California tobacco tax hike narrowly defeated at polls

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Eye Diseases Linked to Age Increasingly Sharply: Study

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PTSD and Heart Patients: More Common Than Once Thought

Yahoo! Contributor Network – 6 hrs ago

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is something we associate with military veterans and civilians who have been the victims of violet crimes.

New research, however, is finding that this disorder is actually quite prevalent among those who have experienced a heart attack or other significant cardiac event. Having this disorder can actually increase the risk of a subsequent heart attack or significant cardiac event, making this research critical for protecting patients.

The study "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Prevalence and Risk Recurrence in Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients: A Meta-analytic Review" was conducted by Columbia University Medical Center and headed by Dr. Donald Edmondson. The results were submitted on February 20 and published on Wednesday.

Here's a closer look:

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California voters narrowly reject new tobacco tax

A California initiative to increase the tax on tobacco to pay for cancer research has failed by less than a percentage point after remaining too close to call for more than two weeks.

With about 5 million ballots cast, opponents of Proposition 29 led by about 28,000 votes. The Associated Press analyzed areas where the roughly 105,000 uncounted votes remain and determined Friday there were not enough places where "yes" was winning to overcome the deficit.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor, headed the plan to add $1 to the cigarette tax. Tobacco companies, led by Philip Morris, meanwhile pushed the opposition campaign, pouring millions of dollars into an advertising blitz that whittled away support. Polls showed approval peaked around two-thirds in March but fell dramatically in the weeks before the June 5 balloting.

On Friday, the Prop 29 was failing 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent.

Support for the initiative was strongest in the San Francisco Bay Area, while more conservative places like Southern California's Inland Empire opposed it.

Had the measure passed, Californians would still have paid only the 16th highest tobacco tax in the nation, at $1.87 per pack.

Proponents said they would be back.

"This came so close, I think this is worth another try," said Stan Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. "I think it would be horrible if Philip Morris and Reynolds get away with this."

He suggested that cigarette tax supporters might turn to the Legislature, though lawmakers routinely reject attempts to raise tobacco taxes.

The opposition campaign will wait until all the votes have been counted before declaring victory, spokeswoman Beth Miller said.

Opponents of the measure raised $47 million to fight it, a huge sum even by California standards. By comparison, Jerry Brown spent about $36 million in his successful 2010 bid to become governor of California. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his allies spent $47 million to beat back his recall challenge on June 5.

Armstrong and a coalition of anti-smoking groups raised about $12 million to bolster the measure, including $500,000 from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In a statement Friday, Lance Armstrong Foundation President Doug Ulman framed the issue as one of life and death.

"The defeat of this life-saving initiative is a genuine tragedy," he said. "Big Tobacco lied to voters to protect its profits and spent $50 million to ensure it can continue peddling its deadly products to California kids."

While raising the price of tobacco is a proven way to reduce smoking rates, especially in young people, campaign ads sponsored by tobacco companies focused on pocketbook issues. The ads noted money would be raised in California through the tax but wouldn't necessarily stay in the state for research. The campaign also raised the specter of an out-of-control bureaucracy that would be set up to oversee collection and distribution of the money.

The strategy didn't just stir doubt in the minds of voters.

Several major newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, opposed the measure while expressing general support for such sin taxes and reluctance to side with tobacco companies. They argued that the revenue should go directly to the state, which now faces a $15.2 billion deficit.

The result was reminiscent a 2006 California cigarette tax measure that led by wide margins in early polling until tobacco companies spent $66 million to defeat it with ads featuring physicians.

It was unclear Friday whether the failure of Prop 29 constituted the narrowest defeat of a statewide ballot measure in California's history. Previously, the closest vote in the past two decades was on school bond measure 1B in 1994, which failed 49.6 percent to 50.4, according to Secretary of State spokeswoman Shannan Velayas. The second closest was another tobacco tax measure, which passed 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent in 1998.

California was once at the forefront of smoking restrictions and taxes, but the famously health-conscious state has not raised tobacco taxes since 1998.

Missouri voters are expected to weigh in on a tobacco tax increase in November and similar taxes are working their way through the legislative process in the Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Illinois.

The overwhelming majority of recent tobacco taxes across the nation have been approved in statehouses, not at the polls.

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The Scienceblogging Weekly (June 22nd, 2012)

Scientific American – 4 hrs ago Blog of the Week:

Like clockwork, almost every day for more than two years, Tommy Leung and Susan Perkins bring you Parasite of the Day. Sometimes gross, but always fascinating. And considering how most of us don’t pay much attention to parasites these days, there is something cool to learn every single day.

 

Top 10:

The only good abortion is my abortion by Maggie Koerth-Baker:

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1 in 10 Fibromyalgia Patients Uses Marijuana to Ease Pain

HealthDay – 1 hr 23 mins ago FRIDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- About 10 percent of fibromyalgia patients use marijuana to relieve symptoms such as pain, fatigue and insomnia, a new study has found.

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that causes widespread pain, fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbances and other symptoms. It affects up to 3 percent of people and is more common among women.

Standard drug treatments for fibromyalgia-related pain provide only modest relief, and some patients self-medicate with marijuana and other traditional therapies, said Dr. Mary-Ann Fitzcharles, a professor of medicine at McGill University and consulting rheumatologist at the Montreal General Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal.

She and her colleagues looked at the use of marijuana or prescription cannabinoids such as nabilone and dronabinol among 302 patients with fibromyalgia and 155 patients with another chronic pain condition.

About 13 percent of all 457 patients used cannabinoids, with 80 percent using marijuana. Smaller numbers used prescription cannabinoids, according to the study findings published online June 21 in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.

Of the patients who smoked marijuana, 72 percent reported using one gram or less per day, though a few smoked significantly more.

Patients who used marijuana were more likely to have unstable mental illness, to seek opioid painkiller drugs and to be unemployed, the investigators found.

"While self-medicating with cannabinoids may provide some pain relief to fibromyalgia patients, we caution against general use of illicit drugs until health and psychosocial issues risks are confirmed," Fitzcharles concluded in a journal news release.

"Physicians should be alert to potential negative mental health issues in fibromyalgia patients using illicit drugs for medical purposes. Some herbal cannabis users may be dishonestly using a fibromyalgia diagnosis to justify self-medicating with illegal drugs," she added.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about fibromyalgia.

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Health Tip: Are Your Child's Tantrums Dangerous?

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Health Highlights: June 22, 2012

HealthDay – 1 hr 23 mins ago Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Tumor Removed From Fetus in Groundbreaking Surgery

Twenty-month-old Leyna Gonzalez is healthy and happy today because doctors were able to remove a potentially fatal tennis ball-sized tumor from her mouth while she was still in the womb.

The rare congenital tumor, called an oral teratoma, was removed in May 2010 by surgeons at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, CBS News reported.

"The concern with these tumors is that they can grow very rapidly. And they can cause bleeding from the fetus -- from the baby -- into the tumor," fetal surgeon Dr. Ruben Quintero said Thursday during a press conference at the hospital. "That bleeding can cause the death of the baby."

He and his team used an endoscope guided by ultrasound to perform the first-of-a-kind surgery when Leyna was a 17-week-old fetus. She was born Oct. 1, 2010 at a healthy 8 pounds, 1 ounce, CBS News reported.

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Seizure Leads to U.S. Commerce Secretary's Resignation

A seizure suffered earlier this month has led U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson to resign from the Obama administration.

Bryson, 68, was found unconscious after he was involved in a series of traffic crashes in the Los Angeles earlier this month. A breathalyzer test did not detect any alcohol, the Associated Press reported.

In his resignation letter, Bryson said his decision was a "consequence of a recent seizure and a medical leave of absence."

He also wrote: ""I have concluded that the seizure I suffered on June 9th could be a distraction from my performance as secretary, and that our country would be better served by a change in leadership," the AP reported.

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Traffic Noise Increases Heart Attack Risk: Study

People who live near roads with high levels of traffic noise are at increased risk for a heart attack, according to a new study.

Researchers followed more than 50,000 people in Denmark, ages 50 to 64, for 10 years and found that for every 10 decibel rise in traffic noise near a person's home, there was a 12 percent increased risk of a first heart attack, ABC News reported.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal PLoS One.

Previous research has found some association between traffic noise and heart health but study lead author Dr. Mette Sorensen said she was surprised to find such a direct link between traffic noise levels and heart attack risk, ABC News reported.

"Previously, there seemed to be no effect up to around 60 decibels," she said. "But I see increases at around 40 decibels up to the highest level, around 82 decibels. It doesn't seem to be a level where there are no effects."

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Active, Outdoor Teens Are Happier Teens: Study

HealthDay – 1 hr 23 mins ago FRIDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- Teens who engaged in more moderate-to-vigorous outdoor activity reported better health and social functioning than their peers who spent hours in front of television and computer screens, a new study in Australia has found.

The teens who had the highest perceived health in the study spent an average of 2.5 hours more per day playing sports or doing other high-intensity activity than their least-active counterparts, according to the researchers.

The research, done at the University of Sydney, found that youths in the study overall spent an average of 3.3 hours a day playing video games, watching television or doing other sedentary activities, compared with only 2.1 hours in physical activity.

The findings suggest that parents need to limit how much time their children spend using electronic media, the lead author said.

"Parents should be conscious of the fact that outdoor physical activity is beneficial to their child's overall health and well-being, and should try to limit the time their child spends in front of the screen," said Bamini Gopinath, a senior research fellow at the university's Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research.

Although no causal link was established, the study provides "another piece of evidence" that increasing physical activity and decreasing screen time "would be beneficial" to teens, said Gopinath, adding that "the impact of activity behaviors persists over the long term."

The study, published in the July issue of Pediatrics, was conducted from 2004 to 2009.

Study questionnaires asked how much time 1,216 teens spent on outdoor exercise compared to indoor activities including computer use for recreation and homework. Other sedentary activities such as reading were included. The data were collected at age 12, and again five years later. At that time, another group of 475 teenagers was recruited from the same schools in the Sydney area. Both groups responded to items about their health and general well-being.

The questionnaire included 23 items about the teens' health and physical functioning, as well as self-esteem, peer relationships and school.

Not surprisingly, more time spent reading and doing homework was associated with better school performance.

The more-active teens had significantly better scores relating to social functioning, or getting along with peers. Teens "who rarely exercised" were more likely to report "feelings of loneliness and shyness."

"Improved understanding of these relationships could help in developing interventions to promote general well-being among adolescents," the study authors concluded.

Another expert said he wasn't surprised by the findings.

"It makes sense that these kids who are getting outside, playing sports and running around are going to feel better than those kids who are sitting alone with a screen," said Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital.

He cautioned against "over-interpreting" the results because other factors not looked at in the study "may have more influence." For example, he noted that the study did not show whether some teens avoided outdoor sports because they were less healthy to begin with.

But the findings are "worth paying attention to," Rich said.

It also makes sense that kids who spend their time "running around in the fresh air" and playing sports are going to be "not only physically healthier, but socially healthier because they're learning to work things through with other teens," he said.

The study gave "more objective data that supports what your mom always said, which is 'go outside and play,' proving mom was right," Rich added.

More information

To learn more about children and physical exercise, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Skin Cell Transplant May Offer New Hope to Vitiligo Patients

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Health Tip: Prevent Traveler's Diarrhea

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Tracking Love, Lust in the Brain

HealthDay – 1 hr 22 mins ago FRIDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- Love and sexual desire activate different but related areas of the brain, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed data from 20 studies that monitored brain activity in people while engaged in activities such as viewing erotic pictures or photographs of their romantic partners.

This meta-analysis led to a map of love and desire in the brain, which shows that two structures called the insula and the striatum are involved in the progression from sexual desire to love.

"No one has ever put these two together to see the patterns of activation," study co-author Jim Pfaus, professor of psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, said in a university news release. "We didn't know what to expect -- the two could have ended up being completely separate. It turns out that love and desire activate specific but related areas in the brain."

The researchers found that love and sexual desire activate different areas of the striatum. The area activated by sexual desire is the same one that is activated by pleasurable activities such as sex or food. The area activated by love is where things associated with reward or pleasure are given a value.

The area activated by love also is associated with drug addiction, the researchers said.

"Love is actually a habit that is formed from sexual desire as desire is rewarded," Pfaus explained. "It works the same way in the brain as when people become addicted to drugs."

He also noted that love activates pathways in the brain involved in monogamy and pair bonding, and added that some areas in the brain are less active when people feel love than when they feel desire.

"While sexual desire has a very specific goal, love is more abstract and complex," Pfaus said. "It's less dependent on the physical presence of someone else."

The study conclusions should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

Your Amazing Brain has more about the science of love.

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