Researchers now say they’ve confirmed that maternal age is linked with a significantly elevated risk of autism in children. And the father’s age may not matter as much as previously thought.
The research from the University of California – Davis was published online today in the February issue of the journal Autism Research. The study is important since it’s one of the largest to quantify how each parent’s age (separately and together) impacts the risk of autism in children.

The risk of having a child with autism increased by 18% for each five-year increase in maternal age. This means that a mom …read more

Medicinal marijuana is finding its way into many areas of medicine. It’s a big help for some people with AIDS, providing them with a much-needed appetite. Marijuana is helpful for some people with cancer, helping them manage their side effects, and it’s also been found to help people with glaucoma, just to name a few.
There was hope that medicinal marijuana would provide help for people with Alzheimers because earlier animal studies had shown that marijuana could reduce the plaques in the brain that are the hallmark of Alzheimers.
Although this new study, from the University of British Columbia, is also an …read more

Pancreatic cancer is a serious, often rapidly fatal cancer that isn’t usually detected early enough for effective treatment. Although doctors don’t know how to prevent it, they do know that certain lifestyle issues contribute to the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, namely smoking and obesity. Now, we can add “soft drink consumption” to that list.
Your pancreas is a small organ that provides your body with insulin that helps you regulate the amount of sugar enters your blood stream. The more sugar you consume, the harder the pancreas has to work to release enough insulin. Of course, as with many things …read more

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help reduce symptoms of menopause for women, but those using estrogen-only HRT may be more at risk for developing asthma.
The finding came from a new, large-scale study published in the journal Thorax. Participants included 57,664 women taking part in a French study. Every two years between 1990 and 2002, the women, born between 1925 and 1950, were asked about their use of HRT and development of asthma symptoms.

None of the women in the study had asthma when their menopausal symptoms started. Almost 9.4% of women in the study with natural menopause and 28% of women …read more

No, it’s not a magical Frosty the Snowman type thing, but cold weather can make you gain weight. And that weight gain, however small, may creep up on you over the years, putting you at risk for obesity.
There are several different ways that cold weather may contribute to gaining weight, and once these methods are exposed and swimming around in your thoughts, you may avoid them.
For the skinny on weight gain in the winter, read Tom Venuto’s article below. He’s the author of The Body Fat Solution, a book which takes a look at weight gain from many different angles …read more

Women who get sutures rather than staples to close the wound after a cesarean, a major abdominal surgery, may have fewer side effects and post-op doctor visits.
“It seemed to me that I was seeing more patients return with complications after a cesarean birth when staples were used instead of sutures, but I couldn’t find any studies that supported a recommendation for the use of either method,” said Suzanne Basha, M.D.

Dr. Basha and colleagues at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pa. studied more than 400 patients (219 suture and 197 staples) undergoing cesarean delivery. After collecting wound complication data, researchers …read more

Even when mothers-to-be do everything they should (or shouldn’t), some still end up giving birth prematurely. A recent study from the National Institutes of Health reveals why.
Scientists have found genes in both the mother and fetus responsible for premature birth, a leading cause of infant death in the US. The research was presented earlier this week at the 30th Annual Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) meeting.

Roberto Romero, MD, Chief of the Perinatology Research Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development led a team of physicians and scientists who studied a large number of genes involved in …read more

People who live with diabetes know how frustrating it can be to try to maintain a healthy and balanced level of sugar in the blood, particularly if they take insulin. Much progress has been made in terms of developing technology to help manage insulin doses, especially in children, but as good as they can be, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Type 1 diabetes, what used to be called insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes, cannot be cured. Insulin isn’t a cure, but rather, a way to manage it. The insulin must be given in specific doses and adjusted according …read more

African Americans who develop multiple sclerosis deteriorate more quickly than their white counterparts and don’t respond as well to the currently available treatments, say researchers.
It’s not unusual for different races to respond in different ways to various illnesses or treatments. The best known illness where this occurs is hypertension (high blood pressure), but we don’t always know which diseases or disorders will fall into this category.
Multiple sclerosis is much more common among whites than African Americans, so not much research had been done regarding any differences in progression and treatment. Researchers from the University of Buffalo began looking into this …read more

A new poll by the Harvard School of Public Health reveals that almost half of Americans think the H1N1 flu outbreak is history. The poll was conducted January 20-24, 2010.
My guess is that so many Americans think H1N1 is over since it hasn’t been in the news much lately. Yet, the flu is still claiming lives. CDC estimates that between 39 million and 80 million cases of H1N1 occurred last year between April and December.
Researchers believe that if perceptions that H1N1 is over spread, people who currently say they intend to get the vaccine may decide not to get …read more