Tuesday, 16 October 2012

17 October, 2012 Clippings


Regular exercise helps preventing stroke
Regular exercise could play an important therapeutic role in stroke, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases among the elder people, Hungarian scientist Z Radak said on Monday.
“Regular exercises positively affect the brain function as well as play an important preventive and therapeutic role in stroke, Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases,” Radak said while taking part at an international symposium on Ageing held in Shillong.
The Hungarian scientist said Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are continuously generated during aerobic metabolism apart from stimulating a number of stress responses and activate gene expression for a wide range of proteins.
The ROS, necessary activators of stress responses, activate gene expression for a wide range of proteins, he said.
“Data from our laboratories indicate that exercise induced modulation of ROS levels plays a role in the protein content....” the scientist said.
Radak observed that regular exercise improves the physiological performance of skeletal and cardiac muscle which decrease the incidence of a wide range of diseases including heart and vascular.
Themed ‘Problems and prospects of elderly in today’s world’, the three day symposium which is also the 16th biennial conference of the Association of Gerontology in the country held at the North Eastern Hill University here drew participants from Japan, Germany, USA and from hosts India
17.10.2012
Childhood asthma may pass on to many generations
An Indian origin scientist was recently awarded a two-year, 377,220-dollar grant by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct a study that could potentially lead to effective treatments and prevention of asthma, which is currently a major public health challenge.

Virender Rehan, M.D., principal investigator at The Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), focuses on understanding the detrimental effects of maternal smoking, not only on the exposed offspring but also on the many generations that follow.

More specifically, the proposed study will determine if the risk of childhoodasthma induced following exposure to cigarette smoke during pregnancy is limited only to the offspring of the exposed pregnancy, or if this risk is carried to grandchildren or even great-grandchildren.

"While it is widely known that maternal smoking can pose problems for an unborn child, including asthma, this study is important in that it sheds light on the depth of the issue and raises concerns about the effects of smoke exposure during pregnancy on subsequent generations," said Dr. Rehan.

Studies have shown that exposure to nicotine in utero affects lung growth and differentiation by altering specific mechanisms that are necessary for fetal lung development, which often results in an offspring's predisposition to asthma.

Now there is strong evidence that these alterations in the structure and function of the lung caused by nicotine exposure during pregnancy can be passed from one generation to the next.

Dr. Rehan's concept is novel and innovative. This study has already been recognized as ground-breaking and is likely to dramatically change our understanding of asthma.

Moreover, by using comprehensive cell-molecular-epigenetic studies to understand the transgenerational effects of smoking on the prevalence of asthma, this study can potentially lead to effective interventions and prevention of this disease, which currently is a major public health challenge.

Dr. Rehan's research is part of a larger effort by the clinician-scientists at LA BioMed to better understand the long-term impact of maternal health, including diet and lifestyle, on offspring.

17.10.2012






The circulation of confidence is better than the circulation of money


No comments:

Post a Comment