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Lifestyle Factors: Focus on Healthy Pregnancy
By Roberta Attanasio Too many times the medical field views pregnancy in terms of risks leading to potential problems for the mother, the baby, or both. Does it have to be so? Researchers from the UK, Ireland and New Zealand thought this may not be the case and shifted the focus of their research on pregnancy, from abnormality to normality. They carried out a study with the aim of highlighting factors that could be changed before pregnancy and, therefore, increase the likelihood of a normal outcome. Results from their study identified lifestyle factors either beneficial or detrimental for a normal pregnancy. Beneficial factors – factors that increased the likelihood of…
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Sustainability in Action: Family Farming
By Roberta Attanasio There are many family farms in the world, farms based on rural activities managed and operated by a family — they deserve our support for their contribution to the global food system and are now a recognized reason for celebration worldwide. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that there are about 500 million of these farms on our planet. The FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said in his statement of November 22, 2013 “Family farmers rely mainly on family labor. Many times they have little more than their own physical strength to harvest the land. They usually run non-specialized, diversified…
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Preterm Birth and Exposure to Environmental Pollutants
By Roberta Attanasio “Being born too soon is an unrecognized killer” – these are the words of Professor Joy Lawn, Director of the MARCH Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Senior Health Advisor to Save the Children. Professor Lawn is one of the co-editors of a 2012 seminal report entitled “Born too soon: the global action report on preterm birth.” Globally, more than 15 million babies are born prematurely (before 37 completed weeks of gestation) each year, with over a million neonatal deaths from complications of preterm birth. To reduce the global staggering numbers of preterm births, it is necessary to find ways to help…
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The Global Toll of Preterm Births
By Roberta Attanasio Too many babies are born too soon – not ready for life outside the womb – year after year. In May 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Save the Children and the March of Dimes, published a report (Born too soon: the global action report on preterm birth) that included the first-ever estimates of preterm birth by country. At the time it was released, Dr. Joy Lawn, one of the report co-editors, said “Being born too soon is an unrecognized killer. Preterm births account for almost half of all newborn deaths worldwide and are now the second leading cause of death…
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Genetically Modified Crops: Caterpillars versus Aphids
By Roberta Attanasio To label or not to label? The debate is still on — despite the defeat of the ballot initiative in Washington state that would have required special labels for foods containing genetically engineered ingredients. A year ago, a similar measure was defeated in California. Why? One of the reasons is that there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that genetically modified organisms (GMO) are dangerous — to our health. The danger here is that “no need for labeling” could be thought of as “no reason to worry”. Even if we should not worry that much about the health risks of GMOs, there are other worrisome…
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Skin Lightening Cosmetics and Mercury Toxicity
By Roberta Attanasio Skin lightening cosmetics are popular in many regions of the world — they’re used to lighten darker skin because of their ability to inhibit production of melanin, the substance that gives the skin its color. The active ingredients in some of these cosmetics often include toxic chemicals, as for example hydroquinone, fluorinated corticosteroid and inorganic mercury. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides interesting facts about the global use of skin lightening cosmetics. In India, 61% of the dermatological market consists of skin lightening products. In Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Togo, 25%, 77%, 27%, 35% and 59% of women, respectively, are reported to use skin lightening products on a…
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A Small Molecule Repairs the Damage Caused by Nuclear Radiation
By Roberta Attanasio Invisible and often dangerous, nuclear radiation is all around us. It comes at low levels from natural sources – radon gas, the earth’s radioactive elements and cosmic rays – as well as from human activities. Testing of nuclear weapons, nuclear waste disposal and accidents at nuclear power plants increase our exposure to radiation – sometimes at very high doses. Nuclear disasters such as those at Chernobyl and Fukushima generate global fear and profound emotional responses, while radiation’s medical applications raise safety concerns despite their beneficial use. Because of our fear of all things nuclear, we might welcome a recent discovery. A group of researchers has shown that a small molecule protects from death…
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Unsafe Medical Care: Global Burden and Policy Needs
By Roberta Attanasio Accurate and meaningful information deriving from scientific evidence is essential to drive international health policy and improve global public health. However, in many instances and for a variety of reasons, translating health data into policy results problematic. To overcome these challenges, in the 1990s the Harvard School of Public Health, the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a new concept – the Burden of Disease – to describe death and loss of health due to diseases, injuries and risk factors for all regions of the world. The Global Burden of Disease model is run by WHO and uses disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) to measure…
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Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water in India Impairs Kala-Azar Treatment
By Roberta Attanasio Visceral leishmaniasis, known in India as kala-azar or black fever, is a parasitic disease that kills an estimated 500,000 people a year, 90 percent of them in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil and Sudan. In India, the disease is endemic in the northeastern Indian State of Bihar – the epicenter of kala-azar in the region – and in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It manifests with irregular bouts of fever, substantial weight loss, swelling of the spleen and liver, and anemia. Left untreated, kala-azar is almost always fatal, especially in children, According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Leishmaniasis is a poverty-related disease. It affects the poorest…
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The Great Global Die-Off: Frogs and Lymphocytes
By Roberta Attanasio Frogs and other amphibians – salamanders and caecilians – have been declining worldwide during the past few decades at an alarming rate. According to a June 2012 assessment by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), about 41 percent of amphibian species are at risk of extinction, and some are already extinct. Like many other inhabitants of our planet, amphibians have been hit hard by climate change and habitat loss – and not only. Amphibians have also been decimated by the spread of chytridiomycosis, which is defined by the IUCN as the single most devastating infectious disease of vertebrate animals. In a…
