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Study shows association between sleep duration and weight in adolescents

Adolescents who don't get enough sleep may gain more than some extra time to play video games or text their friends. They also may gain weight, according to research being presented Tuesday, May 4 at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

4 May 2010

New breakthrough in nutritional plant breeding may save children’s eyesight

Two Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are part of an international team that has found a way to boost the nutritional value of corn. This has the potential to reduce the number of children in developing countries who lose their eyesight, become ill or die each year because of vitamin A deficiencies.

4 May 2010

Prenatal tobacco smoke exposure can increase risk of developmental problems in African American children

Low levels of prenatal tobacco smoke exposure are associated with a higher risk of developmental problems for African American children than white children, according to new research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

4 May 2010

Rush Center for Urban Health Equity to focus on disparities in heart and lung disease

Rush University Medical Center has been awarded a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish the Rush Center for Urban Health Equity. The aim of the Center is to find ways to promote changes to eliminate the disparities in heart and lung disease affecting inner city residents, in particular those who are low-income persons of color.

4 May 2010

PTSD symptoms more common among childhood cancer survivors

Young adult survivors of childhood cancers are four times more likely to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than their control group siblings, a Childhood Cancer Survivors Study has found.

4 May 2010

Young adult survivors of childhood cancer more likely to develop PTSD: Study

Young adult survivors of childhood cancers are four times more likely to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder than their control group siblings, a Childhood Cancer Survivors Study has found.

4 May 2010

Researchers receive $250,000 to study inventive cell-transfer therapy to treat cortical dysplasia

University of Florida researchers will receive $250,000 to study an inventive cell-transfer therapy to treat cortical dysplasia, a condition where the brain develops abnormally before birth, causing severe epilepsy in children and adults.

4 May 2010

Difference between grief and depression

"A son is a son till he takes a wife, a daughter is a daughter all her life," goes the old Irish saying. Though there is an extraordinary bond between every mother and child there is something unique about the relationship between a mother and daughter

4 May 2010

Pregnant Arab women have high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency: Study

Pregnant Arab women have an "extraordinarily high prevalence" of vitamin D deficiency - a potential health issue for them and their babies, according to a new Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center study.

4 May 2010

Play-based intervention trial at Sydney University for children with ADHD

The Sydney University Faculty of Health Sciences is seeking participants for a new play-based intervention program which aims to assist children with ADHD to develop their social interactions.

4 May 2010

WHO, UNICEF issue guide, call for more research into medicines for children

Along with the release of a WHO-UNICEF guide on medicines for children, the U.N. agencies on Friday said the guide "exposed dangerous shortfalls" in medicines designed for children and called for more research into treating children, Reuters reports. "While effective medicines exist to fight disease and treat life-threatening conditions like malnutrition, formulations suitable for children are often difficult to source," Francisco Blanco, UNICEF's chief of medicines and nutrition, said, according to the news service.

3 May 2010

FDA issues advisory on prostate cancer drugs

Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) agonists, a class of medications primarily used to treat men with prostate cancer, have been associated with a small increased risk for diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and sudden death in men treated with one of the medications, according to a preliminary and ongoing analysis of several studies by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

3 May 2010

Kids' health can suffer when parents must choose between health care and basic necessities

"The health of children is harmed when families are forced to choose between medical care and basic household necessities such as food, rent and utilities, a new study found," HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report writes. "The study included 6,447 low-income caregivers with children ranging in age from newborn to 3 years.

3 May 2010

Health law brings a 'host of new taxes' and billions in tax credits

The Washington Post/Fiscal Times: Tax credits and other breaks -- including $50 billion a year in subsidies for low-income people to buy insurance under the new health law -- were "worth more than $1 trillion to recipients last year. That's more than the government spent on Social Security, and nearly enough to balance the federal budget." These and other so-called "tax expenditures" could total $3 trillion by 2020.

3 May 2010

Calif. doctors say e-health saved lives; in Mich., doctors visit patients online

Reuters/The Washington Post: An electronic medical system first introduced in 2007 has shown a 20 percent drop in hospital deaths -- the equivalent of about 36 lives saved -- over 18-months at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto California, doctors there have found. The system, a computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, allows "doctors to relay prescriptions to pharmacists without delay, and without the need for the pharmacist to decipher doctors' scrawl."

3 May 2010

Protect eyes from sun's UV rays to decrease risk of eye diseases, disorders

With summer right around the corner, more people will be spending time outdoors and UV protection will be top of mind. Unfortunately, most people think about the protection of their skin, when they should also be considering the safety of their eyes. In fact, according to the American Optometric Association's (AOA) American Eye-Q® survey, only one-third of Americans said UV protection is the most important factor they consider when purchasing sunglasses.

3 May 2010

Stealth interventions may help people eat better, exercise more: Study

How do you get college students to eat better? A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that a "stealth" strategy of raising the students' awareness of environmental and social issues related to food can persuade them to eat more veggies and less ice cream.

3 May 2010