Page 384 - Health Medical Pharma
UP nursing home with unqualified doctors sealed
A nursing home at Shamli district was sealed after unqualified doctors were reportedly found performing surgeries on unsuspecting patients, officials said today. A team of doctors from the Uttar Pradesh health department led by Deputy CMO Ashok Tanda raided 'Astha Nursing Home' yesterday. It was found that no qualified surgeons were practising at the facility, Chief Medical Officer Raj Kumar said. The nursing home has been sealed, he said. The matter came to light when family members of Mukesh Devi (30), who was admitted to the facility for removal of a tumour, complained about the shoddy treatment provided to her. They alleged that Vinod Dhama, who runs the nursing home, operated upon the woman, but she was rushed to another hospital in a critical condition. An enquiry has been ordered into the incident, Kumar said.
Ultrasound applied to brain may help patients with dementia
Patients suffering from dementia can now be treated with the ultrasound applied to the brain.Ultrasound waves, applied to the whole brain, improve cognitive dysfunction in mice with conditions simulating vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease.The research, conducted by scientists at Tohoku University in Japan, suggested that this type of therapy may also benefit humans.Led by cardiologist Hiroaki Shimokawa, the team found that applying low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) to the whole brain of the mice improved blood vessel formation and nerve cell regeneration without having obvious side effects."The LIPUS therapy is a non-invasive physiotherapy that could apply to high-risk elderly patients without the need for surgery or anesthesia, and could be used repeatedly," said Shimokawa.Dementia affects about 50 million people worldwide, with 10 million new cases occurring every year.Shimokawa and his team had conducted previous studies showing that LIPUS improved blood vessel ...
China vaccine scandal ripples through domestic market, threatens global push
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A vaccine scandal in China, which has hit a nerve in the country and prompted quick reactions from leaders in Beijing, is sending ripples across the wider domestic drug market while threatening to dent Chinese ambitions to play a larger global role.
Censors jump into action as China's latest vaccine scandal ignites
Chinese censors today deleted articles and postings about the vaccine industry as an online outcry over the country's latest vaccine scandal intensified. Regulators said last week that they had halted production of a rabies vaccine at a large pharmaceutical company in the northeast after finding fabricated records and other problems during an inspection. It was just the latest in a series of health and safety scandals which have fuelled fear over the safety of basic food and medicine and anger at regulators asleep on the job. China's censors and regulators struggled to stay abreast of the public's response, deleting posts on WeChat as state media tried to take control of the narrative. On Sunday night China's Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) announced it had ordered all production stopped at the vaccine maker and launched an investigation. Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology is China's second largest maker of the rabies vaccine and a subsidiary of a large publicly-traded vaccine ...
Pregnancy history may be tied to Alzheimer's disease
Women, take note. Your history of pregnancy may affect the risk of Alzheimer's disease decades later, a new study has found.
Fresh scandal erupts over vaccine safety in China
BEIJING (Reuters) - A scandal over faulty vaccines in China has sparked anger on social media, underscoring the difficulties regulators face in rebuilding trust after years of food and drug safety scares.
Sound waves may help treat dementia
Applying ultrasound waves to the whole brain can improve cognitive function patients dementia and Alzheimer's disease, say scientists who conducted a study in mice. The team, led by Hiroaki Shimokawa from Tohoku University in Japan, found that applying low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) to the whole brain of the mice improved blood vessel formation and nerve cell regeneration without having obvious side effects. "The LIPUS therapy is a non-invasive physiotherapy that could apply to high-risk elderly patients without the need for surgery or anaesthesia, and could be used repeatedly," said Shimokawa. Dementia affects about 50 million people worldwide, with 10 million new cases occurring every year. But there are currently no curative treatments available for vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease, the most common causes of dementia. Also, the cells lining the brain's blood vessels are tightly packed, forming a blood-brain barrier that prevents large molecules from crossing into ..
More pregnant women are having heart attacks: Study
The risk of having a heart attack while pregnant, giving birth, or during two months after delivery, continues to increase, a US-based study has found.
Dozens injured in police clashes at Nepal healthcare protest
Dozens of protesters in Nepal have been injured in clashes with police at a demonstration in support of a hunger-striking doctor seeking better healthcare in the impoverished Himalayan country. Thousands took to the streets yesterday in solidarity with Dr Govinda KC, who has been on a hunger strike for nearly a month demanding reforms in the medical sector and education. Protestors from Nepal Tarun Dal, the youth wing of the opposition party Nepali Congress, were injured when police fired multiple rounds of teargas and used batons as they entered a restricted area near the parliament in capital Kathmandu. Activists today said they planned more protests following the clashes. "We are protesting against the government's authoritarian-like behaviour. They are not listening to the people and to the just demands of Dr Govinda KC," Bhupendra Jung Shahi, general secretary of Nepal Tarun Dal, told AFP. Viewed by his supporters as a medical Robin Hood, Dr KC is well known in Nepal for his ...
Greening vacant lots may lower depression in city dwellers
Greening vacant urban land significantly reduces feelings of depression and improves overall mental health for the surrounding residents, a study has found. The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, have implications for cities across the US, where 15 per cent of land is deemed "vacant" and often blighted or filled with trash and overgrown vegetation. The study found that people living within a quarter of a mile radius of greened lots had a 41.5 per cent decrease in feelings of depression compared to those who lived near the lots that had not been cleaned. Those living near green lots also experienced a nearly 63 per cent decrease in self-reported poor mental health compared to those living near lots that received no intervention. "Dilapidated and vacant spaces are factors that put residents at an increased risk of depression and stress, and may explain why socioeconomic disparities in mental illness persist," said Eugenia C South, an assistant professor at University .
Drug-resistant sepsis kills 57k newborns in India annually: Study
About 57,000 newborn babies in India die annually due to drug-resistant sepsis, according to a study which found that the increased use of over-the-counter antibiotics without prescriptions is leading to the spread of superbug infections worldwide. The study highlights the need for better enforcement of laws in the global fight against superbugs. The study, published in The Journal of Infection, showed that antibiotics the most frequently prescribed medicine worldwide. Antibiotic resistance is a major global health threat which accounts for more than two million infections and 23,000 deaths annually in the US, researchers found. Between 2000 and 2010, consumption of antibiotics increased globally from 50 billion to 70 billion standard units. Majority of overall increase in consumption occurred in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the study found. "Reliable estimates of the burden of antibiotic-resistant infections in developing countries are lacking but it is believed to .
Age-relate skin wrinkles, hair loss reversed in mice
Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have successfully reversed hair loss and wrinkled skin - the hallmarks of ageing - in mice, paving the way for treating age-related disorders in humans. When a mutation leading to mitochondrial dysfunction is induced, the mouse develops wrinkled skin and extensive, visible hair loss in a matter of weeks. When the mitochondrial function is restored by turning off the gene responsible for mitochondrial dysfunction, the mouse returns to smooth skin and thick fur, indistinguishable from a healthy mouse of the same age. "To our knowledge, this observation is unprecedented," said Keshav Singh, a professor at University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US. The mutation that does this is in a nuclear gene affecting mitochondrial function, the tiny organelles known as the powerhouses of the cells. Numerous mitochondria in cells produce 90 per cent of the chemical energy cells need to survive. In humans, a decline in mitochondrial function is seen ...
Scientists reverse aging-associated wrinkles and hair loss
Wrinkled skin and hair loss are hallmarks of aging. However, scientists reversed aging-associated skin wrinkles and hair loss in a mouse model.In a mouse model developed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Keshav Singh, Ph.D., and colleagues found when a change leading to mitochondrial dysfunction is induced; the mouse develops wrinkled skin and extensive, visible hair loss in a matter of weeks.When the mitochondrial function is restored by turning off the gene responsible for mitochondrial dysfunction, the mouse returns to smooth skin and thick fur, indistinguishable from a healthy mouse of the same age.Importantly, the mutation that triggers this is in a nuclear gene affecting mitochondrial function, the tiny organelles known as the powerhouses of the cells.In humans, a decline in mitochondrial function is seen during aging, and mitochondrial dysfunction can drive age-related diseases.A depletion of the DNA in mitochondria is also implicated in human mitochondrial diseases, .
Frailty may be more deadly in younger heart patients
Frailty is often thought to be a syndrome of the elderly, which comes as a natural and inevitable side-effect of aging.For clinicians, frailty is a concept which has long posed formidable challenges in perioperative medicine. For patients, frailty turns even the most routine operative procedures into complicated life or death undertakings.A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute examined the prevalence of frailty and its association with long-term mortality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery at a younger age.Researchers examined administrative healthcare data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science (ICES) and the clinical registry data from Corhealth Ontario to support their findings.The adjusted long-term frailty-related mortality risk was inversely proportional to age, meaning after taking other comorbidities into consideration, frailty had a higher impact on the survival of younger patients.According to the study, frailty ...
Hypogonadism - A lesser known cause of female infertility
Androgen deficiency in males has twice the chances of developing a condition known as hypogonadism than in females.People are unaware of a condition known as female hypogonadism and its symptoms can seriously affect women's quality of life.The condition refers to the deficiency in the production of estrogen and progesterone by the ovaries. The symptoms include irregular or heavy periods, hair loss, depression and even ovarian cysts."The condition allows the body to only synthesize very limited amount of gonadotropin, whose low levels are associated with restricted secretion of testosterone thereby causing sperm production abnormalities, low sex drive, erectile dysfunction and ultimately male infertility," said Dr. Sagarika Aggarwal, IVF Expert, New Delhi.Though signs and symptoms defer depending on the severity of hypogonadism, it can begin since fetal development, before puberty or even in the adulthood. During the fetal development, if the body doesn't produce enough testosterone it
Sticky patch with sweat sensor can monitor stress levels
Scientists have created a stretchy patch that, applied directly to the skin, can monitor a person's stress levels by measuring the hormones in their sweat. The hormone cortisol rises and falls naturally throughout the day and can spike in response to stress, but current methods for measuring cortisol levels require waiting several days for results from a lab. By the time a person learns the results of a cortisol test - which may inform treatment for certain medical conditions - it is likely different from when the test was taken. "We are particularly interested in sweat sensing, because it offers noninvasive and continuous monitoring of various biomarkers for a range of physiological conditions," said Onur Parlak, a post-doctoral scholar at Stanford University in the US. "This offers a novel approach for the early detection of various diseases and evaluation of sports performance," said Parlak. Clinical tests that measure cortisol provide an objective gauge of emotional or physical ...
Antibiotics most frequently prescribed medicine worldwide: Study
The increased over-the-counter supply of antibiotics in many countries including India, is worsening antibiotic resistance globally, finds a study highlighting an urgent need for better enforcement of laws.
Walking restored in paralysed mice with spinal cord injury
Scientists have successfully restored the ability to walk in mice that were paralysed after a spinal cord injury, an advance that may pave the way for similar treatments in humans. Most people with spinal cord injury are paralysed from the injury site down, even when the cord is not completely severed. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital in the US provided insight into why the spared portions of the spinal cord do not keep working. They also show that a small-molecule compound, given systemically, can revive these circuits in paralysed mice, restoring their ability to walk. "For this fairly severe type of spinal cord injury, this is most significant functional recovery we know of. We saw 80 per cent of mice treated with this compound recover their stepping ability," said Zhigang He, from Boston Children's Hospital. Many animal studies looking to repair spinal cord damage have focused on getting nerve fibres, or axons, to regenerate, or to getting new axons to sprout from healthy
'Exergames' can boost health in obese children: Study
Video games, in combination with fitness coaching and a step tracker, helped overweight children lose weight, lower their blood pressure and cholesterol and increase their physical activity, a study has found. "Kids who gain excessive weight and are not physically active can develop early signs of heart disease and diabetes," said Amanda Staiano, from Louisiana State University in the US. "They may also struggle every day with asthma, sleep apnea, and the other psychological and health challenges that excess weight and obesity can bring," said Staiano, primary investigator of study published in the journal Pediatric Obesity. Obese children at increased risk for developing serious medical problems. Exergaming, or playing video games that require physical activity, may be able to help. "Screens are everywhere in our lives, and they are here to stay. Kids spend half their waking hours in front of screens," said Staiano. "I'm looking for ways to use those screens - smartphones, computers,
19,799 children died in Maharashtra in 12 months: Health minister
As many as 19,799 children died in Maharashtra between April 2017 and March 2018 due to various reasons, including poor weight and respiratory illnesses, Health Minister Deepak Sawant has said. The main reasons of death during the period were poor weight at the time of birth, premature delivery, contagious diseases, congenital respiratory illnesses and deformities, besides others, he said in a written reply during the recently concluded Monsoon Session of the Legislative Council in Nagpur. The ages of the children who died were not mentioned in the minister's statement. Listing out measures taken up to prevent such deaths, Sawant said the women and child development department, under its schemes through anganwadis (state-run women and child care centres), is providing nutritious food, health check-ups, pre-school education and vaccinations to children. Pregnant women are being provided free treatment for 42 days after child delivery and ill children are given free medical aid until ...