Our weekly round up of the latest news in the world of health. This week we look at the risks for children with undiagnosed hypertension, at the benefits of weight-loss surgery, at a virus that could contribute to obesity and at an adult psychiatric drug now approved for use in children with schizophrenia.
Stay well.
This Issue:
Hypertension in Kids Weight-Loss Surgery Ups Survival Obesity Virus Risperdal for Children In the News:
Hypertension in Kids Some 2 million U.S. children have high blood pressure, three quarters of them don't know it. That's the finding of a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which looked at over 14,000 healthy children aged 3 to 18. The researchers examined the children's blood pressure, height and weight measurements taken during doctor's office visits, and determined that 3.6% of the children had high blood pressure. But of those children, only 26% had been given a diagnosis of hypertension. When they extrapolated that to the U.S. population, the researchers determined that about 1.5 million children could have undiagnosed high blood pressure. The researchers say this could be because calculating high blood pressure in children is more complicated than in adults. The cutoff for hypertension depends on children's gender, age, weight and height, The Associated Press reports. The effects of high blood pressure on children's health are not as well known as the risks to adults, but some evidence suggests it could contribute to early artery hardening and heart damage, the AP says.
Weight-Loss Surgery Ups Survival
Obesity surgery could be a lifesaver. Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that obese people who had gastric bypass or other weight-loss surgery had a significantly lower risk of dying in seven to 10 years compared to obese people who did not have the surgery. In the first study, Swedish researchers looked at over 4,000 people with a body mass index of over 34 (a BMI of 30 is considered obese) who'd had one of three types of surgery or received standard diet advice. Ten years later, the surgery patients had lost 14% to 25% of their original weight, while the dieters had lost only 2%. There also were fewer deaths among the surgery group. In the second study, U.S. researchers looked at close to 8,000 severely obese people who'd had gastric bypass and a similar group who had no had surgery. Over seven years of follow-up, deaths from diabetes in the surgery group were cut by 92%; deaths from cancer by 60% and deaths from heart disease 56%. The researchers say the findings could change the guidelines on obesity surgery to recommend it for patients with a lower BMI, The Associated Press reports.
Obesity Virus
A common virus could be contributing to the obesity epidemic in the United States. A study presented at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in Boston this week found that human stem cells exposed to adenovirus-36 -- a bug responsible for causing colds and pinkeye -- turned into fat cells and stored fat. In the study, researcher took fat tissue from liposuction patients, removed adult stem cells from the tissue, and exposed the cells to the virus. More than half of them turned into fat cells, compared to only a small percentage of the stem cells that weren't exposed to the virus. The researchers said that their findings could point the way to a vaccine to prevent obesity in some people. However, The Associated Press quotes other experts who say that most obesity is caused not by a virus, but by too many calories and too little exercise.
Risperdal for Children
The Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved a drug to treat schizophrenia in adolescents. The FDA approved the use of the adult psychiatric drug Risperdal to treat schizophrenia in children age 13 to 17 and to treat bipolar disorder in children age 10 to 17. Previously, lithium had been the only approved drug treatment for children with bipolar disorder, The Associated Press reports. Risperdal already had been approved last year to treat irritability associated with autism, the AP says. The dose approved for young people is slightly lower than for adults.
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.
