Newpaper Atricle

[ROYAL BLUE]

From: "Helen Aqua" <haqua@telus.net>

Subject: Newspaper story on Birth Month illnesses

Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 20:08:35 -0800

Hi everyone,

This is the story - it appeared in yesterday's (Wednesday's) Vancouver Sun,

and was picked up from the Ottawa Citizen.

Science ties illnesses to your month of birth

March is the cruellest month, with a long list of diseases

Tom Spears

The Ottawa Citizen

-----

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

OTTAWA -- If you were born in April, a host of recent medical surveys says

you have a slightly greater-than-average risk of suffering from dyslexia,

leukemia, Parkinson's disease or epilepsy.

Born in October? Look out for asthma, but you have slightly less risk of

schizophrenia than average.

Recent surveys have begun to track health records and compare them with

their owners' birth months, discovering that when you were born appears to

make you more prone, just slightly, to certain illnesses.

Maybe it's because babies are sensitive to environmental factors,

researchers say, though they can't be too sure. For instance, a baby born in

flu season comes into a world with flu bugs all around; one born in summer

gets an early dose of pollen.

Even more important may be the mother's exposure to different seasonal

viruses, bacteria, moulds and so on during certain points in her pregnancy.

The most fundamental development of all life's stages happens in the fetus.

And if drugs and alcohol can damage a fetus, perhaps nature's environmental

factors have an effect too.

"We're not trying to do your horoscope," says Allan Smith, a post-doctoral

researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles.

"The point of this knowledge is to understand what causes these diseases in

the first place," he says. "Right now we don't know what makes some people

develop diabetes, for example. Some of the reason is in your genes, but not

all. The seasons seem to play some role, too. So there's an association. And

if we ever want to cure (diabetes), or just treat it better, we have to know

what goes wrong."

But the usefulness of this information may not be very high.

"Maybe it's a factor, but there are so many more factors [in disease] that

are so much more important," said Dr. Marvin Bittner, an epidemiologist with

the U.S. Veterans' Administration. In terms of influences on the developing

fetus "the issue of drugs and pregnancy is much more important," he said.

The links between disease and birth month have evolved slowly, often one

disease at a time.

* A 30-year study of Swedish babies, published in 1999, found the risk of

diabetes is highest in those born in August and lowest in the babies of

October.

* Summer babies have long been known to have a greater-than-average chance

of developing celiac disease, a digestive disorder. The actual cause of that

problem, however, is unknown.

* Babies born in January, February or March are from six to eight per cent

more likely than others to develop schizophrenia. Again, there's no known

reason. And it doesn't mean a summer child will not become schizophrenic.

March babies, as it happens, have one of the longest lists of illnesses

linked to their birthdays: Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, narcolepsy,

epilepsy, bipolar disorder, autism, Hodgkin's disease and multiple

sclerosis.

December babies have only one: a nasty lung infection called respiratory

syncytial virus, or RSV, common in young children.

Learning disabilities, meanwhile, are more common in kids with birthdays in

summer. The summer birth appears to increase their risk by about eight

percentage points.

Fall babies (October and November)are more likely to develop asthma and

eczema.

And a February birthday may make you prone to bipolar disorder, epilepsy,

schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.

You can look up your own birth month and the diseases that may be associated

with it on the ABC News website:

Open Original Shared Link ml.

Don't read the list too literally, the doctors caution. The differences from

month to month are slight, and are not a basis for diagnosing anything in

individual people.

- - -

BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN?

Some months portend a greater risk of illness

January: Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, respiratory syncytial virus

February: Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy

March: Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, autism, narcolepsy, Hodgkin's disease,

multiple sclerosis, bipolar disorder, epilepsy

April: leukemia, dyslexia, learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis,

Parkinson's disease, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, amyotrophic lateral

sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease)

May: dyslexia, learning disabilities, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic

lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), Parkinson's disease

June: anorexia, diabetes, dyslexia, learning disabilities, multiple

sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease),

Parkinson's disease, celiac disease

July: diabetes, celiac disease, dyslexia, learning disabilities

August: diabetes, celiac disease, autism, Crohn's disease

September: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), asthma

October: asthma, atopic dermatitis

November: asthma, atopic dermatitis, respiratory syncytial virus

December: respiratory syncytial virus

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It would be interesting to know how many of us were born in July or August. As for my son , he is a July baby.hmm

Tracy

[gf4life]

I'm not sure how much of this I believe, but it is interesting to note, that I have a lot of health problems, and I was born in March. My son born in October, does in fact have Asthma, and my son born in June has the most symptoms of Celiac of all my children (still being tested). My husband , born in December has had problems with lung infections. My nephew, born in July, does have learning disabilities....

They may just be coincidental, but it does make one think...

[kejohe]

Well, it doesn't work for me or my son. I was born in March and am a relatively healthy girl, my son, the celiac in our family was born in December.