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HORMONE therapy with either estrogen or testosterone might not affect women’s thinking and memory skills in the years soon after menopause, hints a new study. The findings are the latest addition to a complicated picture of the possible link between hormones and mental functioning in women.

Some researchers think hormone therapy may help improve brain function and prevent Alzheimer’s disease after menopause. – Reuters

NOW AIN’T THAT A KICK TO THE HEAD?

According to new research, scientists doing autopsies on 12 athletes who died of brain or neurological diseases, showed a distinctive pattern of nerve damage – pointing towards some potential culprits.

"this is the first pathological evidence that repetitive head trauma experienced in collision sports might be associated with the development of a motor-neuron disease," Dr Ann McKee of Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues wrote in the report.

McKee’s team studied the donated brain and spinal cords of 11 professional football players or boxers and one hockey player. All had a newly characterised disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in which dementia set in years after repeated concussions. – Reuters

MEASLES: DON’T LET DOWN YOUR GUARD

This year, 1400 Africans, many of them children, have died of measles – a figure which Unicef fears might be due to complacency. Just as the disease looks beaten, people stop bothering with vaccination, which allows it to make a comeback.

At least 28 African countries have suffered outbreaks of measles this year. South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe were among the worst hit. Remember, even when there isn’t an outbreak, get your kids vaccinated. – Reuters

PESTICIDES AND PREGNANCY

Children whose mothers were exposed to certain types of pesticides while pregnant were more likely to have attention problems as they grew up, US researchers reported.

The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, adds to evidence that organophosphate pesticides, which attack insects’ nervous systems, can affect the brain.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley tested pregnant women for evidence that organophosphate pesticides had actually been absorbed by their bodies, and then followed their children as they grew.

Women with more chemical traces of the pesticides in their urine while pregnant had children who were more likely to have symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, at age five. – Reuters