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| HEALTH & FITNESS |
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In
menopausal zone: bulging tummies and broken backs eYESIGHT Snusing: the new
way to give up smoking Six types of
breast cancer identified
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In
menopausal zone: bulging tummies and broken backs So, they have the new-found freedom to spend their time in resting in the bed before the TV, partying or attending kitty parties but remaining oblivious of their physical looks. This not only brings ugly looks but also health risks. You have to be doubly careful about your food intake and exercise programme. Partially hydrogenated vegetable fat is a disease-promoting artificial fat used primarily in fast foods and other commercially manufactured fried and baked foods. The trans fats in this synthetic ingredient inflame the arteries and accelerate heart disease. The average per capita intake of even 5 g per day increases the risk of heart disease by approximately 25 per cent. India needs to ban these harmful trans fats. Denmark banned these commercial fats in 2004 with no adverse effect on taste, including fast food and even their famous Danish pastries. Unimaginative intake of fats and junk foods not only adds layers on your tummy, but also the bulging tummy drags on your back and makes it more prone to degeneration. Calcium and vitamin D are important: It is a well known that most menopausal women are deficient in the intake of calcium in their diets and that there is erosion of their bones, especially the spinal bones, due to hormonal imbalance. Calcium, an essential nutrient for the human body, has received substantial attention regarding its role in osteoporosis and several other chronic diseases. The target calcium intake for most postmenopausal women is 1200 mg/day, according to the North American Menopause Society's (NAMS). "Adequate calcium is considered a key component of any bone-protective therapeutic regimen," the NAMS guidelines note. "Calcium has also been associated with beneficial effects in several non-skeletal disorders, primarily hypertension, colorectal cancer, obesity and nephro-lithiasis." In the presence of adequate vitamin D status, adequate calcium intake has been shown to reduce bone loss in primenopausal and postmenopausal women and to reduce fractures in postmenopausal women older than 60 years with low calcium intakes. Some cases of broken back may require surgical fixing: If preventive measures like regular exercises, flattened tummy and adequate intake of calcium are not taken the bones become weak and may easily crumble. In a study, patients with herniated disks of spinal column had improved outcomes during two years whether treated surgically or non-surgically, according to the results of a randomised trial. Not all cases will require surgical intervention. Thus, the women in the menopausal zone require constant supervision by an experienced gynaecologist. The
writer is a senior gynaecologist and author of a book, “Better
health after menopause”.
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eYESIGHT “VISION 2020: The Right to Sight” is a global initiative for
the elimination of avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020. It
is coordinated jointly by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the
International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and has an
international membership of NGOs, professional associations, eye care
institutions and corporations.
About 37 million people worldwide are blind and 124 million people
have poor vision. Another 150 million people are visually impaired due
to uncorrected refractive errors.
Three quarters of cases of blindness are treatable or preventable.
However, without proper interventions the number of people who are
blind is likely to increase to 75 million by 2020 as per the WHO.
World Sight Day provides a platform for organisations to actively
support global blindness prevention efforts. Events are organised
worldwide by VISION 2020 member and supporter organisations.
The events on World Sight Day highlight importance of good vision,
increase the awareness about eye problems and ways to manage them.
All of us should be aware of the following:
Healthy eyes to have good sight are important. It is important for
everyone to have regular eye examinations done. How frequently one
should have a routine eye check-up depends on the age and general
health. The people with the family history of eye problems and already
diagnosed or treated for any eye condition should get their eyes
check-up at a regular interval as specified by their eye specialist.
Children should be examined before they enter the school in order
to be sure that there are no undetected vision problems that might
affect learning. The frequency of their examinations will depend on
the family history and any specific vision problems or complaints.
Certain conditions like vitamin A deficiency, if ruled out at this
stage and if treated in time, will avoid cases of corneal blindness.
Most eye diseases that cause blindness can be treated if diagnosed
early. We are aware of this, still regular eye check-up before
schooling is not a protocol.
At old age, to have good sight is still more important. One should
be aware of the age-related macular degenerations and cataract, and
that these can be managed if detected in time.
Patients with systemic illnesses like diabetes should be aware of
the eye problems associated with it and at least approach an eye
specialist in time so that the vision can be maintained well.
Healthy eyes make a person independent and an earning member of
society. It reduces the financial burden on society.
Eyes are windows to our body which make us see this world. A timely
examination by an eye specialist is essential to ensure good health of
the eyes, to see this world as beautiful as it is.
The writer is Chairman and Medical Director, Centre for
Sight, New Delhi. Email: msachdev@bol.net.in
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Snusing:
the new way to give up smoking " Hailing from Sweden, snus (it rhymes with "loose") is a
moist tobacco that comes in small brown pouches that are tucked under
the top lip to deliver a hit of nicotine orally. Its name is a Swedish
translation of "snuff", and it is developed from the
powdered tobacco of the same name that found its way up the nostrils
of all self-respecting courtiers back in the 18th century.
It is currently banned in the UK and every EU member state apart
from Sweden - which has the lowest cancer rates and fewest smokers in
Europe. But its prohibition may soon be over: public health experts
here are saying it may be a less dangerous alternative for the
heaviest smokers. Last week, in a report by the Royal College of
Physicians on how oral forms of nicotine might help to wean the most
addicted smokers off cigarettes, snus was singled out as a potentially
useful cessation aid.
"There's no question that snus is much safer than
smoking," says Professor John Britton, a lung specialist at the
University of Nottingham and the chair of the RCP's Tobacco Advisory
group, which produced the report. "If you are a smoker already,
you're much better off switching to a product like that than carrying
on smoking cigarettes."
If patches, hypnotism and Allen Carr have all failed, and an inch
of ash is dangling over this page as you read, the most pressing
question you'll want answered is: what is it like to snus?
Unlike medicinal nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) such as gum,
snus has a taste similar to cigarettes. More importantly, the
shaky-fingered, cold-sweating and sleepless would-be quitter is
assured that 20-40 minutes of snus-sucking provides a fix of nicotine
comparable to lungfuls of cigarette smoke. And at least it's an
addiction that won't get you kicked out of a restaurant.
— The Independent
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Six
types of breast cancer identified It
is the commonest cancer in Britain, affecting 41,000 women a year —
but not all breast cancers are the same. Researchers say they have
identified six types of the disease, with widely differing survival
rates. The finding could help doctors give more accurate prognoses to
patients, as well as targeting them with more specialised treatments.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham analysed 25 proteins
present in the breast tissue of cancer patients and clustered them
into groups according to how long the patients survived. They found
two of the six groups had significantly longer survival and one had
significantly shorter survival, while the remaining three fell between
these extremes.
About 80 per cent of women diagnosed with breast cancer survive at
least five years, with the best chance for those diagnosed early.
There are clearly established treatments for each of the six types,
based on hormonal therapy, treatment with the new drug Herceptin or
aggressive chemotherapy.
But these accounted for only 60 per cent of the 1,076 cases of
breast cancer analysed.
The other 40 per cent of cases could not be classified into one of
the six types and the treatment strategy in these cases was less
clear, the researchers said.
Andy Green, senior research fellow at the University of Nottingham,
who has presented the findings to the National Cancer Research
Institute’s annual conference in Birmingham, said: “We are very
excited by this research. We know breast cancers are very variable and
one of our aims is to use clinical techniques to distinguish between
them. It is the 40 per cent of breast cancers that we found to be
unclassifiable that are the problem because we don’t know what the
optimal treatment strategy is for these cancers. It is a bit hit and
miss at the moment.”
The best survival was among women with oestrogen-positive breast
cancer, which accounted for three of the six types, where up to 90 per
cent of women survived 10 years. The poorest survival was women with
HER2-positive breast cancer where 30 per cent died within four years.
Dr Green said the research was conducted before the advent of
Herceptin, the breast cancer drug targeted at HER2 positive cancers,
which was licensed and approved for use on the NHS in patients with
early breast cancer last year. “I am sure some, but not all, women
treated with Herceptin will have benefited from it,” he said.
In another study at the conference, scientists from the University
of Leicester said they had identified two genes which could cause
severe side-effects in breast cancer patients treated with
radiotherapy. Paul Symonds, who led the research published in the
British Journal of Cancer, said radiotherapy was important but could
be devastating when it went wrong. “Patients can get redness of the
skin which may peel off. Later the breast may shrink and tissues under
the skin may become hard and thickened (fibrosis). Red, widened blood
vessels can appear on the skin.”
With the discovery, it might be possible to predict which women
would react badly and offer them alternatives. About 8 per cent of
women carry the fibrosis gene and have 15 times the risk of developing
thickening of the skin which can lead to chronic pain, he said.
In other research, University of Manchester scientists said they
had identified a gene that triggers breast cancer stem cells, which
can result in recurrence. Robert Clarke said a treatment already
licensed for Alzheimer’s disease had been shown to be effective
against the gene. Forms of the
disease
— The Independent
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Most teenage
girls ‘eat too little’
The study conducted on 13-to-18-year-olds found that over 30 pct of the girls as young as 13 have been on a diet regimen and eat less that 1200 calories everyday, reports The Scotsman. Fourteen per cent of teenage boys admitted to have taken up dieting and 25 pct eat about 800 calories, the survey found. The study also found that 60 per cent of the respondents had wrong estimates of the calories an adult women and men should eat daily. — ANI Limiting refined
carbohydrates intake may help slow AMD
Washington: The progression of age-related macular
degeneration (AMD) can be slowed by eating fewer refined
carbohydrates, suggest researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University.
“Dietary changes may be the most practical and cost-effective
prevention method to combat progression of AMD,” says Dr Allen
Taylor, Director of the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research
at the USDA HNRCA.
“It is surprising there is so little attention focused on the
relationship between AMD and carbohydrates,” he added.
Statistics from the Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group show
that AMD results in partial or total blindness in seven to 15 per cent
of the elderly. — ANI Folic acid may help
reduce blood arsenic levels
Washington: Researchers at Columbia University Mailman
School of Public Health have found that blood arsenic levels can be
reduced with the help of folic acid supplements in people exposed to
the toxic element through contaminated drinking water.
Arsenic is naturally present in some aquifers used for drinking,
and it is currently a significant public health problem in at least 70
countries, including several developing countries and also parts of
the US.
Several previous studies have linked chronic arsenic exposure to
increased risk for skin, liver and bladder cancers, skin lesions,
cardiovascular disease and other adverse health outcomes. — ANI Guidelines to make
potato chips cancer risk-free
Studies show that when chipped potatoes are cooked in fat at high
temperature, acrylamide, a chemical known to cause cancer in animals,
is produced.
Now, the boffins have given guidelines that they say will make the
food far safer.
The new guidelines state that potatoes should not be stored in the
fridge, and that uncooked chips should be soaked for half an hour in
water before frying. — ANI |
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The
World
Sight Day
London
London:
British scientists have developed guidelines that will allow people to
keep hogging on deep-fried, sliced potato chips without increasing the
chances of getting cancer.