HealthDay (4/11, Preidt) reports that according to a study published online March 6 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, male teens who have been sexually abused may be more likely to engage in unsafe sex. After analyzing data on some 40,000 US and Canadian high-school males, researchers found that “compared to those with no history of sexual abuse, young males who were sexually abused were five times more likely to cause teen pregnancy, three times more likely to have multiple sexual partners and two times more likely to have unprotected sex.”

Related Links:

— “Sexual Abuse May Put Boys at Risk for Unsafe Sex,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 10, 2012.

The UK’s Telegraph (4/11, Smith) reports, “Doctors are warning that pressure to be young, beautiful, slim and clever, is driving a generation into buying illicit drugs online in the belief they are not ‘good enough’.” But “the products often contain banned and harmful substances or experimental and adulterated drugs that can cause allergic reactions, liver damage, mercury poisoning, brain damage and even death,” according to the Human Enhancement Drugs – The Emerging Challenges to Public Health report. “The report…charts unprecedented growth over the past few years in the usage of such drugs, sourced from a vast and illicit market.”

Related Links:

— “Warning over online ‘smart drugs’ that can kill,”Rebecca Smith, The Telegraph, April 11, 2012.

The Louisville Courier-Journal (4/11, Ungar) reports, “More than 250 faces stare out from a wall of photos at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit — men and women, many of them young, lost to drug overdoses.” On Tuesday, US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, said, “There are too many faces on that wall. There are too many faces that could be on that wall,” and added, “Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem.” The surgeon general “was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural national three-day summit organized by the Eastern Kentucky anti-drug group Operation UNITE” that “drew about 700 people involved in battling the prescription-drug abuse epidemic.”

“At the National Prescription Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando Tuesday, Gov. Steve Beshear called for states and the federal government to develop aggressive shared tactics to thwart the devastating scourge of prescription drug abuse,” the Kentucky New Era (4/11) reports. “He also encouraged Kentucky legislators to keep the state on the leading edge of effective anti-drug strategies by passing a broad prescription drug bill,” known as House Bill 4, “on the final day of the legislative session this week.”

Related Links:

— “Prescription drug abuse summit draws 700,”Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal, April 10, 2012.

MedWire (4/11, Robertson) reports, “Depression is associated with a significantly increased risk for dementia among patients with type 2 diabetes,” according to a study published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry. After analyzing data on some 20,000 patients with diabetes who partook in the Diabetes and Aging Study, researchers found that “depression at baseline was associated with a 2.02-fold greater risk for dementia compared with those without diabetes, after adjustment for covariates.”

Related Links:

— “Depression impacts on dementia risk in diabetes,”Sally Robertson, MedWire News, April 10, 2012.

The Los Angeles Times (4/11, Kaplan) “Booster Shots” blog reports, “Nearly two-thirds of Americans who are obese try to lose weight, and about 40% of them actually succeed. How did they do it? The old-school way: By eating less, exercising more and switching to more healthful foods,” according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers examined 4,021 adults who had been obese between 2001 and 2006 before participating in the study. As the blog post notes, “2,523 — or 63% — said they had tried to lose weight in the previous 12 months. And among them, 1,026 — or 41% — were able to shed at least 5% of their body weight…Even better, 510 people — or 20% — succeeded in losing at least 10% of their body weight.” Among participants who lost at least 10%, exercise and healthier eating — not shortcuts –were typical practices.

The Time (4/11, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog notes that “the most popular strategies were eating less, exercising more, eating less fat and switching to lower-calorie foods. People who used commercial weight-loss programs and prescription weight-loss pills also saw success, but only a small portion of the study participants used them.” Also covering the story are MedPage Today (4/11, Fiore), WebMD (4/11, Mann) and HealthDay (4/11, Doheny).

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