Cultura/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- A new survey shows 63 percent of Americans take a vitamin or supplement, but many wish the manufacturers would come up with a vitamin that would improve their significant other’s listening skills.

A survey commissioned by The Vitamin Shoppe finds 50 percent of respondents wish there was a pill that could improve their partner’s listening.  Forty-three percent wish there was a vitamin that would improve their significant other’s cleaning skills, while 31 percent expressed a desire for a vitamin that would improve their partner’s “bedroom” skills.

Respondents were asked: “If your significant other could take a vitamin to improve upon any of the following areas, which would you choose?

• Listening, 50 percent
• Cleaning, 43 percent
• Physique, 37 percent
• Cooking, 35 percent
• “Bedroom” Skills, 31 percent
• Dancing, 24 percent
• Don’t know/Refused, 20 percent

Additional findings from The Vitamin Shoppe survey:

• 93 percent of Americans feel more confident about their health when taking a vitamin or supplement.
• 72 percent of respondents take multivitamins on a regular basis.
• 56 percent believe vitamins and supplements are necessary to achieve your health and fitness goals.

Respondents were also asked: “What would put you in a better mood – good sex or a good workout?

• Good sex, 57 percent
• Good workout, 35 percent
• Don’t know/Refused, 8 percent

The Vitamin Shoppe survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted by Wakefield Research.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- She's only eight, but Lacey-Mae Mason is already a beauty pageant veteran.  She competed in her first one when she was 14 months old.

But despite seven years of experience, the little girl from Brooklyn, Conn., faces perhaps her biggest pageant challenge yet in a nationwide competition chronicled on the upcoming season of TLC's show Toddlers & Tiaras.

What sets Lacey-Mae apart from the other little girls on the show is that she has achondroplasia, the most common type of dwarfism.  Although she's about twice as old, she is about as big as a three-and-a-half-year-old, said her mother, Kerry Ann Mason.

But judging from the mantle full of awards and trophies she's already won, her condition hasn't stopped her from wowing judges.

"Her size hasn't been an issue," said her mother.  "People notice there's something different about her, but I'm not sure it plays much of a role."

Toddlers & Tiaras has generated a lot of controversy, with critics accusing mothers of sexualizing their young children and pushing them to pint-sized perfection at any cost.  But Mason said she got Lacey-Mae involved in pageants to teach her daughter that she is beautiful no matter what her physical limitations may be.

"She entered her first pageant because they were handing out trophies just for participating," Mason said.  "I thought it would be great for her self-esteem to tell her one day that the trophy on her mantle was from a beauty pageant."

Child psychologists say the chance for children with disabilities to participate in the same activities as non-disabled children can be beneficial, as long as they are not exploited and actually want to participate.

"Any time you can give a kid a more normal experience, it's a good thing for kids and people in general," said Alan Hilfer, chief psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

While not endorsing the idea of child beauty pageants, Hilfer said including people whose appearance may not be considered normal can be a powerful teaching moment.

"This is a chance for this little girl to feel special with the spotlight of positive attention on her," said Fran Walfish, a child and family psychologist in Beverly Hills, Calif. and author of The Self-Aware Parent.  "This could really be helpful to her self-esteem."

But psychologists also said it's important for Lacey-Mae to be the one who really wants to compete.

"If she is feeling pressured to do it and other kids give her a hard time and tease her, it's not going to be good for her mental health," said Nadine Kaslow, professor and vice chair of Emory University's Department of Psychiatry.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Comstock/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) -- A vaccine may be able to keep an aggressive type of breast cancer from returning in women who have a history of the disease, according to early results of a new study. The vaccine still needs further research, but breast cancer experts say the results are promising.

Researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston developed a vaccine, called AE37, that trains the body's immune system to attack a common piece found on breast cancer tumors, a protein called HER2, which helps tumors grow.

"With this vaccine, we've educated the immune system to recognize this protein, HER2," said Dr. Elizabeth Mittendorf, the lead investigator on the trial. "If some rogue tumor cell is floating around, it can recognize it and take care of it before it can settle into bone or other parts of the body."

About 25 percent of breast cancer cases have an overactive amount of the HER2 protein, called HER2-positive breast cancer. This form of breast cancer is usually more aggressive and harder to treat than other types. But most tumors usually have some level of the protein, even if the amount is not enough to be classified as HER2-positive.

Mittendorf said one of the most encouraging things about the vaccine is that it seemed to reduce the risk of recurrent breast cancer in women who had both high and low levels of HER2, a group that accounts for about 70 percent of all breast cancer cases.

Mittendorf and her team studied 201 patients who had a history of breast cancer but who were disease-free at the time, giving the vaccine to about half of them. Based on the early outcomes of patients in the trial, the researchers projected that breast cancer would come back for 10.3 percent of the women who got the vaccine compared with 18 percent of the women who had not been vaccinated. That translates to a 43-percent reduced risk of recurrent breast cancer.

The study's results will be presented next month at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Michele Zembo, 57, was one of the patients who got the vaccine. The pediatric orthopedic surgeon from New Orleans was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2010 and after a year of chemotherapy, a mastectomy, radiation therapy and reconstructive surgery, she knew that her battle with breast cancer may not be over.

"That's just a reality of breast cancer. Somewhere down the line, there is that risk that it will come back," she said. "So you start wondering, what can I do to reduce my risk?"

She got regular exercise, changed her diet and even changed her high blood pressure medication when new evidence suggested beta blockers might reduce the risk of breast cancer. When her doctor told her about the clinical trial testing the AE37 vaccine, she did her research and decided to join the study.

Zembo said she experienced almost no side effects of the vaccine, just a minor rash and pain where the shots of the vaccine were injected. So far, Zembo said she is still free of breast cancer.

"I've tried to do everything that I can do to try to decrease my risk of recurrence. To me, this vaccine is one additional step, and a big step, that does that," Zembo said.

Breast cancer experts said the results of the study so far are promising, but they were cautiously optimistic. The number of patients in the study was relatively small, and they were monitored for less than a year. Women who have had breast cancer are at risk for recurrences for many years after their first diagnosis.

"We've seen a lot of treatments that have very early promise, but with follow-up studies just don't pan out, said Dr. Jay Brooks, chair of hematology and oncology at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans. "But it's interesting and something I would love to use in my practice if it proved successful."

The study is ongoing, and Mittendorf said it should finish in the fall of 2012. She hopes to launch a larger trial for the vaccine after that.

Mittendorf said the vaccine isn't useful for treating patients with advanced forms of the disease and isn't intended to replace other forms of treatment but to work in conjunction with them to fight breast cancer.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) -- Patients prescribed the antibiotic azithromycin are more likely to die than those prescribed a different antibiotic, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. These results were especially pronounced for those who died from heart attacks, strokes, sudden cardiac death and other cardiovascular causes.

Azithromycin, commonly known by the trade name Z-Pak, is prescribed to almost 50 million Americans every year. Like the popular antibiotic amoxicillin, azithromycin is commonly prescribed to help fight off bacterial infections. But while they are often prescribed for similar conditions, the two drugs work differently from one another.

Wayne Ray, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn., and lead author of the study, says he thinks many doctors prescribe azithromycin instead of amoxicillin because of its easier regimen; patients on azithromycin take fewer pills over fewer days, which means they are more likely to finish their entire course of medicine. Finishing the entire course not only leads to more effective treatment, but it also lessens the risk of the patient developing a drug-resistant bug.

But, Ray says of azithromycin, “the risk of death may outweigh convenience and compliance, at least for high-risk patients.”

These high-risk patients would seem to be those who have certain types of cardiovascular disease. Some doctors have suggested that azithromycin may cause irregular heartbeats known as arrhythmias, which in some people can lead to death. In Ray’s study, which looked at Medicaid patients from 1992 to 2006 and analyzed millions of prescriptions, he and his colleagues found that patients on azithromycin had two and a half times the odds of dying from a cardiovascular cause while taking their medication than did patients on amoxicillin. The gap was widest when looking at the 10 percent of patients with the worst cardiovascular disease.

The study wasn’t able to tease out which patients were on azithromycin because they had allergies to amoxicillin.

Cardiologist Leonard Ilkhanoff, director of the Inherited Arrhythmia Program at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in Chicago, says that while it’s impossible to know what precisely is causing the increased risk of death, the study is very interesting. But he cautions that patients on azithromycin should not panic.

“Patients shouldn’t be thinking, ‘If I’m on azithromycin, I’m going to die,’” he says, adding that sometimes azithromycin really is the proper antibiotic for a patient.

“It’s appropriate, though, to discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

ABC News(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) -- A 58-year-old woman paralyzed by a stroke was all smiles after sipping her cinnamon latte with the help of a mind-controlled robotic arm.

Cathy Hutchinson is one of two tetraplegic patients able to reach and grasp with a robotic limb linked to a tiny sensor in her brain, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The device, called BrainGate, bypasses the nerve circuits broken by the brainstem stroke and replaces them with wires that run outside Hutchinson's body. The implanted sensor is about the size of a baby aspirin.

"You can go from the brain, which seems to be working quite well, directly to a device like a computer or a robotic arm," said BrianGate developer John Donoghue, director of the Institute for Brain Science at Brown University in Providence, R.I. "This can help restore independence to a person who was completely reliant on other people for every activity, whether it's brushing their teeth, eating their dinner or taking a drink."

Hutchinson, who has been unable to move or speak for 15 years, had the 96-channel sensor implanted in her brain's motor cortex in 2005. Since then, the BrainGate team has been fine-tuning the system to give her back some of the control she lost.

For most people, reaching and grasping is effortless. But the simple movement is guided by a complex pattern of brain activity, according to Donoghue.

With its hair-like electrodes, the BrainGate sensor taps into the flurry of brain activity, recording electrical signals that can be translated into movement commands. BrainGate also allows Hutchinson to move a computer cursor so she can communicate. But the device is not quite ready for prime time, Donoghue cautioned.

"Currently patients have a plug on their heads and need to be connected by to a cart full of electronics," he said. "We need to replace it with a wireless system."

Donoghue is collaborating with Arto Nurmikko, a neuroengineer at Brown, to do just that.

While the BrainGate system can currently control an external device, like a robotic arm, it could one day control a person's muscles.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

David De Lossy/Digital Vision(BALTIMORE) -- While it has been known that weak head and neck control in babies may signal developmental delays, new research provided exclusively to ABC News revealed that it could also signal autism.

A simple pull-to-sit test for babies may help in early detection of autism spectrum disorders, according to the findings from the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore.

Researchers studied two groups of infants who were considered to be at high genetic risk of autism spectrum disorder. The first group included 40 babies, ages 5 to 10 months old.

The scientists performed a task in which they pulled the babies, who were lying on their backs, by the arms up to a seated position. The infants were tested at 6, 14 and 24 months old. They found that 90 percent of babies who were diagnosed with ASD showed head lag as infants. Fifty-four percent of children who had other developmental delays also showed weak head and neck muscles as infants.

In the second group, Landa and her team examined the presence of a head lag in babies who were at high genetic risk, versus those at low genetic risk. They found that 75 percent of high-risk infants exhibited the head lag, whereas 33 percent of low-risk infants did.

About 1 percent of American children ages 3 to 17 have an autism spectrum disorder, and it is the fastest-growing developmental disorder, according to the Autism Society. The condition characterizes a complex set of brain development disorders characterized by repetitive behaviors and difficulty with social interactions and verbal and nonverbal communications.

Motor disruption tends to be present in children with ASD early in life, and early disruption in motor development can indicate that something could be awry in neurodevelopment, said Landa.

Early intervention in autism is crucial, and identifying a head lag within the first year of life may help families get babies the developmental interventions they need. Otherwise, the disorder may not be properly addressed until the child is 1 to 4 years old, when social and communication impairments tend to emerge in children with autism.

The simple head lag test is a good sign of the functioning of the motor system, overall muscle tone and central nervous system, said Dr. Stefani Hines, director of the Center for Human Development at Beaumont Children's Hospital in Detroit.

But head lag can stem from a number of different conditions, and Hines cautioned against parents assuming the head lag indicates ASD, as it can also reveal neuromuscular disorders, developmental delay and cerebral palsy.

Hines said the new study is another tool in the arsenal in helping to assess high-risk children for autism. The findings will help pediatricians be more cognizant of the importance of assessing head lag in ASD and other developmental disability diagnoses.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Fuse/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Adding a high tax on unhealthy food and drinks may help slow the rising rates of obesity, according to a new study published Tuesday in the British Medical Journal. 

Previous studies suggest that the sharp tax increase on cigarettes in 2009 has contributed to the dramatic decrease in the number of smokers in the U.S. And it's hoped a "fat" tax would work the same way.

A tax of at least 20 percent placed on sugar-sweetened drinks could drop obesity rates by 3.5 percent and prevent 2,700 heart-related deaths each year, according to the study.

Nearly 34 percent of Americans are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The growing obesity rate has led to high cholesterol, and an increase in chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer.  The goal of the tax is to curb sales of unhealthy food and decrease overconsumption, which may help to prevent disease.

The study also called for subsidizing the cost of healthy foods and vegetables to make them more affordable to greater numbers of people.

A growing number of European countries, including Denmark and France, have already imposed a tax on unhealthy food and drinks.

But not all foods that are high in fat are considered unhealthy, which may challenge the notion of imposing a blanket tax, some food policy experts said.  It's important to first distinguish what food and drink should be labeled "unhealthy" before imposing a tax, they said.

"Some high fat food like nuts are related to reduced weight gain," said Dr. Walt Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at Harvard University's School of Public Health.

Salmon and avocados, also high in unsaturated, so-called good fat, are also considered healthy foods.  Unsaturated fat eaten in moderation can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease.

"A focus on sugar and refined starch is better, but as a first step I favor a focus just on sugar-sweetened beverages as the evidence is strongest for this," said Willett.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio