Removing tonsils not best idea

Removing tonsils may not be the best treatment for kids

Removing the tonsils of children with mild or moderate throat infections is more expensive and has fewer health benefits than simply watching and waiting, Dutch researchers said.

In a study involving 300 children aged 2 to 8 advised to have their tonsils out, those who avoided surgery had fewer annual visits to doctors and lower resulting medical costs due to fevers and throat infections.

Tonsils are masses of tissue at the back of the throat that trap bacteria and viruses a person may breathe in.

While doctors today carry out far fewer tonsil operations than in the past, the Dutch study provides evidence that many children who do have the procedure see little, if any benefit. It was published in the Archives of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery.

Get some sleep to lose baby weight

Researchers presented a conundrum to new mothers, saying that women who want to lose the extra weight gained in pregnancy should try to get more sleep.

They found that mothers who slept five hours or less a day when their babies were 6 months old were three times more likely than more rested mothers to have kept on the extra weight at one year.

Researchers studied 940 women taking part in a study of prenatal and postnatal health at Harvard Medical School in Boston. The women who slept five hours or less a night when their babies were 6 months old were more likely to have kept on 11 pounds of weight one year after giving birth.

Women who slept seven hours a night or more lost more weight, they reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The researchers acknowledged this may pose a dilemma to new mothers, given that infants sleep so fitfully. They plan more studies to find ways for new moms to get more sleep.

Smoking speeds men's hair loss

While Asian men generally have less trouble than Caucasians with the most common form of hereditary male baldness, smoking cigarettes may erase that edge, researchers said.

Smoking may destroy hair follicles, interfere with the way blood and hormones are circulated in the scalp or increase the production of estrogen, said Lin-Hui Su of the Far Eastern Memorial Hospital and Tony Hsiu-Hsi Chen of National Taiwan University in Taipei.

Brains different in migraine sufferers

People who get migraines have structural differences in their brains, notably in the cortex area that processes pain and other sensory information from the body, scientists said.

The researchers, whose findings were published in the journal Neurology, said it is unclear whether these brain differences actually cause migraines or are themselves caused by these severe, recurrent headaches.

Some diabetics are poor drivers

Drivers with diabetes who have trouble telling when their blood sugar is low may get behind the wheel when they shouldn't, a small study suggests. The study, of 65 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, found that many of those with impaired awareness of hypoglycemia symptoms thought they were OK to drive even when their blood sugar was dangerously low.

Anti-smoking drug under safety review

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an early warning about Pfizer Inc.'s anti-smoking drug, Chantix, amid reports of suicidal thoughts and behavior, and at least one death potentially linked to the medication.

The FDA is analyzing reports of erratic and aggressive behavior and suicidal thoughts and behavior in patients taking the prescription drug, known generically as varenicline.