One shot of H1N1 vaccine in children should be enough to protect them from catching the virus, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A team in Australia assessed the effectiveness and safety of two doses of the H1N1 vaccine in 370 infants and children aged six months to nine years. The children received a two-injection regimen in doses of 15 micrograms or 30 micrograms, 21 days apart.
Blood tests following the first dose in both groups showed sufficient antibody levels to protect both infants and children from infection. The immune response was strong regardless of age, baseline antibody status or whether or not they had received the seasonal flu shot.
The study concluded one 15-microgram dose may offer sufficient disease protection in infants and children, as well as reducing transmission to the broader population.
The Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal suggests that Santa Claus could give both himself and the rest of the world a lifelong Christmas gift if he ditched the sleigh and passed on the milk and cookies on Christmas Eve.
Dr. Nathan Gillis suggests the jolly old elf might actually be a “public health pariah” due to his image as an obese man who lives an unhealthy lifestyle. For instance, Santa is often depicted smoking a pipe or cigar, never wears a seatbelt or helmet while flying and, given the number of homes he visits, could pass on H1N1 to those who have not yet been vaccinated.
“Santa only needs to affect health by 0.1 per cent to damage millions of lives,” Gillis writes.
As well, Gillis states St. Nick should also invest in a treadmill or retire his reindeer, trade the red coat for a tracksuit and embrace cycling as a new method of delivering presents.
Wondering whether or not buying a video game system this Christmas will be healthy for your children? A study in published in Current Directions in Psychological Science argues gaming does have benefits.
For the study, psychological scientists at the University of Rochester looked at all of the current literature on video gaming. The analysis showed some unexpected positive outcomes, including faster information processing that translates into not just video games, but real-world activities, too.
In one study they found that dedicated gamers who got faster playing their game of choice were also faster in completing a variety of unrelated laboratory tests evaluating reaction time. Gamers also do not appear to lose accuracy as speed increases — playing video games appears to improve visual cognition, mental rotation skills, visual and spatial memory and tasks that require divided attention.
The study concludes that video game playing can reduce gender differences in visual and spatial processing, as well as fighting back against cognitive decline associated with aging.
Senior citizens who believe they have poor or little social support from others and who have a past history of depression are at high risk for developing new depression, according to new research.
The study, published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, sought to find what factors are associated with a high risk of depression in senior citizens. Depression can often go undiagnosed among seniors. Researchers studied more than 600 people age 65 years and older without a current diagnosis of major depressive disorder. Each participant was followed up annually in personal visits and telephone interviews, and medical charts were inspected on a regular basis over a period of four years.
During that time, 33 participants — about five per cent of the sample — developed a case of major depression. The study concludes the results show indicators that can be used to detect early signs of depression that warrant preventive therapy in the forms of psychotherapy, medication or exercise.
Antidepressant use in postmenopausal women is associated with a small but statistically notable elevated risk for stroke and death when compared to women who do not use the medication, according to the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Researchers examined data pertaining to 136,293 women who were taking part in the Women’s Health Initiative Study in the United States. All were aged 50 to 79 years and were not taking antidepressants when the study began. The data of 5,500 women who were taking antidepressants after their follow-up visit was compared with that of 130,797 women at the same time. Researchers then looked for incidences of fatal or non-fatal stroke, fatal or non-fatal heart attack and death due to any cause.
While there was no statistical difference in heart attacks, antidepressant users were 45 per cent more likely to experience strokes than women who weren’t taking them. As well, the overall death rate for the two groups showed women taking antidepressants had a 32 per cent higher risk of death from any cause.
The team stated the link observed in the study could be partially due to the underlying depression itself since depression is also a risk factor for cardiovascular problems.
A well-known doctor specializing in female fertility has discovered a potential link between the presence of breast cancer genes and infertility.
Dr. Kulak Oktay published his findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, concluding that mutations in the BRCA1 gene, linked with early onset of breast cancer, are also associated with an early loss in egg reserves.
In performing ovarian stimulation in 126 women with breast cancer in order to preserve embryos or oocytes for future use, Oktay found 14 had a mutation in BRCA genes. In those patients, a low ovarian response rate was greater than for patients who did not show the mutation.
If fertility drugs do not effectively stimulate egg production in patients carrying the BRCA1 mutations, this means there is a link between infertility and the risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer, Oktay concluded.
