More exposure to vegetation linked with lower mortality rates in women

Women in the U.S. who live in homes surrounded by more vegetation appear to have significantly lower mortality rates than those who live in areas with less vegetation, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The study found that women who lived in the greenest surroundings had a 12% lower overall mortality rate than those living in homes in the least green areas.
The study suggests several mechanisms that might be at play in the link between greenness and mortality . Improved mental health, measured through lower levels of depression, was estimated to explain nearly 30% of the benefit from living around greater vegetation. Increased opportunities for social engagement, higher physical activity, and lower exposure to air pollution may also play an important role, the authors said.
The study will be published online April 14, 2016 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives .
"We were surprised to observe such strong associations between increased exposure to greenness and lower
mortality rates ," said Peter James, research associate in the Harvard Chan School Department of Epidemiology. "We were even more surprised to find evidence that a large proportion of the benefit from high levels of vegetation seems to be connected with improved mental health."
Previous studies have suggested that exposure to vegetation was related to lower mortality rates, but those studies were limited in scope, and some had contradictory findings. The new study is the first to take a nationwide look at the link between greenness and mortality over a period of several years.
The study incorporated data on 108,630 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study across the United States in 2000-2008. The researchers compared the participants' risk of mortality with the level of vegetation surrounding their homes, which was calculated using satellite imagery from different seasons and from different years. The researchers accounted for other mortality risk factors, such as age, socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and smoking behaviors.
When the researchers looked at specific causes of death among the study participants, they found that associations between higher amounts of greenness and lower mortality were strongest for respiratory-disease and cancer mortality. Women living in areas with the most vegetation had a 34% lower rate of respiratory disease-related mortality and a 13% lower rate of cancer mortality compared with those with the least vegetation around their homes. These more specific findings were consistent with some of the proposed benefits of greener areas, including that they may buffer air pollution and noise exposures and provide opportunities for physical activity.
"We know that planting vegetation can help the environment by reducing wastewater loads, sequestering carbon, and mitigating the effects of climate change. Our new findings suggest a potential co-benefit—improving health—that presents planners, landscape architects, and policy makers with an actionable tool to grow healthier places," said James.
More information: "Exposure to Greenness and Mortality in a Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study of Women," Peter James, Jaime E. Hart, Rachel F. Banay, Francine Laden, Environmental Health Perspectives , online April 14, 2016, doi: 101289/ehp.1510363
Provided by: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Why body weight loss in Tuberculosis Patient?

Decreased plasma leptin concentrations in tuberculosis patients are associated with wasting and inflammation.

Tuberculosis patients often suffer from severe weight loss, which is considered to be immunosuppressive and a major determinant of severity and outcome of disease. Because leptin is involved in weight regulation and cellular immunity, its possible role in tuberculosis-associated wasting was investigated. In an urban clinic in Indonesia, plasma leptin concentrations, indicators of adipocyte mass, appetite, C-reactive protein (CRP), tuberculin reactivity, and cytokine response were measured in tuberculosis patients and healthy controls. Plasma leptin concentrations were lower in patients than in controls (615 vs. 2,550 ng/liter; P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis showed that body fat mass and inflammation were two independent factors determining plasma leptin concentrations; there was a positive correlation between fat and leptin, whereas, unexpectedly, leptin was inversely associated with CRP and tumor necrosis factor-alpha production. Concentrations of both CRP and leptin were independently associated with loss of appetite. Our results do not support the concept that weight loss in tuberculosis is caused by enhanced production of leptin. Rather, loss of body fat leads to low plasma leptin concentrations, and prolonged inflammation may further suppress leptin production. Because leptin is important for cell-mediated immunity, low leptin production during active tuberculosis may contribute to increased disease severity, especially in cachectic patients.

Biomarker discovery offers hope for new TB vaccine

This photomicrograph reveals Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria using acid-fast Ziehl-Neelsen stain; Magnified 1000 X. The acid-fast stains depend on the ability of mycobacteria to retain dye when treated with mineral acid or an …more

A team of scientists led by Oxford University have made a discovery that could improve our chances of developing an effective vaccine against Tuberculosis.

The researchers have identified new biomarkers for Tuberculosis (TB) which have shown for the first time why immunity from the widely used Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is so variable. The biomarkers will also provide valuable clues to assess whether potential new vaccines could be effective.

TB remains one of the world's major killer diseases, causing TB disease in 9.6 million people and 1.5 million deaths in 2014. The only available vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), works well (estimated 50% effective) to prevent severe disease in children but is very variable (0% to 80% effective) in how well it protects against lung disease, particularly in countries where TB is most common.

While BCG is one of the safest and most widely used vaccines worldwide, there is one key issue: It is currently very difficult to determine whether it will work or not. This also makes it really hard to determine if any new vaccines might work.

For many vaccines, medics and scientists can use what are called immune correlates or biomarkers, typically in the blood, which can be measured to determine whether a vaccine has successfully induced immunity. Not only are these correlates useful in measuring the success of existing vaccination programmes, they are also invaluable in assessing whether potential new vaccines could be effective.

With a pressing need for a TB vaccine that is more effective than BCG, a research team drawn from a number of groups at Oxford University, working with colleagues from the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, set out to identify immune correlates that could facilitate TB vaccine development. The team, funded by the Wellcome Trust and Aeras, and led by Professor Helen McShane and Dr Helen Fletcher, studied immune responses in infants in South Africa who were taking part in a TB vaccine trial.

Professor McShane said: 'We looked at a number of factors that could be used as immune correlates, to try and find biomarkers that will help us develop a better vaccine.'

The team carried out tests for twenty-two possible factors. One - levels of activated HLA-DR+CD4+ T-cells - was linked to higher TB disease risk. Meanwhile, BCG-specific Interferon-gamma secreting T-cells indicated lower TB risk, with higher levels of these cells directly linked to greater reduction of the risk of TB.

Antibodies to a TB protein, Ag85A, were also identified as a possible correlate. Higher levels of Ag85A antibody were associated with lower TB risk. However, the team cautions that other environmental and disease factors could also cause Ag85A antibody levels to rise and so there may not be a direct link between the antibody and TB risk.

Professor McShane said: 'These are useful results which ideally would now be confirmed in further trials. They show that antigen-specific T cells are important in protection against TB, but that activated T cells increase the risk".

Dr Helen Fletcher from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "For the first time we have some evidence of how BCG might work, and also what could block it from working. Although there is still much work to do, these findings may bring us a step closer to developing a more effective vaccine for TB."

Dr Tom Scriba from the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative said: 'TB is still a major international killer, and rates of TB disease in some areas of South Africa are among the highest in the world. These findings provide important clues about the type of immunity TB vaccines should elicit, and bring us closer to our vision, a world without TB.'

The team is continuing its work to develop a TB vaccine, aiming to protect more people from the disease.

 Explore further: New tuberculosis vaccine doesn't protect infants, study finds

More information: T cell activation is an Immune Correlate of Risk in BCG vaccine infants, Nature Communications, April 12, 2016, DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS11290 

Journal reference: Nature Communications  

Provided by: University of Oxford  

New findings reveal social thinking in the infant brain

Credit: axelle b/public domain

An innovative collaboration between neuroscientists and developmental psychologists that investigated how infants' brains process other people's action provides the first evidence that directly links neural responses from the motor system to overt social behavior in infants.

The research will be published April 12 in Psychological Science, the peer-reviewed journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The study involved thirty-six 7-month-old infants, who were each tested while wearing a cap that used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain activity. During the experiment, each infant observed an actor reach for one of two toys. Immediately after, the baby was allowed to select one of the same toys. This procedure was repeated 12 times.

Babies' brain activity predicted how they would respond to the actor's behavior. When the infants recruited their motor system while observing the actor grasp one of the toys, they subsequently imitated the actor. When they didn't imitate the actor, there was no detectable engagement of the motor system in their brain activity as they watched the actor.

"Our research provides initial evidence that motor system recruitment is contingently linked to infants' social interactive behavior," said lead author Courtney Filippi, a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Chicago. "It provides initial evidence that recruiting the motor system during action encoding predicts infants' subsequent social interactive behavior."

Untested possibility

The researchers used EEG to measure a component of brain activity—desynchronization of activity in the mu frequency band—that has been linked to motor cortex activity in adults. Like adults, infants show this response when acting themselves and when watching others' actions, suggesting that the motor system may play a role in the perception of others' actions. Until the current study, however, this possibility had not been tested in infants.

"This research tells us that, by the middle of their first year of life, babies are beginning to be able to understand that people act intentionally—that they choose one toy over another because they want that toy," said Helen Tager-Flusberg, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University, who is familiar with but was not involved in the research. "This understanding on the part of a baby involves not just seeing the other person's action, but also involves the baby's own motor system, which is recruited when he or she chooses the same toy."

Fundamentally, the researchers identified the neural processes that contribute to intelligent social behavior in infants. And it's the first evidence that motor system activation in infants predicts the imitation of others' actions, as well as an apparent understanding of others' goals.

"This is big news, that babies understand what they are observing, that there is a direct connection between observing others, understanding what others are doing, and learning how to act," said co-author Amanda Woodward, the William S. Gray Professor of Psychology at UChicago.

The researcher's methodology also broke new ground. "This is the first attempt to combine the assessment of infants' behavior—in this case, imitating the actions of another person—with measuring brain activity in infants," Tager-Flusberg said.

Proof of concept

"Probably the hardest place to study the relation between brain activity and behavior is with infants, due to limitations in the methods that can be used, and the fact that infants are infants," Woodward noted. "Our methodology represents a breakthrough and a proof of concept."

"We've worked hard over the years to develop the methods that allow us to record brain activity from infants while they are engaged in the social world," said co-author Nathan Fox, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. "The current research reflects our ability to synchronize brain and behavior in infants during the first year of life."

Although this research will not translate directly into new medical treatments or therapies, it could contribute to medical advances down the road by helping to illuminate how the human brain functions and develops, Woodward added.

"One reason to engage in basic science is to better understand the development of the brain and mind. Here we looked at the development of social cognition, social behavior, and the motor system, all of which are critical for human development and are often disrupted in developmental disabilities, including autism."

 Explore further: Babies understand thought process of others at 10 months old, research finds

New study shows rich, poor have huge mortality gap in US

 New study shows rich, poor have huge mortality gap in US

“As you go up in the income distribution, life expectancy continues to increase, at every point in the income distribution,” Michael Stepner says. Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT

Poverty in the U.S. is often associated with deprivation, in areas including housing, employment, and education. Now a study co-authored by two MIT researchers has shown, in unprecedented geographic detail, another stark reality: Poor people live shorter lives, too.

More precisely, the study shows that in the U.S., the richest 1 percent of men lives 14.6 years longer on average than the poorest 1 percent of men, while among women in those wealth percentiles, the difference is 10.1 years on average.

This eye-opening gap is also growing rapidly: Over roughly the last 15 years, life expectancy increased by 2.34 years for men and 2.91 years for women who are among the top 5 percent of income earners in America, but by just 0.32 and 0.04 years for men and women in the bottom 5 percent of the income tables.

"When we think about income inequality in the United States, we think that low-income Americans can't afford to purchase the same homes, live in the same neighborhoods, and buy the same goods and services as higher-income Americans," says Michael Stepner, a PhD candidate in MIT's Department of Economics. "But the fact that they can on average expect to have 10 or 15 fewer years of life really demonstrates the level of inequality we've had in the United States."

Stepner and Sarah Abraham, another PhD candidate in MIT's Department of Economics, are among the co-authors of a newly published paper summarizing the study's findings, and have played central roles in a three-year research project establishing the results.

In addition to reporting the size and growth of the income gap, the study finds that the average lifespan varies considerably by region in the U.S. (by as much as 4.5 years), but that the sources of that regional variation are subtle, and, like the aggregate national gap, subject to further investigation.

"The patterns are not exactly what you might expect," says Abraham, noting that regional variation in longevity does not seem strongly correlated with factors such as access to health care, environmental issues, income inequality, or the job market.

"We don't find those to be as highly correlated with differences in longevity as we find measures of health behavior, such as smoking rates or obesity rates" [to be correlated with lifespan], Abraham observes.

The paper, "The Association between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014," is being published today by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The authors are Raj Chetty, a professor of economics at Stanford University; Stepner and Abraham of MIT, who are the second and third authors on the paper; Shelby Lin, an analyst with McKinsey and Company in New York; Benjamin Scuderi, a predoctorate fellow in Harvard University's Economics Department; Augustin Bergeron, a PhD candidate in Harvard University's Economics Department; Nicholas Turner of the Office of Tax Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Treasury; and David Cutler, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

The geography of mortality

The researchers looked at 1.4 billion anonymized income tax filings from the federal government, and combined that with mortality data from the years 2001 through 2014 from the Social Security Administration. This represents the most complete geographic and demographic landscape of mortality in America.

Among other things, the growth of the gap in mortality rates—by nearly three years—struck the researchers as noteworthy. To put it in perspective, they note that federal health officials estimate that curing all forms of cancer would add three years to the average lifespan.

"That change over the last 15 years is the equivalent of the richest Americans winning the war on cancer," Stepner observes.

At the same time, the researchers are quick to point out that the findings cannot immediately be reduced to simple cause-and-effect explanations. For instance, as social scientists have long observed, it is very hard to say whether having wealth leads to better health—or if health, on aggregate, is a prerequisite for accumulating wealth. Most likely, the two interact in complex ways, something the study cannot resolve.

"It's a descriptive story," Stepner says of the data.

A new puzzle emerging from the study, the authors note, is that differences in lifespan exist along the entire continuum of wealth in the U.S.; it is not as if, say, the top 10 percent of earners cluster around identical average lifespans.

"As you go up in the income distribution, life expectancy continues to increase, at every point," Stepner says.

And then there are the new geographic patterns in the findings. For instance: Eight of the 10 states with the lowest life expectancies for people in the bottom income quartile form a contiguous belt, curving around from Michigan through Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.

So while average lifespans for everyone are lower in some Southern states, the poor do not fare worse in those places than they do in other regions.

"The Deep South is the lowest-income area in America, but when we're looking at life expectancy conditional on having a low income, it's not worse to be poor in the Deep South than it is in other areas of America," Stepner says. "It's just that there are far more poor people living in the South."

Future research: Think local

The researchers say that more analysis on the sources of local variation in lifespans could be among the most fruitful research areas stemming from the current paper. The research team is releasing all the data from the study today as well.

Among the municipalities where low-income people have experienced the greatest increases in lifespan from 2001-2014, for example, are Toms River, New Jersey; Birmingham, Alabama; and Richmond, Virginia. Cities with the largest drops in lifespan among the poor are Tampa and Pensacola, Florida; and Knoxville, Tennessee.

"We're not making any normative statements about what policy should be, but there is a wide dispersion of [results] happening in the U.S.," Abraham says. "That might need to be addressed at a more granular level."

Places with the overall longest lifespans for the poor include New York City, with a chart-topping 81.8 years on average, as well as a passel of cities in California. The bottom of that list includes Gary, Indiana (77.4 years on average); Las Vegas; and Oklahoma City.

Among the top income earners, people live longest in Salt Lake City (87.8 years on average); Portland, Maine; and Spokane, Washington. The rich have the shortest lives in Las Vegas (84.1 years on average); Gary, Indiana; and Honolulu.

Abraham also observes that the findings could have implications for national policy programs, as well.

"Things like Social Security aren't going to be as redistributive if the richer people are getting paid for 10 more years than the poorer people," she says.

Overall, the researchers say they hope to spark a larger discussion among the research and policy communities.

"We don't have all the answers," Abraham says. "But it's really important to make these statistics widely used so people have an idea of what the magnitude of these problems is, where they might focus their attention, and why this matters."

 Explore further: New report examines implications of growing gap in life span by income for entitlement programs

More information: Raj Chetty et al. The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014, JAMA (). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.4226

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-04-rich-poor-huge-mortality-gap.html#jCp

Employment status affects our morals around money

In the study 'Moral consequences of becoming unemployed', endorsed by the prestigious scientific journal PNAS, researchers at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Economics and Business and at the University of Nottingham (UK) have analysed a moral consequence of unemployment that together with the effects it has on people's mental health, could explain why these people become disengaged from the labor market. 151 young adults in Córdoba and Bilbao were involved in the study.

As Luis Miller asserts, "in general, both people in employment and those in full-time education believe that people should be allowed to keep most of what they earn and that it is OK for those who work harder or who are more productive to earn more". He went on to say, "When people become unemployed, our study indicates that they let go of this belief. They put a higher value on the redistribution of money, which, in social terms, would mean higher taxes on those earning more in order to fund increased public spending."The authors of the study Luis Miller, lecturer at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Economics and Business, and Paloma Ubeda, a UPV/EHU researcher, highlight the importance of understanding how becoming unemployed affects people's behaviour. Many studies link unemployment and poverty with depression, anxiety, stress, low levels of well-being and self-esteem, high suicide rates, murder, alcohol-related deaths, etc. In this study, however, the researchers have looked at a different kind of effect and have concluded that unemployment changes people's morals around the distribution of money. It should be pointed out that the study has been published in the latest edition of the PNAS, a prestigious scientific journal which publishes relatively few papers from the social sciences but which has given particular importance to this one.

"In our study," explained Paloma Úbeda, "we didn't ask the participants about re-distribution, taxes or public spending, as the responses to questions of this type could be biased by the self-interest of the interviewees. So high earners who look after their own interests would prefer lower taxes, while low earners who also have their own interests in mind would want higher taxes. What we were really interested in was understanding how, when becoming unemployed, people change the way they see what is fair in terms of re-distribution, in other words, whether they change their moral values. We found that they do; when becoming unemployed people change the way they think about fairness and re-distribution".

Unemployment leads to changes in opinions

To research people's ideals about justice, the researchers involved 151 young adults aged between 18 and 35 in the so-called "Distributive Justice Game", an experiment designed to reveal the values and preferences of the participants about fairness and re-distribution. The experiment was conducted in Bilbao and Córdoba. The game consisted of two parts.

In the first part the participants "worked" for the researchers for seven minutes. In the second part of the game each participant was given a tray divided into four sections. Each section contained a different amount of money. One of the sections belonged to the participant who had been given the tray. The other three sections belonged to the other three participants who were in their playing group. For some groups the amount of money each one received depended on how much work the people had done during the first part of the game. In others, the amount of money on the trays depended totally on luck and were not related in any way to the work each person had done. The participants could re-distribute the money among the four sections in whatever way they wanted. Each one could keep all the money, leave the tray as they had received it or re-distribute the money so that the four participants would all receive the same amount at the end of the experiment.

"We found that the employed people tended to re-distribute the money less when they knew people had earned their money in the first part," asserted Luis Miller. "By contrast, they tended to re-distribute it almost equally when they knew that the initial distributions were just due to luck".

The 151 young adults participated twice in the experiment, the first time in the spring of 2013 and the second exactly one year later. Repeating the experiment allowed the researchers to see whether the people who were employed or in full-time education during the first year of the study but ended up unemployed in the second year changed their opinions about fairness and re-distribution.

Most of those who had become unemployed re-distributed the money in such a way that the other three members of their group ended up with approximately the same amount of money irrespective of whether the money had been earned or received as a result of luck.

Paloma Úbeda added that "the extent to which people recognise the individual right to keep what they have earned has significant implications on the way people vote, on how they pay their taxes or on how they act in the labour market. However, all these implications would need to be studied in greater detail in future pieces of research".

Luis Miller concluded that "the significance of the main result of this study to understand the labour dynamics as well as the most appropriate public intervention depends to what extent the negative effect we find can be reversed. Right now, we are already working on new projects that seek to establish whether the unemployed need to re-acquire part of the values relating to effort and productivity abandoned along the way before effectively reengaging with the labour market. Then assuming they do, we would need to investigate how this new change of values takes place and also how public interventions can contribute towards enabling this process".

 Explore further: Study results suggest people are less cooperative in unequal societies when wealth inequality is evident

More information: Moral consequences of becoming unemployed , PNAS,www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1521250113

Expectation may be essential to memory formation

 

Credit: Human Brain Project

A theory that links memory encoding to expectations of future relevance may better explain how human memory works, according to a team of Penn State psychologists.

Modern psychology posits two major theories to explain the mechanisms of how memories are formed. The first is object-based encoding, storing all information about an object in working memory. The second is feature-based encoding, selectively remembering aspects of an object. For example, if you watch a group of people playing basketball, under object-based encoding theory, the brain remembers all aspects of the ball. In feature-based encoding, the brain remembers that it saw a ball, but may have no recollection of the color if the color of the ball is an unnecessary feature according to the task at hand.

The proposed theory, expectancy-based binding, suggests that subjects can remember features presented in a visual scene or movie without necessarily remembering which object went with which feature when it is not necessary to do so.

"The key discovery was that attending an object for an extended period of time does not ensure that all of the features of that object will be correctly associated with it in memory," said Brad Wyble, assistant professor of psychology.

The researchers tested 60 participants and asked them to watch videos in which two balls were thrown between multiple people. The first ball thrown was the target ball. Participants counted the number of times the ball was passed. The second ball was the distractor ball. Each participant watched 36 trials, recording their counts of the target ball after each. The balls in each video were red, green, blue or purple. The researchers reported their results in a recent issue of Cognition.

For the first 31 trials, participants chose only the number of passes made with the target ball. After the thirty-second trial, a message popped up on the participant's screen that read, "This is a surprise memory test! Here we test the 'Color' of the target ball. Press a corresponding number to indicate the 'Color' of the target ball."

To this question, 37 percent of participants—22 of 60—responded with the incorrect color of the ball, and 16 of these 22 incorrect responses selected the color of the distractor ball.

"Participants have memories of the color of both balls, but those memories aren't attached specifically to the target ball or the distractor ball," said Hui Chen, post-doctoral fellow in psychology and first author.

It is statistically significant that 73 percent of participants responded with the color of the distractor ball. If participants had no memory of the color of the balls seen in the video, as feature-based encoding might suggest, then participants would have chosen the distractor ball only 33 percent of the time when they could not remember the target ball's color.

Four control trials, in which participants reported the color of the target ball and number of times the target ball was passed, followed the trial containing the surprise question. For these trials, the response error was once again lower. Only 14 percent of participants responded incorrectly in the control trials, as compared to 37 percent in the surprise trial.

"What we're showing is that attention is not enough to ensure accurate memory," said Wyble. "You need some kind of expectation that attributing certain features to the object is important."

This indicates that much of what a person can remember is based on their expectation of the information they will need to recall. Once participants realized they would need to report the color of the ball, they were able to do so with high accuracy.

To ensure the results were robust, the entire experiment was repeated a second time with a new group of participants. The new experiment replicated the results of the previous experiment, which provides additional confidence that these surprising memory failures are a genuine effect.

कपाल झर्न नदिन के गर्ने, के गर्दै नगर्ने ?

कपाल झर्ने समस्या अहिले आम बनेको छ । युवा अवस्थामै कपाल झरेर बुढ्यौलीको महशुस गर्दै तनाव लिनेहरु थुप्रै छन् । त्यसैले कपाल झरिसकेपछि उमार्न अनेक उृपाय लगाउनुभन्दा झर्न नदिने निम्न उपाय अपनाउन सकिन्छ ।

– नुहाएपछि टाउकोमा घ्युकुमारी दल्ने र १५ मिनटपछि धुने । यसो गर्नाले पनि कपाल झर्ने क्रम रोकिन्छ । सातामा तीनपटक यस्तो गरेमा चाँडै सुधार देख्न पाइन्छ ।
– पानीमा नीमको पात हालेर पानी आधा नसुकुञ्जेल उमाल्ने र यसरी उमालेको पानी सेलाएपछि कपाल धुनाले कपाल बलियो हुन्छ । नीमपानीले नुहाउँदा पानी आँखामा नपरोस् भन्नेमा ध्यान दिनुपर्छ ।
– सुकेको अमला तोरी अथवा नरिवलको तेलमा केही बेर भिजाइ मसाज गर्दा कपाल बलियो हुन्छ ।
– राति मेथी भिजाउने, बिहान यसलाई राम्रोसँग पिस्ने र कपालको जरासम्म लाग्नेगरी टाउकोमा दल्ने । ४० मिनेटपछि कपाल धुने । यसो गर्दा कपाल झर्ने क्रम रोकिन्छ ।
– प्याज पिसेर यसको रस निकाल्ने, त्यसमा रुवा चोपेर कपालको टुप्पोदेखि फेदसम्म लाग्नेगरी दल्ने र ४० मिनेटपछि धुनाले कपाल झर्न रोकिन्छ ।
– ग्रीन टीको दुईवटा ब्याग तीन कप तातो पानीमा डुबाउने र यसलाई नसेलाइञ्जेलसम्म त्यसै छोडिदिने । त्यसपछि सेलाएको पानीले कपाल धुने अथवा मसाज गर्ने । यसो गर्दा कपाल बलियो हुन्छ ।
– अण्डाको पहेँलो भाग हटाइ सेतो भाग कपालको जरासम्म पुग्नेगरी टाउकोमा दल्ने र २० मिनेटपछि नुहाउने । अण्डामा रहेको प्रोटिन, भिटामिनले कपाल झर्ने क्रम रोक्छ ।
– कपाल बढी नै झर्ने गरेको छ भने सातामा पाँच दिन करिब ३० मिनेटका हिसाबले व्यायाम गर्नुपर्छ । व्यायाम गर्दा टाउकाको रक्तसञ्चार तीव्र भई अक्सिजन पुग्छ र कपाल कमजोर हुन पाउँदैन ।
– कपाल झर्ने समस्या भएकाले प्रोटिन, आइरन, जिंक, सल्फर, भिटामिन–सी, भिटामिन–बी युक्त खानामा जोड दिनुपर्छ । यसले कपाललाई बलियो बनाउँछ ।
– समयसमयमा कपालमा मेहदी लगाउनाले  पनि कपाल बलियो हुन्छ ।
– कपाल बलियो बनाउन र झर्न नदिन सातामा दुईपटक कपालमा अमला, बदाम, जैतुन, नरिवल, तोरीको तेल लगाउनुपर्छ ।

के नगर्ने ?
– कपाल झर्ने समस्या भएकाले कपाल कसेर बाँध्नु हुँदैन ।
– कपाल भर्ने समस्या छ भने कपाल कोरिरहनु हुँदैन । यसो गर्दा कपाल झर्ने क्रम बढ्न जान्छ ।
– कपाल झर्ने समस्या छ भने घाममा धेरै हिँड्डुल गर्नु हुँदैन । घाममा निस्किँदा छाता बोक्नुपर्छ ।
– कपाल बढी नै झर्ने गरेको छ भने बढी तातो पानीले नुहाउनु हुँदैन ।
– कपाल नझरोस् भन्ने चाहनेले कपाल रंगाउने, स्ट्रेट गर्नु हुँदैन । कपाललाई प्राकृतिक अवस्थामै रहन दिनुपर्छ ।
– कपाल भर्ने समस्या भएकाले नुहाएपछि कपाल जोडसँग पुछ्नु हुँदैन ।
– कपाल झर्ने समस्या छ भने रातो मासु कम खानुपर्छ ।
– फर्सीको बियाँ (सुकाएको), बन्दा, ब्रोकाउली, काउली, दाल आदि बढी खानुपर्छ ।
– जंक फुडमा क्यालोरीको मात्रामात्रै उच्च  हुने र अन्य पोषक तत्व नहुने भएकाले यसले कपाल थप झार्न सक्छ

Innovative collaboration leads to improved discharge outcomes for children with asthma

A new study demonstrates that pediatric patients with asthma who left the hospital with their prescription medications made fewer emergency department (ED) visits after they were discharged than if they were discharged still needing to go to a pharmacy to pick-up their medications. Led by physicians and pharmacists at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and highlighted in this month's issue of Pediatrics, "Meds-in-Hand" helps simplify the lives of patients and families and provides them the opportunity to learn more about how to properly use the medications from the doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who know them best.

Asthma is a common childhood disease affecting some 235 million children worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. It is also the second most costly chronic disease in children in the U.S. A significant portion of the cost - ED visits and admissions - may be avoidable if patients had better access to their prescriptions.

Led by Jonathan Hatoun, MD, MPH, formerly of BMC's department of pediatrics, and James Moses, MD, MPH, a pediatrician and associate chief quality officer at BMC, the group had determined that as many as 37 percent of BMC pediatric patients did not get their prescriptions filled in a timely manner after being discharged for an asthma exacerbation. Recognizing that this was an opportunity to improve care, a team of pediatricians and pharmacists worked together to remove barriers to picking up prescriptions. Barriers include patients and families not having transportation to the local pharmacy, finding time to get to the pharmacy, and having active insurance.

After making improvements in the discharge process for two years, the team reliably discharged 75 percent of patients with "Meds in Hand," meaning the patients had all their medications and did not have to go to a pharmacy after being discharged. The team was able to achieve this success by implementing an in-room delivery service on the day of discharge, eliminating the need to fill prescriptions at another pharmacy. In addition, because the medication was delivered by a BMC pharmacist, patients had the opportunity to learn how to use their medications effectively while in the hospital.

Importantly, this led to a significant reduction in the odds of an ED visit in the 30 days after discharge. Patients discharged with their medications also were more likely to refill their prescriptions.

"While our study was small, it shows that a fairly simple intervention can be administered by the inpatient team to help decrease future ED visits for patients with asthma" Hatoun said, adding "we might expect similar results for other diseases, though more studies need to be done."

Provided by Boston University Medical Center

Anti-inflammatory drug may prevent rapid aging in people with HIV

Anti-inflammatory drug may prevent rapid aging in people with HIV
Shokrollah Elahi is lead author of a study that show an anti-inflammatory drug may prevent accelerated aging in HIV-infected individuals.
New research from the University of Alberta's School of Dentistry shows that a commonly used cholesterol-lowering drug could help people with HIV live longer and enjoy an improved quality of life.

The study, Atorvastatin restricts HIV replication in CD4+ T cells by upregulation of p21, published in AIDS (the official journal of the International AIDS Society), shows that the anti-inflammatory drug atorvastatin (Lipitor) may prevent rapid aging associated with the disease.

"HIV-infected individuals experience accelerated aging in different organs as the results of chronic inflammation and elevated immune activation in them," says Shokrollah Elahi, lead author of the study and immunologist at the School of Dentistry. "If you reduce chronic inflammation, you can enhance their quality of life and expand their life expectancy."

With the availability of antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection has become a chronic disease. But this chronic inflammation state has been linked to rapid aging. As a result, patients now face a new set of challenges such as increased rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke, kidney and liver disease, osteoporosis, neurological disease and non-AIDS-defining malignancies, many of which are more typical of an aging population.

It has been shown that HIV-infected individuals have much higher levels of inflammation within their body than uninfected people do, despite the antiretroviral therapy.

"Human HIV infection is suppressed but not eliminated by the current medication. As a result, viral persistence in the presence of antiretroviral therapy is a major source of inflammation and substantial immune activation, both of which are linked to 'inflammaging'—a concept that contributes to the aging process in HIV-infected individuals," says Elahi. "Our study shows that cholesterol-lowering medication can reduce inflammation and makes CD4 T cells (HIV target cells) less permissible to HIV infection."

The study shows that atorvastatin—the most commonly used cholesterol-lowering medication—effectively reduces immune activation, thereby diminishing the systemic inflammation that leads to premature or accelerated aging.

Because HIV infection also causes lipid abnormalities such as high cholesterol levels in patients, HIV-infected individuals could benefit from this property of atorvastatin.

The researchers also discovered the drug reduces HIV replication by a novel mechanism, making CD4 T cells more resistant to HIV infection.

Elahi says further clinical trial studies may lead researchers to new therapeutic options to more effectively reduce the inflammation and benefit the health of HIV-infected individuals by preventing accelerated aging.

More information: Shokrollah Elahi et al. Atorvastatin restricts HIV replication in CD4+ T cells by upregulation of p21, AIDS (2016). DOI: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000000917

Provided by: University of Alberta

Marijuana smokers five times more likely to develop an alcohol problem

Adults who use marijuana are five times more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder (AUD) —alcohol abuse or dependence— compared with adults who do not use the drug. And adults who already have an alcohol use disorder and use marijuana are more likely to see the problem persist. Results of a study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and the City University of New York appear online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"Our results suggest that cannabis use appears to be associated with an increased vulnerability to developing an alcohol use disorder, even among those without any history of this," said Renee Goodwin, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. "Marijuana use also appears to increase the likelihood that an existing alcohol use disorder will continue over time."

The researchers analyzed data from 27,461 adults enrolled in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions who first used marijuana at a time when they had no lifetime history of alcohol use disorders. The population was assessed at two time points. Adults who had used marijuana at the first assessment and again over the following three years (23 percent) were five times more likely to develop an alcohol use problem, compared with those who had not used marijuana (5 percent). Adult problem drinkers who did not use cannabis were significantly more likely to be in recovery from alcohol use disorders three years later.

"From a public health standpoint we recommend that further research be conducted to understand the pathways underlying these relationships as well as the degree to which various potentially vulnerable population subgroups—youth, for example—are at increased risk," noted Goodwin. "If future research confirms these findings, investigating whether preventing or delaying first use of marijuana might reduce the risk of developing alcohol use disorders among some segments of the population may be worthwhile."

Provided by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

New evidence suggests Zika virus can cross placental barrier, but link with microcephaly remains unclear

Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus. Credit: Cynthia Goldsmith/Centers for Disease Control and PreventionZika virus has been detected in the amniotic fluid of two pregnant women whose foetuses had been diagnosed with microcephaly, according to a study published today in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. The report suggests that Zika virus can cross the placental barrier, but does not prove that the virus causes microcephaly, as more research is needed to understand the link.Researchers also analysed the whole genome of the virus found in the two pregnant women and confirmed that the virus is genetically related to the strain identified during an outbreak of Zika virus in French Polynesia in 2013."Previous studies have identified Zika virus in the saliva, breast milk and urine of mothers and their newborn babies, after having given birth. This study reports details of the Zika virus being identified directly in the amniotic fluid of a woman during her pregnancy, suggesting that the virus could cross the placental barrier and potentially infect the foetus" said Dr Ana de Filippis, lead author from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.The placental barrier is made up of layers of tissue in the placenta and regulates the exchange of substances (including infections) between the mother and foetus. The amniotic fluid is the protective liquid around the foetus.Dr de Filippis added "This study cannot determine whether the Zika virus identified in these two cases was the cause of microcephaly in the babies. Until we understand the biological mechanism linking Zika virus to microcephaly we cannot be certain that one causes the other, and further research is urgently needed."The number of reported cases of newborn babies with microcephaly in Brazil in 2015 has increased twenty-fold compared with previous years. At the same time, Brazil has reported a high number of Zika virus infections, leading to speculation that the two may be linked. Babies born with microcephaly have abnormally small heads, and are at risk of incomplete brain development. Microcephaly has previously been linked to a range of factors including genetic disorders, drug or chemical intoxication, maternal malnutrition and infections with viruses or bacteria that can cross the placental barrier such as herpes, HIV, or some mosquito borne viruses such as chikungunya.In this study, the team led by Dr de Filippis investigated the case of two women (aged 27 and 35) from Paraiba, a state in northeast Brazil. The two women presented with symptoms of Zika virus infection including fever, muscle pain and a rash during their first trimester of pregnancy. Ultrasounds taken at approximately 22 weeks of pregnancy confirmed the foetuses had microcephaly.Samples of amniotic fluid were taken at 28 weeks of pregnancy and analysed for potential infections. Both patients tested negative for dengue virus, chikungunya virus and other infections such as HIV, syphilis and herpes. Although the two women's blood and urine samples tested negative for Zika virus, their amniotic fluid tested positive for Zika virus genome and Zika antibodies. The amniotic fluid was analysed using a process called metagenomic analysis. This allows the detection of any microorganism that could be present in the samples, but only Zika virus genome was found. The RNA of the two Zika virus samples was then compared with samples from previous outbreaks, and was found to be genetically related to the strain identified in French Polynesia in 2013.Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Didier Musso from the Unit of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Institut Louis Malarde in Tahiti, French Polynesia, says: "Even if all these data strongly suggest that Zika virus can cause microcephaly, the number of microcephaly cases related to Zika virus is still unknown. The next step will be to do case-control studies to estimate the potential risk of microcephaly after Zika virus infection during pregnancy, other fetal or neonatal complications, and long-term outcomes for infected symptomatic and asymptomatic neonates." Explore further: Zika virus: Five things to knowMore information: The Lancet Infectious Diseases, www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(16)00095-5/abstract 

What are gravitational waves? Readability Score: 7.6 What's this?

Energy from large, dramatic events in space create tiny waves that can ripple past Earth
BY CHRISTOPHER CROCKETT AND
ANDREW GRANT
This is an artist’s rendering of the gravity waves emanating from the movement of massive celestial bodies, such as two black holes.
CALTECH/MIT/LIGO LAB
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space. Throw a rock into a pond and it will create ripples — waves in the water — that appear to stretch and squeeze back again. Similarly, accelerating masses should send gravity waves into space. These ripples would cause space to stretch and squeeze back again.
On February 11, 2016, after decades of trying to directly detect such waves, scientists announced that they appear to have found them. The waves came from another galaxy far, far away. How far? Try between 750 million and 1.86 billion light-years away! There, two black holes collided, shaking the fabric of space and time, or spacetime . Here on Earth, two giant detectors in different parts of the United States quivered as gravity waves washed over them.
In his theory of general relativity, Albert Einstein predicted that ripples in spacetime should radiate energy away from enormously violent events, such as colliding stars. Such events are powerful. Still, the ripples they trigger are subtle. By the time they reach Earth, some compress spacetime by as little as the width of a proton. (A proton is one of the particles that makes up an atom.)
The newfound waves were picked up by the recently upgraded Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory. It is now known as "advanced" LIGO. To spot a signal, LIGO uses a special mirror to split a beam of laser light. The mirror sends each beam down one of two 4-kilometer-long tubes. These tubes sit at a 90-degree angle to each other. Light ricochets back and forth 400 times down each tunnel in the detector. This turns each beam’s journey into a 1,600 kilometer (990 mile) roundtrip. Then the light recombines near its source.
The experiment was designed so that under normal conditions the light waves will cancel one another out when they recombine. When that happens, no signal moves on to a nearby detector.
But a gravity wave will stretch one tube while squeezing the other. That alters the distance the two beams travel relative to one another. Make no mistake: The difference is tiny. But it's enough that when the beams recombine, their waves no longer align perfectly align. Because they no longer cancel each other out, the detector will pick up a faint glow. This signals a passing gravity wave.
To ensure the signal is not triggered by some local phenomenon (and to help scientists triangulate its source), LIGO has two detectors. One is in Louisiana and another is in Washington State. Any signal appearing at only one detector — meaning it’s local — will be ignored.
Explainer: What is a computer model?
Scientists initially found gravity waves coming from the collision of two black holes. But those are not the only sources they think they will be able to detect. By working with computer simulations, also known as computer models , scientists can figure out what type of signals to expect from other sources.
A neutron star is the core left behind after a massive star explodes. A spinning neutron star should whip up spacetime at frequencies similar to those produced by colliding black holes.
Powerful explosions known as supernovas are triggered when a massive star dies. They can shake up space and blast the cosmos with a burst of high-frequency gravity waves.
Pairs of gargantuan black holes, each more than 1 million times as massive as the sun — and larger than the ones that Advanced LIGO detected — radiate long, undulating waves. Advanced LIGO can’t detect waves at this frequency. But scientists might spot them by looking for subtle variations in the steady beats of pulsars. Pulsars are spinning, ultra-dense neutron stars.
The Big Bang might have triggered universe-sized gravitational waves 13.8 billion years ago. These waves would have left an imprint on the first light released into the cosmos 380,000 years later. Scientists now are looking for these waves today in the cosmic microwave background. That’s the radiation left behind from the Big Bang.
Power Words
(for more about Power Words, click here )
acceleration A change in the speed or direction of some object.
atom The basic unit of a chemical element. Atoms are made up of a dense nucleus that contains positively charged protons and neutrally charged neutrons. The nucleus is orbited by a cloud of negatively charged electrons.
black hole A region of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation (including light) can escape.
Big Bang The rapid expansion of dense matter that, according to current theory, marked the origin of the universe. It is supported by physics’ current understanding of the composition and structure of the universe.
compression Pressing on one or more sides of something in order to reduce its volume.
computer model A program that runs on a computer that creates a model, or simulation, of a real-world feature, phenomenon or event.
cosmic An adjective that refers to the cosmos — the universe and everything within it.
cosmic microwave backgroundradiation
The heat left over from the Big Bang and that should exist throughout the universe. It is estimated to be about 2.725 degrees above absolute zero.
cosmos (adj. cosmic ) A term that refers to the universe and everything within it.
frequency The number of times a specified periodic phenomenon occurs within a specified time interval. (In physics) The number of wavelengths that occurs over a particular interval of time.
galaxy (adj. galactic ) A massive group of stars bound together by gravity. Galaxies, which each typically include between 10 million and 100 trillion stars, also include clouds of gas, dust and the remnants of exploded stars.
general relativity A set of mathematical expressions that define gravity and space over time (also known as spacetime). It was first published by Albert Einstein in November 1915. The field of research that focuses on this is described as relativistic .
gravitational waves (also known as gravity waves) Ripples in the fabric of space that are produced when masses undergo sudden acceleration. Some are believed to have been unleashed during the Big Bang, when the universe got its explosive start.
gravity Schools tend to teach that gravity is the force that attracts anything with mass, or bulk, toward any other thing with mass. The more mass that something has, the greater its gravity. But Einstein’s general theory of relativity redefined it, showing that gravity is not an ordinary force, but instead a property of space-time geometry. Gravity essentially can be viewed as a curve in spacetime, because as a body moves through space, it follows a curved path owing to the far greater mass of one or more objects in its vicinity.
laser A device that generates an intense beam of coherent light of a single color. Lasers are used in drilling and cutting, alignment and guidance, in data storage and in surgery.
light-year The distance light travels in one year, about 9.48 trillion kilometers (almost 6 trillion miles). To get some idea of this length, imagine a rope long enough to wrap around the Earth. It would be a little over 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) long. Lay it out straight. Now lay another 236 million more that are the same length, end-to-end, right after the first. The total distance they now span would equal one light-year.
LIGO (short for Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory ) A system of two detectors, separated at a great geographical distance, that are used to register the presence of passing gravitational waves.
mass A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down — basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.
neutron star The very dense corpse of what had once been a star with a mass four to eight times that of our sun. As the star died in a supernova explosion, its outer layers shot out into space. Its core then collapsed under its intense gravity, causing protons and electrons in its atoms to fuse into neutrons (hence the star’s name). Astronomers believe neutron stars form when large stars undergo a supernova but aren’t big massive enough to form a black hole. A single teaspoonful of a neutron star, on Earth, would weigh a billion tons.
particle A minute amount of something.
phenomenon Something that is surprising or unusual.
proton A subatomic particle that is one of the basic building blocks of the atoms that make up matter. Protons belong to the family of particles known as hadrons.
pulsar The name for a spinning, ultra-dense neutron star. A single teaspoonful, on Earth, would weigh a billion tons. It represents the end of life for stars that had started out four to eight times the mass of our sun. As the star died in a supernova explosion, its outer layers shot out into space. Its core then collapsed under its intense gravity, causing protons and electrons in the atoms that had made it up to fuse into neutrons (hence the star’s name). When these stars rotate, they emits short, regular pulses of radio waves or X-rays (and occasionally both at alternate intervals).
radiation (in physics) One of the three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are conduction and convection.) In radiation, electromagnetic waves carry energy from one place to another. Unlike conduction and convection, which need material to help transfer the energy, radiation can transfer energy across empty space.
simulate To deceive in some way by imitating the form or function of something. A simulated dietary fat, for instance, may deceive the mouth that it has tasted a real fat because it has the same feel on the tongue — without having any calories. A simulated sense of touch may fool the brain into thinking a finger has touched something even though a hand may no longer exists and has been replaced by a synthetic limb. (in computing) To try and imitate the conditions, functions or appearance of something. Computer programs that do this are referred to as simulations .
spacetime A term made essential by Einstein’s theory of relativity, it describes a designation for some spot given in terms of its three-dimensional coordinates in space, along with a fourth coordinate corresponding to time.
star The basic building block from which galaxies are made. Stars develop when gravity compacts clouds of gas. When they become dense enough to sustain nuclear-fusion reactions, stars will emit light and sometimes other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The sun is our closest star.
subtle Some feature that may be important, but can be hard to see or describe. For instance, the first cellular changes that signal the start of a cancer may be visible but subtle — small and hard to distinguish from nearby healthy tissues.
supernova (plural: supernovae or
supernovas) A massive star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass.
theory (in science) A description of some aspect of the natural world based on extensive observations, tests and reason. A theory can also be a way of organizing a broad body of knowledge that applies in a broad range of circumstances to explain what will happen. Unlike the common definition of theory, a theory in science is not just a hunch. Ideas or conclusions that are based on a theory — and not yet on firm data or observations — are referred to as theoretical . Scientists who use mathematics and/or existing data to project what might happen in new situations are known as theorists.
triangulate To figure out where something is by analyzing the timing of signals arriving at different receivers.
undulate To rise and fall in a predictable, wavelike way. This pattern can refer to motion, sound or shapes. Ocean waves are one example of undulations. So is the wavelike motion of a snake.
universe The entire cosmos: All things that exist throughout space and time. It has been expanding since its formation during an event known as the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago (give or take a few hundred million years).
wave A disturbance or variation that travels through space and matter in a regular, oscillating fashion.
Further Reading
A. Grant. “Gravity waves detected at last.” Science News for Students.
February 11, 2015.
M. Bartusiak. “ How to catch a gravity wave .” Science News for Students . February 11, 2016.
A. Grant. “New recipe for monster black holes .” Science News for Students . January 11, 2016.
A. Grant. “Zombie stars: A source of gravitational waves? ” Science News for Students. December 28, 2015.
T. Siegfried. “Einstein taught us: It’s all relative.” Science News for Students. November 4, 2015.
A. Grant. “Dust erases evidence of primordial gravity waves .” Science News for Students. February 10, 2015.
J. Raloff. “ Picture This: Smiley face in space!” Science News for Students. February 9, 2015.
C. Crockett. “Black holes are on collision course.” Science News for Students. January 18, 2015.
S. Ornes. “ Waves from the birth of time.” Science News for Students. March 22, 2014.
Orginal Journal Source : B. P. Abbott et al . Observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger . Physical Review Letters . Published online February 11, 2016. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102.

Pregnancy and PTSD: Surprising findings could help moms-to-be at risk

For most women, expecting a baby brings intense joy —and a fair amount of worry.

But what about women who have lived through something awful enough to cause post-traumatic stress disorder?

Contrary to what researchers expected, a new study shows that pregnancy may actually reduce their PTSD symptoms. Or at the least, it won't cause a flare-up.

The news isn't all good, though.

For about one in four women with PTSD, the opposite is true, the researchers find. Not only do their symptoms get worse as their pregnancy goes on, but their ability to bond with their newborn suffers, and they face a high risk of post-partum depression.

The findings, made by a University of Michigan Medical School and School of Nursing team, highlight the need to screen pregnant women for possible undiagnosed PTSD.

The study, published in the journal Depression and Anxiety, is the first to track symptoms in women with PTSD through pregnancy and after giving birth.

Past PTSD doesn't mean problems in pregnancy

More than half of the 319 women in the study had high PTSD symptoms in the first part of pregnancy - and all members of this group experienced a decrease as they got closer to giving birth. Women who had low levels of symptoms early on stayed about the same.

But for some, PTSD got worse as pregnancy went on. Those who suffered a new stress or trauma during pregnancy, or who had the most anxiety about giving birth, had the worst experience with PTSD symptoms during pregnancy, and post-birth problems.

"We hope our results give a message of hope that women who have a past diagnosis of PTSD aren't all headed for a worsening while they're pregnant," says Maria Muzik, M.D., M.S., the U-M psychiatrist who led the study. "But we also have highlighted a vulnerable group that has a heightened risk of worsening symptom and postnatal issues that could have lasting effects for both mother and child."

Many women at risk of undiagnosed PTSD

Muzik notes that PTSD can be caused by many things - such as combat, car crashes, being robbed or raped, living through a natural disaster or house fire, or being the victim of abuse in childhood or adulthood. With so many possible causes, many women may not have had a formal diagnosis of PTSD before their pregnancy, but may be suffering lasting effects from their trauma.

So, the researchers cast a wide net to find the women for their study. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the original study was called the STACY Project for Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and the Childbearing Year, and headed up by Julia Seng, PHD, CNM, FAAN, a professor in the U-M School of Nursing.

Nurses at prenatal clinics run by three academic health centers, including ones that served mostly women who rely on public insurance, invited thousands of women to participate in the larger STACY study. The new data come from the subset of women who met the formal diagnostic criteria for PTSD either at the time of their pregnancy or in their past, based on detailed interviews using standard measures.

The team interviewed the women at two points during their pregnancy, and were able to interview about half the women again in the first six weeks of motherhood.

The researchers saw four groups emerge when they looked at the results of the surveys done during pregnancy: those who started high and got either moderately or substantially better, those who started low and stayed the same, and those who started relatively low but got worse.

Women with the strongest social support networks during pregnancy appeared to be protected from the risk of worsening PTSD. That means that partners, relatives and friends can make a real difference for a pregnant woman.

Muzik heads the Women and Infants Mental Health Program in the U-M Department of Psychiatry, which serves women experiencing mood and trauma-related issues during and after pregnancy.

She hopes that the new results will encourage providers who care for pregnant women to make PTSD screening part of their regular prenatal care. "With a few questions and screening measures, they can identify women who are experiencing risk factors, and heighten their awareness for support and treatment," she says. "Preventing the worsening of symptoms could reduce their chance of post-birth illness, and protect their future child from the lasting ill effects that a mother's mental illness can have."

More information: Maria Muzik et al. PTSD SYMPTOMS ACROSS PREGNANCY AND EARLY POSTPARTUM AMONG WOMEN WITH LIFETIME PTSD DIAGNOSIS, Depression and Anxiety (2016). DOI: 10.1002/da.22465
Provided by University of Michigan Health System

Fish, other mosquitoes now warriors in Zika battle

With larva-chomping fish and genetically modified insects, Latin Americans are deploying legions of little helpers to destroy mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus in the world's latest mass health scare.

Scientists are devising numerous ways to try and stamp out the mosquitoes whose bites spread the virus, which they suspect can cause brain damage in babies and paralysis in adults.

Some want to wipe out baby mosquito larvae in standing water where the insects breed. Others propose to zap the male mosquitoes' privates with radiation to make them impotent.

Still others just want a plain old toad in their home to gobble any mosquitoes that buzz in.

In San Diego Beach on the Pacific coast of El Salvador, fishermen use fat sleeper fish to devour the mosquitoes while they are still wingless larvae.

"They are true warriors in the fight against Zika. They eat all the mosquito larvae in the barrels where we store our water," said Rafael Gonzalez, 30, a local fisherman.

"Everyone helps out," adds Marielos Sosa, the initiative's organizer.

"The young people help catch the fish in the estuary. The adults keep an eye on the water stocks in their homes."

This prevents the need to fumigate homes and water storage sites, as many towns are doing.

Zika in Latin America
Map showing the number of cases of the Zika virus in Latin America
"Fumigation can be effective in reducing the adult mosquito population, but it is not as effective against other forms of the mosquito such as larvae," said Carissa Etienne, head of the Pan American Health Organization.

Fumigation by workers in overalls spraying smoke "has a political impact because it is visually striking, but we are not sure whether it is really effective in fighting the Aedes Aegypti mosquito," the species that carries Zika, she said.

Killing mosquitoes with asparagus

Before Zika hit the region, Latin American countries had developed various techniques for fighting these mosquitoes, which also carry fevers such as dengue and chikungunya.

In Peru, biologist Palmira Ventosilla in 1992 devised an organic insecticide made from coco, yucca, asparagus and potatoes—a recipe endorsed by the World Health Organization.

Natural so-called biolarvicides "are cheap and non-toxic and can be used by the public," Ventosilla told AFP.

The treatment devised by her team at Peru's Cayetano Heredia University uses the vegetable mixture to nourish and multiply a bacteria that destroys the larvae.

A kit developed by the university including a sprinkler to apply the insecticide costs about a dollar and can kill off larvae in 10 minutes, Ventosilla said.

Health Ministry employees fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, vector of the dengue, Zika and Chikungunya viruses in Gua
Health Ministry employees fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, vector of the dengue, Zika and Chikungunya viruses in Guatemala City
"It is a simple method that we are showing to the public so they can produce it themselves."

In neighboring Colombia, the second worst-hit country in the Zika outbreak after Brazil, scientists are fighting mosquitoes with mosquitoes.

Tropical disease specialists at Antioquia University are trying to spread among mosquitoes a bacteria known as Wolbachia, which blocks their ability to pass on disease to humans.

"No one is really thinking they can eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito completely. The aim is to keep its numbers so low that it does not pass on the illness," said the director of the project, Ivan Dario Velez.

Teams in Brazil and Panama meanwhile are experimenting with male mosquitoes that are genetically modified in such a way that when they mate, the resulting larvae die off.

Sterilizing mosquitoes

In Mexico, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, said it was testing the use of radiation to stop the mosquitoes breeding.

Scientists hope to use radiation "to make the male mosquito sterile, so then he goes back to his habitat and even if he mates, the female will not have any offspring," Amano was quoted as saying by Mexican magazine Reforma.

"Bit by bit, the insect's population gets reduced and in the end it is eradicated."

In Argentina, online vendors are hawking frogs and toads for $7 each.

They are touting them as a protection against Zika, and especially against the more common dengue fever—and as an alternative to mosquito repellents or insecticides.

Those chemical products are often sold out in shops and the government has warned that Aedes Aegypti is resisting fumigation efforts.

Argentina has only reported a handful of Zika infections among travelers returning from abroad, but like Mexico it has thousands of cases of dengue.

In the 1960s Latin America brought Aedes Aegypti under control but "it started multiplying again due to carelessness by the authorities," Velez said.

"Right now, the situation is more complicated. The mosquito is present in more towns, there is more population movement and global warming is helping it survive," he warned.

"But if the government adopts policies to bring it under control, it can be done."

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