London, May 20 ; People who begin drinking alcohol during puberty are more likely to become addicts, a German study has said.

Many parents think that supervised early drinking encourages children to have a more responsible attitude to alcohol. But a new study has said that those who begin to drink during puberty, tend to drink more later in life, the Daily Mail reported.

Researchers from the University of Heidelberg in Germany reached the conclusion after analysing the drinking habits of 283 young adults.

Thiruvananthapuram, May 20 : An international tobacco control survey has found that a ban on tobacco advertisements, especially where tobacco is sold, leads to lower sales of cigarettes.

The study was published in Oxford journal 'Health Education Research' earlier this month. It was conducted by the International Tobacco Control Evaluation Project, the first-ever international cohort study of tobacco use initiated to measure the psychosocial and behavioural impact of policies of WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

With the arrival of the mango season, the health inspectors are increasingly seizing artificially ripened mangoes that are harmful to the health of the customers.

New Delhi, May 17 : Fast-moving lifestyles, unearthly hours at work, stress, addiction to alcohol and unhealthy meals are making more and more Indians fall prey to high blood pressure at a very young age.

"The biggest problem with hypertension is that there are no symptoms. Thus people tend to be unaware that they have hypertension," Ravi Kasliwal, senior cardiac consultant at Medanta-the Medicity, told IANS.

New Delhi, May 16 : A study will be conducted across India to explore better therapy to control the double-barrel menace of diabetes coupled with obesity, doctors said Thursday.

"We have found that Indian population is predisposed to obesity at a younger age and diabetes is a growing menace. The study will be ethnic-specific. We will conduct the study in south, central and north India," said Deep Goel, director, bariatric surgery, BLK Super Speciality Hospital.

"With the help of various institutions, we will start the study in a couple of months," Goel said.

Thiruvananthapuram, May 15 : The Kerala government will promote the state's coconut water-based drink "Neera" as a non-alcoholic health drink, Excise Minister K. Babu said Wednesday.

An expert committee that studied the potential of "Neera" submitted a report to the minister, who said the government will certainly take a positive view of it.

Neera has a lot of body-building proteins and, despite being sweet, can be consumed even by diabetics. Neera turns into toddy after it is fermented four hours after being taken from the coconut tree and has an alcohol content of five to eight percent.

London, May 11 : New research shows that dementia and other neuro degenerative diseases are increasingly affecting people from an earlier age.

Professor Colin Pritchard's latest research published in the journal Public Health has found that the sharp rise of dementia and other neurological deaths in people under the age of 74 cannot be put down to the fact that people are living longer.

London, May 10 : Researchers from the Michigan State University in the US have found that a strain of bacteria called Wolbachia bacterium can infect mosquitoes and make them resistant to the malaria parasite.

The study, published in the journal Science, said the parasite struggled to survive in infected mosquitoes, BBC reported.

Experts hoped that giving mosquitoes malaria immunity could reduce human cases.

The World Health Organization estimates that 220 million people are infected annually and 660,000 die due to malaria.

New Delhi, May 10 : Over 20,000 slum dwellers were treated by a team of 262 doctors in a month-long campaign by the Art of Living (AoL) foundation, it was announced here Friday.

The 108 free health checkup and awareness camps were launched April 14 in collaboration with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in slum clusters in several east Delhi localities in five phases over five consecutive Sundays. The last round is scheduled May 12.

"The camps focused on detection and treatment for acute illnesses, provision of health education and spreading awareness about maternal health," said Maheish Girri, international director of AoL.

Houston, May 10 : If there was any doubt about the benefits of sharing your home with a pet, here is something to mull over -- scientists claim that the presence of a pet greatly reduces the risk of heart disease.

According to a report in Science Daily, the American Heart Association has published a scientific statement attesting to the benefits to the heart from a pet.

The statement is published online in the association's journal, Circulation.

Beijing, May 9 : One more person died Thursday in central China's Henan province due to the H7N9 avian influenza, bringing the nationwide death toll to 32, officials said.

The 56-year-old man surnamed Cui died in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, two weeks after his infection was confirmed, Xinhua cited the health bureau as saying.

Cui suffered from fever for one week before being admitted to a hospital in critical condition.

His condition became critical, as he also suffered from hypertension, coronary heart disease and a cerebral infarction.

Panaji, May 9 : Children will be at the forefront of a campaign in South Goa district, which is aimed to make the area smoke-free, an official said Thursday.

At a meeting of the district's task force committee on tobacco control, officials formalised a plan to make the district smoke-free by the end of May. Goa is made up of two administrative districts, North Goa and South Goa.

Los Angeles, May 7 : Scientists have zero-ed in on a gene linked to Parkinson's disease that plays a role in delaying ageing in fruit flies, says a US study.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) life scientists have identified a gene previously implicated in Parkinson's disease that can delay the onset of ageing and extend the healthy life span of fruit flies.

The research, they say, could have important implications for ageing and disease in humans.

Houston, May 3 : Scientists have shed light on the deadly Ebola virus's mechanism of disrupting the immune system of patients, says a study.

Researchers have discovered the mechanism behind one of the Ebola virus' most dangerous attributes: Its ability to disarm the adaptive immune system.

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston scientists determined that Ebola short-circuits the immune system using proteins that work together to shut down cellular signalling related to interferon (proteins released by host cells in response to the presence of pathogens like virus, bacteria, tumour cells or parasites).

New Delhi, May 1: Doctors in a city hospital claim to have performed a rare "limb-salvage" surgery to avoid amputating the left leg of a 13-year-old Nigerian girl suffering from bone cancer.

Mariam underwent surgery at the Nova Specialty Surgery Centre in Kailash Colony two weeks ago and her stitches were removed Wednesday.

According to doctors, the teenager was suffering from 'osteosarcoma' -- the most common type of bone cancer and the sixth most common type of cancer in children.

New Delhi, April 30 : There is no proposal to introduce TB drug Bedaquiline in the Indian market, parliament was told Tuesday.

"No application under the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules has been received by the Drug Controller General (of India) for the grant of permission to market the drug," Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told the Rajya Sabha in reply to a question.

A new drug can only be introduced in the Indian market after due approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).

New Delhi, April 29 : India has some 6.4 million beedi workers, with 4.5 million of them being women, parliament was informed Monday.

Minister of State for Labour and Employment K. Suresh put the total number of workers at 64,26,029. Of this, men accounted for 18,85,379 and women 45,40,650.

West Bengal accounted for most beedi workers (1.9 million) among 16 states followed by Madhya Pradesh (1.5 million) and Tamil Nadu (700,000).

According to the minister, healthcare was provided to beedi workers and their dependents through seven hospitals and 204 dispensaries all over the country.

New Delhi, April 27 : With an increasing number of Indians suffering from heart diseases, proper eating habits, heart friendly nutrition and a healthy lifestyle is the need of the hour to tackle the alarming situation with a special focus on youth, a leading doctor said Saturday.

"We need to build awareness on cardio-vascular disease. Heart wellness programmes, with timely and effective medical and interventional management, may help us in curbing the rising menace of coronary artery disease in India," said Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director, Medanta Medicity told reporters.

New Delhi, April 24 :  The number of deaths from malaria might be steadily declining, but health experts believe the mosquito sting continues to pose a grave threat to millions in the country.

An estimated one million fresh cases of the disease - which causes body ache and fever - are reported in India each year. About 95 percent of the country's population resides in malaria endemic areas.

Toronto, April 18 : Scientists have come up with a new technique to detect autism in children based on their brain activity, says a study.

Neuroscientists from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the University of Toronto have developed an efficient and reliable method of analysing brain activity to detect autism in children. Their findings have appeared Thursday in the online journal PLOS ONE.

The researchers recorded and analysed dynamic patterns of brain activity with magnetoencephalography (MEG) to determine the brain's functional connectivity that is, its communication from one region to another.