Health News
Pessimists live longer and healthier lives
Washington, February 28 : Pessimism about the future may lead to longer and healthier life, researchers have suggested.
According to a new study, older people who have low expectations for a satisfying future may be more likely to live longer, healthier lives than those who see brighter days ahead.
"Our findings revealed that being overly optimistic in predicting a better future was associated with a greater risk of disability and death within the following decade," said lead author Frieder R. Lang, PhD, of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany.
Sit less and move more to cut diabetes risk
Washington, February 28 : People at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes would benefit from being told to sit less and move around more often- rather than simply exercising regularly, a new research has suggested.
The experts suggested that reducing sitting time by 90 minutes in total per day could lead to important health benefits.
Currently, at risk patients are advised to engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for at least 150 mins per week. But the new study suggested that patients should in fact be advised to reduce their sedentary time (time spent moving very little or not at all, for example sitting or lying down).
Gut microbes help regulate blood pressure
Washington, February 27 : A new study has suggested that gut bacteria are an integral part of the body's complex system for maintaining a stable blood pressure.
Using mice models, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University and Yale University have discovered that a specialized receptor, normally found in the nose, is also in blood vessels throughout the body, sensing small molecules created by microbes that line mammalian intestines, and responding to these molecules by increasing blood pressure.
Malaria can be defeated without globally led eradication program
Washington, February 27 : The global eradication of malaria could be achieved by individual countries eliminating the disease within their own borders and coordinating efforts regionally, a researcher at the University of Southampton has suggested.
Dr Andrew Tatem is one the team members from the UK and USA who examined data from 1980 onwards for 30 countries which successfully eliminated malaria and also took part in the 1955 Global Malaria Eradication Programme (GMEP).
Yoga men’s latest fitness fad!
New York, Feb 27 : As more men are flocking to yoga classes, it seems they're tired of borrowing their girlfriends' purple, flowered yoga mats.
Thankfully for them, some savvy retailers have heard the complaint and are starting to step up their offerings for male yogis.
YogaJack Inc., a fledgling company based in San Francisco and Boston, last week announced its introductory line of yoga gear just for guys, the New York Daily News reported.
Among the offerings are longer, thicker yoga mats with a "proprietary non-slip surface" for sweaty dudes, and tote bags in guy-friendly basic black.
Slow weight gain in first nine months of life may affect infants’ future size
Washington, February 26 : Most babies who are slow to put on weight in the first nine months of life caught up to within the normal range by the age of 13, but remain lighter and shorter than many of their peers, a new study found.
There are significant differences in the pattern of `catchup', depending on the infant's age when the slow weight gain occurs, according researchers at the University of Bristol.
The new findings are based on data from 11,499 participants in Children of the 90s, and provide the most conclusive and reassuring evidence for parents to date that, with the right care, many infants who fail to put on weight quickly in the first nine months of life will catch up over time.
Mums’ blood pressure during pregnancy may affect kids’ future health
Washington, February 26 : Mild maternal hypertension early in pregnancy actually benefits the fetus, but that late-pregnancy hypertension has negative health consequences for the child, a new study has found.
The study, conducted by researchers from the Centre for Social Evolution at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, is based on more than 750,000 births in Denmark, with follow-up data on children''s hospital diagnoses for up to 27 years.
Fully functioning fetal heart model in development
Washington, Feb. 26 : Scientists have used a technology developed at The University of Nottingham in a study, which is aimed at developing the first comprehensive model of a fully functioning fetal heart.
The abdominal fetal ECG device, designed originally by academics in the University's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and on commercial sale throughout the world since 2008 through the University's spin-out company Monica Healthcare Ltd, has been used to observe living fetal hearts of babies in their mothers' wombs.
The collaborative study led by experts at The University of Leeds discovered that the walls of the human heart are a disorganised jumble of tissue until relatively late in pregnancy - with development much slower compared to other mammals.
Eating fish during pregnancy may help reduce early preterm birth, low birth weight
Washington, February 26 : Researchers have found that the infants of mothers who were given 600 milligrams of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA during pregnancy weighed more at birth and were less likely to be very low birth weight and born before 34 weeks gestation than infants of mothers who were given a placebo.
This result of this University of Kansas study greatly strengthens the case for using the dietary supplement, commonly found in marine and plant oils, during pregnancy.
The results are from the first five years of a 10-year, double-blind randomized controlled trial.
Asthma drug heals chronic, severe hives and itch
Washington, February 25 : A once-a-month, high-dose injection of a commonly used asthma drug has been found to be highly effective in treating teens and adults chronically afflicted with hives and severe, itchy rash, according to an international team of researchers including one of Indian origin.
The drug, omalizumab, was tested on 323 people at 55 medical centers for whom standard antihistamine therapy failed to quell their underlying, allergy-like reaction, known as chronic idiopathic urticaria or chronic spontaneous urticaria.
C-section babies 5 times likelier to develop allergies than naturally born peers
Washington, February 25 : Babies born by Caesarian section are susceptible to developing allergies by age two, a Henry Ford Hospital study has suggested.
Researchers found that C-section babies are five times more likely to develop allergies than babies born naturally when exposed to high levels of common allergens in the home such as those from dogs, cats and dust mites.
Genes linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s found in sea lamprey
Washington, February 25 : Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have identified several genes linked to human neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury, in the sea lamprey, a vertebrate fish.
The scientists have also reported the whole-genome sequence of the fish.
"This means that we can use the sea lamprey as a powerful model to drive forward our molecular understanding of human neurodegenerative disease and neurological disorders," said Jennifer Morgan of the MBL's Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering.
It's evolutionary difference that makes for human brains
Washington, Feb 25 - Humans have two functional networks in their cerebral cortex not found in rhesus monkeys, which may have been added during evolution from primate ancestor to human, say researchers.
Neurophysiologist Wim Vanduffel from the Unversity of Leuven (Belgium) and Harvard Medical School, with a team of Italian and US researchers, reported their findings, based on an analysis of brain scans.
Our ancestors evolutionarily split from those of rhesus monkeys about 25 million years ago. Since then, brain areas have been added, have disappeared or have changed in function, according to a Harvard statement.
Malfunctioning glands linked to kidney stones
Washington, Feb 24 - Excessive calcium levels, linked to formation of kidney stones, can be traced to the over activity of parathyroid glands (hyperparathyroidism), affecting women and the elderly, suggests a new study.
Researchers from the University of California Los Angeles, (UCLA) determined that hyperparathyroidism is the leading cause of high blood-calcium levels and is responsible for nearly 90 percent of all cases.
Aspirin and fish oil can work together to fight chronic illness
Washington, Feb. 22 : Researchers have claimed that aspirin helps trigger the production of molecules called resolvins - naturally made by the body from omega-3 fatty acids - which shut the inflammation that underlies bad conditions like inflammatory lung disease, heart disease and arthritis.
Senior author Dr. Charles Serhan of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School said "In this report, we found that one resolvin, termed resolvin D3 from the omega-3 fatty acid DHA, persists longer at sites of inflammation than either resolvin D1 or resolvin D2 in the natural resolution of inflammation in mice."
Fish oil may help slow breast cancer growth
Washington, Feb. 22 : A lifelong diet that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids - found in fish oils - can decrease growth of breast cancer tumours by 30 percent, a new research has revealed.
Study authors David Ma, a professor in Guelph's Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, said that their study shows that lifelong exposure to omega-3s had a beneficial role in disease prevention - in this case, breast cancer prevention.
Old people are not as forgetful as they seem
Washington, Feb 22 : Older adults can eliminate forgetfulness and perform as well as younger adults on memory tests, a new study has found.
Scientists at Baycrest Health Sciences' Rotman Research Institute (RRI) and the University of Toronto's Psychology Department used a distraction learning strategy to help older adults overcome age-related forgetting and boost their performance to that of younger adults.
Distraction learning sounds like an oxymoron, but a growing body of science is showing that older brains are adept at processing irrelevant and relevant information in the environment, without conscious effort, to aid memory performance.
Red grapes and red wine may protect against hearing loss
Washington, February 21 : Resveratrol, a substance found in red grapes and red wine, may have the potential to protect against hearing and cognitive decline, researchers have found.
The study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit showed that healthy rats are less likely to suffer the long-term effects of noise-induced hearing loss when given resveratrol before being exposed to loud noise for a long period of time.
Bilingual kids have better `working memory` than monolingual peers
Washington, February 21 : Bilingual children develop a better working memory -which holds, processes and updates information over short periods of time- than monolingual children, a new study has revealed.
The working memory plays a major role in the execution of a wide range of activities, such as mental calculation (since we have to remember numbers and operate with them) or reading comprehension (given that it requires associating the successive concepts in a text).
Second gene associated with Alzheimer’s plaques identified
Washington, February 21 : A research team including an Indian origin has identified a new gene associated with the amyloid plaque deposits found in Alzheimer's disease patients.
In their study that combine genetic data with brain imaging, they have not only identified the APOE gene -- long associated with development of Alzheimer's -- but also uncovered an association with a second gene, called BCHE.
The study, led by scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine, is believed to be the first genome-wide association study of plaque deposits using a specialized PET scan tracer that binds to amyloid.