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ABC News
3 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
How does our environment impact our health? Unravelling the exposome
With around 125,000 children and parents enrolled, Generation Victoria — or GenV — is set to become one of the largest health studies of its kind in the world. But its scientific director, Melbourne paediatrician Melissa Wake, says at its heart is a "simple idea". "At a population level, more people are dying from diseases that we ought to be able to prevent … and it's now become clear that children are likely to face shorter life spans than their parents," Professor Wake says. "We asked ourselves: How can we change the life trajectories of our population through research? How can we help people to live their longest and healthiest lives?" In 2021, Professor Wake and her colleagues at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute began recruiting for Generation Victoria or GenV, a major long-term study that will track the health of more than 50,000 babies born in Victoria between 2021 and 2023 — and their parents — over their lifetime. The aim of the research is to understand what shapes health and wellbeing across our early years and mid-life, and to identify factors that contribute to the development of disease. "We're interested in long-term [health] outcomes … things like cancer, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis and Alzheimer's," Professor Wake says. "But also things that children experience now — like poor mental health, asthma, ADHD, autism and obesity." While other large studies have set out to answer similar questions, Professor Wake says technological advances mean researchers are now able to capture health data in more detail at vastly bigger scales. "The idea is to work with people across an entire population, try and measure all of the layers that we know are important to health, and then learn how we can actually improve [disease] prevention pathways." To do this, researchers will capture information about participants' DNA, as well as the physical, chemical, psychological and social conditions they're exposed to — known collectively as the human "exposome". The exposome is a measure of all the environmental or external exposures we face over our lifetime and the ways in which these impact our health. It includes everything from diet, lifestyle, education and income to air pollution, chemical exposures, and climate conditions. "Many of [these factors] overlap and happen in unequal ways, so if you're born and grow up in a poor area, your exposome is likely to be shaped by external stressors, air pollution, fewer opportunities and less income," Professor Wake says. It also encompasses internal processes, such as as your microbiome (or gut bacteria), inflammatory processes and metabolic factors, that are that are shaped, at least in part, by external exposures. Johns Hopkins University researcher Fenna Sillé says while almost all diseases have a genetic component, the exposome often plays a critical role, particularly in the development of chronic diseases. "It's estimated that up to 70 per cent — and for some [chronic] diseases even 90 per cent — of the risk is due to environmental exposures," Dr Sillé told the Health Report. In May, a group of international researchers, including Dr Sillé, convened in the US to establish the Human Exposome Project — a global effort to "systematically map the totality of environmental exposures and their effects on human biology". "The idea has lived for a while now of starting something that complements the Human Genome Project, but it's obviously not a small feat," she says. The field of exposomics research has grown in recent years, particularly in Europe, where researchers have been investigating the relationship between environmental exposures and conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease, allergies and asthma. While studying how environmental factors influence human health is not a novel idea, advancements in AI and computational models mean scientists can "really start to deal with" the complexity of overlapping and interacting exposures, University of Queensland epidemiologist and toxicologist Nick Osborne says. "In the past, we'd look at one toxin … and we'd see what the effect was. But, of course, that's not the real world," says Dr Osborne. "In the real world … there are a lot of [exposures] happening at once. "[The exposome] is about having an understanding that the body is a very complex system but it's also interfacing with a very complex environment." In Australia and other high-income countries, dramatic increases in cancer rates among young people in recent years has prompted concern that widespread environmental changes are contributing to earlier diagnoses. Research suggests a surge in obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and increased exposure to plastics may all be playing a role, as well as changes to young people's gut bacteria from eating ultra-processed food and using more antibiotics. "There's a very strong relationship between our gut bacteria and our immune system and brain and many of the functions in the body," Dr Osborne says. "We're finding more and more that chronic inflammation seems to drive many of the 'big five' diseases we're confronted with — mental health, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and asthma." But untangling the effects of different exposures is challenging, Dr Osborne says, in part because many diseases appear to be the result of a complex interaction between our environment and our genes. "Quite often you might have the 'bad' genes, but if you're not exposed to the 'bad' environment, you don't get the disease," he says. While it's impossible to document and study everything humans are exposed to, Professor Wake says the goal of GenV was to understand and act on the most important disease pathways and exposures. "It would be nice to know everything, but what we really need to know are the most important things, and we need to act on the most important things." The ways in which researchers measure the health impacts of different exposures varies, and in some cases, involves looking at an individuals' physiological processes, Dr Sillé says. "Even though you can't measure everything every day … there are the exposures, both internal and external, that leave some sort of imprint." Epigenetic effects, which include changes to the way your genes work as a result of your behaviours and environment, are one example. "But also your metabolism, for example … is affected by things that happened in your past." Initially, GenV researchers will mostly rely on existing clinical records and biological samples that are routinely collected during pregnancy and early childhood, such as blood samples. Parents will also be invited to provide saliva and breastmilk samples, as well as information (through an app) about their children's physical and mental health during their early years. "Our ethos has been that if you have 125,000 [participants] … it has to be very easy for them to take part," Professor Wake says. As the children in the study grow up, more detailed health data will be collected from them at ages 6, 11 and 16, as well as from their parents. "We'll be trying to measure those important [disease] development pathways for children and parents," Professor Wake says. "Things like: what's happening to their blood pressure? What's happening with their growth, their body composition? What's actually happening in their brains? "What we are wanting to do is actually measure the health signals that lie between risk factors and the long-term outcomes we care about." Alongside measuring health markers, Professor Wake says researchers will collect family- and community-level data, as well as information about "air quality, climate, built environments, shopping opportunities, food supply" and other layers of the exposome. To do this, they will rely on things like satellite maps, ambient monitors in classrooms and homes, environmental datasets and "social and policy mapping" tools. A key advantage of the study, Professor Wake says, is the ability for researchers to not only observe changes over time, but also test the effectiveness of different health interventions. "One of the ways to make discoveries is to undertake interventions," she says. "We are particularly interested in … actually testing: can we change [disease] risk? How much can we change risk? Does it make a difference to the outcomes that matter? Who for? And is it fair? "And because we've got that long-term horizon, we should be able to look 20, 30, 40 years down the track."
SBS Australia
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
Disability and Dating: Looking for Love
For people that are on apps and stuff, can you stop writing preferences of height in your bio? I think it's a horrible standard we're throwing with the height thing, because this is literally the one thing you can't control. Imaan Hadchiti When I'm dating someone, I receive a lot of stares, misguided compliments, like how beautiful and it's so nice to see, which implies that my dates are doing me a service by dating me! Alex Reimers Also Joining the conversation is Megan Walsh - researcher at Murdoch Children's Research Institute and experienced speech pathologist who specialises in working with people who use Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). Megan discusses how people who use AAC are often excluded from romantic opportunities due to harmful misconceptions and infantilisation and offers insight into what needs to change to create a more inclusive dating world. It's understanding that people with disabilities, including AAC users, can be and are people who can have great sex. There's so much that we can all learn from the way disabled people have sex and the way disabled people go about dating. Megan Walsh LISTEN TO SBS Audio 22/07/2025 32:46 English Credits Hosts: Madeleine Stewart & Alistair Baldwin Producer: Eliza Hull Sound Design & Mix: Session in Progress Executive Producer: Attitude Foundation Theme Music: Emotional Baby by Jeane Art: Lucy Melvin SBS Team: Joel Supple, Max Gosford, Bernadette Phương Nam Nguyễn
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Your child refuses to wear warm clothing in winter. Does it matter?
A small person who lives in my house (not naming names) has recently discovered a passion for open-toed footwear, aka thongs. Timed with the arrival of winter, I've been worried about those cute little toes withstanding the cold. I know I'm not alone in having a child who refuses to wear appropriate clothing — particularly jumpers, socks and headwear — when the temperature drops. But how important is it really that our kids rug up? Toddlers and young children like to feel a sense of independence, says Sara Quinn, clinical psychologist and president of the Australian Psychological Society. And choosing their own clothing is one way to have control over decision-making. "It's a nice thing for them to feel and have," Dr Quinn says. Between the ages of two and five, she says our children's ability to understand emotions and communicate their needs is well behind "their interest in exploring the world" and developing a sense of self and independence. While it can be frustrating for parents and caregivers at times, Dr Quinn says an innate urge to explore independence is healthy. "Letting go of control in that area may feel like inherent loss of influence as a child grows more independent. "But allowing them to choose their own clothes can build confidence, encourage self-expression and teach them nice decision-making skills." Harriet Hiscock, a paediatrician at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, says some children don't feel the cold as much as others. "We don't have any great scientific data on this, but certainly anecdotally, some kids seem to feel the cold less — probably because they are more physically active than we are." She says parents worried about their children being cold should know it is generally not a health risk. "There's no known health risk. Being cold doesn't mean you get a cold," she says for example. In more extreme temperatures, she says chilblains (patches of red, swollen and itchy skin, thought to be caused by a combination of cold weather and poor circulation) may be a concern. Or where there are other factors at play, such as a cold house that is damp and mouldy, potentially causing respiratory conditions. "But that's not from temperature alone," Professor Hiscock says. Where safety is a concern, Dr Quinn says parents should give their child parental guidance around decision-making. "And we know that even very young children can quickly learn the language of safety." If a caregiver asks the child: "Is that a safe decision?", and they calmly talk about the potential consequences, Dr Quinn says they can learn from that. But generally, she says choosing clothing is a "low-stakes" opportunity to help children learn from the outcomes. "We call them natural consequences. Letting them experience that for lower-stake decisions can help them build a sense of responsibility and capacity to make good decisions." She says if a child refuses to wear a jumper, for example, and then is cold during an outing, it's important parents don't use that to blame or punish. "If the tone is 'I told you so', the child will experience a sense of shame, and that increases chances of defiance. For example, you could say "You felt cold today, that must have been really hard, guess you're wishing you wore your jacket. Maybe you will tomorrow? Meanwhile, let's get home and get you warmed up". In some cases, children may experience sensory overload in regard to clothing, which can be a normal experience, but also a form of neurological difference in sensory processing, says Dr Quinn. "The same touch can be barely imperceptible to one child, a good amount of pressure for another, and unbearably uncomfortable for another." Professor Hiscock says that's more likely to happen with winter clothing that can feel tight and heavy. "It's about working with your child to work out what feels comfortable. "Maybe wearing a long cotton sleeve T-shirt underneath a jumper that feels scratchy — those logical things can help." If refusing to wear appropriate clothing is part of a broader, more intense pattern of defiance, in extreme cases it may be oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), says Dr Quinn. ODD is a frequent and ongoing pattern of anger, irritability, arguing and defiance toward parents and other authority figures. "In those cases, it's really important to seek the support of a psychologist," Dr Quinn says.
RNZ News
08-07-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
How children can be helped to recover from concussion
children health 16 minutes ago Studies have shown that infants, children, and adolescents are at a greater risk of traumatic brain injuries than any other age group. Professor Vicki Anderson from Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
ABC News
29-05-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Australian measles vaccine advice reviewed as research suggests earlier jabs
Some Australian babies could face an increased risk of measles infection because of current vaccination guidelines, according to new research which suggests babies as young as four months may need to be vaccinated. The research lands as Australia's official vaccine advisory body, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations (ATAGI), reviews existing measles vaccine recommendations. Every region of the world is experiencing a major escalation in measles infections, which has prompted ATAGI to launch the review of Australia's two-dose schedule. In Australia, a first dose is recommended at 12 months of age and a second at 18 months. An early, additional dose can be given at six months in specific situations, such as when a child is travelling to a country where measles is endemic. But new research suggests that might even be too late. Do you have a story to share? Email The Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) has called for authorities to urgently consider whether the first measles vaccine should be recommended at four months of age. Historically, children in their first year of life were thought to be protected from measles by maternal antibodies. These are transferred from mother to child through the placenta during pregnancy and provide temporary protection against the virus. But data has emerged showing these antibodies wane before children become eligible for vaccination, which creates a gap in immunity. MCRI researchers recently published a paper in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, which analysed data from more than 8,000 babies under nine months of age from over 30 low and middle-income countries including China, India, Turkey and South Africa. They found 81 per cent of babies had measles antibodies at birth, but 70 per cent had zero remaining antibodies by the time they were just four months old. Only about 18 per cent of the babies had antibodies at seven months. "In most countries, the number of children who have lost their immunity by three months is very substantial," said Professor Kim Mulholland, who specialises in paediatric immunology and was involved in the research. Previous research showed some babies in Belgium had an absence of measles antibodies as early as two months old, while antibody protection in Dutch babies lasted for about 3.3 to 5.3 months. A four-month dose is already recommended in New Zealand as a prevention tool during outbreaks. Measles is a highly contagious airborne virus and lower vaccination rates combined with increased global travel has led to a surge in cases globally. This year, 77 cases have been recorded in Australia so far, compared to the 57 recorded for the whole of 2024. This upward trend comes as vaccination rates among Australian children reach "critical levels" and, in some cases, have dropped below the threshold needed for herd immunity. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Aged Care said ATAGI was "closely monitoring" the situation and international evidence to inform any updates to vaccine recommendations. The ATAGI review would "ensure that timing and number of doses continues to provide the most effective protection for infants", they said. Professor Mulholland said Australia's immunisation coverage was still stronger than a lot of other countries and an earlier dose would be most critical in countries like Vietnam, where there were currently high infection numbers among young children. Infections are more deadly in children under the age of one and there is also the risk of a phenomenon called immune amnesia — where the immune system forgets how to fight infections it has acquired before. Immune amnesia is not a risk for people protected by the measles vaccine. Willingness to get an extra, earlier vaccine could be low among some groups given the rise of vaccine hesitancy, fuelled by fears about safety and efficacy. There are also some trade-offs to administering an earlier vaccine. Some reports suggest an early dose could be associated with a more rapid decline in antibody levels — so by the time a child is four or five years old they might have lower protection than if they waited longer to receive their first dose. "But measles in a child who has had a vaccine and then has declining antibodies is not as serious at that age, [however] they might circulate it and give it to younger infants who are higher risk," Professor Mulholland said. Archana Koirala, a paediatrician and infectious diseases specialist at the University of Sydney who was not involved in the research, agreed an earlier vaccine had a role to play during outbreaks. She said that was made more relevant due to young adults today having lower levels of antibodies than those in past decades. Research on blood donors published last year found older Australians had much higher levels of measles antibodies than younger adults, because they had grown up during a time when more measles was circulating. "Pregnant women [are now] starting with a low antibody titre [volume], thus less transfer to their infant resulting in faster decay of immunity in infants," Dr Koirala said. Dr Koirala said the arguments for a four-month vaccine had merit, but there were already a lot of kids not keeping up with the recommended vaccinations. "A lot of people aren't aware that if you're going anywhere overseas you should get your baby vaccinated [against measles] from six months," she said. Measles importation after international travel is the most common cause for infections in Australia. Professor Mulholland said Australia needed to make bigger efforts to improve immunisation globally, especially after the US withdrew funding of critical vaccine supply in developing nations. "Measles elimination is possible but it has to be global … Australia is not a country that's been particularly generous when it comes to foreign aid — it's probably time to change that position."
