Natural therapy: Adults

Showing posts with label Adults. Show all posts

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Abused Kids Tend to Smoke More than Teens and Adults

by Bidita Debnath on? August 07, 2013 at 10:15 PM Research News A new study finds a connection between how much abused children will smoke once they do start and not between whether they will ever begin smoking. Abused Kids Tend to Smoke More than Teens and Adults
"In other words, people are as likely to smoke whether or not they were sexually or physically abused, but they're inclined to smoke more if they were abused and have a history of smoking," Todd Herrenkohl, a professor in the UW School of Social Work, said.

Herrenkohl and co-authors probed the Lehigh Longitudinal Study, which began in the mid-1970s.

Participants were recruited from child welfare abuse and protective service programs, as well as day care programs, private nursery programs and Head Start classrooms in Eastern Pennsylvania.

UW researchers looked specifically for any connection between physical or sexual abuse and adolescent and adult smoking.

They found that boys who had experienced either type of abuse and were smokers, smoked more than those who hadn't been abused as a child.

For girls who smoked, only those who had been sexually abused smoked more as adolescents.

That frequency of adolescent smoking by both girls and boys, in turn, led to increased smoking in adulthood, especially among women.

The study is published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Source-ANI

var xmlHttpvar imgpath,imagefunction RefreshImage(ImageId){image=document.getElementById(ImageId);//alert(ImageId);xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/captcha.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();imgpath=url;xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReg;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReg(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){image.src = imgpath;}}function RequestCode(){xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject();if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!"); return; } var url="http://www.medindia.net/captcha/reqimgvalue.asp";url=url+"?x="+Math.random();xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChangedReq;xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true);xmlHttp.send(null);} function stateChangedReq(){if (xmlHttp.readyState==4){var seccode=xmlHttp.responseText;if(seccode==document.getElementById("scode").value){//alert(seccode + "same value");}else{document.getElementById("scode").value=xmlHttp.responseText;}}}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttpNew=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttpNew=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttpNew=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttpNew;}function GetXmlHttpObject(){var xmlHttp=null;try { // Firefox, Opera 8.0+, Safari xmlHttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); }catch (e) { // Internet Explorer try { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch (e) { xmlHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } }return xmlHttp;}

function fnsearch(){day1 = document.search.SelDay.value;month1 = document.search.SelMonth.value;year1 = document.search.SelYear.value;tmpdate=month1+"/"+day1+"/"+year1 fromdate=new Date(year1,month1-1,day1)if (!((fromdate.getDate()==day1)&&(fromdate.getMonth()+1==month1)&&(fromdate.getFullYear()==year1))){alert("Please Select a valid Date")document.search.SelDay.focus();return false;}tmpcatid=document.search.ncategoryid.value;tmpkeyword=document.search.keyword.value;document.search.action="http://www.medindia.net/news/newsday_list.asp?ddate="+tmpdate+"&ncategoryid=" +tmpcatid +"&keyword=" +tmpkeywordreturn true;}News Categories:?? Latest Health News Popular News AIDS/HIV News Alcohol & Drug Abuse News Alternative Medicine News Anti-Aging News Bird Flu News Cancer News Celebrity Health News Chikungunya News Child Health News Cholesterol News Clinical Trials News Corporate News Dengue News Dental News Diabetes News Diet & Nutrition News Drug News Education News Environmental Health General News Genetics & Stem Cells News Health Insurance News Heart Disease News Hospital News Hypertension News Indian Health News Lifestyle News Medical Gadgets Medical PDA News Medico Legal News Men?s Health News Mental Health News News on IT in Healthcare Nursing Profession News Obesity News Organ Donation News Research News Respiratory Disease News Senior Health News Sexual Health News Tropical Disease News Weight Loss Women Health News

View the original article here

Friday, August 9, 2013

Researchers: Childhood Economic Status Affects Substance Use Among Young Adults

by Rukmani Krishna on? August 02, 2013 at 12:09 AM Lifestyle News According to researchers at Duke Medicine, children who grow up in poverty are more likely than wealthier children to smoke cigarettes, but they are less likely to binge drink and are no more prone to use marijuana. Researchers: Childhood Economic Status Affects Substance Use Among Young Adults
The researchers also found that economic strains in early life - including family worries about paying bills or needing to sell possessions for cash - independently erode a child's self-control, regardless of strong parenting in adolescence. Lack of self-control often leads to substance use.

The findings, appearing July 30, 2013, in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, debunk common assumptions about who abuses substances, and provide a basis for better approaches to prevent young people from falling into drug and alcohol addiction.

"Poverty during childhood not only appears to affect child development, but can have lasting effects on the types of health choices made during adolescence and early adulthood, especially as it relates to cigarette smoking," said senior author Bernard Fuemmeler, Ph.D., MPH, MS, associate professor in Community and Family Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. "Economic strains may shape an individual''s capacity for self-control by diminishing opportunities for self-regulation, or affecting important brain structures."

Fuemmeler and colleagues at Duke set out to examine the direct effect of childhood economic strains on smoking, binge drinking, and marijuana use in young adults. They also sought to determine how financial difficulties impact self-control, and how positive parenting might mitigate the tendency to use drugs and alcohol.

The group analyzed data from 1,285 children and caregivers included in a representative sample of U.S. families studied from 1986-2009. Economic status was measured by annual family income, plus a survey with questions about economic problems such as difficulty paying bills or postponing medical care. Additional information was gathered to gauge childhood self-control and parental interactions.

Among the study participants who were transitioning to adulthood, young people who lived in poverty as children were far more likely to become regular cigarette smokers than children who grew up in wealthier households. The impoverished children also scored low on self-control measures.

"Poor self-control may be a product of limited learning resources and opportunities for developing appropriate behaviors," Fuemmeler said.

Binge drinking, however, was much more common among the wealthier young people. And surprisingly, those who had good self-control as children were more likely to engage in heavy episodic drinking as young adults.

Neither wealth nor poverty appeared to influence marijuana use, although positive parenting did reduce the use of this drug. Parents who were nurturing and accepting, in fact, diminished the likelihood of young people using any of the substances.

The researchers also found no correlation between economic hardship and poor parenting - a contradiction to some other studies.

"We suspected we'd find a relationship between parenting and economic problems - the idea that economic strains may cause parents to have less capacity to deal with their children, but that relationship wasn't there," Fuemmeler said. "That means it's not necessarily poverty that affects the parenting strategy, but poverty that affects the children's self-control."

Fuemmeler said the findings are important given the increase in U.S. children living in poverty. The U.S. Census Bureau reported 22 percent of children lived in poverty in 2010, compared to 18 percent in 2000.

"Continued work is needed to better understand how economic strains may influence the development of self-control, as well as to identify other potential mediators between economic strains and substance use outcomes," Fuemmeler said.

In addition to Fuemmeler, study authors include Chien-Ti Lee, Joseph McClernon, Scott H. Kollins and Kevin Prybol.

The National Institutes of Health (RO1 DA030487), the National Cancer Institute (K07CA124905) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (K24DA023464) funded the study.

Source-Newswise

View the original article here

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Volunteer Work Halves Risk of Hypertension in Older Adults

The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University who followed more than 1,150 adults between 51 and 91 years of age in the United States. The participants were initially interviewed by the researchers in 2006 and were followed up once again in 2010 with the researchers asking questions about the participants' volunteerism and various social and psychological factors while they were also measured for their blood pressure.

The researchers found that those who had done volunteer work for at least 200 hours in a year reduced their risk of hypertension by as much as 40 percent compared to those who did not volunteer.

"As people get older, social transitions like retirement, bereavement and the departure of children from the home often leave older adults with fewer natural opportunities for social interaction. Participating in volunteer activities may provide older adults with social connections that they might not have otherwise.", lead researcher Rodlescia Sneed said

Source-Medindia

View the original article here

Sunday, July 14, 2013

High Demand for Human Breast Milk Sees Firms Offering Wet Nurses for Adults

by Kathy Jones on? July 05, 2013 at 11:24 PM General Health News The rising demand for human breast milk among the China's rich has led to some firms offering wet nurse services even for adult clients, sparking outrage among web users.
Xinxinyu, a domestic staff agency in the booming city of Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, provided wet nurses for newborns, the sick and other adults who pay high prices for the milk's fine nutrition, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

"Adult (clients) can drink it directly through breastfeeding, or they can always drink it from a breast pump if they feel embarrassed," the report quoted company owner Lin Jun as saying.

Wet nurses serving adults are paid around 16,000 yuan ($2,600) a month -- more than four times the Chinese average -- and those who were "healthy and good looking" could earn even more, the report said.

Traditional beliefs in some parts of China hold that human breast milk has the best and most easily digestible nutrition for people who are ill.

But the report sparked heated debate in the media and on Chinese social media, with most users condemning the service as unethical.

"This adds to China's problem of treating women as consumer goods and the moral degradation of China's rich," said Cao Baoyin, a writer and regular commentator in various Chinese media, on his blog.

Xinxinyu has been ordered to suspend its operations and had its business licence revoked for multiple reasons including missing three years of annual checks, regulators in Shenzhen told AFP on Thursday, although the wet nurse service was not among the factors they cited.

Company officials could not be reached for comment by AFP.

There were nearly 140,000 postings on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, on the topic by Thursday afternoon.

In an online poll, almost 90 percent of participants voted against the service, saying it "violated ethical values", a fraction over 10 percent deemed it a "normal business practice".

"People become perverts when they are too rich and tired of other forms of entertainment. This is disguised pornography," said a user with the online handle ricky_gao.

White Lotus, another weibo writer, said: "Please do not force motherhood to lose its grace and become ridiculous."

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Some Older Adults Need to Consume More Fish Oil to Reduce Risk of Metabolic Syndrome

by Mita Majumdar on? June 25, 2013 at 12:05 PM Health Watch New study sheds more light on gene-diet interactions in obese adults. Genes are one of the many factors that can cause obesity and type 2 diabetes which are the variables of metabolic syndrome. Some Older Adults Need to Consume More Fish Oil to Reduce Risk of Metabolic Syndrome
The ADIPOQ gene with many of its variants is one such contributor to these disorders. This gene instructs the production of hormone adiponectin in the fat cells. Adiponectin is a protein hormone that plays a role in the insulin sensitivity, glucose metabolism and fat burning. It increases insulin sensitivity by burning fatty acids and inhibiting the production of glucose in the liver.

Studies have found that some ADIPOQ gene variants are responsible for lower adiponectin concentrations in the blood. Decreased adiponectin concentration means less efficient fat burning and less glucose utilization and therefore a greater risk of developing type-2 diabetes and obesity. However, this happens only in those people who carry this 'risk variant' of ADIPOQ gene.

There are ways to increase blood adiponectin levels. Interestingly, studies have found evidence of gene - diet interactions in obesity. They claim that people who are risk variant carriers can improve their adiponectin through certain nutrients, especially fatty acids.

So, Aseel AlSaleh and colleagues at Kings College London, School of Medicine, London, conducted a trial to find out how dietary n3 PUFAs such as fish oil interacts with adiponectin gene (ADIPOQ) variant to affect blood adinopectin concentration.

This study included 142 healthy men and 225 women aged 45-70 years for 12 months from which only 310 people completed the study.

The researchers randomly assigned daily doses of 0.45, 0.9, and 1.8 g 20:5n3 and 22:6n3 (1.51:1), or placebo, in 3 capsules taken as dietary supplements. Oily fish intake was restricted to 1 portion per month throughout the 12-month period.

Blood samples for the analysis of plasma lipids, glucose, and insulin and serum adiponectin were drawn after a minimum 8-hour overnight fast preceded by a low-fat evening meal.

DNA testing of five ADIPOQ gene variants [?11391 G/A (rs17300539), ?11377 C/G (rs266729), ?10066 G/A (rs182052), +45 T/G (rs2241766), and +276 G/T (rs1501299)] was done.

The researchers found that serum adiponectin concentration significantly increased in subjects more than 58 years old, and that too after the highest dose (1.8 g/d) of fish oil supplement.

'If aging is associated with development of adiponectin resistance, the increase observed in only the oldest participants may reflect an ability to respond only after a high intake of n3 PUFA,' they analyzed.

They also found that the interaction among SNP +45 T/G genotype, treatment, and age was only nominally significant as far as serum adiponectin is concerned. Earlier studies have shown that +45 TT genotype (risk gene variant) is associated with lower serum adiponectin and increased risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and adverse metabolic marker. The researchers thus reasoned 'interaction of the +45 TT genotype with high-dose n3 PUFA supplements may serve a protective function in susceptible older individuals'.

They concluded that older people who have +45 TT genotype may reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome associated type 2 diabetes and obesity if they increase the consumption of fish oil.

'A recommendation to +45 TT homozygotes to increase consumption of oily fish to maintain adiponectin concentrations with advancing years would be justified,' they reported.

The study is published in Journal of Nutrition.

References:

http://jn.nutrition.org/content/early/2013/05/08/jn.112.172585.full.pdf
http://www.gbhealthwatch.com/GND-Obesity-T2DM-ADIPOQ.php

Source-Medindia

View the original article here

Monday, June 17, 2013

More Than a Third of Young Adults in Mexico Have Genetic Risk of Obesity

by Kathy Jones on? May 25, 2013 at 8:13 PM Genetics & Stem Cells News A new study conducted by a University of Illinois researcher at the Universidad Aut?noma de San Luis Potos reveals that more than a third of Mexican young adults have a genetic predisposition for obesity. More Than a Third of Young Adults in Mexico Have Genetic Risk of Obesity
"The students who inherited genetic risk factors from both parents were already 15? pounds heavier and 2 inches bigger around the waist than those who hadn't. They also had slightly higher fasting glucose levels," said Margarita Teran-Garcia, a U of I professor of food science and human nutrition.

In the study, 251 18- to 25-year-olds were tested for risk alleles on the FTO gene as part of the Up Amigos project, a collaboration of scientists at the U of I and the Mexican university. The researchers are following the 10,000 yearly applicants to the Universidad Aut?noma de San Luis Potosi to learn how changes in students' weight, body mass index (BMI), and eating and exercise habits affect their health over time.

According to Teran-Garcia, the FTO gene is associated with a predisposition to obesity, increased BMI, and increased waist circumference. These traits can in turn contribute to many health-related problems, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Of the young adults tested in the study, 15 percent had inherited the genetic risk from both parents?in other words, they carried two copies of the risk allele. Another 20 percent had inherited risk from one parent, meaning they had one copy of the risk allele. Sixty-five percent of the students in the study did not carry the risk allele.

"If young people realize early that they have this predisposition, they can fight against it. If they are at risk for obesity, eating a healthy diet and getting regular exercise is even more important for them," Teran-Garcia said.

She noted that 85 percent of Hispanics in the United States are of Mexican origin.

Although FTO markers and analysis are available for large groups of Caucasians, Asians, and African-Americans, few studies have examined the effects of this gene in Mexican and Mexican- American populations.

"This is the first study to target young adults in Mexico, although one other study has followed older Mexican adults who had already been diagnosed with diabetes, obesity, and obesity-related diseases," she said.

Scientists hypothesize that "fat" genes may be influenced by epigenetic modifications, she said. "So even if you have this predisposition, you may be able to change the way those genes behave by eating the right foods and getting more exercise. These good habits are especially important for young people who have a genetic risk for obesity."

Source-Eurekalert

View the original article here