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Toys, Books Spread Infectious Bacteria

All those Christmas toys and books may spread more than good cheer. A new study has concluded that two common bacteria that cause colds, ear infections, and strep throat can live for long periods on the surfaces of toys, stuffed animals, books, cribs, and other child-related items — even after being cleaned.

The findings, published in the journal Infection and Immunity and reported by Medical Xpress, indicate Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes persist on surfaces for far longer than has been believed.

The researchers said the study suggests that additional precautions may be necessary to prevent infections, especially in settings such as schools, day care centers, and hospitals.

“These findings should make us more cautious about bacteria in the environment since they change our ideas about how these particular bacteria are spread,” said Anders Hakansson, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “This is the first paper to directly investigate that these bacteria can survive well on various surfaces, including hands, and potentially spread between individuals.”

S. pneumoniae, a leading cause of ear infections in children and respiratory illnesses, is widespread in daycare centers and a common cause of hospital infections, noted Hakansson. S. pyogenes commonly causes strep throat and skin infections in children and adults.

To reach their conclusions, the UB researchers tested the surfaces of toys and surfaces in a day care center. They found four out of five stuffed toys tested positive for S. pneumonaie and several surfaces, such as cribs, tested positive for S. pyogenes, even after being cleaned. The testing was done just prior to the center opening in the morning so it had been many hours since the last human contact.

“Bacterial colonization doesn’t, by itself, cause infection but it’s a necessary first step if an infection is going to become established in a human host,” he explains. “Children, the elderly and others with compromised immune systems are especially vulnerable to these infections.”

Source: news max health

Shock Therapy Can ‘Erase’ Bad Memories, Brain Researchers Show

In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, unhappy lovers undergo an experimental brain treatment to erase all memories of each other from their minds. No such fix exists for real-life couples, but researchers report today in Nature Neuroscience that a targeted medical intervention helps to reduce specific negative memories in patients who are depressed.

“This is one time I would say that science is better than art,” says Karim Nader, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who was not involved in the research. “It’s a very clever study.”

The technique, called electroconvulsive (ECT) or electroshock therapy, induces seizures by passing current into the brain through electrode pads placed on the scalp. Despite its sometimes negative reputation, ECT is an effective last-resort treatment for severe depression, and is used today in combination with anaesthesia and muscle relaxants.

Marijn Kroes, a neuroscientist at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and his colleagues found that by strategically timing ECT bursts, they could target and disrupt patients’ memory of a disturbing episode.

A matter of time
The strategy relies on a theory called memory reconsolidation, which proposes that memories are taken out of ‘mental storage’ each time they are accessed and ‘re-written’ over time back onto the brain’s circuits. Results from animal studies and limited evidence in humans suggest that during reconsolidation, memories are vulnerable to alteration or even erasure.

Kroes and his team tested this idea in 42 patients who had been prescribed ECT for severe clinical depression. In an initial session, the researchers showed two disturbing slide-show narratives: one depicting a car accident, and the other a physical assault.

The team later prompted patients to recall only one of the stories by replaying part of that slide show. Immediately afterwards, when the reactivated memory is thought to be vulnerable, the patients received electroconvulsive therapy.

One day later, when given a multiple-choice memory test, patients were significantly worse at remembering details from the reactivated story, performing near chance. Patients’ memory of the other story, however, remained largely unscathed. But when researchers administered the memory test 90 minutes after treatment, patients showed no differences in their ability to recall the two stories. This suggests that the therapy blocked the time-dependent process of reconsolidation, rather than causing sudden memory loss.

“This provides very strong and compelling evidence that memories in the human brain undergo reconsolidation, and that a window of opportunity exists to treat bad memories,” says Daniela Schiller, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York who also studies memory reconsolidation.

Thinking ahead
Schiller says more work is needed to establish how long the ECT effects last, and whether the technique works as effectively on older or more complex memories from real-life experiences, says Schiller.

Kroes adds that ECT may not be the best option for most patients, but says that these results could guide the development of less invasive interventions that target memory reconsolidation. Eventually, he says, the idea could be extended to memories involved in post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“The ability to permanently alter these types of memories might lead to novel, better treatments,” says Kroes.

Source: huffington post

 

Breast-feeding longer than six months tied to better cognitive development

Breast-feeding’s benefits have been backed by yet another study, the latest finding kids who were breast-fed for more than six months scored the highest on cognitive, language and motor development tests as toddler.

Earlier research tied breast-feeding to better thinking and memory skills. But how it’s related to language skills and movement and coordination had been less clear.

The new study, out of Greece, doesn’t prove breast-feeding is responsible for better development, but it shows a strong association, researchers said.

Most evidence “pretty clearly shows there are significant medical benefits of breast-feeding,” Dr. Dimitri Christakis, professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington and director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, told Reuters Health in an email.

“I think that the evidence is now of sufficient quality that we can close the book on these benefits and focus instead on how do we succeed in promoting breast-feeding because all of the studies, including this one, that have looked at it have found a linear relationship, which is to say that the benefits accrue with each additional month that a child is breast-fed,” added Christakis, who was not involved in the study.

In the U.S., about 77 percent of new moms breast-feed their babies, according to an August study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Almost half follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation of breast-feeding exclusively for first six months of a newborn’s life. Moms are also recommended to provide supplemental breast milk until a child is aged 1 year old or older.

The World Health Organization recommends breast-feeding even longer with complementary foods through age 2 and beyond.

But a March 2013 study found 40 percent of parents introduce solid foods too soon, before a baby turns 4 months old.

Given these rates, health officials often urge longer breast-feeding because it may protect against gastrointestinal tract infections, diabetes, respiratory infections, asthma and obesity, although one recent study did not find protections against childhood obesity. Moms have also been found to be less likely to develop breast and ovarian cancer if they breast-fed.

For the new study, Dr. Leda Chatzi from the University of Crete and her colleagues used data from a long-term study of 540 mothers and their kids.

When the babies were nine months old, researchers asked moms when they started breast-feeding and how long they breast-fed. They updated the information when the children were 18 months old. Psychologists also tested children’s cognitive abilities, language skills and motor development at 18 months.

About 89 percent of the babies were ever breast-fed. Of those, 13 percent were breast-fed for less than one month, 52 percent for between one and six months, and 35 percent for longer than six months.

Children who were breast-fed for any amount of time scored higher on the cognitive, receptive communication and fine motor portions of the test than children who weren’t breast-fed.

Scores on the cognitive, receptive and expressive communication and fine motor sections were highest among children who were breast-fed for more than six months, the researchers reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

For instance, on cognitive assessments with a normal score of 100, toddlers who were never breast-fed scored about a 97, on average. Kids who were breast-fed for more than six months scored a 104.

Chatzi and her colleagues expected to see more breast-feeding than they did.

“We were surprised by the fact that breast-feeding levels in Greece remain low, even though there is an ongoing effort by the Greek State to promote breast-feeding practices,” Chatzi told Reuters Health in an email.

“One of the reasons we see such a big drop off in the United States and elsewhere around four months is because women return to work,” Christakis said.

“The real challenge we have is with sustaining breast-feeding,” he said. “I believe very strongly that we need a public health approach to doing so because these are public health issues – improving child cognition and improving in this case as they showed a child’s physical development, benefits society as a whole and society has to support women achieving that goal.”

“We need to have baby-friendly work places that help women continue to either breast-feed or pump when they return to work,” Christakis said. “There’s that African proverb, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,'” he said. “It takes a village to breast-feed a child as well, and all sectors have to contribute.”

Source: Reuters

The 10 most filling foods: Feel leaner and lighter with these filling foods

Noodle soup made with ramen noodles and tofu or Quorn
This watery nutritious combination contains all the ingredients to activate your ‘feeling-satisfied’ cascade. Generally a bowl of ramen noodles contains a lot of water, green vegetables and a source of protein (tofu or Quorn), as well as starch-rich noodles. High fibre (whole wheat) noodles are best for feeling as full as possible. Pot Noodles don’t count.

Eggs
Are superbly versatile: whether eaten boiled, poached, scrambled or fried, they are an excellent source of protein, which is cracking news

Lean meat
Protein is the most filling macronutrient (more so than carbohydrate, fats or alcohol). Lean meat is primarily protein while much of the muscle tissue is water.

Mushy peas
A school classic, good old mushy peas are high on the satiety index because they are low in fat, low in energy density, and high in carbohydrate, protein and fibre.

Potatoes with skins
Potatoes are full of starches, which are digested and absorbed more slowly than simple sugars. When boiled they also absorb a lot of water, making them more filling, while leaving the skins on means that the fibre content is higher too. You say potato, I say…

Tuna chunks in spring water or fresh tuna
Tuna tinned in water or brine is virtually fat free, even if you eat the tin. It is very high in protein, which is great for helping you feel fuller for longer and fairly low in energy density.

Mexican-style three-bean salad
All beans including classic baked beans are high in protein, low in fat and sugar, high in fibre and high in moisture content. They take time to chew and digest and will fill you up for hours.

Boiled wild rice
Wild rice is higher in fibre than white rice and when boiled is low in fat and high in moisture. By the way, leaving it outside for a few days doesn’t make it wild.

Natural low-fat yoghurt and skimmed-milk soft cheeses
Yoghurt to know about this one. These are low in fat and high in moisture content and are a good source of protein. For maximum effect on satiety and slimming effectiveness it is best to eat yoghurts with soluble fibres such as insulin added to them and avoid those with added sugar.

Fresh fruit and vegetables
Fruit and vegetables are a very low energy density food that is high in water content, low in saturated fat and a good source of fibre while containing some protein. From apricots to bananas and tomatoes to watermelon, filling up on unlimited amounts make fruit and vegetables your best friend, and you don’t even have to get a round in.

Source: mens health

Google Glass surgeon’s new best friend? What one surgeon is saying about tech

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It’s hard to think of a way we live that Google hasn’t touched. And now, you can add surgery to the
list.

It all starts with Google Glass, which lets an expert lend a helping hand in the operating room, even
when he or she is in another state.

At the University of Alabama-Birmingham, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Brent Ponce, prepared for a shoulder
replacement. Behind his face shield he wore Google Glass — the wearable computer. Its built-in camera
streamed live video of the procedure to another surgeon 150 miles away in Atlanta, where Dr. Phani
Dantuluri not only watched the surgery, but offered a virtual hand.

A ghostly projection of Dantuluri’s hands was superimposed over what Ponce saw on the operating table.
The merged images appeared in Ponce’s Google Glass display.
Asked what it was like when he first put on the Google Glass, Ponce said, “There’s a little bit of a
light bulb experience. We were able to say, not just ‘go left or right’ or ‘up or down,’ but we were
able to say ‘right here,’ ‘right there,’ ‘go faster from here to here’.”

On one day, Ponce and Dantuluri were testing Google Glass paired with VIPAAR, a videoconferencing
platform that allows users to interact with the picture.

It may be another year before the combined technology goes mainstream. Ponce is the only doctor testing
it in surgery.
Ponce said, “With this technology, if I’m struggling, another surgeon is able to say, ‘Hey, get your
head in the game. Let’s do this, let’s do this.’ And they’re able to walk through it together. So it’s a
little bit more of a safety net.”

Asked if it turns surgery into collaboration, Ponce replied, “Without question.”

VIPAAR plans to expand the pilot program to include more surgeons by the end of next year.

Source: cbs news

Testosterone may make men likely to get the flu, study finds

Just in time for flu season’s peak, science may have figured out a reason why some men make wimpy, needy patients compared to women when it comes to infectious diseases.

A report released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) links testosterone levels with response to flu vaccine, showing that, as a group, men with higher levels of the male hormone are more likely to have weak, or no response to a flu vaccine, meaning that their bodies don’t mount a strong defense.

In short, they have weaker immune systems than do women, leaving them more vulnerable to severe infections.

“Men are suffering!” Mark M. Davis, the Avery Family Professor of Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, told NBC News. “They aren’t as resistant. Women are superior. There’s no way around it.”

Science has known for some time that there are gender differences between the immune systems of men and women, differences that can have profound impacts for health and medicine.

For example, while women tend to develop a more robust immune reaction to infection, that strength comes with a cost. Women are much more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases like lupus, and they are more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to have severe cases of viral, bacterial and parasitic infections.

What mechanisms underlay this phenomenon has been somewhat mysterious. The study released today might help tease apart some of that mystery.

The multinational team from Stanford, France, and the University of North Carolina took blood from 54 women and 37 men of different ages, then studied a variety of immune system proteins and cells using complex systems to detect gene expression. Then they gave flu vaccines to these people and checked for any changes in these parameters. Sure enough, men, as a group, had a more muted response to the vaccine.

Thirty-three women and 10 men responded to the vaccine for the seasonal H3N2 flu strain. Twenty women and 24 men did not respond. (The remaining participants weren’t included due to incomplete or flawed results.)

“Lots of male non-responders had high levels of testosterone,” Davis explained, “while the men with lower testosterone levels had roughly equal responses to females. The high-T men were crappy responders.”

When the team completed the complicated genetic analysis, it found that genes involved with lipid (fats) metabolism – such as the manufacture of cholesterol by the liver – were powerfully associated with response to the vaccine. The more strongly those genes were expressed, and the higher the testosterone, the weaker the response to the vaccine.

To Carol Colton, a Duke University Medical Center professor of neurology who studies the interaction of hormones and the immune system, especially their effects on brain diseases, “that makes perfect sense” because our bodies make estrogen and testosterone from cholesterol, a lipid. The differences between men and women, she explained “are inherent, right down to the gene level.”

Why would evolution instill such differences? Davis speculated – and Colton heartily agreed – that higher testosterone in men is anti-inflammatory and aids the healing of injuries and wounds. Males of most species are more likely than females to suffer trauma. “If you’re in a battle, having lots of testosterone is wonderful,” Colton said.

“So you take a hit to your resistance to infectious disease,” Davis said, “but you gain in case of trauma.”

Davis said he hoped studies like this one would help inform scientists and physicians as new immune-therapies, like cancer vaccines, are developed. “There’s been some neglect in this area,” he said, “that I hope our study, and others, will help to correct.”

And for those who got the flu vaccine but still get sick, a prescription antiviral therapy can lessen symptoms and shorten the duration of the virus, if taken within 48 hours.

Source: FCN

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