August 18, 2012 Clippings

What are your chances of developing kidney failure?

A new study has found that the likelihood of middle-aged adults developing kidney failure during their lifetime. The study states that about one in 40 men and one in 60 women of middle age will develop kidney failure if they live into their 90s. This translates into a 2.66 percent risk of kidney failure for men and a 1.76 percent risk for women. The risk is higher in people with reduced kidney function (men: 7.51 percent and women: 3.21 percent) compared with people with relatively preserved kidney function.

Kidney failure is on the rise and currently afflicts two million people worldwide. It takes a significant toll on both individuals and the public as a whole, causing poor health in patients and generating considerable health care costs, the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology reports. Despite kidney failure’s impact, researchers don’t have a good estimate of people’s likelihood of developing it over their lifetime. Accordingly, from 1997 to 2008 Tanvir Chowdhury Turin and Brenda Hemmelgarn, from the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and colleagues studied 2.89 million adult residents free of kidney failure at the start of the study.

“Given the high morbidity (prevalence of disease) and cost associated with kidney failure, we wanted to quantify the burden of disease for kidney failure in an easily understandable index to communicate information for patients, health practitioners, and policy makers,” said Turin, according to a statement from Calgary university. The lifetime risk of kidney failure is consistently higher for men at all ages and kidney function levels, compared with women, the researchers said.

Source: http://health.india.com

18.08.2012

How tattoos can cause hepatitis

Body piercing or getting your body tattooed in David Beckham style may cost you a huge price — infection of Hepatitis B and C virus. The needle used in the act to (re) fashion your body may just be infected with the said virus causing liver disease, which in its ultimate stage often turns cancerous (liver cirrhosis). That is deemed to happen if the needle is not properly sterilized.

How tattoos are done

A tattoo is a permanent mark or design made on your skin with pigments inserted through pricks into the skin's top layer. Typically, the tattoo artist uses a hand-held machine that acts much like a sewing machine, with one or more needles piercing the skin repeatedly. With every puncture, the needles insert tiny ink droplets. The process — which is done without anesthetics — causes a small amount of bleeding and slight to potentially significant pain.

How they cause hepatitis?

Tattoos are a potential cause for spreading hepatitis B and C virus. "The main risk is if the equipment, which is the needle, is infected and not enough precaution is taken to prevent transmission. But it's not just the needle that can spread the virus.
Needles are not the only things that can cause transmission of the hepatitis. The silent culprits are the expensive ink bottles in which the artist dips his needle time and again while doing the tattoo. So even if they use disposable syringes or fresh gloves, if an artist uses the same ink bottle for several clients, the chances of transmission of the virus increase. Now since these ink bottles are mostly imported, they generally don't use fresh bottles for every client.
Explaining the science behind it, "Tattoo making involves pricking the needle deep into the dermis - the layer under the skin surface - which results in bleeding and the same needle is dipped into the paint bottle which leads to transferring of Hepatitis B or C from infected to another.
Preventive measures to rescue yourself from hepatitis

Tattoo as you would any other medical procedure. You want a tattoo parlor to be at least as clean as your doctor's office.

Ask to see the tools the artist will use. The needles should be new, sterilized, and wrapped — no exceptions. The ink should be in small pots meant for single-use and anything that touches your skin should not be reused. And the artist should wear gloves.
Tattoos can be beautiful, artistic expressions of our inner selves. Just be sure you know the risks and go to a professional tattoo artist.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

18.08.2012

You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience

Stanislaw J. Lec