Over 60 million
Indians have diabetes!
An estimated 61.3 million people
in India suffer from diabetes, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said on
Friday. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), factors responsible for
the increase in non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, are unhealthy
diet, lack of physical activity, harmful use of alcohol, obesity and tobacco
use, the minister said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. ‘The International
Diabetes Federation estimates that 61.3 million persons aged 20 years and above
in India had diabetes in 2011,’ Azad said.
The minister said the government
launched a national programme for prevention of cancer, diabetes,
cardiovascular diseases and stroke during the 11th five-year plan in 100
districts with the aim of prevention and control of non-communicable diseases,
including diabetes, through awareness generation, behaviour and life-style
changes.
The programme also provides for
screening of persons above 30 years of age for diabetes and hypertension in
various health care facilities like district hospitals, community health
centres and sub-centres and their referral to higher facilities for appropriate
management of these diseases, the minister said.
Source: http://health.india.com
23.02.2013
Your skin secretion can fight
tuberculosis!
Our skin secretes an antibiotic called dermcidin,
which could act as a potent weapon against tuberculosis (TB) and dangerous
bugs, says a study. A team of researchers from the universities of Edinburgh,
Goettingen, Tuebingen and Strasbourg have uncovered the compound’s atomic
structure, helping them pinpoint for the first time what makes dermcidin such a
powerful weapon against lethal pathogens. Although about 1,700 types of these
natural antibiotics are known to exist, until now scientists did not have a
detailed understanding of how they work, the journal Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences reports.
Ulrich Zachariae from Edinburgh’s School of Physics,
who co-authored the study, said: “Antibiotics are not only available on
prescription. Our own bodies produce efficient substances to fend off bacteria,
fungi and viruses.” “Now that we know in detail how these natural antibiotics
work, we can use this to help develop infection-fighting drugs that are more
effective than conventional antibiotics,” Zachariae added, according to an
Edinburgh statement.
Sweat spreads highly efficient antibiotics on to
our skin, protecting us from dangerous bugs. If our skin gets injured by a
small cut, a scratch, or the sting of a mosquito, antibiotic agents secreted in
sweat glands, such as dermcidin, rapidly and efficiently kill invaders. These
natural substances, known as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), are more effective in
the long term than traditional antibiotics because germs are not capable of
quickly developing resistance against them. The antimicrobials can attack the
bugs’ Achilles’ heel – their cell wall, which cannot be modified quickly to
resist attack. Because of this, AMPs have great potential to form a new
generation of antibiotics.
Scientists knew for some time that dermcidin is
activated in salty and slightly acidic sweat. The molecule then forms tiny
channels perforating the cell membrane of bugs, which are stabilised by charged
particles of zinc present in sweat. As a consequence, water and charged
particles flow uncontrollably across the membrane, eventually killing the
harmful microbes. The compound is active against many well-known pathogens such
as TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or Staphylococcus aureus. Multi-resistant
strains of Staphylococcus aureus, in particular, have become an increasing
threat for hospital patients.
Source: http://health.india.com
23.02.2013
He who cannot
forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass
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