FRIDAY, Sept. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy are at risk for mild mental deficits known collectively as "chemo brain," a new study finds.

Researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., reviewed existing research on brain function ("cognitive" functioning) in breast cancer patients who received standard doses of chemotherapy for at least six months.

The analysis revealed that, on average, these patients had mild impairments in verbal abilities (such as difficulty choosing words) and visual-spatial abilities (such as getting lost more easily).

Mental functioning varied among the patients, with some reporting no problems and others reporting more severe or widespread impairments, the investigators found.

The study was published online Aug. 27 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"Breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy who have subsequent cognitive deficits should be referred to a neuropsychologist for evaluation and management of the deficits," lead author Heather Jim, whose research focuses on the psychosocial and behavioral aspects of cancer survivorship, said in a Moffitt news release.

"Management usually involves developing an awareness of the situations in which their cognitive difficulties are likely to arise so that they can come up with strategies to compensate," she explained. "Research shows that such strategies can make a big difference in daily life when cognitive difficulties do arise."

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about chemo brain  .

FRIDAY, Aug. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Women older than 75 who have a heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation are 20 percent more likely to have a stroke than men in the same age group with atrial fibrillation, according to a large new study.

However, researchers said the findings suggest that being a woman should not be included as an independent risk factor for stroke or blood clots, either in guidelines for treatment or risk assessment of patients with atrial fibrillation, because the difference doesn't hold for women younger than 75.

The study included more than 87,000 atrial fibrillation patients in Denmark. Of those patients, more than 51 percent were female.

After one year of follow-up, female patients younger than 75 did not have an increased risk of stroke, but those over age 75 had a 20 percent increased risk, the investigators found.

The study was presented Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology's annual meeting in Munich.

"Our findings could have an impact on current guidelines used in the treatment of atrial fibrillation; however, more research is needed to confirm our results," study author Anders Mikkelsen of Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte, Hellerup, Denmark, said in a society news release.

Female sex has been suggested as a risk factor for stroke and blood clots in atrial fibrillation patients, but the 2010 European Society of Cardiology guidelines for management of atrial fibrillation consider being female a minor risk factor.

For women with atrial fibrillation, the guidelines recommend blood thinners for those who are younger than 65 and have one additional risk factor, and for those ages 65 to 74 with no additional risk factors.

Blood thinners can lower the risk of stroke and blood clots in atrial fibrillation patients, but they increase the risk of bleeding disorders and should therefore be given only to patients at high risk of stroke and blood clots.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has more about atrial fibrillation.

TUESDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- New research suggests how smoking during pregnancy may increase a child's risk of obesity during adolescence.

Children born to mothers who smoked while pregnant show structural changes in their brains, which make them more partial to fatty foods and prone to subsequent weight problems, the study found.

"The fact that prenatal smoking is associated with a high risk of obesity in offspring has been known, but the potential mechanism that may lead to this risk was not fully understood," said study author Dr. Zdenka Pausova, a scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. "Our study suggests that maternal smoking may cause structural changes in the part of the brain that processes reward and may increase preference for fatty food."

Still, more study is needed to validate the findings, she said. Not all mothers who smoke are destined to have obese children, she added. Smoking during pregnancy is one of many factors that may tip the scales in favor of teenage obesity.

The new study, published online Sept. 3 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, included 378 adolescents aged 13 to 19. Of these, 180 kids had mothers who smoked more than one cigarette a day during the second trimester of pregnancy. The average was 11 cigarettes a day.

As expected, babies born to mothers who smoked weighed less at birth. They also tended to be breast-fed for shorter periods of time, and were more likely to weigh more as teens than their peers whose moms did not smoke while pregnant.

What's more, scans showed that teens whose mothers were smokers during pregnancy had a significantly lower volume in the reward center of the brain, the amygdala.

When the researchers assessed the participants' dietary fat intake, they found an inverse correlation between amygdala volume and fat consumption, meaning the more fat consumed, the lower the amygdala volume.

Dr. Lorena Siqueira, director of adolescent medicine at Miami Children's Hospital, said the new findings provide one more reason that mothers-to-be should not smoke. "We have known that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for low birth weight babies and preterm delivery," she said.

Calling the findings "fascinating, but preliminary," she said that maternal smoking history may not be the sole reason why some teens crave fatty foods. "This needs to be looked at more as a lot of what we are seeing may be due to access to salty, fatty foods that we all have a taste for."

Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y., said this new information may help experts tailor quit-smoking messages toward some pregnant women.

"We often counsel these women and tell them that smoking during pregnancy may increase their risk for a low birth weight baby, but they may not appreciate this," Folan said. Risk of adolescent obesity may resonate more for some women. "We know if we personalize the message, it can help motivate them to make a quit attempt," she said.

About 10 percent of pregnant women in the United States and Canada smoke, according to background information in the study.

It's never too late to quit smoking when pregnant, Folan said. "The pregnancy will be improved and you will be more likely to deliver at term without the health risks associated with preterm birth," she said.

More tools are available today to help people quit smoking than ever before, she said. "Talk to your doctor about which method will be best for you," she added.

While the study found an apparent link between maternal smoking and fatty food cravings in teens, it didn't prove the existence of a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The American Cancer Society provides information on how to quit smoking for good  .

TUESDAY, Aug. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Older women who want to keep off weight -- no small feat for many after menopause -- might consider four specific eating behaviors, according to new research.

"Losing weight and maintaining a weight loss is incredibly difficult," said Bethany Barone Gibbs, an assistant professor of health and physical activity at the University of Pittsburgh.

She looked at both short-term and long-term changes made by nearly 500 overweight or obese women, all in their late 50s.

She found specific eating habits linked with weight loss -- or no weight loss.

Long-term, those who decreased desserts, sugary beverages and cheeses and meats (which were grouped together) and increased fruits and vegetables did best.

The study is published in the September issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Barone Gibbs looked at two time points -- six months and four years. The behavior changes at the six-month mark linked with weight changes were not the same as those linked with weight control at the four-year mark.

At six months, eating fewer desserts, eating fewer fried foods, drinking fewer sugary beverages, eating more fish and eating out less were linked with more weight loss.

However, at the four-year mark, not all those behaviors were still linked with weight loss. This finding suggests that some behaviors aren't typically maintained long-term, she said.

For instance, the link between reducing fried foods and weight control dropped out at the four-year mark. "Maybe you can say no French fries for six months," she said, but not forever.

Long term, those who ate more fruits and vegetables and less meat and cheese were more likely to sustain weight loss.

The changes in diet and weight were small. "If you increased your fruits and vegetables by two servings a day [over whatever you ate before], that was associated with a three-pound weight loss at the end of four years," she said.

Decreasing sugary beverages by 16 ounces daily was also linked with about a three-pound loss after four years.

Those strategies that worked at the four-year mark seem worth adopting if women want to lose weight and maintain the loss, Barone Gibbs said.

She mined the data from an earlier study of women, activity and nutrition. In that original study, researchers evaluated how lifestyle interventions affected heart health.

Barone Gibbs took the information collected and determined which eating habits were linked with more weight loss.

In the earlier study, the 481 women were assigned at random to a lifestyle-change group or a health-education group. Those in the lifestyle-change group met with experts throughout the study and aimed to follow healthier habits, such as boosting fruits and vegetables. The health-education group was offered seminars on women's health, but not specifically weight-loss advice.

Barone Gibbs found an association between the eating habits and weight control, but the research did not prove cause and effect.

More than one-third of Americans are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among older women, natural declines in energy output -- that is, many become sedentary -- could make long-term weight loss more challenging, according to Barone Gibbs.

Some older women blame weight gain on a slower metabolism, but the process is more complicated than that. As people age, their amount of muscle declines and their amount of body fat rises, so they burn fewer calories.

It is ultimately not your metabolism speed that determines if you are too heavy, experts say, but the amount you eat and how much activity you get.

"This study provides a glimpse at why changes in eating patterns must be maintainable for weight loss to be sustainable," said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.

"The study supports the fact that diets don't work but small steps in behavior change can help with weight loss," Diekman said.

However, this study is not the final word on the subject, she said. "Since the study did not set out to establish cause and effect, more studies would be helpful," she said.

More information

To learn about weight and health, visit the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics  .