"Concerns about the potential health effects of using cellular telephones were back in the news this summer. But these concerns - and specifically the suggestion that using a cell phone may increase a person's risk of developing brain cancer - are not supported by a growing body of research on the subject.

More than a dozen studies have explored the relationship between the use of cell phones and malignant or benign brain tumors. The majority of these have found little or no overall increased risk of brain tumors within the first 10 years of use. Studies now in the pipeline will yield information on longer-term use, as well as the first results involving children.

"We now have studies covering up to 10 years of cell phone usage, and we're still not seeing any convincing evidence of an increased brain cancer risk," said Dr. Peter Inskip of NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, who led one of the first studies on the subject. He recently briefed NCI's National Cancer Advisory Board on what is known and not known about cell phones and cancer.

A major unanswered question is how cell phones might contribute to cancer. Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, which is a form of electromagnetic radiation. While exposure to high levels of radio frequency energy can heat body tissues, the amount of radiofrequency energy produced by cell phones is too low to cause significant heating of tissue.

"The biological mechanism by which radiofrequency radiation might cause cancers is unknown and entirely a matter of speculation," said Dr. Inskip.

The controversy over cell phones and cancer started on national television in 1993, when Larry King interviewed a man who said that his wife's fatal brain tumor had been caused by her cell phone. The issue received considerable attention in the media, and cell phone stocks plummeted temporarily. Within a week, Congress had asked NCI and other agencies to investigate.

Dr. Inskip was at the time preparing a study to attempt to identify causes of brain cancer, and he added a component to assess cell phone usage. The results, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2001, showed no evidence of an association between recent cell phone use and brain cancer. The conclusion was supported by two other reports published at about the same time.

Since then, most studies have not found a link between cell phones and cancer. The studies have been launched largely in response to people's concerns that any negative health effects from this new technology would be a major public health issue. In the United States alone, there were more than 255 million cell phone subscribers last year, up from 110 million users in 2000 and 208 million in 2005.

Given this dramatic growth, researchers have looked for increases in the incidence of brain cancer in the U.S. population and found none. There was no upturn in the incidence of brain or other nervous system cancers between 1987 and 2005, according to data from NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program.

Another avenue of research has focused on people who were exposed to increased levels of radiofrequency energy in the workplace. Two such studies - one of employees in a factory manufacturing cell phones and the other of veteran Navy radar technicians exposed during the Korean War - showed no evidence of increased cancer risk.

Because cell phone technology is so new and has changed over time, larger studies are needed to answer questions about longer-term use. Answers may come from a series of multinational studies collectively known as the INTERPHONE study. While the combined analysis is not yet complete, some of the 13 participating countries have pooled their data and reported little or no effect on the risk of brain tumors.

Several European countries are also examining cell phone use in children and adolescents diagnosed with brain cancer. Children may be at greater risk of health effects than adults because their nervous systems are still developing at the time of exposure. In addition, young people may accumulate many years of exposure during their lifetimes.

For the future, it will be important to look for the consistency of results both within and across studies, said Dr. Inskip. "With more data and the ability to look at data in many different ways, some positive results are likely to occur simply by chance," he added.

Of all the potential health risks associated with cell phones that have been examined so far, the most convincing evidence concerns the risk of motor vehicle accidents among people distracted by using their cell phone while driving, Dr. Inskip noted."

—Edward R. Winstead

Source:  National Cancer Institute:  Sept. 23, 2008

Health care providers don't know exactly what causes SIDS, but they do know:

Fast facts about SIDS:

• SIDS is the leading cause of death in infants between 1 month and 1 year of age.
   

• Most SIDS deaths happen when babies are between 2 months and 4 months of age.
   

• African American babies are more than 2 times as likely to die of SIDS as white babies.
   

• Babies sleep safer on their backs. Babies who sleep on their stomachs are much more likely to die of SIDS than babies who sleep on their backs.
   

• Sleep surface matters. Babies who sleep on or under soft bedding are more likely to die of SIDS.
   

• Every sleep time counts.  Babies who usually sleep on their backs but who are then placed on their stomachs, like for a nap, are at a very high risk for SIDS.  So it is important for everyone who cares for your baby to use the back sleep position for naps and at night.
   

• Communities across the nation have made great progress in reducing SIDS! Since the Back to Sleep campaign began in 1994, the SIDS rate among African Americans has declined by nearly 50 percent.

  Safe Sleep Top 10

1.  Always place your baby on his or her back to sleep, for naps and at night. The back sleep position is the safest, and every sleep time counts. One of the easiest ways to lower your baby's risk of SIDS is to put him or her on the back to sleep, for naps and at night. Health care providers used to think that babies should sleep on their stomachs, but research now shows that babies are less likely to die of SIDS when they sleep on their backs. Placing your baby on his or her back to sleep is the number one way to reduce the risk of SIDS.     

But won't my baby choke if he or she sleeps on his or her back?
No. Healthy babies automatically swallow or cough up fluids. There has been no increase in choking or other problems for babies who sleep on their backs.

2.  Place your baby on a firm sleep surface, such as on a safety-approved* crib mattress, covered by a fitted sheet. Never place your baby to sleep on pillows, quilts, sheepskins, and other soft surfaces.    

3.  Keep soft objects, toys, and loose bedding out of your baby's sleep area. Don't use pillows, blankets, quilts, sheepskins, and pillow-like crib bumpers in your baby's sleep area, and keep any other items away from your baby's face.

4.  Do not allow smoking around your baby. Don't smoke before or after the birth of your baby, and don't let others smoke around your baby.

5.  Keep your baby's sleep area close to, but separate from, where you and others sleep. Your baby should not sleep in a bed or on a couch or armchair with adults or other children, but he or she can sleep in the same room as you. If you bring your baby in bed with you to breastfeed, put him or her back in a separate sleep area, such as a bassinet, crib, cradle, or a bedside cosleeper (infant bed that attaches to an adult bed) when finished.

6.  Think about using a clean, dry pacifier when placing the infant down to sleep, but don't force the baby to take it. (If you are breastfeeding your baby, wait until your child is 1 month old or is used to breastfeeding before using a pacifier.)

7.  Do not let your baby overheat during sleep. Dress your baby in light sleep clothing, and keep the room at a temperature that is comfortable for an adult.

8. Avoid products that claim to reduce the risk of SIDS because most have not been tested for effectiveness or safety.

9.  Do not use home monitors to reduce the risk of SIDS. If you have questions about using monitors for other conditions talk to your health care provider.

10.Reduce the chance that flat spots will develop on your baby's head: provide "Tummy Time" when your baby is awake and someone is watching; change the direction that your baby lies in the crib from one week to the next; and avoid too much time in car seats, carriers, and bouncers.

Your Infant Needs Tummy Time

Place babies on their stomach when they are awake and someone is watching.  Tummy time helps the baby's head and neck muscles get stronger and prevents flat spots on the head.

For more information on crib safety, contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission at 1-800-638-2772.

Make sure everyone who cares for your baby knows the Safe Sleep Top 10! Tell grandparents, babysitters, childcare providers, and other caregivers to always place your baby on his or her back to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS. Babies who usually sleep on their backs but who are then placed on their stomachs, even for a nap, are at very high risk for SIDS—so every sleep time counts!

For more information , click here:

For more information on sleep position for babies and reducing the risk of SIDS, contact the Back to Sleep campaign at:
1-800-505-CRIB
31 Center Drive, Room 2A32
Bethesda, MD 20892-2425
Fax: (301) 496-7101
Web site: www.nichd.nih.gov
 

Source:  Back to Sleep campaign sponsors include:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Maternal and Child Health Bureau.,
American Academy of Pediatrics • SIDS Alliance
Association of SIDS and Infant Mortality Programs

Source:  N.I.H.

Obesity is becoming a global epidemic in both children and adults. It is associated with numerous comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD), type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers, and sleep apnea/sleep-disordered breathing. In fact, obesity is an independent risk factor for CVD, and CVD risks have also been documented in obese children. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality as well as reduced life expectancy. Health service use and medical costs associated with obesity and related diseases have risen dramatically and are expected to continue to rise. Besides an altered metabolic profile, a variety of adaptations/alterations in cardiac structure and function occur in the individual as adipose tissue accumulates in excess amounts, even in the absence of comorbidities. Hence, obesity may affect the heart through its influence on known risk factors such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, glucose intolerance, inflammatory markers, obstructive sleep apnea/hypoventilation, and the prothrombotic state, in addition to as-yet-unrecognized mechanisms. On the whole, overweight and obesity predispose to or are associated with numerous cardiac complications such as coronary heart disease, heart failure, and sudden death because of their impact on the cardiovascular system. The pathophysiology of these entities that are linked to obesity will be discussed. However, the cardiovascular clinical evaluation of obese patients may be limited because of the morphology of the individual. In this statement, we review the available evidence of the impact of obesity on CVD with emphasis on the evaluation of cardiac structure and function in obese patients and the effect of weight loss on the cardiovascular system.
 

Herbs At A Glance is a series of fact sheets from the National Institutes of Health that provides basic information about specific herbs or botanicals - common names, uses, potential side effects and other resources for more information: 
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