Health

London, August 14: There’s good news for cardiac patients with a sweet tooth.

A new study has found that regular consumption of chocolates by heart attack patients might reduce mortality rates three-fold.

Consumption of chocolate two or more times in a week actually showed a positive association in reducing death rates in heart attack survivors compared to those who never eat them, according to a study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

New Delhi, August 14: Masks are only for those infected with influenza A (H1N1), those showing symptoms of the disease or those handling patients, the central government warned Thursday and said it was “unscientific for normal people” to wear them.

“It is unscientific for normal people to wear masks,” Director General of Health Services (DGHS) R.K. Srivastava told reporters here as the government stepped in to prevent panic buying of masks that had created a shortage in the market.

Toronto, August 14: Sounds and images share a similar neural code in the human brain, according to a new study.

Scientists from the University of Montreal (U-M) and Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University explain how the same neural code in the brain allows people to distinguish between different types of sounds, such as speech and music, or different images.

London, August 14: Feeling inactive and slow? Blame it on your high-fat diet.

According to a new study, Oxford University experts reaffirm the well-known notion of high-fat diet leading to sluggishness.

The revelations came into light when rats fed on a high-fat diet showed a stark reduction in their physical endurance and a decline in their cognitive ability merely after nine days.

Mumbai, August 14: Six-year-old Vivek Menon is scared of venturing outside. “I don’t have a mask and can get swine flu,” says the kid. Greatly disturbed by the panic around him, he doesn’t go near family members returning home from work, until they have had a bath. He keeps count of the death toll, and is terrified of dying of the flu.

LOndon, August 14: Some of the world’s greatest leaders, from Napoleon Bonaparte and Winston Churchill to Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, are said to have managed on just four to six hours’ sleep a night, whereas the typical teenager finds it difficult to get out of bed in less than 10.

Newborn babies can sleep for up to 18 hours – admittedly at irregular intervals – whereas an elderly person may find it hard to sleep longer than six, although they often have to resort to the odd afternoon nap to make up for what they lacked at night.

Inglewood, California, August 13: Inside an aging sports arena, where rows of dental chairs and a hospital smell have replaced the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball court, thousands of Americans are seeking free healthcare.

Hundreds were turned away just on Tuesday, the first day of a weeklong clinic run by the nonprofit Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corp as part of its mission to provide free health, dental and eye care in needy spots around the world.

Chicago, August 13: Improvements in cancer screening and better treatments have resulted in steady declines in cancer death rates over the past three decades, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They said younger adults — those aged 35 to 45 years old — have experienced the steepest declines in cancer death rates, but all age groups have shown some improvement.

“Essentially, the younger you are, the faster your rates are declining,” said Dr. Eric Kort of the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, whose study appears in the journal Cancer Research.

Sydney, August 13: Scientists have discovered a natural defence mechanism against ageing.

They are amino acids working hard to protect our bodies from the ageing process caused by exposure to free radicals and oxygen.

Free radicals — reactive chemical entities — and other oxidative species are known to contribute to ageing, and are linked to cancers, heart disease and neuro-degenerative diseases.

London, August 13: Feeling inactive and slow? Blame it on your high-fat diet.

According to a new study, Oxford University experts reaffirm the well-known notion of high-fat diet leading to sluggishness.

The revelations came into light when rats fed on a high-fat diet showed a stark reduction in their physical endurance and a decline in their cognitive ability merely after nine days.

Washington, August 13: The U.S. government finalized rules on Wednesday meant to make it easier for seriously ill patients to gain access to unapproved medicines when they have run out of other options.

The regulations spell out more clearly which patients are eligible for special access to experimental medicines, the Food and Drug Administration said. They also clarify when manufacturers can charge patients for the drugs.

Chennai, August 13: India will have maximum number of obese people by 2020, sources from a city-based hospital said.

“Currently India ranks second with 155 million obese citizens, while China has 190 million.. If this (trend) continues, the number of obese people living in the country will cross the number of obese people in China by 2020,” J S Rajkumar, Chairman, Lifeline Hospitals told reporters today.

Hyderabad, August 13: The Safe Health Knee Joint Centre here has introduced a Cytotron device, a non-invasive permanent cure for Osteoarthritis of the spine, hip joints and the knees.

Cytotron is a new computer controlled device that generates high-intensity rotational field quantum magnetic resonance beams (RFQMR) which are controlled and focussed on the tissues to alter the Proton spin inside and outside the cells, thus resulting in stimulating the cartilage growth, Dr C V Ramana Rao, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Rajesh, Consultant told reporters here.

New Delhi, August 13: Do you know how safe are your face masks and how to use them? According to doctors, using poor quality face masks and wearing them improperly make people more vulnerable to the swine flu that has left 17 people dead across India and affected over 1,000.

According to doctors, people should avoid panic buying of face masks as they are not for everyone and there are proper ways to wear, remove and dispose them.

London, August 13: Education reduces the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on cognition even if brain volume loss has already occurred, says a study carried out in Germany.

Robert Perneczky, department of psychiatry at Munich’s Klinikum rechts der Isar, explains: “We know that there is not always a close association between brain damage due to Alzheimer’s disease and the resulting symptoms of dementia.”

Dementia is the progressive deterioration in cognitive function – the ability to process thought (intelligence).

Washington, August 13: Breast cancer survivors have been getting bum advice. For decades, many doctors warned that lifting weights or even heavy groceries could cause painful arm swelling. New research shows that weight training actually helps prevent this problem.

“How many generations of women have been told to avoid lifting heavy objects?” Dr. Eric Winer, breast cancer chief at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in Boston, lamented after seeing the surprising results of the new study. “Women who were doing the lifting actually had fewer arm problems because they had better muscle tone.”

Washington, August 13: Anti-psychotic drugs could help treat some major cancers, a new research has revealed.

According to a preliminary finding in the current online issue of the International Journal of Cancer, the anti-psychotic drug, pimozide, kills lung, breast and brain cancer cells in in-vitro laboratory experiments.

Washington, August 13: The birth rate among US teenagers is twice the average for all developed nations and has increased in recent years, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The current US rate is 42 births for every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19, while the overall rate for developed countries is 21 per 1,000, the internationally-known non-governmental research organization, Population Reference Bureau (PRB), reported.

Washington, August 13: A 65-year-old woman, who has routine hip surgery, develops memory loss six months later and is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Just a coincidence? Researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) and Vanderbilt University don’t think so.

They suspect that the culprit precipitating Alzheimer’s disease in the elderly women may be a routine administration of high concentrations of oxygen for several hours during, or following surgery – a hypothesis borne out in a recent animal model study.

Mumbai, August 13: The northern hemisphere is bracing for a fresh and potentially deadlier outbreak of swine flu during winter. A large number of people who died after testing positive to swine flu, actually died of pneumonia, an illness exacerbated by cold temperatures.

The swine flu pandemicThe virus survives for a far longer time in cold places. For instance, in Mumbai, the virus will survive for just three hours, but in Michigan in the US, it will survive for six.

Cholesterol, a yellowish fatty substance, is one of the essential ingredients of the body. Although it is essential to life, it has a bad reputation, being a major villain in heart disease. Every person with high blood cholesterol is regarded as a potential candidate for heart attack or a stroke. Most of the cholesterol found in the body is produced in the liver. However, about twenty to thirty per cent generally comes from the food we eat. Cholesterol is measured in milligrams per 100 millimetres of blood.

Pune, August 13: A 48-year-old man and a 50-year old woman succumbed to swine flu in Pune on Wednesday afternoon, taking the toll in the deadly pandemic to 17.

Gautam Shelar, 48, a driver, was brought from KEM hospital on August 10 to Sasoon Hospital in a critical condition.

In Pune, Nita Meghani, 50, who was admitted to Sasoon Hospital in a critical condition four days ago, died on Wednesday afternoon.

With the latest flu deaths, the toll in Maharashtra due to the viral infection has risen to 13 deaths.

New York, August 13: The results of a study confirm that girls who undergo radiation for cancer in childhood have an increased long-term risk of developing breast cancer, regardless of their age at the time of treatment.

When such treatment included a high dose to the ovaries, however, women seemed to be protected against future breast cancer risk.

New York, August 13: Eating omega-3-rich seafood may be a mood-lifter for women who are feeling depressed during pregnancy, suggests a study of British women.

In the study, Dr. Jean Golding, at the University of Bristol, and colleagues found an association between a low omega-3 fatty acid intake from seafood and an increased risk of high levels of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

They report the finding in the latest issue of the journal Epidemiology.

Thiruvananthapuram, August 12: Gearing up its health machinery after the first swine flu fatality, Kerala today drew up an action plan to check the spread of the pandemic but said there was no need to panic.

After attending a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, Health Minister P K Sreemathi told reporters that the government had set up special wards in five medical colleges and district hospitals with ventilator facility to treat the affected persons.