11 January, 2013

Pollen exposure may harm baby in womb

Exposure to high pollen levels in late pregnancy significantly increases the risk of early asthma in the child, Swedish researchers have warned.

A number of studies have previously shown that there is an association with being born during a pollen season and an increased risk of allergies.

Although the pollen season is a regular annual event, there are large variations between years in pollen levels.

Few studies have closely examined the significance of actual pollen content in different time periods before and after birth, but now, researchers at the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Umea University have conducted such a study involving 110,000 pregnancies in the Stockholm area.

The researchers note that high levels of pollen exposure during the last 12 weeks of pregnancy resulted in a significantly increased risk of hospitalization for asthma symptoms in the first year of life for a child. The analysis was adjusted for factors such as maternal smoking and pollen season.

There may be several reasons for the association. High pollen exposure of pregnant with pollen allergies can have allergic reactions and asthma symptoms that may also affect the unborn child's environment and affect immune system development.

It is also possible that pregnant women with severe reactions to pollen suffer complications and sometimes give birth earlier than they otherwise would have done, which in itself increases the risk of respiratory problems in the child.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

11.01.2013

4 cups of tea daily cut stroke risk

Drinking four cups of tea a day can reduce the risk of a stroke by more than a fifth, a new study claims.

Scientists who studied how consumption of black tea - the kind mostly drunk in the UK - related to strokes found downing at least four cups every day lowered the chances of a brain blood clot by 21 percent, the Daily Mail reported.

But drinking any less than that did not seem to have a beneficial effect.

The findings, by scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, come from a population study involving nearly 75,000 men and women.

Strokes kill around 200 people every day in the UK. Many more are left disabled and living in fear that a second or even third attack could kill them.

Around 85 percent of victims are affected by ischaemic strokes, where a clot travels to the brain and shuts off its blood supply.

The rest are called haemorrhagic strokes, where a blood vessel bursts in the brain, causing potentially fatal bleeding.  Although numerous studies have highlighted the protective effects of green tea on the brain, the evidence on black tea has been less conclusive.

The Swedish team studied 74,961 Swedish adults who were in good health when they signed up to a long-term health study in 1997.

Over the next ten years, just over 4,000 of the volunteers suffered a stroke, mostly ischaemic.

As part of the study, researchers monitored tea drinking habits.

Once they allowed for other factors that might determine stroke risk - such as whether volunteers smoked or had high blood pressure - they found that four cups or more a day had a significant effect.

British consumers get through an estimated 165 million cups every day of mostly black tea.

It is packed with components called flavonoids that are thought to be good for the heart and brain.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

11.01.2013

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

Bill Cosley