19 October, 2015

Here’s what you can do to reduce your child’s risk of heart attacks in adulthood

A recent research has linked childhood infections to increased risk of early heart attack. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the number one killer worldwide, including in Indonesia where it accounts for 31.9 percent of all deaths, said researcher Andriany Qanitha. Qanitha added that CVD risk factors are rising rapidly in South-East Asia, particularly in young people. Most Indonesian CVD patients are under 56 years old and still economically productive. This very young CVD onset raises the question of whether local circumstances may play a role.

She continued that infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, measles, chicken pox, bronchitis, tuberculosis and dengue fever are common in Indonesian children. Researchers hypothesised that infections experienced in childhood and adolescence might adversely affect the vasculature and initiate atherosclerosis, leading to premature acute coronary syndromes (ACS) or heart attacks. One explanation is that infection initiates chronic inflammation and atherosclerosis in the arteries, said Qanitha. ‘It could be that infection modifies CVD risk factors and leads to ACS.’

She concluded that the findings may apply to other countries in South-East Asia where infectious disease is still prevalent. Here governments and policymakers should have a combined strategy for tackling infectious disease and cardiovascular disease. Early-life infection may be a relatively unknown contributing factor in ACS occurrence. The study has been present during Poster Session 1: Databases, Registries and Surveys.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

19.10.2015

Premature birth increases one’s risk of developing mental illness

A new study has linked premature birth to weaker brain connections, suggesting that preemies are likelier to face mental health problems. Babies born prematurely face an increased risk of neurological and psychiatric problems that may be due to weakened connections in brain networks linked to attention, communication and the processing of emotions, the research showed. Studying brain scans from premature and full-term babies, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis zeroed in on differences in the brain that may underlie such problems.

The brain is particularly ‘plastic’ very early in life and potentially could be modified by early intervention, said principal investigator Cynthia Rogers, adding ‘We usually can’t begin interventions until after symptoms develop, but what we’re trying to do is develop objective measures of brain development in preemies that can indicate whether a child is likely to have later problems so that we can then intervene with extra support and therapy early on to try to improve outcomes.’

One of every nine infants in the United States is born early and, thus, with increased risk of cognitive difficulties, problems with motor skills, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorders and anxiety. The researchers found that some key brain networks, those involved in attention, communication and emotion, were weaker in premature infants, offering an explanation for why children born prematurely may have an elevated risk of psychiatric disorders. Researchers found significant differences in the white matter tracts and abnormalities in brain circuits in the infants born early, compared with those of infants born at full term, said Rogers. The findings are being presented at Neuroscience 2015, the annual scientific meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

19.10.2015

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing

Salvador Dali