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Wealthy California HOA Gives Ridiculous Excuse for Spraying Pesticides as Rare Cancer Cluster Killing Kids Tears Through Community
Residents in a wealthy Southern California community are demanding that its homeowners association stop spraying pesticides as families mourn young people who have died from rare cancers — but the HOA says ditching conventional chemicals for organic landscaping would cost too much.
“No one should have to wonder whether what they’re breathing, drinking, or touching is harmful. This is about precaution, not causation,” John Gresko, a Ladera Ranch resident, father of five and founder of Protect Ladera, told The California Post.
The line came during a fiery Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corporation meeting on Wednesday, where at least 10 residents spoke about pesticide use.
One of those speakers was Margaret Novak, a Santa Margarita Water District board member who spoke in support of traditional pesticides and cited the need for them to keep Ladera Ranch’s landscaping looking pretty. A mother in attendance who had lost her son to cancer earlier this year was visibly shaken and began crying during Novak’s speech.
Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnoses Increased in Girls, Women Since 2020
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses increased disproportionately among females after 2020, across age groups, while remaining stable or declining among males, according to a study published online July 22 in JAMA Network Open.
Erick Messias, M.D., Ph.D., from St. Louis University, and colleagues evaluated age- and sex-specific incidence trends of ASD from 2016 to 2024 to quantify the temporal patterns before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis included electronic health record data from 171,134 individuals who had at least one clinical encounter annually at a large health care system.
The researchers found that females received autism diagnoses a mean 3.4 years later than males (age at diagnosis, 15.7 years for females versus 12.3 years for male individuals). While male autism incidence remained stable or declined in 2016 to 2024, female incidence increased significantly post-2020 (annual percentage change [APC], 19.0 percent).
Scientists Find a Subtle Clue to ADHD Hidden in the Eyes
The eyes are said to be windows to the soul. Scientists now suspect they might offer a glimpse of something else, too: the rhythm of our attention. The clue is not necessarily in where we look. It may be hidden in tiny changes in the pupils as the brain tries to remember something, ignore a distraction, or make a decision.
A new study suggests this rhythm may be subtly different in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD). ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder involving persistent difficulties with attention, hyperactivity, or impulsivity. Yet attention does not work like a light switch. It can hold steady one moment and wander the next.
There is no single test for ADHD. Diagnosis combines medical assessments, personal history, and observations of behavior in different settings.
Sensory Over-Responsivity Tied to Autism, Anxiety But Not Other Conditions
Strong negative reactions to everyday stimuli, such as the feeling of clothes on skin or the sounds of ambient noises, are uniquely linked to anxiety and autism, and not to other neuropsychiatric conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, according to a new study.
These responses, termed sensory over-responsivity, have long been part of the diagnostic criteria for autism. This trait occurs in about 15 to 20 percent of children in the general population and is overrepresented in various psychiatric conditions, including anxiety disorders, ADHD and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Prior studies have primarily assessed neuropsychiatric conditions in isolation — for example, by comparing a group in one diagnostic category with a control group, says Rebecca Schwarzlose, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. But autism, anxiety and other neurodevelopmental conditions often co-occur.
How Breast Milk Shapes Gut Microbiome Signaling and Immunity
Contemporary Pediatrics reported:
Jarvinen-Seppo turns to how breast milk and gut microbiota actually communicate with the developing immune system, an area she describes as still being actively explored. She explains that gut microbial metabolites appear to be central to this signaling. Bifidobacteria, and Bifidobacterium infantis in particular, are known to produce large amounts of lactate and acetate, metabolites that lower the pH of the infant gut.
That lower, more acidic pH makes the gut environment less hospitable to pathogens, giving bifidobacteria a role in protecting against certain infectious diseases. Jarvinen-Seppo describes this as one clear mechanism connecting bifidobacteria to immune benefit, but notes there are additional pathways as well. Other metabolites produced by gut bacteria appear to support production of specific immunoglobulins, the antibodies made by the immune system.
Bacterial signals can also prompt immune cells to produce regulatory T cells, or Tregs — a subset of lymphocytes whose levels are shaped by the composition of the microbiota. Jarvinen-Seppo emphasizes that Tregs matter because they essentially instruct the immune system on whether to respond to signals from the environment, making them a key link between early microbial exposure and the balance between tolerance and immune reactivity later in life.
