More Americans Pro-Life: Survey
More Americans consider themselves to be pro-life (51 percent) than pro-choice (42 percent), according to a new Gallup poll. It's the first time since Gallup started asking the question in 1995 that a majority of respondents said they're pro-life.
The results of the survey (which has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points) suggests a significant shift in attitudes, the Los Angeles Times reported. Last year, 50 percent of respondents said they were pro-choice, while 44 percent said they were pro-life.
The new poll found that 53 percent of Americans support legal abortion only in certain circumstances. The number of those who believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances is 22 percent, while 23 percent think abortion should be legal in any circumstances.
In recent years, surveys found that people who opposed all restrictions outnumbered by a wider margin those who supported a total abortion ban, the Times reported.
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Injectable Risperdal Approved for Bipolar Disorder
The long-lasting, injectable form of Risperdal has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of bipolar disorder.
The approval, based on two studies, is for the use of the Johnson & Johnson drug on its own and in conjunction with other treatments, such as lithium, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
One study found that the drug used alone delayed bipolar disease relapses characterized by extreme mood shifts. The other study showed that injectable Risperdal significantly delayed relapses among patients who were already being treated with valproate or lithium.
Injectable Risperdal was approved by the FDA in 2003 for treatment of schizophrenia.
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Later Retirement May Delay Dementia: Study
Postponing your retirement could help delay the development of Alzheimer's disease, suggests a British study that included more than 1,300 people with dementia.
The Kings College London team looked at a number of factors, such as education, employment and retirement, and found that people who retired at an older age developed Alzheimer's later than those who retired earlier. Each extra year of work was associated with a six-week delay in the onset of dementia, the Associated Press reported.
"The intellectual stimulation that older people gain from the workplace may prevent a decline in mental abilities, thus keeping people above the threshold for dementia for longer," study co-author Simon Lovestone said in a news release.
The study appears in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
More research is needed to confirm the study's findings, said Suzanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, the AP reported.
"There could be a number of reasons why later retirement in men is linked with later onset of dementia," she said. For example, those who retire early may have health problem, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, that increase the risk of dementia.
"It could also be that working helps keep your mind and body active, which may reduce risk of dementia," Sorensen said.
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Lower-Tar Cigarettes May Increase Risk of Type of Lung Cancer
The move to lower-tar cigarettes in the United States over the past few decades may be linked to an increased risk of a type of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma, according to a preliminary study.
Dr. David Burns, of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues found that the increase in adenocarcinoma tumors was higher in the U.S. than in Australia, even though low-tar cigarettes were introduced in both countries at the same time.
"The most likely explanation for it is a change in the cigarette," Burns told the Associated Press.
He noted that Australian cigarettes contain lower levels of caner-causing nitrosamines than those sold in the U.S. Levels of nitrosamines -- a by-product of tobacco processing -- vary due to a number of factors, including different curing methods.
The findings were presented at a meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.
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Obama Names NYC Health Chief Frieden to Lead CDC
President Barack Obama has named New York City health commissioner Dr. Thomas R. Frieden to head the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden, whose appointment does not require Senate confirmation, would take over the embattled agency next month, The New York Times reported.
A 48-year-old infectious disease specialist who has led New York City's fight to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, pass out free condoms to organizations and press for mandatory HIV testing as part of regular medical exams, Frieden inherits the CDC mantle at a time when the agency faces deep morale and organizational difficulties, while wrestling with how and whether to produce a swine flu vaccine, the Times reported.
Often a controversial leader during his seven years as New York's top health official, Frieden has had a history of focusing on health threats endangering large numbers of people, sometimes at the expense of more popular causes, the Times said. His high-profile style is likely to put him center stage in the Obama administration's efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system and to improve the safety of its food supply.
With his appointment, Frieden would become the second former New York health commissioner named to a top federal health post. Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, who held the post in the 1990s, is nearing confirmation as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Both Frieden and Hamburg, who have a along and close relationship, according to the Times, and together led New York's battle to stop an epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis infections, will play lead roles in how the U.S. will fight swine flu next fall if the virus returns. They may also play crucial roles in reforming food safety -- a top priority of the Obama administration, even within the overhaul of the nation's health care system.
Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit public health advocacy organization, told the Times that Frieden is "a transformational leader." "I think the administration selected Tom Frieden because he can take public health to a new place," Levi said.
Facing Frieden are host of internal problems at the agency that he will inherit from former CDC head Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, who left in January, and whose long effort to reorganize the agency's bureaucracy has been widely criticized as sapping morale and causing a raft of top staff departures.
"Morale is the weakest thing at the agency right now," Dr. James M. Hughes, former director of the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, told the Times. "He has to really listen to people."
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