Why some obese people don’t get metabolic diseases

A new research has revealed that reduced levels of inflammation may explain how some obese people are able to remain metabolically healthy.

Some people, who are obese, do not develop high blood pressure and unfavorable cholesterol profiles – factors that increase the risk of metabolic diseases. This phenomenon is described as metabolically healthy obesity.

In the study by Catherine Phillips, BSc, PhD, of University College Cork in Ireland, researchers found that metabolically healthy people – both obese and non-obese – had lower levels of a range of inflammatory markers.

“Regardless of their body mass index, people with favorable inflammatory profiles also tended to have healthy metabolic profiles,” Phillips said.

The cross-sectional study was conducted between 2010 and 2011 at a large primary care center in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland. Researchers analyzed data from 2,040 participants in the Cork and Kerry Diabetes and Heart Disease Study (Phase II).

Participants, who were between the ages of 50 and 69, completed lifestyle questionnaires, physical and clinical assessments, and underwent blood testing so their body mass index (BMI), metabolic profiles and inflammatory markers could be determined.

Researchers found that people who were metabolically healthy had reduced counts of white blood cells and acute-phase response proteins, which proliferate when inflammation occurs. Metabolically healthy people also had higher levels of adiponectin, a hormone that has an anti-inflammatory effect, compared to their metabolically unhealthy counterparts. Researchers found this inflammatory profile in both obese and lean people who were metabolically healthy.

The study was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Bubonic plague, known as the Black Death affects the boy in Kyrgyzstan

A 15-year-old herder has died in Kyrgyzstan of bubonic plague – the first case in the country in 30 years – officials say.

The teenager appears to have been bitten by an infected flea. The authorities have sought to calm fears of an epidemic and have quarantined more than 100 people.

Bubonic plague, known as the Black Death when it killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages, is now rare.

Africa accounted for more than 90% of cases worldwide – especially Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr Bertherat said that bubonic plague in Central Asia was usually transmitted by fleas attached to small wild mammals, which meant that only those who lived in rural areas and worked outside for long hours were in danger of being affected.

“Because bubonic plague is such a rare event, local medical staff are not prepared to diagnose the disease and treat it appropriately,” he said, “which means the first patient usually dies without even a diagnostic.

Deadly bacterium

The teenager, named as Temir Issakunov, came from a mountain village in the north-east of the country, close to the border with Kazakhstan.

We suspect that the patient was infected with the plague through the bite of a flea,” health ministry official Tolo Isakov said.

The BBC’s Rayhan Demytrie says that doctors failed to correctly diagnose his illness until tests were made after his death last week.

Teams have been sent to the area to get rid of rodents, which host the fleas that can carry the deadly bacterium. Reports suggest that the infected flea could have come from a marmot – a type of mountain squirrel sometimes hunted for food.

Kyrgyz authorities say that the availability of antibiotics means that there is no danger of an epidemic. More than 2,000 people are being tested for bubonic plague in the Issik-Kul region. Checkpoints have been set up and travel and livestock transport restricted.

Neighboring Kazakhstan is reported to have tightened border controls to prevent the disease entering its territory.

There are three human plagues caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis of which bubonic plague is the most common.

The other two conditions are linked to bacteria in the blood – septicaemia – and bacteria in the respiratory system – pneumonia, which can be transmitted between humans by respiratory droplets.

During the last 20 years, at least three countries experienced outbreaks of human plague after dormant periods of about 30-50 years, experts say.

These areas were India in 1994 and 2002, Indonesia in 1997 and Algeria in 2003.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23843656

The US Food and Drug Administration have warned that applying some sunscreen sprays in an open flame will cause a serious danger of catching fire.

The health agency reported with five such incidents. One person was lighting a cigarette; another was standing too close to a lit citronella candle, and someone else walked near a grill.

These people have applied the sunscreen near open flame and suffered significant burn injuries and they are under emergency treatments.

The products that were involved in these incidents have been banned by the FDA. However there are a number of sunscreen products that contain flammable ingredients such as alcohol.

so people should avoid using such products near open flame, the FDA’s lead medical officer Dr Narayan Nair said, we recommend that after you have applied a sunscreen spray labeled as flammable, avoiding being near an open flame, sparks or an ignition source.”

For this reason, you should avoid applying a product near any source of a flame. The agency also advised consumers to consider daily plans before choosing which sunscreen to apply. If you’re heading to a barbeque or bonfire on the beach, for example, stick with the cream products.

“This recommendation is particularly important when it comes to choosing a product for children,” the FDA added, “since they are frequently active and may get near a flame source.”

For added summer safety, avoid these 5 other grilling mistakes that could be hazardous to your health.

A pediatrician finds childhood vaccines by spending few years an assault on vitamins and dietary supplements.

“If you take dietary supplements of vitamin A, vitamin E, beta carotene [or] selenium every day or excess amount then you will have the risk of heart disease says, a researcher at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Many studies have shown that vitamins and dietary supplements rarely help and often hurt, Offit says. Still a huge number of people believe that supplements will improve their health. So, Offit decided to challenge the false beliefs of “the church of vitamins and supplements.”

Offit says a big problem with this is a 1994 law that the FDA applies to its regulation of medicines. Meanwhile, patients clearly benefit from a range of FDA-approved statin drugs that actually do what garlic supplements claim to do.

These supplements are claimed as “natural,” even though it is not true. For example, almonds are a natural source of vitamin E. But you would have to eat 17 pounds of almonds to get the amount of vitamin E in a single capsule then how it would be a natural thing?”

Many hospitals provide unproved supplements in their list of medicines but he says in his own institution, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, plans to remove nearly all supplements from its list later this month.

More often than not, these claims are simply designed to pressure you into buying right away without stopping and asking yourself some serious questions about just how efficient a product is. You should also note that “limited quantities” is a weasel word, because you could have 100,000,000 units of a product in stock and still claim that the quantities are actually “limited” in some way. If a product is legitimately helpful, people will spread the word around on their own, so there is really no need for a company to use deceptive marketing practices to try to pressure consumers into making a decision right away.

Somalia hadn’t had a case of polio for nearly six years. But in the past few months the East African country has the worst polio outbreak anywhere in the world.

Twenty new cases of polio were identified this week by the Global Polio Eradication. That brings the total number of cases in the Horn of Africa to 73. The rest of the world combined has tallied only 59 cases so far this year.

Health workers are worried that the virus could gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa and jeopardize the multibillion-dollar effort to wipe out the virus worldwide. Last year the number of children paralyzed by polio hit a record low at 223.

This year it was looking like there were going to be even fewer cases. The last significant pockets of the virus appeared to be isolated in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

Then in May, 2-year-old girl in Mogadishu became the first confirmed case of polio in Somalia in more than six years.

The number of polio cases in Somalia is increasing by the day, says Dr. Nasir Yusuf, who leads UNICEF’s immunization efforts in eastern and southern Africa.

In response to this, there have been five emergency polio immunization campaigns in Somalia since May. The women had been working in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, where eight new polio cases were in May.

The current outbreak is forcing governments throughout the region, including parts of the Middle East, to launch supplemental vaccination drives, Yusuf says, because polio is capable of spreading quickly.

“After a week, one of the viruses got into the Somali refugee camp in the most eastern part of Kenya,” he says. “So that tells you how fast this virus made it.”

The virus reproduces inside the human gut, and many people carry it but show no symptoms. This gives the virus the opportunity to travel long distances inside people and then get shed into the environment through feces.

The World Health Organization traced the poliovirus in Somalia to one in West Africa. Nigeria is the only place there where polio is still endemic.

The Somali outbreak is now forcing UNICEF, the WHO and other international agencies to dedicate vast resources to boost polio vaccination coverage throughout East Africa and parts of the Middle East. Those are resources that can’t be used to attack the virus in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria — which appeared, until now, to be the last few places where polio had a foothold.