US agrochemical giant Monsanto has reported wider losses in the fourth quarter, after a drop in sales of its Roundup herbicide brand.
The group made a net loss of $233m (£147m) in the quarter, compared with a $172m loss a year earlier.
Many U.S. children face a terrible burden of stressors that can harm the development of their brains and nervous systems. These stressors can lead to health problems and diseases throughout their lives, ultimately causing some to die prematurely, according to the lead author of a new study.
David W. Brown., D.Sc., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and colleagues found that children who were exposed to six or more "adverse childhood experiences" or ACEs were at double the risk of premature death compared to children who had not suffered these experiences.
Amanda Gardner
HealthDayWed, 07 Oct 2009 14:53 UTC
Could birth control pills be taking human evolution in a whole new, and possibly detrimental, direction?
A review of past research finds that, by altering hormonal cycles, the pill might affect choice of mates among members of both genders in a way that could hinder successful reproduction in the future.
"The use of the pill by women, by changing her mate preferences, might induce women to mate with otherwise less-preferred partners, which might have important consequences for mate choice and reproductive outcomes," said Alexandra Alvergne, lead author of a study appearing in the October issue of Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
"One prediction is that offspring of pill users are more homozygous than expected, possibly related to impaired immune function and decreased perceived health and attractiveness," according to the report by Alvergne, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of animal and plant sciences at the University of Sheffield in England, and colleague Virpi Lummaa.
More than 2 million babies and mothers die worldwide each year from childbirth complications, outnumbering child deaths from malaria and HIV/AIDS, according to a study.
The study, released Tuesday at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics world congress being held in Cape Town, also showed that such deaths could be easily avoided.
"The world will continue to miss the unheard cry of the 230 babies who die every hour from childbirth complications," unless there is better planning and implementation of policies, according to the study.
Daniel Kemp
WBKO.comWed, 07 Oct 2009 14:35 UTC
A new study is showing some startling numbers -- that one-in-91 children is diagnosed with autism.
The study released Monday uses data from the federal government's 2007 National Survey of Children's Health.
Those numbers amount to more than one-percent of the U.S. population of children, ages three-to-17.
During times of stress, many people will reach for that favorite bag of chips, soft drink or snack cake for a dose of quick comfort -- or so conventional wisdom holds.
But, a new study from the University of South Carolina takes aim at that comfort-food theory and contends that people undergoing significant change in their lives often pick unfamiliar, even healthier foods and lifestyle options.
"I am personally a creature of habit. That's why I am so interested in how people adapt to change," said lead researcher Stacy Wood, Moore Research Fellow and associate professor of marketing at the University of South Carolina. "While comfort foods do have a soothing function and really do make us feel good, we don't turn to them as readily as we think we do."
Wood's research, titled The Comfort Food Fallacy: Avoiding Old Favorites in Times of Change, was published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
With October as breast cancer awareness month, Komen for the Cure is sponsoring races and events across the country to raise awareness of the potentially fatal disease. However, Komen isn't providing women with information on a way to help prevent breast cancer by not having an abortion.
Although abortion advocates, and Komen, dismiss the research, experts have clearly shown an abortion-breast cancer link.
The upshot? Having an abortion increases a woman's risk of having breast cancer while carrying a pregnancy to term lowers it.
Want to know whether your arteries have begun to stiffen, putting you at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease? Bend over.
Sit down against a wall, with your legs on the floor in front of you, that is, and try to touch your toes. In fact, reach beyond them if your yoga, Pilates or daily stretching routine make it possible.
For people over 40 -- even if they're a little overweight -- a new study shows that trunk flexibility may be a good indicator of arterial flexibility. Conversely, the study found, stiffness at the midsection seems to reflect arteries that have begun to lose their elasticity as well.
A new national survey shows the economic downturn is taking a toll on the mental health of Americans. Individuals who are unemployed are four times as likely as those with jobs to report symptoms consistent with severe mental illness.
Americans who experienced involuntary changes in their employment status, such as pay cuts or reduced hours, also are twice as likely to have these symptoms, even though they are employed full time.
The survey was conducted for Mental Health America and the National Alliance on Mental Illness in collaboration with the Depression is Real Coalition. The results come from telephone interviews of 1,002 adults nationwide from September 17-20.
The release of the findings coincides with Mental Illness Awareness Week (from October 4 to 10) and National Depression Screening Day, which takes place this Thursday, October 8.
Which comes first, depression or inflammation?
To help solve this long standing chicken and egg conundrum, researchers led by Jesse Stewart, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis asked two critical questions. Does depression lead to elevated inflammatory proteins in the human body? Or does an increase in these proteins lead to depression? They found that the answer to the first question appears to be "yes," and the answer to the second question may be "no" among healthy adults.
The researchers report that depressive symptoms are associated with increases over time in interleukin-6, an inflammatory protein that predicts cardiovascular events. In contrast, levels of interleukin-6 were not related to later increases in depressive symptoms.
The new study, published in the October 2009 issue of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, is the first to examine both directions of the depression-inflammation connection and to measure the physical symptoms of depression, such as fatigue and sleep disturbance, in addition to the cognitive-emotional symptoms, such as pessimism and sadness.
