Autism and ADHD in children linked to plastic additive
Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have a reduced ability to clear bisphenol A (BPA), a common plastic additive, from their bodies, says a study published in the public access journal PLOS ONE (September). BPA is used in everyday objects such as compact discs, dental sealants, water bottles, the lining of canned foods and drinks, medical devices among others.
The study showed that for a significant proportion of children with ASD, the ability to add the glucose molecule to BPA to make it soluble is 10 percent less than of the control group of children. For children with ADHD, it’s less than 17 percent.
The compromised ability to clear such environmental pollutants from the body is “the first hard biochemical evidence of the linkage between BPA and the development of autism or ADHD,” says lead author T. Peter Stein, professor of surgery at Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
Sleep loss in pregnancy causes premature birth
Lack of sleep and reduced physical activity during pregnancy is likely to increase the risk of premature birth, reveals a study led by Nima Aghaeepour, associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine. The research team used a machine learning (ML) algorithm to detect fine-grained changes in sleep and physical activity patterns of 1,000 women whose data was collected by devices worn by them through pregnancy.
The study found that when patients’ sleep and activity levels don’t change on a typical trajectory, it’s a warning sign for premature birth. Sleeping better and being more physically active than usual was linked with a 48 percent reduction in risk for preterm delivery. Conversely, if a woman was sleeping less and being physically inactive than usual for her stage of pregnancy, her risk for preterm delivery was 44 percent higher than for pregnant women with typical sleep and activity patterns.
The study, published in NPJ Digital Medicine, also identified several risk factors for premature delivery, including greater levels of inflammation in pregnant woman, specific immune-system changes, higher levels of stress, history of having a preterm birth and certain types of bacteria in the mother’s microbiome.
Air pollution exposure increases heart stroke risk
Short-term exposure to air pollution significantly increases the risk of heart stroke, says a study conducted by University of Jordan researchers and published in the journal Neurology (September). Researchers reviewed 110 studies that included more than 18 million cases of heart cardiac stroke. The study found that higher concentrations of nitrogen dioxide were linked to a 28 percent increased risk of stroke; higher ozone levels to a 5 percent increase; carbon monoxide had a 26 percent increase; and sulphur dioxide a 15 percent increase.
“There is a strong and significant association between air pollution and the occurrence of stroke as well as death from stroke within five days of exposure. This highlights the importance of global efforts to create policies that reduce air pollution. Doing so may reduce the number of strokes and their consequences,” says Ahmad Toubasi, study author and researcher at the University of Jordan in Amman.
Vegans have low risk of developing eating disorders
People who follow vegan diets have low risk of developing eating disorders, says a study published in the JAMA Network Open (September). Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil found that a mere 0.6 percent of almost 1,000 participants following vegan diets reported dysfunctional dietary behaviour.
“However, the results of the study absolve veganism of blame by showing that the presence of dysfunctional dietary behaviour is mainly associated with the reasons for dieting, rather than the type of diet,” says Hamilton Roschel, a professor at the Medical School (FM-USP) and head of the Applied Physiology and Nutrition Research Group at USP.
According to Roschel, the fact that 62 percent of participants said their motivation for following a vegan diet was ‘ethics and animal rights’, and only 10 percent cited ‘health reasons’, explains the low prevalence of dysfunctional dietary behaviour in vegans studied. “Understanding motivations for choosing a diet and the reasons for patients’ dietary choices helps us design more focused and effective nutritional care programs,” adds Roschel.
