Health & WellnessS

Health

Chinese herbal treatment for acute pancreatitis found promising

A team led by Professor Qing Xia at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University has determined the genetic treatment mechanism of Chaiqinchengqi decoction, which is a basic Chinese herbal compound commonly used in the treatment of acute pancreatitis. It can upregulate sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) mRNA expression of pancreatic tissue as well as inhibit the elevation of calcium concentration in pancreatic acinar cells while relieving pancreatic lesions in an acute pancreatitis model of rats.

Pills

Hormone Drugs, Cancer and Profits -- Can Wyeth Fool American Women Twice?

Can Wyeth win back the 40 million Premarin and Prempro users it's lost since 2002--along with $1 billion a year in profits--with a new menopause drug? Or will the once-bitten women who have filed more than 5,000 law suits claiming the hormones gave them cancer feel fooled twice?

Pristiq, a serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), is a metabolite of Wyeth's antidepressant Effexor XR--which netted $3.7 billion in 2006--and an unabashed patent extender since Effexor XR goes off patent in 2010.

Info

Mysterious Brain Cells Linked to Blood Flow

Nearly a century after the discovery of strange star-shaped cells in the brain, scientists say they have finally begun to unravel their function.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology report in Science that it appears astrocytes - named for their stellar form - provide nerve cells (neurons) with the energy they need to function and communicate with one another, by signaling blood to deliver the cell fuels glucose and oxygen to them.

When astrocytes were first discovered, it was believed that they were bit players in the brain. But the new research indicates they may actually be major operators that, when out of whack, may help trigger mental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

Image
©ISTOCKPHOTO/ANGELHELL
FORGOTTEN CELLS: Researchers have finally seen star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes in action, delivering blood to neurons and helping to tune their activity.

People

The 'Surgical Re-Virgin': Setting the Odometer Back to Zero

Retrofitting women to make them sexually attractive and "marriageable" is more than a Hollywood fad. It's life or death for many.

Attention

Africa's looming cancer epidemic

By 2020, it is predicted that Africa will be facing a cancer epidemic. Claudia Hammond reports from Ghana, where efforts are being made to transform cancer care before it is too late.

Health

Lichen Sclerosis: A New Epidemic?

Lichen sclerosis (LS) includes balanitis and xerotica obliterans. There is hyperkeratosis and sclerosis of the dermis with collagen deposition that leads to symptoms of skin irritation. It is much more common in women and also occurs in 10% of boys with phimosis. A larger study of boys more recently showed a 39% incidence with phimosis and circumcision cured almost all patients. In adults undergoing urethroplasty, 14% were found clinically, but in 82% by histology.

Question

WHO's top HIV expert says threat of global Aids epidemic is over, while UN says AIDS global epidemic far from over. What is really going on?

The threat of a global Aids epidemic is over, the World Health Organisation's top HIV expert has admitted.

Understanding of the threat posed by the virus had changed said Kevin De Cock, who has spent most of his career leading the battle against the disease.

Rather than being a risk to populations anywhere, the threat in developed countries is largely confined to gay men, drug addicts and prostitutes and their clients.

Aids poster
©Unknown
Myth revealed: A 25-year health campaign against AIDS had little relevance outside Africa, the World Health Organisation admitted

Comment: Note that though the titles are completely different, both articles basically say that even if there was some progress, there is still work to be done. What is then the reason behind the contrasting wording? Could it again be money and politics?
For all the talk of a "global pandemic", there are two completely separate HIV epidemics in the world. One is in parts of Africa, where HIV is spread by unprotected sex between men and women who have more than one steady partner. Governments - such as Uganda's, with its "zero grazing" approach to fidelity - that recognised the perils of the custom of having concurrent sexual partners confined the epidemic. Most didn't. The result of the neglect is that in some countries up to two in five adults are infected with a fatal virus.

The second epidemic covers the rest of the globe. Nine out of ten humans (and three in ten of those infected with HIV) live in countries where the virus is spread mostly when people buy and sell sex, when they shoot up drugs, and when men have anal sex with lots of other men. Only a minority do these things in any country, but that still adds up to several million people worldwide. We know how to prevent HIV in these populations, and we have known for years that in Asia, the Americas, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, if you do that prevention well, HIV won't spread farther. Even if you don't control HIV in these populations, it won't go all that much farther.

If we don't recognise this, we will never effectively prevent the spread of HIV. But a lot of UN agencies, governments and even Aids activists don't want to recognise it. Governments don't want to because it would mean recognising that if they want to deal with HIV they have to spend money on services for junkies, sex workers and gay men - groups that don't top the popularity stakes with voters. Ironically, they will happily fund treatments for these people with expensive medicines once they do get sick. That is more acceptable to voters than to give cheap condoms and needles to prevent them getting infected in the first place.



Bandaid

Flashback Pathologies of hope

I hate hope. It was hammered into me constantly a few years ago when I was being treated for breast cancer: Think positively! Don't lose hope! Wear your pink ribbon with pride! A couple of years later, I was alarmed to discover that the facility where I received my follow-up care was called the Hope Center. Hope? What about a cure?

Arrow Down

Chinese Army Hit With PTSD Epidemic

In the wake of the relief efforts for the recent earthquakes in China, army doctors find themselves faced with thousands of soldiers exhibiting strange symptoms. These include severe fatigue, shortness of breath, palpitations, headaches, excessive sweating, dizziness, disturbed sleep, fainting and flashbacks to traumatic situations encountered during the weeks of working in the earthquake zone (where nearly 100,000 people died). A few of the army doctors recognized the symptoms as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). It's been three decades since Chinese soldiers experienced combat, and there are only stories left of its after-effects. Some of the oldest NCOs and officers vaguely remember, when they first entered military service, hearing about veterans of the 1979 battles on the Vietnamese border, suffering from combat fatigue.

Health

India: Outbreak of epidemic in Orissa - Tribals agonised

Every year thousands of villagers of KBK region die due to the outbreak of epidemics like diarrhea and cholera. Lack of facilities like proper road, health care centre, drinking water, shortage of food, sanitations, etc add woes to the situation...