News
Adequate vitamin D supply may prevent mobility difficulties
6 November 2012
Low blood vitamin D concentrations in older adults seem to increase the risk of developing mobility limitations and disability.
05 January 2012
According to a new study from the Netherlands, low maternal folate status during early pregnancy may be associated with a higher risk of childhood emotional problems.
In the population-based cohort study, plasma folate concentrations were measured and folic acid supplement use was assessed for women in early pregnancy (1). In addition, children’s emotional and behavioral prob-lems were assessed for 3209 children at the age of 3. The study results showed that children of mothers with prenatal folate deficiency were at higher risk of suffering emotional problems but not behavioral problems. A higher risk of emotional problems was also found in children whose mothers started using folic acid supple-ments late or did not use supplements at all than among children whose mothers started supplementation before conception.
The researchers concluded that adequate maternal folate status during early pregnancy seems to be associ-ated with a decreased risk of emotional problems for their offspring. In earlier studies, maternal prenatal folate status has already been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, but the association with child emo-tional and behavioral problems is still unclear.
6 November 2012
Low blood vitamin D concentrations in older adults seem to increase the risk of developing mobility limitations and disability.
30 April 2019
Nutrition experts and health care practitioners at the 20th Journées Interactives de Réalités Pédiatriques (JIRP) in Versailles, France, a leading pediatric conference that reports on research and scientific developments in infant and child health, discussed the importance of dietary fats, including the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA). Learn more.
1 March 2012
The use of medication worldwide is growing continually, not least because of the rising age of the population. Today there are many people who take more than three different kinds of medication daily (1,2). In highly developed countries, it is particularly common for patients to be prescribed medication long-term, most frequently for the treatment of widespread chronic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia. It is also a common practice in those regions to take over-the-counter medicines, including painkillers and medication for stomach ulcers (3,4). When several kinds of medication are taken concomitantly, the risks and side effects increase. In contrast to other adverse drug reactions, the inter-action between medications and micronutrients is only gradually gaining the attention of experts and the wider public. A number of medicines influence the metabolism of vitamins, minerals and trace elements in such a way that they could lead to insufficiencies or even deficiency symptoms in patients (5,6).