Editorial Team

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TV Enhances Smoking! 

Smoking linked to watching TV                                           Back to Features

Turning off the television could prevent young people from lighting up. A new study finds the more an adolescent watches television, the more likely they are to start smoking. Researchers looked at whether adolescents who watched more television were more likely to start smoking. They used information from a national survey that gathered data on television viewing in 1990 and 1992 among youth ages 10 to 15 years. They also examined other risk factors such as weight, ethnicity, IQ, household income level and household structure. Among the adolescents in the study, smoking increased from about 5 percent in 1990 to more than 12 percent in 1992. Researchers say those who watched five hours or more of TV per day were nearly six times more likely to start smoking than those who watched less than two hours a day. Researchers say their study clearly shows television viewing is associated with smoking among young people.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2002; 110:505-508

Stress & Diabetes

Stress relief improves diabetes health                                 Back to Features

A stress management program may help people with type 2 diabetes improve their blood sugar level, a new study shows. Researchers studied 108 patients, ages 30 or older, with type 2 diabetes. Patients participated in a diabetes education program with or without stress management training. Researchers measured the patients' stress levels and hemoglobin A1C levels throughout the year. After one year, 32 percent of patients who participated in the stress management program had lowered their A1C level by 1 percent. This kind of reduction is significant and can greatly reduce a patient's risk of future complications related to diabetes. Only 12 percent of the patients who received only the diabetes education program reduced their A1C levels by that much.

SOURCE: The 110th annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Chicago, Aug. 22 - 25, 2002

New Transplant Technique

Successful kidney transplant technique                                Back to Features 

Researchers report high success for kidney transplants among patients who would typically be considered ineligible for the surgery. Researchers have treated 34 patients since 1997 with a new treatment and they say has some surprising results. Often, patients who need a kidney transplant are sensitized to immune system antibodies due to previous transplants, blood transfusions or pregnancies. A new treatment using a blood filtering process called plasmapheresis, coupled with a drug to suppress the immune system so patients would not reject their new organ. All of the transplanted patients had antibodies against the donors' HLA antigens. At the end of the treatment, nearly 80 percent of the patients had lost antibodies against the donor organs and 50 percent who had antibodies against other HLA antigens had stopped producing them. After an average of 13 months post-treatment, 92 percent of patients had no antibodies against their donors.

SOURCE: 19th International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Miami, Fla., Aug. 25-30, 2002

Aspirin & Pregnancy

  Aspirin may help pregnancy problems                               Back to Features

Women at risk of developing gestational high blood pressure may be able to reduce their risk by taking low-dose aspirin at bedtime, according to a new study. Researchers gave 341 women who were between 12 and 16 weeks pregnant either an aspirin or a placebo once a day upon awakening, eight hours after awakening, or at bedtime. All the women were at risk for developing gestational high blood pressure due to obesity, family history, past personal history of gestational high blood pressure or preeclampsia or a history of previous miscarriages. Results show there was no difference in blood pressure between the aspirin and placebo when taken upon awakening, but there was a considerable reduction in blood pressure when aspirin was taken eight hours after awakening. Blood pressure was drastically reduced in participants who took the aspirin at bedtime.  In the group of women who took the placebo, over 14 percent had preeclampsia, 30 percent had gestational high blood pressure, and nearly 18 percent had pre-term labor. Of the aspirin group, none had pre-term labor, about 7 percent had gestational high blood pressure and only 1.7 percent had preeclampsia.

SOURCE: American Heart Association's 56th Annual High Blood Pressure Convention, Orlando, Fla., Sept. 25-28, 2002

Pain Relief in Osteoporosis

 Bone cement for osteoporosis                                            Back to Feature

Doctors have a solid solution to relieve pain for patients who have collapsed vertebra, as a result of osteoporosis. The procedure, vertebroplasty, has been shown to relieve pain immediately and long-term. The procedure uses bone cement to stabilize the collapsed vertebra. The study involved the review of records from 100 patients, 92 of whom had compression fractures from osteoporosis. Nearly every patient reported relief immediately following the procedure and 93 percent reported relief that continued long-term, which ranged from 6 to 44 months. The researchers say patients who have these types of fractures experience significant pain. It can limit their movement and sometimes even require extended bed rest. They say this group of patients can benefit greatly from pain relief. The doctors conclude this is a minimally invasive procedure that is beneficial to patients who have not found relief from medication or rest.

SOURCE: Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, 2002;13:883-886