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Nausea, speeding heart – signs of flu in pregnant women

May 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 6 (ANI): Nausea in pregnant women during the second and third trimesters can be a sign of flu, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

“People don”t necessarily think of influenza when you include the symptoms of nausea or vomiting, but our study showed that they are common with influenza in pregnancy,” said Dr. Vanessa Rogers, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and lead author of the study, which appears in the May edition of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“Both physicians and patients should be aware of these findings so treatment is not delayed,” she said. “I think our findings should encourage people to be vigilant and to take symptoms seriously.”

Adults with flu tend not to have nausea or vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These symptoms are more typical in children.

To reach the conclusion, researchers studied the cases of pregnant women during the 2003-2004 flu season, when the most common strain of influenza caused more severe symptoms than usual. There also were more cases of flu than expected, because the vaccine given that year didn”t match the strain that was predominant.

During that period, 107 pregnant women were diagnosed with flu at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Ninety-three percent of the women had a cough, and 89 percent had fever – common signs of flu – the researchers found. Eighty-five percent had a “profound” elevated heart rate, and 60 percent had nausea and/or vomiting. Although “morning sickness” and nausea are common during pregnancies, the researchers said that reporting any unusual additional symptoms (fever, coughing, elevated heart rate) could help diagnose the disease earlier in these patients.

Nearly two-thirds of the expectant women treated at Parkland were sick enough to require hospitalization. The most common complication was pneumonia, which occurred in 12 percent of the cases.

Despite the illness, there was no significant difference in complications between women with flu and women without flu who gave birth at the hospital during flu season. After birth, the babies also showed no significant difference in complications. (ANI)

Champ Robertson not snookered by nerves

May 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The father of newly-crowned world snooker champion Neil Robertson says his son’s ability to remain calm was a key to his success in the final in England.

Robertson became the first Australian since 1952 to win the sport’s top prize, claiming the final 18-13 at the Crucible theatre in Sheffield, England this morning.

The 28-year-old from Melbourne also becomes only the third champion from outside the British Isles, and the first since Canada’s Cliff Thorburn in 1980.

Ian Robertson told Grandstand his son never had any trouble with nerves.

“His anxiety was too low and until the matches were in the balance, he wouldn’t step up a couple of gears,” he said.

“So consequently when he went to England and had all this pressure, he got to the right anxiety level.

“If you think of footballers who get what you call ‘white line fever’, they probably wouldn’t suit this sort of game where you’ve got too much adrenaline.

“You have to be calm like shooters in the Olympics. Your heart rate needs to be reasonably steady otherwise you get that rush of blood and it becomes overwhelming.”

He said Neil’s physiological advantage can help him reach the bigger goals he has set for himself.

“[His anxiety levels have] been a bit too low, but it’s working out well once he’s in difficult circumstances when the pressure’s enormous,” he said.

“We felt that for him to reach number one in the world was a bigger achievement than winning the world title, because you have to be consistent through all the titles.”

Nurtured talent

Ian Robertson said the sport was a way that he and his sons could spend time together after Neil’s parents divorced many years ago.

“We used to go play snooker, football and so on,” he said.

“He showed that he liked it … so I bought a pool hall, and within a year him and his brother won the Victorian under-12 and under-15 snooker titles.”

Upon winning the championship, Neil said he hoped his victory will help the game grow in Australia.

His father said like more physical pursuits, snooker is a game that requires dedication to practice.

“They’ve got to enjoy potting balls for a start and they’ve got to enjoy the game,” he said.

“Once [Neil] started winning titles, he set larger goals to compete against boys his own age across the world.

“Five hours a day, five days a week for five years [of practice] is a good starting point, and then you really start learning how to play.”

Ian said despite the enormity of his son’s victory, Neil had quickly turned his mind to a contest that will be more familiar to Australians than snooker.

“We talked about football – Collingwood, about the game coming up, the Carlton-Collingwood game,” he said.

“We don’t always talk about snooker. He loves his sport, he follows Chelsea in the Premier League over there, he loves cricket too.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Anxiety Level, Anxiety Levels, British Isles, champ, champion, Cliff Thorburn, Crucible Theatre, footballers, gears, grandstand, heart rate, Melbourne, Neil Robertson, nerves, Olympics, Pool Hall, sheffield england, shooters, White Line Fever, World Snooker

`Dr. Death” ”screamed” at nurse for going behind his back to speak to patient”s family

April 29, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Brisbane, Apr.29 (ANI): Indian origin surgeon Jayant Patel threatened to quit and leave the Bundaberg Base Hospital after staff spoke to the family of a critically ill patient, the Supreme Court in Brisbane heard on Wednesday.

According to The Age, Alison Cooper, an intensive care nurse at Bundaberg in 2003, told the court via telephone from the USA where she now lives, that she came on shift at 7 a.m. and found Phillips”s hands and toes cold to touch. She also said that she could get no reaction when shining a light into his eye pupils.

She said she contacted Dr (Martin) Carter, the head of the ICU, when Phillips”s heart rate went up and his blood pressure went down as she needed direction on what drugs to give Phillips.

Cooper told the court she had tried on numerous occasions to contact Patel but had been unable to do so.

However, Patel had come into the ICU and ordered a procedure to regulate Phillips”s heart rate.

She told prosecutor David Meredith she could remember a conversation between Carter, Patel and herself about Phillips”s condition.

“Dr Carter and I asked Patel that maybe with Phillips”s prognosis – he was on maximum adrenalin and not reacting – his next of kin should be advised of the situation,” she recalled.

Meredith asked what Patel had said.

“I remember. He said ”no way”, he is going to get up and walk out of here,” Cooper replied.

She could remember Carter speaking with Phillip”s mother at some stage and also Patel coming into the ICU and screaming at her in the utlility room.

“He said he had been approached by Phillips”s family in the hospital foyer near the coffee shop. They had discussed Phillips”s poor prognosis. Patel came up to me and got literally six inches in front of my face. He screamed in my face, everyone in the unit could hear,” she said.

Cooper said Patel was upset the nurses had “gone behind his back” and he was embarrassed by being approached by Mrs Phillips.

He threatened to leave the hospital if “they” kept going behind his back.

“Patel said the hospital would be stuffed because it would be losing an exceptionally talented surgeon,” Cooper said.

In cross examination Michael Woodford, for Patel, put it to Cooper there had been no conversation about Phillips”s condition between Patel, Carter and herself.

“No. I was standing right there. I reject that,” Cooper replied.

She told Mr Woodford she was clear in her mind that Carter had been present during the conversation.

Mr Woodford suggested to Cooper that Patel did have a conversation about the family being contacted but Patel arrived in the ICU with Mrs Phillips with him.

“No he did not have Mrs Phillips with him at that time,” she replied.

Cooper rejected a suggestion that Patel had yelled at her.

She denied there was any personality clash with Patel but rather the nurses were concerned about what was going on in the ICU in terms of the operations being performed. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: adrenalin, alison, bundaberg base hospital, coffee shop, David Meredith, dr carter, dr martin, Dr. Death, Eye Pupils, heart rate, Ill Patient, indian origin, Intensive Care Nurse, jayant patel, Martin Carter, Phi, phillips, poor prognosis, prosecutor, Six Inches

Climate change and chronic disease study

March 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Researchers at the University of Tasmania are calling for volunteers to take part in a study into the effects of climate change on people suffering from chronic diseases.

The study will look at how people with conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease cope with extreme changes in temperature.

Sibella King from the University’s School of Human Life Science says if a person’s heart is already weakened from disease, it may have to work harder due to rising global temperatures.

“In the heat we expect people’s blood pressure to fall a little bit, and when that happens the heart rate will rise to compensate for the falling pressure,” she said.

“So you get a higher heart rate and a lower blood pressure, so that’s what we would expect to see.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Chronic Disease, chronic diseases, climate change, diabetes, diabetes and heart disease, diseases-and-disorders, effects of climate change, Extreme Changes, global temperatures, heart disease, heart rate, hobart-7000, Human Life Science, launceston-7250, little bit, lower blood pressure, medical research, people, study researchers, TAS, type 2 diabetes, Type Diabetes, university of tasmania, volunteers

Men and women respond differently when it comes to stress

March 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, March 24 (ANI): A new study on 20-to-64-year-olds has shown that age and gender play a major role in how people respond to stress.

The new research was led by scientists from the Universite de Montreal and the Montreal Heart Institute in collaboration with colleagues from the Université du Quebec a Montréal and McGill University.

“Our findings suggest that women who are more defensive are at increased cardiovascular risk, whereas low defensiveness appears to damage the health of older men,” said Bianca D”Antono, a professor at the Université de Montréal Department of Psychiatry and a Montreal Heart Institute researcher.

Defensiveness is a trait characterized by avoidance, denial or repression of information perceived as threatening.

In women, a strong defensive reaction to judgment from others or a threat to self-esteem will result in high blood pressure and heart rate. Contrarily, older men with low defensive reactions have a higher cardiovascular rates.

The study was conducted on 81 healthy working men and 118 women.

Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif a Université de Montréal professor and Montreal Heart Institute researcher said that the physiological response to stress in women and older men is linked to this desire of maintaining self-esteem and securing social bonds.

“The sense of belonging is a basic human need. Our findings suggest that socialization is innate and that belonging to a group contributed to the survival of our ancestors. Today, it is possible that most people view social exclusion as a threat to their existence. A strong defensive reaction is useful to maintain one”s self-esteem faced with this potential threat,” said D”Antono.

As part of the study, participants completed four tasks of varying stress levels. The first task involved reading a neutral text on Antarctica”s geography before a person of the same sex.

The second and third tasks involved role-playing in which participants followed a script where they were sometimes agreeable and sometimes aggressive. The final task involved a non-scripted debate on abortion.

Heart rate and blood pressure were measured during each of these tasks as was the level of cortisol in saliva. Results showed that women and older men had elevated cardiovascular, autonomic and endocrine responses to stress – all potentially damaging to their health.

However, the researchers warned that more studies are needed to evaluate the long-term effects of defensiveness and its association to stress response patterns in disease development.

The research has been published in the journal Psychophysiology. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: avoidance, cardiovascular risk, Defensiveness, heart rate, high blood pressure, Institute Researcher, Jean-Claude, Mcgill University, Montreal Heart Institute, older men, Physiological Response, repression, social bonds, social exclusion, socialization, stress levels, Study participants, universite de montreal, universite du quebec, Working Men

Soon, cotton fabrics to charge iPods, MP3 players and cell phones

March 11, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 10 (ANI): Ever thought that your comfy cotton T-shirt could monitor your heart rate and breathing, analyse your sweat and even cool you off on a hot summer”s day? Or have you thought of a pillow that monitors your brain waves, or a solar-powered dress that can charge your ipod or MP4 player? Well, all this could soon be a reality, all thanks to new-age cotton threads.

The laboratory of Juan Hinestroza, assistant professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design, has developed cotton threads that can conduct electric current as well as a metal wire can, yet remain light and comfortable enough to give a whole new meaning to multi-use garments.

The technology works so well that simple knots in such specially treated thread can complete a circuit.

Using multidisciplinary nanotechnology, the researchers developed a technique to permanently coat cotton fibers with electrically conductive nanoparticles.

“We can definitively have sections of a traditional cotton fabric becoming conductive, hence a great myriad of applications can be achieved,” said Hinestroza.

“The technology developed by us and our collaborators allows cotton to remain flexible, light and comfortable while being electronically conductive. Previous technologies have achieved conductivity but the resulting fiber becomes rigid and heavy. Our new techniques make our yarns friendly to further processing such as weaving, sewing and knitting,” he added.

The technology is beyond the theory stage.

Hinestroza”s student, Abbey Liebman, was inspired by the technology enough to design a dress that actually uses flexible solar cells to power small electronics from a USB charger located in the waist.

The charger can power a smartphone or an MP3 player.

“Instead of conventional wires, we are using our conductive cotton to transmit the electricity — so our conductive yarns become part of the dress. Cotton used to be called the ”fabric of our lives” but based on these results, we can now call it ”The fabric of our lights,”” said Hinestroza.

In fact, solar-powered dress with this technology literally woven into its fabric will be featured at the annual Cornell Design League Fashion Show at Cornell University”s Barton Hall. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Apparel Design, Brain Waves, Comfy Cotton, conductivity, Cotton Fabric, Cotton Fabrics, Cotton Fibers, Cotton Threads, Fiber Science, Flexible Light, heart rate, hot summer, Liebman, mp3 player, mp3 players, Multidisciplinary, Small Electronics, solar cells, Usb Charger, Yarns

Stay-at-home parents ‘most stressed workers’

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 12 (ANI): Parents who stay at home and look after the household are the most stressed out, a new UK study claims.

According to a research conducted by Mindlab Organisation, mothers or fathers who do household chores are more frazzled than those with traditionally high-pressure jobs, like city trading, teaching or nursing.

Stress levels were investigated in British adults as per their “work” roles – stay-at-home parents, taxi drivers, teachers, nurses and city dealers.

The conclusion was reached by measuring levels of the stress hormone cortisol throughout an average working day.

It was found that stay-at-home parents proved to be the most under pressure. Nurses ranked second in the list, followed by the traders, then teachers and finally, taxi drivers.

A bio-monitoring equipment was used to measure and record the heart rate and skin conductance.

The participants were connected to the equipment and tested over a seven-hour period.

Also, samples of saliva were taken at crucial junctures during the day to measure cortisol, which is a direct indicator of stress.

“The key here is the degree of control each of these professionals feel able to exercise over their lives,” the Daily Express quoted Dr David Lewis, who was part of the research, as saying.

“Stay-at-home parents receive little or no specific training and are furthermore typically isolated from other adults for much of the day,” he added.

Psychologist Jenni Trent Hughes said: “The answer is simply to be selfish and take some time out. After 21 years of running around after the family, pets, supermarket and the house, women have earned it.

“If you’re not taking care of your- self then how can you properly take care of anyone else?

“If you’re ratty or short-tempered, tired or at your wits’ end how can you possibly be the best you can be for your partner, children, family and last but definitely not least yourself?” (ANI)

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It’s official: anger does cause a rush of blood to the brain

July 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 3 (ANI): A piece of research has shown that anger or mental stress can increase the flow of blood in the brain.

Led by Tasneem Naqvi and Hahn Hyuhn from the University of Southern California and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the study involved a series of ultrasound experiments.

It showed that mental stress causes carotid artery dilation, and increases brain blood flow.

The researchers say that that dilatory reflex was absent in people with high blood pressure.

They evaluated carotid artery reactivity and brain blood flow in response to mental stress in 10 healthy young volunteers (aged between 19 and 27 years), 20 older healthy volunteers (aged 38 to 60 years) and in 28 patients with essential hypertension (aged 38 to 64 years).

It was found that in healthy subjects, mental stress caused vasodilation, which was accompanied by a net increase in brain blood flow.

However, in hypertensive subjects, mental stress produced no vasodilation and no significant change in brain blood flow.

In the experiments, the volunteers were set a series of tasks designed to provoke mental stress, including reading, arithmetic and anger recall tests.

The researchers used ultrasound imaging to measure the effects of this activity on the carotid artery and an artery within the brain, while also measuring blood pressure and heart rate.

“Inappropriate vasoconstriction, or lack of dilation in response to mental stress in stable coronary heart disease, contributes to the genesis of myocardial ischemia and confers an increased risk in patients with coronary artery disease. It will be interesting to see whether the lack of mental stress induced dilation we found defines subjects at increased risk of future cerebral events,” said Naqvi.

Lack of required blood flow increase to the brain during mental activities might potentially affect cognition and cerebral performance during complex cerebral tasks.

The study has been published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Cardiovascular Ultrasound. (ANI)

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Music may help treat heart attack and stroke victims

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, June 23 (ANI): Music could one day be used as a therapeutic tool for blood pressure control and heart patient rehabilitation, according to a new study.

Previous studies have shown that music with faster tempos resulted in increased breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.

And when the music was paused, breathing, heart rate and blood pressure decreased, sometimes below the beginning rate. Slower music caused declines in heart rates.

In music, a crescendo is a gradual volume increase, and a decrescendo is a gradual volume decrease.

The new study showed that swelling crescendos appear to induce moderate arousal while decrescendos induce relaxation.

“Music induces a continuous, dynamic – and to some extent predictable – change in the cardiovascular system,” said Dr Luciano Bernardi, lead researcher of the study and professor of Internal Medicine at Pavia University in Pavia, Italy.

“It is not only the emotion that creates the cardiovascular changes, but this study suggests that also the opposite might be possible, that cardiovascular changes may be the substrate for emotions, likely in a bi-directional way,” Bernardi added.

During the study, the researchers recruited 24 healthy Caucasians matched for age and sex – 24 to 26 years old with 12 experienced singers (nine women) and 12 participants (seven women) who had no previous musical training. They were made to listen to various kinds of music through headphones.

Five random tracks of classical music were played – including selections from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; an aria from Puccini’s Turandot; a Bach cantata (BMW 169); Va Pensiero from Nabucco; Libiam Nei Lieti Calici from La Traviata – as well as two minutes of silence.

The study showed that every crescendo led to increased narrowing of blood vessels under the skin, increased blood pressure and heart rate and increased respiration amplitude.

During the silent pause, changes decreased, with blood vessels under the skin dilating and marked reductions in heart rate and blood pressure.

It also reduced heart rate and other variables, indicating relaxation. Moreover, music phrases around 10 seconds long, like those used in “Va Pensiero” and “Libiam Nei Lieti Calici,” synchronized inherent cardiovascular rhythm.

“The profile of music (crescendo or decrescendo) is continuously tracked by the cardiovascular and respiratory systems,” Bernardi said.

“This is particularly evident when music is rich in emphasis, like in operatic music.

“These findings increase our understanding of how music could be used in rehabilitative medicine,” Bernardi added.

The study is published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. (ANI)

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Music ‘soothes pain of premature babies’

May 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 28 (ANI): Playing music to babies can help reduce pain and encourage better oral feeding, a new study suggests.

The research, published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, claimed that increasing numbers of neonatal units are using music as a method to help improve behavioural and physiological outcomes or to manage pain during common procedures such as circumcision.

The benefits are said to be calmer infants and parents, a stable condition in the child’s functions, higher oxygen saturation, faster weight gain and shorter hospital stays.

In the study, researchers from the University of Alberta in Canada reviewed nine existing randomised trials published between 1989 and 2006 to see how effective and worthwhile it was using music in this way.

The trials they studied covered a diverse range of populations studied in different ways, which made it difficult to have definitive conclusions, but they found much preliminary evidence for therapeutic benefits of music for specific indications.

Outcomes most often reported in the trials were physiological measures such as heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and pain.

One of the high quality studies reviewed that looked at using music during circumcision, showed music did have benefits for infants’ heart rate, oxygen saturation, and pain.

In three of the studies that looked at heel prick – a common procedure for taking a blood sample from the heel of newborn infants – there was evidence that using music could have benefits for behaviour and pain.

The authors conclude: “There is preliminary evidence to suggest that music may have beneficial effects in terms of physiological parameters, behavioural states and pain reduction during painful medical procedures.

“While there is preliminary evidence for some therapeutic benefits of music for specific indications, these benefits need to be confirmed in well-designed, high quality trials.” (ANI)

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Dementia drugs may be risky for elderly patients

May 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 28 (ANI): Many commonly prescribed dementia drugs have side effects that may be risky for elderly patients, according to a Canadian study.

People with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are prescribed Cholinesterase inhibitors (Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl) because they increase the level of a chemical in the brain that seems to help memory.

While such drugs have the potential to provoke slower heart rates and fainting episodes, the magnitude of these risks has not been clear to date.

“This is very troubling, because the drugs are marketed as helping to preserve memory and improve function. But for a subset of people, the effect appears to be the exact opposite,” said Dr. Sudeep Gill, Queen’s University Geriatrics professor.

Using province-wide data, the researchers conducted a large study and found that people who used cholinesterase inhibitors were hospitalised for fainting almost twice as often as people with dementia who did not receive these drugs.

Experiencing a slowed heart rate was 69 per cent more common amongst cholinesterase inhibitor users.

Besides, those who took the dementia drugs had a 49 per cent increased chance of having permanent pacemakers implanted and an 18 per cent increased risk of hip fractures.

While Gill acknowledged that these drugs have an important role in the management of dementia, he suggested that people who are already at a higher risk should ask their doctors to reassess the value of taking the drugs.

A significant slowing of the heart rate from cholinesterase inhibitors may cause a person to faint and suffer fall-related injuries like a broken hip-often debilitating and sometimes fatal for seniors.

However, Gill noted that many physicians aren’t aware of the connection between these problems and the dementia drugs.

“This study does not suggest that dementia patients shouldn’t take these drugs. What’s critical is that patients, caregivers and physicians be aware of the potential side effects, and weigh these risks carefully against the potential for beneficial effects,” said Gill.

The findings have been published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: aricept, caregivers, cholinesterase inhibitor, cholinesterase inhibitors, dementia, Dementia Patients, dementias, Elderly Patients, exelon, Geriatrics, heart rate, Heart Rates, Hip Fractures, magnitude, management of dementia, pacemakers, reminyl, s university, subset, Sudeep

Israeli technology may help detect swine flu

May 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Jerusalem, May 3 (ANI): An Israeli company has come up with a technology, entitled Bull Connect, to detect swine flu and other animal diseases before they spread.

The revolutionary technology can distantly screen the health and condition of each pig in a herd.

According to Sharon Soustiel, CartaSense’s chief operation officer, the system can detect illness and prompt isolation.

“With this technology, I can know in real time about any epidemic breakout, and I can monitor it and immediately isolate the area,” the Jerusalem Post quoted Sharon as saying.

The Petah Tikva start-up had developed the technology to look over herds of cattle, but it has been accorded a renewed significance keeping in mind the recent outbreak of swine flu in Mexico since it can also be used to monitor pigs.

Sharon explained a sensor was put on every animal’s ear that monitored its temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate and location.

Sharon said: “All of this physical information can give us in real time the information to know if the cattle is sick or not. We make a wireless network from all of the cattle.”

The product is expected to hit the market in less than a year. (ANI)

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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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Men should shave on an empty stomach

April 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Munich – Men can avoid nicks and cuts from their razors by shaving before breakfast, according to a German-language skin care website run by several organizations active in promoting cosmetics and health care.

As the stomach starts to digest, the heart rate and blood flow increases. As there is more blood flowing through the arteries beneath the skin on the face and neck, there is a greater danger of being cut after eating.

In addition, facial hair should be well moistened before shaving. The hair swells almost like a sponge swells when it is moistened and it is easier to cut, the website said.

However, it’s also best to shave before showering because the hair should not be too wet. (dpa)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: arteries, blood flow, cosmetics, Empty Stomach, face, facial hair, german language, greater danger, health care, heart rate, Munich, Nicks, razors, Shave, skin care, sponge

New method to analyse sleep disorders developed

April 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 16 (ANI): Scientists from Israel and Germany say that it is possible to monitor sleep, and potentially diagnose sleep disorders, just by recording a person’s heart rate.

People suffering from disturbed sleep have an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, hypertension, obesity, depression, and accidents.

However, diagnosing sleep disorders is not necessarily easy-in standard “sleep studies”, people spend one or more nights at hospitals or other inpatient centres, sleeping while sensors and electrodes attached to the head and torso record breathing, brain waves, heart rate, and other vital signs.

The new method, however, does away with all such problems. It relies on using a mathematical technique to analyse these recordings and tease out information related to the synchronization between heartbeat and breathing.

The synchronization between heartbeat and breathing might be a measure of fitness of the cardio-respiratory system.

The new method may help clinicians diagnose sleep disorders more easily, and determine optimal treatments for people with congestive heart failure.

Athletes might also be able analyse their own recordings to optimise workouts.

In the new study, the researchers showed that the synchronization between the heartbeat and breathing pattern is significantly enhanced during certain stages of sleep.

By mathematically analysing someone’s heart rate throughout the night, they could gain information on that person’s breathing and sleep stage.

Also, they looked at data from the European project SIESTA, which keeps a database of sleep data recorded in seven countries from 295 people, about half of whom have sleep disorders.

They then analysed just the heart data for the 150 people in the SIESTA study who have no known sleep disorders.

By using the heartbeats to reconstruct the breathing patterns, the researchers showed that the reconstructions were completely in sync with the actual recorded breathing data collected in sleep labs.

The researchers are now planning to extend their study to people with sleep disorders to determine whether their technique can accurately diagnose these disorders.

By analysing the heartbeat through the new technique, scientists could find information about cardiorespiratory capacity, which may lead to diagnostic markers of cardiac diseases and ways to determine optimal treatments for people with congestive heart failure.

Monitoring cardiorespiratory capacity may also help atheletes optimise their workout routines.

The study appears in a special focus issue of the journal Chaos, which is published by the American Institute of Physics (AIP). (ANI)

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Music is the best stress buster for heart disease patients

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 15 (ANI): Do you suffer severe stress and anxiety associated with having and undergoing treatment for coronary heart disease? Well, then bring on the iPod.

A Cochrane Systematic Review has suggested that music can be good for heart disease patients.

According to researchers, listening to music could decrease blood pressure, heart rate, and levels of anxiety in heart patients.

Living with heart disease is extremely stressful. The uncertainties and anxieties surrounding diagnosis and the various medical procedures involved in treatment can significantly worsen the condition. For example, stress can increase blood pressure, leading to increased risk of complications. Music listening may help to alleviate stress and therefore reduce this risk.

“Our findings suggest music listening may be beneficial for heart disease patients,” says Joke Bradt, who works at the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia.

“But the trials we looked at were generally small and varied in terms of styles of music used and length of music sessions. More research on the specifics of music listening is certainly warranted,” the expert added.

To reach the conclusion, researchers reviewed data from 23 studies, which together included 1,461 patients. Two studies focused on patients treated by trained music therapists, but most did not, using instead interventions where patients listened to pre-recorded music on CDs offered by healthcare professionals.

Listening to music provided some relief for coronary heart disease patients suffering from anxiety, by reducing heart rate and blood pressure. There was also some indication that music listening improved mood, although no improvement was seen for patients suffering from depression due to the disease.

“We all know that music can impact on our emotions, our physiological responses, as well as our outlook on life, and this early research shows that it is well worth finding out more about how it could help heart disease patients. In particular, it would be interesting to learn more about the potential benefits of music offered by trained music therapists, which may be differ substantially from those associated with pre-recorded music,” says Bradt. (ANI)

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Racing games ‘lead to aggressive behaviour’

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, April 12 (ANI): Console driving games leave you feeling more aggressive than violent shoot ‘em ups, says a new study.

Previous studies have linked violence in video games to aggression. However, the new study has suggested that video games don’t have to be violent to trigger an emotional response.

It found that driving games could activate more brain regions involved in emotional processing than shoot ‘em ups.

For the study, Simon Goodson and Sarah Pearson of the University of Huddersfield in the UK recruited 30 adults aged between 18 and 45 to play either a competitive driving game, a shoot ‘em up or virtual table tennis against computer-generated competitors.

Brain activity, heart rate and breathing were all monitored during the game, and a questionnaire afterwards assessed their levels of anger, hostility and aggression.

The volunteers scored normally for aggression after playing the driving and shoot ‘em up games, while those playing the table tennis game scored as slightly less aggressive than the average for the volunteers.

However, when it came to brain activity, the driving game caused a significant increase in the temporal lobe, an area of the brain linked to emotional processing.

“It cannot be assumed that aggression is solely related to violent content,” New Scientist quoted Goodson, as saying.

The study was presented at a British Psychological Society meeting in Brighton last week. (ANI)

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Diabetes could lead to diminished brain power

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Apr 12 (ANI): Failure to control type 2 diabetes may lead to poorer memory and diminished brain power, a new study has found.

According to University of Edinburgh team, severe hypoglycaemic episodes – hypos – occur when blood sugar levels drop dangerously low.

Hypoglycaemia is caused by a lack of sugar (glucose) reaching the brain, which uses it as fuel. Its symptoms include sweating, fatigue, hunger, feeling dizzy, feeling weak, a higher heart rate than usual and blurred vision More severe episodes can led to temporary loss of consciousness, convulsions and coma.

Now, in the latest study, researchers recruited 1,066 people with type 2 diabetes aged between 60 and 75.

The study was presented at a conference of the charity Diabetes UK.

To reach the conclusion, volunteers were given seven tests assessing mental abilities such as memory, logic and concentration.

The 113 people who had previously experienced severe hypos scored lower than the rest of the group. They performed poorly in tests of their general mental ability, and vocabulary.

“Either hypos lead to cognitive decline, or cognitive decline makes it more difficult for people to manage their diabetes, which in turn causes more hypos,” The BBC quoted lead researcher Dr Jackie Price, as saying.

“A third explanation could be that a third unidentified factor is causing both the hypos and the cognitive decline. We are carrying out more research to establish which explanation is the most likely,” the expert added. (ANI)

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Natural solution to artificial heart pacemakers may be possible

April 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 10 (ANI): Researchers in New York have moved a step closer towards developing a biological solution to artificial heart pacemakers.

Richard Robinson and his colleagues at Columbia and Stony Brook Universities highlight the fact that the body’s own natural pacemaker, called the sinoatrial (SA) node, is extremely vulnerable to damage during a heart attack, often leaving the patient with a weak, slow or unreliable heartbeat.

Since the heart has limited ability to recover from the damage, an electronic device is fitted to monitor and control the beat directly.

Even though a much better solution can be to use therapies to raise the heart rate biologically, according to the researchers, there are some major hurdles.

The research team point out that the way electrical signals are generated in the SA node – and hence the heart rate – are far from simple.

There are three separate electrical pathways between cells, known as HCN or ‘funny’ channels, which could be involved.

Dr Robinson says that his study sheds light on the secrets of the HCN channels.

His work also describes a cell culture developed by his team, which accurately mimics HCN function in whole mammalian hearts, making future research in the area far quicker and easier.

Using their new cellular model, the researchers genetically rewired two of the HCN channels.

They said that the resulting heart rate was very rapid with irregular pauses, just as has already been observed in dogs and mice.

Dr. Robinson believes that the valuable new computer and cellular models are ideal for testing potential new drugs to influence heart rate, and pave the way for new genetic biological pacemakers to be developed.

He says that the new developments “will facilitate the development of practical biological pacemakers by allowing more complete and rapid assessment of individual channel mutations through combined culture and simulation studies prior to full testing in animal models.”

A research article on the study has been published in The Journal of Physiology. (ANI)

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Exercise safely improves quality of life in heart failure patients

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 8 (ANI): Heart failure patients may slightly reduce their likelihood of death or hospitalisation by exercising regularly, without any safety risk.

This suggestion is based on a study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which was conducted at 82 centres in the U.S., Canada, and France.

It has shown that heart failure patients who add regular, moderate physical activity to standard medical therapy generally have a higher quality of life compared to patients who receive medical therapy only.

“Many patients and health care providers have continued to be concerned about the safety of aerobic exercise for heart failure,” said NHLBI Director Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel.

“With the results of this robust clinical trial, we can now reassure heart failure patients that, with appropriate medical supervision, regular aerobic exercise is not only safe but it can also improve their lives in really meaningful ways,” Elizabeth added.

During the study, the researchers followed 2,331 patients with moderate-to-severe systolic heart failure (average age 59) for up to four years (average of 2.5 years).

About one-half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive usual care alone, which included medical and device therapy as prescribed by their physicians and educational materials on disease management.

Such participants were also asked to engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week.

The other half of the subjects were in the exercise training group, and they received usual care plus 36 sessions of group-based, supervised aerobic exercise training (walking or stationary cycling) of up to 35 minutes three times per week.

They were asked to transition to home-based training at the same intensity five times per week for the remainder of the study, and received a treadmill or stationary bike for home use and a heart rate monitor.

The researchers observed that exercise training was linked to an 11 percent lower risk of death or hospitalisation from any cause, and a 15 percent lower risk from cardiovascular-related events, as compared to the usual care.

The researchers said that exercise training was found to be well tolerated and safe because there was no significant difference in serious adverse events between the two groups, such as an abnormal heart rhythm, hip fracture, or hospitalisation related to exercise.

They also found the exercise group to score significantly higher than those in the usual care group on a standard, self-administered quality-of-life questionnaire.

They revealed that the improvements persisted throughout the follow-up period, and were consistent regardless of sex, race, or age.

The findings have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (ANI)

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