vital signs
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Your support makes all the difference.Friendly on paper, but ...
Bad news for the Greens: environmentally friendly paper, which has been mechanically pulped, causes eczema more often than chemically pulped paper, according to Swedish researchers writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Mechanically pulped paper, they explain, contains more rosin, a substance used in paper manufacture that is a common cause of skin allergy. In chemically pulped paper, most of the rosin is removed.
A for abnormality
Pregnant women should avoid cereals fortified with vitamin A, which can increase the risk of birth abnormalities at much lower doses than previously recognised, say researchers from the Boston University Medical Center. Pregnant women in Britain are already advised to avoid liver, which contains high quantities of vitamin A, known to increase the risk of cranial neural tube defects. But a study of nearly 23,000 women, due to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that even two to four times the recommended daily dose of vitamin A could be harmful.
Not to be sneezed at
Dog owners who wash their pets regularly may find themselves more popular with asthmatic friends and families, suggests a study from Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. Researchers there who studied dog clippings found that allergen levels were significantly reduced after washing, especially in poodles - who tend to shed a lot of dry skin - and in spaniels.
IVF complications
Women who become pregnant with the help of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) are at higher risk of complications during pregnancy, some of them serious, say Norwegian researchers. Their study of more than 600 pregnant women, published in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, found that those who had conceived by assisted reproduction techniques had higher rates of placenta praevia, where the placenta implants too low in the womb, and pre-eclampsia, which, if untreated, can cause maternal and foetal death.
Filtering foreign bodies
Filtering out the white blood cells from donated blood can mean fewer infections for patients who need blood transfusions, according to US doctors. They point out that patients who have transfusions are currently exposed to dozens of foreign proteins, many of them in the white blood cells, with the result that the immune system is suppressed. Researchers have already found that bone marrow transplant patients who receive filtered blood get fewer infections and have shorter hospital stays than those who receive unfiltered blood.
CHERRILL HICKS
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