Smoking Keeps Kids Home from School More Often, Study Finds

Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock(BOSTON) -- A study recently published in the journal Pediatrics shows a correlation between parents who smoke and their children's absences from school.
 
In a nationwide survey of more than 3,000 families, researchers found that children whose parents smoke tend to miss more school than their classmates whose parents don't smoke.
 
Kids in households with one or two smokers on average missed one to 1.5 extra days per school year compared to children in smoke-free homes.
 
Previous studies have established that second-hand smoke increases the risk of respiratory infections such as bronchitis, pneumonia and severe asthma.
 
The new study also found students exposed to second-hand smoke had a higher rate of respiratory infections, chest colds and ear infections than their peers.
 
While the researchers' analysis did not definitively prove that the parents' smoking causes their kids to miss more school, they have concluded that a smoke-free environment would be healthier for both parents and children.
 
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Lifetime Risk for COPD Higher than Heart Failure, Common Cancers

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(TORONTO) -- COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It's a disease that affects your air passages, causing difficulty breathing, and now a new study suggests COPD is a greater threat than heart disease or cancer.
 
COPD covers a range of diseases that restrict the function of your lungs, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
 
Symptoms include difficulty breathing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chronic coughing that produces mucus. It is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a "smoker's cough."
 
A new study in the medical journal Lancet shows that one in every four people 35 and older are likely to develop COPD in their lifetime, comparable to diabetes and asthma.
 
Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto followed 13 million Canadians for up to 14 years.
 
They found the risk of getting COPD was double that of congestive heart failure, three to four times greater than breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men and more than seven times the risk of other cancers.  
 
By 2030, COPD is projected to be the third-most common cause of death worldwide.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Nickelodeon Responds to 'SpongeBob' Claiming Harm to Preschoolers

Thos Robinson/Getty Images for Nickelodeon(NEW YORK) -- A senior vice president for Nickelodeon is calling foul on a new study out Monday that suggests preschoolers’ attention spans are hindered from watching certain cartoons such as SpongeBob SquarePants.

In an interview with Nightline, Jane Gould, the senior vice president of Consumer Insights for Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group, said the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics, didn’t include enough kids in its sample size and that SpongeBob wasn’t an appropriate choice.

The researchers, led by University of Virginia psychologist Angeline Lillard, randomly assigned 60 4-year-olds to three activities: drawing freely with markers for nine minutes; watching a slower-paced, PBS cartoon for that time; or watching SpongeBob SquarePants. Researchers said they chose SpongeBob for its frenetic pace: The show switches scenes on average every 11 seconds, as compared with the PBS cartoon, which switched only twice a minute.

“It made me scratch my head and feel confused,” Gould said. “I couldn’t understand the logic of including a program like SpongeBob, which is expressly designed to entertain 6-to-11-year-olds and have that program be compared to a slow-paced educational program for preschoolers. SpongeBob is not designed to educate preschoolers. It’s designed to entertain kids.”

Gould added that the kids who did participate were not from ”a diverse enough background to represent the country.”

After watching the programs, the preschoolers were asked to do four different “executive function” tasks that test cognitive capability and impulse control, such as counting backwards, solving puzzles, and delaying gratification by waiting to eat a tasty snack until told to do so. Compared with those who were drawing and those watching PBS, the SpongeBob kids performed significantly worse on the tasks, the researchers said.

“When you look at what was shown to them, they saw nine minutes of a program,” Gould said. “There wasn’t even closure offered to the children who saw the program.”

She added that another bias in the study was that researchers polled parents about their children’s behavior before their kids participated.

“What really surprised me was that these researchers asked parents first to report back on their kids, and answer whether their kids, in essence, have a normal or ordinary attention span,” Gould continued. “You are going to find very few parents who are going to say, ‘You know what, I don’t think my kid has a good attention span.’”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Study: Women Develop BRCA-Related Cancer Earlier than Their Moms

Comstock/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) -- Jessica Denton was 34 years old and pregnant with her first child when she found a lump in her breast. She said her doctor said that it was nothing, that everything grows during pregnancy.

After the lump increased in size and became abnormally shaped, she again had it checked out.

"I ignored it for about five months," she told ABC News. "It grew so fast and it just didn't feel right. I went to my [obstetrician]....That's when we got the diagnosis."

Denton, who had not yet had her first baseline mammogram in 2008 when she first found the lump, was diagnosed with breast cancer and tested positive for the BRCA-2 gene. After her diagnosis, she found out that she had inherited the gene from her great-aunt on her father's side.

Her Aunt Pearl had gotten breast cancer in her late 60s or 70s and had tested positive for the BRCA gene. Though her aunt had informed Denton's parents 12 years ago that she was BRCA-positive, Denton said they did not share the information with her.

"It just didn't send up any red flags in them," she said. "And it should have."

Denton's belief is backed up by a study by researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston published online Monday in the journal Cancer, which found that women with cancer related to the BRCA gene developed the disease years younger than their relatives in the previous generation.

"Specifically in women with BRCA-1 or -2 mutations, we were looking to see if the daughters were getting the disease earlier than their moms or aunts," said Dr. Jennifer Litton, a breast medical oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, whose team conducted the study.

Of the 132 women in the study who had breast cancer and BRCA gene mutations, 106 had a family member in the previous generation who had been diagnosed with either BRCA-related breast or ovarian cancer. Researchers also found that the average age of cancer diagnosis went from 48 in the older relative to 42 in the younger generation.

"I think this validates a lot of the guidelines out there for us to start looking at least five to 10 years earlier than the youngest diagnosis in their family," Litton said.

In Denton's last trimester, she underwent chemotherapy. After her daughter was born, the new mother underwent a double mastectomy, aggressive chemotherapy and radiation.

"We went through the treatment, step by step, and it was not easy and it's not fun, but we made it through and I feel very lucky," said Denton, who is now cancer-free and pregnant with twins.

Researchers at the University of Texas said the findings also gave weight to so-called "anticipation" in breast and ovarian cancer, in which later generations had earlier onset and more severe disease than their ancestors.

It's still unclear why the younger generation develops cancer earlier. For now, Litton said she wanted to see the study done with larger groups of women to determine whether the reason is environmental or due to better testing.

It is recommended that women with the gene mutation start breast cancer screening at the age of 25.

"For women with a known BRCA-1 and -2 mutation, we do know that women get cancers earlier than the rest of the population," she said. "Doing appropriate screenings, starting the screening on time can find cancers at earlier stages."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Woman Dies After Injecting Face with Hot Beef Fat

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- An Illinois woman who injected hot beef fat into her face died Thursday of a bacterial infection soon after she administered the homemade cosmetic surgery. Oddly, doctors say the questionable injections had nothing to do with her death, which was deemed natural by Illinois’ Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Janet Hardt, 63 of Homewood, Ill., boiled beef, extracted the fat and injected it into her face before she went to the hospital complaining that her face felt as if it was burning, according to ABC News Chicago affiliate WLS-TV.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Hardt had infections and scarring in her mouth and on her lips, but an autopsy declared her death was a result of peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdomen’s inner wall.

This bizarre story does not come without lessons, experts say.

“There are a lot people out there doing self-injections for wrinkles, but I don’t know of any medical associations that would recommend this,” said Dr. Phillip Haeck, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “It’s not worth taking a chance with your face to try to save money when it could ultimately cost you a lot more money.”

Hardt reportedly injected her face with the beef fat several times, and she also underwent several legitimate plastic surgery procedures. Because she injected herself multiple times with the animal product, Haeck said she was at risk of developing an allergic reaction.

“One of the injections could cause the skin to erode or ulcerate,” said Haeck. “We know that injections of animal proteins do not cause systemwide failure, but it tends to cause local reactions. A lot of people who have allergic reactions to animal proteins will say that their face is burning like this woman did. That’s probably what was going on here.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Glow-in-the-Dark Cats to Help Fight AIDS?

Comstock/Thinkstock(CLEVELAND) -- A glow-in-the-dark cat is the latest research to be unveiled in the fight against AIDS.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic paired a gene from a fluorescent jellyfish to track another gene that is known to resist the development of the feline AIDS virus. The cat version of the disease depletes the body’s infection-fighting T-cells, just as it does in people.

Researchers inserted the gene pairing into female cats’ eggs before they had been fertilized by sperm. After the cats gave birth, the kittens glowed green under a blue light.

Scientists have used the technique in previous research to examine the protein’s ability to resist the disease in macaque monkeys, but researchers said this study is the first to genetically modify reproductive cells in a carnivorous animal.

The gene, called the rhesus macaque restriction factor, is known to block infection of FIV. The goal, Mayo scientists said, is to create cats with built-in immunity to the feline AIDS virus.

Scientists would like to eventually insert protective genes that could fight HIV in humans.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Kills Nearly 20,000 a Year

Joe Scarnici/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the cancer that claimed the life of 39-year-old actor Andy Whitfield, is the most common cancer affecting the lymphatic system — the network of organs, ducts and nodes that dispenses immune cells that help the body fight off infection.

According to the National Cancer Institute, there have been 66,360 new cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosed this year, and 19,320 deaths.  The Lymphoma Research Foundation estimates that 332,000 Americans are currently living with this type of cancer that kills very quickly.  Only 63 percent live five years after diagnosis.

Since the early 1970s, the number of new cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has nearly doubled. A 2004 study suggests the increase could be attributed to  better cancer reporting, an increase in AIDS-related NHL and changes in the classification of lymphoma.

While non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma can strike at any age, lymphomas as a whole are the most common childhood cancers, whose symptoms include chills, fever, weight loss and enlarged lymph nodes.

The exact cause of NHL remains a mystery,  but a family history of the disease, already having an autoimmune disease and exposure to certain environmental chemicals are believed to contribute to it.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Jeopardy's "Watson" -- Your New Health Insurer?

Sean Gallup/Getty Images(WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.) -- Watson, the IBM supercomputer that crushed the human competition on Jeopardy! has been hired by one of the country’s largest health insurers.

WellPoint Inc., which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, will use Watson’s vast health care database and quick calculating power to guide treatment decisions for its 34.2 million members.

In its new job, Watson will compare patients’ electronic records to a library of textbooks and medical journals, and WellPoint’s history of treatments to generate a list of options and the rationale behind them.

“Imagine having the ability to take in all the information around a patient’s medical care — symptoms, findings, patient interviews and diagnostic studies. Then, imagine using Watson analytic capabilities to consider all of the prior cases, the state-of-the-art clinical knowledge in the medical literature and clinical best practices to help a physician advance a diagnosis and guide a course of treatment,” WellPoint’s chief medical officer Dr. Sam Nussbaum said in a statement. “We believe this will be an invaluable resource for our partnering physicians and will dramatically enhance the quality and effectiveness of medical care they deliver to our members.”

In 2010, WellPoint was accused of overcharging customers and even dropping coverage to avoid paying claims. But the company said Watson would help improve patient care.

Watson will clock in officially early next year.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Brush Your Teeth to Prevent a Heart Attack

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Everyone knows taking good care of your mouth, from daily brushing to frequent flossing, helps refresh your breath and protect your gums, but it can help save your heart too.

New studies show that having gum disease can quadruple your risk of stroke and spike your risk of a heart attack up to a dozen times higher by releasing plaque-causing bacteria into your bloodstream.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show, visited ABC's Good Morning America on Monday and offered some tips on how to keep your teeth -- and heart -- healthy:

-- Brush your teeth for a full two minutes every day.
-- Be careful not to brush too hard, and pick a soft-bristled brush with tapered tips.
-- Make sure your toothpaste does not contain triclosan or sodium lauryl sulfate as ingredients.
-- Reach for a natural mouthwash that is both alcohol- and sugar-free.
-- Chewing sugarless gum and mints is a great way to help protect your teeth against enamel decay, but make sure what you chew is sugarless in order to prevent tooth decay.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Is 'SpongeBob SquarePants' Making Preschoolers Slower Thinkers?

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Nickelodeon(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) -- He may be one of the longest-running, best-loved cartoons in Nickelodeon history, but SpongeBob SquarePants is getting no love from child psychologists.

According to research published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, watching fast-paced cartoons like SpongeBob, even for just a few minutes, hinders abstract thinking, short-term memory and impulse control in preschoolers.

Led by University of Virginia psychologist Angeline Lillard, researchers randomly assigned 60 four-year-olds to three activities: drawing freely with markers for nine minutes; watching a slower-paced, PBS cartoon for that time; or watching SpongeBob SquarePants.  Researchers chose SpongeBob for its frenetic pace: The show switches scenes on average every 11 seconds, as compared with the PBS cartoon, which switched only twice a minute.

Afterward, the preschoolers were asked to do four different "executive function" tasks that test cognitive capability and impulse control, such as counting backwards, solving puzzles, and delaying gratification by waiting to eat a tasty snack until told to do so.  Compared with those who were drawing and those watching PBS, the SpongeBob kids performed significantly worse on the tasks.

Study authors note that it's hard to say what it was about the adventures of this friendly kitchen sponge that seemed to have such an immediate negative effect on kids, but they suspected it was the fantastical events and rapid pacing of the show.  By contrast, the PBS show was slower and exhibited real life events about a preschool-age boy.

Parents and pediatricians have often commented that the frenzied pace of many kids' cartoons today make kids distracted and kill their attention spans.

"This is something we have known for quite sometime, but this is elegant research that puts science behind what we think," says Dr. David Rosenberg, chief of child psychiatry and psychology at Wayne State University.

The blame shouldn't fall exclusively on the square shoulders of this kindly sea sponge.  All fast-paced, fantastical kids' shows are called into question.

Nickleodeon, the makers of SpongeBob, defended the cartoon, pointing out that the study looked only at white middle- to upper-class kids.  The study subjects were also only four -- two years younger than the target SpongeBob audience.

"Having 60 non-diverse kids, who are not part of the show's targeted demo, watch nine minutes of programming is questionable methodology.  It could not possibly provide the basis for any valid findings that parents could trust," David Bittler, a representative for Nickleodeon, told ABC News.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio