New Gene Test Speeds Diagnosis of Stomach Bug That Strikes Kids

FRIDAY, July 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Researchers have developed a genetic test to quickly detect a respiratory virus that sickened a record number of American children last year.

More than 1,000 confirmed cases and 14 reported deaths nationwide were reported in the outbreak of enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new test is effective at identifying various strains of the virus and speeds its detection, according to the team at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Previous tests for identifying enterovirus strains took several days to process, making their use impractical with large numbers of patients. The new test takes a few hours and is more specific than commercial tests for enterovirus, researchers said.

“Commercial tests for respiratory viral infections typically don’t distinguish between rhinoviruses, which cause the common cold, and enteroviruses, and within each of those groups there are many different types. Having a tool to identify which cases of respiratory illness are actually EV-D68 is an advantage for public health,” senior study author Dr. Gregory Storch, a professor of pediatrics, said in a university news release.

“These kinds of tests help treatment decisions because it is important to know that the patient doesn’t have influenza or another disease that might require a specific treatment. It’s also important in a hospital for preventing infections because doctors take patients with one particular virus and keep them apart from patients infected with other infectious agents,” he explained.

The researchers published details of the test’s techniques online recently in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about EV-D68.

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High School Band Classes May Boost Teen Brains

FRIDAY, July 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Music training improves teens’ hearing and language skills, a new study says.

The findings suggest that music instruction can help teens do better in school, according to Northwestern University researchers.

“While music programs are often the first to be cut when the school budget is tight, these results highlight music’s place in the high school curriculum,” the study’s senior author, Nina Kraus, said in a university news release. Kraus is director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern’s School of Communication.

“Although learning to play music does not teach skills that seem directly relevant to most careers, the results suggest that music may engender what educators refer to as ‘learning to learn,’ ” she added.

The study included 40 freshmen at high schools in low-income Chicago neighborhoods who were followed until their senior year. Nearly half participated in band classes that involved two to three hours a week of instrumental group music instruction at school.

The remainder of the students enrolled in junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which emphasized physical fitness.

Over the study’s three years, the music students showed faster maturation in the brain’s response to sound, as well as heightened brain sensitivity to sound details.

All of the participants showed improvements in language skills linked to sound structure awareness, but the improvement was greater among those in the music group than those in the ROTC group.

The findings, published the week of July 20 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that high school music training might boost brain development and improve language skills, according to the study authors.

“Our results support the notion that the adolescent brain remains receptive to training, underscoring the importance of enrichment during the teenage years,” they wrote.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about the teen brain.

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Medical Marijuana May Pose Risk to Teens, Study Suggests

FRIDAY, July 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Teens who have legal permission to use medical marijuana are 10 times more likely to say they’re addicted than those who get the drug illegally, a new study shows.

University of Michigan researchers looked at nearly 4,400 high school seniors, including 48 who had medical marijuana cards, 266 who used others’ medical marijuana and those who bought the drug from street dealers.

Teens who used medical marijuana were far more likely to report problems with addiction, the researchers found.

“I think that medical marijuana laws are failed policy and that these data lend support to my position. More youth use medical marijuana that don’t have a card than that have a card,” study author Carol Boyd, a professor in the School of Nursing, said in a University of Michigan news release.

Her team also assessed five risk behaviors associated with the use of marijuana and other drugs.

Teens who used others’ medical marijuana had the highest risk of engaging in all five risky behaviors, including using marijuana more often to get high, and using alcohol and prescription pills, the study found.

Teens who got marijuana from illegal sources were least likely to engage in the risky behaviors, according to the study published in the August issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Medical marijuana isn’t necessarily fueling teen addiction to marijuana, Boyd said. It makes more sense that teens with an addiction to the drug will seek medical marijuana cards to ensure they have a reliable, legal source of the drug, she suggested.

Boyd concluded that the findings highlight problems with medical marijuana.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about medical marijuana.

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FDA Wants to Strengthen Sugar Labeling

By Margaret Steele
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, July 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday it wants food labels to include more information about how much added sugar is in a product, so consumers can see more clearly how much extra sugar they are consuming every day.

Specifically, the agency wants the “percent daily value” of added sugars listed on labels. That is the percentage of recommended daily calories for a particular nutrient. Right now, sugar content is only listed as grams.

Currently, it’s recommended that daily calories from added sugars not exceed 10 percent of a 2,000-calorie daily diet.

“For the past decade, consumers have been advised to reduce their intake of added sugars, and the proposed percent daily value for added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label is intended to help consumers follow that advice,” Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said Friday in an agency news release.

Sugars that are added to foods and drinks boost calories but not nutrients, the agency noted.

Nutrition experts welcomed the proposal, which is up for public review and comment for 75 days.

The Nutrition Facts label now just lists the grams of sugar in a serving of a food or beverage, said Nancy Copperman, director of public health initiatives in the Office of Community and Public Health at North Shore-LIJ Health System, in New York.

“This information does not provide a suggested daily intake or reference guide related to sugar intake,” Copperman said. “The new proposal would give people a reference guide and enable them to make a better informed decision about the nutrient quality of food, the portion size and how it fits into their daily diet.”

This type of information has been available for decades on nutrients such as sodium and certain fats, the FDA said.

Another dietitian said the proposal would help consumers distinguish between unhealthy added sugars and beneficial sugars that occur naturally in certain foods.

“Currently, there is no good way to decipher between added sugars and naturally existing types, such as what’s found in dairy and fruit,” said Dana Angelo White, an assistant clinical professor of athletic training and sports medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. “These natural sugars have much more to offer in the nutrition department compared to highly processed and refined sweeteners.”

Separating out a daily percent value would be a “huge help” to people attempting to monitor the added sugars they consume “and the empty calories that come along with them,” White added.

Recent research appears to support the FDA’s proposal. Newly reviewed studies suggest that a healthy diet, featuring reduced amounts of sugar-sweetened foods and beverages, may reduce the risk of heart disease, the agency said.

“The FDA has a responsibility to give consumers the information they need to make informed dietary decisions for themselves and their families,” Mayne said.

More information

The American Heart Association has more on added sugars.

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Dementia Risk May Be Dropping With Generations

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, July 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that people born after 1930 may have a lower risk of developing dementia than the generation before them, adding to evidence that the incidence of dementia may be declining in the United States and elsewhere.

That decline was not explained by age, but did seem to be related to improvements in heart health over time, the researchers found.

The study, of nearly 1,000 elderly New Yorkers, found that those born after 1930 had a lower risk of dementia than those born between 1916 and 1930.

In the older group, people developed dementia at a rate of 2.2 percent per year between 1993 and 2014, when they were in their 70s and beyond, said lead researcher Carol Derby, an associate professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City.

In the younger group, that rate was just over 0.4 percent per year, Derby added.

“We did see the same [declining] trend in cardiovascular disease, and that may explain part of the decrease we found in dementia,” said Derby, who presented the findings this week at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, in Washington, D.C.

The pattern confirms what’s been seen in other studies from the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and other countries, according to Maria Carrillo, chief science officer for the Alzheimer’s Association.

Overall, older people in developed countries do seem to be developing dementia at a lower rate. And improvements in heart health — including better management of high blood pressure and heart disease — do appear to be a big part of it, according to Carrillo.

“We know that what’s good for your heart is good for your brain,” Carrillo said.

Regular exercise, not smoking, eating a healthy diet and maintaining a normal weight can all help ward off heart disease and stroke — and possibly stave off dementia, too, Carrillo explained.

For people who already have heart disease, or risk factors for it, treatment is key. “Take your statin, get control of your blood pressure, manage your diabetes,” Carrillo said.

However, she added, heart health is only part of the story when it comes to dementia. Studies have shown that education, and staying mentally active over a lifetime, may help protect against dementia. It’s thought that such mental engagement can make the brain more resistant to the buildup of “plaques” and other tissue damage that marks Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

“We know that in certain populations, educational attainment has gone up over the years,” Carrillo said.

Still, despite the “good news” from this study, Carrillo and Derby both stressed that the battle against dementia isn’t over.

For one, the prevalence of dementia — the total number of people affected — is large and growing, due to the aging of the baby boomer population.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, over 5 million Americans currently have Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. That number could nearly triple by 2050, to 14 million, the group estimates.

If the rate of dementia keeps dipping, it’s possible that the prevalence won’t soar as high as that, Derby said.

On the other hand, she added, there are some ominous trends among younger Americans. “The rates of obesity and diabetes are going in the wrong direction,” Derby explained.

Carrillo agreed that those patterns are worrisome, since they could reverse some of the gains that have been made in heart health.

“And a big concern in the U.S.,” Carrillo added, “is that the population is broad and diverse. There are still disparities in educational attainment, and access to health care.”

According to Derby, the new findings underscore a positive message: There are ways to reduce the likelihood of dementia, or stall its onset. At the same time, she said, researchers need to learn more about the protective factors.

“These findings are encouraging,” Carrillo said. “But this does not mean our work is done.”

The data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The Alzheimer’s Association has more advice on brain-healthy life choices.

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‘Bath Salts’ Not Widespread in U.S. High Schools, Survey Finds

THURSDAY, July 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Of the 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors who have tried street drugs called “bath salts,” nearly one-fifth are regular users, a new study finds.

Bath salts are synthetic amphetamine-like stimulants that have become increasingly popular in recent years. Typically, it’s in the form of a crystalline powder that resembles but has nothing to do with bathing products like Epsom salts. The drugs have been linked with numerous health problems and deaths, accounting for more than 20,000 emergency room visits in the United States in 2011, the researchers said.

“While these results suggest bath salt use is not particularly prevalent among teens in the U.S., it is important that we continue to monitor new drugs such as bath salts in order to inform prevention and quickly detect potential drug epidemics,” study author Joseph Palamar, an assistant professor of population health at NYU Langone Medical Center, said in a university news release.

Researchers analyzed data collected from more than 8,600 high school seniors nationwide who were surveyed in 2012 and 2013. They found that 1 percent of them said they had tried bath salts in the previous 12 months.

One-third of those who had tried bath salts said they used them only once or twice, which suggests that experimentation is the most common type of use. However, 18 percent of bath salts users said they used the drugs 40 or more times in the last year.

High school seniors at highest risk of using bath salts were those who lived without two parents, earned more than $50 a week from sources other than a job, and went out four to seven nights a week for fun, the study found.

Also, more than 90 percent of bath salts users said they had used alcohol or marijuana. And they were at least 10 times more likely to use powder cocaine, LSD, crack and heroin than teens who did not use bath salts.

The study was published recently in the American Journal of Addiction.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about bath salts.

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Certain Generic Meds May Help Older Patients With Early Breast Cancer

THURSDAY, July 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — There’s more evidence that two classes of inexpensive generic drugs reduce the risk of death in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer, a pair of new British studies find.

The two classes of drugs — called aromatase inhibitors and bisphosphonates — can also be used together to increase the benefits and reduce some side effects, according to the authors of the studies published July 23 in The Lancet.

Aromatase inhibitors include drugs such as anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane, while bisphosphonates include drugs such as zoledronic acid.

The two new studies “provide really good evidence that both of these inexpensive generic drugs can help to reduce breast cancer mortality in postmenopausal women,” Richard Gray, the University of Oxford lead statistician for both studies, said in a journal news release.

The studies were released by The Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group, a worldwide collaboration set up 30 years ago by researchers at Oxford.

The first study looked at data from 30,000 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors who took part in nine clinical trials. After five years of treatment, those who took an aromatase inhibitor had a slightly better survival rate than those who took standard hormonal therapy (tamoxifen).

After another five years of treatment, taking an aromatase inhibitor further reduced the risk of cancer recurrence by 30 percent and the risk of dying from breast cancer by about 15 percent, compared to taking tamoxifen, the study found.

Compared to no endocrine treatment, taking aromatase inhibitors would reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by about 40 percent over the decade after starting treatment, the researchers estimated.

The second study included data from about 19,000 other breast cancer survivors who took part in 26 clinical trials. This study found that two to five years of treatment with bisphosphonates — drugs usually used to treat osteoporosis — reduced the risk of cancer recurrence and significantly extended survival in postmenopausal women.

The risk of death from breast cancer after 10 years was 14.7 percent in women who took bisphosphonates and 18 percent in women who did not take the drugs, the study found.

However, bisphosphonates appeared to have little effect in premenopausal patients.

“About two-thirds of all women with breast cancer are postmenopausal with hormone-sensitive tumors, so could potentially benefit from both drugs,” Gray said.

He added that the drugs often complement each other, because the main side effect of aromatase inhibitors is an increase in bone loss and fractures, while bisphosphonates reduce that risk and improve survival.

Two experts in the United States said the findings are important, although caveats remain for both classes of drugs.

The first study “shows a clear-cut, though small, absolute survival advantage of aromatase inhibitors over tamoxifen in postmenopausal women,” said Dr. Charles Shapiro, co-director of the Dubin Breast Cancer Center at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai in New York City.

But he added that the drugs are not without risks. “The side effects of aromatase inhibitors, which include joint pains, vaginal dryness and others, are such that about 20 percent of women cannot complete the recommended five-year duration of these drugs,” Shapiro said.

And while the bisphosphonates did show “very small absolute benefits” for patients, “the optimal drug and schedule of
administration of these drugs has yet to be defined,” he added.

Dr. Ruby Sharma is an oncologist at North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute in Lake Success, N.Y. Regarding aromatase inhibitors, she said that in her practice, patients entering or in menopause “are treated with two years of tamoxifen, and then I switch to aromatase inhibitors once menopause is confirmed.”

Regarding bisphosphonates, Sharma said that although the study results were positive, giving the drugs to postmenopausal women with early breast cancer is not yet “an accepted standard of care yet due to negative data from several other studies.”

However, “there seems to be benefit in a subset of women,” she said, and “I definitely use bisphosphonates for my postmenopausal breast cancer patients with osteoporosis.”

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about breast cancer.

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Well-Off, Active, Over 50? You May Be at Higher Risk for Problem Drinking

THURSDAY, July 23, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Are you over 50, making a good income, physically healthy and active? A new British study suggests you might need to be wary of one potential downside: a higher risk for excessive, problem drinking.

A team led by Jose Iparraguirre, chief economist at the British charity Age UK, found that so-called “successful agers” are at heightened risk for harmful drinking.

It’s a “middle-class phenomenon,” the researchers wrote: “people in better health, higher income, with higher educational attainment and socially more active are more likely to drink at harmful levels.”

In the study, Iparraguirre’s team tracked survey responses from more than 9,000 people across England, age 50 and older, who were polled in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011.

The risk of problem drinking peaked for men in their early 60s and then gradually decreased, while the risk in women fell along with age.

An “increasing” risk of alcohol woes was defined as 22-50 units of alcohol a week for men and 15-35 units a week for women, and a “higher” risk was set at more than 50 units a week for men and more than 35 units a week for women.

For the study, a pint of beer or a small glass of wine was equal to 2 units of alcohol. This means that a person drinking 50 units a week would consume 25 beers or glasses of wine every seven days, or about three to four servings each day.

The researchers found that higher income was associated with a higher risk of problem drinking for women. Smoking, a higher level of education, and good health were all linked to higher risk in both women and men.

Employment status was not a significant factor, but being retired was associated with higher risk in women.

Depression or loneliness were not linked with higher risk, but problem drinking was more common among men who lived on their own, including those who were separated or divorced, the study found.

Among men, alcohol woes were also more common among whites than minorities, according to the study, which was published online July 23 in the journal BMJ Open.

“Our findings suggest that harmful drinking in later life is more prevalent among people who exhibit a lifestyle associated with affluence and with a ‘successful’ aging process,” the researchers conclude. That means that issues with alcohol “may then be a hidden health and social problem in otherwise successful older people,” they said.

How would “living the good life” boost an older adult’s odds for problem drinking? One expert in the United States had some theories.

“The ‘successful’ group may have more leisure time” to indulge in daytime drinking, compared to people forced to work more hours or hold down two jobs, said Dr. Eric Collins, physician-in-chief at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Conn.

Healthier older people may also believe that their robust health somehow protects them against the negative impact of excessive drinking, he said.

And for affluent people, healthier bank accounts may allow them “to buy greater amounts of alcohol than their less successful peers without incurring economic strain,” Collins said.

Another expert believes that all of this points to the importance of spotting older people at risk.

“All health care providers should adopt brief universal alcohol screening procedures,” said Bruce Goldman, director of Substance Abuse Services at The Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y. “In this way we can begin to talk openly with patients about their use of alcohol and the risks involved as they age,” he said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has more about older adults and alcohol.

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The Weird Nighttime Habit That Might Help You Sleep Better

Photo: Getty Images

Can wearing orange glasses before bed really help you sleep better?

Maybe. Orange glasses are probably not a cure-all, but a few small studies suggest they might improve your z’s. We know that the blue light emitted from devices such as smartphones, tablets, televisions and even some lightbulbs can make it harder to get restful sleep because it slows the production of melatonin, a snooze-inducing hormone. And orange-tinted glasses can help block some of the blue light you’re exposed to, if you wear them when you’re, say, scrolling Instagram in bed.

The blue light isn’t the only reason your tablet messes with your sleep, though; these devices are also extremely stimulating, which doesn’t help your ability to drift off. In general, the best way to ensure a rejuvenating night of rest is to put your devices away (and dim your house lights) at least an hour before bed so you can wind down. But if you really want to give the orange glasses a try (and you don’t mind looking a little silly), it can’t hurt.

Health’s medical editor, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, is assistant professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and co-founder of Tula Skincare.

RELATED: 

7 Bedtime Behaviors That Will Help You Sleep

20 Things You Shouldn’t Do Before Bed

10 Sleep Compatibility Problems, Solved

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4 Ridiculously Fit Women to Watch at This Year’s CrossFit games

As an avid CrossFitter (for 17 months and counting now), my eyes are glued to this year’s Reebok CrossFit Games, which officially kicked off yesterday morning and continue through the weekend. It’s amazing to see how far this sporting event has come since its inception in 2007—back then, the Games were held at a ranch in northern California. Now they’ll be broadcast on ESPN. Even more awesome though is that this competition offers a highly visible platform to showcase the strength of some pretty badass women.

Watching these epically fit ladies battle it out for the title of “Fittest Woman on Earth” is simply enthralling. Take Pier Paddle, event number one, for example: Competitors were tasked with completing a 500-meter swim, followed by two miles of paddle-boarding, and capped with another 500-meter swim. And that was just the beginning of day one. Tomorrow they’ll tackle Murph, a signature hero WOD, where each competitor must run one mile, do 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then run another mile—in that order. (Ouch.)

With several grueling tests of strength, endurance, and overall fitness still to come, as well as plenty of points up for grabs, it’s really anyone’s game. The only certainty: Over the next couple of days, these women are going to push their bodies to their absolute limits.

If you want an idea of who to lookout for (you can watch the Games live and catch missed coverage here), these four are some of the key players— and in my opinion, any of them have a chance at the top spot.

RELATED: 5 Great New Classes to Get You Fit

Annie Thorisdottir, 25

 

A two-time champion (2011 and 2012) and runner up from last year’s Games, the Icelandic redheaded sweetheart with washboard abs, is hoping to capture the crown once more. So far, she’s holding steady in sixth place. Also worth nothing, she took second place last year, even after a back injury.

RELATED: 5 Calorie-Torching CrossFit Workouts to Try

Camille Leblanc-Bazinet, 26

 

This Quebec-native has beauty and brains (she’s a chemical engineering student). Oh, and did we mention she’s the defending champion? Leblanc-Bazinet is currently in 22nd place, but just wait until some of the strength events; muscle-ups have nothing on this leading lady.

RELATED: CrossFit’s Camille Leblanc-Bazinet: ‘I’m Glad I Don’t Have a Thigh Gap’

Samantha Briggs, 33

 

Standing in fifth place after yesterday’s sandbag challenge (moving a total of 480 pounds of sandbags down, across and up the StubHub arena, with a cap of 15 minutes), this UK resident has made it clear she’s a force to be reckoned with. Not doubt Briggs, who won the Games in 2013, feels she has something to prove after a failed handstand walk kept her from qualifying last year.

Also, you need to see this:

RELATED: 7 Things to Know Before Trying Crossfit

Kara Webb, 25

This year’s events mark Webb’s fourth consecutive appearance. And while the highest she’s ever placed is 12th, this year she is certainly setting a winner’s tone. Current status? First place with an eight-point lead over her closest competition.

RELATED: What NOT to Wear to a CrossFit Class

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