31 December, 2018

President says, balancing quality, cost and access critical for public health

President R.N. Kovind on Friday urged the need to achieve a perfect triangle of “quality, cost and access,” saying it was critical to get all three in place to work together in public health.

He said there is no point in having quality medicines and state-of-the-art technology if these are not affordable and accessible to those who need them most, and lowering prices is important without compromising quality. This perfect triangle of quality, cost and access can be achieved by building alliances, between doctors and patients groups, civil society and industry, researchers and practitioners, and ultimately between countries.

He said India and the US share complementaries in the pharmaceutical sector like clinical research, drug discovery and manufacture and this country’s experience in producing affordable, but high-quality drugs offer a huge advantage as the world and America itself, seeks to drive down the cost of healthcare and health insurance.

“Disease does not discriminate, and the practice of medicine and healthcare must not discriminate either,” the President pointed out.

He was addressing the 12th Global Healthcare Summit organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in Mumbai. He said the two countries can collaborate to find solutions to global pandemics and emerging zoonotic diseases which are global challenges not restricted to national boundaries.

“The challenge of life-style diseases such as diabetes and obesity being a serious public health issue both in India and the US, and their prevention and management offers scope for cooperation, including by bringing traditional Indian wellness practices to modern medical systems,” President Kovind said.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

31.12.2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make different choice

28 December, 2018

Short-height people in ICU at increased death risk, finds study

Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) who are shorter in height are more likely to die in the hospital than taller ones who have much better survival rates, finds a new study. The study showed that the average-height man’s odds of dying are just over 22 percent, but that death risk increases by around 30 percent for the very shortest.

In addition, women see their death rates jump from 17.1 to 24.1 percent if they are shorter, as per the study published in the journal Intensive Care Medicine. The reason shorter people may be at a higher risk of death could be because a lot of intensive care equipment is set up for average-sized male patients.

It could be that shorter people are given too large a dose of medication, more than required, such as sedatives resulting in sleepiness, which ultimately causes them to stop breathing. In addition, wrong-sized breathing tube could cause damage to the vocal cords in shorter people, Daily Mail reported. A ventilator not adjusted for someone’s height can damage their lungs as they are forced to take larger breaths than necessary, results showed.

“There is not a single thing which could explain this increase in mortality in shorter people admitted to intensive care units,” said Hannah Wunsch, a researcher from the Sunnybrook Hospital in Canada. “The message from this research is for doctors to be more aware of people’s height.”

“We know doctors do not always measure people’s heights but equipment settings should often take this into account. The small differences relevant to how tall someone is can add up,” noted Wunsch.

For the study, researchers included 400,000 patients at 210 intensive care units.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

28.12.2018

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve

 Napoleon Hill

26 December, 2018

Diabetes drugs linked to heart disease risk, says study

The two drugs — sulfonylureas and basal insulin — are the second-line medication after metformin, a widely accepted initial Type-2 diabetes treatment. The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, showed that patients who take one of these two drugs are 36 per cent more likely and twice as likely to experience cardiovascular harm.

“People should know if the medications they are taking to treat their diabetes could lead to serious cardiovascular harm. This calls for a paradigm shift in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes,” said lead author Matthew O’Brien, Assistant Professor from the Northwestern University in the US.

Physicians should consider prescribing newer classes of antidiabetic medications, such as GLP-1 agonists (liraglutide), SGLT-2 inhibitors (empagliflozin)or DPP-4 inhibitors (sitagliptin), more routinely after metformin, rather than sulfonylureas or basal insulin, suggest the researchers. These drugs, however, are more expensive than the sulfonylureas, which is the main reason they are not as commonly prescribed.

The study should force medical providers to think about cardiovascular effects of these drugs early in the course of diabetes treatment, and shift prescribing patterns to newer drugs that have more favourable cardiovascular profiles, the team noted. This was an observational study using data from 132,737 patients with Type-2 diabetes who were starting second-line treatment.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

26.12.2018

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas

Donatella Versace

17 December, 2018

Study claims colleagues’ rudeness can affect your sleep

Unable to sleep properly? Blame your co-worker who is rude, uses sarcastic comments and demeaning language. According to a study, workplace uncivilities can not only affect an employee’s sleep but also their partner’s. The study found that when a person experiences rude, discourteous, impolite colleagues at workplace, they tend to ruminate more about work at home.

They also face trouble falling asleep or may wake up in the middle of the night. This also affects the spouse or partner, only when the couple works in the same company or occupation, the researchers said. It is “because work-linked couples have a better idea of what’s going on in each other’s work, they can be better supporters”, said Charlotte Fritz, Associate Professor from the Portland State University in the US.

“They probably know more about the context of the uncivil act and might be more pulled into the venting or problem-solving process,” she added, in the paper detailed in the journal Occupational Health Science. While organisations do everything in their power to create a culture of civility by imposing zero-tolerance policies or offering civility training, uncivilities at workplace are not completely avoidable.

However, mentally detaching from work during non-work hours by spending time with family and friends or enjoying hobbies, and practising meditation at work and home are important, and can help both the employees and their spouses, according to Fritz. “They can talk about work, vent about it, discuss it, but then they should make an explicit attempt to unwind together and create good conditions for sleep,” she noted.

For the study, the team involved 305 couples in a variety of jobs.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

17.12.2018

To be successful, the first thing to do is fall in love with your work

Mary Lauretta

14 December, 2018

Heart attack risks higher on Christmas eve, says study

The study, from researchers in the Lund University in Sweden, showed that the risk of heart attack was 37 percent high around 10 p.m. on Christmas eve. The risk was greatest in people above 75, and those with existing diabetes and heart disease.

This highlighted the need for the society to raise awareness of this vulnerable group over the Christmas period, the researchers suggested, in the paper published in the journal The BMJ. The team investigated whether time factors, such as national holidays, major sport events, hour of the day or day of the week could trigger a heart attack.

The two weeks before and after a holiday — and the same period the year before and after a sport event — were set as control periods. In addition, the risk was also higher during New Years’, midsummer holidays, early mornings (8 a.m.) and Monday mornings, but not during Easter holiday.

Other short term events linked to emotional stress, such as major sports events, hurricanes and stock market crashes, have also been associated with a higher risk of heart attack. Importantly, Christmas and Midsummer holidays were associated with 15 percent and 12 percent of higher risk of heart attack respectively, compared with the control period. The researchers, however noted it is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about the cause and effect.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

14.12.2018

If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs

12 December, 2018

20-day-old baby born with rare heart defect given new lease of life

Doctors here have given a new lease of life to a 20-day-old baby born with a rare heart defect. According to doctors at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, the baby was diagnosed with ‘Transposition of Great Arteries’ — a congenital heart defect in which the large blood vessels that carry blood from the heart to the lungs and to the body are connected the opposite of a normal heart’s structure.

In addition, the child also had two big holes in his heart along with a condition that include increased work of breathing and poor weight gain.

Since the baby weighed 2.2 kg which could pose a huge risk, the doctors decided to allow the child to grow a bit and weigh at least 2.8-3 kg before performing the open heart surgery.

However, his condition did not improve and he was not able to come off the ventilator. Thus, the doctors decided to perform the surgery that lasted for five hours, the hospital said in a statement on Tuesday.

“We performed an arterial switch operation in which the aorta and coronary arteries are disconnected from their place and are adjusted in the right place. Along with arterial switch, closure of the heart holes were done,” said Muthu Jothi, Senior Consultant (Paediatric Cardiothoracic Surgeon), at the hospital.

“By god’s grace, the child recuperated enough to go home after 10-12 days post the surgery, which is not usually the case. He is doing absolutely fine now and is gaining weight too,” Jothi added. According to Jothi, there is no specific cause for this disorder.

“However, factors such as late childbirth, marriage with a close cousin or within the family, poor nutrition or infection during pregnancy, or antibiotic course in the initial three months, smoking or alcohol can increase the risk of such conditions,” he noted.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

12.12.2018

If the road is easy, you're likely going the wrong way

 Terry Goodkind

10 December, 2018

Study says infections during childhood may affect mental health

According to a recent study, serious infections during childhood can be associated with a subsequent increased risk of mental disorders. Researchers at the Aarhus University found that infections, which require hospitalisations, can lead to an 84 per cent increased risk of being diagnosed with any mental disorder and an about 42 percent increased the risk of using psychotropic drugs.

The findings of the study are published in the Journal of JAMA Psychiatry.

The team associated the less severe infections, majorly treated with antibiotics, with increased risks of 20-40 percent of mental disorders.

“The surprising finding was that the infections in general — and in particular, the less severe infections, those that were treated with anti-infective agents — increased the risk for the majority of mental disorders,” said Ole Kohler-Forsberg, lead researcher of the study.

For the study, the researchers analysed health data of more than 1 million people and took a close look at their medical histories from birth to late adolescence.

They found associations between any treated infection and increased risk of prescribed medication for various childhood and adolescent mental disorders.

Risks were majorly increased for schizophrenia spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality and behavior disorders, mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder, and tic disorders.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

10.12.2018

If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs

6 December, 2018

1st baby born from dead donor’s uterus, finds lancet study

In a medical milestone, the world’s first baby has been born using a womb transplanted from a dead woman, a Lancet study says. Following the uterus transplant from a 45-year-old brain dead woman a healthy baby girl was born in 2017, an advance that may open access for all women with uterine infertility, without the need for live donors.

The womb transplant, lasting over 10 hours took place in Brazil’s Sao Paolo in September 2016. The baby was born in December 2017. The uterus was removed from the donor and transplanted into the recipient in a surgery that also involved connecting the donor uterus’ and recipient’s veins and arteries, ligament, and vaginal canals. This is the first to result in a live birth, revealed the case study published in The Lancet.

“The use of deceased donors could greatly broaden access to this treatment, and our results provide proof-of-concept for a new option for women with uterine infertility,” said lead author Dani Ejzenberg, Hospital das Clinicas, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo. The donor had died of subarachnoid haemorrhage — a type of stroke involving bleeding on the surface of the brain. The recipient was given drugs that weakened her immune system to prevent her body from attacking and rejecting the transplant.

Five months after transplantation, the uterus showed no signs of rejection, and the recipient started having periods. After seven months, the fertilised eggs were implanted. Ten days after implantation, the recipient was confirmed to be pregnant.

The baby girl was born via cesarean section at 35 weeks and three days and weighed 2.5 kilograms. The transplanted uterus was removed during the cesarean section and showed no anomalies, the study showed.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

06.12.2018

If friendship is your weakest point then you are the strongest person in the world

Abraham Lincoln

4 December, 2018

Over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes identified in gut bacteria

A new study conducted jointly by the researchers at the University of Birmingham and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique has identified over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes found in bacteria that inhabit the human gut. Notably, these genes are very different from previously identified genes in pathogenic bacteria.

The scientists developed a new method to identify resistance genes in gut bacteria. This is done by comparing the 3D structures of known antibiotic resistance enzymes to the proteins that are produced by gut bacteria. Further, they applied this method to a catalogue of several million genes of the gut.

Willem Van Schaik, of the University of Birmingham was quotes as saying, “Most gut bacteria live in a harmless relationship with the human host. However, the gut is also home to bacteria that can cause infections in hospitalised patients.” He further added, “Unfortunately, these bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and we need to understand the processes that contribute to this development.”

In addition to that, he said,” By comparing the structures of known antibiotic resistance proteins to proteins that are produced by the bacteria of the human gut, we found thousands of new antibiotic resistance genes in the human gut, highlighting the immense diversity of antibiotic resistance genes in this environment.”

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

04.12.2018

Regret for wasted time is more wasted time

23 November, 2018

Scientists identify 35 genes linked to chronic kidney disease risk

Scientists have identified 35 genes that predispose people to chronic kidney disease(CKD), a finding that can boost diagnostic tests and treatment for the debilitating condition that affects around one in ten adults worldwide. “Chronic kidney disease is known for its strong genetic component,” said lead researcher Maciej Tomaszewski, Professor at the University of Manchester in the UK.

“Our limited knowledge of its exact genetic mechanisms partly explains why progress in the development of new diagnostic tests and treatments of chronic kidney disease has been so slow,” Tomaszewski added. Over 100 variants associated with CKD have been uncovered in large-scale genetic studies. Yet, the biological mechanisms underlying the genetic susceptibility to CKD have remained elusive and the progress in clinical translation of the findings from genome-wide association studies has been slow.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, were done by using “next-generation RNA sequencing” applied to one of the largest ever collections of human kidneys. One of the genes — mucin-1 — makes a sticky protein called mucin that coats urinary tubes inside the kidney. Mutations of this gene have already been found in rare families with inherited kidney failure.

“We hope that early prediction by genetic testing even before the development of symptoms will in the future be the first line of defence against one of the world’s top killers,” said Professor Fadi Charchar from the Federation University Australia.

“Early detection followed by treatment using kidney-protective medication or avoidance of drugs which can damage the kidneys is the key to healthier kidneys later in life.”

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

23.11.2018

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything

Mark Twain

19 November, 2018

Slow reading speed linked to dry eyes, finds study

A condition in which a person doesn’t have enough quality tears to lubricate and nourish the eye can be termed as dry eye. It can make your life miserable. You may feel annoying and frustrated due to that constant irritation. You may exhibit symptoms like itchy eyes, burning sensation, red eyes, fatigued eyes and blurred vision. It can snatch away your peace and can hamper your productivity. You will not be able to focus on your day-to-day activities.

According to a study, this can be a major issue as this condition can slow a person’s reading speed by 10 per cent and can make it difficult to read for more than 30 minutes. Isn’t this shocking? Reportedly, those with a clinically significant dry eye could read fewer words per minute and than those without the condition, who read at the same rate of 272 words per minute. We are not kidding here!

Reportedly, according to Esen Akpek, from the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute in the US, people with dry eye were unable to sustain good reading performance as their tears cannot re-lubricate their eye surfaces fast enough.
The team included 186 adults aged 50 or older, for the study, published in the journal Optometry and Vision Science. Also, the participants didn’t use prescription or over the counter eye drops for 24 hours before going for the testing.

Reportedly, all the participants in the study responded to eye discomfort vision quality and environmental contributors to eye complaints like wind or smoke. According to Akpek, people who had dry eye symptoms like stinging, fluctuating vision and dryness can opt for the counter eye drops, but they should undergo professional testing and diagnosis as well. This can help them to tackle their problem.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

19.11.2018

Be yourself, everyone else is already taken

Oscar Wilde

17 November, 2018

Tea or coffee your genes will decide: Study

Are you a tea or coffee person? The answer may lie in your genetic predisposition towards bitter tastes, say, researchers. It could be because bitterness acts as a natural warning system to protect us from harmful substances. The study, led by researchers from US-based Northwestern University, and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia, explored reactions to three bitter substances — caffeine, quinine and propylthiouracil (PROP) — to understand how they affect people’s preference for drinking tea, coffee and alcohol.

The findings showed that people who were more sensitive to caffeine and were drinking a lot of coffee consumed low amounts of tea. In other words, people who have a heightened ability to taste coffee’s bitterness — and particularly the distinct bitter flavour of caffeine — learn to associate “good things with it”. “You’d expect that people who are particularly sensitive to the bitter taste of caffeine would drink less coffee,” said Marilyn Cornelis, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

“The opposite results of our study suggest coffee consumers acquire a taste or an ability to detect caffeine due to the learned positive reinforcement (stimulation) elicited by caffeine.”

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also found that people sensitive to the bitter flavours of quinine and of PROP — a synthetic taste related to the compounds in cruciferous vegetables — avoid coffee.

For alcohol, a higher sensitivity to the bitterness of PROP resulted in lower alcohol consumption, particularly of red wine. “The findings suggest our perception of bitter tastes, informed by our genetics, contributes to the preference for coffee, tea and alcohol,” Cornelis said.

Scientists applied Mendelian randomisation — a technique commonly used in disease epidemiology — to test the causal relationship between bitter taste and beverage consumption in more than 4,00,000 men and women in the UK.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

17.11.2018

Happiness is not something you find ….. It’s something you create

15 November, 2018

Tamarind seed protein can treat chikungunya, say IIT researchers

Chikungunya can be challenging to manage. It can hamper your quality of life. Reportedly, two professors at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have claimed that they have come out with a protein in tamarind seeds which has antiviral properties and can be used to make medication for chikungunya.

A mosquito-borne viral disease, very similar to dengue can be called as chikungunya. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus can spread it. Those suffering from chikungunya can exhibit symptoms like nausea, vomiting, a headache and so on. But, you will be shocked to hear that you may be able to tackle chikungunya now. We are not kidding1
Reportedly, the research group at IIT Roorkee has filed a patent for an antiviral composition containing this tamarind antiviral protein and are developing tamarind-based therapeutic agents for dealing with chikungunya. Lectin, which is a diverse group of proteins derived from plant sources can bind to glycan sugars. It has been extensively studied for a range of viruses like HIV and HPV.

Reportedly, the IIT professors, in a study, have showcased that a lectin derived from tamarind seeds bind to glycans or sugar molecules having N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) on the capsule of viruses, and can prevent the entry of the virus into the host cells.

Reportedly, the researchers have isolated lectin from those tamarind seeds with the help of chromatography and have examined the binding of the lectin molecules to the glycan in the viral capsule with the help of a process called Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA).

Reportedly, according to professor Pravindra Kumar, who is one of the members of the research team, antiviral drugs and vaccines against most alphaviruses along with chikungunya are still not available in, and preventive measures are the only route to manage diseases caused by these viruses.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

15.11.2018

Happiness is not something ready made; it comes from your own actions