Compelling neurobiological and behavioural evidence points to events occurring between conception and 6 years of age as key determinants of human brain development. During these early years many external stimuli, sights, sounds, touch, food, effect the brain for life with lasting impacts on the child’s development, behaviour, school performance and vulnerability to various diseases. Coordinated science-based national clinical programs, in Sweden and Cuba for example, have shown that the deficiencies resulting from deficient shaping of a child’s development in those early years can be ameliorated or totally reversed. Unfortunately many wealthy countries, including Canada lag far behind in dealing with this major societal problem.

From Science Daily:

A National Institutes of Health network study provided the first conclusive evidence that treating pregnant women who have even the mildest form of gestational diabetes can reduce the risk of common birth complications among infants, as well as blood pressure disorders among mothers.

Treatment of severe gestational diabetes is known to benefit mothers and infants. Although treatment is routinely prescribed for all women with gestational diabetes, before the current study, there was no evidence to show whether treating the mild form of the condition benefited, or posed risks for, mothers or their infants.

By now it should be clear that few things set me off more than shoddy media coverage of medical issues, particularly when important caveats are either omitted or distorted. Today's Globe and Mail (our national newspaper!!!) had a sensational front-page report on a study presented at a recent meeting by one of my colleages, which tripped every outrage switch in my head.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-few-less-weeks-in-the-wom...

Since the study has not yet appeared in print, there is not even an opportunity to see full results or be reassured by an appropriate peer review. Though these comments won't appear in print, I will feel better if given an opportunity to ventilate. So here goes!

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Kidney transplant donor sources - expanding the options and the debate

I can’t help but noticing that World Kidney Day came and went last week, and two items in particular caught my attention. In the New England Journal of Medicine (March 12, 2009), Rees and colleagues described a “chain of 10 kidney transplants initiated by a single altruistic donor (i.e. a donor without a designated recipient)” (1). This single act of generosity provoked a chain reaction whereby patients with willing but incompatible donors “swapped “with others in "paired transplant programs", the end-result being 10 kidney transplants over a period of 8 months. According to the authors of the report, their goal was to “highlight the potential of this strategy” of living donor recruitment. 



Journal of Theoretical Biology vs. People magazine: controversy, scandal, and newborn gender ratios

A new study has found that babies delivered by elective Caesarean section before 39 weeks of pregnancy, to mothers who previously had an elective C-section, are much more likely to have serious health problems than newborns delivered under the same circumstances at 39 weeks.

The study, conducted in part at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, also found that babies delivered at 41 and 42 weeks faced a similarly elevated risk as those delivered before 39 weeks. However, only a very small percentage of newborns in the study were delivered this late.

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated a more effective treatment for bacterial pneumonia following influenza. They found that the antibiotics clindamycin and azithromycin, which kill bacteria by inhibiting their protein synthesis, are more effective than a standard first-line treatment with the "beta-lactam" antibiotic ampicillin, which causes the bacteria to lyse, or burst.

The finding is important because pneumonia, rather than the influenza itself, is a principal cause of death from influenza in children and the elderly. During pandemics -- such as the one that may arise from avian influenza -- up to 95 percent of influenza deaths are due to pneumonia. A bioterrorism attack using the influenza virus would

Commonly used pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccines do not appear to be effective for preventing pneumonia, found a study by a team of researchers from Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In many industrialized countries, polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccines (PPVs) are currently recommended to help prevent pneumococcal disease in people aged 65 and over and for younger people with increased risk due to conditions like HIV. Studies have shown conflicting results regarding the efficacy of PPV.

10 December 2008 | Geneva/Hanoi/New York --

Hello All,
This is to draw your attention on the launch yesterday [Dec 10, 2008] by
the World Health Organization of the World Report on Child Injury
Prevention:

More than 2000 children die every day as a result of unintentional or accidental injuries. Every year tens of millions more worldwide are taken to hospitals with injuries that often leave them with lifelong disabilities, according to
a new report by WHO and UNICEF.

The World report on child injury prevention provides the first
comprehensive global assessment of unintentional childhood injuries and
prescribes measures to prevent them. It concludes that if proven
prevention measures were adopted everywhere at least 1000 children's
lives could be saved every day.

References:
1) Delbaere et al. 'Should we adjust for gestational age when analysing birth weights? The use of z-scores revisited. Human Reproduction 22:8 2080-83
2) Wilcox. The Perils of Birth Weight—A Lesson from Directed Acyclic Graphs, Am J Epidemiol;164:1121–112
3) Hernandez-Dıaz S, Schisterman EF, Hernan MA. The birth weight ‘‘paradox’’ uncovered? Am J Epidemiol;164: 1115–20.
4) Tu et al. Growth, current size and the role of the 'reversal paradox' in the foetal origins of adult disease: an illustration using vector geometry. Epidemiol Perspect Innov.3: 9.