Those Baby ‘Milestones’ May Have Longer-Term Importance

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Babies who learn to stand up relatively early may also do a bit better with attention, memory and learning by the time they are preschoolers, a new study suggests.

Experts have known that significant delays in reaching movement “milestones” — such as crawling, standing and walking — are a sign that a baby may go on to have developmental disabilities.

But the new study found a pattern even among babies who hit those milestones within the “normal” time frame. Those who reached certain milestones sooner tended to have higher scores on some developmental measures by the time they were 4 years old.

Specifically, babies who learned to stand with assistance relatively early had higher scores on tests of “cognition” at age 4. That refers to a young child’s ability to pay attention, learn and remember.

Preschoolers who’d hit the standing milestone sooner also tended to score higher on “adaptive” skills — such as using utensils and helping to dress themselves.

Although this research couldn’t definitively prove cause-and-effect, the researchers wrote, “This study provides evidence that the age of achieving motor milestones may be an important basis for various aspects of later child development.”

The research team — led by Edwina Yeung, of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development — also noted that past studies have found a connection between age at standing and IQ in adolescence, as well as mental skills in adulthood.

Still, a pediatrician who reviewed the study cautioned against making too much of the findings.

“Every child is different, and we can’t put them in a box,” said Dr. Gloria Riefkohl, a pediatrician at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, in Miami.

The fact that one baby stands a little later than her peers doesn’t automatically mean there’s a problem, Riefkohl said. By the same token, she noted, early standing doesn’t mean a baby will cruise through childhood with no developmental issues.

Riefkohl also pointed out that “gross motor” skills — crawling, standing, walking — are only one facet of early childhood development. There’s also language and social development, for instance.

The current study found no connection between movement milestones and a child’s communication or social skills at the age of 4.

The findings are based on 599 children whose mothers kept journals to record their milestone achievement. On average, the babies learned to crawl and stand with assistance at around 9 months of age; they were able to stand on their own at 11 months, and walk on their own at 13 months — again, on average.

In general, Yeung’s team found, babies who stood with assistance relatively earlier did a bit better on cognitive and adaptive-skills tests at age 4.

And when the researchers focused only on children with no developmental disabilities, early crawlers also tended to do better on the developmental tests.

Those connections were, however, only seen among single-birth babies — not twins. According to Yeung’s team, that may be because twins are often born preterm and underweight. Those are key factors in a child’s development, and might “overshadow” any link between movement milestones and overall development.

The researchers speculated on some reasons for their findings. For example, there is evidence that some of the same brain structures that underlie movement skills also play a role in thinking, memory and learning.

But it’s not clear why some milestones — such as walking — were unrelated to a child’s later development.

According to Riefkohl, the bottom line for parents is this: Take your baby to the pediatrician for routine well-child visits, and bring up any concerns you have about “late” development.

If there is an issue, Riefkohl said, your doctor can refer you to any special services that might be needed — such as speech or movement therapy.

But she also cautioned against comparing your baby to another, including siblings. “Not every child is going to have 200 words at the age of 2,” Riefkohl said. “No child is exactly like any other.”

The study was published online June 27 in Pediatrics.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on infant milestones.

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Looks-Conscious Teens Trying Risky Supplements

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, June 27, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many teens are turning to risky, unregulated supplements to boost their looks, warns a leading group of U.S. pediatricians.

These products — including protein powders, steroids and diet pills — are often useless at best, toxic at worst, said the American Academy of Pediatrics in a new report.

“Doctors think of performance-enhancing substance use as an athlete problem, but many non-athletes are using these substances for appearance enhancement,” said Dr. Michele LaBotz, a report co-author.

Boys go for protein supplements, caffeine, steroids and creatine, which revs up energy in cells. Nonprescription weight-loss supplements are popular among girls, the researchers reported.

Over-the-counter supplements, which were deregulated in 1994, are the substances used most often by teens, LaBotz said. Studies have shown many are contaminated with toxic heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, or steroids and stimulants like amphetamines, she added.

The report urges doctors to educate parents and teens about the dangers of these supplements and discourage their use.

“Substances spiked with stimulants put you at higher risk for cardiovascular problems,” said LaBotz, a sports medicine physician from South Portland, Maine. “If you are one of the many teens already on stimulants for ADHD, you’re compounding the risk of heart problems.”

Steroids are obviously dangerous, too, LaBotz added. “A lot of the effects of steroids are irreversible, including stunted growth and the growth of male breasts — gynecomastia. These don’t go away when you stop putting steroids in your body,” she noted.

In addition, steroids can cause severe acne, and suddenly stopping them can result in depression and heightened risk of suicide, she said.

There are other concerns about supplements. Many studies have found performance-enhancing supplements are a gateway to using drugs and alcohol and participating in other risky behaviors, LaBotz said.

Based on U.S. surveys of eighth- through 12th-grade students, 5 percent to 7 percent of teen boys use steroids, as many as one in five use creatine, and 20 percent take protein supplements, LaBotz said. Many kids using protein supplements aren’t playing sports, the report said.

For most teens, these supplements build no more muscle than what naturally occurs with puberty and a good diet and exercise program, LaBotz said.

Much of the supplement use is driven by the supplement industry and popular culture, LaBotz said. Fitness and health magazines that promote bodybuilding attract teens at risk for using performance-enhancing substances, she said.

One physician faults the culture that promotes a muscled and trim appearance as desirable.

“As long as top athletes make use of such substances, they will propagate the inclination in young people looking on,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center at Yale University, and president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Professional athletes may not have signed up to be role models, but that comes with the power of success and celebrity, he said.

“Professional sports and society at large should do everything possible to ensure that these ambassadors of peak human performance model only healthy, legitimate means to those ends,” Katz said.

These substances lead to health risks more often than they offer any meaningful performance or appearance enhancement, he added.

The pediatricians’ group hopes the report will spur discussions about the harms of supplement use. “Often, doctors avoid talking about supplements with kids because it’s something they don’t know a lot about,” LaBotz said.

Parents have a role to play too, she said. “They have a lot of influence and they should know what their teens are taking and should discourage the use of these supplements,” she said.

The report was published online June 27 in the journal Pediatrics.

More information

For more on dietary supplements, visit the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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Healthy carrot cake recipe

 

Try this delicious carrot cake recipe from SHA Wellness Clinic for a treat.

 

What you'll need:

• 1 cup wholewheat pastry flour 
• 1 cup chestnut flour 
• 1 tbsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• 2 tsp cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg 
• 1/2 tsp all-spice
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil 
• 2/3 cup maple syrup 
• 2/3 cup soy milk 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 2 cups grated carrot 
• 1/2 cup pineapple, crushed 

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 180° C.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt into a bowl.

Mix oil, maple syrup, soy milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl with a whisk.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients to form a batter.

Add the walnuts, carrots and pineapple and mix gently.

Pour the batter into 2 oiled cake tins and bake for 25–30 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Garnish with grated carrot.

Feeding for something chocolatey? Try thise chocolate cloud cake today.

 

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Homing In on the Genetics of Migraine

SUNDAY, June 26, 2016 (HealthDay News) — An international team of scientists has identified dozens of new genetic variants associated with migraine headaches.

The researchers say their findings could lead to new treatments.

Most of the variants are in or close to genes involved in circulatory system regulation. This supports the theory that abnormal blood vessel function in the brain is an important factor in migraines, the investigators said.

“These genetic findings are the first concrete step towards developing personalized, evidence-based treatments for this very complex disease. We doctors have known for a long time that migraine patients differ from each other and the drugs that work for some patients are completely inefficient for others,” said John-Anker Zwart, of Oslo University Hospital in Norway, who participated in the research.

“In the future, we hope that this information can be utilized in dividing the patients into different genetic susceptibility groups for clinical drug trials, thus increasing the chances of identifying the best possible treatment for each subgroup,” he added in a news release from the University of Helsinki in Finland.

Migraine affects about 1 in 7 people worldwide.

The findings stem from analysis of DNA samples taken from 375,000 Europeans, Americans and Australians. Nearly 60,000 were migraine sufferers.

The team pinpointed nearly 30 new genetic variants linked with migraine. The variants are in 38 genomic regions, only 10 of which have previously been associated with migraine risk.

“Our consortium is devoted to uncovering the genetic causes of migraine and during the past few years we have been able to identify many risk variants,” said Dr. Aarno Palotie, leader of the International Headache Genetics Consortium, which coordinated the study.

“Yet, in this latest, large-scale study, tens of new genetic risk factors were discovered,” added Palotie, from the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit Center for Human Genetic Research
at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“Because all of these variants modify the disease risk only slightly, the effect could only be seen when this large amount of samples became available,” he noted.

The study was published online June 20 in the journal Nature Genetics.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more on migraine.

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Hovering Parents May Harm Kids

SATURDAY, June 25, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Children with “intrusive” parents who push too hard for good grades may be more prone to become highly self-critical or anxious and depressed, a new study suggests.

“When parents become intrusive in their children’s lives, it may signal to the children that what they do is never good enough,” said study leader Ryan Hong, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the National University of Singapore.

The five-year study of primary school students in Singapore found that those whose parents acted intrusively, had high expectations of academic performance or overreacted when the child made a mistake were at increased risk of being overly critical of themselves.

The researchers also found that children who were highly self-critical had higher levels of anxiety or depression symptoms, although the study did not prove that parental pressure caused anxiety or depression.

“As a result, the child may become afraid of making the slightest mistake and will blame himself or herself for not being ‘perfect,'” Hong said in a university news release.

“Over time, such behavior, known as maladaptive perfectionism, may be detrimental to the child’s well-being as it increases the risk of the child developing symptoms of depression, anxiety and even suicide in very serious cases,” he explained.

For the study, the researchers studied 7-year-old children from 10 schools in Singapore, as well as one of their parents. The parent’s intrusiveness was assessed with an assignment where the child — with a parent’s help — had to solve some puzzles within a time limit. A parent was deemed very intrusive if he or she interfered with the child’s problem-solving and took control over the puzzle.

Follow-up assessments with similar tests were carried out each year with the same kids and parents. Researchers recorded each child’s signs of maladaptive perfectionism and self-critical behaviors.

“Our findings indicate that in a society that emphasizes academic excellence, which is the situation in Singapore, parents may set unrealistically high expectations on their children,” Hong said.

Parents need to be careful not to push children too hard for good grades.

“Children should be given a conducive environment to learn, and part of learning always involves making mistakes and learning from them. When parents become intrusive, they may take away this conducive learning environment,” Hong noted.

The findings were published online recently in the Journal of Personality.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about school.

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Drones Could Deliver Vaccines in Developing Countries

FRIDAY, June 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Right now, people often associate the use of drones with warfare. But in the future they could serve humanitarian purposes, such as delivering aid to people in developing countries.

For example, the pilotless flying machines might offer a cheaper and better way to deliver vaccines. And that could potentially boost vaccination rates in areas that can be difficult to reach now, a new study suggests.

Using a computer model, researchers concluded that sending drones to deliver vaccines in low- and middle-income countries would be cheaper and quicker than by land-based vehicles. Cars and trucks are limited by road conditions and have high fuel and maintenance costs, the researchers said.

“Many low- and middle-income countries are struggling to get lifesaving vaccines to people to keep them from getting sick or dying from preventable diseases,” said senior study author Dr. Bruce Lee. He is director of operations research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s International Vaccine Access Center.

“You make all these vaccines but they’re of no value if we don’t get them to the people who need them. So there is an urgent need to find new, cost-effective ways to do this,” he explained in a school news release.

Lee said in many locations, vehicles used to move vaccines aren’t always available or reliable.

“Assuming that drones are reliable, are capable of making the necessary trips and have properly trained operators, they could be a less expensive means of transporting vaccines, especially in remote areas. They could be particularly valuable when there is more demand for certain vaccines than anticipated and immunization locations must place urgent orders,” Lee said.

Currently, drones are being tested for medical supply deliveries in rural Virginia, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea. UNICEF is testing drones to transport lab samples in Malawi. Efforts are underway to use drones to transport blood and essential medications in Tanzania, the researchers noted.

The study was published June 20 in the journal Vaccine.

More information

The World Health Organization has more about vaccines.

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Contaminated Gloves a No-No in Hospitals

FRIDAY, June 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Health care workers who wear contaminated gloves can transfer bacteria onto hospital surfaces, a new study warns.

“Infection control is a priority for all hospitals to reduce the spread of [bacteria],” said study author Sae Otani, a master course student at Bunkyo Gakuin University in Japan.

“Gloving is recommended as a barrier protection for health care workers to reduce the risk of contamination during contact with infectious sputum [saliva], urine and body fluids,” but not changing or removing contaminated gloves carries a high risk of transmitting harmful germs, she noted in a news release from the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

For the study, Otani and her colleagues contaminated examination gloves with certain types of bacteria found in hospitals and other health care facilities. They then touched the gloves to a sterilized polypropylene surface. The amount of bacteria on the surface was then measured.

“This study shows that contaminated gloves increase risks of cross-transmission of health care-associated pathogens among health care workers and in the environment,” Otani said.

“Proper glove use may decrease the risk of health care-associated infections and gloves should be carefully used and removed after use depending on the types of bacteria,” she concluded.

The study was presented recently at an ASM meeting in Boston. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The National Patient Safety Foundation has more about preventing infections in the hospital.

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Why Some Bisexuals Won’t ‘Come Out’

FRIDAY, June 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many bisexual men are afraid to reveal their sexual orientation to female partners, relatives and friends, a new study says.

Fear of stigma and damage to their relationships keeps many bisexual men in the closet, report researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City.

“Our results clearly identify the need for public education campaigns to dispel myths about bisexual men — that bisexual men are not gay, do not have HIV, and are not necessarily non-monogamous,” Eric Schrimshaw, associate professor of sociomedical sciences, said in a school news release.

The researchers interviewed 203 bisexual men, 18 and older, in New York City.

Participants consistently said they believed they would face stigma for having sex with men. They also specified other reasons for not revealing their bisexuality to people close to them, including: negative emotional reactions; harm to relationships with wives or girlfriends, and previous negative reactions to disclosure.

Schrimshaw said the anticipated negative reactions from female partners indicate bisexual men need strategies to help them disclose their sexual history in ways that minimize negative reactions and preserve the couple’s relationship.

The findings also suggest that bisexual men may be more likely than gay men to fear negative reactions from others after disclosure, but more research is required to confirm that, according to the researchers.

The study was recently published online in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers resources for gay and bisexual men.

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3,300 Heat Deaths a Year Projected for NYC by 2080

FRIDAY, June 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Heat-related deaths in New York City could soar in coming decades because of climate change if preventive measures aren’t taken, a new study indicates.

The researchers predict over 3,300 heat-related deaths a year in New York City by the 2080s.

But the majority of deaths could be averted by reducing fossil-fuel emissions (from coal, natural gas and oil) and using heat warnings and public cooling centers, according to study author Elisaveta Petkova, of Columbia University, and colleagues.

“We know climate change is creating more days of extreme heat, putting more people at risk for death in the coming decades,” Petkova, a project director at Columbia’s Earth Institute in New York City, said in a university news release.

“Our study shows that many of these deaths can be averted by limiting greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing measures to help people adapt to high temperatures,” she added.

The research team’s predictions are based on more than a century of temperature, population and death data for New York City, along with climate projections for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s.

With air conditioning already prevalent, other steps may be necessary to ward off the deadly effects of heat waves. Programs to install reflective roofs, plant trees and protect residents who are especially vulnerable to high temperatures could boost the city’s heat resilience, the scientists suggested.

A report by the New York City Panel on Climate Change predicts that, by the 2080s, average temperatures in the city may be similar to Norfolk, Va., today. The number of days with a maximum temperature at or above 90 or 100 degrees Fahrenheit is expected to more than triple by the 2080s. Petkova is a member of the panel.

The study was published online June 23 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

More information

The World Health Organization has more on climate change and health.

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New Treatment Shows Promise for Crippling Knee Arthritis

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, June 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For those who suffer debilitating arthritis in their knees, researchers report in a small study that just one injection of stem cells can reduce pain and inflammation.

The idea is experimental: Extract stem cells from a patient’s own body fat — cells known for their ability to differentiate and perform any number of regenerative functions — and inject them directly into the damaged knee joint.

“While the goal of this small study was to evaluate the safety of using a patient’s own stem cells to treat osteoarthritis of the knee, it also showed that one group of patients experienced improvements in pain and function,” noted Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was not involved in the study.

“In fact, most of the patients who had previously scheduled total knee replacement surgery decided to cancel the surgery,” Atala noted.

“These results are encouraging, and it will be interesting to see if these improvements are seen in larger groups of study participants,” he added.

Atala is editor-in-chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, the journal that recently published the results of the 18-patient study.

The French and German researchers point out that osteoarthritis is the most common musculoskeletal disease among adults, a so-called “wear-and-tear” chronic condition that often affects the knee joint.

Typified by the ongoing breakdown of the cartilage that connect joints and bones, the progressively degenerative disorder ultimately gives rise to severe inflammation, significant pain and often crippling disability.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, osteoarthritis risk is driven by genetics; obesity; injury and joint overuse; other forms of arthritis; and metabolic disorders that can throw a person’s iron or growth hormone levels out of whack.

No treatment can halt osteoarthritis’ progress, and “no therapy is able to restore [damaged] cartilage tissue,” noted study author Dr. Christian Jorgensen, head of the clinical unit for osteoarticular diseases at Lapeyronie University Hospital, in Montpellier, France.

To explore the potential of stem cell therapy, the study authors focused on 18 French and German men and women, aged 50 to 75, all of whom had struggled with severe knee osteoarthritis for at least a year before joining the study.

Between April 2012 and December 2013, all of the patients first underwent liposuction to extract fat-derived samples of a specific type of stem cell. The researchers noted that these particular stem cells have been shown to have immune-boosting and anti-scarring properties, as well as the ability to protect against cell “stress” and death.

A third of the patients received a single “low-dose” injection of their own stem cells directly into their knee. Another third received a “medium-dose” injection, involving a little more than four times the amount of stem cells, while the remaining group received a “high-dose” injection packed with roughly five times as many stem cells as the medium-dose group.

After six months, the study team found that all three groups showed improvements in terms of pain, function and mobility.

However, only those in the low-dose group were determined to have “statistically significant” improvements in terms of both knee pain and function recovery.

Apart from one case of chest pain (about three months after the injection), only a few patients experienced mild side effects.

The team concluded that the stem cell treatment results were “very encouraging.” The opinion was echoed by Atala, who suggested that “the study shows yet another potential treatment using stem cells.”

At the same time, Jorgensen and his colleagues stressed that more research with more patients will be needed before the approach can be considered a breakthrough.

That effort has already begun, with a second two-year trial now underway involving 150 patients at 10 different clinical centers across Europe.

More information

There’s more on osteoarthritis at the Arthritis Foundation.

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