Health

Researchers have found that six proteins, five more than previously thought, are responsible for cell-to-cell communication that regulates the heart and plays a role in limiting the size of heart attacks and strokes.

The researchers determined that the smallest of these proteins directs the largest in performing its role of coordinating billions of heart cells during each heartbeat. Together, the proteins synchronize the beating heart.

A new study has suggested that Candesartan is just as effective as more the commonly prescribed propranolol when it comes to preventing migraine attacks.

The researchers also found that candesartan may work for patients who get no relief from propranolol.

Professor Lars Jacob Stovner, leader of Norwegian National Headache Centre, who also led the study, said that this gives doctors more possibilities.

A new study suggests that teens with a history of concussions are more than three times as likely to suffer from depression, than those who have never had a concussion.

“What this study suggests is that teens who have had a concussion should be screened for depression,” lead study author Sara Chrisman, MD, a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital, said.

Concussion, considered a mild traumatic brain injury, can also have serious psychological effects.

Most prior research on these psychological effects has focused on adults.

Coffee not only keeps you from dozing off when you are pulling an all-nighter, it also boosts the brain’s ability to form new memories, scientists have found.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in US have found the first clear evidence that caffeine enhances certain memories for at least up to 24 hours after it is consumed.

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad launched the indigenously developed diabetes screening system and test strips here on MOnday.

The indigenous product developed by the Birla Institute of Technology, Hyderabad and IIT, Mumbai will be manufactured by M/s Biosense Technologies.

Azad said that indigenously developed screening system and strips will significantly lower costs, and thereby, dramatically increase accessibility and equity in terms of diagnosis and control of diabetes and have a tremendous socio-economic impact throughout the country.

India today declared itself a polio-free country for the third consecutive year without a single new case of the disease and termed it as a “monumental milestone”

“It is a matter of pride for the nation that not a single case of polio has been detected in the three years. This is one of India’s monumental and biggest milestone achieved, through a massive and sustained immunisation programme,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Doctors have removed a mass of impacted hair weighing half a kg from the stomach of a 12-year-old girl in China’s Henan province.

Doctors at the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology in Luoyang, Henan province, surgically removed the hairball from the stomach of the girl Jan 11, the Global Times reported Monday.

The mother of the girl in Luoyang was shocked when doctors revealed the reason why her daughter had been inexplicably losing her long hair and weight over the past year.

As India completes three years without reporting any fresh case of polio, Germany, which has contributed 243 million euros to the Indian Polio Eradication Programme, Monday termed it a “landmark achievement”.

German Ambassador Michael Steiner here said: “I congratulate India on successfully eradicating polio. This is a landmark achievement. We are happy to have contributed to India’s Polio Eradication Programme.”

“Germany remains committed to the global initiative to eliminate polio from the few remaining pockets around the world,” he added.

A new study has revealed that variations in non-coding sections of the genome might be important contributors to type 2 diabetes risk.

DNA sequences that don’t encode proteins were once dismissed as “junk DNA”, but scientists are increasingly discovering that some regions are important for controlling which genes are switched on.

The new study is one of the first to show how such regions, called regulatory elements, can influence people’s risk of disease.

A team of researchers has discovered a genetic signature that implicates a key mechanism in the immune system as a driving force for a type of childhood leukaemia.

A key factor driving the leukaemia for one in four ALL patients is a mutation that causes two of their genes, ETV6 and RUNX1, to fuse together. This genomic alteration happens before birth and kick starts the disease.

However, on its own the fusion gene cannot cause cancer; it requires additional mutations before the leukaemia can fully evolve and prompt symptoms.

A new study has revealed that certain cells contribute to kidney function decline, making them attractive targets for treatments against kidney failure.

The blood-filtering cells in the kidneys- called podocytes- are critical to kidney function, and kidney failure can occur when as little as about 20 percent to 30 percent of them are lost.

A new study has revealed that preschool-aged children achieve 90 percent of their recommended daily physical activity across their waking hours, typically within a period of 11.3 hours.

Children in the study, ages 3-5, achieved this activity through relatively short bursts of energy expenditure as opposed to the longer and more routine periods of exercise typically exhibited by adults.

A new study by Indian origin researcher has revealed that meditating for 30 minutes daily may help improve symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Lead author of the study Madhav Goyal from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said in their research meditation appeared to provide as much relief from some anxiety and depression symptoms as what other studies have found from antidepressants.

Here comes a refreshing news for those who want to keep their skin stay younger for longer.

Researchers at Newcastle University have identified an antioxidant Tiron that offers total protection against some types of sun damage and may ultimately help our skin stay looking younger for longer.

A new study has found that text messages sent to expecting mothers belonging to low-income obstetric populace, to remind them of influenza vaccine actually boost vaccination coverage, especially for those who received the messages early in their 3rd trimester.

The researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health followed 1187 obstetric patients from five community-based clinics in NYC that are part of an ambulatory care network which routinely provides influenza vaccinations to pregnant women.

A new study has revealed that cancer patients who are struggling with sleep troubles, due in part to pain or side effects of treatment, can count on two behavioural interventions for relief- cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

The research by Penn Medicine researchers found that while CBT-I is the gold standard of care, MBSR is an additional treatment approach that can also help improve sleep for cancer patients.

A new research has suggested that it’s possible a simple blood test could be developed to determine whether gene mutations associated with pancreatic cancer exist without the need of locating and testing tumour tissue.

This appears possible following the discovery that tiny particles the size of viruses called ‘exosomes,’ which are shed by cancer cells into the blood, contain the entire genetic blueprint of cancer cells.

Researchers have developed a prototype of artificial bone marrow that may be used to reproduce hematopoietic stem cells.

The porous structure developed by the scientists of KIT, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, and Tubingen University, possesses essential properties of natural bone marrow and can be used for the reproduction of stem cells at the laboratory.

This might facilitate the treatment of leukemia in a few years.

Former US President Bill Clinton and NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant are set to participate in an event on Jan. 13, that focuses on children’s health and sports.

The event is part of the three-day Clinton Health Matters Initiative conference, the Politico reported.

It is a collaboration between the Clinton Foundation, ESPN, and the Aspen Institute.

Bryant will discuss the increasing prevalence of early enrollment in competitive organized sports and will discuss the balance between organized sports and recreational play.

Sending SMS alerts can help boost the rate of vaccination among low-income groups in developing countries like India.

A new research has shown that sending text messages to a particular population of pregnant women resulted in a surge in influenza vaccination.

“Vaccination during pregnancy helps protect newborns. We strongly recommend that women receive influenza vaccination during pregnancy and SMSing them during pregnancy brought favourable results,” said Melissa Stockwell, assistant professor at the Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia University, New York.

A new study suggests that disease outbreaks tied to swimming happen even in the winter, and that occurs often after people go in hot tubs or spas.

Between 2009 and 2010, there were 81 outbreaks and 1,326 cases of illness in the United States linked to recreational water exposure (in pools, lakes, hot tubs, etc.), according to information reported from 28 states and Puerto Rico.

Several Americans have extended support for the legalization of marijuana, a recent morality poll has revealed.

According to the CNN poll, public opinions on homosexuality and marijuana have drastically changed.

The survey has also revealed that behaviors like drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, cheating on taxes, and adultery have shifted since a similar poll was conducted by Time Magazine in 1987. (ANI)

An increasing number of elderly men are opting for testosterone therapy – often without prescription – purportedly to enhance their sex drive.

According to an alarming study, testosterone use has sharply increased among older men in the US and Britain in past decade.

Many such patients appear to have normal testosterone levels and do not meet the clinical guidelines for treatment.

A new procedure for limb transplant has opened a fresh window for patients suffering from facial injuries or hand/arm amputation.

The key lies in inducing immune tolerance – essentially tricking a recipient’s immune system into accepting donor tissue – could be an ideal solution to free patients from lifelong immuno-suppression, said researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US.

Patients who undergo limb transplants need suppression of the immune response – via drugs or radiation – in order to prevent the rejection of grafts or transplants.

Chinese researchers have claimed to have made a significant breakthrough in the study of HIV virus, offering hope of developing new medications to treat or even cure the disease.

The researchers said they have made the breakthrough in the structural analysis of the viral infectivity factor (Vif) of the HIV virus, which will help in the development of new medications to treat or even cure the disease, Xinhua news agency reported.