Archive for April, 2009

Autistic boy steals car, drives to airport and flies across the country

An boy with asperges, a mild for of autism, vanished in Florida only to be found across the country in California. Thirteen-year-old Kenton Weaver was reported missing on Tuesday. His father said Kenton stole his SUV and drove off from their home in Boca Raton.

Kenton Weaver drove approximately 30 miles to the airport in Fort Lauderdale, parked the car and jumped on a flight to San Jose near where his mother lives.

“I really enjoyed it,” Kenton told “Good Morning America” simply. “I talked to a few people.”

Kenton’s mother, Kim Casey, lives just hours from the San Jose airport in Fresno, Calif., but the boy’s father, Dean Weaver, suspects it wasn’t the destination that lured the boy to the airport, but the journey.

“I know why he went,” Dean Weaver said. “His mother, his grandfather and uncle live in the area, so if he had a chance to get there he took it. He hasn’t seen them in a while, so I understand that that’s why he would go there. But all the things he had to do to get there seem really confusing.”

“It’s very difficult to get onto plane these days and somehow he managed to get a ticket, get through security and get on a plane,” said Dean Weaver, Kenton’s father.

Kenton is now safe and sound with his mom in California.

How clean is the air your breathing?

For the second year in a row, the American Lung Association has named Pittsburgh as the most polluted city in the U.S.

“Six out of 10 Americans right now as we speak live in areas where the air can be dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, dirty enough to shape how kids’ lungs develop and even dirty enough to kill,” reported Janice E. Nolen, the association’s assistant vice president on national policy and advocacy.

The 2009 findings was based on data gathered at approximately 900 monitoring sites nationwide during a three-year period from 2005 through 2007. Researchers measured the air quality of different areas utilizing three criteria — long-term particle pollution, short-term particle pollution and ozone concentration. All three forms of pollution have been shown to have negative health effects.

The cleanest air quality city in all categories was Fargo, North Dakota.

The association says more than 180 million people live in “areas where the air can be dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, dirty enough to shape how kids’ lungs develop and even dirty enough to kill.”

Smog is a different term for ozone, which happens when airborne pollutants combine with heat and sunlight. Soot is also called particle pollution and refers to tiny airborne contaminants less than 1/30th the width of a human hair.

Specific genes raise the risk of autism

Specific genes could raise the risk of autism, new studies indicate. The discovery may be the key to unraveling the condition and therefore identifying possible treatments.

Scientists at Oxford University were among three major studies to have identified the genetic mechanisms underlying autistic disorders.

By studying DNA from more than 2,000 autistic children, researchers have revealed the best evidence so far for genetic links to the disorder.It indicates that proteins called cell adhesion molecules, which play a essential role in shaping brain “wiring” and the way nerve cells communicate, play a vital role in autism disorders.

Researcher, Hakon Hakonarson from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, reports a common gene variation was detected in 65 per cent of the autistic children studied

Hakonarson says the part of the genome affected by the mutation is important in brain functioning. He says future studies will have to investigate ways to target and possibly correct gene variations. Hakonarson says this further confirms the importance of genetics in Autism:

Autism is a serious developmental problem that commonly appears before age 3, affecting a child’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Experts believe autism affects as many as one in 150 children in the U.S., making it one the most the most common neurodevelopmental disorders.

The race is on to find a vaccine to protect against swine flu

To certainly no surprise, the race is on for drug makers around the world to create a vaccine to protect people against the swine flu.  The problem is a question of time. How long will it take to get a vaccine to people around the world?

By the time the vaccine can be administered to a population, the first wave of the pandemic will in all likelihood be finished, according to Dr. Iain Stephenson, a consultant in infectious diseases at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and a clinical lecturer at the University of Leicester. His paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Stephenson and his team did a study comparing the effect of a single H5 bird flu vaccine dose to those who had been immunized with an H5 vaccine previously with people who hadn’t previously received vaccine.

“This research signifies that we could vaccinate people potentially many years before a pandemic, to generate memory cells that are long lasting and can be rapidly boosted by a single dose of vaccine when needed,” he said.

Switzerland’s Novartis AG (NOVN.VX) stated on Tuesday it had obtained the genetic code of the new virus strain, enabling it to begin work on assessing production, and it hoped to receive the actual virus in its laboratories “in the near future”.

Currently, it is unknown whether there is a vaccine that could stop the spread of the disease, however there are 2.6 million doses of Tamiflu and Relenza antiviral drugs in stock. The U.S. government is also recommending these treatments.

New drug cuts risk of prostate cancer in men

UK drug heavyweight GlaxoSmithKline was given a jolt yesterday on findings that Avodart cut the odds of prostate cancer in men believed to be high risk from the disease.

The medication, dutasteride (Avodart), was taken by men between the ages of 50 and 75 who were at a raised risk of the disease with considerable prostate specific antigen levels.

Clinical test findings demonstrated its prostate medicine Avodart lowered the chance of cancer in men at increased risk of disease by 23 percent, helping lift the stock approximately 2 percent by 1000 GMT and prompting increased sales forecasts from analysts.

According to the company, dutasteride restrains both type 1 and type 2 5-alpha reductase enzymes, responsible for converting testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, the most potent male hormone in the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second-most commonly diagnosed of all male cancers, and is responsible for over 221,000 mortalities every year.

Lead researcher Dr Gerald Andriole said: “There’s no question that many had small tumours that were not detected, yet the drug still lowered the risk of cancer being found years later.”

household bleach to treat eczema?

Researchers with Northwestern University reported that children who suffer with the dry-skin disorder, eczema, may effectively be treated by soaking in baths containing diluted household bleach twice a week.

The kids that received the combination treatment had significantly larger decreases in the extent and severity of their eczema at one month and three months compared with those who used intranasal placebo and took regular baths, according to Amy Paller, M.D., of Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues.

The study consisted of 31 kids ages 6 months to 17 years with eczema, which comes out today in the journal Pediatrics. For the half who bathed for 5 to 10 minutes twice a week over three months in a bathtub full of water mixed with 1/2 cup of bleach, improvement was so swift and pronounced that the study was stopped early so the kids bathing in plain water mixed with placebo could benefit from the bleach.

The regular treatment of oral and topical antibiotics increases the danger of bacterial resistance, something doctors try to avoid, particularly in children. Bleach kills the bacteria however does not have the same risk of creating bacterial resistance.

The bleach bath is a affordable, uncomplicated and safe treatment that drastically improves the state of the skin in addition to reduces flare-ups of eczema, which affects 17 percent of school-age children.

New salmonella outbreak connected to alfalfa sprouts

Consumers are being advised to not eat raw alfalfa sprouts, including sprout blends that contain alfalfa sprouts, for now as the product has been connected to Salmonella serotype Saintpaul contamination.

Health officials think infected seeds, sold across the country, are the source of the outbreak. The warning doesn’t include bean and other types of sprouts.

The Food and Drug Administration reported 31 Salmonella Saintpaul infections have been seen in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and West Virginia.

The reports of the sicknesses started in mid-March. Cases are still being reported, and potential cases are in various stages of laboratory testing, so illnesses could appear in other states. No deaths have been reported. The number of infected people could be worse than presently reported because some illnesses have not yet been confirmed with laboratory testing.

The FDA will work with the alfalfa sprout industry to help discover which seeds and alfalfa sprouts are not associated with this contamination.

Doctors support baseline test for prostate

New group of studies are giving hope to people at risk of prostate cancer. U.S. researchers recently announced that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs could offer protection to men against prostate cancer and other urological troubles, as well as reducing their chance of heart attacks and heart problems.

Currently, statins are given to lower cholesterol levels and prevent incidences of strokes and heart attacks. These cholesterol drugs, according to the research results, can greatly help in controlling inflammation in prostate tumors and reduce development of prostate cancerdefinedefine.

The urology group’s new advice reports men should be given a baseline PSA test at age 40, and follow-ups at intervals based on each man’s situation. Doctors say a high PSA at age 40 greatly predicts a risk of prostate cancer.

However others disagreed.

“There is no proof that a baseline test will save lives”, said Dr. Barnett Kramer, a National Institutes of Health scientist.

“The same issue of harm comes up - overdiagnosis. A baseline PSA, just like regular PSA screening, can lead to the diagnosis of cancers that would not have harmed a man had they not been detected,” Kramer said.

Morning Sickness May Lead to Brighter Kids

April 23, 2009- For all those moms out there that had to combat with morning sickness, a new research is suggesting that this is a positive thing and that it may lead to a smart child.

At Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, researchers that performed a study, are stating that women who experience morning sickness, their children score higher on IQ tests. They even say that the sicker the mother was, the higher the scores the children got. The study is decribed as the first to evaluate the impact between morning sickness and the child’s brain development.

Morning sickness is one of the most common conditions of being pregnant. It affects about 80 percent of pregnant women. This miserable condition can lead to dehydration, weight loss, and vitamin and salt imbalances.
There are evolutionary biologists that believe that morning sickness is a type of defiance mechanism of the body to let women vomit things she ate that may harm the fetus.

Diclectin is a drug that is approved for pregnant mothers to take for nausea. This drug is provided by Duchesnay Inc. a Quebec drug company. The study done was funded partially by Duchesnay Inc.

Motherrisk is a hotline for women to call that has morning sickness. The study consisted of 121 women who called the Motherisk’s hotline between 1998-2003. The study was broken up into three groups of the women and their children. The three broken groups involved; women who didn’t have morning sickness; women who had morning sickness but didn’t take the drug Diclectin; and women who experienced morning sickness and took Diclectin. All the mothers involved had similar IQ’s and came from similar educational and socioeconomic backgrounds.

When the babies reached to be at a certain age, they were given psychological tests to take. The scores were all within the normal IQ range, but those children whose mothers dealt with morning sickness scored a higher rate. Diclectin didn’t appear to result in any negative affect on development of the brain according to the researchers.
This isn’t a definite thing, but with the study it sure highlights the idea.

Legalization debate lights up on Naitonal Weed Day

Some holidays can be traced back to ancient traditions. Some commemorate great people or important historical events. In the long list of holidays and special occasions, one that most people overlook is probably National Weed Day. This year, however, the date was used not only to celebrate marijuana, but to rekindle the ongoing legalization debate.

National Weed Day, which is celebrated on April 20th each year, has somewhat mystical roots in modern pop culture. Most of the stories regarding its foundation suggest that National Weed Day dates back to the 1970s. In some versions, it is believed that students in San Rafael, California, would get together at 4:20 PM each weekday to smoke marijuana together. The time, which was not coincidentally when students were said to have been let out of detention, has become an symbol for pot advocates everywhere.

While some people choose to celebrate National Weed Day with smoke-ins, which can get participants arrested, the more politically-minded have used April 20 as a day to bring attention to the argument for removing the legislation against marijuana. This year, rallies sprung up across the country, primarily in areas with large youth populations, especially on college campuses. One rally in Boulder, Colorado, was said to have nearly 10,000 in attendance.

All the illicit celebrations aside, National Weed Day gives voice to the counterculture view that is no more dangerous than cigarettes. Other arguments for legalization relate to marijuana’s medical uses as well as its place in the drug war at large. There are many other dangerous drugs, and by making marijuana illegal, critics suggest that the government is making it a bigger problem than it should be. They also argue that the government has to spend too much time and money dealing with marijuana offenses, which inhibits law enforcement from tackling the more pressing issues in America’s drug war.

In response to National Weed Day, many anti-drug organizations also hold rallies to bring awareness to the dangers that are associated with marijuana, citing how pot is often used as a gateway drug that can lead users down a destructive path.