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THURSDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- While youth soccer is generally considered a safe sport, more than 1.6 million U.S. children ended up in the emergency room during a 13-year period due to soccer-related injuries, new research shows.

The study, which appears in the February issue of The American Journal of Sports Medicine, included injuries that occurred during both organized and non-organized soccer play. Researchers found that nearly 60 percent of the injuries were sustained by boys and about half occurred in children between the ages of 10 and 14.

"Soccer is a relatively safe sport, especially compared to other sports. We want kids to play, but we also want them to be as safe as possible," said study author Christy Collins, a research associate at the Center for Injury Research and Policy, part of the Children's Research Institute at Columbus Children's Hospital, Ohio.

During the study period -- 1990 to 2003 -- the number of high schoolers playing soccer more than doubled from 305,102 to 658,817, the researchers noted. Collins said accurate estimates of how many younger children are playing are harder to come by, because there's no national database of soccer organizations. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that 11.4 percent of youngsters were involved in youth soccer in 1990, and that that number rose to 21.8 percent by 2003, according to background information in the study.

For the study, Collins and her colleagues examined data from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, which is made up of 100 nationally representative hospital emergency departments.

They found that just under 1.6 million children between the ages of 2 and 18 sustained soccer injuries serious enough to require an emergency room visit during the study period.

Boys were the most likely to be injured, with 58.6 percent of the injuries occurring in males. Youngsters between the ages of 10 and 14 had the highest rates of injuries, sustaining 49 percent of all injuries.

While boys sustained the majority of the injuries, the rate of injuries rose faster among girls. The researchers suspect that this may be because more girls are now playing soccer.

The most common injuries were to the hand, wrist or fingers, followed by ankle injuries and knee injuries. Girls were more likely to sustain ankle and knee injuries and to have sprains or strains than boys.

In older players -- those aged 15 to 18-- concussion was the most common injury and often occurred due to collisions with other players or from falling to the ground.

Even the littlest players weren't immune to injuries. Kids aged 2 to 4 sustained more injuries to the face, head and neck than older players. And the youngest players were most likely to be hospitalized for their injuries. Collins said this may be because doctors may be extra cautious with head injuries sustained by these young children.

"This study is interesting, but it misses a whole group of kids -- those that go see a physician rather than head to the hospital for their injuries. As a sports medicine provider, I see a ton of injuries," said Dr. Cynthia LaBella, director of the Knee Injury Prevention Program and medical director of the Institute for Sports Medicine at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

The bottom line, said Collins, is that injuries will happen when kids play sports. But, many of these injuries can be prevented. Both Collins and LaBella said that kids should wear appropriate protective equipment, depending on the sport. Playing fields should also be even and well-maintained to prevent falls.

Children should be on teams that are not only age-appropriate but size-appropriate. The majority of injuries occurred in the 10- to 14-year-old age group, a time when there is a great variation in children's sizes. Both experts suggested that parents talk with the coach and make sure their approach matches your child's -- for example, whether your child is competitive or just out for some recreational fun.

LaBella stressed that children should never play through pain.

"Kids aren't little adults. They need to give their body time to recover. Kids shouldn't push through pain. Pain is a sign of overuse or an injury," she said.

More information

To learn more about preventing soccer injuries, visit the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons  .

THURSDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Binge eating tops the list of eating disorders affecting Americans, with the first-ever national survey on eating disorders finding it much more prevalent than either anorexia or bulimia.

Binge eating -- a condition where people undergo frequent, uncontrolled eating binges without purging -- affects 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men during their lifetime. The condition is strongly linked to obesity.

There have been previous studies that looked at the prevalence of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa in the population, "but for binge eating, there had been no previous studies," said lead researcher Dr. James I. Hudson, director of the Biological Psychiatry Laboratory at McLean Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

"These are really the first hard numbers for the prevalence of this disorder," he said during a teleconference to announce the findings on Wednesday.

According to the new survey, binge eating is more common than either anorexia nervosa, which strikes 0.9 percent of women and 0.3 percent of men, or bulimia nervosa, which affects 1.5 percent of women and 0.5 percent of men.

Binge eating "is associated with severe obesity and all the complications of obesity," Hudson said. "And, it's often chronic."

That said, the rates of all eating disorders have been increasing, according to Hudson. "In addition, eating disorders are related to mood disorders, anxiety disorders, impulse control disorders and substance use disorders," he noted.

More troubling is the fact that less than half of those with a history of an eating disorder said they had ever received treatment, Hudson said.

In the survey, Hudson's team collected data on almost 9,300 people from across the United States who participated in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Among those interviewed, 3,000 answered questions about eating disorders. The report is published in the February issue of Biological Psychiatry.

The researchers found that the average duration of anorexia was 1.7 years, compared with 8.3 years for bulimia and 8.1 years for binge eating disorder.

"Binge eating is a true eating disorder. It is a major public health problem," Hudson said. "There is a strong genetic component to binge eating disorder and, because of this, we might be able to treat or prevent binge eating and thereby prevent many cases of obesity."

One expert believes the survey will bring more attention to eating disorders, prompting the U.S. government to spend more dollars in research on the causes and treatment of these conditions.

"These results back up things that groups like ours have been saying for the past several years," said Marc Lerro, executive director of the Eating Disorders Coalition. "There has been relatively little definitive research done on eating disorders."

Lerro is happy to see that these conditions are getting more recognition. "People with eating disorders are compromised in how they interact in school, in the workplace," Lerro said. "For some, it's really a disabling condition that sometimes leads to death."

That binge eating is the major problem did not surprise Lerro. "The stereotype that [people with] eating disorders are just pencil-thin girls is really not comprehensive," he said.

Lerro believes the federal government should be keeping track of the number of people in the United States who suffer from eating disorders. This year, the U.S. government is spending only $21 million on research into treatments for eating disorders, he said.

"This survey is really a wakeup call for the federal government to do more, like counting the number of people who die each year due to an eating disorder, counting the number of people who are struggling with eating disorders, and funding research to determine what is effective in treating eating disorders," Lerro said.

Another expert believes that eating disorders are even more common than the survey suggests.

"Eating disorders are more common than many people realize, and the prevalence is increasing," said Dr. Ellen Rome, head of the section on adolescent medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. "If you look at all of mental health, the spectrum of eating disorders is among the most commonly found health challenges that individuals face."

Moreover, people with eating disorders also have many social problems related their condition, "from shame, guilt, denial, the egocentricity of the illness that doesn't let them see how it's affecting their lives," Rome said.

Binge eating is closely tied in with the U.S. obesity epidemic, Rome added. "We see any form of disorder eating as a maladaptive coping strategy," she said. "Eighty percent of obesity is genetic. So, genetics loads the gun. And the prevalence of binge eating goes hand-in-hand with obesity as one contributing factor. Many people use binge eating to fill up an empty space."

Rome also believes that more funding is needed to study the causes and treatments of eating disorders, including the genetic and social components of the problem and what treatments work best.

"We are just scratching the surface," she said. "We need better treatments across the whole spectrum from under-eating to obesity. There is just so much more we need to know."

More information

There's more on eating disorders at the U.S. National Mental Health Information Center.

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Even for the overweight, regular moderate exercise does not hasten or delay the onset of osteoarthritis of the knee in older individuals, new research reveals.

The finding undercuts the notion that exercise might have a protective effect against osteoarthritis. However, at the same time, it suggests that those already burdened with an elevated risk, such as overweight seniors, can safely remain active.

"There was fear that weight-bearing exercise among overweight people might put the very people who need it most at risk of getting knee arthritis and knee pain, but this study suggests that is not the case," said study author Dr. David T. Felson, chief of Boston University's Clinical Epidemiology Research Training Unit. "There shouldn't be any concern."

The findings are published in the February issue of Arthritis Care & Research.

According to the National Institutes of Health, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the United States, affecting more than 12 percent of the population.

The painful degenerative joint disease is characterized by a breakdown of the shock-absorbing cartilage that shields bones where they contact joints. Osteoarthritis is more prevalent among the elderly, especially women, but it can also develop among younger men and women.

In their study, Felson and his colleagues tracked the exercise habits and incidence of knee osteoarthritis for almost 1,300 men and women in Massachusetts. The study lasted for more than a decade, with participants averaging just over 53 years of age at the trial's outset.

Initial activity surveys were completed in 1991 and 1992 to assess the types and intensity of regular exercise being practiced. In 1993 and 1994, and once again from 2002 to 2005, the researchers took knee X-rays and had participants fill out knee function questionnaires. Just over one-quarter of the participants had already developed some form of knee pain by 1993-1994.

The researchers found that most of the men and women said they walked regularly for exercise.

However, by measuring "joint space loss" -- an apparent indicator of knee cartilage loss -- they found that disease onset was neither positively nor negatively influenced by physical activity.

The lack of a relationship between osteoarthritis and exercise held up regardless of whether the individual walked less than six miles per week or more, or whether or not they worked up a sweat.

Far fewer (68) of the participants either ran or jogged, but even this form of exercise didn't appear to increase or decrease their risk for developing osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis risk didn't rise or fall in connection with any other moderate level of activity, either, the researchers said.

This held true even for participants who were overweight. Even though such relatively out-of-shape individuals were already at a higher risk for developing osteoarthritis, routine exercise did not contribute to, or help reduce, their overall risk for the disease.

Felson said his team focused primarily on the effects of moderate, rather than aggressive, exercise. But the study showed that this type of moderate physical activity is safe for older Americans when it comes to osteoarthritis risk.

"I do think this is a case where the glass is probably more half full than it is half empty," said Felson, who is also professor of medicine and public health at Boston University's School of Medicine and School of Public Health. "Yes, there have been advocates who have suggested that regular exercise might be protective against knee osteoarthritis, and that doesn't appear to be the case. But, the good news is that exercise is safe for people who are older."

Dorothy Dunlop, a research associate professor with the Institute for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, also accented the positive.

"I see the glass full and brimming over, because the literature is bursting with suggestions that moderate physical activity is beneficial in terms of pain and function improvement, and has cardiovascular benefits for all people with and without arthritis," she said.

Dunlop led a study, released earlier this year, that showed that seniors who were already coping with arthritis and who avoided exercise were twice as likely to lose their ability to perform basic tasks such as dressing, bathing, or cooking, compared with more active elderly.

"So, what this new study is telling me is that people can be encouraged to exercise without a concern that this will increase their risk of osteoarthritis," she said. "To me, it's a very important and positive finding which strongly supports physical activity."

More information

For additional information on osteoarthritis, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

TUESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Whether you eat fewer calories or burn them off through exercise, the effect on body composition and fat distribution is the same, a new study says.

Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., found that dieting alone is as effective as a combination of diet and exercise at cutting weight and fat -- as long as calories consumed and burned equal out.

Their study also indicated that adding exercise to a weight-loss program doesn't change body composition and abdominal fat distribution. That challenges the theory that specific exercises can reduce fat in certain areas. For example, some exercises are supposed to specifically target abdominal fat.

"It's all about the calories. So long as the energy deficit is the same, body weight, fat weight, and abdominal fat will all decrease in the same way," study senior author Dr. Eric Ravussin said in a prepared statement.

He and his colleagues studied 35 overweight people. They were divided into three groups: One group went on a diet that reduced their caloric intake by 25 percent (550 to 900 fewer calories a day); the second group reduced their caloric intake by 12.5 percent and increased their physical activity to burn 12.5 percent more calories.

The people in the third (control) group were put on a healthy diet designed to maintain their body weight.

After six months, the people in both the calorie-restricted and the calorie reduction/exercise groups had lost about 10 percent of their bodyweight, 24 percent of their fat mass, and 27 percent of their abdominal fat. However, their distribution of body fat remained the same.

"The inability of the interventions to alter the distribution of fat suggests that individuals are genetically programmed for fat storage in a particular pattern and that this programming cannot easily be overcome," Ravussin said.

While dieting alone can reduce weight, the researchers noted that exercise also improves aerobic fitness, which has many other health benefits.

"For overall health, an appropriate program of diet and exercise is still the best," Ravussin said.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about weight control  .