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