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Washington:
Use of aspirin as a painkiller is well known, and now a new research
has revealed that the drug may also protect against colon cancer recurrence
and reduces the risk of death. According to the US researchers, colon
cancer patients who took aspirin regularly fared better after surgery,
reducing their risk of disease recurrence and death by half compared
to non-users. "Our data are intriguing because they showed that aspirin
use notably reduced the risk of recurrence in patients with advanced
colon cancer, but more research is needed before any treatment recommendations
can be made about the regular use of aspirin," said Dr. Charles Fuchs
of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. During the course of
study, participants who had stage III colon cancer that had spread to
lymph nodes but not elsewhere in the body were interviewed about medication
use and lifestyle midway through their chemotherapy, and again six months
after therapy was completed. Regular aspirin use was reported by 8.9
patients in doses of 81 mg to 325 mg per day. Around 4.7 percent of
patients reported using COX-2 inhibitor anti-inflammatory agents, Celebrex
or Vioxx. It was found that regular aspirin users had a 55 percent lower
risk of colon cancer recurrence and a 48 percent lower risk of death
compared to non-users. The benefit of aspirin was independent of the
dose, as long as the patient consistently took the painkiller throughout
the follow-up period. The researchers conclude that their next step
is to conduct more research to confirm these findings and to determine
the mechanism by which aspirin use produces treatment benefit. Menopause-age influenced by your season of birth (Go To Top) Rome
(Italy): Sometimes, it is the least bothered aspects of a puzzle
that prove crucial in finding its solution. As recently, the Italian
experts have found out that the month and the season in which a woman
is born influence the age at which she reaches menopause. The study
was published in a medicinal journal Human Reproduction. Conducted on
nearly 3,000 post-menopausal women. it showed that the earliest age
of menopause was found in women who were born in March and the latest
among those born in October. On an average, there was 15 months' difference,
with women born in October reaching menopause at over 50 years compared
with the ones born in March who reached it under 49 years. According
to Dr Angelo Cagnacci, the lead author of the study published in the
medicine journal Human Reproduction, the findings reinforced the concept
that pre-natal environmental factors affected a baby's adult life."Mothers
should be aware of this, considering that during pregnancy they are
going to influence, not only the health of the newborn, but also the
health and reproductive life of their child during adulthood," cautioned
Dr. Cagnacci. The study, at four university hospitals was carried out
on 2,822 women who were at least a year past the menopause. It was found
that the mean age of menopause was 49.42 - 49.04 for spring-born women
and 49.97 for autumn-born women. "Our present data seem to indicate
that women born in autumn develop better during their prenatal life
and are born with a higher number of oocytes than women born in spring,"
said Dr Cagnacci. "An alternative explanation may be that early mortality
is highest among children born in autumn, thus selecting the fittest
for survival, although other studies do not support this hypothesis",
he added. Stem cell treatment offers hope for spinal cord injured (Go To Top) Washington:
There appears to light at the end of the dark tunnel for people
suffering from spinal cord injuries at last. University of California
researchers have reportedly found stem cells to be an effective source
of cure for acute spinal cord damage, adding that their experiments
on rats have proved that these cells can therapeutically restore motor
skills. According to Reeve-Irvine Research Center scientist Hans Keirstead
and his colleagues human embryonic stem cell-derived treatment successfully
in restored insulation tissue for neurons in rats after a week. Simultaneously
they discovered that this same treatment was ineffective on rats that
had been injured for 10 months or more. The study appears in The Journal
of Neuroscience issue of this month. "This study suggests one approach
to treating people who have just suffered spinal cord injury. They underscore
the great potential that stem cells have for treating human disease
and injury. But theres still much work to do before we can engage in
human clinical tests," Keirstead said. Acute spinal cord damage occurs
during the first few weeks of the injury. In turn, the chronic period
begins after a few months. It is anticipated that the stem cell treatment
in humans will occur during spinal stabilization at the acute phase,
when rods and ties are placed in the spinal column to restabilize it
after injury. Anger is not good for the heart! (Go To Top) Washington:
A new study conducted by researchers at Yale University School of
Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut suggest that heightened emotion such
as anger might lead to premature cardiac contractions. According to
Nature magazine, the team led by Matthew Stopper asked 24 patients with
implanted defibrillator devices to keep a diary of their emotions. The
defibrillators are designed to detect these abnormalities and deliver
a life-saving electric shock to put their hearts back in the right rhythm.
After receiving such a shock, participants in the study rated how angry
they had felt beforehand on a scale of 1 to 5. The team then retrieved
information from the defibrillator devices to see how their hearts had
gone wrong. Out of the 56 shocks recorded during the study, the researchers
found that in cases where people reported anger levels above 2, the
arrhythmias were initiated by a series of rapid, premature heart contractions.
This type of contraction is known to put an individual at greater risk
of sudden arrest. 68 percent of arrhythmias not preceded by angry feeling
had this characteristic. Foam therapy for those with varicose veins (Go To Top) London:
Doctors at the Ealing Hospital in London have come up with a breakthrough
technique to treat varicose veins. They inject patients with a foam
that expands in the blood vessels and successfully treat troublesome
varicose veins. According to the BBC, the team led by George Geroulakos
treated 50 patients using a foam, guided with the help of ultrasound
imaging. A single injection of the foam is enough to treat a half metre
length of vein. Afterwards, the patient wears a compression stocking
continuously for two weeks and then during the day only for another
week. "With the conventional stripping technique, the patient has to
stay off work for about eight days after. With the foam therapy, they
can go back within days," Geroulakos said. Foam is not diluted once
injected, so less is needed and it remains in the vein for a longer
time. It works by pushing the blood out of the way and is able to make
better contact with the inside of the vein walls. "We think complications
should be less common with the foam. Plus you can see exactly where
the foam is with ultrasound. It casts a shadow that can be seen with
the machine. You can see every individual vein, which is a major advantage,"
he added. Antioxidants could provide a key to 'long life' (Go To Top) London:
Boosting the body's levels of natural antioxidants could be the
key to a long life, according to US scientists. Mice engineered to produce
high levels of an antioxidant enzyme lived 20 percent longer and had
less heart and other age-related diseases, they found. If the same is
true in humans, people could live beyond 100 years. The University of
Washington work in Science Express backs the idea that high reactive
oxygen molecules, called free- radicals, cause ageing, reports the BBC.
Free-radicals have been linked with heart disease, cancer and other
age-related diseases. "This study is very supportive of the free-radical
theory of ageing," chief researcher Dr Rabinovitch said. "It shows the
significance of free radicals, and of reactive oxygen species in particular,
in the ageing process," he added. Dr Rabinovitch said the discovery
could help could pave the way for future development of drugs or other
treatments that protected the body from free radicals, and possibly
some age- related conditions. Professor Pat Monaghan from the University
of Glasgow, UK, said: "This is certainly a very interesting study. "Making
the leap from what is going on in the cell to what happens to the animal
is difficult and often controversial since there are so many intervening
steps. "However, this study does seem to point to a direct link between
mopping up free radicals at the cellular sites where they are generated
and consequences for the lifespan of the whole animal. But she added:
"We are obviously a long way from downing catalase to gain eternal youth,
and we need to know much more about what the consequences of high catalase
levels would be for other aspects of the animal's life history. "You
rarely get something for nothing." Broken bones set right by herbal medicine (Go To Top) New
Delhi: What could be more miraculous for those with fractures who
can be cured without painful surgery through Ayurveda? Sounds interesting.
A bone-healing centre in Tamil Nadu state is gaining popularity among
orthopaedic patients who believe that traditional therapy has miraculous
healing powers. A family runs the clinic located at Puttur, 100 kms
away from Chennai, for over 125 years, where the traditional doctors
heal the patient. Having satisfied with the therapy Hameed, one of the
patients said, "I met with an accident two years ago and fractured my
thigh. I immediately came for this treatment. I got treatment for six
weeks and now I am cured and alright." This miraculous treatment has
made the family a household name and patients not only from the State
but also from the neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh, Karnatka
and Kerala regularly visit the clinic. Gopala Raju who discovered a
medicinal plant by chance set up the clinic in 1881. He experimented
the medicine on a rabbit whose back was broken and after that started
treating patients from nearby villages, which include mostly labourers
from construction sites and poor children. Subramaniyaraj, a doctor
at the clinic said, "We are running the clinic for past 125 years, and
I belong to the fifth generation. Our treatment is for 45 days and we
apply herbs and eggs as medicines. After three bandages, the patient
is cured." References: Aspirin colon cancer, menopause season birth, stem cell spinal cord, anger heart, varicose veins foam therapy, antioxidants long life, bones herbal medicine, Science, Research, Science News, India, India News, Newspaper, Indian, News, Travel News, India Travel Times, Travel,Tourism, Tour, Tourist, India, Times, News, Hotels, Airlines, Ayurveda, Yoga, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Cuisine, Festival, Temple, Trekking, Hindu, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Odissi, Dance, Shimla,Varanasi, Kullu, Manali, Dehra Dun, Mussourie, Mussoorie, Haridwar, Hardwar, Rishikesh, Nainital, Delhi, Goa, Kovalam, Darjeeling, Bodh Gaya, Kancheepuram, Kanchipuram, Thekkady, Badrinath, Amar Nath,Vaishno Devi, Tirupati, Sabarimala, Guruvayoor, Kanyakumari, Kodaikanal, Ooty, Chennai, |
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