In a study from Denmark, total 2224 overweight individuals (1504 women, 720 men) followed a low-calorie diet (810 kcal/daily) for 8 weeks. The low-calorie diet induced different effects in women than in men, suggesting gender‐specific changes after weight loss. Body weight loss and reductions in a metabolic syndrome score, fat mass, and heart rate were more marked in men compared to women. However, reductions in HDL-cholesterol, hip circumference, lean body mass (or fat free mass), and pulse pressure were larger in women than in men. Source:  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/dom.13466

Louisa Gibson and Melanie Porter from Australiaaimed to investigate whether drinking or smoking while breastfeeding lowers children’s cognitive scores. They analyzed the data obtained from 5107 Australian infants recruited in 2004 and assessed every 2 years. The authors observed that exposing infants to alcohol through breastmilk may cause dose-dependent reductions in their cognitive abilities. The reduction in cognitive abilities was observed at age 6 to 7 years but was not sustained at age 10 to 11 years. The authors stated that although the relationship is small, it may be clinically significant when mothers consume alcohol regularly or binge drink.  Source: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/2/e20174266

According to a meta-analysis performed by Clarke MA et al. 9% of women with postmenopausal bleeding have endometrial cancer. The authors analyzed data from 40790 unique patients in 129 studies published January 1, 1977, through January 31, 2017. They found that 90% of women with endometrial cancerhave postmenopausal bleeding; however, only 9% of women with postmenopausal bleeding were diagnosed with endometrial cancer.  Source: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2695509

In the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study included a total of 50, 943 mothers recruited from 2002 to 2008 and their children, it was found that pregnant women with average (50–199 mg/day, 44%), high (≥200–299 mg/day, 7%) and very high (≥300 mg/day, 3%) caffeine intakes had an increased risk of their child experiencing excess growth in infancy compared with women with low caffeine intake (<50 mg/day, 46%). There was an association between in utero exposure to caffeine  and higher risk of overweight at age 3 years and 5 years, this association persisted at 8 years, only for very high exposures. The researchers concluded that "any caffeine consumption during pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of excess infant growth and of childhood overweight, mainly at preschool ages."  Source:  http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/3/e018895

In a case-control study in older adults, it was observed a robust association between exposure to different classes of anticholinergic drugs and future dementia incidence.  The researchers used a large UK primary care database, Clinical Practice Research Datalink, and matched 40,770 older adults with a diagnosis of dementia to 283,933 controls without dementia. Until dementia diagnosis (4 to 20 years), an anticholinergic drug with a high anticholinergic burden (e.g., amitriptyline, paroxetine) were prescribed in 36% of cases and 30% of controls. It was found that increasing exposure to highly anticholinergic drugs was associated with increased dementia risk. The risk was highest with antidepressants, anti-Parkinson drugs, and urologic drugs. The researchers concluded that "Clinicians should continue to be vigilant with respect to the use of anticholinergic drugs, and should consider the risk of long term cognitive effects, as well as short term effects, associated with specific drug classes when performing their risk-benefit analysis." Source:  https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k1315

In a prospective study conducted on 104,980 participants aged at least 18 years from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort (2009-2017), a significant increase in overall and breast cancer was associated with an increase in the proportion of ultra-processed foods in the diet. Source: http://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k322.long

The 14th EASE Conference was held in Bucharest, Romania, 8-10 June, 2018 in partnership with the University of Bucharest. The theme for the event was “Balancing Innovation and Tradition in Science Editing”. There were 140 participants from all over the World. Twenty-one editors attended this conference from Turkey. Balkan Medical Journal was represented by ten editors. Three presentations were made by Balkan Medical Journal Editors. Professor Uzun made two speeches titled “Editing small scientific journals in local, regional, or English languages: Experience of Trakya University Journals” and “Improving your journal: teamwork experience of a small medical journal”. Prof Erdag made a speech under the title of “The pros and cons of bilingual publication”. Six of twelve posters presented at the conference were from Trakya University. The Balkan Medical Journal was represented on two posters of Professor Koçak and Professor Uzun; “Assessment of scientific indicators of general medicine journals in the Balkan Region”(Zafer Kocak & Necdet Sut) and “Can individual back-translation with or without copyediting avoid technical plagiarism? A study with Turkish medical authors”(Cem Uzun, Ozgur Gunduz, and Necdet Sut).  The other good news was that the best medical category poster award went to Kadri Kiran from Trakya University (“Compliance analysis of journals published by Trakya University with principles of transparency and best practice in scholarly publishing”). We believe that participation in this EASE conference contributed to international cooperation between the Balkan editors and the journals.    

Professor Dr. Cem Uzun, Editor-at-Large of Balkan Medical Journal, was elected as a Member of the European Association of Science Editors (EASE)  Council at the meeting held on 10 March 2018. For the first time in the history of EASE, founded in 1982, Turkish Scientist was selected for the EASE Council. In his statement on the issue "Our efforts in terms of scientific publications in Turkey and the Balkan countries was an important factor in this appointment. We aim to promote, raise awareness, coordinate and contribute to the development of scientific publishing in the Balkan countries," Professor Uzun said. Professor Uzun will perform this task between 2018 and 2021.