Medindia Health News

Vegetable Oil Cuts Heart Disease Risk
New Radiation Techniques Treat Brain Tumors Better, Says Oncologist
Tens of Thousands People Celebrated Israel's Annual Gay Pride Parade
Global Death Toll from the SARS-like Virus MERS Raised to 31
Genetically Modified Cotton Improves Diet Quality
Bra Ban Ahead of Chinese Exam to Stop Cheating
Majority of Americans Find Google More Reputable Than Facebook
Neuroimaging may be an Effective Way to Diagnose Bipolar Disorder
School Vaccination Programs Could Reduce Flu Cases Among Children
School Vaccination Programs Could Reduce Flu Cases Among Children
Auction Houses Clash Over a Handbag Sale
Use Caution With Computerized Concussion Test
Retinal Vessel Leakage During High Altitude Exposure: Research
Bladder Cancer Recurrence Could Improve With Better Treatment Compliance
New Technique Developed to Selectively Dampen Harmful Immune Responses
Your Face can Reveal Your Body Mass Index
Anti-obesity Campaign Launched
'Nanoclay' May Help Bone Regeneration
Faster Method to Identify Salmonella Strains Developed
Prancercise - Fitness Workout Sensation
Areca Nut Chewing and Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome
Simple Tips to Cure Skin Dryness
Discuss Facts About Excessive Use of Antibiotics Without Getting Emotional
Origin of Fear
Best Way to Improve Performance is by Observing Own Errors
Fashion Brand at Italy Prison Raises Spirit of Inmates
Risk of Obesity High Among Grand Kids of Obese Women
Recommendation to Ban Smoking E-cigarettes in Public Places
Malnutrition is the Overriding Cause of Child Deaths

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Use of vegetable oils like soybean, canola, corn and sunflower oils can lower heart disease risk, suggest University of Missouri researchers. Kevin Fritsche, along with Guy Johnson, an adjunct professor of food and human nutrition at the University of Illinois, conducted one of the most thorough studies on linoleic acid (LA) questioning whether this fatty acid promoted inflammation in humans. When the evidence from numerous clinical trials ...

New Radiation Techniques Treat Brain Tumors Better, Says Oncologist

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Using non-invasive radiation techniques we can focus on the tumour and yet protect the other portions of the brain very nicely, says Sapna Nangia, senior radiation oncologist at Apollo hospital. Patients get radiation at the specific tumors without damaging the surrounding tissues, she said. A damage to the surrounding portions of the brain can lead to paralysis and memory loss, among other things. A linear accelerator (LINAC) is the ...

Tens of Thousands People Celebrated Israel's Annual Gay Pride Parade

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For Israel's annual Gay Pride parade, tens of thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv, which attracts visitors from all over the world, this year including France's first gay married couple. Gay, lesbian and transgender activists and sympathisers, draped in rainbow flags, took part in a procession of floats through the Mediterranean coastal city blasting out electronic music. Tel Aviv city hall said this marked 20 years since the municipality first ...

Global Death Toll from the SARS-like Virus MERS Raised to 31

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After a new fatality in hard-hit Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization formally raised the global death toll from the SARS-like virus MERS to 31. In a statement, the UN agency said that the victim was an 83-year-old man from the eastern region of Al-Ahsaa, where an outbreak began in a healthcare facility in April. The man fell ill on May 27 and died on May 31, WHO said. "Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed ...

Genetically Modified Cotton Improves Diet Quality

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According to a new research, insect-resistant genetically modified (GM) cotton has significantly improved calorie consumption and dietary quality among small-scale farmers in India over a 7-year-period. The research was published on June 5 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Matin Qaim and Shahzad Kouser from the University of Goettingen, Germany. The researchers used data from a survey of over 500 randomly selected small farm households conducted ...

Bra Ban Ahead of Chinese Exam to Stop Cheating

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With attempts to stop cheating even leading to bans on metal bra clasps, more than nine million students packed exam halls across China for the opening day of the country's university entrance exam. Students in the northeastern province of Jilin were banned from wearing clothing with metal parts and education authorities installed metal detectors in exam centres to clamp down on "wireless cheating devices", the state-run Global Times reported. Authorities ...

Majority of Americans Find Google More Reputable Than Facebook

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A new poll has found that majority of people prefer using Google over its rivals Apple and Facebook when it comes to the all-important game of reputation. According to the Washington Post-ABC News Poll, this asked respondents how they feel about some of the country's top tech firms, showed that 83 percent of American have a favorable view of Google as compared to 72 percent people who prefer Apple and 60 percent who supported Facebook. The poll shows ...

Neuroimaging may be an Effective Way to Diagnose Bipolar Disorder

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According to experts from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, MRI may be an effective way to diagnose mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder. In a landmark study using advanced techniques, the researchers were able to correctly distinguish bipolar patients from healthy individuals based on their brain scans alone. The data are published in the journal iPsychological Medicine/i. Currently, most mental illnesses are diagnosed based on ...

School Vaccination Programs Could Reduce Flu Cases Among Children

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According to a new study reported in the scientific journal iVaccine/i, offering flu vaccines at elementary schools could expand vaccination rates and reduce costs. The study is done by researchers from UC Davis Health System; the Monroe County, New York, Department of Public Health; University of Rochester Medical Center; and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The best protection against flu for children at least 6 months of ...

School Vaccination Programs Could Reduce Flu Cases Among Children

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Auction Houses Clash Over a Handbag Sale

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In Paris, two rival auction houses have clashed over which one may have set the record for the sale of a crocodile-skin Birkin handbag by the luxury goods firm Hermes. Paris auction house Artcurial said last month it had sold a red, orange and pink coloured bag, named after the British-born French actress and singer Jane Birkin, for a record (Dollar) 82,600 (63,800 euros) on May 21. But US auctioneers Heritage Auctions disputed the record, saying they sold ...

Use Caution With Computerized Concussion Test

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A new research from an international team featuring UT Arlington assistant professor Jacob Resch has reaffirmed questions about portions of the popular computerized concussion assessment tool ImPACT. When administered as it is in a clinical setting, the test possessed strong reliability on some evaluation factors. But, on other factors, it miscategorized healthy participants as impaired as much as 46 percent of the time. Authors say the study illustrates the need ...

Retinal Vessel Leakage During High Altitude Exposure: Research

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"Acute mountain sickness (AMS) can be caused by exposure to high altitude and in severe cases, cerebral or pulmonary edema. Capillary leakage has been hypothesized to play a role in the pathogenesis of AMS, although the mechanism of altitude-related illnesses remains largely unknown," writes Gabriel Willmann, M.D., of the University of Tubingen, Germany, and colleagues. "Vessel leakage in the retinal periphery has not been investigated. Our objective was to assess ...

Bladder Cancer Recurrence Could Improve With Better Treatment Compliance

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At UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers led by Dr. Karim Chamie, assistant professor-in-residence in the department of urology, have found that the burden of bladder cancer on the population is very high. And that more intense surveillance and treatment in the first two years after diagnosis could reduce the number of patients whose cancer returns after treatment and lower the death rate from this disease. The study was published online ahead ...

New Technique Developed to Selectively Dampen Harmful Immune Responses

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Normally the human immune system is remarkably efficient, but sometimes its attack is misdirected, leading to allergies, rejection of transplant organs, autoimmune diseases and therapeutic drugs. Current immune suppressants have major drawbacks, but a team from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has demonstrated a new technique that may lead to a better way to selectively repress unwanted immune reactions without disabling the immune system as a whole. As ...

Your Face can Reveal Your Body Mass Index

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Face images can predict the person's body mass index (BMI), say researchers. Guodong Guo and colleagues at West Virginia University in Morgantown have developed an algorithm that can analyse a mugshot and predict that person's BMI, according to New Scientist. BMI is a standard health metric that's equal to a person's weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of their height (in metres). Someone with a BMI over 30 is acknowledged as obese and ...

Anti-obesity Campaign Launched

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A new campaign to check childhood obesity in the US has been launched by The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI). "With obesity proving to be a major epidemic affecting nearly one third of the nation's population, we have a responsibility to save future generations by decreasing childhood obesity," Jayesh Shah, who assumed charge as the youngest AAPI president last week, said in a statement. "We at AAPI are proud to ...

'Nanoclay' May Help Bone Regeneration

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Your kids may make great things out of Play Dough, but when it comes to innovation, a team of researchers at North Dakota State University seem to have aced it. These researchers have developed a special nanoscopic clay that may help regenerate human bones. Dr Kalpana Katti and Dr Dinesh Katti, along with a graduate student Avinash Ambre seem to have done a great job, introducing a novel method that uses nanosized clay to make scaffolds, which ...

Faster Method to Identify Salmonella Strains Developed

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New approach developed by scientists could reduce the time it takes health officials to identify Salmonella strains. The finding may significantly speed up the response to many outbreaks of foodborne illness, allowing epidemiological investigators to identify the exact strains of iSalmonella/i that make people sick and to more quickly find -- and eliminate -- the source of the disease. "There are more than a million estimated cases of salmonellosis annually ...

Prancercise - Fitness Workout Sensation

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Joanna Rohrback, the founder of 'Prancercise,' seems to have the stars in her favor right now. Her video, depicting the unique exercise, which was released last year in December, seems to have gone viral in just a week, with a total of two million views and still counting. Prancercise's official website describes the exercise as a springy, rhythmic way of moving forward, similar to a horse's gait and ideally induced by elation. The video, which garnered ...

Areca Nut Chewing and Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome

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Areca nut chewing is known to play a crucial role in the development of oral and esophageal cancer, and liver cancer. And now, Kashif Shafique at the Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan and his colleagues found that there was a significant positive association between areca nut chewing and metabolic syndrome, and the deleterious effects were even stronger among areca nut chewer with tobacco additives. The study has been published in the ...

Simple Tips to Cure Skin Dryness

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New study has revealed six simple tips to take care of dry skin. Avoid long, hot shower bath - True, that hot water bath relieves stress but it can also make your skin dry. Hot water reduces natural oils from body much faster than lukewarm or cold water. Use a gentle cleanser or shower gel with moisturiser - Cleanser or nice shower gels make skin smoother and removes dryness. Use good moisturiser - ...

Discuss Facts About Excessive Use of Antibiotics Without Getting Emotional

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People need to talk about excessive use of antibiotics without getting emotional or mixing politics into the discussion, Ada Yonath, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, said. "Perhaps we committed errors in using antibiotics for treating viral diseases ... but we learned that that does not work. We learned a bunch of things ... so it is incorrect to say we are abusing antibiotics," Yonath said. Yonath is one of the scientists participating in ...

Origin of Fear

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A new study has investigated what instills fear in human beings. Fear is hard coded into our neural circuitry through the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped nuclei of neurons within the medial temporal lobe of the brain. For psychologists and neurologists, the amygdala is a particularly interesting region of the brain because it plays a role in emotional learning and can have profound effects on human and animal behavior. A technique, developed ...

Best Way to Improve Performance is by Observing Own Errors

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If people are unable to perceive their own errors as they complete a routine, simple task, their skill will decline over time, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers have suggested. The researchers report that the human brain does not passively forget our good techniques, but chooses to put aside what it has learned. The term "motor memories" may conjure images of childhood road trips, but in fact it refers to the reason why we're able to smoothly ...

Fashion Brand at Italy Prison Raises Spirit of Inmates

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Women's prison workshops across Italy are joining up under a new commercial fashion brand they hope will help encourage more detainees to learn the trade and give them hope for a future on the outside. The Sigillo (Seal) brand unveiled by the justice ministry this year will be available in the shops within months -- a unique experiment that has given new energy to places like a handbag workshop at Rebibbia prison in Rome. "When I get out I want to have ...

Risk of Obesity High Among Grand Kids of Obese Women

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Researchers have found that the offspring of obese mothers may be spared health problems linked to obesity, while their own children then inherit them. A new study suggests that health problems linked to obesity - like heart disease and diabetes - could skip an entire generation. Currently, concern about the obesity epidemic is mainly focused on the health of obese women and their children, rather than the wider family. The University of ...

Recommendation to Ban Smoking E-cigarettes in Public Places

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The Italian health ministry's top advisory body has recommended a ban on the smoking of electronic cigarettes in public places and their sale to pregnant women and minors. The recommendation by the ministry's Superior Health Council came after France's Health Minister Marisol Touraine said she was planning simiar restrictions. "Smoking an e-cigarette is smoking," she stated. E-cigarettes contain an electronic inhaler that vaporises a liquid ...

Malnutrition is the Overriding Cause of Child Deaths

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A new iLancet/i series on maternal and childhood nutrition finds that over 3 million children die every year of malnutrition-accounting for nearly half of all child deaths under 5. Along with state-of-the-art global estimates on the long-term burden of malnutrition, the series presents a new framework for prevention and treatment that considers underlying factors, such as food security, social conditions, resources, and governance. Professor Robert Black, Department of ...