Your Diet May Be Causing Your Urinary Tract Infections

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Tough-to-treat urinary tract infections (UTI) that are resistant to antibiotics are on the rise. Now, in a new study looking at human urine published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers say they’ve discovered why some people are more prone than others to the infections. Intriguingly, diet may have something to do with it.

Early on in an infection, cells produce a protein called siderocalin that blocks bacterial growth, including the growth of E. coli that often causes UTIs, says Jeffrey P. Henderson, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and senior author of the study. (It does this by keeping iron away from the bacteria, which need it to thrive.) The researchers wanted to see how the protein worked differently in various samples of urine at restricting the growth of E. coli, so they analyzed the urine from about 50 men and women.

“We found, kind of to our surprise, that there was a really wide range between individuals and how well this protein worked, just depending on that individual’s urinary composition,” says Henderson.

Two common factors emerged in urine that had a better ability to resist bacterial growth: it had a high pH—one that’s more alkaline, in other words—and higher levels of certain metabolites formed by gut microbes. That metabolite isn’t made from human cells, Henderson says; rather, they come from the diet or are metabolized by bacterial cells from dietary sources. “It looks like this protein that’s part of your immune system is able to use metabolites in the diet as grips to hold onto iron and keep it away from pathogenic bacteria,” Henderson says. In some people, that system is set up really well, he says, but in those who get recurrent UTIs, it doesn’t seem to work as well.

Both urine pH and metabolite production may be able to be changed through diet, and doing so could potentially offer a treatment strategy in the future, he says. “It may be that we have to adjust multiple things at the same time to get the system to work well, but the appealing part is this is not an antibiotic strategy,” he says. “It may allow you to keep your normal flora while keeping bacteria out of the urinary tract.”

Physicians already know how to raise urinary pH with things like calcium supplements, and alkalizing agents are already used in the U.K. as over-the-counter UTI treatments, Henderson says. Knowing how to encourage the metabolites is trickier. The molecules come from phenolic, or aromatic, compounds, Henderson says, and robust food sources include those that we more often hear are rich in antioxidants: coffee, tea, colorful berries, red wine and dark chocolate.

And yes: cranberries, too, are known to make urinary aromatics, which may be why cranberry products are so often used as UTI remedies, Henderson says. “One thing this suggests is that maybe the reason it’s not more effective is that people need both cranberries and a higher urine pH, or they need cranberries and appropriate inhabitants of their intestine, or the right microbiome composition in their gut, for the cranberry part to work properly.”

A treatment without antibiotics would be a boon, but it’s likely a several-pronged approach and for now, more research is needed. “We still have a few more details to iron out before we know exactly how to do that.”

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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Meet the California Woman Who Gave Birth While Lost in the Woods for Days

Giving birth is no a walk in the park that’s for sure. But going into labor, when lost alone in the woods, with little water and food, and no help, while fending off bees and mosquitos? That’s definitely the most intense birth story we’ve ever heard.

A very pregnant Amber Pangborn was driving to her parent’s house when she started to feel labor pains, and decided to instead take a remote back road that she heard was faster, she told the NBC affiliate KCRA in nearby Sacramento, California. This turned out to be a poor choice when Pangborn realized that she was not only out of gas, but also in an area without cell reception.

RELATED: 15 Factors That Affect a Woman’s Fertility

Pangborn had to give birth to her daughter, whom she named Marisa, alone in the woods. She then spent the next three days stuck, fighting off bees and mosquitos, hoping help would come while caring for her newborn and subsisting off a few apples and a little bit of water she had in the car. “I thought we were going to die,” Pangborn explained to KCRA.

By Saturday, she grew desperate, and decided to start a brush fire with hairspray and a lighter to signal for help, she said.

RELATED: What Pregnancy Does to Your Health

“The whole side of the mountain caught on fire,” Pangborn said, in an on-camera interview with KCRA. “I was looking at Marisa and was like, ‘I think Mommy just started a forest fire.’”

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Chris French told the Associated Press that a helicopter pilot responding to a fire spotted a mother and infant in drought-ridden area, and the two were whisked off to the hospital while fire crews fought the flames. The fire was still under official investigation on Tuesday.

Pangborn’s mother and new grandma Dianna Williams told the Associated Press that both mom and baby are doing “great,” though the child was born underweight and is still at the UC Davis Medical Center.

RELATED: How to Stock a Smart First Aid Kit

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Are Too Many Young Americans Getting Antipsychotics for ADHD?

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — A growing number of teens and young adults are being prescribed powerful antipsychotics, even though the medications aren’t approved to treat two disorders — ADHD and depression — they are commonly used for, a new study shows.

Researchers found that antipsychotic use rose among children aged 13 and older — from 1.1 percent in 2006 to nearly 1.2 percent in 2010. And among young adults — people aged 19 to 24 — antipsychotic use increased from 0.69 percent in 2006 to 0.84 percent in 2010.

Of concern to some experts are the conditions for which many of these antipsychotic prescriptions are being written, namely attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. Currently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves this class of drugs for psychiatric conditions such as psychosis, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or impulsive aggression tied to autism.

But the new report finds that by 2009, 52.5 percent of younger children (aged 1 to 6), 60 percent of older children (aged 7 to 12) and about 35 percent of teens who got an antipsychotic were diagnosed with ADHD.

“ADHD is a main diagnosis being targeted by antipsychotic treatment in children and adolescents — this is not an adequate diagnostic indication,” said Dr. Vilma Gabbay, chief of the Pediatric Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

She noted that the new study showed that the rise in antipsychotic prescribing in teenagers and young adults was most pronounced in males. Since boys are more prone to ADHD than girls, “this trend explains the increased rates of males compared [to] females being prescribed antipsychotics,” she said.

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and led by Dr. Mark Olfson, from the department of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City.

There are many drugs classified as antipsychotics, but some include haloperidol, clozapine, risperidone, olanzapine and quetiapine. The researchers noted that clinical trials suggest that risperidone (Risperdal), when used with stimulants, can help reduce aggression in ADHD, but it is not approved by the FDA to treat the condition.

In their study, Olfson’s team tracked data on antipsychotic prescriptions from a database that includes roughly 60 percent of all retail pharmacies in the United States. The database includes prescription information on approximately 1.3 million children, teens, and young adults, the researchers said.

“No prior study has had the data to look at age patterns in antipsychotic use among children the way we do here,” study co-author Michael Schoenbaum, a senior advisor for mental health services, epidemiology and economics at the NIMH, said in an institute news release.

The study did find a downward trend in antipsychotic medications for some age groups. For example, in 2006, 0.14 percent of younger children between the ages of 1 and 6 were taking antipsychotics, compared to 0.11 percent in 2010. Among older kids — those between the ages of 7 and 12 — use of these drugs dropped from 0.85 percent in 2006 to 0.80 percent in 2010.

At the same time, however, antipsychotic use rose among older children and young adults. By 2010, 2.8 million prescriptions were filled annually for teens, the researchers said, while 1.8 million prescriptions were filled for young adults.

Many prescriptions were not written by child or adolescent psychiatrists, however. The study found that only about 29 percent of young children, 39 percent of older kids, 39 percent of teens and 14 percent of young adults got their antipsychotic prescriptions from such specialists in 2010.

Two conditions for which antipsychotic use is not approved by the FDA — ADHD and depression — were major reasons behind prescriptions for these medications. In fact, the study found that while prescriptions for ADHD were common, the most common condition among young adults prescribed these drugs was depression.

This is worrisome, Schoenbaum said. “Antipsychotics should be prescribed with care,” he noted. “They can adversely affect both physical and neurological function, and some of their adverse effects can persist even after the medication is stopped.”

The fact that many of those prescribing these drugs were not child psychiatrists was telling, Gabbay said.

“Only a minority of child and adolescent psychiatrists were involved in treatment,” he noted.

Dr. Matthew Lorber is acting director of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He said there was good news and bad news from the report.

“Prescribing of this class of medications for children under the age of 12 has been decreasing, which is most likely a good thing due to their dangerous side effects,” he said.

But Lorber agreed that more caution is needed in prescribing antipsychotics to children with ADHD.

Presumably, he said, “the intention of the prescribing physician is to address behavioral problems, aggression and mood changes, but it is unclear if the risks are being considered.”

He said that for conditions for which antipsychotic medications are not approved, physicians should exhaust other treatment options first. Then, “if antipsychotics are necessary for children without psychosis or bipolar, it is recommended that they are used for brief interventions,” only, Lorber said.

He also noted that the study only looked at prescriptions that were written — it couldn’t show whether the patients stuck with these powerful drugs or not. “It is common for parents to receive a prescription for their children but ultimately decide not to follow through in giving it due to their side effects,” Lorber explained.

The study was published online July 1 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

More information

Find a full list of antipsychotic medications and their side effects at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

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Parents’ Genetic Similarities Could Affect Kids’ Height, Intellect

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The less alike two parents are genetically, the taller and mentally sharper their kids tend to be, according to a new study of populations around the world.

Researchers said the findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest that humans evolved to favor height and quick thinking.

That may not sound surprising, experts said. But the work is “fascinating” in that it culled genetic information on more than 350,000 people from across the globe — and found consistent patterns, said Dr. Martin Bialer, a medical geneticist who was not involved in the research.

That is, parents’ genetic diversity was reliably linked to four traits in their kids: height; cognitive skills (such as the ability to learn, remember and problem-solve); educational attainment, and lung function. In each case, the more diverse two parents were, the better.

On the other hand, parents’ genetic diversity did not matter much — if at all — when it came to blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body weight or other factors that have a big impact on common, chronic health conditions.

That does make sense, according to Bialer, who is based at the North Shore-LIJ Health System, in Great Neck, N.Y.

Health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease typically arise later in life, Bialer noted. And human evolution is more concerned with the ability to create healthy children, and then survive long enough to raise them.

Jim Wilson, the senior researcher on the study, agreed.

“These risk factors mostly have their effect post-reproductively, and so would not be subject to so much natural selection,” said Wilson, a senior lecturer in population and disease genetics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

It has long been known that children born to closely related parents are at increased risk of rare genetic disorders. Charles Darwin was among the first to recognize that inbreeding reduces “evolutionary fitness,” Wilson noted.

In fact, Darwin famously married his first cousin and wondered what effects that could have on his own children, Wilson said.

Yet all these years later, little is known about whether more-distant “relatedness” has any impact on human health and well-being.

This new research, Wilson said, “shows the power of large-scale genomic studies to answer fundamental questions about evolution — indeed, questions that Darwin himself pondered.”

For the study, Wilson and an international team of researchers analyzed genetic and health information on thousands of people from urban and rural areas across the globe.

The researchers examined each person’s entire genetic makeup, looking for instances in which an individual had inherited identical copies of a gene from both parents.

When a person has few identical gene copies, it’s unlikely that the two sides of the family are distantly related, according to Wilson. But as the number of identical copies goes up, the odds that a person’s ancestors were related rise as well.

Bialer stressed that this was a broad population study, looking for statistical links between genetic diversity and certain human traits — and aimed at evolutionary questions.

No one is suggesting that someone have a prospective mate’s genome analyzed in the hopes of having tall, smart kids.

“This doesn’t mean that for an individual, there’s a significant effect on height or cognitive ability,” Bialer said.

Wilson’s team estimated, for example, that if two first cousins married, it could shave 1.2 centimeters (or less than half an inch) from their child’s height.

And when it comes to the common medical conditions that plague modern society, the researchers said parents’ relatedness may have little to no impact.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more on genes and human traits.

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Do Cholesterol Drugs Affect Aggression?

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs might influence a person’s aggressive behaviors, increasing or decreasing their irritability and violent tendencies, a new clinical trial suggests.

Men taking statins typically become less aggressive, while women on statins tend to become more aggressive, according to findings published July 1 in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Clinicians should be aware of this, and it’s not bad for patients to be aware of it,” said lead author Dr. Beatrice Golomb, a principal investigator at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. “If an individual develops a behavioral change, in my view medication should always be considered as a possibility.”

However, the effect appears to be minimal and needs to be verified with follow-up studies, said one outside expert, Robert Geffner, founding president of the Institute on Violence, Abuse & Trauma at Alliant International University in San Diego.

“If I am reading their study right, it looks like they’re dealing with really low levels of aggression to begin with,” Geffner, a psychology professor at the university, said. “That’s interesting, but I’m not sure how meaningful it is.”

For the study, researchers randomly assigned more than 1,000 adult men and postmenopausal women to take either a statin medication or a placebo for six months.

The trial was aimed at clarifying a rather muddy picture that has emerged on the role that low blood cholesterol and statins might play in violent behavior, Golomb said.

Prior research has shown that low blood cholesterol levels can increase a person’s aggressive behavior, increasing or decreasing the rate of violent death, violent crime and suicide, she added.

Even though statins reduce blood cholesterol levels, the drugs theoretically should lower aggressive tendencies by reducing testosterone levels and improving the ability of cells to generate energy, Golomb continued. But statins also can alter a person’s serotonin levels, causing sleep problems and increasing aggressive behavior, the researchers noted.

The participants’ behavioral aggression was measured by tallying any aggressive acts they performed against other people, objects or themselves in the previous week. Researchers looked for a change in aggression from the start of the study to the end.

They found that statins typically tended to increase aggression in postmenopausal women, with a significant effect on those older than 45. The increase appeared stronger in women who started out with lower levels of aggression, according to the study.

Analysis of the male participants proved trickier. Three men assigned to take statins had very large increases in aggression. When they were included in the review, statins had no effect one way or the other on average aggressive behavior.

But when the three outliers were removed from the group, researchers observed a significant decline in aggressive behavior for male statin users.

Statins’ effect on hormone levels appeared to influence behavior, Golomb said. Those who experienced a decrease in testosterone due to statins also experienced a decrease in aggression. Those who slept worse — possibly due to statins’ effect on serotonin levels — experienced an increase in aggression.

The sleep finding helped account for the male outliers, as the two men with the biggest aggression increases both had developed much worse sleep problems, Golomb noted.

Geffner said that it’s well-known that “hormones and neurotransmitters are definitely a player” in the way the brain functions.

But he questioned whether excluding the three aggressive male outliers was appropriate in the analysis, since this could be evidence of statins increasing violent behavior.

Geffner also noted that the study started out with 2,400 people, but that nearly 1,400 were left out because they either didn’t meet the criteria for the study or declined to participate.

“I just have a lot more questions than answers at this point,” he said. “I think there are interesting things to follow up on, but I have many questions.”

More information

For more information on statins, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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How Ordering an Appetizer Can Ruin a Meal

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Pop quiz: You’re out to dinner at a restaurant you’ve been dying to try—it’s gotten amazing reviews. You should order an app and an entrée to sample as much of the menu as you can, right?

Might seem like a no-brainer but, turns out, downing that delicious starter could actually prevent you from fully enjoying the main dish to come, according to new research in the journal Food Quality & Preference.

RELATED: How to Eat Out Without Getting Fat

Each participant of the study ate a simple meal: bruschetta followed by pasta with garlic and oil. Half of the subjects ate a bruschetta that had been rated as delicious and very enjoyable while the other half ate a mediocre bruschetta; all ate the same pasta afterwards. Afterwards, people who’d eaten the “good” appetizer enjoyed their pasta far less than those who had an altogether average meal.

These results are due to a phenomenon called hedonic contrast. “Hedonic” means “pleasure”; “hedonic contrast” means that after experiencing something pleasurable, we tend to compare it to the next experience that comes along, often unfavorably.

And that’s what study co-author Jacob Lahne, PhD, an assistant professor in the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management at Drexel University, thinks happens when we eat a crazy-tasty app, whether it’s bruschetta, guacamole, nachos, or mozzarella sticks.

RELATED: Quick and Easy Appetizers

“If you have a fantastic appetizer and then the main seems lackluster, that could be because of this type of contrast effect. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have fantastic appetizers!” Lahne said in a Drexel press release.

It does mean, though, that if you really want to savor the main course, consider skipping the starter or at least going with something neutral like a simple salad so your entrée doesn’t pale in comparison. The only question now is, does a killer dinner mean you’ll be disappointed in dessert? You’ll have to see for yourself.

RELATED: America’s Healthiest Restaurants: Our List of the Best Casual Dining Spots

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Extracurricular Sports May Give Kids’ Academics a Boost

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Extracurricular sports may help children develop the discipline they need to succeed in the classroom, a new study suggests.

Kids’ attention span and level of self-control are linked to their participation in organized, after-school sports, the researchers said. They noted their findings could help school and public health officials develop improved strategies that would reach children at risk for obesity as well as those struggling in school.

“We worked with information provided by parents and teachers to compare kindergarteners’ activities with their classroom engagement as they grew up,” study leader Linda Pagani, of the University of Montreal and CHU Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital, said in a university news release.

“By time they reached the fourth grade, kids who played structured sports were identifiably better at following instructions and remaining focused in the classroom,” Pagani said.

“There is something specific to the sporting environment — perhaps the unique sense of belonging to a team, to a special group with a common goal — that appears to help kids understand the importance of respecting the rules and honoring responsibilities,” she noted.

The study, published July 1 in the American Journal of Health Promotion, included information on nearly 2,700 children. The children were all born in Quebec between 1997 and 1998.

The children’s kindergarten teachers answered questionnaires about their student’s behavior. The kids’ parents were also interviewed about their home life. Four years later, the researchers re-surveyed the children’s parents and teachers.

“Our goal was to answer two questions: firstly, does participation in extracurricular activities in kindergarten predict fourth grade self-discipline and, secondly, do kindergarten self-discipline characteristics predict fourth-grade participation in sports?” Pagani said.

The answers to these questions would shed light on how engaged the kids were in the classroom. The researchers also hoped to get information on how aggressive, compulsive and emotionally distressed the children were.

After taking other factors into consideration, such as the kids’ level of physical fitness, thinking abilities, mother’s education and family communication at home, the researchers found children involved in sports when they were in kindergarten were likely to be involved in team sports at 10. These kids also had higher self-control scores by fourth-grade, the researchers found.

Kids who had better behavior in kindergarten were also more likely to be involved in sports four years later. Unstructured activities in kindergarten however had no effect children’s lives later on.

While the study found an association between playing team sports and success in the classroom, the researchers did not prove a cause-and-effect link.

Pagani said she hoped that policy makers consider these findings and improve access to parks and playgrounds, where children can engage in sporting activities.

More information

The Child Mind Institute provides more information on how to find a balance among afterschool activities.

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Red Cross Urges Americans to Give Blood During Fourth of July

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Many Americans make plans for the Fourth of July holiday, and the American Red Cross is hoping many of them will also consider donating blood or platelets.

The organization estimated that more than 40 percent of its donors are traveling either before or after Independence Day, which could result in a summer shortage of blood and blood products. Making matters worse, many organizations put off blood drives while people are on vacation.

So if donors set aside a time to donate now, a potential shortfall can be avoided, the Red Cross said.

“Adding blood or platelet donation to a vacation to-do list can mean so much to patients and their families,” said Donna Morrissey, director of national partnerships, American Red Cross Biomedical Services, in a news release from the organization. “It’s a simple act, taking as little as an hour, but can touch many lives.”

Blood of all types is needed, but donors who are Type O-negative, Type A-negative and Type B-negative are in particular demand. Platelet donors are also urged to schedule an appointment.

People who donate on July 2 through July 6 will receive a Red Cross embroidered baseball cap, while supplies last. You can make an appointment to donate or get more information by downloading the free Blood Donor App, visiting redcrossblood.org or calling 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine provides more on blood transfusions and donations.

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Weight-Loss Surgery May Beat Diet, Exercise as Type 2 Diabetes Treatment

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — In a small study of obese patients, weight-loss surgery was better at keeping type 2 diabetes at bay than diet and exercise alone, researchers report.

In fact, three years after weight-loss surgery, more than two-thirds of those who had a procedure called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to shrink their stomach didn’t need any diabetes medications. And one-third of the people who chose a procedure called adjustable gastric banding no longer needed diabetes medications three years after surgery, the study found.

“Surgical treatments show promise for durable, longer-term, type 2 diabetes control in people with obesity,” said lead researcher Dr. Anita Courcoulas, a professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The report was published July 1 online in JAMA Surgery.

The researchers recruited 61 obese patients with type 2 diabetes for the study. They were between the ages of 25 and 55 years old. The researchers randomly assigned the study volunteers to either an intensive weight-loss program for one year followed by a less intensive program for two years, or weight-loss surgery. Some patients had a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and others had adjustable gastric banding.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass reduces the size of the stomach to a small pouch — about the size of an egg — which reduces the amount of food you can eat. Adjustable gastric banding restricts the size of the opening to the stomach, also decreasing the amount of food you can eat.

In terms of type 2 diabetes, researchers found there was more improvement in the surgical groups than in the lifestyle-only treatment group. Forty percent of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and 29 percent of the adjustable gastric banding patients achieved complete or partial remission of their diabetes at three years, Courcoulas said. No remission was seen in the nonsurgical group.

Moreover, people who had the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass lost 25 percent of their starting weight, adjustable gastric banding patients lost 15 percent, and patients who took part only in the diet and exercise program lost just under 6 percent of their starting weight at three years, Courcoulas noted.

“Our study provides evidence that after three years, surgical treatments are better than lifestyle modification alone to treat type 2 diabetes,” Courcoulas said.

The cost of weight-loss surgery varies, but the 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.

The risks associated with these procedures are similar to those of other surgeries. These can include bleeding, infection and blood clots that can travel to the lungs, according to NIDDK.

Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the clinical diabetes center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said that after these procedures patients see their diabetes go away, but over time it is likely to return.

When diabetes returns, it has to be treated. “But patients need fewer medications and are easier to treat,” he said.

Zonszein said weight-loss surgery can be particularly effective for younger obese patients for whom diabetes medications aren’t working well.

“For these young people, I do recommend bariatric surgery and we are using it more and more,” he said. “It’s not a bad choice for young people with aggressive disease.”

For middle-aged and older patients, Zonszein said he prefers to control their diabetes with medications.

More information

For more information on weight-loss surgery, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases..

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Indoor Tanning Rates Decline As Cancer Warnings Mount

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Heeding warnings about increased cancer risks, a growing number of American adults are saying no to indoor tanning, a new government analysis suggests.

The percentage of adults who frequented indoor tanning salons dropped from 5.5 percent in 2010 to slightly over 4 percent in 2013, according to results of the National Health Interview Survey, a poll of more than 59,000 adults.

“Roughly 2 million fewer adults are engaging in indoor tanning, which is definitely encouraging, given the associated health risks,” noted study author Gery Guy Jr., a health economist with the division of cancer prevention and control at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The bad news is that even with this reduction, there’s still about 10 million adults who continue to indoor tan, which clearly indicates that more efforts are needed to get the message across that indoor tanning is not safe,” Guy added.

The findings are outlined in a research letter published online July 1 in the journal JAMA Dermatology.

The declines dovetail with worldwide efforts to draw attention to the risks of indoor tanning. People who use indoor tanning are about 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma — the deadliest type of skin cancer — than those who don’t, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Pollsters defined indoor tanning as the use of a sunlamp, sunbed or tanning booth.

Though an estimated 7.8 million women and 1.9 million men visited indoor tanning salons in 2013, those figures reflected broad downward trends since 2010.

During that period, indoor tanning dropped from just over 11 percent to more than 8 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds, the group most likely to visit a tanning salon.

Among women, indoor tanning dipped from 8.6 percent to 6.5 percent over that period. Among men, it went from slightly over 2 percent to 1.7 percent.

Of women who did indoor tan, the poll found a consistent decline in how often they did so.

For example, indoor tanning frequency dropped by 45 percent among female college graduates, and by 28 percent among women aged 50 and up, the oldest group polled.

Among men, however, pollsters saw a 177 percent increase in tanning frequency by 40- to 49-year-olds, and a 71 percent uptick among those aged 50 and older. Among those men who had survived a bout of cancer, indoor tanning fell by 45 percent.

The CDC team suggested that a number of variables may be driving the numbers downward.

“I think it’s several things,” Guy said. “Greater awareness that the World Health Organization has categorized indoor tanning devices as carcinogenic, and that they increase the risk for skin cancer specifically. Also, although new age restriction laws passed that prevent minors from indoor tanning may not impact adults directly, they may increase general public awareness. And in 2010 there was a 10 percent federal tax levied on indoor tanning across the nation. That also probably helps.”

However, the researchers noted that their study does not determine that these factors caused indoor tanning rates to drop.

Ashani Weeraratna, an associate professor in the tumor metastasis and micro-environment program at the Melanoma Research Center with the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, described the trend as “a huge boost to those of us who work in melanoma research, because that tells us that our message is starting to get through.”

“This is a huge number of people who are not indoor tanning anymore,” she noted. “And that is very encouraging news. Because overall what we’re trying to accomplish for indoor tanning is very much what we tried to accomplish with smoking. We want to get the word out about how dangerous it is for you.”

More information

There’s more on indoor tanning and skin cancer risk at the Skin Cancer Foundation.

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