Benzac Benzoyl Peroxide

The appetite-regulating hormone leptin may contribute to osteoarthritis in obese people, according to a new study that suggests that skeletal wear and tear caused by excess weight isn’t the only cause of the painful and debilitating condition.

Duke University researchers found that extremely obese mice didn’t develop osteoarthritis if their bodies didn’t have leptin. In fact, joints in obese mice without leptin appeared healthier than those in normal mice.

The study appears in the Sept. 29 issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism.

This is the first time that leptin has been identified as a “metabolic link” between obesity and altered cartilage metabolism in joints, according to a university news release.

“Although there was some earlier evidence that leptin might be involved in the arthritis disease process, we didn’t think that there would be no arthritis at all” in the obese mice without leptin, said Farshid Guilak, director of orthopedic research in the Duke Department of Surgery, in the news release.

Leptin influences many osteoarthritis-related factors, such as body weight, inflammation and bone metabolism.

“With obesity and osteoarthritis, there are good similarities between humans and mice,” Guilak said. “If we can find a pathway that links a high-fat diet with arthritis, then we can try to identify and block the inflammatory mediators that are linked with the dietary fat.”

For those middle-aged folks who cringe at the memory of their adolescence, new Swedish research suggests that social standing as a teenager has long-term health consequences.

And in a related study, British scientists have found that children whose mothers work outside the home are more likely to engage in unhealthier lifestyles — including eating less healthy foods and getting less exercise — than kids whose mothers are at home.

Both studies appear online Sept. 29 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“I think that the results highlight the importance of recognizing that school is not only about performance and grades, but equally so about the social interplay between children,” said study author Ylva Almquist, a sociologist at the Centre for Health Equity Studies in Stockholm.

The researchers studied data from 14,000 children who participated in the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study, which tracked the long-term health of Swedes born between 1953 and 2003. Specifically, Almquist and her team examined levels of popularity, power and status reported by study participants who were in sixth grade in 1966.

Using that information as a personality baseline, the team then examined the students’ health records during a 30-year-period from 1973 and 2003, focusing on hospital discharge records. Researchers noted that the students who reported lower levels of social acceptance as young teens tended to have a higher risk of serious health issues as adults; the same was true for males and females.

Specifically, the study found that:
Children who were the least popular and powerful at school were more than four times as likely to require hospital treatment for hormonal, nutritional and metabolic diseases as their most popular and powerful classmates.
They were more than twice as likely to develop mental health and behavioral problems, including suicide attempts and self-harm.
They were more than five times as likely to be admitted for unintentional poisoning.
They were also significantly more likely to develop drug and alcohol dependency problems, and nine times more likely to develop heart disease.

Almquist said she is not sure why low social status has such noticeable and long-term health consequences, but there are theories.

“Most likely it is a combination of various aspects,” she said. “Our hypothesis is that lower peer status is linked to less social support, influence and integration, which could result in a more negative self-image and self-confidence. This could in turn influence the child’s future ambitions, expectations and choices. For example, health behaviors such as smoking may be a relevant explanation as to why peer status influences ischemic heart disease. Stress and coping abilities may also be potentially important aspects.”

Kiti Freier Randall, a pediatric neurodevelopmental psychologist from California, said there is a growing body of evidence pointing to the negative consequences of social isolation.

“Our experience of low power and status affects our self-esteem,” she said. “How you feel about yourself affects your health. In many ways, we are hardwired to connect with others.”

Stress physically harms the body, said Freier Randall, who added that people who feel bad often try to comfort themselves with potentially self-destructive behaviors, such as smoking, over-eating and substance abuse.

Freier Randall was also intrigued with the British study that looked at the behavioral impact of mothers working outside the home. To her, the issue is less about moms, who often have no choice but to work, than about the lack of overall adult supervision of young people, especially after school.

“Kids need to have activities with adults who care,” she said.

Young women who make poor shoe choices risk foot pain later in life, U.S. researchers warn.

The study authors analyzed data from 1,900 women and 1,472 men enrolled in the Framingham Foot Study between 2002 and 2008. The participants were asked about pain, aching, or stiffness in either or both feet. They also provided information about current and past footwear.

Footwear was classified as: good (low-risk shoes, including athletic and casual sneakers); average (mid-risk shoes, such as hard- or rubber-soled shoes, special shoes and work boots); and poor (high-risk shoes that lack support and sound structure, such as high-heeled shoes, sandals and slippers).

The researchers found that one-quarter of participants reported generalized foot pain on most days, with 19 percent of men and 29 percent of women falling into this category.

“In women, we found an increased risk between hindfoot pain and shoewear,” wrote the researchers from Boston University School of Public Health and the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife.

Less than 2 percent of men wore poor shoes, which means that shoe type wasn’t a major factor in the development of foot pain in men, the researchers noted.

“While more research is needed, young women should make careful choices regarding their shoe type to avoid hindfoot pain later in life, or perform stretching exercises to alleviate the effect of high heels on foot pain,” the researchers recommended.

Heparin, a common blood thinner, can cause skin lesions that are harmless in most cases but could indicate a life-threatening condition induced by the drug, a new study suggests.

Researchers examined 320 people who were given heparin injections at a German hospital. Of those, 7.5 percent developed skin lesions as a result of the treatment. That’s higher than the 2 percent rate the researchers had anticipated.

“During the study, we were surprised by the high number of patients with heparin-induced skin lesions,” the study authors wrote. “For most patients, the diagnosis was made because of our study.”

The researchers found that in most cases, the lesions resulted from an allergic reaction. Women were more likely to have the reaction, and three factors — pregnancy, obesity and long-term heparin use — resulted in a higher likelihood of the condition, the study found.

The authors suggested that doctors be aware that skin lesions might occur and realize that they need to figure out the cause. The lesions could be a sign, they said, of a serious condition called “heparin-induced thrombocytopenia,” in which the number of platelets in the blood decrease.