institute of child health
Children’s BMI found to rise the longer their mothers work
Childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled in the past three decades, and prior research has linked maternal employment to children’s body mass index (BMI), a measure of their weight-for-height. A new study in the January/February …
Girls who are bullied are at risk for substance use through depression
Washington, DC, January 19, 2011 — Both boys and girls who are victims of bullying, including bullying through e-mail and the internet, are at elevated risk for depression. However, according to a new study, adolescent girls may engage in sub…
Wake up, Mom — study shows gender differences in sleep interruptions
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Working mothers are two-and-a-half times as likely as working fathers to interrupt their sleep to take care of others.
That is the finding of a University of Michigan study providing the first known nationally representative da…
Girls’ early puberty linked to unstable environment via insecure attachment in infancy
Girls are hitting puberty earlier and earlier. One recent study found that more than 10 percent of American girls have some breast development by age 7. This news has upset many people, but it may make evolutionary sense in some cases for girls to d…
Human Gene Affects Memory
NIH scientists have shown that a common gene variant influences memory for events in humans by altering a growth factor in the brain’s memory hub. On average, people with a particular version of the gene that codes for brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) performed worse on tests of episodic memory ? tasks like recalling what happened yesterday. They also showed differences in activation of the hippocampus, a brain area known to mediate memory, and signs of decreased neuronal health and interconnections. These effects are likely traceable to limited movement and secretion of BDNF within cells, according to the study, which reveals how a gene affects the normal range of human memory, and confirms that BDNF affects human hippocampal function much as it does animals’.
Gene Identified for Obesity, Physical Activity, Sex Behaviors in Mice
A team led by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Deborah J. Good has identified a gene that appears to play a role in obesity, physical activity, and sex behaviors in mice. Good works with so-called “knock-out” mice, which have a specific gene deleted. Scientists then monitor the animals for changes in their physiology and behavior, in an effort to determine the gene’s role. Her findings are detailed in the current issue of the journal Physiology and Behavior. The project is funded with a four-year, $1 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and a two-year, $70,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, both of the National Institutes of Health.
Hormone breast cancer risk normalizes after stopping pills
Researchers confirmed that a daily, combined dose of estrogen and progestin increases breast cancer risk in post menopausal women, but added that this risk begins to return to normal about six months after women stop taking the hormones. “It is reassuring that breast cancer risk begins to return to normal six months after women stop combined dose estrogen-progestin therapy,” said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD. “Women, in consultation with their physicians, need to make the most informed decision possible. The study authors have provided them with one more piece of important information.”