Month: July 2014

TB prevalence reduced: WHO says

TB prevalence reduced

As per WHO estimations, prevalence of tuberculosis per lakh population in India has reduced from 465 in the year 1990 to 230 in year 2012. Tuberculosis mortality per lakh population has reduced from 38 in the year 1990 to 22 in year 2012, according to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Friday the health minister said, “The estimated proportion of Multi-Drug Resistant TB cases is not increasing. It is less than 3 per cent among new TB cases and between 12-17 per cent among re-treatment TB cases. However, the detection of MDR-TB cases has been increasing due to availability of more diagnostic facilities for MDR-TB and coverage of the entire country by the management of Drug Resistant TB in the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP), between 2007 and 2013.”

With effective anti-TB Drug regimens administered under the globally acclaimed DOTS strategy, RNTCP has been consistently achieving more than 85 per cent treatment success rates among New Smear Positive Patients since 2001, according to an official statement.

The anti-TB drug regimens used for treatment of MDR-TB under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme are formulated by national experts in accordance with the WHO Guidelines. The treatment outcomes among MDR-TB patients are comparable with global outcomes, the statement said.

The first-line drugs used for new TB cases under RNTCP are a combination of Rifampicin, Isoniazid, Ethambutol and Pyrazinamide, administered as standardized treatment regimen. Injection Streptomycin is an additional drug given to re-treatment cases, it further said.

RNTCP has also introduced paediatric patient wise boxes, with formulations and doses specifically designed for convenient usage in children, according to the statement.

The main second-line anti-TB drugs for treatment of MDR-TB are Kanamycin, Levofloxacin, Ethionamide, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol and Cycloserine, the statement added.

Source: India Medical Times

Amoebas Eat Contact Lens Wearer’s Eyeballs

Amoebas Eat Contact Lens Wearer's Eyeballs

Doctors hope a horrifying story out of Taiwan will help drive home the importance of proper hygiene for wearers of contact lenses. A 23-year-old student lost her eyesight after buying contact lenses that were supposed to be worn for one month and leaving them in around the clock for six months, leading to an infection by amoebas that gnawed away the corneas in both her eyes, the China Post reports. The microscopic Acanthamoeba parasite is found in environments including soil, dust, and swimming pools, and doctors believe the woman became infected after using dirty water to clean her face.

The director of ophthalmology at a Taipei hospital explains the situation to the Daily Mail: “A shortage of oxygen can destroy the surface of the epithelial tissue, creating tiny wounds into which the bacteria can easily infect, spreading to the rest of the eye and providing a perfect breeding ground.” As a 2009 study in the Journal of Ophthalmology explained, “Corneal oxygenation is significantly reduced during contact lens overwear, particularly for those who sleep in their lenses overnight.” Further, it found that “the association between [the infection known as] Acanthamoeba keratitis and contact lens wear is firmly established; it may account for up to 95% of the reported cases.” And while such infections are relatively rare, they are hard to detect until the person feels acute pain, by which time it could be too late, Medical Daily notes.

Source: newser

Stress eating could pack on 11 extra pounds a year

Stress eating could pack on 11 extra pounds a year

Researchers sure know how to take the “comfort” out of comfort food.

It seems that experiencing one or more stressful events the day prior to eating just one single high-fat meal — the kind we’re most likely to indulge in when frazzled — slows the body’s metabolism so much that women could potentially experience an 11-pound weight gain over the course of a year, according to a new study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Participants included 58 healthy women, 38 of whom were breast cancer survivors and 20 of whom were similar in terms of demographics.The average age of participants was 53. During two visits with the research team, participants received either a meal high in saturated fat, the so-called “bad fat,” or a meal high in sunflower oil, a monounsaturated fat that is associated with various health benefits. The meal itself was a whopper: 930 calories with 60 grams of fat — about the same as a double-deck burger and medium fries. The researchers used standardized clinical tools to rank stressors and to assess major depressive disorder.

After the participants indulged, metabolic rate, or how efficient these women were at burning calories and fat, was measured. Blood sugar levels, triglycerides, insulin and the stress hormone cortisol were also assessed.

Results showed that on average study participants who reported one or more stressors, such as arguments with co-workers or spouses, disagreements with friends, trouble with children or work-related pressures, during the previous 24 hours burned 104 fewer calories than non-stressed women in the seven hours after eating the high-fat meal.

That difference, say researchers, could result in an 11 pound weight gain in one year. And they also experienced less fat oxidation in which so-called large fat molecules are converted into smaller molecules used as fuel.

“The question we were asking is whether stress affects metabolism, and I was so surprised at the magnitude of the effect,” says Dr. Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry and psychology at The Ohio State University and lead author of the study.

It’s no secret that stress makes many of us turn to these high-fat-high-sugar comfort foods. And other studies do show that people who experience stress and other mood disruptions are at higher risk of obesity. The primary reason is overindulgence on high-fat, high-calorie comfort foods.

“We know from other data that we’re more likely to eat the wrong foods when we’re stressed, and our data say that when we eat the wrong foods, weight gain becomes more likely because we are burning fewer calories,” says Kiecolt-Glaser.

Researchers did find that a history of depression alone did not affect metabolic rate, but depression combined with previous stressors led to a steeper immediate rise in a form of fat called triglycerides. High triglyceride levels are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

How stress makes us pack on the pounds is indeed a complicated and still poorly understood process. “The relationship between stress and eating is really complex both from a biological view as well as from a psychosocial view, and there is no nice clear pathway that explains everything that is happening,” says Dr. Leslie Heinberg, Director of Behavioral Services for the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. “But what this study does is give us more information on other potential pathways.”

The study is small and there are limitations. “This was a very controlled, one-time thing, and I do think the 11 pounds a year goes beyond the data,” she says, since people may compensate for their indulgences at later meals in the real world. And self-reported stressors can be squishy, despite efforts to control the differences between say the angst of having to give a speech or having a fight with a co-worker. Another complication was the fact that most study participants were breast cancer survivors, which can add even more stress.

Obesity is still at crisis levels both here in the U.S. and globally. It doesn’t help that humans “. . . are biologically set to put on weight and keep on weight and even with diets, exercise or surgery, we are fighting a big biological tide,” says Heinberg.

“What this (study) and other lab studies show is that there’s more to obesity than a lack of willpower, it’s a complex biological problem.”

If you’re looking for a bright side, TODAY Diet and Nutrition Editor Madelyn Fernstrom notes that the impact of stress is a small fraction of the picture: Most weight gain is caused by overeating, plain and simple.

“The good news is that the 100 calories a day extra can be offset by a 30 minute walk,” she says. “This can mean the difference between weight stability and weight gain.”

Source: today

Group music therapy may help Alzheimer’s patients

Group music therapy may help Alzheimer's patients

With advanced Alzheimer’s disease, language deteriorates and patients spontaneously speak less and less. In a small study from Israel, group music therapy sessions using tailored songs helped people with middle- to late-stage Alzheimer’s strike up communication.

The study may be small, but it nicely demonstrates what music therapists and gerontologists have known for a while, said Alicia Ann Clair, director of the Music Education and Music Therapy Division at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, who wasn’t part of the study.

“It’s one of those things that’s kind of known but has not been researched so it’s great this was done,” Clair told Reuters Health.

In her experience, singing is a great way to engage with some people with advanced dementia. People who may not otherwise be able to communicate may start to spontaneously sing along, otherwise vocalize, make eye contact or simply calm down, she said.

“But (the new study) was done with people who had a history of singing and enjoying it and being part of a singing culture. If you try to do this with non-singers I don’t know if they would engage,” she noted.

For the study, six patients ages 65 to 83 attended group music therapy sessions twice a week for a month. Four of the patients were born in Israel; the other two were born in Eastern Europe and immigrated to Israel in their early teens.

The patients were not able to consent to the study due to their cognitive state, so their legal guardians or main caregivers gave consent. Ayelet Dassa, a music therapist and the lead author of the study, selected 24 songs popular in Israel between 1930 and the late 1950s for the sessions.

“In Israel especially for this group, they came here or were born when the state was becoming independent,” Dassa told Reuters Health. The songs she chose were part of the foundation of the patients’ adult identity, which was tied to their country and their heritage, she said.

The music sessions led to spontaneous conversations about the songs, memories the songs triggered and about the act of singing as a group. Some participants talked about life on the Kibbutz many decades ago, or about learning certain songs in school with their music teachers. Others expressed pride at being able to remember lyrics to the songs and participating as part of a group.

Dassa published the study in the Journal of Music Therapy as part of her doctoral dissertation with the help of her advisor, Dorit Amir, in the music department of Bar Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel. “A large part of the conversation was about how they sang as individuals (and) as a group, and they gave compliments to each other,” she said.

Many were excited to continue singing even after the study was over, Dassa said. “The idea that they are part of something is very important to people with Alzheimer’s,” she said. “They lose their sense of self. Their self esteem is very low.”

The major burden in Alzheimer’s disease is losing communication, which distresses patients and can make families feel isolated or hopeless, she said. In her nearly 20 years of working with these patients as a music therapist, she noticed that singing could act like a bridge over that divide.

She has seen people who couldn’t speak or communicate in any way suddenly start singing, she said. The study was inspired by one particular example: she sang to an older woman who was unable to communicate but would scream a mix of Hebrew and English. The woman couldn’t sing along, but she quieted and made eye contact.

As Dassa finished singing, the patient said, “What a beautiful song.” “I instruct caregivers and families to use singing in their daily care,” Dassa said. “It helps elicit memories and reduce agitation, and helps reduce the resistance to many activities, like taking a shower, eating (and) refusing to take pills on time.”

Families only need basic instruction to get started, she said. But singing may not always help these patients, Clair noted. Though some patients may start talking and commenting on music or about past memories triggered by the music, they will likely still be unable to engage in most conversation about present-day topics.

And while some songs elicit happy memories from the past, others may be linked to unhappy memories. “If you happen to find a piece of music with which there are painful memories associated it could cause distress, so if you’re singing to the loved one and they react by pulling away or grimacing, immediately stop what you’re doing and switch to another song,” Clair cautioned.

Reading aloud is another way to engage patients who may not have a musical background, she said. “What we get down to here is caregivers losing all contact and really being desperate for anything with which they can connect with people they love. They go to visit and there’s nothing to do,” she said. “Singing is something you can do.”

Source: fox news

Noseless toddler can still cough and sneeze but can’t smell

Noseless toddler can still cough and sneeze but can’t smell

A toddler in Britain has a rare medical condition because of which she was born without a nose. Though the baby-girl does not have any sense of smell, she can still cough, sneeze and catch a cold. Tessa Evans loves running around, playing outside and blowing kisses. But unlike any other children, she suffers from an extremely rare condition which means she has no nose. The 17-month-old has complete congenital arhinia, which is so rare there are only around 40 cases reported in medical literature,

Despite her difficulties, she always has a smile on her face, says her mother Gráinne. ‘At first I just couldn’t understand it, I didn’t even know it was possible. How did my little girl not have a nose? Was she going to live? Would anyone be able to help her? But ever since we got her home she’s grown every day, smiled more and the more she shines the more her differences fade into the background.’ Just weeks after giving birth, while researching the condition on the internet, the mother came across a journal online which stated that babies born like Tessa had poor mental and physical development.

She claims it implied that parents should be given the option to terminate their pregnancy. Buut Evans, a full time carer from Maghera, County Derry, Northern Ireland says her daughter proves that statement wrong. Tessa’s condition was detected during the 20-week scan which showed an abnormally flat facial profile. Her mother and father – Nathan, 32, a nightclub manager – were told to prepare to make difficult decisions. But the follow up 3D scan and tests revealed Tessa was perfectly healthy and everything was normal. There are just 47 recorded cases in the English records of people with partial or full facial anomalies.

Source; The health site

Why sitting is the new smoking

Why sitting is the new smoking

If we estimate the exact time we spend sitting, it comes to around to about 10-12 hours per day. This includes driving, sitting at your workplace, relaxing at home and other such activities. Thought to be as bad for your health as smoking, the number of hours you spend sitting directly affects your health{1}. So much so, that in her book Don’t Lose Out, Work Out, Rujuta Diwekar mentions that sitting predisposes you to a variety of diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high levels of cholesterol and an overall sluggish system.

Sit at your own risk!

Sitting for long hours can lead to certain disorders like chronic fatigue syndrome accompanied by anemia, insomnia, digestive problems, lethargy, etc. Apart from that, it may also give rise to inactivity stress syndrome –a condition where a person suffers from stress without doing any work. Also read how sitting can lead to excessive accumulation of fat around your hips.

At the work place, a sedentary lifestyle is accompanied with bad dietary habits like eating junk food, irregular eating habits or eating on the run and drinking unhealthy beverages like tea, coffee or soft drinks. This completely upsets your normal metabolic function which may lead to conditions like acidity, constipation, ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome.

Can lead to spinal problems

The way you sit or your posture can be one of the causes for spinal problems or common pains along the neck, shoulders and lower back. Bad posture or sitting the wrong way can lead to muscle strain and eventually severe back problems. Apart from that, you could also suffer from muscle and bone loss as well. This problem is no more unique to the elderly, experts have found that even in teenagers; continuous sitting can be a reason for muscle pain and bone loss. Read more about yoga asanas to strengthen your spine.

Another major ill effect of sitting is obesity. Sitting is known to lead to accumulation of belly fat, thereby increasing the amount of bad cholesterol in your body. This in turn leads to diabetes and heart problems.

Tips to keep the ill-effects of sitting at bay:

While watching TV, take a short walk during the commercial breaks. Alternatively you can choose to finish some work between your regular TV shows. While at work, take short walks either around your office or outside. This will not only help you relax and refresh your mind but will keep you fit as well.

Make your food habits healthier. Avoid eating junk food and try some healthy snack options instead.
Practice relaxing and stretching exercises like yoga, which can be done while sitting at home or even in the office. Read more about yoga poses you can practice at your workplace.

Source: The health site

Parkinson’s boosts creativity: Study

Parkinson's boosts creativity

If you are in a creative profession, Parkinson’s may be a blessing in disguise as researchers have found that patients of the nerve cells disease in the area of brain are more creative than their healthy peers.

Those Parkinson’s patients taking higher doses of medication are more artistic than their less-medicated counterparts, the study added.

“It began with my observation that Parkinson’s patients have a special interest in art and have creative hobbies incompatible with their physical limitations,” said Rivka Inzelberg, professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

For the study, the researchers conducted tests on 27 Parkinson’s patients treated with anti-Parkinson’s drugs and 27 age and education-matched healthy controls.

The tests included the Verbal Fluency exam, in which a person is asked to mention as many different words beginning with a certain letter and in a certain category (fruit, for example) as possible.

The participants were then asked to undergo a more challenging Remote Association Test, in which they had to name a fourth word (following three given words) within a fixed context.

The groups also took the Tel Aviv University Creativity Test, which tested their interpretation of abstract images and assessed the imagination inherent in answers to questions like “What can you do with sandals?”

The final exam was a version of the Test for a Novel Metaphor, adapted specifically for the study.

Throughout the testing, Parkinson’s patients offered more original answers and more thoughtful interpretations than their healthier counterparts.

In order to rule out the possibility that the creative process evident in the hobbies of patients was linked to obsessive compulsions like gambling and hoarding, to which many Parkinson’s patients fall prey, participants were also asked to fill out an extensive questionnaire.

An analysis indicated no correlation between compulsive behaviour and elevated creativity.

The study appeared in the journal Annals of Neurology.

Source: Business Standard

 

New oral medication may help cure blindness: Study

New oral medication may help cure blindness

Scientists have revealed that a new oral medication is showing significant progress in restoring vision to patients with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA).

According to scientists of Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), this is the first time that an oral drug has improved the visual function of blind patients with LCA, which causes visual impairment ranging from reduced vision to complete blindness, has remained untreatable.

Robert Koenekoop, director of McGill Ocular Genetics Laboratory at The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the MUHC, said that this treatment is giving hope to many patients who suffer from this devastating retinal degeneration.
The study involved 14 participants from around the world with LCA ranging in age from 6 to 38 years old. Their blindness was caused by either mutations in the genes RPE65 or LRAT, leading to a serious defect in the retinoid cycle.

The retinoid cycle is one of the most important cycles in the human retina because it produces a molecule called 11-cis retinal which has the special capacity to capture light and initiate vision. Patients with RPE65 or LRAT mutations cannot produce this crucial molecule thus the retinal cells cannot create vision, and slowly die.

The study found that 10out of the 14 patients expanded their visual fields; others improved their visual acuity. The research team performed special brain scans of the visual cortex, which showed marked improvements in brain activities in patients who also improved in field size and acuity.

The study was published in the scientific journal The Lancet

source: yahoo news

 

Diabetic Diet: 6 Foods That May Help Control Blood Sugar

Diabetic Diet 6 Foods That May Help Control Blood Sugar

Coffee and cinnamon have made headlines recently as foods that might be able to cut the risk of diabetes or help to improve blood sugar levels. But don’t get the idea that such foods are magic bullets for your diabetic diet, experts warn.

“None of this is a magic potion for diabetes,” says American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Cathy Nonas, RD. It’s still important for people with diabetes to eat a balanced diabetic diet and exercise to help manage the disease, she says.

Nevertheless, some foods, such as white bread, are converted almost right away to blood sugar, causing a quick spike. Other foods, such as brown rice, are digested more slowly, causing a lower and gentler change in blood sugar.

If you are trying to follow a healthy diabetic diet, here are six that may help to keep your blood sugar in check.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal can help control blood sugar — but don’t get the sweetened kind.

“Even though it’s a carbohydrate, it’s a very good carbohydrate,” American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Marisa Moore, RD, LD, tells WebMD. Because it’s high in soluble fiber, “it’s slower to digest and it won’t raise your blood sugar as much or as quickly. It’s going to work better at controlling blood sugar over time.”

Not only does this high-quality carbohydrate offer a steadier source of energy than white bread, it can also help with weight loss. The soluble fiber in oats “helps to keep us feeling fuller longer,” Moore says.

That’s important for people with type 2 diabetes, who tend to be overweight. “If you reduce the weight, you usually significantly improve the glucose control,” Nonas says.

Barley isn’t as popular as oats. But there’s some evidence that barley, which is also high in soluble fiber, may also help with blood glucose control. Kay Behall, PhD, a research nutritionist at the USDA Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, has studied barley, and she suggests that people try eating boiled pearl barley in place of rice.

Besides oats and barley, Moore adds, “most whole grains are going to be a great choice for a person with diabetes.”

Broccoli, Spinach, and Green Beans

Add plenty of nonstarchy vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, and green beans, to your diabetic diet, diabetes experts say. These foods are high in fiber and low in carbohydrates, which make them ideal for people with diabetes.

In contrast, starchy vegetables include peas, potatoes, corn, winter squash, and lima beans. There’s no need to cut them from the diet, Moore says. “They do give us additional nutrients. We want to maintain balance.” But because starchy vegetables have more carbohydrates and raise blood sugar more, it’s important to stick to proper portion sizes, she says.

There’s new evidence, too, that vegetables are healthy for people with diabetes.

Source: Web md

 

Got a rash? iPad, other devices might be the cause

iPad, other devices might be the cause

Unexplained rash? Check your iPad. It turns out the popular tablet computer may contain nickel, one of the most common allergy-inducing metals.

Recent reports in medical journals detail nickel allergies from a variety of personal electronic devices, including laptops and cellphones. But it was an Apple iPad that caused an itchy body rash in an 11-year-old boy recently treated at a San Diego hospital, according to a report in Monday’s Pediatrics.

Nickel rashes aren’t life-threatening but they can be very uncomfortable, and they may require treatment with steroids and antibiotics if the skin eruptions become infected, said Dr. Sharon Jacob, a dermatologist at Rady Children’s Hospital, where the boy was treated. Jacob, who co-wrote the report, said the young patient had to miss school because of the rash.

The boy had a common skin condition that causes scaly patches, but he developed a different rash all over his body that didn’t respond to usual treatment. Skin testing showed he had a nickel allergy, and doctors traced it to an iPad his family had bought in 2010.

Doctors tested the device and detected a chemical compound found in nickel in the iPad’s outside coating.
“He used the iPad daily,” she said.

He got better after putting it in a protective case, she said Whether all iPad models and other Apple devices contain nickel is uncertain; Apple spokesman Chris Gaither said the company had no comment.
Nickel rashes also have been traced to other common products including some jewelry, eyeglass frames and zippers.

Jacob said evidence suggests nickel allergies are become more common, or increasingly recognized. She cited national data showing that about 25 percent of children who get skin tests for allergies have nickel allergies, versus about 17 percent a decade ago.

She said doctors need to consider electronic devices as potential sources when patients seek treatment for skin rashes.

Source: NWCN