D Minus: Dearth of Vitamin D Is Common in Kids (US News & World Report) Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have found that 55 percent of otherwise healthy children and teenagers they tested had inadequate amounts of vitamin D in their blood. In many cases, the lack of D was enough to interfere with calcium absorption and healthy bone development. In addition to building strong bones, vitamin D helps the body's immune system function, and scientists ... [News Source]

Pastures new. There's a wonderful irony in the latest Defra campaign to combat climate change. [News Source]

Dull birds fared better after Chernobyl: study. Birds with bright feathers suffered worse from contamination after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a study into the impact of radiation on different species showed on Wednesday. [News Source]

Getting emissions under control. Methane gas, um, escaping from cattle is a serious problem in the fight against global warming. [News Source]

You breathe what you eat: Asthma severity linked to poor diet. A new study shows that diet may be a key culprit in asthma, a chronic swelling of the airways that affects some 20 million Americans, six million of them children. [News Source]

Vitamin C may boost folate supplement response (Nutraingredients.com) 7/11/2007 - Supplementation with vitamin C may increase the uptake of a folic acid derivative, suggests new research from Belgium. The research indicates that simultaneous supplementation could improve blood folate levels, and could have implications for folic acid fortification , with the signs indicating that it will be introduced in the UK soon. [News Source]

Children’s Musculoskeletal Health At Risk, “Healthy” Children Often Have Low Levels Of Vitamin D (Medical News Today) Many otherwise healthy children and adolescents have low vitamin D levels, which may put them at risk for bone diseases such as rickets. African American children, children above age nine and with low dietary vitamin D intake were the most likely to have low levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. [click link for full article] [News Source]

Researchers find distinctive patterns of cancer in 5 groups of Asian-Americans. Asian-Americans, both those born here and new immigrants, have distinctive patterns of cancer incidence that doctors should consider when treating them, researchers have found. [News Source]