Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): Genetic variants that elevate the risk for skin lesions in people chronically exposed to arsenic have been discovered in one of the first large-scale genomic studies conducted in Bangladesh. netic changes found near the enzyme for metabolizing the chemical into a less toxic form can significantly increase an individual's risk for developing arsenic-related disease. Investigators at the University of Chicago Medicine, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and in Bangladesh suggested that the discovery could point the way to new screening and intervention options for people who are exposed to groundwater with high levels of arsenic. The group's genome-wide association study, or GWAS, was conducted in nearly 3,000 individuals exposed to arsenic for decades in Bangladesh. Since the widespread installation of hand-pumped wells to tap groundwater sources in the 1970s, as many as 77 million people - about half the population of Bangladesh - have been accidentally exposed to dangerous levels of arsenic. he World Health Organization calls the exposure "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history." For more than a decade, the scientists have studied the epidemiology of arsenic-related disease, such as skin lesions, diabetes, and respiratory illnesses, in this population, as … Continue reading →

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire -02/24/12)- A2Z Health Expo today announced it will hold its 5th annual Health Expo at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA on Thursday, March 22, 2012 from 4pm to 10pm. According to Dr. Ben Drillings, Director, the keynote speaker for the event will be the co-founder of the Samueli Foundation, Susan Samueli, PhD. Mrs. Samueli serves on the Board and Advisory Board of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrated Medicine (SSCIM) at UC Irvine. SSCIM promotes integrative medicine by providing education, scientific research and a model of clinical care that emphasizes healing of the whole person. Mrs. Samueli was honored with the UCI Medal in March 2000, the 2002 Ellen Cooperman Angel Award Recipient from the John Wayne Cancer Institute and the 2005 General William Lyon Crystal Vision Philanthropy Award from the Orangewood Children's Foundation. In 2006, Susan and Henry Samueli became the owners of the NHL franchise the Anaheim Ducks. The topic of Mrs. Samueli at the expo is: "Integrated Clinic in the 21st Century: Innovations, New Models & Challenges." The A2Z Health Expo event is focusing on bringing together healthcare professionals, philanthropists, academicians, that are interested in learning more about the integrated clinic … Continue reading →

24-02-2012 10:19 Our children on the Autism Spectrum can learn to play symbolically. One way to help them aquire this sill is to model it. Click on the video to see how. Follow this link: Symbolic Play - Video … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2012) — Children with autism spectrum disorders who also have serious behavioral problems responded better to medication combined with training for their parents than to treatment with medication alone, Yale researchers and their colleagues report in the February issue of Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. "Serious behavioral problems interfere with everyday living for children and their families," said senior author on the study Lawrence Scahill, professor at Yale University School of Nursing and the Child Study Center. "Decreasing these serious behavioral problems results in children who are more able to manage everyday living." Scahill and his team completed a federally funded multi-site trial on 124 children ages 4 to 13 with autism spectrum disorders at three U.S. sites including Yale, Ohio State University, and Indiana University. In addition to autism spectrum disorders, children in the study had serious behavioral problems, including multiple and prolonged tantrums, aggression, and/or self-injurious behavior on a daily basis. The children in the study were randomly assigned to medication alone for six months or medication plus a structured training program for their parents for six months. Parent training included regular visits to the clinic to teach parents how … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2012) — The RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine is examining how drugs can be matched to a patient's genetic information through the study of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Taisei Mushiroda from the Laboratory for Pharmacogenetics explains... Drugs are not equally effective on all patients. A treatment that is dramatically effective on some patients can be ineffective on others. Drugs can also have serious side effects; in the worst case, a drug used to treat a disease can produce a fatal outcome. By examining genetic differences among individuals and administering drugs on the basis of such findings, the impact of side effects can be reduced. Taisei Mushiroda, the Laboratory Head of the Research Group for Pharmacogenomics at the RIKEN Center for Genomic Medicine, is making advances in personalized medicine with research into how drugs can be tailored to a patient's genetic information through the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Identifying the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that plays a key role in drug rash Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that the gout treatment allopurinol, the antiepileptic drug carbamazepine and the analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic drug loxoprofen hold the highest incidence of serious drug rash. "The data we … Continue reading →