13 March, 2015

E-cigarette ads make one desire tobacco

Washington: Watching e-cigarette television advertisements can make people crave for tobacco, regardless of whether they did or did not smoke before.

Researchers Erin K Maloney, Ph D and Joseph N Cappella, Ph Dfrom the University of Pennsylvania studied more than 800 daily, intermittent, and former smokers who watched e-cigarette advertising, and who then took a survey to determine smoking urges, intentions, and behaviors.

The scientists observed a trend that more daily smokers who viewed ads with vaping smoked a tobacco cigarette during the experiment than daily smokers who viewed ads without vaping and daily smokers who did not view ads. Over 35 percent of the daily smokers in the condition that showed vaping reported having a tobacco cigarette during the study versus 22 percent of daily smokers who saw ads without vaping, and about 23 percent of daily smokers who did not see any advertising.

They wrote that "given the sophistication of cigarette marketing in the past and the exponential increase in advertising dollars allotted to e-cigarette promotion in the past year, it should be expected that advertisements for these products created by big tobacco companies will maximize smoking cues in their advertisements, and if not regulated, individuals will be exposed to much more e-cigarette advertising on a daily basis."

The findings are reported in the journal Health Communication. 

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com

13.03.2015

Eye institute does rare surgery for Glaucoma

Bhubaneswar: A leading eye institute Thursday claimed to have created history by being the first in East India to perform Viscocanalostomy, a type of non-penetrating glaucoma filtration surgery.

Dr Aparna Rao, Glaucoma consultant at L V Prasad Eye Institute in Bhubaneswar told reporters here that she performed this surgery on three patients, aged between 38 to 62 years, in February this year.

This technique targets the Schlemm's canal, which is the main pathway for drainage of fluid or "aqueous" out of the eye. The technique requires much more surgical expertise in identifying the Schlemm's canal, she said. It is a good alternative for specific patients who have higher risk of complications when operated with standard procedure for glaucoma called Trabeculectomy, she said.

Narrating her experience on handling these cases, Dr Rao said Viscocanalostomy may help lower the number of anti- glaucoma medications needed to achieve target Intra Ocular Pressure.

Viscocanalostomy is advantageous in patients with the risk of hypotony, or low intraocular pressure related complications, especially young patients with juvenile open angle glaucoma and children, a release issued by the institute said.

Glaucoma is seen as the leading cause of irreversible blindness in India. It is a disorder associated with pressure in the eye, and is characterised by damage to the optic nerve leading to irreversible blindness.

The disorder is not a single disease, but has multiple causes, with a final common insult, which is injury to the optic nerve, it said. In India, every eighth individual or nearly 40 million aged 40 years or older either has glaucoma or is at risk of developing the disease.

A total of 11.2 million Indians suffer from the disease with 1.1 million afflicted by blindness, including children, it said. 

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com

13.03.2015

A man of full of courage is also full of faith

Cicero