Indian Ocean
rocks for organ donation
Indian
Ocean is one of the country’s leading rock bands and considered one of the
pioneers of the fusion genre. This time the band connected through its music to
a few hundred appreciative fans on Sunday evening for a cause — championing the
importance of organ donation in a country where thousands die because there are
not enough organs available for harvesting and transplantation.
The
event, held at the Zorba amphitheatre in Sultanpur, was organised by the MOHAN
(Multi-Organ Harvesting Aid Network) that was formed to facilitate organ
donation and transplant programmes in the country. It had facilitated over 300
donations since it was set up in Chennai in 1997, translating to over 2,500
organs and tissues.
In
India, an estimated 200,000 people reach end-stage renal failure each year,
100,000 reach end-stage liver failure and around the same number for heart. In
contrast, only 3,500 renal transplants are performed every year, about 400
liver transplants and only a handful of heart transplants. The rest die waiting
for a transplant in the absence of suitable matching organ.
‘We
organised this event to create awareness about organ donation as sadly in India
even if people know about the concept, they don’t know how to go about it,’
said Pallavi Kumar, executive director, Delhi NCR, for the MOHAN Foundation.
‘An individual once declared brain dead cannot be brought back to life.
However, he or she can still save not just one but multiple lives. In their
endeavour to create awareness of the cause, MOHAN foundation partnered with
India’s famous band Indian Ocean to help people connect to the cause through
music,’ she added.
The
event was also supported by the Amit Gupta Foundation, which was set up in 2009
to spread awareness about organ donation and related challenges, issues and
facts for both the patients and their families or care givers.
Spain
has the highest rate of organ donation from brain dead patients in the world at
33 per million population. In India, the organ donation rate is just 0.05 per
million. ‘However, if we can improve it even to 1 per million donation – we
could take care of some of the organ shortages in India,’ said Anasuya Gupta,
chairperson and managing director of CICO Technologies.
Source:
http://health.india.com
12.02.2013
Asthma drug could
reverse obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease!
Amlexanox,
a drug prescribed for asthma in Japan, also reverses obesity, diabetes and
fatty liver in mice, according to a new study by US researchers. ‘One of the
reasons that diets are so ineffective in producing weight loss for some people
is that their bodies adjust to the reduced calories by also reducing their
metabolism, so that they are ‘defending’ their body weight,’ says Alan Saltiel,
director of the University of Michigan’s Life Sciences Institute (LSI), which
conducted the study. ‘Amlexanox seems to tweak the metabolic response to
excessive calorie storage in mice,’ adds Saltiel.
Different
formulations of amlexanox are currently prescribed to treat asthma in Japan and
canker sores in the US, the journal Nature Medicine reports. The study appears to
confirm and extend the notion that the genes IKKE and TBK1 play a crucial role
for maintaining metabolic balance, a discovery published by the Saltiel lab in
2009, according to an LSI statement. ‘Amlexanox appears to work in mice by
inhibiting two genes – IKKE and TBK1 – that we think together act as a sort of
brake on metabolism,’ Saltiel said. ‘By releasing the brake, amlexanox seems to
free the metabolic system to burn more, and possibly store less energy.’
Using
high-throughput chemical screening at LSI’s Centre for Chemical Genomics to
search for compounds that inhibit IKKE and TBK1, the researchers hit upon an
approved off-patent drug: amlexanox. They then demonstrated that amlexanox had
profound beneficial effects in both genetic and dietary-induced obese mice. The
chemical lowered the weight of obese mice and reversed related metabolic
problems such as diabetes and fatty liver.
Source:
http://health.india.com
12.02.2013
Never bend
your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye
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