Month: August 2013

Stress might have harmed your health even before you were born, a new study suggests.

Harvard researchers have found that epigenetic disruptions, which are associated with chronic disease later in life, are already common at birth.

Possibly, these aberrations result from stressors in the intrauterine environment (e.g. maternal smoking, maternal diet, or high levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals).

This finding supports the belief that seeds of disease are sown before birth, increasing the importance of optimal prenatal care.

Anaemia, or low levels of red blood cells, may increase the risk of dementia in elderly people, a US study has said.

“Anaemia is common in the elderly and occurs in up to 23 percent of adults aged 65 and older,” Xinhua quoted study author Kristine Yaffe of the University of California San Francisco as saying.

“The condition has also been linked in studies to an increased risk of early death.”

In the study, researchers examined 2,552 older adults between the ages of 70 and 79 for over 11 years.

One in five high schoolers has permanent ringing in the ears, and few take measures to protect their ears from loud music, according to a new study.

Those numbers are surprisingly similar to results of a study of college-aged adults, said lead author Annick Gilles, a clinical audiologist at Antwerp University Hospital in Edegem, Belgium.

She and her coauthors had expected the numbers to be higher for college-aged people, who “go out a lot,” she told Reuters Health.

Public health expenditure in India has dropped from 1.3 percent of the GDP in 1990 to 0.9 percent in 2012 and there is need to increase public funding in the health sector, said Indian Medical Association (IMA) Wednesday.

The IMA in a white paper on Healthcare Reforms said the presence of public health care was not only weak but also underutilised and inefficient.

Meanwhile, private sector is quite dominant in the healthcare sector, with over 70 percent of healthcare delivery being provided by the private sector.

A simple injection of a naturally occurring hormone could one day ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, a new study has revealed.

Inflammatory joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are the result of cartilage damage and loss.

Chondrocytes are the only cells that are found in cartilage and their death is linked to decreased cartilage health.

Carmen Clapp and colleagues at the National University of Mexico identify prolactin as a potential treatment for inflammatory joint disease.

Prolactin treatment prevented chondrocyte death and associated cartilage degradation.

With rampant malnutrition among children in the Sunderbans, the world`s largest mangrove forests, experts have called for a change in the health system strategy and zoomed in on the gaps in the public healthcare system.

The Sunderbans Health Watch (SHW) report, How Healthy are the Children of the Indian Sunderban, the first in a series launched here Thursday, addresses the problems in child healthcare.

Omega-3 fatty acids, contained in oily fish such as salmon and trout, selectively inhibit growth and induce cell death in early and late-stage oral and skin cancers, a new study suggests.

In vitro tests showed omega-3 fatty acids induced cell death in malignant and pre-malignant cells at doses which did not affect normal cells, suggesting they have the potential to be used in both the treatment and prevention of certain skin and oral cancers.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids cannot be made by humans in large quantities and so we must acquire them from our diet.