E-Cigarettes to Be Regulated as Tobacco Products

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E-cigarettes will be regulated as tobacco products, federal authorities announced on Thursday.

In a long-awaited ruling, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized rules that give the agency authority to regulate all tobacco products including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco, as well as other products. Until now, e-cigarettes were not regulated by the FDA and there was no national law to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes,hookah tobacco or cigars to people under 18.

“The actions being taken today will help the FDA prevent misleading claims by tobacco product manufacturers, evaluate the ingredients of tobacco products and how they are made, as well as communicate their potential risks,” the agency said in a statement.

The new rule means the agency will have to approve all products that made it to market as of Feb. 15, 2007—a point at which the e-cigarette market was virtually non-existent. “What we know is absence of federal restriction means that enforcement is uneven and at times nonexistent,” HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell said during a news conference.

The risks of e-cigarettes has been a public health debate for some time and the FDA initially announced its proposal to increase its jurisdiction in 2014. The HHS and FDA said on Tuesday that surveys show 1 in 4 high school students and 1 in 13 middle schoolers report being tobacco users. 16% of high schoolers also reported using cigarettes in 2015, a 900% increase from 1.5% in 2011. While e-cigarettes do not contain the same carcinogens as traditional cigarettes, they do contain nicotine, which is addictive. Early research has also cast doubt on the safety of some of the chemicals used inE-cigarettes when inhaled into the lungs.

Small and medium sized e-cigarette companies have responded to the news with concerns that undergoing the new approval process will be costly. “This gigantic price tag is affordable to Big Tobacco companies, but small and medium-sized businesses will be crushed,” said Gregory Conley, President of the American Vaping Association. “If the FDA’s rule is not changed by Congress or the courts, thousands of small businesses will close in two to three years.”

Burwell addressed these concerns during a news conference with reporters, saying the agencies understand the concerns small businesses will have, and that the FDA will allow them to have more time to comply.

The FDA says after 90 days they will begin enforcing portion of the rule that says the products cannot be sold to people under 18. This rule also requires ID to purchase tobaccos products and bans sales in vending machines as well as free samples

“The health of the nation will continue to suffer the consequences of any further delay in implementing a law intended to protect public health,”Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said in a statement.

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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7 Ways to Prevent Thigh Rub

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Unless you’re one of the five people on Earth who have a thigh gap, you’re probably familiar with what the rest of us mortals call “thigh rub”—that annoying chafing that you get when your thighs cozy up together as you walk or run.

Basically, here’s what happens: When your thighs rub together, it creates friction that damages the outer layer of skin, causing pain and inflammation, says Melissa Piliang, MD, a dermatologist at the Cleveland Clinic. And when you sweat, moisture sits on the skin and breaks down the outer layer of skin even more. Ouch.

Enter Amy Schumer—comedienne, star of Trainwreck, and bestie to J.Law—with perhaps the greatest thigh rub hack ever:

At Monday’s Met Gala, Schumer, 34, stunned in an Alexander Wang gown, and her Instagram account featured plenty of behind-the-scenes photos of her prepping for the big event. But it was this video of Schumer applying deodorant to her inner thighs—“No chafe #nothighgapnoproblem”— that racked up more than 121,000 likes. Obviously, many of us can relate.

Deoderant is “good in a pinch,” confirms Dr. Piliang. As a general rule, anything that absorbs moisture can help with chafing, she says. But deodorant can also be drying, so if you use it too often, your skin might become even more irritated.

With summer right around the corner, we asked the experts for a few more options to help stop the chafe.

RELATED: Is Wearing Workout Leggings All Day Bad for My Vagina?

Lip balm 

Since lip balms are slick, they can help keep your thighs from rubbing against each other and creating friction, says Carolyn Bangert, MD, a dermatologist at McGovern Medical School at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Petroleum jelly

This is another option that can act as a lubricant and prevent friction, says Dr. Bangert. Bonus: Petroleum jelly can also be used to soothe already-chafed skin. (The only downside? It can be a little greasy.)

Body Glide

An anti-chafing balm that helps prevent the skin irritation caused by friction, Body Glide is an alternative for people who don’t want to deal with messier products. Plus, it also protects against blisters, which makes it especially useful for weekend warriors and athletes alike.

RELATED:7 Bike Shorts That Will Save Your Crotch

Spanx

They’re a good option when you’re wearing a dress: The fabric acts as a barrier against the skin, which helps prevent friction and wick away sweat, says Dr. Piliang.

Baby Powder

Since baby powders are good at absorbing moisture, they’re also helpful for preventing chafing. (Though you might want to go with a cornstarch-based product instead of one that contains talc.) And like petroleum jelly, baby powder can also be used on chafed skin to soothe the irritation.

RELATED: 12 Baby Products Dermatologists Recommend to Adults

Bandelettes

On first glance, these look too pretty to be useful. But in fact, Bandelettes are specifically designed to ward off chafing. Plus, they’re also recommended by fashion editors and bloggers alike. They’re non-slip, made of silicone, and are cute enough to wear with (or, ahem, without) your favorite skirt.

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Young LGBT Adults Target of FDA Stop-Smoking Campaign

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Hoping to reduce tobacco use by young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched an LGBT stop-smoking campaign.

“We know LGBT young adults in this country are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

“We want LGBT young adults to know that there is no safe amount of smoking. Even an occasional cigarette can have serious health implications and lead to addiction,” he said in an agency news release.

The campaign specifically targets 18- to 24-year-old LGBT smokers. At least 800,000 of the more than 2 million LGBT young adults in the United States are occasional or social smokers, according to the FDA.

A key reason for high tobacco use among this group of young adults is the real and perceived social stigma, discrimination and anxiety they experience when they “come out,” the FDA stated.

Many find a sense of community in LGBT bars and clubs where tobacco use is common, and some leading LGBT public figures openly promote tobacco use, the agency explained.

The new campaign “is designed to challenge the perception that tobacco use is a necessary part of LGBT culture,” said Richard Wolitski. He is acting director of the Office for HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“The campaign shows LGBT young adults they can be the person they want to be and still live tobacco-free,” Wolitski explained.

Entitled “This Free Life,” the campaign was scheduled to launch in 12 regions nationwide this week with print, digital and out-of-home ads. Local outreach efforts will also highlight tobacco-free attitudes and lifestyles within the LGBT community.

The $35.7 million campaign is funded by user fees collected from the tobacco industry, not taxpayer dollars.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on LGBT health.

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Babies Not Natural Mimics

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Babies aren’t born with the ability to imitate, according to a new study that challenges previous research and beliefs.

Many studies have suggested that infants naturally imitate facial expressions, hand gestures and vocal sounds in their first weeks of life, the researchers said.

But they tested 106 infants at 1, 2, 6 and 9 weeks of age, and found that the babies did not imitate any actions and gestures of adults.

The results suggest that imitation isn’t a behavior babies are born with, but rather one that is learned by watching other people imitate them, said researcher Virginia Slaughter, from the University of Queensland, in Australia.

The study was published May 5 in the journal Current Biology.

“Infants aren’t born with the ability to copy what other people do, but they acquire that skill during the first months of life,” she said in a journal news release.

“One possibility is that being imitated plays a role in this acquisition. In another study from our lab, we found that parents imitate their babies once every two minutes on average; this is a powerful means by which infants can learn to link their gestures with those of another person,” she explained.

The researchers are continuing their efforts to learn more about when infants begin to imitate others and what factors affect the development of this skill.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines children’s developmental milestones.

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Shortages of Lifesaving Drugs Linger in U.S.

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Drug shortages remain a problem in the United States despite government legislation meant to boost availability, a new study finds.

More than half of recent shortages involved acute-care drugs used to treat seriously ill patients in hospitals and emergency departments, according to researchers at Yale University, in New Haven, Conn.

Those drugs include antibiotics, intravenous saline and naloxone, which is used to treat drug overdoses.

“Our key finding was that up to 2012, shortages were rising for both non-acute and acute drugs,” said study senior author Dr. Arjun Venkatesh, an assistant professor of emergency medicine.

Since 2012, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was authorized to deal with the crisis, “the shortages for non-acute drugs are decreasing and getting shorter but the shortages for acute drugs are increasing and getting longer,” Venkatesh said in a Yale news release.

According to the researchers, drugs in short supply tripled over the past decade.

For the study, the Yale researchers analyzed data from 2001 to 2014. They found the overall number of drug shortages declined after the FDA gained its new powers, which could wrongly suggest drug availability is no longer a problem, the study authors said.

“You could look at the passage of the law and the overall decline, and view it as a success,” Venkatesh said. “That’s not the case. These acute-care drugs have been ignored.”

Also, shortages of acute-care drugs lasted about eight months on average, compared to about seven months for all drugs overall, the study found.

Resorting to alternative drugs can raise the likelihood of medical error and push up costs and side effects, compared to the preferred drugs, the researchers noted.

The study appears in the May issue of the journal Health Affairs.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration has more on drug shortages.

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Portable Zika Test Shows Promise in Monkeys

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A fast, inexpensive test that detects the Zika virus in monkeys might be useful for doctors working far from hospitals, researchers say.

The portable test can detect Zika in the serum (blood or possibly saliva) of infected monkeys at much lower concentrations than previously possible, according to the Harvard University researchers.

The test, which can be freeze-dried and stored for up to a year, could provide physicians hundreds of miles away from the nearest hospital with a way to quickly detect Zika virus in people, the researchers said.

Because it’s a color-change test, even untrained people can easily determine whether Zika is present in a sample, said the team from Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, in Boston.

While testing and development is still taking place, the scientists said the test might be ready for use in certain clinics or laboratories within several months.

The study was published May 6 in the journal Cell.

If field tests are successful, “the test’s low cost and minimal equipment also means that it can be used for monitoring the spread of illnesses across large populations of people, enabling us to monitor the pathogen as an outbreak is occurring,” researcher James Collins said in a journal news release.

Organizations “like the WHO (World Health Organization) can use this information to get ahead of an outbreak in order to contain it and save lives,” he added.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the Zika virus.

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HIV Decline Falls Short of U.S. 5-Year Goal

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Although HIV infection and transmission rates in the United States declined over the past five years, they fell short of White House targets, a new study finds.

Between 2010 and 2015, new HIV infections decreased 11 percent and transmission of the AIDS-causing virus declined 17 percent, far less than the goals set in 2010 as part of the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), researchers said.

The NHAS goals for 2015 were reductions of 25 percent for new HIV infections and 30 percent declines in HIV transmission.

“Even though we missed the goals by a sizable margin, it’s promising to see that we made important progress in reducing rates of HIV infection and transmission,” said lead study author Robert Bonacci. He is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

The aim was to lower the persistent HIV infection rate (about 50,000 cases a year) through a more coordinated national response, improved access and care for people with HIV, and a reduction in HIV-related health disparities, the study authors noted.

“Scaling up HIV treatment and care alone was not enough,” Bonacci said in a university news release. “We need a simultaneous expansion of diagnostic and prevention services, paired with an intensified focus on communities disproportionately affected by HIV.”

He said these communities include gay men, young people, transgender people, black Americans, Hispanics and those who live in the southern United States.

The researchers’ analysis of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed that between 2010 and 2015, the number of new HIV infections fell annually from nearly 37,400 to just over 33,200. Meanwhile, the rate of HIV transmission decreased from 3.16 to 2.61 (a 17 percent reduction), the study found.

During that time, the number of people living with HIV rose from just over 1.18 million to 1.27 million. Also, deaths of people with HIV from all causes fell from about 17,800 to 16,000, the findings showed.

The findings were published online April 29 in the journal AIDS and Behavior.

The researchers said that since the NHAS was launched, there has been little growth in funding for HIV programs in the nation, with the exception of increased funding for HIV treatment. Last year, the White House extended the NHAS through 2020.

“After the release of the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy, researchers cautioned that failure to expand diagnostic, prevention and care services to necessary levels would result in underachievement on the NHAS goals for 2015,” said study senior author David Holtgrave.

“Our analysis suggests that is just what happened,” said Holtgrave, chair of the department of health, behavior and society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“HIV prevention efforts must be reinvigorated in the NHAS’s second era,” he added.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on HIV/AIDS.

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Zika Destroys Fetal Brain Cells, Lab Study Finds

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The terrible birth defects caused by Zika virus appear to be the result of an immune system response that triggers prenatal brain cell suicide and obstructs fetal brain development, a new lab study reports.

The virus apparently activates an immune receptor called TLR3, which the body uses to identify and defend against invading viruses, said lead researcher Tariq Rana. He is a professor of pediatrics and genetics at the University of California, San Diego.

The hyper-activated TLR3 then proceeds to turn off genes that fetal stem cells need to specialize into brain cells, and appears to switch on genes that trigger cell suicide, Rana said.

“We all have an innate immune system that evolved specifically to fight off viruses, but here the virus turns that very same defense mechanism against us,” Rana explained. “By activating TLR3, the Zika virus blocks genes that tell stem cells to develop into the various parts of the brain.”

These findings help explain how Zika causes microcephaly, an abnormally small brain and skull development, and other neonatal brain-related birth defects, Rana said. They also show why there’s no similar effect in adults, since their brains are already fully developed.

There’s also good news for the potential prevention of brain birth defects due to Zika. Rana and his team successfully blocked this process in laboratory stem cell samples by using a chemical that inhibits the action of TLR3.

A drug that safely blocks TLR3 could possibly save babies from birth defects if given to Zika-infected women during the early stages of pregnancy, he said.

“If some mom comes into the clinic and the doctor thinks there is a Zika infection established, you could give this med, and once the first trimester is done, you can take them off the med,” Rana suggested.

Zika is the first mosquito-borne virus ever proven to cause birth defects, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To figure out why this happens, Rana and his team used human embryonic stem cells to create a laboratory model of a first-trimester human brain, also called a “cerebral organoid.” The model’s stem cells were designed to specialize and grow into the various different cells in the brain, much the same as they do during a fetus’ first trimester.

Researchers then infected their model with Zika and found that a developing brain shrinks when exposed to the virus.

Five days after infection, Zika-infected organoids had decreased in size by an average 16 percent, the researchers found. By comparison, healthy brain organoids in a control sample had grown an average of 22.6 percent.

Rana’s team noticed that the TLR3 gene had been activated in the Zika-infected model brains.

TLR3’s job is to sense viruses and activate an immune response. But the researchers found TLR3 activation influenced 41 genes in the fetal brain and caused a disastrous chain-reaction that both prompted cells to die off and interfered with stem cells’ ability to grow into different brain cells.

By adding a chemical TLR3 inhibitor, Rana’s team found they could partially protect developing brain cells against Zika, although the virus still wound up doing some damage to their model brain.

Rana said this research has only been conducted in human and mouse cells, and needs to be replicated in actual organisms before it can be used to create any therapy to counter Zika.

But infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja called the work an “elegant study that begins to unravel how Zika is capable of causing microcephaly in the developing fetus.”

Adalja, a senior associate with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Health Security, said, “We had known prior to this study that Zika had the capacity to infect neural progenitor cells and cause damage.”

With this study, he added, “we now have an elucidation of one mechanism that the virus uses, TLR3. This discovery opens up avenues for further understanding of the entire cascade of changes in gene expression that are caused by Zika infection.”

The study is published in the May 6 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

More information

For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Walking Fido Is Doggone Good for Your Health

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Walking the dog may be a health boon for older Americans, new research suggests.

Dog walking helps cut back on excess weight and the overall need to visit a physician while raising overall moderate and vigorous exercise levels among the over-60 set, investigators found.

And the strong emotional bonds formed between owner and pet offer social benefits, encouraging increased contact with other pet owners.

“There is a wealth of evidence that walking is beneficial for people’s physical health,” said study lead author Angela Curl. She is an assistant professor in the department of family studies and social work at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio.

“[And] what makes dog walking unique is the relationship between people and their dogs, as well as the ways dogs can motivate walking behavior,” she added. “Other studies have shown dogs’ needs provide a motivation to get out and walk. Our findings illustrate that the emotional bond people have with their dogs may play an important role in getting out to walk.”

Curl and her colleagues discussed their work in a recent issue of The Gerontologist.

The authors noted that in 2014, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all adults, regardless of age, rack up a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate activity every week.

Walking happens to be the most frequent exercise activity among adults 60 and up.

To explore the impact of dog ownership on that, the investigating team analyzed data involving a nationally representative sample of 771 men and women (50 years old and up) collected in 2012 by the Health and Retirement Study. That investigation was conducted at the University of Michigan, with funding from the U.S. National Institute on Aging.

Just over a third of the participants (271) owned at least one dog. Pet ownership involving other types of animals was not considered.

A portion of the dog owners group was asked questions to gauge pet “bonding,” including whether they considered their dog a friend, and whether they talked about their dog with others.

Frequency and overall time spent walking was also assessed, as were overall walking habits, walking speed and total distance walked per week.

The result: While owning a dog was not directly associated with having better overall health among those 60 and up, it was associated with a lower body mass index (a measure of weight and obesity status); fewer physical limitations; less frequent visits to a doctor; and more routine exercise. The study didn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship, however.

But would owning other types of pets also pay a health dividend?

“Other research studies have found that cats and dogs can help reduce loneliness as well as improve health outcomes such as cortisol [stress hormone] levels, cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure,” said Curl. “However, we need a lot more research about the potential health benefits of other species of pets, and who might benefit the most [or] least from pet ownership.”

Daniel Promislow, an American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) spokesperson, and director of the Canine Longevity Consortium at the University of Washington in Seattle, heralded the special benefits of dog ownership.

“On average, dog owners walk more,” he said, “and score better on stress tests and other measures of psychological well-being. There is even some suggestion in the scientific literature that owning a dog is associated with a lower risk of various diseases [perhaps from that extra exercise], and faster recovery times when disease does occur.

“So it would seem that for people in their later years, there are a variety of benefits that come from having a companion dog,” Promislow said.

Dr. Alice Pomidor, a geriatrics professor at Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee, noted that in general, “pet ownership can lead to increased physical activity, as well as a greater sense of feeling connected to your community and to other pet owners.

“For many older adults, pets are also a great source of comfort after close friends, relatives or partners have passed away,” she added. “Hospice and long-term care facilities often have pets for comfort, support and recreation.”

More information

There’s more on the health benefits of dog ownership at Harvard Medical School.

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Harsh Parenting May Harm a Child’s Physical Health

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Harsh parenting may leave more than psychological scars, it might also leave lasting physical problems — such as obesity — even into young adulthood, new research suggests.

And having one kind, caring parent doesn’t seem to counteract the effects of the harsh parent.

“Harshness, as we measured it, is always bad for kids. But it is particularly bad if the adolescent perceives high levels of warmth and support from the other parent,” said study lead author Thomas Schofield.

The researchers defined “harsh” parenting as angry, hostile and antisocial.

Until now, “we did not know if parenting that was harsh — while not falling into the category of abuse — could predict physical health,” said Schofield, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at Iowa State University.

For the study, Schofield and his colleagues examined the results of a study of 451 children. All were seventh-grade students in eight Iowa counties in 1989.

The researchers studied their families, even videotaping how they interacted in their homes. Then, the investigators followed the children’s health through age 20. All of the families lived in small towns or on farms. All were white and spoke English.

The study authors also asked kids questions about their health and whether their parents showed warmth to them by expressing caring or appreciation.

The findings showed evidence that harsh parenting appears to have a measurable impact on the health of kids. When parents were “hostile, angry, and antisocial towards their adolescent,” Schofield said, the kids were more likely to report declines in their physical health and to gain extra weight.

Meanwhile, “warmth from the second parent did not consistently buffer or protect the adolescent from the harshness from the first parent,” he said.

When the researchers looked at body mass index (BMI) — a ratio of weight to height — they found that the harmful effects of the harsh parent on BMI increased even as the warmth of the other parent went up.

Still, “we cannot prove harsh parenting was the cause” of worse health, Schofield said.

The study didn’t tease out possible reasons why a harsh parent might cause lasting physical harm. But, Schofield said, stress in childhood does hurt people’s health over their lives.

Michael MacKenzie is an associate professor of social work and pediatrics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He said stress may indeed be the cause of health issues in kids with harsh parents. The reason: there’s evidence that stress disrupts the functioning of the immune system and growth hormones, he said.

Schofield said the new study findings should help show parents that their behavior matters. “Parents reacting emotionally to life stress or parenting stress is natural, and can require concerted effort to master,” he added.

Schofield said parents should consider their actions with their kids and think about whether they’d act differently in public when people are watching.

“If we’re behaving one way at home and another way in public, some part of us knows we’re doing something we feel the need to hide,” he said. “And if a child ever begins to behave as though they’re on edge, afraid, or timid around the parent, that’s a sign that something needs to shift.”

Self-help books and therapy can be useful, Schofield said.

“All of these options require parents to admit ‘We may have in the past done things that hurt our children,’ and ‘We can improve [our] parenting behaviors,’ ” he said. “Acknowledging those two truths is very hard, but it is probably the first step, and it is universally true because none of us are perfect parents.”

The study was published recently in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

More information

For details on practicing parenting skills, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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