30 September, 2019

New blood test to detect 20 types of cancers developed

A new blood test has shown ability to screen numerous types of cancer with a high degree of accuracy. A trial of the test showed it detected and localised more than 20 types of cancers.

The test, developed by biotechnology company Grail Inc uses next-generation sequencing technology to probe DNA for tiny chemical tags (methylation) that influence whether genes are active or inactive.

When applied to nearly 3,600 blood samples — some from patients with cancer and some from people who had not been diagnosed with cancer at the time of the blood draw — the test successfully picked up a cancer signal from the cancer patient samples, and correctly identified the tissue from where the cancer began (the tissue of origin),” said investigators from Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The test’s specificity – its ability to return a positive result only when cancer is actually present – was high, as was its ability to pinpoint the organ or tissue of origin, they found.

The new test looks for DNA, which cancer cells shed into the bloodstream when they die.
In contrast to “liquid biopsies,” which detect genetic mutations or other cancer-related alterations in DNA, the technology focuses on modifications to DNA known as methyl groups.

Methyl groups are chemical units that can be attached to DNA, in a process called methylation, to control which genes are “on” and which are “off.” Abnormal patterns of methylation turn out to be, in many cases, more indicative of cancer – and cancer type — than mutations are.

“Our previous work indicated that methylation-based assays outperform traditional DNA-sequencing approaches to detecting multiple forms of cancer in blood samples,” said the study’s lead author Geoffrey Oxnard from Dana-Farber.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

30.09.2019

Replace every negative thought with a positive one

23 September, 2019

Drinking tea will boost your brain function: Research

Researchers have found that regular tea drinkers have better organised brain regions and this is associated with healthy cognitive function as compared to non-tea drinkers.

“Our results offer the first evidence of positive contribution of tea drinking to brain structure, and suggest that drinking tea regularly has a protective effect against age-related decline in brain organisation,” according to a study authored by Feng Lei, Assistant Professor from the National University of Singapore.

Previous researchers have demonstrated that tea intake is beneficial to human health and the positive effects include mood improvement and cardiovascular disease prevention. For the study published in the journal Aging, the research team recruited 36 adults aged 60 and above and gathered data about their health, lifestyle and psychological well-being.

The elderly participants also had to undergo neuropsychological tests and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The study was carried out from 2015 to 2018.

Upon analysing the participants’ cognitive performance and imaging results, the research team found that individuals who consumed either green tea, oolong tea, or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had brain regions that were interconnected in a more efficient way. “We have shown in our previous studies that tea drinkers had better cognitive function as compared to non-tea drinkers,” Lei said.

“Our current results relating to brain network indirectly support our previous findings by showing that the positive effects of regular tea drinking are the result of improved brain organisation brought about by preventing disruption to interregional connections,” he added.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

23.09.2019

The limits we have in life are the ones we set for ourselves

16 September, 2019

Smelling lemons makes you feel thinner: Study

Did you know that lemons can not only help you get over a hangover but can also make you feel slimmer. Yes, a new study has established that olfactory and auditory stimuli might change how we perceive our body. For example, people tend to feel thinner and lighter when exposed to the smell of lemon, while they feel heavier and more corpulent when they smell vanilla.

This is one of the ruter Interaction.esults of the investigation recorded in the article ‘As Light As Your Scent: Effects of Smell and Sound on Body Image Perception’, which explores the relation between smell and body shape. The findings were presented at the meeting IFIP Conference on Human-Comp. The research team has demonstrated that the image we have of our own body changes depending on the stimuli we encounter, such as olfactory. Exposure to different smells can make us feel slimmer or more corpulent.

Another sense that influences this is hearing. Through a device adapted to a pair of shoes, developed by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2015 in collaboration with University College London and the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, researchers have analysed how our perception of our body changes when the frequency spectrum of steps taken during physical activity was modified in real-time.

“By increasing high frequencies, people feel lighter, happier, walk in a more active way and as a result, they find it easier to exercise,” explains Ana Tajadura-Jimenez, a lecturer in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the UC3M and one of the authors of both investigations.

This technology, based on audio stimulus, that was used successfully both in 2017 to treat people with chronic pain and in 2019 to promote physical activity, is combined with olfactory stimuli in the current investigation to show that both senses combined have a large influence over the perception we have of our body image.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

16.09.2019

Once you need less, you will have more

3 September, 2019

Malaria infection associated with increased risk of heart failure: Study

Malaria infection is associated with a 30 per cent higher risk of heart failure, revealed a recent study.

The study was presented today at ‘ESC Congress 2019.’

“We have seen an increase in the incidence of malaria cases and what is intriguing is we have seen the same increase in cardiovascular disease in the same regions,” said first author Dr Philip Brainin, a postdoctoral research fellow at Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark.

“Even though we have taken preventive measures to decrease the malaria numbers it remains a major burden,” said Dr Brainin. The researchers used Danish nationwide registries to identify patients with a history of malaria infection between January 1994 and January 2017. The mean age of patients in the study was 34 years old and 58 per cent were male. A total of 3,989 malaria cases were identified, with 40 per cent having plasmodium falciparum, a parasite transmitted through mosquito bites that is responsible for the majority of severe malaria cases in humans.

The 11-year follow-up of patients revealed 69 cases of heart failure, which was very high as compared to the general population, and 68 cases of cardiovascular death, which was considered within a normal range. “These patients had a 30 per cent increased likelihood of developing heart failure over the follow-up time,” Dr Brainin said. “Thirty percent is a high number, but you also have to understand that it is a relatively small study, which is a limitation. As of right now the results of this study are more hypothesis-generating for future studies.”

Dr Brainin noted that, while heart failure risk was increased for patients in the study, there was not a link to heart attack or cardiovascular death.

Because it is too early to convert the results into clinical practice, Dr Brainin advised that physicians should continue to focus on traditional and validated risk factors that may lead to heart failure.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

03.09.2019

Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from negativity