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FRIDAY, April 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Guns have surpassed road crashes as the leading cause of death among U.S. children and teens.Gun-related deaths rose 29% among 1- to 19-year-olds from 2019 to 2020, according to a new University of Michigan study. In all, there were more than 4,300 gun-related deaths — including suicides, homicides and accidents — in that age group in 2020.The rising rates demonstrate that the United States is failing to protect its youngest population from a preventable cause of death, said study co-author Jason Goldstick. He is a research associate professor of emergency medicine at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor."Recent investments in firearm injury prevention research by the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and National Institutes of...

FRIDAY, April 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Children with Down syndrome are more likely than other kids to have sleep apnea, and existing treatments often fail to work. Now, an implanted device that stimulates tongue nerves shows promise in reducing their sleep disruptions, a new study finds.A device called a hypoglossal nerve stimulator is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults with sleep apnea who can't use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.The device is surgically implanted in an outpatient setting. When it senses that the user is trying to take a breath, it sends an electrical pulse to the hypoglossal nerve that controls the tongue. That causes the tongue to move forward in the mouth, opening the person's airway.This new work tested the...

FRIDAY, April 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- The majority of antibiotic prescriptions for U.S. seniors and Black and Hispanic Americans are inappropriate, a new report reveals.For the study, researchers analyzed federal government data on more than 7 billion outpatient visits to doctors' offices, hospital clinics and emergency departments nationwide between 2009 and 2016.Nearly 8 million visits (11%) led to antibiotic prescriptions, the researchers reported Thursday at a meeting of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases in Lisbon, Portugal. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal."Our results suggest that Black and Hispanic patients may not be properly treated and are receiving antibiotic...

FRIDAY, April 22, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Genetic mutations build up faster in the brain cells of Alzheimer's disease patients than in other people, new research reveals.The discovery could point the way to new Alzheimer's treatments.DNA errors called somatic mutations can occur in brain cells as people age. The authors of this study compared somatic mutations in hippocampal and prefrontal cortex neurons of people with advanced Alzheimer's and people with no neurological conditions.The Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients had a larger number of mutations — likely due to increased DNA oxidation, according to findings published April 20 in the journal Nature."As we age, neurons are known to accumulate somatic mutations. In AD neurons, however, we see more mutations and DNA alterations,"...