About CMV

http://www.stopcmv.com/cmv.html

Cytomegalovirus, or CMV, is found universally throughout all geographic locations and socioeconomic groups, and has infected between 50% and 85% of adults in the United States by 40 years of age. CMV is also the virus most frequently transmitted to a developing child before birth.

Each year in the United States approximately 30,000 children are born with congenital CMV causing an estimated 400 deaths and leaving approximately 8,000 children with permanent disabilities such as hearing or vision loss, or mental retardation. It is estimated that 1 in every 150 children are born infected with congenital CMV. More children are adversely affected by congenital CMV than by several better-known childhood diseases or syndromes such as Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and neural tube defects.

High-risk Groups

CMV infection is important to certain high-risk groups, especially pregnant women. Major areas of concern are the risk of infection to the unborn baby during pregnancy and the risk of infection to pregnant women who work with children, including mothers who have already had children.

Approximately 40-50% of college-educated, white women of childbearing age in this country currently have no protective immunity to CMV, making this group most vulnerable to contracting a primary CMV infection while pregnant and passing the disease on to an unborn baby. Young, American women of the middle and upper socio-economic classes have lower rates of natural CMV immunity because many have had minimal contact with small children prior to becoming pregnant themselves.

Transmission

CMV can be transmitted to the unborn child of a mother with a primary or a recurrent CMV infection. When a baby catches CMV prior to birth it is known as a congenital CMV infection. Approximately 90% of all infants who are infected with CMV prior to delivery are born without symptoms of the virus; however, the remaining 10% will have varying degrees of abnormalities.

Transmission of the virus is often preventable because it is most often transmitted through infected bodily fluids that come in contact with hands and then are absorbed through the nose or mouth of a susceptible person. Therefore, care should be taken when handling infants, small children and items like diapers. Simple hand washing with soap and water is effective in removing the virus from the hands.

Effects on Pregnancy

The incidence of primary (or first) CMV infection in pregnant women in the United States varies from 1% to 3%. When infected with CMV, most women have no symptoms and very few have symptoms resembling mononucleosis. It is their developing unborn babies that may be at risk for congenital CMV disease. CMV remains the most common cause of congenital (meaning from birth) viral infection in the United States. For infants who are infected by their mothers during pregnancy, two potential problems exist:

1. Generalized infection may occur in the infant, and symptoms may range from moderate enlargement of the liver and spleen (with jaundice) to fatal illness. With supportive treatment, most infants with CMV disease usually survive. However, 80% to 90% will have complications within the first few years of life that may include hearing loss, vision impairment, and varying degrees of mental retardation.
2. Another 5% to 10% of infants who are infected but without symptoms at birth will subsequently have varying degrees of hearing and mental or coordination problems.

Vitamin D 'Key to Healthy Brain'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8058183.stm
Story from BBC NEWS

Scientists have produced more evidence that vitamin D has an important role in keeping the brain in good working order in later life.

A study of over 3,000 European men aged 40-79 found those with high vitamin D levels performed better on memory and information processing tests. The University of Manchester team believe vitamin D may protect cells or key signalling pathways in the brain. The study features in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

It follows research published in January which suggested that high levels of vitamin D can help stave off the mental decline that can affect people in old age. The latest study focused on men from eight cities across Europe. Their mental agility was assessed using a range of tests, and samples were taken to measure levels of vitamin D in their blood.

Men with high vitamin D levels performed best, with those who had the lowest levels - 35 nmol/litre or under - registering poor scores.

The researchers said the reason why vitamin D - found in fish and produced by sun exposure - seemed to aid mental performance was unclear.


Hormone Link
They suggested it might trigger an increase in protective hormonal activity in the brain. However, the only data to back this up so far comes from animal studies.

There is also some evidence that vitamin D can dampen down an over-active immune system. Alternatively, it may boost levels of antioxidants that in effect detoxify the brain.

The researchers stressed that many people, particularly in older age, were vitamin D deficient. Therefore, if it were possible to stave off the effects on ageing on the brain with vitamin D supplements the implications for the health of the population could be significant.

Professor Tim Spector, of King's College London, has carried out research into the effect of vitamin D on ageing. He said: "This is further evidence from observational studies that vitamin D is likely to be beneficial to reduce many age-related diseases.

"Taken together with similar data that shows its importance in reducing arthritis, osteoporotic fractures, as well as heart disease and some cancers, this underscores the importance of vitamin D for humans and why evolution gave us a liking for the sun.

"We also know that our genes also determine our vitamin D levels which explains why individuals can vary so much."
"We now need to study the best way to give using vitamin D properly in prevention."

Dr Iain Lang, of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, carried out the earlier research.
He agreed there was mounting evidence suggesting vitamin D was good for the brain, but warned that it was possible that poor mental performance could be down to an inadequate diet, of which vitamin D deficiency might be just one manifestation.

The 40th Day - In Loving Memoriam

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy...

Isaiah 35

Majalah "Bahana", Januari 2007

Majalah "Kartini", No.2076 - Desember 2002

Mothers of Children with Autism Have Higher Parental Stress, Psychological Distress

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090708153233.htm

ScienceDaily (July 9, 2009) — Ask any mother and she'll tell you that raising a preschooler is no easy task. Now imagine what it must be like to bring up a child with autism or a developmental delay.

Researchers at the University of Washington's Autism Center asked mothers about their experiences and found that moms of children with autism had higher levels of parenting-related stress and psychological distress than mothers of children with developmental delay. Children's problem behavior was associated with increases in both parenting-related stress and distress in both groups, but this relationship was stronger in mothers of children with autism.

"Both groups of women are dealing with children who need high levels of care-giving. But there is something about autism that is making a difference and adding stress and psychological distress to these mothers," said Annette Estes, lead author of a new study and associate director of the UW Autism Center.

Surprisingly, the research also found no link between a child's decreased daily living skills and increased parental stress and psychological distress.

"This finding was counterintuitive," said Estes, who is also a research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. "If a child has more needs in getting dressed and in other daily living skills, that means the parents are working harder and seemingly would be under stress. But it is not the hard work that is stressing the mothers. Our findings really pointed to the behavior problems that can occur with autism. Children with autism had significantly higher levels of problem behaviors than children with developmental delay."

These behavior problems included such things as irritability, agitation, crying, inappropriate speech and not being able to follow rules.

For this study parental stress was defined as being the stress directly related to a person's role as a parent and parenting a child with a disability. Psychological distress is more general stress, such as that experienced by a person who is nervous about her job or life in general but may or may not be confident about her parenting.

The study included 73 mothers and their children – 51 of the youngsters had an autism spectrum disorder and 22 had developmental delays. The families were part of a larger study exploring the neurobiology and developmental course of autism. The children in the stress study were predominantly male, white and about 3½ years old when data was collected.

Parents filled out a number of detailed surveys that measured parenting stress, psychological distress, problem behaviors and adaptive functioning level. The last charted a child's daily living skills in such areas as dressing, feeding, using the toilet, bathing and helping with household chores.

The study, Estes said, looked at psychological stress, not psychiatric disorders in mothers.

"We were not diagnosing disorders and our sample of parents likely did not include the most distressed parents, those who did not have the resources to take the time to participate in a research study or those who were probably too busy and stressed raising a disabled child to participate.

She noted that problem behavior needs to be a crucial target in treating children with autism and developmental delay.

"We need to focus on it because it appears to have the potential to disrupt the family, parenting and the child. While problem behavior is not a core element of autism, it might rise to the top of the issues that have to be dealt with first in a clinical setting," Estes said. "Help in what we call family adaptive functioning is what we need to figure out in these cases. How to help families is important because high levels of stress and psychological distress can interfere with early identification of autism and interventions which are delivered by parents. There's another good reason to do this: Parents who feel supported can better support their children."

The paper has been published in the online edition of the journal Autism and the research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Co-authors are Jeffrey Munson, an assistant research professor in the UW Autism Center; Geraldine Dawson, a UW emeritus professor of psychology who is now the chief science officer of Autism Speaks; Elizabeth Koehler, a former UW biostatistics graduate student; and Xiao-Hua Zhou and Robert Abbott, UW professors of biostatistics and educational psychology, respectively.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Washington.

To all our dearest friends, thanks so much for all of your sympathetic words, prayers & loves. Rosita, our most wonderful gift, has fought the good fight, she has finished the race and has kept the faith... Now she is LIVING blissfully up there in heaven… with her "Dad" - the Omnipotent Father.

It's Never Too Late to Grow Your Brain

http://www.thestar.com/Atkinson2008/article/535618
Judy Steed

MEMORY: Scientific research into neurological function has an uplifting message these days: It's never too late, and there's a lot you can do to preserve, and even improve, how your brain works

"You can teach an old dog new tricks," says Dr. Donald Stuss, a leading neuroscientist. "The brain can potentially grow new cells and make new connections."

Until quite recently, medical science held that the brain, when fully developed, was "a finished deal," Stuss says. Now we know – thanks in part to the groundbreaking insights generated by Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute, where Stuss is director of research and senior scientist – that there is still much to learn.

Case in point: the brain's plasticity. The newly discovered extent of the flexibility and adaptability of our grey matter means "the brain can reorganize, brain networks can change, the brain is not a fixed, limited system," Stuss says. "The brain can generate new neurons and more brain regions can be recruited, brought into play, to help us as we get older."

This knowledge – gained through imaging technologies that show us the brain in action, letting us watch different regions of the brain light up, enabling the measurement of magnetic changes in neurons – has revolutionized scientists' approach to the brain, transformed medical education, and given us hope of delaying, if not preventing, brain dysfunction.

"Different areas of the brain can take over when others are damaged," Stuss says. "The brain can recruit capacity from other parts of the brain."
To take advantage of these incredible new findings, we have to change how we age.
We have to learn how to stimulate our brain in order to keep it healthy into advanced old age.

These are the odds: over the age of 85, between a third and a half of the population will develop dementia, in the present circumstances.
This is what longevity can mean: long years of not knowing what's going on, not knowing who you are.
Aging boomers may boast about their prospects for unprecedented longevity, but the harsh truth is that you can't enjoy old age if you haven't got the healthy brain to go with it.

At Extendicare Lakefield – a typical Ontario nursing home, just outside Peterborough – 86 is the average age of admission, and 85 per cent of residents have dementia.
But it doesn't have to be that way.

That's where the astounding new brain research comes in. The future of neuroscience lies in the exploration of brain regeneration.
Given the demographics – all the aging baby boomers living in fear of dementia, eager to be the first generation to benefit from the new research – and all the money flowing into brain research at advanced scientific facilities around the world, it's no wonder brain researchers can barely contain their excitement.

Thanks to the revolution in brain imaging, modern neuroscience is poised to penetrate the ultimate mysteries of the brain: how memory functions, what causes dementia, how brain deterioration can be prevented.

"There's a whole host of new therapies coming down the pipe," says Dr. Max Cynader, director of the Brain Research Centre at University of British Columbia. "We're the lucky ones."
We're in the right place at the right time, if we live long enough.

Certainly Cynader's Brain Research Centre is benefiting from the unprecedented passion for figuring out the brain. His centre has received upwards of $37 million since 2007 from government and private sources, enough to recruit some of the finest minds in the world.

"Health is more than the absence of disease," Cynader says. "What mechanisms in the brain enable us to age well? How can we avoid neuro-degenerative dysfunction?"
These questions signal a profound shift: from studying advanced brain failure – people with Alzheimer's disease – scientists are turning their attention to preventing dysfunction, supporting brain health, lowering the risks of brain disease – just as we've learned how to prevent heart disease.

After 25 years studying Alzheimer's disease, Dr. Gary Small of UCLA's world renowned Brain Research Institute, is embracing the shift. "It's easier to protect the healthy brain and treat it earlier, rather than trying to treat the brain already damaged (by dementia)."

Small is at the forefront of another development in brain research: "the digital divide," in which "digital natives" – kids who've grown up with technology – are worlds apart from "digital immigrants" — older folks.
Small's results, recorded in a new book entitled iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, are startling.
For instance, he found that young men who play violent video games have "an impaired ability to recognize human facial expressions."

Our use of technology, and the way it "distracts from our human experience of face-to-face contact," he asserts, is having a profound impact on the actual wiring of the brain.
More proof of the brain's plasticity – and more uncharted territory for brain researchers to explore.