Page 345 - Health Medical Pharma
Dominant men make decisions faster
Men who are socially more dominant tend to arrive at a decision faster than their peers, a study has found. Hierarchies exist across all human and animal societies, organised by what behavioral scientists refer to as dominance. Dominant individuals tend to climb higher up the hierarchy ladder of their particular society, earning priority access to resources. Researchers from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have carried out a large behavioural study on men to examine this question. The study involving 240 male students showed a clear correlation between higher social dominance and faster decision-making outside of a social competition context. The men were sorted into high or low dominance groups by a standard "dominance scoring" questionnaire that has been validated in many previous studies. Decision-making speed was measured with five experiments ("tasks") testing the participants' memory, recognition, ability to distinguish emotions, route-learning, ...
Now avail medical insurance for treatment of mental illness
In a first, medical insurance for treatment of mental illness will be available as in cases of physical illness, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said today. "#MentalHealthCareAct2017 For the first time, medical insurance for treatment of mental illness to be available on the same basis as is available for treatment of physical illness under Section 21(4) of the Act (sic)," Nadda tweeted. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) had recently issued a circular directing insurers to cover mental illness, besides physical ailments. The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, which came into force from May 29, has made it mandatory to provide for "medical insurance for treatment of mental illness on the same basis as is available for treatment of physical illness". Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech, said his government would launch the ambitious the Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme on September 25. Modi had said the programme's technology would ..
Resistance training boosts motivation to exercise
Resistance training can help older adults stay motivated to exercise regularly, a study has found. Resistance training can maintain and increase muscle strength and functional capacity when ageing and it is recommended for older adults at least twice a week. However, only a few meet these recommendations. Sedentary lifestyle has unfavourable associations also with psychological functioning and mental health. Researchers from University of Jyvaskyla in Finland investigated the effects of a nine-month supervised resistance training intervention on exercise motivation, exercise planning and exercise self-efficacy. They examined whether these factors predict the continuation of resistance training for the next year following the intervention. The study involved 104 healthy 65-75-year-olds who did not meet physical activity guidelines for endurance exercise at baseline and did not have previous resistance training experience. "Nine months of regular resistance training increased the ...
US varsity signs MoU with Indian Nursing Council
A top-ranked college for nursing programme in Texas has signed a MoU with an Indian institution, aimed at developing opportunities for nursing education in India through academic and leadership exchange. The University of Houston College of Nursing and the Indian Nursing Council, a national regulatory body for nurses and nurse education in India, last week signed the a memorandum of understanding. Kathryn Tart, professor and founding dean of the college, together with Associate Professor Shainy Varghese, participated in a two-day conference with the Indian Nursing Council this summer. Fifty nursing programmes from around India were in attendance, selected to create the Nurse Practitioner Critical Care program (NPCC). The selection process was based on recommendations from the Indian Nursing Council and a willingness from the nursing programs themselves to participate. The Nurse Practitioner Critical Care programmes in India will support hospitals to increase the number of higher ...
YouTube videos on plastic surgery spreading misinformation: Study
In the first study to evaluate YouTube videos on facial plastic surgery procedures, scientists have found that most are misleading marketing campaigns posted by non-qualified medical professionals. The millions of people who turn to YouTube as a source for education on facial plastic surgery receive a false understanding that does not include the risks or alternative options, said lead author Boris Paskhover, an assistant professor at Rutgers University in the US. "Videos on facial plastic surgery may be mainly marketing campaigns and may not fully be intended as educational," Paskhover said. Researchers evaluated 240 top-viewed videos with 160 million combined views that resulted from keyword searches for "blepharoplasty," "eyelid surgery," "dermal fillers," "facial fillers," "otoplasty," "ear surgery," "rhytidectomy," "facelift," "lip augmentation," "lip fillers," "rhinoplasty" and/or "nose job." They evaluated the videos using DISCERN criteria, a scale for assessing the quality of .
Resistance training boosts exercise motivation
Lack of motivation is a big factor for many people not following an exercise regime that they initially planned. But a few months of resistance training can change that by instilling in people an intrinsic interest in pursuing physical activity, suggests new research.
Platform to kill cancer cells developed!
A new breakthrough in cancer diagnosis will now help in the identification and treatment of malignant tumours.For the first time ever, scientists have shown that a hybrid nanomaterial based on magnetite-gold particles can serve as a universal platform to both detect cancer cells anywhere in the body and to complete targeted deliveries of drugs to these cells.Made by an interdisciplinary Russian-German collaboration of chemists, physicists, and biologists from NUST MISIS, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (RNRMU), and the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), this platform will kill cancer cells.The discovery makes it possible to create and implement a completely new generation of cancer treatments in the coming years.The results of this fundamental research conducted at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine have been published in Scientific Reports, one of the most prestigious scientific journals.If these .
Study provides insight into development of lung cancer
Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells that start off in one or both lungs; usually in the cells that line the air passages.One of the leading causes of preventable cancer death, lung cancer is usually considered to result from the effects of smoking and from multiple genetic variants.One of these genetic components, a chromosome named 15q25.1, has been previously identified as a leading influencer of susceptibility to lung cancer, smoking behavior, and nicotine addiction.However, no previous study has investigated the mechanisms of this lead agent or documented the susceptibility pathways that allow this chromosome to modify the development of the disease.Now, a research team led by Xuemie Ji, MD, Ph.D., Research Associate in Department of Biomedical Data Science at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, helped in solving the central problem by identifying two main pathways involving the mechanism by which the chromosome 15q25.1 locus influences lung cancer risk.The
Body mass index linked to blood pressure
Body mass index and blood pressure are positively associated, according to a new study.In the ongoing study of 1.7 million Chinese men and women being conducted by researchers at the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) in China, individuals who were not taking an antihypertensive medication, were observed with an increase of 0.8 to 1.7 mm Hg (kg/m2) in blood pressure per additional unit of body mass index (BMI).First author and doctoral candidate at Yale, George Linderman said, "The enormous size of the dataset -- the result of an unprecedented effort in China -- allows us to characterize this relationship between BMI and blood pressure across tens of thousands of subgroups, which simply would not be possible in a smaller study."Researchers recorded the participants' blood pressure from September 2014 through June 2017 as part of the larger China Patient-Centered Evaluative Assessment of Cardiac Events (PEACE) Million Persons Project, which captures at least 22,000
Man posing as doctor at AIIMS arrested: Police
A 25-year-old man, who was allegedly posing as a doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, was arrested today, police said. Ashish Tripathi, a resident of Ghaziabad, was found roaming inside one of the wards of the hospital wearing a white coat, they added. When Tripathi was intercepted by the guards at the hospital, he claimed to be a senior resident doctor. However, when asked, he failed to produce an identity card, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Romil Baaniya said. During interrogation, Tripathi told the police that his pregnant wife was admitted to the hospital and he thought it would be easy to enter the wards wearing a white coat, the DCP added. The police said the accused used to give training to the patients admitted to AIIMS regarding dialysis and was found to have a diploma in operation theatre and management from an institute in Lucknow. A case has been registered in connection with the incident.
Eyes can provide early sign of Parkinson's disease
Turns out, eyes play a crucial role for people with Parkinson's disease.People with the disease gradually lose brain cells that produce dopamine, a substance that helps control movement. Now, a new study has found that the thinning of the retina, the lining of nerve cells in the back of the eye, is linked to the loss of such brain cells.Study author Jee-Young Lee said, "Our study is the first to show a link between the thinning of the retina and a known sign of the progression of the disease -- the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine."Lee added, "We also found the thinner the retina, the greater the severity of the disease. These discoveries may mean that neurologists may eventually be able to use a simple eye scan to detect Parkinson's disease in its earliest stages before problems with movement begin."The study involved 49 people with an average age of 69 who have diagnosed with Parkinson's disease an average of two years earlier but who had not yet started medication. They ...
Organs of brain dead teenager from Bengal save three lives
Organs of a 15-year-old girl from West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, who was declared brain dead at a city hospital, were donated to three critically ill patients on Saturday, the hospital authority said.
Higher BMI may increase your BP as well
If you have a higher body mass index (BMI) then there are chances that you may have increased blood pressure (BP) too, a new study has found.
Brain dead girl brings joy to at least five people
A brain dead 15-year-old has brought joy to at least five people who received her two kidneys, liver, corneas and skin graft in the city. A spokesman of the state-run Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER), SSKM Hospital, said today that Mallika Majumder was declared brain dead by the institute yesterday. She was diagnosed with a brain lesion after being admitted on July 23 and had slipped into coma on August 14, the spokesman said. Her father Manik Majumder said over phone from Siliguri, "We were told by the doctors that there is no possibility of our daughter returning to life once she was declared brain dead. We were then convinced that if her organs could be transplanted on other persons she will continue to live among others. And that is our biggest consolation." Mallika's kidneys were successfully transplanted to two patients at SSKM Hospital last midnight, state nodal officer on organ transplantion Aditi Kishore Sarkar said. IPGMER ..
China sacks 6 senior officials over vaccine scandal
China has sacked six senior government officials for their neglect of duty and misconduct following a drug-safety scandal in which a pharmaceutical company manufactured substandard vaccines, including that for rabies, exported to India and other countries. Rabies vaccines made by the Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Company, the second largest in China, were found to have violated national standards including usage of expired fluids and falsified production dates. The vaccines were also widely exported, including to India. Among the officials dismissed were Ding Jianhua, who headed two departments at the now-defunct China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said in a statement. Wang Youchun, deputy dean of the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), was also sacked, it said. Besides Jianhua and Youchun, four other senior officials of the CFDA were dismissed. The NIFDC dean, Li Bo, was ordered to "make profound ...
Brain tumours may occur in children with common genetic syndrome
Parents, please take note. The frequency of brain tumours has been underestimated in children with the common genetic syndrome -- neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a new study has found.
Mothers' pesticide levels may lead to autism in children
A new study has found that elevated pesticide levels in pregnant women are associated with an increased risk of autism among their children.Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder with largely unknown causes. It is characterized by problems with communication, difficulty relating to people and events, and repetitive body movements or behaviours.The study conducted at the American Psychiatric Association examined whether elevated maternal levels of persistent organic pollutants are associated with autism among children. Persistent organic pollutants are toxic chemicals that adversely affect human health and the environment around the world.The study examined levels of DDE (p,p'-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene), a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane). Although DDT and other persistent organic pollutants were widely banned in many countries decades ago, they persist in the food chain, resulting in continuous exposure among populations. These .
Moderate carbohydrate intake may result in good health
Turns out, eating carbohydrates in moderation can be optimal for health and longevity.Low-carb diets that replace carbohydrates with proteins and fats from plant sources are associated with lower risk of mortality compared to those that replace carbohydrates with proteins and fat from animal sources.The observational study of more than 15,400 people found that diets both low (< 40% energy) and high (>70% energy) in carbohydrates were linked with an increase in mortality, while moderate consumers of carbohydrates (50-55% of energy) have the lowest risk of mortality.The primary findings, confirmed in a meta-analysis of studies on carbohydrate intake including more than 432,000 people from over 20 countries, also suggested that not all low-carbohydrate diets appear equal--eating more animal-based proteins and fats from foods like beef, lamb, pork, chicken and cheese instead of carbohydrate was associated with a greater risk of mortality. Alternatively, eating more plant-based ...
Maternal stress can increase mood disorder risk in daughters: Study
Daughters born to women with high levels of cortisol -- a stress hormone -- during pregnancy could be at an increased risk of developing anxious and depressive-like behaviours by the age of two, a new study has reported.
YouTube videos on plastic surgery can be misleading: Study
Do you turn to YouTube for advice on cosmetic surgery procedures? Beware, most of these are misleading marketing campaigns posted by non-qualified medical professionals, researchers have warned.