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Daycare
cuts cancer risk
LONDON —
Sending kids to day care may protect them from developing
leukemia according to a BMJ study published online
April 22. British researchers looked at 6,305 children
aged two to 14 and asked parents about their kids' social
activity and habits at day care. They found that increasing
levels of social contact decreased the risk of leukemia.
The greatest reduction — 52% — was seen in
kids who attended day care regularly during the first
three months of life.
Nurses
urge new prostitution laws
HARROGATE, UK
— This year's British Royal College of Nursing
(RCN) annual congress voted overwhelmingly — 355
yeas to 83 nays — to support a measure calling
for the decriminalization of prostitution. It's estimated
that 95% of streetwalkers are drug users, but most are
reluctant to seek medical help because of their legal
status. One of the speakers, Maura Buchanan, Deputy
President of the RCN, told the delegates: "Stop making
criminals out of prostitutes and instead target the
men who abuse them."
School
nurses: break daisy chains
HARROGATE,UK —
A presentation at the same congress by school nurses
warned of a disturbing trend among London high school
kids called "daisy-chaining." This, they say is essentially
swinging for the teenage set, with kids engaging in
sex in large groups. London sexual health nurse Judy
McRae told the crowd "[daisy-chaining] is obviously
very worrying as far as sexually transmitted infections
and pregnancy is concerned." Delegates were also told
of the increasingly important frontline healthcare role
of school nurses in the UK.
Cancer-meat
link isn't baloney
HONOLULU —
The saying "you are what you eat" never rang
truer for those who consume a lot of, well, dead meat.
A study of 190,545 people, 482 of whom developed pancreatic
cancer during the seven-year followup period, confirmed
the link between processed meat consumption and pancreatic
cancer. The research, presented April 20 at the Annual
Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research
in Anaheim, California, found that those who ate the
greatest amounts of hot dogs, sausages and sandwich
meats were 67% more likely to get pancreatic cancer.
Madison
Ave prescribing patterns
DAVIS, CA —
An unusual American study using actors to fake
depression symptoms in the doctor's office found that
when they explicitly mentioned seeing a TV ad for SSRIs
their chances of leaving with a script went up five-fold.
The study, which appears in the April 27 issue of JAMA,
had the actors infiltrate 152 doctor's offices. All
told, 55% of the actors were given a prescription when
they mentioned seeing the drug's TV ad.
No
reason to fear a tube in the ear
KUOPIO, FINLAND
— Earaches are one of the more common childhood
complaints, and the insertion of a tube into the ear
is one surgical treatment that seems to work. But is
it safe? Fortunately, this surgery is not associated
with later hearing difficulties, according to a report
in the April issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology
Head & Neck Surgery. This conclusion was reached
after researchers checked in 14 years later on 237 kids
who had the operation to treat their ear infections
when they were five to 16 months old.
New
avant-garde food pyramid
WASHINGTON —
In an effort to tackle the growing obesity epidemic
the US government unveiled a new food pyramid on dietary
recommendations — the first revamp in 13 years.
The pyramid, now more like a rainbow-coloured triangle,
emphasizes grains, vegetables and fruit and limits meats,
oils and fats. But not everyone is sold on the motley
pyramid. Penn State University nutritionist Barbara
Rolls told the Chicago Sun-Times that it's vague
and "definitely not very helpful." Canada is set to
unveil its own food guide update in 2006.
Cancer
patients sickened by treatment
BRUSSELS —
Chemotherapy is one of the more notorious cases
of the cure being worse than the disease. While medicos
have long acknowledged that chemotherapy-induced nausea
and vomiting are unpleasant, a study in the April 15
edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
has shown that they also affect patients' adherence
to therapy. After a statistical analysis of data from
previous clinical trials, researchers found that the
severity of vomiting had a significant impact on how
religiously patients stuck to their recommended regime.
The
skinny on birth weight and CVD
BALTIMORE —
Low birth weight babies have been shown to have an increased
risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as adults yet some
of them do escape this fate. So how can we tell who
will get heart disease? A report in the April 20 edition
of JAMA may hold the answer. The study of 163
infants found that babies with elevated levels of apolipopotein
C-I also tended to have low birth weights.The researchers
suggest that a high apo C-I level that persists into
adulthood is an early signal for heart disease. The
authors also recommend low fat diets for the future
health of these infants.
Slime
infiltrates hospitals
LOS ANGELES —
Findings presented in April at the annual meeting of
the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America warned
of the perilous risk of treating patients in dank facilities.
Dr Joseph Cervia of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
in New York City explained that waterborne microbes
pose a significant health threat to patients with weakened
immune systems. These microbes can enter hospitals by
way of ice, drinking water, showers, faucets and even
improperly cleaned medical devices. Dr Cervia fingers
slimy biofilm as a top problem. Biofilm — which
can include the antibiotic resistant Legionella pneumophila
— is a group of bacteria that can live and
multiply on pipe surfaces.
It's
folly not to take folate
WAGENINGEN, THE
NETHERLANDS — Folate is highly recommended
for pregnant women, but they, and their unborn children,
are not the only ones who may benefit from supplements.
A paper in the April issue of Atherosclerosis
found that low folate concentrations, not hyperhomocysteinemia,
were associated with thickened arteries. The study involved
819 subjects aged 50 to 70, whose carotid artery thickness
was determined using B-mode ultrasound.
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