Fungus found in rice, wheat and nuts threatens AIDS epidemic

A new research found that a type of fungus coating is more found in the stored corn, wheat, rice and nuts in developing countries which will  quietly worsening the AIDS epidemic.

The food stores near the equator are contaminated by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus, fungi that produce a toxic substance called aflatoxin.

About 4.5 billion people are exposed to aflatoxin with chronic exposure, linked to liver damage and related cancers; as it is the spread of infectious disease could make it even more deadly.
” aflatoxin exposure may be taking an even greater where millions are infected with HIV, including Africa and Asia, and rice storage areas contaminated by fungi,” Pauline Jolly, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), said. Continuous monitoring and strict regulations minimize exposure in the United States.

Jolly and her team found 314 HIV-positive people who were not yet on antiretroviral therapy for the study in Kumasi, Ghana.

They divided patients into four groups based on their level of aflatoxin exposure and found that the highest exposure were 2.6 times more HIV viral load than in the lowest exposure group.

Higher viral load translates into higher rates of HIV transmission and the potential for earlier progression to the opportunistic infections of AIDS.

Drinking sodas will erode the tooth enamel:

 

When it is subject to enamel erosion of teeth, diet soda is not good as regular ones, a new study have found.

Kim McFarland, D.D.S., associate professor in the University Of Nebraska Medical Center College Of Dentistry in Lincoln, has observed a number of dental patients with erosion of tooth enamel, the protective layer of the tooth.

If erosion takes place in enamel, then it can’t be taken back and affects people their whole life.

This erosion occurs in teenagers, the main reason behind this is drinking more amount of soda.

Triggers like hot and cold drinks – and even cold air – reach the tooth`s nerve and cause pain.

Depending on the frequency and amount of soda consumed, the erosion process can be extreme and it can be throughout the life time. She said the National Soft Drink Association estimates the average American drinks 44 gallons of soda a year.

Phosphoric and citric acid, are common ingredients in most popular sodas and diet soda which is the main phenomenon to alter the pH balance in the mouth and can cause tooth erosion over time.

 

Study finds women’s height related to cancer risk

cancer_cells.jpgHeight of some women may come to risk for developing cancer. A new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarker’s and Prevention indicates that taller women are at a greater risk to have some forms of the disease.

 “We didn’t find much difference in heavy or lighter women, said” Dr. Thomas Rohan, in New York City.

In a 12-year study of 20,928 postmenopausal women, researchers noted that height was linked to breast, colon, endometrium, kidney, ovary, rectum, and thyroid cancers – as well as multiple myeloma and melanoma.

The taller the women were, the higher their cancer risk. Each 3.95 inch increase in height was associated with a 13 percent increased risk for developing any type of cancer, when researchers compared the heights of all women in the study. For example, a woman who was 5 feet 10 inches tall would have a 13 percent higher risk for cancer than a woman who was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall.

Furthermore, some cancers were more strongly associated with height than others. For cancers of the kidney, rectum, thyroid and blood, women experienced a 23 percent to 29 percent increased risk with each incremental gain in height.

While researchers can’t say exactly why the link exists, they have a few theories.

Another potential explanation may be related to environmental factors, such as childhood nutrition.  Increased energy intake during childhood is thought to influence adult height and may also impact certain systems in the body, according to Rohan.

“The intake may influence height, which somehow is influencing cancer risk,” Rohan said. “It may have an effect on hormones, which…may influence cancer risk.”

However, Rohan points out that many additional factors throughout adolescence and young adulthood could also be influencing women’s risk for cancer – and that a true explanation for this phenomenon remains unknown.

Despite their findings, Rohan and his fellow researchers hope that taller women don’t lose sleep over the matter. Instead, he hopes researchers will continue to explore the link between height and cancer, as they search for some of the underlying biological mechanisms that may be responsible for the correlation.

WHO issues MERS virus may be deadlier than SARS:

Last year the new respiratory virus emerged in Middle East that make people sicker faster than SARS, but it doesn’t spread easily according to the latest report of four dozen cases in Saudi Arabia.

The World Health Organization has reported 90 cases of MERS, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, including 45 deaths. Most cases have been in Saudi Arabia, and other virus has also been identified in countries like Jordan, Qatar, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Tunisia. MERS is related to SARS and the two diseases have similar symptoms including a fever, cough and muscle pain.

“The virus is still confined to Middle East. Since this is a corona virus and are able to cause pandemics “said Dr. Christian Drosten of the University of Bonn Medical Centre in Germany,”

Corona viruses are a group of viruses that cause respiratory infections like common cold, but it also includes SARS, the virus that killed about 800 people in a 2003 global outbreak. MERS is distantly related to SARS but there are major differences between the two. Unlike SARS, MERS can cause rapid kidney failure and doesn’t seem as infectious.

Drosten said in October millions of Muslim pilgrims visit Saudi Arabiais worrisome. On Thursday, WHO said the risk of an individual traveler to Mecca catching MERS was considered “very low.” The agency does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions or entry screening for the hajj.

Recent study shows that 42 of the 47 cases in Saudi Arabia need intensive care. Of those, 34 patients are bad and needed a breathing machine. These cases were in older men as one of the biggest outbreaks was among dialysis patients at several hospitals. The research was published Friday in the journal, Lancet Infectious Diseases.

MERS also appears to be mainly affecting men; nearly 80 percent of the cases in the new study were men. Drosten said there might be a cultural explanation for that.

“Women in the (Middle East) region tend to have their mouths covered with at least two layers of cloth,” he said, referring to the veils worn by women in Saudi Arabia. “If the corona virus is being spread by droplets, (the veils) should give women some protection.”

Scientists still haven’t pinpointed the source of MERS WHO says the virus is capable of spreading between people but how exactly how that happens — via coughing, sneezing or indirect physical contact — isn’t known.

 

Eight foods to keep your skin glowing:

Feeling that your skins are not glowing and tired within? Here are eight  foods and tricks to keep your skin at the pink of its health

  1. Sweet Potato:

Sweet potato contains Beta-carotene, which makes them pale orange, balances skin’s pH, helps combat dryness, and promotes cell resulting in smoother skin.

2. Wild salmon

A study found that eating one serving every five days can prevent actinic keratoses—ugly rough patches that are precancerous.

  • 3. Tomatoes

The fruit’s red pigment, lycopene, is an antioxidant that prevents skin from sun damage. To best absorb lycopene, eat tomatoes with olive oil.

4. Citrus Fruits

Vitamin C is essential to building collagen, makes the skin young-looking. Citrus also contains bioflavonoids, which protect skin from UV rays and prevent cell death.

5. Leafy Greens

Spinach, kale, and other greens contain lutein, which protects skin from sun-induced inflammation and wrinkles.

 6. Stay away from white foods

Avoid white bread, pasta, rice, and other refined grain products? They’re quickly broken down into the ultimate white food: sugar. Once in the bloodstream, sugar bonds with protein and creates advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which cause collagen to become inflamed and stiff, leading to wrinkles.

 7. Avoid pills

“There are many health nutrients in food said Nicholas Perricone, a board-certified dermatologist.”It’s very likely that these unknowns work synergistically for a bigger benefit than what you can find in a supplement.”

8. A bonus drink

According to dermatologist Leslie Baumann, red wine contains skin-friendly grape-seed extract and resveratrol, two powerful antioxidants which makes the skin ever glowing

 

More than 250 people sickened by mystery Stomach Bug: says CDC

 

More than 250 people in six states have been sickened with a stomach bug which may be due to food borne illness, according to the CDC.

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating the cyclospora infections, which are often found in tropical or subtropical countries. It causes diarrhea and other flu-like symptoms.

The Centers for Disease Control said in a statement that as of July 22, the cyclospora infection causing diarrhea and other flu-like symptoms had been reported in Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, Georgia and Connecticut and New Jersey

The CDC said 10 people have been hospitalized and most of the reported illnesses occurred from mid-June to early July.

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating the cyclospora infections, which are most often found in tropical or subtropical countries and have been linked to imported fresh produce in the past.

The agency said it is not yet clear whether the cases from each of the six states are part of the same outbreak.

The illness is usually spread when people ingest foods or water contaminated with feces. The agency said it isn’t yet clear whether the cases from all of the states are linked.

The number of reported illnesses expanded from more than 200 to more than 250 on Tuesday, according to the CDC. The CDC added Georgia and Connecticut to the list of affected states.

The agency said it is investigating additional illnesses and the number of those sickened could grow.

 

New Novel screening methods to treat Autism children

In the recent years, diagnosing an autism child has been a difficult process.  There have been only a test to detect the disorder, and current screening methods tend to rely on analyzing a child’s behavior.

The researchers of Rutgers University and Indiana University have developed a new tool, which can be used to both diagnose and treat children with autism. The new method much more focuses on quality movement.

The new technique uses sensors to analyze an involuntary movements and motor functions in relation to cognitive development. According to the researchers, it is the first diagnostic method for autism to use quantitative criteria. Researchers have detailed their therapeutic tool, helping autistic children learn and communicate more effectively.

Dr. Elizabeth Torres, a computational neuroscientist at Rutgers University told “It gives us a fingerprint of that person we can measure their patterns and measure the change and rate of change.  It is in the rate of change of this pattern that the (autism) mystery lies.”

Torres teamed up with fellow Rutgers colleague Dimitri Metaxas and Jorge Jose, a neuroscientist at Indiana University, to develop their novel sensory screening technique.  Using a motion capture system, the researchers place sensors on an autistic patient’s body that take up to 240 measurements per second.  They then analyze those movements with a new statistical computer program they have developed.

This method records a patient’s involuntary movements that are unconscious and controlled by the peripheral nervous system.   According to Torres, the voluntary movements of children with autism are exponentially different and too extreme to be measured.  However, when it comes to involuntary movements, autistic children are still different but similar enough so that their unconscious movements can be measured with a newly developed set of probability distributions.

The team used this method on 78 children and adults with autism, including those with mild forms of the disorder and autistic children who were nonverbal and low-functioning.  According to the researchers, the screening technique correctly diagnosed the patients every time, and it could even classify different subtypes, identify gender differences and track an individual’s progress through treatment.

According to Torres, it’s the element of self-discovery and internal motivation that makes their therapy more successful than current treatment options, which focus on conditioning children to perform socially acceptable behavior – rather than having them figure it out on their own

Regular bedtimes for children ‘help brain power’

 

A new study suggests that regular bedtimes in children’s are associated with performance on a variety of intellectual tests and this was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

“If the child prefers to go to sleep a little bit later, but it’s done regularly, then it’s OK for them”, said Amanda Sacker, professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London.

The study

Researchers looked at information about bedtimes for more than 11,000 children in the United Kingdom. The Millennium Cohort Study followed children when they were aged 3, 5 and 7, and included regular surveys

The study found that, regular bedtimes were linked to better performance this was especially true for 7-year-old girls if they had irregular bedtimes. Boys in this age group did not show the effect. In both girls and boys, non-regular bedtimes at age 3 were linked with lower test scores, but not at age 5.

These results “showed that it wasn’t going to bed late that was affecting child’s development, it was the irregular bedtimes that were linked to poorer developmental scores,” Sacker said.

Researchers found that, in general, children who had irregular bedtimes or went to bed after 9 p.m. tended to come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds than other study participants. These were the children more likely to be from poor homes and have mothers with poorer mental health. They were also less likely to have breakfast and be read to daily.

Implications

There are a few possible explanations for the observations in the study. One is that children with an irregular bedtime may not be getting good quality sleep. Also, the body’s circadian rhythms can be disrupted when a person doesn’t have consistent sleep schedules.

Each day, as environmental stimuli influence changes in the brain, we need sleep to allow fresh learning for the day to come, according to the study. Cognitive impairment and lack of concentration are two possible consequences of limited or disrupted sleep. Given the importance of childhood development, study authors say, low-quality sleep in this critical period could have long-term health effects.

The study supports other research showing that adults also benefit from having consistent bedtimes.

“It not only helps with what’s gone on the day before, but it also sets you in good stead for the day to come,” Sacker said.

That makes it worth finding a consistent time to tuck in the little ones – and yourself

 

FDA seeks possible restrictions on Menthol cigarettes

US health organizations have said menthol cigarettes are more harmful than normal cigarettes, but stopped short of limiting their sale. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would seek possible restrictions for the products.

The agency said that while mint-flavored cigarettes may be just as toxic as others, it was easier to start smoking them and harder to quit.

Menthol cigarettes are one of the growing areas of the tobacco industry. The FDA has commissioned further research into the subject. Menthol cigarettes pose a public health risk than non-menthol cigarettes,” said the preliminary results of the FDA’s study.

It also found the cooling and anesthetic qualities of the menthol made them less harsh – and more appealing to smokers. The report concluded some of the findings from 2011, which suggested that a ban on menthol cigarettes would benefit public health.

But the tobacco industry has said that menthol cigarettes do not need to be subject to different regulations from normal cigarettes.

A group of former health officials, including two cabinet secretaries from the Carter and Bush Senior administrations, denounced the FDA’s inaction.

“The failure of this administration to act undermines the public health and is particularly harmful to vulnerable young Americans and African-Americans,” they said in a joint statement.

According to an earlier study from the US Department of Health only about 25% of white smokers choose menthol cigarettes, while more than 70% of African-American smokers use them.

 

 

Opium: the Natural way for Pain Relief

Of all plants opium poppy, Papaver somniferum is used in the field of medicine, none has been widely employed nor save as many lives and suffering. This plant and its derivatives have been used since ancient times.

Several Narcotics are collectively known as opiates, derive from opium mainly morphine, there are fifty alkaloids are present in opium poppy and the opium poppy is the source of first medicinal compound ever isolated in pure form. That alkaloid morphine was isolated in 1804 by German pharmacist Friederich Serturner. He dubbed the alkaloid morphium, to induce sleep.

Morphine is the most effective and pain-relieving agent in medicine, acting directly upon the central nervous system. When someone is suffering debilitating pain, especially due to injury or surgical procedures, no other substance will relieve pain as well or as quickly.

The second most abundant alkaloid in the opium poppy is codeine, which also possesses pain-relieving properties. Codeine is most widely used as cough relieving agent and is now available only by prescription, as it is both psychoactive and habit-forming.

The opium poppy yields sticky latex that has been employed since antiquity as a mind-altering drug. The latex is prepared in large balls and can be stored for long periods of time. Today, large-scale cultivation of opium poppies for the production of heroin can be found in Mexico, Afghanistan, and throughout Asia. Oddly, heroin was first developed by drug giant Bayer as a cure for morphine addiction. Today there is relatively little morphine addiction, though an estimated 9 million people globally are now addicted to heroin. Technically it is illegal to grow opium poppies in the U.S., are popular ornamental flowers grown widely in America and Canada. Opium poppies are controlled according to the Controlled Substances Act.

The opium poppy, with its globe-shaped seed pod and beautiful flower petals, makes an impressive site, especially when there are thousands of flowering poppies all in one place. It has seen large fields of poppy in Morocco, and the sight is breathtaking and critically valuable to the field of medicine, opium occupies a rare and important place in the human story.