31 August, 2013

Delhi High Court questions centre on rural medical course

The Delhi High Court on Thursday told the central government to file its reply on the contempt plea filed against it for alleged failure to start a three-year course for non-MBBS people to practise medicine in rural health centres.

Justice S.K. Mishra sought a detailed affidavit, indicating if steps had been taken to start the court, within eight weeks and posted the matter for Dec 5.

Petitioner Meenakshi Gautam, filing the contempt petition through advocate Prashant Bhushan, said on Nov 10, 2010 that a division bench of this court had ordered the Medical Council of India (MCI) to introduce by March 2011 the bachelor of rural health care (BRHC) course, approved by the health ministry, but no action has been taken so far.

‘The MCI apparently opposed the course in 2011 and is not willing to notify it,’ the petition said.

The court had earlier given the MCI two months’ time to finalise the curriculum and syllabus of the three-and-half-year primary healthcare practitioner course, approved by the central government, she added.

Source: http://health.india.com

31.08.2013

Eat fruits, avoid fruit juices if you want to keep diabetes away!

According to a study published by The British Medical Journal, eating fruits can lower the risk of diabetes while drinking fruit juices might increase it.  Blueberries have been found to be the most effective, cutting the risk of type 2 diabetes by 26%, as compared to 2% per three servings of any other fruit. The study has taken into account the dietary habits of as many as 187,000 Americans and has taken over a quarter of a century to be completed.

Other fruits that were found effective in cutting the risk were apples, pears, grapes and raisins. The researchers attributed the lowered risk to high levels of anthocyanins present in these fruits, which has been shown to enhance glucose uptake in mice. The researchers wrote in their study paper, ‘Fruits have highly variable contents of fibre, antioxidants, other nutrients, and phytochemicals that jointly may influence the risk.’ That said, Dr Matthew Hobbs, head of research for Diabetes UK said to the BBC, ‘Some of the findings are based on a number of assumptions and models which may have distorted the results significantly. For example, the researchers used surveys to ask participants how often they ate certain foods. This type of survey can often be unreliable as people are more likely to remember certain types of food.

Other fruits that were found effective in cutting the risk were

1.      Apples – You must have heard the famous proverb- ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ Along with diabetes, apples can help decrease the risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer.

2.      Pears - Pears are an excellent source of nutrition as they are a great source for fiber and Vitamin C. Also, they are sodium free, fat free and cholesterol free.

3.      Grapes - Grapes are a good substitute over unhealthy snack options like cookies and candies. They are a rich source for Vitamin C, Vitamin B1, Flavanoids, Potassium and Manganese.

4.      Raisins –  Raisins like grapes, can be a healthy substitute for most conventional snack options. They can provide a boost of energy, reduce acidity, help make the eye healthier and even stimulate you sexually. 

Source: http://health.india.com

31.08.2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all

30 August, 2013

Indian-origin cardiologist named White House fellow

Washington: Kapil Parakh, an Indian-origin cardiologist working in Washington area, is among a dozen people chosen by the White House for its prestigious fellowship programme for 2013-14.

A Zambia University graduate, Parakh is the director of heart failure at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Centre and assistant professor in the Departments of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Behaviour and Society.

He edged out two other Indian-Americans among the finalists -- Shilpen Patel, associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Washington, and Jay Bhatt, geriatric medicine fellow at the University of Michigan Health System.

Starting with Indian-American neurosurgeon and CNN`s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, who was a 1997-98 fellow, Parakh is the latest person of Indian origin to join the White House Fellows Programme created in 1964 by then president Lyndon Johnson.

The programme is designed to give promising American leaders "first hand, high-level experience with the workings of the federal government, and to increase their sense of participation in national affairs", according to the White House.

"This unique opportunity to work within our nation`s government is designed to encourage active citizenship and a lifelong commitment to service." Parakh leads heart failure quality improvements in collaboration with the Joint Commission`s Centre for Transforming Healthcare, using entrepreneurial techniques to cost-effectively improve outcomes, the White House announcement said.

Parakh`s research focuses on understanding the increased mortality in patients with depression after a heart attack. Passionate about teaching, Parakh is a clinician-educator and has mentored trainees in award winning research. Parakh is the co-founder of Health for America, a non-profit that mobilises youth to improve the health of communities through innovation while shaping the next generation of leaders.

In recognition of his contributions to public health, Parakh was recently inducted into the Delta Omega Public Health honour society. He has 27 scientific publications and serves as a peer-reviewer for a number of journals.

Parakh is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation. Parakh received a BS and MD from the University of Zambia with honours, as well as a MPH and PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

30.08.2013

Light could replace electric jolts to restore healthy heartbeats

Washington: When a beating heart slips into an irregular, life-threatening rhythm, delivering a burst of electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator is the treatment most commonly known.

But because the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other serious side-effects, a Johns Hopkins-led research team wants to replace these jolts with a kinder, gentler remedy: light.

Five biomedical engineers from Johns Hopkins and Stony Brook universities described their plan to use biological lab data and an intricate computer model to devise a better way to heal ailing hearts.

Other scientists are already using light-sensitive cells to control certain activities in the brain.

The Johns Hopkins-Stony Brook researchers said that they plan to give this technique a cardiac twist so that doctors in the near future will be able to use low-energy light to solve serious heart problems such as arrhythmia .

"Applying electricity to the heart has its drawbacks," the project`s supervisor, Natalia Trayanova, the Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins, said.

"When we use a defibrillator, it`s like blasting open a door because we don`t have the key. It applies too much force and too little finesse. We want to control this treatment in a more intelligent way. We think it`s possible to use light to reshape the behavior of the heart without blasting it," she said.

The research is published online in the journal Nature Communications. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

30.08.2013

Boozing in early adolescence could increase breast cancer risk

Washington: Researchers have linked increased breast cancer risk to drinking between early adolescence and first full-term pregnancy.

Co-author Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, said that more and more heavy drinking is occurring on college campuses and during adolescence, and not enough people are considering future risk. But, according to our research, the lesson is clear: If a female averages a drink per day between her first period and her first full-term pregnancy, she increases her risk of breast cancer by 13 percent.

First author Ying Liu, MD, PhD, a School of Medicine instructor in the Division of Public Health Sciences, said that they also found that for every bottle of beer, glass of wine or shot of liquor consumed daily, a young woman increases her risk of proliferative benign breast disease by 15 percent and although such lesions are noncancerous, their presence increases breast cancer risk by as much as 500 percent.

She said that parents should educate their daughters about the link between drinking and risk of breast cancer and breast disease, asserting that`s very important as this time period is very critical.

The findings are based on a review of the health histories of 91,005 mothers enrolled in the Nurses` Health Study II from 1989 to 2009.

The study has been published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

30.08.2013

Accept no one’s definition of your life: Define yourself

 Harvey Fierstein

29 August, 2013

Over 65,000 malnourished children in Karnataka, says NGO

As per government statistics, there are over 65,000 malnourished children in Karnataka, says an NGO, United Ways of Bangalore (UWBe), citing figures from National Family Health Survey. Belgaum tops the list with 7,587, followed by Raichur (6,089), Bellary (5,258), Koppal (4,496), Gulbarga (4,436) and Bidar (1,216). Those figures, however, contrast with the data provided by Karnataka minister for women and child development Umashree in the assembly on July 22, that the state has only 3,549 children suffering from malnutrition

Though more than 90% of kids under the age of six are in areas covered by anganwadis, only 36% of them actually received services of some kind from these centres, according to UWBe.

‘The government is doing its bit as far as spending money on various schemes is concerned. However, merely spending money will not help, there needs to be proper planning. It needs to ensure that food distributed to children under the age of six actually has the right amount of nutrition required for a child of that age,’ says nutritionist and scientist Dr KC Raghu. 

For instance, the state government recently agreed to supply milk to children covered by anganwadis. It agreed to include the same in their mid-day meal scheme. However, it decided to supply skimmed milk powder to kids under the age of six while those covered under mid-day meal scheme were given whole milk powder. Ideally it should have been the other way round. ‘Kids under the age of six need energy through fats and proteins. By giving them skimmed milk we are in no way addressing their health issue properly,’ says Raghu.

According to Suresh Nair, executive director, United Way of Bengaluru (UWBe), the India wing of a US not-for-profit organisation, there is little knowledge on nutrition required by kids when they under six years of age. ‘There are very few schemes run by government which cover kids in this age group. If we intend to eradicate infant mortality, we need to catch them young,’ says Nair. This can be done by educating the anganwadi workers and giving them access to clean water and a hygienic place to operate from. 

Experts even trashed government’s recent step to distribute iron tablets among schoolchildren. You need nutrition through freshly cooked meals and not tablets, say doctors.   

Statistics reveal that only 17-18% of children actually received health check-ups and growth monitoring services at anganwadi centres. Experts say that most anganwadis do not have proper buildings. 

However, anganwadi workers say despite taking care of lakhs of women and children, the government has turned a blind eye to their problems and woes. Many allege that despite repeated requests, the government has not taken any step to increase their monthly salary. 

There are 1.29 lakh anganwadi workers and assistants across the state. While the anganwadi workers are paid Rs 4,500 per month, the anganwadi assistants are paid Rs 2,500.

Source: http://health.india.com

29.08.2013

Eat sweets to cure chikungunya!

With the outbreak of chikungunya in the Ahmedabad, general physicians are having a busy time. According to a rough estimate, physicians in the city receive around 15-20 patients every day suffering from chikungunya.

Initially, many thought that chikungunya has no cure.

However, now, the city doctors have found a simple and novel way of curing the disease.

A city-based physician, Dr Suresh Shah, who cured 1,300 patients during the major outbreak seven years back, said: ‘The best way to treat chikungunya is to have home-made sweets like sukhdi, kheer, sheero and lots of liquids. Of course, paracetamol should be taken, but the main focus should be on home-made sweets.’

Elaborating on this, Dr Suresh said that the one suffering from chikungunya needs to be given energy as joint pain and viral fever make the patient weak.

Many doctors may suggest glucose drips for instant energy, but to ensure that the situation does not get worse, sweets and liquids should be taken. They help in recovering in just three to five days, added Dr Suresh.

According to the health report prepared by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the city has recorded around 60 cases of chikungunya so far (since January this year).

However, there are still many, who are being treated at private clinics.

The city doctors believe that chikungunya is back, but this time in a milder form.

Another family physician, Dr Pragnesh Vaccharajani of Navrangpura area, said that for the treatment of chikungunya, steroids are a strict no-no.

‘We have learned from our past experiences. When there was an epidemic, we did not have much awareness on the treatment and many suggested steroids and paracetamol.

But in reality, unnecessary pain killers, steroids should be avoided. The doctors have realised that steroids and pain killers do not help in curing chikungunya.

However, Dr Vaccharajani said that liquids, plain paracetamol and good rest are the three essential things to cure the disease.

Talking further about finding a cure to the disease, a city-based physician in Sabarmati area, said: ‘Earlier, chikungunya was new for the doctors and there was not much awareness about it. Now, over a period of time, people have developed immunity, therefore, chikungunya is not a life-threatening disease’. 

As chikungunya results in low blood platelets, it is advisable to have plenty of fruits and liquids for energy, added Dr BS Shah.

Source: http://health.india.com

29.08.2013

Success comes in cans, not in cannots

28 August, 2013

Babies can remember words heard before birth

Washington: Moms-to-be, note! Your unborn baby can hear you, loud and clear.

Babies develop a memory of words they hear frequently even before they are born, a new study has found.

Researchers said an unborn child does indeed hear everything, including people`s voices, which allows them to begin learning words and remembering them once they`re born.

"We believe this shows how well the brain at this age adapts to sounds. It is a sign of very early language learning, or adaptation to the sounds they heard," said study co-author Minna Huotilainen, from the University of Helsinki`s Finnish Center of Excellence in Interdisciplinary Music Research.

"A newborn baby is not an empty canvas, but has already learned how his or her mother and other family members speak," said Huotilainen.

Researchers tested the memory of Finnish foetuses by exposing them to a single word - "tatata" - that means nothing in the Finnish language, `HealthDay News` reported.

"It is a so-called `pseudoword` that is important for research. It has three syllables, and we chose such a long word to make it challenging for the small brains to find the changes and give them something difficult to learn. Such a word could exist in Finnish. It follows all the rules of the Finnish language," Huotilainen said.

From the 29th week of pregnancy until birth, about half of the 33 pregnant women in the study listened to recordings of the word repeated hundreds of times.

Sometimes the recordings presented the word with a different middle syllable ("to") or pronounced differently.

Researchers used scans to test the activity in the brains of all the babies when they heard the word after their birth. Those who had heard it before "showed an enhanced reaction to this specific word," Huotilainen said. "They were able to process the word better, and also they were able to detect changes in the word better," Huotilainen said.

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

28.08.2013

Bharat Biotech launches fourth generation typhoid vaccine

Hyderabad: Bharat Biotech, a city-based vaccine manufacturer, today announced the launch of Typbar-TCV, the world`s first clinically proven typhoid conjugate vaccine for six months old infants and adults.

Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna M Ella said the new vaccine brings hope to millions by protecting them against typhoid caused by salmonella typhi, a highly virulent and invasive enteric bacterium.

Ella said that this is a fourth generation vaccine against typhoid disease which has been proven to provide long term protection to adults and infants. Typhoid vaccines fall short in two major counts, namely long-term protection and protection of children below two years of age.

"We hope this vaccine will reach millions of people and help reduce the burden of this devastating disease in infants and children," Ella told reporters at a press conference here, adding that his company had commenced commercial production of Typbar-TCV in pre-filled syringes at its vaccine production facility in Genome Valley.

"The pricing of the vaccine has not yet been decided. There will be two price structures. One for public institutions and the other one will be for private organisations. Pricing will be fixed by next week," he said.

The plant has the capacity to produce 10 million doses each year, which is expandable to 50 million doses per year in future. Bharat Biotech is the largest producer and supplier of typhoid vaccine in the world, having distributed over 50 million doses globally, he claimed.

Quoting World Health Organisation reports, Director-General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) Christian Loucq said that typhoid fever kills between 250,000 to 600,000, besides causing 20 million illnesses per year, affecting mostly school children.

"The World Health Organisation reports that 90 per cent of typhoid deaths occur in Asia and persists mainly in children under five years of age. In India, typhoid fever is observed throughout the year and a greater number of cases coincide with the rainy season," Loucq said.

While typhoid fever can be cured by antibiotics, resistance to anti-microbials is widespread along with poor diagnostics, he said, adding that hence prevention of typhoid fever is better than curing it. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com/news/health

28.08.2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

27 August, 2013

Exercises can keep your vision perfect

Exercising your eyes is important, say experts

Not everyone is blessed with perfect vision but those who are can try and keep your peepers in perfect condition with the help of exercises. Eye surgeon Dr Keki Mehta says, that exercises help in mechanical stability of the eye. He says, "Increasing the range of movement of an eye, especially by exercising a weak muscle. Permitting eye movement, especially in persons who wear spectacles or have their eyes fixed at a particular position for long periods, like typesetters and painters. This permits a more comfortable vision.

In an eye which has a squint, exercising a particular group of muscles can cure or radically reduce a squint. Even if a squint is surgically operated, the use of exercises can build up thecapacity of the eye to virtually normal limits."

Exercises, say the doctor, improve the power of the eye to maintain focus in depressed position (the eye turns in and bends down during the most important activity of modern life which is reading) and thus allow you to work long hours.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

27.08.2013

Blood pressure drugs up breast cancer risk

A new study has found that long-term use of a calcium-channel blocker to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) is associated with higherbreast cancer risk. 

Antihypertensive medications are the most commonly prescribed class of drugs in theUnited States and in 2010 totaled an estimated 678 million filled prescriptions, Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, and colleagues write in the study background. 

"Evidence regarding the relationship between different types of antihypertensives and breast cancer risk is sparse and inconsistent, and prior studies have lacked the capacity to assess impacts of long-term use," the study said. 

The population-based study in the three-county Seattle-Puget Sound metropolitan area included women ages 55 to 74 years: 880 of the women had invasive ductal breast cancer, 1,027 had invasive lobular breast cancer and 856 of them had no cancer and served as the control group. 

Researchers measured the risk of breast cancer and examined the recency and duration of use of antihypertensive medications. 

According to the results, current use of calcium-channel blockers for 10 or more years was associated with higher risks of ductal breast cancer and lobular breast cancer. 

The research is published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

27.08.2013

Success is a process, a quality of mind and a way of being, an outgoing affirmation of life

Alex Noble

26 August, 2013

Adolescents in India are anaemic: Health Minister

A little over 30 percent of adolescent boys and 55.8 percent of adolescent girls in India suffer from anaemia, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

As per the latest National Family Health Survey, 55.3 percent of all women between 15-49 years of age, 56.2 percent of never married women and 58.7 per cent of pregnant women are anaemic in the country, Azad said in a written reply.

The minister said the prevalence of night blindness, that indicates Vitamin A deficiency in children, has reduced from 1.1 percent in 2001 to 0.2 percent in 2006.

Surveys conducted by the Directorate General of Health Services, Indian Council of Medical Research and other state health directorates found that out of 365 districts surveyed in all 35 states and union territories, people in 303 districts have iodine deficiency disorders, he said.

Azad said under the national rural health mission, a national ‘iron plus’ initiative has been launched in which Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) is given to adolescent girls and boys and all women in the reproductive age group.

Source: http://health.india.com

26.08.2013

Fruits, vegetables may lower women’s bladder cancer risk

 Rsearchers in the United States say their studies suggest that greater consumption of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of developing invasive bladder cancer in women.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii described in the Journal of Nutrition that they analyzed data collected from 185,885 older adults over a period of 12.5 years, Xinhua reported.

Overall, 152 women and 429 men were diagnosed with invasive bladder cancer.

After adjusting for variables related to cancer risk, such as age, the researchers found that women who consumed the most fruits and vegetables had the lowest bladder risk.

According to the researchers, women consuming the most yellow-orange vegetables were 52 percent less likely to have bladder cancer than women consuming the least yellow-orange vegetables.

The study also suggested that women with the highest intake of vitamins A, C and E had the lowest risk of bladder cancer. There are, however, no associations between fruit and vegetable intake and invasive bladder cancer in men, the study found. 

‘Our study supports the fruit and vegetable recommendation for cancer prevention,’ researcher Song-Yi Park at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center said in a statement.

‘However, further investigation is needed to understand and explain why the reduced cancer risk with higher consumption of fruits and vegetables was confined to only women,’ Park said.

Source: http://health.india.com

26.08.2013

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing

George Bernard Shaw

23 August, 2013

Biggest heart attack risks for Indians revealed

Indian researchers have conducted a data mining exercise to find out important risk factors in increasing the chances of an individual having a heart attack.

The authors confirm that the usual suspects high blood cholesterol, intake of alcohol and passivesmoking play the most crucial role in 'severe,' 'moderate' and 'mild' cardiac risks, respectively.

Subhagata Chattopadhyay of the Camellia Institute of Engineering in Kolkata used 300 real-world sample patient cases with various levels of cardiac risk - mild, moderate and severe and mined the data based on twelve known predisposing factors: age, gender, alcohol abuse, cholesterol level, smoking (active and passive), physical inactivity, obesity, diabetes, family history, and prior cardiac event.

He then built a risk model that revealed specific risk factors associated with heart attack risk.

Chattopadhyay explained that the essence of this work essentially lies in the introduction of clustering techniques instead of purely statistical modeling, where the latter has its own limitations in 'data-model fitting' compared to the former that is more flexible.

He said that the reliability of the data used, should be checked, and this has been done in this work to increase its authenticity. I reviewed several papers on epidemiological research, where I'm yet to see these methodologies, used.

The study has been published in International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

23.08.2013

How personality affects ability to have kids

A new study has found a link between men's and women's personalities and the likelihood of them having kids.

Men with neurotic personality traits are having fewer children compared to previous generations, according to the study. The study examined the effect of personality on how likely a person is to have children, using extensive survey and birth registry data fromNorway.

It also found that men who are extraverted and open tend to have more children, while women who rank as conscientious on personality tests tend to have fewer children, although these findings were constant across generations.

The study could have important implications for population dynamics at a time when fertility rates across developed countries have fallen to below replacement rates.

Personality effects may be one factor contributing to the decline of fertility rates in Europe, but they have not previously been studied in detail, IIASA's Vegard Skirbekk, who led the study, said.

Population changes are an important factor for projecting future changes in sustainability, climate, energy, and food security, IIASA's core research areas.

In particular, Skirbekk notes the decline in childbearing among neurotic men—neurotic meaning individuals who tend to be moody and emotional.

The study found that the effect only applies for men born after 1957.

Skirbekk said that the change in these men's fertility could be due to new norms in having children, for example that couples today wait longer to have children, and couples tend to test each other out more before committing to raising children together.

The study is published in the European Journal of Personality.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

23.08.2013

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it

William Arthur Ward