India is now in the grip of an obesity epidemic and the trend needs to be immediately arrested by taxing junk food, restricting food ads and making food labelling clearer, according to a study.

The study that looked at the burden of overweight citizens in six countries -- Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa -- has found that between 1998 and 2005, India's overweight rates increased by 20%.

Currently, almost 1 in 5 men and over 1 in 6 women are overweight. In some urban areas, the rates are as high as 40%.

Published in the Lancet on Thursday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the study warns that low-income countries cannot cope with the health consequences of wide scale obesity.

When compared to the other five countries, the percentage of adult women and men who are overweight in India was found to be lowest -- 14% and 18%, respectively. In comparison, 23% women and 32% men are overweight in China.

"However in absolute numbers, the burden would be mammoth in India and China," experts said.

According to estimates in the study, the annual cost of broad-based prevention strategies tackling obesity and other health threats, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, would be less than $2 per person per year in India and China, less than $3 per head in Brazil and around $4 per person in South Africa, Russia and Mexico.

Upto 4,42,000 life years could be gained through a combination of prevention programmes in India every year. The cost-effectiveness ratio of a prevention strategy would be $268 per life year gained in good health in India and $380 in China, the study said.

OECD lead author Michele Cecchini said, "The results varied across countries surveyed. Seven in 10 Mexican adults are overweight or obese, while nearly half of all Brazilians, Russians and South Africans are also in this category. China and India report lower levels of obesity, but are also rapidly moving in the wrong direction. Low- and middle-income countries have far fewer health care resources to deal with the consequences of obesity, which include higher rates of cardiac disease, cancer and diabetes."

Obesity is the root for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Another study in the Lancet on Thursday predicts that by 2030, nearly 70% of all global deaths will be from non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and heart disease. Of these 70% of deaths, 80% will be in the less wealthy nations like India.

According to WHO, NCDs -- principally cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases -- caused an estimated 35 million deaths in 2005. This figure represents 60% of all deaths globally, with 80% of deaths due to noncommunicable diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and approximately 16 million deaths involving people under 70 years of age.

The total deaths from NCDs are projected to increase by a further 17% over the next 10 years. The greatest increase will be seen in the African region (27%) and the Eastern Mediterranean region (25%). The highest absolute number of deaths will occur in South-East Asia.

Up to 80% of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes and over a third of cancers can be prevented by eliminating shared risk factors, mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol.

A new study from University of Toronto has identified the influence of human social interaction on sensitivity to physical pain.

"Our study is among the first to show in humans that the perception of physical pain can be immediately impacted by the types of social experiences that people have in their everyday lives," said Terry Borsook.

Participants who experienced the indifferent social exchange reported less sensitivity to pain after the interaction when compared to that measured before the exchange. Participants exposed to the positive social interaction, however, exhibited no change in pain sensitivity.

"While the analgesic effect resulting from a socially disconnecting event might seem like a good thing, we know from a great deal of research in animals and humans that social threats provoke the well-known fight-or-flight stress response, of which pain inhibition is a typical component," said Borsook.

The results may be of such critical importance to human health and well-being that even a mild threat of disconnection can be stressful.

"What is remarkable about our results is that analgesia occurred in response to a type of experience that people experience in daily life, perhaps several times a day," said Borsook.

He added that the results also have important clinical implications when it comes to seeing your doctor.

"Health practitioners who are aloof, lack understanding, or are generally unresponsive to patients may provoke an analgesic response resulting in underestimated reports of pain, with insufficient pain control measures being a possible consequence."

The findings are published in the November issue of PAIN. (ANI)

Suffering from stress, insomnia, or memory loss? Don't pop a pill, instead press your face, say experts, who have come out with a complementary therapy called facial reflexology - the latest fad in Britain. The therapy works by stimulating pressure points on the face that correspond with
particular parts of the body. In fact, it's effective because the face has a large number of nerves and blood vessels, say its advocates.

According to them, facial reflexology combines massage with theories based on acupuncture and Chinese concepts of energy lines, or meridians, the Daily Mail reported.

The facial reflexologists say they can feel a change of texture as a result of these "imbalances" under the upper layer of skin on the face. They are said to feel like lumps of porridge or grains of sand. By working over the face with the fingertips, they can, the experts claim, break down these deposits, boosting the energy, circulatory and nervous systems.

"The brain is the control centre of the body and the face is much closer to it than the feet are, so face reflexology can work faster than foot reflexology," leading facial reflexologist Nikke Ariff as saying. Arif, one of the estimated 35,000 reflexologists now practising in Britain, says that each session begins by stimulating the acupuncture points on face using acupressure. As well as being "energy points" they are important blood circulation and nerve supply areas, she says.

Men who are hooked to their black-coated laptops run the risk of becoming infertile. For, the black coating on the laptop has estrogen degradation products that harm the sperm production in the body. Even men, who are overweight, smoke, drink or binge on processed food, are also equally at risk.

According to Dr Kamini Rao, Medical Director, Bangalore Assisted Conception Centre, among the couples who have been coming to her Centre, the sperm count in the men have reduced from 60-65 million per ml to 20-22 million per ml which is nearly 50-60 percent drop in a matter of a decade. She further observed that this is a trend particularly noticed among men in the age group of 25 to 35 years.

"An increasing number of men coming with decreasing sperm count is a worrying sign. Apart from lifestyle changes, industrial pollutants and consumption of poultry fed with estrogen filled food has worsened the problem," said Dr Rao.

Considering that environmental pollutants - air as well as water - affect in low sperm generation, she felt that the government must undertake pilot projects in congested areas to identify pollutants which are in high concentration. The local authorities can work on reducing these pollutants, Dr Rao suggested. However, she emphasised that low sperm count did not mean poor libido.


How to avoid low sperm count
1. Give up smoking and alcohol, which effect rise in estrogen levels
2. Exercise regularly
3. Eat nutritious food
4. Reduce caffeine intake
5. Avoid frequent hot baths and sauna sessions
6. Lose any excess weight as it tends to cause testosterone/estrogen imbalances
7. Reduce stress levels by learning relaxation techniques

Scientists have demystified how genetic variants rewire the brain and it could help in finding therapies for rebalancing the brain's circuitry in early development.

Using a blend of brain imaging and genetic detective work, the discovery of the scientists at the University of California has offered the missing physical evidence that links altered genes to modified brain function and learning.

"This is a key piece of the puzzle we've been searching for. Now we can begin to unravel the mystery of how genes rearrange the brain's circuitry not only in autism, but in many related neurological disorders." said co-principal investigator Daniel Geschwind.

The UCLA team scrutinized the differences in brain connectivity and function that result from two forms of the CNTNAP2 gene, one of which boosts risk for autism.

Suspecting that CNTNAP2 might influence brain activity, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of 32 children as they performed learning-related tasks. Half of the children had autism, and half did not.

Regardless of their diagnosis, the children carrying the risk variant showed a disjointed brain. The frontal lobe was over-connected to it and poorly connected to the rest of the brain. Communication with the back of the brain was particularly diminished.

"In children who carry the risk gene, the front of the brain appears to talk mostly with itself," explained first author Ashley Scott-Van Zeeland, of the Scripps Translational Science Institute.

"It doesn't communicate as much with other parts of the brain and lacks long-range connections to the back of the brain," said Zeeland.

Depending on which CNTNAP2 version the child carried, the researchers also observed a difference in connectivity between the left and right sides of the brain. In most people, the left side processes functions tied to language, like speech and understanding.

In the children with the non-risk gene, communication pathways in the frontal lobe linked more strongly to the left side of the brain.

By enhancing understanding of the relationship between genes, the brain and behavior, the UCLA finding could lead to earlier detection for autism, and new interventions to strengthen connections between the frontal lobe and left side of the brain.

"If we determine that the CNTNAP2 variant is a consistent predictor of language difficulties, we could begin to design targeted therapies to help rebalance the brain and move it toward a path of more normal development," said Zeeland.

The findings were published in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine. (ANI)