Category: Health

{Teenagers who are obese may be doing irreparable damage to their bones, according to a new study being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).}

Obesity in childhood and adolescence is associated with a number of health risks, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. For the new study, researchers are looking at how excess weight may affect bone structure.

“While obesity was previously believed to be protective of bone health, recent studies have shown a higher incidence of forearm fractures in obese youths,” said the study’s lead author, Miriam A. Bredella, M.D., radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Dr. Bredella and colleagues set out to determine the relationship between adolescent obesity and bone structure. The researchers have recruited 23 obese adolescents with a mean age of 17 years and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 44 kg/m2 for the ongoing study.

“Adolescence is the time where we accrue our peak bone mass, so bone loss during this time is a serious problem,” Dr. Bredella said. “We know from other chronic states that lead to bone loss in adolescence, such as anorexia nervosa, that increased fracture risk persists in adulthood, even after normalization of body weight. Therefore, it is important to address this problem early on.”

The researchers performed 3D HR-pQCT — a type of computed tomography exam designed specifically for measuring bone mineral density and bone microarchitecture in the arms and legs — to determine the bone structure of the distal radius, an area of the forearm near the wrist. They also performed dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) exams to determine body composition, including lean mass and visceral fat mass. Visceral fat is the deep fat in the abdomen that surrounds the internal organs.

“There are several mechanisms by which visceral fat exerts negative effects on bone,” Dr. Bredella said. “Visceral fat secretes substances that promote chronic inflammation, and chronic inflammation stimulates formation of osteoclasts, which are the cells that resorb or break-down bone. In addition, vitamin D, which is important for bone health, is soluble in adipose tissue and gets trapped within fat cells.”

She noted that growth hormone, which is important for bone health, is also lower in adolescents with visceral obesity.

The study results showed that BMI was positively associated with cortical thickness and area. Cortical bone is dense and compact and forms the outer shell of most bones. Visceral fat mass was positively associated with cortical porosity.

Lean mass was positively associated with trabecular density, volume and integrity. Trabecular bone is a spongy inner layer of bone that provides support and flexibility.

The findings suggest that having a high amount of visceral fat coupled with a low amount of muscle mass puts adolescents at risk for weakened bone structure.

“The best way to prevent bone loss is a healthy diet that contains adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D, along with sufficient exercise, as we have shown in our study that muscle mass is good for bone health,” Dr. Bredella said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity has more than quadrupled in adolescents over the past 30 years. It is estimated that more than one-third of children and adolescents in the U.S. are overweight or obese.

{You just might have touched some parts of your body on the list before reading this but I hope you wouldn’t touch them with your hands after reading this.}

Here are 6 parts of your body you should never touch with your hands

{{1. Your butt }}

You definitely don’t need this article to let you know about the dangers of touching your butt with your hands. Never touch your butt except you are washing or wiping because the anus contains bacteria that are potentially harmful.

{{2. Your nostrils }}

Keep your hands off your nostrils. According to a 2006 study published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, people who put their hands inside their nose were 51% more likely to carry staphylococcus aureus bacteria in their nose.

{{3. Ear canal }}

Sticking your fingers into your ears can tear the thin skin that lines the ear canal. If you feel the urge to stick your hands into your ears due to an itching sensation in your ear, it’s advisable you see an otolaryngologist who can access the cause of the itching.

{{4. Your face }}

Touching your face with your hands increases your likelihood of getting sick and also causing pimples. The only time your hands should touch your face is when you are applying skincare or washing your face.

{{5. Your eyes }}

Touching your eyes with your hands increases the likelihood of germs entering your eyes. You are only permitted to touch your eyes when you are washing away a particle that found its way into your eyes or when you’re putting in contacts.

{{6. Your mouth }}

According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, you transfer germs from your hands to your mouth when you put your hands in your mouth.

{A new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics showed that black infants had more than twice the deaths of whites attributable to lack of optimal breastfeeding. Black infants also had more than three times the rate of necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating disease of preterm infants, attributable to suboptimal rates of feeding with their mother’s own milk.}

It is recommended that women breastfeed each child exclusively for the first six months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding while complementary foods are introduced for at least the first year of life. The authors defined this practice as “optimal breastfeeding.”

White women initiate breastfeeding at much higher rates than black women and slightly higher rates than Hispanic women; moreover, white women breastfeed longer and have higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding. Current rates for black, white, and Hispanic women were defined as “suboptimal breastfeeding.” This is the first study to show how these disparities translate into differences in health outcomes.

“If mom can’t go to work, she’s not getting paid. This may spell the difference between making rent that month, or keeping the lights on, or paying for basic needs,” said Dr. Melissa Bartick, assistant professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, and lead author of the study. “When I first saw our results, I cried.”

Dr. Alison Stuebe, distinguished scholar of infant and young child feeding at the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, professor of medicine at UC Davis Health System, are co-authors of the study.

“These disparities rates reflect barriers to breastfeeding, such as lack of paid leave and outdated maternity care, that disproportionately impact families of color,” said Dr. Stuebe. “We can reduce health disparities by protecting each woman’s right to breastfeed her children.”

Two common diseases of infancy merit particular concern for black and Hispanic infants: ear infections and gastrointestinal infections. Compared with white infants, ear infections due to suboptimal breastfeeding were 1.7 times more common in black infants and 1.4 times as common in Hispanics; gastrointestinal infections due to suboptimal breastfeeding were about 1.3-to-1.4 times as common among both black and Hispanic infants.

Ear infections and gastrointestinal infections can translate into significant economic insecurity for parents who must miss work to care for sick children. Department of Labor statistics show that black and Hispanic mothers are more likely to be heads of households and to have low-wage jobs that lack paid sick leave.

The study also found differences in maternal health outcomes as a result of suboptimal breastfeeding. For both hypertension and type 2 diabetes, there was a 1.4-fold higher rate for black women attributable to suboptimal breastfeeding, compared with white women.

The study was funded by the WK Kellogg Foundation. It used computer modeling to simulate hypothetical cohorts of black, white and Hispanic women and the children they bore, based on current literature linking disease risk and breastfeeding.

{Researchers have discovered a way to remove specific fears from the brain, using a combination of artificial intelligence and brain scanning technology. Their technique, published in the inaugural edition of Nature Human Behaviour, could lead to a new way of treating patients with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobias.
}
Fear related disorders affect around one in 14 people and place considerable pressure on mental health services. Currently, a common approach is for patients to undergo some form of aversion therapy, in which they confront their fear by being exposed to it in the hope they will learn that the thing they fear isn’t harmful after all. However, this therapy is inherently unpleasant, and many choose not to pursue it. Now a team of neuroscientists from the University of Cambridge, Japan and the USA, has found a way of unconsciously removing a fear memory from the brain.

The team developed a method to read and identify a fear memory using a new technique called ‘Decoded Neurofeedback’. The technique used brain scanning to monitor activity in the brain, and identify complex patterns of activity that resembled a specific fear memory. In the experiment, a fear memory was created in 17 healthy volunteers by administering a brief electric shock when they saw a certain computer image. When the pattern was detected, the researchers over-wrote the fear memory by giving their experimental subjects a reward.

Dr. Ben Seymour, of the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Department, was one of the authors on the study. He explained the process:

“The way information is represented in the brain is very complicated, but the use of artificial intelligence (AI) image recognition methods now allow us to identify aspects of the content of that information. When we induced a mild fear memory in the brain, we were able to develop a fast and accurate method of reading it by using AI algorithms. The challenge then was to find a way to reduce or remove the fear memory, without ever consciously evoking it.”

“We realised that even when the volunteers were simply resting, we could see brief moments when the pattern of fluctuating brain activity had partial features of the specific fear memory, even though the volunteers weren’t consciously aware of it. Because we could decode these brain patterns quickly, we decided to give subjects a reward — a small amount of money — every time we picked up these features of the memory.”

The team repeated the procedure over three days. Volunteers were told that the monetary reward they earned depended on their brain activity, but they didn’t know how. By continuously connecting subtle patterns of brain activity linked to the electric shock with a small reward, the scientists hoped to gradually and unconsciously override the fear memory.

Dr Ai Koizumi, of the Advanced Telecommunicatons Research Institute International, Kyoto and Centre of Information and Neural Networks, Osaka, led the research:

“In effect, the features of the memory that were previously tuned to predict the painful shock, were now being re-programmed to predict something positive instead.”

The team then tested what happened when they showed the volunteers the pictures previously associated with the shocks.

“Remarkably, we could no longer see the typical fear skin-sweating response. Nor could we identify enhanced activity in the amygdala — the brain’s fear centre,” she continued. “This meant that we’d been able to reduce the fear memory without the volunteers ever consciously experiencing the fear memory in the process.”

Although the sample size in this initial study was relatively small, the team hopes the technique can be developed into a clinical treatment for patients with PTSD or phobias.

“To apply this to patients, we need to build a library of the brain information codes for the various things that people might have a pathological fear of, say, spiders” adds Dr Seymour.”Then, in principle, patients could have regular sessions of Decoded Neurofeedback to gradually remove the fear response these memories trigger.”

Such a treatment could have major benefits over traditional drug based approaches. Patients could also avoid the stress associated with exposure therapies, and any side-effects resulting from those drugs.

{Despite survival boost, gender gap hasn’t budged.}

People worldwide are living longer, healthier lives. A new study of mortality patterns in humans, monkeys and apes suggests that the last few generations of humans have enjoyed the biggest life expectancy boost in primate history.

The gains are partly due to advances in medicine and public health that have increased the odds of survival for human infants and reduced the death toll from childhood illness. Yet males still lag behind females — not just in humans but across the primate family tree, the researchers find.

“The male disadvantage has deep evolutionary roots,” said study co-author Susan Alberts, biology professor at Duke University.

The study will appear the week of Nov. 21 in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

An international team from the U.S., Germany, Denmark, Kenya and Canada compiled records of births and deaths for more than a million people worldwide, from the 18th century to the present. The data included people in post-industrial societies such as Sweden and Japan, people born in pre-industrial times, and modern hunter-gatherers, who provide a baseline for how long people might have lived before supermarkets and modern medicine.

The researchers combined these measurements with similar data for six species of wild primates that have been studied continuously for three to five decades, including Verreaux’s sifaka lemurs, muriqui monkeys, capuchins, baboons, chimpanzees and gorillas.

The data confirm a growing body of research suggesting that humans are making more rapid and dramatic gains than ever before seen in the primate family tree.

For example, in the last 200 years life expectancy in Sweden has jumped from the mid-30s to over 80, meaning that a baby born today can hope to live more than twice as long as one born in the early 19th century. The data show that today’s longest-lived human populations have a similar 40- to 50-year advantage over people who live traditional lifestyles, such as the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania and the Aché people of Paraguay.

In contrast, these modern hunter-gatherers — the best lens we have into the lives of early humans — live on average just 10 to 20 years longer than wild primates such as muriquis or chimpanzees, from which human ancestors diverged millions of years ago.

“We’ve made a bigger journey in lengthening our lifespan over the last few hundred years than we did over millions of years of evolutionary history,” Alberts said.

One indicator of healthcare improvement is infant mortality, which strikes fewer than 3 in 1000 babies born in Sweden or Japan today. But it was more than 40 times higher for those born two centuries ago, and is still high among hunter-gatherers and wild primates.

The researchers also studied lifespan equality, a measure similar to income equality that indicates whether longevity is distributed evenly across society, or only enjoyed by a few.

They found that, for both humans and wild primates, every gain in average lifespan is accompanied by a gain in lifespan equality. That is, for a population to be very long-lived, everyone must benefit more or less equally, with fewer individuals left behind.

The researchers were surprised to find that the longevity of human males has yet to catch up with females, and the improvements in males aren’t spread as evenly.

A girl born in Sweden in the early 1800s could expect to outlive her male counterparts by an average of three to four years. Two hundred years later, despite Swedes adding 45 years to their average lifespan, the gulf that separates the sexes has barely budged.

The life expectancy gender gap isn’t just true for humans. Females outlived males in almost every wild primate population they looked at.

“It’s puzzling,” Alberts said. “If we can make life last so long, why can’t we shrink the male-female gap?”

Numerous hypotheses have been proposed. Some pin the blame on genetics. Male primates, who carry only one copy of the X chromosome compared with two copies in females, lack a second X chromosome to compensate for any harmful gene variants their single X may have.

Another possibility, Alberts says, is that gender differences in risky behaviors like fighting continue to hold males back, even while deaths from infectious and chronic diseases that impact both sexes have declined.

If we can identify the culprit and intervene, Alberts says, we might be able to help men catch up.

{There are some disturbing issues that can damage your sexual life. These sexual issues could make it difficult for you to enjoy intercourse, and could pose certain problems between you and your partner.}

These are 6 common sexual issues that many people suffer from

{{1. Erectile dysfunction }}

This is a persistent or recurrent inability to attain, or to maintain an adequate erection until completion of the sexual activity.

Erectile dysfunction is a common problem men face sexually.

{{2. Female sexual arousal disorder }}

This is a persistent or recurrent inability of a woman to attain, or to maintain an adequate lubrication-swelling response of sexual excitement until completion of the sexual activity.

Many women suffer from this arousal disorder, and it makes them not to enjoy sex as they should.

{{3. Premature ejaculation }}

Another common male sexual issue is premature ejaculation. It is a persistent or recurrent ejaculation with minimal sexual stimulation before, on, or shortly after penetration.

Premature ejaculation could kill a man’s self-esteem and confidence in his capabilities.

{{4. Female orgasmic disorder }}

This is a persistent or recurrent delay in, or absence of, orgasm following a normal sexual excitement phase.

Women exhibit wide variability in the type or intensity of stimulation that triggers orgasm, but this disorder makes it difficult for a woman to experience orgasm, no matter what.

{{5. Vaginismus }}

Vaginismus is another common sexual problem for women. It is sometimes called vaginism and genito-pelvic pain disorder; it is a condition that affects a woman’s ability to engage in vaginal penetration, including sexual intercourse, manual penetration.

{{6. Dyspareunia }}

Dyspareunia is suffered by both men and women. It is a recurrent or persistent genital pain associated with sexual intercourse in either a male or a female.

{Scientists have discovered that drinking coffee can make a woman’s breast smaller.}

According to the researchers, drinking three cups of coffee a day was enough to start making a woman’s breast shrink, with the effects increasing for every cup drunk.

“Drinking coffee can have a major effect on breast size,” said Helena Jernstroem, a lecturer in experimental oncology at Lund University in Sweden.

“Coffee-drinking women do not have to worry their breasts will shrink to nothing overnight.

“They will get smaller but their breasts aren’t just going to disappear.

“However, anyone who thinks they can tell which women are coffee drinkers just from their bra measurements will be disappointed.

“The problem is that there are two measures for a bra, the cup size and the girth, so you wouldn’t be able to tell.”

{A new study in rats could begin to explain why allergies during pregnancy are linked to higher risks for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism in children.}

Researchers at The Ohio State University found significant changes in the brain makeup of fetuses and newborn rats exposed to allergens during pregnancy.

Animals that lived to adulthood after allergen exposure before birth showed signs of hyperactivity and antisocial behavior and decreased anxiety, found a research team led by Kathryn Lenz, an Ohio State assistant professor of psychology.

“This is evidence that prenatal exposure to allergens alters brain development and function and that could be an underappreciated factor in the development of neurodevelopmental disorders,” said Lenz, who presented her research Nov. 16 in San Diego at Neuroscience 2016, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Though there are established links between allergies and ADHD and autism — as well as between inflammation and risk of autism, schizophrenia and ADHD — the cellular-level changes that could contribute to those connections largely remain a mystery.

Autism and ADHD are both three to four times as common in boys than in girls, Lenz said. And so she and her collaborators set out to look for sex differences in the rats as well.

“We’re really interested in figuring out unknown factors in psychological disorders and in differences between male and female brain development as it relates to autism, ADHD and other disorders,” Lenz said.

To study the effects of allergies on offspring, researchers sensitized female rats to ovalbumin (found in egg whites) before pregnancy. Then, 15 days into their pregnancies, they exposed them to the allergen, prompting an immune response in the animals.

They analyzed whether prenatal allergen exposure changed the number and behavior of immune cells in the developing brain of offspring. They explored possible changes in young rats’ physical activity, anxiety-like behavior, ability to learn and sociability. And they examined the density of dendritic spines in the juvenile animals’ brains. The spines protrude from neurons and are vital to cellular-level communication in the brain.

Rats exposed to allergens before birth had higher levels of immune cells called mast cells in the brain and lower numbers of immune cells called microglia, regardless of the animals’ gender.

Animals with allergic mothers were hyperactive, but had lower levels of anxiety-like behavior. When they interacted with other juvenile rats, the males in the allergen group were less likely to roughhouse with their peers.

“Young rats engage in social play and males are more rough and tumble and usually play much more than females,” Lenz said.

“The males born to the allergen-exposed mothers looked more like females. They were more socially reserved. They were really hyperactive, but socially disengaged. That looks a bit like ADHD.”

And when the researchers looked at the animals’ ability to be mentally flexible, the rats born to allergic mothers had a tougher time, Lenz said.

“They have to use rules to find a reward — a Cheerio in a terracotta pot — and the rules we give them keep shifting,” Lenz said, explaining that in one test the treat might be in a pot covered in sandpaper and in another test it might be in a pot covered in velvet.

The rats in the allergen group weren’t as capable of adapting to the changing parameters of the test, and the males had deficits that were more significant than the females.

Early data from the study shows that the dendritic spines — the points of synaptic connection between cells in the frontal cortex of the animals’ brains — were decreased in males with allergy exposure and increased in their female counterparts.

{According to a new research, the number of people in the world with high blood pressure has reached 1.13 billion. The research which is the largest ever study of its kind, involved the World Health Organization and hundreds of scientists throughout the world, and incorporated blood pressure measurements from nearly 20 million people.}

The study was conducted by scientists at Imperial College London, and these are 5 key things to learn from the study.

1. Previously, high blood pressure was mostly linked with the rich and affluent, but according to Professor Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study at the School of Public Health at Imperial: “High blood pressure is no longer related to affluence — as it was in 1975 — but is now a major health issue linked with poverty.”

2. The research also revealed men had higher blood pressure than women in most countries in the world in 2015. Globally, 597 million men had raised blood pressure, compared to 529 million women.

3. High blood pressure puts extra strain on the blood vessels and major organs such as heart, brain and kidneys. It is the world’s leading cause of cardiovascular disease, which leads to stroke and heart attacks, and is thought to cause 7.5 million deaths a year across the globe.

4. The team explained the condition is caused by a number of factors including dietary influences, such as eating too much salt and not enough fruit and vegetables, obesity, insufficient exercise and some environmental factors such as lead exposure and air pollution. The condition is more common in older ages.

5. The top five countries with the highest proportion of men with high blood pressure in 2015 were all in Central and Eastern Europe: Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Slovenia. Nearly two in five men in these countries had high blood pressure. While the top five countries with the highest proportion of women with high blood pressure in 2015 were all in Africa: Niger, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Somalia. Around one in three women in these countries had high blood pressure.

6. Professor Ezzati also revealed that poor nutrition in childhood in low-income countries may also play a role in the study findings: “Increasing evidence suggests poor nutrition in early life years increases risk of the high blood pressure in later life, which may explain the growing problem in poor countries.”

The research led by scientists at Imperial College London is the largest ever study of its kind, the research involved the World Health Organization and hundreds of scientists throughout the world, and it was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Findings from the study were published in the journal The Lancet.

{Work and sheer nonchalance can tend to make one forget to change their underwear very often, but it’s a necessity that cannot be gone around. No matter how busy you find yourself, it’s important to always find time to keep yourself clean down there, by making sure that you wear clean underwear.}

I cannot say exactly how often you should, but I think you should know it’s time to change into your new underwear every day, or the moment you sweat. There are dangers you expose yourself to when you fail to keep your down below clean, and they include…

{{1. Smelly privates }}

When you wear underwear for too long, you simply hand out an invite to bacteria and germs which would cause you to smell down there.

You go through all sorts of things daily, and some of them may cause you to sweat. I don’t need to tell you that germs like damp environments. They’ll build up around your privates the longer you wear them, and cause you to have a foul stench.

{{2. Itchy privates }}

You’ve probably not heard that lice can build around your privates if you give them an enabling environment. Lice are itchy, and will cause you great discomfort and embarrassment if you give them the opportunity to attack. Apart from lice, there are germs and bacteria that can cause itching in your privates, so it’s a great idea to change your underwear often.

{{3. Sore skin }}

With great itching comes great scratching. The more you scratch your itchy skin and private region, the more likelihood there is that you’ll develop painful and discomforting sores on your skin.

{{4. Ifections }}

From yeast infection to urinary tract infections, you expose yourself to dangerous infections when you fail to keep your privates clean. This is especially true for women. Due to the nature of your sex organ, it’s easier for you to catch theses infections than men. If you have one, it’s important to contact a doctor, but you won’t ever have to if you keep yourself clean, and change your underwear often.