Harvard Health Content API

As Congress debates changes to the health care reform bill this week, Americans remain divided on the bill, a poll finds. The Associated Press-GfK poll was done January 5 through 10. It found that support for the bill increased from 38% after the November election to 40% now. Opposition has dropped from 47% to 41%. Still, fewer than 20% want the law to stay the same. About 43% want it to do more to change the health care system. About 25% want to repeal it. About 60% oppose the requirement for people to buy health insurance. The Associated Press wrote about the poll January 17. A New York Times article on January 15 outlined the debate about effects of the law on jobs. Experts interviewed by the Times disagreed. Some said the new requirement for larger employers to provide health insurance will lead to less job growth. Others said the effect will be small.

Mothers may start solid foods earlier with “fussy” babies, a new study suggests. The study included more than 200 mothers. All were low-income black women having their first baby. Children’s doctors recommend giving babies only breast milk for the first 4 to 6 months of life. But in the study, only 25% got any breast milk by age 3 months. About 70% were also getting solid foods or juice. Babies that mothers described as “fussy” were twice as likely to get solid foods early as other babies. So were the children of obese mothers. Depressed women were more likely to give their babies juice. The journal Pediatrics published the study online. Fox News reported on the research January 10.

People who take a home gene test for multiple conditions don’t worry a lot about the results, a study suggests. Most of them also don’t get more tests or adopt healthier lifestyles, the study found. The study included about 2,000 people who wanted to take a home DNA saliva test. The test was made by Navigenics Inc. It looked for genes linked to 23 conditions. They included Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, glaucoma and lung, breast and prostate cancers. People were offered a discount for taking part in the study. Most paid less than $250. The test usually costs $2,500. Researchers kept track of them for about 6 months. On average, people were not more anxious after taking the test. This was true even if they were shown to have a higher risk of disease. People did not exercise more or eat less fat after the test.

Behavioral treatments can help urine control in men after prostate cancer surgery, a new study finds. The study included 208 men. Their ages ranged from 51 to 84. All of them had prostate cancer surgery at least a year before the study began. They still had urinary incontinence — problems with urine leaking. The men were randomly divided into three groups. One group learned exercises to strengthen the muscles in the pelvic floor. They practiced stopping and starting urine flow. They also practiced delaying bathroom trips. The second group did the same exercises. They also got biofeedback training in the doctor’s office. And they used a home machine that stimulated pelvic floor muscles. Both groups were told to spread out fluids during the day and avoid caffeine. The third group got no special treatment.

A pill used to treat depression may also help people move better after a stroke, a small study suggests. The study included 118 people. All had suffered the type of stroke caused by a blood clot. They were either paralyzed or weaker on one side of the body. Researchers gave them scores based on tests of body movement. People were randomly divided into two groups. One group took fluoxetine for 3 months. This drug is best known by the brand name Prozac. The other group took placebo (fake) pills. Everyone got physical therapy. Scores on movement tests rose by 34 points in the fluoxetine group. The increase was 24 points for the placebo group. One expert interviewed by HealthDay News said the drug may help build new connections in the brain. Another expert noted that there was less depression in this group. Better mood could help people stick with physical therapy.

Two memory tests can help to predict a person’s risk of dementia up to 10 years before it develops, researchers say. The study included more than 1,500 adults. They were age 65 or older when it began. They were healthy and did not have dementia. Researchers gave them several tests. Two turned out to help predict who would have dementia 10 years later. In one test, people were told a list of 15 words. They heard it a total of 5 times. Then they listened to a different series of 15 words. After this, they were asked to recall as many words from the first list as possible. In the second test, people read a list of numbers paired with symbols. Then they were asked to draw the symbols that belonged with numbers from the list. People’s risk of dementia dropped 18% for each extra word they recalled on the first test. Their risk fell 5% for each extra symbol they remembered.

An influential study that linked a childhood vaccine to autism was based on altered information, a new report says. The Sunday Times and the British Medical Journal published the article this week. The journal called the autism study “an elaborate fraud.” It laid the blame on lead author Andrew Wakefield. The original study was published in 1998. It said that 12 children began showing autism symptoms after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. Since then, many parents have refused the vaccine. But the study has been widely condemned for lapses in research and ethics standards. The journal Lancet and 10 of the 13 authors have renounced the results. Wakefield was banned last year from practicing medicine in the United Kingdom. The report published this week went further. Journalist Andrew Deer talked to the children’s parents and examined hospital records.