Knowledge Update

New York, April 4 (IANS) Obese people struggling with weight loss can now opt for safe, minimally invasive, non-surgical weight-loss treatments, finds a new study.

Radiologists have developed a new image-guided treatment called bariatric arterial embolisation (BAE), which blocks blood flow to a certain part of the stomach that could help obese patients lose weight.

"Currently, interventions to treat obesity include behavioural modifications, diet and exercise, medications and surgery. We're excited about the promise of BAE as another tool for health care providers to offer patients in the effort to curb this epidemic," said Clifford Weiss, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University in US. 

The findings showed that compared to a surgical gastric bypass procedure, BAE is significantly less invasive and has a much shorter recovery time.

Though the results are still preliminary, BAE appears to be effective in helping patients lose a significant amount of weight in the short and intermediate term.

All patients demonstrated weight loss and dramatic hunger reduction levels after undergoing the treatment. 

The participants showed an average excess-weight loss of 5.9 percent, after a month. 

After six months, the excess-weight loss increased to an average of 13.3 percent.

The treatment starts by feeding a small catheter through a patient's arteries, via an incision in either the groin or the wrist, to an area at the top of the stomach called the fundus, where the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin is produced. Tiny beads are injected through the catheter to decrease blood flow to the fundus.

For the pilot study, the team enrolled seven severely obese, but otherwise healthy, adults with a body mass index (BMI) ranging from 40 to 60, far above the obesity threshold level of BMI of 30. 

After the treatment, researchers tracked the subjects' weight loss, ghrelin levels, hunger and satiety assessments, quality-of-life (using surveys), blood pressure, and adverse events at one-, three- and six-month marks.

In these first seven patients, bariatric embolisation was safe, with no major adverse events. There was weight loss and dramatic reduction in hunger levels. Also, ghrelin levels toned down and quality-of-life scores improved.

The study was presented at the ongoing Society of Interventional Radiology's 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

​New York, April 1 (IANS) Drinking black, decaf or even instant coffee daily can lower the risk of developing colorectal cancer, finds a study.

Moderate coffee consumption, between one to two servings a day, was associated with a 26 percent reduction in the odds of developing colorectal cancer after adjusting for known risk factors.

Moreover, the risk of developing colorectal cancer continued to decrease to up to 50 percent when participants drank more than 2.5 servings of coffee each day. 

"We found that drinking coffee is associated with lower risk of colorectal cancer and the more coffee consumed, the lower the risk," said lead researcher Stephen Gruber from University Of Southern California.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, examined over 5,100 participants who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer within the past six months, along with an additional 4,000 participants with no history of colorectal cancer to serve as a control group. 

A questionnaire also gathered information about many other factors that influence the risk of colorectal cancer, including family history of cancer, diet, physical activity and smoking.

The indication of decreased risk was seen across all types of coffee, both caffeinated and decaffeinated.

Caffeine and polyphenol compounds present in coffee can act as antioxidants, limiting the growth of potential colon cancer cells. 

"The good news is that our data presents a decreased risk of colorectal cancer regardless of what flavor or form of coffee you prefer," said study co-author Stephanie Schmit. 

"While the evidence certainly suggests this to be the case, we need additional research before advocating for coffee consumption as a preventive measure," said Gad Rennert from Clalit National Israeli Cancer Control Center in Haifa, Isreal.​

We spend one third of our life sleeping. There must be a good reason why nature makes us sleep for this long. Large number of studies all over the world has shown the beneficial effects of good sleep.

Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, results in impairment of judgement, depression, heart problems, obesity and drastic reduction in general well-being of an individual. In an extreme case, sleep deprivation has also resulted in death through heart failure. In fact, the first sign of sickness is fretful sleep. 

How lack of sleep produces ill health has remained a mystery. Now, slowly, scientific investigations are solving this puzzle.

One of the accepted theories so far has been that sleep helps in both consolidation and removal of memories. We perceive the world during the day through our senses and it results in memory formation both shallow and deep. Sleep, it seems, helps in consolidating and removing some of these memories uncluttering the brain.

Another recent, but fascinating, theory (backed with experiments) has shown that sleep helps in flushing out toxic protein waste and biological debris from the brain, formed during waking hours. It seems that during sleep the relaxation of brain helps in opening up the channels through which the debris flows into the blood streams and is removed from it. 

Studies have also shown that sleep helps flush out harmful protein plaque (beta amyloid) which is responsible for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Thus good sleep is extremely essential for a healthy brain and body.

The build-up of toxins in the brain due to inadequate sleep also affects the body. Though there is very little understanding of how this happens, a probable cause is the passage of this information by the vagus nerve to different parts of the body. 

Scientific investigations have also shown that information of any slight change in the brain chemistry is transmitted to various organs by the vagus nerve, which plays an important part in keeping the brain and body in unison.

As the brain starts getting affected by the debris build-up, the message via vagus nerve to various organs might be to slow them down, resulting in their lethargic action.

Just like deep sleep, meditation also enables dissolution of memories. In fact, deep sleep and meditation have similar characteristics and it is quite possible that during meditation the flushing of toxins from the brain may also take place. 

A possible mechanism could be that since meditation results in the relaxation of brain, it may help in opening up the channels for flushing off the chemical debris.

Memory is formed both by producing new neural pathways and certain chemical changes in the brain. Memory removal therefore is affected by changes in both these mechanisms. 

In deep meditation (where the focus is on a single thought for a long time, also called Sanyam) new neural pathways are formed and the old ones get dissolved. This dissolution may have a chemical signature thereby producing toxic debris which needs to be flushed out.

How can we induce good sleep? Generally when the body is healthy and the person follows a good exercise regime, then this helps to produce deep sleep. Production of deep sleep can also be helped by meditation. Studies world over have shown that long term practice of meditation helps in toning both the mind and body. 

A good meditation practice to follow for quickly falling asleep is to close the eyes and focus attention onto the center of forehead. This can be done just before going to sleep and also when one wakes up at night and has difficulty in falling asleep again. ​

​New Delhi, March 29 (IANS) With summer around the corner, sweat is a major problem and it is just no fun. Though it is a natural phenomenon, it can be quite embarrassing and problematic when you are out with someone or have to go for an important meeting.

Home hacks like putting potatoes slices under your arms and drinking a glass of tomato juice every day will help you in getting rid of this excessive sweat. 

Rahul Aggarwal, CEO, Organic Harvest, an organic beauty care range company, has shared some easy tips on how to keep sweat at bay this summer season.

* Coconut oil: Infuse about 10 grams of camphor in a bowl of coconut oil and apply on the sweat prone areas after bath. Leave it on for 45-60 minutes. Wash it off with clean water to give you desired results.

* Salt: To cure excessive sweating this summer, mix a tablespoon of salt with lime juice. Massaging your hands with this mix will decelerate the activities of sweat glands.

* Tea tree oil: Tea tree oil can be applied to the high perspiring areas. Desired results can be seen if regularly used. It is also excellent for oily skin.

* Potato: These will help in getting rid of sweat. Simply cut slices of potato and rub them under your arms and the areas prone to sweat. Allow the slices to dry before wearing your clothes.

* Tomato juice: Drinking a glass of tomato juice every day will help you in getting rid of this excessive sweat during summer.

* Grapes: A natural anti-oxidant, grapes help you balance the temperature of the body. So eating grapes daily can help you soothe out the problem of this excessive sweating.

* Vinegar: Intake of two teaspoons of natural vinegar and one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar is an excellent remedy to cure the excessive sweating. Taking this mixture thrice a day on an empty stomach half an hour before or after meals will give you the desired results.

* Cornstarch and baking soda: If you sweat profusely, applying the mixture of cornstarch and baking soda under the arms will help you get rid of this problem. After applying the mixture let it stay for half an hour till it dries up and later wash it off with clean water.​

​New York, March 25 (IANS) Young smartphone users under the age of 25 use a whopping 6.2 GB of mobile and Wi-Fi data each month for mobile video streaming, according to a study.

The study, 'Connected Intelligence Smartphone and Tablet Usage Report', was recently carried out by the multi-national market research company NPD Group, wirelessweek.com reported. 

It also found the average smartphone user eats up nearly 3 GB of mobile data per month, with video streaming as the top driver of that consumption.

Smartphone users under the age of 25 are also outpacing their peers in terms of time spent watching streamed video content.

"Users are spending more time watching videos on their smartphones than ever before, as the adoption of smartphones that boast larger displays increases," said NPD Connected Intelligence Mobility practice research director Brad Akyuz. 

But while younger users may lead in terms of consumption, they are far from the only ones streaming video.

According to the study, more than 80 percent of all smartphone users in the US now stream video on their devices.

"This mobile streaming behaviour is further bolstered by the new offerings of wireless operators, such as T-Mobile's Binge On and Verizon Wireless' go90, which run on free sponsored data," Akyuz said.​

New York, March 25 (IANS) Sitting for more than three hours per day is responsible for nearly four percent of deaths in the world, shows an analysis of surveys from 54 countries around the world.Reducing sitting time to less than three hours per day would increase life expectancy by an average of 0.2 years, the researchers estimated.
In order to properly assess the damaging effects of sitting, the study analysed behavioural surveys from 54 countries around the world and matched them with statistics on population size, actuarial table and overall deaths

Researchers found that sitting time significantly impacted all-cause mortality, accounting for approximately 433,000, or 3.8 percent, of all deaths across the 54 nations in the study. 

They also found that sitting had higher impact on mortality rates in the Western Pacific region, followed by European, Eastern Mediterranean, American, and Southeast Asian countries, respectively.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

While researchers found that sitting contributed to all-cause mortality, they also estimated the impact from reduced sitting time independent of moderate to vigorous physical activity. 

"It was observed that even modest reductions, such as a 10 percent reduction in the mean sitting time or a 30-minute absolute decrease of sitting time per day, could have an instant impact in all-cause mortality in the 54 evaluated countries, whereas bolder changes (for instance, 50 percent decrease or two hours fewer) would represent at least three times fewer deaths versus the 10 percent or 30-minute reduction scenarios," explained lead investigator Leandro Rezende from the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine in Brazil.​

​New York, March 25 (IANS) Overweight middle-aged adults losing weight with a protein-rich diet are more likely to sleep better, than those who are losing weight consuming a normal quantity of proteins, say a new study.

"Most research looks at the effects of sleep on diet and weight control, and our research flipped that question to ask what are the effects of weight loss and diet -- specifically the amount of protein -- on sleep," said Wayne Campbell from Purdue University in the US. 

"We found that while consuming a lower calorie diet with a higher amount of protein, sleep quality improves for middle-age adults. This sleep quality is better compared to those who lost the same amount of weight while consuming a normal amount of protein," Campbell added in a paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

The study analysed 44 overweight or obese participants who consumed either a normal-protein or a higher-protein weight loss diet. 

The participants completed a survey to rate the quality of their sleep every month throughout the study. 

The findings showed that those who consumed more protein while losing weight reported an improvement in sleep quality after three and four months of dietary intervention.

"Short sleep duration and compromised sleep quality frequently lead to metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and premature death," said study's first author Jing Zhou. 

"Given the high prevalence of sleep problems it's important to know how changes to diet and lifestyle can help improve sleep," Zhou stated.

"This research adds sleep quality to the growing list of positive outcomes of higher-protein intake while losing weight and those other outcomes include promoting body fat loss, retention of lean body mass and improvements in blood pressure," Campbell said​

​London, March 22 (IANS) Using social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook can be beneficial for helping people to exchange knowledge with rare medical diseases and build communities, says a new study.

According to researchers, people often seek medical knowledge from social media platforms rather than traditional medical sources to find information on and discuss health issues -- particularly where patient experiences and medical advice are both equally valued.

"This project shows the potential of online communication tools for isolated patient communities and the extent to which patients' experiential knowledge is becoming a point of reference for other patients, together with - or sometimes in isolation from - traditional medical sources,” said Stefania Vicari from University of Leicester's department of media and communication in the Britain.

"These forms of organisationally enabled connective action can help to build personal narratives that strengthen patient communities, the bottom-up production of health knowledge relevant to a wider public and the development of an informational and eventually cultural context that eases patients' political action,” added Vicari in the paper published in the journal Information, Communication and Society.

The study examined online interactions in rare disease patient organisations in order to interpret how and to what extent patient organisations exploit online networking structures to provide alternative platforms for people to find information on and discuss health issues.

The findings suggests that digital media eases one-way, two-way and crowd-sourced process of health knowledge sharing -- provides personalised routes to health-related public engagement, creates new ways to access health information - particularly where patient experiences and medical advice are both equally valued.

"Not only is patients' knowledge valuable for peer support within patient communities, it has the potential to add to traditional medical knowledge, especially in cases where this is limited - such as in the case of rare diseases," Vicari stated.​

London, March 22 (IANS) If you have been diagnosed with diabetes for 10 years or even longer than that, don't give up hope as major improvement in blood sugar control is possible!

According to a new study, individuals who suffer from diabetes and successfully lose weight through a very low calorie diet, can reverse their condition and remain free of diabetes for the long term. 

In addition, even patients who had type 2 diabetes for up to 10 years can also reverse their condition.

The findings showed that the fat, which accumulated in their pancreas, gets removed as a result of a low calorie diet and thus leads to the normal production of insulin.

"What we have shown is that it is possible to reverse your diabetes, even if you have had the condition for a long time, up to around 10 years," said lead researcher Roy Taylor, professor at Newcastle University in Britain.

Individuals vary in how much weight they can carry without it seeming to affect their metabolism.

If a person gains more weight than what he or she personally can tolerate, then diabetes is triggered, but if they then lose that amount of weight then they go back to normal.

"The bottom line is that if a person really wants to get rid of their type 2 diabetes, they can lose weight, keep it off and return to normal," Taylor maintained.

For the research, published in the journal Diabetes Care, 30 volunteers having type 2 diabetes for between six months and 23 years embarked on a diet of 600 to 700 calories a day. 

Participants lost on average 14 kg. Over the next six months they did not regain any weight.

Overall 12 patients, who were having diabetes for less than 10 years, reversed their condition. Six months later they remained diabetes free.

Though the volunteers lost weight they remained overweight or obese but they had lost enough weight to remove the fat out of the pancreas and allow normal insulin production, the researchers pointed out.

The team was also able to identify in advance participants who would not respond to adequate weight loss by reversing their diabetes as at the start they had almost absent insulin production from the pancreas.

"This is good news for people who are very motivated to get rid of their diabetes. But it is too early to regard this as suitable for everyone," Taylor concluded.​