Parenthood Seems to Protect Against Catching Colds: Study

HealthDay – Fri, Jul 6, 2012 FRIDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Parents are about half as likely to catch a cold as people without children, regardless of their preexisting immunity, a new study says.

The researchers said that unknown "psychological or behavioral differences between parents and nonparents" might help explain their findings.

"We found parenthood predicted a decreased probability of colds among healthy individuals exposed to a cold virus," study leader Rodlescia Sneed of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and co-authors reported.

For the study, the researchers examined information on 795 adults from three previous studies. Volunteers in the studies were given nose drops either containing rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, or a flu virus.

After being exposed to the virus, about one-third of participants developed a cold. The study found, however, that there was a 52 percent lower rate of colds among parents compared to volunteers who didn't have any children.

This protective effect increased along with the number of children parents had. And when parents didn't live with any of their children, their risk of having a common cold dropped even more -- to 73 percent lower than nonparents.

The study is published in the July issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

Parents were less likely to catch a cold regardless of whether they had protective levels of antibodies, the study authors noted in a journal news release. Being married had no effect on the findings. However, the risk of colds was not lower for the youngest parents studied, those aged 18 to 23.

Psychological or behavioral factors could play a role in their findings, the investigators said.

The researchers also suggested that being a parent may improve the regulation of immune factors that are triggered in response to infection. More research is needed, they said, to explain how being a parent affects the body's response to the common cold.

"Our results, while provocative, have left room for future studies to pursue how various aspects of parenthood (

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Arizona bans funding to Planned Parenthood in abortion fight

Reuters – Sat, May 5, 2012 PHOENIX (Reuters) - Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill banning abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from receiving money through the state, her office said in a statement.

The Republican-backed Whole Woman's Health Funding Priority Act cuts off funding for family planning and health services delivered by Planned Parenthood clinics and other organizations offering abortions.

"By signing this measure into law I stand with the majority of Americans who oppose the use of taxpayer funds for abortion," Brewer said in a statement.

Arizona joins six other states with similar laws, officials said. But three of those states -- Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina -- are facing legal challenges.

Arizona does not provide tax dollars for abortion, but backers said the law is needed to make sure that no indirect monies are funneled to organizations like Planned Parenthood that provide abortion and other health services. There were no estimates of how much money is involved.

But officials at Planned Parenthood Arizona, the state's largest abortion provider, said the law means that thousands of women in the state may now go without life-saving cancer screenings, birth control and basic health care.

"We are most concerned about the women and men who could be forced to go without health care as a result of this bill," Bryan Howard, Planned Parenthood Arizona's president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.

"We remain committed to providing Arizona communities with the professional, nonjudgmental and confidential health care they have relied on for 78 years," Howard said.

The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List called the bill a "major victory" in its fight to bar funding of abortion providers.

"Abortion-centered businesses like Planned Parenthood do not need or deserve taxpayer dollars," Marilyn Musgrave, vice president of government affairs for the organization, said in a written statement.

While Planned Parenthood suffered a setback in Arizona, it won a temporary battle in court on Friday with Texas. A federal appeals court ruled that the organization could participate in a health program for low-income women in Texas, despite a new state rule there that bans affiliates of abortion providers.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor, Dan Whitcomb, Greg McCune and Lisa Shumaker)

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Planned Parenthood sues Texas over exclusion

Planned Parenthood sued Texas on Wednesday for excluding the group from participating in a program that provides contraception and check-ups to women.

The group contends in its lawsuit filed in Austin that a new state law banning organizations affiliated with abortion providers from participating in the Women's Health Program amounts to unconstitutional discrimination by association.

"If enforced, the affiliate rule will cause irreparable harm to plaintiffs and to tens of thousands of low-income women seeking family planning and other preventive health services," the suit alleges.

The federal government has also cut funding to Texas over the issue, saying it violated federal law. It says the state law passed by conservative Republicans and signed by Gov. Rick Perry last year, which cuts taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood because affiliates of the group offer abortions, denies women the right to choose their health care providers.

No taxpayer money is used to fund abortions and the clinics that perform them are legally separate.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which enforces the rule, issued a statement saying the law was within the state's rights. Last month Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for cutting off funding for the Women's Health program because of the new affiliate rule.

"Federal law gives state the right and responsibility to establish criteria for Medicaid providers, so we're on firm legal ground," the statement said. "We'll continue to work with the Attorney General's Office to fully enforce state law and continue federal funding for the Women's Health Program."

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