Caesarean Births - Risk of Obesity!

Babies born by Caesarean are at higher risk of becoming obese, especially compared with siblings born by vaginal delivery, a large study suggests.

Writing in JAMA Pediatrics, the researchers said this might be because babies born vaginally are exposed to healthy gut bacteria that play an important role in regulating diet.
The study followed more than 22,000 babies into adulthood.
But experts said there were likely to be many different factors at work.
These include the diet of the mother, whether she had diabetes during pregnancy and whether the baby was breastfed. Babies born via Caesarean are less likely to be breastfed, and this has been shown to lead to an increased risk of obesity. Children's diets also have an effect on their future weight.



Steady rise
In the UK, about 26% of babies are delivered by Caesarean section - an operation where a cut is made in the tummy and womb to get the baby out. Rates have been rising steadily over the past few years, according to the Royal College of Midwives.
In this study, American researchers from Harvard Medical School and other institutions found that babies delivered by Caesarean were 15% more likely to grow up to be obese after adjusting for a number of factors, including the mother's weight and age.
In families where children were born by different methods, those born by Caesarean were 64% more likely to be obese than their siblings born by vaginal delivery.
But the researchers could not say Caesareans were the cause of obesity or explain the mechanisms behind the link.
Their best guess was that differences in gastrointestinal microbiota, or healthy gut bacteria, between babies born by different methods could have an effect.

'Medical necessity'

Microbiota is the term used to describe the microbes that colonise our bodies and which vary from one person to another. They are linked to some diseases but can also be used to treat disease and promote health.

A technique called "vaginal seeding" can be used to transfer maternal vaginal fluid - which contains the healthy bacteria - to a baby born by Caesarean but doctors say there could be risks with infection.
Dr Simon Cork, research associate in the department of investigative medicine at Imperial College London, said there were many factors to consider in children's risk of obesity - not just their mode of delivery at birth.
"Overall, the literature surrounding this area suggests that there may be a link between Caesarean section and obesity. However, this link is neither fully proven nor understood.
"Most often Caesarean births are as a result of medical necessity, rather than elective, and as such this risk would outweigh any concerns mothers should have regarding the possibility of future weight issues."

Informed choice

Prof Neena Modi, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said more research was needed to find out whether birth by Caesarean was a cause of obesity.

"Caesarean section can be life saving for women and their babies. However many women are now considering Caesarean section where there is no medical indication.
"It is important that they are told about the possibility of increased risk of obesity in their children, to help them make an informed birth choice.
She added: "It is also important for parents to focus on factors that they can influence which definitely impact on their infant's health. This includes maintaining a healthy weight at the time of conception, and throughout pregnancy. "

Mental Health Week on Campus!

NUI Galway Mental Health Week 
October 3rd to 7th 2016

The Library will launch the Mind, Body and Soul Collection which has recently been updated. 
You are invited to this event on Monday next, 3rd October at 1pm in the James Hardiman Library.

This event is being co-hosted by the Students' Union, Student Counselling and the Library. The speakers will include the SU Welfare Officer, Student Counselling as well as members of the Connacht Rugby Squad. 

There is no need to book, just turn up on The Day.
Refreshments will be served.

Paediatric Diagnosis - Difficult Cases

A new title on challenging pediatric cases, has arrived at the James Hardiman Library - located at 618.920075 CHA



Challenging Cases in Pediatric Diagnosis - Deepak Kamat published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2016.
The editor has selected the 'top 100' cases to create an insight into the various challenges which Health Care Professionals confront, while providing best practice options

Geriatric Medicine - Latest Edition!

Latest edition of Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology is now available at The James Hardiman Library:

The eighth edition of this publication contains a contemporary, global perspective on topics of importance to today's gerontologists, internal medicine physicians, as well as family doctors

Located at  618.97 BRO

BROKEN BONES

The second edition of THE RADIOLOGIC ATLAS OF FRACTURES AND DISLOCATIONS by Felix S Chew, Catherine Maldijan and Hyojeong Mulcahy has recently been purchased by the James Hardiman Library.

 BROKEN BONES contains 434 individual cases and 1,101 radiologic images illustrating the typical and less typical appearances of fractures and dislocations throughout the body.

Located in the Medical Library at 617.15 CHE

NUI Galway Centre Opens!

A €68m centre for medical device research will be officially launched at NUI Galway today.
The Centre for Research in Medical Devices will involve more than 250 researchers from a total of six academic institutions across the country, which is receiving support through Science Foundation Ireland.




The medtech industry in Ireland is booming, with more than 400 firms in operation, employing 29,000 people, and producing nearly €13 billion worth of exports a year.

Based at NUI Galway, Cúram will bring together areas like glycoscience, biomaterials science, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, drug delivery and medical device design.
It will train graduates from basic science right through to clinical application.
It will develop medical devices that mimic the body's biology, targeting chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and Parkinson's.
Devices like electrodes that degrade inside the body and 3D printed tendons and muscles will also be designed.
The centre has secured €68m in funding, with €37m coming from SFI, €12.5 million from two dozen Irish and multinational industry partners and €19 million from the EU's Horizon 2020 research fund.
Cúram will be opened by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O'Connor, who has welcomed its establishment.

Obesity - Ticking Time Bomb!

Ireland risks becoming the fattest nation in the world, unless it deals with the obesity crisis in the same way it tackled smoking, Minister for Health, Simon Harris has warned

 

Obesity is a “ticking time bomb” that has to some extent already “detonated”, Mr. Harris said at the launch of the Government’s policy and plan on the issue.

National eating guidelines, calorie posting legislation and the prioritisation of obesity services within the HSE form part of the plan, which will be implemented over the next decade.

A clinical lead to guide obesity policy within the health service will be appointed and a “whole of school” approach to healthy lifestyles is promised in collaboration with the Department of Education.

 

Compromise

The current plan contains specific targets and timelines and the appetite for tackling obesity is much greater, he said. While he was not happy the sugar tax was not being introduced quickly, he recognised the need for compromise.

Professor Donal O’Shea said there were 300 people waiting for weight-reducing surgery in his clinic in Loughlinstown and 150 in a clinic at Galway.

Mr. Harris said there was no question of the plan having been watered down to suit the food industry. The Government was not ruling out legislation in the area, but wanted to begin with a collaborative approach. Legislation requiring restaurants to post the calorie content of meals will be law by the end of next year, his officials confirmed.

Minister of State for Health Promotion, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy said the new document was a plan with specific timelines and “not designed to sit on the shelf”.

 

The plan supports the introduction of a sugar levy to cut consumption of sweetened drinks. It is expected the Department of Finance, which has rejected such a measure in the past two years, will in next month’s budget give the go-ahead for a levy from 2018.

The plan on obesity proposes the development of a policy on nutrition, and work with the food industry on a voluntary code of practice for food advertising, promotion and marketing. Agreement will be sought with the industry on reformulating food to make it more healthy.

 

Portion Sizes

The introduction of maximum portion sizes for “relevant” foods and drink will be considered, on a voluntary basis initially. Drinkable water will be provided in all centres of learning, and guidelines on reducing the “obese-ogenic environment” will be developed for use in urban development.

Some 60 per cent of Irish adults, and one in four children, are overweight or obese. The cost to society is estimated at more than €1 billion a year. One of the State’s foremost obesity experts, Professor Donal O’Shea, said the plan “could not be more different” from the 2006 report of the national obesity taskforce, on which he served. “That plan was dead in the water within the year and we weren’t even allowed hold a meeting to discuss it.”

 

 

 

 

 

Spider Venom - Medicinal Attributes!

It may be the time of the year dreaded by arachnophobes, as large spiders amble into our homes in search of a mate, but research by scientists at NUI Galway suggests we should not be too quick to sweep our eight-legged friends back out the door, suck them up in the hoover or squash them.

The team at NUI Galway has discovered that the venom of some of the 400 species of spider found in Ireland could have useful medicinal properties.
The researchers at the School of Natural Sciences found that a variety of spider found in caves in County Mayo can be useful in killing bacteria like E Coli, for example.
Dr. Michael Dugon and his colleagues have also found that human cells and breast cancer cells react very differently when exposed to venom from the common false black widow spider.
"It doesn't have the same potency on cancer cells as it does on human cells," Dr. Dugon said. "So of course we want to know more about that and we want to see if we can use that potential to develop maybe a new cancer therapeutic."
The researchers at the venom lab are also exploring the potential uses of the venom from a whole range of other creatures, from scorpions to giant centipedes, from newts to jellyfish.

There are 400 species of spider in Ireland

They are also analysing the possible therapeutic properties of the glue in barnacles, sea sponges and the ink in octopuses.
"There are many other animals that can be used," said Dr. Anne-Marie Power from the School of Natural Sciences at the Ryan Institute in NUI Galway.
"New horizons are opening up. The deep sea is one area we are looking at the area of bioactivity and mapping the bioactivity of the deep."
In order to carry out their work, the scientists must carefully extract the tiny amounts of venom that the spiders and other creatures have.
They then go to the microscopy laboratory, where they add venom to blood to see what happens to the molecules.

Gene Research - NUI Galway

New research by scientists in Galway has discovered that a gene known to have cancer-suppressing properties is far more potent than had previously been thought.

TP53 is a recognised tumour suppressor gene, as it prevents cancer cells from multiplying in the body by stopping the division of cells or triggering the destruction of them.
The team, led by Professor Noel Lowndes at the Centre for Chromosome Biology at the National University of Ireland Galway, has found TP53 directly regulates the repair of broken DNA.
This is important, because broken DNA can result in cell death or loss of genetic information in those cells that survive the break.

NUI Galway scientists discovered that the gene influences the regulation of the two pathways that can lead to the repair of broken DNA

In the research, published in the journal Open Biology, the scientists discovered that the gene influences the regulation of the two pathways that can lead to the repair of the DNA.
"Thus, loss of TP53 during cancer development will drive the evolution of cancer cells towards ever more aggressive cancer types," said Professor Lowndes.
The team hopes that the information they have discovered could in the future be used in the development of new methods of diagnosing and treating a range of different cancers.

Medical Nutrition - Case Studies

Our library holds many titles which present case-studies, as a mechanism to progress medical understanding.

One of those titles - Medical Nutrition & Disease by Lisa Hark and Gail Morrison - is located at 613.2 MED

   613.2 MED

Preventive Cardiology Handbook

The European Society of Cardiology has recently published The ESC Handbook of Preventive Cardiology by Jennings/Graham/Gielen:

Located at - 616.1205 ESC

Previously published as Preventive Cardiology: A practical manual, and now linked with The ESC Textbook of Preventive Cardiology

Preventive Medicine - Combined Approach!

A recent library addition to the list of Preventive Medicine titles, includes
Diet, Exercise, and Chronic Disease - The Biological Basis of Prevention by C. Murray Ardies - located at 616.044 DIE

  616.044 DIE

Surgery - Latest Edition

Churchill's Surgery Pocketbook (2017) has arrived to the James Hardiman Library. Andrew Raftery's fifth edition, celebrates twenty years of the first edition - Located at 617.9 SUR


                        
With 22 chapters, it aims to provide a concise account of the essential features of the more common surgical disorders and may be consulted in conjunction with Churchill's Pocketbook of Differential Diagnosis

Statins - Benefits Underestimated!

The benefits of the cholesterol-reducing drug statins are underestimated and the harms exaggerated, a major review suggests.

Published in The Lancet and backed by a number of major health organisations, it says statins lower heart attack and stroke risk.
The review also suggests side effects such as muscle pain do occur, although in relatively few people.
But critics say healthy people are unnecessarily taking medication.
The Lancet review, led by Prof. Rory Collins from the Clinical Trial Service Unit at the University of Oxford, looked at the available evidence for the effects of taking an average - 40mg daily dose of statins in 10,000 patients over five years.
It suggested cholesterol levels would be lowered enough to prevent 1,000 "major cardiovascular events" such as heart attacks, strokes and coronary artery bypasses in people who had existing vascular disease - and 500 in people who were at risk due to age or other illnesses such as high blood pressure or diabetes.
Prof. Collins said: "Our review shows that the numbers of people who avoid heart attacks and strokes by taking statin-therapy are very much larger than the numbers who have side-effects with it.
"In addition, whereas most of the side effects can be reversed with no residual effects by stopping the statin, the effects of a heart attack or stroke not being prevented are irreversible and can be devastating.
"Consequently, there is a serious cost to public health from making misleading claims about high side effect rates that inappropriately dissuade people from taking statin therapy despite the proven benefits."
Dr. June Raine, of medicines watchdog the Medicines and healthcare products Regulatory Agency said: "The benefits of statins are well established and are considered to outweigh the risk of side-effects in the majority of patients.
"Any new significant information on the efficacy or safety of statins will be carefully reviewed and action will be taken if required."
However, critics said the review was not the final word on statins.
Fiona Godlee, editor of the British Medical Journal, said: "This still does not address the calls for a thorough, independent review of the evidence of statins"
"This is especially important in view of the guidance which recommends that large numbers of healthy people should take a tablet every day."
London cardiologist, Dr. Assem Malhotra said: "There are serious question marks about the reliability of industry-sponsored studies on the side effects of statins, and essentially that's what this review is"
"Many of the scientists involved in the original studies were involved in this review. It is not an independent review."

3D Images - New Technique at TCD

A new bone-scanning technique that generates ultra-high resolution 3D images without the need for potentially harmful x-rays has been developed by scientists in Ireland.

The technique, devised by chemists at Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, involves the use of tiny pieces of gold, which have compounds attached to them that are luminescent in certain conditions.
The fragments are attracted to tiny fissures that appear when bones crack, and attach themselves to the area.
Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), the researchers can then scan the damaged area which is revealed in a three-dimensional map of the microcracks.
The research, published in the journal Chem, could lead to the development of a method for diagnosing problems with bone strength and other degenerative bone diseases like osteoporosis.

The research could lead to the development of a method for diagnosing problems with bone strength

The technique also avoids the use of x-ray imaging, which has been associated with a higher risk of cancer.
"The nano-agent we have developed allows us to visualise the nature and the extent of the damage in a manner that wasn't previously possible," said TCD Professor of Chemistry, Thorri Gunnlaugsson.
"This is a major step forward in our endeavour to develop targeted contrast agents for bone diagnostics for use in clinical applications."
"Current x-ray techniques can tell us about the quantity of bone present but they do not give much information about bone quality," said RCSI Professor of Anatomy Clive Lee, who was also involved.
"By using our new nano-agent to label micro-cracks and detecting them with magnetic resonance imaging, we hope to measure both bone quantity and quality and identify those at greatest risk of fracture and institute appropriate therapy.
"Diagnosing weak bones before they break should therefore reduce the need for operations and implants - prevention is better than cure."

Clinical Specialties - Latest Edition

The 10th edition of Oxford Handbook of Clinical Specialties has recently been acquired by The James Hardiman Library - copies are located at 616 BAL

The 10th Edition covers 14 different SPECIALTIES, and it includes a quotation from Canadian physician, William Osler (1849-1919) - 'He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all'.

 616 BAL

New Books for Nursing & Midwifery library

Located at 158.102461073 SHE

Located at 378.1250941 ENH

Located at 174.2 PUR