26 August, 2013

Adolescents in India are anaemic: Health Minister

A little over 30 percent of adolescent boys and 55.8 percent of adolescent girls in India suffer from anaemia, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

As per the latest National Family Health Survey, 55.3 percent of all women between 15-49 years of age, 56.2 percent of never married women and 58.7 per cent of pregnant women are anaemic in the country, Azad said in a written reply.

The minister said the prevalence of night blindness, that indicates Vitamin A deficiency in children, has reduced from 1.1 percent in 2001 to 0.2 percent in 2006.

Surveys conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services, Indian Council of Medical Research and other state health directorates found that out of 365 districts surveyed in all 35 states and union territories, people in 303 districts have iodine deficiency disorders, he said.

Azad said under the national rural health mission, a national ‘iron plus’ initiative has been launched in which Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) is given to adolescent girls and boys and all women in the reproductive age group.

Source: http://health.india.com

26.08.2013

Fruits, vegetables may lower women’s bladder cancer risk

 Rsearchers in the United States say their studies suggest that greater consumption of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of developing invasive bladder cancer in women.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii described in the Journal of Nutrition that they analyzed data collected from 185,885 older adults over a period of 12.5 years, Xinhua reported.

Overall, 152 women and 429 men were diagnosed with invasive bladder cancer.

After adjusting for variables related to cancer risk, such as age, the researchers found that women who consumed the most fruits and vegetables had the lowest bladder risk.

According to the researchers, women consuming the most yellow-orange vegetables were 52 percent less likely to have bladder cancer than women consuming the least yellow-orange vegetables.

The study also suggested that women with the highest intake of vitamins A, C and E had the lowest risk of bladder cancer. There are, however, no associations between fruit and vegetable intake and invasive bladder cancer in men, the study found. 

‘Our study supports the fruit and vegetable recommendation for cancer prevention,’ researcher Song-Yi Park at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center said in a statement.

‘However, further investigation is needed to understand and explain why the reduced cancer risk with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables was confined to only women,’ Park said.

Source: http://health.india.com

26.08.2013

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing

George Bernard Shaw