Health

Aizawl, February 02: Some 119 people including 40 women died of malaria in Mizoram during 2009, state health department said here today. In 2008, 91 people had died of malaria in Mizoram, officials said.

They said 1,71,793 people had their blood samples tested during last year out of which 9,399 were found to be positive.

Doctors attributed high malaria deaths to delayed treatment saying that when malaria patients went to doctors for treatment, it was usually too late.

Washington, February 02: You are emerging from the subway and heading for your destination when you realise that you are going in the wrong direction. For a moment, you feel disoriented, but a scan of landmarks and the layout of the surroundings quickly helps you pinpoint your location, and you make it to your appointment with time to spare.

Until now, however, genes were not suspected of playing a role in that ability. A team led by Barbara Landau, professor in cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University, for the first time, links genes to our ability to navigate the world.

Washington, February 02: Do you know, your children’s visit to the dentist is linked to your own dental care?

A new American study claimed that whether or not children receive regular dental care is strongly associated with their parents’ history of seeking dental care.

“When parents don’t see the dentist, their children are much less likely to see the dentist,” said lead author Inyang Isong of the MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHFC).

The report, appeared in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to analyse the relationship between parents’ and childrens’ dental visits.

Munich, February 01: Like many working people, computer specialists, goldsmiths and lorry drivers are prime candidates for muscle tension.

At risk is anyone who has to stay concentrated for hours at a time or who puts uneven strain on the body.

Hamburg, February 01: The more intensive a fitness regime is in the winter, the greater the susceptibility to illness.

This means aerobic exercise aimed at staying healthy in the winter should be moderate-to-intense basic cardio training and people should avoid workout sessions that last more than 60 minutes, said Christoph Eifler of a college for health management and disease prevention in Saarbruecken, Germany.

Interval training is a good fitness option once or twice a week with at least one day of rest in between.

Washington, February 01: If you’re about to try to negotiate a pay rise, it might be a good idea to have a sugary drink beforehand, according to a study.

Researchers at the University of South Dakota asked 65 students to answer a series of questions in which they had to choose between getting a smaller sum of money “tomorrow” or a larger sum in the future.

The study participants responded to half the questions on an empty stomach and the other half after consuming a caffeine-free soda sweetened either with sugar or the artificial sweetener aspartame.

London, February 01: Leukemia patients who have blood stem cell transplants survive just as long on average as those who undergo the more invasive procedure of having a bone marrow transplant, scientists said on Monday.

But patients with acute forms the blood cancer appear to do better if they have bone marrow as opposed to blood stem cell transplants, the scientists said, suggesting that for some the benefit of the complex treatment is greater in the long run.

Agra, February 01: Use of robots and computers for surgery on patients with urological problems will be discussed at an international conference on advances in urology, to be held in the city of the Taj Mahal beginning Feb 3.

The five-day conference will be attended by over 1,000 Indian and 200 foreign specialists in urology.

In the pre-congress workshop, specialists of the American Urological Association will highlight and demonstrate latest robotic assisted laproscopic techniques.

New Delhi, January 31: For most of us, our understanding of leprosy is the sight of bandaged beggars on the street corner, often with deformities in the face or limb. A century ago, leprosy patients were viewed as objects to be hidden away. Today, leprosy is a disease which is easily treatable and leaves no scars if detected in time.

London, January 31: Pregnant women are being warned about the danger of gum disease after an unborn baby died as a result of its mother’s poor dental hygiene.

It is the first time oral bacteria has been found to be responsible for the death of a baby which had nearly reached full-term.

A study published in the Obstetrics And Gynaecology journal revealed the case of an unnamed 35-year-old woman who had the common gum disease gingivitis.

Santiago, January 30: Chilean teenagers are becoming obese due to increasing fast food consumption while those from Mexico, Venezuela and Guatemala are not far behind.

Chile, where 44.7 percent of people over 15 were overweight in 2009, was the worst in Latin America and second in the world, said Euromonitor, which released a study on the subject Thursday.

Mexico, Venezuela and Guatemala have been listed among the 10 countries with the highest obesity rates among teenagers due to increasing fast food consumption.

New Delhi, January 29: The health ministry’s plan to start a Rural MBBS course of three-and-a-half years to provide treatment in far-flung areas will create half baked professionals and will be discriminatory in nature, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said Friday.

‘This step would be discriminatory to both the people who get treatment from such half baked professionals and also to the medical students who take eight to 10 years to become specialist doctors,’ NHRC member P.C. Sharma said at a conference of state health secretaries.

New Delhi, January 29: Actor and social activist Rahul Bose will run in a marathon in the capital Sunday to raise funds for cancer research in India.

The event — ‘Terry Fox – Marathon of Hope’ — has been organised by the Indo-Canadian Cancer Research Foundation. The marathon will begin from Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram at 8:30 a.m.

‘Around 1,500-2,000 runners are awaited for the 2010 edition (of the annual event), among which is actor, screenwriter, director, social activist, and rugby union player Rahul Bose,’ the organisers said in a statement.

London, January 29: The commonly held assumption that as primates evolved, their brains always tended to get bigger has been challenged by a team of scientists at Cambridge and Durham.

Their work, published this week in ‘BMC Biology’, helps solve the mystery of whether Homo floresiensis — dubbed the Hobbit due to its diminutive stature — was a separate human species or a diseased individual.

The team combined previously published datasets of brain and body mass with measurements from fossil remains.

London, January 29: Taking a break after learning something new helps retain information for long, according to a study.

“Taking a coffee break after a class can actually help retain the information a person has just learned,” said Dr Lila Davachi, one of the researcher and an assistant professor at the New York University’s (NYU) Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science.

The study, which appeared in the journal Neuron, suggested that even a short rest or break while conscious could help brain sort and retain information.

Sydney, January 29: New antibodies being developed by Australian researchers will speed up the healing of burns and chronic ulcers and benefit diabetes patients.

Research by Allison Cowin, associate professor at Women’s and Children’s Health Research Institute, and the University of Adelaide’s surgery department found that a specific protein known as Flightless I (Flii) restricts wound healing.

Researchers have been able to use antibodies to suppress the Flii protein, thereby promoting wound healing.

New Delhi, January 29: Researchers are working to develop a pill composed of leptin, the protein that tells our brain to stop eating and, hence, reverse obesity.

Leptin regulates appetite in mammals and its levels decrease when fasting and rise during meals. It has been proven to be an appetite suppressant when administered intravenously to pathologically obese people.

London, January 29: From sweet potatoes to blueberries and from lentils to broccoli, super foods have been for long hailed for their age-defying effects, but a new research has found that too much of the food can impair muscle function.

According to the scientists at Kansas State University in the US, the nutrients balance required by the body is affected by stuffing it full of the antioxidants contained in super foods.

“Too much of the super foods could mean there are not enough ‘pro-oxidants’ – usually considered the evil twin of antioxidants – in the body,” said the researchers.

Toronto, January 29: Magnesium plays an important part in improving memory, says new international research.

The research by Canadian, Chinese, American and Israeli universities shows that an increase in magnesium levels in brain can boost learning and memory.

After their study on old and young rats which were administered higher levels of brain magnesium, the researchers said they have come to the conclusion that increasing magnesium intake can play be vital for those complaining of fading memory.

Mumbai, January 29: Citing the advantages of homoeopathy over allopathic treatment for thyroid and other hormone-related problems, Dr Bandish D Ambani from Mumbai said that over 80 percent of patients depending exclusively on homoeopathic treatment stand a chance of being completely cured in a year’s time.

Praising the holistic approach of the therapy, Dr Ambani, while interacting with Newsline on Thursday, said the treatment helps stimulate the body’s glands to produce hormones.

London, January 28: Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) – where the liver has trouble breaking down fats causing a build up in the organ tissue – suffer a higher risk of mortality than the general population, says a Swedish study.

The research, led by Cecilia Sodenberg of the Karolinska Institute, evaluated 256 male and female subjects between the ages of 33-57 who had undergone a liver biopsy (between 1980-1984) due to elevated liver enzymes.

London, January 28: A new research carried out by the Sleep Research Centre (SRC) at Loughborough University in UK revealed that women need around 20 minutes of more sleep as compared to men.

The study also disclosed the fact that women are comparatively busier than men and they have a multi-tasking mind that requires better sleep.

Professor Jim Horne, Director of SRC said, “Women’s brains are wired differently from men’s and are more complex, so their sleep need is slightly greater.”

Washington, January 28: Minimally invasive endoscopic sinus surgery could significantly improve the quality of life in adults with chronic rhinosinusitis, according to a new study by Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

Chronic rhinosinusitis is a debilitating inflammation of the nasal passages that lasts for months and keeps coming back.

London, January 28: Vaccines against rotavirus, which can kills babies and young children within days by causing severe diarrhea, could save 2 million children over the next decade, experts said Wednesday.

Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that vaccinating babies against rotavirus significantly cut deaths from diarrhea — by 61 percent in Africa and by 35 percent in Mexico.

London, January 28: Despite the general belief, giving birth to a baby through a Cesarean or with the help of instruments does not affect the mother’s ability to breastfeed.

Health officials recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby’s life; many mothers, however, stop breastfeeding due to various excuses.