Health&Wellness Magazine August 2014 | Page 16

16 & News August 2014 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net | in the By Angela S. Hoover, Staff Writer Air Pollution and Autism A June study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives by scientists from the University of Rochester in New York describes how exposure to air pollution early in life produces harmful changes in the brains of mice. Specifically, that air pollution causes inflammation that damages the development of white matter in the brain. These changes include an enlargement of part of the brain that is seen in humans who have autism and schizophrenia. The mice performed poorly in tests of short-term memory, learning ability and impulsivity. Study authors say the findings are very suggestive that air pollution may play a role in autism, as well as in other neurodevelopmental disorders. These findings are consistent with several other recent studies showing a link between air pollution and autism in children, such as a 2013 JAMA Psychiatry study showing children who lived in areas with high levels of traffic-related air pollution during their first year of life were three times as likely to develop autism. The researchers used polluted air made up of ultra-fine particles, which are believed to be more dangerous because they are small enough to get deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream. The researchers likened the level of air pollution used to that which would be encountered driving the freeways of Los Angeles or Atlanta. Per the CDC, 1.5 percent of American children have autism; this is a 30 percent increase from 2012. Nearly half of the 300 million people in the U.S. live in areas deemed to have unhealthy air quality per the American Lung Association. Air pollution worsened between 2010 and 2012, but it is much cleaner than it was a decade ago when autism diagnoses peaked. After rates surged in the 1990s, they peaked in 2004 and have held steady since, per the journal BMJ Open. Self-Healing Tooth Treatment For Decay? Researchers at King’s College London are working on a device for a tooth decay treatment that would fix cavities without the need for drilling and fillings. The two-step process, called Electrically Accelerated and Enhanced Remineralisation (EAER), uses an electric current that spurs decayed teeth to repair themselves. “The way we treat teeth today is not ideal,” said professor Nigel Pitts of King College’s London Dental Institute in June. “When we repair a tooth by putting in a filling, that tooth enters a cycle of drilling and refilling as, ultimately, each ‘repair’ fails.” Instead of numbing an area with an injection, drilling down the decayed part of the tooth and inserting resin, this method accelerates the processes in the natural tooth cycle. This procedure is similar to another noninvasive technique announced by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in May. That method uses a low-power light to trigger dental stem cells to repair teeth by forming the chief ingredient dentin. EAER will likely not work on cavities and decay that are too far gone and it cannot physically regrow a tooth. EAER could be brought to the market in less than three years. Like us @healthykentucky Drug Resistant Bacteria Drug-resistant bacteria sicken 2 million Americans annually and kill at least 23,000. With the World Health Organizat [ۈ