Health

London, July 15 : Seventy million Indians have been re-classified as overweight or obese, after a lowering of obesity thresholds by a diabetes research organisation based here.

This threshold has been lowered for India as South Asian people are more liable than their white counterparts to develop obesity-linked conditions like Type 2 (T-2) diabetes and heart disease.

“We know that T-2 diabetes, which is linked to being overweight, is up to six times more common in South Asian people than the white population,” said Pav Kalsi, care adviser at Diabetes-UK.

Amsterdam, July 15: The short-term memory of a foetus begins functioning at 30 weeks, Dutch gynaecologists have found, according to a report Tuesday. Gynaecology Professor Jan Nijhuis and his team at the Maastricht Medical Centre teaching hospital used sound as well as touch stimulation on the unborn baby’s legs to discover when the human memory would begin to function.

They found that after a baby had heard a certain noise or felt a certain touch several times, it would recognize it the next time it happened.

Chicago, July 15: Walking or biking to work, even part way, is linked with fitness, but very few Americans do it, according to a study of more than 2,000 middle-aged city dwellers.

In what may be the first large U.S. study of health and commuting, the researchers found only about 17 percent of workers walked or bicycled any portion of their commute.

Those active commuters did better on treadmill tests of fitness, even when researchers accounted for their leisure-time physical activity levels, suggesting commuter choices do make a difference.

Hyderabad, July 15: A(H1N1) flu has created quite a scare in the city with employees of several IT companies coming to the AP Chest Hospital here for check up.

As many as 60 techies visited the government-run hospital on Tuesday, while 50 had come for a check-up suspecting their symptoms to be those of A(H1N1) flu, said S V Prasad, Superintendent, AP Chest Hospital.

Talking to PTI, Dr. Prasad said the rush is because of a contact history of one of the employees who contracted the virus from a software engineer who tested positive for the flu virus, he said.

Washington, July 15: Dusseldorf- Humans can smell fear, detecting molecules in sweat odour which indicate another person is afraid, according to German psychologists on Tuesday. Previously it was thought that only animals such as fish, flies and rodents had such a faculty.

But the detection in humans is unconscious.

“We are the first in the world to prove that emotions can be communicated chemically between humans,” said Bettina Pause, a psychology professor at the University of Dusseldorf who led the study.

Washington, July 15: Curcumin, a popular Indian spice derived from the turmeric root, can help reduce cancer risk among postmenopausal women exposed to hormone replacement therapy, according to University of Missouri researchers.

Studies conducted in the past have suggested that a combined oestrogen and progestin hormone replacement therapy increases postmenopausal women’s risk of developing progestin-accelerated breast tumours.

London, July 15: Scientists in the US have created an anti-obesity pill that could dramatically reduce weight in a week.

Tests on mice have shown that the drug could decrease body weight by a quarter and their fat content by 42 percent after seven days.

After a month, the weight of the mice had been reduced by 28 percent and their fat mass by 63 percent.

The researchers say further research is needed before the drug is tested on humans. However, they say the results point to a new approach for the treatment of obesity and adult-onset diabetes.

New Delhi, July 14: The national capital has reported the first case of dengue this year with a 27-year-old man from south Delhi testing positive for the disease.

Naval Kishore, a resident of Malavya Nagar, was admitted to Fortis Hospital on July seven after showing symptoms of dengue, N K Yadav, Municipal Health Officer of MCD, said on Tuesday.

“He was tested positive on Saturday but has since been discharged from hospital as he has shown improvement,” Yadav said to a news agency. He said fogging was conducted in Malavya Nagar.

New Delhi, July 14: The government on Tuesday said as many as 206 sugar mills across the country are sick, with two major producing states of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh accounting for over half of them.

co-operative sector, Minister of State for Agriculture K V Thomas said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

While 63 mills in Maharashtra have been declared sick, 44 in Uttar Pradesh share the same fate, Thomas said. Tamil Nadu accounts for the closure of around 23 mills while Karnataka follows closely with 22.

Washington, July 14: Obesity experts say the lousy economy threatens to worsen Americans’ already bulging waistlines because bad-for-you food happens to be the cheapest. But there are healthy cheap eats, and new research aims to show how to eke the most nutrition out of every buck.

“We wanted to make sure every calorie counted,” says Dr. Adam Drewnowski, who directs the University of Washington Center for Public Health Nutrition and is pushing for the federal government to put more affordability into the calculation when it issues new dietary guidelines next year.

Washington, July 14: Obesity, among other things, is strongly linked with a heightened risk of rapid cartilage loss which is a precursor to osteoarthritis, says a new study.

“We have isolated demographic and MRI-based risk factors for progressive cartilage loss,” said the study’s lead author Frank W. Roemer of Boston University School of Medicine.

“Increased baseline body mass index (BMI) was the only non-MRI-based predictor identified.”

Beijing, July 14: China’s Health Ministry has ordered a hospital to stop using electric shock therapy to cure youths of Internet addiction, saying there was no scientific evidence it worked.

Linyi Mental Health Hospital in eastern Shandong province used the treatment as part of a four-month program that has so far treated nearly 3,000 youths, the China Youth Daily newspaper has reported, citing the psychiatrist who runs it, Yang Yongxin.

London, July 14: A British girl who was given an extra heart as a toddler has become the world’s first heart transplant patient to make a full recovery after having her donor organ removed and function restored to her original heart.

Hannah Clark, now 16, had a “piggyback” transplant operation in 1995 aged two, when a new heart was inserted in parallel to her own failing one.

Chicago, July 14: Walking or biking to work, even part way, is linked with fitness, but very few Americans do it, according to a study of more than 2,000 middle-aged city dwellers.

In what may be the first large U.S. study of health and commuting, the researchers found only about 17 percent of workers walked or bicycled any portion of their commute.

Those active commuters did better on treadmill tests of fitness, even when researchers accounted for their leisure-time physical activity levels, suggesting commuter choices do make a difference.

Washington, July 14: Scientists claim to have found that chronic seizures following head injuries may be a result of the brain trying to repair itself, a finding which could prevent some of the most common forms of adult epilepsy.

For decades, researchers have focused on neurons as the culprits in seizures, which can actually be characterised as debilitating “electrical storms” in the brain. Now, a team at Colorado University has found that micro-glial cells play a major role in seizures.

Washington, July 14: Is honesty or truthfulness a by-product of lack of temptation? In a recent study, Harvard psychologists looked at the brain activity of people given the chance to gain money dishonestly by lying.

The study was designed to test the “Will” theory that postulates honesty is a by-product of active resistance to temptation, and “Grace” theory in which honesty stems from a lack of temptation.

London, July 14: New mums who bottle-feed their children might be putting their kids’ health at risk due to mistakes in the preparation of the formula, say researchers.

The errors include too high concentration of formula, changing brands, and the timing of feeds. This could lead to “overfeeding”, which can cause obesity.

On the other hand, babies who do not receive enough formula milk are likely to be undernourished.

Washington, July 14: The wonders of turmeric never cease to amaze. Researchers have now found that curcumin, a popular Indian spice derived from the roots of turmeric, could cut down the risk of cancer in women who take to hormone replacement therapy for the teatment of post menopausal symptoms.

Studies suggest that women who were on combined oestrogen and progestin hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were at a greater risk of developing breast tumours.

Washington, July 14: Couples who live together before they are engaged are more likely to get divorced than those who wait until they are married to live together, or at least wait until they are engaged, according to a new study.

In the study, researchers at the University of Denver (DU) also found that couples, who lived together before engagement and then married, reported a lower satisfaction in their marriages.

The study was conducted by Galena Rhoades, senior researcher, Scott Stanley, research professor, and Howard Markman, professor of psychology.

Geneva, July 14: The swine flu pandemic has grown ”unstoppable” and all nations will need access to vaccines, a WHO official has said, as 12 new deaths were reported and a study raised fresh concerns.

Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand all reported deaths on Monday, while Saudi Arabia shut an international school after 20 students were diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus.

Geneva, July 14: flu pandemic has grown “unstoppable” and all nations will need access to vaccines, a WHO official has said, as 12 new deaths were reported and a study raised fresh concerns.

Britain, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Philippines and Thailand all reported deaths yesterday, while Saudi Arabia shut an international school after 20 students were diagnosed with the A(H1N1) virus.

As the death toll increased, the World Health Organisation official said a swine flu vaccine should be available as early as September and all countries would need to be able to protect themselves.

Washington, July 14: Moving forcefully on his top domestic priority, President Barack Obama told a powerful Senate chairman on Monday that he wants health care legislation ready in the Finance Committee by week’s end, according to numerous Democratic officials.

These officials said Obama made his wishes known directly to Sen Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a White House meeting attended by administration officials and senior Democratic lawmakers.

Britain, July 14: For 10 years, Hannah Clark was known as the girl with two hearts. She was barely a year old when her parents rushed her to hospital because the tiny heart she had been born with simply wasn’t strong enough to pump blood around her body.

New Delhi, july 14: Nineteen new swine flu cases, including a two-year-old boy, were reported Monday, taking India’s tally of influenza A (H1N1) infected people to 212 so far, the health ministry said. Seven of the fresh cases are “secondary infections” – due to contact with infected people who arrived from abroad.

“Nineteen new laboratory confirmed cases have been reported today – Delhi (6), Hyderabad (8), Ahmedabad (2), Thiruvananthapuram (1), Mumbai (1) and Pune (1),” a ministry statement said. In Hyderabad, six of the eight cases are secondary infections.

New Delhi, July 13: Stitches on his left cheek, fractures in one leg and one hand, Om Prakash Yadav seems unusually calm for a man who almost died. When a section of the Delhi Metro track collapsed, he too went down with it. ‘Three of my family members are no more. I am alive because of god,’ he says.

‘I thought I was dead. But god came to my rescue,’ Yadav, who is the sole bread earner for his wife and five children, says sitting in a wheelchair at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).