health tips

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

Paracetamol poisoning could be better treated: Study

Patients with paracetamol poisoning could be helped by a new way of delivering an antidote more quickly and with fewer side-effects, researchers say.

Treating patients with the common antidote remedy acetylcysteine over a shorter time period than currently applies leads to fewer side-effects, a trial study found.

Patients are normally given the drug by intravenous drip over a 21-hour period, with a large part of the dose given very quickly.

In a study, patients who received the same dose of acetylcysteine more gradually over a 12-hour period experienced less vomiting and fewer associated reactions.

Their treatment was also less interrupted than those receiving conventional treatment with a 21-hour drip.

Treatment with acetylcysteine often causes vomiting, a drop in blood pressure and other side-effects such as flushing, rashes and difficulty breathing.

Paracetamol is the most common cause of overdose in the UK and every year around 45,000 people are hospitalized for paracetamol poisoning.

The pilot, led by University of Edinburgh scientists, treated more than 200 patients and is the largest trial of its kind for paracetamol poisoning.

The treatment for poisoning was first used and developed by University of Edinburgh doctors in the 1970s.

“Our finding offers a major advance in treating paracetamol poisoning, both in terms of fewer unpleasant side-effects for patients and a shorter hospital stay,” said Nick Bateman, Professor at the University of Edinburgh’s BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science.

“We need to do more work on a larger population group to find out whether treatment over a shorter time frame is as safe as the current standard,” Bateman said.

The study, published in Lancet, was carried out with the Universities of Newcastle and Aberdeen and funded by the chief scientist office of the Scottish government.

Source: Times of India

How brain balances learning new skills while retaining old ones

Researchers have developed a new computational model that explains how the brain maintains the balance between plasticity and stability, and how it can learn very similar tasks without interference between them.

To learn new motor skills, the brain must be plastic: able to rapidly change the strengths of connections between neurons, forming new patterns that accomplish a particular task. However, if the brain were too plastic, previously learned skills would be lost too easily.
The key, the neuroscientists at MIT said, is that neurons are constantly changing their connections with other neurons. However, not all of the changes are functionally relevant- they simply allow the brain to explore many possible ways to execute a certain skill, such as a new tennis stroke.

“Your brain is always trying to find the configurations that balance everything so you can do two tasks, or three tasks, or however many you’re learning. There are many ways to solve a task, and you’re exploring all the different ways,” lead author Robert Ajemian said.

As the brain learns a new motor skill, neurons form circuits that can produce the desired output- a command that will activate the body’s muscles to perform a task such as swinging a tennis racket. Perfection is usually not achieved on the first try, so feedback from each effort helps the brain to find better solutions.

This works well for learning one skill, but complications arise when the brain is trying to learn many different skills at once. Because the same distributed network controls related motor tasks, new modifications to existing patterns can interfere with previously learned skills.

That connectivity offers an advantage, however, because it allows the brain to test out so many possible solutions to achieve combinations of tasks. The constant changes in these connections, which the researchers call hyper plasticity, is balanced by another inherent trait of neurons- they have a very low signal to noise ratio, meaning that they receive about as much useless information as useful input from their neighbors.

The MIT team said noise is a critical element of the brain’s learning ability. They found that it allows the brain to explore many solutions, but it can only be utilized if the network is hyper plastic.

The study was published in the National Academy of Sciences

Source: news track india

Stressed parents make for obese kids

Researchers including an Indian-origin scientist have linked parental stress to weight gain in children.

The study found that children whose parents have high levels of stress have a Body Mass Index, or BMI, about 2 per cent higher than those whose parents have low levels of stress.

Children with higher parental stress also gained weight at a 7 per cent higher rate during the study period than other children.

Those figures may sound low, said lead author Dr. Ketan Shankardass, but they’re significant because they are happening in children, whose bodies and eating and exercise habits are still developing. Plus, if that weight gain continues and is compounded over a lifetime, it could lead to serious obesity and health issues.

Dr. Shankardass, a social epidemiologist with the hospital’s Centre for Research on Inner City Health, studied data collected during the Children’s Health Study, one of the largest and most comprehensive investigations into the long-term effects of air pollution on the respiratory health of children.

The childrens’ BMI was calculated each year. Their parents were given a questionnaire to measure their perceived psychological stress that asked how often in the last month they were able or unable to control important things in their life and whether things were going their way or their difficulties were piling up so high they could not overcome them.

Dr. Shankardass noted that more than half the students followed in the California study were Hispanic, and that the effects of stress on their BMI was greater than children of other ethnic backgrounds.

The research has been published in the journal Pediatric Obesity.

Source: top news

Corn oil better at cutting cholesterol than extra virgin olive oil

Researchers have shown that corn oil significantly lowers cholesterol with more favorable changes in total cholesterol (TC) and LDL-C than extra virgin olive oil.

The scientists were led by lead researcher, Dr. Kevin C Maki, PhD, of Biofortis, the clinical research arm of Merieux NutriSciences.

Among the 54 healthy men and women in the feeding study, consumption of foods made with corn oil resulted in significantly lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and total cholesterol than the same foods made with extra virgin olive oil.

Corn oil lowered LDL cholesterol by 10.9 percent compared to extra virgin olive oil’s 3.5 percent reduction1,2, and total cholesterol decreased by 8.2 percent with corn oil compared to 1.8 percent for extra virgin olive oil. (Read: 8 natural cholesterol busters)

Study participants received four tablespoons of corn oil or extra virgin olive oil in the foods provided every day, consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations. All foods were provided to the study participants as part of a weight maintenance diet.

The randomized, double-blind, controlled crossover clinical trial assessed the effects of dietary oils on fasting lipoprotein lipids.

The study compared the effects of corn and extra virgin olive oil on LDL cholesterol (primary outcome variable), total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), Non-HDL cholesterol

Source: health India

phone addicts are less likely to be happy: New study

  1. Those who can’t resist a ring are also more likely to suffer anxiety
  2.  Social network sites also listed as sources of stress

If you are constantly on your mobile phone, most onlookers might think you have lots of friends and a busy social life.

However, those attached to the phone are likely to be less happy than those who can resist a ring or a message alert, says a study.

Avid mobile phone users also suffer from higher anxiety while students see their class work suffer with lower marks than those who are able to switch off.

Researchers studied more than 500 students to look at their daily phone usage and gauge how it affected their outlook on life.

They found that far from making people feel more connected to friends the phone only heightened their anxiety as many felt obligated to keep in constant touch.

They found users suffered heightened anxiety as many felt obligated to keep in constant touch.

Others had trouble disconnecting from social media sites such as Facebook.

The study by scientists Jacob Barkley, Aryn Karpinski and Andrew Lepp is in stark contrast to previous research that found mobile phones improve social interaction and help reduce feelings of isolation.

Previous research has claimed that mobile phones improve social interaction and help reduce feelings of isolation.

But the latest study by Kent University in Ohio found constant phone use was linked to greater stress.

One student said: ‘The social network sometimes just makes me feel a little bit tied to my phone.

‘It makes me feel like I have another obligation in my life.’

Another complained that having a mobile phone meant that he could always be contacted at any time.

The researchers used a clinical measure of anxiety and each student’s level of satisfaction with their own life in the analysis.

Researcher Andrew Lepp added: ‘There is no me time or solitude left in some of these students’ lives and I think mental health requires a bit of personal alone time to reflect, look inward, process life’s events, and just recover from daily stressors.’

Those taking part, aged from 18 to 22, allowed the study team to access their exam results, known in the US as a grade point average (GPA), from university records.

‘Also, a few of the students we interviewed reported sending texts constantly throughout the day from morning to night that in itself might be stressful.’

There are now more mobile phones in the UK than people with the latest figures showing 80.2 million subscription.

The popularity in recent years of smart phones, such as the iPhone, has meant that 94 per cent of all adults own a mobile.

Source: mail online