Month: March 2014

Nutritional do’s and don”ts for pregnant women!

You’ve just received the good news that a little one is on the way! Congratulations, you’re pregnant!

Pregnancy is beautiful, magical and even empowering! Whether you are elated or in a wee bit of shock, remember pregnancy is an immense physical, psychological and emotional experience whatever the circumstances surrounding it.

Once it sinks in that you are on your way to motherhood you may find yourself thinking, what”s next? Expect a lot of changes in your lifestyle which include some dietary modifications because your growing baby is absorbing everything you”re eating.
You will be snowed under with advice from family, friends and yes, even complete strangers about what foods are safe and what aren’t during pregnancy, enough to confuse anyone.

First and foremost you’ll need protein and calcium for your baby’s tissues and bones, extra folic acid to protect against neural tube birth defects and iron to help red blood cells carry oxygen to your baby. Although it is imperative that you discuss your diet with your doctor, we at MedGuru give you some dos and don’ts that will help get you started!

Foods to eat during pregnancy:-
Whole grains
Try incorporate whole grains that are fortified with folic acid and iron into your daily diet. Eat oatmeal during breakfast, whole-grain bread at lunch and brown rice for dinner.

Leafy greens, fruits
Increase intake of green veggies broccoli and spinach, food items like muesli and fruits like Blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries which are a good source of iron that a woman”s body needs to produce all the blood needed to supply nutrition to the placenta.

Eggs
Apart from being rich in protein, eggs provide amino acids, vitamins and minerals, including choline, which is good for baby”s brain development. Refrain from eating under-cooked or raw eggs as they may be tainted with bacteria.

Sea food
Fish, touted for omega-3 fatty acids that help the baby”s brain development and eyes is a good meal choice during pregnancy. It is absolutely safe to consume up to 12 ounces of low-mercury fish, such as salmon per week. Try it grilled, broiled, or as a salad.

Low-fat yogurt
Low-fat yogurt is rich in calcium, high in protein and it sans the added sugar of flavored yogurts. Blend it with fruit into smoothies or sprinkle it with nuts or muesli for a tasty crunchy snack.

Foods to avoid during pregnancy:-
Liver or liver-containing products such as liver pâté, liver sausage or haggis should be eaten only occasionally as they contain large amounts of vitamin A which may cause damage to the embryo.

Avoid drinking too much of coffee, tea and colas as caffeine based beverages may affect the growth of baby.

Skip unpasteurized cheeses, blue-veined cheeses like brie or camembert to avert the possible risk of transmission of infectious diseases such as Listeria. However, varieties such as cheddar and mozzarella can help in meeting your calcium requirements.

Source: med guru

Premature babies may be disadvantaged later in life

Children born prematurely may be disadvantaged for the rest of their lives by poor understanding of their needs, according to experts.

Paediatricians’ research has shown premature babies are more likely to have difficulties at school but few teachers are aware of this. The number of children born prematurely is rising because women are having babies later in life.

Researchers say the education system should adapt to reflect this change. They are calling for a child’s gestation to be recorded on their education records as a way of flagging up any problems.

‘Greater risk’
“We know from a Scottish study that the earlier you are born the more likely you are to have have problems at school”, said Glasgow paediatrician Dr Nashwa Matta.

“But these children may still be clever and the problems don’t appear until the workload increases at primary or secondary school.” Children born prematurely are more likely to be emotionally immature, lonely and at greater risk of bullying.

They ma y have visual perception issues, including difficulties with numbers and mathematics. Further traits of prematurely born children may include short memories, attention spans and problems with multi-tasking.

Some premature children are also disadvantaged if they are born at the end of the school year because they are effectively sent to school a year early. If they had been born full term they would have gone to school the following year. Around 4,000 babies are born prematurely every year in Scotland.

‘Behavioural issues’
Dr Matta has organised a one-day conference to highlight the issue at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

“The simplest thing to do is to put child’s gestation on their school entry form,” said Dr Matta. Then, when a teacher has a child with difficulty with attention, certain work, and memory then they will know he’s born prematurely and can find out what can be done so gap doesn’t get bigger.”

Three-year-old Findlay Masterton was born three months early. His mum Lorraine is worried he won’t be able to cope when he goes to school. “He has behavioural issues, there’s a strict regime of how he likes things done,” she said.

She added: “Findlay has different wee issues that a kid born full term wouldn’t have and I think these might show up when he goes to school next year.

“There’s nothing stated for schools that they have to do anything about this or give them extra time for their lessons. “Schools recognise medical problems, but pre-term? I don’t think it’s taken seriously enough.”

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) backed the call for tailored support for children with additional support needs.

An EIS spokesperson said: “Teachers and other education professionals working in our schools are aware of the broad range of additional support that is sometimes needed to allow all children to benefit fully from their education.

“There is a requirement for continuing investment in adequate ASN resources in all schools, and for teachers and other professionals to have access to ongoing professional development to ensure that they can continue meeting the particular needs of all pupils.”

Source: BBC news

Doctors grow ears, noses using body fat stem cells

British scientists are aiming to grow ears and noses in a laboratory to transplant then into humans.

Scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London have managed to use abdominal body fat and turn it into cartilage. It is now hoped that the technique could help patients who have been born with microtia, which means the ear fails to develop properly, or who have been in an accident.

At the moment, surgeons take cartilage from other parts of the body to treat children with facial defects. The painful procedure sees them shape the nose or ear, and implant it into the child

The new technique would mean that doctors ‘grow’ the organ separately using a tiny sample of fat from the child. Stem cells would be extracted and grown from it. Scientists would place an ear-shaped ‘nano-scaffold’ into the stem cell broth so that they take on the correct shape and structure.

This would then be placed beneath the skin. Although it would not help with hearing it would be biologically the same as the real thing, the Telegraph reports.  The breakthrough has been published in the journal Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.  Neil Bulstrode, consultant plastic surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, co-authored the research.

He said: ‘It is such an exciting prospect. If we could produce a block of cartilage using stem cells and tissue engineering, this would be the holy grail for our field.’ Each year thousands of children are born with a congenital deformity called microtia, when the external ear is not fully developed. Many have an intact inner ear, but experience hearing loss due to the missing external structure.

But the research could also have implications for the future of other transplants, and could be used to create bone and other tissue. The report said the technique procedure could ‘help to improve stability, integration and functionality of engineered transplants while avoiding tissue rejection’.

Dr Patrizia Ferretti, the head of developmental biology at UCL, said it would be useful for children because it means there is no need for immune suppression.

She said: ‘At the moment we take cartilage out of the ribs which means a major additional surgical procedure that creates a permanent defect, as the rib cartilage does not regrow.
‘But with this technique you could seed the stem cells on to a mould of a healthy ear, or use 3D printing to make the ear shaped scaffold-containing cells that can then be turned into cartilage.’

Source: Daily mail

Restless legs syndrome linked to bigger underlying health problems

A new study has revealed that Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) may be a possible biomarker for other underlying disease.

The study done by a nationally-recognized sleep expert found that patients with RLS have a higher mortality rate and are prone to cardiovascular diseases and hypertension.

Boston Medical Center neurologist Sanford H. Auerbach said that men with RLS were more likely to be diagnosed with lung disease, endocrine disease, diseases of nutrition and metabolism and immune system problems.

The study was published in Neurology the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Source: Yahoo news

 

Alzheimer’s disease may kill as many as cancer in US

Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease are under-reported in the United States and the most common form of dementia may be taking as many lives as heart disease or cancer.

Alzheimer’s disease currently ranks sixth among causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Heart disease is first, and cancer second.

But researchers reported in the journal Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, that Alzheimer’s-linked deaths could be six times more common than thought.

“Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias are under-reported on death certificates and medical records,” said study author Bryan James of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

“Death certificates often list the immediate cause of death, such as pneumonia, rather than listing dementia as an underlying cause.”

For the study, researchers followed more than 2,500 people aged 65 and older who were tested annually for dementia.

A total of 559 participants developed Alzheimer’s disease during the course of the study, and the average time span from diagnosis to death was four years.

People aged 75 to 84 who were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s were also four times more likely to die than those without it.

One third of all deaths among those aged 75 and older were attributable to Alzheimer’s disease, said the study.

According to James, the findings would translate to an estimated 503,400 deaths from Alzheimer’s in the US population over age 75 in 2010.

That figure is six times higher than the 83,494 reported by the CDC based on death certificates.

“Determining the true effects of dementia in this country is important for raising public awareness and identifying research priorities regarding this epidemic,” said James.

Source: Channel news asia

 

Nine-month-old baby may have been cured of HIV

A 9-month-old baby who was born in California with the HIV virus that leads to AIDS may have been cured as a result of treatments that doctors began just four hours after her birth, medical researchers said on Wednesday.

That child is the second case, following an earlier instance in Mississippi, in which doctors may have brought HIV in a newborn into remission by administering antiretroviral drugs in the first hours of life, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatrics specialist with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, at a medical conference in Boston.

“The child … has become HIV-negative,” Persaud said, referring to the 9-month-old baby born outside Los Angeles, who is being treated at Miller Children’s Hospital. The child’s identify was not disclosed.

That child is still receiving a three-drug cocktail of anti-AIDS treatments, while the child born in Mississippi, now 3-1/2 years old, ceased receiving antiretroviral treatments two years ago.

Both children were born of mothers infected with HIV, which wipes out the body’s immune system and causes AIDS.

Speaking at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Persaud credited the early use of antiretroviral therapies with improving the children’s health but warned that more research must be done.

“Really the only way we can prove that we have accomplished remission in these kids is by taking them off treatment and that’s not without risk,” Persaud said. “This is a call to action for us to mobilize and be able to learn from these cases.”

The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, surfaced more than 30 years ago and now infects more than 34 million people worldwide. Prevention measures, including condoms, have helped check its spread and antiretroviral drugs can now control the disease for decades, meaning it is no longer a death sentence.

Source: Reuters

 

New sponge-like gel steers tooth formation

Inspired by this embryonic induction mechanism, Ingber and Basma Hashmi, a Ph.D. candidate at SEAS who is the lead author of the current paper, set out to develop a way to engineer artificial teeth by creating a tissue-friendly material that accomplishes the same goal. Specifically, they wanted a porous sponge-like gel that could be impregnated with mesenchymal cells, then, when implanted into the body, induced to shrink in 3D to physically compact the cells inside it.

To develop such a material, Ingber and Hashmi teamed up with researchers led by Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D., a Wyss Institute Core Faculty member who leads the Institute’s Adaptive Materials Technologies platform. Aizenberg is the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at SEAS and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.

They chemically modified a special gel-forming polymer called PNIPAAm that scientists have used to deliver drugs to the body’s tissues. PNIPAAm gels have an unusual property: they contract abruptly when they warm.

But they do this at a lukewarm temperature, whereas the researchers wanted them to shrink specifically at 37°C — body temperature — so that they’d squeeze their contents as soon as they were injected into the body. Hashmi worked with Lauren Zarzar, Ph.D., a former SEAS graduate student who’s now a postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for more than a year, modifying PNIPAAm and testing the resulting materials. Ultimately, they developed a polymer that forms a tissue-friendly gel with two key properties: cells stick to it, and it compresses abruptly when warmed to body temperature.

As an initial test, Hashmi implanted mesenchymal cells in the gel and warmed it in the lab. Sure enough, when the temperature reached 37°C, the gel shrank within 15 minutes, causing the cells inside the gel to round up, shrink, and pack tightly together.

“The reason that’s cool is that the cells are alive,” Hashmi said. “Usually when this happens, cells are dead or dying.”

Not only were they alive — they activated three genes that drive tooth formation.

To see if the shrinking gel also worked its magic in the body, Hashmi worked with Mammoto to load mesenchymal cells into the gel, then implant the gel beneath the mouse kidney capsule — a tissue that is well supplied with blood and often used for transplantation experiments.

The implanted cells not only expressed tooth-development genes — they laid down calcium and minerals, just as mesenchymal cells do in the body as they begin to form teeth.

“They were in full-throttle tooth-development mode,” Hashmi said.

In the embryo, mesenchymal cells can’t build teeth alone — they need to be combined with cells that form the epithelium. In the future, the scientists plan to test whether the shrinking gel can stimulate both tissues to generate an entire functional tooth.

When the temperature rises to just below body temperature, this biocompatible gel shrinks dramatically within minutes, compressing tooth-precursor cells (green) enclosed within it.

As a new bioinspired, sponge-like gel shrinks, it squeezes cells (green) inside it, triggering them to shrink, round up, become denser, and begin to deposit the minerals that harden teeth.

Source; Science2.0

 

Metallic toys may harm your kid’s health

Dazzling metallic toys attract your kids in no time but they may end up harming their health and have irreversible effects on their intellectual development, a new study has found.

This is because metallic toys and low-cost jewellery often contain toxic substances such as lead and cadmium.

As babies and young children often put the things they play with in their mouth, they may inadvertently swallow some of these toxic substances too.

The study shows that these metals can be mobilised into digestive fluids once contaminated items are swallowed.

“We observed that cadmium and lead contamination, both very toxic metals, are a major problem, especially when it comes to metallic jewellery and toys. Copper, nickel, arsenic and antimony were also present in some samples,” said Gerald J. Zagury, a professor at the Polytechnique Montreal in Canada.

The researchers examined metal contamination in a selection of 72 toys and jewellery items purchased in the North American market.

They then conducted tests on 24 samples by recreating the biochemical conditions of the gastrointestinal system in the lab in order to get an accurate answer.

The researchers also observed that cadmium, lead and nickel in some samples exceeded the safety threshold levels that a child can be exposed to without suffering acute harmful effects like abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

The study appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Source: Business standard

Laptop theft exposes thousands of hospital records

Computer stolen from Etobicoke General had personal details of 5,500 patients

Medical records for thousands of patients at Etobicoke General Hospital could be in the wrong hands following the theft of a laptop.

The personal details of 5,500 patients — including names, dates of birth and diagnostic reports — were on a laptop that was stolen in mid-January from a lab used to test brain activity.

The lab was locked but the laptop was not password-protected — contrary to hospital policy according to Ann Ford, chief privacy officer for William Osler Health System.

We have a policy for protection and in this instance it just was not protected,” said Ford.

The laptop had information on patients who were tested between January 2011 and 2014. The hospital informed patients of the theft over the last two weeks.

There is a risk the information could be used for illegal purposes such as identity theft, but hospital administrators say there is little patients can do.

“We think that there’s no further action they need to take,” said Ford. “But, however, if they feel comfortable contacting their financial institution we leave that up to them.”

The hospital has since beefed up its security. All laptops are now secured by cable locks. Toronto police say the case is still open.

Source: cbc news

Fixing spider veins, stretch marks and more: Solutions to skin problems

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1. Spider Veins
If the valves inside your blood vessels become weak (whether from age or genetic predisposition) and are unable to pump blood back to your heart efficiently, “the blood pools and causes the veins to enlarge,” said Dr. Robert J. Min, chair of radiology. That
causes capillaries close to the skin’s surface to show up as little red squiggles, most commonly on the legs. And those, friends, are spider veins.

What Works
Sclerotherapy: Using a tiny needle, a doctor injects the spider veins with a medicated solution that “causes them to collapse and permanently disappear,” said Dr. Fredric Brandt, a dermatologist in Miami and New York. You’ll probably need two to three sessions to eradicate a spider vein fully. Cost: $200 and up per treatment.

Vascular laser: “The blood inside the veins absorbs the wavelength from this laser, creating heat, which contracts the veins,” said Richard G. Glogau, a clinical professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco. Very small spider veins
benefit most; you’ll need several sessions to see a difference. Cost: $200 and up per treatment.

What Doesn’t Work
Keeping your legs uncrossed (crossing them is said to cause spider veins). “Unless they’re crossed 24 hours a day, the effect is minimal,” said Dr. David Goldberg,  a dermatologist with practices in New York, New Jersey, and Florida.

Quick Cover-Up
Neutralize redness with yellow-based body makeup, says Lusine, a makeup artist in Los Angeles. Set with translucent powder to keep it in place

2. Stretch Marks

When skin gets stretched too fast, as it can when you gain weight quickly, such as during pregnancy, or if you went through a growth spurt as a teenager, “the collagen and elastin fibers in the dermis rupture,” said clinical professor Richard G. Glogau.

The result is scars deep within the skin―stretch marks. New ones are red or dark brown, because the skin becomes inflamed when the fibers break. (You might also notice a change in texture, as if your skin has little divots in it.) With time, most stretch marks
lighten in color.

What Works
Pulse dye laser (for newer stretch marks): The light from this laser is absorbed by the pigment in the irritated area, which heats the blood vessels and makes the vessel walls collapse, said dermatologist Dr. David Goldberg. The color is reduced significantly, so
marks are much less obvious. (But divoting will still be apparent.) You’ll need about five treatments, spaced one month apart. Cost: $500 to $800 per treatment, depending on the size of the affected area.

Excimer laser (for older marks): The beam “increases pigment production, so eventually the silver or white lines become the color of the rest of your skin,” Goldberg said. This type of laser requires 10 to 20 treatments, spaced about two weeks apart. Cost: $200 to $700 per treatment.

What Doesn’t Work
Over-the-counter stretch mark creams, which claim to rebuild collagen but don’t.

Quick Cover-Up
A self-tanner “helps minimize the look of both new and older marks,” said makeup artist Lusine. For the most even coverage, exfoliate the area before applying.

3. Cellulite
Those bumps and dimples are all about genetics (thanks, Mom and Dad!). Contrary to what many people think, cellulite is nothing more than regular fat. But if you’re predisposed to cellulite, that fat bulges forward between the bands of tissue that connect your skin to your muscles, said Dr. Alan Gold, a plastic surgeon in Great Neck, New York. Excess weight can cause cellulite to become more prominent, due to the extra fat under the skin, but even thin people can have it.

What Works
Endermologie: A technician runs a vacuum-like suction tube over your skin and follows that with a heavy-duty massaging roller. The bands under the skin are stimulated and stretched temporarily, causing swelling and thickening, which plumps the skin so dimples appear smoother. You’ll need a treatment every eight weeks. Cost: $150 and up per session.

Cellulite creams and gels: In the short term, creams and gels can make cellulite appear less obvious. Ingredients such as caffeine make the skin swell, and polymers form a light film on the skin as they dry, pulling it smooth. You need to apply daily, since you
remove the product―and its effects―when you shower. Cost: From $10 at drugstores to more than $100 at department stores and spas.

What Doesn’t Work
Mesotherapy, in which a doctor injects saline or some other liquid into the skin to disperse fat. Liposuction is a bust, too: It sucks out fat but not the bands of tissue that create the bumpy appearance.

Quick Cover-Up
Try a body bronzer or a tinted self-tanner, even on darker skin, to visually smooth out the look of dimples.

4. Scars
As skin heals from a wound, it can produce too much collagen and a scar forms. The tendency to scar is genetic, so there’s not much you can do to prevent scars, though you can minimize the effects. Hypertrophic scars, the most common kind, are raised but don’t extend past the borders of the original wound. Keloids are raised but grow beyond the wound’s edges; people of African descent most often suffer from them. Depressed scars, like those from acne, are exactly that―indented.

What Works
Silicone products: A sheet of silicone placed over a hypertrophic or keloid scar (after the wound has healed) or a cream, such as Scar Fade, rubbed in daily “can make scars stop overproducing collagen and become permanently flatter,” said Foad Nahai, president of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Sold over the counter, silicone products, which must be used consistently for several months, work on new and old scars. Cost: About $20 for sheets; about $10 for Scar Fade.

Fraxel laser: Best for depressed scars, this laser targets pinpoint-wide areas of skin, resurfacing the top and boosting collagen production underneath. After several sessions, indented scars should be leveled off. Cost: $500 and up per treatment.

What Doesn’t Work
Rubbing in vitamin-E oil.

Quick Cover-Up
Dab on a creamy, pigment-rich concealer that matches your skin and pat it into the scar to blend the edges. Brush on a bit of translucent powder to set the concealer, said makeup artist Lusine. (A very big keloid, however, will still be visible, even with
concealer.)

Source: Fox news