Health : Health Buzz: More Pregnant Women, New Moms Having Strokes |
| Health Buzz: More Pregnant Women, New Moms Having Strokes Posted: 29 Jul 2011 10:15 AM PDT CDC: Spike in Pregnancy-Related Strokes The stroke rate among pregnant women and new moms is increasing at an "alarming" rate, the federal government warned Thursday. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed hospital-discharge data, and found that between 1994-5 and 2006-07, the rate of stroke hospitalizations rose 47 percent for expectant mothers and 83 percent for women who had recently given birth. Although the overall incidence remains low—0.22 stroke hospitalizations per 1,000 expectant and new moms—the increase is worrisome, say the study authors. The most likely explanation is that pregnant women are increasingly likely to have other risk factors for stroke, such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. "That is a very, very alarm-raising statistic that we need to take extremely seriously," Olajide Williams, a neurologist at Columbia University and an American Stroke Association spokesman, told USA Today. "We need to be more aggressive in screening these women for these risk factors." The findings were published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Stroke: 7 Signs You Could Be at Risk of a Brain Attack Stroke can hit like a deadly lightning bolt. And if the victim survives, the aftermath can be debilitating—affecting functioning from movement to speech. While stroke is the third-leading cause of death and the leading cause of adult disability in the United States, it trails behind other major diseases in awareness and recognition of symptoms. Being informed, however, can protect you from suffering either an ischemic stroke, caused by a blood clot and the most common form of stroke, or the less common hemorrhagic stroke, caused by bleeding in the brain. Know the factors that may be putting you at risk: Uncontrolled high blood pressure. As for all cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure is a major risk factor for stroke. The American Heart Association estimates that only 45 percent of people with high blood pressure actually have it under control, U.S. News reported in 2009. Female stroke victims, in particular, tend to have uncontrolled blood pressure, and in general, women who suffer strokes don't seem to be treated as aggressively as men. High blood pressure doesn't have any outward telltale signs, so getting it measured by your healthcare provider is essential to determine if you should make lifestyle changes or take medications to bring it down. Smoking. Puffing on cigarettes is associated with a host of ills. An increased risk of stroke is one of them. When compared to nonsmokers, smokers have double the risk of ischemic stroke. Heavy smokers face an even greater risk: A study of women ages 15 to 49 published in the journal Stroke found stroke risk was proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked per day. The women who smoked two or more packs a day had nine times the risk of stroke of a nonsmoker. And a study in Neurology found that smokers with a family history of brain aneurysm, abnormal bulging of an artery in the brain, are six times as likely to have a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a kind of stroke caused by a bleed between the brain and the tissue that covers it. These types of stroke are deadly nearly 40 percent of the time. [Read more: Stroke: 7 Signs You Could Be at Risk of a Brain Attack.] 5 Symptoms You Need to Know to Recognize a Stroke Immediately Minimizing the time between the onset of a stroke and the start of stroke treatment is critical for surviving the brain attack and minimizing the resulting brain injury. The key is to immediately get to the emergency room for a brain scan to detect which type of stroke has hit. If it's ischemic—caused by a blood clot—the best treatment is a clot-dissolving drug called tissue plasminogen activator, or TPA, and the quicker the treatment, the less the disabling damage. Most hospitals will treat stroke patients with TPA only if the medicine can be injected within three hours of the appearance of symptoms, which is why getting to the hospital is such an urgent matter. One study found, however, that TPA can be safe and effective up to 4½ hours after a stroke. Treatment for hemorrhagic stroke, caused by a bleeding vessel in the brain, involves lowering blood pressure and reducing swelling in the brain, U.S. News reported in 2009. Stroke can present itself with a range of symptoms, but the consistent factor is that they come on suddenly. Call 911 immediately if you, or someone you're with, experience any of the following: Numbness or weakness, particularly on one side of the body. This can be in the face, an arm, or a leg. If someone you're with appears to be experiencing this, ask the person to smile, lift both arms, or move both legs, the National Stroke Association recommends. If one side of the body doesn't respond, it may be a sign of stroke. [Read more: 5 Symptoms You Need to Know to Recognize a Stroke Immediately.] This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Health Buzz: Cell Phones Don't Increase Kids' Cancer Risk Posted: 28 Jul 2011 09:19 AM PDT Study: Cell Phones Don't Cause Cancer in Kids Cell phones don't increase kids' cancer risk, a new study suggests. Researchers compared the cell phone habits of nearly 1,000 children and adolescents ages 7 to 19 in Western Europe, including 352 who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor between 2004 and 2008, and 646 who were healthy. They found that regular cell phone users were no more likely to have developed a brain tumor than were never-users, according to findings published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In fact, similar percentages of children with and without brain tumors—75 percent and 72 percent, respectively—had used a cell phone at least 20 times before diagnosis, suggesting there is no "causal association between the use of mobile phones and brain tumors," the researchers wrote. They did note that most study participants had only been using cell phones for about four years, which may not be long enough to accurately determine cancer risk, since the disease takes a long time to develop, Reuters reports. In an accompanying editorial, scientists recommended continuing to monitor brain tumor rates among children and other cell phone users. What Causes Cancer? 7 Strange Cancer Claims Explained Bras, deodorant, and mouthwash—just a few of the everyday products that have been linked to cancer at some point during the past several decades. Preposterous? Not at the time, and new suspects have been added to the list. Here's the real story behind a roll call of ordinary household items that have come under scrutiny: 1. Artificial Sweeteners. The link: Calorie watchers scored a win when diet sodas were introduced in the early 1950s. Then lab studies suggested that the sweetener cyclamate caused bladder cancer in rats, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned its use. Then saccharin, the replacement of choice, was also shown to cause tumors in rats. Although saccharin was never banned, all products containing the sweetener were required to carry a cancer warning on their packaging. The reality: No evidence has since emerged that either cyclamate, which is used in other countries, or saccharin causes cancer in humans, according to the National Cancer Institute. Although cyclamate is still banned, in 2000 saccharin was taken off the government's list of possible carcinogens and saccharin products shed the warning label. The sweetener aspartame has come under suspicion, but scientists have found no increased risk of cancer in humans. [Read more: What Causes Cancer? 7 Strange Cancer Claims Explained.]
Cancer Prevention: Rethink Your Diet as Well as Your Smoking If everyone were to quit smoking , nearly 450,000 fewer Americans would die annually from smoking-related diseases, U.S. News reported in 2010. Yet even with all the smoking bans across the country, one in five Americans still lights up regularly—a rate that's plateaued since 2005 after four decades of decline, according to a report issued last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the smoking-lung cancer connection is an old story, every week, it seems, another headline tells you what you should or shouldn't eat to avert the "big C". Eat a colorful array of fruits and vegetables to ward off lung cancer, says one recent study; avoid soft drinks if you don't want to die of pancreatic cancer, warns another. Wine is good for your heart, but may increase your risk of breast cancer, others suggest. And who wouldn't be willing to give up the Diet Coke or chardonnay to sidestep the disease we fear most? It you took action based on research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, you might find yourself forgoing hamburgers and chicken wings and embracing soy burgers, tofu, and peanut butter instead. That study found that an Atkins-style diet that emphasized vegetable protein over animal protein lowered the risk of cancer. But all things considered, how much do dietary changes really matter in terms of cancer prevention? "Right after smoking, diet ranks right up there as the No. 2 modifiable risk factor," says Demetrius Albanes, a senior investigator and medical epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute. "Twenty-five percent of cancers can be related back to eating practices." Does that mean we really need to avoid soft drinks if we don't want to get pancreatic cancer, as was suggested by a study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention? "I don't think we can say that," Albanes says. "That particular study from Singapore didn't control very well for smoking, which is an important risk factor for pancreatic cancer." In other words, it could be that those who down daily six-packs of Fanta are also more likely to light up. [Read more: Cancer Prevention: Rethink Your Diet as Well as Your Smoking.]
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