Page 248 - Health Medical Pharma

NCDRC imposes cost of Rs 1 lakh on private hospital in Haryana for misleading advertisement

The apex consumer commission has imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on a private hospital in Haryana for indulging in unfair trade practices by issuing misleading advertisement and charging extra amount from a patient for angioplasty and stent implant. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) noted that Brahm Shakti Sanjivani Hospital had given misleading advertisement about the offers of Rs 12,500 for angiography procedure and Rs 1,25,000 for angioplasty with medicated stent, but charged the patient higher. "It is a clear case of unfair trade practices adopted by hospital through the misleading advertisement. Therefore, in our considered view, a cost of Rs one lakh on the hospital, is just and reasonable. Hospital is further directed to restrain from such misleading advertisement in future," said a bench comprising presiding member S M Kantikar and member Dinesh Singh. The commission said that out of the amount, Rs 50,000 shall be paid to the complainant, Haryana-resident

Soldier gets heart of brain-dead jawan from Siachen

A 30-year-old soldier of the Indian Army got a new lease of life at Army's Research and Referral (R&R) Hospital after he was transplanted with another heart, donated by a 29-year-old soldier who was declared brain dead. For the transplantation, the heart was airlifted from the Siachen base medical facility to the R&R Hospital in the national capital on Wednesday.N K Rao, suffering from multiple organ dysfunction, received the help after the doctors treating him raised a nationwide alert pleading donors to come forward for the organ donation so as to save his life.Nearly a week after their request, Rao received a heart from another Army Jawan who has been declared brain dead by doctors. The organ was donated after the family members of the 29-year-old soldier gave their consent.According to doctors Rao is in "critically balanced state and is suffering from pre-existing Azotaemia and Leucocytosis".Medical experts are of the belief that scores of organs that can be transplanted ..

3-4 cups of coffee daily may keep diabetes at bay

Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day can lower your risk of developing Type-2 diabetes by nearly 25 per cent, suggests a study.

Tripura tea finally gets a brand

The Tripura Tea Development Corporation (TTDC), the nodal agency for growth of small tea plantation farmers, has decided to market tea produced in the state under the Tripureshwari Tea brand, a top official said Wednesday. "We have decided to market 100 gram and 50 gram packets of tea produced in Tripura under the brand name Tripureshwari Tea. We have already got approval from the central government to use the brand name, TTDC chairperson Santosh Saha told reporters here. He said Tea Board of India and other stakeholders have been working on designing a logo and branding of tea produced in the state for better trade opportunities. He said steps would be taken to ensure efficient marketing of Tripura tea and revive the industry in the state. "Tripureshwari Tea would gain its place in the tea market and create a niche for itself like Assam Tea or Darjeeling Tea," he said. Tripura has 58 operational tea estates, among which 42 are individually owned, 13 are operated under ...

Mothers' personality traits influences stability of kids' relationships

The relationship skills and personality traits that you inherit from your mother are likely to determine the number of romantic partners you will have, say researchers.

Zydus Cadila gets USFDA nod for leukemia treatment injection

Zydus Cadila Wednesday said it has received approval from the US health regulator to market Arsenic Trioxide injection, used to treat a type of leukemia. Zydus Cadila has received the final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Arsenic Trioxide injection, 10 mg/10 mL (1 mg/mL) single-dose vial, the company said in a BSE filing. Arsenic Trioxide is used to treat a type of leukemia (acute promyelocytic leukemia-APL) when other types of treatment (such as chemotherapy) have not worked well or no longer work, it added. Zydus Cadila said the drug will be manufactured at Alidac Pharmaceuticals, the company's wholly-owned subsidiary located at special economic zone (SEZ), Ahmedabad. The group has more than 228 approvals, and so far filed over 330 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) since it started filings in 2003-04. Shares of Cadila Healthcare, the listed entity of the group, were trading 3.46 per cent higher at Rs 367.85 apiece on BSE.

We remember names better than faces: Study

We are actually better at remembering names than faces, according to a study. Researchers from the University of York in the UK suggest that when we castigate ourselves for forgetting someone's name we are placing unfair demands on our brains. Remembering a person's face in this situation relies on recognition, but remembering their name is a matter of recall, according to the study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. It is already well-established that human beings are much better at the former than the latter, the researchers said. They also point out that we only become aware that we have forgotten a name when we have already recognised the face. "We rarely have to confront the problem of knowing a name, but not a face -- remaining blissfully unaware of the countless faces we should recognise, but walk straight past on the street," researchers said. For the study, the researchers designed a "fair test", pitting names against faces on a level playing ...

Ancient Indian meditation practice may keep Alzheimers at bay: Study

Kirtan kriya -- an ancient Indian meditation technique -- may help improve brain function and memory in older adults at risk of Alzheimer's disease, a study has found. Researchers from West Virginia University in the US found that the simple meditative practice or musical therapy may alter certain biomarkers of cellular ageing and Alzheimer's Disease in older adults who are experiencing memory loss. The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, suggest these changes may be directly related to improvements in memory and cognition, sleep, mood, and quality of life. Sixty older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a condition that may represent a preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease, participated in the clinical trial. While SCD has been linked to increased risk for dementia and associated with certain neuropathological changes implicated in Alzheimer's disease development, including elevated brain levels of beta amyloid, this preclinical period may also ...

Surgical menopause can worsen insomnia

While insomnia is one of the most common symptoms of menopause, undergoing surgical menopause is likely to worsen the sleep disorder, warns a new study.

Obese people enjoy food less

Researchers have found that obesity and food restrictions are associated with less food enjoyment.Led by the University of Granada (UGR), the study has been published in the journal, Food Quality and Preference.For this work, 552 adolescents between 11 and 17 years old from several high schools in Granada, have had their emotional reactions analysed during the visualisation of images of sweet foods.Thus, the researchers observed that those adolescents who reported different types of dietary restrictions (different types of diet, dieting very often, skipping breakfast, eating less frequently, etc.), along with those who were obese and those who had unhealthy behaviours unrelated to food (such as smoking or having insufficient sleep), felt less pleasure, attraction and desire to eat the highly palatable foods they were looking at (images of sweets, doughnuts, ice-creams, chocolate crepes, etc.).As explained by Laura Miccoli, main author of the study, "Adolescence, typically associated ..

Type 2 Diabetes patients can have remission upto 1 yr: Docs

On World Diabetes Day, city-based doctors suggested Wednesday that Type 2 Diabetes patients can have a remission upto one year if they follow medical nutrition therapy. Remission is a medical term to describe abatement or disappearance of the signs and symptoms of a disease, used in terms of chronic diseases. Approximately 50 per patients with Type 2 diabetes had remission for one year after being on intensive insulin therapy for four weeks, diabetologist Dr Kovil told PTI. Besides, eating a low calorie diet for at least four months followed by a stepped up introduction of other meals over the next two or three months and maintaining a weight loss of at least 10-15 per cent might help in the remission, he said. However, there are chances of relapse if one does not follow healthy lifestyle practices, Kovil stated. "This is not reversal or cure of diabetes. This is remission, coming down to a standard level where you are without drugs for diabetes and even signs and ...

Haryana hospital peon stitches patient's wound

In a shocking incident of gross medical negligence, a fourth-grade employee was caught on camera stitching a patient's wound at Rohtak Civil Hospital. The incident took place on November 10.Sharing details of the incident, the patient said, "I went to the hospital. The doctor checked me once and did not come to see me after that. I wasn't offered any painkiller and I was continuously bleeding. Thereafter, a fourth-class employee, a peon, came and started stitching the wound. The doctor was also sitting nearby. I am not sure how well the wound has been stitched since it is still painful. When I consulted another doctor, I was told that the stitches are not right, and he again bandaged me."On November 12, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, when asked about the incident, said that his "government has almost doubled the seats of MBBS admissions to tackle the problem of doctors shortage.""Some incidents do get reported and we take immediate action. We are increasing the numbers of

Hyderabad: Live heart, lungs transported 29kms in 22 minutes

An ambulance carrying a pair of live lungs and a heart covered a distance of 29 kilometres in 22 minutes, thanks to the green corridor provided by the Hyderabad Traffic Police.Anil Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Traffic, Hyderabad, shared details of arrangements made by his department on Tuesday to facilitate transportation of the organs."Today, we have provided a hassle-free green channel to an ambulance carrying live organs heart and lungs. The organs were transported from Gleneagles Global Health Hyderabad located in Lakdikapul to RGI Airport Shamshabad and from there to Chennai. The distance between the starting point to RGI Airport is 29 kilometres and the distance has been covered in just 22 minutes by the ambulance. The medical team carrying live organs started at 3.23pm on November 13 and reached the destination of RGI Airport at 3.46pm," Kumar explained.The Gleneagle Hospital management appreciated the help provided by the traffic police department for swift transportation

How Facebook aids in promoting alcohol abuse

Alcohol advertisements on social media sites such as Facebook can increase young adults' desire to drink if the ads contain pro-drinking comments from users, according to a research.

Surgical menopause increases risk of insomnia

According to a latest study, surgical menopause leads to increased sleep issues in women as opposed to natural menopause.Results of the findings are published in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).Surgical menopause is often accompanied by more psychological and physical difficulties. The increased severity of menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats can disrupt sleep during a time in a woman's life when sleep problems are already an issue; however, only a few quantitative studies have investigated sleep-interfering behaviour in postmenopausal women.This new study is one of the first to compare sleep-interfering behaviours based on the type of menopause, surgical and natural.More than 500 post-menopausal women completed questionnaires as part of the study. Women in the surgical menopause group reported significantly worse sleep quality, especially for sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency, compared with women in the natural ...

Portable purifiers may protect your heart from air pollution: Study

Using low-cost indoor air purifiers may help protect at-risk people from the adverse health effects of air pollution, a study claims. Microscopic particles floating in the air we breathe come from sources such as fossil fuel combustion, fires, cigarettes and vehicles, said researchers from the University of Michigan in the US. Known as fine particulate matter, this form of air pollution increases the risk of cardiovascular and other serious health problems, they said. The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found three days of using a low-cost air purifier at home significantly lowered urban seniors' fine particulate matter exposure. It also significantly lowered their blood pressure, which is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, researchers said. "The results show that a simple practical intervention using inexpensive indoor air filtration units can help protect at-risk individuals from the adverse health effects of fine particulate matter air ..

Do e-cigarettes undermine desire to quit smoking?

Trying to quit smoking? Spend time with people who use e-cigarettes.The University College London research has found that smokers who were regularly exposed to vapers (as opposed to other smokers) were around 20 percent more likely to have reported both a high current motivation to quit and made a recent quit attempt.The findings have been published in BMC Medicine."Our results found no evidence that spending time with vapers discourages smokers from quitting, which should help to alleviate concerns about the wider public health impact of e-cigarettes," said the study's lead author, Dr Sarah Jackson.Around a quarter (25.8 percent) of smokers in the study said they regularly spent time with vapers. Of these, around a third (32.3 percent) had made an attempt to quit smoking in the previous year - a higher rate than was observed among smokers who did not regularly spend time with vapers (26.8 percent)."A key factor driving these differences may be that smokers who are regularly exposed ..

This Hyderabad mosque operates as a health center

In a first, a mosque in Hyderabad has been turned into a health center for people of all religions.The Masjid-e-Ishaq mosque is providing healthcare facilities to slum dwellers in the vicinity, irrespective of their religion, with the help of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) named Helping Hand Foundation (HHF).Speaking to ANI, Mujtaba Askari, the Managing Trustee of HHF, said that they were very particular while choosing the area in which the health care center is to be set up, as they wanted it to be in the heart of the slum so that the poor can get the maximum benefit."The mosque is surrounded by around nine slum areas and the population of the area would be more than 1.5 lakhs. The main concept behind this is that we want to treat the patients who are unaware to different government health centers," Askari said.He further informed that the initiative has gained a positive response and around 40 to 50 people avail treatment every day.Transport facilities are also being provided

Suffering from diabetes? Keep your heart health in check

With an estimated 72 million people suffering from diabetes in the country, India is the diabetic capital of the world. Diabetes mellitus is a chronic condition that can lead to complications over time.Cardiovascular diseases are majorly associated with diabetes and are the leading cause of early death among people with diabetes. More than 70 per cent of patients with type 2 diabetes dies of cardiovascular diseases.A recent report published in global medical journal, Lancet stated that there has been 50 per cent rise in CVDs among Indians. Heart Failure is the leading cause of mortality and repeat hospitalizations amongst all CVDs. Heart Failure is a progressive disease, caused due to the weakening of heart muscle, which becomes stiff over time. This reduces the heart's ability to pump blood properly, thereby limiting the amount of oxygen and nutrients circulated to the vital organs of the body.Diabetes can cause heart failure, due to diabetic cardiomyopathy. It is a disorder of the ..

Diabetic? Munching almonds could help

Diabetes currently affects over 425 million people worldwide, with more than 72.9 million cases of diabetes in India in 2017, with most people having type 2 diabetes and at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and its complications.A recent survey by the International Diabetes Federation of over 12,000 people with type 2 diabetes revealed that two in three have cardiovascular risk factors, yet, one-fourth said they have never discussed, or could not remember discussing, cardiovascular risk factors with their doctors.The research suggests that lifestyle changes, including improving physical activity, losing excess weight and making important dietary changes, not only help manage type 2 diabetes, but can significantly reduce the risk for developing type 2 diabetes and even provide better long-term effects than medication.Several studies funded by the Almond Board of California demonstrate the potential cardiovascular benefits of including almonds in healthy diets among those with