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Health
Tips from Cougars
Child
Care
 Soft
Drinks Add to Childhood Obesity
The
sugary soft drinks so popular with children are contributing to
a growing population of obese youngsters and teenagers, researchers
warned on Friday.
Instead of drinking milk, water and natural fruit juices which are
healthier and more nutritious, children are consuming more sweetened
beverages and getting fatter.
Obesity in children in the United States doubled between 1980 and
1994. Other industrialized countries are also seeing an alarming
rise in the number of fat children.
The study found that for every additional serving per day of soft
drink consumed, the risk of becoming obese increased by about 50
percent.
This relation between soft drinks and obesity remained even after
taking into account the effects of physical activity levels and
other food consumed.
Because the drinks are so tasty and less filling than food, the
children do not feel full or realize how many calories they are
consuming.
The added weight they are gaining poses a real health risk because
childhood obesity leads to adult obesity and chronic health problems
such as heart disease and diabetes.
In a study published in medical journal The Lancet, Dr. Ludwig and
his colleagues reported the results of the first long-term study
into the impact of beverages like sugar-sweetened soda, fruit drinks,
sweetened ice tea, Kool-Aid and Hawaiian Punch on children's body
weight.
They studied 548 youngsters with an average age of about 11 from
schools in four communities in Massachusetts for two years.
The researchers monitored how many sweet drinks the children consumed
and changes in their body mass index, a standard method used to
measure body fat.
Ludwig and his colleagues found that adolescent boys were the biggest
consumers of soft drink. Each additional sweet drink consumed daily
equated to a 60 percent increase in body mass index and obesity
risk.
During the study, the researchers found 57 percent of the children
had increased their daily intake of soft drinks and more than half
of them by nearly a full serving each day.
Ludwig stressed that more studies will be needed to confirm the
results but he added: ``The study does suggest that public health
efforts aimed at limiting consumption of soft drinks in children
may help prevent and treat obesity.''
Sugary drinks are not the only cause of the alarming rise in childhood
obesity. Studies have shown that children are also less active and
eat diets higher in fat than previously.
Colds
in Babies 'Ward Off Asthma'
Babies with runny noses are less likely than other children
to get asthma as they grow older, a new study indicates. The findings
add weight to the growing body of evidence that colds and minor
infections brought about by a child's normal exposure to dirt can
prime the immune system to fight off allergies such as those which
can bring on an asthma attack.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Sabina Illi and colleagues
from the University children's hospital in Munich report how they
followed up a group of 1,314 children at regular intervals from
birth until they were seven years old.
The parents of the children were interviewed when their children
were one, three, six, 12 and 18 months, and then at yearly intervals.
When the child reached the age of seven, the parents were asked
whether he or she had ever had a diagnosis of asthma. Parents were
asked to keep a diary of any illness the child suffered.
The researchers found that the more infections the child had suffered
and fought off, the less likely he or she was to become asthmatic.
A child with two or more episodes of runny nose before the age of
one was at half the risk of having asthma diagnosed by the age of
seven than a child with one or fewer episodes.
But children who developed repeated lower respiratory tract infections
in their first three years were more likely than others to develop
asthma.
Study
Suggests Babies Fed on Infant Formula Grow Up with Higher Blood
Pressure
Babies fed on infant formula grow up to have higher blood pressure
than those given breast milk, new research suggests.
The findings, to be published Saturday in The Lancet medical journal,
come from the first experimental study of how early nutrition influences
blood pressure, a predictor of heart disease risk later in life.
Earlier studies have noticed that adults with high blood pressure
tended to have been fed on formula as babies. But none of those
studies took account of scores of other factors that raise blood
pressure, such as a bad diet in adulthood, stress and lack of exercise.
Experts say the results bolster the theory that an infant's diet
influences the risk of several diseases in adulthood. Breastfeeding
is also considered better for children's intelligence. The study
by scientists at the Institute of Child Health in London involved
pre-term babies, who are sometimes not strong enough to suck or
may need a more concentrated formula. That also eliminated the ethical
problem of experimenting with healthy full-term babies whose mothers
can easily breastfeed exclusively. "When you put this together
with the two observational studies linking formula to higher blood
in full-term babies, there's a strong possibility these results
would apply to healthy full-term babies,'' said one of the researchers,
Dr. Alan Lucas, a professor of pediatrics at the Institute of Child
Health. Nearly 20 years ago, the researchers randomly divided 216
pre-term babies into three groups: one received donated breast milk,
one received infant formula made for pre-term babies, and the third
received regular infant formula. Each diet, begun with 48 hours
of birth, was used as a sole food or as a supplement to mother's
milk, depending on what the mother wanted to do. The infants remained
in the study until they weighed enough to go home, usually after
one month. The children then returned about 16 years later to have
their blood pressure measured. There were two comparisons. One compared
breast milk with pre-term formula, the other compared pre-term formula
with full-term formula. ``Just one month of one diet rather than
another had a major impact,'' Lucas said. ``We created a situation
where the only difference between them was what they were fed in
the first month of life.'' The scientists found that the diastolic
blood pressure reading _ the lower number _ was 3.2 points lower
in the teens fed breast milk as infants than in those given pre-term
formula. The systolic reading _ the higher number _ was 2.7 points
lower. An elevation in either reading is bad. Within the milk-fed
group, babies on the highest proportion of formula to mother's milk
ended up with the highest blood pressure. There was no difference
in blood pressure between the groups fed pre-term formula and regular
formula, which contain different nutrients. The results were not
related to birth weight, the study said. ``These few millimeters
may look small, but it's a large effect,'' Lucas said. Major American
heart disease studies have found that if adults' diastolic blood
pressure was lowered by just 2 points, the prevalence of high blood
pressure would drop by 17 percent, the risk of heart disease would
fall by 6 percent and the risk of stroke and heart attacks would
drop by 15 percent, he noted. ``The most likely thing is there's
something in breast milk that protects,'' Lucas said. Identifying
the specific differences in the composition of human milk and commercial
formula that produced the difference in blood pressure is important
for making better infant formula, said Susan Roberts, an expert
at Tufts University's Human Nutrition Research Center in Boston,
who was not connected with the study. The study discounted any relation
between high blood pressure among teens and sodium and total fat
in the infant milk or formula, she noted.
Killer
Crayons
In a recent series of laboratory studies conducted for the newspaper,
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, three popular brands of coloring
crayons tested positive for asbestos. Of the 40 crayons tested from
brands that showed asbestos, 80 percent of them were above the detectable
trace level. These three brands are Crayola, Prang and Rose Art.
They were tested in two government-certified laboratories. "Asbestos"
is the name given to a group of minerals that occur naturally as
masses of strong, flexible fibers that can be separated into thin
threads and woven. These fibers are not affected by heat or chemicals
and do not conduct electricity. For these reasons, asbestos has
been widely used in many industries. Asbestos fiber masses tend
to break easily into dust composed of tiny particles that can float
in the air and stick to clothes. The fibers may be easily inhaled
or swallowed and can cause serious health problems.
Exposure to asbestos may increase the risk of several serious diseases:
>> Asbestosis—a chronic lung ailment that can produce shortness
of breath and permanent lung damage and increase the risk of dangerous
lung infections;
>> Lung cancer;
>> Mesothelioma—a relatively rare cancer of the thin membranes
that line the chest and abdomen; and
>> Other cancers, such as those of the larynx and of the gastrointestinal
tract
The report says the asbestos may be a contaminant of the talc, a
mineral used by many companies to strengthen coloring agents and
parafin, a waxy substance, used in crayons. Binney & Smith, the
company which makes Crayola brand crayons, said that it had not
found any asbestos in the talc and it would conduct its own tests
on whole crayons. Crayon manufacturers responded that safety is
their No. 1 priority and said they will review the manufacturing
process and materials used. According to the newspaper, Crayola,
the world's largest manufacturer, had asbestos levels in its crayons
ranging from 0.05 percent in Carnation Pink to 2.86 percent in Orchid.
Prang's levels ranged from 0.3 percent in Periwinkle to 0.54 percent
in a yellow crayon. And Rose Art showed 0.03 percent in a brown
crayon and 1.20 percent in an orange crayon, according to the newspaper.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says it is currently
discussing the problem with all crayon manufacturers to determine
how much asbestos is in the crayons and how much can be potentially
ingested by children. The newspaper tested a total of four domestic
crayon brands and four foreign brands. Another CPSC spokesman, Russ
Rader, said the CPSC would conduct its own tests of the crayons
in question. He added that while they are concerned, parents should
not panic. "If they want to take crayons away (from their children)
for the time just to be cautious, they should," Rader said. "But
there are a lot of unanswered questions. The facts are not in."
Instant
Noodles a Danger to Children’s Health
By Alternative Medicine Update
Instant noodles are so full of fat and salt they could damage children's
health, a report published Friday found. An average pot of noodles
contains as much fat as a serving of chips, a quarter of a pizza
or one and a half candy bars and as much salt as a young child needs
all day, the Australian Consumers' Association said in the report,
publishing in the South China Morning Post. The association tested
a variety of brands of instant noodles sold internationally and
found the average pot of noodles contained 1,700 milligrams of salt
- 75 per cent of the recommended maximum daily intake for adults
and 100 per cent of what a child aged 4 to 7 should consume.
Smoking
in Pregnancy Ups Kids' Asthma Risk (see
asthma)
Researchers
Identify Gene Related to Infant Lung Disease
A multi-center
team of researchers has discovered a possible genetic cause of infant
lung disease. They found that two patients who developed a potentially
fatal form of lung disease within the first months of life both
had a mutation of one of the genes responsible for producing pulmonary
surfactant, a material in the lungs that keeps them inflated. The
study is reported in the Feb. 22 issue of the New England Journal
of Medicine.
"These
fundamental investigations will allow us to develop more sophisticated
therapies for respiratory problems," says Aaron Hamvas, M.D., associate
professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis. "We now are one step closer to identifying another
type of genetic lung disease, but we still have a long way to go."
Hamvas,
who also serves on the staff of St. Louis Children’s Hospital, is
a collaborator in this study along with researchers at the University
of Cincinnati and Johns Hopkins University. The first author is
Lawrence M. Nogee, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
These
three institutions have investigated hundreds of cases of lung disease
from around the world in an effort to better understand the underlying
causes of the disease. Such was the case with the mother-daughter
pair described in this report. Both mother and daughter had no breathing
difficulties at birth but subsequently developed interstitial lung
disease. The exact number of chronic lung disorders in this disease
category still is unknown. Diagnosed as a toddler, the mother was
treated throughout her childhood and adolescence. She died of respiratory
failure shortly after the birth of her child. Her infant girl developed
lung disease at 6 weeks old. A family history revealed that the
baby’s maternal grandfather also died of life-long lung disease.
The tiny air sacs responsible for gas exchange in the lungs are
called alveoli. These are lined with a thin layer of fluid, called
surfactant, to prevent the walls of the alveoli from sticking together
and collapsing during exhalation. Without enough surfactant, the
lungs lose their elasticity and breathing becomes difficult. Researchers
found that tissue samples from both mother and baby lacked one component
of surfactant called surfactant protein C, or SP-C. DNA analysis
revealed that both had a mutation in the gene for this protein.
The gene was not mutated in DNA samples from 50 healthy patients.
The findings suggest that SP-C is important for normal lung function
after birth and that mutations in this gene may be associated with
interstitial lung disease. In 1993, researchers at Washington University
School of Medicine discovered a lethal genetic lung disease in newborns
characterized by a lack of another component of surfactant, SP-B.
Newborns with this disease now survive with the help of a lung transplant.
"The identification of the SP-B deficiency has opened a new area
of investigation for newborn lung disease and suggests that there
are genetic causes of respiratory distress in newborns," Hamvas
says. "This has led physicians and scientists around the country
to be much more aggressive in trying to diagnose and understand
these breathing disorders." The current SP-C research holds similar
promise for lung disease that develops in infants or older children.
DNA analysis of the mother and daughter pair also revealed that
the genetic mutation is a dominant trait, found on only one gene.
This means a child may have symptoms even if only one parent has
the mutation. Most other lung diseases, including SP-B deficiency,
result from recessive traits, where patients must inherit the same
mutation from both parents in order for the disease to appear. The
identification of SP-C gene mutations as a possible cause of interstitial
lung disease may provide for more accurate classification of the
many conditions within this disease category. It also may lead to
improved diagnostic techniques – such as a blood test, rather than
invasive procedures like lung biopsy – and better treatments, such
as gene therapy. Nogee LM, Dunbar AE, Wert SE, Askin F, Hamvas A,
Whitsett JA. A mutation in the surfactant protein C (SP-C) gene
associated with familial interstitial lung disease. New England
Journal of Medicine, Feb. 22, 2001. The research was supported by
grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Eudowood Foundation.
The full-time and volunteer faculty of Washington University School
of Medicine are the physicians and surgeons of Barnes-Jewish and
St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of
the leading medical research, teaching and patient-care institutions
in the nation. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St.
Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to
BJC HealthCare.
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Cholesterol
Snack
Attack
Feel
guilty when you sneak a snack? Don't ! --Between-meal munching actually
may be good for you. A University of Toronto study found that people
who ate the equivalent of three meals divided into five or six mini-meals
and snacks throughout the day had significantly lower blood cholesterol
levels and a lower heart disease risk than people who ate the same
amount of food in three sittings. Snack selection counts, of course,
so skip the chips and candy bars, and opt for the healthy stuff,
such as fruit and other complex carbs, and lean protein. Eating
a diverse diet that is low in calories and high in nutrition can
make you much younger.
Study
Shows Reduced Fat Intake to Lower Cholesterol is Safe and Beneficial
for Children
Children with high blood cholesterol levels can benefit from reducing
the amount of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol in their diets
without adversely affecting their normal development during puberty,
according to new results from a long-term study funded by the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The study appears in the
February issue of the journal Pediatrics. In the Dietary Intervention
Study in Children (DISC), children who adopted a recommended low-fat,
low-cholesterol diet decreased their intake of total fat, saturated
fat, and cholesterol within the first year of the study and maintained
lower levels for several more years. These dietary modifications
did not alter the children's growth, nutritional status, or sexual
maturation throughout the seven-year study. Furthermore, the diet
helped the children significantly decrease their blood levels of
low-density lipoprotein (LDL) - the "bad" cholesterol - for up to
three years. "This is the first study of this size to examine the
long-term effects of reduced dietary saturated fat and cholesterol
intake among children," said Dr. Claude Lenfant, NHLBI director.
"DISC confirms that dietary changes in children with high levels
of LDL cholesterol may thwart the development of atherosclerosis
without adverse effects." During the past decade, scientists have
found increasing evidence that atherosclerosis begins in childhood
and that children and adolescents with high cholesterol levels are
more likely than those with normal or low levels to have high cholesterol
levels as adults. In a 1991 report, the National Cholesterol Education
Program's (NCEP) Expert Panel on Blood Cholesterol Levels in Children
and Adolescents recommended cholesterol screening for children and
adolescents with a family history of early heart disease or with
a parent who has high blood cholesterol. Children and adolescents
from such high-risk families who are found to have elevated blood
cholesterol levels are advised to follow a diet low in saturated
fat and cholesterol. In addition, the panel suggested population-wide
approaches to lower the average blood cholesterol of all American
children and adolescents by reducing their consumption of saturated
fat, total fat, and cholesterol. But some scientists have questioned
whether reducing fat in children's diets might cause problems such
as growth retardation, nutritional inadequacy, and adverse psychological
effects among pre-pubertal children. "DISC addresses these concerns,"
added Dr. Eva Obarzanek, NHLBI project director. "Because this study
examines children through several years during key stages of development,
we can measure the effects of dietary modifications in the context
of physiological changes during puberty." DISC was conducted at
six medical centers and involved more than 650 children who began
the study at ages 8 through 10. Eligible participants had levels
of LDL cholesterol that were considered borderline to high (111.5
mg/dL or higher for boys and 117.5 mg/dL or higher for girls). Children
were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the "usual
care" group. Those in the intervention group participated in periodic
sessions with nutrition counselors to help them follow a regimen
similar to the NCEP's therapeutic Step Two Diet to lower LDL blood
cholesterol levels: 28% of calories from total fat, less than 8%
from saturated fat, up to 9% from polyunsaturated fat, and fewer
than 150 mg of cholesterol per day. Participants in the usual care
group received information on general dietary recommendations but
did not attend any intervention sessions. Researchers observed no
significant differences in height, weight, sexual maturation, or
levels of serum ferritin (iron) between the intervention group and
the usual care group. In addition, participants in both groups consumed
comparable quantities of key vitamins (A, C and B-6), calcium, and
zinc. Blood tests to measure total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol
levels were performed after one, three, five, and seven years. Throughout
the study, blood cholesterol levels in the intervention group were
lower than those in the usual care group, with significant differences
between the groups found at one year and three years. At three years,
LDL cholesterol levels of DISC participants in the intervention
group were on average 2.5 percent (3.3 mg/dL) lower than the levels
of those in the usual care group. (Findings from the study's first
three years were published in the May 10, 1995, issue of the Journal
of the American Medical Association.) The differences between the
intervention and usual care groups in total blood cholesterol and
LDL cholesterol levels narrowed over time, however, and they were
no longer statistically significant at five years and seven years.
One contributing factor to this narrowing of differences was “a
gradual improvement in dietary habits in the usual care group, which
helped to lower their blood cholesterol levels,” according to Dr.
Obarzanek. At about five years from the start of the study, participants
in the usual care group began consuming dietary cholesterol in amounts
similar to those reported by the intervention group, making the
differences in dietary cholesterol intake between the groups no
longer significant by the end of the study (year 7). The amount
of saturated fat and total fat intake among participants in the
usual care group also began approximating that of the intervention
group at about the fifth year, although the differences in dietary
fat consumption between the two groups remained significant throughout
the study. At the seven-year assessment, the percent of saturated
fat intake dropped on average from 12.5% to 10.2% of calories in
the intervention group, and from 12.7% to 11.3% of calories in the
usual care group. In addition, total fat intake in the intervention
group dropped on average from 33.4% to 28.5% of calories; in the
usual care group, total fat dropped from 34.0% to 30.6% of calories.
Scientists and nutrition experts view the improved dietary habits
of the children in this study as encouraging - and reflective of
positive trends in the general public. Population surveys performed
by the National Center for Health Statistics over the past few decades,
for example, have shown that adolescents are consuming less total
fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. "The results of these surveys
- coupled with the new DISC findings - indicate that pediatricians,
parents, and children are getting the message that it is important
to start early to follow a low saturated-fat and low-cholesterol
diet," Dr. Lenfant added. Another factor that may have contributed
to the narrowing of the differences in blood cholesterol levels
between the two groups is lower adherence to the dietary recommendations
by intervention group participants in the later years of the study,
when they attended fewer intervention sessions. When investigators
analyzed the blood cholesterol levels among only those participants
who were most actively engaged in the study (those who attended
all clinic visits), they found that the intervention group had significantly
lower blood levels of LDL-cholesterol than the usual care group
for as long as five years.
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Dyslexia
Georgetown
Researchers to Present Evidence of Biological Cause of Dyslexia
Addressing a long-standing controversy concerning the causes of
reading disability, a series of research studies done by a team
at the Georgetown Center for the Study of Learning indicate that
the areas of the brain used for reading are the same areas used
for other visual tasks, and that these areas may not work properly
in the brains of people with dyslexia. However, the researchers
also found that an intensive, phonologically based reading intervention
program could not only improve reading skills in dyslexics, but
could also effect changes in brain activity that can be measured
using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. "These
study results are further evidence that dyslexia has biological
roots," said Guinevere Eden, DPhil, co-director of the Georgetown
Center for the Study of Learning. "The results are significant because
they could one day lead to the creation of an early diagnostic test
for dyslexia that might allow us to identify the condition in children
even before reading difficulties are present, and thereby intervene
early to treat the disorder." In their first study, Eden and Thomas
Zeffiro, M.D., Ph.D., also a co-director of the Center, used fMRI
technology to scan the brains of 37 participants-20 with dyslexia
and 17 without the disorder-and found that each participant used
similar brain areas for reading as he or she did for processing
visual motion (identifying the direction of moving dots on a screen).
They also found, however, that the dyslexic group activated these
brain areas less strongly than the control group did while performing
both these two tasks (reading and visual motion detection). It appears
that dyslexic participants-who, by definition, have difficulties
reading-also experience difficulties in processing visual motion,
and that the areas of the brain used by non-dyslexics to perform
these two tasks may be damaged or not working in dyslexics. "Unfortunately,
today we are able to diagnose dyslexia only after children have
shown difficulty in learning to read, usually around the time they're
in second or third grade," said Thomas Zeffiro, M.D., Ph.D., also
co-director of the Center. "But, if we know that the same areas
of the brain used for reading are also used to perform other types
of visual tasks, then we can test children before they reach reading
age to determine whether those areas work properly. A biological
marker of this type might give us the chance to intervene before
reading failure has occurred." Zeffiro and Eden both stressed that
identification of a presymptomatic biological marker for dyslexia
is not that far along yet, and that any diagnostic test that might
be developed would not be available until further, larger-scale
studies had been completed. In another study, Eden and Zeffiro-working
with Frank Wood, Ph.D., and Lynn Flowers, Ph.D., of Wake Forest
University Medical Center at Bowman Gray in North Carolina-found
that a reading intervention program could produce measurable improvements
in reading skills and related changes in neural activity that are
observable using fMRI. In this study, Eden, Zeffiro and their colleagues
studied 20 adults with a lifelong history of dyslexia. They divided
the adults into two groups of 10 and conducted baseline brain scans
on both groups. One group then participated in an intensive eight-week
interventional program designed to improve reading skills, while
the other group received no intervention at all. At the end of the
eight-week period, brain scans showed that the group that had taken
part in the reading program showed measurable improvements in reading
and related changes in neural activity. The brain scans of the control
group showed no differences. "It was quite exciting to be able to
see such clear confirmation of our hypothesis in the fMRI scans,"
Eden said. "This is a great step towards better understanding the
neural mechanisms involved in reading and learning." Zeffiro and
Eden and their colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, Wake
Forest University School of Medicine-Bowman Gray, and Harvard Medical
School, will present these findings at the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on February
16 in San Francisco, Calif. Georgetown University Medical Center
is one of the nation's preeminent institutions of medical research
and education. It includes a biomedical research enterprise as well
as the nationally ranked School of Medicine, and the School of Nursing
and Health Studies. The federally funded Georgetown Center for the
Study of Learning seeks to better understand the neural mechanisms
that enable the acquisition of reading skills, and to identify new
approaches to assess and treat reading disabilities.
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Fainting
Scientists
Crack Fainting Secret
Scientists
have identified the cause of a fainting syndrome that affects young
women. People who have the syndrome experience repeated dizzy spells,
elevated heartbeat or fainting after standing up from a lying position.
Known as Neuropathic Postural Tachycardial Syndrome (NPTS), it affects
thousands of women between 20 and 45. A joint team from the Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology in Haifa and Vanderbilt University, Tennessee,
found that NPTS can be caused in part by genetic mutations or by
disease that can occur after surgery, pregnancy, or an inflammatory
illness.
NPTS symptoms:
>>A remarkable increase in heart rate after standing from
a prone position
>>Low or normal blood pressure
>>Dizziness and blurred vision
>>Fainting spells
>>Chest pains and shortness of breath
>>Chronic fatigue, anxiety and irritability
>>In both instances this appears to lead to problems in controlling
blood flow in the legs
Scientists have been trying to pin down the causes of NPTS for decades.
It has been mistaken for low blood sugar, anxiety, anaemia, or even
chronic fatigue syndrome. The US researchers think the problem is
caused by blood accumulating in the legs when a person stands. Blood
vessel contraction, which depends on the vascular nerves, is supposed
to keep blood pressure at the same level as it was when the person
was lying down. But in NPTS patients, vascular nerves are damaged
and contraction is ineffective, causing blood to pool in the legs
and reducing the amount of blood to the heart. This produces an
effect similar to dehydration or hemorrhaging, in which the heart
rate initially increases to compensate for low blood pressure. If
reduced blood return persists, blood pressure can fall and the patient
can faint.
Ways to minimize risk:
>> Eat foods high in salt and water Wear socks or stockings
that apply pressure to the legs
>> Walk and swim at a gradually increasing rate to build limb
muscles, which provide structural support for veins
The researchers found that inadequate amounts of norepinephrine,
the chemical responsible for blood vessel contraction, are released
in the arms and legs of NPTS patients, even while resting. NPTS
can be treating by prescribing beta-blockers, drugs commonly used
to treat hypertension or arrhythmia that decrease the force and
rate of heart contractions. Professor Julian Stewart, of New York
Medical College, said the finding represented a significant breakthrough.
He said: "Prior to this study, many people felt this wasn't an illness
of any sort, just a group of neurotic people feeling dizzy. "Finding
a consistent abnormality in blood flow control is very important
to treating people with NPTS."
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