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World Trade Center rescue workers can add another illness to the list of health problems that may have resulted from exposure to Ground Zero toxins and the ensuing mental anguish of the tragedy — gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

A new study shows that 41 percent of World Trade Center responders have GERD, twice that of the general population. GERD is a condition in which the lower esophageal sphincter doesn’t function properly, allowing the stomach’s contents to rise up into the esophagus, causing a burning sensation in the chest or throat.

The likelihood of having GERD was linked to mental health disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. The more extensive the mental health issues, the more likely patients were to have GERD.

About 47 percent of those diagnosed with one mental health disorder also had GERD. About 64 percent of those who had two mental health disorders had GERD, while the rates of GERD rose to 70 percent and 72 percent for those who had three or four mental health disorders, respectively.

“These patients were exposed to a very complex trauma — both psychological and physical,” explained senior study author Dr. Benjamin Luft, a professor of medicine at State University of New York at Stony Brook and director of the Long Island World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program. “Unless you treat both of these things at the same time, they tend to exacerbate one another. It’s the close interaction between mind and the body. The physical may impact you psychologically, and the psychological may impact you physically.”

The study was scheduled to be presented Monday at the American College of Gastroenterology’s annual meeting in San Diego.

Previous research has found that people with mental health issues tend to have more reflux disease or other gastrointestinal disturbances, said Dr. David A. Johnson, past president of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Research has shown that people who are stressed are more sensitive to discomfort of gastric acid in the esophagus. Studies in animals have shown that over time, stress can weaken the ability of the esophagus to withstand acid reflux. Other research has shown that people who don’t sleep well are more bothered by acid reflux. The lack of sleep lowers the “sensory threshold” for pain.

“The study offers a very interesting and potentially very meaningful observation,” Johnson said. “We do know that stress does have a relationship to GERD.”

Researchers looked at records of 697 World Trade Center rescue, recovery and clean-up workers who were examined in 2005 and 2007 as part of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment program, which follows and treats several thousand Ground Zero workers, many of whom have suffered persistent mental health and respiratory ailments.

“It’s not as readily apparent as to why they would have a gastrointestinal problem,” Luft said. “Though as a result of being there, when you are exposed to a tremendous amount of dust, a lot of what goes into your mouth, nose and lungs is also swallowed and can enter the gastrointestinal tract as well.”

One explanation for some of the respiratory ailments is that the dust at Ground Zero was extremely alkaline, or acidic, and may have damaged the lining of the mucosal membranes. Something similar could have happened to the membranes of the gastrointestinal tract, Luft said.

The study also found that smoking and obesity, known risk factors for GERD, did not increase the risk of GERD, while spending a lot of time at Ground Zero did.

In a second study to be presented at the meeting, researchers found that active-duty military who were exposed to infectious gastroenteritis were more likely to have “functional gastrointestinal disorders,” including diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, functional constipation and dyspepsia (indigestion).

Infectious gastroenteritis is caused by viruses, bacteria or parasites.

Researchers used electronic medical records from the Defense Medical Surveillance System to identify 31,866 cases of gastrointestinal disease among active-duty personnel between 1999 and 2007. For some, the gastrointestinal disturbances were long-lasting. About 29 percent of active duty personnel were still being treated for gastrointestinal disorders two years after diagnosis.

New research suggests that sperm, not just semen, can transmit the virus that causes AIDS to immune cells in the body and, in fact, sperm may play a major role in transmission.

Scientists already know that men infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can spread the disease through their semen, the fluid that carries sperm. But it hasn’t been clear what role sperm itself plays, especially considering that men who don’t produce sperm, such as those who have had vasectomies, can transmit the virus.

In a new study, published in the Oct. 26 online edition and the Nov. 23 print issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, researchers found that the virus attaches to the surface of sperm and can be transmitted to immune cells.

Immune cells known as dendritic cells appear to be vulnerable, the study authors explained. The researchers, led by Ana Ceballos of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, think the virus gets to these cells by passing through tiny abrasions in the vagina or anus or perhaps through another method.

The researchers said that a slightly acid environment, which they likened to that in the vagina after sexual intercourse, boosts the likelihood of infection of these cells.

If you’re one of those parents who likes to let their kids run themselves ragged so they fall asleep more easily, you may be onto something: the more activity kids get, the faster they’ll drop off to sleep, according to a new study.

The study, in 591 seven-year-olds, also found that kids who spent more time in sedentary activities took longer to actually fall asleep after they went to bed.

Up to one in six parents of school-aged children report that their child has difficulty falling asleep, Dr. Ed A. Mitchell of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health by email. The study’s findings, he said, emphasize that physical activity isn’t only important for fitness, heart health, and weight control, but also for good sleep.

Mitchell and his team had children wear an activity-measuring device around their waists for 24 hours. They report their findings in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

Most children took about 26 minutes to fall asleep after bedtime, they found. The more activity a child did, the less time it took him to fall asleep.

“We showed that one hour of vigorous activity (equivalent to running) reduced the time to fall asleep by almost 6 minutes,” Mitchell said.

“However, the average amount of vigorous activity was only 43 minutes,” Mitchell said. Also, he added, the children tended to be active in short bursts. “Their activity might better be described as stop-go rather than continuous as an adult might do when they exercise.”

And for every hour a child spent each day being sedentary, it took them 3 minutes longer to get to sleep.

The researchers also found that children who took less time to get to sleep stayed asleep for longer, and vice versa.

“Fortunately, difficulty getting to sleep wasn’t associated with other health problems,” Mitchell said, although getting less sleep has been linked to obesity.

Hormone replacement therapy once seemed like a wonderful means to help women age gracefully. By dosing menopausal women with estrogen and progesterone as their bodies began to produce decreased amounts of those hormones, doctors believed they could help fend off heart disease, osteoporosis and cancer.

But those beliefs collapsed in 2002, when researchers pulled the plug three years early on the Women’s Health Initiative, a large-scale, federally funded study of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). They had found that the therapy produced an increased risk of breast cancer, heart attack, stroke and blood clots. HRT has been pretty much taboo ever since.

Or has it?

Several studies released in the past year have revealed ways in which HRT might still be beneficial. Under certain conditions and with the right timing, they found, some women could be helped by the therapy.

Despite these findings, experts with the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association say there’s scant chance there will be any revision on the position on HRT in the United States anytime in the near future.

“In an effort to decrease hot flashes, it’s hard to tell someone to take the breast cancer risk and the heart and stroke risk shown in other studies,” said Dr. Vincent Bufalino, a spokesman for the American Heart Association and president and chief executive of Midwest Heart Specialists, in Naperville, Ill. “If you can put up with the menopausal symptoms, you’re better off doing that than taking the risks related to hormone replacement therapy.”

Research that has shown the more positive side of HRT has included:
A report on a Mayo Clinic study that found a lower rate of colorectal cancer among older women taking HRT.
A report by American Cancer Society epidemiologists that found that women could use an estrogen-progesterone combination for less than two years with no increased risk of breast cancer. It also found that cancer risk increased dramatically after three or more years of hormone therapy and that increased risk disappeared two years after stopping HRT.
A Danish study that found an increased risk of heart attack in women 51 to 54 years old who took hormone replacement therapy, especially those who’d taken it for a long time. But it found no correlation between hormone therapy and elevated heart attack risk in older women.
A Canadian study that found women who have a genetic predisposition to breast cancer actually reduced their breast cancer risk after taking HRT.

The American and Danish studies also found that HRT involving just estrogen was far safer than HRT that included a combination of estrogen and progesterone.

Based on research like this, Canadian doctors are revising their guidelines on hormone replacement therapy.

But Bufalino and Susan M. Gapstur, vice president of epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, said that the studies do not provide enough evidence to sway current medical thinking in the United States.

“I would not say the philosophy is changing,” Gapstur said. “The critical question becomes, there’s this balance between the long-term risk of chronic diseases versus immediate concerns of hot flashes and quality of life around the postmenopausal period.”

Short-term use of hormone replacement therapy might be helpful in alleviating menopause symptoms, she said, but more study is needed to fully assess the impact of that therapy — particularly because the younger women who might benefit most from such therapy appear to be most at risk.

“What we thought we knew about hormone replacement therapy and cardiovascular disease might not be true for older women, but I think there are still a lot of questions about the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy for younger women,” Gapstur said. “That’s where we need to focus our attention.”

Bufalino agrees, arguing there’s little point in pushing such therapy when there’s so much downside and so little benefit.

“There are some small subgroups inside the groups that show some statistical benefit, but I think we would all be cautious at this time based on this report,” Bufalino said of the American Cancer Society research. “If you just look at it on the surface, it’s not clearly definitive.”

And perhaps adding fuel to the fire of doubts, reports emerged Aug. 5 that a pharmaceutical company that makes HRT had paid a medical communications firm to help produce 26 studies supporting its use. Those studies were published in 18 medical journals between 1998 and 2005, according to a report first published by the New York Times.

The drug maker, Wyeth, contends that the studies were scientifically accurate. None of the papers disclosed Wyeth’s role in initiating and funding the work.

Dr Michael Craig of the Institute of Psychiatry at London’s King’s College Hospital, and may have profound implications for doctors, researchers and the criminal justice system.

“These were particular serious offenders with psychopathy and without any other mental illnesses,” he told Reuters in an interview.

“Essentially what we found is that the connections in the psychopaths were not as good as the connections in the non-psychopaths. I would describe them as roads between the two areas — and we found that in the psychopaths, the roads had potholes and weren’t very well maintained.”

TIMING IS KEY

The scientists cautioned against suggestions the study could lead to screening of potential psychopathic criminals before they are able to commit crimes, saying their findings had not established how, when or why the brain links were damaged.

“The most exciting question now…is when do the potholes come — are people born with them, do they develop early in life, or are they a consequence of something else?”

Psychopathic extremes have been portrayed in Hollywood blockbusters by characters like the serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter. Psychopaths often violate social norms, are manipulative, impulsive and sensation-seeking, and appear to feel no empathy or remorse.

Craig, who conducted the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry with colleagues Declan Murphy and Dr Marco Catani, stressed that the numbers in brain scan study were small, with only nine psychopaths analyzed and compared with nine non-psychopaths.

“Trying to get people of this particular type to take part in a study, and also then deal with all the security you need to get them into a brain scanner, is not an easy feat,” he said.

The study used a new brain imaging technology to further analyze psychopaths’ brains after previous studies found that the amygdala part of the brain, which processes emotions, and orbitofrontal cortex, which handles impulses and decisions, are structurally and functionally different in psychopaths.

“Up until recently the technology hasn’t been available to look at the connections between those two brain areas in any meaningful way,” Craig said.

But a new technique, called diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI), allowed the researchers to look at the white matter tract linking the two key brain areas.

As well as finding clear structural deficits in the tract in psychopathic brains, they also found the degree of abnormality was significantly linked to the degree of psychopathy.

“As for the moral significance for society, and how society wants to deal with these things, that is a little premature,” said Craig. “This is a small study and the important thing it raises is that more research needs to be done.”

Salmonellosis is caused by eating foods contaminated with salmonella bacteria. Symptoms usually include severe diarrhea and abdominal cramps.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers this additional information about salmonellosis:
Salmonellosis can come from many foods, including vegetables. But salmonella contamination is most common in animal products such as eggs, milk, poultry and beef.
Salmonella can also contaminate pet feces, and can be transmitted to people who don’t wash their hands after handling pets or pet feces.
Cooking food thoroughly usually prevents salmonellosis.
Don’t allow uncooked meat to come in contact with other foods that already may be cooked.
Wash hands and utensils frequently before, during and after preparing food.

We have all heard about the normal Levitra tablets available for men with ED but what about a new type of orodispersible tablets that work faster? This article is going to give you some insight on whats to come.

The very popular erectile dysfunction medication Levitra might be sold in a different form, as an orodispersible tablet which could be much more effective and faster acting than the usual Levitra tablet. Bayer, the makers of Levitra just recently announced this new release and submitted documentation to be able to market and sell the new orodispersible tablets which will have 10mg of its popular Vardenafil ingredient. But what is the difference and will this new Levitra be any better than the one available now? Let’s take a closer look and answer some questions men might have about it:

So why is this new Levitra better?
The orodispersible tablets work in a much different way and have a few more advantages that set it apart from the normal 10mg Levitra tablet. The best part about them is you do not need a glass of water or 30 minutes of time to take them. They can be taken without water and dissolve within seconds, which for men with limited time is very beneficial.

Will it work faster than regular Levitra?
Many men prefer this type of tablet especially when it comes to taking erectile dysfunction medication such as Levitra. The reason for this is simple, time is of the essence and men do not always have a glass of water with them or do not know exactly when that moment is going to happen. If taking a normal Levitra tablet, you would have to wait at least 30 minutes for them to work depending on several factors of course. With these new orodispersible tablets Bayer is releasing for its top seller Levitra, things will work much faster and you do not have to wait 30 minutes.

Advantage during foreplay
This new Levitra tablet is a different approach towards the market; it works faster and is easier to take, this is a huge advantage if men are engaged in foreplay and have a short window of time. During foreplay you can’t just get up, go to the kitchen and grab a glass of water to take your Levitra tablet. The orodispersible tablets can be taken during foreplay and work much faster so when that window closes and you need to perform you will be ready.

How does it compare to the others?
Bayer has tested this new orodispersible tablet and according to their studies they have the same results as a regular Levitra 10mg tablet. This is a very big jump once it gets approved by the proper medical authorities. Viagra is the most popular erectile dysfunction medication in the world and was the first to be introduced to men. Cialis has the advantage of lasting 36 hours and has been called the weekend pill but now Levitra has come to the table offering a faster solution that does not need a glass of water or a 30 minute window. Although clinical trials have proven that all 3 main erectile dysfunction medications are equally beneficial in treating impotence, many men have preferred Levitra of Viagra.

Higher testosterone levels may make some women more likely to choose high-risk financial careers, a U.S. study suggests.

“In general, women are more risk-averse than men when it comes to making important financial decisions, which in turn can affect their career choices,” Paola Sapienza, an associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, said in a news release. “For example, in our sample set, 36 percent of female MBA students chose high-risk financial careers such as investment banking or trading, compared to 57 percent of male students. We wanted to explore whether these gender differences are related to testosterone, which men have, on average, in higher concentrations than women.”

For this study, Sapienza and colleagues measured testosterone levels in saliva samples collected from about 500 MBA students at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. The students also took part in an experiment to determine the link between testosterone levels and risk aversion.

Higher levels of testosterone were associated with a greater taste for risk in women, but not in men. But in women and men with similar levels of testosterone, there was no gender difference in risk aversion.

The researchers also found that the link between risk aversion and testosterone predicted post-graduation career choices. Those with high levels of testosterone and low risk aversion were more likely to go into high-risk financial careers.

“This is the first study showing that gender differences in financial risk aversion have a biological basis, and that differences in testosterone levels between individuals can affect important aspects of economic behavior and career decisions,” study co-author Dario Maestripieri, a professor in comparative human development at the University of Chicago, said in the news release. “That the effects of testosterone on risk aversion are strongest for individuals with low or intermediate levels of this hormone is similar to what has been shown for the effects of testosterone on spatial cognition.”

Medics and doctors are used to participating in a flurry of activity when trying to save a person who’s had a cardiac arrest — inserting IVs, placing a breathing tube, performing defibrillation to restart the heart.

But studies now show that none of those advanced techniques saves lives as well as ordinary cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. And what’s more, those studies have also found that a truncated version of CPR that tosses out mouth-to-mouth in favor of simple and sustained chest compressions increases survival rates dramatically.

“It’s been shown to work, while these other things have not been shown to improve survival,” said Dr. Alex Garza, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. “They were just things we thought would be good.”

“The important thing now is to step back, do chest compressions and proceed methodically,” he said.

Both the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association have endorsed chest compressions as an acceptable alternative for people who witness a cardiac arrest but aren’t trained in CPR.

By simplifying the process, they hope to get more bystanders to step in and perform chest compressions on the ailing person until help arrives. The American Heart Association estimates that fewer than a third of those who suffer cardiac arrest in a public place receive any form of CPR.

Bystanders simply are “worried about making an error, and they forget a lot of the steps,” said Dr. Marc Eckstein, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and medical director of the Los Angeles Fire Department. “Mouth-to-mouth is complex, and many people are reluctant to perform it. Performing compression only, the results are comparable to full CPR — and you can teach someone to do it in a matter of minutes.”

The compressions need to be applied in the center of the chest at a rate of about 100 a minute — ironically, about the same rhythm as the Bee Gees’ song “Stayin’ Alive.” One study has found that performing chest compressions while listening to that song improved the CPR technique of physicians and medical students.

“Laypersons with no formal training in CPR, when they’re presented with someone in cardiac arrest, can do a pretty decent job with chest compressions,” Garza said.

Garza and Eckstein go further than the American Red Cross or the American Heart Association, however, saying that even trained rescuers should focus on uninterrupted chest compressions rather than trying to juggle compressions with mouth-to-mouth or other treatments.

It takes many repeated chest compressions to increase pressure enough to begin driving blood into heart tissue, Garza said. “By the time you got to your 15th chest compression, you’d just gotten to where you were doing some good, and then you’d stop to perform mouth-to-mouth, and it went back to zero,” he said.

Both doctors have studied what happens when paramedics change their cardiac protocols to focus more on chest compressions, Garza in Kansas City and Eckstein in Los Angeles. They both found that survival rates improved when paramedics delayed intubating patients, administering medications or performing defibrillation in favor of consistent compressions.

Chest compression CPR is more valuable than defibrillation because rescuers often arrive too late for effective defibrillation, which needs to occur within five minutes of cardiac arrest, Garza said.

“The problem is, most paramedics don’t arrive in the first five minutes,” he said. By the time rescuers arrive, the body’s tissues are starved for oxygen and the heart cells are depleted of energy. “If you attempt a defibrillation at that time, it’s less likely to be successful,” Garza said. “They’re more likely to flat-line.”

Airports and casinos boast excellent heart attack survival rates “because there’s always a defibrillator within a five-minute walk,” Garza said. Security guards are trained in the use of defibrillators, and both types of facilities have excellent closed-circuit monitoring.

If defibrillation isn’t available, it’s best for bystanders to start providing chest compressions, the experts say. That way, the stores of oxygen still in the blood will continue to circulate and feed the body’s tissues, keeping the person’s body and brain alive.

“When the heart stops, it’s not a problem of not having oxygen in the blood,” Eckstein said. “It’s a pump problem. You have to circulate that oxygen.”

There are a number of ways that parents of children with asthma can prepare for flu season and the new school year, says the American Lung Association.

“Good hygiene is the best and first line of defense against any type of cold or flu. This includes frequent handwashing and covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing,” Dr. Norman H. Edelman, the association’s chief medical officer, said in an association news release.

The lung association also strongly recommends that all children, especially those with asthma, get a flu shot. But only one-third of children with asthma get a seasonal flu vaccination, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Vaccination against seasonal influenza needs to be a higher priority in this country. Influenza is a serious disease with deadly consequences. Parents need to know that the best way to protect their kids against seasonal influenza is to ensure their child is vaccinated each and every year,” Edelman said.

The potential severity of the H1N1 swine flu this fall is uncertain, and parents of children with asthma should watch for advice from public health officials and organizations like the CDC, the news release noted.

“If a child has a fever or other flu-like symptoms, they should stay home. Children should not return to school for at least 24 hours after their fever or signs of fever are no longer present,” Edelman said.

In preparation for the new school year, parents of children with asthma should complete the following check list:

-Contact your child’s doctor to schedule an asthma check-up appointment.
-Get shots. Parents and children should be vaccinated against seasonal flu.
-Make sure your child has a written asthma action plan that details the symptoms, medications, physical limitations, and instructions on what to do if prescribed medications don’t improve an asthma attack.
-Know the asthma emergency plan at your child’s school and find out about the school’s history of dealing with asthma episodes. Find out if the school allows students to carry and independently use their asthma medication.