WebMD Health News is reporting a study funded by the National Institute on Aging showing that elderly women who maintain close friendships and strong family ties are less likely to develop dementia than women who are less sociable.

My Take?

This study just adds to the scores that confirm that strong social networks can protect against dementia and many other diseases and disorders.

A test that can detect Down’s syndrome from the blood of pregnant women, which would be the first reliable noninvasive prenatal test for the chromosomal disorder, has raised the prospect of routine screening for the condition for every expectant mother who wants it.

The experimental procedure, developed in Hong Kong, has been shown to diagnose 90 percent of Down’s syndrome cases in a small trial, while also correctly identifying 97 percent of fetuses that do not have the condition.

USA Today has a great report out on the effective ways to ward off mosquitoes and the sometimes serious illnesses their bites can cause. And, the best preventative does NOT include rubbing your skin with Bounce dryer sheets, eating garlic, or downing vitamin B.

My Take?

This is a great article for all parents and grandparents to read. The bottom line, the best preventive treatment is one of several commercial repellents — “an unloved group of products that can be stinky and sticky and, if used incorrectly, potentially toxic.”

USA Today reports that online second-opinion services offer patients consultations from specialists based on the medical records that they fax, mail or send via the Internet. 

The average cost, payable upfront via credit card, is $500 to $1,500, depending on the number of radiology or pathology interpretations required. Patients then receive online access to a second opinion in about two weeks.

The three main leaders in remote second-opinion services — the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine and POSC — each say they are serving about 1,000 patients a year.

ABC News is reporting that while Americans will be attending church this Sunday, Cindy McCain the woman who could one day be first lady will be walking around a garbage dump, far removed from her comfortable life in Phoenix.

This is the other side of Cindy McCain – not the model-perfect spouse of the candidate who wears pearls and designer clothes. On this side of the world, she wears old hiking boots, puts her hair up in a ponytail and wants to “get to work.”

According the BBC, gels or creams containing painkillers are better than tablets for chronic knee pain.

This report is based upon National Health Service research in Great Brittan. Their study of almost 600 patients aged over 50 found the anti-inflammatory creams worked as well as the oral versions and had fewer side-effects.

LifeNews.com is reporting a new Ohio law requiring abortion practitioners to give the woman an opportunity to view the active ultrasound image of the unborn child.

The law is another effort to give women information on fetal development they don’t normally receive before an abortion.

CitizenLink is reporting that researchers at the University of North Carolina have used adult stem cells to improve the healing of broken bones in mice.

Dawn Vargo, bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said: “Although this particular treatment is still being tested in mice, it might soon be added to the long list of adult stem-cell treatments successfully used in people suffering from debilitating.”

This is the second part in a series excerpted from my book God’s Design for the Highly Healthy Teen. You can learn more about parenting in my books God’s Design for the Highly Healthy Child or God’s Design for the Highly Healthy Teen.

A Parenting Style Case Study 

Imagine you’re putting clothes into your teen’s dresser. When you open the drawer, you see a pack of cigarettes. Here’s how parents of the four parenting styles might react: