BELOW ZERO

Children whose mothers are stressed are at higher risk of asthma, Canadian researchers found. They said persistent distress such as a mother’s depression or anxiety can increase the risk of her child developing asthma by an average of 25 per cent, even after accounting for known environmental triggers.

ZERO TO 20

Bull’s eye target for child leukemia found, says study

British researchers have identified the cancer stem cells that spawn tumors in the most common form of childhood leukemia, and said it provided a “bull’s eye” target for new drugs. These rare stem cells are a minute component of the blood but self-renew and act like a control centre, producing millions of cancerous leukemia cells that overwhelm the normal system, said researchers from the University of Oxford in Science. The next goal is to target both the pre-leukaemic stem cell and the cancer stem cell with new or existing drugs, avoiding the harmful side effects of current treatments.

20 TO 60

Amalgams pose no risk to human health, says EU report

Amalgam fillings for teeth, containing mercury, pose no health risk to the human nervous system, an EU scientific committee has said. The opinion supports arguments by some dentists and governments, who have said that the material is safer and more durable than alternatives. But the declaration caused a stir among patients’ organisations who argue amalgam is dangerous, because of the known side effects of mercury.

60 AND ABOVE

Vitamin D may prevent falls in older women

Vitamin D2 supplements plus calcium may lower the risk of falls among older women who are at a high risk of falling, according to a study conducted in University of Western Australia, Perth. Such women can benefit from extra vitamin D and calcium to reduce their risk by 63 per cent to 53 per cent a year — a drop of about 20 per cent. In addition, they can expect that this treatment will reduce their fracture risk by about 20 per cent over five years, reported the study published in Archives of Internal Medicine.