Heena Sharma Blog

Smoking may damage the immune response against melanoma and limit patients' survival chances, according to a new study. Melanoma patients with a history of smoking cigarettes are 40 per cent less likely to survive their skin cancer than people who have never smoked within a decade after their diagnosis, according to the study, published in the journal Cancer Research. Other researchers have reported that smoking have adverse effects on the immune system, but it is not yet known which chemicals are responsible for this. "The immune system is like an orchestra, with multiple pieces. This research suggests that smoking might disrupt how it works together in tune, allowing the musicians to continue playing but possibly in a more disorganised way," said lead researcher Julia Newton-Bishop, Professor at the University of Leeds. Smoking could directly affect how smokers' bodies deal with the melanoma cancer cells, said the researchers. "Overall, these ...

Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCPs) by women, many are not aware that it may impair their ability to recognise others' emotional expressions, which may have serious consequences in interpersonal contexts, suggests a new study. The study showed that healthy women who use birth control pills are poorer judges of subtle facial expressions than non-users. "More than 100 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives, but remarkably little is known about their effects on emotion, cognition and behaviour," said senior author Alexander Lischke from the University of Greifswald in Germany. "However, coincidental findings suggest that oral contraceptives impair the ability to recognise emotional expressions of others which could affect the way users initiate and maintain intimate relationships," said Lischke. To investigate the effects of OCPs on women's emotion recognition, the researchers administered a special emotion recognit...

Consuming a Western diet, low in fibre and high in fat and sugar , can put you at increased risk of developing severe sepsis, researchers say. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found mice that were fed the Western diet showed an increase in chronic inflammation, sepsis severity and higher mortality rates than mice that were fed a normal diet. Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by the body's response to an infection. It can lead to shock and organ failure. It is one of the most common cause of death worldwide. According to the researchers, including Brooke Napier from the Portland State University, the mice had more severe sepsis and were dying faster because of something in their diet, not because of the weight gain or microbiome, the body's community of bacteria. "The mice's immune system on the Western diet looked and functioned differently. It looks like the diet is manipulating...

Fathers experience more well-being and satisfaction than mothers in their parenthood and even when interacting with their children, a new study suggests. Researchers from the University of California in the US analysed three separate studies consisting of 18,000 people that looked at the scale of happiness, psychological satisfaction, depressive symptoms and stress among others. The first two studies compared the well-being of parents with that of people who do not have children. The findings published in the journal "Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin", showed that fathers reported greater satisfaction with their lives and feelings of connectedness to others. They also reported greater positive emotions and fewer daily hassles than mothers, or relatives or peers without children. They even showed fewer depressive symptoms than men without children, whereas mothers reported more depressive symptoms than women who do not have children. Read ...

Men who sleep less than six hours a night may be at an increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who sleep between seven and eight hours, a new study suggests. The study showed that poor quality sleep of less than six hours increases the risk of atherosclerosis by 27 per cent compared to seven to eight hours of sleep. Atherosclerosis refers to the build-up of fats, cholesterol and other substances in and on the artery walls throughout the body. On the other hand, women who slept more than eight hours a night had an increased risk of atherosclerosis . "Cardiovascular disease is a major global problem and we are preventing and treating it using several approaches, including pharmaceuticals, physical activity and diet," said Jose M. Ordovas, researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid. "But the study emphasizes we have to include sleep as one of the weapons we use to fight heart ...

Eating an egg daily can have a beneficial effect on the blood metabolite profile that is related to a lower risk of Type-2 diabetes , a new study shows. The findings showed that the blood samples of men who ate more eggs included certain lipid molecules that positively correlated with the blood profile of men who remained free of Type-2 diabetes . "The study explored potential compounds that could explain this association using non-targeted metabolomics, a technique that enables a broad profiling of chemicals in a sample," said lead author Stefania Noerman from the University of Eastern Finland. Eggs remain one of the most controversial food items. High intake of eggs has traditionally been discouraged, mainly due to their high cholesterol content. However, eggs are also a rich source of many bioactive compounds that can have beneficial effects on health. This means that the health effects of consuming eggs are difficult to determine based solely on thei...

Today's lifestyle has several unhealthy facets such as lack of physical activity, poor sleep habits and consumption of unhealthy foods, including fast, processed and junk food . Hectic work schedules have increased stress levels (which, in turn, has led to disturbed sleep), unhealthy dietary habits such as eating either too much or too less, and, more often than not, not spending enough time to eat well. Smoking and alcoholism are other aspects that have led to health issues. The negative outcome of this stress-filled lifestyle is visible in the form of ill health, the most common being poor digestive health. This is worsened by the decreasing ability of the digestive system to function efficiently with age and handle digestive problems such as indigestion, bloating, flatulence and gastritis. According to Dr Rajesh Kumawat, Head - Medical Services and Clinical Development, The Himalaya Drug Company, digestive problems should not be ignored as they can cause irrev...

Privacy of patients who go for HIV testing and counselling in the national capital's government hospitals remains a prime concern as many of them don't have separate counselling rooms for males and females, a study has found. The study, titled "Integrated Counselling and HIV Testing Centres of Delhi: An Evaluation", by Dr Anita Khokhar, Director Professor, Community Medicine, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, along with Dr Vinoth Gnana Chellaiyan of the Department of Community Medicine at Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Kelambakkam, Chennai, revealed that a majority of the Integrated Counseling and HIV Testing Centres (ICTCs) in the national capital lacked separate rooms for male-female counselling and nor was there adequate space inside the allocated room. According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), 93 medical facilities under the Centre and the state governments in Delhi have ICTCs. Eleven medical fac...

Love to drink lassi? A new book on varieties of lassi offers recipes for a healthy living. Lassi is a staple drink that accompanies culturally diversified Indian cuisine and is full of therapeutic properties. The book -- "Lassis of India - Smoothies with a Twist" by Radha Bhatia -- attempts to span five generations of stories, wisdom and recipes. "The idea of writing a book on lassis occurred to me when I realised that in today's fast paced and hectic life, a healthy lifestyle and eating habits was a universal concern. Almost everything available for ready consumption today is processed, full of artificial flavours, colours and preservatives," Bhatia said in a statement. "And our age-old elixirs like lassi have been almost relegated into obscurity. These tasty and healthy beverages, consumed over centuries in many different avatars across various parts of the country, are natural and full of ingredients with tremendous health benefits...

Men who eat leafy greens, dark orange and red vegetables , berries and drink orange juice may be at a lower risk of developing memory loss in older age, according to a study The findings showed that men who ate larger amounts of fruits and vegetables 20 years earlier were less likely to develop thinking and memory problems, whether or not they kept eating larger amounts of fruits and vegetables later. Men who consumed the most vegetables were 34 per cent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who consumed the least amount of vegetables. Men who drank orange juice every day were 47 per cent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who drank less than one serving per month. This association was mainly observed for regular consumption of orange juice among the oldest men, the researchers found. "One of the most important factors in this study is that we were able to research and track such a large group of men over a 20-year pe...