The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a $433,100 grant to the University of Chicago to investigate how allergic reactions to food are initiated. The research is expected to lead to improved methods to assess whether pesticides produced in genetically engineered plants can trigger food allergies, which impact more than 11 million Americans each year. The study is funded through EPA’s Science to Achieve Results program (STAR).
"There Read the rest of this entry »
As the economy continues to falter, a poll released today shows that parents must make harder choices about how to spend what money they have, and children — especially those who are uninsured or who are among the lowest income bracket — are more at risk because of it.
The C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health taken in May 2009 shows 44 percent of families’ financial situations have worsened in the last six months. To make ends meet, Read the rest of this entry »
Experiencing chronic stress day after day can produce wear and tear on the body physically and mentally, and can have a detrimental effect on learning and emotion. However, acute stress — a short stressful incident — may enhance learning and memory.
Researchers at the University at Buffalo have shown, in trials using rodents as an animal model, that acute stress can produce a beneficial effect on learning and memory, through Read the rest of this entry »
New research from the US suggests that having stressed parents may make it more likely that children will develop asthma that is triggered by air
pollution, for instance from traffic and tobacco smoke. The researchers found that stress and low parental education were also linked with larger
effects of exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy.
The study was led by Dr Rob McConnell, professor of preventive Read the rest of this entry »
Scents Really Can Soothe Stress
09 Aug 2009
Feeling stressed? Then try savoring the scent of lemon, mango, lavender, or other fragrant plants. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels. Their study appears in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Read the rest of this entry »