1 April, 2019

Working in shifts may increase heart disease risks: Study

People who work in shifts are at heightened danger of heart disease and the risk increases with years they work in shifts finds a Chinese study of more than 300,000 people. Shift work “can earn more profit, but it can also cause harm to the health of employees. Thus, employers should reduce shift work as much as possible,” lead author Weihong Chen, a researcher in occupational and environmental health at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, was quoted as saying to the Health Day.

While the reason is unknown, disruption in the normal sleep-wake cycle could increase stress. In the study, published in the journal Occupational Medicine, the team analysed data from 21 earlier studies involving over 320,000 people and nearly 20,000 cases of coronary heart disease. The study was not designed to prove the cause and effect, but the data showed shift workers were 13 percent more likely to develop coronary heart disease than daytime workers.

For every year spent working in shifts, there was a nearly one percent increase in the risk of coronary heart disease, the report said. According to Weihong, employers should pay attention to staff members who are experiencing symptoms of heart problems as well as those with a family history of heart disease. Employers could provide health promotion, such as information on how to prevent and deal with ischemic heart disease, she said.

Companies could also consider providing health check-ups to detect early signs of heart problems, Weihong said.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

01.04.2019

When you are alone, ‘control your thoughts’ and when you are in crowd, ‘control your words’

29 March, 2019

India record 84% reduction in TB deaths among people with HIV by 2017

India achieved 84 percent reduction in tuberculosis deaths among people living with HIV by 2017 – three years ahead of the target, said a report by The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The report on Friday showed that India is among the five low or middle-income countries — Eritrea (83 per cent), Djibouti (78 per cent), Malawi (78 per cent) and Togo (75 per cent) — that achieved or exceeded the target of a 75 per cent reduction in TB deaths among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), by 2017, three years ahead of the 2020 target.

According to the World Health Organization, globally, TB deaths among people living with HIV have fallen by 42 percent since 2010, from 520,000 down to 300,000 in 2017. “TB should be a disease of the past. It has been treatable and preventable for decades. Years of neglecting the rights of the world’s poor to basic health care, food and shelter have let TB take hold and allowed resistance to build,” Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said in a statement. TB is the top infectious killer worldwide, claiming around 4,400 lives a day.

It also remains the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, causing one in three AIDS-related deaths. In 2017, 1.6 million people died from TB, including around three lakh people living with HIV. “People living with HIV are especially at risk. There is still a chance for many countries to meet the target, but we have to act now it’s time to end TB and AIDS,” Sidibe said. The report also showed that between 2010 and 2017, in around 40 countries the number of TB deaths among people living with HIV rose.

In eastern Europe and central Asia, the number of TB deaths among people living with HIV increased by 22 percent between 2010 and 2017, with increases being seen in all but three countries in the region. In Latin America, deaths rose by seven percent.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

29.03.2019

It’s better to walk alone, than with a crowd going in the wrong direction

19 March, 2019

This heart drug can up sudden cardiac arrest risk

Doctors from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, examined over 60,000 people to determine whether nifedipine and amlodipine or dihydropyridines — widely used for high blood pressure and angina — were linked with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.  The results, presented at the annual congress of European Heart Rhythm Association 2019 in Lisbon, showed that high-dose (60 mg/day) nifedipine was significantly associated with an increased risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with any dose of amlodipine.

There was no risk associated with amlodipine. “Nifedipine and amlodipine are often used by many cardiologists and other physicians, and the choice often depends on the prescriber’s preference and personal experience,” said Hanno Tan, cardiologist at the Academic Medical Center. The findings are surprising given that both the drugs have been in use for many years.

However, the researchers urged caution when interpreting the results. “The findings need to be replicated in other studies before action could be taken by doctors or patients,” Tan said.

In sudden cardiac arrest, the heart stops pumping after a cardiac arrhythmia (ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia). This can be lethal if untreated.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

19.03.2019

We might not be able to be the best, but we can always be better than the rest

14 March, 2019

PM2.5 can put you at the risk of diabetes

According to a new study, PM2.5, which is known as a major pollutant which can lead to diabetes.

Researchers from the Fuwai Hospital under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences as well as Emory University in the United States evaluated the association between long-term exposure to PM2.5 and diabetes incidence based on data collected from more than 88,000 Chinese adults, the Xinhua reported. The team used satellite-based PM2.5 concentrations to assess PM2.5 exposure for each subject during the period 2004-2015.

For an increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of long-term PM2.5 concentration, the risk of diabetes incidence increased by 15.7 percent, according to the study published in the journal Environment International. The study would benefit policy making and intervention design in diabetes prevention, the researchers said.

“Our future work will focus on introducing spatiotemporal data of PM2.5 at higher resolution and indoor source of exposures to further detect the health effects of long-term exposure to PM2.5,” said Lu Xiangfeng, from the Fuwai Hospital. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution can lead to lung cancer, respiratory infection, stroke, and even heart disease.

Air pollution and diabetes are responsible for millions of death globally.

Data from the WHO show that in 2014, 8.5 percent of adults developed diabetes,and that in 2015, this health condition resulted in 1.6 million deaths.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

14.03.2019

There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind

C.S.Lewis

11 March, 2019

Decoding the relation between low vitamin D and asthma

Besides making bones strong, higher levels of Vitamin D can also be helpful for children with asthma to become more resilient to harmful respiratory effects caused owing to  indoor air pollution.  “Asthma is an immune-mediated disease,” said lead author Sonali Bose, Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“From previous scientific studies we knew that vitamin D was a molecule that may influence asthma by impacting antioxidant or immune-related pathways,” she added. The researchers observed that having low blood vitamin D levels was related toharmful respiratory effects of indoor air pollution from sources such as cigarette smoke, cooking, burning of candles, and incense, among children with asthma.

Conversely, in homes that had the highest indoor air pollution, higher blood vitamin D levels were associated with fewer asthma symptoms in children.

Importantly, the findings showed that the effects were most pronounced among obese children, Bose said.

“This highlights a third factor at play here – the obesity epidemic – and helps bring that risk to light when considering individual susceptibility to asthma.”

For the study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, the researchers tested three factors — air pollution levels in homes, blood vitamin D levels, and asthma symptoms — in 120 schoolchildren with pre-existing asthma. One-third of the children were obese.

“One way to increase blood vitamin D levels is to increase sun exposure, but that isn’t always possible in urban environments, or in people with darker skin pigmentation,” Bose said.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

11.03.2019

Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can

Arthur Ashe

7 March, 2019

Overweight people have better chances of survival from stroke

The study, presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 71st annual meeting in the US, found that severely obese people were 62 percent less likely to die than people of normal weight. “It was noticed that carrying extra weight may play a role in survival for people who had suffered from kidney and heart disease, We felt the need to investigate whether it also was tied to improved stroke survival,” said Zuolu Liu, researcher at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Obese people were 46 percent less likely to die after a stroke and those who were overweight had 15 percent more chances of survival. Conversely, underweight people were 67 percent more likely to die after a stroke than people of normal weight. The condition called the obesity paradox suggests being overweight may be protective for some, such as old people or those with certain chronic diseases.

“One possible explanation is people who are overweight or obese may have a nutritional reserve that may help them survive during prolonged illness. More research is needed to investigate the relationship between body mass index and stroke,” Liu stated.

For the study, the team looked at 1,033 stroke-affected people with an average age of 71 and an average body mass index (BMI) of 27.5.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

07.03.2019

Dreams are only dreams until you wake up and make them real

Ned Vizzini