ECSTASY- ALTERED - PROBABLE NEW DRUG FOR LEUKAEMIA!!!

Altering the chemistry of recreational drug ‘ecstasy’ could help kill certain types of blood cancers, suggests new research.

Ecstasy or Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) was discovered in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a ‘party drug’ because it could induce euphoria.

Matthew Piggott, associate professor at the University of Western Australia, says while researching the use of MDMA in Parkinson’s disease, they came across a paper suggesting that it may also be potent against blood cancer.

So they collaborated with John Gordon, professor at the University of Birmingham, to increase the toxicity of the drug toward blood cancer cell lines, according to a Western Australia statement.

Now, Piggott says MDMA’s structure can be “tinkered with” to create MDMA analogues (compounds structurally similar to MDMA) that could have improved therapeutic properties.

“Professor Gordon found MDMA to be weakly toxic to certain types of blood cancer cell lines, so he presented the idea of ‘redesigning the designer drug,’” he says.

“We contacted him and he was very keen to test our analogues — initially created for Parkinson’s disease treatment research — on his cell lines.

“Initially six compounds were screened but most were not very active. However, there was one that was 10 times more potent, and this became the basis for the next batch of analogues,” says Piggott.

“We are currently at the process of making analogues of the best ‘lead’ compound we have discovered so far — which is 100—fold more potent.”

Piggott says the compounds are being evaluated using in vitro cell lines, but the next step would be testing them in an animal model of blood cancer.

FRUIT PILL THAT PREVENTS GREY HAIR !!!

Grey hair could soon be a passe, thanks to scientists who claim to have created a pill from a fruit extract...

After more than a decade of trials, the daily drug -- developed by a team at global cosmetics giant L’Oreal -- is expected to go on sale within four years, a newspaper reported.

L’Oreal hopes it will lead it to victory in the race for the world’s eight billion pounds hair colour market, in which both sexes reach for bottles of dye.

Bruno Bernard, head of hair biology at the company, said: “We think it will have a market among men as well as women. We intend people to take it in the same way as a dietary supplement. It won’t be expensive.”

The drug uses a compound from an unidentified fruit that mimics tyrosinase-related protein 2, an enzyme that protects pigmentation production; it aims to prevent a process called oxidative stress, when hair cells succumb to harmful anti-oxidants and go grey, say the scientists.

Bernard added: “Ideally you would take it for your whole life but realistically we would encourage people to start using it before their hair goes grey because we don’t think it can reverse the process once it has started.”

Hundreds of volunteers have been helping to test the safety of the pill. But, the team says it will only be able to demonstrate its true effectiveness after it has been on the market for at least a decade.

The formula is expected to be unveiled at a science conference in May 2013 but it is already sparking interest among experts. 

JOKES !!

Old Dr. Carver still made house calls. One afternoon he was called to the Tuttle house. Mrs. Tuttle was in terrible pain. The doctor came out of the bedroom a minute after he'd gone in and asked Mr. Tuttle, "Do you have a hammer?" A puzzled Mr. Tuttle went to the garage, and returned with a hammer. The doctor thanked him and went back into the bedroom. A moment later, he came out and asked, "Do you have a chisel?" Mr. Tuttle complied with the request. In the next ten minutes, Dr. Carver asked for and received a pair of pliers a screwdriver and a hacksaw. The last request got to Mr. Tuttle. He asked, "What are you doing to my wife?" "Not a thing," replied old doc Carver. "I can't get my instrument bag open."

Plan to fortify milk, oil with vitamin D under consideration!!!!

The National Institute of Nutrition is considering a proposal to fortify milk and oil with vitamin D, its Director B. Sesisekaran said here on Monday.

Dr. Sesisekaran was concerned about the huge burden of Vitamin D deficiency in the country, despite the abundance of sunshine in most parts. It would be easy to fortify substances rich in fat, oil and milk, with Vitamin D so that an extra dose of the vitamin can be consumed easily.

Earlier, vanaspati used to be fortified with Vitamin D, but its consumption had dropped over the years. He also pointed out that the flip side of it was that there was very little milk consumption in rural areas; as far as oil goes, the recommendation is to lower the quantity of oil consumed.

Speaking at a national conference on ‘Nutrition in Metabolic Disorders,' organised jointly by Women's Christian College and Nestle Nutrition Institute, Dr. Sesisekaran said there was a powerful interplay between nutrition and metabolic alterations that lead to metabolic disorders.

Metabolic disorders may be inborn or inherited and include disorders such as diabetes, cardio vascular disease, thyroid dysfunction and metabolic bone diseases. A large proportion of metabolic disorders go largely undetected due to lack of awareness.

D. Prabhakaran, Executive Director, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Initiative for Cardiovascular Health Research in the Developing Countries, New Delhi, said unlike in developed countries, endocrine and metabolic disorders were predominantly caused by environmental factors in India. Metabolic disorders have been found to have a disproportionately high prevalence in the Indian population.

Finding a proper diet based on healthy foods is, hence, imperative, he added. 

JOKES !!

An elderly man complains to his wife about feeling a little worse for wear and after a lot of persuasion agrees to go and see a doctor. The doctor checks him out and asks the man to return a few days later for the results. The doctor turns to the patient and says, "I have some good news and some bad news for you. The bad news is that you have terminal cancer, polio and have tested HIV+. But the good news is you also have Alzheimers disease so in about 10 seconds you'll have completely forgotten about it." "Ooh good" said the patient. "What was the bad news then?"

TEENAGERS WITH SLEEP DEPRIVATION - MAY RISK PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE!!!!

A new study has claimed sleep deficiency could affect their brains later in life.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have carried out the study and found that sleep-deprived teenagers are at risk of long-term damage to wiring of their brains, the ’Daily Mail’ reported.

They found that short-term sleep restriction prevents the balanced growth and depletion of brain synapses, which are the connections between nerve cells where communication occurs.

“One possible implication of our study is that if you lose too much sleep during adolescence, especially chronically, there may be lasting consequences in terms of the wiring of the brain,” said lead researcher Dr Chiara Cirelli.

Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia tend to start during adolescence but the exact reasons remain unclear, say the researchers.

“Adolescence is a sensitive period of development during which the brain changes dramatically. There is a massive remodelling of nerve circuits, with many new synapses formed and then eliminated,” she said.

For their study, the researchers analysed the brains of mice. They wanted to see how alterations to the sleep-wake cycle affected the anatomy of the developing adolescent brain in the animals.

Using a two-photon microscope, the researchers indirectly followed the growth and retraction of synapses by counting dendritic spines, the elongated structures that contain synapses and thus allow brain cells to receive impulses from other brain cells.

They compared adolescent mice that for eight to 10 hours were spontaneously awake, allowed to sleep or forced to stay awake. The live images showed that being asleep or awake made a difference in the dynamic adolescent mouse brain - the overall density of dendritic spines fell during sleep and rose during spontaneous or forced wakefulness.

“These results using acute manipulations of just eight to 10 hours show that the time spent asleep or awake affects how many synapses are being formed or removed in the adolescent brain,” Prof Cirelli said.

She added: “The important next question is what happens with chronic sleep restriction, a condition that many adolescents are often experiencing. It could be that the changes are benign, temporary and reversible or there could be lasting consequences for brain maturation and functioning.”  

Cell Phone use can cause brain cancer : WHO says

May 31, 2011 — The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer. According to the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), radiofrequency electromagnetic fields have been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans (group 2B) on the basis of an increased risk for glioma that some studies have associated with the use of wireless phones.

Tai Chi Beats Back Depression in the Elderly, Study Shows

 The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country -- six times the national rate.

And we're not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple.

So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals?

Researchers at UCLA turned to a gentle, Westernized version of tai chi chih, a 2,000-year-old Chinese martial art. When they combined a weekly tai chi exercise class with a standard depression treatment for a group of depressed elderly adults, they found greater improvement in the level of depression -- along with improved quality of life, better memory and cognition, and more overall energy -- than among a different group in which the standard treatment was paired with a weekly health education class.

The results of the study appear in the current online edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

"This is the first study to demonstrate the benefits of tai chi in the management of late-life depression, and we were encouraged by the results," said first author Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a UCLA professor-in-residence of psychiatry. "We know that nearly two-thirds of elderly patients who seek treatment for their depression fail to achieve relief with a prescribed medication."

Excessive Swimming Causes Cancer !!!!

Excessive swimming or taking long baths in chlorinated water may increasethe riskof developing bladder cancer , a new study has claimed .

A team of Spanish scientists found that cancer-causing chemicals called trihalomethanes (THM), which are created as a byproduct of chlorinating water , can be absorbed through the skin . And people who regularly swim in chlorinated pools or take lots of showers or long baths are actually absorbing too much THM, putting themselves at risk of developing cancer , the Daily Mail reported .

For their study , the researchers examined 1,270 people and found those, who drank more bottled water to avoid the health risks posed by drinking tap water , actually lose the beneficial effects by swimming more and taking more showers . "People with more money and more education may think that they're reducing their risk of exposure to water contaminants by drinking bottledwater ," saidGemma Castaqo-Vinyals from the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Castilla La Mancha , Spain .

"However , despite being apparently cleaner andtaking more exercise , a result of taking more frequent and longer baths , and using swimming pools more often — they are actually increasing their risk of THM exposure ."

However Castaqo-Vinyals added that the additional risk of developing bladder cancer through the water contaminants was "small" . The new findings were reported in the online journal BioMed Central .

While it is true that chlorine water can be used to make water safe because it kills bacteria , it can also be dangerous . Water treatment plants use chlorine to kill bacteria , as well as algae that can clog up the pipes . However , it is used not because it is the most effectivesolution ,butbecauseitis the cheapest . It is also widely used by industry as a bleaching agent , which means that there is bleach in the water that comes out of the tap to be drunk or used in swimming pools . And chlorinated water does not have to be drunk in order to enter the body . It can be readily absorbedby theskin while swimming . Although chlorine is great for killing bacteria , it cannot differentiate between good bacteria and bad ones .

JOKE !!!!

A motorcycle patrolman was rushed to the hospital with an inflamed appendix. The doctors operated and advised him that all was well. However, the patrolman kept feeling something pulling at the hairs on his chest. Worried that it might be a second surgery the doctors hadn't told him about, he finally got enough energy to pull his hospital gown down enough so he could look at what was making him so uncomfortable.

Taped firmly across his hairy chest were three wide strips of adhesive tape, the kind that doesn't come off easily. Written in large black letters was the sentence.


"Get well quick..... from the nurse you gave a ticket to last week."

ZINC FOR COLD !!!!

According to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library, zinc supplements reduce the severity and duration of illness caused by the common cold.

The findings could help reduce the amount of time lost from work and school due to colds.

The common cold places a heavy burden on society, accounting for approximately 40 per cent of time taken off work and millions of days of school missed by children each year.

The idea that zinc might be effective against the common cold came from a study carried out in 1984, which showed that zinc lozenges could reduce how long symptoms lasted. Since then, trials have produced conflicting results and although several biological explanations for the effect have been proposed, none have been confirmed.

The review updates a previous Cochrane Systematic Review, carried out in 1999, with data from several new trials. In total, data from 15 trials, involving 1,360 people, were included.

According to the results, zinc syrup, lozenges or tablets taken within a day of the onset of cold symptoms reduce the severity and length of illness.

At seven days, more of the patients who took zinc had cleared their symptoms compared with those who took placebos. Children who took zinc syrup or lozenges for five months or longer caught fewer colds and took less time off school. Zinc also reduced antibiotic use in children, which is important because overuse has implications for antibiotic resistance.

“This review strengthens the evidence for zinc as a treatment for the common cold,” said lead researcher Meenu Singh of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India.

“However, at the moment, it is still difficult to make a general recommendation, because we do not know very much about the optimum dose, formulation or length of treatment.”

Further research should focus on the benefits of zinc in defined populations, the review suggests. “Our review only looked at zinc supplementation in healthy people,” said Singh.

“But it would be interesting to find out whether zinc supplementation could help asthmatics, whose asthma symptoms tend to get worse when they catch a cold.”

Extra Inches Around the Waist Increase Death Risk

Older adults who are carrying extra inches around the waist are at an increased risk of dying compared to people with normal waist size, according to a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Men and women with the biggest waist circumference had twice the risk of dying over a ten-year period compared with people with the smallest tummies. Surprisingly, a bigger waist is associated with a greater risk of death even for people whose weight is considered normal when measured by body mass index (BMI).

It’s estimated that more than half of older men and more than 70% of older women have a waist size that is bigger than recommended. In fact, the average waist line in the U.S. has been increasing by about one inch per decade since the 1960s. Other research has linked waist size to asthma, breast cancer, heart disease, and even dementia. One explanation for this may be that belly fat secretes proteins and hormones that contribute to inflammation.

For people who are looking for ways to trim their waist lines, eating fewer calories and increasing physical activity are the keys to getting rid of belly fat.
Reference: Arch Intern Med 2010; 170(15): 1293-1301

Diet Soda May Prevent Some Kidney Stones

Kidney stones from when the urine contains more crystal-forming substances, such as calcium, uric acid, and oxalate, than the body can dilute with the available fluid. Most kidney stones contain a combination of calcium and oxalate. According to new research published in the June issue of the Journal of Urology, drinking diet soda may present the most common type of kidney stones.




Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco and their colleagues conducted a study to determine whether any commercially available drinks could help to prevent kidney stones. They found that diet versions of citrus-flavored sodas contain relatively high amounts of citrate, a compound which is known to inhibit the formation of calcium oxalate kidney stones. Some people are at a higher risk for kidney stones because their urine contains low levels of citrate, so these sodas might serve as a form of citrate supplementation Although dark colas have little or no citrate, citrus-flavored sodas such as Diet Sunkist Orange, Diet 7Up, Sprite Zero, Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Sierra Mist Free, Diet Orange Crush, Fresca, and Diet Mountain Dew, contain moderate amounts of citrate.

Potassium citrate supplements have long been used as a treatment for preventing calcium oxalate kidney stones. Based on this new research, citrus-flavored sodas might be useful in preventing kidney stones among people with low urinary levels of citrate, as well. However, further research is needed to determine whether drinking these sodas actually prevents formation of kidney stones, so it is still too early to advise those who suffer from kidney stones to drink these sodas as a form of preventive treatment.

Source:

Journal of Urology. 2010; 183(6): 2419-2423.

DENGUE VACCINE...

Thai scientists have successfully produced the world's first dengue hemorrhagic fever vaccine and will let the private sector improve it for the effective treatment of patients.

The Thailand Ministry of Science and Technology has introduced the world's first live attenuated dengue hemorrhagic fever vaccine developed by Thailand researchers.

Thai Science and Technology Minister Virachai Virameteekul said that the number of dengue hemorrhagic fever patients in Thailand has risen, exceeding 100,000 last year and adding some 1,200 cases in January 2011.

Dr Suthee Yoksarn, a lecturer of Mahidol University, together with his team and Chiang Mai University have jointly developed four stereotypes of the live attenuated vaccine.

This was achieved by combining attenuated DNA with a protein structure that stimulates immunity against the dengue hemorrhagic fever — caused by the present strain of the dengue virus.

The newly developed vaccine is expected to better protect people from the dengue hemorrhagic fever.

The Real Scorpion King -An Indian who revolutionized the treatment for Scorpion Sting

Scorpion stings are a major public health problem in many  tropical countries, especially Sahelian Africa, South India, the Middle East, Mexico, and South Latin America. The estimated annual number of scorpion stings is 1.2 million ( there could be million more unrecorded data ) .

Scorpion Sting leads to sudden heart failure and accumulation of fluids in the lungs which leads to death . The traditional treatment used to be Lytic cocktail ( Nothing to do with the cocktail that one drinks in the bar ! ) Lytic cocktail consists of drugs like pethidine , chlorpromazine , promethazine .

The traditional treatment did cost alot of patient"s life . One study done in Western India highlight's this issue . About 30 % of patients eventually died (i.e almost 1 out of 3 patients died !! ) . This was a major concern among paediatricians , emergency physicians ,  general physicians and offcourse for the parents ( children being the most common victims ) !! .

Dr.H.S.Bawasker , revolutionized the treatment for scorpion sting in 1999. With his discovery he brought down the death rate from 30 % to less than 1 % .

He discovered that the use of tablet Prazosin did the magic . Prazosin counteracted the heart failure and the accumulation of fluids in lungs thereby saving the victim . Hats off to him  . He soon shot to fame with his discovery among doctors around the world .  His article was published in all the prestigious medical journals . British medical journal appreciated his article by publishing in the front cover !!

Click here to read the article

WILMA RUDOLPH- AN INSPIRATION TO ALL!!!

When Wilma Rudolph was four years old, she had a disease called polio. To make matters worse, her family was poor and could not afford good medical care. She was from a large family. She was the 20th child of 22 children. Her father was a railroad porter and her mother was a maid.

Her mother decided she would do everything she could to help Wilma to walk again. The doctors had said she would not be able to walk. She took her every week on a long bus trip to a hospital to receive therapy. It didn't help, but the doctors said she needed to give Wilma a massage every day by rubbing her legs. She taught the brothers and sisters how to do it, and they also rubbed her legs four times a day.

By the time she was 8, she could walk with a leg brace. After that, she used a high-topped shoe to support her foot. She played basketball with her brothers every day.

Three years later, her mother came home to find her playing basketball by herself bare-footed. She didn't even have to use the special shoe.

A track coach encouraged her to start running. She ran so well that during her senior year in high school, she qualified for the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. She won a bronze medal in the women's 400-meter relay.

In 1959, she qualified for the 1960 Olympic Games * in Rome by setting a world's record in the 200-meter race. At the Olympics that year she won two gold medals; one for the 100-meter race and one for the 200-meter race.

Then she sprained her ankle, but she ignored the pain and helped her team to win another gold medal for the 400-meter relay! In the picture above you see the three gold medals she won at the Rome Olympics.

She retired from running when she was 22 years old, but she went on to coach women's track teams and encourage young people.

Wilma thought God had a greater purpose for her than to win three gold medals. She started the Wilma Rudolph Foundation to help children learn about discipline and hard work.

She died of brain cancer in 1994. Even though she is no longer alive, her influence still lives on in the lives of many young people who look up to her.

BOOSTING IMMUNITY - KEY TO HIV CURE !!!

Scientists in Australia have shown that boosting the immune system in mice can rid them of HIV-like infection.

The research team, led by Dr Marc Pellegrini from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, showed that a cell signaling hormone called interleukin-7 (IL-7) reinvigorates the immune response to chronic viral infection, allowing the host to completely clear virus.

Pellegrini said the finding could lead to a cure for chronic viral infections such as HIV, hepatitis B and C, and bacterial infections such as tuberculosis, which are significant economic and global health burdens.

The team investigated the role of IL-7, a naturally-occurring immune hormone, in a mouse model of HIV infection. IL-7 is a cytokine (cell signalling hormone) that plays a critical role in immune system development and maintenance.

"We found that IL-7 boosted the immune response in a pretty profound fashion, such that animals were able to gradually clear the virus without too much collateral tissue damage," Pellegrini said.

Further investigations revealed that, at the molecular level, IL-7 switched off a gene called SOCS-3.

"In an overwhelming infection, SOCS-3 becomes highly activated and suppresses the immune response, probably as a natural precaution to prevent 'out-of-control' responses that cause collateral damage to body tissue," Pellegrini said.
"In the case of these overwhelming infections, the immune system effectively slams on the brakes too early, and the infection persists," Pellegrini added.

Preston, who worked on the SOCS-3 studies, said that switching off the SOCS-3 gene boosted the immune system and helped the animals to completely eliminate the infection.

Ben stiller and BPD !!!!

Bipolar disorder affects one out of every 83 individuals in the United States. Considered a neurological mood disorder, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are often debilitating and can often lead to an impairment in daily living activities, affect familial relationships and job performance and even impair the bipolar sufferer to such an extent that physical health is affected. However, in some cases of bipolar disorder, the outcome may be positive and lead to such a degree of creativity so as to allow the individual to make a significant impact on the world around them. Bipolar disorder crosses all genders, races, creeds and colors with examples of individuals who made an impact on society through the exhibition of their bipolar symptoms. One such well known actor is Ben Stiller  Born in 1965, son of the famous comic duo of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, is best known for his role in the hit films "There's Something About Mary","Meet the Fockers" and "Along Came Polly". ,. In August of 2001 he was quoted by a Hollywood.com writer as saying to GQ, "I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it's called bipolar manic depression. I've got a rich history of that in my family. I'm not proud of the fact that I lost my temper. Sometimes you just [expletive] up." The quote resulted from incidents occurring on the set of Zoolander, a movie he co-wrote, starred in and directed.

Both Ben Stiller's parents have spoken about their therapy for depression, though neither mentioned manic-depression in sources found. However, possible signs of bipolar disorder do exist in his mother's history: Anne Meara's mother committed suicide when Anne was 11, and Meara also admits to problem drinking in the past. She entered therapy in about 1989, and continued at least until 1995.

Stiller's famous parents helped him get a start in show business. He began acting at 10 but had few film and TV roles until the late 1980s. In 1993 his short-lived television series, The Ben Stiller Show, won an Emmy Award for outstanding writing in a variety or music program in spite of having run for only 12 episodes before being cancelled.
His other acting, directing and writing credits are too numerous to mention. In 2000 he married actress Christine Taylor; they have a daughter, Ella Olivia, who was born in August of 2002.



 

Folic acid, aspirin n heart attack....

Taking folic acid, a B vitamin, lowers homocysteine in the blood which, epidemiological evidence indicates, should lower the risk of heart attack, but clinical trials of folic acid have not shown the expected benefit.... WHY???

This perplexing medical paradox now has an explanation according to research undertaken at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

The explanation is surprisingly simple; lowering homocysteine prevents platelets sticking, which stops blood clots...something aspirin also does, so if people in the trials were already taking aspirin there would be no extra benefit in lowering homocysteine with folic acid. Aspirin was in fact widely used by participants in the trials because they were mainly conducted in patients who had already had a heart attack or other cardiovascular diseases.

Research led by Dr David Wald showed that there was a difference in the reduction in heart disease events between the five trials with the lowest aspirin use (60 per cent of the participants took aspirin) and the five trials with the highest use (91 per cent took aspirin). The observed risk reduction was six per cent but it would have been 15 per cent if no one had been taking aspirin.

"The explanation has important implications," said Dr David Wald, the lead author of the paper. "The negative clinical trial evidence should not close the door on folic acid - folic acid may still be of benefit in people who have not had a heart attack because they will generally not be taking aspirin".

THE EYES SAY IT ALL !!!

A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that a face has to be quite similar to a human face in order to appear alive, and that the cues are mainly in the eyes.

The face of a doll is clearly not human; the face of a human clearly is. Telling the difference allows us to pay attention to faces that belong to living things, which are capable of interacting with us. But where is the line at which a face appears to be alive?

Several movies have tried and failed to generate lifelike animations of humans. For example, the lifeless faces in Polar Express made people uncomfortable because they tried to emulate life but didn't get it quite right.

“There's something fundamentally important about seeing a face and knowing that the lights are on and someone is home,” says Thalia Wheatley of Dartmouth College, who cowrote the study with graduate student Christine Looser. Humans can see faces in anything — the moon, a piece of toast, two dots and a line for a nose — but we are much more discriminating when it comes to deciding what is alive and what is not.

Wheatley and Looser set out to pin down the point at which a face starts to look alive. Looser drove around New Hampshire visiting toy stores and taking pictures of dolls' faces. Looser then paired each doll face with a similar-looking human face and used morphing software to blend the two. This made a whole continuum of intermediate pictures that were part human, part doll.

Volunteers looked at each picture and decided which were human and which were dolls. Looser and Wheatley found that the tipping point, where people determined the faces to be alive, was about two-thirds of the way along the continuum, closer to the human side than to the doll side. Another experiment found that the eyes were the most important feature for determining life, according to an Association for Psychological Science press release.

The results suggest that people scrutinize faces, particularly the eyes, for evidence that a face is alive

The doctor's fees !!!

Working as a doctor in the community, u get used to recieving all sorts of  'fees' for ur services, be it a bunch of  fresh drumsticks or a big carton of  mangoes or the 4 members of the fowl family that run around in the backyard of my home, taunting my dog with their constant clucking and waking me up at 4am by being my live alarm. i soon learnt that it is a lot easier to accept these strange and unique gifts that are bestowed to you than to refuse and have to explain your reasons to all 100 villagers time and again, like why i refused to accept the cow that Mani so sweetly gave me in gratitude for having delivered his first baby boy after four girls, like it was the hands conducting the delivary  that determined the child's sex...

But of all the different 'fees' that iv been offered the one that struck the deepest cord in my heart was a couple of years ago...i was 24, for the first time i was in charge of the antenatal ward in my community hospital when a lady nearly at term walked into hospital.. barely 21 yrs old, this was her 3rd pregnancy and she seemed more anxious and worried than even a primi, she was constantly surrounded by relatives yaking nonstop while she barely muttered a word. Between my  patient load n her relatives,though i really wanted to speak to her and comfort her, i never managed to get beyond saying her baby was fine after a routinue  check up everyday at morning rounds.

It was december 20th.. a dark, cold friday morning, low lying fog surrounded us as she went into labour.. The mother had some bleeding and the baby's heart rate was dropping, we were all worried about the situation but after some struggle and an assisted delivary, a beautiful baby was born, loudly protesting at the uncermoniuos way that we had welcomed her into the world..

After ensuring that the mother n child were doing fine, I handed the baby over to the nurse instructing her to initiate feeding and left..

That evening when i met the new mother i was surprised to see her quite low..I asked her what they had named the little darling, for which one of the relatives rather disinterestedly informed me, that they hadn't decided yet  and asked if i could suggest one.. I named the little one 'lakshmi' explainig to the family that since she was born on a friday she would bring properity to the house..

The next day, i found the mother weeping her head off, my first instinct was to check to make sure the baby was ok and i was happy to find her peacefully asleep.. For the first time since her arrival, there was no relatives surrounding her and i slowly asked her what the problem was.. In response all i got was another fresh burst of tears.. Nothing i seemed to say or do seemed to help, finally after about an hour i left making a mental note to myself to call one of my psych friends and gather info on post partum depression and if it could present like this.

The situation din't improve over the next few days, till i finally told the nurse to inform me the minute any of her relatives turn up as i had to speak to them urgently..
Around noon i walked into the ward where the young lady sat with a women who from the family resemblance i infered to be her mother. I asked to have a word privately with the older women, and that is how i came to realize the issue.. it was a GIRL.."It's her third girl child" said the grandmother, "her in-laws are not happy about it, they are still deciding weather to take her home or not "..
"Doctor can you please take this child, vl just pretend it was never born, anyways if it grows up with u, it l have a good life.. let it be ur fees"

I had heard of people having such notions but had never really seen it, my idea of discrimination was at the level of how can you let him travel alone but not me simply cause im a girl, that in itself was way too much discrimination for me to accept.. I was shocked, dumbstuck.. 

I heard myself saying "Im a girl, im a doctor, i earn as much as any guy, i support my parents, wat makes you think its bad to be a girl" I knew they weren't saying anything against me, but instinctively i felt it sting like a personal insult.. So many years after independance, education, fight for equality... my glass house was shattered, i realized how much improvement  my country needed, how much the mindset of people had to change..

I did all i could for that little girl, i called in the husband and in-laws and spoke to them,counseled them for days.. I don't know what happened to that family after they left the hospital... I would like to believe that i changed the mindset of  atleast one of the million families, atleast for the sake of little Lakshmi...

ROBERT LEWIS STEVENSON AND TUBERCULOSIS!!!

Stevenson was born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850, to Thomas Stevenson,a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, the former Margaret Isabella Balfour. Both his grandpa and his mother had a "weak chest" and often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp and chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1853. The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was eleven. Illness would be a recurrent feature of his adult life and left him extraordinarily thin.Contemporary views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it was bronchiectasis or even sarcoidosis.
His nurse, Alison Cunningham cared for him tenderly in illness, reading to him from Bunyan and the Bible as he lay sick in bed and telling tales of the Covenanters. Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in the poem "The Land of Counterpane" in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) and dedicated the book to his nurse.
An only child, strange-looking and eccentric, Stevenson found it hard to fit in when he was sent to a nearby school at age six, a problem repeated at age eleven when he went on to the Edinburgh Academy;
In any case, his frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school, and he was taught for long stretches by private tutors. He was a late reader, first learning at age seven or eight, but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse.Throughout his childhood, he was compulsively writing stories. His father was proud of this interest: He had himself written stories in his spare time until his own father found them and told him to "give up such nonsense and mind your business." He paid for the printing of Robert's first publication at sixteen, an account of the covenanters' rebellion published on its two hundredth anniversary, The Pentland Rising: a Page of History, 1666 (1866).In November 1867 he entered the University of Edinburgh to study engineering. He showed from the start no enthusiasm for his studies and devoted much energy to avoiding lectures.

Each year during vacations, Stevenson travelled to inspect the family's engineering works—to Anstruther and Wick in 1868, with his father on his official tour of Orkney and Shetland islands lighthouses in 1869, and for three weeks to the island of Erraid in 1870. He enjoyed the travels, but more for the material they gave for his writing than for any engineering interest. The voyage with his father pleased him because a similar journey of Walter Scott with Robert Stevenson had provided the inspiration for The Pirate. In April 1871, he announced to his father his decision to pursue a life of letters. Though the elder Stevenson was naturally disappointed, the surprise cannot have been great, and Stevenson's mother reported that he was "wonderfully resigned" to his son's choice. To provide some security, it was agreed that Stevenson should read law (again at Edinburgh University) and be called to the Scottish bar.
He died within a few hours, probably of a cerebral haemorrhage, at the age of 44.

DENTURES / FALSE TEETH.. who inveted it ???

Since antiquity, the most common material for false teeth was animal bone or ivory, especially from elephants or hippopotami. Human teeth were also used, pulled from the dead or sold by poor people from their own mouths. These kinds of false teeth soon rotted, turning brown and rancid. Rich people preferred teeth of silver, gold, mother of pearl, or agate.

Etruscans (people from the ancient country of Etruria in western Italy) made skillfully designed false teeth out of ivory and bone. These false teeth were secured in the mouth by gold bridgework as early as 700 B.C. Unfortunately, the skills and artistry that went into these efforts were lost until the 1800s.

In medieval times, the practice of dentistry was largely confined to tooth extraction. Replacement and repair were seldom considered. Gaps between teeth were expected, even among the rich and powerful. Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) filled the holes in her mouth with cloth to improve her appearance in public.

When hand-carved false teeth were installed, they were tied in place with silk threads. If not enough natural teeth remained to tie the dentures to, anchoring false ones was difficult.

In 1774 the French pharmacist Duchateau enlisted the help of the prominent dentist Dubois de Chemant to design hard-baked, rot-proof porcelain (a hard, white ceramic) dentures. De Chemant patented his improved version of these "Mineral Paste Teeth" in 1789 and took them with him when he emigrated to England shortly afterward. The single porcelain tooth held in place by an imbedded platinum pin was invented in 1808 by the Italian dentist Giuseppangelo Fonzi. Inspired by his dis-like of handling dead people's teeth, Claudius Ash of London, England, invented an improved porcelain tooth around 1837.

The real breakthrough in dentures came with the American inventor Charles Goodyear's (1800- 1860) discovery of vulcanized rubber in 1839. This cheap, easy-to-work material could be molded to fit the mouth and made a good base to hold false teeth.

Porcelain is no longer used because better materials have been developed. Today, dentures are made from either plastic or ceramic. These materials can be tinted to match existing teeth and look more like real teeth than ever before!!!!!




 

Diabetologist after M.B.B.S.., in INDIA ?

India is now the diabetic capital of the world, and a sound knowlegde about management of diabetes is a must for all doctors.. An essential field with bright future prospects..

We are putting up some information regarding colleges that provide courses after mbbs.. hope u find it useful..

kindly share any other information you may have regarding the same..

ESTROGEN AND ALZHEIMER'S...

An influential article in the journal Progress in Neurobiology provided one of the first comprehensive reviews of how estrogen potentially can protect against Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders.

The article by senior author Lydia DonCarlos, PhD and colleagues detailed how estrogen "decreases the risk and delays the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, and may also enhance recovery from traumatic neurological injury such as stroke."

Estrogen can protect against dementia and other neurological disorders by decreasing inflammatory responses and by enhancing cells' ability to survive damage. "It's a natural way for the brain to protect itself, since the brain normally makes neuroprotective estrodial in response to injury," DonCarlos said.

But there also are risks. The Women's Health Initiative found that taking estrogen plus progestin increased women's risks of heart disease, blood clots, stroke and breast cancer.

Estrogen hormone therapy in some circumstances may help protect the brains of postmenopausal women from decline, although findings have been inconsistent and controversial. But further studies have suggested that the time in a woman’s life at which the therapy is applied may be critical. Based on the results of a number of studies, several researchers have postulated that hormone therapy during a critical midlife period or “window of opportunity” in a woman’s life could provide protection.

Most studies suggest that estrogen has beneficial effects on cognitive function, DonCarlos added. "But we still have a lot of research to do before recommending the use of estrogens in the clinic for this purpose."

BABY AFTER FULL OVARY TRANSPLANT !!!

On Dec. 10, a baby girl was born from the first-ever full ovary transplant.

The baby's mother had lost her fertility when she went into early menopause at age 15 because of another medical problem. Later in life her twin sister (the baby's aunt) donated a working ovary so that she may conceive. At age 38, she gave birth for the first time.

Dr. Sherman Silber of the Infertility Center of St. Louis and his colleagues reported the medical advance.

A handful of other children have been born from transplanted ovarian tissue, specifically the outer shell, but the technique is not always successful.

Since the baby's successful birth, doctors are anticipating using the technique to help women with fertility problems, or cancer patients who wish to protect their ovaries from chemotherapy.

Silber told Reuters that the technique of transplanting frozen ovaries may one day be used to lengthen a woman's fertility across her lifetime.

"If she's 40 or 45 when she has it transplanted back, it's still a 25- or 30-year-old ovary, so she's preserving her fertility," Silber told Reuters.

DOG BITE - FIRST AID

The aim of First Aid in a case of dog bite is:
- to prevent rabies
- to reduce the risk of infection
- to get medical aid as soon as possible.

Management

-Wipe the saliva away from the wound using a clean cloth or handkerchief. Do not come into contact with the saliva that gets wiped away.

-Wash the wound thoroughly with plenty of soap and water.

- Do not put carbolic acid, nitric acid etc. on the wound.

-Get medical aid or send the patient to the hospital as soon as possible.

For informational purpose only, for further advice contact qualified physician

SWEARING AND PAIN TOLERANCE

Have you ever stubbed your toe or bumped your head and immediately yelled out a swear word? Researchers now say that pain can be more tolerable if you simply utter a curse word of your choice.

While many of us swear while experiencing pain, there hasn’t been any research connecting cuss words and pain.

“Swearing has been around for centuries and is an almost universal human linguistic phenomenon,” said Richard Stephens of Keele University in England. “It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain.”

Researchers set out to test whether swearing affected a person’s tolerance to pain. They figured that it would lessen an individual’s pain tolerance, but found that the opposite was true.

They took sixty four undergraduates and had them submerge their hand in ice cold water for as long as they could while repeating a swear word of their choosing. The researchers then repeated the experiment with a word used to describe a table.

They found that the individuals kept their hand under the ice cold water longer when repeating a swear word. Stephens and his colleagues say that swearing might raise aggression and that it could downplay weaknesses.

“Our research shows one potential reason why swearing developed and why it persists,” Stephens said.

This study was published in the August 5 issue of NeuroReport