Archive for the ‘Health’ Category

Kawasaki Glasses

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

I am going to treat myself to some new glasses soon. I have had my pair for a very long time and I think it is about time that I got something on trend. I have been looking around and have seen some Kawasaki glasses that I thought looked rather cool but I was not sure that they suited me really. It woudl be nice to have them but I do not want something that changes the way that I look too dramatically. I was thinking that the Silhouette glasses might be better because they are more like the style that I have already, but they are more modern looking.

I also want to get some designer sunglasses with my prescription in the lenses. I will need a new pair as my prescription has changed and it only seems right to change both especially as I sometimes change them when I am driving and do not have time for my eyes to adjust to the different strength of lens and so it is very dangerous. It will be nice to have a new cool pair as well, I love wearing sunglasses but obviously cannot see out of normal ones and so cannot keep changing the style of the ones that I wear which is a bit annoying,

Endoscopy Extremely Useful for Gastroenterologists

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Digestion and excretion are important cycles of human body. Without these two procedures human body stinks and becomes a hidden waste material. These two procedures should run one after the other, otherwise health of people deteriorates. No doctor can solve problems related to abdomen, only Gastroenterologist can clearly understand problems related to abdomen and intestine. Utah is well known, small populous state of USA. This western state has many hospitals and shopping malls. Gastroenterologists in Utah are proficient in solving digestive problems.

Utah Gastroenterologist can clearly understand digestive health of a patient. Utah gastroenterologist gives proper treatment to patient. Gastroenterologists develop mental strength in patient. Gastroenterology is a typical and most difficult task. Without special equipment, understanding the intestinal and abdomen status becomes difficult. It is in this situation doctors prefer Endoscopy. Even though Endoscopy is a traditional method, it is still existent at this place.

Endoscopy is actually defined as a diagnostic procedure in which doctors access the interiors of internal organs of body. Endoscope is used in Endoscopy: This instrument has a small tube, which acts on total internal reflection of light phenomenon. This tube is sent through mouth into abdomen to study internal organs. Utah Endoscopy is a simple procedure. Utah gastroenterologists can perform this procedure efficiently.

Treating Hair Loss

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Hair loss is the potential problem to which men and women fall prey at some point of time or the other. There can be numerous possible causes for the loss of hair. Dieticians and hair experts accrue reasons such as protein deficiency, calcium deficiency, hereditary diseases, lethal diseases such as tumors or cancers can also result in substantial hair loss. Still many of the people also complain of thinning hair.

This is another kind of hair problem, which has left millions grappling with the situation. Hair thinning primarily occurs as the result of weakened hair follicles, and as the result of which hair filaments become week and began to fall one after the other. The cause of thinning hair has also been attributed to hereditary linked problems. With the research and development in medical science, the problem of hair fall, male and female pattern baldness has been seriously dealt. Today, there are available hair loss treatment techniques that can change your personality by giving you back your lost hair. Many of these hair loss treatment methods are natural and have no side effects on human tissues. The best thing is that you can even try them out along with your regular regimen.

New Anti-Clotting Treatment Urged for Cancer Patients

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

The blood thinner warfarin does not reduce catheter-related blood clots in cancer patients, so new treatments are needed to prevent this complication, says a U.K. study.

About 50 percent of cancer patients develop venous thromboembolism, which can be caused by a number of factors, including the use of central venous catheters to deliver infusional chemotherapy, according to background information in the study. The use of warfarin with the catheters to prevent clotting is controversial because there’s no clear evidence that it’s effective.

The study included 1,590 cancer patients at 68 centers who were receiving chemotherapy through central venous catheters. The patients were randomly selected to receive either no warfarin, a fixed dose of 1 milligram of warfarin a day or dose-adjusted warfarin daily.

Overall, rates of catheter-related blood clots were the same (6 percent) whether people were or were not given warfarin. Those who received dose-adjusted warfarin did have fewer blood clots than those given the fixed dose (3 percent vs. 7 percent), but there were more occurrences of major bleeding in the dose-adjusted group (16 vs. 7).

The study was published in this week’s edition of The Lancet.

“The rate of symptomatic catheter-related thromboses reported in clinical trials has fallen substantially over the past decade,” wrote Annie Young and colleagues from the Institute for Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham. “The improvements in catheter technology, placement and aftercare are contributing to this reduction. When any benefit of thromboprophylaxis (treatment to prevent blood clots) was balanced against the risk of major bleeding, the combined outcome showed no advantage with the use of any dose of warfarin.”

“These findings only add to the assertion that the time has come to move on from warfarin for thromboprophylaxis in patients with cancer,” they wrote. “We should consider new treatments.”

Dr. Paolo Prandoni, of the University of Padua in Italy, wrote in an accompanying editorial that though there’s no evidence that warfarin helps prevent catheter-related blood clots in cancer patients, doctors should make an effort to identify people at highest risk of clotting because they might benefit most from anti-clotting treatment.

Sprucing Up Yourself

Monday, February 9th, 2009

Most of the human beings have an innate desire to look beautiful and spruced up all the time. They try every method possible to give them shape, have beautiful and shining hair and all the more have sharp and dynamic features to attract the attention of opposite sex. They make use of synthetic and natural products available in the market to realize their dreams. Some are successful, while others are not. Natural hair loss treatment is an amazingly new way to keep you chick and smart all the time and add a tint of dynamic personality to your mien. What’s more, natural hair loss treatment procedures are pretty safe and easy to use; and therefore, the user has no hassles to try them out, even without going in for any health expert.

However, for those who are still grappling with pot belly or a hanging tummy, you have those over the counter quick weight loss remedies available for you. These smart remedies can really bring you in shape and have your confidence raised to higher levels. However, a word of caution here! Quick weight loss is mostly done by incorporating synthetically prepared constituents. Check it out that you are having a natural supplement for losing your weight.

Clues on how trace metal may be linked to Parkinsons: study

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Manganese, a metal that is naturally present in the human body, may contribute to Parkinson’s disease when defective genes interact to enhance its toxicity, according to a study published Sunday.

Parkinson’s attacks the nervous system and is characterized by the loss of cells which produce dopamine, a critically important neurotransmitter that ferries chemical messages within the brain.

Symptoms include muscular rigidity, difficulty with initiating movements, lack of balance, and slowness of voluntary actions.

In experiments on yeast cells, researchers showed that the toxicity caused by an over-abundance of a protein, alpha-synuclein, previously linked to the disease is greatly reduced in the presence of a second protein, known as ATP13A2.

The latter is thought to play a role in transporting metal molecules, especially manganese, a known risk factor for Parkinson’s.

Manganese is an essential trace nutrient in virtually all forms of life. The human body contains about 10 milligrammes, stored mainly in the liver and kidneys.

A team led by Susan Lindquist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts demonstrated that yeast cells lacking ATP13A2 were more sensitive to the metal.

They were able to duplicate the same genetic interaction in laboratory-grown rat neurons.

Their findings, published in Nature Genetics, a publication of the Nature Publishing Group, suggest that humans with mutations in the genes encoding these proteins may be particularly vulnerable to manganese poisoning.

A neurodegenerative condition similar to Parkinson’s — often called “manganism” — has been linked to manganese exposure amongst miners and welders.

Manganese exposure is regulated by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Meanwhile, in another study published in Nature Genetics, researchers identified the first genetic variant ever linked to the condition known as essential tremor.

Like Parkinson’s, essential tremor is a degenerative neurological disease characterised by tremor of the arms and hands that can impair writing, drinking, eating and other everyday activities.

Earlier studies suggested that the condition may occur in as many as 13 percent of persons over 65.

Researchers led by Kari Stefansson of deCODE Genetics, a company based in Reykjavik, Iceland, compared the genomes of 452 essential tremor patients from Iceland against a control group of 14,394 persons.

They found that a specific variant in the gene known as LINGO1 was strongly linked to the disease.

LINGO1 is involved in cell-to-cell interactions within the nervous system, and is known to regulate neuron survival.

Inhibiting the gene’s activity has been shown to improve neurological function in test animals, and could be a promising path for new drug treatments.

Obesity Caught Like Common Cold

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

Yet another claim that a common and contagious virus is linked to some cases of obesity is in the news today.

Studies on humans show that 33 per cent of obese adults had contracted an adenovirus called AD-36 at some point in their lives, according to an article in the UK’s Daily Express, whereas only 11 per cent of lean men and women have had the virus.

The research, to be presented in a BBC television special, is not big news to scientists, however. Further, some worry that the portrayal of obesity as something you simply catch could obscure the fact that overeating remains the biggest driver of obesity.

The facts

The National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one-third of U.S. adults are obese, as are 16 percent of children and adolescents age 2 to 19.

Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and other illnesses.

It is increasingly clear, several experts say, that viruses might play a role in some obesity cases. There are 49 known human adenoviruses. They cause everything from the common cold to gastrointestinal problems and eye inflammation, pneumonia, croup, and bronchitis.

AD-36 was first fingered as being possibly linked to obesity more than a decade ago. Nikhil Dhurandhar, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, and a colleague made the connection in 1997 in research presented at an annual Experimental Biology meeting. That preliminary study of 199 people found that up to 15 percent of them carried antibodies to the virus, which provided indirect evidence that they once were exposed to the virus itself.

Prior to that, Dhurandhar had showed that another type of adenovirus that infects birds and is found only in his native India could induce obesity when it was injected into chickens.

In 2006, research led by Leah Whigham of the departments of Medicine and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison found that another human adenovirus, AD-37, causes obesity in chickens. The results were published in the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology published by the American Physiological Society.

Then in 2007, researchers found that AD-36 could transform adult stem cells obtained from fat tissue into fat cells. “We’re not saying that a virus is the only cause of obesity, but this study provides stronger evidence that some obesity cases may involve viral infections,” Magdalena Pasarica of Louisiana State University (and a colleague of Dhurandhar) said at the time.

Today’s claim

Today, Dhurandhar said it’s the spreading of the virus to other parts of the body that’s key to its ability to fuel obesity. “When it goes to fat tissue it replicates, making more copies of itself and in the process increases the number of new fat cells, which may explain why people get fat when they are infected with this virus,” he said in the Daily Express.

Other researchers point out that the prime cause of obesity is still likely to be environmental, as in what you eat.

“These associations may give some clues but they detract from the basic message that we all need to take more exercise and eat a bit less,” said Tony Barnett, professor of medicine at the University of Birmingham.

And as if all this isn’t confusing enough, a study earlier this month suggested that exercise, despite its many benefits, it not as important in avoiding obesity as is a better diet.

US doctors pay to hear Ore. town’s vaccine views

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

There are so many parents in this free-spirited, unconventional small town who won’t get their kids vaccinated that federal researchers are paying money just to hear their side of things. On Saturday, 80 locals will get $50 apiece to talk about their worries over the risks of childhood shots.

“One of the basic tenets of my decision-making is mistrust of the government, a mistrust of the pharmaceutical companies, and mistrust of the big blanket thing that says this is what everybody has to do,” says Tracy Harding, an organic farming consultant and mother of two.

“I get the public health standpoint,” she said. “I am still questioning (vaccines’) safety.”

Nationally, there is a budding movement of parents who are getting exemptions from laws requiring children to get vaccinated before attending school. The exemptions are one explanation the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives for a spike in measles cases. The government recommends as many as 10 vaccines before a child is 6, plus boosters along the way.

Dr. Ben Schwartz, an adviser to the National Vaccine Program, said the meeting in Ashland is one of three where the government is paying average citizens to give their views to inform officials charting the direction of vaccine research for the next five years. A similar meeting was held in Birmingham, Ala., and another is set for Indianapolis, both sites with more mainstream views about vaccines.

But Ashland stands apart from the mainstream.

The town of 20,000 on the flanks of the Siskiyou Mountains in southwestern Oregon has always been different. In the early 20th century it was on the Chautauqua lecture circuit, and the sulfurous waters of Lithia Springs drew visitors looking for a cure for what ailed them.

Today, it has one of the highest rates in the nation for vaccine exemptions — 28 percent and rising in kindergartens, compared with about 4 percent statewide. One alternative school has 67 percent.

A liberal outpost in a conservative region, Ashland likes to go its own way. The city has its own water and electric utilities, and was a pioneer promoting solar energy, high-speed Internet, and dog parks. It has serious debates about whether to cut down trees to expand the library or whether to allow a woman to ride her bicycle naked in the Fourth of July parade.

For years, Dr. Jim Shames, a physician who prefers a down vest to a lab coat, has argued the benefits of vaccines with Harding, his next-door neighbor.

As Jackson County’s chief medical officer, Shames would like every child immunized. Ashland always has some whooping cough around, which can be devastating to babies, but has seen no spike in measles. Still, Shames fears the community is vulnerable because so many international visitors come to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Southern Oregon University.

Shames has been working with nursing students from Oregon Health & Science University on a pamphlet that would promote immunization.

While doing interviews for that pamphlet, nursing student Shauna Gargus, who had her own two kids vaccinated, found many parents distrust mainstream medicine. They tend to believe their friends rather than medical research. Their biggest single fear is that the shot for measles, mumps and rubella could cause their children to become autistic, despite solid scientific studies that show no evidence of that.

“The fear is real for parents, and it overshadows the research,” she said. “This is my hometown. This is where I grew up. I care about the community here. I just really would like to not make this a browbeating issue.”

Harding is suspicious of the need to inject so many vaccines into small children. She stopped vaccinating her son, Frank, after his first shot as a baby triggered hours of crying. Her daughter, Stella, got a tetanus shot, but that is all.

Until now, Tyre Dawn has depended on organic food and plenty of playtime outdoors to keep her 4-year-old son, Lukyan, healthy. But she is planning to open a preschool in the spring, and with so many children around, she is now rethinking her policy.

“It is essential in these times for everyone to look more closely at the choices they are making,” she said.

Jennifer Margulis moved here with her husband and three kids from Massachusetts, where her mother is a cellular biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Though she chuckles at some of Ashland’s personality quirks, she embraces the city’s strong sense of community and many people’s distrust of mainstream medicine.

“I never questioned the efficacy or intelligence of doing vaccines until I was in the hospital with my newborn daughter and a doctor tried to get me to give her hepatitis B vaccine,” she said. “Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. I knew I didn’t have hepatitis B. I knew my husband didn’t have it. I knew there was no way she would come in contact with anyone with hepatitis B.

“You have this tiny, frog-like baby and they want to shoot her up with things.”

Afterward, Margulis’ pediatrician supported her choice. “I decided it was my responsibility as a parent to research each and every vaccine to make an informed, intelligent decision, not to just follow what doctors told me,” she said.

Pregnancy possible after fibroid treatment

Friday, January 9th, 2009

For young women with fibroids — benign tumors inside the uterus that can lead to pain, abnormal bleeding and other symptoms — a treatment called uterine artery embolization (UAE) does not harm fertility, according to results of a study conducted in Spain.

Hysterectomy, the traditional operation for fibroids, solves the problem of painful uterine fibroids by removing the uterus completely. With UAE, by contrast, a tiny catheter is used to inject small particles into the blood vessels feeding the tumors, thereby depriving them of blood and causing them to shrink. Because the uterus is not removed, UAE allows women the possibility of becoming pregnant in the future if desired.

Although studies have shown that the risk of “ovarian failure” is negligible (less than 1 percent) in UAE patients who are younger than 40 years of age, concern regarding the impact of UAE on a woman’s fertility lingers, the study team notes in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.

To further characterize the effect of UAE on fertility, Dr. Isabel Pinto Pabon from Hospital de Madrid, Monteprincipe, and associates followed 100 women with painful uterine fibroids who were treated with UAE between 2002 and 2006.

Among 39 women age 40 and younger who wanted to remain fertile, there were 11 pregnancies in 10 women who conceived between 5 and 30 months following the procedure, including one woman who became pregnant twice, they report.

Two pregnancies were achieved by assisted reproduction techniques and nine were spontaneous.

There were three cases of miscarriage in two women, but this rate “does not appear to be higher than the rate for the general population,” the investigators emphasize.

Hormone replacement therapy cuts colorectal cancer risk in women

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

A new study has shown that hormone replacement therapy can significantly reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in postmenopausal women.hormone-replacement-therapy Hormone replacement therapy cuts colorectal cancer risk in women

The researchers found that women who had completed use of estrogen plus progestin five or more years previously were 45 pct less likely to develop colorectal cancer

“Compared to women who had never taken these hormones, the use of estrogen plus progestin was associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer,” said Jill R. Johnson, M.P.H., a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

During the study, the research team led by Johnson extracted data from 56,733 postmenopausal women who participated in the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project follow-up study.

They identified 960 new cases of colorectal cancer in this population.

The findings revealed that any use of estrogen therapy was associated with a 17 percent reduced risk in colorectal cancer.

Among those who used estrogen, the largest reductions were seen among those who were current users (25 percent reduced risk) and users of ten or more years duration (26 percent reduced risk).

However, a 22 percent reduced risk was observed among those who had ever used estrogen plus progestin in combination.

They further found a 36 percent reduction in risk among those who had used progestin sequentially or less than 15 days per month.

Past users of estrogen plus progestin, who had stopped at least five years ago, had a 45 percent risk reduction.

The study is published in the January issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.