Science Snaphsots
Milking It
Scientists are getting closer to discovering an immune-boosting substance that could prevent people from getting sick by studying something long known for its healing powers: breast milk.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is the leading institution in an international research consortium that has a $6 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to investigate how human milk – specifically large sugars in it called oligosaccharides – can help protect people of all ages from infectious diseases.
Unlike an antibiotic intended to kill bacteria, a medicine made from breast milk would act more like a magnet, says Ardythe Morrow, PhD, director of the new Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Human Milk Lactation at Cincinnati Children’s and the study’s lead investigator. Scientists are figuring out how germs might bind to sugar structures in breast milk and be flushed from our bodies.
She sees the possibility of human milk being made into a medicine or food supplement within five to 10 years for use by everyone from vacationers wanting an immune boost before they go on a cruise to military troops in a war zone.
The Harder They Fall
Researchers have added injury to muscles and bones to the list of health problems caused by being overweight. A recent study by Cincinnati Children’s indicated obese children are more vulnerable to injuring the bones and muscles of the lower body.
The study analyzed body weight and injury severity for children who visited the hospital’s emergency department between 2005 and early 2008. More than 23,000 children were admitted for ankle and leg sprains, the most common lower body injuries. About one sixth of the children were obese.
“Because obese patients have an increased body mass and force, they are more likely to twist or roll on a lower extremity and cause injury than the non-obese children,” says Wendy Pomerantz, MD, emergency medicine physician and lead author of the study. In addition to the increased susceptibility to injury, obesity is likely to lengthen a child’s recovery time, noted Pomerantz, since the added weight and stress to the body can cause even more damage. Exercise and diet remain the best ways to combat the growing obesity epidemic, she says.
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