Heart link to Sids
Genetic heart defects may be responsible for as many as three in 20 cases of sudden infant death syndrome (Sids), according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic in the US, who have identified two genes that may be linked to what used to be known as cot death. The genes provide 'the blue- prints for the critical controllers of the heart's electrical system', according to team leader Michael J. Ackerman. The two genes join four others on what Ackerman calls 'the Sids most-wanted list', healthday.com reports.
Working mothers are healthier
Long-term working mothers appear to be healthier in middle age than those who stayed home - but researchers aren't sure why. A British study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health of more than 2,500 women born in 1946 concluded that the working mothers' better health 'is more likely to be the result, rather than the cause, of multiple-role occupation'. By the time they were in their 50s, homemakers were most likely to report poor health than single mothers and childless women.
Exercise to stop cancer
Exercise may help protect against skin and colon cancers, according to two studies of mice published online by Carcinogenesis. In one study by researchers at Rutgers University, female mice were exposed to tumour-inducing ultraviolet B (UVB) light: those given access to exercise wheels took longer to develop tumours than sedentary mice, and had fewer and smaller lesions. Another study, by a team at the University of Wisconsin, found that male mice genetically predisposed to intestinal polyps that were allowed to exercise developed fewer and smaller polyps than sedentary mice. At the end of the study, all the sedentary mice had died, whereas those that exercised were all still alive.