Several previous studies have demonstrated that vitamin A supplementation improves fetal and infant health. The white regions suggest that cells have been invaded by the human papilloma virus, and are thus pre-cancerous. Blumenthal and his colleagues demonstrated that the simple vinegar and flashlight technique was even more sensitive than Pap smear testing. One drawback, however, was that it yielded a higher false positive rate. The team reported its findings in the March 13 Lancet .
Cervical cancer is the leading cancer killer of women in developing countries.
The disease is easily prevented and cured if it is diagnosed early. But Pap smear testing, the routine method for screening women in the United States, is not widely available and is prohibitively costly in the developing world. Children of alcoholics have an unusual brain chemistry that could predispose them toward alcoholism, according to a recent Hopkins study. Based on extensive earlier studies, scientists believe that alcohol's effects ties into the brain's reward pathway. Alcohol, according to this model, stimulates the production of endogenous opioids, which results in a surge of dopamine, which leads to pleasurable sensations.