Women Benefit More Than Men from Quitting Smoking

Researchers found that women's breathing improved more than twice as much as men's after kicking the habit, according to the study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Women may benefit from quitting more than men because they seem to be more susceptible to damage from cigarette smoking in the first place, according to Gail Weinmann, director of the Airway Biology and Disease Program in the Division of Lung Diseases at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which sponsored the study.

"The message people should take from this study is that it's never too late to quit," Weinmann said in an interview with Reuters Health. "Quitting helps everyone."

For the multi-center study, researchers led by John Connett of the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, followed more than 5,300 middle-aged smokers for five years. All the participants in the study had mild or moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD, which includes emphysema, is a gradual, progressive disease that makes breathing increasingly more difficult with time, Weinmann explained.

"Sometimes there is obstruction in the lungs, sometimes it's in the airways," she added.

COPD is the fourth most common cause of death in the United States. And smoking is the leading cause of COPD.

During the course of the study, 611 men and 313 women permanently quit smoking. Another 916 men and 592 women quit intermittently.

In the first year after quitting, women's lung function improved more than twice that of the men's. That difference leveled out some during the five years of the study.

Compared to smokers, those who quit lost less lung function during the course of the study. Women, though, actually gained lung function during the five years of study.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 157:973-979.

Many Misinformed About 'Morning-After Pill'

However, more than one third of adults incorrectly believe the pills are either a form of abortion or cause severe side effects. And only 38 percent of those surveyed said they might take the pills if needed.

Emergency contraception, sometimes called morning-after or day-after pills, are high doses of ordinary birth control pills. If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, they can prevent pregnancy.

Overall, awareness of the pills appears to be higher in Argentina than in other Latin American countries or even in some populations in America.

"(Day-after pills) are known vaguely by their name, but there is a lot of ignorance and confusion about their effects," said María José Lubertino, coordinator of the survey and president of the non-governmental organization Instituto Social y Político de la Mujer, in Buenos Aires.

Fifty-five percent of Argentinians still consider morning-after pills to be a form of abortion. However, it is thought that the pills prevent pregnancy by halting ovulation or possibly keeping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.

"And you have to realize that fertilization is not the same as conception," Angeles Cabria, senior program officer of the Pacific Institute for Women's Health, in Los Angeles, told Reuters Health. Cabria also heads the Latin American Consortium for Emergency Contraception (CLAE).

The safety of the pills is another matter of concern, according to the survey.

Thirty-five percent of people think the pills have serious side effects, such as hormonal imbalances, sterility, allergy or cancer. In reality, side effects are rare and consist mostly of nausea and sometimes vomiting.

"Women seem to think that they have to pay some price for being allowed to have such freedom," Lubertino said. "We plan to start a massive communicational campaign (about emergency contraception) focused on the groups who need it most," she added.

Two emergency contraceptive products -- specially packaged doses of the pills -- are currently on the Argentine market. They include Imediat-N and Norgestrel Max, made by the local companies Gador and Biotenk, respectively.

Many other people use the Yuzpe method, which consists of high doses of conventional birth control pills.

Last year, the nation's supreme court ruled that an emergency contraceptive was to be forbidden in Argentina because it caused abortion. The ruling attracted national media attention and raised awareness of the method. But the rule has never been put into practice because it only applied to a product that has been retired from the market.

Even though abortion is illegal in Argentina, around 500,000 Argentine women are thought to terminate their pregnancies annually. Between 50,000 and 80,000 women are treated in public hospitals as a result of complications of the clandestine procedures.

About 30 percent of all maternal deaths are considered to be due to illegal abortion.

Results of the survey, which included 1,025 men and women older than 18, were presented here last week at a hormonal emergency contraception meeting organized by CLAE.

Housework Can Help Prevent Cancer, Say Scientists

According to a new Australian-Chinese study, dusting and vacuuming could help prevent ovarian cancer.

The study, published in the International Journal of Cancer this week, found moderate exercise such as housework decreased the risk of ovarian cancer with the benefits increasing the harder the work.

Head researcher Colin Binns from Perth's Curtin University on Australia's west coast said the two-year study of 900 Chinese women found the risk of ovarian cancer declined with increasing physical activity. Housework was on the list.

"If you are only doing the housework 20 minutes a week ... it does not really count, but if you are doing three to four hours a day, this is fairly vigorous exercise and increases protection from ovarian cancer," Binns told Reuters.

The study was carried out at Xhejiang University Hospital in Hangzhou in Xhejiang Province just south of Shanghai.

Binns said the study backed the previously disputed idea that exercise helped stave off ovarian cancer and, possibly, other hormone-related female cancers such as of the cervix and uterus.

He said the reason was unknown but suggested it could be because exercise prevented excess fat storage, which influenced hormonal activity. The immune system may also be enhanced through exercise, he said.

Chubby Babies at Risk for Staying That Way

Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (news - web sites) suggests that newborns who have bulked up by 4 months of age are twice as likely to tip the scales 20 years later when compared to babies who gain weight more slowly.

Dr. Nicolas Stettler, the lead author of the report, cautions that it is too early to tell if a chubby infancy represents the start of a growing problem. But given the clear-cut advantages of preventing obesity rather than fighting it later, Stettler explained to Reuters Health that good habits are best instilled early on.

"This could be a critical time in the development of obesity," said Stettler, a nutrition specialist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "Gaining weight rapidly at such a young age is associated with permanent changes that may make it harder to regulate appetite and energy balance."

Stettler's team followed several hundred African American children who were born in Philadelphia around 1960. Obesity rates continue to soar for every age group and race, but the risks of heart disease and other obesity-related problems are particularly hard felt by minorities, especially African Americans.

Researchers collected weight-related information on the children at birth, 4 months, 1 year, and 7 years of age. Nearly two decades later, Stettler and his colleague took a fresh set of measurements and then compared them to what the study participants weighed in the past.

The now grown-up participants were considered obese if they had a body mass index of 30 or greater, plus a substantial amount of body fat. Body mass index is a measure of weight that takes height into consideration.

Infants who gained more than eight to 10 pounds in the first four months of life doubled their chance for being obese by the time they turned 20 years of age. After controlling for other possible causes, such as a heavy birth weight or a mother who weighed more than normal during pregnancy, the researchers estimate that one third of adult obesity was directly related to the rapid weight gain of early childhood.

In an editorial that accompanied the paper, Dr. Jack Yanovski, a growth and obesity expert at the National Institutes of Health (news - web sites), argues that the small study size makes it hard to draw firm conclusions. When Stettler's team included stout 7 year olds in their analysis, for example, infant weight gain did not appear to be a significant cause of adult obesity.

But the results "may ultimately help us to identify children at unusual risk of adult obesity," Yanovski concluded.

Stettler suggests there could be a solution already. The participants in his study mostly grew up on baby formula, which has been linked to faster weight gain compared with infants who are breast fed.

"If you breast feed the child will stop when it's had enough, while a mother may overfeed with formula," said Stettler. "This may override the internal cue that causes individuals to overeat later in life."

Stettler does not discount the fact that many other important factors can lead to obesity, such as a sedentary lifestyle and too many visits to fast food restaurants. But mothers who breast feed their children for the first six months, a practice that has been endorsed by pediatrician groups, might prevent their kids from eventually leaving the house severely overweight.

"Breast feeding can help teach a child how to regulate food intake," said Stettler.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2003;77:1350-1351,1374-1378.

Victims of Bullying More Often Depressed, Suicidal

More than 40 percent of girls who were frequently hit, kicked, threatened or called names said they were depressed and almost 25 percent said they thought about suicide, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics.

The numbers were only slightly lower when bullies used more indirect means -- such as ignoring, excluding and backbiting -- to torment their victims.

Among girls who were often the target of indirect bullying, 35 percent said they were depressed and 21 percent said they had suicidal thoughts.

Among girls who said they were almost never bullied directly, only about 6 percent reported depression and 4 percent said they thought about suicide.

The new results show that teachers and other school personnel need to pay more attention to the various forms of bullying, according to the study's lead author, Marcel F. van der Wal, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and health promotion at the Municipal Health Service in Amsterdam.

"They especially need to pay more attention to indirect forms of bullying," van der Wal said in an interview with Reuters Health. "Teachers do not always consider social exclusion to be a form of bullying. Or, they consider this form of bullying to be less harmful."

Bullying also caused distress to boys, but not as frequently.

Among boys who were frequent victims of more direct forms of bullying, 22 percent said they were depressed. Just under 28 percent of those who were indirectly bulled reported depression. About 3 percent of the non-bullied boys felt depressed.

Just over 13 percent of boys who were often the target of direct bullying and almost 18 percent of those who were often the target of indirect bullying said they thought of suicide.

The researchers also looked at the psychology of the bullies. Just over 10 percent of boys who bullied -- whether it was direct or indirect bullying -- said they thought about suicide. This is compared to approximately 3 percent of boys who didn't bully their classmates.

For the new study, van der Wal and his colleagues surveyed 4, 811 school children who were aged 9 to 13.

SOURCE: Pediatrics 2003;111:1312-1317.

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