Month: September 2013

Irregular periods could be deadly bomb for teenage girls

While irregular periods are common among teenage girls, researchers have warned that if erratic menstrual cycles persist later into the teen years, girls should see a specialist to determine if they are suffering from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).

PCOS is an endocrine disorder that is characterized by an excess of androgens or male hormones in the body. The imbalance of hormones interferes with the growth and release of eggs from the ovaries, which can prevent ovulation and menstruation.

Apart from irregular periods, symptoms associated with PCOS can include weight gain, hair growth on the body and face, thinning of the hair on the head, acne and infertility.

Women with PCOS are at risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and endometrial cancer. People with PCOS also tend to become resistant to insulin, which can lead to diabetes.

Suzanne Kavic, MD, division director, Reproductive Endocrinology, Loyola University Health System, said that symptoms associated with this syndrome can be concerning to young girls particularly during the teen years, which is already a stressful time.

However, Kavic said that PCOS can be identified at an early age and begin managing symptoms to alleviate some of the anxiety for these girls.

Treatments for PCOS can include a combination of exercise, diet modifications and medication. Weight loss helps to regulate male hormones and blood sugar levels, which can restore ovulation and menstruation. Birth control pills also may be prescribed to control the menstrual cycle while other hormone therapies can decrease androgen levels and curb symptoms.

The article originally appeared in Zee News

Say no to diets which promise speedy weight loss!

The best way to lose weight is to eat the right food, at the right time, in the right quantity, and exercise daily for 45 minutes

I have to lose weight in 10 days for a wedding’ or ‘I need to shape-up quickly to fit into my dresses – how often do we think about these things and look for quick solutions? In an attempt to lose weight quickly, many people knock the doors of fad diets. They may come to your rescue at times like these but beware – they do more harm than good to your health. Renowned nutritionist Neha Chandna explains why fad diets are bad for you including seven popular ones like cookie and liquid diet.

First and foremost, there are no shortcuts to weight loss. You haven’t put on all the weight overnight, so how can you expect to lose it at a lightning speed? These days, everyone wants to lose weight in the blink of an eye and to achieve their dream body, they resort to fad diets which definitely work but for a short period of time. They help you lose weight from your muscles and bones leaving you feeling weak and ill. And once you go back to your normal routine, you gain all the weight or even more in no time. You do the math and see the whole point of following some diet regime which is short-lived, deprives you of nutrients and has many hazardous effects on your body?

The best way to lose weight is to eat the right food, at the right time, in the right quantity, and exercise daily for 45 minutes to one hour. The point is to lose weight gradually rather than rapidly. A lifestyle change is the answer to losing weight than falling into the trap of fad diets. So how do you know if it is a fad diet? Here are some tips.

How to spot a fad diet

  • It promises exaggerated results in few days which is too good to be true
  • Will mostly have rigid eating rules
  • It restricts you from eating a lot of food groups like carbohydrates, fats, etc
  • It promotes ‘magic foods’
  • The diet is sold based on a few testimonials without any research or studies done on its effect
  • It doesn’t involve much exercise along with the meal plans

Ill-effects of fad diets on the body

  • Causes constipation
  • Leads to weakness
  • Loss of concentration
  • Nausea
  • Headache
  • Depression
  • Muscle loss
  • Health risks like osteoporosis and many more

While there are a number of fad diets that keep cropping up every now and then, especially when they are endorsed by celebrities, here a few popular ones to stay away from.

Cookie Diet: Invented by Dr Siegal, this a diet in which one has to eat nine cookies a day that makes up to 500 kcal and then have a 500 kcal dinner, totalling up to 1000 kcal every day.

Why is it bad: This diet gets monotonous and can cause nutrient deficiencies.

Baby Food Diet: This diet is about eating 14 jars of baby foods throughout the day and a sensible dinner. The baby foods include mashed fruits and veggies.

Why is it bad: It does not meet your nutrient needs and is low in protein. Eating like an adult is recommended.

Cabbage Soup Diet: This is 7-day diet which focuses on having as many bowls of cabbage soup every day with some fruits and vegetables.

Why is it bad: This diet is bland, boring and makes you feel weak and resulting in poor concentration. The biggest drawback is that it makes you gassy and bloated.

Liquid Diet: The idea is to cleanse the body and rejuvenate it with juices, water, clear soups.

Why is it bad: It is again very low on protein and can make you really weak. Not recommended to do it more than a day.

Atkins Diet: Written by Dr Robert Atkins, this is the most popular fad diet which aims at reducing the main source of energy – carbohydrates to up to 20g/day and focuses more on vegetables, fats and proteins.

Why is it bad: The side-effect of this diet is, it recommends more than 30% fat intake which is above the recommended allowance and can lead to extreme ketosis which can cause damage to the organs in the long run.

Blood Type Diet: Created by Dr Peter D’Adamo, it focuses on eating some and avoiding some foods as per your blood type. It follows a ‘one size fits all’ concept.

Why is it bad: It bans a lot of health promoting foods making eating out difficult and some people may be healthy despite eating foods forbidden for them.

General Motor’s Diet: This is a 7-day diet plan which is based on the intake of specified food items which include raw vegetables, fruits, juice, and lean meat. It restricts the intake of any dairy products and promises weight loss of 10 pounds in week. Each day is restricted to 1-2 raw foods in unlimited amounts.

Why is it bad: This diet can make you weak and hungry, leads to the inability to exercise, depression and body pain.

To avoid any damages to your body, do not opt for any fad diets. Just eat balanced meals and engage in physical activity to see the difference both physically and mentally. The process may be longer and less dramatic unlike fad diets, but the results will be long-term and benefit your body’s health than spoiling it with extreme restrictions. So, the next time you think about opting for any such diet, remember, it’s a fad… err bad idea!

 Source: Zee News

 

Gout sufferers: Advised to abate forgo sugary drinks

Gout sufferers: Advised to abate forgo sugary drinks

Sufferers of gout might soon be advised to forgo sugary drinks to avoid pain and flaring up of the crippling affliction, according to a New Zealand study released Thursday.

Scientists at the University of Otago and the University of Auckland have discovered a human gene variant that can “turn bad” when affected by sugary drinks, Xinhua reported citing the study.

It showed that when the variant of the gene SLC2A9 behaved correctly, it helped transport uric acid out of the bloodstream and facilitated its excretion through the kidney.

“But when people with this gene variant consume sugary drinks, the apparent function of the gene variant reverses, such that we think uric acid is instead transported back into the blood stream and the risk of gout is increased,” Tony Merriman, associate professor in University of Otago’s biochemistry department, said in a statement.

SLC2A9 is a newly identified urate transporter influencing serum urate concentration, urate excretion and gout.

“So not only does sugar raise uric acid in the blood due to processing in the liver, but it also appears to directly interfere with excretion of uric acid from the kidney. This was a quite unpredictable interaction,” he said.

“Daily 300-millilitre serving of sugar-sweetened drink increases the chance of gout by 13 percent,” said the professor.

He recommended people with gout to avoid sugary drinks.

Gout is caused when uric acid in the blood crystallises in the joints, causing them to become inflamed. It is the most common form of arthritis in New Zealand, particularly among men.

The disease has strong links with other metabolic diseases such as diabetes, heart and kidney disease.

 Source: Zee News

High-fat diets interrupt stomach’s signals to the brain

the nerves in the stomach which signal fullness to the brain appeared to be desensitised after long-term consumption of a high-fat diet.

Indulging in fatty foods could destroy stomach’s signals to the brain, according to a new study which gives insight why many dieters tend to regain the weight after losing it.

New University of Adelaide research has found the nerves in the stomach which signal fullness to the brain appeared to be desensitised after long-term consumption of a high-fat diet.

The findings could explain why many dieters tend to regain the weight they have lost.

PhD student Stephen Kentish investigated the impact of high-fat diets on the ability of the gut to signal its fullness, and whether those changes revert back to normal by losing weight.

Study leader Associate Professor Amanda Page said laboratory studies showed the stomach’s nerve response does not return to normal upon a return to a normal diet.

“This means you would need to eat more food before you felt the same degree of fullness as a healthy individual,” she said.

“A hormone in the body, leptin, known to regulate food intake, can also change the sensitivity of the nerves in the stomach that signal fullness.

“In normal conditions, leptin acts to stop food intake. However, in the stomach in high-fat diet induced obesity, leptin further desensitises the nerves that detect fullness.”

Associate Professor Page said the two mechanisms combined meant that obese people needed to eat more to feel full, which fuels their obesity cycle.

She said the results had “very strong implications for obese people, those trying to lose weight, and those who are trying to maintain their weight loss”.

“Unfortunately, our results show that the nerves in the stomach remain desensitised to fullness after weight loss has been achieved,” she said.

Associate Professor Page says the researchers were not yet sure whether the effect was permanent or just long-lasting.

Source: Zee News

Womb cancer link to diet, exercise and possibly coffee

The risk of womb cancer can be reduced by exercise, diet and possibly drinking coffee, research suggests.

Almost half of cases of womb cancer in the UK – about 3,700 a year – could be prevented through keeping slim and active, a review of data shows.

Researchers at Imperial College, London, say women can reduce their risk with at least 30 minutes of daily exercise and keeping a healthy weight.

The World Cancer Research Fund report also found that coffee may reduce risk.

But experts say there is not yet enough evidence to recommend drinking coffee to protect against the disease.

Endometrial cancer – cancer of the womb lining – is the fourth most common of all cancers in women in the UK.

In the first global analysis since 2007, Imperial College London researchers collated and reviewed scientific research on endometrial cancer, and links with diet, physical activity and body weight.

The study found evidence that about 3,700 cases could be prevented every year if women were active for 38 minutes a day and maintained a healthy body weight.

In the UK only 56% of women follow recommendations to be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week, while only 39% have a healthy weight.

Study author Dr Teresa Norat of Imperial College told the BBC: “If you are physically active and if you don’t have excess body weight you can reduce your risk of womb cancer and improve your health in general.”

Karen Sadler, executive director of the World Cancer Research Fund added: “The evidence on coffee is very interesting and is a further indication of the potential link between coffee and the risk of cancer but a lot more work still needs to be done.

“We need to consider the possible effect on other cancers as well as the impact on other health conditions and we are now looking to conduct further research into this issue.”

 

The final nail in the Jurassic Park coffin

It is hardly possible to talk about fossil insects in amber without the 1993 movie Jurassic Park entering the debate. The idea of recreating dinosaurs by extracting DNA from insects in amber has held the fascination of the public for two decades. Claims for successful extraction of DNA from ambers up to 130 million-years-old by various scientists in the early 1990s were only seriously questioned when a study at the Natural History Museum, London, was unable to replicate the process. The original claims are now considered by many to be a text-book example of modern contaminant DNA in the samples. Nonetheless, some scientists hold fast to their original claims.

Research just published in the journal The Public Library of Science ONE (PLOS ONE) by a team of researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences at The University of Manchester can now confirm that the existence of DNA in amber fossils is highly unlikely. The team led by amber expert Dr David Penney and co-ordinated by ancient DNA expert Professor Terry Brown used highly-sensitive ‘next generation’ sequencing techniques – the most advance type of DNA sequencing – on insects in copal, the sub-fossilized resin precursor of amber.

The research was conducted wearing full forensic suits in the dedicated ancient DNA facility at The University of Manchester, which comprises a suite of independent, physically isolated laboratories, each with an ultra-filtered air supply maintaining positive displacement pressure and a managed access system.

According to Professor Brown: “In the original 1990s studies DNA amplification was achieved by a process called the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which will preferentially amplify any modern, undamaged DNA molecules that contaminate an extract of partially degraded ancient ones to give false positive results that might be mistaken for genuine ancient DNA. Our approach, using ‘next generation’ sequencing methods is ideal for ancient DNA because it provides sequences for all the DNA molecules in an extract, regardless of their length, and is less likely to give preference to contaminating modern molecules.”

The team concluded that their inability to detect ancient DNA in relatively young (60 years to 10,600 years old) sub-fossilized insects in copal, despite using sensitive next generation methods, suggests that the potential for DNA survival in resin inclusions is no better, and perhaps worse, than that in air-dried museum insects (from which DNA has been retrieved using similar techniques). This raises significant doubts about claims of DNA extraction from fossil insects in amber, many millions of years older than copal.

Dr Penney said: “Intuitively, one might imagine that the complete and rapid engulfment in resin, resulting in almost instantaneous demise, might promote the preservation of DNA in a resin entombed insect, but this appears not to be the case. So, unfortunately, the Jurassic Park scenario must remain in the realms of fiction.”

Source: BBC News

Students reminded to manage allergies away from home

In the next few weeks thousands of young people will be starting university – and many of those will be embarking on a new life away from home.

For students like Helen Kitley, 21, from Kent, going to university in Southampton meant more than just learning to do her own washing and cooking.

It entailed coping with a severe allergy to hazelnuts, which almost put her off the whole idea of living in student accommodation.

It seems reckless to me not to take it [Epipen] with you. I bring it everywhere because I just don’t think it’s worth the risk.”

Helen Kitley

“Every student kitchen has Nutella in it – students are nuts about it – but for me it was like a little pot of poison looking at me.”

Severe allergic reactions, known as anaphylaxis, are very dangerous and can be fatal. There are thought to be about 20 deaths every year in the UK from anaphylaxis – and five of those result from food allergies.

‘Reckless’

But according to a survey of 500 young people aged 15 to 25, carried out by the charity Anaphylaxis Campaign, more than a third said they don’t always carry their life-saving adrenaline with them.

Adrenaline auto-injectors, such as Epipens, are the only effective emergency treatment for anaphylaxis which can be used as soon as the allergic reaction takes hold, while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

For Helen, her adrenaline pen is something she is never without.

“It seems reckless to me not to take it with you. I bring it everywhere because I just don’t think it’s worth the risk.

“I don’t always know where I will be eating so it’s just good sense to pop it in my handbag.”

Angela Simpson, professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Manchester, says that teenagers and students are in the highest risk group for anaphylaxis.

She says this is part of this age group’s bid for independence.

“It’s about mums no longer supervising what they eat, it’s about drinking a bit too much alcohol and not wanting to embarrass themselves if they can’t eat somewhere when everyone else wants to.”

Helen considered staying at home because of her allergy, but changed her mind.

“I really wanted the proper uni experience,” she says. “I asked lots of different universities about their policy on allergies and I was impressed when I heard that Southampton was so clued up about it.”

Although Helen’s allergy is specific to hazelnuts, she cannot eat other nuts either, which means that wherever she lives has to be a nut-free zone.

In her first year she plumped for catered accommodation where she could choose her meals and in her second and third years she lived in a shared house with five student friends where she had to manage food more carefully.

Her house mates agreed they would not bring nuts into the kitchen or in any communal areas, but she still remembers finding a gateau with a hazelnut topping in the fridge, muesli in the cupboard and Quality Streets in the living room.

“I don’t blame them because you just don’t think about it if it doesn’t affect you, but they are generally very good because they don’t want to be the cause of me having an allergic reaction,” she says.

Better evidence

A major international study into allergies, called iFAAM, began earlier this at the University of Manchester. It is searching for answers to why the prevalence of food allergies has increased over the past 20 years, whether there is a link between childhood diet and allergies and what makes certain foods cause allergic reactions.

As part of the study, researchers plan to analyse the molecules that make up peanuts in minute detail using new, ground-breaking equipment to find out more about why they are so dangerous for some people.

It is already known that the reaction from boiled peanuts is much less than from roasted ones, for example.

Prof Clare Mills, a molecular scientist working on the study, says there could be years of work ahead on allergies.

“Food is taken as an everyday given, it’s just seen as a part of everyday living but it’s very complicated – even roasting a peanut.”

At the end of the study she hopes they will have much better evidence on allergens and better tools to help the food industry manage nuts during the manufacturing process.

– BBC News

A novel use for mosquito nets

A novel use for mosquito nets

We live in an age where the latest technology and gadgets are king, but sometimes the most low-tech methods can produce good medical results.

Mosquito nets, key in the fight against malaria, are now also being used to repair hernias – the most common operation in the world.

The hope is to save some of the estimated 50,000 lives lost in Africa each year to untreated hernias.

  • The two most common types of hernia are called ‘inguinal’ (75% of cases) and ‘umbilical’ (10-15%).
  • Inguinal hernias appear in the groin and mostly affect children under two and men over 55.
  • If left untreated, inguinal hernias can balloon to massive proportions – known as wheelbarrow hernias (see image).
  • Men are more susceptible than women due to a natural weakness in the abdominal wall caused by the spermatic cord exiting the body to connect with the testes.
  • Hernias can have a dramatic impact on people’s lives and ability to work. If the blood supply to the hernia is cut off when it becomes too large, the patient can die.

Globally, one in four men will be affected during their lifetime.

“In the UK and US, we usually mend hernias with surgical mesh, but these cost around US$30 each and are too expensive for hospitals in resource-poor countries,” says Prof Andrew Kingsnorth, a hernia specialist at Plymouth’s Derriford Hospital.

“Then a doctor in India called Ravi Tongaonkar came up with the idea of using mosquito mesh as an alternative.”

Beating the bulge

Hernias occur when a part of the bowel gets pushed through a hole or tear in the muscle wall of the abdomen. This is usually caused by straining, heavy lifting, chronic constipation or even having a severe cough.

Due to a quirk of anatomy, men are nine times more susceptible than women.

In most people, a hernia first appears as a small lump in the groin, which pops out when a person coughs or strains. But if left untreated, more intestine can be pushed out – resulting in hernias the size of a football.

Even more serious is when the hole in the abdominal wall starts restricting the blood supply to the intestines on the outside, causing a painful and potentially life-threatening ‘strangulated hernia’.

The most effective way to treat hernias is to patch up the hole with a piece of mesh. It’s a simple procedure that completely cures the problem.

But in 1994, Indian surgeon Dr Ravi Tongaonkar investigated using sterilised mosquito mesh as a low-cost substitute for the expensive commercial meshes currently in use.

“Polypropylene mesh is the best material available, but it’s very costly,” says Dr Tongaonkar. “In a developing country like India, poor patients cannot afford this.”

His mosquito meshes work out around 4,000 times cheaper than imported mesh and he has used them to fix 591 hernias.

But using them doesn’t necessarily mean they’re as good as the real thing.

‘Makes no difference’

To investigate their effectiveness, specialist gastrointestinal surgeon David Sanders carried out a study which looked at the two meshes under powerful microscopes and performed stringent tests on their physical properties.

He found that it was pretty much impossible to tell them apart.

The only difference is the polymer used to make them,” says Dr Sanders, “but it makes no difference clinically.”

Sanders is also keen to point out that doctors should not go out and use any old mosquito mesh, as they are not all made in the same way and some are impregnated with chemicals such as DEET.

“It’s really important to standardise the type of mesh that’s used so we know it’s safe,” he told the BBC. “These experiments mean we now know what it should look like.”

Prof Kingsnorth, who leads the charitable organisation Operation Hernia, is now looking to introduce the mosquito mesh in places where hernia repair costs are currently prohibitive.

“We have trained surgeons in Ghana, Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Rwanda, Malawi, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, India, Moldova, Ukraine and Cambodia,” he told the BBC.

“In mid-September we will also be travelling to a remote area of Mongolia.”

Not everyone is convinced by using mosquito mesh. In Rwanda for example, it’s been decided that hospital staff must stick to using conventional surgical brands.

But evidence is already building that could one day see mosquito mesh as an alternative in which people can feel confident.

And a long-term follow-up study of over 700 patients has shown that even 10 years later, mosquito mesh was still going strong.

Source: BBC News

Deaths in children’s intensive care at ‘all time low’

World Health Organization, 37% of Syrian hospitals have been destroyed and a further 20% severely damaged.

A group of 50 doctors, including Nobel Prize winners, say Syria’s health system is at breaking point as medics are forced to flee the fighting.

The signatories to the letter in T

The Lancet say it is “arguably one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises since the end of the Cold War”.

According to the Violations Documentation Centre, 469 health workers are currently imprisoned.

Some 15,000 doctors have left Syria, says the Council on Foreign Relations.

Of the 5,000 physicians in Aleppo before the conflict started, only 36 remain.

Makeshift clinics have become fully fledged trauma centres, struggling to cope with the injured and sick”

The signatories to the letter in The Lancet

According to the World Health Organization, 37% of Syrian hospitals have been destroyed and a further 20% severely damaged.

“Makeshift clinics have become fully fledged trauma centres, struggling to cope with the injured and sick,” says the letter.

It warns that horrific injuries are going untended; women are giving birth with no medical assistance; men, women, and children are undergoing life-saving surgery without anaesthetic; and victims of sexual violence have nowhere to turn to.

“The Syrian population is vulnerable to outbreaks of hepatitis, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. The lack of medical pharmaceuticals has already exacerbated an outbreak of Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a severe infectious skin disease that can cause serious disability, there has been an alarming increase in cases of acute diarrhoea, and in June aid agencies reported a measles epidemic sweeping through districts of northern Syria,” the letter says.

The signatories, which include former WHO chief Gro Harlem Brundtland, demand that medical colleagues in Syria be allowed and supported to treat patients, save lives, and alleviate suffering without the fear of attacks or reprisals.

“We call on the Syrian Government and all armed parties to refrain from attacking hospitals, ambulances, medical facilities and supplies, health professionals and patients,” they say.

 

 

Syrian hospitals at ‘breaking point’ as medics flee

Injured man being treated by doctorsA group of 50 doctors, including Nobel Prize winners, say Syria’s health system is at breaking point as medics are forced to flee the fighting.

The signatories to the letter in T

he Lancet say it is “arguably one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises since the end of the Cold War”.

According to the Violations Documentation Centre, 469 health workers are currently imprisoned.

Some 15,000 doctors have left Syria, says the Council on Foreign Relations.

Of the 5,000 physicians in Aleppo before the conflict started, only 36 remain.

Makeshift clinics have become fully fledged trauma centres, struggling to cope with the injured and sick”

The signatories to the letter in The Lancet

According to the World Health Organization, 37% of Syrian hospitals have been destroyed and a further 20% severely damaged.

“Makeshift clinics have become fully fledged trauma centres, struggling to cope with the injured and sick,” says the letter.

It warns that horrific injuries are going untended; women are giving birth with no medical assistance; men, women, and children are undergoing life-saving surgery without anaesthetic; and victims of sexual violence have nowhere to turn to.

“The Syrian population is vulnerable to outbreaks of hepatitis, typhoid, cholera, and dysentery. The lack of medical pharmaceuticals has already exacerbated an outbreak of Cutaneous leishmaniasis, a severe infectious skin disease that can cause serious disability, there has been an alarming increase in cases of acute diarrhoea, and in June aid agencies reported a measles epidemic sweeping through districts of northern Syria,” the letter says.

The signatories, which include former WHO chief Gro Harlem Brundtland, demand that medical colleagues in Syria be allowed and supported to treat patients, save lives, and alleviate suffering without the fear of attacks or reprisals.

“We call on the Syrian Government and all armed parties to refrain from attacking hospitals, ambulances, medical facilities and supplies, health professionals and patients,” they say.

the article originally appeared in BBC news