Page 226 - Health Medical Pharma

How smartphones are disrupting your sleep decoded

Scientists have uncovered how artificial light from smartphones and computers can disrupt sleep, a finding which may lead to new treatments for migraines, insomnia, jet lag and circadian rhythm disorders. Researchers at Salk Institute in the US found that certain cells in the eye process ambient light and reset our internal clocks, the daily cycles of physiological processes known as the circadian rhythm. When these cells are exposed to artificial light late into the night, our internal clocks can get confused, resulting in a host of health issues. The results, published in the journal Cell Reports, may lead to new treatments for migraines, insomnia, jet lag and circadian rhythm disorders. These disorders have been tied to cognitive dysfunction, cancer, obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and more, researchers said. "We are continuously exposed to artificial light, whether from screen time, spending the day indoors or staying awake late at night," said Professor Satchin ...

SPARC, Schrdinger announce research collaboration for novel CNS therapeutics

Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC) and advanced molecular simulations provider firm Schrdinger Monday announced a research collaboration to accelerate the discovery of novel central nervous system (CNS) therapeutics. This collaboration will leverage Schrdinger's advanced computational platform and SPARC's extensive drug development expertise and insights in neuro-degeneration, the companies said in a joint statement. Commenting on the development, Schrdinger President and CEO Ramy Farid said, "This research collaboration is particularly exciting because neuro-degeneration is an area where we urgently need more options for patients through novel approaches to drug discovery and development." SPARC has been working with leading academic researchers to explore pathways relevant to disorders of the central nervous system, and their insights are quite compelling, he added. SPARC CEO Anil Raghavan said, "At SPARC, we're committed to fuelling innovation through both internal ...

Nose-dwelling bacteria may affect a baby's first cold

A new research on the types of bacteria living in babies' noses offered clues as to why some recover quickly from their first cough or cold, while others suffer for longer.The study, conducted by the researchers at the University Children's Hospital of Basel, suggested that babies who have a wide variety of different bacteria living in their noses tend to recover more quickly from their first respiratory virus, compared to those who have less variety and more bacteria from either the Moraxellaceae or Streptococcaceae family.The findings of the study are published in the Journal of ERJ Open Research.The researchers stated that their findings do not offer an immediate solution to help babies recover more quickly from coughs and colds. However, the results helped scientists understand the importance of the bacteria living in the respiratory tract, and how they influence infections and long-term conditions such as asthma."It is well known that different types of bacteria live in our gut. .

Here's why women reject preventive drugs for breast cancer

According to a recent study, only some women who are at higher risk of developing breast cancer think they need to take a drug proven to help prevent the disease.The researchers, led by a team from the University of Leeds, asked more than 400 women at a higher risk of breast cancer, whether they thought they needed to take tamoxifen and their concerns about medication.Around 72 per cent said that they were worried about the long-term effects of tamoxifen and 57 per cent believed that the drug would give them unpleasant side-effects.The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Clinical Breast Cancer.The researchers found that almost 29 per cent of women thought doctors prescribed too many medicines, and more than 35 per cent thought that the doctors would prescribe fewer drugs if they had more time. Around a quarter 24 per cent of them had experienced bad reactions to medicines in the past.Almost 24 per cent of women thought people on medication should take regular breaks .

Sun Pharma receives USFDA approval for generic Ganirelix Acetate Injection

The generic version is therapeutic equivalent to Organon's Ganirelix Acetate Injection, 250 mcg/0.5 mL. As per IQVIA, Ganirelix Acetate Injection, 250 mcg/0.5 mL had annual sales of approximately US$ 67 million in the US for the 12 months ended September 2018. The commercialization of this product in the US market is expected in Q4FY19.

Doctor riding two-wheeler injured by glass coated kite thread

A doctor riding a two-wheeler received injuries in his face from glass coated kite thread on the Maa flyover here on Sunday, police said. Dr Saikat Chakraborty was injured on his face by glass coated threads of kite a when he was riding his scooty on the Maa flyover near Park Circus 4 No Bridge at around 3.20 pm, a senior officer of Karaya Police Station said. "We are looking into the matter and running a check on the houses near that location about who were flying kites. We have repeatedly asked the residents near this flyover to be cautious while flying kites near the bridge. The injured doctor was taken to the SSKM hospital and discharged after preliminary medical assistance," he said.

Laurus Labs-Aspen Pharmacare launch HIV drug in South Africa

Laurus Labs, a city-based pharma company Sunday said it has launched a new HIV drug with the triple combination of Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate, Lamivudine and Dolutegravir (TLD) in South Africa. According to a press release from the Indian drug maker, the medicine was launched on November 26 in collaboration with Aspen Pharmacare, a South African pharmaceutical company. Earlier, Aspen Pharma, received approvals for the dossier where Aspen Port Elizabeth and Laurus Labs, Visakhapatnam are registered as manufacturing facilities, from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). The product provides significant benefits to existing therapies, including countering drug resistance that often develops with older HIV treatments. This once-a-day triple combination tablet is positioned to become a preferred first-line ARV choice in multiple markets. It would be available in 50mg/300mg/300mg dosages, it said. As part of the partnership, Aspen launched the ...

Pvt sector should set up healthcare facilities in rural areas:

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu Sunday urged private sector to focus on setting up health care facilities in rural areas and partner with the government to make healthcare accessible to the common man. Inaugurating a children's hospital here, he also said there was a need to expand health insurance coverage. "The private sector should not concentrate on urban areas alone and must set up healthcare facilities in rural areas as part of the CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities", he said. It should also partner with the government in making healthcare affordable as well as accessible to the common man particularly in the rural and remote parts of the country, he said inaugurating the 120-bed Rainbow Children's Hospital. The Vice-President said there was "minuscule penetration" of health insurance at the individual level and termed it as a "major issue of concern". Noting that some state governments have launched special health insurance packages for the below the .

Here's why lying to doctors is common

If you tend to stretch the truth while answering your doctor on questions related to exercise or diet, you have company. Some people lie to their doctors to avoid being judged, while others feel simply too embarrassed to tell the truth or just do not want to be lectured about how bad certain behaviours are, suggests new research.

Cancer drug may help treat HPV infections

Scientists -- including one of Indian origin -- have identified cancer drugs that may be repurposed to treat infections caused by human papillomaviruses. HPV infections caused an estimated 266,000 deaths from cervical cancer worldwide in 2012, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Highly efficacious vaccines against HPV infection exist- --- including the recently approved Gardasil 9, which immunises against nine genotypes of HPV known to cause cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers, and genital warts. However, the vaccine needs to be given before a person becomes sexually active, since it has no therapeutic efficacy against existing HPV infections. "Safe, effective and inexpensive therapeutic agents are urgently needed," said Sanjib Banerjee, assistant professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US. Epithelium of anogenital sites -- the cervix, penis and anus -- or epithelium of the mouth and throat are sites of HPV infection. However, HPVs cannot be ...

Bigger brain could make you only a little smarter than others

A bigger brain alone cannot guarantee you a pass to the best jobs in the world as researchers have found that an increase in brain volume contributes very little to a person's intelligence and educational attainment.

Repurposing cancer drugs may help treat HPVs

Researchers have identified cancer drugs that might be repurposed to treat infections caused by human papillomaviruses, or HPVs.

Light pollution may cause insomnia in older adults

Exposure to nighttime artificial, outdoor light may increase insomnia risk in older adults, scientists say. The study is the first population-based investigation to show that artificial, outdoor light exposure at night in an area increased prevalence of hypnotic prescriptions and daily dose intake. Furthermore, older adults exposed to higher levels of artificial, outdoor light at night were more likely to use hypnotic drugs for longer periods or higher daily dosages. "This study observed a significant association between the intensity of outdoor, artificial, nighttime lighting and the prevalence of insomnia as indicated by hypnotic agent prescriptions for older adults in South Korea," said Kyoung-bok Min, an associate professor at Seoul National University in South Korea. "Our results are supportive data that outdoor, artificial, nighttime light could be linked to sleep deprivation among those while inside the house," said Min. Insomnia can involve struggling to fall asleep, having ...

Here's why patients lie to their doctors

We are all guilty of lying to our doctors. When the doctor asks us things like, how often we exercise or what have we been eating lately, we tend to lie or stretch the truth. It's mostly because we want to avoid being judged.According to a recent study, 60 to 80 percent of people surveyed have not been forthcoming with their doctors about information that could be relevant to their health.Besides fibbing about diet and exercise, more than a third of respondents didn't speak up when they disagreed with their doctor's recommendation. Another common scenario was failing to admit they didn't understand their clinician's instructions.When respondents explained why they weren't transparent, most said that they wanted to avoid being judged, and didn't want to be lectured about how bad certain behaviors were. More than half were simply too embarrassed, to tell the truth."Most people want their doctor to think highly of them. They're worried about being pigeonholed as someone who doesn't make .

Here are the kinds of exercise older adults tend to choose

A recent study has identified the kinds of exercise that older adults choose.As part of the studies, more than 1500 participants between ages 70 and 77 were randomly assigned to one of two exercise groups or a control group. The participants in the two exercise groups undertook moderate or high-intensity training sessions twice a week, mostly on their own."We read through a total of 70 000 exercise logs from the first year of the study. It turned out that the participants to a great degree managed to train at the prescribed intensity. This is important to know because it indicates that older people do not need to be monitored to be able to train at high intensity," said Skarsem Reitlo, one of the lead researchers.Participants were asked to fill out exercise logs documenting how long their workouts lasted, how hard they exercised, what activities they performed, where they exercised, and whether they were training alone or with someone.The research, published in the journal of BMC ...

Brain zapping may alleviate depression symptoms

Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have identified a brain region that can be electrically stimulated to improve mood in people suffering from depression. According to a study published in the journal Current Biology, stimulation of a brain region called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) reliably produced acute improvement in mood in patients who suffered from depression. Those effects were not seen in patients without mood symptoms, suggesting that the brain stimulation works to normalise activity in mood-related neural circuitry, researcher said. "Stimulation induced a pattern of activity in brain regions connected to OFC that was similar to patterns seen when patients naturally experienced positive mood states," said Vikram Rao, of the University of California, San Francisco in the US. "Our findings suggest that OFC is a promising new stimulation target for treatment of mood disorders," said Rao. The team studied 25 patients with epilepsy who had electrodes placed in .

Over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes in gut bacteria identified

Scientists have identified over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes found in bacteria that inhabit the human gut. The human gut is home to trillions of microorganisms, mainly bacteria. Most of these are sensitive to antibiotics, but a significant number of bacteria in the human gut have mechanisms that make them resistant to antibiotics. However, we still lack a mechanistic understanding of the genes that confer resistance to antibiotics in gut bacteria. Researchers from University of Birmingham in the UK and Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)in France, developed a new method to identify resistance genes in gut bacteria by comparing the 3D structures of known antibiotic resistance enzymes to the proteins that are produced by gut bacteria. The researchers then applied this method to a catalogue of several million genes of the gut. Thanks to this method, they have identified more than 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes that are very different from previously identified ...

Over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes in gut bacteria identified

Researchers have identified over 6,000 antibiotic resistance genes found in bacteria that inhabit the human gut, which is home to trillions of micro-organisms, mainly bacteria.

Night owls at high risk of heart disease, diabetes: Study

Night owls -- people who prefer staying up late -- may have a higher risk of suffering from heart disease and type 2 diabetes than early risers, a study has found. The first-ever international review of studies analysing whether being an early riser or a night owl can influence your health, researchers have uncovered a growing body of evidence indicating an increased risk of ill health in people with an evening preference as they have more erratic eating patterns and consume more unhealthy foods. The human body runs on a 24-hour cycle which is regulated by our internal clock, which is known as a circadian rhythm, or chronotype. This internal clock regulates many physical functions, such as telling you when to eat, sleep and wake. An individual's chronotype leads to people having a natural preference towards waking early or going to bed late. The researchers found increasing evidence emerging from studies linking conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes to people with the ..

Demystifying that dreaded six-letter word (Book Review)

Book: Cancer, Your Body and Your Diet: A Vital Journey; Author: Dr Arati Bhatia; Publisher: Speaking Tiger; Price: Rs 350; Pages: 224