Health Tip: What's an A1c Test?

(HealthDay News) - A hemoglobin A1c test is recommended for many diabetics several times per year. The test helps doctors see how well blood sugar has been controlled over the prior two or three months.

The University of Michigan Health System offers this additional information about the test:

• The amount of hemoglobin A1c in your blood indicates how high your blood sugar has been over the past three months. This can help determine if medication, diet and other remedies prescribed by your doctor are working.
• The test should be done every three months, unless you have your sugar well- controlled. In that case, your doctor may suggest getting the test every six months.
• Test results can help predict the likelihood of diabetic complications, including heart disease, or damage to the eyes, kidneys or nervous system.

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Kids in Poor Neighborhoods Fall Behind in School

(HealthDay News) -- Black children living in disadvantaged neighborhoods fall behind the equivalent of one year or more of schooling simply because of where they live.

"[The study] does speak to the power of external resources," said Richard Gilman, coordinator of psychology and special education in the division of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Ohio. "It focuses on race as a characteristic, but it's not necessarily race. It's what's going on in families and external to families. . . the characteristics [of neighborhoods they identify] are going to be disproportional to African-American families because of the state of affairs for those families. They are the type of families living primarily in the inner cities."

Gilman was not involved with the study, which is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A person's cognitive ability, which is mainly shaped early in life, can predict how well he or she will do later in life in terms of education, employment, whether or not they enter the criminal justice system and health.

But experts differ in whether genetics or environment are the primary shapers. And the role of the neighborhood has not been extensively studied.

For this study, sociologists at Harvard University analyzed Chicago census tract data from 1990 and 2000 and identified six neighborhood characteristics which, together, formed "concentrated disadvantage" and were linked to the cognitive abilities of children.

The six characteristics were: welfare receipt, poverty, unemployment, female-headed households, racial composition and density of children.

More than 2,000 urban Chicago children aged 6 to 12 were assessed for verbal ability and other characteristics.

The children, with their caretakers, were followed wherever they moved in the United States for seven years.

The researchers took into account the impact of moving into and out of areas of disadvantage. About 17 percent of black children not living in disadvantage moved to a disadvantaged neighborhood between 1995 and 2002, while 42 percent of black children in disadvantaged neighborhoods in 1995 moved to a non-disadvantaged neighborhood during those years.

Children who lived in a severely disadvantaged neighborhood halfway through the follow-up period were almost all black, and they fell behind their otherwise identical peers by about four points on an IQ test. This translates into about one year of schooling.

Almost one-third of black children lived at some point in "concentrated disadvantaged" neighborhoods compared to almost no white or Latino children.

The findings tilt the nature-versus-nurture debate toward the latter factor.

"The study has implications for interventions, because they've identified the risk factors, it appears, that contribute to negative outcomes," Gilman said. "We don't have a lot of intervention research. It would seem that if you began to design intervention studies that target these specific risk factors, hopefully, you will begin to see an increase in verbal scores, particularly among African-Americans."

More information
Visit the Nemours Foundation for more on kids' health.

Health Tip: Ear Infection May Not Need Antibiotic

(HealthDay News) - If your child has an ear infection, it's important to take the child to a doctor for proper diagnosis and treatment. The pediatrician will determine if the infection is bacterial or viral.

Here are suggestions on how to treat your child's ear infection, courtesy of the American Academy of Family Physicians:

• If the infection is bacterial, your doctor probably will prescribe an antibiotic.
• If the infection is viral, an antibiotic won't treat it, so prescribing one may be counterproductive.
• You can give your child a pain reliever, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Don't give your child aspirin, unless the doctor says so.
• Apply a warm heating pad to the ear to relieve pain.
• The doctor may prescribe ear drops.

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Traffic Pollution Hurts Asthmatic Kids' Lungs

(HealthDay News) -- Children with asthma who are exposed to traffic pollution are at increased risk for respiratory problems and reduced lung volumes, says a study that looked at children in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, a crossing point into the United States.

"Major cities along the northern and southern U.S. borders often have high levels of vehicular traffic flows, especially at the border crossing points. Vehicular traffic emissions from the high density of border crossing traffic may be negatively affecting the health of populations who live in nearby areas," study lead author Dr. Fernando Holguin, assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

Holguin and colleagues recruited 200 asthmatic and non-asthmatic children, ages 6 to12 years, who lived in Ciudad Juarez. For one year, the researchers measured traffic density and traffic-related pollutants near the children's homes and schools. For four months, they evaluated each child's lung function and respiratory symptoms.

The researchers found that children with asthma -- but not those without asthma -- were affected by living in homes in areas with heavy traffic. These children had higher levels of exhaled NO, as well as reductions in both lung volume and airflow.

Living within 50 meters of a road with heavy traffic increased the risk of respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children by more than 50 percent, the researchers concluded.

"Our results show that close proximity to vehicular traffic-related emissions, either at home or at school, can lead to chronic effects in the respiratory health of children with asthma," Holguin said.
The findings "may have implications for asthmatic children residing in these conditions -- especially among those who may not be adequately controlled with medications -- for they may be more susceptible to vehicular emissions."

The study was published in the second issue for December of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

More information
The American Lung Association has more about childhood asthma.

Ayurtox

You are a toxic cesspool of the lifetime accumulation of chemicals from air, food, and water.

These accumulated toxins contribute to nearly every disease, sickness, and malfunction of the body. Your body is like a city where the sanitation units are on strike.

As the garbage bags pile up, the city slows down and if the situation were to continue to crisis proportions, unsanitary conditions would cause widespread illness, disease, and death amongst the population. The sanitation officers in our body that find and eliminate toxins comprise our excretory system (kidneys, intestines, lungs, skin, and liver).

When they are severely overworked, they go on strike. When this occurs, waste and toxins buildup in your body, channeling of nutrients becomes inefficient, the situation compounds itself, and various disease states become inevitable. The largest internal organ in the body is the liver. It performs many functions in addition to body detoxification.

The liver works by both filtering toxins directly and by altering toxins so that they can be removed at other stages of detoxification. The liver filters toxins from about 1 liter of blood every minute. Some of these toxins are endotoxins (produced in the body) and exotoxins (from outside the body). These wastes are eliminated the kidneys or the colon. Other toxins, composed of compounds that are difficult for the liver to filter, must be broken down with enzymes so that they can be removed.

A properly functioning liver is vital to your health. Serious toxin overload can easily occur. Toxins released from the liver must leave the body through the colon. If a person is constipated, the toxins are not eliminated and are instead reabsorbed back into the liver.

This occurs while new exotoxins are continually introduced into the body through medication, pesticides, cigarette smoke, pollution, impurities in food, bacteria, and other problematic substances in the environment; and new endotoxins are created in the body due to stress and lack of exercise.

The road to disease is soon paved with an improperly functioning liver, gummed up excretory system, and a slew of toxins that bind to enzymes at the cellular level and neutralize them, so that cells no longer function optimally. Western medicine relies on aggressive prescription drugs and surgery to deal with many problems related to body toxicity.

Unfortunately, these methods often result in unwanted and even dangerous side effects. Natural pills provide only fleeting, inconsistent results. Ayurveda, the science of life, prevention and longevity, is the oldest and most holistic and comprehensive medical system available.

Its fundamentals can be found in Hindu scriptures called the Vedas - the ancient Indian books of wisdom written over 5,000 years ago. Ayurveda uses the inherent principles of nature to help maintain health in a person by keeping the individual's body, mind, and spirit in perfect equilibrium with nature.

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Health Tip: Bruises May Signal Health Problems

(HealthDay News) - While bruises are a common result of minor injury, frequent or easy bruising may signal a more serious health problem.

Here are warning signs, from the University of Cincinnati's Net Wellness program, that you may need to discuss your tendency to bruise with your doctor:

• If you bruise often without a significant injury, or you can't remember how you got bruised.
• If frequent bruises include raised lumps.
• If you get frequent, excessive nosebleeds.
• If you have abnormally heavy menstrual periods.
• If you had excessive bleeding after surgery or childbirth.
• If you have a family history of bleeding disorders.

More Young Americans Are Contracting HIV

(HealthDay News) -- In the 26 years since scientists first spotted AIDS in America, millions of dollars have been poured into outreach efforts aimed at keeping young people clear of HIV, the virus that causes the disease.

But on the eve of World AIDS Day, a disturbing statistical fact has emerged in this country: The number of newly infected teens and young adults is suddenly on the rise.

And the question is, why?

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2001 to 2005 (the latest years available), the number of new cases of HIV infection diagnosed among 15-to-19-year-olds in the United States rose from 1,010 in 2001, held steady for the next three years, then jumped 20 percent in 2005, to 1,213 cases.

For young people aged 20 to 24, cases of new infection have climbed steadily, from 3,184 in 2001 to 3,876 in 2005.

Newer infection numbers set to be released soon by the CDC may be even higher, the Washington Post reported Saturday. According to the Post, sources close to scientists preparing the new statistics have confirmed that rates of new infection in the United States may be 50 percent higher than previously believed -- a jump from 40,000 new infections per year to up to 60,000. The increase is based on new blood testing methods, the Post said, and whether it signifies a growth in actual cases remains to be seen.

Experts say a number of factors may be at play, including the fact that many HIV-infected patients are now being kept healthy with powerful drugs -- making AIDS seem like less of a threat to young people than it did in the past.

"Certainly the 'scare factor' isn't there anymore," said Rowena Johnston, vice president of research at the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) in New York City.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the ravages of AIDS were apparent to most Americans -- either on their TV screens as high-profile celebrities succumbed to the disease, or as individuals lost friends or family members to HIV.

"To see people looking gaunt, skinny and skeletal, and to know that they were going to be dead soon," Johnston said. "It had a sobering effect."

The advent of antiretroviral drugs in the mid-1990s changed all that, however. "These days, for the most part, you can look at a person and not know that they even have AIDS," Johnston said.
That's making HIV seem like less of a threat to young people, said Martha Chono-Helsley. She's executive director of REACH LA, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that helps disadvantaged youth understand and defend against threats like poverty, drug abuse and HIV.

"They're in this age group that feels they are invincible -- that it's never going to happen to them," she said. "Yes, they're getting all these messages from public schools on HIV and AIDS, but they've never actually seen what HIV has done, up close and personal."

Chris Blades, one of REACH LA's young, black "peer educators," said he's seen a kind of nonchalance towards HIV among the gay or bisexual men of color that he counsels.

"On a daily basis, they don't see their friends suffering from it, so it's not a major threat to them," said Blades, 21. "They're in that whole mindset of 'Oh, it can't happen to me, it will never happen to me.'"

But there has been a recent, troubling spike in new infections among gay men, young and old alike. According to the CDC, the rate of new cases of HIV infection linked to male-male sex held steady at around 16,000 cases between 2001-2004, then suddenly jumped to 18,296 in 2005.
Johnston and Chono-Helsley both point to advertisements for HIV-suppressing medicines as one possible contributing factor.

"In gay magazines, you now see [ads with] buff, handsome men climbing mountains, with some kind of quote about how 'I'm not letting HIV get in my way,'" Johnston said. "It sends the message that you, too, can be hot, buff and handsome, even with HIV."

Chono-Helsley agreed. "It's always these bright, healthy vibrant young men in these ads," she said. That could spur young gay men to relax their guard and take more risks, thinking that if they do contract HIV, "I only have to take a pill," she said.

The reality of living with HIV in America is much different, however, even when medication is working. According to Johnston, the side effects of powerful HIV-suppressing drug cocktails include fat redistribution (including unsightly "humps"), insulin resistance, higher cholesterol, increased risks for heart disease, and dangerous liver toxicities.

There's also the fear that, someday, HIV will develop mutations that render these drugs useless, triggering the re-emergence of AIDS, she said.

HIV continues to cut a wide swath through young men and women in the black community, too. According to the CDC, the number of new infections actually dipped slightly for black Americans between 2001 (20,868 cases) and 2005 (18,121 cases). However, black men are still six times more likely than white men to contract HIV, and black women are 20 times more likely to acquire the virus compared to white women.

The answers to that disparity lie mainly in economics, experts say.

"The young men that we work with are predominantly African-American, and HIV is not their No. 1 priority," said Chono-Helsley. "Often survival is their main priority -- where they are going to sleep tonight. They're kicked out of the house; they have substance abuse issues, they're in recovery."

Young black women can easily get caught up in similar problems, or are coerced into unsafe sex by their partners, she added.

Another trend -- soaring rates of methamphetamine use over the past five years -- may also be fueling HIV infection rates for both blacks and young gay men, the experts noted.

Too often, marginalized young people develop "a 'whatever' attitude -- whatever happens, happens," Chono-Helsey said.

Outreach aimed at HIV prevention remains important, of course. But one expert believes too much state and federal money is being funneled away from community outreach programs and toward "HIV Stops With Me" campaigns that focus on individuals already living with the virus.
"The message there is that, if I don't have HIV right now, then all I have got to do is avoid those people who have got it," said Carrie Davis, director of adult services at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community Center in New York City.

She believes those types of messages allow uninfected people to shift the burden of responsibility from themselves to the HIV-positive, or to people they deem at high risk, such as gay men or drug abusers.

"I think it affects straight people, too, in that they absorb this 'magical thinking' -- that this is someone else's problem," Davis said.

So what doeswork to change attitudes and behaviors? That's a tough question, Chono-Helsley said, and the answer usually depends on particular contexts and communities.

"You really have to evaluate what methods you're using and think about the person as a whole, not just the infection," she said. "Because they've all heard 'use a condom, use a condom.'"

The right approach is key, Blades added. "If you deliver the message to them in a way that's not preachy or looking down on them, I think that's more effective," he said. "That's what we try to do - deliver HIV information in a way that will click in with them, so that they'll take home something that they didn't know the night before."

"One thing is for sure, we can't just shake our finger at young people and say, 'You're bad,'" Chono-Helsley said. "We have to be supportive. They're young, we've all been there, remember. You can save some, but you can't save them all."

More information
There's more on HIV and AIDS at amfAR.

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