Choosing a full body checkup plan involves considering your age, health needs, medical history, and lifestyle factors, ensuring it includes essential tests and is provided by a reputable facility.

In this fast-paced world, taking care of your health has become more important than ever. Regular health checkups can help detect potential health problems early and allow for timely interventions and better outcomes. A full body checkup is a great way to keep an eye on your overall health and catch any early warning signs of illness. However, with so many options, how do you pick the best full body checkup plan for yourself?

Let’s take a detailed look at what you should consider when selecting the ideal full body checkup plan tailored to your needs.

1. Understand Your Health Needs

The first step to choosing the right full body checkup plan is to know your specific health needs. What kind of tests you need depends on your age, gender, family medical history, and your current lifestyle.

• Age: With age, we are at greater risk of certain diseases. For instance, people over 40 may need to be screened for diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases more often than people below 40. Tests focusing on metabolism, vitamin deficiencies, and general fitness are suggested for younger individuals.
• Family History: If you have a family history of certain conditions such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes, you should choose a checkup plan that includes screening for those conditions.
• Lifestyle Factors: If you are a person who smokes, drinks alcohol regularly, or has a sedentary lifestyle, you should opt for a full body checkup plan that includes tests for liver function, lung health, and cardiovascular fitness.

Knowing what you need will help you avoid unnecessary tests and make sure you get screened for conditions that are relevant to your health profile.

2. Types of Tests Included in the Checkup

Not all full body checkup packages are the same. The number and type of tests included can widely differ from one package to another. Typically, a full body checkup should cover essential health parameters such as:

• Complete Blood Count (CBC): This helps in assessing your overall health and detecting a wide range of disorders like anaemia, infection, and many more.
• Lipid Profile: This test measures your cholesterol levels, which is crucial for assessing heart disease risk.
• Liver and Kidney Function Tests: These tests evaluate the health of these vital organs and detect early signs of damage or disease.
• Blood Sugar Test: This test measures your blood glucose levels, helping you screen for diabetes or pre-diabetes.
• Thyroid Function Test: Thyroid disorders can affect many bodily functions, making this an important test for overall health monitoring.
• Electrocardiogram (ECG): This test checks the heart's electrical activity and is essential for detecting heart issues, especially for those with a family history of cardiovascular diseases.
• Ultrasound Scans: These can provide a visual representation of your internal organs, checking for abnormalities like tumours, cysts, or other issues.

The best full body checkup plan should provide comprehensive coverage of your body systems. Always check the list of tests before making a decision.

3. Customizability of the Package

Health checkup needs are not one-size-fits-all. Depending on your unique health profile, you may need some more specialised tests. This is why it’s important to select a full body checkup plan that can be customised.

Look for packages that allow you to add or remove specific tests. For example, if you are already taking medications for thyroid issues, you might want to skip the thyroid function test and replace it with another test that is more relevant to your current health condition.

Considering a full body checkup in Chennai? Opt for a customisable package that fits your specific health needs. Whether you're looking for comprehensive wellness tracking or early detection of conditions, you can find top-notch medical facilities offering flexible checkup plans to suit your requirements.

4. Frequency of Checkups

How often you undergo a full body checkup depends on your age, health, and risk factors. You should generally have a complete checkup once a year, but this can vary.

• For individuals under 30: Once every two years may be sufficient unless you have specific health concerns.
• For those between 30 and 50: An annual checkup is recommended to keep track of changes and catch potential issues early.
• For individuals above 50: It is essential to get an annual checkup with an added focus on heart health, bone density, and cancer screenings.

The best full body checkup plan should come with recommendations on how often you should return for follow-up tests, ensuring that you stay on top of your health.

Conclusion

Choosing the best full body checkup plan is not just about finding the most comprehensive package but selecting the one that aligns with your health needs, budget, and lifestyle. Knowing what tests are included, how often they need to be done, and the quality of the facilities available will help you make a well-informed decision. Proactive health checkups are a way to keep yourself healthy and prevent any problems from becoming serious. Looking for a full body checkup in Chennai? Apollo 24|7 offers easy online booking and state-of-the-art facilities, ensuring that your health checkup is not only comprehensive but also convenient.

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New Delhi, Nov 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) Telegu superstar Nagarjuna on Thursday announced that late Bollywood icon Sridevi and the evergreen actress Rekha will be given the ANR Awards for their cinematic accomplishments.

Nagarjuna and his family hand out ANR Awards in memory of his father, the late actor-producer Akkineni Nageswara Rao (ANR).

Nagarjuna told mediapersons that Sridevi will be honoured for her contribution to cinema for the year 2018. Rekha will be felicitated for excellence in cinema for 2019.

Nagarjuna's production house Annapoorna Studios tweeted: "The ANR Awards for the year 2018 & 2019 were announced today. Late Sridevi B Kapoor & Ms Rekha will be awarded at a ceremony on Nov 17th. Mr Chiranjeevi Garu will attend as a special guest for the occasion.@acfmofficial third convocation will follow the ceremony."

Source: IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) The French government and Dassault Aviation have contradicted former President Francois Hollande's claim in choosing Indian industrial partners in the multi-million dollar Rafale jet deal.

The statement by the French government issued here late Friday comes after Hollande claimed that the Indian government suggested a particular private firm for Rafale offset contract.

Hollande was quoted in an article by a French website as claiming that the Indian government had asked the French government to nominate Reliance Defence as its India partner in the deal.

"We did not have a say in this," Hollande was quoted by the website as saying. "The Indian government proposed this service group and Dassault negotiated with Ambani."

In response to the claim, the Friday night statement said: "The French government is in no manner involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners who have been, are being or will be selected by French companies.

"In accordance with India's acquisition procedure, French companies have the full freedom to choose their Indian partner companies that they consider to be the most relevant, then present for the Indian government's approval the offset projects that they wish to execute in India with these local partners so as to fulfil their obligations in this regard."

Dassault Aviation, the makers of the Rafale jets, in a statement also on Friday night, said: "This offsets contract is delivered in compliance with the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016 regulations. In this framework, and in accordance with the policy of 'Make in India', Dassault Aviation has decided to make a partnership with India's Reliance Group. This is Dassault Aviation's choice."

The Paris-based company said that the partnership between the two giants led to the creation of the "Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL) joint-venture in February 2017.

"Dassault aviation is very proud that the Indian authorities have selected the Rafale fighter," it added.

The deal to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 and signed in 2016.

The UPA government was earlier negotiating a deal to procure 126 Rafale jets, with 18 to come in flyaway condition and 108 to be manufactured by HAL under licence.

The Modi government has repeatedly said it was Dassault that chose its India partner for offsets and that the government had no say in the deal.

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Bengaluru,March-2018: When Three-year-old baby girl Alisha (name changed) from Gulbarga was brought to Sakra World Hospital, she was suffering from severe neck pain & was unable to walk. The baby fell from the cot and sustained Atlanto-Axial Dislocation which led to impairment of neck rotation and difficulty in walking due to a damage to the spinal cord. The patient was initially checked by local doctors at Gulbarga and treated for neck pain. Finally, a neurosurgeon recognized the problem to be a fracture between the skull and the spinal cord and immediately referred the case to Department of Neurosurgery, Center of Excellence for Neurosciences at Sakra World Hospital, Bangalore for further treatment.

The Neurosurgical Team headed by Dr. Satish Rudrappa, Director – Neurosciences, Senior Consultant - Neuro and Spine Surgery performed a Neuro Navigation, Neuromonitoring and Intraoperative CT Scan Guided Procedure on the 3-year-old, one of the youngest cases in Karnataka. This procedure has been a great success in adults, but among children, a different set of challenges are involved like the bone being soft and cartilaginous as it is still in its developing stage. The joint involved is at the junction of the cranium and spinal canal with a high degree of mobility. Surgical procedure when done at this region in paediatric age group requires proper instrumentations which are seldom available which increases the risk of failure. In addition, surgery in paediatric patients requires least blood loss. After extensive discussions with the parents, and counsellors, the neurosurgical team decided to proceed with the surgery.

The surgery lasted up to four hours where screws and plates were used to join the bones connecting the brain and the spinal cord. Special titanium based equipment’s were utilised instead of steel to avoid further complications and easier examination in the future as this case involved only a 3 year old baby.

3 Year old baby gets new lease of life at Sakra World Hospital (one of the youngest case in Karnataka)

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Endocon 2016 – the largest annual conference of Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India (SGEI) and hosted by Dr. Rathod’s Medical Foundation commenced yesterday at JW Marriott Sahar in Mumbai. Reputed MLA Ashish Shelar was present as the Chief guest for the inauguration ceremony of this 3-day conference which has Gastroenterologists from across India, neighbouring countries, Middle East, Africa and Asia in attendance.

Mr. Ashish Shelar said, “I feel honoured to be invited on this esteemed platform. This conference is instrumental in exploring newer dimensions in the field of Gastrointestinal & Pancreato Bilary Endoscopy through high quality training and education with varied programs of lectures, discussions and live video presentations by experts from different schools and endoscopy fraternity pioneers.”

Dr. Vipulroy Rathod MS, FASGE – Director of World Gastroenterology Institute; Program Director & Secretary of SGEI (2015-2018) is proud to have been able to bring the most prestigious Endoscopy Conference to Mumbai during his first term of being Secretary of the Society. Says Dr. Rathod, “Endocon is taking place in Mumbai after several years and hence it is a privilege and an honour for Mumbai & the state of Maharashtra to be hosting the country’s largest Gastroenterology conference. The key topics of discussion are Endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease; Cancers of the Esophagus, Stomach, Colon, Biliary, Pancreas; Biliary & Pancreatic Stones and Obesity. Certain procedures were screened live from World Gastroenterology Institute (WGI ) – a state of the art largest standalone Gastroenterology Hospital of Western India located at Andheri which is equipped with the latest technologies.”

Dr. Laurent Palazzo from France, Prof. Guido Costamagna from Italy, Dr. Christopher Thompson from USA and Dr. Toshiharu Sakurai from Japan are present in Mumbai for this esteemed conference. ENDOCON 2016 aims at imparting continued knowledge and training to keep the endoscopy fraternity abreast with the world in advances of medical diagnosis and treatment protocols while uplifting the quality of training in this particular field.

After intensive learning sessions through the day, also had a curated cultural night for the guests. A stellar performance was put together by ‘Prince Dance Group’; winner of popular reality show ‘India’s Got Talent’ fame. Apart from music and dance performances by talented performers, several influential graced the night in support of overall health awareness.

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Endocon 2016

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(160220) -- CARACAS, Feb. 20, 2016 (Xinhua) -- A sanitary employee fumigates against Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector of zika virus, in Antimano sector of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, on Feb. 19, 2016. A Municipal Day against Zika Virus is held here on Friday. A total of 4,500 suspected cases of the zika virus have been detected in Venezuela by the end of January. (Xinhua/Cristian Hernandez) (djj)

From Yoshita Singh

United Nations, Mar 23 (PTI) India is among five countries where projects are underway to develop vaccines to fight the Zika virus currently circulating in 38 countries.

The World Health Organization's Director-General Margaret Chan said that in less than a year, the status of Zika has changed from "a mild medical curiosity" to a disease with severe public health implications, warning that "the more we know the worse things look."

At present, WHO says more than 30 companies are working on, or have developed, potential new diagnostic tests.

For vaccines, 23 projects are being worked on by 14 vaccine developers in the US, France, Brazil, India and Austria, WHO said.

Zika virus is posing severe public health implications and is linked to neonatal malformations and neurological disorders affecting newborns.

The WHO had in February declared the Zika virus outbreak as an "international public health emergency".

The virus is currently circulating in 38 countries and territories, Chan said in a statement as she warned that no one can predict whether the virus will spread to other parts of the world and cause a similar pattern of fetal malformations and neurological disorders.

"If this pattern is confirmed beyond Latin America and the Caribbean, the world will face a severe public health crisis," she said.

Experts have agreed that a reliable, point-of-care diagnostic test is the most urgent priority.

The United Nations health agency, however, estimated that at least some of the projects will move into clinical trials before the end of this year, but several years may be needed before a fully tested and licensed vaccine is ready for use.

According to WHO, the world was alerted to the first appearance of Zika in the Western Hemisphere in May 2015, when Brazil confirmed that a "mysterious outbreak" of thousands of cases of mild disease with rash was caused by the Zika virus.

In July, the country then reported an increase in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), followed by an unusual increase in microcephaly among newborns in late October.

"The possibility that a mosquito bite could be linked to severe fetal malformations alarmed the public and astonished scientists," Chan said.

"The association with Guillain-Barre syndrome and other severe disorders of the central nervous system has expanded the risk group well beyond women of child-bearing age. We now know that sexual transmission of the virus occurs," Chan said.

In the current outbreak, Brazil and Panama have reported microcephaly, a rare neurological condition in which an infant's head is significantly smaller than normal.

Colombia is investigating several cases of microcephaly for a possible link to Zika.

Chan said additional effects of the virus on the central nervous system have been documented, notably inflammation of the spinal cord and inflammation of the brain and its membranes.

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Taxes should have been more stringent for better regulation of the tobacco product consumption, they said.

They even urged the government to hike taxes on 'bidis' as these continued to remain the most preferred tobacco product for smoking in rural India.

"The effective increase in total excise on cigarettes has only been 10 percent. It is disappointing when compared with the 15-25 percent increase in the last year's budget and 11-72 percent increase in the year before," said Rijo John, assistant professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology-Jodhpur.

Talking about no increase in taxation on 'bidis', John said: "Bidis do not get adequate attention from a fiscal collection point of view and are ignored in every budget with policy-makers claiming that increasing taxes on 'bidis' will affect the livelihood of millions who depend on the trade."

Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, chief executive of Voluntary Health Association of India, said: "India is one of the very few countries where cigarettes have become more affordable over the past few years. Moreover, by not effecting any increases in bidi taxes, the government is forgoing a wonderful opportunity to help the cause of public health in the country."

According to a recent government decision, specific rates of excise duty on cigars and cheroots, cigarillos, cigarettes of tobacco substitute and other forms of tobacco substitutes are being increased by about 10 percent.

Excise duty on gutkha (chewing tobacco, including filter khaini) and zarda (scented tobacco) is being increased from 70 percent to 81 percent, excise duty on unprocessed tobacco is being increased from 55 percent to 64 percent, and excise duty on pan masala increased from 16 percent to 19 percent.

Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital said, "It is sad that the government continues to subsidise bidis which are responsible for nearly six lakh deaths every year."

However, the Tobacco Institute of India condemned the government decision to hike taxation on tobacco products and called it extremely disappointing.

"It is extremely disappointing that the 2016-17 general budget, on the back of four successive years of steep duty increases, has once again raised the excise duty on cigarettes," said institute director Syed Mahmood Ahmad.

Calling the government's decision discriminatory against cigarettes, he said it was a matter of deep concern, particularly due to the fact that 'bidis', the most popular tobacco product in rural India, have once again been spared with no increase in tax after 2012-13.

As per their estimates, nearly 70 percent of tobacco consumption in the country is largely in the unorganised sector which does not pay any tax either due to exemptions or evasion.

"The increase in excise duty on cigarettes, at a per unit level, has gone up cumulatively by 98 percent, which is exerting severe pressure on the legal cigarette industry even as illegal trade grows unabated," said Ahmad in a statement.

He said the high taxation is also a major blow to the livelihood of lakhs of tobacco farmers, who have been facing unprecedented hardships due to a continuous drop in demand for their produce due to the shrinking domestic legal cigarette industry.

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"Funding dialysis is an expensive affair and it should be done in a thoughtful manner. The focus should be on sustainability and monitoring quality because often markets tend to trump quality," Vivekanand Jha, professor of nephrology at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) at Chandigarh, told IANS.

He said audit of the dialysis programme becomes very important given the fact that public funds were going to be spent.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday proposed to start a 'National Dialysis Services Programme' to make the expensive medical procedure available to the people in rural areas who cannot afford it.

Jha said the the programme should be implemented in consultation with professional organisations and specialists dealing with the issue.

D.S. Rana, a nephrologist and chairman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital-Delhi, said tax relief for dialysis equipment and to start national dialysis programme on a public-private partnership (PPP) model in district hospitals will help reduce the financial suffering of lakhs of patients who cannot afford kidney transplants.

Sustainability expert Duke Ghosh questioned the infrastructure gap.

"I am not sure if district hospitals have the necessary infrastructure to carry out such a large scale plan," Ghosh, who is associated with the Global Change Research programme, told IANS.

"Creation of dialysis centres in the district hospitals will help in tackling the rising chronic cases of renal failures, but it has to be ensured that the facilities are well maintained and functional always," M.C. Misra, Director All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), told IANS.

Misra said the government should not emphasise separately on primary and secondary healthcare but rather improve the healthcare system of the country as a whole.

In order to make quality generic medicines available at affordable prices, 3000 stores under the Prime Minister's Jan Aushadhi Yojana will be opened during 2016-17, Jaitley said.

"The steps taken by the government in health sector are welcome, but as far as the start of drug stores is concerned, it should be ensured that the generic medicines are tested and of the best quality," Mishra said.

Jaitley announced a new health protection scheme which will provide health cover up to Rs. one lakh per family for economically weak families.

For senior citizens of age 60 years and above belonging to this category, an additional top-up package of up to Rs.30,000 will be provided.

Health economist Kenneth E. Thorpe said the dialysis programme, generic drug stores and health protection scheme are positives of the budget, but wondered why there is no mention of the total public health expenditure.

"While the finance minister has outlined certain reforms in regard to new health protection and health cover schemes, there has been no mention of increase in the public health spend. The expenditure on public health still stands at 1.2 per cent of the GDP," Thorpe, Chairman, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), told IANS.

"The dual disease burden that India bears - communicable and non-communicable diseases - has not been addressed in the Union Budget. NCDs - particularly cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes - account for 60 per cent of all deaths in India, making them the leading cause of mortality," said Thorpe.

He said the probability of death during the most productive years (ages 30-70) from one of the four main NCDs is a staggering 26 per cent, hampering not only health but also productivity.

Also, Thorpe said the government's initiatives like Digital India should be utilized by hospitals and healthcare professionals.

"India is going digital. However, the country is not utilizing the resources optimally," Thorpe said, adding the announcement of 10-15 percent increase in excise duty for all tobacco products, except beedi, is a positive development to tackle the rising number of deaths caused by tobacco consumption.

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"For the better availability of generic medicines in the country, especially in the rural areas, the government has decided to open 3,000 new generic medicines stores," said Jaitley while presenting the budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.

The medicine centres will be opened under the Prime Minister’s Jan Aushadhi Yojana.

Stating that the serious illness of family member(s) causes severe stress on the financial condition of poor and economically weak families, Jaitley said: "Government will launch a new health protection scheme which will provide health cover up to rupees one lakh per family."

"For senior citizens of the age 60 years and above belonging to this category, an additional top-up package up to Rs.30,000 will be provided," said Jaitley.

He also announced the launch of the National Dialysis Services Programme, under which funds will be made available through Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode under the National Health Mission, to provide dialysis services in all district hospitals.

To reduce the cost, the finance minister proposed to exempt certain parts of dialysis equipment from basic customs duty and excise.

About 2.2 lakh new patients of End Stage Renal Disease get added in India every year, resulting in additional demand for 3.4 crore dialysis sessions. With approximately 4,950 dialysis centres in India, largely in the private sector and concentrated in the major towns, the demand is only half met.

"Every dialysis session costs about Rs.2,000 - an annual expenditure of more than Rs.3 lakh. Besides, most families have to undertake frequent trips, often over long distances, to access dialysis services, incurring heavy travel costs and loss of wages," said Jaitley.

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London, Feb 29 (IANS) People who exercise regularly over several years were less than half as likely to become depressed after a heart attack than those who never exercised, finds a new study.

"Physical activity protects people from depression after a heart attack," said lead author Linda Ernstsen from Norwegian University of Science and Technology's department of nursing science.

Depression is three times more common among people who have experienced a heart attack compared to people who have never been afflicted by one.

After analysing a sample group of 189 individuals, the researchers were able to see how exercise habits over several years affected how people felt after a heart attack.

The study group that was characterised as physically active exercised a minimum of 150 minutes per week with moderate intensity or 75 minutes with high intensity, which is in accordance with the Norwegian guidelines.

According to results, people who had never exercised -- over 17 percent -- were depressed after a heart attack. This was by far the most depressed group.

Participants who exercised consistently throughout fared best with only 7.5 percent suffering from depression.

"The survey also provides reason for optimism. It helps if you have exercised and are in good shape from training earlier in life, even if you have since stopped. But it is apparently even better to have started exercising regularly in older age, even if you get off the couch late in life," the authors noted.

"It's never too late to start exercising," Ernstsen added.

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According to researchers from the University of Texas' health science center at Houston (UTHealth), when middle school youth listen to rap music for three or more hours each day, they are more likely to believe that their peers are having sex and subsequently more likely to initiate sex by ninth grade.

“Rap music influences your beliefs about what you think your peers are doing. It’s a norming agent that tells you that certain things are ok, like drinking alcohol or having sex. It gives you the idea that everyone is doing it,” said Kimberly Johnson-Baker, lead author and faculty associate at UTHealth's school of public health.

“The more you’re listening to it, the more you’re conforming, so you could see how it would set up a belief about what your peers are doing,” Johnson-Baker added.

In an analysis of 443 youth enrolled in a longitudinal evaluation study in Houston, middle school students were surveyed about how often they listened to rap music and whether they believed their peers were having sex.

At follow up in ninth grade, the same youth were surveyed about whether they had initiated sex.

Youth who listened to rap music three hours or more each day in seventh grade were 2.6 times more likely to report having had sex two years later.

However, researchers found that the association was partially mediated by perceived peer sexual behaviour because youth who believed their peers were having sex were 2.5 times more likely to initiate sex, regardless of the additional factors.

Johnson-Baker emphasised that when adolescents hear sexually explicit messages in a song, they are looking to their friends to confirm whether such behaviour is happening around them.

If their friends confirm it, youth are more likely to initiate sex. But if friends are being critical of the themes in the music, they may be convinced that it’s not happening around them.

“Perceived peer sex is the most powerful predictor of future sex and addressing perceived peer behaviour with youth is really important,” Johnson-Baker noted in a paper published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Rap music and forms of progressive hip-hop education can be used as tools to deconstruct sexually explicit messages adolescents receive.

“Parents can play a more proactive role by having open conversations with their kids regarding the themes in rap music while setting clear expectations for responsible sexual and dating behaviour," the authors noted.

In her next phase of research, Johnson-Baker is set to study how listening to rap music in fifth grade influences perceptions of peers and sexual initiation later on.

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London, Feb 29 (IANS) Offering hope to millions of cancer patients around the world, the Scottish government has launched a new app that helps doctors diagnose the disease using information about symptoms, signs and images of what to look out for, a media report said.

Created at the University of the West of Scotland and available as free download via Apple and Google app stores, the app features a quick reference guide for health professionals, the BBC reported on Sunday.

"This app, which has been developed in partnership with health professionals and patients, will make it easier and quicker for doctors, pharmacists and senior nurses to access information on referral for those suspected of having cancer," Scotland Health Secretary Shona Robison was quoted as saying.

"Improving the number of patients diagnosed at an early stage will reduce premature deaths from cancer and have a positive effect on overall life expectancy," she added.

"Mobile devices are becoming an integral part of GPs' (general practitioners') equipment and apps like this are part of the future of primary care and for GPs keeping knowledge up to date," said Dr Douglas Rigg, a Glasgow-based GP who was involved in the development of the app.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the disease claims nearly 500,000 lives in India annually, which is expected to rise manifold in the next few years.

If detected early, an early diagnosis of cancers that are curable can go a long way in controlling the disease.

New app helps in early diagnosis of cancer

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London, Feb 29 (IANS)

The result of the longitudinal study of over 6,000 adults revealed that better perceived health and smaller decreases in processing speed over time could help reduce mortality risk.

"Our study shows that two psychological variables, lower self-rated health and age-related decrements in processing speed, appear to be especially important indicators of elevated mortality risk in middle-aged and older adults," said Stephen Aichele, a scientist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Being a woman was also linked with reduced mortality risk while years of smoking tobacco was connected with an increased risk of early death.

The findings, published in the journal Psychological Science, may provide useful insights for health professionals, who need better methods for identifying individuals at risk of early death, the researchers noted.

The researchers investigated the relative influence of cognitive, demographic, health, and lifestyle variables in predicting mortality risk from the Manchester Longitudinal Study of Cognition's data collected for 29 years' from 6,203 adults who ranged in age from 41 to 96 years old when the study began.

Participants' subjective reports of various lifestyle factors, including perceived health, the number of prescribed medicines, sleep patterns, hobbies, leisure activities, and social interactions were also examined.

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New York, Feb 29 (IANS)

Researchers from US-based HRL Laboratories used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to show that the technique can be effectively used to improve skills of pilots learning to fly.

"We measured the brain activity patterns of six commercial and military pilots and then transmitted these patterns into novice subjects as they learned to pilot an airplane in a realistic flight simulator," said Dr Matthew Phillips from HRL's information and system sciences Laboratory.

The team found that participants who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps improved their piloting abilities.

"We measured the average g-force of the plane during the simulated landing and compared it to control subjects who received a mock brain stimulation," added Dr Phillips in a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

While a previous research demonstrated that tDCS can both help patients more quickly recover from a stroke and boost a healthy person's creativity, HRL's study is one of the first to show that tDCS is effective in accelerating practical learning.

According to the researcher, the potential to increase learning with brain stimulation may make this form of accelerated learning commonplace.

"As we discover more about optimizing, personalizing, and adapting brain stimulation protocols, we'll likely see these technologies become routine in training and classroom environments," he noted.

"It's possible that brain stimulation could be implemented for classes like drivers' training, SAT prep, and language learning," Dr Philips noted.

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New York, Feb 29 (IANS) Targeted suppression of inflammation in the body along with standard therapy can improve cognitive problems of patients with schizophrenia, according to US researchers.

Brian J Miller from Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University found that tocilizumab -- an immune-suppressing drug regularly prescribed for rheumatoid and juvenile arthritis -- significantly improved the cognitive abilities.

"This adds to the growing evidence that inflammation plays a role in patients with schizophrenia and suggests that targeting inflammation may be a viable therapeutic target at least for cognitive impairment," Miller noted.

Cognitive problems are a major source of dysfunction and disability in these patients and can be among the earliest symptoms of schizophrenia, said Miller in the paper published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of patients may have inflammation in the brain contributing to dysfunction.

Tocilizumab drug targets the receptor for IL-6 -- a protein which helps regulate inflammation and is often elevated in patients with schizophrenia.

Higher IL-6 levels have also been correlated with a smaller hippocampus as well as experiencing more psychiatric symptoms.

However, the five study patients did not experience improvement in overall levels of psychiatric symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, Miller said.

According to Miller, while all appeared to benefit from the targeted anti-inflammatory therapy, only half had elevated C-reactive protein (an indicator of inflammation) level, which means that a larger, double-blind study is needed.

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"The government will provide health insurance of up to Rs.1 lakh per family," said Jaitley, presenting the budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.

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"For the better availability of generic medicines in the country, especially in the rural areas, the government has decided to open 3,000 new gereric medicines stores," said Jaitley, presenting the budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.

He also announced the launch of a National Dialysis Programme to address the high costs involved in the renal dialysis processes.

Under the programme every district hospital will have the facilities of renal dialysis, so that people do not have to travel to the expensive hospitals of metro cities, he said.

At least 2,000 new dialysis centres will be started in the country under the programme.

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Mumbai: Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata felicitates retired police officer Suryakant Jog during a programme in Mumbai, on Dec 23, 2015. (Photo: IANS)

Mathura, Feb 28 (IANS) Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata here on Sunday inaugurated a 351-bed hospital that aims to provide better medical services to the western part of Uttar Pradesh.

Nayati hospital will have several advance techniques including high end CT, MRI, Linear accelerator, for radiation treatment, advanced Cath labs and blood banks, among others.

According to the hospital authorities, Nayati healthcare aims to transform the medical facilities in other tier-II cities apart from Mathura.

"The new hospital inaugurated today at Mathura will provide much needed medical help and health care facilities for the people of the region. It is heartening to see a full- fledged speciality hospital being established in Mathura with a considerable personal sacrifice, driven by passion and a genuine desire to serve the community," said Ratan Tata on the occasion.

Among several departments, the hospital specialises in includes Oncology, Orthopedics, Neurosciences, Pulmonology, Gastrosciences and Nephrology.

"Our aim has been to reduce the physical, emotional and economic burden of illness that blights the life of ordinary people in Tier-II and Tier-III towns by taking the treatment to the patient," said Niira Radia, chairperson of Nayati Healthcare.

She further said: "We understand that illness of an individual can profoundly impact the psychological and financial wellbeing of the entire family. We, at Nayati, have felt deeply the need to bring advanced technology and clinical expertise together, both of which we have chosen with utmost care."

Ratan Tata inaugurates 351-bed hospital in Mathura

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London, Feb 28 (IANS)

"If this proves effective, we'll have a very cost-effective solution that can ease everyday life for many patients with back pain," said Paul Jarle Mork, a professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Named selfBACK, the project recently received a five million euro funding from the European Union.

By combining the scientific understanding of back pain with cutting-edge technology, researchers are trying to create a decision support system based on data collected via a wristband and a smartphone app, according to NTNU.

"The wristband captures an individual's physical activity, heart rate, and number of steps taken. Based on the data generated from the band and the app, we can advise the patient on physical activity and sleep, for example, which are two critical aspects related to back problems," said Mork, who is the main coordinator of the project.

Kerstin Bach, a researcher at NTNU is the driving force on the data side, while professor Agnar Aamodt is the head of research.

The project mission is to implement a form of artificial intelligence. This will be built using open source code, and will collect critical data from the patient. This continuous data collection forms the entire basis for the decision support system that will provide personalised advice to each individual.

"Patients should be able to go into the app and see how and why they should follow the advice given. These suggestions are based on the patient's background information and all the information collected by the individual's wristband and app," Bach said.

Over the next five years, a team of international researchers will be working on the selfBACK project.

New app to help patients with back pain

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New York, Feb 28 (IANS) US researchers have developed an inexpensive prototype of a biomedical device that can detect anaemia simply by running a blood sample from a finger prick under a smartphone.

The device consists of 3-D printed clear plastic slides containing microfluidics that attach to a smartphone. The user adds a drop of their blood to a slide, which is used for a colour scale-based test.

The test results are produced in less than 60 seconds and can be read using a smartphone.

"Anaemia is a very prevalent condition in developing countries even though it is easily treated with iron supplements or vitamins and can be prevented with a healthy diet," said Kim Plevniak from the Kansas State University's Olathe campus, who spent nearly a year designing the device and test that taps into smartphone access.

According to the Kansas State University, Plevniak and assistant professor Mei He are now developing a companion app with Steve Warren from the same university that could manage data from the blood sample and even send the results to a doctor.

Anaemia is a condition in which the blood does not have enough healthy red blood cells to transport oxygen to the body's organs.

It affects about two billion people worldwide, including more than half of preschool children and pregnant women in developing countries and at least 30 percent of children and women in industrialised nations.

3-D printed biomedical device to rapidly detect anaemia

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New York, Feb 28 (IANS) The virtual reality (VR) technology can be used to determine how people perceive their bodies, to treat body image disturbances, and to improve adherence to physical activity among obese individuals, researchers report.

Virtual reality offers promising new approaches to assessing and treating people with weight-related disorders, and early applications are revealing valuable information about body image, said Giuseppe Riva, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, and José Gutiérrez-Maldonado from University of Barcelona, Spain.

They demonstrated how VR environments can produce responses similar to those seen in the real world.

Many chronic conditions are associated with a dysfunction of the stress system.

"I am appreciative to the researchers and clinicians worldwide who are exploring innovative ways to utilise technology to provide more effective assessment and treatment methods to a greater number of individuals," said Brenda K. Wiederhold from Virtual Reality Medical Institute in Brussels, Belgium.

The advantages of VR for evaluating body image disturbances and the potential to use VR to combat obesity were discussed in an article published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

The special issue features a broad range of articles highlighting many aspects of virtual reality and its potential applications.

Virtual reality may help fight obesity

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New York, Feb 28 (IANS)

The findings, published in the journal Infectious Agents and Cancer, showed the bacteria Porphyromonas gingival is present in 61 percent patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).

"These findings provide the first direct evidence that P. gingivalis infection could be a novel risk factor for ESCC and may also serve as a prognostic biomarker for this type of cancer," said Huizhi Wang from the University of Louisville's school of dentistry in the US.

"These data, if confirmed, indicate that eradication of a common oral pathogen may contribute to a reduction in the significant number of people suffering with ESCC," Wang added.

The esophagus is a muscular tube, critical to the movement of food from the mouth to the stomach.

For the study, researchers tested tissue samples from 100 patients with ESCC and 30 normal controls.

The results showed both the bacteria-distinguishing enzyme and its DNA were significantly higher in the cancerous tissue of ESCC patients than in surrounding tissue or normal control sites.

The researchers also found the presence of P. gingivalis correlated with other factors, including cancer cell differentiation, metastasis and overall survival rate.

There are two likely explanations: either ESCC cells are a preferred niche for P. gingivalis to thrive or the infection of P. gingivalis facilitates the development of esophageal cancer, Wang explained.

If the former is true, Wang said, simple antibiotics may prove useful or researchers can develop other therapeutic approaches for esophageal cancer utilizing genetic technology to target the P. gingivalis and ultimately destroy the cancer cells.

"It would suggest that improving oral hygiene may reduce ESCC risk; screening for P. gingivalis in dental plaque may identify susceptible subjects; and using antibiotics or other anti-bacterial strategies may prevent ESCC progression," Wang added.

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New York, Feb 28 (IANS) Children born by pre-labour caesarean section delivery are at an increased risk of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer characterised by an overproduction of immature white blood cells.

"Our goal was to determine if there was an association between caesarean deliveries and ALL, to identify potential new targets for research into cancer prevention if there is a correlation," said one of the lead researchers Erin Marcotte, assistant professor at University of Minnesota Medical School in the US.

"While the link between overall caesarean delivery and childhood leukaemia was not statistically significant, it was notable to find an association between pre-labour caesarean delivery and ALL," Marcotte noted.

A potential correlation between pre-labour caesarean delivery (PLCD) and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia could offer new targets for cancer prevention research.

The study was published in the journal The Lancet Haematology.

The analysis looked at 33,571 participants overall, including 23,351 control participants and 8,655 cases of ALL.

After looking most closely at deliveries where the reason for caesarean were available, the analysis showed a 23 percent increase in risk of ALL in children born by pre-labour caesarean delivery.

The reason for the increased risk of ALL with pre-labour caesarean section delivery is not known. Several mechanisms may be at play, including the stress response in the foetus caused by labour and the colonisation of microbiota a newborn experiences during a vaginal delivery that is missed during birth by a caesarean section.

"The most plausible explanation for the association between ALL and pre-labour delivery by caesarean section is in the cortisol, or stress-related mechanism," Marcotte said.

"Because ALL is not associated with all caesarean deliveries, it seems less likely the microbiota colonisation is a significant factor in this phenomenon. We believe further investigation into this cortisol mechanism link is warranted due to these findings," Marcotte noted.

Pre-labour caesarean section delivery linked to childhood leukaemia

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New York, Feb 28 (IANS)

The vaccine was designed to prevent malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax.

P. vivax malaria is challenging to control because it can be dormant, causing no symptoms, and then become active causing symptomatic malaria weeks to months after initial infection.

A vaccine to prevent infection and disease caused by P. vivax is critical to reduce sickness and mortality from vivax malaria.

"This study represents the first vaccine study to test the effectiveness of a P. vivax vaccine candidate in humans using controlled human malaria infection," said the study's lead investigator Jason Bennett from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the US.

The study's results were published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

The vaccine candidate developed by WRAIR was tested jointly with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a British pharmaceutical company.

Malaria is only transmitted through the bite of a female mosquito. Immunised volunteers took part in WRAIR's well-established controlled human malaria infection (CHMI) model where they were bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes.

The efficacy of the vaccine candidate was then determined based on whether or not volunteers developed malaria by looking at blood smears or if it took longer for malaria parasites to appear in the blood.

The vaccine candidate was well tolerated in all volunteers and generated robust immune responses.

While the vaccine candidate did not prevent malaria infection, it did significantly delay parasitemia in 59 percent of vaccinated participants, the findings showed.

"Findings from the analysis of the immune response of vaccinated subjects have given us clues to improve vaccine candidates and studies are now underway at WRAIR to develop next generation vivax vaccines," Robert Paris, director of the US Military Malaria Research Program at WRAIR, said.

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By Rupesh Dutta and Nishant Arora

New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS) You may not have heard of orthopedic surgeon Gavriil Abramovich Ilizarov from Siberia, who used external devices on patients to fix infected non-unions of bones in the 1950s.

But the Ilizarov technique has emerged in recent past as a preferred way among Indians to gain some extra height.

Although Ilizarov surgery is an effective way globally of lengthening the bones up to four to six inches, doctors advise not to go for this extremely slow and painful procedure just for the cosmetic purpose. The two bones that are involved in the elongation purposes are the femur (thigh bone) and tibia (lower leg bone). It can take between four to six months for the process to be completed.

In layman terms, the surgery involves strategically breaking the bone and then slowly separating the ends of the broken bone over a long period of time to gain extra height. This should be done under supervision of highly trained surgeons only, experts advise.

"It works on the principle of distraction osteogenesis, whereby slow and controlled distraction of bone at 1 mm per day generates new bone at the lengthening site of a bone. This is done using an external ring fixator or frame," said Dr (prof) Raju Vaishya, senior joint replacement surgeon at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and president of the Arthritis Care Foundation.

"Ilizarov surgery is a boon for patients with severe compound fractures, for lengthening of bones and for deformity correction of bones and joints," Dr Vaishya told IANS.

Dr Dhananjay Gupta, senior consultant (orthopaedics) at Fortis Flt Lt Rajan Dhall Hospital in the capital, said use of this technique for cosmetic purpose was not recommended.

"As the body tries to heal the break by creating new bone, the fracture is extended yet again and the body creates even more bone in the gap during the process," added Subhash Shalya who is associated with Delhi-based Orthopedic Surgeon Bone Joint Care Foundation of India.

The fracture is extended by a tiny amount several times a day, up to a millimetre total each day, until the desired length is reached.

"The trick is to do it slow enough so that new bone continues to grow, but fast enough that it does not heal entirely," Shalya added.

According to the doctors, the apparatus used today for the procedure comprises fixators, which have rings, rods and wires to gradually distract the bone parts and keep them fixed at the desired length.

"The entire procedure is minimally invasive as it uses wires to fix the bones to the rings. It involves less tissue damage and ensures quick recovery. After the procedure, the Illizarov fixator is removed," said Shalya.

The procedure is followed by a lengthy rehabilitation period and extensive physiotherapy to allow the body to get accustomed to the new bone development.

Like any surgical procedure, there are some issues that may crop up if utmost care is not taken post-Illizarov surgery.

"Wires which are passing through soft tissue and bone may get infected and painful. Regular distraction should be done with clock-like precision as too fast or slow rate may jeopardise the outcome," advised Dr Gupta.

"Blood vessels or nerve may not stretch at the same rate and may result in loss of their function. Muscles may cause stiff joints; so this procedure must be done in the guidance of a very trained surgeon," he said.

According to Dr Sanjay Agarwala, head (orthopedics and traumatology) at Mumbai-based P.D. Hinduja National Hospital & Medical Research Centre, as in any operation, there are concurrent risks which are manageable.

"As it is a slow process, it needs perseverance and persistence both on the patient and doctors' part. The procedure has been in place for 30 years and fills a required niche in orthopedics," Dr Agarwala told IANS.

(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at rupesh.d@ians.in and Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)

Doctors warn against bone-lengthening surgery for cosmetic purpose

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New York, Feb 27 (IANS) How you perceive and react to stressful events in life is more important to your health than how frequently you encounter stress, says a study.

According to the researchers, the more negatively an individual reacts to a situation the more he/she may be at risk of developing heart disease.

The team wanted to find out whether daily stress and heart rate variability -- a measure of autonomic regulation of the heart -- are linked.

A potential pathway that links stress to future heart disease is a dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system -- a case of a person's normally self-regulated nervous system getting off track.

"Higher heart rate variability is better for health as it reflects the capacity to respond to challenges," said Nancy L Sin from Pennsylvania State University.

"People with lower heart rate variability have a greater risk of cardiovascular disease and premature death," Sin added in the paper published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.

Depression and major stressful events are known to be harmful for health, but less attention has been paid to the health consequences of frustrations and hassles in everyday life.

The team analysed the data collected from 909 participants between the ages of 35 and 85, including daily telephone interviews over eight consecutive days and the results from an electro-cardiogram.

During daily phone interviews, participants were asked to report the stressful events as well as negative emotions they had experienced that day.

The researchers found that participants who reported a lot of stressful events in their lives were not necessarily those who had lower heart rate variability.

No matter how many or how few stressful events a person faces, it was those who perceived the events as more stressful or who experienced a greater spike in negative emotions had lower heart rate variability -- meaning these people may be at a higher risk for heart disease, the authors noted.

How you react to stress decides your overall health

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Toronto, Feb 27 (IANS) A drug that would be the first to target the cause of Huntington's disease (HD) -- a rare, hereditary disease -- has been found effective and safe when tested in mice and monkeys.

The new drug, called IONIS-HTTRx, is an anti-sense drug that acts as a "gene silencer" to inhibit the production of Huntingtin (HTT) protein in people with Huntington's disease that can cause uncontrolled movements, loss of intellectual abilities, emotional problems and eventually death.

"It is very exciting to have the possibility of a treatment that could alter the course of this devastating disease," said principal investigator Blair Leavitt from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

The findings will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 68th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada, starting from April 15.

Huntington's disease is passed from parent to child through a mutation in the HTT gene.

The mutation results in the production of a disease-causing HTT protein. Each child has a 50/50 chance of inheriting the gene mutation. Everyone who inherits the mutated gene would eventually develop the disease.

In the study, IONIS-HTTRx was found to be well-tolerated without any dose-limiting side effects, in the experiments conducted on rodents and monkeys. The drug is now in the initial phase of its clinical trial.

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New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS)

One basic precaution for diabetics to avoid stroke is to control weight.

"High abdominal fat leads to an increased production of bad cholesterol which saturates blood vessels. This blood gets deposited on the inside of blood vessels, leading to an increased risk of forming blood clots in the body causing stroke," said Dr Satnam Singh Chhabra, head (neuro and spine department) at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the capital.

According to Dr Singh, diabetics should also keep smoking at bay as it leads to further clogging of arteries by narrowing down the blood vessel leading to stroke.

"Follow a heart-friendly diet at home. Diabetics can control cholesterol with a high intake of fibre-rich foods. There are several food items which are rich in fibre, including oats, whole-grain breads, peas and fruits," Singh added.

According to the World Congress of Cardiology, it is estimated that by 2020, heart diseases will be the cause of over 40 percent deaths in India as compared to 24 percent in 1990.

Among them, over 60 percent are estimated to be diabetics. In India, currently there are nearly 50 million diabetics.

"Diabetics should avoid fatty and fried food items as these lead to high cholesterol levels in the body," added Ashok Rai, senior consultant at Down Town Hospital in Guwahati, Assam.

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New York, Feb 27 (IANS) Researchers have found an intermediate gut microbiome in a community of a traditional population that incorporates some westernised lifestyle practices and throws light on why modern humans suffer from lifestyle diseases.

“This is one of the first studies to show that the microbiomes of a traditional agriculturalist group exhibit an intermediate state, between the microbiomes of hunter-gatherers and those of a western industrialised society,”said Andres Gomez, microbial ecologist at the J Craig Venter Institute in California.

In the study, the team described an intermediate gut microbiome from the Central African Republic's Bantu community.

The discovery offers insight into what factors may drive our microbiome differences which are thought to be linked to metabolic disorders in western populations.

“The study supports the idea that diet is the most important driver of microbiome composition in humans. We are what we eat, and our microbiome is a very important reflection of lifestyle,” Gomez added in a paper published in the journal Cell Reports.

According to him, the Bantu traditional agriculturalists have been gradually transitioning to westernised subsistence patterns, and this transition may have been the way modern humans evolved their gut microbiomes.

The hunter-gatherers (called BaAka) analysed in the study rely heavily on wild game, fish and fruits and vegetables for sustenance.

However, the Bantu population relies fully on a market economy.

These agriculturalists grow tubers, fruits and other plants, make use of flour-like products, and raise goats for meat.

They also use antibiotics and other therapeutic drugs when available.

Sequencing data revealed that while the BaAka and Bantu gut microbes were from similar bacterial species, the abundance of traditional bacterial groups was diminished in the Bantu.

Further comparisons with western microbiome data showed that the Bantu microbiome composition falls on a spectrum between the BaAka and western populations.

“The BaAka microbiome is more similar to that of wild primates than it is to western humans,” Gomez noted.

The study involved a team of international collaborators, including senior author Ran Blekhman of the University of Minnesota.

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AIDS

New York, Feb 27 (IANS) A large number of newly HIV diagnosed men in the US believe that they contracted the infection from a partner they met online, new research has found.

More than 60 percent of men in a US state who have sex with men (MSM) diagnosed with HIV in 2013 reported meeting sexual partners online in the preceding year, the findings showed.

"This is a statewide study that included nearly all individuals newly diagnosed with HIV across an entire state," said one of the researchers Amy Nunn, associate professor at Brown University.

In 2013, 74 Rhode Island residents were newly diagnosed with HIV.

Three in five were gay, bisexual, or other MSM, and of those 43 people, 22 told researchers they believe a man they met online gave them the virus.

The study, published in the journal Public Health Reports, suggests that online dating websites can be roped in to spread awareness about ways to prevent HIV infection.

"This is one of the first studies to document how common Internet site use is among people newly diagnosed with HIV and highlights important opportunities to partner with hookup sites to advance public health," Nunn noted.

Companies that produce hookup websites and apps should partner with public health groups, to share public health messages about the risks of sexual encounters arranged online, the researchers said.

For instance, sites and apps could provide affordable advertising access to help prevent infection in communities that are most impacted by HIV, the authors said.

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Sydney, Feb 27 (IANS) Australian researchers have discovered how a protein works to boost the body's natural-killing immune cells -- a type of white blood cell which hunts and destroys foreign cells in the body, including tumours, breast and colon cancer and melanoma cells.

The protein called "ID2" works as a switch that can also be manipulated to fight viral infections or to help patients whose immune systems have not developed properly because their bodies lack natural killer cells.

It works by allowing natural killer cells to become responsive to growth factors in the blood, called "Interleukin -15 (IL-15)" that keep the natural killer cells active and alive.

Using the growth factor, IL-15, the immune deficiencies in cells can be conquered by 'tricking' the immune cells into becoming natural killer cells, the researchers explained.

"The real paradigm shift is that we can now make natural killer cells appear even when this switch is missing, purely by supplying more growth factor to the specific environment -- we can push cells to become natural killer cells. It's a really novel biological discovery," said lead researcher Nick Huntington from Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Australia.

The study, published in the journal Immunity, noted that researchers have now discovered how to best keep these natural killer cells fit and healthy to boost their activity or numbers or survival in the body in order to fight against cancer.

Conversely, the natural killer cell switch could also potentially be turned off in instances in which these cells proved damaging, such as when they prompt the rejection of donor stem cells in bone marrow transplants or produce signals that result in the potentially fatal toxic shock syndrome.

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London, Feb 27 (IANS) Insecticide-treated nets can prevent malaria despite mosquitoes developing resistance to the substances used on the nets, a study says.

Researchers found that doses of the insecticide "deltamethrin" that are tolerated by resistant mosquitoes can interfere with development of the malaria parasite in the stomach of the mosquito.

Insecticide resistance remains a major threat to malaria control.

"Our findings could help to explain why, so far, insecticide-treated nets seem to remain partly effective despite increasing resistance", said study author Jo Lines from the London school of hygiene and tropical medicine

The study, published in the journal Parasites & Vectors, focused on malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa -- Anopheles gambiae s.s.

The team fed the mosquitoes on malaria-infected blood, exposed some of them to the insecticide and checked for parasite development a week later.

The findings showed that the proportion of infected mosquitoes was significantly lower in the group that had been exposed to the insecticide and those that were infected developed fewer parasites than the unexposed group.

The study indicates that although resistant mosquitoes are surviving contact with the insecticide, the malaria parasites inside those mosquitoes are affected by the chemicals.

"This is a significant result. It suggests that the use of insecticide-treated nets might continue to reduce malaria even in areas where the mosquitoes have become resistant. If so, that would give us more time to develop alternatives," said Tarekegn Abeku, one of the researchers, from the London school of hygiene and tropical medicine.

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The researchers found that older adults perceive emotion terms as most positive and more active than younger persons. Emotions overall may be more encouraging for older than younger persons.

"Older adults report feeling more serenity than younger persons. They also have a richer concept of what it means to feel serene than younger persons," said lead researcher Rebecca Ready from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US.

In the study, published in the journal of Aging and Mental Health, researchers recruited 32 older adults aged 60-92, and 111 younger adults aged 18-32 and then asked them to judge 70 emotion terms on whether the words had a positive or negative connotation and if the words were activating or arousing.

In a word grouping task, older adults associated more positive emotional terms with serene, such as cheerful, happy and joyful than did younger people.

The findings showed, word groupings were similar between older and younger persons for many words but they noted systematic differences for sadness, loneliness and serenity.

"We were surprised to find that younger adults associated more self-deprecating terms with feeling sad and lonely, such as being ashamed or disgusted with themselves, than older persons," Ready added.

"We gained a deeper appreciation of some relatively unknown benefits of aging, such as increased positive emotions and less shame associated with feeling sad or lonely," Ready stated.

As the percentage of older adults in the US increases, "it is imperative to determine how older adults define emotions differently than younger adults," Ready noted.

The findings are "highly clinically significant" because the information could help care-takers, psychotherapists and workers at assisted living facilities to better understand the emotions of older people in their care.

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London, Feb 27 (IANS)

But, your high body mass index (BMI) is also likely to affect your episodic memory -- the ability to recall past events, warns a new study.

A higher BMI was previously found to affect the structural and functional changes in the brain. But, it may also be accompanied by a reduced ability to form and/or retrieve episodic memories and also affect brain's ability to perform certain cognitive tasks optimally, suggested the researchers.

The results showed that obesity might also impair an individual's ability to use memory to help regulate consumption.

In other words, it is possible that becoming overweight may make it harder for an individual to keep track of what and how much he or she has eaten, potentially making one more likely to overeat.

"The possibility that there may be episodic memory deficits in overweight individuals is of concern, especially given the growing evidence that episodic memory may have a considerable influence on feeding behaviour and appetite regulation," said Lucy Cheke, lecturer at the University.

However, she cautioned that not all overweight people are necessarily forgetful.

But if the results are generalised to memory in everyday life, then it could be that overweight people are less able to vividly relive details of past events -- such as their past meals, the researchers explained in the study published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Obesity has been previously, linked with dysfunction of the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in memory and learning, and of the frontal lobe, the part of the brain involved in decision-making, problem solving and emotions.

Around 60 percent of adults in Britain are overweight or obese: this number is predicted to rise to approximately 70 percent by 2034, the researchers noted.

"Understanding what drives our consumption and how we instinctively regulate our eating behaviour is becoming more and more important given the rise of obesity in society," Cheke added.

The researchers tested 50 participants aged 18-35, with body mass indexes (BMIs) ranging from 18 through to 51 -- a BMI of 18-25 is considered healthy, 25-30 overweight, and over 30 obese.

The participants took part in a memory test known as the 'Treasure-Hunt Task', where they were asked to hide items around complex scenes (for example, a desert with palm trees) across two 'days'.

They were then asked to remember which items they had hidden, where they had hidden them, and when they were hidden.

Overall, the team found an association between higher BMI and poor performance on the tasks.

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Uncorrected refractive error (URE) - nearsightedness, farsightedness, and other focusing problems correctable by prescription lenses - is responsible for moderate to severe vision impairment in 101 million people and blindness in seven million people worldwide, the study said.

The findings appeared in Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry.

"Uncorrected refractive error continues as the leading cause of vision impairment and the second leading cause of blindness worldwide," said one of the study authors Kovin Naidoo from Brien Holden Vision Institute, Durban, South Africa.

Refractive error refers to any of the common vision problems causing decreased sharpness of vision, including myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia, (farsightedness), or astigmatism.

In developed countries, eyeglasses or contact lenses are routinely prescribed to correct these causes of impaired vision.

But millions of people around the world still have impaired vision or even blindness caused by URE.

In the study, a group of leading optometrists and ophthalmologists specialising in world blindness analysed the best available research on URE.

Pooled data from nearly 250 studies performed between 1990 and 2010 were analysed to estimate the number of people affected by blindness and visual impairment due to URE, including trends in prevalence and differences by region.

Uncorrected refractive error was found to be the leading cause of moderate to severe visual impairment, affecting an estimated 101.2 million people.

It was also the second leading cause of blindness (after cataracts), affecting another 6.8 million.

"In 2010, URE contributed 20.9 percent of all blindness and 52.9 percent of all moderate to severe vision impairment," Naidoo said.

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