Bath in diluted bleach relieves kids’ eczema
Via: 
USATODAY.com
Though most people reserve bleach for removing stains from clothing, a study in the journal Pediatrics says it also may offer relief to children who have the skin disease eczema.The study, out last month from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, found that giving children with moderate or severe eczema diluted bleach baths reduced the severity of the disease.
Eczema can often cause itching, rash, crusting and other forms of irritation, the National Eczema Association says.
“This is a study that was based on the fact that we’ve known for many years that diluted solutions of bleach can be antibacterial,” says Amy Paller, professor and chair of dermatology at the medical school and the senior investigator of the study.
Eczema patients often develop colonies of the bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, on their skin as a result of the itching and scratching caused by the disease, she says. The bacteria can exacerbate symptoms of the disease, so when eliminated by the bleach, patients usually feel some relief.
The 31 participants were split randomly into two groups. One received a bottle of bleach, the other a bleach bottle filled with water. Doctors did not know which group was using bleach, and participants were instructed not to tell researchers which group they were in.
Patients were told to use about a half-cup of bleach for a full standard tub and to soak for five to 10 minutes twice a week. After a month, researchers saw “a significant decrease” in the severity of the symptoms of the group using the bleach.
Robert Brodell, a professor of internal medicine and dermatology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, says dermatologists have been using the treatment for about 20 years, but this is the first scientific study on the topic.
“Many dermatologists wait until there’s evidence that something really works because there are a thousand things out there that people do and when they’re subjected to scientific study they don’t work,” he says.
Brodell describes the baths as an “adjunctive treatment,” to be used in conjunction with moisturizers, antibiotics and other treatments.
“It is a component that helps a bit, but it’s not God’s gift to eczema patients,” he says.
Paller adds that patients should consult with a physician before starting the treatment and cautions them never to put non-diluted bleach directly on the skin.
Julie Block, vice president for programs at the National Eczema Association, says the study will “help people learn options that they can do at home to empower themselves.”
Study Finds Possible Link Between Childhood Deaths and Stimulants for ADHD
Children taking stimulant drugs such as Ritalin to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are several times as likely to suffer sudden, unexplained death as children who are not taking such drugs, according to a study published yesterday that was funded by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health.
While the numbers involved in the study were very small and researchers stopped short of suggesting a cause and effect, the study is the first to rigorously demonstrate a rare but worrisome connection between ADHD drugs and sudden death among children. In doing so, the research adds to the evolving puzzle parents and doctors face in deciding whether to treat children with medication.
Doctors have speculated about such a connection in the past because stimulants increase heart rate and have other cardiovascular effects. Physicians are currently advised to evaluate patients for cardiac risks before prescribing the drugs, and FDA officials said yesterday that those guidelines do not need strengthening in light of the new study. About 2.5 million children in the United States take ADHD medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.
In a press briefing called on short notice yesterday, FDA officials said that given the seriousness of ADHD and the rarity of sudden death — which strikes fewer than 1 in 10,000 children — the benefits of the drugs outweigh their risks. Agency officials urged parents to discuss concerns with doctors rather than deciding on their own to discontinue a child’s medication. The study’s lead author, Madelyn Gould, a professor in child psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University, said she agreed with the FDA’s advice.
Source/Full Story: washingtonpost.com
FDA Panel Chairman on Bisphenol-A Secretly Received $5 Million Payment
As an FDA panel prepares to issue a ruling on whether the controversial chemical bisphenol A (BPA) should be considered safe, press reports have revealed that the research center headed by the panel’s chair recently received a massive donation from a vocal BPA supporter and former medical device manufacturer.
In July, the University of Michigan’s Risk Science Center, headed by FDA panel chair Martin Philbert, received a $5 million donation from anti-regulation activist Charles Gelman. This donation amounted to almost 50 times the center’s annual budget, but was never reported to the FDA.
Gelman vocally supports organizations that are critical of research into the risks of chemicals, global warming and other environmental hazards. He also has a long history of opposing government regulation of pollutants.
Gelman told reporters that he considers BPA to be perfectly safe, and that he made his perspective clear to Philbert on multiple occasions.
"He knows where I stand," he said.
Source/Full Story: naturalnews.com
Print Story: TV Causes Learning Lag in Infants
My recommendation would be to just throw the TV out altogether. In this case, What’s good for baby is good for parents too, and siblings, and probably even the cat and dog.
Even infants zone out in front of the television, and it turns out this translates into less time interacting with parents and possible lags in language development, a new study finds.
"We’ve known that television exposure during infancy is associated with language delays and attentional problems, but so far it has remained unclear why," said lead researcher Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages television watching before the age of 2, a time when critical development, such as language acquisition, occurs. (Christakis said a baby’s brain triples in size during the first two years of life, so there’s a lot going on in that little noggin.)
To figure out the TV-language link, Christakis and his colleagues rounded up 329 2-month to 4-year-old children and their parents. The kids wore digital devices on random days each month for up to two years that recorded everything they heard or said for 12 to 16 hours. The researchers didn’t determine whether the adults and kids were actively watching the television or if it was just on in the background.
Analyses of the recordings revealed that each hour of additional television exposure was linked with a decrease of 770 words (7 percent) the child heard from an adult during the recording session. Hours of television were also associated with a decrease in the number and length of child vocalizations and the back and forth between the child and an adult (called a conversational turn).
"Some of these reductions are likely due to children being left alone in front of the television screen," the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "but others likely reflect situations in which adults, though present, are distracted by the screen and not interacting with their infant in a discernible manner."
And interaction is key for baby’s brain.
"The reason it’s concerning is because we know that hearing adults speak and being spoken to are critical exposures that play a role in infants development in language," Christakis told LiveScience.
With 30 percent of households having televisions on all the time, the researchers wondered how many fewer opportunities there were for children and parents to communicate and socialize.
"My recommendation first is that children under the age of 2 be discouraged from watching television," Christakis said. He added that even if the TV show is intended for the adults, the effect is the same for their children.
Source/Full Story: Yahoo! News
CDC: Pregnant women should be wary of swine flu
Pregnant women are especially at risk for complications from the H1N1 flu virus and shouldn’t hesitate to use antiviral drugs if they even think they might be infected, doctors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say.
Health officials are investigating 20 cases of infected pregnant women, several of whom had severe complications, says the CDC’s Anne Schuchat. One of those pregnant woman — teacher Judy Trunnell, 33, of Harlingen, Texas— died May 5.
Source/Full Story: USATODAY.com
