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Genetic Variations May Underlie Multiple Psychiatric Conditions


Medical News Today
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:00 UTC
Similar submicroscopic variations and rearrangements appear in the genetic material of individuals with schizophrenia, autism and mental retardation, suggesting that the three disorders may share a developmental pathway, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

New technologies to compare genomes have enabled researchers to detect genetic alterations known as copy number variations-deletions or duplications that change the number of copies of specific DNA segments, according to background information in the article. "Recently, this approach has been widely used in neurologic and psychiatric disorders, including mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia," the authors write. "Findings from these studies suggested that several genes involved in similar neurodevelopmental pathways may be associated with these conditions. However, so far only rare structural variants, sometimes present in a single case, have been identified."

Audrey Guilmatre, Ph.D., of Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire de Recherche Biomédicale, Rouen, France, and colleagues analyzed genetic material from 247 individuals with mental retardation, 260 with autism spectrum disorders, 236 with schizophrenia and 236 controls with no psychiatric diagnoses. They focused on 28 candidate loci (points on a chromosome where a gene is located) found to be associated with these conditions in previous studies.
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Brain Defect Implicated in Early Schizophrenia

Karin Eskenazi
Medical News Today
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:00 UTC
In the first functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of its kind, neurologists and psychiatrists at Columbia University have identified an area of the brain involved in the earliest stages of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

Activity in this specific region of the hippocampus may help predict the onset of the disease, offering opportunities for earlier diagnosis and for the development of drugs for schizophrenia prevention.

Details of the findings were published in the September 7, 2009, issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

In the study, the researchers scanned the brains of 18 high-risk individuals with "prodromal" symptoms, and followed them for two years. Of those individuals who went on to develop first-episode psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia, 70 percent had unusually high activity in this region of the hippocampus, known as the CA1 subfield.
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US: School tests local-foods lunch, kids eat it up

Mike Kilen
Des Moines Register
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:49 UTC
School lunch is most colorfully described by students.

"Disgusting," said freshman Kiley Baker. "The macaroni and cheese tasted like barf."

Seventh-grader David Frederick said the food tasted "fake, like it was made in a factory."

Baker and Frederick live in Cedar Falls, amid the rich heartland soils that grow food, and attend Malcolm Price Laboratory School.

"Why should a school serve canned corn in the middle of Iowa? asked one parent, Rob Stanley. So last week, the barf and canned corn were replaced.
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Health

University of Utah research: Is prostate cancer caused by a retrovirus?

Lisa Rosetta
The Salt Lake Tribune
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:58 UTC
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© AP GRAPHICA new study shows a link between prostate cancer and a retrovirus known as XMVR.
A retrovirus known to cause leukemia and cancerous tumors in animals has for the first time been found in malignant prostate cells -- raising the intriguing question of its role in prostate cancer.

The retrovirus -- called Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, or XMRV -- was found in 27 percent of prostate cancers, compared to 6 percent of benign tissues examined by University of Utah and Columbia University researchers.

It also was associated with more aggressive kinds of tumors.

"We're not saying this virus causes cancer," said Ila R. Singh, associate professor of pathology at the U. and the senior author of a study published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The best we can say is it is associated with prostate cancer."
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Health

Avoid This if You Want to Keep Your Thyroid Healthy

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:00 UTC
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Bromides are a common endocrine disruptor. Because bromide is also a halide, it competes for the same receptors that are used in the thyroid gland (among other places) to capture iodine. This will inhibit thyroid hormone production resulting in a low thyroid state.

Iodine is essential for your body, and is detected in every organ and tissue. There is increasing evidence that low iodine is related to numerous diseases, including cancer. Various clinicians and researchers have found iodine effective with everything from goiter to constipation.

Bromide can be found in several forms. Methyl Bromide is a pesticide used mainly on strawberries, found predominantly in the California areas. Brominated Vegetable Oil (BVO) is added to citrus drinks to help suspend the flavoring in the liquid.

Potassium Bromate is a dough conditioner found in commercial bakery products and some flours.
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Chemicals Leach From Packaging

Sarah Everts
Chemical & Engineering News
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:38 UTC
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© ShutterstockUninvited Guests Some components of food packaging end up in your food
Food and drugs just can't leave their wrappings behind

Earlier this year, when Germans were cracking open boxes of chocolate muesli - a common breakfast cereal in their country - it's unlikely their thoughts slid to the chemical 4-methylbenzophenone, much less to the fact that this component of printing ink had slipped from the outside of the cardboard box and into the cereal. That is, until the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was asked to look into the matter.
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Borderline Personality Disorder Grows as Healthcare Concern

Shari Roan
The Los Angeles Times
Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:00 UTC
Sufferers display mood instability, fear of abandonment, impulsive behavior, anger and suicidal or self-injurious acts. People with the disorder also may misperceive the actions of others.

They have the thinnest skin, the shortest fuses and take the hardest knocks. In psychiatrists' offices, they have long been viewed as among the most challenging patients to treat.

They are the kind of people who drive a friend away for interfering and subsequently berate that friend for abandonment.

But almost 20 years after the designation of borderline personality disorder as a recognized mental health condition, some understanding and hope have surfaced for people with the condition and their families.
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Monkey Brains Signal the Desire to Explore

Mary Jane Gore
Medical News Today
Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:00 UTC
Sticking with what you know often comes at the price of learning about more favorable alternatives.

Managing this trade-off is easy for many, but not for those with conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or obsessive-compulsive disorder who are trapped in simple routines.

Using brain scans in monkeys, Duke University Medical Center researchers are now able to predict when monkeys will switch from exploiting a known resource to exploring their options.

"Humans aren't the only animals who wonder if the grass is greener elsewhere, but it's hard to abandon what we know in hopes of finding something better," said John Pearson, Ph.D., research associate in the Duke Department of Neurobiology and lead author of a study published in this week's Current Biology.
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Late-night snacks could pack on the pounds

Xavier Briand
Reuters
Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:47 UTC
Midnight raids on the refrigerator may have worse consequences than indigestion -- a study in mice boosts the theory that when you eat affects whether the calories go to your hips or get burned off.

Mice fed during the daytime -- when they normally would be sleeping -- gained more weight than mice fed at night, Fred Turek of Northwestern University in Illinois and colleagues found.

They ended up weighing 7.8 percent more than night-fed mice. This held even though the mice were fed identical amounts of food and exercised the same amount, they said in the study published on Friday in the International Journal of Obesity.
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Family

Australia: Thousands rally for homebirthing rights


ABC News
Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:40 UTC
More than 2,000 people have gathered outside Parliament House in Canberra to call for greater homebirthing rights.

Women, men and children from all over Australia braved a rainy Canberra day to support women's rights to give birth at home.

The protesters say they are pleased midwives have been given a reprieve allowing them to practice legally until 2012.
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