Kids and Killer Hot Dogs? 3 Tips to Prevent Choking on Food
It's easy to giggle over the killer-hot-dog headlines that have been sparked by the American Academy of Pediatrics' new recommendation that to prevent choking, hot dogs should come with a warning label. What would it say—"Choking on this hot dog may be hazardous to your child's health"?
But it is likely that most parents have had the awful experience of seeing a child's face suddenly turn red when a piece of food "went down the wrong pipe," U.S. News contributor Nancy Shute writes. Choking is a leading cause of injury and death in young children, and food is one of the main culprits, causing 60 percent of the 17,000 choking cases that land kids in the emergency room each year. Each year, between 66 and 77 children under age 10 die from choking on food. And because of the cylindrical shape that seems custom-made to lodge in a kid's throat, hot dogs are the food most commonly associated with fatal choking among children. Read more.
[Read 5 Ways to Make Kids' Media Use Safe and Healthy and 6 Ways Parents Can Help Kids Cope With Social Cruelty.]
Acupuncture May Help Alleviate Depression During Pregnancy
About 1 in 7 pregnant women experiences full-blown depression during pregnancy and must make the difficult choice about whether to take drugs to treat it. Take antidepressants and risk the small possibility of fetal malformations, cardiac defects, and reduced birth weight? Or forgo the drugs and risk suffering disabling symptoms that have been shown to increase a baby's chances of showing irritability, low activity levels, and poor attentiveness during the first year of life?
Depressed pregnant women may have another option: acupuncture. A new study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that depressed pregnant women who had specifically designed acupuncture treatments experienced significant relief from their symptoms, compared with those who had control treatments like standard acupuncture or massage, U.S. News's Deborah Kotz reports.
The study of 150 pregnant volunteers found that 63 percent of those who received depression-specific acupuncture treatments (one to two times per week for eight weeks) felt a lifting of their symptoms, compared with 44 percent of those who had either control treatment. That puts acupuncture on par with antidepressants—but without the risks to the fetus. Read more.
[Read Acupuncture May Relieve Heartburn in Pregnancy and Coping With Depression During Pregnancy.]
5 Risks Linked to Diabetes Medications Like Lantus, Avandia, Actos
Internal Food and Drug Administration documents published over the weekend raised new concern about the diabetes drug Avandia, which has been linked to heart problems. Agency officials who authored the reports want the drug removed from the market, but the FDA says patients taking Avandia should not stop, the Wall Street Journal reports.
In July, U.S. News's January Payne wrote about the health risks that may be associated with certain diabetes drugs. Last June, for example, studies published online by the journal Diabetologia raised questions about a possible link between the diabetes medication Lantus (insulin glargine) and an increased risk of cancer.
The safety worries about these diabetes medications come from scientific studies of varying designs. Some of the research, like that on Lantus and cancer, is based on observational data, which is not always reliable. The concern about Avandia, on the other hand, comes from clinical trials, which are the gold standard of research, and meta-analyses. Read more.
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