Cancer Survivors Are More Likely Than General Population to Use CAM, According to National Survey Analysis

Cancer Survivors Are More Likely Than General Population to Use CAM, According to National Survey Analysis

A recent analysis of the 2007 National Health Interview Survey revealed that cancer survivors are more likely to use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) compared with the general population. According to the data published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship: Research and Practice, cancer survivors are also more likely to use CAM based on a recommendation by their health care providers and to talk to their health care providers about their CAM use.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine investigated CAM use, reasons and motivations for use, and communication of CAM use with health care providers among 23,393 American adults—1,471 cancer survivors and 21,922 non-cancer controls. The researchers found that 65 percent of cancer survivors have used CAM in their lifetime, and 43 percent used CAM in the past year. In contrast, only 53 percent of the non-cancer respondents used CAM in their lifetime, and 37 percent used CAM in the past year. The most common reasons for which cancer survivors reported using CAM were wellness or general disease prevention (29 percent); enhancement of immune function (11 percent); energy enhancement (11 percent); pain management (6 percent); psychological distress (2 percent); and insomnia (1 percent). Cancer survivors were more likely than the control group to use CAM for wellness and general disease prevention, enhancing immune function, and pain management.

Cancer survivors cited various motivations for using CAM therapies; nearly 15 percent reported using CAM on the advice of a friend, family member, or coworker, while approximately 13 percent used CAM because of a recommendation from a health care provider. Fewer used CAM because conventional medical treatments did not help (5 percent) or because conventional treatments were too expensive (2 percent). Although cancer survivors were more likely than the control group to talk about CAM use with their providers, they disclosed less than a quarter of their CAM use to them.

The authors of the analysis noted that this is the first study that uses a population-based approach to examine the specific motivations of cancer survivors for using CAM therapies, as well as the degree of communication between cancer survivors and their health care providers. Although cancer survivors communicated more about their CAM use than the general population, the authors emphasized the overall need for improving communication between patients and providers about CAM use to help ensure coordinated care.
Reference
Mao JJ, Palmer CS, Healy KE, et al. Complementary and alternative medicine use among cancer survivors: a population-based study. Journal of Cancer Survivorship: Research and Practice. 2011;5(1):8–17.

Family Meals Keep Kids Slimmer, Healthier, Study Finds Eating together also reduces likelihood of eating disorders, researchers say

Family Meals Keep Kids Slimmer, Healthier, Study Finds
Eating together also reduces likelihood of eating disorders, researchers say



(Healthlinne News) -- Eating meals with their families helps keep kids slimmer and healthier, a new study finds.

Researchers pooled data from 17 earlier studies and found that youngsters who joined family members regularly for meals were 24 percent more likely to eat healthy foods than kids who rarely ate with their families. They were also less likely to suffer from eating disorders.

Parents can "really relate to and understand" the findings, published in the May 2 issue of Pediatrics, said study lead author Amber Hammons, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"We wanted to look at the family's contribution to positive outcomes as it relates to nutrition," added Hammons. "It's important for parents to know what they can do, especially with obesity and eating habits; they want to know what role they can play."

Through an Internet search in 2009, researchers at the university's Family Resiliency Center obtained relevant studies involving almost 183,000 children and teens ranging from roughly 3 to 17 years old. They looked at the youths' eating habits, weight, and whether they did anything harmful to control it.

Those who ate three or more meals a week with their families were 12 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate few or no meals with their families, and 20 percent less likely to eat sweets, fried foods, soda, and other unhealthy foods.

Eating five or more meals together reduced the likelihood of poor nutrition by 25 percent, an analysis of eight of the studies revealed.

Kids who ate with their families also were 35 percent less likely to engage in "disordered eating" behaviors aimed at losing weight, such as binge-eating, purging, taking diet pills or laxatives, vomiting, skipping meals or smoking.

Participants were deemed overweight if they had a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 85th percentile, meaning that they were heavier than 85 percent of children their age.

Eating two or more fruits and vegetables daily, and skipping soda, candy and fried foods were included as a measure of healthy nutrition.

While the study suggests that eating together as a family confers a "protective" benefit on children, the reasons for that were unclear. Some possibilities included the value of adult role models, and adult intervention before poor behaviors became bad habits, the study said.

Other research has found that meals prepared at home are more nutritious, with more fresh fruit and vegetables, and less fat, sugar and soda.

"We know that meals prepared at home are more likely to be less calorie-dense," said Hammons. But other factors such as communication during meal time might also drive the positive influence of family meals on health, she added.

"The future direction for research will not be looking at quantity of meals but at what is making meal time so important," she said.

Another expert, Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, said the study gives "a good overview of what research shows in terms of the importance of family meals" on child health. But she cautioned about its drawbacks.

"Some of the studies have limitations, including some variability in collection of nutritional outcomes, diversity of ethnicity and gender, and how studies classified weight," Diekman said.

But even with those stumbling blocks, the study provides "strong indications that shared family meals help boost nutritional intake, control body weight, and potentially prevent disordered eating patterns," said Diekman.

Children may imitate their parents, according to other research. A survey by the American Dietetic Association Foundation found that children identified their parents as their number one role models and claimed that if their parents ate healthier foods, they would too, said Diekman.

The authors of the current study say doctors should emphasize the value of family meals for patients struggling with eating disorders or obesity.

SOURCES: Amber J. Hammons, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate, Family Resiliency Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition, Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.; May 2, 2011, Pediatrics

No Long-Term Effects Seen From Anesthesia in Infancy Study offers reassurance for parents of babies who need surgery, but more research urged

No Long-Term Effects Seen From Anesthesia in Infancy
Study offers reassurance for parents of babies who need surgery, but more research urged

By Robert Preidt


(Healthlinne News) -- Exposing young children to a brief, single anesthetic does not seem to cause long-term harmful effects on the brain, a finding that should reassure parents, researchers say.

Previous studies in young animals have found evidence that anesthetics can cause developmental and behavioral problems, but whether the same is true in young children has been uncertain.

In this new study, researchers compared the academic performance of two groups of ninth-grade students in Denmark: 2,689 who had inguinal hernia repair before they were 1 year of age, and 14,575 in the general population.

There was no statistically significant difference in academic performance between the two groups, and the majority of students who had hernia repair in infancy showed no signs of neurological impairment, the investigators found.

The study is published in the May issue of the journal Anesthesiology.

"Fortunately, our study did not find a relation between neurodegeneration and anesthesia in young children. The findings should help reassure parents that if their child needs to undergo surgery, a minimal amount of anesthesia does not appear to influence subsequent education achievements later in life," study author Dr. Tom G. Hansen said in a journal news release.

"However, we cannot fully conclude that anesthetics are safe in all cases. More human data need to be collected to exclude effects in more particular domains of neurobehavioral outcome," he added.

SOURCE: Anesthesiology, news release, April 27, 2011

Pet Dogs May Be Exposed to High Levels of Flame Retardants PBDEs higher in canine blood than humans; food processing may play role, study suggests

Pet Dogs May Be Exposed to High Levels of Flame Retardants
PBDEs higher in canine blood than humans; food processing may play role, study suggests

By Robert Preidt


(Healthlinne News) -- Levels of chemical flame-retardants in the blood of pet dogs are five to 10 times higher than in humans, researchers have found.

In the study, Indiana University scientists checked the levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the blood of 17 pet dogs who mainly lived indoors. The average blood concentration of the chemicals in the dogs was about 2 nanograms per gram.

The researchers also found that PBDE levels in dog food average about 1 nanogram per gram, which is much higher than levels found in meat and poultry sold for human consumption. This suggests that PBDEs in dog food may come from processing rather than from the food sources.

The study was published online April 18 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

PBDEs are used as flame-retardants in a wide range of consumer products, including furniture and electronics. The chemicals can migrate out of the products and enter the environment, according to background information in a university news release.

One particularly hazardous type was voluntarily removed from the U.S. market in 2004, but still lingers in the environment, the researchers noted.

"Even though they've been around for quite a while, we don't know too much about these compounds' toxicological effects on humans or animals," study author Marta Venier, an assistant research scientist in the School of Public Health and Environmental Affairs, said in the news release.

The researchers are exploring whether pets could serve as "biosentinels" for monitoring human exposure to chemicals in the home. In a previous study, the investigators found that pet cats had much lower levels of PBDEs than dogs.

Because their metabolism is better equipped to break down chemicals found in homes, dogs may be better biosentinels than cats, the researchers explained.

SOURCE: Indiana University, news release, April 26, 2011

Transferring doctors to heart attack patients improves outcomes American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report

Transferring doctors to heart attack patients improves outcomes
American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report

Study Highlights:
Transporting a specialist to a patient having a severe heart attack (STEMI) can reduce delays in the patient receiving primary angioplasty, compared with transferring the patient to a specialist.
Of patients in the specialist-transfer group, 21 percent received angioplasty within the recommended 90 minutes vs. 7.7 percent of patients in the patient-transfer group.

DALLAS, April 26, 2011 — In a large, traffic-congested city in China, severe heart attack patients received treatment faster and had better long-term results when interventional physicians were taken to them, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The REVERSE-STEMI study involved 334 patients who had suffered a ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), a severe form of heart attack.

The patients were initially brought to one of five hospitals, all in Shanghai, China, that didn’t have specialists who could perform primary percutaneous coronary infusion (PPCI) or primary angioplasty, but had cardiac catheterization laboratories.

During PPCI, the recommended treatment for acute STEMI patients, a balloon on the end of a long tube, or catheter, is guided through one of a patient’s arteries to the blockage causing the heart attack. Then, the balloon is inflated to place a stent to open the artery.

In the study, about half the patients were transferred, as is routine, to a sixth Shanghai hospital capable of performing PPCI. The other patients were subject to an “interventionalist-transfer strategy,” in which the patients stayed at the hospital where their condition was diagnosed and an interventional cardiologist was dispatched from a PPCI-capable hospital.

The study tracked “door-to-balloon time,” the period between a STEMI patient’s arrival at a hospital to when the balloon was inflated. The goal is a door-to-balloon time of 90 minutes or less.

About 21 percent of the patients in the interventionalist-transfer group had PPCI performed within the 90-minute time frame, compared with just 7.7 percent of those in the patient-transfer group, the researchers found.

The interventionalist-transfer strategy is feasible and effective in reducing door-to-balloon time, said Qi Zhang, author of the study and a cardiologist at Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai, China.

A year later, nearly 85 percent of the patients whose specialist was taken to them survived and had not experienced any other major cardiac events, such as another heart attack, compared to nearly 75 percent of the patient transfer group. Also a year later, the left ventricular ejection fraction of patients in the interventionalist-transfer group (60.1 percent) was significantly higher than that of the patient-transfer group (56.9 percent). Left ventricular ejection fraction is a measure of the heart’s pumping ability.

Traffic increased the door-to-balloon times for transferred patients by delaying the arrival of the ambulance at the first hospital and then delaying the patient’s transfer to the second hospital. The risk of cardiac complications also increased during patient transfer. The average transfer distance was 17.5 kilometers (almost 11 miles).

The interventionalist-transfer strategy could be an important tool in metropolitan areas of China or elsewhere if resources such as ambulances and emergency staff are in short supply, leading to delays in transferring patients, researchers said. Until emergency infrastructure in some cities can be improved, “we believe this strategy is a good interim option,” Zhang said.

Aspirin's Clot-Prevention Ability Blunted by Dietary Fat: Study Fatty acids in bloodstream seem to interfere with the painkiller

Aspirin's Clot-Prevention Ability Blunted by Dietary Fat: Study
Fatty acids in bloodstream seem to interfere with the painkiller

By Robert Preidt
Monday, May 2, 2011

(Healthlinne News) -- Aspirin's ability to prevent potentially deadly blood clots may be hindered by elevated levels of fatty acids in the bloodstream, a new study suggests.

It's common for doctors to prescribe aspirin as a blood thinner for patients at high risk of a heart attack. Aspirin inhibits the activity of the COX-1 enzyme, which plays a role in blood clot formation.

It's known that free fatty acids -- released into the bloodstream during the breakdown of fat cells -- also inhibit COX-1 activity.

In this study, researchers looked at the effect that two fatty acids -- oleic acid and palmitic acid -- have on aspirin's effectiveness in preventing clots. Oleic acid is found in various animal and vegetable fats, and palmitic acid is one of the most common saturated fats found in plants and animals.

The researchers found that both types of fatty acids interfered with aspirin's ability to reduce the risk of clots, according to an American Heart Association news release.

The study was to be presented Saturday at the American Heart Association's Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 2011 Scientific Sessions in Chicago.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, April 30, 2011