Humans have continued to evolve after splitting from chimpanzee ancestors nearly 7 million years ago, according to a new study that found 155 new genes unique to humans that suddenly arose from tiny sections of DNA. Some of the new genes date back to the ancient origin of mammals, according to the researchers. They suspect a few of these “microgenes” have links to human-specific diseases. “This project started back in 2017 because I was interested in novel gene evolution and figuring out how these genes originate,” said study author Nikolaos Vakirlis, a scientist at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center Alexander Fleming in Vari, Greece. “It was put on ice for a few years, until another study got published that had some very interesting data, allowing us to get started on this work.” For this new study, published Dec. 20 in Cell Reports, his team created an ancestral tree to compare humans to other vertebrate species using previously published genetic data. The investigators tracked the relationship of these genes across evolution and 155 popped up from regions of unique DNA. New genes can arise from duplication in the genome, but these started from scratch. “It was quite exciting to be working in something so new,” said senior author Aoife McLysaght, a scientist at Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland. “When you start getting into these small sizes…  read on >  read on >

Keeping an eye on safety will let the joy from holiday toys last longer, without a trip to the emergency room, experts say. Last year, more than 200,000 people were treated in emergency departments for toy-related injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Dr. Roopa Thakur, a pediatrician at Cleveland Clinic Children’s in Ohio, recommends keeping toy safety in mind safety when choosing a gift. Toys that shoot objects into the air may cause bodily injury, Thakur noted. “They can cause eye injury, especially,” she said in a Cleveland Clinic news release. “So, if you have kids that are running around and shooting things at each other, make sure that there is good supervision.” Small toys and pieces can be choking hazards for young children who could put them in their mouths. Parents should be wary of toys that have button batteries or high-powered magnets, Thakur said. If your child swallows these, they can damage their tissues and intestines, turning holiday fun into a surgical emergency. The highest number of toy-related injuries are from non-motorized scooters. When buying scooters, bikes, rollerblades and tricycles, also get safety gear. “Consider giving a helmet,” Thakur said. “If you are gifting a hover scooter or something similar, knee and elbow pads would be great to gift as well, to prevent injury in the case of a…  read on >  read on >

One way to maintain muscle strength with age: Get enough vitamin D. Researchers in Brazil and the United Kingdom found that older folks who were deficient in the vitamin increased their risk of losing muscle strength by 78%. “Vitamin D is known to participate in various functions. …,” said study co-author Tiago da Silva Alexandre, a professor of gerontology at Federal University of São Carlos. “Its many roles include helping to repair muscles and releasing calcium for muscle contraction kinetics. It was therefore expected to cause muscle alterations of some kind,” he said in a news release from the São Paulo Research Foundation, which supported the research. And that’s exactly what this study proved, Alexandre said. For the study, researchers analyzed the data from more than 3,200 people in the U.K. aged 50 and older who did not yet have age-related muscle loss, known as dynapenia. That muscle loss, which can be partly explained by atrophy, is a major risk factor for physical incapacity later in life, leading to falls, hospitalization, premature institutionalization and death. Researchers followed study participants for four years. They evaluated grip strength, which is a considered representative of overall muscle strength. Participants with vitamin D deficiency (blood levels below 30 nanomoles per liter) had a 70% higher risk of developing this muscle loss by the study’s end than those with normal…  read on >  read on >

Extreme fatigue often tops the list of the most distressing symptoms for millions of people who live with multiple sclerosis (MS). And now, a new study suggests that light therapy may help these folks get their lives back. MS is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body attacks the insulation around its nerves, causing fatigue, numbness, bladder problems, mood issues and mobility problems that can hamper everyday life. When patients with MS sat in front of a light box for 30 minutes a day for two weeks, they were less tired and reported more energy to get through their day than their counterparts who sat in front of a dim red light. Exactly how light helps with fatigue isn’t fully understood, but researchers have their theories. “Light therapy promotes alertness, concentration and wakefulness during the daytime and increases the availability of serotonin and noradrenaline in the brain; both neurotransmitters are responsible for the regulation of mood and motivation,” said study author Dr. Stefan Seidel. He’s a neurologist at Vienna General Hospital and associate professor at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria. The study included 26 people with MS. Half sat in front of a daylight lamp with a brightness of 10,000 lux, the level recommended for effective light therapy. The other half sat in front of an identical lamp that emitted a dim…  read on >  read on >

Kids who are the youngest in their grade may be overmedicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a Norwegian researcher who studied prescribing data. Those who were also born preterm were at particular risk of being overmedicated, said Dr. Christine Strand Bachmann, a pediatrician at St. Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim and PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Torgarden. The study included Norwegian children born between 1989 and 1998, about 488,000 in all. “We found major differences in the prescription of ADHD medication,” Bachmann said in an NTNU news release. “Children born in November-December had an 80% higher risk of being prescribed ADHD medication, compared to those born in January-February. This finding applies to children who were born at term.” She and her colleagues reviewed all prescriptions kids received from age 10 to 23, comparing those born in January or February with those born in November or December. Bachmann said the increased ADHD medication for the youngest kids owes to the way school systems are organized. “Put simply, it looks like we’re medicating the most immature children because we’re comparing them to their oldest classmates, who are a whole year older,” she said. “This shouldn’t be the basis for receiving an ADHD diagnosis,” Bachmann added. Adults have to expect that a child born in November is going…  read on >  read on >

An experimental gene therapy that’s applied as a skin gel appears to heal wounds caused by a rare and severe genetic skin disease. Experts called the findings “remarkable,” and said they bring hope of a better quality of life to children and young adults living with the condition, called dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB). The disease affects about 3 out of every 1 million people. It’s caused by a flawed gene that renders the body unable to produce a particular collagen — a “glue” between the skin layers that is essential to its strength and integrity. Kids born with DEB are sometimes called “butterfly children” because their skin is so fragile, even an ordinary bump or friction can cause blistering that progresses to painful open wounds. In the most severe cases, infants have blisters or missing skin at birth, or soon after. Those children typically develop widespread scarring over their bodies and can have eye inflammation that impairs their vision. Blisters and scarring also arise along the lining of the mouth, throat and digestive tract — which can interfere with eating and cause malnutrition. As young adults, people with DEB face a high risk of squamous cell carcinoma, a form of skin cancer that is normally highly curable, but in a person with DEB often proves deadly. There has never been any specific treatment for DEB.…  read on >  read on >

Having short, painful headaches for many days or even weeks in a row may signal that you’re more likely to have other medical woes, researchers say. These “cluster headaches” are extremely painful and can last from 15 minutes to three hours at a time. And people who have them may be more than three times more likely to have other medical conditions, such as heart disease or mental disorders, the new study found. “Around the world, headaches have an incredibly negative impact on people’s quality of life, both economically and socially,” said study author Caroline Ran, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. “Our results show that people with cluster headaches not only have an increased risk of other illnesses, those with at least one additional illness missed four times as many days of work due to sickness and disability than those with just cluster headaches. They also have a higher chance of a long-term absence from work,” Ran explained. The study involved more than 3,200 Swedes, aged 16 to 64, who had cluster headaches. Most were men, because men are more likely to have cluster headaches. The researchers compared that group to 16,200 people without the headaches who were similar in age, gender and other factors. The investigators looked at work records and disability benefits to determine how many days a year people were…  read on >  read on >