A man dies of prostate cancer every 17 minutes!

If you are a man and are least interested in going to the doctor for those little ailments you have, its time you took notice. According to experts areas like cancer, heart disease and other lifestyle related diseases affect men two times more than women. This disparity is also seen in the national health programmes that focus mostly on communicable diseases and on children and women. ‘Men’s Health remains neglected and is not a focus of any national programme as most of them focus on mostly on communicable diseases, child and woman health’, say doctors. ‘The average life span of man is five years shorter than that of a woman in India,’ said Dr Rajeev Sood, head of department of Urology in RML Hospital,

He said cancer, stone disease (like kidney stones etc.) as well as those of heart and life style grip men 2-4 times more than women. To address the issue and discuss health programmes that can be framed for them on a national scale, the Urological Society of India is all set to host the 47th annual conference here from tomorrow.

‘Studies have shown that the incidences of prostate cancer are growing by one per cent every year. A new case occurs every 2.5 minutes and a man dies from prostate cancer every 17 minutes. ‘It has become the second most frequently diagnosed cancer after lung cancer. Of the 7.6 million deaths due to cancer worldwide, one-sixth are caused by prostate cancer,’ said Sood who is organising secretary of USICON 2014. Could you be at risk of suffering from the disease?

The conference aims at enhancing the skills of urologists in the performance of advanced urologic endoscopic surgery. The five-day conference will be attended by over 3000 urologists across India, SAARC countries, US, Europe (UK, France, Germany, Spain) and Australia.

India has a population of over 1.3 billion, but only a handful of Urologists to cater to urological problems. It will also address numerous important issues of national concern like organ donation and urinary genital cancers among others.

The conference will begin with the pre-conference live workshop which will feature robotic and laparoscopic surgeries in 3D. The focus will be the technological advances like Fusion Biopsy and Photodynamic therapy for focal ablation of prostate cancer and pharmacological advances in terms of newer molecules that can be disease altering. Recently scientists also discovered a way to assess the risk of prostate cancer recurring.

Here are some facts about the disease:

One new case of prostate cancer occurs every 2.5 minutes, and a man dies from prostate cancer every 17 minutes.

A non-smoking man is more likely to get prostate cancer than lung, bronchus, colon, rectal, bladder, lymphoma, melanoma, oral and kidney cancers combined.
Because prostate cancer is a relatively slow-growing cancer, the 5-year survival rate for prostate cancer survivours – at all stages – is 98%. The relative 10-year survival rate is 84% and the 15-year survival rate is 56%.

In the West, where a number of celebrities and high profile people have spoken publicly about the disease, awareness has steadily risen. Hollywood stalwarts Robert De Niro andMichael Douglas have undergone treatment for prostate cancer, so have South Africa’s iconic former President Nelson Mandela and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Age, genetic predispositions and diet all seem to have a direct correlation with the risk of prostate cancer. Some studies have also indicated that men with sexually transmitted diseases too, have a higher chance of getting afflicted with prostate cancer.

Of the 7.6 million deaths due to cancer worldwide, one-sixth are caused by prostate cancer which is also today the second most frequently diagnosed cancer type after lung cancer.

In India the awareness about the disease still remains low.
Wondering how you can prevent it? Here are some essential dos and don’ts to help you keep prostate cancer at bay:

Do’s

Exercise: Regular exercise and a constant weight go a long way in fighting diseases, especially prostate cancer. All you need is a brisk walk every day, find out how.
Eat healthy: Include cereals, fish, green leafy vegetables, and green tea into your diet. They help fight the ill effects of anti oxidants and prevent the onset of the disease.

Don’ts

Ignore the symptoms: The signs of prostate cancer are very easy to overlook. Don’t ignore the symptoms. Get then checked as soon as you notice anything amiss. An early diagnosis is the best way to successful treatment.

Eat fatty foods: Avoid red meat (as it contains a lot of fat that can lead to prostate cancer) and sugary and starch rich foods (both these components lead to inflammation and can speed up the process of formation of the cancer). Read about the top 5 ways to prevent the onset of prostate cancer.

Source: health India

Poor sleep speeds cancer growth

Poor-quality sleep marked by frequent awakenings can speed cancer growth and increase tumour aggressiveness, a new study has warned.

The study is the first to demonstrate, in an animal model, the direct effects of fragmented sleep on tumour growth and invasiveness.

“Fragmented sleep changes how the immune system deals with cancer in ways that make the disease more aggressive,” said study director David Gozal, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.

“Fortunately, our study also points to a potential drug target,” he said.

“Toll-like receptor 4, a biological messenger, helps control activation of the innate immune system. It appears to be a lynchpin for the cancer-promoting effects of sleep loss. The effects of fragmented sleep that we focused on were not seen in mice that lacked this protein,” Gozal said.

Gozal and colleagues from the University of Chicago and the University of Louisville devised a series of experiments to measure the effects of disrupted sleep on cancer.

They used mice, housed in small groups. During the day – when mice normally sleep – a quiet, motorised brush moved through half of the cages every two minutes, forcing those mice to wake up and then go back to sleep. The rest of the mice were not disturbed.

After seven days in this setting, both groups of mice were injected with cells from one of two tumour types (TC-1 or 3LLC). All mice developed palpable tumours within 9 to 12 days. Four weeks after inoculation the researchers evaluated the tumours.

They found that tumours from mice with fragmented sleep were twice as large, for both tumour types, than those from mice that had slept normally.

A follow-up experiment found that when tumour cells were implanted in the thigh muscle, which should help contain growth, the tumours were much more aggressive and invaded surrounding tissues in mice with disrupted sleep.

The difference appeared to be driven by cells from the immune system, called tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs), which cluster at the site of tumours.

TAMs are a hallmark of the immune system’s response to cancer. Some, labelled M1, promote a strong immune response and can eliminate tumours cells. Others, known as M2, suppress the immune response and instead promote the growth of new blood vessels – which encourages tumour growth.

Well-rested mice had primarily M1-type TAMs, concentrated in the core of the tumours. Sleep-fragmented mice had primarily M2-type TAMs, researchers said.

The study was published in the journal Cancer Research.

Source: Zee news

Best ways to prevent and treat the common cold

Although the world of medicine has made incredible progress when it comes to tackling certain illnesses, scientists still have not been able to find the cure for the common cold. But there are ways to prevent colds as well as treat them. The question is, which are the most effective?

According to a review in the recent edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, hand washing and possibly taking zinc seem to be the best ways to avoid getting sick. Investigators reviewed 67 randomized controlled trials that showed hand washing as well as alcohol disinfectants are the best ways to ward off colds.

Zinc was found to work mostly in children, with two trials showing that little ones who took 10 to 12 milligrams of zinc sulfate every day had fewer colds and fewer absences from school because of colds. Authors of the study suggest that zinc could work for adults. Vitamin C, the “gold standard” of cold fighters, did not seem as effective.

When it came to treating colds, the review stated that acetaminophen, ibuprofen and perhaps a antihistamine/decongestant were the best ways to keep runny noses, sore throats, fevers and coughs under control.

Ibuprofen and acetaminophen, which are both pain relievers, helped with the aches and fever. Ibuprofen worked better in children who had higher temperatures.

Combining antihistamines with decongestants or pain medication was somewhat effective in older children but not in children under the age of 5 or in adults.

Congestion was more difficult to handle. Nasal spray with ipratropium, which is used to treat serious pulmonary disorders, was found to stop drippy noses but did nothing to cut down on the stuffiness both in the nose and the chest.

Even though there were no major surprises in the findings, doctors said the review does stress the need to wash your hands, something a lot of people don’t do enough of.

“This is a thorough meta- analysis,” said Dr. Assil Saleh, an internist with Foxhall Internists in Washington. “It reaffirmed that the fundamental common sense measure of hand washing is the most effective measure to reduce the transmission of respiratory infections caused by viruses or bacteria.”

A point was also made that colds are usually viruses, with only about 5% being caused by bacterial infection. Yet, many patients with colds are prescribed antibiotics, which don’t help.

“Treatment typically aims to relieve symptoms rather than eradicate the infection itself, “noted Saleh. “It’s important to emphasize that bacteria-killing antibiotics are often overused in treating what is almost always a viral illness.”

While doctors shouldn’t be prescribing antibiotics for colds, patients should their part and not insist on antibiotics. If they are used too often for things they can’t treat, they can stop working effectively against bacteria when you or your child really needs them. The CDC has been concerned about antibiotic resistance for years and considers it to be one of the world’s most critical public health threats.

According to the review, the common cold affects adults approximately two to three times a year and children under the age of 2 about six times a year. A strong cold can keep people in bed, knocking many of them out their routines for a week or longer. That’s why doctors say prevention is so important.

“Although self-limiting, the common cold is highly prevalent and may be debilitating, ” says review authors Drs Michael Allan, from the Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada, and Bruce Arroll with the Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Auckland in New Zealand. “It causes declines in function and productivity at work and may affect other activities such as driving.”

Source: CNN health

 

DDT: Pesticide linked to Alzheimer’s

Exposure to a once widely used pesticide, DDT, may increase the chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease, suggest US researchers.

A study, published in JAMA Neurology, showed patients with Alzheimer’s had four times the levels of DDT lingering in the body than healthy people.

Some countries still use the pesticide to control malaria.

Alzheimer’s Research UK said more evidence was needed to prove DDT had a role in dementia.

DDT was a massively successful pesticide, initially used to control malaria at the end of World War Two and then to protect crops in commercial agriculture.

However, there were questions about its impact on human health and wider environmental concerns, particularly for predators.

It was banned in the US in 1972 and in many other countries. But the World Health Organization still recommends using DDT to keep malaria in check.

Not clear
DDT also lingers in the human body where it is broken down into DDE.

The team at Rutgers University and Emory University tested levels of DDE in the blood of 86 people with Alzheimer’s disease and compared the results with 79 healthy people of a similar age and background.

The results showed those with Alzheimer’s had 3.8 times the level of DDE.

However, the picture is not clear-cut. Some healthy people had high levels of DDE while some with Alzheimer’s had low levels. Alzheimer’s also predates the use of DDT.

The researchers believe the chemical is increasing the chance of Alzheimer’s and may be involved in the development of amyloid plaques in the brain, a hallmark of the disease, which contribute to the death of brain cells.

Prof Allan Levey, the director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centre at Emory, said: “This is one of the first studies identifying a strong environmental risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease.

“The magnitude of the effect is strikingly large, it is comparable in size to the most common genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s.”

Fellow researcher Dr Jason Richardson added: “We are still being exposed to these chemicals in the United States, both because we get food products from other countries and because DDE persists in the environment for a long time,” .

Dr Simon Ridley, the head of research at the charity Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “It’s important to note that this research relates to DDT, a pesticide that has not been used in the UK since the 1980s.

“While this small study suggests a possible connection between DDT exposure and Alzheimer’s, we don’t know whether other factors may account for these results.

“Much more research would be needed to confirm whether this particular pesticide may contribute to the disease.”

Source; BBC news

The Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind

People of a certain age (and we know who we are) don’t spend much leisure time reviewing the research into cognitive performance and aging. The story is grim, for one thing: Memory’s speed and accuracy begin to slip around age 25 and keep on slipping.

The story is familiar, too, for anyone who is over 50 and, having finally learned to live fully in the moment, discovers it’s a senior moment. The finding that the brain slows with age is one of the strongest in all of psychology.

Over the years, some scientists have questioned this dotage curve. But these challenges have had an ornery-old-person slant: that the tests were biased toward the young, for example. Or that older people have learned not to care about clearly trivial things, like memory tests. Or that an older mind must organize information differently from one attached to some 22-year-old who records his every Ultimate Frisbee move on Instagram.

Now comes a new kind of challenge to the evidence of a cognitive decline, from a decidedly digital quarter: data mining, based on theories of information processing. In a paper published in Topics in Cognitive Science, a team of linguistic researchers from the University of Tübingen in Germany used advanced learning models to search enormous databases of words and phrases.

Since educated older people generally know more words than younger people, simply by virtue of having been around longer, the experiment simulates what an older brain has to do to retrieve a word. And when the researchers incorporated that difference into the models, the aging “deficits” largely disappeared.
“What shocked me, to be honest, is that for the first half of the time we were doing this project, I totally bought into the idea of age-related cognitive decline in healthy adults,” the lead author, Michael Ramscar, said by email. But the simulations, he added, “fit so well to human data that it slowly forced me to entertain this idea that I didn’t need to invoke decline at all.”

Can it be? Digital tools have confounded predigital generations; now here they are, coming to the rescue. Or is it that younger scientists are simply pretesting excuses they can use in the future to cover their own golden-years lapses?

In fact, the new study is not likely to overturn 100 years of research, cognitive scientists say. Neuroscientists have some reason to believe that neural processing speed, like many reflexes, slows over the years; anatomical studies suggest that the brain also undergoes subtle structural changes that could affect memory.

Still, the new report will very likely add to a growing skepticism about how steep age-related decline really is. It goes without saying that many people remain disarmingly razor-witted well into their 90s; yet doubts about the average extent of the decline are rooted not in individual differences but in study methodology. Many studies comparing older and younger people, for instance, did not take into account the effects of pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease, said Laura Carstensen, a psychologist at Stanford University.

Dr. Carstensen and others have found, too, that with age people become biased in their memory toward words and associations that have a positive connotation — the “age-related positivity effect,” as it’s known. This bias very likely applies when older people perform so-called paired-associate tests, a common measure that involves memorizing random word pairs, like ostrich and house.

“Given that most cognitive research asks participants to engage with neutral (and in emotion studies, negative) stimuli, the traditional research paradigm may put older people at a disadvantage,” Dr. Carstensen said by email.

The new data-mining analysis also raises questions about many of the measures scientists use. Dr. Ramscar and his colleagues applied leading learning models to an estimated pool of words and phrases that an educated 70-year-old would have seen, and another pool suitable for an educated 20-year-old. Their model accounted for more than 75 percent of the difference in scores between older and younger adults on items in a paired-associate test, he said.

That is to say, the larger the library you have in your head, the longer it usually takes to find a particular word (or pair).

Scientists who study thinking and memory often make a broad distinction between “fluid” and “crystallized” intelligence. The former includes short-term memory, like holding a phone number in mind, analytical reasoning, and the ability to tune out distractions, like ambient conversation. The latter is accumulated knowledge, vocabulary and expertise.

“In essence, what Ramscar’s group is arguing is that an increase in crystallized intelligence can account for a decrease in fluid intelligence,” said Zach Hambrick, a psychologist at Michigan State University. In a variety of experiments, Dr. Hambrick and Timothy A. Salthouse of the University of Virginia have shown that crystallized knowledge (as measured by New York Times crosswords, for example) climbs sharply between ages 20 and 50 and then plateaus, even as the fluid kind (like analytical reasoning) is dropping steadily — by more than 50 percent between ages 20 and 70 in some studies. “To know for sure whether the one affects the other, ideally we’d need to see it in human studies over time,” Dr. Hambrick said.

Dr. Ramscar’s report was a simulation and included no tested subjects, though he said he does have several memory studies with normal subjects on the way.

For the time being, this new digital-era challenge to “cognitive decline” can serve as a ready-made explanation for blank moments, whether senior or otherwise.

It’s not that you’re slow. It’s that you know so much.

Source: New York Times

 

Kids’ Vitamins Often Exceed Recommended Doses

Young children who take vitamins may be consuming much greater levels than recommended of the nutrients, a new study suggests.

For the research, scientists reviewed the labels of nearly 200 dietary supplements marketed for children in two age groups: younger than 12 months, and 1 to 4 years old. The researchers determined the level of vitamins that children would consume if they used the product as directed. (Specifically, they looked at levels of vitamins A, C, D, E, K and B12, along with thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, biotin and choline.)

Most products contained vitamin levels much greater than those recommended for children in a single day. For example, dietary supplements for children ages 1 to 4 contained, on average, about 300 percent of the daily recommended levels of vitamin A, thiamin and riboflavin, 500 percent of the recommended level of vitamin C and more than 900 percent of the recommended level of biotin

Vitamin D was the only vitamin that was present at or below recommended levels for both age groups.

It’s too soon to know whether these findings are concerning, said study researcher Michael Madden, an assistant professor at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) School of Pharmacy. That’s because few studies have explored the effects of greater-than-recommended levels of vitamins on infants and young children. So in many cases, the maximum amount of a vitamin that’s safe for a child to take is not known, the researchers said.

For this reason, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends that young children not consume excess levels of certain vitamins, including vitamins K and B12, thiamin, riboflavin, folate, pantothenic acid and biotin. (Infants should not consume excess levels of most vitamins.) The IOM, part of the U.S. National Academies, is a national nonprofit that advised the nation on health.

There is also a concern that children’s bodies may lack the ability to handle excess amounts of certain vitamins, the IOM says.

The findings suggests that “much of the pediatric vitamin supplementation is not based on IOM recommendations and therefore represents wholesale over-supplementation,” the researchers wrote in the Jan. 27 issue of the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Some studies have also shown that dietary supplements may contain levels of vitamins that are different from what’s listed on the label.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says parents should speak with their pediatricians about whether their young child may need to take supplements. Toddlers who eat a balanced diet should be getting adequate levels of most vitamins and so should not need supplements, the AAP says. And very high doses of some vitamins, such as vitamin A, may even pose risks because they can accumulate in the body, the AAP says.

But some children may need supplements if, for instance, they have selective eating habits, and therefore don’t get adequate levels of vitamins through food, the AAP says.

In addition, the AAP recommends vitamin D supplements for infants, children and adolescents so that they consume 400 International Units (IU) of vitamin D per day.

Source: live science

Guinea Rushes to Curb Measles Outbreak

Health authorities in Guinea are scrambling to contain a measles outbreak that has killed one child, infected 37 others and spread to half of the country’s 33 districts.

More than 400 suspected cases, nearly all of them in children under 10 years old, have been registered. A vaccination campaign targeting over 1.6 million children is to be launched in the coming weeks.

“We have moved from three affected districts in Conakry before the end of last year to the whole city now being affected. Five more districts out of Conakry are also affected. It means that it could spread throughout the country,” said Felix Ackebo, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) deputy representative for Guinea.

“One of the causes is the nature of the disease. The other is the social/political instability. Many bilateral donors stopped support, awaiting the holding of legislative elections. The whole health system has been weakened. The government was restricted on what it could purchase, and this affected [availability of] vaccines and other important drugs. Many of the basic social services have suffered from this pause in investment,” Ackebo told IRIN. “In the past, we have been obliged to buy measles vaccines and others because the government could not.”

Only 37 percent of Guinean children are fully vaccinated, according to the 2012 Demographic Health Survey. The country’s last measles epidemic, in 2009, infected 4,755 people and killed 10.

Keita Sakoba, head of disease prevention at the Ministry of Health, said that the current stock of measles vaccine, meant for routine immunization, was insufficient for the vaccination drive. He explained that the outbreak was likely due to the accumulation of unvaccinated children.

“We will launch a vaccination campaign in the 15 affected districts and carry out targeted immunizations in districts neighbouring the affected ones,” Sakoba said.

Source: All Africa

Man dies after 8 hours in ER waiting room

Reports have emerged that a man died in a hospital waiting room in New York City more than eight hours after he sought emergency care.

According to multiple reports, 30-year-old John Verrier entered the emergency room of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx at around 10 p.m. on Jan. 12 complaining about a rash. He was found dead in the waiting room about 6:40 a.m. the next day when a guard failed to wake him up.

St. Barnabas Hospital spokesperson Steve Clark confirmed the timeline around Verrier’s death.

“Probably this scenario in this shape and form has happened in any big hospital in New York City,” he said.

When Verrier arrived at St. Barnabas, he had his vitals taken in the triage area and was told to wait in the waiting room until his name was called to see a doctor, according to Clark. At 12:35 p.m., his name was called for the first time, but Verrier did not respond. That night, his name was called two more times to see the doctor, but the patient did not acknowledge his name was being called.

“People have personal responsibility when your name is called, you have to get up and see the doctor,” Clark said.

It was determined through employee accounts and security footage that Verrier was alive at least until 3:45 a.m. A security guard woke him up after he had fallen asleep, and he had been recorded walking around the waiting room.

The cause of death for Verrier has yet to be determined, pending a medical examiners report.

The case has been investigated internally, and the hospital said it was determined that officials had done everything according to protocol.

“This could have happened anywhere outside in the cold,” said Clark.

He couldn’t confirm the reason Verrier was asking to see a doctor, citing patient confidentiality laws. He did say that Verrier was called for as soon possible, after more pressing cases were attended to.

“It was a busy night, waiting 2 hours and 30 minutes is not that long a time considering what his complaint was,” Clark said.

He added that on many cold nights in New York City, many people use the hospital as shelter and stay in the waiting room to keep warm. People aren’t allowed to loiter or sleep in the facilities, however. In order to stay inside the hospital, the patients have to come in with a medical complaint. Many of the times, the issue they present with is just a ruse in order not to be kicked out, he said.

He emphasized that this scenario may or may not relate to Verrier’s case, but could explain why some people spend time sitting in a waiting room without entering the hospital, even if their name was called multiple times.

“People come in with no desire to see the doctor,” he said.

An anonymous St. Barnabas Hospital emergency room employee told WABC that despite Verrier’s name being called three times, he had not been checked on personally. The employee added he or she believed Verrier died because there was “not enough staff to take care of the number of patients we see each day.”

Clark dismissed the comments, saying that the hospital did not think staff numbers played a role in this scenario.

“It is a tragedy that a young man died, yet following an internal review, it was concluded that all hospital guidelines were met,” the hospital said.

According to a ProPublica report, the average person in New York spends 2 hours and 35 minutes waiting in the emergency room to see a doctor, and about 1 percent leave without being seen. The report determined that St. Barnabas patients waited 5 hours and 6 minutes on average before seeing a doctor, and 18 percent left without being seen.

Source: fox news

Marijuana Use During Pregnancy Affects Babies’ Brain

Using marijuana during pregnancy could affect a baby’s brain development by interfering with how brain cells are wired, a new study in mice and human tissue suggests.

Researchers studied marijuana’s effects on mice and brain tissue from human fetuses, and found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, interferes with the formation of connections between nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher thinking skills and forming memories.

“Our advice is that [pregnant] mothers should avoid marijuana,”said neuroscientist Tibor Harkany of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and the Medical University of Vienna, in Austria, who led a study detailed today (Jan. 27) in the EMBO Journal. [11 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Baby’s Brain]

Harkany added that the effects of prenatal marijuana exposure could even last into adulthood. The drug could have direct effects, or it could sensitize the brain to future drug exposure or neuropsychiatric illnesses.

Pot during pregnancy

Previous studies have found that exposure to marijuana during pregnancy can increase a child’s risk of having cognitive deficits or psychiatric disorders.

While it is not exactly clear how marijuana may affect the fetal brain at a molecular level, it seems the brain may be particularly sensitive to THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) during early development, when neurons are forming critical connections. Any drug that interferes with this development could be detrimental to the child, Harkany said.

In the study, Harkany and his colleagues tested marijuana’s effects in three ways: They grew brain cells from mice in the presence of THC, they injected pregnant mice with THC, and they studied the brains of electively aborted human fetuses whose mothers had used marijuana during pregnancy.

The researchers identified a specific protein in nerve cells, called Superior Cervical Ganglion 10 (SCG10), which is essential for normal brain wiring. They found lower levels of this protein in the brains of both human and mouse fetuses exposed to THC compared with individuals who weren’t exposed to THC, suggesting that marijuana exposure has a specific effect on the developing brain.

Marijuana and brain development

“Prenatal cannabis disrupts synapses [nerve connections] critical for higher order executive and cognitive function,” study researcher Yasmin Hurd, a neuroscientist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, told LiveScience in an email.

An increasing number of women of childbearing age are using marijuana, and this group should be made aware of the potential impact on the brain development of their children, she said.

Harkany added that pregnant women should avoid using marijuana use for medical purposes.

Previous long-term studies have shown that children exposed to marijuana in the womb may have an increased risk of showing cognitive effects, seeking out drugs, or having attention deficit disorder, anxiety or depression, according to the study.

Harkany and his colleagues didn’t study the effects of marijuana use prior to pregnancy, but he said the drug is cleared from the body in a period days, not months, and using it prior to conception is more likely to affect the likelihood of becoming pregnant than the fetus itself.

So far, Harkany said, no studies have compared the effect of marijuana to that of other drugs, such as alcohol, on fetal brain development.

Source: huffington post

Yoga May Reduce Fatigue in Breast Cancer Survivors

breast cancer

Yoga may help breast cancer survivors beat the debilitating fatigue and sleep problems that often follow toxic treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, a new study shows.

Fatigue can be a big challenge for cancer survivors.

“Even some years out from breast cancer treatment, anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of women report substantial levels of fatigue,” said study author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University in Columbus.

That may be due, in large part, to disrupted sleep. As many as 60 percent of cancer survivors say they have trouble sleeping, she noted, a rate that’s two to three times higher than their cancer-free peers.

The end result is that many cancer survivors end up trying to drag themselves through their days.

“And it’s a nasty downward spiral where increasing fatigue means less activity and less activity means increasing fatigue, so that over time less and less translates into greater frailty and decline,” Kiecolt-Glaser said.

Kiecolt-Glaser, who studies the health effects of stress, wanted to see if it was possible to stop that cycle.

She and her colleagues, including her husband and research collaborator, Ronald Glaser, recruited 200 women aged 27 to 76 who were new to yoga and had finished treatment for breast cancer within the last three years. They had to be at least two months past their last treatment and otherwise healthy to participate.

The women were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first group practiced the gentle, flowing poses of Hatha yoga for two 90-minute sessions each week for three months. The second group was placed on a waiting list.

Before and after the study, all the women answered detailed questions about their energy and vitality, mental health, the kind of support they felt they were getting from friends and family, their sleep, how active they were and even their diet. Researchers also performed blood tests to measure markers of inflammation.

The differences weren’t immediately apparent. After three months of practice, women in the yoga group reported that they had more vitality and were sleeping better, compared to the group that was waiting to take the class.

And after their group sessions ended, most who were taking yoga gradually stopped practicing. Their physical activity went back to the level it was when they signed up for the study. Despite that, they continued to improve.

At the six-month mark, the women practicing yoga reported about 60 percent less fatigue than the women on the waiting list, and their measures of inflammation were 13 percent to 20 percent lower.

The longer they practiced yoga, the greater their improvements, Kiecolt-Glaser said.

Source: webmd