Health Jockey

The Institute of Gerontology at King’s College London has conducted a research to defend British adult children and has proved that they don’t care less about their divorced parents. The study funded by Economic and Social Research Council.

It has been observed that, despite the fact that the parents are divorced, adult children take care of their parents’ matters related to health and chances of them being caring are more when the parents are ageing unlike other countries like the US. Researchers noted that out of the 75% of divorced parents, the chances of ill parents receiving help from their children increases by 9% every year. It was also noted that more the children the more the help received.

This study proves that the British adult children are ready to help their parents irrespective of the parent’s past and may put a helping hand forward depending on the need of the situation.

“Our research Read the rest of this story >>

Women and men are bound to have different sort of stress-related psychological disorders. Women are found to have increased rates of depression and some types of anxiety disorders compared to men. Men have higher chances of alcohol-use disorders than women. Through a new study of emotional and alcohol-craving responses to stress, it has been discovered that when the mood of a man is upset, there are higher chances of them to consume or wanting to have alcohol, as compared to women.

Tara M. Chaplin, associate research scientist at Yale University School of Medicine and first author of the study said, “We know that women and men respond to stress differently. For example, following a stressful experience, women are more likely than men to say that they feel sad or anxious, which may lead to risk for depression and anxiety disorders. Some studies have found that men are more likely to drink alcohol following stress Read the rest of this story >>

According to a report published on May 11, 2008 in the online issue of Nature, the COMT gene plays a role in preeclampsia besides playing a role in schizophrenia.

The researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) suggest that a steroid molecule, 2- ME might provide both a diagnostic marker as well as a therapeutic supplement for the cure of this perilous pregnancy disorder.

Senior author Raghu Kalluri, PhD and his colleagues have explained that around 5 percent of pregnancies worldwide have been typified by hypertension, proteinuria, and edema, preeclampsia which is the reason for the cause of maternal and neonatal morbidity.

During the screening for genes which regulate hypoxia, Kalluri and his colleagues said that placental hypoxia, or oxygen shortage, related with vascular dysfunction, is a hallmark of the condition.

“Seeing pregnant women with this disease in the Read the rest of this story >>

Many people tend to have an inborn advantage of remembering things or in other words have a good and sharp memory. Imagine if you are able to recollect and can store every single jiffy of your life and are also able to recall the memories and incidents that happened from the age of 9 or 10 onwards. Wouldn’t it be amazing?

UC Irvine neuroscientists James McGaugh and Larry Cahill have been studying people who have this type of incredible memory which is known as hyperthymesia. There is a woman nicknamed AJ (Jill Price) who has this implausible memory, hyperthymesia. Details about AJ were published for the first time in 2006 in scientific papers and many news organizations which includes National Public Radio, “NBC Nightly News,” “Good Morning America” and the Associated Press, that have been using this case study.

AJ is a woman who cannot forget in a chronological manner. “Good Morning America” and “20/20” Read the rest of this story >>

Here is good news especially for active people and athletes. They will not have to rush to a dermatologist anymore to cure the damages done to their skin during rigorous training practices. The new Hand-e-Balm, a product by Gold Star Products.Inc is a new, all-in-one medication that protects the skin, stops infection and repairs damaged skin faster.

The balm that was earlier developed only for gymnasts is now made widely available in the market for ‘athletes, diabetics, amputees, cyclist, seniors, and anyone with severe skin damage’.

“Although we originally developed this formula specifically for gymnasts, Hand-e-Balm has proved to be first choice for many athletes, such as cyclists, runners, hikers, and golfers who have similar skin problems. We are therefore increasing distribution to make it more widely available,” said Herb Rankin, President of Gold Star Products.

The product has been developed essentially Read the rest of this story >>

Shopping for a multiple food allergic child can be quite stressful for mothers, especially when enough information about the ‘special diet’ food is not printed on the product. Special diets are the foods that come minus certain ingredients that are known to cause food-allergies.

To save the mothers and children from the trouble of hunting and searching for the right kind of food, Jennifer Elizondo, a mother of a child with multiple food allergy, has founded a store that keeps all the special products with the information on under what conditions they are processed as well as the ingredients, under one roof. Navan Foods is the all new allergy free food shop in Virginia Beach. It aims to help families not only in search of allergen free foods but also the families trying out new diet to counter diseases like Celiac Sprue or Autism.

“I created this store in an image of what I would want in a grocery store. I shop for a child with Read the rest of this story >>

An anti-obesity drug which suppresses appetite blocks the cannabinoid receptors in the brain, which can even suppress the adaptive rewiring of the brain and is necessary for neural development in children, show studies conducted on mice. Rimonabant (trade name Acomplia) is a drug which has been created by Sanofi-Aventis who is yet waiting for the approval for making its use in the United States. Similarly other pharmaceutical companies are aiming to develop such drugs.

The primary plan of the researchers experiments was to achieve a closer look in regulating the procedure called “experience-dependent cortical plasticity” in the brain. The plasticity is nothing but the adaptive rewiring of the brain which is caused by the experience, i.e. central to neural development found in children and young animals.

In their experimental model the plasticity in the visual cortex of the mouse was used. The visual cortex is nothing Read the rest of this story >>

Due to this fast life and mundane routines, people are looking out for new ways to lead a better life. They want to try the best possible means to make it better. According to a study, one third of the 16-35 year old males and a quarter of females examined are consuming alcohol to increase the possible areas in their sex life. Cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis are used globally to boost sexual arousal or prolong sex.

This study has been conducted by researchers in public health and social sciences from across Europe. Above 1300 people under the age group of 16-35 completed an anonymous questionnaire and all theses people had a routine of socializing by attending late night parties.

Practically every participant in the survey had their first drink when they were of the age of around 14-15 years.

Intentionally drinking and taking drugs had different reasons but revolving around the same issue is that alcohol was consumed to Read the rest of this story >>

People take painkillers to get an instant relief from chronic pain, tension, stress etc. But now the issue is that the correct use of opioids and other potent pain medication should be regulated in a lawful manner. A research conducted by the American Pain Society annual meeting has verified that less than 3 percent of patients who never had a past record of drug abuse were prescribed opioids to relieve them from chronic pain and would later indicate the signs of possible drug abuse or dependence on it.

Srinivasa Raja, MD, professor of anesthesiology, Johns Hopkins University Medical School has suggested to clinicians and policy makers in his sessions that they shouldn’t prescribe even a low percentage of pain killers so as to protect and prevent patients for the unreasonable intake of such abusive painkillers.

Raja said, “Physicians today face a dilemma in trying to balance the needs of their patients with Read the rest of this story >>