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This study is the first to investigate the association between blue light exposure and early puberty in male rats, and sheds light on how environmental factors, such as screen time, impact early puberty and testicular tissue, which could eventually lead to future prevention strategies for children.

Early puberty for most children does not have an obvious cause. Sometimes it is due to genetics, or there is a problem in the brain, such as an injury or tumour, or in the thyroid, adrenal or sex glands. In recent years, several studies have reported increases in early puberty onset for both girls and boys, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. One factor may be the increased use of blue light-emitting devices, but this is very difficult to assess in children.

In this study, researchers from the Ankara Bilkent City Hospital and Gazi University in Turkey examined 18 male rats aged 21-days-old, divided into three groups of six and exposed to either a normal light cycle, to six hours or 12 hours of blue light. The researchers found that the first signs of puberty occurred significantly earlier in male rats exposed to blue light. Additionally, the longer the rats were exposed to blue light, the earlier their puberty started, while they also showed suppressed sperm development and damaged testicular tissue.

A previous study from the same group has also shown an earlier onset of puberty in female rats due to blue light exposure. However, this association has never been studied in male rats before. “For the first time, we found a direct relationship between blue light exposure and early puberty in male rats,” said lead researcher Dr Aylin Kılınç Uğurlu from Ankara Bikent City Hospital. “Our findings align with our previous work on female rats, which also showed similar effects, thereby providing a more comprehensive view of how blue light may influence puberty in both male and female rats.”

While the findings suggest that blue light exposure could potentially be a risk factor for earlier puberty onset, more research is needed. “I want to emphasise that this is a rat study and direct results cannot be interpreted for humans. However, we provide an experimental foundation to further investigate the health consequences of ever-increasing screen time in modern society,” said Dr Kılınç Uğurlu.

The researchers will next focus on assessing the impact of blue light exposure before puberty in adult rats. “We aim to expose both male and female rats to blue light before puberty and understand its long-term effects on reproductive organ damage and fertility,” said Dr Kılınç Uğurlu. “Ultimately, this research could lead to preventative measures and contribute to the ongoing discourse on how modern lifestyles affect physiological development and long-term health.”

Reference:

Aylin Kılınç Uğurlu, Aysun Bideci,  Ayşe Mürşide Demirel, Gülnur Take Kaplanoğlu, Duygu Dayanır, Özlem Gülbahar, Tuba Saadet Deveci Bulut, Esra Döğer Mahmut Orhun Çamurdan, Is blue light exposure a cause of precocious puberty in male rats?, https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2023.1190445.

This was supposed to be the year the biotech industry recovered from its ongoing slump, but that simply hasn’t happened, STAT tells us. The industry remains locked in a slowdown that began in late 2021, with investors saying that despite the profit prospects of weight-loss drugs made by Big Pharma, they’ve soured on the sector at large. That could change if the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates and if more biotechs successfully go public in 2024, according to cautiously optimistic observers.

Japan’s health ministry has approved Leqembi, an Alzheimer’s drug developed by Eisai and Biogen, Reuters explains. Eisai, a Japanese pharma firm, spearheaded work on the drug, which clinical trials found modestly slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s. Eisai must now win reimbursement approval from the country’s national health system, after which the company has said it will begin marketing the drug in Japan within two months.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

Local health authorities are or will be undertaking fogging, searching, identifying and destroying mosquito-breeding sites and undertaking public education among other things.

"Yes, I am. Those are the measures that we usually implement. Using technology, you know, we improve on what we implement but basically, the management is the same," stated Richards.

Richards was fielding questions from journalists following the association's 54th Island Conference on Saturday. This was held at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort and Spa in St James.

Richards, who is a senior public health nurse attached to the St Mary Health Department within the North East Regional Health Authority, was selected on Friday and installed as the 36th president of the 78-year-old organisation on Saturday night. She takes over from Patsy Edwards Henry.

While the country was on a dengue watch for more than a week, the ministry officially declared an outbreak on Saturday.

Richards argued that dengue is endemic to Jamaica and an outbreak can be expected at least every four years.

"So, we have put systems in place — the wheels have been in motion to manage dengue as is necessary," stated the president.

"We have been able to manage dengue over the years. So, we just implore persons to do what they have to do as we do what we have to do," added Richards.

Richards said the association has not had any expressions of concern at this time from her membership but will be on the lookout for any.

However, she said there were safety concerns for all.

"There are concerns that persons maintain their safety. The safety of our nurses is paramount, the safety of our facility is also paramount and we know that the Ministry of Health, at this time, is addressing those concerns," stated Richards.

In a press release on Sunday, the Opposition spokesperson on health, Dr Morais Guy called on citizens to pay close attention to the messages, bulletins and updates from the Ministry of Health, its departments and agencies.

Besides, Dr Guy appealed to citizens to immediately begin cleaning and clearing their yards and communities of debris, in particular, old cans and tyres which collect water and become a prime breeding area for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the dengue fever virus.

Symptoms associated with the virus include sudden fever, headache, pain behind the eye, nausea, vomiting, body aches and a rash.

The country last experienced a dengue outbreak in 2019.

Jellyfish could be much smarter than scientists previously thought, asserts a new study published in the journal Current Biology.

Poisonous Caribbean box jellyfish can learn at a far more complex level than ever imagined, despite only having 1,000 nerve cells and no centralized brain, according to new research from the University of Copenhagen.

Scientists say their findings change the fundamental understanding of the brain — and could reveal more about human cognitive functions and the process of dementia.

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Jellyfish have been around for over 500 million years — yet until now, they've been thought of as simple creatures with very limited learning abilities.

The prevailing scientific opinion is that more advanced nervous systems equate with elevated learning potential in animals.

Jellyfish and their relatives, collectively known as cnidarians, are considered to be the earliest living animals to develop nervous systems.

Neurobiologist and professor Anders Garm has been researching box jellyfish — a group commonly known for being among the world's most poisonous creatures — for more than a decade, the study noted.

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The fingernail-sized species lives in Caribbean mangrove swamps; there, they use their impressive visual system, including 24 eyes, to hunt for tiny copepods (small crustaceans) among the roots, as SWNS reported on the background of the research.

Garm of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark said, "It was once presumed that jellyfish can only manage the simplest forms of learning, including habituation — the ability to get used to a certain stimulation, such as a constant sound or constant touch," according to SWNS.

"Now, we see that jellyfish have a much more refined ability to learn — and that they can actually learn from their mistakes… [and] modify their behavior."

One of the most advanced attributes of a nervous system, he said, is the ability to change behavior as a result of experience — to remember and learn.

As the tiny box jellyfish approach the mangrove roots, they turn and swim away. If they veer off too soon, they won’t have enough time to catch any copepods. Yet if they turn away too late, they risk bumping into the root and damaging their gelatinous bodies, the study noted.

Assessing distances is crucial for them, Garm said — and the research team discovered that contrast is the key.

"Our experiments show that contrast — how dark the root is in relation to the water — is used by the jellyfish to assess distances to roots, which allows them to swim away at just the right moment," he said, as SWNS noted.

"Even more interesting is that the relationship between distance and contrast changes on a daily basis due to rainwater, algae and wave action," the professor continued. "We can see that as each new day of hunting begins, box jellyfish learn from the current contrasts by combining visual impressions and sensations during evasive maneuvers that fail."

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"So, despite having a mere 1,000 nerve cells — our brains have roughly 100 billion — they can connect temporal convergences of various impressions and learn a connection, or what we call associative learning," Garm said. "And they actually learn about as quickly as advanced animals like fruit flies and mice."

The findings contradict previous scientific perceptions of what animals with simple nervous systems are capable of, the study indicated.

"For fundamental neuroscience, this is pretty big news," Garm said. "It provides a new perspective on what can be done with a simple nervous system."

"This suggests that advanced learning may have been one of the most important evolutionary benefits of the nervous system from the very beginning."

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The research also indicated where the learning is happening inside the box jellyfish. The team said the discovery has given them unique opportunities to study the precise changes that occur in a nerve cell when it's involved in advanced learning.

Said Garm, "We hope that this can become a supermodel system for looking at cellular processes in the advanced learning of all sorts of animals," as SWNS noted.

"We are now in the process of trying to pinpoint exactly which cells are involved in learning and memory formation," he said. 

"Upon doing so, we will be able to go in and look at what structural and physiological changes occur in the cells as learning takes place."

If the team is able to pinpoint the exact mechanisms involved in jellyfish's learning functions, the next step will be to find out whether those apply only to them or if they can be found in all animals, Garm noted.

"Understanding something as enigmatic and immensely complex as the brain is in itself an absolutely amazing thing," he said. "But there are unimaginably many useful possibilities."

"One major problem in the future will undoubtedly be various forms of dementia," he added, as SWNS also reported. 

"I don’t claim that we are finding the cure for dementia — but if we can gain a better understanding of what memory is, which is a central problem in dementia, we may be able to lay a building block to better understand the disease and perhaps counteract it."

For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health. 

The findings of this large-scale study highlight a close relationship between type 1 diabetes and puberty onset and the utmost importance of managing diabetes and weight appropriately during puberty.

Type 1 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes in children. Puberty brings about hormonal changes that can impact metabolic control in diabetes, for instance the body can become more resistant to insulin, increasing blood sugar levels. In recent years, many studies have reported earlier puberty onset across the world, particularly in healthy girls. However, diabetes is known to be associated with a delay of pubertal onset in children.

In this study, researchers from Germany analysed data on the onset of puberty and pubic hair development of 65,518 children aged 6-18 years, all diagnosed with type 1 diabetes between 2000 and 2021, from the German DPV registry. They found that over two decades both girls and boys are going through puberty at about six months earlier than before. This result was more evident in children who had diabetes longer, were overweight, or had lower blood sugar levels.

“While the findings for girls align with previous research, our study is groundbreaking in revealing a similar trend in boys with type 1 diabetes for the first time,” said lead researcher Dr Felix Reschke from the Children’s Hospital Auf Der Bult in Hanover. “As a result, we now anticipate that the average onset of puberty in boys with diabetes will occur just before the age of 12 (11.98 years).”

He adds: “Our study demonstrates that children with diabetes are also experiencing this trend towards an earlier puberty, which is already known in healthy girls, but not evident in boys yet. It's also important to note that previous research indicated that type 1 diabetes may lead to delayed pubertal onset, thus our study provides new insights into the complex relationship between type 1 diabetes and puberty onset.”

Many factors that alter puberty in children, such as body weight, disease and genetics, have been associated with early puberty. However, early puberty often does not have an obvious cause. “Our research not only sheds light on the evolving landscape of puberty timing in children with type 1 diabetes but also underscores the intricate interplay between metabolic factors, hormones, and environmental influences,” said Dr Reschke. “Further investigations are warranted to explore these dynamics comprehensively and inform targeted interventions for this vulnerable population.”

The researchers will now compare this trend of an early onset of puberty with children without chronic diseases and delve deeper into understanding the underlying causes. “It is crucial for both society and pediatricians to recognise this trend, and if necessary, we may need to reevaluate and adjust our clinical approaches to examining premature puberty accordingly,” said Dr Reschke.

In our last article we introduced consumer wearable devices (CWDs) and its use in monitoring heart rate and rhythm. This week we will focus on some other physiological markers that these devices can evaluate.

1. Steps

It has become part of popular culture that for good health one should walk 10,000 steps per day. It is interesting to note, however, that this recommendation has an anecdotal origin. It originated in 1960s Japan where the Yamasa corporation produced a pedometer (a device that counts steps walked) with the nickname manpo-kei (literally translated 10,000 steps meter). This nickname was widely adopted by Japanese walking clubs of the time. Subsequent studies in Japan found that for an average Japanese male this amount of walking led to the burning of 300kcal/day and the setting of this goal for a healthy lifestyle by the Japanese Health Ministry. Currently, when thinking about exercise prescription, most Western organisations recommend a duration of aerobic activity of 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of intense exercise as opposed to counting steps. It is, however, clear that there are health outcomes that are associated with the number of steps taken daily. Higher step counts are associated with a lower risk of death and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. A recent meta-analysis combining 15 studies from several countries found that in the population above the age of 60, walking more than 6000-8000 steps was associated with a lower risk of death, whereas for those below the age of 60 years, 8000-10000 steps were required.

There is some data that suggests that simply wearing a CWD that counts steps increases the number of steps that are taken and thus there is the potential for lowering the risk of death and developing cardiac disease in those who wear these devices. CWDs measure step counts by using accelerometers and gyroscopes which respond to motion of the body part to which the device is attached. The accuracy of CWDs for calculating steps can be quite variable, with some devices consistently overestimating or underestimating steps taken when compared to the gold standard using video recording to count steps walked. The accuracy has been found to vary with the manufacturer, the model, the speed of walking, and body position of the CWD. It is important to say, however, that given the relatively wide ranges for which benefit has been shown (6000-8000 or 8000-10000) a device that is extremely accurate may not be required. From a health perspective sufficient evidence exists to encourage those who do not get enough steps in on a day-to-day basis to either increase their step count or follow the duration guidelines for weekly exercise.

2. Oxygen saturation

Several CWDs can measure the blood oxygen saturation. This is done by measuring the absorption of a light source by haemoglobin. There is variation in the amount of light absorbed in proportion to the amount of oxygen that is bound to the haemoglobin molecule and thus the percentage saturation (a measure of the amount of oxygen in the blood) can be calculated. A value of 95 per cent or above is considered to be normal. One important exception is during exercise when studies have found that male competitive athletes can have low saturation levels (less than 93 per cent or 91 per cent depending on the study) in more than 70 per cent of those studied. This feature of CWDs was of much importance during the recent COVID-19 epidemic when low oxygen saturations were used to identify patients who needed hospitalisation or intensification of medical care. Several CWDs have been found to have accuracy similar to medical-grade oximetry devices; however, there has been limited testing comparing CWDs to the gold standard measurement of the blood gas levels in arterial blood.

Given the fact that the measurement of oxygen saturation depends on light penetration of skin, there are concerns about the accuracy of these measurements in dark-skinned individuals. It has been shown that melanin, which is present in those with darker skin, can absorb the projected light leading to inaccuracies in the calculated oxygen saturation. The clinical impact of this has been seen during the COVID-19 epidemic. A retrospective study looking at over 25,000 patients found that medical-grade oximetry devices were more likely to overestimate the amount of oxygen in the blood in black and Hispanic patients when compared to white patients. This overestimation led to a reduced ability to identify black patients who needed more aggressive care when compared to white individuals and translated into 10 per cent less appropriate therapy in these dark-skinned individuals. Given these limitations of measurement of oxygen saturation in black and Hispanic populations, studies are being conducted to improve the accuracy of these devices. Over-reliance should not be placed on a normal oxygen saturation if symptoms suggest significant respiratory issues.

3. Sleep

Sleep is increasingly recognised as an important component of a healthy lifestyle, and it is recommended that most adults get at least 7 hours of sleep per night although this can vary substantially in a particular individual. The scientific evaluation of sleep duration and sleep quality is well established and can be performed using polysomnography. This testing involves sleeping in a medical facility and recording various physiological parameters, including the electrical activity of the brain, eye movements, limb movements, heart rate, and respiration. CWDs do offer the ability to assess some aspects of sleep at home. In evaluating sleep, CWDs assess motion with accelerometers, measuring whether the limbs (most commonly the arms) are moving. In addition to limb movement, different devices will combine additional physiological data to improve discrimination of the duration and the stage of sleep such as heart rate and respiratory rate.

Given the fact that consumer wearable devices are primarily looking at limb movements, there is the tendency for the devices to underestimate sleep in people who have movement disorders during sleep and overestimate sleep duration in those who have limited movements when lying in bed awake. These devices have also been shown to be poor at detecting waking episodes during the middle of the night. When studied against the gold standard of polysomnography, CWDs do fairly well in detecting sleep duration, but they perform less well in classifying sleep stages, tending to overestimate light sleep and deep sleep and underestimate sleep with rapid eye movement.

Sleep apnoea is increasingly recognised as a common condition and serves as a risk factor for some medical conditions, including hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias. Given the ability to recognise falls in oxygen saturation, respirations, and heart rate, CWDs can indicate abnormalities that may suggest a diagnosis of sleep apnoea. There is also the opportunity to use cellphone microphone recording to detect snoring; however, further research needs to be done to define the usefulness of CWDs in this setting. It is important to remember that sleep duration is the primary goal, in terms of sleep quality for the general population. The use of CWDs can be useful in recording and following this over time. People who have markers of poor sleep duration or other abnormalities noted on CWDs can speak with their physicians about a formal medical-grade sleep study.

As we pointed out in the first article, the use of consumer wearable devices is increasing and bringing health data to our fingertips in easily accessible forms. It is important to be aware of some of the limitations of this data, but there is significant potential for individual monitoring of previously inaccessible physiological findings and possible improvement in health outcomes by leveraging this data.

Dr Ernest Madu, MD, FACC and Dr Paul Edwards, MD, FACC are consultant cardiologists for the Heart Institute of the Caribbean (HIC) and HIC Heart Hospital. HIC is the regional centre of excellence for cardiovascular care in the English-speaking Caribbean and has pioneered a transformation in the way cardiovascular care is delivered in the region. HIC Heart Hospital is registered by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and is the only heart hospital in Jamaica. Send correspondence to info@caribbeanheart.com or call 876-906-2107.

Health officials in Jamaica have declared an outbreak of the dengue fever Saturday with at least 565 suspected, presumed and confirmed cases in the Caribbean nation. 

Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness says the outbreak comes as its National Surveillance Unit "advised that Jamaica has surpassed the dengue epidemic threshold for July and August and is on a trajectory to do the same for the month of September." 

"The dominant strain is Dengue Type 2, which last predominated in 2010," it said. "There are no dengue-related deaths classified at this time, however, six deaths are being investigated." 

Health officials say there currently are at least 78 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease in Jamaica. 

MOSQUITOS, FEARED FOR SPREADING DENGUE, NOW BEING BRED TO FIGHT THE DISEASE 

"Meanwhile, approximately 500 temporary vector control workers have been engaged and deployed across the island to high-risk communities along with 213 permanent workers," the Ministry of Health and Wellness also said. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says dengue viruses are "spread to people through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito." 

About one in four people infected will get sick, with mild symptoms including nausea, vomiting, rash, aches and pains, according to the CDC.

Recovery takes about a week. 

DENGUE FEVER CASES COULD REACH NEAR-RECORD HIGHS THIS YEAR 

Around 1 in 20 people infected will develop severe dengue, which the CDC says "can result in shock, internal bleeding, and even death." 

"The Ministry and Regional Health Authorities have made the necessary preparations for a possible outbreak," said Christopher Tufton, the Minister of Health in Jamaica. 

The Ministry is warning the public in Jamaica that the Aedes aegypti mosquito "breeds in any containerized environment" that can hold water, such as drums, tires, buckets and animal feeding containers. 

"Persons are urged to play their part in ensuring that the cases are minimized by monitoring water storage containers for mosquito breeding, keeping surroundings free of debris, destroying or treating potential mosquito breeding sites, wearing protective clothing, using mosquito repellent and, as much as possible, staying indoors at dusk with windows and doors closed," it also said.