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| Sunday, 9 November 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Compiled by Carol Aloysius Researchers uncover new cancer link : 'Sick' child risk to mum Women whose children develop cancerous tumours early in life are more likely to suffer from breast cancer, scientists said on Wednesday.
If the child is a boy the overall risk in the mother is elevated by 50 per cent. "This study indicates that there is an overall significant excess risk of breast cancer among mothers of children with solid tumours," researchers said. The odds of the mother developing the disease are higher in the years after the birth of the child with cancer. In what is believed to be the first study showing a link between breast cancer in a mother and solid tumours in her child, the team studied 2,064 women whose children had suffered from tumours of the muscle and bone, brain, liver, kidney, skin and other cancers before they were 15 years old. "The overall risk of developing breast cancer in the mothers almost doubled in the first 10 years," he said. The researchers believe a disruption in the p53 tumour suppressor gene in the foetus and abnormal levels of hormones in the mother could be responsible for the raised risk. "We think that a combination of disruption of the normal role of p53 in cell cycle control and hormonal disruption during pregnancy contributes to the development of breast cancer in the mother and cancer in the child," a spokesman said. Other, still unknown genetic mutations may also be involved. Sources said further research is needed to confirm his results but he believes his findings may have important implications for breast screening because mothers of children with solid tumours seem to be at a higher than normal risk in the first decade after the child is born. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. One million new cases of the disease occur worldwide each year. Early puberty, late menopause, delaying child-birth or not having children and a family history of the disease are risk factors. Courtesy: Arab Times ****** Your kidneys and your health Your kidneys may be small, but they perform many vital functions that
help maintain you overall health, including filtering waste and 1. Your kidneys are about the size of your fist. They are located in the back just below the cage. 2. The kidney's main job is to filter waste products and excess fluid from your blood. Everyday the kidneys filter about 200 quarts of fluid. About two quarts leave the body in the form of urine, while the remainder is retained in the body.
3. In addition to filtering wastes from the blood, the kidneys also perform these important jobs:
4. When the kidneys no longer perform, these functions adequately due to injury or disease, wastes and excess fluid build up in the blood. The early warning signs that your kidneys may not be working well are: o Burning or difficulty during urination o Needing to urinate more often than usual, especially during the night o Blood in the urine o Puffiness or swelling of hands and feet o Pain in the back or side below the ribs o High blood pressure 5. In the US, the two leading courses of the end stage kidney disease a condition that requires regular dialysis or transplantation to stay alive are diabetes and high blood pressure. When these two diseases are controlled by treatment, the associated kidney disease can often be prevented or slowed down. 6. Many effective drugs are available to treat high blood pressure. In addition, healthy lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and regular exercise, often help to control and may even help to prevent high blood pressure. 7. Careful control of blood sugar in diabetes helps to prevent complications including kidney disease, heart problems and strokes. When people with diabetes have high blood pressure as well, special drugs called angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors may help to protect their kidney function. 8. The third leading cause of end stage kidney disease in the US is glomerulonephritis a disease that damages the kidney's filtering units called the glomeruli. In many cases, the cause of this disease is not known, but some cases may be inherited and others may be triggered by an infection. 9. Some of the other conditions that may affect the kidneys include the kidney stones and inherited diseases such as polycystic kidney disease. Some of these diseases can be cured. In other cases, treatments can help to slow the disease and prolong life. The kidneys can also be harmed by overuse of some over the counter pain killers and by taking illegal drugs such as heroin. 10. End stage kidney disease occurs when about 90 percent of kidney function has been lost. Doctors can determine when patients reach this stage on the basis of blood and urine tests. From the newsletter of the kidney patients welfare society. ****** Know your vegetables : The nutritional value of leeks by DR. D. P. ATUKORALE This vegetable which is a relative of onions first originated in the Middle-East. When peeled off its green and tough outer layers, the leeks can be sliced into small circles which can then be further subdivided and judiciously included as a fresh vegetable in a raw salad. Alternately leeks can be lightly steamed which will dispel its strong odour leaving a delicate and enticing vegetable which is quite delicious when served with a vinaigrette dressing (the dressing can be applied while the leeks are still warm and allowed to penetrate). Leeks are also used in the preparation of (a) leeks and potato soup, (b) leeks curry, (c) cream of leeks soup, (d) Leeks are frequently used in the preparation of fried rice, (e) Leeks are used in the preparation of various tasty Chinese dishes. Nutrient analysis of leeks One leek (boiled) 124g contains 0.25g of fat, 0.14g of polyunsaturated fat, 1g of protein, 0.03g of saturated fat, 9.45g of carbohydrate, 1.02g of crude fibre, 0.70RE of vitamin A, 5.21mg of vitamin C, 0.03mg of Thiamine, 0.02mg of Riboflavin, 0.25mg of nicotinic acid, 0.09mg of Pantothenic acid, 0.14mg of vitamin B6, 30.13mg of folic acid, 37.20mg of calcium, 1.36mg of iron and 0.07mg of zinc. ****** Hints on... Infant health Initiating complementary feeding too late could malnourish an infant. At about six months, infants need solid or semi-solid foods to supplement nutrients in breast milk. Surveys indicate that 64 per cent of infants ages six to nine months receive complementary feeding, with substantial variation among countries. Breastfeeding up to age two, in conjunction with appropriate complementary feeding, helps maintain good nutrition and also continues to help prevent diarrhoea. Among children ages 12 to 15 months, 78 per cent of mothers in surveyed developing countries continue any amount of breastfeeding. Levels of continued breastfeeding drop considerably between 20 and 23 months of age, to 45%. Mothers in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are almost twice as likely to continue any breastfeeding late into the second year of a child's life as those in other developing regions. ****** Diabetes drug may cause heart failure Two popular drugs used to treat type-2 diabetes can cause fluid buildup and heart failure in some patients, US doctors have said. The drugs, sold under the brand names Avandia and Actos, caused heart failure and a buildup of fluid in the lungs in six men with poor kidney or poor heart function, the researchers said. The findings, published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, are another potential blow to the newest class of diabetes drugs, the thiazolidine-diones or glitazones. The first drug in the class, Rezulin, was pulled from the market in March 2000 after about 100 people who took it died from acute liver failure or had to have liver transplants. An estimated 6 million Americans take one or the other of the drugs. About 16 million Americans have type-2 or adult-onset diabetes. Many do not need to take insulin but can take a variety of drugs including metformin and drugs in a class called sulfonylureas. The glitazones are gaining in popularity because they restore the body's ability to respond to insulin. From 'Kuwait Times' ****** Maternal health Skilled medical assistance during childbirth, whether at home or in a medical facility, can save women's lives. Untreated or improperly treated complications of pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period are a leading cause of death for women in developing countries. To prevent maternal complications, skilled attendants are needed to provide assistance with delivery and monitoring of the postpartum period. Skilled attendants include doctors, nurses, and midwives trained to manage normal deliveries and who can also diagnose and refer or else manage obstetric complications. Antenatal care can identify and treat conditions such as malnutrition, tuberculosis, syphilis, severe anaemia, pre-eclampsia, and eclampsia. Skilled attendants can supply tetanus injections and iron and folate supplements and can advise women on health and nutrition during pregnancy. Also, they can help women make preparations for the birth and plan what to do if complications arise. Tetanus toxoid injections Maternal tetanus killed an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 women during the 1990s. Tetanus spores infect women and children through unsafe or unclean deliveries, accounting for an estimated 5 per cent of maternal deaths and 14 per cent of neonatal deaths. Tetanus toxoid vaccines can prevent infections and save the lives of mothers and infants alike. Pregnant women should receive at least two doses of tetanus toxoid, which provide one to three years of protection. (From 'Population Reports') ****** Sleep and memory by Dr. R. A. R. Perera We all have the experience of going to sleep with a question and waking up with the solution. This is due to the fact that a person acquires so many memories each day that some details are lost. But the brain sorts and reorganizes the memories during sleep. Another explanation for this is that memories are actually lost during the day, but reconstituted by the brain during the sleep by some process that taps into the general rules the test subjects learned in their voice-recognition training. This backs up motherly advice to get a good night's sleep to restore memories lost during a hectic day. It is not just a matter of physical recharge. Psychologists say sleep can rescue memories in a biological process of sorting and consolidating them in the brain's complex circuitry. Psychologists who conducted these experiments said the results might influence how students learn, and someday could be incorporated into treatments for mental illnesses involving memories, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. However more research is needed into the sleep-memory connection. In a study conducted in Harvard Medical School with university students, which include of performing a specific task (memorizing some words) and recalling it after either a night's sleep or several hours awake, it was found that the students who slept a couple of hours after the test, performed better than the students who were awake when recalling the words. Some psychologists say that further experiments are necessary to assess a number of factors that could have influenced the outcome. For example, those trained late at night performed better because they went to sleep not long after their training, while their morning trained counterparts were exposed to an entire day of memories before being tested. In the Harvard study, psychologists found that memories are consolidated in three stages in a process similar to storing data on a computer hard disk. The second stage requires sleep, which the team also found sharpened the subject's performance the next day. This shows that studying in the night could help retain more subject matter rather than studying in the morning. But this needs more research conducted regarding this subject before coming to a definite conclusion. Psychologists are under the view that 'all memories are not equal' and the order in which they are learned may be important when recalling them. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
New research presented at the ECCO 12 European Breast Cancer Conference
showed that if the child is diagnosed with certain cancers before the age
of five, the mother had double the normal risk of breast cancer in the
first 10 years after the birth.
excess
fluids from your blood. Serious kidney disease may lead to complete kidney
failure and the need for dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant to stay
alive. While effective treatments are available for many kidney diseases,
many people are unaware that kidney disease can often be prevented. Here
are ten important facts about how your kidneys work, how disease may
affect them and how you can prevent kidney disease.
