Ayurveda doctors gets the nod to do surgeries

Post Graduate (PG) students of Ayurveda can now perform a variety of general surgery, including orthopaedic, ophthalmology, ENT and dental as per the notification of central government. The Union government in a gazette notification allowed Ayurvedic PG passouts to receive formal training for such procedures.

Emotional Stress linked to PCOS

According to a study conducted by Homeopathic Research Foundation — a not-for-profit organization working in the city of Lucknow,India,-'Emotional Stress' is the cause of disease in every third patient of Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).

Emotional stress triggers hormonal imbalance in women to cause problems like PCOS," said Dr Girish Gupta, principal researcher and homeopathy practitioner whose work has been recognized by the ministry of AYUSH. The "connection" between PCOS and emotional stress came to fore when the researchers studied the impact of homeopathic medicines on the treatment of PCOS.

GHF looks forward to spread the knowledge obtained at the summit worldwide

Buoyed by the success of the World Summit in Mumbai, the Central Council for Research in Homeopathy (CCRH) plans to have a tie-up with other research organisations with the aim of taking the health-care industry to the next level. With recent researches having yielded information on genomics which can be juxtaposed on the effect of homeopathic medicines individualised at molecular level, CCRH director general R.K. Manchanda has called for further research in the area. He pointed out that CCRH -- an autonomous body under the government of India's Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) -- has been instrumental in cutting-edge research publications on cancer, Japanese encephalitis, diabetes, urolithiasis, memory function and detection of nano-particles in high homeopathic dilutions.

Risk of type 2 diabetes with statin use

The link between statin use and higher risk of diabetes is not new. Back in 2013, for example, Medical News Today reported on a study published in The BMJ that found certain statins - particularly atorvastatin (Lipitor), rosuvastatin (Crestor) and simvastatin (Zocor) - raised the risk of diabetes by up to 22%. 

A new study published in the journal Diabetologia finds the use of statins - drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol - may significantly increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, and that this risk remains even after accounting for confounding factors, including age, smoking status and body mass index.

Peanut butter could help reduce the risk of breast cancer in women

Courtesy:123rf.com

Girls who eat more peanut butter could improve their breast health later in life. That's according to a study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard Medical School. The research shows that girls ages 9 to 15 who regularly ate peanut butter or nuts were 39 percent less likely to develop benign breast disease by age 30. 

Benign breast disease, although noncancerous, increases risk of breast cancer later in life. "These findings suggest that peanut butter could help reduce the risk of breast cancer in women," said senior author Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, associate director for cancer prevention and control at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. 

Cinnamon associated with favorable reductions in plasma glucose and lipid levels

courtesy:examiner.com

Consumption of cinnamon is associated with favorable reductions in plasma glucose and lipid levels, according to research published in the September/October issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. Robert W. Allen, Pharm.D., of the Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif., and colleagues used data from 10 randomized, controlled trials involving 543 patients with type 2 diabetes to conduct an update of a previous systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of cinnamon consumption on glucose and lipid levels. 

 The researchers found that cinnamon, in daily doses of 120 mg/d to 6 g/d for four to 18 weeks, was associated with a significant reduction in levels of fasting plasma glucose (−24.59 mg/dL), but no significant effect on glycosylated hemoglobin.

Needless thyroid biopsies on the rise

Courtesy: iamtwixietops.com

Many Americans are undergoing needless thyroid biopsies, researchers say, and simplifying clinical guidelines would go a long way toward curbing the problem. The investigators from University of California, San Francisco analyzed the medical records of about 8,800 patients who underwent thyroid ultrasound scans. Reporting in the Aug. 26 online issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, they said that more than 98 percent of the thyroid nodules found in patients were not cancerous.

"Right now, we're doing far too many thyroid biopsies in patients who are really at very low risk of having thyroid cancer," study lead author Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor in the department of radiology and biomedical imaging, said in a UCSF news release. 

Allopaths using Ayurveda?

More than half allopathic doctors prescribe ayurvedic medicines! If you are dependent on ayurvedic medicines prescribed by your allopath, then you better think again before taking your next dose. Your doctor is as ignorant about ayurvedic medicines as you are. 

A study by the pharmacology department of KEM hospital has revealed that most of the allopaths who prefer prescribing ayurvedic medicines for ailments like liver disorder, arthritis, cough and cold, kidney stones and piles, have little knowledge about them. According to the study, 99% of the resident doctors did not even learn the basics of ayurveda but 67% of them prescribe ayurvedic medicines to their patients.

Vitamin C can kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria

An unexpected discovery by an American research team reports that vitamin C can kill the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis that causes multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis MDR-TB. The new discovery is expected to lead to new treatments, cheaper drugs and bring relief to millions of people suffering from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) across the globe. The research was undertaken at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The report published recently has found that, "Vitamin C, a compound known to drive the fenton reaction, sterilizes cultures of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis." Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, found that the vitamin C effectively kills drug-resistant TB bacteria under laboratory conditions. 

ADHD on the rise

Courtesy:aycliffeadhd.co.uk

Rates of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) have risen by 24% over the last ten years, researchers from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Medical Group reported in JAMA Pediatrics. 

The authors, who carried out a study of medical records at the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health plan, described the increase as "very significant". A study carried out by researchers from Northwestern Medicine reported in the March/April 2012 issue of Academic Peditrics that the ADHD diagnosis rate had risen 66% in ten years. ADHD, which is estimated to affect between 4% and 12% of school-aged children in the USA, persists into the teenage years and adulthood in approximately 66% to 85% of cases. Experts are not sure what the origins of ADHD are. 

They believe it is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. One study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that multiple exposures to anesthesia at a young age was linked to a higher rates of ADHD. In this latest study, Darios Getahun, M.D., Ph.D. and team set out to determine whether ADHD rates had increased since 2001 in southern California, and if so, by how much.

Measles vaccination Again!

Doctors in the city(Noida) have alleged that the district health department is pulling the lives of children at stake in order to avoid being reprimanded for their mistakes from the state government. The health department has made it compulsory for all children below the age of 10 to receive measles vaccination in schools irrespective of whether they have received it previously or not. Free vaccines will now also be provided in private hospitals from December 10.

Private hospital doctors have called the move unnecessary and risky and pointed out that all vaccines have side-effects. This move, which targets 3.24 lakh children in the district, comes within a week of the health department receiving criticism for under-spending the resources allocated to them under the NRHM scheme.

The district health department started the drive on December 3, two days after an assessment meeting of the NRHM scheme of five division of western Uttar Pradesh, wherein free and compulsory immunization was given to schoolchildren. At the meeting, the principal secretary (health) criticized the districts, including Noida, for underutilization of resources allocated to them.

"All children below the age of 10, irrespective of whether they have received the vaccination or not before will have to take the vaccine. This increases their immunity to measles by 95%", said Nepal Singh, immunization officer.

High Fructose Related to Diabetes

A new study suggests countries that use large amounts of high fructose corn syrup(HFCS) in their food may be helping to fuel the global epidemic of type 2 diabetes. Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Southern California (USC) found a 20% higher proportion of the population have diabetes in countries with high use of the food sweetener compared to countries that do not use it.

Omega3 now added to milk!

It is now possible to incorporate fish oil into milk and other dairy-based beverages in concentrations high enough to promote heart health, and without effecting the product's taste or lifespan, suggests a new study published in the Journal of Dairy Science.

Researchers at Virginia Tech conducted a study with 25 participants who analyzed one-ounce cups of standard two percent milk that was made up of 78 parts butter oil to 22 parts fish oil under institutionally approved study conditions. The researchers tested four different ratios of butter oil to fish oil in the creation of pasteurized, fatty acid-fortified drinks. The formula had no smell and sent to its drinker 432 milligrams of heart-healthy fatty acids per cup, almost the 500 milligram daily target for healthy people, according to many well known guidelines.

Growing drug resistance to malaria

Growing resistance to a key anti-malarial drug derived from a shrub used in traditional Chinese medicine is threatening to roll back gains made in combating the disease, said malaria experts at a health conference in Sydney, Australia last week.

Delegates at the Malaria 2012: Saving Lives in the Asia-Pacific conference emphasized the importance of strong political leadership and regional coordination after discussing resistance to anti-malarial drugs in the region’s fight against the disease.

“Anti-malarial drug resistance is one of the greatest challenges to continued success in controlling and eliminating malaria in the Asia-Pacific,” the Director of the Global Malaria Program of the UN World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Robert Newman, told the gathering.

Parental anxiety linked to anxiety in children

Parents with social anxiety disorder are more likely than parents with other forms of anxiety to engage in behaviors that put their children at high risk for developing angst of their own, according to a small study of parent-child pairs conducted at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. Authors of the federally funded study say past research has linked parental anxiety to anxiety in children, but it remained unclear whether people with certain anxiety disorders engaged more often in anxiety-provoking behaviors.

Another gene variant to male breast cancer

Researchers report that they've identified another genetic variation that appears connected to male breast cancer, a rare condition that kills several hundred men in the United States each year.

Male breast cancer is about 100 times less common than female breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. It estimates that this year breast cancer will be diagnosed in about 2,190 men in the United States and will kill about 410 men.

Adverse effects of medicine in Australia

The top ten drugs used by Australians were linked to 2925 adverse events and 67 deaths in the last five years, an exclusive analysis of the adverse events data base of the national drug watchdog has found.

Since 2007, the most commonly used drugs have been linked to 950 cases of musculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders, 633 nervous system disorders, 331 cases of respiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders and 286 cases of psychiatric disorders.

The cholesterol lowering medicine Atorvastatin produced the highest number of adverse events between 2007 and 2011, and was linked to 815 reports of side effects including 13 deaths.

Mammograms linked to cancer?

Courtesy:well.blogs.nytimes.com

Mammograms aimed at finding breast cancer might actually raise the chances of developing it in young women whose genes put them at higher risk for the disease, a study by leading European cancer agencies suggests.

The added radiation from mammograms and other types of tests with chest radiation might be especially harmful to them and an MRI is probably a safer method of screening women under 30 who are at high risk because of gene mutations, the authors conclude.

Digested coconut oil a natural antibiotic for tooth decay

Digested coconut oil is a natural antibiotic that may help to fight tooth decay, say scientists from the Athlone Institute of Technology in Ireland.

The scientists presented their data at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn Conference taking place this week at the University of Warwick.

Streptococcus bacteria are common inhabitants of the mouth, and so the team tested the antibacterial action of coconut oil against strains of this bacteria.

Two versions of coconut oil were used in the study: coconut oil in its natural state and coconut oil that had been treated with enzymes, in a process similar to digestion.

Frozen IVF embryos better than fresh embryos

Women who become pregnant with previously frozen IVF embryos tend to have healthier babies and fewer complications than those who have fresh embryos implanted, research suggests.

Fertility doctors found that mothers had a lower risk of bleeding in pregnancy with embryos that had been frozen and thawed, and went on to have fewer pre-term and low-birthweight babies.

Fertility clinics in Britain usually transfer fresh embryos into women several days after they have been given hormone injections that stimulate their ovaries to release eggs. These are extracted and fertilised before being implanted. Any embryos that are not used can be frozen for use months or years later. The new results raise questions about the way fertility treatment is offered in the UK. If mothers and babies fare better with previously frozen IVF embryos, it may make sense to freeze more or most embryos.