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Early ageing of ovary: A future health problem?

Cr. Andre Piacquadio

Source from MIMS.com

A large cohort study that was presented at the 2020 ESHRE Meeting suggested that early ovarian ageing may be predictive of later health problems.

Few oocytes in Assisted Reproductive Technology (Art) were harvested from young women with premature ovarian ageing and were discovered to have a much higher risk of age-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and osteoporosis compared to those with undergoing normal ovarian ageing and happens to be in line with what was known so far regarding early menopause.

Mette Wulf Christensen from Aarhus University in Denmark suggested that a few oocytes that were repeatedly harvested in well stimulated ART cycles is a likely predictor of advanced menopausal age when seen in young women and may thus serve as an early marker of accelerated general ageing. There is also an association shown between early menopause with a greater risk of CVD, osteoporosis, and death. She also said that identifying women at risk of early menopause may thus allow early preventive health initiatives in terms of  a healthy lifestyle.

The national cohort study that was based in Danish included >19,000 young women (≤37 years) who were undergoing their first ART treatment in a fertility clinic between the period of 1995-2014 with the number of oocytes harvested in the first and following cycles serves as a marker.

In a follow-up of 6 years span, women with early ovarian ageing for overall-disease risk has a higher risk than those with a normal oocyte field and they consisted of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, all-cause death, cancer, cataract, Charlson Comorbidity index, CVD, early retirement benefit, osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes.

To be specific, the early ovarian ageing group was significantly more likely to develop osteoporosis, CVD, comorbidity, and have early retirement benefit than women with normal ovarian ageing.

Christhensen concluded that it is important to have a counselling towards the women who are affected with a much earlier menopause, with the introduction of a new lifestyle habit or  applying the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to reduce the adverse health risks.

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Vaccines : Proven to be safe after a two decade study

Cr. CDC

Source from MIMS.com

There have been many doubts from naysayers who criticize the usage of vaccines as they claimed it could make their child get autistic and how it would make them get infected with the disease they are trying to prevent instead.

A recent US study that was conducted for over a 20-year period recently revealed that they have debunked the myths and shown that vaccines are relatively safe via existing postmarketing surveillance programmes, stated the authors.

The vaccines that were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – the initial and subsequent labels – between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2015 were included in the retrospective cohort study.

Out of the fifty-seven FDA-approved vaccines that were analysed, fifty-three (93 percent) initially had approval that were supported by randomized controlled trials, with a median cohort size of 4,161 participants.

There were similarities in the initial approval trial characteristics in vaccines with and without postmarketing, safety-related label modifications. The most common safety issue prompting label modifications was the expansion of population restrictions, followed by allergies with postmarketing surveillance as the most common source of safety data.

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Pneumonia in children : Zinc does not help speed-up recovery

General Health Advice

Based on the results of a meta-analysis, treating children with pneumonia using zinc does not appear to be beneficial.

Multiple studies involving children aged 2 to 60 months in low-to-middle income countries were grouped together online by researchers. The studies evaluated the use of zinc against a placebo when given as a treatment for the standard therapy for pneumonia.  Additionally, the treatment regime includes antibiotics.

The seven studies were conducted in South Asia, three in Africa, and one in South America. The total population were 6,497 children.  All of the children in the studies contracted severe pneumonia except for one. Children aged >12 months were given 20mg of zinc dosage per day, while younger kids received 10 or 20mg daily dose.

Based on the data that they have gathered, the proportional treatment failure was similar in the zinc and placebo groups in the subgroup of children with severe pneumonia and in the overall population.

Furthermore, there were no significant differences between treatment observed in mortality and the time for recovery from this disease. However, four studies were excluded due to the high risk of bias, which did not alter the result.

Oral supplementation of zinc is not beneficial when used adjunctively in the acute phase of paediatric pneumonia as a present study suggests.

Even though it has many hypothetically attractive properties that may alter host response to respiratory pathogens. This includes the regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, lymphocyte proliferation, and T lymphocyte function.

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