Friday 29 December 2017

The Use Of Petroleum Jelly Can Lead To Bacterial Infection

The Use Of Petroleum Jelly Can Lead To Bacterial Infection.
Women who use petroleum jelly vaginally may put themselves at hazard of a proletarian infection called bacterial vaginosis, a nugatory study suggests. Prior studies have linked douching to ill effects, including bacterial vaginosis, and an increased danger of sexually transmitted diseases and pelvic fervid disease. But little research has been conducted on the possible effects of other products some women use vaginally, said Joelle Brown, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the brand-new study.

She and her colleagues found that of 141 Los Angeles women they studied, half said they'd cast-off some fount of over-the-counter product vaginally in the past month, including sexual lubricants, petroleum jelly and indulge oil. Almost as many, 45 percent, reported douching. When the researchers tested the women for infections, they found that those who'd second-hand petroleum jelly in the dead month were more than twice as likely as non-users to have bacterial vaginosis.

Bacterial vaginosis occurs when the normal deliberate between "good" and "bad" bacteria in the vagina is disrupted. The symptoms include discharge, pain, itching or blazing - but most women have no symptoms, and the infection usually causes no long-term problems. Still, bacterial vaginosis can institute women more vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.

It also at times leads to pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause infertility. The new findings, reported in the April event of Obstetrics & Gynecology, do not prove that petroleum jelly exactly increased women's risk of bacterial vaginosis. But it's possible, said Dr Sten Vermund, commander of the Institute for Global Health at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.

Petroleum jelly might inspire the growth of bad bacteria because of its "alkaline properties," explained Vermund, who was not tangled in the study. "An acidic vaginal environment is what protects women from colonization from odd organisms". He noted that many studies have now linked douching to an increased risk of vaginal infections. And that may be because the preparation "disrupts the natural vaginal ecology".

Thursday 28 December 2017

Implantable Devices Are Not A Panacea, But The Ability To Relieve Migraine Attacks

Implantable Devices Are Not A Panacea, But The Ability To Relieve Migraine Attacks.
An implantable plot covert in the nape of the neck may excellent more headache-free days for people with severe migraines that don't respond to other treatments, a unknown study suggests. More than 36 million Americans get migraine headaches, which are marked by perfervid pain, sensitivity to light and sound, nausea and vomiting, according to the Migraine Research Foundation. Medication and lifestyle changes are the first-line treatments for migraine, but not one and all improves with these measures.

The St Jude Medical Genesis neurostimulator is a short, all skin and bones strip that is implanted behind the neck. A battery bunch is then implanted elsewhere in the body. Activating the device stimulates the occipital nerve and can crepuscular the pain of migraine headache. "There are a large number of patients for whom nothing works and whose lives are ruined by the circadian pain of their migraine headache, and this device has the potential to help some of them," said scan author Dr Stephen D Silberstein, director of the Jefferson Headache Center in Philadelphia.

The study, which was funded by monogram manufacturer St Jude Medical Inc, is slated for debut on Thursday at the International Headache Congress in Berlin, and is the largest study to date on the device. The partnership is now seeking approval for the device in Europe and then plans to submit their data to the US Food and Drug Administration for sanction in the United States.

Researchers tested the new device in 157 populace who had severe migraines about 26 days out of each month. After 12 weeks, those who received the restored device had seven more headache-free days per month, compared to one more headache-free day per month seen amongst people in the control group.

Individuals in the control arm did not receive stimulation until after the anything else 12 weeks. Study participants who received the stimulator also reported less severe headaches and improvements in their dignity of life. After one year, 66 percent of people in the study said they had ripping or good pain relief.

The pain reduction seen in the study did fall short of FDA standards, which whoop for a 50 percent reduction in pain. "The device is invisible to the eye, but not to the touch". The implantation course of action involves local anesthesia along with conscious sedation so you are awake, but not fully aware.

There may be some forbearing pain associated with this surgery. Study co-author Dr Joel Saper, collapse and director of Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, and a associate of the advisory board for the Migraine Research Foundation, said this therapy could be an important option for some bodies with migraines.

Wednesday 27 December 2017

US Population Is Becoming Fatter And Less Lives

US Population Is Becoming Fatter And Less Lives.
Being too fruitful can cut your life, but being too skinny may cut longevity as well, a new study suggests. Using figures on almost 1,5 million white adults culled from 19 separate analyses, researchers from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that 5 percent of the US people can be classified as morbidly paunchy - a number five times higher than previously thought. With a body volume index (BMI) of 40 or higher, the morbidly obese had a death velocity more than double that of those of normal weight, according to study author Amy Berrington de Gonzalez.

BMI is a period of body fat based on height and weight. Those with BMIs between 25 and 30 are considered overweight, while BMIs over 30 are considered obese. The study, which sought to found an optimal BMI range, showed it to be between 20 and 25 in those who never smoked, and 22,5 to 25 in those who did.

Two-thirds of American adults are classified as either overweight or obese. "We were focusing mostly on cheerful BMI - over 25 - and the objective was to make plain the relationships between weight and longevity rather than expect to find anything completely new," said Berrington de Gonzalez, an investigator with the National Cancer Institute's allotment of cancer epidemiology and genetics in Bethesda, Md.

Although her band did not calculate the number of life years potentially confounded due to obesity, they determined the highest death rates for this group were from cardiovascular disease. About 58 percent of analyse participants were female, and the median baseline age was 58.

New Non Invasive Test For Detection Of Tumors Of The Colon Is More Accurate Than Previously Used

New Non Invasive Test For Detection Of Tumors Of The Colon Is More Accurate Than Previously Used.
A additional noninvasive check-up to read pre-cancerous polyps and colon tumors appears to be more accurate than advised noninvasive tests such as the fecal occult blood test, Mayo clinic researchers say. The researching for a highly accurate, noninvasive alternative to invasive screens such as colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy is a "Holy Grail" of colon cancer research. In a prior trial, the new try was able to identify 64 percent of pre-cancerous polyps and 85 percent of full-blown cancers, the researchers reported.

Dr Floriano Marchetti, an subordinate professor of clinical surgery in the division of colon and rectal surgery at University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the untrodden study could be an important adjunct to colon cancer screening if it proves itself in further study. "Obviously, these findings requisite to be replicated on a larger scale. Hopefully, this is a good start for a more reliable test".

Dr Durado Brooks, leader of colorectal cancer at the American Cancer Society, agreed. "These findings are interesting. They will be more fascinating if we ever get this kind of data in a screening population".

The study's lead researcher remained optimistic. "There are 150000 rejuvenated cases of colon cancer each year in the United States, treated at an estimated price of $14 billion," noted Dr David A Ahlquist, professor of c physic and a consultant in gastroenterology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "The hallucinate is to eradicate colon cancer altogether and the most realistic approach to getting there is screening. And screening not only in a motion that would not only detect cancer, but pre-cancer. Our test takes us closer to that dream".

Ahlquist was scheduled to endowment the findings of the study Thursday in Philadelphia at a meeting on colorectal cancer sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research. The redesigned technology, called the Cologuard sDNA test, innards by identifying specific altered DNA in cells shed by pre-cancerous or cancerous polyps into the patient's stool.

If a DNA distortion is found, a colonoscopy would still be needed to confirm the results, just as happens now after a unquestionable fecal occult blood test (FOBT) result. To see whether the test was effective, Ahlquist's group tried it out on more than 1100 frozen stool samples from patients with and without colorectal cancer.

The check was able to detect 85,3 percent of colorectal cancers and 63,8 percent of polyps bigger than 1 centimeter. Polyps this extent are considered pre-cancers and most likely to progress to cancer.

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Use Of Smokeless Tobacco Increases The Risk Of Cancer, Stroke, Heart Attack

Use Of Smokeless Tobacco Increases The Risk Of Cancer, Stroke, Heart Attack.
Many smokers in the United States and its territories also use smokeless tobacco products such as snuff and munch tobacco, a grouping that makes quitting much more difficult, a redone federal weigh shows. Researchers analyzed data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and found that the classify of smokers who also use smokeless tobacco ranged from 0,9 percent in Puerto Rico to 13,7 percent in Wyoming. "The take up arms against tobacco has taken on a new dimension as parts of the outback report high rates of cigarette smoking and smokeless tobacco use among adults. The modern development data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal disturbing trends in smoking commonness as more individuals use multiple tobacco products to satisfy their nicotine addiction," American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown said in a assertion released Thursday.

And "No tobacco offshoot is safe to consume. The health hazards associated with tobacco use are well-documented and a latest American Heart Association policy statement indicates smokeless tobacco products heighten the risk of fatal heart attack, fatal stroke and certain cancers". Among the 13 states with the highest rates of smoking, seven also had the highest rates of smokeless tobacco use.

In these states - Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia - at least one of every nine men who smoked cigarettes also reported using smokeless tobacco. The rates in those states ranged from 11,8 percent in Kentucky to 20,8 percent in Arkansas. The claim with the highest pace of smokeless tobacco use amidst of age masculine smokers was Wyoming (23,4 percent).

Sunday 17 December 2017

Infection With Ascaris Eggs Relieves Symptoms Of Ulcerative Colitis

Infection With Ascaris Eggs Relieves Symptoms Of Ulcerative Colitis.
The specimen of a mankind who swallowed parasite eggs to treat his ulcerative colitis - and really got better - sheds light on how "worm therapy" might help heal the gut, a callow study suggests. "Our findings in this case report suggest that infection with the eggs of the T trichiura roundworm can alleviate the symptoms of ulcerative colitis," said weigh leader P'ng Loke, an aide professor in the department of medical parasitology at NYU Langone Medical Center. A accommodating parasite, Trichuris trichiura infects the large intestine.

The findings could also lead to additional ways to treat the debilitating disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) currently treated with drugs that don't always industry and can cause serious side effects, said Loke. The contemplation findings are published in the Dec 1, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Loke and his side followed a 35-year-old man with severe colitis who tried worm (or "helminthic") psychoanalysis to avoid surgical removal of his entire colon. He researched the therapy, flew to a heal in Thailand who had agreed to give him the eggs, and swallowed 1500 of them.

The man contacted Loke after his self-treatment and "was essentially symptom-free". Intrigued, he and his colleagues sure to follow the man's condition.

The study analyzed slides and samples of the man's blood and colon web from 2003, before he swallowed the eggs, to 2009, a few years after ingestion. During this period, he was practically symptom-free for almost three years. When his colitis flared in 2008, he swallowed another 2000 eggs and got better again, said Loke.

Tissue captivated during lively colitis showed a large number of CD4+ T-cells, which are immune cells that produce the inflammatory protein interleukin-17, the yoke found. However, tissue taken after worm therapy, when his colitis was in remission, contained lots of T-cells that commission interleukin-22 (IL-22), a protein that promotes wound healing.

Friday 15 December 2017

Colonoscopy Decreases The Potential For Colorectal Cancer On The Right Side Of The Colon Also

Colonoscopy Decreases The Potential For Colorectal Cancer On The Right Side Of The Colon Also.
In joining to reducing the jeopardize of cancer on the hand side of the colon, new research indicates that colonoscopies may also reduce cancer endanger on the right side. The finding contradicts some previous research that had indicated a right-side "blind spots" when conducting colonoscopies. However, the right-side forward shown in the new study, published in the Jan 4, 2011 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine, was slightly less effective than that seen on the progressive side. "We didn't really have robust data proving that anything is very good at preventing right-sided cancer," said Dr Vivek Kaul, acting manager of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "Here is a typescript that suggests that risk reduction is dulcet robust even in the right side. The risk reduction is not as exciting as in the left side, but it's still more than 50 percent.

That's a miniature hard to ignore". The news is "reassuring," agreed Dr David Weinberg, chairman of c physic at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, who wrote an accompanying leader on the finding. Though no one study ever provides definitive proof "if the observations from this study is in fact true, then this gives strong support for current guidelines". The American Cancer Society recommends that normal-risk men and women be screened for colon cancer, starting at epoch 50.

A colonoscopy once every 10 years is one of the recommended screening tools. However, there has been some think as to whether colonoscopy - an invasive and precious procedure - is truly preferable to other screening methods, such as compliant sigmoidoscopy. Based on a review of medical records of 1,688 German patients aged 50 and over with colorectal cancer and 1,932 without, the researchers found a 77 percent reduced imperil for this breed of malignancy among people who'd had a colonoscopy in the past 10 years, as compared with those who had not.

Thursday 14 December 2017

Smoking Women Have A Stress More Often Than Not Smokers

Smoking Women Have A Stress More Often Than Not Smokers.
Many middle-aged women display aches and pains and other somatic symptoms as a development of chronic stress, according to a decades-long study June 2013. Researchers in Sweden examined long-term figures collected from about 1500 women and found that about 20 percent of middle-aged women experienced persevering or frequent stress during the previous five years. The highest rates of stress occurred amid women aged 40 to 60 and those who were single or smokers (or both).

Among those who reported long-term stress, 40 percent said they suffered aches and pains in their muscles and joints, 28 percent adept headaches or migraines and 28 percent reported gastrointestinal problems, according to the researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy of the University of Gothenburg. The enquiry appeared recently in the International Journal of Internal Medicine 2013.

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Mosquito Bite Waiting To Happen

Mosquito Bite Waiting To Happen.
Some family who fell target to a 2009-2010 outbreak of dengue fever in Florida carried a particular viral strain that they did not convey into the country from a recent trip abroad, according to a fresh genetic analysis conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To date, most cases of dengue fever on American blacken have typically complicated travelers who "import" the painful mosquito-borne disease after having been bitten elsewhere. But though the bug cannot move from person to person, mosquitoes are able to pick up dengue from infected patients and, in turn, spreading the disease among a local populace.

The CDC's viral fingerprinting of Key West, FL, dengue patients therefore raises the specter that a cancer more commonly found in parts of Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Asia might be gaining gripping power among North American mosquito populations. "Florida has the mosquitoes that mail dengue and the climate to sustain these mosquitoes all year around," cautioned look lead author Jorge Munoz-Jordan. "So, there is potential for the dengue virus to be transmitted locally, and cause dengue outbreaks dig the ones we saw in Key West in 2009 and 2010".

And "Every year more countries annex another one of the dengue virus subtypes to their lists of locally transmitted viruses, and this could be the action with Florida," said Munoz-Jordan, chief of CDC's molecular diagnostics labour in the dengue branch of the division of vector-borne disease. He and his colleagues come in their findings in the April issue of CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Dengue fever is the most widespread mosquito-borne viral infirmity in the world, now found in roughly 100 countries, the study authors noted. That said, until the 2009-2010 southern Florida outbreak, the United States had remained basically dengue-free for more than half a century.

Ultimately, 93 patients in the Key West enclosure solely were diagnosed with the disorder during the outbreak, which seemingly ended in 2010, with no new cases reported in 2011. But the deficit of later cases does not give experts much comfort. The reason: 75 percent of infected patients show no symptoms, and the open-handed "house mosquito" population in the region remains a disease-transmitting disaster waiting to happen.

Doctors Have Discovered A New Method Of Treatment Of Children With Autism

Doctors Have Discovered A New Method Of Treatment Of Children With Autism.
Children with autism can service from a variety of therapy that helps them become more warm with the sounds, sights and sensations of their daily surroundings, a small new study suggests. The psychotherapy is called sensory integration. It uses play to help these kids characterize oneself as more at ease with everything from water hitting the skin in the shower to the sounds of household appliances. For children with autism, those types of stimulation can be overwhelming, limiting them from customary out in the world or even mastering essential tasks like eating and getting dressed.

And "If you ask parents of children with autism what they want for their kids, they'll claim they want them to be happy, to have friends, to be able to participate in everyday activities," said study designer Roseann Schaaf. Sensory integration is aimed at helping families move toward those goals an occupational psychiatrist at Thomas Jefferson University's School of Health Professions, in Philadelphia. It is not a unfamiliar therapy, but it is somewhat controversial - partly because until now it has not been rigorously studied, according to Schaaf.

Her findings were recently published online in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. The analyse team randomly assigned 32 children grey 4 to 8 to one of two groups. One union stuck with their usual care, including medications and behavioral therapies. The other group added 30 sessions of sensory integration analysis over 10 weeks. At the study's start, parents were helped in scenery a short list of goals for the family. For example, if a child was delicate to sensations in his mouth, the goal might be to have him try five new foods by the end of the study, or to take some of the exertion out of the morning tooth-brush routine.

Schaaf said each child's particular play was individualized and guided by an occupational therapist. But in general, the remedial programme is done in a large gym with mats, swings, a ball pit, carpeted "scooter boards," and other equipment. All are designed to stimulate kids to be active and get more agreeable with the sensory information they are receiving. After 30 sessions, Schaaf's team found that children in the sensory integration corps scored higher on a standardized "goal attainment scale," versus kids in the juxtaposing group, and were generally faring better in their daily routines.