Health Tip: Comforting Baby's Pain

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Study Ties Secondhand Smoke to Bladder Irritation in Kids

HealthDay – 1 hr 31 mins ago SUNDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- Parents who smoke may put their children at greater risk for bladder irritation, according to a small new study.

Young children between the ages of 4 and 10 were at particular risk from exposure to secondhand smoke.

Bladder irritation involves the urge to urinate, urinating more frequently and incontinence. The study revealed that exposure to secondhand smoke is linked to more severe symptoms of bladder irritation: The more exposure the children had, the worse their symptoms became.

Led by Dr. Kelly Johnson, researchers from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Rutgers University analyzed survey information on 45 children ranging in age from 4 to 17. All had symptoms of bladder irritation. The researchers divided the children into four groups based on the severity of their symptoms: very mild, mild, moderate or severe.

Twenty-four of the children studied had moderate to severe symptoms of bladder irritation, while 21 had mild or very mild symptoms.

The children with moderate or severe symptoms were more likely to have consistent exposure to secondhand smoke, the researchers noted. Of these kids, 23 percent had a mother who smoked and 50 percent of them were regularly exposed to secondhand smoke while riding in a car.

On the other hand, the children whose mother didn't smoke and were not exposed to secondhand smoke in the car had only very mild or mild symptoms of bladder irritation.

The study was expected to be presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"Secondhand smoke is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States," Dr. Anthony Atala, a pediatric urologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and a spokesman for the AUA, said in an association news release. "Beyond conditions such as lung cancer, heart disease and asthma, we now know that smoking has a negative impact on urinary symptoms, particularly in young children. Data presented today should be added to the indisputable evidence that parents shouldn't smoke around their children."

While the study uncovered a link between secondhand smoke and bladder problems, it did not prove a cause-and-effect.

More information

The U.S. Surgeon General has more about how tobacco smoke causes disease.

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Screening for Lung Cancer Might Benefit Those at Highest Risk

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Health Tip: Use Proper Form When Running

HealthDay – 1 hr 31 mins ago (HealthDay News) -- Using proper running form can help prevent injuries and make running a little easier and more comfortable.

The American Council on Exercise mentions these suggestions:

Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle and keep them close to your body, with your hands relaxed.Relax your shoulders and keep them down; drive from your shoulders, not your elbows.Avoid leaning forward at the waist, but keep a slight forward lean at the ankles.Lift your knees higher as they move forward.Hit the ground with your heel, rolling forward onto the ball of your foot. As you lift your foot off the ground, push off with the front of your foot.Hold your head steady and level, and try not to bounce.

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U.S. Teens Heading for Heart Trouble: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 31 mins ago MONDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Many American teenagers, including some with a normal, healthy weight, already have one or more risk factors for heart disease, researchers say.

About 22 percent of today's teens have borderline-high or already high LDL cholesterol -- that's the bad type. And 15 percent have pre-diabetes or diabetes, according to the new research based on data spanning from 1999 to 2008.

When the study authors looked at the year-by-year differences, however, one risk factor stood out. At the start of the study period, the rate of pre-diabetes/diabetes was 9 percent. By the end of the study, that number was 23 percent.

"Pre-diabetes and diabetes increased over time among adolescents," said the study's lead author, Ashleigh May, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

May added that the rate of pre-diabetes/diabetes as well as the other cardiovascular risk factors went up as weight increased.

The study was released online May 21, and will be published in the June print issue of Pediatrics.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in U.S. adults, according to background information in the study. Although most manifestations, such as stroke and heart attack, don't occur until adulthood, there's been increasing evidence that risk factors for cardiovascular disease may be evident much sooner. And, with more and more American children and teens becoming overweight and obese, health experts are increasingly concerned about the possibility of cardiovascular risk factors showing up at younger ages.

The current study reviews data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 through 2008. The survey includes a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population. For this study, the investigators focused on the 3,383 teens who were between 12 and 19 years old.

During the study period, 14 percent either had or were at risk for high blood pressure (prehypertensive/hypertensive), 22 percent had borderline-high or high bad (LDL) cholesterol levels, and 6 percent had low levels of the good (HDL) cholesterol.

For the study period overall, 15 percent of teens were classified as having pre-diabetes or diabetes. The rate of pre-diabetes/diabetes was the only risk factor that increased from the beginning of the study to the end.

May noted that this might have more to do with how they tested for diabetes, as they only measured one fasting blood sugar level. Normally, diabetes or pre-diabetes isn't diagnosed unless there are at least two abnormal fasting blood sugar levels, because levels tend to fluctuate.

In addition, May said the plateauing of the other risk factors appears to mirror the plateau that has occurred in childhood obesity. But, she added, both the diabetes trend and the plateauing trend will need more research over time to see if these trends continue.

The study also found that as weight increased, so did the cardiovascular risk factors. However, a significant number of normal-weight children also showed signs of trouble. About 10 percent were in the pre-hypertensive/hypertensive category, more than 15 percent had elevated bad cholesterol and more than 10 percent had pre-diabetes/diabetes, the results showed.

Dr. Dorothy Becker, chief of endocrinology and diabetes at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, said she wasn't surprised by the findings, even that some normal-weight children were showing heart disease risk factors. She said that anyone who's eating a diet high in sugar and fat will likely have problems, even if it isn't readily apparent in their weight.

"It's not just what you look like. You can have a pretty lousy lifestyle without being overweight," she said.

Doctors, parents, school and hospital administrators, and community leaders all need to take overweight and obesity seriously, she said. "Physicians need to say this is important. It's as big a risk to your health as smoking or unprotected sex," Becker said.

The good news is that lifestyle changes can make a difference.

May said that "it's never too late to improve your lifestyle, physical activity and eating habits. Changing those things, if they're on the wrong course now, can be beneficial."

Becker agreed. "If teens can lose weight, they'll have a pretty good prognosis," she said. "If they don't make a change, then they'll carry all of these risk factors into adulthood, and that's like having a ticking time bomb over your head. You don't necessarily know when it's going to go off, but it's likely that it will."

More information

The Weight-control Information Network has advice on helping your overweight child.

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COPD Can Put a Damper on Sex Life

HealthDay – 1 hr 31 mins ago MONDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Shortness of breath during sexual activity is common for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new, small study finds.

This breathlessness, also known as dyspnea, can inhibit healthy sex lives and is more common among COPD patients than even heart failure patients. COPD is a term used to describe certain lung conditions including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

"We compared measures of well-being, depression and sexual function among older patients with severe COPD or heart failure, both of which are associated with dyspnea during exertion," said Dr. Ejvind Frausing Hansen, chief physician at Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark. "Dyspnea at exertion can also limit daily activities and increase the risk of poor well-being, social isolation, and depression," he said in a news release from the American Thoracic Society.

In conducting the study, the researchers asked 39 patients with COPD and 22 patients with heart failure about their well-being, symptoms of depression and sexual function.

The average age of the COPD patients was 66 years and the average age of the heart failure patients was 64, the study authors noted.

Shortness of breath during sexual activity was reported by 44 percent of the COPD patients. In contrast, only 5 percent of the heart failure patients said they had this problem, the investigators found. And, 56 percent of COPD patients said shortness of breath limited their sexual activity, compared to just 27 percent of heart failure patients.

About one-third of COPD and heart failure patients reported problems with well-being. Signs of depression were reported by 34 percent of those with COPD and 37 percent of those with heart failure. An inadequate sex life was reported by 38 percent of those with COPD versus 32 percent of those with heart failure.

"Patients with COPD are known to have a high prevalence of sexual problems," said Hansen. "Our study shows that depression and poor well-being are also common in these patients. In our group of patients, dyspnea that limits sexual activity was more common among COPD patients than heart failure patients."

The study's findings were scheduled for presentation Monday at an American Thoracic Society conference in San Francisco.

Data and conclusions of research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about COPD.

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Statins May Help Prevent Enlarged Prostate: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 31 mins ago MONDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol levels may also slow the unhealthy growth of the prostate in men with elevated blood levels of prostate-specific antigen, a new study finds.

Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, levels are often elevated due to cancer or other conditions involving the prostate, explained researchers from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

The study authors noted that their findings are significant because an enlarged prostate affects up to 90 percent of men older than 70 years and can lead to bladder or kidney damage. Many of these men may already be taking a statin, which include cholesterol-lowering drugs such as Crestor, Lipitor, Pravachol or Zocor.

"Given that prostate enlargement is an important health problem in the United States and elsewhere, and will be a larger problem as the population ages, it's important to understand and treat its causes," the study's lead author, Dr. Roberto Muller, a urology fellow at Duke, said in a medical center news release.

The study, which was funded by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, is scheduled to be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association in Atlanta.

In the research, Muller and his team sifted through data on more than 6,000 men involved in an unrelated GlaxoSmithKline trial for a prostate cancer drug. The researchers identified over 1,000 men enrolled in the study who also took a statin.

Although the men who took these cholesterol drugs tended to be older and were expected to have enlarged prostates, the study revealed the prostates of these men were similar in size to those who did not take statins.

After two years, the researchers also found that the men who took statins had reduced prostate growth regardless of whether or not they had taken the prostate cancer drug as part of the larger study.

Specifically, prostate growth was an average 5 percent less in men who took both a statin and the prostate cancer drug, compared to the men who only took the cancer medication. For the men taking statins and an inactive placebo pill, prostate growth was about 4 percent less than the men taking only the dummy pill.

The researchers noted, however, the benefits of the drugs seemed to fade after two years.

"We don't yet understand the mechanisms that might be causing this," Muller said in the news release. "Some have suggested that statins may have anti-inflammatory properties, and inflammation has been linked to prostate growth, but this needs further study."

One expert said the findings were interesting, but it's too soon to advise a statin as a preventive measure against enlarged prostate.

"Studies such as these are intriguing because we do not yet know the reason prostates enlarge as men age," said Dr. Warren Bromberg, chief of the division of urology and director of the Prostate Cancer Program at Northern Westchester Hospital Center in Mount Kisco, N.Y. "There are likely multiple factors that may lead to prostate growth, including genetic, environmental, and as the article points out, dietary or behavioral."

The reduction in prostate growth linked to statin use was "small," Bromberg added, and it also seemed temporary.

"Because statins may be associated with significant side effects, I would advise caution in taking such medications strictly to prevent prostate growth," he said.

The study authors noted that men's lifestyles, including diet and exercise, affect their prostate health as well as cholesterol levels. The study was able to show an association between statin use and reduced prostate growth, but it could not prove cause-and-effect.

Still, the findings do shed light on prostate health generally, Muller said.

"Prostate enlargement was once considered an inexorable consequence of aging and genetics, but there is growing awareness that prostate growth can be influenced by modifiable risk factors," he explained. "In this context, the role of blood cholesterol levels and cholesterol-lowering drugs such as statins warrants further study."

Findings presented at medical meetings are typically considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about enlarged prostate.

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Night Staffing With Critical Care Docs May Lower ICU Death Rates

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Health Highlights: May 21, 2012

HealthDay – 1 hr 30 mins ago Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Bee Gee Robin Gibb Dies of Cancer

Former Bee Gees member Robin Gibb died Sunday "following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery," his family said in a statement released by Gibb's representative Doug Wright.

Gibb was forced to cancel several appearances in 2011. He was hospitalized briefly in 2011 for what doctors said was an inflamed colon and had surgery for intestinal problems in March, the Associated Press reported.

Brothers Robin, Maurice and Barry Gibb shot to fame in the 1970s when they wrote and performed a number of hit songs for the movie "Saturday Night Fever." Maurice died in 2003.

Robin Gibb was the second disco-era star to die this week. On Thursday, Donna Summer died of cancer in Florida, the AP reported.

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Woman With Flesh-Eating Disease Breathing on Her Own

The 24-year-old Georgia woman with flesh-eating disease is now breathing on her own, according to her father.

Late Sunday, Andy Copeland blogged that Aimee Copeland had been off the ventilator for more than 10 hours and was cracking jokes and displaying other typical behaviors, the Associated Press reported.

Aimee developed a rare condition called necrotizing fasciitis after her left leg was cut in a zip line accident on May 1. Most of her left leg has been amputated and doctors said last week that her hands and remaining foot would also need to be amputated.

In his latest update, Andy Copeland said he's grateful for the outpouring of concern for his daughter, the AP reported.

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Officials Lift Quarantines at Two California Dairy Farms

Quarantines have been lifted on two California dairies that were under investigation after a case of mad cow disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday.

Officials said they found no connection between the illness and food the diseased cow might have eaten. And tests by the World Organization for Animal Health confirmed U.S. lab findings that the cow's illness was caused by a random mutation that was unlikely to affect other cows in the herd, the Associated Press reported.

The investigation was launched in April when the carcass of nearly 11-year-old cow from an unnamed Tulare County dairy tested positive for mad cow disease. It was the fourth case in the United States and the third "atypical" strain to be discovered.

Officials are still trying to track down at least a dozen other living cows that were raised on a calf ranch with the sick cow, the AP reported.

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Study Supports Value of Sigmoidoscopy, an Alternative to Colonoscopy

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Breathing Smog While Pregnant May Worsen Asthma in Offspring

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Sleep Apnea Linked to Higher Cancer Death Risk

HealthDay – 1 hr 30 mins ago SUNDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- Sleep apnea has already been linked to a host of adverse health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, new research suggests that in people who already have cancer, the sleep disorder may raise their risk of dying from cancer.

People with the most severe sleep apnea -- those who have 30 or more episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour of sleep -- had almost five times the risk of cancer death compared to someone without sleep apnea.

"Sleep apnea is the periodic pausing of breathing during sleep that results in drops in oxygen levels in your blood. It causes snoring and sleepiness during the day," explained study author Dr. Javier Nieto, chair of the department of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, in Madison.

"Aside from being an annoyance to your spouse, family members and maybe even your neighbors depending on how loud your snoring is, sleep apnea is a severe problem. Drowsiness and sleepiness during the day increase the risk of accidents, and sleep apnea is associated with cardiovascular disease, heart disease, strokes, hypertension and cardiovascular mortality. Now, we see this new angle: an increase in cancer mortality," said Nieto.

Nieto is scheduled to present the study Sunday at the American Thoracic Society International Conference, in San Francisco.

Nieto said the new study was suggested by researchers from the University of Barcelona in Spain who found that when mice were deprived of oxygen periodically, skin cancer tumors grew faster in the mice. And, cancer cells in the lab that are deprived of oxygen produce molecules that stimulate the growth of blood vessels in an attempt to get more oxygen, he said.

Nieto and the Spanish researchers wondered if this effect was the same in humans. To test that theory, they reviewed data from more than 1,500 people included in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort. This study included 22 years of mortality data, as well as information from sleep studies.

The researchers adjusted the data to account for age, sex, body mass, smoking and other factors that might affect the risk of cancer death, and they found that sleep apnea increased the risk of cancer death. They also found that the more severe the sleep apnea, the more likely someone was to die from cancer.

People with mild sleep apnea -- five to 14.9 episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour -- had a 10 percent increased risk of cancer death, while those with moderate sleep apnea -- 15 to 29.9 episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour -- had double the risk of cancer death. Those with severe sleep apnea -- more than 30 episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour -- had a 4.8 times higher risk of cancer death.

Nieto said the study didn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship, but the association was quite strong. And, he noted that the findings were consistent in humans, animals and in cells.

He added that there is also a plausible mechanism for this association. When you have cancer and you repeatedly have episodes of low or no oxygen, the cancer cells "try to compensate for the lack of oxygen by growing additional blood vessels to get more oxygen. It's a defense mechanism," Nieto said. And, as those blood vessels keep growing, it helps the tumor to spread, he explained.

Dr. Steven Park, a sleep medicine specialist and otorhinolaryngologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said he wasn't surprised by the findings.

"This goes along with the link between sleep apnea and pretty much every chronic medical condition out there," Park said. But, he added that this study's findings need to be confirmed in other studies, and ideally be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

"Anyone with snoring, severe daytime fatigue, lack of memory or focus, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even someone who has to get up to go to the bathroom at night should be screened for sleep apnea," Park said. He added that it's possible to have sleep apnea without snoring, especially for women. So, if you're getting enough sleep at night, yet still feel tired during the day, it's important to bring this up to your doctor.

Park said there are home-monitoring devices that can be used to screen people at home initially.

Nieto said that treating sleep apnea will improve your quality of life, as well as reduce your risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. And, if you have cancer, he said, treating sleep apnea may help increase your odds of surviving cancer.

More information

Learn more about sleep apnea from the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

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