Posts Tagged ‘Health news’
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — New Mexico has the highest rate of
injury-related deaths in the United States, while New Jersey has the
lowest rate, according to a new report.
New Mexico’s rate is nearly 98 per 100,000 people, while New Jersey’s
is about 36 per 100,000. Overall, the national rate of injury-related
deaths is about 58 per 100,000, according to the report released by the
Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Injuries that result from accidents, violence and other causes are the
third-leading cause of death in the United States, and are the leading
cause of death for Americans aged 1 to 44 years.
About 50 million Americans receive medical treatment for injuries each
year, and more than 2.8 million are hospitalized. Nearly 12,000 children
and teens die each year from accident-related injuries, and about 9.2
million are treated in emergency rooms.
Each year, injuries result in $406 billion in lifetime costs for
medical care and lost productivity, according to the report.
The study concluded that millions of injuries could be prevented each
year if more states adopted, fully implemented and enforced additional
injury-prevention policies that are backed by research.
The report noted that 24 states scored five or lower on a set of 10 key
indicators of steps states can take to prevent injuries. California and
New York had the best scores (nine out of 10), while Montana and Ohio had
the lowest scores (two out of 10).
The report’s key findings included the following:
- 29 states do not require bicycle helmets for all children
- 17 states do not require that children ride in a car seat or booster
seat until at least age 8 - 31 states do not require helmets for all motorcycle riders
- 34 states and Washington, D.C., do not require mandatory ignition
interlocks for convicted drunk drivers - 18 states do not have primary seat belt laws
- 14 states do not have strong youth-sport concussion-safety
laws.
“There are proven, evidence-based strategies that can spare millions of
Americans from injuries each year,” Jeff Levi, executive director of the
Trust for America’s Health, said in an organization news release. “This
report focuses on specific, scientifically supported steps we can take to
make it easier for Americans to keep themselves and their families
safer.”
Research shows that injury-prevention programs and regulations save
lives, the report found. For example:
- Seat belts saved about 69,000 lives from 2006 to 2010
- Motorcycle helmets saved about 8,000 lives from 2005 to 2009
- Child safety seats saved around 1,800 lives from 2005 to 2009
- The number of children and teens killed in motor-vehicle crashes
dropped 41 percent from 2000 to 2009 - School-based programs to prevent violence have cut violent behavior
among high school students by 29 percent.
The report also listed many emerging injury threats in the United
States, including a dramatic rise in prescription-drug abuse, concussions
in school sports, bullying, crashes caused by people texting and driving,
and an expected increase in falls as baby boomers age.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about injury and violence
prevention and control.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/injury-linked-deaths-vary-widely-among-states-160415328.html
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — New Mexico has the highest rate of
injury-related deaths in the United States, while New Jersey has the
lowest rate, according to a new report.
New Mexico’s rate is nearly 98 per 100,000 people, while New Jersey’s
is about 36 per 100,000. Overall, the national rate of injury-related
deaths is about 58 per 100,000, according to the report released by the
Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Injuries that result from accidents, violence and other causes are the
third-leading cause of death in the United States, and are the leading
cause of death for Americans aged 1 to 44 years.
About 50 million Americans receive medical treatment for injuries each
year, and more than 2.8 million are hospitalized. Nearly 12,000 children
and teens die each year from accident-related injuries, and about 9.2
million are treated in emergency rooms.
Each year, injuries result in $406 billion in lifetime costs for
medical care and lost productivity, according to the report.
The study concluded that millions of injuries could be prevented each
year if more states adopted, fully implemented and enforced additional
injury-prevention policies that are backed by research.
The report noted that 24 states scored five or lower on a set of 10 key
indicators of steps states can take to prevent injuries. California and
New York had the best scores (nine out of 10), while Montana and Ohio had
the lowest scores (two out of 10).
The report’s key findings included the following:
- 29 states do not require bicycle helmets for all children
- 17 states do not require that children ride in a car seat or booster
seat until at least age 8 - 31 states do not require helmets for all motorcycle riders
- 34 states and Washington, D.C., do not require mandatory ignition
interlocks for convicted drunk drivers - 18 states do not have primary seat belt laws
- 14 states do not have strong youth-sport concussion-safety
laws.
“There are proven, evidence-based strategies that can spare millions of
Americans from injuries each year,” Jeff Levi, executive director of the
Trust for America’s Health, said in an organization news release. “This
report focuses on specific, scientifically supported steps we can take to
make it easier for Americans to keep themselves and their families
safer.”
Research shows that injury-prevention programs and regulations save
lives, the report found. For example:
- Seat belts saved about 69,000 lives from 2006 to 2010
- Motorcycle helmets saved about 8,000 lives from 2005 to 2009
- Child safety seats saved around 1,800 lives from 2005 to 2009
- The number of children and teens killed in motor-vehicle crashes
dropped 41 percent from 2000 to 2009 - School-based programs to prevent violence have cut violent behavior
among high school students by 29 percent.
The report also listed many emerging injury threats in the United
States, including a dramatic rise in prescription-drug abuse, concussions
in school sports, bullying, crashes caused by people texting and driving,
and an expected increase in falls as baby boomers age.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about injury and violence
prevention and control.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/injury-linked-deaths-vary-widely-among-states-160415328.html
Pomegranate juice has not been proven to be an effective treatment for cancer, heart disease or erectile dysfunction, US regulators said Monday, calling a company’s ad claims deceptive.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/body-building-diet-supplements-linked-liver-damage-study-160414178.html
Pomegranate juice has not been proven to be an effective treatment for cancer, heart disease or erectile dysfunction, US regulators said Monday, calling a company’s ad claims deceptive.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-ties-genes-lower-urinary-tract-symptoms-prostate-160414186.html
Pomegranate juice has not been proven to be an effective treatment for cancer, heart disease or erectile dysfunction, US regulators said Monday, calling a company’s ad claims deceptive.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/hepatitis-c-causing-liver-damage-greater-numbers-study-160414996.html
Pomegranate juice has not been proven to be an effective treatment for cancer, heart disease or erectile dysfunction, US regulators said Monday, calling a company’s ad claims deceptive.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-ties-genes-lower-urinary-tract-symptoms-prostate-160414186.html
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — The number of liver
transplants in the United States has decreased since 2006, a new study
finds.
Researchers said one reason for the decline is that harvesting livers
after cardiac death has become more commonplace, and many of those livers
end up being discarded after doctors determine the organs aren’t healthy
enough to attempt a transplant. Another reason livers are discarded is
because of damage due to a condition known as fatty liver disease, which
is associated with metabolic syndrome and high cholesterol.
Researchers analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing to
assess factors that prompted doctors to discard a donated liver.
With standard donation, a patient is declared brain dead and kept on
cardiovascular support so the organs continue to receive oxygen and blood
until they are removed for transplant.
In recent years, there has been increasing use of donor organs after
cardiac death. In these cases, organs are harvested for transplant after a
patient dies and the heart stops on its own. This type of organ donation
is promoted as a way to increase the total number of organs available for
transplant, and now accounts for 12 percent of organ donations, compared
with fewer than 2 percent less than 10 years ago.
Doctors are becoming increasingly reluctant to use organs donated after
cardiac death, however, according to the study, which is scheduled to be
presented Tuesday at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in San Diego.
The researchers found that the total number of donors who have at least
one organ recovered for transplant has stopped increasing over the past
few years, despite an increasing proportion of organs donated after
cardiac death.
“Cardiac death donation is negatively impacting the overall number of
liver transplants that we can do,” study leader Dr. Eric Orman, a
gastroenterology fellow at the University of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill, said in a meeting news release.
He and his colleagues also found that donor characteristics associated
with a condition called fatty liver — including diabetes, obesity, old
age and high blood pressure — all were associated with discarding a
donated liver.
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.
More information
The American Liver Foundation has more about liver transplantation.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-liver-transplants-declining-160414048.html
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — The number of liver
transplants in the United States has decreased since 2006, a new study
finds.
Researchers said one reason for the decline is that harvesting livers
after cardiac death has become more commonplace, and many of those livers
end up being discarded after doctors determine the organs aren’t healthy
enough to attempt a transplant. Another reason livers are discarded is
because of damage due to a condition known as fatty liver disease, which
is associated with metabolic syndrome and high cholesterol.
Researchers analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing to
assess factors that prompted doctors to discard a donated liver.
With standard donation, a patient is declared brain dead and kept on
cardiovascular support so the organs continue to receive oxygen and blood
until they are removed for transplant.
In recent years, there has been increasing use of donor organs after
cardiac death. In these cases, organs are harvested for transplant after a
patient dies and the heart stops on its own. This type of organ donation
is promoted as a way to increase the total number of organs available for
transplant, and now accounts for 12 percent of organ donations, compared
with fewer than 2 percent less than 10 years ago.
Doctors are becoming increasingly reluctant to use organs donated after
cardiac death, however, according to the study, which is scheduled to be
presented Tuesday at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in San Diego.
The researchers found that the total number of donors who have at least
one organ recovered for transplant has stopped increasing over the past
few years, despite an increasing proportion of organs donated after
cardiac death.
“Cardiac death donation is negatively impacting the overall number of
liver transplants that we can do,” study leader Dr. Eric Orman, a
gastroenterology fellow at the University of North Carolina in Chapel
Hill, said in a meeting news release.
He and his colleagues also found that donor characteristics associated
with a condition called fatty liver — including diabetes, obesity, old
age and high blood pressure — all were associated with discarding a
donated liver.
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.
More information
The American Liver Foundation has more about liver transplantation.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-liver-transplants-declining-160414048.html
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that
treating obstructive sleep apnea, a common cause of snoring and daytime
sleepiness, might also cut down on a serious health hazard associated with
the condition — the risk of developing high blood pressure.
Researchers in Spain examined the number of new cases of high blood
pressure in two groups with sleep apnea who used continuous positive
airway pressure therapy, or CPAP, for either about four or 11 years. CPAP
involves the use of a mask to help push air into the lungs while
asleep.
The results were published in a pair of studies in the May 23/30 issue
of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Both studies found that people who used CPAP, the most common treatment
for sleep apnea, for at least four hours a night had lower rates of
developing high blood pressure compared with those who were not prescribed
CPAP or who used it less regularly.
“CPAP seems to have a protective effect in patients who use the machine
properly,” said Dr. José Marin, director of the Sleep Respiratory
Unit at Miguel Servet University Hospital in Zaragoza, an author of both
studies.
However, about 10 percent of people used the machine for fewer than
four hours nightly, which is considered the minimum amount to see
benefits, Marin said.
Many patients are uncomfortable with CPAP because it is inconvenient
and the mask covers their nose while they sleep, or the person they sleep
with does not like the noise the machine makes, Marin said.
But alternative treatments, such as surgery or mouth devices, generally
don’t work as well as CPAP, and there are less data suggesting they reduce
the risk of high blood pressure, said Dr. Aneesa Das, assistant director
of the sleep disorders program at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical
Center.
A reduction in high blood pressure risk could also reduce the risk of
other diseases, such as heart failure, which are more common in people
with sleep apnea. “The idea is that there are probably multiple factors
that are causing cardiovascular events and stroke [in sleep apnea
patients], including [high blood pressure],” said Das.
It is estimated that 17 percent of U.S. adults have obstructive sleep
apnea, which occurs when the airway closes during sleep and restricts
breathing. It can cause people to wake up repeatedly and can lead to low
levels of oxygen in the blood.
One of the studies included about 1,900 patients at Marin’s sleep
clinic who did not have high blood pressure. Their average age was 50.
The researchers assigned participants to CPAP treatment if they had
severe obstructive sleep apnea or a less severe form along with daytime
sleepiness. Then they measured their blood pressure each year for an
average of 11 years.
The investigators found that patients with sleep apnea who used CPAP
therapy were 29 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure during
the study than the “control” group, which did not have sleep apnea and did
not receive CPAP. However, as Marin pointed out, the people in the control
group were “snorers, and they have been reported to have cardiovascular
problems.”
The researchers also found that patients with sleep apnea who did not
use CPAP had higher rates of high blood pressure compared with the control
group.
For example, the 10 percent of 922 participants who did not use CPAP at
least four hours a night had a 78 percent higher risk of developing high
blood pressure than the control group.
The researchers found that the lower risk of high blood pressure in the
CPAP group could not be explained by differences in factors such as
patients’ body mass index (a measurement that takes into account height
and weight), alcohol use or blood pressure at the beginning of the
study.
However, there could still be differences between the CPAP-treated and
untreated groups that could make the CPAP group less likely to develop
high blood pressure, Marin said.
Marin and his colleagues conducted a second study in which they
randomly assigned 725 patients who had obstructive sleep apnea but not
daytime sleepiness to use CPAP or not to use CPAP. Then they tracked
participants’ blood pressure and heart disease for an average of four
years.
At first the researchers did not see a statistically significant
difference between the groups. However, 36 percent of the CPAP group was
using the machine less than four hours a night.
In a follow-up analysis, which the authors pointed out may be open to
bias, the researchers found that patients using CPAP for at least four
hours a night were 28 percent less likely than the control group to
develop high blood pressure.
Dr. Stuart Quan, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School
in Boston, wasn’t surprised by the findings. “I already believe that sleep
apnea impacts [high blood pressure] and treating with CPAP reduces the
risk, so these studies do not affect my way of thinking about this,” he
said.
Quan added that he prescribes CPAP to patients with at least moderate
obstructive sleep apnea or those with sleep apnea and symptoms such as
daytime sleepiness or mood problems.
Medicare requires patients to use CPAP at least four hours a night for
70 percent of nights to cover the treatment. The insurance deductible for
CPAP is usually between $100 and $500, Quan said.
While the study uncovered an association between CPAP use and reduced
risk of developing high blood pressure, it did not prove a
cause-and-effect relationship.
More information
To learn more about sleep apnea, visit the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/sleep-apnea-mask-might-help-heart-200614368.html
TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) — New research suggests that
treating obstructive sleep apnea, a common cause of snoring and daytime
sleepiness, might also cut down on a serious health hazard associated with
the condition — the risk of developing high blood pressure.
Researchers in Spain examined the number of new cases of high blood
pressure in two groups with sleep apnea who used continuous positive
airway pressure therapy, or CPAP, for either about four or 11 years. CPAP
involves the use of a mask to help push air into the lungs while
asleep.
The results were published in a pair of studies in the May 23/30 issue
of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Both studies found that people who used CPAP, the most common treatment
for sleep apnea, for at least four hours a night had lower rates of
developing high blood pressure compared with those who were not prescribed
CPAP or who used it less regularly.
“CPAP seems to have a protective effect in patients who use the machine
properly,” said Dr. José Marin, director of the Sleep Respiratory
Unit at Miguel Servet University Hospital in Zaragoza, an author of both
studies.
However, about 10 percent of people used the machine for fewer than
four hours nightly, which is considered the minimum amount to see
benefits, Marin said.
Many patients are uncomfortable with CPAP because it is inconvenient
and the mask covers their nose while they sleep, or the person they sleep
with does not like the noise the machine makes, Marin said.
But alternative treatments, such as surgery or mouth devices, generally
don’t work as well as CPAP, and there are less data suggesting they reduce
the risk of high blood pressure, said Dr. Aneesa Das, assistant director
of the sleep disorders program at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical
Center.
A reduction in high blood pressure risk could also reduce the risk of
other diseases, such as heart failure, which are more common in people
with sleep apnea. “The idea is that there are probably multiple factors
that are causing cardiovascular events and stroke [in sleep apnea
patients], including [high blood pressure],” said Das.
It is estimated that 17 percent of U.S. adults have obstructive sleep
apnea, which occurs when the airway closes during sleep and restricts
breathing. It can cause people to wake up repeatedly and can lead to low
levels of oxygen in the blood.
One of the studies included about 1,900 patients at Marin’s sleep
clinic who did not have high blood pressure. Their average age was 50.
The researchers assigned participants to CPAP treatment if they had
severe obstructive sleep apnea or a less severe form along with daytime
sleepiness. Then they measured their blood pressure each year for an
average of 11 years.
The investigators found that patients with sleep apnea who used CPAP
therapy were 29 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure during
the study than the “control” group, which did not have sleep apnea and did
not receive CPAP. However, as Marin pointed out, the people in the control
group were “snorers, and they have been reported to have cardiovascular
problems.”
The researchers also found that patients with sleep apnea who did not
use CPAP had higher rates of high blood pressure compared with the control
group.
For example, the 10 percent of 922 participants who did not use CPAP at
least four hours a night had a 78 percent higher risk of developing high
blood pressure than the control group.
The researchers found that the lower risk of high blood pressure in the
CPAP group could not be explained by differences in factors such as
patients’ body mass index (a measurement that takes into account height
and weight), alcohol use or blood pressure at the beginning of the
study.
However, there could still be differences between the CPAP-treated and
untreated groups that could make the CPAP group less likely to develop
high blood pressure, Marin said.
Marin and his colleagues conducted a second study in which they
randomly assigned 725 patients who had obstructive sleep apnea but not
daytime sleepiness to use CPAP or not to use CPAP. Then they tracked
participants’ blood pressure and heart disease for an average of four
years.
At first the researchers did not see a statistically significant
difference between the groups. However, 36 percent of the CPAP group was
using the machine less than four hours a night.
In a follow-up analysis, which the authors pointed out may be open to
bias, the researchers found that patients using CPAP for at least four
hours a night were 28 percent less likely than the control group to
develop high blood pressure.
Dr. Stuart Quan, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School
in Boston, wasn’t surprised by the findings. “I already believe that sleep
apnea impacts [high blood pressure] and treating with CPAP reduces the
risk, so these studies do not affect my way of thinking about this,” he
said.
Quan added that he prescribes CPAP to patients with at least moderate
obstructive sleep apnea or those with sleep apnea and symptoms such as
daytime sleepiness or mood problems.
Medicare requires patients to use CPAP at least four hours a night for
70 percent of nights to cover the treatment. The insurance deductible for
CPAP is usually between $100 and $500, Quan said.
While the study uncovered an association between CPAP use and reduced
risk of developing high blood pressure, it did not prove a
cause-and-effect relationship.
More information
To learn more about sleep apnea, visit the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/sleep-apnea-mask-might-help-heart-200614368.html