Girl battles law to survive |  |
- Girl battles law to survive
- Simple lifestyle changes can prevent Alzheimer's
- Drug improves brain function in condition that leads to Alzheimer's
- Mouse model shows that kidney-specific dopamine system important for kidney function and blood pressure regulation
- 50 mn Indians to be screened for diabetes
- Falls- an early sign of Alzheimer's Disease
- International AIDS Society to launch Virtual Media Centre in July to support opioid substitution therapy in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
- Race matters when recruiting, retaining undergraduate women engineers
- Energy drinks can be dangerous, says study
- Government mulls curbs on junk food in schools
| Posted: 20 Jul 2011 06:50 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Thiruvananthapuram, July 20 - Born in an impoverished family, 17-year-old Jayasree had both her kidneys damaged at the age of 11, saw her father lose his mental balance and now, when she finally saw a flicker of hope after a priest came forward to donate his kidney for free -- a law stopped him from doing so. Speaking to IANS, Father Santhosh George, said it is quite strange that government hospitals allow kidney transplants only when the doner and donee are relatives. 'I saw the news reports of this young girl struggling for life and I came forward to donate one of my kidneys but rules do not allow that and it is quite strange,' said 39-year-old George, who turned a priest just 18 months back. On Wednesday, George and Jayasree's relatives staged a sit-in in front of the state secretariat. Former apex court judge V.R. Krishna Iyer, who was also present at the site, said that such needless rules in the state-run medical colleges should go. 'These rules are unethical and have to be re-written,' said Iyer. However, these rules don't apply in private hospitals and anyone can donate a kidney to anyone. 'We checked up and we are told that it would cost more than five lakh rupees for the surgery in a private hospital. The girl's father is a labourer and has lost his mental balance after treating his daughter for the past six years. We are poor and can't afford these hefty expenses,' said Sreekumar, the girl's uncle. The Satya Sai Trust has come forward to meet all the expenses if the surgery is done at the state-run medical college. 'We did meet Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and are now hoping that the rule is relaxed in our case. In every case, it's the donor who is the problem and here when I have come forward to do it for free, rules do not permit, it is sad indeed,' said George. http://www.rxpgnews.com    |
| Simple lifestyle changes can prevent Alzheimer's Posted: 20 Jul 2011 05:57 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Over half of all Alzheimer's disease cases can be prevented through lifestyle changes and treatment or prevention of chronic medical conditions. The biggest risk factors for Alzheimer's disease are physical inactivity, depression, mid-life hypertension, low education, smoking, diabetes and mid-life obesity. The findings are based on studies involving hundreds of thousands of participants worldwide, by Deborah Barnes, researcher at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Centre and professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. Together, these risk factors are associated with up to 51 percent of Alzheimer's cases globally - and up to 54 percent cases in the US -, according to Barnes, reports journal Lancet Neurology. 'This suggests that some very simple lifestyle changes, such as increasing physical activity and quitting smoking, could have a tremendous impact on preventing Alzheimer's and other dementias in the US and worldwide,' said Barnes, according to Medical Centre statement. The study results were presented at the 2011 meeting of the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Paris, France. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia among older people. Dementia is a brain disorder that seriously affects a person's ability to carry out daily activities. --Indo-Asian News service st/rah/tb http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Drug improves brain function in condition that leads to Alzheimer's Posted: 20 Jul 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) An existing anti-seizure drug improves memory and brain function in adults with a form of cognitive impairment that often leads to full-blown Alzheimer's disease, a Johns Hopkins University study has found. The findings raise the possibility that doctors will someday be able to use the drug, levetiracetam, already approved for use in epilepsy patients, to slow the abnormal loss of brain function in some aging patients before their condition becomes Alzheimer's. The researchers emphasize, however, that more studies are necessary before any such recommendation can be made to doctors and patients. The effects seen in the study could be like taking your foot off the accelerator or tapping the brakes, and possibly could slow the progression on that path [to Alzheimer's], said principal investigator and neuroscientist Michela Gallagher. We need further clinical studies with longer exposure to the drug to, first of all, make sure with rigorous evaluation that the drug is effective in the longer term and, equally important, that it does no harm. The new study, presented July 20 at the International Congress on Alzheimer's Disease in Paris, also shows that excess brain activity in patients with a condition known as amnestic mild cognitive impairment, or aMCI, contributes to brain dysfunction that underlies memory loss. Previously, it had been thought that this hyperactivity was the brain's attempt to make up for weakness in its ability to form new memories. The clinical study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, tested 34 participants, some healthy older adults and others with aMCI, meaning that they had memory difficulties greater than would be expected at their age. Each person participated in a sequence of two treatment phases lasting two weeks each. Patients received a low dose of levetiracetam during one phase and a placebo during the other. After each treatment phase, the researchers evaluated subjects' memory and... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Posted: 19 Jul 2011 07:19 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have demonstrated that dopamine produced outside the brain – in the kidneys – is important for renal function, blood pressure regulation and life span. Their studies, published in the July Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggest that the kidney-specific dopamine system may be a therapeutic target for treating hypertension and kidney diseases such as diabetic nephropathy. Previous studies had suggested a role for dopamine in regulating kidney function and total body fluid volume, "but how that mechanism works was not clear," said Raymond Harris, M.D., chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at Vanderbilt. To explore dopamine's role in the kidney, Harris and Ming-Zhi Zhang, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, eliminated kidney-specific dopamine production in mice (by knocking out a dopamine-generating enzyme only in the kidney) and studied the outcome. They found that mice lacking kidney dopamine had high blood pressure at baseline and became more hypertensive when they consumed a high-salt diet, suggesting they may be a good model of salt-sensitive (essential) hypertension, Harris said. Alterations in the kidney dopamine system may predispose individuals to hypertension, he noted. The investigators also showed that elimination of kidney dopamine increased renin production, which activates the angiotensin II system to increase salt and water reabsorption – and produce hypertension. "These animals retain salt and water when they don't have sufficient dopamine production in the kidney," Harris said. "Our studies highlight this whole other hormonal system that appears to balance or put the brakes on the renin-angiotensin system." Currently, the renin-angiotensin system is the major target for treating chronic kidney diseases. Discovering another target – the kidney dopamine system – is exciting, the researchers said. They are... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| 50 mn Indians to be screened for diabetes Posted: 19 Jul 2011 06:48 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, July 19 - With lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension posing a huge health risk to India, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Tuesday said the government is planning to screen over five crore - people for these ailments before September. 'The WHO and UN has taken note of the gravity of diabetes and hypertension. We will screen five crore persons before September 2011 when UN General Assembly will hold a special session to discuss means and measures to control these diseases,' he said, after inaugurating a camp to screen slum-dwellers in Delhi for lifestyle diseases. 'We all are concerned about non-communicable diseases which become cause for 50 percent total deaths in the country. It has been learnt that cancer and diabetes are going to affect our country badly,' Azad said. The camp is a part of government's initiative to launch a major drive for free screening of diabetes and hypertension in 100 select districts and 33 cities with more than 10 lakh population. There are 5.1 crore diabetic patients in India, the second-most in the world after China. More than 30 lakh people around the world die due to diabetes every year. In India, 1.75 lakh people died due to diabetes in 2005 and the number is likely to touch 2.36 lakh in 2015. Azad also said a pilot project costing Rs.1,230 crore to control cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and stroke in 100 districts of 21 states and urban slums in 33 cities has been approved. 'Under the pilot project, a cardiac care unit at cost of Rs.1.5 crore will be established at 100 district hospitals,' he said, adding centres for non-communicable diseases will also come up at 100 district hospitals and 700 other places for diagnosis and management of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and stroke. Each district hospital will be provided Rs.50,000 for medicines, Azad added. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, who was also present on the occasion, said the campaign has been... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Falls- an early sign of Alzheimer's Disease Posted: 19 Jul 2011 06:33 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Falls and balance problems may be early indicators of Alzheimer's disease, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report July 17, 2011, at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Paris. Scientists found that study participants with brain changes suggestive of early Alzheimer's disease were more likely to fall than those whose brains did not show the same changes. Until now, falls had only been associated with Alzheimer's in the late stages of dementia. "If you meet these people on the street, they appear healthy and have no obvious cognitive problems," says lead author Susan Stark, PhD, assistant professor of occupational therapy and neurology. "But they have changes in their brain that look similar to Alzheimer's disease, and they have twice the typical annual rate of falls for their age group." Stark and her colleagues recruited 119 volunteers from studies of aging and health at Washington University's Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. All the participants were 65 or older and cognitively normal. Brain scans showed that 18 participants had high levels of amyloid plaques, a hallmark of Alzheimer's. The two major findings in the brain of patients with Alzheimer's are amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques are found outside the neurons, neurofibrillary plaques are found inside the neurons. Amyloid plaques are mostly made up of a protein called B-amyloid protein. The other 101 volunteers had normal amyloid levels in the brain. Participants in the study were asked to make a note of any falls. Then, the researchers followed up with a questionnaire and a phone interview about the falls. This follow-up allowed researchers to gather information for future analyses that will compare and contrast the nature of the falls. About one in three adults age 65 or older typically fall each year. But in the 18 participants with high... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Posted: 19 Jul 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Tuesday, 19 July, 2011 (Rome, Italy) -- As a part of its new initiative, Expanding Access to Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) for People Who Inject Drugs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), the International AIDS Society (IAS) will launch a Virtual Knowledge Centre (VKC) in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute on Public Health Policy (UIPHP). The announcement was made today at the 6th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2011), which runs from 17-20 July in Rome and is being attended by more than 5,000 researchers, clinicians and community leaders. The VKC initiative is a scaling up of the commitment by IAS to drug policy which it adopted as one if its four key priority areas in late 2010. Provision of OST, a call for expanded access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for injecting drug users living with HIV, campaigning against the criminalization of injecting drug users, and a special focus on the EECA region underpin the policy. (1) The VKC will strive to contribute to improved knowledge and strengthened operations research capacity for scale up of HIV/OST programmes for people who inject drugs by creating an increased Russian-language evidence base around OST, harm reduction and HIV, as well as specialized documents and training modules relevant to professionals, public health experts, narcologists, students, parliamentarians, NGOs and any other interested and involved parties working in this field in EECA. (2) The IAS believes that evidence-based interventions are the best way to implement HIV treatment scale-up and will continue to advocate for expanding access to Opioid substitution therapy, said IAS governing Council member Chris Beyrer, who is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights in Baltimore, USA. The science has been in since the very beginning of the AIDS epidemic 30 years ago - OST and clean needle exchange programs save... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Race matters when recruiting, retaining undergraduate women engineers Posted: 19 Jul 2011 05:00 AM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Attempts to recruit and retain more women in undergraduate engineering programs often lump all female students into a single group. At best, minority women as a group may receive special attention. But a new study of female engineering students' perceived challenges finds significant differences between black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American and white women. The findings by researchers at University of Washington could help institutions better retain particular underrepresented groups of students. What we're finding is these women's experiences are different, which is why grouping all women together doesn't make sense, said co-author Elizabeth Litzler, research director at the UW's Center for Workforce Development. She recently presented the findings in Vancouver, B.C., at the annual meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education. The study used data collected in 2008 by the Project to Assess Climate in Engineering survey, conducted by UW researchers and funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Investigators distributed questionnaires and interviews to undergraduate engineering students at 21 U.S. colleges and universities that were interested in supporting diversity programs. The study received more than 10,500 responses, with higher than average numbers of women and minority students. The study's size gave us a really great opportunity to talk about race, which is usually not possible in engineering, Litzler said. The UW researchers looked at the aggregate findings to seek overall trends among the responses. Students were asked about such subjects as teaching, labs, student interactions, personal experiences and their perceptions of their major. We see important trends in our findings, Litzler said. For example, Hispanics reported feeling like they were taken less seriously than other students. African-Americans, not at all. However, black women reported higher instances of feeling singled out in the... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Energy drinks can be dangerous, says study Posted: 18 Jul 2011 08:24 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, July 18 - Caffeine-rich energy drinks pose dangerous health risks and may cause seizures, strokes or even death, a study carried by the NGO Centre for Science and Environment - said Monday. The NGO's Pollution Monitoring Lab conducted a survey from May to June which picked energy drinks randomly from markets across the country and tested their caffeine levels. 'Forty-four percent of them breached the caffeine limit of 145 ppm - prescribed by the government,' the study said. The study also claimed that caffeine is a psycho-stimulant and it could be doing irreparable harm to the body, which could lead to seizures, strokes or even death. CSE's deputy director Chandra Bhushan said: 'These so-called energy drinks are being confused with sports drinks, as most of them marketed and projected in a such way. Gyms, bars and clubs across the country are dishing out these drinks to their clients, claiming major health benefits. But studies show that these drinks are not made to rehydrate and replenish the body.' 'Consumed during intense physical activity, they can lead to dehydration,' Bhushan added. http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
| Government mulls curbs on junk food in schools Posted: 18 Jul 2011 06:36 PM PDT ( From http://www.rxpgnews.com ) New Delhi, July 18 - The central government Monday admitted before the Delhi High Court that junk food causes health hazards, including heart problem, and said guidelines would be framed to serve good quality food in schools and colleges. The government said it has invited proposals from experienced agencies, organisation and institutions for framing guidelines for providing safe food in educational institutions. Filing an affidavit before the division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the health ministry claimed that it has written to all states and union territories to consider issuing instructions for withdrawing carbonated beverages and junk food from school and college canteens. The court was hearing a plea for a ban on the sale of junk food and carbonated drinks near the educational institutions. 'The centre in actively engaged in dealing with the health risks that the consumption of junk food may pose to the general health of the population and more particularly the children of the country,' said the affidavit. 'Chief ministers and the health ministers of all the states to consider issuing instructions to vice-chancellors of all universities for withdraw of junk food and carbonated drinks from the canteens of educational institutions,' it said. According to the ministry, various studies have shown that junk food is high in fat, sodium and sugar. 'Junk food lacks micro-nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fibre but is high in energy. Junk food is responsible for obesity, dental cavities, diabetes and heart diseases,' said the ministry. 'The Foods Safety and Standards Authority of India - is in the process of issuing guidelines for quality food in school canteens after the completion of a project and the approval of the guidelines by a scientific panel,' said the affidavit. The court is hearing a petition filed by an NGO seeking a ban on the sale of junk food and... http://www.rxpgnews.com   |
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