Scientists who found a way to use amniotic fluid to sequence the entire genome of a fetus say the breakthrough could significantly increase detection of genetic conditions during pregnancy. Researchers tweaked a common prenatal test called amniocentesis. In that procedure, amniotic fluid is taken from a pregnant woman’s uterus and analyzed for abnormalities in the… read on >
Parents annoyed by the loud music that their teens listen to might have good reason to worry. About 20 percent of American kids aged 12 to 19 have some degree of hearing loss, a national survey found. And, according to the World Health Organization, 50 percent of people up to age 35 are at risk… read on >
Besides staying alert, coffee lovers who drink more than three cups of java a day may lower their risk for clogged arteries, a new Brazilian study suggests. Scientists surveyed more than 4,400 residents of Sao Paulo about their coffee-drinking habits, and correlated them with coronary artery calcium (CAC) readings. CAC scans look for signs of… read on >
New research suggests that a special MRI technique can spot abnormal connections in the brains of preschoolers with autism. The discovery “may be a clue for future diagnosis and even for therapeutic intervention in preschool children with [autism],” study co-author Dr. Lin Ma, a radiologist at Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing, explained in a… read on >
All those hours spent reading bedtime stories may pay off for you and your little ones beyond language and brain development: New research suggests it’s also good for social and behavioral skills. Evaluating prior studies on parent-child reading in children up to age 6, researchers in Hong Kong found positive effects for both sides in… read on >
There’s another study that finds that taking the epilepsy drug valproate while pregnant may take an intellectual toll on offspring. Children whose mothers took the anti-seizure medication during pregnancy appear to get lower scores on school tests, the new study finds. The U.K. researchers pointed to prior studies with similar results, and they recommend that… read on >
Teen boys in the United States are less likely than girls to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) because many doctors don’t recommend the shots to boys’ parents, researchers say. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical, vulvar, vaginal, penile, anal, mouth and throat cancers. The HPV vaccine is recommended as a… read on >
Diarrhea in young babies should be taken seriously if it lasts for more than one day, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says. Prolonged diarrhea can lead to dehydration. Common symptoms of diarrhea in an infant are a faster heartbeat, dry mouth, no tears when crying, or no wet diaper for at least three hours.… read on >
Piling on pounds is bad for your health from head to toe. So say Korean researchers, who report that unhealthy weight gain ups a person’s odds for disfiguring toenail fungal infections. In fact, people who are statistically obese have more than double the rate of the infection, known as onychomycosis, compared to slim people, the… read on >
After American women began to adopt annual mammography screening in the 1980s, a very healthy thing happened: the average size of newly discovered breast tumors got smaller. That’s the finding from a new look at data on more than 386,000 U.S. women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 1983 and 2014. The average size… read on >
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