Listening to your favorite music may dilate heart vessels to the same extent as medications like statins and ACE inhibitors, according to research presented this week at a meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans . As part of the experiment, 10 healthy individuals underwent ultrasound testing while listening to their favorite music for half an hour and listening to music they felt made them anxious (in most cases heavy metal music) for half an hour. 

Findings showed that the favorite music increased blood vessel diameter by 26%, and the anxiety-provoking music narrowed blood vessel diameter by 6%, compared with baseline levels.

AHA – November 12, 2008 .

www.americanheart.com

Low vitamin D levels may trigger high blood pressure, say scientists. The analysis enrolled 1,484 women, ages 32 to 52 years. The subjects’ blood was tested for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a protein marker that reflects overall vitamin D levels. 

The investigators “matched cases and controls on age, race, and month of blood collection and further adjusted for body mass index, physical activity, family history of hypertension, oral contraceptive use, and plasma levels of parathyroid hormone, calcium, phosphorous, creatinine, and uric acid.”

Those women with the lowest levels of vitamin D had a 66% bolstered risk of hypertension, compared with those with the highest levels. And, being vitamin-D deficient increased the odds of developing high blood pressure by 47%.

“Plasma 25(OH)D levels are inversely and independently associated with the risk of developing hypertension,” conclude the study’s authors.

Hypertension – November 2008;52:828-32.

hyper.ahajournals.org

The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine has published a new study by researchers at Cornell University indicating evidence of an environmental trigger for autism among genetically vulnerable children. ”This analysis is an important first step towards identifying a specific environmental trigger, or triggers, for autism,” comments lead author Michael Waldman. 

“Our hope is that this study will spur those in the medical community to investigate what the specific trigger might be that is driving our findings, so that countless children can be spared an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis,” adds Waldman. 

The researchers discuss several possible environmental triggers related to higher levels of precipitation, including increased rates of early childhood television and video viewing, increased rates of vitamin D deficiency, and an increased exposure to chemicals used in household cleaners that children who spend more time indoors would likely experience. The research team plans to conduct further statistical studies aimed at identifying which of these possibilities are actual triggers for autism. 

The findings suggest that as many as 30 percent or more of autism diagnoses may be due to an environmental trigger or triggers related to levels of precipitation where the children live.

Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine – November, 2008;162:1026-34.

archpedi.ama-assn.org

America ’s pre-teens and teens more than doubled their use of type 2 diabetes medications between 2002 and 2005, with girls between 10 and 14 years of age showing a 166% increase.  In addition to diabetes, the study found that utilization patterns for blood pressure, cholesterol, attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), asthma and depression medications increased at varying levels during the four year period.  

“Our study findings indicate that these increased levels of chronic medication use are symptoms of broader underlying issues affecting children today,” cautions investigator Emily R. Cox, PhD, RPh. “These trends are worrisome given that many of these therapies are treating conditions with modifiable risk factors and if not addressed, many of these children will carry these chronic conditions into adulthood.”

Pediatrics – November 2008.

www.pediatrics.org

New research casts doubt on government health recommendations that infants and new mothers avoid eating peanuts to prevent development of food allergy. The study, published in the November issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, shows that children who avoided peanut in infancy and early childhood were 10 times as likely to develop peanut allergy as those who were exposed to peanuts. 

Researchers measured the incidence of peanut allergy in 8,600 Jewish school-age children in the United Kingdom and Israel .  

“The most obvious difference in the diet of infants in both populations occurs in the introduction of peanut,” lead author Dr. George Du Toit wrote in the article. At 9 months of age, 69% of Israeli children were eating peanuts, compared to 10% of those in the UK . 

The researchers speculate that recommendations in recent years to delay exposure to peanuts longer and longer may be linked to the dramatic rise in peanut allergies.

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology – November 2008.

www.aaaai.org/members/jaci.stm

An increasing number of children have food allergies, according to a new report from the CDC. The study shows an 18 percent increase in food or digestive allergies over the past 10 years.

 Ninety percent of the allergies were from eight types of food: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat.

 Previous reports document the link between food allergies and other allergies. Specifically, the report in 2007 sites that 29 percent of children with a food allergy also had asthma, compared to 12 percent of children without food allergies. Children with food allergies were also more likely to have eczema or respiratory allergies.

 CDC – October 2008.

www.cdc.gov