Health

Scientists claim to have solved a 130-year-old mystery by revealing that the malaria parasite adopts a banana shape before sexual reproduction to sneak into spleen, a finding which may pave the way for vaccines against the disease which kills 600,000 people each year globally.

A team at the University of Melbourne says its finding about how the malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) changes into a banana shape before sexual reproduction may explain how the parasite evades the human immune system, thus providing a potential target for vaccine or drug development.

Women with low levels of Vitamin D during pregnancy are twice as likely to give birth to children who may face difficulties with speech.

The study, the largest of its kind, looked at Vitamin D concentrations during the pregnancies of more than 740 women, whose children were followed up regularly until 17 years.

Andrew Whitehouse, associate professor at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, who led the study, said the finding was significant, as Vitamin D levels among women have decreased steadily over the years, the journal Paediatrics reports.

Pfizer Inc research chief Mikael Dolsten said the company`s experimental treatment for Alzheimer`s disease is the drug industry`s “best chance” to delay progression of the memory-robbing illness.

Dolsten, speaking at the BIO CEO and investor conference in New York, stopped short of predicting whether the drug being developed with Johnson & Johnson would meet that goal.

The Kingdom will lend humanitarian support to kidney patients in the Kingdom irrespective of nationality or religion, general supervisor of Prince Fahd bin Salman Charity Association for Renal Failure Patients Care (“Kellana”) Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in Riyadh on Monday.

Prince Abdulaziz, who is also the assistant minister for petroleum affairs, was speaking at a press conference on Monday to announce the Fifth Saudi International Conference on Nephrology and Transplantation, scheduled to be held in Riyadh on Feb. 19.

Older women might wonder why they are unable to recall names or places or where they keep their things. Chronic exposure to particulate air pollution might be to blame, says a new finding.

Such women, exposed to higher levels of ambient particulate matter over long term, experienced more decline in their cognitive functioning (process by which one becomes aware of, perceives or comprehends ideas) over a four-year period.

Higher levels of long-term exposure to both coarse and fine particulate matter, usually suspended in air, were linked with significantly faster cognitive decline.

The `world`s fattest man`, a Briton, is so large that he is bed-ridden but still devours eight hotdogs for breakfast and needs 18 caretakers to keep him alive. Keith Martin, 42, tips the scales at over 368kg, and is so large that he is bed-ridden.

His needs are putting an extra drain on UK`s National Health Service resources and costing the taxpayer thousands of pounds as he requires an army of 18 medical professionals to look after him, including ambulance staff, carers and nurses.

Did you shelve love after marriage? Experts suggest that this Valentine’s Day, with some planning, time management and surprises, couples can rekindle romance and brush away boredom from married life.

TV actor Pawan Shankar, married to Yukti for more than eight years, feels that priorities change after having kids, but it’s the responsibility of the couples to keep the romance alive.

Shankar told IANS: “It often happens that after having kids a gap comes in between husband and wife because priorities change. To revive that love, efforts have to be made from both the sides.”

The government will promote Indian systems of medicine, including ayurveda, siddha and unani, and therapies like yoga and naturopathy through its National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

“The government will give impetus to yoga and naturopathy through the Indian system of medicine to prevent and cure various forms of ailments under the rural health mission, union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare S. Gandhiselvan said here late Thursday.

Many clinics suspect of not informing health authority about positive cases

A friendly voice over the phone informed this reporter that HIV testing was a very normal procedure in Dubai, with a simple blood test was all it took to determine your fate.

The questions were being posed to a staff member of one of the leading medical clinics in Dubai, which, among other lab work, specialises in STD testing.

Washington, February 04: Experts are encouraging sexually active adults aged 45 and over to indulge in safe sex after recent figures revealed that sexually transmitted infections in 50-90 year olds have doubled in the past ten years.

Rachel von Simson, medical student at King’s College London and Ranjababu Kulasegaram, consultant genitourinary physician at St Thomas’ Hospital London, revealed that 80 percent of 50-90 years olds are sexually active.

Statistics show an increase in cases of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the UK, USA and Canada in 45-64 year olds.

Washington, February 04: Young adults aged 18 to 24 years who stop smoking for at least two weeks report substantially fewer respiratory symptoms, especially coughing, a new study has said.

For the finding, Karen Calabro, DrPH and Alexander Prokhorov, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, compared self-reported respiratory symptoms among two

groups of college students who participated in programs designed to motivate them to stop smoking.

New Delhi, Febuary 03: In India, almost 80 percent of breast cancer patients are in an advanced stage when they come to a hospital, say doctors. Among the prime factors fuelling the disease in the country, especially among urban women, are fast-paced lives and delayed reproductive activity, they add.

No time for fitness, bad food, increased tobacco and alcohol consumption and lifestyle changes like late marriage are the perfect recipe for breast cancer.

Hyderabad, June 12: Mobile phone today has become the part and parcel of one’s life. But the details released by WHO regarding harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation have scared the users.

In February 2011, in a report by international ministry committee, it was stated that risk of brain cancer increases with 30 minutes daily talk for 10 years as the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) released by mobile phone is first received by the head hence the possibility of radiation affecting the brain is increased and 30 minutes of talk daily for prolonged period may cause brain cancer.

London, June 10: Girls please take note: Wearing high heels or stilettos not just increases the height of your fashion, they may also up your risk of developing arthritis, researchers say.

A study by the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists found that a quarter of women in Britain wear high heels every day and are actually increasing their risk of getting the debilitating condition.

High heels affect body posture, placing more pressure on foot, ankle and knee joints. This can cause stress to the cartilage and lead to the onset of osteoarthritis, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Ala (Himachal Pradesh), June 10: You can begin with a baked yam leaf starter, move on to a dal slow cooked and sauteed in mustard oil and wind up with lip-smacking sweet rice…The traditional cuisine of Himachal Pradesh is a vegetarian’s delight.A riot of herbs, berries, cereals and fresh vegetables grow wild on the wet rock faces of the Himalayan slopes sheltered by canopies of towering pines, deodar and silver oak trees at elevations of 5,000 feet and above. And much of it finds its way into the food.

Hyderabad, June 09: Thousands of asthma patients from different parts of the country, hoping to be cured, took ‘fish medicine’ which has been distributed by a family here for more than 160 years.

Despite the controversies which hit the popularity of the ‘miracle drug’ in recent years, people continue to throng the venue in the hope of finding some relief to their nagging respiratory problems.

London, June 09: Scientists have reportedly developed genetically modified cows that will produce ‘human’ milk.

According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph , they have introduced human genes into dairy cows to produce milk similar to human milk. The researchers believe that milk from these herds of 300 cows can provide an alternative to human breast milk and formula milk for babies, which is often criticised as being an inferior substitute.

London, June 04: Add ginseng and saffron to your diet since both are proven performance boosters, according to a new scientific review of natural aphrodisiacs by researchers from the University of Guelph.

You can also indulge in wine and chocolate, too, but know that their amorous effects are likely all in your head.

Also, stay away from the more obscure Spanish fly and Bufo toad. Though purported to be sexually enhancing, they produce the opposite result and can even be toxic.

United Nations: About 7,000 people are being infected with AIDS each day and about half of the 34 million people with HIV do not know they have it, according to a UN report released to mark the disease’s 30th anniversary.

The UNAIDS agency said more money, less waste and smarter programs are urgently needed to consolidate gains made in the war on AIDS and HIV.

The report highlighted spectacular progress made in the 30 years since US epidemiologists, in a study released on June 5, 1981, described the cases of five young homosexuals whose immune systems had been destroyed.

New Delhi, June 04: The rate of new Human Immunodeficiency Virus infections fell by more than 50 per cent in India between 2001 and 2009. This is double of the average decline in the world, according to a new report released on Friday by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, which said the global response to Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is showing results.

London, June 03: Sex addiction is about to become formally recognised as a psychiatric illness.

Experts are considering including the ‘addiction’, in which sufferers have relentless sexual urges that feel out of one’s control, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, reports the Daily Mail .

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) publishes the manual, which is considered the definitive guide to what constitutes a genuine psychological disorder rather than an imaginary one.

Washington, June 01: Urban children who are bullies or have conduct problems at school are more likely to have sleep-disordered breathing or daytime sleepiness, which may play a role in their aggressive behaviour, according to a new research.

Researchers looked at elementary school students who had exhibited conduct problems like bullying or discipline referrals and found that there was a two-fold higher risk for symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing, particularly daytime sleepiness among these students.

London, June 01: Using a mobile phone might increase the risk of developing certain types of brain tumors and consumers should consider ways of reducing their exposure, World Health Organisation (WHO) cancer experts said on Tuesday.

A working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries meeting at the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said a review of all the available scientific evidence suggested cell phone use should be classified as “possibly carcinogenic.”

London, May 30: A team of scientists from the Centre for Innovation in Neuroscience and Technology at the University of Washington is one step closer to mind read, peering into the deepest recesses of the brain to watch words forming.

The finding could one day allow those with severe disabilities to ‘speak’.

Using electrodes, the researchers found the area of the brain that is involved in creating the 40 or so sounds that form the English language.

Bangalore, May 28: The resolution by the World Health Organization (WHO) to hold on to the two last known remaining stocks of the smallpox virus for “crucial research” raises the spectre of bioterrorism, warns a leading Indian virologist.

“If the destruction is delayed indefinitely, the synthesis and preparation of small pox virus as a bio-weapon, by a non-superpower would increase and it may truly become a poor man’s atom bomb,” says Kalyan Banerjee, former director of the National Institute of Virology in Pune.