"Holiday heart syndrome," first coined in 1978, refers to patients who experience a potentially dangerous form of palpitation after excessive drinking, especially during winter holidays. The symptoms usually went away when revellers ceased drinking.

Research from University of California San Francisco, builds on that finding, establishing a stronger causal link between alcohol consumption and serious palpitations in patients with atrial fibrillation, the most common form of arrhythmia (erratic heartbeats).

California researchers report that people with atrial fibrillation had almost a four and a half times greater chance of having an episode if they were consuming alcohol than if they were not, the American Journal of Cardiology reports.

"One of the remaining big unknowns is why or how this happens," said senior author Gregory Marcus, assistant professor of medicine at California, according to a California statement.

In the study, conducted from September 2004 to March 2011, researchers interviewed 223 patients with documented cardiac arrhythmia. They asked patients: "Does alcohol trigger your heart palpitations?" Participants ranked their symptoms on a scale from one to five (ie never, rarely, sometimes, frequently, and always).

"We defined 'yes' as frequently or always versus the rest of the responses," Marcus said, "and found that, after adjusting for potential confounders, atrial fibrillation patients had statistically significant greater odds of reporting that alcohol would trigger their symptoms."

The mean age of the study participants was 59 years. Eighty per cent were Caucasian; 11 per cent were Asian; five per cent Latino, and four per cent declined to state their ethnicity in the atrial fibrillation group.

A 'female' gene may be to blame for migraine - explaining why women are more likely to suffer from the debilitating headaches, research shows.

A study found a new region on the X chromosome as having a link to migraines, providing new evidence their might be a 'susceptibility' gene involved.

All women have two X chromosomes while men have an X and a Y chromosome.

Researchers, led by Lyn Griffiths from Australia's Griffith University, say more than one X chromosomal gene may be involved and believe a gene involved in iron regulation in the brain merits further attention.

Professor Griffiths based her study on genetic research of 300 inhabitants of remote Norfolk Isand, between Australia and New Zealand.

Many of the islanders are descended from survivors of the mutiny on the Bounty, moving there when they outgrown Pitcairn Island.

Eighty per cent of the inhabitants can trace their ancestry back to the mutiny.

Prof Griffiths said: 'These results provide more support for the role of the X chromosome in migraine and may explain why so many more females suffer from the disorder.

'Currently, 12 per cent of the population suffers from migraine. Even though we have some very good treatments for this very debilitating disease, they certainly don't work for everyone and can have some adverse side effects.

'Hence there is a real need to develop new migraine treatments.'

Prof Griffiths added that the island was ideal for study purpose because the relatively small gene pool made mapping genetics easily.

She said: 'This population was used due to its unusual pedigree structure in which genetic relationships can be traced through genealogical data to the island's original founders, and also the high incidence of migraine sufferers in this population.

'It's very useful for gene mapping purposes because of the reduced genetic and environmental diversity.'

The university research was funded by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council.

Eating raisins as an after-school snack prevents excessive calorie intake and increases satiety or feeling of fullness as compared to other commonly consumed snacks, a new study has suggested.

The study, funded by a grant from the California Raisin Marketing Board, was conducted among 26 normal-weight boys and girls ages 8 11 during a three-month timeframe.

Study participants were randomly assigned to eat raisins or other snacks, including grapes, potato chips or chocolate chip cookies, until they were comfortably full.

Additionally, each child received the same standardized breakfast, morning snack and lunch on test days. Subjective appetite was measured before and immediately after snack consumption at 15-minute intervals.

The result showed that food intake following raisin consumption was lower and satiation greater compared to the other snacks.

When eating raisins, children consumed significantly fewer calories when compared to the other snacks in the study.
Grapes, potato chips and cookies resulted in approximately 56 percent, 70 percent and 108 percent higher calorie intake compared to raisins, respectively.

Cumulative calorie intake (breakfast + morning snack + lunch + after-school snack) was 10 percent 19 percent lower after raisins compared to other snacks.

Although all snacks reduced subjective appetite, desire-to-eat was lowest after consuming raisins.

The study was conducted by lead researcher, G. Harvey Anderson, Ph.D., Professor of Nutritional Sciences and Physiology, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto and co-investigated by Nick Bellissimo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Nutrition, Ryerson University and Bohdan Luhovyy, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent University.

"To our knowledge, this is the first controlled study that looks at after-school snacking and satiety among children," said Anderson.

"We found consumption of raisins as a snack prevented excessive calorie intake, increased the feeling of fullness, and thereby may help contribute to the maintenance of a healthy weight in school-age children," he added.

Women who smoke during pregnancy give birth to lighter and smaller babies, says a Spanish study.

The findings were borne out by research conducted by the University of Zaragoza in Spain on 1,216 newly born babies.

Such babies were between 180 and 230 grams thinner than the offspring of non-smoking mothers, which averages 216 grams, the journal Early Human Development reports.

Furthermore, subcutaneous (below the skin) skinfolds, which show the amount of fat, are lower in children born of mothers who smoked, according to a Zaragoza statement.

"Given the scarce bibliography on the subject, we had to assess the impact of tobacco on the body composition of babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy," Gerardo Rodriguez from Zaragoza who led the study, told SINC, Spain's public scientific information service.

The experts analysed the newly-born full-term babies with a gestational age of 37 weeks of 1,216 mothers (22.1 percent of whom smoked an average of eight cigarettes daily) at the University Clinical Hospital.

The children of those mothers who had admitted to consuming alcohol or taking illegal drugs during pregnancy were excluded from the study.

On Wednesday night an SMS that started in media circles went viral 'First dengue death in Chennai. Manjula (29) d/o Kasinathan died due to dengue. She was admitted in KHM Hospital in Anna Nagar,' it read. While it turned out that the woman tested negative for the disease post-mortem, word had got out and caused a mini panic. Courtesy the widespread news about 34 dengue deaths indicating an epidemic in the Tirunelveli-Tuticorin belt, people were understandably afraid. "We have run out of mosquito repellant and coils in the last two days. People have begun purchasing two and three mosquito nets, like they're going to war," said the store manager of a retail supermarket in Anna Nagar. While mosquito quelling measures are very much in vogue during a regular Chennai summer, this time the scare has taken things a little further.

Astonishingly, it is only after the deaths in Tirunelveli began to make news that people began taking dengue seriously. Even AH1N1 (swine flu) caused a massive panic in April when cases began cropping up and the total number of people affected this year in Chennai is just over 100. In comparison dengue has been silently consistent with over 131 cases being reported this year alone. "As long as the fatalities are few and far between, people don't take it seriously. Now that dengue is spreading quickly people with a fever and rash are crowding our OP wards," said an administrator at Stanley Medical College and Hospital. And almost as if on cue, doctors in private hospitals that Express spoke to admitted that in the last week people have been bringing in their children as soon as they break out with a rash or are mildly warm. "They come into the ER and ask us to save the child from dengue," said a doctor at a private hospital in south Chennai, "But we actually encountered two kids with dengue through this, so I suppose it's good in a way to be paranoid," he said.

Experts in the field of infection control have said that corrective measures like repellants aren't the best way to keep dengue at bay. "It's all in the water," said Ram Gopalakrishnan, infectious disease physician, Apollo Hospitals. "People do not understand that unlike malarial vector mosquitoes, the species that carries dengue can live and lay eggs in small puddles of water," he explained. Though it may look absolutely innocent, a simple puddle of water, a bucket left half full in the toilet or a little extra water in a flower pot can become a breeding ground for these winged terrors. "They have adapted to multiply and live in urban conglomerate areas. They don't really need large puddles on the road or dirty canals to complete their life cycle," he said.

Though the serotype-3 of the virus, the fatal strain that has been detected down south, has not yet made its way to the underbelly of Chennai's mosquito populace, perhaps these periods of panic will help to keep people on their toes in these times, "Less than one per cent of dengue cases are fatal, but when that one per cent makes takes such a huge toll, there's no harm in taking an extra cautious step," he concluded.