The Silver Ink

Monday, January 25, 2021
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E-cigarette warning on public health by Big Tobacco

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e-cigaretteBig tobacco companies are pushing a range of control on e-cigarettes, they include lengthy warnings, restricted sales, reduced product ranges  and scientific testing requirements.

Nicotine, the e-cigarette warning says, is “addictive and habit-forming, and is very toxic in inhalation, in contact with the skin, or if swallowed.”

MarkTen, a leading brand in the U.S. says “nicotine can increase blood pressure and cause dizziness, nausea and stomach pain.”

Altria, the parent company of MarkTen which makes Marlboro cigarettes said that there is no warning in electronic cigarettes in U.S.

The health warning produced by Altaria on electronic cigarette is 116 words long and is far longer than the traditional cigarettes.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills almost 6 million people each year.

E-cigarettes have been introduced in 2006, since then smokers in order to get over their smoking habit are moving towards e-cigarettes.

Big tobacco companies say that they are pushing for firm control on e-cigarettes is not to hurt smaller competitors.

“Our stated goal is to get to e-vapor leadership, to have the strongest brands in the marketplace; I don’t know how they run their businesses and what it would cost them to meet those requirements.” Said the Altria spokesman

Late 1990s, big companies led a campaign for cigarettes to be regulates by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The small companies say that this is the tactic which they played to drive away small competitors.

Power naps improves memory performance

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power napIf anybody is telling you to work hard, study and sleep less then here is the perfect answer which can shut their mouth.

A recent study has revealed that a short nap or a power nap of just 45 minutes can boost memory by five times.

It will help retain information you have read and it improves retrieving learnt information so naps are very necessary before the exams it could help revising.

The participants were split into two groups one group is the control group and other is the nap group.

The control group is the group who watched DVD’s and the other group is the group who took a nap.

During the performance test it was noted that the nap group performed better in remembering the word pairs than the other group.

Hippocampus is the region of the brain in which memories are consolidated and it is the process by which previously learned information is transferred into long term memory storage.

The researchers examined ‘sleep spindles’ a particular brain activity which plays an important role in memory consolidation during sleep.

A sleep spindle is a short burst of rapid oscillations in the electrocenphalogram(EEG).

Dr. Axel Mecklinger, who supervised the study, said, “We suspect that certain types of memory content, particularly information that was previously tagged, is preferentially consolidated during this type of brain activity.”

The greater the number of sleep spindles appearing in EEG, the stronger is the memory of the person.

Many acne patients fail to get prescribed medication

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AcneMany acne patients don’t take all their medications properly a recent study published in journal JAMA Dermatology.

The study was conducted on 143 acne patients, and it revealed that 27 percent of the patient don’t use or follow the medication prescribed by the dermatologist.

The patients who are prescribed with one medication showed the least rate of non-adherence which is 9 percent and the patients with two medications showed the highest rate of non-adherence about 40 percent and the patients who are prescribed with three or more medications is about 31 percent.

Study author Dr. Steven Feldman, a professor of dermatology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina said, “A previous study reported a 10 percent primary non-adherence rate for acne patients, so we were surprised that what we found was more than twice that.”

She added that the pervasive problem in all medicine is non-adherence and particularly when it comes to treating the chronic acne conditions.

 

They also found that patients were less likely to fill the prescriptions for topical medications like the creams, lotions than for the pills. It was also found that paper prescriptions were less filled than the electronic prescription and over-the-counter products were less likely to be obtained than prescription drugs.

 

Gender is in any way not related to non adherence of the medication.

WHO agency categorizes Glyphosate as possibly carcinogenic to humans

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cancer-spreading

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) research agency has made startling revelations about the popular herbicide glyphosate, saying it can cause cancer in humans.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), French-based cancer research department at the WHO, on Friday said that its latest study has found the popular weed carcinogenic in nature for the human.

For the study, the researchers followed five herbicides and insecticides in order to test their carcinogenicity.

The study analysis showed glyphosate probably carrying carcinogenic substance in it. The globally known herbicide is majorly found in weed killers like Roundup.

Following the study, the researchers classified glyphosate and four other insecticides, including tetrachlorvinphos, malathion, diazinon and parathion, under the category of possibly carcinogenic to humans.

“Glyphosate, though, currently has the highest global production volume of all herbicides, its use in agricultural purposes has increased sharply since the development of genetically modified crops that resistant to it,” IARC said in a press release.

“Glyphosate is also used in forestry, urban and home applications. It has been detected in the air during spraying, in water as well as in food. The general population is exposed primarily through residence near sprayed areas, diet, home use, and the level that has been observed is generally low,” as per the news release.

The use of Parathion is no more authorized in the US and the European Union. On the other hand, the European Union has banned use of Tetrachlorvinphos, but it is still used for livestock and domestic animals.

Both Malathion and Diazinon are used for controlling residential insect as well as in agriculture.

This year, the US Environmental Protection Agency will carry fresh review of the guidelines for the use of glyphosate.

Paris bans half of personal vehicles on streets to check pollution levels

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In an attempt to check the rising levels of pollution and formation of smog, Paris has decided to ban half of the personal vehicles of the city from taking to the streets.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo on Saturday asked the regulating authorities to ensure prevention of one in every two cars from taking to the streets in the city. Besides, the city Mayor has also asked the authorities to make all public transport temporarily free in Paris as well as neighbouring towns. The initiative has been made by the city authorities in a bid to encourage use of public transportation system by the residents.

“I am delighted the state has agreed to put in place a partial driving ban on Monday, which I have been requesting for several days,” Hidalgo said on micro-blogging site Twitter.

La #pollution est une question de santé publique qui nous concerne tous : http://t.co/u6w0reXOkapic.twitter.com/rmi0BXP3ZF

— Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) March 20, 2015

The city officials will only allow personal vehicles with odd-numbered license plates on the road. However, some other types of vehicles like ambulance, taxis and electric cars will be permitted to run on the city roads in order to avoid any inconvenience to the public.

The level of air pollution was recorded far above the European safety standards for the third straight day on Thursday.

Similar emergency measures were also implemented last year in Paris when there was a particular bad spike in the levels of air pollution.

Several other cities in different countries have taken similar initiatives to combat smog.

If talk about the United States, Los Angeles holds the top spot in the list of cities having the worst smog, which violates federal health standards for ozone, i.e. an average of 122 days per year.

 

Indiana takes CDC assistance to tackle HIV menace; 55 cases confirmed

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Amid Indiana witnessing an HIV crisis with 55 reported cases, the federal health experts have come in to attempt containing the deadly outbreak in the state’s southern part.

According to the Indiana State Department of Health officials, 55 confirmed cases of HIV and 13 other preliminary positive cases have been reported so far in the state.

A medical team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will on Monday arrive in Scott County in order to assist the state health department officials with follow-up contacts of HIV-positive patients and data analysis.

In a news release, Indiana Health Commissioner Dr. Jerome Adams said, “We are engaging local, state, and national partners to determine where we can most effectively focus our efforts. Extra care is being taken to invest resources in getting people off drugs and into treatment, since drug abuse is the clear driving force behind this outbreak.”

According to the federal agency, the outbreak is believed to be triggered due to use of shared needles by most of the infected people while injecting a painkiller called Opana. It is a prescription drug which is more potent than Oxycontin. The agency has linked some of the HIV cases to the unprotected sex.

The outbreak was first reported by the health department in late February, when 26 HIV-positive cases were diagnosed over the last two months in five counties: Jackson, Washington, Scott, Perry, and Clark.

CDC spokesman Amy Reel said that the positive thing is that the HIV outbreak is currently limited to those counties and not spread to other regions.

Indiana reported 405 confirmed cases of HIV in 2012.

The health department has started a public awareness campaign called, You Are Not Alone, providing information on safe sex, needle disposal, drug abuse and HIV testing as well as treatment.

The campaign that began on Friday will continue for three-month and will include digital, radio and social media advertisements and billboards.

The department’s hotline offering information about HIV testing locations as well as care can be reached at 866-588-4948.

 

Biogen Idec’s new drug which can cure Alzheimer’s

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alzheimersBiogen Idec Inc experimental drug is going to treat Alzheimer’s. According to the study and the experiment’s result this drug is going to significantly slow cognitive decline in patients with early and mild forms of the disease.

Alzheimer’s accounts for 60 to 70% of cases of dementia. The most common symptoms are difficult remembering events, language problems, mood swings etc. Till date there is no such medicine which can cure the disease but medical science has not even produced a drug which can slower the disease’s development.

The drug is believed to reduce the brain destroying amyloid plague. Alzheimer’s is caused by these plagues in the brain and it plays a prominent role in the development of the disease.

The drug which is said to cure Alzheimer’s is aducanumab.

Alzheimer’s affects 15 million people worldwide, a number that is expected to grow to 75 million by 2030 without effective treatments. These treatments are very expensive so most people go for cost effective treatments which show only temporary results.

Alfred Sandrock, Biogen’s chief medical officer said that it is for the first time that an experimental drug has shown significant reduction in amyloid plague and also slowing impairments in patients with mild disease.

The second trial involved 166 people with mild to severe Alzeimers. They were divided into five groups four of them received different dose and the fifth received placebo. The results showed that all the participants showed better improvement than the ones who took placebo.

The experts are getting ready for the third trial later this year and based on the results the drug will be given approval.

This allergy season could be more severe but smaller than before: Experts

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Winter season is over and so is the severe flu season, but Spring has begun and it has brought some seasonal allergies along with it.

According to the health experts, the allergy season for the year 2015 is expected to be worse than last year. But the good part is that the allergy season will be much shorter.

Even though this allergy season could be possibly worse than the last or previous years, but this year’s allergy season is likely to be a little shorter than the normal one.

Rhinitis or hay fever is the most common form of seasonal which affects approximately 35 million people in the US yearly. It is caused by pollen falling from trees, grasses and weed. When trees and plants start blooming, loosened pollen grains spread into the air, causing several types of allergies in millions of people.

Dr. Tanya Laidlaw, Translational Research in Allergy director at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, says this year will witness late pollination by the plants, which will further assist in discontinuation of allergies by just few days or a week.

The main plants that are responsible for major symptoms of spring allergy, such as birch, classic oak and maple, will be pollinating later than normal in 2015.

Dr. Clifford Bassett, founder and medical director of New York-based Allergy and Asthma Care, holds global warming and its consequences on the weather conditions are distinguishing factors that plays major role in making allergy seasons more intense.

According to him, the surge in carbon dioxide levels and the degrading climatic conditions result in higher pollen growth. He says this is a bad news for the sufferers, i.e. people with high risk, of allergy season.

The experts strongly recommend people to start allergy medicine now, saying it’s just the right time.

Here are some of the tips to keep allergies at bay:

  • Visit over-the-counter route along with oral antihistamines, nasal sprays and decongestants
  • For more serious symptoms, visit your doctor and talk about allergy shots
  • Wash your clothes as well as vacuum on regular basis. This will help in lowering pollen and mold from entering your home via your clothes or pets.
  • Turn on the air conditioner as it will help in circulating filtered air.
  • Preferring closing windows at home as well as car windows.

22 month boy recovered after 2 hours without pulse

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boyThe Pennsylvanian 22 month old survived after drowning in an icy creek. When he was found in an icy stream he had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. Doctors call this survival extra ordinary.

After a full hour and 41 minutes of CPR the boy Gardell Martin successfully revived.

Martin fell in the stream near his family home when he was playing with his brothers.

“It’s not only extraordinarily rare that we got the kid back, but what’s even more extraordinary is the rate at which he recovered and the completeness of his recovery,” Dr. Frank Maffei, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Geisinger’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital in Danville, where Martin was treated.

“The stars and moon aligned, and he had an angel on his shoulder.”

Now the question is how could the boy survived without breathing for so long, the doctors gave an answer to this saying that martin suffered with hypothermia in icy stream and this helped his body from going into cardiac arrest.

Hypothermia can protect the organs because it lowers the body’s need for oxygen and this limits the release of toxins which may cause cell death.

The neighbor discovered the boy in the stream. Emergency workers began CPR immediately. When martin arrived at the hospital his temperature was 77 degrees way lower than the normal temperature which is 98.6 degree. He had no pulse but faint cardiac activity was detected.

To recover his body temperature blankets and fluids were used and this slowly raised the temperature to 90 degree, the boy was put on the ventilator and within hours he opened his eyes. Five days later the boy was released.

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