High

Feeling depressed? You may be at higher risk of STROKE

Those who suffer symptoms of depression are at an increased risk of stroke, according to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In particular, depressed African Americans showed the largest increase in stroke risk. Those people with the highest levels of depression had a 73% increase in their risk of stroke. However, it is not clear if the depression actually c...

Risk of Cancer can be reduced to 40% with a High Fiber Diet

A study was conducted with 400,000 people from nine countries, who were divided into five sets according to their consumption of fiber and presented at an International Conference in France. This study showed that fiber was particularly important in reducing cancer of the colon and rectum. Medical experts believe up to 30% of all cancers in the developed world are associated with n...

Nitric oxide involved in high blood pressure

High blood pressure causes inactivation of nitric oxide, a hormone involved in blood pressure control which worsens the problem. If high blood pressure is left untreated, it does not stay at one elevated level, but tends to spiral out of control. According to the researchers at the University of Texas, this study was conducted on rats and found that nitric oxide, which helps control blood...

Risk of early neonatal death high in infants born in the night

Recent research has shown that infants born during night time have a higher risk of early infant death as compared to those born during day time. Previous studies have also shown that infants born at night and during weekends and holidays have an increased risk of death at birth, urging the need for additional skilled and experienced staff for better obstetric and neonatal care during the...

Link Between High Blood Sugar And Behavioral Changes

Low blood sugar levels are known to cause cognitive and behavioral changes in diabetics, but results of a recent study show that high blood sugar // has a similar effect. The study showed that type 2 diabetics have impaired cognitive functioning and experience deterioration in mood when their blood sugar is high. Diabetics' bodies have difficulty controlling blood sugar levels due to in...

Chennai AIDS Campaign Highlights The Social Neglect Faced By Victims

A workshop held recently in Chennai has brought out the wide spread ignorance of the general public regarding modes of HIV transmission to the spotlight.// A one-day workshop was organized by the Chennai branch of Family Planning Association of India to create awareness regarding the prevalence and spread of HIV. Multipurpose Health Workers (MPHWs) working in the Urban Health Posts (U...

Benzene Slick In China Highlights Water Pollution

The plight of an estimated 190 million Chinese, who regularly drink polluted water, is now in sharp focus due to the benzene slick moving down the Songhua river, causing the suspension of drinking water supply to 3.8 million people in Harbin city.// "In China, freshwater is being threatened from population pressure and rapid economic development," the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) s...

High Prevalence of AIDS among Indian Truck drivers

New Delhi: A startling study indicates that almost 40 percent of India's truck drivers and their helpers are infected with AIDS virus and there is an urgent need to create awareness// among this community to check the spread of the fatal disease. India currently has over 5.1 million AIDS patients and truckers are possibly one of the largest groups carrying the disease.. There are ove...

Wisdom behind High Protein Diet Questioned

The Total Wellbeing Diet advocated by scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization // has come under severe scrutiny with an editorial in the journal Nature questioning the wisdom behind the intake of a high-protein diet. A normal Western diet usually consists of 15 percent of protein, but the Total wellbeing Diet advocates a 30 to 35 percen...

WHO warns that Asia is at high risk of Bird flu

World Health Organization feels that Asia is facing an increased threat of bird flu as new cases of bird flu infections pour in. Dr. Shigeru Omi, Regional Director, WHO Western Pacific has said though// Asian countries are planning and working to combat bird flu spread but feels that still a lot should have been done and should be done to prevent bird flu spread. It is estimated that 77 d...

High Protein Sans Low Carb Diets Not Advisable For Pregnant Women

Pregnant women, whose protein intake is high, including meat, leaving behind the low carbohydrate diets are more prone to develop stress, according to a study.// Researchers led by Rebecca Reynolds at the Universities of Edinburgh and Southampton studied a group of 86 children born in 1967-8 to mothers who were told to eat a pound of red meat a day to avoid pregnancy complications. <...

High-Carbohydrate diet plus exercise !

A low-fat high-carbohydrate diet raises blood fats, unless it is combined with moderate exercise.It's assumed that a low-fat diet will reduce heart disease risk by lowering levels of cholesterol, especially low-density lipoprotein (LDL or 'bad' cholesterol). But a low-fat diet is often a high-carbohydrate diet (because you have to get calories from somewhere). And it's becoming evident th...

Slightly High BP Poses Health Risk

People with blood pressure levels that tend to be slightly elevated but still considered to be within normal ranges--called high-normal--are at increased risk for suffering from heart disease. Blood pressure readings are taken in two numbers. The systolic value i.e., the first number in a blood pressure measurement, represents the pressure in the heart during contraction. The second numbe...

High-protein diets may pose health risks

High protein diets have no proven effectiveness in long-term weight reduction and post potential health threats for those who adhere to them for more than a short time, accordinhg to an advisory from the American Heart Associantion’s Nutrition Committee in Circulation published in: Journal of the American Heart Association. Some of the diets increase fat intake and reduce nutritionally...

High Demand for a child vaccine

High demand for a new vaccine against childhood pneumonia, meningitis and ear infections has led to a shortage around the country. Meanwhile, doctors are directing the supplies they do have to children// who run the highest risk of infection, such as those with sickle cell anemia, the AIDS virus or other diseases that undermine the immune system. PREVNAR fights the bacterium streptoco...

Higher Risk of Asthma in children with autoimmune disease

A new study has found that children with some autoimmune diseases have an increased risk of asthma. In the study, Dr. Jukka Kero of Ruprecht-Karls-University at Heidelberg in Germany and colleagues//looked at health records for all children born in Finland in 1987, including more than 60,000 youngsters.The team checked the prevalence of asthma in children with three autoimmune conditions...

High vitamin A increases risk of hip fractures

Too much vitamin A may increase the risk of hip fractures in older women. Vitamin A is important for such things as healthy skin and hair and bone growth.// Researchers found that women with the highest total intake - both from food and vitamin supplements - had double the risk of hip fractures compared with women with the lowest intake. One theory is that too much vitamin A inhibits...

HIV infections have reached a new high

The number of people infected with HIV in the UK is likely to increase by almost half over the first five years of the 21st century, according to public health experts.// New figures released by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) predict that the number of people living with an HIV diagnosis may rise from around 23,000 in 2000 to almost 34,000 by the year 2005. In 2001, the nu...

Lower surgical volume linked to higher death rate

Paediatric heart units that carry out a high number of operations have lower deaths rates than those with a low volume of cases. David Spiegelhalter, a scientist at the Institute of Public Health in Cambridge, analysed voluntary surgical returns and hospital episode statistics relating to 12 hospitals carrying// out heart surgery on children from 1991 to 1995. Dr Spiegelhalter found t...

Vitamin E decreases high blood pressure in kidney failure

The antioxidant vitamin E was able to reduce high blood pressure in rats who had kidney failure. Researchers at the University of Texas, find that rats with impaired kidneys// and high blood pressure produce large amounts of damaging free radicals. This process, known as oxidative stress, now looks to play a key role in high blood pressure. In the latest study, they also show that giving...

High Cholesterol linked to Alzheimer’s diseas

Alzheimer's is a degenerative brain disease that usually begins gradually, causing a person to forget recent events or familiar tasks. How rapidly it advances varies from person to// person, but the disease eventually leads to confusion, personality and behavior changes and impaired judgment. Communication becomes more difficult as the disease progresses. Having high cholesterol appea...

Breast cancer risk doubles by high sex hormone levels

Postmenopausal women with relatively high serum concentrations of estrogen and testosterone have about twice the risk of developing breast cancer as women// with relatively low serum concentrations of these sex hormones. Associations between serum sex hormone levels and risk of developing breast cancer were not different in women who donated blood closer in time to diagnosis, indicating h...

High Altitude ‘Speeds up ageing process

According to a research, women who live at high altitudes are likely to age faster. Scientists drew their conclusions after finding lower concentrations of hormones, which are important for maintaining health and youthfulness, in women living in the mountainous areas. For comparison researchers looked at a control group of 160 women of similar age and ethnic origin who lived at just 150 m...

A high carbohydrate diet good for health

The American Department of indicates diets high in carbohydrates are actually lower in calories and higher in nutrients, despite of all the hype about the advantages of a low carbohydrate and no carbohydrate diet, new research by the Uhis type of diet,// they say, may be used for weight loss or weight loss management. Prevalence of Obesity has increased steadily during the past 25 yea...

High Levels of Protein Linked to Brain Shrinkage

Researchers say that high levels of the amino acid homocysteine may increase the risk of brain atrophy and blood vessel disease, researchers report. It is still too soon to be certain that lowering homocysteine levels will reduce the risk of Alzheimer's// and other types of dementia, but the approach is worth investigating. Prior research has shown that elevated levels of homocysteine...

Suicide risk high in 12-17 Age Group

According to the National Household Survey, approximately 3 million Americans age 12 to 18 considered suicide in 2000 and more than a third of those tried to kill themselves, a government survey found. According to the on Drug Abuse report, girls were almost twice as likely as boys// to have thought about or tried to commit suicide. The study, released Sunday by the Substance Abuse and...

Swelling increases stroke risk with high B.P.

According to a new study, researchers suggest that the presence of proteins linked to inflammation could increase the risk of stroke among men with high blood pressure. Although we know that high blood pressure is a risk factor for stroke, //it's still the case that not everyone with hypertension actually suffers a stroke. Researchers at Malmo University, Sweden, believe that inflammation...

High iron levels may cause Cardiovascular Disease in women

A new study following the growing percentage of iron levels among people living in heavily industrialized nations and the potential risk of cardiovascular disease among men with high iron levels, has shown that women with high iron levels// could also find themselves at risk for cardiovascular disease. The study carried out by researchers from the Emory University involved a total of 3...

High development costs hinder entry of cancer super drugs into the market

Cancer patients in the future could benefit from pharmacogenomics or the field of personalized medicine where therapies could be tailored to suit individual patients. Few drugs which target specific protein receptors in cancer are already in the market and the decoding of the human genome// offers great promise to patients, as the therapy could become more specialized. However, all this...

Risk factor high for women who took HRT

A study suggests that women with diabetes should not take hormone replacement therapy. Researchers in Denmark have found that women with the condition who take HRT increase their chances of dying early. Researchers also said that the pills can increase the risks of developing heart disease or having a heart attack. They studied 13,084 women over the age of 45, less than half of whom had t...

Finasteride lowers risk of prostate cancer but increases risk of high-grade tumors

Finasteride prophylaxis appears to prevent or delay the onset of prostate cancer, however, finasteride may also accelerate the growth of high-grade cancers. More than 18,000 men were randomized , age 55 or older to finasteride 5 mg/day or placebo. At baseline, digital rectal examination results were normal in all subjects, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels// were no more than 3.0...

Finasteride lowers risk of prostate cancer but increases risk of high-grade tumors

Finasteride prophylaxis appears to prevent or delay the onset of prostate cancer, however, finasteride may also accelerate the growth of high-grade cancers. More than 18,000 men were randomized , age 55 or older to finasteride 5 mg/day or placebo. At baseline, digital rectal examination results were normal in all subjects, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were no more than 3.0 n...

Death Risk Higher in Obese Women with Colon Cancer

In women with colon cancer that has advanced beyond the early stage, obesity is associated with a poorer long-term outcome, according to a recent study. In addition to an increased risk of developing colon cancer, obese patients may have an increased risk of cancer recurrence, at least women. However, the influence of body weight on long-term outcomes and treatment-related side effects in...

Don’t Blame the High Heels

Common sense tells us high heeled shoes are not good for the legs, knees, or feet. But a new study contradicts that assumption. British researchers find no relationship between wearing heels and subsequent development of knee osteoarthritis.// About 2 percent of people age 55 and older are bothered by knee pain. But by the time people reach age 65, twice as many women as men complain of...

A High-Definition Hearing Aid that thinks for you

Hearing loss affects all ages. Standard hearing aids amplify all sounds, which makes hearing one sound difficult. Now, there's a new option say researchers. New, all-digital hearing aids are changing that.// This version of this hearing aid automatically distinguishes between speech and sounds.Audiologists say, "The key reason somebody comes in for a hearing aid is that they find that...

Women who conceive after a year have a higher chance of giving birth prematurely

The reasons for premature birth are a mystery in nearly half of the cases, Some pre-term births are caused by maternal or fetal stress,// infections, high blood pressure, bleeding or stretching of the uterus. But in the rest, the reason is unknown , experts say fertility troubles could explain part of the problem. Premature birth -- when the baby is delivered before 37 weeks of pregnanc...

Women who conceive after a year have a higher chance of giving birth prematurely

The reasons for premature birth are a mystery in nearly half of the cases, Some pre-term births are caused by maternal or fetal stress, infections, high blood pressure, //bleeding or stretching of the uterus. But in the rest, the reason is unknown , experts say fertility troubles could explain part of the problem. Premature birth -- when the baby is delivered before 37 weeks of pregnancy...

People with skin cancer at higher risk for other types

Skin cancer usually is so easily cured that Luvie Owens almost forgot she had it.But results of a major new study are giving her cause for concern: Women who have had the most common forms of skin cancer// are 2.3 times as likely to also get deadlier cancers such as breast, lung and colon. Among African-American women, the risk of getting other cancers is 7.5 times higher. The study di...

Women With Diabetes Have a Higher Risk of Depression

A new study shows that the risk of depression increases in women with diabetes.Previous studies have shown individuals who are insulin-resistant may have higher serotonin concentrations //and may be more prone to depression and even suicide. Researchers say Insulin resistance is inversely associated with depression and that their results are consistent with a large prospective study...

Low-Tar Cigarettes As dangerous As High-Tar Cigarettes

Addicted smokers sometimes switch to lower tar cigarettes in hopes of continuing with their habit and hoping to not experience the consequences of higher tar cigarettes.// Non-filter cigarettes make up less than 1 percent of sales in the United States and United Kingdom. A new study shows the risk for lung cancer is the same for people who smoke medium-tar cigarettes, low-tar cigarettes,...