Health Highlights: June 24, 2007

Blood Sugar Levels in Pregnant Women Affect Baby's Health Risk, Study FindsDespite Free Treatment, Mental Problems Among College Students Continue to Rise, Survey SaysOregon Surgeon Performs Gall Bladder Removal Through the MouthProtein Predicts Pancreatic cancer Patients' Treatment OutcomeMany U.S. Men Have Had 15 or More Sex PartnersMexicans in U.S. Rural Areas Lack Good Medical Care

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

Blood Sugar Levels in Pregnant Women Affect Baby's Health Risk, Study Finds

New research has established a strong link between a pregnant woman's blood sugar level and health risks to her newborn.

This risk is evident whether or not the woman has gestational diabetes, the Associated Press reports. The risks to the baby include the possibility of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity as the child grows.

The study, described by Northwestern university scientists as the largest ever done on the subject, was presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association's scientific session in Chicago. The conclusion was a confirmation of earlier research: the higher the level of blood sugar a pregnant woman has, the greater the health risk to her baby.

The study was conducted in nine counties and involved more than 23,000 pregnant women, A.P. reports. Another finding indicated an association between Caesarian sections, big babies and high blood sugar levels in their mothers, the wire service says.

The study indicated that pregnant women should maintain strictly controlled diets and/or medication to reduce their blood sugar.

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Despite Free Treatment, Mental Problems Among College Students Continue to Rise, Survey Says

Results from a study of almost 3,000 students at the University of Michigan show that the incidence of mental illness on campus is rising, and one reason may be that many students aren't seeking the help they need.

An Internet-based survey conducted by Daniel Eisenberg, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and his colleagues, found that even thought most of the professional help available to students with anxiety or depression was free, more than half of the poll's respondees didn't seek treatment.

According to a university news release, the large number of those who answered negatively has prompted a wider, similar survey of between 12 and 15 colleges and universities in the fall.

While 72 percent of those with a positive screen for major depression acknowledged in the survey they needed help, more than half said they weren't getting it, Eisenberg's study found.

So, even though help is free, "We can't assume that reducing financial barriers is enough," Eisenberg said in the news release. Other factors may include socioeconomic background -- students who came from poor families were almost twice as likely not to seek help, the survey found.

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Oregon Surgeon Performs Gall Bladder Removal Through the Mouth

Recovery time from surgery to remove a gall bladder can be long and often painful. And over the years, surgeons have developed techniques to reduce the problem, using a laparoscope to make a much smaller incision.

But now, reports the Associated Press, comes ball bladder removal with no abdominal incision, because the organ is removed through the patient's mouth.

Using a technique he perfected in Brazil, Oregon surgeon Dr. Lee Swanstrom has performed at least three gall bladder removals in which the surgical instrument is sent into the stomach through the mouth, the wire service reports.

Swanstrom then cuts a small hole in the patient's stomach, locates the gall bladder and removes it through the mouth. The recovery time is much faster, the A.P. quotes Swanstrom as saying. And while the procedure is still in its experimental stage, he plans 22 more surgeries to measure outcomes.

Gall bladder surgery is the most common major surgery done in the United States each year, with an estimated 500,000 surgeries annually.

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Protein Predicts Pancreatic cancer Patients' Treatment Outcome

The blood protein known as CA 19-9 has long been used as an indicator of how far pancreatic cancer has progressed in a patient.

Now, researchers from Jefferson University Hospital's Kimmel Cancer Center have found that CA 19-9 also can be used to predict how well a pancreatic cancer patient will do after a variety of treatments, from surgery to radiation to chemotherapy.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most virulent of malignancies. The National Cancer Institute estimates there will be about 37,000 cases of cancer of the pancreas in 2007 and slightly more than 33,000 deaths. One of the difficulties in fighting pancreatic cancer, experts say, is how far it advances before any symptoms appear.

Based on research by a team led Dr. Adam Berger, M.D., an assistant professor of surgery at Jefferson Medical College, the lower the level of CA 19-9 in the blood of a pancreatic cancer patient, the longer the survival. Half of the 385 patients in the study with CA 19-9 levels higher than 180 U/ml lived for approximately nine months, while half of those whose levels were 180 or below lived more than twice as long, about 21 months, according to a university press release.

After following the patients for three years, the researchers found that about 30 percent of those with levels 180 or under were still alive, while virtually none of the patients with levels above 180 were. "We think that it is a very sensitive predictor of response to chemotherapy and radiation after surgery," Berger is quoted as saying in the news release.

The study's findings will be reported June 23 at the semi-annual meeting of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) in Philadelphia.

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Many U.S. Men Have Had 15 or More Sex Partners

A new U.S. government survey found that 29 percent of American men and nine percent of women reported they've had sex with at least 15 partners in their lifetime.

The average number of sexual partners was 6.8 for men and 3.7 for women, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Friday. It included 6,237 people, ages 20 to 59, who were asked about their sexual habits and drug use. The data was collected from 1999 to 2002, Bloomberg news reported.

Among the other survey findings:

  • Only four percent of adults ages 20 and older have never had sex.
  • About one in seven respondents (16 percent) said they first had sex before age 15.
  • More than one in five adults ages 20 to 49 have tried cocaine or other street drugs at some point in their life, and five percent said they had used such drugs within the previous year.

The findings about Americans' sexual habits suggest that the Bush administration's emphasis on promoting abstinence among unmarried people as a way of preventing sexually transmitted diseases is inadequate, said one expert.

"To rely on just one strategy for something is just bad; the more options you have, the more likely people are to use one of them," Bean Robinson, a psychologist and sexual behavior researcher at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis, told Bloomberg.

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Mexicans in U.S. Rural Areas Lack Good Medical Care

Working-age Mexicans in rural areas of the United States are about one-third less likely than rural whites to have a usual source of medical care, while Mexicans in urban areas are one-quarter less likely than whites to have a usual source of medical care, according to a study led by researchers from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The study authors noted that not having a usual source of medical care -- such as a regular doctor or community health clinics -- limits a person's access to primary care, which is the front line for preventing and managing health problems.

The analysis of 2002-2003 data also found that Mexicans living in U.S. cities were no more likely than those in rural areas to have visited a doctor at least once within the previous year -- even though medical care is more readily available in cities.

Urban-dwelling Mexicans were 21 percent less likely than rural whites and 26 percent less likely than urban whites to have seen a doctor within the previous year.

Few studies have examined whether living in rural areas worsens the health care access disparity between Hispanics and whites, even though U.S. census data shows that the Hispanic population in small towns and rural areas has more than doubled in recent decades, the study authors said.

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