Globe Health Tours News

May 15: As a precautionary measure against fast spreading bird flu in South East Asia the UK government has began to stockpile anti-viral drug Tamiflu. A recent research has found that stockpiling single drug will not be effective in resisting global flu pandemic.
Tests conducted on the H5N1 strain of bird flu that is rapidly spreading all across South East Asia has found that it is developing resistance to the leading anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

This study was conducted by the Medical Research Council and it emphasised the need for stockpiling more than one kind of drug. The UK government has stockpiled millions of doses of Tamiflu is reviewing its position.

The researchers found that when they passed X-ray crystallography on the key part of flu called neuraminidase (N1), which is responsible for the release of the virus from infected human cells and allows the disease to spread, they characterise a mutation in the structure of N1 that is observed in human cases of H5N1. Due to this mutation the virus become resistant to Tamiflu and remains vulnerable to Relenza.

While commenting on this the lead researcher of the study Dr Steve Gamblin said: “Stockpiling one kind of drug will not provide an effective cover over potential H5N1 pandemic. There is no need to worry as the mutant strains of H5N1 will not spread fast.”

A recent figure has shown that in total 382 people are affected by H5N1 bird flu and 241 of them were killed, the victims were mostly from South East Asia. Most of them who are infected by the disease are poultry workers who have come into intimate contact with infected birds.

Researchers also warn that if the virus acquires the ability to spread from human to human then it will pose huge threat to millions of people all over the world. Health experts in the UK have warned that if such a modified strain emerges then tens of thousands of people could die in Britain alone.

So detailed study and holistic prevention strategy is the need of the hour.

May 1: Researchers found that the increase in the number of trees will improve the quality of air and encourage children to play outside. The findings of the study were published in the Journal named Epidemiology and Community Health Journal.

In the US the childhood asthma increased 50% between 1980 and 2000 with high rates in poor and urban communities. In New York City asthma is the leading cause of admission to hospital among children under the age of 15. On this backdrop this research deserves special significance.

While considering the rate of pollution, its adverse effect in our health and the population density the link between number of trees and asthma rates are expected to bring positive result.

Apr 18: Several researches have revealed the adverse effects of smoking and drinking habits. A US research has exposed the influence of smoking and drinking habits in raising Alzheimer’s risk. According to an estimate in the UK at least 700,000 people are suffering from dementia. The research found that heavy drinkers and chain smokers are more prone to Alzheimer’s, almost six to seven years earlier than those teetotallers and non-smokers.

The findings of the research were presented at the meeting of American Academy of Neurology, it considered 900 people who are over 60 years of age and have the high risk gene. The study gains significance as the delay in inception of Alzheimer’s disease by five years will lead to a 50 per cent drop in the number of cases.

Those who take more than two drinks a day and smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day are more exposed to early onset of Alzheimer’s. People who have specific gene named APOE variant 4 are also likely to get affected by Alzheimer’s. Smoking, drinking and gene variant are the three main factors that beckon Alzheimer’s 8.5 years earlier than the normal case.

According to the lead of the study, Dr Ranjan Duara of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Florida: “To keep Alzheimer’s at bay it is better to quit smoking and drinking, by doing so one can hold-up the risk of Alzheimer’s and can effectively reduce the number of Alzheimer’s cases.”

Another US research found that high cholesterol level in early 40s will also increase the Alzheimer’s risk by one and a half time. This study considered 9,700 men and women and it found that those with high cholesterol level that is over six millimols per litre (mmol/L) are exposed to the risk of Alzheimer’s.

“In spite of diabetes, late-life stroke, high blood pressure and obesity; high mid-life cholesterol will increase the risk of Alzheimer’s a great deal,” said the researcher Alina Solomon.

The ideal way to get rid of the risk posed by Alzheimer’s is by practising healthy diet by including foods that are rich in antioxidants and vitamins and by doing regular exercise.

Apr, 4: In an interesting study the researchers have identified the influence of genes in increasing the risk of lung cancer among smokers and non-smokers. The study has revealed that the genetic variations will increase the threat of lung cancer in both smokers and former smokers. As part of the study the research teams examined the DNA of thousands of smokers and former smokers all of them were European origin.

The findings of the research were published in the journals Nature Genetics and Nature pointed the variation on chromosome 15 as the main reason. The chromosome is common in the population but those who have smoked are more prone to lung cancer. The researchers found that the specific pattern of gene variation at two point of chromosome 15 were common among people who developed lung cancer than those who remained healthy.

The smokers and the former smokers who acquired two copies variants from each parent, 15 percent of them have experienced the increased risk of about 70-80 percent. In those who have one copy of each variant the risk level were around 28 per cent. The research gains significance as next to breast cancer, lung cancer is the second highest form of cancer that affects the UK. According to a statistics 38,300 new lung cancer cases and 33,000 people dies because of lung cancer each year.

According to Dr Lesley Walker of the charity Cancer Research UK: “Smoking highly increases the risk of lung cancer and it is the main reason for nine out of ten cases of the disease. The research gives a clear indication about the influence of genes in promoting lung cancer.”

While responding on this Professor Chris Amos of the MD Anderson Cancer Centre, who is the lead author of one of the study said: “The tobacco smoke consists of several complex harmful chemicals that cannot be separated and it is hard to understand the mechanism that pave way for lung cancer. The point to be noted is smokers who do not have the variants still stand 10 fold chances of getting affected by lung cancer than the non-smokers whose risk is below 1 percent.”

Mar 28: A study conducted by the researchers at the Pacific Health Research Institute in Hawaii has revealed that smell impairment in men will lead to Parkinson’s disease within four years time. According to the research difficulty in identifying the smell is considered as an early symptom for Parkinson’s disease. The findings of the study were published in the official journal of the American Neurological Association named Annals of Neurology.

The research team was headed by G. Webster Ross of the V A pacific Islands Health Care System and the Pacific Health Research Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii. In total 2267 men who underwent an olfactory test were considered for the study and they were observed for the period of eight years to find any symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. During the time of the research 35 men were affected by the disease.

The outcome of the study revealed that the smell imparity in people particularly men will lead to the development of Parkinson’s disease. The main reason attributed for the smell deficit are smoking, older age, more coffee consumption, less frequent bowel movements, lesser cognitive function and too much daytime sleepiness. Even after adjusting those factors the people with odour problem still have the risk of getting affected by Parkinson’s disease.

The origin of smell disorder in Parkinson’s disease is not fully understood. But other symptoms like formation of Lewy bodies, nerve loss, and excess clumps of proteins inside nerves cells are considered to happen in the olfactory structure of the patients with the disease.

Similar study conducted earlier involving dissection of the brain of dead patients who are affected by neurological disease revealed that the olfactory structures are the earliest brain region that is affected by Lewy degeneration. This finding also stressed on the point that smell disorder is the early sign of Parkinson’s disease.

Mar 8: How much importance do you give to your first meal of the day! How active are you after skipping the breakfast! It is time for a second thought regarding our approach to breakfast. According to a latest research people who have the habit of taking breakfast regularly will be more active than those who neglect it.

The research included 2,200 adolescents as its sample and it analysed the breakfast frequency and five year body weight changes in them. The findings of the study indicated that those who had their breakfast regularly are more active than who neglected it. At the end of five years the researchers found that regular breakfast eaters gained less body weight and had low body mass index as compared to the skippers.

While commenting on this the co-author of the University of Minnesota project EAT, Mark Pereira said: “The research finding points on to the fact that despite physical activity and other dietary factors breakfast has an influential role to play in overall diet and obesity risk. More studies have to focus on this topic to add more clarity to this.

“The findings of the research are an eye-opener as many of the adolescents are of the belief that skipping breakfast will help them to stay out of obesity,” said Dianne Neumark-Aztainer of project EAT.

Obesity rates are on rapid increase over the past 20 years, especially in children and the rate tripled in adolescents. Among the skippers 12 per cent are children and 24 per cent are adolescents. The percentage is alarmingly high among the adults.

Mar 7: A recent research has revealed that our level of happiness depends on the nature of a person rather than the nurture. The experts found that the level of happiness is strongly linked to genes. A study conducted by Edinburgh University on identical and non-identical twins gives a clear indication that nearly 50 per cent of our character has a connected to our genes. And the remaining 50 per cent is related to lifestyle, career and relationships.

Psychologists use several methods to evaluate a person’s personality and even his level of happiness. An identical research was conducted at the Institute for Medical Research in Queensland, Australia; they studied 900 pairs of twins. The reason for including identical twins is because of their genitical identity while fraternal twins do not possess that character. It is therefore easy for the researchers to access the influence of genes. The research led to the finding that identical and non-identical twins hinted that half of our characters are determined by the genetic factors.

While commenting on this the lead researcher Dr Alexander Weiss at the Edinburgh’s School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences said: “Even though the extent of happiness will be determined by the external factors there is a hereditary influence on our happiness that can be fully explained by the genetic make up of a person. Several researches were conducted on this topic and it has a huge demand from both the public and industry to get clear understanding about the emotional wellbeing of a person.”

Dr. Alex Linley from the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology opined that the level of happiness varies from person to person. It is possible to change this with the help of techniques that are proved to work practically. The simple tactics like listing your strength and using them effectively in new ways and jotting it in a journal every night will help to improve the level of happiness.”

Mar 6: Development in technology helps to speed up the diagnosing process. As a latest example for this, a computer software is developed to identify the symptoms of glaucoma effectively than the normal tests. The new system was developed by the team of experts from the London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital and it came as a rescue for those patients who were on the verge of being blind.

Owing to the difficulty in identifying the early symptoms of glaucoma many of the patients are losing their eye sight. Identified the symptoms at the right time will rescue the patients from blindness. According to the latest statistics glaucoma affects 67million people worldwide. In the UK alone 500,000 people were affected by glaucoma, about 50 per cent of them are not properly diagnosed. Glaucoma is considered as the silent blindness disease. People who have positive history of the disease, who are over 40 years of age and People of West African origin are more affected by this disease.

According to a study, if at least 10% of glaucoma cases in the UK are identified and solved, it will save up to £1bn a year. The early identification is the only way to get rid of this disease. The optical nerves that carries the visual information from the eye to the brain will be get affected by the disease. The new invention is named as the Moorlands Motion Detection Test (MDT) helps to assess the field of vision. The software can be directly accessed by downloading the software from the internet.

While commenting on this the consultant surgeon in glaucoma at Moorfields, Professor Vis Viswanathan, who developed this system said: “The normal tests concentrate on the eyes ability to see light and it gives less importance to its ability to track movement. As a prime symptom of glaucoma eyes will lose its ability to recognize motion. The new system gives importance to that.”

As a next initiative scientists are planning to procure more funds to make this software reach all across the UK. The first World Glaucoma Day is being observed today to spread the information about the adverse effects of glaucoma.

Feb 29: According to the new statistics released by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. the organ transplant market is expected to reach 115,000 procedures by the year 2012. Most accepted form of organ transplants are heart, kidney, pancreas, liver and lungs. The market is encouraged by the increasing number of adult population and the surge in the number of organ failure due to serious ailments.

The success rate of the organ transplants encouraged by the modern technology also promotes the market of organ transplant. Awareness programmes that are aimed to remove misconception and fear linked with organ donations. Voluntary participation of organ donors who are willing for after-life organ donation has also encouraged the market and it is considered as a social responsibility.

Kidney transplant heads the list of organ transplants and it is expected to reach 78.8 thousand transplants by the year 2012. Liver transplants are expected to reach 1,290 by 2010 in Latin America. Tissue transplantation market that include cornea, skin grafts and heart valves are expected to fetch $5.25 billion by 2012.

The organs like liver and kidney are largely donated by living donors and it has seen a steep rise. The number of stranger donor is higher than those of family donors. Even though the number of organ donation is increasing, demand for organs is far beyond that and it fails to cater the needs of all the patients. One-third of the patients are getting the organs what they are looking for. Finding suitable donor, preventing infections or block in blood vessels are the major hurdles for organ transplantation.

The report is released by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. and it is titled as “Organ and Tissue Transplantation: A Global Strategic Business Report”. The study also includes market data and statistics of transplant procedures in US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Asia, Latin America to name a few.

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.