Health Related articles updated on daily Basis.

[Night_Hawk]

Blood test predicts breast cancer recurrence

(Reuters) / 21 January 2013

A simple blood test could tell whether the commonest form of breast cancer will recur post therapy, sparing women unwanted treatment with anti-cancer drugs.“If we can accurately predict which women are at high risk of breast cancer recurrence, it gives the physicians and oncologists treating these women time to design a more aggressive therapy in the hopes of preventing the cancer from coming back,” said researcher Sambasivarao Damaraju, from University of Alberta, Canada.

“Treatment strategies could be tailor-made for these women based on their genetic make-up and how susceptible it makes them to breast cancer recurrence,” said Damaraju, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reports.
The kit, which is being developed in Canada, focuses on something called luminal A breast cancer - the most common form of the disease and the type generally thought to have the best prognosis, according to the Daily Mail.
However, with it making up around 60 percent of the 50,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, it still accounts for a substantial number of relapses and deaths.
Alberta researchers tested blood samples taken from women when they had been diagnosed with breast cancer years previously.
The new test could spare some women unnecessary treatment for cancer.
Comparing the DNA of samples taken from women whose cancer had returned with DNA of samples from women who had remained in remission, indicated the possibility of the cancer recurring.
Canadian researchers believe their technique will be more accurate as it uses the DNA a person is born with to work out if their predisposition to breast cancer.

 

[Night_Hawk]

The tantalising tukh-malanga


By Zahrah Nasir
Zahrah Nasir throws light on the history and botanical characteristics of sweet basil and provides useful information on growing the herb

This wonderful Urdu name of the plant rolls pleasantly around the mouth leaving a very intriguing after taste for those who have not actually got around to sampling the seed in question. Also known as naz boo, a second Urdu name for the same family of herbs, tukh-malanga is the seed of that all time favourite sweet basil, or basilicum ocimum to be botanically correct.

Traditionally, tukh-malanga seed sold in surprisingly large quantities, is soaked in water and then added to summer sherbets and faluda for its well known cooling effect. Not many people realise that the seed is the sweet basil which they repeatedly request the owners of regular seed stores to supply them with, often without any luck, in order to add this very versatile herb to their gardens!

Sweet basil, and just to stir the linguistic pot a little more, is not the tulsi which many people confuse it with. Tulsi, yet another Urdu name, is a perennial variety of basil, revered by Hindus who also call it sacred basil whilst sweet basil is an annual variety. Tulsi, to make the difference even more apparent, has rather tough, slightly hairy leaves and stems, the stems when cut into bead shapes and strung in to necklaces claim to protect the wearer from evil, but the leaves and stems of sweet basil are very soft and tender to the touch, so much so in fact that they must be handled lightly in order to avoid bruising and discolouration.

Back to tukh-malanga before I get side-tracked again, sweet basil is native to the subcontinent and Africa and it is a historical fact that Alexander the Great, something of a botanist when he wasn’t subjugating people and their countries, was so impressed by it that he sent samples of the plant and lots of seed back home to Greece where it quickly became established before moving on to Rome where the Italians still make full use of it in their delectable cuisine.

However, and this is the ‘twist’, for some unknown reason the Greeks came to associate basil with all manner of evil, though this, by the way, didn’t prevent them from using it as an ingredient in love potions, and some bright spark came up with the theory that unless you soundly, roundly and very nastily curse the seed when planting it then it won’t grow!

This tradition also spread to Italy and throughout the rest of Europe but I do not know if it is still practised as I have not been in the vicinity when basil sowing is in process. I most certainly do not curse my basil seeds during the planting process but talk to them rather nicely instead, but come to think of it, I may be mumbling, certainly thinking, “Germinate and grow up so I can cut you to pieces and eat you!” Logical isn't it?

Now that all of the above is out of the way I will tell you some more about tukh-malanga and its many uses. For a start, the seed has completely different uses than the actual plant and, as for those of you who are familiar with it will know, when soaked in water the seeds quickly develop a highly mucilaginous coating, an almost transparent, whitish, jelly-like substance which, along with the seed itself, is highly regarded for its cooling and tonic properties in locations as diverse as the Caribbean Islands, South and North America, Europe, China, Malaysia and, of course, the subcontinent where it is an ingredient of numerous herbal medicines.

Sweet basil, the entire plant not just the leaves, is considered to be a restorative herb which lowers fever, helps digestion, cures bacterial infections and gets rid of intestinal parasites. An extract of the plant is popular for the relief of colds and influenza, to relieve nausea, migraine, anxiety and exhaustion. A different preparation is used to clear up acne, treat insect bites, skin infections and even snake bites. The oil is in high demand in the perfume industry and is also added to dental hygiene products and fancy, high quality soaps. The leaves have so many culinary uses that one could devote an entire recipe book to the subject! Another interesting fact is that whilst the seeds are renowned for their cooling effect, the rest of the plant is directly opposite being ‘warming’ to the human system.

Having ploughed your way this far, perhaps you would like to know how to grow sweet basil for yourself and, this I guarantee is nowhere near as complicated as the previous discourse may lead you to believe! Basil, in all of its forms, is one of the easiest and most rewarding herbs to grow in your garden or in suitable containers on a balcony or patio. Soil need not be terribly rich but must be well drained as water-logging causes the plants, particularly young seedlings, to rot off at the point where the stems emerge from the soil. Basil needs sunshine and plenty of it but, it does tend to run to seed rapidly in the extremely high summer temperatures of places including Islamabad and Lahore.

I would suggest sowing the seeds of your selected variety, just under the surface of damp soil, during late February –- March in Islamabad, Lahore, Multan and all the places in-between; the same goes for Peshawar, though you can continue sowing seed until the end of April if a little shade is available in the heat of the day and this applies to Quetta too; in the cooler mountainous regions, one has to wait until the soil warms up at the end of April through to the end of May and even until late June.

Curb your patience please Karachiites as I am just getting to you and, despite what you may have read elsewhere, you have the best climate for growing basil of all as you can have fresh basil almost round the year. You can sow seed from the middle of August when the monsoons finish through to the end of October, and then start all over again from the beginning of February through to the end of April. Not bad eh!

A word of warning here, don’t get confused by the countless varieties of basil on sale be they green, big leaved, lettuce leaved, narrow leaved, small leaved, lemon flavoured, cinnamon scented, blue leaved or even that beautiful deep purple, pink flowered, ruffled leaved variety, they are all absolutely superb. Grow them all if you can but do keep in mind another Greek superstition -–– if you eat too much basil you just may turn in to a scorpion. Beat that one if you can!

Send your gardening queries to [email protected]. Answers will appear in a future issue of 'The Review'.

http://archives.dawn.com/weekly/review/archive/060309/review14.htm

 

[Night_Hawk]

Some common pathologies of shoulder

Staff Reporter / 26 January 2013

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The shoulder is a combination of four joints that along with tendons and muscles allows a wide range of movement in the arm — from scratching your back to throwing the perfect pitchMobility has its price, however. It may lead to problems of instability of the joint or impingement or tear of the soft tissues in your shoulder resulting in pain, explains Dr Chidananda P. Shivashankar, Specialist Orthopedic, Zulekha Hospital, Dubai. The pain may be temporary or it may continue requiring medical attention.
Some of the common pathologies of shoulder include rotator cuff tear, impingement syndrome, shoulder instability and frozen shoulder.
Rotator cuff is a confluence of four tendons which provide stability and mobility to the shoulder. Owing to its position below the bone, it is vulnerable to get damaged/torn, leading to pain and/or inability to lift or rotate the arm.

The pain is common at night and often radiates down the arm. This damage can be caused by a single injury or over a period of time. Treatment includes drug therapy, physiotherapy and steroid injections. A keyhole surgery can solve the problem and help recover early. An open surgery is indicated in some cases.
Impingement syndrome occurs due to pinching and inflammation of part of the rotator cuff in the space below the Acromion (subacromial) causing pain in certain movements and positions of the shoulder. The causes include fluid cushion inflammation, bony growth or a calcific deposit in the tendon. Treatment involves physiotherapy and medicines.
Main joint of the shoulder (Glenohumeral joint) is a ball and socket joint. The socket is like a flat saucer while the ball is a hemisphere. Shoulder instability occurs when the ball is forced out of the shoulder socket. This can happen as a result of a sudden injury or from overuse and it is more commonly seen between the age group of 20 to 40 years.
Once the ligaments and tendons (the stabilising structures) around the shoulder become loose or torn, dislocations can occur repeatedly. Recurring dislocations cause pain and unsteadiness when you raise your arm or move it away from your body. Depending on the age, extent and cause of instability, the condition may need surgical stabilisation to prevent arthritis and pain.
Frozen shoulder is an extremely painful condition in which shoulder becomes partially or completely immovable. Cause is largely unknown but it starts with pain, moves on to stiffness and finally reaches a stage of resolution when pain becomes less and most of the movement returns. Treatment is usually with anti-inflammatory medications, physiotherapy and joint injections. Resistant cases may need surgery.
Keyhole surgery involves two to three 5mm wounds, use of telescopic camera and specific instruments. Majority of the shoulder problems can be managed by this method.
[email protected]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Mediterranean diet may not protect the aging brain

(Reuters) / 25 January 2013

Hopes that a Mediterranean diet would be as good for the head as it is for the heart may have been dampened by a French study that found little benefit for aging brains from the diet rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, wine and olive oil.The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at the participants’ dietary patterns in middle age and measured their cognitive performance at around age 65, but found no connection between Mediterranean eating and mental performance.

“Our study does not support the hypothesis of a significant neuroprotective effect of a (Mediterranean diet) on cognitive function,” wrote study leader Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot at the nutritional epidemiology research center of the French national health research agency INSERM.
It’s been suggested that the “good” fats in the Mediterranean diet might benefit the brain directly, or that low saturated fats and high fiber in the diet could help stave off cognitive decline indirectly by keeping blood vessels healthy.
Previous research has seemed to uphold that premise.
One large study in the U.S. Midwest, for example, found that people in their 60s and older who ate a mostly Mediterranean diet were less prone to mental decline as they aged. Another study of residents of Manhattan linked a Mediterranean-style diet to a 40 percent lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers in the French study used data on 3,083 people who were followed from the mid-1990s, when they were at least 45 years old.
At the beginning of the study, participants recorded what they ate over one 24-hour period every two months, for a total of six dietary record samples per year. Then, between 2007 and 2009 when the participants were about 65 years old, their memory and other mental abilities were measured.
Researchers then separated participants into three categories depending on how closely they adhered to a Mediterranean-style diet, and compared their mental ability test scores.
Overall, they found that people who ate a diet closest to the Mediterranean ideal performed about the same as those who ate a non-restricted diet.
Nikos Scarmeas, who was not involved with the study but has researched the effects of food on brain health, said it’s important to note that the new study had some limitations.
For instance, researchers only tested the participants’ mental abilities once, making it impossible to track whether they got better or worse over time, added Scarmeas, an associate professor at New York’s Columbia University Medical Center.
“We don’t have the strong evidence to go and tell people,’Listen, if you follow this diet, it will improve cognition,’” he said.

 

[Night_Hawk]

28 January 2013 Last updated at 02:51 ET
Boosting sleep 'may slow memory rot'

By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

It may be possible to slow the decline in memory and learning as we age by tackling poor sleep, researchers hope.

Their study, in the journal Nature Neuroscience, has revealed an intimate relationship between an ageing brain, sleep and memory.
Experiments showed that changes in the ageing brain damaged the quality of deep sleep, this in turn hampered the ability to store memories.
Scientists want to test ways of boosting sleep to halt memory decline.
Wisdom may come with age, but both the brain and the body take the strain of time. Many people will be aware that both their memory and sleep are not as good as in their earlier years.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said it was unknown whether changes in the brain, sleep and memory were all separate signs of ageing or deeply connected.
A good kip
“Start QuoteTaken all together, the deterioration of the brain leads to the deterioration of sleep to the deterioration of memory.”

Dr Matthew Walker University of California, Berkeley


They performed a series of experiments on 36 people - an even split of those in their twenties and their seventies.

First the team showed that they could use the state of a region of the brain, called the medial prefronal cortex, to predict how much deep, or slow-wave, sleep a person would have.
That part of the brain is essential for entering deep sleep, but with age the region degrades.
Secondly, they showed that the amount of deep sleep could be used to predict how well people would do on memory tests.
The younger patients getting loads of good quality sleep performed better on tests than their older colleagues who had worse quality sleep.
One of the researchers, Dr Matthew Walker told the BBC: "Taken all together, the deterioration of the brain leads to the deterioration of sleep to the deterioration of memory."
"Slow wave sleep is critically important for cementing new memories you've recently learned. It's like clicking the save button.
"It's especially depressing as I continue to get older, but there might be a silver lining."
Researchers are not able to restore the ageing section of the brain, but they believe they can do something about sleep.
It is possible to boost the quality of sleep by stimulating the right region of the brain with electricity during the night.
The researchers said this had been shown to boost memory performance in young people and they wanted to begin experiments on elderly patients too.
"You don't have to restore brain cells to restore sleep," said Dr Walker who described their aim as "jump-starting" the system.
Dementia In patients with dementia, the symptoms of brain cells dying, bad sleep and memory loss are far far worse than in normal ageing.
Some studies have suggested a link between and dementia. A report, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, suggested problems sleeping may be an early sign of Alzheimer's.
Dr Simon Ridley, from the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said further studies were needed to confirm the link.
"Increasing evidence has linked changes in sleep to memory problems and dementia, but it's not clear whether these changes might be a cause or consequence.
"The people studied here were followed for a very short period, and one next step could be to investigate whether a lack of 'slow-wave' sleep may also be linked to a long-term decline in memory."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21199949

 

[Night_Hawk]

An earlier lunchtime may help you lose weight

(Reuters) / 30 January 2013

Want to lose weight? Eating lunch earlier rather than later may help you out.Dieters who ate early lunches tended to lose more weight than those who had their midday meal on the later side, according to a Spanish study published in the International Journal of Obesity.
The finding doesn’t prove that bumping up your lunch hour will help you shed that extra weight, but it is possible that eating times play a role in how the body regulates its weight, researchers said.
‘We should now seriously start to consider the timing of food - not just what we eat, but also when we eat,’ said study co-author Frank Scheer, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
His group’s research included 420 people attending nutrition clinics in southeast Spain. Along with going to regular group therapy sessions with nutrition and exercise counseling, dieters measured, weighed and recorded their food and reported on their daily physical activity.
Study participants were on a so-called Mediterranean diet, in which about 40 percent of each day’s calories are consumed at lunch. About half of the people said they ate lunch before 3:00 p.m. and half after.
Over 20 weeks of counseling, early and late lunchers ate a similar amount of food, based on their food journals, and burned a similar amount of calories through daily activities.
However, early eaters lost an average of 10 kilograms ( 22 lbs) - just over 11 percent of their starting weight - while late eaters dropped 7.7 kg (17 lb), or nine percent of their initial weight.
What time dieters ate breakfast or dinner wasn’t linked to their ultimate weight loss.
One limitation of the study is that the researchers didn’t randomly assign people to eat early or late, so it’s possible there were other underlying differences between dieters with different mealtimes. Certain gene variants that have been linked to obesity were more common in late lunchers, for example.
People who eat later may have extra food in their stomach when they go to sleep, which could mean more of it isn’t burned and ends up being stored as fat, said Yunsheng Ma, a nutrition researcher from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
How often people eat during the day and whether they bring food from home or eat out may also contribute to weight loss, added Ma, who wasn’t involved in the new research.
He said any implications of late eating could be exacerbated among people in the United States.
‘The pattern of consumption of meals is very different in the U.S.,’ Ma told Reuters Health. Many people skip breakfast or lunch, then end up overdoing it on calories at dinner.
Scheer said that in the United States, where dinner is typically the biggest meal, researchers would expect people who eat later dinners to have more trouble losing weight based on his team’s findings.
Regardless of exact mealtimes, Ma said it’s important for people to spread their calories out through the day.
‘Have a good breakfast and a good lunch, and at dinner, people should eat lightly,’ he said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/aCKLXR

 

[Night_Hawk]

Green tea deterrent against Alzheimer’s

(IANS) / 10 February 2013

Green tea contain certain chemicals which could hinder the progress of Alzheimer’s disease that afflict a growing number of aged people, says new research.In early-stage laboratory experiments, the researchers from the University of Leeds identified the process which allows harmful clumps of protein to latch on to brain cells, causing them to die.

They were able to interrupt this pathway using the purified extracts of EGCG from green tea and resveratrol from red grapes, reports Science Daily.

The findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, offer potential new targets for developing drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease, which affects some 800,000 people in Britain alone, and for which there is currently no cure.

‘This is an important step in increasing our understanding of the cause and progression of Alzheimer’s disease,’ said lead researcher professor Nigel Hooper of the university’s Faculty of Biological Sciences.

‘It’s a misconception that Alzheimer’s is a natural part of aging; it’s a disease that we believe can ultimately be cured through finding new opportunities for drug targets like this,’ he said.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Diet fizzy drinks come with higher diabetes risk

(IANS) / 11 February 2013

Diet fizzy drinks, touted as healthier substitutes are likely to push up diabetes risk by 60 percent, rather than the regular versions, says a European study involving more than 66,000 women.Diet drinkers also consume more or an average of 2.8 glasses a week which compounds the effect, as compared to 1.6 for regular drinkers. Regular, full-fat versions have previously been suspected of causing diabetes.

More than 66,000 middle-aged French women were quizzed about their dietary habits. Their health was then monitored over 14 years from 1993 to 2007, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports.

The researchers, from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in France, examined the rates of diabetes among women who drank either regular or diet fizzy drinks and those who drank only unsweetened fruit juice, according to the Daily Mail.

Those who drank up to 359 ml of any type of fizzy a week - just more than a regular-sized can - were a third more likely to develop the disease. The risk was more than double in those who drank 600 ml a week - just bigger than a regular bottle.

Drinkers of diet drinks had an even higher risk of diabetes compared to those who drank regular ones. Those who drank up to 500 ml a week had a 15 percent increased risk.

Once more than 1.5 litres a week was consumed, this became a 60 percent increased risk.

‘Contrary to conventional thinking, the risk of diabetes is higher with light beverages compared with regular sweetened drinks,’ the researchers said.

 

[Night_Hawk]

[h=1]Can extreme calorie counting make you live longer?[/h]

Can eating less help you live longer?

Continue reading the main story [h=2]In today's Magazine[/h]

• How often does food fraud happen?

Bombarded with advertisements promising a longer, healthier life, the BBC's Los Angeles reporter Peter Bowes goes in search of eternal youth.
At 6ft 1in (1.85m), Martin Knight weighs 10st 4lb (65.77kg). Breakfast - the same every day - is a 170-calorie mixture of kale, shallots, sprouted oats, tomato paste and olive oil. He washes it down with green or white tea.
Knight follows a calorie-restricted diet.
He eats 10 small meals a day and survives on about 1,900 calories - more than most people who restrict their calorie intake. Each meal is weighed to ensure that his daily intake is accurate.
Adherents of this approach to health are known as Cronies - Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition - and Dr Janet Tomiyama, a psychologist at the University of California, is studying them.
"The normal person needs around 2,000 calories (a day). So if you are talking about cutting 500 calories per day, every day for the rest of your life, that's a very tall order," she says.
"That's why this group is so fascinating because they've been able to do this, and they've been able to do it for over a decade."

Knight's breakfast may not appeal to everyone

Tomiyama says the group is mostly made up of older white men. They tend to be well-educated "connoisseurs of scientific literature".
They are mostly looking for good health and see a longer life, if it occurs, as a welcome by-product.
The results of Tomiyama's study, exploring the psychological impact on the participants, are expected to be published later this year.
Knight, 49, joined the study two years ago. He had followed a vegetarian or vegan diet for much of his adult life but in the past few years has restricted his intake of calories.
He works in the finance industry and lives in a sparsely furnished house in the coastal town of Santa Barbara, California.

[h=2]“Start QuoteWhen you have a little bit of hunger in the background you are more aware and more alive”[/h] Martin Knight Practitioner of calorie restriction

He enjoys a slow, meditative existence, practising yoga, lifting weights and running in his spare time.
"It's second nature to me now, it doesn't seem difficult," he says. "It would be harder for me to live with unlimited calories, like I did before. I think I would be miserable."
It is perhaps just as well that he does not like ice cream. For a treat, he will occasionally have an avocado sandwich.
Knight says he follows his diet because it makes him happy.
"It makes you more alert. It fits in with a more healthy, slower-paced kind of lifestyle. It's very practical," he says.
"When you have a little bit of hunger in the background, you're more aware and more alive."

[h=2]The science of fasting[/h] Dr Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, has established that restricting calorie intake has clear benefits for mice.
He has also identified the role of a growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), in causing the body to go into what he describes as "repair mode".
Studies on people who restrict their intake of calories suggest that eating less reduces their IGF-1 levels.
This seems to switch them from "growth mode" to "repair mode", and it's suggested this is good for their health.

• The power of intermittent fasting
• Proof mounts on restricted diet

Experiments on mice have shown that eating significantly less food can extend lifespans, so long as the food is highly nutritious.
There is still no proof that restricting calories extends human life spans, however, and two recent studies with rhesus monkeys produced conflicting results.
But both studies reported the same beneficial effects on health - all the monkeys were much healthier and suffered from fewer diseases.
"If we were able to reduce... weight in the Western world by 15 to 20%, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity, would go down dramatically," says Dr Raphael de Cabo, the lead author of one of the studies.
"That undoubtedly would increase the mean life span of the human population."
Perhaps the final word should go to the man many credit with pioneering the idea of restricting food intake to extend life.
Dr Roy Walford, a professor of pathology at the UCLA School of Medicine, died in 2004 due to complications from Lou Gehrig's Disease, also known as Motor Neurone Disease. He was 79. For much of his life he was a passionate believer in the power of eating less.
He consumed a mere 1,600 calories a day and believed that a lifespan of 150 was possible for human beings.
Continue reading the main story

What if we could stay young forever? What if everyone had a car? What If? is a season across BBC News looking at visions of the future.
What If (special report)

Walford was one of the first scientists to demonstrate that mice on a limited diet could double their lifespan. When I met him in 1999, at his home in Santa Monica, he offered a pragmatic view of calorie restriction and its benefits.
It is a "choice you have to make", he told me.
"You're healthier during all that time, you need less sleep, you're intellectually stimulated, you're kind of wired, there's an increased sense of well-being and vitality.
"So if you want to trade all that to eat cake, then I say - go ahead and eat cake."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21125016

 

[Night_Hawk]

Asthma drug shows promise in treating diabetes, obesity (IANS) / 12 February 2013 Amlexanox, a drug prescribed for asthma in Japan, also reverses obesity, diabetes and fatty liver in mice, according to a new study by US researchers.‘One of the reasons that diets are so ineffective in producing weight loss for some people is that their bodies adjust to the reduced calories by also reducing their metabolism, so that they are ‘defending’ their body weight,’ says Alan Saltiel, director of the University of Michigan’s Life Sciences Institute (LSI), which conducted the study. ‘Amlexanox seems to tweak the metabolic response to excessive calorie storage in mice,’ adds Saltiel. Different formulations of amlexanox are currently prescribed to treat asthma in Japan and canker sores in the US, the journal Nature Medicine reports. The study appears to confirm and extend the notion that the genes IKKE and TBK1 play a crucial role for maintaining metabolic balance, a discovery published by the Saltiel lab in 2009, according to an LSI statement. ‘Amlexanox appears to work in mice by inhibiting two genes - IKKE and TBK1 - that we think together act as a sort of brake on metabolism,’ Saltiel said. ‘By releasing the brake, amlexanox seems to free the metabolic system to burn more, and possibly store less energy.’ Using high-throughput chemical screening at LSI’s Centre for Chemical Genomics to search for compounds that inhibit IKKE and TBK1, the researchers hit upon an approved off-patent drug: amlexanox. They then demonstrated that amlexanox had profound beneficial effects in both genetic and dietary-induced obese mice. The chemical lowered the weight of obese mice and reversed related metabolic problems such as diabetes and fatty liver.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Asthma drug shows promise in treating diabetes, obesity (IANS) / 12 February 2013 Amlexanox, a drug prescribed for asthma in Japan, also reverses obesity, diabetes and fatty liver in mice, according to a new study by US researchers.‘One of the reasons that diets are so ineffective in producing weight loss for some people is that their bodies adjust to the reduced calories by also reducing their metabolism, so that they are ‘defending’ their body weight,’ says Alan Saltiel, director of the University of Michigan’s Life Sciences Institute (LSI), which conducted the study. ‘Amlexanox seems to tweak the metabolic response to excessive calorie storage in mice,’ adds Saltiel. Different formulations of amlexanox are currently prescribed to treat asthma in Japan and canker sores in the US, the journal Nature Medicine reports. The study appears to confirm and extend the notion that the genes IKKE and TBK1 play a crucial role for maintaining metabolic balance, a discovery published by the Saltiel lab in 2009, according to an LSI statement. ‘Amlexanox appears to work in mice by inhibiting two genes - IKKE and TBK1 - that we think together act as a sort of brake on metabolism,’ Saltiel said. ‘By releasing the brake, amlexanox seems to free the metabolic system to burn more, and possibly store less energy.’ Using high-throughput chemical screening at LSI’s Centre for Chemical Genomics to search for compounds that inhibit IKKE and TBK1, the researchers hit upon an approved off-patent drug: amlexanox. They then demonstrated that amlexanox had profound beneficial effects in both genetic and dietary-induced obese mice. The chemical lowered the weight of obese mice and reversed related metabolic problems such as diabetes and fatty liver.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Living at higher altitude can keep you slim

(IANS) / 15 February 2013

Americans living at higher altitudes were more likely to be slimmer than those in low-lying areas, says a new research.Jameson Voss, from Uniformed Services University in Maryland, who led the research, said: ‘I was surprised by the magnitude of the effect...I wasn’t expecting such a consistent pattern as what was emerging.’

The study was based on data from 400,000 people living in Colorado. The figures showed a person’s obesity risk dropped with every 660 feet increase in elevation.

‘It provides some evidence that these associations persist over the long term,’ Voss said.

Cynthia Beall, who researches how the body adapts to high altitudes but was not involved with the new study, said it’s common for travelers to high elevations to burn more calories in their first few weeks, the International Journal of Obesity reports.

Researchers combined information from several databases, including a telephone health survey of 422,603 Americans from 2011. They had information on 236 people who lived at the highest altitude of at least 9,800 feet above sea level. Those people tended to smoke less, eat healthier and exercise more, according to the Daily Mail.

The researchers also had information on 322,681 people who lived in the lowest altitude range - less than 1,600ft above sea level.

After taking into account other factors that could influence the results such as retirement age, the researchers found adults living in the lowest altitude range had a Body Mass Index (BMI), a height to weight ration of 26.6.

That compared to people who lived in the highest altitude range, who had a BMI of 24.2. A healthy BMI falls between 18.5 and 24.9.

 

[Night_Hawk]

Acupuncture can help relieve seasonal allergies?

(Reuters) / 19 February 2013

Watery eyes and stuffy noses are seasonal martyrdom for millions of allergy sufferers around the globe, but now a German study finds that some help may come from an unlikely source - acupuncture.Researchers, publishing in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that 71 percent of people reported an improvement in their allergies after eight weeks of acupuncture.
But so did 56 percent of allergy sufferers who were treated with sham acupuncture as a comparison.
‘Acupuncture led to statistically significant improvements in disease-specific quality of life an antihistamine use measures after eight weeks of treatment compared with sham acupuncture and with (medication) along,’ wrote lead researcher Benno Brinkhaus and colleagues. ‘But the improvements may not be clinically significant.’
Brinkhaus, at Charite-University Medical Center in Berlin, and his colleagues randomly assigned 422 people with seasonal allergies to receive real or sham acupuncture or to take only antihistamines as needed.
After eight weeks and 12 treatment sessions, average allergy symptom scores dropped among people in the acupuncture group from 2.7 to 1.7 points on a 0-to-6 scale, where lower scores indicate fewer symptoms.
Among patients treated with sham acupuncture, symptom scores improved from 2.3 to 1.8 point, and from 2.5 to 2.2 in the medication only group.
However, by another eight weeks after the treatment ended, there was no longer any difference in the degree of symptom improvement between groups.
People with allergies would likely notice about a half-point change on the symptom scale in their daily lives, the researchers said - the difference between the real and sham acupuncture groups after eight weeks in the current study.
‘It works, but there are some caveats (for) people who might think of using it,’ said Harold Nelson, who treats allergies at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado and was not part of the study.
‘This is pretty invasive, particularly when you compare it to something like spraying a nasal steroid in your nose once a morning,’ he added. It is also more time consuming and requires finding a qualified, licensed acupuncture’s.
Researchers aren’t sure why acupuncture might help people with seasonal allergies, other than its possible beneficial effect on the immune system.
Nelson said antihistamines might not have been the best drug comparison for acupuncture, since daily use of nasal steroids is better at preventing symptoms.
But drugs don’t work well for everybody.
‘We mostly saw patients in our outpatient practice who have had this disease for years,’ Brinkhaus told Reuters Health. ‘They are not very happy taking the medications every day, and some of them suffer from side effects.’
For those people, acupuncture could be a good add-on option, he added.
‘It’s not an alternative. We use it firstly as some sort of complementary medicine,’ he said. ‘If the acupuncture has good results, we can reduce the anti-allergic medication.’ SOURCE: http://bit.ly/MnBiCA

 

[Night_Hawk]

Honey most effective in healing wounds

(IANS) / 17 February 2013

Honey suppresses the growth of a quartet of bugs commonly infesting chronic wounds, but according to a finding manuka honey is the best of them for healing injuries.University of Technology Sydney (UTS) researchers looked at three kinds of honey, namely manuka, kanuka and clover, to determine which was the most effective in combating them.

Real Manuka honey comes from the Leptospermum scoparium plant that is native to New Zealand, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reports.

However, many companies attempt to artificially increase methylglyoxal (MGO) levels, known to inhibit bacterial growth in inferior honey products, and label them as genuine Manuka, but synthetically altered honeys are no match for the real thing.

Researchers looked at two key honey ingredients known to inhibit bacterial growth: MGO, which is present at high concentrations in Manuka honeys; and hydrogen peroxide which is present in many honeys at varying concentrations, including manuka.

‘What we saw was that the manuka honeys were the most effective at inhibiting growth of all the bacteria,’ said Liz Harry, professor at the UTS, who led the study.

‘Interestingly, the MGO level alone cannot explain the variation in the effects we saw; the key to the effectiveness of honey is its chemical complexity - it contains several chemicals that inhibit bacterial growth, not just MGO,’ said Harry, according to an UTS statement.

The research was conducted at the three institute at UTS, in collaboration with New Zealand natural health and beauty products company.

‘Unlike antibiotics, it is not expected that bacteria will become resistant to honey, a claim that has been supported by our research,’ Harry added.

 

[chandsandhu]

Natural & Herbal Medicine

 

[Night_Hawk]

Pessimists live longer

(AFP) / 28 February 2013

BERLIN — Older people who look on the darker side of life tend to live longer than optimists, who in turn face an increased risk of illness and mortality, a new study by a German research institute found Thursday.Researchers in Germany and Switzerland found that older people who believe their life satisfaction will be above average in future face a 10-percent higher mortality risk or are more likely to develop physical health problems, the DIW think-tank said.
“It is possible that a pessimistic outlook leads elderly people to look after themselves and their health better and take greater precautions against risks,” said one of the researchers, Frieder Lang.
“It seems that older people who have a low expectation of how contented they will be in future lead longer and healthier lives than those who believe their future is rosy,” DIW said.
The study was conducted by a team from the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, the Berlin-based DIW as well as Humboldt University in Berlin and the university of Zurich.
They analysed long-term data compiled between 1993 and 2003 where the same people belonging to three different age groups were asked every year to assess their current level of life satisfaction and how contented they expected to be in five years.
Over the 10-year period the researchers checked with each participant six times whether their expected level of satisfaction tallied with reality five years on.
Results showed 25 percent of older participants realistically estimated their future contentment, while around 43 percent underestimated it and 32 percent overestimated, the DIW said.
Young adults mostly had an unrealistically rosy view of their future while middle-aged people were largely spot on, it said.
- See more at: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-arti...February47.xmlion=health#sthash.DEPVtdey.dpuf

 

[Night_Hawk]

Diabetes drugs tied to pancreatitis: study

(Reuters) / 1 March 2013

People who take a certain type of diabetes drug to lower blood sugar levels may be at an increased risk of developing an inflamed pancreas, according to a new study.Glucagonlike peptide 1(GLP-1) therapies that include exenatide - marketed as Byetta by an alliance between Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca - and sitagliptin - marketed as Januvia by Merck - have been linked to pancreatitis before in studies on animals and small groups of patients, said the studys lead author.

New therapies and risks are only evaluated when studies are done. We need to know (the drugs) are effective in lowering blood sugar, but we also need to know about risks, said Dr. Sonal Singh, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Pancreatitis, which can cause life-threatening complications, is rare but more common in people with type 2 diabetes. Singh said pancreatitis occurs in about three of every 1,000 diabetes patients.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are about 19 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes, and another 7 million who have the disease but dont know it yet.
In people with type 2 diabetes, the body doesnt produce enough insulin or is resistant to what it does produce.
For the new study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the researchers used data on 1,269 diabetes patients between the ages of 18 and 64 years old, who were admitted to U.S. hospitals with pancreatitis in 2005 through 2008.
They compared those to 1,269 other diabetes patients who were similar, but were not hospitalized with pancreatitis.
Overall, they found 87 of the diabetes patients with pancreatitis were taking GLP-1 therapies, compared to 58 of the diabetes patients without pancreatitis.
Singh told Reuters Health that the findings show the drugs are linked to a doubling of the risk of pancreatitis - about six cases per 1,000 diabetics.
I wont say you should be alarmed about the findings, but its something you should consider, he said.
Changing treatment
Dr. Aaron Cypess, a staff endocrinologist in the clinic of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said the new study will not change how he treats patients, but it may influence him to go over his patients risk factors for pancreatitis.
For me personally its not going to change my practice pattern in terms of stopping the drugs, but we may revisit whether youre showing any of the risk factors, said Cypess, who was not involved with the new study.
In a joint statement, the American Diabetes Association and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists also said the new findings should not change how doctors treat diabetes patients.
The analysis is a retrospective study using data from an administrative database. This type of analysis is not considered as robust as a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial, the gold standard for evaluating treatments, the organizations wrote in the statement.
They continue that there are nine of those gold standard trials in the works that should provide answers soon.
The current study also had limitations, including that the diabetes patients hospitalized with pancreatitis tended to lead a less healthy lifestyle than those who did not have the condition.
In a commentary, Belinda Gier and Dr. Peter Butler from the University of California, Los Angeles, write supporters say the drugs are safe and offer some advantages over older medications.
Currently, the labels for Januvia and Byetta carry warnings that there have been reports of pancreatitis in people taking the drugs.
Other side effects of Byetta include nausea and other stomach issues. For Januvia side effects also include respiratory infections and headaches. Cypess told Reuters Health both drugs are still protected by patents and can be expensive.
Representatives from Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb said they - along with drug regulators - actively monitor reports of adverse events in users of their drugs, and have not found evidence showing the drugs cause pancreatitis.
- See more at: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-arti...lth_March1.xmlion=health#sthash.tF5RhB2a.dpuf

 

[Night_Hawk]

Honey has power to fight cancer

Olivia Olarte-Ulherr / 25 February 2013

Scientific findings by researchers here could be the breakthrough the world has long been waiting for in cancer treatment.The groundbreaking discovery by the research team at the UAE University found that honey from New Zealand’s manuka tree can effectively inhibit growth of cancer cells, including breast, skin and colon cancer; and tremendously reduce the toxicity associated with chemotherapy treatment.

“Manuka honey has been recognised for its anti-bacterial and wound-healing properties for many years. However, the potential effect of manuka on cancer cells has not been investigated in detail,” said Dr Basel Al Ramadi, professor and chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UAEU.
In the study, led by Dr Al Ramadi, the team of researchers used three different cancer cell lines (breast, skin and colon cancer) and demonstrated that the addition of exceedingly small amounts of manuka honey, as little as 1.0 per cent, can stop the growth of cancer cells by up to 70 per cent.
The team of investigators carried out further studies to characterise the mechanism by which manuka honey is inducing the death of cancer cells.
“The evidence so far suggests that manuka acts by stimulating a number of proteins inside the cells that leads to the induction of apoptosis, or programmed cell death. This is a natural process by which our body eliminates old or unwanted cells and is part of the normal organism’s development,” Dr Al Ramadi told Khaleej Times.
Using an experimental cancer model, in which mice are implanted with fast-growing skin tumour cells, the researchers administered manuka honey intravenously in conjunction with chemotherapy, and the results showed an improvement in the overall survival of the animal.
“It is significant that a honey can do this.... The manuka honey alone can inhibit cancer growth by 30 per cent, but when combined with chemotherapy, there was 61 per cent inhibition,” Dr Al Ramadi stressed.
The study, which was carried out over five years and published in the renowned scientific journal PLOS ONE early this month, is expected to stimulate further investigations on the use of manuka honey in cancer treament in humans.
“This is a very exciting area of research and we are optimistic about what these new developments may mean in terms of potential new treatments for certain types of cancer,” the professor said.
Moving forward, the research team hopes to get funding for their next course of investigations.
These include identifying the active components of the manuka honey that is inducing the growth-inhibiting effect, to understand the molecular pathways by which the honey is inducing the death of cancer cells, and the actual testing of manuka honey in humans through small-scale clinical trials.
The team aims to carry out the studies within the next two years.
But first, “we will be applying for further funding from the National Research Foundation and Terry Fox, and for ethical approval”, said Dr Al Ramadi.
This year’s Terry Fox Run, the annual cancer fundraising initiative, was held on Friday and generated Dh337,533. Some of the money raised was given to UAEU for research.
The UAEU research team is collaborating with colleagues in the departments of oncology and surgery in Tawam Hospital to continue their investigation. Tawam Hospital has the most comprehensive oncology treatment facility in the country, registering up to 80 per cent of the cancer cases in the UAE.
[email protected]

 

[Night_Hawk]

Six serious office health risks

Staff reporter / 23 February 2013

Sitting at a desk all day can be hazardous to your health. Back pain, eyestrain and sleep problems can all be results of increasingly sedentary and stressful work environments.

Here are six office-related maladies and how they can be prevented, according to Dr Juned Qadir, Radiologist, Zulekha Hospital, Dubai.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Any motion that is repeated over and over again can cause injury or pain. But carpal tunnel syndrome isn’t just pain or soreness from too much typing. It’s the tingling, numbness; itching or even sharp pain caused when a nerve that runs through the forearm is compressed by swollen ligaments and bones in the wrist.
Stretching and other exercises may help release tension in the wrist. Wrist pads should be used as a guide for how high your wrists should be.
Lower-back pain: Sitting for hours on end, particularly if you have bad posture, can be devastating to your body over time if you don’t get moving on a regular basis. Sitting up straight but curving your back too much can be a cause of lower-back pain as well.
Besides being better aware of your posture as you’re sitting at your desk, getting regular exercise including abdominal and back strengthening activities should relieve some of the pressure on your lower back.

Other joint problems: Sitting at a desk especially shortens and tightens the hip flexors and tight hip flexors can actually contribute to back pain as well since tight hips force the pelvis to tilt forward, compressing the back.
Getting up from your desk at regular intervals and walking around a bit will help to prevent these problems.
Eyestrain: Office workers who spend hours a day staring at a computer screen might tell you that after a certain amount of time, their vision gets blurry and their eyes generally become more sensitive.
To prevent eyestrain at your computer, increase your font size so you don’t have to squint.
Bacteria
“The desk, in terms of bacteria, is 400 times dirtier than your toilet.” People turn their desks into bacteria cafeterias because they eat at them, but they never clean them. The phone is the dirtiest, the desktop is next, and the mouse and the computer follow.
If you frequently eat your lunch at your desk, you may want to make sure you have hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes to wipe down your work surface daily.
Stressful situations
Stress can be a problem at work regardless of how physical your day-to-day activities are. Stress may even lead to physically violent situations.
Smaller stressors can be handled with breathing and relaxation techniques at your desk or a break outside of the office. And believe it or not, video games have been suggested as a method for easing workplace stress.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-arti...February37.xmlion=health#sthash.I0SqlOL2.dpuf

 

[Night_Hawk]

Olive oil, nuts dietary keys to cut heart risks: study
By AFP
February 27, 2013 - Updated 27 PKT
From Web Edition

WASHINGTON: A Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, fish, fruit, legumes and wine reduced the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease by 30 percent, a major new study has found.

The study, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, followed 4,479 people in Spain -- men and women age 55 to 80 -- over a five year period, finding dramatic confirmation of previous observations of such a diet's health benefits.

"We observed that an energy unrestricted Mediterranean diet, supplemented with extra virgin olive oil or nuts, resulted in a substantial reduction in the risk of major cardiovascular events among high-risk persons," the study concluded.

It put the risk reduction at "approximately 30 percent, among high risk persons who were initially free of cardiovascular disease. These results support the benefits of the Mediterranean diet for cardiovascular risk reduction."

Participants in the study, which was led by Ramon Estruch, a professor of medicine at the University of Barcelona, were divided into three groups including a control group on a low fat diet.

One group followed a traditional Mediterranean diet supplemented by four tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil a day. A second group followed the same diet, but instead of the olive oil consumed about 30 grams a day of mixed nuts.

Participants in those two groups also ate at least three servings of fruits and two of legumes a day. They also ate fish three times a week and favored white meat like chicken instead of red meat.

They were also strongly encouraged not to eat commercially baked goods, pastries and sweets, and to limit their consumption of dairy products and processed meats.

For those who normally drank wine with their meals, their diet called for seven glasses of wine a week.

Researchers could tell whether the study participants were following the diets by measuring markers for olive oil in their urine or a blood marker for the mixed nuts.

They found that participants stuck to the Mediterranean diets, but that the low-fat control diet led to only small reductions in fat.

"The interventions were intended to improve the overall dietary pattern, but the major between-group differences involved the supplemental items," the study said.

"Thus, extra virgin olive oil and nuts were probably responsible for most of the observed benefits of the Mediterranean diets," it said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-8...o-cut-heart-risks:-study#sthash.8lBxzqPp.dpuf