Children who survive cancer treatment face increased heart health risk and should take measures soon after life-saving therapy to reduce the risk of serious problems later in life, according to research presented at a major medical meeting.

The five-year survival rate from childhood cancer has soared from 58 percent in 1975 to 1977, to 83 percent in the period from 2003 to 2009.

While earlier research had shown that childhood cancer survivors face heart disease and other potentially serious health problems decades after treatment, a new study found that chemotherapy takes a toll on artery health while survivors are still children, leaving them vulnerable to premature atherosclerosis and heart disease.

"We may need to start the clock earlier monitoring these children," said Donald Dengel, lead author of the study presented on Sunday at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Dallas.

"Healthcare providers who are managing chemotherapy-treated childhood cancer survivors need to monitor cardiovascular risk factors immediately following completion of their patients' cancer therapy," said Dengel, a professor at the University of Minnesota.

Researchers used measures of the brachial and carotid arteries to test artery stiffness, thickness and function of 319 Americans ages 9 to 18 who had survived leukemia or other cancers, and compared the findings to 208 siblings not diagnosed with cancer.

Signs of premature heart disease, demonstrated by a decline in artery function, was more prevalent among those children and teenagers who had survived cancer, researchers found.

Childhood leukemia survivors had a 9 percent decrease in arterial health after completing chemotherapy compared with the non-cancer group.

"Given the increased risk, children who survive cancer should make lifestyle changes to lower their cardiovascular risk," Dengel said.

Such changes would include a heart-healthy diet and regular exercise.

However, more studies would be needed to assess whether blood vessel health can be improved by lifestyle changes in these survivors as has been shown in studies of childhood obesity. It may be that damage caused by chemotherapy cannot be reversed, Dengel said.

"I really don't think it's the cancer per se, it's the treatment" that is causing the problems, Dengel added.

A pilot study has begun in which childhood cancer survivors will be given cholesterol lowering statins after puberty to see if that can reduce the risk of future heart problems.

"It may serve them better to be more aggressive," Dengel said.

The study did have limitations, researchers noted.

Because of differences in cancer treatments, they were unable to attribute changes in arterial health to any particular chemotherapy.

In addition, most of the children in the study were white, so the findings were not necessarily applicable to other racial or ethnic groups.

Children in the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and other research groups, had survived at least five years since their initial cancer diagnosis, researchers said.

They said it was the first such study to look at heart health of childhood cancer survivors while they were still children.

India has earned the dubious distinction of becoming the world's capital of coronary heart disease and diabetes, says a wellness expert.

Conducting a fitness workshop for journalists at Mumbai Press Club here, leading wellness expert Namita Jain said that several studies exposed the health hazards faced by stress-ridden Indian society.

She was speaking on the occasion of 'World Diabetes Day' observed recently.

According to the World Congress of Cardiology, it is estimated that by 2020, heart diseases will be the cause of over 40 per cent deaths in India as compared to 24 per cent in 1990.

"World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that nearly 200 million people all over the world suffer from diabetes and this number is likely to double in the coming years. In India, there are nearly 50 million diabetics," Jain said.

The enormity can be gauged from a recent report that states many heart patients are below the age of 30. In a study of 350 heart attack patients conducted by a team of doctors, around 9.5 per cent of cases were below 40 years of age and 3 per cent below 30, she said.

According to the November 2009 issue of Harvard Men's Health Watch, as many as 10 per cent of all heart attacks in men occur before the age of 45.

Smoking was invariably a common factor in almost all the young patients. Apart from Smoking, sedentary lifestyle, obesity, stress, high-blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, increasing age, family history are some other factors that increase chances of heart ailments.

Jain also touched upon a common problem experienced by many people - indigestion and acidity. This is due to bad eating and dietary habits, especially when we copy the West in their eating patterns, whereas we in India have the most complete and wholesome meal - like Thali.

"Digest what you eat, eat slowly, chew well, drink water, and watch what you eat will help in somewhat alienating the problem. Your diet should consist of cereals, fruits / vegetables, proteins and fats", she added.

Health officials are reporting four Tennessee cases of a rare infant illness that have been linked to parents refusing a routine shot for newborns.

The four Nashville-area infants suffered brain or stomach bleeding earlier this year. Their parents had declined vitamin K shots, which have routinely been given to newborns since 1961. The shots improve blood clotting and prevent internal bleeding. All four children were treated with vitamin K and survived.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the illnesses were the first tied to parents opting out of the shots; reports of vitamin K deficiency are rare. The CDC said the parents cited a belief that the shots weren't necessary or cause leukemia. Officials say neither is true.

Next time you go for a checkup, don't be surprised if your doctor gets on your case about your weight.

The medical profession has issued new guidelines for fighting the nation's obesity epidemic, and they urge physicians to be a lot more aggressive about helping patients drop those extra pounds.

Doctors should calculate your body mass index, a weight-to-height ratio. And if you need to lose weight, they should come up with a plan and send you for counseling.

"We recognize that telling patients to lose weight is not enough," said Dr. Donna Ryan, co-chair of the guidelines committee.

The good news? By next year, most insurance companies are expected to cover counseling and other obesity treatments, following in the steps of the Medicare program, which began paying for one-on-one help last year.

More than a third of U.S. adults are obese, and that's been the case since the middle of the last decade. Officials define someone with a BMI of 30 or higher as obese. A 5-foot-9 person would be obese at 203 pounds.

Doctors are well aware that excess weight can trigger diabetes and lead to heart disease and other health problems. Yet surveys have shown that only about a third of obese patients recall their doctor talking to them about their BMI or counseling them about weight loss.

The guidelines were released this week by a group of medical organizations that include the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and the Obesity Society.

They come amid a spate of important developments in the fight against obesity.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved two more obesity-fighting drugs. And this year, the AMA labeled obesity a disease, a measure intended to get doctors to pay more attention to the problem and prod more insurers to pay for treatments.

Yet many people have been on their own when it comes to slimming down, left to sift through the myriad diets and exercise schemes that are promoted for weight loss. And most doctors have little training in how to help their obese patients, other than telling them it's a problem and they need to do something about it.

"I feel for these guys," said Dr. Tim Church, a researcher at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center. "They have patients who come in and ask them about the latest fad diet. They're not trained in this stuff and they're not comfortable" recommending particular diets or weight-loss plans.

The guidelines advise doctors to:

- At least once year, calculate patients' BMI, measure their waists and tell them if they are overweight or obese.

- Develop a weight-loss plan that includes exercise and moderate calorie-cutting.

- Consider recommending weight-loss surgery for patients with a BMI of 40 or for those with a BMI of 35 who also have two other risk factors for heart disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

- Refer overweight and obese patients who are headed for heart problems to weight-loss programs. Specifically, discuss enrolling them in at least 14 face-to-face counseling sessions over six months with a registered dietitian, psychologist or other professional with training in weight management.

Web or phone-based counseling sessions are considered a less effective option.

Diane LeBlanc said the new guidelines are overdue.

More than year ago, the Baton Rouge, La., woman sat down with her longtime family doctor to talk about her weight and get a referral for some kind of help. She had tried dieting without success for more than a decade, had high blood pressure and was about to hit a dress size of 20.

She said the doctor smiled and told her: "There's a lot of programs out there. But really, you just have to eat less."

"It just devastated me," LeBlanc recalled. "He was saying, `It's all in your mind.' I was thinking, `If I could do that, don't you think I would have done it by now?'"

She changed doctors and has lost 40 pounds from her 5-foot-4 frame since May after getting into an intensive Pennington weight-loss program that includes counseling sessions.

Doctors "need to get the message," "LeBlanc said. "Just telling someone you need to push the plate away is not going to work for everyone."

The merits of e-cigarettes were thrashed out at a one-day gathering of scientists, experts, policymakers and industry figures at the Royal Society in London.

The use of electronic cigarettes - pen-sized battery-powered devices that simulate smoking by heating and vaporising a liquid solution containing nicotine - has grown rapidly. Sales have doubled annually for the last four years and there are an estimated seven million users across Europe.

"Cigarettes are killing 5.4 million people per year in the world," said Robert West, the director of tobacco studies at Cancer Research UK.

He said switching to e-cigarettes could save millions of lives, but the debate was about "whether that goal can be realized and how best to do it".

Dr. Jacques Le Houezec, a French consultant in public health and tobacco dependence, told delegates that while e-cigarettes contained some harmful substances, the levels of toxicants were nine to 450 times lower than in cigarette smoke.