Health

Despite some ethical concerns, most patients are now broadly endorsing stem cell research.

In the case of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are stem cells made from skin or other tissues, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University found patients were largely in favour of participating in iPSC research even if personal benefit was unlikely.

The patients, however, raised concerns about consent, privacy and transparency.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Monday announced a slew of new projects and expansion plans of existing institutes to augment West Bengal’s capacity to fight cancer-related diseases.

Azad, along with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, inaugurated the Rs.22 crore dual-energy linear accelerator at the centrally-funded Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) for advanced therapy.

A team of researchers has discovered a treatment for pancreatic cancer, claiming that it can wipe out the disease in less than six days.

The Cambridge university team will be testing the new drug, which targets pancreatic cancer but could be effective at treating other kinds of tumors as well, later this year, Metro.co.uk reported.

According to lead author Dr Douglas Fearon , by enabling the body to use its own defenses to attack cancer, this approach has the potential to greatly improve treatment of solid tumors.

A new study has revealed that eating a diet rich in fiber can protect against allergic asthma by triggering changes in the immune system.

Benjamin Marsland from the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland and colleagues found that levels of dietary fiber, found in fruit and vegetables, can influence the balance of microbes in the gut in ways that make the airways more or less prone to the inflammation seen in allergic airway diseases, New Scientist reported.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued four “golden rules”, which state regular exercising while cutting on drinking, smoking and eating should make people fitter and slimmer permanently.

Professor Mike Kelly, director of the centre of public health at NICE , said how each person lives day-to-day has long-term implications for them, as well as the rest of society, the Daily Express reported.

He asserted that though the causes of disease are not straightforward, they are often avoidable. (ANI)

A new study has suggested that younger adults who’ve had shingles may face higher stroke risk years later.

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash. It is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After people recover from chickenpox, the virus stays dormant in the nerve roots. In some people, the virus reactivates years later as shingles.

People age 18 to 40 who had shingles were more likely to have a stroke, heart attack or transient ischemic attack, also called a TIA or warning for a stroke, years later than people who had not had shingles.

New research on enzymes that regulate human biology has uncovered characteristics that could identify predisposition to conditions such as heart disease and some types of cancer, scientists say.

Researcher Brad Pierce from The University of Texas at Arlington, led a team that examined an oxygen utilising iron enzyme called cysteine dioxygenase or CDO, which is found in high levels within heart, liver, and brain tissues.

A researcher has found that training your brain for a particular task does improves its performance, but that advantage doesn’t necessarily carry over to a new challenge.

The training provided in the study, by Elliot T. Berkman from University of Oregon, caused a proactive shift in inhibitory control. However, it is not clear if the improvement attained extends to other kinds of executive function such as working memory, because the team’s sole focus was on inhibitory control.

In what can be called a major relief for scientists working on cancer research, a new study has reassured the potential of a protein that can be targetted to stop tumour growth.

Scientists from the University of East Anglia in Britain have found that researchers should not give up on the beta3-integrin protein, which has been a major target in cancer drug design for the last two decades.

Researchers have cast doubt on vitamin D’s ability to offer us protection against diseases like cancer, diabetes and dementia.

According to French researchers, low vitamin D levels don’t cause ill health.

Recent evidence has come to light that shows that it may play a part in preventing non-bone-related diseases like Parkinson’s, dementia, cancers and inflammatory diseases.

Researchers have suggested that reading a novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that could remain for at least five days after reading.

Lead author and the director of Emory’s Center for Neuropolicy, Gregory Berns ‘ study focused on the lingering neural effects of reading a narrative. Twenty-one Emory undergraduates participated in the experiment, which was conducted over 19 consecutive days.

All of the study subjects read the same novel, “Pompeii,” a 2003 thriller by Robert Harris that is based on the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ancient Italy.

Having shingles – a viral infection that causes a painful rash – may increase the risk of stroke years later, a new research has warned.

Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. After people recover from chickenpox, the virus stays dormant in the nerve roots. In some people, the virus reactivates years later as shingles.

People age 18 to 40 who had shingles were more likely to have a stroke, heart attack or transient ischemic attack, also called a TIA or warning for a stroke, years later than people who had not had shingles, UK researchers found.

A startup company has developed a high-tech contact lens which floats virtual screens filled with information in front of the wearer’s eyes.

Innovega’s iOptik system’s two-part system depends on special contact lenses working as a filter to let human eye focus simultaneously on things near and far, using rings that route light to retina in different ways, Fox News reported.

Part two is a pair of special glasses that are fitted with tiny projectors transmitting data forward onto the eyeglass lenses.

Researchers have suggested that reading a novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that could remain for at least five days after reading.

Lead author and the director of Emory’s Center for Neuropolicy, Gregory Berns ‘ study focused on the lingering neural effects of reading a narrative. Twenty-one Emory undergraduates participated in the experiment, which was conducted over 19 consecutive days.

All of the study subjects read the same novel, ” Pompeii,” a 2003 thriller by Robert Harris that is based on the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ancient Italy.

A new pill made from natural painkillers may help relieve arthritis pain. Scientists from the University of California have found a plant, which belongs to the poppy family, could be the key as it contains a powerful pain-relieving compound in its roots which could make it a side-effect-free remedy, the Daily Express reported.

Researchers identified the compound dehydrocorybulbine in corydalis, which was effective against the three types of pain, which are, acute, inflammatory and neuropathic or chronic.

It seems that researchers will one day be able to develop a pill to ward off harmful effects of cannabis after two teams of scientists discovered that pregnenolone, a molecule produced by the brain, acts as a natural defence mechanism against the harmful effects of cannabis in animals.

Pregnenolone prevents THC, the main active principle in cannabis, from fully activating its brain receptor, the CB1 receptor, that when overstimulated by THC causes the intoxicating effects of cannabis.

A new study has revealed that talking therapies offer “little benefit” to people with schizophrenia.

A team of scientists at University of Hertfordshire analysed over 50 studies on the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) from around the world and found that it only had a “small therapeutic effect” on schizophrenic symptoms, the BBC reported.

The study led by Keith Laws, professor of cognitive neuropsychology at the University of Hertfordshire, found that CBT did have a small benefit in treating delusions and hallucinations – which are characteristic symptoms of the disease.

Suffering from chronic pain? Well, a plant used in Chinese medicine may be of help. A plant used for centuries as a pain reliever in Chinese medicine may also help relieve chronic pain, said a study.

“We have found a key pain-relieving compound known as dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB) in the roots of the flowering plant Corydalis, a member of the poppy family,” said Olivier Civelli of the University of California.

Maintaining a consistent daily routine may be linked to better sleep, according to a small new study.

Young adults who went to work and ate dinner around the same time every day typically slept better and woke up fewer times during the night. They also fell asleep more quickly at bedtime.

Yet the exact time people performed daily activities – say, eating dinner at 6 p.m. versus 8 p.m. – had little bearing on how well they slept.

Scientists seeking a cure for AIDS say they have been inspired, not crushed, by a major setback in which two HIV positive patients believed to have been cured found the virus re-invading their bodies once more.

True, the news hit hard last month that the so-called “Boston patients” – two men who received bone marrow transplants that appeared to rid them completely of the AIDS-causing virus – had relapsed and gone back onto antiretroviral treatment.

But experts say the disappointment could lay the basis for important leaps forward in the search for a cure.

Many brain surgeons in developing countries look to their smartphones for guidance, and luckily for them, phones have started fulfilling this role in part, thanks to the thousands of 3D brain images, produced by Dr. Albert Rhoton at the University of Florida, that are freely available online.

“I’ve had young surgeons from Africa, Brazil and other countries tell me they’re pulling the images into the operating room, Live Science quoted Rhoton, head of the Neuro-Microanatomy Lab at the University of Florida’s McKnight Brain Institute, as saying.

In the New Year, resolve to take up a fresh fitness regime with a daily walk as an important part of it.

Walking is enjoyable, helps in burning fat and it is pocket-friendly too, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Simon Barnett of Ramblers, Britain’s walking charity that promotes walking for health and pleasure, said: “Most of us will have over indulged during the festive period and many of us will make resolutions to get more active in the New Year, but our good intentions often fall by the wayside.”

A team of scientists has created a degradable implant which according to them has a lot of potential to improve surgical success rates.

According to researchers in Oxford, the protective patch, which wraps round soft tissue repairs, will be help patients with shoulder injuries, but sometime later can also benifit patients with other conditions including arthritis, hernias and heart defects, the BBC reported.

The researchers led by Professor Andrew Carr have developed the implant using a mix of modern and ancient technology.

A new research has suggested that hat smoking disrupts the circadian clock function in both the lungs and the brain, thereby ruining productive sleep, leading to cognitive dysfunction, mood disorders, depression and anxiety.

“This study has found a common pathway whereby cigarette smoke impacts both pulmonary and neurophysiological function. Further, the results suggest the possible therapeutic value of targeting this pathway with compounds that could improve both lung and brain functions in smokers,” Irfan Rahman, from the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y, said.