Kids' Eczema, Hay Fever Linked to Allergic Asthma Later

New research finds that adults who suffered from eczema as children especially if they also had hay fever are nine times more likely to have allergic asthma when they're in their 40s. The findings are based on about 1,400 adults who have been followed for five decades as part of Australia's Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study. The study participants were assessed in 1968, when they were 7 years old, and then again in 2004 when they were about 44 years of age.

"In this study we see that childhood eczema, particularly when hay fever also occurs, is a very strong predictor of who will suffer from allergic asthma in adult life," lead study author Pamela Martin, a University of Melbourne graduate student at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, said in a university news release. "The implications of this study are that prevention and rigorous treatment of childhood eczema and hay fever may prevent the persistence and development of asthma."

Allergic asthma is airway obstruction and inflammation that's triggered by inhaled allergens such as dust mites, pet dander, pollen and mold. According to Martin, the study is the first to examine childhood eczema and hay fever and their connection to allergic versus nonallergic asthma. The linkage between childhood illnesses and adult asthma is called the "atopic march." "If successful strategies to stop the 'atopic march' are identified, this could ultimately save lives and health care costs related to asthma management and treatment," Shyamali Dharmage, principal investigator of the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study.

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Weight Loss Surgery May Cut Knee Osteoarthritis Pain

Losing weight can help reduce the amount of pain experienced by obese people with knee osteoarthritis, researchers say. The new study included 24 obese adults, aged 30 to 67, with knee osteoarthritis who underwent weight loss surgery. The patients' knees were assessed before surgery and at six and 12 months after surgery. Patients who lost an average of 57 pounds within six months of having bariatric surgery showed significant improvements in knee pain, stiffness and physical function, the investigators found.

These patients also experienced improvements in quality of life, the ability to perform day-to-day tasks and sports activity. None of the patients received other treatments for their knee osteoarthritis. The findings were scheduled to be presented Saturday at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Specialty Day program. "Each individual had some kind of improvement in their pain from losing weight, some more than others," lead researcher Christopher Edwards, of the Penn State College of Medicine, said in a society news release.

"There are few studies that have investigated the role of isolated weight loss in the absence of additional arthritis treatment on those individuals with radiographically confirmed osteoarthritis," he added. "Further research still needs to be performed to investigate whether knee arthritis symptom improvement continues over time and applicable to those individuals who are simply overweight, but our research suggests a strong possibility of improvement."

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Brisk Walks May Boost Memory in Older Adults

Older adults who took a brisk walk three times a week did better on memory tests and increased the size of their hippocampus, a portion of the brain involved with memory formation, researchers report. The findings suggest that loss of brain volume in old age can be delayed, and may even be reversible. Brain shrinkage is associated with memory impairment in the elderly. "We can change the brain in older adults," said lead study author Kirk Erickson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"It's amazing that a one-year period of moderate exercise isn't just slowing down the atrophy, it's actually reversing it." For their the study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, University of Illinois, Rice University and Ohio State University divided 120 sedentary adults in their mid to late 60s, on average, into two groups: one group walked around a track for 40 minutes of aerobic exercise, three days a week, while the other group did stretching. Both groups performed better on a test of spatial memory. Spatial memory helps us to remember things like driving directions or where we left our keys.

But the groups differed in one important way. MRI brain scans showed that after a year on the exercise program, the aerobic exercise group's hippocampus was about 2 percent bigger than it was when they started, the equivalent to a reversal in age-related brain shrinkage of about one to two years, the researchers said. Those in the stretching group had a decrease of hippocampal volume of about 1.4 percent, the investigators found. Those who showed the greatest improvements in memory also showed the greatest increases in hippocampal volume, according to the study, published online Jan. 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Epilepsy Found to Be More Common in U.S. Than Thought

A new study suggests that one of every 26 people in the United States will develop epilepsy at some point in their life. That's a higher rate than previously believed and, experts say, highlights the need for more funding and attention to the condition. "This study is an important analysis of the potential number of patients of epilepsy in the United States," said Dr. Joseph I. Sirven, the chairman-elect of the Epilepsy Foundation's professional advisory board and a professor and chairman of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Sirven, who was not involved in the study, noted that it makes two important points:

* Older adults are more at risk for developing epilepsy.

* A greater number of people will develop epilepsy during their lifetime than thought.

"The study suggests up to 12 million Americans will develop epilepsy, which is a greater number than expected," Sirven said. "Moreover, this is a conservative estimate and not the worst case scenario as the lifetime risk would be higher in more urban areas. Clearly, more attention needs to be paid to this condition." The findings are published in the Jan. 4 issue of Neurology. For the study, Dale C. Hesdorffer, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, and her research colleagues looked for the likelihood of developing epilepsy among residents of Rochester, Minn., between 1960 and 1979.

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Gene Research Brings Insight Into Deadly Childhood Brain Tumor

U.S. scientists have unraveled the genetic code for the most common type of brain cancer in children. Gene sequencing reveals that this tumor, medulloblastoma, or MB, possesses far fewer genetic abnormalities than comparable adult tumors. The discovery that MB has five to 10 times fewer mutations than solid adult tumors could further attempts to understand what triggers the cancer and which treatment is most effective.

"The good news here is that for the first time now we've identified the broken genetic pieces in a pediatric cancer, and found that with MD there are only a few broken parts," said lead author Dr. Victor E. Velculescu, associate professor with the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "And that means it's potentially easier to intervene and to stop it," he said, likening the cancer to a train that's speeding out of control.

Velculescu and his colleagues, who report their findings in the Dec. 16 online issue of Science, say this is the first time genetic decoding has been applied to a non-adult cancer. Each year this cancer strikes about 1 in every 200,000 children younger than 15 years old. Before migrating through the patient's central nervous system, MBs begin in the cerebellum portion of the brain that is responsible for controlling balance and complicated motor function.

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