Lifestyle

Dhaka, July 28: Bangladeshi authorities said Tuesday they had found traces of a toxic chemical in paracetamol syrup believed to have killed two dozen children in the past six weeks.

Health Minister A.F.M Ruhul Haq said investigators had found diethyl glycol in the locally produced syrup.

“We conducted two tests on the paracetamol syrup and each time we found diethyl glycol. It’s a toxic chemical used in the textile and leather dyeing industries. It damages your kidneys if you consume it,” the minister told AFP.

Washington, July 28: : Tiny ovarian tumors lurk in the Fallopian tubes for an average of four years before they grow large enough to be detected, researchers revealed on Monday in a study that explains why diagnosis usually comes too late to save a woman’s life.

They said they were trying to find ways to improve testing for the cancer, one of the deadliest because it is so hard to detect before it has spread.

Sydney, July 28: Long-term consumption of soy products dramatically cuts down the risk of ischemic stroke, according to new research.

Ischemic stroke is the most common kind of stroke, caused by an interruption of the blood flow to the brain.

The research found people who consumed 50 grams of soy products a week reduced stroke risk. Those who ate between 50 to 300 grams of soy had a greater drop still, while those consuming 300 grams or more a week had the most health benefits.

Washington, July 28: It’s a piece of advice that yogis have given for thousands of years: take a deep breath and relax. Watch the tension melt from your muscles and all your niggling worries vanish.

Somehow we all know that relaxation is good for us. Now the hard science has caught up – for a comprehensive scientific study showing that deep relaxation changes our bodies on a genetic level has just been published.

Washington, July 28: More than half the patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) report drinking heavily. A study on failing memory has found that HIV infection and chronic alcoholism damage brain function.

“It has been consistently documented that chronic heavy drinking results in cognitive and motor deficits,” said Edith V Sullivan, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine (SUSM) and study co-author.

Tokyo, July 28: Prolonged consumption of tea, especially the oolong and black variety, could weaken human bones due to the presence of toxic fluorine in tea beverages, Japanese researchers say.

The researchers, including Tetsuo Shimmura, who is senior research scientist of Toyama Institute of Health in Toyama Prefecture, reported the existence of the chemical in beverages such as oolong tea and black tea at a meeting of Japan Society for Biomedical Research on Trace Elements in Tokyo recently, Kyodo news agency reported.

Geneva, July 28: At least 134,503 people have been infected by swine flu virus across the globe, with 816 confirmed deaths, the World Health Organisation reported Monday.

An official said at least 160 countries were hit by the new virus, technically known as influenza A(H1N1), but the tally was not broken down into countries.

The WHO had previously said it would not issue any further statistics on infections.

New Delhi, July 27: Twenty-one new cases of swine flu were reported on Saturday taking the total number of infected cases in India to 413.

“Twenty one new laboratory confirmed cases have been reported on Sunday – Delhi (2), Pune (10), Jaipur (4), Visakhapatnam (2), Hyderabad (1), Cochin (1) and Bangalore (1),” a health ministry statement said.

The ministry said so far 1,946 people have been tested so far out of which 413 were positive for Influenza A(H1N1). Of the 413 positive cases, 294 have been discharged. Rest of them remain admitted.

London, July 27: With the help of an ultrasound, researchers are hoping to find out if knee inflammation could be an early sign of osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is known as a “wear and tear” condition in which cartilage wears away, leaving bones rubbing together painfully. Recently scientists have shown that inflammation in the joint lining may also play a role in its development.

At the moment osteoarthritis can only be identified by X-ray, which is limited to revealing changes in bones and degeneration of cartilage.

Washington, July 27: Uncooked meat products with food additives may contain high levels of phosphorus and potassium that find no place in food labels. This can make it difficult for people to limit these minerals that at high levels are harmful to kidney disease patients, according to a new study.

Dialysis patients must watch their intake of phosphate so that their blood phosphate levels do not rise, which may then cause premature death.

Kidney disease patients also must limit their intake of potassium, because high blood potassium levels can cause sudden death.

Washington, July 27: More than half the patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) report drinking heavily. A study on failing memory has found that HIV infection and chronic alcoholism damage brain function.

“It has been consistently documented that chronic heavy drinking results in cognitive and motor deficits,” said Edith V. Sullivan, professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine (SUSM) and study co-author.

New Delhi, July 27: Popular as designer treatment for correcting eye disorders, Laser rays now promise a cure for infants suffering from retinopathy – a non-inflammatory damage to the retina of the eye.

“Over the years, it has been found that Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) has been found in children with birth weight of about 1,500 grams and born within 32 weeks of pregnancy,” Rajvardhan Azad, chief of ROP unit in the AIIMS Opthalmology department, said.

London, July 27: Copper is quite effective in inhibiting the influenza A H1N1 virus commonly known as Swine flu, according to the latest study.

Copper appears to have a broad spectrum in antiviral activity due to its effectiveness against RNA (Ribonucleic acid)-based influenza and DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid)-based adenovirus 40/41, which causes gastrointestinal infections.

Bill Keevil, professor at the University of Southampton’s School of Biological Sciences, said that he believed copper could be used to reduce the spread of flu in public places.

Dresden, July 27: It hit Elke Kaufer hard and unexpectedly. When the 38-year-old Dresden resident tried to lift her son last year, she felt a stabbing pain in her back. “It was terrible,” she recalled. “I could hardly move.”

Kaufer’s family doctor suspected a slipped disc, the common name for the medical terms “prolapsed” or “herniated” disc. He referred her to a radiologist, who determined with a computed tomography scan and magnet resonance imaging that Kaufer indeed had a slipped disc in her lumbar spine (lower back).

Hamburg, July 27: A German health organization has issued a brochure with new conclusions about the effects of coffee on human health, saying that it is good for the brain and the liver.

Germany’s Green Cross said coffee speeds up digestion and protects people from age-related diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease and cirrhosis of the liver. The brochure summarizes the results of several studies on coffee consumption.

Mangalore, July 27: Indian and International experts in child health have stressed the need to take immediate steps to control and prevent pneumonia morbidity and mortality which, they said, is the leading cause of death among children under-five years in India and other developing countries.

“India leads the world in under-five mortality, with 20 lakh children dying every year,” said Dr Jeeson Unni on the occasion of the Mangalore Pneumococcal Disease Conference.

“Of these, four lakh deaths are due to pneumonia.”

New Delhi, July 27: As many as 16 new cases of swine flu were reported today taking the total number of confirmed cases across the country so far to 429.

Four fresh cases were confirmed in the national capital while seven persons were found to be infected with the virus in Pune, two in Kozhikode and one each in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Gurgaon, Union Health Ministry sources said here.

Bhubaneswar, July 26: Ajay Patra is a unique guru. He teaches AIDS victims how to face death.

Patra, 39, plunged into the exercise after he was diagnosed with AIDS and told that he had an uncertain future.

The pain of impending death propelled him to look at life afresh, leading to the birth of a network of men and women in Orissa who help fellow HIV positive and AIDS patients to prepare for their final years.

Ahmedabad, July 26: Gujarat government has invoked Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the resident doctors who are on strike for last four days demanding hike in the stipend.

“We have invoked ESMA against the striking resident doctors,” Principal Secretary of Health Ravi Saxena told PTI.

“Now that they are under ESMA, they can be arrested or detained also,” he said.

However, Gujarat Association of Resident Doctors (GARD), in a statement said the doctors are prepared to face the “action to be initiated by the authorities.”

New Delhi, July 25: Twenty-one new cases of swine flu were reported Saturday taking the total number of infected cases in India to 413.

‘Twenty one new laboratory confirmed cases have been reported today – Delhi (2), Pune (10), Jaipur (4), Visakhapatnam (2), Hyderabad (1), Cochin (1) and Bangalore (1),’ a health ministry statement said.

The ministry said so far 1,946 people have been tested so far out of which 413 were positive for Influenza A(H1N1). Of the 413 positive cases, 294 have been discharged. Rest of them remain admitted.

Hong Kong, July 25: Chinese researchers have managed to create powerful stem cells from mouse skin and used these to generate fertile live mouse pups.

They used induced pluripotent skin cells, or iPS cells – cells that have been reprogrammed to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, taken from days-old embryos, have the power to morph into any cell type and, in mice, can be implanted into a mother’s womb to create living mouse pups.

Denver, July 25: A patient infected with hepatitis C has been found at a second Colorado hospital that employed a surgery technician accused of swapping her dirty syringes for ones filled with painkillers meant for patients.

State health officials said Friday a patient at Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs may have contracted the blood-borne liver disease from 26-year-old Kristen Diane Parker.

Geneva, July 25: Global health officials stepped up efforts to prepare for quick vaccination against the H1N1 pandemic virus, saying on Friday it appeared now to be affecting older age groups spared earlier in the pandemic.

The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both said they can only estimate how many people have been infected but the swine flu virus was still spreading quickly.

“As the disease expands broadly into communities, the average age of the cases is appearing to increase slightly,” the WHO said in a statement.

Chicago, July 25: Having a stroke often robs people of the ability to focus, but victims who undertake attention-training exercises with a psychologist recover some of what they lost, researchers have reported.

Attention problems occur in more than half of all stroke patients and can lead to falls and injuries.

A team led by Suzanne Barker-Collo at the University of Auckland in New Zealand wanted to see if a training program already used in people with traumatic brain injury could help.

Washington, July 25: Should US taxpayers be funding research involving Thai prostitutes?

Republican Representative Darrell Issa does not think so. He announced on Friday he had amended one version of healthcare reform legislation to bar three projects to study AIDS transmission among Chinese and Thai prostitutes and Russian alcoholics.

“Though I support worldwide elimination of HIV, we don’t need $5 million in U.S. tax dollars flowing to study the behavior of Thai and Chinese sex workers,” Issa said in a statement on the National Institutes of Health projects.