Bedroom Fan Cuts SIDS Risk by 72%

Increasing ventilation in baby’s bedroom produced surprisingly good results, study reports.

by Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Oct. 6 (HealthDay News) — Just keeping the air moving around a bedroom seems to dramatically

“What we found in this study is that if an infant had a fan that was used in the sleeping room, the infant’s risk of SIDS was reduced by 72 percent compared to no fan in the room,” said study senior author Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist in the division of research at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif. The report appears in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Although the rate of SIDS has declined significantly in recent years — from 1.2 per 1,000 births in 1992 to 0.53 per 1,000 births in 2003 — SIDS is still a leading killer of infants.

Li said the prevailing theory is that SIDS occurs because an infant re-breathes carbon dioxide and doesn’t have either the strength to move from harm’s way or a properly developed neurological system to warn of the impending danger. “For whatever reason, carbon dioxide is trapped in the airway,” he said.

And the exact reason that happens is still unknown.

“In my opinion, I don’t think it’s always just one thing. I think multiple factors come into play. There’s probably some underlying genetic risk that, along with something in the environment, triggers a whole cascade of events,” said Dr. Raymond Pitetti, associate director of emergency medicine at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Scientists have identified certain risk factors that increase the risk of SIDS, such as sleeping on the stomach or sleeping on soft bedding. Li and his colleagues recently discovered another factor that can decrease the risk of SIDS, and that’s putting baby to bed with a pacifier.

To assess whether or not increasing the ventilation in a room would affect the risk of SIDS, the researchers compare information from mothers of 185 infants who died of SIDS with 312 randomly selected, age-matched infants. The infants were also matched based on their race or ethnicity and where they lived.

They found that the risk of SIDS was reduced by 72 percent if a baby slept in a room with a fan. Having an open window also seemed to reduce the risk, but this finding wasn’t statistically significant.

“If parents, in addition to following the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for SIDS prevention, want to add an extra layer of protection, they could add a fan to the room,” said Li, who cautioned that parents need to use common sense when placing a fan so it’s not too close to the crib and it’s not somewhere a toddler could reach it.

“Parents still need to be aware that SIDS is a risk. Lay baby on his or her back to sleep. Don’t use soft bedding. Give the baby a pacifier, and finally, have a fan in the room. There’s really no risk to having a fan, and from this study it seems like it might benefit,” Pitetti said.

Unfortunately, not everyone is heeding the SIDS prevention advice. According to the October issue of Pediatrics, about 25 percent of babies aren’t sleeping on their backs, and 34 percent are regularly sleeping with their parents.

Another study in the same issue of Pediatrics found that when child-care providers receive specific SIDS training, the risk of SIDS goes down. Among 264 child-care programs that received training, the rate of back sleeping went from 51 percent to 62 percent. The authors of this study concluded that more training is needed for parents and child-care providers and that state mandates would help reduce the risk of SIDS even further.

More information

Read more about SIDS prevention from the American Academy of Pediatrics

Source : http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/10/06/bedroom-fan-cuts-sids-risk-by-72.html

Dissecting the Influence of Race, Ethnicity, and Socioeconomic Status on Mental Health in Young Adulthood

Krysia N. Mossakowski

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Studies have provided contradictory findings about the influence of race and ethnicity on mental health. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979 to 1992), this study examines the extent to which multiple dimensions of past and present socioeconomic status explain the influence of race and ethnicity on depression in young adulthood. Results indicate that Blacks and Hispanics have significantly higher levels of depressive symptoms than Whites, which supports social stress theory. These racial and ethnic differences are partially explained by family background and wealth, and substantially explained by the duration of poverty across 13 years of the transition to adulthood. Moreover, the robust depressive effect of past poverty duration is independent of present socioeconomic status and family background. Overall, this study was inspired by the life-course perspective and highlights the importance of wealth and histories of poverty for understanding racial and ethnic mental health disparities among young adults in the United States.

Source : http://roa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/6/649

Drgaidhane’s comments: Very important topic for mental health status and recommendations for the same to improve mental health status in different races, and how to tackle barriers.

Gender differences in associations between stressful life events and body mass index

Very interesting research study.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence that overweight and obese individuals are more likely than their normal weight peers to experience a variety of stressful life events. Women who are even moderately overweight are more likely than normal weight women to experience several stressors, whereas among men increased likelihood of life stressors is confined to the obese and extremely obese BMI categories. Stress may contribute to weight gain through a physiological stress response or negative effects on eating and exercise habits. Conversely, being overweight or obese can contribute to stress by contributing to poor health or social factors like workplace discrimination. Health care practitioners working with overweight and obese patients are advised to be aware of additional life stressors their patients face when developing recommendations and interventions aimed at weight loss.

Please click on the link to go through the entire study.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WPG-4T9VP3R-1&_user=10&_coverDate=08%2F28%2F2008&_rdoc=11&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236990%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6990&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=31&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=82d6a3aa32ff559cd70a700bb4049727

Foreclosures Worsen Spread of West Nile

Neglected Pools in Foreclosed Homes Breeding Mosquitoes With West Nile Virus

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 2, 2008 — The mortgage crisis has spread like a virus through the world’s financial system — and may be spreading a real virus, too.

Soon after delinquent mortgages tripled in Kern County, Calif., cases of West Nile virus nearly tripled as well.

It was not coincidence, say William K. Reisen, PhD, of the Center for Vectorborne Diseases at the University of California, Davis, and colleagues.

“A dramatic increase in home foreclosures and abandoned homes [has] produced urban landscapes dotted with an expanded number of new mosquito habitats,” they report. “These new larval habitats may have contributed to the unexpected early season increase in West Nile virus cases in Bakersfield during 2007.”

It’s an example of how events seemingly unrelated to disease can impact public health, says Roger Nasci, PhD, chief of the CDC’s arboviral disease branch.

“This does emphasize that there are a number of complicating factors — which many people would not anticipate to be disease risks — that come into play,” Nasci tells WebMD.

Could this happen elsewhere in the country? “It bears watching,” says James Hughes, MD, associate director of the Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic threats and professor of medicine and public health at Emory University. Hughes is the former head of the CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases.

“This is a carefully done study that relates a rather dramatic increase in West Nile cases to changes in the environment in an urban setting,” Hughes tells WebMD. “It illustrates how interplay between mosquitoes, birds, the environment, and a change in economic conditions affects disease.”

Economic Crisis and West Nile

Reisen’s team notes that it should not have been a good year for West Nile virus in the Bakersfield area. Winter and spring weather was exceptionally dry, reducing breeding opportunities for the mosquitoes that spread the bug from birds to humans.

The drought decreased bird populations in the spring, reducing breeding and increasing the percentage of birds already immune to West Nile virus.

Yet by June — a month earlier than in previous summers — populations of urban mosquito species skyrocketed. And given an ecological niche, house sparrow breeding soared, vastly increasing the number of birds able to carry the virus.

Sure enough, cases of West Nile virus rose sharply. What happened? The downturn in the housing market hit the Bakersfield area hard. There was an extraordinary increase in home foreclosures and abandoned homes.

Mosquito-control workers are trained to watch for neglected pools and spas. But they were frustrated by the six-foot-tall fences and locked gates that local laws required around outdoor pools.

Aerial photographs showed that 17% of pools and hot tubs in some neighborhoods had turned green with algae and were likely producing mosquitoes.

Although local authorities stepped up control efforts, the problem does not seem to be over. Reisen’s team finds that this year, a rural species of mosquito — one much more likely to harbor West Nile virus — is taking over neglected pools.

And the mortgage crisis continues. Just last August, there were 303,879 foreclosure filings in the U.S. California’s Kern County remains a foreclosure hotspot, but it isn’t the only one.

The Reisen team’s report appears ahead of print online in the November issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Source: webmd.com

Big babies at higher risk of breast cancer

Bedroom Fan Cuts SIDS Risk by 72% MONDAY, Oct. 6 a ‘ Just keeping the air moving around a bedroom seems to dramatically reduce a baby’s risk of sudden infant death syndrome , new research suggests.

Drgaidhane’s comments: I am trying to find the articles that support the above evidence.

Candidates’ Health Plans: Healthy Impact?

Commonwealth Fund Says Obama’s Plan Insures More People Than McCain’s; Critic Challenges Group’s Projections

By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 2, 2008 — Twice as many uninsured people in the U.S. will have health insurance in 10 years under Sen. Barack Obama’s health care plan than under Sen. John McCain’s plan, according to a report by the health care research group The Commonwealth Fund.

The report released today highlights what the group considers to be key differences and areas of agreement in the health care reform packages proposed by the two presidential candidates.

Insurance coverage projections came from a report released last month by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group that is a joint project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.

Tax Policy Center analysts estimated that McCain’s proposal would reduce the number of Americans who are uninsured from a projected 67 million to 65 million in a decade, while Obama’s proposal would leave 33 million people uninsured.

A critic of the report, Robert Moffit, PhD, who directs the Center for Health Policy Studies for the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, called the projections “nonsense.”

He also noted that Obama’s plan is very similar to one put out by the Commonwealth Fund earlier this year. Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis acknowledged this in a news conference Wednesday.

The cost of McCain’s health care plan over a decade was projected to be $1.3 trillion, compared to $1.6 trillion for Obama’s plan.

“This week as we face a crisis in our financial system we must also remember that we are facing a crisis in our health care system,” Davis says.

She notes that between 1999 and 2007, the number of uninsured Americans increased by 20% to 46 million people. And millions more are underinsured, with health insurance that does not cover their medical needs.

“Rising health care costs and the decreasing quality of health insurance coverage are contributing to the economic insecurity of American families by shifting more of the financial burden of health care costs to families,” she says.

Comparing the Candidates’ Plans

John McCain’s health care plan seeks to expand coverage through the individual insurance market by allowing people to shop for health insurance nationwide and by replacing the current tax exemption for employer-provided insurance with tax credits of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families.

Under McCain’s proposal, employer contributions to insurance plans they provide to employees would be taxable. He also favors the creation of a federal fund to expand existing state high-risk pools to people who have health conditions that make it difficult to get private coverage.

Commonwealth Fund Assistant Vice President Sara R. Collins tells WebMD that McCain’s plan would be much fairer for low- and middle-income Americans than the Bush administration’s recent proposal to replace the employee benefit tax deduction with personal income tax reductions for people who purchase health insurance.

“That would have targeted higher-income households,” she says. “McCain’s tax credits offer much more for lower- and middle-income families. It is far more progressive in that sense.”

Obama’s plan seeks to expand coverage by offering a mix of private and public group health insurance options.

With the exception of small businesses, all employers would be required to offer health insurance to the people they employ or contribute to the cost.

Eligibility for Medicaid and the children’s health insurance program known as SCHIP would be expanded, and small businesses, self-employed people, and those who do not have coverage through their employers, Medicaid, or SCHIP would be able to purchase a plan through a nationwide insurance market.

In a Wednesday news conference, Collins noted that both proposals fall far short of universal health care.

But she added that Obama has stated his support for universal coverage, while McCain has not.

Roughly 160 million Americans — more than 60% of the population under the age of 65 — currently have employer-provided health insurance.

Collins says employer-provided coverage is likely to increase under Obama’s plan and decline under McCain’s because of the McCain proposal to tax employer contributions to the health plans they provide.

The report concludes that “Senator Obama’s plan shows the greater potential for making care more affordable, accessible, efficient, and higher quality, though it will likely fall short of covering everyone.”

Critic’s Perspective on the Commonwealth Fund Report

Moffit tells WebMD that he’s not surprised by the report’s conclusion, since the Obama plan is very similar to one proposed by The Commonwealth Fund earlier this year.

Besides criticizing the report’s projections of uninsured people, Moffit faults the report for concluding that McCain’s proposed tax changes will only have limited effects on boosting the number of insured Americans.

“We have never had a tax policy like this, so there is no historical experience to draw from,” he says. “But it is hard to believe that giving this kind of generous tax relief, including refundable tax credits, to vast numbers of people will only result in 2 million more insured.”

He adds that the assertion that Obama’s plan will be more “affordable, accessible, efficient and higher quality” is not supported by facts.

“Both McCain and Obama are promoting the expanded use of health information technology and disease management care coordination,” he says. “These are the kinds of things that will improve the system and there is no debate about them.”

Moffit contends that McCain’s plan will make health care more portable and give people more options about where they get their heath insurance.

“These days, job lock is a huge problem,” he says. “Many, many people stay in jobs they don’t like because they don’t want to lose their health insurance. Under McCain’s plan people won’t be punished by the tax code for changing jobs.”

Source: Webmd.com

Vitamin D: New Guidelines for Children

merican Academy of Pediatricians Doubles Its Minimum Daily Amount of Vitamin D for Babies, Children, and Teens

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD

Oct. 13, 2008 — The American Academy of Pediatrics has doubled its recommendation for the minimum amount of vitamin D that infants, children, and teens should get daily.

The new recommendation is to get at least 400 international units (IU), according to guidelines published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in November’s edition of Pediatrics.

“We know that 400 international units a day is safe and it will prevent rickets,” Frank R. Greer, MD, chairman of the AAP’s committee on nutrition, tells WebMD.

The new guidelines are especially important for breastfed babies, since breast milk isn’t rich in vitamin D, notes Greer, who recommends supplements to ensure adequate vitamin D intake.

Some vitamin D experts say the AAP’s new vitamin D guidelines don’t go far enough.

“I was hoping they’d be more aggressive,” says Bruce Hollis, PhD, professor of pediatrics, biochemistry, and molecular biology and director of pediatric nutritional services at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, S.C.

How Much Is Enough?

Greer explains that the AAP used to back the current daily dose recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) but doubled that amount because vitamin D’s importance has become clearer in the last five years.

“It’s very clear now that, at least in adults, there is some association between insufficient vitamin D and various chronic diseases,” including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis, says Greer. He notes that the research — mainly done on adults — doesn’t prove that vitamin D prevents those diseases.

Hollis says the new guideline is still too low. “In my estimation, this recommendation just doesn’t do much,” he tells WebMD.

“I would have probably gone with 400 IU in the first year or two of life, and after that I would have increased it to at least 1,000 and also monitor the vitamin D [blood] level,” says Hollis. He questions the AAP’s decision to set the same standard for babies as for much bigger adolescents.

Asked about that, Greer says, “we don’t have any really good information to say that we should be giving children in the United States more than 400 international units a day,” even for adolescents.

The Institute of Medicine, which sets Dietary Reference Intakes for vitamins, hasn’t changed its vitamin D recommendations.

“IOM is in discussions with various agencies and other groups that would sponsor a new review by the IOM of the science about vitamin D and calcium intakes to maintain health,” IOM spokeswoman Christine Stencel tells WebMD.

Source: webmd.com

Why Multitasking Isn’t Efficient

Multitasking is a myth: Your brain is actually rapidly switching focus from one task to another.

By Susan Kuchinskas
WebMD the Magazine – Feature

Reviewed by Patricia A. Farrell, PhD

Kris Oser, 37, of Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., is an email fiend. A single mother and director of communications for a market research company, she has to be immediately accessible to executives and the news media.

That means Oser is often on the phone and messaging several people at the same time — and that can lead to trouble. In one recent gaffe, she mistakenly emailed a reporter at The Wall Street Journal instead of her best friend, asking her to pick up Oser’s daughter from school.

The Multitasking Myth

“Speed is the modern, natural high,” says psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, MD, director of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury, Mass. But he insists that true multitasking is a myth. We may feel we’re doing two — or more — things at once, but it’s an illusion. Instead, we’re quickly switching our focus back and forth.

That’s because the cerebral cortex can pay attention to only one thing at a time, says Hallowell. “What people really do is shift their attention from one task to the next in rapid succession. That reduces the quality of the work on any one task, because you’re ignoring it for milliseconds at a time.”

The cortex handles “executive control” — that is, allocating the mind’s resources and prioritizing between tasks. However, there’s a lag of up to several tenths of a second each time it handles a switch, according to a University of Michigan study completed for the Federal Aviation Administration. This tiny bit of time can add up to big inefficiencies, the study shows.

Multitaskers Are Distracted

Distraction can also be dangerous. David Strayer, a professor of psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and an expert on driver distraction, has found that a motorist talking on a cell phone is every bit as impaired as someone who’s legally drunk. And there are health costs: Stress, including the self-imposed kind, means more cortisol into the bloodstream. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol can damage the heart, cause high blood pressure, suppress the immune system, and make you susceptible to type 2 diabetes.

Even so, Oser says you couldn’t pry her away from her BlackBerry. But she does constantly try to remind herself, “The human brain must be honored for the way it actually operates.”

Ready to be here, now?  Hallowell offers these four strategies for managing your crazy-busy life:

• Mix and match. Pair high-cortical involvement tasks — those that involve judgment — with routine, physical tasks that the cerebellum, the brain’s autopilot, can handle. For example, talk to your mom on the phone while folding laundry.
• Rest your case. If your hectic schedule demands you rise at the crack of dawn, steal an hour from the TV at night. A sleepy brain can’t focus.
• Wean from screens. Resist email, the Internet, texting — anything that’s not essential to the work you’re doing right now.
• Ban boredom. Try to do what you love and what matters most. Organize your life around this principle, and you won’t be tempted away from the task at hand.

Source: Webmd.com

Cough, Cold Drugs Not for Kids Under 4

Voluntary Label Change Says Don’t Give Over-the-Counter Pediatric Cough and Cold Medicine to Children Younger Than 4

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 7, 2008 — Don’t use over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold drugs in kids younger than 4.

Leading makers of over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold drugs are putting that message on the products’ labels, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), a trade group for makers of over-the counter drugs.

The label change comes after consulting with the FDA, which has been reviewing the safety of over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold drugs. But the FDA didn’t order the label change; drugmakers did that voluntarily.

“We support this voluntary action that’s been taken by the industry,” Janet Woodcock, MD, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said today at a news conference. “Parents should follow, very carefully, the directions on the package” and not give children multiple products at the same time, says Woodcock.

Nonprescription pediatric cough and cold medicines are covered by rules that date back 30 to 40 years, and modern studies of the drugs – including clinical trials in children — are needed, notes Woodock, adding that that process may take several years.

The issue isn’t an ingredient in the drugs, but dosing errors, notes the CHPA. Pediatric cough and cold drugs are “safe and effective when used as directed,” says the CHPA, adding that dosing errors and accidental ingestions are “the leading causes of rare adverse events in young children.”

About 7,000 children under 11 go to emergency rooms each year after taking cough and cold medicines, according to the CDC. Roughly two-thirds of those occurred after children drank medication while unsupervised, according to the CDC.

The goal of the label change is to encourage “the appropriate use of these medicines,” says the CHPA.

The new labels will start showing up on store shelves this year. The CHPA says there are no plans to take products with the old labels off the shelves since the FDA hasn’t indicated a need to do so.

In January, the FDA urged parents and caregivers not to give over-the-counter cough and cold drugs to kids younger than 2. Drugmakers voluntarily took over-the-counter infant cough and cold drugs off the market in October 2007.

Don’t Use Products to Make Kids Sleepy

Don’t use over-the-counter pediatric cough and cold drugs containing antihistamines to sedate or make a child sleepy. Pediatric cough and cold drugmakers are voluntarily adding language to that effect to the label of products containing certain antihistamines.

The CHPA is also stressing these key points to parents, caregivers, and health care providers:

• Follow the dosing recommendations exactly and use the measuring device that comes with the medicine.
• Do not give a medicine only intended for adults to a child.
• Do not use two medicines at the same time that contain the same ingredients.
• Prevent unsupervised ingestions by keeping all medicines out of the reach and sight of children.
• Do not use antihistamine products to make a child sleepy.
• Consult a physician or health care professional with questions.

What Can You Give Kids?

If over-the-counter cough and cold drugs are off limits for kids younger than 4, what can you give those children?

Nothing cures a cold, but pediatricians say these strategies may help:

• Keep kids hydrated.
• Reduce the child’s fever using appropriate medication (check with a doctor).
• Consider using honey for coughs or sore throat for kids older than 1.
• To ease congestion, consider using saline nasal drops or a humidifier, and keep the child’s head elevated when resting (tuck a rolled-up towel under the crib mattress for small kids, and between the mattress and box spring for older children).

Of course, parents should seek medical care as needed and not hesitate to ask questions.

Source : Webmd.com

Salmonella From Frozen Stuffed Chicken

32 People Get Sick From Salmonella After Improper Cooking of Raw, Frozen Stuffed Chicken Chicken Products

By Miranda Hitti
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 6, 2008 — Do you have frozen, uncooked stuffed chicken entrees such as chicken cordon bleu or chicken Kiev in your freezer? Make sure you follow the cooking directions on the product’s label so you don’t get sick.

That advice comes from a public health alert issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) after 32 people in 12 states got food poisoning after eating breaded and prebrowned, stuffed chicken entrees that were sold raw and frozen and weren’t properly cooked at home.

Those people got sick from salmonella, which are bacteria that can cause diarrhea (often bloody), abdominal cramps, and fever. Most people recover from salmonella infection without treatment, but life-threatening complications can occur; infants, elders, and people with weak immune systems are especially vulnerable.

The USDA’s public health alert applies to all raw, frozen, breaded and prebrowned, stuffed chicken entrees. But no such products are being recalled; the USDA’s message is a reminder to follow the products’ cooking directions and to remember that those products are sold raw even though the breading and prebrowning may make them look cooked.

“Although many of these stuffed chicken entrees were labeled with instructions identifying the product was uncooked and did not include microwave instruction for preparation, individuals who became ill did not follow the cooking instructions and reportedly used a microwave to prepare the product,” the USDA says in a news release.

Source: Webmd.com