Smoking During Pregnancy Affects Sons' Sperm Count

In the study, sons of smokers also tended to have lower levels of a hormone that has been linked to sperm production and to have sperm that was less dense than average, researchers report.

"There has been an apparent decline in sperm density during the last five decades in Denmark, a country in which women have among the highest rates of smoking in Europe," Dr. Lone Storgaard, of Aarhus University Hospital, and colleagues note in the journal Epidemiology.

The researchers collected a semen sample and a blood sample from each of 316 men between November 1999 and May 2000. Mothers of 265 of the men completed questionnaires on how much they smoked during pregnancy.

After adjusting for age, current smoking status and various other factors, the investigators found that sperm density was 48 percent lower among sons of mothers who smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day during pregnancy compared with those whose mothers did not smoke.

Men whose mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day also had lower total sperm counts and lower levels of inhibin B, a hormone that has been linked to sperm production.

These effects were not seen in the sons of women who smoked one to 10 cigarettes per day when they were pregnant, Storgaard and colleagues note.

Storgaard's team speculates that components of tobacco smoke may somehow affect fetal cells that are important for sperm production later in life.

SOURCE: Epidemiology 2003;14:278-286.

Healthy Eating Saves on Future Health Costs

With 20 percent of the U.S. population estimated to be 60 or older by the year 2030, the potential to contain healthcare costs by adopting a healthy lifestyle and eating habits earlier in life has important implications for future containment of escalating healthcare costs, the study investigators note.

The researchers found that middle-aged men with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables (at least 42 cups per month, 1 1/2 cups per day) had the lowest total annual Medicare charges ($11,416) later on in life and the lowest charges specifically related to heart disease.

In contrast, the men with the lowest intake of fruits and vegetables (fewer than 14 cups per month, 1/2 cups per day) had the highest total annual Medicare charges ($14,655). The men in the middle group (14 to 42 cups per month, 1/2 - 1 1/2 cups per day) had total annual Medicare charges of $12,622.

These findings were independent of several cardiovascular risk factors, such as obesity, cholesterol, blood pressure and smoking.

"Healthy eating previously has been inversely related to mortality for heart disease and total mortality and, in some studies, to cancer," Dr. Kiang Liu of the Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago told Reuters Health.

"Here for the first time we showed that it is not only related inversely to disease, but also inversely related to healthcare costs in older age," said Liu, who presented the findings at the American Heart Association Second Asia Pacific Scientific Forum in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Liu and colleagues used data from the Health Care Financing Administration for 1984 to 2000 to estimate average annual healthcare cost for 1,070 men who were at least 65 years old. At entry in the study in the late 1950s, the men were between 40 and 55 years of age and did not have heart disease.

Liu told Reuters Health that this study builds on a previous study that he and his colleagues conducted that showed that the level of health risk factors during middle age or younger is associated with healthcare costs later on in life.

Iron-Rich Diet May Raise Risk of Parkinson's

People who consumed high levels of iron and manganese were almost twice as likely to develop the disease as those with a diet that contained lower levels of the two minerals.

Sometimes people end up with overly high levels of vitamins and minerals because they overdo multivitamin supplements, said the study's lead author Karen M. Powers, a research scientist in the department of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle.

In this study, iron levels were high in some cases because people were taking more than one multivitamin or a multivitamin and an iron supplement, Powers said in an interview with Reuters Health.

"Iron and manganese are (each) known to be a neurotoxin in high amounts," Powers said. "When both are high, the effect is more than it would be if you just added the two together."

For the new study, researchers compared 250 people who had been newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease to 388 similar people who did not have the disease.

All 638 people were asked about the foods they ate and the supplements they consumed.

Those who had the highest levels of dietary iron were 1.7 times more likely to have developed Parkinson's than people who consumed the least iron, the researchers report in the journal Neurology.

People who consumed higher than normal levels of iron and manganese were 1.9 times as likely to have developed Parkinson's as people with lower levels of the minerals in their diets.

People who consumed above-average levels of iron and took at least one multivitamin or iron supplement each day were about twice as likely to develop Parkinson's than people with below-average iron consumption who did not usually take supplements.

People shouldn't try to eliminate the two minerals from their diets because of the new results, Powers said.

"We need iron and manganese," Powers said. "But many people think if a little bit of something is good, then a lot is better."

Powers also noted that the purpose of the study was not to develop dietary guidelines, but rather, to try to learn more about the causes of Parkinson's.

Iron and manganese both can contribute to oxidative stress, Powers said. Oxidative stress results when toxic substances called free radicals are released as part of energy consumption and metabolism.

Powers noted that in people with Parkinson's, cells that make a brain chemical called dopamine degenerate over time. "Generally a person who has Parkinson's has lost more than half of these cells," Powers said.

Some researchers suspect that oxidative stress may be involved in the degeneration of the dopamine cells, Powers said. And the fact that iron and manganese raise the risk of Parkinson's suggests that oxidative stress may, indeed, be part of the process, she added.

Parkinson's disease causes tremors, muscle rigidity and movement problems. The underlying cause is the slow loss of neurons that produce dopamine, which is involved in movement. Treatment with levodopa, a precursor of dopamine that the brain can use to produce the brain chemical, can alleviate Parkinson's symptoms. However, levodopa does not slow the progression of the disease.

SOURCE: Neurology 2003;60:1761-1766.

For Teens, Dinner with Family Means Healthier Diet

Prior research has shown that children who do not eat dinner with their families are more likely to eat so-called TV dinners that require little or no preparation and that may be less nutritious.

The current findings suggest that family mealtimes may help adolescents eat healthier fare.

"Parents should make a concerted effort to coordinate schedules and bring the family together for mealtimes," Dr. Tami M. Videon told Reuters Health. "Family mealtimes are an opportunity to provide healthful choices as well as an example of healthful eating."

Now a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and Montefiore Medical Center, Videon conducted the research while at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Videon and co-author Carolyn K. Manning analyzed dietary information from more than 18,000 adolescents who were involved in the ongoing National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Twenty percent of the adolescents said they usually skipped breakfast, the researchers report in the Journal of Adolescent Health. More than 70 percent said they had eaten fewer than two vegetable servings the previous day; 55 percent said they had eaten fewer than two servings of fruits; and 47 percent said they had eaten fewer than two servings of dairy foods.

Those who reported eating more than three meals a week with at least one parent present, however, were more likely to eat breakfast regularly and more likely to report healthier eating habits, the study findings indicate.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services recommend that older children and adults eat three to five servings of vegetables, two to four servings of fruit and two to three servings of dairy foods every day.

Adolescents who reported eating four or five weekly meals with their parents were about 20 percent less likely than their peers to skip fruits, vegetables and dairy foods.

And, the researchers note, their fruit, vegetable and dairy consumption increased along with their number of family meals.

Nearly 70 percent ate at least four family meals per week, but about 30 percent of the teens said they ate fewer than three meals with a parent present, the report indicates.

In other findings, teenagers who were allowed to make their own decisions about what they ate were 25 percent more likely to skip breakfast, but they were no more likely than their peers to report a poor intake of fruits, vegetables or dairy products.

"Therefore, parents should not control what food adolescents are allowed to eat, but instead offer healthful options at mealtimes and be an example of good eating," Videon said.

SOURCE: Journal of Adolescent Health 2003;32:365-373.

Plant Estrogens Don't Cool Hot Flashes

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jun 2- Advised to avoid hormone replacement therapy, breast cancer survivors often look to herbal remedies that contain estrogen-like chemicals called phytoestrogens to quell menopausal hot flashes.

But these plant-derived substances are no more likely than a placebo to cool hot flashes, according to a study published in the June issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In theory, phytoestrogens would seem to be the perfect choice for breast cancer survivors, according to the new study's lead author, Dr. Eini Nikander, a researcher in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Helsinki University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland.

That's because the estrogens from plants don't bind well to receptors in the uterus, breasts or ovaries, Nikander said in an interview with Reuters Health.

But they do lock on to estrogen receptors in a variety of other spots in the body, including the brain and the bones.

"That's why they shouldn't have, at least in theory, much effect on breast cancer cells," Nikander said.

For the new study, Nikander and her colleagues followed 56 women who had been treated for breast cancer. The women were randomly assigned to either a group that received phytoestrogens or one that received placebo tablets.

After three months the groups received no therapy for two months and then switched treatments for the next three months.

During the study, the researchers interviewed the women about menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes.

When the researchers compared the effects of placebo and phytoestrogen on menopausal symptoms, they found no difference.

Some might argue that it takes longer than three months for phytoestrogens to quell hot flashes, Nikander said. But traditional hormone replacement therapy improves hot flashes within days, she added.

The new results leave breast cancer survivors with few choices to help them deal with menopausal symptoms.

"The only healthy alternatives are less alcohol, stress and coffee and more sleep and exercise," Nikander said.

Nikander said that some medications may relieve hot flashes in some women, including beta-blockers and antidepressants called SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. SSRIs include Paxil (paroxetine), Prozac (fluoxetine) and Zoloft (sertraline).

SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology 2003;101:1213-1220.

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