Infants who don't use a pacifier or who use it only when falling asleep have fewer ear infections than babies who suck on a pacifier for extended periods, according to a new study of about 500 babies. A team of pediatricians and pediatric nurses in Finland advised parents of 272 toddlers that pacifiers should only be used when the baby was falling asleep. A second group of parents of 212 toddlers were told to continue unrestricted pacifier use. Children in the first group decreased continuous pacifier use by 21 percent. Correspondingly, the rate of otitis -- ear infection -- in that group was 29 percent lower than those allowed continuous pacifier use, said lead investigator Dr. Marjo Niemelä of the University of Oulu. Niemelä said she doesn't know why sucking on a pacifier increases the number of ear infections. But her guess is that the sucking "causes a pressure change between the middle ear cavity and the nasopharynx. That constantly changing pressure may damage the Eustachian tube," she told UPI. The study is published in the September issue of Pediatrics.

Foods high in sugar may be bad for more than your teeth. Researchers at the University of Buffalo say their data show excess glucose in the bloodstream spawns free radicals at the same time as a radical-quenching form of vitamin E drops. Lead researcher Dr. Paresh Dandona says, "This is the first time anyone has shown that nutrition has a role in generating free radicals." The team has published the study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. Fourteen healthy subjects quaffed a sugar solution on an empty stomach that was equivalent to about two cola drinks. Two hours later, average levels of free radicals in their blood had doubled compared with those who drank a saccharin solution. The antioxidant level had dropped 4 percent. Free radicals, highly unstable molecules, can attack and damage cells that line the inside of blood vessels, those of other organs and even DNA itself.

Analysis of more than 12,000 adults in the United States shows that people whose diets fall short in vitamin C intake are slightly more likely to develop gingivitis in their gums than people who exceed the recommended daily allowance (RDA). The RDA is 60 milligrams, or roughly the amount of vitamin C in a single orange. According to a study published in the Journal of Periodontology, people who consume less than that develop severe gingivitis-swelling and bleeding of the gums-about 1.5 times as often as those who consume three times the RDA. Smokers were even more susceptible, says researcher Robert Genco of the State University of New York at Buffalo. He explains, "Since oxidants from cigarette smoking lower vitamin C levels in the blood, smokers need higher levels of dietary vitamin C to help counteract smoke's oxidants."

A coalition of leading professional medical organizations has issued a statement endorsing the proposition that exposure to media violence does have some negative effects on young people. The American Medication Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry all signed onto the statement - which says that the conclusion of the public health community, based on over 30 years of research, is that viewing entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children. The statement says researchers have established that large numbers of young people have come to see violence as an acceptable way to settle conflicts, and have learned to see the world as a violent place because they have become conditioned to see themselves as potential victims. The medical groups also say that research has clearly established that young people regularly act aggressively because they have developed a higher tolerance for violent behavior in general.

Teenage girls who guzzle soda more than triple their risk of breaking bones, according to a new study. The outlook is even worse for physically active girls -- fractures among regular soda drinkers in this group are five times as common, the report suggests. Study author Grace Wyshak of Harvard Medical School doesn't delve into exactly how soda consumption weakens bone, but "laboratory investigators have reported possible bone resorption from high levels of phosphorous intake," a key ingredient in soda. Dr. Neville Golden, who wrote an accompanying editorial, told UPI that adolescent years are "like your bone bank. You deposit your money in the bone bank, so to speak, and thereafter there's just a perpetual continued loss of bone. So the amount of bone deposited at the end of adolescence is critical." Golden co-directs an eating-disorder center at Schneider Children's Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New York. The findings, which are based on 460 9th- and 10th-grade girls, are published in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, an American Medical Association journal.

It may never be too early to start watching your cholesterol. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that high cholesterol raises the risk of heart disease and premature death even in young men. Researchers looked at data from three studies on a total of 81,488 men aged 18 to 39. The men were followed for 34 years. The researchers found that the men with high cholesterol levels (more than 240 milligrams per deciliter) were two to three-and-a-half times more likely to die from heart disease than men whose cholesterol levels were healthy (200 mg/dL or lower), and they also died four to nine years earlier. The men whose cholesterol was more than 200 mg/dL when the studies began had the greatest risk of heart disease-related death, the researchers said. Compared with men aged 40 to 59, men under 40 years old faced nearly twice the risk of dying of a heart attack for every 40 points that their cholesterol rose. The findings suggest that men should not wait until later in life to begin taking cholesterol-lowering drugs or changing their diets, because the longer high amounts of cholesterol are in the body, the more damage they do, according to the researchers. They say that early screening and preventive treatment are key. Current guidelines call for adults to have their cholesterol tested at least every five years, starting at age 20, The Associated Press reports.

Regardless of socioeconomic status, people with a childhood history of ill health are more prone to certain diseases in adulthood. Penn State researchers say, "Our findings show that persons with childhood health problems were twice as likely to develop cancer or chronic lung disease by late middle age." The prevalence of arthritis was about 33 percent higher among this group. However, they were not more likely to have diabetes," says Dr. Mark D. Hayward. "For these people, economic well-being-both as children and adults-apparently does not serve as a buffer against the long-term health effects of childhood illness." Hayward stresses the policy implications of the findings and that health care programs for children could offer considerable benefits for adult health care. Hayward, co-author of the paper, "Does Childhood Health Affect Chronic Morbidity in Later Life?" presented his findings at the annual conference of the American Sociological Association Sunday. Hayward explains that non-infectious diseases were linked with higher rates of cancer, arthritis and rheumatism in later life. Infectious diseases were strongly associated with lung conditions such as emphysema and bronchitis.