1, October 2014

Healthy fat in olive oil may repair failing hearts

New York: Oleate, a common dietary fat found in olive oil, may help restore proper metabolism of fuel that gets disturbed in case of heart failure, a study suggests.

"This gives more proof to the idea that consuming healthy fats like oleate can have a significantly positive effect on cardiac health even after the disease has begun," said senior study author E. Douglas Lewandowski from the University of Illinois - Chicago, US.

Failing hearts are unable to properly process or store the fats they use for fuel, which are contained within tiny droplets called lipid bodies in heart muscle cells.

The inability to use fats, the heart's primary fuel source, causes the muscle to become starved of energy. Fats, not metabolised by the heart, break down into toxic intermediary by-products that further contribute to heart disease.

In addition to balancing fat metabolism and reducing toxic by-products in hyper-trophic hearts, oleate also restored the activation of several genes for enzymes that metabolise fat, the findings of the study showed.

"These genes are often suppressed in hyper-trophic hearts," Lewandowski added.

"The fact that we can restore beneficial gene expression, as well as more balanced fat metabolism, plus reduce toxic fat metabolites, just by supplying hearts with oleate - a common dietary fat - is a very exciting finding," Lewandowski pointed out.

For the study, the researchers looked at how healthy and failing rat hearts reacted to being supplied with either oleate or palmitate, a fat associated with the Western diet and found in dairy products, animal fats and palm oil.

When the researchers perfused failing rat hearts with oleate they saw an immediate improvement in how the hearts contracted and pumped blood.

The findings were reported in the journal Circulation.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

01.10.2014

3-year-old organ donor saves 5 lives in China

Beijing: A three-year-old Chinese girl from died of a brain tumour but helped save the lives of five other persons when her heart, liver, kidneys and corneas were donated.

The donor, Liu Jingyao, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour earlier this year after she was observed walking unsteadily.

Her parents visited multiple hospitals in several cities, but each doctor said the condition was terminal, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The girl's head swelled and she began to have trouble speaking, eventually becoming confined to bed.

Her father, Liu Xiaobao, discussed the possibility of donating her organs.

"The word 'donation' was difficult for her to understand, so I tried to explain that if we would give something from her body, she could save the lives of others. She agreed to this," said Xiaobao. The girl's physical condition deteriorated earlier last week and she died on September 23 in the People's Hospital of Jiangxi Province in east China.

Her organs were soon removed for transplantation.

"She was too young and some of the organs were very small. But we were able to transplant her kidneys into one patient. Her heart, liver and corneas were given to four other patients, respectively,"said doctor Zhang Ming.

Doctors said the five recipients were in stable condition, indicating that the transplants were successful.

"You lit up five people's lives. You are the most beautiful princess in the world," Xiaobao said to his deceased daughter. 

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

01.10.2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be real, be yourself, be unique, be true, be honest, be humble, be Happy….

30, September 2014

High cholesterol linked to breast cancer

In a significant discovery, scientists have found a link between high blood cholesterol and breast cancer in a study of more than one million patients over a 14 year time period in Britain.

"Our preliminary study suggests that women with high cholesterol in their blood may be at a greater risk of getting breast cancer," said Rahul Potluri, founder of the Algorithm for Comorbidities, Associations, Length of stay and Mortality (ACALM) study.

It raises the possibility of preventing breast cancer with statins, which lowers cholesterol, he added.

The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of more than one million patients across Britain between 2000 and 2013.

There were 664,159 women and of these, 22,938 had hyperlipidaemia and 9,312 had breast cancer.

Some 530 women with hyperlipidaemia developed breast cancer.

The researchers found that having hyperlipidaemia increased the risk of breast cancer by 1.64 times.

"We found that women with high cholesterol had a significantly greater chance of developing breast cancer. This was an observational study so we can't conclude that high cholesterol causes breast cancer but the strength of this association warrants further investigation," Potluri said.

The research was presented Friday at "Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology (FCVB) 2014" seminar in Barcelona, Spain.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

30.09.2014

High heels today, spine therapy tomorrow

An expert here gives valuable tips on what to do if high heels are unavoidable.

Even if the next day is to be spent on painful rehab and exercise, to get relief from calf and lower pack pain, the red carpet seems to deserve high heels. Luckily, there are some actresses who buck the trend.

Top model Cara Delevingne even goes so far as to say that she "hates high heels more than anything." She calls high heels the worst part of being a model. Jennifer Lawrence is one of the stars to speak out against high heels, calling them "Satan's shoes." Emma Thompson asks, "Why do we wear them? They're so painful." Tina Fey writes about high-heeled shoes and other "curses associated with being a woman" in her book 'Bossypants', saying she hopes that her daughter will "not have to wear high heels" in the future.

Dr.Garima Anandani, Chief Spine Specialist at a Spine clinic in the city sees women who come to her for high-heel related back pain on a daily basis, is grateful for the stance taken by some senior celebrities. She says, " Apart from being a major cause of foot and ankle problems in women, high heels may also cause gait imbalance and cause the wearer to walk unnaturally."
High heels, especially those over 2 inches high, may cause body weight to be distributed excessively on the toes and the person leaning forward. To compensate for this, the person tends to lean backwards causing overarching of the lower back. Hence you may be forced to adapt a certain posture of your back and upper body in order to carry off your high heels. All of this results in increase of abnormal stresses on the lower back, hips and knees, which may triggerback pain in the long term.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

30.09.2014

When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know, but if you listen you may learn something new

29, September 2014

Revealed! Chemotherapy and radiotherapy have no ill-effects on a growing foetus

Scientists have revealed that children who are exposed to chemotherapy or radiotherapy while in the womb suffer no negative impacts on mental or cardiac development. In the first study, 38 children prenatally exposed to chemotherapy were recruited from the International Network for Cancer, Infertility and Pregnancy (INCIP) registry and assessed for mental development and cardiac health and their outcomes were compared to 38 control children who were not exposed to chemotherapy.

At a median age of almost two years of age, mental development as measured by the ‘Mental Development Index’ was in the normal range for both groups of children, and were not significantly different. Cardiac dimensions and functions were within normal ranges for both groups. In the second study, which explored the impact of radiotherapy on the children of women with cancer, it was revealed that neuropsychological, behavioral and general health outcomes for those exposed to radiotherapy were within normal ranges. One child revealed a severe cognitive delay, however other pregnancy-related complications are confounding factors.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

29.09.2014

A boon for developing nations — baby’s fingerprints could hold the clue to the right kind of vaccines

According to a recent study led by an Indian-origin researcher, fingerprints of infants and toddlers might hold the clue to accurately determining immunisations and improve vaccination coverage, especially in developing countries. Anil Jain, professor at the Michigan State University in the US said, ‘In order to increase immunization coverage, the vaccines must be accurately recorded and tracked.’

‘The traditional tracking method is for parents to keep a paper document. But in developing countries, keeping track of a baby’s vaccine schedule on paper is largely ineffective,‘ Jain added. Each year 2.5 million children die world-wide because they do not receive life-saving vaccinations at the appropriate time. To improve immunisation coverage, Jain is developing a fingerprint-based recognition method to track vaccination schedules for infants and toddlers.

Jain and his team travelled to rural health facilities in Benin, West Africa, to test the new fingerprint recognition system. They used an optical fingerprint reader to scan the thumbs and index fingers of babies and toddlers. From this scanned data, a schedule would be created and become a part of the vaccine registry system. Once the electronic registry is in place, health care workers could simply re-scan the child’s fingers to view the vaccination schedule. They would know who has been vaccinated, for what diseases and when additional booster shots are needed. ’These new electronic registry systems will help overcome the lack and loss of information, which is the primary problem in the vaccine delivery system in third world nations,’ Jain said. The findings will be presented at the International Joint Conference on Biometrics in the US on Oct 2.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

29.09.2014

The naked truth is always better than the best-dressed lie

Ann Landers

27, September 2014

High Court asks AIIMS to perform poor patient's surgery

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday directed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to initiate the process of hip and knee replacement of a 38-year-old poor crippled patient who has been suffering from Reiter's disease.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru directed the patient Sarvesh to report at AIIMS on Monday morning, when the hospital shall start the process. Reiter's disease, also known as reactive arthritis, is an auto-immune condition that develops in response to an infection in another part of the body.

Meanwhile, a representative of the patient has been directed to approach Dr. R.N. Das, Medical Superintendent (Nursing Homes) at the Directorate of Health Services, Delhi government, for getting the requisite amount sanctioned for the treatment of the patient. The court posted the matter for Oct 29.

In his petition, Sarvesh said he has been left crippled and immobile because of the ailment and urgently needs a total hip-and-knee replacement surgery but being poor he cannot afford it as the treatment cost nearly Rs.8 lakh for Reiter's disease. He has sought free treatment from the hospital.

Approaching the court through advocate Ashok Agarwal, Sarvesh has said that his wife, the only earning member in his family, works as a domestic help in Delhi on a meagre salary of Rs.4,000 which is insufficient to feed a family of four, and it is thus impossible for him to arrange Rs.8 lakh for the surgery. Sarvesh used to work as a casual labourer before he was immobilised due to Reiter's disease in 2012.

The initial treatment, at AIIMS, stopped the disease from getting aggravated. But his knees and hips remain immobile. Sarvesh then went to Primus Hospital under the economically weaker section (EWS)category for hip-and-knee replacement surgery where the doctors referred him to AIIMS, saying the surgery involved too many complications and could be performed only at AIIMS. He was admitted to AIIMS and was given a date for the surgery, May 15. However, the surgery was not performed as he was unable to pay for it.

Sarvesh said he made several representations to the AIIMS authorities, Delhi government and the Union health ministry requesting them for free treatment. However, the AIIMS authorities reiterated that the surgery could not be performed until the money was paid.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com                 27.09.2014

Expenditure on health must rise significantly: President

Puducherry: Calling India's expenditure on the health sector "woefully meagre", PresidentPranab Mukherjee Friday said the country needed a holistic healthcare system that is universally accessible, affordable and effective.

Speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) here, Mukherjee said the health sector needed more funds to ensure universal health coverage.

"There are seven hospital beds per 10,000 people in India, compared to 23 in Brazil, 38 in China and 97 in Russia. Similarly, there are seven physicians per 10,000 people in India as compared to 19 in Brazil, 15 in China and 43 in Russia," the president said.

"Health services are still constrained by its reach and quality and public financing for healthcare in India is less than one percent of the world's total health expenditure. As Indians are a sixth of humanity, this is woefully meagre," he added.

"Our expenditure levels have to rise significantly to ensure universal health coverage."

The president said due to the increasing trend of lifestyle-related diseases, precautionary strategies have become important and calls for proper counselling.

"Healthy living has to be fostered from a very young age. Obesity in childhood can lead to health complications later. Balanced diet, physical activity and lifestyle management have to be promoted," he said. In addition, special interventions are necessary for newborns as the first four weeks of life, during which 44 per cent of deaths of children below five years occur, are crucial.

Stressing that "hygiene and sanitation play an important role in preventing the spread of diseases", Mukherjee said he was hopeful that under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the country would be able to cover every household in the next five years.

The president called upon JIPMER to aim to enrich its research-based publications, go for patent filings, and develop models addressing common health problems by integrating Indian systems of medicine.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com 

27.09.2014

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will

Vince Lombardi

26, September 2014

Sharing bed with your baby can be fatal for the newborn

While it is a good idea to keep a watch over your baby when she sleeps it might not be a good idea to share the same bed with her. However, this simple act of parenting has its set of proponents and opponents. Many believe that sharing a bed with a newborn increases bonding between the parents and the baby, ensures better sleep and gives the baby a sense of security and comfort.

Emotional and psychological reasoning apart one should know that bed-sharing with infants has its perils, a study noted. The study also concluded that bed-sharing with parents can lead to infections and other health risks. Bed sharing constitutes to be the biggest risk sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS, the third leading cause of infant mortality in the US.

However, the study says that co-sleeping would still be a better practice than bed-sharing. Though both these terms are interchangeable, but they do not mean the same.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

26.09.2014

Why drinking water during pregnancy is crucial

The importance of drinking adequate water cannot be stated enough, more so if you are pregnant or are a nursing mother. It is important for a woman to stay sufficiently hydrated during pregnancy and post-partum to ensure proper health and well-being. When pregnant or breastfeeding, a woman’s water requirements are higher than usual and that is why water is needed to form amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby, supports the increase in blood plasma volume and produces breast milk, reports femalefirst.co.uk.Hence being well-hydrated may help alleviate some pregnancy related conditions.

To help understand the importance of hydration for pregnancy health, Emma Derbyshire, author of ‘Nutrition in the Childbearing Years,’ has provided essential tips for hydration in pregnancy.

·         Water is an excellent beverage choice for mums-to-be. It is natural and helps women to rehydrate without consuming calories and sugars. 

·         Women should increase their total water intake by an extra 300 ml/day during pregnancy and 700 ml/day during breastfeeding, make water the first choice when it comes to hydration. 

·         Water-rich foods such as soups, stews, yoghurts, fruits and vegetables can help top up total water intake.

·         Pregnant women should take frequent small drinks, particularly after the birth of their child when they are busy looking after their new baby.Women breastfeeding should make sure that they are getting enough fluids – try to remember to keep a glass of water on hand when you sit down to feed your baby.

·         Women should reduce their intake of caffeinated and alcoholic beverages during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

26.09.2014

We might not be able to be the best, but we can always be better than the rest

25, September 2014

India's healthcare in dismal condition: Report

New Delhi: India ranks the lowest in the world on several health indicators and a large part of the country's population has little or no access to good quality healthcare, according to a report released here Wednesday.

The health crisis is aggravated by a rising incidence of chronic and non-infectious diseases, the India Infrastructure Report 2013-14: The Road to Universal Health Coverage, released here said.

The report was released by Rajiv Lall, executive chairman, IDFC, a leading finance company.

The report said that the public health system is in jeopardy, due to decades of appallingly low public investments, inadequate and antiquated infrastructure, severe shortage of human resources and inadequacies in government policies.

"Failed public health systems have forced people to turn to the private sector, which is costly and unregulated, with services often being provided by unqualified medical practitioners," it said.

It goes on to say that preventive and primary healthcare have been marginalized with the focus having shifted to curative tertiary care, higher importance of clinical medicine, and extremely high dependence on clinical investigations.

"Health expenditures can be prohibitively high with the rural population and the urban poor being the worst sufferers," the report by IDFC said.

The report draws the readers' attention to some of the emerging issues in the health sector such as rising burden of non-communicable diseases and mental health, human resource crisis in health sector and health concerns of informal sector workers, and steps required to attend to them within the Universal Healthcare Framework.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

25.09.2014

Bed-sharing bad for your baby

New York: Mothers of infants who continue to share the bed with their babies may please take note that while co-sleeping is good, bed-sharing may expose the babies to infections and other health risks, says a study.

The biggest risk of bed sharing is sudden infant death syndrome, the third leading cause of infant mortality in the US.

"Co-sleeping and bed-sharing are used interchangeably although they are not the same," said researcher Trina Salm Ward from the University of Georgia in the US.

Co-sleeping means sleeping in the same room as your infant in close proximity, Salm Ward explained. "Bed sharing is when you actually sleep on the same surface as the baby. Co-sleeping is the preferred option over bed-sharing," she noted.

Bed sharing can likely be decreased if public health officials tailor messaging to their unique population. For the study, the researcher reviewed literature on bed sharing.

In her research, Salm Ward discovered the main reasons mothers chose to bed share included breastfeeding, emotional comfort and reassurance, monitoring, better sleep for infant, family traditions and bonding.

Although bed sharing is not recommended, she said that mothers should know about infant sleeping suggestions.

"Infants should be sleeping in the supine position on their backs," she said.

"They should never be face down since they cannot lift their heads. They should also be on a firm surface without any pillows or blankets," she added.

The study appeared in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

25.09.2014

No amount of guilt can change

 the PAST and no amount of worrying can change the FUTURE

23, September 2014

Spending 15 minutes alone is a tedious task

It is less tedious for people to think on their feet rather than take a moment to sit down and reflect on the task at hand. In fact, spending even 15 minutes doing nothing and just thinking, is something that people not only found boring, but were unable to do so.

A recent study involving 800 people revealed that volunteers, who were asked to spend only 15 minutes alone in a room doing nothing, without cellphones, music players, writing equipments or reading material, found the task to be quite tedious. Reportedly, a few volunteers even preferred to receive mild electrical shocks rather than sitting doing nothing!

Not only that, the subjects even turned down offers for receiving money to sit idle, daydreaming. The subjects were asked if they were offered money, whether they would spend some of it to avoid getting another shock. Those who said they would be willing to pay to avoid another shock were asked to sit alone and think for 15 minutes but were given the option of giving themselves that same shock by simply pushing a button. The results were surprising, with two-third men and a quarter of the women choosing to give themselves at least one shock.

Said a researcher, "Many people find it difficult to use their own minds to entertain themselves, at least when asked to do it on the spot." It was as if people almost wanted to shock themselves out of the boredom that sitting idle brings, "Sometimes negative stimulation is preferable to no stimulation," added the researcher who also suggested that that in today's age, with all the gadgets that people have, they seem to fill up every moment with some external activity. This suggests that people, regardless of age or gender, do not like to be idle and alone with their thoughts.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

23.09.2014

Childhood abuse leads to obesity in adult women

Women who were physically abused during childhood are more likely to be obese, a new study has revealed.

University of Toronto researchers indicated that women who were physically abused in childhood were more likely to be obese than women from non-abusive homes.

"After adjusting for age and race, childhood physical abuse was associated with 47% higher odds of obesity for women" lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Professor and Sandra Rotman Endowed Chair in the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, said.

"Among men, obesity wasn't associated with childhood physical abuse," the researcher said.

"We had anticipated that the association between childhood physical abuse and obesity among women would be explained by factors including depression and anxiety, adult socio-economic position, alcohol abuse, and other childhood adversities, such as having a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol," study co-author and doctoral student Deborah Sinclair, said.

"However, even after taking into account all these factors, women from physically abusive families still had 35 per cent higher odds of obesity," she said.

The study could not determine the reason for the relationship between childhood physical abuse and women's obesity.

"It is unclear why childhood physical abuse is associated with adult obesity among women but not men; it may reflect gender differences in coping mechanisms," study co-author and doctoral candidate Sarah Brennenstuhl, said.

The research is published online in the journal Obesity Facts.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

23.09.2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you have made. If you want a different result, make different choice

22, September 2014

Kind people appear to be more attractive

A new research has proposed that being nice and having a pleasant personality seems more attractive to other people.

The research conducted at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China divided 60 men and 60 women into three groups where each participant was asked to rate the attractiveness of 60 women’s faces on a scale of one to nine, the Daily Express reported.

After two weeks, the participants again rated the same faces but this time after being given positive, negative or no information about the women’s personality and the group who was not given any information gave the same ratings as the first time. The researchers concluded that positive personality characteristics could promote ‘facial attractiveness’.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

22.09.2014

Want to be successful? Make your work interesting

Anybody could set an ambitious goal or target for himself, but those who make interesting the activities they need to undertake to attain the goal have higher chances of success, a study suggests. The study examined the notion that your level of interest helps to simultaneously optimise your performance and the resources necessary to stay deeply engaged.

If people experience activities as both enjoyable and personally significant – two important components of interest – their chance of success increases, the findings showed. ‘Engaging in personally interesting activities not only improves performance, but also creates an energised experience that allows people to persist when persisting would otherwise cause them to burn out,’ said Paul O’Keefe from Stanford University in the US.

In the study, students worked on a set of word puzzles. They were asked to report how enjoyable they thought the task would be before they began working on it. Then they worked on the puzzles, which were described as either being personally valuable (value condition) or of neutral value (control condition).

Those who reported high anticipated enjoyment and attached the personally valuable condition to it performed the best. Reaching personal improvement goals requires building and sustaining new behaviour and attitudes, The Huffington Post reported citing the study.

Framing a new habit as exciting and valuable boosts your chances of success and shifts your focus from gratification someday to gratification right now. The extra excitement and enjoyment you create for yourself may prove to be the difference between real personal progress and wishful thinking.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

22.09.2014

The BIGGEST mistake by most HUMAN BEINGS: Listening HALF,UNDERSTANDING quarter, telling DOUBLE….

20, September 2014

Traffic pollution can make older people fat

A new study has recently associated the increased levels of obesity-related hormone leptin, among older adults, with the higher exposure to traffic related air pollution. 

Gregory A. Wellenius, ScD, of Brown University and colleagues analyzed a significant association between exposure to black carbon, a measure of fine-particle air pollution from traffic sources, and leptin levels. Researchers found that people with higher exposure to black carbon were less likely to be white, had lower incomes, and had higher rates of high blood pressure and diabetes. Higher levels of leptin, an "inflammatory cytokine," have been linked to increased rates of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. But even after adjustment for these differences, average leptin levels were 27 percent higher for older adults in the highest category of black carbon exposure. An alternative measure of exposure to traffic-related pollution,residential distance to the nearest major roadway, was unrelated to leptin levels. Study concluded the emerging evidence suggested that certain sources of traffic pollution might be associated with adverse cardiometabolic effects. The study is published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

20.09.2014

Race, ethnicity linked with heart disease risk

A man's likelihood of accumulating fat around his heart might be better determined if doctors were to consider his race and ethnicity as well as where on his body the excess fat is deposited, new research shows.

Higher volumes of fat around the heart are associated with greater risk of heart disease.

"So if you are an African-American man and carry excess weight mainly around the mid-section, then you have a higher likelihood of more fat around the heart than if you gain weight fairly evenly throughout your body," explained lead author Samar El Khoudary, an assistant professor from the University of Pittsburgh in the US.

"But the reverse is true for Koreans. Their heart disease risk is greater with overall weight gain. Knowing this can help doctors specify the right physical training for each racial, ethnic group to reduce their heart disease risk," El Khoudary noted.

For the study, researchers took a closer look at 1,199 men who were white or black from Allegheny County (south-western part of Pennsylvania), Japanese-American from Hawaii, Japanese and Korean. The study looked at the amount of fat around the heart called ectopic cardio-vascular fat.

For white men, an increase in body mass index (BMI), which is a measure of overall body fat, and abdominal fat are equally likely to indicate an increase in fat around the heart.

Black men who carry disproportionally more weight around their mid-section are at similar risk of having more fat around their hearts. Increases in BMI have lower impact.

Japanese and Japanese American men are also at similar risk of having more fat around their hearts if they have more fat in their abdomens, with BMI having less of an impact. Korean men with higher BMIs have a higher likelihood of fat around the heart, whereas abdominal fat matters less.

"What we now need to determine is whether concentrating efforts to reduce overall body fat or fat in the abdomen will actually decrease fat around the heart more in people of certain racial or ethnic groups," El Khoudary noted.

The findings appeared in the International Journal of Obesity.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

20.09.2014

Live life to express not to impress….Don’t worry about your presence…Just make your absence felt…

19, September 2014

New study provides deeper insight on Parkinson’s disease

Scientists have gained new information on what causes the Parkinson’s disease. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter which affects physical and psychological functions such as motor control, learning and memory. Levels of this substance are regulated by special dopamine cells. When the level of dopamine drops, nerve cells that constitute part of the brain’s ‘stop signal’ are activated.

Jakob Kisbye Dreyer from University of Copenhagen explained that presence of dopamine was crucial in the system to block the stop signal. Parkinson’s disease arises because for some reason the dopamine cells in the brain are lost, and it is known that the stop signal is being over-activated somehow or other. However, they could now use advanced computer simulations to challenge the existing paradigm and put forward a different theory about what actually took place in the brain when the dopamine cells gradually died. Scanning the brain of a patient suffering from the disease revealed that in spite of dopamine cell death, there were no signs of a lack of dopamine, even at a comparatively late stage in the process.

The researchers said that as per their calculations, cell death only affected the level of dopamine very late in the process, but that symptoms could arise long before the level of the neurotransmitter started to decline. The reason for this was that the fluctuations that normally made up a signal became weaker. In the computer model, the brain compensated for the shortage of signals by creating additional dopamine receptors. This had a positive effect initially, but as cell death progressed further, the correct signal might almost disappear. At this stage, the compensation becomes so overwhelming that even small variations in the level of dopamine trigger the stop signal, which could therefore cause the patient to develop the disease.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

19.09.2014

India lags behind targets set for reducing malnutrition

The recent UN report ‘The 2014 Committing to Child Survival,’ highlighted that the rate of infant death has been reduced almost to half from 12.7 million to 6.3 million, since 1990. Although the report indicates that India has progressed in reducing malnutrition, hunger as well as child mortality but the developmental goals have still not been achieved, noted two international reports.

According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation report released in Rome, between 1990-1992 and now there are 21 million fewer hungry people in India. Both the international reports also highlight the need for additional efforts that need to be taken, despite the progress. Both in hunger or malnutrition and child mortality, India lags behind the Millennium Development Goal targets set for 2015.  The 2015 target for infant mortality is 42 per thousand against 53 now, suggesting that it unlikely for India to achieve the target.

Between 1990 and 2015, the aim was to reduce the proportion of the hungry to half between, but according to reports the reduction has been only 9.5 percent. The Millennium Development Goals were adopted at the UN Millenium Summit in 2000 and set targets to be achieved by 2015 in eight areas ranging from malnutrition to environment. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, who visited India last week, remarked on the nation’s efforts to combat hunger, saying that India has recently approved its National Food Security Act scaling up the country’s effort to end hunger, could create one of the world’s biggest family farming food purchase programme and was scaling up financial inclusion for direct transfers.’

Globally, mortality rate for children under five has dropped by 49 percent between 1990 and 2013. Mickey Chopra, head of Unicef’s global health programmes, said, ‘There has been dramatic and accelerating progress in reducing mortality among children, and the data prove that success is possible even for poorly resourced countries.’ However, according to the UN report, ‘New Estimates in Levels and Trends in Child Mortality,’ the overall progress is still short of meeting the global target of cutting under-five mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. Last year, 6.3 million children under five died from mostly preventable causes.

Even though that is 200,000 fewer deaths than in 2012, it still means that 17,000 children die everyday, the report said. FAO’s report, ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2014′, estimates that, around the world, 805 million people were chronically undernourished in 2012-14. This meant, however, that their number is down by 100 million over the last decade, and 209 million less than in 1990-92.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

19.09.2014

Life brings tears, smiles & MEMORIES…. The tears dry…The Smiles fade…          But the memories last forever….