Month: February 2013

Alcohol causes about 3.5% of all U.S. cancer deaths and 15% of breast cancer deaths, a new report says. Most of the increased cancer risk is among people who have more than 3 drinks a day. But those who had an average of 1.5 drinks a day accounted for nearly one-third of the deaths, the report says. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute did the study. It’s the first thorough look at the links between alcohol and cancer in more than 30 years. They used information from several databases and surveys. The study estimated that alcohol caused 18,000 to 21,000 cancer deaths in 2009. Breast cancer was the most common type linked with alcohol in women. Among men, cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx and esophagus accounted for the most deaths. An expert interviewed by the New York Times News Service said the report failed to account for the effect of drinking patterns.

The specific treatment for a stomach infection may be less important than how well people stick with it. That’s one conclusion of a new study on treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection. H. pylori bacteria are linked with stomach inflammation (gastritis) and ulcers. Long-term infection also increases the risk of stomach cancer. The new study included 1,463 adults from Latin America. All were infected with H. pylori. They were randomly divided into groups. The groups took different combinations of antibiotics for 5 to 14 days. Tests one year later showed nearly 80% were free of the infection. Rates were similar for all treatment groups. For about 11% of those who had successful treatment at first, the infection came back. H. pylori was most likely to return if people didn’t take their medicines exactly as prescribed.

How you praise a young child may affect the way he or she faces challenges later, a new study suggests. Praising effort may boost motivation more than praising brains or talents, the authors said. The study included 53 children, ages 1 through 3. Parents were videotaped interacting with them at home for 90 minutes. Researchers analyzed the praise that parents gave. They divided it into “process” praise and “person” praise. Process praise focuses on how the child does something. For example, the parent might say: “You really worked hard on that.” Person praise is directed at a child’s personal qualities. So a parent might say: “You’re really good at that.” Boys on average received more process praise than girls. Researchers came back to the same families 5 years later, when the children were 7 or 8 years old.

A new antibiotic may treat skin infections as well as an older pill, a new study finds. The new drug, tedizolid, also did well against drug-resistant infections. It required fewer pills than the older drug as well. The new study included 667 adults. All had cellulitis or other wound infections. People were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group received tedizolid once a day for 6 days. The other got a standard antibiotic, linezolid, twice a day for 10 days. The two drugs worked equally well. Side effects were similar in both groups. New antibiotics are needed because so many types of bacteria now resist older ones. In this study, about one-quarter of the infections were caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These bacteria are difficult to kill. Linezolid is one of the few antibiotics that works.