Category Archives: Cancer

Australian woman develops French accent after being injured in car accident

After a serious car accident, an Australian woman has fully recovered from her injuries, except for one very bizarre side effect: She now speaks with a French accent. Leann Rowe’s ordeal began eight years ago, when she woke up in Melbourne’s Austin Hospital after her accident with a broken back and jaw. As her jaw began to heal, Rowe regained her ability to speak, but she noticed that she was slurring her words.  Eventually the slurring transformed into a French accent – which has yet to leave. Rowe said she has never been to France and doesn’t have any French friends – though she did study French in school. Rowe suffers from an extremely rare condition known as Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), which causes people to develop an accent different from their native way of speaking, the Herald Sun reported.  Between 1941 and 2012, there have only been 62 recorded cases of FAS worldwide.  The condition occurs when certain tissues in the brain associated with speech are damaged. While her new ability may seem exciting to some, Rowe said the condition has made her feel depressed and anxious. Click for more from the Herald Sun.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/australian-woman-develops-french-accent-after-being-injured-in-car-accident/

Medical assessment in the blink of an eye

There are many routes to making snap judgments (not all of them particularly useful). One of these is our ability to get the "gist" of an entire image by analyzing the whole scene at once, based on interpretation of global properties and image statistics, not focusing on specific details.That seems to be what medical experts can do. They are not perfect in a fraction of a second but they do far better than random guessing when classifying medical images as normal or abnormal even though, in that blink of an eye, they cannot tell you where the problem might be located. …

Venezuela considers prohibiting bottle feeding for infants

Venezuela's Congress will discuss legislation this week that would prohibit bottle feeding of infants to try to encourage breast feeding and reduce the use of baby formula, said a lawmaker of the ruling Socialist Party. Legislator Odalis Monzon said the proposal would “prohibit all types of baby bottles” as a way to improve children's health. “We want to increase the love (between mother and child) because this has been lost as a result of these transnational companies selling formula,” Monzon said on state television on Thursday. She said the Law for the Promotion and Support for Breast-Feeding, passed in 2007, did not establish any sanctions for using formula. However, she did not say what the sanctions might be if the proposed change to prohibit bottle feeding is passed by Congress, where the Socialist Party has a majority. Monzon said, however, that exceptions would be allowed, such as in the case of the death of a mother, or for women with limited breast milk production, as determined by the health ministry. She did not respond to phone calls seeking details, including how long babies would be breast-fed. Such legislation would likely raise the ire of opposition sympathizers who say the government of the late President Hugo Chavez excessively extended the reach of the state into the lives of private citizens. “People are free to feed their children as they see fit,” said Ingrid Rivero, a 27-year-old mother in Caracas. “My daughter stopped breast feeding after seven months. What can I do?

Number of new primary care physicians in US ‘abysmally low’

Fewer doctors in the United States are choosing to become primary care physicians – especially in rural areas of the country, Medical Daily reported. In fact, the rate at which U.S. medical schools are producing primary care physicians is “abysmally low,” said Dr. Candice Chen, from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Human Services. Chen and her fellow researchers studied a group of nearly 9,000 doctors who graduated from more than 750 different residency sites between 2006 and 2008. Less than a quarter of these doctors chose to become primary care physicians after their residencies, and less than one in 20 chose to work in rural areas of the country, according to Medical Daily. Additionally, 198 of the 759 medical institutions studied failed to graduate a single doctor who went on to practice in a rural area. “If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians, the shortage in primary care – especially in remote areas – will get worse,” Chen told reporters. “The study's findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation's need for primary care physicians.” Some experts believe the country's medical education system will need to change to fix the shortage. An editorial published in the New York Times suggested that the U.S. educate future doctors for free to eliminate the large debt most medical students incur. The program would be funded by issuing penalties to any doctor who chose to pursue a specialty outside of primary care. Click for more from Medical Daily.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/number-new-primary-care-physicians-in-us-abysmally-low/

Normal or not? When temper tantrums become a disorder

Angry kids who throw excessive, explosive tantrums now have their own disorder: disruptive mood dysregulation disorder. Whereas this new addition to the mental health dictionary, the DSM, has prompted protests that psychiatrists are turning a normal part of childhood into a mental disorder, proponents say it will address the skyrocketing rate of another diagnosis that is leading to the inappropriate use of powerful medications on children. The soaring diagnoses belong to pediatric cases of bipolar disorder. Between 1994-1995 and 2002-2003, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children grew by 40-fold, according to research published in 2007 in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry. [11 New Warning Signs Help Spot Mental Illness in Children] Many of these children exhibited a pattern not consistent with a bipolar diagnosis. Specifically, bipolar disorder involves episodes of mania, which can show up in children as irritability. However, many of the children diagnosed did not have clear-cut episodes of irritability, instead, they were constantly irritable. As a result, experts believe many children are being misdiagnosed. Bipolar disorder is often treated with medications that bring worrisome side effects that are worse in children, according to the advocacy group the National Alliance on Mental Illness. These include weight gain that brings increased risk of diabetes or heart problems later in life, movement abnormalities and other problems. When it came time to put together the new edition of the mental health manual, called the DSM-5, officials at the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the manual, wanted to include a better-fitting diagnosis for kids with persistently angry, irritable dispositions, hence the addition of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). However, the addition is controversial. Allen Frances, who chaired the task force for the previous edition of DSM, charges that this new DMDD diagnosis “will exacerbate, not relieve, the already excessive and inappropriate use of medicationin young children.” The addition of DMDD could prove helpful, because it will enable researchers to study these symptoms in children who have previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but who dont fit the profile for that disorder, said Robin Rosenberg, a clinical psychologist and co-author of the psychology textbook “Abnormal Psychology” (Worth Publishers, 2009). “The concern is that it will lower the threshold for diagnosing kids who are just having a hard time,” Rosenberg said. “There is a gain and there is a risk. If it becomes overly diagnosed, it will prevent us from figuring out what is going on with kids who really have this persistent problem with mood and behavior and, more importantly, needlessly put children on dangerous medications.” Tantrums and bad moods are normal parts of childhood. But to receive a DMDD diagnosis, a child must have rages that are “grossly out of proportion” three or more times per week, on average. The child's mood between outbursts must be “irritable or angry most of the day, nearly every day,” according to the DMDD criteria, which set a threshold of at least 12 months. Kids who might qualify for this new diagnosis may come to the attention of mental health professionals because they have serious behavioral trouble at school or their parents may be unable to control them at home, Rosenberg said. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/normal-or-not-when-temper-tantrums-become-disorder/

Sibling bullying is under-recognized, study finds

Across the U.S., parents, educators, doctors and other experts have rallied to protect children from bullies. However, bullying by brothers and sisters is often chalked up to normal sibling behavior. Now a new study finds that sibling aggression, like peer aggression, causes mental distress, which can lead to anger, depression and anxiety in the child who is being targeted. The researchers found that 32 percent of the children and adolescents had experienced one type of sibling aggression during the previous year. Further, the study showed that regardless of whether the aggression was mild or severe, bullied kids had significantly worse mental health than children who were not bullied. “There is a natural emotional intensity to sibling relationships,” said lead author Corinna Jenkins Tucker, an associate professor of family studies at the University of New Hampshire. “There is a lot of love, but also the potential for a lot of conflicts.” More from LiveScience The researchers analyzed information from telephone interviews with nearly 3,600 adolescents ages 10 to 17, and with adult caregivers of children 9 and under. Each youngster had at least one sibling under 18 who was living at home. The data were obtained as part of The National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, which documents the incidence and prevalence of youngsters' exposure to violence. During the interviews, the researcher asked if the adolescent or child had been bullied by a sibling during the past year. As the researchers defined it, bullying included physical assault, property victimization (such as forcibly taking something a child was wearing, or destroying something belonging to the child), or psychological aggression (such as name-calling, or telling the child he or she wasn't wanted around). In addition, researchers asked the youngsters if they had experienced anger, depression or anxiety during the previous month. Eight percent of the children interviewd had experienced two or more types of sibling bullying duringthe previous year. Children who were even mildly physically assaulted by a sibling had greater mental distress than adolescents who were not assaulted. However, all the kids were similarly affected by the other types of sibling aggression. Tucker said that parents and other adults often downplay sibling aggression. As a result, it's “under-recognized and under-estimated,” she said. “Our work is showing that in some cases, the mental distress associated with sibling aggression is similar to what we see with peer aggression. It is something to be taken seriously.”  Mark E. Feinberg, a research professor at the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University, said “while our society has been working to eliminate bullying, it has not touched the relationship that is most violent — the sibling relationship.” The findings are “are not news to those of us who have been paying attention to sibling relationships,” but because the study involved a large, nationally representative sample, the findings should focusattention on sibling aggression, said Feinberg, who was not involved with the study. “The question then is, what do we do about it?” he said. “Nobody yet has the answer on how to deal with this problem.” According to Tucker, when parents notice bullying, they should step in. “It is an opportunity for parents to act as a mediator, and teach constructive conflict skills,” she said. Parenting programs, Tucker added, should include discussions about sibling bullying as well. “There is a big push now to stop aggression, particularly between peers, and we are suggesting that these programs include a focus on siblings,” she said. The study is published June 17 in the journal Pediatrics. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/sibling-bullying-is-under-recognized-study-finds/

Meet the man who claims he doesn’t need food

It may seem a little hard to digest, but a man who hasn’t eaten three solid meals a day in months claims he has stumbled upon the secret to good health — and it doesn’t involve calorie counting and exercise. But Rob Rhinehart isn’t on a fad diet or starving himself in a bid to lose weight. He simply wanted to revolutionize his life when he created what he says is a formula which gives his body the exact amount of vitamins and minerals it needs to survive. Spurned on by a poor diet and lack of time to shop and prepare food, the 24-year-old began researching what his body needed, down to the biochemical level, and made Soylent — a drink mixture of vitamins and minerals which includes calcium, potassium, zinc, vitamins A, B, C, D, E and K. “I was really tired of eating poorly and wondered why it had to be difficult to obtain healthy food,” he said. “I started seeing food on a biochemical level and developed a new form that is much more efficient and scalable by including only the necessary components — and was surprised to find it worked.” He swapped his favorite pizzas, burgers and other foods with his Soylent formula for a month and says he begun to enjoy food for the first time as he learned how to eat for pleasure instead of greed. Mr Rhinehart, who now has Soylent for 90 percent of his meals, said he believed his formula could be the ideal replacement for unhealthy fast food, or for time-poor people who wanted to avoid the stress of shopping and cooking. Not to be confused with the 1973 sci-fi film Soylent Green in which most of the population lives off rations including one aptly called Soylent Green, Mr Rhinehart’s says his formula may be just as effective in helping solve food shortages. He admits to still having the occasional craving for a big hearty meal, but says he mostly wants healthy, fresh tasting flavors. “I still eat, but I have not been to the grocery store, cooked, or cleaned a dish in months,” he said. “I enjoy my favorite foods a few times per week, mostly out with friends on the weekends, which is really all I crave.” Mr Rhinehart insists his diet is far from boring. “I assumed I would quickly get tired of the taste but this does not happen,” he writes in his blog. “It’s really nice to always be full and healthy, and still enjoy food just for fun when I want to.” And he reckons even the biggest foodie could learn to eat less using a mix of Soylent and prepared meals as people would be left with more time to enjoy the things they want. “People will find a good balance of Soylent meals and regular meals to ensure maximum enjoyment of food and health. I think it could vastly improve our relationship with food and agriculture,” he said. But nutritionists warn that such a formula-type diet is not only restrictive, but unsustainable. Sydney-based nutritionist Susie Burrell said while supplements could be developed to replace the contents of a meal, the reality was that humans enjoyed sitting down to meals. “While technically you can develop supplements that replace the nutrients content of a meal, which can be used to support weight loss or feed those who do not have access to food, the reality is that human beings like to eat, which is why dietary restriction and meal replacements are not proven to work long term,” she said. “Claiming such a product can solve the nutrition issues of the world is a simplistic view of very complex issues including obesity, malnutrition, food security, eating behaviour and basic nutrition.” Nutrition consultant Tracie Hyam said Mr Rhinehart may think he’s learning to eat properly, but that it actually wasn’t the case. “Meal-replacement shakes can definitely have a place in a weight-loss program or plan, but in the long-term the shakes will not deliver a healthy eating habit for him,” she said, adding there were a lot of other reasons such a diet was far from ideal. “If his digestive system isn’t used to chewing or digesting food, that one meal a week out with friends might be a big shock to the system,” she said. “Food in moderation, and definitely nutritious food, is there to be enjoyed. So replacing most meals of the day, is really taking away that enjoyment.” Click for more from news.com.au. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/meet-man-who-doesnt-need-food/

Tai chi: Getting there more slowly, but gracefully and intact

For modern, harried lifestyles focused on getting and spending, fitness experts say tai chi, the ancient Chinese slow-moving exercise, can be an ideal way for anyone to stay fit. A staple in senior citizen centers and a common dawn sighting in public parks, the practice can offer long-term benefits for all age groups. “In this high-tech world that's all about speed, greed and instant gratification, tai chi is the antidote to bring us back to balanced health,” according to Arthur Rosenfeld, a tai chi master and the author of a new book called “Tai Chi — The Perfect Exercise: Finding Health, Happiness, Balance, and Strength.” “It doesn't mean you can win the marathon or clean and jerk 750 pounds or win a cycle sprint,” said the South Florida resident, 56. “It's not about getting there sooner.” Tai chi is more about how the body works than how it looks, and is about aging gracefully and “with less drama.” “The last time I looked, there were some 500 studies about the various physical benefits of tai chi, from improving balance and attention span to boosting the immune system to beating back the symptoms of arthritis, asthma and insomnia,” said Rosenfeld. An estimated 2.3 million U.S. adults have done tai chi in the past 12 months, according to a 2007 National Health Interview Survey. The practice is not perfect. Tai chi “does not supply the cardiovascular component that we'd be looking for in a well-rounded routine,” said Jessica Matthews, a San Diego, California-based exercise physiologist. “The exertion level, while challenging, is not going to increase your heart rate.” 'Grand ultimate motion' T'ai chi ch'uan, as it is formally known, derives from a form of Chinese martial arts. Explaining the slow, circular movement of the practice, Rosenfeld said tai chi is a philosophical term that means the harmonious interplay of opposing forces. When nature encounters a strong force, the way it answers that force to maintain harmony in the world is with a spiral, he said. “Astronomers see galaxies moving in spirals, water goes down the drain in a spiral, tornados form as a spiral. We spiral in tai chi because the most effective way to move fluid through solid is a spiral.” Hawaii-based personal and group-fitness trainer Jordan Forth, who has studied tai chi since 2006, said one translation of tai chi is “grand ultimate motion.” “I recommend it to everybody,” said Forth. “It teaches people to move well in multiple planes of motion with a state of awareness not cultivated in everyday fitness. Most people check out on a treadmill or during high-intensity activity.” Forth said tai chi improves mobility, movement and flexibility and can be even more dynamic than yoga, which the 35-year-old has studied since he was a teenager. “With tai chi you're grounded the entire time,” he said. “For me, (it) translates more into functional everyday movement.” Matthews, who is also a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise, said because tai chi is slow motion and low impact, many assume it's just for older people or not a viable means of exercise. Not so, she said: Research studies have found that the practice increased mineral bone density, boosted endurance, strengthened the lower body, and eased depression.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/tai-chi-getting-there-more-slowly-but-gracefully-and-intact/

Boston hospital to offer hand transplants for kids

A Boston hospital is starting the world's first hand transplant program for children, and doctors say it won't be long until face transplants and other radical operations to improve appearance and quality of life are offered to kids, too. The move shows the growing willingness to do transplants to enhance a patient's life rather than to save it as donated hearts, livers and other organs have done in the past. More than 70 hands and at least 20 faces have been transplanted in adults, and doctors say it's clear these operations are safe enough to offer to children in certain cases, too. “We feel that this is justifiable,” Dr. Amir Taghinia said of the pediatric hand program he will lead at Boston Children's Hospital. “Children will potentially benefit even more from this procedure than adults” because they regrow nerves more quickly and have more problems from prosthetic hands, he said. Only one hand transplant is known to have been done in a child - a baby in Malaysia in 2000. Because the donor was a twin who died at birth, her sister did not need to take drugs to prevent rejection. That's the main risk in offering children hand transplants - the immune-suppressing drugs carry side effects and may raise the risk of cancer over the long term. However, one independent expert thinks the gains may be worth it in certain cases. “We understand so much more about immune suppression” that it's less of a risk to put children on it, said Dr. Simon Horslen, medical director of the liver and intestine transplant program at Seattle Children's Hospital. “This is never going to be done as an emergency procedure, so the families will have plenty of opportunity to weigh the options.” Also, a hand can be removed if rejection occurs, and that would not leave the child worse off than before the transplant, Horslen said. Several types of kids might be candidates - those born without hands, children who lose them in accidents and children with infections that wind up requiring damaged hands to be amputated. Quality of life is a key concern for people missing arms and hands - prosthetics for those limbs are not as advanced as those for feet and legs. In December, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore did a double-arm transplant for former soldier Brendan Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq. It was the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant performed in the U.S. For a child missing two hands, “the quality-of-life issues are a big deal,” said Dr. Douglas Diekema of the Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children's Hospital and a member of the American Board of Pediatrics' ethics committee. “In terms of how we interact with the social world, it's mostly our face and our hands,” so a transplant “is a reasonable thing to offer a family,” he said. Boston Children's Hospital plans to make its first cases healthy children 10 or older who are missing both hands. “Some of them can't feed themselves, they can't go to the bathroom, someone needs to assist them with almost every activity,” Taghinia said. The hospital also will consider children missing one hand who already are taking immune-suppressing drugs because of transplanted organs, or those with only one hand that doesn't work well. The hospital will cover the cost of the operation and care for three months afterward, then ask insurers to pay for immune suppression and follow-up.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/boston-hospital-to-offer-hand-transplants-for-kids/

Surgeon shortage linked to burst appendices

Living in an area with few general surgeons may make people with appendicitis more likely to turn into ruptured appendix cases by the time they get to surgery, according to new research. “The study shows that access to surgical care, especially general surgical care, is important and low access can have real impacts that affect peoples' health,” coauthor Thomas Ricketts of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told Reuters Health by email. The Affordable Care Act includes a provision for incentive payments to increase the supply of doctors in areas with shortages, but those bonuses only apply in places with too few primary care doctors. General surgeon and primary care shortage areas don't always line up, Ricketts said, and even when they do, general surgeons can't move to areas that don't already have primary care physicians to serve the community and refer patients back to them. Almost 30,000 patients with appendicitis - a quarter of whom suffered a burst appendix - were discharged from hospitals in North Carolina between 2007 and 2009, according to data from hospitals and surgery centers in the state analyzed by the researchers. There are 95,000 burst appendices per year in the U.S. according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A 2008 study found that an appendectomy can cost between $10,000 and $18,000 more when the appendix has burst. With surgery before a rupture, typically about 20 hours or less after abdominal pain begins, patients usually recover quickly. If the appendix has burst (roughly 40 hours after symptoms begin), that could mean repeat operations and longer recovery time, according to the Merck Manual. To see whether a surgeon shortage was linked to more burst appendices in an area, the researchers compared the number of cases of appendicitis, and specifically burst appendices, with the number of general surgeons in “surgical service areas” of the state that roughly align with zip codes. Having less than 3 general surgeons per 100,000 people increased the likelihood of having a ruptured appendix by five percent, compared to areas with at least 5 surgeons, Ricketts and his colleague report in the Annals of Surgery. However, areas with the most severe shortage had a 25 percent rate of rupture, compared to 24 percent in areas with no shortage. According to Dr. Edward Livingston, who has written about using ruptured appendices as a measure of care but was not involved in the new study, that is much too small a difference to draw any conclusions. Logic dictates that ruptures would be more common in rural areas, since patients have to travel farther to get to care, but that's the opposite of what the study found if the results are reliable, said Livingston, the deputy editor for clinical content at the Journal of the American Medical Association in Chicago. There were fewer surgeons relative to the population in urban areas, but the study didn't account for the residents, physician's assistants and nurse practitioners who add to the surgical work force in large urban medical centers, Livingston said. The results of the same study with more patients from more diverse regions might not show any difference between groups at all, Livingston told Reuters Health in an email. It would make more sense to measure the delay between when symptoms begin and when the patient reaches surgery in several different areas, and see if areas with longer delays correspond to areas with fewer surgeons, in order to infer that fewer surgeons lead to delays which lead to ruptures, Livingston said. “They would have to measure the delay to prove their point,” Livingston said. “This highlights a problem in studies like this one, where conclusions are made based on assumptions about what happens without really knowing what is happening at a patient level,” he said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/17/surgeon-shortage-linked-to-burst-appendices/