When and Where of Weight-Loss Surgery May Affect Vitamin D Levels

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Weight-loss surgery is associated with low vitamin D levels, but new research suggests seasonal changes in sun exposure may play a role in this complication.

A Johns Hopkins study involving more than 930,000 patients found that people in the northern United States who have weight-loss surgery during winter face more complications than patients in the South.

“Sun exposure is critical in the synthesis of vitamin D, so the notion that people living in less sunny northern states may suffer from vitamin D deficiency is not surprising,” study leader Leigh Peterson, a nutritionist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Bariatric Surgery, said in a hospital news release.

“What is remarkable is how closely sun exposure, vitamin D and surgical outcomes were linked,” Peterson said.

A review of medical records of patients who had the surgery between 2001 and 2010 found that 71 percent of the 300,000 operations that resulted in an extended hospital stay involved patients living north of South Carolina.

In addition, more than twice as many patients experienced delayed healing in winter than in summer, according to the study published online Dec. 14 in Obesity Science and Practice.

Nutritional deficiencies can trigger inflammation, increase infection risk and slow wound healing, but the researchers said more research is needed to determine if routine use of vitamin D supplements could help prevent these complications after weight-loss surgery.

Excessive vitamin D intake, while rare, can cause nausea, constipation, confusion and an abnormal heart beat. Most people can get enough vitamin D from routine sun exposure. The researchers added, however, that obesity is a known risk factor for low levels of vitamin D and said people planning to have weight-loss surgery should be screened for this deficiency.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Health Office of Dietary Supplements has more about vitamin D.

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Breast Ultrasound, Mammography May Be Equally Effective: Study

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Ultrasound and mammography appear equally likely to detect breast cancer, a new study says.

The finding is good news, particularly for women who live in developing countries that typically have more access to ultrasound than to mammography, the researchers said.

While the detection rate with ultrasound was comparable to that of mammography, “it looks like ultrasound does better than mammography for node-negative invasive cancer,” said study leader Dr. Wendie Berg, professor of radiology at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh. Node-negative invasive cancer is cancer that hasn’t invaded the lymph nodes, but has grown past the initial tumor, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

“The downside [to ultrasound] is, there were more false positives,” Berg said.

At least one expert doesn’t expect this study to change current screening practice in the United States.

“For U.S. patients, what [this study] really confirms is, ultrasound should be used as a supplemental screening exam in dense breast patients,” said Dr. Lusi Tumyan, a radiologist and assistant clinical professor at the City of Hope Cancer Center, in Duarte, Calif. She reviewed the findings but was not involved in the study.

“At this time we do not have enough data to support or refute ultrasound as a screening tool for average-risk patients,” Tumyan said. The take-home message for women in the United States, she added, is to discuss their specific risks with their physician and decide together which screening test is best for them.

The study was published Dec. 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Ultrasound is generally used as a follow-up test once a potential breast tumor has been discovered through a mammogram or a physical exam, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). The ACS says that ultrasound is a valuable tool that’s widely available and noninvasive.

The new study involved 2,600 women living in the United States, Canada and Argentina who had ultrasound and mammogram annually for three years. They had no symptoms of breast cancer at the study’s start, but they did have dense breast tissue — considered a risk factor for breast cancer — plus at least one other risk factor for breast cancer.

Separate radiologists interpreted each of the two scans the women received.

At the end of the study, 110 women were diagnosed with breast cancer. Detection rates were similar between the two tests. Rates of false-positive results (where a scan erroneously suggests a tumor) were higher for ultrasound compared to mammography, the researchers reported.

Overall, the researchers found that 32 percent of more than 2,500 women without cancer were asked to come back for additional testing at least once after an ultrasound. That compared to 23 percent of women who’d had mammography, the study said.

The findings suggest that for women who don’t have a high risk of breast cancer but have dense breasts, “we find many more cancers if we do ultrasound in addition to mammography,” Berg said.

Berg said the cost of mammography and ultrasound are comparable in the United States. “The issue is: what are the cancers we most need to find,” she said. “The cancers you need to find are the invasive, node-negative ones. More of the cancers found with ultrasound were invasive and node-negative than those found with mammography.”

Guidelines about breast cancer screening vary among organizations. Current ACS guidelines advise women to consider beginning screening at age 40, depending on individual risk factors. They then recommend that women undergo annual screening with mammography from ages 45 to 54. At age 55, the ACS suggests continuing annual screening or switching to screening every two years, depending on risk factors. Some women, due to family history or other risk factors, should also be screened with MRIs, according to the ACS.

Insurance coverage for breast ultrasounds also varies, according to Tumyan.

“Ultrasound coverage varies with different insurance companies and different state laws. California has passed a law that requires radiologists to inform patients if they have dense breasts. But California law does not require insurance companies to pay for supplemental screening. However, in other states, the dense breast law requires insurance companies to pay for supplemental screening,” she explained.

More information

To learn more about breast ultrasound, see American Cancer Society.

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Early Treatment Improves Heart Attack Outcomes, Study Finds

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Early treatment to restore blood flow quickly once heart attack symptoms begin may reduce damage to the heart, a new study suggests.

Patients who recognize the symptoms of a heart attack early on and receive immediate medical attention have better outcomes, the researchers found.

As soon as heart attack patients arrive at the hospital, doctors must restore blood flow to the heart using a stent, a procedure called percutaneous coronary intervention.

The time that elapses between the onset of symptoms and treatment is known as “door-to-balloon time.” Treatment should be received in 90 minutes or less, according to guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

In the study, researchers examined the hospital records of 2,056 patients. They compared the time between the onset of symptoms and treatment and the resulting function of the heart. Patients were divided into three groups: those treated within two hours of developing symptoms; those treated two to four hours after developing symptoms; and those treated after more than four hours.

The study, published online Dec. 28 in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, found patients who were treated two to four hours after experiencing heart attack symptoms were less likely to have blood flow to their heart fully restored. They were also more likely to die within three years than people who were treated sooner.

“The decrease in median door-to-balloon time in recent years has not resulted in a reduction in mortality” in patients whose heart attacks are caused by a blocked coronary artery, study author Dr. Roxana Mehran said in an American College of Cardiology news release.

Mehran is director of interventional cardiovascular research and clinical trials at the Zena and Michael A. Weiner Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

She said the study highlights the need to examine the role of other delays. These include the time between first medical contact and balloon, and how long blood supply to the heart is interrupted.

Dr. Michael Kutcher, a cardiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, noted in an accompanying journal editorial that doctors should pay close attention to signs of lost blood flow since heart damage or death can occur even with shorter door-to-balloon times.

“Patients with prolonged symptom onset-to-balloon time are a high risk group and should be treated accordingly with assertive strategies,” Kutcher said.

“We as an interventional cardiology community should continue to educate the public and health care providers regarding the importance to quantify symptom onset-to-balloon time and follow through with prompt action,” he added.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides more information on treatment for heart attack.

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Reducing Salt Intake Might Harm Heart Failure Patients, Study Claims

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — For decades, doctors have urged heart failure patients to slash their salt intake as a way to preserve their health.

But a new study suggests — but doesn’t prove — that that advice may be harmful, potentially increasing a heart failure patient’s risk of death or hospitalization.

Patients with moderate heart failure who stuck to a low-sodium diet were 85 percent more likely to die or require hospitalization for heart disease, when compared to similarly ill patients who didn’t restrict their salt intake, the researchers found.

“The conventional wisdom has been that salt is bad for you,” said lead researcher Dr. Rami Doukky, a cardiologist and associate professor at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “This study says, not so fast. Maybe we should take that, no pun intended, with a grain of salt.”

However, Doukky and other cardiologists warned that the study findings are very preliminary and should not be interpreted by heart failure patients to mean that it’s OK to reach for the salt shaker. Rigorous clinical trials are needed to further test the safety of this hypothesis, the experts said.

“The study is meant to be an eye-opener, that we need to investigate this matter more. We used to take it [salt consumption] for granted, and now it is time to address it with more definitive trials,” Doukky said.

Physicians have long assumed that salt is bad for heart failure patients because the mineral causes the body to retain water and pull additional fluid into the blood vessels, Doukky explained.

Physiologically, the assumption makes sense, said Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Heart failure patients struggle with fluid retention because their heart beats too weakly to fight the force of gravity, allowing blood and water to build up in their lungs, feet, ankles and legs, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Salt also increases blood pressure by drawing water into the arteries and veins, according to the American Heart Association, and high blood pressure is a long-known risk factor for heart disease.

However, a handful of recent studies have called those long-held assumptions into question, suggesting that a low-sodium diet might actually be harmful to heart failure patients, Doukky said.

To put it to the test, Doukky and his colleagues gained access to data from a clinical trial that followed heart failure patients an average of three years and tracked their salt intake using a food questionnaire.

The researchers examined 833 patients from the study, including 130 patients who followed a sodium-restricted diet. They were matched against 130 patients who had no restrictions on salt intake.

About 42 percent of heart failure patients following a low-sodium diet wound up dying or hospitalized for heart problems, compared to 26 percent of patients with no salt restrictions, the researchers found.

“To our surprise, we found that patients who were sodium-restricted had worse outcomes than those who were taking sodium more liberally,” he said.

The study findings were published online Dec. 28 in JACC: Heart Failure, a journal published by the American College of Cardiology.

Doukky theorized that cutting back on salt might throw a heart failure patient’s fluid volumes out of whack, with potentially harmful consequences.

“The idea is sodium restriction leads to a contraction of the fluid volume in the body, and that turns on certain hormones which try to retain fluids in the body and may potentially accelerate the heart failure process,” he said.

Yancy noted that the new findings also shouldn’t be applied to healthy people without heart problems. Salt remains a leading risk factor for high blood pressure, which can cause heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

More information

For more on salt and heart health, visit the American Heart Association.

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Heart Attack Treatment Often Delayed for Former Bypass Patients

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Heart attack patients need quick treatment, but a new study finds that those with a history of bypass surgery often face delays at the hospital.

Guidelines say that heart attack patients should receive angioplasty — a procedure that clears the blockages causing the heart attack — within 90 minutes of hospital arrival. That should be enough time for doctors to get images of the heart blood vessels and see where the trouble lies.

But in the new study of nearly 300 U.S. hospitals, researchers found that delays were common for heart attack sufferers with a history of bypass surgery. About one-quarter were not treated within 90 minutes — double the number of heart attack patients who’d never had the surgery.

The findings appear in the Dec. 28 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.

The study could not dig into the reasons for the delays. But lead researcher Dr. Luis Gruberg said that finding blood vessel blockages can be trickier when patients have had bypass surgery.

Heart attacks occur when an artery-clogging “plaque” — a buildup of fat, calcium and other substances — ruptures and completely blocks blood flow through the vessel.

When people arrive at the hospital with an apparent heart attack, doctors try to locate the blockage by doing a form of X-ray called an angiogram. They inject a dye into the heart arteries, then take images of blood flow throughout the heart.

If they pinpoint the obstruction, angioplasty can be done to push the blockage aside and restore normal blood flow.

The faster that process goes, the less damage to the heart muscle, said Gruberg, a professor of medicine at Stony Brook University in New York.

But when patients have had bypass, he said, doctors typically need more pictures of the heart vessels before angioplasty can be done. “And that takes time,” Gruberg said.

People typically undergo bypass surgery for extensive heart disease, where multiple arteries are hardened and narrowed with plaques. A surgeon takes arteries or veins from elsewhere in the body and uses them to reroute blood around the diseased vessels.

If those patients later suffer a heart attack, they’ll have a more complicated highway of blood vessels to study.

“They can come in with five or six grafts (transplanted blood vessels), and we need more pictures of the heart,” Gruberg explained.

Still, he said, it may be possible to get them to angioplasty sooner. “I’m sure hospital teams are working as fast as they can,” Gruberg said. “But we need to ask, is there a way to shorten these times?”

Dr. John Douglas, a cardiologist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, agreed.

“The time to treatment is something we can impact, so we need to do our best,” said Douglas, who wrote an editorial published with the study.

He pointed to another recent study at one U.S. hospital: Over nine years, heart attack patients with a history of bypass received angioplasty as quickly as other patients.

“It can be done,” Douglas said.

The current findings are based on more than 15,600 heart attack patients at 297 U.S. hospitals. Overall, 969 — or 6 percent — had a history of bypass surgery. Of those patients, 76 percent received angioplasty within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital, according to the report.

That compared with 88 percent of other heart attack patients — including those who’d had angioplasty in the past, the investigators found.

It’s not clear, however, how those delays affected bypass patients’ prognosis, Gruberg said. Bypass patients did have a higher risk of dying in the hospital (just over 3 percent died, versus just under 2 percent of other patients). But bypass patients’ older age and poorer overall health seemed to account for the difference, he added.

However, Gruberg said, there was no information on how patients fared in the longer term.

Douglas suggested that bypass patients keep a file with information on their surgery, and the results of their last electrocardiogram, and bring that to the hospital if they think they’re having a heart attack.

Gruberg stressed the importance of acting on potential heart attack symptoms, such as chest discomfort or breathlessness, right away.

And don’t think driving to the hospital is the fastest route, he added.

“Always call 911,” Gruberg said. Paramedics can begin treatments right away and alert the emergency room so that a team can be ready, he explained.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more on heart attack symptoms and treatment.

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4 Steps to Making a Resolution That Will Actually Help You Lose Weight in 2016

Photo: Getty Images

We’ve all made those sweeping, drastic resolutions that fizzle out by February. I’m talking about resolving to get up early and work out every day, and not eat any sugar, and cook at home every night, and stop drinking so much wine, and…

Here’s the deal: you know that all of the above are things you “should” do for your health, but trying to do them all at once is probably not the best idea for some people. Why? Perfection just isn’t possible, and the more pressure you put on yourself to make too many changes the more your resolutions may backfire. And that reality leaves you in the same place every year—stuck.

If this sounds familiar, this year you can break the pattern by using a “step ladder” approach, where each successful change builds on the next, and can all be maintained, for real this time! It may not feel as dramatic, but for many people it’s the best way to build lasting changes. Instead of burning out you’ll actually see real and lasting progress. Ready? Here are the four key steps.

RELATED: 57 Ways to Lose Weight Forever, According to Science

Identify your “domino”

What I mean by this is the one behavior that affects others the most. For example, some of my clients tell me that alcohol is their domino, because drinking leads to both giving into unhealthy eating, and skipping the gym. Others tell me it’s dining out, because they wind up eating more at restaurants, and maybe having a drink or two, which they don’t tend to do when they cook at home. For some it’s skipping breakfast, because it leads to nibbling more all day, feeling too hungry to go to the gym, and overeating at night. Basically identify the one behavior that helps you stay in the healthiest space (or the one unhealthy habit that causes everything to unravel), and make just that one your focus to start.

RELATED: 21 New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep

Seek out support

Once you’ve zeroed in on your target up your chances of success by identifying the things that will help make following through easier. If your domino is working out (because when you work out you’re more likely to eat healthfully, drink less, etc.) make a list of all the things that boost the chances that you’ll fit exercise in, and all of the things that tend to get in the way, so you can find ways to circumvent them.

For example, if workouts cut into your social time recruit a workout buddy. If you find exercise boring sign up for a class that sounds fun, like a dance workout, instead of that tedious elliptical. If you struggle to find time to work out make peace with fitting it in when you can, rather than the all or nothing. (“If I can’t do a full workout I’ll skip it.”) Just doing things like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or carving out 15 minutes from your lunch break to walk really add up day after day.

The idea here is to make the one domino goal you’ve set really work, because it’s like your weight loss and wellness linchpin—if it falls apart chances are other healthy habits will go with it.

RELATED: 30 Easy Tips to Get Slimmer in 30 Days

Plan a weekly progress report

Note that I didn’t say a weekly weigh-in. Don’t worry about what the scale says right now. Instead, sit down each week to assess how your domino goal is going. Take an honest look at what’s going well, and identify what you can work on during the upcoming week to best support your goal.

When things are going well celebrate your progress in healthy ways (a new kitchen tool or healthy cookbook if you’re cooking at home, a new workout outfit if exercise is your goal are some ideas). And if you’re stumbling don’t beat yourself up. Change isn’t always easy or linear. Sometimes you do take two steps forward and one step back, but to get to your destination the key is to keep going.

No matter what, don’t stop looking for new ways to stay motivated: set up an inspirational Pinterest board, chronicle your journey on a blog or social media, or plan a fun trip that ties in with your goal, like a girlfriend getaway to a spa, a healthy cooking class, or a hiking trip.

RELATED: 13 Weight Loss Resolutions You Shouldn’t Make

Slowly build on your foundation

Once your domino really feels like your new normal strategically add new goals, one at a time, with the same degree of attention and patience. If your inner voice tells you you’re not doing enough, talk right back, and remind yourself of the times when taking on too much led to giving up. I’ve had many clients focus on nutrition first, and then only add exercise once they’ve really settled into a consistent healthy eating pattern. And guess what? They stuck with each one, whereas taking on the two simultaneously in the past led to ditching them both. If that’s happened to you make ‘slow and steady’ your mantra this year. By giving yourself the room to move at your own pace you just might find that come next December you don’t feel the need to make any resolutions at all for 2017!

What’s your take on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

Cynthia Sass is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Yankees, previously consulted for three other professional sports teams, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Sass is a three-time New York Times best-selling author, and her brand new book is Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches with Real Food, Real Fast. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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Study: Extremely Premature Babies at Greater Risk for Autism

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Babies born very prematurely are at higher risk for developing autism spectrum disorder, a new study suggests.

Researchers found differences in the brains of babies born before 27 weeks’ gestation who were later diagnosed with the disorder, commonly known as autism.

Autism is usually linked with genetic factors, but the study’s authors suggested birth weight and complications can increase children’s risk for the condition.

“Our study shows that environmental factors can also cause autism,” study co-author Ulrika Aden said in a news release from Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, where she is a neonatologist. She is also a researcher in the department of women’s and children’s health at Karolinska Institute.

“We were surprised by how many — almost 30 percent — of the extremely preterm-born children had developed ASD [autism spectrum disorder] symptoms,” said Aden. “Amongst children born after full-term pregnancy, the corresponding figure is 1 percent.”

Aden explained that the brain grows best in the womb, and premature birth can disrupt the organization of cerebral networks.

“With new therapeutic regimes to stimulate the development of such babies and avoid stress, maybe we can reduce the risk of their developing ASD,” she added.

Advances in neonatal intensive care have improved survival rates among extremely preterm babies. Infants born more than 13 weeks early, however, are at greater risk for brain damage, autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning problems. Their brains are exposed to many stressors during a critical stage of development, which could play a role in the onset of autism, the researchers said.

To investigate this issue, the researchers used MRI scans to analyze the brain growth of more than 100 infants born before the start of the third trimester. Once the children turned 6, they were also screened for symptoms of autism.

The children who developed autism were more likely to have experienced complications or had surgery shortly after birth, the study published Dec. 21 in the journal Cerebral Cortex found.

Long before the children were diagnosed, however, researchers observed reduced growth of parts of their brains involved in social contact, empathy and language acquisition. They noted these functions are often impaired in children with autism.

More information

The March of Dimes provides more information on the long-term health effects of premature birth.

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Hospitals’ Brain Death Policies Vary Dramatically, Study Finds

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The rules for judging when a patient is brain dead vary widely from hospital to hospital, despite the existence of national standards created to ensure accuracy, a new study has found.

The American Academy of Neurology adopted a set of updated guidelines in 2010 for judging whether a person has lost all brain function and is being kept alive solely through hospital machinery, said lead researcher Dr. David Greer, a professor of neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn.

There are no legitimate reports of any patient ever being declared brain dead when they weren’t, Greer said, but such judgments need to be made with “100 percent certainty.”

“That’s why we want to provide a very high level of accountability for this, and that’s why we created the guidelines to be so specific, so straightforward and cookbook,” Greer said. “Basically, you might call it ‘Brain Death For Dummies.’ You should be able to take this checklist to the bedside, follow it point by point and be able to get through it.”

But hospitals have been slow to adopt the brain death standards in their policies, Greer and colleagues found in a national review.

They reviewed 508 hospital policies regarding brain death, representing hospitals and health systems in all 50 states. The results were published online Dec. 28 in the journal JAMA Neurology.

To rule a person brain dead, physicians must make two judgments, Greer said.

They have to prove there’s no brain function at all, even to regulate automatic processes in the body. “Even the most basic things such as taking a breath constitutes brain function,” he said.

They must also rule out any chance that the person might recover brain function. For example, doctors have to make sure the person isn’t suffering from a condition that resembles brain death, Greer said.

“If there’s any chance that, by continuing to treat the patient or by eliminating some unknown factor, the patient might retain some brain function, then you don’t declare them,” he said.

But the rules for both judgments vary widely between hospitals, and often do not stick to the guidelines, researchers found.

For example, only 56 percent of hospital policies required doctors to rule out hypotension — severely low blood pressure — as a factor that might create the illusion of brain death, according to review findings.

In addition, one out of every five policies did not require doctors to rule out hypothermia — abnormally low body temperature — as a possible factor.

Dr. James Bernat, a neurologist with Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine in Hanover, N.H., said he was surprised to learn that about one in 10 hospital policies did not require doctors to make sure that a patient can no longer breathe on his or her own before declaring brain death — otherwise known as an “apnea test.”

“That is an absolute requirement,” Bernat said. “No one should ever do a brain death determination without an apnea test. Determining apnea is essential.”

Many differences among hospitals can be chalked up to variations in community standards and state law, said Dr. John Combes, senior vice president of the American Hospital Association.

“There are different state and legal requirements that hospitals must follow,” Combes said. “I think that inherently there is going to be variation.”

But the updated national requirements take such variations into account, Greer said. For example, the guidelines provide flexibility regarding which type of doctor can judge brain death, how many doctors need to be involved and how many examinations should occur.

“However, there are core requirements that should not be debatable whatsoever,” he said. “The core things absolutely have to be there. If there are things stipulated by the state on top of that, then that’s fine.”

The review researchers are concerned that organ donations could drop off if potential donors become fearful that the proper steps aren’t being followed to make sure brain death has occurred, Greer said.

“That’s why we’re all working together, to make sure this is done right 100 percent of the time,” he said. “If the public were to lose faith in what we’re doing on the medical side, then that would have disastrous implications for organ donation.”

Greer said the review results show that hospitals are moving in the right direction, but still have more to do.

Combes agreed. “This article encourages [hospitals] to review their procedures to make sure they meet the current standard of evidence and medical knowledge,” he said.

Hospitals might be quicker to adopt solid policies if they were required to do so by the Joint Commission, the body that accredits hospitals, Bernat said.

“I can tell you if the Joint Commission insists this be done in a certain way, then it will be done,” he said.

More information

Visit the American Academy of Neurology for more on brain death.

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3 Grown-Up Ways to Wear Glitter

New Rules for Mammograms, Tanning Beds Top Health News of 2015

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Managing Editor

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — While no one health story dominated in 2015, the year did mark some milestones and important trends, with news in cancer screening and prevention topping the list.

In October, the American Cancer Society revised its influential guidelines on breast cancer screening — moving the suggested start age for annual mammograms from 40 to 45. After age 54, women can also decide to reduce screening to once every two years, the cancer society said.

The new rules bring the cancer society’s recommendations more in line with those of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which set off a national debate in 2009 when it raised the start date for an average-risk woman’s first mammogram to 50.

Earlier this month, another group of cancer experts — this time a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel — proposed new regulations that would ban the use of indoor tanning beds and booths by minors. The proposal was long sought by experts concerned about cancer risk from the devices. Dr. Mark Lebwohl, president of the American Academy of Dermatology, said that if the FDA follows through and turns the proposal into policy, it would mark a “historic victory” against skin cancer.

Outbreaks of childhood diseases such as measles — once thought nearly eradicated in the United States — swung the spotlight back to the anti-vaccination movement. Including a major outbreak that began at California’s Disneyland last spring, a total of five measles outbreaks caused 189 cases of the highly communicable illness this year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many experts place at least some of the blame for the resurgence of measles, whooping cough and other infectious ills on “clusters” of unvaccinated children in areas where parents have decided against immunization. Health officials decried the trend, and in July the California legislature passed tough new laws mandating vaccination for nearly all children in the state’s public schools.

Rising numbers of two other conditions that emerge in childhood — autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — also made the news in 2015. In November, the CDC said that new calculation methods had pushed its estimate of the rate of autism spectrum disorders in kids to one in 45.

And in December, researchers at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., estimated that ADHD rates among American children rose 43 percent between 2003 and 2011, with the condition now affecting 12 percent of kids aged 5 through 17. The researchers stressed that they can’t be sure if the surging numbers represent a true increase or a trend toward “overdiagnosis” of the behavioral disorder.

This year also marked the advent of the first FDA-approved libido pill for women, called Addyi. The pill — aimed at helping women diagnosed with low sexual desire — has its supporters and detractors. Fred Wyand, speaking for the American Sexual Health Association, called it “another option” for women. But, others noted that Addyi comes with worrying side effects that can include severely low blood pressure and loss of consciousness. As part of its approval, the FDA mandated a warning label advising certain precautions when taking the drug.

The American diet got another jolt in August, with a much-reported study that cast doubt on the notion that animal-based saturated fats (think butter, fatty meats) were, in fact, unhealthy. The “meta-analysis” of data from 20 different studies found no clear or consistent evidence that diets high in saturated fat were tied to higher risks for heart disease or early death.

The controversy around e-cigarettes — a healthier alternative to smoking for some, a “gateway” to the deadly habit for others — continued in 2015. One study in April found that 12 percent of U.S. kids aged 11 to 16 said they had at least tried “vaping,” although relatively few used the devices regularly. A second study released the same month found the number of teens who’d used an e-cigarette rose from 8 percent in 2012 to 11 percent two years later. Numerous groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have called for restrictions on vaping similar to those seen with smoking.

Another deadly habit — addiction to narcotic painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin — remained at epidemic levels in the United States this year. For many abusers, tighter restrictions on the availability of the prescription drugs merely pushed them toward heroin. In October, President Barack Obama noted that 120 Americans now die from drug overdoses each day, topping the number who die in car crashes.

Stories on the link between head trauma suffered in contact sports — most notably football — and concussion and long-term brain damage continued to make the news.

In May and then again in August, two studies linked the rough-and-tumble of football in youth with brain damage observed decades later in retired NFL players. In March, rising NFL star Chris Borland, 24, announced that he would abandon his career due to fears of brain damage that might occur over time. And in November, the family of the late Frank Gifford announced that an autopsy revealed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the NFL legend’s brain, possibly tied to hits sustained in his career.

Stories like these may be altering Americans’ views of a beloved sport: A HealthDay/Harris Poll released in December found rising numbers of fans believe that more must be done to safeguard players’ brain health.

Flu also grabbed the nation’s attention earlier this year. While the current flu season appears mild so far, the 2014-2015 season was a tough one. The CDC conceded that last season’s vaccine was a very poor match for circulating strains, and by February high numbers of cases were being recorded, especially among groups such as the elderly and very young.

As the year drew to a close, there was some very good — potentially historic — news for the health of the world’s people, as leaders of 195 nations gathered in Paris to sign an accord bent on at least slowing global warming. Health experts believe the agreement could pay dividends in public health for generations to come.

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from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1R3mbA2