Conceive around December, risk of birth defects is low ideally it is said a woman should be a mother before she turns 30. This keeps the risk of genetically conceived diseases low. Alcohol intake and smoking are maternal risk factors too and should be avoided. Time and again researchers have confirmed these facts. Now a study highlights the months in which one should not conceive, at

scientists may have found a new approach to muscular dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder characterized by weakening of skeletal muscles. Not much is known about how the disease manifests itself. Recently, however, a team of French and German researchers found that a kind of muscular dystrophy is caused due to a lack of protein in the muscle cells. The disease is caused by a mutation in a

treating drinking tap water with chlorine makes it bacteria-free. But its by-products may increase the risk of abnormalities among newborns, says a recent study. Researchers studied data on 400,000 infants in Taiwan and by products of chlorine in the water separately from 2001-03. Using these two sets of data, the researchers assessed exposure in mothers who were expecting. Of the 400,000

An Indian database has been created by profiling the population on the basis of changes in genes with disease linkages. THE first results from the project of the Indian Genome Variation Consortium (IGVC) have clearly demonstrated (Frontline, June 6) that even as the Indian population exhibits a genetic diversity unmatched anywhere in the world, there are within it pockets of homogeneous ethnic groups that have remained relatively genetically unadmixed. (The IGVC's multi-institutional project was set up to evolve a disease-linked genetic map of India.)

Twelve-year-old Harsh is nourishing a dream of playing cricket like Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Like his friends in school, Harsh wants to take active part in sports, but a little strain on his body or a minor injury while playing can be life threatening. Because, Harsh is among tens of thousands of children in the country who is born with haemophilia, a chronic bleeding disorder.

- The discovery of the gene behind a rare form of inherited iron deficiency may provide clues for new treatments of poor iron absorption in the general population, according to a study released Sunday. Lack of iron is the most common of all nutritional deficiencies and the leading cause of anemia, which affects nearly a third of the world's population, according the World Health Organisation. In the developing world, every second pregnant woman and about 40 percent of preschool children are estimated to be anaemic, a condition that contributes to 20 percent of all maternal deaths.

thalassemia patients who undergo expensive treatment to remove extra iron from their system may now take to homoeopathy. Scientists have found a homoeopathic remedy that is inexpensive and without