4 Health Issues That Mess With Your Memory

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Alzheimer’s isn’t the only condition that harms your memory. These four problems can also leave you feeling foggy.

Depression

People battling the blues have lower levels of serotonin and norepinephrine—two neurotransmitters that help boost attention and alertness, explains Majid Fotuhi, MD, chair of the Memosyn Neurology Institute and author of Boost Your Brain ($20, amazon.com). The disease is also linked to a smaller hippocampus, according to a 2004 Danish review.

Other symptoms: Fatigue, irritability, trouble sleeping, feeling hopeless, under- or overeating (lasting more than two weeks).

Rx: Your MD will refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist for counseling and possibly meds.

RELATED: 10 Signs You Should See a Doctor for Depression

Hypothyroidism

Your thyroid hormones control your metabolism, and if they’re low, it may take longer for nutrients to reach your brain.

Other symptoms: Weight gain, fatigue, dry skin, hair loss, feeling cold.

Rx: Your doc may prescribe synthetic thyroid hormone.

Sleep apnea

“When women in their 40s come to my office complaining of memory issues, one of the most common causes is sleep apnea,” says James Leverenz, MD, Cleveland director of the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health at the Cleveland Clinic. The condition causes a closing or narrowing of the airway passages, which can lower oxygen levels in the brain.

Other symptoms: Snoring, gasping, waking up exhausted, morning headaches, daytime sleepiness.

Rx: Remedies include losing weight, avoiding alcohol and possibly using a CPAP machine to keep your airway open with a stream of air.

Celiac disease

Researchers aren’t sure how this autoimmune disorder might affect memory, but one theory is that, left untreated, the disease may cause systemic inflammation that can have a negative effect on the brain.

Other symptoms: Fatigue, joint pain, migraines, possibly an itchy skin rash, diarrhea (in about a third of adult cases).

Rx: A small 2014 Australian study found that when celiac patients followed a gluten-free diet, brain-fog symptoms improved within a year.

RELATED: 12 Unexpected Things That Mess With Your Memory

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The Best Move to Do for a Pain-Free Body

Photo: Courtesy of Sonima.com

Pain is not something to be feared; it is something to be understood. It is usually the body’s way of telling us that we’re physically off balance, that is, our weight distribution isn’t fifty-fifty left to right and we’re not vertically loaded, meaning our head isn’t sitting squarely over our shoulders which isn’t sitting squarely over our hips all the way down through the knee and ankle joints. This leads to weight not being evenly distributed on our feet and our feet not pointing straight ahead. All of which leads to pain somewhere in the body. Don’t fear that pain. Listen to it and respond.

Whenever we are off balance and not vertically loaded, gravity works against us. The first law of my 8 Laws of Physical Health states: “Gravity is necessary for health. In order for gravity to exert a positive and dynamic influence on the body it must be vertically aligned in its postures.” When the body is not vertically aligned, it will be unbalanced, and gravity will exacerbate that imbalance. For instance, a right knee might get sore after jogging not because of the pounding or even because of the knee but rather because the hips are misaligned, putting more weight on the right side than the left.

Static back is a great way to use gravity to our advantage when we are off balance. This exercise, pictured above, involves laying on the floor with the feet and calves elevated on a chair, ottoman, or block. The backs of the knees should be flush with the edge of the block so the legs are supported and the muscles can release.

The first great aspect of static back is that it gets us down on the floor. I addressed the importance of this in my last article.

Many of you will notice that the first several times you get on the floor to do static back, you will feel stiff when you get back up. This stiffness is nothing to fear. Muscles naturally get stiff when they’ve been worked to some form of fatigue, and in getting up and down off the floor, you are exercising muscles you’ve not used in some while, and you’re engaging muscles that are newly symmetric. Keep going. Getting up and down will get easier, and eventually you’ll even find yourself looking for excuses to get up and down on the floor because it’s fun to do and no longer hurts.

But the main feat static back accomplishes is that it allows gravity to work with us to begin the balancing process. When you lie on your back and put your legs up on a block or chair, it causes a symmetrical right angle posture at the knee joint.

RELATED: An Incredible Fix for Lower Back Pain

The position of the ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders (load joints) coupled with gravity at work on our torso causes the pelvis to rotate to a right angle. When that happens, the muscles of the back become bilaterally engaged. The back muscles can work unilaterally or bilaterally. When we’re off balance, they work unilaterally, which means that the muscles on one side of the spine are working harder than the muscles on the other side. That’s not optimal, but muscles have that capability and then position the joints accordingly. The goal is to get the body to where it’s working bilaterally, to where the muscles on either side of the spine are working equally hard. That’s what lying in static back does. The pelvis and knee rotate themselves using gravity and the stimulus of block, and that rotation causes those back muscles to bilaterally engage.

Incidentally, there is nothing static or passive about static back, even though it looks like folks are just lying on the ground. The truth is that static back is an incredibly active maneuver. Contrary to what some people might believe, achieving symmetry in our bodies does not require motion alone. It requires a symmetrical demand on the body, and that’s what static back is—a symmetrical stimulus that is engaging all the muscles of the muscular-skeletal system in a process of redistribution. There’s a lot more going on than just getting off your feet.

RELATED: Identifying the Real Source of Hamstring Pain

I encourage doing static back on a relatively hard surface. Your first few times, don’t lie down for more than 10 minutes, but how many times you want to do it a day is up to you. Trust your instincts and your body: It will let you know what feels good. By feeling good, I mean how the body feels during the settling process while you’re in static back. Initially, you’re going to feel stiffness when you get up and maybe even as you walk around the first few days, but that stiffness is the result of reengaging long dormant muscles. It can be alleviated with pelvic tilts or cats and dogs.

When you’re lying on your back, you will be inclined to put your arms in different positions because your body is asymmetrical, so one arm will have more range of motion than the other. That’s natural, but it’s important that you place both of your arms in the same position, and you should respond to the one with restricted range. If you can put your right arm out straight, but you can’t move your left arm too far from your hip, then bring that right arm in toward the hip. This imbalance will change relatively soon, and eventually you’ll have both arms out straight to the side, palms up.

Lastly, breathe. When our body is off balance, the nerve that activates our diaphragm, the phrenic nerve, gets impinged, and so the diaphragm doesn’t have enough room to work. We end up breathing with our shoulders. However, as you lie on your back, and the body lengthens out and the torso becomes symmetrical, the phrenic nerve opens up, allowing room in the abdominal cavity for the diaphragm to work. When you breathe in, your stomach will expand, and when you breathe out, it will collapse, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do.

Breathing and balance. So much of our health comes down to those two things. And there are few ways better to optimize both than lying in static back.

Known as the Father of Postural Therapy, Pete Egoscue has helped relieve thousands of people from their chronic pain, including many of the world’s leading athletes. For more information on Pete and any of his 25 clinics worldwide, go to egoscue.com.

RELATED: The Dangers of Getting Too Little Sleep

Sonima.com is a new wellness website dedicated to helping people improve their lives through yoga, workouts, guided meditations, healthy recipes, pain prevention techniques, and life advice. Our balanced approach to wellness integrates traditional wisdom and modern insights to support vibrant and meaningful living.

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More Evidence Weight-Loss Surgery Helps Fight Type 2 Diabetes

THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Prior research has suggested that weight-loss surgery might help people rid themselves of type 2 diabetes, and a new study finds that the effect might be long-lasting.

“This is a very important study because it’s the first randomized trial comparing bariatric surgery to medical treatment of diabetes with five years of follow-up,” said Dr. Philip Schauer, who directs the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.

Schauer was not involved in the new British study, which was led by Dr. Francesco Rubino of King’s College London. Rubino’s team tracked five-year outcomes for 53 obese patients with type 2 diabetes. The patients were randomly selected to undergo either one of two types of weight-loss surgery, or just to continue with conventional drug therapy to help control their diabetes.

The study found that half of the 38 weight-loss surgery patients maintained diabetes remission, compared with none of the 15 patients in the drug treatment group.

And regardless of whether or not their diabetes went into full remission, patients who underwent surgery still tended to have lower blood sugar levels than those treated with drugs, the researchers reported Sept. 3 in The Lancet.

The patients in the surgery group also used far fewer diabetes and heart medications, the research team added.

“The ability of surgery to greatly reduce the need for insulin and other [diabetes] drugs suggests that surgical therapy is a cost-effective approach to treating type 2 diabetes,” Rubino said in a news release from the college, where he is chair of bariatric and metabolic surgery.

The new study backs up findings from previous research. For example, a study published in July in JAMA Surgery, of 61 obese people with type 2 diabetes, found that weight-loss surgery was better at keeping the disease at bay compared to diet and exercise alone.

And in 2014, another study from King’s College London, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, found that obese people who underwent the surgery had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

The new study is among the first to suggest that these benefits last over time, Rubino’s team said.

This study also found that, over five years, the heart risk of people who’d undergone weight-loss surgery was about half that of those in the drug treatment group. Also, patients who had weight-loss surgery were less likely to have diabetes-related complications such as heart attack, stroke and kidney disease.

None of the patients in the surgery group died or had long-term complications.

The researchers noted that while people in the bariatric surgery groups lost more weight than people treated with drug therapy, weight loss alone didn’t predict whether or not diabetes would recede. That suggests that the benefits of surgery in curbing type 2 diabetes may rely on more than just shedding excess pounds, the British team said.

The two methods of weight-loss surgery included in the study were gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion. According to the study authors, the former involves a shrinking of the size of the stomach and a rerouting of part of the small intestine, while the latter involves a more extensive intestinal bypass.

There were pros and cons to each method, the team found: More people saw their diabetes go into remission with biliopancreatic diversion, but patients who got gastric bypass had fewer nutritional side effects and had better quality of life overall.

In assessing the effectiveness of surgical and drug therapy, the British team looked at outcomes such as blood sugar control, the need for diabetes and heart medications, cholesterol levels, complications from diabetes or the bariatric surgery, and overall quality of life.

The researchers stressed that this was a relatively small trial and a much larger trial is warranted before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Nevertheless, the trial “shows that surgery is quite durable in the long term — for at least five years,” Schauer said. “And, that the procedure is relatively safe with a very low complication rate.”

However, like any invasive procedure, weight-loss surgery comes with risks and recovery time, and it can be expensive. The cost of weight-loss surgery varies, but the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) estimates the cost is generally between $20,000 and $25,000. Insurance coverage for the procedure depends on the insurance company.

Schauer hopes the new findings might help widen access to the surgeries.

“Physicians should strongly consider surgery as an important option for long-term control of diabetes,” he said. “In addition, insurance companies and third-party payers should consider reviewing the coverage of bariatric surgery in their standard insurance policy.”

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about weight-loss surgery.

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X-Rays, Other Scans Generally Safe in Pregnancy: Report

THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Radiation from X-rays and other medical imaging tests doesn’t seem to pose a risk to pregnant women or their fetuses when used properly, researchers report.

“While care should be taken to protect the fetus from exposure, most diagnostic studies are generally safe, and the radiation doses from these studies are well below thresholds considered risky,” said orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jonas Matzon, of the Rothman Institute of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Matzon is lead author of the new report.

About 5 percent to 8 percent of pregnant women suffer traumatic injuries, such as broken bones and muscle tears, Matzon and his colleagues said in a news release from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Car crashes are the most common cause, and doctors often order medical imaging studies to assess these injuries, the study authors added.

But some pregnant women and their physicians worry that radiation from imaging studies might harm their baby, the authors said.

Still, proper diagnosis and treatment of traumatic injuries is important because they are the leading cause of non-pregnancy-related death among expectant mothers, according to background information in the news release.

There’s no known risk to fetuses from ultrasound and MRI, and they are considered safe for pregnant women, according to the report published in the August print issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

X-rays of the limbs and spine expose the fetus to minimal doses of radiation. But CT scans of the pelvis expose a fetus to higher doses of radiation, and this type of test requires greater consideration, the researchers said.

It’s known that high levels of radiation exposure can harm the developing fetus. Overall, however, the risk of harm from medical imaging is proportional to the radiation dose and the gestational age of the embryo or fetus, the study authors said.

“If a patient requires multiple scans and repeated doses of radiation, a consultation with a qualified medical physicist should be considered to determine estimated fetal dose,” Matzon and his colleagues concluded in the news release.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about X-rays during pregnancy.

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Treatments for Brain Cancer Take Heavy Toll on the Brain

THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Radiation and chemotherapy can cause structural changes in the healthy brain tissue of patients with glioblastoma brain tumors, a new study finds.

The research included 14 glioblastoma patients who underwent 35 weeks of combined radiation and chemotherapy (chemoradiation) after having their tumors surgically removed.

The patients had brain scans before and after chemoradiation, but an adequate number of images were obtained from only eight of the patients. Those images revealed a significant decrease in whole brain volume — the overall amount of brain tissue — throughout chemoradiation.

The reduced amount of brain tissue became apparent within a few weeks after the start of chemoradiation and was primarily seen in gray matter.

The scans also showed that the size of the brain’s ventricles — cerebrospinal fluid-filled spaces deep within the brain — grew progressively larger during chemoradiation. Changes were also detected within the subventricular zone, one of two structures in which new brain cells are generated in adults.

The study was published recently in the journal Neurology.

It was well known that whole brain radiation can have harmful effects on the brain. But, this is the first study to look at structural brain changes caused by chemoradiation, according to senior study author Dr. Jorg Dietrich, of the Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“We were surprised to see that these changes — reduced gray matter volume and ventricular enlargement — occurred after just a few weeks of treatment and continued to progress even after radiation therapy was completed,” he said in a hospital news release.

“While this was a small study, these changes affected every patient at least to some degree. Now we need to investigate whether these structural changes correlate with reduced cognitive function, and whether neuroprotective strategies might be able to stop the progression of brain volume loss,” said Dietrich, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about brain tumors.

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West Nile Virus Most Common Mosquito-Borne Illness in U.S.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — West Nile virus, which first appeared in the United States in 1999, continues to be the most common mosquito-borne illness in the country, federal health officials reported Thursday.

Of 2,327 cases of mosquito-transmitted disease identified in 2014, there were 2,205 cases of West Nile, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

California, Texas and Arizona reported two-thirds of the cases of West Nile, the CDC researchers said.

Most people — an estimated 75 percent — infected with West Nile virus won’t develop any symptoms, according to the CDC.

Less than 1 percent of people will develop a serious neurologic illness, such as encephalitis or meningitis, which is inflammation of the brain or surrounding tissues. Symptoms of severe cases can include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, disorientation, coma, tremors, seizures, or paralysis, according to the CDC.

Infectious-disease expert Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said fear of a West Nile epidemic is overblown. “It is never endemic among humans. But it does occur in areas where we have a problem controlling the mosquito population,” he said.

About the same number of cases occur each year, Siegel said. “It’s limited by the number of mosquitoes,” he said, adding, “West Nile is not transmittable person-to-person.”

Siegel said that for most people infected with West Nile virus, it appears like a bad flu with fever, headache and muscle ache. Usually, patients are in discomfort for about two weeks, he said.

There’s no treatment for West Nile virus, Siegel said. The most that can be done is to keep the fever down with aspirin or other painkillers and drink plenty of fluids, he said.

Among the West Nile cases in 2014, more than 600 involved encephalitis and over 500 involved meningitis, the CDC researchers found.

“Only in about 1 to 5 percent of the cases do you see full-blown encephalitis,” Siegel said. “So, although everybody thinks West Nile is a killer, it’s not.”

In all, nearly 1,300 people were hospitalized with the virus in 2014 and 87 died, according to the CDC report, published Sept. 4 in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Report co-author Nicole Lindsey, a CDC epidemiologist, said viruses like West Nile are “continuing to cause substantial illness in a large number of people, so it is important to protect yourself from mosquito bites.”

There is no vaccine yet for West Nile, she said.

While serious illness can occur at any age, those most at risk include people over 60 years of age. Also at risk are those with certain medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease and those who’ve had an organ transplant.

West Nile virus was first detected in North America 16 years ago, although it has been present for many years in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, parts of Asia, and Australia.

Since 1999, it has spread to the 48 lower states and Canada.

Siegel, like the CDC’s Lindsey, said the only way to prevent getting West Nile virus is to protect yourself from mosquitoes. This means wearing pants and long-sleeved shirts and using insect repellent, he said.

“West Nile is not a growing problem,” he said. “It’s a persistent problem.”

In addition to West Nile, 2014 also saw 80 cases of La Crosse virus, 11 cases of Jamestown Canyon virus, 10 cases of St. Louis encephalitis virus, eight cases of Powassan virus and eight cases of Eastern equine encephalitis virus — other mosquito-borne illnesses.

More information

To learn more about West Nile virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Move of the Week: Single Arm Burpee

Ready for a challenge? If you are looking to take your workout up a notch, look no further than this take on a classic move: the single arm burpee. This multi-tasking move bumps up your heart rate and targets your entire body, no gym required. Health‘s contributing fitness editor Kristin McGee demonstrates in the video below.

RELATED: A Yoga Burpee That Builds Strength

Here’s how to do it: From a squat place your right hand on the floor under the center of your chest, jump (or step) your feet back into a one armed plank, then hop your feet to your hand, stand up, and repeat the move with your left arm.

Trainer tip: Be sure to keep your core tight to support you.

Try this move: Single Arm Burpee

RELATED: Jillian Michaels’ Calorie-Burning Workout

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6 Weird Diet Tricks That Actually Work

Some clients come to me in search of a complete eating overhaul, including a meal plan with specific portions and recipes. Many others, however, simply want the shortcuts.

While it’s true that obtaining long-term weight loss success isn’t that simple, I am happy to report there are several research-backed easy tricks that really do help.

Add the tactics below to your daily habits, and you can cut calories, fight cravings, and ultimately, lose weight.

RELATED: 7 Foods That Fight Fat

Drink water before meals

This may just be the easiest, most cost-effective weight loss tip there is, and a new study published in the journal Obesity adds to its credibility. Researchers separated obese adults into two groups. The first was asked to drink 16 oz. of flat water (no bubbles), 30 minutes before meals, while the second was advised to imagine that they had a full stomach before eating. In the end, the volunteers who followed through with “pre-loading” with water before they ate lost about 9.5 pounds, compared to 1.75 pounds for those who didn’t. The water group also shed on average three additional pounds, compared to the imagination group.

Previous studies have shown that drinking a few cups of water before meals naturally results in eating fewer calories, and other research has shown that a 16-ounce dose of water upped metabolic rate by about 30% within 10 minutes. While the effect peaked 30 to 40 minutes later, those little bump ups in calorie burning can snowball meal after meal.

RELATED: Why You’re Not Losing Belly Fat

Slurp soup (even cold varieties)

Adding an item to your order as a way to cut calories might seem counter-intuitive, but it can slash your caloric intake for the whole meal. That’s what happened when researchers had volunteers eat a low-calorie soup before lunch in an oft-cited 2007 study from the journal Appetite. In the end, participants reduced their total calorie intake at lunch (including both the soup and entree) by 20%, compared to when they didn’t eat soup. The reduction in calories also didn’t result in more hunger or less satisfaction.

And if you’re thinking, “Soup in the hot summer, are you crazy?!” consider cold options. The study used soups that provided 100-150 calories per serving, and there are plenty of chilled choices that hit that mark, like gazpacho, curried zucchini, or borscht.

RELATED: 14 Ways You Lie to Yourself About Your Weight

When faced with temptation, visualize your previous meal

Yep, you can think yourself slim. When scientists at the University of Birmingham asked volunteers to recall the same day’s lunch they found that those who could do so vividly ate fewer snacks later in the day. A group of volunteers was instructed to be mindful while they ate lunch by focusing on things like the look, aroma, and physical sensations of chewing and swallowing.

Later in the day, while presented with snacks, volunteer were asked to recall how distinctly they could remember their lunch. Those who were mindful were able to recall their meal most intensely and they ate significantly fewer snacks, compared to two control groups. (A second group read a news article while they ate; the third group wasn’t given any instructions at all.)

The takeaway: as often as you can, eat without distractions, and if you feel a snack attack coming on, conjure up the memory of a previous meal. It may make the difference between eating one cookie or a handful.

RELATED: 12 Weight-Loss Secrets From Celebrity Chefs

Use visual portion trackers

Cornell University scientists call them speed bumps, or stop signs, but you can also think of them as “evidence.” In one study, students whose tables weren’t cleared, allowing them to see how many chicken wings they’d torn through via the number of bones left, ate fewer than those who had the remnants taken away.

The same technique can be used for other foods, like olive pits, shrimp served with tails, pizza slices, if you leave the crust, or anything eaten off a stick. According to researchers an empty stick signals your brain to think “done” even if you’re not consciously aware of it.

You can even create visuals that cue you to stop on your own, like putting popcorn into a small bowl rather than eating it straight from the bag (empty bowl=finished), or eating small cheese cubes off of toothpicks rather than on their own.

RELATED: The Real Reason You’re Not Losing Weight

Color coordinate your meals

Another Cornell study found that a greater contrast between the color of your food and the color of your plate may naturally help you to eat less. In the study, diners served themselves pasta from a buffet that included either tomato or Alfredo (white) sauce. Diners were randomly given red or white plates, so some had had contrasting colors—red sauce on a white plate—while others had matching colors. Those in the latter group served themselves 22% more than those who saw differing hues. While researchers aren’t totally sure why the color made such a big difference, aiming for contrast is another simple strategy to put to the test.

Smell your food before eating

It’s said that we eat with our eyes as well as our stomachs, but we also eat with our noses. One recent study published in the journal Flavour found that the stronger the smell, the smaller the bite. When volunteers had the ability to control their own dessert portions, those given more aromatic samples ate 5 to 10% less.

Bottom line: scent plays a role in satisfaction, so take a moment or two to smell your food before you dive in, and add aromatic seasonings to meals, like fresh ginger, basil, cinnamon, or rosemary, to enhance the sensory experience.

RELATED: 5 Tips to Restart Your Weight Loss

What’s your take on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

Cynthia Sass is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the New York Yankees MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Cynthia is a three-time New York Times best-selling author, and her brand new book is Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches with Real Food, Real Fast. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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More High School Athletes Using ‘Dip’ and ‘Chew,’ CDC Finds

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — High school athletes may be getting the message that cigarettes are bad for their health, but the same can’t be said for smokeless tobacco, a new government report shows.

In fact, these young athletes were almost 80 percent more likely to use smokeless tobacco products than non-athletes, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Among high school athletes, the use of smokeless tobacco — such as chew, moist snuff or dip — increased from 10 percent in 2001 to more than 11 percent in 2013. Meanwhile, the use of smokeless tobacco remained roughly the same among non-athletes, hovering at 6 percent. During that same period, the use of cigarettes and cigars dropped significantly among all high school students, from 31.5 percent to 19.5 percent, the report showed.

“This trend is concerning,” said report author Brian King, deputy director for research translation at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.

“We know that smokeless tobacco has health harms,” he said. “Aside from the fact that it includes nicotine, which is highly addictive and also can harm the developing adolescent brain, smokeless tobacco is linked with a variety of cancers, such as in the mouth, the esophagus and the pancreas,” King said.

It is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, he said.

However, King said, kids may think smokeless tobacco is a safe. “They are unaware of the harm associated with nicotine or tobacco,” he said. And, kids may see snuff and chewing tobacco as more socially acceptable than smoking, King said.

He added that the use of dip and chew among professional athletes may influence teens because kids may see these athletes as role models.

“Teens may also think these products will boost their athletic performance,” King said.

The latest report used data from the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, which includes high school students throughout the United States. The findings were published online Sept. 4 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The researchers found that the more sports teens played, the more likely they were to use smokeless tobacco. During 2013, 12.5 percent of teens who played three or more sports used smokeless tobacco, compared with 11.5 percent among those who played two sports, 10 percent among those who played one sport and 6 percent among non-athletes, the study said.

In contrast, the use of cigarettes and cigars was 16 percent for students on three or more sports teams, 17 percent for those on two teams, 20 percent for those on one team and 21 percent for non-athletes, the researchers said.

King said that the tobacco industry has marketed smokeless tobacco as an alternative to cigarettes in situations where smoking is prohibited, which might further promote their use among athletes. Although Minor League Baseball prohibits use of smokeless tobacco, Major League Baseball restricts but does not prohibit its use, he noted.

Two cities have banned the use of smokeless tobacco in their sports venues, according to the researchers: San Francisco’s ban becomes effective Jan. 1, 2016, and it will prohibit the use of smokeless tobacco and all other tobacco products at all city professional and amateur athletic venues; Boston enacted a similar policy on Sept. 2 that goes into effect April 1, 2016.

Tobacco-free policies that ban all tobacco use by players, coaches, referees and fans on school campuses and at all public recreational facilities — including stadiums, parks and school gymnasiums — might help make smokeless tobacco use less socially acceptable and reduce its use among student athletes, King said.

John Schachter, director of state communications at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said, “This study shows why it’s so critical that we set the right example for kids, especially for young athletes, by taking chewing tobacco out of baseball once and for all.”

It’s no accident that smokeless tobacco use has gone up among high school athletes, he said. “It stems directly from the negative example set by major leaguers who use chewing tobacco and by tobacco marketing that tells teen boys they can’t be real men unless they chew,” Schachter said.

San Francisco and Boston have taken historic action to break the harmful link between tobacco and baseball by prohibiting use of all tobacco at baseball stadiums, he said.

“We urge all of Major League Baseball to follow their lead,” Schachter said.

More information

To learn about smokeless tobacco and cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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Mentally Ill Inmates Prone to Violence After Release: Study

THURSDAY, Sept. 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Prisoners with mental and substance-use disorders are more likely to commit violent crimes after their release than other inmates, a new study reveals.

One in seven prisoners has a psychotic illness or major depression, and around one in five enters prison with clinically significant substance-use disorders, the researchers said.

“As these disorders are common and mostly treatable, better screening and mental health services before and after release are essential to prevent future violence and improve both public health and safety,” said lead author Seena Fazel, a professor of forensic psychiatry at the University of Oxford in England.

Results of the study, which involved nearly 48,000 ex-convicts in Sweden, are published in the Sept. 3 issue of The Lancet Psychiatry.

Researchers found that 42 percent of the men and 60 percent of the women were diagnosed with at least one mental health condition before release.

Over an average of three years after returning to the community, one-quarter of the men and 11 percent of the women were convicted of violent crimes, such as assault, robbery, arson and sexual offenses, the findings showed.

Men with at least one psychiatric disorder were 63 percent more likely to commit a violent offense after release than other former male inmates. Similarly, women with at least one psychiatric disorder were twice as likely to commit a violent offense as other former female inmates, the study found.

The study “underscores the importance of treating alcohol and drug misuse actively and with evidence-based therapies,” Fazel said in a journal news release.

All psychiatric disorders were associated with increased risk of violence after prison release. But the risk was highest among those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other developmental or childhood disorders, and those with a history of alcohol and drug abuse, the researchers said.

Also, the more co-existing psychiatric disorders the ex-inmates had, the greater their risk of committing violent crimes, according to the study.

The study doesn’t prove that mental illness leads to violence once these convicts get out of prison. Still, psychiatric disorders could be responsible for up to one-fifth of violent crimes by former male prisoners and two-fifths by former female prisoners, the researchers said.

Improved mental health treatment in prisons could lead to a large reduction in violent crimes committed in the United States, Fazel suggested.

But that won’t be enough, other experts said, if nothing is done about other major issues — such as poor housing, unemployment and substance abuse — faced by former prison inmates.

“Governments and some justice agencies might be tempted by the simple message that the answers to issues in the criminal justice system lie with mental health services. Meanwhile, the claim that mental illness is a direct cause of violence will make uncomfortable reading in mental health [circles],” Louis Appleby, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Manchester in England, and colleagues wrote in an editorial accompanying the report.

“The implication of this study lies between the two: treatment of psychiatric disorders in prisons and on release is crucial, but will not be enough to bring about a major reduction in violent crime,” the editorialists explained.

Appleby, a former National Clinical Director for Health and Criminal Justice in England, and his co-authors called for comprehensive packages of treatment and social support that “hold a therapeutic mirror to the complexity and adversity of offenders’ lives.”

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health more about mental illness.

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