This file photo taken on June, 2003, shows soybeans in fields in the northern Argentine province of Santa Fe. (Enrique Marcarian/Files/Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) -
Eating a half serving a day of
soy-based foods could be enough to significantly lower a man's
sperm count, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The study is the largest in humans to look at the
relationship between semen quality and a plant form of the
female sex hormone estrogen known as phytoestrogen, which is
plentiful in soy-rich foods.

“What we found was men that consume the highest amounts of
soy foods in this study had a lower sperm concentration
compared to those who did not consume soy foods,” said Dr.
Jorge Chavarro of the Harvard School of Public Health in
Boston, whose study appears in the journal Human Reproduction.

“It was a relatively large difference,” Chavarro said in a
telephone interview.

Chavarro said studies in animals have linked high
consumption of plant-derived estrogens known as isoflavones
with infertility, but so far there has been little evidence of
their effect in humans.

“We wanted to know if it would affect sperm production and
could serve as a marker for the effects on the reproductive
system,” Chavarro said.

STRIKING DIFFERENCE

Chavarro's team analyzed the intake of 15 soy-based foods
in 99 men who went to a fertility clinic between 2000 and 2006.

They were asked how much and how often in the prior three
months they had eaten soy-rich foods including: tofu, tempeh,
tofu or soy sausages, bacon, burgers and mince, soy milk,
cheese, yogurt and ice cream, and other soy products such
drinks, powders and energy bars.

Because different foods have different levels of
isoflavones in them, the researchers set a standard for serving
sizes of particular foods. Then they divided the men into
groups according to soy consumption levels. Men in the highest
group on average ate half a serving per day.

“In terms of their isoflavone content that is comparable to
having one cup of soy milk or one serving of tofu, tempeh or
soy burgers every other day,” Chavarro said.

The difference was striking. Men in the highest intake
category had 41 million sperm per milliliter less than men who
ate no soy foods. A normal sperm count ranges from 80 million
and 120 million per milliliter, and a sperm count of 20 million
per milliliter or below is considered low.

“It suggests soy foods could have some deleterious effect
on the reproductive system and especially on sperm production,”
Chavarro said.

The researchers found the association between soy foods and
lower sperm count was stronger in overweight men, which might
suggest hormones are playing a role.

“Men who are overweight or obese tend to have higher levels
of androgen-produced estrogen. They are converting a male
hormone into a female hormone in their fat. The more body fat
you have, the more estrogen you produce in your fat,” Chavarro
said.

Chavarro said the study was not sufficient to suggest that
soy intake would have health implications such as inducing
infertility. Much bigger studies would be needed to answer that
question, he said.

(Editing by Will Dunham and Xavier Briand)

Sara Loughran, a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, talks on her cell phone while waiting for a bus on campus in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, July 23, 2008. The head of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute released a memo advising faculty and staff to limit cell phone use because of ‘the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use’ to cancer and other possible health problems. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

PITTSBURGH - The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.

The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don’t find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science and he believes people should take action now — especially when it comes to children.

“Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later,” Herberman said.

No other major academic cancer research institutions have sounded such an alarm about cell phone use. But Herberman’s advice is sure to raise concern among many cell phone users and especially parents.

In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing.

Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cell phones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone’s electromagnetic fields.

The issue that concerns some scientists — though nowhere near a consensus — is electromagnetic radiation, especially its possible effects on children. It is not a major topic in conferences of brain specialists.

A 2008 University of Utah analysis looked at nine studies — including some Herberman cites — with thousands of brain tumor patients and concludes “we found no overall increased risk of brain tumors among cellular phone users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumors after long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by future studies.”

Studies last year in France and Norway concluded the same thing.

“If there is a risk from these products — and at this point we do not know that there is — it is probably very small,” the Food and Drug Administration says on an agency Web site.

Still, Herberman cites a “growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer.”

“Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use,” he wrote in his memo.

A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university’s center for environmental oncology.

“The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain,” she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. “I don’t know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don’t know that they are safe.”

Of concern are the still unknown effects of more than a decade of cell phone use, with some studies raising alarms, said Davis, a former health adviser in the Clinton Administration.

She said 20 different groups have endorsed the advice the Pittsburgh cancer institute gave, and authorities in England, France and India have cautioned children’s use of cell phones.

Herberman and Davis point to a massive ongoing research project known as Interphone, involving scientists in 13 nations, mostly in Europe. Results already published in peer-reviewed journals from this project aren’t so alarming, but Herberman is citing work not yet published.

The published research focuses on more than 5,000 cases of brain tumors. The National Research Council in the U.S., which isn’t participating in the Interphone project, reported in January that the brain tumor research had “selection bias.” That means it relied on people with cancer to remember how often they used cell phones. It is not considered the most accurate research approach.

The largest published study, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2006, tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including thousands that had used the phones for more than 10 years. It found no increased risk of cancer among those using cell phones.

A French study based on Interphone research and published in 2007 concluded that regular cell phone users had “no significant increased risk” for three major types of nervous system tumors. It did note, however, that there was “the possibility of an increased risk among the heaviest users” for one type of brain tumor, but that needs to be verified in future research.

Earlier research also has found no connection.

Joshua E. Muscat of Penn State University, who has studied cancer and cell phones in other research projects partly funded by the cell phone industry, said there are at least a dozen studies that have found no cancer-cell phone link. He said a Swedish study cited by Herberman as support for his warning was biased and flawed.

“We certainly don’t know of any mechanism by which radiofrequency exposure would cause a cancerous effect in cells. We just don’t know this might possibly occur,” Muscat said.

Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that is a form of electromagnetic radiation, according to the National Cancer Institute. Though studies are being done to see if there is a link between it and tumors of the brain and central nervous system, there is no definitive link between the two, the institute says on its Web site.

“By all means, if a person feels compelled that they should take precautions in reducing the amount of electromagnetic radio waves through their bodies, by all means they should do so,” said Dan Catena, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. “But at the same time, we have to remember there’s no conclusive evidence that links cell phones to cancer, whether it’s brain tumors or other forms of cancer.”

Joe Farren, a spokesman for the CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group for the wireless industry, said the group believes there is a risk of misinforming the public if science isn’t used as the ultimate guide on the issue.

“When you look at the overwhelming majority of studies that have been peer reviewed and published in scientific journals around the world, you’ll find no relationship between wireless usage and adverse health affects,” Farren said.

Frank Barnes, who chaired the January report from the National Research Council, said Wednesday that “the jury is out” on how hazardous long-term cell phone use might be.

Speaking from his cell phone, the professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder said he takes no special precautions in his own phone use. And he offered no specific advice to people worried about the matter.

It’s up to each individual to decide what if anything to do. If people use a cell phone instead of having a land line, “that may very well be reasonable for them,” he said.

Susan Juffe, a 58-year-old Pittsburgh special education teacher, heard about Herberman’s cell phone advice on the radio earlier in the day.

“Now, I’m worried. It’s scary,” she said.

She says she’ll think twice about allowing her 10-year-old daughter Jayne to use the cell phone.

“I don’t want to get it (brain cancer) and I certainly don’t want you to get it,” she explained to her daughter.

Sara Loughran, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, sat in a bus stop Wednesday chatting on her cell phone with her mother. She also had heard the news earlier in the day, but was not as concerned.

“I think if they gave me specific numbers and specific information and it was scary enough, I would be concerned,” Loughran said, planning to call her mother again in a matter of minutes. “Without specific numbers, it’s too vague to get me worked up.”

___

Jennifer Yates reported from Pittsburgh. Science Writer Seth Borenstein reported from Washington. Reporter Ramit Plushnick-Masti contributed from Pittsburgh and Science Writer Malcolm Ritter contributed from New York.

___

On the Net:

Advice from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute:

http://www.environmentaloncology.org/node/201

Food and Drug Administration on cell phones: http://www.fda.gov/cellphones/qa.html

CHICAGO (Reuters) -
A growing number of older U.S. children
are being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, while diagnoses among younger children have held
steady, government researchers said on Wednesday.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention found ADHD diagnoses among children aged 12 to 17
increased by an average of 4 percent a year from 1997 to 2006.
The researchers found no significant change in the percentage
of children aged 6 to 11 diagnosed with ADHD over the same
period.

The researchers used statistics from a national health
survey that included data on 23,000 children aged 6 to 17
gathered in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Overall, they found that nearly 5 percent of children aged
6 to 17 had ADHD, a condition that often becomes apparent in
preschool and early school years. Children with ADHD have a
tougher time controlling their behavior and paying attention.

The researchers estimated that as of 2006, a total of 4.5
million school-aged children — those aged 5 to 17 — had been
diagnosed with ADHD.

Boys were more than twice as likely as girls to have ADHD,
confirming similar findings from other studies.

The study also found that Hispanic children were less
likely than non-Hispanic black or white children to have ADHD.

Children with ADHD were more likely than others to have
contact with a mental health professional, to use prescription
drugs and have frequent health-care visits.

The researchers did not say why older children were being
diagnosed at a higher rate than younger children, but suggested
it may be that older children had more chances of being
evaluated and diagnosed than younger children.

ADHD is marked by restlessness, impulsiveness, inattention
and distractibility that can interfere with a child's ability
to pay attention in school and maintain social relationships.

The typical treatment for ADHD is with a drug like Ritalin,
or methylphenidate, a stimulant intended to lower impulsiveness
and hyperactivity and boost attention.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

- (HealthDay News) — People who work the third shift, drive great
distances each day, and those who don't get enough sleep or take sedating
medications are at greatest risk of drowsy driving.

But everyone is at risk of being impaired behind the wheel because
they're too tired. The National Safety Council offers these suggestions to
prevent drowsy driving:

• Get plenty of sleep before you head out on the road.
• If you start to feel tired, go to a safe area for a quick rest. But
  don't pull over at the side of the road.
• Try not to drive between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.
• For long trips, start driving early in the morning, and plan to switch
  off driving with a buddy.
• Keep the temperature inside the car cool and comfortable.
• Take a quick break every 100 miles or so to have a snack, get some
  fresh air or just to stretch your legs.

- (HealthDay News) — Depending on where you live, the water that
comes from your tap can be just as safe as bottled water.

But in some people, common pollutants found in tap water can pose a
greater health hazard. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
offers this list:

• People with a weakened immune system.
• People with HIV/AIDS.
• People who take steroids.
• People who are being treated for cancer.

Young children are at greater risk of harm from lead that's found in
older pipes. To avoid this hazard, use only the cold tap for drinking
water, and let it run for a minute if you haven't used the tap in more
than six hours.

On the other hand, children will benefit from the cavity-fighting
fluoride found in public tap water. Most bottled waters do not contain
fluoride.

- WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) — Mice genetically engineered to
have inflamed nasal passages may help researchers learn more about loss of
smell due to chronic sinusitis.

“A sense of smell in good working order is essential to our quality of
life, and these genetically engineered mice give us the first real animal
model for better understanding, treating and preventing people from
suffering a loss of olfactory function due to sinonasal inflammation,” Dr.
Andrew Lane, leader of the team that developed the mouse, said in a Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine news release.

“And because we can turn on and off the inflammation in these mice, we
really can mimic how the most overlooked and very disabling aspect of
sinusitis, the loss of smell, or anosmia, plays out in people,” said Lane,
an associate professor at Hopkins.

He described the mice at a presentation Tuesday at the International
Symposium on Olfaction and Taste, in San Francisco.

“Until now, the lack of realistic animal models for each of the key
symptoms of chronic inflammation in the nasal tissue — such as the growth
of nasal polyps, the loss of the sense of smell, swollen sinus tissue, or
clogged and runny noses — has slowed sinusitis research and hindered our
search for therapies,” said Lane, director of the Johns Hopkins sinus
center.

The mice may help researchers find alternatives to long-term treatment
with steroids, which block the inflammatory chemical pathway but also
cause serious side effects such as loss of bone density, eye cataracts and
weight gain.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about sinusitis.

- WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) — Eating meals together as a
family can reduce a teen girl's risk of turning to alcohol or drugs, a new
study suggests.

In families who ate at least five meals a week together, the teen girls
were much less likely to drink alcohol, or smoke marijuana or cigarettes
five years later, said study author Marla Eisenberg, an assistant
professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

The same effect wasn't seen for boys in this study, although Eisenberg
can't say why.

“One of the key findings we have here is for girls,” she said. “We
found girls who had regular family meals had half the odds of initiating
cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana use in the five-year time period.”

Eisenberg's team followed 806 Minnesota teens, about 55 percent of them
girls and 45 percent of them boys. They first surveyed the children in
school in 1998 to 1999 when they were about age 13, asking how often their
family ate meals together and the kids' use of substances.

The researchers followed up with a second survey five years later.

At age 18, the girls who had regular meals with their family — defined
for the study as five or more a week — had a much lower risk of substance
abuse. And the meal didn't have to be dinner, Eisenberg said.

A previous analysis of the same study participants found a stronger
association for girls than boys between family meals and a lower risk of
eating disorders. Yet to come is an analysis of the effect family meals
have on a teen's mental health.

The findings are published in the August issue of the Journal of
Adolescent Health.

Other research by some of the same University of Minnesota researchers
has revealed a link between regular family meals and a lower risk of
high-risk behaviors, including violence, school problems and substance
abuse in both boys and girls.

While Eisenberg can't explain why regular family meals don't seem to
keep boys away from alcohol and drugs, she said parents of boys can focus
on other strategies, such as having brief, ongoing conversations about the
dangers of substance abuse.

More information

To learn more, visit the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Keeping Kids Clean

Family meals aren't the only way to up the odds that your teen won't
turn to drugs or alcohol, said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a nonprofit organization in
Washington, D.C. Here is his advice:

• Start the anti-drug conversations early. “The average age of first
  drug use is 14,” he said. For help in how to do that, visit
  www.drugfree.org or www.timetotalk.org.
• Don't think “one big talk” is all that's needed to steer kids away
  from substance abuse. “You need to be having a series of frequent, brief
  conversations,” he said. “Your kids are faced with the drug issue on a
  day-in, day-out basis.”
• Know who your kids hang with. And know their parents, Pasierb added,
  to the degree possible. Know where you child goes from after school until
  dinner if there isn't a parent at home.
• Take advantage of “teachable moments.” Suppose you're riding in the
  car with the radio on, with your teen, and news about the latest Hollywood
  star or pro athlete to enter rehab comes on. Don't lecture. Instead,
  Pasierb suggests, ask: “What do you think about that?” If you listen to
  the answer, you will begin to understand your child's views and
  challenges.

- (HealthDay News) — Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy
of CenterWatch:

Neuropathy

If you have a diagnosis of orthostatic hypotension
associated with: Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy, pure
autonomic failure, dopamine beta hydroxylase deficiency, or non-diabetic
autonomic neuropathy — and have a documented fall in blood pressure
within three minutes of standing — you may qualify for this
study.

The research site is in Dallas, Texas.

More information

Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/studies/cat215.html.<
/p>

—–

Breast Cancer

This study seeks both women and men who are having
breast cancer surgery. The trial will evaluate whether an investigational
device is helpful in minimizing the risk of post-surgical
swelling.

The research site is in Charlottesville, Va.

More information

Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/studies/cat29.html. p>

—–

Hypertension (High Blood
Pressure)

If you have mild-to-moderate high blood pressure, you
may qualify for this study of an investigational drug.

The research
site is in Las Vegas, Nev.

More information

Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/patient/studies/cat85.html. p>

—–

Copyright 2008 CenterWatch. All rights reserved.

- WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) — Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are
frequently overlooked in patients undergoing surgery, say German
researchers who studied 1,556 surgical patients.

“First, we noted that AUD is not diagnosed adequately during
preoperative assessment. Then, even if a finding of AUD was made before
surgery, preventive measures were not often undertaken. This is
significant, because patients with AUD have three to four times more
complications during and around the time of surgery than patients without
AUD,” study author Dr. Claudia D. Spies said in a news release issued by
the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

When AUD is properly identified, doctors can begin intervention
strategies.

Spies and colleagues found that most doctors didn't use well-documented
tools for AUD detections, perhaps because the doctors were uncomfortable
asking patients about their alcohol consumption.

“Physicians tend to underestimate and miss AUD in younger patients,
especially young female patients,” Spies said. “Our results emphasize that
the use of computer-based screening methods … applied to every patient,
are effective in addressing these biases.”

The researchers found that when a computerized self-assessment tool
called AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test) was used, more
than twice as many patients with AUD were identified compared to when
doctors used the standard preoperative interview.

This may be due to the fact that many doctors lack training in
preoperative screening for alcohol use and that patients prefer the more
anonymous nature of the computerized self-test.

“Patients seem to be more confident in answering questions about their
alcohol use in a computer-based question-and-answer format,” Spies
said.

The study was published in the current issue of
Anesthesiology.

More information

The American Psychological Association has more about alcohol use disorders.

- WEDNESDAY, July 23 (HealthDay News) — Men and women suffering
from coronary heart disease seem to fare worse on measures of cognitive
function.

And the longer the person had had heart disease, the worse the
performance in such mental processes as reasoning, vocabulary and verbal
fluency, according to a study in the July 23 issue of the European
Heart Journal.

The research, however, had some limitations that may affect its
value.

“It's a very well-designed study with a very large number of
individuals, so they were able to appreciate small differences in
cognitive function,” said Dr. Kathryn J. Kotrla, chairwoman of psychiatry
and behavioral science for the Texas A&M Health Science Center College
of Medicine. “But they didn't control for some key variables such as
alcohol and tobacco, which are well-known to impact blood vessel disease.
Also depression, which is linked to both coronary heart disease and
cognitive functioning.”

“This makes the study tantalizing but incomplete,” Kotrla added.

Previous studies have given conflicting results regarding the
relationship between heart disease and cognitive function. Some have found
coronary heart disease (CHD) to be a risk factor, while others have
not.

According to the researchers, from University Hospital London and
INSERM in France, this is the first large study to look at the
association. And, previously, research had focused more on cerebrovascular
disease (which includes stroke) rather than just CHD, even though CHD is
responsible for most cardiovascular disease. That prior research had found
a strong relationship between cerebrovascular disease and cognitive
deficit and dementia.

The researchers looked at almost 6,000 British civil servants, aged 35
to 55 at the beginning of the project, taking part in a long-term
study.

Both men and women with a history of CHD turned up lower scores for
reasoning, vocabulary and overall cognitive function when compared with
people who did not have CHD. Women had added problems in verbal
fluency.

Men who experienced their first CHD more than a decade prior had even
lower scores for reasoning, vocabulary and semantic fluency (categorizing
words).

The risk of declining performance in the realm of reasoning went down
by about 30 percent for every five years after a diagnosis of CHD.

Women with a longer history of CHD showed a trend for lower scores in
semantic fluency, but the data here was based on a smaller number of
people.

The authors don't yet know what the biological mechanisms behind this
connection might be.

Also unclear from the study was how these changes in cognitive
performance affected actual day-to-day function and quality of life,
Kotrla said.

But the take-home message is still a familiar one: People should focus
on preventing CHD by not smoking and avoiding or controlling diabetes,
high cholesterol and high blood pressure. And the focus should start
early, before it's too late.

More information

Visit the American Heart Association for more on coronary heart
disease.