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Australia: New approach needed to tackle child abuse and neglect


Research Australia
Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:42 UTC
Leading child advocates have called for a new approach to tackling child abuse and neglect amid rising rates of abuse notifications and children being brought into State care.

The arguments for a new approach are set out in the latest edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Report co-authors Melissa O'Donnell, Professor Dorothy Scott and Professor Fiona Stanley say a greater focus is needed on preventing abuse and neglect occurring in the first place.

"If there is a real commitment to protect all children, then supporting families and children before they reach the point of being abused and neglected should be a priority," said Professor Fiona Stanley, Director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.
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People

Pre-school age exercises can prevent dyslexia


Academy of Finland
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:03 UTC
A typical characteristics of children's linguistic development are early signs of the risk of developing reading and writing disabilities, or dyslexia. New research points to preventive exercises as an effective means to tackle the challenges children face when learning to read. The results achieved at the Centre of Excellence in Learning and Motivation Research were presented at the Academy of Finland's science breakfast on 21 August.
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Cow

Canada: Farmers pleased Monsanto is getting out of cow hormone business


CBC News
Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:22 UTC
A group of Ontario farmers is claiming victory after Monsanto Co. agreed to sell its Posilac brand of synthetic cow hormones to drug maker Eli Lilly and Co. for $300 million.

Dave Mackay, president of the Renfrew County chapter of the National Farmers Union (NFU) and a former dairy farmer in Beachburg, Ont., told CBC News Friday that the sale is good news. Mackay, now a sheep farmer with a flock of 300, speaks for 150 farmers in Renfrew County.

"We think it's a bit of a victory," he said from his 200-acre farm near Pembroke, Ont. "We are pleased. I think we have won. Obviously, these guys are moving on."

Monsanto, an agricultural chemical company, announced the sale on Wednesday. It said the Posilac brand will become part of Lilly's Elanco animal health unit.
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Info

Americans Show Little Tolerance For Mental Illness Despite Growing Belief In Genetic Cause


Science Daily
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:50 UTC
A new study by University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Jason Schnittker shows that, while more Americans believe that mental illness has genetic causes, the nation is no more tolerant of the mentally ill than it was 10 years ago.

The study published online in the journal Social Science and Medicine uses a 2006 replication of the 1996 General Social Survey Mental Health Module to explore trends in public beliefs about mental illness in America, focusing in particular on public support for genetic arguments.

Prior medical-sociology studies reveal that public beliefs about mental illness reflect the dominant mental-illness treatment, the changing nature of media portrayals of the mentally ill and the prevailing wisdom of science and medicine.

Schnittker's study, "An Uncertain Revolution: Why the Rise of a Genetic Model of Mental Illness Has Not Increased Tolerance," attempts to address why tolerance of the mentally ill hasn't increased along with the rising popularity of a biomedical view of its causes. His study finds that different genetic arguments have, in fact, become more popular but have very different associations depending on the mental illness being considered.
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Bulb

Chronic stress alters our genetic immune response


Elsevier
Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:29 UTC
Most people would agree that stress increases your risk for illness and this is particularly true for severe long-term stresses, such as caring for a family member with a chronic medical illness. However, we still have a relatively limited understanding of exactly how stress contributes to the risk for illness. In the August 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers shed new light on one link between stress and illness by describing a mechanism through which stress alters immune function.
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Eye 1

Why do eyelids sag with age? UCLA study answers mystery


University of California - Los Angeles
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:04 UTC


Image
©American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
A UCLA study finds that lower baggy eyelids are caused by fat expansion in the eye socket.

Many theories have sought to explain what causes the baggy lower eyelids that come with aging, but UCLA researchers have now found that fat expansion in the eye socket is the primary culprit.

As a result, researchers say, fat excision should be a component of treatment for patients seeking to address this common complaint.

The study, published in the September issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, is the first to examine the anatomy of multiple subjects to determine what happens to the lower eyelid with age. It is also the first to measure what happens to the face with age using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
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Info

Solution To World's Worst Mass Poisoning Case


Science Daily
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:35 UTC
A solution to the world's worst case of ongoing mass poisoning, linked to rising cancer rates in Southern Asia, has been developed by researchers from Queen's University Belfast.

Image
©Queen's University, Belfast
Arsenic treatment system.

It is estimated that over 70 million people in Eastern India and Bangladesh, experience involuntary arsenic exposure from consuming water and rice; the main staple food in the region. This includes farmers who have to use contaminated groundwater from minor irrigation schemes.

It is estimated that for every random sample of 100 people in the Bengal Delta, at least one person will be near death as a result of arsenic poisoning, while five in 100 will be experiencing other symptoms.
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People

Michael Phelps shows the way for parents of ADHD kids

Janet Bagnall
The Gazette
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:35 UTC
But the schools have to be in their corner, helping students cope with the disease

At the same time that Michael Phelps headed back to the U.S. from Beijing this week, with eight Olympic gold medals and seven new world records in swimming, thousands of other young men just like him were heading back to school.

But where he was reportedly looking forward to moving into a luxurious condo and weighing endorsement offers, the school-bound boys were dreading a year of bullying and academic failure.

What Phelps and thousands of other young people, mainly boys, have in common is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurobehavioural condition. The three to five per cent of school-aged youngsters who have it are to an extreme degree restless, inattentive, distracted and impulsive.
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Syringe

Australia: Flu outbreak results in 291 off school


Australian Associated Press
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00 UTC
Several primary school students and a teacher in Tasmania have been hospitalised by a flu outbreak that has affected almost 300 children and staff from the one school.
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Health

Two-egg diet cracks cholesterol issue


PhysOrg
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:55 UTC
Research published in The European Journal of Nutrition this week has finally cracked the myths surrounding eggs and cholesterol. The new study showed that people who ate two eggs per day, while on a calorie-restricted diet, not only lost weight but also reduced their blood cholesterol levels.

A research team from the University of Surrey headed by Dr Bruce Griffin fed two eggs per day to overweight but otherwise healthy volunteers for 12 weeks while they simultaneously followed a reduced calorie diet prescribed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) - who normally restrict egg intake to 3-4 per week. A control group followed the same BHF diet but cut out eggs altogether.

Both groups lost between 3 to 4kg (7- 9lbs) in weight and saw a fall in the average level of blood cholesterol.

Research leader Dr Bruce Griffin stated: "When blood cholesterol was measured at both six weeks and twelve weeks, both groups showed either no change or a reduction, particularly in their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, despite the egg group increasing their dietary cholesterol intake to around four times that of the control."

This research provides further evidence to support the now established scientific understanding that saturated fat in the diet (most often found in pastry, processed meats, biscuits and cakes) is more responsible for raising blood cholesterol than cholesterol-rich foods, such as eggs.
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