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Quiz on Sickle Cell Anemia

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Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder that affects blood and necessitates frequent blood transfusions in certain cases. Test your knowledge on sickle cell anemia by taking this quiz.

Walnuts Keep Diabetes, Heart Diseases Away

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A walnut-rich diet can protect overweight adults from diabetes and heart diseases, reveals new study. Researchers from Yale University put a small group of adults on a walnut-enriched diet for two eight-week sessions. For their research, scientists chose 46 adults between the ages of 30 and 75 who had a body mass index larger than 25 and a waist circumference exceeding 40 inches (102 cm) for men and 35 inches (89 cm) for women. All ...

Increase in Cases of Oropharyngeal Cancer Due to HPV

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Researchers from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit have blamed the human papillomavirus (HPV) for the alarming increase in oropharyngeal cancer among young adults. There has been a 60 percent increase from 1973 and 2009 in cancers of the tonsils, soft palate, base of tongue, and pharynx in people who are below the age of 45. "The growing incidence in oropharyngeal cancer has been largely attributed to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, which ...

World Heart Day 2013

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The World Heart Day, celebrated on September 29, 2013, focuses on women and children and how certain steps taken right from childhood can reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease especially in this population. a href="http:www.medindia.net/patients/Firstaid-heartattack.htm" target="_blank"Heart disease/a was once considered a disease of older men. Young women do have some immunity against certain heart diseases due to the protective effect of ...

Moderate Coffee Consumption Doesn't Increase Heart Disease Risk, Says Study

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Moderate coffee consumption is not associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk, says research. Recently, a new review paper1 had suggested that for most healthy people, moderate coffee consumption is unlikely to adversely affect cardiovascular health. Furthermore a new paper2 concluded that higher green tea and coffee consumption is inversely associated with risk of CVD and stroke in the general population. Considerable ...

Music: Key to Mental Health

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A new study finds that the risk of mental decline through age is less in people who play musical instruments. Researchers at St Andrews University found that musicians have sharper minds and they are able to pick up and rectify mistakes quicker than their non-musician counterparts, News.com.au reported. For the research, led by psychologist Ines Jentzsch, scientists compared the behavioural and brain responses of amateur musicians with non-musicians ...

Male Nurse Teases and Troubles Aged Patients in Care Home for the Elderly

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A male nurse made a senior dementia patient go down on all fours and beg him for cigarettes and also forced a 99-year-old female patient to suck his thumb. Investigations were conducted by the police and the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) regarding Andrew James Davis, a 52-year-old registered nurse, at a Bupa-owned aged-care home between 2009 and 2011, regarding his strange behavior with elderly patients. A colleague had lodged a complaint about ...

Beware of Needles Used at Backstreet Beauty Salons

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Needles used at inexpensive beauty salons and at home without proper guidelines could be hazardous and putting many at risk of serious ailments. Those getting Botox, tanning injections and facial fillings at salons that do not adopt proper standards could be putting themselves at risk of contracting HIV, hepatitis C and other viruses. According to The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), many people are getting such treatments done ...

Inexpensive Gel Effective for Newborns With Low Blood Sugar

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A recent study carried out at Auckland University's Liggins Institute and at Waikato Women's Hospital in Hamilton found that newborns with low blood sugar or neonatal hypoglycemia can be easily treated with an easy to administer and inexpensive dextrose gel. It must be known that low blood sugar in newborns can lead to brain damage. Statistics show that up to 15 per cent of otherwise healthy babies suffer from neonatal hypoglycemia. "Our study ...

Acupuncture Appears to be a Good Option for Victims of Depression

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A recent study has shown the benefits of acupuncture in treating victims of depression. The study showed that victims get as much benefit from acupuncture as they get from counseling. The study found that three months of acupuncture or counseling helped nearly one in three patients and they were no longer depressed, compared to one in five who did not receive any treatment. Participants who received acupuncture or counseling experienced ...

Parents in Haryana Do Not Take Their Daughters for Cancer Treatment

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Gender disparity is rampant in Haryana and is evident in the way parents refuse to seek treatment for cancer for their ailing daughters. After a sample study in one of Haryana's major childhood cancer treatment facilities at Pt. B.D. Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, NGO Cankids Kidscan has found that girls in the state seem to be facing discrimination, as compared to boys, in access to modern therapy and compliance with treatment. ...

Artificial Heart Pump Saves the Day for 42-year-old Chennai Man

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Quite a milestone in the advancement of cardiac care in India, for this is the first time an artificial heart pump has been installed in the chest cavity of a 42-year-old man with a rare heart disease. The procedure was successfully conducted at the Fortis Malar hospital in Chennai by Dr. K. R. Balakrishnan, who is the director of the Cardiac Sciences Division. The Heartware Ventricular Assist Device (HVAD) gave the patient, Satish Kumar, the ability ...

Blessing of Portable Devices During Sudden Cardiac Arrests

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Recently, a 35-year old software professional, Nimit Ahuja was shopping at a mall when he suddenly collapsed. Though he was rushed to the hospital, he could not survive the sudden cardiac arrest. Cardiologists say young lives like these can be saved if there are facilities like Automated External Defibrillators (AED) available at public places in India. An AED is a portable device that can automatically diagnose a sudden cardiac arrest and help save life with the ...

Risk of Early Death Lowered by Eating Seven Portions of Fruit and Veggies Daily

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Consuming more of fruit and vegetables a day, atleast five portions is the secret to reducing our risk of dying early. Researchers have found people, who eat 569g a day- the equivalent of 7.1 portions- slash their risk of premature death by 10 per cent and live on average one year and 44 days longer, the Daily Express reported. The Spanish research suggested that fruit and vegetables rich diet reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by ...

Any Doubts About Existence of Water on Mars ?

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Researchers have confirmed the presence of small amounts of water on the Red Planet contained in the dust and fine soil. Los Alamos researchers using the rover's ChemCam instrument team up with an international cadre of scientists affiliated with the CheMin, APXS, and SAM instruments to describe the Red Planet's seemingly once-volcanic and aquatic history. Researchers believed the hydrogen seen in the dust was coming from water, a hypothesis that was ...

Novel Study Finds FDA-approved Antidepressant may Fight Lethal Form of Lung Cancer

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A recent study has outlined the benefits of antidepressants in fighting a deadly form of lung cancer. And because the drugs have already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in humans, the researchers have been able to quickly launch a clinical trial to test their theory in patients. The phase-2 trial is now recruiting participants with small-cell lung cancer and other, similar conditions like aggressive gastrointestinal neuroendocrine cancers. ...

Study: Patients With Scarring Problems Aided By Fat Grafting

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Pain, discomfort, and inability to perform regular activities are suffered by millions of people with scars. Some may have to revert to addicting pain medicine to get rid of their ailments. Now, and with a new methodology, such problems can be treated successfully. A technique using injection of the patient's own fat cells is an effective treatment for hard, contracted scars resulting from burns or other causes, reports a study in the September issue of iThe ...

Researchers Develop New Approach to Treat Brain Cancer With Better Outcomes

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Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have developed a new experimental approach to treating a type of brain cancer called medulloblastoma. The method targets cancer stem cells-the cells that are critical for maintaining tumor growth-and halts their ability to proliferate by inhibiting enzymes that are essential for tumor progression. The process destroys the ability of the cancer cells to grow and divide, paving the way for a new type of treatment ...

WHO Good Ambassador Highlights Need to Shed Stigma Attached to Leprosy

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WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Elimination of Leprosy Yohei Sasakawa has called for extension of support to the patients to overcome the stigma associated with the disease, highlighting the discrimination against the leprosy-affected in India. "Many parts of India still face the problems of discrimination and a major social stigma is attached to those afflicted with leprosy. After meeting and understanding them, one thing I can conclude is that the leprosy situation ...

Poll: 19.4% US Workers Can't Access Facebook at Workplace

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A poll has found that nearly 19.4 pc US workers are unable to access their Facebook accounts in their office. The survey also revealed that nearly 10 percent said that they are unable to access webmail sites like Google Mail and Yahoo in their workplace, the New York Daily News reported. Statista Workplace Survey collected the data from 1,021 full- and part-time employees across the US. Twitter and YouTube were also frequently blocked by ...

Research: Proper Diet Can Lower Hypertension And Improve Heart Function

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A new research finds that diet can help lower hypertension and improve heart function in patients suffering from a common type of heart failure. After 21 days of following a low-sodium Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan, patients saw a drop in blood pressure similar to taking anti-hypertension medicine. Scott Hummel, M.D., cardiologist at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, said that their work suggests diet ...

Retinal Detachment Is A Real Possibility: Eye Care Experts

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Some of the symptoms of retinal detachment are sudden flashes of light in the eye, haziness and decrease in vision. They are not to be ignored, caution eye care experts, creating awareness on the occasion of the World Retina Week. Retinal detachment is a condition where the retina - the light sensitive area of the eye - gets separated from its normal position, leading to deterioration in vision. The retinal tissues get detached from the layer of oxygen providing ...

Half of British Pilots Fall Asleep on the Job, Finds Survey

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A new survey finds that more than half of Britain's airline pilots have fallen asleep in the cockpit and a third have woken up to find their co-pilot asleep. The poll of 500 pilots commissioned by the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) also found that 43 percent believed that tiredness had compromised their ability to fly a plane at least once a month for the last six months. Some 56 percent admitted they had fallen asleep during a flight ...

Artist Draws Three Cities With the Help of Robots

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An artist from Australia simultaneously drew pictures of three European capitals-accompanied by two robots mimicking every single moment. Alex Kiessling worked in Vienna while a pair of orange industrial robots in London's Trafalgar Square and Berlin's Breitscheidplatz drew exactly the same picture of three human faces with the help of satellite transmissions. Spectators in the German and British capitals could follow the artist in Vienna courtesy of giant ...

Aussie Teen Loses His Case to Refuse Life-Saving Treatment

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An Australian teenager suffering from cancer lost his case to refuse a life-saving treatment because he is a Jehovah's witness. The 17-year-old, who suffers from an aggressive cancer, lost his case against Sydney Children's Hospital in March in which he had argued that treating him with blood products or a transfusion would breach his relationship with God. His appeal in the New South Wales Supreme Court against that judgement failed Friday after no ...

Steroids may Persist Much Longer in the Environment, Study

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It is believed that as steroids and other pharmaceutical products released into the water degrade, they cause a lesser risk on the aquatic widlife. But there's growing sentiment that once in the environment, some of these bioactive organic compounds may transform in a way that makes their presumed impact less certain. A new study led by the University of Iowa and published online Thursday in the journal iScience/i found this was the case with the anabolic ...

Cancer Studies Reveal a Common Link Between Different Tumors

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The type of cancer may be defined by where in the body it occurs-for eg lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer etc. . This framework for studying and treating cancer has made sense for generations, but molecular analysis now shows that cancers of different organs have many shared features, while cancers from the same organ or tissue are often quite distinct. The Pan-Cancer Initiative, a major effort to analyze the molecular aberrations in cancer cells across ...

Telomere Length may Play a Vital Role in Prostate Cancer Prognosis

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Just like the aglets at the end of shoelaces, the telomeres protect the part of chromosomes that carry the instructional material of the cell. Cancer cells are known to have short telomeres, but just how short they are from cancer cell to cancer cell may be a determining factor in a prostate cancer patient's prognosis, according to a study led by Johns Hopkins scientists. "Doctors are looking for new ways to accurately predict prostate cancer patients' prognoses, ...

Your Own Cells may Treat Parkinson's Disease

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Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) extracted from the patient itself may be extremely helpful in treating many disease. However, studies in rodents have suggested that the body may mount an immune response and destroy cells derived from iPSCs. New research in monkeys refutes these findings, suggesting that in primates like us, such cells will not be rejected by the immune system. In the paper, publishing September 26 in the ISSCR's journal iStem Cell Reports/i, published ...

Rats may Now Help Police Hunt Down Criminals

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Now rats may help sniff out crime and unveil a new future in forensic science. Derrick, Thomson and Thompson, Magnum and Poirot, all named after fictional detectives, are being groomed to help police not only keep the streets clean but also save time and money. "As far as we know we're the first in the world to train rats to be used in police investigations," said Mark Wiebes, who heads the Dutch police "innovation" centre. Each rat costs ...

Folic Acid Deficiency Could Harm Your Grandchildren Too!

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It is believed that a deficiency of folic acid could cause several problems like spina bifida, placental abnormalities and heart disease in the offspring. A study out today reveals that a mutation in a gene necessary for the metabolism of folic acid not only impacts the immediate offspring but can also have detrimental health effects on the next several generations. The new research, which also sheds light on the molecular mechanism of folic acid (also known as folate) during ...

Anti-Fungal Cream to Wipe Out AIDS Virus

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Ciclopirox, a common anti-fungal medicine may actually help eradicate AIDS causing virus from cells by shutting down the powerhouse of the cell, researchers claim." The method still has to undergo clinical tests on humans, but experts say the fact that it's already FDA-approved may speed up the process, the New York Daily News reported. Researchers from Rutgers' New Jersey Medical School said that the drug caused the HIV-infected cells to "commit suicide" ...

Childhood Abuse, Lack of Parental Warmth Linked to Multiple Health Risks in Adulthood

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The effects of childhood abuse and lack of parental affection can last a lifetime, taking a toll both emotionally and physically and triggering multiple health risks in adulthood. There are many reports assessing the psychological damage resulting from childhood abuse, and the effects on physical health have also been well documented. For instance, this "toxic" stress has been linked to elevated cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and other ...

Diagnosing and Treating Sore Throat Crucial Part of Overall Strategy to Prevent Rheumatic Heart Disease

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Diagnosing and treating sore (strep) throat in children and adolescents can stop such cases from developing into acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) and this should be a cornerstone in any overall RHD strategy. The issues around primary prevention are discussed in one of the papers in the RHD special issue of iGlobal Heart/i (the Journal of the World Heart Federation) by authors Dr Liesl Zuhlke, University of Cape Town and Red Cross ...

Shark Blood Antibody Could be the Key to Beating Breast Cancer

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An antibody found in the blood of sharks could help tackle breast cancer, say researchers. It is thought that the unique IgNAR antibodies could be used to prevent the growth of cancer cells and research into them could lead to the development of new drugs to fight one of the most common form of the disease, News.com.au reported. Biologists from the University of Aberdeen have been awarded 345,660 Australian dollars by Scottish cancer research ...

Genetic Engineering Study Confirms Role of Sperm Competition in Formation of New Species

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Close proximity with a female-something that occurs in a majority of species, including humans-results in the ejaculates from two or more males overlapping within her reproductive tract. When this happens, sperm compete for fertilization of the female's eggs. In addition, the female has the opportunity to bias fertilization of her eggs in favor of one male's sperm over others. These processes, collectively known as postcopulatory sexual selection, drive a myriad ...