Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

Belly Pain in Kids: What Tames Tummies?

Do your kids complain about belly pain? Do you dismiss it as anxiety? Please don't say you tell them they don't have a stomachache--or that it's all in their pretty little heads. Belly pain that can't be linked to a physical disorder is called functional abdominal pain, and writing at the New York Times "18 and Under" blog, Dr. Perri Klass explains what's behind this type of pain in kids and how it might get started:

The problem may start with some initial insult, an infection or inflammation that may affect pain pathways in the child — and may also set up psychological patterns and anxieties in the child and response patterns and anxieties in the parent.

And then the child continues to be extremely aware of sensations coming from the gastrointestinal tract, even when the initial illness is over. The challenge to the parents — passed on to the pediatrician — is how diligently these pains should be investigated, how many tests a child should be subjected to, how much money should be spent.

And while this type of pain isn't "all in the head," one doctor says that "what helps the children is working with the brain more than working with the gut" in trying to fix the problem. 

Great article about a common problem. 

A Clue to Crohn's Disease?

 A handful of lab mice may have provided a really important piece of information about how Crohn's disease gets started. Scientists know that humans with Crohn's carry a genetic variant that predisposes to the disease. But....most people with this genetic variant don't get Crohn's, suggesting that other factors, maybe environmental  ones, are involved. Science Now reports today on an accidental mouse study that may have provided a clue. (Funny how many important scientific findings are discovered by accident). Researchers were moving a bunch of lab mice to a new, cleaner facility that was free of the viruses that sometimes affect findings in mouse studies. These mice carried a gene that is linked to Crohn's in people and to a Crohn's-like set of symptoms and intestinal cell damage in mice: ATG16L1. But once in their new living situation, the mice no longer had any sign of the Crohn's-like illness. Also, they no longer carried a virus that scientists suspected of interacting with the gene to cause the illness, a virus from the norovirus family. In humans, the most famous norovirus is the Norwalk virus, which has been implicated in diarrhea outbreaks on cruise ships and other confined areas. People who have just developed Crohn's often report having just been sick with a nasty GI bug, so this all fits together in a rather intriguing way. 

Could eliminating or vaccinating against noroviruses prevent at least some cases of Crohn's disease in people? Learn more when the original paper is published in tomorrow's issue of the journal Cell. 

Autism and Vaccines: Autism One Conference, Chicago

AMEDnews reports evenhandedly on the Autism One conference, which was held in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend.One of the featured speakers was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 paper in The Lancet claimed an association between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in 12 kids. But this is what's happened since then, quoting from AMEDNews:

"Every so often, a small study such as the one conducted by Dr. Wakefield comes along to buttress that belief. In this case, the momentum has held, even though 10 of the 13 authors on the 1998 paper published a statement inThe Lancet in 2004 retracting the original interpretation that their data indicated a causal link between MMR and autism, and Dr. Wakefield faces significant professional scrutiny."

That is, Dr. Wakefield is in danger of losing his license to practice. In June, the UK health authorities declared that measles is now endemic in that country and confirmed a recent measles-related death. In the US, measles rates are at their highest since 2001. It's more than spots: encephalitis and pneumonia are just two possible complications.

Damage done.

Not "just" heartburn

Writing in the 10/10 issue of the Wall Street Journal, Tara Parker-Pope writes about the dangers of assuming that heartburn is annoying but benign, and of thinking that the medications you may take to alleviate the symptoms actually prevent extremely serious conditions such as esophageal cancer. This is a realistic and scary look at a problem that affects 100 million Americans.
In fact, you should read every article in this great section, even if you need to pay a fee. Did you know that...

• Fava beans can be lethal, especially to young kids with a genetic susceptibility?
• That exercise obtained by biking is great for your heart but does zippo for your bones?
• What you need to know about major illness health insurance policies.