Research suggests that cooling babies deprived of oxygen at birth improves their chances of growing up without disabilities such as cerebral palsy, reports [s]BBC News[/s]. And the study showed newborns given the treatment were more likely to have higher IQs at school age. Babies were placed on a special mat and cooled at 33C for three days to help reduce brain injury and experts say the study confirms the therapy has long-lasting effects. Researchers, led by Professor David Edwards of the [b]National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit[/b] at the [b]University of Oxford[/b] and [b]Imperial College London[/b], think the therapy works by slowing the production of harmful substances in the brain and the rate of brain cell death. How long these improvements may last has been unclear.
[link url=http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28243578]Full BBC News report[/link]
[link url=http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1315788]New England Journal of Medicine article summary[/link]