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Biofilms are everywhere - in dental plaque and ear canals, on contact lenses and in water pipelines - and the bacteria that make them get more resilient with age, finds a new study in FEMS Microbiology Letters.

Because bacteria in biofilms resist antibiotics, the study may have long-term implications for medical researchers seeking to develop better drugs and less infection-prone devices.

Biofilms are bacterial cities clinging to a surface. In addition to aiding infections, they can hamper industrial processes by clogging pipelines and gumming up machinery.

And as the study shows, biofilms may hold lessons for scholars of evolution.

Authors Steven Finkel and Alison Kraigsley of USC College found evidence of natural selection in a single-species bacterial biofilm. Finkel is associate professor of molecular biology. Kraigsley is a graduate student in Finkel's group.

"The bacteria that originally formed the biofilm are not the same as the bacteria that we harvest from that same biofilm later," Finkel said. "The mutants we find are more fit than the original founding strain."

The biofilm experiment is a variation on the Finkel group's best-known work: their studies of how starvation of microbes in a closed environment leads to the emergence of a dominant type of cells known as GASP mutants, for Growth Advantage in Stationary Phase.

GASPers, as Finkel calls them, outcompete bacteria from younger cultures. The key is not the age of individual microbes but the age of the culture they come from: young offspring of GASPers exhibit the same dominance as their parents.

Our five-year-old has chronic sinus infections, one of the specialists he has recently seen said the mucous might be resistant to antibiotics. We'll hopefully be finding this out within the next couple of weeks.

The FDA says bacteria becoming resistant is a real threat.

"Bacteria and other microorganisms that cause infections are remarkably resilient and can develop ways to survive drugs meant to kill or weaken them."

Although their page devoted to this topic has not been updated in several year.

I am sure by now you have heard about MRSA or more scientifically know as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The bacteria is resistant to antibiotics and is common worldwide. In recent years many countries have recorded MRSA infections in healthy people who had not been hospitalised or stayed in other healthcare facilities or institutions, nor received medical procedures in the previous year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 95,000 people in the United States developed serious MRSA infections in 2005 (the latest data available).

While the CDC cannot say how many children were infected, the agency reported the greatest increase in hospital visits were among those under 18 during an eight-year period ending in 2005.

I believe more and more of these types of strains will be developing at a rapid pace for years to come. And I specifically see this becoming more and more of an issue with young children which makes me incredibly sad.

Anne Buboltz, a postdoctoral fellow in veterinary and biomedical sciences at Penn State, explains that "antibiotic resistance is a natural result of evolutionary pressures." Just as animals evolve to evade predators or survive in harsh climates, bacteria evolve to withstand the things that threaten them-and these include antibiotics. "Bacteria with an antibiotic resistance gene can survive where non-resistant bacteria do not," says Buboltz. These survivors then reproduce, and the resistant strain becomes more common.

Have we unwittingly forced this natural process into overdrive? Buboltz believes so, noting, "The widespread use of antibiotic drugs creates a greater force of selection for bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes." And that use is on the rise. Some of the increase is due to other miracles of modern medicine: many diseases that used to be deadly can now be treated with transplants or chemotherapy, and as ill patients live longer, they often require long and repeated courses of antibiotics.

We'll see how it all turns out.

Labels: antibacterial, antibiotic resistance, biofilms, children, mrsa

February 2009 turned out to be a month when vaccine science was put on trial in the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C., in mainstream media and on the internet, in the British Medical Journal and in vaccine safety research initiatives by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The month began with a Feb. 6 CBS-TV news report on new information released by NVIC on serious Gardasil risks, which was followed within 48 hours by a highly orchestrated and very well publicized transatlantic attack on MMR vaccine researcher Andrew Wakefield, M.D. in preparation for a Feb. 12 public announcement by the U.S. Court of Claims denying federal compensation to three children, who regressed into autism after MMR vaccination. The same day that three autistic children were denied federal compensation in the U.S., the British Medical Journal published a Cochrane Collaboration analysis revealing that influenza vaccine studies are more likely to be published in medical journals and rated highly if they are funded by pharmaceutical companies, even when the vaccine studies are of poor quality.

Finally, it is a hopeful sign that at the end of February a joint statement was signed by a diverse group of vaccine stakeholders who met in Salt Lake City Feb. 20-21, 2009 to discuss national vaccine safety research priorities. Assisted by expert facilitators from The Keystone Center, the CDC sponsored Vaccine Safety Writing Group included federal and state public health officials, pediatricians, infectious disease specialists, immunologists, vaccine developers, health policy analysts, child vaccine advocates and representatives from vaccine safety and autism groups including NVIC, SafeMinds and Autism Speaks.

The vaccine stakeholder group stated that the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) should "charge an expert panel with evaluating study designs for research on the impact of the standard schedule of vaccination on an array of health outcomes of significant public interest. This draft charge is responsive to issues raised at community meetings in Alabama, Oregon and Indiana as well as the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee request for collaboration with the National Vaccine Program Office."

On March 16, 2009 from 9 to 5 p.m. at the Hubert Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, D.C., the National Vaccine Advisory Committee will hold an open public meeting for citizens to discuss the government's draft vaccine safety research agenda. To register to attend, contact Kirsten Vannice at: Kirsten.vannice@hhs.gov. To join the meeting via telephone or by webscast, go to this website.

SOURCE: National Vaccine Information Center

Labels: children, vaccines

Curing Kids' Cancer today awarded the annual Killian Owen Research Grant to the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

$80,000 was donated to the Aflac Cancer Center's Clinical Research office in memory of Killian Owen, who lost his battle with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2003 at the age of nine after a four year battle with the disease. Killian is the inspiration for the charity Curing Kids' Cancer.

"It is virtually impossible to explain how valuable Curing Kids' Cancer is to the children of Atlanta and the surrounding southeastern region," states Dr. William G. Woods, Director of the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. "Philanthropic entities like Curing Kids' Cancer make it possible for our staff of physicians and nurses to fight pediatric cancer and get kids back to being kids."

Curing Kids' Cancer has two national grassroots fundraising programs -- Coaches Curing Kids' Cancer and Teachers Curing Kids' Cancer. Both programs urge parents and children to donate money to pediatric cancer research in the name of their coach or teacher rather than buying them traditional gifts.

Inspired by nine-year-old Killian Owen's battle with leukemia, Curing Kids' Cancer Inc. is a unique, national grassroots movement which aims to raise both awareness and money to find cures for all types of childhood cancer.

Labels: cancer, children, cure, funding

In the next couple of weeks we're hoping to find out for sure what is causing Braeden's digestive system to act so crazy.

One of the possible issues he could be experiencing is a gluten allergy. So this weekend I went shopping and was able to find gluten free flour, gluten free brownie mix and other gluten free items at Wal-Mart. I don't remember seeing those products there before, but this weekend they sure were.

This morning my co-worker Jim brought in MI-DEL gluten free chocolate chip cookies. How sweet of him! So I looked up this MI-DEL brand and found they are currently having a promotion where if you buy two packs of their cookies they will pay for a quart of milk for you.

Read more about the MI-DEL promo at their website.

If you're wondering about this gluten business, here's what I know so far. Gluten is the elastic protein in wheat, rye and barley. Gluten is also one of the big elements of MSG, which many of you probably are more familiar with.

And in the craziness of our bodies is an enzyme which has the sole job of breaking down this gluten protein. Well, some people are lacking the essential tools for their body to properly breakdown the gluten proteins. When this happens the person can become very sick or subtly so depending on their sensitivity. So from person to person there will be a variety of symptoms and degrees at which those symptoms are even noticed.

With Braeden he did have a hard time gaining weight but I thought it was because he is so active. And Braeden is sick a lot so I thought perhaps his splattering bowel movements were from being sick or from antibiotics (which still might be part of the problem) but it didn't cross my mind that he could have food allergies.

This is why it pays to be a great parent detective when it comes to finding out how to help your children. In my searches and readings I have learned a great deal about nutrition and just how important the nutritional role is in aiding your immune system.

Having a gluten allergy or intolerance plays a huge part in impairing your digestive system. It effects bowel movements, but it also effects the absorption of nutrients from everything else you eat. What you feel can range from being bloated, having indigestion, constipation or diarrhea, mouth ulcers, muscle cramps, stools that float and even skin issues. As you can see the range is wide and so many times people are diagnosed with something else entirely.

You can test for a gluten allergy with blood work, specifically an IgE test or Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay, (ELISA) testing which can give a doctor detailed information about specific allergies to foods such as eggs, peanuts, wheat, etc.

Here are some more links for where you can buy gluten-free foods.

Gluten Solutions

Gluten Free Gourmet

Jake Bakes

Double Dipped Sweets

Labels: children, diet, gluten free, MIDEL, nutrition

A few co-workers alerted me to a recent article published in regards to a study in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine regarding giving Oral Prednisolone to preschool-aged children.

After reading the articles produced from the abstract and/or full NEJM text I talked to my husband about it to hear his thoughts. He's likely to play devil's advocate when it comes to medical articles and studies. And that is true in this case as well. He said there is no alternative in terms of helping to open their airways and it's been known for decades that no other alternative exists, so this isn't really "news" per say.

Braeden is five years old and is currently on Prednisolone due to his asthma. We do see that it helps him better than Albuterol alone when he is having a prolonged attack or week long persistent, hacking cough.

And really there is probably a lot of things effecting his height and weight, not just the use of occasional steroids to help him breath.

Click here to read the NEJM abstract.

Click here to read an article at BBC News - Health: Doubt over child steroid tactic.

Labels: asthma, children, steroid

I knew this would happen in the future and I'm so glad it was sooner rather than later. All the reading I have done on the brain's amygdala has made it clear to me it plays a huge role in your body's immune system and neurological behavior, but of course I have no proof of means of finding proof.

For the first time, scientists at Children's National Medical Center have successfully identified a key developmental program for the amygdala - the part of the limbic system that impacts how the brain creates emotional memories and responses.

Using studies of embryonic mice, Corbin and his team located two specific pools of precursor cells marked by the transcription factor Dbx1 that migrate from both the ventral pallium and the preoptic area-a previously undiscovered pool of migratory cells-to create the requisite mix of excitatory and inhibitory neurons that ultimately comprise the amygdala. Remarkably, the preoptic area precursor cells are exclusive contributors to the development of the limbic system, and no other portion of the brain.

"Altered function of the amygdala is a hallmark characteristic of disorders such as autism," said Dr. Corbin. "A more clear understanding of the normal development of this important brain structure provides a roadmap to understand the consequences of altered brain development in neurodevelopmental disorders."

The Dbx1-positive, POA-derived population migrated specifically to the amygdala and, as defined by both immunochemical and electrophysiological criteria, generated a unique subclass of inhibitory neurons in the medial amygdala nucleus. Thus, this POA-derived population represents a previously unknown progenitor pool dedicated to the limbic system.

I can't wait until they publish the complete research.

SOURCE

To further explain the importance of understanding the amygdala you should know what it is suspected the amygdala controls.

"Compared with young adults, older adults had greater functional connectivity between the right amygdala and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, a possible reflection of increased emotional regulation of negative pictures, but decreased functional connectivity between the amygdala and typical subsequent-memory regions such as the hippocampus, a possible reflection of decreased modulation by the amygdala and decreased memory retrieval for negative pictures."

A new study appearing online January 2, 2009 reports that high levels of brain activity in an emotional center called the amygdala reflect patients' hypersensitivity to anticipation of adverse events. At the same time, high activity in a regulatory region known as the anterior cingulate cortex is associated with a positive clinical response to a common antidepressant medication.

The study will appear in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Labels: amygdala, brain, children, Immune System, neurology

In terms of research studies which I deem totally pointless and a waste of money I think this one might just be the champion.

Childhood risk factors, including exposure to dogs, can boost the chances of snoring later in a life, according to a team of researchers.

"Early-life environments can affect if you are a snorer or not later in life," Karl Franklin, MD, PhD, the study's lead author and a physician at University Hospital in Umea, Sweden.

The so-called expert stresses that more research is needed before advising parents to do anything. "I think we should do more studies before we take the dogs away."

Well yeah, I'd say so. Good grief!

The study is published in Respiratory Research.

Labels: children, pets, research, snoring

Did you know the Center for Disease Control recommends women eat 46 grams of protein per day? It seems like a high number and typically protein comes from food with high fat contents, but our bodies need protein to maintain our cells, tissues and organs. So how do you keep your body healthy by eating enough protein and yet not too much in the way of fatty foods?

Well, moderation and portion size play a big part in eating healthy regardless of the nutrition facts. A small bag of Almonds or Cashews happen to have between 4 and 6 grams of protein in each serving. Fortunately, there is an easy way to get just the right amount thanks to Peeled Snacks.

Peeled Snacks has a variety of fruit and nut snack packs which are just the right serving size to fill your tummy. Better yet they taste good even though they squeeze in all those scary health food keywords:

no added sugar or oil
100% natural
cholesterol, dairy, wheat and gluten free
not to mention a fantastic source of essential vitamins and minerals
plus fiber!

I am a big fan of almonds. This can get me into trouble if someone leaves me alone with a jar or a big bag of almonds because I will eat them all and think nothing of it until afterwards. Thank God for the single serving snack packs offered by Peeled Snacks. Their "Almond-daze" portion is perfect!

So when you find a good thing you should stick with it. I tried a pack of their organic "go-Mango-man-go" and was surprised how delicious the fruit pieces were considering they were 100% natural and had no added sugar. That's when it hit me, a way to cleverly get these fruit snacks into my four-year-old!

Cut to me pouring a bowl of cheerios and throwing in some of the dried banana pieces from Peeled Snacks "Banan-a-peel" pack. Eureka! How is that for a healthy eating tip? I can hardly wait for the "Apple-2-the-core" snack packs coming this fall.

For those of you who might be just a bit skeptical here are some fun factoids to further entice you. =o)

Each bag of Peeled Snacks can contain up to 25% vitamin C, 16% fiber and 4% protein which means adding one of the snack packs to your child's packed lunch has just made your Momma job that much easier in terms of packing foods that are good for your kids. Since the nuts and fruits taste so delicious you won't get any complaining and in fact, your kids will look forward to finding out which pack you choose to give them each day. Trust me!

As if you needed more great news you might want to know Peeled Snacks is constantly developing new partnerships and working on projects to help the world around them. Last year, they donated a portion of proceeds from sales of our Holiday Gift Collection to the American Diabetes Association. You should have seen the gifts in the collection. The Mistletoe Gift Box was only $25 and it contained 8 of their snack packs! I can't wait to check out the holiday collection this year!

I don't know about you but when I can buy something as a gift and know part of the proceeds were used to aide others, well, that makes the purchase even more special! You can shop for the Peeled Snacks gift collection any day of the year and they always wrap up the perfect collection of seasonal sweetness.

Everyone send a big thanks and shout out to Noha Waibsnaider founder of Peeled Snacks who noted, and then acted on, the need for healthier snacks.

Labels: children, eating healthy, nutrition

Twelve children remain in a critical condition and more than 600 are still in hospital, some with brain damage and heart and lung problems.

A nationwide alert launched on the weekend has called for greater efforts to control the spread of all infectious diseases including hepatitis A and measles, as well as EV-71, particularly with the upcoming Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

The World Health Organisation says the virus does not currently present a threat to the Olympics or any other events.

The outbreak is primarily in Fuyang, in the eastern province of Anhui, where 22 of the deaths occurred; nurseries and schools have been closed and workers have sprayed disinfectant around houses in the affected areas.

However, it is my understanding spraying disinfectant alone will not help the situation. These schools need to thoroughly be cleaned with a bleach mixture.

UPDATE: 8:14 p.m.

Two more children have been pronounced dead, the death toll is now 26 children age six and under.

Labels: children, china, enterovirus 71

Some people sit down to read the morning paper and others, like me, sit down to read their RSS feeds. =o)

This morning the headline which caught my attention before all others was, "Diagnosis: ADHD-or Is It Trauma?" and it was written by Maia Szalavitz for MSN Health & Fitness.

It piqued my interest because I firmly believe children are more often inaccurately diagnosed with ADD or ADHD than they are accurately diagnosed. And putting your child on drugs to calm them down is not going to teach them how to cope and be calm on their own. Especially if your child truly does not have ADD or ADHD. Right? (Now, I'd like to note I do believe some people probably do need medicine for this and that is fine, I have no qualms with it. What I argue is diagnosing a child, because children are supposed to run around and have short attention spans it is how they develop and learn.)

In this article an adoptive Mom discusses how her child was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 7 and she hesitated to have him further evaluated or to give him medicine, because, "She knew that Dylan had been starved and neglected by his cocaine-addicted mother." Her argument was that due to the trauma in his early life, he was behaving inattentive and hyperactive.

"Though we tend to think of traumatic experiences as rare, in fact, by age 16, seven of 10 children have been exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event-such as a natural disaster, severe car accident, child abuse or the loss of close family member-according to a study of a representative sample of more than 1,400 children living in North Carolina published in 2007."

I can attest to this being true. By the age of 16 there are more than a handful of traumatic events in the timeline of my life. To this day my Mom says they should make a Lifetime made for TV movie about my life.

In fact, I have very early memories of traumatic events and can describe everything right down to the amount of light, the smell and the textures in certain memories of mine. If only my long term memory were as bad as my short term memory these days. =o)

How do you handle a child who has been molded early on in their life by experiences which were far less than stellar? I honestly am not sure if it is possible. I spent a year of my recent life trying to sort things out with a psychiatrist. While medicine certainly took the edge off my extreme emotions; it can't make the reasons go away.

The article at one point discusses some of what this adopted child had witnessed before the age of 7.

"Dylan had seen his mother use drugs and had witnessed a stabbing. In response, his developing brain-in an effort to protect himself-would have tried to predict which adult moods were most likely to erupt in violence."

"These children are hypervigilant because they are looking for dangers or threats," says Frank Putnam, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "They become exquisitely attuned to sights, sounds and especially facial expressions or tones of voice that might be linked with impending trouble."

"Hypervigilance can look like hyperactivity or inattentiveness in school because these children are paying attention to "distractions" like the teacher's face or another child's movements, not their schoolwork. A slammed door might prompt them to jump from their seats—and cause a "fight or flight" response that might seem aggressive or defiant."

How do you break a cycle like this? Can time, patience, love and understanding really get through? I'm not so sure. I hate to sound like doom and gloom, but once your brain as been molded and developed with those acute responses, how do you change it?

I often find myself saying "well in my world" when I'm talking about life. How selfish it must seem to outsiders to hear me say something like that. But the truth of the matter is there is a "my world" my own internal world; it does exist. And no, you're not invited. Why would you want to enter? I'm still trying to find a way to keep the doors nailed shut.

Labels: ADHD, children, depression, mental health, trauma

Man oh man, if you ever want to get me riled up then talk to me about child abuse. My best friend was abused her whole life and I have known many, many other children throughout my lifetime who have been abused. It is completely unacceptable and I have absolutely no tolerance for someone who feels the need to hit or verbally accost a child. Quite frankly, those people deserve torturous suffering.

Nearly 1 million children in the U.S. were victims of abuse or neglect from October 2005 to September 2006, a figure government researchers Thursday called distressing.

What is more distressing is how many millions of children are abused and were NOT listed as a part of that figure. Of course I have no proof of that, but am 110% certain I am correct. It breaks my heart.

Neglect accounted for about 70% of the total reported cases in infants 1 week old or less, researchers say, while physical and sexual abuse accounted for 13%.

With that data all I can say is of course 70% was neglect, that is the one easiest for outsiders to spot. A child comes to school in the same clothes all week, hasn't been bathed and looks malnourished. A teacher is obligated to report something like that and if reported there is an obligation for investigation. However, a child can be sexually and physically assaulted and if there is no visible wound than outsiders will not see, right? Many, MANY of those cases go unreported. And you know, children feel guilty, they think it is their fault. It kills me, it pains me, you have no idea how deeply.

I hope this is looked into more frequently and with greater depth. I'm glad the research is being done, it's about flippin' time.

I urge you to stand up for children even if you only have an inkling that something might be going on. It is better to be safe than sorry, you can be a child's hero. I have stood up for children many times. It is VERY difficult, but there is no other choice as far as I am concerned. Silence is acceptance.

SOURCE

Labels: children, drug abuse, neglect

Last night I ate a bowl of cereal for dinner, a FiberOne cereal, the honey flavor, it's really good. Anyway, the back of the box had all this content about eating healthy and such. There was an entire paragraph devoted to how eating a bowl of cereal at breakfast can actually help you maintain a proper body weight.

Then this morning I see an article about the very same topic at WomensHealthMagazine.com, coincidence, I think not. It's a fact, a truth known to Mom's forever I might add. But since research and data has been "officially" collected now then I suppose there will be less eye-rolling, I don't know.

"Researchers from the University of Minnesota studied the eating and exercise habits of 2,216 teens for five years and found that the more often a person ate breakfast, the lower the (Body Mass Index) BMI."

Read more at Journal Watch >>

Labels: breakfast, children, obesity, weight gain

Now that the Easter Egg hunting has commenced, I think it's only fair we talk about the candy which is now all over our houses.

Don't worry too much if your kids like the Peeps, star bursts or fruit snacks but let's face it those items are not necessarily the number one candy on kids' lists, right?

The chocolate bunnies whether hollow or solid are both high in fat and sugar. Other offenders in the candy world are jelly beans, peanut butter cups and the foil-packaged chocolate eggs. Don't believe me, well look at the facts; just one half of a solid chocolate bunny has 26 grams of fat, 460 calories and 42 grams of sugar. The recommended intake of sugar per day is only 40 grams. See the problem? While jelly beans are low in fat, they have a lot of sugar and calories. Just 13 jelly beans will put your sugar intake up at 27 grams. Just 13!

So if your kids crave chocolate and won't touch the marshmallows or fruit snacks, then try and give them a tootsie roll they are much lower in both fat and sugar. It's also filling because tootsie rolls require more chewing, it takes longer to eat them and kids think they have eaten more that way.

Of course it's all up to you. If you're like me you started throwing away some of the candy already. Braeden eats solid chocolate only, typically in the form of Hershey kisses. But he certainly has a variety of other goodies to choose from and that worries me. I want my boy to eat more, but I'd rather it be sweet corn than sweet jelly beans. =o)

SOURCE

Labels: candy, children, diet

This seems common sense to me, but I suppose it isn't.

This study was specifically done with children who live in poverty in an area of Oregon. This clearly means the study needs to be intensely expanded.

"Researchers at the University of Oregon studied a unique counseling strategy in a small group of poor families enrolled in a federal Head Start program in Oregon. They looked at measures of thinking skills in young children before and after parents had special counseling."

"Fourteen children aged 3-5 were tested on language ability and attention, and they had brain scans before their parents began the counseling. Another 14 children had the same tests, but their parents did not receive any special counseling. Once a week for eight weeks, parents of the experimental group went to sessions where they learned good parenting practices, like keeping consistent routines at home and how to discipline children in constructive ways."

Now I'm not sure studying fourteen children in one area who probably all know each other can give you any sort of insight on whether or not this theory is founded. But it's something interesting to further pursue.

The real issue is the lack of parental involvement in a child's life. And for the majority of parents they are less involved because they have to work more to make the money they need for their families. By the time these parents have time to spend with their children they are stressed and tired which doesn't make for good company. Right?

I wish I had a way to mend this situation, because it is indeed an issue which needs repair. If children grow up in this type of environment they will have trouble succeeding as adults. This only causes the cycle to continue repeating.

It's important for everyone to realize what is at stake here whether you are directly involved or not. This needs to happen in all communities, not just poverty stricken ones. Perhaps volunteer to be a mentor or tutor for the children. Employers, allow more training opportunities for these adults so they can progress within your company. Together we can make a difference.

SOURCE

Labels: children, education, intellect, parenting