Health

A new study has suggested that a recently discovered HIV strain leads to significantly faster development of AIDS than currently prevalent forms.

The period from infection to development of AIDS was the shortest reported among HIV-1 types, at around five years.

There are over 60 different epidemic strains of HIV-1 in the world, and geographic regions are often dominated by one or two of these. If a person becomes infected with two different strains, they can fuse and a recombined form can occur.

Scientists are developing a computer chip that could be implanted in an obese patient’s arm to help them lose weight.

The chip could prove to be a possible alternative to surgical interventions such as liposuction or gastric bands.

Researchers have already developed an early warning system and treatment: an implantable genetic circuit mainly composed of human gene components.

Scientists have discovered a gene mutation responsible for excessive alcohol drinking, a finding that could lead to potential new treatments for alcoholism.

Mice with a mutation to the gene Gabrb1 overwhelmingly preferred drinking alcohol over water, UK researchers have found.

The study showed that normal mice show no interest in alcohol and drink little or no alcohol when offered a free choice between a bottle of water and a bottle of diluted alcohol.

A French contraceptive firm, HRS Pharma, has claimed that its morning-after pill doesn’t work for women weighing 80kg and above.

The company made the revelation after findings of a study of levonorgestrel, a key ingredient in its Norlevo emergency contraceptive, were published, the Guardian reported.

However, Anna Glasier, a lead author of the study, said that the research wasn’t particularly aimed at studying the effect of weight on emergency contraception and merely included about 1,700 women.

Women suffering from diabetes and wishing to start a family should monitor their blood glucose levels and take a daily high dose of folic acid before pregnancy to avoid risk to their baby’s health, a new study said Wednesday.

The risk of stillbirth – when the foetus dies in the uterus or death during the first year of birth – was over four times greater in women with diabetes than in those without the disease.

The team from Newcastle studied the outcome of over 400,000 pregnancies delivered in north of England between 1996 and 2008.

Researchers have developed an implantable genetic circuit, mainly composed of human gene components, which can constantly monitors the circulating fat levels in the blood.

The device developed by a team headed by ETH-Zurich professor Martin Fussenegger from the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering in Basel also has a feed-back function and forms a messenger substance in response to excessively high blood-fat levels that conveys a sense of satiety to the body.

A new study has found that exercising just once a week makes a person between three and seven times more likely to be considered a “healthy ager”. For research purposes, scientists questioned 3,500 people, with an average age of 64, every two years about the regularity and intensity of their physical activity and also performed a host of cognitive tests. The findings of the eight-year research showed that regular exercise boosts mental health and prevents serious disease and disability, the Daily Express reported.

Older men who spend several hours walking each day are less likely to have a stroke than their peers who rarely walk, a new study suggests. And walking pace didn’t seem to matter.

Researchers said few studies have looked specifically at how both walking speed and walking time or distance are linked to stroke risk.

“Stroke is a major cause of death and disability and it is important to find ways to prevent it, especially in older people who are at high stroke risk,” Barbara J. Jefferis told a news agency in an email. She led the research at University College London in the UK.

Researchers have suggested that disabling a gene that helps keep track of time makes brain cells more likely to die spontaneously, and they believe that this connection may help strong connections between sleep problems and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania have shown that brain cell damage similar to that seen in Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders results when a gene that controls the sleep-wake cycle and other bodily rhythms is disabled.

Researchers have found that oxytocin hormone, which is secreted in the brain and is sometimes referred to as the ‘ bonding hormone ‘, helps in creating and maintaining monogamy in relationships.

Scientists at the Bonn University Medical Center explained that a biological mechanism was behind the attraction between loving couples: If oxytocin is administered to men and if they are shown pictures of their partner, the hormone stimulates the reward center in the brain, increasing the attractiveness of the partner, and strengthening monogamy.

With six more children succumbing to Encephalitis in past two days, the death toll due to the disease this year has risen to 590 in the eastern region, health officials said today.

All the deaths occurred at Baba Raghav Das Medical College Hospital here, they said.

Two children each from Gorakhpur and Deoria, and one each from Kushinagar and Bihar succumbed to the disease, they said.

Health office sources said 25 patients showing symptoms of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) were admitted to BRD-MCH and district hospitals of the region during the period.

Researchers suggest that the US would have several million fewer smokers if graphic warning labels similar to those introduced in Canada nearly a decade ago were imposed on cigarette packs.

The Canadian labels led to a 2.9 to 4.7 percentage point drop in smoking rates – which would mean 5.3 to 8.6 million fewer smokers in the U.S. if the same result were obtained, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Waterloo.

A new research has revealed that a higher body mass index (BMI) and larger waist circumference are each associated with higher risk of hearing loss, while a higher level of physical activity is linked to lower risk of hearing loss in women.

A new study has revealed that garlic is good for your baby, as two compounds derived from garlic may help kill contaminants in baby formula.

The study from the University of British Columbia has found that the compounds, diallyl sulfide and ajoene, can significantly reduce the contamination risk of Cronobacter sakazakii in the production of dry infant formula powder.

Rice bran oil, which is very good for health, can protect the consumer from the dangers of coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, it has been revealed.

Rice bran oil is the oil extracted from the oily layer in between the paddy husk and the white rice (polished rice). It is nutritionally superior edible oil providing immense benefits for the heart and general health which is one reason why the Japanese call it the ‘heart oil’, Diabetic Living India magazine reported.

Scientists have developed compounds that can bolster the ability of antibiotics to treat deadly bacterial diseases such as MRSA and anthrax.

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and Northwestern University built upon previous work in which they created compounds that inhibit an enzyme called neuronal nitric oxide synthase.

These have demonstrated the potential to treat neurodegenerative diseases by blocking overproduction of
cell-killing nitric oxide within neurons.

Now, the researchers are learning that the compounds may have another important function.

Researchers have said that we can train honey bees to detect certain early-stage cancers in humans.

New research from Inscentinel, a UK-based firm specializing in insect research, suggested that honey bees could be trained to do such type of work.

Using their breakthrough, Portuguese designer Susana Soares invented a glass device with two enclosures: a small chamber in which the patient breathes into and a larger chamber where trained bees are kept.

: Researchers have identified an immune cell protein that is critical to setting off the body’s initial response against viral infection.

The report describes that a protein called GEF-H1 is essential to the ability of macrophages – major contributors to the innate immune system – to respond to viral infections like influenza.

Punjab government has chalked out a strategy to organise 1,500 free cancer check-up camps for the people with a view to detect the disease at an early stage so that subsequent treatment could be initiated on time.

These camps will be organised in collaboration with the ‘Roko Cancer Trust’ of London, an organisation which is
working in this field, Health and Family Welfare Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Navjot Kaur Sidhu said here today.

At least 2,500 persons would be examined in each camp.

In a breakthrough, a new drug that can ease the crippling symptoms of arthritis has been developed.

Patients who used the drug Sarilumab in trials were able to move more freely and suffered less damage to their joints.

Manufacturers have announced promising late-stage data for an experimental rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug.

They said that when combined with methotrexate (MTX), sarilumab improved disease signs and symptoms, as well as physical function, and inhibited progression of joint damage.

Researchers have developed a new jab, which when injected once every two weeks into the body, can ease the crippling symptoms of arthritis.

During the year-long trial on 1,200 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, researchers found that it successfully helped improve their condition by up to 20 percent, the Daily Express reported.

According to Tanya Momtahen, irreversible joint damage can be a consequence for patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and this is accompanied by reduced physical function.

Deepak Chopra’s ‘Weightless Project’ is aiming to fight both obesity and starvation by rewarding people for losing weight by raising money for people desperately needing to gain it.

Chopra said that despite efforts at watching weight, people are still losing the weight over obesity, Huffington Post reported.

He said that while the world around us is grappling with losing weight, there is a more serious problem that we seem to have forgotten.

Chopra added that the problem is hunger and malnutrition, which kill millions of people every year. (ANI)

A team of scientists, looking into the interplay of the immune system and cancer, have found a link between history of airborne allergies, in particular to plants, grass and trees, with risk of blood cancers in women.

However, the study did not find the same association in men, which suggested a possible gender-specific role in chronic stimulation of the immune system that may lead to the development of hematologic cancers.

Expectant mothers often take Tylenol, with the active ingredient acetaminophen, to deal with back pain, headaches or mild fevers during pregnancy. But frequent use may be linked to poorer language skills and behavior problems among their children, according to a new study.

As the most popular over-the-counter drug in the U.S., Tylenol has been extensively studied in relation to premature birth and miscarriage, with no connections found.

An eighth Princeton University student has been diagnosed with meningitis, a potentially fatal infection that causes swelling of the brain and spinal cord, a university spokesman said on Friday.

Health officials will conduct tests to determine whether the latest case is related to the previous seven that have been identified since March. Officials at the New Jersey school could not provide the current health status of the student.