Low Prenatal Iodine May Affect Child's Brain Development THURSDAY, May 23 (HealthDay News) -- Mild to moderate iodine deficiency during pregnancy may have a negative long-term impact on children's brain development, British researchers report. Low levels of the so-called "trace element" in an expectant mother's diet appear to put her child at risk of poorer verbal and reading skills during the preteen years, the study authors found. Pregnant women can boost their iodine levels by eating enough dairy pro...

U.S. Teen Birth Rate Plummets: Report THURSDAY, May 23 (HealthDay News) -- Teen birth rates in the United States are dropping sharply, especially among Hispanic teens, according to a new government report. Overall, the rate of birth among teens aged 15 to 19 dropped by nearly one half from 1991 to 2011 -- from about 62 births for every 1,000 teens to 31 births for every 1,000. From 2007 to 2011, the most recent time period studied, rates fell 25 percent, from 41.5 to about 31. During that time, rates fe...

Genes May Boost Woman's Risk of Postpartum Depression TUESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Pregnant women with specific alterations in two genes may be at increased risk of suffering depression after giving birth, a small new study suggests. The researchers hope they can use the findings to develop a blood test that could help spot pregnant women who are vulnerable to postpartum depression, which affects around 15 percent of new mothers. Their study, reported in the May 21 issue of the journal Molecular ...

Many Can Blame Family for Their Bunions MONDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- If you've got bunions, chances are others in your family suffer from the common foot disorder, with a new study finding the condition is often passed down from parents to children. Reporting in the May issue of Arthritis Care & Research , researchers found that people of European descent often inherit conditions such as bunions or other toe deformities. "Our study is the largest investigation of the heritability of common foo...

Living Near Major Roadways in Pregnancy Tied to Respiratory Woes in Children MONDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- A child whose mother lived near heavy traffic while pregnant faces a relatively higher risk for developing a respiratory infection before the age of 3, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at data involving nearly 1,300 pairs of mothers and infants from eastern Massachusetts. All the mothers began study participation while in their first trimester of pregnancy at some point between 1999 an...

People With High Blood Pressure May Crave Salt WEDNESDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- High-salt diets have long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research finds that those with the condition may have a far greater preference for salty foods than those with normal blood pressure. In a small study of older adults, researchers from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil found that participants with high blood pressure, or hypertension, favored bread dusted with the highest concentration of salt mor...

Gene Variations May Explain Weight Gain Among Men, Women WEDNESDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Weight gain in men and women is predicted by two different genetic variations -- so-called polymorphisms, according to a new study from the Netherlands. Men with a certain mutation of the FTO gene had an 87 percent greater risk for gaining weight over 10 years. Meanwhile, women with a different variation on the MMP2 gene had a two and a half times increased risk for weight gain over the course of a decade, the...

Angelina Jolie Will Have Ovaries Removed to Lower Chances of Cancer: Report WEDNESDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Film star Angelina Jolie will have her ovaries removed to help lower her odds for ovarian cancer, People magazine reported Wednesday. The news comes just a day after Jolie, 37, revealed in an article published on the editorial page of The New York Times that she had undergone a double mastectomy. Jolie wrote that she made the decision after learning she carried a gene, called BRCA1, that is ...

Angelina Jolie Has Preventive Double Mastectomy TUESDAY, May 14 (HealthDay News) -- Hollywood film star Angelina Jolie announced Tuesday that she has undergone a double mastectomy because she carries a genetic mutation that greatly increases her risk of potentially fatal breast cancer. She said she began the process to have both of her breasts removed in early February because she lost her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, to ovarian cancer when her mother was just 56. Jolie, 37, revealed details of ...

Kids' Reading, Math Skills Tied to Future Success MONDAY, May 13 (HealthDay News) -- A person's math and reading abilities in early childhood influence how successful they are as adults, a new study contends. Researchers examined data from more than 17,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales who are part of a long-running study on child development and have been followed since they were born in 1958. People who had higher reading and math skills at age 7 had higher incomes, better housing and better j...