It’s Folic Acid Awareness Week!

And why should you be aware of folic acid? If you’re a woman who’s going to have a baby, taking 400 micrograms of folic acid daily can help prevent major birth defects of your baby’s brain and spine. But here’s the catch: Baby’s brain and spine start developing during the first weeks of pregnancy, before most women even know they are expecting. So for this B vitamin, which helps our bodies build new cells, to make a difference, experts recommend that all women of childbearing age take it daily. Learn more … 

C-Section Before 39 Weeks a Risky Delivery

Babies delivered by elective Caesarean section before 39 weeks of pregnancy are more than twice as likely to have serious breathing problems, bacterial infections, low blood sugar, or to spend time in intensive care than those delivered at 39 weeks’ gestation. A study of more than 28,000 women published in the Jan. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine also found that babies delivered at 37 weeks were more than four times as likely to have these problems. All of the women in the study had had prior elective C-sections as well. About 31% of babies were born via C-section in 2006, and in the study nearly 36% of elective repeat C-sections were performed before 39 weeks. Researchers from University of North Carolina who helped conduct the study said that this is at least in part a matter of convenience for moms and doctors.

Vitamin C Could Lower Women’s BP

If you’re a young woman (18-21), boosting your intake of Vitamin C could help lower your blood pressure, according to a UC Berkeley study published Dec. 17 in Nutrition Journal. Researchers followed 242 women who had entered the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study at ages 8 to 11. They found that those with the highest levels of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in their blood had 4.66 mm Hg decline in systolic (peak pressure in the arteries when the heart is contracting) and 6.04 mm Hg decline in diastolic (minimum pressure, when the heart is filled with blood) blood pressure compared with those who had lower Vitamin C levels. Blood pressure is generally reported as systolic/diastolic, and 120 mmHg/80 mmHg or lower is normal for adults.

Learn more about the study … 

Learn more about Vitamin C … 

Pregnant women who are deficient in Vitamin D at the time of delivery could have almost four times the risk of having Caesarean sections as women who are not Vitamin D deficient, according to a study released in December in the online Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The two-year study, conducted by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, involved 253 women. Researchers noted that previous studies have linked Vitamin D deficiency with muscle weakness and less-than-optimal muscle performance, and speculate that this could be the reason for the findings.

Vitamin D isn’t present in many foods, but can be obtained through sun exposure (though some experts worry about skin cancer risk from unprotected exposure to UV rays) and supplements. It is needed to help the body absorb calcium, and to help bones grow and maintain their strength and shape. Without vitamin D, bones can become brittle.

Experts recommend that pregnant women take in at least 200 IU (international units) of vitamin D daily.

Food sources include fish and fish liver oils (though pregnant women should be careful about the types of fish they consume, as some species are more likely to be tainted with mercury), plus small amounts in beef liver, cheese and egg yolks. It’s also available through fortified foods such as milk.

Learn more about Vitamin D …

– Christina Elston

Here’s a useful tool for families dealing with autism – and it’s masquerading as a fun picture and poetry book. One common challenge for children on the autism spectrum is communication, especially when it comes to interpreting facial expressions and the feelings they represent.

What’s That Look On Your Face? by Catherine S. Snodgrass (Autism Asperger Publishing Company, 2008) helps kids connect facial expressions to a dozen basic feelings through bold, wonderful illustrations and build a “feelings vocabulary” through cute and catchy poems. The rhyme and color make it especially friendly to children who learn best through visual and aural cues.

Why is this important? A foreword by Diane Twachtman-Cullen, editor of Autism Spectrum Quarterly, spells it out. If a child can’t understand the emotion behind another person’s outward behavior, that child can’t make sense of the person’s actions. And a child who can’t make sense of another person’s actions can’t respond appropriately.

But turn the page to find a tearful boy and his baseball glove in front of a rainy window, and the little poem … Sad so unhappy, mouth curving down, glum, melancholy, face wears a frown … and you have a clear picture of the connection between the rained-out baseball game, the boy’s sadness and his unhappy face.

A wall-size poster of the book’s illustrations, plus clever family activities suggested by Twachtman-Cullen, round out the package, and promise a surefire way to get in touch with feelings – and the faces they make us make.

– Christina Elston

Bacteria. Most of the current generation of parents have been dosed – and dosed their children – with antibiotics designed to kill these single-celled microorganisms, and have scrubbed everything from kids to kitchen counters with soaps intended to wipe them out.

Those echoes from the early 1980s about “friendly bacteria,” a type our bodies actually need, hadn’t yet taken hold. But today “probiotics” have gone from the fringe to the front shelves of health food stores, and even your local grocery. (Pictured above is Lactobacillus acidophilus from SciMAT/Photoresearchers Inc.) Learn more about the benefits of probiotics, and how to choose quality products …

Everyone make it through the holidays intact? Back to healthy eating, regular exercise, and a good night’s sleep (except for New Year’s Eve, of course)? Excellent! Here’s some news you can use:

FDA Warns About Tainted Weight Loss Pills

First off, if you’ve overindulged and want to shed a few pounds, do it the old-fashioned way. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning that more than 25 different weight loss drugs currently on the market contain dangerous ingredients not listed on the labels. Among these ingredients is sibutramine, a controlled substance that can cause high blood pressure, seizures, heart attack and stroke. Rimonabant, a drug approved in Europe but not in the U.S., is also found in some of these pills, and has been associated with five deaths and 720 dangerous reactions during the past two years in Europe. Also part of the cocktail: phenytoin, an anti-seizure medication; and phenolphthalein, a suspected cancer causing agent. Learn more … 

L.A. Local: Nutrition For Conception

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are hoping your new year will include a new baby, you might be interested in an upcoming lecture by nutritional and wellness consultant Haylie Pomroy. She’ll be talking about her book, Craving Conception, at 1 p.m. Jan. 21 at InnerMovement Wellness Center, 1218 E. Broadway, Glendale, CA. The book includes quizzes, shopping lists, menus, plus a “power cleanse” designed to get your body ready to conceive. Seats are $10, and can be reserved by phone at 818-849-1300.

Pediatrics Bashes Alternative Vaccine Schedules

Planning a visit to the pediatrician soon? Here’s food for thought: Parents worried that vaccinations (kids currently receive 26 vaccine shots by age 2) are turning their children into pincushions, or concerned about the still-simmering controversy that vaccines cause health problems have increasingly been taking refuge in alternative schedules described in The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision For Your Child by Dr. Robert Sears, son of renowned pediatrician William Sears. But an article in Pediatrics takes those schedules, and Sears’ book, to task, claiming that “Sears’ misrepresentation of vaccine science misinforms parents trying to make the right decisions for their children.” The authors worry that following Sears’ schedules will decrease vaccination rates, or at least increase the time during which kids are vulnerable to vaccine-preventable illness. Learn more …                          Read Dr. Sears’ response …

FDA Warns of Suicide Risk With Antiepileptic Drugs

Antiepileptic drugs – used to treat psychiatric disorders, migraine headaches and epilepsy – will now be prescribed with a warning that their use can increase risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced. The agency advises that people being treated with these drugs be monitored for depression, suicidal thoughts or behavior, or any other changes in behavior. In clinical trials, patients receiving these drugs had almost twice the risk of suicidal behavior or thoughts as did patients receiving a placebo, but the biological reasons for this haven’t yet been uncovered. Learn more … 

If there was an earthquake while your child was at school, would she remember your cell phone number? How about Dad’s number at work? What if her own sparkly pink cell phone – with these numbers in the address book – was left behind or damaged?

Or maybe your child is one of the 326,000 in the U.S. living with epilepsy, the more than 4 million who had an asthma attack last year, or as many as 3 million with type 1 diabetes. Would he know what to tell his teachers or a paramedic about his condition?

The answer could be as simple as a little new bling.

Camper Alert child safety bracelets ($19.95, www.hopepaige.com), for instance, let parents hide phone numbers and other important information under a metal tab. They look like those trendy rubber bracelets kids love, come in lots of bright colors, and are sturdy enough to handle kid-level wear and tear. And they’re great for field trips, theme parks, and summer camp because they stay right with your child.

For $5, you can have the company engrave two lines of text or numbers, 20 characters each, on the back of the metal tab. That keeps your info out of the public eye, but handy if your child (or a teacher or emergency personnel) needs it.

And for kids with medical conditions, there’s Lauren’s Hope medical I.D. jewelry ($39.95-$169.95, www.LaurensHope.com), which allows kids to choose anything from waterproof sports bands to ankle bracelets, stone and charm bracelets or even guitar pick necklaces. They’re a much cooler twist on the traditional MedicAlert bracelet, but still offer tags engraved with all the pertinent info.

Two fun ways to make sure all the needed information is on hand in an emergency.

– Christina Elston

Holiday Myths Debunked

For the Christmas issue of BMJ, published online Dec. 18, researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine decided to look into a few commonly held beliefs that seem to go along with the season. Studies, they say, have proven the following false:

• Suicide rates are higher during the holidays.
• Poinsettias are toxic if eaten. (But they aren’t tasty.)
• Hangovers are curable. (So moderation, moderation, moderation.)
• Sugar makes children hyperactive.
• You lose most of your body heat through your head.
• Eating at night makes you fat. (Not as long as you stick within your normal calorie total.) Learn more …

Stay Out of the ER This Season

The nice folks at the American College of Emergency Physicians offer the following tips to help keep you from clogging up their emergency departments during the holidays. Note: 11,000 people in the U.S. are treated in those emergency departments for decoration-related injuries each year. And that’s far from the only holiday hazard. On to the tips:

• Be responsible when consuming alcohol. Especially don’t drink and drive.
• Be careful opening gifts with sharp objects.
• Watch those leftovers. Refrigerate promptly after meals to avoid bacterial food poisoning.
• Use proper-sized ladders for outdoor decorations, and work with a helper.
• Make sure Christmas trees and holiday decorations are secure and sturdy. Learn more … 

CDC Says Tamiflu May Not Help This Season

Didn’t get your flu shot this year? You need to know two things: First, it isn’t too late. And second, if you’re counting on Tamiflu, a leading flu medicine, to help if you get sick, you might be out of luck. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported last week that the medication might not be a good match for the most prevalent strain that seems to be circulating this season. The flu vaccine, however, seems to be a good match this year, the agency reports. An online survey conducted by RAND Corporation in November found that just 30 percent of adults had gotten a flu shot this year. It’s recommended for adults over 50, kids ages 6 months to 18 years, and folks with certain medical conditions. And it’s worth considering. Learn more … 

– Christina Elston

Years ago, when I was all but flattened by a raging sinus infection, a doctor named Lorber offered the following advice:

Mix up an 8-ounce glass of warm water and a half-teaspoon of salt. With a bulb syringe (the kind you use to clean out a baby’s nose), squirt it in one nostril and let it run out the other. Do that every four hours or so.

I was desperate, so I tried it. And by the end of the day I could actually breathe. It was unpleasant and pretty gross. And messy, because I had to tip sideways, keeping one nostril over the sink while squirting the water into the other. But for years whenever I got a cold I would stand with lots of towels at the ready and faithfully flush my sinuses. Read on …

Ovary Transplant Restores Fertility

Doctors from the Infertility Center of St. Louis have transplanted the intact ovary of a 38-year-old woman into her identical twin sister, who experienced premature menopause at age 15. And that woman gave birth to a baby in November, the New England Journal of Medicine reported. Dr. Sherman Silber, who led the transplant team, said the technique could one day help preserve fertility for young cancer survivors, and even for women who decide to delay childbearing. Learn more … 

IVF Over – But Then What?

Once a woman is finished with in-vitro fertilization attempts, whether she becomes pregnant or not, she almost always has frozen embryos left over. And a Duke University survey of more than 1,000 women found that decisions about what to do with them can be as complicated and painful as the infertility itself. Options are few: thaw and dispose of them, donate them to other women, give them to researchers, or leave them frozen indefinitely. The majority of women in the survey, published online in Fertility and Sterility, didn’t care for any of those. They preferred the idea of either inserting the embryos into their bodies at a time when they were unlikely to become pregnant and letting nature take its course, or having some sort of disposal ceremony. But those options aren’t commonly offered. Learn more …

The Pill Effective Against Endometriosis Pain

Good old low-dose oral contraceptives can really reduce the pain associated with endometriosis – a condition where uterine tissue grows outside the uterus, which affects more than 5.5 million women in North America (an estimated 2-10%). That was the conclusion of Japanese researchers reporting in the November issue of Fertility and Sterility. They divided 100 women with endometriosis into two groups. One received the pill, and the other took placebos, but both were allowed their usual pain medications. The group treated with oral contraceptives reported less pain overall, and saw significant reduction in the amount of endometrial tissue growing outside the uterus. Learn more about endometriosis … 

– Christina Elston

The “batten down the hatches” feeling in the air these days tends to focus on the financial, but we still need to be ready for other types of crisis. The new year is a good time to take stock of how well you’re prepared – and how well you’ve prepared your kids – for disasters that strike outside Wall Street.

As director of the Disaster Preparedness Project at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Jeffrey Upperman participated in the Great Southern California Shake Out Nov. 13. The drill was a learning experience for thousands, and followed this summer’s wildfires as a new experience for Upperman. “Being an East Coast guy, I did not realize that fire was a season,” he jokes.

But Upperman takes disaster preparedness seriously, and has these tips for families: Read Upperman’s tips …