Children Wake Up

Having a portable air cleaner in the home can reduce the negative impacts of air pollution on brain development in children, says a new study. The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that the children born to mothers who had used the air cleaners had an average full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) that was 2.8-points higher than the group that did not use an air cleaner during pregnancy. "These results, combined with evidence from previous studies, strongly implicate air pollution as a threat to brain development," said researcher Ryan Allen from Simon Fraser University, in Canada. The team recruited 540 pregnant women in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to participate in the study. Ulaanbaatar has some of the worst air quality in the world, well-exceeding guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The women were less than 18 weeks into their pregnancies and non-smokers who had not previously used air filtering devices in their homes. They were randomly assigned to either the control or intervention group. The intervention group was provided with one or two HEPA filter air cleaners and encouraged to run the air cleaners continuously for the duration of their pregnancies. The air cleaners were removed from the home once the child was born. The researchers later measured the children's FSIQ at four years of age. Children in the intervention group also had significantly greater average verbal comprehension index scores, which is consistent with results from previous observational studies. The research suggests that a child's verbal skills may be particularly sensitive to air pollution exposure. (Agency) Read More► Diabetes, Heart Disease Increase Dementia Risk: Study

न्यूयॉर्क: फल और सब्जियों का सेवन हर उम्र के लोगों के लिए लाभदायक होता है और डॉक्टर भी यह सलाह देते हैं कि सभी को शारीरिक स्वास्थ्य के लिए अपने खाने में इन्हें पर्याप्त मात्रा में शामिल करना चाहिए। अमेरिका की ओहायो स्टेट यूनिवर्सिटी के ताजा शोध से पता चला है कि फल और सब्जियों के सेवन से मानसिक स्वास्थ्य में भी सुधार आने की गुंजाइश रहती है। शोध में कहा गया है कि अटेंशन डेफिसिट हाइपरएक्टिविटी डिस्ऑर्डर (एडीएचडी) से ग्रसित बच्चों के ध्यान न दे पाने के लक्षणों में फल और सब्जियों के सेवन से कमी आ सकती है। एडीएचडी से ग्रसित बच्चे बहुत अधिक सक्रिय होते हैं। उन्हें किसी भी चीज पर फोकस करने में परेशानी होती है और वे अपनी भावनाओं को नियंत्रित करने में या चीजों को याद करने में मुश्किल का सामना करते हैं। यूनिवर्सिटी में ह्युमैन न्यूट्रिशन विभाग की एसोसिएट प्रोफेसर इरीन हात्सु ने कहा कि शोध के दौरान देखा गया कि अगर इन बच्चों को पर्याप्त मात्रा में फल और सब्जियां खिलाई जायें, तो उनमें ध्यान न दे पाने यानी फोकस न कर पाने के गंभीर लक्षण कम हो जाते हैं। उन्होंने बताया कि फल और सब्जियों समेत संतुलित आहार लेना एडीएचडी के लक्षणों में कमी लाने का एक तरीका हो सकता है। यह शोध रिपोर्ट जर्नल न्यट्रिशनल न्यूरोसाइंस में ऑनलाइन प्रकाशित हुई है। शोध के दौरान एडीएचडी से ग्रसित 134 बच्चों के माता-पिता को एक प्रश्नावली भरने के लिए दी गयी। इसमें पूछा गया था कि उनके बच्चे आमतौर पर क्या खाते हैं और एक बार में कितना खा पाते हैं। शोधकर्ताओं का मानना है कि एडीएचडी दिमाग में मौजूद कुछ न्यूरोट्रांसमिटर्स के कम स्तर से जुड़ा है। इसमें विटामिन और मिनरल भी महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका अदा करते हैं क्योंकि ये ही शरीर को न्यूरोकेमिकल बनाने में मदद करते हैं। हात्सु ने बताया कि भूख लगने पर किसी का भी चिड़चिड़ा होना स्वाभाविक होता है और एडीएचडी से ग्रसित बच्चे भी कोई अपवाद नहीं हैं। अगर उन्हें पर्याप्त भोजन नहीं मिल रहा है तो उनके लक्षण गंभीर हो सकते हैं। शोध रिपोर्ट के अनुसार अगर माता-पिता अपने बच्चे को पर्याप्त भोजन न दे पाने के कारण परेशान होते हैं, तो इससे परिवार में तनाव उत्पन्न होने लगता है, जिससे एडीएचडी से ग्रसित बच्चों के लक्षण और गंभीर हो सकते हैं। शोधकर्ताओं का कहना है कि आमतौर पर जब एडीएचडी से ग्रसित बच्चे अधिक लक्षण दिखाने लगते हैं तो डॉक्टर उनके दवा की डोज बढ़ा देते हैं और अगर वे पहले से दवा न लेते हों, तो उन्हें दवा दी जाने लगती है। शोधकर्ताओं ने सलाह दी है कि उपचार की इस प्रक्रिया के बीच यह भी देखा जाना चाहिए कि बच्चे कितना और क्या खा पा रहे हैं। बच्चे जो खा रहे हैं, उसकी गुणवत्ता भी देखी जानी चाहिए कि कहीं, उसकी वजह से ही तो उनके लक्षण गंभीर नहीं हो रहे हैं। (एजेंसी) यह भी पढ़े► त्वचा और आंखों के लिए हानिकारक होती है यूवी किरणें

Asthma in children is likely to get worse after a Covid-19 infection, finds a large-scale nationwide study in the US. Six months after a Covid infection, asthmatic children showed significant increases in emergency department visits, hospitalisations, emergency inhaler use, and steroid treatments, compared to children without Covid, researchers reported in a pre-print of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. A team from Children's Hospital of Orange County in California examined 61,916 asthmatic children aged 2-17.9 years who were infected with Covid between March 2020 and February 2021. "Our data demonstrates that while asthma outcomes were improved for those who tested negative for SARS-COV-2, asthmatic children who were definitively diagnosed with Covid-19 have worse asthma control in the first six months after infection," said Dr. Christine C. Chou from the Hospital's Department of Paediatrics. On the other hand, children who tested negative for Covid virus had improved asthma control for the next six months, meaning fewer emergency department visits and hospitalisations for asthma, and less asthma treatment, the study showed. Previous studies hypothesised that there was an overall improvement in asthma control during the last two years of pandemic. Respiratory viral infections are major triggers of asthma exacerbations, including coronaviruses. It was therefore unexpected that asthmatic children have not experienced increased exacerbations during the Covid-19 pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus. Chou said that it was due to hygiene and public health measures, and/or decreased exposures to particulate matter and viral triggers. "In fact, we previously found a dramatic reduction in asthma morbidity after mid-March 2020 compared to previous years, plausibly associated with fewer respiratory viral illnesses during stay-at-home measures," Chou said. "The asthma-triggering effect of SARS-CoV-2 was likely masked by the overall decrease in asthma exacerbations during the stay-at-home measures when other asthma triggers were less present in the community," she noted. (agency) Read More► New Variant of Corona Detected in Patna

London: Vitamin B12 deficiency in infants leads to poor motor development and anaemia, according to a study which stated that its deficiency is an enormous yet overlooked problem. For many years, there has been a focus on vitamin A, zinc and iron deficiencies when it comes to malnutrition across the globe, whereas there is a paucity of research on B12 deficiency. A lack of vitamin B12 doesn't just potentially lead to anaemia, it can damage the nervous system. And for young children, B12 is crucial for brain development. "B12 deficiency is one of the most overlooked problems out there when it comes to malnutrition. And unfortunately, we can see that the food relief we provide today is not up to the task," said Henrik Friis, first author of the study and a professor at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports. A team from University of Copenhagen and Doctors Without Borders conducted a study among 1,000 children with acute malnutrition aged 6-23 months in Africa's Burkina Faso. The results, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, showed a strong correlation between vitamin B12 deficiency and poor motor development and anaemia. The children's B12 levels were measured both before and after three months of daily food relief rations containing the recommended B12 content. During the period when children were provided with food relief, their B12 levels increased, before decreasing considerably once the programme was stopped. Even after three months of food relief, one-third of the children continued to have low or marginal levels of B12 stored. The unfortunate explanation is that there is a cap on how much B12 can be absorbed. "A child's gut can only absorb 1 microgram of B12 per meal. So, if a child is lacking 500 micrograms, it will take much longer than the few weeks that they have access to emergency food relief," explained Vibeke Brix Christensen, paediatrician and medical advisor with Doctors Without Borders. She points out that it might make a difference to divide the necessary amount of vitamin B12 across several meals, which would probably allow children to absorb the same amount of B12 each time. (Agency) Read More► Study Reveals Why 7 Hours of Sleep is Optimal in Middle Age