Study Shows Cereal Lowers Blood Pressure

Medioimages/Photodisc(BOSTON) -- It turns out cereal could offer a surprising health benefit for men.

A bowl of cereal a day can help keep high blood pressure away. A study of more than 13 thousand men found those who regularly ate cereal for breakfast, especially whole grain cereal, had a 20 percent lower risk of developing chronic hypertension.

The lead researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, says whole grain cereal along with low sodium intake and exercise, can really cut your risk of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke, the leading causes of death in the nation. 

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

March Madness Equals Increase in Vasectomies

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock (CLEVELAND) -- March isn't just madness for sports fans, it can be madness for doctors as well. Urologists say March is well known as the month to get a vasectomy.  As a matter of fact, vasectomies spike approximately 50 percent during this time of year, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Why now? The procedure takes less than a half-hour and patients can even drive themselves home. They are stuck on the couch as they are encouraged to stay off their feet for a few days and what better time to be pinned to a couch than during the NCAA College Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March madness.

Doctors say March madness isn't the only reason men get vasectomies in March . Some men are taking advantage of spring break time off. Others are preparing for summer vacations, since a vasectomy takes a few months to take full effect.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

South Dakota Passes Tougher Regulations on Abortions

Siri Stafford/Photodisc(PIERRE, S.D.) -- South Dakota became the first state in the country to require a woman seeking an abortion to visit a pregnancy help center first and submit to counseling to ensure her decision is "voluntary" and "informed."

Under the new law the woman must also wait at least 72 hours after completing the counseling before she can schedule an abortion, the longest waiting period in the nation. The law goes into effect on July 1.

"I think everyone agrees with the goal of reducing abortion by encouraging consideration of other alternatives," Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, said in a statement. "I hope that women who are considering an abortion will use this three-day period to make good choices."

A number of state proposals nationwide have targeted abortion this year, including laws passed in Ohio and Texas.

Planned Parenthood announced it will file a lawsuit seeking to repeal the law.

Sarah Stoesz, the president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood's office for Minnesota and North and South Dakota, said the three-day waiting period is a "callous" attempt to put another barrier in front of women seeking abortions. But the compulsory counseling at pregnancy crisis centers, she said, would be even worse.

"The centers are non-regulated, non-licensed, non-accredited, and they are not covered by HIPPA laws, or any other privacy law," said Stoesz. "Their sole focus is to dissuade women from having an abortion."

Planned Parenthood is the only provider of abortions in the state of South Dakota. In contrast to the pregnancy crisis centers, or help centers, Stoesz said the Planned Parenthood clinic is regulated, accredited, and subject to all laws concerning privacy.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Settlement Stops Sale of Toxic Jewelry

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(OAKLAND, Calif.) -- Jewelry supplier Tween Brands has agreed to eliminate the toxic metal cadmium from its products after a first-of-its-kind settlement.

Tween Brands sells low-cost jewelry intended for children up through adults.

"As a company, we are committed to working to ensure the well-being of our customers, and continue to work to ensure all of our products meet or exceed safety standards," Tween Brands said in a statement.

On Friday, the Center for Environmental Health, a California-based organization that seeks to protect people from industrial use of toxic chemicals, filed a case against the company with California's attorney general. Beginning in January 2012, Tween Brands will face fines if the company sells jewelry that contains more than 0.03 percent cadmium.

Amid growing worry over cadmium in kids' jewelry, a study published on March 3 further found that kids can be exposed to more than 100 times the recommended limit of this noxious metal when they accidentally swallow or put in their mouths common, inexpensive jewelry items.

Following strict regulation on lead content in children's items, many manufacturers, especially in China, have turned to cadmium as a low-cost, shiny, and easy-to-work-with metal for use in cheap jewelry, which is often marketed to kids.

Although lead is a potentially harmful metal at high exposure, cadmium is a much more noxious metal even at lower doses, and has been linked to kidney, bone and liver disease. It is also a known carcinogen.

Ironically, in an attempt to eradicate one toxin from our children's lives, we've traded up in toxicity, said Dr. Charles McKay, a medical toxicologist at Hartford Hospital-University of Connecticut Health Center. What's more, we've traded a regulated substance, lead, for one that is not yet regulated in children's toys or in jewelry, he added.

The absence of regulations has opened the doors for some jewelry items to expose young kids to extremely high levels of this toxin when they suck on the jewelry or accidently ingest it. Of the 92 pieces of cadmium-containing jewelry tested in a study, published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, two would expose children to 100 times the recommended limit on cadmium had they been swallowed.

And when the jewelry becomes scratched or damaged, as is often the case among anything a child wears or plays with regularly, the risk for exposure is even higher. For example, six damaged sandal charms tested in the study yielded 30 times as much cadmium as undamaged charms.

Cadmium poses an especial risk, said lead author Jeff Weidenhamer, a professor of chemistry at Ashland University, because it's impossible for parents to tell which items they buy contain the metal. Many don't, he said, and among those that do, often the levels are ostensibly safe but can still be quite toxic.

Cadmium is also of major concern because it accumulates in the body over the course of a lifetime, Weidenhamer said. "And the digestive systems of kids are more efficient at absorbing cadmium, so exposure to kids who swallow these items is of increased concern."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio 

Heart Attack Risk: Does Having Sex Really Tax the Ol' Ticker?

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(BOSTON) -- It has become a Hollywood cliché -- the older man who clutches his chest and keels over midway through having sex -- but is it as real as people think? New research from Tufts Medical Center suggests that sex does increase the risk of a heart attack, but the risk is still small and only rises during and soon after doing the deed.

Researchers analyzed past studies in which heart attack victims, mostly men in their 50s and 60s, were questioned about their activities just preceding and during their coronaries to see if sex served as a trigger for their cardiac events.

While they found that sexual activity caused a 2.7 percent increased risk of heart attack, this overall risk was quite small and should not dissuade those with heart disease from indulging in a little bedroom action. They say that's important, especially since several other studies show that regular sexual activity (usually defined as two or more times a week) actually decreases one's risk of heart attack over time.

Lead author Dr. Issa Dahabreh says people shouldn't take the new report to mean the sex is harmful for those with heart disease "because the absolute risk is really small."

What's more, patients could battle this increased risk by being physically active on a regular basis. Regular exercise made sex and other types of physical exertion less likely to be a trigger for heart attack, the study found.

"We saw a 45 percent reduction in the relative risk of heart attack with every additional weekly exercise session," says co-author Jessica Paulus, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

"The main take-home [is that] regular exercise training, which we should be promoting anyway as a means to improve cardio respiratory fitness…will markedly reduce the risk associated with both acute exercise/exertion as well as sexual activity," says Dr. Chip Lavie, medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention at John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute.

What's more, the emotional and physical benefits of sexual satisfaction have also been linked in several studies to overall health and specifically cardiac health.

In a 2010 study published in the American Journal of Cardiology, men between the ages of 50 and 70 were followed for 16 years and quizzed about sexual activity. Researchers found that sex twice a week reduced the risk of heart disease in these men by up to 45 percent, compared to their peers who had sex once a month or less.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, heart surgeon and host of the Dr. Oz Show, is also famous for recommending frequent sex (three times a week) as a way for men decrease their risk of heart attack and stroke by 50 percent.

So the exertion of a romp in the bedroom may briefly increase the risk of heart attack, but the cardiovascular and emotional benefits of regular sexual satisfaction far outweigh the downside, especially in those who are regularly active in other ways as well.

"The bottom line is that people should not fear sexual activity, but should fear sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity," says Lavie.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio 

National Chain Adds Turkey Burgers to Permanent Menu

Business Wire/CKE Restaurants(CARPINTERIA, Calif.) -- A fast food chain known for its cholesterol busting hamburgers is turning to turkey.

Carl's Jr. and Hardee’s have become the first national fast food restaurants to add lower fat turkey burgers to their permanent menus. The sister brands, owned by CKE Restaurants, have been criticized for serving up very high-calorie burgers. Now they’re hoping that a new line of charbroiled turkey burgers can help sway their critics.

“More customers today are looking for great-tasting burgers that are better for them and/or are available with a beef alternative,” said Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing for CKE Restaurants.

The company says the new burgers have less than 500 calories each.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

When Sexting Goes Viral Teens Suffer the Consequences

Goodshoot RF/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- The proliferation of cellphones equipped with video cameras has made shooting and sending x-rated videos easier than ever for teenagers. The world of "sexting" -- sending sexually explicit text messages -- amongst teens that was once limited to raunchy words and pictures is increasingly moving into the video domain -- with devastating consequences.

According to a 2008 study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, more than one in five teenage girls have sent or posted nude images of themselves.

The pressure to send illicit material is also beginning at shockingly young ages.

"I was asked for a picture in seventh grade," said 15-year-old high school student Jessica Pereira.

The explicit images are often made between teens in a relationship, but after the teens break up the videos can go viral.

When 16-year-old Julia Kirouac broke up with her boyfriend last fall, he shared the sexy images she says he pressured her into making for him. The humiliation sent Julia into a deep depression and in early February Julia downed a bottle of pills in an attempt to kill herself. She spent a week in the hospital recovering. Now, she says, she's learned a powerful lesson she wants to share with other teens.

"I just want them to know that they don't have to do anything that they don't want do," Julia said fighting back tears. "And if they think that they need to send pictures or videos, whatever it is, to a guy that they're dating or that they like, it's not worth it at all.”

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Gleevec Normalizes Cancer Patients' Life Expectancies, Researchers Say

Duncan Smith/Thinkstock(MILAN, Italy) -- Gleevec is a drug used to treat a type of leukemia as well as a number of other cancers.  Since it was approved by the FDA in 2001, this targeted therapy has been of great benefit to many cancer patients. 

But the authors of a study at the University of Milano in Italy wanted to know how people whose leukemia went into remission after Gleevec treatment fared after years of continued treatment -- meaning, did they relapse?

The researchers assessed over 800 Gleevec-treated patients whose leukemia had gone into remission after two years of treatment.  They found that after six years of treatment, 95 percent of the study participants were still cancer-free, and after eight years, 90 percent were still cancer-free.  This is, according to the authors, a life expectancy not unlike that of the general population. 

Although there were marked negative side effects of continued Gleevec therapy such as skin rashes, gastrointestinal problems and muscle cramps, the authors point out that these findings illustrate just how “profoundly imatinib (Gleevec) has changed the clinical course of CML (chronic myeloid leukemia).”
 
The study consisted of pre-selected patients who responded to Gleevec and went into remission.  Therefore, this study does not mean that all patients with this type of leukemia will have a “normal” life expectancy. Only those who go into complete remission within two years of starting Gleevec therapy experienced a life expectancy comparable to the general population

The study is featured in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio 

Prescriptions for Fibrates Increasing in the US

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) -- Millions of Americans take prescription medicine to lower their cholesterol. Fibrates are a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that can be prescribed for patients who cannot take the more-familiar statin drugs.  They are also commonly added to statin drugs in combination therapy.

Studies show that adding fibrates to statins does not increase the cholesterol-lowering benefits in people with diabetes. Nevertheless, a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that prescriptions for fibrates increased more than 117.1 percent between 2002 and 2009.

Prescriptions for fibrates in Canada remained stable during the same period.

Some experts fear this is a triumph of marketing over medicine, and adds to concerns about a number of cholesterol-lowering drugs and whether they are promoted to patients by doctors and drug companies without proven benefits.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio

Eating Disorders, Pregnancy a Dangerous Mix

Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Pregnant women in general have a more exaggerated sensitivity to changes in their body shape, but for those suffering from an eating disorder, the heightened sensitivity can trigger life-threatening behaviors like starvation or purging.

An eating disorder puts a pregnancy at high-risk if the mother does not nourish herself properly.  Just as a normal pregnant patient would battle pneumonia or flu, some professionals believe a pregnant woman with an eating disorder is sick.

"It's an illness, disorder, disease and temporary psychosis," says Dr. Katy Aisenberg, a Massachusetts-based psychotherapist.

Some experts estimate that as many as one in 20 women suffer from an eating disorder while pregnant.  But shame, secrecy and denial are inherent in eating-disorder patients, so the numbers do not account for those who are unwilling to describe symptoms to their obstetricians.

Visible symptoms can arise when the mother does not gain an adequate amount of weight (generally 25 to 35 pounds) or experiences hyperemesis, a severe form of morning sickness causing excessive vomiting and nausea.  Pregnant mothers who purge can easily hide their behavior by blaming it on normal morning sickness or nausea.

Pregnant women with eating disorders are also prone to obstetric complications.  Many have increased rates of difficult labor, like breech delivery, using forceps and Caesarian sections.  Most commonly, when the mother acts on an eating disorder during pregnancy, a fetus will experience a low birth-weight, growth retardation and vitamin deficiencies, which can lead to more severe conditions.

Some pregnant women have two competing forces demanding medical attention: the baby and the eating disorder.  Who or what demands priority of treatment can differ depending on whom you ask -- the obstetrician or the therapist.

For the obstetrician, the baby takes precedence over the mother's psychological state.  Dr. Clarissa Bonanno, an obstetrician who deals with high-risk pregnancies at Columbia University, argues there is a weak correlation between the mother's weight gain and the baby's weight because the baby takes what it needs to grow, regardless of how much weight the mother gains.

Bonanno says eating disorders often go undetected during pregnancy because many patients don't tell and obstetricians don't receive special training on eating disorders in medical school.

"We probably grossly under-diagnose it," she says. 

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio