School year starts with ADHD medication shortage

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – As the new school year gets underway doctors and parents are expressing concern about the continuing shortage of ADHD medicines and the impact it’s having on their children’s ability to learn.

Some parents have said they’ve had to skip doses or ration pills for their kids because pharmacies are out of the drugs.

The FDA has urged drug makers to increase production of the medications to treat ADHD.

Drug makers said they are working to address the problem, but shortages will likely linger in the foreseeable future.

IMPACT OF FITNESS ON CANCER

A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that staying physically fit can lower the risk of developing cancer.

Researchers tracked more than a million young men in Sweden for 33 years and compared the rates of cancer diagnosis to the fitness levels of their military tests.

They found that those with high fitness levels had a 19 percent lower chance of developing head and neck cancer and a 20 percent reduced risk of kidney cancer.

The risk of lung and gastrointestinal cancer was also reduced.

RSV HOSPITALIZATIONS AMONG HEALTHY BABIES

A new study said most of the babies who were sick with Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, last year had no underlying health conditions.

Researchers looked at the cases of 600 infants who needed intensive care at 39 U.S. hospitals.

They found that more than 81 percent of those who needed the ICU had no underlying medical conditions and most of them had been carried to full term.

Researchers said most of the babies who were admitted because of the respiratory illness had to stay for at least five days.

According to the CDC, in any given year, RSV sends up to 80,000 kids under the age of five to the hospital and between 100 and 300 children died each year of it.


About the Authors
Kristi Krueger headshot

Kristi Krueger has built a solid reputation as an award-winning medical reporter and effervescent anchor. She joined Local 10 in August 1993. After many years co-anchoring the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., Kristi now co-anchors the noon newscasts, giving her more time in the evening with her family.

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