Children’s Health

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 27 2020 Findings from a new study conducted by a team of researchers at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports, show that involving pediatric practices in the promotion of private well water testing can influence parental compliance. More than 43 million people living

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 27 2020 Research from Saint Louis University finds that high fat or “ketogenic” diets could completely prevent, or even reverse heart failure caused by a metabolic process. The research team, led by Kyle S. McCommis, Ph.D., assistant professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at SLU, looked at a metabolic process

By using a diverse set of transcriptomic SARS-CoV-2 signatures, US researchers put to use their previously developed drug repositioning pipeline to pinpoint potential drug candidates for the treatment of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The study is currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server. While many efforts are currently underway to identify potential therapies targeting various aspects

Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada have warned that within the school setting, even small differences in individuals’ contribution, their environment, and their activities to the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) result in highly variable sizes of transmission clusters. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common childhood physical disability-;2.0-3.5 per 1000 births-;and children born with it have impaired development and diminished control of movement and posture. In particular, children with moderate to severe bilateral CP have poor upper extremity abilities and segmental trunk control deficits, limiting independent

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 Thomaseo Burton, PhD, and Webb Smith, PhD, of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center have developed a novel intervention in the home kitchen to address obesity. The intervention, called Multidisciplinary Engagement and Learning/Mindful Eating and Active Living (MEALS), combines mindfulness, cooking techniques

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 23 2020 The results of a new clinical trial, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that dexamethasone- a glucocorticoid used to treat many conditions, including rheumatic problems and severe COVID-19- can boost survival of premature babies when given to pregnant women at risk of preterm birth

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 Within the womb, a human fetus benefits from the protection of the placenta, limiting their contact with pathogens. However, once born, babies face a myriad of germs completely new to their bodies. Their immune system must rapidly develop to ensure early protection from infection. But what is exactly

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 The Alzheimer’s Biomarkers Consortium – Down Syndrome (ABC-DS), a multi-institution research team, co-led by members from the University of California, Irvine, has been awarded an unprecedented five-year, $109 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to expand research on the biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in adults

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 Jeffery Dusek, PhD, Director of Research at University Hospitals (UH) Connor Integrative Health Network and Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Case Western Reserve University, and colleagues were recently awarded a 3-year, $2+ million grant from the National Center of Complementary and

Nutrition plays an integral role in maintaining a healthy body, including the immune system to ward off diseases. Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, nutritional status has been tagged as a risk factor for developing severe illness, including obesity and malnutrition. Now, a team of researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 23 2020 With nearly half of the world’s population at risk for life-threatening malaria infections, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers and their colleagues identified an important public health measure to control the disease. Use of preventive antimalarial treatments reduces by half the number of malaria infections among

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 New questions are at the forefront as a study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology from nine children’s hospitals finds that most asymptomatic children who tested positive for COVID-19 had relatively low levels of the virus compared to symptomatic children. The authors caution that the reason for

The current pandemic of COVID-19 has led to extensive and deep-rooted changes in the number and nature of physician-patient interactions worldwide. A new study by Elizabeth Mollard at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Amaya Wittmaack from the University of Virginia School of Medicine published on the preprint server medRxiv* in October 2020 reveals

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 For many cancers, doctors are increasingly looking to the DNA that solid tumors shed into the blood stream to help with diagnosis and monitoring. But brain cancer has been a different story thanks to the natural blockade created by the blood-brain barrier. Researchers at the University of Michigan

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 22 2020 Two studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) found the prevalence of COVID-19 in NICU infants is low, yet many hospitals at the start of the pandemic put in place strict parental visitation policies and scaled back NICU services such as lactation support

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 21 2020 On 22 October 2020 paediatrician Ellen van der Gaag will receive her PhD for her thesis entitled ‘Health-promoting effects of nutrition in children’. The award ceremony was originally planned for March 2020, but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Van der Gaag’s thesis considers the effect of unprocessed,

Oct 21 2020 To mark Allergy Awareness Week (19-25 October), two leading allergy charities are urging parents and teachers to ‘Check It, Don’t Chance It’ to ensure pupils and young adults with allergies are safe in schools. Most classrooms can expect at least one child to have a food allergy with 20% of severe food

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 21 2020 Researchers at McMaster University have found distinct effects of adversity early in life in the genomes of men compared to women who were born extremely preterm. The study, published online in the journal Development and Psychopathology, followed infants who weighed between 580 and 1000 grams at birth. The

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Oct 20 2020 Humans aren’t born with mature brain circuitry that attaches emotions to the things they see or hear in their environment, a new study shows. Researchers studying brain scans of newborns found that the part of the brain involved in experiencing emotions isn’t functionally connected in a mature way