Motherhood can create changes in the body down to the bone, a new study shows.
Female primates who had been pregnant showed lower levels of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous in their bones, revealing for the first time new ways that females are changed by pregnancy and breastfeeding, according to a study published by PLOS One this week.
@sohini Medications were prescribed to significantly more children with cow's milk allergy (CMA), at a higher rate, than to those without CMA. In particular, prescriptions for antireflux medication increased by almost 500%. Children with CMA needed significantly more healthcare contacts and at a higher rate than those without CMA.
@nancy Intensive home treatment is increasingly popular as an alternative to hospitalization. It was developed to prevent or reduce levels of inpatient care and facilitate the transition between inpatient care and low-intensity outpatient care
@tattamoshi Some people have 'unlucky fat genes,' meaning they store higher levels of fat everywhere, including under the skin [and around the] liver and pancreas. That's associated with a higher risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes
@princey Stroke in the young differs from stroke in older patients, and one of the major differences is that stroke in the young has a higher proportion of cryptogenic stroke, with no clear cause found in over one-third of patients
When a combination of antidepressants and psychotherapy fails to control severe mental illness, there's hope on the horizon. ECT can be a reliably safe and effective option. For some patients, using it as maintenance therapy makes sense, said Vaughn McCall, MD, editor-in-chief of The Journal of ECT and professor and chairman of psychiatry at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. "I would think of it the same way as you have to treat any chronic illness," such as blood pressure medicine to keep hypertension in check and dialysis to prevent kidney failure. Despite a cacophony of contrarian voices — mainly from the Church of Scientology — "the number of psychiatrists who see controversy in ECT is vanishingly small," McCall said. "Within the discipline of psychiatry itself, there really is no controversy." In weighing the pros and cons of ECT, he noted that "when you're trying to decide if it's worth doing a treatment, you're looking at the effectiveness on one hand and the side effects on the other hand."
@nilanjana Importantly, clinicians should emphasize with their patients that multivitamin supplements will never be a substitute for a healthful and balanced diet, which have many beneficial components for vascular health. Additionally, micronutrients in food are typically better absorbed by the body than those from supplements
Lead is used as a diluting agent for illegal drugs such as heroin and marijuana. However, drug users are not the only ones who need to watch out for the toxic heavy metal ― believers in certain traditional remedies do as well. The case history of a young man, as related by Victor Suárez, MD, and his colleagues from the University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, which was published in the German Medical Weekly, illustrates this point.
The investigators attempted to estimate the metabolic features of genetic liability to Alzheimer's disease (AD) at seven different stages across the life span, with the aim of identifying early features of AD pathogenesis that may be potential targets to prevent the clinical onset of AD. They designed a genetic instrument for AD liability and explored its association with circulating metabolites measured in two studies: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and the UK Biobank. The results bolster a deep-seated influence of the APOE4 isoform on circulating lipids and fatty acids from early life to later adulthood. These lipid and fatty acid traits may be involved in early AD pathogenesis. AD-associated metabolic disorders take root in childhood, multiple decades before the development of disease, and carry over into later adulthood when the diagnosis of AD more commonly occurs.