Health trends

Mother's low vitamin D linked to baby's risk of cavities

According to a new study done in Canada, women's low vitamin D levels during pregnancy are linked to a higher risk of cavities in the teeth of their children.

Previous studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency among mothers can lead to defects in the enamel of their babies' teeth - which have already begun to develop in the womb - and that these defects can increase the risk of tooth decay.

Dr Robert J. Schroth from University of Manitoba's dental school in Winnipeg and his team wondered whether low vitamin D levels in mothers during pregnancy would also translate into higher cavity rates for their toddlers.

They measured vitamin D levels in the second or early third trimester in 207 pregnant women and then examined the teeth of 135 of their children when they were an average of 16 months old. Mothers-to-be were recruited from a predominantly poor, urban area.

Women's vitamin D levels were mostly in the normal range, but about a third had levels that were too low. Depending on what definition of cavities the researchers used, 23 to 36 per cent of the toddlers had cavities.

Prenatal vitamin D levels were significantly lower in women whose children later had cavities than in women whose kids did not have cavities, according to findings published in Pediatrics.

In fact, there was a direct relationship between low vitamin D levels in mothers and higher numbers of cavities in their children.

Besides low vitamin D levels in mothers, defects in the tooth enamel were also associated with cavities in kids.

The researchers believe that improving nutrition during tooth formation and in early childhood could reduce the risk of cavities. They noted, "Prevention efforts should begin during pregnancy by bolstering maternal nutrition, either through improved dietary intake or supplementation with vitamin D."

Stem-cell treatment for blindness advances in human trials

Boston, United States, company Advanced Cell Technology's stem-cell treatment for blindness is approaching the next stage of human testing. It is now investigating the treatment's effectiveness on those with two forms of vision loss: Stargardt's disease - an inherited form of progressive vision loss that can affect children, and age-related macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of vision loss among people 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The treatment is based on retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells that have been grown from embryonic stem cells. A surgeon injects 150 microlitres of RPE cells - the equivalent of three raindrops - under a patient's retina, which is temporarily detached for the procedure. RPE cells support the retina's photoreceptors, which are the cells that detect incoming light and pass the information on to the brain.

So far, one patient's results in particular were encouraging - they recovered full vision after being judged legally blind.

"We continue to be encouraged by the progress we see in our ongoing clinical investigations," Gary Rabin, chairman and CEO of ACT, commented in a press release.

"Our plan is still to publish additional results from the clinical investigations when we have a significant aggregation of data."

The company's more advanced trials will have dozens of participants, compared to the 12 from the early-stage trials. If the treatment passes safety and efficacy testing, it could potentially cure the 200 million people worldwide who will have age-related macular degeneration in 2020, researchers estimate.

Green tea may boost working memory

Green tea is known for many health benefits, including its effects against cancer, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Now, new research suggests the beverage can enhance our brain's cognitive functions, particularly the working memory.

The research team - including Prof Christoph Beglinger and Prof Stefan Borgwardt of the University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland - stated that their findings suggest that green tea could be promising in the treatment of cognitive impairments associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, such as dementia.

Green tea, native to China and India, is produced from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis bush. Unlike other teas, green tea is made from unoxidised leaves. This minimal processing means it is rich in antioxidants.

According to the researchers, "The present study shows that green tea extract enhances functional connectivity from the parietal to the frontal cortex during working memory processing in healthy controls.

Interestingly, this effect on effective connectivity was related to the green tea-induced improvement in cognitive performance. Our findings provide first insights into the neural effect of green tea on working memory processing at the neural network level, suggesting a mechanism on short-term plasticity of interregional brain connections."

Chronic pain may be genetic, new research suggests

New research - due to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA - is now suggesting that genetics may be at the root of why some people seem to have a higher tolerance for pain than others. The research forms part of an investigation into the causes of chronic pain.

The researchers divided the study participants into three groups. Those who scored their pain 1-3 were classed as having "low pain perception," people who scored 4-6 had "moderate pain perception," while "high pain perception" was defined by scoring 7-10.

The majority of the people in the study (46 per cent) had moderate pain perception, closely followed by high pain perception (45 per cent). Only nine per cent of the participants had low pain perception, and anyone giving their pain a rating of 0 was disqualified from the study.

The research team found that a gene variant, DRD1, was 33 per cent more common in the low-pain group than in the high pain group. The people in the moderate-pain group were more likely to have another two variants - COMT, which was 25 per cent more common in this group than in the high-pain group, and OPRK, which was 19 per cent more common. The high-pain group, meanwhile, was 25 per cent more likely to have the variant DRD2 than the people in the moderate group.

"Our study is quite significant because it provides an objective way to understand pain and why different individuals have different pain tolerance levels," noted study author Dr Tobore Onojjighofia, who explains that identifying whether a person has any of these four genes could help doctors better understand their patients' pain perception.