Younger schoolchildren more likely to be falsely diagnosed with ADHD

Posted by Neill Abayon

Children born during the summer are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than children born later in the school year, according to a study conducted by researchers from North Carolina State University and published in the Journal of Health Economics.

"What our research shows is that similar students have significantly different diagnosis rates depending on when their birthday falls in relation to the school year," said lead researcher Melinda Morrill.

The researchers found that children who had been born close to the cut-off date for admission to kindergarten (who would be among the youngest in their classes) were 25 percent more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis than children born just a few days later (who would start school a year later as the oldest in their classes).

Read the full article here.

Daily dose of beet juice promotes brain health in older adults

Posted by Neill Abayon

The memory and mind-destroying disease known as Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia are often seen as terrifying consequences of aging that strike out of the blue -- and supposedly little can be done to prevent or treat these horrible conditions. But while Big Pharma has consistently failed to come up with drugs that halt or reverse cognitive decline, at least for long, research into natural therapies continues to provide tangible evidence that much can be done to fight dementia using exercise, diet and supplements.

For example, vitamin D deficiencies have been linked to declining mental abilities (http://www.naturalnews.com/025807_V...) and researchers have also found that ancient meditation and exercise techniques, including qigong and Tai Chi, slow physical, mental and psychological decline in people with dementia (http://www.naturalnews.com/025040_A...). And now, for the first time, scientists have discovered that drinking beet juice can increase blood flow to the brain in older adults and may combat the progression of Alzheimer's and related conditions.

Read the full article here.

Eating Peanuts While Pregnant May Raise Child's Allergy Risks

Posted by Neill Abayon

Link found between moms-to-be who consumed them and nut sensitivity in infants.

(HealthDay News) -- Women who eat peanuts during pregnancy may be putting their babies at increased risk for peanut allergy, a new study suggests.

U.S. researchers looked at 503 infants, aged 3 months to 15 months, with suspected egg or milk allergies, or with the skin disorder eczema and positive allergy tests to milk or egg. These factors are associated with increased risk of peanut allergy, but none of the infants in the study had been diagnosed with peanut allergy.

Blood tests revealed that 140 of the infants had strong sensitivity to peanuts. Mothers' consumption of peanuts during pregnancy was a strong predictor of peanut sensitivity in the infants, the researchers reported in the Nov. 1 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

"Researchers in recent years have been uncertain about the role of peanut consumption during pregnancy on the risk of peanut allergy in infants. While our study does not definitively indicate that pregnant women should not eat peanut products during pregnancy, it highlights the need for further research in order to make recommendations about dietary restrictions," study leader Dr. Scott H. Sicherer, a professor of pediatrics at Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said in a journal news release.

Sicherer and his colleagues recommended controlled, interventional studies to further explore their findings.

"Peanut allergy is serious, usually persistent, potentially fatal, and appears to be increasing in prevalence," Sicherer said.

(SOURCE: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, news release, Nov. 1, 2010)

For Many Teens, Oral Sex Leads to Riskier Activity

Posted by Neill Abayon

Most on to vaginal intercourse within six months, study finds.

(HealthDay News) -- Most teens who engage in oral sex for the first time will have vaginal intercourse within six months, a new poll indicates.

And half the teens who initiate oral sex in ninth grade will have vaginal intercourse before the end of junior year, the survey of California high school students finds.

"Oral sex among adolescents happens," said study lead author Anna V. Song, an assistant professor in the school of social sciences, humanities, and arts at the University of California, Merced. "But there's two contradictory ways it can go from there: There's the possibility that for adolescents oral sex is a gateway to vaginal sex, or instead that it's being used to stave off vaginal sex."

What the researchers actually found was less clear-cut. "Most of the kids report that they're having oral sex and intercourse for the very first time within the same six months," Song said.

Freshman and sophomore years appear to be the critical time period. "Among those who initiate oral sex between 9th and 10th grade, we found that oral sex is significantly related to vaginal sex," she noted. "But once you get through that particular period, that relationship is not there anymore. And that's also true among kids who initiate oral sex before the 9th grade. They are also no more or less likely to engage in vaginal sex."

Read the full article here.

Researchers Spot New Risk Factors for Breast Cancer

Posted by Neill Abayon

Dense breasts, no lobular involution increase odds, researchers find.

(HealthDay News) -- Women with dense breasts and no lobular involution -- an age-related change in breast tissue -- are at increased risk for breast cancer, a new study finds.

It included 2,666 women, aged 18 to 85, with benign breast disease who were followed for an average of 13.3 years. During that time, 172 (6.5 percent) of the women developed breast cancer.

The Mayo Clinic researchers found that breast density and lobular involution were independent risk factors for breast cancer.

The study appears online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"Our findings also reveal that having a combination of dense breasts and no lobular involution was associated with higher breast cancer risk than having non-dense or fatty breasts and complete involution," they wrote in a news release from the publisher.

"Lobular involution is the physiological atrophy of the breast epithelium [the top layer of cells] and is known to increase with increasing age," the news release explained.

Breast density and lobular involution are factors that "hold promise for improving [breast cancer] risk prediction, particularly since they reflect the cumulative interplay of numerous genetic and environmental breast cancer risk factors over time," Gretchen L. Gierach, of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and colleagues wrote in the news release.

Other known breast cancer risk factors are age, family history and age at first menstrual cycle.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about breast cancer risk.

(SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, news release, Nov. 1, 2010)