Page 321 - Health Medical Pharma

Here's why you should monitor blood pressure at home

Turns out, home blood pressure monitoring can improve hypertension control and save medical costs.American Heart Association guidelines stress the importance of home blood pressure monitoring for optimal high blood pressure management.However, according to M.Sc., B.S.N, Roy R. Champion, home blood pressure monitoring isn't a common part of most treatment plans.Based on trends noted during medical record reviews, Champion said less than one in five providers were including home blood pressure monitoring in the documentation for hypertension patients."Meanwhile, in the charts that did use home blood pressure monitoring, approximately 86 percent of those patients had their hypertension under control," Champion said.Home monitoring combined with doctor visits to measure a patient's blood pressure helps to avoid numbers skewed by "white-coat hypertension," when blood pressure is high in a medical setting but not in everyday life, and "masked hypertension," when blood pressure is normal in .

Genetics play vital role in neurodevelopment disorders

When an individual develops a neurodevelopment disorder like autism, the severity of that disorder depends on genetic changes beyond a single supposedly disease-causing mutation.The total amount of rare mutations - deletions, duplications, or other changes to the DNA sequence in a person's genome can explain why individuals with a disease-associated mutation can have vastly different symptoms.Senior author of the paper, Santhosh Girirajan said, "Genetic sequencing tools can reveal a large number of mutations in a person's genome, but diagnosis typically focuses on identifying one primary mutation as the cause of a disorder."The research team considered genetic, cognitive, and developmental information from individuals who contained one of two known disease-associated mutations, and of their families. Individuals with one of the primary mutations who expressed clinical features had significantly more mutations in the genetic background than their parents or siblings who did not express

Body of nun found in well in Kerala

The body of a 54-year-old nun was found Sunday in a well in the Mount Tabor convent at Pathanapuram here, police said. Sister Susan was a teacher at a school attached to the convent, they said. Blood stains were found from inside her room and near the well from where the body was found this morning, they added. According to a police official, they received information at around 9 am that the nun's body was found in the well. Congress leader Bindu Krishna termed the death shocking. "Blood stains were found inside her room and her hair was also found cut, according to reports," she claimed. An impartial probe is essential, she said.

Make lifestyle changes to reduce blood pressure medications

Patients with high blood pressure problems can reduce the need for antihypertensive medications within 16 weeks with the help of some lifestyle changes, according to a new study.Study author Alan Hinderliter said, "Lifestyle modifications, including healthier eating and regular exercise, can greatly decrease the number of patients who need blood pressure-lowering medicine. That's particularly the case in folks who have blood pressures in the range of 130 to 160 mmHg systolic and between 80 and 99 mmHg diastolic."The researchers studied 129 overweight or obese men and women between the ages of 40 and 80 years who had high blood pressure. Patients' blood pressures were between 130-160/80-99 mmHg but they were not taking medications to lower blood pressure at the time of the study.More than half were candidates for antihypertensive medication at the study's start, according to recent guidelines.Researchers randomly assigned each patient to one of three 16-week interventions. Participants

Chinese researchers identify potential new antibiotic

A fungal compound has been identified by a team of Chinese researchers as a promising antibiotic candidate, as they presented an approach that can efficiently obtain it the lab, said a study recently published in the journal Nature Communication.

Mindfulness may reduce feeling of pain: Study

Mindfulness -- a meditative practice that focusses on paying attention to the present moment -- can increase person's tolerance to pain, a study has found. Researchers from Wake Forest School of Medicine in the US analysed data obtained from a study published in 2015 that compared mindfulness meditation to placebo analgesia. They sought to determine if dispositional mindfulness, an individual's innate or natural level of mindfulness, was associated with lower pain sensitivity, and to identify what brain mechanisms were involved. "Mindfulness is related to being aware of the present moment without too much emotional reaction or judgment," said Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "We now know that some people are more mindful than others, and those people seemingly feel less pain," said Zeidan, lead author of the study published in the journal Pain. In the study, 76 healthy volunteers who had never meditated first completed the Freiburg Mindfulness ..

Reading the heart rhythm right!

The human heart is not all about muscles and blood supply, as most discussions around heart would like you to believe. It is primarily more to do with the heartbeat. The muscular action and flow of blood which keeps the heart in a working condition is an intricate network of electrical conduction system.It is this electrical system which passes electrical impulses through the heart causing it to beat. This essentially means that the electrical system causes the heart to contract by pumping the blood throughout the body and to lungs. The coordination of rhythmic contractions of heart muscles through electrical signals causes your heart to beat.Issue with electrical system of the heart is much more critical in nature. In case of any malfunction of the conduction system, the heart can stop beating, instantly triggering a cardiac arrest which is almost instantaneously fatal, leaving seconds to recuperate a victim through defibrillation, which is kick-starting the heart with electric ...

'Predatory bacteria' may help combat antibiotic resistance

In a bid to fight back against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, researchers are now developing germ-eating microbes that will attack all sorts of nasties, including bacterial lung infections, plague and deadly germs that have developed resistance to antibiotics.

How countries can curb antibiotic resistance

The proliferation of disease-causing antibiotic resistant organisms is correlated with many social and environmental factors such as poor sanitation, unsafe water and higher corruption, a study published in the Lancet Planetary Health, has showed.

DR Congo says latest Ebola outbreak under control

Health authorities in Kinshasa declared the Ebola virus under control five weeks after the latest outbreak left 89 people dead in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The health ministry announced the outbreak on August 1 in North Kivu province and on Thursday revealed that it had spread to Butembo, a city of a million people. But Health Minister Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga said: "Since August 13, there have been practically no more cases, we can say that the situation has been brought under control at the epicentre (of Mabalako)." The latest outbreak of the virus is 10th to strike DR Congo since 1976, when the disease was first identified and named after a river in the country's north. "To date, we have 129 cases (31 probable and 98 confirmed), 89 deaths and 33 patients cured," Dr Oly Ilunga said. Fears that the disease might spread further had been expressed Thursday after news of two deaths in Butembo, a commercial hub and popular transit point for neighbouring Uganda. A woman and one .

Here's how 'Lego block' artificial cells can find and kill bacteria

These improvements significantly broaden the overall potential application of artificial cells

IPS officer who attempted suicide very critical: UP DGP

IPS officer Surendra Kumar Das, undergoing treatment at a hospital here after consuming some poisonous substance, is in a "very critical" condition, Uttar Pradesh DGP O P Singh said Saturday. Das, 30, an IPS officer of the 2014 batch, who was posted as the Superintendent of Police City (East) last month, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday after consuming some poisonous substance. "The best medical treatment is being administered to the officer and all efforts are being made by the doctors to save him, Singh, who visited the hospital on Saturday, said, adding that Da's health condition was still "very critical". Dr Rajesh Agarwal, a senior doctor at the private hospital where Das is admitted, said many organs of the officer's body have stopped working. "Blood circulation in one of his legs has also stopped after which doctors started an emergency operation in the makeshift Operation Theatre (OT) in the ICU where he was put on ventilator for respiratory support. A lot of blood ...

Overweight, obese Coast Guard personnel in Gujarat won't get subsidised liquor: Commander

Rakesh Pal, the commander of the Indian Coast Guard's northwest region covering Gujarat, said Saturday that an order has been issued to deny subsidised liquor to overweight and obese personnel. Pal said the move will be applicable to personnel, irrespective of their ranks, who have been told by the medical board to reduce weight. He noted that alcohol has been observed to be a major factor behind obesity and the decision was taken to tackle the problem as several such personnel could not be posted at sea. The drastic measure, he said, was taken after they were repeatedly told to reduce weight, but did not heed to it. "It is for those people under medical category, who are obese and have not reduced their weight. They have been told to reduce weight, following which their entitlement of alcohol will be restored," Pal said. Pal said the task of the Coast Guard is to man the sea, but due to fitness issues some officials cannot be posted on ships. "Our job is to be at the sea and unfit ...

Elderly Zambian woman undergoes 'difficult' double-knee surgery at city hospital

A 71-year-old woman from Zambia underwent a challenging double-knee surgery at a hospital here that allowed her to walk properly. Lenahnahmushamo from Lusaka had undergone a knee-replacement surgery already in her country four years ago, hospital authorities said. "She had dislocated both the knees after knee replacement and this was a very difficult situation because all the ligaments around the knee were damaged," a hospital spokesperson said Saturday. Following this problem, she could not stand and obviously could not walk at all. She had to crawl on the floor to go to toilet, the spokesperson said. The surgery was done in two stages recently by Yash Gulati, Senior Consultant, Orthopeadics, at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. "To salvage this situation is a very difficult option because one has have to remove all the previous implants and then re-implant a special type of device which can take care of ligaments for ensuring stability," he said. Doing this type of surgery in both the ..

Mindfulness can aid in treating chronic pain: Study

Ever wondered why some people seem to feel less pain than others? The answer could lie in mindfulness, which could be targeted in the development of effective pain therapies, researchers say.

Indo Count Industries gets revision in credit ratings

From ICRA and CARE

This iPhone app claims to accurately monitor BP

Researchers have developed a novel blood pressure (BP) application that can give accurate readings using an iPhone, without requiring any special equipment.

T cell behavior has major implications for cancer immunotherapy

Turns out, disease-fighting T cells, elicited from vaccines, do not require glucose for their rapid reproduction, which may help the development of immunotherapy for cancer patients, a new study has revealed.Researchers from CU Anschutz, along with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pennsylvania, examined T cells that arose in the body's immune system after they received a subunit vaccination - a vaccine that uses just part of a disease-causing virus.They found that these critical white blood cells, which attack and kill the infection, did not rely on glucose to fuel their rapid division which occurs every two to four hours. Instead, they used another cellular engine, the mitochondria, to support their expansion."The knowledge that this magnitude of cell division can be supported by mitochondrial function has a number of potential practical implications for the development of future vaccines," said senior study author Ross Kedl.According to Kedl, T cells responding .

Obese pregnant women can avoid complications with diet and exercise

Lifestyle changes sure have a lot of benefits, even for overweight pregnant women. One can reduce complications during pregnancy if they change their diet and lifestyle before their pregnancy period starts, a new study has revealed.Many overweight and obese women gain too much weight during pregnancy, further ratcheting up their already-increased risk of serious complications for themselves as well as the babies.A new group of trials funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) showed that pregnant women can safely limit their weight gain with diet and exercise interventions. The trials included a diverse socioeconomic group, which means the findings are generalizable to a large population."This is an important study because it affirms that women can change behaviors to control the amount of weight gained in pregnancy," said lead author Dr. Alan Peaceman.However, the reduced weight gain -- about four pounds per woman -- did not result in fewer obstetrical complications, including

Miscommunication may block natural healing cycle

Turns out, the progress in treating chronic illness, where the cause of the problem is often unknown, gets hampered due to a miscommunication in our body.Much of modern Western medicine is based upon the treatment of acute, immediate harm, from physical injury to infections, from broken bones and the common cold to heart and asthma attacks.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than half of adults and one-third of children and teens live with at least one chronic illness.A new study revealed that chronic disease is essentially the consequence of natural healing cycle getting blocked, specifically by disruptions at the metabolic and cellular levels.The healing process is a dynamic circle that starts with injury and ends with recovery. The molecular features of this process are universal. Emerging pieces of evidence show that most chronic illnesses are caused by the biological reaction to an injury, not the initial injury or the agent of the injury. The ...