Many Parents Skeptical of Online Doctor Ratings, Poll Finds

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — About one-third of parents turn to online ratings in their search for a doctor, but most parents say they aren’t sure they can trust Web-based reviews, new U.S. research shows.

“Online rating sites are becoming an increasingly common and potentially influential source of information for parents as they choose a doctor,” said study lead author Dr. David Hanauer, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

“Websites reviewing doctors are readily available, but concerns about how trustworthy they are may be preventing parents from using them broadly,” he said in a hospital news release.

The hospital conducted a national poll on children’s health. It showed that more than two-thirds of parents are skeptical of online doctor reviews, and even assume that some are made up. Nearly the same number of parents also said there aren’t enough ratings for them to make a good decision. And more than half of parents also believe doctors may have a say in who posts ratings.

The poll found 36 percent of moms and 22 percent of dads visited websites with online ratings to find a doctor for themselves or someone in their family during the past year. Among these parents, two-thirds based their decision to select or avoid a doctor based on ratings posted online.

More than four out of five who chose a doctor after reading favorable reviews felt the online ratings were accurate, the poll revealed.

Concerns about online doctor ratings were more common among older parents. Among those over 30, more than 70 percent were worried they might base a decision on a fake review. The same was true for only 59 percent of parents younger than 30, the researchers said.

“Doctor-rating sites have the potential to help make the patient-physician relationship more service-oriented,” said Hanauer, who is also a clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School. “In order for online rating sites to become a more accepted and useful tool, doctors will need to be more engaged in the process, in ways that assure that ratings are authentic.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provides more on how to find a doctor.

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8 Activities With Serious Health Perks That Aren’t Exercise

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When it comes to your health, you already know how important it is to eat well and stay active. But other hobbies and lifestyle changes—that have nothing to do with diet or exercise—can also offer a big payoff for your wellbeing. Try incorporating a few of these activities into your routine to benefit from reduced stress levels, lesser risk of certain diseases, lower blood pressure, and much more.

RELATED: 25 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be a Happier Person

1. Knitting and crocheting

It might be time to pick up that half-finished crochet project again. Repetitive activities that put your hands to work can help relieve stress by getting you out of your head. Plus, a 2013 survey of 3,500 knitters uncovered a link between knitting and cognitive function: the more people knitted, the better brain function they had.

2. Volunteering

That warm, fuzzy feeling you get after volunteering at the local soup kitchen or donating to a good cause has tangible health perks. Giving back to others has been linked to lower blood pressure, reduced stress, and even a longer lifespan. In a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health, researchers discovered that people who displayed acts of generosity seemed to be protected against stress. Those who didn’t give back as frequently during the study had a 30% higher risk of dying after a stressful life event.

Generosity also boosts your mood in the short term: A 2007 study found that donating money activates the same pleasure-related centers in the brain as spending it does.

RELATED: 13 Ways to Beat Stress in 15 Minutes or Less

3. Playing with your pet

Good news for those with furry friends: Caring for a pet has been shown to decrease blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels, and reduce feelings of loneliness, according to the CDC.

And dog owners might experience additional benefits, since walking your pup is a good form of exercise and can prevent weight gain. According to a 2011 U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded study of 2,000 adults, people who regularly walked their dogs were more physically active and less likely to be obese than those who did not.

4. Cooking

It should come as no surprise that a home-cooked meal is healthier than one you’d get at a restaurant, where dishes are often prepared with lots of salt, butter, and oil. According to a 2014 study, people who regularly eat at home consume about 130 fewer calories daily than those who do not. And teaching children how to cook healthy meals with fresh ingredients has been shown to help curb obesity.

RELATED: How to Prep Once and Eat Healthy All Week

5. Gardening

Growing your own fruits, veggies, and herbs does more than provide fresh bounty for the dinner table. Studies have shown that gardening is better than other leisure activities for fighting stress. It might improve depression symptoms, too, since the sights and smells of a garden promote relaxation.

Research also suggests that gardening can lower your risk of developing dementia. In two different studies, people in their 60s and 70s who regularly gardened had a 36% and 47% lower risk of developing dementia than non-gardeners did.

You shouldn’t discount the physical activity gardening entails, either: According to a 2013 study in the American Journal of Health Promotion, short stretches of moderate “lifestyle” activities such as gardening can be just as beneficial as a trip to the gym.

6. Meditation

There’s a reason why meditation has been around for thousands of years. The ancient practice has been linked to a slew of health benefits, including improved digestion, lowered blood pressure, reduced stress-induced inflammation, and the release of mood-boosting chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.

Meditation can also help ease pain. In a recent study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers concluded that meditation could alleviate pain intensity by 27% and emotional pain by 44%. Shockingly, that’s more than the opioid morphine, which reduces physical pain by 22%.

RELATED: 6 Healthy Habits All Women Share

7. Coloring

As with knitting, crafty projects such as coloring, drawing, or painting can have powerful mental health benefits. Studies have shown that art therapy can help you relax and ease stress and anxiety. One study published in Western Journal of Medicine concluded that art therapy might help treat depression in troubled adolescents, who can use it as a way to express their feelings. Another study found that creative projects like art therapy, music, and expressive writing could have healing benefits.

8. Traveling

Let this be the push you needed to book that trip abroad: Taking time off from work (yes, that means not checking your email) can reduce your risk of heart attack and depression. According to a 2010 study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, engaging in leisure activities such as time off and travel can lower blood pressure and stress hormones.

Planning to visit one of the great wonders of the world? Even better. Recent research suggests that people who regularly experience feelings of awe might have reduced risk of getting heart disease or cancer.

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The Company That Makes The Kardashians’ Favorite Waist Trainers is Being Sued

Waist Gang Society, the company behind the Kardashians’ beloved waist trainers, has been hit with a lawsuit for not actually creating the hourglass shape it promises.

Khloe, Kourtney, and Kim have all raved about the modern-day corsets in Instagram selfies.

While the famous sisters are “obsessed” with the devices, customer Sara Hawes is not so satisfied. She filed the $5 million class action suit against the Florida-based company for deceptive marketing tactics.

According to court documents obtained by The Daily Mail, the Waist Gang Society claims its products “actually burn fat and control the user’s weight. This is completely false and misleading. The Products have absolutely no effect on fat loss of the user.”

RELATED: What You Should Know About Waist Training

The lawsuit demands an end to the company’s weight loss claims, The Daily Mail reported.

In a prior interview with Health about waist training, Caroline Apovian, M.D., a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the Obesity Society, pointed out that there’s no evidence wearing a corset triggers fat loss and reshapes the body. “In my opinion, that is complete nonsense,” she said.

Waist Gang Society has yet to issue a public statement in response to the suit.

When it comes to whittling your middle, the healthiest approach remains the old-fashioned way: Proper nutrition plus moderate- to high-intensity exercise, and hard work in the form of ab-sculpting core exercises. You can’t go wrong with these six belly-flattening moves from celebrity trainer Jennifer Cohen.

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Antibiotics Don’t Boost Baby’s Weight: Study

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Infants who receive antibiotics during the first six months of life don’t seem to gain excess weight by the time they reach the age of 7, a new study suggests.

Antibiotics are the most widely used prescription drugs in children, but little has been known about the long-term health effects in people. Meanwhile, animal studies have linked early exposure to antibiotics with increased body fat, the researchers said.

The study included data on nearly 40,000 children in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. About 14 percent of the children were given antibiotics in the first six months of life. The average age children received antibiotics was just over four months, the study showed.

The study also included 92 pairs of twins. One twin was given antibiotics in the first six months of life while the other didn’t get the drugs.

In both groups, there was no significant difference in weight gain by 7 years of age between children who received antibiotics early in life and those who didn’t, the study found.

The study was published in the March 22/29 Journal of the American Medical Association.

“There are many reasons to limit antibiotic exposure in young, healthy children, but weight gain is likely not one of them,” researcher Dr. Jeffrey Gerber, from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues wrote.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about antibiotics.

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6 Things That Can Trigger a Seizure Even If You Don’t Have Epilepsy

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Harrison Ford has played a hero in the movies, but in real life, he gives that distinction to his 26-year-old daughter, Georgia. Earlier this month, the actor revealed that Georgia has epilepsy, and that it took years for her to get the proper treatment. “I admire her perseverance, her talent, her strength,” he told the Daily News.

Epilepsy isn’t always easy to identify. The disorder typically isn’t diagnosed until a person has had two or more “unprovoked” seizures—that is, seizures that don’t have a clear trigger, explains Vikram Rao, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.

It turns out there are multiple things that can trigger a seizure, which is essentially a surge of electrical activity in the brain. And just because you have one, that doesn’t mean you’ve got epilepsy. But you should always get checked out by a doctor afterwards, says Dr. Rao.

Here, six things that are known to trigger seizures even in people who don’t have a neurological condition—and what to do when a seizure strikes.

Stress

Seizures triggered by stress look similar to epileptic seizures, mainly because they can have the same symptoms—numbness, confusion, convulsions, and more. But there are differences in the brain electrical activity between the two types. In fact, research suggests that somewhere between 5% and 20% of people with epilepsy may be misdiagnosed and, in fact, suffering from seizures provoked by anxiety or underlying trauma.

RELATED: 25 Surprising Ways Stress Affects Your Health

Low blood sugar

Your brain is a huge consumer of glucose, says Dr. Rao. When your blood sugar levels drop too low—a state called hypoglycemia—your brain has trouble functioning normally and the result could be a seizure. Since hypoglycemia is a potential a side effect of diabetes medications, diabetics may be at a higher risk for this type of seizure.

Heatstroke

You already know that playing soccer for hours on a scorching-hot day can be dangerous. In that kind of heat (and under that kind of exertion), people can have trouble cooling themselves down. Once your internal thermostat reaches about 104 degrees Fahrenheit, you risk damaging your organs, including your brain: “The brain doesn’t function as well at higher temperatures,” says Dr. Rao. Once heat illness sets in, the brain can misfire, possibly triggering a seizure.

Alcohol Withdrawal

An estimated 2 million people may experience alcohol withdrawal every year, according to a 2004 study in the journal American Family Physician. People can develop a tolerance to (or dependence on) alcohol, and the wiring in their brains can reflect that. So when some people quit cold turkey, it leaves their brains in a new, altered state that can set them up for a seizure, usually within 48 hours after their last drink, says Dr. Rao.

Certain medications

Antidepressants like bupropion (a.k.a. Wellbutrin and Zyban) have been associated with seizures in certain studies. And some antibiotics, like penicillins and quinolones, and pain medications like tramadol (sold under the brand name Ultram) might increase the risk of seizures too.

Sleep deprivation

Too-little sleep is a powerful trigger for seizures, says Dr. Rao. (He’s seen seizures in college students who’ve stayed up for days in a row cramming for an exam.) “No one knows the exact reason behind this,” says Dr. Rao, “but sleep is restorative. We spend one-third of our lives sleeping, so we know it’s important.”

RELATED: 30 Sleep Hacks for Your Most Restful Night Ever

What to do if someone has a seizure

Oftentimes, less is more. Rule number one: Keep the person safe. That means making sure she doesn’t accidentally hurt herself, either on a nearby sharp object or by falling down the stairs.

As Anto Bagić, MD, PhD, the chief of the epilepsy division at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center puts it: “There’s no ‘heroic’ measure necessary.” Don’t try to restrain the person (she might panic and lash out even more aggressively) and do not put anything in her mouth (she might choke on it). Besides, it’s a myth that people can swallow their tongue during a seizure.

Either give her some space or, if necessary, guide her to a safer area, Dr. Bagić explains. If she’s lying on the floor, gently turn her on her side so that her saliva doesn’t block her airway.

Most seizures resolve themselves within five minutes, so if it goes on for longer than that, you should call 911, says Dr. Bagić. More often, however, the person will regain consciousness after a few minutes—and when she does, stay calm.

“When people are coming back [from a seizure], that’s when they’re at their most vulnerable,” says Dr. Bagić. “It can be scary if the first thing they see is people staring at them or panicking.”

Another key point: Stay with the person until you’re sure that she’s completely recovered. Do all that, and it’ll be heroic enough.

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FDA Orders Warning Labels on Prescription Narcotic Painkillers

By E.J. Mundell and Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporters

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Hoping to curb a national epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse, U.S. officials on Tuesday announced that certain drugs will get new “boxed warnings” about the dangers of misuse.

The move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration comes one week after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced tough new guidelines to doctors for “opioid” drugs such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin.

“We are at a time when the unfathomable tragedies resulting from addiction, overdose and death has become one of the most urgent, devastating public health crises facing our country,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told reporters at a Tuesday news briefing.

He said the agency is working with other agencies, drug makers, doctors and patients “to prevent abuse, save lives and treat dependence while still providing patients in pain access to effective relief.”

The new labeling rules are mostly aimed at highly addictive “immediate-release” versions of narcotic painkillers. According to an FDA news release, the new label requirements include:

• A new boxed warning on the “serious risks of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and death.”
• A new prescribing guideline that immediate-release opioids “should be reserved for pain severe enough to require opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate or not tolerated.”
• Labeling stressing the risk of “neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome” in babies born to mothers who took opioid painkillers during their pregnancy.

Besides this new labeling for immediate-release narcotic painkillers, the FDA is also mandating other revised labeling for all opioids — even extended-release versions.

All of these drugs will now include information on labels warning of potential harmful interactions of the drug with other medicines “that can result in a serious central nervous system condition called serotonin syndrome,” the agency said.

Labels will also warn of possible glandular or hormonal changes linked to opioid use.

The new rules come after CDC action on prescription painkillers, announced March 15. The CDC advisory stressed that doctors — especially primary care physicians — should try to avoid addictive “opioid” painkillers whenever possible for patients with most forms of chronic pain.

For example, this would include patients suffering from joint or back pain, dental pain (tooth extraction, for example), or other chronic pain treated in an outpatient setting.

It would not include the use of narcotic painkillers for people dealing with cancer-related pain, or terminally ill patients in palliative care, the CDC said.

“More than 40 Americans die each and every day from prescription opioid overdoses,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said during a news conference last Tuesday. “Increased prescribing of opioids — which has quadrupled since 1999 — is fueling an epidemic that is blurring the lines between prescription opioids and illicit opioids,” he added.

Recent reports have sounded alarm bells about the mounting death toll from narcotic painkiller abuse.

In December, the CDC announced that fatal drug overdoses had reached record highs in the United States — driven largely by the abuse of prescription painkillers and another opioid, heroin. Many abusers use both.

According to the December report, more than 47,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdose in 2014, a 14 percent jump from the previous year.

Reacting to the crisis last October, President Barack Obama noted that the daily death toll from drug overdoses now exceeds that of car crashes. At the time, the White House announced a major initiative aimed at combating the trend. The CDC advisory released Tuesday is a part of that effort.

Besides calling for physicians to prescribe non-narcotic options first for pain relief, the CDC advisory also laid out other steps to curb the abuse of opioid painkillers.

Whenever these painkillers are prescribed, “the lowest possible effective dosage” should be used, the CDC said.

Also, patients who are on such drugs should be closely monitored to “reassess [patient] progress and discontinue medication if needed,” the agency said.

The CDC said it was aiming the new guidelines at primary care physicians, because those doctors currently write nearly half of all prescriptions for narcotic painkillers.

Speaking last week, one expert applauded any effort to tighten control on prescription painkillers.

“These guidelines raise awareness of the hazards of unscrupulous opioid prescribing, as well as highlight the value of non-opioid medications and non-pharmacologic therapies,” said Dr. Harshal Kirane, who directs addiction services at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City.

“The opioid abuse epidemic can impact any of us, so it requires all of us to bring about sustainable change,” he said.

More information

There’s more on the epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Pre-Pregnancy Stress May Affect Baby’s Size

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Stress hormone levels before pregnancy may affect a woman’s risk of having a low birth weight baby, a new study suggests.

Typically, levels of the stress hormone cortisol are high when you wake up in the morning and decline through the day. But some people have a low cortisol level in the morning, and a smaller-than-normal decline during the day, the study authors said.

That abnormal pattern — associated with chronic stress and a history of trauma — has been linked to progression of a number of diseases, including cancer and hardening of the arteries, the researchers said.

It may also predict the weight of your baby.

“We found that the same cortisol pattern that has been linked with chronic stress is associated with delivering a baby that weighs less at birth,” study author Christine Guardino, a postdoctoral scholar in psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a university news release.

She and her colleagues looked at 142 pregnant woman in Baltimore; eastern North Carolina; Lake County, Ill.; Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

To assess the women’s stress levels, the researchers analyzed blood pressure, body mass index, cortisol levels in their saliva and other factors.

The study, published online recently in the journal Health Psychology, suggests a mother’s cortisol patterns before pregnancy affect a baby’s birth weight.

Each year, more than 300,000 babies with a low birth weight — less than about five-and-a-half pounds — are born in the United States. These babies are at increased risk for health problems and even death.

Elevated levels of cortisol in mothers lowers blood flow to the fetus, reducing the supply of oxygen and nutrients, said study co-lead author Chris Dunkel Schetter, a professor of psychology at UCLA.

Women planning to become pregnant should assess their stress levels and take measures to reduce them if necessary, the researchers said.

“Improving pre-conception health can profoundly improve our overall health,” Dunkel Schetter said in the news release.

“Women should treat depression, evaluate and treat stress, be sure they are in a healthy relationship, be physically active, stop smoking and gather family support. All of the things that create an optimal pregnancy and healthy life for the mother should be done before getting pregnant,” she advised.

More information

The U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion offers tips for a healthy pregnancy.

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Race, Poverty May Affect Early Stage Breast Cancer Management

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Race and income differences may affect treatment for some patients with early stage breast cancer, a new study suggests.

The study looked at women with estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer, a type of cancer that’s fueled by the hormone estrogen. Researchers found that black patients and people with low incomes were less likely to receive a genetic test that’s used to predict the aggressiveness of the disease.

“We meant this study as a kind of state of the union for the use of this test. What we found were some pretty stark disparities along socioeconomic and racial lines,” said the study lead author, Dr. Jagar Jasem, an investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

The test is called the 21-Gene Recurrence Score Assay. It predicts the likelihood that a woman’s cancer will come back using a scale of 1 to 100. A high score — 31 or more — suggests that it’s likely the cancer will come back. A low score — below 18 — suggests that the cancer is unlikely to recur, researchers said.

If the cancer isn’t likely to come back, the risks of chemotherapy outweigh its potential benefits, the study authors said. On the other hand, patients with a high score would likely benefit from chemotherapy — despite its risks — because without chemotherapy, their cancer is likely to return. Women with an intermediate score — 18 to 30 — may also benefit from chemotherapy, the researchers said.

Jasem and his colleagues reviewed more than 143,000 patient records for the study.

They noted that black women with early stage, estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer who were given the test had a greater chance of having an aggressive tumor that would respond to chemotherapy. However, black patients were less likely to receive the test, the researchers said.

What’s more, the study found that when black women were tested, overtreatment was still a risk. The researchers said black patients were more likely to undergo chemotherapy even if they had a low score on the test.

“We show that doctors are absolutely using this test to decide who gets chemotherapy along with their treatment. In fact, of all the variables we explored, this test was most strongly associated with the chance that a patient goes on to receive chemotherapy,” Jasem said in a university news release.

“But what we show is that the treatment of minority and low-socioeconomic patients is more likely to be disconnected from these test results,” he said.

Patients treated at community centers and those with Medicaid and Medicare were also less likely to be tested, the study showed.

The study was published March 21 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute provides more information on breast cancer.

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Antipsychotic Drugs Tied to Risk of Early Death in Parkinson’s Patients

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that Parkinson’s patients who are given antipsychotics to treat dementia and psychosis may be more likely to die early.

However, the medications provide important benefits and the study authors aren’t suggesting that these patients stop taking them. And it’s still not clear exactly why there seems to be an increased risk of early death.

“This [study] does not necessarily answer whether the drugs themselves lead to more deaths, or if it’s instead the reasons they were prescribed,” said Dr. Mark Baron, interim director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center. He wrote a commentary accompanying the new study.

Antipsychotic drugs, despite their name, are used to treat a variety of mental conditions other than psychosis, including anxiety and dementia.

As many as 60 percent of long-term Parkinson’s patients are thought to develop psychosis. And, the number who develop dementia — often in the late stages of illness — is believed to be as high as 80 percent, the study authors noted. Antipsychotics are commonly used to treat both conditions in Parkinson’s patients.

The study focused on nearly 7,900 Parkinson’s patients in the Veterans Affairs system who took antipsychotics (mostly all men, with an average age of 76). The researchers compared them to roughly 7,900 Parkinson’s patients in the VA system who didn’t take the drugs.

The drugs included older “typical” antipsychotics, such as haloperidol (Haldol) and chlorpromazine hydrochloride (Thorazine), along with more modern “atypical” antipsychotics, such as risperidone (Risperdal), olanzapine (Zyprexa) and quetiapine (Seroquel). The modern drugs were used much more commonly in these Parkinson’s patients.

The investigators found that those who took antipsychotics were more than twice as likely to die over six months as those who didn’t. Those who took the older typical antipsychotics (especially Haldol) were at highest risk. The study didn’t pinpoint the risk of death for those who didn’t take the drugs.

While the study focused almost entirely on men, the researchers said the experiences of women would probably be the same.

“The benefits of antipsychotics for dementia are modest at best,” said study co-lead author Dr. Helen Kales, director of the Program for Positive Aging at the University of Michigan. “However, antipsychotics are widely used for difficult behaviors commonly seen in dementia because they can be seen as a quick fix — while strategies like behavioral interventions require time and training and, thus, have not yet received great uptake.”

As for psychosis, study co-lead author Dr. Daniel Weintraub said clozapine (Clozaril) is effective but rarely used, while quetiapine (Seroquel) is more common but has little evidence to support its use. Weintraub is an associate professor with the department of psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Kales said antipsychotics can worsen Parkinson’s symptoms, sedate people, impair thinking and cause other side effects, but it’s not clear exactly what’s happening with the apparent early death risk. And the study did not prove that the medications cause early death, it only showed an association.

What should patients and physicians do with the findings?

“Psychosis can impair quality of life and worsen the burden on caregivers. So, the decision to use or not use antipsychotics must balance the potential benefits versus risks,” Weintraub said. However, he added that antipsychotics should be used cautiously, for as little time as possible, and after alternatives are considered.

The newer antipsychotics, he added, are the best options.

Baron, the commentary author, said the choice about using the drugs is a difficult dilemma with “no straight answers.” The risk of death is “hard to ignore,” he said, but it’s also important to ease the symptoms of dementia and psychosis in these patients.

For the future, the researchers are studying what happens to patients over a longer period of time. And, Kales said, researchers will need to monitor the effects of a new antipsychotic medication called pimavanserin (Nuplazid) that’s awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The study is published in the March 21 online edition of JAMA Neurology.

More information

For more about early symptoms of Parkinson’s, visit the National Parkinson Foundation.

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Contact Lenses May Disrupt Eyes’ Natural Bacteria, Study Suggests

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 22, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Contact lenses may alter the natural bacterial environment of your eyes, new research suggests.

A small study found that the eye surface of contact lens wearers tends to harbor bacteria normally found on the skin surrounding the eye.

Whether this is caused by finger-to-lens interaction or the actual act of wearing contacts remains unclear. But the findings raise questions as to whether this shift in microbial composition might boost the risk for eye infections, the study authors said.

“Wearing contact lenses is known to increase the risk of microbial keratitis and other inflammatory eye conditions,” said study lead author Maria Dominguez-Bello. She is an associate professor with the Human Microbiome Program at New York University School of Medicine, in New York City.

Keratitis is a painful and potentially serious inflammation of the cornea.

More than 30 million Americans wear contact lenses, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that roughly one in every 500 develops a vision-threatening eye infection each year. Keratitis alone prompts about 1 million doctor and hospital visits annually.

One driver of risk is hygiene. Between 40 percent and 90 percent of contact lens users fail to properly clean and/or regularly replace their contacts as instructed, the CDC says.

Another possible risk factor is the effect contact lenses may have on the bacterial composition of the eye.

The microbiome — or bacterial community — of body sites such as the gut, skin and mouth are designed to help resist germs, according to background notes with the study.

However, “despite being important in ophthalmology, the eye microbiome has been largely neglected, and its functions remain unknown,” Dominguez-Bello said.

With that in mind, the study team set out to conduct genetic sequencing that compared the eye bacterial community of contact lens wearers and non-lens wearers.

The researchers collected samples from 58 adults, analyzing bacteria on the eye surface, the skin below the eye and on contact lenses from 20 users. Additional samples were taken from 20 participants — about half of whom wore contact lenses — at three points over six weeks.

The investigators found that in people who don’t wear contacts, the bacterial composition of the eye is very different from that of the surrounding skin, with greater or lesser amounts of specific bacteria.

By contrast, in contact lens wearers, the bacterial makeup of their eye surface was much more similar to the bacterial makeup of the surrounding skin.

Does that mean that contacts contribute to, or cause, the conjunctivitis, keratitis and other health concerns that often afflict wearers? Not necessarily.

“We still do not know,” cautioned Dominquez-Bello. “Future studies are needed to determine the role of the microbiome in the increased risk for eye infections in contact lens wearers.”

Mark Willcox, a professor of optometry and vision science at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said that “contact lens wear is still a safe and effective way of correcting vision.”

However, the new study demonstrates “that paying attention to hand and contact lens hygiene is really important,” he added.

“Contact lens wearers should remember to wash their hands with soap and water prior to touching their lenses,” Willcox said. Unless you wear disposable lenses, you must also rub and rinse your lenses with disinfecting solution before and after use, he said.

Willcox also stressed the need to replace lenses at the frequency recommended by your eye care provider; to never sleep with contact lenses; and to replace disinfecting solutions every month and lens cases every three months.

Dominguez-Bello’s study, funded by the Research to Prevent Blindness Foundation, was published in the March issue of mBio.

More information

There’s more on contact lens safety at the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

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