Login
Fluoride linked to diabetes, heart disease, obesity in kids
Longitudinal associations between early-life fluoride exposures and cardiometabolic outcomes in school-aged children; Environment International, Dec. 13, 2023.
A Mexican-U.S. study group found that excess dietary fluoride causes a rise in biomarkers for diabetes, heart disease and obesity in Mexican children aged 4-8 years. The associations are greatest in boys at age 8 and girls younger than 8.
“Fewer, though consistent, associations” were found for fluoride in urine.
Investigators reported their obesity findings in terms of zBMI, or age-adjusted BMI (body mass index), to adjust for healthy BMI changes during early development. Calculations involving BMI and zBMI usually return equivalent results.
Although Mexico does not fluoridate its municipal drinking water, fluoridated salt, a Mexican staple, delivers fluoride doses often exceeding typical exposures through drinking water.
Excessive fluoride intake is associated with dental fluorosis, described as “cosmetic” but severe cases result in tooth decay or cavities, skeletal fluorosis, leading to bone fractures and neurodevelopmental issues in children.
GMO foods: health, costs and inconvenience
Use of genetically modified organism (GMO)-containing food products in children. Pediatrics, Dec. 11, 2023.
Foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are widely available in the U.S. but originate from just a few crops, according to an analysis in Pediatrics. And instead of employing genetic engineering to improve quality or nutritional value, U.S. developers focus mainly on conferring pesticide resistance.
As a consequence, pesticide use on U.S. crops is growing “exponentially,” resulting in increased human exposure. A 2019 review, for example, found glyphosate and its breakdown products in urine samples from the general population.
Glyphosate is found in many GMO foods despite the International Agency for Research on Cancer having designated the chemical as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
The good news: Most unprocessed or minimally processed food crops use neither genetic engineering nor pesticides. But it is up to families to balance the higher cost or inconvenience of these foods against their potential health benefits.
FDA approves sickle cell gene therapies
FDA approves first gene therapies to treat patients with sickle cell disease; FDA press release, Dec. 8, 2023.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Dec. 8 approved Casgevy (sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals) and Lyfgenia (Bluebird Bio) — the first two gene-edited cell-based treatments for sickle cell disease in patients 12 years and older.
Casgevy is the first FDA-approved gene therapy. It uses CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing technique that replaces genes associated with disease with “healthy” genes. CRISPR/Cas9 editing is associated with mistakes, however, resulting in unpredictable and potentially harmful “off target” effects.
Lyfgenia uses a lentivirus, which does not cause illness — not to replace the aberrant gene but to reprogram blood stem cells into producing normal hemoglobin.
Both drugs received Priority Review, Orphan Drug, Fast Track and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designations, which accelerated their approvals.
Sickle cell disease, an inherited type of anemia, affects about 1 in 100,000 Americans but its incidence is nearly 30 times higher among Black people. The disease involves a mutation in hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to cells, causing red blood cells to adopt a curved or “sickle” shape.
Obesity affects outcomes in some inflammatory diseases
Obesity and outcomes of Kawasaki disease and COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children; JAMA Network Open, Dec. 8, 2023.
Obesity appears to affect outcomes for one inflammatory childhood illness, multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS), but not as much for Kawasaki disease, according to a paper in JAMA Network Open.
First author Dr. Michael Koury, of the University of Alberta in Canada and investigators at 19 other institutions were looking for factors that might exacerbate these conditions in 1,767 children with either illness.
They found the prevalence of obesity or overweight was 41% among children with MIS but 23% in those with Kawasaki.
They concluded that obesity was linked with “a more severe presentation” in MIS kids but not for those with Kawasaki disease.
Kawasaki disease is a rare, inflammatory blood vessel disorder and the leading cause, other than congenital defects, of heart disease in children. MIS, which authorities say is caused by coronavirus infection, involves inflamed organs or tissues.
Despite recent evidence linking MIS to COVID vaccines the word “vaccination” did not appear in the Khoury paper.
Devices cannibalizing children’s time, health
Association between smartphone usage and health outcomes of adolescents: A propensity analysis using the Korea youth risk behavior survey. PLOS One, Dec. 6, 2023.
Korean researchers studying the connection between cellphone use and serious illnesses in children have concluded that the more time is spent on phones the greater the risk.
Their study examined the on-screen behavior of 40,998 students in 2017, and followed up in 2020 to check for obesity, drug use and mental health in this population. It reported that children spending more than four hours per day on their phones were at greater risk for feeling stressed (by 16%), suicidal thoughts (22%), alcohol use (66%) and obesity (9%).
They also found that 25.5% of adolescents experienced “smartphone overdependence” in 2020, but how this differs from multiple-hour daily use was unclear. Smartphone overdependence is a known time-waster.
Although all problems increased with screen time the differences did not reach statistical significance before the for-hour-per-day threshold.
