health tips

Messy babies make faster learners

Researchers at the University of Iowa released a study showing kids who play with their non-solid food in a highchair learn words for those foods faster. Non-solid foods include things like oatmeal and yogurt.

The study, “Highchair Philosophers,” was recently published in the journal Developmental Science by UI associate professor in psychology Dr. Larissa Samuelson and her team.

“We wanted to see if we put them in the context they’re used to experiencing non-solids, the highchair, does that help them maybe when we try to teach them new words,” Samuelson said.

During the study, researchers assigned non-solid foods made-up names like “kiv” or “wug.” They gave the foods to 16-month old children using the made-up names and asked the kids to identify the foods.

Samuelson said the newest part of the study used highchairs as part of the experiment. The kids seated in the highchair tended to learn the word faster than the kids who were not. They were also the messiest ones. Researchers believe this is because kids know they can get messy in their highchairs and that messiness translates into learning.

“They are amazing learning machines. And to some extent we need to let them do that learning in the best way that they know how, which is playing, exploring, getting their hands in there,” Samuelson said.

Babies have an easier time learning words for solids, because they are recognizable. Things like spoons look the same even if kids throw or knock them around. But non-solid things like pudding can look different depending on its container. The changing shape makes recognizing the food and learning the word difficult.

“What they have to learn is that for some things, I have to attend to shape, other kinds of things, I should attend to material. And that speeds up learning,” Samuelson said.

But not all professionals agree with letting kids get messy at mealtime. Dr. Dyan Hes, medical director at Gramercy Pediatrics in New York City, said that while it’s good for children to touch, poke and play, it can be hard for kids to separate messy time from when they need to behave.

She said parents should let kids get their hands and faces messy, but it shouldn’t be where they learn to eat.

“I think a good way to differentiate is when you put them in a different area, you put a smock on them; they know it’s art time and playtime and not dinner time,” Hes said.

Whether your child is in a highchair or at a play table, parents, slow down on whipping out the wipes and let your kids get messy.

Source: News.nom

Road Crashes Found to be Americans Biggest Killers While Abroad

Americans traveling abroad are faced with larger health threats including road crashes, a new study finds.

Between 2003 and 2009, more Americans have died abroad from crashes that involved cars or motorcycles than from homicide and other terrorist events, the researchers involved in the study wrote in the journal Injury Prevention. “Money spent on public health interventions related to homicides has apparently been spent successfully,” said Dr. David Bishai, lead author of the study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“But there is a gap in funding now,” he added. “What gets travelers abroad isn’t so much infectious disease or homicide – it’s road safety. The U.S. Department of State spends approximately $51.6 billion annually to protect its citizens both abroad and at home, but health risks during international travel can be very tricky. Bishai and his team measured deaths per one million visits to a country by American travelers. During the six-year study period, the U.S. Department of State data showed a total of $5.417 unnatural deaths among Americans while traveling abroad.

The top-five countries for international deaths were Colombia, with 13.7 international deaths per million American visits, the Dominican Republic with 11 deaths per million; Thailand and Morocco, each with 5.5 international deaths per million visits and the Philippines, with a rate of 21 per million visits. With the exception of the Philippines, more Americans died from road crashes in all of the 160 countries surveyed than from homicide.

Thailand has the most number of traffic fatalities with 16.5 deaths per million visits, followed by Vietnam with 15 fatal road accidents per million visits. “People will go to Vietnam and ride on a motorcycle because it’s the way to get around,” Bishai said.

Source: parent herald

FDA Approves New Magnet Device to Treat Migraines

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first device aimed at easing the pain of migraines preceded by aura — sensory disturbances that occur just before an attack.

The Cerena Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator would be obtained through prescription, the FDA said in a statement released Friday. Patients use both hands to hold the device against the back of their head and press a button so that the device can release a pulse of magnetic energy. This pulse stimulates the brain’s occipital cortex, which may stop or ease migraine pain.

“Millions of people suffer from migraines, and this new device represents a new treatment option for some patients,” Christy Foreman, director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in the statement.

The agency’s approval is based on a trial involving 201 patients who had suffered moderate-to-strong migraine with aura. One hundred and thirteen of the patients tried treating their migraines while an attack was in progress, and it was the testimony of this group that led to the approval of the new device, the FDA said.

More than a third (38 percent) of people using the stimulator said they were pain-free two hours later, compared to 17 percent of patients who did not use the device. A full day after the onset of migraine, nearly 34 percent of device users said they were pain-free, compared to 10 percent of people who hadn’t used the device.

Two experts welcomed the news of the approval.

“The Cerena TMS is another tool in the battle to relieve migraines,” said Dr. Mark Green, director of Headache and Pain Management at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “Experience with TMS over the past few years have shown that these agents have the potential to reduce the pain of an attack without the use of medications, or in addition to medical treatment.”

Dr. Noah Rosen is director of the Headache Center at North Shore-LIJ’s Cushing Neuroscience Institute, in Manhasset NY. He said that, “although only 20 percent of migraneurs suffer from an aura associated with their headaches, they suffer significantly. Although this device is unwieldy, it may be a preferred choice by those who don’t want [drug] treatment.”

Side effects from the device were rare, the FDA said, but included “single reports of sinusitis, aphasia (inability to speak or understand language) and vertigo.”

The new device is approved only for use by those aged 18 or older, and should not be used by people with suspected or diagnosed epilepsy or a family history of seizures. It should also not be used by anyone with any metal device implanted in the head, neck or upper body, or by people with “an active implanted medical device such as a pacemaker or deep brain stimulator,” the FDA said.

The stimulator, manufactured by eNeura Therapeutics of Sunnyvale, Calif., is not meant to be used more than once every 24 hours, the FDA added. It has also not been tested to see if it is effective against other symptoms of migraine such as nausea or sensitivities to light or sound.

Green called that last point “disappointing,” and added that “the other concern is whether insurance carriers will make the product available [to patients].”

Source: Web md

FDA examining antibacterial soaps, body washes

Manufacturers of antibacterial hand soap and body wash will be required to prove their products are more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of infection, under a proposed rule announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration.

Those manufacturers also will be required to prove their products are safe for long-term use, the agency said.
“Millions of Americans use antibacterial hand soap and body wash products,” the agency said in a statement. “Although consumers generally view these products as effective tools to help prevent the spread of germs, there is currently no evidence that they are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water.

“Further, some data suggest that long-term exposure to certain active ingredients used in antibacterial products — for example, triclosan (liquid soaps) and triclocarban (bar soaps) — could pose health risks, such as bacterial resistance or hormonal effects.”
About 2,000 individual products contain these products, health officials said.

“Our goal is, if a company is making a claim that something is antibacterial and in this case promoting the concept that consumers who use these products can prevent the spread of germs, then there ought to be data behind that,” said Dr. Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the Office of New Drugs in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

“We think that companies ought to have data before they make these claims.” Studies in rats have shown a decrease in thyroid hormones with long-term exposure, she said. Collecting data from humans is “very difficult” because the studies look at a long time period.

Get dangerous germs out of your home

Before the proposed rule is finalized, companies will need to provide data to support their claims, or — if they do not — the products will need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.

“This is a good first step toward getting unsafe triclosan off the market,” said Mae Wu, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “FDA is finally taking concerns about triclosan seriously. Washing your hands with soap containing triclosan doesn’t make them cleaner than using regular soap and water and can carry potential health risks.

The FDA first proposed removing triclosan from certain products in 1978, the council said, “but because the agency took no final action, triclosan has been found in more and more soaps.”

In 2010, the council said it sued FDA to force it to issue a final rule. The new proposed rule stems from a settlement in that suit, according to the NRDC.

The rule is available for public comment for 180 days, with a concurrent one-year period for companies to submit new data and information, followed by a 60-day period for rebuttal comments, according to the FDA.

The target deadline is June 2014 for the public comment period, then companies will have until December 2014 to submit data and studies. The FDA wants to finalize the rule and determine whether these products are “generally recognized as safe and effective” by September 2016.

“Antibacterial soaps and body washes are used widely and frequently by consumers in everyday home, work, school and public settings, where the risk of infection is relatively low,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

“Due to consumers’ extensive exposure to the ingredients in antibacterial soaps, we believe there should be a clearly demonstrated benefit from using antibacterial soap to balance any potential risk.”

The action is part of FDA’s ongoing review of antibacterial active ingredients, the agency said. Hand sanitizers, wipes and antibacterial products used in health care settings are not affected.

Most hand sanitizers have 60% alcohol or ethanol and are generally recognized as safe when water isn’t available, Kweder said. However, health officials still believe washing hands with soap and water is the best method.

Source: CNN

Severed Hand Saved By Being Sewn To Ankle

Man has severed hand attached to leg to keep it alive, Changsha, Hunan Province, China - 10 Dec 2013

Graphic images show a man’s severed hand attached to his ankle – surgery that saved his limb.

A man who lost his right hand in an accident at work has had it successfully reattached after doctors
grafted it to his ankle for a month.

Xiao Wei underwent reattachment surgery in Changsha, Hunan province, after badly injuring himself in
November.

Initially, doctors said they would be unable to save his limb.

Mr Wei said: “I was just shocked and frozen to the spot, until colleagues unplugged the machine and
retrieved my hand and took me to the hospital.

“I am still young, and I couldn’t imagine life without a right hand.”

However, doctors at a larger hospital offered a solution and opted to sew the hand to the ankle to stop
it dying while they treated his other injuries.

Wei’s doctor told Rex Features: “His injury was severe. Besides ripping injuries, his arm was also
flattened. We had to clear and treat his injuries before taking on the hand reattachment surgery.”

Nearly a month after his hand was severed, Wei had recovered sufficiently to undergo reattachment
surgery.

According to doctors he will need to undergo several other procedures, but they are hopeful that he will
regain full function of his hand.

Source: sky news

IIT Kharagpur students propose mobile app for fast and accurate diagnosis of skin cancers

A group of students from IIT Kharagpur has won the sixth edition of ‘GE Edison Challenge’ for their solution that proposed a hardware software co-designed mobile phone app for fast and accurate diagnosis of skin cancers and related abnormalities, enabling high-precision point-of-care healthcare delivery in resource constrained base of pyramid and rural populations.
As a part of the GE Edison Challenge 2013, which was held at the GE India Technology Centre here, students were required to create “an idea for India and the world” in the field of affordable and accessible healthcare.

The winning team — Team SinCLAIR from IIT Kharagpur that consisted of Debdoot Sheet (team leader), Kausik Basak, Sri Phani Krishna Karri and Tamoghna Ojha — was awarded an incubation prize of Rs 10 lakh.

Sukla Chandra, general manager, GE Global Research Bangalore and director, Patents and Analytics Centre of Excellence, said, “The GE Edison Challenge is a unique initiative to nurture the Edisons of tomorrow. The contest aims to promote the culture of innovation among the science and engineering students of India. It is an opportunity for them to showcase their ideas for a better future. This year’s Challenge was to present solutions for the healthcare industry and I am impressed with the balance of innovative technology and business strategy demonstrated by the teams.”

Team OM from IIT (BHU) Varanasi, which included Sritam Parashar Rout (team leader), Himanshu Gangwar and Aditya Garg, was chosen as the runner-up and won an incubation prize of Rs 5 lakh for their proposed solution that consists of a non-invasive and highly portable method of malignant tumour detection.“This year’s GE Edison Challenge was based on affordable healthcare which is one of most pressing issues in developing countries like India. We challenged teams to address problems in the healthcare system such as lack of access to quality care or affordability of quality care. Teams had to come up with solutions targeting care areas of Maternal and Child Health, Oncology or Cardiology or focus on expanding care access via mobile platform. I was glad to see that all the teams kept the cost parameters and their customers in mind while working on the solutions,” Vikram Damodaran, director, Healthcare Innovation India, GE Healthcare, said.

A panel of internal and external experts evaluated the entries based on technical and commercial feasibility as well as originality of the solution. The presentation abilities of the finalists were also tested to see if they could deliver their message clearly, bring clarity of data and solutions and showcase creativity and imagination in the tools used for presentation.

According to GE India, the GE Edison Challenge is a unique science and engineering competition that challenges the imagination and technical expertise of tomorrow’s inventors.

GE launched this annual contest in 2008 with the aim of finding the best scientific and engineering talent in the country.

The Challenge epitomizes imaginative thinking, analytical skill, technical expertise and entrepreneurial spirit. The competition provides an opportunity for the best and brightest students of India’s finest technical institutions to provide solutions to some of the country’s most pressing issues, a statement by the company said.

Source: India Medical Times

Chennai hospital to attempt surgical separation of Pygopagus twin boys

The surgical separation of a pair of Pygopagus twin boys at the Apollo Specialty Hospital in Vanagaram will be the first-ever attempted in India.

Prayers are indeed necessary for the survival and speedy recovery of nine-month-old Ericana and Eluidi, hailing from Kasumulu village in Tanzania, who are joined at the tail-end of their spines and share a single anus and rectum, for they will be undergoing an 18-hour-long ordeal at the operating table.

According to Dr Venkat Sripathi, Senior Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, conjoined twins are seen in one in 200,000 deliveries, with 60 per cent of them being stillborn and 35 per cent of the remaining dying within a few days or months of birth. “However, fusion at the buttocks (Pygopagus) is very rare and account for less than 17 per cent of all conjoined twins,” he said at a media briefing here on Friday.

“Till now in medical literature, only 30 sets of Pygopagus twins have been reported, out of which 26 are female and only four are male,” he pointed out.

The male twins arrived at the Apollo Hospitals for surgical separation under a joint project ‘Save a child’s heart initiative’ with the Tanzanian government. The cost of the surgery, estimated to be around `30-40 lakh, will be met by the Tanzanian government.

Dr Sripathi said the unique and challenging aspect of the separation was the fused phallus, which had to be delicately separated to give each baby a functional penis. A team of 20 doctors from the specialties of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, paediatric surgery and paediatric urology would attempt the separation. “The twins have a 75 per cent chance of survival,” he said to a query.

Awaiting their most transforming moments in their life, the bubbly boys have learnt to speak Tamil from the nurses and lisp words such as athai and thatha.

Source; New Indian Express

Free insulin for poor children in Delh

Many diabetic children from the economically weaker sections of the society in the national capital will be provided insulin free of cost, said a Delhi based diabetic centre on Sunday.

Delhi Diabetic Research Center (DDRC) will provide insulin free of cost to 150 poor children suffering from Type 1 diabetics.

The initiative was announced by DDRC at a day-long event at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.

“Children with Type 1 diabetes need daily dose of insulin, regular monitoring of glucose level, periodic visits to the doctors and subsequent pathology tests, which becomes a bit unaffordable for the weaker section of the society,” said Ashok Jhingan, diabetologist and chairman, DDRC.

All the children provided free insulin are between the age group of 0-18.

“Initially we will provide free insulin to 150 children and slowly shall extend the reach to more children,” Jinghan added.

Source: ndtv

 

Exercise helps prevent diseases in kids

New studies have shown that when children increase their level of physical activity, they experience positive health benefits, which include less body fat, increased muscular strength and reduced risk factors for major diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic and lifestyle-related disorders, quickly.

The studies were conducted in a lab led by David Nieman,Dr.P.H., FACSM, a professor of health and exercise science in Appalachian’s College of Health Sciences.

In the study, 200 obese Chinese children were split into two groups. One group took part in a summer camp where they exercised three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon doing a number of activities that included swimming, running, cycling and ping pong.

The second group continued with their normal lives. Both groups maintained a caloric intake of 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day. The average child in the summer camp lost six to eight kilograms or 13 to 17 pounds.

“All of that exercise and weight loss combined to bring most of their risk factors down,” Nieman said. “Their blood pressure went down and insulin sensitivity improved. They were able to handle their glucose better. They had a reduction in total cholesterol. So the overall metabolic health of these children improved in just six weeks.”

In another study conducted as part of the BioMoto STEM Initiative, Nieman’s laboratory tested seventh and eighth graders from the greater Charlotte area using a sophisticated battery of physical fitness tests. They found a key concern for these youth is their body fat levels.

The study is published in journal of Sport and Health Science.

Source: deccan chronicle

 

4 ways to fight seasonal depression naturally

The shorter days of winter can give you the blues, and for some people, it may even lead to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or seasonal depression.

While many people know that they don’t feel their best during the winter months, they might not be aware that they could be suffering from a specific form of depression that begins in the late fall, peaks around January and February, and then starts to fade by early spring.

Some experts believe the increased darkness disrupts the brain chemicals that affect mood, such as melatonin and serotonin, and others believe that the reduced sunlight causes vitamin D deficiencies, which can translate to depressive feelings.

Symptoms of SAD include depression, anxiety, loss of energy, social withdrawal, loss of interest in normal activities, weight gain and appetite changes, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Instead of living with this every year, you can take steps to keep your mood boosted and avoid falling into a winter slump.

Exercise consistently
Getting regular exercise can alleviate stress and anxiety; its effects may even last longer than antidepressants. This beneficial side effect happens because exercise enhances the action of endorphins in the body, chemicals that circulate in the body which improve immunity, reduce the perception of pain and help improve mood. The neurotransmitter norepinephrine is also stimulated during exercise, which can also help improve mood and ease the symptoms of depression.

Check your vitamin D levels
The easiest way to get vitamin D is through direct sunlight on the skin; during the cold winter months we lose most of our access to natural vitamin D in the form of sunlight. Vitamin D deficiencies have been linked with increased rates of depression, so winter is an important time to speak with your doctor about taking a supplement.

The Institute of Medicine recommends 600 international units of vitamin D for most people, which is almost impossible to get through food alone. The best sources include cod liver oil, oysters, caviar, and fatty fish, such as herring and salmon.

Increase your omega-3 intake
These healthy fats can help relieve symptoms of depression as well as help maintain healthy levels of the brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin. Fatty fish such as mackerel, salmon, herring and anchovies are the best sources since they contain both EPA and DHA, which are forms of omega-3 fatty acids that are easily assimilated by the body. Vegan sources such as flaxseed, hemp and walnuts contain another source of omega-3 known as alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), which the body converts into EPA and DHA in small amounts.

Choose snacks wisely
A symptom of SAD is an increased craving for carbohydrates, which may be due to the decreased serotonin activity in the brain. In an effort to increase these low levels, the body craves foods that promote the production of serotonin. Choosing the right carbohydrates is critical. Processed or sugary carbohydrates will quickly raise blood sugar levels and cause an insulin spike. Once the sugar is metabolized there will be a sudden drop in blood sugar that can cause fatigue and irritability. Choose brightly colored vegetables to keep carbohydrate cravings under control, aiming for three to four cups per day, and be sure to include some protein with every meal and snack.

Source: Fox news