beautiful beaches of mauritius - best place to travel and living with lifestyles
Sunday, September 6, 2015
too lazy to go for morning walk here is healthcare supplements
If you are too lazy to wake up for your morning walk, results of a new study may cheer you up.Researchers have found that taking Vitamin C supplements daily can have similar cardiovascular benefits as regular exercise in overweight and obese adults.
The blood vessels of overweight and obese adults have elevated activity of the small vessel-constricting protein called endothelin (ET)-1.
Because of the high ET-1 activity, these vessels are more prone to constricting, becoming less responsive to blood flow demand and increasing risk of developing vascular disease.
Exercise has been shown to reduce ET-1 activity but incorporating an exercise regimen into a daily routine can be challenging.
This study, conducted at University of Colorado, Boulder in the US, examined whether vitamin C supplements, which have been reported to improve vessel function, can also lower ET-1 activity.
The researchers found that daily supplementation of Vitamin C (500 mg/day) reduced ET-1-related vessel constriction as much as walking for exercise did.
Vitamin C supplementation represents an effective lifestyle strategy for reducing ET-1-mediated vessel constriction in overweight and obese adults, the researchers wrote.
The findings were presented at the 14th International Conference on Endothelin: Physiology, Pathophysiology and Therapeutics in Savannah, Georgia, US.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
CO2 concentrations surpass 400 PPM worldwide in atmosphere
According to the federal agency, it measured and compiled data from about 40 sites around the globe.
In a statement in March, Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said that the agency first reported 400 part per million when all of Arctic locations reached that figure in the spring of 2012. According to Tans, reaching the level of 400 parts per million as a worldwide average is a significant milestone.
Tans said, "This marks the fact that humans burning fossil fuels have caused global carbon dioxide concentrations to rise more than 120 parts per million since pre-industrial times. Half of that rise has occurred since 1980".
As per the reports, the implications of these facts are sobering. Even if world succeeds in stabilizing the rate of carbon emissions, it will not help in preventing climate change. According to the NOAA, by summers of 2040, the Arctic will be ice-free-a fact.
Dr. Ed Hawkins, climate scientist from the University of Reading, said that new figures on the concentrations of the carbon dioxide are surprising. The last time the planet had that much carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere was over a million years ago. That time, modern humans had not even evolved yet, Hawkins added.
The federal agency and some of its partner agencies consider the new measurements to help policymakers and the scientific community. The 40 global sites that were selected by the agency for sampling are in remote areas.
Monday, April 13, 2015
A new smartphone app promises to make you slimmer
Actually, the new "Visualize You" app is designed to encourage weight loss by processing your portrait-style photograph and generating an image of what you would look like minus 10 kg... or may be more.
The designers said the app uses proprietary algorithms based on "clinically verified weight change dynamics" to generate the image, reported Daily Mail.
As opposed to similar apps that basically stretch and pinch photos, Visualize You creates images determined by the precise amount of weight you hope to shed.
It is simple to use this app: Take a portrait-style picture of yourself, or grab one from your photo library, and drop it into the app along with your height, weight and desired target weight.
The app crunches the numbers and pops out an image of a slimmer you.
You can also set the app to go the other way, generating an image based on a heavier target weight. A series of exercise and diet guides is also included.
Visualize You is an attempt at sparking motivation via technology, according to the developers.
The company behind the app, Visual Health Solutions, developed the app in partnership with Cleveland Clinic and the University of Colorado.
The app is not free though. It costs two dollars and is available for both iOS and Android platforms.
Snake venom could provide answers for the treatment of AIDS
Research by doctors at the Hyderabad-based JSPS Government Homeopathic Medical College, and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, on deriving a homeopathic medicine from snake venom, Crotalus Horridus, has shown that it can arrest the multiplication of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Professor Dr Praveen Kumar, head of the department of practice of medicine at JSPS College, said, "Scientifically speaking, Crotalus Horridus has inhibited reverse transcriptase or RT, an enzyme which is utilized by viruses like HIV and Hepatitis-B to convert the viral RNA into viral DNA, so that they multiply into billions and wreck patients."
"Our experiment entails that the homeopathic drug has the capacity to act on HIV, Hepatitis-B and so on. Our work has certainly opened the floodgates of advanced research and clinical testing," he said.
"For years, homeopathy has been adapting the process of converting snake venom and poison from deadly scorpions, spiders and wild bees into medicinal substances by transforming them into nano-particles that have proved safe and effective for patients," Dr Rajesh Shah, organizing secretary, Global Homeopathy Foundation said.
"As a virologist, I was surprised to learn that homeopathy also sources medicines from virus, bacteria and parasites, long before microbiology was fully developed," said Dr Abhay Chaudhary, director of Haffkine Institute, which also manufactures polio vaccines in India.
The Central Council for Research in Homeopathy (CCRH), a premium government body under AYUSH and GHF, has organized the summit. "The summit should bring about a paradigm shift in the way the world looks at homeopathy and shock even some practicing homeopaths who believed that the medicines had some undetectable and unseen energy effect and acted as placebos," said Dr Rajesh Shah, organizing secretary, GHF.
-DNA
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Three glasses of milk a day to beat dementia
The study conducted at the University of Kansas Medical Center found a correlation between milk consumption and the levels of a naturally-occurring antioxidant called glutathione in the brain in older, healthy adults.
“We have long thought of milk as being very important for your bones and very important for your muscles. This study suggests that it could be important for your brain as well,” said Debra Sullivan, professor and chair of dietetics and nutrition.
Sullivan and In-Young Choi, an associate professor of neurology, asked the 60 participants in the study about their diets in the days leading up to brain scans, which they used to monitor levels of glutathione – a powerful antioxidant – in the brain.
The researchers found that participants who had indicated they had drunk milk recently had higher levels of glutathione in their brains.
This is important, the researchers said, because glutathione could help stave off oxidative stress and the resulting damage caused by reactive chemical compounds produced during the normal metabolic process in the brain.
Oxidative stress is known to be associated with a number of different diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and many other conditions, said Choi.
A randomised, controlled trial that seeks to determine the precise effect of milk consumption on the brain is still needed and is a logical next step to this study, the researchers said.
The research was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
parents smoking increases children risk of heart disease
Children exposed to smoke caused by their parents might be inhaling more than just passive smoke. These kids are highly exposed to developing heart disease when they grow as an adult. While those with non-smoking parents, have lower risks.
The researchers used similar participants with the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study. Participants have experienced smoke exposure from their parents during 1980 and 1983. More than 20 years after (2001 and 2007), the participants were called for carotid ultrasound.
In 2014, blood samples of the participants were tested for cotinine levels. The blood was frozen samples obtained in 1980. Cotinine is the compound most present in people exposed to passive smoking.
Results showed that 84% of children with neither parents smoking showed highest non-detectable cotinine levels. As for those with one parent smoking, 62% of the children have none-detectable cotinine levels. And lowest percentage (43%) was found among households with both parents smoking.
They were able to detect other issues like risk of developing carotid plaque as an adult greater with one or two parents smoking. This problem is 1.7 times higher to the children as compared to those who weren’t.
Some parents limit their children’s exposure, but still resulted to 1.6 times higher risk. And four times higher to those whose parents do not limit the kids’ exposure to their habit.
Costan Magnussen, Ph.D., the lead researcher from Menzies Institute for Medical Research in University of Tasmania, Australia, said that there was really no direct proof that the exposure to passive smoke came from the children’s parents. But one thing is for sure, their primary exposure occurs in their very home.
The advice researchers gave to parents is to stop their smoking habit. This could benefit their kids’ long-term cardiovascular health. Parents who are trying to quit smoking are already reducing their children’s risk and potential long-term cardiovascular problem.
Magnussen said that, “Not smoking at all is by far the safest option.”
Monday, December 1, 2014
Global Community Marks World AIDS Day Today 1 December
Speaking ahead of World Aids Day, marked annually on 1 December Michel Sidibé said health systems need to be strengthened.
He added that more should be done to reach people left behind, including young women and girls, men who have sex with men, prisoners and sex workers.
Now, Mr Sidibé said, is the time to break the AIDS epidemic for good as it could "spring" back and be impossible to end.
“I want to say to the world that it's time for us to redouble our effort, to fast track our actions, to make sure that we quicken the pace. Together I am sure we can end AIDS epidemic by 2030.”
Mr Sidibé added that this day is an opportunity to reflect on the lives lost to Ebola given the outbreak's similarities to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.
He explained that Ebola sufferers were hiding, scared, and facing widespread stigma and discrimination of the type encountered by the first people to contract AIDS.
In a related development, the President of Bridging the Gap foundation,an NGO Emmanuel Quainoo, says for Ghana to make meaningful headway in the fight against HIV/AIDS, it is imperative that students are included in all aspects of the education drive.
He said if students get the message on HIV and AIDS and make healthy lifestyle choices, they will in turn disseminate the information among their peers, parents, siblings and other relatives.
Mr Quainoo appealed to NGOs dealing in HIV/AIDS prevention in Ghana to endeavour to promote the adoption of healthy lifestyle choices among students.
GBC/United Nations.
5 ways how we are letting stress affect our cells
Although you experience it in the head, your body is the first to react to stress.
With sudden onset of stress, the muscles get tense all at once, and then release their tension when the trigger passes.Chronic stress causes the muscles in your body to remain in a constant state of caution. When muscles stay tense for long, they can lead to other reactions in the body and even promote stress-related disorders. Both, tension headache and migraine headaches are associated with chronic muscle tension in the shoulders, neck and head. Then, the heart rate speeds up, muscles tighter, face turns red and there's a general sense of uneasiness and helplessness. But stress can also seep into your cells.Rising temperatures, toxins, infections, and resource shortages threaten how cells function and impact your health. Here are five ways you may be letting stress affect your cell.
PASS IT ON
Environmental stress can reach deep into the cells' interiors and alter the genetic material held within their nuclei. And the changes can be inherited. A study showed that limited food availability during a man's lifetime was linked to his grandchildren's risk of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.Another research at an American school showed that when male mice were fed a low-protein diet, the activity of hundreds of genes in the animals' offspring changed. In particular, genes that manufacture fats were more active. While making more fats might be a protective stress response, it also could lead to obesity and related diseases.Genomic (discipline in genetics that applies recombinant DNA) research suggests a potential link between changes transmissible from parent to offspring in patterns of gene activity and changes in chemical markers, affixed to certain genes.Scientists are trying to understand the nature of these changes and how they occur.
PRODDING THEM TO TANGLE
Increased temperature can stress out cells. Expose them to temperatures just three degrees than they are used to, and the proteins in the cell begin to unravel and stop functioning. If they unravel too much, they tangle up with each other and form a clump that can kill the cell. To prevent this, cells rely on a set of molecules called heat shock proteins that work in many different ways. Some tuck the sticky, carbonrich regions of unfolded proteins into a small pocket; others form barrels that sequester unravelled proteins away from any potential tangling partners. Once the body cools down, heat shock proteins help refold into proper shapes. THEY EVOLVE Cells can adapt to stressful conditions in a short period. They use intricate mechanisms to maintain the stability of their genetic DNA material. For example, yeast -an organism commonly used to study human genetics -quickly gained or lost entire chromosomes when researchers stressed it with exposure to different chemicals.After prolonged exposure, colonies of yeast with chromosome changes evolved resistance to certain chemicals, including an antibiotic. Under stressful conditions, however, they relax these controls.
AGEING THEM PREMATURELY
Doctors say, every cell in your body has its own doomsday clock, ticking down the number of times it can safely divide. This clock takes the form of a cap on the ends of each chromosome. Telomeres (a compound structure at the end of a chromosome) keep the chromosome from fraying. But they get shorter each time the cell divides. Shortened telomeres have been linked to agerelated diseases, such as arthritis, hypertension, and diabetes.Research suggests that chronic stress can dramatically shorten telomere length, causing cells to age and die prematurely. As a countermeasure, certain cells respond to temporary stressors like fear or infection by upping their production of the enzyme, telomerase, that helps telomeres maintain their length.
LEADING THEM TO SUICIDE
At the cellular level, death is essential for life. Apoptosis is a normal, programmed process of cellular self-destruction. It is called cellular suicide. And although it involves cell death, apoptosis serves a healthy and protective role in our bodies. It, in fact, helps shape our physical features and organs before birth and rids our bodies of unneeded or potentially harmful cells. This strategy sidesteps the destructive effects of a cell dying from the stressful conditions, which can kill nearby healthy cells by triggering inflammation. And since cell death plays a role in a number of neurological and cardiovascular diseases, medical experts believe understanding how cells make the life-or-death decision might lead to ways to reduce the damage caused by these types of conditions.
-TOI
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Why do people cry even though they are happy
"Tears flow when people are overwhelmed with strong positive emotions and people who do this seem to recover better from those strong emotions," said psychologist Oriana Aragon at the Yale University in the US.
People overcome strong positive emotions with tears of joy, says a study, adding that crying actually helps them recover from the situation.
Aragon and her colleagues at Yale ran participants through some emotional scenarios such as cute babies or a crying spouse who is reunited with her soldier husband returning from war, and measured their responses.
"People restore emotional equilibrium with these expressions," she added.
They found that individuals who express negative reactions to positive news were able to moderate intense emotions more quickly.
They also found people, who are most likely to cry at their child's graduation are most likely to want to pinch a cute baby's cheeks.
There is also some evidence that strong negative feelings may provoke positive expressions.
For example, nervous laughter appears when people are confronted with a difficult or frightening situations, and we also smile during extreme sadness.
"The new discoveries begin to explain common things that many people do but do not even understand themselves," Aragon said.
"These insights advance our understanding of how people express and control their emotions, which is importantly related to mental and physical health, the quality of relationships with others, and even how well people work together," she concluded.
The paper was published in the journal Psychological Science.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Promising target for HIV treatment identified
Like a slumbering dragon, HIV can lay dormant in a person's cells for years, evading medical treatments only to wake up and strike at a later time, quickly replicating itself and destroying the immune system.
Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have uncovered a new protein that participates in active HIV replication.
The protein, called Ssu72, is part of a switch used to awaken HIV-1 (the most common type of HIV) from its slumber.
The team began by identifying a list of 50 or so proteins that interact with a well-known protein HIV creates called Tat.
"The virus cannot live without Tat," said Katherine Jones, Salk professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory and senior author of the study.
Tat acts as a lookout in the cell for the virus, telling the virus when the cellular environment is favourable for its replication.
When the environment is right, Tat kicks off the virus' transcription, the process by which HIV reads and replicates its building blocks (RNA) to spread throughout the body.
One of the proteins on the list that caught Jones' eye was Ssu72 (a phosphatase).
This enzyme had been shown in yeast to affect the transcription machinery. Her team found that Ssu72 binds directly to Tat and not only begins the transcription process, but also creates a feedback loop to ramp up the process.
"Tat is like an engine for HIV replication and Ssu72 revs up the engine," said Lirong Zhang, one of the first authors.
"If we target this interaction between Ssu72 and Tat, we may be able to stop the replication of HIV," said Zhang.
The team found that Ssu72 is not required for making RNA for most host cell genes in the way it is used by HIV, making it a potentially promising target for drug therapy.
"Many proteins that Tat interacts with are essential for normal cellular transcription so those can't be targeted unless you want to kill normal cells," said co-first author Yupeng Chen, a Salk researcher.
"Ssu72 seems to be different - at least in the way it is used by HIV," said Chen.
The study was published in the journal Genes and Development.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Walnuts help prevent Alzheimer disease
Having a walnut-enriched diet every day may help reduce the risk, delay the onset, slow the progression of, or prevent Alzheimer's disease all together, found a study led by an Indian-origin researcher.
"study adds to the growing body of research that demonstrates the protective effects of walnuts on cognitive functioning," said Abha Chauhan from the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR).
The research group examined the effects of dietary supplementation on mice with six percent and nine percent walnuts, that is equivalent to one ounce (28.3 gram) and 1.5 ounces (42.5 gram) per day, respectively.
The researchers found significant improvement in learning skills, memory, reducing anxiety and motor development in mice fed a walnut-enriched diet.
Oxidative stress and inflammation are prominent features in the disease.
The high antioxidant content of walnuts (3.7 mmol/ounce) may have been a contributing factor in protecting the mouse's brain from the degeneration typically seen in Alzheimer's disease, the researchers suggested.
This research stemmed from a previous cell culture study led by Chauhan that highlighted the protective effects of walnut extract against the oxidative damage caused by amyloid beta protein.
"These findings are very promising and could help lay the groundwork for future human studies on walnuts and Alzheimer's disease - a disease for which there is no known cure," Chauhan added.
The protein is the major component of amyloid plaques that form in the brains of those with Alzheimer's disease.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Artificial sweeteners may alters body blood sugar controls
Artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, causing metabolic changes that can be a precursor to diabetes, researchers are reporting.
That is “the very same condition that we often aim to prevent” by consuming sweeteners instead of sugar, said Dr Eran Elinav, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, at a news conference to discuss the findings.
The scientists performed a multitude of experiments, mostly on mice, to back up their assertion that the sweeteners alter the microbiome, the population of bacteria that is in the digestive system.
The different mix of microbes, the researchers contend, changes the metabolism of glucose, causing levels to rise higher after eating and to decline more slowly than they would.
The findings by Dr Elinav and his collaborators in Israel, including Eran Segal, a professor of computer science and applied mathematics at Weizmann, were published in September by the journal Nature.
Cathryn R Nagler, a professor of pathology at the University of Chicago who was not involved with the research but did write an accompanying commentary in Nature, called the results “very compelling.”
She noted that many conditions, including obesity and diabetes, had been linked to changes in the microbiome. “What the study suggests,” she said, “is we should step back and reassess our extensive use of artificial sweeteners.”
Previous studies on the health effects of artificial sweeteners have come to conflicting and confusing findings. Some found that they were associated with weight loss; others found the exact opposite, that people who drank diet soda actually weighed more.
Some found a correlation between artificial sweeteners and diabetes, but those findings were not entirely convincing: Those who switch to the products may already be overweight and prone to the disease.
While acknowledging that it is too early for broad or definitive conclusions, Dr Elinav said he had already changed his own behavior.
“I’ve consumed huge amounts of coffee, and extensively used sweeteners, thinking like many other people that they are at least not harmful to me and perhaps even beneficial,” he said. “Given the surprising results that we got in our study, I made a personal preference to stop using them.
“We don’t think the body of evidence that we present in humans is sufficient to change the current recommendations,” he continued. “But I would hope it would provoke a healthy discussion.”
In the initial set of experiments, the scientists added saccharin (the sweetener in the pink packets of Sweet’N
-fe
Lung cancer can stay hidden for over 20 years
Lung cancers can lie dormant for over 20 years before suddenly turning into an aggressive form of the disease, according to a study published Thursday in the U.S. journal Science.
Lung cancer is known as the leading type of deadly cancer among U.S. men and women, and the second most common cancer diagnosed in the U.S. Cigarette smoking is listed as the leading cause of lung cancer, which can also be caused by using other types of tobacco. The American Cancer Society estimates that in the United States, for the year 2014, there will be about 224,210 new cases of lung cancer and nearly 159,260 deaths from it. This disease accounts for 27 percent of all cancer deaths.
The latest study, conducted by the Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and the UCL Cancer Institute, found that lung cancer can remain hidden for over 20 years. This was based on the study conducted on lung cancers from seven patients that included smokers, ex-smokers and never smokers.
The researchers hoped this study will help improve early detection of the disease.
Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK's chief scientist, said: "This fascinating research highlights the need to find better ways to detect lung cancer earlier when it's still following just one evolutionary path. If we can nip the disease in the bud and treat it before it has started travelling down different evolutionary routes we could make a real difference in helping more people survive the disease..."
It was noticed that after the first genetic mistake that triggered cancer, it can continue to exist undetected for several years until the novel additional defect triggers the rapid growth of the disease. It is during this expansion a sudden gush of different genetic faults that appear in separate region of the tumors. Each of the different sections comes from various paths indicating that every part of the tumor is genetically unique.
This study shows the need for advanced method to detect the disease earlier. Nearly two-thirds of the patients are being diagnosed with advanced form of cancers during which treatment is not successful. Based on this finding, the researchers hope for some improvement in the early detection of the disease.
Study author Professor Charles Swanton, at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and the UCL Cancer Institute, said: "Survival from lung cancer remains devastatingly low with many new targeted treatments making a limited impact on the disease. By understanding how it develops we've opened up the disease's evolutionary rule book in the hope that we can start to predict its next steps."
The finding was documented in Science today.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Insomnia related to sleep quality and not duration
Researchers at the University of Chicago found that sleep problems may stem from the quality of rest and other health concerns more than the overall amount of sleep that patients get.
An estimated 30 per cent of adults report having some symptoms of insomnia, which includes difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early and then not feeling well rested during the daytime, researchers said.
The study used data from 727 participants in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project in the US who were randomly invited to participate in an "Activity and Sleep Study."
The activity and sleep study had two components: a self-administered sleep booklet, which included questions about the person's sleep experience, (eg, "how often do you feel really rested when you wake up in the morning?") and 72-hours of wrist actigraphy, which is a wristwatch-like sensor that monitors sleep patterns and movements.
The actigraph measurements showed that most of the older adults got sufficient amounts of sleep.
Even though reported sleep problems are common among older individuals, according to the survey only about 13 per cent of older adults in the study said that they rarely or never feel rested when waking up in the morning.
About 12 per cent reported often having trouble falling asleep, 30 per cent indicated they regularly had problems with waking up during the night and 13 per cent reported problems with waking up too early and not being able to fall asleep again most of the time.
The actigraph provided data that showed the average duration of sleep period among the study participants was 7.9 hours and the average total sleep time was 7.25 hours.
Linda Waite, an author on the study, said this indicates that the majority of older adults are getting the recommended amount of sleep and usually not having common sleep problems.
Researchers also found that respondents who reported waking up more frequently during the night had more total sleep time.
"This suggests that a question about feeling rested may tap into other aspects of older adults' everyday health or psychological experience," said Waite.
"Our findings suggest that reports of what seem like specific sleep problems from survey questions may be more accurately viewed as indicators of general problems or dissatisfaction with sleep that may
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
olive oil Healthy fat may repair failing hearts
“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.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Kids living in megacities likelier to risk brain damage from air pollution
Researchers from University of Montana revealed that children living in megacities are at increased risk for brain inflammation and neurodegenerative changes, including Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.
The study found when air particulate matter and their components such as metals are inhaled or swallowed, they pass through damaged barriers, including respiratory, gastrointestinal and the blood-brain barriers and can result in long-lasting harmful effects.
Researchers compared 58 serum and cerebrospinal fluid samples from a control group living in a low-pollution city and matched them by age, gender, socioeconomic status, education and education levels achieved by their parents to 81 children living in Mexico City.
The results found that the children living in Mexico City had significantly higher serum and cerebrospinal fluid levels of autoantibodies against key tight-junction and neural proteins, as well as combustion-related metals.
The breakdown of the blood-brain barrier and the presence of autoantibodies to important brain proteins would contribute to the neuroinflammation observed in urban children and raises the question of what role air pollution plays in a 400 percent increase of MS cases in Mexico City, making it one of the main diagnoses for neurology referrals.
Once there's a breakdown in the blood-brain barrier, not only would particulate matter enter the body but it also opens the door to harmful neurotoxins, bacteria and viruses.
While the study focused on children living in Mexico City, others living in cities where there are alarming levels of air pollution such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia-Wilmington, New York City, Salt Lake City, hicago, Tokyo, Mumbai, New Delhi or Shanghai, among others, also face major health risks. In the U.S. alone, 200 million people live in areas where pollutants such as ozone and fine particulate matter exceed the standards. (ANI)
Saturday, September 6, 2014
According to Study Dietary Supplements May Cause Liver Damage
Dietary supplements have grown remarkably popular in the last few years. They may help with weight-management but their side effects remain highly debatable. According to a new study published in the journal Hepatology, liver damage caused by herbals and dietary supplements have increased from 7 percent to almost 20 percent in the United States in the last 10 years.Dr. Victor Navarro from Einstein Medical Centre in Philadelphia said, "While many Americans believe supplements to be safe, government require less safety evidence to market products than what is required for conventional pharmaceuticals. With less stringent oversight for herbals and dietary supplements, there is greater potential for harmful consequences including life-threatening conditions."
The new study examined 839 patients in the federally supported Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network who had liver damage between 2004 and 2013. Forty-five cases were caused by bodybuilding supplements, 85 by non- body-building supplements and 709 by medications.
Liver injury due to non-bodybuilding supplements is most severe when compared with injury due to body-building supplements or conventional medications. It may even require the need for transplantation and can also be fatal.
The team concluded that bodybuilding supplements caused prolonged jaundice in young men but no fatalities or liver trans-plantations occurred. However, the team also noted that they couldn't say that the results applied to the whole of the U.S. population. More research is needed, but the public needs to be cautious before taking any dietary supplements.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Smoking e-cigarettes may lead to addiction marijuana and cocaine
A new study has observed that smoking e-cigarettes may encourage the addiction to other substances, such as marijuana and cocaine.The study presented at Massachusetts Medical Society examined that the e-cigarettes may act as a "gateway drug" to addiction to drugs.
Co-author Denise B. Kandel, PhD, professor of sociomedical sciences (in psychiatry), Department of Psychiatry and Mailman School of Public Health, at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), said that while e-cigarettes eliminated some of the health effects associated with combustible tobacco, they were pure nicotine-delivery devices.
Dr. Eric Kandel said that their findings provided a biologic basis for the sequence of drug use observed in people and one drug altered the brain's circuitry in a way that enhanced the effects of a subsequent drug.
Kandel continued that e-cigarettes had the same physiological effects on the brain and may pose the same risk of addiction to other drugs as regular cigarettes, especially in adolescence during a critical period of brain development and nicotine clearly acted as a gateway drug on the brain, and this effect was likely to occur whether the exposure comes from smoking cigarettes, passive tobacco smoke, or e-cigarettes.
The study is published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Low nicotine cigarettes may reduce addiction
Cigarettes with low levels of nicotine may reduce addiction in smokers without increasing exposure to toxic chemicals, says a study.The study monitored the smoking behaviour of 72 adults as they switched between three types of cigarettes with markedly reduced nicotine levels.
When the participants switched between conventional cigarette brands - which have similar nicotine content - there was no significant change in their puffing behaviour, number of cigarettes consumed or levels of toxic chemicals in their systems.
"We found that smokers were unable or unwilling to compensate when there was markedly less nicotine in the cigarette," said David Hammond, from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at University of Waterloo in Canada.
The cigarettes - Quest 1, Quest 2 and Quest 3 - had a nicotine content of 8.9, 8.4 and 0.6 mg, respectively, as opposed to an average of 12 mg in a regular cigarette.
The study appeared in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.
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