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Exercise may benefit patients with mild to moderate OSA

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 7 (ANI): People suffering from mild to moderate form of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may benefit from certain tongue and pharyngeal exercises, according to a study.

“It was commonly thought among doctors that strengthening and toning oropharyngeal muscles would have no benefit to the patient during sleep, but a recent study showed that didgeridoo playing helped decrease snoring and OSA. This was a change of paradigm, and indicated that not everything you do during the day is lost during sleep,” said Dr. Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho.

During the study, the researchers investigated the effects of exercises on the symptoms of OSA in the first randomised, controlled study to do so. Thirty-one recently-diagnosed patients were evaluated for OSA severity using polysomnography.

Snoring frequency and intensity, daytime sleepiness and sleep quality were assessed using self-reports and validated questionnaires.

The subjects were the randomized to two groups-the exercise group and the control group. Each of the 16 individuals in the exercise group underwent a daily and weekly regimen of tongue and pharyngeal exercises.

There was also a control group of 15 individuals, who underwent a sham treatment regimen involving deep breathing and nasal lavage with a saline solution.

After three months, there were no significant changes to OSA symptoms in the control group, but the treatment group showed significant improvements in lowest oxygen saturation levels in blood, subjective sleepiness, snoring symptoms and quality of sleep scores.

The researchers said while there were no changes in abdominal circumference in either group, neck circumference decreased significantly in the treatment group with no concomitant changes in body mass index.

“These data suggest that the exercises were able to promote remodeling of the upper airways,” said Dr. Lorenzi-Filho.

Overall, the treatment groups showed a 40 percent decrease in OSA severity, with 10 the 16 patients who had originally been classified as having moderate OSA being reclassified as having either mild (eight) or no OSA (two).

“This was nearly two thirds of the treatment group, whereas none of the control group were reclassified with a milder disease. This indicates to us that these exercises have significant potential to improve symptoms in sufferers of OSA,” said Dr. Lorenzi-Filho.

“The muscles of the upper airways are extremely complex and the mechanisms leading to OSA are far from being well understood. A strong muscle may be working on the wrong direction and not necessarily helping to open the airways. The overall set of exercises we tested target the correct physiology of the upper airway and should promote remodeling of the upper airways,” said Dr. Lorenzi-Filho.

The researchers say that the evidence supports that certain exercises do, in fact, aid in remodelling the upper airways in such a way as to reduce OSA symptoms.

Dr. Lorenzi-Filho acknowledges that work is just beginning in this exciting area of research.

“How exactly these exercises work? Do we need all of them or just a few? Do different patients need different set of exercises? What are the exact mechanisms leading to upper airway obstruction?” he asked.

“The answer is we don’t know, but these are some of the possible future areas of research,” he said.

The study has been published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (ANI)

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Asthma self-management programs improve drug adherence, disease control

May 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 7 (ANI): Self-management programs for asthma patients could improve adherence to medications, and leads to better disease control, according to a study.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, say that asthma patients, who spend as little as 30 minutes with a health care professional to develop a personalized self-management plan, may improve their condition.

“Mortality from asthma is preventable. However, many patients struggle to manage symptoms on their own and often end up visiting emergency departments. Our study indicates that in a clinical setting, personalized self-management education coupled with self-monitoring may be a cost-effective way to empower patients to better control their disease,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Susan L. Janson, a UCSF clinical specialist in pulmonary disease.

Earlier, the researchers had shown that teaching asthma patients how to self-manage their disease can improve health outcomes and that tailored education is more effective than standardized programs because patients find it more personally relevant.

However, Janson pointed out that it had been unclear as to which components of self-management education could lead to better control of the disease.

For the study, the researchers conducted a 24-week randomised, controlled trial to know whether individualized instruction in asthma self-management added significantly to the effects of self-monitoring alone on patients’ adherence to inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs).

ICSs are medications that can help reduce inflammation in the airway and prevent asthma attacks.

In the study, 84 adults with asthma self-monitored their symptoms, and kept a daily log of their peak expiratory airflow.

Forty-five of those patients were randomly selected to also receive a personal 30-minute session that included asthma information, personally relevant allergen exposure reduction, a personal action plan, and instruction in the correct use of their inhalers.

Janson said that many people with asthma did not receive the full advantage of inhalers because they did not breathe deeply enough or sometimes swallowed the medication and also different models of inhalers require different techniques to operate effectively.

During the study period, adherence to ICSs was consistently higher in the intervention group compared with the control group.

Also, participants in the intervention group experienced fewer nighttime awakenings, a marker of asthma control.

Intervention participants also used rescue inhalers less frequently, experienced an increased sense of control over their asthma, and had a significant decrease in their levels of tryptase, which is released from cells in the presence of allergens.

The findings of the study have been published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. (ANI)

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Nightly bedtime routine improves maternal mood, kids’sleep

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 1 (ANI): In the journal SLEEP, researchers have demonstrated that the use of a consistent bedtime routine contributes to improvements in multiple aspects of infant and toddler sleep, bedtime behavior and maternal mood.

Results indicate that the establishment of a nightly bedtime routine produced significant reductions in problematic sleep behaviors for infants and toddlers. Improvements were seen in latency and sleep onset and in the number and duration of night wakings.

Toddlers were less likely to call out to their parents or get out of their crib/bed during the night. Sleep continuity increased and there was a significant decrease in the number of mothers who rated their child’s sleep as problematic. Maternal mood also significantly improved.

According to the study, sleep problems are one of the most common concerns of parents of young children; approximately 20 to 30 percent of infants and toddlers experience sleep difficulties. Previous studies have found that successful treatment of children’s sleep problems with behavioral interventions also result in improvements in parental well-being.

According to principal investigator, Jodi Mindell, PhD, professor of psychology at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA., creating a bedtime routine is an easy change that can significantly improve both the child’s sleep and the mother’s quality of life.

“There is no question that maternal mood and children’s sleep impact one another. The better a child sleeps and the easier bedtime is, the better a mother’s mood is going to be,” said Mindell.

“In addition, a mom who is not feeling tense, depressed, and fatigued is going to be calmer at bedtime, which will help a child settle down to sleep,” the expert added.

Data were collected from 405 mothers and their infant or toddler,(206 infants between the ages of 7 and 18 months and 199 toddlers between the ages of 18 and 36 months), who then participated in two age-specific three week studies.

Families were randomly assigned to a routine or control group. The first week of the study served as a baseline, during which the mothers followed their child’s usual bedtime weeks.

During the following two weeks mothers were instructed to conduct a specific bedtime routine, while the control group continued with their child’s normal bedtime procedure.

All children included in the study had a small to severe sleep problem, as identified by the mother. Problems included more than three nightly wakings, awakening for longer than 60 minutes per night, or having a total daily sleep duration of less than nine hours. All mothers completed an expanded version of the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BRISQ), and provided subjective data concerning their child’s sleep habits.

Parents in the infant routine group were given a three-step bedtime procedure to follow that included a bath, a massage and quiet activities (such as cuddling and singing); lights were to be turned out within 30 minutes of the end of the bath.

Mothers then proceeded to put the child to sleep as they normally did, by either putting the child to bed while awake or rocking them to sleep. Thus, the only instituted change was the routine. The toddler group followed the same routine, except that mothers were instructed to apply lotion rather than give the child a massage.

Research shows that daily routines in general lead to predictable and less stressful environments for young children and are related to parenting competence, improved daytime behaviors and lower maternal mental distress. (ANI)

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Lupus patients ‘have decreased sense of smell’

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 01 (ANI): A new study had found that patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have a decreased sense of smell.

SLE is an autoimmune disease that sometimes involves the central nervous system in a condition known as neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE).

The sense of smell is a complex process of the central nervous system that involves specific areas of the brain.

Research in mice has shown that NPSLE-like symptoms and olfactory impairment might be induced by autoimmune mechanisms that target specific areas of the brain, but this has not been explored.

The new study, led by Yehuda Shoenfeld of Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer, Israel, involved 50 SLE patients and 50 age and sex-matched controls.

Researchers evaluated three levels of olfactory function: threshold (identifying a stick with an odour from among sticks that didn’t have an odour); discrimination (differentiating between two smells); and identification of a smell from among four options. The three scores were combined to form a total TDI score.

The results showed that significant olfactory deficits in the SLE patients compared with the controls. SLE patients showed a decrease in olfactory function in both the threshold and discrimination tests.

Also, the study found that patients with more active disease and past NPSLE manifestations had significantly lower TDI scores.

Previous study in mice has shown that injection of antibodies linked to NPSLE manifestations induced olfactory deficit and that these antibodies can bind and penetrate cells in limbic areas of the brain, which are associated with the sense of smell.

Also, magnetic resonance imaging has recently shown limbic system involvement in SLE patients.

“Although the exact mechanism of olfactory impairment has yet to be elucidated, the possibility of an immune-mediated mechanism is intriguing,” the authors said.

The study was published in the May issue of Arthritis and Rheumatism. (ANI)

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White tea may combat obesity epidemic

May 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 1 (ANI): A daily cup of white tea may help beat the bulge, say researchers.

Possible anti-obesity effects of white tea have been demonstrated in a series of experiments on human fat cells (adipocytes).
esearchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism have shown that an extract of the herbal brew effectively inhibits the generation of new adipocytes and stimulates fat mobilization from mature fat cells.

Marc Winnefeld led a team of researchers from Beiersdorf AG, Germany, who studied the biological effects of an extract of white tea – the least processed version of the tea plant Camellia sinensis.

He said, “In the industrialized countries, the rising incidence of obesity-associated disorders including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes constitutes a growing problem. We’ve shown that white tea may be an ideal natural source of slimming substances”.

After treating lab-cultured human pre-adipocytes with the tea extract, the authors found that fat incorporation during the genesis of new adipocytes was reduced.

According to Winnefeld, “The extract solution induced a decrease in the expression of genes associated with the growth of new fat cells, while also prompting existing adipocytes to break down the fat they contain”.

White tea is made from the buds and first leaves of the plant used to make green tea and the black tea most commonly drunk in Western countries. It is less processed than the other teas and contains more of the ingredients thought to be active on human cells, such as methylxanthines (like caffeine) and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) – which the authors believe to be responsible for many of the anti-adipogenic effects demonstrated in their study. (ANI)

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Up to 300 boat migrants land on Sicily

April 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Rome – Up to 300 illegal immigrants have landed on the Italian island of Sicily on Saturday, local media reported.

Italian coast guard authorities guided the migrants’ vessel into the harbour of Pozzallo, in the south of the island. Among the immigrants are thought to be more than 30 women and children.

The new arrival adds to the 340 migrants that landed on the Italian islet of Lampedusa, south of Sicily, on Thursday.

In Naples on Saturday, a demonstration of several thousand African immigrants took place, in protest at alleged racism and discrimination directed against them in Italy.

According to Italian government figures, a total of 36,900 would- be immigrants arrived in Italy by sea in 2008, a 75-per-cent increase over the previous year. Of these some 31,000 landed on Lampedusa.

Italian officials say they hope to see a decrease in such hazardous sea-journeys in May when an agreement between Rome and Tripoli involving stepped up patrols of Libya’s coastline, comes into effect.

Earlier in April, over 230 would-be immigrants are feared to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya. (dpa)

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Over 300 would-be migrants arrive on Italian islet

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lampedusa, Italy – More than 300 would-be migrants landed Thursday on the Italian islet of Lampedusa when three vessels carrying them were escorted to shore by authorities.

The first and largest group – 239 people including 45 women and two children – arrived at dawn after their vessel was intercepted by a Italian coastguard patrol, officials said.

Authorities are planning to transfer the migrants to a reception centre in Porto Empedocle in Sicily.

Earlier in April, over 230 would-be immigrants are feared to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya.(dpa)

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European industrial production plunges as inflation dwindles

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Berlin – European industrial production plunged by an annual 18.4 per cent in February, according to data released Thursday, amid dwindling inflationary pressures and signs that the global recession has tightened its grip on the region’s economy.

The European Union’s statistics office, Eurostat, said the sharp fall in industrial production in the 16-member eurozone followed a 2.3 per cent drop in February compared with January.

However, the month-on-month February fall was less than the 2.7 per cent drop predicted by economists.

Eurostat also revised down the January monthly decline to a 2.4 per cent decrease from an initial estimate of a 3.5 per cent slump.

Eurostat data confirmed March inflation in the eurozone coming in at an annual 0.6 per cent, compared with 1.2 per cent in February as energy costs and food prices eased. A year earlier the eurozone inflation rate stood at 3.8 per cent.

Moreover, the signs of continuing economic weakness in the eurozone and falling inflation are likely to help strengthen the case for the European Central Bank to deliver another rate cut at its meeting set for next month.

In the broader 27-member European Union, industrial production in dropped by a hefty 17.5 per cent year-on-year in February and by 1.9 per cent month-on-month.

Annual inflation in the EU was 1.3 per cent in March 2009, down from 1.8 per cent in February. A year earlier the rate was 3.8 per cent. (dpa)

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Low lead levels in early childhood linked to hypertension in later life

April 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 17 (ANI): Researchers from State University of New York have found that low levels of lead found in the blood during early childhood can increase a child’s risk of developing hypertension in later life.

They found that low levels of lead could adversely affect a child’s cardiovascular system’s response to stress.

During the study, the research team found that lead exposure was associated with an increase in vascular resistance when the children worked on a stressful computer task.

Vascular resistance is a measure of tension within the blood vessels. Increased vascular resistance may lead to hypertension if it continues over time.

They also found that lead exposure was associated with a decrease in circulating aldosterone levels, a hormone that helps regulate blood pressure.

In an earlier study with a different group of children, the researchers found that higher lead levels measured at 2 years of age were associated with an increased vascular response to stress later in life (average of 9.5 years of age).

And the present study aimed to determine whether this association was true when both lead and vascular responses were measured simultaneously, and if it did, how this happens.

“The interesting thing was that the levels of lead were all pretty low in the children who participated,” said James A. MacKenzie, State University of New York.

“We’re seeing the negative effects at these low levels. While these are preliminary findings, the issue deserves more study,” he added.

The new study showed increased sympathetic nervous system activity during rest and, paradoxically, a depressed sympathetic response during the stressful computer task.

Activation of the sympathetic nervous system produces the “fight or flight” response, raising the heart rate and constricting the blood vessels, among other things. Sympathetic nervous system activity is an appropriate response to stress, but can be harmful if activated for a long time.

“We believe lead causes an increase in sympathetic nervous activity during rest which reduces the body’s ability to generate a response when stress comes along,” Dr. MacKenzie said.

The study will be presented at 122nd annual meeting of The American Physiological Society. (ANI)

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Singapore further slashes trade forecasts

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Singapore – Singapore on Tuesday revised its total trade projection for this year to a drop of 22 to 25 per cent, from previous expectations of a decline of 17 to 19 per cent, citing weak export markets. Non-oil domestic exports for 2009 are expected to contract by 10 to 13 per cent, from an earlier projection of a 9 to 11-per-cent decline, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, a government trade agency, said.

The contraction in both Singapore’s total trade and non-oil domestic exports was larger than expected for the first quarter of this year. Trade was down 28 per cent and exports 26 per cent, compared to a growth of 16 per cent and 0.6 per cent respectively in the same period last year, the agency said.

The impact of the fall in global export demand was affecting Asia more severely than previously anticipated, it said.

In March trade declined by 24 per cent year-on-year, following a 22-per-cent decrease in the previous month, while exports were down 21 per cent, after dropping 24 per cent in February.

Imports declined by 28 per cent in March, after a 20-per-cent decrease in. (dpa)

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Japan wholesale prices slide, deflation ahead

April 13, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese wholesale prices are falling at their fastest rate since 2002, March figures showed on Monday, as weakening domestic demand on top of falling commodity prices drives Japan toward its second bout of deflation this decade.

With interest rates already almost at zero, analysts say the Bank of Japan has limited weapons to fight deflation in the country’s worst recession since World War Two to fight deflation.

“The BOJ has reached its limit in terms of conventional monetary policy moves,” said Norihiro Fujito, general manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities.

“If prices continue to slide, the BOJ may need to expand its purchases of government bond buying, and move toward quantitative easing. It may also broaden the scope of corporate bonds it buys, relaxing its standards on credit ratings, for example.”

The 2.2 percent annual decline in wholesale prices was bigger than a median market forecast for a 1.8 percent decrease, Bank of Japan data showed.

It followed a revised 1.6 percent fall in the year to the February and was the third month in a row of annual decline.

Analysts say it is inevitable that consumer prices will soon turn negative after flat annual figures for the years to January and February.

March figures are due at the end of the month.

Overall final goods prices, which track prices of final products charged to businesses, fell 2.6 percent in March from a year earlier. Domestic final goods prices fell 1.7 percent.

Wholesale inflation quickly lost steam after hitting a 27-year peak in August, as the worsening global financial crisis sent the price of commodities tumbling.

Now, with both domestic and external demand faltering, Japan could be the slowest among major economies to recover from recession even as the government scrambles to pull the economy out of the deepening recession.

“Even though there have been some positive signs on the economy recently, today’s data showed prices are under pressure from a widening output gap,” said Junko Nishioka, chief Japan economist at Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Pressure on consumer prices will be strong at least for the first half of this year.”

Japan’s economy tumbled 3.2 percent in the last quarter of last year and plunging business confidence has raised fears the situation is getting worse.

The world’s No.2 economy has been more severely hit by the global recession than other major economies due to its heavy dependence on exports.

Japan’s government on Friday announced new stimulus spending of 15.4 trillion yen ($154 billion), equivalent to 3 percent of GDP, to help lift the country out of its deepest recession since World War Two.

($1=100.22 Yen)

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Fall in civil suits, rise in criminal cases disturbing: CJI

April 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, April 10 (IANS) Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan said there is a new ‘disturbing’ litigation trend in the country – a fall in civil disputes but a rise in criminal cases.

‘Criminal cases have witnessed a three percent rise while there has been six percent decrease in civil cases… This is a disturbing trend,’ the chief justice said late Thursday evening, while inaugurating a function to mark the beginning of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Bar Association of India.

Elaborating upon the new trend, Chief Justice Balakrishnan said: ’87 percent of the total cases pending in India are in the subordinate courts, of which 71 percent are criminal cases.’

In states with higher literacy level, the number of civil cases was 29 per 1,000 people while in states with poor literacy it was as low as 4.6 per 1,000, he said.

Describing the number of civil cases filed as ‘very low’, the CJI wondered why people were not coming forward to file civil suits.

He appealed to the lawyers and legal community to ponder over this issue and help genuine and needy litigants in getting justice at an affordable cost.

The CJI also rued that in recent years there had been some instances of collusion between the defence and prosecution counsel in criminal cases.

The chief justice also disapproved of the astronomical fees being charged by the lawyers from clients and asked them to improve their ethical standards instead and help youngsters during their initial years in the legal profession.

Justice Balakrishnan said statutory bodies like the Bar Council of India and other state bar councils often take too much time in deciding complaints of professional misconduct against advocates.

The CJI wanted the Bar Association of India to set up a panel comprising judges, advocates, academics and others to take up legal research.

Later, BAI secretary Lalit Bhasin said the association had already initiated the process for establishing such a panel.

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Having kids can mean end of marital bliss

April 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 9 (ANI): Thought marriage, money and kids were the cornerstone of happiness? Well, in that case, here’s a news flash for you: having children can send martial bliss in a downward spiral.

According to researchers at the University of Denver (DU) and Texas A and M, children can add problems and stress to a marriage.

As per an eight-year study of 218 couples, ninety percent of the couples experienced a decrease in marital satisfaction once the first child was born.

“Couples who do not have children also show diminished marital quality over time,” says Scott Stanley, research professor of psychology at DU.

“However, having a baby accelerates the deterioration, especially seen during periods of adjustment right after the birth of a childm,” he added.

The study has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The research also showed couples who lived together before marriage experienced more problems after birth than those who lived separately before marriage, as did those whose parents fought or divorced.

However, some couples said their relationships were stronger post-birth. Couples who had been married longer, or who had higher incomes, seemed to have fewer marital problems related to having a baby than those with lower incomes or who had been married for a shorter period of time.

Stanley cautions against concluding that children damage overall happiness in life.

“There are different types of happiness in life and that while some luster may be off marital happiness for at least a time during this period of life, there is a whole dimension of family happiness and contentment based on the family that couples are building. This type of happiness can be powerful and positive but it has not been the focus of research,” Stanley says. (ANI)

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Why diabetics have high blood glucose levels

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 8 (ANI): A research team, including an Indian-origin boffin, has shed light on why people with diabetes have high blood glucose levels.

Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center have shown for the first time that insulin plays a significant role in suppressing levels of glucagon, a hormone involved in carbohydrate metabolism and regulating blood glucose levels.

According to researchers, the new findings could lead to development of a drug aimed at targeting glucagon levels.

“This is a very important finding because until now scientists have only speculated that insulin may be involved in keeping glucagon levels in check,” said Rohit N. Kulkarni, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator in the Joslin Section on Cellular and Molecular Physiology and senior author of the study

Produced by the alpha cells in the pancreas, glucagon acts on the liver to help raise blood glucose when it becomes low. It has the opposite effect on the liver as insulin, which is released from pancreatic beta cells to lower blood glucose when it is high.

In a healthy individual, the two counter each other to keep blood glucose levels balanced. In individuals with long-standing type 1 or type 2 diabetes, inappropriate glucagon secretion can increase the chances of hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels) and can interfere with insulin therapy.

The finding suggests that for people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, a therapeutic approach could be developed to target insulin receptors or proteins in alpha cells in order to suppress glucagon secretion.

In addition, the research may also help in the understanding of why patients with type 1 diabetes in particular, who are required to inject insulin on a regular basis, are at risk for hypoglycemia.

Kulkarni said that it was thought that this increased risk was linked in some way to insulin receptors in the alpha cells, an idea that today’s study suggests is in fact the case.

“This gives us some insight into the cause of hypoglycemia, the most common complication in patients with type 1 diabetes,” he said.

“Injecting insulin leads to a decrease in blood glucose. If it starts to go too low, glucagon normally kicks in to prevent hypoglycemia. But, what happens in diabetes is the alpha cells become desensitized by repeated insulin injections over many years and they start to behave abnormally. We believe this is linked to insulin receptor function,” he added.

In the study, researchers created a genetically engineered mouse model in which pancreatic alpha cells – those that secrete glucagon – were modified so that they did not contain insulin receptors. The idea was to explore the role of insulin in regulating glucagon secretion.

The modified mice exhibited elevated glucagon levels and also showed impaired glucose tolerance, as is seen in diabetes.

“This is the first genetic model wherein we provide definitive proof that insulin is able to suppress glucagon in mammals,” Kulkarni said.

The study is published in the April issue of Cell Metabolism. (ANI)

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Philippines’ inflation rate slows to 6.4 per cent in March

April 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Manila – The Philippines’ inflation rate fell to 6.4 per cent in March as prices of food and other basic commodities eased, the government said Tuesday.

The March index was down from 7.3 per cent in February and was the same level as in March 2008, the National Statistics Office said.

The office said inflation decelerated “as slower annual inflation rates were registered in the indices of all commodity groups,” such as food, electricity and fuel.

The food index alone went down to 11.9 per cent in March from 12.8 per cent in February.

The biggest decrease was registered in the fuel, light and water group with the index down to negative 2.8 per cent in March from negative 0.7 per cent in February.

In 2008, the country’s inflation rate hit 9.3 per cent, up from 2.8 per cent in 2007, as high oil and food prices battered the economy.

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‘Bullet shadow over ballot’

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Delhi Police Commissioner YS Dadwal on Thursday assured that “adequate security measures” for the upcoming elections are being taken, keeping in view the prevailing security scenario. “We have deployed Quick Reaction Teams and commandos.

Mobile patrolling across the city has also been intensified to keep a tight vigil before and during the Lok Sabha elections on May 7,” said Dadwal. The commissioner refused to comment about a letter that was received at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Delhi, which threatened terror attacks in the Capital.

“I would not like to comment on individual inputs,” he said. The top brass of the Capital’s police on Thursday also held a meeting with police chiefs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for coordination during the elections.

Dadwal said the discussions focused on the smooth conduct of elections in the region bordering the Capital. “The officers deliberated upon the ways to enhance intelligence sharing and border checks between the states.

We share a cordial and constructive relationship with our neighbouring police forces,” Dadwal said. Security at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, however, is already on maximum alert, said Central Industrial Security Force spokesman Rohit Katiyar.

‘Snatching cases down in the Capital’ Dadwal also claimed that verification of motorcycles across the city had helped in reducing snatching cases involving motorcycles. “There has been a 30 per cent decrease in snatchings involving bikers in the city while robberies involving motorcycle-borne criminals have gone down 71 per cent,” said Dadwal.

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Novel high BP treatment shows promise

April 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 4 (ANI): Researchers at Monash University’s Centre of Cardiovascular Research and Education in Therapeutics have developed a new catheter-based therapy that can be an effective alternative for lowering high blood pressure when medication fails.

The new surgical technique disrupts nerves around the kidneys to dramatically reduce high blood pressure.

“Patients who underwent the procedure had a significant reduction in their blood pressure levels and we were able therefore to reduce their risk of severe stroke or heart attack,” The Lancet quoted Professor Henry Krum, lead researcher of the study.

During the study, the research team recruited 50 patients from Australia and overseas.

“We showed an excellent safety profile of this brief, catheter-based therapy. No long-term adverse events resulted from the procedure,” Krum added.

He said that renal denervation led to a dramatic decrease in blood pressure, in patients resistant to hypertensive drugs.

The reduction of blood pressure was evident as early as 1 month and was further reduced at 3 months. The results remained persistent throughout the trial.

“The catheter allowed us to target a very specific area to deliver the right amount of frequency to the nerves without damaging the surrounding areas,” Krum added. (ANI)

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Chicken soup with matzoh balls ‘fights high BP’

April 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 3 (ANI): Chicken soup with matzoh balls can help combat high blood pressure, say researchers.

According to lead researcher Ai Saiga, from Japan, the popular home remedy also used to treat common cold sometimes can help fight high blood pressure.

Previous studies have shown that chicken breast contains collagen proteins with effects similar to ACE inhibitors, mainstay medications for treating high blood pressure.

But there are such small amounts of the proteins that it could not be used to develop food and medical products for high blood pressure.

However, the new study suggests that chicken legs and feet, often discarded as waste products in appear to be a better source.

During the study, Saiga extracted collagen from chicken legs and tested its ability to act as an ACE inhibitor in the laboratory studies.

They identified four different proteins in the collagen mixture with high ACE-inhibitory activity.

When they were given to rats used to model human high blood pressure, the proteins produced a significant and prolonged decrease in blood pressure.

The findings are published in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (ANI)

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Oil falls over $1 as U.S. inventories rise

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Oil fell more than $1 a barrel on Wednesday, as U.S. data showed crude stocks were at a fresh 16-year high after growing again last week.

U.S crude futures settled down $1.27 a barrel at $48.39, eroding Tuesday’s 2.6 percent gain. London Brent crude settled down 79 cents at $48.44

The Energy Information Administration data showed a 2.8 million barrel increase in crude oil inventories.

Gasoline stockpiles increased by 2.2 million barrels, running counter to forecasts of a 1.4 million-barrel decline.

“There is no indication in these (EIA) numbers that the economy is strengthening. It looks like more of the same,” said Joseph Arsenio, managing director at Arsenio Capital Management in Larkspur, California.

Oil prices have fallen $100 from highs above $147 a barrel in July 2008 as the economic downturn dents global energy demand.

U.S private sector job losses accelerated in March to 742,000, more than economists’ expectations, according to a report by ADP Employer Services.

The U.S. economy is bracing for job data from the U.S. Labor Department on Friday which monitors public and private sector job losses in the world’s largest energy consumer.

OPEC COMPLIANCE

Producer group OPEC reached agreements in September to remove 4.2 million barrels per day to stem the slide in oil prices, and has delivered almost 80 percent of the promised reduction.

Reuters latest survey put compliance at 79 percent for March, the seventh consecutive month in which the group’s output has declined.

In deciding not to lower its output targets further in March, OPEC said it was giving the world a chance to recover from the economic downturn and looked ahead to this week’s G20 meeting in London to stimulate the economy and help shore up fuel demand.

Few expect instant results, but many analysts say OPEC, which meets again at the end of May to reassess the situation, has taken out enough oil to bolster prices.

In the immediate term the demand outlook is weak, and a flurry of bearish economic news emerged on Wednesday that weighed on stock markets and added pressure on oil prices.

Business confidence in Japan, the world’s second largest economy and the third largest oil consumer, tumbled faster than ever in the first quarter to its worst on record, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan corporate survey showed.

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn predicted the world economy would contract between 0.5 and 1 percent this year, following on from IMF reports predicting a decrease of up to one percent this year.

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Painkiller oxycodone helps reduce shingles pain

April 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 31 (ANI): A commonly used painkiller has been found to be effective against treating the acute pain of shingles, an illness that often causes severe pain along with a rash.

The painkiller oxycodone can help in treating acute pain of shingles, which is caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, a bug that causes chicken pox.

Only those having chicken pox are vulnerable to shingles.

Older adults aged 85 have 50pct increased likelihood of getting shingles.

“Oftentimes patients are told that the rash will heal in two or three weeks anyway, and the pain will go away, so they’re not given something for the pain unless it’s excruciating,” said Dr Robert Dworkin, the University of Rochester Medical Centre pain expert, who led the study.

“But moderate pain can stop people from working, or enjoying their hobbies, and it can also make some people depressed or anxious. So there’s good reason to treat all pain from the infection,” he added.

In the study involving 87 shingles patients, the team studied the effectiveness of painkillers oxycodone and gabapentin, which both effectively treat pain associated with nerve damage. Patients, whose average age was 66, had moderate to severe pain.

The participants were divided into three groups and received oxycodone, gabapentin, or placebo.

The team found that oxycodone was quite effective. Patients taking the medication, which is sold as Oxycontin, were more than twice as likely to experience a meaningful reduction in their pain – at least a 30-percent decrease.

The study has been published in journal Pain. (ANI)

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