Health News

Guinness World Record for heart transplant patient

A British man has entered the record books as the worlds longest-surviving heart transplant patient.

John McCafferty, 71, has surpassed the previous Guinness World Record of 30 years, 11 months and 10 days set by an American man who died in 2009.

Mr McCafferty was told he had five years to live when he underwent the life-saving operation at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex 31 years ago.

He says his record should give hope to others awaiting transplants.

Mr McCafferty, from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, said: “I want this world record to be an inspiration to anyone awaiting a heart transplant and to those who, like me, have been fortunate enough to have had one.

“My advice is always to be hopeful, to look ahead with a positive mind, and, of course, to follow the expert medical advice.”

Mr McCafferty received his new heart on 20 October 1982 in a procedure carried out by world-renowned surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub.

He had been diagnosed, aged 39, with dilated cardiomyopathy – one of the most common causes of heart failure. It leads to scarring of the heart wall and damage to the muscle, which causes the heart to become weakened and enlarged, preventing it from pumping efficiently.

The first ever successful heart transplant operation was performed in South Africa in 1967 by Prof Christiaan Neethling Barnard and a team of 30 physicians at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. The patient, Louis Washkansky, survived for 18 days with the new heart.

Source: BBC news

10 Leading causes of tooth sensitivity

 

If your answer is YES, you might be suffering from tooth sensitivity. Anyone who has experienced that sharp, biting sensation will agree that “Tooth sensitivity” sounds too harmless and too mild a word to describe this condition.

Tooth sensitivity is a common dental problem that affects almost 70% of people across the world. It refers to the sudden, shooting pain in the teeth on consuming very hot or cold foods and very sweet or sour foods. In extreme cases, a sip of cold water may also evoke the same reaction.* Data courtesy: Ambika Choudhary Mahajan, a lifestyle blogger who write for mymagicmix.com, a blog where you will find a refreshingly delicious chutzpah of information on a variety of topics including health.

Leading causes of tooth sensitivity

The basic underlying cause which brings about this condition is the wearing away of the hard, overlying layer of enamel on the teeth due to which the underlying softer parts (i.e. the pulp) gets exposed. Now, this pulp contains the sensory nerves of the teeth. When this area becomes exposed, the feelings of hot and cold, sweet and sour gets many magnified many times over, causing the sudden, jerking reaction in people suffering from this condition.

The 10 leading causes which cause the nerves of this area to be exposed are:

Receding of gums: Receding gums can be caused by advancing age, due to improper brushing techniques, vigorous or over enthusiastic brushing. When the gums recede, the dentine and the root of the tooth get bared leading to feelings of hot and cold, sweet and sour being blown out of proportion.

Gingivitis: Gum disease or gingivitis weakens the gums which hold the teeth in their place. As this worsens and causes inflammation of gums around the base of the tooth, the underlying root and nerves get exposed, leading to heightened sensitivity.

A cracked tooth: Any external crack on the surface of the tooth allows bacteria inside the mouth to find their way to the root of the tooth and cause an infection. Left untreated, it can become a cause of major headache later and cause hypersensitivity in a tooth or teeth.

Unhealthy eating habits: Whatever goes into your mouth affects your teeth before anything else. Consuming too many sweet and sticky foods (like chocolates, candies, ice- creams), food with acidic content (like pickles, strawberries), carbonated drinks like colas and very hot or very cold foods also takes a toll on the enamel present on the teeth and lead to tooth sensitivity over a period of time.

Bruxism: People who grind their teeth habitually or involuntarily (during sleep)- a condition called Bruxism- might also lose the hard enamel layer gradually and suffer from tooth sensitivity over a period of time.

Dental procedures: Some dental procedures like scaling of plaque, crown placement, tooth restoration, etc might lead to heightened sensitivity for a few days after the treatment. In most cases, sensitivity caused due to such procedure subsides on its own after few days without calling for medical intervention.

Using very hard toothbrushes with or without abrasive toothpastes: Using either or both of them has the same effect as sandpaper rubbing on wood. That is, thinning and wearing away of enamel on the surface of the teeth, thereby making them more prone to sensitivity.

Prolonged use of mouthwash: Most mouthwashes available in the market do indeed help make your breath fresher. But their acidic contents cause the erosion of enamel present on the surface of the teeth, making them weaker and also more vulnerable to tooth sensitivity.

Whitening treatments: We all love shining white teeth. So much so that the ones amongst us who have slightly paler ones go for expensive whitening treatments to get our pearls milky white. While that might help brighten up the smile, they cause untold damage to the enamel- which will make sure that you will be shedding tears for that later! If you must go in for whitening, make sure to check with the dentist about the damage caused to the tooth enamel.

Unusual medical conditions: At times, the acid content in the mouth might be extremely high due to medical conditions like GERD and bulimia. The high acid level in the mouth corrodes the enamel and makes the dentine more sensitive.

Source: Times of India

Small lifestyle changes ‘lower type 2 diabetes risk’

Modest lifestyle changes in diet and activity by South Asian families improve their chance of losing weight to lower their risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a study.

Making moderate improvements could help to improve their health and wellbeing, an Edinburgh clinical trial has found.

The Edinburgh University study was carried out in their homes as opposed to hospital clinics.

It is the first of its kind in the UK to focus on South Asian cultures.

Patients lost weight and reduced their hip and waist measurements and there were indications they were less likely to become diabetic by the end of the trial, which focused on people of Indian and Pakistani-origin.

Researchers said ethnic background and culture played an important role in shaping attitudes and behaviours towards diet and exercise.

National guidelines show South Asian people place strong emphasis on family life and eating together.

Body mass index

From a young age, South Asians are said to be sensitive or at risk of health problems linked to obesity.

Men from Pakistani and Indian communities are three times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than the general population, despite having similar body mass indexes, scientists said.

The three-year trial monitored 171 people of Indian and Pakistani background living in Scotland who were already at high risk of diabetes as shown by blood tests done at the start of the trial.

Participants were given detailed advice by dieticians and offered culturally-appropriate resources to help them manage their weight through diet and exercise.

At the same time, control groups were given basic advice, which was not culturally specific.

Professor Raj Bhopal, from Edinburgh University’s centre for population health sciences, said: “These differing approaches show us that a more family-centred strategy, with culturally tailored lifestyle advice, can produce significant benefits to people’s health through weight loss.”

The trial is published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.

Source: Pakistan Today

Flu Vaccine Works Better for Women: Study

The flu vaccine is generally less effective for men than for women, scientists said in a study Monday, tracing the effect to higher levels of testosterone that curb the immune response.

It has long been known that men are more vulnerable than women to bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, but scientists have never been able to clearly explain why.

It was also known that men don’t respond as strongly as women to vaccines against yellow fever, measles and hepatitis, said the authors of the study, which appears in this week’s Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences.

The new research, using samples from 34 men and 53 women, suggested that the cause could be traced to testosterone: only men with higher levels of the sex hormone demonstrated the lower antibody response to the flu vaccine.

Among men with lower levels of testosterone, the immune response was “more or less equivalent to that of women,” said a statement from Stanford University, whose researchers collaborated with others at the French governmental research organization INSERM for the study.

Previous studies on animals and in cell-culture experiments had previously suggested a link between testosterone and immune response, which creates inflammation as it battles the invasion of a pathogen.

This latest study doesn’t indicate a direct link between testosterone and the lowered immune response. Instead, the immune system’s reaction was reduced by the activation of a group of genes that are also linked to a higher level of testosterone, explained Mark Davis, immunology professor at Stanford University.

The researchers also considered an apparent evolutionary paradox — wondering how natural selection could favor a hormone responsible both for characteristics such as strength and a taste for taking risks, and for weakening the immune system.

They speculated that in prehistoric times, men’s roles as hunters and warriors tended to expose them to more wounds and resulting infections.

A decent immune response to these infections is an evolutionary advantage, but an overly abundant one — which can occur in certain diseases including some virulent forms of the flu — could prove more dangerous than the pathogen itself, they said.

Thus, perhaps men with less aggressive immune responses tended to be better able to survive, the researchers said.

Source: News Max health

10 Ways to Relieve Stress Naturally

Your misplaced wallet. A dead car battery. Stress is a thug we encounter almost hourly. The question is, do you have what it takes to stand up to the bully? If you’re like most people surveyed last year by the American Psychological Association, you may be losing the good fight: Sixty percent said stressful situations left them irritable, 53 percent felt fatigued, and 52 percent were unable to sleep at night.

Stress takes a toll on more than just your mood. All that tension puts a whammy on your waistline, thanks to the stress-related hormone cortisol, which rises during anxiety-inducing events and makes you crave fatty, sugar-packed foods. Those excess calories are more likely to be stored in the gut as visceral fat, the type that’s been linked to type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and gastrointestinal cancers. Visceral fat also increases the production of cortisol, perpetuating the cycle (as if you need any further assistance).

Moreover, “chronic stress releases cytokines and C-reactive protein in your body — dangerous molecules that cause inflammation and put you at greater risk for developing arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and other chronic diseases,” says Evangeline Lausier, MD, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.

You’re probably thinking, So, what do I do now? First of all, don’t wig out. Arm yourself with these natural approaches to de-stressing your mind, body, and spirit.

How to De-Stress Your Mind

1. Change Your Attitude
“Some people find riding a roller coaster to be extremely stressful; others find it thrilling. It all depends on your perspective,” explains Paul J. Rosch, MD, clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at New York Medical College. Say you’re about to run your first half-marathon and your stomach is in knots. The goal is to switch your “Oh, no!” thinking to “Bring it on!” bravado. Easier said than done, for sure, but know this: Short stints of stress are actually good for you because they maximize performance. Blood pressure rises and digestion of food slows, allowing your body to summon the energy to combat the anxiety-inducing situation. If changing your mind-set isn’t working, try this: Decide it’s okay to feel anxious as you hover at the starting line. One recent study found that people who learned to identify and acknowledge stressful thoughts and think them through showed notable improvements in their inner calm.

2. Find Your Zen Zone
Have a big presentation to make? Scared you’ll flub your number? Try this before venturing into the conference room: “Close your eyes. In a quiet area, settle into a comfortable position. Relax every muscle, starting with your toes and moving upward,” Dr. Lausier says. “Focus on your breathing. With every inhale, sink deeper into your body. As you exhale, imagine tension leaving your muscles.” Feel better? Congratulations, you’ve just performed a body scan, a meditative exercise that helps you be hyperaware of where your body is holding stress, so you can physically let go of your worries. Additional mindfulness-based stress-reduction techniques, such as deep breathing and gentle yoga, have been shown to ease anxiety as well. Our fave yoga move: child’s pose.

How to De-Stress Your Body
3. Get a Rubdown
It’s four months into the new year, and you’re still carrying the 20 pounds you resolved to lose. Negative self-talk will get you nowhere. Instead, head to the nearest spa for a massage. When stressed-out ER nurses received twice-weekly chair massages, their tension levels dropped significantly, according to researchers at Griffith University in Australia. Go to massagetherapy.com to find a practitioner in your area.

4. Move It!
The endorphins released during workouts make you feel great! The proof: Volunteers who signed up for a three-month stress-management course that included hourlong workouts of walking, jogging, and dancing not only lowered their cardiovascular-disease risk but also eased their anxiety and depression. Dodge your next stress attack by taking the dog for a run. Or crank up your Beyonce CD and shake your hips like a backup dancer.

5. Make Time for Tea
Brits appear composed for a reason. It turns out that people who drink black tea have lower cortisol levels compared with those drinking a tea substitute. Our advice: Brew, steep, and sip up, but skip the scone.

6. Canoodle with a Labradoodle
Researchers at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York found that pet owners have higher heart-rate variability (the greater the variability, the better the heart is able to respond to varying demands) compared with that of non-pet owners. Moreover, recent studies have found that people with pets have lower blood pressure than the rest of the population. One explanation: Pets provide constant companionship and unconditional affection.

How to De-Stress Your Spirit
7. Confide in Your Journal
Why is it that every time you feel stressed someone tells you to jot down your feelings? Well — because it works! Writing about a traumatic event, and what you plan to do about it, reduces levels of anxiety, according to researchers at the University of Amsterdam.

8. Hang with Happy People 

Like your friend with an infectious laugh or your buddy who can belch the entire “Star-Spangled Banner.” Our happiness is contingent on how connected we feel to a network of positive-thinking friends, finds a new study. “If someone you have direct contact with is happy, it increases the likelihood that you’ll be happy by about 15 percent,” says James H. Fowler, PhD, an associate professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego and principal investigator for the study.

9. Draw, Paint, Dance
No one is saying you have to be Basquiat by day and Alvin Ailey by night — just do your own thing. “Artistic activities may reduce stress because you’re able to access the creative part of your brain to express your thoughts and feelings rather than relying on words, which most of us usually do,” Dr. Lausier says.

10. Listen to Music
Ever notice how your dentist cranks up Chopin before jackhammering your gums? Rest assured, he’s only trying to help. Studies show that playing music can reduce perceived psychological stress. Now that’s reason for an encore!

Source: Yahoo shine

Christmas: The deadliest day of the year?

More people die on Christmas than any other day of the year, Medical Daily reported.

In the 1970s, researchers discovered this phenomenon after they began studying death trends throughout the year. A wide array of causes seem to contribute to the trend of Christmas Day deaths including understaffed hospitals and an unwillingness by people to bother their relatives for a ride to the doctor’s office.

Death by cardiac disease, respiratory diseases, endocrine/nutritional/metabolic problems, digestive diseases, and cancer – the five most common causes of death – see an overall increase during this time of year, Medical Daily reported.

One study from the University of California San Diego examined hospital workforces around the holidays and discovered that Level 1 trauma centers often carry less than a full staff, and have less experienced professionals on hand during the Christmas holiday.

“Those are the cases where seconds make a difference, and you may see a real difference between the response of a junior and senior member of staff,” study author David P. Phillips said.

One optimistic note: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said suicide deaths don’t increase the same way deaths from other factors do around the holidays.

Source: Fox news

Early start to weight gain tied to later heart risks

Kids who start rapidly gaining weight early in childhood are more likely to have higher blood pressure and other signs of future heart trouble as preteens, a new study suggests.

“There’s a natural tendency early in life for children to thin out as they grow taller and gain stature faster than they gain weight,” Dr. Mark D. DeBoer said.

But eventually, all kids hit a point when they start gaining weight at a faster pace, and their body mass index (BMI) – a measure of weight in relation to height – begins to rise. That point is called the adiposity rebound.

The adiposity rebound typically happens around age four to six, DeBoer, who studies childhood obesity at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, told Reuters Health.

Some studies have suggested children who start to put on weight at a younger age are more likely to be obese later in life. The new report adds to those concerns.

“It helps I think give us a better understanding of what this might be impacting in addition to obesity,” Dr. Stephen Daniels said.

Daniels studies preventive cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, where he chairs the Pediatrics Department. Neither he nor DeBoer was involved in the new study.

Researchers led by Dr. Satomi Koyama of Dokkyo Medical University in Mibu, Tochigi, Japan, followed 271 children born in 1995 and 1996. Kids had their weight and height measured at least once every year through age 12 during infant health checks and then physical exams at school.

From looking at each child’s growth pattern, the researchers determined when children hit their lowest BMI, the age at adiposity rebound. After that, they got bigger every year.

Koyama’s team found the earlier both boys and girls reached that turning point, the heavier they were at age 12.

For instance, boys who started getting bigger around age three had an average BMI of 21 as preteens. That’s the equivalent of a five-foot-tall boy weighing 108 pounds.

Boys who didn’t start getting bigger until at least age seven had an average BMI of 17 – the equivalent of the same boy weighing 87 pounds.

Boys who had their adiposity rebound at a young age also had higher triglycerides and blood pressure at age 12. Although their numbers were still in the normal range, they could hint at signs of future heart problems, the researchers wrote Monday in Pediatrics.

For girls, the link between age at adiposity rebound and heart risks was smaller but still visible.

“Physicians should be tracking body mass index and should be checking for kids who are headed in the direction of being more obese,” Daniels said.

But, he told Reuters Health, parents and pediatricians won’t be able to tell exactly when children are at their adiposity rebound. And it’s not clear how to prevent it from happening early.

“There’s a strong possibility that these are children who inherited a genetic predisposition that made them more likely both to have early adiposity rebound and to have metabolic syndrome earlier in life,” DeBoer said.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors, including high blood pressure, that are linked to heart disease.

“The message is probably still more general, in terms of families working with pediatricians and family physicians to make sure that families have a healthy diet (and) that they have healthy opportunities for activity,” Daniels said.

Source: Reuters

California family celebrates 3 heart transplants

A California family is celebrating this holiday season after the mother and two of her three sons all received life-saving heart transplants for an inherited cardiac condition.

Deanna Kremis and her sons, 17-year-old Matthew and 13-year-old Trevin, all suffer from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It’s a genetic condition that causes the heart muscle to thicken until the heart can’t pump blood properly.

Matthew and Trevin got their new hearts in 2007 within five weeks of each other. But as they got healthier, their mother – who was diagnosed as an adult – began to fail. She finally got a new heart in July and her sons are helping her adjust to her new life.

The transplants are not a cure: There is a constant threat of organ rejection and infection.

Source: Straits times

NYC pharmacy blends Eastern and Western medicine

Positioned on Manhattan’s Decreased East Facet, Stanley’s Pharmacy blends each Japanese and Western medication in an work to aid tackle customers’ requirements.

“I have drugs just like any other pharmacy would,” Stanley said. “And I also have this wellness bar wherever we have our personal blended teas. We have kombucha coming out of the soda fountain in this article, we make our own sodas from scratch and I can customize beverages primarily based on how you sense.”

Stanley’s signature “Drinks and Drugs,” menu presents fixes for typical ailments like a sore throat or PMS – or even a hangover.

It’s this style of personalised care that retains 36-12 months-aged Joe DiNoto coming back. As a runner, DiNoto stated Stanley has assisted him occur up with treatment options that enable him to continue to keep working out with out personal injury.

“I’ve found that my power level is additional dependable all through the day,” DiNoto said. “I also discover that my aches and pains have been lessened due to reduced swelling for the reason that of the tumeric tea. And, I do not know, (I’m) just overall much more satisfied.”

Stanley has been a pharmacist for 15 years and claimed his endeavours to combine pure medication into his 1-of-a-type pharmacy is a thing his consumers take pleasure in.

Monica Stewart, another shopper at Stanley’s Pharmacy, reported she’s now a significant admirer of hoping normal treatments in conjunction with conventional drugs.

“I by no means understood about any of that stuff before…It’s truly opened up my eyes to unique therapeutic methods,” Stewart explained.

Source: USA News

A girl dies in Ireland after pharmacy refuses to give her EpiPen

A teenage girl has died outside a pharmacy in Ireland after a staff member refused to give her family an EpiPen to inject her for a nut allergy because she didn’t have a prescription.

Emma Sloan, 14, was out for dinner in Dublin with her family when she accidentally ingested a sauce containing nuts that she mistook for curry, the Irish Herald reported.

The teenager suffered a severe allergic reaction but was not carrying an EpiPen, which delivers a shot of adrenaline that can reverse the effects of a severe, fast-acting reaction known as anaphylactic shock.

The family went to a nearby pharmacy and pleaded for an EpiPen but Emma’s mother, Caroline Sloan, said a male staff member refused to give them one without a prescription.

“He told me I couldn’t get it without a prescription. He told me to bring her to an A&E,” she told the newspaper.
Mrs Sloan said she tried to take Emma to Temple Street Hospital, but her daughter collapsed and died on the way.
“She died on the footpath. A doctor was passing and tried to help and put her into the recovery position. Ambulance and fire brigade men worked on her. But she was gone,” Mrs Sloan told the Herald.

“My daughter died on a street corner with a crowd around her. “I’m so angry I was not given the EpiPen to inject her. I was told to bring Emma to an A&E department. Emma was allergic to nuts and was very careful. How could a peanut kill my child?
“I want to appeal to parents of children with nut allergies to make sure their child always carries an EpiPen with them.”

Regulations prohibit the dispensing of EpiPen injections without a prescription, the Irish Herald reported.
Mrs Sloan said she had gone to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet with Emma and her two other daughters on Wednesday evening for a family meal.

While Emma was usually extremely careful about what she ate, on this occasion she overlooked a sign that warned a sauce contained nuts, Mrs Sloan said.

“Emma has always been very careful and would check the ingredients of every chocolate bar and other foods to be sure they didn’t contain nuts,” she told the newspaper.

“She had a satay sauce. She thought it was curry sauce because it looked like curry sauce and smelled like curry. I’m not blaming the restaurant because there was a sign reading ‘nuts contained’ but it wasn’t noticed. After a while, Emma began to say, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’.”

Police and the pharmacy regulatory body, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, have launched an investigation into the girl’s death.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald