31 January, 2015

Heavy drinking ups stroke risk more than BP, diabetes

LondonMore than two drinks a day in middle-age may raise your stroke risk more than traditional factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes, warns a study.

Regular heavy drinking of any kind of alcohol can raise blood pressure and cause heart failure or irregular heartbeats over time with repeated drinking, in addition to stroke and other risks.

“For mid-aged adults, avoiding more than two drinks a day could be a way to prevent stroke in later age,” said Pavla Kadlecova, statistician at St Anne's University Hospital's International Clinical Research Center in the Czech Republic.

In a study of 11,644 middle-aged Swedish twins who were followed for 43 years, researchers compared the effects of an average of more than two drinks daily (heavy drinking) to less than half a drink daily (light drinking). They found that heavy drinkers had about a 34 percent higher risk of stroke compared to light drinkers.

Mid-life heavy drinkers (in their 50s and 60s) were likely to have a stroke five years earlier in life irrespective of genetic and early-life factors.

Heavy drinkers had increased stroke risk in their mid-life compared to well-known risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes.

At around age 75, blood pressure and diabetes appeared to take over as one of the main influences on having a stroke, the authors noted.

“We now have a clearer picture about these risk factors, how they change with age and how the influence of drinking alcohol shifts as we get older,” Kadlecova said.

The research appeared in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com

31.01.2015

Peanut allergy may soon be history

Wellington: Researchers may have recently found a potential peanut allergy cure, it has been reported.

Researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute gave around 30 allergic children a daily dose of peanut protein together with a probiotic in an increasing amount over an 18-month period, Stuff.co.nz reported.

The probiotic used in the study was Lactobacillus rhamnosus and the dose was equivalent to eating about 20 kilos of yoghurt each day.

At the end of the trial 80 percent of the children could eat peanuts without any reaction. However, further research would be required to confirm whether patients could still tolerate peanuts in the years to come.

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com

31.01.2015

If you can accept losing, you can't win

Vince Lombardi

30 January, 2015

Smallest, Cheapest Patch Insulin Pump

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Infusion pumps that deliver insulin and other drugs have been getting quite advanced thanks to modern wireless technology. Yet, many people around the world simply can't afford even existing pumps. 

With this in mind, TouchéMedical, an Israeli firm, is developing a small, cheap, and accurate infusion pump that would be within the budgets of millions of diabetics and people with other diseases treated by drug pumps. 

The device has a disposable cartridge that is particularly cheap to manufacture, and a reusable core that contains the actual pump and the electronics to drive it. It includes Bluetooth connectivity to be able to interface it with a smartphone can even send out SMS messages to keep physicians and loved ones informed on how the drugs are being delivered. 

Avi Keret of TouchéMedical stresses that he and his inventor son Amir are not reinventing the wheel, rather making it more universally accessible. "Our device gives the same amount of medication as any other pump; it just delivers the drug in a way that allows for a better quality of life," he said. 

The device would be especially welcome, he believes, in parts of India and other Asian countries with a rising diabetes rate and a high incidence of thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder often affecting multiple members of the same family. A patch pump is the best solution for administering lifesaving medication continuously, but the high cost forces many of these families to share one device, compromising its effectiveness. 

"We'll offer them an alternative," Keret pledges. "People who have or don't have medical insurance will be able to afford it. Children all over the world will be able to use it."

Source: www.medindia.net

30.01.2015

World Leprosy Day 2015

World Leprosy Day (WLD) is observed on the last Sunday of January each year. This year it is Sunday 25 January. The idea of WLD was conceived by the French Humanitarian, Raoul Follereau who played a major role in helping, supporting and fundraising for people affected with leprosy. Follereau believed that people affected with leprosy should not be treated as sub-human and should receive the same care, dignity and quality treatment as any other disease. He also believed that raising awareness about the facts of leprosy was necessary to create awareness and reduce the stigma associated with the disease.

This day was chosen to mark the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948. In his lifetime, Gandhi had worked extensively caring for and supporting people with leprosy. Gandhi nursed several affected people at the Sabarmati ashram. He was one of the first leaders to work for leprosy-affected people. To quote Gandhi, "leprosy work is not merely medical relief, it is transforming frustration of life into joy of dedication, personal ambition into selfless service..." 

This day is being observed from the past 60 years in order to create and spread awareness of leprosy keeping with the objectives conceived by Raoul Follereau. The idea of a special day to mark leprosy is to make people aware of a disease that is thought to be extinct. 

Objectives of World Leprosy Day

In 2013, 215,656 people were diagnosed with leprosy. There are millions who also go undiagnosed. According to the WHO statistics, there are 3 million people worldwide who are disabled as a result of late diagnosis and treatment. According to the Leprosy Mission Trust India (http://www.tlmindia.org/), 55% of leprosy cases are in India and there were 127, 000 new cases reported between 2010-11. Leprosy affects the poor and marginalized communities who lack access to adequate sanitation, healthcare and clean living spaces. 

Given the statistics of leprosy, it is necessary to disseminate the right information about the disease and treatment available for a cure. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) partners with governments across the world for a range of leprosy eradication programmes. The National Leprosy Eradication Programme (NLEP) is supported by the WHO in its various programmes to create awareness, provide treatment and rehabilitation and address issues of social and economic stigma.

Source: www.medindia.net

30.01.2015

Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible

Frank Gaines

29 January, 2015

Infants smell fear by mother's odour

Infants can smell fear. They learn to detect threats and remember these for long just by smelling the odour their mother gives off when she feels fear, says a study.

"Our research demonstrates that infants can learn from maternal expression of fear, very early in life," said lead researcher Jacek Debiec from the University of Michigan Medical School in the US.

Before having their own experiences, they basically acquire their mothers' experiences.

"Most importantly, these maternally-transmitted memories are long-lived, whereas other types of infant learning, if not repeated, rapidly perish," he added.

In the first direct observation of this kind of fear transmission, researchers studied mother rats who had learned to fear the smell of peppermint - and showed how they "taught" this fear to their babies in their first days of life through their alarm odour released during distress.

The researchers taught female rats to fear the smell of peppermint by exposing them to mild, unpleasant electric shocks while they smelled the scent, before they were pregnant.

Using special brain imaging, they zeroed in on a brain structure called the lateral amygdala as the key location for learning fears.

The team even showed that just the piped-in scent of their mother reacting to the peppermint odour she feared was enough to make the newborns fear the same thing.

And when the researchers gave the baby rats a substance that blocked activity in the amygdala, they failed to learn the fear of peppermint smell from their mothers.

"This suggests," Debiec said, "that there may be ways to intervene to prevent children from learning irrational or harmful fear responses from their mothers, or reduce their impact."

The study appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

29.01.2015

Negative doctor-patient talks can worsen symptoms

Doctors who unintentionally tell patients that they do not believe or understand them could actually worsen their symptoms, a small yet significant study suggests.

If patients perceive a lack of understanding or acceptance from their doctor, it could create anger and distress - physiological conditions that could worsen illness.

"The effects of patients feeling that their doctor does not believe or understand them can be damaging both emotionally and physiologically. This could lead to worsening of illness known as the 'nocebo response'," explained lead author Maddy Greville-Harris from the University of Southampton in Britain.

Patients bring certain beliefs and expectations to their health care professional which are moulded by the culture they live in and their previous experiences.

Their expectations will undoubtedly affect the outcome but improving communication in consultations could make a big difference to patient care.

For the study, the team recorded and analysed consultations at a pain management clinic involving five women with chronic wide-spread pain.

During subsequent interviews, patients reported feeling dismissed and disbelieved by healthcare providers, encountering providers who did not invest in them or show insight into their condition.

Patients described feeling hopeless and angry after invalidating consultations, feeling an increased need to justify their condition or to avoid particular doctors or treatment altogether.

Comments such as "there is no physiological reason that you are experiencing pain" seek to reassure but can be perceived as patronising or disbelieving.

"We now need to see more research in this area, and for that to feed into training doctors to be more effective communicators for every patient they see," said professor Paul Dieppe, senior investigator from the University of Exeter.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

29.01.2015

The people who influence you are the people who believe in you

Henry Drummond

28 January, 2015

Chewing gum — good for your oral health?

Just 10 minutes of chewing gum can remove 100 million bacteria from your mouth, according to a new study which suggests chewing gum may be as good as flossing. Researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that chewing gum can trap and remove bacteria from the oral cavity. In the study, five biomedical engineering students were recruited to chew two different standard types of spearmint gum for various lengths of time ranging from 30 seconds to 10 minutes.

Afterward, the gum was spit into a cup filled with sterile water to be analysed, ‘Medical Daily’ reported. There were were about 100 million bacteria detected on each piece of chewed up gum, with the number increasing as chewing time increased. However, after 30 seconds of chewing, the gum starts to lose its adhesiveness, meaning it traps fewer bacteria overall. ‘Trapped bacteria were clearly visualised in chewed gum using scanning-electron-microscopy,’ researchers said in the paper published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Previous research has shown that using a new, clean toothbrush without any toothpaste can remove around 100 million colony-forming units (CFUs) per brush, which would put chewing of gum on par with the mechanical action of a toothbrush. In another experiment with three human volunteers who used 5 cm of floss wire, researchers found that ‘the mechanical action of floss wire removes a comparable number of bacteria from the oral cavity than does chewing of a single piece of gum.’  ‘Chewing however, does not necessarily remove bacteria from the same sites of the dentition as does brushing or flossing, therefore its results may be noticeable on a more long-term than those of brushing or flossing,’ researchers said.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.01.2015

The world’s first `emotional robot` designed to serve people with dementia

 A new robot has recently been developed that help take care of people with dementia by recognizing their emotions. At Nishi-Koigakubo Ninjin Home, a special elderly nursing home in western Tokyo, elderly dementia patients recently spent time with Pepper, a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence being developed by SoftBank Mobile, Stuff.co.nz reported. Said to be the world’s first robot designed to serve people by recognizing their emotions, Pepper is set to retail for 198,000 yen on the consumer market in February.

SoftBank Mobile hopes to develop its robot to act as a conversation partner for those suffering from dementia. During its visit, Pepper played a game and showed off its dancing skills, because of the installation of a prototype program. To help prevent the condition of elderly patients from deteriorating to the point where they require nursing care, the firm hopes to give people more options than simply relying on efforts by the central and local governments. The company plans to develop a program to provide better support for dementia patients, such as by adding a function to encourage the elderly to talk about their memories.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.01.2015

A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, need less, smile often, dream big

22 January, 2015

Bed nets and vaccines together may worsen malaria

Combining insecticide-treated bed nets with vaccines may not provide the best chance at eliminating malaria, finds a study. 

Currently, over 20 malaria vaccine candidates are in different stages of development but none are licensed for use. No one knows for sure what will happen when vaccines and bed nets are used together. 

A University of Michigan-led research team used a mathematical model of malaria transmission to find this out. 

The researchers examined potential interactions between the two control measures and found that - in some cases - the combination of bed nets and a vaccine actually makes the problem worse. 

"The joint use of bed nets and vaccines will not always lead to consistent increases in the efficacy of malaria control. In some cases, the use of vaccines and bed nets may actually make the situation worse," said Mercedes Pascual, professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology. 

The study suggests that the combined use of some malaria vaccines with bed nets can lead to increased morbidity and mortality in older age classes. 

"Ironically, the vaccines that work best with bed nets are the ones that do not protect the vaccinated host but, instead, block transmission of malaria in mosquitoes that have found an opportunity to bite vaccinated hosts," Artzy-Randrup said. 

The malaria vaccines under development fall into three categories, each focusing on a different stage of the malaria life cycle. That cycle involves human hosts and Anopheles mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium parasites. In 2013, there were an estimated 198 million malaria cases worldwide, including 584,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

Most deaths occur among children living in Africa, where a child dies every minute from malaria, according to the WHO. 

The study appeared in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

22.01.2015

Deadly TB strains emerged in Asia over 6,000 years ago

In a path-breaking find, an evolutionary geneticist from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris has decoded the tuberculosis (TB) genome, suggesting that a pernicious family of the strain emerged in Asia over 6,000 years ago.

The study of nearly 5,000 samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from around the world showed how a lineage of the bacterium that emerged thousands of years ago in China has since become a global killer, widely resistant to antibiotic drugs, the Nature Genetics reported.

The evolutionary geneticist Thierry Wirth and his team analysed 4,987 samples of the "Beijing lineage" from 99 countries, fully sequencing the genomes of 110 of them and more limited stretches of DNA in the rest. The researchers then used the information to date the expansion of the lineage and show how the strains are related.

Consistent with its name, the "Beijing lineage" did emerge near north-eastern China."And it did so around 6,600 years ago which coincides with archaeological evidence for the beginnings of rice farming in China's upper Yangtze river valley," Wirth noted.

Although M. tuberculosis, probably, first emerged some 40,000 years ago in Africa, the disease did not take hold until humans took to farming with the consequent settling down. "The grouping of people in settlements made it easier for the respiratory pathogen to spread from person to person," Wirth pointed out.

Of all the M. bacterium strains circulating today, few strike more fear in public-health officials than the Beijing lineage.

First identified in greater Beijing in the mid-1990s, this lineage now circulates throughout the world and many strains are resistant to drugs that vanquish other types of TB.

The increasing availability of antibiotics in the 1960s, meanwhile, coincides with a fall in the numbers of the bacterium. The lineage rebounded, however, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Since it emerged, the "Beijing lineage" has become much more infectious, Wirth says, so it out-competes other strains of the bacterium.

His team identified mutations related to antibiotic resistance, metabolism and evasion of immune responses that may have contributed to the success of the "Beijing lineage".

Source: www.timesofindia.com

22.01.2015

Happiness is the absence of

 the striving for happiness

Zhuangzi

21 January, 2015

Helping Each Other Make Healthier Choices

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A person following a healthy course like quitting smoking, being active, losing weight is more likely if the partner joins to make the positive changes too, found a new study.

Scientists at University College London (UCL) looked at how likely people were to make healthier choices in relation to what their partner did, and found that people were more successful in swapping bad habits for good ones if their partner made a change as well. 

For example, among women who smoked, 50 per cent managed to quit if their partner gave up smoking too at the same time, compared with 17 per cent of women whose partners were already non-smokers, and eight per cent of those whose partners were regular smokers. 

The study found that men were equally affected by their partners and were more likely to quit smoking, get active, or lose weight if their partner made the same behaviour change. 

The research looked at 3,722 couples, either married or living together and over the age of 50, who were taking part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). 

One of the study authors, Professor Jane Wardle, director of Cancer Research UK's Health Behaviour Research Centre at UCL said that unhealthy lifestyles had become a leading cause of death from chronic disease worldwide. The key lifestyle risks are smoking, excess weight, physical inactivity, poor diet, and alcohol consumption. 

Swapping bad habits for good ones can reduce the risk of disease, including cancer. 

The study is published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Source: www.medindia.net

21.01.2015

New Delhi Hospital Implants India's First Subcutaneous Implantable Defibrillator

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Doctors at a New Delhi hospital implanted India's first Subcutaneous Implantable Defibrillator (S-ICD) on a 48 year old patient.

It is a system that is approved for patients who are at a risk of sudden cardiac death due to life threatening ventricular arrhythmias and those who do not require a pacemaker. 

The patient had suffered damage to his heart from a large heart attack in October and his heart was pumping at a low efficiency of only 25-30 percent. He had undergone angiography and angioplasty with three stents after the heart attack and was breathless on occasions. In view of his poor heart function and the risk of sudden death, the decision to implant the subcutaneous ICD was taken by doctors at the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute. 

"This first case of S-ICD in India will be a strong hope for several potential ICD patients who could be at risk of sudden death, including those with poor veins and those at high risk for major infection associated with a transvenous lead. It is only a matter of time and as this technology becomes more pervasive and affordable to offer patients yet another choice for an enhanced recovery," Fortis Escorts Heart Institute chairman Dr Ashok Seth said. 

"Sudden cardiac death is a major public health problem in India and accounts for about 10 percent of all deaths in India. Nearly 80 percent of these deaths are due to ventricular arrhythmias, a large number of which can be prevented by timely resuscitation," he added. 

The S-ICD is manufactured by a US-based Boston Scientific and was launched in India around two months ago.

Source: www.medindia.net

21.01.2015

Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great

John D. Rockefeller

20, January 2015

26% of 30-70 year-olds dying from four main non-communicable diseases: WHO

The probability of an Indian between the ages of 30-70 years dying from the four main non-communicable diseases – diabetes, cancer, stroke and respiratory diseases – was 26 percent at present, the World Health Organization said Monday. According to the Global Status Report on Noncommunicable diseases, NCDs would claim nearly 52 million lives globally by the year 2030. Nearly 8.5 million people died of NCDs diseases in the WHO’s South-East Asia Region in 2012. ‘This number is expected to grow larger if we do not act now to arrest this epidemic’, it said.

In India, NCDs are estimated to have accounted for 60 percent of all deaths in 2014, while 26 percent between the ages of 30-70 years had a probability of succumbing to the four diseases. The report highlights the need to act immediately. It said that all governments must commit and set national NCD targets this year and implement policy and cost-effective interventions for prevention and control of major non-communicable diseases.

High rates of death and disease, particularly in low and middle income countries, is a reflection of inadequate investment in cost-effective NCD interventions. It said that while non-communicable diseases are a global public health challenge, nearly three quarters of the deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. The problem is growing, particularly in the South-East Asia Region, where two out of three deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases, it said. WHO regional director for South-East Asia region Poonam Khetrapal Singh said nearly half of the deaths due to non-communicable diseases occur in the 30 to 70 years age group.  

She said most of the premature NCD deaths are preventable. Promoting simple lifestyle changes and diet modifications can prevent non-communicable diseases, she said. The WHO recommended that all countries implement the “best buys” interventions. The recommendations include “best buys” or cost-effective, high-impact interventions such as banning all forms of tobacco and alcohol advertising, reducing salt consumption, replacing trans fats with polyunsaturated fats, promoting and protecting breastfeeding, early detection and treatment of high blood pressure and preventing cervical cancer through periodic screening. Among the targets set by the WHO are a 30 percent relative reduction in mean population intake of salt/sodium, a 30 percent relative reduction in prevalence of current tobacco use in persons aged more than 15 years and a 25 percent relative reduction in the prevalence of raised blood pressure or contain the prevalence of raised blood pressure.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

20.01.2015

Surgery cannot completely undo long-term blindness: Study0 Comments

Surgery cannot completely undo the brain rewiring caused by long-term blindness, finds a study. Scientists at the University of Montreal and the University of Trento have discovered that the rewiring of the senses that occurs in the brains of the long-term blind means that visual restoration may never be complete. ‘We had the opportunity to study the rare case of a woman with very low vision since birth and whose vision was suddenly restored in adulthood following the implantation of a ‘Boston Keratoprosthesis’ in her right eye,’ explained lead researcher Giulia Dormal from the University of Montreal.

On the one hand, the findings reveal that the visual cortex maintains a certain degree of plasticity – that is the capacity to change as a function of experience – in an adult person with low vision since early life. ‘On the other, we discovered that several months after the surgery, the visual cortex had not regained full normal functioning,’ Dormal noted. The visual cortex is the part of the brain that processes information from our eyes.

The researchers worked with the patient, a 50-year-old Quebec woman in Canada. The study suggests that eye surgery can lead to a positive outcome even when performed in adulthood after a life time of profound blindness. There is, however, an important caveat. ‘The recovery observed in the visual cortex is not total,’ Dormal added. “The findings open the door to the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging before surgery as a prognostic tool for visual outcome and pave the way for the development of adapted rehabilitation programs following visual restoration,’ the authors concluded.

The study was published in the Journal of Neurophysiology. 

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

20.01.2015

If there is no struggle, there is no progress

Frederick Douglass 

19, January 2015

Meet the woman who gave birth to baby just hour after learning about pregnancy

By ANI | ANI – Sat 10 Jan, 2015 11:06 AM IST

A woman recently gave birth to a baby girl just an hour after learning about her pregnancy, it has been reported.

Katherine Kropas had no idea she was pregnant with a 10-pound baby until an hour before she gave birth, ABC News reported.

The 23-year-old had few intense back pains, but at first, doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her, so they did an ultrasound and after looking at the report they rushed her off into the labor.

Kropas told WCVB she felt that she'd put on some weight, but figured maybe it was just typical holiday weight gain.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a senior medical contributor for ABC News and practicing OB/GYN, said she's seen cases like Kropas's in her career and it tends to happen in women who are overweight or obese to start, might have irregular periods and are less aware of their bodies.

It represents a missed opportunity for prenatal care for the baby, which was definitely not ideal, she further added. (ANI)

Consume less salt to reduce stomach cancer risk

A new study has revealed that excessive salt consumption, which is well known for causing high blood pressure and heart disease, can also increase the risk of stomach cancer. 

The most well-established stomach cancer risk factor is infection with a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which causes inflammation within the stomach that can progress to stomach cancer, the Daily Expressreported.

Researcher John Atherton of United European Gastroenterology Secretary said that although they don't know exactly why a high salt intake increases the risk of stomach cancer, studies suggest that it may encourage the growth of H. pylori and make it more toxic to the cells of the stomach.

Current guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO)suggest that no more than 5g of salt (less than 1 teaspoon) should be eaten per day, which can be a challenging target given that most salt in our diets is not added by us, but comes from processed foods such as bread, cheese, breakfast cereals and ready meals. Atherton added that in the UK, people's salt target is no more than 6 g per day, which should theoretically reduce the risk of stomach cancer as well as other salt-related health problems.

He continued that they need more studies to confirm that eating a low-salt diet reduces the incidence of stomach cancer, but there is preliminary evidence from Japan to suggest this would be the case.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

19.01.2015

Eczema sufferers have higher risk of obesity, BP

People suffering from the chronic itchy skin disease eczema have higher rates of smoking, drinking and obesity, and are less likely to exercise than adults who do not have the disease, scientists report.

These types of behaviour provide them with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol as well as diabetes, the team from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in the US said.

They also have higher rates of insomnia. "This disease takes a huge emotional toll on its sufferers," said lead study author Jonathan Silverberg. The study analyzed data for 27,157 and 34,525 adults aged 18 to 85 years from the 2010 and 2012 National Health Interview Survey respectively.

The study reported patients with eczema had 54 percent higher odds of being morbidly obese, 48 percent higher odds of hypertension, up to 93 percent higher odds of having pre-diabetes and up to 42 percent higher odds of having diabetes. They also had 36 percent higher odds of high cholesterol.

Because eczema often starts in early childhood, people are affected through their developmental years and adolescence. "It hurts their self-esteem and identity. That is part of why we see all these negative behaviour," Silverberg added. Adding to eczema patients' health woes is difficulty in exercising because sweat and heat aggravate the itching. "They will avoid anything that triggers the itch. Patients report their eczema flares during a workout," Silverberg said.

Dermatologists need to ask patients about their lifestyle habits such as smoking and physical activity so they can offer interventions, the authors said.

The study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

19.01.2015

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra

Jimmy Johnson

17, January 2015

Separated from children, Parents Likely to Die Early

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Parents who separate from their children are almost three times more likely to die early. The study observed that since June 2003, 8,515 non-resident parents have died compared to 3,090 residents. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data has conducted the study, the Daily Express reported.

According to the information released under the Freedom of Information Act, 94.8 percent of CSA cases involved a male nonresident parent, but the cause of their death was not given out.

Matt O'Connor, founder of Fathers 4 Justice, said that the department has a responsibility to conduct some meaningful research to understand what is actually behind these "alarming" figures.

O'Connor added that it is not enough to say they don't know why they are this way, suggesting that they should commission the research and get to the truth, which may be that suicide and alcoholism is related to family breakdown. 

O'Connor, who admitted to having suicidal thoughts during his own marriage breakdown, added that since he began Fathers 4 Justice he has dealt with cases of fathers who have thrown themselves in front of trains, thrown themselves off bridges, which is a litany of misery. 

He continued that there is no money being spent on fathers or men and one of the things they are calling for is a Minister for Men, to champion these kinds of issues. 

He further added that if you lose your children, you lose your home, you effectively lose your life and then you will be hounded and pursued by this Government on the basis that you have no rights to your children in law, but you have a responsibility to pay.

Source: www.medindia.net

17.01.2015

Leaves of Sweet Potato are Good Source of Vitamins

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Leaves of sweet potato plants and other tissues in sweet potato are found to have good amount of vitamin B6 and other water-soluble vitamins, in a new study.

Sweet potato is known to be a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and certain B vitamins that are considered essential to human health. Besides the commonly consumed root of the plant, certain tissues in sweet potato are also edible and high in nutritional value. 

Wilmer Barrera and David Picha from Louisiana State University Agricultural Center analyzed a variety of sweet potato tissue types (mature leaves, young leaves, young petioles, buds, vine sections, and root tissue) in late October and again the following September. They conducted a third experiment to study water-soluble vitamin content among different sweet potato root tissues.

Analyses revealed differences in total ascorbic acid (AA) content among tissue types. Young leaves contained the highest AA content, followed by mature leaves and buds. Buds also contained significantly higher AA content than sweet potato roots, vines, and petiole tissues. 

The results confirmed that sweet potato foliar tissues are a good source of ascorbic acid, and that young leaves have the highest foliar AA content, the scientists noted. The experiments showed no presence of thiamin in foliar tissues, a finding the authors say differs from previous studies. 

Results also showed that riboflavin content differed with sweet potato tissue type, but was consistently higher in the leaves; mature leaves contained higher amounts of riboflavin than young leaves and other plant tissues, including roots. 

They noted that the vitamin B6 content in sweet potato leaves compares well with fruits and vegetables such as broccoli, avocados, carrots, bananas, and cauliflower. 

The research is published in HortScience.

Source: www.medindia.net

17.01.2015

Don’t wait the time will never be just right

Napoleon Hill