The New Nation - Internet Edition

Breast-fed children found smarter

Reuters, Washington

A new study provides some of the best evidence to date that breast-feeding can make children smarter, an international team of researchers said on Monday.

Children whose mothers breast-fed them longer and did not mix in baby formula scored higher on intelligence tests, the researchers in Canada and Belarus reported.

About half the 14,000 babies were randomly assigned to a group in which prolonged and exclusive breast-feeding by the mother was encouraged at Belarussian hospitals and clinics. The mothers of the other babies received no special encouragement.

Those in the breast-feeding encouragement group were, on average, breast-fed longer than the others and were less likely to have been given formula in a bottle.

At 3 months, 73 percent of the babies in the breast-feeding encouragement group were breast-fed, compared to 60 percent of the other group. At 6 months, it was 50 percent versus 36 percent.

In addition, the group given encouragement was far more likely to give their children only breast milk. The rate was seven times higher, for example, at 3 months.

The children were monitored for about 6 ½ years.

The children in the group where breast-feeding was encouraged scored about 5 percent higher in IQ tests and did better academically, the researchers found.

Previous studies had indicated brain development and intelligence benefits for breast-fed children.

But researchers have sought to determine whether it was the breast-feeding that did it, or that mothers who prefer to breast-feed their babies may differ from those who do not.

The design of the study-randomly assigning babies to two groups regardless of the mothers' characteristics-was intended to eliminate the confusion.

'MOTHERS WHO BREAST-FEED t ARE DIFFERENT'

"Mothers who breast-feed or those who breast-feed longer or most exclusively are different from the mothers who don't," Dr. Michael Kramer of McGill University in Montreal and the Montreal Children's Hospital said in a telephone interview.

"They tend to be smarter. They tend to be more invested in their babies.

They tend to interact with them more closely. They may be the kind of mothers who read to their kids more, who spend more time with their kids, who play with them more," added Kramer, who led the study published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

The researchers measured the differences between the two groups using IQ tests administered by the children's pediatricians and by ratings by their teachers of their school performance in reading, writing, math and other subjects.

Both sets of scores were significantly higher in the children from the breast-feeding promotion group.

The study was launched in the mid-1990s. Kramer said the initial idea was to do it in the United States and Canada, but many hospitals in those countries by that time had begun strongly encouraging breast-feeding as a matter of routine.

The situation was different in Belarus at the time, he said, with less routine encouragement for the practice.

Kramer said how breast-feeding may make children more intelligent is unclear.

"It could even be that because breast-feeding takes longer, the mother is interacting more with the baby, talking with the baby, soothing the baby," he said. "It could be an emotional thing. It could be a physical thing. Or it could be a hormone or something else in the milk that's absorbed by the baby."

Previous studies have shown babies whose mothers breast-fed them enjoy many health advantages over formula-fed babies.

These include fewer ear, stomach or intestinal infections, digestive problems, skin diseases and allergies, and less risk of developing high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women who do not have health problems exclusively breast-feed their infants for at least the first six months, with it continuing at least through the first year as other foods are introduced.

Thalassaemia: A killer disease

Thalassaemia IntroductionThalassaemia is the name given to a group of inherited blood disorders that affect the body's ability to create red blood cells.

Red blood cells are very important because they carry a protein called haemoglobin around the body. Haemoglobin takes oxygen from our lungs to the rest of the body.

Haemoglobin is produced in our bone marrow (a red spongy material found inside the larger bones) using the iron that our body takes from our food.

If your body does not receive enough oxygen, you will feel tired, breathless, lethargic and faint. This condition is known as anaemia. The most serious types of thalassaemia can cause other complications including organ damage, restricted growth, liver disease, heart failure and death.

Types of thalassaemia

Thalassaemia is caused by alterations (mutations) in the genes that make haemoglobin.

Haemoglobin is made up of matching chains of proteins (which are named after Greek letters of the alphabet). To work properly, haemoglobin needs both an alpha chain and a beta chain of proteins.

A mutation that affects the alpha chain causes alpha thalassaemia, and a mutation that affects the beta chain causes beta thalassaemia.

Alpha thalassaemia

The alpha chain is produced by four genes and the severity of the condition depends on how many of those genes have been mutated.

If one gene is mutated - there is little or no effect.

If two genes are mutated - there may be symptoms of mild anaemia. This condition is known as the alpha thalassaemia trait. If two people with the alpha thalassaemia trait have a child, there is a 25% chance that their child will inherit the most severe form of alpha thalassaemia (see below).

If three genes are mutated - the result will be a condition called Haemoglobin H disease. People with Haemoglobin H disease will have life-long (chronic) anaemia, and may require regular blood transfusions.

If all four genes are mutated - the result will be the most severe form of alpha thalassaemia, known as alpha thalassaemia major. Infants with this condition are unable to produce normal haemoglobin and are unlikely to survive pregnancy. There have been some cases of unborn babies being treated with blood transfusions while they are still in the womb, but the success rate of this type of treatment is not high.

Beta thalassaemia

Beta thalassaemia can range from moderate to severe. The most severe form of the condition is known as beta thalassaemia major (BTM). People with BTM will require blood transfusions for the rest of their lives.

The more moderate form of the condition is known as beta thalassaemia intermediate (BTI). The symptoms of BTI will vary from person to person - some will experience only symptoms of mild anaemia while others will require blood transfusions.

The only known cures for thalassaemia are bone-marrow transplant and cord blood transplantations (using blood cells taken from a foetus carried by a mother who also has an older affected child), though these procedures can cause other complications, and are not suitable for everyone.

This article will focus mainly on beta thalassaemia, because it is the most common and severe form of the condition in the UK. While alpha thalassaemia can be found in the UK, particularly among people of South Asian and South-East Asian descent, it is typically the mildest form of the condition. For more information about alpha thalassaemia, see the 'selected links' section.

Thalassaemia is more common in people who originate from the Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. In the UK, the condition is most common among people of Cypriot, Italian, Greek, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Chinese descent. This is because the mutations that cause thalassaemia originally occurred in countries where malaria was common.

Autism bears sign of inheritance

Reuters, Chicago

In another sign pointing to an inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child's risk of being autistic.

"Our research shows that mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism," said Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked on the study.

"We also saw higher rates of depression and personality disorders among mothers, but not fathers," she said in a statement.

The study of families in Sweden with children born between 1977 and 2003 involved 1,227 children diagnosed with autism. They were compared with families of nearly 31,000 children who did not have autism. Sweden's detailed health registry provides a wealth of data for such studies.

Autism, which is marked by impaired social interaction and communication, or a related disorder like Asperger's syndrome, affects an estimated one out of every 150 U.S. children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Asperger's is marked by mild social awkwardness.

No one knows what causes autism, but researchers think it is likely that several genes and possibly environmental factors contribute. Some autism advocates believe childhood vaccinations play a role, although most medical experts say it is extremely unlikely.

Which genes lie behind various mental illnesses are also poorly understood, according to the researchers, whose study appeared in the journal Pediatrics, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"Earlier studies have shown a higher rate of psychiatric disorders in families of autistic children than in the general population," Daniels said.

The association between a child's autism and mental illness in the parent was strongest with schizophrenia, and was less powerful when the mother suffered from depression or personality disorders. There was little association between autism and parental addiction to alcohol or drugs or some other types of mental illness.

It was not clear if it was significant that having a mother, but not a father, with certain mental illnesses, raised the risk of autism.

"Establishing an association between autism and other psychiatric disorders might enable future investigators to better focus on genetic and environmental factors that might be shared among these disorders," Daniels said.

Medicine at our doorsteps: Jaipal

Jamayet Ali

Jaipal is a small evergreen, glabrous tree, 15-20 ft. high with 3-nerved, ovate- acuminate thin leaves, and glabrous or slightly hispid capsules occasionally planted in gardens in many parts of Bangladesh. It is also planted or cultivated throughout the greater part of India and southward to Malacca, Myanmar, and Srilanka, China and Malay Islands. The nuts yield a valuable medicinal oil which is orange yellow or sherrycoloured, of the consistence of nut-oil, has a slight odour resembling that of jalap, and an acrid flavour. Its Botanical name is Croton tiglium Linn. It is necessary to be cautious in handling the nuts or the oil, owing to their blistering the skin. The oil is frequently used for colds in the chest as an external application, causing a severe blister.

Medicinal Properties: The oil from the seed is purgative, carminative; useful in diseases of the abdomen, mental troubles, convulsions, fever in anility, inflammations, bronchitis (Ayurveda). The seeds have a bitter bad taste, causing a burning sensation; cathartic, expectorant, emetic; good in sore eyes, excessive phlegm, leucoderma. The oil is cathartic, tonic; removes pus and bad matter from the body (Yunani). The seeds and the oil are officinal and their properties are well known: irritant, rubefacient, cathartic. In Lakhimpur, the seeds are ground in water, and the infusion is used to kill insect pests. The fruits are employed by dayaks in Borneo to poison fish. The root is used in Kelantan as an abortifacient. On account of their drastic purgative properties the seeds and oil are regarded by the Chinese as entirely poisonous. The bark is used as a tonic in Aonam. Croton oil is quite ineffective as an anthelmintic. The seeds are useless as an external application to the sting of the scorpion. The seeds are not an antidote to snake-venom, and they are useless as a collyrium in the treatment of snake-bite. The leaves are equally useless as an external application. (Indian Medicinal Plants, Vol. III, K.R. Kirtikar & B.D. Basu, 1256,1257)

Medicine: The seeds are used as a powerful drastic purgative, and the oil is regarded as a valuable medicine. in overdoses they act as an aero-narcotic poison. When externally applied the oil is a stimulant rubefacient and counter-irritant. Croton oil is said to possess powerful hydragogue cathartic properties. It is also useful in dropsy, obstinate, constipation, and apoplexy. The ancient Hindu books make no mention of the oil, the nuts boiled in milk or roasted in a pellet of cow-dung, appear (as at the present day) to have been used. One seed is a sufficient dose, and according to many writers, the skin of the seed, as also contained cotyledons (or seed leaves), are poisonous. The boiled or torrefied albuminous substance, mashed up and deposited in the interior of a raisin, is the form in which natives generally prescribe the drug, but it is often combined with astringents, such as myrobalams, cutch etc., these additions checking the acrimony of the nut and preventing griping. Waring says that should the administration of the nut cause griping, vomiting, or too violent purging, a good large draught of lime-juice is the best remedy; and it may safely be repeated in half an hour if the vomiting continue. Dutt remarks that, according to Hindu literature, the seeds are "useful in fever, constipation , intestinal worms, enlargements ofthe abdominal viscera, ascites, anasarca etc."

Dr. Fleming (in the Asiatic researches, 1840) writes :- "The seeds of this plants were formerly well known in Europe, under the names of Grana tiglia and Grana Molucca. They were employed as hydragogue purgatives; but on account of the violence of their operation, they have been long banished from modern practice. For the same reason, they are seldom used by the Hindu pra9titioners, though not unfrequently taken, as purgatives, by the poorer classes of the natives. One seed is sufficient for a dose. it is frrst carefully cleared from the membranaceous parts, the rudiments of the seminal leaves, that adhere to the centre of it ; by which precaution, it is found to act less roughly, and then rubbed with a little rice gruel, or taken in a bit of the plantain fruit."

Ainslie quotes (in the first edition of his work published in 1813) the opinions of a few Indian medical officers whore-made known the properties of this drug at about the beginning of the present century or the close of the last. Practically all subsequent writers have but slightly altered the sentences used by these early observers without having added any thing of consequence to the literature of the subject. The discovery of other drugs may be viewed as having thrown into the shade croton oil and croton nuts.

Dr. Dymock remarks ofthe expressed oil: "Ainslie notices the use of the expressed oil by the Tamils as an external application in rheumatic affections, but it does not appear to have been used for internal administration until the year 1821." Completing Ainslie's own account of it, after stating that the oil is used for external application, he goes on to say, "As a purge it has been of late years often resorted to the England, and is thought to have still more powerful effects as a hydragogue than the torrefied seeds. Mr. Thompson tells us that, in some cases, merely touching the tongue with a drop has produced many loose stools; and in others, doses of one or two minims have excited the most frightful hypercantharsis; although some individuals have taken it to the extent of even ten minims without any very sensible effect. He adds from his own experience, that he would be very cautious in exhibiting the oil at first in larger doses than one or two minims, to adults; in apoplexy, convulsions, and mania the croton oil is likely to prove a medicine of great value; a very good mode of giving it is, rubbed up with the mucilage of Acacia gum, sugar and almond emulsion, by which means its acrimony is blunted." Ainslie adds that Mr. R. Daly of Madras found the oil highly useful as an emmenagogue.

"Rumphius informs us that the root of the plant is supposed, by the inhabitants of Aboyna, to be a useful drastic purgative, in cases of dropsy, given rasped in doses of a few grains, or as much as can be held between the thumb and finger." "Rheede, who speaks of the plant under the name cade lavanacu, says, that the leaves rubbed and soaked in water also are purgative; and when dried and powdered are a good external application in cases of bites of serpents" (Ainslie).

Special Opinions: "Drastic purgative, used in obstinate constipation and dropsical affections. I have known instances of extreme prostration, amounting to collapse, produced by seeds, administered by natives in Bengal and the North-Western Provinces" (Assistant Surgeon Shib Chunder Bhattacharji, Chanda, Central Provinces). "in addition to their uses as a drastic purgative the seeds are applied in the form of liniment to the penis in cases of impotence and a high reputation in this disease amongst the natives" (Lal Mahomed, 1st Class, Hospl. Asstt. Mani dispensary, Hosangabad, Central

Provinces). "The seeds, half roasted over a lamp or candle flame, and the smoke inhaled through the nostrils, relieves a fit of asthma" (Surgeon-Major R. Thomson, M.D., C.I.E., Madras). "I have found the oil diluted with 9 or 10 parts of Mustard oil or olive oil to be a very useful liniment in infantile bronchitis" (Doyal Chunder Shome).

"Have used it as a diuretic, purgative, and rubefacient" (D. Picachy, Civil Medical Officer, Purncah). "The seed is frequently applied over the temples for headache and eye affections" (Surgeon Major Robb, Civil Surgeon, Ahmedabad). (Dictionary ofthe Economic Products of India, Vol. II, Watt, 618-20)

Properties and Uses : Seed oil is a violent cathartic and powerful hydragogue and externally it acts as vesicant. all parts of the plant possess drastic purgative properties. The oil is used as a violent purgative in dropsy and apoplexy; in convulsions, insanity and ardent fever attended with high blood pressure. Seeds are useful in asthma. Seed extract is inhibitory against P-388 lymphocytic leuremia in mice. Wood is diaphoretic, purgative and emetic. The root possesses abortifacient property. (Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh, Abdul Ghani, Second Edition, 192)