Therapist Unlimited Blog

Those persons seeking to use aspirin as prevention against cardiovascular disease better abandon the plan now.
A recent medical research has uncovered that the use of low-dose aspirin to ward off heart attacks and strokes in those yet to develop obvious cardiovascular disease can cause serious medical complications.
In the medical world, low-dose aspirin is widely used to prevent further episodes of cardiovascular disease in people who have already had problems such as a heart attack or stroke.
This method known as secondary prevention is well established and of confirmed benefit.
But it is the use of aspirin in primary prevention for those without symptoms, who have not yet had, for example, a heart attack or stroke, but who may be at risk of doing so, following an analysis of the available evidence.
In 2000, cardiovascular disease accounted for two million deaths across the European Union alone, and "worldwide, many people take aspirin every day in the belief that doing so helps prevent cardiovascular disease," says the researchers.

Aspirin could be fatal if not used properly.

The researchers points to various guidelines issued between 2005 and 2008 that recommend aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in various groups of patients. Examples include people aged 50 and older with type 2 diabetes and those with high blood pressure.
But the team explained that the current evidence does not back up the routine use of low-dose aspirin in such groups, because of the potential risk of serious gastrointestinal bleeds that accompany its use and the negligible impact it has on curbing death rates.
Doctors should review all patients currently taking low-dose aspirin for primary prevention, either as prescribed or over-the-counter treatment, says the research team.
"And the decision about whether to continue or stop treatment should be made only after fully informing patients of the available evidence", they added.
"Furthermore,  the researchers concluded that current evidence for primary prevention suggests the benefits and harms of aspirin in this setting may be more finely balanced than previously thought, even in individuals estimated to be at high risk of experiencing cardiovascular events, including those with diabetes or elevated blood pressure.
The researchers believe, that low dose aspirin prophylaxis should not be routinely used for primary prevention.

According to a recent study, individuals living in neighborhoods conducive to physical activity and providing access to healthy foods may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in a five-year period.
"The worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus is largely driven by the combined rise in obesity, intake of energy-dense or nutrient-poor foods and physical inactivity," the authors write as background information in the article. Interventions to reduce risk on the individual level including surgery, medication and behavior change - have had mixed results. Large-scale behavior change may be necessary to reverse the diabetes epidemic, but such a change is difficult to achieve and may be unsustainable if the surrounding environment is not supportive.
Amy H. Auchincloss, Ph.D., M.P.H., of Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, and colleagues studied 2,285 adults age 45 to 84 who were initially examined between 2000 and 2002. Study participants were from three of the sites in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) for which neighborhood level data were obtained: Baltimore; Forsyth County, N.C.; and New York City/Bronx. Blood glucose levels were obtained from study participants at baseline and at three follow-up examinations, during which other individual characteristics also were assessed (including diet, body mass index [BMI] and physical activity levels).

Residents of a peaceful nighborhood has lesser chances of getting inflicted with diabetes.
 

Measures of neighborhood resources were obtained from a separate assessment, the Community Survey, in which other residents of the same neighborhoods (defined as the area within a 20-minute walk or a mile from their homes) rated the suitability of their environment for physical activity and access to healthy foods. For instance, they were asked if it was pleasant or easy to walk in their neighborhood, and whether a large, high-quality selection of fruits, vegetables and other low-fat foods was available. Scores for physical activity and healthy foods were calculated for each neighborhood on scales of one to five (with five representing the healthiest areas).
Over a median (midpoint) of five years of follow-up, 233 of the 2,285 participants (10.2 percent) developed diabetes. Average neighborhood scores were 3.68 for physical activity and 3.36 for healthy foods.
"Better neighborhood resources, determined by a combined score for physical activity and healthy foods, were associated with a 38 percent lower incidence of type 2 diabetes," the authors revealed. This was similar to the reduction in risk observed among individuals whose BMI was five points lower. "The association remained statistically significant after further adjustment for individual dietary factors, physical activity level and body mass index."
The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the past 30 years makes it urgent to identify environmental features that may mitigate risk, the authors conclude. "Current efforts to foster health-promoting environments include designing and modifying physical environments, such as zoning residential neighborhoods to require safe sidewalks, creating parks and attractive public green spaces and improving public transportation so that residents rely less on their cars; supporting fresh-food farmers’ markets in low-income, urban neighborhoods; and assisting stores in those neighborhoods in improving their selection of healthy foods," they write.
"There is unlikely to be a panacea for the obesity epidemic and rising epidemic of type 2 diabetes. However, altering our environments so that healthier behaviors and lifestyles can be easily chosen may be one of the key steps in arresting and reversing these epidemics."

Mothers who are using microbicide-soaked vaginal and infant wipes to protect their babies from neonatal sepsis are in for a nightmare.
A recent medical study has shown that  microbicide-soaked vaginal and infant wipes to protect their babies from neonatal sepsis or transmission of disease-causing bacteria.
With this finding, medical experts suggested that other interventions are needed to target child mortality.
It is said that 900 000 sepsis-associated neonatal deaths per year arise in developing countries, mainly in the first week of life.
Early-onset sepsis poses unique opportunities for prevention because of intrapartum, vertical transmission of bacteria to newborn babies. For example, widespread use of targeted prophylaxis with intrapartum antibiotics in the USA coincided with a 70% reduction in early-onset group B streptococcal disease. Logistical and resource limitations, however, prevent use of intrapartum antibiotics in developing countries.In this randomised controlled trial, the authors (led by Dr Clare L Cutland, Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) assessed the efficacy of intrapartum and neonatal chlorhexidine coated-wipes in reducing early-onset neonatal sepsis and vertical transmission of group B streptococcus.

Mothers seeking to protect their babies from neonatal sepsis could not find relief from microbicide-soaked vaginal and infant wipes.

The trial took place in Soweto, South Africa, and 8,011 women (aged 12-51 years) were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to chlorhexidine vaginal wipes or external genitalia water wipes during active labour, and their 8,129 newborn babies were assigned to chlorhexidine full-body (intervention group) or foot (control group) washes with chlorhexidine at birth, respectively. In a subset of mothers (n=5144 lower vaginal swabs and neonatal skin swabs were gathered after delivery to assess colonisation with potentially pathogenic bacteria. Primary outcomes were neonatal sepsis in the first 3 days of life and vertical transmission of group B streptococcus.
The researchers found that rates of neonatal sepsis did not differ between the groups (chlorhexidine 3% vs 4%). Rates of colonisation with group B streptococcus in newborn babies born to mothers in the chlorhexidine (54%) and control groups (55%) did not differ.
The authors say: "Use of maternal and neonatal chlorhexidine wipes did not prevent the occurrence of early-onset sepsis. This absence of benefit was corroborated by the lack of effect on vertical transmission of the main sepsis-causing pathogens, and on serious maternal post-partum sepsis."
They conclude: "Although several trials have raised hopes that chlorhexidine vaginal and neonatal cleansing would be beneficial in saving the lives of newborn babies, the results from our trial suggest that use of chlorhexidine wipes is unlikely to reduce neonatal mortality from vertically acquired sepsis. Other neonatal interventions are needed to achieve the Millennium Developmental Goal of reduction in childhood mortality."

A recent medical study has shown that mangosteen juice has anti-inflammatory properties which could prove to be valuable in preventing the development of heart disease and diabetes in obese patients.
Based on the study, medical experts discovered that the juice of the exotic ’superfruit’ can lower levels of C-reactive protein.
To get the data,Dr. Jay Udani, M.D. from Medicus Research, California, worked with a team of researchers to carry out a randomized, double-blind placebo controlled trial.
He said, "For people drinking over half a liter of mangosteen juice a day, the degree of reduction in CRP levels was statistically significant a reduction of 1.33mg/L compared to an increase of 0.9mg/L in the placebo group".

Mangosteen Juice offers rewards to obese persons against heart disease and diabetes.

Inflammation, as measured here by CRP, is a predictor of cardiovascular disease and a precursor of metabolic syndrome.
Reducing inflammation in obese people is a treatment goal, and a natural treatment may be preferable to other treatments which may carry the risk of side effect. According to Udani, "Further studies with a larger population are required to confirm and further define the benefits of this juice, which was safe at all dosages tested".

 

Here is a piece of good news to all those patients suffering from heart disease and cancer.
A recent medical research has shown that eating soybeans could cure and prevent heart ailments and cancer.
According to the study, soybeans contain high levels of several health-beneficial compounds including tocopherols, which have antioxidant properties.
These molecules can be used in the development of functional foods, which have specific health-beneficial properties and can be used in the treatment or prevention of diseases.
Tocopherols exist in four forms (a, ß, ?, and d) of which tocopherol is found in greatest concentration in soybeans.
However, a-tocopherol has the greatest antioxidant activity, and is the form converted to vitamin E in the human body. Thus, most interest for soybean tocopherols resides in a-tocopherol; however, certain health-properties have also been attributed to other tocopherol forms and interest for these remains. It has been suggested that all tocopherols could play a role in cardiovascular diseases and cancer prevention.
Although few studies have determined soybean tocopherols concentration in a range of genotypes or environments, none has investigated differences among several early-maturing genotypes grown in multiple environments.

Eating soybeans in a regular basis could keep you away from heart disease and cancer.

Such study allows for the determination of the tocopherols concentration range found in soybean, but also to determine how genotypes perform and compare to each other in contrasting environments. Such information is vital for both plant breeders and agricultural producers.
Researchers at McGill University, the Centre de Recherche sur les Grains, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Quebec have investigated tocopherols concentration and stability, with an emphasis on a-tocopherol, among early-maturing genotypes grown in multiple environments, and determined the relationship between tocopherols concentration and other important seed characteristics.
Their study was funded by research grants from the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries, et de l’Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Results from the study are published in the September-October issue of Agronomy Journal. The research was also presented in Beijing, China at the 8th World Soybean Research Conference in August 2009.
Philippe Seguin, who led the study, stated "The large variation observed among genotypes for a-tocopherol, the relatively high stability of genotypes performance across environments, and the lack of negative correlation with other important seed characteristics suggest that selection for high a-tocopherol will be possible. Such characteristics will also help in the development of functional foods, which requires consistency in concentrations of health-beneficial compounds." Research is ongoing to identify factors affecting soybean tocopherols concentration.
Preliminary results suggest that both specific environmental factors and management practices, such as seeding date, could significantly affect concentrations.
Getting a better understanding of factors affecting soybean tocopherols concentration will help in the development of a new value-added use for soybean and thus to diversify markets for soybean producers.

Those heart patients who wish to avoid heart attack better start undergoing reperfusion therapy now.
According to a latest medical study, the use of reperfusion therapy in patients with heart attack (AMI) can save millions of lives in Europe.
The study has shown that an effective reperfusion therapy in an AMI patient can cut the individual risk of dying by half.
Based on medical facts, AMI is caused by a sudden blockage of a coronary artery, one of the vessels supplying the heart muscle with oxygen and nutrients.
The researchers said an effective reperfusion therapy provides a timely and sustainable reopening of the blockage.
Recent studies has shown that specialist centres can provide effective reperfusion therapy to more than 90% of their AMI patients.
In such centres, in-hospital mortality rate is now as low as around 5%.
The first development in reperfusion therapy was the application of fibrinolytic agents to dissolve the blood clots causing the vessel blockage.
Analysis of data from earlier studies reveals that, on average, fibrinolytic agents can reduce infarct-related mortality rate by 18% compared with no reperfusion therapy.
Fibrinolytic therapy is universally available and is still the mainstay of reperfusion therapy where healthcare resources are limited.
 

Reperfusion therapy offers hope to patients against heart attack.

More modern catheter-based reperfusion strategies, however, are more effective.
Compared with what can be achieved by clot-buster drugs, catheter-based therapy reduces infarct-related mortality by a further 37%. Using this approach, the coronary artery is re-opened mechanically with a balloon catheter and vessel patency is usually stabilised by placement of a stent.
Potent adjunct antithrombotic drug therapy prevents recurrent clot formation.
The larger survival benefit from catheter-based reperfusion therapy as compared with fibrinolytic therapy can be attributed to a higher success rate in reopening blocked vessels (90% versus 40-60%) and to better sustainability.
If no reperfusion therapy is initiated and the infarct-related coronary artery continues to be blocked, the heart muscle supplied by this vessel is destined to die.
Loss of functional heart muscle can cause death by pump failure or break-down of normal heart rhythm.
Moreover, it is a major cause of long-term illness due to heart failure. Effective reperfusion therapy can prevent the death of heart muscle cells and salvages a large proportion of the heart muscle at risk.
In this way, reperfusion therapy effectively prevents chronic illness.The percentage of heart-muscle salvage varies to a large extent on reperfusion modality, timing of reperfusion and patient characteristics.
Catheter-based reperfusion usually salvages around 60% of the heart muscle at risk.
For the individual patient this often means a normal life, despite having suffered a heart attack.

A researcher from the University of Alberta in Canada recently discovered that mango seeds could be a good prevention against food bacteria.
The researcher has found a way to make throwaway kernels in mangos into a natural food preservative that could help prevent Listeriosis outbreaks like the one that killed 21 Canadians last year.
Christina Engels revealed the findings can also apply to other fruit seeds like grapes.
Based on the study, pure tannins, a plant component extracted from otherwise useless mango kernels by Engels, have proven inhibitory effects against various strains of bacteria including Listeria, a potentially deadly pathogen that infected some packaged meats and caused an outbreak of disease in Canada in 2008.

Recycling mango seeds is a good way to prevent bacteria.
 

It is said that Engels’ research focuses on a way to recycle wood-like mango kernels, which are usually thrown away or burned.
Engels explained by processing the kernels for their tannins, businesses have a way to completely utilize all fruit parts and therefore increase their profit.
At the moment, mangos are one of the main fruits marketed globally, ranked fifth in world production among the major fruit crops.

People suffering from severe sore throat should start combining steroids with antibiotics to find relief on your medical condition.
Researchers has recently discovered that a single dose of corticosteroid drugs, which is a form of steroids, together with antibiotics can alleviate sore throat pain more rapidly and effectively than with antibiotics alone.
The researchers in their study also found out that antibiotics have only a slight favorable effect in reducing symptoms and fever.

Patients seeking relief from severe sore throat should try the combination of steroids and antibiotics.

The team also discovered that high rates of antibiotic prescriptions also lead to resistance.
In addition, current guidelines advise that antibiotics should not be prescribed for sore throat.
Based on the study they made on 743 sore throat patients, including 369 children and 374 adults, they discovered that the combination of corticosteroid drugs and antibiotics effectively cure sore throat.
According to their study, patients given corticosteroids together with antibiotics were three times more likely to report total clearing up of pain after 24 hours than patients given placebo.
It was also discovered that after 48 hours the effect on pain was less evident.
With the result of the study, the researchers said it indicates that a single dose of corticosteroids may be sufficient.
The researchers added corticosteroids reduced the average time to pain relief by about six hours.
Despite the good result of their study, they clarified that the treatment is only for adult patients and not for children.
Furthermore, the researchers explained the findings suggest that, in patients with severe sore throat, pain can be reduced and resolution hastened by use of corticosteroids in conjunction with antibiotic therapy.
The researchers concluded that these results may also help to prevent antibiotic use, particularly in the context of delayed prescribing.

To protect sleepy drivers against possible traffic accidents a special device is now being created by experts.
According to reports, a new in-car yawn-detection system is being developed by an international team in the US and India.
Aurobinda Mishra of Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, TN, and colleagues Mihir Mohanty of ITER, in Orissa and Aurobinda Routray of IIT, West Bengal, India, revealed a computer program that can tell when you are yawning and could prevent road traffic accidents is now being developed.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that at least 100,000 road crashes are caused by driver fatigue each year.
The researchers said the new program is based around an in-car camera hooked up to image-processing software that captures a sequence of images of the driver’s face.
The researchers added it then analyses changes in the face and accurately identifies yawning as distinct from other facial movements such as smiling, talking, and singing.

Drivers who are sleepy should refrain from driving to avoid possible accidents.

The explained the yawn frequency is then correlated with fatigue behavior and could then are hooked up to a warning system to alert drivers to the need to take a break.
According to the experts, the algorithm is effective at yawn detection regardless of image intensity and contrast, small head movements, viewing angle, spectacle wearing, and skin color.
Furthermore, the researchers point out that for traffic safety, it is essential to recognize and understand the physical and mental stress leading to fatigue in drivers.
The researchers said considerable research has been carried out to investigate and characterize biological signals, such as brain waves and heart activity.
However, they said it would be costly and inconvenient for drivers to have to connect to an ECG machine every time they took a trip.
The researchers revealed a system that watches the driver and analyses their facial expressions would be so much simpler and less invasive.