GOOD NEWS

Question of quality

A WebMD report, quoting a study presented at the meeting of American Public Health Association, says that while it is a fact that children of working mothers get more food away from home at restaurants, day care centres and other places than what children of stay-at-home moms get, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality of their diet suffers. In other words, having a working mother does affect where children get their food from, but the quality of intake does not suffer.

Low-risk scanners

Scientists from University College, London, are in the process of developing a portable brain scanner that could help save the lives of premature and newborn babies in intensive care. The scanner provides some vital information about brain function and avoids the need to move critically ill babies to conventional scanning facilities, which may involve sedating them and therefore has a degree of risk. The conventional modes of scanning are either not portable or don’t produce the desired details.

BAD NEWS

With a pinch of salt

A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine says that despite counselling by physicians, Americans still consume far too much sodium, thus putting themselves at a risk for high blood pressure, heart diseases and stroke. According to lead researcher Umed Ajani, an epidemiologist with the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Promotion in the US, no difference in sodium intake was observed between those who received advice and those who did not.

Insulin threat

Too much of good is bad. As if to prove the age-old adage, a recent report in the Journal of American Medical Association says that higher insulin concentrations and insulin resistance are associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer in men. The report goes on to say that insulin has growth-promoting effects on pancreatic cancer cells and patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are known to exhibit hyperinsulinemia (high levels of insulin in blood) during the early stages of their disease.