The Health News USA November 30 2017

• U.S. health officials said that delays in the time between becoming infected with HIV and getting a diagnosis are shortening, helped by efforts to increase testing for the virus that causes AIDS. The report, released on Tuesday by the CDC, found that 50% of the 39,720 people diagnosed with HIV in two thousand fifteen had been infected for at least 3 years, a 7-month improvement compared with 2011. Nevertheless, 25% of people diagnosed with HIV in 2015 were infected for 7 years or more before being diagnosed..
• According to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, 13,089 adults who were under age 65 , in the Medicaid program, and died of an opioid overdose between the years 2001 and 2007. Researchers found about two-thirds (61.5% percent) of those who died had been diagnosed with non-cancer chronic pain and prescribed an opioid.
• The way that fat is distributed across our body puts us at risk of cardiometabolic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. New research examines how gender influences this risk. Almost 70% of people in the United States are overweight, and over a third of the population is obese. Heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are only a few of the many cardiometabolic health risks associated with obesity.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 30th of November 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-hiv/u-s-hiv-diagnoses-improving-but-progress-varies-cdc-idUSKBN1DS2N3

U.S. health officials said that delays in the time between becoming infected with human immunodeficiency virus and getting a diagnosis are shortening, helped by efforts to increase testing for the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The report, released on Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that fifty percent of the thirty nine thousand seven hundred twenty people diagnosed with HIV in two thousand fifteen had been infected for at least three years, a seven-month improvement compared with two thousand eleven.

Nevertheless, twenty five percent of people diagnosed with HIV in two thousand fifteen were infected for seven years or more before being diagnosed. CDC Director Doctor Brenda Fitzgerald said the report shows the nation is making progress in the fight against HIV, but the gains are uneven, and challenges remain.
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Although testing rates increased overall, an estimated fifteen percent of people living with HIV in two thousand fifteen did not know they were infected, and half of people who were unaware of their infection in two thousand fifteen lived in the South.

Among high risk individuals, many reported not being tested in the prior year, including twenty nine percent of gay and bisexual men, forty two percent of people who inject drugs and fifty nine percent of heterosexuals at increased risk for HIV. Two thirds of those who had not been tested for HIV in the prior year had seen a healthcare provider.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/11/28/study-finds-commonality-in-61-percent-opioid-deaths.html

As the staggering toll—in terms of bodies, emotions, money, and our life expectancy—of the opioid epidemic comes into sharper focus, the idea of those who are most at risk is crystallizing, too, thanks to research out of Columbia University Medical Center. What a press release calls the “largest study of opioid deaths” was published Tuesday in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers started with thirteen thousand eighty nine adults who were under age sixty five, in the Medicaid program, and died of an opioid overdose between the years two thousand one and two thousand seven.

A review of their medical histories and filled prescriptions resulted in a couple of big takeaways. As Bloomberg puts it, the numbers confirm “America’s opioid epidemic began at the pharmacy.” The researchers found about two-thirds or sixty one point five percent of those who died had been diagnosed with non-cancer chronic pain and prescribed an opioid.

Many had also been diagnosed with depression or anxiety, and lead investigator Doctor Mark Olfson sees two lessons in that. First, that there’s an opportunity for “clinical intervention,” whereby clinics that treat chronic pain or mental health issues could pair those services with substance abuse treatment. Second, this group was more likely to have filled prescriptions for both opioids and anti-anxiety benzodiazepines; the combination promotes respiratory depression, “the unusually slow and shallow breathing that is the primary cause of death in most fatal opioid overdoses,” says Olfson. Doctors should avoid prescribing the two together.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320197.php

The way that fat is distributed across our body puts us at risk of cardiometabolic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. New research examines how gender influences this risk.
Almost seventy percent of people in the United States are overweight, and over a third of the population is obese. These dire statistics have led researchers and health professionals to speak of an obesity epidemic in the U.S. Heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are only a few of the many cardiometabolic health risks associated with obesity. Coronary heart disease — for which obesity is a major risk factor — can lead to angina and heart attacks, if untreated.

Additionally, gender seems to play a role. New research suggests that gender influences how fat is distributed across the body, which, in turn, influences cardiometabolic risk.
The newest study was led by Doctor Miriam A. Bredella, a radiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of radiology at the Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Doctor Bredella and team examined two hundred overweight and obese but otherwise healthy adults. Ninety-one of the participants were male. All participants had a similar body mass index and age — which was thirty seven years, on average. In order to assess body composition, all the participants were examined using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and computed tomography scans after fasting overnight. Using a technique called magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the researchers were able to quantify and examine the fat, determining levels of serum glucose, insulin, and lipids.

Doctor Bredella and colleagues performed linear regression analyses between body composition and the risk factors for cardiometabolic conditions. The study revealed that women had more fat overall and more fat below the skin, but they also had lower lean mass than men. Lean body mass refers to the total weight of one’s “muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, and internal organs.” Men, however, had more of the so-called visceral adipose tissue, or ectopic fat, which are terms that describe fat that surrounds vital organs. Men had more ectopic fat in the muscles, abdomen, and liver.