11 September, 2017

Soft drinks- Act hard on your blood pressure

With modern lifestyle and food habits, consumption of aerated drinks is on high. Sugared soft drinks are among the most heavily consumed drinks worldwide. Carbonated soft drinks were first invented as a way to make "healthier" water that looked like natural carbonated waters that were found in European spas in the mountains. Unfortunately, we no longer realize any health benefits of carbonated waters. There's plenty of evidence that guzzling sugared drinks like sodas can harm your health. The extra calories can lead to obesity and contribute to heart problems and diabetes. Now researchers say the sweet beverages may shoot up blood pressure as well.

Several studies have reported that consumption of soft drinks is associated with increased risk of high blood pressure in western countries. A study conducted for 10.4 years in middle aged Korean population reveals that soft drinks consumption contributes to increased risk of high blood pressure, being prominent in obese participants. There is a mile-long list of studies that show the negative impact of consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, and this study is one more proof that something needs to be done to change the disease burden caused by these frizzy drinks.

Sugary drinks add calories but don't fill you up, and people who drink them may not compensate for those extra calories by eating less food. That leads to weight gain, which can raise blood pressure. Plus, people who drink sugar-sweetened beverages also tend to eat fewer healthy foods and exercise less, suggests a study.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

11.09.2017

Where there is a creation, there should be a creator

9 September, 2017

Stroke survivors are at double risk of getting cancer

A study has recently warned that stroke survivors are almost doubly at risk of developing cancer.

The findings indicated that nearly 45 percent of cancer diagnoses occurred within the first six months after a stroke diagnosis.

"Post-mortem studies have suggested that cancer can develop after a stroke, but the magnitude of this association has not been described," said lead author Dr Jacobo Rogado from Hospital de La Princesa in Madrid, Spain.

"We conducted a study that would allow us to establish whether this association actually exists and which factors may predict risk," Rogado added. Researchers reviewed the medical records of all 914 patients admitted from the emergency room to the stroke unit of Hospital de La Princesa between January 2012 and December 2014.

A total of 381 patients met the inclusion criteria and were followed for 18 months from the diagnosis of stroke. During the 18-month follow-up, 29 (7.6 percent) of stroke survivors were diagnosed with cancer, most frequently in the colon, lung and prostate.

This was higher than the expected incidence of 17 patients (4.5 percent), based on statistics for the general population. The average time from stroke onset to cancer diagnosis was six months.

Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of cancer patients were presented with metastatic or locally advanced disease.

Multivariate analysis revealed that patients of older age (>76 years), previous diagnosis of cancer, high levels of fibrinogen (>450 mg/dl) and low levels of haemoglobin (<13 g/dl), were associated with cancer.

Rogado stated that the incidence of cancer in stroke survivors was almost twice that of the general population. When cancer was diagnosed it was usually at an advanced stage and the diagnosis was made within six months after a stroke. This indicates that the cancer was already present when the stroke occurred but there were no symptoms."

The research is scheduled to be presented at the ESMO 2017 Congress in Madrid.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

09.09.2017

Every problem is a gift – without problems we would not grow

Tony Robbins

8 September, 2017

The taller you are, the more likely you may be at risk of developing blood clots in veins

The taller you are, the more likely you may be at risk of developing blood clots in veins, according to new study of more than two million siblings. The findings showed that the risk of venous thromboembolism — a type of blood clot that starts in a vein — was associated with height, with the lowest risk being in shorter participants. “Height in the population has increased, and continues increasing, which could be contributing to the fact that the incidence of thrombosis has increased,” said lead researcher Bengt Zoller, Associate Professor at Lund University in Sweden. According to Zoller, gravity may influence the association between height and venous thromboembolism risk.

“It could just be that because taller individuals have longer leg veins there is more surface area where problems can occur,” Zoller said. “There is also more gravitational pressure in leg veins of taller persons that can increase the risk of blood flow slowing or temporarily stopping.” For the study, reported in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, the team looked at data on more than 1.6 million Swedish men born between 1951 and 1992, and data on more than one million Swedish women who had a first pregnancy between 1982 and 2012. For men shorter than 5 feet 3 inches, the risk for venous thromboembolism dropped 65 per cent when compared to the men 6 feet 2 inches or taller.

For women shorter than 5 feet 1 inches who were pregnant for the first time, the risk for venous thromboembolism dropped 69 per cent, compared to women that were 6 feet or taller. Besides, the risk of blood clots, previous studies have linked height also with cancer, heart problems, gestational diabetes and even longevity.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

08.09.2017

Evey expert was once a beginner

7 September, 2017

Sugarcane component may cut stress, help you sleep better

 Scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, have found that an active component found in sugarcane and other natural products may alleviate stress and help you get a sound sleep. Currently, available sleeping pills do not address stress component and often have severe side effects. Sleep loss is associated with certain other diseases including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, depression, anxiety, mania deficits etc.

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan found that octacosanol reduces stress and restores stress-affected sleep back to normal. Octacosanol is abundantly present in various everyday foods such as sugarcane (thin whitish layer on surface), rice bran, wheat germ oil, bee wax etc. The crude extract is policosanol, where octacosanol is the major constituent. Policosanol and octacosanol have already been used in humans for various other medical conditions.

The team, led by Mahesh K Kaushik, orally fed octacosanol to mildly stressed mice.

They found that Octacosanol reduced corticosterone level in blood plasma, which is a stress marker. The octacosanol- administered mice also showed normal sleep, which was previously disturbed due to stress. The team, therefore, claims that the octacosanol mitigates stress in mice and restores stress-affected sleep to normal in mice. The sleep induced by octacosanol was similar to natural sleep and physiological in nature. However, authors also claimed that octacosanol does not affect sleep in normal animals.

These results clearly demonstrated that octacosanol is an active compound that has potential to reduce stress and to increase sleep, and it could potentially be useful for the therapy of insomnia caused by stress, researchers said. Octacosanol can be considered safe for human use as a therapy because it is a food-based compound and believed to show no side effects.

Source: www.zeenews.india.com

07.09.2017

Extraordinary abilities can only come from extraordinary efforts

6 September, 2017

Drink coffee, sleep

An oxymoron for most, coffeeand sleep are actually proving to be a magic pair! The positive impact of 10-20 minute power naps on the brain has been well documented. Add coffee to it? Even better.

Tried and tested

A Japanese study found that people who took a caffeine nap (a nap taken after drinking a cup of coffee) before taking a series of memory tests performed significantly better compared with people who solely took a nap. In several UK studies, researchers found that when subjects took a 15-minute coffee nap, they scored higher on a driving simulator test.

Smell the beans

When you drink coffee, the caffeine stays in the stomach for a while before moving to the small intestine. It is from here that caffeine is absorbed and distributed throughout the body. Science says that it takes 20 minutes for caffeine to hit the brain. So, if you caffeinate instantly before napping and sleep for 20 minutes or less, you can wake up more alert than ever. Sleeping naturally clears adenosine - a hypnogenic molecule that makes you tired and sleepy - from the brain. So while the 20-min nap reduces adenosine, you wake up fresher just in time for caffeine to kick in.

Source: www.timesofindia.com

06.09.2017

Don’t let the thought of defeat itself defeat you

5 September, 2017

Dog walkers motivated by happiness, not health

It appears to be a case of 'do what makes you happy' for people who regularly walk their dogs.

According to new University of Liverpool research, owners are motivated to go dog walking because it makes them feel happy, not because of other health and social benefits. In the most in-depth study of dog owner's perceptions of dog walking to date, 26 interviews were combined with personal written reflections of dog walking experiences.

The researchers found that while owners may say the reason they go walking is to benefit the dog, the importance of their own improved happiness and wellbeing is clear.

These feelings of happiness, however, are contingent on the owner believing that their dog is enjoying the walk too. Anything that threatens this, such as behaviour problems, a perception that they have a 'lazy' dog, or their dog is too old, reduces their motivation to walk.

Increased physical activity and social interactions with other dog owners were found to be secondary bonuses but were rarely motivating. Study lead Dr Carri Westgarth, a research fellow at the University of Liverpool, said: "The factors that motivate dog walking are extremely complex, yet we know they can strongly motivate human health behaviour." "It is crucial to understand why owners walk their dogs if we are to be able to effectively promote owners to walk their dogs more."

An owner briskly walking their dog for at least 30 minutes each day easily exceeds the 150 minutes recommended minimum physical activity per week. If all dog owners did this it would dramatically boost population levels of physical activity. "Possible key points for future interventions to increase dog walking are to promote how it may increase the dogs, and thus the owner's, happiness."

Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com

05.09.2017

Never work to please others, work to please yourself

4 September, 2017

Why rains and floods are more dangerous for diabetics

Just two days back torrential rains brought Mumbai on its keens with most of the areas being flooded and submerged. Many people were stranded and some had to walk in waist deep water to reach homes or safe destinations. Now that the rains have stopped and the water logging seems like a history, most of us become ignorant about the problems we had to endure. But if you are a diabetic, remember you need to take precaution to avoid any health crisis that can follow after such deluge, particularly if you have waded through the dirty waters. Diabetics are prone to fall ill after being victims of such calamities, especially, water borne diseases like typhoid, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, diarrhoea, and cholera and vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, other viral fevers and muscular or kidney problems.

‘Diabetics have lower immunity as compared to others. So they are more prone to all the infections mentioned above. Also, a significant number of diabetics are already having mild to moderate kidney problems. Rhabdomyolysis a condition in which damaged skeletal muscle breaks down rapidly can cause devastating problems in such patients. Many diabetics get small wounds on their feet due to shoe bite or other reason which may get aggravated due to water logging. Every year there is a significant rise in foot problems and amputation in diabetic patients post floods or water logging,’ says Dr Pradeep Gadge, a leading Diabetologist, Gadge Diabetes centre.

‘People who must have walked for miles to reach their home or work places and are not used to such exertion may develop a breakdown of muscles called as rhabdomyolysis. This can sometimes be so dangerous that it can lead to acute kidney failure,’ adds Dr Gadge.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

04.09.2017

Believe and you can achieve