Study rejects Internet sex predator stereotype
The typical online sexual predator is not someone posing as a teen to lure unsuspecting victims into face-to-face meetings that result in violent rapes, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Rather, they tend to be adults who make their intentions of a sexual encounter quite plain to vulnerable young teens who often believe they are in love with the predator, they said.
And contrary to the concerns of parents and state attorneys general, they found social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace do not appear to expose teens to greater risks.
Sleep apnea dangerous for stroke patients
Sleep apnea, in which breathing briefly ceases or becomes blocked numerous times during the night, is a risk factor for early death in people who have had a stroke, according to a new study.
“Sleep apnea occurs frequently among patients with stroke, but it is still unknown whether a diagnosis of sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for mortality,” Dr. Karl A. Franklin, of Umea University Hospital, Sweden, and colleagues write in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
To better understand this relationship, the researchers examined long-term survival among 132 stroke patients admitted for in-hospital stroke rehabilitation between 1995 and 1997.
Teens who watch wrestling take more health risks
Teenage fans of TV wrestling are more likely than their peers to be aggressive or take chances with their health, a study suggests.
Researchers found that among 2,300 16- to 20-year-old Americans, those who watched professional wrestling were more likely to be violent, smoke or have unprotected sex—and the more they watched TV wrestling, the greater their odds of taking such risks.
The findings, reported in the Southern Medical Journal, do not prove that watching wrestling alters young people’s behavior. “It may be the case that kids who have a personality that leads them to be aggressive also gravitate to watching wrestling on TV,” noted Dr. Mark Wolfson, one of the researchers on the study and an associate professor at Wake-Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Physical job activity may cut prostate cancer risk
Working in a job that requires a continuous level of high physical effort may decrease the likelihood of a man developing prostate cancer, researchers report.
Previous research suggested that physical activity decreases the risk of certain cancers. “This study supports this finding for prostate cancer,” Dr. Anusha Krishnadasan, at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters Health.
Krishnadasan and colleagues looked at the link between prostate cancer and physical activity among men working at a southern California facility that tested aerospace engines and nuclear power systems.
Music hits right note for stroke patients
A little Beethoven is good for the brain, according to a Finnish study published on Wednesday showing that music helps people recover more quickly from strokes.
And patients who listened to a few hours of music each day soon after a stroke also improved their verbal memory and were in a better mood compared to patients who did not listen to music or used audio books, the researchers said.
Music therapy has long been used in a range of treatments but the study published in the journal Brain is the first to show the effect in people, they added.
U.S. cancer death rate down but 565,650 seen in 2008
The U.S. death rate from cancer has continued a steady decline that began in the early 1990s but it will still kill a projected 565,650 Americans this year, the American Cancer Society said on Wednesday.
The death rate from lung, colorectal, prostate, breast and other cancer types fell in 2005, the most recent year for which figures were available, but not as much as in 2003 and 2004, the group said. The actual number of cancer deaths rose.
The cancer death rate for men has fallen by 18.4 percent since peaking in 1990 and for women has fallen by 10.5 percent since peaking in 1991. Cancer is the No. 2 cause of death in the United States, behind heart disease.
Depression plus hostility poses heart risk
Older adults who are simultaneously hostile and depressed may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease.
Depressive symptoms and hostility appear to act together in a complex way to influence levels of two inflammatory proteins that predict future heart disease, Dr. Jesse C. Stewart told Reuters Health.
Stewart, of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and colleagues examined the relationships between depressive symptoms, hostility, and the blood levels of two inflammatory markers for cardiovascular disease—interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein—in 316 healthy men and women.
Nintendo rolls out fitness product: report
Games maker Nintendo Co is planning to launch a new physical fitness product called Wii Fit for U.S. shipping in May, according to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The Wii Fit will come with a weight-and-motion sensing device called the Wii Balance Board, according to the report.
Birth control pills may lower colon cancer risk
Women who have used birth control pills seem to have a slightly decreased risk of colon cancer as they age, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among nearly 90,000 women ages 40 to 59, those who had ever used oral contraceptives were 17 percent less likely to develop colon cancer over the next 16 years.
The findings, which appear in the International Journal of Cancer, are in line with evidence suggesting that estrogen plays a role in colon cancer risk.
