Health News

Vitamin C – A Powerful Cancer Cure?

A 2008 Vitamin C – End All Disease study conducted by the National Institute of Health found that, when injected into mice, Vitamin C could slow the growth of tumours. Despite the long history of research into vitamin C and cancer with many of the same findings, the research paper presented its findings as new. Curative health affects using vitamin C therapy have been known for a long time.

Studies on Vitamin C and Cancer

* A study conducted in 1969 found that Vitamin C would selectively kill cancer cells without harming normal cells. These scientific findings were largely ignored by the medical establishment.
* Clinical trials conducted by 2x Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling and surgeon Ewan Cameron were able to prolongue the lives of cancer patients 6x longer than they would have lived without Vitamin C.1
* A 1994 study conducted by Dr. Art Robinson found that mice with cancer fed a diet of raw vegetables and given high-dose vitamin C lived up to 20 times longer than the control mice.2
* After reviewing the existing literature, Steve Hickey, Ph.D and Hilary Roberts, Ph.D found that in high enough doses, Vitamin C acts as an anti-cancer medicine.3

How Does Vitamin C Work to Kill Tumours?

In healthy tissues, Vitamin C works as an antioxidant to clean up and remove free radicals, and in cancer cells it acts as an oxidant which kills abnormal cells and generates free radicals.

When blood levels of Vitamin C are maintained at a consistently high level, it is absorbed into tumour tissues, where it generates hydrogen peroxide, killing cancer cells.

If you want to understand why Vitamin C can detoxify ANY known chemical, here’s what you need to know:

* All toxins are pro-oxidant in the body, which means they take electrons away from cells unless neutralized with antioxidants. This oxidative stress damages cells.
* Increasing your body’s blood levels of the antioxidant Vitamin C will give the toxins something to consume so that they cannot negatively effect your cells, and they are then removed from the body.

Source: end all disease

Pakistani doctor wins $1m to fight child deaths

A Pakistani doctor won a $1 million grant on Tuesday to fight early child mortality in a small fishing village in southern Pakistan in a contest financed by an American entrepreneur to find innovative ways to save lives, The Caplow Children’s Prize said.

A proposal by Anita Zaidi, who heads the pediatrics department at the Aga Khan University in the port city of Karachi, beat out more than 550 other applications from more than 70 countries. The prize was founded and funded by entrepreneur Ted Caplow to find impactful and cost-effective ways to save children’s lives, according to a press release announcing the results.

Zaidi said in a telephone interview that her project will focus on reducing child mortality rates in Rehri Goth, on the outskirts of Karachi. According to Zaidi, 106 out of 1,000 children born in the town die before the age of five. That is almost double the worldwide under-five child mortality rate of 51 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011, according to UNICEF.

Few of the women in the area of roughly 40,000 people have access to medical care during pregnancy or money to pay for things like multivitamins, said Zaidi. There is no nearby hospital, and women usually give birth accompanied by a birthing attendant with little or no formal training.

When women do run into complications giving birth, the babies often die while the women seek medical care, the doctor said.
The money will be used in Rehri Goth to eliminate malnutrition among expectant and new mothers and their babies, ensure that children have access to primary health care and immunizations and train a group of local women at Aga Khan University to become midwives.

Women taking part in the program would get two medical checkups to monitor their pregnancy, multivitamins to promote a healthy fetus and food if they are malnourished, she said.

Zaidi has been working in the area for the last ten years on various health-related research projects carried out by the university so she was familiar with its needs.

“I know this community. I know what its problems are,” Zaidi said. “It’s a really good match between what the community needed and what this prize was offering.”

Caplow said Zaidi “really gave reassurance that she would be able to do exactly what she said she would do and it would have the impact that she said it would have.”

He added that he and his wife conceived of the prize after they gave birth to triplets who spent a month in an intensive care unit. The prize, which Caplow said would continue next year, was a way to address the disparities in medical technology available around the world.

Source: The Nation

How to Exercise Your Eyes

We all know how important it is to keep our bodies fit by doing things like going to the gym, jogging, and swimming. But, did you know that you can exercise your eyes as well? Eye exercising will keep your eyes healthy and help minimize eyestrain.

Note that these steps are not meant to improve your vision, but rather to maintain your best eyesight level during the day and prevent significant further vision deterioration.

1 Sit comfortably on a chair. Rub your hands together until they feel warm. Close your eyes and cover them lightly with your cupped palms. Avoid applying pressure to your eyeballs. Your nose should not be covered. Make sure no light rays can enter your eyes though gaps between your fingers or the edges of your palms and nose. You may still see other lingering traces of colors. Imagine deep blackness and focus on it. Take deep breaths slowly and evenly while thinking of some happy incident, or visualize a distant scene. After you see nothing but blackness, remove your palms from your eyes. Repeat the palming for 3 minutes or more

2 Close your eyes tightly for 3-5 seconds. Open them for 3-5 seconds. Repeat 7 or 8 times

3 Massage your eyes
Hot and Cold Compress: Soak one towel in hot water, and the other in cold. Take one and lightly press it to your face, focusing on your eyebrows, closed eyelids, and cheeks. Alternate between the two as desired, making sure to end with a cold compress.
Full Face Massage: Soak a towel in hot water. Rub your neck, forehead and cheeks with the towel, avoiding the eyes. Then, use your fingertips to gently massage your forehead and closed eyes.
Eyelid Massage: Close your eyes and massage them with circular movements of your fingers for 1-2 minutes. Make sure you press very lightly and have washed your hands to avoid damaging your eyes.

4 Lightly press three fingers of each hand against your upper eyelids. Hold them there for 1-2 seconds, then release. Repeat 5 times.

5 Sit and relax. Roll your eyes clockwise, then counter-clockwise. Repeat 5 times, blinking in between each time.

6 Focus on a distant object (over 150 feet or 50 m away) for 10-15 seconds. Then, slowly refocus your eyes on a nearby object (less than 30 feet or 10 m away) without moving your head. Focus for again for 10-15 seconds, and go back to the distant object. Do this 5 times.
Try sitting about 6 inches (15 cm) from a window. Make a mark on the glass (ideally a small red or black sticker) at eye-level. Look through this mark and focus on something far away, then adjust your focus to the mark

7 Hold a pencil in front of you at arm’s length. Move your arm slowly to your nose. Follow the pencil with your eyes until you can’t keep it in focus. Repeat 10 times.

8 Look in front of you at the opposite wall and pretend that you are writing with your eyes. Don’t move your head. This may seem difficult at first, but with a bit of practice it is really fun. The bigger the letters, the better the effect.

9 Practice rhythmic movements
Bar Swings: Stand in front of a fence, barred window, or something else with evenly spaced vertical lines. Focus loosely on a distant object on the other side of the bars. Relax your body and rhythmically transfer your weight from one foot to the other. Keep your breathing steady and relaxed. Don’t forget to blink while performing this exercise. Continue for 2-3 minutes.
Round Swings: Focus on an object in the distance that is close to the ground. Sway as instructed for Bar Swings. Keeping your gaze on the same object, use your peripheral vision to observe your surroundings as you sway. Continue for 2-3 minutes.
Head Movements: Close one eye. Slowly form a figure 8 with your head. Repeat for the other eye. Continue for 2-3 minutes.

10 Imagine that you are standing in front of a large clock. Look at the middle of the clock. Then look at any hour mark, without turning your head. Look back at the center. Then look at another hour mark. Do this at least 12 times. You can also do this exercise with your eyes closed

11 Focus on an object in the distance (as far as possible) with a low contrasting background. Do this for a few minutes every half hour or so.

12 Make up and down eye movements, starting from up to down. Do this 8 times. Then do the side to side eye movement, starting from left to right. Repeat this 8 times. Be sure not to force your eyes further than they want to go in any particular direction, or you risk making your vision worse.

13 Always finish up either with palming or another eye relaxation technique.

Watching traumatic events may cause more stress than being there

Watching television coverage of traumatic events, like the Boston Marathon bombing, for prolonged periods of time may be detrimental to your mental health.

UC Irvine researchers found that people who watched six or more hours a day of media coverage of the Boston Marathon the week following the incident were more likely to have higher levels of acute stress than those who had been at or near the event.

“We were very surprised at the degree to which repeated media exposure was so strongly associated with acute stress symptoms,” lead author E. Alison Holman, associate professor of nursing science at UC Irvine, said in a press release. “We suspect that there’s something about repeated exposure to violent images or sounds that keeps traumatic events alive and can prolong the stress response in vulnerable people. There is mounting evidence that live and video images of traumatic events can trigger flashbacks and encourage fear conditioning. If repeatedly viewing traumatic images reactivates fear or threat responses in the brain and promotes rumination, there could be serious health consequences.”

The researchers surveyed 4,675 adults two to four weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, which left three people dead and more than 260 people injured. They were asked about how much acute stress they had experienced because of the bombings, how close they were to the actual bombings, how much media coverage they watched and if they had experienced any other community-based trauma. Acute stress involved unwelcome thoughts, jumpy feelings, being overly anxious about situations, avoiding situations that resemble the event and feeling detached from the event.
Those who watched six or more hours a day of bombing-related media coverage were nine times more likely to report high acute stress than those with the lowest levels of media exposure, which was about one hour a day.
“When you repeatedly see images of a person with gruesome injuries after an event is over, it’s like the event continues and has its own presence in your life,” Holman said. “Prolonged media exposure can turn what was an acute experience into a chronic form of stress. People may not realize how stressful these media-based exposures are. Looking at these images over and over again is not productive and may be harmful.”
Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University, told AFP that the research is important for media organizations to take note of, and this phenomenon — which is known as “vicarious traumatization” — has previously been seen in other studies.

Experts have also noted that children may be more vulnerable to anxiety attacks right after watching traumatic coverage of events like the Boston Marathon. Such an event may also trigger post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is categorized by prolonged mental health issues at least 30 days after an event.

PTSD sufferers may experience flashbacks, bad dreams and frightening thoughts. They may try to avoid places, events or objects that remind them of the experience, feel numb or guilty, lose of interest in activities, forget details about the about the event, be easily startled, feel tense and have difficulty sleeping.

Another study found that coverage on national disasters like superstorm Sandy can also cause anxiety in young children, and kids who have anxiety may be more likely to develop PSTD just by watching more disaster coverage.

But, Shapiro cautioned people to not jump to the conclusion that just watching traumatic events on the news on online would lead to PTSD.

“It will take further study before we know if people’s rise in acute stress symptoms turns into or feeds long-term psychological injury,” Shapiro told AFP. “It doesn’t become PTSD until the characteristic problems go on for more than six weeks and interfere in some significant way with people’s lives.”

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Dec. 9.

Source:CBS news

Blue pills may help alleviate menstrual cramps

Viagra may no longer be just for the gentlemen. A new study suggests that those little blue pills may also help women, though not in the way you might think.

Researchers have found that sildenafil citrate, the main ingredient in Viagra, Revatio and other drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction, can also be used to alleviate moderate to severe menstrual cramping in women.

“It seems counterintuitive, but what sildenafil citrate does is dilate blood vessels,” said Richard Legro, a gynecologist at Penn State College of Medicine and one of the authors of the study. “It leads to an erection in men, but in women, we think it can be an effective treatment for acute menstrual pain.”

That agonizing cramping in the pelvic area that many women experience at the start of their period is known in the scientific world as primary dysmenorrhea. It is caused by the excess production of prostaglandins, a lipid compound that tells your muscles when to relax and contract.

The extra prostaglandins that are produced at the time of menstruation are responsible for abnormal uterine contractions as well as increased sensitivity of pain receptors, the researchers explain in a study published in the journal Human Reproduction.
Legro and his colleagues hypothesized that if the blood vessels around the uterus were dilated, then the increased flow of blood might flush out those pain-causing prostaglandins.

“It’s like how a good rain can clear up smog,” Legro said.
To test their theory, the researchers ran a small trial in Croatia with 25 volunteers. The women were between the ages of 18 and 35 and all suffered from menstrual cramps. Some of the women were issued a dose of sildenafil citrate vaginally, while others were given a placebo.

The women who used the sildenafil citrate reported better overall pain relief than those who were given the placebo, although women who used the placebo also experienced significant pain relief, the researchers found. (They note that placebos often provide pain relief in such studies.)

This is just the first study to test the ability of sildenafil citrate to relieve menstrual crams, and more research needs to be done.
Legro and his team have already submitted a grant to study whether administering Viagra orally or vaginally makes a difference, as well as dosing over multiple period cycles.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Stomach acid drugs may increase vitamin deficiency risk

Popular drugs that are used to control stomach acid may increase the risk of a serious vitamin deficiency, suggests a new study.

Researchers found people who were diagnosed with vitamin B12 deficiency were more likely to be taking proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine 2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs), compared to those not diagnosed with the condition.

The drugs are commonly used to treat conditions like acid reflux – also known as GERD – and peptic ulcers.

“This doesn’t mean people should stop their medications,” Dr. Douglas Corley, the study’s senior author, said. “People take these for good reasons. They improve quality of life and prevent disease.”

“It does raise the question that people who are taking these medications should have their B12 levels checked,” he added.

Corley, a gastroenterologist, is a researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California.

Humans typically get vitamin B12 from eating animal products. B12 is also added to many processed foods and can also be purchased as a supplement.

Without enough vitamin B12, people become tired, weak, constipated and anemic, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Ultimately, the vitamin deficiency can lead to nerve damage and dementia.

The problem is that the body absorbs B12 with the help of stomach acid. Because PPIs and H2RAs limit the stomach’s production of acid – and the body needs stomach acid to absorb B12 – the drugs could “theoretically increase the population’s risk of vitamin B12 deficiency,” the researchers write in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Commonly used PPIs include omeprazole (also known as Prilosec), esomeprazole (sold as Nexium), and lansoprazole (Prevacid). H2RAs include cimetidine (Tagamet), famotidine (Pepcid), and ranitidine (Zantac).

For the new study, the researchers compared the medical records of nearly 26,000 Northern California residents who were diagnosed with a vitamin B12 deficiency between 1997 and 2011, and nearly 185,000 people with healthy B12 levels.

Among those who were vitamin B12 deficient, 12 percent had been on PPIs for at least two years and about 4 percent were on H2RAs for an equally long period.

By comparison, among people without a diagnosis of B12 deficiency, 7 percent had been on PPIs for two or more years and 3 percent were on H2RAs long-term.

Not only were PPIs and H2RAs tied to an increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, but higher doses were more strongly associated with deficiency than weaker ones, the researchers found.

Those findings, Corley said, suggests that people should use the drugs for as short a time as possible, and take the lowest dose that’s still effective.

While the study can’t prove that PPIs or H2RAs caused vitamin B12 deficiency, this isn’t the first study to link anti-acid drugs to complications.

Previous research has tied PPIs to the diarrhea-causing bacteria Clostridium difficile.

“I think the study is interesting because we’re becoming more and more aware that these drugs are being too widely prescribed,” Dr. Peter Green said.

Green, who was not involved with the new study, is a professor of medicine and director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

In 2012, 14.9 million people in the U.S. received 157 million prescriptions for PPIs, according to the researchers.

“I think it’s just another little piece of evidence that physicians should take notice of to get patients off them,” Green said.

He said lifestyle changes may be an alternative treatment along with a switch to H2RAs, which are less potent and were not as strongly linked to vitamin B12 deficiency.

Corley said patients can ask their doctor if they should be on these drugs, whether they need to be on such a strong dose and if they should be screened for vitamin B12 deficiency.

“It is a cause for concern, but it’s not an emergency for the average person,” he said. “People shouldn’t stop their medication based on this study alone.”

Source: Reuters

Meditation can change gene expression

Scientists have found the first evidence that mindfulness meditation can reduce levels of pro-inflammatory genes which can lead to faster physical recovery from a stressful situation.

The new study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France found specific molecular changes in the body following a period of mindfulness meditation.

The study investigated the effects of a day of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities.

After eight hours of mindfulness practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, including altered levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice,” said study author Richard J Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs,” said Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain, where the molecular analyses were conducted.

Mindfulness-based trainings have shown beneficial effects on inflammatory disorders in prior clinical studies and are endorsed by the American Heart Association as a preventative intervention. The new results provide a possible biological mechanism for therapeutic effects.

The results show a down-regulation of genes that have been implicated in inflammation. The affected genes include the pro-inflammatory genes RIPK2 and COX2 as well as several histone deacetylase (HDAC) genes, which regulate the activity of other genes epigenetically by removing a type of chemical tag.

The extent to which some of those genes were downregulated was associated with faster cortisol recovery to a social stress test involving an impromptu speech and tasks requiring mental calculations performed in front of an audience and video camera.

There was no difference in the tested genes between the two groups of people at the start of the study. The observed effects were seen only in the meditators following mindfulness practice, researchers said.

In addition, several other DNA-modifying genes showed no differences between groups, suggesting that the mindfulness practice specifically affected certain regulatory pathways.

The study was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.

Source: business standard

 

97 Doctors Punished by MCI for Medical Negligence

As many as 97 doctors have been punished by Medical Council of India for medical negligence and misconduct in the last three years.

“As per information furnished by MCI, 97 doctors who have been found guilty of medical negligence or misconduct have been awarded punishment by MCI during the period of May 2010 to November 30, 2013,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told Rajya Sabha today.

Of the 97 doctors punished by MCI, seven were registered with Andhra Pradesh Medical Council.

The professional conduct of doctors in the country is regulated by MCI and the respective state medical councils.

The Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002 empowers the MCI and state medical councils to award punishment to a doctor against any act of violation of Code of Ethics and illegal practices.

Source: New Indian express

How to get long and shiny hair this winter

However it is very difficult to look after the hair in the winter season due to the cold waves and other odds of the season. The complications like lack of humidity and other factors affects badly your hair care but you should not worry about all this things. Here are some tips which can help you in caring your hair without any more expenses for the same as these remedies can help you keeping your hair silky, long and shinning in the winter season.

Massage coconut oil to moisturize and add extra shine to your hair.

Use conditioner or apply mixer of egg white once in a week. You can also use Heena, which is a natural hair conditioner.

Raghu Reddy, a hair loss specialist at the Private Clinic of Harley Street, gives out some hair tips for healthy hair during winter, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Here are some suggestions on How to get long and shiny hair this winter:

Take extra care of your roots: Avoid putting products like conditioner, wax or gel directly onto the roots of your hair. This will clog the pores and hair follicles, making it difficult for hair to grow as it normally would.

Choose products wisely: In winter, go for a gentle shampoo to keep some moisture intact in your hair. Use a deeper conditioner to protect the hair and prevent damage from extreme weather or central heating.

Indulge in protein-rich diet: Embark on a protein high diet that can keep hair shiny and strong. Eat meat, fish and eggs.

Go natural: Several women wish to avoid frizzy hair in the winter months, and they prefer to dry their hair before venturing out in to the cold. Try to keep the use of straighteners and hair driers to a minimum, as intense heat can be bad for hair.

Stay away from straightening and curling as they may make the hair brittle and prone to breakage, contributing to the overall weakening of each individual hair. Also, avoid using hair dyes regularly as well.

No heat please: A hot water bath can bring much relief in the winter, but this can be detrimental to your hair. Always wash your hair with lukewarm or cool water, rather than very hot water.

Be gentle: Avoid brushing your hair rigorously to stay away from unwanted breakage. Try not to scratch the scalp too, as this can cause the scalp to become dry and to flake.

Keep calm: Don’t let the stress of the festive season get to you. Sustained periods of stress can lead to a change in hormonal balances, which can pave the way for hair thinning or patterned baldness.

Source: News track India

Diabetes linked to higher liver cancer risk

A new study has found that diabetes was associated with an increased risk for developing a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma.

‘People with diabetes have a two- to threefold higher risk for hepatocellular carcinoma compared with those without diabetes,’ V. Wendy Setiawan, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, said.

‘We also found that the interethnic differences in the prevalence of diabetes were consistent with the pattern of hepatocellular carcinoma incidence observed across ethnicities: Ethnic groups with a high prevalence of diabetes also have high hepatocellular carcinoma rates, and those with a lower prevalence of diabetes have lower hepatocellular carcinoma rates,’ Setiawan said. (Read: ‘Anyone who is above the age of 35 is at risk of diabetes’)

Setiawan and colleagues examined if the association between diabetes and hepatocellular carcinoma differed by race or ethnic group. They analyzed data from more than 150,000 people enrolled in the Multiethnic Cohort Study between 1993 and 1996.

Compared with non-Hispanic whites, Latinos had 2.77 times the risk for being diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma, the highest risk identified. Native Hawaiians had 2.48 times the risk; African-Americans, 2.16; and Japanese-Americans, 2.07.

The prevalence of diabetes was consistent with that of hepatocellular carcinoma. Sixteen percent of Hawaiians, 15 percent of Latinos and African-Americans, 10 percent of Japanese-Americans, and 6 percent of non-Hispanic whites had diabetes.

The study was presented at the Sixth AACR Conference.

Source: health India