How women with Lupus can boost their chances of Healthy Pregnancies!!

Washington: Rheumatologists at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York have now uncovered how women suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease
Earlier, women with SLE were advised not to have children, and in case they did conceive a child, they were advised to have therapeutic abortions to prevent severe flares of their lupus.Now, the new research provides information that may yield insights that support a reversal of that thinking.Titled, the PROMISSE (Predictors of pRegnancy Outcome: bioMarkers In antiphospholipid antibody Syndrome and Systemic lupus Erythematosus) Study, the multi-center research is led by Jane Salmon, M.D., attending physician at Hospital for Special Surgery.Salmon will present two research projects based on data gathered from the PROMISSE Study.The researchers identified factors that help a woman and her doctor plan for a healthy pregnancy.

Lupus patients usually experience a disease "flare" quite late, when symptoms such as a red rash across the nose and cheeks, painful or swollen joints, swollen legs or extreme fatigue appear suddenly.

For the first presentation, aimed at finding if problems during pregnancy can be correlated to the severity, the researchers followed 198 pregnant patients with lupus.

They found that women who conceived while their disease was stable or only mildly active had relatively infrequent flares during their pregnancies and delivered healthy babies, regardless if past disease severity or past kidney disease.

The findings inform women with lupus on how to plan when to conceive to have a low risk pregnancy.Patients with Lupus, as well as other patients with the antiphospholipid syndrome, produce special types of proteins called antiphospholipid antibodies that can attack their own tissues and cause pregnancy complications.

The second study showed that the presence of a specific subset of these autoantibodies is linked with poor pregnancy outcomes. In fact, they found that women having an autoantibody called lupus anticoagulant were more prone to have complications such as miscarriage or preeclampsia during pregnancy.

With the help of these findings, it is possible to identify patients at high risk for complications just by a blood test to determine if they are positive or negative for the lupus anticoagulant autoantibody.

Though it is possible for women with lupus or the antiphospholipid syndrome who are positive for this protein to have successful pregnancies, their doctors should monitor them more closely for early signs of pregnancy complications.

The two studies will be presented at this year's American College of Rheumatology meeting in San Francisco.

Kicking the butt may help control rheumatoid arthritis

Washington: For smokers with rheumatoid arthritis, kicking the butt might help in controlling its progression, according to a study.
Smoking is known to increase the risk and severity of RA, and its cessation has been shown to have a positive impact in slowing the progression of other diseases like coronary disease and emphysema.

The researchers conducted the study over 14,847 patients with RA based on their smoking status. Of those, 65.4 percent were non-smokers, 22.1 percent were former smokers and12.5 percent were active smokers.

They monitored the change in Clinical Disease Activity Index-a composite measure of disease activity in people with RA that assesses change over time.They found that Clinical Disease Activity Index was higher among active smokers than among patients who had stopped smoking.

Individual measures of active disease including swollen and tender joint counts and C-reactive protein were all lower in the patients who had stopped smoking. These results suggest that stopping smoking can lessen RA disease activity over and above current medical treatment.

"While these results are preliminary, it seems that quitting smoking, which would have many other health benefits, also may benefit patients with rheumatoid arthritis," said Dr Mark C. Fisher, MPH; Research Fellow, NYU Medical Center; Hospital for Joint Disease, New York, N.Y."RA patients who stop smoking may see an improvement in the number of joints that hurt them every day and in how they feel overall," he added.

The research was presented at the American College of Rheumatology

New cancer treatment uses heavy ion beams to kill deep-seated tumours

New Delhi: Chinese nuclear physicists have developed a new treatment for cancer that uses heavy ion beams to kill malignant tumours more than 2.1 cm below the skin's surface.

Zhan Wenlong, the leading nuclear physicist in the country, has claimed that heavy ion beams score over light ion beams, such as gamma rays and X-rays used in traditional radiotherapies.

High ion beams can accurately moderate the amount of radiation and minimize the damage done to healthy cells, reports China Daily.He further said that the new treatment uses stronger heavy ion beams that reach a maximum of 400 mega electron volts (MeV), and can travel further into the human body to kill deeper tumours.

One of the key roles in generating the beams has been played by the 'Cooler Storage Ring', which is a 300 million yuan project by the Heavy Ion Research Facility (HIRF) in Lanzhou, the capital of the northwestern Gansu province.

Zhan said that the amount of ions in heavy ion beam treatment sky rocket when they get to the deep tumors, and become strong enough to kill tumor cells and better protect healthy cells along the way.

On the contrary, in traditional light ion beam treatment, the amount of ions diminishes the further it travels, The researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have produced a broad spectrum of heavy ion beams, which range from 80 to 400 MeV and can treat both shallow and deep-seated tumors.

Zhan also said that scientists are now optimizing the system software to open new doors for massive clinical testing in the near future.

According to HIRF Director Yue Haikui, the method had been used on 85 cancer patients by the end of 2006, with satisfactory results. The researchers will continue monitoring the patients to probe the effect of the treatment. [From Inernet].

No time for veggies? Squeeze them

Washington: Drinking vegetable juice daily could compensate the shortfall in dietary intake of vegetables, according to a new study.
With seven out of 10 adults falling short of daily vegetable intake as recommneded by US dietary guidelines, researchers studied whether drinking their juice could act as its substitute.

"What we found was that drinking vegetable juice seemed to address some of the key barriers to vegetable consumption such as convenience, portability and taste, so individuals were more likely to meet their daily recommendations," said Carl Keen, study author and professor of nutrition & internal medicine, University of California, Davis (UC-D).

"Furthermore, vegetable juice drinkers reported that they actually enjoyed drinking their vegetables, which is critical to adopting dietary practices for the long-term." In fact, after six weeks of the study, vegetable drinkers reported they felt "more satisfied" with the ease of getting vegetables into their diet, and that the vegetable juice provided an important additional source of vitamins and minerals. The study looked at three groups of healthy men and women.

They received dietary counseling on ways to get more vegetables, but only two of the groups were instructed to consume at least one serving of vegetable juice.

Of those two groups, one drank one eight ounces of juice daily and the other drank two eight-ounces doses daily as part of a balanced eating plan, according to a release of UC-D.

The study found that those who received dietary counselling and consumed veg juice were far more likely to meet daily veg recommendations, about two and a half cups (five servings), than those who received counselling alone.

These findings were presented this week at the American Dietetic Association's annual conference.

Older women can have stronger muscles but risk falling

Washington: Elderly women can regain muscle strength as much as any young women, according to a new study.
The research compared strength gains of inactive elderly women and inactive young women after both groups participated in an eight-week training regime.

Yet while the two groups increased similar percentages of strength, the older group was far less effective in increasing power, which is more closely related to preventing falls.

"Power is more important than strength for recovery from loss of balance or walking ability," said Dain LaRoche, assistant professor of exercise science at University of New Hampshire (UNH) and co-author of the study. Preventing falls, which occur in 40 percent of people over 65 and are the top reason for injury-related emergency room visits, is the driving force behind LaRoche's research agenda.LaRoche compared the initial strength of 25 young (18-33 years) and 24 old (65-84 years) inactive women, then had both groups participate in resistance training on a machine that targeted knee extensor muscles, which are critical for walking, stair-climbing, or rising from a chair.

"They're what let you live on your own," he said. After eight weeks of training, the older group not only increased their strength by the same percentage as the younger group, they achieved strength similar to a control group of young inactive women, said a UNH press release. But the older group's ability to increase power - force over time - was significantly less than the younger group's; the elderly women saw only a 10 percent increase in power versus the younger women's 50 percent increase.

Acknowledging that the type or frequency (six sets, three times per week) of his training protocol may have affected the older group's ability to make gains in power, LaRoche is continuing to research older women's capacity to develop muscle power. As baby boomers age, doubling the over-65 population by 2030, research that supports fall prevention and independent living is a growth area.

"I tell my students, 'there's room for you in this field'," said LaRoche.The results were published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

Depression during pregnancy doubles risk of premature delivery

Washington: Depressed pregnant women face twice the risk of premature delivery than their counterparts with no such symptoms, according to a new study.
Besides the increased risk of premature delivery, the study found that the risk grows with the severity of the depressive symptoms, among pregnant women.

These findings also provide preliminary evidence that social and reproductive risk factors, obesity, and stressful events may aggravate depression-premature delivery link, according to researchers."Premature delivery is the leading cause of infant mortality, and yet we don't know what causes it," said co-author De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland.

"This study adds to emerging evidence that depression during early pregnancy may interfere with the neuroendocrine pathways and subsequently placental function," Li said."The placenta and neuroendocrine functions play an important role in maintaining the health of a pregnancy and determining the onset of labour," Li explained.
Because the majority of the women in the study did not use anti-depressants, the study provides a clear look at the link between depression and preterm delivery.The study, among the first to examine depression and premature delivery in a representative and diverse population in the US, looked at 791 pregnant Kaiser Permanente members in San Francisco city and county from October 1996 through October 1998.

Researchers interviewed the women around their 10th week of pregnancy and found that 41 percent of the women reported significant or severe depressive symptoms, according to a Kaiser Permanente press release.The women with less severe depressive symptoms had a 60 percent higher risk of premature delivery -- defined as delivery at less than 37 completed weeks of gestation -- compared with women without significant depressive symptoms, and the women with severe depressive symptoms had more than twice the risk.

In addition to being the leading cause of infant mortality and morbidity, preterm delivery is also the leading medical expenditure for infants, with estimated annual cost of about $26 billion in the US alone. The study is published online in the Oxford University Press' journal Human Reproduction. [From Internet]

World's first hernia repair through vagina conducted

Washington: Surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center have conducted what is said to be the world's first hernia repair through vagina.As part of a clinical trial, Garth Jacobsen, M.D., and Santiago Horgan, M.D., were able to repair a painful weak spot in a patient's abdominal wall using the vagina as the path to the surgical site.
"This minimally invasive hernia repair is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. and abroad. If research proves that this 'natural orifice' technique is ideal for patients, more than 50,000 women in the U.S. may be eligible for this innovative hernia surgery," said Horgan, director of the UC San Diego Center for the Future of Surgery. A hernia is an abnormal bulging of organs or fatty tissue through a muscular wall.

The bulge is repaired by closing the hole with stitches and then placing a mesh over the repair for reinforcement.The mesh is made up of a biologic absorbable material and over time is incorporated into the body's tissue.

This repair itself was performed by entering the vagina and making a small incision behind the uterus through which the abdomen could be accessed with surgical tools. Only one small external incision was made to place a camera to safely view the surgery.

A traditional laparoscopic repair uses three incisions.The process of performing surgery through a natural opening means avoiding major incisions through the abdomen, and patients may experience a quicker recovery with less pain and scarring.

Surgeons at UC San Diego Medical Center have performed 38 of these natural orifice surgeries as part of a clinical trial comparing "scarless" to laparoscopic techniques. Patients recruited to the trial have had diseased gallbladders and appendix removed through either the mouth or vagina.

A gastrectomy, an obesity surgery that reduces the size of the stomach, and the hernia repair, are also part of the clinical trial.

Note: In general terms, we can say that a hernia occurs when the layers that make up the abdominal wall weaken. In other words, the fabric of muscle and other tissues which protect the gut, develops a defect, or weakness. Through that defect the peritoneum (PER-IT-TA-NEE-UM) - and perhaps other organs - push their way outward, forming a lump which can be felt - and sometimes seen - protruding from the abdomen.

Erectile dysfunction warns of early heart attack

Washington : Erectile dysfunction is linked with heart attacks but it is being ignored by general practitioners, a doctor with Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham has warned.Dr Geoffrey Hackett reported regularly seeing patients referred with erectile dysfunction or ED after a heart attack, only to hear that they had developed erectile dysfunction two to three years before - a warning sign ignored by their general practitioners.

It is well known that ED (inability to achieve erection) doubles the risk of heart disease, a risk equivalent to being a moderate smoker or having an immediate family history of heart disease. ED in type 2 diabetes has been shown to be a better predictor of the risk of heart disease than high blood pressure or high cholesterol, according to an Eurekalert release. But despite this considerable evidence ED is still treated as a recreational or "lifestyle issue" rather than a predictor of a serious health problem, said Hackett.

The UK government has pledged to reduce the death rate from coronary heart disease and stroke and related diseases in people under 75 by at least 40 percent by 2010, yet there is no screening for erectile dysfunction in patients with diabetes or heart disease, he said. The report was published in the British Medical Journal.

Early birth control lowers risk of ovarian, uterine cancers later

Washington: Researchers have edged a step closer to understanding why past oral contraceptive use dramatically lowers the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers later in life.
Latanya M. Scott of Wake Forest University School of Medicine discovered that monkeys who had been given birth control earlier in life had a reduced amount of oestrogen excreted in their urine.

The research was done in collaboration with Xia Xu and Timothy Veenstra, at Science Applications International Corporation-Frederick, who have developed novel methods for analysis of urinary oestrogens.

The discovery was particularly noteworthy because it was found three years after oral contraceptive treatment was stopped, roughly the equivalent of a decade of life in a human, said a Wake Forest University press release.

The study appeared in this month's issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.While researchers have known for many years that past oral contraceptive use significantly lowers the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers later in life, this new observation in monkeys may shed light on the mechanism behind the cancer-protective effect of the treatment.

While researchers don't yet understand the precise mechanism by which hormone levels are being affected, they do know that both the level of oestrogen in the blood and the amount of oestrogen being excreted in urine are lowered with past oral contraceptive use, which may mean that the oral contraceptive use is somehow leading to a diminished synthesis of oestrogen.

"Hormone exposure has long been known to be important in cancer risk," said J. Mark Cline, and senior project researcher. "These effects are robust, and we believe this discovery could be translated fairly quickly into a study in women.

""If our results are confirmed to also occur in women, they could change the way we look at oral contraceptives and cancer risk," added Cline, a professor of pathology and comparative medicine at Wakefield.Funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers based their findings on a study of 181 premenopausal cynomolgus monkeys and followed them for seven years to look at hormone effects on many aspects of female health

Long-term cellphone exposure could heighten brain cancer risk

Washington: Long-term exposure to cellphone may heighten risk of brain tumours, warned a neurosurgeon.
Ron Pawl, a neurosurgeon at Lake Forest Hospital, Illinois has called for collaborative research initiatives to determine whether the link between cell phones and brain cancer is real.Scientists have long been concerned over the possibility that electro-magnetic fields (ELF) exposure may increase the risk of brain cancers.

Until recently, however, research has shown no clear link between cell phone use and brain tumours.Earlier this year, a Swedish research group published an epidemiologic study suggesting an increased risk of brain cancers (gliomas) as well as acoustic nerve tumours (neuromas) in people using cell phones for 10 years or longer.

Tumours were more likely to develop on the same side as the cell phone was used. Other studies by the same group suggested that the use of wireless handsets in cordless home phones posed the same risk, according to an Elsevier press release.After reviewing the evidence, one author even suggested that long-term cell phone use is "more dangerous to health than smoking cigarettes".

Other recent commentators have raised similar concerns.The findings are alarming in light of the exponential growth of cell phones - now including widespread use by children and teenagers.

The damaging effects of ELF, if any, might be even greater in the developing brain.If the link is real, then rates of brain cancers should have increased over the last two decades. Some studies have reported that this is the case, particularly for the most malignant brain cancers. However, other studies have found a stable tumour rate.

"However, the fact that the incidence of gliomas, especially the more malignant varieties, is increasing, warrants action on this issue," Pawl wrote.

The problem, according to Pawl, is that no other research groups have performed actual studies showing a clear relationship between brain tumours and ELF. The write-up is scheduled for publication in the November issue of Surgical Neurology.

Kuwaiti surgeon develops new method to treat cataract

Dubai: A Kuwaiti eye specialist has invented a process by which cataracts can be treated with a rentiscope without going for the complex option of retina transplant.
Khaled Al-Sabti, head of the retina ward in the Al-Bahar Eye Centre in Kuwait, told the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that his invention would spare eye cataract patients the time and money consuming process of retina transplant.

He claimed that his process improved the eyesight of his patients by 40 to 60 percent.Al Sabti's invention has been recorded in the British Journal of Opthalmology.

Elaborating on the process, he said that in conventional surgeries of the retina, the eyesight starts to improve six months after the operation, but in many cases, bodies of the patients reject the transplanted retina.

The surgeon said he applied his innovative medical technique on nine patients, aged between 50 and 74, which helped improve their condition noticeably.He said he would present his breakthrough method in scientific conferences and events in Canada and the US over the next month.Kuwait's Health Minister Ali Al-Barrak Saturday praised Al-Sabti for the innovation.

Al-Barrak, in his statement, also urged other Kuwaiti doctors to follow the new method for overall promotion of national medical services. [From Internet]

Shahana Goswami counts the roles, not the Kisses

Mumbai: First she won accolades for her performance as Arjun Rampal's disgruntled wife in "Rock On" and later scorched headlines for 10 kisses with Randeep Hooda in "Ru Ba Ru". Now 22-year-old Shahana Goswami says she wants to play all kind of roles on screen.

"I want to do everything from the nagging wife to the conventional Bollywood girl singing songs around trees," Shahana told a news agency.

As Arjun Rampal's disgruntled, unhappy wife in Abhishek Kapoor's "Rock On", Shahana rips the screen apart. As Shabana Azmi said appreciatively, where did that come from?

"Did she?" laughed Shahana. "I guess I've never shied away from real emotions, never had to be over-sheltered or mollycoddled by my parents during my growing years in Delhi.
"I feel at times the person whom you love has to be told what to do, even if it makes him or her unhappy and resentful. Like my mom forced me to go through college. I hated it at that time. But today I'm thankful to her. Similarly in 'Rock On', I had the thankless job of being a nagging, pesky, embittered wife. I loved it."
Commenting upon her kissing scenes with Randeep in "Ru-Ba-Ru", Shahana said: "I can't understand why they (producers) highlighted 10 kisses between me and Randeep Hooda. First of all, who's counting? Certainly not the audiences! Surely they've matured far enough to not get carried away by kisses. Also, there aren't those many kisses at all. I'd rather be known for more than just kissing in my films."
Shahana debuted in films with Naseeruddin Shah's directorial debut "Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota".
"Strangely most of my films are either episodic or I'm part of an ensemble cast. The only exception is my next release 'Ru-Ba-Ru' where Randeep and I played lovers who've crossed the stage of euphoria into stagnancy. So again it's an unconventional role. I'd say it's a love story that begins where other filmy love stories end."
Any other unconventional role?
"In Sudhir Mishra's 'Tera Kya Hoga Johnny' I'm Neil Nitin Mukesh's girl married to a much older man Kay Kay Menon. Is that too much of the unconventional for me? I don't mind. I've always wanted to be an actress. If today I'm getting to play anyone from the age of 18 to 32 and I can do it convincingly, why not? As a child I'd take my mother's dupatta on my head and speak to myself in the mirror. The habit remains. I still speak to myself, though now I don't get much time to do that."
Coming up soon from Shahana is Nandita Das's "Firaaq" where she features in one episode with Marathi actress Amrita Subhash.
"Nandita saw me in "Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota' and cast me. So although I'm not much remembered by my first film, I still owe a lot to it," said Shahana who also worked with a theatre group called Working Titles. [From Internet]

Killing mosquitoes may up prevalence of deadliest form of dengue

London: While mosquito controlling measures are considered to be the only way to fight dengue, a large-scale survey in Thailand has revealed that fewer mosquitoes may increase the prevalence of the deadliest form of the disease.

Yoshiro Nagao and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say that dengue, which is also known as "breakbone fever", is generally not fatal for the first time around.
The researchers say that the real threat is the second infection.
According to them, there are four varieties of infection, which are scientifically known as serotypes.
The researchers say if a person is bitten by a mosquito carrying serotype A and then a year later by one carrying serotype B, the antibodies made in response to virus A would bind to the virus B but not destroy it.
They say that such pairs instead over-stimulate the immune system, causing a potentially fatal disease called dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF).
Nagao says that for a few weeks after a person contracts dengue, one has a kind of immunity that destroys other serotypes.
Just in case a person gets serotype B during such weeks, he/she will not develop DHF, but will develop antibodies to both A and B.
The researcher says that if a person gets infectedb y all the serotypes during the period of cross-immunity, he/she will develop antibodies to all of them.
Nagao says that people are more likely to catch another serotype during the brief cross-immunity period when there are lots of mosquitoes about.
The researchers add that fewer mosquitoes would lessen the frequency of infections, and people would be less likely to catch another serotype during the crucial window.
All that goes to indicate that fewer mosquitoes could result in more cases of DHF, say the researchers.
The researcher tested their hypothesis by combining the incidence of DHF in Thailand with a huge Thai survey that sampled water containers in a million homes across the country, from 2002 to 2004, looking for larvae of the dengue-carrying Aedes mosquito.
They found that as mosquito infection rates climbed towards 30 per cent of houses, DHF cases also increased.
However, once over the 30 per cent mark, the relationship was reversed, and DHF cases dropped off as infection rates climbed.
The researchers said that 70 per cent of homes in some villages had Aedes larvae, and that a mathematical model based on the survey showed that cutting this to 30 per cent would increase DHF cases by more than 40 per cent.
They warned that infestation needed to be reduced to less than 10 per cent to reduce DHF cases, but achieving such an extensive reduction might be difficult.
Nagao says that since measures to control mosquito population, such as spraying insecticide, may increase the number of DHF cases, such measures should be "subject to ethical discussion".
However, a WHO dengue expert, Axel Kroeger, says even if this new discovery is confirmed, it is worth fighting dengue by controlling mosquitoes because some developing countries have achieved far less than 30 per cent infestation, while higher levels often reflect a neglect of mosquito control.

An article on the research has been published in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.[ From Internet]

Gene therapy could help blind people see again

Washington, Oct 17 : Researchers relied on gene therapy to restore vision to mice which suffered from degeneration of the light-sensing retinal rods and cones, a common cause of human blindness, because of lack of protein.
"This is a proof of principle that someday we may be able to repair blindness in people with conditions like retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration," said Richard Masland, director of Cellular Neurobiology Lab at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

"There are several limitations we need to overcome before we can begin clinical trials, but I'm optimistic that this work may someday make a big difference for people who otherwise would have no vision at all."

The study was designed to investigate the effect of light-sensitive protein melanopsin in retinal ganglion cells of the eye. These specialised neurons receive light signals from the rods and cones and convey them to the brain via the optic nerve.

Melanopsin is usually produced in a set of cells involved with establishing circadian rhythms but not with vision.

The MGH team used the standard viral vector to deliver the gene encoding melanopsin throughout the retinas of mice whose rod and cone receptors had degenerated from lack of a crucial protein.

Four weeks after delivery of the gene, melanopsin - normally produced in one percent of retinal ganglion cells - was found in about 10 percent of ganglion cells in the treated eyes but not in eyes that received a sham injection, according to a MGH press release. Examination of the melanopsin - expressing cells revealed that all responded to light, although the neuronal signal was delayed and persisted after the light signal had stopped, which is typical for a melanopsin - mediated signal.

Two behavioural tests verified that the treated mice - which otherwise would have been essentially blind - had enough vision to find a darkened refuge in an otherwise brightly - lit area and to successfully learn that a light indicated a safe platform to which they could swim.

"The same level of melanopsin expression in a human retina might allow someone who otherwise would be totally blind to read newspaper headlines, but the slowness of the response would be a problem," Masland said.

These findings were published in Tuesday's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists crack human metabolic code to track disease better

London:Normal and diseased tissues behave differently. If scientists knew how the tissues do that, they would be able to battle obesity, hypertension, diabetes and other metabolic disorders more effectively.
A new computational approach developed by computer scientists Tomer Shlomi, Moran Cabili and Eytan Ruppin from Blavatnik School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University (TAU) may help clinicians gain a clearer overall picture of the metabolic processes in different tissues.

Their model could be potentially used in the future to refine the diagnosis of various metabolic-related disorders, aid in treatment and develop new drugs.

The model integrates tissue-specific information from healthy or diseased organs and matches it to an existing model of the global human metabolic network to predict metabolic tissue behaviour, according to a TAU release.

Their results, shared with Markus Herrgard and Bernhard Palsson from the University of San Diego, "establish a computational basis for the genome-wide study of normal and abnormal human metabolism in a tissue-specific manner", says Ruppin.The computational model describes metabolism in 10 different human tissues, exposing the functions in the body responsible for metabolism - a set of chemical reactions occurring in living organisms that allows tissues to grow, maintain their structures, and function and respond to other bodily cues. [From Internet]

Building on these results, TAU team are now working on developing tools for the discovery of biomarkers (metabolites that can be measured in the blood and urine) that are associated with different diseases. These results appeared recently in Nature Biotechnology.

Red wine compound protects liver against 'fattening' itself

Washington: Red wine compound resveratrol prevents fat accumulation in the liver as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, according to a new study with mice.
Resveratrol, present in grapes, peanuts and berries besides red wine, not only cut down the fat produced in alcohol fed mice liver but also broke down the same fat much faster. Chronic alcohol consumption causes fat to accumulate and can lead to liver diseases, including cirrhosis and fibrosis of the liver, besides causing liver failure.

The study points to resveratrol as a possible treatment for alcoholic fatty liver disease, and as a way to prevent the disease in those who are at risk, but have not developed it, according to a release of University of South Florida.

Other research with mice has suggested resveratrol may have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties. There is also evidence that it has cardiovascular benefits.

The study was conducted by Joanne M. Ajmo, Xiaomei Liang, Christopher Q. Rogers, Brandi Pennock and Min You, all of the University of South Florida Health Sciences Centre, Tampa. It appeared in the Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology journal. [From Internet]

Steroids help in quicker recovery from pneumonia

Washington: Steroids often used in treating inflammation caused by bacterial meningitis also speed up recovery from pneumonia, according to a new study.
University of Texas (UT) Southwestern researchers have showed that mice infected with a type of severe bacterial pneumonia and subsequently treated with steroids and antibiotics recovered faster, with far less inflammation in their lungs than mice treated with antibiotics alone.

Pneumonia is a lung infection characterised by breathing difficulties and spread by coughing and sneezing. Symptoms include headache, fever, chills, coughs, chest pain, sore throat and nausea.

Robert Hardy demonstrated in mice that using corticosteroids as well as traditional antimicrobial therapy might eventually help people with pneumonia recover more quickly, according to a Southwestern release.

"Some people might think that if you give steroids, it would counteract the effect of the antibiotic," said Hardy, associate professor of internal medicine and paediatrics and the study's co-author.

"But it turns out you need the antibiotic to kill the bug and the steroid to make the inflammation in the lung from the infection get better. The steroids don't kill the bugs, but they do help restore health.

"Pneumonia caused by the Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacterium is generally a less severe form of the disease that can occur in any age group. It accounts for 20 percent to 30 percent of all community-acquired pneumonia cases.

In the current study, mice infected with the M pneumoniae bacterium were treated daily with a placebo, an antibiotic, a steroid, or a combination of the antibiotic and steroid in order to investigate the effect on M pneumoniae-induced airway inflammation.

The animals were then evaluated after one, three and six days of therapy."It turns out that the group that got both the antibiotic and the steroids did the best," Hardy said. "The inflammation in their lungs got significantly better.

"Hardy said it was too early to recommend steroids as standard treatment for people with this type of bacterial pneumonia, but the work does support the need for a clinical trial.

These findings are available online and are scheduled for publication in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. [From Internet]

Using Internet is good for the brain

London: Internet use benefits the brains of middle aged and older people as it stimulates the brain's decision-making and reasoning centres, according to a study by US scientists.
The team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that searching the Internet stimulates parts of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning, BBC News reported.

The study found that Internet use might even help resist age-related physiological changes in the brain such as shrinkage of cells, which reduces its performance.

"The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults," lead researcher Gary Small said."Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function," he added.

The study involved brain scans of 24 volunteers aged between 55 and 76 while they were doing web searches and reading books.

Both tasks caused activity in regions of the brain responsible for language, reading, memory and visual abilities. However, searching the web produced considerable additional activity in areas of the brain controlling decision-making and complex reasoning.
The study found that the additional activity was present only in the brains of experienced web users and the volunteers who were new to the web did not experience such activity.

The researchers said that the number of possible options while performing a web search requires people to make decisions about which link to click on for getting the required information.

The increased brain activity was absent in the people who were new to the Internet as they had not yet acquired the necessary analytical skills for carrying out a successful web search by distinguishing relevant links from non-relevant ones.

"These fascinating findings add to previous research suggesting that middle-aged and older people can reduce their risk of dementia by taking part in regular mentally stimulating activities," said Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Britain-based Alzheimer's Research Trust.The study features in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. [From Internet]

Exposure to noxious gas stove emissions worsens asthma in kids

Washington: Exposure to high levels of noxious gas emitted from gas stoves can exacerbate asthma symptoms in children, especially preschoolers, say researchers.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a toxic form of nitrogen oxide gas, is most prevalent in industrial zones but also found at higher levels in poor homes with unvented gas stoves.

During the study, the research team compared the frequency and intensity of coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness to NO2 levels inside the inner-city homes of 150 Baltimore City 2- to 6-year-olds.

Eighty-three percent of the households had gas stoves, 72 percent were heated by natural gas, and 14 percent used gas stoves for heating in the winter.They found that the toxic gas worsened day and night asthma symptoms in children.

Each 20-point increase in nitrogen dioxide levels led to 10 percent more days of cough and 15 percent more days with limited speech due to wheezing.

"Because using stoves as heat sources is a hallmark of urban poverty, our study tellingly points to how profound and direct the effects of purely social and environmental factors can be on a child's health," said Johns Hopkins lung expert Nadia Hansel and study leader. "Doctors caring for children with asthma should always inquire about the home's heating and cooking appliances and urge those using gas-based stoves and space heaters to switch to electric heating and cooking, if possible, or at least properly vent the exhaust gases," she added.

"Inner-city preschoolers appear especially vulnerable because they spend most of their time indoors and in homes with high levels of nitrogen dioxide," said study senior investigator and Hopkins pulmonary expert Dr Gregory Diette.

"We knew that but still we were disturbed by what we saw: As nitrogen dioxide levels crept up, so did the frequency and severity of these kids' symptoms," Diette added.The study appears in October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Now chicken soup for high blood pressure

Washington: Chicken soup, a popular home remedy for common cold, may have a role in fighting high blood pressure, according to a Japanese study.
Ai Saiga of Nippon Meat Packers and colleagues cited previous studies indicating that chicken breast contains collagen proteins with effects similar to ACE inhibitors, mainstay medications for treating high BP.

But chicken breast contains such small amounts of the proteins that it could not be used to develop food and medical products for high BP. Chicken legs and feet, which are often discarded as waste products in the US and are key soup ingredients elsewhere, appear to be a better source, according to a release of American Chemical Society (ACS).

In the new study, Saiga and colleagues extracted collagen from chicken legs and tested its ability to act as an ACE inhibitor in lab studies. They identified four different proteins in the collagen mixture with high ACE-inhibitory activity.

Given to rats used to model human high BP, the proteins produced a significant and prolonged decrease in blood pressure, the researchers said.The research is scheduled for publication in the Oct 22 issue of ACS' biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. [From Internet]

Women 'more interested in cult of celebrity than own health'

London: A new research has confirmed what many people already knew: women pay more attention to gossip about the rich and famous than their own health.
The study, therefore, suggests that women are more interested in the cult of celebrity and lack awareness about health news.

To reach the conclusion, a Breast Cancer Campaign polled 1,000 women and found that nearly four out of five women could name Coleen McLoughlin as footballer Wayne Rooney's wife.

However, just over half said they checked their breast for lumps once a month or more. Despite being in one of the age groups most at risk, more than 40 percent of women aged over 65 did not believe they were at risk from breast cancer, the survey showed.

The reality is that 80 percent of the breast cancers are diagnosed in women over 50 years old. In total, just 55 percent of women checked their breasts at least once a month, 28percent only did it a few times a month and 15 percent said they never did.

"While women are clued up about the latest gossip from celeb-land, it appears they are dismissing serious information that could save lives," BBC quoted Arlene Wilkie, director of research and policy at Breast Cancer Campaign, as saying

The more the booze, the tinier the brain

Washington: The more you drink alcohol, the smaller your total brain volume gets, according to a new study by Wellesley College, Massachusetts.
The study found that even moderate alcohol consumption can lead to decline in brain volumes.
Lower brain volumes have been linked to progression of dementia and problems with thinking, learning and memory.In the study involving 1,839 adults, the participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a health examination.

"Most participants reported low alcohol consumption, and men were more likely than women to be moderate or heavy drinkers," the authors write.

"There was a significant negative linear relationship between alcohol consumption and

total cerebral brain volume," they added.The research team led by Carol Ann Paul, M.S., of Wellesley College also found that although men were more likely to drink alcohol, the association between drinking and brain volume was stronger in women.

This could be due to biological factors, including women's smaller size and greater susceptibility to alcohol's effects."The public health effect of this study gives a clear message about the possible dangers of drinking alcohol," the authors write.

"Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these results as well as to determine whether there are any functional consequences associated with increasing alcohol consumption.

"This study suggests that, unlike the associations with cardiovascular disease, alcohol consumption does not have any protective effect on brain volume," they added. The report appears in the October issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Multi-tasking Could Slow Down the Brain

Multi-tasking could make one feel proud of oneself. But there is a hidden danger. Ultimately it could lead to the slowing down of the brain.
Even though modern technology allows people to perform more tasks at the same time, juggling tasks can make our brains lose connections to important information.

Which means, in the end, it takes longer because we have to remind our brains what we were working on. Youngsters these days swiftly move from one to another, computer to music to cricket to …… Possibilities are endless.

But therein lies the dangerDavid Meyer at the University of Michigan has spent the past few decades studying multitasking, mostly in adults."For tasks that are at all complicated, no matter how good you have become at multitasking, you're still going to suffer hits against your performance.

You will be worse compared to if you were actually concentrating from start to finish on the task," Meyer says.Multitasking causes a kind of brownout in the brain. Meyer says all the lights go dim because there just isn't enough power to go around.

So, the brain starts shutting things down, things like neural connections to important information.The technical name for creating, or recreating, these neural pathways is "spreading activation." It involves building connections step by step.
Meyer says it's similar to what we do when we free associate."I say to you, 'What do you think of when I say the word apple to you?' And you start vibing on apple. 'Oh, apple's a fruit, it fell on Newton's head. Newton was a physicist. He invented the first theory of gravity.' And on and on," Meyer

Manscaping, The Latest Fad Among the Men!

It's not just metrosexual guys who are opting for manscaping, shaving of male pubic hair, for high profile men too are taking up the trend.

According to an Australian salon owner, Stephen Foyle more and more high profile men want to be well groomed and are going for manscaping. Foyle revealed that CEOs, and many high profile men often visit his Sydney 'Detail for Men' salon to get treatments like manscaping.

"There have been many clients who are first time spa visitors who have gone commando to get a facial," The Couriermail quoted Foyle, as saying.

Although male grooming and manscaping is becoming popular with men Foyle revealed that he has instructed his employs to omit the manscaping part.

"The therapists have learnt to give very clear instructions and tell the clients to just take their shirts off," he said. Foyle pins the popularity of manscaping on handsome stars like George Clooney, David Beckham and Brad Pitt.

"Men are much more conscious about the way they look," he added. [From Internet]

Beware of using mobiles when pregnant

London: Mothers who use mobiles during pregnancy are more likely to have kids with behavioural problems, according to a new study.
The findings are based on a review of 15 years of research into mobile phone health danger.
It also showed that mothers who use handsets around their toddlers would cause the same difficulties.
The study has claimed that using a mobile phone regularly for more than ten years can also increase the risk of brain tumours.
Experts have warned that heavy usage can seriously affect male fertility. According to the study, kids exposed to phones pre-natally and in early childhood show an 80 per cent rise in behaviour problems.
The study found that kids’ brains absorb a greater proportion of radiation emitted by mobiles due to skull formation.
“We strongly recommend the Government actively discourages mobile phone use by children, including making public advice leaflets readily available in NHS waiting rooms,” the Sun quoted Graham Philips, co-author of the study, as saying.
The study will be unveiled at the Radiation Research Trust Conference, in London. [From Internet]