Finasteride, best known as the enlarged-prostate medicine Proscar, is a safe, effective way to reduce the risk of prostate cancer, according to long-term findings from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT). The trial was funded by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and enrolled nearly 19,000 men between 1993 and 1997. Initially it found that finasteride — a hormone-blocking drug — cut the risk of prostate cancer by 25 percent. Those results were published in 2003. The newly released long-term data show that the reduction of prostate cancer risk has continued and that fewer than 100 men in the trial died from prostate cancer in more than two decades of follow-up, according to a research team led by Dr. Ian Thompson. The updated results also showed no statistically significant increased risk of death from prostate cancer among men taking finasteride. This removes concerns over early findings of a possible risk of more aggressive cancers among patients who take the drug. “Finasteride is safe, inexpensive and effective as a preventive strategy for prostate cancer,” said Thompson, who is principal investigator of the PCPT for the SWOG Cancer Research Network. The SWOG Cancer Research Network is an international cancer clinical trials group. “Doctors should share these results with men who get regular prostate-specific antigen [PSA] tests that screen for the presence of prostate cancer,” Thompson said in a…  read on >

Most people know how important recycling is for a healthier environment, yet a survey by the Pew Research Center showed that Americans may not always put that knowledge into practice. Though most people in the United States have access to recycling programs, the rules and practices vary within states and even within communities. Only 28 percent of survey participants said their community strongly encourages recycling and re-use. Even when recycling programs exist, not everyone uses them. Some people aren’t fully aware of what exactly can be recycled in their area. This might explain why recycling rates have been on a plateau, after rising for decades. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans recycle or compost 1.5 pounds of waste per person per day — the same amount as in 2006. What’s Being Recycled — An EPA Scorecard: 99 percent of lead-acid batteries from cars and trucks. 92 percent of corrugated cardboard boxes. 71 percent of steel cans. 62 percent of major appliances. 55 percent of aluminum beer and soda cans. 30 percent of high-density polyethylene containers such as milk jugs. One bright spot is that people are doing better at creating less trash to start with. That’s fallen from 4.7 pounds per person per day to 4.4 pounds, an amount that could go down even further by tweaking shopping habits. First, look for…  read on >

Money worries may contribute to heart disease in black Americans, a new study suggests. “Stress is known to contribute to disease risk, but the data from our study suggest a possible relationship between financial stress and heart disease that clinicians should be aware of as we research and develop interventions to address social determinants of health disparities,” said study senior author Dr. Cheryl Clark. She is a hospitalist and researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Her team analyzed data gathered between 2000 and 2012 from more than 2,200 participants in a long-term study examining heart disease in black men and women in the Jackson, Miss., area. None of the participants had evidence of heart disease at the start of the study. They were asked to rate the level of stress they had in several areas, including financial struggles, such as difficulty paying bills and running out of pocket money. Compared to those without financial stress, the risk of heart disease was nearly three times higher among those with moderate-to-high financial stress, and nearly two times higher among those with mild financial stress, the investigators found. The combination of three important heart disease factors — depression, smoking and diabetes — appeared to explain some of the connection between financial stress and heart disease risk, the study authors said. The findings suggest that financial stress…  read on >

Anyone who has cared for a hospitalized loved one knows that frequent nighttime sleep interruptions — caused by noise or nursing checks — are a big concern. But in a new study, a Chicago hospital adopted sleep-friendly measures for patients that led to fewer nighttime awakenings without compromising care. Nighttime room entries dropped by 44 percent after researchers educated doctors and nurses on the health consequences of in-hospital sleep deprivation. The researchers also tweaked the hospital’s electronic health records system to avoid unnecessary overnight disruptions. Over a year, patients in the so-called SIESTA unit also experienced an average of four times fewer disruptions for medication dosing and three times fewer for routine vital signs. “We’ve known [inpatient sleep deprivation] is a problem since Florence Nightingale in the 1800s, so why hasn’t it been fixed? It’s a very patient-centered problem that also has health implications,” said study author Dr. Vineet Arora. She’s a professor of medicine at University of Chicago. Arora’s prior research showed that even short amounts of sleep loss among hospital patients were associated with higher blood pressure and higher blood sugar levels during hospitalization. Other research has focused on delirium in sleep-deprived patients, as well as hospital readmission rates, she said. A prior survey of Medicare patients also showed that only 62 percent reported their room was kept quiet at night, Arora noted.…  read on >

If the fun is often missing from your social activities or play feels like work, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have an explanation: You’re probably overplanning. With so many demands on your time, precise scheduling might be the only way to accomplish everything you want. But while that can help at work and with family responsibilities, applying it to leisure time takes away spontaneity and, in turn, much of the enjoyment. Researchers conducted 13 studies that examined how scheduling affects the way people experience a variety of leisure activities, like meeting for coffee and going to the movies. They found that assigning a specific date and time for an activity can undermine its fun factor and make it feel like a chore or even work. Scheduling lessened both the happy anticipation of an event and the fun when doing it. But don’t completely delete your e-calendar. Leisure activities are important for personal well-being, so do make time for them. Just be more casual in your approach. Researchers suggest roughly scheduling them, meaning choose the date in advance, but be less firm about the details until the actual day. You can apply this to any type of leisure activity. For instance, if you’re organizing a vacation, resist overscheduling every day in advance. Prep before you go with a “big picture” list of things you’d…  read on >

Carrying extra pounds isn’t just bad for humans: New research indicates dogs’ lives may be significantly shorter if they’re overweight. The study, which evaluated data from more than 50,000 dogs across 12 of the most popular breeds, found that the life span of overweight dogs was up to 2.5 years shorter than that of normal-weight canines. “We know that in people, there’s a higher risk of mortality if they have obesity, so in many respects this is not surprising,” said study author Dr. Alexander German. He’s a professor of small animal medicine at University of Liverpool in England. “A two-and-a-half year shortening of the life span may not seem a huge amount, but when we convert to human terms, we’re probably looking at between 10 and 15 years of shortened life span, which is considerable,” German added. Nearly half of American households include a dog, along with more than a quarter of British households, according to study documents. An estimated 1 in 3 dogs and cats in the United States is overweight. Prior research indicates that overweight or obese dogs face higher risks of chronic diseases such as orthopedic problems, diabetes and certain types of cancer. As in people, obesity has been established as a contributor to these conditions, as well as to heart disease and high blood pressure. German and his colleagues combed through…  read on >

When children are having suicidal thoughts, their parents may often be in the dark, a new study shows. The study included more than 5,000 kids, aged 11 to 17, and one parent for each child. Researchers found that among the children, 8 percent said they had contemplated suicide at some time. But only half of their parents were aware of it. The same gap showed up when researchers looked at the issue from a different angle: Around 8 percent of parents said their child had ever thought about suicide. Almost half the time, the child denied it, according to findings published online Jan. 14 in Pediatrics. It all points to a “pretty substantial disagreement” between parents’ and kids’ reports, said study leader Jason Jones, a research scientist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In cases where parents are unaware of their child’s struggles, one reason may simply be that the signs were not obvious, according to Jones. “It’s often difficult to know what’s going on in someone else’s mind,” he said. That’s not to say there are no warning signs of suicide risk, Jones pointed out. Some of those red flags include withdrawal from friends, family and activities; sleeping too much or too little; irritable or aggressive behavior; and giving away possessions, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Still, it can be tough for…  read on >

Two-thirds of gay fathers have felt the pain of social stigma, and they have encountered that stigma most often in religious settings, a new survey shows. “We were not surprised that stigma is still experienced by gay fathers,” said study author Dr. Ellen Perrin. “But we did not expect so much stigma to be experienced in religious settings.” In an anonymous survey of 732 American gay fathers spread across 47 states, researchers found that 63.5 percent said they had been shamed, hurt, excluded or made to feel uncomfortable in the prior year. Nearly one in five said their children had at times shied away from socializing out of anxiety that they would also encounter social stigma. The survey also found that more than one-third of gay dads came up against social stigma at religious gatherings, making it the most common place where they were made to feel uncomfortable or shunned as parents. Perrin, a professor of developmental-behavioral pediatrics with the Floating Hospital for Children and Tufts University’s School of Medicine in Boston, stressed the findings were solely a snapshot of how stigma plays out among today’s gay fathers. Nor would she venture a guess as to whether the degree of stigma being experienced by gay fathers today is also felt by lesbian parents. “In general, some people think that there is more stigma about gay…  read on >