PTSD May Raise Heart Risks for Vietnam Vets

Study found those who suffered disorder were more likely to run into heart trouble, even after accounting for lifestyle factors

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, June 28 (HealthDay News) -- Vietnam veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are much more likely to develop heart disease, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at 562 middle-aged male twins (340 identical and 222 fraternal) who were veterans of the Vietnam War, and found that nearly 23 percent of the vets with PTSD had heart disease, compared with about 9 percent of the vets without PTSD.

When the researchers compared the 234 twins where one brother had PTSD and the other did not, 22 percent of those with PTSD had heart disease, compared with nearly 13 percent of those without PTSD.

The link between PTSD and heart disease remained strong even after the researchers accounted for lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking and physical-activity levels, as well as for mental health problems such as depression.

The study was published online June 25 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and appears in the Sept. 10 print issue of the journal. The study was partially funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

"This study suggests a link between PTSD and cardiovascular health," lead researcher Dr. Viola Vaccarino, a professor in the department of medicine at Emory University and chairwoman of the department of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, said in an institute news release.

"For example, repeated emotional triggers during everyday life in persons with PTSD could affect the heart by causing frequent increases in blood pressure, heart rate and heartbeat rhythm abnormalities that in susceptible individuals could lead to a heart attack," Vaccarino said.

"This study provides further evidence that PTSD may affect physical health," said Dr. Gary Gibbons, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. "Future research to clarify the mechanisms underlying the link between PTSD and heart disease in Vietnam veterans and other groups will help to guide the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies for people with these serious conditions."

PTSD affects nearly 7.7 million U.S. adults.

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Hysterectomy May Not Raise Heart Risks After All: Study

Finding might reassure women considering the procedure, researcher says

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 14 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have a hysterectomy are not in danger of increasing their risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, a new study says.

Although earlier research had found higher chances of cardiovascular disease in the years following a hysterectomy, different criteria were used in this latest study, the researchers noted.

"If women are contemplating hysterectomy, they don't need to be worried about increased cardiovascular risk," said study author Karen Matthews, a professor of epidemiology and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.

A hysterectomy is a surgical procedure that removes the uterus; sometimes the ovaries are also removed, to lower the risk of cancer.

Previous studies found an increased risk for conditions such as coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure in women who underwent a hysterectomy.

Unlike other studies, however, the new research included only women who had a hysterectomy in midlife and who didn't have their ovaries removed due to cancer, Matthews explained.

"It is possible that women who have a hysterectomy when they are young have an increase in cardiovascular risk," she noted.

The report was published May 14 in the online edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

To see if a hysterectomy actually increased a women's risk for cardiovascular disease, Matthews' team collected data on more than 3,300 premenopausal women who took part in a national study on women's health.

They compared cardiovascular risk factors before and after the women had elective hysterectomy with or without ovary removal with women who had a natural menopause.

These risk factors included cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation, blood sugar and insulin resistance, Matthews said.

Matthews' group found there were changes in cardiovascular risk factors after a hysterectomy, compared to risk factor changes after natural menopause.

These changes, however, were not associated with an increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease. Women who had a hysterectomy with removal of ovaries did tend to gain weight, the researchers found.

These effects were similar in all ethnic groups.

It's not known why these findings differ from other studies. The researchers speculated that differences in their study -- such as excluding women who had a hysterectomy because of cancer and the older age of the women -- may have played a role.

The women in this study were middle-aged and it is possible that women who have a hysterectomy earlier may have more cardiovascular risk, they explained.

One expert agreed that the evidence on a possible association between a hysterectomy and an increased chance of heart trouble has been mixed.

"Prior studies have suggested that there may be increases in cardiovascular risk after women undergo hysterectomy, particularly if accompanied by removal of the ovaries," said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

However, other studies have not found elevated risk for cardiovascular events with hysterectomy with or without the removal of the ovaries, he added.

"These findings suggest that hysterectomy with or without removing the ovaries does not appear to play a major role in worsening cardiovascular risk factors in women compared to natural menopause," said Fonarow.

"Nevertheless, as cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in women, women should closely assess, monitor and improve their cardiovascular health," he said.

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Brain Injury May Raise Stroke Risk

Study of more than 1 million people found link but not cause and effect

By Barbara Bronson Gray

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- People who have a traumatic brain injury may be more likely to suffer a stroke, a large new study suggests.

And while the chances of having a stroke are still small, incurring a traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be as big a risk factor as is high blood pressure, said study author Dr. James Burke.

While stroke risk is usually tied to older adults, about 20 percent occur in those under 65, said Burke, a research fellow in the neurology department at the University of Michigan Medical School. "Stroke is not typically associated with young people, and why younger people have strokes is not well understood."

But when younger adults do suffer a stroke, the effects can be daunting.

Dr. John Volpi, co-director of the Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center in Houston, recalled a patient who had a minor bike accident and seemed just fine. But after just a few days, the man -- who was only 45 -- had a stroke. "It was a slow recovery, getting back to walking and talking, and because he was an ophthalmologist, it took him a long time to be able to go back to work," Volpi said.

While study author Burke said stroke prevention has come a long way in the last 20 years or so, acute stroke treatment has seen only one significant advance, the administration of a powerful blood clot destroyer called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA).

Intravenous tPA is used in the first hours after a stroke to help break up blood clots associated with ischemic stroke, in which blood flow to part of the brain is blocked. Ischemic stroke accounts for about 87 percent of all cases, according to the American Heart Association.

"The next place to hit a potential home run [in preventing stroke] is to find other risk factors that could be playing a key role, especially in younger people," Burke said.

It is unclear how a traumatic brain injury might raise a person's stroke risk, he added. "TBI patients may have more headaches, more fear of seizures, diet changes, genuine brain rewiring, or they may be affected by the stress of TBI, or atherosclerotic plaques may be activated."

The study, published online June 26 in the journal Neurology , tapped several databases of adults in California who went to the emergency department or were discharged from a hospital between 2005 and 2009. More than 400,000 people with traumatic brain injury and more than 700,000 people with trauma but no brain injury were included in the study. The average age of all participants was about 50.

About 28 months after the injury, more than 11,000 people -- 1.1 percent -- had an ischemic stroke. But among those who had trauma but no brain injury, only 0.9 percent had a stroke. While that difference may seem small, it is significant because the overall risk of stroke for people this age is so tiny, Burke explained.

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Some Antidepressants May Raise Risk for Gastro Infection

Researchers aren't sure why these meds are linked to chances of contracting C. difficile

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- People who take certain types of antidepressants may be at higher risk for potentially deadly Clostridium difficile infection, a new study suggests.

This type of infection is one of the most common caught by hospital patients and causes more than 7,000 deaths each year in the United States. Several medications are thought to increase the risk for this infection, including antidepressants.

In this study, University of Michigan researchers examined C. difficile infection in people with and without depression, and found that those with major depression had a 36 percent higher risk than those without depression. Older, widowed people were 54 percent more likely to catch C. difficile than older married people. People who lived alone had a 25 percent higher risk than those who lived with others.

The researchers then investigated if there was a link between antidepressants and C. difficile infection. They found that only two -- Remeron (mirtazapine) and Prozac (fluoxetine) -- increased the risk, and that each drug doubled the risk.

The findings, published May 6 in the journal BMC Medicine, should improve identification and early treatment of C. difficile infection in people taking these antidepressants, the researchers said.

The reason for the increased risk of infection in people taking the antidepressants is unknown, and people who have been prescribed the drugs need to keep taking them unless their doctor tells them otherwise, the researchers said. The research showed an association between antidepressant use and increased risk of contracting the infection, but it did not prove a cause-and-effect link.

"Depression is common worldwide," study leader Dr. Mary Rogers said in a university news release. "We have long known that depression is associated with changes in the gastrointestinal system."

"The interaction between the brain and the gut, called the 'brain-gut axis,' is fascinating and deserves more study," Rogers said. "Our finding of a link between depression and Clostridium difficile should help us better identify those at risk of infection and perhaps encourage exploration of the underlying brain-gut mechanisms involved."

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Red Hair Pigment Might Raise Melanoma Risk: Study

Dermatologists say redheads must take extra care to check skin, avoid sun

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- The red in redheads' hair is thought to put them at increased risk of the dangerous skin cancer melanoma, even if they don't spend a lot of time in the sun, according to a new study.

Study co-author Dr. David Fisher and his research team first uncovered the apparent link between red hair pigment and melanoma last fall. That study used genetically altered mice that had been given a mutant gene that increased their risk of contracting the skin cancer.

Now the researchers are taking the next step: asking why the body's creation of the red hair pigment -- called pheomelanin -- might prompt that risk.

Their new paper, published May 9 in the journal BioEssays, speculates that pheomelanin could increase skin cancer risk by leaving skin cells more vulnerable to DNA damage.

By determining the way pheomelanin increases cancer risk, the researchers hope to figure out a way to prevent future cases of melanoma.

"We are focusing on what the possibilities are, what the directions for new research are and how that could impact treatment," said Fisher, chief of dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The researchers had previously found that at least half of red-furred mice developed melanoma, even though none of them had been exposed to any ultraviolet (UV) radiation. By comparison, only about 10 percent of mice without red fur contracted melanoma.

"In the mouse studies, it was possible to completely remove UV and there was still a major incidence of melanoma that was attributable to the red pigment," Fisher said.

Scientists note, however, that animal studies often fail to produce similar results in humans.

Fisher speculated on two ways the red pigment might cause skin cells to be more vulnerable to melanoma.

It could be that the creation of pheomelanin in the body might also generate unstable oxygen-containing molecules that can damage cells. These molecules are known as reactive oxygen species, or ROS.

On the other hand, synthesis of pheomelanin might rob skin cells of crucial stores of antioxidants that would otherwise be used to prevent ROS damage.

"We think a new prevention opportunity exists if we can block the form of reactive oxygen damage that the red pigment is producing," Fisher said.

Despite his research, Fisher does not downplay the role that UV rays have in skin cancer risk for everyone -- particularly redheads.

"I want to emphasize that we strongly believe UV is a contributor to melanoma, and UV may actually amplify this red pigment phenomenon," he said. "It still is absolutely crucial for people to avoid sun exposure."

But the knowledge that sun exposure is only one factor in their increased risk of melanoma should prompt redheads to take additional precautions, said Dr. Jeanine Downie, a spokeswoman for the Skin Cancer Foundation.

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Skipping Breakfast May Raise Diabetes Risk

Overweight women who ate morning meal had lower blood sugar, better insulin response in small study

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

SUNDAY, June 16 (HealthDay News) -- Eating breakfast every day may help overweight women reduce their risk of diabetes, a small new study suggests.

When women skipped the morning meal, they experienced insulin resistance, a condition in which a person requires more insulin to bring their blood sugar into a normal range, explained lead researcher Dr. Elizabeth Thomas, an instructor of medicine at the University of Colorado.

This insulin resistance was short-term in the study, but when the condition is chronic, it is a risk factor for diabetes, Thomas said. She is due to present her findings this weekend at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco.

"Eating a healthy breakfast is probably beneficial," Thomas said. "It may not only help you control your weight but avoid diabetes."

Diabetes has been diagnosed in more than 18 million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association. Most have type 2 diabetes, in which the body does not make enough insulin or does not use it effectively.

Excess weight is a risk factor for diabetes.

The new study included only nine women. Their average age was 29, and all were overweight or obese.

Thomas measured their levels of insulin and blood sugar on two different days after the women ate lunch. On one day, they had eaten breakfast; on the other day, they had skipped it.

Glucose levels normally rise after eating a meal, and that in turn triggers insulin production, which helps the cells take in the glucose and convert it to energy.

However, the women's insulin and glucose levels after lunch were much higher on the day they skipped breakfast than on the day they ate it.

On the day they did not eat breakfast, Thomas explained, "they required a higher level of insulin to handle the same meal."

"There was a 28 percent increase in the insulin response and a 12 percent increase in the glucose response after skipping breakfast," she said. That's a mild rise in glucose and a moderate rise in insulin, she noted.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"Their study doesn't prove causation," said Dr. Joel Zonszein, a professor of clinical medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of the Clinical Diabetes Center at Montefiore Medical Center, in New York City.

The study found only a link or association between breakfast skipping and higher insulin levels. More research is needed for confirmation, another expert said.

"This is a small, but very interesting, study," said Dr. Ping Wang, director of the University of California, Irvine, Health Diabetes Center. "The findings will have to be verified with larger studies."

Whether the effect is short-term or long-term is not known, Wang said.

Zonszein recommends against either skipping meals or eating very frequent meals, the so-called nibbling diet. "Studies done in Europe have shown that a large meal in the middle of the day is better than a large meal at dinner," he said.

However, he acknowledged that pattern is more of a habit in Europe than in the United States. Even so, he advises his patients to eat a good breakfast, a good lunch and a lighter dinner.

Other ways to reduce diabetes risk, according to the American Diabetes Association, are to control weight, blood pressure and cholesterol and to be physically active.

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Closed Windows in Hospital Rooms May Raise Infection Risk

FRIDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- Closed windows in large hospital wards may increase patients' risk of getting an infection, a new study suggests.

British researchers used carbon dioxide as a tracer gas to simulate how airborne infections spread in a traditional hospital ward, which typically includes two rows of up to 30 beds.

The carbon dioxide represented potentially infectious exhaled breath, and was released by popping carbon dioxide-filled balloons. Carbon dioxide detectors were placed where beds might be located in a functioning ward.

"By measuring the concentration of the gas over time, we were able to quantify the exposure at each bed and therefore the potential risk to a patient in that bed," study team member Laura Pickin said in a University of Leeds news release. "We were also able to use the same data to measure the overall ventilation rate in the ward."

When the windows were open, ventilation in the ward was generally good and the risk of airborne infection low. But the danger of infection increased fourfold when the windows were closed, according to the study in the current online issue of the Building and Environment Journal.

"These wards are still in operation and, although they have often been subdivided into smaller areas with six to eight beds, their ventilation and structure is still fundamentally the same," lead investigator Cath Noakes, from the University of Leeds' School of Civil Engineering, said in the news release.

With natural ventilation from windows, the wards are safe. But that changes when the windows are closed during the winter or permanently sealed to lower energy costs.

"Some of these wards were designed by the Victorians, and our results show that they knew what they were doing. But there is a danger that we could be adapting our buildings to improve efficiency without thinking how it might affect patients," Noakes said.

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: University of Leeds, news release, April 16, 2013

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Help raise awareness of Post-Natal Depression this Friday with @OneMillionMums

According to an NHS report in 2011, post-natal depression affects an estimated 10-15% of new mothers. A shocking statistic you'll no doubt agree, it's also no wonder a whole host of celebrities have come out in support of the Samantha Abbott Trust - a charity aimed at helping mums who suffer from PND.

Founded by Simon Abbot, the charitable trust was set up in memory of Simon's sister Samantha, who tragically committed suicide in 2009, shortly after giving birth and developing post-natal depression.

In aid of the cause, Russell Brand - along with stars such as Beverley Knight and Stacey Solomon - have joined forces to support the trust's plan to break the Twitter Guinness World Record of 'Fastest 1 Million Followers'. Currently held by Charlie Sheen, the record is 25 hours and 17 minutes, and we're asking you to pledge your support.

So, how can you get involved? Well, it's simple. At 10.00am on 26th April (this Friday - put it in the diary) the @OneMillionMums Twitter profile will go live and all you have to do is follow the account to help  smash the world record.

Speaking about the trust's record-breaking attempt, Abbott said: "Many mums suffer in silence as they are too afraid to say anything in case people think they are a bad mum or that their baby may be taken away... However, with the support of so many celebrities, and celebrity mums speaking up, we hope that other mums will be more open and support each other."

For more information see Facebook and follow @OneMillionMums on Twitter, this Friday.

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Radiation Therapy May Raise Future Death Risk From Heart Surgery

THURSDAY, April 11 (HealthDay News) -- Cancer survivors who had chest radiation therapy have a nearly twofold increased risk of dying in the years after having major heart surgery, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at 173 people who had chest radiation treatment for cancer an average of 18 years before they required heart surgery. These patients were compared to 305 people who underwent similar heart surgeries but had no history of radiation therapy.

The death risk in the first 30 days after heart surgery was about the same for both groups. But during an average follow-up of nearly eight years, 55 percent of the patients in the radiation group died, compared with 28 percent of those in the nonradiation group, the investigators found.

The study was published April 8 in the journal Circulation.

"These findings tell us that if you had radiation, your likelihood of dying after major cardiac surgery is high," study author Dr. Milind Desai, an associate professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a journal news release.

"That's despite going into the surgery with a relatively low risk score. In patients who have had prior [chest] radiation, we need to develop better strategies of identifying appropriate patients that would benefit from surgical intervention. Alternatively, some patients might be better suited for [nonsurgical] procedures," Desai said.

"While radiation treatments done on children and adults in the late 1960s, '70s and '80s played an important role in cancer survival, the treatment often takes a toll on the heart," Desai explained.

"Survivors are at greater risk than people who do not have radiation to develop progressive coronary artery disease, aggressive valvular disease, as well as pericardial diseases, which affect the heart's surrounding structures," he said. "These conditions often require major cardiac surgery."

While the study found an association between chest radiation therapy for cancer and future risk of death after heart surgery, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

-- Robert Preidt
Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Circulation, news release, April 8, 2013

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Low Blood Sugar May Raise Dementia Risk in Diabetics: Study

Overly aggressive glucose control might backfire in older patients, findings suggest

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 10 (HealthDay News) -- Low blood sugar in older adults with type 2 diabetes may increase their risk of dementia, a new study suggests.

While it's important for diabetics to control blood sugar levels, that control "shouldn't be so aggressive that you get hypoglycemia," said study author Dr. Kristine Yaffe, a professor of psychiatry, neurology and epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

The study of nearly 800 people, published online June 10 in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that people with episodes of significant hypoglycemia -- low blood sugar -- had twice the chance of developing dementia, Yaffe said. Conversely, "if you had dementia you were also at a greater risk of getting hypoglycemic, compared with people with diabetes who didn't have dementia," she said.

People with type 2 diabetes, by far the most common form of the disease, either don't make or don't properly use the hormone insulin. Without insulin, which the body needs to convert food into fuel, blood sugar rises to dangerously high levels. Over time, this leads to serious health problems, which is why diabetes treatment focuses on lowering blood sugar. But sometimes blood sugar drops to abnormally low levels, which is known as hypoglycemia.

Exactly why hypoglycemia may increase the risk for dementia isn't known, Yaffe said. Hypoglycemia may reduce the brain's supply of sugar to a point that causes some brain damage, Yaffe said. "That's the most likely explanation," she added.

Moreover, someone with diabetes who has thinking and memory problems is at particularly high risk of developing hypoglycemia, she said, possibly because they can't manage their medications well or perhaps because the brain isn't able to monitor sugar levels.

Whether preventing diabetes in the first place reduces the risk for dementia isn't clear, although it's a "very hot area" of research, Yaffe said.

But the findings do suggest that patients' mental status needs to be considered in the management of diabetes, Yaffe said.

Other experts agreed.

"This does raise concern about low blood sugar causing future problems with dementia and dementia causing problems with low blood sugar," said Dr. Stuart Weinerman, an endocrinologist at North Shore-LIJ in Great Neck, N.Y.

Weinerman isn't convinced that the association between hypoglycemia and dementia is cause-and-effect, however. "This is not a definitive study. It raises questions, but it doesn't answer them," he added.

But hypoglycemia is a serious problem for diabetics, Weinerman said. "Sooner or later, everyone is going to have some hypoglycemia," he said.

Episodes of hypoglycemia increase with age, perhaps because of changes in kidney function and drug metabolism, according to an accompanying journal commentary.

Anyone taking drugs that lower blood sugar should be aware of the signs of hypoglycemia, and be prepared to deal with it, Weinerman said. Symptoms can include confusion, jitteriness, fainting, heart palpitations and blurred vision.

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College Sports Could Raise Players' Risk for Depression, Study Finds

Compared with former college athletes, those still in school had doubled odds, possibly due to stress, researchers say

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- Current college athletes are twice as likely to be depressed as former athletes, researchers have found.

The findings suggest the need for further research to learn more about depression among college athletes, the Georgetown University investigators said.

For the study, they examined questionnaires completed by 117 current and 163 former college athletes who had participated in Division I NCAA-sponsored sports. The current athletes played in 10 different sports and the former athletes had played in 15 different sports.

Nearly 17 percent of current athletes had questionnaire scores consistent with depression, compared with 8 percent of former athletes, according to the study published online recently in the journal Sports Health.

"We expected to see a significant increase in depression once athletes graduated, but by comparison it appears the stress of intercollegiate athletics may be more significant than we and others anticipated," senior investigator Dr. Daniel Merenstein, an associate professor of family medicine and human science at Georgetown University Medical Center, said in a university news release.

These stressors include things such as overtraining, injury, pressure to perform, lack of free time, or trying to juggle athletics and schoolwork.

"College in general is a potentially stressful time for many students. The additional stress of playing high-level sports appears to add to that stress," Merenstein said.

He advised parents, friends and coaches to pay attention to changes in behavior, weight and sleep of college athletes, and of all students.

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Common Asphalt Sealant May Raise Cancer Risks

Small study looked at coal-tar sealcoat and exposure to 'PAH' chemical compound

By Brenda Goodman

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, April 4 (HealthDay News) -- Living near asphalt that's sealed with coal tar may raise the risk of getting cancer, a new study shows. The potential threat appears to be greatest for young children.

Coal tar, a byproduct of steel manufacturing, is a common ingredient in sealants that are used in the Eastern part of the United States to refresh worn parking lots and driveways.

"People like it because it makes the asphalt look like new. The striping shows up really clearly if you have a parking lot," said study author Barbara Mahler, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Austin, Texas.

The problem, she added, is that shiny black sealcoats are a concentrated source of cancer-causing chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.

"When tires drive across it, it's the grinding action of the tires that breaks up the little particles and grinds it up to a dust, essentially," Mahler said.

That dust gets carried into homes on shoes and hands. It's also washed into the surrounding soil and waterways after a rain, she said.

Previous studies have found high levels of PAHs in dust vacuumed from homes that sit near sealcoat-covered asphalt, according to study background information.

For the new study, published recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, researchers compared the levels of PAHs in house dust swept from 23 ground-level apartments in Austin. About half of the apartments sat on parking lots that were coated with coal-tar sealants; the rest did not.

The researchers combined those levels with measurements of PAHs in soils sampled near parking lots with and without coal tar-based sealants in New Hampshire and Chicago.

Next, they plugged those numbers into models used by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess what is called excess cancer risk. They wanted to know how many people would get cancer because of their exposure to PAHs who would otherwise not be expected to.

Based on the models, for every million people who live near unsealed asphalt for 70 years, or roughly their whole lives, there would be three extra cases of cancer because of exposure to PAHs. Bare asphalt emits some PAHs, but at far lower levels than are found in sealcoat.

That risk is 38 times greater, however, for people living near asphalt sealed with coal tar, the study found. For every million people who spend 70 years living next to sealed pavement, researchers said they would expect about 110 cases of cancer because of the exposure to PAHs.

Most of that risk appears to accrue in childhood. The study found that 50 percent of the cancer risk from PAHs in sealcoated asphalt is acquired within the first six years of life. About 80 percent of a person's risk adds up before age 18.

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College Sports Could Raise Players' Risk for Depression, Study Finds

Compared with former college athletes, those still in school had doubled odds, possibly due to stress, researchers say

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, April 5 (HealthDay News) -- Current college athletes are twice as likely to be depressed as former athletes, researchers have found.

The findings suggest the need for further research to learn more about depression among college athletes, the Georgetown University investigators said.

For the study, they examined questionnaires completed by 117 current and 163 former college athletes who had participated in Division I NCAA-sponsored sports. The current athletes played in 10 different sports and the former athletes had played in 15 different sports.

Nearly 17 percent of current athletes had questionnaire scores consistent with depression, compared with 8 percent of former athletes, according to the study published online recently in the journal Sports Health.

"We expected to see a significant increase in depression once athletes graduated, but by comparison it appears the stress of intercollegiate athletics may be more significant than we and others anticipated," senior investigator Dr. Daniel Merenstein, an associate professor of family medicine and human science at Georgetown University Medical Center, said in a university news release.

These stressors include things such as overtraining, injury, pressure to perform, lack of free time, or trying to juggle athletics and schoolwork.

"College in general is a potentially stressful time for many students. The additional stress of playing high-level sports appears to add to that stress," Merenstein said.

He advised parents, friends and coaches to pay attention to changes in behavior, weight and sleep of college athletes, and of all students.

View the original article here

Common Asphalt Sealant May Raise Cancer Risks

Title: Common Asphalt Sealant May Raise Cancer Risks
Category: Health News
Created: 4/4/2013 12:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 4/5/2013 12:00:00 AM

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College Sports Could Raise Players' Risk for Depression, Study Finds

Title: College Sports Could Raise Players' Risk for Depression, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 4/5/2013 10:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/5/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Antihistamine Meds May Raise Risk for Diarrheal Illness

Title: Antihistamine Meds May Raise Risk for Diarrheal Illness
Category: Health News
Created: 3/29/2013 6:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 4/1/2013 12:00:00 AM

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Isolation, Loneliness May Raise Death Risk for Elderly

Study found lack of social contact a bigger predictor of early death than just feeling alone

By Steven Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Elderly people who are socially isolated and lonely may be at greater risk of early death, British researchers report.

Lack of social contact might be an even bigger risk factor than loneliness, they added. Why, however, isolation is such a powerful predictor of death isn't clear.

"Social contact is a fundamental aspect of human existence. The scientific evidence is that being socially isolated is probably bad for your health, and may lead to the development of serious illness and a reduced life span," said lead researcher Andrew Steptoe, director of the Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care at University College London.

There is also research suggesting that loneliness has similar associations with poor health, he said.

"In many ways, social isolation and loneliness are two sides of the same coin. Social isolation indicates a lack of contact with friends, relatives and organizations, while loneliness is a subjective experience of lack of companionship and social contact," Steptoe said.

The investigators found that social isolation was a more consistent predictor of not surviving than was loneliness, and was related to greater risk of dying even after age and background health were taken into account, he said.

One expert said the findings were a little unexpected.

"You would think that loneliness would compound the risk for mortality, as opposed to just isolation -- it's a bit of a surprise," said Dr. Bryan Bruno, acting chair of psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved with the study.

However, Steptoe explained, "Knowing about how lonely participants felt did not add to our ability to predict future mortality. This is not to say that loneliness is unimportant, or that we should not strive to reduce loneliness in older men and women," he said.

"But, we need to keep an eye on the social connections of older people, since maintaining social contacts among seniors and reducing isolation may be particularly important for their future survival," Steptoe added.

Bruno agreed that isolation is a significant factor in both reduced quality of life and mortality. "It is a difficult, challenging problem," he said.

"For my elderly patients, I often do a lot of education about the risk associated with being isolated and encourage them to spend as much time with other people as possible, whether it be family, friends or joining groups, community organizations or doing volunteer work," Bruno noted.

The report was published March 25 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To look at the risks of loneliness and social isolation on dying, Steptoe's team collected data on 6,500 men and women aged 52 and older who took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Aging in 2004.

People who had limited contact with family or friends or community were classified as socially isolated. The researchers used a questionnaire to assess loneliness, which was described in background information in the study as a person's "dissatisfaction with the frequency and closeness of their social contacts, or the discrepancy between the relationships they have and the relationships they would like to have."

During nearly eight years of follow-up, 918 people died and social isolation and loneliness both predicted an early death.

Social isolation, however, increased the risk of dying regardless of one's health and other factors, while loneliness increased the risk of dying only among those with underlying mental or physical problems, the researchers found.

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Stress During Pregnancy May Raise Heart Defect Risk for Baby

Large Danish study looked at women who had lost a close relative while expecting

By Randy Dotinga

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- Stress in mothers before and during pregnancy may boost the risk of congenital heart defects in their children, more new evidence suggests. But the findings aren't conclusive, and the effect -- if it exists -- appears to be small.

Still, "there are several studies now that show an association," said Dr. Edward McCabe, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes, who is familiar with the results of the large new study. "It suggests there needs to be continued investigation of this."

McCabe said he's not aware of any other research linking stress in mothers to a specific kind of birth defect.

Congenital heart defects, among the most common kinds of birth defect, include conditions such as holes in the heart and other kinds of problems. Most cases aren't fatal, McCabe said, and physicians can repair some kinds of problems with surgery. In other cases, the defects don't need to be fixed.

The new study follows up on previous research linking stress to this form of birth defect.

The researchers looked at nearly 1.8 million children born in Denmark from 1978 to 2008 and tried to find out if congenital heart defects were more common in kids born to a specific group of about 45,000 women. These were women who had lost a parent, sibling, child or partner between the approximate time of conception and delivery.

Women in that group were slightly more likely than the other women to give birth to a child with a congenital birth defect, researchers found. Study co-author Dr. Jorn Olsen, professor and chairman of the department of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the findings take into account the possibility that congenital heart defects may run in families and have killed some of the relatives who died.

Why might stress in a mother cause birth defects? Animal studies have shown that stress during the development of a fetus could affect heart development, Olsen said.

It's also possible, he said, that stress could lead women to do things that are risky to their unborn children, such as changing to a less healthy diet. McCabe said another possibility is that stress alters the DNA of the child in the womb.

In the big picture, Olsen said, "this and other studies tell us to take care of pregnant women who experience severe stressful events shortly before or while they're pregnant."

For his part, McCabe said it's important for pregnant women under stress to talk to their physicians about quitting smoking, which they may increase because they're anxious. "We can't modify whether stress is going to happen in our lives," he said, "but we can modify certain effects of that stress."

The study appeared online March 25 and in the April print issue of the journal Pediatrics. Although it showed an association between maternal stress and risk of congenital heart defects, it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Transfusions With Heart Surgery Might Raise Infection Risk

Delicate balance exists between treating anemia, avoiding side effects from infusion of red blood cells, study says

By Mary Elizabeth Dallas

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) -- Patients who receive a red blood cell transfusion during or after heart surgery may be at greater risk for infection, according to a new study.

However, the use of platelets during transfusions does not appear to carry a similar risk. Limiting red blood cell use could result in fewer major postoperative infections, the researchers suggested.

The study is published in the June issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

"A common problem for many surgeons, and thereby the patient, is how to balance the risk of surgery-induced anemia with the increased risk of infection when using red blood cell transfusion to correct the anemia," study author Dr. Keith Horvath, at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, said in a journal news release.

"Through this study, we hoped to shed light on the problem and to encourage hospitals and surgeons to examine cell-salvage techniques and other alternatives to [red blood cell] transfusion during and after cardiac surgery," he explained.

The observational study, conducted by the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network, involved nearly 5,200 adults who underwent heart surgery between February and September 2010.

"Our study enrolled a large population of patients from a number of different institutions who were undergoing any type of cardiac surgery," Horvath noted. "This large patient set enabled us to better examine the relationship between transfusion and infection in a very diverse population."

Of the study's participants, 48 percent received a red blood cell transfusion and 31 percent received platelets.

With red blood cell transfusions, 84 percent took place during a transplant or left ventricular assist device implantation. Meanwhile, 63 percent occurred during thoracic aortic procedures, 45 percent took place during isolated coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and 40 percent occurred during isolated valve surgery.

The study found that 65 days after surgery, 5 percent of the patients developed at least one major infection, such as pneumonia, C. difficile colitis (a bacterial infection in the colon) and bloodstream infections.

With each red blood cell unit transfused, there was a 29 percent increase in infection risk. In contrast, platelets transfused along with more than four unit of red blood cells was associated with a lower infection risk.

"Few in regulatory agencies have grasped the complex but real relationships between red cell transfusions, infection and ... readmissions," Dr. Bruce Spiess, from Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, wrote in a related journal commentary.

Spiess concluded that improvements in blood management among cardiac teams would enhance patient safety, reduce hospital-acquired infections and reduce critical blood shortages.

However, the researchers pointed out that since this was an observational study, the reported associations cannot be considered as a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Having Older Grandfather May Raise Child's Autism Risk: Study

Title: Having Older Grandfather May Raise Child's Autism Risk: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 3/20/2013 4:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 3/21/2013 12:00:00 AM

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