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Angelina Jolie

angelina jolie

It's Not Just Fat: Hip Bones Widen With Age, Too

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- People continue to grow well into their 70s, but they're not growing taller, they're growing wider, new research shows.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine found that people's pelvic bones (hip bones) continue to grow long after they reach skeletal maturity. The end result: extra inches at the waistline and many extra pounds on the scale.

"Whether or not they also have an increase in body fat, our findings suggest that pelvic growth may contribute to people becoming wider and having a large waist size as they get older," said Dr. Laurence E. Dahners, senior study author and a professor of orthopedics at UNC, in a university news release. "If the rest of the body is widening, this might account for a significant portion of an increase in body weight of about one pound a year."

In conducting the study, published online this week in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, researchers used CT scans to measure the width and height of 246 patients in various age groups. The study found the width of the patients' pelvises continued to grow, even after skeletal maturity at 20 years of age. Specifically, the researchers noted, the pelvic inlet (the birth canal opening in the middle of the pelvis) widened, which is evidence of actual pelvic growth.

On average, the pelvic width of the oldest patients in the study was nearly an inch larger than the width of the youngest patients. The study's authors explained this one-inch increase alone could amount to three extra inches on the waist between the ages of 20 and 79 years. They also noted this widening could also account for a significant portion of an annual one-pound weight gain.

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health provides more information on how aging affects bones.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
SOURCE: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, news release, May 25, 2011

June 2011 GSA Today science article includes exclusive lithoprobe poster

Boulder, CO, USA - What would we see and what would we learn if we were able to cut North America in half, pull it apart, and look at the resulting cross section through the continent, from the surface all the way down to its very deepest mantle roots? Although it sounds like an impossible undertaking, Philip Hammer of the University of British Columbia and colleagues have done just that.
In the June issue of GSA Today:
The big picture: A lithospheric cross section of the North American continent
Philip T.C. Hammer et al., Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada; doi: 10.1130/GSATG95A.1,
Utilizing geological and geophysical data collected over more than 20 years as part of the Canadian LITHOPROBE project, Hammer and colleagues have constructed a curved cross-section (to account for the curvature of Earth's surface) that extends from the Cascadia subduction zone on the west coast, east to the Atlantic margin, and down to depths as great as 270 km to the very base of the North American tectonic plate.
A detailed, 36-by-16-inch poster illustrating this cross section accompanies the issue and can also be downloaded from the GSA Today website,
What can be learned from this cross section? Both the mantle roots of the continent, as well as the overlying continental crust, bear the scars of ancient continental collisions and eons of oceanic subduction, two processes that remain such a recognizable part of modern plate tectonics. It appears that the processes that continue to shape the continent today have been active through more than three billion years of Earth's history.
But there are mysteries hidden in the cross section as well. Those deformed and faulted segments of crust that record the growth of our continent are now devoid of the deep crustal roots produced during continental collision. Instead of deep mountain roots, it appears that the base of the continental crust is flat. Understanding the fate of the crustal underpinnings of ancient mountain systems, and determining the processes that flatten the base of the crust, remains but one of numerous puzzles of continental evolution that have yet to be resolved.

Peer-reviewed GSA Today articles are open access. Please discuss articles of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and please make reference to GSA Today in articles published. Contact Christa Stratton for additional information or assistance.

Complexities of Autism Extend to Its Treatment

May 27, 2011

Complexities of Autism Extend to Its Treatment

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- Parents of children with autism often find themselves struggling to make sense of their child's behavior.

What's worse, there's no single best way to treat the frightening and frustrating neurodevelopmental disorder. Children might have a mix of social impairments, communication problems and repetitive behavior patterns. Each child will require a certain blend of therapies, treatments and interventions, all specifically tailored to the child's particular behavioral problems.

"Every person with autism is different," said Lee Grossman, president and chief executive of the Autism Society. "There's a saying, 'If you've met one person with autism, then you've met one person with autism.'"

That means parents usually have to figure it out for themselves, with help from their medical team.

Experts agree on two basic principles when it comes to treating people with autism, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health:

Early intervention is key to helping a child with autism find a healthy, happy and satisfying life.
People with autism respond best to programs and therapies that are highly structured and specialized to their needs.

"The earlier the child is diagnosed, and the better the quality and quantity of the programs they are in, the better their prognosis long-term," said James Ball, president and chief executive of JB Autism Consulting, in New Jersey, and chairman of the Autism Society's board of directors.

Many of the leading therapy options for autism are not medical and instead involve education and behavioral intervention.

Ball said that a type of behavioral therapy called applied behavioral analysis, which focuses on teaching useful skills that build upon each other, has helped many children with autism.

"It teaches things repetitively so a child can learn and then generalize those skills," he said.

For example, teaching children to brush their teeth would involve breaking down the activity into different skills -- squeezing out the toothpaste, brushing the teeth, rinsing the mouth -- that are repetitively taught and ultimately woven together. "You teach all the separate components up to the whole," Ball said.

Other children with the disorder might need speech therapy, occupational therapy or other forms of behavioral therapy, Grossman said. It all rests on finding a child's strongest and weakest areas and using their strengths to help them overcome their weaknesses.

Kids with autism will often have more success in these therapies if visual aids and cues are used, he said.

They often "have trouble with verbal instruction," Grossman said. "If you can provide a learning environment where they see the instrument and incorporate it into their activities, you'll have a better situation."

Children with autism also may benefit from medical interventions tailored to their symptoms. Medication can be used to treat such autism-related symptoms as seizures, depression, anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Kids with severe behavioral problems sometimes benefit from antipsychotic drugs.

Some parents have found that a dietary intervention can help their child, according to the mental health institute. One particular diet that has proven successful for some children involves removing all gluten and casein from their food. Casein is the main source of protein in milk, and gluten is a protein found in wheat and other grains.

Parents also should make sure their child is healthy and not suffering from illnesses that could exacerbate their behavioral problems. "We would encourage all families to get a comprehensive medical exam" for their child, Grossman said.

Health problems such as rashes, gastrointestinal disorders, allergies, asthma and the like can create discomfort and throw children off their beneficial therapies. "These are typically overlooked with a child with autism because they are often nonverbal and noncompliant," Grossman said. "The doctor may miss some other treatable conditions."

Families with an autistic child also should understand that every member will need help and should consider undergoing regular family counseling, Ball said.

"It is a whole-family disorder," he said. "Everyone is affected. Families need to come up with a plan so they can meet everyone's needs."

Finding resources can be challenging, Ball and Grossman said. Grossman knows that firsthand as he has child with autism, who now is 23.

"I was very angry and very frustrated because I couldn't find any help," he recalled. "I didn't know what to do." But he said that the group he now runs, the Autism Society, was key in helping him find doctors and therapists to help his son.

Grossman also speaks from personal knowledge when he says that the best way to help children with autism is to pay attention to how they act and what draws their interest and to then use that knowledge to teach them life skills.

"The goal here is to have a person who has a satisfying quality of life and is a contributing member of their community," Grossman added. "With the proper supports, we believe everyone can achieve that."

More information

Autism Speaks has more on autism.

A companion article looks at living with autism, from one family's perspective.

SOURCES: Lee Grossman, president and chief executive, Autism Society; James Ball, Ed.D., president and chief executive, JB Autism Consulting, Cranbury, N.J.

Health Highlights 2011

May 27, 2011

Health Highlights: May 27, 2011

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Experts Question Necessity of Flu Shot for Some This Season

The influenza vaccine for the coming season is a duplicate of that issued to millions of Americans in the 2010-2011 season, so some experts are questioning the need for many young, healthy Americans to get a "repeat" shot, the Associated Pressreported.

"For healthy people, it can't be said to be necessary," Dr. Robert Couch, a flu vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine, told the news agency.

Nevertheless, that isn't stopping national health experts from urging that all Americans get the flu shot. Their reasoning: Any vaccine's protective powers can wane over a few months, especially for elderly recipients.

Certainly, there will be no flu vaccine shortage this year: According to the AP, five makers are manufacturing a total of between 166 million and 173 million doses, 6 million more than has ever been produced.

Currently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone older than 6 months of age get an annual flu shot, with the exception of people with egg allergies or certain rare conditions.

Still, the fact that this season's vaccine is identical in makeup to last year's is giving some experts pause. Some studies suggest that the flu shot can provide protection for more than a year in adults, and perhaps up to three years in children. But other studies have suggested that immunity may drop more quickly and steeply than that.

"Nobody really, really knows," Dr. John Treanor, a flu vaccine researcher at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, told the AP. He and other experts support the CDC's stance.

"The bottom line is, with our current knowledge, we believe it is better to be re-vaccinated. And getting another shot is certainly not going to harm you," Dr. Arnold Monto, an influenza expert at the University of Michigan, told the AP.

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Lack of Prenatal Vitamins Tied to Higher Risk of Autism in Offspring

Mothers who did not take vitamins during their pregnancy appear to have a higher risk of having a child with autism, a new study finds.

As reported by UPI, the study involved about 700 California families with children between the ages of 2 and 5 with or without autism. Women were asked in a phone interview if they took prenatal vitamins, multivitamins or other supplements in the three months prior to pregnancy, during their pregnancy and during breast-feeding.

"Mothers of children with autism were significantly less likely than those of typically developing children to report having taken prenatal vitamins during the three months before and the first month of pregnancy," lead author Rebecca J. Schmidt, assistant professor at the University of California, Davis, said in a statement, UPI reported.

Women with a particular set of genes placing them at high risk, and who also did not take prenatal vitamins, had an estimated seven times higher risk of having a child with autism compared to women without these genes who did take the vitamins, the study found.

The findings will be published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology.

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Groups Sue FDA to Ban Certain Antibiotics in Animal Feed

A number of environmental and health-advocacy organizations have launched a lawsuit to try and force the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban the use of two types of antibiotics in livestock feed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The groups charge that the widespread use of penicillin and tetracycline antibiotics in animal feed is contributing to bacterial resistance to antibiotics that people use to fight dangerous infections. They say the government has failed to stop the practice.

"Approximately 80 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States today are used in livestock," the groups said in the suit, the Journal reported. "Most of these drugs are not used to treat disease. Instead, they are given to healthy animals in their feed or water, both to promote faster growth and to prevent infections."

According to the newspaper, the FDA said that livestock raised in the United States consumed almost 29 million pounds of antibiotics, with about 74 percent given through the animal's feed.

Groups involved in the suit include the Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Animal Concerns Trust, Public Citizen, and Union of Concerned Scientists. They filed the suit Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Doug Wolf, president of the National Pork Producers Council, called the suit "spurious," the Journal said.

FDA spokeswoman Siobhan Delancey said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

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Most ER Visits for Sports-Related Concussions Involve Kids

More than 80 percent of all emergency room visits for sports-related concussions involve children under the age of 18, a new U.S. government study shows.

In a report released Wednesday, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that almost 40,000 youths wound up in the ER and were diagnosed with the condition in 2008 alone.

Those between the ages of 14 and 18 accounted for the lion's share of these head injuries, at 58 percent, while 17 percent were between the ages of 11 and 13 and another 7 percent were aged 6 to 10. The AHRQ researchers also found that 21 percent lost consciousness briefly, while another 12 percent blacked out for a longer period of time.

The good news was that 52 percent of these patients did not lose consciousness, and 95 percent did not have to be admitted to the hospital. Boys represented almost 80 percent of the injuries.

These young patients often wound up receiving care for other injuries, for everything from pulled muscles and sprains to skull fractures.

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Weight Loss in Heavy, Obese Women Boosts Vitamin D Levels

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- Older women who are overweight or obese and lose more than 15 percent of their body weight could significantly boost their levels of vitamin D, new research suggests.

The study, conducted by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, also indicates that the surge in vitamin D could help scientists explore new avenues for the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

"Since vitamin D is generally lower in persons with obesity, it is possible that low vitamin D could account, in part, for the link between obesity and diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes," study author Caitlin Mason, a postdoctoral research fellow, said in a Hutchinson news release.

Vitamin D is fat-soluble nutrient that plays many important roles in the body, including promoting calcium absorption, reducing inflammation and influencing cell health and the immune system. It's found in certain foods, such as fatty fish, and produced naturally in the body through exposure to sunlight.

The study, published in the May 25 online issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, assigned 439 overweight or obese postmenopausal women to one of four regimens: exercise only, diet only, exercise plus diet and no intervention.

Although women who lost up to 10 percent of their body weight (10 to 20 pounds) through diet and exercise saw modest increases in vitamin D, those levels were roughly three times higher in women who dropped more than 15 percent of their body weight, regardless of what they ate.

"We were surprised at the effect of weight loss greater than 15 percent on blood vitamin D levels," study senior author Dr. Anne McTiernan, director of the Hutchinson Center's Prevention Center, said in the news release. "It appears that the relationship between weight loss and blood vitamin D is not linear but goes up dramatically with more weight loss."

McTiernan concluded the findings suggest the greater the weight loss, the more meaningful the surge in vitamin D levels.

The researchers noted, however, the degree to which vitamin D is available to the body during and after weight loss remains unclear. They also cautioned that more targeted research is needed to understand any link between vitamin D deficiency and chronic disease.

More information

The National Institutes of Health offers more information on the functions and sources of vitamin D.

--Mary Elizabeth Dallas
SOURCE: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, news release, May 25, 2011.

Living With a Child With Autism

May 27, 2011

Living With a Child With Autism

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- Julie Wismann knew her young daughter was troubled.

The girl had been diagnosed with epilepsy at age 1 and put on medication, said Wismann, 34, of Centennial, Colo. But then the youngster, Kara Reno, began losing her words.

"At first we thought it was a speech impediment of some sort," her mother said of Kara. "She went from saying 50 words to no words. She was basically becoming developmentally disabled with words. She wasn't accruing as many words as she should have at that point, and the words she did have weren't forming well. It took people who knew her to understand what she was saying."

There were other worrying signs of behavior. For extended periods, Wismann said, Kara would put her hand in front of her face and watch it move back and forth. She wouldn't interact with kids her age. She didn't play-act with her Barbie dolls, instead just holding them in front of her face and looking at them.

At age 2½, doctors diagnosed Kara with autism.

Wismann said she had a hard time accepting the diagnosis. "I was in denial for four years, maybe," she said. "It was extremely worrisome."

She took Kara to a behavioral therapist and a communication therapist. She tried homeopathic remedies. She even considered taking the girl to chelation therapy, which involves injecting a chemical into the body and has been rumored to help children with autism. "I was going to try chelation at one point, but then I heard some other kids with autism died because it wasn't performed correctly," she said.

The only thing she said she's found that helps her get through to Kara is music therapy. "She just engages more," Wismann said. "Instead of being in her own space, if you're more singsong-y when you're interacting with her, she seems to engage more and want to be interactive with you."

Now 10 years old, Kara is considered to be on the developmental level of an 18-month-old. "She's now kind of diagnosed on the more severe part of the spectrum," Wismann said, noting that her daughter has to use an adult stroller when out in public places. "The sensory overload of trying to walk herself through someplace like a store overwhelms her."

Kara is nonverbal and does not respond to sign language. She communicates by reaching her hand toward something she needs, but even that is just fleeting.

"Everybody who is in Kara's world has pretty much had to come in touch with their sixth sense, to intuitively figure out what she might need," Wismann said.

And Kara's condition has put a strain on the whole family, she added. Wismann said she's had to work hard to make sure Kara's younger brother, Harley, gets his share of attention. A year younger than Kara, Harley is a bright and healthy youngster, his mother said.

"He's had to learn how to adapt," Wismann said. "He's learned that if we go somewhere and Kara has a fall-out or a meltdown, he knows he has to drop whatever he's doing so we can leave." Harley's also learned to be more independent and to take care of himself if his parents have to rush Kara for treatment or give her more attention.

Kara now attends a special needs school that's using applied behavioral analysis as its teaching method for Kara. The aim of this type of therapy is to teach useful skills that build upon each other. Wismann said she is also considering trying another form of therapy, called relationship development intervention, which tries to gradually and systematically develop the tools and motivation for social interaction.

"After all these years, I think I've finally come to terms with who she is," Wismann said. "I guess I have accepted it. Before then, it was just push, push, push to try and find a way to stop her downward spiral."

"I'm still waiting for her to say 'momma,'" Wismann said. "She'll mouth the word maybe once every six months or so, but she never says it. It's hard to tell how much she comprehends, and how much she can give."

More information

A companion article offers more on treating autism.

Cigarette Packaging Still Too Alluring, Studies Find

May 27, 2011

Cigarette Packaging Still Too Alluring, Studies Find

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- Savvy tobacco companies are using color and other design elements to circumvent new U.S. regulations that crack down on misleading cigarette packaging, researchers say.

As of June 2010, tobacco companies were prohibited from using terms such as "light," "mild" or "low," which minimize the dangers of smoking, in advertising and on cigarette packaging. But tobacco companies have found other terms, colors and even numbers to create an illusion of safety, according to several new studies from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.

The researchers determined that certain design features -- light- or pastel-colored packaging associated with mild cigarettes, for example, and carefully chosen numbers -- enable cigarette makers to skirt the laws.

"Though the removal of descriptor terms like 'mild,' 'light' and 'low' are a good start, manufacturers have basically replaced these terms with terms such as 'gold' and 'silver,' and changed the shading on packs to continue to mislead consumers," said study author Maansi Bansal-Travers, a behavioral research scientist at Roswell Park.

Another expert agreed that cigarette makers are using code language to falsely convince consumers that some cigarettes are less deadly than others.

"From international evidence, we know smokers who see white, silver or light colored packs are likely to associate them with lower harm products; blue packs with mild products; red with regular [full-flavor] products; and green with menthol," said Janet Hoek, a professor of marketing at University of Otago in New Zealand. "Pack colors have become quite strongly paired in smokers," and they now recognize them without any verbal descriptions, she added.

Hoek, who was not involved with the research, is an expert on tobacco regulation and other issues.

The three studies, published in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, conclude that cigarettes should be sold in standardized plain packs with coloring restricted much like wording.

In one study, about 190 smokers were shown six cigarette packages of Marlboro or Peter Jackson, a brand sold in Australia. The packages, in different shades and colors, had all text removed other than the brand name.

Participants who said they were concerned with health, tar, nicotine and safety overwhelmingly picked the "whitest" package, such as an ivory-colored pack of Peter Jackson's.

In a second experiment, researchers showed about 200 smokers and 200 nonsmokers pictures of cigarette packages that differed by a single element, either color (for example, light blue vs. dark blue); number ("10" vs. "6" ); or the size of the health warning.

About 87 percent said they'd choose the lighter colored package over the darker one if they were trying to reduce their health risks. The lighter colored package was also strongly associated with smoother taste and less tar.

About 89 percent of those concerned about health said they'd pick the package with the number "6" vs. "10," while 88 percent believed the packaging marked with a "10" had more tar than one marked with a "6."

About 81 percent thought a package labeled "full flavor" had more tar than one with the word "silver" on the front, while 78 percent said they would choose the "silver" pack to reduce health risks.

A third study tested reactions to proposed "corrective" statements about tobacco company misinformation that the U.S. federal court in the Department of Justice case against cigarette manufacturers is seeking to slap on cigarette packages.

Study participants temporarily increased their knowledge about smoking risks, but the researchers concluded that people need sustained exposure for such messages to sink in.

These efforts stem in part from the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, which granted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration broad powers to regulate the manufacturing, advertising and promotion of tobacco products as a means of protecting public health.

The United States is following the lead of other countries in cracking down on misleading cigarette packaging. More than a dozen nations have stringently regulated cigarette packaging for years, with some requiring gruesome images on the packaging.

Starting in 2012, U.S. cigarette makers may have to cover half the packages with more graphic warning labels and vivid images of the dangers of smoking. The FDA is still mulling which labels to choose.

"Despite the graphic warning labels, which will be great progress in educating consumers about the risks of smoking, there is still 50 percent of the pack that can be used to mislead consumers on the relative risks of their products," Bansal-Travers said.

Marketing experts agree that the new legislation may not keep the packages from conveying subtle but powerful messages about the cigarettes inside.

"Packaging is what sells the product at the point of purchase," said Jeremy Kees, an assistant professor of marketing at Villanova School of Business.

"Up to 70 to 80 percent of consumer decisions are actually made in the store at the point of purchase," Kees said. "Of course, advertising and other promotions are important, but the packaging is the unspoken salesperson for the product."

Body Size May Influence

Body Size May Influence How People View the World

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- Your size may influence how you perceive the world around you, a new study suggests.

People were tricked into believing they were either the size of Barbie dolls or 13-foot giants in a study conducted by scientists at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

The study, published online May 25 in PLoS ONE, found that when people believed they had a tiny body, they overestimated the size of certain objects and their distance from them. Those who believed they had large bodies did the opposite, underestimating the objects' size and distance.

This skewed perception of space was evaluated by having participants estimate the size of various blocks, close their eyes and step over them.

"Tiny bodies perceive the world as huge, and vice versa," study leader Henrik Ehrsson said in a journal news release. "Even though we know just how large people are, the illusion makes us perceive other people as giants; it's a very weird experience."

Researchers pointed out their findings might contribute to certain practical applications, such as swapping human bodies with artificial ones. "It's possible, in theory, to produce an illusion of being a microscopic robot that can carry out operations in the human body, or a giant robot repairing a nuclear power plant after an accident," Ehrsson said in the news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke provides detailed information on the human brain and how it works.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas
SOURCE: Public Library of Science, news release, May 25, 2011