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America's Most Sleep-Deprived Jobs (Plus The 10 Most Well-Rested)

2012-02-23T12:49:32Z

Maybe, if you're lucky, you have a job that allows you to work flexible hours or even from home, and you can sleep late when you're feeling tired. Or maybe you have a job that affords you the opportunity to nap at work.

But in many of the most stressful jobs, it's not uncommon to stay up late putting in extra hours and wake up early to do it all over again, trapped in a vicious cycle of sleep deprivation and over-caffeination. To highlight those fields where workers are the most tired, mattress company Sleepy's analyzed a set of data from the CDC's National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and ranked occupations based on whether or not workers were getting enough shut-eye. (The average adult needs seven to nine hours a night, according to the National Sleep Foundation.)

Some of the worst offenders are occupations you might expect to see on a list like this. We know, for instance, that shift workers (like night nurses or paramedics) are at risk for sleep problems (not to mention heart disease and diabetes). And a 2011 study suggested that some 40 percent of police officers have a sleep disorder -- causing many to fall asleep on the job.

The jobs on the well-rested side of the spectrum may be less stressful, according to a Sleepy's press release, and also often involve daylight-only schedules in some instances (think construction or forestry), which limits late-night hours.

Click through the slideshow below to see the full rankings, from the most well-rested to the most sleep-deprived jobs, and tell us in the comments below if your job made the list.

For more on sleep, click here.

Are You Making These 6 Common Dental Mistakes

2012-02-23T12:47:05Z

Dental health is relatively simple, right? You brush, you floss, you repeat.

Well, yes and no.

While the general guidelines are indeed pretty simple, there actually are some subtleties involved in properly caring for your teeth and gums. And in some cases, the things you're doing in the name of pearly whites can actually do more harm than good, which is why we've rounded-up a list of six of the most common dental mistakes people make when caring for their smiles. Are there any you regularly make?

Breakthrough Skin Cancer Drug 'Almost Doubles' Survival Times

2012-02-23T10:39:00Z

A twice-daily skin cancer drug almost doubles the survival times of advanced cancer patients, American scientists have discovered.

Researchers from the Jonsson Cancer Center at the University of California, found that advanced melanoma cancer sufferers lived on average of 16 months after receiving the vemurafenib drug.

This is compared to the average of six to 10 months of those who had conventional skin cancer treatment, chemotherapy drug dacarbazine.

Vemurafenib (marketed as Zelboraf) has been recommended for approval in Europe by the European Commission and is one of two treatments offered to late-stage melanoma skin cancer (when the tumour begins to spread to other organs).

It is also due to be investigated for clinical and cost effectiveness by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

This drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the US last year and is the first new drug in more than a decade that offers treatment for advanced melanoma.

The study involved putting 132 people with metastic melanoma on the vemurafenib drug. Researchers discovered that 58% of those who took the skin cancer drug lived longer than 12 months and on average they survived 15.9 months prior to the treatment.

However, researchers added that vemurafenib is only suitable for around half of people with advanced melanoma, as it targets a particular BRAF gene mutation called V600, that is only present in 50% of melanoma sufferers.

“This study shows that Zelboraf changes the natural history of this disease. This data is beyond what I would have expected,” says Dr Antoni Ribas, professor of haematology and oncology from the study, as reported by the BBC.

The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) was the first to discover the link between gene mutation and melanoma skin cancer.

In 2009, ICR scientists found that BRAF gene is damaged in up to 70% of human melanoma and later found that the BRAF mutation leads to the development of deadly melanoma cancer and is the driving force behind the disease.

“We know that excessive sun exposure is the main cause of skin cancer, but not much is known about the genetics behind it, professor Richard Marais from the ICR said at the time, in a statement.

“Our study shows that the genetic damage of BRAF is the first step in skin cancer development. Understanding this process will help us develop more effective treatments for the disease.”

Commenting on the latest research, Elizabeth Woolf, head of Cancer Research UK’s information website, CancerHelp UK, told The Huffington Post: “This is an interesting, impressive but relatively small trial of a promising new-generation melanoma drug, which Cancer Research UK is proud to have played a role in developing. But there are still questions that remain unanswered.

“Everyone on the trial had the drug, so we cannot tell how large the benefits are, compared to people who didn’t have it, or had another treatment. And because the drug targets a particular gene fault, only half of all melanoma patients are eligible.

“About half of those treated seem to benefit, so it could potentially help roughly a quarter of patients with advanced melanoma overall.

“Looking at these uncertainties, and now that the drug is available to UK cancer patients, it will be interesting to see what price the manufacturer charges so as not to place too great a strain on already scarce NHS resources.”

According to Macmillan cancer support, around 10,400 people are diagnosed with melanoma each year in the UK. In women the cancer is most commonplace to develop on the legs and in men, it’s on the chest or back area.

Melanoma develops from cells called melanocytes that produce a pigment called melanin. When our skin is exposed to a lot of sun, the melanocytes increase the production of melanin which allows the skin to absorb more ultra violet rays, making the skin appear tanned - a sign that the skin is damaged.

If the melanocyte cells multiple in growth and divide quicker than usual, the cells can grow deeper into the layers of the skin, which contain tiny blood vessels and lymph channels.

If the melanoma cells enter the blood vessels they are able to travel to other parts of the body, causing advanced, metastatic or secondary melanoma.

'My 600-lb Life': Ashley Loses 364 Lb., Finds Softball

2012-02-23T10:29:57Z

Ashley has been struggling with her weight her entire life, and on the season finale of "My 600-lb Life" (Wed., 10 p.m. EST on TLC), she finally got to start regaining control. Her mother, who is overweight herself, was inexplicably cruel and teasing to Ashley, even as she appeared to be on hand to support her daughter. It was a dynamic and a relationship that was very difficult to understand, but it was very clear that her mother's cruelty hurt Ashley. It may well have helped lead her to the dark place that saw her put on so much weight in the first place.

The episode chronicled her seven-year journey toward a healthier life and body, including multiple skin removal surgeries along the way. But even at 500+ pounds, Ashley started dreaming of getting back to one of her childhood passions. As a girl, she'd played softball, until it became too physically exhausting for her to do so.

Once she'd managed to shed most of those excess pounds, she signed up to coach softball to be close to the sport that had brought her so much joy. She shared her story with the kids on her team, serving as inspiration that anything is possible and it's never too late to take the reigns of one's life. Her ultimate dream is to own a childcare facility where she can maybe reach out to those struggling kids like she was and provide a helping hand before they find themselves living their own 600 pound lives.

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.

Federal Judge Says State Can't Force Pharmacies To Sell Plan B

2012-02-23T05:38:18Z

TACOMA, Wash. — Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the state's true goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists – not to promote timely access to the medicines for people who need them.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton sided with a pharmacy and two pharmacists who said state rules requiring them to dispense Plan B violate their constitutional rights to freedom of religion because such drugs can destroy a fertilized egg, which they consider equal to abortion.

Washington's rules require that pharmacies stock and dispense drugs for which there is a demand. The state adopted the dispensing regulations in 2007, following reports that some women had been denied access to Plan B, which has a high dose of medicine found in birth-control pills and is effective if a woman takes it within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

State lawyers argued that the requirements are legal because they apply neutrally to all medicines and pharmacies, and because they promote a government interest – the timely delivery of medicine, including Plan B, which becomes less effective as time passes.

But Leighton ruled that the state allows all sorts of business exemptions to the rules. Pharmacies can decline to stock a drug, such as certain painkillers, if it's likely to increase the risk of theft, or if it requires an inordinate amount of paperwork, or if the drug is temporarily unavailable from suppliers, among other reasons.

"The most compelling evidence that the rules target religious conduct is the fact the rules contain numerous secular exemptions," the judge said. "In sum, the rules exempt pharmacies and pharmacists from stocking and delivering lawfully prescribed drugs for an almost unlimited variety of secular reasons, but fail to provide exemptions for reasons of conscience."

The decision comes as contraception has been debated in political and health care circles around the nation. A controversy erupted this month when religious groups protested a new federal rule that required church-affiliated universities, hospitals and nonprofits to include birth control without co-pays or premiums in their insurance plans.

The outcry prompted President Barack Obama to change the rule to shift the burden from religious organizations to insurance companies. Lawmakers in a few conservative states have taken up the fight with proposals that serve as direct challenges to Obama's ruling.

Leighton, in his decision Wednesday, did not strike down Washington's rules, but said simply that the way they were applied to the plaintiffs in this case was unconstitutional.

The state remains free to try to enforce the law against other pharmacies that violated the stocking and dispensing rules, whether for Plan B or other drugs; it remains unclear whether courts would reach a similar conclusion if pharmacies objected to selling other drugs for religious reasons.

"I remain concerned about the impacts on patients if pharmacies are allowed to refuse to dispense lawfully prescribed or lawful medications to patients," said Gov. Chris Gregoire, who insisted on the dispensing rule's adoption. "I am especially concerned about those living in rural areas, many of whom may have few alternatives and could suffer lengthy delays in receiving medication or go without entirely."

The judge, an appointee of President George W. Bush, first blocked the state's dispensing rule in 2007. But a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel overruled him, saying the rules did not target religious conduct. It sent the case back to Leighton, who held an 11-day trial before reaffirming his original decision.

Further appeals were expected, both from the state and from groups that intervened on the state's behalf. Before taking more than an hour to read his 48-page opinion in court, Leighton acknowledged that he crafted it for the benefit of a "skeptical" appeals court.

The interveners included women who were denied timely access to Plan B when they needed it – one of whom cut short a vacation in central Washington to return home to Bellingham, where she knew she could obtain Plan B from her regular pharmacy – as well as HIV patients, who argued that if druggists could refuse to dispense Plan B for religious reasons, some might also refuse to dispense time-sensitive HIV medications.

"The question really is whether the patient's rights come first or the pharmacist's rights come first," said Andrew Greene, a lawyer for the interveners.

Assistant Attorney General Rene Tomisser said Leighton's ruling was "more detailed" but made the same mistake he made in 2007.

Margo Thelen, of Woodland, one of the pharmacists who sued over the rules, said she had to leave one job because she refused to dispense Plan B – and now she can continue working at her new job without fear of being fired.

"Speak to anyone who shops in a pharmacy," she said. "Their product isn't always available."

Two Supreme Court cases guide judges in determining whether laws that infringe upon the free exercise of religion are legal.

In one, the court held that the state of Oregon could outlaw the use of the hallucinogenic peyote for everyone, even though some groups might use it in religious conduct.

In the other, the court held that a city in Florida could not outlaw animal sacrifices for religious purposes, while allowing the slaughter of animals for food, hunting and pest eradication.

Leighton said Washington's rules are akin to the Florida case. Though they appear to be neutral by their plain language, the state allows pharmacies not to stock or sell drugs for various business reasons, he said.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

WATCH: Is This The World's Biggest Rope Swing?

2012-02-22T23:10:49Z

If heights aren't your thing, than this epic freefall YouTube video is probably not for you.

Devin Graham has created what he calls the world's largest rope swing, which boasts a whopping 130 foot drop, the Sun reports.

Shot over two days in Bootlegger Canyon, Moab Utah, the video features Graham's friends flying through the air, secured only by rock climbing ropes. Some of them don't even wear a helmet.

After investing a couple of hours in the set up of the ropes, the swingers swoop under the Corona Arch, to which the swing is connected by five different anchors.

Since the video hit the web last Wednesday, more than 5 million people have watched it.

In addition, Graham produced a behind the scenes video.

Of course, Graham doesn't just take frightfully amazing shots from dangerous heights.

According to CBS, other videos of his include Christmas Puppies and Smashing Pumpkins.

Teenage Basketball Star Shot Hoops While In Coma

2012-02-22T22:58:00Z

The human body never ceases to amazes us.

Case in point? Maggie Meier, a basketball star at Blue Valley Northwest High School in Overland Park, Kansas. The teenager wowed locals by shooting hoops while in a coma, The Kansas City Star reports.

Meier fell ill in early November 2008, just as basketball season was starting, according to MaxPreps, a CBS Sports affiliate. Then a freshman in high school, she was rushed to the hospital, barely conscious and having seizures. She soon fell into a coma, which lasted over 2 months.

Doctors diagnosed Meier with mycoplasma meningoencephalitis, a rare, intense form of meningitis, The Daily reported. Though her family worried for her survival, they discovered something incredible that gave them hope. Though unresponsive and unconscious, she would sometimes make the motion for shooting baskets. Her family began to put her into a chair, hand her a beach ball and pull the hoop close. She shoots, she scores!

Meier's neurologist told The Daily that basketball was so "ingrained as one of Maggie’s basic instincts" that her body remembered how to do it before it could walk or even stand.

When she woke up, it took months for her body to recover. She had to re-learn basic functions like walking and eating. But by sophomore year, she was well enough to return to the court.

Her story is certainly incredible, but it's not unique. In 2001, a 24-year-old woman gave birth while in a coma to a perfectly healthy 7 pound baby.

CDC Examines Raw Milk's Role In Dairy-Related Food Poisoning

2012-02-22T22:44:00Z

Dairy-related illness is caused more often from raw, or unpasteurized, milk than pasteurized milk, according to a new government report.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that the risk of getting ill from consuming raw milk is 150 times higher than if you consume pasteurized milk, according to the study.

The report also showed that in states where selling raw milk is legal, outbreaks of food-borne illness are more than twice as high than in states where raw milk sales are illegal. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that 20 states currently have some form of ban on selling raw milk.

The findings were an aggregation of data collected on dairy-related outbreaks between 1993 and 2006. During that time period, there were 121 outbreaks, with 60 percent of them from raw milk products.

Not only were there more outbreaks related to raw milk, they were also more serious. The study showed that 13 percent of raw milk-related outbreaks resulted in hospitalization, while 1 percent of pasteurized milk-related outbreaks resulted in the same. The researchers said that the increase in hospitalization may be because bacteria like E. coli O157 were the cause of most raw milk-related outbreaks, which can result in more severe illness. Norovirus and Staphylococcus aureus were the more common causes of the pasteurized milk-product outbreaks, which are comparably mild infections, researchers said.

"While some people think that raw milk has more health benefits than pasteurized milk, this study shows that raw milk has great risks, especially for children, who experience more severe illnesses if they get sick," said study researcher Dr. Barbara Mahon, M.D., M.P.H., deputy chief of CDC's DFWED Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch.

Pasteurized milk is exposed to blasts of heat to kill pathogens, like E. coli and salmonella, that cause food poisoning, TIME reported. But raw milk supporters say that heating the milk also kills the good stuff in milk, such as good bacteria, and proteins and enzymes that help with digestion, according to TIME.

The nonprofit Weston A. Price Foundation, which advocates for raw milk, said that the findings should be taken with a grain of salt, saying that there are very low numbers of dairy-related foodborne illnesses to start with. [You can read their full statement here.]

The Los Angeles Times reported that raw milk supporters point to evidence in some journals showing that raw milk consumption is linked with a lower risk and/or rate of eczema and allergies. However, studies in journals have shown an exact opposite effect.

Obese People Have Higher Rates Of Daily Pain, Survey Shows

2012-02-22T22:23:00Z

Obesity doesn't just increase the risk of health problems like diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer -- a new survey shows that a high body mass index (BMI) is also linked with higher rates of daily pain.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index surveyed more than 1 million people in the U.S., and found that the higher a person's BMI, the more likely that person was to report experiencing pain everyday.

Specifically, the survey showed that daily pain is experienced by 44.1 percent of people with a BMI of 40 or higher, 34.7 percent of people with a BMI between 35 and 40 and 27.7 percent of people with a BMI of 30 to 35. (Obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30 or more.)

Nearly 22 percent of people who are overweight (with a BMI of 25 to 29) experience daily pain, and 18.9 percent of people who are underweight or normal weight (BMI less than 25) experience daily pain, according to the survey.

Researchers found that women were more likely to report having daily pain than men, with 49.1 percent of women with a BMI of 40 or above saying they had daily pain, compared with 38.8 percent of men. Results of the survey were published recently in the journal Obesity.

Researchers found that even after accounting for diseases that may cause daily pain, the link between pain and obesity still held true. They offered up several possible reasons: inflammation and pain are linked with processes that are triggered by excess fat in the body; and a reverse link, that painful conditions like arthritis may cause someone to not exercise as much, thereby resulting in the weight gain contributing to obesity.

Recently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released a new report showing that obesity rates have slowed in many developed countries in the last 10 years, but there are still more obese people in these countries than there ever has been before.

For a look at the 10 most obese countries in the OECD report, click through the slideshow:

GOP Lawmaker Seeks To Make Birth Control 'Obsolete And Outdated'

2012-02-22T21:29:27Z

A Republican lawmaker in New Hampshire has proposed repealing the state's requirement to provide insurance coverage for birth control by attaching the measure to a bill aimed to repeal "obsolete and outdated" laws.

State Rep. Andrew Manuse (R-Derry) has proposed the amendment to end the contraception law to a piece of routine legislation clearing older laws off the books, the Concord Monitor reports. Manuse's amendment, first proposed Tuesday as the routine legislation was being heard by a legislative committee, would exclude both religious organizations, along with private companies that have religious objections, from the requirement to provide birth control.

The Monitor reports:

Current state law, passed in 1999 with bipartisan support and no objection from the Diocese of Manchester, requires insurance companies to cover contraceptive care. Employers, including churches, can bypass the requirement by self-insuring, and that is what the diocese does.
Manuse's repeal of that mandate surfaced publicly for the first time yesterday as an amendment to an unrelated bill that eliminates "obsolete or outdated" provisions from various state laws. The housekeeping bill Manuse chose -- which does not deal with insurance, contraception or religious exemptions -- was scheduled for a public hearing and a vote yesterday by the recodification committee.

Manuse's proposal, which is co-sponsored by House Speaker Bill O'Brien (R-Mont Vernon), did not surprise legislative Democrats who are planning a floor fight to stop the bill. Senate Minority Leader Sylvia Larsen (D-Concord) said that Manuse had stated his desire to repeal the provision, but they were surprised with the bill he choose. Larsen said the original law passed a Republican-controlled legislature before being signed by then Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D).

"He's tacked it on to a deadwood bill," Larsen told HuffPost. "It was meant to be an uncontroversial housekeeping bill. Now it's a nightmare bill."

Larsen said that O'Brien has already ruled the amendment -- which will be heard by a state House committee later this week -- as germaine. The "obsolete and outdated" bill that would be amended contains repeals of a variety of laws that state officials have deemed ready to take off the books. Among the two dozen measures contained in the bill are the repeal of laws relating to the training of campus security officers, a report on school accounting standards, a certificate of need for a Strafford County nursing home and the retirement age of probate court judges. No contraception or abortion related legislation is in the bill.

Manuse and O'Brien's spokeswoman did not return calls for comment.

Kevin Donovan, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, told HuffPost that the diocese did not have a position on the amendment but confirmed that an attorney who worked with the diocese did provide advice to Manuse on the drafting of the amendment. He said the advice was limited to providing wording from a similar proposal in Missouri.

The amendment comes the same week that the Tea Party-controlled New Hampshire House passed a resolution calling on the Obama Administration to repeal the federal birth control requirement for religious organizations. The resolution's passage came after a committee hearing where one Republican lawmaker said that birth control causes prostate cancer and another GOP lawmaker said that married couples should practice abstinence except when they want to conceive.

Larsen said that she believes Manuse's amendment can fail in the Republican-controlled state Senate, which she said is not as conservative as the House. She noted it is likely Gov. John Lynch (D) will veto the bill if it contains the amendment. She also had an opinion on Manuse wanting to call the law "obsolete and outdated."

"If they consider that outdated," she said, "I would consider them outdated."

U.S. Alzheimer's Strategy: Find Effective Treatments By 2025

2012-02-22T21:07:00Z

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration declared Alzheimer's "one of the most feared health conditions" on Wednesday as it issued a draft of a new national strategy to fight the ominous rise in this mind-destroying disease.

More than 5 million Americans already have Alzheimer's or similar dementias, a toll expected to reach up to 16 million by 2050 – along with skyrocketing medical and nursing home bills – because the population is aging so rapidly.

The government's top goal: Find some effective ways to treat Alzheimer's by 2025. That's an ambitious quest. Today's treatments only temporarily ease symptoms. Scientists know that Alzheimer's brews for years before symptoms appear, but work to find better medications or at least stall the disease's emergence has been frustratingly slow.

Whether scientists can meet that deadline or not, the draft of the first National Alzheimer's Plan also makes clear that overwhelmed families need help right away to care for affected loved ones.

Moreover, as many as half of today's Alzheimer's sufferers haven't been formally diagnosed, and the draft in part blames stigma and misinformation.

Among the draft's planned steps:

_Conduct a major public awareness campaign to help people know the early warning signs of Alzheimer's and what to do.

_Educate doctors and other health workers about how to recognize Alzheimer's, what medications are available now that can help with the disease's symptoms, and what social services may help families to cope.

_Improve early detection, in part by determining the best cognitive screening to offer during Medicare's new annual wellness visit.

_Improve training of caregivers, so they know what resources are available and how to handle common behavior problems of dementia. Research shows that caregivers given such training are able to keep their loved ones at home for far longer.

_Study how to address the health needs of stressed and isolated caregivers.

Then there's the goal of better treatments. The National Institutes of Health spends about $450 million a year on dementia research. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced it would add an extra $50 million to that tab this year, and seek $80 million more to spend on Alzheimer's research in 2013.

It plans to spend about $26 million on some of the plan's other provisions.

For comparison, the government spends nearly $3 billion on AIDS research; about 1.1 million Americans are living with the AIDS virus.

Wednesday's draft is open for public comment through March, and the government's Alzheimer's advisory council is sure to make changes before a final strategy is issued later this year. But some of the work isn't waiting: The NIH, for example, is bringing together top Alzheimer's scientists in May to discuss the most promising leads for better treatment.

Some members of that advisory council called the draft a good first step.

"They've covered the right topics. What is needed now is more detail," said Alzheimer's Association President Harry Johns. "There's real recognition at this point that Alzheimer's is devastating for not only the individual but for the families and caregivers."

"Today, with the strong commitment of federal leaders and louder outcry from the public, the urgency of the Alzheimer's disease crisis is being recognized and acted upon," said Eric J. Hall, president of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

___

Online:

Alzheimer's plan: http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/napa/(hash)DraftNatlPlan

Not Just Head Pain: Women With Migraines May Also Have Higher Depression Risk

2012-02-22T21:01:00Z

Women who currently experience migraines or who have suffered from them in the past may be at a greater risk for developing depression than those without migraines, according to a new study. It joins a growing body of literature linking the two conditions and attempting to better understand the possible connection.

"We don't want to scare patients, and we know that migraine sufferers suffer a lot because of the migraines themselves," said Dr. Tobias Kurth, a neuroepidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and one of the study's authors. "But this highlights the need [for doctors and patients] to talk about the possible risk of depression."

In the new study, which will be presented in April at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th annual meeting, researchers looked at more than 36,000 women who were enrolled in the Women's Health Study -- a trial designed, primarily, to evaluate the effects of vitamin E and aspirin in preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer in women.

At baseline, approximately one in six women indicated they had migraines or had experienced them in the past. None of the women said they had a history of depression. However, over an average of 14 years of follow-up, nearly 4,000 of the women developed depression.

Overall, the researchers estimate that women with migraines or a history of the severe headaches were approximately 40 percent more likely to develop depression than women without migraines.

Since the new research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, it should be regarded as preliminary. However, additional research has also linked migraines and depression.

Last fall, a study out of Calgary -- published in the journal Headache -- found "substantial evidence" that migraines are linked with subsequent development of major depressive episodes. It also found some confirmation that depressive episodes are associated with later migraines, but it was not a causal link. When the researchers took into account factors like stress and childhood trauma, that link disappeared.

The new presentation may help shed light on which condition typically comes first -- migraines or depression.

"This doesn't prove that migraine itself caused depression, but there certainly seems to be a strong link," said Dr. Jason Rosenberg, an assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, who was not associated with the research.

"What this adds is the order in which this tends to happen -- that migraines start first, which may predispose you to depression later," he continued.

Kurth explained that the current research cannot, and does not, indicate the mechanisms behind the seeming connection between migraines and depression.

It could be that because both migraines and depression relate to the brain, similar biological concepts are at play. For example, neurotransmitters that are responsible for one could also trigger the other. It may also be that migraines negatively impact people's mental health and happiness, possibly leading to depression, Kurth hypothesized.

"How it works is anybody's guess at this point," agreed Rosenberg, who stressed that co-occurrence does not necessarily indicate causality, or even linkage. "Is it chemical? Are people worn down and sad because they're getting these headaches? Is it something you're born with that's underlying both?"

As researchers attempt to address these questions, the current message may simply be that the possible connection should be on patients' and health care providers' radars.

"We can't advise anyone, 'Just don't get headaches,'" Rosenberg said. "But as a physician, it's good to be aware of this and maybe screen patients."

New Breast Cancer Gene Discovered

2012-02-22T20:59:00Z

Scientists have identified a new gene that may increase the risk of breast cancer, according to a new study from Finland. In the study, mutations in this gene, called Abraxas,were linked to cases of hereditary breast cancer.

Qnexa Proponents Ask U.S. Experts To Back The Obesity Drug

2012-02-22T20:42:00Z

* Qnexa helped patients lose weight

* One ingredient tied to birth defects

* Uncertain effect on the heart

* FDA advisory panel to vote on drug Wednesday afternoon

* Vivus shares halted pending vote

By Anna Yukhananov

SILVER SPRING, Md., Feb 22 (Reuters) - Proponents of a new obesity medication from Vivus Inc told U.S. reviewers on Wednesday that the drug's health benefits exceed heart and birth defect risks.

A panel of outside experts to the Food and Drug Administration will vote later on Wednesday on whether to recommend approval for what would be the first new prescribed drug for obesity in 13 years.

The FDA first rejected Vivus' Qnexa in 2010 because of safety problems, along with two other obesity pills that are also seeking a second round of consideration.

The FDA usually follows panel recommendations, although it is not required to. It will make a final decision by April 17.

Qnexa, which combines the appetite suppressant phentermine and anti-seizure drug topiramate, helped patients lose at least 10 percent of their weight after a year of treatment, the company said .

Obesity, a leading cause of diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems, has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with about a third of the population obese and more than half overweight.

"Back in medical school, I was taught that when the risk of not treating the condition exceeds the risk of treating it, we should treat," said Dr. Arya Sharma, a chair in obesity research at the University of Alberta in Canada and paid consultant to Vivus.

"We have an obligation to change how we measure obesity. Qnexa addresses an urgent and substantial unmet medical need for our patients," he told panelists.

The FDA has set a high approval bar for weight loss drugs because such a large portion of the general population is likely to want to take them, and has not approved a new obesity drug since 1999.

Also, many diet pills have been linked to serious heart-related risks.

But patient groups say the FDA is holding obesity drugs to a higher standard than other treatments because of views that it is a choice, not a disease. They are urging the FDA to approve new obesity drugs that would give patients another option between lifestyle changes and surgery.

Shares of Vivus were halted on Nasdaq on Wednesday pending the outcome of the FDA panel meeting. They closed at $10.55 on Tuesday, well above the stock's low around $4.70 after the pill was first rejected.

SAFETY RISKS

FDA staff presenting on Wednesday said the key issues with Qnexa were about safety, not efficacy.

Staff reviewers have said patients taking the drug had more safety problems, including memory loss and higher heart rates, than those on a placebo, and some of these problems could get worse over time.

They have also noted that exposure to one of the ingredients in Qnexa has been linked to a higher rate of birth defects.

A Vivus study showed topiramate caused a higher rate of oral clefts in infants of women taking the drug during pregnancy, and the company said it would limit Qnexa to women who are not pregnant.

The FDA has said the rate of potential birth defects is about two to five times higher with topiramate than with placebo.

Vivus officials said obesity, and its common symptom diabetes, come with their own risks to pregnancy, such as stillbirth, premature birth and other complications.

The FDA and the company generally agreed on a program to mitigate the drug's risks to pregnant women, including limiting the drug to certified pharmacies and training doctors who would prescribe it.

Panelists will discuss whether they think the program is stringent enough to protect patients from the risk of birth defects.

In clinical trials, Qnexa also increased patients' heartbeats, leading to fears it may have negative effects on the heart. However, Vivus said the drug also reduced blood pressure, and a link between heartbeat and heart health was not conclusive. (Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Fixing A 'Gaping Hole' In Fracking

2012-02-22T20:22:41Z

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A nonprofit group has opened an office in western Pennsylvania to help the public with health concerns over Marcellus Shale gas drilling operations.

The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project opened an office last week in McMurray, southwest of Pittsburgh, and says its mission is to support people "who believe their health has been, or could be, impacted by natural gas drilling activities."

"The state lacks enough resources to really address this," Director Raina Rippel said Tuesday. "There is this gaping hole for the community."

Rippel said the project has several paid staff members, including a nurse. Other medical and research experts are consultants. The onsite nurse will make house calls in Washington County, but phone calls or emails from other parts of the state are welcome, Rippel said. The nurse will provide referrals, help clients navigate the health care system and consult with environmental health specialists.

All the project services are free, she said.

Rippel said her group has met with local public health officials, and will work with them. The group also is setting up a network of physicians to refer people to, and has been in contact with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Timothy Kimmel, director of the Washington County Department of Human Services, was out of the office Tuesday afternoon and could not immediately be reached.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, said it supports a thorough, unbiased health assessment.

"We live, work and raise our families in these communities, and are absolutely committed to ensuring that our air, water and public health are protected," coalition President Kathryn Klaber told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "There is no higher priority, and to the extent this initiative can advance objective, fact-based research, we welcome it."

Rippel acknowledged that some people who worry about gas drilling could have been exposed to pollutants from another industry or have medical conditions that originated before the drilling boom of the last five years. Old coal mines and oil wells have been identified as possible sources of methane gas in drinking water wells.

"You don't necessarily have clear data," she said, of possible links between recent gas drilling and health problems.

But she said the only way to better understand these issues is through outreach and research.

Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician who has treated children from Washington County, said more studies need to be done on the health risks for those living near gas wells.

"It's difficult for those in the medical community to know what we should be on the lookout for, and how to address problems that we might see," Podgainy told the Post-Gazette. "I do not want my patients to become 'the canaries in the coal mine.' A proactive approach is to everyone's benefit."

The Health Project office is open Tuesday through Friday. It is funded by the Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Claneil Foundation.

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Online: http://www.environmentalhealthproject.org