Combative Patients a Hazard for Paramedics

Study shows assault rate much higher than for firefighters

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'Bulletproof diet' claims to shed weight and make you SMARTER... but does it work?

COFFEE is the key ingredient in the latest fad diet that claims to make you a ‘better person’, but health experts aren’t convinced

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Subtle influences behind our food choices revealed

The label ‘healthy’ on food seems to turn people off. A symbol — like the healthy heart symbol — on the other hand, works much better. (Source: Thinkstock Images)

Childhood socioeconomic status might influence an individual’s food choices as adults, says a study, adding that growing up poor has a long-term impact on eating patterns.

“Our research finds that growing up poor promotes eating in the absence of hunger in adulthood, regardless of one’s adult socioeconomic status,” said Sarah Hill from the Texas Christian University in the US.

A person’s developmental history may play a key role in their relationship with food and weight management, rendering those from lower socioeconomic status (SES) environments more vulnerable to unhealthy weight gain, the findings showed.

People with higher childhood SES ate more when need was high than when need was low. This relationship was not observed among those with lower childhood SES. Individuals with lower childhood SES consumed comparably high amounts of food whether their current energy need was high or low, revealed the study.

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Also read

Is your child obese? Practising mindfulness while eating can aid weight loss

Eating healthy on weekdays, junk on weekends as bad as regular junk-bingeing 

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With many individuals facing issues with obesity weight management, social and personality psychologists are at the forefront of understanding the psychological motivations for healthy food choices and consumption patterns.

Another study — part of the same research — says that serving order and labels influence healthy eating.

The study found that adults respond better to healthy symbols rather than the word ‘healthy’. “The word ‘healthy’ seems to turn people off, particularly when it appears on foods that are obviously healthy. The subtle health message — such as the healthy heart symbol — seemed to be more effective at leading people to choose a healthy option,” said Traci Mann and her lab at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in the US.

To understand how people responded to framing healthy food options, the researchers conducted field studies by providing adults with various types of snacks.

In the first study with about 400 adults, 65 per cent took an apple — instead of candy — if the healthy heart symbol was on the sign, but only 45 per cent took an apple if the word ‘healthy’ was on the sign. In the second study of about 300 adults, 20 per cent took carrots — instead of chips — if a sign said ‘healthy’, and 30 per cent took carrots if the sign had a healthy heart symbol on it.

The findings were presented as part of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology 17th Annual Convention.

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Dogs Read Faces Much Like Humans Do, Study Finds

But they react differently to threatening expressions, depending on whether it’s a human or another dog

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This pop quiz can predict risk of sexually transmitted infections in women

A description of the quiz and some field test results suggests the self-administered quiz may encourage teenage girls and young women to get laboratory tests for several STIs. (Photo: Thinkstock)

A simple online quiz has been found to be promising in predicting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in young women, says a new study.

The six-question survey called “pop quiz” has been designed to evaluate behaviours linked to STI risk.

The questions ask about the number of sex partners, the frequency of use of condoms, and the age and past infection status of a respondent.

A description of the quiz and some field test results, published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, suggests the self-administered quiz may encourage teenage girls and young women to get laboratory tests for several STIs if their quiz results show them to be at high risk for infection.

And if used in clinical settings, the online questions could help physicians assess the need for STI testing of those patients at most risk, the researchers said.

“We test a lot of people who are not infected, and although a tool like this might not predict every single case, we think it can be helpful in rapidly predicting the likelihood of an STI for physicians and patients,” said lead author Charlotte Gaydos, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland, US.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins developed the quiz with the help of specialists in adolescent sexual health care and data from previously published research.

For the new study, 830 females and 550 males averaging between 20 to 24 years old took the quiz.

While the “pop quiz” accurately predicted STI status in women, it did not do so for men.

“We are not quite sure why this is, but untruthfulness or the fact that men tend to have lower rates of STIs are possibilities,” Gaydos noted.

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How to get treated for the ‘suicide disease’, Trigeminal Neuralgia

TN has been described by the sufferers as the worst pain known to mankind, says Dr JP. (Source: Humanhealth.com)

Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN) is considered by many to be among the most excruciatingly painful conditions known to man that causes a sudden, sharp and stabbing pain to one side of the face. The pain cannot be described in words and yet many sufferers express it by using their imagination as someone giving them an electric shock or blasting a bomb on their face. Since it is a chronic condition of acute, ‘out of the blue’ episodes of unbearable and agonising pain, countless people, out of sheer frustration have committed suicide before treatments (and cure) were discovered. That is the reason why it is also known as ‘The Suicide Disease’.

An estimated one in 15,000 people suffers from trigeminal neuralgia, but in all likelihood, the numbers may be significantly higher due to frequent misdiagnoses. (Read more about the disease in Part 1 of this series: Know about Trigeminal Neuralgia, the suicide disease.)

To understand the treatment process better, we spoke to Dr Jaydev Panchwagh, an eminent Neurosurgeon from Pune (Maharashtra) with special interest in treating Trigeminal Neuralgia. For the last 12 years it has been his mission to take brain & spine surgery to the masses. Here’s what he had to say:
Please tell us the course of Trigeminal Neuralgia, or TN?
Dr JP: TN is a progressive disorder, after the initial episodes of excruciating pain there may a pain holiday because body tries to heal the nerve that is getting compressed by pulsating blood vessels that come too close to the nerve for comfort.

What are the treatment options?
Dr JP: TN patients may find relief with one medication called carbamazepine. It is the only pain suppressant that works on stabbing, burning, searing, and sometimes electric shock-like excruciating pain of TN. It acts by reducing nerve impulses. If the pain is controlled by smaller doses then the problem gets temporarily solved. If the patient comes back with pain despite taking carbamazepine then we have to increase the dose but there are limitations.

What are the side effects with higher doses of carbamazepine?
Dr JP: Most common is drowsiness and sleepiness. The other side effects are difficulty in concentration, confusion, unsteadiness, nausea and vomiting, double vision and reduction in blood cells that help us fight infection. If one gets any kind of skin rash a doctor must be consulted at once. Same is with feeling of depression. There are some other severe toxic effects too.

What are the other options?
Dr JP: We recommend brain surgery to patients who need carbamazepine more than 400 mg per day or even lesser if it has to be taken on regular basis.

What is this surgery called?
Dr JP: Microvascular Decompression Surgery. MVD as we call it in short is a surgical procedure to relieve the agonising pain caused by compression of trigeminal nerve by an artery or vein. MVD involves surgically opening the skull and exposing the nerve at the base of the brainstem to insert a tiny sponge between the compressing vessel and the nerve. This sponge isolates the nerve from the pulsating effect and pressure of the blood vessel. This operation basically cures the TN. This is a far better option even when carbamazepine works even in small doses.

Why?
Dr JP: The very aim of this surgery is to stop the life-disturbing pain as well as save the patient from the toxic chemical and the untold misery it brings with it. Due to carbamazepine’s side effects on body and mind, people have given up their jobs even when they were on smaller dosages. So surgery is not only indicated if the drug does not stop the pain. It is indicated even if it stops and causes side effects. The drug which is given to stop the pain brings other diseases in the form of toxic effects. Please try to understand this that the disease is increasing in intensity inside while you are delaying the surgical treatment. Secondly, carbamazepine treatment doesn’t cure the disease. So it is NOT comparable or an option for the surgery. At best it is a pathetic compromise. A person on carbamazepine treatment has severely altered quality of life and has the continuous feeling of impending doom if a dose is missed. He or she is drugging the brain on regular basis.

The other important aspect is that the surgery even cures the ‘side effects’ of TN itself.

That is interesting, can you elaborate?
Dr JP: I shall tell you one of my clinical experiences. As we have already discussed, TN has been described by the sufferers as the worst pain mankind knows and there is no exaggeration here. It is also called “the suicide disease” as in the absence of proper and timely treatment these people tend to have serious suicidal thoughts. And indeed there are instances of people have killed themselves. TN can disturb the patient’s mind and in some cases the effects are seen on the body too. So, coming to this case of a man from Jodhpur who had travelled all the way to Pune was in terrible agony. He also had severe psoriasis all over his face, scalp and chest.
Psoriasis is a skin disease and one of the causes and aggravating factor is severe mental stress.

This man was haunted by the pain and was under mental stress for many years. We operated on him. He had severe compression of his trigeminal nerve due a blood vessel deeply lodged in the root entry zone of his nerve. I had to perform the MVD surgery…and as expected, his pain vanished. For the first time in 12 years he was free of pain. He was duly discharged and returned to Rajasthan. When he returned after eight months for routine follow-up, I could not recognise him. You know why? His psoriasis was completely gone. You see, his pain and stress of many years were cured and this, in turn, treated his psoriasis. A glaring example of how the skin is, like all parts of our body is connected to the brain. I will go further in saying how the skin, like all parts of our body is an extension of our brain.

In other advise to the patients?
Dr JP: The painful attacks associated with trigeminal neuralgia can be triggered or made worse by a number of different things. For example, if the pain is triggered by wind, then it is better to avoid sitting near open windows or near the fan or air conditioning. Wearing a scarf wrapped around face helps when one is venturing out. Hot and spicy food or cold drinks may also trigger the TN pain. Using a straw to drink warm or cold drinks may also help. It is important to eat nourishing meals, however, so if chewing triggers pain one must, consider eating soft foods or semi-liquid meals.

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Keep your kids away from passive smoking, it can make them obese

Smoking can cause multiple health problems.

Passive smoking increases obesity in children and amplifies the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, researchers have found.

The team headed by Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at Georgia-based Augusta University, looked at passive smoke exposure in 220 overweight or obese boys and girls in the US.

The team found smoke exposure associated with nearly all measures of adiposity in the children, including bigger bellies and overall fat.

“The take-home message is that for these children, smoke exposure was connected to two major adverse health outcomes, one above the neck and one below the neck,” Davis said. “And every single one of our cognitive measures was poorer in the smoke-exposed children.”

(Also read: Smoking e-cigarettes can directly kill your lung cells)

Percentages of body fat in smoke-exposed children were substantially higher than in their also heavy peers, further amplifying their risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and more, Davis said in a paper published in the journal Childhood Obesity.

While previous studies have shown a relationship between overweight and reduced cognitive function, this research found passive smoke had an impact on cognition too that was independent of fat or socioeconomic status.

The findings suggest that at young age, passive smoke may have more effect on the amount of body fat rather than the metabolic dysfunction such as diabetes that fat may eventually cause.

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'Til Weight Loss Do Us Part?

Spouses should be consulted before obesity surgery, researchers suggest

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Study Confirms Eating Disorders' Deadly Toll

Those with anorexia 5 times more at risk of early death; bulimia also increases the risk, researchers say

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Beating bloating and IBS, the FODMAP diet way

Digestive disturbances seem to be on the rise, with people particularly complaining of bloating, flatulence, hyperacidity and IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).

The reasons are diverse but the most common causes of these are food related. Fermentation of undigested foods leads to formation of gases, which in turn leads to indigestion and other associated symptoms, IBS or inflammatory bowel disease.

Recognising this, researchers at The Monash University in Melbourne have coined a new term called ‘FODMAP – Fermentable-oligo-di-monosaccharides and polyols.

FODMAP refers to a group of poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates (sugars). Not all carbohydrates in our diets, however, are included in FODMAPs.

FODMAP stands for (F) Fermentable, the process through which gut bacteria break down undigested carbohydrate to produce gases (hydrogen, methane and carbon dioxide); (O) Oligo-saccarides include Fructo-oligosaccharides (Fructans) and Galacto-oligosaccharides (Galactans). Fructans are found in wheat, rye, onions and garlic. Wheat and wheat products such as pasta, bread, cereals, crackers and biscuits are a major source of fructans and Galactans are found in legumes/pulses such as chickpeas, beans and lentils; (D) Di-saccharides are carbohydrates which include two units of monosaccharides, for example: sucrose, lactose. Lactose is found in milk, yoghurt and cheese, and anything made from these, (M) Mono-saccharides are the most basic carbohydrates and include galactose, fructose, which is found in honey, apples; (A) and (P) Polyols which include sugar polyols (sorbitol, mannitol) are found in some fruits and vegetables and are used as artificial sweeteners in sugar-free mints/gums.

The low Fodmap diet is a relatively new approach to manage gastrointestinal disorders and is slowly gaining recognition as an effective diet to manage manage IBS, inflammatory bowel disease, bloating or flatulence. The aim of the diet is to identify which FODMAP foods, if any, cause symptoms. It involves restricting certain foods for up to 6-8 weeks, and then re-introducing them systematically back into the diet through ‘food challenges’ to identify any trigger foods. The low FODMAP diet is not a “No FODMAP diet”, as some FODMAPs are important for gut health. Nor is it a “lifetime diet.” After the 6-8 weeks, many people can return to their usual diet with just a few high FODMAP foods that need to be avoided or consumed in small amounts.

A recent review published in 2013 in the Journal Nutrition in Clinical Practice reported that nearly 86% of patients with IBS achieved relief of overall gastrointestinal symptoms and, more specifically, bloating, flatulence, abdominal pain, and altered bowel habit after following a low FODMAP diet.

Remember, there is no substitute to eating healthy and an active lifestyle. Before, you embark on any elimination, its advisable to consult a your health care professional.

Tips for low FODMAP diet:

> Follow the diet for 6 weeks. After this, add high FODMAP foods one at a time back into the diet in small amounts to identify foods that could be “triggers” to your symptoms.

> Limit foods that trigger your symptoms.

> Read food labels. Avoid foods made with high FODMAPs such as high FODMAP fruits, HFCS, honey, wheat, soy, etc. However, a food could be an overall low FODMAP food if a high FODMAP food listed as the last ingredient.

> Buy gluten free grains as they are wheat free. However, you do not need to follow a 100% gluten free diet as the focus is on FODMAPs, not gluten. Look for gluten free grains made with low FODMAPs, such as potato, quinoa, rice or corn.

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U.S. Weighs Changes to Blood Donations in Response to Zika Virus Outbreak

Temporary ban might be imposed on travelers returning from countries where the virus had taken hold

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Mistakes During Delivery Rarely Cause Newborn Brain Damage, Study Contends

Findings suggest closer scrutiny needed during the 2 hours following birth

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FDA Warns of Lead Poisoning Risk From Cosmetic Clay

Agency tells users of Bentonite Me Baby to stop using product, get checked by their doctor

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Zepatier Approved for Chronic Hepatitis C

Liver disease affects some 3 million Americans

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Boys Victims of Dating Violence, Too

Survey of ‘at risk’ teens finds males as likely as females to suffer abuse

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Study Links Diabetes, Obesity in Moms-to-Be to Higher Autism Risk in Kids

Combination may nearly quadruple risk, researchers say, but their review did not prove cause-and-effect

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Resistance to HIV Drug Growing, Study Finds

Problem affects almost two-thirds of those taking tenofovir in sub-Sahara Africa

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Health Highlights: Jan. 29, 2016

Cancer Research Task Force Created by President Obama Many on U.S. Pain Committee Have Links to Drug Industry /div

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Poorer Black Patients Have Lower Survival From Esophageal Cancer

Affluence seems key, since death rates didn’t vary by race at higher income levels, study found

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Suicide, Drugs Only Partly to Blame for Rising Deaths of Middle-Aged U.S. Whites

Commonwealth Fund also cites stalled progress against killers like heart disease, diabetes

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Health Tip: Don't Use Smartphone in the Bedroom

It can interfere with sleep

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Health Tip: Shed Poor Eating Habits

Start by eating a healthy breakfast

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Beware! Using paracetamol during pregnancy may harm fertility

Paracetamol can also cause asthma and developmental defects, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Using painkillers in pregnancy may reduce fertility in subsequent generations, warns a research.

Tests conducted on rats revealed that when a mother was given painkillers during pregnancy, her female offspring had fewer eggs, smaller ovaries and smaller litters of babies than those not exposed to the drugs, the study revealed.

The findings are significant given the similarities between the reproductive systems of rats and humans, although it is difficult to directly extrapolate these results to pregnant women, the researchers noted.

“It’s important to remember that this study was conducted in rats not humans, however, there are many similarities between the two reproductive systems,” said Richard Sharpe, professor at the University of Edinburgh in Britain.

In addition to affecting a mother’s immediate offspring, the study also showed that the effect of such drugs were extended to the subsequent generation of rats.

The resulting females – the grand daughters of the mother given painkillers in pregnancy – also had reduced ovary size and altered reproductive function, said the researchers.

(Also read: High intake of pain killers damages kidney)

Exposed male offspring were also affected at birth – showing smaller numbers of cells that give rise to sperm in later life.

However, their reproductive function recovered to normal levels by the time they reached adulthood, the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, said.

Pregnant women should stick with current guidelines to use painkillers at the lowest possible dose, for the shortest possible time, the researchers suggested.

Scientists tested the effects of two painkillers in pregnant rats – paracetamol and a prescription-only painkiller called indomethacin, which belongs to the same class of drugs as ibuprofen and aspirin.

Rats were given the drugs over the course of several days – four days for indomethacin or nine days for paracetamol.

“These studies involved the use of painkillers over a relatively long period. We now need to explore whether a shorter dose would have a similar effect, and how this information can be usefully translated to human use,” said co-author Richard Anderson, professor at the University of Edinburgh.

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Immunity Genes for E.Coli Found

Scientists see DNA as key factor in why illness strikes randomly

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Worldwide Boost in Breast-Feeding Could Save 800,000 Lives: Study

Global economy would also benefit from more mothers nursing their babies, study contends

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Zika Vaccine Efforts Get Boost From Prior Research

U.S. health officials say valuable lessons were learned during battles against other mosquito-borne viruses

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Sleepless Nights Might Raise Women's Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Insomnia can disrupt hormones, and may play a role in developing the blood sugar condition, expert says

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Too Few Older Adults Tell Doctors About Memory Loss: Study

Experts believe it’s often a taboo subject due to fears of dementia

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Exercise Has Its Limits for Losing Weight, Study Finds

Intense workout no more effective at burning calories than walking a couple of miles a day

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Hepatitis C Reported at 19 Dialysis Clinics: CDC

Health officials blame lapses in infection control practices

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More Women Killed by Someone They Know in States With High Gun Rates

Reducing firearms might cut killings by family members, researchers suggest

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Health Highlights: Jan. 28, 2016

Cancer Research Task Force Created by President Obama Many on U.S. Pain Committee Have Links to Drug Industry /div

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Prenatal Antidepressant Use Not Linked to Infant Heart Defects: Study

Obesity, alcohol and illicit drugs are greater threats in pregnancy, researchers find

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Study Finds No Proof of 'Seasonal' Depression

Rates of mood disorder don’t vary by time of year or sunlight exposure, researchers say

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Bedbugs Biting Back Against Insecticide

Researchers find a strong resistance to the most widely used pesticide group

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Wearable Electric Patch May Ease PTSD

Researchers found symptoms decreased in civilians who tried the device; vets are now being tested

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Health Tip: Getting Healthier After Cancer

Diet and exercise are key

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Health Tip: Protect Your Pets During a Snowstorm

Bring them indoors

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Menopause and depression: Sedentary lifestyle can worsen symptoms

Regular exercise can reduce menopause symptoms like hot flashes, depression, anxiety, joint pains, vaginal dryness and bladder problems. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Sedentary middle-aged women in Latin America have significantly worse menopause symptoms than their active counterparts, reveals a study.

The sedentary women were also more likely to be obese and to have higher scores on depression, anxiety, and insomnia scales, the study revealed.

“Less menopause misery is just one of the positive impacts of being active for women at midlife,” said JoAnn V. Pinkerton, executive director of the North American Menopause Society in Ohio, US

(Also read: Short Course: Caffeine may worsen menopausal hot flashes, night sweats)

The study found 64 percent of women leading a sedentary lifestyle. Some 16 percent of them had severe menopause symptoms compared with 11 percent of the active women.

Results of earlier studies on the ability of exercise to reduce menopause symptoms have been conflicting, but this study, published online in the journal Menopause, adds some weight to the exercise side of the equation.

The study analysed data from the Collaborative Group for Research of the Climacteric in Latin America surveys and health records of 6,079 women, ages 40 to 59, who attended one of 20 urban health centres in 11 Latin American countries.

(Also read: Regular workouts reduce menopause symptoms)

Symptoms on the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) questionnaire include somatic symptoms, such as hot flashes and joint pains, psychological symptoms such as depressed mood and anxiety, and urogenital symptoms such as sexual problems, vaginal dryness, and bladder problems.

The women also answered other questions, such as what their activity level and menopause status were.

Women were considered to be sedentary if they reported fewer than 3 weekly sessions of physical activity, such as walking, jogging, or swimming, that lasted 30 minutes or longer, and menopause symptoms were considered severe if the MRS score was 16 or more.

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Smoking e-cigarettes can directly kill your lung cells

Claims that e-cigarettes offer a viable and healthy way to quit conventional cigarettes and do not pose danger to nonsmokers are false. (Photo: Thinkstock)

A team of US researchers has found that e-cigarettes are toxic and can directly attack lung cells, weakening the immune system and boosting bacterial virulence.

“The study shows that e-cigarette vapour is not benign — at high doses it can directly kill lung cells which is frightening,” said senior author Laura E. Crotty Alexander, staff physician at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and assistant clinical professor at University of California’s (UC) San Diego School of Medicine.

(Also read: Flavoured e-cigarettes can damage lungs, says Harvard study)

“We already knew that inhaling heated chemicals, including the e-liquid ingredients nicotine and propylene glycol, could not possibly be good for you. This work confirms that inhalation of e-cigarette vapour daily leads to changes in the inflammatory milieu inside the airways,” Alexander added in a paper published in the Journal of Molecular Medicine.

Alexander’s team saw their findings hold up in mice. Inflammatory markers — signs of full-body inflammation — in the airways and blood of mice that inhaled e-cigarette vapours for one hour a day, five days a week, for four weeks were elevated by 10 percent compared to unexposed mice.

(Also read: E-cigarettes not healthy alternative to smoking)

“Some of the changes we have found in mice are also found in the airways and blood of conventional cigarette smokers, while others are found in humans with cancer or inflammatory lung diseases,” Alexander noted.

Conversely, the study also showed that bacterial pathogens exposed to e-cigarette vapour benefited.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which are responsible for nitrate reduction in the body, were better able to form biofilms, adhere to and invade airway cells and resist human anti-microbial peptides after exposure to e-cigarette vapour.

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Scientists Uncover Clues to Origins of Schizophrenia

Analysis found gene variant prompts too much ‘pruning’ in brain during teen years

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Small Number of Doctors Trigger Big Share of Malpractice Payouts

Study ties physicians’ future claims risk to past claims experience, specialty, sex and age

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Did Studies Lack Key Data on Link Between Antidepressants, Youth Suicides?

New analysis finds much greater risk of aggression, self-harm

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Eating Certain Fruits, Veggies May Help a Bit With Weight Control

Study found those who ate apples, pears, berries, peppers had better weight management in long run

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New Transplant Technique Might Free Type 1 Diabetics From Daily Injections

Mouse study showed that putting insulin-producing cells in capsules protected them from immune system

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Melanoma Strikes Earlier If Indoor Tanning Begins in Teens: Study

Findings support ban on tanning beds, researcher says

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Too Much Social Media Could Mess Up Your Sleep, Study Finds

The more time young adults spent online, the tougher it was to be well-rested, researchers say

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Seniors Need to Take Extra Care in the Cold

U.S. National Institute on Aging warns about hypothermia

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Too Sedentary? There's an App for That

Pilot study shows that smartphone reminders get people moving more

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Excess Weight Has 'Unexpected' Effect on Puberty Onset in Boys

Sexual maturity slowed in obese kids, but sped up in those who were only overweight, study found

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Health Highlights: Jan. 27, 2016

Heroin, Painkiller Overdose Drug Offered Free to High Schools /div

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Appalachia Cancer Rates Higher Than Average, But Shrinking

Smoking, poverty are key contributors, U.S. study says

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Health Tip: Protect Your Child's Eyes

Keep harmful objects out of reach

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Health Tip: Lead a Healthier Lifestyle

Here’s how

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Health hazard: Smokers who quit 15 years ago still at high lung cancer risk

Want to change your life? Give up smoking. (Photo: AP)

People who kicked the butt as long as 15 years ago are still at high risk for lung cancer and should be screened, warn researchers.

The current lung cancer screening criteria set by the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends CT screening for adults between ages 55 and 80 who have smoked at least one pack a day for 30 years and are still smoking or have quit within 15 years.

In a new study, lead author Ping Yang, epidemiologist at Mayo Clinic Cancer Centre, and colleagues found that two-thirds of patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer would not meet the current USPSTF screening criteria, suggesting a need to adjust the definition of patients at high risk.

They found that compared to other risk categories, patients who quit smoking for 15 to 30 years accounted for the greatest percentage of patients with lung cancer who didn’t qualify for screening.

“We were surprised to find that the incidence of lung cancer was proportionally higher in this subgroup, compared to other subgroups of former cigarette smokers,” Yang noted.

The common assumption is that after a person has quit for so many years, the lung cancer rate would be so low that it wouldn’t be noticeable.

“We found that assumption to be wrong. This suggests we need to pay attention to people who quit smoking more than 15 years ago, because they are still at high risk for developing lung cancer,” Yang added in a paper published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.

Equally important, the findings showed that expanding the criteria for CT screening would save more lives with an acceptable amount of radiation exposure and cost.

If true in large populations, the authors recommend that policymakers should consider changing the lung cancer screening guidelines to include people who quit smoking more than 15 years ago.

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Is your child obese? Practicing mindfulness while eating can aid weight loss

The practice of mindfulness can increase response inhibition and decrease impulsivity, hence aiding weight loss regimen by curbing compulsive eating. (Source: Joseph Choi via Flickr)

Researchers at a US university have found that brains of obese children function differently from those of children of healthy weight, and suggest that diet and exercise may not be enough to restore their normal weight.

The study conducted at the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Tennessee said mindfulness — a practice used as a therapeutic technique to focus awareness — should be studied as a way to encourage healthy eating and weight loss in children.

“Adults — and especially children — are primed towards eating more,” said senior author Kevin Niswender.

“This is great from an evolutionary perspective, but in today’s world — full of readily available, highly advertised, energy dense foods — it is putting children at risk of obesity.”

“We think mindfulness could recalibrate the imbalance in the brain connections associated with childhood obesity,” added co-author Ronald Cowan.

——————————————————–

Also read

Want to avoid gaining weight? Chew your food slowly

Everyday mindfulness can cut belly fat

——————————————————–

Using MRI scan, the researchers found that unhealthy eating behaviours and obesity could reflect an imbalance in the functional connectivity of brain areas associated with response inhibition, impulsivity and reward.

The practice of mindfulness can increase response inhibition and decrease impulsivity.

Although mindfulness has had mixed results when used for weight loss and weight control among adults — reflecting “the extreme tenaciousness of adult obesity,” as well as age-related loss of brain plasticity — the study supports the importance of early identification of children at risk for obesity, and the need to develop novel methods to treat and prevent it, the researchers said.

The study findings were published on January 21 in the journal Heliyon.

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CDC Broadens Zika Virus Travel Alert for Pregnant Women

U.S. agency says those at risk should avoid U.S. Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic

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Suicide Risk Rises Among Family, Friends of Suicide Victims: Study

Social stigma can isolate those who are grieving, researcher explains

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People Gamble More When They Think Things Are 'Going Their Way'

Unexpected sunny days, sports team wins tied to more lottery spending, study finds

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Smoking Lowers Breast Cancer Survival, Study Finds

Smoking after diagnosis tied to 72 percent higher risk of death from the disease versus never smoking

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Cancer's Financial Burden Tied to Poorer Survival, Study Finds

Economic stress may force patients to forgo vital treatments, experts say

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Blood Donors Needed After East Coast Storm: Red Cross

Many drives were canceled for bad weather, but donations are desperately sought

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Parents Often Ill-Informed About Food-Allergy Emergencies

Many don’t know how, when to use epinephrine, study finds

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Miss Slinky 2016 : Girl goes from size 22 to a petite 10 taking up THIS easy diet

WHAT happens when one day you turn around and realise your life isn’t how you want it to be? Well, this young lady found out.

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Depression Screening Should Include All Pregnant, Postpartum Women: Panel

As many as 1 in 10 shows signs of mood disorder after birth, says task force

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Prenatal Vitamin D Supplements May Not Lower Baby's Asthma Risk: Study

But since the nutrient can help ease other ills, supplementation may not be a bad idea, experts say

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No Clear Winner Seen Among Stop-Smoking Aids in Study

Whether you use the nicotine patch, lozenges or Chantix, strong desire to quit is key, experts say

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College Kids Spend a Fifth of Class Time on Digital Devices: Survey

Many are texting, emailing or checking social media

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After Heart Surgery, House Calls by Physician's Assistants Help

Patients who had two visits were less likely to need hospital readmission, study says

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Weight May Influence Outcomes After Lung Cancer Surgery

Study found the very thin or very obese had the highest odds for complications

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Daily Caffeine Doesn't Seem to Jolt the Heart: Study

Coffee lovers don’t appear to risk extra heartbeats

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Health Highlights: Jan. 26, 2016

Smokers Want Cigarette Maker to Pay for Lung Scans 41 Million Young Children Overweight or Obese Worldwide: WHO /div

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Health Tip: Create a Healthier Sandwich

Opt for whole grains and low-fat ingredients

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Health Tip: Make a Delivery Checklist

Be ready when baby arrives

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Long-Term Smog Exposure May Boost Heart, Lung Disease Deaths

Study finds traffic pollution a big contributor

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Study Finds Stool Test Effective for Detecting Colon Cancer

Colonoscopy still preferred screening, but this offers less invasive option, researchers say

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Women's Heart Attacks Are Different Than Men's, Experts Stress

American Heart Association points out critical differences in new scientific statement

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Schools Must Do More to Combat Obesity Among Hispanic Kids: Report

Researchers call for policies promoting exercise, good nutrition

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Many Chronic Pain Sufferers May Overuse Nonprescription Painkillers

They run risk of stomach bleeds, ulcers, liver damage from meds, doctors say

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Obstetricians' Group Urges Docs to Help Support Breast-Feeding

Physicians can be resource for new moms, says American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

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Zika Virus Expected to Spread North Through U.S.: WHO

Common mosquito spreads infection; Americans have no immunity

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Free Nicotine Patches by Mail May Help Smokers Quit

Intervention helped boost success rates a bit, even when counseling wasn’t included, study found

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Chickenpox, Shingles Vaccines Linked to Rare Eye Inflammation

But study doesn’t prove cause-and-effect

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Preventable Ills Cause Nearly 8 Million Childhood Deaths Globally

Diarrhea, respiratory infections are top killers, research shows

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More People Under 50 Getting Colon Cancer, Analysis Finds

Though guidelines suggest screening starts at 50, researcher says it’s premature to change them

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Secondhand Smoke in Hookah Bars May Put Employees at Risk

Study results challenge notion that exposure to hookah smoking is safe

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Health Tip: Shopping for Healthier Foods

Check product labels

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Health Highlights: Jan. 25, 2016

About 41 Million Young Children Overweight or Obese Worldwide: WHO Some Employee Wellness Plans in Conflict with Federal Agency Death Reported in Dole Salad

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Health Tip: Be Mindful

It can help your physical and emotional well-being

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The essentials of ensuring a healthy meal for your kid amid busy schedules

A mother always wants the best kind of nutrition for her child. The present day and age makes the task tougher despite an availability of rows and rows of products promising nutrition in various forms. How does she zero in on something that ensures the best, tailor-made meal for her child?

While values of a wholesome breakfast are well known, and time and again the importance of the ‘most important meal of the day’ is reminded to kids by mums, it is still a struggle for mothers to get their kids to enjoy the breakfast process, with huge instances of dislike towards milk! And then for snacks there is junk food and a tantalizing desire to grab that burger and a soft drink.

Time, of course, has a crucial role to play and in between waking up, getting ready for school and getting back home after a long day is draining for a school going child – of every age. A mother indeed has a tough life figuring a daily healthy, tasty nutrition format in a short span that comes packed with the goodness of fruits, vegetables, pulses and minerals. Getting a kid to consume all of that can be safely concluded to be not an easy task.

Vitamins are essential organic nutrients, most of which are not made in the body or only in insufficient amounts, and are mainly obtained through food.

Keeping in mind the current lifestyle and food habits, Horlicks is formulated with essentials of barley, wheat and vital nutrients which would help child grow taller, stronger and sharper. The formulation provides 100 % RDA of nutrients like Vitamin D, B1, B2, B6, B12, C and Iron.

A child’s body needs extra attention to enhance the five essential signs of growth – body, mind, muscle, bone and blood health. While micronutrient supplement plays an important role in decreasing occurrence of diseases like anemia, and prevents deficiencies, the role played by Iron, Zinc and Copper is vital as well. Consuming Horlicks twice a day, with milk, is certain to go a long way in balancing the required nutrition your child regularly needs.

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Have you heard of WhatsAppitis/Smartphone Pinky? If you’re texting on your phone a lot, you could even have it

‘WhatsAppitis’ and ‘Smartphone Pinky’ — caused by excessive smartphone usage — are indeed legit diseases. (Source: Thinkstock Images)

Have you noticed that your fingers are turning ‘Pinky’ lately as you are busy chatting and texting on smartphone? If yes, then you are not alone.

‘Smartphone Pinky’ — a perceived bend in the little finger on one’s dominant hand — may occur in people who use the device for at least six hours a day, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

“Although the chances of a person permanently bending their finger through smartphone use are ‘pretty slim’, it would take a minimum of around six hours a day of applied force on soft tissue to evoke change,” Dave Parsons, clinical fellow at Curtin University in Australia, was quoted as saying.

The bend is purported to have been caused by the weight of holding a smartphone with one’s smallest finger at its base, while the other fingers support the phone along its longer side. According to Parsons, smartphone-related injuries are much more likely to occur at the other end of your hand. “With the size of the face of phones increasing, the thumbs now have to move a greater distance when using the phone,” he noted.

———————————————————–

Also read

Aches and pains in your wrist and fingers? Give your smartphone some rest 

Suffering from ‘missing smartphone anxiety’?

————————————————————

The easiest way to prevent injury when using a smartphone is to avoid long, sustained periods of use.

A recent report in the prestigious medical journal — The Lancet — said that ‘WhatsAppitis’ is indeed a credible disease, after a doctor in Spain diagnosed a 34-year-old female patient with bilateral wrist pain induced by excessive use of WhatsApp.

“She held her mobile phone for at least six hours and continuously used both thumbs to send messages to relatives and friends,” Spanish physician Ines M Fernandez-Guerrero wrote in the journal. The next morning, that woman woke up with aching wrists.

“The diagnosis for the bilateral wrist pain was ‘WhatsAppitis’,” Fernandez-Guerrero added.

He treated the woman with non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs and asked her to completely avoid using the cell phone to send messages.

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Eating healthy on weekdays, junk on weekends as bad as regular junk-bingeing

Yo-yoing between eating well during the week and bingeing on junk food over the weekend is likely to be just as bad for your gut health as a consistent diet of junk food. (Source: Pixabay/Wikimedia Commons)

If you are strict with your diet during the week and eat junk over the weekend, then may be you are undoing all the good work done during the week.

The human gut consists of up to 100 trillion microbial cells that influence metabolism, nutrition and immune function. Disruption to the gut microbiota has been linked with gastrointestinal conditions — such as inflammatory bowel disease and obesity.

“The study was the first to compare how continuous — or intermittent — exposure to an unhealthy diet can impact the composition of the gut microbiota,” said lead author Margaret Morris from the University of New South Wales in Australia in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

“A reduction in the diversity of the gut’s microbiota, and a loss of some of the beneficial biota is clearly not a good thing for health,” Morris stated.

————————————————————

Also read

The many dangers of ‘yo-yo dieting’

Apple-shaped women more prone to binge eating

————————————————————

The study examined the impact of yo-yo dieting on the gut microbiota of rats. “The findings indicate that intermittent exposure to junk food three days a week is sufficient to extensively shift the gut microbiota towards the pattern seen in obese rats consuming the diet continuously,” Morris added.

The research team compared the abundance of microbiota in rats given continuous access to either a healthy diet or junk food with a group cycled between the two diets — healthy for four days and junk for three — over 16 weeks.

The study showed that rats on the cycled diet were 18 per cent heavier than those on the healthy diet, while leptin and insulin levels in cycled rats were in between levels of rats fed junk or healthy food. The microbiota of cycled rats was almost indistinguishable from rats fed a constant diet of junk — with both groups’ microbiota significantly different from those in the rats fed a healthy diet — the researchers found.

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Chronic stress ups risk of developing dementia, depression: Study

Don’t brush off chronic stress as a normal part of modern, fast-paced life. It can snowball into major depression, and even dementia. (Source: Thinkstock Images)

People who suffer from chronic stress and anxiety may be at an increased risk for developing depression — and even dementia — a new study suggests.

Experiencing anxiety, fear and stress is considered a normal part of life when it is occasional and temporary — such as feeling anxious and stressed before an exam or a job interview.

However, when those acute emotional reactions become more frequent or chronic, they can significantly interfere with daily living activities such as work, school and relationships, according to researchers at Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences in Canada.

Chronic stress is a pathological state that is caused by prolonged activation of the normal acute physiological stress response, which can wreak havoc on immune, metabolic and cardiovascular systems, and lead to atrophy of the brain’s hippocampus — which is crucial for long-term memory and spatial navigation.

————————————————————-

Also read

Therapy program for depression may be beneficial in the long term

Email anxiety new health hazard for young Indian professionals

————————————————————-

Researchers examined recent evidence from studies of stress and fear conditioning in animal models, and neuroimaging studies of stress and anxiety in healthy individuals and in clinical populations. They looked specifically at key structures in the neurocircuitry of fear and anxiety — amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus — which are impacted during exposure to chronic stress.

The researchers noted similar patterns of abnormal brain activity with fear/anxiety and chronic stress — specifically an overactive amygdala (associated with emotional responses) and an under-active PFC (thinking areas of the brain that help regulate emotional responses through cognitive appraisal). The findings showed that there is an ‘extensive overlap’ of the brain’s neurocircuitry in all three conditions.

“Pathological anxiety and chronic stress are associated with structural degeneration and impaired functioning of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which may account for the increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and dementia,” said Linda Mah from Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute.

“Antidepressant treatment and physical activity have both been found to increase hippocampal neurogenesis,” she said.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

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From the lab: On course to developing an anti-dengue cure

We have been working on dengue for a few years now and have been able to develop a very successful dengue diagnostic kit using recombinant DNA technology. This kit, which had been developed in 2009, provides the most common diagnostic test for dengue now and is much more accurate and cheap than the imported alternatives that were available in the Indian market earlier. It is the only kit that detects dengue on the very first day of the viral fever. It can also be used to detect whether a mosquito is carrying the dengue virus or not and therefore can be used for mosquito surveillance in a given area.

Our success with the diagnostic kit, which was the result of a very useful research partnership between laboratory, industry and a government agency like the Department of Biotechnology, has encouraged us to take our fight with dengue to the next level.

Dengue is caused by four viruses. As of now, no diagnostic test, including our own kit, is able to establish which of the four viruses is the reason for dengue in any particular individual. In terms of the impacts of the disease on the person, it does not matter. Each of the four viruses produces similar effects on the patient. But we have often found more than one virus co-circulating in a patient. This can be more dangerous and requires greater medical attention.

We, in collaboration with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, are now in the process of developing a reagent which will be able to tell at an early stage, within 10 minutes, which of the four viruses is causing dengue in a patient and whether more than one of them are present. This is a very complicated test but is scientifically possible.

We are not even stopping here. We are very close to developing a drug for dengue. Currently, there is no cure for dengue. The disease can only be managed by maintaining a certain minimum amount of White Blood Cell and platelet counts. We have been able to develop an anti-dengue herbal solution. It is an ayurvedic solution mixed with modern medicine. It has been tested successfully on mice. On oral feeding of this plant, the dengue virus from the test mice was seen to have disappeared. Last month, in December, we also published a paper on our findings of the efficacy of this herbal cure. We have also obtained patents on this herbal medicine in 17 countries.

Further development of anti-dengue herbal cure would have been possible earlier, but the partnering pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy was bought over by a Japanese firm, which lacked expertise in development of herbal medicines.

This venture of the Japanese firm has now been bought by another Indian company, Sun Pharma, which wants to take this forward once again. We are in the process of taking our application to AYUSH, the government department responsible for traditional forms of medicine. The human trials will follow. If all goes well and on schedule, we are likely to have an effective herbal drug for dengue in the Indian market in the next few years.

Navin Khanna & team
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

(For your research to be considered for this column, please write to
Senior Editor Amitabh Sinha at amitabh.sinha@expressindia.com)

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Healthy-Eating Tots Still Like Junk Food

Obesity prevention efforts may need to do more than encourage kids to eat fruits and veggies, experts say

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Only 5 percent pregnant women get counselling for thyroid disorders in India

The prevalence of thyroid screening ranges between 5-10 percent in government hospitals and 20-25 percent in private hospitals. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Only five percent of India’s women get counselling for thyroid disorders during pregnancy, increasing the risk of a slew of medical complications, including miscarriages and postpartum bleeding, a white paper on the issue said.

It also said that less than one percent women in both public and private hospitals get complete Thyroid Panel tests routinely done currently in the country.

The prevalence of thyroid diseases in India currently was 10.95 percent, almost double the diabetes cases at 5.4 percent of the country’s population.

Treating hypothyroidism is costlier than abortion it triggers, said the white paper.

The white paper on ‘Impact and Assessment of Thyroid and Influenza disorders on Mother and Child Health’ was jointly launched by business chamber FICCI and Frost and Sullivan, a company working to address global challenges.

It said there was not much difference between public health service providers and private healthcare settings when it comes to screening for thyroid.

(Also read: Pre-pregnancy potato consumption ups risk of diabetes during pregnancy)

The prevalence of thyroid screening ranges between 5-10 percent in government hospitals and 20-25 percent in private hospitals.

The impact of thyroid disorders is not visible early enough; however, optimum levels of thyroid hormones during the first three months of pregnancy are critical for the brain development in foetuses.

In India, hypothyroidism rate is 1 in 800 neonates as against a global average of 1 in 3,800.

The white paper also advocated the urgent need for influenza vaccination for all pregnant women.

“A significant number of clinicians interviewed endorsed the need for screening test for thyroid disorders and most agreed to give flu vaccinations to pregnant women. Currently it is a gap area and many hospitals do not do this routinely,” said Ankita Kothari, industry analyst, Frost and Sullivan.

Vandana Gurnani, joint secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said: “India has made tremendous progress in bringing down maternal and child mortality, made possible by multiple interventions at various stages before, during and after pregnancies.“

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Here’s why you can’t control those sweet cravings

Addictions can be dangerous! (Photo: Thinkstock)

A habit leaves a lasting mark on specific circuits in the brain, pushing us to feed our cravings, reveals a new study.

The study elucidates how habits like sugar and other vices manifest in the brain and refuse to take leave.

“One day, we may be able to target these circuits in people to help promote habits that we want and kick out those that we don’t want,” said Nicole Calakos, an associate professor at the Duke University in North Carolina, in the US.

An addiction to one thing can make a person more likely to engage in other unhealthy habits or addictions as well, the findings revealed.

The researchers trained otherwise healthy mice to form sugar habits of varying severity, a process that entailed pressing a lever to receive tiny sweets.

(Also read: Expert Advice: How to conquer those sugar cravings)

The animals that became hooked kept pressing the lever even after the treats were removed. The researchers then compared the brains of mice that had formed a habit to the ones that didn’t.

In particular, the research team studied the electrical activity in the basal ganglia — a complex network of brain areas that controls motor actions and compulsive behaviours, including drug addiction — of the mice.

In the basal ganglia, two main types of paths carry opposing messages were found: One carries a ‘go’ signal that spurs an action, the other a ‘stop’ signal, the researchers said.

Experiments revealed that the stop and go pathways were both more active in the sugar-habit mice, the findings published online in the journal Neuron, showed.

(Also read: Sugar addict? 6 problems you are likely to face)

For more ordinary bad habits “simpler, behavioural strategies many of us try may also tap into similar mechanisms”, Calakos added.

Researchers are exploring how this method can be translated into help for humans with bad habits.

A study is underway to detect the possibility of treating drug addiction using transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS — a noninvasive technique that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain, Calakos said.

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Obesity Before Pregnancy Tied to Raised Risk of Newborn Death

Infant deaths related to premature delivery are doubled in obese women, researchers say

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Flu Season Stays Mild, With Slow Uptick in Activity

CDC expert says infections are expected to pick up, and it’s not too late to get vaccinated

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The many health benefits of sweet potatoes

In spite of its name, sweet potato is not related to the potato family and is quite different nutritionally too. It belongs to the morning glory family and the potato is a tuber or a thickened stem — the sweet potato is a storage root. Loaded with nutrients, sweet potatoes have made it to the list of top 10 diabetes super foods by the American Diabetes Association.

Though its origin lies in Latin America, Asia is its largest producer. Its importance is growing and it is the sixth most important food crop after rice, wheat, potatoes, maize and cassava.

High in starch and fiber, the nature of carbohydrates differs from that in potatoes. Its high fiber content contributes to a lower glycemic index 44, which is almost half of potatoes (glycemic index 80). This property contributes to sweet potato being a useful carbohydrate source for weight watchers and diabetics.

According to a 2004 study led by University of Vienna associate professor Dr Berhhard Ludvik and published in the journal “Diabetes Care,” Type 2 diabetic patients treated with sweet potato saw significant decreases in fasting blood glucose levels and overall improvement in glucose control. Sweet potato when eaten with the skin has more fiber than oatmeal.

Cooking methods also affect the glycemic index of a sweet potato. For diabetics, certain cooking methods are more conducive to managing blood sugar levels. Boiled or mashed sweet potatoes, for instance, are not recommended as they are digested faster, thus increasing their glycemic index and possibly causing blood sugar levels to spike. Similar to fiber, fat will slow the rate of digestion and therefore maintain the low glycemic index. A cooking method for sweet potatoes that is good for diabetics is sautéing in oil or roasting with the skins on. Sweet potato comes in a variety of skin colours that range from white to yellow, orange, and deep purple.

According to the American Diabetes Association, sweet potato has high fiber, antioxidant nutrients like Vitamin A, Vitamin C, zinc, and other micronutrients like potassium, magnesium, iron and Vitamin B, which help in diabetes management and prevention of complications such as heart attacks and stroke.

Orange-fleshed sweet potato is an important source of beta-carotene, the precursor to Vitamin A. Just 125 g of fresh sweet potato from orange-fleshed varieties contain enough beta-carotene to provide the daily pro-Vitamin A needs of a preschooler. One medium (100 gms) sweet potato, baked with the skin, has about four times the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of Vitamin A and almost half the recommendation for Vitamin C. Nutrients in sweet potatoes are also useful for people suffering from obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

A 2011 animal study conducted at School of Medicine and Life Sciences, Zhejiang University City College, China reported that purple sweet potato flavonoids can decrease blood glucose and lipids levels. A staple food source for many ancient populations, sweet potato has also been found to have special cancer preventing properties, which are present in the purple-fleshed sweet potato.

Anthocyanins, which give the purple colour to sweet potatoes are powerful bioavailable antioxidants, which are utilised efficiently by the body.

Overall, sweet potatoes are a healthy source of carbohydrates. Remember to watch your portions and substitute these for other carbohydrates and don’t go overboard!

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Migraines May Worsen as Menopause Approaches

Researchers say hormonal changes and painkiller overuse may be to blame

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Gecko Study Squashes Dreams of a Real 'Spiderman'

Lizard may be the limit for sticky footpads that could scale vertical walls, scientists say

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Majority of Americans Wants Medicare to Cover Obesity Treatments

Survey finds about three-quarters support expanding care to cover weight-loss drugs

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Health Highlights: Jan. 22, 2016

Cough Syrup With Morphine Recalled California Child Vaccination Rates Increase /div

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As Winter Storm Targets Eastern U.S., Tips for Stepping Out Safely

Try footwear with good traction and walking carefully with low center of gravity, expert suggests

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'Standing Desks' in Classrooms May Kickstart Kids' Activity

Staying upright might also lead to improved behavior, research suggests

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More Patients Satisfied With Doctor Visits: Survey

Physician’s expertise, time spent in exam room and online access to information were key factors in trend

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Clot-Busters Might Be Useful for 'Previously Dependent' Stroke Patients

Study finds favorable results among older adults who already had health problems

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Health Tip: Is Your Heating System Ready for Winter?

Inspect it regularly

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Health Tip: Promote Healthier Eating in Kids

Suggestions to foster good habits

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A simple blood test can predict if you need antibiotics

Excess use of antibiotics can be dangerous. (Photo: Thinkstock)

Researchers at Duke University Medical Centre have developed a blood test that can determine whether a respiratory illness is caused by infection from a virus or bacteria so that proper antibiotics can be prescribed.

The team developed what it calls gene signatures – patterns that reflect which of a patient’s genes are turned on or off to indicate whether someone is fighting infection from a virus or bacteria.

Results can be derived from a small sample of the patient’s blood. The signatures were tested in an observational study described in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

(Also read: Doctors feel pressured to prescribe antibiotics to satisfy patients)

They were found to be 87 percent accurate in classifying more than 300 patients with flu viruses, rhinovirus, several strep bacteria and other common infections, as well as showing when no infection was present.

A respiratory infection is one of the most common reasons people come to the doctor.

“But there’s no efficient or highly accurate way to determine whether the infection is bacterial or viral. Most patients end up on antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection despite the fact that the majority have viral infections. There are risks to excess antibiotic use, both to the patient and to public health,” explained,” said lead author Ephraim L Tsalik, assistant professor of medicine at Duke.

The new technique is more accurate than other tests that look for the presence of specific microbes, the authors report.

(Also read: ICMR Study: Nearly 50% people are resistant to antibiotics for common infections)

“More precise ways of distinguishing infections could not only reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics, but also lead to more precise treatments of viruses,” added senior author Geoffrey S Ginsburg.

Still, with current technology, measuring a person’s gene expression profile from blood could take as long as 10 hours.

The researchers are currently working with developers to create a one-hour test that could be used in clinics.

“Right now, we can give patients Tamiflu to help them recover from an influenza infection, but for most viral infections, the treatment is fluids and rest until it resolves,” Ginsburg noted.

With these findings, Duke researchers are a significant step closer to developing a rapid blood test that could be used in clinics to distinguish bacterial and viral infections and to guide appropriate treatment.

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It’s true: Your brain can store information as much as the World Wide Web

Your brain can be a powerhouse of information.

Our brain may have a memory capacity 10 times larger than previously thought and can store a petabyte of information – as much as the entire Web, a new study has found.

The finding answers a longstanding question as to how the brain is so energy efficient and could help engineers build computers that are incredibly powerful but also conserve energy.

“Our new measurements of the brain’s memory capacity increase conservative estimates by a factor of 10 to at least a petabyte, in the same ballpark as the World Wide Web,” said Terry Sejnowski from Salk Institute for Biological Studies in US.

(Also read: Diet diary: Memory loss starts in 30s, correct your diet to fight it)

Our memories and thoughts are the result of patterns of electrical and chemical activity in the brain. A key part of the activity happens when branches of neurons, much like electrical wire, interact at certain junctions, known as synapses, researchers said.

“When we first reconstructed every dendrite, axon, glial process, and synapse from a volume of hippocampus the size of a single red blood cell, we were somewhat bewildered by the complexity and diversity amongst the synapses,” said Kristen Harris from the University of Texas.

Synapses are still a mystery, though their dysfunction can cause a range of neurological diseases.

Larger synapses – with more surface area and vesicles of neurotransmitters – are stronger, making them more likely to activate their surrounding neurons than medium or small synapses.

(Also read: Get 8 hours of sleep to improve your memory)

The researchers, while building a 3D reconstruction of rat hippocampus tissue (the memory centre of the brain), noticed that in some cases, a single axon from one neuron formed two synapses reaching out to a single dendrite of a second neuron, signifying that the first neuron seemed to be sending a duplicate message to the receiving neuron.

Researchers used advanced microscopy and computational algorithms they had developed to image rat brains and reconstruct the connectivity, shapes, volumes and surface area of the brain tissue down to a nanomolecular level.

The scientists found that the synapses were nearly identical, on average only about eight per cent different in size.

(Also read: Daily exercise boosts brain power)

Because the memory capacity of neurons is dependent upon synapse size, this eight per cent difference turned out to be a key number the team could then plug into their algorithmic models of the brain to measure how much information could potentially be stored in synaptic connections.

“Our data suggests there are 10 times more discrete sizes of synapses than previously thought,” said Tom Bartol from Salks Institute.

The findings also offer a valuable explanation for the brain’s surprising efficiency. The waking adult brain generates only about 20 watts of continuous power – as much as a very dim light bulb.

The findings were published in the journal eLife.

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