NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Overweight children and teenagers may eat more when they have a snack with an overweight friend rather than a thinner peer, a new study suggests.

In a study of 9- to 15-year-olds, researchers found that all kids, regardless of their weight, tended to eat more when they had the chance to snack with a friend than when they were with a peer they did not know.

But the biggest calorie intakes were seen when an overweight child snacked with an overweight friend.

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, highlight the role of friends' influence in how much kids eat -- and, possibly, in their weight control.

It's not surprising that children eat more when they are with friends instead of strangers, according to lead researcher Dr. Sarah-Jean Salvy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The same pattern has been found in adults, Salvy told Reuters Health in an email. This, she explained, may be partly because people are more self-conscious around strangers, and partly because friends act as "permission-givers."

"They set the norm for what is appropriate to do, or in this case eat," Salvy said.

For the study, Salvy and her colleagues had 23 overweight and 42 normal-weight children and teens spend 45 minutes with either a friend or an unfamiliar peer. Each pair was given games, puzzles and books for entertainment, along with bowls of chips, cookies, carrots and grapes.

Overall, the researchers found, pairs of friends downed more calories than did unacquainted pairs. And overweight friends consumed the most -- 738 calories, on average, versus 444 calories when an overweight child was paired with normal-weight friend.

Normal-weight kids consumed an average of about 500 calories when paired with a friend, regardless of the friend's weight.

Salvy noted that a recent study of adults found that people were more likely to gain weight over three decades if their same-sex friends were overweight or obese -- suggesting a role for "social influence" in body weight.

When it comes to children and teens, it's known that many follow their friends' lead in deciding whether to smoke or drink. The current findings, Salvy said, suggest that kids' eating habits are also "largely determined by their social network."

The good side of that, according to Salvy, is that helping one child make healthy changes may end up influencing his or her friends as well. She said her research interest now is to see whether there is in fact such a "contagion effect" on friends' eating habits.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, August 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Men may not want to pin their hopes on acupuncture as a treatment for impotence, or erectile dysfunction, a new review of evidence suggests.

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese method of stimulating specific body points through the insertion of specialized pins that sometimes carry faint electrical charges. Traditionally, acupuncture has been used to maintain and restore body functions.

Several studies had reported "acupuncture increases nitric oxide," which has been tied to the ability to maintain erections, Dr. Myeong Soo Lee, at Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Daejeon, told Reuters Health by email.

Yet to date, published studies that evaluated acupuncture as a treatment for erectile dysfunction provide "no convincing evidence" that acupuncture is beneficial for this condition, Lee and colleagues report in the journal BJU International.

After assessing 80 research studies, Lee's team found only 2 that were randomized controlled trials - that is, studies that compared a treatment group with group that did not receive treatment or underwent a sham treatment. This trial design is the gold standard for research studies. (The acupuncture treatment was applied all over the body, not on the penis itself.)

One of those two trials reported benefits, while the other did not, the authors note.

Lee's group also identified 2 trials, in a total of 45 men, that did not include a group of men that did not receive treatment or underwent a sham treatment.

Those trials both suggested some benefit from acupuncture among men with erectile dysfunction, but the investigators caution that the design leaves studies open to bias and often suggest false-positive results.

Taken together, these results fail to show whether acupuncture offers any benefit as a treatment for erectile dysfunction. "More rigorous trials are required," Lee said.

SOURCE: BJU International, August 2009.

By Kathleen Sebelius, Janet Napolitano, and Arne Duncan

Washington, DC — Every fall, we deal with new strains of seasonal flu. But this year, we'll also confront a potentially serious flu virus that first appeared last spring. While scientists won’t know exactly how strong the 2009 H1N1 flu will be until the middle of the flu season, they’re warning it could cause more illness as our kids return to school.

We don’t need to wait to act. In the fight against flu, preparation is more than half the battle — and we need everyone to chip in.

We in the federal government have been aggressively responding to the new H1N1 since April. We’re building on what we learned from the early spring season and from health officials in the southern hemisphere where flu seasons are already underway.

In addition to preparing the seasonal flu vaccine as usual, government scientists and vaccine manufacturers are working around the clock to produce a vaccine to protect people from the new H1N1 flu virus. And we’re making good progress on both fronts — the seasonal flu vaccine is ready for distribution and we’re on track to have an H1N1 vaccine by mid-October.

We’re also working closely with cities, states and across government agencies to make sure we have a rapid, coordinated response this fall. In the last few months, we’ve sent more than $350 million in federal grants to states, tribes, territories and hospitals to help them strengthen their flu response.

In early July, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Education held a flu summit for governors and public health officials. Just this week, we hosted another summit for mayors and county officials and webcast it on flu.gov — which has become the best place to find up-to-date information about flu.

Our agencies are working with the Department of Agriculture to make sure children will have access to healthy meals if their schools close, and with Departments of Commerce and Labor to reach people at work. The Obama Administration has briefed members of Congress at a special bi-cameral, bi-partisan session. And HHS has worked with Members — Republicans and Democrats — on “prevent the flu” public service announcements to air in August when they’re home.

But federal government efforts won’t be enough. The lines of defense against the flu need to reach into every living room and kitchen.

This new H1N1 is not the flu we’re used to. It was just getting started when our flu season should have been ending. While anyone can get sick, the pattern of infection is unusual. It hasn’t yet affected many seniors, but it spreads rapidly among otherwise healthy kids up to college age. Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to observe higher levels of flu-like illness than normal for this time of year.

But there’s one way in which the 2009 H1N1 flu isn’t different: it can still send you to the hospital with fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills and fatigue, and sometimes, diarrhea and vomiting. For the worst cases, it’s still deadly. And it’s especially dangerous for people with chronic illnesses such as asthma, heart disease, or diabetes, and women who are pregnant.

Until a vaccine arrives in October, prevention is our best defense. That means we all need to make sure we wash our hands frequently with soap and water, cough or sneeze into a tissue, and stay home from work or school if we’re sick.

It also means planning ahead. Parents should talk to their employers and make child care arrangements in case their kids get sick. And if a school closes, learning shouldn’t stop. Schools need to create opportunities to learn online and work with parents to find ways for students to bring textbooks and other resources home.

If you’re an employer, you should plan to get by with a reduced staff. You don’t want an employee who’s ill to spread flu in the workplace. If you’re a medical provider, you should plan to handle more calls and patient visits. An outbreak will bring people who have flu and people who have flu-related symptoms or concerns into your office.

To help people get ready for flu season, we’ve created a “one-stop” website — www.flu.gov. You’ll find tips to prevent, and respond to an outbreak and checklists and fact sheets that will help families, businesses and others get prepared.

We got a head start on the flu season by beginning our preparations this spring. But the next few months will have the biggest impact on how the upcoming flu season plays out. Widespread, determined, and sustained efforts are needed to prevent the spread of flu and reduce the harm it causes. Let’s get to work.

Kathleen Sebelius, Janet Napolitano and Arne Duncan serve in President Barack Obama's Cabinet and head the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Education respectively.

Generally the fact that a vaccine appears to be as safe as the manufacturer had promised shouldn't be news. It should be a given. But when it comes to the controversial vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), even the most straightforward data come with an asterisk.

The vaccine, called Gardasil and manufactured by Merck, is one of the first immunizations to protect against a cancer - in this case, cervical cancer, which is most commonly caused by infection with HPV. Because the virus is sexually transmitted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended in 2006 that girls get the vaccine at ages 11 and 12, before they become sexually active, so they have the best chance of avoiding the cancer and genital warts caused by HPV. States joined in, attempting to mandate HPV vaccination for school entry, but parents balked, in part because of concerns about encouraging promiscuity. It didn't help that girls were prone to fainting after getting the shot or that more than two dozen girls died shortly after getting immunized. (Read "HPV Test Screens Best for Cervical Cancer.")

To address those concerns, researchers at the CDC and the FDA, which keep track of adverse events related to vaccines once they are approved, now report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that the rate of adverse events associated with the 23 million doses of Gardasil administered since 2006 is similar to the prelicensing rate among the 21,000 girls and young women who tested it in clinical trials and to that of other vaccines.

That should be reassuring. But the study did find that users of Gardasil faint and develop blood clots more often than those receiving other shots. The clots are extremely rare, though. In about 90% of these cases, the girls may have been more vulnerable to developing clots because they smoked or were overweight or on birth control pills. "Was it that this age group also tends to have these risk factors or did the vaccine have some sort of role?" asks the CDC's Dr. Barbara Slade, lead author of the paper. "We really don't know." (See more about HPV.)

It's that uncertainty that is beginning to bother many physicians about the HPV vaccine. According to Dr. Charlotte Haug, editor in chief of the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association and author of an editorial that JAMA published alongside Slade's paper, cervical cancer can be effectively picked up with Pap smears, a routine part of regular gynecological exams, and it's not clear that adding Gardasil to those screenings would significantly reduce a woman's chance of developing the disease.

Meanwhile, public health experts at Columbia University have a new study that shines a light on the marketing of Gardasil. They say Merck may be indirectly influencing doctors to use the vaccine by providing grants to professional medical organizations which then train and pay physicians to speak about the benefits of HPV vaccination. Merck denies the allegations. "The material developed by these societies is done independent of Merck and without any influence or review from Merck," says Dr. Richard Haupt, who heads the company's HPV-vaccine program. (Read "Selling Gardasil at the Movies.")

As GlaxoSmithKline prepares to launch its own HPV vaccine in the U.S. and states continue to debate mandated immunizations, some doctors are taking a wait-and-see approach. "It's too early to begin to make decisions about mandates," says Dr. Joseph Bocchini, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases. "We need more time to educate families and physicians and to get more data on the duration of immunity and safety." That's something many parents will agree with.

I have survived over 40 years of ill health. Even so I have learned to live a life of chronic patienthood where I am not dominated by illness. I have managed to focus on goals that have nothing to do with illness. Living life for me is learning to surf above the uneven terrain of my health.

Brian Nelson with his wife Diane before cancer changed his appearance.

Today, Mr. Nelson copes with extensive swelling in his face — a side effect of head and neck cancer treatment.

My health history is so involved I have created a Google document to keep track of it. I’ve had three kidney transplants, a pancreas transplant, 27 years of Type 1 diabetes, and four-plus years of metastasizing cancer. I’ve broken my leg, elbow, wrist, both feet, hands, skull and ribs (yes, I might be accident prone from time to time). Plus, I’ve coped with all the secondary illnesses that waltz along with these problems, including osteoporosis, gastroparesis, cataracts, gallbladder failure, impacted bowel and chronic bleeding.

Today, my most obvious issue, a side effect of treatment for head and neck cancer, is chronic facial swelling, also known as moon face. The removal of several lymph nodes from my neck and subsequent radiation treatments have rendered my lymphatic system unable to drain fluids from my head. I get up each morning and remind myself that I’m going to be swollen, tired and nauseous. So if I get something done, like epoxy the hatches of the kayak I’m building, it’s a great day. Or if I get through all my (liquid) food, it’s a great day. Or if one of our cats comes up to say hello, rubs itself on my leg and settles down for a nap near me … yep: great day!

The changes in my appearance as a result of my cancer treatment can be difficult for other people to understand. Last week, the cable service technician arrived at our door. He wasn’t the most charming of people. When Diane, my wife, opened the front door, he barked: “You don’t have dogs?” She reassured him we didn’t and he entered, only to be confronted by me, a stooped, swollen-headed man who breathed through a hole in his neck and was dressed like a samurai on holiday.

To further his unease, I started talking to him – apologizing for my terrible diction and unintelligible voice (an unfortunate and unintended result of my cancer). When he responded, “Why doesn’t she interpret?” I naturally started to don my “kill the technician” armor, preparing for a loud but unintelligible assault on the jerk.

Diane realized that I was about to sink our chances of ever again receiving the BBC America channel and hastily cautioned me that “now wasn’t the time.” I disagreed, and by head nods and hand gestures we commenced to argue.

Luckily I lost the argument. Diane talked with the tech, listening to his fear of contagion and fear of my spitting on him, and correcting him about my medical condition and my ability to spit. The contrite tech then confessed that two of his close relatives had died from cancer and apologized to both of us. I accepted his apology instead of lopping off his head, and he redoubled his efforts at perfecting our service, going above and beyond.

How does one deal with someone whose appearance has changed from the dashingly handsome (O.K., I’m taking some poetic license) to totally disfigured and, one might say, grotesque? We’ve been trained by movies and TV to worship perfection. After all, the bad guy is always either bald, short, limps, is missing an eye, scarred or has some other abnormality to distinguish him from us, the perfect audience. My close friend recently told me he was “shocked, I tell you, shocked,” by my appearance when he saw me again after six months. I’m shocked sometimes too.

It’s as much a learning curve for me as for others. I am not sure how people will take me: whether I will make them uncomfortable, whether they will be able to overlook the changes and look for the person who still inhabits this misshapen head. I have to talk myself into going out now. A little pep talk reassures me that, whatever others may think, I must not quit trying. My difficult speech has similarly influenced my choices – I tend not to answer the phone and am now a listener in group settings, only lobbing in a few bon mots every so often, and then re-lobbing them until people understand. My timing is truly unique. To combat the verbal steamrollering of members of my family, I raise my hand before speaking. Quite humiliating, sort of, but very effective.

What do I want people to do? I want everyone to feel comfortable around my appearance. Don’t worry that you have to address my illness in a compassionate way, or at all. Just say what you want when you want. I’ll let you know if you offend, or if I need something. What I enjoy most is watching others enjoy themselves.

My friend Steve said to me, “Well, you’ve got that portly Asian look down now.” That was nice, funny and quite off the cuff. It made me feel that I could relax and not worry that the conversation was going to slide into the Grand Canyon of medical awkwardness.

My neighbor’s 3-year-old daughter treats me just like everyone else, someone to flirt with! So if you see a slightly hobbled, melon-headed man wearing a hat, walking toward you with a stick, just say, “Hi, it’s a great day, isn’t it?” And I’ll say, “Yep, it’s a great day,” and feel it too.

Biden to announce Thursday nearly $1.2 billion to promote electronic medical records system

• By Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden plans to announce Thursday nearly $1.2 billion in grants to help hospitals transition to electronic medical records.

Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were set to detail in Chicago how that piece of the $787 billion economic stimulus plan would help Americans when they go to the hospital or their doctors. It also is a what's-in-it-for-me way for the White House to illustrate how it is spending parts of the massive amount of taxpayer dollars.

"With electronic health records, we are making health care safer, we're making it more efficient, we're making you healthier and we're saving money along the way," Biden said in remarks provided to The Associated Press ahead of delivery. "These are four necessities we need for health care in the 21st century."

Meanwhile, a top aide at the Health and Human Services Department planned to send people who signed up to receive health care communications from the administration an e-mail heralding medical information technology as a way to improve care. Jeanne Lambrew, the director of HHS' Office of Health Reform, sought to explain the spending program to anyone who has had to fill out the same form at doctor's offices over and over again.

"All that paperwork is more than just annoying. It wastes time, prevents quick and accurate diagnoses and makes our health care system less efficient," she wrote. "And it simply doesn't make sense in today's digital age."

HHS also launched an online video touting Sebelius' trip to Omaha, Neb., earlier this year to look at how one facility was using electronic records.

"Electronic health records can help reduce medical errors, make health care more efficient and improve the quality of medical care for all Americans," Sebelius said in her remarks prepared for Chicago. "These grants will help ensure more doctors and hospitals have the tools they need to use this critical technology."

Of the money set aside, $589 million would establish centers to help hospitals and clinics with technical aspects of choosing systems for electronic health records. Another $564 million would be set aside to help hospitals share patients' information with each other.

The grants are not be available until Oct. 1, when the new federal fiscal year begins.

Sebelius, whose father was governor of Ohio, plans to visit Ohio State University Medical Center on Friday to discuss electronic medical records there.

Office of Health Reform: http://www.healthreform.gov/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama has chosen Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, New York City's health commissioner, to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House said Friday.

New York Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden, left, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, discusses swine flu last month.

"Dr. Frieden is an expert in preparedness and response to health emergencies, and has been at the forefront of the fight against heart disease, cancer and obesity, infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS, and in the establishment of electronic health records," Obama said in a statement.

Frieden has been commissioner of the New York City Health Department, one of the nation's largest public health agencies, since January 2002. He worked for the CDC from 1990 to 2002.

Frieden received his medical and public health degrees from Columbia University and completed infectious disease training at Yale University. He has written more than 200 scientific articles, the White House announcement said.

"Dr. Frieden has been a leader in the fight for health care reform, and his experiences confronting public health challenges in our country and abroad will be essential in this new role," the statement said.

The CDC, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is the lead federal agency to help state and local health authorities detect and control chronic disease and infectious disease threats, including bioterrorism.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Frieden's work for the city.

"President Obama could not have selected a better person to lead the Centers for Disease Control to meet the challenges ahead and make the nation a healthier place."

What’s the worst you’ve ever felt? After seeing what the people below have suffered and gone through, you might have a whole new perspective of what’s really bad. All of these people have had some sort of abnormal growth that became ridiculous and extreme. Some have had surgery to correct these anomalies, while there is no cure or help available for others.

Man with No Face

Source

Jose Mestre suffers from haemangioma, a condition that causes abnormalities in the capillaries and veins in his face. Blood pools in his face, which has caused him to develop a huge weeping facial tumor. He is commonly called “The Man with No Face.” He has refused medical treatment because he is a Jehovah’s Witness.

Massive Hand

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The man with the largest hand in the world underwent a seven-hour surgery in Shanghai to reduce it and make it functional. Before the surgery, his left thumb was 10.2 inches long and his index finger measured close to 12 inches.

Dede The ‘Tree Man’ - Warts

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This Indonesian man’s condition is the worst case scenario for those with from HPV. Of course, Dede also suffered from a genetic condition, which cause his immune system to not be able to combat the spread of this diseases’ symptoms - which in most cases are warts. Interestingly, specialists claim that his condition could have been abetted by high dosages of Vitamin B. Long-referred to as “tree man” because his resemblence to a tree, he has recently undergone a series of surgeries to remove the tree-like growths from his body, and is already on a road to recovery.

Human Werewolf

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Hypertrichosis is a medical condition characterized by the excessive growth of hair on places on the body where hair usually does not grow. Congenital Hypertrichosis is extremely rare and those who suffer from it are often called human werewolves. Reminds us of Teen Wolf a little bit…

Fibroma

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Fibroma is a skin disease involving connective-tissue new growth. It appears on the body ­as one or many pea to egg-sized or larger, soft or firm, round or flattened, painless tumors located beneath the skin. In the worst cases, these growths can cover the entire body.

Humans with Horns

Source Source Source Source Source

Once thought to be a myth, the incidence of human being growing “horns” is now documented. These cutaneous horns, also called cornu cutaneum are actually skin lesions, which cone-shaped protuberances grow from, creating the appearance of a horn.

Massive Face Tumor

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Huang Chuncai suffers from a rare genetic disorder of the nervous system called Neurofibromatosis. The disease caused the disabling growths on his face, which began when he was four years old He has had surgery to remove a 25-pound tumor and another to remove a 33-pound tumor.

Foot Growing in the Brain

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Doctors say they have never seen anything like what they found inside Sam Esquibel’s head. When he was just three months old, Sam underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor that contained a tiny foot and other partially formed body parts.

Gigantic Kidney Stone

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Passing a kidney stone can be excruciatingly painful. Generally if they become too large to pass, surgery is required to remove them. Surgeons in Hungary were in for a surprise when they found their patient had developed a 2.5 pound kidney stone, which was roughly the size of a coconut. Most kidney stones, at their worst, are no larger than a golf ball.

Tremendous Leg Tumor

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Chen Zongtao has a tumor on his right leg that weighs 154 pounds. He has suffered with the tumor for years because he is unable to afford surgery to remove it.

Huge Neck Tumor

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Huang Liqian, 58, first discovered a bizarre growth on the back of his neck in 1990. He ignored for 17 years it and it developed into a 33 pound tumor. He finally had surgery to remove it in 2007.

Spruce Tree Growing In Lung

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A Russian man who was coughing up blood and complaining of chest pains was found to have this 5 centimeter spruce tree growing inside his lung. Since the tree was too large to have been accidentally inhaled, doctors believe the man must have inhaled a bud which grew inside the lung.

Baby with 16 Toes

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A baby boy with 16 toes was born in China in November 2008. He also has five fingers on each hand, but does not have any thumbs. The child suffers from a genetic condition called Polydactylism, and his family says they will have the extra digits surgically removed.

People with Tails

Source Source Source

Mostly thought to be a myth, there are stories about people who have tails. While evolution has eliminated that trait for most of us, these rare pictures show that some are still born with small tails, which are an extension of the spine.

Overwhelming Lower Lip Tumor

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This 8-year-old girl from China suffers from a large tumor in her lower lip. She was born with the tumor and her family has been unable to afford the surgery to remove it.

16 Pound Face Tumor

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In 2005, a Haitian teen in Miami underwent surgery to remove most of a 16-pound tumor from her face. The surgery took 16 hours and she required many follow-up reconstructive surgeries. The abnormal growth had become so large it was obstructing her airways and had to be removed in order for her to survive. The girl suffers from rare form of Polyostotic Fibrous Dysplasia; a nonhereditary, genetic disease that causes bone to become “like a big a bowl of jelly with some bone inside,” said Dr. Jesus Gomez of University of Miami School of Medicine.

source :www.manolith.com

Health officials say there is no evidence that the swine flu virus is spreading outside infected communities in the U.S., for now.

The risk of lung cancer was 8.5 times higher in those who had the highest levels of this chemical, NNAL, and the highest nicotine levels.

The test was studied in about 500 men and women in Shanghai and Singapore. The results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"A history of smoking has always been thought of as a predictor of lung cancer, but it is actually not very accurate," said Dr. Jian-Min Yuan, associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota. "Smoking absolutely increases your risk, but why it does so in some people but not others is a big question."

NNAL is created as the body metabolizes tobacco. The chemical has been shown to induce lung cancer in lab animals, but the effect in humans had not been studied until now. Researchers suspect that for genetic reasons, some people produce more NNAL than others, thereby increasing their risk of lung cancer.

Researchers say this test is no license to smoke; tobacco causes other health problems, such as emphysema, heart disease and other types of cancer.

But the test could be used as a signal that people with high levels of NNAL should be screened more frequently for lung cancer, says Tyler Jacks, the incoming head of the American Association for Cancer Research and a lung cancer researcher with MIT. That way, cancers can be detected early, when they're more treatable.

Initially, researchers collected data from 18,244 men in the Shanghai Cohort Study and 63,257 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study.

To evaluate the effect of NNAL, researchers looked at 246 current smokers who later developed lung cancer and compared them with 245 smokers who did not develop lung cancer. People were followed for 10 years during the study.

Patients who had a medium-level NNAL test had a 43 percent increased risk of lung cancer, while those at the highest level had a risk that was more than twofold higher than those with the lowest levels.

This held true even after researchers considered the number of cigarettes a person smoked per day, the number of years of smoking, and urinary levels of another chemical, cotinine, on lung cancer risk.