health news

Women lose more work days than men due to illness: Study

Women have a slightly lower chance of falling sick compared to men, but they lose more days at work from being ill, a new study on Indian healthcare system by Global Development Network says.

 According to the study, women work fewer days in a year and as a result, lose almost 15 per cent of their work days to illness, while men lose only six per cent.

“Being ill, therefore, has a greater impact on a woman’s income than that of a man. On the other hand, women’s health expenditures tend to increase more compared to men,” the GDN Working Paper ‘Managing Healthcare Provision and Health Outcomes through Local Governance’ says.

The paper reveals significant positive impact of local governance and empowerment of women, and complex and sometimes surprising similarities in illness and treatment impact on men and women.

“Sickness is significantly reduced through improved access to drinking water, clean surroundings and awareness about health campaigns. These factors reduce the use of public and private healthcare, as well as private health expenditures,” it says.

GDN is a New Delhi-based public international organisation that builds research capacity in development globally.

The study says that a family’s inherited wealth reduces the incidence of illness almost equally for both men and women and reduces private health expenditures slightly more for women than for men.

“This is suggestive of some discrimination within families with regard to healthcare access,” says the study.

Individual empowerment as a result of inheritance of land by a woman has an overall positive impact on her health and use of healthcare, it says.

While in terms of access to health facilities, women are not at a disadvantage, they benefit significantly in terms of health from individual empowerment through land inheritance, it says.

The study also finds significant positive impact on both men and women due to political empowerment of women as a result of the reservation of the Pradhan’s (chief councilor) position for women.

Source: Business Standard

Polio-Free Countries Still Face Threat, Scientists Say

An outbreak of polio in a previously polio-free region of China shows that the crippling, potentially deadly disease will remain a global threat as long as the poliovirus circulates anywhere in the world, scientists say.

Researchers who investigated the outbreak of polio in the Chinese province of Xingjian in 2011 found the infection was caused by a poliovirus that originated in Pakistan, according to the study published today (Nov. 20) in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“Global eradication of poliomyelitis will benefit all countries, even those that are currently free of poliomyelitis,” the researchers wrote in their study.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a highly contagious and incurable viral infection of the nervous system. While some people recover completely, the virus causes lifelong paralysis in one out of every 200 cases.

In the 1980s, the virus killed or paralyzed around 350,000 people worldwide each year. But now, due to vaccination campaigns, the disease is eradicated in most parts of the world. Polio remains endemic in only three countries: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. In 2012, about 220 cases were reported worldwide, and almost all were in these countries.

Despite the progress, imported poliovirus has caused outbreaks in some previously polio-free countries in recent years, and scientists have found that the virus is circulating in some regions that had previously been declared polio-free, the researchers said.

In October, an outbreak of polio that affected at least 22 people was reported in Syria, and was a setback for a country that had a vaccination rate of 95 percent and was polio-free for 14 years. The outbreak is possibly being fueled by disrupted vaccinations amid the ongoing civil war in the country.

Experts warned that the disease might reach Europe as well, especially in regions where vaccination coverage is not sufficiently high; for example, Austria (83 percent) and Ukraine (74 percent). The World Health Organization recommends a target vaccination rate of 90 percent.

The outbreak in China struck in 2011, and affected about 40 people, according to the new study. A public health emergency was declared in Xinjiang, and health practitioners closely watched for any new case of sudden paralysis or “acute flaccid paralysis,” the signature symptom of polio, the researchers said.

Five rounds of vaccination with oral poliovirus vaccine were conducted among children and adults in the region, and the outbreak was stopped six weeks after the first case had been confirmed by lab results.

 

“The response most likely prevented poliomyelitis from spreading to other parts of China,” but given the fact the poliovirus still circulates in parts of the world, immunization and surveillance efforts should be boosted, the researchers said.

Source: one news page

People with Autism More Likely to Hear Colors, See Sounds

People with autism may be more likely than others to have synesthesia, a condition in which people experience a mixing of their senses, such as hearing tastes and shapes, and seeing numbers in colors, a new study from Europe suggests.

Researchers tested 164 people with autism and 97 people without autism by giving them online questionnaires designed to evaluate whether they had synesthesia. They found synesthesia occurred in about 7 percent of people who didn’t have autism, a figure within the range of previously reported rates.

In contrast, 19 percent of people with autism appeared to have synesthesia, according to the study published yesterday (Nov. 19) in the journal Molecular Autism.

The findings may provide new insights into common factors that underlie brain development in these separate conditions, said study researcher Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

“I have studied both autism and synesthesia for over 25 years, and I had assumed that one had nothing to do with the other,” Baron-Cohen said.

But now, looking back at previous studies, evidence does suggest there are underlying similarities between the two conditions, the researchers said. Brain-imaging studies have found evidence of particular patterns of brain connectivity in both synesthesia and autism.

According to one hypothesis, people with synesthesia have more neural connections between brain regions compared with people who don’t have the condition.  Similarly, studies have found that while people with autism have fewer neural connections between distant parts of the brain, they have more local or short-range connectivity in some brain areas.

It is possible that the normal process of pruning of neural connections early in life is affected in both conditions, and people with autism or synesthesia retain some of the connections that other people have lost during their brain development, Baron-Cohen said.

This idea would give researchers “an exciting new lead” to search for genes that are shared between the two conditions, and which might play a role in how the brain forms or loses neural connections, said Simon Fisher, another researcher in the study, and director of the language and genetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in the Netherlands.

Most synesthetic experiences are visual, but synesthesia can involve any pair of senses, the researchers said. Such experiences can range from seeing the letter A as purple, to conjuring mental images of a triangle shape when suffering a toothache.

Among the 31 people with autism in the study who had synesthesia, the most common forms of the condition were “grapheme-color,” in which letters are seen as colored, and “sound-color,” in which hearing a sound triggers a visual experience of color. Another forms of synesthesia reported were either tastes, touch, or smells triggering a visual experience of color.

“People with autism report high levels of sensory hyper-sensitivity. This new study goes one step further in identifying synesthesia as a sensory issue that has been overlooked in this population,” said study author Donielle Johnson, a researcher at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University.

“These results suggest that some people with autism have synesthetic experiences that might influence their day-to-day behavior, preferences and aversions — just as synesthesia can affect the behavior of people without autism,” Johnson told LiveScience.

The questionnaire used in the study evaluated whether participants had synesthesia by asking questions about their mixing sensory experiences, when such experiences began, and whether participants had any medical condition or had ever used drugs.

To confirm the preliminary results of the questionnaire, the researchers asked the participants to find the colors they associated with letters and numbers, but only a few people completed that test that involved more than 240 choices, the researchers said. Future studies are needed to administer the test in the lab, rather than online, to confirm the self-reported synesthesia, they said.

Source: Live science

How a Vitamin D test misdiagnosed African-Americans

By the current blood test for vitamin D, most African-Americans are deficient. That can lead to weak bones. So many doctors prescribe supplement pills to bring their levels up, according to NPR.

 But the problem is with the test, not the patients, according to a new study. The vast majority of African-Americans have plenty of the form of vitamin D that counts — the type their cells can readily use.

The research resolves a long-standing paradox, NPR reports.

Source: News Ok

Malaria ‘linked’ to household size

Researchers have found that malaria eradication is related more to household size than to a country’s wealth or temperature.

University of Guelph’s economics professor Ross McKitrick and two Finnish professors, Larry and Lena Hulden, found that when average household size drops below four persons, malaria extermination is much more likely.

Malaria is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The research team examined data on malaria insect vectors, as well as demographic, sociological and environmental factors for 232 countries. Malaria is still prevalent in 106 countries.

McKitrick said that Malaria-bearing mosquitoes mainly feed at night, and tend to return to the same location for blood meals, asserting that the more people who sleep in one area, the greater the likelihood of an infected mosquito spreading the parasite to a new, uninfected victim.

The researchers looked at factors such as gross domestic product per capita, urbanization and slums, latitude, mean temperature, forest coverage, national DDT use, household size and even religion.

The study has been published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

Dr Vijay Sanghvi donates $2 million to advance cardiac imaging

Dr Vijay Sanghvi and Dr Khushman Sanghvi, an Indian-American doctor couple, have donated $2 million to establish the Drs Vijay and Khushman Sanghvi Endowed Chair in Cardiac Imaging (the Sanghvi Chair) to support a faculty member who is dedicated to the advanced cardiac imaging programme at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

The Sanghvi Chair will be given to a faculty member within the division of cardiovascular health and disease to help enhance educational efforts related to the UC cardiology fellowship programme, his or her own clinical and research efforts, in particular by adopting the most advanced imaging technologies, and efforts in supervising two imaging labs within the UC Health system.

Since 1966, Dr Vijay Sanghvi has been an active member in Cincinnati’s medical community. He served as medical director from 1971 to 1990 for the division of cardiology at Jewish Hospital, where he was responsible for introducing what now represents the core techniques used in the cardiology field.

“It has been a thrill to witness the evolution and dramatic growth of what we refer to today as modern cardiology resulting in significant improvements for cardiovascular disease-related outcomes,” said Dr Sanghvi, now an adjunct professor of clinical medicine within the division of cardiovascular health and disease at UC.

“The next 10 years in cardiology are going to be extremely exciting. Cardiac imaging, in particular, represents tremendous potential for growth and consequent impact on outcomes, including minimizing invasive approaches,” he said.

From 1990 to 2003, Dr Sanghvi was involved in private practice, focusing on diagnostic and interventional cardiology, but he maintained an affiliation with UC.

In early 2012, he endowed UC’s Mind-Body Interface in Health and Healing Lectureship, in order to address what he sees as an unmet need in current medical education and continuing education.

Dr Sanghvi received postgraduate training at McMaster University and Queen’s University, both in Ontario, after receiving a medical degree from Gujarat University, India, and completed his residency training and Board Certification in Internal Medicine in 1964 and his American Board in Cardiovascular Disease in 1975.

He holds fellowships from the American College of Cardiology, the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada and the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention.

“Investments in education are fundamental to fostering leadership and long-term progress,” Dr Sanghvi said. “I am very pleased to fund this endowed chair so that it can support a UC faculty member to be a leader in the field of cardiology, and simultaneously enhance his or her own education, while shepherding the education and research of future physicians.”

“It is my hope that the chair also represents an opportunity for the strategic positioning of the UC College of Medicine, as well as the UC community more broadly, all in the ultimate service of patients. It was important to me that the investment in technology could strengthen access for everyone. UC’s academic stature in the medical field, together with its link to a public hospital, makes this possible,” he said.

Dr Thomas Boat, Christian R Holmes Professor, dean of the UC College of Medicine and UC vice president for health affairs, said the college, the division of cardiovascular health and disease in the department of internal medicine and UC Medical Centre are honoured by Dr Sanghvi’s gift and pleased to have an endowed chair in his name at the college.

“Dr Sanghvi is a distinguished cardiologist not only at UC but also in the community and beyond,” he said. “We are so proud that he is part of our faculty. His generous gift will ensure that the cardiac imaging programme at UC will continue to grow and be successful in years to come.”

“I’m delighted to be the first American of Asian Indian origin to endow this position in a city and institution that has been a part of so many historical firsts,” Dr Sanghvi said. “UC was the place where the first heart-lung machine made open heart surgery possible, but Cincinnati also has a long history of being the first to open its doors to those who have been considered ‘outsiders’ — immigrants, the disenfranchised and the underserved — from its part in the Underground Railroad to UC being the first university to offer cooperative education.

“As an immigrant and naturalized citizen of the US, Cincinnati has been this kind of place: a real home that has enabled me to thrive, build a family, a career, a community and has ultimately given the gift of belonging,” added Dr Sanghvi

Source: India Medical Times

Toxic waste ‘major global threat’

More than 200 million people around the world are at risk of exposure to toxic waste, a report has concluded.

The authors say the large number of people at risk places toxic waste in a similar league to public health threats such as malaria and tuberculosis.

The study from the Blacksmith Institute and Green Cross calls for greater efforts to be made to control the problem.

The study carried out in more than 3,000 sites in over 49 countries.

“It’s a serious public health issue that hasn’t really been quantified,” Dr Jack Caravanos, director of research at the Blacksmith Institute and professor of public health at the City University of New York told the BBC’s Tamil Service.

The study identified the Agbobloshie dumping yard in Ghana’s capital Accra as the place which poses the highest toxic threat to human life.

The researchers say that the report has not been hidden from governments, and they are all aware of the issue.

Agbobloshie has become a global e-waste dumping yard, causing serious environmental and health issues Dr Caravanos explained.

The study says that “a range of recovery activities takes place in Agbobloshie, each presenting unique occupational and ecological risks”.

As the second largest e-waste processing area in West Africa, Ghana annually imports around 215,000 tonnes of second hand consumer electronics from abroad, particularly from Western Europe, and generates another 129,000 tons of e-waste every year.

The study warns that that Ghana’s e-waste imports will double by 2020.

At the Agbobloshie site, the study found the presence of lead in soil at very high levels, posing serious potential health and environment hazards to more than 250,000 people in the vicinity.

Chernobyl in Ukraine ranks second in the study, while the Citarum River Basin in Indonesia ranks third.

Among the worlds top ten toxic threat sites as listed in the study, Africa, Europe and Asia have three sites respectively and Latin America one.

Children at risk

The study says that tens of thousands of women and children are at risk due to toxic dumping and environmental pollution.

“These are sites that are releasing toxic chemicals into air, water and soil. These are sites where children are particularly at risk and the numbers are rather high. We have not hidden this list from the respective governments and they are all aware of the issue” said Dr Caravanos.

He also agrees that the developed nations are part of this problem.

Dr Caravanos told the BBC that many westerners buy products without knowing the environmental impact.

He said Ghana actively wanted to progress in the IT field and as such started importing used computers from Europe 10 years ago. That had resulted in Agbobloshie becoming a dumping yard for e-waste from Europe.

In some places the damage caused to the land is so huge that it cannot be reversed, so the only option is to move people away and seal the contamination. Heavy metals are very difficult to remove from the soil, Dr Caravanos pointed out.

While the study sates that India has made significant progress in dealing with pollution issues on a national level, environmentalists and activists disagree with that observation.

The World Health Organization, in conjunction with the World Bank, estimates that 23% of the deaths in the developing world are attributable to environmental factors, including pollution, and that environmental risk factors contribute to more than 80% of regularly reported illnesses according to the report.

Source: BBC

4 minor measures that could save your life

Breathe easy: Simply switching inhalers could prevent more than half of the 2.1 million asthma-related ER trips per year, according to a recently released U.K. study.

What gives? The bulk of asthma-related ER visits result from people losing track of how much medication they have left—or taking breaths from inhalers that are actually empty, researchers say.

But a rescue inhaler—featuring a dose counter that shows how much medicine is left—can cut hospital admissions. The gadgets are widely available, but if you’re insurance doesn’t cover them, companies like Puff Minder offer an attachment that will help you keep track.

Give your airways a break by avoiding these 5 Health Threats to Your Lungs.

Here are three other simple tips or innovations that could save your life:

The right kind of smoke detector

Unlike ionization detectors—the most-common type in the U.S. and great at sensing flames—photoelectric detectors are quicker to recognize the smoldering, toxic smoke released by slow burns from frayed electrical cords or forgotten cigarettes. That’s according to experiments from Texas AM professor B. Don Russell, who recommends ponying up a few extra bucks to buy a dual detector equipped with both technologies. First Alert offers a popular option.

Can’t remember the last time you checked to see if your smoke alarm was working? Know these 4 Dangerous Home Mistakes You don’t know you’re Making.

Car technology

Like airbags and electronic stability control, forward collision assistance—auto-braking—is one of those innovations that works so well it’ll probably be in every car a decade from now. Your risk of ending up in an accident falls 20 percent if your ride has this technology, according to research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. If you can afford it, most luxury car brands currently offer these systems.

We drove thousands of miles to find Our Favorite Road Trip Cars that are perfect for any vacation.

Coffee

Swallowing some Joe could counteract some of the airway-closing effects of a severe reaction to allergens like nuts, shows research from Korea. By blocking the release of throat-tightening histamine, coffee’s compounds cut the rate of death among allergy-ridden rodents by half, the research shows. It’s not yet proven to be effective in humans, so never count on it over emergency help—but if you ever find yourself waiting for paramedics or without an epinephrine shot, it’s worth a try.

Don’t fall into the medicine trap! Check out these 5 Allergy Medicines to Avoid.

Source: health Medicine Network

 

Air Pollution as a Heart Threat

Bit by bit over the past few decades, scientists have been building a new understanding of the ways that air pollution threatens human health. Much of their attention has been focused on lung diseases, including cancers. With good reason, it turns out: just last month, the World Health Organization declared air pollution to be one of the planet’s most dangerous environmental carcinogens.

But cardiovascular disease is much more common than cancer. Sadly, there is now a pile of evidence, sometimes startling, that air pollution also plays a role in heart attacks and strokes. The new studies suggest that air pollution not only worsens cardiovascular disease — but can also cause it.

“We’ve known for about 20 years that we see increased risk of heart attack and stroke in association with increased levels of air pollution,” said Sara Adar, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan. The most recent data show that “air pollution does more than just make you worse.”

Scientists like Dr. Adar have been studying fine particulates adrift in the cloud of unfriendly gases shrouding many of our communities. Measuring 2.5 micrometers (or microns) or less, these bits of material are so tiny that it would take about 30 of them to equal the diameter of a human hair. A series of studies has found that they penetrate deep into the lungs, embedding in tissue and setting off a cascade of inflammatory effects. Researchers believe the inflammation also spreads into the circulatory system, altering the way blood vessels function.

Although air pollution is a long-recognized and regulated health hazard, only gradually have researchers come to appreciate the threat of particulates. In 1989, C. Arden Pope III, a professor of economics at Brigham Young University, published a paper based on the temporary shutdown of a nearby steel mill, showing a linear relationship between emissions and hospitalizations. He traced the illnesses to particulates in the air.

Dr. Pope originally had focused on air pollution’s effects on the lungs, but over the years he kept turning up increases in cardiovascular disease. “By 2002, I’d given up on the idea that this was just some anomaly in the study design,” he recalled in an interview. Eventually he identified the culprit: fine particles, far smaller than those tracked in his original steel mill study. “The deeper you dive into the data, the more clearly you see the effect on cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Pope said.

Dr. Adar and her colleagues have been tracking the damage at the microscopic level in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA Air), which has followed more than 5,000 people in six states for more than a decade. It is funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Researchers working with the project have contributed to an increasingly precise understanding of risks associated with fine particles that float in polluted air. Dr. Adar and her colleagues have shown, for instance, that increased exposure to pollutants, after other factors are factored out, can be directly linked to narrowing of blood vessels and to a steady thickening of artery walls.

Their most recent study, published this year in PLoS Medicine, described a near-linear relationship: as air pollution levels dropped, the thickening slowed. When exposure to air pollutants increased, signs of damage increased.

The MESA Air study also has reinforced a sense that vehicle exhaust may be unusually harmful. Researchers in the United States and many other countries have linked traffic pollution to heart rate variability in a range of people – from vehicle drivers to bicyclists traveling congested roadways. A study published this year in Environmental Health found evidence of “acute changes” in heartbeats in people, aged 22 to 56, driving in Mexico City traffic. Another recent study, of bicyclists in Ottawa, found that theirheart rhythms appeared to be altered for hours after they had returned home in ways unrelated to exertion.

“There’s increasing evidence that there’s something about traffic-related pollution in particular,” said Dr. Joel D. Kaufman, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Vehicle emissions are thought to include an unusually high proportion of very small, or ultrafine, particles, allowing them to penetrate deeper into the body. Researchers say there is also some evidence that the shape of these particles gives them an unusually high surface area, which permits other contaminants to stick onto them. As a result, they may actually concentrate toxic compounds in polluted air.

“The evidence is pretty overwhelming that fine particles do harm,” said Dr. Russell V. Luepker, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, a co-author of two scientific reports on air pollution for the American Heart Association.

But, he added, health choices — such as poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise — and conditions such as hypertension still pose greater risks. “If we got rid of air pollution, heart disease would not disappear,” Dr. Luepker said.

Researchers studying the health effects of air pollution are starting to look at ways that their findings can be used for greater protection. Dr. Adar and her colleagues are looking for ways to better identify and control the most dangerous vehicle emissions, while other scientists are pondering everything from improved air purifiers to particle-absorbing barriers. But one of the most effective responses is environmental regulation.

Several decades of clean air regulations in the United States have had lifesaving effects. A study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimated that there has been a 35 percent drop in deaths and disabilities related to air pollution, including cardiovascular diseases, in the United States since 1990.

“Our public policy efforts to reduce air pollution are one of the most effective medical interventions in the last 20 to 30 years,” Dr. Pope said.

Source: poison pen

 

Indian Specialist Hospital Reduces Prices for Patients

Efforts by the federal government to curtail capital flights from the country in form of medical tourism received a boost Wednesday, as the only Indian specialist hospital in Nigeria, Primus International Super Specialty Hospital announced a downward review of all its medical charges to 30 percent, including offer of free consultancy in the month of November.

According to the management of the hospital, the decision to crash the hospital fees is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to open its services and state of the art equipments to Nigerian patients, majority of whom could not afford to go abroad.

The move is seen as a strategic measure to halt foreign medical tourism by Nigerian patients who travel abroad for treatment, which is believed to cost the nation a whopping $300 million to $400 million in foreign exchange per annum.

The hospital’s Public Relations Officer, (PRO) Alhaji Umaru Jibia, in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, said the hospital, in addition to providing free consultation to patients in the area of joint replacement, spine problem, internal medicine, diabetes, ENT, gynecology, neuro surgery, dental, ophthalmology and general surgery, was also reducing the cost of medical treatment to help low income earners in the country.

He added: “MRI charges will be from N50, 000 onwards, while CT scan will be from N25, 000 onwards. Radiology, laboratory services will cost 30 per cent less, while Pharmacy drugs will cost 20 per cent less. The surgical procedures are at very reasonable charges during the camp period.”

The reduction of hospital prices came at a time the government was working for a workable framework that would put a stop to the increasing cases of capital flights due to frequent medical overseas trips by Nigerians.

Since its establishment in Abuja, the hospital had been conducting free camps in the city and its environs, where 23,000 patients have benefited from free consultation and medical other services.

Source: This day Live