Chronic health problems soar in children

The number of U.S. children with chronic health conditions has risen dramatically in the past four decades, according to a new report.

The new research shows that childrens will become so disabled their quality of life will suffer, and their needs will tax our health care and welfare programs in the future.

"We have 80 million children in America today, and about 8%, or 6.5 million children and adolescents, have chronic conditions that interfere with regular daily activities," says James M. Perrin, MD, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He is the lead author of the report, a commentary that appears in the June 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The issue is devoted to the topic of pediatric chronic disease.

If children with chronic conditions not severe enough to be disabling are counted, chronic conditions affect about 18% of American teens and children in all, Perrin says.

The new numbers, Perrin says, represent a "huge increase" from previous generations. In 1960, for instance, fewer than 2% of U.S. children and teens had a chronic health condition.

Top 3 ProblemsUsing multiple data sources, Perrin and his co-authors found that:

• Obesity affects at least 18% of children and teens, increasing from about 5% affected in 1971-1974.
• Asthma now affects nearly 9% of children and teens, a doubling since the 1980s.
• About 6% of school-aged children have a reported diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In 1960, there was no entry for the condition in the established manual used to diagnose mental problems.

Source: www.medical-health-care-information.com

Helping your child through puberty

In girls, puberty typically happens somewhere around age 11; for boys, somewhere around age 12. Puberty causes various hormonal changes in youngsters that can be difficult for them to deal with.

Here are suggestions to help your child through puberty, courtesy of the American Academy of Family Physicians:

• Try to help your child improve self-esteem. Mention that everyone's body is different and changes differently, and that you love him or her just the way they are.
• Explain to your child that what is happening is normal
• Tell your child that you will help with any physical or emotional problem.
• Set up an appointment with a family doctor or counselor if you think your child is having a difficult time adjusting, either emotionally or physically.

Source: www.medical-health-care-information.com

Long-term use of Psoriasis drug called safe

Patients who used the psoriasis drug Enbrel for more than a year had no more adverse effects than patients taking a placebo, a new study found.

Enbrel (etanercept) is a drug that blocks tumor necrosis factor, a pro-inflammatory cytokine. People with an immune disease, such as psoriasis, have too much tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in their bodies. Enbrel reduces the amount of TNF to normal levels, but it can also lower the ability of the immune system to fight infections.

In the trial, Tyring's team randomly assigned 618 people with psoriasis to 12 weeks of treatment with Enbrel or a placebo. The patents received 50 milligrams of Enbrel twice a week. After the initial 12 weeks of treatment, 591 patients from both groups continued to receive Enbrel for 84 weeks.

The study researchers found that people receiving Enbrel or a placebo had a similar number of adverse reactions, including serious infections. "There was not a problem with increased infections or any other adverse events in using the drug for the long term, and this is at the higher dosage of 100 milligrams a week," Trying said.

What's more, by the end of the trial, the psoriasis had improved at least 75 percent for 51.1 percent of the original Enbrel group and 51.6 percent of the original placebo group.
The findings are published in the June issue of the Archives of Dermatology.

Tyring noted that Enbrel is not usually used alone, as it was in this trial, but in combination with other drugs, such as creams, as well as with light therapy. "So, in real life, we see better results," he said.

The main drawback to long-term Enbrel treatment is cost, Tyring said. "Like all five biological treatments for psoriasis, Enbrel is expensive, and if the patient doesn't have insurance, it is difficult to keep using this dosage and perhaps even a lower dosage," he said.

According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, Enbrel can cost $10,000 to $25,000 a year or more, depending on the dose and how often it is taken.

One skin disease expert agreed that long-term use of Enbrel is safe and effective, even at the higher dose.

"Physicians would love to use the drug this way," said Dr. Jeffrey M. Weinberg, director of the clinical research center in the department of dermatology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, in New York City. "The limiting factor is cost," he added.

Some patients do well on 50 milligrams a week, Weinberg said. "But many people do better at the higher dose, especially those who weigh more," he said. "About 40 percent of patients would benefit from the higher dose."

Source: www.epsdrugstore.com

FDA OKs blood pressure drug

Patients who suffer from a rare disease that causes continuous high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs received a new treatment choice Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration said it approved Letairis to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. The condition causes continuous high blood pressure in the arteries that carry oxygen-poor blood from the heart to the lungs. As the arteries narrow, the heart must pump harder, which weakens it with time. The disease affects about 100,000 people in the United States.

The drug, known generically as ambrisentan, is made by Gilead Sciences Inc., based in Foster City, Calif. The company said the drug would be available next week.

The drug comes with strong warnings as it may cause birth defects and shouldn't be used by women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. It also can cause liver damage. Patients taking the once-daily tablets must undergo monthly blood tests to check for injury to the liver, the FDA said.

A second pharmaceutical company, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., was awaiting word on whether its drug to treat the same condition had been approved. The status of that drug, Thelin, or sitaxsentan sodium, wasn't immediately clear Friday. An FDA spokeswoman referred questions on the drug's status to the company. A spokesman said the Houston company had heard nothing.

Other approved medications to treat the condition include Tracleer and Revatio, a lower dose of the same key ingredient in the impotency pill Viagra.

Source: www.epsdrugstore.com

Sneaking veggies into children's diets

Trying to boost your child's foods consumption?
You may want to reach for your food processor.

Kids don't necessarily notice when steamed broccoli and cauliflower are blended into their pasta sauce, a new study shows.

As a result, the kids eat more vegetables without knowing it.The study comes from Kathleen Leahy and Barbara Rolls, PhD, of Pennsylvania State University.

Leahy is a nutrition sciences graduate student; Rolls is a professor of nutrition sciences.Leahy designed the study, which included 61 children aged 3-5.The researchers served the children lunch one day per week for four weeks.

The lunches all included a pasta dish.

Stealthy Sauce
The children didn't know it, but Leahy's team snuck broccoli and cauliflower into the pasta sauces in some of the lunches.To make the sauce, the researchers steamed frozen broccoli and frozen cauliflower for seven minutes, following the directions on the frozen veggies' package.

Next, they used a food processor to blend the steamed broccoli and cauliflower into the tomato sauce.The finished sauce included "very tiny pieces" of broccoli and cauliflower, says Leahy

"You couldn't tell that is was in there, visually. It was pretty imperceptible”."We didn't tell them anything about it, and the preferences for the two pastas were pretty much the same," Leahy says.

"They didn't really prefer one version of the pasta over the other, so both were equally accepted".The researchers also made some of the pastas with low-fat dairy products. Again, the children didn't notice.The bottom line: They consumed fewer calories and more vegetables when broccoli and cauliflower were blended into the pasta sauce.

Partial Solution
Leahy and Rolls don't recommend trying to conceal all veggies in children's diet."It is still important to keep children exposed to vegetables on a regular basis and have them eat them with their parents," Leahy says.Rolls agrees.

"I wouldn't advocate that this is the only way parents try to get kids to eat fruits and vegetables.

They still need to sit down and eat fruits and vegetables, eat the real thing, because otherwise the kid's never going to even know what a piece of broccoli or cauliflower looks like. So this is one strategy to get their intake up, but it shouldn't certainly be the only strategy," says Rolls, who is also the author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan: Techniques and Recipes for Feeling Full on Fewer Calories.

"We want them to learn to like vegetables that may take time. Research has shown that children may not try a vegetable until they've seen it 10 to 15 times. It's something you have to be persistent with," says Leahy.

Source: www.medical-health-care-information.com

FDA clears critical therapeutics asthma drug

The FDA has approved Critical Therapetics' asthma treatment Zyflo CR extended-release tablets.

Critical Therapeutics, together with its co-promotion partner Dey, said that it expects to begin marketing Zyflo CR in the US in the fall of 2007.

Zyflo CR and Zyflo (zileuton tablets) are the only FDA-approved leukotriene synthesis inhibitors for the prophylaxis and chronic treatment of asthma in adults and children 12 years of age and older. Leukotrienes are inflammatory mediators in asthma that can trigger asthma symptoms, including inflammation, swelling, bronchoconstriction and mucus secretion.

Zyflo CR uses SkyePharma's Geomatrix drug delivery technology, which controls the amount and rate of drug released into the body.

Frank Thomas, Critical Therapeutics' president and CEO, said: "Supported by our co-promotion partnership with Dey, I believe that Zyflo CR's twice daily dosing regimen will allow us to establish it as an important option in the asthma market and significantly expand our patient base."

In March 2007, Critical Therapeutics and Dey, an affiliate of Germany-based Merck KGaA, entered into an agreement for the co-promotion of Zyflo CR and Zyflo, the immediate-release formulation of zileuton.

Source: www.epsdrugstore.com