The Health News USA December 19 2017

• According to US researchers, both LGBQ sexual identity and traumatic experiences in childhood are linked to a heightened risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The study team reported in Journal of Adolescent Health that teens who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or are questioning their sexual identity are also more likely than their heterosexual peers to have had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in childhood. They wrote that suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults and there is evidence that suicide rates are increasing in this age group.
• The FDA is planning to more aggressively regulate homeopathic drugs that are potentially harmful and unproven, reversing nearly three decades of policy. Homeopathic remedies use ingredients that can be dangerous, but are so diluted they’re said to be safe and even cure illnesses. The FDA decided in 1988 that it would not use all the enforcement authority within its power to regulate such products.
• Democratic Governor Tom Wolf on Monday vetoed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature that would have limited abortions to the first twenty weeks of pregnancy. Wolf, who supports abortion rights, rejected what Planned Parenthood said would have been the nation’s most restrictive abortion law. Pennsylvania’s current limit is 24 weeks. The 20-week limit would have kept in place exceptions under current law for when a mother’s life or well-being is at risk, but it had no exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 19th of December 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-adolescents-suicide-lgbt/teen-sexual-identity-childhood-trauma-linked-to-suicidal-behaviors-idUSKBN1EC2AM

According to US researchers, both LGBQ sexual identity and traumatic experiences in childhood are linked to a heightened risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The study team reported in Journal of Adolescent Health that teens who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or are questioning their sexual identity are also more likely than their heterosexual peers to have had adverse childhood experiences or ACEs in childhood. They wrote that suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults and there is evidence that suicide rates are increasing in this age group. Lead author Kristen Clements-Nolle, of the School of Community Health Sciences of the University of Nevada, Reno said:“It is imperative that we identify adolescent populations at greatest risk to guide our prevention efforts.”

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Compared with heterosexual students with no exposure to ACEs, LGB/not sure students with two or more ACEs had approximately thirteen times higher odds of attempting suicide in the past year,” Clements-Nolle said. To examine the relationships among teen sexual identity, childhood trauma and suicide risk, Clements-Nolle and colleagues enrolled approximately five thousand students from ninety seven  high schools in Nevada to fill out questionnaires and answer questions about their sexual identity and exposure to adverse childhood experiences.
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About ten percent of students self-identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), and nearly five percent were not sure of their sexual identity. Just over eighty five percent of students identified as heterosexual. For all students, the greater the number of adverse experiences they reported, the greater was their risk of having had suicidal thoughts during the past year. Sexual identity was also linked to risk of suicidal thinking. Compared with heterosexual students with no ACEs, LGB and questioning students overall were three times more likely to report suicidal thoughts.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/18/fda-plans-more-active-enforcement-over-homeopathic-drugs.html

The Food and Drug Administration is planning to more aggressively regulate homeopathic drugs that are potentially harmful and unproven, reversing nearly three decades of policy. Homeopathic remedies use ingredients that can be dangerous, but are so diluted they’re said to be safe and even cure illnesses. The FDA decided in nineteen eighty eight that it would not use all the enforcement authority within its power to regulate such products.

The FDA said that within the past decade, more people have experimented with homeopathic remedies. The once-small industry has ballooned to three billion dollars. In proposed guidance, the agency said it’s changing its stance because as the industry has grown, and so has the risk.
The FDA plans to target products that are meant for vulnerable populations like infants and children, those that don’t cure the serious illnesses and diseases they’re said to, and those that contain potentially harmful ingredients and don’t meet good manufacturing processes.
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Homeopathic products drew national attention last year when ten children died and four hundred experienced adverse effects, such as seizures, after taking some over-the-counter teething medicines. The FDA issued warnings against using these remedies, which contained dangerous levels of belladonna, a toxic ingredient.
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The FDA began reviewing its approach to regulating homeopathic drugs in two thousand fifteen. It will now open the proposal to public comments for ninety days and will then take those under consideration before issuing its final policy.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/18/wolf-to-veto-abortion-bill-called-nations-most-res/

Democratic Governor Tom Wolf on Monday vetoed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature that would have limited abortions to the first twenty weeks of pregnancy. Wolf, who supports abortion rights, rejected what Planned Parenthood said would have been the nation’s most restrictive abortion law. He signed the veto paperwork in a public ceremony in Philadelphia City Hall, calling the bill “a disingenuous and bald-faced attempt to create the most extreme anti-choice legislation in the country.” Pennsylvania’s current limit is twenty four weeks. The twenty-week limit would have kept in place exceptions under current law for when a mother’s life or well-being is at risk, but it had no exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities.

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Figures published by the state Department of Health show there were three hundred eighty abortions done after week twenty in two thousand fifteen, the latest year for which data is available. There were thirty one thousand eight hundred eighteen  abortions in total that year in Pennsylvania. The bill also would have effectively banned dilation-and-evacuation, the most common method of second-trimester abortion, opponents said. Brooks contended that the bill does not ban the procedure, but rather, the fetus must first be injected by saline to cause its death.

The bill was opposed by the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the Pennsylvania section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.