Month: August 2013

Women with weak thyroid more likely to have autistic children

A new study has claimed that pregnant women, who are unable to make enough thyroids, are nearly 4 times more likely to produce an autistic child.

More than 4,000 Dutch mothers and their children, have a growing view of autism spectrum disorders. This can be caused by a lack of maternal thyroid hormone, which helps the foetal brain cells during embryo development.

Gustavo Roman, M.D., a neurologist and neuro epidemiologist who directs the Nantz National Alzheimer Center, said that autism is caused by environmental factors in most cases, not by genetics.

The researchers also found that autistic children had more pronounced symptoms if their mothers were severely deficient for T4, also called thyroxine.

Mild T4 deficiencies in mothers produced an insignificant increase in autistic children’s symptoms. The most common cause of thyroid hormone deficiency is a lack of dietary iodine – because both the thyroid hormones, T3 and T4, contain that element.

The present work was based on the Generation R Study, conducted by Erasmus Medical Centre (Rotterdam, Netherlands) doctors and social scientists, in which thousands of pregnant women were voluntarily enrolled between 2002 and 2006.

Blood was withdrawn from the mothers at or around 13 weeks into their pregnancies to measure levels of T4 and two proteins that could indicate the cause of thyroid deficiency.

Six years later, mothers were asked to describe the behavioral and emotional characteristics of their children using a standardized psychology checklist.

Researchers identified 80 “probable autistic children” from a population of 4,039. 159 mothers were identified as being severely T4 deficient (defined as having 5 percent or less of normal T4, but producing a normal amount of thyroid stimulating hormone), and 136 were identified as mildly T4 deficient.

The researchers found a weak association between mild T4 deficiency and the likelihood of producing an autistic child, but a strong association between severe T4 deficiency and autism (3.89 more likely, as compared with mothers with normal thyroid hormone).

 

Grandparent – Grandchild relationship reduces depression in both

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The relationship between grandparents and grandchildren has significant effects on well being of both.

Sara M. Moorman, an assistant professor the Institute on Aging at Boston College, who present this study at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, said that they found that a close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship was associated with fewer symptoms of depression for both generations.

She said that the greater emotional support grandparents and adult grandchildren received from one another, the better their psychological health.

The study also revealed that giving tangible support to or receiving it from their grandchildren affected the psychological well-being of grandparents but not grandchildren.

Tangible support, also called functional solidarity or instrumental support includes anything from rides to the store and money to assistance with household chores and advice.

Moorman, who co-authored the study with Jeffrey E. Stokes, a PhD candidate in sociology at Boston College, said hat grandparents who experienced the sharpest increases in depressive symptoms over time received tangible support, but did not give it.

She asserted that there is a saying that it’s better to give than to receive.

Moorman said that their results support that folk wisdom – if a grandparent gets help, but can’t give it, he or she feels badly.

She explained that the grandparents expect to be able to help their grandchildren, even when their grandchildren are grown, and it’s frustrating and depressing for them to instead be dependent on their grandchildren.

The sample was comprised of 376 grandparents and 340 grandchildren. The average grandparent was born in 1917 and the average grandchild in 1963, making them 77 years old and 31 years old, respectively, at the midpoint of the study in 1994.

 

Researchers decoded the gene of chronic mountain sickness

Tibetans

peoples living at high elevations of Andes mountain , South America, are maladapted and suffer CMS. The disease is characterized by an array of neurologic symptoms, including headache, fatigue, sleepiness and depression.

 

 

A study provides information about the genetic basis of people who living in high altitudes, and needs CMS treatment.

More than 140 million people have permanently settled on high-altitude areas, ranging from African and Asia to South America. The low-oxygen conditions in these areas present a challenge for survival, and the geographically distinct populations have adapted to cope with hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen in the blood.

Particularly peoples living at high elevations of Andes mountain , South America, are maladapted and suffer CMS. The disease is characterized by an array of neurologic symptoms, including headache, fatigue, sleepiness and depression.

Often, people with CMS suffer from strokes or heart attacks in early adulthood because of increased blood viscosity (resistance to blood flow that can result in decreased oxygen delivery to organs and tissues).

Past studies of various populations show that CMS is common in Andeans, occasionally found in Tibetans and absent from Ethiopians living on the East African high-altitude plateau.

Therefore, the researchers dissected the genetic mechanisms underlying high-altitude adaptation by comparing genetic variation between Peruvian from the Andes region with CMS and adapted subjects without CMS, using whole genome sequencing.

They identified two genes, ANP32D and SENP1, with significantly increased expression in the CMS individuals when compared to the non-CMS individuals, and hypothesized that down-regulating these genes could be beneficial in coping with hypoxia.

The researchers therefore looked at genetic orthologs – corresponding gene sequences from another species, in this case the fruit fly – to assess the impact of observed genetic changes on function under conditions of hypoxia.

 

 

New study to deactivate dengue virus

The new strategy overcomes the prevailing challenges of vaccine development by tackling the virus ’ability to ‘hide’ from the host immune system.

A new strategy decreases the ability of dengue virus to escape the host immune system has been discovered by A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN). This strategy opens a door to the world’s first universal dengue vaccine candidate that can give full protection from all four serotypes of the dreadful virus.

The research done in collaboration with Singapore’s Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases (NITD) and Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology and supported by Singapore STOP Dengue Translational and Clinical Research (TCR) Program grant.

Early studies have shown that a weakened virus generate protective immune response offers the best hope for an effective vaccine. However, over the years of vaccine development, scientists have learnt that the path to finding a virus of appropriate strength is fraught with challenges.

Even though there are only four different serotypes, the fairly high rates of mutation means the virus evolve constantly, and this contributes to the great diversity of the dengue viruses circulating globally.

In some cases, the immune response developed following infection by one of the four dengue viruses appears to increase the risk of severe dengue when the same individual is infected with any of the remaining three viruses.

With nearly half the world’s population at risk of dengue infection and an estimated 400 million people getting infected each year, the need for a safe and long-lasting vaccine has never been greater.

The new strategy overcomes the prevailing challenges of vaccine development by tackling the virus’ ability to ‘hide’ from the host immune system.

Dengue virus requires the enzyme called MTase (also known as 2’-O-methyltransferase) to chemically modify its genetic material to escape detection.

In this study, the researchers discovered that by introducing a genetic mutation to deactivate the MTase enzyme of the virus, initial cells infected by the weakened MTase mutant virus is immediately recognized as foreign. As a result, the desired outcome of a strong protective immune response is triggered yet at the same time the mutant virus hardly has a chance to spread in the host.

The researchers went on to demonstrate that the MTase mutant dengue virus cannot infect Aedes mosquitoes. This means that the mutated virus is unable to replicate in the mosquito, and will not be able to spread through mosquitoes into our natural environment.

The results confirmed that MTase mutant dengue virus is potentially a safe vaccine approach for developing a universal dengue vaccine that protects from all four serotypes.

Katja Fink from SIgN said, “There is still no clinically approved vaccine or specific treatment available for dengue, so we are very encouraged by the positive results with this novel vaccine strategy.”

“Our next step will be to work on a vaccine formulation that will confer full protection from all four serotypes with a single injection. If this proves to be safe in humans, it can be a major breakthrough for the dengue vaccine field,” Fink added.

Inducing labor in women makes the child Autistic

Induced labor leads to autism in children. Among male children, both induced and augmented labor was associated with a 35 percent higher risk of autism.

A study of North Carolina birth records indicates that pregnant women who undergo induced or augmented labors may have an increased risk of a child with autism.

Induced labor is the artificial stimulation of childbirth, in which doctor’s prompt uterine contractions to begin before the onset of spontaneous labor.  Labor augmentation involves increasing the strength, duration or frequency of uterine contractions after the start of spontaneous labor.

Using this study and Educational Research databases, researchers from Duke University Medical Center analyzed records from 625,042 live births.  5,500 children were diagnosed as being autistic.

Compared to the mothers whose births were neither induced nor augmented, mothers who had induced or augmented labor or a combination of the two had increased odds of having a child with autism.  Among male children, both induced and augmented labor was associated with a 35 percent higher risk of autism. However, only labor augmentation was associated with an increased risk of autism in female babies, while induced labor showed no correlation in females.

The results of this study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, are highly challenging because of the large size of the study. But the researchers stated in their conclusions, further research need to be done in this area.

“While these results are interesting, further investigation is needed to differentiate among potential explanations of the association including underlying pregnancy conditions requiring the eventual need to induce, the events of labor and delivery associated with induction/augmentation,” the study concluded.

 

12 year boy affected by deadly brain eating amoeba

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Zachary Reyna, a boy affected by brain eating amoeba

Family members have told media that Zachary Reyna, a 12 year old boy affected with Naegleria fowleri – an amoeba that causes deadly brain infections- while playing with friends near drainage in his house in LaBelle on Aug 3. He is being treated in the intensive care unit at Miami Children’s Hospital. The single-celled organism is commonly found in freshwater lakes, ponds and rivers.

The illness is extremely rare. This was identified in the early 1960’s. About 120 cases have been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Naegleria fowleri – an amoeba mostly found in ponds, lakes

Zachary’s brother, Brandon Villarreal, said. “He slept all day, all night, and that’s when my mom was like, ‘Okay, something’s not right.’”

The next thing his family knew, Zac had been diagnosed with primary amoebic meningoencephalitis — also known as PAM — and was undergoing brain surgery. He is currently in intensive care at Miami Children’s Hospital.

 

 

Mystery Baby: catches fire – scientists aren’t convinced

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A two-and-half-month-old boy, Rahul caught fire for four times

Can humans spontaneously burst into flames? More people think Spontaneous human combustion is a real one, but most scientists aren’t convinced.

The mystery baby, a two-and-half-month-old boy, Rahul caught fire for four times, is expected to be unraveled when the test results are out on Monday and Spontaneous human combustion pictures are shown below

The body burns spontaneously due to combustible gases emitting from the patient’s body, without any external source,” Dr R Narayana Babu, head of the pediatrics department, Kilpauk Medical College, told. “Clothes and other things nearby that are inflammable may also catch fire.”  Doctors treating the child believe that he may have spontaneous human combustion (SHC), a condition in which the excretion of gases causes the body to catch fire.

However, some experts rubbished the spontaneous human combustion theories, saying that it is not possible.

“SHC is a hoax theory. A baby catching fire spontaneously is not possible,” burns specialist at KMC Dr J Jagan Mohan told The Times of India. “Alcoholics have a very small percentage of alcohol secreted in their sweat but even that wouldn’t generate a fire.”

Only about 200 cases of spontaneous human combustion facts have been reported in the last three centuries, the latest in February this year when a 65-year-old man from Muldrow, Okla, was believed to have died of SHC. His body was found charred without any source of fire.

However, a dozen tests have been performed on Rahul, and his vital functions are working normally.

Though doctors say Rahul must still undergo a skin biopsy, Dr.Manny, told that, “I think that all this talk about spontaneous combustions is a bunch of smoke and mirrors.  One thing I can tell you for sure is there is no scientific way a human being can suddenly burst into flames”.

There are medical conditions that can create areas of devascularization in the skin, which may mimic burned flesh.  Actual flames protruding from the human body in a spontaneous way? No way, Jose.

According to Dr. Jayaraman, former head of the plastic surgery department at Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, health and lifestyle factors such as smoking and inadequate hydration could cause spontaneous human combustion and stated this condition called ketosis, which occurs due to alcoholism, or a low-carbohydrate diet could also create spontaneous combustion. 

“About 25 percent of my diabetic patients experience ketosis, and there aren’t pregnant women blowing up on the streets of Manhattan”, by Dr. Manny. I know that there have been so-called isolated reports of people spontaneously combusting, but all of these cases have been mere anecdotes.  Also these incidents occurred in people’s homes and no one has seen these or taken pictures of them.

“So until someone shows me a YouTube video or I see someone spontaneously combust with my own eyes, I would have to say this is all a hoax.  In regards to this young boy, I hope he is taken care of in the hospital and that the authorities investigate whether or not this child suffered from any abuse in his home”, by Dr. Manny

 

 

New treatment found for brittle bone disease

Brittle bone disease

The University of Sheffield and Sheffield Children’s Hospital introduced a new treatment for the children with brittle bone disease. The study of the new treatment is published in The Lancet.

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is an inborn disease causing fractures in childhood as well as fractures in adults.

This is a genetic disorder which is caused by abnormalities of genes that control the production of a protein called collagen, which is the main protein in bone and essential for bone strength.

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The classic blue sclerae of a baby with osteogenesis imperfecta

This protein collagen makes the bone more fragile and results in OI. Researchers stated that this is the first study to demonstrate the use of the medicine risedronate. This medicine risedronate not only reduce the r

234 × 350 – sciencephoto.comisk of fracture in children with brittle bones but also have rapid action. The curves for fracture begin to diverge after only 6 weeks of treatment.

 

Nick Bishop, professor of pediatric bone at the University of Sheffield, said: “We wanted to show that the use of risedronate could significantly impact on children’s lives by reducing fracture rates and it did.

“The fact that this medicine can be given by mouth at home (other similar medicines are given by a drip in hospital) makes it family-friendly.”

The study, funded by the Alliance for Better Bone Health, trailed children with Osteogenesis Imperfecta aged 4-15 years showed that oral risedronate reduced the risk of clinical fractures and the drug was well tolerated.

 

Top 10: homemade remedies to cure acidity

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Acidity

Do you have unpleasant burning sensation in your stomach? Don’t worry; we bring you simple and effective home remedies that can help you to reduce the intensity of acidity

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cloves

 

Cloves

If you are suffering from gastritis, then clove acts as the wonder drug to relieve from this sensation. Just take about two cloves and slightly bite them so that juices keep oozing out. Soon, the problem will vanish.

 

Cumin Seeds

Cumin seeds

Take a teaspoon of cumin seeds, roast, and crush them in such a manner that they don’t become powder. Then add a glass of water and have it with every meal. It does wonders.

 

 

 

Jaggery

Jaggery

Jaggery can help a lot in treating heartburn and acidity.

Consume a small lump and allow it to get dissolved in your mouth to get relief from acidity. But, this remedy should not be tried by people who have diabetes.

 

 

 

 

 

Raita

Raita prepared with curd added with grated cucumber and coriander will surely aid in digestion and eliminate acidity.

 

 

 

 


Basil leaves

 

Basil leaves are popular for their medicinal properties. Chewing around 5-6 basil leaves relieves acidity. One can also make a blend of crushed basil leaves and dried leaves which can be consumed with water or tea or simply be swallowed.
Butter-milk

Simple and most easy homemade remedy to treat acidity is consuming butter-milk mixed with a ¼ teaspoon of black pepper powder. 

 

 

 

 

Mint 

mint juice or chew raw mint leaves after meals everyday to keep acidity and indigestion away from you.

 

 

 

 

Ginger 

Ginger is considered as a cure-all herb as it helps in treating so many different kinds of conditions. Consume the right amount of ginger about half an hour before each meal and feel the difference.
Milk 
Milk contains large amount of calcium which helps in preventing build-up of stomach acid. So, drink a glass of milk after your meal to soothe your stomach after having a spicy meal.

 

 

 

Vanilla ice cream 

A cup of vanilla ice cream not just savors your tooth but also helps gastritis. This is an easy home remedy to fight acidity.

Raw garlic can halve the risk of developing lung cancer

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Eating raw garlic twice a week will decrease the chances of developing lung cancer says chinese researcher

Eating raw garlic twice a week can halve the risk of developing lung cancer. Also lower the danger for smokers, a new study has claimed.

Chinese researchers found who consumed raw garlic were 44 % less likely to suffer from lung cancer.

Researchers allowed the smokers to consume raw garlic; the scientists found garlic reduces the dangers by around 30 per cent.

Previous research suggested that the popular herb can cure stomach cancer and colon cancer, and a study at the University of South Australia suggested that it could reduce the risk of bowel tumors by nearly a third.

Scientists at Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention compared 1,424 lung cancer patients with 4,500 healthy adults.

They found that those who ate raw garlic at least twice a week were significantly less likely to get lung cancer, even if they smoked or were exposed to high-temperature cooking oil fumes, which is thought to be another trigger for the disease.

The key ingredient in garlic releases a chemical called allicin, when the clove is crushed or chopped. This chemical dampen down the inflammation in the body and act as an anti-oxidant, from so-called free radicals to the body`s cells.

However, it is not clear whether cooked garlic would have the same effect. “Garlic may potentially serve as a preventive agent for lung cancer,” researchers said.