Health

Washington, Dec 05: Men are perceived to angry and dominant and women smiling and caring. But why? The answer may lie in the interpretation of facial expressions, a study says.

Researchers in Canada have based their findings on an analysis of two experiments carried out to identify the sex of a series of faces.

In the first experiment, androgynous faces with lowered eyebrows and tight lips (angry expressions) were more likely to be identified as male, and faces with smiles and raised eyebrows (expressions of happiness and fear) were often labelled feminine.

Washington, Dec 05: An experimental treatment targeting hepatitis C was able to inhibit replication of the virus in the bloodstream of chimpanzees and could treat chronic infections in humans, said a new study said.

The treatment works by inhibiting a molecule that helps hepatitis C virus replicate, according to scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR), who said the drug continued to work up to several months after it was used.

London, December 05: In a study it was revealed that the Brit village of Montacute, Somerset, has the longest life expectancy, with a couple attributing it to eating an onion a day and drinking spring water.

The national study of 3 million pension records showed that pensioners of Montacute, near Yeovil, are most likely to live the longest, and some have cited the water and others the fresh Somerset air as the reason for their longevity.

Geneva, December 05: The World Health Organisation confirmed on Friday that swine flu has peaked in North America and was declining, in its latest weekly data on the pandemic.

However, in both Canada and the United States, the virus remains “active and geographically widespread,” while for the past eight weeks hospitalisation and death rates exceeded those seen in a normal flu season, the WHO added.

Taipei, December 05: The number of Taiwanese suffering from chronic insomnia has nearly doubled in three years, as economic worries caused by the global downturn have brought more sleepless nights, according to a new study.

Nearly five million, or 21.8 percent of the island’s 23 million people, have chronic insomnia, compared with 11.5 percent three years ago, according to the study from the Taiwan Society of Sleep Medicine.

New York, December 05: The number of prostate cancers diagnosed in UK men each year would jump from 30,000 to 160,000 if the country introduced population-wide screening for the disease, new research shows. However, many of those cancers are low-risk and may not lead to death.

Something similar happened in the United States in the mid-1990s, when giving men prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests to detect the disease became standard practice, Professor David E Neal of the University of Cambridge, one of the new study’s authors, said.

Washington, December 05: A very large, 30-year study of just about everyone in Scandinavia shows no link between cellphone use and brain tumors, researchers reported on Thursday.

Even though mobile telephone use soared in the 1990s and afterward, brain tumors did not become any more common during this time, the researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

London, Dec 05: A vegetarian diet could be the key to a long life, a new study said. Reducing consumption of a specific protein found in fish, meat and certain nuts could slow the ageing process and increase life expectancy, according to the research.

British researchers carried out a series of experiments on fruit flies and discovered that simply varying the mix of amino acids in the diet affected lifespan.

The study further found that one particular amino acid, methionine, made all the difference, reported.

New Delhi, December 04: Six swine flu deaths, three of them in Rajasthan alone, were reported Friday, taking the toll from influenza A (H1N1) virus in India to 606, health authorities said here.

Also, a record 290 new cases were reported in the country, taking the total number of people affected with the contagious flu to 19,162.

With the three deaths, the toll in Rajasthan has gone up to 57. Two deaths were also reported from the national capital, taking the total toll in the Indian capital to 28.

New Delhi, December 04: Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia Friday launched the “Yellow Ribbon Campaign”, which aims to create awareness about hepatitis.

“Hepatitis is a global health problem associated with significant illness and mortality, about 100 times more than AIDS. In India, Hepatitis ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘E’ are very common. Hepatitis is preventable by vaccination and by keeping good hygiene,” said Walia after inaugurating a function at the Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital here.

New Delhi, December 04: Two women died of swine flu in city hospitals Friday, taking the toll due to influenza A (H1N1) in the national capital to 28, a health department official said.

Meanwhile, Delhi reported 186 cases of swine flu — the highest for a single day – taking the number of people affected with the virus to 5,603. Delhi Thursday reported 176 cases of swine flu.

New Delhi, December 04: The government has given the go-ahead to carry out clinical trials for evaluating the safety and efficacy of the measles inhalable vaccine, the Lok Sabha was informed Friday.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Trivedi said that clinical trials of the vaccine are being conducted in the country.

Washington, December 04: Contrary to the popular belief that smoking tobacco through a waterpipe has fewer adverse health effects, a new research has claimed that inhaling hookah is as dangerous as puffing on a cigarette.

According to researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University, hookah smoking exposes the user to the same toxicants – carbon monoxide and nicotine – as puffing on a cigarette, which could lead to nicotine addiction and heart disease.

New Delhi, Dec 04: With the drop in mercury, the second wave of H1N1 influenza has been on the march. The isolation wards of RML Hospital, Sir Gangaram Hospital, Apollo Hospital and Safdarjung Hospital are full.

Toronto,Dec 04: A long-term study has found there is no link between brain tumor and the use of cell phones. The study among Scandinavian people from 1974 and 2003 has found that the use of cell phones did not increase brain tumour risk among users.

“We did not observe (notice) an effect of mobile phones on the incidence of brain tumours,” study leader Isabelle Deltour of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen told a Canadian television network here Thursday.

Washington, December 03: H1N1 swine flu has not peaked yet but seems to be waning in Canada and the United States, signalling that the end of the pandemic may be on the horizon, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

A third wave of infections may still be ahead, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s top flu expert, said. But he added there was no sign of widespread resistance to Tamiflu, the main drug used to treat the H1N1 flu strain.

London, Dec 03: Astronomers have discovered one of the fieriest stars in the galaxy which is 35 times hotter than the sun.

The dying star which has a surface temperature of 200,000 degrees was captured by astronomers at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in the University of Manchester by using the recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

The star was located at centre of the Bug Nebula which is about 3,500 light years away in the constellation Scorpius.

Washington, Dec 03: The National Institute of Health (NIH) in the US has approved the use of first 13 human embryonic stem cells in the country.

The NIH-funded research for this purpose had started in July 2009. Children’s hospital, Boston has developed 11 of these stem cell lines and Rockefeller University, New York City developed two. An additional 96 lines have been submitted to the NIH for either internal review or consideration.

Washington, Dec 03: While infection is reported in some 50 percent of patients admitted to intensive care units across the world, more than 70 percent of them receive antibiotics.

According to a study more than half of the ICU patients suffer from various infections.

Lungs are the main infection site in some 64 percent of the cases. Staphylococcus aureus followed by E. coli and Pseudomonas are the most common germs in ICU infections.

Infections particularly blood-borne ones, such as sepsis, are the leading cause of long hospitalizations and non-cardiac deaths in ICU.

Geneva, Dec 03: Bone marrow stem cells can be used to help the heart that has been damaged after a heart attack repair the injury, a new study finds.

Previous studies had reported that the injection of stem cells extracted from the patient directly into the heart can treat heart attack patients.

The new study, however, benefited from the intravenous infusion of a stem cell product known as Prochymal harvested from a single healthy donor and cultured in laboratories.

London, Dec 03: Low-dose radiation from mammograms and chest X-rays may place young women at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

A recent advisory panel advised against routine breast mammograms for women in their 40s, aiming to lower the worry and expense of extra tests to distinguish between cancer and harmless lumps.

Women at very high risk of breast cancer, however, are still recommended to get both a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and mammogram starting at age 30, as MRI alone increases the risk of false-positive results.

New Delhi, December 03: HIV/AIDS, an epidemic is swiftly spreading its redundant deadly wings in many parts of the country, engulfing many innocent young men and women in its fold.

For a country like India where discussing sex is considered as immoral curbing, its proliferation is a daunting task.

Kolkata, December 02: With cervical cancer the second most common cancer among women worldwide, Nobel laureate in medicine Harald zur Hausen Wednesday said here that the cost of vaccination in India should undergo drastic reduction to make this life-saving vaccine available to a maximum number of people.

New Delhi, December 02: Twelve fresh cases of dengue were reported in the national capital today, taking the total number of patients to 1,106, even as civic authorities said the disease can be contained only after mid-December.

With the dip in temperature, the number of dengue cases reported in a day has been declining over the past few days.

The per day figure ranged from seven to 13 in the last seven days compared to around 20 to 25 cases earlier.

“With 12 fresh positive cases of dengue, the total has reached 1,106,” Municipal Health Officer, MCD, N K Yadav told PTI.

Lucknow, Dec 02: A 16-year-old girl, who tested positive for swine flu virus on Monday night, died on Tuesday.

Akansha, a resident of Aliganj area, is the youngest and third patient to die from H1N1 virus in the state capital.

She was admitted to Vivekanand Polyclinic on November 27 with high fever. “She was straightaway put on a ventilator in the ICU,” said Swami Muktinathanand, secretary, Vivekanand Polyclinic.