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Many children deal with chronic health issues — but it doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy life as much as other kids, a new study finds. Researchers found that among more than 1,200 5- to 9-year-olds, those with some of the most common childhood ills were no less happy with their lives than other kids. They said the findings highlight an important point: Kids aren’t “defined” by their medical issues. “This can help broaden our perspective of what ‘health’ is,” said lead researcher Courtney Blackwell, a research assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “Just because a child has a medical condition,” she said, “that doesn’t mean they’re ‘unhealthy.’ “ The caveat, Blackwell said, is that the study focused on kids with certain common conditions, such as asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and digestive disorders. It did not include kids with more debilitating diseases that require intense care. If it had, the findings would probably be different, according to Rose Alvarez-Salvat, a child psychologist at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. She was not involved with the research, but reviewed the study. Alvarez-Salvat works with kids who have medical conditions like type 1 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, cancer and hemophilia. Those complex disorders, which require daily management, can lead to anxiety and depression for some kids, she said. “They have a very different… read on >

When men with prostate cancer have to take drugs that block the testosterone fueling their tumors, they can suffer a host of side effects that include impotence, bone loss, heart trouble and obesity. But new research uncovers yet another possible downside to the treatment: These men may be at greater risk for dementia. For any type of dementia, that risk increased 17%; for Alzheimer’s disease, it increased 23%, the researchers said. Common side effects of so-called androgen-deprivation therapy include hot flashes, unstable mood, trouble sleeping, headaches, high blood sugar, allergic reactions and impotence. “Androgen-deprivation therapy may not only cause physical changes — such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease or obesity — but may also cause changes in cognition,” said researcher Dr. Karl Tully, a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. But Tully cautioned that this study cannot prove that such hormone therapy caused dementia, only that the two are associated. The investigators also found that men on this type of therapy had a 10% greater risk of seeking psychiatric services. The risk for dementia increased as the length of therapy increased, the researchers noted. Men on androgen-deprivation therapy for six months had a 25% increased risk for any kind of dementia and a 37% increased risk for Alzheimer’s, the findings showed. Being on hormone therapy longer than six months increased the risk for… read on >

(HealthDay News) — Buyer beware: When it comes to testosterone supplements, men should know a new study finds there is precious little evidence to support claims they will boost testosterone levels, sex drive, strength and overall energy. To come to this conclusion, the researchers first broke down 50 testosterone supplements into their component parts. The investigators then searched through a comprehensive scientific publication database for any solid proof that the supplements can do what the companies who make them say they can do. But only 12% of the products contained any ingredient shown to provide some testosterone-related benefit in human trials. And nearly half (48%) contained ingredients that studies found could have negative impacts. “In general, I’m not anti-supplements,” noted study author Dr. Mary Samplaski. “I have a lot of patients who take them. But the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] says very clearly that these products should not claim to treat medical conditions. And 90% of these testosterone supplements do make such claims. So I was just really curious what the scientific support was for the claims being made.” Samplaski said, “What we found is that in the vast majority of cases there was no evidence to show that any of the ingredients in these testosterone supplements were effective in any way.” The upshot, she said, is that “people should understand that just… read on >

A major medical group has issued new guidance on detecting and treating the leading cause of death in pregnant women and new mothers in the United States. Heart disease accounts for 26.5% of pregnancy-related deaths, and rates are highest among black women and those with low incomes. On Friday, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) responded with new guidelines on screening, diagnosis and management of heart disease. “Most of these deaths are preventable, but we are missing opportunities to identify risk factors prior to pregnancy and there are often delays in recognizing symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum, particularly for black women,” ACOG President Dr. Lisa Hollier said in an organization news release. While pre-existing conditions play a part in the death toll, acquired heart conditions can develop silently during or after pregnancy. A heart muscle disease called peripartum cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of death in expectant mothers, accounting for 23% of deaths late in pregnancy, according to ACOG. The new practice guidelines are the work of a Hollier-led task force aimed at lowering heart disease-related deaths during and after pregnancy. “The new guidance clearly delineates between common signs and symptoms of normal pregnancy versus those that are abnormal and indicative of underlying cardiovascular disease,” Hollier said. “As clinicians, we need to be adept at distinguishing between the two if we’re going to… read on >

Teens spend countless hours glued to their phones and tablets, continually posting to social media, but British researchers report that might not be as terrible as many parents may think. It appears that teens who are less satisfied with their lives do tend to spend more time on Snapchat, Instagram and the like, but the link between life satisfaction and time spent on social media was “trivial,” the research found. “The previous literature was based almost entirely on correlations with no means to dissociate whether social media use leads to changes in life satisfaction or changes in life satisfaction influence social media use,” explained researcher Amy Orben, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Oxford. But by applying new modeling methods to an eight-year survey of households in the United Kingdom, the researchers were able to tease out data that gave them a better understanding of the effect of social media. The survey looked at how much time teens spent on social media during a normal school day and compared this with their life satisfaction ratings. The researchers did find lower life satisfaction increased the time spent on social media, while less time on social media was tied to higher life satisfaction. This finding was stronger among girls than boys, but even so, the connection was tenuous, they noted. Co-lead author Andrew Przybylski, director… read on >

Traditional media, including TV and magazine ads, tend to portray ideals of physical perfection that can fuel worries about body image and eating disorders. A study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that spending hours on social media is linked to these issues, too. In particular, people in the top 25% of high-volume social media users were more than twice as likely to have an eating disorder. Among the social media sites included in the study were Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as Pinterest, Snapchat and LinkedIn. What the researchers still don’t know is which comes first — whether social media creates an environment that can lead to body image concerns and eating disorders, or whether people with these issues connect with others like them through social media and, in turn, find support to continue their unhealthy eating. These are the most common types of eating disorders: Anorexia — eating so little you’re at a dangerously low weight, which can lead to cardiac arrest and potentially fatal electrolyte imbalances. Bulimia — eating huge amounts of food and then intentionally vomiting to prevent what you’ve eaten from being digested, or misusing laxatives. Binge-eating — consuming large quantities of food. It’s important to recognize signs of an eating disorder in yourself or a loved one and get help before it affects quality of… read on >

Profoundly obese people are prone to an irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation, but new research suggests that weight-loss surgery can improve the odds that a procedure to restore a normal heart rhythm will work. When atrial fibrillation, or a-fib, cannot be controlled by medications, a procedure called ablation can help. It targets the nerves in the heart where atrial fibrillation occurs. By electrically burning these areas, the heartbeat may return to normal. “Bariatric [weight-loss] surgery before ablation was associated with a threefold reduction in atrial fibrillation recurrence rates,” said researcher Dr. Eoin Donnellan, a fellow in cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic. Both obesity and a-fib are at epidemic proportions in the United States, and both can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, the researchers said. As many as one in five cases of a-fib are related to obesity, and obesity has been identified as a risk factor for the heart condition, the researchers noted. Some patients who have weight-loss surgery may see their a-fib stop on its own or can have it controlled with medication, Donnellan said. But for many, ablation may be the best way to cure it. Although ablation has become a common procedure to treat a-fib, obese patients are more likely to have their abnormal heartbeat return after the procedure, he said. “While previously, morbidly obese patients with atrial fibrillation that… read on >

Bucking a longstanding upward trend, new data shows that the percentage of Americans taking any prescription drug has fallen slightly over the past decade. Still, nearly half — 45.8% — of Americans said they took at least one prescription medicine over the past month, according to a national survey conducted in 2015-2016. That’s a slight dip from the 48.3% of Americans — children and adults — who reported taking a prescribed drug in the same survey conducted in 2007-2008, according to a team from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The drop in prescription use reverses a trend that had persisted since the 1990s, the study authors said. It’s not clear why fewer Americans are taking prescription meds now than a decade before, although the researchers cite a possible “decline in the use of inappropriate or ineffective therapies.” The new statistics showed that males were less likely to be taking prescription meds than females (41.5% versus 50%, respectively). But the gender divide varied greatly, depending on age group. For example, among children under the age of 12, boys (22%) were more likely to take a prescription drug than girls (nearly 14%), a trend driven largely by use of drugs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But by the time people reached adulthood (ages 20 to 59), women were more… read on >

A gene therapy that tweaks the immune system might offer hope to people with blood cancer that has resisted standard treatments, a new preliminary trial suggests. The cancer, called multiple myeloma, arises in certain white blood cells. It is currently incurable, but there are treatments that can help people live with the disease for years. However, most people eventually progress, and some fail to respond to the available therapies at all. The new study involved 33 patients just like that: They’d typically had seven to eight rounds of various treatments and were out of options. So researchers tried a recently developed approach that harnesses the immune system’s cancer-killing potential: CAR T-cell therapy. It involves removing immune system T-cells from a patient, then genetically altering them to be armed with chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs. That allows the T-cells to recognize and attack cancer cells once they are infused back into the blood, said senior researcher Dr. James Kochenderfer. CAR T-cell therapy is already approved for certain cases of leukemia and lymphoma — two other types of blood cancer. But the approach is not one-size-fits-all. CARs have to target a protein specific to the cancer, explained Kochenderfer, a scientist with the U.S. National Cancer Institute. In this study, his team used CARs that recognize a protein on multiple myeloma cells, called BCMA. The investigators found that… read on >