New ADHD Guidelines Expanded to Include Four-Year-Olds

Comstock/Thinkstock(ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill.) -- Guidelines to diagnose Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have been updated to include children as young as four.

ADHD, a condition that makes it difficult for children to focus and concentrate, initially covered youngsters between the ages of six and 12.  But the American Academy of Pediatrics now says these rules should be expanded to include anyone from four to 18 because of more comprehensive research into understanding the condition.

Mark Wolraich, who chaired the committee presenting the latest findings, said it's important to evaluate four-year-olds because "these children may have been kicked out of preschool programs or they may have parents who are really getting angry at them much of the time."

Treatment for these children to reduce stress is first through behavioral therapy practiced by parents.  If that fails, doctors may prescribe Ritalin -- the most common medication to deal with ADHD patients -- beginning with low doses.

ADHD affects as many as 8 percent of all children and adolescents in the U.S.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Retired Doctor to Test Physician-Assisted Death Law in Hawaii

Courtesy Robert Orfali(HONOLULU) -- Jeri Orfali was a top software executive in the early days of Silicon Valley, author of several books and was even professionally courted by Steve Jobs until, like Jobs, she was struck down with cancer at the age of 56.

"You don't think about how someone dies from cancer," said her husband of 30 years, Robert Orfali.  "No one tells you what really happens.  It took me by surprise, everything."

The Orfalis settled in Hawaii, where his wife was eventually diagnosed with ovarian cancer and died in 2009.  In her final days, she bore excruciating pain that was not helped by palliative care.

"In the end I could see tumors coming out of her legs and in her neck," he said.  "Her legs were swollen and her stomach was so bloated, the cancer almost burst out of her.  She couldn't get her next breath."

There is no dignity in dying, according to Orfali, who was so horrified by his wife's suffering that he wrote two books on the topic and has pushed to see Hawaii be the fourth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

And now, experts working with the national group, Compassion and Choices, and the Hawai'i Death With Dignity Society, have unearthed a 102-year-old provision in Hawaiian law that they say means aid in dying has been legal all along:

"[W]hen a duly licensed physician or osteopathic physician pronounces a person affected with any disease hopeless and beyond recovery and gives a written certificate to that effect to the person affected or the person's attendant, nothing herein shall forbid any person from giving or furnishing any remedial agent or measure when so requested by or on behalf of the affected person."

Advocates say the provision was added in 1909 to give dying patients the option to get treatment that may not have been approved by the government.  It likely arose out of now-canonized Father Damien's missionary work on the Island of Molokai with those who suffered from leprosy.

Some retired doctors now say they are poised to go ahead and help those who seek aid in dying, provided they meet guidelines established by a law in Oregon, where doctors have been legally allowed to end a terminal patient's suffering since 1997.

Since then, Washington and Montana have also legalized aid in dying.

"I think there is very little risk on my part if I did that," said Dr. Robert "Nate" Nathanson, 77, a retired general practitioner from Oahu, who said he has kept his medical license current so he could test the existing law. "If you qualify and your own doctor won't do it, I would be willing."

Nathanson and Orfali were part of a recent forum on that legal provision and have been advocates for what they call "death with dignity."  Advocates say that just having the lethal pills gives terminally ill patients peace of mind that they can control their lives and their death.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Children With Low Birth Weight More Prone to Autism, Study Shows

Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock(PHILADELPHIA) -- Children weighing less than 4.4 pounds at birth may be more prone to autism spectrum disorders, a new study suggested.

The estimated prevalence of autism spectrum disorders reached five percent in a group of more than 1,100 low-birth-weight babies, Jennifer A. Pinto-Martin of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and colleagues found.

That prevalence was five times higher than expected from the general population, the group noted in the November issue of Pediatrics. Indeed, by comparison, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 0.9-percent prevalence among eight-year-olds across the United States in 2006.

"This prospective study, using rigorous diagnostic procedures, confirms that the rate of autism spectrum disorders is elevated among low birth weight/preterm survivors," the researchers wrote in the paper.

That low birth weight and prematurity put children at risk of cognitive and motor disability has been well established, but their link with autism spectrum disorders was largely through retrospective studies and those that screened without diagnostic confirmation, the group noted.

About three percent of children born in the United States weigh between 1.1 and 4.4 pounds at birth.
Pinto-Martin's group studied a population-representative group of 1,105 such infants followed in the Neonatal Brain Hemorrhage Study.

That study was done at three hospitals, covering 85 percent of low-birth-weight births in three central New Jersey counties from 1984 to 1987. At the time, these three counties were demographically comparable to the nation except for slightly higher incomes and slightly fewer minorities.

Low birth weight tended to be more often linked to autism spectrum disorders in boys than girls (9.9 percent versus 3.3 percent).

The lower the low birth weight, the higher the risk of autism spectrum disorders tended to be, with a 10.6 percent prevalence at less than 3.3 pounds versus 3.7 percent at 3.3 to 4.4 pounds at birth weight.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Plaque, Appendicitis Bacterium Linked to Colon Cancer

Chad Baker/Photodisc/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A bacterium that causes appendicitis and gum disease has been detected in colon tumors, according to new research that suggests it may set the stage for colorectal cancer, the second-deadliest malignancy. Only lung cancer kills more people each year.

If the finding can be validated by larger studies, fusobacterium might one day be used to prevent and screen for colorectal cancer, currently detectable through colonoscopy or tests for the presence of blood in the stool.

Fuscobacterium also might play a role in determining the prognosis of colorectal cancers and shaping their treatment, according to two research teams independently reporting a relationship between the rod-shaped microbe and cancers of the lower digestive system.

Fuscobacterium is a known player in disorders characterized by inflammation, such as gum disease and appendicitis. Scientists have tied some strains to two inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, both of which elevate the risk of colon cancer. In addition to promoting inflammation, fuscobacterium has other qualities that make it a formidable foe: it invades tissues and is sticky.

A Canadian research team found significantly more fuscobacterium RNA in colon tumors than in healthy tissues from the same people. That surprised the investigators because fuscobacterium is a rare inhabitant of healthy guts.

A U.S. group compared tissues lining cancerous and healthy regions of patients' colons, looking in each for stretches of the microbes' DNA. They theorized that if bacteria and viruses were involved in the development of colorectal cancer, the quantity of the microbes in tumor tissue would differ from the quantity in adjacent healthy tissue. Indeed, looking first at tissues of nine people, and then 95 more, they found a spike in fuscobacterium species in diseased tissue.

Both studies will be published online Tuesday in the international journal Genomic Research.
Researchers say additional studies comparing bacteria in the tissues of cancer patients and healthy people could demonstrate whether there are more fuscobacterium species in the intestines of colon cancer patients than in the intestines of the general population.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

CDC Reports Excessive Alcohol Consumption Cost the US $224 Billion in 2006

iStockphoto/Thinkstock edit Delete caption(WASHINGTON) – According to a new study from the Center for Disease Control, excessive alcohol consumption cost the U.S. $224 billion dollars in 2006, and most of these costs were due to binge drinking.

The report estimates that excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for an average of 79,000 deaths and 2.3 million years of potential life lost in the U.S. each year. The term “binge drinking” is defined as four or more drinks per occasion for a woman, and five or more drinks per occasion for a man; or more than one drink per day for a woman and more than two drinks per day for a man.

The costs come from a variety of factors, the most costly being from losses in workplace productivity, with 72 percent of the total cost. Health care expenses relating to problems due to excessive drinking came in second with 11 percent, and law enforcement was third with nine percent. Motor vehicle crashes were six percent of the total cost.

It should also be noted that the study may be an underestimate because it does not take into account the costs associated with others affected by excessive drinking or the pain and suffering caused by the excessive drinker.

The researchers analyzed national data from multiple sources, including the Alcohol-Related Disease Impact Application, the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol-Related Conditions and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health to estimate the costs resulting from excessive drinking in 2006, the most recent year for which data were generally available.

As for those footing the bill, researchers found that federal, state and local governments were responsible for around 42 percent of the total economic costs, while 41.5 percent was borne by the excessive drinkers and their family members.

Government agencies paid for around 61 percent of health care expenses while drinkers and their families paid 55 percent of the cost of lost productivity.

The study, “Economic Costs of Excessive Alcohol Consumption in the U.S., 2006," is published in the November 2011 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 

The study is developed in collaboration with the CDC and the Lewin Group and was funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the CDC Foundation.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

One in 10 'Shy' Kids May Have Social Phobia

Photodisc/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Many kids go through a shy or "awkward" phase at some point in adolescence, but shyness can become more than a stint of social timidity. Twelve percent of youths who call themselves "shy" may actually be socially phobic, according to research from the Nation Institute of Mental Health. The research, published Monday, appears in the journal Pediatrics.

Some scholars, however, hesitate to classify social phobia as a mental disorder, suggesting that doing so could "medicalize" normal shyness and lead to overmedication of young people who in the past were merely considered introverted.

After surveying more than 10,000 kids between the ages of 13 and 18, as well as 6,000 of their parents, however, researchers have concluded that social phobia is in fact a debilitating psychological disorder that affects about one in 10 "shy" kids.

"Adolescents were asked to rate their shyness around people their own age whom they didn't know very well on a scale from four to one. Parents were asked to rate their child on the same questions," says Kathleen Merikangas, co-author of the study and chief of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Shyness was extremely prevalent among those polled -- about 47 percent of kids reported they were shy, and 62 percent of parents reported their child was shy. Researchers found that in a small subset of those who reported shyness, shyness was just one symptom of a larger psychological problem, social phobia.

"Shyness is a temperamental trait that has differences across [childhood and adolescent] development. Shy people are not necessarily disturbed by their reserved nature," says Merikangas. "Although social phobia can be considered an extreme form of shyness, there was not complete overlap."

Merikangas said that unlike those who were merely shy, those with social phobia were debilitated by their fear of social interactions, impaired in their ability to do schoolwork and participate in social activity and family relationships. They often experienced severe anxiety reactions during social interactions, including blushing, sweating, rapid pulse and trembling.

"People with social phobia report the reaction is excessive and unreasonable, and they suffer from an inability to extinguish the fear reaction and extreme concern that others will observe the fear reaction," she says.

Those with social phobia were also more likely to experience other psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, behavioral issues and substance abuse, but were no more likely to be on psychiatric medication than their peers without social phobia. This may mean, authors noted, that teens with this debilitating disorder may not be seeking the help they need.

"The results also suggest that the majority of young people with social phobia are not receiving effective and appropriate treatment," says Dr. David Fassler, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.  

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

100-Year-Old Breaks Guinness World Marathon Record

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images(TORONTO) -- Indian-born Brit Fauja Singh, 100, set a Guinness World Record Sunday when he became the oldest person to ever run a marathon.

In Sunday’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Singh, nicknamed the Turban Tornado, finished in just more than eight hours — some six hours after the race’s winner, Kenya’s Kenneth Mungara, according to CBC News in Toronto, Canada.

Singh only speaks Punjabi so his coach and translator, Harmander Singh, told CBC News, “He’s overjoyed. Earlier, just before we came around the [final] corner, he said, ‘Achieving this will be like getting married again.’”

Singh started running 20 years ago at the tender age of 89, after the death of his wife and child. Since then, he has run eight marathons, including Sunday’s. He’s broken records for various distances in the 90-plus and now 100-plus categories and carried the torch during the torch relay for the 2004 Athens Games.

When asked if it might be medically inadvisable to run a marathon at such an age, Dr. David Katz, founding director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, replied: “Nothing you want to do is ‘medically dangerous’ at 100! Waking up and still being here at 100 is medically dangerous....So since you’ve beaten the odds, I say carpe diem!”

Though CBC News reported that Singh seemed weak following the race, he quickly revived and spoke to the media.

“He said he achieved this through the help of God, but even God must be getting fed up with helping him,” Harmander Singh translated.

At 5 feet 8 and 115 pounds, Singh credits his health with regular exercise, no alcohol or smoking and a vegetarian diet rich in curries and tea.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

FCC Test to Measure Cellphone Radiation Flawed, Group Says

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- A government test used to measure the radiation people absorb from their cellphones might underestimate the levels to which most adults and children are exposed, according to a group of doctors and researchers whose stated mission is to promote awareness of environmental health risks they believe may be linked to cancer.

Researchers from the Environmental Health Trust released a report Monday morning noting that the Federal Communications Commission test to determine radiation exposure is flawed.

The reason for the discrepancy, the group says, is that the process to determine radiation exposure from cellphones involves the use of a mannequin model that they say approximates a 6-foot-2, 220-pound person. Because the model represents only about three percent of the population, the authors report, the test will not accurately predict the radiation exposure of the other 97 percent of the population, including children. The group is pushing for a new testing system to measure radiation exposure in a wider range of consumers.

"The standard for cellphones has been developed based on old science and old models and old assumptions about how we use cellphones, and that's why they need to change," said Dr. Devra Davis, former senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton administration and one of the report's authors.

A different study cited in the report says a child's bone marrow absorbs 10 times the radiation as an adult. The authors also raise questions about long-term side effects, such as infertility in males who carry phones in their pockets, an exposure unaccounted for in the traditional certification process.

The authors suggest an alternative certification process, one that uses MRI scans to test real humans, including children and pregnant women. Such an approach would provide exposure data on a "Virtual Family," representing all ages, the authors say.

The U.S. government has had no specific comment on the report. The cellphone industry group CTIA-The Wireless Association said that because members "are not scientists or researchers on this topic," the news media should contact experts instead.

But whether the low level of radiation from cellphones actually causes cancer is a question that has yet to be answered. "No scientific evidence currently establishes a definite link between [cellphones] and cancer or other illnesses," the FCC says on its website.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Rare Condition Drives Girl to Eat Light Bulb

Natalie Hayhurst suffers from a rare condition called Pica that creates a never-ending compulsion to eat things that aren't food. (Courtesy The Hayhurst Family)(TERRA HAUTE, Ind.) -- Natalie Hayhurst looks like your average adorable 3-year-old. She plays with makeup, loves Justin Bieber, and loves playing with her big brother on their farm outside Terre Haute, Ind.  But when it comes to food, she's anything but average. Most kids her age are a little picky. Natalie likes everything -- literally.

"Well, I first noticed it was a problem...[when] she had actually eaten my vinyl blinds that hang out to cover your sliding door. She took two bites out of them," said Natalie's mother, Colleen Hayhurst.

Natalie suffers from a rare condition called Pica that creates a compulsion to eat things that aren't food.

"She prefers the wood, paper products, cardboard, sticks," said Colleen. "She'll eat rocks, dirt; she's had a bite out of a Diet Coke can; she's eaten the little magnet out of the shower curtain, plastic bottles, toys."

"You can't take your eye off of her, 'cause if you do she knows it, and she'll try to eat something when she knows you're not looking," said Colleen.

In February Natalie was rushed to the emergency room after eating a light bulb.

"She had moved her entertainment center and pulled the light bulb out of the night light while I was doing dishes," Colleen said. "She was in bed; I assumed she was asleep. She had eaten all the glass. I was pretty much hysterical."

Doctors performed surgery to help remove the glass.

When Colleen took Natalie to the pediatrician for a checkup and explained what was going on, the doctor, Dr. Lily Dela Cruz, knew this was something that went beyond typical toddler behavior. She referred them to a developmental behavioral specialist.

Although Pica is more common in young children -- more than 10 percent of kids aged 1 to 6 are believed to have some form of the disorder -- adults are not immune.

Pica is the Latin word for magpie, a bird that will eat anything. Doctors say these unusual cravings can be triggered by a lack of certain nutrients like iron or zinc. Some with Pica crave the texture of some materials in their mouths.

In the case of Natalie, who has a healthy appetite for regular food, Pica is thought to be psychological. Pica is a symptom of autism, but Natalie has not been tested for the condition. She does suffer from insomnia and ADHD. As she gets older, she understands more what she is doing is wrong, but she can't seem to help herself.

In addition to working with a therapist to curb her cravings, at home Colleen sprays Natalie's tongue with a sour spray that helps satisfy her constant need to put things in her mouth. Natalie also chews on biting sticks. And she has what her family calls her Pica Box full of textured toys that stimulate her senses.

Colleen is reaching out to help other mothers and their children in this predicament.

"There are nights I have cried myself to sleep, because you feel helpless," Colleen said. "My kids are my world...and I care about helping other people who are in the same boat as me."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Study: More Kids Suffer Firearm Injuries than Previously Believed

David De Lossy/Thinkstock(BOSTON) -- Each year, more than 20,000 children go to U.S. emergency rooms with gun injuries, a new study estimates. That number is 30 percent higher than what researchers had previously found.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston analyzed reports from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey of U.S. emergency department visits from 1999 to 2007. In those eight years, they counted nearly 186,000 children, from newborns to 19-year-olds, who had been treated for firearm injuries. About 8,300 of those injuries proved fatal.

The study found that non-Caucasian boys age 12 and older were most likely to be injured by a gun. Forty-seven percent of the injuries they counted were in the South, but the Midwestern states had the highest proportion of firearm injuries relative to the population size.

Dr. Saranya Srinivasan, one of the study's authors, said the pediatric emergency physicians have kept track of the numbers of children injured by guns for many years, but the higher numbers her study found were surprising.

"Perhaps the scope of this problem is much larger than what we had originally thought," she said.

The study, which Srinivasan and her colleagues were to present Monday at the American Academy of Pediatrics' annual conference, found that 63 percent of the firearm injuries were intentional -- from homicides, suicide attempts, or encounters with law enforcement. The remaining 37 percent were unintentional injuries that could have resulted from accidents in homes or on hunting trips.

"If one-third of these injuries are unintentional, that means they're possibly preventable through things like more careful firearm storage and better education about gun safety," said Dr. Lois Lee, one of the study's authors.

The study indicated that more children have been injured not just from gun accidents but also from violence involving firearms.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the best way for parents to keep their children from being injured by guns is to keep them out of homes. But for parents who do have guns in the house, the AAP says they should be kept unloaded and locked away, bullets should be locked and stored separately from the guns, and the keys to gun lock boxes should be hidden from children.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio