NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and state officials are pushing initiatives aimed at encouraging new mothers to breastfeed their babies, drawing criticism from some parents who say officials are interfering with their health choices.
State health commissioners announced on Tuesday that letters highlighting the importance of breastfeeding were being sent to hospitals, reminding them of regulations limiting unnecessary formula feedings for breastfed newborns.
The state initiative coincides with Bloomberg's call for hospitals to lock away their baby formula and have nurses encourage new mothers to breastfeed.
Under the mayor's plan, slated to start September 3, the city will keep a record of the number of bottles that hospitals stock and use. Formula would be signed out like medication.
The pro-breastfeeding campaign has drawn the ire of some women who argue it stigmatizes infant formula and interferes with a mother's choice of what to feed her child.
A number of the city's other health initiatives -- including cracking down on large-sized sodas and banning smoking in public places -- have attracted similar criticism from those who accuse the mayor of creating a 'nanny' state.
'I breastfed both of my kids and it took me a good three weeks before I figured it out,' said Rene Syler, who wrote about the issue on her website Goodenoughmother.com. 'I can't imagine what it must be like to be in the hospital with someone sort of standing over your shoulder and lecturing you every time you ask for a bottle to feed your crying baby.'
Under current regulations, hospitals are only allowed to provide formula to infants who have an indicated medical reason and a doctor's order for the supplemental feedings, the state health department said in a statement.
Still, only 39.7 percent of newborn infants in New York are exclusively breastfed -- well below the federal government goal of 70 percent, the state health department said. Roughly half of breastfed infants received supplemental formula in the hospital.
'We recognize that there are women that won't be able to breastfeed or chose to not breastfeed for a variety of reasons and that is a choice they should be able to make,' said Dr. Barbara Wallace, the state health department's director of chronic disease prevention.
The state health department said the benefits of breastfeeding included fewer episodes of acute respiratory illnesses, inner-ear infections and gastroenteritis.
Mothers who do not breastfeed are at increased risk for postpartum bleeding and anemia, and have higher rates of breast cancer later in life, the health department statement said.
(Editing by Paul Thomasch and Lisa Shumaker)
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Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Shots Should Be on College Kids' Back-to-School List
TUESDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Immunizations aren't just for young children -- college students need them, too.
That's the message an expert has for parents who will be seeing children off to college this month.
'Children who are preparing for their freshman year in a dormitory are at increased risk for bacterial meningitis,' Dr. Peter Wenger, associate professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said in a university news release.
Bacterial meningitis causes swelling of the brain and spinal cord. The potentially deadly condition affects up to 2,600 otherwise healthy people in the United States each year, and teenagers and young adults are in the high-risk category.
All first-year college students should receive the meningitis vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. The vaccine provides three to five years of protection. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and seven other states require all incoming students living on college campuses either to be vaccinated or to sign a waiver saying they choose not to receive the vaccine, according to the news release.
Wenger said the college students also should consider these other vaccines:
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about college health and safety.
This news article is brought to you by FREE ROMANTIC DATING SITE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
That's the message an expert has for parents who will be seeing children off to college this month.
'Children who are preparing for their freshman year in a dormitory are at increased risk for bacterial meningitis,' Dr. Peter Wenger, associate professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said in a university news release.
Bacterial meningitis causes swelling of the brain and spinal cord. The potentially deadly condition affects up to 2,600 otherwise healthy people in the United States each year, and teenagers and young adults are in the high-risk category.
All first-year college students should receive the meningitis vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. The vaccine provides three to five years of protection. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and seven other states require all incoming students living on college campuses either to be vaccinated or to sign a waiver saying they choose not to receive the vaccine, according to the news release.
Wenger said the college students also should consider these other vaccines:
- Human papillomavirus, which protects against viruses that cause cervical cancer, anal cancer and genital warts.
- Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, which is given as a one-time dose to teens and adults. Pertussis is also called whooping cough.
- Hepatitis A, which protects against a virus that attacks the liver.
- Annual flu vaccination and any vaccines that weren't received when the college student was an infant, such as varicella (chicken pox).
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about college health and safety.
This news article is brought to you by FREE ROMANTIC DATING SITE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Scientists ID New Gene Linked to Vision Loss in Infants
MONDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News) -- A new gene associated with a rare form of blindness from birth has been identified by researchers.
According to the report published online July 29 in the journal Nature Genetics, mutations in the NMNAT1 gene are linked to Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an inherited retinal degenerative disease that causes reduced vision in infants. Signs of vision loss are apparent in the first few months of life.
LCA is a common reason for enrolling children in schools for the blind.
This finding is a step forward in developing sight-saving gene therapy for patients with LCA, according to the researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division, and their colleagues.
'The immediate benefit of this discovery is that affected patients with mutations in this new LCA gene now know the cause of their condition,' study co-senior author Dr. Eric Pierce, director of the Ocular Genomics Institute at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said in an infirmary news release.
'Scientists now have another piece to the puzzle as to why some children are born with LCA and decreased vision. The long-term goal of our research is to develop therapies to limit or prevent vision loss from these disorders,' Pierce said.
NMNAT1 is the 18th identified LCA gene and is located in a region known to harbor another LCA gene.
Leber congenital amaurosis occurs in about three of 100,000 newborns, and is one of the most common causes of blindness in children, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about Leber congenital amaurosis.
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According to the report published online July 29 in the journal Nature Genetics, mutations in the NMNAT1 gene are linked to Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an inherited retinal degenerative disease that causes reduced vision in infants. Signs of vision loss are apparent in the first few months of life.
LCA is a common reason for enrolling children in schools for the blind.
This finding is a step forward in developing sight-saving gene therapy for patients with LCA, according to the researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division, and their colleagues.
'The immediate benefit of this discovery is that affected patients with mutations in this new LCA gene now know the cause of their condition,' study co-senior author Dr. Eric Pierce, director of the Ocular Genomics Institute at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said in an infirmary news release.
'Scientists now have another piece to the puzzle as to why some children are born with LCA and decreased vision. The long-term goal of our research is to develop therapies to limit or prevent vision loss from these disorders,' Pierce said.
NMNAT1 is the 18th identified LCA gene and is located in a region known to harbor another LCA gene.
Leber congenital amaurosis occurs in about three of 100,000 newborns, and is one of the most common causes of blindness in children, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
More information
The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more about Leber congenital amaurosis.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Mental Abuse of Kids Leaves Lifelong Scars
MONDAY, July 30 (HealthDay News) -- Constantly belittling, threatening or ignoring children can be as damaging to their mental health as physical or sexual abuse, according to a new report from a pediatricians' group.
But, with no bruises to spot, pediatricians, teachers and family members may have trouble recognizing these and other forms of psychological abuse. Not only are there no obvious physical scars, there is no universally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes psychological maltreatment of children, and a fine line can exist between not-so-great parenting and outright abuse, experts say.
'The main message for child health clinicians and people working with children is that psychological maltreatment is just as harmful as other types of maltreatment,' said report co-author Dr. Harriet MacMillan, a professor in the departments of psychiatry, behavioral neurosciences and pediatrics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
'We know that exposure to other types of maltreatment like physical and sexual abuse can be associated with a broad range of types of impairment in physical and mental health, and cognitive and social development,' she said. 'Similarly, we see these types of impairments associated with psychological maltreatment.'
The American Academy of Pediatrics' report is published online July 30 and in the August print issue of Pediatrics.
Estimating the prevalence of the problem is difficult, in part because of the lack of a universally accepted definition of psychological abuse, MacMillan said. Studies in Britain and the United States estimate that 8 percent to 9 percent of women and 4 percent of men report severe psychological abuse during childhood.
Psychological maltreatment of children can take many forms. It can include chronically belittling, humiliating or ridiculing a child for showing normal emotions. There is also neglect, such as leaving an infant alone in a crib all day, except for feeding or changing.
Other forms of psychological maltreatment can include withholding love and warmth from a child, putting children in dangerous or chaotic situations, having rigid or unrealistic expectations accompanied by threats if not met, or confining a child and restricting social interactions. Limiting a child's access to necessary health care for reasons other than affordability is another example, according to the report.
Sometimes, but not always, psychological abuse goes hand in hand with physical abuse.
'I once had a child who talked about being hit by his dad,' MacMillan said. 'The child said that the dad says things about me that make me feel badly, worse than the hitting.'
One of the keys to spotting abuse is the pervasiveness of it, experts say. A single bad parenting day probably isn't abuse. But near-constant ridicule, telling a child he or she is unloved and unwanted, is abuse, MacMillan said.
Similarly, there is 'suboptimal' parenting -- in other words, no one is going to nominate these moms or dads for parent of the year vs. parenting that is so damaging it rises to the level of abuse.
Telling the two apart can be difficult, experts say.
'Psychological abuse is so insidious, and is not as easily recognized by the victim or other family members,' said Alec Miller, chief of child and adolescent psychology at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City.
'If you see someone getting beaten, we all know it's against the law,' Miller said. 'It's demarcated as illegal and very unhealthy. Some of these other things are a little more slippery. If there is no bruising physically, it's harder to be convinced there is abuse.'
Research shows the effects of psychological abuse and neglect can be profound and long-lasting, ranging from problems with brain development and a failure to grow properly, to problems with behavior and relating to others.
Some parents who are psychologically abusive aren't even aware that their words and actions are harming their child, experts said.
For example, consider parents going through a very difficult divorce. 'The child is subjected to major conflict between the parents and told all sorts of things about the other parent and made to choose an allegiance,' MacMillan said. 'These sorts of things can be psychologically abusive to a child.'
Suspected cases of psychological should be reported to child protective services, the authors say. They also urge pediatricians to look for signs of emotional maltreatment in their patients.
More information
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has information on recognizing the signs of child abuse.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
But, with no bruises to spot, pediatricians, teachers and family members may have trouble recognizing these and other forms of psychological abuse. Not only are there no obvious physical scars, there is no universally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes psychological maltreatment of children, and a fine line can exist between not-so-great parenting and outright abuse, experts say.
'The main message for child health clinicians and people working with children is that psychological maltreatment is just as harmful as other types of maltreatment,' said report co-author Dr. Harriet MacMillan, a professor in the departments of psychiatry, behavioral neurosciences and pediatrics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
'We know that exposure to other types of maltreatment like physical and sexual abuse can be associated with a broad range of types of impairment in physical and mental health, and cognitive and social development,' she said. 'Similarly, we see these types of impairments associated with psychological maltreatment.'
The American Academy of Pediatrics' report is published online July 30 and in the August print issue of Pediatrics.
Estimating the prevalence of the problem is difficult, in part because of the lack of a universally accepted definition of psychological abuse, MacMillan said. Studies in Britain and the United States estimate that 8 percent to 9 percent of women and 4 percent of men report severe psychological abuse during childhood.
Psychological maltreatment of children can take many forms. It can include chronically belittling, humiliating or ridiculing a child for showing normal emotions. There is also neglect, such as leaving an infant alone in a crib all day, except for feeding or changing.
Other forms of psychological maltreatment can include withholding love and warmth from a child, putting children in dangerous or chaotic situations, having rigid or unrealistic expectations accompanied by threats if not met, or confining a child and restricting social interactions. Limiting a child's access to necessary health care for reasons other than affordability is another example, according to the report.
Sometimes, but not always, psychological abuse goes hand in hand with physical abuse.
'I once had a child who talked about being hit by his dad,' MacMillan said. 'The child said that the dad says things about me that make me feel badly, worse than the hitting.'
One of the keys to spotting abuse is the pervasiveness of it, experts say. A single bad parenting day probably isn't abuse. But near-constant ridicule, telling a child he or she is unloved and unwanted, is abuse, MacMillan said.
Similarly, there is 'suboptimal' parenting -- in other words, no one is going to nominate these moms or dads for parent of the year vs. parenting that is so damaging it rises to the level of abuse.
Telling the two apart can be difficult, experts say.
'Psychological abuse is so insidious, and is not as easily recognized by the victim or other family members,' said Alec Miller, chief of child and adolescent psychology at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City.
'If you see someone getting beaten, we all know it's against the law,' Miller said. 'It's demarcated as illegal and very unhealthy. Some of these other things are a little more slippery. If there is no bruising physically, it's harder to be convinced there is abuse.'
Research shows the effects of psychological abuse and neglect can be profound and long-lasting, ranging from problems with brain development and a failure to grow properly, to problems with behavior and relating to others.
Some parents who are psychologically abusive aren't even aware that their words and actions are harming their child, experts said.
For example, consider parents going through a very difficult divorce. 'The child is subjected to major conflict between the parents and told all sorts of things about the other parent and made to choose an allegiance,' MacMillan said. 'These sorts of things can be psychologically abusive to a child.'
Suspected cases of psychological should be reported to child protective services, the authors say. They also urge pediatricians to look for signs of emotional maltreatment in their patients.
More information
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has information on recognizing the signs of child abuse.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
What Pleasure Looks Like in Babies, Primates and Rats [Video]
To decipher the brain circuits that underlie pleasure, neuroscientists often have to assess liking and disliking in nonverbal creatures. They do it by monitoring facial expressions and head and arm movements, such as those depicted in the video here. Licking the lips, for instance, indicates a food tasted delicious to in infant, whereas turning the head from side to side indicates "yuk." In the video, the term "hedonic reactions" refers to pleasure. Read about new insights into the neurobiology of pleasure in "The Joyful Mind"-by Morten L. Kringelbach, of the University of Oxford, and Kent C. Berridge, of the University of Michigan-in the August 2012 issue of Scientific American.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Experts Offer Tips to Cut Kids' Screen Time During Summer
SATURDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) -- Lots of parents would like to avoid having their kids spend the summer watching television or playing video games.
According to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, reducing the amount of time spent in front of a computer or TV can boost health and happiness, prompting families to do more physical activity and get creative in finding other ways to spend their time.
The nonprofit organization, which was formed to combat childhood obesity, offered tips to cut down on screen time:
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more on how to reduce screen time.
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
According to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, reducing the amount of time spent in front of a computer or TV can boost health and happiness, prompting families to do more physical activity and get creative in finding other ways to spend their time.
The nonprofit organization, which was formed to combat childhood obesity, offered tips to cut down on screen time:
- Schedule screen time. Decide in advance what shows will be watched, what video games will be played or how much Internet time is allowed.
- Keep track. Have children write down the amount of time they spend in front of the TV or a computer screen. If they realize they are spending more time in front of a screen than they thought, they may be motivated to change their habits.
- Be positive. Set goals for reducing screen time and offer rewards for reaching them.
- Do something else. Go outside, join a club, play a sport, get a hobby.
- Designate screen-free time. Don't turn on the TV first thing in the morning. Turn off the TV during dinner. Instead, eat outside or have a family talk. Remove electronics from bedrooms.
- Put electronics away. Try storing all electronics in one room for an entire day and not touching them, or cover screens to help you forget about them.
- Read instead. Take the kids to the library. Allow children to stay up 15 minutes past their bedtime as a reward for reading.
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more on how to reduce screen time.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2012
More Drug Trials Needed for Conditions Affecting Kids: Review
WEDNESDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) -- A new review finds that while children account for almost 60 percent of those with five common medical conditions, only 12 percent of clinical trials of drugs for those conditions examined their effects on pediatric patients.
Yet, the review authors noted, previous research has shown that off-label drugs, where the medicine has only been approved for adult use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, make up as much as 79 percent of the medications given to children in hospitals and up to 56 percent of drugs prescribed for kids in doctors' offices.
'We think this contrast is striking, and speaks to the under-representation of research on kids,' said review author Dr. Florence Bourgeois, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. 'Understandably, whenever we see an adverse event the concern is, 'Could these drugs really be dangerous?' and we are left wondering.'
The results were released online July 23 in advance of publication in the August print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The FDA requires that clinical trials demonstrate a drug's safety and effectiveness for a condition before it approves the drug to treat that condition, but many drugs are only tested in adults. As a result, physicians are often left to rely on trial-and-error to decide how to use drugs off-label in children, the review noted.
Bourgeois and her team found that, while just over 21 percent of people in high-income countries who are afflicted by conditions such as depression, asthma, migraines, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are children and adolescents, less than 10 percent of clinical trials studying these conditions included patients under the age of 18.
The gap was even wider for developing countries, where children and adolescents bear nearly 62 percent of the disease burden for conditions such as malaria, diarrhea, HIV and depression, but only about 12 percent of clinical trials of treatments for these diseases include pediatric patients.
A number of professional organizations, including the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in England, have all published statements on the importance of evaluating medical treatments for children using randomized, controlled trials. A randomized, controlled trial, in which study participants are randomly chosen to either receive a treatment or not, is the gold standard for medical research.
'In some instances, it may be fine to extrapolate adult [dosing] information and scale down, but the way drugs are metabolized and excreted from the body is different in children,' Bourgeois said. 'Children might metabolize faster and need a greater dose than one might think just in terms of scaling down.'
Children are also a special patient group because their bodies are still developing, and leaving them out of clinical trials means the possible effects of drugs on their growth go unaddressed, said review co-author Dr. Kenneth Mandl, an associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital.
In addition, some drugs taken by adults work the opposite way in kids, explained Albert Wertheimer, a professor of pharmacoeconomics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
'Drugs for [attention-deficit disorder] are stimulants that people take to stay up for a test, but when used in kids, they settle them down,' Wertheimer noted.
For the review, Bourgeois and her colleagues reviewed all the clinical trials that were registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, the largest repository of clinical trials conducted around the world, between 2006 and 2011 for major pediatric conditions.
One reason for the lack of pediatric clinical trials could be who pays for them: The current study found that, while half of funding for trials on adults came from industry sources such as drug makers, the major source of funding for trials on kids was nonprofit groups.
Although the lack of industry funding of children's drug trials could be viewed as a good thing because industry backing has been shown to introduce biases, 'it's tricky because there are limited resources when it comes to nonprofits, so it would limit the amount you can do,' Bourgeois explained.
Pharmaceutical companies make a 'conscious decision' to exclude children from trials of their drugs because it is more difficult and expensive to recruit children and get parental consent, and they have a higher rate of dropping out of trials, Wertheimer said.
On top of that, the payoff is higher for adults, Mandl said. 'There are even larger markets of adult chronic conditions that are in the sweet spot for profitability of blockbuster drugs.'
In an effort to spur drug research in kids, the U.S. government has been offering financial incentives to drug companies that carry out pediatric studies for more than a decade.
But, Bourgeois thinks that more is needed. 'It should be a combination of financial incentives and some requirements around what drugs need to be tested in children,' she explained.
And, in high-income countries, the drugs to treat mental illness should require the most research. 'It's really neuropsychiatric conditions that have overtaken physical impairments,' Bourgeois explained. 'Children might be deprived of effective treatments if clinicians are not willing to use drugs off-label in them.'
Wertheimer agreed that greater requirements for pediatric clinical trials might be in order.
'For any drug that has a high probability of being used in children, it wouldn't be a bad idea to mandate that the drug be tested in some population of children,' said Wertheimer, who added that drugs such as antibiotics would likely have a large market in children.
In the meantime, the pace of research in children is at least picking up, even if the rate has not been increasing as much as it has for adults, Bourgeois noted.
More information
You can learn more about pediatric studies in children by visiting the Institute of Medicine.
This news article is brought to you by GOING GREEN NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Yet, the review authors noted, previous research has shown that off-label drugs, where the medicine has only been approved for adult use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, make up as much as 79 percent of the medications given to children in hospitals and up to 56 percent of drugs prescribed for kids in doctors' offices.
'We think this contrast is striking, and speaks to the under-representation of research on kids,' said review author Dr. Florence Bourgeois, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. 'Understandably, whenever we see an adverse event the concern is, 'Could these drugs really be dangerous?' and we are left wondering.'
The results were released online July 23 in advance of publication in the August print issue of the journal Pediatrics.
The FDA requires that clinical trials demonstrate a drug's safety and effectiveness for a condition before it approves the drug to treat that condition, but many drugs are only tested in adults. As a result, physicians are often left to rely on trial-and-error to decide how to use drugs off-label in children, the review noted.
Bourgeois and her team found that, while just over 21 percent of people in high-income countries who are afflicted by conditions such as depression, asthma, migraines, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are children and adolescents, less than 10 percent of clinical trials studying these conditions included patients under the age of 18.
The gap was even wider for developing countries, where children and adolescents bear nearly 62 percent of the disease burden for conditions such as malaria, diarrhea, HIV and depression, but only about 12 percent of clinical trials of treatments for these diseases include pediatric patients.
A number of professional organizations, including the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in England, have all published statements on the importance of evaluating medical treatments for children using randomized, controlled trials. A randomized, controlled trial, in which study participants are randomly chosen to either receive a treatment or not, is the gold standard for medical research.
'In some instances, it may be fine to extrapolate adult [dosing] information and scale down, but the way drugs are metabolized and excreted from the body is different in children,' Bourgeois said. 'Children might metabolize faster and need a greater dose than one might think just in terms of scaling down.'
Children are also a special patient group because their bodies are still developing, and leaving them out of clinical trials means the possible effects of drugs on their growth go unaddressed, said review co-author Dr. Kenneth Mandl, an associate professor of pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital.
In addition, some drugs taken by adults work the opposite way in kids, explained Albert Wertheimer, a professor of pharmacoeconomics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
'Drugs for [attention-deficit disorder] are stimulants that people take to stay up for a test, but when used in kids, they settle them down,' Wertheimer noted.
For the review, Bourgeois and her colleagues reviewed all the clinical trials that were registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, the largest repository of clinical trials conducted around the world, between 2006 and 2011 for major pediatric conditions.
One reason for the lack of pediatric clinical trials could be who pays for them: The current study found that, while half of funding for trials on adults came from industry sources such as drug makers, the major source of funding for trials on kids was nonprofit groups.
Although the lack of industry funding of children's drug trials could be viewed as a good thing because industry backing has been shown to introduce biases, 'it's tricky because there are limited resources when it comes to nonprofits, so it would limit the amount you can do,' Bourgeois explained.
Pharmaceutical companies make a 'conscious decision' to exclude children from trials of their drugs because it is more difficult and expensive to recruit children and get parental consent, and they have a higher rate of dropping out of trials, Wertheimer said.
On top of that, the payoff is higher for adults, Mandl said. 'There are even larger markets of adult chronic conditions that are in the sweet spot for profitability of blockbuster drugs.'
In an effort to spur drug research in kids, the U.S. government has been offering financial incentives to drug companies that carry out pediatric studies for more than a decade.
But, Bourgeois thinks that more is needed. 'It should be a combination of financial incentives and some requirements around what drugs need to be tested in children,' she explained.
And, in high-income countries, the drugs to treat mental illness should require the most research. 'It's really neuropsychiatric conditions that have overtaken physical impairments,' Bourgeois explained. 'Children might be deprived of effective treatments if clinicians are not willing to use drugs off-label in them.'
Wertheimer agreed that greater requirements for pediatric clinical trials might be in order.
'For any drug that has a high probability of being used in children, it wouldn't be a bad idea to mandate that the drug be tested in some population of children,' said Wertheimer, who added that drugs such as antibiotics would likely have a large market in children.
In the meantime, the pace of research in children is at least picking up, even if the rate has not been increasing as much as it has for adults, Bourgeois noted.
More information
You can learn more about pediatric studies in children by visiting the Institute of Medicine.
This news article is brought to you by GOING GREEN NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
All UK kids to get AstraZeneca's nasal flu vaccine
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to extend its seasonal flu vaccination program to all children, free of charge, becoming the first country in the world to do so, the Department of Health said on Wednesday.
Children will get AstraZeneca's nasal spray vaccine rather than injections under the new scheme, which is expected to cost more than 100 million pounds ($155 million) a year and cover to up to 9 million children once it is fully established.
The roll-out is likely to take some time, however, since the drugmaker will not have the capacity to deliver enough new vaccine until 2014 at the earliest.
Health experts broadly welcomed the move but said it would be important to keep up constant monitoring of responses and work ahead of time to ensure the plan is accepted by the public.
Peter Openshaw of the centre for respiratory infection at Imperial College London said although there were 'areas of debate' about vaccinating healthy children as well those in high-risk groups, he nevertheless strongly supported the plan.
'Not only would it protect children against flu but it would also reduce the circulation of flu in the population and ... protect those at high risk of severe disease,' he said.
The vaccine, sold under the brand name Fluenz in Europe and FluMist in the United States, is made by AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit and has been available for the past decade in the U.S. This is the first big contract for the product outside America.
While the list price for the vaccine is 14 pounds ($22) a dose, Britain's National Health Service is likely to have negotiated a substantial discount, which may limit the profit boost for AstraZeneca from the contract.
Fluenz contains live attenuated flu virus strains, which are weakened so as to not cause illness.
In several clinical studies it has proved more effective in children compared with traditional injectable vaccines containing inactivated strains made by companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis.
SCHOOL BREEDING GROUNDS
Healthy children do not die of seasonal flu as often as old people do, but they can get so ill they need to go to hospital. Schools also act as a breeding grounds for flu, which can then be brought into the home to infect other family members.
Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics at Britain's Bristol University said he thought the all-children vaccination plan was a good one.
'We know it's effective and safe and flu can be a serious illness in childhood, not just in old age,' he said.
He added that with more than a year until the program is fully established, health authorities have time to do more research on how well the program will work and be accepted.
But David Elliman, consultant in community child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital, said he had 'immense concerns' about the amount of human resources likely to be needed to implement the program.
'School nurses are already very hard stretched and come nowhere near delivering the basics from the Healthy Child Program,' he said in an emailed comment.
He was also worried that the evidence behind the policy decision had not been made public. 'Until that ... is published, it is difficult for people to comment on whether this is an appropriate decision,' he said.
($1 = 0.6441 British pounds)
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Chris Wickham and Jane Merriman)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE CRITIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Children will get AstraZeneca's nasal spray vaccine rather than injections under the new scheme, which is expected to cost more than 100 million pounds ($155 million) a year and cover to up to 9 million children once it is fully established.
The roll-out is likely to take some time, however, since the drugmaker will not have the capacity to deliver enough new vaccine until 2014 at the earliest.
Health experts broadly welcomed the move but said it would be important to keep up constant monitoring of responses and work ahead of time to ensure the plan is accepted by the public.
Peter Openshaw of the centre for respiratory infection at Imperial College London said although there were 'areas of debate' about vaccinating healthy children as well those in high-risk groups, he nevertheless strongly supported the plan.
'Not only would it protect children against flu but it would also reduce the circulation of flu in the population and ... protect those at high risk of severe disease,' he said.
The vaccine, sold under the brand name Fluenz in Europe and FluMist in the United States, is made by AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit and has been available for the past decade in the U.S. This is the first big contract for the product outside America.
While the list price for the vaccine is 14 pounds ($22) a dose, Britain's National Health Service is likely to have negotiated a substantial discount, which may limit the profit boost for AstraZeneca from the contract.
Fluenz contains live attenuated flu virus strains, which are weakened so as to not cause illness.
In several clinical studies it has proved more effective in children compared with traditional injectable vaccines containing inactivated strains made by companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis.
SCHOOL BREEDING GROUNDS
Healthy children do not die of seasonal flu as often as old people do, but they can get so ill they need to go to hospital. Schools also act as a breeding grounds for flu, which can then be brought into the home to infect other family members.
Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics at Britain's Bristol University said he thought the all-children vaccination plan was a good one.
'We know it's effective and safe and flu can be a serious illness in childhood, not just in old age,' he said.
He added that with more than a year until the program is fully established, health authorities have time to do more research on how well the program will work and be accepted.
But David Elliman, consultant in community child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital, said he had 'immense concerns' about the amount of human resources likely to be needed to implement the program.
'School nurses are already very hard stretched and come nowhere near delivering the basics from the Healthy Child Program,' he said in an emailed comment.
He was also worried that the evidence behind the policy decision had not been made public. 'Until that ... is published, it is difficult for people to comment on whether this is an appropriate decision,' he said.
($1 = 0.6441 British pounds)
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Chris Wickham and Jane Merriman)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE CRITIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
UK backs AstraZeneca nasal flu vaccine for all kids
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to extend its seasonal flu vaccination program to all children, free of charge, becoming the first country in the world to do so, the Department of Health said on Wednesday.
Children will get AstraZeneca's nasal spray vaccine, rather than injections, under the new scheme.
The roll-out will take time, however, since the drugmaker will not have the capacity to deliver enough new vaccine until 2014 at the earliest.
FluMist, made by AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, has been available for the past decade in the United States but this is the first big contract for the product outside America.
Once established, the new flu vaccination program will cost more than 100 million pounds ($155 million) each year and will be offered to up to 9 million children.
While the list price for the vaccine is 14 pounds ($22) a dose, Britain's National Health Service is likely to have negotiated a substantial discount, which may limit the profit boost for AstraZeneca from the contract.
Healthy children do not die of seasonal flu as often as old people but they can get sick enough to require admission to hospital. Schools also act as a breeding ground for flu, which can then be brought into the home to infect other family members. ($1 = 0.6441 British pounds)
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Chris Wickham)
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
Children will get AstraZeneca's nasal spray vaccine, rather than injections, under the new scheme.
The roll-out will take time, however, since the drugmaker will not have the capacity to deliver enough new vaccine until 2014 at the earliest.
FluMist, made by AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, has been available for the past decade in the United States but this is the first big contract for the product outside America.
Once established, the new flu vaccination program will cost more than 100 million pounds ($155 million) each year and will be offered to up to 9 million children.
While the list price for the vaccine is 14 pounds ($22) a dose, Britain's National Health Service is likely to have negotiated a substantial discount, which may limit the profit boost for AstraZeneca from the contract.
Healthy children do not die of seasonal flu as often as old people but they can get sick enough to require admission to hospital. Schools also act as a breeding ground for flu, which can then be brought into the home to infect other family members. ($1 = 0.6441 British pounds)
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Chris Wickham)
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Obese Kids May Be at Higher Risk for Heart Disease
TUESDAY, July 24 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers who found that two out of three severely obese children already have at least one risk factor for heart disease say their findings are cause for concern in light of increasing rates of childhood obesity.
The study authors assessed heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, diabetes and cholesterol in 307 severely obese children, aged 2 to 18 years, in the Netherlands.
Boys tended to be more severely obese than girls at a younger age, while the reverse was true for girls, according to the study published online July 23 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Overall, two-thirds (67 percent) of the children had at least one risk factor for heart disease. When it came to specific risk factors, 56 percent of the children had high blood pressure, 54 percent had high levels of 'bad' LDL cholesterol, 14 percent had high blood sugar and just under 1 percent had type 2 diabetes.
The researchers were surprised to find that 62 percent of children aged 12 and younger had one or more heart disease risk factors.
Nearly one in three of the children came from one-parent families. Only one child's obesity was due to medical rather than lifestyle factors, Dr. Joana Kist-van Holthe, of the department of public and occupational health at EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues noted.
'Internationally accepted criteria for defining severe obesity, and guidelines for early detection and treatment of severe obesity and [underlying ill health] are urgently needed,' the researchers concluded in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about childhood overweight and obesity.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The study authors assessed heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, diabetes and cholesterol in 307 severely obese children, aged 2 to 18 years, in the Netherlands.
Boys tended to be more severely obese than girls at a younger age, while the reverse was true for girls, according to the study published online July 23 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Overall, two-thirds (67 percent) of the children had at least one risk factor for heart disease. When it came to specific risk factors, 56 percent of the children had high blood pressure, 54 percent had high levels of 'bad' LDL cholesterol, 14 percent had high blood sugar and just under 1 percent had type 2 diabetes.
The researchers were surprised to find that 62 percent of children aged 12 and younger had one or more heart disease risk factors.
Nearly one in three of the children came from one-parent families. Only one child's obesity was due to medical rather than lifestyle factors, Dr. Joana Kist-van Holthe, of the department of public and occupational health at EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues noted.
'Internationally accepted criteria for defining severe obesity, and guidelines for early detection and treatment of severe obesity and [underlying ill health] are urgently needed,' the researchers concluded in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about childhood overweight and obesity.
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Obese Kids May Be at Higher Risk for Heart Disease
TUESDAY, July 24 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers who found that two out of three severely obese children already have at least one risk factor for heart disease say their findings are cause for concern in light of increasing rates of childhood obesity.
The study authors assessed heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, diabetes and cholesterol in 307 severely obese children, aged 2 to 18 years, in the Netherlands.
Boys tended to be more severely obese than girls at a younger age, while the reverse was true for girls, according to the study published online July 23 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Overall, two-thirds (67 percent) of the children had at least one risk factor for heart disease. When it came to specific risk factors, 56 percent of the children had high blood pressure, 54 percent had high levels of 'bad' LDL cholesterol, 14 percent had high blood sugar and just under 1 percent had type 2 diabetes.
The researchers were surprised to find that 62 percent of children aged 12 and younger had one or more heart disease risk factors.
Nearly one in three of the children came from one-parent families. Only one child's obesity was due to medical rather than lifestyle factors, Dr. Joana Kist-van Holthe, of the department of public and occupational health at EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues noted.
'Internationally accepted criteria for defining severe obesity, and guidelines for early detection and treatment of severe obesity and [underlying ill health] are urgently needed,' the researchers concluded in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about childhood overweight and obesity.
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
The study authors assessed heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, diabetes and cholesterol in 307 severely obese children, aged 2 to 18 years, in the Netherlands.
Boys tended to be more severely obese than girls at a younger age, while the reverse was true for girls, according to the study published online July 23 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Overall, two-thirds (67 percent) of the children had at least one risk factor for heart disease. When it came to specific risk factors, 56 percent of the children had high blood pressure, 54 percent had high levels of 'bad' LDL cholesterol, 14 percent had high blood sugar and just under 1 percent had type 2 diabetes.
The researchers were surprised to find that 62 percent of children aged 12 and younger had one or more heart disease risk factors.
Nearly one in three of the children came from one-parent families. Only one child's obesity was due to medical rather than lifestyle factors, Dr. Joana Kist-van Holthe, of the department of public and occupational health at EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues noted.
'Internationally accepted criteria for defining severe obesity, and guidelines for early detection and treatment of severe obesity and [underlying ill health] are urgently needed,' the researchers concluded in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about childhood overweight and obesity.
This article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE.
Researchers report more condom use among teenagers
WASHINGTON (AP) - More high school students are using condoms than 20 years ago - but progress has stalled with a lot of work still needed to protect young people from the AIDS virus, government researchers reported Tuesday.
Today, 4 of every 10 new HIV infections occur in people younger than 30, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - and the teen years, just as youths become sexually active, are key for getting across the safe-sex message.
Using a long-standing survey of high school students' health, the CDC tracked how teen sexual behavior has changed over 20 years. The results are decidedly mixed.
About 60 percent of sexually active high school students say they used a condom the last time they had sex, researchers said Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference. That's an improvement from the 46 percent who were using condoms in 1991.
"This is good news," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's HIV prevention center. But, "we need to do a lot more."
The problem: Condom use reached a high of 63 percent back in 2003.
Black students are most likely to heed the safe-sex message, yet their condom use dropped from a high of 70 percent in 1999 to 65 percent last year, the study found.
If mom and dad get antsy about discussing condoms, well, about half of high school students have had sex, a proportion that hasn't changed much over the two decades, the CDC reported. Today, 47 percent say they've had sex, down just a bit from 54 percent in 1991. Again, black teens made the most progress, with 60 percent sexually active today compared with 82 percent two decades ago.
The average age when teens begin having sex: 16, CDC said.
The more partners, the more risk. Fifteen percent of high school students say they've had four or more partners, down from 19 percent in 1991.
Fenton said part of the problem is that many school systems don't have strong enough sex education policies that include teaching teens about how to prevent HIV. But he cautioned that the CDC study can't link the abstinence-only policies pushed by Congress through the late 1990s and early 2000s to the stalled progress.
Focusing on individual risk behaviors is just part of the story. Increasingly, HIV is an infection of the poor, and specialists at the world's largest AIDS meeting all week are making the point that tackling it globally will require broader efforts to address problems of poverty including better access to overall health services and fighting stigma.
In the U.S., where new infections have stubbornly held at about 50,000 a year for a decade, complacency is part of the problem, Fenton added.
"We have to generate a new sense of urgency," he said.
Overall, though, a characteristic of the young is to think they're invincible, Fenton added.
Lawrence Stallworth II, 20, of Cleveland can attest that they're not. He learned he was infected with HIV at age 17, when he was a high-school senior, after a hospitalization. A black gay man, he's among one of the nation's highest-risk groups.
He's now an Ohio AIDS activist who works to teach young people that they need to protect themselves, and how.
"I want people to have the tools to keep themselves safe," said Stallworth, who at this week's AIDS conference is working with the nonprofit Advocates for Youth to increase young people's awareness of an epidemic that in the U.S., today gets little publicity.
Part of that involves our society getting "better at being more open about being able to talk about sex," Stallworth added. "It's still a taboo issue."
Indeed, at this week's conference, the world's largest AIDS meeting, young gay men are emerging as a population in special danger from rising HIV infections worldwide, and young black gay men especially in the U.S.
Black gay and bisexual men account for 1 in 500 Americans but 1 in 4 new HIV infections. The odds that a black man who has sex becomes infected rise from 1 in 4 at age 25 to a stunning 60 percent by age 40, said Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute.
But they're not the only ones at risk. The CDC recommends that everyone in the U.S. ages 13 to 65 be tested for HIV at least once. Those at increased risk - such as people who have multiple sex partners or men who have sex with men - should be tested more frequently, at least once a year.
In South Carolina, 18-year-old Quinandria Lee offers an example of the safe sex practices that CDC says more young people should adopt.
Lee was frustrated at her school's abstinence-only focus. She learned about both male and female condoms from the South Carolina Contraceptive Campaign, and last year her principal allowed her to teach her classmates about them. Condoms are the only contraceptive that also protect against HIV infection.
But Lee credits her mother's frank talk about sex with this key protective step: Lee persuaded her boyfriend to go with her to a clinic where both got a clean bill of health before they ever had sex. Still, they use a condom every time.
"It's hard," she said of that get-tested conversation. But "you can't be too sure."
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Today, 4 of every 10 new HIV infections occur in people younger than 30, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - and the teen years, just as youths become sexually active, are key for getting across the safe-sex message.
Using a long-standing survey of high school students' health, the CDC tracked how teen sexual behavior has changed over 20 years. The results are decidedly mixed.
About 60 percent of sexually active high school students say they used a condom the last time they had sex, researchers said Tuesday at the International AIDS Conference. That's an improvement from the 46 percent who were using condoms in 1991.
"This is good news," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's HIV prevention center. But, "we need to do a lot more."
The problem: Condom use reached a high of 63 percent back in 2003.
Black students are most likely to heed the safe-sex message, yet their condom use dropped from a high of 70 percent in 1999 to 65 percent last year, the study found.
If mom and dad get antsy about discussing condoms, well, about half of high school students have had sex, a proportion that hasn't changed much over the two decades, the CDC reported. Today, 47 percent say they've had sex, down just a bit from 54 percent in 1991. Again, black teens made the most progress, with 60 percent sexually active today compared with 82 percent two decades ago.
The average age when teens begin having sex: 16, CDC said.
The more partners, the more risk. Fifteen percent of high school students say they've had four or more partners, down from 19 percent in 1991.
Fenton said part of the problem is that many school systems don't have strong enough sex education policies that include teaching teens about how to prevent HIV. But he cautioned that the CDC study can't link the abstinence-only policies pushed by Congress through the late 1990s and early 2000s to the stalled progress.
Focusing on individual risk behaviors is just part of the story. Increasingly, HIV is an infection of the poor, and specialists at the world's largest AIDS meeting all week are making the point that tackling it globally will require broader efforts to address problems of poverty including better access to overall health services and fighting stigma.
In the U.S., where new infections have stubbornly held at about 50,000 a year for a decade, complacency is part of the problem, Fenton added.
"We have to generate a new sense of urgency," he said.
Overall, though, a characteristic of the young is to think they're invincible, Fenton added.
Lawrence Stallworth II, 20, of Cleveland can attest that they're not. He learned he was infected with HIV at age 17, when he was a high-school senior, after a hospitalization. A black gay man, he's among one of the nation's highest-risk groups.
He's now an Ohio AIDS activist who works to teach young people that they need to protect themselves, and how.
"I want people to have the tools to keep themselves safe," said Stallworth, who at this week's AIDS conference is working with the nonprofit Advocates for Youth to increase young people's awareness of an epidemic that in the U.S., today gets little publicity.
Part of that involves our society getting "better at being more open about being able to talk about sex," Stallworth added. "It's still a taboo issue."
Indeed, at this week's conference, the world's largest AIDS meeting, young gay men are emerging as a population in special danger from rising HIV infections worldwide, and young black gay men especially in the U.S.
Black gay and bisexual men account for 1 in 500 Americans but 1 in 4 new HIV infections. The odds that a black man who has sex becomes infected rise from 1 in 4 at age 25 to a stunning 60 percent by age 40, said Phill Wilson of the Black AIDS Institute.
But they're not the only ones at risk. The CDC recommends that everyone in the U.S. ages 13 to 65 be tested for HIV at least once. Those at increased risk - such as people who have multiple sex partners or men who have sex with men - should be tested more frequently, at least once a year.
In South Carolina, 18-year-old Quinandria Lee offers an example of the safe sex practices that CDC says more young people should adopt.
Lee was frustrated at her school's abstinence-only focus. She learned about both male and female condoms from the South Carolina Contraceptive Campaign, and last year her principal allowed her to teach her classmates about them. Condoms are the only contraceptive that also protect against HIV infection.
But Lee credits her mother's frank talk about sex with this key protective step: Lee persuaded her boyfriend to go with her to a clinic where both got a clean bill of health before they ever had sex. Still, they use a condom every time.
"It's hard," she said of that get-tested conversation. But "you can't be too sure."
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Doctors Spar Over Cholesterol Screening in Kids
MONDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers are debating the merits of recent guidelines that recommend all children aged 9 through 11 be screened for high cholesterol levels, along with certain groups of younger children and teenagers.
The guidelines were written by a panel convened by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and published in the journal Pediatrics last November.
But now doctors publishing in the current issue of Pediatrics say the guidelines are too aggressive and not based solidly on evidence. The paper is joined by a rebuttal from the authors of the guidelines.
The critics of the guidelines make many arguments, including that the guidelines were based more on expert opinion than on solid evidence and that many authors of the guidelines reported industry disclosures.
Dr. Stephen Daniels, chairman of the guidelines panel and head of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, defended the panel Monday to the Associated Press.
Industry ties 'were vetted during the discussions of the panel and I think really did not influence the debate,' he told the AP.
Daniels, a co-author of the rebuttal, reported having worked as a consultant or advisory board member for Abbott Laboratories, Merck and Schering-Plough, now part of Merck. Seven other panel members also made disclosures.
But the critics had other objections as well.
'There is expense and inconvenience to the family to have to get to the doctor before breakfast,' said Dr. Thomas Newman, co-author of the journal commentary article, referring to the recommendation that higher-risk 2- to 8-year-olds and 12- to 16-year-olds be screened after fasting.
There also is the issue of potentially giving lifetime medication to a large group of people. The guidelines estimated that about 1 percent of kids would be put on cholesterol-lowering medications if the guidelines were followed.
'[We don't know] how many children would need to be treated to prevent one heart disease death,' said Newman, who is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. 'The medications would have to be extraordinarily safe, and there haven't been big studies with large enough numbers of children for long enough to know.'
Newman recommends cholesterol screening start at adulthood and obese children not be screened too early.
'Many of these kids have totally normal lipid levels and many with high lipid levels are not obese,' he said. 'You can tell if someone needs to lose weight without having to do any blood test and recommendations for diet and exercise really apply to everybody.'
But the issue of whom to screen and when is far from straightforward, said one cardiologist who was involved with neither the original guidelines nor the rebuttal.
'It's a tough call; it's ... worthy of debate,' said Dr. Stephen Cook, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. Cook also said there may be an argument for universal or near-universal screening to identify kids with familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic trait resulting in high cholesterol levels unusually early in life.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs during childhood may be able to stave off heart disease in this group of children, the rebuttal authors noted.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more on children and cholesterol.
This news article is brought to you by GOING GREEN NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The guidelines were written by a panel convened by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and published in the journal Pediatrics last November.
But now doctors publishing in the current issue of Pediatrics say the guidelines are too aggressive and not based solidly on evidence. The paper is joined by a rebuttal from the authors of the guidelines.
The critics of the guidelines make many arguments, including that the guidelines were based more on expert opinion than on solid evidence and that many authors of the guidelines reported industry disclosures.
Dr. Stephen Daniels, chairman of the guidelines panel and head of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, defended the panel Monday to the Associated Press.
Industry ties 'were vetted during the discussions of the panel and I think really did not influence the debate,' he told the AP.
Daniels, a co-author of the rebuttal, reported having worked as a consultant or advisory board member for Abbott Laboratories, Merck and Schering-Plough, now part of Merck. Seven other panel members also made disclosures.
But the critics had other objections as well.
'There is expense and inconvenience to the family to have to get to the doctor before breakfast,' said Dr. Thomas Newman, co-author of the journal commentary article, referring to the recommendation that higher-risk 2- to 8-year-olds and 12- to 16-year-olds be screened after fasting.
There also is the issue of potentially giving lifetime medication to a large group of people. The guidelines estimated that about 1 percent of kids would be put on cholesterol-lowering medications if the guidelines were followed.
'[We don't know] how many children would need to be treated to prevent one heart disease death,' said Newman, who is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. 'The medications would have to be extraordinarily safe, and there haven't been big studies with large enough numbers of children for long enough to know.'
Newman recommends cholesterol screening start at adulthood and obese children not be screened too early.
'Many of these kids have totally normal lipid levels and many with high lipid levels are not obese,' he said. 'You can tell if someone needs to lose weight without having to do any blood test and recommendations for diet and exercise really apply to everybody.'
But the issue of whom to screen and when is far from straightforward, said one cardiologist who was involved with neither the original guidelines nor the rebuttal.
'It's a tough call; it's ... worthy of debate,' said Dr. Stephen Cook, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. Cook also said there may be an argument for universal or near-universal screening to identify kids with familial hypercholesterolemia, a genetic trait resulting in high cholesterol levels unusually early in life.
Cholesterol-lowering drugs during childhood may be able to stave off heart disease in this group of children, the rebuttal authors noted.
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more on children and cholesterol.
This news article is brought to you by GOING GREEN NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Ob-gyns say no to routine lead testing in pregnancy
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Expectant and breastfeeding mothers should not routinely be screened for high lead levels in their blood, a leading group of U.S. physicians said Monday.
However, the new recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) say doctors should ask women a series of questions to see if they might be at risk for high lead exposure.
If that's the case, a blood test for the heavy metal should be carried out, according to ACOG, so that precautionary steps can be taken if necessary.
Lead is toxic and particularly harmful for developing nervous systems. The metal can be passed through a pregnant woman's placenta to the fetus, or through breast milk to a baby.
Still, only about one percent of American women of child-bearing age have higher-than-normal lead levels in their blood (5 micrograms per deciliter or more).
'The majority of women in the U.S. have very low lead exposures,' said Dr. Eva K. Pressman, who worked on the new recommendations. 'The current recommendation is not to do blood screening on every pregnant woman, but to do some sort of exposure history.'
The group lists a dozen risk factors that should trigger a blood test, including having remodeled older homes that have lead paint and using imported cosmetics or alternative medicines that may be contaminated.
If the blood levels are elevated, a number of steps can be taken - from eliminating the environmental culprit to taking supplements like iron and calcium that curb lead absorption, or medical treatments.
Lead poisoning can cause hypertension, headache, fatigue and behavioral changes. And very high levels of the metal may lead to seizures, coma or even death. In infants, one of the biggest concerns is the metal's effect on IQ.
But Pressman stressed that high lead levels don't necessarily mean a pregnant woman's baby will have problems.
'Every pregnancy is affected slightly differently, so there are pregnancies with high exposures that are not affected and pregnancies with low exposures that are being affected,' Pressman told Reuters Health.
Currently, states have different rules about screening or otherwise assessing pregnant or breastfeeding women for lead exposure. But Pressman said routine screening is not very common.
She acknowledged that asking women about their exposure to lead might have some unfortunate consequences, including leading some to consider abortion if they end up screening positive for high levels.
'I think the biggest harm is worry, and perhaps unnecessary worry because we don't know that those levels will cause harm in a given pregnancy,' Pressman said.
ACOG's recommendations draw on a much larger document from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are meant to give doctors a set of handy instructions they can use in their daily practice.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/O0H5Rt American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee Opinion #533, online July 23, 2012.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
However, the new recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) say doctors should ask women a series of questions to see if they might be at risk for high lead exposure.
If that's the case, a blood test for the heavy metal should be carried out, according to ACOG, so that precautionary steps can be taken if necessary.
Lead is toxic and particularly harmful for developing nervous systems. The metal can be passed through a pregnant woman's placenta to the fetus, or through breast milk to a baby.
Still, only about one percent of American women of child-bearing age have higher-than-normal lead levels in their blood (5 micrograms per deciliter or more).
'The majority of women in the U.S. have very low lead exposures,' said Dr. Eva K. Pressman, who worked on the new recommendations. 'The current recommendation is not to do blood screening on every pregnant woman, but to do some sort of exposure history.'
The group lists a dozen risk factors that should trigger a blood test, including having remodeled older homes that have lead paint and using imported cosmetics or alternative medicines that may be contaminated.
If the blood levels are elevated, a number of steps can be taken - from eliminating the environmental culprit to taking supplements like iron and calcium that curb lead absorption, or medical treatments.
Lead poisoning can cause hypertension, headache, fatigue and behavioral changes. And very high levels of the metal may lead to seizures, coma or even death. In infants, one of the biggest concerns is the metal's effect on IQ.
But Pressman stressed that high lead levels don't necessarily mean a pregnant woman's baby will have problems.
'Every pregnancy is affected slightly differently, so there are pregnancies with high exposures that are not affected and pregnancies with low exposures that are being affected,' Pressman told Reuters Health.
Currently, states have different rules about screening or otherwise assessing pregnant or breastfeeding women for lead exposure. But Pressman said routine screening is not very common.
She acknowledged that asking women about their exposure to lead might have some unfortunate consequences, including leading some to consider abortion if they end up screening positive for high levels.
'I think the biggest harm is worry, and perhaps unnecessary worry because we don't know that those levels will cause harm in a given pregnancy,' Pressman said.
ACOG's recommendations draw on a much larger document from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and are meant to give doctors a set of handy instructions they can use in their daily practice.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/O0H5Rt American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee Opinion #533, online July 23, 2012.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Parents of Severely Disabled Kids Say They Enrich Their Lives
MONDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) -- When Vanessa Hernandez's sixth child was born, she knew right away her daughter was different.
Hernandez's pediatrician wept as she told her the diagnosis. The baby had trisomy 13, a devastating chromosomal abnormality. Most children die before their first birthday and have serious mental and physical disabilities, including heart and breathing problems.
Hernandez's daughter, now 19 months old, hasn't had an easy time. She's had seizures, has a tracheotomy to assist her with breathing and has been fed mostly through a feeding tube.
Despite the hurdles, Isabel is a source of great joy to her family, Hernandez said. Isabel smiles and laughs frequently, and there are no indications she is in pain. Her parents celebrate small achievements. Isabel's five siblings love her fiercely. 'She gets the most love in the house. They are very protective of her. Nobody leaves the room without giving her a hug and a kiss,' Hernandez said.
Though many people believe that raising child with severe birth defects would be more than they could bear, many parents of children with severe disabilities say that couldn't be further from the truth.
In a new study, nearly all -- 97 percent -- of 332 parents of children with trisomy 13 or trisomy 18, another chromosomal abnormality that can cause similarly severe problems and shortened lifespans, described their child as 'happy.' Parents also said that no matter how short their lives, their child enriched their family.
'Despite the fact that often these children live less than a year and they are disabled, families find they are happy children. They find joy in their children. They enrich the family, enrich the couple and the child's life had meaning,' said study author Dr. Annie Janvier, an associate professor of pediatrics and clinical ethics at University of Montreal. 'None of the parents said they regretted not terminating the pregnancy. None said the life was unworthy of living. All of the parents reported the quality of life of their child was a good quality of life.'
But that's not always what doctors tell parents to expect, according to the study in the August issue of Pediatrics. Many parents -- 87 percent -- were told their child's condition was 'incompatible with life,' 57 percent were told their child would live a life of suffering, 50 percent were told their child would be a 'vegetable' and 23 percent were told their child would 'ruin their family.'
The medical community, including the American Academy of Pediatrics Neonatal Resuscitation Program textbook, recommends against resuscitation for trisomy 13 and 18.
Dr. Roya Samuels, a pediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., called the research 'eye-opening.' Physicians need to present objective information and statistics on what parents should expect with trisomy 13, 18 or other congenital conditions for that matter. But those numbers, she added, need to be tempered with compassion, an understanding that quality of life is highly subjective and that parents may readjust their own beliefs about what constitutes quality of life after the birth of their child.
'There are a lot of lessons for pediatricians and health care professionals to learn. It highlights the divide that there is between the physician and the patient,' Samuels said. 'Sometimes the physician can be a little bit too objective, a little bit too harsh with statistics and invoking the element of fear when it comes to delivering news of a diagnosis like trisomy 13 or 18.'
Rick Santorum, who recently ran for president, spoke about his youngest daughter, Bella, who was diagnosed at 5 days old with trisomy 18, in a campaign video. 'We felt blessed that we had Bella, yet we were told by the medical community, 'Why do anything? Just let her go.''
Santorum went on to say, 'We felt we owed her the opportunity, the chance to do as well as she could. Over the past few years, she has been a wonderful, joyful, center of the universe, if you will, for our family.'
That sentiment isn't unusual, said Barbara Farlow, a study co-author and mother of nine from Toronto who gave birth to a daughter with trisomy 13 in 2005. The condition was detected by a prenatal test at 21 weeks. An engineer and financial analyst, Farlow considered terminating the pregnancy -- she had a busy life with five typically developing kids who excelled in school and sports.
But she and her husband researched the condition. They chose not to terminate after meeting families who had children with the same diagnosis, and seeing the love they had for their children.
'Doctors have controlled all the information about these conditions. Many would say, 'Your child will be a vegetable. This will ruin your life. Your child will live a life of suffering, and parents made decisions based on that,' Farlow said. 'A lot of people equate disability with suffering. Not necessarily 'pain' suffering but if you can't do what other people do, then you're suffering.'
'With the Internet and the development of online parent support groups, parents have been able to acquire a different view than what the doctor described to them,' Farlow said.
Farlow's daughter, Annie, lived 80 days. During her life, she helped teach the family compassion, patience and to appreciate every day, Farlow said. 'Before you're in this type of situation, it's easy to make a passing judgment about what lives are worth living,' she said. 'That changes when you have a life placed in your hands.'
The stories of these families are uplifting, and give pediatricians and parents facing difficult decisions a point of view many may not have considered, Samuels said. But it's also important for families to realize that caring for a child with trisomy 13 and 18 is a tough road, financially and emotionally for parents, while children may be in and out of the ICU. And though some kids beat the odds, many parents of children with trisomy 13 and 18, which involves an extra copy of chromosome 13 or 18, face the grief of burying their child.
'We have children with these conditions, and the parents go through hell at times,' she said.
Those sorts of worries don't escape Hernandez, who lives on Long Island, N.Y. She urges parents to reach out to online support groups like the one she runs, Living with Trisomy 13. At least 18 other such groups exist, according to background information in the article.
'I don't want to tell anybody any pipe dream. It's not all sugarplum fairies. The first year my other children basically didn't have parents. My house didn't get cleaned and the laundry didn't get done. It was all about Isabel,' she said. 'But we want people to know the real story. To give them both sides, and let them make a decision. Don't try to scare them into something.'
'My life is better because of Isabel. All of our lives are better because of her.'
More information
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford has more on trisomy 13 and 18.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Hernandez's pediatrician wept as she told her the diagnosis. The baby had trisomy 13, a devastating chromosomal abnormality. Most children die before their first birthday and have serious mental and physical disabilities, including heart and breathing problems.
Hernandez's daughter, now 19 months old, hasn't had an easy time. She's had seizures, has a tracheotomy to assist her with breathing and has been fed mostly through a feeding tube.
Despite the hurdles, Isabel is a source of great joy to her family, Hernandez said. Isabel smiles and laughs frequently, and there are no indications she is in pain. Her parents celebrate small achievements. Isabel's five siblings love her fiercely. 'She gets the most love in the house. They are very protective of her. Nobody leaves the room without giving her a hug and a kiss,' Hernandez said.
Though many people believe that raising child with severe birth defects would be more than they could bear, many parents of children with severe disabilities say that couldn't be further from the truth.
In a new study, nearly all -- 97 percent -- of 332 parents of children with trisomy 13 or trisomy 18, another chromosomal abnormality that can cause similarly severe problems and shortened lifespans, described their child as 'happy.' Parents also said that no matter how short their lives, their child enriched their family.
'Despite the fact that often these children live less than a year and they are disabled, families find they are happy children. They find joy in their children. They enrich the family, enrich the couple and the child's life had meaning,' said study author Dr. Annie Janvier, an associate professor of pediatrics and clinical ethics at University of Montreal. 'None of the parents said they regretted not terminating the pregnancy. None said the life was unworthy of living. All of the parents reported the quality of life of their child was a good quality of life.'
But that's not always what doctors tell parents to expect, according to the study in the August issue of Pediatrics. Many parents -- 87 percent -- were told their child's condition was 'incompatible with life,' 57 percent were told their child would live a life of suffering, 50 percent were told their child would be a 'vegetable' and 23 percent were told their child would 'ruin their family.'
The medical community, including the American Academy of Pediatrics Neonatal Resuscitation Program textbook, recommends against resuscitation for trisomy 13 and 18.
Dr. Roya Samuels, a pediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., called the research 'eye-opening.' Physicians need to present objective information and statistics on what parents should expect with trisomy 13, 18 or other congenital conditions for that matter. But those numbers, she added, need to be tempered with compassion, an understanding that quality of life is highly subjective and that parents may readjust their own beliefs about what constitutes quality of life after the birth of their child.
'There are a lot of lessons for pediatricians and health care professionals to learn. It highlights the divide that there is between the physician and the patient,' Samuels said. 'Sometimes the physician can be a little bit too objective, a little bit too harsh with statistics and invoking the element of fear when it comes to delivering news of a diagnosis like trisomy 13 or 18.'
Rick Santorum, who recently ran for president, spoke about his youngest daughter, Bella, who was diagnosed at 5 days old with trisomy 18, in a campaign video. 'We felt blessed that we had Bella, yet we were told by the medical community, 'Why do anything? Just let her go.''
Santorum went on to say, 'We felt we owed her the opportunity, the chance to do as well as she could. Over the past few years, she has been a wonderful, joyful, center of the universe, if you will, for our family.'
That sentiment isn't unusual, said Barbara Farlow, a study co-author and mother of nine from Toronto who gave birth to a daughter with trisomy 13 in 2005. The condition was detected by a prenatal test at 21 weeks. An engineer and financial analyst, Farlow considered terminating the pregnancy -- she had a busy life with five typically developing kids who excelled in school and sports.
But she and her husband researched the condition. They chose not to terminate after meeting families who had children with the same diagnosis, and seeing the love they had for their children.
'Doctors have controlled all the information about these conditions. Many would say, 'Your child will be a vegetable. This will ruin your life. Your child will live a life of suffering, and parents made decisions based on that,' Farlow said. 'A lot of people equate disability with suffering. Not necessarily 'pain' suffering but if you can't do what other people do, then you're suffering.'
'With the Internet and the development of online parent support groups, parents have been able to acquire a different view than what the doctor described to them,' Farlow said.
Farlow's daughter, Annie, lived 80 days. During her life, she helped teach the family compassion, patience and to appreciate every day, Farlow said. 'Before you're in this type of situation, it's easy to make a passing judgment about what lives are worth living,' she said. 'That changes when you have a life placed in your hands.'
The stories of these families are uplifting, and give pediatricians and parents facing difficult decisions a point of view many may not have considered, Samuels said. But it's also important for families to realize that caring for a child with trisomy 13 and 18 is a tough road, financially and emotionally for parents, while children may be in and out of the ICU. And though some kids beat the odds, many parents of children with trisomy 13 and 18, which involves an extra copy of chromosome 13 or 18, face the grief of burying their child.
'We have children with these conditions, and the parents go through hell at times,' she said.
Those sorts of worries don't escape Hernandez, who lives on Long Island, N.Y. She urges parents to reach out to online support groups like the one she runs, Living with Trisomy 13. At least 18 other such groups exist, according to background information in the article.
'I don't want to tell anybody any pipe dream. It's not all sugarplum fairies. The first year my other children basically didn't have parents. My house didn't get cleaned and the laundry didn't get done. It was all about Isabel,' she said. 'But we want people to know the real story. To give them both sides, and let them make a decision. Don't try to scare them into something.'
'My life is better because of Isabel. All of our lives are better because of her.'
More information
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford has more on trisomy 13 and 18.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Docs at odds over kids' cholesterol test guidance
CHICAGO (AP) - Should all U.S. children get tested for high cholesterol? Doctors are still debating that question months after a government-appointed panel recommended widespread screening that would lead to prescribing medicine for some kids.
Fresh criticism was published online Monday in Pediatrics by researchers at one university who say the guidelines are too aggressive and were influenced by panel members' financial ties to drugmakers.
Eight of the 14 guidelines panel members reported industry ties and disclosed that when their advice was published in December. They contend in a rebuttal article in Pediatrics that company payments covered costs of evaluating whether the drugs are safe and effective but did not influence the recommendations.
It also is not uncommon for experts in their fields to have received some consulting fees from drug companies.
Even so, the ties pose a conflict of interest that "undermines the credibility of both the guidelines and the process through which they were produced," says the commentary by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. The authors are Dr. Thomas Newman, a researcher and former member of a Food and Drug Administration pediatrics advisory committee, and two heart disease researchers, Drs. Mark Pletcher and Stephen Hulley.
Pletcher has received research funding from drug and device makers; the other authors said they had no relevant industry ties.
Other criticism was published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That critique raised concerns about putting children on cholesterol drugs called statins, noting the medicine has been linked with a rare muscle-damaging condition in adults. Those authors were heart specialist Bruce Psaty and pediatrician Frederick Rivara, both of the University of Washington in Seattle.
JAMA included additional criticism from a dissenting member of the panel that produced the kids' cholesterol guidelines, Dr. Matthew Gillman of Harvard Medical School. He recommends more narrow screening based on family history of cholesterol problems.
The guidelines are endorsed by the Academy of Pediatrics, which publishes the journal that carried the critical commentary Monday. The panel recommends that all U.S. children should get blood tests for high cholesterol as early as age 9 and that testing should begin much earlier for kids at risk of future heart disease, including those with diabetes or a family history of heart problems. Treatment should generally begin with lifestyle changes including diet and exercise, the guidelines say.
Cholesterol drugs would be recommended for some kids, but probably less than 1 percent of those tested. But the advice says those drugs, including statins, shouldn't be used at all in children younger than 10 unless they have severe problems.
The guidelines aim to help prevent and treat conditions in children that put them at risk for later heart-related problems. At least 10 percent of U.S. children have unhealthy cholesterol levels and one-third are overweight or obese.
The dispute may leave parents wondering whether to have their kids screened.
Dr. Sarah De Ferranti, an American Academy of Pediatrics spokeswoman and director of preventive cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital, said the question should be part of a conversation parents should have with their pediatrician about heart disease risks, including weight, blood pressure and lifestyle.
"Almost all of us could do better in that area," she said.
"My kids are about to turn 9 and I'm going to have them screened," said De Ferranti, who has a family history of heart disease risks.
Experts on panels that create screening and treatment recommendations for various diseases frequently have at least some financial ties to industry.
"The problem is the people who care about this issue are doing research on it and there's no way to get research done without some involvement of industry," said De Ferranti, who has done industry-funded research herself.
The critics say there's little evidence that widespread cholesterol testing and treatment in children will reduce their chances of having later heart problems. They argue that widespread testing is costly and could cause anxiety in healthy children who don't need treatment.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute appointed the guidelines panel. Dr. Susan Shurin, the institute's acting director, said there are few qualified specialists who have no industry relationships, and that panel members were selected for their expertise.
"We got the best people in the country to do this," Shurin said.
Dr. Stephen Daniels, chairman of the guidelines panel, is pediatrics chief at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He has worked as a consultant or advisory board member for Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co. Inc. and Schering-Plough, now part of Merck, and co-authored the Pediatrics rebuttal.
Daniels said industry ties "were vetted during the discussions of the panel and I think really did not influence the debate."
The other rebuttal authors Drs. Brian McCrindle of the University of Toronto, whose industry ties include consulting or serving as advisory board member for Merck and Abbott; Peter Kwiterovich of Johns Hopkins, consulting or advisory board member for Merck and LipoScience; Patrick McBride, University of Wisconsin, who says he has had no relevant industry ties since 2007; and Rae-Ellen Kavey, University of Rochester, who listed no relevant financial ties.
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Fresh criticism was published online Monday in Pediatrics by researchers at one university who say the guidelines are too aggressive and were influenced by panel members' financial ties to drugmakers.
Eight of the 14 guidelines panel members reported industry ties and disclosed that when their advice was published in December. They contend in a rebuttal article in Pediatrics that company payments covered costs of evaluating whether the drugs are safe and effective but did not influence the recommendations.
It also is not uncommon for experts in their fields to have received some consulting fees from drug companies.
Even so, the ties pose a conflict of interest that "undermines the credibility of both the guidelines and the process through which they were produced," says the commentary by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco. The authors are Dr. Thomas Newman, a researcher and former member of a Food and Drug Administration pediatrics advisory committee, and two heart disease researchers, Drs. Mark Pletcher and Stephen Hulley.
Pletcher has received research funding from drug and device makers; the other authors said they had no relevant industry ties.
Other criticism was published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That critique raised concerns about putting children on cholesterol drugs called statins, noting the medicine has been linked with a rare muscle-damaging condition in adults. Those authors were heart specialist Bruce Psaty and pediatrician Frederick Rivara, both of the University of Washington in Seattle.
JAMA included additional criticism from a dissenting member of the panel that produced the kids' cholesterol guidelines, Dr. Matthew Gillman of Harvard Medical School. He recommends more narrow screening based on family history of cholesterol problems.
The guidelines are endorsed by the Academy of Pediatrics, which publishes the journal that carried the critical commentary Monday. The panel recommends that all U.S. children should get blood tests for high cholesterol as early as age 9 and that testing should begin much earlier for kids at risk of future heart disease, including those with diabetes or a family history of heart problems. Treatment should generally begin with lifestyle changes including diet and exercise, the guidelines say.
Cholesterol drugs would be recommended for some kids, but probably less than 1 percent of those tested. But the advice says those drugs, including statins, shouldn't be used at all in children younger than 10 unless they have severe problems.
The guidelines aim to help prevent and treat conditions in children that put them at risk for later heart-related problems. At least 10 percent of U.S. children have unhealthy cholesterol levels and one-third are overweight or obese.
The dispute may leave parents wondering whether to have their kids screened.
Dr. Sarah De Ferranti, an American Academy of Pediatrics spokeswoman and director of preventive cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital, said the question should be part of a conversation parents should have with their pediatrician about heart disease risks, including weight, blood pressure and lifestyle.
"Almost all of us could do better in that area," she said.
"My kids are about to turn 9 and I'm going to have them screened," said De Ferranti, who has a family history of heart disease risks.
Experts on panels that create screening and treatment recommendations for various diseases frequently have at least some financial ties to industry.
"The problem is the people who care about this issue are doing research on it and there's no way to get research done without some involvement of industry," said De Ferranti, who has done industry-funded research herself.
The critics say there's little evidence that widespread cholesterol testing and treatment in children will reduce their chances of having later heart problems. They argue that widespread testing is costly and could cause anxiety in healthy children who don't need treatment.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute appointed the guidelines panel. Dr. Susan Shurin, the institute's acting director, said there are few qualified specialists who have no industry relationships, and that panel members were selected for their expertise.
"We got the best people in the country to do this," Shurin said.
Dr. Stephen Daniels, chairman of the guidelines panel, is pediatrics chief at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He has worked as a consultant or advisory board member for Abbott Laboratories, Merck & Co. Inc. and Schering-Plough, now part of Merck, and co-authored the Pediatrics rebuttal.
Daniels said industry ties "were vetted during the discussions of the panel and I think really did not influence the debate."
The other rebuttal authors Drs. Brian McCrindle of the University of Toronto, whose industry ties include consulting or serving as advisory board member for Merck and Abbott; Peter Kwiterovich of Johns Hopkins, consulting or advisory board member for Merck and LipoScience; Patrick McBride, University of Wisconsin, who says he has had no relevant industry ties since 2007; and Rae-Ellen Kavey, University of Rochester, who listed no relevant financial ties.
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Parents, docs may clash on quality of kids' lives
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - About one in four parents of children with a serious and often fatal genetic condition say they feel judged by doctors when they want life-sustaining treatment for their newborns, in a new study.
The majority of parents of children with an extra 13th or 18th chromosome - known as trisomy 13 or 18 - said doctors had told them their kids were 'incompatible with life' or would 'live a life of suffering' in the course of counseling against pursuing life-prolonging treatments.
'There are some valuable points that the medical establishment could take from this,' said Dr. David Sweetser, chief of medical genetics at Mass General Hospital for Children in Boston.
'It's a delicate situation and I don't think you could make a generalized statement that these babies should never receive life sustaining treatment. Those types of interventions should be personalized,' Sweetser, who was not involved in the new study, added.
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates trisomy 13 and 18 occurs, respectively, in about 1.3 and 2.7 of every 10,000 live births.
The genetic anomalies often result in miscarriage, and babies who are delivered have a combination of birth defects and health problems that include - among other things - sloping foreheads, deformed limbs, and neurological and heart problems.
About 90 percent die within a year of birth, according to the U.S. and Canadian researchers who published their results in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
Parents may ask for treatments, such as being resuscitated and inserting breathing or feeding tubes, that may prolong their children's lives. The alternative is to make the child as comfortable as possible without any drastic treatments.
Some guidelines, including a textbook from the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend against resuscitating a newborn with trisomy 13 or 18, researchers say.
Nonetheless, online support groups and networks for parents and families living with these conditions may offer parents views that differ from what doctors usually know about the conditions.
Some doctors' only experience with these conditions is from reading textbooks, which can be pretty grim, according to Dr. Benjamin Wilfond, of Seattle Children's Research Institute at the University of Washington.
'There is a broader range of survival and experiences than providers know. The parents may be getting this information online and clinicians may need to rethink what they say to parents,' said Wilfond, the study's senior author.
'I think the point of our paper is to say these are quite serious conditions, but saying it's hopeless is inconsistent with reality,' he added.
FULL CARE VS. COMFORT CARE
To find out what parents experience after talking with their children's doctors and seeking support through online groups, Wilfond and his colleagues - one of whom had a child who died with trisomy 13 - sent online surveys to 503 members of Internet support groups and networks for parents of children with trisomy 13 or 18.
Overall, 332 parents of 272 children in the U.S., Canada, UK and 12 other countries completed surveys (meaning, in some cases, both parents completed a survey).
Of those children, 216 had full trisomy 13 or 18, which is usually the most severe form of the conditions, compared to those whose cells may not all have an extra chromosome.
About a quarter of the children received full care, which can include resuscitation or other life sustaining treatments. Another half did not receive full care, which means they were just kept comfortable. The rest had a combination of the two.
Regardless of what type of care their children got, about 89 percent of parents said they felt their children's lives were positive.
At the time of the study 79 children were still living and the vast majority of parents said they were able to communicate with them and almost all said their kids were 'happy.'
DOCTOR INTERACTIONS
Among parents who chose to have full care, nearly 40 percent felt 'judged' by doctors.
Of all parents, half or more said they were told their children's lives would be 'meaningless,' the children would be 'vegetables,' or would 'ruin' their marriages or families.
About 60 percent of parents, however, did say they were told their children may have a short, but 'meaningful' life.
Overall, the researchers found that parents wanted doctors to treat their children as people by learning their names, offering to take pictures and referring them to other families or websites.
In some cases, parents said that doctors called their child 'it' or 'T13 or T18.'
Sweetser told Reuters Health that a doctor not learning a child's name unfortunately happens.
'Part of what we would like to do is expand the imagination of the providers - based upon the data that is available - to a range of possibilities for these children,' said Wilfond.
That being said, the study has some limitations, according to the researchers. Specifically, it does not capture the experiences of all parents of children with trisomy 13 or 18, just those in the online support groups. Also, the researchers do not have data on women who miscarry or get an abortion as a result of the condition.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/L9suBT Pediatrics, online July 23, 2012.
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
The majority of parents of children with an extra 13th or 18th chromosome - known as trisomy 13 or 18 - said doctors had told them their kids were 'incompatible with life' or would 'live a life of suffering' in the course of counseling against pursuing life-prolonging treatments.
'There are some valuable points that the medical establishment could take from this,' said Dr. David Sweetser, chief of medical genetics at Mass General Hospital for Children in Boston.
'It's a delicate situation and I don't think you could make a generalized statement that these babies should never receive life sustaining treatment. Those types of interventions should be personalized,' Sweetser, who was not involved in the new study, added.
In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates trisomy 13 and 18 occurs, respectively, in about 1.3 and 2.7 of every 10,000 live births.
The genetic anomalies often result in miscarriage, and babies who are delivered have a combination of birth defects and health problems that include - among other things - sloping foreheads, deformed limbs, and neurological and heart problems.
About 90 percent die within a year of birth, according to the U.S. and Canadian researchers who published their results in the journal Pediatrics on Monday.
Parents may ask for treatments, such as being resuscitated and inserting breathing or feeding tubes, that may prolong their children's lives. The alternative is to make the child as comfortable as possible without any drastic treatments.
Some guidelines, including a textbook from the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend against resuscitating a newborn with trisomy 13 or 18, researchers say.
Nonetheless, online support groups and networks for parents and families living with these conditions may offer parents views that differ from what doctors usually know about the conditions.
Some doctors' only experience with these conditions is from reading textbooks, which can be pretty grim, according to Dr. Benjamin Wilfond, of Seattle Children's Research Institute at the University of Washington.
'There is a broader range of survival and experiences than providers know. The parents may be getting this information online and clinicians may need to rethink what they say to parents,' said Wilfond, the study's senior author.
'I think the point of our paper is to say these are quite serious conditions, but saying it's hopeless is inconsistent with reality,' he added.
FULL CARE VS. COMFORT CARE
To find out what parents experience after talking with their children's doctors and seeking support through online groups, Wilfond and his colleagues - one of whom had a child who died with trisomy 13 - sent online surveys to 503 members of Internet support groups and networks for parents of children with trisomy 13 or 18.
Overall, 332 parents of 272 children in the U.S., Canada, UK and 12 other countries completed surveys (meaning, in some cases, both parents completed a survey).
Of those children, 216 had full trisomy 13 or 18, which is usually the most severe form of the conditions, compared to those whose cells may not all have an extra chromosome.
About a quarter of the children received full care, which can include resuscitation or other life sustaining treatments. Another half did not receive full care, which means they were just kept comfortable. The rest had a combination of the two.
Regardless of what type of care their children got, about 89 percent of parents said they felt their children's lives were positive.
At the time of the study 79 children were still living and the vast majority of parents said they were able to communicate with them and almost all said their kids were 'happy.'
DOCTOR INTERACTIONS
Among parents who chose to have full care, nearly 40 percent felt 'judged' by doctors.
Of all parents, half or more said they were told their children's lives would be 'meaningless,' the children would be 'vegetables,' or would 'ruin' their marriages or families.
About 60 percent of parents, however, did say they were told their children may have a short, but 'meaningful' life.
Overall, the researchers found that parents wanted doctors to treat their children as people by learning their names, offering to take pictures and referring them to other families or websites.
In some cases, parents said that doctors called their child 'it' or 'T13 or T18.'
Sweetser told Reuters Health that a doctor not learning a child's name unfortunately happens.
'Part of what we would like to do is expand the imagination of the providers - based upon the data that is available - to a range of possibilities for these children,' said Wilfond.
That being said, the study has some limitations, according to the researchers. Specifically, it does not capture the experiences of all parents of children with trisomy 13 or 18, just those in the online support groups. Also, the researchers do not have data on women who miscarry or get an abortion as a result of the condition.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/L9suBT Pediatrics, online July 23, 2012.
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
Friday, July 20, 2012
How to protect kids from whooping cough outbreaks
ATLANTA (AP) - Whooping cough was once a terrible menace to U.S. children, with hundreds of thousands of cases reported annually. Then a vaccine drove cases down, and the illness became thought of as rare and even antiquated.
But it never totally disappeared, and now there's been a spike in cases.
With nearly 18,000 cases so far this year, health officials say this is shaping up to be the worst national epidemic in more than 50 years for the highly contagious disease.
Worrisome numbers have been reported in more than a dozen states.
What's a parent to do?
Some advice:
FIRST STEP: Make sure your child is up-to-date on vaccination against whooping cough, or pertussis. There are five doses, with the first shot at age 2 months and the last between 4 and 6 years. A booster shot is recommended around 11 or 12. It's part of routine childhood shots that also protect against diphtheria and tetanus.
PROTECT YOURSELF: Adults who are around kids should get a whooping cough booster shot so that they don't spread it to young children, who are the most vulnerable to whooping cough. Nine young children have died so far this year. The booster for teens and adults, approved in 2005, was combined with the tetanus booster that adults are supposed to get every 10 years or so.
VACCINE NOT PERFECT: No vaccine is 100 percent effective, and its ability to fend off infections wanes as years pass. But even diminished vaccine protection is better than nothing, and usually people who are vaccinated have milder cases. In this current epidemic, experts are investigating whether the childhood shots and the booster offer less lasting protection than previously thought.
WATCH FOR SYMPTOMS: The illness typically starts with cold-like symptoms that can include a runny nose, congestion, low-grade fever and a mild cough. Infants may have a pause in breathing, called apnea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises parents to see a doctor if they or their children develop prolonged or severe coughing fits, vomiting and exhaustion.
The name comes from the sound children make as they gasp for breath. Here's what it sounds like: http://tinyurl.com/btskus
The disease is spread through coughing or sneezing. Whooping cough is treated with antibiotics, the earlier the better.
___
Online:
CDC on whooping cough: http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/about/index.html
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
But it never totally disappeared, and now there's been a spike in cases.
With nearly 18,000 cases so far this year, health officials say this is shaping up to be the worst national epidemic in more than 50 years for the highly contagious disease.
Worrisome numbers have been reported in more than a dozen states.
What's a parent to do?
Some advice:
FIRST STEP: Make sure your child is up-to-date on vaccination against whooping cough, or pertussis. There are five doses, with the first shot at age 2 months and the last between 4 and 6 years. A booster shot is recommended around 11 or 12. It's part of routine childhood shots that also protect against diphtheria and tetanus.
PROTECT YOURSELF: Adults who are around kids should get a whooping cough booster shot so that they don't spread it to young children, who are the most vulnerable to whooping cough. Nine young children have died so far this year. The booster for teens and adults, approved in 2005, was combined with the tetanus booster that adults are supposed to get every 10 years or so.
VACCINE NOT PERFECT: No vaccine is 100 percent effective, and its ability to fend off infections wanes as years pass. But even diminished vaccine protection is better than nothing, and usually people who are vaccinated have milder cases. In this current epidemic, experts are investigating whether the childhood shots and the booster offer less lasting protection than previously thought.
WATCH FOR SYMPTOMS: The illness typically starts with cold-like symptoms that can include a runny nose, congestion, low-grade fever and a mild cough. Infants may have a pause in breathing, called apnea. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises parents to see a doctor if they or their children develop prolonged or severe coughing fits, vomiting and exhaustion.
The name comes from the sound children make as they gasp for breath. Here's what it sounds like: http://tinyurl.com/btskus
The disease is spread through coughing or sneezing. Whooping cough is treated with antibiotics, the earlier the better.
___
Online:
CDC on whooping cough: http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/about/index.html
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Talk to Your Kids About the Colorado Killings
FRIDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- As word spread Friday that a heavily armed man had shot up a suburban Denver movie theater crowded with families and children for a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, mental health experts offered guidance on how to cope with the tragedy.
While this latest act of carnage unnerved a nation still scarred by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, psychologists said children and teens may be especially vulnerable to the early Friday shootings in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and as many as 59 others wounded.
'It would be perfectly normal for people to be more on edge right now,' said Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. 'It's a natural reaction when you hear about, experience or witness a traumatic event. You're primed to be more vigilant about what's happening to you.'
But parents can do much to reassure their children that such an incident isn't likely to repeat itself anytime soon, experts said. And it's important to offer that reassurance now.
'This is clearly a very disturbed individual [the 24-year-old shooting suspect] and parents have to reassure kids that this is a very random event and they shouldn't bring their lives to a halt because of this,' said Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. 'Parents have to reassure kids that they're going to do everything they can to make sure they're safe.'
A good place to start is by communicating, Rego said.
'Make sure you're having a talk,' he advised. 'Make sure a support system is there so if people are looking anxious or stressed out, encourage them to talk about what they're experiencing or feeling.'
Echoing Hilfer, Rego said, 'The second thing to do is recognize that there are these events that, unfortunately, happen in our lives that are traumatic and unpredictable and we also have to be able to go on with our lives.'
A bigger question is how this latest incident will affect the psyche of a generation of young Americans already exposed to extremely high levels of violence.
The list includes two shocking school shootings. The first: April 16, 2007, when a gunman killed 23 people and then himself on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. The second: April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., not far from the site of Friday's tragedy, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.
And, of course, the horror of 9/11, when terrorists hijacked jets and crashed them into the Twin Towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people.
A New York Times review of The Dark Knight Rises noted that the film includes 'the explosions, the dust, the panic and the sweeping aerial shots of a very real-looking New York City -- [that] invokes the September 11 attacks.'
The new Batman movie opened around the world Friday with midnight showings in the United States.
The Colorado shootings prompted officials to cancel the Paris premiere, with workers removing the red carpet display at a theater on the Champs-Elysees Avenue, the Associated Press reported.
NBC New York reported that the New York City Police Department was increasing security at city theaters showing the movie. 'As a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons in the wake of the horrendous shooting in Colorado, the New York City Police Department is providing coverage at theaters where the 'The Dark Knight Rises' is playing in the five boroughs,' Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.
It's unclear if the violent acts of the past 13 years are having a cumulative impact on young Americans.
Whatever the impact, the effect or effects are likely to be very individual, Rego said.
'People [can] develop an anxiety or apprehension about the things that go wrong for us. At the same time, people have tremendous resiliencies, too,' he said. 'We have different psychological and biological vulnerabilities in our reactions to these events.'
The suspect in Friday's shootings was described as James Holmes, a 24-year-old former medical student. He had attended the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver until last month, a school spokeswoman said, adding that she didn't know why he withdrew from the school, the AP reported.
Wearing a gas mask, Holmes allegedly walked into a midnight showing of the Batman movie, unleashed a gas canister and then opened fire, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, the news service said.
As the gas started to spread, some patrons thought it was a stunt that was part of the movie. Then they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting, the AP reported.
Authorities did not release a motive, and the FBI said there was no indication that the shooting was tied to a terrorist group.
Holmes reportedly had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, a federal law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the AP reported.
More information
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has more on anxiety in children and teens.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
While this latest act of carnage unnerved a nation still scarred by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, psychologists said children and teens may be especially vulnerable to the early Friday shootings in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and as many as 59 others wounded.
'It would be perfectly normal for people to be more on edge right now,' said Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. 'It's a natural reaction when you hear about, experience or witness a traumatic event. You're primed to be more vigilant about what's happening to you.'
But parents can do much to reassure their children that such an incident isn't likely to repeat itself anytime soon, experts said. And it's important to offer that reassurance now.
'This is clearly a very disturbed individual [the 24-year-old shooting suspect] and parents have to reassure kids that this is a very random event and they shouldn't bring their lives to a halt because of this,' said Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. 'Parents have to reassure kids that they're going to do everything they can to make sure they're safe.'
A good place to start is by communicating, Rego said.
'Make sure you're having a talk,' he advised. 'Make sure a support system is there so if people are looking anxious or stressed out, encourage them to talk about what they're experiencing or feeling.'
Echoing Hilfer, Rego said, 'The second thing to do is recognize that there are these events that, unfortunately, happen in our lives that are traumatic and unpredictable and we also have to be able to go on with our lives.'
A bigger question is how this latest incident will affect the psyche of a generation of young Americans already exposed to extremely high levels of violence.
The list includes two shocking school shootings. The first: April 16, 2007, when a gunman killed 23 people and then himself on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. The second: April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., not far from the site of Friday's tragedy, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.
And, of course, the horror of 9/11, when terrorists hijacked jets and crashed them into the Twin Towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people.
A New York Times review of The Dark Knight Rises noted that the film includes 'the explosions, the dust, the panic and the sweeping aerial shots of a very real-looking New York City -- [that] invokes the September 11 attacks.'
The new Batman movie opened around the world Friday with midnight showings in the United States.
The Colorado shootings prompted officials to cancel the Paris premiere, with workers removing the red carpet display at a theater on the Champs-Elysees Avenue, the Associated Press reported.
NBC New York reported that the New York City Police Department was increasing security at city theaters showing the movie. 'As a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons in the wake of the horrendous shooting in Colorado, the New York City Police Department is providing coverage at theaters where the 'The Dark Knight Rises' is playing in the five boroughs,' Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.
It's unclear if the violent acts of the past 13 years are having a cumulative impact on young Americans.
Whatever the impact, the effect or effects are likely to be very individual, Rego said.
'People [can] develop an anxiety or apprehension about the things that go wrong for us. At the same time, people have tremendous resiliencies, too,' he said. 'We have different psychological and biological vulnerabilities in our reactions to these events.'
The suspect in Friday's shootings was described as James Holmes, a 24-year-old former medical student. He had attended the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver until last month, a school spokeswoman said, adding that she didn't know why he withdrew from the school, the AP reported.
Wearing a gas mask, Holmes allegedly walked into a midnight showing of the Batman movie, unleashed a gas canister and then opened fire, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, the news service said.
As the gas started to spread, some patrons thought it was a stunt that was part of the movie. Then they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting, the AP reported.
Authorities did not release a motive, and the FBI said there was no indication that the shooting was tied to a terrorist group.
Holmes reportedly had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, a federal law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the AP reported.
More information
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has more on anxiety in children and teens.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Don't Be Afraid to Talk to Your Kids About Colorado Killings
FRIDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- As word spread Friday that a heavily armed man had shot up a suburban Denver movie theater crowded with families and children for a midnight showing of the new Batman movie, mental health experts offered guidance on how to cope -- especially for children and teens -- with the tragedy.
While this latest act of carnage unnerved a nation still scarred by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, psychologists said children and teens may be especially vulnerable to the early Friday shootings in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and at least 50 others wounded.
'It would be perfectly normal for people to be more on edge right now,' said Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. 'It's a natural reaction when you hear about, experience or witness a traumatic event. You're primed to be more vigilant about what's happening to you.'
But parents can do much to reassure their children that such an incident isn't likely to repeat itself anytime soon, experts said. And it's important to offer that reassurance now.
'This is clearly a very disturbed individual [the 24-year-old shooting suspect] and parents have to reassure kids that this is a very random event and they shouldn't bring their lives to a halt because of this,' said Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. 'Parents have to reassure kids that they're going to do everything they can to make sure they're safe.'
A good place to start is by communicating, Rego said.
'Make sure you're having a talk,' he advised. 'Make sure a support system is there so if people are looking anxious or stressed out, encourage them to talk about what they're experiencing or feeling.'
Echoing Hilfer, Rego said, 'The second thing to do is recognize that there are these events that, unfortunately, happen in our lives that are traumatic and unpredictable and we also have to be able to go on with our lives.'
A bigger question is how this latest incident will affect the psyche of a generation of young Americans already exposed to extremely high levels of violence.
The list includes two shocking school shootings. The first: April 16, 2007, when a gunman killed 23 people and then himself on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. The second: April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., not far from the site of Friday's tragedy, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.
And, of course, the horror of 9/11, when terrorists hijacked jets and crashed them into the Twin Towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people.
A New York Times review of The Dark Knight Rises noted that the film includes 'the explosions, the dust, the panic and the sweeping aerial shots of a very real-looking New York City -- [that] invokes the September 11 attacks.'
The new Batman movie opened around the world Friday with midnight showings in the United States.
The Colorado shootings prompted officials to cancel the Paris premiere, with workers removing the red carpet display at a theater on the Champs-Elysees Avenue, the Associated Press reported.
NBC New York reported that the New York City Police Department was increasing security at city theaters showing the movie. 'As a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons in the wake of the horrendous shooting in Colorado, the New York City Police Department is providing coverage at theaters where the 'The Dark Knight Rises' is playing in the five boroughs,' Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.
It's unclear if the violent acts of the past 13 years are having a cumulative impact on young Americans.
Whatever the impact, the effect or effects are likely to be very individual, Rego said.
'People [can] develop an anxiety or apprehension about the things that go wrong for us. At the same time, people have tremendous resiliencies, too,' he said. 'We have different psychological and biological vulnerabilities in our reactions to these events.'
The suspect in Friday's shootings was described as James Holmes, a 24-year-old former medical student. He had attended the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver until last month, a school spokeswoman said, adding that she didn't know why he withdrew from the school, the AP reported.
Wearing a gas mask, Holmes allegedly walked into a midnight showing of the Batman movie, unleashed a gas canister and then opened fire, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, the news service said.
As the gas started to spread, some patrons thought it was a stunt that was part of the movie. Then they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting, the AP reported.
Authorities did not release a motive, and the FBI said there was no indication that the shooting was tied to a terrorist group.
Holmes reportedly had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, a federal law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the AP reported.
More information
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has more on anxiety in children and teens.
This news article is brought to you by ECONOMY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
While this latest act of carnage unnerved a nation still scarred by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, psychologists said children and teens may be especially vulnerable to the early Friday shootings in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and at least 50 others wounded.
'It would be perfectly normal for people to be more on edge right now,' said Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. 'It's a natural reaction when you hear about, experience or witness a traumatic event. You're primed to be more vigilant about what's happening to you.'
But parents can do much to reassure their children that such an incident isn't likely to repeat itself anytime soon, experts said. And it's important to offer that reassurance now.
'This is clearly a very disturbed individual [the 24-year-old shooting suspect] and parents have to reassure kids that this is a very random event and they shouldn't bring their lives to a halt because of this,' said Alan Hilfer, director of psychology at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City. 'Parents have to reassure kids that they're going to do everything they can to make sure they're safe.'
A good place to start is by communicating, Rego said.
'Make sure you're having a talk,' he advised. 'Make sure a support system is there so if people are looking anxious or stressed out, encourage them to talk about what they're experiencing or feeling.'
Echoing Hilfer, Rego said, 'The second thing to do is recognize that there are these events that, unfortunately, happen in our lives that are traumatic and unpredictable and we also have to be able to go on with our lives.'
A bigger question is how this latest incident will affect the psyche of a generation of young Americans already exposed to extremely high levels of violence.
The list includes two shocking school shootings. The first: April 16, 2007, when a gunman killed 23 people and then himself on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. The second: April 20, 1999, when two students opened fire at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., not far from the site of Friday's tragedy, killing 12 classmates and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.
And, of course, the horror of 9/11, when terrorists hijacked jets and crashed them into the Twin Towers of Manhattan's World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people.
A New York Times review of The Dark Knight Rises noted that the film includes 'the explosions, the dust, the panic and the sweeping aerial shots of a very real-looking New York City -- [that] invokes the September 11 attacks.'
The new Batman movie opened around the world Friday with midnight showings in the United States.
The Colorado shootings prompted officials to cancel the Paris premiere, with workers removing the red carpet display at a theater on the Champs-Elysees Avenue, the Associated Press reported.
NBC New York reported that the New York City Police Department was increasing security at city theaters showing the movie. 'As a precaution against copycats and to raise the comfort levels among movie patrons in the wake of the horrendous shooting in Colorado, the New York City Police Department is providing coverage at theaters where the 'The Dark Knight Rises' is playing in the five boroughs,' Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.
It's unclear if the violent acts of the past 13 years are having a cumulative impact on young Americans.
Whatever the impact, the effect or effects are likely to be very individual, Rego said.
'People [can] develop an anxiety or apprehension about the things that go wrong for us. At the same time, people have tremendous resiliencies, too,' he said. 'We have different psychological and biological vulnerabilities in our reactions to these events.'
The suspect in Friday's shootings was described as James Holmes, a 24-year-old former medical student. He had attended the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver until last month, a school spokeswoman said, adding that she didn't know why he withdrew from the school, the AP reported.
Wearing a gas mask, Holmes allegedly walked into a midnight showing of the Batman movie, unleashed a gas canister and then opened fire, making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history, the news service said.
As the gas started to spread, some patrons thought it was a stunt that was part of the movie. Then they saw a silhouette of a person in the smoke near the screen, first pointing a gun at the crowd and then shooting, the AP reported.
Authorities did not release a motive, and the FBI said there was no indication that the shooting was tied to a terrorist group.
Holmes reportedly had an assault rifle, a shotgun and two pistols, a federal law enforcement official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, the AP reported.
More information
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has more on anxiety in children and teens.
This news article is brought to you by ECONOMY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Simple Measures May Curb Excessive Weight Gain in Pregnancy
FRIDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- Healthy eating and low or moderate levels of exercise during pregnancy can help a woman avoid excessive weight gain and may reduce her infant's risk of being overweight or obese later in life, new research indicates.
The study included 49 women at 16 to 20 weeks of pregnancy who were assigned to either a low- or moderate-intensity walking program. Both groups also followed a meal plan based on guidelines given to expectant mothers with gestational diabetes.
The women were compared with another group of pregnant women who were not assigned to any exercise or diet programs (the 'control' group).
All the women in the study were deemed to have a normal, healthy weight before their pregnancy, the researchers noted in the report, which was published in the August issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Compared to the women in the control group, those in the two exercise/healthy-eating groups gained less weight during pregnancy and were less likely to gain excessive weight, the investigators found. Within two months of delivery, 28 percent of women in the moderate-intensity exercise program were within about 4.4 pounds of their pre-pregnancy weight, compared with 7 percent of those in the control group.
Babies born to women in all the groups had similar birth weights, which suggests that preventing excessive weight gain during pregnancy does not influence infant birth weight, the study authors noted in a news release from the American College of Sports Medicine.
The researchers pointed out, however, that pregnancy is an important period in determining a child's health later in life and preventing excessive weight gain in pregnancy may reduce a child's long-term risk for obesity.
'Women benefit greatly from being active throughout their pregnancies and physical activity is strongly recommended by professional organizations,' lead author Stephanie-May Ruchat, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, said in the news release. 'However, most pregnant women remain inactive and this may be contributing to excessive gestational weight gain, which is associated with an increased risk for future obesity in both the mother and offspring.'
'Myths about nutrition in pregnancy can also be misleading. For example, mothers-to-be should be warned that 'eating for two' does not mean they need to eat twice as much, but that they should eat twice as healthy,' Ruchat noted. 'An increase of only 200 to 500 kilocalories per day in the second and third trimester is recommended, depending on the body-mass index of the women prior to pregnancy. The heavier the woman is, the fewer extra calories per day she will need during pregnancy.'
Before beginning any new diet or exercise regimen, experts recommend discussing it with your doctor or other health professional.
More information
The Nemours Foundation offers tips for staying healthy during pregnancy.
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE CRITIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The study included 49 women at 16 to 20 weeks of pregnancy who were assigned to either a low- or moderate-intensity walking program. Both groups also followed a meal plan based on guidelines given to expectant mothers with gestational diabetes.
The women were compared with another group of pregnant women who were not assigned to any exercise or diet programs (the 'control' group).
All the women in the study were deemed to have a normal, healthy weight before their pregnancy, the researchers noted in the report, which was published in the August issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Compared to the women in the control group, those in the two exercise/healthy-eating groups gained less weight during pregnancy and were less likely to gain excessive weight, the investigators found. Within two months of delivery, 28 percent of women in the moderate-intensity exercise program were within about 4.4 pounds of their pre-pregnancy weight, compared with 7 percent of those in the control group.
Babies born to women in all the groups had similar birth weights, which suggests that preventing excessive weight gain during pregnancy does not influence infant birth weight, the study authors noted in a news release from the American College of Sports Medicine.
The researchers pointed out, however, that pregnancy is an important period in determining a child's health later in life and preventing excessive weight gain in pregnancy may reduce a child's long-term risk for obesity.
'Women benefit greatly from being active throughout their pregnancies and physical activity is strongly recommended by professional organizations,' lead author Stephanie-May Ruchat, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, said in the news release. 'However, most pregnant women remain inactive and this may be contributing to excessive gestational weight gain, which is associated with an increased risk for future obesity in both the mother and offspring.'
'Myths about nutrition in pregnancy can also be misleading. For example, mothers-to-be should be warned that 'eating for two' does not mean they need to eat twice as much, but that they should eat twice as healthy,' Ruchat noted. 'An increase of only 200 to 500 kilocalories per day in the second and third trimester is recommended, depending on the body-mass index of the women prior to pregnancy. The heavier the woman is, the fewer extra calories per day she will need during pregnancy.'
Before beginning any new diet or exercise regimen, experts recommend discussing it with your doctor or other health professional.
More information
The Nemours Foundation offers tips for staying healthy during pregnancy.
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE CRITIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
South Africa reports new success in saving newborns from HIV
About 117,000 babies were saved from HIV infection last year under South Africa's scheme to prevent mothers from passing on the disease during childbirth, health official said Thursday.
Among mothers with HIV, only 2.7 percent passed the virus to their babies in 2011, down from 3.5 percent in 2010, the Medical Research Council said. The rate was eight percent in 2008.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a news conference that the reduction proved the success of the government's programme which gives pregnant women drugs that reduce the chance of their babies catching the virus.
'These results, if sustained, will make a major contribution to our efforts to decrease' deaths of infants and young children, Motsoaledi said.
He added that the anti-retroviral drugs also make it safe for HIV-positive mothers to breast feed their babies.
The medicines reduce the viral load in a mother's body, which in turn reduces the infant's risk of contracting HIV through the umbilical chord or by exposure to the mother's bodily fluids during childbirth or breast feeding.
The newborn also gets a few drops of ARV syrup as an extra boost to fight infection.
South Africa has the world's largest HIV caseload, with six million people currently living with the virus. After years of refusing to roll out drugs, the country now runs the world's largest treatment programme, serving 1.3 million people.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Among mothers with HIV, only 2.7 percent passed the virus to their babies in 2011, down from 3.5 percent in 2010, the Medical Research Council said. The rate was eight percent in 2008.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a news conference that the reduction proved the success of the government's programme which gives pregnant women drugs that reduce the chance of their babies catching the virus.
'These results, if sustained, will make a major contribution to our efforts to decrease' deaths of infants and young children, Motsoaledi said.
He added that the anti-retroviral drugs also make it safe for HIV-positive mothers to breast feed their babies.
The medicines reduce the viral load in a mother's body, which in turn reduces the infant's risk of contracting HIV through the umbilical chord or by exposure to the mother's bodily fluids during childbirth or breast feeding.
The newborn also gets a few drops of ARV syrup as an extra boost to fight infection.
South Africa has the world's largest HIV caseload, with six million people currently living with the virus. After years of refusing to roll out drugs, the country now runs the world's largest treatment programme, serving 1.3 million people.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Kids' Sexual Behavior Influenced by Movie Scenes: Study
THURSDAY, July 19 (HealthDay News) -- Sex scenes in movies influence teens' sexual behavior, new research suggests.
In the study, U.S. researchers analyzed the sexual content of hundreds of top-grossing movies released between 1998 and 2004, and then asked more than 1,200 kids, aged 12 to 14, which of the movies they had seen.
Six years later, the participants were surveyed to find out how old they were when they became sexually active and whether they engaged in risky sexual behaviors, such as not using condoms consistently and having multiple partners.
Teens who were exposed to more sexual content in movies started having sex at younger ages, had more sex partners and were less likely to use condoms with casual sex partners, according to the study authors.
In an attempt to determine how sex scenes in movies can affect teens' sexual behavior, the researchers focused on a personality trait called sensation-seeking. This trait, which peaks between the ages of 10 and 15, refers to a tendency to seek new and intense forms of stimulation.
The study, which is scheduled for publication in the journal Psychological Science, found that greater exposure to sexual content in movies at a young age led to a higher peak of sensation-seeking in adolescents. Among kids who are exposed to sex scenes in movies, sensation-seeking sexual behavior can last well into the late teens and even into the early 20s, the investigators found.
'These movies appear to fundamentally influence their personality through changes in sensation-seeking, which has far-reaching implications for all of their risk-taking behaviors,' Ross O'Hara, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, said in a news release from the Association for Psychological Science.
O'Hara conducted the study with other psychological researchers while at Dartmouth College.
Sensation-seeking alone does not entirely explain how sexual content in movies influences teens' sexual behavior, according to O'Hara and colleagues. They suggested that teens learn specific behaviors from sex scenes in movies. For example, many teens use movies to acquire 'sexual scripts' that provide them with examples of how to behave when dealing with complicated emotional situations.
While the study authors pointed out that the research does not prove a direct causal effect of movies on sexual behavior, the study 'strongly suggests that parents need to restrict their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages,' O'Hara concluded in the news release.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians offers facts to help teens make the right decision about sex.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
In the study, U.S. researchers analyzed the sexual content of hundreds of top-grossing movies released between 1998 and 2004, and then asked more than 1,200 kids, aged 12 to 14, which of the movies they had seen.
Six years later, the participants were surveyed to find out how old they were when they became sexually active and whether they engaged in risky sexual behaviors, such as not using condoms consistently and having multiple partners.
Teens who were exposed to more sexual content in movies started having sex at younger ages, had more sex partners and were less likely to use condoms with casual sex partners, according to the study authors.
In an attempt to determine how sex scenes in movies can affect teens' sexual behavior, the researchers focused on a personality trait called sensation-seeking. This trait, which peaks between the ages of 10 and 15, refers to a tendency to seek new and intense forms of stimulation.
The study, which is scheduled for publication in the journal Psychological Science, found that greater exposure to sexual content in movies at a young age led to a higher peak of sensation-seeking in adolescents. Among kids who are exposed to sex scenes in movies, sensation-seeking sexual behavior can last well into the late teens and even into the early 20s, the investigators found.
'These movies appear to fundamentally influence their personality through changes in sensation-seeking, which has far-reaching implications for all of their risk-taking behaviors,' Ross O'Hara, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Missouri, said in a news release from the Association for Psychological Science.
O'Hara conducted the study with other psychological researchers while at Dartmouth College.
Sensation-seeking alone does not entirely explain how sexual content in movies influences teens' sexual behavior, according to O'Hara and colleagues. They suggested that teens learn specific behaviors from sex scenes in movies. For example, many teens use movies to acquire 'sexual scripts' that provide them with examples of how to behave when dealing with complicated emotional situations.
While the study authors pointed out that the research does not prove a direct causal effect of movies on sexual behavior, the study 'strongly suggests that parents need to restrict their children from seeing sexual content in movies at young ages,' O'Hara concluded in the news release.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians offers facts to help teens make the right decision about sex.
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIP ADVICE.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
'Exposure Therapy' May Be Option for Kids' Egg, Milk Allergies
WEDNESDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- Allergy shots have long been a mainstay in treating certain allergies, but until recently immunotherapy hasn't been an option for people with food allergies -- where the focus for patients and parents has been on avoiding the food entirely. Findings from two small new studies, however, show promise for the future of treating some food allergies.
Oral immunotherapy means gradually exposing a person to higher doses of the food protein -- such as egg protein -- that is their trigger for severe allergic reactions. By having the person consume the protein in a carefully controlled setting -- where they can receive emergency medical treatment if needed -- the goal is to build up a tolerance to the food over time.
Although oral immunotherapy doesn't appear to be a panacea, it may be an effective alternative for certain people with a variety of food allergies. The current studies looked at treating children with egg allergies and milk allergies.
The egg study included 55 children allergic to eggs, 40 of whom received a special oral egg immunotherapy daily for up to two years. Eleven of the 40 were able to consume eggs without having a reaction as much as three years later.
The milk study included 12 children allergic to cow's milk who were given small amounts of milk daily in a clinic for six weeks. All of the youngsters eventually were able to drink two glasses of milk a day, according to the study.
'Parents should have a feeling of optimism that there is a lot of work and effort going into active therapies for food allergies,' said Dr. Todd Green, a food allergy specialist and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He was not associated with the new studies.
Green added a note of caution, however: 'At this point, these treatments aren't ready for widespread use, and they're not ready for home therapy.'
Results of both studies appear in the July 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Egg and milk allergies are among the most common food allergies, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Although the traditional treatment for food allergies is to avoid the food to which you're allergic, milk and eggs are common ingredients in many foods, making it difficult to strictly avoid them.
Many youngsters outgrow these allergies. According to the milk study, as many as 70 percent of children with a milk allergy will outgrow it by age 3. But for some, egg and milk allergies persist, posing a potentially life-threatening danger from accidental exposure.
Children in the egg study were all between 5 and 11 years old. Fifteen of the children were given a placebo; the remaining 40 were given a daily dose of oral egg-white immunotherapy for 10 months.
After 10 months, the children were given an oral food challenge test containing 5 grams of egg-white powder. None of the children on placebo passed the test, but 22 of the 35 children still taking oral immunotherapy passed the challenge. (Five children dropped out of the treatment group before the oral challenge.) The treatment group continued receiving daily oral immunotherapy, while the placebo group was allowed to stop taking the placebo.
At 22 months, children were given another food challenge test. This time they consumed 10 grams of egg-white powder -- about the equivalent of large egg. Thirty children passed the test this time.
Those who passed were taken off immunotherapy, and then given a food challenge test again two months later to see if their allergy would return. Eleven children passed this test, and were considered cured of their allergy. The researchers followed up with another challenge test in a year, and all 11 remained free of any allergic reaction to eggs.
Most side effects children experienced occurred within the first 10 months of the study. There were no severe reactions, the researchers said, but about three-fourths of children receiving the therapy had allergic reactions involving their mouths or throats, compared to one-fifth of children in the placebo group.
'We took a group of children at an age where they weren't going to outgrow their egg allergy, and by the second year 75 percent could tolerate eggs,' said the study's lead author, Dr. A. Wesley Burks, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 'About 30 percent of the original group passed the third challenge and can now eat eggs intermittently without symptoms.'
Burks, who at the time of the study worked at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said this type of immunotherapy likely would work with other allergens, such as peanuts.
The current study on milk allergy, which was published as a letter in the journal, took place in Spain. It included 12 children between 2 and 15 years old, all of whom were seriously allergic to milk. The children were given increasing doses of undiluted milk for six weeks.
By the end of 10 weeks, all 12 children were able to drink two glasses of milk daily (about 8 ounces every 12 hours). After two years, all the children were still able to drink a glass of milk every day.
There were certain changes in immune system markers in the children, however, suggesting that the immune system might still be responding in some way to the milk.
'Are there any long-term consequences? I think we're still trying to understand what's going on at the cellular level after desensitization, but it seemed like there was still something going on,' Green said.
The bottom line, he said, is researchers just don't know if these reactions that don't cause symptoms are doing any harm, or indicate an increased risk for future allergic reactions.
Both Burks and Green cautioned that these studies were done in a very controlled manner, with help readily available, and precise dosing schedules. Parents should not try this at home, they advised.
More information
Learn more about food allergy from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
This news article is brought to you by ADVANCED DATING ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Oral immunotherapy means gradually exposing a person to higher doses of the food protein -- such as egg protein -- that is their trigger for severe allergic reactions. By having the person consume the protein in a carefully controlled setting -- where they can receive emergency medical treatment if needed -- the goal is to build up a tolerance to the food over time.
Although oral immunotherapy doesn't appear to be a panacea, it may be an effective alternative for certain people with a variety of food allergies. The current studies looked at treating children with egg allergies and milk allergies.
The egg study included 55 children allergic to eggs, 40 of whom received a special oral egg immunotherapy daily for up to two years. Eleven of the 40 were able to consume eggs without having a reaction as much as three years later.
The milk study included 12 children allergic to cow's milk who were given small amounts of milk daily in a clinic for six weeks. All of the youngsters eventually were able to drink two glasses of milk a day, according to the study.
'Parents should have a feeling of optimism that there is a lot of work and effort going into active therapies for food allergies,' said Dr. Todd Green, a food allergy specialist and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. He was not associated with the new studies.
Green added a note of caution, however: 'At this point, these treatments aren't ready for widespread use, and they're not ready for home therapy.'
Results of both studies appear in the July 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Egg and milk allergies are among the most common food allergies, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Although the traditional treatment for food allergies is to avoid the food to which you're allergic, milk and eggs are common ingredients in many foods, making it difficult to strictly avoid them.
Many youngsters outgrow these allergies. According to the milk study, as many as 70 percent of children with a milk allergy will outgrow it by age 3. But for some, egg and milk allergies persist, posing a potentially life-threatening danger from accidental exposure.
Children in the egg study were all between 5 and 11 years old. Fifteen of the children were given a placebo; the remaining 40 were given a daily dose of oral egg-white immunotherapy for 10 months.
After 10 months, the children were given an oral food challenge test containing 5 grams of egg-white powder. None of the children on placebo passed the test, but 22 of the 35 children still taking oral immunotherapy passed the challenge. (Five children dropped out of the treatment group before the oral challenge.) The treatment group continued receiving daily oral immunotherapy, while the placebo group was allowed to stop taking the placebo.
At 22 months, children were given another food challenge test. This time they consumed 10 grams of egg-white powder -- about the equivalent of large egg. Thirty children passed the test this time.
Those who passed were taken off immunotherapy, and then given a food challenge test again two months later to see if their allergy would return. Eleven children passed this test, and were considered cured of their allergy. The researchers followed up with another challenge test in a year, and all 11 remained free of any allergic reaction to eggs.
Most side effects children experienced occurred within the first 10 months of the study. There were no severe reactions, the researchers said, but about three-fourths of children receiving the therapy had allergic reactions involving their mouths or throats, compared to one-fifth of children in the placebo group.
'We took a group of children at an age where they weren't going to outgrow their egg allergy, and by the second year 75 percent could tolerate eggs,' said the study's lead author, Dr. A. Wesley Burks, chairman of the department of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 'About 30 percent of the original group passed the third challenge and can now eat eggs intermittently without symptoms.'
Burks, who at the time of the study worked at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., said this type of immunotherapy likely would work with other allergens, such as peanuts.
The current study on milk allergy, which was published as a letter in the journal, took place in Spain. It included 12 children between 2 and 15 years old, all of whom were seriously allergic to milk. The children were given increasing doses of undiluted milk for six weeks.
By the end of 10 weeks, all 12 children were able to drink two glasses of milk daily (about 8 ounces every 12 hours). After two years, all the children were still able to drink a glass of milk every day.
There were certain changes in immune system markers in the children, however, suggesting that the immune system might still be responding in some way to the milk.
'Are there any long-term consequences? I think we're still trying to understand what's going on at the cellular level after desensitization, but it seemed like there was still something going on,' Green said.
The bottom line, he said, is researchers just don't know if these reactions that don't cause symptoms are doing any harm, or indicate an increased risk for future allergic reactions.
Both Burks and Green cautioned that these studies were done in a very controlled manner, with help readily available, and precise dosing schedules. Parents should not try this at home, they advised.
More information
Learn more about food allergy from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
This news article is brought to you by ADVANCED DATING ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
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