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Ned Lydon

Poor children face language barrier

Living in severely disadvantaged areas has a lasting negative impact on children's verbal language skills, say researchers at Harvard University. Their seven-year study followed the progress of more than 2,000 children, aged between six and 12, living in Chicago at the start of the study, who were given vocabulary and reading tests at three intervals, Reuters reports. The researchers focused their analysis on 772 African-American children because, they say, almost one-third of this group was exposed to high 'concentrated disadvantage'. By the end of the study, these children had fallen behind otherwise identical peers from other areas by about four points on an IQ test - the equivalent of missing one year of school.

Dehydration clue in elderly

Scientists have a new clue about why the elderly may be vulnerable to dehydration. Age-related changes in certain nerves in the mouth, throat, and stomach may be the problem. Researchers at the Howard Florey Institute at Australia's University of Melbourne found that healthy men in their 20s or 60s get equally thirsty when injected with salt water, but older men drank half as much water as younger men to slake their thirst. Brain scans of the men during the tests showed less activity in the older men in areas related to thirst, WebMD reports. That may mean that the nerves carrying the 'I'm thirsty' signal don't work as well with age.

Children's milk allergy prolonged

Cow's milk allergy persists longer than previously reported, and the majority of children may retain the sensitivity into school age, a new study suggests. Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine reviewed the clinical history of 807 children treated for milk allergy and found that just 19 per cent of them outgrew their allergy by age four. Instead, by the ages of eight, 12, and 16 years, 42 per cent, 64 per cent, and 79 per cent, respectively, had outgrown it, the researchers wrote in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The most common symptom of milk allergy is skin-related reactions, affecting 85 per cent, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea or other gastrointestinal reaction in 46 per cent of sufferers, Reuters reports.

Severe psoriasis shortens lifespan

It's not generally considered life-threatening, but psoriasis might be for those with the severest forms of the inflammatory skin disease. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine analysed the statistics of 3,951 patients in Britain with severe psoriasis. The death rate among patients was 21.3 deaths per 1,000 individuals per year versus just 12 deaths per 1,000 individuals per year among non-sufferers, researchers reported in Archives of Dermatology. Psoriasis is now widely believed to be an autoimmune disease involving inflammation and the accelerated growth of skin cells and blood vessels, which produce the characteristic swollen, red lesions, WebMD reports. Having mild psoriasis was not associated with the increased risk, and the researchers didn't have information on causes of death.

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