Month: April 2014

Irregular Periods: Risk Factor for Ovarian Cancer?

Women with irregular menstrual cycles may have more than double the risk of ovarian cancer compared to women who have regular monthly periods, new research suggests.

This finding suggests that women with irregular periods — including those with a condition called polycystic ovarian syndrome — might be a group that could benefit from early screening for ovarian cancer, said the study’s lead author, Barbara Cohn. She is director of child health and development studies at the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, Calif.

“Ninety percent of women who get ovarian cancer don’t have risk factors for it. Our study findings help to narrow the search,” said Cohn.

“If we can confirm what we have here and can learn more about the mechanism behind ovarian cancer, then we might be able to do something as simple as recommend birth control pills for women with irregular periods, provided they have no other risk factors against birth control pill use,” said Cohn.

However, the study design wasn’t able to show that irregular periods caused ovarian cancer or an increased risk, only that there was an association between the two.

The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 22,000 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, and more than 14,000 will die from the disease. One reason ovarian cancer remains so deadly is there are no reliable early detection tools for it. When found, it’s often in the later stages when treatment is less effective.

Some research has suggested that women who ovulate less frequently may have some protection against ovarian cancer. For example, women who take birth control pills, which prevent ovulation, have a lower risk of ovarian cancer. The new study sought to see if women who naturally have irregular periods, and perhaps ovulate less frequently, had a lower rate of ovarian cancer.

The study included more than 14,000 women who were part of the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan in Alameda, Calif., between 1959 and 1967. The researchers followed the women’s health over the next 50 years or until death. All had at least one child, and none used fertility drugs to conceive, according to the study.

An irregular menstrual cycle was defined as longer than 35 days even if it was regular, a cycle that was unpredictable from month to month (and the woman wasn’t in perimenopause when unpredictable cycles are normal), or if a woman didn’t ovulate, Cohn said. The women were around age 26 when they reported having irregular periods.

Although none of the women was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome when the study began because the disease wasn’t really recognized at the time, it’s likely that at least some of them had the hormonal disorder, Cohn said.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a common cause of irregular periods, but it’s possible that other abnormalities associated with the disorder might also explain the study findings, she said.

During the study, 103 women developed ovarian cancer, 20 of whom had irregular periods, said Cohn. And 65 died of ovarian cancer, 17 with irregular menstrual cycles. The average age of ovarian cancer death was about 69.

Women with irregular periods had a 2.4 times higher risk of ovarian cancer death than women who had normal cycles, the researchers concluded. In addition, women who had a first-degree relative (mother, sister or daughter) with ovarian cancer, a known risk factor for the disease, had almost three times the risk of death from ovarian cancer, said Cohn.

A lot of biological factors increase a person’s risk of ovarian cancer, said Dr. David Fishman, director of the Mount Sinai Ovarian Cancer Risk Assessment Program in New York City.

“This study’s findings are an interesting observation, but it’s not cause and effect, and I don’t want women to be afraid,” Fishman said. “Menstrual irregularities are very common, and most women with menstrual irregularities won’t have ovarian cancer.”

For women who have menstrual irregularities, this study reinforces the benefit of birth control pills to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, Fishman added.

Any woman who is concerned should talk to her doctor, he said. Her physician can let her know if she’s at an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer. The study findings were scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego.

Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Source; webmd

IIT-Delhi student develops pocket sized haemoglobin metre

An innovative device developed by a student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi could soon make examining haemoglobin and identifying anaemic cases an easy and quick process. In what could be a breakthrough in the field of biomedical sciences, Ambar Srivastava of IIT has developed a haemoglobin metre named as the TrueHb Hemometer to test haemoglobin.

TrueHBThe pocket sized haemoglobin metre is the first case of an innovation from the biomedical engineering department of IIT-Delhi actually getting productized. Developed at the IIT’s Centre for Biomedical Engineering with funding received from the Technology Development Board of the Department of Science and Technology, the device will help in early identification and dealing of anaemia cases, which is a major silent killer in India and is the underlying cause of a majority of maternal and foetal deaths in the country. The department was established in 1971 as a joint venture between IIT Delhi and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to develop healthcare technologies.

AIIMS New Delhi has already authenticated the device for its effectiveness. AIIMS tested the effectiveness and accuracy of the TrueHb in a laboratory set up and found a high level of accurate measure of the haemoglobin level.

Dr Renu Saxena, professor and head of the haematology department at AIIMS New Delhi, told India Medical Times, “Yes, we have tested the efficacy of the TrueHb Hemometer here at AIIMS and I can say it is quite an innovation. It is smart, accurate and cost effective.”

Ambar Srivastava, ?founder and managing director, Wrig Nanosystems, told India Medical Times, “I started working on the idea in September 2010. Bioelectronics has been an area of my interest and I am very passionate about it. I started thinking of this concept during my second year of B Tech, IIT Delhi. After completing my graduation and masters in B Tech, I decided to go for PhD but then I thought why not build this product and start my own company. I learnt a lot from people at IIT, especially my professors. My seniors and a couple of my friends too encouraged me a lot.”

To commercialise and bring the device to the doorstep of every healthcare centre, Srivastava established a company, named Wrig Nanosystems, to produce TrueHb Hemometers.IIT-Delhi student invents device to test haemoglobin

Srivastava said, “I started Wrig Nanosystems Pvt Ltd in 2010. Our product is based upon our patent pending technologies, is only of its kind from India and far superior in performance than others in the world. It is comparatively very affordable, pocket sized, and world class in quality. It will transform healthcare and make the decision taking process faster and accurate. This technology is ultra-convenient, weighing around 60 grams like a glucometer with just a tiny drop of blood from a pinprick on the disposable strip. It not only reads the accurate level within 45 seconds, but also stores upto 1,000 such readings. It can be charged like a mobile phone and allows up to 300 tests per charge. The CBC (complete blood count) counter is the gold standard for haemogram tests in labs. It could cost Rs 4-20 lakh, is at least twice the size of a personal computer and needs regular power supply. Though price of the new product is still to be finalized, but it is going to be much cheaper than any other device available in the market.”

“Right now we are busy finalizing the strategy for launching the first bulk of the product on pilot basis in the Delhi/NCR region,” he said.

Srivastava further said, “It was the combined efforts of people from different disciplines — Biochemistry, Micro-optics, Embedded Electronics, Computational Algorithm, Electrochemistry, and Industrial Designing. The development of such devices is highly multi-disciplinary and requires optimum balance of application of different fields in a right manner. Being a research and development organization, we are currently developing similar ultra-portable and affordable devices for all other blood testing profiles, which are expected to be innovated soon.”

He said, “We have an objective to change the entire healthcare paradigm globally. Today, a doctor writes a test and patients go to path labs for test which in turn is produced to the doctor after some days. We want to cut down that cycle entirely. Providing quick and affordable devices to doctors would cut down the need to go to the path labs, and with our devices 60-70 per cent cases would get tested at doctor’s clinic itself. This is where revolution in faster, smarter and wider healthcare delivery will begin.”

Srivastava further said, “I think doctors should open up in adopting such new technologies which may make their caregiving faster, convenient and affordable. They should be open to the changes that technology is bringing to make healthcare delivery system smarter. For other players that are involved in healthcare equipment research and manufacturing, I believe it is our moral duty to ensure that the deepest corner of the world should have access to our services. If a technology cannot benefit the majority, then the fundamental definition of an innovation loses its ground.”

Handheld devices are an upcoming wave in healthcare and are expected to revolutionize the entire healthcare system in the future. Soon, common people will be able to perform self-tests conveniently in their homes, record and maintain their medical data and monitor their health regularly, provided such innovations are researched and commercialized with domestic funding and support. Once such devices are made available, the average life expectancy of individuals can potentially be increased by a minimum 10-15 years through effective regular home health monitoring.

Source: India Medical Times

Regular Aerobic Exercise May Prevent Dementia

Take up regular aerobic exercise to slow down the advance of dementia and other signs of cognitive decline, a study suggests.

Such exercise seems to boost the size of the area of the brain (hippocampus) involved in verbal memory and learning among women whose intellectual capacity has been affected by age.

For the study, the researchers tested the impact of different types of exercise on the hippocampal volume of 86 women who said they had mild memory problems, known as mild cognitive impairment – and a common risk factor for dementia.

All the women were aged between 70 and 80 years old and were living independently at home.

Roughly equal numbers of them were assigned to either twice weekly hour long sessions of aerobic training (brisk walking); or resistance training, such as squats, and weights; or balance and muscle toning exercises, for a period of six months.

The size of their hippocampus was assessed at the start and the end of the six month period by means of an MRI scan, and their verbal memory and learning capacity was assessed before and afterward using a validated test (RAVLT).

Only 29 of the women had before and after MRI scans, but the results showed that the total volume of the hippocampus in the group who had completed the full six months of aerobic training was significantly larger than that of those who had lasted the course doing balance and muscle toning exercises.

The study appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Source: Zee news

selfie pictures makes women insecure

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Spending lots of time on Facebook looking at pictures of friends could make women insecure about their body image, research suggests. The more women are exposed to “selfies” and other photos on social media, the more they compare themselves negatively, according to a study.

Friends’ photos may be more influential than celebrity shots as they are of known contacts, say UK and US experts. The study is the first to link time on social media to poor body image. The mass media are known to influence how people feel about their appearance. But little is known about how social media impact on self-image.

Young women are particularly high users of social networking sites and post more photographs of themselves on the internet than do men. To look at the impact on body image, researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa surveyed 881 female college students in the US.

The women answered questions about their Facebook use, eating and exercise regimes, and body image.

‘Unrealistic images’
The research, presented at a conference in Seattle, found no link with eating disorders. But it did find a link between time spent on social networks and negative comparisons about body image.

The more time women spent on Facebook, the more they compared their bodies with those of their friends, and the more they felt negative about their appearance.

“Spending more time on Facebook is not connected to developing a bad relationship with food, but there is a connection to poor body image,” Petya Eckler, of the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, told

She added: “The attention to physical attributes may be even more dangerous on social media than on traditional media because participants in social media are people we know.

“These comparisons are much more relevant and hit closer to home. Yet they may be just as unrealistic as the images we see on traditional media.”

‘Sense of identity’
A spokesperson for the Beat eating disorders charity said body image was a key part of our sense of identity and not a trivial matter or personal vanity.

A preoccupation with weight and shape was one of the key features of current popular culture, and was a global phenomenon, she said.

“The fascination with celebrities, their bodies, clothes and appearance has all increased the pressure that people typically feel at a time when they seek to establish their own identities and when their bodies are growing and changing,” she said.

“Young people compare themselves to the images that bombard them and feel it is their fault that their bodies compare so unfavourably.”

Source: BBC news

12-Year-Old Becomes Youngest Yoga Instructor In Us

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Jaysea DeVoe is a yoga instructor who has the challenging job of teaching fidgety preschoolers the ancient practice, but once her charges get going, she says, “they really start to focus and listen.”

DeVoe knows a thing or two about childhood and focus, for she is only 12 years old and just recently became a certified yoga instructor after completing 200 hours of teacher training. She is believed to be the youngest certified female yoga instructor in the United States.

In addition to her pint-size students aged 4 to 6, DeVoe teaches teens and fellow tweens in her California beach town of Encinitas and is about to start a family yoga class. Oh, and she just told her dad she wants to look into making eco-friendly yoga mats.

“I feel like I want to do this for a long time because I love teaching so much,” says DeVoe, the picture of a California beach girl, with long blond hair and long legs to match.

But Jaysea is not alone in her entrepreneurial zeal. Her twin brother is a sponsored competitive surfer and works at a surfboard fin manufacturing company. Her 15-year-old brother is a “professional water man,” a spear fisherman, rod and reel angler and surfer who also teaches and has sponsors.

Encinitas, 25 miles north of San Diego, happens to sit at the junction of laid-back beach life, high-octane sports and entrepreneurial gumption. Skateboarder-turned-businessman Tony Hawk and Olympic gold snow boarder Shaun White are both based in Encinitas.

With so much opportunity around, the DeVoe parents, Rick and Julie, decided less time should be spent at school and found an accommodating institution for their kids’ plans.

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“They only go to school three days a week and we told them ‘You have to figure out what you want to do and you’ve got four days to do it,'” says Rick, who manages bands and surfers. “‘And hopefully by the time you graduate high school, you have a career path chosen.'”

Jaysea told her father she wanted to teach yoga and when she said it was 200 hours of training, “We were like ‘Whoa.'”

“She was just adamant about doing all the homework and never wanting to miss a class,” Rick says. “We were just really thrilled and very honored that they allowed her to do it and that she pulled it off.”

Source: Fox news

New Aromafork Promises To Make Food Taste Better

aroma fork

The latest culinary trend doesn’t come from your food, it comes from your fork.

Introducing Aromafork, a new innovation from Montreal-based molecular gastronomy supplier Molecule-R that that is supposed to enhance the dining experience through a heightened sense of smell.

The brand new devices offers “ a fascinating olfactive experience that will trick you mind and will forever change the way you perceive flavor,” according to the company website.

How does it work?
Under the fork’s handle sits blotting paper that can be soaked before the meal with any of 21 aromas. As the diner eats, whiffs of fragrance is gradually released. The idea is that while the mouth can detect only five unique tastes — sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness and umami – the nose can sense up to a trillion smells. By releasing a unique scent through the meal, Aromafork tricks the brain and enhances each bite

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Flavors range from fruity (strawberry, passionfruit, and banana) to spicy (ginger and wasabi) to exotic (truffle, chocolate and smoke).

The four-fork kit is available for preorder and priced at $60.

Source; fox news

Chinese herbal compound may treat chronic pain

A compound found in a plant used for centuries in China as a pain reliever may be effective in treating chronic pain, according to new research. The key pain-relieving ingredient is a compound known as dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB) found in the roots of the flowering plant Corydalis, a member of the poppy family. “Our study reports the discovery of a new natural product that can relieve pain,” said Olivier Civelli of the University of California, Irvine.

This analgesic acts in animal assays against the three types of pain that afflict humans, including acute, inflammatory, and neuropathic or chronic pain,” Civelli said. Civelli, along with Xinmiao Liang, made the discovery as part of the “herbalome” project, an effort to catalogue all of the chemical components of traditional Chinese medicine.

The Corydalis plants that were the focus of the new study grow mainly in central eastern China, where underground tubers are harvested, ground, and boiled in hot vinegar. Those concoctions are often prescribed to treat pain, including headaches and back pain.

The researchers went looking for compounds in Corydalis that appeared likely to act in a manner similar to morphine.”We landed on DHCB but rapidly found that it acts not through the morphine receptor but through other receptors, in particular one that binds dopamine,” Civelli said.

The discovery adds to earlier evidence showing that the dopamine D2 receptor plays a role in pain sensation. While Corydalis extracts or isolated DHCB work against all types of pain, they hold special promise for those who suffer with persistent, low-level chronic pain.

For one thing, DHCB doesn`t appear to lose effectiveness with time in the way that traditional opiate drugs do. “We have pain medication for inflammatory pain, such as aspirin or acetaminophen.

We do not have good medications for chronic pain. DHCB may not be able to relieve strong chronic pain, but may be used for low-level chronic pain,” said Civelli.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Source: Zee news

Why jogging in the park is healthiest for your kid

Researchers have suggested that children who are exposed to scenes of nature while exercising are more likely to experience health-enhancing effects after activity. Sports science academics in the University’s Department of Applied Sciences and Health asked kids aged 9-10 years to complete a series of 15 minute moderate intensity cycling activities – one whilst viewing a video of a forest track synced to the exercise bike and another with no visual stimulus.

The researchers found that after the ‘green exercise’ the children’s post-activity blood pressure was significantly lower than it was without the simulated forest environment, indicating that the nature scenes promoted positive health effects. Data showed that the children’s mean systolic blood pressure – the pressure in the arteries when the heart beats – was 97.2 mmHg a quarter of an hour after green exercise, compared with 102.7 mmHg after normal activity (over 5 per cent lower).

Lower blood pressure is normally associated with a lower risk of developing health problems, whereas high blood pressure – also known as hypertension – is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Dr Michael Duncan, lead author of the study and associate head of the Department of Applied Sciences and Health at Coventry University, said that hypertension is a chronic health problem across the world, so given the results they’ve seen in our study it’s crucial that we continue to try to understand the role physical activity and – in particular – green exercise plays in blood pressure.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Source: The Health site

Paralysis Patients Move Again in Shocking Breakthrough

An accidental discovery is giving four paralyzed men a new lease on life. During experiments with paralysis patients that entailed electrically stimulating their nerves, a neuroscientist made a shocking discovery when a patient made a breakthrough that allowed him to move his legs again. While none of the four men have regained the ability to walk, the fact that they have regained substantial lower body functioning is astonishing to researchers.

The breakthrough came about through an accidental discovery. Neuroscientist Susan Harkema was conducting research on the nerve pathways of patients with paralysis. One day, to her great shock, the electrical stimulator she was using allowed a man paralyzed below the neck to move his toes.

For a total of five years, Harkema and her team worked with four different men with paralysis, and all of them regained significant abilities. While they have not regained the ability to walk, they can pull themselves into sitting positions without support, and lift their legs and move them. Rob Summers, the original patient, has regained the ability to stand.

Summers says that the electrical stimulator treatment has changed his life in dramatic ways. He has regained a great deal of movement and sensation, and he is now able to travel and live in a more independent fashion. Summers is not alone: patient Dustin Shilcox said the device has greatly improved his bladder and bowel functions, and his sexual function.

The breakthrough has come as a shock to scientists, because the way in which it has allowed patients with paralysis to move again overturns previous ideas about how the spinal cord works, and how it is damaged in those who are paralyzed. Researchers now think that the treatment works by effectively retraining the nerves that it stimulates, teaching them to work with the brain. Harkema has come to the conclusion that the spinal cord has the ability to, in effect, decide to move on its own.

Previously, scientists thought that repairing injury to the spinal cord would require the re-growth of neurons, or else their replacement with stem cells. Electrical stimulation proves that this is not necessary. This is a very fortunate discovery for patients with paralysis who wish to regain functionality, given the difficulties and impracticalities encountered with the other two approaches.

The electrical stimulator is a device about the size of a pacemaker, which is implanted under the skin of the abdomen. It sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord. The fact that it doesn’t actually touch the brain, generally held to be the source of motor activity, is why it was so shocking when the electrical stimulation allowed the men to overcome their paralysis enough to move again. The stimulator was originally developed to treat chronic pain.

Electrical treatment with the stimulator does have limits. None of the men have regained the ability to walk, at least not yet. The stimulator can only allow one leg at a time to function. Still, the difference has been very dramatic for the four men, and examinations have revealed that they are healthier overall, thanks to improvements to heart and respiratory function.

However, scientists believe that electrical stimulation treatment could be an important part of a broader approach to treating paralysis. The four men in question were all believed to have been “hopeless” with respect to overcoming their paralysis, and the treatment has already proved this to be in error. Harkema and her team are already recruiting another four volunteers for a second round of testing with the device.

Harkema and others believe that these shocking breakthroughs offer a great deal of hope for helping other patients with paralysis who have been told they will never move again. According to these scientists, it may be possible to improve the electrical stimulation technology, and other techniques could be developed to work in combination with it. In the meantime, the four patients with paralysis have all reported that the treatment has greatly enhanced their quality of life.

source: Liberty voice

Abnormal lipid levels during brain development ups autism risk

Researchers have found that abnormal levels of lipid molecules in the brain could affect the interaction between two key neural pathways in early prenatal brain development, which can trigger autism.

According to the researchers, environmental causes such as exposure to chemicals in some cosmetics and common over-the-counter medication can affect the levels of these lipids.

Professor Dorota Crawford in the Faculty of Health and a member of the York Autism Alliance Research Group said that they have found that the abnormal level of a lipid molecule called Prostaglandin E2 in the brain can affect the function of Wnt proteins. It is important because this can change the course of early embryonic development.

Lead researcher and York U doctoral student Christine Wong adds using real-time imaging microscopy, they determined that higher levels of PGE2 can change Wnt-dependent behaviour of neural stem cells by increasing cell migration or proliferation.

Wong said that as a result, this could affect how the brain is organized and wired. Moreover, we found that an elevated level of PGE2 can increase expression of Wnt-regulated genes — Ctnnb1, Ptgs2, Ccnd1, and Mmp9.

The study has been published at journal Cell Communication and Signaling.

source: dna analysis