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Red wine can keep breast cancer at bay
07.07.2008 11:26
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A new study has shown that resveratrol, a chemical commonly found in red wine may help prevent breast cancer. During the study, Eleanor G. Rogan, Ph.D., a professor in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and colleagues measured the effect of resveratrol on cellular functions known to contribute to breast cancer. "Resveratrol has the ability to prevent the first step that occurs when estrogen starts the process that leads to cancer by blocking the formation of the estrogen DNA adducts,” said Rogan “We believe that this could stop the whole progression that leads to breast cancer down the road," Rogan added. The formation of breast cancer is a multi-step process that differs depending on type of disease, a patient''s genetic makeup and other factors. However, scientists know that many breast cancers are fuelled by increased estrogen, which collects and reacts with DNA molecules to form adducts. The team found that resveratrol was able to suppress the formation of these DNA adducts. "This is dramatic because it could be done with fairly low concentrations of resveratrol to stop the formation of these DNA adducts in the cells we studied," said Rogan. Although researchers experimented with up to 100 µmol/L of resveratrol, the suppression of DNA adducts was seen with 10 µmol/L. A glass of red wine contains between 9 and 28 µmol/L of resveratrol. The researchers also found that resveratrol suppressed the expression of CYP1B1 and the formation of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, two known risk factors for breast cancer. Rogan said resveratrol works by inducing an enzyme called quinone reductase, which reduces the estrogen metabolite back to inactive form. By making estrogen inactive, resveratrol decreases the associated risk. The report was published in the July 2008 issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Doctors reluctant to taper off medicines in kids with stable asthma
07.07.2008 11:26
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A new study has shown that doctors are reluctant to reduce drug use among kids with asthma even if lower dose is best. In the study involving 310 pediatricians, 40 percent said they would not step down high-dose treatment even if a child''s symptoms were well controlled and infrequent. "Asthma medications can have serious, albeit infrequent, side effects, and while under-treatment is undeniably a big problem, not stepping down treatment when a child is doing well may be too," said lead investigator Sande Okelo,, an asthma specialist at Hopkins Children''s. "If a child is doing well and her symptoms are well under control, why not take that chance and see if a smaller dose would do the trick?" said investigator Gregory Diette, M.H.S., a lung specialist at Hopkins. Beyond side effects, a failure by pediatricians to taper off drugs may also lead parents to do so on their own by skipping doses or decreasing them, said Okelo "Past research shows that when parents are concerned about side effects and their child is doing well, they may take action without a doctor''s approval," he added. For the study, the pediatricians were asked to devise treatment plans using different patient scenarios, describing various elements, including whether a child had been hospitalized recently, how bothersome and frequent a child''s symptoms were, whether symptoms had recently intensified or lessened and whether the child had wheezing on a physical exam. While current treatment guidelines focus on symptom frequency, nearly all pediatricians reported using multiple factors in their decision-making, including quality of life and how bothered parents were by their child''s symptoms. Okelo said that pediatricians might greatly benefit from a step-by-step, "frontlines" tool that tells them how to specifically apply treatment guidelines and how to use different dimensions of the disease in their day-to-day practice. Researchers suggests that as asthma is an unstable disease and can change often and unpredictably, it is essential that children with asthma get regular follow-up exams every three to six months even in the absence of symptoms. The study appears in the July issue of Pediatrics. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Cases of new, deadly form of cancer on the rise: Study
07.07.2008 11:26
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Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that the incidence of mantle cell lymphoma, a deadly form of non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma, is on the rise. Writing about their findings in the journal CANCER, the researchers have revealed that this disease is most frequently striking men, Caucasians and older individuals. The study has also revealed that most patients are diagnosed with advanced stages of the disease. In their study report, the researchers say that the prevalence of mantle cell lymphoma has yet to be determined. Mantle cell lymphoma, first established as a type of lymphoma in 1992, is a fast-growing cancer of the immune system that is characterized by small- to medium-size cancer cells that may be in the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, blood or gastrointestinal system. Despite the availability of many different types of therapies, it remains incurable. Dr. Michael Wang and his colleagues set out to determine how many people have been diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma since it was first recognized, and examined cancer registry data from 1992 to 2004, the most recent year for which complete data are available. Analysing the records of 2,459 patients diagnosed with the disease at the relevant time period, they found that men were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with the disease as women, and Caucasians had the highest risk of all ethnic groups. Age was a significant risk factor, with people between the ages of 70 to 79 more likely to be diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma than all other age groups. The study also found that nearly three-quarters of all mantle cell patients were diagnosed with advanced disease—stage III and IV. Drs. Wang and Du observed that the incidence rates increased progressively over time. In 1992, only 2.7 people per 1,000,000 were diagnosed, compared with 6.9 people per 1,000,000 in 2004. The researchers said that they were clueless about the cause of the remarkable increase in the incidence rate of the disease over the past 13 years. "A better understanding of the epidemiology of mantle cell lymphoma, the development of novel agents, more research funding and increased public awareness are all needed," the authors write. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Single oral dose of vitamin A may help reduce infant mortality by 15pc
07.07.2008 11:26
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A new study by researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that infant mortality in the developing world can reduced by 15 per cent by administering newly born babies a single, oral dose of vitamin A shortly after their birth. "It has long been known that vitamin A supplementation can reduce mortality in children over 6 months of age. Our study showed that vitamin A given at birth can also improve infant survival within the first 6 months of life," said Dr. Rolf D.W. Klemm, lead author of the study publishe din the journal Pediatrics. For the study, the researchers enrolled 15,937 newborns from rural communities in northwest Bangladesh, where over 90 percent of babies are born at home. They randomly selected half the infants to receive a 50,000 IU dose of vitamin A, while the other half received a placebo. The vitamin A was given orally to the infants within a few days of birth, usually by seven hours after delivery. The mortality rate for the vitamin A group was 38.5 deaths per 1,000 births, compared to 45.1 deaths per 1,000 births for the non-vitamin A group. While vitamin A reduced infant deaths from all causes, lives were likely saved by reducing the severity of potentially fatal infections, which are responsible for most deaths in early infancy in South Asia. "This study supports the findings of previous vitamin A studies in Southern Asia where the evidence is now strong that vitamin A given to newborns can dramatically reduce mortality," said study co-author Dr. Keith West, the George G. Graham Professor in Infant and Child Nutrition at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. "More studies are urgently needed to determine if newborn vitamin A supplementation would reduce mortality among infants in other regions, especially Africa," he added. Kent R. Hill, assistant administrator for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said: "We are excited by the results of this study, that build on two previous studies in South Asia, confirming this low cost intervention can significantly contribute to reducing mortality in the first 6 months of life. A key next step is to consider the operational issues for using this intervention." USAID researchers have now joined forces with other experts to conduct research operations in Nepal and Bangladesh, so as to determine possible approaches for delivering vitamin A to newborn infants. The control of vitamin A deficiency is a global goal of the World Health Organization and is considered one of the most cost-effective of all health interventions for saving young lives. "Because childhood mortality is greatest during the first few months of life, a single dose of vitamin A administered by mouth to a newborn child can save the lives of an additional 300,000 children in Asia every year. That is on top of the one million lives a year that would be saved by dosing all vitamin A deficient children twice a year from six months through 5 years of age," said Dr. Alfred Sommer, professor and dean emeritus of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Treatment delays can worsen outcomes for men with breast cancer
07.07.2008 11:26
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A new study has revealed that delayed treatments can worsen the outcomes for men with breast cancer. According to Dr. Marina Garassino from the Orion Collaborative Group, men are often diagnosed with breast cancer when the disease reaches its advanced stage. In 50pct of cases the cancer had already reached the lymph nodes, a development that increases the likelihood of metastatic spread to other parts of the body. The study was conducted over 146 men with invasive breast cancer who were diagnosed between 1990 and 2007 across the 12 institutions in the ORION collaborative group. All men underwent surgery to remove their cancer. After surgery, 48 received radiotherapy and 100 received adjuvant chemotherapy or hormone therapy. After a median follow-up of 5.2 years, the estimated 10-year disease-free survival rates were 80pct for men with the earliest stages of disease, and 44pct for those with the largest tumours. The researchers looked at the characteristics of the tumours and found that 73pct were positive for estrogen receptors and/or progesteron receptors. Among a sub-group of 41 patients, 48.7pct had tumours that over-expressed the protein, an indication of an aggressive tumour. "Male breast cancer is a rare disease and not well known," said Dr. Garassino said. "It is treated the same way as female breast cancer, although our large retrospective series suggests that it has somewhat different histological characteristics," she added. If treated early enough, the disease is highly responsive to hormone therapy, Dr. Garassino said. In those cases, the prognosis may even be better than in women, she added. "What is important for people to know is that most of the patients in our study had a delay in their diagnosis due to the fact that a mass in their breast was misunderstood," Dr. Garassino said. "Therefore it is important that every mass in a man''s breast must immediately be considered suspicious." "Better understanding of male breast cancer will also provide better insights for treating these patients with modern targeted therapies. "We are currently conducting a molecular study on tissues to define help characteristics that might be important for this purpose," she added. The study was presented at ESMO Conference Lugano (ECLU), organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Maharashtra minister accused of Chinkara case resigns
07.07.2008 09:27
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Maharashtra Transport and Tribal Welfare Minister Dharmaraobaba Atram, acussed of killing Chinkara, a rare breed of deer, at Baramati near Pune has resigned from the cabinet today. Atram, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today. The former minister is alleged to have hunted a Chinkara, an endangered species on June 14 near Pune. Atram resignation follows a raid conducted at his houses in Gadchiroli and Pune districts by the forest officials. Remains of a Chinkara were found from his house. Atram''s car with red beacon along with two other vehicles had been sighted by the villagers in the area, which led to suspicion over his involvement in the hunting of the deer, an endangered species. Forest officials had filed a case under the protection of wildlife act and arrested two persons in this connection. During the investigation the minister''s car had also been seized and searched. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Left to withdraw support to UPA Govt. by July 10
07.07.2008 09:26
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Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas said on Monday that the Left parties will submit to President Pratibha Patil their letter of withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government by July 10. Biswas said the decision by the four Left parties to withdraw support to the UPA government over the nuclear deal issue was a unanimous one. Earlier, on Friday, Congress had rejected the deadline set by Left parties on the UPA Government to come clear on its stance on Indo-US civil nuclear deal till July 7. Congress had said that Sovereign Governments or political parties cannot be subjected to deadlines. The party had also thanked the Samajwadi Party for extending its support to the nuclear deal. (ANI)
India
Social Life
New Congress chiefs in three states
07.07.2008 09:26
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The Congress party on Monday did a major reshuffle in its organizational structure by appointed new party chiefs for three states. The new chiefs were appointed to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. “Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal for the appointments,” an official release from All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi. Congress party MLA Siddharth Patel has been appointed as the president of Gujarat Congress Committee and MP Tusharbhai Choudhary and MLA Kunwarjibhai Mohanbhai Bavalia will be the new working presidents. Former Union Minister and Salem MP K. V. Thangabalu took over as the president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. Thakur Kaul Singh has been appointed the president of Himachal Pradesh Congress. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Ashok Kumar takes over as Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals
07.07.2008 09:26
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Ashok Kumar on Monday took over as the Secretary in the newly created Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers. Kumar is a 1974 batch Indian Administrative officer of Bihar cadre. He was the Chairman of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority before taking over his new assignment. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Kannada seeks status as classical language
07.07.2008 09:26
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A Karnataka Congress delegation led by its President Mallikarjun Kharge today called on Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni and discussed matters relating to the grant of classical language status to Kannada. Kharge urged the Centre to expedite the matter relating to grant of classical language status to Kannada. Soni said that a committee of linguistic experts is examining the issue of granting classical language status to Kannada and Telugu. “The Experts Committee has discussed the matter in its meeting held in June 2008 and efforts are being made to arrive at a consensus on the issue,” she said. She expressed the hope that the committee of experts will soon reach a decision on the subject and once such a decision is reached, it will be forwarded to the Government for further necessary action. The next meeting of the Expert Committee is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on August 8, 2008. (ANI)
India
Social Life
Brit doctors call for de-glamorization of smoking in films
07.07.2008 09:26
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In an attempt to de-glamorize tobacco, the British Medical Association has called for the portrayal of smoking to be taken into account when classifying films. Doctors have said that celebrities who smoke on screen should attract the attention of the censor in the same way as they would if they were engaged in extreme sex or violence, reports the Independent. The BMA has called for new curbs on the promotion of smoking in the media and said the Government should set a target to make England smoke-free by 2035. In a report, the association said that more than one in five adults smoke and most start before they are 18 when they are most vulnerable to images that ‘increase the allure of the habit.’ The portrayal of smoking in films declined from 1950 to 1990, but has since increased, according to the report. The BMA is calling for UK legislation to introduce anti-smoking adverts before any film or TV programme portraying ‘positive images’ of smoking. The report suggests that cigarettes should be banned from sale in vending machines, removed from display in shops and supermarkets and presented in plain packaging. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Slow, not fast, exercise better for menopausal women
07.07.2008 09:26
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A new study by researchers at the University of Salzburg has suggested that slow, rather than fast, exercise is better for menopausal women. In the study, lead author Dr Alexandra Sanger and colleagues at the University of Salzburg examined the effects of different exercise regimes in menopausal women. Their aim was to develop new strategies for delaying and reducing the initial onset of age related muscle deterioration. Researchers investigated two particular methods of physical training, hypertrophy resistance and 'SuperSlow’. Hypertrophy resistance training is a traditional approach designed to induce muscle growth while 'SuperSlow' is a more recently devised system which involves much slower movement and fewer repetitions of exercises, and was originally introduced especially for beginners and for rehabilitation. "Our results indicate that both methods increase muscle mass at the expense of connective and fatty tissue, but contrary to expectations, the SuperSlow method appears to have the greatest effect," Dr Sanger said. "These findings will be used to design specific exercise programmes for everyday use to reduce the risk of injury and thus significantly contribute to a better quality of life in old age," Dr Sanger added. For the study, researchers focused on groups of menopausal women aged 45-55 years, the age group in which muscle deterioration first starts to become apparent. Groups undertook supervised regimes over 12 weeks, based on each of the training methods. In order to see what effect the exercise had, thigh muscle biopsies were taken at the beginning and end of the regimes, and microscopically analysed to look for changes in the ratio of muscle to fatty and connective tissue, the blood supply to the muscle, and particularly for differences in the muscle cells themselves. "The results of our experiments have significantly improved our understanding of how muscles respond to different forms of exercise," asserts Dr Sanger. "We believe that the changes that this new insight can bring to current training systems will have a considerable effect on the lives of both menopausal and older women," she added. The study will be presented on Monday 7th July at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Meeting in Marseille. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Are octopuses partial to a certain tentacle?
07.07.2008 09:26
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Scientists have planned a study to determine whether octopuses have a favourite tentacle for picking things up, much like humans are right- or left-handed. Claire Little, a marine expert at the Weymouth Sea Life Centre, says that the month-long project at 23 Sea Life Centres across Britain and Europe will examine the intelligence of the octopus, which are believed to be far more intelligent than their relatives—slugs and snails. During the study, the researchers will give the 25 assorted creatures food and toys to play with, and record which limbs the animals use. "Uniquely, octopuses have more than half their nerves in their arms and have been shown to partially think with their arms,” Live Science quoted Claire as saying. "Many animals have been shown to favour a certain arm so we will see if octopuses can be added to that list," she said. The researchers believe that their study may shed new light on the structure of octopus brains, just in case it indicates a preference. They say that octopuses are susceptible to stress, and therefore finding whether they have a favoured side on which to be fed may help improve their well-being in captivity. Whether the octopus uses a combination of arms will also be recorded in sequence. The researchers would drop a ball, a jam jar, and Lego bricks into the water for the octopuses' inspection. The giant Pacific octopus, the common octopus and the lesser octopus will all star in the research. The results of the research will be analysed by Sea Life Centre biologists, and announced in autumn. "We hope it will help towards solving the mystery of handedness in the animal kingdom," Claire said. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
German footballers train on nudist beach to hone their skills!
07.07.2008 03:32
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Eccentric German football club VfL Wolfsburg manager Felix Magath found the perfect spot for his players to train – a nudist beach. According to Bild.com, nude holidaymakers on the Baltic Sea resort of Usedom Island got quite a start when Magath and his team arrived for some vigorous workout, reports the Daily Star. As the bewildered nudists on the beach looked on, Magath calmly put his players through their paces, making them complete shuttle runs and training drills. As for why he would take his team to such a beach, well Magath had the perfect answer. “I wanted to give the training sessions some new attractions," he said. The German club certainly has a lot to practice, especially since they made it into the UEFA Cup last season. (ANI)
India
Economics & Finance
Kotak Bank chief warns Indian firms not to be too exuberant over foreign acquisitions
07.07.2008 03:32
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Uday Kotak, the Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of India's top private sector banks, has cautioned Indian companies not to be too exuberant about buying overseas acquisitions, and saying that prosperity for the country's financial sector lay in domestic opportunities. Commenting on Tata Steel's 6.7 billion pound takeover of Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, last year, Kotak told the Financial Times that: "The Indian system, government and business, to a certain extent did fall prey to exuberance – which is now getting seriously affected." Last year's six billion dollar takeover of Novelis, a Canadian aluminium maker, by Birla, he said is yet to prove a success. Tata Motors' recent 2.3 billion dollar acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover was "a bold move", he added. As far as Kotak Mahindra Bank is concerned, Uday said he would concentrate on expanding its 200-strong domestic branch network, with simple margin products that served the needs of the real economy, and expressed confidence that he would get "a high rate of growth." Kotak said that the opportunities arising from domestic, and not foreign, consolidation were a "significant area of interest" for the bank, and that next year's federal elections could usher in a government prepared to lift a ban on private-sector banks acquiring majority stakes in state-owned banks. The latter currently hold a 75 per cent of the nation's savings and boast the more extensive branch network. After five years of strong domestic growth, India's largest privately owned banks remain well capitalised compared with their global peers and well positioned to survive a downturn, he said. Kotak expressed his frustration at the conservative approach adopted by the Reserve Bank of India, his country's central bank, which insists that Indian banks are mandated to hold 25 per cent of deposits in government securities, while 40 per cent must be deployed in designated primary service areas such as agriculture. (ANI)
India
Economics & Finance
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