World / Health & Beauty
Autopsy: Clots killed woman who died on hospital floor
14.07.2008 02:31
usatoday.com
A woman who died unnoticed on a hospital floor in an upsetting scene recorded by security cameras was killed by blood clots caused ...
USA
Health & Beauty
Study: As gas prices go up, auto deaths decline
14.07.2008 02:31
usatoday.com
Today's high gas prices could cut auto deaths by nearly a third as driving decreases, with the effect particularly dramatic among ...
USA
Health & Beauty
Uganda tourist dies of Ebola-like fever
14.07.2008 02:31
usatoday.com
A Dutch woman has died from Marburg fever, a rare Ebola-like virus she is thought to have caught from bats while touring caves ...
USA
Health & Beauty
Cord blood helping baby with 'bubble boy' disease
14.07.2008 02:31
usatoday.com
A recent umbilical-cord-blood transplant at Children's Mercy Hospital has transformed Granton from a frail, nearly immobile patient ...
USA
Health & Beauty
Hospital pharmacy error harms 17 infants; 2 dead
14.07.2008 02:31
usatoday.com
McA hospital in Corpus Christi said Thursday that a mixing error that led to a blood thinner overdose in as many as 17 infants ...
USA
Health & Beauty
Demand for food and fuel may lead to destruction of forests
14.07.2008 02:29
b4uindia.com
A new report has warned that demand for land to grow food, fuel crops and wood is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests. According to a report by BBC News, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) has calculated that rising demand for food, biofuels and wood for paper, building and industry means that 515 million hectares of extra land will be needed for growing crops and trees by 2030. But only 200 million hectares will be available without dipping into tropical forests. The dual crises of fuel and food are attracting significant land speculation. “Arguably, we are on the verge of a last great global land grab,” said RR’''s Andy White, co-author of the major report, “Seeing People through the Trees”. “It will mean more deforestation, more conflict, more carbon emissions, more climate change and less prosperity for everyone,” he added. The report cites studies suggesting that “If the current plateau in productivity continues, the amount of additional agricultural land required just to meet the world’s projected food demand in 2050 would be about three billion hectares, nearly all of which would be required in developing countries.” According to UN figures, the world currently has about 1.4 billion hectares of arable land and about 3.4 billion hectares of pasture. Some academics place their hopes in agricultural technologies including genetic engineering to boost crop yields. But since the spectacular successes of the Green Revolution, advances have been slow. In some areas, yields are falling - a trend which is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. However, eating into tropical forests to create extra agricultural land would, in turn, exacerbate climate change, with deforestation currently accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. One of RRI’s key conclusions is that reform of land ownership is crucial, if large-scale pillage of tropical forests is to be avoided. “These new studies should strengthen global resolve to protect the property rights of indigenous and local communities who play a vital role in protecting one the most outstanding natural wonders of the world,” said Gareth Thomas minister of DfID (UK Department for International Development). . Many indigenous peoples need help in acquiring rights to the land they live on. “It is clear that the dual crises of fuel and food are attracting significant new investments and great land speculation,” said White. “Only by protecting the rights of the people who live in and around the world’s most vulnerable forests can we prevent the devastation these forces will wreak on the poor,” he added. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Following Becks’ taste in briefs can make you impotent
14.07.2008 02:29
b4uindia.com
Experts have warned that following in the footsteps of soccer ace David Beckham by wearing tight briefs can make men infertile. Sales of tight briefs have risen sharply following the unveiling of posters of the former England captain modelling a new range of pants for Armani. Thousands of Brits are swapping loose boxers for barely-there pants after seeing the ads. However, experts have said that copying the footballer’s taste in underwear can cause infertility. “David Beckham has had his children, but would-be fathers can’t get away with it,” the Daily Star quoted Dr Allan Pacey, of Sheffield University, as saying. “Very tight pants damage fertility. The reason you have testicles outside the body is that they stay cooler there,” he added. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Thousands of cancer patients denied drugs in UK
14.07.2008 02:29
b4uindia.com
A new report has revealed that over 120,000 cancer patients die early every year after being denied drugs that could have increased their life span. The report, Paying for Cancer Care, by the oncologist Prof Karol Sikora, identifies 136,000 British patients a year who could benefit from 10 cancer treatments, which are commonly available across Western Europe, but rarely funded by the NHS. According to estimates, less than 5 per cent are receiving the drugs, with many of those who get them paying privately. The report, to be submitted to the Government''s review of drug funding, has said that demand is such that ministers must change rules that penalise desperate patients who pay for the drugs. Sikora examined treatments including the bowel cancer drugs Avastin and Erbitux, which could extend the lives of 50,000 people by three to six months. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) rejected the drugs because of their costs between 50,000 pounds and 60,000 pounds per patient. Two other drugs, Sutent, for advanced kidney cancer, and Tarceva, for lung cancer, which have yet to be assessed by Nice, could extend the lives of 35,000 patients for up to six months. Ian Beaumont, of the charity Bowel Cancer UK, said that more patients should have access to the drugs. "These drugs can make a significant difference to length of life but it is not just about that. They can mean the difference between dying in agony or having some kind of quality of life in your last months with your loved ones," the Telegraph quoted Beaumont, as saying. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Retinal transplant shows promise for improved vision
14.07.2008 02:29
b4uindia.com
There''s finally some hope for all those worried by the aging eyes and degenerated vision. Researchers in the US have been successful in carrying out retinal transplants in people with failing sight. In the experimental study, researchers transplanted retinal cells into the eyes of patients with failing eyesight and found it to boost the vision in most of them. Led by Dr Norman Radtke, the team at the University of Louisville, Kentucky implanted retinal cells taken from aborted foetuses into 10 people with retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. After recording improved, but still seriously impaired vision in 7 subjects, the researchers referred to successful retinal transplant as science''s "holy grail". And now, it is possible to refine this method and obtain further evidence that retinal transplants may be a viable therapy for retinal degenerative disease. Retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are the most common causes of blindness in old age, and involve the gradual and normally irreversible destruction of the cells on the eye''s retina, which receive light. The technique required the researchers to implant the foetal retinal cells alongside cells, which have the job of nourishing them, in order to facilitate new cells to join forces with the existing retinal cells for improving overall vision. Radtke said that sight tests did not show any change in three of the 10 patients, but only slight improvements in the rest. In fact, one of the subjects showed improvement even six years after the operation, even though the patient''s other eye had continued to deteriorate. But there weren''t any major improvements and eyesight was well short of normal vision. "What we have learned will help us to refine this method and obtain further evidence that retinal transplants may be a viable therapy for retinal degenerative disease," BBC quoted Radtke, as saying. According to Professor Pete Coffey, from the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, the results did not indicate any major improvement in vision, saying: "I can''t say that this is a success, except in the suggestion that the cells did not provoke an immune reaction in the recipient." He added that nobody had yet managed a completely successful transplant, which he described as the "holy grail" in the field. Also he said that the use of foetal cells was impractical, not only for ethical reasons, but also for sheer lack of supply. "Unlike a stem cell line, every time you need new cells you need another foetus," he said. The study is published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Protein''s path to the ''Chamber of Doom'' identified
14.07.2008 02:29
b4uindia.com
In a breakthrough study, researchers have uncovered a deadly pathway of proteins in the cell, composed of a slippery tube that funnels proteins into a "chamber of doom" where they are shredded and recycled into the building blocks of new proteins. This new pathway found by researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio may have applications for Alzheimer''s, Parkinson''s and some cancers. The researchers have described this tube as part of the 26S proteasome, an enzyme that acts as the cell''s protein garbage disposal. They said that the tube is a concentric pile of rings surrounded by molecular motors that direct the proteins toward the proteasome''s slicing and dicing core. "The life of all proteins in our cells ends within the proteasome chamber of doom," Nature quoted Technion author Michael Glickman, as saying. He also said that the newly-described pathway "should be of interest in applications for diseases in which cells are unable to process degraded or misfolded proteins," including Alzheimer''s and Parkinson''s disease, some cancers, and age-related conditions such as cataract disease. The results may help the researchers to understand the basic biology of the proteasome and "its intrinsic essential function in a myriad of cellular pathways," said Allen Taylor. Usually proteins that are marked for destruction with a ubiquitin protein "tag" are degraded by the 26S proteasome. In fact, the proteasome itself is made up of two major structures: a large core structure where the proteins are degraded, and a smaller structure that serves as a kind of entryway where the tagged protein makes its first contact with the proteasome and is unfolded for its journey into the core. And the tube described by the researchers is part of the smaller structure, and serves a chute between the first contact site and the core. In the study, atomic force microscopy was used to visualize the extremely tiny tube, which were described as two molecular "donuts" stacked on top of each other. The donut holes through which proteins pass is only two nanometers in diameter. The tube is surrounded by a group of energy-producing enzymes called ATPases, which act a motor to drive proteins through the tube. "One may see the entire machine as an external engine wrapping around an inner molecular stent for protein translocation, all situated atop the molecular shredder into which the proteins are fed," explained Glickman. He also noted that it''s a natural design that engineers working on synthetic nanomachines might hope to copy in their own creations. The study is published online in the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. (ANI)
India
Health & Beauty
Malaria breakthrough in Australia
14.07.2008 00:04
bbc.co.uk
Australian scientists say they have made a discovery that could be a major breakthrough in the fight against malaria.
World
Health & Beauty
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