VOASE1204_Health Report

04 December 2007

Controlling Cholera May Be Easier Than Thought
A computer model shows that existing oral vaccines could cut new cases in high-risk areas. And only half the population would need vaccinating once every two years.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

There are low-cost vaccines, taken by mouth, that can protect against cholera. The vaccine is commonly provided to international travelers, but not to communities that suffer cholera epidemics. There are questions about how effective it would be as a control measure.

New findings suggest that it would be highly effective. These are based on the predictions of a computer model. Researchers say the model shows that the vaccine could reduce new cases in high-risk areas by ninety percent. And they say only half the population would have to take it once every two years.

Angolan children gathering water at a waste-filled stream. A cholera epidemic in Angola killed over one thousand people last year.

Cholera is a serious bacterial disease found mainly in developing countries. People can get it from water or food that comes in contact with human waste. The intestinal infection causes a loss of fluids.

Cholera is treated by drinking an oral rehydration solution which replaces lost fluids and salts. In the most severe cases, fluids are injected into the body. Without treatment, it usually kills people within eighteen hours to several days. Estimates are that the disease kills at least one hundred thousand people a year.

Ira Longini at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, led the new work. A team from the United States, South Korea and Bangladesh based it on a large study of oral cholera vaccine.

The study took place between nineteen eighty-four and nineteen eighty-nine. It involved two hundred thousand women and children in rural Bangladesh.

The team developed the computer model based on the results of the study. The model showed that if fifty percent of a high-risk community is vaccinated, many unvaccinated people also would be protected.

The researchers say the number of new infections could drop below one in one thousand people in the unvaccinated population. This would be the result of what is known as "herd protection."

The idea is that vaccinated people would not become infected, so they would not create conditions for spreading the disease. Unvaccinated people then would have a better chance of avoiding it.

Ira Longini says researchers are very good at predicting where cholera is likely to spread. So vaccination efforts could target those areas. The findings appear in the medical journal published by the Public Library of Science and available free of charge at plos.org.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1127_Health Report

27 November 2007

Stored Blood Found to Lose a Life-Saving Gas
The loss of nitric oxide may explain some unexpected deaths in patients after transfusions.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Scientists have discovered that stored blood loses a life-saving gas. This discovery may explain why a great number of people get sick after receiving stored blood.

In recent years, experts have wondered why patients who should survive sometimes

Stored blood loses a life-saving gas

die after receiving a blood transfusion. The cause of death is often a heart attack or stroke.

Jonathan Stamler is a professor of medicine at Duke University in North Carolina. He and other researchers found that stored blood has very low levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a gas found in red blood cells. The gas helps to keep blood passages open so that oxygen in the cells can reach the heart and other organs.

Professor Stamler and his team found that nitric oxide in blood begins to break down as soon as the blood is collected. Their findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Another team of Duke University scientists carried out a separate study. Professor Stamler says the second study found that the breakdown of nitric oxide begins within hours of blood collection.

He says the life-saving gas is partly lost after three hours. And about seventy percent of it is lost after just one day. As a result, he says, there is almost no time that stored blood has enough nitric oxide.

The researchers tested their findings on dogs. They found that low levels of nitric oxide reduced the flow of blood in the animals.

However, Professor Stamler says the scientists corrected the situation. They added nitric oxide to the stored blood given to the dogs. He says the extra nitric oxide repaired the ability of red blood cells to expand blood passages.

Professor Stamler says people who are in serious need of a blood transfusion should have one. But he says more studies are needed to show who would receive the most help from stored blood.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by SooJee Han. For more health news, along with transcripts and MP3 files of our reports, go to voaspecialenglish.com. And if you have a general question about health, click on the Contact Us link or write to special@voanews.com. We might answer your question in a future report, so please include your name and country. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOASE1120_Health Report

20 November 2007

UN Lowers Estimate of HIV Cases
A new report says 33 million people are living with the AIDS virus, not 39.5 million as estimated last year.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

United Nations officials now say fewer people than they thought are infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

Last year, the agency known as UNAIDS estimated that thirty-nine and one-half million people were living with H.I.V. On Tuesday it reduced that by sixteen percent to a little more than thirty-three million.

Agency officials say the lower number represents better information and information from more countries. The single biggest reason, however, was an intensive re-examination of India's epidemic. At the same time, the agency reduced its estimates for five African countries: Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Also, UNAIDS says it now believes the number of new H.I.V. cases per year reached a high in the late nineteen nineties at more than three million. This year, it estimates that two and one-half million people became infected, and that two million people died of AIDS.

Yet even as the number of new infections has dropped, the number of people living with H.I.V. is increasing. Better treatments are extending lives, and more people are getting the drugs.

Also, the new report says prevention efforts appear to be changing risky behavior in several of the countries most affected by H.I.V.

But U.N. officials say AIDS is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide and the major cause in Africa. African death rates remain high, they say, because treatment needs are not being met.

Sub-Saharan Africa had almost seventy percent of the new cases of H.I.V. reported this year. But UNAIDS officials say this is a notable reduction since two thousand one.

Many scientists who study epidemics have long argued that the agency has been overestimating the extent of H.I.V. worldwide. They say national estimates have been based mostly on findings from high-risk groups in large cities.

The lower estimate just released came from more studies of wider society, including rural areas. Even so, experts say there is a need to further improve the research methods.

Billions of dollars are being spent to prevent and treat H.I.V. Activists worry that the new estimate may lead to a drop in financial support. But UNAIDS officials say it does not change the need for immediate action and more money. They warn that in some countries, infection rates were falling but are now rising again.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. You can learn more about AIDS at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE1113_Health Report

13 November 2007

Diabetes Called a Growing Worldwide Epidemic
This year's World Diabetes Day observance, the first recognized by the U.N., centers on children.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Today is World Diabetes Day, part of a campaign to urge governments to do more to fight the disease. Organizers warn of a diabetes epidemic affecting two hundred forty-six million people worldwide.

Last December the United Nations passed a resolution to observe World Diabetes Day every November fourteenth. The International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization began the event in nineteen ninety-one. The federation is an alliance of diabetes groups. It also has partnerships with drug companies.

People with diabetes have too much glucose, or sugar, in their blood. The body changes food into glucose for energy with the help of insulin, a hormone. In diabetics, the body produces little or no insulin or has trouble using the insulin that is produced.

As a result, too much glucose remains in the blood instead of entering cells. Over time, the disease can cause blindness, kidney disease and nerve damage. It also can lead to strokes and heart disease.

People with type one diabetes need insulin injections. Many with type two do not. Instead, it can be controlled through diet, exercise and treatment. And people may be able to prevent it.

This year's World Diabetes Day campaign is about children and adolescents.

Dr. Francine Kaufman

One of the organizers is Doctor Francine Kaufman. She traveled around the world for a film called "Diabetes: A Global Epidemic." The Discovery Health Channel will show it on Sunday.

Type two diabetes used to appear mostly in adults, but now more and more children have it. Doctor Kaufman says it is spreading as more people rise out of poverty in developing countries -- for example, India.

FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "They’re in cars all day long, and they’ve got satellite dishes outside their houses. They are eating more food, and more westernized food and getting overweight and developing diabetes."

She says another place where diabetes is spreading is South Africa.

FRANCINE KAUFMAN: "We were in the townships and people were overweight. There is more food available than has been in the past. And people are getting on buses and going to offices and not necessarily being as physically active as they have been in the past.”

Doctor Kaufman says solutions must be developed country by country and patient by patient. In Brazil, for example, a health clinic holds dances to get diabetes patients more active. Doctor Kaufman says the message of World Diabetes Day is that the disease is manageable and, in the case of type two diabetes, preventable.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOASE1106_Health Report

06 November 2007

Children’s Doctors Group Calls for Early Medical and Educational Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders
American Academy of Pediatrics urges early treatment for autistic spectrum disorders.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Last week we reported about new advice on autism from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It said doctors should look for signs of the brain disorder when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months.

At the same time, the medical group provided new guidelines for care and treatment of children once they are identified as autistic. We promised more information on that part of the new guidelines this week.

Autism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical professionals call them autism spectrum disorders.

Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results.

The new guidelines include educational interventions, medical care and family support tools.

An autistic 3-year-old studies flash cards held by an instructor

The American Academy of Pediatrics says young autistic children should enter some kind of learning program. It says such children should be actively involved in the program at least twenty-five hours a week all year long. The group also says it is best if there is a small number of students for each teacher. The A.A.P. says autistic children do better with more direct attention from and interaction with their teachers.

The group also calls for interaction between autistic children and non-autistic children of the same age when possible. However, the A.A.P. guidelines note that children with more severe cases of autism spectrum disorder may have serious behavior problems. These could make interactions with other children difficult or even harmful.

The experts advise parents to receive training for dealing with autism. But the A.A.P. warns parents and doctors against several kinds of treatment programs. These include those that claim a high level of success or a cure for the disorder. The guidelines suggest using treatments that are based on results of controlled studies supported by established scientific organizations.

The A.A.P. says autistic children should have the same general health care as other children, including immunizations against disease. It says some autistic children have behavior, social or medical problems that may require treatment with drugs.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOASE1030_Health Report

30 October 2007

US Doctor Group Urges Autism Testing for All Babies

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The American Academy of Pediatrics says all children should be tested for autism by the age of two.

Ryan Taylor was diagnosed with autism in 2004; he is shown with his father, Craig, at their home in Connecticut

Autism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical professionals call them autism spectrum disorders.

Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that they say can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results.

The medical group released two reports Monday with detailed information to help doctors identify autism. Chris Johnson at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio was one of the authors. She says doctors should look for signs of autism when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months.

Doctors traditionally consider the possibility of autism only if a child shows delayed speech or unusually repetitive behaviors. These may be clear signs of it, but they usually do not appear until a child is two or three years old.

Doctor Johnson says the medical profession has learned a lot about earlier signs of autism. She says the identification process can begin in the waiting room at a doctor’s office.

Parents could answer a list of written questions about their baby. Then the doctor could perform tests as simple as observing the baby's ability to follow a moving object with its eyes. Experts say failing to watch a moving object may be a sign of autism.

Doctors and parents can also look for behaviors that are normal in babies under one year of age. For example, does the baby appear to respond to a parent’s voice? Does the baby make eye contact? Does the baby wave or point at things?

Young children usually have a favorite soft object like a stuffed animal or a blanket. But children with autism may like hard objects instead, and want to hold them at all times. They may not turn when a parent says their name or when the parent points at something and says "Look at that."

Doctor Johnson says the goal of the new advice is early intervention instead of the traditional "wait and see" method to identify autism.

The second report from the American Academy of Pediatrics deals with management of autism cases. We will discuss that next week.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1023_Health Report

23 October 2007

Children's Health: New Polio Worries in Africa | US Committee Urges Limits on Cough and Cold Drugs
Sudan has its first new polio case since 2005, while Nigeria suffers rare cases of vaccine-caused infection. In the U.S., drug-safety advisers say cold products should not be used in children under 6 years old.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Today we have two reports, both about children. We start in Sudan. Health officials are launching a campaign to vaccinate eight million children after a case of polio was reported there.

A nurse prepares a polio vaccination for a baby in the Otash refugee camp in South Darfur

United Nations and Sudanese agencies will carry out the campaign this week and again in November. Sudan had been polio-free since two thousand five. The new case of wild polio virus was confirmed last month in South Darfur.

Health officials also announced last month that Nigeria has had almost seventy new cases of polio since two thousand five. Those cases, however, were caused by the polio vaccine itself.

There are two kinds of polio vaccine. The one given by injection contains killed virus, which cannot cause polio. The one given by mouth contains live but weakened virus. In very rare cases the virus can change and cause polio.

The way to stop the spread now is more vaccinations. But officials worry that people in northern Nigeria may, once again, fear the vaccine. In recent years, local leaders spread stories that Western nations had poisoned the vaccine with the virus that causes AIDS.

Now, an update to our story last month about popular medicines to treat coughs and colds in children. The United States Food and Drug Administration had told parents not to give them to children under age two unless a doctor says to use them.

The F.D.A. gave the advice as it announced a meeting of experts to discuss cold medicines for children. That advisory committee met last week -- and voted that these drugs should not be given to children under the age of six.

Members said there is not enough evidence to show that these drugs work in children. They called for more research.

The committee also said that liquid medicines should all use the same measurement terms. This could reduce the risk of parents giving their children too much. In rare cases, deaths have been reported from overdoses.

The drug industry says its products are safe and effective for children. But it says parents need to be better educated about how to use them. A week before the meeting, the industry decided to end sales of cold products for children under two.

The F.D.A. does not have to follow the recommendations of its advisers. Even if the agency restricts use of the drugs, that would not necessarily lead to a ban.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1016_Health Report

16 October 2007

Of 'Knockout' Mice and the Men Who Developed Them
The three winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine found a way to target individual genes for study.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

This year's Nobel Prize in medicine will go to three researchers who found a way to learn about the duties of individual genes. They discovered how to inactivate, or knock out, single genes in laboratory animals. The result is known as "knockout mice."

The Karolinska Institute named the winners last week. Two Americans, Mario

Mario Capecchi holds a laboratory mouse

Capecchi and Oliver Smithies, will share the one and one-half million dollar prize with Martin Evans of Britain. They will receive what is officially called the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on December tenth.

In the nineteen eighties, Mario Capecchi and Oliver Smithies both studied cells in mice to find how to target individual genes for changes. But the kinds of cells they independently studied could not be used to create gene-targeted animals.

Martin Evans had the solution. He developed embryonic stem cells that could produce mice that carried new genetic material.

The research greatly expanded knowledge about embryonic development as well as aging and disease. It led to a new technology -- gene targeting. And this has already produced five hundred mouse models of human conditions.

Knockout mice are used for general research and for the development of new treatments. International efforts aim to make them available in the near future for all genes.

Mario Capecchi is a researcher at the University of Utah. He was born in Italy in nineteen thirty-seven. He was homeless and on his own for years as a young boy.

His mother had been sent to a Nazi German death camp. But she survived, and after she was freed she found him in a hospital. He was nine years old and being treated for severe malnutrition.

They came to the United States where he entered school for the first time. Later, he became an American citizen.

Oliver Smithies

Oliver Smithies was born in Britain in nineteen twenty-five and also became an American citizen. He is a professor at the University of North Carolina. And, at age fifty, he learned to fly. He flies a motor glider and small airplanes.

Martin Evans was born in nineteen forty-one, also in Britain. He is director of the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University in Wales. He called winning the Nobel Prize "a boyhood dream come true."

And that's the VOA Special English Health report, written by Caty Weaver. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOASE1009_Health Report

09 October 2007

Combination of Medicine and Therapy Called Best for Depressed Teens
A $17 million US study shows that the two treatments work better together than either alone.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Depression can cause long periods of sadness and hopelessness, feelings of low self-worth, even physical pain. It is the leading cause of suicide.

The World Health Organization says more than one hundred twenty million people worldwide suffer from depression. But many people may not know it can start at a young age. In the United States, for example, health officials estimate that about five percent of adolescents are depressed.

Researchers in the United States have just reported on a study of more than three hundred patients ages twelve to seventeen. All suffered from major depression disorder, the most common form of the disease.

The researchers divided them into three groups. One received the antidepressant drug Prozac. Another received cognitive behavioral therapy. The third received both.

The study found that the best treatment was a combination of antidepressant and cognitive behavioral therapy, or C.B.T. This kind of therapy teaches patients to recognize and deal with the thoughts that can result from depression.

It centers on current feelings instead of past events.

At twelve weeks, the researchers found reduced levels of depression in all three groups. But they say the group receiving the combination of treatments had the greatest reduction. This continued through the end of the nine-month study.

The researchers say eighty-six percent of those who received both treatments had improved. This was compared to eighty-one percent each in the two other groups.

The study did not include an untreated control group. So there is no way to know for sure if it was the treatment that eased the depression.

The findings by Duke University researchers appear in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The National Institute of Mental Health paid for the seventeen million dollar study.

The researchers say the group that received Prozac alone had a higher rate of suicidal thoughts than the other two groups. Experts say antidepressant drugs can increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in teenagers.

And, earlier this year, the government asked drug makers to extend that warning to patients age eighteen to twenty-four during initial treatment. Generally that means the first one to two months.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. To learn about World Mental Health Day, observed each year on October tenth, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1002_Health Report

02 October 2007

New Test for H5N1, and New Findings Why Virus Is So Deadly
Researchers say a hand-held device developed in Singapore gives results within a half-hour. Also, a study says the bird flu virus even has the ability to infect an unborn child.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Scientists continue to look for ways to deal with the deadly form of bird flu virus.

Medical workers care for a bird flu patient in Medan, Indonesia, last year

Researchers in Singapore, for example, have developed a new test for the h-five-n-one virus. They call it a "lab on a chip."

If successfully marketed, the hand-held device could be used to look for cases in affected areas and help contain outbreaks. Project leader Juergen Pipper says medical or aid workers would know in less than half an hour if a person is infected.

The device tests material collected from a quick swab of a person’s throat. The test uses magnetic force to control individual droplets containing added magnetic particles. The scientists say the droplet itself becomes a little laboratory that can do things like pump, separate and mix.

They note that an increasing number of similar tests are available to process cells, genetic material and proteins.

Juergen Pipper says the device can process complex tasks in a way similar to a traditional biological laboratory. The researchers say it works about ten times faster than current tests for the virus and could cost much less.

The developers think the same idea could also be used to find other viruses, including those that cause AIDS, SARS and hepatitis B.

Their research was published in Nature Medicine.

As of Tuesday, the World Health Organization had counted three hundred twenty-nine cases of the bird flu virus since two thousand three.

Sixty percent of the patients died. Many experts worry that the virus could kill large numbers worldwide if it starts to spread easily from person to person.

Indonesia has had the most cases, more than one hundred, and the most deaths. Last Friday a twenty-one-year-old man from west Jakarta became the eighty-sixth victim. Health officials say they do not know how he became infected.

An international team reported last week that the virus is so destructive, it can even infect unborn children. Researchers studied the bodies of two people killed by h-five-n-one. The study appeared in the Lancet.

They found that the virus caused a surprising amount of damage to the lungs. It also spread to the brain and to the digestive and reproductive systems. Ian Lipkin at Columbia University in New York says one victim was pregnant and the virus had spread to her fetus.

Yet the findings may help point to ways to limit damage by targeting not only the virus itself, but also how the body reacts.

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. I’m Mario Ritter.

VOASE0925_Health Report

25 September 2007

Injured Player's Gains Turn Attention to Cold Treatment
After US football's Kevin Everett damaged his spine, doctors quickly lowered his body temperature. But studies of hypothermia therapy have produced mixed results.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

On September ninth, American football player Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills tried to bring down an opponent. There seemed to be nothing unusual about what he did. The twenty-five-year-old Everett put his head down and, with his helmet, crashed into the other player to tackle him.

But it was Kevin Everett who immediately went down. He had severely injured his spine. He could not move.

Kevin Everett of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills is moved off the field

Even before an ambulance drove him to a hospital, doctors tried an experimental treatment to limit the damage. They wanted to prevent his spinal cord from swelling and destroying nerves.

In the ambulance, the doctors injected cold saline, or salt water, into his blood system. This brought his body temperature down to about thirty-three degrees Celsius -- about four degrees below normal.

This kind of treatment is sometimes called hypothermia therapy.

At the hospital, doctors performed an emergency operation to repair broken bones in his spine and put it back in the correct position. But they also continued the cooling treatment. Kevin Everett received cold saline through a tube into his body for about twenty-four hours.

Spinal injuries like these are often life-threatening and almost always completely disabling.

Within three days, however, he had some movement again in his arms and legs. How much he might recover is still not clear. But the doctors involved with his care have said they believe the cooling treatment is at least party responsible for his progress.

Cooling treatment is common for people who have had strokes. The treatment is also used with people whose hearts have stopped and been restarted. In both situations, doctors hope to limit nerve damage that can result from a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Yet studies of hypothermia therapy have shown mixed results. In some cases it may lead to blockages in blood flow and damage to organs.

Doctors say cooling treatment for spinal injuries, to be effective, must begin immediately after the injury happens. But some doctors say there is no proof that Kevin Everett is improving because of hypothermia therapy. They suggest that his injuries were not as severe as doctors had first thought.

In any case, this past weekend, Kevin Everett sat up in his hospital bed for more than four hours. He also lifted his right arm for the first time.

And that's the VOA Special English HEALTH REPORT, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Mario Ritter.

VOASE0918_Health Report

18 September 2007

Debating the Teen Brain
Are teenagers' brains too undeveloped to make wise decisions about safe behavior? Or is the problem with adults?

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Parents might tell teenagers, "Act your age." But some scientists say that is exactly what teens are doing. They say that while teenagers can look all grown up, studies have found that their brains are still developing.

How much this explains their behavior, though, is a subject of debate.

Jay Giedd of the National Institutes of Health in the United States is a leader in this area of research. Doctor Giedd has been studying a group of young people since nineteen ninety-one. They visit him every two years for a new M.R.I., or magnetic resonance imaging, of their brains.

He says considerable development continues throughout the teen years and into the twenties. A part of the brain called the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex appears especially undeveloped in teens. Researchers believe that among its duties, this area controls judgment and consideration of risk.

So, in theory, its underdevelopment may explain why young people seem more willing to take risks like driving too fast.

Laurence Steinberg is a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He says stronger laws, and stronger parental control, are needed to protect teens from themselves. That includes raising the age for driving. He says research finds that teenage brains are not fully equipped to control behavior.

Other scientists, however, say there is not enough evidence to make a strong case for such findings.

Psychologist Robert Epstein, a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, notes that teen behavior differs from culture to culture. He says behavior depends for the most part on socialization. As he sees it, if teenagers are with adults more, and treated more like adults, that will lead to better, safer behavior.

But is that always true? Mike Males at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco is a founder of youthfacts.org. He suggests that all of this talk lately about "brainless" teens could possibly be an attempt to take away attention from the reality.

Writing this week in the New York Times, he says it is middle-aged adults -- the parents -- whose behavior has worsened. In his words, "if grown-ups really have superior brains, why don't we act as if we do?"

And that’s the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOASE0911_Health Report

11 September 2007

Gaining Weight as Friends, and Maybe Losing It Too
By Researchers say that if social ties help make obesity acceptable, then they could also be influential in fighting the fat.

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When one person gains weight, their close friends often follow. Researchers have just offered evidence in a study that says obesity appears to spread through social ties. But the findings might also offer hope.

A fitness class in Pennsylvania

If friends help make obesity acceptable, then they might also be influential in losing the fat. The researchers note that support groups are already an effective tool in dealing with other socially influenced problems, like alcoholism.

The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers used information collected from twelve thousand people. It was collected between nineteen seventy-one and two thousand three as part of the Framingham Heart Study.

The information was highly detailed. There was even contact information for close friends of the people in the study.

The researchers examined more than forty thousand social ties. They found that a person's chances of becoming severely overweight increased by fifty-seven percent if a friend had become obese.

A sister or brother of a person who became obese had a forty percent increased chance of becoming obese. The risk for a wife or husband was a little less than that.

Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School was a lead investigator in the study. He says there is a direct causal relationship between a person getting fat and being followed in weight gain by a friend.

The study found that the sex of the friends was also an influence. In same-sex friendships, a person had a seventy-one percent increased risk of becoming obese. Men had a forty-four percent increased risk of becoming obese after weight gain in a brother. In sisters, it was sixty-seven percent.

The researchers also considered the effect of where people lived in relation to each other. James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, was the other lead investigator. He says a friend who lives a few hundred kilometers away has as much influence as one in the same neighborhood. He says the study demonstrates the need to consider that a major part of people's health is tied to their social connections.

Both investigators say their research shows that obesity is not just a private medical issue, but a public health problem.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. For more health news, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.