Sleeping pills, cough syrup, laxatives harm 160 children a year, study says
Parents and caregivers who slip young, healthy children doses of common drugs - including painkillers, sedatives and laxatives - are fueling a dangerous but hidden form of child abuse, new research finds.
About 160 kids are hurt in the United States each year - and at least two die - after being forced to ingest antidepressants, cough and cold medicines, even drugs to treat high blood pressure. Many are given alcohol, marijuana or cocaine, according to the first large-scale study of the issue published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
"We believe that the malicious use of pharmaceuticals may be an under-recognized form and or component of child maltreatment," said Dr. Shan Yin, who led the study conducted at the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver.
Yin, a medical toxicologist, analyzed more than 21.4 million calls to the National Poison Data System between 2000 and 2008. When he looked at cases of drug and alcohol poisoning coded as "malicious" in children younger than 7, Shin found 1,439 cases of kids who'd been exposed. Some 172 children were seriously injured and 18 died.
Health & Wellness
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Its author suggests that adults fail to notice as the political opinions of their youth weaken as they join the workforce and start families.
Additionally, because well-eductated people tend to socialise with others who have conservative views, their perception of where the ideoligical middle ground lies is skewed, wrote James Rockey, an economics lecturer at the University of Leicester.
However, earning a high salary can jolt employees into a better awareness of where they sit in the political spectrum, he added.
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Word Association Game
Word Association Game
A simple word association game may reveal the hidden truth about your union, a new study suggests.
Most research on successful relationships is flawed because it relies on asking the people involved how they feel about each other, said researcher Dr. Ronald Rogge, an associate professor at the University of Rochester and co-author of a study recently published online in the journal Psychological Science.
That strategy assumes partners know how happy they are - and tell the truth - which is not always the case, he said.
Instead, Rogge and his colleagues used word association games that are often used to detect bias to see what people really think about their partners.
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Psychologists have proven that men really are worse at multitasking than women
Psychologists have proven that men really are worse at multitasking than women
It is an age old complaint - that men are incapable of doing more than one thing at once.
Researchers decided to test the truth of the commonly held belief after discovering that no scientific research had ever been done into it.
They found that when women and men work on a number of simple tasks - such as searching for a key or doing easy maths problems - at the same time, the women significantly outperformed the men.
Scientists believe that the results show that females are better able to reflect upon a problem, while continuing to juggle their other commitments, than men.
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There is nothing that the Food and Drug Administration can legally do about it.
But that may begin to change as two Democratic lawmakers - Reps. Jan Schakowsky from Illinois and Edward Markey from Massachusetts - introduced the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 today. If passed, it will be the first meaningful effort to give the FDA the teeth, tools and mandate to protect consumers from harmful products that are used by almost everyone.
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But the quiet protest by a group of high school and college students in Waterville, Maine, in February was one of a growing number across the country. They gathered at the post office to mail 12 beauty products to an environmental lab, where they would be tested for toxins and other dangerous ingredients that many commonly used products contain.
"As young people, we're coming together to put our cosmetics on trial," said Anne Sheldon, a member of the Maine Women's Lobby, a nonprofit group dedicated to helping women through public policy.
"The European Union has banned more than 1,000 ingredients from cosmetics, while the United States has banned only 10."
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The study, which appears in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, included 20 people with PTSD stemming from traumas such as sexual assault and combat stress. On two separate occasions, 12 of the people took a dose of MDMA and then spoke for several hours with a pair of trained therapists. The others took a placebo but received the same therapy. (All of the participants received additional therapy sessions that did not involve the drug.)
Comment: The article states that Ecstasy, with all its negative effects, has been chosen because
"MDMA is believed to raise levels of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin and the so-called "bonding hormone," oxytocin.There are certainly healthier and less risky methods of raising the levels of serotonin and oxytocin, including diet changes, supplementation and proper breathing techniques.
A new Boston University School of Public Health study has found a potential link between polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) - a neurodevelopmental disorder - in children, wrote Science Daily. PFCs are ubiquitous industrial compounds found in a wide range of consumer products.
The research, first published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, indicated that the team found "increased odds of ADHD in children with higher serum PFC levels," quoted Science Daily.
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), researchers compared PFC levels in serum samples from 571 children, ages 12 to 15, said Science Daily. Parents of 48 of the children reported their children received an ADHD diagnosis. NHANES, said Science Daily, is an ongoing national survey of a sampling of the U.S. population from which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) obtains dietary and health data, explained Science Daily.
The research, first published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, indicated that the team found "increased odds of ADHD in children with higher serum PFC levels," quoted Science Daily.
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), researchers compared PFC levels in serum samples from 571 children, ages 12 to 15, said Science Daily. Parents of 48 of the children reported their children received an ADHD diagnosis. NHANES, said Science Daily, is an ongoing national survey of a sampling of the U.S. population from which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) obtains dietary and health data, explained Science Daily.
IVF babies, those children who were conceived via in vitro fertilization, seem to experience an increased risk for childhood cancer versus babies conceived naturally, wrote WebMD, citing Swedish research. The new study is believed to be the first of its kind to indicate a scientifically strong link, said the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, reported WebMD.
According to the study's lead author, childhood cancer is considered rare and the increase seen is small to moderate, potentially linked to the infertility, said WebMD. "There is an increased risk for cancer in children born via IVF, but it's rather small," researcher Bengt Kallen, MD, PhD, a retired professor of embryology and head of the Tornblad Institute, University of Lund, Lund, Germany, told WebMD. "The estimate that we give is that the risk increases 40 percent, but the estimate has, of course, a degree of uncertainty," Dr. Kallen added. The study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
According to the study's lead author, childhood cancer is considered rare and the increase seen is small to moderate, potentially linked to the infertility, said WebMD. "There is an increased risk for cancer in children born via IVF, but it's rather small," researcher Bengt Kallen, MD, PhD, a retired professor of embryology and head of the Tornblad Institute, University of Lund, Lund, Germany, told WebMD. "The estimate that we give is that the risk increases 40 percent, but the estimate has, of course, a degree of uncertainty," Dr. Kallen added. The study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
© Reuters/Eric Thayer
AIDS activists demonstrate carrying mock coffins near the site of the upcoming G20 Pittsburgh Summit as they protest against the policies of the world's wealthiest nations regarding AIDS research and treatment funding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania September 22, 2009.
AIDS activists demonstrate carrying mock coffins near the site of the upcoming G20 Pittsburgh Summit as they protest against the policies of the world's wealthiest nations regarding AIDS research and treatment funding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania September 22, 2009.
In a study of rates of HIV across the United States, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that poverty is the single most important factor linked to HIV infection among inner-city heterosexuals.
"In this country, HIV clearly strikes the economically disadvantaged in a devastating way," said CDC HIV/AIDS expert Kevin Fenton, whose findings were presented at an international conference on AIDS in Vienna.
He said the research showed there was "a widespread HIV epidemic in America's inner cities."
More than 1.1 million people in the United States are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, according to the CDC, and there are around 56,000 new infections there every year.
Comment: For more information about dangerous ingredients and toxins in many commonly used cosmetic products read the following articles: