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Women who take low-dose aspirin to protect their heart might be helping their eyes as well.

A new study by Harvard University researchers found what they described as a modest benefit for aspirin in preventing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye disease that destroys sharp, central vision.

“The data indicate that long-term treatment with low-dose aspirin has no large beneficial or harmful effect on risk of AMD,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. William G. Christen, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“But, the data could not rule out a possible modest benefit,” he said.

Researchers have been looking at aspirin to see if it helps or hurts the eyes. Some believe its blood-thinning quality would be helpful in letting more blood reach the capillaries in the eyes. But others have proposed that, in a common form of AMD called wet AMD, in which blood leaks in the back of the eye and results in rapid vision loss, aspirin might increase the risk of bleeding.

For the study, reported in the December issue of Ophthalmology, Christen’s group collected data on 39,421 women who took part in the Women’s Health Study, which originally focused on heart disease and cancer. None of the women had AMD. They were randomly assigned to take either low-dose aspirin or a placebo.

During the next 10 years, 111 women who took aspirin developed AMD, compared with 134 women who took the placebo. That equates to an 18 percent lower risk for AMD among those who took aspirin, “but the rate difference was not statistically significant,” Christen said.

Dr. Stephen G. Schwartz, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, said there have been similar results with aspirin in other eye diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy.

“This also fits in with common clinical experience,” he said.

However, Schwartz said he did not think that people should be taking aspirin to try to prevent AMD. The fact that aspirin had little or no effect on AMD is good news, he said.

“If you need to be on aspirin, you should take it and not worry about AMD,” he said. “If you don’t need to be on aspirin, you probably shouldn’t take it.”

Another report in Ophthalmology found that common cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins do not stop advanced AMD.

The study’s lead researcher, Maureen G. Maguire, from the department of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a prepared statement that the data “did not support a large effect for statins in decreasing advanced AMD risk in patients who already had large drusen in both eyes.”

Drusen are whitish deposits, commonly found in the eyes of people over 60, that could be a sign of AMD. People who used statins were at slightly higher risk for developing advanced AMD than were non-users, she said.

Pregnant women who are poor are more likely to deliver a very preterm baby than more affluent women, even though both groups typically receive equal care, a new British study shows.

The University of Leicester research team said their findings show the need to learn more about the association between economic status and preterm birth.

For the study, the researchers looked at 7,449 very preterm infants and calculated a “deprivation score” for each infant and mother. They found that mothers from the most deprived areas were nearly twice as likely to have a very preterm infant (less than 33 weeks’ gestation) than mothers from the least deprived areas. In addition, the number of infant deaths due to very preterm birth was nearly twice as high in the most deprived areas.

However, according to the report published in the Dec. 2 online edition of the BMJ, all of the very preterm infants had similar survival rates and levels of neonatal care. So, while there are socioeconomic-related disparities in preterm birth rates, deprivation doesn’t appear to be a barrier to accessing and receiving neonatal care.

This indicates that gaining a better understanding of the link between deprivation and risk of preterm birth should be a major research priority, the study authors said.

“It seems highly likely that such work could lead to public health strategies that would reduce the costs not only of neonatal care but also attached to the long-term health problems suffered by some of these babies,” they concluded.

A new study has found a higher rate of birth defects among babies conceived by assisted reproduction compared to babies conceived naturally.

In the study, almost 3 percent of infants conceived with assisted reproduction were diagnosed with a major birth defect, compared to less than 2 percent of babies conceived naturally, Dr. Darine El-Chaar and colleagues from The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada and colleagues found.

The investigators looked at all deliveries in the province of Ontario in 2005 for which information was available on reproductive assistance. Their analysis included 43,462 babies conceived naturally; 298 whose mothers had been given drugs to promote ovulation; 173 conceived when sperm was injected into the mother’s uterus (intrauterine insemination); and 319 conceived by in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Among infants conceived with any type of assistance, 2.91 percent were diagnosed with a major birth defect in the womb or soon after birth, compared to 1.86 percent of the babies conceived naturally. These infants also were more likely to have birth defects involving the gastrointestinal system, the cardiovascular system, or the muscles and skeleton, although their risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida or facial defects such as cleft palate was not increased.

When the researchers looked at the assisted reproduction techniques separately, they found that 2.35 percent of those born after ovulation induction, 2.89 percent of those born via intrauterine insemination, and 3.45 percent of those born via IVF had major birth defects.

However, the researchers note, because the numbers of women in these individual groups was small, the findings could have been due to chance, and the differences were not statistically significant.

The average age of the mothers who had conceived naturally was around 29, compared to about 32 for those who had ovulation induction, 34 for those who underwent intrauterine insemination, and 35 for those who conceived via IVF.

It’s scientifically plausible, the researchers note, that babies born with assisted reproduction would be at greater risk for major birth defects, “given the interventions required in these treatments.”

One contributing factor could be the greater age of mothers — and fathers — who undergo this treatment, they add. “Further research in these interventions is needed to clarify each individual contribution,” the researchers conclude.

Embryonic stem cells, which can turn into a variety of cells in the body, can produce temporary skin that could help burn victims while they’re waiting for skin grafts, new research from France suggests.

The findings, reported in the Nov. 20 issue of The Lancet, could lead to treatments that build on the existing use of cell therapy to help burn patients recover from injuries.

In existing cell therapy, a person’s own skin cells are grown in the laboratory to provide replacement skin. But it takes weeks for the process to occur, and burn patients can suffer from a variety of complications while they wait for skin grafts.

In a new study on mice, stem cells produced skin cells, and the skin grafts appeared to be similar to human skin, the researchers reported.

They wrote that the new skin cells “could have clinical relevance as an unlimited resource for temporary skin replacement in patients with large burns awaiting autologous grafts.”

In a commentary, Australian doctors said the finding “takes research into regenerative skin stem cells to the next level.”

Parents who take the time to know what their teenage children are up to and have strong anti-drug views can be effective in reducing their children’s marijuana use, a new study says.

Among all the illicit drugs, marijuana is the most widely used by teens, with nearly 42 percent of high school seniors having tried it, according to the study authors.

“We’ve been working on attenuating drug use in kids,” said lead researcher William Crano, a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, Calif. “What we have been noticing in our research is that parental monitoring seems to have a strong relationship to lessening of drug use in young adolescents.”

To determine if they were on the right track, Crano and his colleague Andrew Lac, a doctoral student at Claremont, decided to see what other research had found on the effect of parental monitoring on teen drug use –particularly marijuana.

So, Crano and Lac reviewed 17 studies, which involved more than 35,000 people. The studies all had adolescent participants, focused on marijuana and monitoring by parents, and the level of parental monitoring was evaluated by the teens themselves.

“We found the effect was there,” Crano said, especially for teenage girls. “It was clear that kids who thought their parents were monitoring them used much less marijuana than kids who didn’t.”

That finding held true for all 17 studies, Crano said. “The interesting thing is this has to do with kids’ perception of parental monitoring, not necessarily what their parents are actually doing,” he said.

“If your kids think that you know what they are doing, and where they’re at, and who they’re with and what they are doing when they are not in your sight, that has a big impact on the kind of trouble they are going to get into,” he added.

Crano thinks these findings, published in the November issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, would hold up if researchers looked at other drug use or other bad behaviors. Continued smoking of marijuana can lead to a number of serious health threats, including depression, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, the researchers said.

There are two ways parents can monitor their children, Crano said. “Either they watch them like a hawk or the kid discloses what he’s up to,” he said. Both methods work to keep children away from drugs, he said.

“If parents give the impression to their kids that they really care about them, that they are really watching what they are doing, that they are concerned, that has a strong impact on what the children are going to do in terms of antisocial behavior, which includes marijuana use,” Crano said.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, agrees that parents have a key role to play in keeping their children from using drugs.

“It’s the most significant role,” Kerlikowske said. “A lot of the advertisements, a lot of the information out there has made parents much more comfortable in speaking to their children, particularly about drugs,” he said.

The White House drug czar said parental monitoring, along with school and community programs, can be effective ways of steering children away from drugs.

“If you have parents involved in prevention work, and if you have some school-based curriculum around drugs, and there can be some support in neighborhoods and community groups and church — that is a very strong approach to keeping kids healthy,” he said.

Many different factors — from being obese to using vibrating hand tools to having little authority to make decisions in the workplace — seem to influence a person’s risk of developing certain work-related injuries, French researchers report.

Aging, along with on-the-job constraints, “drastically” increased workers’ risk of such injuries, Dr. Yves Roquelaure of the Universite d’Angers, the study’s author, noted in an email to Reuters Health. Given the aging of the workforce and “work intensification” going on in many countries, both industry and government should step up their efforts to prevent these injuries, Roquelaure advised.

The investigators surveyed 3,710 French workers, 472 of whom had been diagnosed with at least one upper extremity musculoskeletal disorder — a collective term for conditions affecting the muscles, joints, nerves and bones of the hands, arms and shoulders. Rotator cuff syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome are two of the most common types of upper extremity musculoskeletal disorder.

Increasing age and a history of one of these types of disorders emerged as the strongest risk factors for upper extremity muscle disorders in both men and women.

For men, other risk factors included being obese, having a very physically or psychologically demanding job, doing highly repetitive tasks and working while holding the arms at or above shoulder level or flexing the elbows fully.

Risks were different for women, and included having diabetes, “extreme” wrist bending, using vibrating hand tools, and having a low level of decision making authority at work.

The wide variety of risk factors makes it clear that preventing these disorders is a “complicated challenge,” Roquelaure noted.

“The study suggests that multidimensional interventions are needed, including education, correction of individual risk factors if possible (e.g., treatment of diabetes mellitus) and reduction of work exposure to biomechanical constraints and stress,” he added.

Efforts at the individual and organizational level to improve the workplace environment — and engage workers in these efforts — “seem to be an appropriate strategy for reducing the physical demands and the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders, even if epidemiological evidences of their efficacy are still limited,” the researcher concluded.

Only one-third of adults say they are getting enough sleep every night, a new U.S. government report shows.

Some 50 million to 70 million American adults suffer from sleep and wakefulness disorders, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not getting enough sleep has been tied to mental distress, depression, anxiety, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and certain risk behaviors including cigarette smoking, physical inactivity and heavy drinking.

“There is a relatively small percentage of people getting what sleep experts feel is an adequate amount of rest and sleep,” said Dr. Bruce Nolan, director of the sleep center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who was not involved in the report. “That is a very important physical and mental health concern.”

Getting at least seven hours of sleep results in greater alertness, better work performance and better quality of life, Nolan said. “People who get too little or too much sleep are associated with more health problems, including work problems, performance problems and productivity problems,” he noted.

The report is published in the Oct. 30 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a CDC publication.

Of the U.S. adults surveyed regarding their sleep in the past month, 11.1 percent said they did not get enough sleep every day of the month.

In addition, CDC researchers found that women (12.4 percent) were more likely than men (9.9 percent) to report not getting enough sleep. There were ethnic differences, with blacks (13.3 percent) saying they got less sleep compared with all other ethnic groups.

There were also geographical differences, which ranged from a low of 7.4 percent of people in North Dakota not getting enough rest to 19.3 percent in West Virginia.

These data were collected from a survey of 403,981 adults living throughout the United States.

The main causes of sleep loss are overlapping and include lifestyle, occupation and specific sleep disorders, the report noted.

In the past, many people thought that sleep was “a waste of time,” Nolan said. “It was to be avoided. And getting seven or eight hours of sleep was a sign of laziness,” he said.

“That kind of thinking is outdated,” he said. “We have lots of evidence that getting good quality sleep is associated with better quality of life.”

People who have trouble sleeping should seek the help of a sleep specialist, Nolan said. Also, your doctor should be aware if you are having sleep problems, he said.

Ways to get better quality sleep, according to the CDC, include:
Keep a regular sleep schedule.
Avoid stimulating activities for two hours before bedtime.
Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the evening.
Sleep in a dark, quiet, well-ventilated room.
Avoid going to bed hungry.

In addition, sleep medications can be helpful, the CDC says.

As daylight hours dwindle, people with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) can often feel the onset of wintertime depression, but a new study suggests one type of remedy may work better than another at banishing the SAD blues.

Cognitive behavioral therapy specially designed to treat people with SAD is more effective at preventing recurrences of depression than either light therapy or a combination of the two, the study found.

The psychotherapy may also be a time-saver — potentially welcome news with Daylight Saving Time coming to an end on Nov. 1.

“It’s an up-front investment, three hours of therapy a week in total over six weeks, whereas light therapy is 30 minutes a day and not just for six weeks,” said study author Kelly Rohan, a psychologist at the University of Vermont. “Light therapy depends on a lot of time and effort, a minimum 30 minutes in front of the fixture every day of the symptomatic months every year. I don’t know how many people are willing to do that.”

The study was published in a recent issue of the journal Behavior Therapy.

According to Rohan’s group, this is the first published data on the long-term effects of different therapies for SAD, which is characterized by mood and energy declines between November and April, when light is in short supply in the northern hemisphere.

The treatment of choice for the disorder has traditionally been light therapy, which spurs remission in about 53 percent of cases during the winter.

Light therapy involves exposure to bright light, typically administered using a “light box” — a set of fluorescent bulbs or tubes encased in small, portable devices made of plastic or aluminum. A plastic screen covering the bulbs blocks out potentially harmful ultraviolet rays.

But the authors of this study had also developed and tested a group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol geared to people with SAD.

The treatment addresses attitudes, thoughts and behaviors which contribute to SAD.

For the initial study, 69 people with SAD were randomized to receive light therapy, CBT, a combination of the two or neither (they were wait-listed).

Six weeks after treatment started, 80 percent of those receiving combination therapy were in remission vs. 50 percent for CBT and the same for light therapy. Only 20 percent of those in the control group experienced remission.

The current paper adds data collected a full year after the first treatment.

This time, 5.5 percent of those receiving the combo therapy and 7 percent of those receiving CBT alone had a SAD recurrence, vs. 36.7 percent of those treated with a light box. That represents a sharp drop in the number of people benefiting from light therapy, possibly due to the inconvenience of the method, which must be used every day.

In this study, only four people continued their light therapy into the following winter.

Individuals receiving CBT alone also had less severe depression than either of the other two groups, indicating that CBT may be the way to go.

What’s puzzling is the fact that combining CBT and light therapy didn’t work as well as CBT alone. “There’s something about being initially treated with the combination that seems to water down the effectiveness the next winter,” Rohan said.

This all seems to suggest that CBT could be the way to go.

“It’s [working] from the very first symptom, which for most people is October or November through March or April. The initial time in treatment is less with CBT and it’s also meant to be over and done with — the treatment that keeps on giving,” Rohan said. “Once you’re finished, you don’t have to be in treatment every winter for the rest of your life, whereas you are expected to get the light box out and use it for every day of fall and winter. You undergo [psychotherapy], you learn, you keep using the techniques in the future.”

“I absolutely agree with this study,” said Susan Zafarlotfi, clinical director of the Institute for Sleep/Wake Disorders at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. “I find CBT more effective in general for depression. Behavioral therapy is resetting a person’s thoughts. In CBT, you take all of the aspects of a person’s thoughts and you rewrite the dictionary in a different way.”

“But don’t minimize the power of light therapy,” Zafarlotfi warned. “It can be useful.”

Rohan is now following a larger sample of patients over two winters.