Low Vitamin D Levels May Explain Higher Rates of Hypertension In Blacks

A new study published in the current Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests that low vitamin Dlevels may, in part, explain why blacks have higher rates of high blood pressure when compared to whites in the US. A growing body of evidence has suggested that vitamin D receptors are found in various parts of the body, including the arteries and the heart, and a deficiency of vitamin D may somehow negatively affect the cardiovascular system, leading to issues such as hypertension. And, indeed, in the current study scientists showed that, overall, blacks had significantly lower levels of vitamin D in their blood than whites and low blood levels of vitamin D were linked to elevated systolic blood pressures. According to the researchers, "We also know that blood pressure is highest among Blacks living in the US, where UV exposure is low…these findings point towards vitamin D deficiency as a potential contributor to higher rates of vascular dysfunction – here hypertension – among Blacks living in the US. Further work is required to determine whether vitamin D supplementation could reduce these racial disparities."

 

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Meningitis Vaccine Now Approved For Infants

The U.S. FDA announced this past week that the vaccine Menactra has been approved for use in children as young as 9 months of age. Previously, the vaccine was approved for use in people ages 2 to 55. Menactra is used in the prevention of invasive meningococcal disease caused by the bacteriaNeisseria meningitidis, a leading cause of meningitis in children. "The highest rate of meningococcal disease occurs in children under one year of age. With today's approval, Menactra can now be used in children as young as 9 months of age to help prevent this potentially life-threatening disease," said Karen Midthun, M.D., director of FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The safety of Menactra in this age group was evaluated in four clinical trials in which over 3,700 participants received the vaccine. The most common adverse events reported in children who received Menactra at 9 months and 12 months of age were injection-site tenderness and irritability. Occurrence of fever was comparable to other vaccines routinely recommended for young children. [via FDA]

Q: Friends of mine have a toddler who only eats bagels, pizza, oatmeal, apples and toast – no meats, pastas or vegetables. How healthy is this?

A: At some point in time most children will go through phases where they may be considered "picky eaters." In fact, being a picky eater is part of normal toddlerhood and very seldom will eating issues turn into eating disorders later on. What most parents consider eating problems, in fact, may be very normal behavior for children between the ages of two to six. Children this age will often go through food binges, consuming only one or two foods for a stretch of days, or only a handful of foods for a month or two. Rest assured that this is very common behavior for this age group and most children will not have trouble meeting nutritional requirements. Think about it from a larger perspective. Rather than strictly enforcing the child to have foods from each food group at every meal, it's more important that the child has a variety of foods over the period of days to weeks. Furthermore, if your child is meeting developmental milestones, then their dietary consumption is likely to be just fine. Toddlers and young children will need approximately 1000 to 1600 calories each day at minimum. A rough estimate of required caloric intake can be calculated by starting with 1000 calories and adding 100 calories for each year of their age. For example, if your child is 5 years old he or she will require at least 1500 calories (1000+500) per day. If you have any concerns about your child's eating habits or development, it is very important to speak to your pediatrician or family physician.

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What Gut Type Are You?

Would it surprise you to find out that you are a part of a group you probably didn't even know existed? Astounding new research, published in the journal Nature, shows that humans have three distinct gut types. Specifically, we each have one of three distinct varieties of bacterial ecosystems living inside our gastrointestinal tract. According to lead researcher Peer Bork of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, "We found that the combination of microbes in the human intestine isn't random, our gut flora can settle into three different types of community — three different ecosystems, if you like." The gut types are named after the predominant bacteria in each type: Bacteroides, Prevotella and Ruminococcus. According to New Scientist, "People with a bacteriode ecosystem have a bias towards bacteria that get most of their energy from carbohydrates and proteins. Prevotellas specialise in digesting sugar-covered proteins in mucin, the mixture of viscous proteins in the gut – an ability shared by people with a ruminococcus ecosystem." To our further surprise one's ecosystem type isn't dependent on your location, age, diet, or genetic makeup. Scientists aren't exactly sure how it is that we come to have only three gut profiles. And the exact implications of this is as yet unclear. What we do know is that people with Bacteriodes-predominant gut make high amounts of vitamins C, B2, B5 and H, and prevotellan-predominant guts make more vitamin B1 and folic acid. This research certainly suggests that the relationship we have with our gut is much more complex then previously though

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Low Sunlight Exposure and Mono Linked To MS

New research from Oxford University, published in the current issue of the journal Neurology, finds that the combination of low sunlight exposure and having a history of mononucleosis raises the risk for developing multiple sclerosis (MS). It's well-known that the incidence of MS is generally greater as you move away from the equator to regions that receive less sunlight. As such, MS is far more common in places like Scandinavia, Canada, and the Northern U.S. In the current study scientists used NASA satellite data on UV radiation exposure to calculate sunlight exposure in various parts of the UK, in addition to scouring all National Health Service hospital admissions records for cases of MS and mononucleosis. What they found was that 72% of all cases of MS patients lived in areas of relative low UV exposure and had a history of mononucleosis. It's believed that vitamin D (which is produced by our skin in reaction to UV light exposure) plays a protective role in preventing MS. However, more research is underway to further understand the association between mononucleosis and MS

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Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth day! Our planet has been facing problems like climate change and air and water pollution. This planet is all we have and it needs to be protected from destructive development. 

Click to see the video

The planet needs heroes who protect it from human greed. Every step taken to keep the earth safe is an investment for a safe future.

Greenpeace India has been working to keep the planet safe. To maintain its independence, Greenpeace does not accept money from government or business houses. All the work is funded by contributions madeby individuals like you. There can't be a better day than today, to pledge your support to the planet. Here's what you can do:

Watch this inspiring video and then make a contribution to strengthen the fight to keep this planet safe. 

http://www.greenpeace.in/donate/earth_day_donate_to_greenpeace_india.php

What more, you can get a cool environment hero shirt for the contribution you make. 

Thanks a billion!

 

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Que:I just had an abortion and was offered an “Anti-D” injection because my blood group is A- (minus). Do I need this?

A: Aside from the main blood groups (A,B, AB or O), there is another component to your blood type. This is called the Rhesus (Rh) group. One can be Rh-positive or Rh-negative. This is why you'll see blood types designated as "A+" or "B-", etc. Your Rh status is determined by the Rh group of your parents. If one of your parents is Rh-positive, then you have a chance of being Rh-positive. People who are Rh-positive have a substance called D-antigen on the outside of their red blood cells, Rh-negative people don't.

Your question addresses the concern we have when an Rh-negative mother has a baby who is Rh-positive. If at any time during the pregnancy there is mixing of maternal and fetal blood, the mother's immune system may recognize the baby's Rh-positive blood as foreign and produce 'anti-D antibodies' against it. These 'anti-D antibodies' can then attack the baby's red blood cells, which then can lead to problems with the pregnancy, including spontaneous abortion.

Therefore, in women who just underwent a spontaneous abortion and are known to be Rh-negative, an Anti-D injection [Rho(D) immune globulin or Rhogam] is recommended in the event that the fetus was Rh-positive. The Anti-D injection will essentially "clean up" the mother's blood of any Rh-positive blood that may have come from the baby before mom's immune system has a chance to produce antibodies which can stay around in her system can cause issues with future pregnancies. This will help prevent future spontaneous abortions which are caused by the differences between mom and baby's Rhesus groups.

Manuka Honey May Fight Superbugs

Research presented this past week at the UK Society for General Microbiology meeting suggests that manuka honey may have a role in defending our bodies from antibiotics-resistent bacteria. Manuka honey is harvested in New Zealand from bees which feed on the manuka plant. For centuries humans have known about the healing properties of this honey and, in fact, purified forms of it are currently available on the market as wound-care products. However, the researchers wanted to find out whether or not the honey would help with infections caused by certain hospital bacteria. To their surprise, the manuka honey was able to prevent attachment of bacteria to tissue, effectively preventing them from forming biofilms, a property of bacteria which allows them to multiply and escape attack by antibiotics. The scientists believe that manuka honey, in conjunction with current antibiotics, could mean greater efficacy against multi-drug resistant bacteria such as MRSA and pseudomonas, among othe

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Ovarian Cancer Starts In The Fallopian Tubes

Scientists at the renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have discovered that ovarian cancer actually starts in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries. Previous studies have suggested that ovarian cancer may originate elsewhere in the body, but this is the first study to demonstrate how the cancer has its origins inside the fallopian tubes, which are located adjacent to the ovaries. Ovarian cancer is sometimes called the silent killer because its early symptoms can be so subtle and commonplace. These symptoms can include unexplained discomfort in the pelvic region, indigestion, bloating, pain with sexual intercourse and abdominal pain. Each year, approximately 200,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and about 115,000 die of the disease. The hope is that by understanding how cancers start, new screening tests may improve rates of early detection. The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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Suicide Rates Correlate With Economy

A new CDC study published in the American Journal of Public Health demonstrates the correlation between suicide and periods of economic downturn. The study shows, as one would expect, that more people commit suicide when the economy falls and less people do so when the economy rises. After looking at various economic cycles between the years of 1928 and 2007, researchers noted this trend during the most significant economic periods listed below. The link between the two is most pronounced among people between the ages of 25 and 64 – individuals of prime working ages.

According to the report:

During periods of economic crisis the overall suicide rate rose, examples include:

• 1929-1933 – the Great Depression
• 1937-1938 – the end of the New Deal
• 1973-1975 – the Oil Crisis
• 1980-1982 – The Double-Dip Recession

During periods when the economy did well the overall suicide rate dropped, examples include:

• 1939-1945 – World War II
• 1991-2001 – The longest period of economic expansion and low unemployment