A potato-rich diet before pregnancy could up diabetes risk

“Eating potatoes before pregnancy increases risk of diabetes,” The Daily Telegraph reports. Researchers found a small, but significant, increase in gestational diabetes risk in mothers who reported eating a potato-rich diet before their pregnancy. Gestational diabetes is caused by raised blood glucose levels during pregnancy. It doesn’t usually cause any symptoms, but can cause complications if left untreated. The condition does not usually pose a problem for women in England, as diabetes can be routinely screened for. If it is diagnosed, it can normally be controlled by diet and exercise. This…

Read More

Rise in Malnutrition Must be Reversed Before it Creates Health “Catastrophe”: Experts

Malnutrition – which includes hunger and obesity – is on the rise and may affect half the world’s population by 2035 unless governments take urgent action to reverse its spread, U.N. agencies and experts said on Thursday. The problem affects a third of the world’s population and costs the global economy an estimated $3.5 trillion a year in healthcare and lost productivity, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says. Middle income countries are increasingly seeing both forms of malnutrition, putting a heavy burden on their purse strings in years…

Read More

Red Wine Before Smoking Can Offset Damage to Blood Vessels

A glass or two of red wine before lighting up a cigarette can counteract some of the short-term negative effects of smoking on blood vessels, a study says. “The aim of our study was to investigate the acute vascular effects of red wine consumption prior to ‘occasional lifestyle smoking’ in healthy individuals,” explained lead investigator Viktoria Schwarz from University of Saarland, Homburg. “We found evidence that preconsumption of red wine prevented most of the vascular injury caused by smoking,” Schwarz noted. Drinking red wine is widely regarded as protective against…

Read More

Some Babies May Need Allergy Tests Before Trying Peanuts

Most of the time, parents can safely feed peanuts to babies on their own, but infants with a history of allergies should still get a checkup first, a research review confirms. “If your infant has a history of an allergic disorder (i.e. eczema, food allergy), we would recommend that he/she be evaluated for a peanut allergy by an allergist, before introducing a peanut containing product at home,” said lead study author Dr. Sara Anvari of Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Also, when introducing peanuts at…

Read More

Menopause Before 40 Ups Fracture Risk

If you are in menopause before the age of 40, you have a higher fracture risk, even with calcium and vitamin D supplements, says a study. For years, calcium and vitamin D have been touted for their abilities to increase bone mineral density. Hormone therapy is also recognised for its ability to help ward off osteoporosis. That is what prompted this latest study — published online in Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) — to evaluate the effectiveness of calcium, vitamin D, and/or hormones in offsetting…

Read More

Don’t expect relief from smog before Nov 7

Don’t expect relief from smog before Nov 7 Delhi airport sources said that Wednesday witnessed the worst smog episode in the past few years. Before this, November 2012 saw similar conditions. According to the sources, during the day , when smog or fog usually shows improvement, general visibility at the IGI Airport was in the range of 300-500m, on a par with the dense fog days of December and January . By 9pm, the visibility had dropped to 250m. While the Met department has predicted a slight improvement in smog…

Read More