Pregnant mother consuming sweets may lead to future allergies for child.

Pregnant mother consuming sweets may lead to future allergies for child.A study revealed that higher intake of sugary products during pregnancy could increase the chances of the child developing allergic asthma. Pregnant mothers who have a craving for sweets and sugary products may be putting their child at risk of allergies and Asthma, according to new research. Researchers studied all kinds of asthma allergies ranging from cat allergies to those caused by dust mites and grass. Allergic asthma is caused when a person is allergic to dust particles. The study published in the European Respiratory Journal is significant because according to the World Health Organization around 235 million people in the world suffer from asthma, a large portion of those are children. According to the WHO’s predictions, this number will almost double to around 400 million people by 2025. It does becomes vital to understand what causes asthma and if there is any way to prevent it. more

The health hazards associated with consumption of soft drinks.

The health hazards associated with consumption of soft drinks. Soft drinks, otherwise known as sugar drinks, are the beverage of choice for millions of Nigerians. Urbanization also drives demand for ready-to-drink soft drinks amongst busy, on-the-go consumers, not minding the health implication. In an interview with most of these consumers, their reason for consuming sugary drinks varies: For Mrs. Adenike Akinlotan, she’s so addicted to sugary drinks that she has to take it on a daily basis. “I find it difficult to stop because my taste bud is used to sugary drinks, I know it’s not good for my health but I can’t stop,” she lamented. For Mr. Jude Onyenma, he is a business man who is always on the road, sugary drinks are always available for him to relieve his hunger. However, research have also shown that people (men and women) who consume sugary drinks regularly – 1 to 2 bottles a day or more – have a 26% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart attack or even at risk of gout, (among others) than people who rarely have such drinks. more

Veterinary doctors to be a part of National Disease Surveillance Program.

Veterinary doctors to be a part of National Disease Surveillance Program.National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) is exploring the option of involving veterinary public health specialists in the national disease surveillance programme. With the threat of zoonotic diseases—ailments transmitted from animals to humans—looming large, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is exploring the option of involving veterinary public health specialists in the national disease surveillance programme. Zoonotic diseases include brucellosis (caused by unpasteurized milk or undercooked meat), swine flu, rabies, plague, and bovine tuberculosis. The role of veterinary public health specialists will be clearly defined so that the disease pattern of many emerging and re-emerging diseases that are showing up in different places in the country, and most of which are going undiagnosed and unreported, can be studied. There is utmost need in the country today to build bridges of cooperation between medical researchers and practitioners, veterinary scientists and practitioners, and environmentalists to solve the problem. If we want to have a proper surveillance system of these diseases, role of veterinary public health specialists cannot ignored, more

Nigeria develops new schemes for agricultural export to Europe.

Nigeria develops new schemes for agricultural export to Europe. Olusegun Awolowo, Executive Director. Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, says the Federal Government has developed “Conduits of Excellence (CoE)’’ to ensure consistent and stringent quality management for all exportable products. Mr. Awolowo told the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday that the Federal Government had also set up a committee for the realisation of the objective. According to him, the committee will work under the technical guidance of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO. He also said the committee would also develop the code of practice and Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, for production and processing of selected products. more

Grass plants can transport infectious prions.

Grass plants can transport infectious prions according to a research published online in an issue of Cell Reports. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), shows that grass plants can bind, uptake and transport infectious prions. Prions are the protein-based infectious agents responsible for a group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, which includes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) in cattle, scrapie in sheep, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, elk and moose. All are fatal brain diseases with incubation periods that last years. The team analyzed the retention of infectious prion protein and infectivity in wheat grass roots and leaves incubated with prion-contaminated brain material and discovered that even highly diluted amounts can bind to the roots and leaves. When the wheat grass was consumed by hamsters, the animals were infected with the disease. The team also learned that infectious prion proteins could be detected in plants exposed to urine and feces from prion-infected hamsters and deer. Researchers also found that plants can uptake prions from contaminated soil and transport them to different parts of the plant, which can act as a carrier of infectivity. This suggests that plants may play an important role in environmental prion contamination and the horizontal transmission of the disease.

How smelling food makes you fat.

How smelling food makes you fat. A new study by University of California, Berkeley, showed that obese mice who lost their sense of smell also lost weight. Researchers developed ways to temporarily eliminate the sense of smell in adult mice, and discovered that those mice that lost smell could eat a high-fat diet and stay a normal weight, while litter mates that retained the sense of smell ballooned to twice normal weight. Super-smellers gained more weight than did normal mice on the same high-fat diet. Smell-deficient mice burned excess fat instead of storing it, suggesting a link between smell and metabolism. The irony however, is that these slimmed-down but smell-deficient mice ate the same amount of fatty food as mice that retained their sense of smell and ballooned to twice their normal weight. In addition, mice with a boosted sense of smell -- super-smellers -- got even fatter on a high-fat diet than did mice with normal smell. The findings suggest that the odor of what we eat may play an important role in how the body deals with calories. If you can't smell your food, you may burn it rather than store it.more

Live-pig markets, traders could provide insight to controlling African swine fever.

Live-pig markets, traders could provide insight to controlling African swine fever. A new study published recently in the journal PLOS ONE has shown that Understanding how live pigs are traded between villages and backyard farmers can help health agencies better understand how devastating swine diseases spread. Researchers at the University of California, Davis' Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance and the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization examined patterns of live-pig trade in the republic of Georgia. The country was the first in Europe to be affected by African swine fever in 2007, and from there the disease spread to the Caucasus region, Russian Federation and Eastern Europe, where it is still actively spreading today. African swine fever has a mortality rate of over 90 percent in pigs, often killing within seven to 14 days. Endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, the virus is re-emerging in new areas and is a major threat to pork production worldwide, both through direct losses and the effects of culling, trade sanctions and export restrictions imposed by countries to stop its spread. There is currently no treatment or vaccine for the disease. more