Research

According to a new study, pregnant mothers' exposure to the flu was associated with a nearly fourfold increased risk that their child would develop bipolar disorder in adulthood.

Dr. Alan Brown, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute, said:

"Prospective mothers should take common sense preventive measures, such as getting flu shots prior to and in the early stages of pregnancy and avoiding contact with people who are symptomatic. In spite of public health recommendations, only a relatively small fraction of such women get immunized. The weight of evidence now suggests that benefits of the vaccine likely outweigh any possible risk to the mother or newborn."

There have been hints of a connection between maternal influenza and bipolar disorder in offspring before, this is the first study to prospectively follow families in the same HMO, using physician-based diagnoses and structured standardized psychiatric measures.

Chemicals known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, have been used for years in various everyday products such as baby strollers and carpeting to reduce fires. But a new study presented on Monday at the Pediatric Academic Society's (PAS) annual meeting shows that prenatal exposure to the flame retardant is associated with lower intelligence and hyperactivity in early childhood.

Lead study author Aimin Chen, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health at University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said:

"In animal studies, PBDEs can disrupt thyroid hormone and cause hyperactivity and learning problems. Our study adds to several other human studies to highlight the need to reduce exposure to PBDEs in pregnant women."

Dr. Chen and collegues collected blood samples from 309 pregnant women who were enrolled in a study at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center to measure PBDE levels. They then also performed intelligence and behavior tests on the women's children annually until they were five years old.

University of California San Francisco researchers have discovered that epilepsy that is non-responsive to drugs can be halted in adult mice by transplanting a specific type of cell into the brain, raising hope that similar treatment could work on severe forms of epilepsy in humans.

The researchers controlled seizures in epileptic mice with a one-time transplantation of medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cells into the hippocampus, a brain region associated with seizures, learning, and memory. The MGE cells inhibit signaling in overactive nerve circuits.

Other researchers had previously attempted the same technique using different cell types and were not able to stop seizures in rodents.

Scott C. Baraban, Ph.D. and lead author of the new study, says that in many types of epilepsy, current drugs have no therapeutic value at all, adding:

"Our results are an encouraging step toward using inhibitory neurons for cell transplantation in adults with severe forms of epilepsy. This procedure offers the possibility of controlling seizures and rescuing cognitive deficits in these patients."

No wonder there's an obesity crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80 percent of Americans fail to meet the federal government's physical activity recommendations.

The findings, which are based on data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a yearly phone survey of adults over 18, were recently published in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The U.S. government's Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults walk for at least 2.5 hours per week or jog for at least one hour and 15 minutes a week. In addition to the aerobic exercise, the guidelines recommend Americans complete push-ups, sit-ups or other muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days per week.

According to the report, more people are getting in the suggested amounts of aerobic exercise than are participating in the suggested amount of muscle-strengthening activity.

According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates among middle age American adults are on the rise.

Over the course of the last decade, the rate of suicide among adults ages 35 to 64 increased 28 percent, from 13.7 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 17.6 suicides per 100,000 in 2010. The largest increases in suicide were seen among people ages 55 to 59 (a 49 percent increase) and ages 50 to 54 (a 48 percent increase).

Firearms were the most common way that people committed suicide (8.3 suicides per 100,000 people), followed by hanging/suffocation (4.1 suicides per 100,000 people), and poisoning (3.8 suicides per 100,000 people). During the study period, the rate of suicide from hanging/suffocation also increased 81 percent.

Linda Degutis, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a statement that while suicide prevention efforts have typically targeted the young and old, these findings suggest that it is important for prevention strategies "to address the types of stressors that middle aged Americans might be facing."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a brand of emergency contraception - Plan B One-Step - for ages 15 and up without a prescription, in defiance of a judge's order to make the so-called "morning after pill" available to all ages.

The FDA's decision to allow Plan B One-Step to be sold over the counter to some teens without a prescription from a doctor falls short of the orders of a judge last month. In a statement late Tuesday, the FDA said:

"The product will now be labeled 'not for sale to those under 15 years of age *proof of age required* not for sale where age cannot be verified."

According to new research, men and women with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer are at a higher risk of developing breast and lung cancers in addition to melanoma, compared to people who do not have a history of skin cancer.

The connection was discovered by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School after analyzzing data from two large cohorts, the Nurse's Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

The researchers found 36,102 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer, the most common type of skin cancer which is caused by overexposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. They also found 29.447 cases of other cancers, including prostate, melanoma, breast, ad lung cancer over a follow-up period of about 25 years.

Among women with a prior history of non-melanoma skin cancer, there was a 20% increased risk of developing another form of cancer other than melanoma. Men with a past history of non-melanoma skin cancer were found to have a 11% higher risk of developing another type of cancer.

After accounting for other possible risk factors for developing tumors, the researchers also found that having non-melanoma skin cancer nearly doubled the risk of melanoma in men and increased the risk of breast cancer by 20%, lung cancer by 32%, and melanoma by more than two-fold in women.

Researchers from the University of Guelph have developed a first-ever vaccine for gut bacterial common in autistic children, which may also help control some autism symptoms.

The study by Brittany Pequegnat and Guelph chemistry professor Mario Monteiro was published in this month's edition of the journal Vaccine.

Pequegnat and Monteiro developed a carbohydrate-based vaccine to combat the gut bacteria Clostridium bolteae, which is known to play a role in gastrointestinal disorders and often appears in higher numbers in the GI tracts of autistic children than in those of healthy children.

More than 90 percent of children with autism spectrum disorders suffer from chronic, severe gastrointestinal symptoms. Of them, about 75 percent suffer from diarrhea.

Monteiro said that little is currently known about the factors that predispose autistic children to C. bolteae, and while most infections are handled by some antibiotics, a vaccine would improve current treatment, noting:

"This is the first vaccine designed to control constipation and diarrhea caused by C. bolteae and perhaps control autism-related symptoms associated with this microbe."

On Wednesday, Taiwan reported the very first case of the deadly H7N9 virus found outside of China's mainland, and noted that three healthcare workers who treated the patient also developed undiagnosed respiratory symptoms, which has raised concerns over the virus' ability to spread through human-to-human contact.

Global health officials held a news conference earlier in the day in Beijing, and stressed that there had not yet been any confirmed cases of transmission of the virus between humans. However, they said that researchers were struggling to understand how the virus had spread and have not ruled out human-to-human transmission.

Health officials in Taiwan reported that a 53-year-old Taiwanese male had developed a fever on April 12, three days after returning from a trip to China's coastal Jingsu province, which is where the virus first emerged in China. The patient is now currently in serious condition, and was not believed to have had any exposure to birds or poultry. The patient also had not consumed any undercooked poultry or eggs while in the city of Suzhou.

109 healthcare workers have overseen the patient, three of whom have developed symptoms of upper respiratory infection. Health officials are said to be monitoring all of the workers and the 139 people who had come into contact with the patient.

Mount Sinai Hospital's World Trade Center Health Program has analyzed data from nearly 21,000 participants in the WTC Health Program from 2001 to 2008. This study has revealed that cancer is 15 percent higher among 9/11 first responders than those not exposed to the toxins at Ground Zero.

Researchers reported seeing an increase in brain, prostate, and blood cancers (leukemia and lymphoma), and said that first responders got these cancers within seven years of being exposed to the Ground Zero toxins.

The federal government currently covers 50 types of cancers under the Zadroga health law, but prostate cancer is not one of them.