An implantable pacemaker as tiny as a pinhead is set to revolutionise medicine with its big advantage. It is powered by radio waves from outside the body and does not need batteries.
The breakthrough by Stanford University engineers could lead to a host of new medical sensors that could function without batteries. The implanted device is housed in a cube less than a millimetre in radius.
Fat, not sugar, contributes to the more common Type-2 diabetes, said a leading scientist of the Visva Bharati University here Tuesday
“Diabetes exists in two forms, Type-1 and Type-2. Ninety-six to ninety-seven percent of patients exhibit the latter type,” explained Samir Bhattacharya, while speaking at the Frontiers of Science conference organised by the Centre for Natural Sciences and Philosophy and the Critical Issues Forum, Kolkata.
Overweight children are more likely to struggle with academics because being obese can affect their brain power, a new study has found.
Researchers from the New York University found that children showing physical changes due to being obese, such as raised blood pressure, higher levels of bad cholesterol and resistance to the blood sugar controlling hormone, insulin, had poorer scores on thinking tests.
The discovery of a crucial step in the body`s process for healing wounds could open a new way of treating inflammation, which is the immune system`s response to an illness or infection.
An international team led by Monash University`s Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) discovered the mechanism, which shuts down the signal triggering the body`s initial inflammatory response to injury.
Electronic cigarettes, touted as a safer substitute for cigarettes, could turn out to be a remedy worse than the disease and end up damaging the lungs, says a new study.
Electronic or e-cigarettes are devices that deliver nicotine through a vapour, rather than smoke. No combustion is involved but the nicotine is still derived from tobacco. However, there has been little scientific evidence to support claims either on its safety or efficiency.
At least three persons have been killed and 600 people affected in West Bengal due to dengue, state Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said on Sunday.
“We have got reports that three dengue patients have died while another 600 are affected in the state,” Bhattacharya told reporters here.
Unofficial reports have however, claimed that more than 20 people have died.
The minister said the state government has alerted all hospitals and municipalities on the disease outbreak.
Scottish researchers have developed a new technique which they claim could pave the way for hip replacements that last a lifetime.
Researchers from Glasgow`s Southern General Hospital are developing prototypes of a new system that aims at combating problems of the body forming soft tissues around hip replacements.
The new technique coats key surfaces with a “nanopattern” pitted plastic to encourage stem cells to form bone in contact with the new joint, the BBC News reported.
Usually, a hip replacement needs to be changed every 15 years.
Pregnant women who are exposed to common environmental chemicals, especially polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs), have smaller babies at birth but larger at 20 months, according to an Emory University study.
PFCs, used in the production of fluoropolymers, are found widely in protective coatings of packaging products, clothes, furniture and non-stick cookware. They are persistent compounds found abundantly in the environment.
PFCs have been detected in human sera, breast milk and cord blood.
Going out for dinner with greedy friends who choose unhealthy dishes from a menu can cause you to put on weight, a new study has claimed.
Diners who choose unhealthy dishes from a menu can influence the food choices of those they are eating with, according the study by psychologists.
They found that people unconsciously mirrored the eating habits of the people they were with even if they were trying to diet, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Cerebral Palsy, a condition that causes physical disability in human development, has disabled more than 25 lakh children in India and is rapidly spreading in rural parts of the country, doctors said here.
Addressing a seminar here at BR Ambedkar Hospital, doctors called for timely medical action and better awareness
on the issue.
“More than 90 per cent of cerebral palsy patients with physical disability can lead a normal life with early
diagnosis and proper medical treatment,” Veena Kalra, S pecialist Paediatric, Neurology and Ex Professor & Head Pediatrics, AIIMS said.
Couples who have sex before marriage are less likely to have long and happy relationships, a study has found.
Researchers from New York’s Cornell University say it is better to abstain early on in a courtship or build up a gradual sexual relationship, according to the Daily Mail.
The study looked at the effects of sex before marriage, and found that early sexual satisfaction stunts the development of key ingredients of a healthy relationship, including caring and understanding.
With the death of an 11-year-old boy in Kolkata, the dengue epidemic has claimed its third victim in the state, the health department said Saturday. The number of confirmed cases has gone up to 638.
“An 11-year-old boy has died of dengue in B.C. Roy Child hospital Saturday. The total toll of dengue deaths in the state is three. The number of confirmed dengue cases in West Bengal has gone up to 638,” said a health department statement.
Nine-year old Sreeja Das was the first dengue victim in the state.
The epidemic first struck in the second week of August.
Odisha government today did not rule out possibility of two persons being infected with the HIV after taking blood from state run blood banks.
“The state government is aware of the allegation of two persons being infected with HIV after taking blood from blood banks. One cannot rule out the possibility of infection due to use of contaminated needle at private hospital also,” Health Minister Damodar Rout said in the assembly.
Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day almost triples the chances of suffering a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage, a new study has warned.
The study found that quitting reduces the danger but heavy smokers who give up tobacco are still twice as much at risk as people who have never smoked.
Korean researchers investigated 426 cases of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) between 2002 and 2004, the `Daily Mail` reported.
Patients were compared with a group of 426 people and matched for age and sex who had never experienced a brain bleed.
Baby rats which get normal levels of dietary fat right after birth, even though their mothers were fed high-fat diets, avoid obesity and related disorders as adults, according to new research.
Conversely, rat babies exposed to a normal-fat diet in the womb but nursed by rat mothers on high-fat diets become obese by the time they are weaned.
Smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day almost triples the chances of suffering a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage, a new study has warned.
The study found that quitting reduces the danger but heavy smokers who give up tobacco are still twice as much at risk as people who have never smoked.
Korean researchers investigated 426 cases of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) between 2002 and 2004, the `Daily Mail` reported.
Patients were compared with a group of 426 people and matched for age and sex who had never experienced a brain bleed.
Use the speaker option on your mobile handsets or if you have a choice dial the number on landline phone, says the precautionary guidelines for mobile users by the government.
The list advises mobile users to keep a distance between the body and the phone by either using the speakerphone option or headsets.
It also suggest limiting the length of calls and using text instead of voice.
“Use text as compared to voice wherever possible…Or if you have a choice, use a landline, not a mobile phone,” the guidelines say.
Stringent new radiation norms for mobile phone towers and mobile handsets will come into effect Sep 1 across the country, the government announced Friday, keeping in view their possible adverse impact on human health.
“We have to be careful as a nation. Technology must be embraced but ultimately public health should not be compromised,” Communications Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here, unveiling the norms.
Baby rats which get normal levels of dietary fat right after birth, even though their mothers were fed high-fat diets, avoid obesity and related disorders as adults, according to new research.
Conversely, rat babies exposed to a normal-fat diet in the womb but nursed by rat mothers on high-fat diets become obese by the time they are weaned.
London, August 31: After all the hype over a low calorie diet being the tried and tested way to shed unwanted pounds or adding years to your life, comes the disappointing news — it doesn’t add to your longevity.
“If there’s a way to manipulate the human diet to let us live longer, we haven’t figured it out yet and it may not exist,” said biologist Steven Austad from the University of Texas Health Science Centre, who conducted the analysis.
Hookah can cause as much harm to lung function and respiratory system as cigarette smoking, a new study has claimed.
Hookah is thought to be “less dangerous” than cigarettes because it forces the smoke to go through water before it reaches the lungs.
Most physicians believe it filters out the harmful toxins.
But researchers from Iran, headed by Dr Mohammad Hossein Boskabady found that water pipe smoking and deep inhalation cigarette smoking had the same effects on respiratory system, `The Jerusalem Post` reported.
India is committed to curbing leprosy cases in the coming years and eliminating the stigma associated with the disease, World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Goodwill ambassador for leprosy Yohei Sasakawa said here Friday.
Sasakawa, on a seven-day visit to India, met senior officials from the ministry of health and family welfare to discuss the country’s projects on leprosy.
Flu virus can be transmitted even before the appearance of their symptoms as experiments with ferrets (European polecat) have shown, according to a study.
If applied to human, it suggests that people pass on flu to others before they know they are infected, making it very difficult to contain epidemics.
Knowing if people are infectious before they have symptoms is important to help authorities plan for an epidemic, but it has been difficult to establish this from data collected during outbreaks, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reports.
Three persons, including a woman, have tested positive for H1N1 influenza virus and admitted in two private hospitals in the city, an official said.
While two youths admitted in a hospital here are from Ratlam and Ujjain, a 48-year-old woman is from Dhar district, Chief Medical officer Ashok Dangariya told PTI.
While the two youths were undergoing treatment in CHL Apollo Hospital, the woman had been admitted in Suyash Hospital, he added.
–PTi
Obesity-inducing junk food could also give you dementia through high blood pressure and cholesterol, which interrupt blood supply to the brain, says a study.
Some animal studies have specifically implicated insulin, a hormone, suggesting that Alzheimer’s could be ‘diabetes of the brain’. But the latest theory also points to high levels of fatty and sugary food damaging the brain by interrupting its supply of insulin.
In type 2 diabetes, junk food prompts our cells in becoming resistant to the insulin they need to convert sugar into energy.