Health News - Thursday, March 8, 2007
Adolescents are using muscle-building steroids at an earlier age, but most stop using these drugs as they grow older, according to more than 2,500 youth who were surveyed in 1999 and again in 2004. According to Dr. Patricia van den Berg, the survey showed that steroid use peaked at 5 percent and at "earlier ages than we expected (i.e., in middle school) and declined as children got older."
"This seems to point more toward experimental use rather than a pattern in which initiation leads to continued use, as seems to be the case with alcohol, for instance, Van den Berg, from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis and colleagues note in the journal Pediatrics. Nonetheless, 1 to 3 out of every 100 adolescents surveyed still reported using steroids within the last year, "which is concerning," van den Berg said. Continue reading
A new study suggests that participation in the Chinese martial art Tai Chi Chuan may help boost immune function and improve blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes."
After completing a 12-week Tai Chi exercise program, men and women with the disease had statistically significant reductions in their levels of A1C, a measurement of long-term blood glucose control. The participants also showed increases in regulatory T cells, which help to keep the immune response in check, while their levels of killer T cells, which destroy abnormal cells in the body, decreased. People with type 2 diabetes experience chronic inflammation, and while exercise has been shown to be beneficial, strenuous exercise may boost inflammation and cause other problems, Dr. Kuender D. Yang of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan and colleagues note. Continue reading
Patients who have a stroke are less likely to die within the next week if they are admitted to a hospital on a weekday rather than over the weekend, neurologists in Canada report. Still, patients should remember: "Time is brain," lead investigator Dr. Gustavo Saposnik said in an American Heart Association press release, "so the sooner the patient seeks medical attention, the higher the chance of better outcome, no matter the day, time or living area."
The so-called "weekend effect" has been documented for other serious conditions," such as a blood clot in the lung or a dangerous expansion of the wall of the aorta, the largest artery in the body, Saposnik, from the University of Toronto, and his associates note in the medical journal Stroke. However, whether the phenomenon applies to stroke patients has not been fully explored. Continue reading