Back pain linked to risky behaviours in teenagers: Study

Does your adolescent son or daughter suffer from back pain often? Beware, he or she may be more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and report problems like anxiety and depression.

BS | Although often dismissed as trivial and fleeting, adolescent back pain is responsible for substantial health care use, school absence, and interference with day-to-day activities in some children.

The findings showed that the rising frequency of pain increasing the proportion of participants reporting smoking, drinking, and missing school rose.

For example, 14-15 year olds that experienced pain more than once a week were 2-3 times more likely to have drunk alcohol or smoked in the past month than those who rarely or never had pain.

Similarly, students that experienced pain more than once a week were around twice as likely to have missed school in the previous term.

The trend with anxiety and depression was less clear, although there was a marked difference between the children who reported no pain, and those who reported frequent pain, the researchers said.

“Findings like this provide an argument that we should be including pain in the broader conversation about adolescent health,” said lead author Steven Kamper from the University of Sydney in Australia.

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Back pain linked to substance abuse in teenagers

Adolescents who experience back pain are more likely to frequently smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and report problems like anxiety and depression.

BS | A new study noted that during adolescence, the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain (pain arising from the bones, joints or muscles) in general, and back pain, in particular, rises steeply. Although often dismissed as trivial and fleeting, adolescent back pain is responsible for substantial health care use, school absence, and interference with day-to-day activities in some children.

Researchers used data collected from approximately 6500 teenagers. The proportion of participants reporting smoking, drinking, and missing school rose incrementally with increasing frequency of pain.++

For example, 14 to 15-year-olds who experienced pain more than once a week were 2-3 times more likely to have had alcohol or smoked in the past month than those who rarely or never had pain. Similarly, students who experienced pain more than once a week were around twice as likely to have missed school in the previous term.

The trend with anxiety and depression was less clear, although there was a marked difference between the children who reported no pain and those who reported frequent pain.

Back pain and unhealthy behaviors not only occur together but also track into adulthood. This means that they are responsible for current issues, and also have implications for future health. Adolescent back pain may play a role in characterizing overall poor health, and risk of chronic disease throughout life.

Lead author, Steven Kamper said, “Findings like this provide an argument that we should be including pain in the broader conversation about adolescent health.”

The researchers involved with the study believe this is of concern because the developing brain may be susceptible to negative influences of toxic substances, and use in early adolescence may increase the risk of substance abuse and mental health problems in later life.

The full findings are present in the Journal of Public Health.

Brain reward response may impact anorexia nervosa

A new study has found that the brain’s response to taste stimuli is linked to high anxiety and a drive for thinness that could play a role in driving anorexia nervosa.

The researchers, led by Dr. Guido Frank, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine, monitored a large group of patients with anorexia nervosa as they tasted sugar during brain imaging.

Frank found that as these patients restricted their diet, a brain reward circuit associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine becomes more active but also triggers anxiety. This makes food avoidance worse and perpetuates the often deadly disease.

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The researchers found their brain response was higher than those in the control group, representing a biological marker for the illness. At the same time, this brain response was related to high anxiety and less weight gain for those being treated for anorexia nervosa.

“When you lose weight your brain reward response goes up,” said Frank. “But instead of driving eating, we believe it elevates anxiety in anorexia nervosa, which makes them want to restrict more. This becomes then a vicious cycle.”…READ SOURCE

Feeling faint while standing up linked with dementia risk: Study

Any sudden drop in blood pressure in middle-aged people, which makes them feel faint, dizzy or light-headed while standing up, could be a sign of increased risk of dementia or stroke later, say researchers.

The findings suggested that people who experienced the blood pressure drop — known as orthostatic hypotension — had a 54 per cent higher risk of developing dementia.

They were also found to be at two times higher risk of developing ischemic stroke, which occurs when a blood vessel carrying blood to the brain is blocked by a blood clot.

“Orthostatic hypotension has been linked to heart disease, fainting and falls, so we wanted to conduct a large study to determine if this form of low blood pressure was also linked to problems in the brain, specifically dementia,” said Andreea Rawlings, from the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, US.

For the study, published in the journal Neurology, the team analysed data from 11,709 people with an average age of 54 years, who were followed for an average of 25 years.

The participants were instructed to lie down for 20 minutes and then stand up in a smooth, swift motion….READ FULL STORY

Ultrasound applied to brain may help patients with dementia

Patients suffering from dementia can now be treated with the ultrasound applied to the brain.

Ultrasound waves, applied to the whole brain, improve cognitive dysfunction in mice with conditions simulating vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The research, conducted by scientists at Tohoku University in Japan, suggested that this type of therapy may also benefit humans.

Led by cardiologist Hiroaki Shimokawa, the team found that applying low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) to the whole brain of the mice improved blood vessel formation and nerve cell regeneration without having obvious side effects.

“The LIPUS therapy is a non-invasive physiotherapy that could apply to high-risk elderly patients without the need for surgery or anesthesia, and could be used repeatedly,” said Shimokawa.

Dementia affects about 50 million people worldwide, with 10 million new cases occurring every year.

Shimokawa and his team had conducted previous studies showing that LIPUS improved blood vessel formation in pigs with myocardial ischemia, a condition where there is reduced blood flow to the heart.

The researchers conclude that their study has provided the first experimental evidence that whole-brain LIPUS therapy markedly improves cognitive dysfunctions without serious side effects by enhancing specific cells related to dementia’s pathology….READ FULL SOURCE