Food allergies likely to afflict autumn babies

Sunday, 20 October 2013

Islamabad, Oct 21 (Newswire): Babies born in autumn are at a higher risk of developing food allergies, a new study says.

Those born in October and November are almost twice as likely to show a form of food intolerance by four years, than those born in June and July.

Some 9.5 percent of autumn babies had an allergic response compared to five percent of summer babies, says a Finnish study.

Autumn babies were three times as likely to have an allergy to milk and eggs as summer babies.

The researchers believe the variation is due to the foetus's exposure to pollen at a critical time during pregnancy, according to the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

At around the end of the third month the foetus begins to produce antibodies.

Pollen appears to trigger the development of a type of antibody known as immunoglobin E, which is well known to be linked to food allergies, according to the study authors.

Kaisa Pyrhönen, of the Institute of Health Sciences at the University of Oulu in Finland, wrote: "Children having their early gestational period in the pollen season for broad-leafed trees are more prone to sensitisation to food allergies than other children."

Exactly why pollen exposure appears to trigger immunoglobin E remains unknown.

The study looked at 5,920 children born in one region of Finland between April 2001 and March 2006, of which 961 had been tested for food allergies.

Previous research has shown that babies born in autumn or winter are more prone to eczema and wheezing, identified by higher levels of circulating antibodies to allergies in their blood than those born in spring or summer.

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Testosterone protects against heart disease

Islamabad, Oct 21 (Newswire): Aggressive men with higher testosterone levels are less likely to die of heart disease, says a new study.

Medical scientists who followed 930 men diagnosed with coronary heart disease found that those with low testosterone were almost twice as likely to die over a seven-year period, than those with normal levels of the hormone.

The study, led by Professor Kevin Channer of Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, adds weight to recent research overturning the widely-held belief that testosterone increases heart disease risk.

During the monitoring period one in five of those with low testosterone levels died, compared to one in eight (12 percent) of those with normal levels.

Even having what the researchers described as 'borderline' low levels of testosterone raised the risk of an early death, both from heart disease and other causes, according to the journal Online First Heart.

Previous studies have shown that healthy men with low testosterone are more likely to die before those with normal levels.

This study, published on Wednesday, shows a similar effect in those already diagnosed with heart disease.

Channer, a cardiologist, said testosterone was struggling to overcome an image problem caused by the mistaken belief that it caused health problems.

He said there were no studies that showed normal, physiological levels of the hormone were harmful.

The mistaken belief that it was harmful was based on studies of "testosterone abuse" among athletes, who had injected "industrial quantities" of it, giving themselves levels more than 100 times what the body produced.

Theirs was the fourth study showing testosterone's protective properties at normal levels, he added.

Prescription of replacement testosterone for men with low levels, who also have Type-2 diabetes or heart disease, has risen markedly in recent years.

"If it can be shown beyond reasonable doubt that mortality is reduced by replacement testosterone to physiological levels, then it should be given to all men with low levels," Channer argued.

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HRT raises risk of kidney stones

Sunday, 13 October 2013

Islamabad, Oct 14 (Newswire): Women who undergo hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopause are much more likely to develop painful kidney stones.

Researchers from the University of Texas, US, studied 24,000 post-menopausal women over five years. They found that those who took hormones had a 21 per cent higher risk of getting kidney stones compared to those who took a dummy pill.

The risks were similar for women taking Prempro, pills containing estrogen plus progestin - or Premarin, estrogen-only pills.

Recent data suggests that about six per cent of postmenopausal women develop kidney stones, according to the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.

The kidneys remove waste products from the blood and transfer them into the ureter. Occasionally, this waste can form into crystals that collect together into stone-like lumps.

They can grow to the size of golf balls and cause severe pain. If the stones block the urinary system, they can cause infection and kidney damage.

Large stones are sometimes treated with non-invasive shock wave therapy or surgery.

Study leader, Naim Maalouf, said women considering HRT to ease hot flushes and other symptoms such as mood swings should look at the bigger picture, weighing those benefits against the risks for kidney stones.

He added that HRT has also been linked with far more serious health problems such as breast cancer and heart attacks.

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Toothpaste may be spread superbugs

Islamabad, Oct 14 (Newswire): An antibacterial chemical commonly used in toothpastes may pose a threat to your health, a European Union committee has warned.

The EU's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety, which provide scientific advice to the European Commission related to non-food issues, has said that triclosan may promote widespread bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

The committee has also called for further safety studies to reconfirm its role in spreading superbugs.

The chemical is also used in handwashes and cosmetics.
Laboratory studies have shown triclosan can trigger gene mutations in bacteria, enabling them to protect themselves against it.

When this happens, the bacteria release proteins which transport this new-found protection to other bacteria.

This 'cross-resistance' has the potential to undermine the effectiveness of antibiotics and other life-saving medicines.
Studies have shown there are already bacterial mutations of E. coli, salmonella and listeria, which have some degree of resistance to triclosan.

Some strains of the hospital superbug MRSA have also developed low levels of triclosan resistance.
Triclosan was developed almost 50 years ago and was first used as a surgical scrub.

The US Food & Drug Administration has also found evidence that triclosan is a hormone disruptor. But the chemical is so commonly used that it is found in the urine of 75 per cent of the American population, a recent CDC report said.

Meanwhile, reacting to the reports, Colgate Palmolive has said the benefits of adding triclosan to its Total range outweigh the risk.
A spokeswoman said: "Colgate Total toothpaste is clinically proven to reduce the bacteria and plaque that can lead to gingivitis."

"This is an important benefit because there is a significant and growing body of scientific research on the association between periodontal disease and systemic health conditions, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes."

GlaxoSmithKline, a leading healthcare company, has however adopted a more cautious approach and decided to withdraw triclosan from its range of products.

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