Families

C-section rate in U.S. climbs to all time high

Submitted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 19th, 10:21 am

Between 2002 and 2009, the number of cesarean deliveries rose significantly, from 27 percent of births to 34 percent, finds a new report based on information from 19 U.S. states.

"C-sections are rising, and there needs to be a little bit more scrutiny from the person who is having the C-section as well as doctors and hospitals," said report author Dr. Divya Cantor, the senior physician consultant for HealthGrades, the organization that put together the report.

HealthGrades is a source for physician information and hospital quality outcomes.\

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FDA unveils vaccine for 2011-12 season

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, July 18th, 2:08 pm

Influenza may be far from most Americans' thoughts as much of the nation wilts under oppressive heat, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it's already preparing for the 2011-12 flu season.

The FDA said it has approved the vaccine formulation for the upcoming season, and six manufacturers have been chosen to produce and distribute the vaccines for the United States.

"Vaccines to prevent seasonal influenza have a long and successful track record of safety and effectiveness in the United States," Dr. Karen Midthun, director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an agency news release. "It is important to get vaccinated every year, even if the strains in the vaccine do not change, because the protection received the previous year will diminish over time and may be too low to provide protection into the next year."

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Women bear greatest burden of Alzheimer's

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, July 18th, 9:47 am

Women fear Alzheimer's disease more than any other illness except cancer, and they are more often on the front lines of providing care for loved ones battling the disease, new research shows.

"With statistics consistently pointing to the fact that more women are living with Alzheimer's and caring for people with Alzheimer's, it is clear women are disproportionately affected by this disease," said Angela Geiger, chief strategy officer of the Alzheimer's Association.

A survey of women in France, Germany, Spain, Poland and the United States revealed that women are at the center of the global Alzheimer's epidemic. The multinational research team found women in all five countries were more concerned than men about a loved one developing the disease.

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Cyberbullying a big worry for parents

Submitted by Anonymous on Friday, July 15th, 2:01 pm

More than half of the parents of teen-agers say they're worried about cyberbullying, a new survey finds.

Cyberbullying, which usually means one teen or group of teens taunting or spreading rumors about a peer online, has risen along with accessibility of the internet and the popularity of online social media such as Facebook.

In a survey of more than 1,000 parents of teenagers aged 13 to 17 by the American Osteopathic Association found that 85 percent of those polled reported that their children had social media accounts. About 52 of parents said cyberbullying was a concern.

One expert said these concerns are valid.

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Less lighting up in movies aimed at kids

Submitted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 14th, 2:34 pm

The number of films that children are likely to see that include smoking has dropped for the fifth straight year, a new report finds.

Overall, there has been a nearly 72 percent drop since 2005 in smoking depictions in movies rated G, PG or PG-13 -- from 2,093 incidents of onscreen smoking to 595 in 2010. In addition, the average number of smoking incidents in youth-rated films dropped more than 66 percent -- from about 20 percent in 2005 to 6.8 percent in 2010.

"This study shows that studios know how to eliminate smoking from youth-rated movies and have nothing to fear from a policy requiring them to do so," said Vince Willmore, a spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "The Motion Picture Association of America should move quickly to adopt a policy requiring an R-rating for any movie that depicts smoking that is not in a historical setting," he said.

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ADHD, learning issues may be linked to secondhand smoke

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, July 11th, 3:11 pm

Children exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes face a higher risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, other behavioral problems and learning disorders, a new study finds.

The research doesn't definitively prove that tobacco smoke can harm children's brains, and it doesn't say how much smoke is too much. However, it does add to the evidence that children may be especially vulnerable to the effects of smoke exposure.

"They're in a developmental stage and their body is growing," potentially putting them at greater risk of disruptions to their brains than adults, said study co-author Hillel R. Alpert, a research scientist at Harvard School of Public Health's Center for Global Tobacco Control in Boston.

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Talking to teens may help them cut back on pot smoking

Submitted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 6th, 4:26 pm

Brief, voluntary and non-judgmental conversations with teens about marijuana use may significantly reduce their use of the drug, according to a new study.

Researchers also found that a motivational approach to these discussions about marijuana was more effective than merely educating high school students on the health effects of the drug.

Marijuana is a common drug choice for teens around the world. In the United States alone, nearly one-third of high school students report smoking pot. Many of them do so because they don't realize the health consequences of using the drug, according to researchers at the University of Washington.

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