HEALTHY LIVING

HALLUCINATION: Latest findings.

2012-11-04T07:37:00.001+01:00

HALLUCINATIONS are very startling and frightening: you suddenly see, or hear or smell something - something that is not there. Your immediate, bewildered feeling is, what is going on? Where is this coming from? The hallucination is convincingly real, produced by the same neural pathways as actual perception, and yet no one else seems to see it. And then you are forced to the conclusion that something - something unprecedented - is happening in your own brain or mind. Are you going insane, getting dementia, having a stroke? In other cultures, hallucinations have been regarded as gifts from the gods or the Muses, but in modern times they seem to carry an ominous significance in the public (and also the medical) mind, as portents of severe mental or neurological disorders. Having hallucinations is a fearful secret for many people - millions of people - never to be mentioned, hardly to be acknowledged to oneself, and yet far from uncommon. The vast majority are being - and, indeed, in many circumstances, perfectly normal. Most of us have experienced them from time to time, during a fever or with the sensory monotony of a desert or empty road, or sometimes, seemingly, out of the blue. Hallucinations (of sight, sound, smell or other sensations) can be associated with migraine or seizures, with fever or delirium. In chronic disease hospitals, nursing homes, and I.C.U.'s, hallucinations are often a result of too many medications and interactions between them, compounded by illness, anxiety and unfamiliar surroundings. But hallucinations can have a positive and comforting role, too - this is especially true with bereavement hallucinations, seeing the face or hearing the voice of one's deceased spouse, siblings, parents or child - and may play an important part in the mourning process. Such bereavement hallucinations frequently occur in the first year or two of bereavement, when they are most "needed." Working in old-age homes for many years, I have been struck by how many elderly people with impaired hearing are prone to auditory and, even more commonly, musical hallucinations - involuntary music in their minds that seems so real that at first they may think it is a neighbor's stereo. People with impaired sight, similarly, may start to have strange, visual hallucinations, sometimes just of patterns but often more elaborate visions of complex scenes or ranks of people in exotic dress. Perhaps 20 percent of those losing their vision or hearing may have such hallucinations.

HEALTHY LIVING: Meningitis sufferers struck by a second illness.

2012-11-04T07:19:00.001+01:00

HEALTHY LIVING: Meningitis sufferers struck by a second illness.

Meningitis sufferers struck by a second illness.

2012-11-04T07:16:00.001+01:00

Just when they might have thought they were in the clear, people recovering from meningitis in an outbreak caused by a contaminated steroid drug have been struck by a second illness. The new problem, called an epidural abscess, is an infection near the spine at the site where the drug - contaminated by a fungus - was injected to treat back or neck pain. The abscesses are a localized infection, different from meningitis, which affects the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. But in some cases, an untreated abscess can cause meningitis. The abscesses have formed even while patients were taking powerful antifungal medicines, putting them back in the hospital for more treatment, often with surgery. The problem has just begun to emerge, so far mostly in Michigan, which has had more people sickened by the drug - 112 out of 404 nationwide - than any other state. "We're hearing about it in Michigan and other locations as well," said Dr. Tom M. Chiller, the deputy chief of the mycotic diseases branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We don't have a good handle on how many people are coming back." He added, "We are just learning about this and trying to assess how best to manage these patients. They're very complicated." In the last few days, about a third of the 53 patients treated for meningitis at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., have returned with abscesses, said Dr. Lakshmi K. Halasyamani, the chief medical officer. "This is a significant shift in the presentation of this fungal infection, and quite concerning," she said. "An epidural abscess is very serious. It's not something we expected." She and other experts said they were especially puzzled that the infections could occur even though patients were taking drugs that, at least in tests, appeared to work against the fungus causing the infection, a type of black mold called Exserohilum. The main symptom is severe pain near the injection site. But the abscesses are internal, with no visible signs on the skin, so it takes an M.R.I. scan to make the diagnosis. Some patients have more than one abscess. In some cases, the infection can be drained or cleaned out by a neurosurgeon. But sometimes fungal strands and abnormal tissue are wrapped around nerves and cannot be surgically removed, said Dr. Carol A. Kauffman, an expert on fungal diseases at the University of Michigan. In such cases, all doctors can do is give a combination of antifungal drugs and hope for the best. They have very little experience with this type of infection. Some patients have had epidural abscesses without meningitis; St. Joseph Mercy Hospital has had 34 such cases. A spokesman for the health department in Tennessee, which has had 78 meningitis cases, said that a few cases of epidural abscess had also occurred there, and that the state was trying to assess the extent of the problem. Dr. Chiller said doctors were also reporting that some patients exposed to the tainted drug had arachnoiditis, a nerve inflammation near the spine that can cause intense pain, bladder problems and numbness. "Unfortunately, we know from the rare cases of fungal meningitis that occur, that you can have complicated courses for this disease, and it requires prolonged therapy and can have some devastating consequences," he said. The meningitis outbreak, first recognized in late September, is one of the worst public health disasters ever caused by a contaminated drug. So far, 29 people have died, often from strokes caused by the infection. The case count is continuing to rise.The drug was a steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, made by the New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass. Three contaminated lots of the drug, more than 17,000 vials, were shipped around the country, and about 14,000 people were injected with the drug, mostly for neck and back pain. But some received injections for arthritic joints and have developed joint infections. Inspections of the compounding center have revealed extensive contamination. It has been shut down, as has another Massachusetts company, Ameridose, with some of the same owners. Both companies have had their products recalled. Compounding pharmacies, which mix their own drugs, have had little regulation from either states or the federal government, and several others have been shut down recently after inspections found sanitation problems.

DISCOVERED: A new dangerous Malaria-transmitting mosquito in Africa.

2012-10-29T09:33:00.001+01:00

Nairobi — Scientists from Kenya and the United Kingdom have discovered a new potentially dangerous malaria-transmitting mosquito, which they say does not behave like other mosquitoes. The mosquito, known only as Type A, was found in western Kenya and has biting patterns that the researchers say will make it harder to control than the commonly known Anopheles mosquitoes. Anopheles mosquitoes rest and feed on humans at night indoors while this newly identified mosquito bites people outdoors earlier in the evening, soon after sunset. Lead author Jennifer Stevenson, research fellow at the UK's London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said: "80 per cent of the 'unidentified species' were caught outdoors, and of those, 70 per cent were caught before 10.30pm." She told SciDev.Net that the new mosquito had subtle differences in its physical appearance to the known mosquitoes in the area, and that the researchers had been finding it difficult to definitively identify it. The mosquito has differences in its DNA compared with Anopheles and the researchers have sent samples of the new species to the University of Notre Dame in the United States for detailed DNA analysis. The researchers are now calling for increased surveillance of the mosquitoes to detect any change in their behaviour that might affect malaria control, as well as a focus on integrating a wider range of malaria control tools to deal with the threat of outdoor transmission. "We still advocate universal access to and useof treated bednets. However, our study and others from East and West Africa have shown that some malaria-transmitting mosquitoes are resting or feeding outdoors. So, if outdoor transmission is shown to be of significance, it may be advisable to use a mix of interventions," said Stevenson. Willis Akhwale, head of the department of disease prevention and control in Kenya's Ministry of Public Health, said the mosquito could complicate the fight against malaria in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa. "The new species, coupled with recent findings which show the ordinary mosquito is also changing its feeding patterns and preferring an earlier meal before people go to bed, may require new control tools," said Akhwale. Jo Lines, reader in malaria control and vector biology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and former coordinator for the WHO's Global Malaria Programme, said: "These findings remind us that the basic biology of malaria transmission is subtle and complex and thereare still plenty of gaps in our knowledge and local variations that we do not understand". The research was published in Emerging Infectious Diseases on 27 August . *. This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's Sub-Saharan Africa desk.

Women: giving up smoking early can extend life

2012-10-29T09:18:00.001+01:00

Women smokers who quit before the age of 30, can recover and avoid almost all of the increased risk of dying, according to the largest-ever study of the hazards of smoking. The study which looks at benefits of stopping for women has shown that female smokers lose at least ten years of lifespan, but that stopping before the age of 40, and preferably well before the age of 40, avoids more than 90% of the increased risk of dying caused by continuing to smoke, while stopping before the age of 30 avoids over 97% of it. The research, based on results from the Million Women Study, is published online first in The Lancet to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Richard Doll, one of the first people to identify the link between lung cancer and smoking. For the study, 1.3 million women were recruited between 1996 and 2001, at ages 50 to 65 years. Participants completed a questionnaire about lifestyle, medical and social factors and were resurveyed by post three years later. The National Health Service in the United Kingdom (UK) notified the researchers when any participant died, also providing them with a cause of death. Women were traced for an average of twelve years from the time they first joined; thus far, 66,000 study participants died. Initially, 20 percent of the study participants were smokers, 28 percent were ex-smokers, and 52 percent had never smoked. Those who were still smokers at the 3-year resurvey were nearly three (2.97) times as likely as non-smokers to die over the next nine years, even though some reduced their risk by stopping smoking during this period. This threefold death rate ratio means that two-thirds of all deaths of smokers in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are caused by smoking, as most of the difference between smokers and non-smokers came from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease, or stroke. The risks among smokers increased steeply with the amount smoked, although even for those who were light smokers (between one and nine cigarettes per day) at the start of the study, mortality rates were double those for non-smokers. The key finding is that both the hazards of smoking and, correspondingly, the benefits of stopping are bigger than previous studies have suggested; smokers who stopped around age 30 avoided 97 percent of their excess risk of premature death, and although serious excess hazards remained for decades among those who smoked until age 40 before stopping, the excess hazards among those who continued smoking after age 40 were ten times bigger. “If women smoke like men, they die like men – but, whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra ten years of life,” said Professor Sir Richard Peto, at the University of Oxford, who co-authored the study. “Both in the UK and in the USA, women born around 1940 were the first generation in which many smoked substantial numbers of cigarettes throughout adult life. Hence, only in the 21st century could we observe directly the full effects of prolonged smoking, and of prolonged cessation, on premature mortality among women,” he added. Writing in a linked comment, Professor Rachel Huxley, at the University of Minnesota, USA, adds: “That we had to wait until the 21st century to observe the full consequences in women of a habit that was already widespread in the mid-20th century, when tobacco smoking pervaded much of the developed world, might seem paradoxical. “But this is because, in most of Europe and the USA, the popularity of smoking among young women reached its peak in the 1960s, decades later than for men. Hence, previous studies have underestimated the full eventual impact of smoking on mortality in women, simply because of the lengthy time lag between smoking uptake by young women and disease onset in middle and old age.” Source: The Lancet

HEALTHY LIVING: Brain Scans Help Decode Sleepers' Dreams

2012-10-23T23:29:00.001+01:00

HEALTHY LIVING: Brain Scans Help Decode Sleepers' Dreams: Scientists from Japan reported at a conference last week how brain scans helped them decode the visual content of volunteers' dreams as they...

Brain Scans Help Decode Sleepers' Dreams

2012-10-23T23:24:00.003+01:00

Scientists from Japan reported at a conference last week how brain scans helped them decode the visual content of volunteers' dreams as they slept. They suggest their findings support the idea that dreaming and perception share the same brain circuits. Study leader Yukiyasu Kamitani of the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, and colleagues, used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the brains of three male volunteers as they slept, while also recording electroencephalograms (EEG) of their brain waves. They presented their findings at Neuroscience 2012 in New Orleans on Sunday 14 October. Dreaming Research: Dreaming is a subjective experience that is often accompanied by visual content. However, little if anything is known about the brain circuits involved. Previous studies have tried to link physiological states with dreaming, but have not been able to show links between specific visual contents of dreams and patterns of brain activity. (Nevertheless, there have been some remarkable discoveries, such as that of the German scientists who reported in the July 2012 online issue of SLEEP , how they compared brain scans taken during "lucid dream" episodes, to brain scans taken during normal dream states, and found which centers of the brain become active when we are aware of ourselves, the so-called state of "metaconsciousness". Neural Decoding: Kamitani and colleagues decided to see if they could use a new technique called neural decoding, which infers specific contents of visual experience from patterns of brain activity . For example, the method shows how particular brain activity patterns are tied to the recognition of specific objects. They wondered if it might be possible to use it to look at brain activity during sleep, and thereby decode the visual content of dreams. Thus using fMRI and EEG, they took brain scans and recorded brain waves of the three men as they slept. They woke the men up when their EEGs showed a particular pattern, and asked them to freely describe their visual experiences just before awakening, and then asked them to go back to sleep. On some occasions it meant waking them up ten times per hour. Each volunteer reported having visual dreams just before waking six or seven times per hour. The researchers repeated the procedure until they collected over 200 dream reports over a total of 30 to 45 hours of experiment time for each volunteer. The experiment took several days for each participant. Most of the volunteers described dreaming about everyday things, but some dreams were more unusual, for example one described being in conversation with a famous actor. The researchers looked for keywords that appeared frequently in the content of the volunteers' dream reports and arrived at 20 categories, including words like "female", "male", "car", and "computer". Then, using photographs to represent each category, they scanned the volunteers' brains again as they looked at the images, and compared them with those taken just before the participants were woken up during the dream experiments. They analyzed activity in several brain areas, including V1, V2 and V3, which play a role in the early stage of visual processing, such as encoding basic characteristics like contrast and orientation. They also analyzed activity in areas involved in higher order visual processing (around LOC,FFA, and PPA), which are important for object recognition. Predicting Dream Content: When they analyzed their results, the researchers found the decoding performance was "significantly higher than chance level in the higher visual areas" . "We built a model to predict whether each category of content was present in the dreams," says Kamitani, in a report on the study by Nature News. "By analysing the brain activity during the nine seconds before we woke the subjects, we could predict whether a man is in the dream or not, for instance, with an accuracy of 75 - 80% ," he adds. He and his colleagues conclude their study shows that: "... fMRI signals in the visual cortex, especially in the higher visual areas, represent specific visual contents of dreams, allowing for the prediction of dream contents. Furthermore, it supports the hypothesis that dreaming and perception may share neural representations in the higher visual areas." The team now plans to do the same kind of experiment with rapid eye movement ( REM ) sleep, which also involves dreaming. They suggest knowing more about the content of dreaming will help us work out what it is for. Written by Catharine Paddock PhD

2012-10-23T23:24:00.001+01:00

HEALTHY LIVING: Exotic African Fruit Extract Melts Away Pounds, In...

2012-10-23T23:04:00.001+01:00

HEALTHY LIVING: Exotic African Fruit Extract Melts Away Pounds, In...: An exotic super fruit called 'African Mango' is quickly becoming America's hottest new way to lose weight. And much to the chagrin of the na...

Exotic African Fruit Extract Melts Away Pounds, Inches — And Weight Loss Isn't the Best Part, Say Doctors.

2012-10-23T22:46:00.001+01:00

An exotic super fruit called 'African Mango' is quickly becoming America's hottest new way to lose weight. And much to the chagrin of the nation's $40 billion-dollar diet industry, which sells outrageously expensive surgical procedures and drugs that have done little, if anything , to trim America's ever-growing collective waistline. Indeed, interest in the use of African Mango extract ( irvingia gabonensis ) as a safe, effective and inexpensive weight loss alternative surged after Dr. Mehmet Oz called it, mentioning no specific brand, a "breakthrough supplement" and a "miracle in your medicine cabinet" on his Emmy Award-winning The Dr. Oz Show, which aired on September 13, 2010. 3 Similarly, one of the show's leading medical contributors, Dr. Tanya Edwards, M.D. , called African Mango extract, mentioning no specific brand, a "miracle pill" after it helped her lose 7 pounds in less than a month without making any changes to her diet or exercise routine. According to a recent study published in the scientific journal Lipids in Health and Disease , men and women supplementing with African Mango extract for just 28 days lost an astonishing 3,990% more weight than those taking a placebo (8.9 lbs vs. 0.22 lbs). 1 Beyond the weight loss, the volunteers taking African Mango extract 30 minutes before meals lost a stunning average of 2.4 inches from their waistlines as well as 1.8 inches from their hips — and the reduction in pounds and inches isn't even African Mango's greatest benefit, according to researchers. Of more significance is the marked improvement in multiple measures of overall health, say the study's authors. Findings show that in volunteers supplementing with the super fruit extract, their bad LDL cholesterol, triglyceride, and glucose levels all plummeted — suggesting that, unlike many diet pills on the market, African Mango actually improves your health while promoting safe weight loss. What Is African Mango, and How Does It Work? Read more on: http://www.healthdiscoveriesmag.com

HEALTHY LIVING: Mistakes are still commonly made in prescriptions ...

2012-10-21T15:18:00.001+01:00

HEALTHY LIVING: Mistakes are still commonly made in prescriptions ...: Findings among the research featured at first IDWeek conference. ...

HEALTHY LIVING: MENOPAUSE: Latest findings.

2012-10-21T15:12:00.001+01:00

HEALTHY LIVING: MENOPAUSE: Latest findings.: Menopause Basics What Is Menopause? Menopause is a normal condition that all women experience as they age. The...

MENOPAUSE: Latest findings.

2012-10-21T15:07:00.001+01:00

Menopause Basics What Is Menopause? Menopause is a normal condition that all women experience as they age. The term"menopause" is commonly used to describe any of the changes a woman experiences either just before or after she stops menstruating, marking the end of her reproductive period. What Causes Menopause? A woman is born with a finite number of eggs , which are stored in the ovaries. The ovaries also produce the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which regulate menstruation and ovulation. Menopause occurs when the ovaries no longer release anegg every month and menstruation stops. Menopause, when it occurs after the age of 40, is considered a normal part of aging. But some women can experience menopause early, either as a result of surgery, such as hysterectomy, or damage to the ovaries, such as from chemotherapy . Menopause that occurs before the age of 40, regardless of thecause, is called premature menopause. How Does Natural Menopause Occur? Natural menopause is the permanent ending of menstruation that is not brought on by any type of medical or surgical treatment. For women undergoing natural menopause, the process is gradual and is described in three stages: Perimenopause . Perimenopause typically begins several years before menopause, when the ovaries gradually produce less estrogen. Perimenopause lasts up until menopause, the point when the ovaries stop releasing eggs. In the last one to two years ofperimenopause, the decrease in estrogen accelerates. At this stage, many women experience menopause symptoms (see below). Menopause. Menopause is the point when it's been a year since a woman last had her last menstrual period. At this stage, the ovaries have stopped releasing eggs and producing most of their estrogen. Postmenopause. These are the years after menopause. During this stage, menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes , ease for mostwomen. However, health risks related to the loss of estrogen increase as the woman ages. What Conditions Cause Premature Menopause? Premature menopause can be the result of genetics, autoimmune disorders, or medical procedures. Other conditions that may cause early menopause include: Premature ovarian failure. Normally, the ovaries produce both estrogen and progesterone. Changes in the levels of these two hormones occur when the ovaries, for unknown reasons, prematurely stop releasing eggs. When this happens before theage of 40, it is considered to be premature ovarian failure. Unlike premature menopause,premature ovarian failure is not always permanent. Induced menopause. "Induced" menopause occurs when the ovaries are surgically removed for medical reasons, such as uterinecancer or endometriosis. Induced menopause can also result from damage to the ovaries caused by radiation or chemotherapy. What are the symptoms of Menopause? Read on: http://www.webmd.com/menopause/default.htm

Mistakes are still commonly made in prescriptions of antiretroviral medications

2012-10-21T14:49:00.005+01:00

Findings among the research featured at first IDWeek conference. Research presented at IDWeek 2012- concludes that despite advances in electronic medical records, mistakes are still commonly made in the prescription of antiretroviral medications for hospitalized HIV-positive patients. At the same time, a trio of studies suggests however, that electronic records in combination with increased clinical education can help to greatly decrease medical errors. The three studies are among the significant research being discussed at the inaugural IDWeek meeting, taking place through Sunday October 21 in San Diego. With the theme Advancing Science, Improving Care, IDWeek will feature the latest science and bench-to-bedside approaches in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiology of infectious diseases, including HIV, across the lifespan. More than 1,500 abstracts from national and international scientists will be highlighted over five days. "Treatment of HIV infection is complex, involving the administration of multiple drugsthat often have the potential for major interactions," noted Joel E. Gallant, MD, IDWeekchair for the HIV Medicine Association."Hospitalized patients are at risk for serious medication errors, especially when drugs are added or changed by physicians without HIV expertise. These studies emphasize the critical importance of electronic medical records and early expert consultation in hospitalized HIV-infected patients to prevent dangerous and costly medication errors." Antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, combines three to four powerful drugs to prevent HIV resistance. These drugs can cause toxicity and serious side effects and improper administration can also lead to decreased efficacy . Two studies featured at IDWeek describe the challenges that hospitals face in ensuring that patients infected with HIV are not put at risk of treatment failure or drug toxicity through dosage, timing and/or other errors with these medications. In one study, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic looked retrospectively at the charts for 162 admissions of HIV patients over a 10-month period in 2011. The rate of prescription errors in their HAART regimens was 50 percent, and two-thirds of those mistakes were not identified and resolved before the patients were discharged. Lead researcher Elizabeth Neuner, PharmD, aninfectious disease clinical pharmacist at the clinic, points to the changing nature of HIV care as one explanation. Many hospital physicians are less familiar with HAART regimens because so much HIV care is now administered in outpatient settings, she said. "The number and complexity of medications used to treat HIV and an unfamiliarity with seeing patients with these medications can lead to errors," Neuner said. Since the study, the Cleveland Clinic has implemented numerous quality improvement measures, including increased education about potential drug interactions with antiretroviral medications and greater coordination of care between inpatient and outpatient settings. The clinic also added dosing and frequency alerts to its electronic medical records system. Similar error rates were seen over an 18-month period by the University of ChicagoMedical Center. Researchers in this second study reviewed 155 HAART regimens, which had been evaluated within 24 hours of the patients' admission. Nearly half of the initial hospital-prescribed HAART regimens requiredintervention, most typically so that dosages could be modified. Read more on: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20121020/Mistakes-are-still-commonly-made-in-prescriptions-of-antiretroviral-medications.aspx

10 Celebrities who Battled Breast Cancer.

2012-08-09T07:34:00.001+01:00

Here are all the details about how 10 famous women fought breast cancer while being in the public eye. Read about how they were diagnosed, which treatment they chose, and what they're doing now. For more...here. http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20307103,00.html

CELEBRITY HEALTH -Cristiano Ronaldo

2010-09-02T02:18:00.000+01:00

Ronaldo Sought the Services of an American Surrogate to Have His Baby
A Portuguese newspaper has claimed that the services of an American surrogate was sought by Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, to have his baby.

According to the Daily Mail, an article in Diario de Noticias says Ronaldo conceived the little boy by paying a surrogate in San Diego at the end of last summer.
A representative for the footballer's management company Gestifute confirmed the 25-year-old was a father but did not comment on the surrogacy report.

According to the newspaper, Ronaldo went to the Algarve region of mainland Portugal to meet the baby as soon as Portugal were eliminated from the World Cup by Spain on June 29.

He waited until then to name his son, the newspaper said.

The Telegraph reported that another Portuguese newspaper, Correio de Manha, said that Ronaldo's mother, Delores, and sisters Elma and Katia would raise the child.

Katia Aveiro told the newspaper that her brother was 'very happy about becoming a father'.

"He has brown eyes and brown hair like Cristiano," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying.

"He's very happy, of course! Who isn't happy having children?

"The baby looks like him, although he's still very small to see what his features will be like. He's very calm, he just eats and sleeps," she added.

CELEBRITY HEALTH -Jennifer Saunders

2010-09-02T02:14:00.000+01:00

52-year-old Jennifer Saunders has overcome breast cancer after an intensive round of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress, who was diagnosed in October 2009, is now in remission.
Her doctors confirmed that she is indeed in remission, but Ms. Saunders' spokesperson said she had no intention of talking publicly about her disease. The actress is married and has three daughters.

Cancer Research UK\data indicates that breast cancer is now the most common form of cancer in the UK, but the good news as evinced by Ms Saunders’ recovery is that survival rates are on the rise.

CELEBRITY HEALTH -Lindsay Lohan

2010-09-02T02:11:00.000+01:00

Finding inner peace through meditation, spirituality and yoga and adopting these as a permanent lifestyle would prove very helpful to Hollywood diva Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls), acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed stated in Nevada (USA) today.

Lohan reportedly will head to rehab soon after completing her jail sentence (since July 20 for probation violation) in Lynwood (California, USA), as she has been ordered to check into rehab within 24 hours of her release.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, suggested Lohan to determinedly seek Self through mediation and have self-control.

Talking about those who have "conquered themselves", Lord Krishna revealed in ancient Hindu scripture Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord)-They live in peace, alike in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, praise and blame; Rajan Zed said.

Reports indicate that Lohan is most likely to enter Malibu Beach Recovery Center in upscale Malibu (California), which uses "ancient wisdom of yoga and meditation" and "holistic body-mind-spirit methodology", "restores body and mind", and helps clients to "open to a Higher Power".

Six clients share 6,500 square feet Center which is perched high on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean and where the floors are made from exotic woods, marble and hued travertine and which offers exclusive custom-tailored treatment plan for "Brain Restoration". Day at this Center begins at 7 am and ends at 11 pm with "evening meditation" (with little free time) and includes, among other things, "breathing exercises adapted from yoga". According to the Center, "having sex" is a healthy addiction, while "laziness" is an unhealthy/unnatural addiction.

CELEBRITY HEALTH -John Travolta

2010-09-02T02:09:00.000+01:00

John Travolta, the 'Pulp Fiction' star is apparently losing hair and could go bald.
The 56-year-old star was photographed last week in Beverly Hills when a cop pulled him over, showing a receding hairline with the male pattern baldness obvious for his age, reports the New York Post.
But two days later, when he was snapped at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Center, he had luxuriant black hair, which some experts say was "a weave."

Travolta seem to want to maintain himself as wife, Kelly Preston, is expecting their third child in May.

CELEBRITY HEALTH -Lady GAGA

2010-09-02T02:06:00.000+01:00

After Lady Gaga admitted to her use of cocaine, Boy George criticised the pop star publicly.
The former Culture Club star wrote on his Papermag blog: "Could it be that her use of coke is not so occasional?" reports the New York Post.
"As a recovering addict who knows how dangerous 'occasional' use is, I can think of no reason for Gaga to reveal this to her young audience.

"My mum had the best take on this: 'She's reached the stage where she feels untouchable, you all get there-you did, son' . . .

"Isn't saying you're an 'occasional' drug taker a bit like saying you're bisexual? That usually means you're raving," he wrote.

CELEBRITY HEALTH -JK Rowling

2010-09-02T01:59:00.000+01:00

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has given $15.4 million towards a Clinic which will treat and research Multiple Sclerosis, the disease that killed her mother. Named the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, after Rowling’s mother, the clinic will be based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The university said Rowling's $ 15.4 million is the largest single donation it has received so far.
The writer who fired the imagination of young minds with her boy wizard creation, said she hopes the clinic will become a “world center for excellence in the field of regenerative neurology.” The center will also study other degenerative neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

JK Rowling, a long term resident of Edinburgh, the Scottish capital said funding the university to attract world-class minds in the field of neuro regeneration was the most meaningful way to back to the city all the goodness it had given her. JK Rowling's mother died in 1990 at the age of 45, before the writer struck gold with her Harry Potter series.
Multiple sclerosis affects about 100,000 people in Britain, and Scotland has one of the world's highest incidences of the disease. Though genetics and environmental factors are thought to play a part in causing Multiple Sclerosis the causes and course of the disease are not fully understood.

CHOLERA TREATMENT AND PREVENTION

2010-09-02T01:57:00.000+01:00

Infection of cholera can be adequately treated by administering oral rehydration salts to replace the loss of fluids and salts. In severely dehydrated persons it should be given as Intravenous
fluids.

In severe cases; an effective antibiotic treatment can reduce the volume and duration of diarrhea and the period of Vibrio excretion.

Tetracycline is the antibiotic usually given, but resistance to tetracycline is emerging. Tetracycline resistant strains are now treated with Co-trimoxazole, erythromycin, doxycycline, chloramphenicol and furazolidone. Consult your doctor for proper medication.

Read more: Cholera Treatment http://www.medindia.net/patients/waterborne/cholera_treatment.htm#ixzz0yMQXGXew

PREVENTION:
Sanitary disposal of faeces

Hand washing after defecation,

Pure drinking water,

Uncontaminated food supply (particularly seafood and vegetables)

Sanitary preparation of food in commercial establishments and homes.

Cleanliness are the most effective ways in preventing and controlling outbreaks.

Routine treatment of a community with antibiotics, or "mass chemoprophylaxis", has no effect in controlling the spread of cholera.

Limited stocks of two oral cholera vaccines that provide high-level protection for several months against cholera caused by V. cholerae O1 have recently become available in few countries.

Read more: Cholera Prevention http://www.medindia.net/patients/waterborne/cholera_preventation.htm#ixzz0yMQiztb2

CHOLERA SYMPTOMS AND DIAGNOSIS

2010-09-02T01:54:00.000+01:00

What are the symptoms of Cholera
Symptoms are

Nausea, vomiting, profuse diarrhea with abdominal cramps.

Stools, which resemble "rice water", contain mucus, epithelial cells, and large number of cholera bacteria.

There is a rapid loss of fluid, electrolytes, which lead to
- profound dehydration
- circulatory collapse

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DIAGNOSIS:
Macroscopic Examination:
Stools resembles "rice water", contains mucus, epithelial cells, and large number of Vibrios.

Microscopic Examination:
Dark field Microscopic examination of stool sample shows rapidly motile Vibrio bacteria.

Cultural Characters:
Enrichment is done in Alkaline Peptone water at pH 8.7 for 6-8 hours incubation.

Typical yellow color colonies appear in Thiosulfate-Citrate-Bile salts-Sucrose (TCBS) agar after 18 hours incubation.

Organisms can be confirmed from culture by staining and examining under microscope.

Specific Tests:
Vibrio cholerae are further identified by slide agglutination tests using anti-O group 1 antiserum and by biochemical reactions.

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CHOLERA PATHOGENICITY

2010-09-02T01:53:00.001+01:00

V. cholerae is pathogenic only for humans

Cholera Vibrios are ingested in drink or food and in natural infections, the small dose is enough
to cause an infection. After passing the acid barrier of the stomach the organisms begin to multiply in the alkaline environment of the small intestine.
It gets attached to the microvilli of the epithelial cells of the intestinal tract where it multiplies and produce a potent enterotoxin known as cholera toxin.

Cholera toxin is responsible for increased secretion of water and electrolytes in stools from the intestinal cells leading to dehydration, shock, acidosis and death.

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TRANSMISSION OF CHOLERA

2010-09-02T01:51:00.000+01:00

Cholera is transmitted by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium, Vibrio cholerae.

Raw or undercooked seafood may be
a source of infection in areas where cholera is prevalent.

Cholera outbreaks can occur sporadically in any part of the world where water supplies, sanitation, food safety and hygiene practices are inadequate.

Overcrowded communities with poor sanitation and unsafe drinking-water supplies are most frequently affected.

Floodwaters can carry V. cholera and contaminate drinking water supplies. Vibrio cholerae can resist brackish water and coastal water environment with high salinity.

The disease is not likely to spread directly from one person to another; therefore, casual contact with an infected person is not a risk for becoming ill.

Travellers at risk of cholera infection may be immunized with the killed whole organism vaccine, which offers about 60% protection for 3-6 months.

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