Shakespeare was a master at portraying profound emotional upset in the physical symptoms of his characters, and many modern day doctors would do well to study the Bard to better understand the mind-body connection, a researcher says.

Kenneth Heaton, a medical doctor and extensively published author on William Shakespeare's oeuvre, systematically analysed 42 of the author's major works and 46 of those of his contemporaries, looking for evidence of psychosomatic symptoms.

He focused on sensory symptoms other than those relating to sight, taste, the heart, and the gut and found that Shakespeare's portrayal of symptoms such as dizziness and blunted or heightened sensitivity to touch and pain in characters expressing profound emotions was significantly more common than in works by other authors of the time.

"Many doctors are reluctant to attribute physical symptoms to emotional disturbance, and this results in delayed diagnosis, overinvestigation, and inappropriate treatment," Heaton said.

"They could learn to be better doctors by studying Shakespeare. This is important because the so-called functional symptoms are the leading cause of general practitioner visits and of referrals to specialists," he said.

Vertigo, also known as giddiness or dizziness, is expressed by five male characters in 'Taming of the Shrew', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Henry VI' part 1, 'Cymbeline' and 'Troilus and Cressida'.

The nearest approximation in the work of contemporaries was one incident in John Marston's 'The Malcontent'.

There are at least 11 instances of breathlessness associated with extreme emotion in 'Two Gentlemen of Verona', 'The Rape of Lucrece', 'Venus and Adonis', and 'Troilus and Cressida' as compared with just two in the works of other writers.

Fatigue as a result of grief or distress is a familiar sensation among Shakespeare's characters, most notably in 'Hamlet', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'As You Like It', 'Richard II' and 'Henry IV' part 2.

Disturbed hearing at a time of high emotion occurs in 'King Lear', 'Richard II' and 'King John' while blunted/exaggerated senses are portrayed in 'Much Ado about Nothing', 'Venus and Adonis', 'King Lear', 'Love's Labour's Lost' and 'Coriolanus'.

"Shakespeare's perception that numbness and enhanced sensation can have a psychological origin seems not to have been shared by his contemporaries, none of whom included such phenomena in the works examined," Heaton said.

The Bard also uses coldness and faintness to convey shock, like in 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Titus Andronicus', 'Julius Caesar', 'Love's Labour's Lost', and 'Richard III', significantly more frequently than other writers of the period.

Heaton concludes that his data show that Shakespeare "was an exceptionally body-conscious writer", suggesting that the technique was used to make his characters seem more human and engender greater empathy or raise the emotional temperature of his plays and poems.

People in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease are more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI) than those who did not have the condition, according to a new study.

Previous studies have shown that people who are overweight in middle age are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later than people at normal weight.

The study examined 506 people with advanced brain imaging techniques and analyses of cerebrospinal fluid to look for biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease, which can be present years before the first symptoms begin.

The study found that in people with no memory or thinking problems and in people with mild cognitive impairment, those who had the Alzheimer's biomarkers were also more likely to have a lower BMI than those who did not have the biomarkers.

For example, 85 percent of the people with mild cognitive impairment who had a BMI below 25 had signs of the beta-amyloid plaques in their brains that are a hallmark of the disease, compared to 48 percent of those with mild cognitive impairment who were overweight.

The relationship was also found in people with no memory or thinking problems.

"These results suggest Alzheimer's disease brain changes are associated with systemic metabolic changes in the very earliest phases of the disease," said study author Jeffrey M. Burns, MD, MS, of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City.

"This might be due to damage in the area of the brain called the hypothalamus that plays a role in regulating energy metabolism and food intake.

"Further studies should investigate whether this relationship reflects a systemic response to an unrecognised disease or a long-standing trait that predisposes a person to developing the disease," he added.

The findings have been published in the November 22, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Gorakhpur: With five more children succumbing to encephalitis in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the death toll in the viral disease has climbed to 585 this year, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

Five children suffering from the disease died in the BRD Medical College hospital here yesterday, Additional Director (Health) Diwakar Prasad said.

As many as 175 encephalitis patients are undergoing treatment in BRD and other hospitals in the region, he said.

Global AIDS deaths and new HIV infections have each dropped 21 percent since the peak of the AIDS pandemic in 1997, according to a UN report released Monday.

One major factor responsible for the result is that life-saving HIV treatments have become more popular and got to 1.35 million more people in 2010 than in 2009.

In middle-income and underdeveloped nations, these treatments have saved 2.5 million lives since 1995.

"We have seen a massive scale-up in access to HIV treatment, which has had a dramatic effect on the lives of people everywhere," said Michel Sidibe, executive director of the U.N. AIDS program.

However, 53 percent of people who need HIV/AIDS treatments -- about 7.6 million people -- cannot get them, which accounted for 1.8 million AIDS deaths in 2010.

There are now 34 million people living with HIV. And just in last year there were 2.7 million new infections.

The decline in deaths and new infections means the AIDS pandemic is at a turning point, the UNAIDS report argues, adding smart investment can save millions of future deaths.

More than three of every five people who die today will do so because of a chronic, non-communicable disease ("NCD") such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer or lung disease. NCDs account for 75 percent of health care spending globally and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity losses in developing countries alone. The human and economic costs are staggering.

Fortunately, the world is taking action. The United Nations just finished its first-ever High-Level Meeting on NCDs, potentially moving the world's most deadly and debilitating diseases to the top of the global agenda -- exactly where they belong.

Until recently, governments, donors and multilateral agencies like the World Health Organization have focused their attention on acute, infectious illnesses rather than NCDs.

Preventing the explosion of NCDs will not be easy. And positive outcomes from the U.N. meeting are unlikely without constructive engagement by the private sector.

In the past, some governments and multilateral agencies have tended to endorse regulation and mandates as the primary solution to global health challenges.

But government intervention isn't enough. The scope of this global health challenge calls for solutions far beyond the scope of any single institution.

Earlier this year, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on the world's businesses to help address NCDs. The private sector stands ready.

Governments, multilateral agencies, academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector must join forces and pursue a wide range of innovative strategies, including multi-stakeholder partnerships, incentives, education and awareness campaigns to improve the way the world prevents, diagnoses and treats NCDs.

The private sector must make good on its social contract to help. We all share humanitarian concerns about improving public health. Yet businesses also have a vested interest in maintaining healthy and productive workforces. Nearly 50 percent of deaths occur among people in their most productive years.

Businesses also benefit from healthy consumers and economies -- which allow them to fulfill their responsibility to be profitable and competitive.

Delegates to the U.N. meeting must recognize the critical role businesses play in bringing valuable innovations to market, delivering tangible solutions, closing resource gaps and addressing the causes of poor health and disease.

While some NCDs arise from genetic and environmental factors, others result from unhealthy behaviors and lifestyle choices. As a result, they can often be combated with health promotion initiatives. Reducing tobacco, salt, sugar and alcohol consumption and improving diet and physical activity are practical, cost-effective approaches that can make a real difference.

Employers have tremendous power to lead on this front. Many companies have implemented health education and screening programs, no-smoking policies, workplace exercise campaigns, and community outreach initiatives.

Already, more than 40 organizations have joined the Workplace Wellness Alliance. Established by the World Economic Forum, this pioneering program supports the fight against NCDs by promoting best-in-class employee wellness programs through information-sharing and the use of standardized metrics.

Governments, multilateral agencies and donors must also prioritize their efforts, as roughly 80 percent of NCD-related deaths occur in low- or middle-income countries.

In developing countries, overcoming NCDs requires a different approach -- one that starts with establishing basic health systems and primary care infrastructures. Fortunately, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. The global campaign against AIDS, TB, and malaria has already put in place some of the health care infrastructure needed to tackle NCDs.

Partnerships, often led by NGOs and the private sector, have been particularly effective in this area. For example, the Boston-based non-profit Partners in Health, working in collaboration with the Rwandan Ministry of Health, has done a tremendous job controlling infectious diseases in Rwanda. Rwandans now have access to more than 400 health centers, 42 district hospitals, and 45,000 community health workers - and are living longer.

Now, Partners in Health is working with the Rwandan government to create a model for integrating NCD management into this existing primary care infrastructure, helping train nurses and community healthcare workers around a cluster of chronic diseases.

Efforts like this cannot succeed without a committed and diverse group of partners, including many from the private sector. Indeed, the most successful efforts are often powered by governments, NGOs and businesses working together to develop sustainable, locally-driven solutions.

About 36 million people die every year from NCDs. This number is set to increase to 52 million by 2030. That's a major challenge for the global community. Overcoming it will require an enlightened, inclusive approach that embraces and encourages partnerships among public and private organizations. The United Nations' meeting represents the opening volley in that pursuit.