Teens with jobs more likely to smoke
High school students who work at jobs for pay appear to be more likely to start smoking than their peers who don’t work outside of school, researchers report. They also found that youths who work longer hours are more likely to smoke that those who work fewer hours.
Dr. Rajeev Ramchand, a behavioral scientist at RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, and colleagues looked at the relationship between working for pay and the initiation of smoking among nearly 800 urban, predominantly African-American students.
Sunlight Exposure May Decrease Risk of Advanced Breast Cancer
A research team from the Northern California Cancer Center, the University of Southern California, and Wake Forest University School of Medicine has found that increased exposure to sunlight – which increases levels of vitamin D in the body—may decrease the risk of advanced breast cancer.
In a study reported online this week in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers found that women with high sun exposure had half the risk of developing advanced breast cancer, which is cancer that has spread beyond the breast, compared to women with low sun exposure.
US FDA adding hearing loss risk impotence drugs
U.S. regulators on Thursday said warnings about the risk of sudden hearing loss linked to popular drugs for impotence, including Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, would be added to the drugs’ labels.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was prompted to look into a possible connection after a published report of a man taking Viagra, made by Pfizer Inc, who suffered from sudden hearing loss, a rare condition.
Obese often return to full-time work after surgery
After undergoing gastric bypass surgery to treat extreme obesity, also known as “morbid” obesity, roughly one third of patients who were medically disabled and on Medicaid can return to full-time work, according to a report in the Archives of Surgery. The likelihood appears to be greatest among patients with obesity-related conditions that resolve after treatment.
Gastric bypass surgery, also referred to as bariatric surgery, “is the only effective treatment for morbid obesity,” according to Dr. Richard C. Thirlby and associates at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.
Alzheimer’s drug side effects can be reduced
Although rivastigmine improves cognitive symptoms in patients with Alzheimer’s disease whether it is given twice or three times a day, the three times a day dosing schedule tends to produce fewer side effects and thus increase tolerability, researchers report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
“This study,” lead investigator Dr. Howard H. Feldman told Reuters Health, “suggests that for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease, rivastigmine treatment delivered in three times a day dosing—with smaller individual doses—may provide better efficacy and safety.”
Mental deficits after concussion persist in women
Up to eight months after suffering a concussion, female college-level soccer players still have impairment in certain mental functions, Canadian researchers report.
“Contrary to what is typically thought, these effects are longer-lasting,” Dr. Dave Ellemberg of the University of Montreal told Reuters Health. “They’re mild, but yet they’re prolonged.”
