The pool of potential living kidney donors may be shrinking because of the national obesity “epidemic,” researchers said here.

In a single-center study, almost a quarter of willing donors were initially excluded because they were too heavy, Dr. Mala Sachdeva of North Shore-LIJ Health System Transplant Center on Long Island, N.Y., and colleagues reported at the National Kidney Foundation meeting here.

And only a small percentage of those patients were ultimately able to lose enough weight to donate a kidney, despite their initial motivation, Sachdeva said at the group’s poster presentation. [Read more...]

A 9-year-old boy removed from his mother’s custody after his weight ballooned to more than 200 pounds returned home slimmer with a free gym membership, exercise equipment and even a new scale.

His story has compelled donations from community organizations concerned about his well-being. But it will be up to the boy and his family to make sure he doesn’t regain the weight and end up in court again after a judge in Cleveland released him from protective supervision on Thursday.

The boy, who was placed in foster care last fall and then spent three months living with an uncle, lost about 50 pounds through exercise and healthy eating. He was returned to his mother under protective supervision in March. [Read more...]

It’s an interesting time in the world of sleep apnea research, a disorder in which a person has periods of slow or paused breathing during sleep. It seems that every month there is a new study showing yet another link between sleep apnea and sleep-disordered breathing (snoring, paused breathing, etc.), and its negative effects on health.

Recent studies have linked obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to depression, silent strokes and small brain lesions, abnormalities in the blood vessels, high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes, even sudden hearing loss. And women take note: Sleep apnea has been linked to dementia in older women, and another observational study found that women with untreated severe OSA are 3.5 times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than women without OSA! [Read more...]

Despite longstanding recommendations for children with asthma to avoid tobacco smoke, many youths are still exposed to secondhand smoke and their health suffers because of it, according to a study to be presented Tuesday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Boston.

“National asthma guidelines have advised avoidance of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) for patients with asthma for decades, but it is unclear to what degree these recommendations are being followed and what the impact of exposure has been in an era of increased awareness of the effects of ETS exposure,” said lead author Lara J. Akinbami, MD, FAAP, medical officer, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [Read more...]