Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 1 in 88 children have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). With these shocking statistics, more and more research has been conducted on the disorder. Two notable findings were recently announced by a group of researchers from University of North Carolina School of Medicine, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the University of Cincinnati (UC).

To begin, researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine recently discovered that the parents or siblings of people diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have a higher risk of having ASD. The investigators looked at a case-control study that included population registers from Sweden and Israel, specifically examining the correlation between the three disorders. Two groups were in Sweden and another group was made up of military service recruits in Israel.

“The results were very consistent in large samples from several different countries and lead us to believe that autism and schizophrenia are more similar than we had thought,” explained Dr. Patrick F. Sullivan, a professor in the department of genetics and director of psychiatric genomics at UNC, in a prepared statement.

In particular, the scientists found that there was a three times higher chance for ASD in groups from Sweden as a result of the presence of schizophrenia in parents. Schizophrenia in siblings was also related to two and a half times higher chance for autism in the group of Swedes and 12 times greater risk for the group of Israeli military conscriptions. There were similar patterns of association in relation to parents who demonstrated bipolar disorder, but it was at a lesser magnitude.

“Our findings suggest that ASD, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share etiologic risk factors,” noted the authors. “We suggest that future research could usefully attempt to discern risk factors common to these disorders.”

The team of researchers believes that these findings could impact current knowledge of ASD.

“These potentially shared etiologic risk factors could be genetic, or could also represent environmental factors. These findings are also important because if ASD, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have some common causes, they may be more similar than we currently understand. This may change how researchers and clinicians think about these disorders,” commented Avi Reichenberg, a faculty member at the Seaver Autism Center and the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in the statement.

In similar news, University of Cincinnati researchers and the Cincinnati Children´s Hospital Medical Center have made a breakthrough in their treatment of creatine transporter deficiency (CTD), another ASD.

CTD, which is associated with severe cognitive impairment, is caused by a mutation in the creatine transporter protein. The disorder causes deficiency in the brain´s energy metabolism and, due to its relationship to the X chromosome, can impact boys the most. As a result, mothers who may be carriers of the disorder can pass it on to their sons. For males who have CTD, they cannot function normally; effects related to the brain include developmental delay, mental retardation, seizures, and speech difficulties.

In 2000, UC researchers discovered CTD. In follow-up studies, the researchers at UC and the Cincinnati Children´s Hospital Medical Center found a method that could treat CTD with cyclocreatine, otherwise known as CincY. CincY is a creatine analogue that was originally created to assist in cancer treatments. The research on CTD and CincY was reported in the July 2 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

“CincY successfully entered the brain and reversed the mental retardation-like symptoms in the mice, with benefits seen in nine weeks of treatment,” remarked lead author Joe Clark in a prepared statement. “Treated mice exhibited a profound improvement in cognitive abilities, including recognition of novel objects, spatial learning and memory.”

Based on its status as a repurposed drug, CincY has been through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process. The drug, taken orally as a pill or powder, is currently in development for commercialization. The development is under a partnership between UC and Lumos Pharma, a startup company based on UC technology.

“It has taken many years to get here and I am happy that our efforts have led to this translational effort to make a therapy available to those afflicted with CTD,” explained Clark, a professor of neurology at UC, in the statement. “We look forward with commitment and hope to the day when those patients will benefit from our work.”

Currently, CTD is known to affect about 50,000 boys in the United States and is thought to be the second-most common cause of X-linked mental retardation following the Fragile X syndrome.

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

At least three genetic mutations found in the human brain have been linked to enlarged brain size (megalencephaly) and a number of disorders, including cancer, epilepsy and autism, according to new research led by Seattle Children´s Research Institute.

The mutations were found in the genes AKT3, PIK3R2 and PIK3CA. The mutations were also linked to vascular disorders and skin growth disorders, said the researchers. The study, published in the online edition of the journal Nature Genetics on June 24, offers important implications for the future of medicine through the research findings.

Study leaders, geneticist William Dobyns, MD, and Jean-Baptiste Rivière, PhD, discovered through their research additional proof that the genetic makeup of a person is not completely determined at the moment of conception. The new evidence ties in with previous research that recognized that genetic changes can occur after conception, although considered quite rare.

The researchers also discovered the genetic causes of these human diseases, including developmental disorders, may also directly lead to new possibilities for treatment.

AKT3, PIK3R2 and PIK3CA are found in all humans, but only when they are mutated do they lead to the diseases and disorders. PIK3CA is known as a cancer-related gene, and appears to make cancer more aggressive. Boston Children´s Hospital researchers recently found a common link between the PIK3CA gene and a rare condition known as CLOVES syndrome.

James Olson, MD, PhD, a pediatric cancer expert at Seattle Children’s and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center acknowledged the two decades-worth of work that led to the findings.

“This study represents ideal integration of clinical medicine and cutting-edge genomics,” said Olson, who was not involved in the latest research. “I hope and believe that the research will establish a foundation for successfully using drugs that were originally developed to treat cancer in a way that helps normalize intellectual and physical development of affected children.”

He noted that the team did an excellent job by “deep sequencing exceptionally rare familial cases and unrelated cases to identify the culprit pathway.” He further noted that the three genes all encode core components of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/AKT pathway, the “culprit pathway,” as referenced by his work.

The research team hope the findings lead to new treatments for children with these chronic diseases within the coming decade.

“This is a huge finding that provides not only new insight for certain brain malformations, but also, and more importantly, provides clues for what to look for in less severe cases and in conditions that affect many children,” said Dobyns. “Kids with cancer, for example, do not have a brain malformation, but they may have subtle growth features that haven’t yet been identified. Physicians and researchers can now take an additional look at these genes in the search for underlying causes and answers.”

Next on tap for the team: delving more deeply into the findings, aiming to uncover even more about the potential medical implications for children.

“Based on what we´ve found, we believe that we can eventually reduce the burden of and need for surgery for kids with hydrocephalus and change the way we treat other conditions, including cancer, autism and epilepsy,” explained Rivière. “This research truly helps advance the concept of personalized medicine.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

When consumed at a party or other social gathering, moderate amounts of alcohol could enhance a person’s positive emotions and social bonding skills while relieving feelings of negativity, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh have discovered in a new study.

While previous research on the impact of alcohol on an individual’s emotional state have focused on drinking in isolation, the researchers say that their new paper, which will be published in the journal Psychological Science, shows that moderate doses of alcohol have an opposite effect on both men and women when they are in a group, according to a June 29 press release.

Those previous studies “may have failed to create realistic conditions for studying this highly social drug,” Michael A. Sayette, lead author of the study and a psychology professor at the university’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement. “We felt that many of the most significant effects of alcohol would more likely be revealed in an experiment using a social setting.”

To test that theory, Sayette and his colleagues gathered small groups using a total of 720 male and female participants, assessing both individual and group reactions using both the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and the Grouptalk model for speech behavior. Based on their observations, they concluded that drinking alcohol actually stimulates social bonding and increases the amount of time that people spend speaking with each other. Furthermore, they observed a decrease in displays of negative emotion.

“Each participant was randomly assigned to a group of three unacquainted ‘strangers.’ Each group was instructed to drink an alcoholic beverage, a placebo, or a nonalcoholic control beverage,” the press release said. “Twenty groups representing each gender composition (three males; one female and two males; two males and one female; and three females) were assigned to the three different beverage scenarios.”

Participants sat around a circular table and consumed a total of three drinks during a span of 36-minutes, and the researchers recorded video of each session. That video footage was later analyzed, and the duration and sequence of each subject’s facial and speech behaviors was “systematically coded frame by frame.”

“Results showed that alcohol not only increased the frequency of ‘true’ smiles, but also enhanced the coordination of these smiles. In other words, alcohol enhanced the likelihood of ‘golden moments,’ with groups provided alcohol being more likely than those offered nonalcoholic beverages to have all three group members smile simultaneously,” they said. “Participants in alcohol-drinking groups also likely reported greater social bonding than did the nonalcohol-drinking groups and were more likely to have all three members stay involved in the discussion.”

“By demonstrating the sensitivity of our group formation paradigm for studying the rewarding effects of alcohol, we can begin to ask questions of great interest to alcohol researchers — Why does alcohol make us feel better in group settings? Is there evidence to suggest a particular participant may be vulnerable to developing a problem with alcohol?” Sayette added.

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online

In 1993, the autosomal dominant gene mutation responsible for Huntington´s Disease (HD) was discovered. However, no treatments are known to slow its progression. New research may pave the way to better understanding of the disease. Researchers at Johns Hopkins recently announced that they were able to produce stem cells from skin cells from a person who had severe, early-onset form of HD; the cells were then changed into neurons that degenerated like the cells affected by HD.

The research was recently published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The investigators worked with an international consortium in creating “HD in a dish.” The group was made up of scientists from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the University of California at Irvine, as well as six other groups. The team looked at many other HD cell lines and control cell lines to verify that the results were consistent and reproducible in other labs. The investigators believe that the findings allow them to better understand and eliminate cells in people in with HD. They hope to study the effects of possible drug treatments on cells that would be otherwise found deep in the brain.

“Having these cells will allow us to screen for therapeutics in a way we haven’t been able to before in Huntington’s disease,” remarked lead researcher Dr. Christopher A. Ross, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, neurology, pharmacology and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in a prepared statement. “For the first time, we will be able to study how drugs work on human HD neurons and hopefully take those findings directly to the clinic.”

The team of researchers is studying small molecules for the ability to block HD iPSC degeneration to see if they can be developed into new drugs for HD. As well, the ability to produce from stem cells the same neurons found in HD may have effects for similar research in other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s. In the experiment, Ross took a skin biopsy from a patient with very early onset HD. The patient was seven years old at the time, with a severe form of disease and a mutation that caused it. By using cells from a patient who had quickly progressing HD, Ross´ team were able to mimic HD in a way that could be used by patients who had different forms of HD.

The skin cells were grown in culture and reprogrammed to induce stem cells that were pluripotent. Then, another cell line was created in the same way from someone who didn´t have HD. The other HD and control iPS cells were produced as part of the NINDS funded HD iPS cell consortium. Investigators from Johns Hopkins and the other consortium labs changed the cells into typical neurons and then into medium spiny neurons. The process took a total of three months and the scientists found the medium spiny neurons from the HD cells acted how the medium spiny neurons form an HD patient would. The cells demonstrated quick degeneration when cultured in the lab with a basic culture medium that didn´t include extensive supporting nutrients. On the other hand, control cell lines didn´t demonstrate neuronal degeneration.

“These HD cells acted just as we were hoping,” says Ross, director of the Baltimore Huntington’s Disease Center. “A lot of people said, ‘You’ll never be able to get a model in a dish of a human neurodegenerative disease like this.’ Now, we have them where we can really study and manipulate them, and try to cure them of this horrible disease. The fact that we are able to do this at all still amazes us.”

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Want to stop the meal-time temper tantrums from your kids when trying to feed them healthier food choices? All you have to do, according to researchers from the University of Alberta, is give them an apron.

An area wide survey of 5th grade students in Alberta suggests the best way to get your child to eat healthier foods and actually enjoy them, is to have them help with making the meals.

“Kids who like fruits and vegetables more tend to eat them more frequently and have better diets,” said lead author Yen Li Chu, a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Public Health. “These data show that encouraging kids to get involved in meal preparation could be an effective health promotion strategy for schools and parents.”

Published in May by Public Health Nutrition in an early online release, the study involved a survey of students in 151 schools across Alberta to learn about kids´ experiences with cooking and making food choices.

Nearly one-third of children reported helping with meal prep at least once a day; another one-third said they helped one to three times a week. A quarter of children helped once a month and 12.4 percent avoided the kitchen completely.

Reportedly, children preferred fruits to veggies, but children who helped with cooking showed a larger desire for both. Vegetable desire was also 10 percent higher among children who helped cook.

The data also showed that kids who did meal prep and cooking were more positive about the importance of making good food choices.

Paul Veugelers, co-author and Canada Research Chair in Population Health at the U of A, said getting children to eat healthier food promotes bone and muscle development, learning and self-esteem.

“Good food is important for us. It keeps weight gain away–and more important than that, it keeps chronic disease away,” Veugelers said. “The overarching objective of our work is to lower the burden of chronic disease in our society. A healthy diet is right at the top.”

Chu said the results emphasize the value of getting kids interested in mealtime activities in the home, but added the schools could get involved, too.

“You can go into schools and have cooking classes and cooking clubs to help them boost their fruit and vegetable intake and make healthier choices,” she said.

Though this survey dealt only with 5th graders, the lessons are equally applicable to older youth, including post-secondary students, added Veugelers.

“For many of them, it may be the first time they leave home, the first time in their lives they´re responsible for their own diets,” he said. “There are lessons here for them too, to form groups and take turns cooking, and pay attention to good meal preparation.”

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com

20 percent. This is the number of adults who smoke, according to the Weill Cornell Medical Center. Smoking can cause health problems and is related to many diseases, and these illnesses cause one out of five deaths in the U.S. With these alarming statistics, much research has been done on how to help smokers quit, notably how to help them deal with nicotine — the element that keeps smokers addicted. Notably, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have successful developed and tested a new vaccine on mice that blocks chemicals related to addictive nicotine chemicals.

The findings, published in a recent edition of the journal Science Translation Medicine, show how a single dose of the vaccine can shield mice against nicotine addiction over a lifetime. The vaccine was designed to utilize the mice´s liver as a factory that could constantly create antibodies that eliminated nicotine once it entered the bloodstream.

“We can target almost any organ [with this type of vaccine], but the reason for using the liver is that it is a very good secretory organ,” lead investigator Dr. Ronald G. Crystal mentioned to FoxNews.com.  “The liver is very good at making and secreting many proteins, so we just genetically modified the liver cells to also make antibodies against nicotine.”

As such, nicotine was stopped from reaching the brain or the heart.

“Smoking affects a huge number of people worldwide, and there are many people who would like to quit, but need effective help,” commented Crystal, chairman and professor of Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, in a prepared statement. “This novel vaccine may offer a much-needed solution.”

Previous studies of nicotine vaccines haven´t been successful as they focused on delivering nicotine antibodies. This effect would only last a few weeks, making it necessary to obtain expensive injections that would be used repeatedly. As well, the dose showed to have inconsistent results, as it was different for each person.

“While we have only tested mice to date, we are very hopeful that this kind of vaccine strategy can finally help the millions of smokers who have tried to stop, exhausting all the methods on the market today, but find their nicotine addiction to be strong enough to overcome these current approaches,” explained Crystal in the statement.

Generally, there are two types of vaccine. One vaccine is active and is similar to vaccines that are used to protect people against illnesses such as polio and the mumps. Another vaccine, passive vaccine, introduces a piece of foreign substance to the immune system that can activate a lifetime immune response against the substance. Nicotine, in particular, cannot be built into an active vaccine as it is not identified by the immune system. The team of scientists created a third vaccine, a genetic vaccine that was initially tested in mice to treat particular eye diseases and tumor types. The nicotine vaccine is based off of that model.

The researchers took a genetic sequence of an engineered nicotine antibody and placed it into an adeno-associate virus (AAV). The AAV was engineered not to be harmful and included information that told the vaccine to go to hepatocytes, which are liver cells. Then, the antibody´s genetic sequence inserted itself into the hepatocytes´ nuclear and the cells started to produce a line of antibodies with the other molecules that were created.

“As far as we can see, the best way to treat chronic nicotine addiction from smoking is to have these Pacman-like antibodies on patrol, clearing the blood as needed before nicotine can have any biological effect,” commented Crystal in the statement. “Our vaccine allows the body to make its own monoclonal antibodies against nicotine, and in that way, develop a workable immunity.”

In the studies with the mice, the vaccine was able to create high levels of the antibody. The researchers found that the small amount of nicotine they gave to the mice still made it to the brain when there was no vaccine and the mouse acted “chilled out.” When the mouse was given the vaccine, the mice appeared to act actively and didn´t seem to have any negative side effects. The researchers next hope to test the vaccine in rats and primates before humans. If the vaccine is successful, it could be helpful for smokers who are trying to quit the habit.

“They will know if they start smoking again, they will receive no pleasure from it due to the nicotine vaccine, and that can help them kick the habit,” noted Crystal in the statement.

Crystal believes that the vaccine could possibly be used to preempt nicotine addiction and give to individuals who have never smoked, similarly to how vaccines are used to help prevent different disease-producing infections.

“Just as parents decide to give their children an HPV vaccine, they might decide to use a nicotine vaccine. But that is only theoretically an option at this point,” explained Crystal in the statement. “We would of course have to weight benefit versus risk, and it would take years of studies to establish such a threshold.”

Some experts believe that the findings are interesting, but note that there are already medications on the market, such as Chantix, that focus on blocking the effects of nicotine.

“I think smoking is perhaps the most complicated of addictions because there are other aspects to why people have trouble quitting smoking,” explained Dr. Michael Fingerhood, medical director of the comprehensive care practice at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center who´s unaffiliated with the study but reviewed it for WebMD. “Is it a good technique, absolutely, but I don’t think it’s going to be a panacea“¦ It may be another way to help our patients.”

However, some experts aren´t sure about the benefits of the findings of the study.

“Nicotine addiction via smoking is harmful, but is it ethical to produce a major and enduring change in someone´s body to prevent it when other, less major, types of treatment are feasible?” questioned Anthony Dayan, a retired toxicologist, in an article by the Daily Mail.

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com

Chocolate cake. Crème filled donuts. These are some of the options people can look forward to having for breakfast after a new study highlighted the role dessert has in breakfast for dieters. Researchers at Tel Aviv University recently found that a diet focused on dessert with breakfast can actually help people avoid weight gain by decreasing the cravings they have.

The findings were presented at the Endocrine Society´s 94 Annual Meeting recently in Houston and published in the March issue of the journal Steroids. The researchers believe that a carbohydrate-rich, protein-packed breakfast with dessert will help dieters be less hungry and not have as many cravings throughout the day. This, in turn, will help dieters keep off lost weight.

“The goal of a weight loss diet should be not only weight reduction but also reduction of hunger and cravings, thus helping prevent weight regain,” remarked Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, the study’s principal investigator, in a prepared statement.

Jakubowicz, a senior physician at the Wolfson Medical Center of Tel Aviv University, and co-authors looked at 200 nondiabetic obese adults. These individuals participated in one of two low-calories diets. Both diets had the same number of daily calories, around 1,600 calories for men and 1,400 for women. However, the diets were composed of different items. While one group had a low-carbohydrate diet that had a 304-calorie breakfast with only 10 grams of carbohydrates, the other group had a 600-calorie breakfast with 60 grams of carbs of a small sweet like chocolate, cake, cookie or doughnut. Both diets had protein options like egg whites, cheese, low-fat milk, and tuna at breakfast. However, the “dessert with breakfast diet” featured 45 grams of protein, 15 more grams than the low-crab diet.

The study was done over an eight-month period and, midway through the experiment, participants reported an average of 33 pounds lost per person. Jakubowicz believes that these results show that “both diets work the same.” In the last months of the study though, the low-carbohydrate group regained around 22 pounds per person. On the other hand, study subjects of the dessert with breakfast diet group lost another 15 pounds each.

Furthermore, those participants who ate dessert with breakfast stated that they felt less hungry and had fewer cravings when compared to the other group. The food diaries´ from these subjects showed that they had less difficulty in sticking with their calorie requirements. Women who were part of the dessert with breakfast diet group were able to have 500 calories for lunch and 300 calories for dinner. Men in the same group could consume a 600-calorie lunch and as much as 464 calories for dinner. Further evidence shows that a “hunger hormone” called ghrelin had lower levels after breakfast in the dessert with breakfast diet group than the low-carbohydrate diet group (45.2 percent versus 29.5 percent).

Researchers propose that the better results from the dessert with breakfast diet group were based on meal timing and composition. In particular, Jakubowic credits the diet´s high protein content to reducing hunger. She also believes that the mix of protein and carbohydrates made people feel fuller and decreased their wants for sweet, starchy, and fatty foods. These cravings normally arise or come about when a diet limits the amount of sweets a person can have, which can cause people to eat more fattening foods.

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com

Australian scientists recently looked in to testosterone and its progression in males from young to old age and discovered that gradual decline in testosterone levels is more likely caused by a man´s behavioral and health changes rather than aging.

The findings were presented at The Endocrine´s Society´s 94th Annual Meeting that took place recently in Houston. The Endocrine Society is an organization focused on research of hormones and the practice of endocrinology. In particular, many older men are thought to have lower levels of sex hormone testosterone. Even though the cause is unknown, some population-based studies have found that the changes in testosterone levels are similar among men of the same age over time.

“Declining testosterone levels are not an inevitable part of the aging process, as many people think,” explained study co-author Dr. Gary Wittert, professor of medicine at the University of Adelaide in Australia, in a prepared statement. “Testosterone changes are largely explained by smoking behavior and changes in health status, particularly obesity and depression.”

The study was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

The researchers studied the testosterone measurements in over 1,500 men who had measurements taken during two clinical visits between a five-year period. The blood testosterone samples were tested at the same time for each visit. In analyzing the data, the investigators excluded men who had abnormal lab values, who were taking medications, or who were noted to have medical conditions that affected hormones. In total, 1,382 men were included in the study, with an average age of 54 and an age range of 35 to 80 years.

Overall, testosterone levels did not level off very much over the five-year period. The testosterone levels were found to decrease less than one percent each year. When the scientist examined the data in terms of subgroups, they discovered that certain factors were related to lower testosterone levels five years later than at the beginning of the study.

“Men who had declines in testosterone were more likely to be those who became obese, had stopped smoking or were depressed at either clinic visit,” noted Wittert in the statement. “While stopping smoking may be a cause of a slight decrease in testosterone, the benefit of quitting smoking is huge.”

As well, depression and low testosterone have been seen to be connected in past research.

“It is critical that doctors understand that declining testosterone levels are not a natural part of aging and that they are most likely due to health-related behaviors or health status itself,” remarked Wittert in the statement.

Furthermore, in the study, married men were found to have less testosterone reductions than unmarried men. In particular, testosterone is valuable in assisting many different bodily functions, such as maintaining a healthy body composition, fertility, and sex drive. Wittert states that past research shows how married men tend to be healthier and happier than unmarried men.

“Also, regular sexual activity tends to increase testosterone,” Wittert explained in the statement.

Doctors at a Florida hospital announced this week that they had successfully removed an extremely rare tumor from the mouth of a 17-week-old fetus.

According to BBC News reports published Friday, surgeons at the Jackson Memorial Hospital revealed that they removed an oral teratoma from Leyna Gonzalez while she was still in her mother Tammy’s womb five months prior to her October 2010 birth.

The doctors added that the teratoma was so rare that it had only been seen once in 20 years at the medical facility. They used a local anesthetic, pushed through the protective amniotic sac around the fetus, and then used a laser to cut the tumor from the child’s lips, the British news organization added.

The entire operation took slightly more than an hour to complete.

“They are her saviors. She wouldn’t be here without them,” 39-year-old Tammy Gonzalez said, according to Richard Luscombe of the Guardian. “You can imagine what goes through your head. ‘What is this?’ Nobody could really give me an answer because it’s so rare.”

“If she was ultimately delivered alive, there was no guarantee that she would be normal, she’d have a tracheotomy, numerous surgeries, she’d have deformities,” she added. “I thought: ‘There has to be a way to save her.’ We started doing research, a lot of heartache and emotional distress. I asked my gynecologist if there’s another way, if somebody could do surgery on her while she’s inside.”

Luscombe said that the Gonzalez family was referred to Dr. Ruben Quintero, a trailblazer in fetal medicine at the University of Miami. Dr. Quintero told Tammy that no one had ever attempted to remove an oral teratoma in utero, but added that he was willing to attempt the surgery.

The procedure was completed using an ultrasound-guided endoscope, and when Leyna was born five months later, the only remnant of the operation was a tiny scar on her mouth, the Guardian reporter added.

“It was a decisive moment. We went ahead and cut the stem, and sure enough the tumor fell right out,” Quintero, the director of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, said of the operation, according to Katie Moisse of ABC News. He added that Mrs. Gonzalez was “grateful that we offered her this chance“¦ But we couldn’t have offered her the chance if she hadn’t had the courage.”

20-month-old Leyna, who Tammy called her “little miracle child,” is doing “perfectly fine,” according to her mother.

Connie K. Ho for redOrbit.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” Emerson advocated for experimentation throughout life. In particular, there is one experimental study that should be observed as it relates to life expectancy. Researchers from Rice University and the University of Colorado, Boulder recently discovered that, even though the U.S. has progressed in the number of people who live with a longer lifespan, it still doesn´t match other countries in terms of life expectancies; likewise, the poorest citizens live around five years less than the richest in the country.

The research, published in an upcoming edition of the Social Science Quarterly, utilizes time-series analysis to examine historical data on U.S. morality based on the Human Mortality Database. The study, titled “Stagnating Life Expectancies and Future Prospects in an Age of Uncertainty,” combines data from 1930 to 2000. Authors determined trends in mortality over this period and time and predicted life expectancies until the year 2055.

Interesting enough, the U.S. has made some gains in lifespan, adding three more years through 2055. However, the country still cannot match its development counterparts in life expectancy. While the average life expectancy for a person born in the U.S. is 78.49, it is much lower than people from Monaco (89.68), Macau (84.43), and Japan (83.91). As well, the poorest U.S. citizens generally live five years less than the richest citizens.

“But when broken down, these numbers show that those gains were mostly experienced between 1930 the 1950s and 1960s,” noted Dr. Justin Denney, an assistant professor of sociology at Rice, in a prepared statement. “Since that time, gains in life expectancy have flattened out.”

Denney believes that various chronic conditions have allowed for smaller gains in life expectancy; these conditions are more easily treated when people have an increased amount of finances.

“During periods of expansion in length of life, a similar expansion has occurred between more and less advantaged groups — the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, inequality grows and life expectancy is dramatically impacted,” explained Denney in the statement. “And despite disproportionate spending on health care, life expectancy in the U.S. continues to fall down the ladder of international rankings of length of life. It goes to show that prosperity doesn´t necessarily equal long-term health.”

The study demonstrates “the ugly side of inequality” and Denney believes that it highlights that more needs to be done in terms of eliminating inequality and decreasing life expectancies in the U.S.

“Even in uncertain times, it is important to look forward in preparing for the needs of future populations,” Denney remarked in the statement. “The results presented here underscore the relevance of policy and health initiatives aimed at improving the nation´s health and reveal important insight into possible limits to mortality improvement over the next five decades.”

Besides this paper, Denney is working on other research projects related to determining individual and structural conditions related to health and morality inequalities. He has looked at domestic and international settings on the effects of family formations on individual suicide risks, neighborhood contributors to obesity, as well as the effects of national level social and economic development on socioeconomic gaps with unhealthy behaviors like smoking.