Health A-Z

Saudi Reports 4 New Cases Of MERS Virus, 1 Fatal

The new infections bring the worldwide total of confirmed cases to 170 with 72 deaths, the WHO said.

Four more people in Saudi Arabia have been infected with the SARS-like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus and one of them – an elderly man – has died, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.

The new infections, including in two health workers from Riyadh who have not reported any adverse symptoms, bring the worldwide total of confirmed cases of the respiratory disease to 170 with 72 deaths, the United Nations health agency said.

MERS first emerged in the Middle East in September 2012 and is from the same family as the SARS virus, can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia.

Cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Tunisia as well as in several countries in Europe, and scientists are increasingly focused on a link between the human infections and camels as a possible “animal reservoir” of the virus.

In Friday’s update, the WHO said the latest MERS death – a 73 year-old man from Riyadh – had reported having contact with animals but had no travel history outside the Riyadh region.

The fourth case, in a 53-year-old man from Riyadh, was after contact with a previously confirmed MERS case. He was hospitalised on November 26 and is currently receiving treatment in an intensive care unit, it said.

Dutch and Qatari scientists published research earlier this month that proved for the first time that MERS can also infect camels – strengthening suspicions that these animals, often used in the region for meat, milk, transport and racing, may be a source of the human outbreak.

The WHO said people at high risk of severe disease due to MERS should “avoid close contact with animals when visiting farms or barn areas where the virus is known to be potentially circulating”.

For the general public it advised normal hygiene steps such as hand washing before and after touching animals, avoiding contact with sick animals and good food hygiene practices.

Source: Gulf Business

Patient doing well with French company’s artificial heart: report

A 75-year-old Frenchman was feeding himself and chatting to his family, more than a week after becoming the first person to be fitted with an artificial heart made by French biomedical company Carmat, one of his surgeons said.

“He is awake, feeding himself and talking with his family. We are thinking of getting him up on his feet soon, probably as early as this weekend,” Professor Daniel Duveau, who saw the patient on Thursday, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

A more detailed account of the patient’s health would be made public on Monday, the paper wrote.

Heart-assistance devices have been used for decades as a temporary solution for patients awaiting transplants, but Carmat’s bioprosthetic product is designed to replace the real heart over the long run, mimicking nature using biological materials and sensors.

It aims to extend life for patients suffering from terminal heart failure who cannot hope for a heart transplant, often because they are too old and donors too scarce.

 

The artificial heart, which can beat up to five years, has been successfully tested on animals but the December 18 implant in a Paris hospital was the first in a human patient.

Three more patients in France are due to be fitted with the device. The next operation is scheduled for the first weeks of January, the newspaper reported.

In this first range of clinical trials, the success of the device will be judged on whether patients survive with the implant for at least a month.

The patients selected suffer from terminal heart failure – when the sick heart can no longer pump enough blood to sustain the body – and would otherwise have only a few days or weeks to live.

Artificial hearts thus fuel huge hope amongst patients, their families, and investors. Shares in Carmat have risen more than five-fold since floating on the Paris exchange in 2010.

Duveau told the JDD that Carmat’s first patient was very combative and confident with his new prosthetic heart.

“When his wife and his daughter leave him, he tells them: ‘See you tomorrow!’ All he wants is to enjoy life. He can’t wait to get out of the intensive care unit, out of his room, and out of uncertainty.”

Source: Fresh News

Scientists use drug to repair a rare birth defect

University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health scientists have developed a potential cure for a rare eye disease, showing for the first time that a drug can repair a birth defect.

They formulated the drug Ataluren into eye drops, and found that it consistently restored normal vision in mice who had aniridia, a condition that severely limits the vision of about 5,000 people in North America. A small clinical trial with children and teens is expected to begin next year in Vancouver, the US and the UK.

Aniridia is caused by the presence of a “nonsense mutation” – an extra “stop sign” on the gene that interrupts production of a protein crucial for eye development. Aniridia patients don’t have an iris (the coloured ring around the pupil), and suffer many other eye abnormalities.

Ataluren is believed to have the power to override the extra stop sign, thus allowing the protein to be made. The UBC-VCH scientists initially thought the drug would work only in utero – giving it to a pregnant mother to prevent aniridia from ever arising in her foetus. But then they gave their specially formulated Ataluren eye drops, which they call START, to two-week-old mice with aniridia, and found that it actually reversed the damage they had been born with.

“We were amazed to see how malleable the eye is after birth,” said Cheryl Gregory-Evans, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences and a neurobiologist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. “This holds promise for treating other eye conditions caused by nonsense mutations, including some types of macular degeneration. And if it reverses damage in the eye, it raises the possibility of a cure for other congenital disorders. The challenge is getting it to the right place at the right time.”

Bad vision at birth, worse vision later: Aniridia is apparent at birth because of the missing iris. Toddlers with aniridia need eyeglasses to see, sunglasses or darkened contact lenses to protect their eyes from overexposure to light, and cannot read small text. Their eyes are continually moving, making it difficult for them to focus, and have higher internal pressure (glaucoma), which damages the optic nerve as they get older. They are also prone to corneal damage in their teens and early adulthood. Eventually, most people with aniridia are considered legally blind, and must resort to Braille or expensive electronic aids to read.

An eye affected with aniridia on the bottom compared to an unaffected eye.

The plasticity of the eye: The reversal of tissue damage in young mice, published by the Journal of Clinical Investigation, fits with the fact that mammals’ eyes aren’t fully formed at birth. Human babies don’t discern colours until they are six months old, and their depth perception isn’t fully developed until the age of five.

Nonsense suppressor: Ataluren, made by the New Jersey-based PTC Therapeutics, is thought to be a “nonsense suppressor” – it silences the extra “stop codon” on the gene and allows a complete protein to be assembled. The drug is currently being tested as a treatment for cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which are also caused by nonsense mutations.

Clinical trial: The forthcoming clinical trial, involving about 30 patients, will be led by Gregory-Evans in Vancouver, and is being supported by the Vision for Tomorrow Foundation, a US-based charity focused on aniridia and albinism (an absence of pigmentation in skin, hair and eyes that results in poor vision). If START is proven to be safe and effective, children with aniridia would use the drops twice a day for the rest of their lives. The drug would probably not reverse the condition in adults because their eyes would already be damaged beyond repair.

A gritty solution: Gregory-Evans’ first attempt at creating Ataluren eye drops proved unsuccessful. The drug didn’t dissolve, and thus irritated the mice’s eyes. So she turned to Kishor Wasan, a professor and associate dean in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who ground the drug into a very fine powder and combined it with a solution that adhered better to the eye.

A multidisciplinary team: Gregory-Evans also collaborated with her husband, Kevin Gregory-Evans, the Julia Levy BC Leadership Chair in Macular Research and an ophthalmologist at the VCH Eye Care Centre, who treats BC patients with aniridia. He administered the vision tests for the mice used in the study.

Funding from a UBC alumna: Cheryl Gregory-Evans’ position and this research were funded by the Sharon Stewart Testamentary Trust. Stewart, of Victoria, was born with aniridia, and at the time of her graduation from UBC in 1968, she only had five per cent of her vision. She died in 2008 and donated over $6 million to UBC for aniridia research.

Source; India Medical Times

 

60-year-old woman in China gives birth to twin girls

A woman in China who gave birth to twin girls after an IVF treatment at the age of 60 in 2010 following the death of her only child has commented to the media on the birth. She may be the oldest person in the country to give birth.

Fox News reported that because of China’s the birth is extremely unusual in the country because of the country’s one child policy. She gave birth after the death of her only child.

Clinics and countries throughout the world impose limits on IVF treatment. The treatment is less effective with age. Such treatments also cause concerns for the welfare of children who are born after the treatment.

Sheng Hailin, is now 63. She lost her first daughter after an accidental gas poisoning case in 2009, according to the China Herald.

“To survive and free myself of the loneliness, I decided to have another child in my old age,” the newspaper quoted Hailin as saying.

The Daily Mail reported she and her husband gave birth to survive and be “free from loneliness.” Because of the births, Mrs. Hailin has not been able to retire and instead has had to increase her work schedule.  She said she is sorry she is not able to spend as much time with her children as she would like.

“‘For the baby girls, I have given out all I have,” she explained to the China Daily.
The Chinese government in November granted couples the right to have children if one parent is an only child.

According to an estimate, one million families in the country have lost their sole descendant after the beginning of the one child policy in the late 1970s. Another estimate calculates that four to seven million more are expected to do so in the next thirty years.

A portion of the couple’s earnings and pension is used to pay two babysitters, the Christian Post
reported.

Mrs. Hailin works as a health lecturer said some of her “lectures may only last one day, but sometimes I
have to stay three or four days in one place.”

Source: Digital Journal

How meditation helps overcome addictions

Rehabilitation therapies that use meditation are likely to have a higher success rate when it comes to helping trying to overcome addiction. This is the conclusion of a new survey of animal and human studies by a computer scientist who used a computational model of addiction, a literature review and an in silico experiment. The findings of the survey — by computer scientist Yariv Levyof the University of Massachusetts Amherst, neuroscience researcher Jerrold Meyer, and computer scientist Andrew Barto — has been published in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. “Our higher-level conclusion is that a treatment based on meditation-like techniques can be helpful as a supplement to help someone get out of addiction. We give scientific and mathematical arguments for this,” said Levy, who was a doctoral student when he undertook the survey.

According to Levy, the survey aimed to use learnings from existing animal and human studies to better understand addiction and seek new approaches to treatment. The researchers explored the allostatic theory, which describes changes in the brain’s reward and anti-reward systems and reward set points as substance misuse progresses. They used two existing computational models, one pharmacological and a more behavioural-cognitive model for the study. The allostatic theory says that when someone takes a drug he or she stresses the reward system and it loses its equilibrium state. “We smoke one cigarette and go out, come back in again, and out with another cigarette, always trying to return to equilibrium,” Levy says. “The reward system tries to change its structure with neural adaptations to get back to equilibrium. But if I continue to smoke, even with such adaptations, I can’t make it back. Equilibrium is broken as long as I continue to smoke.”

As the reward system is stressed, the anti-reward system steps in and says, “I’ll try to help,” and the person enters what is known as an allostatic state. Other brain structures are affected by the addictive substance, impairing the addict’s evaluation of drug use compared to other reinforcers, Levy said. To bind the two theories and test how they could work together in silico, the authors follow three virtual case studies, each representing a different trajectory of allostatic state during escalation of cigarette smoking. “This investigation provides formal arguments encouraging current rehabilitation therapies to include meditation-like practices along with pharmaceutical drugs and behavioural counseling,” the authors wrote.

Source: Oman daily Observer

Stroke: warning signs of this silent killer

Many warning signs may indicate a stroke. Depending on the function of the part of the brain being affected, the person suffering the stroke may become paralyzed, blind or unable to speak.

if you experience any of these major stroke warning signs: act immedicately

Sudden loss of speech
Slurred speech
Sudden loss of vision
Blurry or double vision
Sudden paralysis
Sudden weakness
Sudden dizziness
Sudden, severe headache, often accompanied by neck stiffness and vomiting.

What are the first signs of a stroke?
In severe cases, a person suffering from a stroke may become paralyzed, blind or unable to speak. But in other cases, signs may be more subtle. You should act quickly… call 9-1-1 right away and get the person to an emergency department … at the first signs of a stroke.

Why is fast action so important?
For every minute brain cells are deprived of oxygen during a stroke, brain damage increases. The chances for survival and recovery improve when treatment begins within the first few hours of stroke warning signs – often when a thrombolytic agent or “clot buster” medication is given within the first three hours of the onset of stroke symptoms.

Source: Union Hospital

 

Scientists identify potential drug to block AIDS

Scientists have identified an existing anti-inflammatory drug that in laboratory tests blocked the death of immune system’s cells which occurs as an HIV infection leads to AIDS.

Researchers are planning a Phase 2 clinical trial to determine if this drug or a similar drug can prevent HIV-infected people from developing AIDS and related conditions.

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes identified the precise chain of molecular events in the human body that drives the death of most of the immune system’s CD4 T cells as an HIV infection leads to AIDS.

Two separate journal articles, published simultaneously in Nature and Science, detailed the research from the laboratory of Warner C Greene, who directs virology and immunology research at Gladstone, an independent biomedical-research nonprofit based in San Francisco.

His lab’s Science paper revealed how, during an HIV infection, a protein known as IFI16 senses fragments of HIV DNA in abortively infected immune cells.

This triggers the activation of the human enzyme caspase-1 and leads to pyroptosis, a fiery and highly inflammatory form of cell death.

As revealed in Nature paper, this repetitive cycle of abortive infection, cell death, inflammation and recruitment of additional CD4 T cells to the infection “hot zone” ultimately destroys the immune system and causes AIDS.

Nature paper further described laboratory tests in which an existing anti-inflammatory inhibits caspase-1, thereby preventing pyroptosis and breaking the cycle of cell death and inflammation.

“Gladstone has made two important discoveries, first by showing how the body’s own immune response to HIV causes CD4 T cell death via a pathway triggering inflammation, and secondly by identifying the host DNA sensor that detects the viral DNA and triggers this death response,” said Robert F Siliciano, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Once the scientists discovered how CD4 T cells die they began to investigate how the body senses the fragments of HIV’s DNA in the first place, before alerting the enzyme caspase-1 to launch an immune response in the CD4 T cells.

They also identified that reducing the activity of a protein known as IFI16 inhibited pyroptosis.

“This identified IFI16 as the DNA sensor, which then sends signals to caspase-1 and triggers pyroptosis,” said Kathryn M Monroe, the Science paper’s other lead author, who completed the research while a postdoctoral fellow at Gladstone

Source: Times of India

Health Benefits of Tropical Fruits

The tropics is blessed with sunshine all year long along with abundant rainfall and some of the most popular fruits in the world. Read on to find out about their health benefits as well.

Passion fruit

Passion fruit is packed with antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and fibre. It can act as a pain reliever and sedative. It can help with digestion, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.

Citrus fruit

Vitamin C from citrus fruits along with furocoumarins and limonene help prevent many types of cancers and nutritional deficiencies like scurvy. Citrus fruit juices may reduce the risk of certain kinds of kidney stones.

Banana

Banana is a good source of vitamins B6 and C, manganese, potassium and fibre. It can help maintain normal blood pressure and heart function and protect you from ulcers. It also aids in digestion and improve eyesight.

Avocado

Oleic acid from avocados helps to lower the total cholesterol levels and even increase the high density lipoprotein levels in the body. Moreover avocado also provides a good dose of fibre. Try an avocado dip or guacamole in your burger instead of other fat-loaded dressings.

Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe is packed with two important antioxidants; vitamin C and vitamin A. The pro-vitamin A in cantaloupe promotes your lung health, protects your vision and vitamin C helps to fight against infection and boosts your immune system.

Kiwi Fruit

Vitamin C from kiwi protects the body from any oxidative damage and phytonutrients from this fruit protects the DNA.

Papaya

Papaya is an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A, E and K. All these antioxidants along with the fiber in papaya surely promote good health and ward off a variety of diseases and conditions.

Pineapple

Bromelain from pineapple offers potential anti-inflammatory and digestive benefits. Pineapple is also a good source of manganese, ascorbic acid and thiamin which play a role in antioxidant defences and energy production.

Mango

Mango can lower cholesterol and help fight some cancers. It helps in digestion and elimination. Green mango juice helps cool down the body and prevents sun stroke during summer.

Source: Zee news

5 Great Home Remedies for Toothaches

Here are 5 great home remedies for getting rid of your toothache pain until you can make it to the dentist.
Tooth pain can be one of the most debilitating and horrible pains you will ever have, when you have a pain in the mouth, you really do not want to eat let alone talk, all you want is the pain to just be gone. One funny thing about toothaches is that they always seem to happen on a weekend or a holiday when the dentist offices are closed.

Tooth pain is usually caused by a breakdown in tooth enamel, which then creates a cavities and causes the tooth to begin decaying, thus causing the nerve endings to react which results in the toothache. Tooth pain can also be caused by a loose tooth brought on by gum disease gingivitis.

1. If you have a hole in your tooth, or even if you do not have any decay, getting an Orange flavored baby aspirin and putting it directly around the tooth or in the decayed area and let it dissolves naturally can help relieve the pain. The reason for using baby aspirin is the orange flavor has a better taste than plain aspirin.

2. Another great toothache remedies that works well for getting rid of the pain is cloves; this is a spice most people will have right in there kitchen. Ground cloves works much better. You will want to take a small amount of the ground clove and put it just right next to the tooth and just leave it there, you should start to feel some relief in just a few minutes.

3. Trying using a plain wet Lipton tea bag, the tannins in the tea help to reduce swelling along with giving you some pain relief. You will want to use a cold wet tea bag, I recommend putting the tea bag in some ice water for a few minutes before applying unless your tooth is sensitive to the cold.

4. One of the old tried and true home remedies for toothache pain is warm water with table salt. You will want to take some warm water, not to hot and add about a teaspoon of salt ,let dissolve and gently rinse your mouth and spit it , Use the whole glass of salt water this will help reduce swelling and help kill bacteria in your mouth giving you relief.

5. Whiskey or Brandy is another great homemade toothache pain remedy, simply take a Q tip swab or a cotton ball, and you will then dip this in brandy or whiskey, then place it around the area of the tooth pain and let it sit. Repeat as often as necessary till you can get to the dentist.

Source: Yahoo voices

Science Confirms Turmeric As Effective As 14 Drugs

 

Turmeric is one the most thoroughly researched plants in existence today. Its medicinal properties and components (primarily curcumin) have been the subject of over 5600 peer-reviewed and published biomedical studies. In fact, our five-year long research project on this sacred plant has revealed over 600 potential preventive and therapeutic applications, as well as 175 distinct beneficial physiological effects.

This entire database of 1,585 ncbi-hyperlinked turmeric abstracts can be downloaded as a PDF at our Downloadable Turmeric Document page, and acquired either as a retail item or with 200 GMI-tokens, for those of you who are already are members and receive them automatically each month.

Given the sheer density of research performed on this remarkable spice, it is no wonder that a growing number of studies have concluded that it compares favorably to a variety of conventional medications, including:

Lipitor/Atorvastatin(cholesterol medication): A 2008 study published in the journal Drugs in R & D found that a standardized preparation of curcuminoids from Turmeric compared favorably to the drug atorvastatin (trade name Lipitor) on endothelial dysfunction, the underlying pathology of the blood vessels that drives atherosclerosis, in association with reductions in inflammation and oxidative stress in type 2 diabetic patients.

Corticosteroids (steroid medications): A 1999 study published in the journal Phytotherapy Research found that the primary polyphenol in turmeric, the saffron colored pigment known as curcumin, compared favorably to steroids in the management of chronic anterior uveitis, an inflammatory eye disease.

A 2008 study published in Critical Care Medicine found that curcumin compared favorably to the corticosteroid drug dexamethasone in the animal model as an alternative therapy for protecting lung transplantation-associated injury by down-regulating inflammatory genes.

An earlier 2003 study published in Cancer Letters found the same drug also compared favorably to dexamethasone in a lung ischaemia-repurfusion injury model.
Prozac/Fluoxetine & Imipramine (antidepressants): A 2011 study published in the journal Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica found that curcumin compared favorably to both drugs in reducing depressive behavior in an animal model.
Aspirin (blood thinner): A 1986 in vitro and ex vivo study published in the journal Arzneimittelforschung found that curcumin has anti-platelet and prostacyclin modulating effects compared to aspirin, indicating it may have value in patients prone to vascular thrombosis and requiring anti-arthritis therapy.
Anti-inflammatory Drugs: A 2004 study published in the journal Oncogene found that curcumin (as well as resveratrol) were effective alternatives to the drugs aspirin, ibuprofen, sulindac, phenylbutazone, naproxen, indomethacin, diclofenac, dexamethasone, celecoxib, and tamoxifen in exerting anti-inflammatory and anti-proliferative activity against tumor cells.
Oxaliplatin (chemotherapy drug): A 2007 study published in the International Journal of Cancer found that curcumin compares favorably with oxaliplatin as an antiproliferative agenet in colorectal cell lines.
Metformin (diabetes drug): A 2009 study published in the journal Biochemitry and Biophysical Research Community explored how curcumin might be valuable in treating diabetes, finding that it activates AMPK (which increases glucose uptake) and suppresses gluconeogenic gene expression (which suppresses glucose production in the liver) in hepatoma cells. Interestingly, they found curcumin to be 500 times to 100,000 times (in the form known as tetrahydrocurcuminoids(THC)) more potent than metformin in activating AMPK and its downstream target acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC).

Another way in which turmeric and its components reveal their remarkable therapeutic properties is in research on drug resistant- and multi-drug resistant cancers. We have two sections on our site dedicated to researching natural and integrative therapies on these topics, and while there are dozens of substances with demonstrable efficacy against these chemotherapy- and radiation-resistant cancers, curcumin tops both lists:

Source: True Activist