Vitamin D Low In US Kids

Seven out of 10 U.S. children have low levels of vitamin D, raising their risk of bone and heart disease, according to a study of more than 6,000 children.

The striking findings of researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University suggest that vitamin D deficiency could place millions of children at risk for high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease. The study is published today in the online version of Pediatrics.

Vitamin D deficiency was thought to be relatively rare in the United States. However, recent studies have documented this growing problem in adults. With cases of rickets (a bone disease in infants resulting from low vitamin D levels) rising, it became clear that many children were not getting enough of this essential vitamin, which is needed for healthy bone growth, among other biological processes.

Previous data has shown that vitamin D levels have declined during the past 20 years due to more sedentary lifestyles today and not spending as much time outdoors. The widespread use of sunscreens has also added to the problem. The body uses UV-B sunlight to convert a form of cholesterol in the skin into vitamin D.

Vitamin D supplementation can help. In the study, children who took vitamin D supplements (400 IU/day) were less likely to be deficient in the vitamin. However, only four percent of the study population actually used supplements. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which recently updated its vitamin D guidelines, now recommends that infants, children, and teens should take 400 IU per day in supplement form.

Early Alzheimer's Diagnosis Reduces Costs

A new study recently released suggests the best way to fight Alzheimer's disease is to intervene decades before someone demonstrates symptoms. That sounds a bit like a "chicken and egg" situation, but read on:

"The future of this disease is to intervene decades before someone becomes symptomatic. This analysis says you can save literally billions of dollars in long-term care costs if you can intervene at an earlier stage," study co-author David Weimer of the La Follette School of Public Affairs commented in a statement. "What you don't know costs a lot of money when it comes to this disease."

The researchers analyzed two types of interventions following diagnosis. One was patient drug treatment and the other caregiver-support programs.

The study, published in the Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, found each intervention provides positive net savings, with the greatest benefits achieved using a combination of both.

Currently, Medicare does not support caregiver-intervention programs and even accounting for implementation costs, the analysis suggests it would result in net savings to governments by reducing the care burden on medical systems.

The Wisconsin Medicaid program spends almost $500 million each year on nursing home care for 11,000 dementia patients. This is a small amount of the estimated 160,000 affected people in the state, but caregiver support is sparse accorsing Mark Sager of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Premature Ejaculation Spray Appears Effective

Men with premature ejaculation who used a topical spray before intercourse were able to delay orgasm six times longer than normal, Irish researchers said.

Lead researcher W. Wallace Dinsmore of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland, said the study involved 300 men with clinically diagnosed lifelong premature ejaculation from 31 centers in Britain, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

The men were randomized into two groups. One group used the PSD502 spray, which contains 7.5mg of lidocaine and 2.5mg of prilocaine and the other used a placebo spray with no active ingredients.

Every time they had intercourse during the three-month study period, each couple measured the time from vaginal penetration to ejaculation with a stopwatch. The men were asked to abstain from sexual activity or masturbation for 24 hours before each recorded encounter.

The study, published in BJU International, found the time from penetration to ejaculation increased from an average a little over three minutes in the medicated group and to just 1.1 minutes in the placebo group.

Potassium May Help Lower Blood Pressure

People trying to lower their blood pressure should also boost their intake of potassium, which has the opposite effect to sodium, a U.S. study suggests.

Senior author Dr. Paul Whelton, an epidemiologist and president of Loyola University Health System, and colleagues found that the ratio of sodium-to-potassium in subjects' urine was a much stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease than sodium or potassium alone.

Researchers determined average sodium and potassium intake during two phases of a study known as the Trials of Hypertension Prevention. The researchers collected 24-hour urine samples intermittently during an 18-month period in one trial and during a 36-month period in a second trial.

The 2,974 study participants -- initially ages 30-54, and with blood pressure readings just under levels considered high -- were tracked for 10-15 years to see if they would develop cardiovascular disease.

The study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found those with the highest sodium levels in their urine were 20 percent more likely to suffer strokes, heart attacks or other forms of cardiovascular disease compared with their counterparts with the lowest sodium levels. However this link was not strong enough to be considered statistically significant.

By contrast, participants with the highest sodium-to-potassium ratio in urine were 50 percent more likely to experience cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest sodium-to-potassium ratios. This link was statistically significant.

Healthiest States In The Union

For the second year in row, Vermont has been named the healthiest state, but Louisiana replaced Mississippi as the least healthy state, researchers said.

Vermont leads the nation for all health determinants measured. The prevalence of smoking has declined to 17.6 percent of the population, there is a slower rise in obesity than the U.S. national average, and the number of people without health insurance remains low, the researchers' report said. Vermont has a low percentage of children in poverty, ready access to primary care for residents, a high rate of high school graduation and high immunization coverage.

A comparison of state rankings from 2007 to 2008 released Wednesday indicates 36 states had positive changes in their overall health scores and 14 experienced declines. The top healthiest states following Vermont are: Hawaii, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Utah.

States with the greatest overall health score improvement from 2007 are Arkansas, New Mexico, and Kentucky. Texas and Montana have shown the least improvement in health over the last year.

Louisiana's challenges include a high prevalence of obesity, a high percentage of children in poverty and a high rate of uninsured population. Mississippi, named least healthiest state last year, improved to 49th followed by South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

For 19 years, America's Health Ranking have been compiled by the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention.

Enlarged Prostate Treatments Evaluated

The treatment choice for an enlarged prostate needs careful consideration, but new surgical techniques are often overpromoted, researchers in Germany said.

For many men, the symptoms of an enlarged prostate are just annoying, but for some men, an enlarged prostate means going to the toilet so often that a good night's sleep has become a thing of the past.

One in 5 men in their 50s are affected by an enlarged prostate -- or "benign prostatic hyperplasia" -- but the majority of men in their 70s will have symptoms.

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care in Cologne, Germany, evaluated treatments and concluded prostate surgery can be very effective, but the adverse effects are a major concern for many men.

"Some of the newer techniques might have fewer adverse effects, but they may be so much less effective that the symptoms return, as bad as ever, within a couple of years," Peter Sawicki said in a statement.

About 3 out of every 10 men in Europe handle their symptoms without medication or surgery, perhaps 1 in 10 will have surgery and the rest will use medications, including herbal medicines.

College Students Making Anti-Cancer Beer

U.S. college students say they are using genetic engineering to create beer with resveratrol, a substance in grapes shown to reduce cancer and heart disease.

A group of Rice University students say Rice's "BioBeer" will be entered in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition scheduled for Nov. 8-9 in Cambridge, Mass. This is the world's largest synthetic biology competition.

"After last year's contest, we were sitting around talking about what we'd do this year," said junior Taylor Stevenson says in a statement. "Peter Nguyen, a graduate student, made a joke about putting resveratrol into beer, but none of us took it seriously."

But when the team began looking in earnest for a new project this spring, they discovered a good bit of published literature about modifying yeast with resveratrol-related genes. When they looked further, they found two detailed accounts by teams that had attacked both halves of the metabolic problem independently, Taylor said.

The students have focused on creating a genetically modified strain of yeast that will ferment beer and produce resveratrol at the same time.

Most undergraduates on the team aren't old enough to buy beer, but the students said it will take a while before anybody can actually consume the new product.