A cat with acute vision problem to don contact lens
December 20, 2008
Ernest, a cat with acute vision problem, is perhaps be the first of its kind to don contact lens.
The 15-year old cat, Ernest, has been staying at an animal shelter for 13 years. The white cat was suffering from entropion, which meant his lids turned inwards and scratched his eyeball. However, Ernest had his sight restored by contact lenses.
As the cat was too old to risk a general anesthetic, vets suggested the innovative solution. The staff at the animal centre said they had never heard of a cat wearing lenses before.
Ernest will continue to live at the animal shelter. He is a permanent and popular fixture of the animal centre’s reception desk. Shelter’s branch administrator Less Burrows said:
“He is much more comfortable. Previously his eyes were shut, now they are open. We always used Ernest to test new dogs brought into us to see if they were scared of cats because he was never fazed. He is much more wary of the dogs now because he can actually see them.”
Long live Ernest; do enjoy a healthy life and your renewed vision!
‘Gila’ comes to the rescue of diabetic patients.
December 17, 2008
Type 2 diabetes is aided by medicines which include lizard spit. Most of the diabetic patients lead anxious and difficult lives due to a prolonged and unending cycle of ill health. As the pancreas produces very little quantity or sometimes no insulin, the hormone that converts glucose to energy.
To top it, diabetic drugs are usually responsible for the patients to put on that extra weight adding the risk of high BP, heart problems and even strokes. Thus it is very improtant that the drugs used for diabetes treatment function in such a way that besides controlling the sugar level, the drug must reduce weight.
Byetta, the new inject able drug according to the experts, is the right answer. It’s made from the saliva of the Gila monster, a venomous lizard usually found in Southwest America. The new wander drug approved by FDA is suitable only for type 2 diabetics.
Byetta works in three ways: it signals the body to make correct amount of insulin post meal; prevents the liver from making extra glucose; it controls the appetite and slows the rate of glucose leaving the stomach.
To prevent heart attack, avoid bad boss
November 28, 2008
It is found that working under an incompetent and inconsiderate boss not only leads to bad working days but it may result in health complications.
Thee study published in Occupational and Environment Medicine revealed that researchers found definite connection between heart disease- heart attacks- and working under a poor leader ship.
BBC reported:
“The study was conducted by researchers from the Karonilska Institute and Stockholm University tracking the heart health of the male employees. They found 74 cases of cases of fatal and non fatal heart attack or acute angina, or death from chaemic heart disease”
According to the researchers, feeling of under valuation normally leads to frustration and stress. This in turn results in unhealthy behaviours and even smoking and drinking which are known factors which cumulate into heart disease.
Tracking the heart attacks among the 3000 employed men in the age group 19 to 70, working in the Stockholm area over a period of nearly a decade, the risk went up the longer employee worked in the same company.
Hence if you are unfortunate enough to work under a incompetent boss, then go for another alternate job as early as you can to avoid heart disease risk.
Government looking to change the ‘sick note’ culture
November 26, 2008
Health Secretary Alan Johnson hoped that replacing the traditional sick notes would sure cut down the hundreds of thousands of workers who ‘slip’ away from work onto ‘incapacity benefit’ every year.
Ministers are looking to cut the numbers who receive the benefit by one million by the year 2015. Around 2.6 million currently claim the benefit in Britain, which comes at a cost of around £16 billion to the economy every year. The plans are in response to a Dame Carol Black report. The report by the national director for health and work warned many workers’ potential was largely being wasted through virtue of being out of work.
Other proposals comprise piloting the so-called ‘Fit to Work’ schemes that could see counsellors monitoring all aspect of a patient’s life. In the first ever change made to the sick note system since its being set up in 1948, ‘fit’ notes will clearly set out what work patients can actually do despite their illnesses. They will be regularly updated.
A pilot scheme is underway in Wales to test if the fit notes can be electronically held, letting GPs alter records instantly. Mr Johnson stated they would like to change the ‘sick note’ culture, where people simply ‘slipped’ onto benefits.
Donation of organs saved 5 Brits’ life
November 24, 2008
Ruby Nagra, a teenager of Indian origin died from meningitis. Yet her organ donation saved precious lives of five Brits’. Ruby Nagra, 18, a resident of Kirby Muxoio died after she had contracted a severe form of the infection six weeks into her first year at university.
Patients desperate for transplants received Ruby’s heart, one lung, liver and kidneys merely hours after her demise. According to the teenager’s noble wish, of donating her organs to the ones who needed them for survival, five receivers could get the vital organs.
Her mother Jasvinder Kaur said”
“We are so proud of what she had done. I remember we had a conversation in a pub where she said `Mum, if somebody needs something when I die, then I would give it to them’, so we knew what she would have wanted.”
Prior to her sudden death, Ruby an education and psychological student at Nottingham Trent University, on Thursday called and said she had an eye infection. Soon she collapsed, and within hours she was pronounced brain dead. The end came on Friday
Kaur added: “I’m comforted to know she wouldn’t have time to know she was dying as it all happened so quick The doctor told us he had only ever seen one case which had progressed so quickly. There was nothing we could have done. We are all so stunned.”
Even though the teenager lived a short life, she brought cheers to the lucky five patients.
Obesity needs to be controlled to contain the number of cancer deaths
November 16, 2008
A leading expert warned in a report in The Telegraph, that the growing obesity epidemic could lead to the number of cancer cases almost doubling in the next 40 years. Studies have shown that the possibilities of developing major killers like breast and kidney cancer rises as people become increasingly overweight. According to the expert’s predictions, if the trend is not checked, up to one third of British women and half of men could be obese by 2050, almost up by a quarter of the current stage.
In the opinion of a leading cancer professor, at a conference on obesity, in London, Britons are “sleep-walking” into an explosion of cancer unless we stop piling up the pounds. Professor Martin Wiseman, the medical and scientific advertiser to the World Cancer Research Fund, says that today’s children will face increasing threat of cancer as they grow up unless tough action is taken. In his words,
“Unless something happens soon to stop the increase in obesity then we are sleepwalking towards a situation where Britain will be facing more cancer cases than ever before.”
After not smoking, it is equally as important for one to maintain a healthy weight for cancer prevention. Weight is measured using the Body Mass Index which is calculated by weight in relation to height. A healthy weight is defined between 20-25 BMI but beyond that overweight between 25-30BMI. Beware as beyond 30 you are clinically obese.
However, a survey conducted by Yougov, found that only half of the population know that there is a link between bulging waistlines and the risk of developing cancer.
NHS needs to ensure netter pain management
November 15, 2008
People want to see much tougher action against the NHS if and when it fails to help patients who are in pain, a new poll suggests. A survey by Help the Aged of over 1,000 people suggested nearly two-third of those surveyed thought hospitals need to be penalised in case of poor ‘pain management.’
The charity stated the issue certainly needed to be treated as a key priority. It added non-compliance with stipulated guidelines should have a direct impact on ratings and funding. It also called for ‘pain management’ to be seen as more of a priority across the whole of the NHS, inclusive of GP care.
NHS trusts get measured against a set of core standards and pre-defined national targets. Several of them focus on things like hospital infections as well as waiting times. However, none of these is linked directly to pain management. Help the Aged felt this was wrong as presently the only way in which NHS trusts were judged on pain was through general patient surveys. The charity added this meant there was a lack of a strong link between overall rating and poor performance.
Magnetic cure: Non-invasive brain stimulator for depression
October 30, 2008
A device that sends magnetic pulses through the skull- the first noninvasive stimulator to treat depression has been approved by the government. It may sound like science-fiction; the woodpecker-like pulses trigger small electrical charges that spark the brain cells to fire. It is comparatively less risky and safer than surgically implanted electrodes or the treatment of last resort, shock therapy.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved NeuroStar’s TMS or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy specifically for patients who had no relief from their first antidepressant, offering them a different option than rather gulping pill after pill.
Mark George of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, who helped pioneer use of TMS in depression said:
“We’re opening up a whole new area of medicine. There’s a whole field now that’s moving forward of noninvasive electrical stimulation of the brain.”
This probably may meet the big need for innovative approaches as at least one in five depression patients is treatment-resistant. The question is, just how much benefit can TMS offer.
A clear image would appear when results of the National Institutes of Health’s independent study of 260 patients will be out early next year. According to Philip Janicak of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, who aided the NeuroStar study,
“Quantifying the benefit is key, considering the price tag. TMS is expected to cost $6,000
to $10,000, depending on how many treatments a patient needs.”
Even though, it seems far more expensive than medication, yet it is thousands of dollars cheaper than invasive depression devices.
InterHeart study blames salt rich food and fried diets for 35% of heart attacks globally
October 30, 2008
The study involved 16,000 heart attack patients between 1999 and 2003 in countries on every continent, a shift from previous studies which focused only on the developed world.
Diets rich in salt and fried items, increase heart attack risk, while satisfying your appetite by eating lots of fruits, leafy greens and other vegetables reduces the risk considerably.
The study covered dietary preferences based on 19 food groups of each country, the patients and controls filled in a “dietary risk score”. The researcher found that people who eat a diet high in fried foods, salty snacks, eggs and meat-the-“Western Diet- had 35 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than people who consumed little or completely avoided fried foods or meat, irrespective of where they lived.
People who enjoyed and ate a “prudent diet”- high in leafy green vegetables, other raw and cooked vegetables and fruits- had a 30 percent lower risk of heart attack than those who ate little or no fruits and vegetables.
However, the third dietary practice, which is traditionally followed in Asian societies, the “oriental diet” consisting of foods such as tofu and soy sauce, was found to have negligible impact on heart attack risk. This is probably due to the fact that protective properties too have a high salt content which negate the benefits.
Yusuf, head of the Population Health Research Institute at Hamilton Health Sciences in Ontario said: “This study indicates that the same relationships that are observed in western countries exist in different regions of the world.”
Be a non–smoker for long and better lives
October 16, 2008
According to a survey conducted by the University of Helsinki, non-smokers live longer and much better lives than heavy smokers. Arto Y Strndberg and colleagues, conducting a survey, followed 1658 white men born between 1919 and 1934 who were found healthy at their first assessment, conducted in 1974. A follow- up questionnaire was then mailed to the participants in 2000 that was meant to assess their current status, health and quality of life. It was found that during the 26-year follow-up period, 372 (22.4 percent) of the men died.
Those who had never smoked lived an average of ten years longer than heavy smokers, who puffed away more than 20 cigarettes per day. Apart from longer life, non-smokers also had the best scores on all health-related quality of life measures.
The authorities reported: “Although many smokers had quit between the baseline investigation in 1974 and the follow-up test in 200, the effect of baseline smoking status on mortality and the quality of life in old age remained strong.”
So smokers why not take a cue from the results of the survey and say goodbye to the cigarette at the earliest and live a better, longer life?
