Tag Archives: Steven Reinberg

The growing melanoma risk

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, ,
Melanoma from sun exposure and indoor tanning is most common among teens and young adults. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


Cases of deadly melanomas on the head and neck rose more than 51% over two decades among young people in the United States and Canada, a new study reports.


Researchers found that the incidence of head and neck melanoma rose nearly 4% a year from 1995 to 2001 and 1.2% a year from 2001 to 2014 in children and young adults.


Using data from a North American cancer registry, the investigators looked at patients from infancy to age 39 who were diagnosed with head and neck melanoma between 1995 and 2014.


During that time, nearly 12,500 people were diagnosed with the cancer.


Of those, 55% were boys and men, and 91% lived in the United States, the study found.


“This is an important finding because melanoma in other parts of the body are usually more common in females than males,” said study co-author Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters. He is an assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at St. Louis University School of Medicine.


“It is therefore important that melanoma prevention campaigns do not only focus on young women,” he explained.


The researchers zeroed in on melanoma of the head and neck because, although it accounts for only one in five melanoma cases, its survival rates are worse than for other melanomas.


“In fact, the five-year survival rate of head and neck melanoma is worse than the 10-year survival rates of other regions of the body,” Osazuwa-Peters explained in a university news release.


Also, while melanoma patients are diagnosed at an average age of 63, this type of cancer from sun exposure and indoor tanning is most common among teens and young adults.


Osazuwa-Peters said that the public can help spot melanoma early.


“For example, barbers and stylists might be the first to spot irregular skin on the scalp before the doctors do. It is therefore important to increase awareness about this cancer,” he said.


The report was published online recently in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.



Feel swollen? Blame salt

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Food, Health, Senior Living, ,
Given their notoriously high salt content, packaged snacks may be one of the biggest culprits in your struggles with bloating and gas. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


If you often feel bloated after a meal, don’t be too quick to blame high-fiber foods. The real culprit might surprise you.


Your gut may be rebelling because you’re eating too much salt, a new study suggests.


“Sodium reduction is an important dietary intervention to reduce bloating symptoms and could be used to enhance compliance with healthful high-fiber diets,” said study researcher Noel Mueller, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.


He and his research colleagues looked at data from a large clinical trial conducted in the late 1990s known as Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension-Sodium, or DASH-Sodium for short.


Their conclusion: Consuming a lot of salt increases bloating, as does a healthy, high-fiber diet.


Although it’s not clear exactly how salt contributes, Mueller suspects fluid retention may be the key.


Eating more salt can promote water retention and make digestion less efficient, which can lead to gas and bloating, he said.


Studies in mice have shown that dietary salt can alter the makeup of gut bacteria. And that, in turn, can affect gas production in the colon, Mueller said.


“Our study suggests that selecting foods with lower sodium content, such as those that are not ultra-processed, may help relieve bloating in some people,” he said.


Bloating affects as many as a third of Americans, including more than 90% of those with irritable bowel syndrome. It’s a painful buildup of excess gas created as gut bacteria break down fiber during digestion.


For the current study, the researchers used findings from a 1998-1999 trial.


In that trial, the DASH diet—one low in fat and high in fiber, fruits, nuts and veggies—was compared with a low-fiber eating regimen. The trial’s goal was to learn how salt and other factors affected high blood pressure.


The new review found that about 41% on the high-fiber diet reported bloating and men had a bigger problem with it than women. And diets high in salt increased the odds of bloating by 27%.


“We found that in both diets, reducing sodium intake reduced bloating symptoms,” Mueller said.


The upshot is that reducing sodium can be an effective way to prevent gas—and may help people maintain a healthy, high-fiber eating regimen.


Many things can cause bloating—lactose intolerance, celiac disease, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, infection or other conditions, said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Langone Health.


“If someone is experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating on an ongoing basis, they should see their health care practitioner to see if the cause can be pinned down,” said Heller, who wasn’t involved with the study. “This way they will know how to manage the issue.”


Occasional bloating is not uncommon, she added.


To help you avoid excess gas and bloating, Heller offered these tips:

  • Increase physical activity.
  • Limit highly processed foods, such as fast food, frozen meals, junk food and fried food.
  • Increase your fluid intake and make peppermint tea part of it. Avoid carbonated beverages.
  • Eat more foods that are rich in fiber, such as vegetables, legumes and whole grains. Increase these slowly and in small portions and be sure to increase your fluid intake at the same time.
  • Have smaller meals.

The report was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.




Acupuncture—therapy for dry mouth?

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, , ,
This holistic treatment could help with a common condition often experienced by those undergoing radiation therapy for cancer. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


Dry mouth can be a troubling side effect of radiation therapy, but acupuncture may ease its symptoms, a new study suggests.


Of 339 patients getting radiation for head and neck cancer in the United States and China, those who had acupuncture had fewer symptoms of dry mouth, or xerostomia, than those who didn’t have acupuncture.


Patients who had fake acupuncture, a placebo, had about the same relief as the no-acupuncture group, the researchers found.


The placebo treatment involved a real needle at a spot not indicated for xerostomia, real needles at sham spots and placebo needles at sham points, the study authors explained.


A year after treatment, 35% of acupuncture patients had dry mouth, compared to 48% of those given fake acupuncture and 55% of those who didn’t get acupuncture, the findings showed.


For the study, participants were randomly assigned to real, fake or no acupuncture. Treatments were given three times a week on the same day as radiation.


“Dry mouth is a serious concern for head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. The condition can affect up to 80% of patients by the end of radiation treatment,” said lead investigator Lorenzo Cohen, director of integrative medicine at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.


“The symptoms severely impact quality of life and oral health, and current treatments have limited benefits,” he added in a university news release.


Further analysis showed a significant difference between patients in China and the United States in response to fake acupuncture. Chinese patients had little to no placebo response, while Americans had a large placebo response, showing both forms of acupuncture worked, the researchers said.


More studies are needed to figure out these differences. It might be that the environment in which acupuncture is given, cultural influences or the relationship between patient and doctor are at play.


Also, more study is needed to confirm these findings and understand how acupuncture relieves dry mouth.


In the meantime, Cohen said it can be used to relieve xerostomia symptoms.


“I think with this study we can add acupuncture to the list for the prevention and treatment of xerostomia, and the guidelines for the use of acupuncture in the oncology setting should be revised to include this important chronic condition,” Cohen said.


The report was recently published online in JAMA Network Open.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.




Want to keep sharp? Stay social

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, How-To's, Senior Living, , ,
Staying engaged socially and creatively at age 50 and beyond could help you ward off mental decline. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


The evidence continues to mount that staying socially engaged as you age helps keep dementia at bay.


In a new study, British researchers found that being socially active in your 50s and 60s may reduce the risk of developing dementia.


The findings showed that people in their 60s who interacted with friends nearly every day had a 12% lower risk of developing dementia than people who saw a couple of friends every few months.


“This has important implications for people in middle-age as it suggests that keeping socially active is important for brain health. We know that it has other health benefits in terms of benefiting physical and mental health,” said lead researcher Andrew Sommerlad, a research fellow in the division of psychiatry at University College London.


Social activity during midlife was linked with better memory and reasoning skills, he said.


“We think this may be because social contact gives us a chance to exercise different aspects of thinking, like memory and language, which may make people more resilient against the damage which accumulates in the brain in people who develop dementia,” Sommerlad explained.


For the study, Sommerlad and his colleagues collected data on more than 10,200 people who took part in the Whitehall II study between 1985 and 2013. During that time, the participants were asked about their contact with friends and relatives.


In 1997, the study participants also took tests of their thinking abilities. The group was followed until 2017.


The researchers also found an association between being socially active and dementia risk for those who were 50 and 70, but it wasn’t statistically significant.


Sommerlad said that other studies have shown similar results, but this study followed people for a much longer time.


“This gives us much more confidence in the idea that more social contact may reduce dementia risk, although a study like this can never definitively prove it,” he said, since it can only show an association.


In any case, Sommerlad encouraged people to stay connected.


Dr. Sam Gandy is director of the Mount Sinai Center for Cognitive Health and NFL Neurological Care in New York City. He said, “I tend to believe these findings are correct.”


Many studies have shown that being mentally and physically active affects keeping the mind sharp, he noted.


“Physical activity, mental stimulation and social engagement are popping up in these studies left and right all around the world,” Gandy said.


Some patients in these studies may have the beginnings of mild cognitive impairment, which is an early stage of dementia, he said. But he is confident that this possibility is well known and researchers can take it into account.


The bottom line for Gandy is that keeping your blood pressure and cholesterol low and maintaining a healthy weight along with eating a healthy diet—and staying mentally and socially active—is the best recipe for delaying or preventing dementia.


Some studies have suggested that even people with dementia can benefit from a healthy lifestyle, he added.


Gandy thinks that for those with early signs of dementia, these interventions might have some value.


“But not for those with mid- to late-stage dementia or those who are bed-bound,” he said.


The report was published online recently in PLOS Medicine.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.



Report: 22M cancer survivors by 2030

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, , ,
As caregivers and clinicians navigate the various phases of cancer survivorship, it spotlights the ever-present need for resources that optimize care. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


More Americans are surviving cancer and their numbers could top 22 million in another decade, the American Cancer Society says.


Currently, thanks to better screening and treatment, more than 17 million Americans who had cancer remain alive, the society said in a report.


While this is good news, it comes with a cautionary note.


Cancer survivors often have long-term difficulties. Many must also overcome barriers to get the treatments they need, the researchers said.


“People with a history of cancer have unique medical, psychosocial and economic needs that require proactive assessment and management by health care providers,” said report co-author Robin Yabroff. She’s senior scientific director of health services research for the cancer society.


“Although there are growing numbers of tools that can assist patients, caregivers and clinicians in navigating the various phases of cancer survivorship, further evidence-based resources are needed to optimize care,” Yabroff said in a society news release.


The report estimated that 8 million men and nearly 9 million women have a history of cancer.


Among the survivors, 68% had their cancer diagnosed five or more years ago and 18% at least 20 years ago.


Also, while nearly two-thirds of survivors are 65 or older, nearly 66,000 survivors are 14 and younger. Close to 48,000 are 15 to 19 years old.


Because of the growing and aging population, survivorship is increasing even though the number of women who develop cancer remains stable and the number of men with cancer declines, the researchers found.


The most common cancers among men are prostate, colon cancer and melanoma. Among women they are breast, uterine and colon cancer.


The report was published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.



Red wine—a microbiome fertilizer?

3-bottom, Beer, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Food, Health, How-To's, Senior Living, , ,
As little as one glass of red wine each week could enrich the good bacteria in your stomach, according to researchers. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


A little pinot noir now and then might help keep the bacteria in your tummy healthy and happy.


As little as one glass of red wine a week can increase the diversity of the good bacteria in your microbiome, which can help lower bad cholesterol and keep your weight down, researchers say.


“The more people drink, the higher the diversity. But even small amounts, such as one glass of red wine every week, shows a benefit,” said study first author Caroline Le Roy. She’s a research associate in the department of twin research and genetic epidemiology at King’s College London.


Le Roy cautioned that while the findings in the study were robust, they can’t prove that red wine improves the microbiome, only that the two are associated.


It’s not the alcohol that has this effect, but rather the polyphenols in red wine. Polyphenols help feed the good bacteria in the microbiome, the researchers explained.


Polyphenols are also found in fruits and vegetables, and include antioxidants.


For the study, Le Roy and her colleagues looked at the effect of beer, cider, red wine, white wine and whiskey on the gut microbiome of 916 female twins.


Only red wine resulted in a more diverse microbiome, the investigators found.


The microbiome is a collection of bacteria in the gut that has an important role in health. A healthy microbiome helps digest food and keeps some diseases at bay.


An unhealthy microbiome can lead to poor functioning of the immune system, weight gain and high cholesterol, Le Roy said.


A microbiome with lots of different bacteria is a healthy microbiome, she added.


Le Roy’s team found that red wine improved the number of different bacteria in the microbiome, compared with those who didn’t drink wine.


The researchers were able to confirm their findings in three other groups in Britain, the Netherlands and the United States, which brought the total number of participants to nearly 3,000.


Moreover, the results remained constant even after accounting for factors such as diet, socioeconomic status and age.


Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, thinks that drinking red wine may be a marker of a healthy lifestyle, so the health benefits may be due to other factors.


“Do they, in general, lead healthier lives, such as not smoking, eating more of a plant-based diet and exercising?” she asked.


Wine comes from grapes, which like a lot of plant foods, are rich in polyphenols, Heller said.


But polyphenols are also found in vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, legumes and teas that don’t contain alcohol, she noted.


“In addition, plants are our only source of dietary fiber, which is the favorite food for the microbes that live in our gut. When they are healthy, they help keep our bodies healthy,” Heller said.


While drinking small amounts of red wine has apparent health benefits, there are also unhealthy effects of drinking too much, such as liver disease, certain cancers, pancreatitis and a depressed immune system, she said.


“Guzzling red wine, or any alcoholic beverage, is not the miracle we have been led to believe,” Heller said.


For those who drink, the American Heart Association recommends an average of one to two drinks per day for men, and one drink per day for women (one 12-ounce beer, 4 ounces of wine, 1 ounce of 100 proof spirits).


“Let’s be honest, most of us probably drink more than that. If you do not drink alcohol, there is no reason to start,” Heller said.


The report was published recently in the journal Gastroenterology.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.




School lunch—a vegetarian’s delight?

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Food, Health, , , ,
An abundance of vegetarian choices is popular at every meal. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


Offering more vegetarian choices in school cafeterias significantly cuts meat consumption without hurting overall sales, British researchers report.


In more than 94,000 college cafeteria choices studied, doubling vegetarian options (from 1 in 4 choices to 2 in 4) reduced purchases of meaty meals by 40-80%.


“Replacing some meat or fish with more vegetarian options might seem obvious, but as far as we know no one had tested it before,” said lead author Emma Garnett, a conservationist at the University of Cambridge in England. “Solutions that seem obvious don’t always work, but it would appear that this one does.”


Shifting to a more plant-based diet is one of the most effective ways to reduce the environmental impact of food production, she said.


When more vegetarian choices were available, they were popular at every meal and meat eaters who ate vegetarian dishes at lunch didn’t go all-meat at dinner, the researchers found.


Vegetarian options have been an “afterthought” on menus for too long, Garnett said in a university news release.


“Flexitarianism is on the rise,” she said, referring to the eating style emphasizing plant-based foods but also allowing for occasional meat and animal products. “Our results show that caterers serving more plant-based options are not just responding to but also reshaping customer demand.”


Simple changes such as increasing the proportion of vegetarian options could be “usefully scaled up, helping to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss,” Garnett said.

The report was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


Published with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.


Can exercise slow Alzheimer’s?

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, Senior Living, , ,
In people with buildup of amyloid brain protein, regular aerobic activity might slow degeneration in the brain region tied to memory. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


For people at risk of Alzheimer’s disease, working out a couple of times a week might at least slow the onset of the illness, new research suggests.


Regular exercise over a year slowed the degeneration of the part of the brain tied to memory among people who had a buildup of amyloid beta protein in their brain.


These protein “plaques” are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s, noted researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.


Aerobic exercise didn’t stop plaques from spreading, but it might slow down the effects of amyloid on the brain, especially if started at an early stage, the research team suggested.


“What are you supposed to do if you have amyloid clumping together in the brain? Right now doctors can’t prescribe anything,” lead researcher Dr. Rong Zhang said in a university news release.


However, “if these findings can be replicated in a larger trial, then maybe one day doctors will be telling high-risk patients to start an exercise plan,” he said. “In fact, there’s no harm in doing so now.”


One expert who wasn’t involved in the study agreed with that advice.


“Exercise is an excellent way to both prevent Alzheimer’s and to help patients with Alzheimer’s disease stay stable for longer periods of time,” said Dr. Gayatri Devi, a neurologist specializing in memory disorders at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.


“Aerobic exercise, three to four times a week, has been shown to help grow brain cells in the part of the brain called the hippocampus, the key area for both laying down new memories and for retrieving old ones,” she explained.


In the new study, Zhang and colleagues randomly assigned 70 people aged 55 and older to either half-hour workouts of aerobic exercise four to five days a week, or less strenuous flexibility training.


All of the patients had some amyloid plaque buildup in their brains at the beginning of the study and were classed as having “mild cognitive impairment,” often a precursor to Alzheimer’s.


Followed over one year, people in both groups maintained similar mental abilities in memory and problem solving, the researchers noted.


However, those in the aerobic exercise group showed less shrinkage of the brain’s hippocampus as seen on scans.


The hippocampus is an area of the brain important to memory and one of the first areas usually affected by Alzheimer’s, Zhang’s group explained.


“It’s interesting that the brains of participants with amyloid responded more to the aerobic exercise than the others,” Zhang said. “Although the interventions didn’t stop the hippocampus from getting smaller, even slowing down the rate of atrophy through exercise could be an exciting revelation.”


To further test the effect of exercise, Zhang is heading up a five-year trial that includes more than 600 older adults, aged 60 to 85, who are at risk for Alzheimer’s.


“Understanding the molecular basis for Alzheimer’s disease is important,” Zhang said. “But the burning question in my field is, ‘Can we translate our growing knowledge of molecular biology into an effective treatment?’ We need to keep looking for answers.”


Dr. Jeremy Koppel is associate professor of psychiatry and molecular medicine at the Litwin-Zucker Center for Alzheimer’s Disease & Memory Disorders, at Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y.


Reading over the new findings, he said that, on the whole, the study was “disappointing” because exercise “did not have any specific effect on tests of memory, mental flexibility or amyloid deposition in patients with mild cognitive impairment.”


While the finding regarding hippocampus size was interesting, “this was not the primary outcome measure of the study,” Koppel noted.


So, “it may be that aerobic exercise interventions are best targeted at those not suffering already from cognitive impairment,” he said.


The report was published recently in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.

Deadly duo: Work stress, no sleep

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, Senior Living, , , ,
Being trapped in a pressured work situation where you lack power to make change is harmful to your health. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


Job stress, high blood pressure and poor sleep may be a recipe for an early death, German researchers report.


In a study of nearly 2,000 workers with high blood pressure who were followed for almost 18 years, those who reported having both a stressful job and poor sleep were three times more likely to die from heart disease than those who slept well and didn’t have a trying job, the investigators found.


“As many as 50% of adults have high blood pressure,” said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.


It’s a major risk factor for heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease and premature cardiovascular death, said Fonarow, who had no role in the new study.


“A number of studies have found associations between greater work stress and subsequent risk of cardiovascular events. Impairment in sleep has also been associated with increased risk,” he said. However, these associations did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.


In the new study, the researchers reported that among people with high blood pressure (“hypertension”), those who had work stress alone had a twofold higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, as did those who reported having poor sleep alone.


According to lead researcher Dr. Karl-Heinz Ladwig, “Sleep should be a time for recreation, unwinding and restoring energy levels. If you have stress at work, sleep helps you recover.” Ladwig is a professor at the German Research Centre for Environmental Health and also with the Technical University of Munich.


“Unfortunately, poor sleep and job stress often go hand in hand, and when combined with hypertension, the effect is even more toxic,” he added in a statement.


According to the study authors, a stressful job is one where employees have many demands but little control over their work. For example, an employer demands results but denies authority to make decisions.


“If you have high demands but also high control, in other words you can make decisions, this may even be positive for health,” Ladwig said. “But being entrapped in a pressured situation that you have no power to change is harmful.”


Poor sleep was defined as having difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. “Maintaining sleep is the most common problem in people with stressful jobs,” Ladwig said.


These problems combine over time to sap your energy and “may lead to an early grave,” he added.


Ladwig suggested that to lower the risk of an early death, people have to keep their blood pressure low, develop good sleep habits and find ways to cope with stress.


Mika Kivimaki, a professor of social epidemiology at University College London, thinks this study provides a unique look at workplace risk.


Most previous research on work stress has targeted the general working population, he said.


“The effects on health have been relatively modest. However, recent findings suggest stress might be a much bigger problem for those with pre-existing disease. This new study supports this notion,” said Kivimaki, who had no part in the study.


Focusing on people with high blood pressure was a good choice, he noted.


“In this group, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) is common,” Kivimaki said. And for these patients, “stress response could increase cardiac electrical instability, plaque disruption and thrombus (clot) formation,” which can contribute to an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), heart attack or stroke.


The researchers think that employers can help by implementing programs that teach employees how to relax.


Employers should provide stress management and sleep treatment in the workplace, Ladwig added, especially for staff with chronic conditions like high blood pressure. Such programs should also include helping employees to quit smoking.


It is well known that people with high blood pressure can substantially lower their risk of heart attack and stroke by achieving and maintaining healthy blood pressure levels, Fonarow said. Whether or not workplace programs designed to reduce stress and improve sleep will pay off remains to be seen, he said.


The report was published recently in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.


CDC: Hepatitis A infections soaring

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, ,
The most effective defense against hepatitis A is vaccination, but the most vulnerable populations typically remain unvaccinated. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay


The number of Americans infected with hepatitis A has grown nearly 300% in just three years, health officials reported recently.


The staggering increase has come despite an effective vaccine and is seen mostly among drug abusers and the homeless, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Hepatitis A virus can linger in feces and be spread hand-to-hand, with infection occurring when a hand contaminated by the virus touches the person’s mouth.


“In the previous decade, large outbreaks of hepatitis A were rare and mostly attributed to contaminated commercial food products,” noted lead researcher Dr. Monique Foster, an epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis.


Although 2016 saw two outbreaks of hepatitis A caused by contaminated food, the main culprit of outbreaks has been the living conditions of drug addicts and the homeless, Foster said.


The vast majority of the thousands of U.S. cases between 2016 and 2018 involved person-to-person transmission, Foster added.


“Since the hepatitis A outbreaks were first identified in 2016, more than 15,000 cases, 8,500 hospitalizations and 140 deaths have been reported,” she said.


Although hepatitis A can make you very sick, it usually goes away by itself in about six months, after which you become immune, explained Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.


Hepatitis A attacks the liver, he said. Those most likely to develop serious liver illness are those with other conditions like cancer or those whose immune systems are not functioning normally.


The most effective defense against this potentially deadly infection is vaccination, which is also the best way to prevent outbreaks, Foster said.


“Since the widespread availability of the hepatitis A vaccine and recommendations to vaccinate children, the overall rate of hepatitis A infections has decreased dramatically in the U.S.,” she said.


But a large population of susceptible, unvaccinated adults who were not infected during childhood remain vulnerable to infection, Foster said.


This includes people who use drugs, homeless people and gay and bisexual men, she said.


“Vaccination is the most powerful tool we have to stop these outbreaks now and prevent similar ones in the future,” Foster said.


To this end, the CDC recommends that those at the highest risk get vaccinated.


“Transience, economic instability and limited access to health care among the affected populations have made the outbreaks more difficult for states to control,” Foster said.


Siegel believes, however, that the only way to contain the epidemic and prevent future outbreaks is to solve the social problems that feed it.


“This is really not a hepatitis A problem and it’s not solvable by giving everybody a vaccine,” he said. “We have to realize it’s a public health issue and it’s a matter of cleaning up places where the virus breeds.”


Only by improving sanitation can outbreaks among the most vulnerable be prevented, Siegel said. “It’s more an issue of sanitation, public safety and cultural problems than it is one of public awareness.”


The report was published recently in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.


The sooner you quit smoking, the better

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, , , ,

Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat

 By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

Despite the well-known dangers of smoking, the sizable benefits of quitting may be overlooked, a new study suggests.

 

“These findings underscore the benefits of quitting smoking within five years, which is a 38 percent lower risk of a heart attack, stroke or other forms of cardiovascular disease,” said study author Meredith Duncan, from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

 

“The bottom line is if you smoke, now is a very good time to quit,” Duncan said in an American Heart Association news release.

 

Her team also found that it takes more than 15 years from the time you quit until your cardiovascular disease risk returns to the level of those who never smoked—so the sooner you quit, the better.

 

Cigarette smoking in America is declining and leaving a growing population of former smokers. Earlier studies have hinted that the risk for heart disease lessens within a few years after quitting, but these studies haven’t looked closely at smoking history, including changes in smoking habits.

 

In this study, Duncan and her colleagues analyzed data on the lifetime smoking histories of nearly 8,700 people who took part in the Framingham Heart Study.

 

At the beginning of the study, none of the participants suffered from cardiovascular disease. Over 27 years, researchers compared the risk for heart disease among people who never smoked with those who quit.

 

They found that more than 70 percent of heart disease occurred in current or former smokers who smoked at least 20 pack-years—smoking one pack a day for 20 years.

 

But smokers who quit within the last five years cut their risk for cardiovascular disease by 38 percent, compared with people who continued to smoke. Moreover, it took 16 years after quitting for the risk of cardiovascular disease to return to the level of never smokers, the researchers found.

 

The findings were presented at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting, in Chicago. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

 

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.

A new weapon against ovarian cancer?

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, How-To's, Senior Living, , , ,

NSAIDs may have a role to play in preventing ovarian tumors. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

One low-dose aspirin a day could help women avoid ovarian cancer or boost their survival should it develop, two new studies suggest.

 

In fact, daily low-dose aspirin—the type many older women already take to help their hearts—was tied to a 10 percent reduction in developing ovarian cancer. It was also tied to as much as a 30 percent improvement in survival for ovarian cancer patients, the researchers said.

 

“Clearly, both these studies offer evidence of the benefit of the use of these anti-inflammatory drugs, and an insight into how to better prevent and treat this deadly disease,” said Dr. Mitchell Kramer. He directs obstetrics and gynecology at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital in Huntington, N.Y.

 

Kramer wasn’t involved in the new studies, and said that “more study is certainly warranted.” Still, “recommending a daily low-dose 81 mg (milligram) aspirin might be more than an ounce of prevention, as well as help for those women who have already developed the disease,” he said.

 

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cancer killer of women, largely because it is too often detected too late.

 

According to the researchers, there’s increasing evidence that inflammation plays a role in the development of cancer and can worsen outcomes. Medications, such as aspirin and non-aspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)—including ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) or naproxen (Aleve)—have already been shown to lower the risk of certain types of cancers, most notably colon cancer.

 

But do these drugs have a role to play against ovarian tumors?

 

To find out, researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., pooled data from 13 studies from around the world. The studies included more than 750,000 women and asked them about their use of aspirin and NSAIDs. The researchers then tracked these women to see who developed ovarian cancer—more than 3,500 women did.

 

According to the report published July 18 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, taking daily aspirin reduced the risk of ovarian cancer by 10 percent.

 

“This study gives us a new perspective on whether aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs can impact cancer risk. Not only does it look at ovarian cancer, which hasn’t been studied before, our sample size is three-quarter of a million women who were followed for several decades,” Shelley Tworoger, senior study author and associate center director for population science at the Moffitt Cancer Center, said in a center news release.

 

“The results of the study support that aspirin can reduce ovarian cancer risk, but further studies will need to be performed before a recommendation of daily aspirin can be made,” Tworoger added.

 

In a second study, researchers from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and the Moffitt Cancer Center used the Nurses’ Health Studies to collect data on nearly 1,000 women already diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

 

The investigators found that women who used aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer experienced as much as a 30 percent improvement in survival.

 

The results of the study were published in the journal The Lancet Oncology.

 

“To our knowledge, this study contributes the first comprehensive assessment of use of several types of common analgesic medications, such as aspirin and non-aspirin NSAIDs, after diagnosis in relation to ovarian cancer survival,” said Melissa Merritt, an assistant research professor at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center.

 

“Our work demonstrates the importance of common medication in increasing survival rates of ovarian cancer, and this will encourage more studies to be conducted to confirm the results and broaden the discovery,” she explained in the news release.

 

Both studies relied on retrospective, observational data, so they were unable to confirm a cause-and-effect relationship, only an association.

 

Still, the evidence for an effect does seem to be there, said Dr. Adi Davidov, who directs gynecology at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City.

 

He called the results “intriguing,” and believes that “we can now add an NSAID to further reduce the risk of cancer.”

 

Kramer added that “since aspirin has anti-inflammatory properties and is a relatively well-tolerated medication with few side effects, seeking its benefits for this deadly disease makes a great deal of sense.

Germ bath, anyone?

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, How-To's, Senior Living, , , ,

Sink, check. Toothbrush, check. Shower head? Yes, add the shower head to your checklist of things to replace or clean in the bathroom. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

You no doubt think that stepping into your shower will wash away dirt and germs, but a new study shows your shower head might instead dump nasty bacteria on you that may cause lung infections.

 

Most people know to keep their bathrooms clean, especially the toilet and sink. But researchers discovered that places in the United States and Europe where germs called mycobacteria are found in abundance in shower heads are the same places where bacterial lung infections are most common. In America, that includes parts of Southern California, Florida and New York.

 

“We live in a world covered in bacteria, and the bacteria in our shower heads follow some interesting geographic trends, and can be altered by our water source and water chemistry,” said study lead author Matthew Gebert.

 

“We’re exposed to microbes constantly in our day-to-day lives, some beneficial, some innocuous and a few potentially harmful,” Gebert explained.

 

He’s a research associate at the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

 

Bacteria thrive in shower heads and water distribution systems. Although most of these bacteria are harmless, some can cause lung infections, he said.

 

Still, just because mycobacteria live in your shower head doesn’t mean you’ll get sick or are more likely to get a respiratory infection, Gebert added.

 

In fact, researchers can’t say that a person with a respiratory infection got it through showering, but understanding the sources of mycobacterial exposure is important.

 

“We don’t want people rushing home and throwing away their shower heads or obsessively cleaning them every day, nor should anyone change their showering habits—swallowing the water is OK,” he said.

 

For the study, Gebert and his colleagues analyzed shower heads from homes around the United States and Europe, and found an abundance of bacteria. The kind of germs varied by location, and by the chemistry of the water and where it came from.

 

An interesting finding was that homes whose water was treated with chlorine disinfectants had high concentrations of certain germs, the researchers noted.

 

The study was published recently in the journal mBio.

 

“I don’t think there are necessarily any negative implications from the study,” Gebert said. “But because bacteria that can cause illness live in our shower heads, it’s important to understand how people can be exposed to them.”

 

Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, noted that bacteria grow in wet places like shower heads.

 

“This is a reminder to clean your shower head, which nobody does,” he said, though “most of us are likely to tolerate mycobacteria and not get sick from it.”

 

Bacteria in shower heads won’t cause an outbreak of lung infections, but people who are run down or who have a compromised immune system or a chronic condition may be vulnerable, Siegel suggested.

 

Bacteria also live on your toothbrush and in your sink—any moist surface, he said.

 

Siegel recommends cleaning your shower head every week or two with a disinfectant that contains ammonia to be sure you kill all the germs nesting there.

 

“Add your shower head to the list of things in the bathroom that need cleaning,” he said.

 

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum HealthBeat.

More screen time ups kids’ odds for nearsightedness

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, How-To's, Kids Activities, ,

Less screen time, more outdoor time. For eye health, it’s good to break away from the screen. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

Kids with summer birthdays, especially those who spend long hours playing on smartphones and tablets, might be at greater risk for vision problems, a new study suggests.

 

Nearsightedness, also called myopia, is on the rise worldwide. It’s what eye doctors call a refractive error, meaning the eyes can’t focus light properly. The result: Close objects look clear; distant ones, fuzzy.

 

It’s most often caused by continuously focusing on close objects while the eyes are still developing—as in reading, for example. But the growing use of electronic devices seems to be making the problem worse, researchers report.

 

“As ever, everything should be done in moderation,” said lead researcher Dr. Christopher Hammond, chairman of ophthalmology at King’s College London in England. He urged parents to limit kids’ use of electronic devices.

 

That appears to be especially important for kids born in the summer, the study suggests. That’s because they start formal schooling at a younger age than kids born in winter so they are exposed to more reading sooner. And that increases myopia risk, the researchers said.

 

The researchers added that, while their study doesn’t prove smartphones, tablets and computer games cause nearsightedness, those devices may lead kids to spend less time outdoors. And less time outdoors also appears to increase myopia risk.

 

“We know that time outdoors is protective, and so kids should spend probably up to two hours a day outside,” Hammond said.

 

Myopia can be corrected with glasses, laser surgery or contact lenses. Later in life, however, sufferers are more likely to develop sight-robbing conditions such as cataracts or glaucoma, the researchers said.

 

Experts predict that by 2050, nearly 5 billion people worldwide will have myopia. That compares to about 2 billion in 2010.

 

Genes have been linked to a person’s risk for the condition, but even if it has a genetic component, that doesn’t account for the dramatic increase, Hammond said.

 

For the study, his team collected data on nearly 2,000 twins born in the United Kingdom between 1994 and 1996.

 

The researchers reviewed results of eye tests, as well as social, economic, educational and behavioral data on the twins between the ages of 2 and 16. They also had questionnaires completed by parents and teachers.

 

On average, children started wearing glasses for myopia at age 11. About 5 percent had amblyopia (“lazy eye”), and about 4.5 percent had a squint. Overall, 26 percent of the twins were nearsighted, the study found.

 

Kids who had college-educated mothers, those who were born in summer months and those who spent more time using electronic devices had a higher likelihood of nearsightedness, the study found.

 

The findings were published online in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

 

Dr. Tien Wong, medical director of the Singapore National Eye Center, is co-author of an editorial that accompanied the study.

 

“Evidence supports a link between device screen time and myopia, which includes time on phones and tablets,” he said.

 

This is concerning in view of how many young kids have access to these devices, Wong said. Evidence shows 2-year-olds spend up to two hours a day using digital devices.

 

“Managing your child’s device screen time and increasing their outdoor play can help reduce the risk of developing myopia,” Wong said. “We must better monitor our children’s device activities, even during their preschool years.”

 

Surprisingly, the researchers said children born as a result of fertility treatment had a 25 percent to 30 percent lower risk for myopia. They said that may be because many are born premature and have developmental delays, which could account for shorter eye length and less myopia.

 

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum HealthBeat.

CDC: 1 in 5 high school students vape

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Health, , ,

America faces an epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, which threatens to engulf a new generation in nicotine addiction and lung damage. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

More than 20 percent of high school students use electronic cigarettes, risking nicotine addiction, lung damage and the temptation to try traditional smokes, U.S. health officials reported.

Between 2011 and 2018, the number of high school teens who started vaping, as e-cigarette use is called, increased from 220,000 (1.5 percent) to just over 3 million (20.8 percent), according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“These new data show that America faces an epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, which threatens to engulf a new generation in nicotine addiction,” Alex Azar, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a news release.

Those startling statistics have prompted federal health officials to take action.

On Thursday, U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb announced that his agency was seeking to stop the sale of flavored e-cigarettes other than mint and menthol flavors to minors.

His proposals include having stores that sell vaping products make them available only in age-restricted areas. In addition, Gottlieb called for stricter age verification for e-cigarettes sold online.

“By one measure, the rate of youth e-cigarette use almost doubled in the last year, which confirms the need for FDA’s ongoing policy proposals and enforcement actions. HHS’s work will continue to balance the need to prevent youth use of e-cigarettes with ensuring they are available as an off-ramp for adults who are trying to quit combustible [tobacco] cigarettes,” Azar said.

The findings were reported in the Nov. 16 issue of the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

“The youth use of e-cigarettes is at an epidemic level. It’s truly troubling,” said Erika Sward, assistant vice president for national advocacy at the American Lung Association.

E-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking regular cigarettes, she said. Moreover, chemicals in them can cause lung damage and result in addiction to nicotine.

According to the new report, e-cigarette use among high school students increased 78 percent from 2017 to 2018.

During the same year, the use of flavored e-cigarettes among high school students already using e-cigarettes increased from 61 percent to 68 percent.

In addition, the use of menthol or mint-flavored e-cigarettes rose from 42 percent of all e-cigarette users to 51 percent.

Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat

E-cigarette use also increased among middle school students, from less than 1 percent in 2011 to nearly 5 percent in 2018, researchers found.

“FDA has to act, but we also need state and local government to act as well,” Sward said. “This is too big for everybody not to have a role in reducing the use of e-cigarettes.”

Sward said the lung association is upset that the FDA stopped short of banning mint and menthol e-cigarettes. “FDA’s plan is not going to go far enough,” she noted.

Many teens use mint and menthol e-cigarettes, which Sward believes are specifically marketed to attract minors.

“The tobacco industry knows that mint and menthol help the poison go down,” she said. “And they have been using menthol cigarettes to addict millions of people for decades, and that trend has tragically continued with e-cigarettes.”

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.

Severe stress may send immune system into overdrive

3-bottom, Area Education, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Education, Health, Our Cities, , , , , , , ,

Stress disorders are tied to a 36 percent greater risk of developing 41 autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and celiac disease. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

Trauma or intense stress may up your odds of developing an autoimmune disease, a new study suggests.

 

Comparing more than 106,000 people who had stress disorders with more than 1 million people without them, researchers found that stress was tied to a 36 percent greater risk of developing 41 autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and celiac disease.

 

“Patients suffering from severe emotional reactions after trauma or other life stressors should seek medical treatment due to the risk of chronicity of these symptoms and thereby further health decline, such as the increased risk of autoimmune disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Huan Song, from the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.

 

The body’s immune system protects you from disease and infection. But autoimmune diseases turn the body’s natural protection against itself by attacking healthy cells.

 

In comparing people who had stress disorders with more than 1 million people without them, researchers found that stress was tied to a 36 percent greater risk of developing 41 autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease and celiac disease. It’s not clear what causes autoimmune diseases, but they tend to run in families. Women, particularly black, Hispanic and Native-American women, have a higher risk for some autoimmune diseases, the researchers said.

 

Song added that treating stress-related disorders may help reduce the risk of developing autoimmune diseases.

 

“There are now several treatments, both medications and cognitive behavioral approaches, with documented effectiveness,” she said.

 

For example, treating patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may help lower the risk for autoimmune disease, especially when taken in the first year after diagnosis, Song said.

 

But she cautioned that because this is an observational study, it’s not possible to prove stress causes autoimmune diseases, only that the two are linked.

 

In the study, Song’s team looked at patients in Sweden diagnosed with stress disorders such as PTSD, acute stress reaction, adjustment disorder and other stress reactions from 1981 to 2013. The researchers compared these individuals with siblings and people in the general population not suffering from a stress disorder.

 

The effects of severe stress have been associated with a variety of health problems, one PTSD expert said.

 

“Many studies have linked stress conditions as well as adverse childhood events, such as trauma and neglect, to future medical problems, including immune problems,” said Mayer Bellehsen. He directs the Unified Behavioral Health Center for Military Veterans and Their Families at Northwell Health in Bay Shore, N.Y.

 

“It is also notable that when people received effective treatment, their risk was lessened,” he added.

 

Although it isn’t known why stress can increase the chances of developing an autoimmune disease, Bellehsen suggested several possible explanations.

 

These include the impact of stress on lifestyle—for example, getting less sleep or increased drug or alcohol use. Stress might also directly affect the immune system, he said.

 

“Regardless of cause, this study adds to the evidence of the link between stress conditions and physical well-being, warranting further attention to the reduction of trauma and other causes of stress conditions, as well as improving treatment of these conditions,” Bellehsen said.

 

The report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Have questions about your health or autoimmune diseases? Contact the Spectrum Health Neurology team or the Spectrum Health Allergy/Immunology team for more information or to make an appointment.

 

 

Is stress or PTSD so common in your life that it feels normal? Do you experience stress or PTSD without even realizing it? For additional information, call 616.447.5820 or schedule an appointment with the Spectrum Health Medical Group Psychiatry & Behavioral Medicine Program today.

 

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.

Kitchen towels laden with bacteria

3-bottom, Area Education, Citizen Journalism, Community Health, Education, Food, Health, How-To's, , , , , ,

Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay

 

Is your kitchen towel making you sick?

 

The answer could be yes if you use the towel for many purposes, have a large family and are not a vegetarian, according to a new study of germs lurking on towels.

 

Forty-nine percent of the kitchen towels collected for the study were laden with bacteria, and the bacterial count increased with the number of family members and kids, researchers from the Indian Ocean island/nation of Mauritius reported.

 

“Cross-contamination is happening in the kitchen, and those bacteria could reach our food and cause food poisoning,” said lead researcher Susheela Biranjia-Hurdoyal. She is a senior lecturer in the department of health at the University of Mauritius.

 

Specifically, the researchers found that towels used for a variety of tasks—such as wiping utensils, drying hands, holding hot utensils or cleaning surfaces—had more bacteria than towels used for one task. In addition, damp towels had more bacteria than dry ones, the investigators found.

 

Of the 49 samples that were infested with bacteria, 37 percent had Escherichia coli (E. coli), 37 percent had Enterococcus, and 14 percent were infected with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus).

 

For the study, Biranjia-Hurdoyal and her colleagues sampled 100 kitchen towels that had been used for one month. They classified the types of bacteria on the towels and also how much bacteria was present.

 

Higher rates of S. aureus were found among low-income families and those with children, the findings showed. The risk for E. coli was higher in damp towels than dry ones, from towels used for several jobs rather than single-use ones, and from those used in non-vegetarian households.

 

Both E. coli and S. aureus were found at higher rates in families with non-vegetarian diets.

 

E. coli is a normal bacteria found in the intestine and is released in large numbers in human feces. S. aureus is a bacteria found in the respiratory tract.

 

The researchers’ advice? “Avoid humid and multi-usage towels,” Biranjia-Hurdoyal suggested.

 

Kevin Sauer is an associate professor of dietetics at Kansas State University College of Human Ecology in Manhattan, Kansas. He said, “The key advice is to remain attentive to food safety when preparing food in the home, which includes proper hand-washing, avoiding cross-contamination, and cooking and storing foods at the right temperatures.”

 

In a food-handling study he did in 2015, Sauer found that cloth towels were the most contaminated.

 

“However, even when provided with disposable single-use paper towels, participants were still observed using these in a way that led to additional contamination of contact surfaces,” he noted.

 

Sauer advised that people should avoid using towels in place of hand-washing, because they can easily become contaminated with harmful germs from raw meat and poultry juices.

 

“Furthermore, reusing contaminated towels to wipe hands or other surfaces can easily lead to cross-contamination, and therefore should not be reused throughout meal preparation, since they too can contribute to contamination of hands, surfaces or other food products,” Sauer said.

 

Findings from the study were scheduled for presentation at the American Society for Microbiology meeting, in Atlanta. The findings should be considered preliminary because they have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

 

According to Jessica Corwin, MPH, RDN, community nutrition educator for Spectrum Health Healthier Communities, and Kristi Veltkamp, an outpatient dietitian at Spectrum Health Blodgett Hospital, we should all follow these key tips to avoid cross-contamination:

  • Always wash your hands with soap and water before preparing or handling food.
  • Keep raw meat, poultry and seafood securely wrapped to prevent any juices from contaminating prepared dishes and raw foods.
  • Take time to rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running water. Scrub any firm-skinned produce with a vegetable brush.
  • Avoid re-using towels, platters or utensils that were used with raw meats.

Corwin urges people to follow food safety precautions, even if they ignored them in the past and didn’t feel any ill effects.

 

Not everyone responds to infections the same way. Those most at risk of serious complications include small children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

 

Learn more about services for Digestive Health & Disorders at Spectrum Health.

 

For more tips about food safety in the summer, go to the U.S. Health and Human Services website, foodsafety.gov.