3 April, 2014

World Health Day 2014: Mumbai dabbawalas to spread awareness on vector-borne diseases

Mumbai’s famed ‘dabbawalas’ will join hands with the World Health Organisation to draw attention to prevention and control vector-borne diseases (VBD), an official said here Wednesday. The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust (NMTBSCT) will carry a special message tag on its 200,000 plus tiffin boxes April 7 to highlight the threats by vector-borne diseases in India.

The WHO campaign, being carried out jointly with the state health ministry, is entitled ‘Small Bite: Big Threat’. It talks about the dangers of dengue, malaria, chikungunya, lymphatic filariasis, kalaazar and Japanese encephalitis, all spread by mosquitoes and the bacteria, viruses and parasites they carry, said Nata Menabde, WHO Representative to India.  

‘In India, the burden and risk of vector-borne diseases is massive. The burden is concentrated in remote areas of the country with the poorest health systems where the population is most exposed,’ Menabde said. Public health secretary Sujata Saunik said the recent joint monitoring mission on vector-borne diseases in India is a step towards reviewing disease control efforts through the health systems to identify and address critical gaps.  

NMTBSCT president Raghunath Medge said the ‘dabbawalas’ would create a multiplier effect by carrying the messages to a large number of Mumbaikars through the tiffin boxes and help sensitize and inform the community. Vector-borne diseases account for 17 percent of the estimated global burden of all infectious diseases with dengue emerging the fastest growing with a 30-fold increase in incidence in the past 50 years. Around 70 percent of the countries and territories hit by VBDs are low income and lower-middle income with causes like climate, environmental change and globalization.  

Source: http://health.india.com

03.04.2014

Eateries offering healthy foods, nutritional information do better

A new study has revealed that customers prefer going to restaurants that provide healthy foods and nutritional information. The researchers at Penn State and the University of Tennessee said that the customers perceive restaurants to be socially responsible when they are provided with nutrition facts and healthful options and, therefore, are more likely to patronize those restaurants.

It was found that when the participants of the study were presented with a scenario in which a restaurant presented nutrition information and served healthful food options, they were significantly more likely to perceive that the restaurant was socially responsible. According to the study, participants who were highly health-conscious were more likely than low health-conscious people to think that the restaurant was socially responsible when it provided healthful food options.   

However, the study also revealed that when exposed to nutrition information, participants perceived the restaurant to be socially responsible, regardless of their level of health-consciousness. The study was published in the February 2014 issue of the International Journal of Hospitality Management. 

Source: http://health.india.com

03.04.2014

Why running too much can be hazardous

Despite running regularly being linked to a host of health benefits, including weight control, stress reduction, better blood pressure and cholesterol, a new study suggests that running may not be all that beneficial. A number of studies have suggested that a ‘moderate’ running regimen — a total of two to three hours per week, according to one expert — appears best for longevity, refuting the typical ‘more is better’ mantra for physical activity, CBS News reported. The researchers behind the newest study on the issue say people who get either no exercise or high-mileage runners both tend to have shorter lifespans than moderate runners.  

But the reasons why remain unclear, they added. The new study seems to rule out cardiac risk or the use of certain medications as factors. Dr. Martin Matsumura, co-director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, Pennsylvania said that the study didn’t find any differences that could explain these longevity differences. Matsumura presented the findings Sunday at the American College of Cardiology’s annual meeting in Washington, DC.  

Even though the heart disease risk factors couldn’t explain the shorter longevity of high-mileage runners, there do seem to be potentially life-shortening ill effects from that amount of running, Dr. James O’Keefe, director of preventive cardiology at the Mid-American Heart Institute in Kansas City said. O’Keefe, who reviewed the findings, believes there may simply be ‘too much wear and tear’ on the bodies of high-mileage runners. Chronic extreme exercise, O’Keefe said, may induce a ‘remodeling’ of the heart, and that could undermine some of the benefits that moderate activity provides.

Source: http://health.india.com

03.04.2014

A creative man is motivated by

the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others

Ayn Rand