Health News

Stress Linked to Headache Frequency

German researchers have confirmed what headache sufferers have long suspected: The more stressed out you are, the more frequent your headaches.

For being so common, the exact mechanisms behind headaches can be somewhat mysterious. While the new data can only suggest an association with stress, “I would think that stress ‘triggers’ headache,” one of the researchers, Dr. Zaza Katsarava of University Hospital, University of Duisburg-Essen, told.

The study used data from the German Headache Consortium Study of 5,159 people age 21-71. These people answered questionnaires every three months from 2010 to 2012 about headache type and frequency and used a visual 100-point scale to state how much stress they experienced.

After adjusting for age, sex, drinking habits, smoking and so on, the data was clear. For those who reported “tension” headaches, each 10 point increase in stress was associated with a 6.3 percent increase in the number of days each month they suffered through a headache.

Migraine and mixed tension-migraine sufferers also showed increases with stress, 4.3 and 4 percent respectively, though Katsarava cautioned that because headache type was self-reported, some people who said they had migraines might have had tension headaches.

Those results jibe with other studies, like one from Ohio’s Xavier University released last spring in which researchers from the business school found that headache-related hospital admission increased significantly during the 2008-2009 recession.

Alleviating stress can be especially important for people who experience headaches, Katsarava said, because stress can create a vicious cycle. “Stress triggers headache, headache triggers stress. Because people are disabled, they can not manage their life and their duties.”

Headache treatment, she argued, should be include medical, psychological and behavioral approaches.

Source: nbc news

Scientists query health risk of food package chemicals

Scientists say “far too little” is known about the health risks of chemicals used in food packaging, and some could cause cancer.

Research is needed to understand the effect on the human body and embryonic development of at least 4,000 chemicals used in packaging, they said.

Links between packaging and obesity, diabetes and neurological diseases need to be explored, scientists warned.

But critics have said that the call is alarmist.

Scientists Jane Muncke, John Peterson Myers, Martin Scheringer and Miquel Porta called for an investigation into the health risks of food packaging in a commentary piece published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

‘Lifelong exposure’
They noted that chemicals such as formaldehyde, which they said can cause cancer, were used in many materials, such as plastics used for fizzy-drink bottles and tableware.

Substances could leach into food, and they added that the risks of “lifelong exposure” to such chemicals were not documented, said the researchers.

“Whereas the science for some of these substances is being debated and policymakers struggle to satisfy the needs of stakeholders, consumers remain exposed to these chemicals daily, mostly unknowingly,” they said.

But carrying out analysis would not be easy, they said, as there are no unexposed populations for comparison.

The call for research has attracted criticism.

Dr Ian Musgrave, senior lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, said it was “very hard to take seriously” the claims that formaldehyde in plastic bottles could cause cancer.

He said it was present in many foods naturally, and to consume as much formaldehyde as that in an apple someone would have to drink “at least” 20 litres of plastic-bottled water.

Dr Musgrave added: “Obviously the concern about formaldehyde from food packaging is significantly overrated, unless we are willing to place ‘potential cancer hazard’ stickers on fresh fruit and vegetables.”

‘High levels of fat’
Jon Ayres, Professor of Environmental and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Birmingham, said the scientists painted an “alarmist” picture.

He said there was “no denying” that ingesting lower doses of some substances could “in principle” be harmful, but the issue was how to recognise and quantify any effect.

Prof Ayres added: “But can these effects really be anything other than modest at worst when few have been recognised to date?”

He said that simply calling for a different approach to the chemicals “does not really help”.

Dr Oliver Jones, lecturer at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said: “More research is always welcome from a scientist’s point of view.

“But I would hazard a guess that the high levels of fat, sugar and salt in a lot of today’s processed food are more of a health concern than any migration of chemicals from the packaging.”

Source: BBC news

Why You Should Eat With Your Hands?

1) It’s primal

Eating with your hands is common in many parts of the world.Utensils are a man-made invention that not all cultures warmed up to. We’ve learned so much from our ancestors and various hunter-gatherer tribes about health and nutrition – could they be onto something here, too?

2) Improved digestion

Feeling your food is a like a heads-up to your stomach, signaling “Incoming!” Your hands become an extension of the digestive system. Millions of nerve endings in your fingers relay the message that you’re about to eat, including the temperature of the food, level of spiciness, etc. to prep the stomach for digestion. Handling the food with your fingers releases digestive juices and enzymes.

3) Heightened awareness

Many experts have noted the importance of being relaxed and “present” at mealtime. A calm, aware state allows optimum digestion and helps with not overeating. Eating with a fork and knife can become mechanical, done absentmindedly while watching TV. You’ll inevitably feel more connected with your food when you eat with your hands.

4) Engages all senses

The smell of your cooking fills your home. The feast looks appetizing. You hear how crunchy it is as you take that first bite. And of course it tastes delicious. But as far as feeling it, you’re limited to the textures you experience in your mouth. Or are you? Eating with your hands adds a tactile dimension to your meal and engages all of your senses. Some people firmly believe that to completely enjoy your food, you simply must eat it with your fingers.

5) It’s fun

Don’t kids just look so happy and carefree, eating with their hands? Live a little, try something new, have some fun 🙂

Source: the primalist

5 reasons why walking on grass is good for your health

There is a common belief that walking on grass in the morning and evening is a great for your health; especially for your eyes. Have you ever wondered why? Well, here are five reasons waking on grass can do a great deal of good for your mind and body.

Rejuvenates your senses and calms the mind: The entire environment in the morning – the fresh air, sunlight and peaceful atmosphere helps you in innumerable ways. Fresh oxygen helps your body work better, sunlight helps you keep warm, replenishes your vitamin D stores and the calm atmosphere helps relax your entire body and mind, allowing you to let go of all your stress. Apart from that the green colour of grass, helps stimulate your body to produce calming hormones that help you relax

Stimulates your entire body, including the eyes: Our feet are store houses of reflexology zones that correspond to various organs of our body. According to the principles of reflexology, stimulating these points can help relieve ailments of the particular organs and keep them in a general state of good health. The foot has points for the eyes, ears, lungs, nerves of the face, stomach, spleen, brain, kidneys and many more organs, so when we walk on grass, these areas are gently stimulated, helping your entire body stay healthy. Dr Anjali Sharma, senior consultant, Naturopathy, Sri Balaji action medical institute, Delhi says, ‘When we walk on grass we stimulate the nerve endings of the foot, where thousands of nerve endings converge. These nerve endings get gently yet directly stimulated by the grass, helping the body stay in a state of equilibrium.’

Another reason for this belief is that when we walk, we put maximum pressure on the first, second and third toe. The reflexology pressure points for the eyes are present on the second and third toes, which is why walking on grass has a large number of benefits for one’s eyes.

Connects you to the earth and neutralizes your electrical energies: Dr Anjali says, ‘In naturopathy we base our treatment on the five elements of nature, out of which one of the elements is earth. The earth contains magnetic fields and has a certain flow of energy. Therefore when we walk barefoot on grass, we directly get connected to the magnetic field of the earth, which affects the entire electrical and magnetic field of our body. This exchange of energies helps neutralize negative electrical impulses in our body which are known to cause certain ailments. Therefore, cleansing our bodies of negative electrical energies definitely has a positive effect on our overall health.’

Lets you soak in the sun: When we walk on grass early in the morning we give our bodies the precious gift of ‘sun energy’. Dr Anjali says that sun energy is a great source of healing energies and restorative powers. ‘Sun energy’ – as it is called in Naturopathy – is the source of life and energy. It helps disinfect the body, tones the muscles and nerves, supplies the entire body with energy and supplies the body with the all essential vitamin D.

Dr Anjali suggests that, ‘Walking in the sun is extremely important and beneficial and one gets the maximum benefit of the sun between 6:30 to 9 in the morning and between 4:30 or 5 to about 6:30 in the evening. That being said, one should be careful not to expose themselves to harsh sunlight that we commonly see in the afternoons, as this can be damaging to the body.’

Replenishes your vitamin D stores: In recent times, osteoarthritis and other bone related diseases have become common place. Doctors say that this is mainly due to the lack of exposure to the sun. Therefore when you walk in the open – early in the morning – the sun replenishes your vitamin D stores automatically, helping you keep bone and joint diseases at bay. If you are pregnant, this vitamin is all the more important for you

Source: the Health site

Malaria: High risk focused in 10 African countries

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Gains in fighting malaria in sub-Saharan Africa have left the highest risk for the disease concentrated in 10 countries, according to a study published by The Lancet medical journal.

Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Guinea and Togo together account for 87 percent of areas that have the highest prevalence of malaria, it said.

The study assessed the effectiveness of the battle against malaria, which went into higher gear with the launch of the Roll Back Malaria initiative in 2000.

Since then, financial support has risen from $100 million (73 million euros) annually to about $2 billion (1.46 billion euros).

The researchers drew up a map of the changing face of malaria from thousands of surveys of prevalence of the disease among children in 44 countries.

They set down three categories of risk: high, meaning places where more than 50 percent of the population were likely to be infected by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite; moderate (10 to 50 percent of the population infected); and low (less than 10 percent).

From 2000 to 2010, the number of people living in areas of high-risk infection fell from 219 million to 184 million, a decline of 16 percent.

But the numbers living in moderate-risk locations rose from 179 million to 280 million, a rise of 57 percent.

The good news was that the tally of people living in low-risk areas rose from 131 million to 219 million.

Four countries — Cape Verde, Eritrea, South Africa and Ethiopia — joined Swaziland, Djibouti and Mayotte in the elite club of countries where transmission levels are so low that elimination of malaria is a realistic goal.

The researchers said the overall picture was mixed, and important gains had been partly offset by population increase — over the decade, an extra 200 million people were born in places with malaria.

“Substantial reductions in malaria transmission have been achieved in endemic countries in Africa over the period 2000-2010,” the paper said.

“However, 57 percent of the population in 2010 continued to live in areas where transmission remains moderate to intense and global support to sustain and accelerate the reduction of transmission must remain a priority.”

In its 2013 report on malaria, the World Health Organisation (WHO) last December said 3.3 million lives had been saved worldwide since 2000.

Even so, the mosquito-borne disease still killed 627,000 people last year, mainly children in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The agency pointed to a shortage of funding and a lack of access to artemisinin malarial medicines and basic remedies such as bednets remained a serious problem, it said.

Source: New vision

Sitting linked to increased risk for disability, study shows

Here’s another reason desk jockeys need to get up and move. Researchers are finding that sedentary behaviors like sitting even just an hour extra per day can up your risk for disabilities in later life — even if you are a moderately active gym rat.

The study published Wednesday in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health is the first to show that sedentary behavior alone may be an independent risk factor for disability, separate from lack of moderate physical activity, its authors say.

To be clear, exercise is important, but it is only the beginning of a healthy lifestyle, said lead author Dorothy Dunlop, Ph.D., professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“The message is that we can work on what the government recommends in terms of moderate physical activity, but we need to reduce sitting time by replacing it with some light activity,” Dunlop said. That doesn’t mean sweat and spandex, but rather simple activities like pushing a grocery cart, strolling through a museum, and even getting up once an hour to walk around.

The researchers strapped devices to the waists of some 2,200 adults aged 60 and older to monitor their activity and found that every additional hour a day spent sitting was strongly linked to a doubling of the risk of disability. So, if one 60-something year old person is sedentary for 12 hours a day, and another is sedentary for 13 hours a day, the second individual is 50 percent more likely to be disabled, according to the study.

“I’m not surprised that 30 minutes of activity several times a week doesn’t compensate for nine hours a day sitting around,” said family medicine specialist Dr. Robert Truax of University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. The good news, he said, is that it’s never too late to get up off our butts and get healthier.

Source: NBC news

FDA approves Chelsea Therapeutics drug for low blood pressure

Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd’s drug Northera, which treats a rare form of low blood pressure associated with neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, has won U.S. approval, the Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday.

The company’s shares rose 34 percent to $6.63 in after-market trading.

The drug’s label will carry a boxed warning, the most serious possible, of the risk of supine hypertension, or increased blood pressure while lying down, a danger that can cause stroke.

In January, an advisory panel to the FDA recommended approval but also suggested the company conduct a follow-up study to prove durable benefit. Panelists said gaps in clinical data made it hard to determine whether Northera, which appears effective after a week’s treatment, is effective over the long term.

The FDA followed the recommendation and approved the drug on an “accelerated” basis. This allows for approval a drug to treat a serious disease based on an intermediate measure while the company conducts more trials.

In the meantime, the FDA said, “it is essential that patients be reminded that they must sleep with their head and upper body elevated. Supine blood pressure should be monitored prior to and during treatment and more frequently when increasing doses.”

Chelsea first filed for approval of Northera in 2011. The FDA rejected the drug in 2012 and asked for additional data. The company is also testing the drug, known generically as droxidopa, in mid-stage studies to treat fibromyalgia and intradialytic hypotension.

Source: yahoo news

 

Lilly lung cancer drug improves survival in late-stage trial

An experimental cancer drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co, touted by some to be the company’s next blockbuster, significantly improved survival rates in lung cancer patients, sending the company’s shares up 3 percent in early trading.

Lilly needs new drugs to offset declining sales of its older drugs as they lose patent protection.

Ramucirumab, designed to treat multiple cancers, has the potential to generate annual sales of $1.5 billion by 2020, according to some analysts.

The drug has already been shown be successful in treating stomach cancer, and Lilly is waiting for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market it for that disease.

The latest results could help allay some concerns about the drug after it failed to delay the progression of breast cancer in a late-stage trial last year.

The late-stage lung cancer trial compared a combination of ramucirumab and a common chemotherapy drug, docetaxel, with a combination of a placebo and docetaxel in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

The trial, known as Revel, showed that ramucirumab significantly improved overall survival rates as well as improving survival rates without the cancer worsening.

Lilly did not provide details of the trial results, which it said would be presented at a scientific meeting.

The company said on Wednesday that it planned to submit the first application for marketing approval later this year.

Data from two other studies to test the drug’s effectiveness to treat liver and colorectal cancer are expected later this year, Lilly said.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Alex Arfaei expressed caution about the latest results.

“We believe Revel needs to show at least (a) 2-3 month improvement in overall survival to be considered clinically meaningful,” he said in a note.

Ramucirumab, which Lilly acquired through its $6.5 billion purchase of ImClone Systems Inc in 2008, works by blocking development of blood vessels that feed tumors – a process known as angiogenesis.

Source: Fox news

Fecal Transplant Regulations Are Too Strict, Researchers Say

c-difficile

Physicians use fecal transplants to treat certain intestinal infections, but the procedures recently came under strict regulations, with the Food and Drug Administration managing the transplants as though they were a drug treatment.

This regulation has made it harder for patients to receive fecal transplants, and in a new paper, some researchers are calling for the transplants to instead be regulated as a tissue, akin to blood donations.

The raw material for fecal transplants isn’t hard to come by, and so in the face of what some see as current over-regulation, an underground market for the transplants will likely spring up, the researchers argued today in the journal Nature.

At the same time, they said, more research is needed on the long-term effects of fecal transplants.

Regulating fecal transplants as a tissue may allow for better research on their possible uses in treatments, while protecting patients from harm, the researchers, from MIT and Brown University, wrote.

“I think regulating it as a tissue product would both provide access as needed and the research that could bring some pretty exciting new treatments on the scene,” said Mark B. Smith, an author of the article and a doctoral candidate at MIT.

Fecal transplants have been tested since the 1950s, and last year the first randomized controlled trial showed a strong benefit in helping patients with recurrent C. difficile, a bacterial infection that causes painful diarrhea, often following the use of antibiotics, and kills 14,000 people yearly in the United States.

But following the treatment’s success, some doctors began offering fecal transplants for other conditions as well — including those for which any potential benefit remains unproven. The FDA took action in 2013, regulating the treatment, but also granting an exemption for its continued use in patients who had C. difficile infections. This use would not require special permissions.

However, the result may be a case of both under- and over-regulation, today’s editorial argues. While medical societies have issued guidelines for using the treatment, there are no hard and fast rules for screening fecal matter, as there are with blood donations.

Source: Huffington Post

Student realizes he has cancer, thanks to Reddit post

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Taylor Tyree was just browsing the social media site Reddit when he came upon another user’s (rather graphic) picture of his testicle, which had just been removed due to cancer.

Tyree, 21, perused the comments associated with the picture and saw the original poster, a Redditor by the name of “uniballer,” described the symptoms he had ahead of being diagnosed with testicular cancer. Tyree realized he had the same symptoms.

“I went to the comments and was reading through and he was talking about symptoms and what not … it was like, wait, I have something similar to this,”

Tyree, a student at Colorado School of Mines, went to the student health center for an exam. He got an ultrasound, CAT scan and X-ray, and was told he had a large cancerous mass in his left testicle.

“It was about four months after I first started noticing the symptoms, so I’m really lucky that it actually didn’t spread to anywhere else,” Tyree said.

Tyree says Reddit “saved his life” because it prompted him to go to a doctor, rather than waiting for months before getting checked out. He even communicated with “uniballer” throughout his diagnosis and his surgery to have his testicle removed.

“He’s a really nice guy, he’s been very helpful,” Tyree said. “He said I should talk to other people going through this, it will help with recovery, and I agree.”

Tyree had surgery on Friday but is looking forward to getting back to school. His Reddit post has garnered more than 1,000 comments, and Tyree hopes he can help others in similar situations.

“I still have, like, a few hundred comments to go through, but I’ll try to answer as many questions as I can and if anyone has any questions, they can message me and I can try to help them as well,” Tyree said.

Source: Fox news