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brdgt
(The Baltimore Sun, October 9, 2007)
"They are small, prevalent and cheap, sometimes flavored and even sold individually. And they have fewer restrictions than cigarettes. Black & Mild cigars -- found at most city convenience shops and drugstores -- are smoked by nearly a quarter of 18- to 24-year-old African-Americans in Baltimore, according to a city Health Department report to be released today...Baltimore health officials and Hopkins researchers believe that many young people are unaware that Black & Milds -- which come in flavors such as apple, cream and wine -- pose the same health risks as, or potentially more than cigarettes."
U.K.: Confusion Over Advice on Alcohol for Pregnant Women
(The Guardian, London, October 11, 2007)
"Pregnant women face more confusion about the safety of drinking alcohol after draft guidelines published yesterday suggested a glass a day does no harm. The draft from the government's standards-setting body, the National Institute for Healthcare and Clinical Excellence (Nice), runs directly counter to official government advice. In May, the Department of Health urged women to abstain completely from alcohol during pregnancy." Free registration required.
A Positive Word About the Pill
(Chicago Tribune, October 7, 2007)
"Out of the mishmash of hormone studies researchers have been serving up lately comes some good news: Birth control pills do not cause cancer. According to a 36-year survey of some 46,000 British women, use of oral contraceptives may actually reduce a woman's risk of developing cancer unless she takes them for more than eight years. The findings should be comforting to the hundreds of millions of women who have taken the Pill, which was developed in the 1960s and is considered the most effective method of preventing pregnancy." Free registration required.
Study: U.S. Children Get Needed Healthcare Less than Half the Time
(Associated Press, October 11, 2007)
"As Washington debates children's health insurance, a startling study finds that children who regularly see doctors get the right care less than half the time - whether it's preschool shots or chlamydia tests for teen girls. The findings, from the first comprehensive look at children's healthcare quality, are particularly troubling because nearly all the 1,536 children in the nationwide study had insurance."
Anxiety Can Hit Kids Who Have Food Allergies
(The Star-Telegram, Texas, October 9, 2007)
"As the number of children diagnosed with life-threatening food allergies grows, so does an insidious side effect: the extreme anxiety they can develop around eating, socializing or even a trip to the supermarket...Mental-health experts and doctors say most food-allergic children have some anxieties about accidental ingestion but successfully manage them and lead normal lives. For others, worries can become crippling."
Scientists Say Chronic Lyme Disease Doesn't Exist
(Newsday, October 9, 2007)
"In what is becoming one of the most heated debates in medicine, doctors, scientists and patients are lining up on two sides of a discourse about Lyme disease, an infectious condition whose incidence has risen sharply in recent years. A prestigious group of physicians and scientists says there is no evidence that chronic Lyme disease exists, and that patients may be doing themselves more harm than good by undergoing prolonged antibiotic therapy."
