CHICAGO: Use of prescription sleep aids nearly tripled among young adults between 1998 and 2006, according to a study released by the healthcare
business arm of Thomson Reuters.

\"Insomnia, a condition traditionally associated with older adults, appears to be causing larger numbers of young adults to turn to prescription sleep aids, and to depend on them for longer periods of time,\" said William Marder, senior vice-president and general manager for the healthcare business of Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters News.

A study of medical and drug claims data found a 50% increase in use of the drugs among all adults under 45, who also appear to be using the drugs for a longer period of time to help them fall asleep. During the study period, the average length of time sleep aids were used by adults under 45 jumped by more than 40% — rising to 93 days in 2006 from 64 days in 1998.

But perhaps the most startling finding was the increase in use of sleep aids among college-age adults 18 to 24. Use in this age group rose to 1,524 users per 100,000 in 2006, up from 599 users per 100,000 in 1998.

\"I find it very worrisome that young people who should have a very strong and healthy sleep system are now finding they are turning to medication to help them get to sleep,\" Donna Arand, a sleep specialist at Kettering Hospital Sleep Disorder Center in Dayton, Ohio, said in a telephone interview.

Arand said she has seen a number of students seeking sleep aids because their normal sleep patterns have been disrupted in college, and she fears these adults may have trouble adjusting to a normal sleep pattern as their schedules normalize.

Two-thirds of those in this study population were taking non-benzodiazepine hypnotics - such as Sanofi-Aventis\' Ambien CR and Sepracor Inc\'s Lunesta. These newer sleep aids generally have fewer side effects, but in rare cases they can cause sleep walking.

That may have led to the demise of a 51-year-old Wisconsin man who froze to death while sleep-walking barefoot in his underwear this week in below-zero cold.

The Sawyer County Sheriff\'s Office in Hayward, Wisconsin, said Timothy Brueggeman had Ambien at his house, and family members told the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis that he had a history of sleep walking.

Chief deputy Tim Ziegel said sleep walking is a rare side effect of the drug and she cautioned that Ambien or Ambien CR should not be taken by people with a history of sleep walking, nor should they be taken with alcohol.

WASHINGTON: Obese women have a better chance of maintaining a healthy weight if they incorporate a little relaxation into their lifestyle, says a
new study.

Researchers at Otago University have found that non- dieting interventions to improve overweight and obese women\'s health have a longer-lasting effect if they include relaxation training, the \'Preventive Medicine\' journal reported.

The study\'s lead author, Dr Caroline Horwath, said: \"Stress and negative emotions can trigger women to overeat and consume high-fat and high-sugar foods.

\"By learning and practicing relaxation techniques, like progressive muscle relaxation, abdominal breathing and visualisation, as part of a wider lifestyle change programme, women have effective tools to manage stress and emotions without resorting to unhealthy eating.\"

The researchers have based their findings on analysis of a two-year follow-up of a ground-breaking research project into the effectiveness of non-dieting intervention programmes in improving lifestyle behaviours and reducing distress.

In the study, 225 women with a body mass index of 28 or more were randomly assigned to one of three intervention programmes. All three 10-week-long programmes assisted women in moving their focus away from calorie counting and body weight, towards sustainable lifestyle changes that enhanced their well-being, regardless of weight loss.

CHICAGO: Researchers say they have found an ``alarming\'\' increase in children\'s ear, nose and throat infections in the United States caused by
dangerous drug-resistant staph germs.

Other studies have shown rising numbers of skin infections in adults and children caused by these germs, nicknamed MRSA, but this is the first nationwide report on how common they are in deeper tissue infections in the head and neck, the study authors said. These include certain ear and sinus infections, and abcesses that can form in the tonsils and throat.

The study found a total of 21,009 pediatric head and neck infections caused by staph germs from 2001 through 2006. The percentage caused by hard-to-treat MRSA bacteria more than doubled during that time from almost 12 percent to 28 percent.

``In most parts of the United States, there\'s been an alarming rise,\'\' said study author Dr. Steven Sobol, a children\'s head and neck specialist at Emory University.

The study appears in January\'s Archives of Otolaryngology, released Monday.

It is based on nationally representative information from an electronic database that collects lab results from more than 300 hospitals nationwide.

MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, can cause dangerous, life-threatening invasive infections and doctors believe inappropriate use of antibiotics has contributed to its rise.

The study didn\'t look at the severity of MRSA illness in affected children.

Dr. Robert Daum, a University of Chicago expert in community-acquired MRSA, said the study should serve as an alert to agencies that fund U.S. research ``that this is a major public health problem.\'\'

MRSA involvement in adult head and neck infections has been reported although data on prevalence is scarce.

Almost 60 percent of the MRSA infections found in the study were thought to have been contracted outside a hospital setting.

MRSA infections were once limited mostly to hospitals, nursing homes and other health-care settings but other studies have shown they are increasingly picked up in the community, in otherwise healthy people.

MRSA does not respond to penicillin-based antibiotics and doctors are concerned that it is becoming resistant to others.

LONDON: An Indian-origin expert at the University of Leicester has led a major study that shows that infants given liquid medicines are exposed to
risk from the chemicals used.

The study led by Dr Hitesh Pandya, senior lecturer in Child Health, documents the non-drug ingredients (excipients) present in liquid medicines given to premature infants as part of their medical care.

The study revealed that the chemicals added to medicines to improve their taste, absorption and to prolong their shelf-life could be potentially harmful to very small babies.

The chemicals generally used are ethanol, sorbitol and Ponceaau 4R (a colouring agent). The study revealed that premature babies are exposed to these potentially harmful excipients in amounts equivalent to over three pints of beer per week.

\"This study documents a worldwide problem. It shows that the collection of medicines given to babies may ultimately lead to them being exposed to harmful chemicals with the potential for short and long-term toxic effects.

\"Our research highlighted this, and we are planning further studies on the chemicals to understand exactly what these effects might be. What our study hasn\'t done is find any direct evidence on the cause and effect of these chemicals and the medical problems that these babies might be being treated for,\" Dr Pandya said.

Dr Andrew Currie, Consultant at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust who was also part of the research team, said, \"Parents should not panic about these findings. These chemicals can be found in foods all around the world.

WASHINGTON: A study conducted by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center has shown that people who consume low-carbohydrate diets depend more
on the oxidation of fat in the liver for energy than those on a low-calorie diet.

The researchers say that their findings may have implications for treating obesity and related diseases like diabetes, insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

\"Instead of looking at drugs to combat obesity and the diseases that stem from it, maybe optimizing diet can not only manage and treat these diseases, but also prevent them,\" said lead author of the study Dr. Jeffrey Browning, assistant professor in the UT Southwestern Advanced Imaging Research Center and of internal medicine at the medical centre.

Even though the aim of the study was not to determine which diet was more effective for losing weight, the researchers observed that the average weight loss for the low-calorie dieters was about five pounds after two weeks, while the low-carbohydrate dieters lost about nine-and-a-half pounds.

Glucose, a form of sugar, and fat are both sources of energy that are metabolised in the liver, and used as energy in the body. Glucose can be formed from lactate, amino acids or glycerol.

With an eye on finding out how diet affects glucose production and utilization in the liver, the researchers randomly assigned 14 obese or overweight adults to either a low-carbohydrate or low-calorie diet, and monitored seven lean subjects on a regular diet.

Advanced imaging techniques were used two weeks later to analyse the different methods, or biochemical pathways, the subjects used to make glucose.

\"We saw a dramatic change in where and how the liver was producing glucose, depending on diet,\" said Dr. Browning.

The researchers observed that participants on a low-carbohydrate diet produced more glucose from lactate or amino acids than those on a low-calorie diet.

\"Understanding how the liver makes glucose under different dietary conditions may help us better regulate metabolic disorders with diet,\" Dr. Browning said.

The team also observed that the different diets produced other differences in glucose metabolism, with people on a low-calorie diet getting about 40 percent of their glucose from glycogen, which is comes from ingested carbohydrates and is stored in the liver until the body needs it.

The low-carbohydrate dieters, on the other hand, were found to get only 20 percent of their glucose from glycogen. Instead of dipping into their reserve of glycogen, such subjects burnt liver fat for energy.

The significance of the findings lies in the fact that the accumulation of excess fat in the liver can result in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) -- a liver disease which is associated with metabolic disorders like insulin resistance, diabetes and obesity, and can lead to liver inflammation, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

\"Energy production is expensive for the liver. It appears that for the people on a low-carbohydrate diet, in order to meet that expense, their livers have to burn excess fat,\" Dr. Browning said.

Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that patients on the low-carbohydrate diet increased fat burning throughout the entire body.

Dr. Browning\'s team will next study whether the changes that occur in liver metabolism as a result of carbohydrate restriction could help people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

The current study has been published in the journal Hepatology.