Causes of weight loss

Thursday, August 2, 2012

U.S. rule highlights Catholic tensions over contraception

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New Clues to How HIV Infects Body's Cells

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Watch: Mayor Mike Bloomberg Promotes Breastfeeding

NYPD Officer Talks Man Out of Bridge...More Popular VideoUK's All-Male Synchronized Swim Team Left Out...U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese...Mitt Romney: Fallout Continues in PolandOlympic Games 2012: French Beat Michael...James Holmes Charged With 24 Counts of MurderIn The NewsU.S.PoliticsEntertainmentWeird and WackyMayor Mike Bloomberg Promotes BreastfeedingVoluntary program requires participating New York City hospitals to hold back use of infant formula.02:01

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Depression Could Shorten Cancer Survival, Study Suggests

HealthDay – 2 hrs 57 mins ago WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Symptoms of depression are linked to shorter survival times among cancer patients, according to a new study.

The link may be attributed to abnormal stress hormone regulation and inflammatory gene expression, researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported in the Aug. 1 edition of PLoS ONE.

"Our findings, and those of others, suggest that mental health and social well-being can affect biological processes, which influence cancer-related outcomes," Lorenzo Cohen, a professor in the center's departments of general oncology and behavioral science, and director of the Integrative Medicine Program, said in a university news release.

The findings "also suggest that screening for mental health should be part of standard care because there are well-accepted ways of helping people manage distress, even in the face of a life-threatening illness," Cohen added.

In conducting the study, the researchers analyzed surveys completed over a five-year period by 217 patients newly diagnosed with kidney cancer that had spread. The participants answered questions about how religious and spiritual they were. They were also asked about their symptoms of depression, social support, quality of life and coping skills.

The patients also provided blood samples as well as five saliva samples daily for three days. The researchers used the saliva samples to track changes in the patients' levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that is usually high in the morning before dropping throughout the day.

At the time of the analysis, 64 percent of the patients had died. The average amount of time these patients survived after being diagnosed was 1.8 years.

Overall, the study revealed that 23 percent of patients were clinically depressed. Even after taking other disease-related risk factors into account, the investigators noted that depression was associated with shorter survival time. Moreover, the study showed that higher than usual cortisol levels throughout the day were also linked to shorter survival among the cancer patients.

Using tissue samples from 15 of the patients with the most significant symptoms of depression and 15 samples from the patients with the mildest forms of depression, the researchers then conducted whole-genome profiling to determine if the depression is linked to increased risk of death for cancer patients.

They found specific signaling pathways, which play a key role in regulating cell inflammation, were expressed at increased levels in patients with depression. The study authors concluded the link between patients' mental health and survival time is associated with inflammatory gene regulation.

"Our findings indicate that we're now able to understand some of the possible biological pathways that explain the association between depression and survival," Cohen noted.

The researchers noted that the study was limited by the fact that it's difficult to determine if patients' stress or symptoms of depression are influenced by other factors or were present before their cancer diagnosis. While the study uncovered an association between depression and cancer survival, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More research is needed to investigate if the treatment of depression can improve survival time among cancer patients with mild, moderate or severe mood disorders, the authors added.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about cancer and depression.

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Pets May Help Kids With Autism Develop Social Skills

HealthDay – 2 hrs 57 mins ago WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Introducing a pet into the home of a child with autism may help that child develop improved social behaviors, new research finds.

The study, from French researchers, is the first strong scientific evidence that animals may help foster social skills in individuals with autism, but it also reinforces what clinicians have been hearing anecdotally for years.

"We hear from parents a lot that having a pet or interacting with an animal really helps their child's social behavior, but there hasn't been a study so far that has looked at that scientifically," said Alycia Halladay, director of environmental research at Autism Speaks. "This offers some intriguing evidence to confirm what parents have been saying."

Halladay was not involved with the study, which was published online Aug. 1 in the journal PLoS ONE.

Problems with communication are one of the hallmarks of autism and strategies to combat this are central to autism therapy.

According to Halladay, some people with autism use service dogs but usually to address a particular handicap, such as problems with motor coordination or hearing loss, although not yet for social skills.

Previous studies have verified that having a pet in the house actually improves family bonding and can improve the social skills of a non-autistic child as he or she learns to share with the pet and care for it.

To see if pets might have the same effect in children with autism, the study authors compared the children's social interactions (as reported by the parents of the children with autism) in three different settings: households that had never had a pet; homes that had had a pet since the child's birth; and households that had acquired a pet after the child turned 5.

In total, 260 individuals with autism were involved and the researchers were most interested in social interactions when the child was 4 or 5 years of age, because this is when the social impairments are often at a peak.

Out of 36 measures, participants who had acquired a pet after they were born scored higher in the two categories of "offering to share" and "offering comfort" after having the pet for a few years.

There was no relationship between each individual's IQ and the impact of the pet, leading the authors to conclude that "the benefits that the animals may have on individuals with autism don't seem related to how serious the autism was," said study author Marine Grandgeorge, clinical research associate at the Autism Resource Center of Academic Hospital in Brest, France.

Pets may promote pro-social behavior by acting as "distracters," Grandgeorge suggested.

"When a human is in a stressful situation, a pet seems to distract him/her from the

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Untreated Rabies May Not Be Lethal for All, Study Says

HealthDay – 1 min 55 secs ago WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Bucking the notion that untreated rabies always proves lethal to humans, scientists studying the virus in isolated pockets of the world have found evidence that either natural resistance or an immune response may stave off certain death for some.

Traveling to the Peruvian Amazon, where outbreaks of rabies infections are spurred by highly common vampire bats, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention learned that 10 percent of natives appeared to have survived exposure to the virus without any medical intervention. Another 11 percent were found to have antibodies in their blood that would neutralize rabies.

"This is a potential game-changer if the study is repeated successfully," said Dr. Rodney Willoughby Jr., a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the author of an editorial accompanying the research. "It suggests either that rabies is not universally severe or fatal

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Health Tip: Keep Your Child Safe in a High Chair

HealthDay – 2 mins 54 secs ago (HealthDay News) -- A high chair makes it easier to feed your child, But you should make sure the child can't tip it over.

The American Academy of Pediatrics mentions this safety checklist for high chairs:

The chair should be sturdy and not tip over easily.If the chair folds, make sure it's locked before the child sits down.Fasten all safety straps in the chair, and don't allow your child to stand up in it.Don't position the chair close enough to a table that your child can push against the table and tip over.Children should never be left unattended in a high chair. Older kids should never be allowed to climb on it.Avoid using a high chair that hooks onto the table, in place of a freestanding one.

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Health Tip: Prevent Food Cross-Contamination

HealthDay – 2 mins 52 secs ago (HealthDay News) -- Some food allergies are so severe that exposure to even a trace of certain foods can trigger a severe allergic reaction.

One way to reduce the risk of a severe reaction is to avoid cross-contaminating foods to which a person is overly sensitive with other foods.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers these guidelines:

Thoroughly wash all pots, pans and utensils with soap and water before use.If cooking two meals (one for someone with a food allergy), cook the allergen-free meal first and keep it covered and away from other food.Thoroughly wash hands with soap and water before serving an allergen-free meal.Be careful not to allow any allergens to touch allergen-free utensils, dishes or foods.

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New Clues to How HIV Infects Body's Cells

Fibroid embolization "fails" more in young women

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Workers With Paid Sick Days Healthier, More Productive: Study

HealthDay – 1 min 41 secs ago WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Employees with paid sick leave are healthier than other workers who do not have this benefit, new study findings suggest.

According to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, workers with paid sick leave are 28 percent less likely to suffer nonfatal work-related injuries.

In addition, the researchers noted that those with jobs in high-risk industries, such as construction, manufacturing and health care, who often suffer from pain, sprains, fractures and chronic injuries, gain the most from this benefit.

"This study highlights how our work lives and our personal health are intertwined," the institute's director, Dr. John Howard, said in a CDC news release. "This concept of total worker health, which involves creating an environment of well-being both at home and at work, is an important aspect of the American economy, as we depend on able and productive workers."

In conducting the study, the researchers examined national survey data collected between 2005 and 2008 on 38,000 workers in the private sector. The investigators found that health care workers and technicians who did not have paid sick leave were 18 percent more likely to suffer a nonfatal work-related injury than their peers with similar jobs who did have access to paid sick leave.

The study also found that construction workers without paid sick leave were 21 percent more likely to sustain a nonfatal work-related injury than construction workers who did have this benefit.

If sick or stressed workers are not able to take time off from work, they may be at greater risk for injuries, the study authors warned. Previous studies have reported that sleep deprivation, fatigue and certain medications may contribute to nonfatal workplace injuries, they added.

"Many workers may feel pressured to work while they are sick, out of fear of losing their income," the study's lead researcher, Abay Asfaw, said in the news release. "If fewer people work while they are sick, this could lead to safer operations and fewer injuries in the workplace."

The study authors also pointed out that their findings support previous research that found that access to paid sick leave is associated with shorter recovery times and fewer complications from minor health problems. In addition, paid sick leave for workers could reduce the risk of spreading illnesses, particularly in day-care facilities and schools, the researchers noted.

In the United States, employers have the option to provide their workers with paid sick leave, but it's not required. The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act mandates public- and private-sector companies to provide up to 12 weeks of leave to eligible workers, but it doesn't have to be paid leave, the authors explained in the release. In 2010, only 40 million private-sector employees in the United States had access to paid sick leave.

More research is needed to better understand how paid sick leave could benefit communities and prevent the spread of disease, the study authors concluded.

The study was released online in advance of print publication in the American Journal of Public Health.

More information

The U.S. Department of Labor has more about sick leave.

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Poor Sleep Hampers Vaccine Effectiveness: Study

HealthDay – 1 min 39 secs ago WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Lack of sleep can reduce the effectiveness of vaccinations, according to a new study.

Researchers measured the sleep patterns of 125 adults who received the three-shot course of the vaccine to protect against hepatitis B. The immune systems of participants who slept less produced fewer antibodies in response to the vaccine and blood tests showed that they did not meet the standard of protection from the virus.

People who slept less than six hours per night were nearly 12 times more likely to be left unprotected by the vaccine than those who slept more than seven hours per night.

Only the amount of sleep, not the quality of sleep, affected the amount of antibodies produced in response to the vaccine.

"Given that more and more Americans are grappling with chronic sleep deprivation, these findings should be a wake-up call to the public health community about the clear connection between sleep and health," study author Aric Prather, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of California, both at Berkeley and San Francisco, said in a foundation news release.

The study, published in the Aug. 1 issue of the journal Sleep, is the first outside a sleep laboratory to confirm that the amount of sleep people get affects how they respond to vaccinations, according to Prather.

"Based on our findings and laboratory evidence, physicians and other health professionals who are administering vaccines may want to consider asking their patients about their sleep patterns first, since a lack of sleep may affect the efficacy of the vaccine," Prather said.

Adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

While the study found an association between sleep and vaccine effectiveness, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about adults and vaccinations.

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