Health

In a breakthrough, scientists have found that nanoparticles carrying a toxin found in bee venom can destroy HIV while leaving surrounding cells unharmed.

The finding is an important step towards developing a vaginal gel that may prevent the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis said.

“Our hope is that in places where HIV is running rampant, people could use this gel as a preventive measure to stop the initial infection,” said researcher Joshua L Hood.

Brain can suppress pain when under extreme stress by producing marijuana-like chemicals, scientists have found.

Researchers from National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) led by Dr David Finn found suppression of pain during times of fear involves complex interplay between marijuana-like chemicals and other neurotransmitters in a brain region called the amygdala.

The study builds on previous breakthrough findings from Finn`s research group on the role of marijuana-like chemicals in the brain`s hippocampus in pain suppression during fear.

Regularly tucking into sausages, bacon, ready meals and pies dramatically increases the chances of developing heart disease and cancer, a new study has warned.

People who live on processed meat increase their risk of dying by 44 percent.

Experts said that three percent of early deaths could be prevented each year if people ate under 20 grams of processed meat a day – less than a single rasher of bacon.

A new study has found that short bouts of exercise help improve higher brain functions, such as memory, concentration, planning, and decision-making.

The result suggests that exercise might be a useful treatment for conditions characterised by impaired higher brain functions, such as attention hyperactivity deficit disorder (ADHD) and autism, and may help delay the ravages of dementia, according to researchers.

Researchers from Melbourne have made a major breakthrough in diagnosing Alzheimer`s 15 years before symptoms strike, offering hope of avoiding dementia.

The discovery gives drug companies a target to aim for as they search for a cure to Alzheimer`s.

A team from the Austin Hospital has tracked the build up of a waste protein called amyloid, discovering levels that can be detected accumulating in the brains of those who will go on to suffer dementia 15 years before they suffer extensive memory loss, the Herald Sun reported.

Researchers from Melbourne have made a major breakthrough in diagnosing Alzheimer’s 15 years before symptoms strike, offering hope of avoiding dementia.

The discovery gives drug companies a target to aim for as they search for a cure to Alzheimer’s.

A team from the Austin Hospital has tracked the build up of a waste protein called amyloid, discovering levels that can be detected accumulating in the brains of those who will go on to suffer dementia 15 years before they suffer extensive memory loss, the Herald Sun reported.

Experts in the national capital warned Wednesday that the leading issue being faced by women was health.

“Every second woman in India suffers from some degree of anaemia, two percent are severely anaemic while 35 percent and 15 percent have mild and moderate anaemia levels. Lack of adequate resources prevents women from poor households from using health services,” Pallavi Vaishya, nutrition expert, said at a seminar here on women`s health.

One in eight men will develop prostate cancer at some point during their life, a new study suggests.

Government figures show that this is the most common cancer among men in England, with 34,900 new cases diagnosed in 2010, accounting for 26 percent of all new occurrences of cancer in males.

This equates to 106 new cases per 100,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

That is down slightly from 2009, when 110 new cases per 100,000 men were recorded, but it is still the second highest rate in more than 40 years.

Washington, March 6 (ANI): Scientists of Jena University and Jena University Hospital have shed light on why fish is a healthy diet.

Fish is easy to digest and with a high level of precious proteins, fish is considered an important part of a healthy diet.

Washington, March 6 (ANI): An extremely rare Y chromosome found in an African American pushes back the time of the most recent common ancestor for the Y chromosome lineage tree to 300,000 years ago.

The new divergent lineage, which was found in an individual who submitted his DNA to Family Tree DNA, a company specializing in DNA analysis to trace family roots, branched from the Y chromosome tree before the first appearance of anatomically modern humans in the fossil record.

A new study shows that eating fish has greater health benefits than fish oil dietary supplements.

Omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish may have diverse health-promoting effects, potentially protecting the immune, nervous, and cardiovascular systems.

But how the health effects of one such fatty acid — docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) — works remains unclear, in part because its molecular signalling pathways are only now being understood.

A quick and simple breath test can diagnose stomach cancer, a new study has revealed.

Scientists from Israel and China found the test was 90 percent accurate at detecting and distinguishing cancers from other stomach complaints in 130 patients.

According to the British Journal of Cancer, the test could revolutionise and speed up the way this cancer is diagnosed, the BBC reported.

About 7,000 UK people develop stomach cancer each year and most have an advanced stage of the disease.

Washington, March 5 (ANI): If a mother is exposed to stress during pregnancy, her placenta translates that experience to her fetus by altering levels of a protein that affects the developing brains of male and female offspring differently, according to a new study.

These findings suggest one way in which maternal-stress exposure may be linked to neurodevelopmental diseases such as autism and schizophrenia, which affect males more frequently or more severely than females.

The study was conducted by a research group from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Washington, March 5 (ANI): Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was associated with an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI, heart attack), a new study has found.

Due to the successful antiretroviral therapy (ART), people infected with HIV are living longer and are at risk for heart disease, researchers said.

Washington, Mar. 5 (ANI): World’s nations should make tobacco control part of their agendas if they want to develop. The nations must assure every sector of a nation including health, trade and finance officials work collectively to protect not only health but the harm tobacco places on their economy by passing laws to reduce use. They must place health as the centerpiece of any decision on a trade treaty that includes tobacco. Diligently work towards a goal of reducing the prevalence rate of smoking to less than five percent world-wide by 2048, basically ending its use.

A team from the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights visited Goalpara in the state to take stock of the situation of the children living in the relief camps.

The ASCPCR team also examined about the condition of the sheltered families stricken by the recent violence during
the panchayat elections in Goalpara district.

The team also interacted with inmates of the relief camps and inquired about the availability of baby food and
other entitlements, official sources said here today.

A new study has shed light on how a common anesthesia drug creates loss of consciousness in patients undergoing surgery.

Tracking the brain activity in human volunteers over a two-hour period as they lost and regained consciousness, researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have identified distinctive brain patterns associated with different stages of general anesthesia.

The findings could help doctors better monitor patients during surgery and prevent rare cases of patients waking up during operations.

Women who have recently given birth have a much higher rate of obsessive-compulsive symptoms than the general population, a new Northwestern Medicine study has found.

A new mother may constantly worry and check to see if her baby is still breathing. Or she may fret about germs, obsessing whether she`s properly sterilized the bottles, then wash and rewash them.

Adult sleepwalking is potentially serious and may induce violent behaviours and affect health-related quality of life, a new study has found.

“We found a higher frequency of daytime sleepiness, fatigue, insomnia, depressive and anxiety symptoms and altered quality of life in patients with sleepwalking compared to the control group,” said Yves Dauvilliers from Gui-de-Chauliac Hospital in Montpellier, France, the study`s principal investigator and lead author.

Women who watch what they eat still tend to consume as many calories as those who are not dieting, a study has claimed.

Researchers at Utrecht University in Holland found that frequent dieters not only robbed themselves of the pleasure of food but also failed to lose weight and felt negative emotions about their eating, the Daily Express reported.

In the study, a group of women – who thought that they were taking part in supermarket food-tasting – were left for 10 minutes with high-calorie chips and chocolate-covered peanuts and low-calorie crackers and apple slices.

For the first time, a new study has found that cannabinoids-psychoactive compounds of marijuana-can be detected in the blood of daily pot smokers during a month of sustained abstinence.

Researchers behind the study suggest that the finding can provide real help in the public safety need for a drugged driving policy that reduces the number of drugged driving accidents on the road.

Modern tattoo inks are causing increased complications like allergic reactions, serious infections and reactions that can mimic skin cancer, a dermatologist has claimed.

Tattoo ink`s composition has changed dramatically over the years. In the past, metal salts, lead, cobalt and carbon were used in inks but today, many modern tattoo inks (especially intense reds and yellows) contain organic azo dyes with plastic-based pigments, which also have industrial uses in printing, textiles and car paint.

Excessive amount of leaning your head forward and down, while looking at a phone or other mobile device may result in what some people call “text neck.”

“People get so focused on these devices that they end up holding their neck and upper back in abnormal positions for a long period of time; enough that other people coined the phrase ‘text neck,’ which is essentially referring to postural pain,” Chris Cornett, MD., orthopaedic surgeon and spine specialist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation, said.

Washington, Mar 2 (ANI): A shortage of a protein called TDP-43 causes muscle wasting and stunted nerve cells, a new study has suggested.

This finding supports the idea that malfunction of this protein plays a decisive role in ALS and FTD.

ALS is an incurable neurological disease which manifests as rapidly progressing muscle wasting.

Both limbs and respiratory muscles are affected. This leads to impaired mobility and breathing problems.

Washington, March 2 (ANI): Postmenopausal women who smoke are at a greater risk of losing their teeth as compared to their peers who have never taken up the habit.

The study involved 1,106 women who participated in the Buffalo OsteoPerio Study, an offshoot of the Women’s Health Initiative, (WHI), the largest clinical trial and observational study ever undertaken in the U.S., involving more than 162,000 women across the nation, including nearly 4,000 in Buffalo.