Tag Archives: Study
Common Glaucoma Drug May Cause Droopy Eyelids, Study Finds
FRIDAY May 24, 2013 — Drugs commonly used to treat glaucoma may cause droopy eyelids and other side effects that can interfere with vision, according to a new study.
The drugs, known as prostaglandin analogues (PGAs), which are used to reduce eye pressure, have already been shown to cause blurred vision, dryness and changes in eye color, the researchers said, suggesting that the new findings could lead to labeling changes for PGAs.
Doctors should be conservative when prescribing these drugs, the researchers added, particularly as a preventive measure for patients at risk for glaucoma.
“The loss of periorbital fat was previously described by us in a small series of unilateral PGA users,” senior study author Dr. Louis Pasquale, director of the glaucoma service at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, said in an infirmary news release. “Those observations did ultimately lead to a change in drug labeling. These new findings could change labeling for the PGAs, as upper lid [drooping] could aggravate pre-existing visual-field loss.”
The study, led by Dr. Mamta Shah, a medical student at Boston University School of Medicine, analyzed 186 women and 157 men over the course of seven months in 2011. Researchers took into account any other glaucoma medications the patients were taking, along with other factors to determine whether PGAs alone caused certain side effects.
They found that PGA use in both eyes was associated with deepened upper eyelid furrows, hollowing of the inferior fat pads in the skin around the eye, droopy upper eyelids with abnormalities in certain muscles around the eye and lower lid retraction.
“Because PGAs are a first line of treatment for glaucoma, these results provide physicians with one reason to reconsider when they should be added in new patients, particularly those where the aim is to prevent glaucoma — such as in ocular hypertension patients or glaucoma suspects,” said Pasquale, who also is an associate professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
The study was published May 1 in the journal PLoS ONE.
More information
The U.S. National Eye Institute has more about glaucoma treatments and their side effects.
Posted: May 2013
Too Few Kids Use Fast-Food Calorie Info, Study Finds
Girls and obese children are likelier to take advantage of this knowledge
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Mary Elizabeth Dallas
HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, May 23 (HealthDay News) — While some fast-food chains are required to provide calorie and other nutritional information to help customers make informed choices, kids who eat fast food at least twice a week are 50 percent less likely to use this information than kids who eat fast food less often, according to a new U.S. study.
Those most likely to use the calorie information are girls and children who are obese, said the researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study was published online May 23 in the Journal of Public Health.
“Our findings are important given the high prevalence of obesity among youth and the adverse health effects associated with obesity,” study lead author Dr. Holly Wethington said in a journal news release. “It is encouraging that a large number of youth, particularly youth who are obese, reported using the calorie information.
“This may have potential to lead to improved food and beverage choices as a way to manage weight, although more research is needed to assess whether youth know how many calories they should consume in a day given their activity level,” added Wethington, of the CDC’s division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity.
Childhood obesity has tripled in recent decades, partly due to fast food that is higher in calories, salt and fat than food prepared at home, the CDC researchers noted. In conducting the study, they analyzed mail surveys from 721 kids ranging in age from 9 to 18 years.
The survey, done in the fall of 2010, asked the children how often they ate fast food, and if they considered the calorie information on the menu. They were also asked if this information influenced their food choices. The researchers also considered the participants’ age, gender, height and weight.
Fifty-six percent of those surveyed were boys, and while most of the children were a healthy weight, 13 percent were obese.
The survey revealed that 66 percent of the kids said they ate fast food once a week or less, and 34 percent reported eating fast food two or more times a week.
Forty-two percent of the kids said they considered the calorie information when making food choices; nearly 58 percent said they never used it, the survey found.
Girls were 80 percent more likely to consider calories than boys, and obese children were about 70 percent more likely to use calorie information.
Those eating fast food twice a week or more were 50 percent less likely to consider calorie counts than the kids who ate fast food less frequently, the investigators found.
The study authors suggested that public health and school officials could create educational programs designed to help young people understand calorie information so it can become a part of an overall weight management strategy.
“This welcome research adds to our understanding of young people and their food choices,” Lindsey Davies, president of the U.K. Faculty of Public Health, said in the news release. “It’s good news that some young people want to understand more about the food they’re eating and are using calorie information when they eat in fast-food restaurants.”
However, to fight the obesity epidemic, Davies added that it’s important to know why young people choose to eat fast food so often. Legislators could help tackle the problem by banning trans fats, which have no nutritional value and can increase the risk for heart disease, she said.
Too Few Kids Use Fast-Food Calorie Info, Study Finds
THURSDAY May 23, 2013 — While some fast-food chains are required to provide calorie and other nutritional information to help customers make informed choices, kids who eat fast food at least twice a week are 50 percent less likely to use this information than kids who eat fast food less often, according to a new U.S. study.
Those most likely to use the calorie information are girls and children who are obese, said the researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study was published online May 23 in the Journal of Public Health.
“Our findings are important given the high prevalence of obesity among youth and the adverse health effects associated with obesity,” study lead author Dr. Holly Wethington said in a journal news release. “It is encouraging that a large number of youth, particularly youth who are obese, reported using the calorie information.
“This may have potential to lead to improved food and beverage choices as a way to manage weight, although more research is needed to assess whether youth know how many calories they should consume in a day given their activity level,” added Wethington, of the CDC’s division of nutrition, physical activity and obesity.
Childhood obesity has tripled in recent decades, partly due to fast food that is higher in calories, salt and fat than food prepared at home, the CDC researchers noted. In conducting the study, they analyzed mail surveys from 721 kids ranging in age from 9 to 18 years.
The survey, done in the fall of 2010, asked the children how often they ate fast food, and if they considered the calorie information on the menu. They were also asked if this information influenced their food choices. The researchers also considered the participants’ age, gender, height and weight.
Fifty-six percent of those surveyed were boys, and while most of the children were a healthy weight, 13 percent were obese.
The survey revealed that 66 percent of the kids said they ate fast food once a week or less, and 34 percent reported eating fast food two or more times a week.
Forty-two percent of the kids said they considered the calorie information when making food choices; nearly 58 percent said they never used it, the survey found.
Girls were 80 percent more likely to consider calories than boys, and obese children were about 70 percent more likely to use calorie information.
Those eating fast food twice a week or more were 50 percent less likely to consider calorie counts than the kids who ate fast food less frequently, the investigators found.
The study authors suggested that public health and school officials could create educational programs designed to help young people understand calorie information so it can become a part of an overall weight management strategy.
“This welcome research adds to our understanding of young people and their food choices,” Lindsey Davies, president of the U.K. Faculty of Public Health, said in the news release. “It’s good news that some young people want to understand more about the food they’re eating and are using calorie information when they eat in fast-food restaurants.”
However, to fight the obesity epidemic, Davies added that it’s important to know why young people choose to eat fast food so often. Legislators could help tackle the problem by banning trans fats, which have no nutritional value and can increase the risk for heart disease, she said.
More information
Visit Harvard Medical School for more on children and fast food.
Posted: May 2013
Study show NYPD marijuana arrests (still) target blacks and Hispanics over whites
The NYPD’s stop and frisk campaign led directly to the surge in low-level marijuana arrests, figures released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union show.
For context, marijuana arrests are the top arrest category in the entire stop and frisk program. Last year, five percent–or 26,000–of all stops were for suspected possession of marijuana. Despite the fact that whites use marijuana at a higher rate, blacks by far bore the brunt of those stops–61 percent, in all. Incredibly, just 9 percent of marijuana-based stop involved white folks. More over at the Village Voice.
More links from around the web!
Antidepressants May Be Helpful for Some Heart Patients: Study
Emotional stress can harm cardiovascular health, experts say, so boosting mental resilience may be key
WebMD News from HealthDay
By Mary Elizabeth Dallas
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) — Use of the antidepressant Lexapro appears to help prevent a potentially serious stress-related heart condition, a new study finds.
The condition is known as known as “mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia.” Although people with this condition may not develop noticeable symptoms, their heart muscle is not receiving adequate blood supply, according to researchers from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C.
However, the researchers found that people taking the antidepressant Lexapro (escitalopram) were more than two and a half times less likely to be affected by the condition, which can be spurred by emotional stress.
The study was funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and is published in the May 22 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Mental stress-induced myocardial ischemia is a serious condition, as patients with the condition tend to have worse heart problems compared to patients without it,” study author Dr. Wei Jiang, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and internal medicine at Duke, said in a university news release. “This study showed for the first time that it is treatable with an emotion-modulating medication.”
The study involved 310 people diagnosed with heart disease whose condition was stable and under control. To identify those with the stress-linked heart condition, the researchers first had participants undergo exercise stress tests on a treadmill. They also had to complete three mental stress tests: First they had to solve a difficult math problem, then trace a star while looking at their hand movements in a mirror, and then tell a story that made them feel sad or angry.
As the participants performed these tasks, they underwent echocardiograms and electrocardiograms, and had readings taken of blood pressure and heart rate.
According to Jiang’s team, 127 of the patients developed stress-related heart issues. These patients were assigned to take either Lexapro, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that’s commonly used to treat depression and anxiety, or a placebo pill.
After six weeks, the participants retook the stress tests and had their heart function re-assessed. Of the original 127, 112 completed the study. The researchers found those who took the antidepressant drug were nearly three times less likely to develop stress-linked cardiovascular trouble during the mental stress tests compared to those taking placebo.
Patients taking Lexapro also tended to have healthy changes in heart function and they reported feeling calmer and more controlled than the placebo group.
“Our findings support the hypothesis that short-term use of SSRIs improves levels of biomarkers associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes,” explained Jiang. Other SSRIs include Celexa, Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft.
The researchers concluded that SSRIs or other antidepressant treatments could help manage heart disease. They noted that more research is needed to determine the proper dosing of Lexapro for the treatment of stress-linked heart issues and to better understand how antidepressant drugs could also affect patients’ risk for serious health conditions, including heart attack or angina, stroke, heart failure, or death.
