Tag: Health

WASHINGTON (TIP): Scientists have developed a new non-invasive retinal imaging technique that could help prevent the onset of vision loss in diseases like glaucoma – the second leading cause of acquired blindness worldwide.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Centre in the US hope their new technique could prevent vision loss via earlier diagnosis and treatment for these diseases.

The method can non-invasively image the human retina, a layer of cells at the back of the eye that are essential for vision.

The group led by David Williams from the University of Rochester was able to distinguish individual retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) which bear most of the responsibility of relaying visual information to the brain.

There has been a longstanding interest in imaging RGCs because their death causes vision loss in glaucoma, the second leading cause of acquired blindness worldwide.

Despite great efforts, no one has successfully captured images of individual RGCs, in part because they are nearly perfectly transparent.

Instead of imaging RGCs directly, glaucoma is currently diagnosed by assessing the thickness of the nerve fibers projecting from the RGCs to the brain.

However, by the time retinal nerve fibre thickness has changed detectably, a patient may have lost 100,000 RGCs or more.

“You only have 1.2 million RGCs in the whole eye, so a loss of 100,000 is significant. The sooner we can catch the loss, the better our chances of halting disease and preventing vision loss,” said Williams.

Ethan A Rossi, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the US and his colleagues were able to see RGCs by modifying an existing technology – confocal adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO).

They collected multiple images, varying the size and location of the detector they used to gather light scattered out of the retina for each image and then combined those images. The technique, called multi-offset detection, was performed in animals as well as volunteers with normal vision and patients with age-related macular degeneration.

Not only did this technique allow the group to visualise individual RGCs, but structures within the cells, like nuclei, could also be distinguished in animals.

Source: PTI

Using marijuana could help some alcoholics and people addicted to opioids kick the habit and may also help people suffering from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety, says a study.

“Research suggests that people may be using cannabis as an exit drug to reduce the use of substances that are potentially more harmful, such as opioid pain medication,” said the study’s lead investigator Zach Walsh, Associate Professor at University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus in Canada.

The study published in the journal Clinical Psychology Review is based on a systematic review of research on the medical cannabis use and mental health as well as reviews on non-medical cannabis use.

However, the review concluded that cannabis use might not be recommended for conditions such as bipolar disorder and psychosis.

“In reviewing the limited evidence on medical cannabis, it appears that patients and others who have advocated for cannabis as a tool for harm reduction and mental health have some valid points,” Walsh said.

It is important to identify ways to help mental health professional move beyond stigma to better understand the risk and benefits of cannabis, Walsh added.

“There is not currently a lot of clear guidance on how mental health professionals can best work with people who are using cannabis for medical purposes,” Walsh said.

Researchers have found that endometriosis — a chronic condition affecting around 10 per cent of women — may be the reason behind their difficulty in getting pregnant.

Endometriosis — chronic abdominal pain, irregular periods, and lowered fertility — is strongly associated with infertility and up to 50 per cent of women who require infertility treatment have it, the study said.

In order to become pregnant, a woman must produce a mature egg, which then is released to be fertilised.

However, the study found that eggs in women who have endometriosis are affected by a very hostile uterine environment that lowers fertility.

In women with endometriosis, ability of the egg to mature gets blocked as it suffers serious damage by exposure to follicular fluid and the egg quality gets severely compromised, the researchers explained.

“The study found that fluid from the follicles of patients with endometriosis was found to block egg maturation by generating free-radical chemicals called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in the egg, which damage their DNA. This damage caused the egg not to mature, and hence it could not be fertilised,” added Simon Lane, doctoral student at the University of Southampton.More research is now needed to investigate whether such damage caused by endometriosis is treatable or preventable, Lane said. According to researchers, the effects of endometriosis on eggs could be prevented by antioxidants, as they can decrease ROS levels and help eggs to mature.

Losing weight is no walk in the park. A lot of it actually depends on your metabolism — while some people are blessed with burning off calories faster than you probably finish your meal, others aren’t so lucky. In fact, for a large part of the population, losing weight is an uphill task. And it often happens that you’re religiously following a diet and exercise regime but are still failing to drop those pounds. Here are some blunders you could be making that are hindering your progress…

You don’t sleep enough

Sleep is extremely essential and not simply a time when your body is resting. And when you don’t sleep enough, you’re lowering the benefits that come with dieting and exercise. Sleep deprivation can cause a number of health woes, not to mention a sluggish metabolism, increased appetite and lower energy levels.

You reward yourself too often

No matter how well you think you’re doing at the gym, rewarding yourself regularly with sweet treats for every extra hour spent at the gym will undo any good that you have done. While it is alright to motivate yourself now and then, be careful because every little treat has far more calories than you imagine.

You have a lot of sweet drinks

You may be following a diet but it will be of little use if you don’t watch what you drink. Smoothies, packaged fruit juices, fizzy, energy and aerated drinks are packed with sugar and calories that will cause you to gain weight. Instead, have green tea, coconut water and natural fruit juices sans any sugar.

You barely eat

This is another mistake that a lot of dieters make. Just because you’re on a diet doesn’t mean you have to eat tiny morsels for each meal. Eating very little makes your body store whatever you east as fat —just the opposite of what you want. It also causes your metabolism to slow down, making it more difficult for you to lose weight. Clinical nutritionist Dr Nupur Krishnan says, “The human body is programmed to send out hunger signals whenever it needs an energy boost, usually between meals. A number of studies have established that eating frequent small meals is a better weight management strategy than eating one or two large meals. One strategy is to divide your food evenly, eating smaller nutritious portions every few hours.”

You binge eat

Giving in to temptation and gorging on your favourite foods can wreak havoc on your diet. A cheat day where you allow yourself a small portion of your favourite snack is alright but to go on a binge eating spree will undo all the good that you’re done over the previous days. Be consistent in your diet and you’ll soon get the results you desire. Explains healing diet specialist Dhvani Shah, “Apart from weight gain, binge eating results in a stark decrease in micronutrients causing dull skin, hairfall, hormonal imbalance, acidity and constipation. Other side-effects include vitamin deficiencies, loss of muscle tone and lower bone density.”

You don’t watch your portion size

Eating healthy doesn’t mean you pile your plate high with salads or other low cal meals. Watching your portion size is crucial when it comes to losing weight, so be conscious of exactly how much you put on your plate. “Snacking can actually be beneficial if one makes the right choice. By choosing nutritious bites, people can not only satisfy hunger, but also get additional nutrients that they need for a healthy living. The idea is not to ban snacks but to plan them,” explains Dr Nupur.

You stick to the same workout regime

The trick to losing weight quickly is to ensure that you vary your workout regime regularly. When your body gets used to the same exercise routine, you’ll find it harder to lose weight. Mix up your regime — not only will you enjoy your workouts, you’ll also see results faster.

You have underlying medical conditions

When you’re suffering from certain medical conditions, losing weight is more difficult.

These include hypothyroidism, PCOS and other hormonal conditions that cause weight gain. You could also be suffering from some sort of food allergy or side-effects of some medication that you’re taking that is making it tough for you to lose weight. Source: TOI

Befriend a moisturiser, use face oils and avoid excessive exfoliation to get a natural glow despite the chill in the air.

Megha Shah, cosmetologist at Beauty & Curves Clinic, Surat, has shared a few skin care tips that can be followed during winter season:

– Cool breeze may deprive your skin of the essential moisture that keeps it soft. Apply and then reapply the moisturiser. But make sure that it is not too heavy for your skin. Otherwise, it will make your skin look oily and dark. A gel-to-cream base moisturiser would be ideal for any skin type.

– Bio oil not only offers anti-ageing properties, but also provides nourishment to the skin. These oils add a protective layer to your skin and offer that super glow.

– Hot water takes off the natural oil from the body, it plays havoc if you already have a dry skin. A lukewarm water is ideal to suit your body temperature as it does not dilate capillaries due to excessive heat.

– Have a nutritionally rich diet or food items rich in Omega 3 for a glowing skin. Nuts and seasonal vegetables are great for your skin. Avoid starchy and sugary foods as they may cause bloating and acne.

* Since your skin is already dry during winter season, excessive exfoliation will wash off all the natural oils from the skin and can damage it badly causing redness. Use gentle exfoliators like oatmeal and coffee powder, and seal it with a cream.

People who smoke a packet of cigarette a day may develop as many as 150 extra mutations in their lungs every year which can eventually lead to cancer, a new study has warned.

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK and Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US measured the catastrophic genetic damage caused by smoking in different organs of the body and identified several different mechanisms by which tobacco smoking causes mutations in DNA.

The study provides a direct link between the number of cigarettes smoked in a lifetime and the number of mutations in the tumour DNA.

The highest mutation rates were seen in the lung cancers but tumours in other parts of the body also contained these smoking-associated mutations, explaining how smoking causes many types of human cancer.

Cancer is caused by mutations in the DNA of a cell. In the first comprehensive analysis of the DNA of cancers linked to smoking, researchers studied over 5,000 tumours, comparing cancers from smokers with cancers from people who had never smoked.

They found particular molecular fingerprints of DNA damage – called mutational signatures – in the smoker’s DNA, and counted how many of these particular mutations were found in the different tumours.

The researchers found that, on average, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day led to 150 mutations in each lung cell every year.

These mutations represent individual potential start points for a cascade of genetic damage that can eventually lead to cancer.

The numbers of mutations within any cancer cell will vary between individuals, but this study shows the additional mutational load caused by tobacco.

“Before now, we had a large body of epidemiological evidence linking smoking with cancer, but now we can actually observe and quantify the molecular changes in the DNA due to cigarette smoking,” said Ludmil Alexandrov from Los Alamos.

“With this study, we have found that people who smoke a pack a day develop an average of 150 extra mutations in their lungs every year, which explains why smokers have such a higher risk of developing lung cancer,” said Alexandrov.

The next quarter in medico-social terms, is going to be one of gastrono mical temptation.For the culinary delights arising from festival indulgence and then continuing through with the gourmet celebrations of the wedding season, will make the palette rule the mind.

For the `over indulgent’, the stomach will be the centre point of both–satisfaction and consequent distress.

I am not going to allude to the indigestion that one associates with over eating. Nor am I going to go down the often travelled, standard hyperacidity pathway . I want to draw focus to that gastric condition which is caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter Pylori, an infection which mimics the presentation of a peptic ulcer but needs a specific line of treatment.

This helical bacterium is usually found in the stomach asymptomatically in 80% of patients where it resides silently .

However it can burrow into the superficial lining of the stomach and produce inflammation and then ulceration. The pain in the epigastric and retrosternal area results in distress which is similar to acidity and precipitates heartburn, nausea, vomiting and belching. Whilst 20% of harborers develop stomach or duodenal ulcers, if untreated 2% can even develop stomach cancers. All sorts of standard antacids seem to provide only temporary relief and undetected, the patient becomes miserable and might even start losing weight.

Often the diagnosis of ulcer is invoked and an aggressive anti-ulcer regime is embarked upon but fails to provide full relief. It is only when the physician asks for an endoscopy with biopsy , that the diagnosis of H Pylori infection is made.

Today , whilst endoscopy (procedure in modern times is simple, short, painless and safe) is the gold standard, an H.Pylo.breath or blood test has also been developed. The course of treatment is specific and short (about two weeks) and ensures speedy , symptomatic and complete recovery . The prescription of antibiotics seems to melt away , what appeared to be the ulcer symptoms, swiftly and the patient is a changed person.

The aim of highlighting this increasingly common condition is the fact that gastric symptoms are the most neglected, haphazardly and incompletely treated, with patients often using the term `gastric’ to describe all sorts of abdominal distress. From home remedies to indigenous concoctions, potions and powders, Indians abound with the supposedly `best’ cure for this.

Importantly , what the mind knows, the eye sees and for this infection you need those specific antibiotics. If suspected early, it can be diagnosed quickly and saves the patient enormous distress and economic and social stress. So in the forthcoming months when `Peit Pooja’ will be the name of the game, remember you have one more ace in your quiver-full of therapeutic arrows, but let your doctor look for and diagnose it. The discovery of an infective cause provides a complete response in the “finalcut”, leaving behind no “mushkil in the dil”, quite unlike similar chronic dyspeptic sufferers, who have to live with their symptoms. Source: TOI