July 22nd, 2010
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has announced he is to withdraw from public life.
He played a prominent role in South Africa’s struggle against the whites-only apartheid system.
After his 79th birthday in October, he said he would reduce his workload to one day a week before retiring.
via BBC News
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July 11th, 2010
Lord Hameed held a Seminar at the House of Lords on 14th June to raise awareness about cerebral palsy and allied disorders of brain development. Lord Hameed is the President of the Little Foundation, a sister charity that is specifically concerned with research on the cause and prevention of cerebral palsy and the allied disorders.
He spoke eloquently of the lack of interest on prevention by the research councils and NHS research arm which Sir David Cooksey described in his report to the Treasury that only 2% of the total research budget was spent on research into prevention. The reason for his report was to recommend ways of stemming the rising costs of the NHS.
The Little Foundation initiated a multi-centre study across the Europe using magnetic resonance imaging to assess the origin of the brain damage. The result demonstrated that in the majority of cases the lesions could be identified as happening well before the birth date. That means they were not due to obstetric mishap. As Professor Polani’s research could not identify any genetic cause, the cause had to be associated with fetal nutritional and or infectious problems.
If this government wishes to save money prevention is the way to do it. Cerebral palsy costs the UK about £4 billion a year: a cost that is disproportionately high because of its life long impact. The incidence has not changed over the last several decades but there has been a marked and sinister rise in mental ill health. The DoH calculated the cost of mental
ill health in the UK was £77 billion in 2007, greater than the cost of heart disease and cancer combined.
Lord Hameed was followed by Professor Mark Johnson and Dr Enitan Ogundipe of Imperial College who outlined the problems associated with low birthweight and prematurity. Professor Johnson described the very high prevalence of
cerebral palsy on preterm and very low birthweight infants as a major clue as to discovering the cause which could lead to prevention. He referred to poor maternal/fetal nutrition leading to chronic diseases in later life. He identified the brain specific fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid a deficiency of which in the modern food system was as a potential culprit. It is both required for brain structure and function and is also anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombus. Dr. Ogundipe then discussed the issue as they affect the development of the children which apart from the extreme of 24 hour nursing care include physical disabilities, behavioral disorders, attention deficit disorders, poor learning in school which leads to poor achievement in life. Lord Hameed had pointed out that this cluster of poor abilities leads to the cyclical cementing of poverty. Cerebral palsy is the tip of an iceberg. Professor Michael Crawford ended by re-iterating the gravity of the rise in brain disorders and mental ill health and suggested that last century food policy had mistakenly focused on protein and calories and body growth. However, there are different principles for the growth of the brain and the body as the material of the brain is largely fat which is especially rich in brain specific essential fatty acids. Our species is characterized by the brain not the body. There needs to be a new paradigm for food policy which prioritizes the needs of the brain. He suggested ways this could be done.
The presentations were followed by an hour long discussion of the issues raised and what needs to be done. Further information from Professor Crawford.
Tags: Brain Development, Cerebral Palsy, House of Lords, Lord Hameed, ukgovernment
Posted in Campaign News, National Government, News | No Comments »
July 4th, 2010
Pregnant women in the UK should be told to routinely take vitamin D supplements, researchers say.
The team at University College London Institute of Child Health says official bodies currently offer conflicting advice.
Writing in the British Journal of Nutrition, they say there is a “strong case” for a daily dose of vitamin D in pregnancy.
via BBC News
Posted in Breastfeeding, Nutrition, Parenting, Pregnancy | No Comments »
July 1st, 2010
Pregnant Arab women have an “extraordinarily high prevalence” of vitamin D deficiency — a potential health issue for them and their babies, according to a new Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center study.
The vitamin deficiency is largely due to how Arab women dress outdoors — preventing exposure of the skin to sunlight and subsequent vitamin D intake, according to Adekunle Dawodu, M.D., a physician in the Center for Global Child Health at Cincinnati Children’s and lead author of the study.
via Science Daily. Thanks to levelsofillusion for pointing out this article to me.
Tags: Vitamin D
Posted in Nutrition, Pregnancy, Research | No Comments »
June 29th, 2010
Women who drink during pregnancy may be damaging the future fertility of their sons, research suggests.
In a study of almost 350 young men, sperm levels were a third lower in those whose mothers had drunk more than four drinks a week during pregnancy compared with teetotallers.
via BBC News
Posted in Discoveries, Pregnancy, Research | No Comments »
June 28th, 2010
[A Study group is] calling for greater consensus among neonatologists about best practice for pre-term babies after uncovering a “lottery” in the way in which infants were treated.
Out of the 264 cases reviewed, there were delays in recognising the need for artificial feeding in a third of cases, and further delays in starting treatment once a decision has been taken.
In nearly 40% of cases, the first feeding provided was considered inadequate for the baby’s need. Complications, it found, were avoidable in a fifth of the babies treated.
via BBC News
Posted in Campaign News, News, Nutrition, Research | No Comments »
June 28th, 2010
Five years ago, the G8 leaders shook hands with superstars such as Bono and Bob Geldof as they pledged $50 billion in aid to developing countries. At the 2010 deadline, they came up $19.5 billion short. That’s the real scandal of the G8.
Maybe the security price-tag and the disruption to daily lives in Toronto would be worthwhile if the G8 and G20 actually delivered on commitments.
(Then again, maybe if the leaders followed through, the protests and security bill would be smaller.)
Unfortunately, it’s security that shows up on balance sheets -not broken promises. Lack of accountability means commitments are usually forgotten soon after the Summits close.
via Vancouver Sun
Posted in Campaign News, Disaster relief, G8, International, News | No Comments »
June 27th, 2010
Novel approaches are increasingly employed to address the social determinants of health of children world-wide. Such approaches have included complex social programs involving multiple stakeholders from different sectors jointly working together (hereafter Child Health Partnerships).
…
There was evidence of success in several major areas from the formation of effective joint operations of partners in different partnership models to improvement in both child wellbeing and parenting. There is emerging evidence that Child Health Partnerships are cost-effective. Population characteristics and local contexts need to be taken into account in the introduction and implementation of these programs.
via Pubmed Central
Posted in Education, National Government, Parenting, Publications, Research | No Comments »
June 27th, 2010
In Tanzania, less than a third of HIV infected children estimated to be in need of antiretroviral therapy ART are receiving it. In this setting where other infections and malnutrition mimic signs and symptoms of AIDS, early diagnosis of HIV among HIV-exposed infants without specialized virologic testing can be a complex process. [The correspondents] aimed to introduce an Early Infant Diagnosis EID pilot program using HIV DNA Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR testing with the intent of making EID nationally available based on lessons learned in the first 6 months of implementation.
via Biomed Central
Tags: HIV, Tanzania
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June 27th, 2010
Martin Bowerman has just got back to Australia after coming to our Celebration of DHA at the Royal Society of Medicine.
Here is is talking to ABC Queensland about the importance of seafood in the diet.
ABC Queensland
Tags: DHA
Posted in Campaign News, Education, International, News, Nutrition | No Comments »