IN BRIEF (Page 8)

AIDS study looks at gay, bisexual men

One in five sexually active gay and bisexual men in the United States has the AIDS virus, and nearly half of those don't know they are infected, a federal study of 21 US cities shows.

Experts said the findings are similar to earlier research, but the study released recently is the largest to look at gay and bisexual men at high risk for HIV. More than 8,000 men were tested and interviewed, and 44 percent of those who had the virus didn't know they had it.

Overall, less than half of 1 percent of Americans have the AIDS virus, according to a calculation by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research and policy organization in Washington, DC.

But gay and bisexual men continue to be infected at much higher rates, said Jennifer Kates, Kaiser's director of global health and HIV policy.

"We don't have a generalized epidemic in the United States. We have a concentrated epidemic among certain populations," she said.

That's why a new national AIDS strategy, unveiled by the White House in July, is emphasizing more of a government focus on men who have sex with men and others at the highest risk of getting infected, Kates said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends HIV testing at least once a year for all men who have sex with men and are sexually active, but research indicates more than half don't get tested.

Online bullying can trigger depression

School children bullied online face a high risk of being hit with real-world depression, according to a study released recently by the US National Institutes of Health.

The "cyber bullying" findings deviated from studies of real-world bullying that indicated children who were bullies as well as being victims of the behavior were most likely to feel depressed, according to researchers.

"Notably, cyber victims reported higher depression than cyber bullies or bully-victims, which was not found in any other form of bullying," the study authors wrote in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Unlike traditional bullying ... cyber victims may not see or identify their harasser; as such, cyber victims may be more likely to feel isolated, dehumanized or helpless at the time of the attack."

While traditional bullying involves face-to-face abuse such as taunts or physical violence, cyber bullying comes in the form of hurtful gestures in online formats such as e-mail, text messages, chat rooms, social networks.

The study data was gleaned from US school students in grades six through 10.

Magnesium boost may stop diabetes

Getting enough magnesium in your diet could help prevent diabetes, a new study suggests.

People who consumed the most magnesium in foods and from vitamin supplements were about half as likely to develop diabetes over the next 20 years as people who took in the least magnesium, Dr. Ka He of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues found.

The results may explain in part why consuming whole grains, which are high in magnesium, is also associated with lower diabetes risk. However, large clinical trials testing the effects of magnesium on diabetes risk are needed to determine whether a causal relationship truly exists, the researchers note in Diabetes Care.

Investigation shows that people with the highest magnesium intake, who averaged about 200 milligrams of magnesium for every 1,000 calories they consumed, were 47 percent less likely to have developed diabetes during follow up than those with the lowest intakes, who consumed about 100 milligrams of magnesium per 1,000 calories.

Hormone drugs, cancer linked

Breast cancer rates among postmenopausal women in Canada dropped nearly 10 percent after news of a big study in 2002 that found taking hormone replacement therapy could increase breast cancer risk, researchers said.

The decline coincided with a sharp decline in use of the drugs after publication of the Women's Health Initiative study, which found an increased risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer, strokes and other problems from hormone therapy.

Doctors recommend hormone replacement therapy for women suffering severe menopause symptoms, but caution that they should use the lowest dose possible for the shortest period of time.

More than 400,000 women die from breast cancer globally each year.

AP-AFP-reuters

(China Daily 10/06/2010 page8)