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.