Cases of Lyme disease more common than first estimated

Centers for Disease Control makes concerted effort to establish number of cases

Lyme disease is about 10 times more common than previously reported, health officials said Monday.

As many as 300,000 Americans are actually diagnosed with Lyme disease each year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced.

Usually, only 20,000 to 30,000 illnesses are reported each year. For many years, CDC officials have known that many doctors don’t report every case and that the true count was probably much higher.

The new figure is the CDC’s most comprehensive attempt at a better estimate. The number comes from a survey of seven national laboratories, a national patient survey and a review of insurance information.

The ailment is a bacteria transmitted through the bites of infected deer ticks, which can be about the size of a Poppy Seed. Symptoms include a fever, headache and fatigue and sometimes a telltale rash that looks like a bull’s-eye centred on the tick bite. Most people recover with antibiotics. If left untreated, the infection can cause arthritis and more severe problems. BPA, phthalates tied to childhood weight and diabetes Children exposed to two chemicals commonly used in food packaging are more likely to be obese or show signs of diabetes precursors than those with lower exposure, new research suggests.

Researchers found urine levels of one type of phthalate, used to soften plastic, were tied to a higher risk of insulin resistance among teenagers. Based on data from the same large nutrition survey, another study group linked bisphenol A, or BPA — used to line aluminum cans — to obesity and larger waists in youth.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in six U.S. children and teenagers is now obese.

“Clearly unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity are the drivers of this epidemic . . . but increasingly environmental chemicals are being identified as possible contributors,” Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a pediatrician from New York University, said.

He and his colleagues analyzed data from a nationally-representative health and nutrition survey conducted in 2003 to 2008, which included urine and blood tests for 766 adolescents aged 12 to 19.

They found urinary levels of one particular type of phthalate, known as Di-2ethylhexylph thalate (DEHP), were closely tied to a teenager’s chance of having insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes. Just under15 per cent of study participants with the lowest one-third of DEHP levels were insulin resistant, compared to almost 22 per cent of those with the highest levels. Poor sleep tied to lower academic performance in children Children who have trouble sleeping tend to do worse in school than their peers who get a good night’s sleep, a new study suggests.

Researchers in Brazil looked at 2,384 children age 7 to 10 who attended Sao Paulo public schools from 1999 to 2001. They found kids with symptoms of sleep disorders or sleep breathing disorders earned lower grades than those without problems sleeping, on average.

Thirteen per cent of children with difficulty sleeping had failing grades in Portuguese, compared to 9 per cent of those without sleep problems. Likewise, 25 per cent of kids with disrupted sleep had failing math grades, versus 8 per cent of children without trouble sleeping.

“Because (symptoms of sleep disorders) and particularly (sleep breathing disorders) are highly prevalent, we suggest that all health professionals and educators become aware of this striking effect and take appropriate actions to solve or mitigate what could very well constitute a public health issue,” researchers led by Luciane Bizari Coin de Carvalho from the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo wrote.

Experts estimate that roughly onequarter of U.S. children have disrupted sleep at some point during childhood. Poor sleep among children has also been tied to obesity, which over the long term increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes.