THURSDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- A warning to certain types as those Super Bowl parties approach: People with a need to please others are more likely to eat too much in social situations, a new study suggests.
"People pleasers feel more intense pressure to eat when they believe that their eating will help another person feel more comfortable," study lead author Julie Exline, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University, said in a university news release. "Almost everyone has been in a situation in which they've felt this pressure, but people pleasers seem especially sensitive to it."
But there's an emotional cost to this behavior, according to the report published in the current issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
"Those who overeat in order to please others tend to regret their choices later. It doesn't feel good to give in to social pressures," Exline said.
The study included 101 college students who completed a questionnaire that assessed their characteristics for having a people-pleasing personality, such as putting others' needs before their own, worrying about hurting others and being sensitive to criticism.
Each of the participants was then seated alone with a female actor who posed as another study volunteer. The actor was given a bowl of candy and took a small handful (about five pieces) before offering the bowl to the study participant.
Being a people pleaser was associated with taking more candy, both in the laboratory experiment and in a second study involving the participants' recollection of real-life eating situations.
People pleasers "don't want to rock the boat or upset the sense of social harmony," Exline explained.
-- Robert Preidt 
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Case Western Reserve University, news release, Jan. 31, 2012
THURSDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- An electronic diary program helped improve overweight and obese adults' adherence to a weight-loss regimen, according to a new study.
The study included 210 overweight or obese adults who were asked to keep track of aspects of weight-loss treatment such as attendance at group sessions and energy and exercise goals.
The participants kept track using either a paper diary, a personal digital assistant (PDA) without feedback, or a PDA with a program that provided personalized dietary and exercise feedback messages.
The participants who received the feedback messages (one per day on diet and one every other day on exercise) were more successful in attending group sessions, meeting daily calorie goals, meeting daily fat-intake goals, reaching weekly exercise goals and monitoring their eating and exercise.
After six months, people in the group that received feedback messages saw weight loss of more than 5 percent. After 24 months, however, weight loss was similar in all three groups, according to the study, which is scheduled to be presented Thursday at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in San Diego.
"The results suggest that using an electronic diary improves treatment adherence," study author Lora Burke, a professor of nursing and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, said in an AHA news release.
"Over time, participants' adherence declined, particularly in the later phase as contact frequency declined and subsequently ended," she said. "Adherence in the paper-diary group declined more than in the device groups."
Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, March 15, 2012
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 21 (HealthDay News) -- The costs of the obesity epidemic to the United States and the economic value of curbing it are not captured fully by current methods, according to a new report.
The problem is that estimates used by Congress when it looks at these issues project out only 10 years, while it may take much longer than that for complications of obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease, to manifest, the report authors say.
For example, "a person with diabetes is not going to go on dialysis right away. They're going to go on dialysis 10 to 12 years after their diagnosis," said Michael O'Grady, co-author of the report, released Wednesday by the Campaign to End Obesity.
A 25-year window for making policy decisions would be more appropriate when drafting policies aimed at curbing disease, he said at a Wednesday morning press conference.
By the same token, measures to prevent obesity can take 20 or more years, perhaps even generations, to show their promise, the report said. A wider time window would enable policy makers to assess the cost-effectiveness of preventive programs, the report noted.
"Interventions aimed at children will not have their full payoff until those children are adults," said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president and director of the Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which funded the study.
Nor will the success of interventions aimed at pregnant women be seen for many years, noted the study's authors, speaking at the briefing.
O'Grady, citing current CDC figures, said more than one-third of U.S. adults are overweight, another one-third are obese and 6 percent are extremely obese.
"That's right around three-quarters of the population," said O'Grady, a senior fellow for health care research at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and a principal with O'Grady Health Policy, LLC.
One estimate puts the annual cost of obesity at $147 billion, representing almost 10 percent of all medical expenses, the report said. But the Society of Actuaries -- which adds in lost productivity, employees on full disability and absenteeism -- puts the costs closer to $300 billion a year.
And at a minimum, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that per-person, obesity-related spending will increase an average of 3.6 percent a year, the report said.
The authors are asking those who make up budgets, including the Congressional Budget Office, to take into account a growing body of scientific literature on the toll of diabetes as well as hopeful interventions when they tally the price of obesity.
A window of 25 years will help policy makers arrive at more accurate long-term estimates, they said.
"Ten years is adequate for food stamps and aircraft carriers, but there are certain policy areas where we know the disease has a 20- to 25-year progression. You need the flexibility to go beyond 10 years," O'Grady said. "We probably want to modify the status quo of how we measure these things in order to capture the full value of that."
Marks said two of the greatest challenges the nation faces are restoring global economic competitiveness and the skyrocketing costs of medical care, which has become perhaps the biggest obstacle to long-term economic strength.
"Obesity lies right at the center of those challenges," he said. "The way Congress acts to score legislation, using only a 10-year horizon, misses a huge part of the value of preventive efforts."
The authors served in the George W. Bush administration. O'Grady was assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, and co-author James Capretta served as an associate director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: March 21, 2012, teleconference with: Michael O'Grady, Ph.D., senior fellow for health care research, National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago, and principal, O'Grady Health Policy, LLC, and James Marks, M.D., senior vice president and director, Health Group, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; March 21, 2012, Campaign to End Obesity report, Assessing the Economics of Obesity and Obesity InterventionsHealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to take a second look at the weight loss pill Qnexa on Wednesday, after initially rejecting it because of concerns about heart problems and possible birth defects.
While effective at reducing weight, the drug, manufactured by Vivus Inc., was denied approval in 2010 because of its potential side effects. An FDA advisory panel will now review two years of data; when advisers last voted on Qnexa, only one year's worth of follow-up data was available.
The drug combines the appetite suppressant phentermine and the anti-seizure/migraine drug topiramate. Phentermine was once widely prescribed as the "phen" part of the fen-phen weight loss drug. This combo was withdrawn from the market after its use was linked to high blood pressure in the lungs and heart valve disease. The problems were related to the "fen" or fenfluramine part of the combination, not the phentermine.
No new weight-loss drug has been approved in the United States in the past 13 years, according to published reports. As it stands, Xenical is the only FDA-approved drug specifically for long-term use -- up to a year -- for weight loss. Xenical is sold over-the-counter as Alli. However, other drugs may be used off label to promote weight loss.
Last April, a study funded by Vivus found that obese patients taking Qnexa lost an average 22 pounds over a year, while also lowering their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
Dr. Louis Aronne, founder and director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, is cautiously optimistic that Vivus did a good job responding to FDA safety concerns, and that the FDA will give the drug its nod of approval, with some caveats. Aronne was not involved in the trials but has been an adviser to Vivus and other companies developing weight loss medications.
"I am not as pessimistic as most people," he said.
Vivus has reported that Qnexa may increase the risk of cleft lip in babies of women who use the drug while pregnant. Aronne said the birth defect concern could be addressed through education on who should and should not use the new drug.
"We have learned our lessons with weight loss drugs," he said. "They need to be used in the right people under the right circumstances." The heart risks need to be weighed against reductions in heart disease risk factors that come with weight loss, he said.
Qnexa is not any riskier than bariatric surgery, according to Aronne. "The problem is that it can be distributed more widely," he said. He hopes for a compromise that allows the new compound to be prescribed, but not misused. "Once new medications are approved, local medical boards will need to enforce rules and make sure these medications are prescribed appropriately to the right candidates," he said. "We don't want to open up pill mills."
One thing is clear, he said: More options to treat obesity are needed. "For hypertension, there are 120 medications in nine categories," Aronne said. "We need new options and we need to get physicians thinking about obesity and obesity treatments."
Dr. Scott Kahan, an obesity expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness in Washington, D.C., agreed. He is optimistic about the FDA's upcoming decision on Qnexa. "The weight loss effects are striking and approaching the amount of weight loss over two years that we get with bariatric surgery," he said. "This is really impressive."
More information
Learn more about weight loss medications at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Louis Aronne, M.D., founder and director, Comprehensive Weight Control Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York City; Scott Kahn, M.D., associate director, Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, Baltimore, and director, National Center for Weight and Wellness, Washington, D.C. By Randy DotingaHealthDay Reporter
SUNDAY, Feb. 19 (HealthDay News) -- A new animal study suggests that a genetic mutation could put certain people at higher risk for becoming obese if they eat high-fat diets.
At the moment, the practical uses of the research seem to be limited, but physicians could conceivably test people for the mutation and recommend that they avoid certain kinds of diets, said study co-author Dr. Gozoh Tsujimoto, a professor at Kyoto University's department of genomic drug discovery science in Japan. It may also be possible, Tsujimoto said, to eventually give people drugs to combat the effects of the mutation.
If that happens, there would be "a new avenue for personalized health care," Tsujimoto said.
Scientists have been busy studying genetic links to obesity that could make some people more prone to gain extra weight. Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Excess pounds contribute to a variety of diseases, including heart disease and cancer.
In the new study, researchers looked at the component of the body's internal communication system that plays a role in the regulation of appetite and the production of fat cells.
The investigators found that mice that didn't have the component were 10 percent fatter than other mice when all were fed a high-fat diet. Mice without the component also developed higher intolerance to glucose.
Research conducted in animals does not always translate into humans, and much more research is needed. However, the researchers found that Europeans with the genetic mutation, known as GPR120, were more likely to be obese.
"Our study for the first time demonstrated the gene responsible for diet-induced obesity," Tsujimoto said.
According to Tsujimoto, more than 3 percent of Europeans have the trait. The next step for researchers is to study its prevalence in Japanese, Korean and Chinese people.
What can be done with the knowledge from the study?
Tsujimoto said physicians could advise people with the trait to avoid high-fat diets. A test is available to detect the trait and it costs about $200 in Japan, Tsujimoto said.
While medications could potentially be developed that would reverse the effects of the genetic trait, there are no such drugs now, Tsujimoto added.
Ruth Loos, director of Genetics of Obesity and Related Metabolic Traits at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said "these findings provide another piece of what turns out to be the very large puzzle that describes the causes of obesity."
Consistent findings in mice and humans have put the trait "more firmly on the obesity map and provides a new starting point for more research into the function of this gene," said Loos.
"This is only the beginning of likely many years of research to disentangle the physiological mechanisms that lie behind the link between this gene and obesity risk," she said. "It is only when we understand the physiology and biology better that one can start thinking of developing a drug."
The study appears online Feb. 19 in the journal Nature.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Gozoh Tsujimoto, M.D., Ph.D., professor, department of genomic drug discovery science, Kyoto University, Japan; Ruth Loos, Ph.D., professor and director, Genetics of Obesity and Related Metabolic Traits, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City; Feb. 19, 2012, Nature, online People Who Postpone a Snack Craving Have Less Desire for It; Eat Less Over Time, Study Finds
By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Jan. 30, 2012 -- Got a craving for chocolate ice cream, greasy chips, or something else that you're trying not to eat?
Postpone it.
People who postpone a snack they crave actually desire it less and are able to delay eating it, says researcher Nicole Mead, PhD, an assistant professor at Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics in Portugal.
What's more, they then eat less of that food over the next week, she has found.
One key? Postponing has to be to some vague time in the future.
"When you postpone to some indefinite time in the future, the desire for the food actually decreases," Mead says. She presented her findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego.
When a craving hits, people often think they have two choices, Mead says: giving in or resisting.
"If you give up, you are usually feeling guilty," she says. If you resist, you often feel deprived and ''you might overindulge later on."
"We propose a third option: To say to yourself, 'I can have it later.'"
It takes you out of that ''yes-no,'' ''should I or shouldn't I?'' conflict, she says.
Mead tested the strategy using different snack foods.
In one study, she invited 99 men and women to watch film clips. She put a bowl of candies in front of each participant. The participants weren't told what the researchers were actually studying. She assigned them to one of three groups:
One group was told they could eat the candies freely.Another group was asked not to eat them.A third group was told they could have them later.After the film clip viewing, Mead asked the participants unrelated questions, such as whether the temperature in the room was OK, again to throw them off.
Then she told all of them it was OK to eat the candies. The participants weren't told that the researchers were going to measure how much candy they ate.
The group told not to eat the candies while watching the film ate the most, about a third of an ounce. Those told to eat freely and those asked to postpone each ate about half that amount. The postponing group ate a little less than the eat-freely group.
"We also measured chocolate consumption over one week," Mead says. The postponing group ate chocolate candy only once during the week after the experiment. The group told to eat freely ate it three times. The group told not to eat it at the film viewing ate it about four-and-a-half times.
Mead wanted to see if she would get the same results if she allowed people to choose their strategy. She gave 105 high school students in the Netherlands, average age 15, each a bag of chips. They were randomly assigned to an eating strategy or told to choose their own.
The three strategies:
Eat the chips now if you wish.Do not eat the chips.Don't eat them now, but you can eat them later.The postponing group ate the least amount of chips, whether they were assigned to that group or chose it, Mead found.
They ate the least amount of chips over the week that followed, too, she says. Those in the postpone group had chips about 2.4 times in the next week. Those in the group told to eat freely had them nearly four times. Those in the group told not to eat chips had them 4.5 times.
"This one-minute manipulation lasted seven days," Mead says.
The postponing gives the mind a cooling-off period, Mead says. It may also take you out of conflict mode, torn between feeling guilty and feeling deprived.
However, she believes the postponement must be nonspecific. Not "I'll have that candy at 3 p.m.," but "I'll have the candy later if I want it."
The key may be postponing without telling yourself when, says Brian Wansink, PhD, John S. Dyson professor of marketing at Cornell University. He is a long-time researcher on eating behavior.
He wasn't involved in the Mead study, but he tested the postpone strategy some years ago.
He told people to postpone to a specific time, and he gave up on that research, he tells WebMD. "It worked OK for people who weren't that eager to have a food," he says. But it didn't seem to combat strong cravings.
Some participants, he remembers, were then watching the clock and thinking of nothing else but the food they craved.
Mead's strategy of postponing to some undefined time in the future, he says, might work well for those who want to watch their weight and avoid certain foods. During postponement, he says, they may actually substitute a healthier food.
Wansink reports receiving research funding from Bel Group (Babybel cheeses), Corn Refiners Association, and Birds Eye Foods.
This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.
SOURCES: Nicole Mead, assistant professor, Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, Portugal.Brian Wansink, PhD, John S. Dyson professor of marketing, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 13th Annual Meeting, Jan. 26-28, 2012, San Diego, Calif.©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Study: Obese People Are in Pain More Often, Even if They Are Healthy
By Brenda Goodman, MA
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Jan. 30, 2012 -- A large new study shows that obesity and pain often go hand in hand. That appears to be true even if an obese person is otherwise healthy.
Researchers say that begs some questions: Can extra pounds cause pain? If so, how does fat make us hurt?
A slew of chronic conditions that cause pain are also more common in people who are overweight and obese. Those conditions include arthritis, depression, fibromyalgia, type 2 diabetes, and back pain.
So the assumption has been that being obese makes a person more likely to have multiple medical problems, and many of these conditions may cause pain.
The new survey, however, which included responses from more than 1 million Americans, found that the relationship between obesity and pain persisted even after researchers tried to account for the influences of other pain-causing health problems.
"Being sick can cause pain, but that doesn't necessarily take care of the relationship between obesity and pain," says researcher Arthur A. Stone, PhD, distinguished professor and vice chairman of the department of psychiatry at the Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, N.Y.
The study is published in the journal Obesity.
For the study, researchers relied on data collected by telephone surveys conducted by the Gallup organization from 2008 to 2010.
The majority of survey participants were white (85.1%) and had at least a high school education (94.2%).
Every survey participant was asked to report their height and weight. Based on that information, 36.8% of people in the study fell into the low or normal body mass index (BMI) category, 38.3% were considered overweight, and 24.9% were considered obese.
People were asked if they had experienced physical pain the previous day. They were also asked if they had neck, back, leg, or knee conditions that had caused pain during the last 12 months, or if they'd experienced any other condition that caused recurring pain.
They were also asked about the presence of a variety of other medical conditions, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, diabetes, heart attack, and depression. Researchers found that as weight increased, so did the likelihood that a person would be experiencing pain.
Compared to normal-weight people in the survey, people in the overweight group -- those with BMIs between 25 and 29 -- had about 20% more pain. People with BMIs between 30 and 34 had about 68% more pain. Those with BMIs between 35 and 39 had 136% more pain, and those with BMIs over 40 reported having 254% more pain.
As expected, chronic pain conditions accounted for a good portion of those results.
And researchers recognize that the relationships between chronic health problems and pain and obesity are complex. In some cases, it could be that having arthritis makes a person less likely to move around, which makes them more likely to gain weight. In others, it may be that being overweight puts strain on the joints, which leads to joint problems that cause pain.
When researchers accounted for the influences of other health problems and pain causing conditions, being overweight was no longer associated with being in pain.
But people who were obese still reported more pain than those with normal BMIs. Researchers caution that their findings are just an association. They don't prove that fat alone causes pain.
But they mirror a handful of other, smaller studies that have also found links between pain and obesity, even when there were no other chronic conditions to explain the findings.
So they say it makes sense that there might be another mechanism connected to having a lot of fatty tissue or to problems with the body's metabolism that might explain the pain.
The study wasn't able to explain how fat might cause pain.
But Stone says that fat cells are known to make chemicals that increase inflammation. "And we know that inflammation is very closely linked to pain perception, so there's the possibility that there's some connection through that kind of process."
He says those questions will ultimately need to be addressed by other researchers.
SOURCES: Stone, A. Obesity, published online Jan. 30, 2012.News release, Stony Brook University.Arthur A. Stone, PhD, distinguished professor and vice chairman, department of psychiatry, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Stony Brook, N.Y.©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
FRIDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A smaller plate won't help you eat less, says a new study that challenges a widely held belief.
"Smaller plates are often recommended as a way of controlling intake, but that simply isn't an effective strategy," senior researcher Meena Shah, a professor of kinesiology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, said in a news release. "There was no plate size, weight status, or plate size by weight status effect on meal energy intake."
The study included 10 overweight or obese women and 10 normal weight women who were randomly assigned to have lunch using either a small (8.5-inch) or large (10.8-inch) plate. The women were told to serve themselves and eat until they were satisfied.
The women did this on two different days, using a different-size plate each time.
"It is possible that plate size does not have an impact on energy intake because people eat until they are full regardless of what utensils they are using," Shah said.
She noted that overweight and obese women "reported lower levels of hunger and prospective consumptions before the meals and felt less full after the meals compared to normal weight subjects despite no difference in energy consumption between two groups. This suggests that overweight/obese individuals may have a lower ability to sense hunger and fullness than normal weight adults."
The study was recently published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Texas Christian University, news release, January 2012
TUESDAY, Feb. 14 (HealthDay News) -- People who drank water or diet beverages instead of calorie-laden drinks lost 4 to 5 pounds over half a year, according to new research.
The study included 318 overweight or obese people divided into three groups: those who switched to water from high-calorie beverages; those who switched to diet soft drinks; and those who weren't advised to change beverages but were given general information about healthy choices that could help them lose weight (the control group).
Over the six-month study, all three groups had small reductions in weight and waist circumference. But those who switched to calorie-free beverages were twice as likely to lose 5 percent or more of their body weight than those in the control group.
In addition, the investigators found that people who drank mostly water had lower fasting glucose levels and better hydration levels than those in the control group.
Percentage of weight loss and lower blood-sugar levels are important because they're associated with improvements in risk factors for obesity-related chronic diseases, according to study author Deborah Tate, an associate professor of nutrition and of health behavior at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health and member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"Substituting noncaloric beverages -- whether it's water, diet soft drinks or something else -- can be a clear and simple change for people who want to lose or maintain weight," she said in a university news release. "If this were done on a large scale, it could significantly reduce the increasing public health problem of obesity."
The study appears online and in the March print issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Weight loss among the participants in this study was less than that seen in more intensive, clinic-based behavioral lifestyle modification programs, the researchers said. However, they noted that asking people to change just one part of their diet (in this case, beverages) is consistent with previous findings recommending small but potentially more sustainable lifestyle changes to improve health.
"Substituting specific foods or beverages that provide a substantial portion of daily calories may be a useful strategy for modest weight loss or weight gain prevention," Tate said. "Beverages may be ideal targets, but keep in mind, the strategy will only work if the person doesn't make up for the lost calories some other way."
-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, news release, Feb. 13, 2012
FRIDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- Breathing cold air during certain physical activities, such as shoveling snow, increases the body's demand for oxygen, which may put people with heart disease at greater risk for cardiac arrest or death, a new study finds.
"This study can help us understand why cold air is such a trigger for coronary events," Lawrence Sinoway, director of the Heart and Vascular Institute at the Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, said in a university news release. "If you are doing some type of isometric work and you're breathing cold air, your heart is doing more work -- it's consuming more oxygen."
The researchers used a hand-grip test (which involves participants squeezing a handgrip, a move known to increase blood pressure) to study the heart and lung function of healthy adults in their 20s and 60s while exposed to cold and normal air temperatures. The researchers found a discrepancy in supply and demand in the participants' left ventricle -- the part of the heart that receives oxygenated blood -- when cold air was introduced during handgrip exercise. They noted that since the participants' hearts were healthy, they were able to compensate for this change and continue working properly.
People with heart disease, however, may not be able to keep up with the increased demand for oxygen. The findings, recently published in the Journal of Applied Physiology and The American Journal of Physiology, Heart and Circulatory Physiology, could explain why fatal heart attacks peak during the winter.
Matthew Muller, postdoctoral fellow at Penn State's Heart and Vascular Institute, said the results were in line with what they expected. "We thought that oxygen demand in the heart would be higher with cold-air breathing, and we also thought that oxygen supply would be a little bit impaired," he said in the news release. "And that's generally what we found."
-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Penn State, news release, Feb. 28, 2012
MONDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- Promoting physical activity among young school kids can end up improving their academic performance, a new study suggests.
Italian researchers tracked 138 children aged 8 through 11 who took mental acuity tests under a series of conditions that sometimes involved physical activity and sometimes did not.
"Schoolteachers frequently claim that students lose attention and concentration with prolonged periods of academic instruction," first study author Maria Chiara Gallotta, at the University of Rome, said in a news release. "The key elements of learning, particularly important during development, are attention and concentration. Our study examined the relationship between exertion and the attention and concentration levels of schoolchildren."
The findings appear in the March issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Over a three-week period, the children sat for three exam sessions of 50 minutes each. Before the first test they had all engaged in some form of physical exertion. Before the second test they had only engaged in academic exercises. And the third time they had participated in both physical and academic activity. All the tests were structured to gauge concentration skills as well as the speed with which the kids responded and the quality of their answers.
The children performed best following either physical activity or academic activity, but less well when both were combined before testing.
Processing speed went up by 9 percent after engaging in some form of mental "exercise" and 10 percent after physical activity. But after a combined physical and mental exertion, testing scores went up by just 4 percent.
Similarly, in terms of concentration skills, pretesting mental activity boosted scores by 13 percent, while physical activity sent scores rising by 10 percent. When both were combined, testing results went up by just 2 percent.
The authors said the lower scores could be due to a rise in stress associated with asking children to exercise both their brains and their bodies in the same time span.
"Our findings," Gallotta said, "suggest that varying types of exertion have different beneficial influences on school children's immediate cognitive performance. While more research is needed, we believe this provides helpful justification for increasing physical activity opportunities in the academic setting."
-- Alan Mozes Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, March 1, 2012
(HealthDay News) -- Wearing the proper athletic shoes for your sport or exercise can help protect you against discomfort and injury.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says you should pay attention to these features when shopping for athletic shoes:
Shoes for aerobic exercise need sufficient shock absorption, cushioning, a flexible sole and enough stability.Shoes for court sports need a good sole that is specific to your sport.Shoes for field sports need cleats, spikes or studs, and a cushioned insert.Winter-sport shoes should have a snug fit and plenty of ankle support.Track and field shoes depend on the sport, so it's important to ask your coach about proper shoes.Specialty-sport shoes should fit according to the sport -- for instance, cycling shoes should fit snugly.Outdoor-sport shoes need warmth, good tread and plenty of support.-- Diana Kohnle Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
(HealthDay News) -- It's easy to veg out in front of the TV when you're bored or looking to relax. But there are healthier ways to wind down.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics offers these healthier alternatives to television:
Take a stroll to explore nearby scenery.Walk to a friend's house.Cook a healthy, new nutritional recipe for dinner.Join an exercise class.-- Diana Kohnle Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Hand-Cooling Device Lets People Feel More Comfortable When Exercising
By Denise Mann
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
March 13, 2012 -- Cool hands, healthy heart?
A new study shows that cool hands may allow you to exercise for longer periods of time.
Obese women who placed their hands in a cooling device while exercising, such as walking on a treadmill, were able to outlast their counterparts whose held a lukewarm device. The cooling device used was the AVAcore CoreControl device, which cools the palms and pulls heat from the body.
Many people become uncomfortably hot and sweaty during exercise. "Cooling will decrease the fatigue that goes with starting an exercise program and allow you to feel more comfortable when you get fit," says study author Stacy T. Sims, PhD. She is an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.
Can't afford the $3,000 price tag attached to this device?
Holding an ice-cold water bottle is a less expensive alternative. "Freeze a bottle of water and take it with you so you have it in your hand as you exercise, and you can drink cold water as it is melting," she says.
The findings were presented at the 2012 American Heart Association (AHA) Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism meeting in San Diego.
During the 12-week study, 24 women aged 30 to 45 who were considered obese based on their body mass index (BMI) held either the cooling device or the lukewarm comparison device while they exercised. This was not a weight loss study. It was a fitness study designed to get women more comfortable with exercising.
The women who used the cooling device tended to outlast those who did not. More women in the comparison group dropped out of the study because they felt uncomfortable when exercising.
Women in the cooling device group also lost 3 inches off their waist size, had lower resting blood pressure, and had greater exercise heart rates. What's more, women who used the cooling device shaved five minutes off the time it took them to walk 1.5 miles, the study shows. By contrast, women who did not use the cooling device saw no such changes after the three-month study.
"By cooling the hands, you cool the rest of the body," says Jerrold Petrofsky, PhD. He is a professor of physical therapy at Loma Linda University School of Allied Health in Loma Linda, Calif. "The hands are a very important switch to our internal thermostat."
And "anything to keep body temperature down will prolong exercise," he says.
AHA spokesperson Gerald Fletcher, MD, agrees. He is also a professor of medicine in the department of cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, Fla.
"Cool hands make a person feel more comfortable during exercise," he says. Other ways to stay cool include working out in a gym with a fan or air conditioner, drinking cold water, and swimming.
Cooling's benefits may involve more than just the comfort factor. It is possible that cooling results in changes in circulation. "I think it is possible, but we don't know," he says.
These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.
SOURCES: American Heart Association Epidemiology and Prevention, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism meeting, San Diego, Calif., March 13-16, 2012. Gerald Fletcher, MD, professor of medicine-cardiovascular diseases, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Fla. Stacy T. Sims, PhD, exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. Jerrold Petrofsky, PhD, professor of physical therapy, Loma Linda University School of Allied Health, Loma Linda, Calif.©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
FRIDAY, Feb. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Spending long hours at your desk may boost your work productivity, but it can harm your health, an expert warns.
There's growing evidence that the more time you spend sitting each day, the greater your risk of heart disease. Your spine, shoulders and hips may also suffer.
"It's important to get up and move around throughout the day," occupational therapist Julia Henderson-Kalb said in a Saint Louis University Medical Center news release. "Exercise not only helps with how you feel physically, but it also improves your mind and your memory."
It may not be possible for you to go to the gym at lunchtime, but making small changes to your daily work routine can help protect your health, she said.
Henderson-Kalb offered the following suggestions:
Sitting on an exercise ball instead of a chair will strengthen your abdominal and back muscles, and improve your posture.If possible, walk around while you talk on the phone.A timer or alarm set to go off hourly can help you remember to take a moment to stand and stretch.Choose the stairs whenever possible, and use the restrooms on another floor.Avoid the parking spots closest to the building.Wear a pedometer and plan to take between 6,000 and 10,000 steps per day.Keep light weights or exercise bands at your desk to help squeeze in an exercise break.Bring your lunch to work. The time you save can be used for a quick walk or workout.-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Saint Louis University Medical Center, news release, Feb. 20, 2012
(HealthDay News) -- A muscle cramp occurs when a contracted muscle can't relax, causing pain and tightness.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says these factors increase the risk of getting a muscle cramp:
Being a young child or infant.Being age 65 or older.Taking certain medications.Being overweight.Overexerting yourself.Being an athlete, particularly in the pre-season before the body is fully conditioned.-- Diana Kohnle Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
THURSDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- Children in a neighborhood with an extra-wide walking/bicycle trail were three times more likely to get vigorous exercise than those in a neighborhood with regular sidewalks, a new study shows.
The researchers compared children in two low-income neighborhoods in Chattanooga, Tenn. One has a two-mile trail for cycling and walking that winds from new public housing and single-family residences to a school, library, recreational facility, park and retail shops.
The other neighborhood has similar features, but regular-width sidewalks, according to the study scheduled to be presented Thursday at an American Heart Association (AHA) meeting in San Diego.
"There was more vigorous activity in the park and along the trail. There was more jogging or bike riding, which makes sense because the urban trail was made for that," study author Gregory Heath, an assistant provost for research and engagement at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the UT College of Medicine, said in an AHA news release.
Previous studies of this type of neighborhood feature have focused mostly on suburban or upper-income communities, according to the release.
"Infrastructural changes like these are expensive. But quite frankly in the long run, they're worth it," Heath said.
Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, March 15, 2012
By Randy DotingaHealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- People who walk briskly an hour a day could beat back a genetic predisposition to be overweight, compared to those who plant themselves in front of the TV, new research suggests.
The findings don't prove that the exercise is the specific factor that makes a difference, because it's possible that something else could explain why those who walked were thinner, the researchers stressed. Also, the difference would amount to less than a pound for many people.
Still, "the message is that while we cannot change genes, we can do something to change the influence of genes by increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior," said study author Qibin Qi, a research fellow with the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Research has suggested that inherited traits may be responsible for 50 percent of obesity cases, Qi said. As scientists study what makes people fat from a biological point of view, one of the big issues is this: How can you turn back a genetic tide that may make you more likely to put on pounds just because you were born to a specific set of parents?
In the new study, Qi and colleagues tried to tease out an answer. They came up with one, although it has caveats.
The researchers analyzed the results of two studies that tracked about 7,700 female and 4,600 male health professionals. The studies included data about how much time the people spent watching TV and walking in the two years prior to their weight being measured.
The researchers looked at a measurement called body-mass index (BMI) that analyzes whether a person's height and weight are proportional. The formula is kilograms/meter squared (kg/m-squared).
Genes that have been linked to obesity boosted weight by 0.13 kg/m-squared.
Those who briskly walked an hour a day had a 0.06 kg/m-squared decrease in the genetic effect. For each two hours a day people spent watching TV, the BMI went up by 0.03 kg/m-squared.
The differences wouldn't amount to much for many individuals. A 6-foot-tall person who weighs 200 pounds would have a BMI of 27.1, and an increase of one pound would boost the BMI to 27.3 -- a 0.2 difference.
So should you take an hour-long walk every day to beat back our genetic heritage?
"We don't know whether it is just physical activity that reduced the genetic risk, or whether a generally healthy lifestyle would have the same effect," said Ruth Loos, director of Genetics of Obesity and Related Metabolic Traits at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "After all, people who are physically active tend to eat more healthily and smoke less, etc., but in these types of studies the contribution of these different aspects of a healthy lifestyle are hard to tease apart."
The study was scheduled to be presented Wednesday at an American Heart Association meeting in San Diego. Data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Qibin Qi, Ph.D., research fellow, department of nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston; Ruth Loos, Ph.D., professor and director, Genetics of Obesity and Related Metabolic Traits, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City; March 14, 2012, presentation, American Heart Association's Epidemiology and Prevention/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism 2012 Scientific Sessions, San Diego
Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
Some of the tasks that you can perform during your annual spring cleaning may actually improve your family's health. The following ten spring cleaning activities will help make you, and your home, healthier and safer:
Thoroughly dust your home and clean or replace air conditioning and heating filters; clean all ducts and vents to decrease your exposure to pollens and other airborne allergens. For more, please read the Indoor Allergens and Allergy Treatment Begins At Home articles.Organize your medicine cabinet, discarding expired medications and old prescription medications no longer in use. Your pharmacist can advise you about the best way to dispose of old medications, since tossing them into the garbage may be dangerous. Many pharmacies and clinics offer a medication take-back service for free. The U.S. FDA also has issued guidelines about the safe disposal of drugs. You'll reduce your chances of becoming victim of a medication error and gain some storage space. Check the garage and basement for old cans of paint, thinners, oils, solvents, stains, and other forms of "toxic" trash. Call your city or county sanitation department to find the location of the hazardous waste drop-off center, and get rid of anything you're not going to use. Likewise, check under the sink and around the house for old, potentially toxic cleaning products and dispose of these. Have your chimney professionally cleaned. You'll reduce the chances of carbon monoxide exposure from your chimney when it's fire season again. Clean all mold and mildew from bathrooms and other damp areas with non-toxic cleaning products. Mold is a fungus which can trigger allergic reactions in susceptible people. For more, please read the Mold Questions, Answers, and Facts and Mold Patrol for Mold Control articles.Check your rugs to be sure that rugs on bare floors have non-skid mats. Older mats that have become dusty may need to be washed or replaced to provide effective protection from falls. Outfit your bathrooms with non-skid bath mats.Inspect outdoor playground equipment and be sure that it remains sturdy and in good repair. Pay particular attention to guardrails, protruding bolts, and other potential sources of injury. Change the batteries in your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector. For more, please read the How to Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning article.Collect old batteries throughout the house for disposal in a battery recycling or hazardous waste center. REFERENCE:National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. "Home & Recreational Safety." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 30 Aug. 2011.
Last Editorial Review: 3/22/2012
Tablets Help Relieve Symptoms Such as Runny Nose, Congestion, Watery Eyes
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
March 5, 2012 (Orlando, Fla.) -- For many allergy sufferers, getting shots is a pesky, even painful part of ragweed season. Now, researchers report success testing an under-the-tongue tablet as an alternative to injections in people with ragweed allergies.
In a study of more than 500 people with ragweed allergies, people who took the experimental tablets had less nasal congestion, eye tearing, and other allergy symptoms than those who took a placebo. Those given the new pills also needed fewer antihistamines and other allergy medications for relief.
The treatment is a type of immune therapy, the most common form of which is the allergy shot. Tiny amounts of the proteins to which you are allergic are injected to weaken the immune system's response to ragweed, grass, or other allergy triggers.
The new treatment works much the same way, but instead you put a tablet containing tiny extracts of allergens -- in this case ragweed proteins -- under the tongue each day until tolerance develops.
Immune therapy is the only treatment that's been proven to modify the natural course of the allergic disease, "actually turning it off and keeping it suppressed over time," says Johns Hopkins' Peter Creticos, MD, who led the new study.
Shots may work, "but some people are afraid of the needle or don't have time to go to the doctor's office [two to four times a month] during allergy season to get them," he says.
Also, "3% to 6% of people on allergy shots have systemic [throughout the body] allergic reactions that can be severe or life-threatening," Creticos tells WebMD.
That makes the tablets a welcome option, he says.
Merck & Co., which makes the new tablet and funded the study, plans to apply for FDA approval of tablets for both ragweed and grass allergies next year. The grass tablets are already in use in Europe.
The new study was presented here at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunotherapy.
The new study involved 565 adults with ragweed allergy, some of whom also had asthma. They were given one of two doses of either the once-daily tablet or a placebo for 52 weeks.
During ragweed season, which runs for about four to six weeks in August and September, everyone recorded their symptoms and need for relief medications in electronic diaries.
During the peak two weeks of the season, the tablet reduced symptoms -- including sneezing, runny and itchy noses, congestion, and gritty and watery eyes -- by 17% and 14% at the higher and lower doses, respectively, compared with placebo.
It also reduced the need for standard allergy medications at the two doses vs. placebo.
The most frequent side effects were throat irritation and itching of the mouth. No one died.
Two patients did need epinephrine, an injectable drug used to treat serious allergic reactions. However, one case was due to an unrelated reaction to peanuts.
Asked whether the tablets are as effective as shots, Creticos says a head-to-head comparison of the two is needed to really answer the question.
Mitchell Grayson, MD, an allergy specialist at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, tells WebMD that he welcomes a tablet, as some of his patients find shots annoying or painful. "And the tablets seem to be less likely to cause [life-threatening] reactions than the shots," he says.
One advantage to shots is that many different allergies can be treated at once, Grayson says.
"Most Americans are allergic to many different things, and with injections, you can pretty much cover all of them. So far, the tablets are each directed at different allergies -- one for grass, one for ragweed, for example. That wouldn't be very convenient for a person with [a lot of] allergies," he says.
Allergy shots typically are taken for about two to five years, after which many people can stop them and feel relief for years afterward, according to Grayson. It's not yet known for how long people will have to take the new tablets.
If approved, the tablets would only have to be taken for four months before, and during the four to six weeks of, ragweed season, Creticos says. They were given for 52 weeks in the study so the researchers could better assess their safety.
About 60 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies, also referred to as hay fever and allergic rhinitis.
These findings were presented at a medical conference. They should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the "peer review" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal.
SOURCES: 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology, Orlando, Fla., March 2-6, 2012.Peter Creticos, MD, associate professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; head, Creticos Research Group, Annapolis, Md.; consultant for Merck and other makers of immunotherapy products.©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
DRUG CLASS AND MECHANISM: Flunisolide is a synthetic (man-made) corticosteroid. It is administered either as an oral metered-dose inhaler for the treatment of asthma (Aerobid) or as a nasal spray for treating allergic rhinitis. Corticosteroids are naturally- occurring hormones that prevent or suppress inflammation and immune responses. When given as an intranasal spray, flunisolide reduces watery nasal discharge (rhinorrhea), nasal congestion, postnasal drip, sneezing, and itching at the back of the throat that are common allergic symptoms. Eye symptoms such as itching and tearing that may be associated with allergy sometimes also are relieved. A beneficial response usually is noted within a few days but can take as long as 4 weeks. In asthmatic patients, the suppression of inflammation within the airways reduces the swelling caused by inflammation that narrows the airways. At the same time, mucus is reduced. Approximately 50% of flunisolide is absorbed into the blood. Flunisolide was FDA approved in September 1981.
GENERIC AVAILABLE: Yes
PRESCRIPTION: Yes
PREPARATIONS: Nasal spray: 0.025 mg or 0.029 mg/spray. Oral Inhaler: 0.25 mg or 0.078 mg/puff.
STORAGE: Flnisolide should be stored at room temperature between 15-30 C (59-86 F) and should be protected from heat, and direct light.
PRESCRIBED FOR: Flunisolide nasal spray is used for relieving symptoms associated with seasonal or perennial rhinitis due to allergies. Rhinitis is an inflammation of the soft, wet tissue lining the inside of the nose. The oral inhaler is used for treating asthma.
DOSING: The canister should be shaken before each use.
For adults, the usual starting dose is two sprays in each nostril twice daily. The dose may be increased to 3 or 4 times per day. In children ages 6-14 years, the usual starting dose is one spray in each nostril three times per day or two sprays in each nostril twice daily. The adult dose for treating asthma is 2 inhalations twice daily not to exceed 8 inhalations per day. The children's dose for treating asthma is 2 inhalations twice daily.DRUG INTERACTIONS: No drug interactions have been described with nasal flunisolide
PREGNANCY: Well-controlled studies on the use of flunisolide during pregnancy have not been done. Studies in animals have shown flunisolide to have damaging effects on the fetus. During pregnancy flunisolide should be avoided unless the physician feels that the potential therapeutic benefit justifies the added risk to the fetus.
NURSING MOTHERS: It is unknown whether flunisolide accumulates in breast milk; however, it is known that other corticosteroids are excreted in breast milk. The effects on the child, if any, are unknown.
SIDE EFFECTS: The most common side effects of flunisolide are nasal irritation and itching, cough, nausea or vomiting, sore throat, nasal congestion, sneezing, flu like symptoms, nasal burning, diarrhea, unpleasant taste, bloody nasal discharge, and nasal dryness. Other adverse effects include headache, dizziness, watery eyes, and upset stomach. Heart palpitations, fungal infections, and growth suppression may also occur.
Reference: FDA Prescribing InformationLast Editorial Review: 3/12/2012
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Back to Medications Index
Chronic Rhinitis and Post-Nasal Drip Allergic rhinitis symptoms include an itchy, runny nose, sneezing, itchy ears, eyes, and throat. Seasonal allergic rhinitis (also called hay fever) is usually caused by pollen in the air. Perennial allergic rhinitis is a type of chronic rhinitis and is a year?“round problem, often caused by indoor allergens, such as dust, animal dander, and pollens that may exist at the time. Treatment of chronic rhinitis and post nasal drip are dependant upon the type of rhinitis condition. Allergy An allergy refers to a misguided reaction by our immune system in response to bodily contact with certain foreign substances. When these allergens come in contact with the body, it causes the immune system to develop an allergic reaction in people who are allergic to it. It is estimated that 50 million North Americans are affected by allergic conditions. The parts of the body that are prone to react to allergies include the eyes, nose, lungs, skin, and stomach. Common allergic disorders include hay fever, asthma, allergic eyes, allergic eczema, hives, and allergic shock. Asthma Asthma is a common disorder in which chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes (bronchi) makes them swell, narrowing the airways. Signs and symptoms include shortness of breath, chest tightness, cough and wheezing.Asthma in Children Asthma, the main cause of chronic illness in children, has signs and symptoms in children that include frequent coughing spells, low energy while playing, complaints of chest "hurting," wheezing while breathing, shortness of breath, and feelings of tiredness. Treatment will involve a doctor creating an asthma action plan which will describe the use of asthma medications and when to seek emergency care for the child.Hay Fever Hay fever (allergic rhinitis) is an irritation of the nose caused by pollen and is associated with the following allergic symptoms: nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, eye and nose itching, and tearing eyes. Avoidance of known allergens is the recommended treatment, but if this is not possible, antihistamines, decongestants, and nasal sprays may help alleviate symptoms.Asthma: Over the Counter Treatment Patients who have infrequent, mild bouts of asthma attacks may use over-the-counter (OTC) medications to treat their asthma symptoms. OTC asthma medicines are limited to epinephrine and ephedrine. These OTC drugs are best used with the guidance of a physician, as there may be side effects and the drugs may not be very effective.Nasal Allergy Medications Nasal allergy medications are used to relieve itching, sneezing, and nasal swelling associated with allergies. Antihistamines, decongestants, and steroids are different types of nasal allergy medications. Possible side effects of these medications include dryness, stuffiness, burning, bleeding, nervousness, and palpitations. Asthma Medications There are two types of asthma medications: long-term control with anti-inflammatory drugs and quick relief from bronchodilators. Asthma medicines may be inhaled using a metered dose inhaler or nebulizer or they may be taken orally. People with high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid disease, or heart disease shouldn't take OTC drugs like Primatene Mist and Bronkaid.Asthma Complexities There are many unusual symptoms of asthma, including sighing, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, chronic cough, recurrent walking pneumonia, and rapid breathing. These symptoms may vary from individual to individual. These asthma complexities make it difficult to accurately diagnose and treat asthma.
Hay Fever »
Hay fever is a misnomer. Hay is not a usual cause of this problem, and it does not cause fever. Early descriptions of sneezing, nasal congestion, and eye irritation while harvesting field hay promoted this popular term. Allergic rhinitis is the correct term used to describe this allergic reaction, and many different substances cause the allergic symptoms noted in hay fever. Rhinitis means "irritation of the nose" and is a derivative of rhino, meaning nose. Allergic rhinitis which occurs during a specific season is called "seasonal allergic rhinitis." When it occurs throughout the year, it is called "perennial allergic rhinitis." Rhinosinusitis is the medical term that refers to inflammation of the nasal lining as well as the lining tissues of the sinuses. This term is sometime used because the two conditions frequently occur together.
Symptoms of allergic rhinitis, or hay fever...
Read the Hay Fever article »
DRUG CLASS AND MECHANISM: Deconamine was a brand name medication that contains two different drugs, an antihistamine (chlorpheniramine) and a decongestant (pseudoephedrine). The antihistamine effects of chlorpheniramine account for its effect of reducing allergy symptoms. The decongestant action of pseudoephedrine is a result of blood vessel constriction in the nasal air passages, such as in the nose or sinuses. Brand name and generic formulations of combination products containing only chlorpheniramine and pseudoephedrine have been discontinued in the U. S., most likely due to the regulation of pseudoephedrine distribution.
PRESCRIPTION: No
GENERIC AVAILABLE: No
PREPARATIONS: Tablets of 4 mg chlorpheniramine/60 mg pseudoephedrine; chew tabs of 1 mg c/15 mg p; syrup of 2 mg c/30 mg p.
STORAGE: Combinations of chlorpheniramine and pseudoephedrine should be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container.
PRESCRIBED FOR: The combination drug was used for the temporary relief of runny nose, sneezing, nasal congestion from the common cold. Deconamine also was used for inflamed nasal passages (sinusitis), hay fever (allergic rhinitis) and sinus congestion.
DOSING: The combination drug may be taken with or without food. It must be used cautiously in patients with heart (coronary artery) disease and angina, diabetes, lung diseases, especially asthma, glaucoma, and narrowing of the stomach exit (pyloric stenosis).
DRUG INTERACTIONS: The combination drug can cause drowsiness and impaired ability to operate machinery. It contains pseudoephedrine which should not be taken with MAO inhibitors drugs. Caution must be exercised in the administration of this drug to patients with heart or lung disease. The combination drug should not be combined with other drugs containing pseudoephedrine (such as Sudafed) because of increased risk of side effects on the heart and blood vessels. While misuse of the combination drug for the purpose of getting "high" is unfamiliar to the editors, it is a specific warning from the manufacturer that patients be aware of possible "additive" effects of the drug when taken with alcohol and other central nervous depressants (such as sedatives and tranquilizers). This means that when the drug is taken with, for example, alcohol, the effect of the alcohol could be magnified. Conversely, alcohol increases the sedating qualities of Deconamine.
SIDE EFFECTS: Side effects of antihistamines include drowsiness, impaired ability to accurately operate machinery, worsening of glaucoma or asthma or chronic lung diseases, rash, hives, perspiration, chills dry mouth or throat, low blood counts, restlessness, ringing in the ears, stomach upset, urinary frequency or difficulty. Side effects of pseudoephedrine include stimulation of the nervous system leading to nervousness, restlessness, excitability, dizziness, headache, fear, anxiety, tremor, and even hallucinations and convulsions (seizures).
Reference: FDA Prescribing InformationLast Editorial Review: 3/9/2012
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Back to Medications Index
Sinus Infection Sinus infection (sinusitis) signs and symptoms include headache, fever, and facial tenderness, pressure, or pain. Treatments of sinus infections are generally with antibiotics and at times, home remedies.Common Cold The common cold (viral upper respiratory tract infection) is a contagious illness that may be caused by various viruses. Symptoms include a stuffy nose, headache, cough, sore throat, and maybe a fever. Antibiotics have no effect upon the common cold, and there is no evidence that zinc and vitamin C are effective treatments.Teen Drug Abuse Drugs commonly abused by teens include tobacco products, marijuana, cold medications, inhalants, depressants, stimulants, narcotics, hallucinogens, PCP, ketamine, Ecstasy, and anabolic steroids. Some of the symptoms and warning signs of teen drug abuse include reddened whites of eyes, paranoia, sleepiness, excessive happiness, seizures, memory loss, increased appetite, discolored fingertips, lips or teeth, and irritability. Treatment of drug addiction may involve a combination of medication, individual, and familial interventions.Hay Fever Hay fever (allergic rhinitis) is an irritation of the nose caused by pollen and is associated with the following allergic symptoms: nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, eye and nose itching, and tearing eyes. Avoidance of known allergens is the recommended treatment, but if this is not possible, antihistamines, decongestants, and nasal sprays may help alleviate symptoms.Nasal Allergy Medications Nasal allergy medications are used to relieve itching, sneezing, and nasal swelling associated with allergies. Antihistamines, decongestants, and steroids are different types of nasal allergy medications. Possible side effects of these medications include dryness, stuffiness, burning, bleeding, nervousness, and palpitations. Sinus Infection »Sinus infections are caused by infections from a pathogenic microorganism (virus, bacterium, or fungus), which grows within a sinus and causes intermittent blockage of the sinus ostium.Most people do not transmit sinus infections; most clinicians agree that except for rare instances, sinus infections are not contagious but arise from mainly viruses and bacteria that, by chance, contaminate a person who sinuses support their proliferation because of minor, and rarely, major abnormalities in the person's sinus tissue (for example, swelling, inflammation, abnormal mucus production, and rarely, facial or nasal trauma).Sinusitis is inflammation of the air cavities within the passages of the nose. Sinusitis can be caused by infection, but also can be caused by allergies and chemical or particulate irritation of the sinuses.Sinusitis may be classified in several ways such as acute sinus infec...
Read the Sinus Infection article »
Knoxville Leads List for a Third Straight Year; 8 Out of 10 Top Spots Are in the South
By Cari Nierenberg
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
March 20, 2012 -- The third time is said to be the charm. But it's doubtful the allergy sufferers in Knoxville find it charming that for a third consecutive year their East Tennessee city has earned the No. 1 spot on the list of the worst places to live with spring allergies.
Knoxville natives have had plenty to sneeze at each spring. In 2009, Tennessee's third largest city placed second in this annual ranking of the 100 "most challenging places to live in the U.S. with spring allergies." And in 2008, the "Marble City" took the sixth spot in this listing, which is done twice a year -- in spring and fall -- by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Several factors are considered when ranking each of the 100 largest metro areas, including pollen scores, number of allergy medicines used per patient, and the number of board-certified allergists per patient.
To top the list, Knoxville had "worse than average" pollen counts as well as utilization rates for allergy medications. But it received an "average" score on its number of allergy specialists available to treat patients with allergy-related symptoms, from runny noses and frequent sneezing to watery eyes and sinus congestion.
Here are the worst 10 cities for spring allergies:
Knoxville, Tenn.McAllen, TexasLouisville, Ky.Jackson, Miss.Wichita, Kan.Oklahoma City, Okla.Chattanooga, Tenn.Memphis, Tenn.San Antonio, TexasDayton, OhioFor a complete listing of the top 100 allergy cities for spring, visit allergycapitals.com.
The news that Knoxville has topped the list of most challenging places to live with spring allergies for a third time comes as no surprise to Allan Rosenbaum, MD, an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Knoxville who also treats allergy patients. "A lot has to do with the blessings of east Tennessee," he says.
"It's a beautiful place to live," explains Rosenbaum, "and few places in the U.S. have the variety of plant life." A great variety of trees are blooming right now in Knoxville, including its oaks, hickories, and some maples, he says.
And although spring begins today in terms of the calendar, the daffodils and tulips are already in full bloom. "It's very colorful," says Rosenbaum, and that also means an office filled with seasonal allergy patients, who are in sooner than usual from spring's early arrival in these parts.
It's not just the blooming trees and flowers that contribute to Knoxville's high pollen counts. The city is surrounded by mountains, located between the Smokies and the Cumberland Plateau, and it's also in the Tennessee Valley. That location causes pollen to get trapped in the region, where it can tickle the noses of Knoxville natives.
Rosenbaum says he is seeing more people coming in earlier for their allergy symptoms than last spring. He's also seen an increase in the number of people with seasonal allergies in middle age, who are dealing with hay fever for the first time in their lives.
For those with mild symptoms, he recommends a saline nasal rinse to reduce the pollen load and an over-the-counter allergy product. People with more severe symptoms should see their doctor for prescription medications.
SOURCES: Allan Rosenbaum, MD, ear, nose, and throat specialist, Knoxville, Tenn. News release, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.©2012 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
(HealthDay News) -- A sprain in the ligaments of the neck can lead to symptoms including spasms, headache, stiffness and numbness in the arm or hand.
The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons suggests how to manage a sprained neck:
Take an over-the-counter pain reliever.Apply an ice pack to the sprain for the first few days after injury, then switch to a heating pad.Gently massage the area.Consider ultrasound or neck traction treatments.Ask your doctor about whether aerobic and isometric exercises could be helpful.-- Diana Kohnle Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
By Serena GordonHealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, March 6 (HealthDay News) -- Children growing up in the Amish culture in Switzerland have significantly less asthma and allergies than Swiss children who didn't grow up on a farm, according to new research.
What's more, the Amish youngsters even have less risk of asthma and allergy than Swiss children who grew up on non-Amish farms.
The study could support the "hygiene hypothesis" that a too-clean world is causing today's urbanized kids to be more sensitive to allergens than their country cousins.
"In Europe, children living on traditional farms seem to have a very low prevalence of asthma and allergy," noted the study's lead author, Dr. Mark Holbreich, an allergist with Allergy and Asthma Consultants, in Indianapolis. In contrast, he said, "in the general population as many as 50 percent will have evidence of allergic sensitivity. They may not have all the symptoms of allergy, but they will test positive for sensitivity,"
But, "in Swiss children who live on farms, about 25 percent have allergic sensitivity," Holbreich said. "In Amish children, it was only 7 percent. There's something very protective in the Amish children."
He was scheduled to present the study's findings Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) in Orlando, Fla.
In the study, Holbreich and his colleagues in Switzerland sent out nearly 29,000 questionnaires to families of children between the ages of 6 and 12 years old. The Amish were given a modified version of the questionnaire.
A random sample of those who completed the questionnaires was selected to be given allergy testing.
"The Amish children (138) underwent skin tests," Holbreich explained, and "the Swiss farm children and non-farm children had blood tests for measurement of allergies. For the farm children 3,006 were tested by a blood test and 10,912 non-farm children were tested."
The study authors identified asthma cases by asking if a physician had ever diagnosed the child with asthma, Holbreich said.
Amish children had about half the prevalence of asthma compared to their non-farm-dwelling counterparts (about 5 percent vs. 11 percent). Swiss farm children had a rate of asthma of nearly 7 percent.
The rate of allergic sensitization followed similar patterns. Non-farm children had the highest rates, at about 44 percent, compared with 25 percent in the Swiss farm children and just above 7 percent among the Amish children.
So, what accounts for this striking difference? Holbreich said the researchers don't know for sure, but two factors appeared to be protective against allergy and asthma in the Amish children. One was that they drink raw [unpasteurized] milk directly from the cow, and the other was their exposure to large farm animals from a young age.
"When you have these exposures at a young age, that protection seems to be lifelong," said Holbreich.
He cautioned, however, that these finding in no way suggest that people should start giving their children raw milk, as it can harbor disease-causing germs.
But, the study's findings would seem to support the hygiene hypothesis, which is the idea that allergy and asthma are on the rise in today's world because the immune system isn't exposed to a variety of germs from a young age. This low level of exposure somehow creates dysfunction in the immune system, causing it to attack harmless substances, such as pet dander or peanut proteins.
Two other studies presented at the AAAAI meeting may also provide support for the hygiene hypothesis. One is a Korean study of about 1,800 children. It found that when antibiotics were given during infancy, children were more likely to develop allergies and allergic skin disease (eczema).
The other was a study from Johns Hopkins Hospital that looked at environmental exposures to chemicals. Researchers found that exposure to triclosan, a commonly used antibacterial agent found in hand sanitizers and mouthwashes, was significantly associated with allergies to food and airborne allergens, such as dust or pollen.
While the Swiss study found an association between Amish farm life and lower incidence of allergy and asthma, it could not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
Dr. Jennifer Appleyard, chief of allergy and immunology at St. Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, said one protective factor that the authors of the Amish study didn't mention is that the Amish live a fairly secluded existence and thus, have a fairly protected gene pool. Since genetics are one suspected aspect in the development of asthma and allergy, it may just be that the Amish aren't passing down the genes for those conditions, she reasoned.
"These are interesting things to think about, but there are so many confounding factors to look at. I don't think it's just Amish living or farm life. Genes play a role, access to care, environmental exposures. Maybe it's not that they're drinking raw milk, but that they're drinking milk without hormones. Or, they're not getting other environmental exposures that non-farm children are," she noted.
Because this research was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCES: Mark Holbreich, M.D., allergist, Allergy and Asthma Consultants, Indianapolis; Jennifer Appleyard, M.D., chief, allergy and immunology, St. John Hospital and Medical Center, Detroit; March 4, 2012, presentations, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology annual meeting, Orlando, Fla.