Over Weight Expectant Mothers Could Have Cereberal Pasly - New Study

It is widely known that being obese in pregnancy could have devastating effects on children. According to the findings of a new study published in the journal ‘JAMA’, obesity in pregnancy also increases the risk of having a child with cerebral palsy, CP.
The researchers from the University of Michigan in the United States, U.S, stated that carrying extra pounds around the waist is linked to a range of conditions that can harm an infant’s brain.
In turn, these heightened the likelihood of giving birth to a sufferer of the incurable disorder, the new study suggested. Cerebral palsy is a group of permanent movement disorders that appear in early childhood.
Signs and symptoms vary among people. Often, symptoms include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may also be problems with sensation, vision, hearing, swallowing, and speaking. Often babies with CP do not roll over, sit, crawl, or walk as early as other children of their age. Difficulty with the ability to think or reason and seizures each occurs in about one third of people with CP.
The ‘mailonline’ reported that despite advances in neonatal care, the rate of CP has increased in recent years for children born at full term. Before now, majority of children with CP arose from kids that experienced obstetric complications during delivery.
However, the report shows that few preventable factors are known to affect the risk of CP. Researcher looked at children born in Sweden from between 1997 and 2011.
Of the slightly more than 1.4 million who entered the world, 3,029 were diagnosed with CP. A further analysis of the data indicated a clear link between obese and rates of the disorder, which is estimated to affect one in every 400 births in the United States, U.S, and the United Kingdom, UK.
Being obese or overweight is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Overweight is common especially where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary.
Excess weight has reached epidemic proportions globally, with more than 1 billion adults being either overweight or obese as at 2003. In his reaction, the study author, Professor Eduardo Villamor, said the results were ‘statistically significant’ for those born at a healthy weight. The same link couldn’t be determined in premature babies.
Nearly half of the causes of CP could be put down to asphyxia-related neonatal complications. The researchers noted that the effect of maternal obesity on CP may seem small compared with other risk factors.

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How Pollution Kills 1.7 Million Children Each Year - WHO

Polluted environments take the lives of 1.7 million children under the age of five, according to two new reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, while presenting the reports, said unhealthy environments were responsible for one-quarter of children deaths.

The reports reviewed the threats from pollutants such as second-hand smoke, ultraviolet radiation, unsafe water and e-waste. “A polluted environment is a deadly one – particularly for young children. “Their developing organs and immune systems, and smaller bodies and airways, make them especially vulnerable to dirty air and water,” Chan said.

In one of the two reports, ‘Inheriting a Sustainable World: Atlas on Children’s Health and the Environment’, WHO announced that many of the common causes of death among children aged between one month and five years of age are preventable with safe water and clear cooking fuels. These common causes of infant death include diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia, according to the UN health agency. “The main pollutant is in the air, resulting in 570,000 deaths each year among children under five years old. “Air pollution can stunt brain development and reduce lung function and trigger asthma. “In the longer-term, exposure to air pollution can increase the child’s risk of contracting heart disease, a stroke or cancer,” the report stated. Among other actions described in the other report: ‘Don’t pollute my future!’ WHO recommended measures to counter the impact of the environment on children’s health. The UN health agency recommended reducing air pollution, improving safe water and sanitation, and protecting pregnant women and building safer environments. Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, called for measures to protect children from the impacts of exposure to polluted environments. “Investing in the removal of environmental risks to health, such as improving water quality or using cleaner fuels, will result in massive health benefits,” Neira said. One of the emerging environmental threats to children is electronic and electrical waste, according to the second WHO report. Appliances such as old mobile phones that are improperly recycled “expose children to toxins which can lead to reduced intelligence, attention deficit, lung damage, and cancer,” the UN agency reported. At the current rate, the amount of such waste is expected to increase by 19 per cent between 2014 and 2018, up to 50 million metric tonnes. The reports also pointed out harmful chemicals that work themselves through the food chain. These include fluoride, lead and mercury, as well as the impact that climate change and ultraviolet rays have on children’s development.

Polluted environments take the lives of 1.7 million children under the age of five, according to two new reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, while presenting the reports, said unhealthy environments were responsible for one-quarter of children deaths. The reports reviewed the threats from pollutants such as second-hand smoke, ultraviolet radiation, unsafe water and e-waste. “A polluted environment is a deadly one – particularly for young children. “Their developing organs and immune systems, and smaller bodies and airways, make them especially vulnerable to dirty air and water,” Chan said. In one of the two reports, ‘Inheriting a Sustainable World: Atlas on Children’s Health and the Environment’, WHO announced that many of the common causes of death among children aged between one month and five years of age are preventable with safe water and clear cooking fuels. These common causes of infant death include diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia, according to the UN health agency. “The main pollutant is in the air, resulting in 570,000 deaths each year among children under five years old. “Air pollution can stunt brain development and reduce lung function and trigger asthma. “In the longer-term, exposure to air pollution can increase the child’s risk of contracting heart disease, a stroke or cancer,” the report stated. Among other actions described in the other report: ‘Don’t pollute my future!’ WHO recommended measures to counter the impact of the environment on children’s health. The UN health agency recommended reducing air pollution, improving safe water and sanitation, and protecting pregnant women and building safer environments. Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, called for measures to protect children from the impacts of exposure to polluted environments. “Investing in the removal of environmental risks to health, such as improving water quality or using cleaner fuels, will result in massive health benefits,” Neira said. One of the emerging environmental threats to children is electronic and electrical waste, according to the second WHO report. Appliances such as old mobile phones that are improperly recycled “expose children to toxins which can lead to reduced intelligence, attention deficit, lung damage, and cancer,” the UN agency reported. At the current rate, the amount of such waste is expected to increase by 19 per cent between 2014 and 2018, up to 50 million metric tonnes. The reports also pointed out harmful chemicals that work themselves through the food chain. These include fluoride, lead and mercury, as well as the impact that climate change and ultraviolet rays have on children’s development.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/03/polluted-environments-kill-1-7-million-children-yearly/

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Low Carb, High Fat Diet Could Cure Epilepsy - Research

Scientists have alerted that a diet high in fruit and steak could cure a deadly form of epilepsy. According to the findings of a new study published in the journal ‘Neurology’, a ketogenic diet could be used in the future as a life-saving treatment for epileptic patients.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children.
The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fueling brain-function. However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies.
The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood, a state known as ketosis, leads to a reduction in the frequency of epileptic seizures. Epilepsy is a chronic disorder, the hallmark of which is recurrent, unprovoked seizures.
Many people with epilepsy have more than one type of seizure and may have other symptoms of neurological problems as well. Although, it is estimated that super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE), which is the most severe classification of the brain condition, kills 60 per cent of sufferers, the new research shows that the ketogenic diet could alleviate symptoms in patients.
High in fats and low in carbohydrates, the diet alters the activity of brain cells to prevent deadly fits, the scientists claim. According to a report in the ‘mailonline’, in general, after a patient has experienced 24 hours in a seizure and they will be placed in a coma if drugs aren’t working. “They are then awakened after another day to see if the seizures return. If so, they are then considered to have SRSE.
“The patient will then return to a coma and continue on other medications to try find a treatment method.” The researchers from Johns Hopkins University recruited 15 patients between the ages of 18 and 82 who were hospitalised with SRSE.

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Obesity Causes 11 Different Cancers

Scientists have alerted that obesity strongly increases the risk of developing 11 types of cancer. These are the result of a major study published in the ‘British Medical Journal’.

Obesity is a condition where a person has accumulated so much body fat that it might have a negative effect on their health. If a person’s bodyweight is at least 20 per cent higher than it should be, he or she is considered obese.
If your Body Mass Index (BMI) is between 25 and 29.9 you are considered overweight. Being overweight is probably linked to many other forms of the illness but so far, there is not enough evidence, researchers said.
The types of cancers linked to obesity include breast, oesophagus, stomach, bowel, rectum, biliary tract system, pancreas, womb, ovary, kidney and the blood cancer myeloma. Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body.
Although, it is not all tumours that are cancerous; benign tumours do not spread to other parts of the body. Over 100 types of cancers affect humans. Concerning the new study, researchers from Imperial College London calculated that men’s risk of developing biliary tract cancer increases by up to 56 per cent for every 11lb gained in weight.
For women, the risk of womb cancer rises by 21 per cent for every 0.1 point increase in hip to waist ratio. The findings are particularly concerning as a quarter of adults and a fifth of 11-year-olds are classed as obese. Reacting to the development, Dr. Panagiota Mitrou, of the World Cancer Research Fund, which funded the study, said: “This further emphasises the huge role that obesity plays in increasing cancer risk.”
The research highlighted previous figures showing that some cancers could be prevented each year if everyone has a healthy weight. It looked at 204 existing studies which examined the link between obesity and cancer.

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Cocaine Causes Disablities In Unborn Children - Research

Scientists have raised the alarm over the impact of hard drugs on unborn children, saying sons of men who take cocaine years before pregnancy suffer memory damage in the womb. According to findings of the new study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, U.S, cocaine use in men could lead to learning disabilities in their sons.
Similarly, the researchers showed that the drug’s damaging impacts on DNA can be passed on through sperm, hampering the foetus’ brain development. Intriguingly, the effects were far more common in the sons of male cocaine users than their daughters, or than any child of a female cocaine user. Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug made from the leaves of the coca plant, native to South America.
Although healthcare providers can use it for valid medical purposes, such as local anesthesia for some surgeries, cocaine is an illegal drug. As a street drug, cocaine looks like a fine, white, crystal powder. Street dealers often mix it with things like cornstarch, talcum powder, or flour to increase profits. They may also mix it with other drugs such as the stimulant amphetamine.
The ‘mailonline’ reports that while scientists are still trying to determine the timeline, this research builds on previous studies that show cocaine has a lingering effect on DNA, which can last for years after use. 16 male rats were allowed to self-administer cocaine daily through drinking water for 60 days. Another 16 drank saline solution.
They then mated with females, who had not taken drugs. Paternal cocaine-taking had no effect on the litter size, sex ratio, or growth development. However, out of the 46 total litters, the male babies, which had been exposed to cocaine experienced significant issues with memory formation.
Taking a closer look, they saw the expression of genes which are important for memory formation had been altered. Male rats, whose fathers took cocaine, had far lower levels of D-serine, a molecule essential for memory.
Once the researchers replenished the levels of D-serine in the sons’ hippocampus, they saw improved learning in these animals. Senior author, Dr. R. Christopher Pierce, a professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, worked with a team to test the theory on mice

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Queens College Diarrhea Tragedy: Victims Speak Out

Revelations have started coming out with regards to the tragic incident that happened at Queen’s College, Lagos, in which two students died while several others were hospitalized on the wake of an outbreak of diarrhea in the school. 

Aside the two pupils, no fewer than 50 others will not be in school as they are either recuperating at home or on admission in different hospitals in Lagos State, including Apapa General Hospital, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Harvey Road Hospital and Safe City Clinic.
It was gathered that problem started after the pupils, who were boarding students, ate spaghetti and drank suspected polluted water served in the refectory two weeks ago.
An epidemic of diarrhea was said to have broken out, as the pupils started vomiting and stooling.
News men, who spoke with parents, pupils, a teacher and a nurse in the school, gathered that the sickbay overflowed with sick pupils as panic spread in the school.
Some parents were said to have been called to take their children home for treatment.
It was learnt that Osuiniyi, a Junior Secondary School two pupil, died on Wednesday, February 15, 2017, while Itulua, a JSS 3 pupil, died on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
The mother of Itualua, when contacted, declined comment, saying she was mourning the death of her daughter and did not want to discuss the incident.
Osuiniyi’s parents could not be reached for comment.
However, parents and pupils, who spoke with the media, begged not to be identified as the school management had vowed to deal with anyone who exposed the incident.
A pupil, who spoke from her hospital bed, explained that the school’s water system had been polluted for some time.
She said, “I don’t know the number of boarders affected, but one of my friends is also in the hospital.
“The one that died is Vivian (Osuiniyi). She was in JSS 2. Those affected in my dormitory are not less than 10.
“The problem started after we took spaghetti and drank the contaminated water in the hostel. When I woke up, I started feeling pains in my stomach. I was given some drugs and asked to return to my dormitory, but the pain didn’t stop.
“We complained to the school about the water that we drink, but nothing was done.”
Another pupil, who was receiving treatment at home, said more than 50 senior pupils in her class were affected.
She said, “About 50 pupils in my dormitory were stooling and vomiting after they ate the spaghetti and took the water. There are seven dormitories for SSS3 pupils and we are over 500.
“I went to the sickbay on Monday and complained that I ate spaghetti. A nurse said it was indigestion. When I ate it the next day, I vomited. When I went to report the second time, I was asked to stop eating the spaghetti. Aside the spaghetti, the water is brownish.”
She said the school later distributed bags of sachet water to the pupils.
A parent, whose daughter was among those on admission, told the media that when she called a teacher in the school, she was assured that her daughter was okay.
She said she later got a call that her daughter had started stooling and vomiting as well.
She said, “She was taken to the hospital from the school and has been on admission since Wednesday.”
Another parent, who said she was still treating her sick daughter, said she had first observed rashes on her body.
She said the victim later complained of the water in the school.
She said, “I gathered that the water had been contaminated. It was the same water they were using to cook their food.
“My daughter called and said one of their teachers said a pupil died. She said the girl was among those that ate the spaghetti.
“On Tuesday, I was called to come and take my daughter. I went there and took her to a hospital. When I got to the hospital, the doctors saw the uniform of my daughter and they screamed, ‘QC again!’ I was told that other pupils of the school had been brought to the hospital.”
The mother of one of the affected pupils said she subjected her daughter to several tests, including pregnancy and HIV tests, adding that the result showed food poisoning.
She said, “On Wednesday, I was called that my daughter was not feeling fine. I went on Thursday and took her to a hospital in Yaba. They conducted tests on her and the results showed food poisoning.”
The parent said the Parent-Teacher Association did not want the issue exposed to the public.
It was gathered that there had been threats that no parent should disclose any information regarding the school.
The threat followed an earlier scandal which rocked the school in 2016 after a teacher was alleged to have molested a female pupil.

A statement by the ministry said Adewole’s investigative team comprised members of staff of the Department of Medicine at the University of Lagos and the Epidemiology Unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Health.
“The minister has directed the officials of the ministry of health, community health and LUTH to ascertain the cause of death of the pupils, inspect of the school environment, examine the source of water supply and test its suitability for human consumption and also visit the bereaved families,” a statement by the school  said.

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