Medindia Health News

Condoms in South Africa are Rebranded as HIV Infections Rise
Ancestry of Southern African Khoe Pastoralists Revealed by Lactase Persistence Alleles
Hearing Loss in Young Children and Early Intervention
Vote and Get Discount in Hospitals
Low Doses of Aspirin can Boost Fertility
Tangled Origin of ALS Unraveled: Study
In 90 Percent Of Most Common Childhood Bone Tumor, TP53-Tumor Suppressor Gene Mutated
Predicting Likelihood of Couples Marrying After Meeting in Social Websites
Exercise When Combined With High Protein Intake in Youth Improves Bone Structure and Strength
Resting-state Functional Connection During Low Back Pain
Advantages and Potential of Computer-Guided Spinal Surgery Highlighted by Research Studies
Legal Pitfalls of Korean Unification Seen in Inheritance Cases
Liver Transplant Recipient Survival Not Affected by Pre-Transplant Low Sodium Levels
Study Of Caloric Restriction In Monkey Shows Big Benefit, Contradicting Earlier Study
Simple Blood Test can Find Out Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death
Size of Cereal Flakes Matters
Watermelons Could Help Lower Your Blood Pressure
Screening Patients for Spine Surgery for Anxiety and Depression is Required: Survey
Michael Schumacher Showing 'Encouraging Signs' of Coming Out of Coma
There's Always a Fear Whether Cancer Will Come Back: Manisha Koirala
Pharmocogenomics Fails to Address Tropical Diseases in Developing Countries
Strategy Replaces Top Executives of Japan Over Drug Trial Scandal
Economic Evaluation of an Osteoporosis Screening Strategy Using FRAX
Fighting Cancer With Lasers and Nanoballoons

Condoms in South Africa are Rebranded as HIV Infections Rise

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After a new study showed rising HIV infections and flagging contraception use, South Africa is now planning to rebrand its free condoms to appeal young people, the health department said on Thursday. Condoms distributed by the government will come in a wider range of colours and flavours, as authorities seek to mend the damage done to their image when thousands of faulty condoms were recalled in January 2012. "We want to refresh the way we provide condoms ...

Ancestry of Southern African Khoe Pastoralists Revealed by Lactase Persistence Alleles

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Ancestry of the Khoe people in southern Africa traced by the lactase persistence variants, found in a new study by a team of researchers lead from Uppsala University. The team concludes that pastoralist practices were brought to southern Africa by a small group of migrants from eastern Africa. The study is published in iCurrent Biology/i today. "This is really an exciting time for African genetics. Up until now, routes of human migration in Africa were inferred ...

Hearing Loss in Young Children and Early Intervention

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Early identification of hearing loss in infants and young children and treating hearing impairment can go a long way to integrate them into the society of talking people.

Vote and Get Discount in Hospitals

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Four hospitals in Jaipur and Jodhpur have announced they would give discounts on expensive medical treatments to people who cast their vote on April 17, say sources. The first phase of voting for the Lok Sabha election takes place in the state on 17th April. Voting for the 25 parliamentary constituencies in the state will take place April 17 and 24. Virendra Pareek, spokesperson for Eternal Hearth Care Center (and) Institute in Jaipur, told ...

Low Doses of Aspirin can Boost Fertility

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Low doses of aspirin could boost a woman's fertility, finds new research. The reason for this could be that aspirin increases blood flow to the womb, the researchers said. However, contrary to popular belief, taking the drug does not prevent miscarriage. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health randomly assigned more than 1,000 women with a history of pregnancy loss either a low dose of aspirin daily or a placebo. They ...

Tangled Origin of ALS Unraveled: Study

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An error protein formation that could be the root of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been pinpointed in a study of nerve cells that originated in patients with a severe neurological disease, by a University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher. Also called Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS causes paralysis and death. According to the ALS Association, as many as 30,000 Americans are living with ALS. After a genetic mutation was discovered in a small group of ALS ...

In 90 Percent Of Most Common Childhood Bone Tumor, TP53-Tumor Suppressor Gene Mutated

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The tumor suppressant gene TP53 has been found to be mutated in 90 percent of osteocarcomas, suggesting gene alteration plays a key role in early development of cancer, found by researchers at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project. The research was published today online ahead of print in the journal iCell Reports/i. The discovery that TP53 is altered in nearly every osteosarcoma also helps to explain ...

Predicting Likelihood of Couples Marrying After Meeting in Social Websites

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About 7% of Americans who married between 2005-2012 met on social networking sites. How those couples compare to couples who met through other types of online meetings or the "old-fashioned" way in terms of age, race, frequency of Internet use, and other factors is explored in an article in iCyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking/i, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the iCyberpsychology, Behavior, ...

Exercise When Combined With High Protein Intake in Youth Improves Bone Structure and Strength

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Intake of high levels of protein enhances the positive impact of high physical activity on bone structure and strength in healthy pre-pubertal boys, shows a study presented during the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Seville. Researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Eindhoven University in the Netherlands tracked 176 healthy pre-pubertal boys (average age 7.4 years) to mid-adolescence (average age ...

Resting-state Functional Connection During Low Back Pain

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The posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, medial prefrontal and lateral temporal cortices are the default mode network key area in the resting state. The resting state is characterized by balanced positive and negative connections classified as the "hubs" of structural and functional connectivity in brain studies. Resting-state functional connectivity MRI is based on the observation that brain regions exhibit correlated slow fluctuations at rest, and has become ...

Advantages and Potential of Computer-Guided Spinal Surgery Highlighted by Research Studies

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Cedars-Sinai surgeons have shown in a series of research studies that a new method of computer-guided spine surgery is beneficial for spinal reconstruction and for treating complex tumors and degenerative spine problems, resulting in fewer complications and better outcomes for patients. The Cedars-Sinai surgeons highlight the advantages of a "spinal navigation" technique that uses high-speed computerized tomography (CT) imaging to navigate in and around the spinal ...

Legal Pitfalls of Korean Unification Seen in Inheritance Cases

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Re-unification with North Korea could trigger an economic "bonanza" has been greeted with widespread skepticism, claims South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, though not among the legal professionals. A recent series of landmark rulings in South Korean courts suggest a merger of North and South could unleash a wave of complex inheritance claims that would keep lawyers busy for years. The latest case saw a Seoul court last month uphold the inheritance ...

Liver Transplant Recipient Survival Not Affected by Pre-Transplant Low Sodium Levels

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Low sodium levels or hyponatremia, prior to transplantation does not seem to increase the risk of death following liver transplant, report researchers. Full findings are published in iLiver Transplantation/i, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society. Medical evidence shows that low sodium concentration is common in patients with end stage liver disease (ESLD), with roughly half ...

Study Of Caloric Restriction In Monkey Shows Big Benefit, Contradicting Earlier Study

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Significant reduction in mortality and age-associated diseases among monkeys with calorie-restricted diets was shown in results from a 25-year old study of diet and aging in monkeys. The study, begun at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989, is one of two ongoing, long-term U.S. efforts to examine the effects of a reduced-calorie diet on nonhuman primates. The study of 76 rhesus monkeys, reported Monday in iNature Communications/i, was performed at the ...

Simple Blood Test can Find Out Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death

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Now, a simple blood test can help find out if you are facing the risk of a sudden cardiac death. "This is the first test of its kind; never before have clinicians been able to accurately assess a patient's risk of sudden cardiac death by performing a blood test," said Samuel C Dudley, chief of cardiology at Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) at Rhode Island. Researchers at CVI, the Miriam and Newport hospitals said the blood test can help doctors come up with ...

Size of Cereal Flakes Matters

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A favored food item for a person on a diet is a bowl of corn or wheat flakes. Have you ever thought that the amount of a href="http:www.medindia.net/nutrition-data/breakfast-bar-corn-flake-crust-with-fruit.htm" target="_blank" class="vcontentshlink"flakes/a in the bowl can vary depending on the size of the flakes? Well, researchers have managed to confirm this. Researchers from the Penn State University in their study, brought forth a very seemingly ...

Watermelons Could Help Lower Your Blood Pressure

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In overweight people both at rest and while under stress, watermelons were found to significantly reduce blood pressure, reveals study. Florida State University Associate Professor Arturo Figueroa said that the pressure on the aorta and on the heart decreased after consuming watermelon extract. Figueroa's 12-week study focused on 13 middle-aged, obese men and women who also suffered from high blood pressure. To simulate cold weather conditions, ...

Screening Patients for Spine Surgery for Anxiety and Depression is Required: Survey

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Routine psychological screenings of patients prior to major surgery for severe back and leg pain are recommended, but only 10 percent of orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons follow these professional guidelines, reveals a report published in the April edition of the iJournal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques/i, by a Johns Hopkins team. The oversight, researchers say, may pose a serious risk to patients' surgical recovery. Previous reports have tied bouts of ...

Michael Schumacher Showing 'Encouraging Signs' of Coming Out of Coma

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Michael Schumacher's manager said that there are encouraging signs in the process of bringing the Formula One legend out of a medically-induced coma. According to News.com.au, there has been a 'noticeable improvement' in Schumacher's condition and his manager Sabine Kehm confirmed the reports, saying that there have been 'encouraging signs' in his recovery. Schumacher suffered severe head injuries in a skiing accident at the French resort of Meribel ...

There's Always a Fear Whether Cancer Will Come Back: Manisha Koirala

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Actress and cancer survivor Manisha Koirala says that being diagnosed with cancer is not a death sentence, but adds that the fear of it coming back lurks at the back of your mind. "I didn't care about my health before, but now I take a lot of care of my health. But there is always a fear whether the cancer will come back, so I now know how to deal with it," said the 43-year-old who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. She successfully battled the disease. ...

Pharmocogenomics Fails to Address Tropical Diseases in Developing Countries

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Despite of various promises made by international scientific community pharmacogenomic, only a few studies have been done on the rare, orphan and tropical diseases in developing countries, reveals a new study. According to the research done by Catherine Olivier, from University of Montreal's School of Public Health, from 1997 to 2003, there were 401 publications on pharmacogenomics identified in the PubMed database and 67 percent of them were published in a single ...

Strategy Replaces Top Executives of Japan Over Drug Trial Scandal

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Novartis, Swiss pharmaceutical giant, said that it was replacing the top executives at its Japanese unit over allegations the division hid serious potential side effects of leukaemia treatments from regulators. David Epstein, the head of the firm's pharmaceutical division, told a news briefing in Tokyo that the senior managers "resigned, they are out of the company", adding that "this kind of behaviour is unacceptable and a clear violation of our code of conduct". ...

Economic Evaluation of an Osteoporosis Screening Strategy Using FRAX

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Investigators showed that an osteoporosis screening strategy using FRAX as a pre-screening tool is cost-effective if the follow up of the screening and medication adherence are optimized. This new research was presented at the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases today. FRAX (WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool) is a widely used algorithm to determine 10-year risk of fracture based on an individual's risk factors. Researchers ...

Fighting Cancer With Lasers and Nanoballoons

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Chemotherapeutic drugs excel at fighting cancer. But these drugs are not so efficient at getting where they need to go. They often interact with blood, bone marrow and other healthy bodily systems. This dilutes the drugs and causes unwanted side effects. Now, researchers are developing a better delivery method by encapsulating the drugs in nanoballoons - which are tiny modified liposomes that, upon being struck by a red laser, pop open and deliver concentrated ...