Young men who are overweight or obese run a higher risk of developing severe liver disease or liver cancer in later life, according to new research. A high Body Mass Index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of severe liver disease and liver cancer in adults, while also increasing the risk for type two diabetes. Researchers led by Dr Hannes Hagström, of the Centre for Digestive Diseases at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, set out to investigate how BMI in early adolescents impacted on liver problems later in life. They used registered data from more than 1.2 million Swedish men enlisted for military conscription between 1969 and 1996. The men were followed up from one year after conscription through until December 31, 2012, for the research published in the journal 'Gut'. Results showed that there were 5,281 cases of severe liver disease, including 251 cases of liver cancer. The researchers discovered that overweight men were almost 50pc more likely, and obese men more than twice as likely, to develop liver disease in later life than men of normal weight.

Independent.IE, March 27, 2017

A new cure for hepatitis C in children and adolescents is on the way, promising to help some of the silent victims of a nationwide heroin epidemic. A Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center doctor who helped lead the research for the drug combination says the new medication regiment brings hope for all children with the disease. "Years ago, I told my patients' parents that, in your child's lifetime, we're going to have a cure for this," said Dr. William Balistreri, lead author of the study and medical director emeritus for Cincinnati Children's Pediatric Liver Care Center. Before this, he said, "there wasn't anything that was really reliable."

Cincinnati.com, March 25, 2017  

It is sadly ironic that it is man's inability to look vulnerable or weak in the eyes of others that inhibits them from admitting to suffering at the hands of mental illness, because it's these same men that are exhibiting incredible strength and perseverance as they battle tirelessly against the illness every day. If only men were able to see obtaining help and defeating mental illness through a competitive lens as they do for so many other aspects in life, then they would realize that it's an accomplishment, not a defeat.

StudyBreaks.com, March 22, 2017

In 1858, Walt Whitman, at the age of thirty-nine, was eking out a living as a journalist at the Brooklyn Daily Times, generating thousands of words a week at an unflagging pace. Adrift and demoralized, Whitman cultivated a bohemian image and dreamed of reinventing himself as a travelling orator. Instead, that fall, he attached himself to a more mundane endeavor, as the author of a series of advice columns for the New York Atlas on the topic of men's health. The articles, which are collected in a new book, " Manly Health and Training: To Teach the Science of a Sound and Beautiful Body ," brim with piquant digressions and bumptious, often contradictory advice on diet, exercise, and beauty. Whitman implores men to do things briskly: walking, showering, rubbing themselves down with dry cloths and hair gloves. He likes stale bread and fresh air; he foresees the rise of athletic footwear, noting that "the shoe now specially worn by the base-ball players" should be "introduced for general use." It's easy to roll your eyes at his dictates, especially when they come under such blustering headers as "the great american evil-indigestion" and "could there be an entire nation of vigorous and beautiful men?" (Short answer: I don't see why not!)

New Yorker, March 21, 2017

In the midst of an opioid epidemic that continues to devastate families, a sliver of hope has arrived. Two long-term studies published Monday show that opioid use among teens and opioid poisonings among younger children are on the decline. Though it gets less press, the opioid epidemic has been hitting teens and children hard, with hospitalization rates for opioid exposures nearly doubling for teens and more than doubling for kids under 5 between 1997 and 2012. But family members' opioids are a major source for youth who use them, and opioid prescriptions have been decreasing since around 2011, reducing youth access to the drugs, noted both studies' authors. "It is our hope that these declines are due to careful prescribing practices and enhanced monitoring of prescription opioids among adolescents that will eventually translate to a reduction in negative opioid-related consequences, such as overdoses," says Sean Esteban McCabe, the lead author of one of the studies and a research professor at the University of Michigan Substance Abuse Research Center.

NPR, March 20, ,2017

Most Teens Who Abuse Opioids 1st Got Them from a Doctor

Most American teenagers who abuse opioid drugs first received the drugs from a doctor, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at trends in the use of prescription opioids among U.S. adolescents from 1976 to 2015. They found a strong correlation between teens' taking the drugs for medical reasons and then later taking them for "nonmedical" reasons, or in other words, abusing them, according to the study published today (March 20) in the journal Pediatrics. "One consistent finding we observed over the past two decades is that the majority of nonmedical users of prescription opioids also have a history of   medical use of prescription opioids ," said study author Sean McCabe, a research professor at the University of Michigan.

 

Christine M. Judge, MS, Louis M. Bell, MD reviewing Allen JD et al. Pediatrics 2017 Mar 20. McCabe SE et al.Pediatrics 2017 Mar 20. Rosen DA and Murray PJ. Pediatrics 2017 Mar 20.

 

live science, March 20, 2017

The Weekly News Roundup is produced by The Partnership for Male Youth and is released every Monday. 

For more information contact Dennis J. Barbour, JD. News Roundup editor and President/CEO of the Partnership, at [email protected].