Category: news-perspectives

“Brain training” may help older adults think clearly, but may not help memory, a new study shows. The study included more than 2,800 people, average age 73. They were randomly divided into 4 groups. Three groups received brain training. The memory group learned strategies to remember words, lists and story details. The reasoning group learned how to solve problems that follow patterns. A third group used a computer program that trained them to find and process visual information quickly. The fourth got no training. People had improvements in these specific skills right after they were trained. Ten years later, researchers were able to track down about half of them and test them again. About 60% of the trained groups and 50% of the untrained group reported being at least as able to handle daily tasks as they were 10 years before.

Assaults on children at school lead to about 88,000 emergency room visits each year, a new study estimates. Very few of the assaults involved guns or required a hospital stay. About 40% of the injuries were bruises and scratches. The study was based on a survey of 66 hospitals. It covered the years 2001 through 2008. Researchers estimated nationwide totals based on this limited sample. An estimated 7 million ER trips occurred during those years because of injuries in schools. About 92,000 visits each year resulted from deliberate injuries. Nearly all (96%) were assaults rather than self-injury. Middle-school kids, non-whites and boys were more likely than others to be assaulted at school. Researchers called for better prevention strategies. Injuries that occurred outside of school were more likely to be severe. About 3% involved guns, compared with 0.08% of injuries at school.

Doctors aren’t talking with their patients enough about alcohol, a government study finds. And that’s true even if the patient is a binge drinker, the study says. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did the study. It was based on surveys from 44 states and the District of Columbia. Only 1 in 6 adults and 1 in 4 binge drinkers said that a doctor or other health professional had ever discussed alcohol with them. Only 1 in 6 pregnant women recalled such a talk, even though drinking can harm the developing fetus. Even drinkers who binge 10 or more times a month got little counseling. Only 1 in 3 reported ever having a serious talk with a doctor about alcohol use. For every alcoholic, 6 other people are problem drinkers, CDC officials said. They urged doctors to make alcohol counseling a routine part of patient care.

A new type of device may help people with sleep apnea, results from a small study suggest. Obstructive sleep apnea causes breathing to stop or become very shallow for brief periods. This occurs because of a blockage to the airway during sleep. Sleep apnea can cause a drop in blood oxygen and lead to a higher risk of heart disease. The new study included 124 people with obstructive sleep apnea. Each person received the new device, implanted by surgery. The device electrically stimulates a nerve that controls the tongue and muscles in the upper airway. The pulses are timed to the breathing cycle. They cause the tongue to move slightly forward and the upper airway to open. After a yearlong trial, episodes of apnea and drops in blood oxygen were reduced about 70%. Researchers then randomly divided the 46 people who had the best treatment response into 2 groups.

Meditation may help relieve depression, anxiety and pain. That’s the conclusion of a new review of research in the field. Researchers looked at 47 studies. They included a total of 3,515 people. The studies looked at the effects of meditation on a variety of conditions. Besides mental health, they included eating habits, sleep and weight control. The studies showed moderately strong evidence of benefit for depression, anxiety and pain. Improvements were about 5% to 10% in anxiety symptoms, compared with a “control” group. This group did some other activity that was used as a placebo, or non-treatment. Symptoms of depression improved 10% to 20% compared with placebo. The effects on pain varied depending on the type of pain. Researchers found there was not enough good evidence of benefit from meditation for any other conditions.

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet may reduce the risk of diabetes, a new study suggests. The study included more than 3,500 older adults who were at high risk of heart disease. They were randomly divided into 3 groups. Two groups followed a Mediterranean-style diet. This type of diet is high in fruits, vegetables, fish, nuts, olive oil, beans and legumes. It is low in red meat and dairy. One Mediterranean-diet group added extra olive oil to the diet. The other group added extra mixed nuts. The third group followed a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. In the next 4 years, people on the Mediterranean-style diet were less likely to develop diabetes than those in the high-carb, low-fat group. Risk was 40% lower for the extra-oil group and 18% lower for the mixed-nuts group. The journal Annals of Internal Medicine published the study online.

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.

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.

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.

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.