Men Who Feel Less Masculine May Be More Violent, Study Finds

TUESDAY, Aug. 25, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Men who feel they don’t meet traditional masculine ideals may be more prone to violence and risky behaviors, a new study suggests.

According to the researchers, the findings “suggest that efforts to reduce men’s risk of behavior likely to result in injury should, in part, focus on the means by which masculine socialization and acceptance of gender norms may induce distress in boys and men.”

In the study, 600 American men, aged 18 to 50, took an online survey that asked them about their perceptions of male gender, their own self-image, and their levels of violent and risky behaviors.

Men who considered themselves less masculine than average, and who believed that others viewed them the same way, were more likely to say they had committed violent assaults with a weapon and assaults resulting in injury to the victim, compared to men who didn’t feel highly masculine but weren’t concerned about it, the study authors reported.

The investigators also found that men who felt less masculine and weren’t concerned about it were the least likely of all men to report violence or to drive while impaired.

The study was conducted by Dr. Dennis Reidy, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of violence prevention, and his colleagues. It was published online Aug. 24 in the journal Injury Prevention.

More information

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has more about violence prevention for men.

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Many Parents Put ‘Food Pressure’ on Their Kids, Study Finds

By Randy Dotinga
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Aug. 25, 2015 (HealthDay News) — New research finds that parents of overweight kids are more likely to restrict their children’s food intake — a potentially bad idea — if they themselves are carrying extra pounds.

By contrast, mothers and fathers are more likely to pressure their kids to eat more when both parents and children are normal weight.

Neither pushing food nor restricting it is a good idea, said study author Jerica Berge, an associate professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis.

“Prior research has shown that they may have unintended effects such as a child becoming overweight or obese, or engaging in eating behaviors such as bingeing or purging,” she said. Childhood obesity is also linked to a number of health problems, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The researchers analyzed results from two 2010 studies of kids’ food consumption. More than 2,100 teens, whose average age was 14, took part in the studies along with 3,252 parents — 63 percent of them mothers whose average age was 43.

“When parents and adolescents were both overweight or obese, parents were more likely to restrict food from their adolescents,” Berge said. “When parents and adolescents were both normal weight, parents were more likely to pressure their adolescents to eat more.”

Berge said the findings can help health care providers look at parents and their kids together and figure out who, based on their weights, may be at highest risk for poor eating habits.

Laura Hubbs-Tait, a human development professor and parenting specialist at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, said the study is valid and useful. However, she noted, it doesn’t prove that parents act in certain ways — pressuring their kids about food or not — because of how much the parents or the kids weigh. More research is needed to confirm that, she said.

Whatever the case, parents who put pressure on their kids to eat more or less food risk raising children who can’t figure out on their own how much to eat. “Many parents may not be aware that their efforts to control their children’s eating harm their children’s ability to regulate their eating on their own,” she said.

Instead of pushing or withholding food, what should parents do?

“It is more helpful for parents to make sure there are a variety of healthy options in the home or on the table for children to eat, and then allow the child to decide how much they eat,” Berge said. “It is also important to continue offering food because it can take numerous exposures to a food before a child will eat it.”

Parents who are worried about a child’s food intake should talk to a physician, she said.

Hubbs-Tait offered these suggestions: “Parents should be helping children learn how to regulate their own eating, helping them learn to make good food and physical activity choices, and providing lots of encouragement and support when they do so.”

The study was published online Aug. 24 in the journal Pediatrics.

More information

For details kids and healthy eating, visit Let’s Move.

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4 Tips for Taking Your Spin Workout Outside

Photo: Getty Images

With summer still in full swing, who wants to be stuck in a cycling studio? Put that spin bike in park and hop on a real two-wheeler. While a lot of your indoor skills will translate to the outdoors, you have to make a few key adjustments, says Janette Sherman, global communications manager at Liv Cycling, an all-female bike brand. Read on to pedal right.

Work your core

Riding outdoors requires more abdominal strength to stay balanced. Add extra planks and V-ups to your workouts so you’re ready.

Feel your seat

A road bike puts you in a more forward position than most stationary ones, Sherman says. Take measurements from your road bike (seat and handlebar height and seat fore and aft) and mimic those positions on your spin bike to get a similar feel.

Gear up

While you might hit spin class in regular gym clothes, consider sporting real cycling gear (built to handle the elements, with pockets for food and accessories) when you head outdoors. Your most important item: a helmet.

Pace yourself

In class, you never have to worry about making it home. On a real bike, though you don’t want to find yourself 70 miles out and just realizing you have to pedal those miles back. Save some energy for your return.

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Best Sunglasses for Working Out

Bike Your Way to a Better Body

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7 Sneaky Reasons Your Vagina Itches

Photo: Getty Images

Sure, not every woman is walking around with an itchy vagina, but many are. Below-the-belt itching is “a common symptom that we see as gynecologists. It can be so bothersome that even mild symptoms will bring women in,” says Julianna Schantz-Dunn, MD, an ob-gyn at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. And the reasons why can range from benign (your choice of undies) to more worrisome (an STI). That’s why it’s important to figure out what the heck’s going on. That, and it’s not like you can go around scratching your crotch all day.

While you don’t have to run to the doc for every unusual itch, she recommends making an appointment if symptoms stick around for more than two days or if, along with the scratchiness, you have unusual bleeding or lesions in the area.

Here are 7 possible causes, plus the best advice for fixing each one.

RELATED: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Vagina

Yeast infection

We’ll start with the most obvious one: yeast. These infections are so common that three-fourths of women will get one at some point. The hallmark symptom is extreme itchiness, along with an odorless thick, white discharge. “We suggest you at least call your doctor to discuss your symptoms rather than going to the drugstore to buy an OTC treatment,” says Dr. Schantz-Dunn. “If you randomly self-treat and it’s not a yeast infection, you can make the problem worse,” she says.

Trichomoniasis

This common sexually transmitted infection (STI) is caused by a parasite called Trichomonas vaginalis. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that while 3.7 million people are infected (more of them women), only 30% know it. That’s because it often causes no symptoms. But when it does, it causes itching, burning, a change in discharge, or external white cracking in the skin, Dr. Shantz-Dunn says. “You may assume it’s a yeast infection and try an OTC antifungal, and it doesn’t work. Then you try douching, [which is never a good idea], and that makes it worse,” she adds. That’s all the more reason to see your doc first. If tests come back positive, it’s very easy to cure with an antibiotic, but the catch is both you and your partner have to be treated, otherwise, you can easily re-infect each other.

RELATED: Am I Normal ‘Down There’?

Irritation

Rounding out the top three most common causes, Schantz-Dunn says, is irritation caused by certain fabrics or products. “We often talk to patients about good vulvar hygiene,” she says. That includes not wearing scented panty liners (and not wearing panty liners too much overall), avoiding scented soaps for down-there cleaning, and absolutely never douching or using scented feminine sprays or powders. These can kickstart the problem; then, scratching can lead to infection, making things worse. Besides, these can also change up the pH of the vagina, making you more susceptible to an infection called bacterial vaginosis (BV). (More on that later.)

Also, your vagina needs to breathe. Suffocating it with synthetic underwear traps moisture against your skin, which can be an irritant. Switch to cotton, Dr. Schantz-Dunn recommends. And be sure you’re gently washing up with regular, unscented soaps around the outside only.

RELATED: 14 Fascinating Things All Women Should Know About Orgasms

Bacterial vaginosis

While this vaginal infection can cause some itching, Dr. Schantz-Dunn swarns that more often the hallmark symptom of BV is a foul-smelling discharge. If you call your doc and explain that you itch like crazy, he or she will more likely think it points to a yeast infection, trichomoniasis, or irritation, she says. So be sure to make note of all your symptoms, including details about discharge, which can go a long way in identifying your issue.

Herpes

You may think you could spot genital herpes, but not everyone gets big lesions that are easy to see. “You may feel some itching or painful urination, but the symptoms may not be as severe as you’d think,” Dr. Schantz-Dunn says. “I’ve seen people try to treat herpes with a topical yeast medication—and that doesn’t do much.”

A shaving disaster

When you shave down there, it may feel smooth in the moment, but when the hair grows back it’s itchy city. In fact, in a 2014 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology about problems women experience ridding public hair, 20% said they’ve felt severe itching. “Women know their bodies well and if they know they get irritated from shaving, I say don’t do it,” Dr. Schantz-Dunn notes. A vagina-friendlier way: trim the hair or get a bikini wax.

RELATED: The Gross Reason You Should Think Twice About Getting a Full Brazilian Wax

Hormones

If you’re post-menopausal, the source of the itch could be that your vagina is changing along with your changing hormones. Namely, a drop in estrogen can thin the mucosal lining in your vagina. But don’t fret: after ruling out other causes, “we can treat this with a vaginal estrogen cream or tablet,” Dr. Schantz-Dunn says.

 

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Low-Dose Aspirin, Other Painkillers May Lower Colon Cancer Risk

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Regularly taking low-dose aspirin or other common pain relievers may lower long-term risk of colon cancer, new research suggests.

Men and women who took low-dose (75 to 150 milligrams) aspirin for five years or more saw their risk of colon cancer drop by 27 percent. And taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen for that long was linked to a 30 percent to 45 percent drop in colon cancer risk, the study found.

“The protective association is certainly amazing, and it’s a good example of how everyday drugs can have unexpected benefits,” said study co-author Dr. John Baron, a professor of medicine in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, in Chapel Hill.

“But there are also potential risks,” said Baron, who urged the findings be viewed with care.

“I don’t think we should imply or recommend that these medications be taken for cancer prevention without working closely with a physician,” he said.

The study did not assess the potential impact of high-dose aspirin, and no protective benefit was seen for irregular or short-term users of either low-dose aspirin or other NSAIDs.

And the study did not prove that the use of painkillers reduced the risk of colon cancer, just that there was an association between the two.

In the United States, NSAIDs include over-the-counter Aleve (naproxen), Advil and Motrin (both ibuprofen), and prescription drugs such as Celebrex and high-strength Motrin.

Baron emphasized that the drugs were taken continuously for years before any cancer-preventive benefits were realized. “For aspirin, you would have to take it fairly consistently, meaning at least every other day, for at least five to 10 years for the protective effect to even begin to appear,” he said.

“That’s a significant amount of time for side effects to accumulate, all without getting any benefit,” he said.

Potential side effects include gastrointestinal bleeding with aspirin, and heightened risk for heart attack and stroke with long-term use, or high-dose use, of NSAIDs, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In the United States, colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the study, published in the Sept. 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, investigators sifted through several Danish cancer databases to gather the health histories of more than 10,000 colon cancer patients diagnosed between 1994 and 2011. Patients were between the ages of 30 and 85.

Medical records were stacked up against aspirin and non-aspirin NSAID consumption patterns — this was possible because in Denmark most NSAIDs and low-dose aspirins are obtainable by prescription only.

A comparison of cancer patients with more than 100,000 cancer-free Danes revealed that regular, long-term use of low-dose aspirin and NSAIDs seemed to confer long-term protection against colon cancer.

The biggest benefit was linked to NSAIDs with the highest degree of so-called COX-2 selectivity. Celebrex is one such drug.

That said, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires a “black box” warning — its strongest drug-related warning — on Celebrex packaging to alert users to the heightened risk for heart attack or stroke.

The investigators said the finding of a low-dose aspirin benefit was qualified by the fact that only 2 percent to 3 percent of the study patients actually took low-dose aspirin continuously for many years. (Many doctors recommend patients take low-dose aspirin to help prevent heart attack).

Still, Baron said the findings are “hopeful, because it means that we’re understanding cancer better and better.”

That sentiment was seconded by Dr. Andrew Chan, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“The question now is really whether aspirin can also help prevent other cancers as well,” Chan said. “We need more research, but there’s already some evidence that that might be the case. And we now have a substantial and very consistent body of evidence showing that aspirin can prevent colon cancer.”

For certain people, Chan said, “like those with a predisposition to colon cancer, the risk-benefit analysis might make a lot of sense.”

More information

There’s more on colon cancer at the American Cancer Society.

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Steroid Injections Probably Won’t Help Your Lower Back Pain

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Steroid injections for lower back pain may provide some relief for certain patients, but any benefits are temporary, a new study finds.

Lower back pain related to herniated disk (when intervertebral disks become compressed and bulge) and, to a lesser degree, spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal), is often treated with epidural steroid injections, the researchers said. But after reviewing 38 previously published studies, the researchers found no strong evidence to support their use for these conditions.

“These injections may not be as effective as perceived, and decisions should be based on an informed discussion of risks, benefits, and potential options, including surgery, medications and nonpharmacological options like exercise therapy,” said lead researcher Dr. Roger Chou, a professor of medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University.

Chou said lower back pain usually improves over time without treatment, but some patients may want relief sooner.

“Patients may have a perception that these injections reduce the need for surgery or result in long-term benefits,” Chou said. “It’s important for them to understand that benefits appear to be short-lived and to weigh these short-term benefits against potential complications of the injections, such as infection and nerve injury.”

The report was published Aug. 24 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

In the case of a herniated disk, Chou said researchers found that compared with a placebo, steroid injections were associated with small improvements in pain and decreased risk of surgery in the first few weeks after the injection. But the benefits were no longer present with longer-term follow-up.

“The results appeared to be similar regardless of what type of injection technique was used, what steroid was used, the dose of the steroid, and other factors,” Chou said.

For patients with spinal stenosis, “studies found that steroid injections were not effective,” he said.

Herniated disk and spinal stenosis each account for about 3 percent to 4 percent of patients with lower back pain, the researchers said in background notes.

Dr. Nick Shamie, professor and chief of orthopedic spine surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, agreed with the findings.

“We have known that steroid injections don’t have a lasting benefit,” said Shamie, who was not involved in the study. “For spinal stenosis, giving an injection is not going to open up the compression of the nerves and is not going to have a lasting effect.”

Shamie doesn’t think steroid injections are worth the cost. “When you offer a procedure to patients that doesn’t have a lasting benefit and ultimately they may need a definitive treatment,” he said, “the question is, should we keep offering them this shorter-lived treatment?”

But Shamie said that patients often want to try a steroid injection because they fear surgery.

For most patients suffering from spinal stenosis, surgery is the best treatment, Shamie said.

Having options are important, but being realistic about your expectations is also critical, Shamie said. “If you think that steroid injections are going to rid of your problem, you’re fooling yourself,” he said.

More information

For more on lower back pain, visit the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

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Travel Time Can Hamper Follow-Up Chemo, Study Says

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The farther they have to travel, the less likely cancer patients are to receive follow-up chemotherapy after surgery, a new study finds.

This type of treatment, called adjuvant chemotherapy, is recommended for many patients after surgery to reduce the chance of cancer returning.

This study looked at nearly 34,700 patients across the United States who had surgery for colon cancer, and found that nearly 76 percent received adjuvant chemotherapy within 90 days of surgery.

Compared to patients who had to travel less than 12.5 miles to appointments, those who had to travel 50 to 249 miles were 13 percent less likely to receive chemotherapy. And those who had to travel 250 miles or more were nearly two-thirds less likely to receive chemotherapy.

The findings applied to patients with and without insurance, according to the study published online Aug. 24 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“While it is reassuring that most patients in this study received adjuvant chemotherapy on time, the fact that patients traveling more than 50 miles were less likely to receive chemotherapy, regardless of insurance status, is concerning,” said lead author Chun Chieh Lin, senior epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, in a journal news release.

“It tells us expanded insurance coverage, while important, might not fully address the barriers to patients receiving guideline-recommended treatment,” Lin added.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about cancer chemotherapy.

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Scientists Get Closer to Long-Lasting Flu Vaccine

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Researchers have made progress in their efforts to develop a long-lasting universal flu vaccine that one day might eliminate the need for people to get flu shots every year, a new study reports.

The researchers developed a way to trigger immune system antibodies to fight a wide range of flu subtypes. They said the approach proved effective in tests on rodents and monkeys. In the lab animals, this approach even produced antibodies against H5N1 bird flu, the study noted.

The findings were published online Aug. 24 in the journal Science. The study was funded by Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Researchers from Janssen are working with scientists from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., to develop the vaccine.

“This study shows that we’re moving in the right direction for a universal flu vaccine,” Ian Wilson, professor of structural biology and chair of the department of integrative structural and computational biology at The Scripps Research Institute, said in an institute news release.

The researchers targeted a protein that’s found on the surface of all subtypes of flu viruses and enables the viruses to enter cells. The protein is called hemagglutinin (HA). The scientists zeroed in on the “stem” region of HA, which connects the virus to cells.

“If the body can make an immune response against the HA stem, it’s difficult for the virus to escape,” Wilson said.

The next step in this research is to determine if this approach is effective in people, Wilson added. Animal research findings do not always translate to humans.

“While there is more work to be done, the ultimate goal, of course, would be to create a life-long vaccine,” Wilson said.

Each year in the United States, seasonal flu causes more than 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Currently, a vaccine is created each year to protect against the handful of flu strains that are predicted to be the most common during that flu season. And the vaccine makeup is determined months in advance so that manufacturers have time to make the millions of doses needed.

During the 2014-2015 flu season, the chosen vaccine was not a good match for the strains that were circulating. So it was only 18.6 percent effective against the predominant strain, according to the CDC. U.S. health officials have said they have ramped up next season’s shots for broader protection.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about flu vaccination.

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Progress Slows Against Heart Disease Deaths for Adults Under 55, Study Shows

MONDAY, Aug. 24, 2015 (HealthDay News) — There has been a sharp drop in heart disease death rates among Americans 65 and older in recent decades, but declines in death rates are slowing in those younger than 55, particularly women, a new study says.

The findings appear Aug. 24 in the journal Circulation.

“We think that these trends are not related to differences in treatment and hospitalization, but rather to a lack of effective preventive strategies for young people, particularly women,” senior author Dr. Viola Vaccarino, professor and chair of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, said in a news release from the journal.

One expert cardiologist agreed.

“This is a true wake-up call — as much as progress is being made, we are falling behind in a group of young women who should be aggressively treated, managed and where prevention is essential,” said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of Women’s Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

In the study, Vaccarino’s group tracked year-by-year changes from 1979 through 2011 for heart disease death rates among U.S. adults age 25 and older.

They found that heart disease death rates among adults 65 and older fell steadily between 1979 and 2011, with the rate of decline accelerating since 2000.

Death rates among adults younger than 55 decreased 5.5 percent among men and 4.6 percent among women between 1979 and 1989. However, the death rate among women in that age group showed no change between 1990 and 1999, and then it fell by only 1 percent between 2000 and 2011, the study found.

The death rate among men in that age group fell 1.2 percent between 1990 and 1999, and dropped 1.8 percent between 2000 and 2011.

Vaccarino said that younger adults have typically “not been studied as much as older groups, partially because they are generally considered to be at low risk [for heart disease death].” The new findings show that “there is an urgent need for more research,” she said.

Rising rates of obesity and diabetes among younger adults could be working against efforts to curb heart disease death rates in this age group, the researchers said.

“Some reports suggest that diabetes and obesity may pose a greater heart disease risk in younger women than in other groups, and women need to become more aware of the heart risks of these conditions,” Vaccarino said.

Other risk factors may also be playing a role.

“Nontraditional risk factors may be especially important in the younger age group,” Vaccarino said. “For example, in other research we and others have done, factors such as stress and depression are particularly common among young women with early-onset heart disease, and are powerful predictors of heart disease or its progression in this group.”

For her part, Steinbaum agreed that more research is needed into heart risk factors for the young, especially younger women.

“In the group, considered to be a low-risk population, death rates have not gone down significantly, and the decrease has been less than men,” she noted. “We have an obligation to make these statistics known, so we can change the realities of heart disease in young women — these death rates are truly unacceptable.”

More information

The American Heart Association outlines how to prevent heart disease.

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The Major ALS Breakthrough Funded by the Ice Bucket Challenge

Photo: Getty Images/ Heidi Klum administers the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to host Tim Gunn at the Project Runway Season 13 Finale Show last year.

When the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge took off last summer, many worried it was nothing but social media mayhem masquerading as doing good. But just one year later, we now have the freezing frenzy to thank for a significant breakthrough, scientists say.

The new discovery has to do with a protein called TDP-43, which is found in clumps in the brains of 97% of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Scientists have known about the presence of TDP-43 in ALS for more than a decade, but they didn’t know whether these clumps were a cause or effect of the disease or what they did, according to the new paper from the journal Science. Now they know that TDP-43 helps instruct nerve cells how to make important proteins; when it bunches up inside those cells it starts a cascade of events that ultimately kills brain or spinal cord cells.

RELATED: The Story Behind the Ice Bucket Videos All Over Your Facebook Feed

The TL;DR version? “TDP-43 doesn’t do its job in 97% of all ALS cases. Scientists didn’t really know its function—now we do. We also show that it’s something that can be fixed!” Jonathan Ling, the first author of the paper, wrote in a Science Ask Me Anything on Reddit.

More importantly, Ling said: “If we are able to mimic TDP-43’s function in the human neurons of ALS patients, there’s a good chance that we could slow down progression of the disease! And that’s what we’re putting all our efforts into right now.”

Last year’s challenge spawned 17 million videos and raised $115 million for ALS research in the United States at its peak. The ALS Association announced that the money from last year’s challenge has helped to triple the amount that it spends on research each year. Ling’s research was funded partly by donations gathered via the Ice Bucket Challenge.

“I remember reading a lot of stories about people complaining that the ice bucket challenge was a waste and that scientists weren’t using the money to do research,” Ling added in his AMA. “I assure you that this is absolutely false. All of your donations have been amazingly helpful, and we have been working tirelessly to find a cure.”

Good work, social media!

RELATED: 5 Things You May Not Know About ALS

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