A recent study suggests that people who experience a sleep disorder called obstructive sleep apnea could get rid of the condition through losing a considerable amount of weight.

Most of the individuals with sleep apnea do not realize that they wake up several times durring the night as they breathe difficultly. Sleep apnea is a condition that could lead to severe tiredness during daytime, as well as other symptoms.

Usually, patients with this condition undergo a treatment called continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP, which utilizes a machine to maintain their airways open while sleeping.

Dr. Virend Somers, a professor of medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota said that there appears to be a link between excess weight and sleep apnea. However, the exact relationship is not yet clear. Somers said majority of the obese patients have sleep apnea, but not all patients with sleep apnea are obese.

Somers, who is not involved with the recent study, noted that physicians know that when patients gain additional weight, sleep apnea symptoms worsen. Meanwhile, weight lose improves the symptoms. He suggested that excessive weight may affect the ability of the airway to keep open while sleeping, or that additional fat cells could affect how the brain controls the airway.

The new study, which is published June 1 in bmj.com, is carried out by researchers headed by Kari Johansson from Karolinska Institute located in Stockholm. Researchers followed 63 overweight men, from 30 to 65-years-old, who were suffering from sleep apnea.

Fifty-eight males completed a weight plan, which followed a nine-week low-calorie diet and year-long weight maintenance program. A year after the program, nearly fifty-percent of the patients who reduced weight no longer required a CPAP machine. Ten-percent of them no longer had sleep apnea.

Women who were obese or overweight before and after being diagnosed with breast cancer have lower odds of surviving the disease, a recent study suggests.

Researcher of the study found that the relationship between deaths from breast cancer and excessive weight only occur in estrogen receptor-positive forms of the illnesses. An estrogen receptor-positive form of cancer means the hormone ‘estrogen’ stimulates the progression of the disease.

Christina Dieli-Conwright, lead author of the study and assistant research professor at Duarte, California said in a press release that the relationship may depend on whether the breast cancer is dependent on the hormone.

The research showed that breast cancer patients who are overweight or obese tend to have increased estrogen levels in their blood, which could make out the reason why there is an increased risk of mortality.

The study is composed of 3,995 women who had an invasive form of breast cancer from the year of 1995 to 2006. Of those women, 262 had died from the disease.

Researchers examined their BMI or body mass index, which is a measure of an individual’s height and weight, when the patients were 18-years-old and at the time the patients were diagnosed. In this case, a BMI of 30 and more is classified as obesity while a BMI of 25 to 29 is classified as overweight.

Patients who were obese at the time they were diagnosed had an increased risk of dying up to 69 percent than those who were diagnosed at a healthy weight. An equal risk is given to those patients who were overweight at the time they were 18 years-old.

However, since the study was introduced at a medical meeting, the findings are still viewed as initial up to the time the study is published in a journal.

When the news that excessive cellphone use may cause brain cancer spread like wildfire across the globe, the United States public welcomed it without merely a shrug of the shoulder. The announcement, or rather the warning was given by the World Health Organization.

After the warning has been given, many vowed they will buy or use headsets to lessen the impact of radiation. More people, however, think that either the study is too vague or believe that cellphone use is inevitable and they are willing to take that risk.

31-year old New Yorker said that when she read about the warning she thought she could be in a lot of trouble as she has been using mobile phones since for more than seven years. John Gottani, a cellphone store manager, said that in his six years of selling cellphones, he has never heard anyone ask if cellphone use causes cancer. People are more concerned about the features and gadget specifications than whether or not the phone causes cancer.

More than a dozen published studies on cellphones and its relation to cancer were reviews by the International Agency for Research on Cancer before they classified it as “possibly carcinogenic”.  Other things in this category are engine exhaust, coffee, and night-shift work.

42-year old resident of San Francisco, Chuck Luter, said he does not intend to change his cellphone habits to follow the radiation warning. He said that there simply is no alternative to mobile phones and there are a lot of other things that can cause health hazards; he said he can let this one slide.

A recent research study suggests that extending chemo therapy sessions for lung cancer patients will delay the return of the cancer. The current practice is to give patients with advance lung cancer four courses of two chemotherapy medications and wait until it returns.

The Spanish scientists admit that the results are still preliminary but they said that staying on pemextrexed (Alimata) delayed the return of the disease.

Dr. Neal Ready, a professor at the Duke Cancer Institute, said that this is the first study with positive results where the same treatment is continued. He said that most of the similar studies with positive results required changing the chemotherapy regimen. Ready added that even though they do not have the overall survival rate yet, this study will highly influence oncologists to continue chemotherapy treatment following the standard combination.

In this research study, nearly a thousand patients with advanced lung cancer were given the standard four course treatment of Alimta and cisplatin. 539 patients whose condition stabilized were randomly chosen to receive continued dose of Alimta or a placebo.

Those who took Alimta lived around 4.1 months without the recurrence of the disease in contrast to 2.8 months in the group which took placebo.

Dr. Luis Paz-Ares, study author, said that there was a significant decrease of the progression of lung cancer which they believe is enough to support the use of the treatment regimen in a clinical context.

The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting Sunday. In addition, the study is funded by Lilly, the makers of Alimta.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages everyone to get repeat flu shots for the coming flu seasons. However, vaccine makers suggest that some people may not necessarily need another flu vaccine this year.

Makers of flu vaccine say the shots this year will be the same as last year’s since identical strains of the virus are still going around the environment. Some experts say young and healthy people may still have adequate protection from the flu shot obtained last fall. Thus, they may skip getting it once more for this season.

However, health officials from the government say the protection offered by flu vaccines can significantly fade after some months, particularly in weak and elderly people. In fact, they are persuading everyone to get their repeat shots this year.

Vaccine makers announced that there will be plenty of flu shots coming in 2011. They said there will be enough for more than 50 percent of the population. Five manufacturers announced a couple of weeks ago that they are planning to make 166 to 173 million flu doses this year.

In the United States, the demand for flu shots has been increasing as well. Over 40 percent of the U.S. population received flu vaccines in the past 10 months, leading to a successive year when vaccinations were at a very high level.

While it is not clear whether repeat shot is needed or not, other experts believe that the position of CDC is the best possible course. Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert from University of Michigan, said that getting another flu vaccine is definitely not going to harm everybody.

Women who are taking blood pressure medications while diagnosed with breast cancer may have increased chances of fighting off the disease, according to two recent studies.

One study showed that women who are taking beta blockers- common and inexpensive drugs used to decrease blood pressure- are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease at an earlier stage and, thus, have increased odds to survive.

The second study suggests that women who took the medication while going through chemotherapy had lesser possibility of recurrence.

Beta blockers work by limiting the effect of adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are both stress hormones. Some believe that stress pathways may have a contribution to the spread of the cancer.

Melhem-Bertrandt said that several literatures claim that cancer may return when people are under a lot of stress. Thus, they wanted to determine if something was done with the use of medications to lower adrenaline and noreadrenaline, and if that would lessen the risk of recurrence.

Although it is an enticing idea to dispense cheap and safe drugs to women to fight the disease, the findings of the study are not enough to suggest prescribing the drug called beta blockers for breast cancer, an expert said.

At this point, researchers advised that no one should think about taking beta-blockers to combat cancer. Also, women who are battling with the disease and are already taking the medications should not worry about it putting the care of their cancer at risk, said lead author of the second study, Dr. Amal Melhem-Bertrandt.

A recent research study revealed that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are more likely to have problems with substance abuse – including drugs, alcohol, and cigarette – when they grow up.

Dr. Timothy Wilens, lead author of the study, said that their study is the biggest set of longitudinal studies regarding this issue. Also, he said that it supports the findings of several other studies made in the past. Overall, children with ADHD who participated in the study had a 1 ½ times greater chances of developing any form of substance abuse.

The latest observations came from a whole new look at the data that the team has previously collected from two other studies involving 268 children with ADHD. The first study focused on the boys with ADHD, while the other study observed how girls coped.

The team found out after ten years of tracking that one third of that population developed substance abuse. In contrast, they also tracked down the same number of children that were not diagnosed with ADHD and found that only a quarter of the population had problems with substance abuse.

Moreover, the researchers found that neither gender nor family background play a role in the risk elevation of substance abused. Conduct disorder, however, increased the risk three folds. They urge that children with ADHD be counselled at a very young age especially when delinquency is observed.

The researchers are now trying to find out why some ADHD patients develop substance abuse while others do not.

Radiation emitted from a mobile phones is “possibly carcinogenic” and may cause a certain type of brain cancer called glioma, says the International Agency for Research on Cancer or IARC, which is under the World Health Organization.

The international group of experts put radio-frequency electromagnetic fields, which are emitted from cellphones, microwaves, radar, radio, television, and wireless signals, in the same category as chloroform, coffee, DDT and lead.

“Possibly carcinogenic” is the third-highest rating by IARC. It is below “carcinogenic to humans” like tobacco and “probably carcinogenic” like diesel exhaust. However, experts say classifying radiation and other agents as “possibly carcinogenic” does not automatically mean they can cause cancer, and the finding should not alter people’s habits on cellphone.

Over the previous week, several scientists from various countries reviewed many existing studies, which include IARC’s Interphone study that claimed that over half an hour every day within 10 years period can increase the risk of having glioma by 40 percent.

However, the expert panel concluded that there was limited evidence that use of cellphone was linked to brain tumors and other types of cancer. Yet, World Health Organization warns people against frequent and lengthy use of mobile phones.

Although additional research is required, it is important to take practical measures that would reduce exposure to radiation such as use of hands-free devices, as well as texting, said Christopher Wild, director of IARC.

Also, children, teens and pregnant women should use cellphones as strictly as possible since they are at higher risk to absorb radiation, said head of the Rotary Cancer Institute Dr. GK Kath at AIIMS.

The bacterial outbreak, which killed at least 17 people and sickened thousands more, has sparked a diplomatic argument between two European countries.

Germany struggled on Wednesday to identify the real source of a lethal foodborne infection, which has been attributed to a rare strain of E. coli. The outbreak is yet the worst that Germany had experienced in history.

Since May, over 1,000 residents have gotten sick from food poisoning. Aside from that, 470 people suffered from a dangerous reaction to the infection called haemolytic uremic syndrome. This causes kidney failures, seizures and strokes.

German officials have found out that the people were most likely infected after eating raw vegetables such as cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes. They initially considered Spanish cucumbers as the culprit. Tests ran on the vegetables revealed that some were, indeed, contaminated with the bacteria.

However, they found out that a different E. coli strain from the one identified is responsible for the disease. Germany admitted that contaminated cucumbers shipped from Spain are not to be blamed for the mass outbreak.

E. coli is a typical bacterium found mainly in the human digestive system. Most forms are fairly harmless. However, EHEC or Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli causes more severe manifestations of the illness. This ranges from bloody diarrhea to life-threatening haemolytic uremic syndrome.

Spain threatened to sue Germany after it has mistakenly identified Spanish produce as the source of the outbreak. It says Spanish exporters of fruits and vegetables have lost over 200 million euros or $290 million after the import ban. Other countries have also blocked Spanish produce after the misleading announcement made by Germany.

Republican members of the House are pushing back against the administration’s efforts to promote healthy eating habits among the youth. They said that the Agricultural Department should tweak the rules they issued on January of this year that forces schools to make healthier lunches. Republicans insist that the ruling is far too costly.

The bill that was submitted by the Republicans further questions the Obama administration’s proposal to decrease the marketing freedom of unhealthy foods to the American youth. Moreover, they want the Food and Drug Administration to curb the rules requiring restaurants to place calorie count in their menus.

If the legislations proposed by the Obama administration will push through, it will cut billions from the FDA and USDA budgets, as well as domestic feeding programs.

Chris Crawford, a Georgia Republican, said that they are concerned about the costs of the administration’s proposals. Also, he said that the proposals may be overregulation. Although the regulation that controls the food products marketed to children is voluntary, a lot of companies are afraid that they may be penalized if they do not comply.

Crawford further said that the guidelines are “back-door-regulations”, pointing out the fact that children can watch violent and sexy TV shows but they cannot see an ad for child-friendly mascots like Tony the Tiger during commercial breaks.

On the other hand, Margo Wootan, a member of an advocacy group that fights for nutritional policies, said that the Republicans’ opinion on the matter is a very clear indication that the important benefits of nutrition policy are undermined.