Health

When Gaurav asked for a mobile phone, with all his classmates showing off their smartphones, his mother was unwilling to spend too much on something she believed was only good for making calls. She bought him a smartphone from a lesser known brand, for just upwards of Rs.4,000. But, did she consider how safe it was?

One key aspect of mobile phone safety that most people are unaware of is its SAR or Specific Absorption Rate value. It is a measure of the amount of energy absorbed by the body when exposed to radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic waves such as those emitted by mobile phones.

Washington, May 29 (ANI): Men and women will lie about their sexual behavior to match cultural expectations about how they should act – even though they wouldn’t distort other gender-related behaviors, a new research has suggested.

The study found that men were willing to admit that they sometimes engaged in behaviors seen by college students as more appropriate for women, such as writing poetry.

The same was true for women, who didn’t hide the fact that they told obscene jokes, or sometimes participated in other “male-type” deeds.

Researchers have found that childhood bullying could increase the risk of self-harm among individuals during their adolescent years.

Self-harm behaviours may stem from a desire to relieve tension or communicate stress, and in the most extreme cases may represent a suicidal intent in the individual, according to researchers.

With the new bird flu that has emerged in China, drug resistance has been detected in patients infected.

The H7N9 virus became resistant to Tamiflu in three out of 14 patients treated with antiviral drugs at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre, the BBC reported.

The researchers, writing in the Lancet, said resistance emerged with “apparent ease” and was “concerning”.

There have been no new cases of the infection for more than two weeks.

Doctors analysed the virus in 14 patients. All had pneumonia and half needed ventilation to keep them alive.

London, May 28 (ANI): In a major study, a daily dose of cholesterol-lowering drug statins has been shown to more than halve the chances of getting arthritis.

British researchers believe the breakthrough could pave the way for low-cost pills that can ward off osteoarthritis, the Daily Express reported.

Mohammed Ahmed Rashid, of Cambridge University, hailed the findings of the 10-year study, but noted that clinical trials and cost analyses are needed to decide on the feasibility of using statins in osteoarthritis patients.

Washington, May 27 (ANI): High blood pressure can boost the risks of leading killers such as heart attack and stroke, as well as aneurysms, cognitive decline, and kidney failure.

While medication can lower blood pressure, it may cause side effects such as leg cramps, dizziness, and insomnia. Luckily, most people can bring down their blood pressure naturally without medication.

Here are top 10 natural alternatives to prescribed drugs, according to ABC News.

Washington, May 27 (ANI): Honokiol – a powerful polyphenol compound extracted from Magnolia officinalis bark – protects muscles from the normal inflammation caused by intense exercise, a new research has found.

This study broadens honokiol’s acknowledged benefits in supporting and maintaining overall health and wellness.

With cervical cancer projected to kill nearly half a million women by 2030, stakeholders from more than 70 countries came together Monday to seek an urgent call for action against the disease.

The landmark announcement, made at the global forum on cervical cancer prevention here, called for universal access to cervical cancer prevention, which would rewrite the future for millions of girls and women living in some of the poorest countries in the world.

The global forum was hosted by 30 international partners, including the health ministry of Malaysia.

Our everyday decisions about whether to “stay” or to “go” are supported by a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is part of the prefrontal cortex.

Neuroscientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have now identified key circuit elements that contribute to such decisions in the ACC.

CSHL Associate Professor Adam Kepecs and his team have linked specific brain cell types to a particular behavior pattern in mice – a “stay or go” pattern called foraging behavior.

A University of Florida entomologist wants to improve mosquito netting by coating it with insecticide toxic only to mosquitoes.

The insecticide would work by interfering with an enzyme found in the nervous systems of mosquitoes and many other organisms, called acetylcholinesterase.

Entomologist Jeff Bloomquist, a professor in UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute and its Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said that existing insecticides target the enzyme but affect a broad range of species.

Scientists have shown that a lifestyle that encourages a healthy heart could also shield patients with chronic kidney diseases from kidney failure and premature death, says a study.

The findings, appearing in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), suggest that patients with kidney diseases should be encouraged to improve their heart`s health, reports Science Daily.

Poor kidney health puts people at risk of developing heart problems. But it`s unclear whether the opposite is true. Does heart health also affect kidney health?

Children who develop Type 2 diabetes are at high risk to develop heart, kidney and eye problems faster and at a higher rate than people who acquire Type 2 diabetes as adults, a new study has found.

“Once these kids have Type 2 diabetes, they seem to be at very high risk for early complications when compared to adults,” Jane Lynch, M.D., professor of pediatric endocrinology in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, said.

Heart failure accelerates the aging process and brings on early andropausal syndrome (AS), a new study has found.

According to the research presented at the Heart Failure Congress 2013, AS, also referred to as male “menopause”, was four times more common in men with heart failure.

As men get older they are more likely to suffer from andropausal syndrome (AS), also called “menopause”, androgen deficiency in the aging male (ADAM), or late-onset hypogonadism.

A new study shows that potatoes are one of the best nutritional values in the produce aisle, providing one of the better nutritional values per penny than most other raw vegetables and delivering one of the most affordable source of potassium of the more frequently consumed vegetables, second only to beans.

A food supplement named Coenzyme Q10 can decrease death because of heart failure by half, according to the results of a trial.

According to lead author Professor Svend Aage Mortensen, it is the first drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade and should be added to standard treatment.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) occurs naturally in the body and is essential to survival. CoQ10 works as an electron carrier in the mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cells, to produce energy and is also a powerful antioxidant. It is the only antioxidant that humans synthesise in the body.

An anti-cancer drug has been found to reverse memory deficits in mice suffering from Alzheimer’s.

The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health research, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association, reviewed previously published findings on the drug bexarotene, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in cutaneous T cell lymphoma.

Australian scientists along with US and Scandinavian researchers are working on a study to determine the genetics behind an eating disorder called Anorexia.

The lead investigator on the US component of the study, Cynthia Bulik said that she believed finding a genetic basis for eating disorders will be a big step in increasing that number.

“Studies have shown fairly unequivocally that genes play a role in anorexia nervosa,” said Bulik, “Somewhere between 40 and 60 per cent of liability to the disorder is due to genetic factors” she added.

A new research from Western University has shed light on why some cancer cells don`t respond to chemotherapy, and identified a mechanism to rectify that.

Breast cancer characterized as “triple negative” carries a poor prognosis, with limited treatment options. In some cases, chemotherapy doesn`t kill the cancer cells the way it`s supposed to.

Frequent heartburn is positively associated with cancers of the throat and vocal cord among nonsmokers and nondrinkers, a new study has found.

According to the study, the use of antacids, but not prescription medications, had a protective effect.

“Previous studies examining gastric reflux and cancers of the head and neck have generated mixed results,” Scott M. Langevin, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow at Brown University in Providence, R.I, said.

Scientists have warned that treatment with high potency statins (especially atorvastatin and simvastatin) may increase the risk of developing diabetes.

But some statins can reduce the risk of diabetes.

Statins are among the most widely prescribed medications for the prevention of cardiovascular events. Although tolerated well, an association with new-onset diabetes has recently been suggested.

One trial suggested a 27 percent increased risk of diabetes with rosuvastatin whereas another suggested patients taking pravastatin benefitted from a 30 percent lower risk.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Thursday approved a proposal for the implementation of National AIDS Control Support Project (NACSP) under the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) at an outlay of Rs.2,550 crore, an official statement said.

The NACSP will contribute towards intensifying and consolidating prevention services with a focus on highly vulnerable populations, high risk groups and bridge population.

It will also focus on institutional strengthening and financial management.

Scientists have come up with a non-invasive and more effective way to detect oral cancer, says a study.

The imaging technique, which is detailed in the Journal of Biomedical Optics, has been developed by Kristen Maitland, assistant professor at the department of biomedical engineering of Texas A&M University.

The non-invasive system combines two separate technologies — confocal microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging — to evaluate both the structural changes of tissue as well as molecular changes that take place on a cellular and tissue level, reports Science Daily.

Extreme heat can affect medicines and these can become life threatening for those using them, doctors said Thursday.

“Quality of medicines can deteriorate during summers because of high temperatures. As most medicines are designed to be stored at normal room temperatures, no drug should be exposed to temperatures higher than 86 degrees fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius),” the Delhi Medical Association (DMA) said in a statement here.

A new study has confirmed that a woman harried by hot flashes really has a hard time remembering things.

In the past, some studies showed that hot flashes were related to memory problems, and some didn`t. Other studies showed that, even though there was a relationship between hot flashes and what women said about memory problems, objective tests didn`t confirm it.

That`s why researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago gave a battery of eight tests of attention and recall to 68 women age 44 to 62 who had at least 35 hot flashes a week.

A new study has found that maintaining a heart healthy lifestyle may also help protect chronic kidney disease patients from developing kidney failure and early death.

The findings suggest that patients with kidney disease should be encouraged to improve their heart health.

Paul Muntner, PhD (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and his colleagues used the American Heart Association’s recently published tool (Life’s Simple 7) that helps individuals assess their heart health.