Health Highlights: Sept. 5, 2008
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Fablyn Increases Risk of Blood Clots: FDA Document
While the new osteoporosis drug Fablyn has been shown to be effective in postmenopausal women with a higher risk of bone fractures, the drug also increased the risk of blood clots and invasive gynecological visits, says a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory board briefing document released Thursday.
The document was made public in advance of the advisory board's scheduled Monday meeting to decide whether to recommend approval of the drug, Forbes reported.
In 2005 and 2006, the FDA issued "non-approvable" letters for Fablyn, which acknowledged the drug's effectiveness, but questioned whether it increased the risk of blood clots and stroke.
A five-year study of more than 9,000 women conducted by Pfizer and development partner Ligand Pharmaceuticals found that the drug didn't increase the risk of stroke but did increase the risk of blood clots, Forbes reported.
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U.S. Army Suicides Could Hit Highest Levels Since 2003
The U.S. Army appears headed for a record number of suicides this year and may top the civilian suicide rate for the first time since the Vietnam war, Agence France-Presse reported.
Last year, 115 soldiers took their own lives, the most ever on record in a single year for the army. So far this year, 93 soldiers have committed suicide, army officials said Thursday.
"With four months left, we're probably going to surpass 115," said Colonel Eddie Stephens, the army's deputy director of human resources policy, AFP reported.
If the current pace of soldier suicides continues, the army will exceed the U.S. civilian suicide rate of 19.5 per 100,000 people in 2005, the latest data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The army's suicide rate has steadily risen from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, despite efforts to increase soldiers' awareness of the issue and to ease the stigma of seeking help for mental health troubles, AFP reported.
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Intellectual Tasks May Boost Calorie Intake
Hard thinking may make you eat more and put on weight, suggests a Canadian study.
Universite Laval researchers invited 14 students to eat as much as they wanted after doing three different low energy tasks: sitting and relaxing; reading and summarizing a text; and finishing memory and attention tests on a computer, CTV News reported.
Compared to relaxing, the students burned only three more calories while doing the two mental tasks. However, they ate 203 more calories after summarizing the text and 253 more calories after the computer tests.
Blood tests showed the students had more pronounced changes in glucose and insulin levels while doing the mental tasks than when resting, CTV News reported. The brain uses glucose as fuel and may try to maintain its glucose balance by taking in more food, the researchers suggested.
"Caloric overcompensation following intellectual work, combined with the fact that we are less physically active when doing intellectual tasks, could contribute to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialized countries," said lead author Jean-Philippe Chaput said. "This is a factor that should not be ignored, considering that more and more people hold jobs of an intellectual nature."
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U.S. Workers Face Higher Health Care Costs
About 59 percent of U.S. companies plan to control rising health costs in 2009 by increasing employees' deductibles, co-pays or out-of-pocket spending limits, according to a survey released Thursday by the Mercer consulting firm.
Mercer said health care costs for both employers and workers will increase an average of 5.7 percent next year, the same as this year's increase, the Associated Press reported. There was a 6.1 percent increase in 2007.
Since 2005, annual increases in health care costs have been around 6 percent, compared to double-digit increases in previous years, Mercer said. Even with single-digit increases, health care costs are outpacing inflation and workers' wages.
Mercer said that between 2003 and 2007, the average deductible increased from $250 to $400 for a single person and from $1,000 to $1,500 for a family, the Associated Press reported.
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Study Finds 27% of University Students Addicted to Tanning
Tanning dependence -- with symptoms similar to alcohol and drug dependence -- was reported by 27 percent of students at a large American university, according to a study by Carolyn Heckman of Fox Chase Cancer Center and colleagues.
The study included 400 students at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond who took part in an online survey used to measure traditional substance abuse and dependence, United Press International reported.
In this case, the survey measures were used to assess: an increasing need to tan frequently; discomfort when not having tanned recently; and difficulty controlling tanning behavior despite awareness of negative consequences such as freckles, wrinkles and increased risk of skin cancer.
"We were surprised to find that 27 percent of those we surveyed were classified as tanning dependent," Heckman said in a news release, UPI reported "The finding that almost 40 percent of those surveyed had used tanning booths and that the mean age when tanning booths were first used was 17 is also alarming."
The study, which was published in the September/October issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior, also found that students with a tanning dependence were more likely to be thin and to smoke.
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Bisphenol A Impairs Brain's Ability to Create Connections
The brain's ability to create connections needed for memory and learning may be impaired by prolonged exposure to bisphenol A, a chemical commonly found in plastic bottles and food containers, says a Canadian study.
University of Guelph researchers exposed African green monkeys to low doses of bisphenol A for one month. This impaired the creation of synapses, which affected communication between neurons, the Toronto Star reported.
"The ability of the brain to remain plastic and to respond to things by changing its connection is a critical part of brain function, it's important for learning and memory, it's important for mood swings, for depression," said Neil MacLusky, a biomedical professor. Bisphenol A "dramatically impairs the formation of synapses in the regions of the brain where such processes take place."
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In related news, a U.S. government study released Thursday said exposure to bisphenol A may harm fetuses and children and the chemical needs further study before it is deemed safe.
The National Toxicology Program said tests in animals showed harmful effects from the chemical and rated concern about the chemical's risks for children at the middle of a five-point scale, Bloomberg news reported.
While the study authors didn't recommend changing national safety standards, they did suggest parents may want to limit family exposure to bisphenol A. The study is the final version of a report issued in draft form in April.
