The severity of Parkinson's disease symptoms could be monitored remotely by analyzing speech patterns, saving health authorities time and money and easing the burden on patients, scientists said Wednesday.

Researchers from Britain and the United States analyzed almost 6,000 speech recordings from 42 people with Parkinson's and developed algorithms using the data to estimate how bad the symptoms were.

The results, published in the Royal Society's journal Interface, showed the algorithms were close to assessments made by doctors.

"Currently, monitoring requires frequent visits to hospital where people with Parkinson's are physically examined by expert clinicians in order to assess their symptom severity, putting a strain on both patients and hospital resources," said Max Little of Britain's Oxford University, who worked on the study.

The researchers said they believed the technique, which could be used with patients' speech recordings or over the telephone, could help ease the resource burden on health systems and make it possible to run large-scale trials of experimental treatments for Parkinson's.

Parkinson's is a fatal and incurable brain disease that affects between one percent and two percent of people over the age of 65. It often affects the patient's ability to speak clearly, and sufferers also have tremors, sluggish movement, muscle stiffness and difficulty with balance.

Little said the study provided good evidence that speech impairment and the average overall severity of other Parkinson's disease symptoms are very closely linked, suggesting that symptom severity can be measured just by analyzing speech.

"This sort of remote monitoring -- or 'telemonitoring' -- of people's health is particularly important for people with Parkinson's who may find it difficult to make frequent hospital visits," he said in statement.

"The hope is that our research could pave the way for very large clinical studies of new treatments for Parkinson's where the sort of frequent monitoring required would not otherwise be affordable."

The researchers compared estimates made using the new technique with assessments made by doctors and rated on a standard measure for Parkinson's severity called the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS).

They found that, based on around 140 speech samples from each of the 42 patients, the estimates made using the algorithms differed from doctors' UPDRS ratings by around two points.

World COPD Day is an annual event organised by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) to create awareness about the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) around the world. World COPD Day 2010 is going to take place on Wednesday (November 17) with a theme "2010 - The Year of the Lung: Measure your lung health - Ask your doctor about a simple breathing test called spirometry."

COPD is a substantially under diagnosed disorder, whose diagnosis is delayed until the condition reaches in advanced state. Spirometery is the most frequently used pulmonary function test and enables health professionals to make an objective measurement of airflow obstruction and assess the degree to, which it is reversible, said Dr SK Agarwal, senior professor of department of chest disease, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University. According to him, the COPD is projected to be the third leading cause of death by 2020.

"The Indian Chest Society (ICS) is seriously concerned about the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COPD by means of spreading awareness and education about the disease," said Dr JK Samaria, honorary secretary of ICS and senior consultant at the department of chest, IMS-BHU. The society had been continuously performing training and research activities to minimise the impact of the disease, he added. According to him, the COPD is a disease appearing similar to Asthma but much more lethal and different from it. The COPD is characterised by prolonged cough with excess sputum production and breathlessness. Initially the breathlessness is observed after light work out but gradually it may occur even while sitting idle as well. The breathlessness caused due to Asthma can be completely cured after proper medication, but unfortunately same is not the case with COPD.

The chest experts said that the COPD was a major cause of chronic morbidity and mortality throughout the world. It is the fourth leading cause of death in the world, and further increase in its prevalence and mortality can be predicted in coming decades. The GOLD defines COPD as a preventable and curable disease with some significant extra pulmonary effect that may contribute to the severity in individual patients, said Agarwal.

Citing a report from WHO Samaria said that more than 90 percent of COPD mortality involved poor countries with people having lower per capita income. In India the COPD among the rural families is a major cause of concern. Among these females cooking on cow dung and wooden fire is one of the major causes of COPD. The COPD spreads rapidly among people living in rural and semi-urban localities due to use of kerosene stoves for cooking, lack of proper ventilation and usage of mosquito coil. Atmospheric air pollution is yet another major cause of COPD and ever increasing quantum of automobiles and pollution due to their exhaust is making the matter worst.

According to the chest experts, in India clear data is not available but it is suspected that COPD may be one of the major cause of mortality here as well. A survey performed in 2006 at various centres of the country revealed the fact that there were over 40 million COPD patients in India, said Samaria adding that the prevalence of COPD in non-smoking female patients was quite significant. The ratio of male to female COPD patients is as high as 1.5:1 in India.

The big news this World Diabetes Day is one of hope - the possibility of a long, complication-free life with diabetes. Success cases of people who have lived over 40 years after being confirmed as diabetic, even 50 years and 60 years have been documented by city diabetologists.

A study done at Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre (DMDSC) here, by V. Mohan, R.M. Anjana, Ranjit Unnikrishnan and B. Parthasarathy has proven just this.

In about two lakh patients from various DMDSC units whose medical records were analysed, over 200 people have lived 40 years with diabetes. Over 20 have lived for over 50 years, and though smaller in number, there are people who have lived over 60 years after they were diagnosed.

"We ensured that we picked up only those who had confirmed diabetes and were on treatment, all types of diabetes - Type 1, Type 2, Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (a genetic disorder inherited that causes disruptions in insulin production) and fibrocalculous pancreatic diabetes (caused by pancreatitis)," Dr. Mohan says.

He goes on to add, "It is generally believed that diabetes affects the lifespan. There is not too much data on this, particularly from India. A couple of Western studies estimated that diabetics live 8-10 years less. In 2006, our CUPS study that followed up 1,262 individuals for six years concluded that the overall mortality among diabetics was higher in Chennai." In Chennai it was 18.9 per 1,000 person-years; comparatively among the non-diabetic population it was 5.3.

However, no one looked at the other side - the longevity of patients with diabetes, Dr. Mohan says. "We now know it is possible among a significant group of people." While genetic studies to see if this group has a protective longevity gene will be done, there is much to learn from their life and control of diabetes, he adds.

Dr. Unnikrishnan, director, DMDSC, says: "They are certainly not sick, or dying, they have a fairly good quality of life. Over 25 per cent of the people who have lived for over 40 years have no complications - of the heart, kidney, eyes, or foot."

Children who had Type 1 diabetes detected as early as three years are now grandparents and great grandparents. Dr. Anjana, director, DMDSC, says: "This busts the myth that kids with Type 1 diabetes will not live long enough or even that they will be unable to bear children."

Another myth - that over time every diabetic moves to insulin - has also been busted. Dr. Unnikrishnan says, "Almost 25 per cent of the T2 who have completed over 40 years of living with diabetes are still taking only tablets."

However, the key is to focus on what is common between the members of this group.

According to Dr. Mohan, "One thing is very clear. They have all been meticulous with treatment for their condition. It also does not matter what the type of treatment is. Some of our older patients had none of the sophisticated, expensive drugs that are available now and, they have lived to tell the tale."

The pattern is clear: They have all been somewhat careful with diet, had regular exercise, periodic blood sugar tests, kept their three month average (HbA1C) as close to 7 as possible.

The key, Dr. Mohan explains, is to keep the blood sugar under control for the first 10 years.

"If you don't do this, whatever else you try later, the game is lost. The message is that if you take your disease seriously right from the beginning, a long and healthy life is indeed possible."

Diabetes in India claims more lives than HIV every year. On World Diabetes Day on November 14, the Government plans to launch a new initiative whereby free diabetes check up will be offered for people living in urban slums and rural districts.

The plan is India's biggest ever battle against diabetes that has plagued 50 million people and kills about 4 million people every year.

The government plans to inject Rs 500 crore into its new policy after studies revealed diabetes afflicts not just the urban rich, but also the rural poor.

"Figures show that diabetes is not an ailment of the urban rich as was believed earlier. Studies have shown that it's a disease that plaguing the rural population as well," says Health Secretary Sujatha Rao.

The money will fund free diabetes check ups that use strip gluco-meters and BP tests, starting with a 100 districts in 20 states.

A total of 33 cities with populations not exceeding 10 lakh and which are not close to state capitals have been chosen. The target is to test 7 crore adults aged 30 and above.

It is not just a lavish lifestyle but endless hours at the workplace and stress can also lead to diabetes. These findings reveal that it is not an ailment that inflicts the rich but also the working class and poor.

With this new initiative the Government plans to collect data and statistics to study the growth pattern of the disease.

People spend about 47 per cent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they are doing and this mind-wandering makes them unhappy, according to a Harvard study. Unlike other animals, humans spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around them -contemplating
events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or may never happen at all.

"Indeed, mind-wandering appears to be the human brain's default mode of operation," according to the study by Harvard University psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert.

"A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind," Killingsworth and Gilbert said.

"The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost".

The study is based on data from an iPhone app designed by Killingsworth to study happiness.

Data was collected from 2,250 participants aged 18 to 88 years.

The researchers used the iPhone app to gather 250,000 data points on their subjects' thoughts, feelings and actions as they went about their lives.

The participants were randomly asked to report how happy they were, what they were doing, and whether they were thinking about their current activity or something else that was pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

On an average, respondents reported that their minds were wandering 46.9 per cent of the time, and no less than 30 per cent of the time during every activity except making love.

Killingsworth and Gilbert found that people were happiest when making love, exercising or engaging in conversation. They were least happy when resting, working or using a home computer.

Analysis of the samples over time showed that those whose minds wandered when asked about their condition reported being more unhappy after a mind-wandering episode than when focused on their current activity.

Out of the 22 activities that participants reported doing, including watching TV and shopping, making love had the least mind-wandering associated with it.

In all other activities like eating or walking, participants said their minds wandered more than 30 per cent of the time.

"Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities," Killingsworth, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard, said.

"This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the nonpresent".