We're keeping the cat.’ Surviving pet allergies

Despite wheezing and sneezing, many refuse to give up a furry friend

When Doug Familia told his wife, Nancy, he wanted to buy a cat for his stepson, she balked. Nancy knew that 8-year-old Anthony wanted a kitten, but she also knew that her husband had severe allergies to cats.

“Don’t bring a cat home if it’s going to be a problem,” she warned. Doug assured her that he was going to buy a Siberian, a breed that the pet store had advertised as “hypoallergenic.”

But within an hour of the kitten’s arrival at their Yonkers, N.Y., home, 41-year-old Doug was coughing and wheezing. His eyes became itchy and teary. He could barely breathe. 

“What are we going to?” he asked Nancy. “I don’t know what you’re going to do,” she replied, “but we’re keeping the cat.”

Because Doug already had become attached to the cat, he quickly made an appointment with an allergist. Soon he was taking antihistamines and regular shots to desensitize him to the feline's dander. The therapy worked so well that these days Doug barely sniffles when his fluffy friend pops up on his lap to cuddle.

Americans love their pets and many are loath to part with their furry friends — even if it means coping with allergic reactions that include hacking, wheezing and watery eyes. Warnings of health risks don’t deter them, even though studies have shown that nasal allergies to substances like pet dander and pollen can hike the risk of asthma.

Up to 30 percent of people have some kind of allergic reaction to cats and dogs, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Allergies to cats are twice as common as reactions to dogs, experts say. While the best treatment for pet allergies is to remove the animal from the home, most allergists resist telling patients it’s time for Fluffy to go, at least until they’ve tried all other options.

“If we tell them to get rid of the pet, they’ll get rid of the allergist,” says Dr. David Resnick, director of the allergy division at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. “Most people do not remove their pets — ever.”

Sometimes people manage to get over the allergy just by dint of surviving constant exposure to dander and hair, but it's unclear how often that strategy works. A recent study that found that kids who grew up in a home with both a cat and a dog were less likely to develop allergies. So, if you want to have children and pets, it might make sense to get the cat or dog first, says allergy expert Todd Green, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

 

Tobacco ‘mints’ tied to kids’ poisoning

Smokeless products 2nd most common source of accidents

Smokeless, flavored tobacco products that look like candy and come in packages shaped like cell phones may be contributing to accidental poisonings in very young children, new research suggests.

Nicotine-laced pellets, strips and sticks that dissolve completely in the user’s mouth — dubbed “tobacco candy” by critics — have joined chewing tobacco and snuff to become the second-most common cause of unintentional tobacco ingestion in kids younger than 6.

Between 2006 and 2008, nearly 1,800 U.S. youngsters — almost 600 a year —accidentally consumed smokeless tobacco products, according to an analysis of 13,705 tobacco-related reports to the nation’s poison control centers. That’s a fraction of the nearly 3,600 poisonings a year that involved cigarettes and filter tips, but it worries authors of the new study published in the journal Pediatrics. 

"Novel smokeless tobacco products, including dissolvable, compressed tobacco products ... are now of major concern, with their discreet form, candy-like appearance and added flavorings that may be attractive to children," the authors write.

Potential poisonings add to the growing list of worries from those who fear that tobacco makers thwarted by anti-smoking laws are trying to peddle their addictive products to a new generation of users. Tasty flavors and packaging that resembles Tic Tac mints could be a powerful draw to young users, critics say.

“Our response has been one of dismay,” said Cathryn Cushing, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Tobacco Prevention & Education Program. Oregon is one of three states, along with Ohio and Indiana, tapped as a test market for Camel Orbs, tobacco pellets that contain mint and other pleasant flavors. 

“They lost the battle of second-hand smoke and they’re trying to make up for that.”

Not so, said a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which makes Orbs along with Camel Strips and Camel Sticks. David P. Howard, director of communications, said the firm is only trying to offer an alternative for legal smokers who can’t or don’t want to quit and who prefer to enjoy tobacco use without violating laws or social norms.

"They provide adult tobacco consumers options to do it without bothering others," said Howard, who noted that the products are not only smokeless, but also spit-less and litter-free.

The Camel products are packaged in child-resistant packages, sold only to adults 18 and older, and marketed on websites that include strict age verification safeguards, he said.

"Adult tobacco consumers should be diligent about keeping tobacco and all nicotine products away from children," said Howard, who added that other household items, such as vitamins and cosmetics, poison far more children each year.

But that doesn’t convince public health officials like Alfred Aleguas Jr., managing director of the Northern Ohio Poison Center and co-author of the Pediatrics study. Even a single Orb, which contains about 1 milligram of nicotine, is enough to sicken a small child, he said, adding that a handful of pellets potentially could be lethal.

A 3-year-old in Oregon ingested Orbs last summer, according to the state’s poison center. In Indiana, two toddlers suffered mild poisoning after ingesting “snus,” small packages of flavored smokeless tobacco.

“To have this be relatively new on the market and to already have exposure, I think that’s significant,” said Aleguas.

Snus is among several products marketed in the past few years by Reynolds and Philip Morris USA as the tobacco makers expanded their smokeless holdings in response to a changing climate.

Newsvine poll

Should tobacco 'mints' be allowed to be sold?

Smoking rates down, tobacco consumption upCigarette consumption has plummeted in the United States, even as smokeless tobacco consumption has gone up. Howard estimated that cigarette volumes have fallen between 10 percent and 11 percent in recent years, while the smokeless tobacco market has risen between 5 percent and 6 percent.

Between 1996 and 2006, the average per-capita number of cigarettes smoked fell from 2,355 a year to 1,650 a year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. During that same period, consumption of snuff rose from .31 pounds to .38 pounds a year.

Critics charge that attracting young users through more palatable smokeless tobacco products is the goal of the new marketing efforts. In the U.S., 13.4 percent of high school boys and 2.3 percent of high school girls use smokeless tobacco, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, based in Washington, D.C.

Slick advertisements for Camel Orbs, Camel Sticks and Camel Strips appear to directly target high school students and pre-teens said Terry E. Pechacek, associate director for Science in the Office on Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"Underage children are being reached by this advertising," said Pechacek, who co-authored the new study. "They can use it in school settings, they can use it around their parents, they can use it in other social settings."

Howard denied that the tobacco firm targets young users.

At issue, of course, is the health harm from tobacco use. Because there’s no burning, the risk of lung cancer may be lower with smokeless products, but the products are linked to oral cancers, gum disease, nicotine addiction and heart disease. Even the Camel site carries a bold reminder that the dissolvable products can cause mouth cancer.

"All tobacco products carry risk," Howard said. "We are marketing them as tobacco products."

Another worry, Pechacek said, is that two-thirds of young smokeless tobacco users are increasingly combining the products with cigarettes, and more than half of users aged 12 to 17 are using both.

"The real potential is that those types of dual users, if they maintain that pattern, may have lifelong risks very similar to smokers," he said.

The new products didn't sit well with Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, who were outraged when Camel Orbs were test-marketed in their states.

“Tobacco candies are clearly designed to appeal to children through both packaging and taste,” Merkley said in a press release. “Congress and the FDA must act quickly to ensure our children do not become victims of the tobacco companies’ latest efforts to hook new generations of Americans on deadly products.”

 

Schools: Don’t take your kids to work

‘Seems the focus should be on ... their learning here’ 

CHICAGO - Many U.S. school districts are urging parents to keep their kids in class and not take them to work Thursday for an annual event they say disrupts learning at an increasingly critical time of year.

From Arizona to Illinois to Texas, educators are alerting parents that between high-stakes standardized testing in some areas and the H1N1 virus that kept thousands of children home earlier in the school year, the timing of "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" doesn't make sense.

"This year, of all years, to have a student miss a day for something like this that could be done anytime — it just seems the focus should be on students and their learning here," said Guy Schumacher, the superintendent of Libertyville Elementary School District 70 in suburban Chicago.

Some administrators said they recognized that spending time with their parents at work could be a valuable educational experience for children, but it does not justify pulling them out of the classroom — even for one day.

"Stakes have never been higher for student achievement," wrote Virginia B. McElyea, the superintendent of the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Ariz. "Every day your child is out of school his or her learning achievement suffers."

Complaining for decadesAdministrators have been complaining about the event's date for well over a decade. Some have said they've contacted the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation to ask that it be held on a school holiday or during the summer, but the organization won't budge.

A spokesman for the foundation, George McKecuen, said it's important that the event — launched in 1993 for girls and expanded to include boys in 2004 — be held during the school year so children can go back and tell their classmates what they learned. He suggested schools might schedule a holiday or teacher work day on that day or: "Maybe they can do their tests some other day."

"It's always there on the calendar, the fourth Thursday in April," McKecuen said.

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Vote: Should kids skip school on this day?

Darrell Propst, principal of Taylor Elementary School in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, said it's the same day his third- and fourth-graders are taking the Ohio Achievement Assessment test. Like others administrators who sent letters or posted e-mail messages on school Web sites, he asked parents to find another day to bring their children to work.

At schools where standardized tests aren't being given that day, the exams may be looming. Student test scores have become increasingly important to public schools since the 2002 No Child Left Behind law was enacted, linking standardized test results to federal funding.

"Because of the high-stakes testing we're involved in during the spring, the kids need to be in school as much as they can," said Ron Simpson, a spokesman for a regional education service center in Richardson, Texas.

Some parents, however, say their children learn enough about their parents and the world that day to make up for whatever they miss in class.

"I think it's a great opportunity for my daughter to see her mother in action, so to speak," said Alicia Agugliaro, who planned to take her 7-year-old daughter to the drug development company in Princeton, N.J., where she works in marketing communications. "Our company emphasized leadership and partnership, and I think that's a good message for kids."

It may not be worth itOther parents, though, acknowledge it may not be worth it.

"I think it's a great experience for the kids to see what a professional environment is like, but they also may need to weigh that with how much they are going to miss at school, whether there is a test they will have to make up or what is going on that day," said Jill Krizek, who for years has brought her 11-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son to the bank in suburban Kansas City where she's a human resources director.

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Her son, a high school freshman, has decided not to participate.

"He feels like he misses too much work," she said. "I have worked here 13 years, so it hasn't changed enough."

But McKecuen, from the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation, said the event gives students a chance to see the connection between what they learn in school and the skills they will need as adults. He said it also can spark children's interest in careers they might not have considered or known about.

That's what happened in Chicago, at the office of Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown.

In a letter written to Brown last November, Jade Ieshia Cage, a college freshman studying to be a lawyer, wrote that participating in the event "helped me decide what I want to do in my life."

 

Read my lips: Gloss tells your mood

What it claims to do:  This lip gloss lets your lips “express your deepest emotions” by changing shades along with your mood, according to Too Faced Cosmetics. “Are you in love, jealous, angry, happy or hot and bothered? Your lips will tell the tale!” the manufacturer promises. Additional benefits of the product: sunscreen protection, restored elasticity and instant rejuvenation and hydration for extra dry, flaky lips.

Our experience:  I’ve always been intrigued by mood rings, those clunky baubles from the ’70s that changed color depending on your mood (or rather, the temperature of the thermotropic liquid crystals contained within the “stone”). If your ring was blue and your temperature was up, you were in a good mood. If it was yellow, you were tense. If it was black, your ring was either damaged or it was too cold (most people just assumed you were in a foul mood). Mine, inevitably, was black.

Mood Swing lip gloss seemed like a fun twist on the old mood ring theme, with the hues limited to the pink family (no need to worry about going around with black lips if I was in a black mood) and the moods coyly linked to various degrees of passion. Petal Pink, the shade I chose (other options include Berry Pink, Pink Shimmer and Original – all “product tested on celebrities not animals”), was designed to go from “pearl to your perfect shade of petal pink,” depending on your emotional state. Those states were cheekily defined on the side of the package as Totally Zen (nearly white lips) to Slightly Smitten (pearly pink) to Feelin’ Frisky (light pink) to Dirty Thoughts (darker pink) to Hot & Bothered (fuchsia) to Basking in the Afterglow (a deep rich pink bordering on red).

The first time I applied it, the gloss immediately conjured up memories of grade school –not because of the mood ring connection but the consistency. It was thick and white and sticky, and I suddenly felt like I was putting strawberry-scented Elmer’s Glue on my mouth. The white (or Totally Zen shade) quickly dissolved into a pearly pink, though; apparently, I was already Slightly Smitten. Since I don’t have a current beau, I decided to test the passion factor by surfing the TV, hoping for a rerun of “Casino Royale” or “Ocean’s Eleven.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate George Clooney or Brad Pitt or Matt Damon, so I made due with a rakishly handsome local newscaster. Sure enough, within minutes, my lips appeared to be either Feelin’ Frisky or to be having Dirty Thoughts, although it could also just have been bad lighting.

I continued to use Mood Swing over the next few days – while watching TV at home, while out at a bar with a girlfriend, during heated discussions with my sisters, before heading to the dentist – trying to determine whether the lip gloss was actually responding to changes in my emotional state. At the bar, my girlfriend and I both smeared some of the stuff on then started asking each other pointed questions about our favorite cinematic hunks. Daniel Craig seemed to get a small reaction out of her; Jon Hamm – "Mad Men’s" Don Draper – she claimed, did the same for me (sorry, George!). But again, the lighting wasn’t the best and alcohol – and wishful thinking – may have been a factor. Sadly, the strongest change in color seemed to take place right before I left for the dentist’s office for a scheduled root canal. Granted, I was a little Hot & Bothered, but not in what I’d call a good way.

What the experts say: Dr. Hema Sundaram, a Washington, D.C., dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon and author of “Face Value: The Truth about Beauty – And a Guilt-Free Guide to Finding It” says Mood Swing Lip Gloss does indeed work off the same body temperature principal as the mood rings from the 1970s. “It’s a grown-up mood ring for your lips,” she says. “It’s make-up as play.”

As for its claims regarding sunscreen protection, restored elasticity, and moisturizing, she says they all seem reasonable.  “It has some color in it and it has some emollients and it has a little bit of sunscreen,” she says. “I can’t evaluate the claims fully because I don’t know the proportions of the ingredients and it doesn’t give an SPF, but it seems to be a souped-up lip gloss. It’s going to lubricate – it will give the lips a smoother feel – and it has this body-temperature sensitivity.”

Mood Swing does contain Vitamin E, so people with Vitamin E allergies may want to avoid this product, she says. And some women may not appreciate its youthful range of bubble gum shades. “A professional woman is probably not going to be wearing this during the day,” she says. “Basically, this is a lip balm for the teen/tween set – or for the inner child within a grown woman. It’s tapping into the playful side, the young side, the side that likes to go for tarot readings and call the psychic hotline. It’s the makeup equivalent of a fortune cookie – it has the element of surprise.”

Bottom line:  Much like mood rings, Mood Swing lip gloss was fun to play with, but I’d have to say it’s not a product I’d use regularly. The strawberry smell was a bit too reminiscent of those Bonne Bell Lip Smackers my classmates used to wear in seventh grade and the various shades of shimmery pink were far too cotton candy-ish for my taste – or my age. It did do a good job with moisturizing; I used much less lip balm with it than when I wore my normal lipstick. And it was definitely a fun conversation starter, which may be more in keeping with its true intent. All in all, I’d have to say Mood Swing wasn’t exactly a sophisticated mood indicator (seriously, going to the dentist makes me hot?), but it did manage to keep my lips moist and colorful and to capture a fair amount of attention. Particularly that of the cute guy sitting next to me at the bar who asked me out.

Chewing gum smacks of wrinkle risks

Some surgeons say habit can create fine lines around lips

It freshens our breath and helps us quit smoking, but some cosmetic surgeons believe chewing gum does one more thing: It gives us wrinkles.

“Many of my patients who are gum chewers have a certain pattern of wrinkles around their mouth,” says Dr. Joel Schlessinger, a board certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon from Omaha, Neb. “And I think the gum is responsible to some degree for it.”

While no studies have been done showing a link between chewing gum and wrinkles, the topic does come up with some regularity on beauty blogs.

Experts attribute the gum-wrinkle connection to two things. First, there’s the repetitive motion of chewing, which causes lines and folds around the mouth due to muscle overuse, says Dr. Hema Sundaram, a Washington, D.C.-area cosmetic surgeon and laser expert.

“I believe chewing gum promotes muscle over-activity and potentially breaks down support tissue within the skin, contributing to volume loss and perhaps loss of skin elasticity,” she says.

What's more, chewing gum can dislodge dermal fillers that people have injected into their faces to plump up their wrinkles.

“It makes your Restylane and other fillers last less long,” says Sundaram.

Schlessinger says he’s observed this with his patients, as well.

“The act of chewing gum can dislodge the fillers earlier,” he says. “It actually pushes them out of the area. They dissipate a lot quicker in gum chewers in my opinion.”

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Whale poo could help oceans absorb CO2-scientists

SYDNEY, April 23 (Reuters Life!) - Whale droppings have emerged as a natural ocean fertiliser which could help combat global warming by allowing the Southern Ocean to absorb more carbon dioxide, Australian scientists have have found.

New research from the Australian Antarctic Division suggests whales naturally fertilise surface waters with iron-rich whale excrement, allowing the whole eco-system to send more carbon down into deep waters.

"The plants love it and it actually becomes a way of taking carbon out of the atmosphere," Antarctic scientist Steve Nicol told Reuters, adding the droppings appear as a plume of solids and liquids.

A larger population of baleen whales and krill would boost the productivity of the whole Southern Ocean ecosystem and could improve the absorption of carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming.

Iron is a limited micronutrient in the Southern Ocean, but recent experiments have found that adding soluble iron to surface waters helps promote much-needed phytoplankton algal blooms.

Iron is contained in algae in the surface waters where plants grow, but there is a constant rain of iron-rich particles falling into deep waters.

When krill eat the algae, and whales eat the krill, the iron ends up in whale poo, and the iron levels are kept up in surface waters where it is most needed.

"We reckon whale poo is probably 10 million times more concentrated with iron than sea water," Nicol said.

"The system operates at a high level when you have this interaction between the krill, the whales and the algae and they maintain the system at a very high level of production. So it's a self sustaining system."

Nicol said the idea to research whale droppings came from a casual pub chat among Antarctic scientists in Australia's island state of Tasmania.

He said it was not yet known how much poo it would take have a significant impact on the Southern Ocean.

Study: College students are Internet-addicted

University finds withdrawal symptoms by those who disconnected

American college students are hooked on cell phones, social media and the Internet and showing symptoms similar to drug and alcohol addictions, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Maryland who asked 200 students to give up all media for one full day found that after 24 hours many showed signs of withdrawal, craving and anxiety along with an inability to function well without their media and social links.

Susan Moeller, the study's project director and a journalism professor at the university, said many students wrote about how they hated losing their media connections, which some equated to going without friends and family.

"I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening," said one student. "Between having a BlackBerry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin."

Moeller said students complained most about their need to use text messages, instant messages, e-mail and Facebook.

"Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort," wrote one of the students, who blogged about their reactions. "When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life."

Few students reported watching TV news or reading a newspaper.

The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize so-called Internet addiction as a disorder.

But it seems to be an affliction of modern life. In one extreme example in South Korea reported by the media, a couple allegedly neglected their three-month-old daughter, who died of malnutrition, because they were on the computer for up to 12 hours a day raising a virtual child.

In the United States a small private U.S. center called ReSTART, located near Redmond, Wa., opened last year in the shadow of computer giant Microsoft to treat excessive use of the Internet, video gaming and texting. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The center's website cites various examples of students who ran up large debts or dropped out of college due to their obsession.

 

Brunettes have more beaus? Hair color facts

Your mane offers surprising insights into your mental, physical well-being

Our hair is our most noticeable trait — and we obsess over it accordingly. But even though we spend lots of time enhancing and re-enhancing our tresses, we probably haven't considered something pretty cool: What's underneath all the glosses and highlights can be a health barometer of sorts.

If you're a blonde...

...protect your peepersWomen have a higher risk than men of developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD), an eye condition that can cause blindness. And fair-haired females are especially prone to AMD, says Svetlana Kogan, M.D., founder of Doctors at Trump Place in New York City. A diet rich in the natural compounds lutein and zeaxanthin — found in kale, spinach, and snow peas — can help fend it off. Kogan suggests munching on one cup of the green veggies every day.

Melanin gives skin its color and helps shield it from harmful UV rays, says dermatologist Joel Schlessinger, M.D., president emeritus of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery. Thing is, blondes produce less of the stuff, which leaves their skin (and especially their scalps) at a higher risk for melanoma. Buy a full-spectrum SPF 30 sunscreen that shields against harmful UVA and UVB rays. And don't neglect your head: "Blondes should always wear a hat when they're in direct sunlight," says Schlessinger.

If you're a brunette...

...hold on to your hairMore than half of the 30 million American women with visible hair loss are brunettes. That could be because they have less hair to begin with: "Brown tresses are generally coarser and thicker than blonde or red strands, and your body produces fewer of them," Schlessinger says. So when brown hair follicles die, they leave behind more noticeable thin patches. Stave off sparse coverage by eating right. Low iron can contribute to hair loss, so start swallowing 18 milligrams a day; one cup of fortified oatmeal will provide your daily fill.

...stub out that buttYour chestnut mane is the result of lots of melanin, which could fast-track your dependency on nicotine. The reason: Melanin prevents your liver from quickly metabolizing the drug, and the longer it's in your system, the faster you become hooked. Animal studies suggest that vitamin C helps keep your liver in top shape. Swallow 75 milligrams a day in the form of half a cup of red peppers or a medium-size orange. Your best bet, though, is never to pick up a cancer stick. Period.

 

 

First total face transplant performed in Spain

The patient, a farmer in his 30s, accidentally shot himself in 2005

MADRID - A hospital in Spain says it has carried out the world's first full-face transplant, giving a man a new nose, skin, jaws, cheekbones, teeth and other features after he lost his face in an accident.

Other transplant experts lauded the surgery but were not sure it could technically be called 'full-face.'

The operation was carried out by a 30-member medical team in late March and took 24 hours to perform, according to the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. 

The patient now has a completely new face from his hairline down and only one visible scar, which looks like a wrinkle running across his neck, said Dr. Joan Pere Barret, the surgeon who led the team.

"If you look him in the face, you see a normal person, like anyone else we have as a patient in the hospital," Barret told The Associated Press on Friday.

Barret declined to name the patient or give details of the accident five years ago in which the man lost most of his face, saying only that he was a Spaniard between 20 and 40 years old and was recovering well. The man cannot yet speak, eat or smile, but can see and swallow saliva, the surgeon said.

Prior to the latest surgery, the patient had undergone surgery nine times and could only breathe and be fed through tubes. He also had problems speaking.

In Britain, the UK Facial Transplantation Research Team called the Spanish operation "the most complex face transplantation operation there has probably been in the world to date." It stopped short, however, of calling it the world's first full-face transplant.

Barret said the operation involved removing what was left of the man's face and giving him a replacement "in one piece."

"It is a little bit like the movie with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage," he said, referring to the 1997 thriller "Face/Off", in which Travolta undergoes a high-tech medical procedure to acquire the villain Cage's appearance and infiltrate his terrorist gang.

"He is coming along well. He sits up, he walks in his hospital room and he watches television," Barret said.

Barret said there have been 10 partial-face transplant operations carried out in the world so far but this was the first involving a person's whole face. The world's first partial-face transplant was done on a woman in France in 2005. Other partial-face operations have been performed in the United States and China, as well as in other Spanish hospitals in Valencia and Seville.

The Spanish operation is similar to a near-total face transplant carried out in 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio, on a woman who was shot in the face.

But the Spanish case "seems to us to be more complex," said Neil Huband, a spokesman for the British transplant research team, based at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

He said the patient in Spain had also been shot in the face.

Dr. Maria Siemionow, who operated on the woman in Ohio, said the Spanish team had done great work. But a diagram she says she has seen about the Spanish surgery does not make clear that the team replaced the man's whole face, leaving doubts about his eyelids and jaw, she told the AP.

"It would probably be much more safer for the Barcelona team to say near-total," Siemionow said. 

Barret said his team used the same plastic and microsurgery techniques as in those previous cases but decided to try a full-face transplant because the damage suffered by the man was so severe.

A week after the operation, the patient asked to look at himself in the mirror and was satisfied with what he saw, Barret said.

The patient had undergone psychiatric tests before the operation to determine if he would be able to confront having a totally new face, the hospital said.

He is expected to remain hospitalized for two months.

 

Girl wakes from coma, speaks German

Croatian teen reportedly no longer speaks native language

After 24 hours in a coma, a Croatian girl woke up speaking only German, according to reports that spread across the Internet last week. The 13-year-old had been studying German in school and watching German television shows on her own, according to various versions of the story, but she was not fluent until after the incident. Meanwhile, she lost the ability to speak her native language.

Discovery News did not confirm the report with the girl's doctors or parents, but experts say the story is plausible — to some extent.

In a condition called bilingual aphasia, people often lose one of their two languages because different parts of the brain are involved in remembering each one, explained Michael Paradis, a neurolinguist at McGill University in Montreal. 

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Even if a brain injury affected the Croatian teenager's memory of her native language, the brain areas that were learning German could have remained untouched.

"This has been observed thousands of times," Paradis said. "It's not surprising at all. I'd like to know all the facts, but it's quite possible that after a coma, you'd have problems which might be located in such a way in the brain that they affect one language but not another."

What can't be true, though, is the claim that the coma gave the girl fluency that she didn't have before.

"I looked on the Web and saw comments that she recovered perfect German," Paradis said. "This cannot be the case. If she recovered German to the point that she could communicate well, that's fine. That's the kind of thing you would expect." 

Bilingual aphasia is possible because different types of memory are involved in learning first and second languages. As toddlers start to talk, their brains treat language like walking, jumping or any other motor skill. Those abilities belong to a realm called procedural memory; we do them without consciously thinking about them.

When an adult or older child learns a new language, on the other hand, something called declarative memory takes charge. As if the language were history, geography or math, the brain learns rules and memorizes facts. After years or decades of developing fluency, some of that knowledge gets transferred into the subconscious procedural memory. However, declarative, or conscious, memory will always hang on to it in some way. (Children who grow up multilingual can store more than one language within the subconscious memory system.)

Multiple areas of the brain intersect to encode both types of memory, but the two systems are generally distinct from each other. That makes it possible for a localized lesion, tumor or traumatic injury to wipe out one language but not another.

Native language likely to return when swelling shrinks
Paradis suspects that the Croatian teenager suffered from edema, or swelling, that interfered with her ability to speak Croatian but not German. In cases like hers, he said, the native language usually returns when swelling goes down after a few weeks or months.

Whether true or not, the case points out how much scientists still don't know about language and the brain.

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The bilingual neuroimaging literature is quite messy, and we're really only beginning to understand how the brain is capable of sustaining multiple languages," said Matt Leonard, a doctoral student in cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego.

Along with neuroscientist Eric Halgren and colleagues, his group is using new, magnetic field-based technology to zero in — in more detail than ever — on which parts of the brain process language and in what order.

"Second-language learning is a controversial field," Halgren added, with ongoing debate about which brain areas are involved. "The amount we don't know is far greater than the amount we know. That is going to be true for a long time."

 

Lots of dating options? Looks top list

But fewer choices mean more thoughtful analysis of mates

When it comes to the dating game, the traits people look for in potential mates depend on the size of the dating pool, a new study suggests.

In larger groups, people are more likely to use physical characteristics, such as height and weight, to make their dating choice — features that don't take much time to assess — the study researchers say. In contrast, people in smaller groups are more likely to pay attention to characteristics that require some "getting to know you" conversation, such as whether or not the potential partner went to college or is a smoker.

Since people can only take in so much information at a given time, it makes sense that they would focus on different mate characteristics in different situations, said Alison Lenton, a psychologists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. 

"There are constraints on what our brains can do — they're quite powerful, but they can't pay attention to everything at once," Lenton said.

And when faced with a plethora of possible partners, people might focus on traits they can quickly judge. As a result, someone might seem like Mr. or Mrs. Right in a small group, but not in a large one.

"With more choice, it is conceivable that a singleton might like John [or] Jane in one context, but not in another," Lenton told LiveScience in an e-mail.

Too many choices
Scientists have known when confronted with, say, 30 different kinds of sunscreen, or 10 varieties of diet soda, people start using rules of thumb rather than logically working out which would be the best option, Lenton said.

To see if this type of thinking carried over to dating decisions, Lenton and her colleagues looked at choices made during 84 speed-dating events involving around 1,800 women and 1,800 men. The events ranged from quite small (15 to 23 participants) to larger (24 to 31 participants). Each date was three-minutes long, and when the event was over, subjects indicated who they would like to go out with.

Overall, subjects preferred partners who were younger, taller, not too skinny and had a university degree – for both males and females. However, in larger groups, participants were more likely to pick dates based on physical characteristics, and the reverse was true of subjects in smaller groups.

It's possible that participants in the larger group felt more pressed for time, even though their dates were just as long as those of subjects in smaller groups, so they focused on easily-assessable characteristics.

However, since the results are based on speed-dating events, the findings might not apply to other dating situations.

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Idea of Mr. Right may change
The results indicate that, contrary to what was previously assumed, people don't just walk around with a list of desirable mate traits in their heads and see how a potential date matches up.

"The choice environment has a hidden effect on people's preferences, on their "list". That is, they change what they are looking for depending on how many options they perceive that they have," Lenton said.

 

Premature births still medical mystery

Half a million babies are born early in the U.S. each year

After rising for 16 years, the rate of premature births in the United States dropped for the second year in a row, according to a report released this month. Despite the good news, still more than half a million babies are born early in the country, putting them at risk for conditions such as respiratory disorders, blindness, and learning disabilities.

While recent medical advancements mean most preemies will survive, preventing early birth in the first place is a different story. Doctors have no way of knowing which pregnancies will be preterm, and in about half of all cases, they don't know why a mother delivers early. However, science is beginning to divulge some clues, such as social stress, bacterial infection and hereditary influences, which might be tied to early births.

In many cases, the cause of premature birth is likely a complex interplay between the mother, the fetus, and their respective environments. Adding difficultly to the situation is the fact that scientists don't completely understand what sets off any type of labor, full-term or preterm. But modern research tools could help to uncover specific genes and other components involved in labor that might help us understand what triggers early delivery, said Dr. Louis Muglia, a professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt Kennedy Center in Nashville. 

"I think there are a number of studies, that are just starting to be revealed, that are hopefully going to lead to new insights about the birth process," Muglia said.

Preemie basicsNormal pregnancies last around nine months, or between 38 and 42 weeks. A pregnancy is considered preterm if the baby is born at 37 weeks or earlier.

While full-term babies are completely dependent on mom and dad for feeding and diaper-changing, that dependency is taken to an extreme for preemies. The organs and physiological systems of the little fetuses are not completely formed, and when they get cut off from mom's umbilical cord too soon, their systems aren't ready to go solo.

For instance, a lot of brain development happens before 39 weeks, so even the so-called "late-preterm" baby born between 34 and 36 weeks is at risk for learning problems. (The brain at 35 weeks weighs only two-thirds of what it will weigh at full-term, according to the U.S. March of Dimes, an organization that aims to prevent premature birth, birth defects and infant mortality.)

Here's a breakdown of global preemie stats:

• About 70 percent of preemies around the world are born between 34 and 36 weeks, according to the March of Dimes. These babies usually weigh between 4.5 and 6 pounds (2 to nearly 3 kilograms). While they're healthier than babies born earlier, they're still at risk for problems, such as breathing difficulties.
• About 12 percent of preemies are born between 32 and 33 weeks and weigh about 3 to 5 pounds (about 2 kg).
• 10 percent are born between 28 to 31 weeks, weighing around 2 to 4 pounds (under 2 kg).
• The smallest babies, born earlier than 28 weeks, account for 6 percent preemies and often weigh less than 2 pounds, about the weight of six bananas. These tiny babies usually have the most complications, including not being able to feed on their own.

From 1990 to 2006, the premature birth rate in the United States rose by more than 20 percent. This rise is due, in part, to an increase in induced labors and C-sections. Doctors sometimes need to induce labor because of complications with the pregnancy, like preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy). Such situations account for 25 percent of all premature births in the United States.

In a few other situations, doctors can likely explain why a mother gave birth early, for instance, if she is carrying twins or some set of multiples. But for those 50 percent that can't be explained, scientists have pieced together possible culprits. These include:

InfectionPathogenic infections are one of the lead suspects for causing preterm birth. In fact, they could account for about 25 percent of all unexplained premature deliveries, Muglia said.

Certain infections can activate the immune system — the body's natural defense against harmful organisms. In a pregnant mother, putting the immune system on overdrive might trigger preterm labor.

This might happen because the mom's immune response that's fighting the infection creates a hostile environment for the fetus, prompting early delivery, said Dr. Diane Ashton, the deputy medical director at the March of Dimes.

And from an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense to give birth prematurely if the infection might harm either the mother or the unborn infant.

"The risk of having a growing infection puts the mom's life certainly in jeopardy, if it was a severe infection, and also it would very much influence the fetus," Muglia said. "It seems like the most evolutionarily advantageous solution would be to deliver the one pregnancy early and then have the capacity to have a subsequent pregnancy."

Bacterial infections in the reproductive areas, like the amniotic fluid or the vagina, might pose such a threat. But the infection could also be farther away, like in the mouth. Many studies have tied periodontal diseases, such as gingivitis, to preterm birth. However, treating these diseases does not appear to reduce the risk of early delivery.

So if getting rid of infections doesn't help, what's going on?

One idea is that, by the time a woman shows symptoms of a disease like gingivitis while she's pregnant, it's too late to treat it in terms of preventing labor, Ashton said.

An unknown pathogen could also be to blame.

"There are many organisms that we can't culture, or may activate the immune system in more subtle ways that don’t have overt evidence of the mom having an infection," Muglia said.

Muglia added, "Maybe it's not those primary infections, but it's something about the maternal immune system interacting with the microbes that is slightly different in those women that augments their risk for preterm birth."

Genetics Hereditary factors, or the mother's genes, are also thought to play a role. They're suspected partly because prematurity seems to run in families.

"Women who have had relatives with preterm births, especially moms that have had sisters with preterm birth, or moms that have been born prematurely themselves — so their mothers gave rise to a preterm infant — have a higher incidence of having a child with prematurity also," Muglia said.

Also, mothers who give birth early one time are likely to delivery early in subsequent pregnancies. And from the other side of the spectrum, mothers who give birth late, after 40 weeks, are at increased risk for late labor with future children.

Research in this area is very preliminary, but scientists have pinpointed a few possible players, including genes involved in making the amniotic sac where the fetus grows. "Different genetic expressions cause that amniotic sac to be weakened and more susceptible to rupture," which in turn increases the risk of premature delivery, Ashton said.

Another possible culprit: genes involved in the immune system, specifically, the ones that promote inflammation in the body, which is sometimes triggered by infection. Inflammation in general is thought to be involved in any type of labor, but it's not clear if it relates to the timing of birth, Muglia said.

In February of this year, scientists from the National Institutes of Health announced they had identified genes in both the mother's and the fetus's immune system that increased the risk of premature birth, suggesting that it's not the mother's genes alone that lead to early delivery.

Genetic variations could also make some women's immune systems more sensitive so that a specific infection might activate an immune response in one woman but not another, Muglia said.

Social and lifestyle factorsBeyond biology, environmental factors such as eating and drinking habits, stress and a person's income appear to influence delivery time.

Smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, high levels of psychological or physical stress during pregnancy, and improper prenatal care increase the risk of preterm birth. Also, certain medical conditions, such as being underweight, having diabetes, or being pregnant six to 18 months following a previous pregnancy might raise the risk, according to the March of Dimes.

Women in high poverty areas also have a higher risk of delivery early. This association is likely due to a number of factors, such as limited access to healthcare, or that concerns about housing and employment take priority over health, Ashton said.

Future outlookCurrently, there aren't good animal models for studying human labor, Muglia said. "The things we know lead to birth in mice and sheep and other animals don’t behave the same way in humans," he said.

And scientists obviously can't interfere with human pregnancies in order to study them. But they might be able to learn much more by analyzing the genes of pregnant women, a feat made possible through modern human genome sequencing technologies. 

A few big studies looking into the genetics of preterm birth are in the process of being completed, and should yield some results within the next year, Muglia said.

Also, scientists can apply that same technology to better understand how infections could trigger labor. For instance, scientists might miss certain bacterial species if they simply tried to grow them using traditional methods. But these elusive bacteria can be more easily spotted by sequencing their genes, Muglia said.

Once scientists know what's involved in the normal birth process, then they can delve deeper into how things might go wrong with early or late deliveries.