NO MAGIC PILL|Increasing numbers of teenage girls look to diet pills to lose weight, a new study has found. The use of diet pills almost doubled in a group of 2,500 female adolescents tracked for five years – overall rates of pill use rising from 7.5 percent to 14 percent in a study at the University of Minnesota and published last week in the journal Preventive Medicine. By the time girls reached ages 19 to 20, nearly 20 percent reported using diet pills – typically appetite suppressants, laxatives and stimulants – to lose weight. Not only did the pills fail, the girls who used pills (and other unhealthful behaviors such as skipping meals or throwing up) also were three times more likely to be overweight at the study’s end.|Los Angeles Times
BREAKUPS ARE UNHEALTHY|Divorced mothers may have more serious health problems than their married counterparts, a years-long study of more than 400 rural Iowa women suggests. The Iowa State University study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, found that single mothers not only have more routine illnesses such as colds and sore throats, but they also have more serious illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, down the road. The authors also suggested that single mothers may be vulnerable to the same “chain of adversity” that disadvantaged members of society, such as the poor and minorities, are. |Cox News Service
