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Dec 13
Chronic Back Pain Sufferers Benefit From Yoga
Yoga can provide more effective treatment for chronic lower back pain than more conventional methods, according to the UK's largest ever study into the benefits of yoga.

The study, led by the University of York and funded by Arthritis Research UK, found that people offered a specially-designed 12-week yoga programme experienced greater improvements in back function and more confidence in performing everyday tasks than those offered conventional forms of GP care.

The research focused on back function - people's ability to undertake activities without being limited by back pain, which was measured using the Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire. Although improvements in back function were more pronounced at three months, researchers found there was still an improvement in people's ability to perform tasks such as walking more quickly, getting dressed without help or standing up for longer periods of time even nine months after the classes had finished.

The trial involved two groups of people who were both receiving GP care for chronic or recurrent back pain. A 156-strong group were offered group yoga classes specially designed to improve back function, while a second control group of 157 people were offered GP care alone.

The findings of the study, which was carried out by researchers from the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York and the Hull York Medical School, are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine this week.

Lower back pain is a common episodic condition, with 80 per cent of the UK population suffering from it at some point in their lives. It is estimated that around 4.9 million working days a year are lost due to back pain. However, few effective, evidence-based treatments exist.

The yoga programme, which involved 20 experienced yoga teachers, was designed and delivered by Truro-based Alison Trewhela, an Iyengar Yoga teacher and Senior Practitioner in Yoga on the British Register of Complementary Practitioners, in collaboration with York-based yoga teacher Anna Semlyen, a Back Care Advisor to the British Wheel of Yoga.

The classes were designed for complete beginners, with yoga teachers given extra training in back care. Participants were recruited from 39 general practices in seven Primary Care Trust areas, with classes held in non-NHS premises in Cornwall, North London, West London, Manchester and York.

Chief Investigator Professor David Torgerson, Director of York Trials Unit, in the University's Department of Health Sciences, said: "Back pain is an extremely common and costly condition. Exercise treatment, although widely used and recommended, has only a small effect on back pain. We therefore set out to investigate an alternative approach using a specially-developed weekly yoga programme for back pain sufferers to see if this allowed them to manage their back pain more successfully.

"While previous studies have focused on the short-term benefits of yoga, we also wanted to see the long-term effects and measured improvements three, six and 12 months after entry into the study. Our results showed that yoga can provide both short and long-term benefits to those suffering from chronic or recurrent back pain, without any serious side-effects."

Medical Director of Arthritis Research UK Professor Alan Silman said: "We're delighted that our trial has shown that yoga provides such positive benefits for people with chronic low back pain. This extremely common condition cannot be managed with painkillers alone and there is an urgent need to have non-drug therapies that sufferers can utilise in their own home. This trial is part of our larger commitment to seek self-help solutions to this common musculoskeletal problem. There are compelling explanations why yoga may be helpful and this trial lends powerful support to the wider use of this approach."

Trial participants completed a questionnaire at three, six and 12 months from the start of the programme. On average, members of the yoga group were able to undertake 30 per cent more activities compared with those in the usual care group after three months, a statistically significant difference between the two groups which has been recognised as clinically important.

The trial showed that there was more reduction in pain in the yoga group than the usual care group, but of marginal statistical significance.

Researchers also compared the results from the yoga programme with those for high-quality randomised trials for exercise and manipulation, the Alexander technique and cognitive-behavioural treatment. The results suggested that the 12-week yoga group programme may improve back function more than exercise and manipulation, cognitive-behaviour treatment and six sessions of 1-to-1 Alexander technique, but not as much as 24 sessions of 1-to-1 Alexander technique.

Trial participant Sue Faulkner, 68, retired from her job as an administrator four years ago with the intention of spending her time gardening. However, within six months of retiring her back was so bad she found that walking any distance was painful and she needed to stop regularly to rest. Gardening was out of the question.

Sue from Bishopthorpe in York said: "I felt a definite benefit after the programme as it made me more flexible and we were taught positions to relieve certain types of back pain. I've continued going to yoga classes and still do the positions I was taught during the 12-week programme. Walking around is no longer a problem and I can do my gardening now so long as I pace myself. I've even taken on an allotment with my daughter and son-in-law and no longer take pain killers."

Those attending the specially-designed yoga programme, which involved step-by-step gentle classes, were encouraged to become self-sufficient in the long-term. Classes were supported with four home practice sheets, a manual, and a four-track audio CD teaching how to relax physically and mentally.

Iyengar Yoga teacher Alison Trewhela said: "The yoga programme offers poses for pain-relief and mental calming; mobilising, stretching, strengthening and relaxation; improving awareness of posture; education about how a healthy back functions; and positive mental focus. Yoga aims to treat the whole person - not just the physical.

"As most back pain conditions recur, these lifelong self-management skills are likely to be useful as a preventative measure. As a result of smaller previous trials, one million Americans currently practise yoga as a recommended treatment for low back pain."

Participants in the yoga programme were surveyed nine months after classes had finished and more than half of those who responded were still regularly practising yoga, mostly at home, twice a week.

Dec 10
Staff flee, leave patients unattended after fire
As bodies of AMRI Hospital fire victims are brought out of the annexe, it is the patients in the adjacent old building who are facing severe problems due to lack of attention as most staff have fled the premises, fearing wrath of the relatives of the 70 people killed Friday.

"There is a severe staff crunch today (Friday), especially of nurses and ayahs... my father didn't get his daily dose of medicines since morning. There is nobody to even serve a glass of water. Only one or two nurses are there and they are having a tough time in tackling all the patients," said Akhilesh Pandey, whose father was admitted at the hospital last week.

"I don't know where the nurses have gone. Even the ayah whom I pay every day is not present here, I got the news early in the morning," said Ronnen Roy, relative of another patient."I thank god that my uncle is safe but there is nobody to care for him. Even the doctor who pays regular visit has not turned up."

"I think the nurses and most of the hospital staffs have fled fearing the wrath of the relatives. There is hardly a person to man the help desk of the hospital," said Tapas Das, whose relative is also admitted.

"I have seen signs of public wrath at the entrance of the first floor with most of the glass planes completely smashed," he added.

Most of the wards of the old building have virtually turned into a morgue as bodies from the fire devastated building were kept there before being moved out for post-mortem examinations.

The first three floors of the old building have been taken over by either police officials or relatives of the deceased. The rooms of the doctors and the nurses were lying vacant.

The relatives alleged that some wards have been filled with more patients than their capacity in order to make room for the bodies.

"My sister-in-law was in a different ward. She has been shifted in a new ward, and we were not even informed about it," said Shyamal Pal.

More than 70 patients in Kolkata's wellknown AMRI Hospital were killed along with three staffers when a blaze started in the basement of the annexe building early Friday and toxic fumes quickly spread to the other floors, trapping hundreds of people.

The tragedy unfolded over many hours as patients were suffocated to death, some trapped in their beds, others dying in their sleep, too infirm to escape the smoke. The lucky few were brought down the side of the four-storey glass facade building, built only six years ago, using ropes and ladders as thousands looked on in horror.

Co-founded by the Emami & Shrachi Groups along with the West Bengal government in 1996, the hospital that was once rated as amongst India's best is located in the fairly upscale Dhakuria neighbourhood.

Dec 10
Only Reliable Adults' Behaviour Imitated by Babies!
Once infants are tricked they cannot be tricked again given their ability to tell the difference between credible and un-credible sources. Such distinguishing makes them imitate the behaviour of only those adults who they consider to be reliable, suggests a new study.

Simply put, most babies won't follow along if they have been previously fooled by an adult.

"Like older children, infants keep track of an individual's history of being accurate or inaccurate and use this information to guide their subsequent learning," said senior researcher Diane Poulin-Dubois, a professor in the Concordia Department of Psychology and member of the Centre for Research in Human Development.

"Specifically, infants choose not to learn from someone who they perceive as unreliable."

A group of 60 infants, aged 13 to 16 months, were tested as part of this study. Babies were divided in two groups; with reliable or unreliable testers.

In a first task, experimenters looked inside a container, while expressing excitement, and infants were invited to discover whether the box actually contained a toy or was empty. This task was designed to show the experimenter's credibility or lack thereof.

In a second imitation task, the same experimenter used her forehead instead of her hands to turn on a push-on light. The experimenter then observed whether infants would follow suit. The outcome stated that only 34 per cent of infants whose testers were unreliable followed this odd task.

By contrast, 61 per cent of infants in the reliable group imitated the irrational behaviour.

"This shows infants will imitate behaviour from a reliable adult," said second author Ivy Brooker.

"In contrast, the same behaviour performed by an unreliable adult is interpreted as irrational or inefficient, therefore not worth imitating."

These results add to a growing body of research from the same laboratory that suggests that even infants are adept at detecting who's reliable and who is not.

The study has been published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development.

Dec 08
Some Health Insurance Tips
Medical expenses are sky high these days, but was never cheap ever. Even a small treatment or an appointment with a doctor might consume a lot of money. Health insurance is a must, it saves money and covers unexpected calamities. Health insurance comes in handy to meet emergencies of severe ailment or accident. Sometimes it is associated with covering disability and custodial needs. Life is unpredictable, insurance can make it safe and secure from bearing huge loss. Health insurance is affordable and carries the assurance and freedom from insecurities that threaten life now and then.

Applying for health insurance is not only quick and convenient but also cost-effective. No complex forms, some basic details are all we need to fetch you the best health policies covering pre and post hospitalization expenses, day care procedures, critical illness cover, cashless claims and tax benefits.

The elaborate medical treatment expenses could eat into your savings meant for the future. Health insurance policies in India ensure that you get the required treatment and your pocket is still under control. Having health insurance in India is important because the coverage helps people cover the risk of financial difficulties in the event of long illness.

Health Insurance are available in two formats, individual health insurance policies and family floater health insurance. In, individual health insurance policies you are personally the owner of the policy. While in a family floater health insurance, the sponsor owns the policy and the people covered under it are called its members.

Generally, most of the health insurance products in India have a critical illness cover, though it comes with a waiting period. Also, when you purchase a comprehensive health insurance policy, there is generally a cap on the amount payable for critical illnesses cover. In a separate critical illness plan, the amount payable is lump sum.

The main difference between a critical illness separate plan and a comprehensive plan is that while the first will give you a lump sum payment of your total sum assured in case you get admitted for a critical disease, the latter will pay only the amount spent on the treatment within the sum assured limits.

Source-Medindia

Dec 07
'Gold standard' stem cells created by British scientists
British scientists have created the first known batch of "gold standard" stem cells which could one day lead to a new wave of treatments for degenerative diseases.

The stem cells, taken from human embryos and grown in the lab, are of unprecedented quality and could be offered to researchers before the end of next year for eventual use in clinical trials.
Previous embryonic stem cell (ESC) trials in humans have used lower-quality "research grade" cells, which are manipulated and reclassified into "clinical grade".
But the new ESCs, described as the "Holy Grail for regenerative medicine", are of clinical quality from the moment they are donated by patients and do not require a costly and risky conversion.
They are also untainted by animal-derived products which have been used by other researchers to stimulate growth.
Two lines of stem cells, which can be converted into virtually any type of tissue in the body, have been donated to the UK Stem Cell Bank (UKSCB) by researchers from King's College London.

Prof Peter Braude, a leading member of the team, said: "The key here is that these are clinical grade lines, they have been set up from the beginning as lines that do not contain animal products and have not got animal products coming into contact with them."
While ESCs of similar quality could potentially have been cultured in secret by private researchers such as drug companies, these are the first of their kind to be developed for public health benefit.
A line of cells of a similar quality is being developed by Manchester University researchers and is expected to be donated to the stem cell bank next month.
At the UKSCB the cell lines will undergo rigorous testing to ensure they are safe and of a sufficient calibre for use in human trials, but it is hoped they will be a "seedstock" for future experiments.
Prof Braude said the achievement, recorded in the Cytotherapy journal, marked ten years of painstaking research.
He said: "Cells that are ready for clinical use have really been the Holy Grail of everybody in terms of regenerative medicine.
"There is still a long way to go ... these are not ready for use now. They get handed over to the stem cell bank and they do exhaustive testing and a lot of lines are going to fail."
The cells could be handed over to university scientists or private companies by the end of next year, though there would likely be a significant period of preparation by researchers before clinical trials actually began.
Dr Glyn Stacey, director of the UKSCB, said: "They will be released - I wouldn't like to put a date on it, but some time next year.
"The moment we release them they are ready for use in a clinical trial."
It is widely believed that ESCs could one day be used to generate healthy tissue to replace damaged cells throughout the body, and potentially form the basis of new treatments for conditions like heart disease and Parkinson's.
ESCs are taken from frozen embryos the size of a pinhead, which are donated to researchers by IVF patients who have no further use for them and would otherwise have been discarded.

Dec 06
Liking a lie-in in people's genes, researchers say
People who like a lie-in may now have an excuse - it is at least partly down to their genes, according to experts.

Experts, who studied more than 10,000 people across Europe, found those with the gene ABCC9 need around 30 minutes more sleep per night than those without the gene.

The gene is carried by one in five Europeans, they say in their study, published in Molecular Psychiatry.

The researchers said the finding could help explain "sleep behaviour".

Over 10,000 people took part, each reporting how long they slept and providing a blood sample for DNA analysis.

People's sleep needs can differ significantly.

At the extreme, Margaret Thatcher managed on four hours of sleep a night while Albert Einstein needed 11.

Fruit flies
People from the Orkney Isles, Croatia, the Netherlands, Italy, Estonia and Germany took part in the study.

All were asked about their sleep patterns on "free" days, when people did not need to get up for work the next day, take sleeping pills or work shifts.

When the researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich compared these figures with the results of the genetic analysis, they found those with a variation of a gene known as ABCC9 needed more sleep than the eight-hour average.

They then looked at how the gene works in fruit flies, who also have it and found flies without ABCC9 slept for three hours less than normal.

The gene ABCC9 is involved in sensing energy levels of cells in the body.

They say this opens up a new line of research in sleep studies, and it is hoped that future work could establish exactly how this gene variant regulates how long people sleep for.

Dr Jim Wilson, from the University of Edinburgh's centre for population health sciences, said: "Humans sleep for approximately one-third of their lifetime.

"A tendency to sleep for longer or shorter periods often runs in families despite the fact that the amount of sleep people need can be influenced by age, latitude, season and circadian rhythms.

"These insights into the biology of sleep will be important in unravelling the health effects of sleep behaviour."

Sleep expert Neil Stanley said around half a dozen genes had been linked to sleep patterns.

He added: "It's interesting to know about these genes, but in a way our genes are an irrelevance unless you were actually to obey them - but none of us do that."

Dec 05
Why men are at higher skin cancer risk than women
Lower levels of an important skin antioxidant may be the reason behind males being more vulnerable to skin cancer than women, a new study has suggested.

Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that male mice had lower levels of an important skin antioxidant than female mice and higher levels of certain cancer-linked inflammatory cells.

The antioxidant, a protein called catalase, inhibits skin cancer by mopping up hydrogen peroxide and other DNA-damaging reactive-oxygen compounds that form during exposure to ultraviolet B light (UVB), a common source of sunburn and cancer-causing skin damage.

"The findings suggest that women may have more natural antioxidant protection in the skin than men," said study co-leaders Gregory Lesinski and Tatiana Oberyszyn.

"As a result, men may be more susceptible to oxidative stress in the skin, which may raise the risk of skin cancer in men compared to women," said Lesinski.

Lesinski, Oberyszyn, Sullivan and their colleagues conducted the study using a strain of hairless mice that develops squamous cell carcinoma of the skin - the second most common skin cancer in humans - when exposed to UVB.


The investigators also found that treating mice with topical catalase inhibited the migration of the suppressor cells into UVB-exposed skin, suggesting that the influx of these cells in males might be due to the relatively lower skin-catalase activity.

In fact, male mice with UVB-induced skin tumours had 55 percent more of the suppressor cells in the skin than did their female counterparts.

"This is the first report to our knowledge of a sex discrepancy in this group of inflammatory cells in tumour-bearing mice, and it suggests that our findings might translate to other types of cancer," said Oberyszyn, associate professor of pathology.

"Men face a higher risk of numerous types of cancers, and relatively higher levels of inflammatory myeloid cells might contribute to this susceptibility," Oberyszyn added.

The research has been published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Dec 03
"Aadhar" And Its Role In Delivering Healthcare
"Aadhar", the unique identification card (UID) would open up a whole new dimension in healthcare in the country, according to Mr Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Mr Nilekani was speaking on the theme "Aadhar and its role in delivering universal healthcare" at the special plenary session on the first day of the 8th India Health Summit organised by Confederation of India Industries (CII) at New Delhi.

Explaining the applications of the UID, Mr Nilekani said most Indians do not have birth certificates or any other proof of identity and added to this is the problem of migration or mobility. This poses a problem for an individual in availing any facility or service. The UID system being put in place in India would help eliminate this problem, Mr Niilekani said. With internet facilitating accumulation and analysis of large volumes of data, these records can prove of immense use both for the individual as well as the medical practitioners, the UIDAI chairman said. Pointing out that 125 million persons have already been enrolled for UID and the figure going to grow by 600 million in the next two and a half years, Mr Nilekani said this would help keep and examine records.

Explaining, he said it would enable and streamline delivery of healthcare facilities like immunisation. At present it is often not known what all has a child been immunised for, especially if he travels elsewhere with his parents. The records stored under his UIID would eliminate this problem. At the same time, with large volumes of data records of people, it would be possible to see trends of diseases, building up of any epidemic and monitor functioning of health care operators in real time, Mr Nilekani pointed out. Thanking Mr Nilekani for opening up "a whole new stream", Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII National Committee on Healthcare, said in light of all this, the medical fraternity would need to make use of the opportunity provided by the Aadhar system, work with the government on this and make the necessary tie ups to put systems in place for making use of the opportunity.

Dec 02
Half of HIV patients in Asia live in India
India houses half of Asia's HIV patients and is way ahead of China in disease burden. It also finds a place in the list of 22 countries prioritised for preventing mother to child transmission infection, according to the latest UNAIDS report, drafted jointly with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

About 48 lakh people were living with HIV in Asia in 2010 and nearly half of them - 49 per cent to be precise - are in India, says the report released on the eve of World AIDS Day. The percentage of pregnant women who tested positive for HIV infection in India also rose from 2 per cent in 2005 t0 23 per cent in 2010.

Seven Asian countries report an estimated 100,000 or more people living with HIV in 2009, collectively accounting for more than 90 per cent of people with HIV in the region. India tops the list followed by China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam, though the highest prevalence rate, one per cent, was observed only in Thailand. In Asia, the rate of HIV transmission appears to be slowing down. The estimated 360,000 people who were newly infected with HIV in Asia in 2010 were considerably fewer than the 450,000 estimated for 2001.

Traditional risk groups

Notwithstanding regional variations, the HIV epidemic is being stabilised among female sex workers and traditional risk groups in the six high-prevalence States including Karnataka. But epidemics among men who have sex with men are growing across the region including India.

High prevalence

High prevalence - between 8 and 32 per cent - has been found among surveyed men who have sex with men in many Asian cities. The UNAIDS report quotes one study, which shows that the prevalence is 18 per cent in South India. The report also says that 35 per cent of children with HIV infection were receiving anti-retroviral therapy treatment.

Variation exists among commercial sex workers, with a 2009 survey showing HIV prevalence of 4.6 per cent among female sex workers in Mumbai and Thane and 24 per cent among street-based sex workers. The prevalence could be as high as 29 per cent among their brothel-based counterparts in some districts of Maharashtra.

Yielding results

There is also evidence that prevention programmes are working in India. One such programme in Karnataka was associated with a drop in HIV prevalence from 25 per cent to 13 per cent among female sex workers in three selected districts between 2004 and 2009.

A similar programme brought down the prevalence from 1.4 per cent to 0.8 per cent among young antenatal clinic attendees between 2004 and2008 in 18 districts.

And yet another intervention programme in Mumbai and Thane led to a decline from 45 per cent HIV prevalence in 2004 to 13 per cent in 2010 among brothel-based sex workers.

Dec 01
India, Bulgaria Signs New Treaty
It has been recently revealed that a new MoU has been signed between India and Bulgaria. This shall be for the Health and Medicines and it shall bring bout positive changes in the medical exchange and correlation in the nations.

This new treaty shall make the health scenario of both the countries better. The treaty was signed by Shri. Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Health Minister from the Republic of Bulgaria, Dr. Stefen Kostantinov. This new association between the two countries is going to lead to a better functioning health structure of the areas. The delegation from Bulgaria is led by Mrs. Tsetska Tsacheva, from the Parliament of Bulgaria.

"Each country can learn from the experiences of the other and share best practices and success stories. The MoU would inter alia cover issues of medical services, public health and prophylactics (preventive medicine), medical science and training of medical personnel", revealed Azad, in a recent statement.

It is going to be able to build new legends at the face of the medical structure of the nation. It shall also be able to bring to terms the economic face of the medical industry to terms and shall help in making healthcare more affordable for people.

They shall also work towards the education of the medical personnel so that they can do their jobs better, and would be able to benefit the patients as well as the hospitals. The cooperation is going to increase friendly relations between the two countries and help to make healthcare better for the people of both the member nations. It's a matter of time to see how it changes the structure of health care in both the countries.

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