Most teens don’t choose oral sex over intercourse
Many U.S. teenagers have had oral sex, but usually not as a “substitute” for intercourse, a new study suggests.
Using data from a 2002 national survey, researchers found that just over half of 15- to 19-year-olds said they had ever had oral sex. But it was much more common among teens who had already had intercourse than among virgins.
The findings counter the common idea that many teens use oral sex as a stand-in for intercourse, according to the researchers.
Medicare may broaden obesity surgery payment
The U.S. Medicare program may expand reimbursement for bariatric surgery for the obese, in light of a study that found the treatment can help reverse diabetes, the agency said on Monday.
Recent research found the surgery can completely reverse type 2 diabetes, a metabolic condition spurred by weight gain and suffered by millions of Americans.
Medicare, the government health plan for the nation’s 44 million elderly, “will assess the nature of the scientific evidence supporting surgery for the treatment of diabetes,” the agency said on its Web site.
Heart condition in those awaiting a kidney an ominous sign
The presence of an often silent heart condition—systolic dysfunction, or decreased pumping action of the heart—nearly doubles the risk of death for patients on kidney transplant waiting lists, according to a study appearing in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology for June.
“This study identifies a subset of chronic kidney disease population at significantly higher risk for death while awaiting transplantation, where the role of medical interventions and devices such as implantable cardiac defibrillators and pacemakers should be studied,” Dr. Angelo M. de Mattos, from the University of California in Sacramento, and colleagues write.
Widely available tests could be used to help identify those patients with chronic kidney disease who have systolic dysfunction, they add.
Diabetics’ blood pressure often inadequately controlled
Uncertainty about a patient’s “true” blood pressure (BP) is the chief reason why doctors fail to intensify BP-lowering treatment when a diabetic patient has high BP (hypertension), investigators report.
“Several studies have suggested that ‘clinical inertia’—the failure by providers to initiate or intensify therapy n the face of apparent need to do so—is a main contributor to poor control of hypertension,” Dr. Eve A. Kerr and colleagues explain in a report in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
To identify factors that underlie “clinical inertia,” Kerr at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System in Michigan and her team studied 1,169 diabetic patients with hypertension seen by 92 primary care doctors at 9 VA facilities.
Combination therapy more effective in early RA
In the treatment of early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a combination of anti-RA drugs is superior to methotrexate alone, UK researchers report.
“Our study,” lead investigator Dr. Ernest H. Choy told Reuters Health, “confirmed that there is a window of opportunity in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.”
Choy of King’s College School of Medicine, London and colleagues randomly assigned 467 patients with early RA to treatment with methotrexate alone or with the addition of another “disease-modifying antirheumatic drug” (cyclosporine) or the steroid prednisolone, or both, for 9 months.
New analysis boosts drug’s prostate cancer value
A new analysis of data from a key prostate cancer study has strengthened the view that a drug that is now sold as a generic may be a valuable weapon to prevent prostate cancer, researchers said on Monday.
The drug is finasteride, formerly sold by Merck and Co as Proscar to treat enlargement of the prostate and now available generically. The drug affects male hormone levels.
The men in the study were taking the drug in a dose of 5 milligrams. In a one milligram dose, finasteride is sold by Merck as the baldness remedy Propecia.
