Month: January 2014

Large doses of vitamin E might slow the rate of functional decline for people with Alzheimer’s disease, a new study finds. Functional decline means less ability to care for yourself. The study included 600 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. They were randomly divided into 4 groups. One group received 2,000 international units (IU) daily of alpha tocopherol, a form of vitamin E. This is a very large prescription dose. Another group received the Alzheimer’s medicine memantine (Namenda). A third group got both medicines. A fourth group received placebo (fake) pills. Researchers kept track of people for an average of 2.3 years. People who took vitamin E alone had a 19% lower rate of functional decline each year than the placebo group. They also needed 2 fewer hours of care each day. But their rate of mental decline was not significantly lower.

About 22% of young teens have sexted. And those who sent sexually explicit messages or pictures via their phones were 4 to 7 times more likely to engage in other sexual behaviors. So says a study in the journal Pediatrics. Researchers studied 410 seventh-grade students from 5 public middle schools in Rhode Island. The students, ages 12 to 14, answered survey questions online. Researchers suggest that parents and doctors start talking to kids about sexting, sex and their consequences as early as middle school. The study was published in Pediatrics online. HealthDay News reported on it Jan. 6.

An influential expert panel has published its final report that recommends annual tests for people at high risk of developing lung cancer. In the past, screening of people without symptoms was thought to be useless for lung cancer. The tests either found too many harmless spots on lungs, or they did not find cancers early enough to save lives. The new advice comes from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The U.S. government, doctors and insurance companies often follow its advice. The report recommends low-dose CT scans once a year for high-risk adults ages 55 to 79. A high-risk person is defined as someone who has smoked for at least 30 “pack-years.” This could be 30 years of smoking a pack a day, 15 years at 2 packs a day or other combinations. Screening will be offered to anyone in this group who is a current smoker or has quit in the last 15 years.

A revised version of a commonly used screening tool for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) can improve early detection of ASD in toddlers, says a new study. The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) is one of the most widely used screening tools for ASD in the United States. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that toddlers be screened at their 18- and 24-month well-child visits. The earlier ASD can be detected, the better the outcomes. Researchers made some changes to the M-CHAT to improve its ability to detect ASD in toddlers. They tested the new version on 16,115 toddlers. It detected ASD at a higher rate and 2 years earlier compared to the original version of the screening tool. The journal Pediatrics published the study.