28, August 2014

Low-dose aspirin reduces blood clot risk

Low-dose aspirin can help prevent new blood clots among people who are at risk and have already suffered a blood clot, says a promising study. 

According to Australian researchers, low-dose aspirin lowers the occurrence of new venous blood clots and represents a reasonable treatment option for patients who are not candidates for long-term anticoagulant drugs such as warfarin. 

"Aspirin represents a useful treatment option for patients who are not candidates for anticoagulant drugs because of the expense or the increased risk of bleeding associated with anticoagulants," claimed study's lead author John Simes, a professor at University of Sydney. 

During the study, compared to placebo patients, those who took 100 mg daily of aspirin had a one-third reduction in the risk of thromboembolism (obstruction of a blood vessel by a clot) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, predominantly in the legs. 

It also reduced pulmonary embolism which is a blood clot affecting the arteries that supply blood to the lungs. 

Most people who have had a blood clot in a leg vein (deep-vein thrombosis) or an embolism (where the clot blocks the blood flow) have anticoagulant drug treatment (such as warfarin) for at least six months. 

However, long-term anticoagulant drugs are expensive and may cause bleeding in some patients. 

For people who are not able to cope with this, the viable alternative of taking regular aspirin will be a great benefit. 

"Aspirin will be ideal in many countries where prolonged anticoagulant treatment is too expensive. A major benefit of this treatment is its cost-effectiveness," Simes added.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

28.08.2014

Tickle' your ears for a super heart

How often do you want to kill that itchy feeling in your ears? Well if we believe researchers, tickling your ears can actually improve the health of your heart!

When they applied electrical pulses to the tragus - the small raised flap at the front of the ear immediately in front of the ear canal - they found that the stimulation changed the influence of the nervous system on the heart by reducing the nervous signals that can drive failing hearts too hard.

The technique works by stimulating a major nerve called the vagus that has an important role in regulating vital organs such as the heart.

The researchers applied electrodes to the ears of 34 healthy people and switched on the standard TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machines for 15-minute sessions.

They monitored the variability of subjects' heartbeats and the activity of the part of the nervous system that drives the heart.

"The first positive effect we observed was increased variability in subjects' heartbeats. We found that when you stimulate this nerve, you get about a 20 percent increase in heart rate variability," said lead researcher Jennifer Clancy from University of Leeds' school of biomedical sciences.

"You feel a bit of a tickling sensation in your ear when the TENS machine is on but it is painless. It does have the potential to improve the health of the heart and might even become part of the treatment for heart failure," claimed Jim Deuchars, a professor of systems neuroscience at University of Leeds.

The second positive effect was in suppressing the sympathetic nervous system, which drives heart activity using adrenaline.

"We measured the nerve activity directly and found that it reduced by about 50 percent when we stimulated the ear. This is important because if you have heart disease or heart failure, you tend to have increased sympathetic activity," Clancy explained.

A lot of treatments for heart failure try to stop that sympathetic activity - beta-blockers, for instance, block the action of the hormones that implement these signals.

"Using the TENS, we saw a reduction of the nervous activity itself," researchers noted.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

28.08.2014

Some people will test you, some people will use you, some people will teach you but most importantly some will         bring out the best in you