Month: October 2014

Children have the same risk of developing celiac disease regardless of when they start eating foods containing gluten, 2 new studies suggest. People with celiac disease have pain, diarrhea, gas and other symptoms if they eat grains and other foods containing gluten. Children may have growth problems. Babies in the new studies had high-risk genes or a family history of celiac disease. In one study, 900 babies were randomly divided into 2 groups. One group had small amounts of gluten added to their diets at age 16 weeks. The other group received a placebo. At age 24 weeks, parents were advised to gradually add gluten for both groups. By age 3, about 5.2% of the early-gluten group and 5.9% of the placebo group had been diagnosed with celiac disease. The other study included about 700 babies. One group started eating gluten at age 6 months and the other at 12 months.

Social support may help younger as well as older adults avoid depression and poor quality of life after a heart attack. That’s the main finding of a study among 3,400 adults. All were age 55 or under. They answered questions about their social support and mental health. Researchers repeated the questions a year later. Social supports included people who offered companionship, advice, emotional concern, financial help or other support. About one-fifth of those in the study had poor social support. A year later, people with low social support were more likely to be depressed than those with more support. They also tended to have lower mental function and quality of life. This was true for both women and men. People with low social support tended to be single and live alone. They were more likely to be unemployed, smoke and abuse alcohol.