Month: March 2014

Cleaner Plate Club: More Fruits, Veggies Eaten at School

Empty plates and half-eaten scraps on thousands of cafeteria trays offer the first tangible evidence that new federal standards on school meals are sprouting healthier eating habits, a new study claims.

Based on before-and-after inspections of more than 1,000 trays at four schools in an “urban, low-income” district, students chose 23 percent more fruits and consumed 16 percent more vegetables after the U.S. Department of Agriculture updated its rules in 2012, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reported Tuesday.

And if a nutritional reset is occurring among American students, baby carrots may be the gateway food, the researchers say.

“We were surprised by the vegetable findings,” said Juliana Cohen, lead author and a research fellow at Harvard. “We thought perhaps it was because students were eating more potato-based products like French fries, which count as a vegetable (in federal standards). We were very surprised to see that potato-based products weren’t being served on study days. Kids loved fresh vegetables, especially baby carrots.”

The federal guidelines are meant to reduce sodium and fat on school menus. Researchers will not name the city in which the schools were monitored, revealing only they are in Massachusetts.

Researchers weighed serving samples then recorded what foods sat atop test trays as students paid for meals. Later, those trays were collected and remaining foods were re-weighed.

At the same time, however, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday that participation in the National School Lunch Program dropped by 1.2 million students, or 3.7 percent, in 2012-13 when compared to 2010-2011. Analysts cited the veggie-heavy guidelines.

According to the GAO, “state and local officials reported that the changes to lunch content and nutrition requirements … influenced student participation” and that almost all states reported “that obtaining student acceptance of lunches that complied with the new requirements was challenging.”

“Implementing change to a national program is complex and no one should expect every district or school across the country to instantly make it work,” said Dr. Howell Wechsler, CEO of Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a nonprofit that combats childhood obesity. The group works with 22,000 schools that meet or exceed the USDA rules. “There seems to be no reason why all school districts can’t meet federal nutritional guidelines.”

Source: NBC news

Children’s weight affected by bedroom TVs, active gaming

Children’s weight is influenced by whether they have active video games and if there is a television in the bedroom, according to the results of two new studies.The studies, done separately and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, had different outcomes: children who had television sets in their bedrooms gained weight, while children provided active video games along with information about weight management and nutrition lost weight.

In the first study, researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia, the UnitedHealth Group of Minnesota and the University of Queensland in Australia, conducted a 16-week clinical trial of children from YMCAs and schools in Texas, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

The study involved 75 children who were deemed overweight or obese with a body mass index (BMI) averaging 2.15 and ranged in age from 10 to 12 years old. Children on medications that might contribute to their weight loss or gain were excluded from the study.

The children were split into two groups: one was provided a game console, motion capture device (such as Xbox and Kinect) and active sports games, while the other group was given the same hardware but less active games.

Both groups were also provided information about how to manage their weight and weekly goals for their diet, including nutrition advice. During the course of the study, their height and weight were measured at the start and at weeks 8 and 16 of the program.

Participants in the active gaming group were given a motion sensor to wear during their waking hours. The motion sensors provided researchers with information about the intensity of each child’s physical activity during those 16 weeks.

At the end of the study, researchers discovered the group that didn’t get the active games “exhibited little or no change in physical activity” and had lost little weight.

Source: CBC news

Infant Sleep Machines at Maximum Volume Reported as Hearing Risk

Devices that produce soothing sounds in order to lull infants to sleep can be loud enough at maximum volume to damage their hearing, researchers reported Monday.

Infant sleep machines emit white noise or nature sounds to drown out everyday disturbances to a baby’s sleep. The machines, sometimes embedded in cuddly stuffed animals, are popular gifts at baby showers and routinely recommended by parenting books and websites.

Some sleep experts advise parents to use these noisemakers all night, every night, to ensure the best rest for a newborn. Many parents say their babies become so used to the sounds of rainfall or birds that they will not nap without them.

Researchers at the University of Toronto evaluated 14 popular sleep machines at maximum volume and found they produced between 68.8 to 92.9 decibels at 30 centimeters, about the distance one might be placed from an infant’s head. Three exceeded 85 decibels, the workplace safety limit for adults on an eight-hour shift for accumulated exposure as determined by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. One machine was so loud that two hours of use would exceed workplace noise limits.

At 100 centimeters, all the machines tested were louder than the 50-decibel limit averaged over an hour set for hospital nurseries in 1999 by an expert panel concerned with improving newborn sleep and their speech intelligibility.

“These machines are capable of delivering noise that we think is unsafe for full-grown adults in mines,” said Dr. Blake Papsin, the senior author of the paper and the chief otolaryngologist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The study was published in the journal Pediatrics. Dr. Papsin got the idea for this study after a parent brought a portable white noise machine to the hospital that sounded as roaring as a carwash.

“Unless parents are adequately warned of the danger, or the design of the machines by manufacturers is changed to be safer, then the potential for harm exists, and parents need to know about it,” said Dr. Gordon B. Hughes, the program director of clinical trials for the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, who was not involved in the study.

Safe use is possible, the study’s authors suggest. “Farther away is less dangerous, a lower volume is better and shorter durations of time, all things that deliver less sound pressure to the baby,” Dr. Papsin said.

Yet some models are designed to be affixed to the crib, like Homedics’ SoundSpa Glow Giraffe and Baby Einstein’s Sea Dreams Soother.

The findings are bound to surprise many parents.

After finding a recommendation for white noise in “Happiest Baby on the Block,” Naomi Tucker, 39, bought a machine so that her daughter, Chiara, 15 months, could fall asleep nightly to ocean waves. The device masks sirens and household noise in the family’s two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.

A fan outside her door is “an extra barrier of sound, so we don’t have to tiptoe,” said Ms. Tucker, a family therapist. For naps in the stroller or the car, she and her husband use a white noise app on an old cellphone.

“It’s surprising because I hadn’t thought of it, but I can see why that would be the case,” Ms. Tucker said of the study finding. Her daughter’s Graco device is set to maximum volume, but it is still not all that loud, she said. It is also five feet from the crib.

Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a pediatrician and author of “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,” said parents could still use the machines, with new precautions.

“If it’s too close or it’s too loud, this might not be healthy for your baby,” he said. But “a quiet machine that’s far away may cause no harm whatsoever.”

The study authors recommended that manufacturers limit the maximum noise level of infant sleep machines.

Source: New York Times

First patient fitted with Carmat artificial heart dies

The first patient fitted with an artificial heart made by the French company Carmat has died, the hospital that had performed the transplant in December said on Monday.

The 76-year-old man died on Sunday, 75 days after the operation, the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris said in a statement, adding that the cause of his death could not be known for sure at this stage.

When he was fitted with the device, the man was suffering from terminal heart failure, when the sick heart can no longer pump enough blood to sustain the body, and was said to have only a few weeks, or even days, to live.

Carmat’s bioprosthetic device is designed to replace the real heart for as much as five years, mimicking nature’s work using biological materials and sensors. It aims to help the thousands of patients who die each year while awaiting a donor, and reducing the side-effects associated with transplants.

“Carmat wishes to pay tribute to the courage and the pioneering role of this patient and his family, as well as the medical team’s dedication,” a company spokeswoman said.

She stressed that it was premature to draw any conclusions on Carmat’s artificial heart at this stage.

Three more patients in France with terminal heart failure are due to be fitted with the device. The clinical trial will be considered a success if the patients survive with the implant for at least a month.

If it passes the test, Carmat has said it would fit the device into about 20 patients with less severe heart failure.

EXTENDING LIFE

“The doctors directly involved in the post-surgical care wish to highlight the value of the lessons learned from this first clinical trial, with regard to the selection of the patient, his surveillance, the prevention and treatment of difficulties encountered,” the hospital said in its statement.

An in-depth analysis of the medical and technical data gathered since the patient’s operation will be needed to establish the cause of his death, the hospital added.

Carmat estimates around 100,000 patients in the United States and Europe could benefit from its artificial heart, a market worth more than 16 billion euros ($22 billion).

Among Carmat’s competitors for artificial heart implants are privately-held SynCardia Systems and Abiomed, both of the United States.

SynCardia’s artificial heart is the only one approved both in the United States and the European Union and has been implanted in more than 1,200 patients to keep them waiting for a heart from a matching donor. The longest a patient has lived with the device is just under four years prior to a transplant.

Carmat’s heart is designed to serve not as a bridge to transplant but as a permanent implant, extending life for terminally ill patients who cannot hope for a real organ, generally because they are too old and donors too scarce.

Source: Reuters

Revealed – How sex makes you more intelligent

sex-makes-you-intelligent

Sex not only helps decrease stress levels and burn away calories, but boosts your intelligence too!

Love-making proved to greatly increase the creation of new neurons located within the hippocampus – an area of the brain that is responsible for the formation of long-term memory, say researchers.

‘We discovered that even though there had been the production of new neurons, the cognitive abilities acquired during the experiment decreased once the mice were subjected to long periods without sexual activity,’ psychologists from the University of Maryland in the US were quoted as saying.

Increased sexual activity floods an individual’s brain cells with oxygen, they noted. Another study by Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, provided further substantial evidence. According to the Korean study, sex increases intellectual functions. Sexual activity buffers the creation of neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain, which acts against detrimental functions caused by extreme stress. Older couples that are more sexually active have less odds of getting dementia which is due to a variation of complicated reasons, said a report in Glamour magazine.

Other health benefits of sex

Besides making you intelligent, sex has some other health benefits too that you probably didn’t know about.

1. Makes you look younger

Yes! Believe it or not, sex can make you look younger. According to a study conducted by Dr David Weeks of Royal Edinburgh Hospital, people who had sex more than 4 times a week, felt as much as 10 years younger.

2. Boosts your immunity

While eating fruits and vegetables are known to boost your immunity, having sex can have a similar effect. A research conducted at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania, revealed that people who had more sex had 30% higher levels of the antigen immunoglobin A, as compared to people who didn’t. The higher levels of antigen improves our body’s defence against cold and flu.

Source: the Health site

Three ways to keep your heart healthy

Though cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, there are ways by which you can significantly reduce the risk.

Judith Mackall, MD, Cardiologist at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Centre in Cleveland, Ohio, offers three tips to help reduce risk of heart diseases.

1. Exercise: Thirty minutes of moderate exercise every day can have a big impact on heart health. If 30 minutes is too much time to dedicate, then divide it into ten minutes and exercise thrice a day. Within ten weeks your cholesterol numbers will improve, blood pressure will come down and you will lose a few pounds. Just running a few miles can help improve cardiovascular fitness by increasing the flexibility of the coronary arteries.

2. Eat healthy: Eat a healthy, balanced diet. Remember the “Five Rule”, i.e. consume at least five fruits and vegetables every day as part of a balanced diet. This helps manage blood pressure and decrease inflammation in the body, preventing risk of cardiovascular disease. Replace saturated fats with mono or polyunsaturated fats and reduce salt intake to ensure blood pressure and cholesterol levels remain in healthy ranges.

3. Quit smoking: If you are a heavy smoker or even a social smoker, it’s time to call it quits. Smoking knocks off seven years of your life. And, if you have cardiovascular disease and you smoke, you’ll die 15 years sooner than you would otherwise, Dr Mackall adds.

Source: Zee news

South African scientists map HIV antibodies in vaccine hunt

Scientists in South Africa have mapped the evolution of an antibody that kills different strains of the HIV virus, which might yield a vaccine for the incurable disease, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases said on Monday.

The scientists have been studying one woman’s response to HIV infection from stored samples of her blood and isolated the antibodies that she developed, said Lynn Morris, head of the virology unit at the NICD.

The study, by a consortium of scientists from the NICD, local universities and the U.S. Vaccine Research Centre of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was published in the journal Nature.

Humans respond to HIV by producing antibodies to fight the virus. In most cases, the antibodies do not neutralize, or kill, different strains of the virus. But a few known as “broadly neutralizing antibodies” are able to break through a protective layer around the HIV virus and kill it.

“The outer covering of HIV has a coating of sugars that prevents antibodies from reaching the surface to neutralize the virus. In this patient, we found that her antibodies had ‘long arms’, which enabled them to reach through the sugar coat that protects HIV,” Penny Moore, one of the lead scientists, said in a statement.

The researchers had been able to clone the antibodies and would test if they were able to give immunity to a person without the virus, Morris said.

Human tests were at least two years away, she said.

“We are going to test them first on monkeys and if it works on monkeys we will go on to humans,” she said.

South Africa carries the world’s heaviest HIV/AIDS case load with 6 million people infected with the virus, more than 10 percent of the population.

Source: Reuters

Tips for treating excessive sweating

Heavy sweating (also known as hyperhidrosis) is a very real and embarrassing problem, but there are some effective ways to treat it. Before you hide under bulky sweaters or move to a chillier climate, you can try these proven techniques for combating excessive sweating.

Antiperspirants

The easiest way to tackle excessive sweating is with an antiperspirant, which most people already use on a daily basis. Antiperspirants contain aluminum salts. When you roll them onto your skin, antiperspirants form a plug that blocks perspiration.

You can buy an antiperspirant over the counter at your local supermarket or drug store, or your doctor can prescribe one for you. Over-the-counter antiperspirants may be less irritating than prescription antiperspirants. Start with an over-the-counter brand, and if that doesn’t work, see your dermatologist for a prescription.

Many antiperspirants are sold combined with a deodorant, which won’t stop you from sweating but will control the odor from your sweat.

Antiperspirants aren’t only for your underarms. You can also apply them to other areas where you sweat, like your hands and feet. Some may even be applied to the hairline.

Don’t just roll or spray on your antiperspirant/deodorant in the morning and forget about it. Also apply it at night before you go to bed — it will help keep you drier.

Medical Treatments for Heavy Sweating

If antiperspirants aren’t stopping your hands and feet from sweating too much, your doctor may recommend one of these medical treatments:

1. Iontophoresis: During this treatment, you sit with your hands, feet, or both in a shallow tray of water for about 20 to 30 minutes, while a low electrical current travels through the water. No one knows exactly how this treatment works, but experts believe it blocks sweat from getting to your skin’s surface. You’ll have to repeat this treatment at least a few times a week, but after several times you may stop sweating. Once you learn how to do iontophoresis, you can buy a machine to use at home. Some people only require a couple of treatments a month for maintenance.

Although iontophoresis is generally safe, because it uses an electrical current it’s not recommended for women who are pregnant and people who have pacemakers or metal implants (including joint replacements), cardiac conditions, or epilepsy.

2. Botulinum toxin: Another treatment option for heavy sweating is injections of botulinum toxin A (Botox), the same medicine used for wrinkles. Botox is FDA-approved for treating excessive sweating of the underarms, but some doctors may also use it on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.

Botox works by preventing the release of a chemical that signals the sweat glands to activate. You may need to have several Botox injections, but the results can last for almost a year

 Steps You Can Take at Home to Control Heavy Sweating

While you’re trying out different antiperspirants, or whatever other treatment your doctor recommends, you can also incorporate some of these four at-home solutions to reduce sweating.

Don’t wear heavy clothes that will trap sweat. Instead, wear light, breathable fabrics such as cotton and silk. Bring along an extra shirt when you know you’ll be exercising or outdoors in the heat. Your feet can sweat too, so wear socks that wick moisture away from them (merino wool and polypro are good choices).
Shower or bathe every day using an antibacterial soap to control the bacteria that can inhabit your sweaty skin and cause odors. Dry yourself completely afterward, and before applying antiperspirant.

Use underarm liners and shoe inserts to absorb sweat so it doesn’t ruin your clothes or start to smell.

Don’t order a double jalapeno burrito with a margarita at your favorite Mexican restaurant. Spicy foods and alcohol can both make you sweat, as can hot drinks like tea and coffee.

Source: web md

 

30,000-year-old virus comes to life

Scientsts have successfully revived a 30,000 year old giant virus frozen in ice. They say the virus is a type never before seen – and warn that global warming could lead to more being uncovered.

The researchers say the find could reveal viruses are far more diverse than previously thought – and warn the ancient viruses could affect humans.

The authors of the new paper, a mix of French and Russian researchers, identified the virus by taking a culture of amoebas found in the permafrost, and adding some of the permafrost.

Dubbed Pithovirus sibericum, the virus was found i

 

n a 30-metre (98-foot) -deep sample of permanently frozen soil taken from coastal tundra in Chukotka, near the East Siberia Sea, where the average annual temperature is minus 13.4 degrees Celsius (7.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

The team thawed the virus and watched it replicate in a culture in a petri dish, where it infected a simple single-cell organism called an amoeba.
Radiocarbon dating of the soil sample found that vegetation grew there more than 30,000 years ago, a time when mammoths and Neanderthals walked the Earth, according to a paper published in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

They found the cells exploded, and when examined under a microscope, showed the presence of a giant virus particle known as a pandovirus.

‘While initiating a survey of the Siberian permafrost, we isolated a third type of giant virus combining the Pandoravirus morphology with a gene content more similar to that of icosahedral DNA viruses,’ the team wrote.

P. sibericum is, on the scale of viruses, a giant — it has 500 genes, whereas the influenza virus has only eight.
It is the first in a new category of viral whoppers, a family known as Megaviridae, for which two other categories already exist.
The virus gets its name from “pithos,” the ancient Greek word for a jar, as it comes in an amphora shape.

It is so big (1.5 millionths of a metre) that it can be seen through an optical microscope, rather than the more powerful electron microscope.
Unlike the flu virus, though, P. sibericum is harmless to humans and animals, for it only infects a type of amoeba called Acanthamoeba, the researchers said.

The work shows that viruses can survive being locked up in the permafrost for extremely long periods, France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a press statement.

‘It has important implications for public-health risks in connection with exploiting mineral or energy resources in Arctic Circle regions that are becoming more and more accessible through global warming,’ it said.

‘The revival of viruses that are considered to have been eradicated, such as the smallpox virus, whose replication process is similar to that of Pithovirus, is no longer limited to science fiction. ‘The risk that this scenario could happen in real life has to be viewed realistically.’

They believe the finding could mean there are far more diverse types of virus than previously thought.

‘This suggests that pandoravirus-like particles may correspond to an unexplored diversity of unconventional DNA virus families.’

The virus was was found frozen in ice close to the East Siberian Sea. The team say the find was unusual because fo the size of the virus. ‘Giant DNA viruses are visible under a light microscope and their genomes encode more proteins than some bacteria or intracellular parasitic eukaryotes.’

They want that global warming could lead to potential health threats.
‘The revival of such an ancestral amoeba-infecting virus used as a safe indicator of the possible presence of pathogenic DNA viruses, suggests that the thawing of permafrost either from global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions might not be exempt from future threats to human or animal health.’

Source: Daily Mail

Why Is Pancreatic Cancer So Deadly?

pancreatic-cancer-8980

The pancreas secretes hormones and enzymes to digest our fats. One of those hormones is insulin, which prompts the body to use sugar in the blood rather than fat as energy. Its levels are low in diabetic patients, who suffer from abnormally high blood sugar.

Only one fifth of Americans diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive for a full year, according to the American Cancer Society, and it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the country.

How does the disease develop without noticeable symptoms and then kill so quickly?

To find out, we called Allyson Ocean, an oncologist at New York–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who specializes in gastrointestinal cancers including pancreatic cancer. An edited transcript follows.

Why does pancreatic cancer kill so quickly?

Pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed at a late stage because it doesn’t cause symptoms until it’s too late. Weight loss, abdominal pain, jaundice [a yellowing of the skin due to toxic buildup in the liver]—those are the most common symptoms. They usually start after the tumor is a significant size. By then, chances are, it has metastasized [that is, spread to other parts of the body].

Only about 10 to 15 percent of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed when they could be considered for surgery. And the prognosis is poor even in patients who do have surgery, because it comes back about 85 percent of the time. At best, 25 to 30 percent of patients are alive five years after surgery.

When doctors do pancreatic cancer surgery, they take out 95 percent of the pancreas, including the tumor, and then they leave a small remnant of the pancreas in there that serves [the insulin-producing] functions.

If a person can live without a fully functional pancreas, then what, ultimately, kills most pancreatic cancer patients?

When most patients die of pancreatic cancer, they die of liver failure from their liver being taken over by tumor.

What precludes doctors from performing surgery on late-stage patients?

We don’t do surgery if the tumor has already spread outside the pancreas, because there’s no survival benefit in removing the tumor. We also sometimes can’t do surgery [when the tumor] involves the great blood vessels, the superior mesenteric vein and superior mesenteric artery. Those are the main vessels that come off of the aorta, the main artery in our body. If the tumor is wrapped around those blood vessels, then we can’t take it out.

Why is this particular cancer so aggressive?
Because of the nature of the tumor cells. They escape the treatments, they hide out, and then they come back. And they grow again and they affect the liver and then they kill people.

What are the biggest risk factors for pancreatic cancer?
The biggest known risk factors are smoking and family history—it can be a hereditary disease. Then there are some other more obscure risk factors, such as defects in the anatomy of the pancreas, but that’s very rare.

What factors affect how early a person gets diagnosed?
Depending on where the cancer is diagnosed in the pancreas, it can affect how soon it’s diagnosed. For instance, if the cancer is in the head of the pancreas, which is close to the common bile duct, and it grows and it causes obstruction of the common bile duct, a patient can get jaundiced. And then they could [show symptoms] sooner than someone whose pancreatic cancer is in another part of the pancreas, like the tail. They would not present with jaundice, so we would not have a clue that there was necessarily anything wrong with them.

What are some of main symptoms as the cancer progresses?
Unexplained weight loss, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting. Back pain is another one, because the pancreas is very posterior in the body. Back pain is also the most common complaint that patients go to an emergency room for, and most of the time it’s just muscle pain—it’s not pancreatic cancer.

What treatments are available if surgery isn’t an option?
Chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Sometimes we do both together. We are also using biologic agents now, meaning antibody therapy. There’s a drug called Tarceva, which is an antibody [or immune protein] against the growth factor that the tumor cell makes, and so it blocks that growth signal. It’s given in combination with [a chemotherapy called] Gemcitabine. In a large randomized clinical trial, [the combination of the two drugs] was shown to improve upon Gemcitabine alone.

Source: Scientific American