Health A-Z

Woman put on running shoes for breast cancer awareness

Women of different age groups on Sunday morning put on their running shoes and joined the ‘Pinkathon’ to create awareness about breast cancer.

 Nearly 2,000 women, including several breast cancer survivors, got a cheerful applause for every stride they took towards the finishing post during the 10 km all women Pinkathon.

The event was organized by Maximus Events, spearheaded by model-actor Milind Soman and HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) Ltd, a specialist in cancer care.

Expressing happiness over large participation in the event, Soman said events like these create much-needed awareness in fighting cancer which, if detected in time, can be cured.

“Pinkathon is an activity that not only promotes well being but also raises resistance levels and improves health, to help fight diseases like cancer,” he said.

Earlier, as a build up to today’s event, Treadathon was organized at a south Delhi mall last week where men ran on treadmills in relay format and encouraged women to participate in Pinkathon.

 

Source: Zee news

Energy drink studies may be clouded by industry ties

Some researchers say there are no reasons to suspect the safety of energy drinks combined with alcohol

The involvement of energy drink companies in research into their products has prevented clear answers about the risks these drinks may pose, argues a new editorial in a prominent medical journal.

In the pages of the journal BMJ, a researcher raised concerns about the role of energy drink makers, specifically Red Bull, in the design and interpretation of research into the safety of these drinks. The studies have investigated whether energy drinks worsen the harms from alcohol consumption when the two beverages are taken together.

“The public needs to be critical consumers of research, especially research that is funded or quoted by parties with vested interests,” Dr. Peter Miller, associate professor of psychology at Deakin University in Australia and author of the editorial, told LiveScience. “We still don’t know if energy drinks because harm and the current experimental evidence is unable to explain the worrying epidemiological findings we have.”

Research has shown that people who consume energy drinks and alcohol together tend to have higher blood alcohol levels than people who drink only alcohol, Miller said. And that has lead to concerns that energy drinks may encourage higher levels of alcohol consumption

Some researchers say there are no reasons to suspect the safety of energy drinks combined with alcohol; however, these researchers are often funded by energy drink makers, who may have had some involvement in research design, Miller said. So there is reason for skepticism when such researchers say energy drinks do not promote alcohol consumption.

Red Bull spokeswoman Patrice Radden said, “Red Bull is funding high-quality research,” in response to a request from LiveScience for comment on Miller’s editorial.

But Cecile A. Marczinski, an associate professor of psychology at Northern Kentucky University who has studied consumption of alcohol and energy drinks together, said not enough research has been done on whether energy drinks can lead to more alcohol consumption.

Laboratory studies show there are reasons to think people may be harmed by mixing energy drinks and alcohol, Marczinski said. People may be inclined to drink more because they feel stimulated, because they don’t feel as tired or because the flavor leaves them less aware of how much alcohol they’ve consumed.

While some studies have shown energy drinks do not decrease people’s awareness of their intoxication, Marczinski noted that those have been small studies (one done in the United Kingdom had only 20 participants).

The study designs also had some issues, she said. Although Red Bull has provided a “placebo” beverage for studies of energy drinks in the past, Marczinski said that there are some potential problems with that method.

“There’s been no independent evaluation that the placebo drink is devoid of stimulants,” she said.

One major problem for research is that ethics limit how much researchers can allow study participants to drink, Miller said. As a result, experiments do not simulate real-world situations.

Marczinski said she cannot have study participants reach a blood alcohol level higher than 0.08 in her own research. Both she and Miller recommended that more research be done in natural settings, such as bars, where people choose on their own to have energy drinks together with alcohol.

But, Marczinski said, the research and evaluation needs to be more independent.

“I think there is a conflict whereby the company is likely to lose sales if it is suddenly no longer possible to mix energy drinks with alcohol,” Marczinski said.

The editorial is published online today (

 

Nuclear plants don’t raise child leukemia risk

Despite fears to the contrary, children who live near nuclear power plants have no greater risk of developing leukemia or a type of cancer known as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a large British study published on Friday.

Researchers who studied some 10,000 children aged fewer than 5 and analyzed birth records for nearly every case of childhood leukemia in Britain from 1962 to 2007 found no apparent extra risk from living near an atomic power station.

John Bithell of the Childhood Cancer Research Group, who led the study, noted there have been concerns about child leukemia near nuclear plants in Britain since the 1980s, when a television program reported an excess of cancer in children near the Sellafield plant in north-west England.

There have since been conflicting reports in Britain and other European countries about whether children living near such reactors are at greater risk of developing childhood cancers.

A study on Germany, published in 2007, did find a significantly increased risk. But a 35-year-long survey in Britain by the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment, published in 2001, found no evidence that living near nuclear plants increased the incidence of children developing leukemia.

Bithell said the findings of his research, published in the British Journal of Cancer, and should be reassure the public.

“Our case-control study has considered the birth records for nearly every case of childhood leukemia born in Britain and, reassuringly, has found no such correlation with proximity to nuclear power plants,” he said in a statement.

Leukemia is a cancer of immature white blood cells that mostly occurs in children between 2 and 4 years old.

It is rare, affecting around 500 children a year in Britain, and experts say 85 to 90 percent can now be cured.

Bithell’s research group was funded by the Scottish and English governments and the charity Children with Cancer UK.

They measured the distance children lived from the nearest nuclear plant both at birth and when diagnosed with leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Data on cancer cases came from the National Registry of Childhood Tumours, which has kept records of nearly all children diagnosed since 1962 and is estimated to be more than 99 percent complete for leukemia cases over the period studied.

Hazel Nunn, head of health information at the charity Cancer Research UK, said the results were “heartening”.

“This study supports the findings of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment that being born or living near a nuclear power station doesn’t lead to more cases of leukemia and similar cancers in children under 5 in the UK,” she said.

“But these results can’t rule out any possible risk, so it’s still important that we continue to monitor both radiation levels near nuclear power plants and rates of cancer among people who live close by.”

Source: fox news

10 ways to prevent bloating

The reason for your puffy belly may be bloat, not fat. In fact, one of the worst culprits for this problem—a slow digestive system—is common among women over age 40

Nothing’s more frustrating than grabbing your favorite jeans and—eek!—they aren’t even close to buttoning. But don’t despair: The reason for your puffy belly may be bloat, not fat. In fact, one of the worst culprits for this problem—a slow digestive system—is common among women over age 40. The good news is that there are lots of simple tweaks that can counteract common bloat-inducers. Here’s how to slim your silhouette.

Start off with fiber

There’s nothing distends a belly like constipation, so start your morning with a breakfast cereal packed with fiber to get things moving. Look for a cereal with both insoluble fiber (from bran) and gel-like soluble fiber (from psyllium).

Slim your veggies

Instead of noshing on raw vegetables, opt for steamed ones instead. A half-cup serving of cooked carrots delivers the same nutrition as one cup raw, but it takes up less belt-bloating room in your GI tract.

Hold the hot stuff

Give dishes a flavor boost with in-season fresh or dried herbs like dill, basil, mint, sage, tarragon, and rosemary—instead of super-spicy additions like black pepper, Chili powder, hot sauces, and vinegar. Spicy foods can stimulate the release of stomach acid, which can cause irritation.

Spit out the gum

When you chew gum, you swallow air. All that air gets trapped in your gut and causes pressure, bloating, and belly expansion.

Skip fake sugars

Sorbitol, xylitol, and mannitol are bloat-inducing sugar alcohols found in diet sodas and sugar-free gum. Avoid them for a slimmer silhouette.

Cut the carbs

As a backup energy source, your muscles store a type of carbohydrate called glycogen—and each gram of glycogen is stored with about three grams of water. But most people don’t need all this stockpiled fuel. Decreasing high-carb foods like bagels, pasta, and pretzels will help drain off excess stored fluids.

Be smart about beans

There’s a reason they’re called the magical fruit. Legumes and veggies like cabbage and Brussels sprouts induce more gas in your GI tract and can make you look like you swallowed a balloon. Soak dried beans overnight or take the OTC enzyme Beano.

Get a move on

Moving your body helps release air that has been trapped in your GI tract, relieving pressure and—you guessed it—bloating. Increasing your heart rate and breathing stimulates the natural contractions of the intestinal muscles, helping to prevent constipation and gas buildup by expediting digestion. Walk for at least five minutes to help get things moving inside your belly.

Guzzle more liquids

It seems counterintuitive—you’d think more liquid would equal more puff, right?—but getting rid of bloat means being well hydrated, so aim for at least eight glasses of water each day. Instead of plain water, try our Sassy Water that has ginger in it to help soothe your GI tract.

Avoid acidic sips

Coffee, tea, juice, and alcohol are all high-acid beverages that can irritate your GI tract, causing swelling

Bring on the bananas

Foods such as bananas, potatoes, and spinach help your body get rid of excess water weight, minimizing your middle. Extra fluid tends to accumulate when your potassium and sodium levels are out of balance. Increasing your potassium intake can bring lower your sodium.

Source : fox news

UN: 6.6 million children under 5 died last year

Childhood death rates around the world have halved since 1990 but an estimated 6.6 million children under the age of 5 still died last year, the U.N. children’s agency said Friday.

Nearly half of all children who die are in five countries: Nigeria, Congo, India, Pakistan and China, it said in a report.

“Progress can and must be made,” said Anthony Lake, UNICEF’s executive director. “When concerted action, sound strategies, adequate resources and strong political will are harnessed in support of child and maternal survival, dramatic reductions in child mortality aren’t just feasible, they are morally imperative.”

The top killers are malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea, the report said, taking the lives of about 6,000 children under age 5 daily. A lack of nutrition contributes to almost half of these deaths, the U.N. said.

Eastern and Southern Africa have reduced their death rates for children under 5 by more than 50 percent since 1990. West and Central Africa are the only regions not to have at least halved the number of children under 5 dying over the past 22 years, the U.N. said.

Nigeria bears more than 30 percent of early childhood deaths for malaria and 20 percent of the deaths associated with HIV. Globally, the country accounts for one in every eight child deaths, the U.N. said.

While these numbers are grim, the rate of improvement globally seems to have plateaued at about 4 percent improvement per year since 2005, the report said. The estimated numbers are based on solid data from about half the world’s countries. And for regions with the biggest problems, they had to rely on modeling techniques.

Countries like Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Brazil showed tremendous progress, due in part to increased community health care. Affordable and increased interventions – like treated mosquito nets, medicines, rehydration treatments and improved access to safe water – helped improve the early childhood death rate in other countries as well.

But improvements were not as bold in countries like Nigeria, Congo, Sierra Leone and Pakistan, the report showed.

Lake said a new sense of urgency was needed to improve the figures.

“Yes, we should celebrate the progress,” he said. “But how can we celebrate when there is so much more to do?”
Read more: Fox news

 

Michelle Obama wants people to drink more plain water


Michelle Obama has pushed Americans to eat healthier and to exercise more

Michelle Obama has pushed Americans to eat healthier and to exercise more. Now she says we should “drink up” too. As in plain water and as in more of it.

The first lady, an exercise fanatic who loves French fries and whose biceps are envied by women everywhere, is getting behind a campaign being launched Thursday to encourage people to drink more plain old-fashioned water. Whether it comes from a faucet, an underground spring, a rambling river or a plastic bottle, the message is: “Drink up.”

She was joining the Partnership for a Healthier America as the nonpartisan, nonprofit group launches the nationwide effort from Watertown, Wis., with backing from a variety of likely and unlikely sources, including the beverage industry, entertainers, media and government. Mrs. Obama is the organization’s honorary chairman.

Every bodily system depends on water, which makes up about 60 percent of a person’s body weight, according to the Mayo Clinic. Water is a calorie-free option for people concerned about weight control, and is largely inexpensive and available practically everywhere.

Yet despite recent trends showing a rise in water consumption and declines in the amount of soda people drink, Larry Soler, the partnership’s president and chief executive, says the “drink up” water campaign is still needed. Health advocates have blamed the corn syrups and other sugars in soda for obesity.

“That’s exactly the type of impact we’re glad to be seeing, and we want to accelerate that because we still have an enormous problem in this country with rates of obesity,” Soler said.

Sam Kass, executive director of “Let’s Move,” the first lady’s anti-childhood obesity initiative, cited federal statistics showing that about 40 percent of consumers drink less than half the typically recommended eight cups of water a day and that about a fourth of kids below age 19 don’t drink any plain water at all on any given day.

“Water is sort of our original energy drink,” he said.

Soler emphasized that the campaign is not about pushing a particular type of water, or stressing water over other beverages, although Mrs. Obama in the past has counseled people to switch from sugary soda to water. She also has talked about seeing improvement in her two daughters’ health after making that substitution in their diets.

The first lady also has been criticized by people who accuse her of being the nation’s food police.

“Every participating company has agreed to only encourage people to drink water, not focus on what people shouldn’t drink, not even talk about why they may feel their type of water is better than another,” Soler said. “It’s just `drink more water.'”

The first lady has recorded individual messages that are to air from morning to night Thursday on various TV talk shows, including “Today,” “Good Morning America,” “Nuevo Dia,” “Despierta America,” “The View,” “Live With Kelly and Michael,” “Katie” and the late-night programs with comedians Jay Leno, David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon. The hosts also will drink water on air and encourage viewers to do the same.

The campaign’s logo, a blue water drop with the words “drink up” in white, eventually will be plastered on millions of packages of bottled water, individual bottles of water themselves and reusable bottles, Soler said, as well as on more than 10,000 outdoor public drinking fountains.

The American Beverage Association, which represents the makers of soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, juices and juice drinks, and bottled water and water beverages, supports the campaign, as does the International Bottled Water Association, among others, Soler said.

Individuals bottled water brands behind the push include Aquafina, Dasani, Deer Park, Evian, Nestle Pure Life, Poland Spring and Zephyrhills, Soler said.

Watertown, which is located on the banks of the Rock River in southeastern Wisconsin about midway between Milwaukee and Madison, is home to two companies with ties to the soft drink industry. Wis-Pak Inc., which manufactures and distributes Pepsi-Cola products, has its corporate office there with about 200 workers and is among the city’s top 10 employers, according to the local Chamber of Commerce. The smaller 7-Up Bottling Co. is a family-owned beverage distributor.

Neither company returned telephone messages left Wednesday seeking comment on the campaign.

Kass said Watertown wasn’t chosen because of the soda distributors but because it twice had won an award for having the best-tasting water in the state. The Wisconsin Water Association, which represents public utilities, however, said it could find a record of only one win, in 2010. This year’s winner was the state capital, Madison.

Source : Fox news

Anorexia linked to how cholesterol processes in our body

Scientists have linked the eating disorder anorexia to variants in a gene coding for an enzyme that regulates cholesterol metabolism.

The study suggests that anorexia could be caused in part by a disruption in the normal processing of cholesterol, which may disrupt mood and eating behavior.

For this project-the largest-ever sequencing study of anorexia – Nicholas J. Schork, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) worked with an international team of collaborators representing more than two dozen research institutions.

The project made use of genetic information from more than 1,200 anorexia patients and nearly 2,000 non-anorexic control subjects.

For an initial “discovery” study in 334 subjects, the researchers catalogued the variants of a large set of genes that had already been linked to feeding behavior or had been flagged in previous anorexia studies.

Of more than 150 candidate genes, only a handful showed statistical signs of a linkage with anorexia in this group of subjects.

One of the strongest signs came from the gene EPHX2, which codes for epoxide hydrolase 2-an enzyme known to regulate cholesterol metabolism. ”

The team followed up with several replication studies, each using a different cohort of anorexia patients and controls, as well as different genetic analysis methods. The scientists continued to find evidence that certain variants of EPHX2 occur more frequently in people with anorexia.

Schork noted that people with anorexia often have remarkably high cholesterol levels in their blood, despite being severely malnourished.

The study has been published online in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

 

New hope for women suffering from recurrent miscarriage

Deficient steroid production in turn leads to reduced formation of fats and vitamins that are essential for pregnancy nutrition

Researchers have brought out new data that could prove useful for advances in care for women suffering from recurrent miscarriage.

The recurrent loss of pregnancy through miscarriage causes significant distress to couples, often exacerbated by there being so few treatments available to clinicians.

Scientists have been uncertain about how these natural killer cells (NK cells) could contribute to a miscarriage and this has raised doubt over their importance in causing pregnancy loss.

Led by Professor Jan Brosens of Warwick Medical School, the team found that elevated uterine NK cells in the lining of the womb indicate deficient production of steroids.

Deficient steroid production in turn leads to reduced formation of fats and vitamins that are essential for pregnancy nutrition.

This study has been published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Not all obese women are at childbirth risk!

“Healthy” obese women, who have given birth to a baby before, are at lesser risk than first-time mums of normal weight, according to a new study.

But a new study by Oxford University shows the risks are not the same for all obese women.

Lead researcher Dr Jennifer Hollowell of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, said that the increased risk was fairly modest for obese women who did not have conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes or a previous caesarean section, and the risks were quite low if the woman had given birth previously.

She said that they found that around half of very obese women giving birth in obstetric units have medical problems or pregnancy complications when admitted.

Hollowell asserted that their study focused on women who were obese but otherwise healthy when they went into labour, and some of them had much lower risks than might have been expected.

The Oxford University researchers point out that, among healthy women with a straightforward pregnancy, childbirth risks are influenced more by whether someone is a first-time mum than whether they are obese.

They found that the chances of first-time mums of normal weight having medical interventions or complications during childbirth are greater than for `very obese` but otherwise healthy women having a second or subsequent child. The findings are published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The findings have been published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Source: Zee news

 

Skipping Whooping Cough Vaccine Boosts Disease Risk

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According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, more than 41,000 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, were reported in the United States in 2012. Infants and children between the ages of 7 and 10 are the two age groups with the highest incidence of the disease. The majority of pertussis deaths occur among infants that are younger than 3 months of age due to barriers such as health care or parental refusal of the DTaP vaccination.

While doctors recommend children from 2 months to 6 years old to receive their five DTaP shots — a combination vaccination that protects kids against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis — a significant percentage of kids skip or receive the shots late. Nearly half of children diagnosed with pertussis are found to be under vaccinated, according to a new study.

Findings published online in the journal JAMA Pediatrics revealed that children who skip their whooping cough shots or get them late have a high risk of developing the disease. Researchers conducted a matched case-control study of 72 children (3 to 36 months of age) born between 2004 and 2008 and who were diagnosed with pertussis, and 288 healthy children of similar age who did not catch the disease.

The researchers evaluated how many children in each group received their whooping cough shots on time, and how many children were under vaccinated. Jason Glanz, Ph.D., researcher of the study and senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and his colleagues defined under vaccination for the DTaP vaccine as missing or delaying one or more of the first four doses by the recommended age, says Medpage Today.

Nearly half — 47 percent — of the children diagnosed with pertussis were found to be under vaccinated, compared with 22 percent of healthy children in the study. The researchers believed that 36 percent of pertussis cases among children belonging to this age group could have been prevented with a one-time pertussis vaccination. “Under vaccination is an increasing trend that potentially places children and their communities at an increased risk for serious infectious disease,” wrote the authors of the study.

Under vaccination of whooping cough was attributed to barriers such as health care and parents choosing not to have their children vaccinated. Approximately 30 percent of kids who were diagnosed with pertussis were under vaccinated due to parental refusal. Parents’ failure to get their children vaccinated on time can contribute to a widespread outbreak of whooping cough in the U.S.

Currently, whooping cough has hit Texas the hardest with nearly 2,000 reported cases and two deaths this year, reports Discovery.com. The state could possibly have more cases than what has been reported in the last 50 years.