found ways around the ban, the decision now makes it possible for mothers carrying fetuses suffering from anencephaly to abort the pregnancy legally.

The measure applies specifically to cases of anencephaly, a disorder that leads to a malformation or absence of large parts of the brain and carries an overwhelming likelihood that the baby will die shortly after birth.

Such babies "would never become a person," said Justice Marco Aurelio Mello, speaking for the majority. "This is not about a potential life, but about certain death."

Abortion rights advocates and medical groups for years have pushed for such a measure, arguing that mothers who carried babies likely to die post-delivery should be spared unnecessary trauma.

"The diagnosis itself is bad enough," said Cristiao Rosas, a physician and spokesman for a Brazilian federation of obstetrician and gynecology groups. "It's a condemned gestation, with no prognosis for extra-uterine survival, and with a devastating impact on the psychological and emotional health of the mother."

Religious groups in Brazil, which still wield significant sway at the ballot box and in matters of public opinion, remain fiercely opposed to any changes to abortion law.

"We all have an absolute right to life from conception until natural death regardless of any type of deficiency," said Luiz Carlos Ludi, a Catholic priest who led a protest this week outside the Supreme Court building in Brasilia.

Such sentiments, echoed by Brazil's growing evangelical population, mean any bigger changes to abortion law in the country remain unlikely in the near future.

"This is a small and gradual step for very specific cases," said Rafael Cortes, a political analyst at Tendencias, a consultancy in Sao Paulo. "Change bigger than this would be much more difficult."

During Brazil's last presidential election, in late 2010, the debate over abortion helped derail what had appeared to be an easy first-round victory for President Dilma Rousseff.

After religious voters flocked to a born-again candidate in the days before the first vote, Rousseff had to backpedal from her abortion rights comments to assure her victory in a runoff.

(Writing and additional reporting by Paulo Prada; Editing by Jackie Frank)

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Arizona governor signs law banning most late-term abortions

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Health Tip: Consider These Diabetes 'Superfoods'

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Huntington's Disease Linked to Reduced Cancer Risk in Study

Health Tip: Keep the Weight Off

HealthDay – 43 mins ago (HealthDay News) -- It's tempting to let good eating habits slide once you've reached your desired weight, but that can mean quickly re-adding those lost pounds.

The Cleveland Clinic suggests how to help you maintain weight loss:

Cut down on daily calories; work with a dietitian to come up with the ideal caloric intake for you.Scale back on sauces, dressings and other condiments. Opt for healthier offerings such as lemon juice, vinegar, herbs and low-calorie marinades.Never skip meals or starve yourself. This could cause you to binge eat and pack on even more pounds.Eat high-fiber, whole grain foods. Avoid stocking your kitchen with high-fat, tempting foods.

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Even Toddlers Succumb to Peer Pressure, Study Says

HealthDay – 43 mins ago THURSDAY, April 12 (HealthDay News) -- Toddlers are more likely to pick up a behavior if they see most other toddlers doing it, a new study shows.

Researchers found that 2-year-olds were more likely to copy an action when they saw it repeated by three other toddlers than if they saw an action repeated by just one other toddler.

The findings appear online April 12 in the journal Current Biology.

"I think few people would have expected to find that 2-year-olds are already influenced by the majority," study author Daniel Haun, of the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology and Psycholinguistics in Germany and the Netherlands. "Parents and teachers should be aware of these dynamics in children's peer interactions," Haun said in a journal news release.

The study also found that chimpanzees tend to follow the crowd, but orangutans do not. This suggests that humans and chimps have shared strategies for social learning, the researchers said.

While parents may be dismayed to learn that their toddlers are already sensitive to peer pressure, this type of behavior has advantages in terms of evolution.

"The tendency to acquire the behaviors of the majority has been posited as key to the transmission of relatively safe, reliable and productive behavioral strategies," Haun noted.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about toddler growth and development.

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Health Highlights: April 12, 2012

HealthDay – 43 mins ago Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Drug Giant Hit With $1.2 Billion in Fines

Fines of more than $1.2 billion were slapped on Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals after a jury found that the companies minimized or concealed dangers associated with the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

Experts said the penalty imposed by an Arkansas judge is one of the largest on record for a state fraud case involving a drug company, The New York Times reported.

The judge issued a penalty of $1.19 billion for nearly 240,000 violations of Arkansas' Medicaid fraud law and also fined the companies $11 million for violations of the state's deceptive practices act.

Earlier this year, Texas settled a similar case with Janssen for $158 million. Last year, Janssen was hit with a $327 million penalty in South Carolina and nearly $258 million in damages in Louisiana, the Times reported.

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Vehicle Seat Design Makes Child Seat Use Difficult: Study

The design of passenger seats in many cars makes it difficult to properly install child safety seats, finds a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

It found that just 21 of 98 top-selling 2010 and 2011 model year vehicles have seat designs that are easy to use with child restraints, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The low percentage is notable in light of the fact that the auto industry uses a system called Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (Latch) that's meant to make it easier to install child safety seats.

The insurance institute said the problem is that auto makers don't pay enough attention to how the Latch system works when designing passenger seats.

"Installing a child restraint isn't always as simple as a couple of clicks and you're done," study co-author Anne McCartt, the insurance institute's senior vice president for research, told the Times. "Sometimes parents blame themselves when they struggle with Latch, but oftentimes the problem lies with the vehicle, not the user."

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E. Coli Found in Nearly Half of Raw Chicken Products: Study

The bacteria E. coli was found in nearly half of packaged raw chicken products bought at grocery stores across the United States, a new study says.

Researchers found E. coli -- an indicator of fecal contamination -- in 48 percent of 120 raw chicken products bought in 10 major cities, The New York Times reported.

The study was conducted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that advocates a vegetarian diet, among other things.

Food safety experts downplayed the findings, noting that the type of E. coli found in the chicken was not the kind that threatened public health.

"What's surprising to me is that they didn't find more," Dr. Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, told the Times. "Poop gets into your food, and not just into meat -- produce is grown in soil fertilized with manure, and there's E. coli in that, too."

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FDA Panel Recommends Approval of New Breast Ultrasound Device

An automated ultrasound device that can help detect cancer in dense breast tissue should be approved for use in the United States, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said Wednesday.

Traditional mammograms may be unable to detect tumors in women with dense breast tissue. Some research suggests that about 40 percent of women have dense breast tissue, ABC News reported.

The automated breast ultrasound (ABUS) machine provides 3-D images of breast tissue and is intended to used along with mammograms, not in place of them, according to manufacturer U-Systems.

The FDA's panel decision to recommend approval of ABUS came after a review of the safety and effectiveness of the device, ABC News reported. The FDA typically follows the advice of its expert panels.

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Group Urges Hospitals to Evict McDonald's

A U.S. advocacy group is petitioning several hospitals to remove McDonald's restaurants from their dining areas.

Corporate Accountability International, which fights corporate abuse, outlined its position in a letter sent to the hospitals, CBS News reported.

"In your role as a local health leader, you have allowed McDonald's -- a corporation that has disregarded public health in the name of profits -- to operate within an environment devoted to helping our children get well," the letter stated.

"A 2006 study published in Pediatrics concluded that by allowing a McDonald's store to operate inside your facility, you are not just affecting hospital guests' consumption on the day of their visit, but you are unintentionally boosting your guests' perception of the 'healthfulness' of McDonald's food. In other words, your hospital is being used as part of McDonald's comprehensive marketing strategy, a strategy that is clearly inconsistent with your goals as a health institution."

The group is targeting McDonald's in this effort, but it's not the only chain that contributes to the problem of unhealthy fast food in hospitals, according to campaign director Sara Deon.

A 2011 report by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine said that some hospitals have up to five different fast food restaurants and serve unhealthy foods such as country fried steak in their cafeterias, CBS News reported.

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Parents of Kids With Cancer No More Likely to Break Up

HealthDay – 43 mins ago THURSDAY, April 12 (HealthDay News) -- Even though a child's illness can cause severe stress, a new study from Denmark finds that the marriages and partnerships of parents of kids with cancer aren't more likely to fall apart.

The study debunks "a persistent myth that childhood cancer will have a destructive impact on one's marriage and family. This is simply not true," said Anne Kazak, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Cancer in children is rare, although it's the leading disease-related cause of death in kids under 15. According to the National Cancer Institute, an average of one to two children out of 10,000 develop cancer each year.

In the new study, researchers studied the parents of 2,450 children (up to age 20) who received a diagnosis of cancer between 1980 and 1997. They compared them to the parents of 44,853 similar children who didn't have cancer, and followed them for up to 20 years.

The parents in both groups included both married and unmarried couples who lived together. (As of 1996, cohabiting but unmarried parents accounted for 60 percent of first-born children in Denmark.)

Even after adjusting the findings so they wouldn't be skewed by high or low numbers of people of certain income levels, the researchers found that having a child with cancer didn't affect the likelihood that a couple would separate.

The findings surprised study co-author Dr. Christoffer Johansen, who called the results "good news."

"You could imagine that you would find an increased risk for some cancers and in some marriages, but we didn't find that no matter how we analyzed the data," said Johansen, head of the Unit of Survivorship at the Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen. "Having a child with cancer doesn't appear to be a risk factor for divorce."

Why are the couples so resilient? Johansen said it may have something to do with how a child's cancer isn't an inherent problem within a couple's relationship.

"It's inside the family, but it's an outside problem -- and now they have to stand together to cope with it," he said. "I think the relationships were able to handle the problems and take care of that strain because you simply need to do that in order to get through everyday life."

Johansen speculated that the findings would be similar in other Western countries like the United States, although they'll depend on factors including access to health insurance.

Kazak said having a child with cancer puts parents under intense strain.

"Learning that your child has cancer remains one of the most distressing experiences possible and distress under these circumstances is, of course, normal," she said. "Families must focus their energy on treatment and supporting the child and other children. But it's essential to remember that the couple's relationship is critical, too, and to think about specific ways of communicating, problem-solving and staying connected during this time."