Globe Health Tours News

May 20: Increase in the use of pesticides is doing lot of harm for both the soil and the farmers. People who consume those agricultural products that are produced using artificial pesticides are also getting affected by them. A study conducted in India has revealed that direct expose to pesticides could have damaged the DNA of farming communities, which is considered as the reason for the increased rate of cancer among them.

The research was conducted by the scientists at Patiala University in Punjab state. They tracked a group of farmers for several months. Concerns are being raised for several years about the potential health risks posed by pesticides. This new study has found that the pesticide exposure has altered the DNA of farmers in Punjab making them vulnerable to cancer.

While commenting on this professor Satbir Kaur opined that, “The study eliminated other factors like age, smoking habit and alcohol consumption that were considered as the probable reason for alteration in the building blocks of genes as a result of pesticide sprays. We found major changes in the DNA that makes them more prone to cancer risks.”

Meanwhile Salil Singhal of the Crop Care Federation of India questioned the reliability of the research findings and also said that there are no pesticides in use today that could cause cancer. Farmers use spray only few times each season.

Promoting harmless natural pesticides and using natural fertilisers are the ideal way to find a comprehensive solution to this issue.

May 9: A research team led by Imperial College London has found the reason behind high obesity rate among Indian community. A gene sequence carried by them is considered as the reason for their increasing waist line, obesity and risk of type 2 diabetes.

The gene sequence is found to be carried by 50% of the population. The study explains the reason for high level of obesity in Indian Asians, who contribute 25% of the world population and they are expected to contribute 40% of the cardiovascular disease by 2020. On this backdrop this study gains much significance and is expected to pave way for new obesity treatments.

The gene sequence is capable of influencing the gene called MC4R that controls energy levels in the body and determines the food intake and its energy conversion; it has direct influence in determining the unusual form of childhood obesity. The findings of the research showed the presence of the sequence will lead to 2cm expansion in waist line, a 2kg gain in weight and give resistant to insulin that leads to type 2 diabetes.

While commenting on this the lead researcher of the study Professor Jaspal Kooner said: “The gene related health issues are little understood; only few researchers were conducted on this topic. By understanding influence of genes behind health issues such as diabetes and cardiovascular problems will help to know about the genetic inheritance of people and their susceptibility to diseases. Genetic inheritance of a person could not be changed but preventive measures like subjecting them to diet, exercise and finding out new drugs that could effectively cure the disease.”

The British Heart Foundation funded this study. Professor Peter Weissberg its medical director opined that it had long been found that Indian Asians are more vulnerable to cardiovascular problems than white Europeans. This research is important as it gives a clear picture about the health benefits by reducing weight. The cardiovascular and diabetic risk of people of Indian origin could be handled effectively by understanding their gene inheritance.

Mar 14: As an attempt to strengthen the organ donation without any loopholes in it, Indian government is considering various options to codify the organ transplant procedure. The method of acquiring presumed consent by which the consent of the donor is enough to conduct the organ donation.

This initiative if implemented will help thousands of people who are suffering from organ failure and it also helps to minimise organ shortage. This move is also considered as an attempt to regain India’s image in the global medical tourism sector after it being tarnished by the recent multi-crore scam of the kidney transplant racket.

In a bid to understand various organ donation policies prevailing in other countried of the world a team of experts headed by R.K.Srivastava, the Direct General of Health Services (DGHS) made a visit to all the major countries.

“Most of the countries have adopted the presumed consent method but India and the US uses the expression of consent concept. In the presumed concept the person who is brain dead is considered to have agreed to donate the organs. In the second one family of the donor holds the right to give the consent. There is another model like the one in Iran, there the government has the power to control organ transplant, but that model has drawn flak from the experts.” Said the health minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

India is gaining significance as a global medical tourism hub and the free and fair policies will help a great deal in developing itself as a major player.

Feb 26: The traditional medical treatments such as ayurvedic and homeopathic are gaining importance in India as more advertisement and marketing techniques are promoting these medical practices. More and more patients prefer to get traditional treatments to get relief from chronic and lifestyle induced ailments.

While commenting on this Anoop Misra, Department of Diabetes and Metabolism, Fortis Group of Hospitals said: “Ayuveda is the most preferred traditional medical treatment and the demand is rapidly increasing in the last five years to more than 3,000 crores due to the effective marketing of their products supported by scientific proof of its capability to cure some diseases. At the same time these treatments are unable to handle emergency and cardiac treatments.”

According to a survey conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), out of 400 Indian CEOs surveyed as part of this survey, over 40 per cent of the CEOs prefer ayurvedic treatment to minimise stress like naturopathy, massage, acupuncture and acupressure. It also predicted that within 5-6 years the metros and towns will witness many ayurvedic centres that focus on treatment related to stress that is part of the fast paced lifestyle existing in the metros today.

Amrit Kalsi, Senior Medical officer of Delhi Government opined that in the past few years more and more people are choosing homeopathic and ayurvedic treatments instead of allopathic as a remedy to their chronic ailments like respiratory problems, skin diseases, fevers, viral infections, allergic disorders and asthma. This tendency is expected to increase in the coming years.”

This is a clear evidence of the growing appreciation of the traditional ayurvedic and homeopathy medicine in India along with most popular allopathy treatment.

Feb 8: Cosmetic surgery is the brand new mantra of the people in Mumbai, the busiest metropolitan city in India. They are eager to mould up their personality by emulating the attractive physical features of celebrities including those of film stars and political and sports personalities.

They even dare to take personal loan to fulfil this purpose. This attitude is a clear indication of the growing prominence of cosmetic surgeries in India. Mumbai is considered as the city of dreams and its people’s desire to insert new glow to their personality adds merit to that belief.

According to Rahul Chauhan, Marketing executive aged 25, took personal loan to pay for liposuction, lip and nose fillers, “More clients are attracted by the personality of the executives. I can’t pay the full treatment cost in a stretch so I took loan,” he said.

Similarly researcher named Anshil. T aged 30 took personal loan for the fulfilment of hair transplant at a South Mumbai clinic. The quality of treatment offered using the latest equipments encourages more and more people to shape up their personal appearance.

There are many people who barrow money from private lenders and friends for paying for their cosmetic surgery. As the cosmetic surgery will not come under the purview of health insurance people are forced to take personal loan. The advancement of cosmetic surgery in India allows people to overcome the drawback in their personal look.

Jan 24: In what could be considered as a path breaking eye surgery a hospital in South India has performed intraocular lens (IOL) transplant surgery using tissue glue on a four year old girl. This is the first attempt of its kind in the world. Fibrin glue is normally used to protect the oozing of blood in delicate surgeries such as urological or plastic surgeries and it is also used in ophthalmic surgeries, it is a substance made from blood plasma.

Dr Amar Agarwal an eminent eye surgeon of India performed this Glue Assisted Sutureless IOL implantation said: “It is for the first time we used this technology in intraocular surgeries. A month after the surgery we found the lens was not staying in one place as it normally should, it was moving here and there. Then we decided to use glue to fix the lens and it proved to be successful. The whole procedure took 30 minutes to get complete.”

Earlier the girl Anandhi’s lens gets damaged while bursting crackers. In the surgery plastic lens is surgically fixed to replace the damaged natural lens. According to Agarwal the main advantage of using glue technique is that the lens remains fixed where it is implanted on the other hand sutures provide mixed results and they are biodegradable and there are possibilities of other complications.

Dr Agarwal further added that: “Treatment of damaged IOL pose challenge for ophthalmologists. In many cases nothing could be done about the problem. Now with the help of this technique we can remove the problems raised due to the missing of intraocular lens capsule and the glue also enhances the vision.”

The operation was conducted free of cost considering the poor background of the girl. This operation is an eye opener for patients suffering from this kind of ailment.

Jan 22: A recent study has shed light on to the fact that the healthcare sector in Asia is undergoing a rapid growth and is expected to overtake the US by 2015. The prominent players of this booming health sector field are China, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore. The main reasons attributed for this growth are the rising income, increasing medical facilities and growth of medical tourism sector in this part of the world. The leading Indian pharmaceutical companies like Sun, Lupin and Dr Reddy’s are expected to benefit a lot from the boom in this sector.

According to the recent report on Asia’s healthcare sector Credit Sussie, the leading international financial service group praised the pharmaceutical companies for their unique features of development. They appreciated the Sun Pharmaceuticals for its quality management, high margins and steady growth in India and in the US. Lupin’s growth is attributed for its brokerage and executive in the regulated markets and the Dr Reddy’s laboratory for its technology, capability and cheap valuation.

The healthcare expenditure in India was estimated as $35 billion in the year 2004 that amounts to 5.2% of India’s GDP and has grown at 15% on a compounded basis for the last ten years. While comparing India’s per capita healthcare expenditure with other developing countries is only $28 and is among the lowest in the world.

Investment banks highlighted that it will take 3 to 5 years for the hospitals in India to become profitable. At present hospitals are in the investment phase much of the credits for the success of this sector goes to doctors. Quality treatment at lower cost as compared to other developed countries is the attractive feature of India. There exist scarcity of Indian demand but the high paying foreign patients can get more sophisticated facilities in any of the multi-speciality hospitals. The availability of adequate numbers of super speciality hospitals, expert doctors and medical staff combined to give 25-30% annual increase in the medical tourism sector.

Another study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and McKinsey evaluated the medical tourism in India at $350 million in the year 2006 and is expected to reach $2-billion by the year 2012. According to Credit Suisse estimates medical tourism in India is already experiencing a growth rate of 25-30% per year. About 1.80 lakh medical tourists were treated at various Indian healthcare centres in 2004. GHT

Jan 11: In a crucial discovery scientists in India had identified the probable reason behind the foetal defects that occur during its stage of growth. The credit for this goes to the Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine located in the state of Karnataka. The presence of low level of endotoxin, a toxic natural compound, is attributed as the reason for the defects in the developing foetus.

The revelation comes after the one and a half years of research. The researchers find difficult to understand the molecular mechanism of the foetus as foetus has poorly developed tissues and organs and the ethical factor also stands as a major hurdle in their path.

So the researchers used embryoid bodies to assess the effect of the endotoxins after it is introduced in a developing foetus. For the formation of over 220 different tissues embryonic stem cells is considered as the reliable source. Researches said that could be cultured in Petri dishes to produce early embryo like formation termed as embryoid bodies (EBs) that include several categories of cells that represent all the germ layers that is ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm.

The EBs closely resembles the growing embryo in a mother’s womb. When the researchers conducted a molecular analysis of the EBs the mesoderm exposed to lipopolysaccahrides (LPS) bacteria lead to the complete deactivation of at least eight kinds of tissue markers.

The EBs was tested for their ability for the formation of bone tissues. As per the prediction the EBs could not be classified into primary bone tissues. They had lost their ability to form functional bone cells due to LPS exposure. When the embryos are transferred to a mother with bacterial vaginosis it leads to the weak formation of bone, blood and heart tissues.

This innovative research is believed to have a far reaching impact as it widens the scope of birth defect research and evaluation of developmental toxicity during drug screening. GHT

Jan 11: Researchers of the Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine in India have found the reason behind the defects that occur during the foetal growth. They have found that the presence of very low amount of endotoxin in the foetal environment will pave way for the defects in the development of tissues in a growing foetus.

Embryonic stem cells are considered as the reliable source for studying the formation of over 220 different tissues of the human body. Lipopolysaccahrides(LPS) a gram negative bacteria is considered as harmful one that are regularly shed in the embryonic environment when the mother is affected by vaginosis that is a common bacterial infection of the maternal genital tract.

While commenting on the study Principal scientist of the embryonic stem cell programme of Manipal Institute, Kaushik Deb said: “Owing to ethical issues of using human embryos in research the researchers used embryoid bodies to study the effect of endotoxins by the introduction of ancestry in the developing foetus. The one and a half years of research work has revealed that the LPS induced HMGB1 protein plays a vital role in silencing the tissue differentiation in stem cells.”

He further added that: “Human embryonic stem cells are considered as the better standard for studying the tissue formation and help to judge the effect of many pharmaceuticals and natural toxins that the growing foetus could accidentally get into contact while inside the womb.

The Chief scientific officer of the stem cell research company named Stempeutics Research Pvt Ltd, Satish Totey said: “The finding of the research deserves a significant importance in the birth defect research and the evaluation of developmental toxicity during drug screening.” GHT

Dec 28: The concept of nanotechnology has a tremendous influence in various fields. The impact of which is now being felt in the medical sector. The extended possibility of nanotechnology allows the companies to develop better quality drugs. This technology is expected to captivate the medial world, the trend of miniature drugs will soon be a catch phrase in the market.

Drug researches are focussing their attention to discover unbelievably minute drugs that will be millionth of a millimetre or less to help in identifying diseases, enabling affordable treatments using targeted and effective medicine.

In India Dabur company put forth the nanotechnology based delivery system in the form of onco drug Nanoxel early this year that has created a sizeable impact. Now it is the turn of Biocon India’s leading drug manufacturing company as it is planning to launch Abraxane, a nanoparticle-based taxane to prove their presence in the surging field of nanotechnology. As the next initiative Biocon will launch a nanodrug named Abraxane that could cure breast cancer, in early 2008. Bharat Biotech is another company that is planning to exploit the scope of this innovative technology.

While commenting on this the CMD of Biocon Ltd, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said: “Nanodrugs are the need of the hour and it adds more value to the drug delivery system. It is playing a prominent role in life cycle management of the available drugs the entry of this technology has revolutionised the concept of drugs and it also encourage bioavailability and efficiency to a greater extent.”

In the near future we will see brand new nanodrugs that act as a remedy for problems related to skin implants, knee joints, valves, silver gels, tissue repair patches and lot more ailments.