Our weekly roundup of the latest developments in the world of health. This week we learn that reading articles on diet and weight loss affect girls'risk for eating disorders, that a doctors' group now recommends making Down syndrome testing available for all pregnant women, and that some medications for Parkinson's disease may carry a cardiac risk. We also learn about an experimental gene test that could help find the best treatment for lung cancer patients.
Stay well.
This Issue:
Dieting Articles Harmful for Girls Down Syndrome Test Recommendations Parkinson's Drugs and Heart Risks Gene Test for Lung Cancer Patients In the News:
Dieting Articles Harmful for Girls Reading magazine articles on diet and weight loss could be hazardous to girls' health. A study published in the journal Pediatrics found that teenage girls who frequently read these articles were more likely to use extreme weight-loss measures later on compared to girls who never read them. In the study, researchers looked at surveys and weight-height measurements of more than 2,500 middle school students in 1999 and again five years later. Fourteen percent of the boys surveyed reported reading diet articles frequently, while 44% of girls did. The researchers found that the middle school girls who reported reading dieting articles at the beginning of the study were twice as likely to use extreme weight loss methods such as fasting and smoking cigarettes five years later compared to girls who never read such articles. They were three times more likely to make themselves vomit or use laxatives. The risk increased regardless of whether the girls were overweight when they started reading the articles or whether they considered their weight important. There was no corresponding higher risk seen in boys who read weight loss articles. The study did not determine whether the articles themselves or the accompanying photographs had the most influence on the girls, The Associated Press reports. The researchers say their findings suggest that parents should be careful about exposing their daughters to magazines with articles on weight loss, and that parents should discuss with their children where the messages about weight loss come from.
Down Syndrome Test Recommendations
Soon, testing for Down syndrome may be offered to all pregnant women in the United States. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists this week issued new guidelines recommending that tests for the birth defect be available for all women, not just those over 35. The recommendation was published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. The group's recommendation calls for a first-trimester screening for all women combining blood tests and a simple ultrasound exam that measures the thickness of the back of the fetal neck, a marker for Down syndrome. The group is changing its recommendations to include all pregnant women because a variety of tests are now available to check for Down syndrome that are less invasive than amniocentesis, and because the previous age recommendations based on maternal age were always somewhat arbitrary, The Associated Press reports. Women who don't get prenatal care until the second trimester can still undergo blood test screening for Down syndrome. Women of any age at high risk may choose to skip the screening and opt for the invasive testing, the AP says.
Parkinson's Drugs and Heart Risks
Two drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease appear to carry a high risk of heart valve damage. Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people taking the drugs pergolide or cabergoline had a significantly higher risk of heart valve problems. In the first study, Italian researchers compared echocardiogram images of the hearts of 155 people taking various Parkinson's drugs and 90 healthy people. Twenty-three percent of patients taking pergolide and about 29% of those taking cabergoline had moderate to severe heart valve problems, compared to only 6% of the healthy people and none of the people taking other types of Parkinson's drugs. In the second study, researchers in Berlin and in Montreal looked at records from more than 11,400 Parkinson's patients in the United Kingdom. They found that people taking either pergolide or cabergoline were five to seven times more likely to have leaky heart valves than those taking other Parkinson's medications. The drugs are not the main treatment for Parkinson's, The Associated Press reports. Pergolide is also used to treat restless legs syndrome.
Gene Test for Lung Cancer Patients
An experimental gene test may soon help doctors determine which lung cancer patients are likely to get the most benefit from chemotherapy. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Taiwanese researchers analyzed 125 tumor samples from patients with all stages of lung cancer, and identified five genes that were good predictors of risk for cancer recurrence or death. They found a strong correlation in the tumor samples between the five genes and how the patients fared. Those results were validated in another group of 60 patients, and in a U.S. study that looked at 86 tumor samples. The test still needs to be confirmed in larger studies. But it offers an advantage over similar experimental tests in that it can be used in everyday hospital settings and does not require special genetics training.
Used with the permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. The above summaries are not intended to provide advice on personal medical matters, nor are they intended to be a substitute for consultation with a physician.
