Tag Archives: teens

Teens Susceptible to Hepatitis B Infection despite Vaccination as Infants

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  • If you are opposed to the hepatitis B vaccine for your baby at birth, you can amend the “consent for medical treatment” forms you sign upon entering the hospital before giving birth by writing on the form that you do not give consent for your baby’s hepatitis B vaccination but, unfortunately, that is no guarantee Continue reading →

Mayo Clinic: Hospitalization of US Underage Drinkers Common, Costs $755 Million a Year

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Hospitalization for underage drinking is common in the United States, and it comes with a price tag — the estimated total cost for these hospitalizations is about $755 million per year, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Researchers also found geographic and demographic differences in the incidence of alcohol-related hospital admissions. The findings were published online today in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Of the roughly 40,000 youth ages 15 to 20 hospitalized in 2008, the most recent data available, 79 percent were drunk when they arrived at the hospital, researchers say. Alcohol abuse and addiction and drinking-related emotional problems were among the diagnoses.

Among all U.S. teens, roughly 18 of every 10,000 adolescent males and 12 of every 10,000 females were hospitalized after consuming alcohol in the year studied. In all, 700,000 young people in that age group were hospitalized for various reasons, including non-alcohol-related conditions, in 2008.

“When teenagers drink, they tend to drink excessively, leading to many destructive consequences including motor vehicle accidents, injuries, homicides and suicides,” says researcher Terry Schneekloth, M.D., Continue reading →

Teens Who Take Vitamins Have Healthier Lifestyles

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Teenagers who take daily multivitamins probably also do other things to make themselves healthier. A study reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association shows that teens who take vitamins weigh less, smoke less and exercise more than other teens. Their diets are likely to be healthier, too.

The vitamin-taking adolescents also more often take part in sports, eat more fiber and consume more fish. Plus, they watch a lot less television.

Source for Story:

http://www.easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/teens-who-take-vitamins-have-healthier-lifestyles/

That MP3 Player May be Hazardous to Your Health

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A new piece of health news offers a note to on danger to those who love listening to their MP3 players. Advances in crisp audio in these ubiquitous devices have created a potentially serious health hazard.

Researchers have found that one in four teens is in danger of early hearing loss as a direct result of these listening habits. While the study assessed teenagers’ music-listening habits and preferred volume, the results are relevant to anyone of any age who routinely uses MP3 players.

The study showed that, in one to two decades, an entire generation of young people may suffer hearing problems far earlier than natural aging. Hearing loss caused by continuous exposure to loud noise is a slow and progressive process. People may not notice for years that damage is actually occurring. Continue reading →

Gradual Bone Reduction Seen in Some Pill Users

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Changes in bone density in oral contraceptive users depends on age and hormone dose

Birth control pills may reduce a woman’s bone density, according to a study published online July 13 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism by Group Health Research Institute (GHRI) scientists. Impacts on bone were small, depended on the woman’s age and the pill’s hormone dose, and did not appear until about two years of use. The study size and design allowed the researchers to focus on 14- to 18-year-old teenagers, and to look at how bone density might change when a woman stops using the pill.

GHRI Senior Investigator Delia Scholes, PhD, led the study. Hormones are a key component of bone health, she says, and hormonal contraceptives are a major source of external hormones for women—the pill is the most common birth control method worldwide. A woman’s risk of fractures later in life is influenced by the bone mass she gains in her teens through her 20s, and this age group has the highest use of oral contraceptives. Continue reading →

Tanning Beds Boost Vitamin D Production

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The FDA has the media and subsequently many Americans in a (perhaps unjustified) uproar about teens using tanning beds, and they are now pushing to ban tanning for people under 18. It is time to set some of this witch-hunting straight.

The ruckus comes in the wake of a report that was released last year by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization. The report resulted in the IARC’s changing the status of tanning beds from ‘possibly carcinogenic’ to ‘carcinogenic.’

With the same argumentation and evidence, the sun itself would fall into that category.

The media definitely talks about it as a danger,  Continue reading →

Skinny Models are Harmful to the Health of Young Women

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A new research has suggested repetitive exposure to images of thin women alters brain function and increases our likeliness to develop eating disorders.

Scientists have identified sudden, unexpected changes in the brain function of healthy, body-confident women when they view certain female figures.

In a recent study at Brigham Young University in Utah, healthy women looked at images of models in skimpy bikinis.

Some of the models were overweight, some thin. On viewing each image, the women were told to imagine that someone else was saying the model looked like her.

When they were presented with the overweight images, the brain area called the medial prefrontal cortex (the front part of the brain linked with strong emotions such as unhappiness) showed increased activation in all of the women.

Merely imagining that they might be overweight seemed to lead women to question their sense of self.

In another study, Hiroshima University found that when you show a woman her body on a screen and adjust the width, brain areas involved in emotional reactions such as fear and anxiety were ’significantly activated’.

In another landmark study, scientists of the Harvard Medical School visited Fiji to evaluate the effect of the introduction of television on body satisfaction and disordered eating in adolescent girls.

In 1995, television arrived and within three years the percentage of girls demonstrating body dissatisfaction rose from 12.7 per cent to 29.2 per cent.

Dieting among teenagers who watched TV increased dramatically to two in every three girls and the rate of self-induced vomiting leapt from zero to 11.3 per cent.

Molecular biologists at Harvard Medical School now believe that external stimuli may activate major psychiatric disorders by changing how our genes function.

High Cholesterol in Young People Hurts Them in Middle Age

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Take note, kids. What you do to your body today really could hurt you a few decades from now.

A new study that followed more than 3,000 young adults into middle age found that people who had high cholesterol in their 20s were much more likely to show early signs of atherosclerosis in their 40s than those who had “optimal” cholesterol levels.

That may seem kind of obvious — after all, anyone who has high cholesterol in his 20s is likely to have high cholesterol in his 40s and 50s, too. What’s compelling, researchers say, is that the study suggests that the people may actually be doing irreversible harm in their youth.

“You have to start thinking about cholesterol levels early in life, because what you do early in life matters later on. You can’t put these things off until later,” said Dr. Mark Pletcher, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the University of California at San Francisco who was the lead author of the study. The study was published in Monday’s edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

It has long been assumed, at least by young adults, that whatever damage they do to their bodies in their 20s can be magically erased, or at least mostly undone, by improving their health in their 30s and 40s.

But the new study, which included research out of the San Francisco campus and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., suggests that the harm done by high cholesterol starts early and builds over time. Young people may not realize they’re causing long-term damage and setting themselves up for heart disease later in life, researchers say.

The results are particularly compelling now, as several recent studies have found that most Americans in their 20s — and many teenagers, too — have high cholesterol. In fact, in the new study, more than 75 percent of participants had high cholesterol in their 20s and 30s, and only 13 percent maintained optimal cholesterol levels through their young adulthood.

Yet most in their 20s have no idea whether their cholesterol is high, doctors say. National guidelines recommend that everyone have their cholesterol checked at age 20, but many young adults don’t see their doctors for regular checkups and don’t go out of their way to get tested for heart disease indicators like cholesterol or blood pressure.

“Young folks don’t necessarily come to the doctor very often, and they’re not focused on preventing problems two or three decades later,” said Dr. Anthony Steimle, chief of cardiology at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, Calif., who was not involved with the study. “The good news is it’s never too late to modify your lifestyle. But you probably can’t completely undo the effects of a decade or two of bad lifestyle. It’s best to begin (a good lifestyle) at a very young age.”

The new research came from a national study that has followed 3,258 people over 25 years to assess their risk of heart disease over time. The participants were ages 18 to 30 when they joined the study in 1985. They come from four U.S. cities — Kaiser Oakland is one of the participating centers.

The cholesterol research was based on follow-up exams with participants in 2005. The research looked at participants’ average cholesterol levels between ages 20 and 35, their cholesterol level at the follow-up exam, and the amount of coronary calcium in their arteries, which is a strong predictor of future heart disease.

Of the 434 participants who maintained optimal cholesterol levels through age 35, only 8 percent had coronary calcium in theirs 40s. For the 2,443 participants who had high cholesterol, 44 percent had coronary calcium.

The fact that high cholesterol at a relatively young age was connected to later coronary calcium — whether or not individuals had high cholesterol later in life — was a “missing link” in research into heart disease risk and age, Pletcher said.

“Before our study, you could have made the argument that it’s very clear that your cholesterol level right now predicts your heart disease tomorrow,” Pletcher said. “This study links exposure during young adulthood with damage that lasts into middle age.”

Whether young adults should be put on cholesterol-lowering medications is a question worth pursuing, researchers said. The drugs might improve long-term risk of heart disease, but it is not clear if there are health hazards associated with decades of exposure to such drugs.

But the results suggest that at the very least, young adults should find out their cholesterol levels and, if necessary, try to lower those levels through diet and exercise, doctors and researchers said.

“It’s important to look at yourself when you’re a young person, because heart disease is really a lifelong disease,” said Dr.

Steve Sidney, associate director for clinical research at Kaiser Northern California, who was one of the study authors. “It can start in childhood. But it doesn’t manifest itself in heart attack or stroke until decades later.”

Smoking May Increase Depression In Teens

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Teens may smoke to “self-medicate” against depression but researchers in Canada say smoking may increase depressive symptoms in some adolescents.

Lead author Michael Chaiton of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit of the University of Toronto and co-author Jennifer O’Loughlin of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre say the study involved 662 high-school teenagers who completed as many as 20 questionnaires from grades 7-11 about their use of cigarettes to affect mood.

“This observational study is one of the few to examine the perceived emotional benefits of smoking among adolescents,” Chaiton says in a statement. “Although cigarettes may appear to have self-medicating effects or to improve mood, in the long-term we found teens who started to smoke reported higher depressive symptoms.”

Study participants were divided into groups of: teens who never smoked; smokers who did not use cigarettes to self-medicate, improve mood or physical state; and smokers who used cigarettes to self-medicate.

Study participants were asked to rate on a rating scale depressive symptoms such as: felt too tired to do things; had trouble going to sleep or staying asleep; felt unhappy, sad, or depressed; felt hopeless about the future; felt nervous or tense; and worried too much about things.

“Smokers who used cigarettes as mood enhancers had higher risks of elevated depressive symptoms than teens who had never smoked,” O’Loughlin says.

High-BMI Teens Risk Hypertension

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Study suggests those with “normal blood pressure” still at risk.

The body mass index (BMI) of seemingly healthy teens in 11th or 12th grade should be checked to predict whether they are likely to develop hypertension (high blood pressure) as young adults. This is the lesson of a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers who just published their findings in the journal Hypertension of the American Heart Association.

The BMI can easily be calculated by dividing one’s weight in kilos by the square of one’s height in meters (or in non-metric countries, the number of pounds multiplied by 703 and divided by one’s height in inches squared). Anyone with a BMI over 25 is considered overweight; if it is over 30, the person is obese.

BGU clinical biochemistry Prof. Assaf Rudich, who headed the large-scale prospective study, said that despite “normal” blood pressure at age 17, hypertension can develop a few years later. The team also found that teenage boys are three to four times more likely to develop high blood pressure in early adulthood than girls.

Currently, systolic blood pressures (the top number of the reading) of 100 to 110 and even up to 120 are considered within the normal range for adolescents. But if their BMI is too high, they may be in trouble and having a lower blood pressure at 17 should now be regarded as desirable, Rudich said.

Known as the “silent killer,” hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and vascular diseases like stroke, he said. “It is increasing along with the obesity epidemic, but regrettably young adults who are otherwise healthy frequently are not screened for becoming hypertensive.”

The BGU researchers examined the development of blood pressure from adolescence to young adulthood in 23,191 men and 3,789 women from the ages of 17 when undergoing medical tests for the Israel Defense Forces and followed them up until the age of 42. They took regular readings of blood pressure and BMI of teenagers who did not have high blood pressure at 17.

The study showed that in boys, there is a strong correlation between blood pressure and BMI at 17, meaning that while the blood pressure reading may be in the “normal range,” there is a greater risk for hypertension when BMI is also evaluated.

The rate of progression to hypertension is higher in boys whose systolic blood pressure is 110 versus those whose blood pressure is 100.

For girls, only the sub-group considered obese had substantially higher risk of high blood pressure. The researchers believe that the hormone estrogen may protect against hypertension.

The study also confirmed the observation that 17-year-old boys have higher blood pressure than girls of the same age. During a follow-up period with these adolescents, 14 percent or 3,810 people developed hypertension.

“Collectively, the study suggests that pediatricians caring for adolescents and physicians caring for young adults should be more aware of the need to monitor weight and blood pressure even when they are considered normal,” said Prof. Iris Shai of the Faculty of Health Sciences‚ epidemiology department.

“For the individual person, a ‘normal value’ may still be associated with a significant elevated risk of disease when the BMI and sex of the patient is also considered,” she concluded.

Children’s Sleep Changes May Mean ‘Terrible Teens’ On the Way

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A new study by a researcher at Tel Aviv University has found that when children begin to change their sleep patterns, adolescence may not be far behind.

The findings of the study by Professor Avi Sadeh of the Department of Psychology were reported in a recent issue of the journal Sleep. The study was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.

Over a two-year period, sleep onset was significantly delayed by an average of 50 minutes in 72 children age 10 and 11 at the start of the study. Sleep time was significantly reduced by an average of 37 minutes. Girls had higher sleep efficiency and reported fewer night awakenings than boys, but for both, initial levels of sleep predicted an increase in pubertal development over time.

The children who participated in the study (94 at the start and 72 by the time the study ended) kept sleep diaries and wore an actigraph on the wrist to measure biological functions. An initial assessment was taken at the beginning of the study, with a second and final assessment taken at one-year intervals.

According to Sadeh, the findings suggest that the neurobehavioral changes associated with puberty may be seen earlier in sleep organization than in bodily changes. However, he adds, “psychosocial issues such as school demands, social activities and technological distractions can also lead to the development of bad sleep habits.”

“It is very important for parents to be aware of the importance of sleep for their developing children and to maintain supervision throughout the adolescent years,” he says. “School health education should also provide children with compelling information on how insufficient sleep compromises their well-being, psychological functioning and school achievements.”

Sadeh also notes that as children become adolescents, they tend to go to bed later and get up later as well. They also sleep less, which is associated with daytime sleepiness, sleep less during the week and more during the weekend to compensate.

Significant differences were seen between sleep on Friday nights and school nights given that Israel has a six-day school week, with Friday the only day not followed by school.

On Fridays, sleep onset was delayed, sleep time extended and sleep quality poorer than on other nights. There was no difference between puberty status or gender, suggesting that the tendency to “catch up” on sleep over the weekend is steady throughout early adolescence.

Sadeh says the findings may have other implications as well. “A deeper understanding of the interrelationships between sleep and pubertal maturation may provide new insights into the emergence of vulnerabilities for behavioral and emotional health problems in early adolescence. This could improve prevention and early intervention efforts.”

Sweat Lodges, Steam Rooms Aren’t for Detox

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BLOOMINGTON – The Web is filled with products and practices that promise to “detoxify” the body through various means, from extreme diets to spa treatments to sweating.

Though some may be relatively harmless, the desire to detox was brought to a tragic conclusion last fall when three participants died and several were made seriously ill during a pricey sweat lodge ceremony in Arizona. Self-help guru James Arthur Ray was arrested Feb. 3 and charged with three counts of manslaughter in the deaths.

Doctors say the notion that you can — or should — undertake special efforts to cleanse the body of impurities is not only not necessary but potentially dangerous. The body has evolved through time to detoxify itself through its own processes, said Dr. Rachel Vreeman, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and co-author of Don’t Swallow Your Gum! Myths, Half-Truths and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health.

When it comes to removing toxins from the body, several organs are designed to do just that.

    * The liver plays a major role in breaking down and filtering substances from the bloodstream that the body can’t use.

    * The kidneys remove substances such as urea, a byproduct of protein metabolism.

    * The gastrointestinal tract, including the colon, is also designed to get rid of what the body cannot use and to keep what it needs.

“There are myths that toxins clog up or get stuck in these organs,” Vreeman said. “That is just not true.”

And without a doubt, she said, sweating definitely would not be the way to go about it.

The primary reason we sweat is to regulate the body temperature. When moisture produced by the sweat glands evaporates, it cools the body.

Though the main component of sweat is water, sweat does contain small amounts of dissolved minerals and trace elements, including sodium, lactate, urea, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, nickel, iron, chromium — none of which are considered toxic, Vreeman said.

When you sweat, the major thing you lose is water — something your body can’t survive long without.

“The term ‘detoxify’ is used so often that it makes people think that special steps need to be taken so ‘detoxifying’ happens,” Vreeman said. “It leads to people not trusting their bodies. Your body, however, does not need special cleansing efforts. What it does need is for you to get enough fluids and to eat a healthy, balanced diet.”

That’s not to say sweating, or spending time in a sauna, has been proven to have no health benefits.

Some studies have indicated that saunas lower blood pressure, enhance blood flow and improve cardiac functioning in people with congestive heart failure or other cardiovascular disease, Vreeman said. One study found weak evidence that saunas could help with chronic pain, and another showed minor benefits for some with chronic fatigue syndrome. There have been almost no studies done specifically on steam rooms or sweat lodges.

Western medicine has largely ignored sweat lodges, but they continue to play a significant role in Native American culture, said David Delgado Shorter, an associate professor of world arts and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Sweats” have been used for many centuries to purify the mind and body among tribes throughout the Americas, Shorter said. Women in Mayan and Aztec culture, for example, used them as a fertility ritual, and men among the Plains tribes used sweats in preparation for hunts, among other reasons.

“The combination of the physical, emotional, psychological and religious is something many tribes find incredibly important and have fought for their right to do that,” Shorter said.

During earlier times, when colonial settlers and government agents were sometimes violently suppressing Native American religion and culture, tribes fought to hold on to the tradition, for both spiritual and practical reasons. Sweat lodges offered a private place to sing, pray and gather.

That’s why many in the Native American community take offense to non-Native Americans co-opting and charging for participation in sweat lodges, Shorter said.

Anyone thinking of participating in a sweat lodge ceremony or something approximating it should exercise caution, experts say. In harsh environments, hot or cold, the body will work hard to balance how much heat it makes and how much it loses. But if you are in conditions that are too hot for too long, the body may not be able to cool you off sufficiently.

In Arizona, in addition to those who died, 18 people were hospitalized with burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest or kidney failure, according to published reports. Participants, who had paid $9,695 for the “Spiritual Warrior” retreat, said that some people were vomiting, lethargic and collapsing after an hour into the session.

“These are all signs of heat illness and are warnings that your body cannot keep itself cool,” Vreeman said. “Vomiting, thirst, dizziness, being uncoordinated or clumsy are all signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Heat illness can kill you and should be treated as an emergency.”

Someone who becomes overheated should get to a cool place, drink fluids and seek medical care, Vreeman said. People with heart conditions should always talk to their doctor before trying a sweat lodge or sauna.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more on heat illness.

Most Medical Students Support Complementary Therapies

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LOS ANGELES – A new survey shows more than 75 percent of medical students believe patients would benefit if physicians were knowledgeable about complementary medicine—practices such as massage therapy and chiropractic—as well as conventional medicine. Almost three-quarters of respondents also say our medical system should include complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

In the largest national survey of its kind, researchers from UCLA and UC San Diego measured medical students’ attitudes and beliefs about CAM.

Among the results:

* 77 percent of participants agreed to some extent that patients whose doctors know about complementary and alternative medicine in addition to conventional medicine, benefit more than those whose doctors are only familiar with Western medicine.

* 74 percent of participants agreed to some extent that a system of medicine that integrates therapies of conventional and complementary and alternative medicine would be more effective than either type of medicine provided independently.

* 84 percent of participants agreed to some extent that the field contains beliefs, ideas and therapies from which conventional medicine could benefit.

* 49 percent of participating medical students indicated that they have used complementary and alternative treatments; however, few would recommend or use these treatments in their practices until more scientific assessment has occurred

“Complementary and alternative medicine is receiving increased attention in light of the global health crisis and the significant role of traditional medicine in meeting public health needs in developing countries,” said study author Ryan Abbott, a researcher at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, in a press release. “Integrating CAM into mainstream health care is now a global phenomenon, with policy makers at the highest levels endorsing the importance of a historically marginalized form of health care.”

The findings were published recently in the online issue of Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM).

Protecting Your Liver When You Have Diabetes

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Article is a Re-Print Courtesy of: http://www.physicaltherapyassistantschools.org/

 It’s a silent killer, and one of the worst diseases that we have brought upon ourselves through lifestyles that are sedentary and self-indulgent. It ranks right up there alongside cancer as a potent ailment that causes intense suffering and even death if you’re not careful about your diet and lifestyle. The worst part of diabetes is that it brings a host of other complications with it – you’re prone to high cholesterol, strokes, cardiac diseases, kidney failure, and complications of the liver.

The liver is one of the most important organs in our body; it is responsible for converting glucose to glycogen; it aids in digestion by generating bile to break down fats, in filters toxic substances from our blood. The liver plays a very important role in regulating your blood sugar – when you eat, the glucose level in your blood rises and this causes your pancreas to produce insulin. When the glucose enters your liver, the insulin acts on it and various enzymes including glycogen are synthesized. Once your meal is digested, your glucose levels fall, and insulin secretion is reduced. Your liver thus holds your energy source – glucose in the form of glycogen – for the next few hours, until you have your next meal.

You can see how diabetics are prone to liver disease because of this process – when your insulin levels are abnormal, your glycogen stores are either too high or too low. The accumulation of glycogen in your liver leads to what is known as the fatty liver syndrome, often seen in people who are diabetic and obese or overweight. A fatty liver leads to cirrhosis, a condition where healthy liver cells are replaced by scar tissue and nodules. The more your liver is scarred, the less it functions normally.

As a diabetic, it’s imperative that you maintain your blood sugar levels through a healthy lifestyle, sensible eating habits, and a regular exercise routine. If not, your liver is at risk, and when you endanger one of the most important organs in your body, you’re asking for a host of health complications.

Liver cirrhosis is also caused by alcohol abuse; so if you’re an alcoholic who also has diabetes, or are a likely candidate for Type II diabetes because of your genes and sedentary lifestyle, you’re dealing yourself a double whammy, a two-fisted knockout punch. You really need to reevaluate your life and make some tough decisions, because if you don’t, you may not have a life to live. Diabetes is a complicated disease; don’t make it more complicated by neglecting to manage it properly.

 

US Tele-Medicine Offers FREE Refunds on Your Purchases of Alternative Remedies

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