Health News

Eating peanuts in pregnancy lowers allergy risk for child

Date: Dec-26-2013
Allergic reactions to peanuts and tree nuts can range from mild to life-threatening. But new research suggests that pregnant women who are not allergic to the nuts/legumes and who eat more of them during pregnancy lower the risk of their child developing an allergy to the food.This is according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.The study authors note that the prevalence of peanut allergies in children has more than tripled in the US between 1997 and 2010. The figures suggest that 1.4% of children now have a peanut allergy.

Hypoxic preconditioning stimulates angiogenesis in ischemic penumbra after ACI

Date: Dec-26-2013
Hypoxic preconditioning has been shown to have protective effects against acute cerebral infarction. To investigate the protective mechanisms of hypoxic preconditioning in relation to its effects on angiogenesis, Prof. Xunming Ji and team from Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University in China induced a photochemical model of cerebral infarction in an inbred line of mice (BALB/c) which were exposed to hypoxic preconditioning prior to model establishment. The researchers found that hypoxic preconditioning reduced infarct volume and attenuated the impairment of neurological function.

Should a healthy substitute for trans fats be found before banning them?

Date: Dec-26-2013
Health advocates cheered last month's U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal to ban partially hydrogenated oils - which contain trans fats that increase the risk of heart disease - but some wonder whether the substitutes for these fats will be any healthier. An article in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, investigates the matter.Deirdre Lockwood, a contributing editor at C&EN, notes that back in the 1980s, out of concern over saturated fats, many food manufacturers and consumers made a switch from butter to margarine.

New nanotechnology has implications for medicine, security, research

Date: Dec-26-2013
Researchers working to advance imaging useful to medicine and security are capitalizing on the same phenomenon behind the lingering "ghost" image that appeared on old television screens.A team of researchers from Purdue University and Macquarie University in Sydney has created a way to control the length of time light from a luminescent nanocrystal lingers, adding a new dimension of time to color and brightness in optical detection technology.

Registered tanning salons more common than other businesses in Florida

Date: Dec-25-2013
In Florida, there is one tanning salon for every 15,113 people and 1.16 tanning facilities for every 50 squares miles, according to a research letter by Sonia A. Lamel, M.D., of the University of Miami, and colleagues. Indoor tanning is linked to melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer development, especially if people tan before the age of 35 years. Florida has the second highest incidence of melanoma in the country with frequent use of tanning facilities by teenage girls and young adults, according to the study background.

Thicker brain sections appear associated with belief of importance of religion

Date: Dec-25-2013
The importance of religion or spirituality to a person appears to be associated with the thickness of certain brain regions, according to a study by Lisa Miller, Ph.D., of Columbia University, New York, and colleagues. Researchers conducted a familial study of 103 adults (ages 18-54 years) who were the second- or third-generation offspring of depressed or nondepressed study participants. Religious or spiritual importance and church attendance were assessed twice over five years. The cortical thickness of the brain was measured with magnetic resonance imaging at the second time point.

Study examines locations of substance abuse facilities that accept Medicaid

Date: Dec-25-2013
Approximately 60 percent of U.S. counties have at least one outpatient substance use disorder (SUD) facility that accepts Medicaid, although the number is much lower in southern and Midwestern states, according to a study by Janet R. Cummings, Ph.D., of Emory University, Atlanta, and colleagues. The expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 sets the stage for helping address long-standing gaps in access to SUD treatment for states that opt-in to the expansion, according to the study background.

Early human interbreeding, inbreeding revealed by Neanderthal genome

Date: Dec-25-2013
The most complete sequence to date of the Neanderthal genome, using DNA extracted from a woman's toe bone that dates back 50,000 years, reveals a long history of interbreeding among at least four different types of early humans living in Europe and Asia at that time, according to University of California, Berkeley, scientists.

Incarceration has no effect on nonresident fathers' parenting

Date: Dec-25-2013
A prison sentence may not always have negative consequences for children of the incarcerated, says University of California, Irvine sociologist Kristin Turney. In a new study, she finds that when an uninvolved dad spends time behind bars, there are no negative effects on his parenting."To date, most research shows that incarceration has detrimental effects on family life," she says. "But we find that there is considerable variation in these effects.

Treating injured workers with the help of online tool

Date: Dec-25-2013
University of Alberta researchers have developed a new web-based tool to aid health professionals in determining the right treatment course for injured workers, helping them feel better and get back to work earlier.Researchers used a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning to analyze injury and treatment records from Alberta's workers' compensation database to create a tool that recommends an appropriate course of rehabilitation. During early testing, the support tool actually outperformed clinicians.