An awareness video on ‘Anorexia Nervosa’

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is characterized by low body weight and body image distortion. Individuals suffering from this disease control body weight by voluntary starvation, purging vomiting, excessive exercise, or other weight control measures, such as diet pills or diuretic drugs. This disease primarily affects young adolescent girls in the western world and has one of the highest mortality rates of any psychiatric condition, with approximately 10% of people diagnosed with the condition eventually dying due to related factors.

This video is made with an intention to create awareness on this disease and to show how this disease could ruin one’s lifestyle.

Stroke and heart diseases top the list of killers in the United States

HealthDay News: Rising obesity and poor nutrition are keeping heart disease at the top of the list of America's fatal illnesses, according to the 2007 edition of the American Heart Association's annual statistical round-up.

"Changes in lifestyle behaviors such as healthy diet and exercise could reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease," Wayne Rosamond, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina and chairman of the committee that drew up the report, said in a statement.

Instead, cardiovascular disease remains the nation's leading cause of death, accounting for 36.3 percent of all deaths, said the report, published in the journal Circulation. Heart disease topped the list of causes of death for Americans, with stroke third (behind cancer).

Stroke got special mention in this year's AHA report. Some 700,000 Americans experience a stroke each year, and the report concentrates on transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), often called "mini-strokes." These attacks are temporary arterial blockages that produce milder stroke-like symptoms that do not persist.

"People underestimate the importance of TIAs," Virginia Howard, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and chairwoman of the association's stroke statistics committee, said in a prepared statement. "About half of patients who have a TIA fail to report it to their health care provider, which is a terrible oversight considering the chance of a major stroke in the weeks or months following TIA."

On the more hopeful side, the report noted that the U.S. death rate from stroke had fallen by 20.4 percent from 1994 to 2004.

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Your waistline could eventually determine your fate!

Medindia.com: Did you know that a flabby waist certainly points to a greater risk of developing a heart attack? If you didn’t, read on.

A recent study has revealed that the risk for coronary illness is inflated to almost 44%, when instead of an hour glass figure one sports a podgy flabby waistline. The diameter along the median sagittal plane was measured in a group of volunteers. This roughly amounts to an imaginary line cutting through the body joining two points from the back to the front of the abdomen. This distance is referred to as the sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), measured using callipers. The researchers claim that this measurement is more reliable to measure obesity than the more commonly used body mass index (BMI).

The team gauged that bigger the waist measurement the greater is the risk to develop heart disease. Young people who have a huge waistline, better watch out as they stand a greater danger of developing heart diseases.

SAD measurements that are over and above 10 inches reflect obesity. This can be said to be an equivalent of 30kg/m² BMI. Measuring BMI can at times be misleading as a person with a big muscular body who perfectly fit can have a high BMI.

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Pig embryo tissue transplants could cure genetic diseases

The Jerusalem Post: Weizmann Institute scientists show how a "window of opportunity" could enable pig embryo tissue transplants to eventually cure genetic diseases.

It doesn't sound kosher, but pig embryo tissue could eventually induce the human body to produce blood-clotting proteins for hemophilia patients and other critical substances to cure disease.

Immunology Prof. Yair Reisner and doctoral student Anna Aronovich of the Weizmann Institute's Immunology Department, together with colleagues, showed how such a transplant could be made feasible in the future. The study was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

In hemophilia, a mutated gene prevents the production of a critical blood-clotting protein. Treatments for hemophilia and other such genetic diseases, when they exist, may consist of risky blood transfusions or expensive enzyme replacement therapy. But if the body could be induced to begin producing these proteins by transplanting healthy tissue having the abilities that are lacking, this would constitute a cure.

Previous attempts to treat genetic disease by transplanting (mother to daughter) a spleen, an organ that can manufacture a number of the missing proteins in some such diseases, made little headway because the spleen is home to the immune system's T-cells, which are responsible for the severe immune responses against the recipient known as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

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Osteoarthritis patients with stronger quadriceps suffer less from this disease

HearldNet: Strong quadriceps muscles - those at the front of the thigh - are a must for anyone who wants to fly downhill on skis, attempt a double axel on skates or scale a mountain by foot or by bike. These muscles do more than help you straighten your legs and stand; they're integral in everything from walking to high jumping.

But they may have special importance for people with knee osteoarthritis. A recent study of people with the condition found that those who had stronger quadriceps had less cartilage loss behind the kneecap. Less cartilage loss can mean better range of motion and less discomfort.

"Although this was not an exercise study, our results suggest that (exercise) is beneficial for the knees, especially the knee joints," said Dr. Shreyasee Amin, assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and lead author of the study. "Other studies have shown that it can help with decreasing pain and improving function."
Most experts agree that excess weight, injury and a genetic predisposition contribute to knee osteoarthritis, but they're less sure about the effect of various types of exercise. They point out, however, that strengthening the quadriceps could prevent further damage.

"It helps stabilize the patella (a flat, triangular bone covering the surface of the knee joint) and prevents it from moving laterally and tracking abnormally in the knee," Amin said. "When it's not aligned in the knee groove properly, you can have more cartilage loss from the friction."

Osteoarthritis in general, in which the cartilage between bone joints is worn away over time, is primarily associated with aging and affects about 21 million Americans, according to the Arthritis Foundation. Knee osteoarthritis accounts for many of the almost half-million knee-replacement surgeries in the United States each year.

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Drug-resistant tuberculosis is more widespread than previously thought

Voice of America: A new study by the World Health Organization has found drug-resistant tuberculosis in virtually all of the 79 countries the organization surveyed around the world, with particularly high levels in countries of the former Soviet Union and some Chinese provinces. VOA's Jessica Berman reports.

About one third of the world's population is infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis and, every year, nine million people become contagious.But misuse of two, potent antibiotics, izoniazid and rifampacin, has made them ineffective in treating the disease, causing multi-drug resistance, or MDR-TB.

The WHO estimates that in 2004, one-point-seven million people died of TB, many of whom could not be cured with either antibiotic.Ten years ago, the world body began a project to study TB drug resistance around the globe.

In their latest report, investigators identified the emergence of more than 400-thousand new cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the 79 nations it surveyed, making up about one percent of new TB cases in each country.

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Women are more likely to inherit stroke than men

HealthDay News: Women are at higher inherited risk for the most common type of stroke than men, a British study finds. The study of 806 men and women who suffered ischemic strokes or the minor artery blockages called transient ischemic attacks showed women were more likely to have at least one close relative who suffered a stroke, and that was due entirely to an excess of affected female relatives.

"The main implication for clinical practice is that when you consider who is at risk for stroke, it looks like family history in particular is more important in women than men, particularly if there is a family history of stroke in female relatives," said study author Dr. Peter M. Rothwell, director of the Stroke Prevention Research Unit at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford.

The study was published in the Dec. 22 online issue of The Lancet Neurology.

Ischemic strokes occur when an artery in the brain becomes blocked. They account for about 83 percent of all strokes, according to the American Stroke Association.

The new study found that women who had strokes were 40 percent more likely to have at least one close relative who suffered a stroke than were men with strokes. Having a mother who had a stroke was 80 percent more common in women stroke patients than in men.

Age was also a factor. Women whose mothers had a stroke at an early age were more likely to suffer a stroke at about the same age.

The British results support the findings of an American study reported earlier this year, said Dr. Steven J. Kittner, a researcher at the Baltimore Veterans Administration Medical Center and a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland.

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All they brought was measles! Spiritual group from India blamed for a measles outbreak in Australia

The Times of India: After holding the dubious distinction of exporting the polio virus to countries that had eradicated the disease, India's measles virus has now caused an outbreak in Australia.

According to WHO's latest weekly epidemiological report, an importation of measles virus from India into Australia caused an outbreak that affected 84 people in six Australian states.

The report says the outbreak "has been linked to the arrival of a spiritual group from India". Health minister A Ramadoss said:"Virus strains travel across the globe and are exported and imported by travellers harbouring it. Australia should have been careful." Measles is a serious health problem in India and is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality among children below five. According to India's Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, an estimated 52,500 children were affected by measles in 2005. WHO estimates that 180,000 children may have died due to measles in 2005.

To meet the threat, health ministry has ordered the national polio surveillance network to undertake detailed surveillance for measles, specially with November-March being the main season for a measles outbreak. Polio programme director J Wenger said that alongside polio, surveillance for measles has started in TN, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

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Bacteria living in your gut can make you fatter!

BBC News : 'Friendly' bacteria living in our digestive systems may be helping to make us fatter, say scientists.

Trillions of bugs live in the human gut, helping us break down food. A team from Washington University School of Medicine claim when one type is dominant, this may impact on how many calories we extract from our diet. Writing in the journal Nature, they described how they were able to make mice obese simply by adjusting the levels of certain types of bacteria.

They say it may be possible to treat obesity by doing the same to humans. Obesity is recognised as a major health threat in many Western countries, including the UK, where a recent study suggested its effects consumed 9% of the total NHS budget.

While eating too much is the obvious primary cause, scientists have been looking for other factors which might pre-dispose people to gain weight.

The Washington University team, led by Dr Jeffrey Gordon, has been looking at the levels of two types of bacteria normally found in the gut - the Bacteroidetes and the Firmicutes. They found that in obese people, the relative proportion of Bacteroidetes compared with Firmicutes was less - and a similar result was found in a strain of laboratory mice bred to be genetically obese.

Mice with no gut bacteria then had either Bacteroidetes or Firmicutes injected into their digestive systems, and while both groups then gained weight, the weight gain with Firmicutes was significantly higher.

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An influenza pandemic today can kill around 62 million people

Washington Post – An influenza pandemic of the type that ravaged the globe in 1918 and 1919 would kill about 62 million people today, with 96 percent of the deaths occurring in developing countries. That is the conclusion of a study published yesterday in the Lancet medical journal, which uses mortality records kept by governments during the time of "Spanish flu" to predict the effect of a similarly virulent outbreak in the contemporary world

The analysis, the first of its kind, found a nearly 40-fold difference in death rates between central India, the place with the highest recorded mortality, and Denmark, the country with the lowest. The reason for the huge variation is not known, but it may reflect differences in nutrition and crowding.

If a modern Spanish flu killed all its victims in one year, it would more than double global mortality. About 59 million people now die each year. "It is a huge, huge number," said Christopher J.L. Murray, a physician and biostatistician at the Harvard School of Public Health who headed the study. "This really took us by surprise."

"The countries most likely to be adversely affected are the ones with the least resources. This happened then, and is what is likely to happen now," said Keiji Fukuda. "WHO, as it always has done, pays a disproportionate amount of its attention and efforts toward such countries."

Historical accounts suggest that what became known as Spanish flu emerged at an Army camp in Kansas in early March 1918. It was carried to Europe by American troops, where it circulated before undergoing a change early the next fall that made it unusually lethal. It spread around the world and was brought back to the United States, where it killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in October and November 1919. It circulated until early 1920, with virtually everyone on Earth eventually exposed to the virus.

The global death toll from the pandemic is unknown. In the 1920s, it was estimated to be about 20 million. A more complete analysis in 1991 raised that to 30 million. One in 2002 said mortality "may fall in the range of 50 to 100 million."

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Too much of vitamins can be harmful!

News 8 Austin – Can too much of a good thing be bad for you body? Yes, actually. By filling your body with too many vitamins you are putting your health at risk. The following supplements can have negative effects if taken in large quantities:

Vitamin C: Millions of Americans take vitamin C supplements at widely varying doses up to thousands of milligrams. The recommended daily dose is 60 mg. Two thousand milligrams taken daily can cause diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramps, and headache. Routine mega doses may also create vitamin C dependency. When intake is suddenly reduced, signs of withdrawal can include a rebound deficiency -- bleeding gums, lingering wounds, and skin problems.

Vitamin E: This vitamin is being studies to reduce heart disease but too much of it can cause muscle weakness, fatigue, nausea and diarrhea. Supplements can cause serious bleeding problems, especially among those who take anticoagulants. The recommended daily dose for men is 15 IU and 12 IU for women.


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Indian state to pass a legislation for mandatory pre-marriage HIV test

The Indian Express – Andhra Pradesh, among the worst hit by HIV/AIDS in India, is set to become the first state to pass a legislation to make it mandatory for couples to undergo HIV testing before they can get married. According to officials, the intention behind the move is to make sure that there are no HIV positive babies born in the state by 2007. The issue was discussed today in the Andhra Assembly, shortly after Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and other MLAs took HIV tests.

Andhra Pradesh Principal Secretary (Health) P K Agarwal said that the government has not yet decided on how exactly the new measure will be implemented. He said the Assembly had not yet passed any legislation on this but had only discussed it. “The climate in the state is right for such a Bill and legislators are serious about bringing in such legislation. So a formal Bill should be passed soon,’’ he said. Sources said that such a Bill is likely to come up for approval in the March session of the Assembly.

Agarwal said that the thinking behind such a move was to make sure that no children are born with the disease. “Sex is one of the main reasons that the disease is passed on. If it is known that the parents are HIV positive, then medication can ensure that the child is not born with the disease. Just because the parents have the disease, it does not mean that children have to get it as well,’’ said Agarwal.

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Rota Glide, an emulsion used to reduce catheter friction can prevent cardiac bypass surgery in some patients

Medindia.com – An emulsion made up from olive oil, glycerine and egg yolk would prevent the patient from undergoing a cardiac bypass surgery.

The journal of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions has already published this study which was led by Michael Savage, M.D., director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia.

The mixture is not swallowed, Dr. Savage explains. Rather, it is used in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory to bathe surgical stents before they are inserted into problem heart arteries.

Since being introduced in 1994, stents--the metal mesh tubes placed in a coronary artery to keep it open after an interventional procedure--have worked in the majority of patients.Coated or drug-eluting stents, which prevented restenosis (the re-closing of the artery a short time after stent insertion) were the next advance in this field.

"There are still a small number of patients with arteries that cannot be stented because of anatomic obstacles," said Dr. Savage, who is also associate professor of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

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Getting some extra sunshine everyday could prevent the development of multiple sclerosis

HealthDay News – Could getting some extra sunshine help prevent the development of multiple sclerosis ?

Maybe, according to new research that found white people with high circulating levels of vitamin D -- a vitamin mainly produced by the body after sun exposure -- had a lower risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). No such association was found for blacks or Hispanics in this study, which is published in the Dec. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The group [of whites] with the highest vitamin D levels had a 62 percent decreased risk compared to the group with the lowest levels," said the study's lead author, Dr. Alberto Ascherio, an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

However, Ascherio cautioned that it was too soon to recommend that anyone -- even those at high risk of developing MS -- start taking vitamin D supplements or increasing their sun exposure with the hope of preventing MS.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the central nervous system. It's believed to be an autoimmune disease that causes the body's immune system to attack the substance -- myelin -- that covers nerve cells. About 400,000 Americans have MS, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Symptoms of the disorder include poor coordination, loss of balance, blurred vision, fatigue, cognitive problems, numbness and possible paralysis.

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Genetic mutations identified in children with autism may provide more insight into this disorder

Reuters Health – French scientists have identified genetic mutations in a small number of children with autism which could provide insight into the biological basis of the disorder.

They sequenced a gene called SHANK3 in more than 200 people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which includes autism, and found mutations in the gene in members of three families.

ASD covers a range of problems that affect communication, social interaction, verbal skills and behavior.

"These mutations concern only a small number of individuals, but they shed light on one gene ... that is involved in autism spectrum disorders," Thomas Bourgeron, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said in a report in the journal Nature Genetics.

ASD, which affect six out of 1,000 children, range from mild to severe forms. The disorders are caused by chromosomal rearrangements in 3 to 6 percent of cases.

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Scientists develop a new technique to treat high blood pressure and kidney damage

MedicineNews.net – Nearly one-third of American adults have high blood pressure, a major cause of myocardial infarctions, strokes and kidney failure. But a new technique tested at the University of Florida (UF) could prove to be a long-term way to treat the disorder in humans, researchers say.

UF researchers kept blood pressure from worsening and nearly eliminated kidney damage in rats exposed to cold weather, which can constrict blood vessels and overload the kidneys with hormones.

Using a corrective gene, scientists were able to block a protein in the kidneys that triggers high blood pressure and kidney damage, said Zhongjie Sun, the lead author of the study.The protein, called a mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), signals the body to absorb sodium and water into the bloodstream. This increases the amount of blood in the body, also increasing blood pressure.

“This new technique can specifically and efficiently inhibit the protein and prevent the progression of hypertension," Sun said.

To block the protein, researchers used a technique called RNA interference. A harmless virus ferries fragments of RNA into the body, where they infiltrate cells and stop the protein. It's the first time scientists have used the approach to treat hypertension and kidney damage, he said.

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Genes influence blood pressure differently in men and women

Toronto Daily News – The influence of genes on blood pressure may vary based on gender, the new study revealed.

“Sex is like a prism that refracts the effects of the gene very differently for men and women,” said Daniel T. O’Connor, M.D., UCSD professor of Medicine and Pharmacology.

The research team found that the gene-by-sex interaction was the rule, not the exception in their study of a large, community-based sample of 1,200 primary care patients in Southern California.

“Our findings show that specific genetic variations – which give rise to receptors that might be targets for ACE inhibitors or beta-blockers and other therapies used to treat hypertension – impact blood pressure differently in men and women."

"Knowing these genetic mutations may help us better diagnose hypertension and select the appropriate therapy," said O’Connor, adding that these findings support that the most appropriate therapy might well depend on whether the patient is a man or a woman.

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Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is profound in patients with heart or kidney failure

Zee News– When fluid in tissues is displaced from the lower body into the upper body, the circumference of the neck grows, which may hinder the flow of air, Canadian Researchers Report. These findings may help explain why the prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is increased in patients with diseases characterized by `fluid overload,` like heart failure and kidney failure, for example.

People with sleep apnea stop breathing temporarily and repeatedly while asleep causing them to gasp for breath. Although obesity and a thick neck are known risk factors for the disorder, they account for only about one third of variability in the apnea-hypopnea index -- a measure of the frequency of slow or stopped breathing episodes at night.

Dr T Douglas Bradley, from the Toronto General Hospital, and his team theorized that fluid accumulation in soft tissues in the neck might cause narrowing or blockage of the pharynx -- the tube that connects the mouth and nasal passages with the esophagus.

Experiments in 11 healthy non-obese subjects with no symptoms suggesting OSA support this line of thinking.

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Study: IQ determines dietary preference in Children

HealthDay News– As a child's IQ rises, his taste for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests.

British researchers have found that children's IQ predicts their likelihood of becoming vegetarians as young adults -- lowering their risk for cardiovascular disease in the process. The finding could explain the link between smarts and better health, the investigators say.

"Brighter people tend to have healthier dietary habits," concluded lead author Catharine Gale, a senior research fellow at the MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre of the University of Southampton and Southampton General Hospital.

Recent studies suggest that vegetarianism may be associated with lower cholesterol, reduced risk of obesity and heart disease. This might explain why children with high IQs tend to have a lower risk of heart disease in later life.
The report is published in the Dec. 15 online edition of the

British Medical Journal.

"We know from other studies that brighter children tend to behave in a healthier fashion as adults -- they're less likely to smoke, less likely to be overweight, less likely to have high blood pressure and more likely to take strenuous exercise," Gale said. "This study provides further evidence that people with a higher IQ tend to have a healthier lifestyle."

In the study, Gale's team collected data on nearly 8,200 men and women aged 30, whose IQ had been tested when they were 10 years of age.

"Children who scored higher on IQ tests at age 10 were more likely than those who got lower scores to report that they were vegetarian at the age of 30," Gale said.

The researchers found that 4.5 percent of participants were vegetarians. Of these, 2.5 percent were vegan, and 33.6 percent said they were vegetarian but also ate fish or chicken.

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Regular users of cannabis are at greater risk to mental illnesses!

The Sydney Morning Herald – When tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in cannabis, collides with the growing brain of a teenager the results are dangerously unpredictable.

Some use cannabis socially for a time then dump it as they take on the responsibilities of adulthood, suffering no serious effects. But for a significant number of others, psychosis, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses develop and a vicious cycle of self-medication and worsening symptoms is amplified by torrid teenage emotions.

In 1920, when Australia first outlawed cannabis, there was little evidence of its use here. Now it is the country's most widely used illicit drug: at its peak in 1998, 60 per cent of 20- to 29-year-olds reported having used cannabis.

Once viewed as a bit of harmless fun, it is now recognized as the third most prevalent drug of dependence after alcohol and tobacco. About 10 per cent of people who try cannabis become dependent - this is 3 per cent of Australia's population, or 700,000 people.

Those most vulnerable are the young and those who use regularly. With the age when people first try the drug dropping from 30 to below 16, many young brains are at risk of harm from cannabis.

The key question for those in the field is not whether cannabis is associated with mental illness, but how to reduce the harm it causes.

The Mental Health Council of Australia says most of the effort must be directed at teenagers, many of whom do not associate their cannabis use with the negative feelings they are experiencing.

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Americans are getting more sensitive to health issues

Medindia.com – A new study has found that more Americans, especially the senior citizens have become sensitive to health issues, and to begin with have managed to bring their blood pressure under control.

Study author, Bernard M.Y. Cheung, said,"It is hard to attribute the improvement to any particular factor. We have tried to see if the explanation lies in better awareness, detection or treatment. There is no statistically significant increase in these, so probably all of these contribute in a small way."

The study revealed that knowledge and awareness about

blood pressure control increased from 70.6 percent to 81 percent, and treatment rates also rose from 63.8 percent to 73.4 percent. Visible improvement was observed among obese people, where control rates increased from 25.1 percent to 36.2 percent, and was superb for people with diabetes; improvement doubled from 15.7% to 33.2%.

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Moderate drinking reduces the risk of death!

Scientific American - Moderate drinking may lengthen your life, while too much may shorten it, researchers from Italy report. Their conclusion is based on pooled data from 34 large studies involving more than one million people and 94,000 deaths.

According to the data, drinking a moderate amount of

alcohol -- up to four drinks per day in men and two drinks per day in women -- reduces the risk of death from any cause by roughly 18 percent, the team reports in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

However, "things radically change" when consumption goes beyond these levels, study leader Dr. Augusto Di Castelnuovo, from Catholic University of Campobasso, said in a statement.

Men who have more than four drinks per day and women who have more than two drinks per day not only lose the protection that alcohol affords, but they increase their risk of death, the data indicate.

The reason why men are protected at up to four drinks per day, while women lose the protection after two glasses has to do with how men and women metabolize alcohol, researchers say. It's been shown that when men and women who drink the same amount of alcohol, women experience higher blood alcohol levels than men.

Therefore, women who consume more than two glasses of alcohol per day may be at increased risk for diseases of the liver and certain types of cancer.

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Does the sudden lull in the spread of H5N1 signal an outbreak in future?

Cattle Network - Earlier this year, bird flu panic was in full swing: The French feared for their foie gras, the Swiss locked their chickens indoors, and Americans enlisted prison inmates in Alaska to help spot infected wild birds.

With the feared H5N1 virus - previously confined to Southeast Asia - striking birds in places as diverse as Germany, Egypt, and Nigeria, it seemed inevitable that a flu pandemic would erupt.

Then the virus went quiet. Except for a steady stream of human cases from Indonesia, the current bird flu epicenter, the past year’s worries about a catastrophic global flu outbreak largely disappeared from the radar screen.

Part of the explanation may be seasonal. Bird flu tends to be most active in the colder months, as the virus survives longer at low temperatures. “Many of us are holding our breaths to see what happens in the winter, “said Dr. Malik Peiris, a microbiology professor at Hong Kong University.

“H5N1 spread very rapidly last year,“ Peiris notes, “so the question is, was that a one-off incident?“ Some experts suspect poultry vaccination has, paradoxically, complicated detection. Vaccination reduces the amount of virus circulating, but low levels of the virus may still be causing outbreaks - without the obvious signs of dying birds.

“It’s now harder to spot what’s happening with the flu in animals and humans,“ said Dr. Angus Nicoll, influenza director at the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. While the pandemic hasn’t materialized, experts say it’s too early to relax.

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Skin disorders – yet another problem caused by stress!

LiveScience - Scientists have long sought to learn whether and how stress can lead to skin problems. A new study in mice shows that a stress-triggered hormone could worsen or even cause skin disorders like psoriasis and eczema.

The scientists found that blocking the hormone called glucocorticoid—which increases in stressful times—resulted in better skin.

Understanding how glucocorticoids work could help scientists come up with ways to prevent human skin problems triggered by psychological stress, said lead researcher Kenneth Feingold of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco and the University of California at San Francisco.

"Here you have things going on in your mind that affect what's going on in your skin," Feingold told LiveScience.

The outermost layer of your skin, the epidermis, is composed of dead skin cells, which form a permeability barrier to prevent water loss. Every day tens of thousands of these dead cells slough off as tiny flakes. Typically, cells at the bottom of the epidermis grow, move to the surface and differentiate into skin cells to replace the lost flakes.

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Get scanned to know your health risks!

BBC News - A scan can spot which people harbour dangerous levels of fat around their vital internal organs, scientists say.

Hammersmith Hospital, in west London, is currently the only hospital in Europe using the MRI scan.

Its scientists say 40% of the population has “bad” fat around the heart, liver or pancreas, even though many appear thin.
They warn it is possible to be slim and yet still be at risk of conditions like diabetes because of "hidden" fat.

Evidence suggests the precise location of fat has more of a bearing on health than simply being overweight.

For example, people who have too much weight around their middle, often called an "apple" shape, have a greater risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes than those who are pear shaped and carry the weight around the hips.

While doctors can check whether a person is a healthy weight for their height by calculating their body mass index or BMI (weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared), they cannot see the dangerous hidden fat

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Obesity and Diabetes

There is growing evidence of the link between obesity and diabetes. In this video, Dr. Sudesh Kumar from University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire, explains the relationship between obesity and diabetes and how scientists are helping doctors to better diagnose and treat both these conditions.

The Links Between Obesity And Diabetes - video powered by Metacafe

New clinical trial offers hope to diabetics!

Ninemsn - Hopes for a vaccine to guard against juvenile diabetes have been boosted with the launch of a ground-breaking clinical trial in Melbourne.

The trial will use insulin administered with a nasal spray to children and young adults who are genetically predisposed to developing Type 1 diabetes.

If successful, researchers believe it could offer thousands of children protection from the disease, and the opportunity to avoid a life of constant blood-sugar monitoring, insulin injections and a regimented diet.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne's Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre are seeking 13,000 people aged between four and 30 who have a blood relative with Type 1 diabetes - and a higher risk of developing the disease - to undergo screening for the trial.

From those, it is expected about two per cent will be eligible to take part in the trial.

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An informative clip on the life cycle of HIV

Watch this really informative video on the life cycle of HIV and it gives a great deal of information on the 'biology' of the virus.

Canadian study reports that boys are at a greater risk to hypertension than girls

Medindia.com - A Canadian Study finds that adolescence boys are at higher risk for high blood pressure than girls of the same age. Researchers have found that the seeds of hypertension and its health effects start before adulthood. Cardiologists say that smoking, stress management, lack of exercise, obesity are some of the factors for the cause of high blood pressure, which can result in heart damages.

In the study which began in 1999, Dr. Kaberi Dasgupta, a physician at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal and her colleagues studied around 1300 Montreal teenagers (614 boys and 653 girls) and found that the risk for elevated systolic blood pressure remained stable among teen girls while the risk for boys rose over time. (Systolic pressure is the top number in the ratio, over Diastolic).

Dr. Dasgupta added that “By the age of 15, the boys were twice as likely as the girls, and by 17 they were two and half times as likely as the girls, to have a blood pressure" in the top range for their age and height.

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Attitude towards cosmetic surgery is changing: Study

Business Standard - The thirties are the new twenties and the sixties the new middle age, if the findings of a recent AC Nielsen study are anything to go by.

In an Internet study conducted across 41 markets globally, 22,780 consumers were asked about their attitude towards age and cosmetic surgery.

The rush to turn back the clock is most keenly felt by consumers across Europe and Asia Pacific. Of the top 10 markets, which agreed that the forties were the new thirties, Austria topped the list, while among the Asia-Pacific countries, which included Japan and Korea, India emerged one of the top ten.

Close to 70 per cent of Indians, both men and women agreed that the thirties were the new twenties and the forties were the new thirties compared with the global average of about 60 per cent.

When it came to terming the sixties as the new middle age, women, with 64 per cent of them agreeing, substantially outnumbered men, of whom 47 per cent agreed to the proposition.

East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea ranked the highest on this scale with 75 per cent of the respondents agreeing to the statement.

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