INFANT COOING BABBLING LINKED TO HEARING ABILITY

Infants' vocalizations throughout the first year follow a set of predictable steps from crying and cooing to forming syllables and first words. However, previous research had not addressed how the amount of vocalizations may differ between hearing and deaf infants. Now, University of Missouri research shows that infant vocalizations are primarily motivated by infants' ability to hear their own babbling. Additionally, infants with profound hearing loss who received cochlear implants to help correct their hearing soon reached the vocalization levels of their hearing peers, putting them on track for language development.

"Hearing is a critical aspect of infants' motivation to make early sounds," said Mary Fagan, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in the MU School of Health Professions. "This study shows babies are interested in speech-like sounds and that they increase their babbling when they can hear."

Fagan studied the vocalizations of 27 hearing infants and 16 infants with profound hearing loss who were candidates for cochlear implants, which are small electronic devices embedded into the bone behind the ear that replace some functions of the damaged inner ear. She found that infants with profound hearing loss vocalized significantly less than hearing infants. However, when the infants with profound hearing loss received cochlear implants, the infants' vocalizations increased to the same levels as their hearing peers within four months of receiving the implants.

"After the infants received their cochlear implants, the significant difference in overall vocalization quantity was no longer evident," Fagan said. "These findings support the importance of early hearing screenings and early cochlear implantation."

Fagan found that non-speech-like sounds such as crying, laughing and raspberry sounds, were not affected by infants' hearing ability. She says this finding highlights babies are more interested in speech-like sounds since they increase their production of those sounds such as babbling when they can hear.

"Babies learn so much through sound in the first year of their lives," Fagan said. "We know learning from others is important to infants' development, but hearing allows infants to explore their own vocalizations and learn through their own capacity to produce sounds."

In future research, Fagan hopes to study whether infants explore the sounds of objects such as musical toys to the same degree they explore vocalization.

Fagan's research, "Frequency of vocalization before and after cochlear implantation: Dynamic effect of auditory feedback on infant behavior," was published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Can Neuropathy Be Linked To The Herpes Virus

An earlier post about neuropathy and the herpes virus resulted in a few requests for further information. Today's post from askdrgottmd.com (see link below) discusses this further, though whether he really brings any new, scientific information to the table is debatable. Herpes is one of those viruses that  frequently appears amongst HIV + and LGBT people as a whole (the rest of the population too of course) and is often passed off as being relatively harmless, though intensely irritating. The fact is that the herpes virus is anything but harmless; is very easily passed on and can lead to all sorts of complications in other organs. Herpes Zoster is responsible for Shingles and here the links to nerved damage are easier to see. If there is a proven relationship between herpes and neuropathy, we need to know about it, so if anybody has further information, please pass it on.

Peripheral neuropathy, herpes linked?

August 2, 2012 By Dr. Gott

DEAR DR. GOTT: Can herpes simplex II be the cause of peripheral neuropathy?

DEAR READER: Herpes simplex type 2 is a common sexually transmitted infection that generally affects the genitalia; however, the disorder can be spread to the mouth during oral sex. For women, the most common area to be affected is the cervix, anus, buttocks and external genitals. For men, the buttocks, anus, penis, scrotum, and thighs will most commonly be affected. The virus spreads easily through intimate contact with an individual who is infected; it can also be acquired by an act as simple as touching an infected razor.

Most of the individuals infected don’t even know they have the disorder because they either have extremely mild symptoms or none at all. When they are present, they can include pain or itching a week or two following exposure from an infected partner. Following initial exposure, pain and irritation may occur a few days before another outbreak. Blisters or small red bumps may appear and then rupture, ooze and bleed. The lesions will ultimately scab over and heal. Following the initial infection, the virus will lie dormant in the body but can reactivate several times a year thereafter.

There is no means of eliminating the virus from the body; however, the religious use of condoms and prescription medication will lessen the possibility of further spread of the virus.

Now, on to peripheral neuropathy that results from nerve damage, traumatic injury, toxin exposure, certain diseases, and infection. The peripheral nervous system sends information from the brain and central nervous system throughout the body, affecting one or more nerves. This can result in muscle weakness, burning pain, numbness, or a tingling sensation in the hands, feet, legs and arms.

There are a number of possibilities for peripheral neuropathy to occur, such as a history of diabetes, traumatic injury, kidney disease, vitamin deficiencies; autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Guillain-Barre syndrome; specific infections to include hepatitis C, HIV/AIDs, Epstein-Barr virus, Lyme disease, varicella-zoster; exposure to heavy metals and some medications – particularly those used to treat cancer, and more. Under certain circumstances, if the correct nerve is affected, the various herpes viruses has been linked to peripheral neuropathy symptoms; however, how common this is, is not known.

Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy can be treated with over-the-counter medications, capsaicin a substance commonly found in hot peppers, prescription anti-seizure medications patches with topical anesthetic, and antidepressants.

On the home front, those with peripheral neuropathy should be extremely diligent in caring for blisters and other wounds of the affected area, they should massage their extremities in an attempt to improve circulation, review their diet to be assured it includes fresh fruits/vegetables/while grains, and quit smoking. Some sufferers have found relief in rubbing mentholated chest rub on the affected areas once or twice a day.

http://askdrgottmd.com/peripheral-neuropathy-herpes-linked/

FAT TONGUE LINKED TO SLEEP APNEA RISK

Obese adults with a significantly larger tongue and higher percentage of fat are more likely to develop obstructive sleep apnea than others, says a study.

Common warning signs for sleep apnea include snoring and choking, gasping, or silent breathing pauses during sleep.

Obese adults with sleep apnea had significantly greater tongue volumes, tongue fat and percentage of tongue fat than obese controls without sleep apneea, the findings showed.

"This is the first study to show that fat deposits are increased in the tongue of obese patients with obstructive sleep apnea," said principal investigator Richard Schwab, a professor at University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, US.

Further analysis found that tongue fat percentage in participants with sleep apnea was site-specific, with increased fat toward the base of the tongue in the retroglossal region

"Tongue size is one of the physical features that should be evaluated by a physician when screening obese patients to determine their risk for obstructive sleep apnea," said Timothy Morgenthaler, president, American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The study involved 90 obese adults with sleep apnea and 31 obese controls without sleep apnea.

All participants underwent high resolution upper airway magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

In addition to enlarging the size of the tongue, increased tongue fat may impair the functioning of the muscles that attach the tongue to the bone, preventing these muscles from positioning the tongue away from the airway, the authors proposed.

The study appeared in the journal Sleep.

SKIRT SIZE INCREASE LINKED TO BREAST CANCER

Overall weight gain during adulthood is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer, but a thickening waist seems to be particularly harmful, indicating the importance of staving off a midriff bulge, the research shows.

The researchers base their findings on almost 93,000 women taking part in the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) in England.

The women were all aged over 50, had gone through the menopause, and had no known breast cancer when they entered the study between 2005 and 2010.

At enrolment they provided detailed information on height and weight (BMI); reproductive health; fertility; family history of breast and ovarian cancer; and use of hormonal contraceptives and HRT, all of which influence breast cancer risk.

They were also asked about their current skirt size, and what this had been in their 20s.

After a monitoring period of three to four years they were asked about continuing use of HRT; their general health; a subsequent diagnosis of cancer; and lifestyle, including how much they smoked and drank.

Most of the women were white, educated to university degree level, and overweight at the point of study entry, with a BMI of 25-26.

During the monitoring period, 1090 women developed breast cancer, giving an absolute risk of just over 1%. As expected, infertility treatment, family history of breast/ovarian cancer, and use of HRT were all significantly associated with a heightened risk of being diagnosed with the disease, while pregnancies were protective.

But after taking account of other influential factors, increases in skirt size emerged as the strongest predictor of breast cancer risk.

At the age of 25, the women's average skirt size had been a UK 12 (US 8; Europe 40-44), and when they entered the study at the average age of 64, it was a 14 (US: 10; Europe 42-46). Skirt size increased over the course of their adult lives in three out of four of the women.

The analysis revealed that going up one skirt size every 10 years was associated with a 33% greater risk of developing breast cancer after the menopause; going up two skirt sizes in the same period was associated with a 77% greater risk.

The researchers estimate that the five year absolute risk of postmenopausal breast cancer rises from 1 in 61 to 1 in 51 with each increase in skirt size every 10 years. Adding BMI to the calculations did not significantly improve the prediction of risk.

As this is an observational study, no definitive conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and there is likely to have been some variation in skirt sizing over the years, say the researchers.

But an expanding waistline has been linked to other cancers, including those of the pancreas, lining of the womb, and ovaries, they point out, possibly because midriff fat is more harmful.

"Although the exact mechanism of these relationships need to be better understood, there is a suggestion that body fat around the waist is more metabolically active than adipose tissue elsewhere," they write, adding that extra fat is known to boost levels of the female hormone oestrogen, on which many breast cancer cells rely for fuel.