Year: 2021

Categories : PaediatricsTags :

Mothers’ Touch Synchronises Brainwaves and Heart With Babies

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Photo by William Fortunato on Pexels

A new study found that when mothers had close physical contact and played with their babies, their brain activity and heart rhythms synchronised.

Touch is fundamental to interpersonal communication, and was not until recently it was not known how affectionate touch and physical contact affect the brain activity and heart rhythms of mothers and babies. Developmental psychologists Trinh Nguyen and Stefanie Höhl from the University of Vienna have investigated this question in a study published in NeuroImage. 

Affectionate touch and bodily contact create social connections and can reduce stress. This effect has been observed in romantic couples, linked to a mutual alignment of brain activity and heart rhythms.  Since touch is a fundamental mode of communication between caregiver and infant, Trinh Nguyen, Stefanie Höhl and US colleagues sought to find out whether proximity and touch also contribute to the attunement of brain and heart rhythms between mother and baby.

In the new study, four to six-month-old babies played and watched videos together with their mothers. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure brain activity while electrocardiography (ECG) was used to simultaneously assess the heart rhythms of mother and baby. With fNIRS, changes in oxygen saturation are recorded in the outermost layer of the brain – here in particular in the frontal brain. Activation in this region is associated with mutual emotional attunement, attentiveness and self-regulation. These processes are particularly relevant for social interactions and develop during the first years.

The results showed that mother-baby pairs mutually adjusted their brain activity, especially when they touched each other. Mutual neural adjustment occurred when the mother held the baby close to her body and both watched a video together, and when they played together face-to-face and the mother lovingly touched the baby. The new study shows that touch plays a fundamental role in the early adaptation of brain activity between mothers and infants. An adaptation of heart rhythms was also shown when mother and baby played together, but it was independent of touch. In the case of the heartbeat, a mutual adaptation was particularly evident when babies signalled discomfort, which was presumably transmitted to the mothers.

The researchers next want to investigate how this mutual attunement in brain activity and heart rhythms affects long term development, particularly the later relationship between mother and child, as well as children’s language development.

Source: University of Vienna

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

Exercise Reduces Sleep Apnoea and Improves Brain Function

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In a small study, researchers found that exercise could help reduce sleep apnoea symptoms and improve brain function.

Sleep apnoea is characterised by loud snoring and disrupted breathing and is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline. It is typically treated with continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which is uncomfortable for patients and often not adhered to. 

“Exercise training appears to be an attractive and adjunctive (add-on) non-pharmacological treatment,” said lead investigator Linda Massako Ueno-Pardi, an associate professor at the School of Arts, Science and Humanities at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. She also is a research collaborator at the university’s Heart Institute and Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine.

Sleep apnoea is more common in men than women and becomes more prevalent as people age.  According to a scientific statement by the American Heart Association, between 40% and 80% of people with cardiovascular disease have sleep apnoea. Cigarette smoking and type 2 diabetes are among the risk factors for sleep apnoea, as well as obesity, which narrows the airway when sleeping.

People with sleep apnoea have been shown to experience a decrease in brain glucose metabolism, which can impair cognitive function. The researchers sought to find out whether exercise could help correct that, building on a small 2019 study where aerobic activity improved brain glucose metabolism and executive functioning in Alzheimer’s patients.

The new study recruited 47 adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea. Half did 60 minutes of supervised exercise three times a week for six months, and the other half were a control group.

Participants in both groups were given a series of tests to measure exercise capacity, brain glucose metabolism and cognitive function, including attention and executive function. Obstructive sleep apnoea symptom severity was measured, such as hypoxia.

At the end of six months, those in the exercise group showed an increased capacity for exercise; improvements in brain glucose metabolism; sleep apnoea symptom reduction; and a boost in cognitive function, including a 32% improvement in attention and executive function. The control group experienced no changes except a decline in brain glucose metabolism.

A “significant reduction” seen in the exercise group’s body fat may have improved sleep apnoea severity by decreasing body fat, especially around the airways.

Source: American Heart Association

Categories : GeneticsTags :

Briefly Quitting Cannabis Can Reduce its Genetic Effects in Sperm

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While cannabis use may impact some autism-linked genes in men’s sperm, briefly quitting cannabis over time may significantly lower many of those effects, according to a new study.

This study, published online in Environmental Epigenetics, followed several other studies at Duke University that linked cannabis use to epigenetic changes (alteration of expression without changing genes) present in sperm, including genes in early development.

This new study aimed to find out if cannabis abstinence could reduce such epigenetic changes. The results showed marijuana users who stopped using cannabis for 77 days produced sperm lacking most of the significant changes found when the men were actively using cannabis.
Study author Susan Murphy, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine, said the results may suggest that marijuana abstinence could result in washout of sperm with the drug’s epigenetic effects. More research is needed for lingering epigenetic effects after abstinence, but there are immediate implications for some.

“Stopping cannabis use for as long as possible – at least for a 74-day period before trying to conceive – would be a good idea,” she said. “If someone is really serious about that, I would say to stop cannabis use for as long as possible prior to conception – meaning multiple spermatogenic cycles.”

“Is it going to fix everything? Probably not,” Prof Murphy said. “We know there are other epigenetic changes that emerged in the ‘after’ sample that we don’t understand yet – and some of those changes are troubling, like an enrichment of other genes related to autism. But it does appear that the things that were the most severely affected in the ‘before’ sample seem to be mitigated by the abstinence period in the ‘after’ samples.”

The study took a baseline sperm sample from marijuana users and non-marijuana users, then followed both groups as the marijuana-using group abstained from cannabis for 77 days – a period spanning the average time it takes for a sperm to mature, which is 74 days. Researchers collected a second sample from both groups after the 77-day period.

During baseline tests, the marijuana-consuming group produced sperm with changes in line with previous studies, which showed altered epigenetic information, including changes in genes linked to early development and neurodevelopmental disorders. With a 77-day abstinence period, this same group was able to produce sperm that had far less altered epigenetic information at the same genes.

The post-abstinence sample was also much more in line with the samples produced by the non-cannabis-using control group.

Prof Murphy says further research is needed to see if the remaining epigenetic changes observed in the sperm of cannabis consumers, when they abstain, carry over into development after fertilisation.

“We don’t know yet whether the alterations that we’re seeing are at genes that have a stable characteristic,” she said, “or if they are in genes that get reprogrammed and really are going to be of no consequence to the child.”

In any case, Prof Murphy says this work is not about legalisation, rather about giving people the power to make informed decisions for themselves.

“I think that we deserve to know what the biological consequences are so that if you are planning to have a child, or even for your own health, you can make an informed decision about whether you want to use it and when, and that’s not really an option right now because we don’t know what it does,” Prof Murphy said.

Source: Duke University

Categories : COVIDTags :

SA Presses UK Over Travel Restrictions as Lockdown Eases

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As the country gets back to Level 1 lockdown, pressure is mounting on the UK to revise its travel restrictions for SA.

The drop to Level 1 was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday, September 30. The restrictions include a midnight to 4am curfew, and restaurants to close at 11pm. Alcohol sales are likewise permitted until 11pm, and large events of up to 750 people indoors and 2000 people outdoors can be held.

This is accompanied by a renewed vaccine drive, to reach a goal of vaccinating 70% of the adult population by year end, President Ramaphosa announced.

“To reach our goal we need to administer an additional 16 million vaccine doses this year, which amounts to around 250 000 first dose vaccinations every single workday of every week until mid-December,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa is hopeful that SA will be taken off of the UK’s ‘red list’, which means travellers travelling or returning to the UK must quarantine for ten days in a government-designated hotel at a cost of over £2000 (R40 500). The tourist industry, which has lost half a million jobs, is pressing for SA to be removed from the UK’s red list in time for the festive season, which sees many British travellers coming to enjoy the summer here.

Former UK cabinet minister Peter Hain this week also called on the UK to release SA from its travel red list, calling it a “ludicrous” decision, as it was not backed up by science.

“SA has a low infection rate: just a tenth of the infections in the UK and a similarly low fraction compared with much of Europe.  It has only one variant in circulation, exactly the same variant as in the UK, Delta,” Hain said in a statement on Thursday.

Ramaphosa said that spoke with UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Thursday, and was hopeful of a “positive outcome” in a few days.

“Our greatest priority now is to ensure that the economy recovers as quickly as possible so that we can create jobs and help businesses to get back on their feet,” he said.

Source: BusinessTech

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Environmental EffectsTags :

High Altitude Protects against Stroke Risk

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While there are well-known common lifestyle and health factors that contribute to stroke risk, including smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and lack of physical activity, there is another overlooked factor that could also affect stroke risk – altitude.

Higher altitude means less oxygen availability, to which people living there have adapted. However, how this environment affects someone’s risk for stroke is still unclear. Anecdotal evidence suggests that short-term exposure to low oxygen can contribute to increased blood clotting and stroke risk, but the risk among people who permanently live at high altitude is not clear.

Researchers in Ecuador are in a unique position to explore these phenomena, as the presence of the Ecuadorian Andes means that people in the country live at a wide array of altitudes. Study lead author Esteban Ortiz-Prado, and Professor, Universidad de las Americas, explained:

“The main motivation of our work was to raise awareness of a problem that is very little explored. That is, more than 160 million people live above 2500 metres and there is very little information regarding epidemiological differences in terms of stroke at altitude. We wanted to contribute to new knowledge in this population that is often considered to be the same as the population living at sea level, and from a physiological point of view we are very different.”

The researchers drew on hospital records in Ecuador from between 2001 and 2017, and analysed rates of stroke hospitalisation and mortality among people who live at four different elevation ranges: low altitude (under 1500m), moderate altitude (1500­–2500m), high altitude (2500–3500m) and very high altitude (3500–5500m).

Analysis showed that people who lived at higher altitudes (above 2500m) tended to experience stroke at a later age compared with those at lower altitudes. Intriguingly, people who lived at higher altitudes had a lower stroke hospitalisation or mortality risk. This protective effect was greater between 2000 and 3500m, tapering off somewhat above 3500m. In South Africa, Johannesburg sits above 1700m altitude.

One explanation for this finding may be that people who live at high altitude have adapted to the low oxygen conditions, and more readily grow new blood vessels to help overcome stroke-related damage. They may also have a more developed vascular network in their brains that helps them to make the most of the oxygen they take in, but this could also protect them from the worst effects of stroke.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : Gender General InterestTags :

Gender Behavioural Differences Strengthened in Lockdown

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‘Stereotypical’ gender behaviour differences were exaggerated during the COVID lockdown in Austria, according to a recent study published in Scientific Reports. 

Men and women conducted themselves differently in the wake of the COVD lockdown in Austria, with women spending more time on the phone while men returned to crowded and public areas more quickly.

Using mobile phone data from 1.2 million devices in Austria (representing 15% of the population) across the first phase of the COVID pandemic, researchers quantified gender-specific patterns of communication intensity, mobility, and circadian rhythms. They noted the resilience of behavioural patterns with respect to the shock imposed by a strict nation-wide lock-down that Austria experienced in the beginning of the crisis with severe implications on public and private life. They found significant differences in gender-specific responses during the different phases of the pandemic. They found that following lockdown, gender differences in mobility and communication patterns increased massively, while circadian rhythms tended to synchronise.

In particular, women had fewer but longer phone calls than men during the lock-down. Phone calls involving women lasted significantly longer on average, with big differences depending on who was calling whom. After the first lockdown in Austria was imposed on March 16, calls between women were up to 1.5 times longer than before the crisis (140% increase), while calls from men to women lasted nearly twice as long. Conversely, when women called men, they talked 80 percent longer, while the duration of calls between men rose only by 66 percent.

“Of course, we don’t know the content or purpose of these calls,” says Georg Heiler, a researcher at CSH and TU Wien, who was responsible for data processing. “Yet, literature from the social sciences provides evidence — mostly from small surveys, polls, or interviews — that women tend to choose more active strategies to cope with stress, such as talking with others. Our study would confirm that.”

Mobility declined massively for both genders, however, women tended to restrict their movement stronger than men. Women also showed a stronger tendency to avoid shopping centres and more men frequented recreational areas. 

After the lockdown, males returned back to normal quicker than females; and young and adolescent age-cohorts returned much quicker. An age stratification highlights the role of retirement on behavioural differences. They found that the length of a day for men and women is reduced by one hour. 

Source: Complexity Science Hub Vienna

Categories : COVID Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Is There a Wave of Teenage Lockdown Pregnancies in SA?

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An article in The Outlier examines whether the spike in teenage pregnancies in Gauteng could signal a tsunami of teenage pregnancies caused by the lockdown and increased sexual assaults.

In August the Gauteng MEC for health, Nomathemba Mokgethi, revealed that 23 226 teenage girls had fallen pregnant in the province between April 2020 and March 2021. This came in a written response to questions from the DA tabled in the Gauteng legislature. Alarmingly, 934 of them were between the ages of 10 and 14, where the age of consent is 16.

There were 20 250 babies born to teenage mothers aged 10 to 19, according to the Gauteng MEC in a response to a question in the Gauteng Legislature; 2976 pregnancies were terminated. From the start of the year to August, 118 babies were abandoned in public hospitals, some of them likely by teenage mothers.

A preliminary understanding of the impact of the pandemic on teen pregnancies can be seen through data from the annual District Health Barometer (DHB) report, which shows the number of deliveries recorded in public health facilities.

An increase in teenage births of 28% when comparing births to teenage mothers in Gauteng reported in the DBH for 2019/2020 with the Gauteng health department’s number, 
The Gauteng health department also provided a monthly breakdown of the teenage deliveries from April 2020 to March 2021. The months with the highest number of deliveries were May, June, July and August: most of these teenage mothers would have fallen pregnant before COVID hit South Africa.

In the early stages of the COVID pandemic, schools were closed on 18 March 2020, with the hard lockdown starting on 26 March, meaning that pregnancies from that time would be delivered around December 2020, which would likely not be reflected in the DBH for 2019/2020.

Catherine Mathews, director in the Health Systems Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) said it would take time to assess the full impact school closures had on teen pregnancies.  

“We do know that schools can be an important, safe, protective environment for girls, and when schools close, children are often left unsupervised and can be more at risk of sexual violence.”

Contraception has not been readily available to girls and women, with the District Health Barometer 2019/20 noting persistent stock-outs of contraception have been reported since 2018.

The SAMRC surveyed adolescent girls, aged 15 to 24, between 1 December 2020 and 28 February 2021, to find out how they were affected by the pandemic. The Outlier looked at the results for the 15 to 19 age group. Out of the 264 participants in this age group, 23.5% stated that they were unable to obtain contraceptives, while 18.8% reported challenges in accessing condoms due to the pandemic.

But, to connect the increase in teen pregnancies to the inaccessibility of condoms and contraception alone would be to assume that the 23 226 pregnancies were a product of consensual sex, when that may not always have been the case.

Mathews said: “Violence against women and girls in the country is so pervasive in South Africa and we can’t ignore its impact on teenage pregnancy.”

The MEC Mokgethi said, “Cases of statutory rape are reported by healthcare social workers at hospitals and clinics to the Department of Social Development and SAPS,” adding that no cases of statutory rape were collected by the health department.

Data for 2020/21 for the other eight provinces are not available, so it hasn’t been possible to see if this trend is reflected there,
However, the province with the highest percentage of teenagers of mothers giving birth is the Northern Cape at 18% in 2019/20. The Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal follow with 16.7% and 16.4% respectively. Gauteng’s teenage birth rate was 7.5%, the lowest of the provinces.

According to World Bank data on births among women aged 15 to 19 years, South Africa’s 68 births per 1000 women was lower than other Sub-Saharan African countries, it remains higher than the world average of 42 births per 1000 women in that age group.

Source: The Outlier

Categories : Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags :

No Dementia Risk with Hormone Replacement Therapy

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A large UK study found that use of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT, also known as hormone replacement therapy, HRT) is not associated with increased dementia risk.

The study, published in the BMJ, found within the subgroup of women with a specific diagnosis for Alzheimer’s disease, a slight increasing risk association was found with use of oestrogen-progestogen treatments, but only seen for long-term usage (5 years or more).

This study “brings clarity to previously inconsistent findings and should reassure women in need of menopausal hormonal therapy,” said the researchers.

MHT relieves menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, sleep disturbance, mood swings, memory losses and depression. Treatment includes oral tablets with oestrogen only, or oestrogen and progestogen combined, as well as patches, gels and creams.

Early signs of dementia are similar to some menopausal symptoms. Research has shown a beneficial link between oestrogen and age-related brain decline. However, in the largest trial of MHT, the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study, an increased dementia risk was found among users of oestrogen-progestogen treatments. A recent study picked up a possible link to Alzheimer’s disease among users of both oestrogen-only and oestrogen-progestogen treatments, though the study has some issues.

To address this uncertainty, researchers set out to investigate the risks of developing dementia for women using commonly available menopausal hormone therapy treatments.

They used two UK primary care databases to analyse MHT prescriptions for the 118 501 women aged 55 and older diagnosed with dementia between 1998 and 2020 (cases), and 497 416 matched women without dementia (controls).

After adjusting for confounding factors, no overall associations were found between use of hormone therapy and risk of dementia, regardless of hormone type, application, dose, or duration of treatment. Only a slightly decreased risk of dementia was found in one subgroup: those under 80 years who had been taking oestrogen-only therapy for 10 years or more.
Analysis of cases with a specific diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease showed a slight increase in risk associated with oestrogen-progestogen therapy. This rose gradually with each year of exposure, reaching an average 11% increased risk for use of between 5 and 9 years and an average 19% for use of 10 years or more, equivalent to, respectively, five and seven extra cases per 10 000 woman years.

As this is an observational study it cannot establish cause, and some limitations include incomplete recording of menopausal symptoms, particularly for women registered after their menopause. However, its large size counts in its favour.
According to the researchers, this study provides the most detailed estimates of risk for individual treatments, and their results are in line with existing concerns in guidelines about long term exposures to combined hormone therapy treatments.

“The findings will be helpful to policy makers, doctors, and patients when making choices about hormone therapy,” they concluded.

The findings do not change the recommendation that menopausal hormone therapy should not be used to prevent dementia, US researchers commented in a linked opinion article. However, it is helpful for providers to put dementia findings in context for patients, they added.

“The primary indication for hormone therapy continues to be the treatment of vasomotor symptoms, and the current study should provide reassurance for women and their providers when treatment is prescribed for that reason,” they concluded.

Source: News-Medical.Net

Categories : Diseases, Syndromes and ConditionsTags :

Basic Toothbrush Still Tops for Gingivitis Prevention

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In a review of evidence for dental hygiene techniques, only a few were able to provide additional protection against gingivitis and periodontitis beyond brushing one’s teeth with a basic toothbrush.

The paper was published in the Journal of the International Academy of Periodontology and examines the effectiveness of various oral hygiene devices.

At the moment, all other oral hygiene interventions are only supported by insufficient evidence, said principal investigator Frank Scannapieco, DMD, PhD, professor of oral biology in the UB School of Dental Medicine. The findings, he said, will help identify best practices for preventing gum disease.

“Patients can be confident that the oral care tools and practices supported by research, as described in the paper, will prevent the initiation and progression of periodontal disease, if they are performed regularly and properly,” said Prof Scannapieco.

The list of proven techniques includes: basic toothbrush; interdental brush; water pick; chlorhexidine gluconate (CHX), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) and essential oil (Listerine) mouth rinses.
Tooth brushing is the cornerstone of daily oral hygiene and is a reliable way to control dental plaque, said Scannapieco. Interdental brushes and water picks also performed better than other interdental oral hygiene devices at reducing gingivitis, and both should be used in combination with daily tooth brushing to prevent gum disease.

Mouth rinses based on CHX, CPC, and essential oils (such as Listerine) were proven to be effective at significantly reducing plaque and gingivitis.

While not effective at fighting gingivitis, toothpicks were useful for monitoring gum health, said Prof Scannapieco. By gently prodding the gums with a toothpick and monitoring for bleeding, patients could detect signs of gum disease.

While triclosan toothpastes and mouth rinses significantly reduced plaque and gingivitis, the compound is linked to cancer development and reproductive defects, and has been removed from most toothpastes in the US.
Unfortunately for those who invested in one, electric-powered toothbrushes are no more effective at reducing plaque and gingivitis than a basic toothbrush,  the researchers found. And little evidence has been published in support of dental floss – the mainstay of interdental cleaning – to reduce plaque and gingivitis. However, Prof Scannapieco said that flossing is still necessary:
“While there are few studies available that specifically examined toothbrushes or floss alone, both are still essential. Floss is especially useful to remove interdental plaque for people who have tight space between their teeth. Floss also likely reduces the risk for cavities that from between the teeth.”
Evidence was lacking for mouthwashes based on tea tree oil, green tea, anti-inflammatory agents, hydrogen peroxide, sodium benzoate, stannous fluoride, hexetidine or delmopinol reduced gingivitis.

Though promising as a preventive strategy against gum disease, the effectiveness of probiotics was unproven. There was also little evidence for dietary supplements improving gum health. The investigators also found insufficient evidence that professional plaque removal (known as scaling, the process of removing plaque with a scraper) prevents gum disease.

Source: University at Buffalo

Categories : Pain ManagementTags :

New Migraine Prevention Drug Gets The Green Light from FDA

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Atogepant (Qulipta) has become the first oral calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist (gepant) specifically developed for migraine prevention to win FDA approval, manufacturer AbbVie announced on Monday.

Following on after rimegepant, which is also indicated by the FDA for acute migraine treatment, atogepant became the second gepant approved for prevention of episodic migraine in adults.

The atogepant decision “reflects a broader shift in the treatment and management paradigm for the migraine community,” noted Peter Goadsby, MD, PhD, DSc, of the University of California Los Angeles and King’s College London.

“Qulipta provides a simple oral treatment option specifically developed to prevent migraine attacks and target CGRP, which is believed to be crucially involved in migraine in many patients,” said Dr Goadsby in a statement.
Atogepant has a high affinity at the CGRP receptor, and being a small-molecule drug it can be taken orally, unlike injectable anti-CGRP monoclonal antibodies approved for migraine prevention.
An oral CGRP-receptor antagonist is easier for patients, Goadsby noted when he presented data from atogepant’s pivotal phase IIb/III trial at the 2019 American Academy of Neurology annual meeting. “It could facilitate, with time, the greater use of this mechanism in primary care,” he told MedPage Today. “Primary care doctors will more easily use a medicine that’s relatively simple to use and well-tolerated, and that means more migraine patients can get treated.”

In the phase III ADVANCE trial, 873 participants were randomised to receive a once-daily dose of oral atogepant (10mg, 30mg, or 60mg) or placebo. After 12 weeks, average days with migraine per month dropped from baseline by 3.7 days with atogepant 10mg, 3.9 days with atogepant 30mg, 4.2 days with atogepant 60mg, and 2.5 days with placebo. The most common adverse events with atogepant were constipation and nausea, along with fatigue. 
Patients should notify their healthcare provider if they have kidney problems or are on dialysis, have liver problems, are pregnant or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed, AbbVie said.

Source: MedPage Today