Ignored your Insomnia

Chronic sleep problems may cause some medical issue, particularly in women

Your husband snores. Your kids are up half the night. You're worried about a big presentation at work. It's no surprise you have insomnia; the real shocker would be not feeling tired at the start of the day. A 2007 National Sleep Foundation survey found that nearly two thirds of women said they got a good night's sleep only a few nights a week; 29 percent took sleeping pills or other sleep aids regularly. Eighty percent said they don't slow down when they're tired. Most just prop their eyes open and get through the day. (This year, the economy may be making matters even worse. The sleep foundation's latest survey, released today, found that nearly a third of Americans are losing sleep because they're worried about the economic crisis and its implications for their personal finances.)
While soldiering on sleepily may be the only solution at times—new parenthood and sleep deprivation often go hand in hand, for instance—there are medical options and other ways to address many sleep problems. Unfortunately, you can't count on a primary-care doctor to know how to help. "You'll confront a bunch of doctors who either don't know about sleep problems or have an understanding that is antiquated," says Andrew Krystal, director of the sleep research lab and insomnia program at Duke University Medical School. Finding a knowledgeable provider is key, he says.

There's good reason not to ignore insomnia: It often signals other medical or psychiatric problems, particularly in women, and a savvy practitioner may diagnose and treat an underlying problem that would otherwise escape detection. Evidence also suggests that people who consistently get too little sleep may be at risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Women are about twice as likely as men to suffer from major depression during their lives, and it's nearly always accompanied by difficulty sleeping. Women also suffer from anxiety disorders more frequently than men, and lack of sleep can become a focus of anxiety. That can create a vicious cycle of sleeplessness and worry that leads to chronic insomnia, says Barbara Phillips, director of the sleep center at the University of Kentucky. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder, a severe form of premenstrual syndrome that afflicts up to 8 percent of women, brings sleepless nights for some as well.

Perhaps the most often missed medical condition that can cause insomnia in women is obstructive sleep apnea. OSA occurs when people stop breathing momentarily during sleep because their airway becomes blocked when muscles in the throat relax. They may briefly wake up dozens of times a night to breathe, though they generally won't realize it. A contributor to heart disease, sleep apnea has many causes, including anatomical problems in the jaw or throat, obesity, and muscle laxity, which increases with age. Before menopause, women are half as likely to have sleep apnea as men; once past that stage, the sexes get it in equal numbers. Declining levels of estrogen and progesterone may be partly to blame for the age-related jump. Research shows women who are using hormone replacement therapy are less likely to have it.

Doctors who are accustomed to diagnosing sleep apnea in men—in whom the most common symptom is snoring, not insomnia—may miss the signs in women. As a result, women with sleep apnea and insomnia are sometimes misdiagnosed as depressed when, in fact, they are not, says Meir Kryger, chairman of the National Sleep Foundation. In such cases, antidepressants are unlikely to improve symptoms of either sleep apnea or the accompanying insomnia, he says.

Treating an underlying condition won't necessarily cure a sleeping problem, even if that condition was the insomnia's original cause, researchers have learned. That's another reason experts stress the importance of seeking help. If you have sleeping difficulties for more than a month, consider seeing a doctor, preferably at a clinic that specializes in sleep disorders. (To find one in your area, you can go to sleepcenters.org.) A specialist may do a complete work-up and identify medical problems that have been keeping you from getting the restful shut-eye you need. If you turn out to have sleep apnea, a doctor may fit you with a device that delivers pressurized air through the nose and helps keep your airway open.

For other problems, a sleep specialist may work with you to change behaviors that can perpetuate insomnia. The practitioner may urge you to get out of bed whenever you're unable to sleep, for example, or may temporarily limit the number of hours you spend in bed to help you develop more consolidated, stable sleep patterns. He or she may prescribe sleeping pills as well. Both strategies work: Studies show that on average, 2 out of 3 people experience significant improvement in their sleep after either taking a sleep medication or being treated with cognitive behavior therapy, a form of talk therapy, says Duke psychologist Jack Edinger. The difference, of course, is that sleeping pills work only as long as you continue to take them. The benefits of behavioral change, on the other hand, can last a lifetime.

Is Vitamin D Deficiency a Cause of Autism?

A few researchers are turning their attention to the sunshine vitamin as a culprit, prompted by the experience of immigrants that have moved from their equatorial country to two northern latitude locations

By Gabrielle Glaser

As evidence of widespread vitamin D deficiency grows, some scientists are wondering whether the sunshine vitamin—once only considered important in bone health—may actually play a role in one of neurology's most vexing conditions: autism.

The idea, although not yet tested or widely held, comes out of preliminary studies in Sweden and Minnesota. Last summer, Swedish researchers published a study in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology that found the prevalence of autism and related disorders was three to four times higher among Somali immigrants than non-Somalis in Stockholm. The study reviewed the records of 2,437 children, born between 1988 and 1998 in Stockholm, in response to parents and teachers who had raised concerns about whether children with a Somali background were overrepresented in the total group of children with autism.

In Sweden, the 15,000-strong Somali community calls autism "the Swedish disease," says Elisabeth Fernell, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a co-author of the study.

In Minnesota, where there are an estimated 60,000 Somali immigrants, the situation was quite similar: There, health officials noted reports of autism among Somali refugees, who began arriving in 1993, comparable to those found in Sweden. Within several years of arrival, dozens of the Somali families whose children were born in the U.S. found themselves grappling with autism, says Huda Farah, a Somali-born molecular biologist who works on refugee resettlement issues with Minnesota health officials. The number of Somali children in the city's autism programs jumped from zero in 1999 to 43 in 2007, says Ann Fox, director of special education programs for Minneapolis schools. The number of Somali-speaking children in the Minneapolis school district increased from 1,773 to 2,029 during the same period.

Few, if any, Somalis had ever seen anything like it. "It has shocked the community," Farah says. "We never saw such a disease in Somalia. We do not even have a word for it."

What seemed to link the two regions was the fact that Somalis were getting less sun than in their native country—and therefore less vitamin D. The vitamin is made by the skin during sun exposure, or ingested in a small number of foods. At northern latitudes in the summertime, light-skinned people produce about 1,000 international units (IUs) of vitamin D per minute, but those with darker skin synthesize it more slowly, says Adit Ginde, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.

Antioxidants fail to prevent prostate cancer

Despite much hope generated by earlier studies, vitamins C and E and the element selenium have failed to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer. The disappointing news from two huge trials is reported online December 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In one trial, more than 14,000 male physicians age 50 or older were randomly assigned to take vitamin E, vitamin C, both or placebos starting in the 1990s. Researchers monitored the men’s health over eight years on average.

Nearly 2,000 cases of cancer arose in the men during the trial, roughly half of which were prostate cancer. But taking a vitamin didn’t affect a man’s likelihood of developing prostate cancer or any other malignancy, the data show.

In the other trial, started in 2001, more than 35,000 men also age 50 or older were randomly assigned to get vitamin E, selenium or a placebo. After more than five years of follow-up per participant, on average, more than 1,700 cases of prostate cancer occurred. A panel monitoring the ongoing results stopped the trial after determining that the supplements had no effect on prostate cancer risk.

“This does put us back to the drawing board in terms of looking for an agent that might prevent prostate cancer,” says Scott Lippman, a physician and cancer researcher at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who coauthored the selenium/vitamin E study. “This is really fairly definitive.”

Hopes had been high for all three supplements, which have antioxidant properties and therefore were thought to curb cell damage that can lead to cancer. Earlier studies hinted at a lower prostate cancer risk in people with high selenium levels in their bodies. And a previous randomized trial showed less prostate cancer among men taking selenium than among men not taking it.

Vitamins C and E had their own adherents, who noted that inside the body, antioxidants perform the essential duty of sopping up free radicals that cause the oxidative damage to cells. Adding more antioxidants — such as vitamins C and E — seemed an obvious strategy.

But based on the new findings, “there’s really no scientific basis for recommending antioxidant supplementation for prostate cancer prevention,” says physician and cancer epidemiologist Peter Gann of the University of Illinois at Chicago. He notes that the selenium/vitamin E trial is the largest cancer prevention trial ever conducted.

Sometimes research doesn’t follow its natural order. “This is an example of massive clinical trials that are going to require people to go back to the lab,” Gann says.

Lippman agrees. “One has to rethink the whole antioxidant hypothesis,” he says. Part of that re-evaluation will be a deeper analysis of antioxidants themselves.

For example, research has shown that the body on its own makes some antioxidants, supplies of which can rise or fall with stress, exercise and other factors. “Our bodies respond very nicely to exercise with these natural antioxidants,” says Michael Gaziano, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System who was a coauthor on both reports. “I don’t think micronutrient [supplements] harm these natural defenses or diminish them. It just doesn’t seem like a single micronutrient materially augments our antioxidant defense in a substantial way.”

Smokers May Boost Cancer Chances bby Eating Fruit

HE HAGUE (AFP) - Smokers may increase their chances of contracting colon cancer by eating fruit and vegetables, according to a new Europe-wide scientific study said Wednesday.
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A high intake of fruit and vegetables appeared to reduce the risk among non-smokers but seemed to have the reverse effect on smokers, findings by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) showed.


"People who eat 600 grammes or more vegetables and fruit a day appear to have a 20 to 25 percent lower chance of developing colon cancer than people who eat 220 grammes or less," said the statement.

"For smokers, the consumption of vegetables and fruit appears, on the contrary, to increase the chances of colon cancer. Protection against colon cancer through the consumption of vegetables and fruit therefore appears to depend on smoking habits."


RIVM official Hans Verhagen told AFP this did not mean that smokers should stop eating their greens.

"On the contrary, the conclusion is to: 'Please stop smoking'", he said.


The research project questioned some 500,000 people in 10 European countries about their eating and smoking habits and studied them for 8.5 years.

The authors of the final article published in the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition, said the findings meant that substances within fruit and vegetables may even increase the carcinogenic potential of tobacco smoke.


"What is new about this study is that we have for the first time examined the effects of fruit and vegetable consumption while making a distinction between smokers and non-smokers," said Verhagen.

Colon cancer is the second-most common form of the disease in the Netherlands, after breast cancer, with 11,000 new cases diagnosed every year.

US Declares War On Pesky Enemy -- Bed Bugs

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US officials are on the warpath against a new plague pouncing on unsuspecting Americans from cellphones, keyboards and mattresses -- the humble bed bug now staging a comeback after two decades.
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The tiny blood-suckers had all but vanished over the past 20 years, but now pose "the most difficult, challenging pest problem of our generation," entomologist Mike Potter from the University of Kentucky told a conference.


"In my opinion, we are not going to get out of this thing" until we "allow the pest-control industry to go to war," he warned.

The two-day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, dubbed the first National Bed Bug Summit by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), heard the insects are spreading rapidly, infesting all kinds of public buildings and spaces.


"We've never seen anything like this," agreed Mike Deutsch, an entomologist with Arrow Exterminating, saying bed bug colonies were being found in lamp bases, clock radios, televisions as well as snuggled up in the pages of books.

"We certainly know that bed bugs are not restricted to beds and upholstered furniture, but now we're finding them in places even we never thought possible."


The talks aim to "identify ideas and options for bed bug prevention, control, and management; create strategies for outreach and education; and develop recommendations for action," the EPA said in a statement.

Infestations are being recorded in hotels and restaurants, and are now considered a major problem around the United States.


As their name suggests, bed bugs are primarily found in mattresses and become active at night when they gorge on the blood of sleeping humans who are blissfully unaware that they are providing an impromptu midnight feast.

Until the next morning that is, when red welts show up on the victim's skin.


According to the American Medical Association, the flat, oval, brownish-red creatures, which measure about five millimeters, do not transmit any diseases.

But they leave traces of blood and feces on the pillows and sheets, and an infested room can have a unpleasant, pungent smell.


Now though the tiny vampires are swarming out of the bedroom and into other places including pictures and cuddly toys. And no one can escape, with bed bugs as likely to invade luxury hotels as shelters for the homeless.

"Five million dollar homes on the north shore of Long Island to homeless shelters in New York City are experiencing problems," said Deutsch.


Frequent international travel and hotel stays have helped bed bugs stage their comeback after near extinction in the US, hitching a ride back into the country in suitcases.

The bugs' dramatic reappearance also coincides with the withdrawal from the market of powerful chemicals such as DDT, which killed the insects but were harmful for the environment.


Few of the remaining chemicals have proved as effective against the tiny invaders, and some kinds have even developed a resistance to them.

One Democratic lawmaker now plans to throw the full force of the Congress against the itchy little pests, with plans to reintroduce the "Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008."

That bill failed to get passed last year, but it aims to provide funding for public housing authorities to exterminate the unwanted visitors hidden in their midst.

Probiotics for Women’s Health

Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 are the worlds most documented probiotic strains for women’s health. They were selected for their ability to interfere with infectivity of a range of bacteria and yeast in the vagina, as well as confer benefits to the intestine and reduce the risk of bladder infections.

THE STRAINS
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 was originally isolated in 1980 from the distal urethra of a healthy woman. Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 was originally isolated in 1985 from the vagina of a healthy woman. It was first classified as L. acidophilus RC-14, then renamed as Lactobacillus fermentum RC-14. As the way that bacteria are classified changes with time, the strain was re-named Lactobacillus reuteri in recent years. All the publications with this organism RC-14, were performed on the same bacterium.

LABORATORY TESTED PROPERTIES
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 has been shown to adhere to cells in the bladder, vagina and intestine. Some people believe this is key to its ability to promote health, but in fact, it is only one of the important attributes. The organism displaces and prevents adhesion by intestinal and urogenital pathogens, inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria and yeast, can kill HIV and other viruses through its acid production, and stops pathogens from forming clumps or biofilms that are very difficult for drugs to eradicate. It is innately resistant to vancomycin and spermicidal nonoxynol-9. The strain induces an anti-inflammatory effect and modulates factors that would otherwise increase a woman’s risk of preterm labor.

Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 adheres to bladder, vaginal, and intestinal cells displaces and prevents adhesion by intestinal and urogenital pathogens, inhibits the growth of these harmful organisms and can kill HIV and other viruses through its acid production. It produces hydrogen peroxide that many believe is important in vaginal health. It also produces signaling factors that disarm toxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus, the bacterium that causes so many hospital infections and deaths (the “superbug”). Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 also possesses immune modulatory activity.

ANIMAL SAFETY, TOXICITY AND EFFECTIVENESS STUDIES
Probiotic lactobacilli do not treat urinary tract infection nor do they colonize the bladder, vagina or intestine. Indeed, it is a myth that probiotic organisms colonize. The term colonization should be reserved for organisms that take over a given niche (such as the gut, vagina), multiply and live there for lengthy periods of time. No probiotic is able to stay in the host for longer than a few days or weeks.
Lactobacilli would not normally be instilled directly into the normally sterile bladder, but to test what would happen if this occurred, a series of studies were performed.
Lactobacillus GR-1 intra-vesical instillation in rats and mice showed the strain did not colonize, adhere or persist and had no adverse effects on bladder or renal tissues, but did reduce infectivity of uropathogenic E. coli.
Lactobacillus GR-1 and RC-14 oral use in mice infected with salmonella led to reduced infectivity, disease and deaths. Both lactobacilli strains improved the barrier function of the gut.
Lactobacillus GR-1 and RC-14 when given orally at excessive doses in rats showed no adverse effects on blood parameters.
Lactobacillus GR-1 and RC-14 oral use in pregnancy in rats resulted in reduced death rate and improved weights for newborns.


CLINICAL EVIDENCE
There is extensive clinical documentation on these two probiotics. This includes early studies performed with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 alone and in combination with L. fermentum B-54.

Safety, effectiveness and efficacy:
With more than 20 million doses administered worldwide, the safety record of the two strains is excellent. A summary of safety includes:
Lactobacillus GR-1 instilled directly into the bladder of humans with neurogenic bladder disease—strain did not colonize, adhere or persist in bladder.
Lactobacillus GR-1 intra-vaginal instillation in humans led to repopulation of the vagina for several weeks, and to a longer time before the patient suffered another bladder infection.
Lactobacillus GR-1 and B-54 intra-vaginal instillation in humans led to repopulation of the vagina and reduced recurrence of urinary tract infection, after antibiotic therapy.
Lactobacillus GR-1 and B-54 intra-vaginal instillation in humans led to repopulation of the vagina and reduced recurrence of urinary tract infection.
Prevention and treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV) andyeast vaginitis
The use of Lactobacillus GR-1 and Lactobacillus RC-14 intra-vaginally twice a day for five days, led to repopulation of the vagina and cure of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in randomized, placebo-controlled, double blind study.

When taken orally twice daily for 14 days (>6x109 cfu) with milk, Lactobacillus GR-1 and Lactobacillus RC-14 did not induce adverse immunological reactions. In capsule form, when Lactobacillus GR-1 and Lactobacillus RC-14 were taken orally once daily for 14 days, the vagina became repopulated with beneficial bacteria and no adverse persistence occurred in the intestine or vagina at 21 days. Both strains when taken orally once or twice a day for one month, help restore and retain a normal lactobacilli-dominated vaginal flora, and 50 percent cure of BV. In a randomized, placebo-controlled double blind study of 64 women given lactobacilli orally once daily for two months, there was significant reduction in transfer of yeast and pathogenic bacteria from the rectum to the vagina, and retention of a normal lactobacilli-dominated vaginal flora.

For women who require antibiotics, the addition of Lactobacillus GR-1 and Lactobacillus RC-14 for one month in a randomized, placebo-controlled double blind study, showed significant reduction in onset of BV, and a better retention of a normal lactobacilli-dominated vaginal flora. In another randomized, placebo-controlled double blind study, this time of 106 women treated with antimicrobial plus oral probiotics for BV, there was significantly improved cure of BV compared to metronidazole plus placebo.

While not designed for the gut, both Lactobacillus GR-1 and Lactobacillus RC-14 taken orally for 30 days to 15 Crohn’s disease and five ulcerative colitis patients in food showed no adverse effects, no bacteremia, no adverse immunological outcomes, but significant reduction in inflammation in subset of patients. In further evidence of their safety, the use of these probiotics in HIV positive subjects showed resolution of diarrhea and increase in CD4 count, with no cases of bacteremia or major side effects.

THE END OF ONE STORY AND THE BEGINNINGOF ANOTHER—FEM-DOPHILUS COMES OF AGE
Twenty-five years might seem a long time, but that’s how long it took for these two Lactobacillus strains to be selected, and shown to be ideal for women’s health. They are combined for a purpose—each strain complements the other and targets different problems that may arise in a woman. Not every Lactobacillus is the same, and not even another combination of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus reuteri will necessarily function as well as GR-1 and RC-14. It’s a bit like Mia Hamm, the great U.S. soccer star—others may have the same name, but you’d only want the true star on your team’s forward line! Selecting strains is the first step, but unlike many so-called probiotics on the market that have never undergone human clinical trials or in depth laboratory investigations, an important step is understanding how strains function. The anti-infective properties of GR-1 and RC-14 are well documented, and their ability to enhance a woman’s immunity is now being uncovered. After this, a critical step is to have the strains produced to the highest standards possible. Only a handful of companies around the world have the capacity and technological excellence to achieve shelf-stable, highly reproducible lactobacilli products. These organisms are fickle and not easy to handle, and thus many products not made under such standards, end up being dead or contaminated.

The decision to have the world’s leading probiotic producer, Chr Hansen, manufacture the strains was not made lightly. Visits to major production plants around the world, were made to insure that the highest standards were reached. In the end, Fem-Dophilus was born, an ethical, premium product with a delivery system that optimizes delivery of the probiotics to the woman.

The extensive clinical trials, briefly summarized above, but available in full-published form at PubMed, were then performed using the unique capsule formulation. This again is critical. In many cases, clinical studies have been done on bacteria in formulations that differ from the product that consumers want to buy. It’s like asking Mia Hamm to score against a team of 50 players instead of 11, or to do so without her soccer boots and shin pads. You can’t add 1000 bacteria to a product when studies showed that benefits accrue with 1,000,000,000 bacteria. Also, a soccer field was never meant to function with 600 players. The vagina is not designed to have billions and billions of bacteria. On the contrary, at any given time there are only a few bacterial types in the healthy vagina. Some companies are targeting women’s health having seen the difference that Fem-Dophilus is making to the lives of millions of women around the world. This is the normal business response. However, products with supposedly billions and billions or multiple types of bacteria are being promoted, without clinical evidence (and potentially contrary to clinical evidence), while other copycat claims are being made for products that never underwent the rigorous research of Lactobacillus GR-1 and RC-14. This means the consumer has to decipher what is best for her, but this approach was never what motivated Drs. Reid and Bruce, the inventors of Fem-Dophilus. Instead, they took the time to select their strains, make sure they were appropriate, safe and efficacious in humans, and produced to the highest standards before ever bringing them to the marketplace. As Dr. Reid noted “the greatest satisfaction comes from making a difference in someone’s life.”

Source by: American wellness network

The Dark Side of Vegetarianism

WEDNESDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) -- Despite its proven health benefits, a vegetarian diet might in fact be masking an underlying eating disorder, new research suggests.

The study, in the April issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, found that twice as many teens and nearly double the number of young adults who had been vegetarians reported having used unhealthy means to control their weight, compared with those who had never been vegetarians. Those means included using diet pills, laxatives and diuretics and inducing vomiting to control weight.

There's a dark side to vegetarianism, said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. He had no role in the research.

"Adolescent vegetarians [in the study] were more prone to disordered eating and outright eating disorders," Katz said. "This is not due to vegetarianism but the other way around: Adolescents struggling to control their diets and weight might opt for vegetarianism among other, less-healthful efforts."

Vegetarianism, or a mostly plant-based diet, can be recommended to all adolescents, Katz said. "But when adolescents opt for vegetarianism on their own, it is important to find out why because it may signal a cry for help, rather than the pursuit of health," he said.

Katz said he thinks a balanced vegetarian diet is among the most healthful of dietary patterns, and the study suggests some of the benefits. 

"Adolescents practicing vegetarianism were less likely to be overweight than their omnivorous counterparts and, were the measures available, would likely have had better blood pressure and cholesterol, too," he said. "Eating mostly plants -- and even only plants -- is good for us, and certainly far better for health than the typical American diet."

The study's lead researcher, Ramona Robinson-O'Brien, an assistant professor in the Nutrition Department at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in St. Joseph, Minn., agreed. 

"The majority of adolescents and young adults today would benefit from improvements in dietary intake," she said. The study found, for instance, that the vegetarians among the participants generally were less likely to be overweight or obese.

"However, current vegetarians may be at increased risk for binge eating, while former vegetarians may be at increased risk for extreme unhealthful weight-control behaviors," she said. "Clinicians and nutrition professionals providing guidance to young vegetarians might consider the potential benefits associated with a healthful vegetarian diet, [but should] recognize the possibility of increased risk of disordered eating behaviors." 

The researchers collected data on 2,516 teens and young adults who participated in a study called Project EAT-II: Eating Among Teens. They classified participants as current, former or never vegetarians and divided them into two age groups: teens (15 to 18) and young adults (19-23). 

Each participant was questioned about binge eating, whether they felt a loss of control of their eating habits and whether they used any extreme weight-control behaviors.

About 21 percent of teens who had been vegetarians said they used unhealthy weight-control behaviors, compared with 10 percent of teens who had never been vegetarians. Among young adults, more former vegetarians (27 percent) had used such measures than current vegetarians (16 percent) or those who'd never been vegetarians (15 percent), the study found.

In addition, among teenagers, binge eating and loss of control over eating habits was reported by 21 percent of current and 16 percent of former vegetarians but only 4 percent of those who'd never followed a vegetarian diet. For young adults, more vegetarians (18 percent) said they engaged in binge eating with loss of control than did former vegetarians (9 percent) and those who were never vegetarians (5 percent), the study found.

Young adult vegetarians were less likely to be overweight or obese than were those who'd never been vegetarians. Among teens, the study found no statistically significant differences in weight.

"When guiding adolescent and young adult vegetarians in proper nutrition and meal planning, it is important to recognize the potential health benefits and risks associated with a vegetarian diet," Robinson-O'Brien said. "Furthermore, it may be beneficial to investigate an individual's motives for choosing a vegetarian diet and ask about their current and former vegetarian status when assessing risk for disordered eating behaviors."

Mom's infection may affect baby's heart

Monday, March 30, 2009 


ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Babies born between April and July are more likely to have a certain heart defect, doctors reported on Monday, and they believe a common infection such as strep throat may play a role.

The condition, called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, affects the entire left side of the heart and usually requires at least three operations to reconstruct it.

Dr. Pirooz Eghtesady and colleagues at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio studied 1,500 newborns from 38 children's hospitals in the United States who had left-sided congenital heart diseases between 1996 and 2006.

They found a clear seasonal pattern to hypoplastic left heart syndrome but not other diseases, they told a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando.

"Strong seasonality is a clue that environmental factors may play an important role in this disease, as we see, for example, with such common childhood illnesses as asthma and croup," Eghtesady said in a statement.

They are now conducting a study to see whether strep throat, an infection caused by Streptococcus bacteria, may be to blame. Untreated infections of this strain of strep cause rheumatic fever, and sometimes lifelong heart disease.

Strep throat is more common in the winter months and may affect a developing fetus.

Studies have suggested that the body's immune response to strep can damage the left side of the heart. Eghtesady said preliminary evidence suggests that many mothers whose newborns had left-sided heart injury had a significant history of problems related to strep throat.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Eric Beech)