Obese Mothers More Likely to Have Children With Autism?

A new provocative study shows that compared to healthy-weight mothers, obese women are 67 percent more likely to have a child with autism. They were also about twice as likely to have a child with another developmental disorder.

Can autism be preventable? Scientists say, yes. And autism research points to early diagnosis and intervention — as early as when the child is eight months old — as the best way to stop this disabling brain disorder in its tracks.

But really being able to prevent autism requires a complete understanding of its causes — and scientists are still putting together that picture, despite intensive research for many decades.

Read more »



Health Risks of Child or Teenage Pregnancy

Ten-year-old girl gives birth — and the risks of teenage pregnancy

A 10-year-old tribal girl from Colombia gave birth on April 6 to her five-pound daughter by Cesarean section, sparking global outrage for becoming one of the youngest mothers in recorded history.

The unnamed girl, a member of the indigenous Wayuu tribe whose homeland is in northern Columbia’s La Guajira Peninsula, arrived at the hospital crying and in pain. She was 39 weeks pregnant when she underwent a C-section, Univision’s Primer Impacto reported. Most pregnancies are 38 weeks.

The baby was otherwise healthy, despite the fact that the new mom reportedly refused to breastfeed her newborn. The child-mom was also doing fine — even if the first time she saw a doctor during her pregnancy was on the day she gave birth. The pair had to be confined for a few days at the neo-natal unit of an undisclosed Columbia hospital.

Read more »

How to Stop Leukemia from Returning? Block β-catenin Pathway

Target stem cells to prevent leukemia’s return, Harvard scientists say

Usually, stem cells are seen as the “good guys,” and today, research into their regenerative properties is at an all time high. As the “building blocks” of the body that can go on to develop into blood, bone, brain and body organ tissues — they are seen as a potential renewable source of replacement tissues to treat many ailments for which there is no cure, or for which few treatments exist.

But where leukemia is concerned, stem cells are both the “good” and the “bad” guys. As the “good guys,” they are used in the bone marrow transplantation to treat this blood cancer.

But they are also the “bad guys” — leukemic stem cells are the very things that sustain this blood-forming disease, which affects about 245,000 Americans, and an additional 47,150 new cases that are expected to develop this year alone. Leukemic stem cells are also thought to be responsible for relapse — and 23,540 Americans are expected to die from the disease this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Read more »

Page 5 of 89« First...34567...102030...Last »