Page 279 - Health Medical Pharma
Open heart surgery linked to cognitive decline in older people
A majority of older patients who underwent heart valve surgery were found to be at risk of cognitive problems up to six months after surgery, researchers say.
High lead exposure causing intellectual disability in Indian children: Study
High levels of lead contamination in the blood of children living in India may have a significant impact in lowering their IQ and increasing the risk of other diseases, a study has found. Researchers from Macquarie University in Australia conducted the first ever meta-analysis of Indian blood lead levels. They found the burden of disease to be significantly larger than previously calculated, with negative outcomes on intellectual disability measures in children. The research calculated the pooled mean blood lead level from data published between 2010 to 2018 to estimate the attributable disease burden in IQ decrement and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). The DALY is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill health, disability, and early death. Previous studies have estimated 4.6 million lead-attributed DALYs and nearly 165,000 deaths. The new study found that the total could be as high as 4.9 million DALYs, or, in other words, 4.9 ...
Irrigating vegetables with wastewater spreads disease: Study
According to a recent study, irrigating vegetables with wastewater in African cities may spread disease.The research suggests that urban farmers, growing vegetables to feed millions of people in Africa's ever-growing cities, could unwittingly be helping to spread disease by irrigating crops with wastewater.Experts discovered that wastewater collected from canals, used for urban agriculture in Burkina Faso, was rich in virulent human pathogens which cause gastroenteritis and diarrhea, which is a major cause of death in low and middle-income countries.Researchers at the University of Birmingham led an international team from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Germany to study wastewater samples from three canals in the capital Ouagadougou - a city of 2.2 million inhabitants.After identifying a wide range of antibiotic resistance genes in the water, they concluded that using wastewater for urban agriculture in the city posed a high risk of spreading bacteria and antimicrobial resistance among ..
Rural stint should be must for young doctors' promotion: Naidu
Vice President Venkiah Naidu on Saturday said serving rural areas for two-three years should be made mandatory for young doctors to get their first promotion.
Two people, including doctor, die of dengue
A doctor posted in a community health centre here was among two dead due to dengue in the past one week, officials said. Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Satish Singh said Abhay Singh posted in Gopiganj Community Health Center was admitted to BHU, Varanasi, three days ago where he died Saturday. Tests on him had confirmed dengue, the CMO said, adding four other employees of the same health centre had fever and the reports of the tests conducted on them were awaited. Following this, about 100 houses in Gopiganj area were checked where cases of fever were found, the CMO said. About a week ago, a woman had also died of dengue in Chauri area of the district, the CMO said, adding all necessary steps have been initiated.
Diabetes linked to deaths from alcohol, accidents, suicide: Study
People with diabetes are more at risk of deaths from alcohol-related factors, accidents or suicide, than non-diabetics, a study has found.
Immune system may play a role in preventing premature birth: Study
Researchers have found that the immune system may play a role in preventing premature labour and birth.
AU Small Finance Bank Q2 net profit surges 40% to Rs 91 cr
AU Small Finance Bank Saturday reported about 40 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 91.41 crore for the second quarter of 2018-19. The bank had reported a net profit of Rs 68.24 crore in the July-September period of 2017-18. The total income increased by 60.02 per cent to Rs 805.87 crore in the reported quarter as compared to Rs 502.88 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing. * * * * * *Oxxy Healthcare founder Pankaj Gupta gets Entrepreneur of the Year award Oxxy Healthcare founder Pankaj Gupta has received the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the Leadership Award 2018. Gupta has set up several ventures in the fields of IT and healthcare. His heralthcare venture, Oxxy operates in over 1,500 cities and offers discounts at affiliated health centres. "I am passionately following up all my ventures closely since last two decades and Oxxy made it possible to chase my aim faster. Oxxy Healthcare has started in a very different way, many foreign investors offered to fund
Mother's menstrual age linked to son's puberty: Study
The age at which a young woman experiences her first menstruation is associated with the age at which her son experiences puberty, according to a latest research.
Blue roses may soon be grown in gardens
It may soon be possible to breed blue roses in your garden, say scientists who have found a way to express pigment-producing enzymes from bacteria in the petals of a white rose. Researchers including those from Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tianjin University in China wanted to develop a simple process that could produce a true-blue rose. Although blue roses do not exist in nature, florists can produce blue-hued flowers by placing cut roses in dye. In a painstaking 20-year effort, biotechnologists had earlier made a "blue rose" through a combination of genetic engineering and selective breeding. However, the rose is more mauve-coloured than blue. According to a study published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology, researchers chose two bacterial enzymes that together can convert L-glutamine, a common constituent of rose petals, into the blue pigment indigoidine. The team engineered a strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens that contains the two pigment-producing genes, which originate ..
Guwahati: 4 injured in blast
At least four people have been injured after an explosion went off near Shukleshwar Ghat in Guwahati on Saturday.The blast damaged the boundary wall near Shukleshwar Ghat, causing injuries to four people in the vicinity. The nature of the explosion is not yet known.The wounded were immediately taken to the MMC hospital for medical treatment.Police have cordoned off the area and launched a probe in the matter.Further details are awaited.
Lab-grown eyes decode how humans develop colour vision
US biologists have grown human retina tissue in the laboratory to determine how cells that allow people to see in colour are made, an advance that can lead to the development of therapies for diseases such as colour blindness and macular degeneration.
Abnormal vision in childhood impairs brain functions: Study
Children with abnormal vision are likely to have impairment in functions of brain areas responsible for things such as attention, a new study has found.
Long-term exposure to ozone adversely affects human health
A new study has utilised a novel method to estimate long-term ozone exposure to quantify the health burden from long-term ozone exposure in three major regions of the world.The research, conducted at the Duke University estimated that 266,000 (confidence interval: 186,000-338,000) premature mortalities across Europe, the USA, and China in 2015 were attributable to long-term exposure to ozone (O3). The findings are published in the Journal of Environmental Research Letters.Karl Seltzer, study's lead author said, "Then there is strong epidemiological and toxicological evidence linking ambient ozone exposure to adverse health effects."Historically, much of the previous research focused on the short-term impacts. We utilized results from the growing body of evidence that links long-term O3 exposure and increased cause-specific premature mortalities, particularly from respiratory diseases," Seltzer added.For the study, the researchers used 2015 data from ground-based monitoring networks in
Diabetic patients at risk of death from alcohol, accidents, suicide
Turns out, diabetic patients are more likely to die from alcohol-related factors, accidents or suicide.The study, conducted at the University of Helsinki, suggested that the increased risk of death from these causes may be related to the mental health of patients, which may be adversely affected by the psychological burden of living with and self-treating this debilitating disease, with potentially serious complications. The findings appeared in the European Journal of Endocrinology.Type-1 and type-2 diabetes are highly prevalent global diseases, causing millions of deaths every year. It is well known that diabetic patients have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, cancer, and kidney disorders, which can lead to earlier death. However, more recently diabetes has been linked to an increased risk of depression but how poor mental health may affect patients with diabetes has not been fully investigated.In this study, researchers assessed the alcohol-related, suicides or ...
How does exercise affect our cognitive performance?
A new study has found how cognitive performance can improve during aerobic exercise.During the study, conducted at the University Munich, electroencephalography readings were taken as 24 participants performed a visual working memory task while at rest and during the exercise involving different postures: seated on or pedalling a stationary bicycle, as well as standing or walking on a treadmill.The findings are published in the British Journal of Psychology."Our findings hold implications not only for the field of cognitive psychology, wherein our knowledge has been primarily derived from seated, resting participants, but also for our understanding of cognitive performance at large. Although modern society has evolved to become more and more sedentary, our brains may nevertheless perform best while our bodies are active," said lead author Thomas Tollner.The investigators found that both aerobic exercise and upright posture improved visual working memory compared with passive and ...
In pristine Ladakh, cancer rides on sedentary lifestyle and UV rays
The rough terrain, the snow-capped peaks, the winding roads and monasteries -- the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir is the abode of nature's raw and untouched beauty. The region might be a haven for adventure travellers, but all is not well for the local residents.
Here's how obesity is linked to early-onset colorectal cancer
According to a recent study, women who are overweight or obese have up to twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer before age 50 in contrast to women who have what is considered a normal body mass index.In the United States, overall rates of new colorectal cancer cases and deaths from the disease have decreased steadily since 1980, largely owing to recommended colonoscopy screening starting at age 50. For reasons that remain unknown, new cases of, and deaths due to, both colon and rectal cancers have been increasing for younger adults ages 20 to 49.The study is among the first epidemiologic analyses of the potential contributors to early, onset colorectal cancer, cases diagnosed under age 50. The researchers found that higher current BMI, BMI at 18 years of age, and weight gain since early adulthood are associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer under age 50.The study included data from 85,256 women ages 25 to 44 in the Nurses' Health Study II, which began in 1989. The .
Abnormal vision can affect brain functions: Study
According to a recent research, abnormal vision in childhood can affect the functioning of the brain.The researchers from the University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, and the University of Auckland uncovered differences in how the brain processes visual information in patients with various types of lazy eye. In doing so, they became the first to demonstrate that the brain can divert attention away from a lazy eye when both eyes are open."Current treatments for lazy eye primarily target the early stages of visual processing within the brain," said Ben Thompson, a professor in Waterloo's School of Optometry and Vision Science."The results from this study show us that new treatments should also target higher-level processes such as attention."Lazy eye, known as amblyopia, is a loss of vision that originates in the brain, typically when a child develops an eye turn (strabismic type) or a substantial difference in refractive error between the eyes (anisometropic type). The ..
50 cases of Swine Flu reported in Telangana
Telangana is witnessing a spurt in the number of Swine Flu or H1N1 cases from last one week. At least 50 cases have recently been detected in the state.Speaking to ANI, Dr Shankar, Director of Government Institute of Preventive Medicine and Superintendent of Government Fever Hospital, said that from past one-week, Swine Flu cases in the state have witnessed a hike."In past one week, Swine Flu cases have increased. Till now, about 40 to 50 cases have been reported positive and these figures may increase in the upcoming days," he said.He further said that there are only two centres for testing of Swine Flu samples in Telangana namely, Fever Hospital and Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM). Dr Shankar also informed that H1N1 cases have been tested positive in district hospitals as well.The health officials in Telangana have been alerted about the situation and all district government hospitals also have Swine Flu testing kits.