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..::Health News::..
Posted on 12 April 2005
Cleanliness could harm your health and environment!
(ANI News) Washington: Being too clean could be hazardous to your health as well as your environment, as a new study published in the online edition of Environmental Science & Technology has revealed that the use of antimicrobial soaps and other products may be directly exposing consumers to significant quantities of chloroform.
According to Peter Vikesland, assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, when the chemical triclosan, present in many antimicrobial soaps, reacts with chlorine in tap water, chloroform is produced.
Triclosan is a synthetic antimicrobial agent, which is most often used to kill bacteria on the skin and other surfaces and is sometimes used to preserve a product.
The American Medical Association (AMA) has been urging the FDA to closely monitor and possibly regulate the home use of antimicrobials such as triclosan.
“This is the first work that we know of that suggests that consumer products, such as antimicrobial soap, can produce significant quantities of chloroform,” said Vikesland.
“There are numerous potential exposure pathways that can be envisioned, such as inhalation and skin exposure, when using antimicrobial soaps to wash dishes or when taking a shower. There is also risk of exposure when using triclosan laden moisturizers as they may also react with chlorine in the water,” he said.
The researchers say that it is possible that the chloroform produced when the antimicrobial soap containing triclosan mixes with chlorinated water could be absorbed through your skin or inhaled. (Health News)
Posted on 12 April 2005
Drinking water stored in brass vessels good for health: Experts
(PTI News) New York, : Ancient Indian wisdom that drinking water should be stored in brass vessels for good health has now been proved scientifically by researchers.
Microbiologists say that water stored in brass containers could help combat many water-borne diseases and should be used in developing countries rather than their cheaper alternatives, plastic containers, researchers said.
Water-borne diseases remain a serious threat in many poor regions of the world, with around 2 million children dying each year from diarrhoea. Efforts to provide safe drinking water have had difficulty reaching remote areas.
Even in places with basic water-purification systems, people often opt for riskier wells under trees because the water is cooler, Rob Reed, who led the brass study, was quoted by 'Nature' magazine as saying.
It said on a recent trip to India, Reed, a microbiologist at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, witnessed villagers doing exactly this.
But he also heard an interesting piece of local wisdom: people believe that traditional brass water containers offer some protection against sickness. The idea, Nature added, intrigued Reed, who was in Asia investigating the anti-bacterial effects of sunlight on water.
He has now found that bacteria are indeed less likely to thrive in brass water pots than in earthenware or plastic ones. "It's one of the traditional ideas of water treatment and we were able to find a microbiological basis for it," he was quoted as saying. (Health News)
Broken heart can kill: study:
[Health India]: Washington, Feb 10 : Giving credence to countless romantic songs, novels and sonnets, scientists have established that people can really die of a "broken heart", caused by the sudden death of a loved one or a breakup.
The death of a loved one, a traumatic breakup or even the shock of a surprise party can unleash a flood of stress hormones that can stun the heart, causing sudden, life-threatening spasms in otherwise healthy people, a new study said yesterday.
Dubbed as the "broken heart sydrome", the phenomenon can trigger what seems like a classic heart attack and can put victims at risk for potentially severe complications and even death, the study published just ahead of Valentine's Day said.
By giving proper medical care, however, doctors can mend the physical aspect of a "broken heart" and avoid long-term damage, it said.
"When you think about people who have died of a broken heart, there are probably several ways that can happen," said Ilan S Wittstein of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, whose findings appear in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
No one knows how often it happens, but the researchers suspect it is more frequent than most doctors realize -- primarily among older women -- and is usually mistaken for a traditional heart attack.
It remains unclear, say experts, why women would be more vulnerable, but it may have something to do with hormones or how their brains are wired to their hearts. PTI
Soothing music is the best sleeping pill!:
[Health India]: London, Feb 03 : Stop taking sleeping pills and switch on your radio set if you are not having a sound sleep, as a new research has revealed that 45 minutes of relaxing music before bedtime can make for a restful night.
For the research, published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, the Taiwanese researchers studied the sleeping patterns of 60 elderly people with sleep problems and found that the technique not only ensured a restful sleep but also lacked any side-effects unlike other treatments.
During the course of research, the participants were either given a choice of listening to music before going to sleep or nothing at all.
Those who preferred music could select from six tapes that featured soft music, jazz, folk or orchestral pieces.
The researchers found that listening to music caused physical changes that aided restful sleep, including a lower heart and respiratory rate. These people reported 35 percent improvement in their sleep and less dysfunction during daytime.
"The music group reported a 26 percent overall improvement in the first week and this figure continued to rise as they mastered the technique of relaxing into sedative music," BBC quoted professor Hui-Ling Lai, the lead author of the study, as saying. (ANI)
The faster you react, the longer you live!:
[Health India]: Washington, Feb 3 : How quickly we react to the happenings around us may indicate how long we might live, reveals a new research.
Researchers Ian Deary of University of Edinburgh, and Geoff Der of MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, have found that though mental ability including both IQ and reaction time, is associated with life span, but reaction time is the stronger indicator.
The findings presented in the study "Reaction Time Explains IQ's Association with Death," appears in the January 2005 issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the American Psychological Society.
The new research builds on earlier studies showing that people with lower IQs tend to die at younger ages than those with higher IQs. Deary and Der, however, wanted to use a more fundamental measure of mental ability, which they define as efficiency in processing information.
To test their theory they examined the data collected by the MRC Unit in 1988 and along with finding that those with higher IQ scores lived longer, a result consistent with other studies, Deary and Der also discovered that faster reaction times seemed an even better predictor of long life than IQ.
Reaction time is moderately related to IQ, but is a simpler assessment of the brain's information-processing ability, one that doesn't bear so much on other, possibly confounding factors like knowledge, education, or background.
"It is only in the last few years that we have come to realise that IQ-type scores are related to mortality, even when the mental tests were taken decades before death. Now, several research teams have replicated this finding. What we need to do now is understand it. We and others are following up several possible explanations for this intriguing new association between intelligence and survival," Professor Deary said.
He added that future studies of reaction times in younger-aged people might shed more light on the IQ-mortality connection. (ANI)
New STD found in New York City:
[Health India]: NEW YORK, Feb. 2 : A rare sexually transmitted disease reportedly has been found in New York City, leading officials to renew their effort to teach safe sex to the public.
The disease -- called Lymphogranuloma venereum -- is caused by a strain of Chlamydia and infects lymph glands in the genital area, the New York Post reported. The report said the disease has been detected in at least two people in the city.
The disease, which can be treated with antibiotics, had previously been detected in gay enclaves in San Francisco and Europe.
In some cases it can be transmitted through nonsexual contact, the report said.
Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden is expected to discuss prevention methods and treatment with several public-health advocacy groups.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
Aspirin not used enough to fight heart diseases:
[Health India]: New York, Feb 1 : It has been proved that heart attacks can be prevented by using aspirin and yet the simple medication is grossly under-utilised even though heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the US.
The American Heart Association (AHA) has recommended that aspirin be used by high-risk patients who face the probability of experiencing a heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years, reports science portal Heart Centre Online, quoting a study by the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM).
But, according to the study, 43 percent of adults over the age of 40 who were at increased risk were not using aspirin therapy.
"Despite significant educational efforts in recent years to elevate awareness among professionals and consumers about the proven benefits of aspirin therapy in reducing the risk of heart attacks and recurrent stroke in individuals at increased risk, there is still less than adequate utilisation," said George K. Anderson, former president of ACPM.
Numerous studies have shown that aspirin, which belongs to a group of drugs called anti-platelets, prevents the formation of blood clots thus helping to prevent artery blockages that trigger heart attacks.
The study showed that 42 percent of adults in the US aged 40 or over were at increased risk for heart disease.
All high-risk people are candidates for aspirin, according to AHA.
Indo-Asian News Service
A French kiss can give you 40,000 parasites:
[Health India]: London, Jan 27 : A French kiss may seem the adequate gesture to express love between couples but according to scientists more than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.
According to Ananova, the study says couples also exchange 0.7 grams of protein, 0.45 grams of fat and 0.19 grams of other organic substances.
The results come from a study carried out to publicise the advantages of good oral hygene in Sweden.
Swedish pharmacies taking part in the campaign are also looking for a couple to break the world record in kissing on Valentine's Day. (ANI)
SMSs are bad for fingers, say doctors in Italy:
[Health India]: London, Jan 26 : Doctors in Italy are preaching the people, especially the youths, to desist from excessive text messaging since "it is bad for fingers".
According to the Daily Times, the doctors are telling the people that furious typing on mobile phones could lead to "acute tendonitis".
The report said that a 13-year-old girl in Savona needed treatment from an orthopedic specialist after typing at least 100 SMSs a day. She was prescribed anti-inflammatory medicine and ordered to rest her hands. (ANI)
Exercise is good for women's heart!:
[Health India]: Washington, Jan 21: A new study conducted by American Physiological Society suggests that women who are more physically fit have better blood clotting profiles than women who are unfit.
The study, "Relationship of physical fitness, hormone replacement therapy and hemostatic risk factors in postmenopausal women," lead by Linda M. Szymanski studied number of blood clotting variables were studied in four groups of women (12 in each group) - women on HRT who were fit and unfit, and women not taking HRT who were fit and unfit, before and after a maximal exercise test.
The stress test was to check how the blood clotting system reacted - and unfit women didn't respond well by any measure. Tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), an enzyme made by the body that breaks up blood clots, was higher in physically fit women compared to unfit women.
Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, a blood substance that inhibits TPA, was lower in physically fit women. And, a marker that indicates blood clot activation was also lower in fit women. Together these results suggest that exercisers may be better able to prevent the formation of blood clots, and may be one reason why exercisers are less likely to have heart attacks. (ANI)
Women's brains are white and men's grey!:
[Health India]: Washington, Jan 21: The difference between the two sexes is just not limited to men being from Mars and women from Venus but if anew study conducted by researchers at University of California Irvine is to be believed it extends to the brain as well.
The study shows women having more white matter and men more gray matter related to intellectual skill, revealing that no single neuroanatomical structure determines general intelligence and that different types of brain designs are capable of producing equivalent intellectual performance.
The researchers combined their respective neuroimaging technology and subject pools to study brain morphology with magnetic resonance imaging. Using a technique called voxel-based morphometry, they converted these MRI pictures into structural brain "maps" that correlated brain tissue volume with IQ.
"These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior. In addition, by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain," lead researcher Richard Haier was quoted as saying.
The study also identified regional differences with intelligence. For example, 84 percent of gray-matter regions and 86 percent of white-matter regions involved with intellectual performance in women were found in the brain's frontal lobes, compared to 45 percent and zero percent for males, respectively. The gray matter driving male intellectual performance is distributed throughout more of the brain.
In general, men have approximately 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence than women, and women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than men.
This explains why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing (like mathematics), while women tend to excel at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray- matter regions in the brain, such as required for language facility. (ANI)
Forgiving people make you healthier: Study:
[Health India]: Washington, Jan 17 : A new study, which has been published in the journal "Harvard Women's Health Watch," has found that the old adage 'forgive and forget' not only makes you happier it also makes you healthier.
The study found that forgiving people reduces stress, makes your heart rate improve and also keeps your blood pressure under control, reports Healthscout.
The researchers said that forgiveness reduces stress. Nursing a grudge can place the same strains, tense muscles, elevated blood pressure, increased sweating, on your body as a major stressful event.
They also said that the heart will benefit if you're able to forgive. A study found a link between forgiving and improvements in heart rate and blood pressure.
The report indicated that women who were able to forgive their spouses and feel kind-hearted toward them resolved conflicts more effectively.
Less pain. People with chronic back pain had less pain and anxiety when they practiced meditation focusing on converting anger to compassion.
It also said that by forgiving another person, you make yourself, not the person who may have hurt you, responsible for your happiness. People who talk about forgiveness during psychotherapy experience greater improvements than people who don't discuss forgiveness, said the survey. (ANI)
The way you remember your name might change soon!:
[Health India]: Washington, Jan 16 : The way you remember your own name or a friend's birthday might soon change now as researchers at the Northwestern University have presented a provocative new theory which contradicts earlier explanations of how brain stores information in the memory.
The present theories say that memory trace, or engram, "feels" like it is stored permanently in the brain and it will never be forgotten. At the molecular level, new proteins are manufactured, in a process known as translation, and it is these newly synthesised proteins that subsequently stabilise the changes underlying the memory. Thus, every new memory results in a permanent representation in the brain.
However, neuroscientist Aryeh Routtenberg has countered this view by stating that rather than permanent storage, there is a "dynamic, meta-stable" process, and our subjective experience of permanence is a result of the re-duplication of memories across many different brain networks.
The researchers explain in the January issue of the journal Trends in Neuroscience that one's name is represented in innumerable neural circuits, thus, it is extremely difficult to forget. But each individual component is malleable and transient, and as no particular neural network lasts a lifetime, it is theoretically possible to forget one's own name.
This is seen in the most advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers stated.
The advantage of such a precarious storage mechanism is that it is a highly flexible system, enabling rapid retrieval even of infrequent elements, with great advantages over models of permanent storage.
To achieve this high degree of flexibility, Routtenberg's new theory goes on to propose that the brain stores long-term memory by rapidly changing the shape of proteins already present at those synapses activated by learning.
While it is universally agreed that brain proteins are critical for memory storage, Routtenberg's hypothesis challenges the widely accepted, 40-year-old model that long-term memories are stabilized only once newly synthesized proteins are transported to recently activated synapses.
"There are enough instances of memory storage in the virtual absence of protein synthesis to compel consideration of alternative models," Routtenberg, said.
Routtenberg's theory, derived from a consideration of extensive, fundamental biochemical information, advocates that learning leads to a post-synthesis (or, post-translational) synaptic protein modification that results in changes to the shape, activity and/or location of existing synaptic proteins. In the Routtenberg-Rekart proposal, this is the only mechanism required for long-term memory. (ANI)
Personal emails allow employees to relax!:
[Health India]: London, Jan 12: The next time you feel stressed at work, try this stress busting technique, send personal emails to your near and dear ones.
According to The Sun, psychologists from Surrey University have revealed that bosses should allow staff to send personal emails because it makes them better workers. They claim that contact with friends and family helps slash stress levels.
It allows staff to get back to work with "renewed energy and vigilance". Workers who took regular email breaks were more relaxed and got an energy boost. (ANI)
4 tips for better physical and mental health in 2005:
[Health India]: Washington, Jan 11 : People make New Year's resolutions and usually break them before January is over. But the Mayo Clinic says that you can make relatively small changes in your lifestyle that can have a major impact on your health.
According to Healthscout, the health tips by Mayo Clinic are as follows:
*Quit or cut down on things bad for health like smoking and alcohol consumption.
*Cut stress levels by simplifying your life, setting priorities, and just letting some things go.
*Set some time aside for yourself and the people and activities you enjoy.
*Schedule disease-screening tests that are appropriate for someone of your age, sex, and level of risk. (ANI)
Fifty nine heart patients to take part in Mumbai Marathon:
[Health India]: Mumbai, Jan 10 : Fifty nine patients who have undergone bypass surgery and angioplasty at the Asian Heart Institute here have entered to run the 7-km Dream Run which is part of the Standard Chartered Mumbai International Marathon 2005 to be held here on January 16.
All these patients are currently undergoing in-depth training programmes and cardiac rehabilitation routines designed specifically by the institute for taking part in the event, a media release said today.
The patients included 37 who have undergone coronary artery bypass graft and ten others who have gone through percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, the release said, adding the institute was the medical partner of the title sponsors of the marathon.
The institute's CEO Dr Ramakant Panda said, "There exists a myth amongst most cardiac patients that exertion through regular exercise and sport is harmful for their heart. We, at Asian Heart, feel that routine exercise is of prime importance." PTI
Passive smoking makes kids dull!:
[Health India]: London, Jan 5 : Kids exposed to passive smoking are dull and fare worse in reading, maths, logic and reasoning tests, a study conducted at Children's Environmental Health Centre in Cincinnati, and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has revealed.
The researchers found that more the second-hand smoke they inhaled the lower their scores were and those with low-level exposure were also affected.
"Many parents may simply not be aware of the harm they can cause by smoking, not just to their child's physical health but possibly to their mental development as well," Amanda Sandford, of anti-smoking group ASH, was quoted by The Sun, as saying.
"This study provides further incentive to set public health standards to protect children,"Researcher Dr Kimberley Yolton ,added.(ANI)
Tips for living till 100 years!:
[Health India]: Washington, Jan 1 : Japanese journal Nippon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi, after conducting a study of 4,152 Japanese centenarians has come up with few tips that can make you live a healthy life up to 100 years.
According to Healthscout, the tips to be followed to live a long and healthy life are:
*Eating lots of protein *Keeping calories down *Getting enough sleep *Living in an area with excellent medical facilities
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