Scientists have developed a way of converting one blood group into another.
The technique potentially enables blood from groups A, B and AB to be converted into group O negative, which can be safely transplanted into any patient.
The method, which makes use of newly discovered enzymes, may help relieve shortages of blood for transfusions.
Read (BBC)
Organic pet-food makers and retailers across North America may be the winners as the fallout settles from the recall of nearly 100 brands of pet food manufactured by Canada’s Menu Foods Inc.
Read (Reuters via MSNBC)
As someone stated in the article, I want something that won’t kill my dog. My dog eats Kibbles ‘n Bits dry food, and luckily (fingers crossed), that brand hasn’t been recalled.
The more time that children spent in child care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem behavior.
Also, children who got quality child care before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade than did youngsters who received lower quality care.
The findings come from the largest study of child care and development conducted in the United States. The 1,364 children in the analysis had been tracked since birth as part of a study by the National Institutes of Health.
Read (AP via the Discovery Channel)
Fewer than a third of American adults eat the amount of fruits and vegetables the government recommends, a trend that’s remained steady for more than a decade, health officials said.
That’s “well below” the government’s goal of getting 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruits and having half of the population consume three servings of vegetables each day by 2010.
The [survey](http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5610a2.htm “CDC’s Article Preview With Charts”) showed that 27 percent of adults ate vegetables three times a day, and about 33 percent ate fruit twice a day. A serving size is a half-cup for most fruits and vegetables, one cup for leafy greens.
Read (Discovery Channel)
Even before the latest spate of arctic conditions gripped the northern half of the nation, many states were running out of money to help the disadvantaged with their heating bills.
In West Virginia, the doors to the state’s energy-assistance program have been closed for a month. Iowa has sliced its heating-assistance benefit by 30 percent. In Montana, the director of the state’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has personally fielded 50 to 100 phone calls from residents who want to know why their checks are so much smaller than last year’s.
Why The number of people requiring energy-bill assistance has grown at the same time that Congress and the White House have **cut funding by nearly $1 billion from last year**. The combination has quickly rippled to the states, and at least seven are either completely out of money or will be shortly.
With benefits pared, concern is mounting that many people will start to receive notices that their utilities will be shut off on April 1 unless they pay their bills. To help out, some states are dipping into funds that would normally be used to help with summer cooling bills.
Read (Christian Science Monitor)
Office workers who spend long hours at their desk may be more prone to potentially fatal blood clots than passengers on long-haul flights, according to research cited Monday.
A study found that a third of patients admitted to hospital with [deep vein thrombosis (DVT)](http://www.answers.com/topic/deep-vein-thrombosis “Answers.com DVT page”) were office workers who spent long periods at a computer.
Read (Discovery Channel)
Physical differences in the brain may increase the chances of a person choosing to take drugs, say Cambridge University scientists.
A study of rats showed variations in brain structure pre-dated their first exposure to narcotics, and made them more likely to opt for cocaine.
Some of the animals had far fewer ‘dopamine receptors’ – the brain structures onto which drugs such as cocaine and heroin latch to produce their effect.
The scientists used a game in which the rats had to wait to press a button and receive a reward, coupled with detailed brain scans, to see if those with the fewest dopamine receptors were impulsive, a type of behaviour often linked with drug use in humans.
When the ‘impulsive’ rats were introduced to the drugs, and given the opportunity to taker them, they were much more likely to do so than the rats with more dopamine receptors.
Read (BBC)
Women who eat seafood while pregnant may be boosting their children’s IQ in the process, according to new research. The results of the study were surprising, say the authors, and contradict American and British recommendations that pregnant women should limit seafood and fish consumption to avoid potentially high levels of mercury.
While experts believe further research is necessary to confirm these conclusions, the study’s failure to find evidence of increased harm from eating fish is significant. Because seafood contain both nutrients and toxins, it remains a dilemma for regulatory authorities what kinds of recommendations should exist for pregnant women.
[Read](http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=106&sid=1064417 “Read the Story”)(AP via WTOP)
West Virginia and Kentucky have the nation’s highest levels of heart disease, according to a first of its kind study. The new research is the first to look at what percentage of people in each state live with or have survived heart attacks and certain other cardiac problems.
It found that states in the Southeast and Southwest were heart disease leaders.
For the nation as a whole, roughly 6.5% had had a heart attack, angina or coronary heart disease.
In West Virginia, more than 10% had at least one of the conditions. In Kentucky, it was nearly 9%, and Mississippi was No. 3, with 8%.
The prevalence in both Colorado and the District of Columbia was a little under 5%, tying them for the nation’s lowest rate.
[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-15-heart-disease_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”)(AP via USA Today)
[Autism](http://www.answers.com/topic/autism “Answers.com”) disorders are more common than previously known, affecting an average of 1 in 150 children, says a new federal report called the most complete assessment on the topic to date.
Earlier estimates placed the rate at 1 in 166 children.
[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-08-autism_x.htm?csp=34 “Read the Story”)(USA Today)
People who are lonely are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests.
Social isolation has already been shown to be linked to dementia but this is the first time researchers have looked at how alone people actually felt.
[Read](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6332883.stm “Read the Story”)(BBC)
Neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and [Alzheimer’s](http://www.answers.com/topic/alzheimer-s-disease “Answers.com”) disease are becoming more common in the US, a large new analysis suggests.
The analysis estimated that nearly 1 out of every 1000 people in the US – around 266,000 people – suffers from [multiple sclerosis (MS)](http://www.answers.com/topic/multiple-sclerosis “Answers.com”). This figure is 50% higher than that estimated by a similarly large literature review published in 1982.
[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/dn11052-marked-rise-in-ms-in-the-us-debated-by-scientists.html “Read the Story”)(New Scientist)
Vaginal birth increases the risk of brain hemorrhage in newborns, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that 26% of the babies born vaginally had bleeding in the brain, while none of those born through caesarean were affected. No other risk factor seemed to be involved.
It is unclear if the early bleeding causes problems with subsequent child development, so natural births should not be eschewed in favor of cesarean sections, experts warn.
[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11060-vaginal-birth-boosts-risk-of-baby-brain-haemorrhage.html “Read the Story”)(New Scientist)
A prosthetic arm that moves and feels like the real thing is now a step closer thanks to a new surgical technique which allows the owner to intuitively control her limb and regain her sense of touch.
Surgeons working on an amputee in Chicago have re-routed the ends of the motor nerves – which once controlled her arm’s movement – into the muscles in her chest and side. The ends of the sensory nerves, which fed signals responding to heat and touch from her now-amputated arm to her brain, have been transferred to the skin on her chest.
The patient is already able to control her prosthetic arm with more skill than is possible with conventional devices. She can carry out simple tasks intuitively, such as cutting up food, and at four times the speed of someone with a conventional [prosthesis](http://www.answers.com/topic/prosthesis “Answers.com”). She has also regained the sensation of having her arm touched when someone touches the patch of skin on her chest.
[Read](http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn11094&feedId=online-news_rss20 “Read the Story”)(New Scientist)
A simple blood test taken by a pregnant woman could reveal genetic abnormalities such as [Down’s Syndrome](http://www.answers.com/topic/down-syndrome “Answers.com”) in her developing fetus, scientists say, removing the need for some invasive tests.
The researchers have developed a new way of extracting and analyzing the fetal DNA that circulates in maternal blood, which could lead to accurate tests for genetic disorders, just five weeks into the pregnancy.
Currently, these tests are usually carried out by [amniocentesis](http://www.answers.com/topic/amniocentesis “Answers.com”), where a sample is taken from the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus and the chromosomes are analyzed. This is an invasive procedure and carries a 1% risk of miscarriage.
[Read](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11095&feedId=online-news_rss20 “Read the Story”)(New Scientist)