Daily Rounds: Radiation Risks 'Low' So Far; Other Tsunami Health Risks Loom; Stroke Rising In Young

Japan Radiation Risk Seen as Low so Far - NYTimes.com Although several plant workers are ill from radioactive exposure in Japan, the radiation risk to the public appears low so far, experts said. "At least as of now, what we’re looking at is rather more like Three Mile Island than Chernobyl,” said Dr. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University. (nytimes.com)

In tsunami's wake, treating trauma, ensuring clean water, limiting infections top priority list - latimes.com Over the next several days, physicians and public health officials in Japan can expect to contend with a second wave of tsunami victims with aspiration-related illness and trauma and crush wounds, as well as with the threat of disease spread by contaminated  water. Over the long run, the horrors and bolt-from-the-blue devastation of a tsunami leave indelible psychological scars on the surviving population. (Los Angeles Times)

Normally associated with older people, strokes are becoming more common in young adults - The Boston Globe Few diseases evoke an image of gray hair and furrowed wrinkles more surely than stroke. And, in fact, stroke rates remain highest among the oldest Americans. But a provocative study presented last month found that younger adults are being hospitalized with strokes caused by vascular blockages — called ischemic strokes — at significantly higher levels than they were less than a generation ago. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered, for example, that among men 35 to 44 years old, there was a 47 percent increase in the rate of hospital stays attributed to ischemic strokes from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. The question is, why — and that remains a medical mystery. (boston.com)

Daylight Saving Time: Spring ahead, stay on track - USATODAY.com Sleep problems triggered by Daylight Saving Time, which kicks in at 2 a.m. Sunday, when clocks are moved forward an hour, can occur for a week or two and are greater for "morning larks and night owls," says Dr. Anita Valanju Shelgikar, a U-M sleep medicine specialist. (yourlife.usatoday.com)