A current study found that close to a million children in the United States are prescribed with antibiotics for asthma even though the actual guidelines do not recommend its use. Dr. Ian Paul, the lead researcher and a professor of pediatrics at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, said that they try really hard not to prescribe unnecessary antibiotics but their study shows that pediatricians are prescribing the drug too often.

Paul said that it is unclear why doctors prescribe antibiotics to treat severe asthma. He, however, said that doctors may feel that they need to cover all bases and also prescribe antibiotics. There are also times when parents themselves ask their doctors for antibiotics.

The one finding that Paul thought to be encouraging is that education regarding asthma plays an important role in the prescription antibiotics. It appears that when astham education was delivered during the visit, antibiotics are only prescribed 11% of the time; in comparison to 19% when asthma education is not given.

Paul further said that this means we can decrease the likelihood of the use of antibiotics in treating asthma by educating families and patients.

In addition, the doctor said that most antibiotics have side effects and patients may develop antibiotic-resistant bacteria which are life threatening. That is why unnecessary prescription of antibiotics is definitely discouraged.

This report was published on “Pediatrics” on the 23rd of May. Pediatrics is an online medical magazine.

According to a recent study, many parents are now apprehensive to take their children to hospitals , to a doctor or to purchase prescription drugs due to the increase in the United States medical care costs.

The researchers studied data of 6,273 families that participated in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survery conducted between 2001 and 2006.

Based on the conducted study, one of the most pressing reasons that will increase the likelihood that families would not go to doctors or delay seeking medical attention is financial burden. “Financial burden” in this study is defined as out-of-pocket medical care costs more than 10% of the total family income or insurance premiums.

Some other factors noted in the study are children with activity limitation and parents with intermittent insurance coverage. The researchers also found out that race or ethnicity also play a role in the delay of medical care for children. For example, white families have greater tendencies to delay seeking medical care than black families.

This study was presented Monday during the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting conducted yearly. At this point, the study is still considered preliminary because it has not yet been scrutinized by colleagues in the industry- a requirement before a study is to be printed out in a peer-review journal.

Lauren Wisk, study leader, said that their results show how unfortunate the realities of the United States medical care are. More and more families are deciding to forego medical care because of how high the costs are.

A current study has shown that smokers are at a greater risk of developing throat and stomach cancer. The study also mentioned that smokers who quit years ago are still at risk.

Italian researchers studied 33 different and independent studies and concluded that smokers have twice the likelihood of developing esophageal and stomach cancer than those who never smoked in their lifetime.

Smoking has already been noted to increase the risks of developing throat and stomach cancer for years. Even more disturbing is the fact that the risks remain even after you quit smoking. However, they pointed out that quitting this vice is still highly beneficial.

Both types of cancer are not common in the Western part of the world as they are more prevalent in third-world or developing countries. In the recent years, however, occurrence of these cancers has increased in Europe and the United States.

Studies show that there is only one out of 200 chances that an average American will develop esophageal cancer, and one in 114 chance of having stomach cancer. That means if you are an American who has never smoked in their lifetime.

It is also further noted that these kinds of studies do not prove that smoking can directly cause esophageal and stomach cancer. To prove that, researchers have to intentionally expose their subjects to tobacco smoke and that can be questioned from the ethical stand-point.

However, Dr. Eva Negri, head researcher, insisted that the study still gives smokers one more good reason to quit and those who do not, to never start smoking.

A study conducted by the US National Cancer Institute confirms that the likelihood of developing a second cancer after radiation therapy is very low. The long-term study of about 600,000 cancer survivors showed that only 8 per cent of that population developed secondary cancer due to radiation therapy.

The researchers said that among many others, lifestyle and genetic risks are the ones that would likely pre-empt a second cancer.

Amy Berrington de Gonzales, lead researcher, said that the result of the study is a very powerful tool physicians may use to device a treatment plan for their patients. She further said that patients can now be assured that the benefits of undergoing radiation therapy outweigh its risks.

This is the first ever study that was able to quantify the risks that radiation treatment may cause.  It was published 30^th of March online on The Lancet Oncology.

The research was conducted for 30 years on many different kinds of cancer. Among them are prostate, breast, brain, cervical, and lung cancer. Researchers noticed that development of lung cancer also vary from one cancer type to another. For example, they noticed that it is more predominant among breast and cervical cancer patients.

Elizabeth Ward acknowledges the fact that radiation therapy post risks towards cancer patients. However, she is firm on saying that the benefits outweigh the risks. She also said that thanks to recent technology, we are now more successful on preserving healthy cells during radiation therapy.