A gene known to be a major risk factor for Alzheimer's disease puts out the welcome mat for the virus that causes cold sores, according to researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Study leader Dr. Howard Federoff says the study adds some scientific heft to the idea, long suspected by some scientists, that herpes somehow plays a role in bringing about Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists have known for more than 15 years that the ApoE-4 gene is a player in Alzheimer's disease, but the idea that it works in concert with the herpes virus is new, according to Federoff.
"This work raises the question whether herpes in concert with ApoE-4 increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The data suggests that ApoE-4 may support the ability of herpes simplex 1 to be a more virulent pathogen," says Federoff.
Herpes simplex 1 infects more than 80 percent of Americans and causes cold sores around the mouth. The findings are published online in the journal Neurobiology of Aging.
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People who were abused and neglected during childhood have a higher risk of major depression when they become young adults.
Study leader Cathy Spatz Widom and colleagues conducted a prospective study to determine whether abused and neglected children were at elevated risk of major depressive disorder, or MDD, and psychiatric illness, compared with matched control subjects when followed up into young adulthood.
The study, which was conducted while Widom was at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, included 676 children with substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect before the age of 11. All were followed up into young adulthood -- average age: 28.7, according to Widom, now at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
"The current results show that childhood physical abuse was associated with increased risk for lifetime MDD," the authors write in the Archives of General Psychiatry. "We also provide new evidence that neglected children are at increased risk for depression as well."
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Folate is known to prevent a birth defect but may have no clear relationship to breast-cancer risk, a Swedish review found.
Susanna C. Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and colleagues performed a meta-analysis of nine prospective studies and 14 case-control studies of folate intake and risk of breast cancer.
Overall, there was no association between total folate intake or blood folate levels with breast-cancer risk. However, the researchers did find an association between dietary folate intake and reduced breast-cancer risk among the case-control studies that suggest that high folate intake might be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer in women with moderate or high consumption of alcohol.
"There was evidence from prospective studies that adequate folate intake may attenuate the increased risk of breast cancer associated with alcohol consumption," the authors write in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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European researchers have created a unique way of identifying osteoporosis sufferers from ordinary dental X-rays.
University of Manchester researchers Keith Horner and Dr. Hugh Devlin co-ordinated a three-year study with the Universities of Athens, Leuven, Amsterdam and Malmo, to develop the largely automated approach to detecting the disease.
The researchers developed a revolutionary, software-based approach to detecting osteoporosis during routine dental x-rays, by automatically measuring the thickness of part of the patient's lower jaw, according to the study published in the journal Bone.
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Many studies show that men enjoy better health and longer if they are married, but 36 percent of U.S. married women would not marry their husbands if they had to do it all over again and 20 percent weren't sure.
The survey of more than 3,000 U.S. women, for Woman's Day magazine and AOL.com, found 76 percent of married women keep secrets from their husbands, while 84 percent of all American wives say they would want to be told if their husbands were cheating, and 49 percent of them say they have suspected or even caught their husband having an affair.
On the flipside, 76 percent admit to fantasizing about a man other than their husband, with 39 percent stating they flirt with other men constantly.
The complete poll findings are highlighted in the February issue of Woman's Day magazine, on newsstands and online at womansday.com/community.
