Health Tips Line

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- American women are having fewer children, and they're having them later in life, a new government report shows. "Overall, we saw continuing decreasing trends in total fertility," said report author Danielle Ely, a health statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said the trends reflect shifting cultural norms. First, fewer teens are getting pregnant, which raises the average age at which women are having children. "This is a good thing, because most teens do not have adequate economic or emotional means to take care of a child," Wu said. Women waiting to have children until they have financial security and health insurance tends to lead to healthier infants, she added. Birth rates are declining in industrialized countries around the wo...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The number of genes known to be associated with autism now stands at 102, researchers report. They also said that they've made significant progress in distinguishing between genes associated with autism and those associated with intellectual disability and developmental delay, conditions that often overlap with autism. The analysis of more than 37,000 genetic samples collected worldwide is the largest genetic sequencing study of autism to date, the researchers said. The results were presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, in San Diego. "With about twice as many samples as any previous studies, we were able to substantially increase the number of genes studied, as well as incorporate recent improvements to the analytical methodology," said study author Mark Daly, chief of the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. "By bringing together data...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Tracking pounds regained after weight-loss surgery can help predict a patient's risk for serious health problems like diabetes, a new study says. "Clinicians and patients want to know the extent of weight regain following bariatric surgery and how it may affect their health," said study lead author Wendy King, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. "Our study will help clinicians and patients understand the timeline, magnitude and impact of weight regain, as well as lead to further studies on how to best avoid and manage weight regain for better health outcomes," King said in a university news release. The study included more than 1,400 adults who had a type of weight-loss surgery called roux-en-Y gastric bypass. They had their weight checked eight times over almost seven years after surgery, on average. Maximum weight loss occurred two years after surgery on average, but there was...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Feel yourself being pulled in a million directions and losing track of what's really important? The meditative practice called mindfulness can help you get centered and re-focus on what's meaningful to you. And it doesn't take time that's already in short supply on your busy schedule. You can reap the benefits in less time than it takes for a coffee break. Mindfulness shows you how to block out distractions and replace stress and other negative emotions with a sense of well-being. You accomplish this by focusing on the here-and-now -- your present thoughts and feelings, not past concerns or future worries. You also learn to accept these thoughts and feelings without passing judgment on them, such as labeling them as good or bad, right or wrong. Practicing mindfulness is easier than you might think. At the start of each day, you might take 10 minutes to do a few yoga stretches -- yoga incorporates mindfulness because it tea...

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 17, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Adding to growing alarm about America's opioid crisis, cases of a potentially deadly heart infection have jumped 10-fold among North Carolina's injection drug users, new research shows. The infection is endocarditis, which strikes one or more of the heart's four valves. Usually a byproduct of aging, it can also develop when bacteria is introduced into the body through use of injected drugs such as heroin. "We know that drug-associated endocarditis is increasing nationally, but the magnitude of the rise has been somewhat stunning," said study author Dr. Asher Schranz, a fellow in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Between 2007 and 2017, endocarditis-related hospitalizations and surgeries involving injection drug users in North Carolina rose more than 10-fold, with most of the rise occurring since 2013, the study found. The median age of patients who had surgery for...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- You won't jump for joy when you're told you need hearing aids or cataract surgery. But get this: Both appear to slow mental decline in older adults. That's what researchers concluded after studying more than 2,000 people in England who had cataract surgery and more than 2,000 Americans given hearing aids. "These studies underline just how important it is to overcome the barriers which deny people from accessing hearing and visual aids," researcher Piers Dawes, of the University of Manchester in England, said in a university news release. "It's not really certain why hearing and visual problems have an impact on cognitive [memory and thinking skill] decline, but I'd guess that isolation, stigma and the resultant lack of physical activity that are linked to hearing and vision problems might have something to do with it," said Dawes, a lecturer in audiology and deafness. For comparison, the researchers ...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A rare but devastating polio-like virus appears to have made itself at home in the United States, partially paralyzing hundreds of children. There have been 127 cases reported in 22 states so far this year, with 62 confirmed as acute flaccid myelitis, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She announced the numbers in a Tuesday media briefing. This year's outbreak marks the third wave of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) to hit the United States since 2014, and this wave is on track to be the worst yet, experts say. Even more troubling, the actual number of cases might be even higher. A recent CNN report found that 30 states were investigating 47 confirmed cases and another 49 suspected cases. AFM cases tend to start in August, peak in October and taper off by December, according to the CDC. "We need to pay attention to t...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- If you come from a large family, you may have a lower risk of cancer, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed data from 178 countries and found that people from larger families were less likely to get cancer than those from smaller families. The link between family size and cancer risk was "independent of income, levels of urbanization and age," study senior author Maciej Henneberg said in a University of Zurich news release. He's a guest professor in the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the university, in Switzerland. Family size included not just parents and their children, but also members of the extended family in the household. This protective effect of a large family was stronger in men than in women, according to the study published recently in the journal BMC Cancer . It's important to note, however, that the study only found an association between family size and cancer risk. It did not prove a cause-and...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- People suffering from two common conditions -- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the breathing disorder known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) -- may be increasing their risk for suicide if they take benzodiazepine drugs, a new study suggests. Benzodiazepines include powerful drugs such as Ativan, Valium and Xanax. These medications are often prescribed to people with PTSD to ease anxiety, insomnia or shortness of breath. But when used over long periods by patients with both PTSD and COPD, the drugs are tied to more than double the risk of suicide and increase the odds of being admitted to a hospital for psychiatric problems, researchers found. Use of benzodiazepines with multiple illnesses has long been "a frequent dilemma for patients and clinicians," said study lead author Dr. Lucas Donovan. He's a pulmonary, critical care and sleep physician at the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System in Washington state...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (American Heart Association) -- The hair loss, fatigue and nausea were a given. As a nurse, Toni C. Wild had seen patients faced with these common side effects of chemotherapy. What Wild did not expect when she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29 is that the chemotherapy drugs she received would damage her heart. "It certainly has been quite the journey," said Wild. Wild was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. Her treatment included a lumpectomy followed by radiation and the chemotherapy drugs Cytoxan (cyclophosphamide) and Adriamycin (doxorubicin). Because both of these drugs can affect the heart, Wild's doctors performed an echocardiogram to measure her heart function before and after her treatment. Both tests showed her heart was in tiptop shape. In 1998, Wild learned a new tumor had developed in her other breast. This time her treatment included a double mastectomy, followed by another round of the same chemotherapy drugs. Again, the...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity surgery may help prevent heart attacks and strokes in people who are severely overweight and have diabetes, a new large study suggests. It's already known that obesity surgery can help people shed pounds and better control health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. But it has not been clear whether that translates into fewer heart attacks and strokes down the road. Researchers said the new findings suggest the answer is "yes." The study team found that severely obese patients who had the surgery were 40 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke over five years, versus those on standard diabetes care. Those who had the surgery were also two-thirds less likely to die during the study period, according to the report published Oct. 16 in the Journal of the American Medical Association . "If we had a pill that could do that, we'd all be prescribing it," said study co-author Dr. Da...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The gluten-free diet craze is both reassuring and upsetting to people with celiac disease who are allergic to the nutrient, a small study suggests. People with celiac disease say they're happy to have more food choices at stores and restaurants. But some with celiac sense a growing stigma as other people voluntarily go gluten-free. And many patients fear people see them as "high-maintenance" and misunderstand the severity of their disease. "On the one hand, you have a lot more options available for patients that taste better and are becoming more affordable. But at the same time, you have this gluten-free craze that's recognized as kind of a fad diet, so celiac disease goes misunderstood in social situations, leaving patients more anxious," said study author James King. He's a graduate student in the department of community health services at the University of Calgary, in Canada. Celiac is an inherited autoi...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Stimulating a specific set of nerves that are nestled along the spine may deliver relief to those who suffer from chronic back pain and cut the need for opioid painkillers, new research suggests. The therapy, which targets the root ganglion nerves, is more effective than other spine stimulation procedures because it places tiny leads precisely at the area where pain originates, unlike other devices that provide more generalized stimulation, the researchers said. "In certain patients who have not gotten relief from other treatments, this therapy may give sustained pain relief and may allow them to reduce opioids for at least 18 months and perhaps longer," said lead researcher Robert McCarthy. He's a professor of anesthesiology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The dorsal root ganglions are nerve cells, on both sides of each of the spine's vertebra, and are the gateway to pain between nerves in different parts of...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Young football players who suffer repeated head blows -- but not concussions -- may not sustain brain damage, a new study suggests. For the study, researchers followed 112 football players, aged 9 to 18, during the 2016 season. "We expected repetitive impacts to correlate with worsening neurocognitive [brain] function, but we found that sub-concussive head impacts sustained over the course of a single season were not associated with neurocognitive functional outcomes," said study leader Dr. Sean Rose. He is a pediatric sports neurologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "The lack of a significant association may reflect the need for longer follow up -- so we are continuing to follow kids across multiple seasons," Rose added in a hospital news release. Each year, more than 3 million primary school and high school students play tackle football in the United States. Growing concerns about the possib...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- "Eyeballing" emergency room patients may be better than a formal medical assessment in identifying those most in need of urgent care, a new study suggests. Nearly 6,400 patients seeking ER care were assessed over three months. Nurses used an established triage protocol to determine which patients were the sickest, while medical students and phlebotomists (blood collection specialists) made their decisions by simply looking at the patients -- "eyeballing" them. Eyeballing patients was more accurate than the structured assessment in determining the risk of death within 48 hours and 30 days, according to the study. The findings were published Oct. 15 in the Emergency Medicine Journal . "We need to ask ourselves in these days of rising medical costs and rising patient numbers if we can afford to continue doing it the way we have always done it if we can do it just as well or better a simpler way," journal editor D...

TUESDAY, Oct. 16, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Developing lean muscle mass is important for everyone -- it can keep you active and independent throughout your life. But to maximize the benefits of strength training, make sure you're not making these common mistakes. Mistake number 1: Letting momentum drive your workout. If you power through repetitions at a rapid clip, chances are that you're using momentum rather than controlled muscle movement to do those reps. To get the most out of each rep, take two to three seconds to lift the weight and three to four seconds to return to the starting position. Mistake number 2: Not moving through a complete range of motion. You're shortchanging yourself if you're also rushing through reps without carefully moving from your starting position to a full extension, no matter what the exercise. If you're unable to do this, chances are you're lifting too heavy a weight for your current ability. Mistake number 3: Not lifting en...

MONDAY, Oct. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Nations that officially frown upon hitting kids as a form of punishment appear to have teens who are less prone to violence, new research suggests. In countries that have a complete ban on corporal punishment (spanking and slapping), the rates of physical fighting among teens are as much as 69 percent lower than in countries without such a ban, the study found. What isn't clear from this research is whether or not a spanking ban directly caused a reduction in violent behavior. Study author Frank Elgar, an associate professor of psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal, said there are several possibilities for the association behind spanking bans and lower violence rates among youth. "There may be some influence of these legal bans that promotes changes in culture. Kids that grow up with this experience -- not getting smacked or spanked -- is one possibility for the association," he said. Another possibility, Elgar noted, i...

MONDAY, Oct. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- People may rely on social media such as Facebook to showcase the highlights of their lives, like vacations. But new research suggests the language they use in posts might also help predict depression. Using sophisticated software, researchers were able to scan social media posts and detect depression months before it was apparent on clinical screening tests. "Social media has made it possible for people to share a little bit of their daily life with researchers," said study author Andrew Schwartz, an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University in New York. "Basically, we used the language people wrote on a daily basis and related it to whether they had a diagnosis of depression," he explained. Looking at Facebook posts "was slightly more accurate than standard screening questions in finding depression," Schwartz said. So what types of language might reveal someone suffering from depressio...

MONDAY, Oct. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Letting women who've had a cesarean section dispense and control pain medication through a catheter reduces their use of addictive oral opioid painkillers, researchers report. Their study included 576 women who had planned C-sections. In such cases, it's common to inject a local anesthetic and a small dose of morphine into the spinal fluid. The morphine provides about 18 hours of pain relief after surgery, but significant pain may continue for several days. In most cases, women are given oral opioids to manage that pain. In this study, patients had a tiny, flexible catheter inserted into their lower back as part of the anesthesia for their C-section. After surgery, it was used to deliver medication that numbs the abdomen, and women could adjust the amount of pain relief by pushing a button. After delivery, this patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PCEA) stayed in place for a median time of 43 hours. Half of women had it less time,...

MONDAY, Oct. 15, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- In an attempt to head off federal regulation, America's pharmaceutical manufacturers announced Monday that they would take voluntary action to make drug prices more transparent. Under the industry's plan, all TV drug advertisements would include information directing consumers to online resources that provide the drug's list price, estimated out-of-pocket costs for consumers, and any available financial assistance for patients. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) announced the voluntary plan ahead of new proposed federal regulations that would require the companies to include list prices of drugs in all consumer ads. The Trump administration is expected to announce the proposed regulations this week, according to Politico . "We think putting the list price in isolation in the ads themselves is very confusing, misleading, lacks appropriate context and isn't what patients want or need," s...