Over 1.5 lakh infants are born with a birth defect in
their heart every year in India
About
78,000 infants born with congenital heart disease in India die every year
because of inadequate health care facilities in the country, experts said.
‘Every year 1.5 lakh infants are born in India with congenital heart disease,’
Dr Murtaza Chisti, chief cardiac surgeon of the Mahatma Gandhi Cardiac and
Critical Care Centre told reporters after conducting a medical camp here today.
Due to lack of awareness, cases of congenital heart disease
are on the rise in the country. ‘Work-related tension coupled with lifestyle
changes of young people and people in age group of 30 to 40 years make them
susceptible to heart attacks,’ he said. ‘A controlled diet with minimal fatty
and non-vegetarian food, non-consumption of sweets, coupled with adequate rest
could reduce the incidence of heart problems, he said, adding that diabetes,
high blood pressure, mental tension, increase in cholesterol were contributory causes
for heart attacks.
Dr ML Swarankar, chairman of the India Education Trust, said
that India had the dubious distinction of having the largest number of deaths
in Asia owing to heart attack. More and well-equipped cardiac centres were
needed to bring down the number, he added.
What is congenital heart disease (CHD)? How
common is the condition in India?
According to a study published in the India Academy of
Paediatrics [1], congenital heart disease is a condition seen in
every 3.9 births per 1000 births in India. As described by Dr Amar Singhal,
‘Congenital heart disease is a defect in the heart at the time of birth. It is
the structural or functional malfunctioning of the heart that is caused during
its formation. While in some cases these defects are caught right after birth,
in some cases it may be reported later on in the child’s life.’
Source: http://health.india.com
10.02.2014
Revealed – how the brain controls
hunger
Although
hunger is essential for survival, abnormal hunger can lead to obesity and
eating disorders that are now reaching near-epidemic proportions around the
world. The solution lies somewhere deep inside your brain. To unlock the
mystery behind hunger pangs, researchers are creating a wiring diagram of the
complex brain circuits that regulate the intense urge to munch in office or
rush for refrigerator in night. ‘Our goal is to understand how the brain
controls hunger,’ explained Bradford Lowell, an investigator with
Massachusetts-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s (BIDMC) division of
endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism.
Abnormal
hunger can lead to obesity and eating disorders, but in order to understand
what might be wrong – and how to treat it – you first need to know how it
works, added Lowell, also professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The
findings show that Agouti-peptide (AgRP) expressing neurons – a group of nerve
cells in the brain’s hypothalamus – are activated by caloric
deficiency. When AgRP was either naturally or artificially stimulated in
animal models, it caused mice to eat voraciously after conducting a relentless
search for food. The hunger-inducing neurons that activate these AgRP neurons
are located in the paraventricular nucleus – a brain region long thought to
cause satiety, or feelings of fullness.
‘This
unexpected finding adds an important dimension to our understanding of what
drives appetite,’ said Lowell. To deal with this particularly complex brain
region, the Lowell team is taking a step-by-step approach to find out how the
messages indicating whether the body is in a state of feeding or fasting enter
this system, said the study that appeared in the journalNature. ‘We
are getting closer and closer to completing our wiring diagram. The nearer we
come to understand how it all works, the better our chances of being able to
treat obesity and eating disorders – the consequences of abnormal hunger,’
explained Lowell.
With the
rising rate of obesity the world over, we though it is time we tell you exactly
what that excess bit of fat does to your body.
Source: http://health.india.com
10.02.2014
The most expensive thing in the world is trust, it can take
years to earn & just a matter of seconds to lose
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