Medindia Health News

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Getting Better, Say Doctors
Brazil Initiates to Improve Production of Key Medications
Homophobic Assaults on a Rise Over the Gay Marriage Debate
1 in 5 Elderly on Risky Medications
Cancer Fighting Substance in Fruits and Vegetables
'Exceptional Situation' Posed by Bird Flu
Playing Online Puzzles Could Help Prevent Alzheimer's Disease
A (Dollar) 30 Million Initiative to Fight AIDS
Control Blood Sugar in 7 Ways - Slideshow
Experts Say New Bird Flu Strain Vaccine may Take Months
Discrimination against Hiring Smokers - A Point of Debate
New, Promising Drug Helps Prevent Head and Neck Cancers
Semen Allergies 'More Common Than Thought', Say Researchers
Best Vitamin Supplements you Need, and the Ones you Don't
Oily Fish Consumption may Keep Breast Cancer at Bay
Link Between Music Purchase and Brain Activity Identified
Novel Adenovirus Undergoes Analysis
Number of Copies of Cells may Impact Its Properties
Source of H7N9 Avian Influenza Identified
Neuroblastomas Vulnerable to a New Class of Anti-Cancer Drugs
Increased Risk of Pediatric Cancer, All Thanks to Air Pollution
Preference of Chin Shape is Not Universal, Says Study
Research Says Adults of This Generation are Ageing Much Faster
NHS Reports a Remarkable Increase in the Number of Organ Donations
Botox Injections May Cause Depression, Suggests a Study

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Getting Better, Say Doctors

Posted:

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's health condition is improving, says doctor. Banerjee was taken to the Belle Vue Clinic shortly after she landed in the city from Delhi Wednesday, with complaint of breathing problems, palpitation and body pain. The doctor, part of the medical team formed for Banerjee's treatment, said: "She is a bit nauseous because of the analgesics (pain-killers) she is taking for the back and knee pain. She vomitted last ...

Brazil Initiates to Improve Production of Key Medications

Posted:

Brazil announced a new initiative to boost domestic production of common medicines and equipments. Health Minister Alexandre Padilha said the plans call for major government investments in the field, public-private partnerships to produce drugs, and fast-tracking patents and registration of products crucial to public health. He estimated that the measures would lead to savings of 354 million reais ( (Dollar) 179 million) over five years, because the government ...

Homophobic Assaults on a Rise Over the Gay Marriage Debate

Posted:

The victim of a brutal attack in Paris-Wilfred de Bruijin suffers a bruised eye and a broken tooth, while he was walking arm-in-arm with his boyfriend. His is one of the latest cases of homophobia in France, where activists say reports of verbal and physical assaults on gays have surged amid rabid debate over a bill allowing same-sex marriage, currently being discussed in the Senate. "Sorry to show you this. It's the face of homophobia," de Bruijn, a ...

1 in 5 Elderly on Risky Medications

Posted:

More than 1 in every 5 elderly patients with Medicare Advantage plans have received a high-risk medication prescription in 2009, according to a study. The questionable prescriptions were significantly more common in the Southeast region of the country, as well as among women and people living in relatively poor areas. The demographic trends in the analysis, based on Medicare data from more than 6 million patients, suggest that differences in the rates of prescription ...

Cancer Fighting Substance in Fruits and Vegetables

Posted:

Gossypin, a naturally occurring substance present in fruits and vegetables is now thought to be an effective treatment for melanoma, which causes majority of deaths due to skin cancer. "We identified gossypin as a novel agent with dual inhibitory activity towards two common mutations that are the ideal targets for melanoma treatment," said Texas Biomed's Hareesh Nair, Ph.D.At the moment, there is no single therapeutic agent or combination regimen available to treat ...

'Exceptional Situation' Posed by Bird Flu

Posted:

As the H7N9 outbreak in China claimed its 10th victim, The World Organisation for Animal Health says that the bird flu posed an 'exceptional situation'. "Based on the information currently available we are facing a rather exceptional situation," said OIE chief Bernard Vallat, explaining that the virus, while dangerous to humans, was hard to detect in the host, which is farm birds. "We are dealing with an influenza virus of very low pathogenicity for ...

Playing Online Puzzles Could Help Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

Posted:

Playing crosswords and word search could help the brain stay active and thereby reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer's disease, say scientists. New research has found that unfamiliar stimuli and new mental challenges - like puzzles, crosswords and sudoku - can stimulate neuron growth in a key area of the brain, the Daily Express reported. It is thought that spending 15 minutes a day doing a crossword, sudoku or another puzzle could be beneficial. ...

A (Dollar) 30 Million Initiative to Fight AIDS

Posted:

To support Cambodia's fight against HIV/AIDS, The US have now launched a (Dollar) 30 million initiative. The five-year project is part of the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Xinhua reported. It will focus on individuals at high risk of HIV infection with services aiming to prevent the spread of the disease and improve care and treatment of those infected by HIV, an embassy statement said. The Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance (Khana) will ...

Control Blood Sugar in 7 Ways - Slideshow

Posted:

Diabetes and obesity are two major disorders, causing serious health issues if left untreated and ignored. Tame your blood sugar and prevent diabetes in seven easy steps.

Experts Say New Bird Flu Strain Vaccine may Take Months

Posted:

Developing a vaccine for the new H7N9 strain of bird flu could take many months, say US public health experts. Chinese authorities had confirmed 38 human cases of H7N9 avian influenza as of Thursday evening after announcing nearly two weeks ago that they had found the strain in humans for the first time. Earlier vaccines targeting similar viruses had produced poor results, two members of the influenza division of the US Centers for Disease Control ...

Discrimination against Hiring Smokers - A Point of Debate

Posted:

Many organizations including the World Health Organization have stopped recruiting smokers. Is this ethical? A perspective on this topic was published in the iNew England Journal of Medicine/i. The aim of the WHO in not recruiting smokers and banning smoking inside some of its offices is to curb the smoking problem, at least to some extent. Tobacco is harmful even to passive smokers; these are people who do not smoke but are exposed to ...

New, Promising Drug Helps Prevent Head and Neck Cancers

Posted:

Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have moved a step closer to the goal of prevention of head and neck cancers. Head and neck cancers typically begin in squamous cells that line moist surfaces inside the mouth, nose and throat. Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is the sixth most common type of cancer in the United States, and it is sometimes preceded by the appearance of changes inside the oral cavity called precancerous lesions. The most common type ...

Semen Allergies 'More Common Than Thought', Say Researchers

Posted:

According to a recent study semen allergy can make sex undesirable for women. Semen allergy is estimated to affect about 20,000-40,000 women in the US, who may experience symptoms like swelling, burning and hives. Jonathan Bernstein, MD, an allergy and immunology expert at University of Cincinnati told ABC News that semen allergies also known as Seminal plasma hypersensitivity are "not common like asthma, but more than people realize, the New York Daily News reported. ...

Best Vitamin Supplements you Need, and the Ones you Don't

Posted:

All thanks to media and communications, there has now been a huge awareness about the importance of a proper diet and having all nutritional elements as a part of the meal to maintain optimum health. Even the layman today is aware about the benefits of omega 3 fatty acids, the difference between good and bad cholesterol and which foods contain them. With this awareness, there is also a steady increase in the number of new brands introducing nutraceuticals and ...

Oily Fish Consumption may Keep Breast Cancer at Bay

Posted:

Omega-3 fatty acids could stop or slow the growth in the number of triple-negative breast cancer cells more effectively than cells from luminal types of the disease, say researchers. The omega-3s worked against all types of cancerous cells, but the effect was observed to be stronger in triple-negative cell lines, reducing proliferation by as much as 90 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in oily fish like sardines and salmon, and also in oils ...

Link Between Music Purchase and Brain Activity Identified

Posted:

A recent study shows what happens in one's brain when they decide to purchase a piece of music when they hear it for the first time. The study, conducted at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, McGill University and published in the journal iScience/i on April 12, pinpoints the specific brain activity that makes new music rewarding and predicts the decision to purchase music. Participants in the study listened to 60 previously ...

Novel Adenovirus Undergoes Analysis

Posted:

The evolution of a virus can be better understood by closely monitoring the host-virus association. While human adenoviruses typically cause mild infections, recent reports have described newly characterized adenoviruses that can cause severe, sometime fatal, human infections. Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, and the Department ...

Number of Copies of Cells may Impact Its Properties

Posted:

Results from recent studies may help shed light on why certain medications have strong side effects on sperms and eggs, and why certain ones remain unaffected. This is shown by studies that researchers from the University of Gothenburg, together with researchers from Norway and France, are now publishing in the journal iPLOS Genetics/i. All cells in our bodies contain copies of the genetic information. However, different cells contain different numbers of the ...

Source of H7N9 Avian Influenza Identified

Posted:

Researchers have ascribed H7N9 source to genetic reassortment of wild birds from east Asia and chickens from east China. The researchers found that no genes in H7N9 were traceable to pigs, thus excluding pigs as intermediate hosts for the deadly new strain of bird flu, reports Xinhua. The report came from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology. A fresh outbreak of bird flu in China has ...

Neuroblastomas Vulnerable to a New Class of Anti-Cancer Drugs

Posted:

The efficacy of new anti-cancer drugs known as BET bromodomain inhibitors may be undertood by an irregularity within neuroblastoma cells in the neuroblastoma tumor, a childhood cancer. The findings (abstract 4622) will be discussed in a minisymposium on Tuesday, April 9, 3:50 - 4:05 p.m., ET, in Room 147, in the Washington Convention Center. The work was published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association of Cancer Research, on Feb. 21, 2013. In ...

Increased Risk of Pediatric Cancer, All Thanks to Air Pollution

Posted:

An increased exposure to traffic-related air pollution during pregnancy may increase the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia and other childhood cancers. "The main reason for undertaking this study was that we know much more about the causes of adult cancers than we do of the causes of childhood cancers," said Julia Heck, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant researcher in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health. ...

Preference of Chin Shape is Not Universal, Says Study

Posted:

The findings of a research from Dartmouth College have revealed that there is no standard characterization for an attractive chin. This conclusion contradicts the belief that certain features of human beauty are universal. Researcher studied the chin shapes of 180 human skeletons from the American Museum of Natural History. It included both male and female mandibles and from nine areas in Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe. The scientists noted significant ...

Research Says Adults of This Generation are Ageing Much Faster

Posted:

A recent research says that adults of this generation are less healthy and older than the older generation when they were at the same age. Even thought the life expectancy has increased due to advanced medical technology and care, the lifestyle of younger generation has made them more prone to medical problems like heart disease, weight issues and high blood pressure. Researchers from Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment had ...

NHS Reports a Remarkable Increase in the Number of Organ Donations

Posted:

According to the latest statistics by the National Health Service, there is a 50% increase in the number of organ donations since 2008. Elizabeth Buggins, chair of the UK Organ Donation Taskforce, reported that the number of deceased donors reached 1,212 last year, and their organs transformed the lives of 3,100 recipients. However, 125 families over-ruled the wishes of their relatives in 2011-12 and refused to allow the donation. The solid organs of ...

Botox Injections May Cause Depression, Suggests a Study

Posted:

A new study has found that the famous cosmetic anti-wrinkle treatment Botox injections could indirectly trigger depression. Botox injections given to eliminate crows' feet around the eyes makes one look younger but it prevents the smile from spreading beyond the mouth. Dr Michael Lewis, a psychologist at Cardiff University explains that the facial expressions are also responsible for the emotions we feel. We smile when we are happy conversely smiling ...