A cup or two of coffee a day may help lower the risk of developing colon cancer, according to the new study at the University of Southern California.
Researchers looked at 8,500 people in Israel and about 5,000 of those people had colorectal cancer. On average, the people in the study drank about two cups of coffee a day.
Researchers found that coffee drinkers reduced their risk for developing colorectal cancer by 30 percent, compared to people who didn’t drink coffee.
They also found that the more coffee people drank, the lower their risk for developing colon cancer. People who drank two to two-and-a-half cups of coffee had a 44 percent reduced risk and those who drank more than two-and-a-half cups had a 59 percent reduced risk.
Researchers hypothesize that drinking coffee lowers colorectal cancer risk because it speeds up the passage of substances through the colon. This means the tissue has less time to be exposed to cancer-causing agents. Or, it may be that coffee affects the composition of microbes in the gut, or possibly that compounds in coffee have properties that help prevent cancer.
Source: healthcentral
Gastroschisis occurs in approximately 1 in 5,000 live births. A child with this condition is born with his/her intestines outside the abdominal cavity and floating free in the amniotic fluid. Most cases of gastroschisis involve an opening in the abdominal wall that is normally present during pregnancy , but it fails to close prior to delivery, allowing the organs to end up outside the body. The hole or opening is usually found to the right of the baby's belly button. Surgery is needed soon after birth to repair the condition.
Gastroschisis is the most common in a group of abdominal-wall defects. It is often found early in pregnancy during a prenatal ultrasound around 14 to 24 weeks. The exact cause of gastroschisis is not known. Most babies with this condition are born to young mothers who are having their first baby.
Gastroschisis has a survival rate of 95 percent. Babies usually stay in the hospital six to eight weeks and then go home once they are eating well and gaining weight. At Nationwide Children's Hospital we have a strong Intestinal Support Service where we see 20 to 30 children each year children with this condition. For babies born with this rare condition, after surgery most go on to live healthy, happy lives.
Source: medicinno
The Polar H7 is a heart rate sensor that measures your heart rate and wirelessly sends real-time information to your phone. The device costs $79.95, and can be used with some of the Polar products, such as the Polar Loop fitness tracker, to add heart rate to the measures the tracker provides, such as number of steps, distance and level of activity.
The H7 can also be used alone with a mobile training app called Polar Beat (available for iOS and Android), which lets you use your phone to do the tracking. I used the H7 and the Polar Beat for about a week — here's how it performed.
The Polar H7 consists of a sensor and transmitter on an adjustable strap that goes around your chest. For measuring heart rate, chest straps are generally considered to be more accurate than wrist-worn devices such as watches, but comfort is also a factor. I am more used to wearing a wristband or a watch, so wearing something tight around my chest when exercising felt unnatural. But I got used to the feeling after a couple of days.
The H7 works with a watch battery and doesn't need to be regularly recharged through cables.
User friendliness
The Polar Beat app has a simple, straightforward design and is very easy to use. Depending on the type of workout and goals you choose, there are coaching alerts that will ask you to warm up, or speed up. These voice alerts are helpful if you're not wearing one of the fitness trackers, because unlike a wristwatch, it's not easy to look at your phone during a workout to see your heart rate
Value of information:
Considering the fact that the Polar H7 is a heart rate sensor and not an activity tracker, it did a good job of providing more than just the heart rate by pairing with the app on the phone.
For example, during your workout, the app displays your heart rate in real time, as measured by the sensor on the chest, and also the distance you've traveled as measured by the phone's GPS, and your speed. Based on your speed and heart rate, the app estimates how many calories you have burned and how much you have improved your fitness.
When reviewing your workout summary, the app displays colorful charts showing where your heart rate fell within several zones, based on the percentage of maximum heart rate. For example, the lowest zone is your expected heart rate during light exercises such as walking, and the highest zone is the maximum heart rate you achieve during athletic training. The charts show the amount of time you spent in each zone.
Enjoyment/Inspiration
There are many variables to measure during exercise — distance, speed and calories — but I still found it exciting to know my heart rate. Pairing up a simple device such as the H7 with my phone made running more enjoyable because it provided a direct sense of what running is doing to my body and my heart. In a way, it made the effects of exercising more tangible to me.
Source: livescience
People who are deaf might be able to regain most of their hearing one day, thanks to a new treatment that uses a cochlear implant to deliver genetic instructions to fix their auditory nerves, new research suggests.
In experiments on deaf guinea pigs, researchers found that the new technique, which uses cochlear implants to deliver DNA directly to the nerves, restored the animals' hearing to a near-normal level, according to the report, published today (April 23) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Cochlear implants are electronic devices that can be surgically implanted to restore hearing in people whose deafness is caused by certain conditions.
If proven effective in humans, this experimental use of a cochlear implant to fix the nerves could offer significant improvement over current implants, the researchers said. For one, it could allow patients to hear and music.
"People with cochlear implants do well with understanding speech, but their perception of pitch can be poor, so they often miss out on the joy of music," study researcher Gary Housley, an animal physiologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia, said in a statement.
Better implants
Hearing loss usually results from the loss of hair cells in a snail-shaped region of the inner ear called the cochlea, which converts acoustic vibrations into nerve signals that the brain can interpret as sounds. Cochlear implants have been used since the 1970s to take over the function of hair cells, but the devices can't completely restore a person's hearing to normal.
Researchers have long known that delivering chemicals called neurotrophins, which are crucial to nerve function and survival, to the cochlea can help nerve endings regenerate. But so far, there hasn't been a safe, effective way to get these chemicals into the cochlea cells.
In the new study, the researchers implanted guinea pigs with cochlear implants that used pulses of electricity to place DNA snippets close enough to the nerves that they could take up the DNA and start producing the chemicals. (In contrast, traditional gene therapy that uses a virus to deliver genetic material to the cells has been less successful.)
The results showed that the guinea-pig nerve cells used the DNA to produce their own neurotrophins, which helped the nerves regenerate.
Dramatic hearing boost
The researchers then tested the guinea pigs' hearing using a method commonly used to test the hearing of newborn babies. The researchers placed electrodes on the guinea pigs' heads to measure cochlear nerve responses to sounds.
The results were dramatic: Animals that had been almost completely deaf were able to hear at near-normal levels.
Source: livescience
The third year of medical school is definitely an interesting one. You leave the classroom and enter the big bad world of medicine, and you quickly realize that much of what you’ve learned is for naught.
You also realize that the medical student next to you could become your best friend, or the bane of your existence — or fall anywhere along that spectrum. Here is a list of the medical students you might encounter. This list is in no specific order, and in no way complete. And for the sake of simplicity, all of the medical students listed will be male. Sorry ladies.
1. The new best friend. It’s your first day on a new rotation, and you groan when you see the other students listed with you. You barely recognize any of the names. How could you have gone through two years of school together and never talked? You fear for the worst. But your fear quickly turns into unbridled joy. This mystery man is both a scholar and a gentleman. He laughs at all your jokes, and sneaks out of the hospital early with you. You both help each other whenever possible, and by the end of the rotation, you’re planning to grab drinks together after work. You wonder where this person has been your whole life. Sadly, like all things, this rotation will end. And your new best-friendship may end as well. But it was great while it lasted.
2. The Houdini. The Houdini is, for lack of a better word, a magician. His patients are always the easiest to take care of, his resident never makes him do scutwork, and he manages to leave an hour before the rest of you. He shows up late half the time, but no one ever seems to notice. In fact, the attendings love this medical student and praise him for his efficiency. As his companion, you find yourself envious — you wish you had his skill, but you know you’d be caught if you tried any of his stunts. You try to make yourself feel better by saying, “At least I’m getting more out of this rotation,” but deep down, you know that’s a lie.
3. The future _____. This medical student is really itching to go into the field in which you are currently rotating. They ask a ton of extra questions, beg the attending to go into detail on every disease, and try to follow the residents around as much as possible. They also have a never-ending optimism about them that quickly grows tiring. They may even ask for extra assignments, not realizing that all of the students will get extra work, not just them. And when the students are sitting around in their daily gripe-fest, complaining about their days, they’ll say something like “Oh c’mon guys- it’s actually pretty cool.” I’ll be honest, I’ve acted like this before. To a small extent. But c’mon guys- surgery is actually pretty cool.
4. The gunner. Now, the word gunner is frequently used in the medical student community. It is meant to describe a student who tries to advance himself at the expense of others. It is also used to portray those who study very hard by themselves, or basically any student who’s smart but kind of a jerk. The word is adaptable. On the floors, a gunner is the guy who looked up the vital signs for every patient on the service, and when you can’t remember your patients’, he says them out loud. He’s the guy who manages to scrub into all the cool surgeries, often by following around the attending physician non-stop. He’s the guy who refuses to go home when the residents dismiss everyone, and asks to do extra menial tasks. And when you ask him what books he’s using to study, he’ll proudly tell you how he “read Blueprints and First Aid and Kaplan and Pretest and I only did the UWorld questions twice, do you think that’s enough?” He’s basically begging for someone to trip him while he walks down the hallway. The only advantage of having a gunner on the team is that it unites the other medical students — it’s almost like how having a mean coach can pull a sports team together.
5. The med student from another school. Oftentimes, hospitals will be staffed by students from more than one school. It could be another local school in the area, or a foreign school that sends its kids back to the US for their clinical years. We often assume these “other” med students are lazy and less intelligent. I think we do this as a defense mechanism, mostly. I’ve noticed three distinct tiers of these “other” students. The first tier has the guys that you wish went to your school. You get along great, you help each other out, and you share stories about what each school is like. The second tier is just the “average” medical students. You still can’t remember their names, even though you’ve been together for 6 weeks on the same rotation. You don’t eat lunch together, and during lectures, one school sits in the front, one in the back. But there’s no animosity. The third tier is where the stereotype comes from. Like any medical school, some of the students will be lazier and less motivated than others. The difference is that in our heads, we magnify our experiences with the third tier students, and ignore all the first tier students we meet. No one ever said medical students were mature.
6. The actual best friend. Occasionally, the stars align, and you find that you’ve been paired on the same rotation with your best friend. You do a jumping high-five with them, as all best friends do, and get ready for your first day. And it’s great. You start having dreams about opening up a practice with them, maybe moving next door to each other so your kids can go to the same schools. But like living with your best friend in college, the little things start to bother you a bit. Like how he always shows up ten minutes later than you. Or how he never seems to study, but he knows all the answers when the Attendings pimp you. And why is he getting so close to the other medical students? They aren’t his best friend! The six weeks together ends, and you guys spend a week apart, regaining your sanity. Afterwards, you can start being friends again, but you realize that going out at night with someone is definitely not the same as spending 80 hours a week in a hospital together.
7. The vacationer. This person is quite similar to “The Houdini.” A pre-Houdini, if you will. He’s the guy who organized his schedule based solely on how little he would be able to work. He takes electives like radiology and dermatology, and you see pictures on Facebook of him partying it up in Vegas during the week. Meanwhile, you’re on some specialty surgery elective, and you just got home after a 14-hour day from the hospital. You take solace in the fact that “during residency, he’ll be in for a real shock when he sees how hard doctors have to work!” Then on Match Day, you find out that he’s matched emergency medicine in some cushy suburb. You realize he’s won the war
Source: kevinmd
Histology:
It is the microscopic study of tissues of the body and how these tissues are organized to form organs. The word "histology" is derived from two Greek words, histo="tissue" and logos="study".
In histology, two main components of the tissues are studied:
(i) cells and
(ii) extracellular matrix.
Importance of Histology:
As gross anatomy shows you the picture of the body from outside, histology goes deep into the body to show you the microscopic features.
In this way, students can correlate how microscopic structures are related with the gross structures.
Knowledge of histology also aids in understanding the pathology of tissues. This is because histology gives you the normal image of a tissue while pathology discusses what changes occur in this normal tissue when it becomes abnormal or diseased. So, there is always a link between histology and pathology.
Source: GetMedEdu
We spend trillions of dollars every year in the U.S. alone trying to boost our health. Between supplements, fitness routines, gyms, and health care it all adds up fast. Yes, into the trillions. There are many ways you can save money and boost your health. There are even a few free things you can do. One of the easiest free means to boost your health, your mood, your longevity, and even your success is to smile.
1 – Lower Heart Rate – Smiling slows the heart and relaxes the body. This lets the heart work without overworking. People who smile and laugh often are less likely to develop heart disease. Smiling reduces blood pressure temporarily too.
2 – Reduce Stress – Stress is a common problem in the modern world that causes a myriad of health problems. Stress relief may be as simple as smiling a little more throughout the day. Smiling releases endorphins that counteract and diminish the stress hormones.
3 – Better Mood – The endorphins do more than kick stress to the curb. Endorphins lift your mood. Feeling down? Slap a smile on your face, even if it isn’t entirely genuine at first, and turn your entire day around with something simple, easy to do, and free.
4 – Increase Productivity – Smiling has been shown to increase productivity while performing tasks. There’s truth to the “whistle while we work” mentality. This also explains why silly internet memes and pictures of cute animals can actually get people motivated and working harder after a few moments of smiling or laughter.
5 – Encourage Trust – Studies show that we are more trustful of others when they smile and smile genuinely. Trust is an important part of social health when dealing with people, whether they be loved ones or just acquaintances. Seems relationships are truly built on smiles.
6 – Produce Empathy – When we’re embarrassed or caught doing something questionable, often our first response is a smile. This instinct breaks the initial ice of embarrassment, promotes leniency in what others think of us, and engenders a sense of empathy since we’ve all experienced embarrassment and we want to smile along.
7 – Avoid Regret – We smile to avoid feeling bad for not smiling. Sounds weird and circular, but we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings so we smile when someone shares some story about their dog, even if we don’t really care. Studies show that if we don’t smile, we feel regret for failing to do so. This regret brings down our mood and boosts stress hormones.
8 – Kill Pain – Smiling and laughter both have been shown to lessen pain. They release endorphins that lift our moods, but many of these act as natural painkillers too.
9 – Increase Attention – Stress limits our perceptions and narrows our attention. Our body kicks into fight or flight mode where we can focus only on one of those things. Smiling counteracts this and widens our attention again, opening us back up to multitasking and insights that come from the fringes of our perception and our subconscious.
10 – Contagious – Around 50% of people smile back. This spreads the health benefits throughout those around you and it comes back to you several times as well.
11 – Build Attraction – Smiling makes people more attractive. This seems to be especially true for women. Men are more likely to approach a woman who smiles than one who simply makes eye contact while women aren’t necessarily drawn in by a smile alone.
12 – Earn Success – A smile can appear confident, self-assured, and on top of your work. Those who smile are more likely to earn more money through tips and raises. They are more readily approached with business ideas and offered advancements.
13 – Look Younger – Smiles naturally lift the face and in studies have shown to make people look younger, around 3 years younger on average.
14 – Longevity – The effects of a good smile extend past just the exterior good looks. People who smile more often live longer too, around 7 years longer than most according to one study. It releases stress, helps the heart, and much more to keep you healthy longer.
15 – Boost Immune System – Smiles help the body relax and this lets the immune system react more quickly and effectively against invaders.
Source: Sunwarrrior
Tooth loss may be associated with memory problems in elderly, a new study has found. Elderly who have fewer natural teeth remaining perform more poorly on memory tests, according to the study.
Researchers looked at 273 people ages 55 and older, and found a modest but significant relationship between a person's number of natural teeth and his or her performance on memory tests.
The link held when researchers took subjects' ages into account. In other words, it wasn't simply that both teeth and memory abilities tend to disappear with age, 'LiveScience' reported.
While the reason for the link isn't entirely clear, the new findings are in line with previous animal and human studies, suggesting that the presence of natural teeth has an impact on cognitive function, and having fewer teeth may be regarded as a risk factor for memory problems in the elderly, researchers said. Studies have shown that rats whose teeth were pulled out showed memory and learning problems. The study will be published in European Journal of Oral Sciences.
Source: Times of India
There’s no question that your smartphone can save you from a serious case of boredom—thank you, Fruit Ninja—but can it save your life? It just may—if you take advantage of the health apps out there, which must of us don’t, according to a new survey.
Researchers from the Pew Research Center recently revealed that only 10% of Americans with smartphones have downloaded health-related apps. And while a health app can’t replace your doctor, it can positively impact your health—you just have to know how to use ’em.
Here are eight health apps worth a download:
1. Emergency Medical Center Locator This app locates and contacts the closest and best treatment centers during a medical emergency.
Simply choose your care center—burn, cardiac, eye, pediatric, stroke, or trauma—tap the Nearby Centers button, and the top rated care centers with the best patient outcomes appear within seconds. (Available for iPhone, free.)
2. GoodRx Need to pick up a prescription? Compare prescription drug prices at virtually every pharmacy in the United States with GoodRx. You’ll also receive coupons and cost-saving tips. (Available for iPhone, free).
3. iTriage Created by two ER doctors, iTriage helps you evaluate any troubling symptoms and get suggestions for the best, nearest health-care facilities. You can even get emergency room wait time estimates. (Available for iPhone and Android, free.)
4. Wellframe Recognized at this year’s American College of Cardiology Scientific Conference in Chicago, Wellframe provides heart disease risk assessment, preventive care alerts, and educational resources. You can also share info with your doc electronically and print personalized reports. (Available for iPhone and Android, free.)
5. Cook It Allergy Free Anyone with a food allergy knows that it’s nothing to be taken lightly, and this app helps take some of the stress out offering recipes sans gluten, dairy, nuts, and eggs. You can also design personal shopping lists and recipe folders that’ll make trips to the grocery store a breeze. (Available for iPhone, free.) (For more handy food resources, check out 5 Best Food Apps.)
6. Glucose Buddy This app allows diabetic users to monitor blood glucose levels, record when they take medications, and track their food intake and activity. (Available for iPhone, free).
7. Stress Doctor Remember mood rings? This is like that, except a bit more technical. By placing your finger over your phone’s camera, the app takes a measure of your heart rate to detect your stress level, and then trains you how to chill with some deep breathing. (Available for iPhone, free).
8. UMSkinCheck Designed by University of Michigan researchers, this app allows you to use your iPhone camera to track suspicious moles, reminds you to perform self-exams, and offers preventative videos. (Available for iPhone, free.)
Source: Prevention Healthy Living Group
Head hurts? Try one of these doctor-approved pain relievers.
1. Relaxation Techniques
Best for: Soothing stress before a headache starts.
How they work: Simple deep breathing and stretching (neck and shoulder rolls, in particular) relax tense muscles that trigger headaches, says Dr. Sheena Aurora, the director of the Swedish Headache Center, in Seattle. A pulse-point balm with aromatherapeutic ingredients, like peppermint, can help, too.
Keep in mind: Stretching also improves poor posture, another possible cause of headaches.
2. Cold or Heat Therapy
Best for: Medicine-free relief from minor tension headaches (which, unlike migraines, aren’t debilitating).
How it works: Experts aren’t sure precisely why each therapy is effective, but cold slows blood flow and reduces inflammation, and heat increases blood flow; both of these may ease pain. “Go with your personal preference,” says Dr. Jason Rosenberg, the director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center at Bayview, in Baltimore. Apply a cold compress (a fabric-wrapped cold pack stays cooler longer) or a heating pad wherever you hurt; limit treatment to 15 minutes at a time.
Keep in mind: You can also alternate the two in five-minute increments. Start with cold, then switch to heat.
3. Caffeine
Best for: Mild tension headaches.
How it works: “One way that caffeine may help is by blocking brain receptors to adenosine, a neurotransmitter that can cause blood vessels to dilate and create pressure,” says Rosenberg. Consuming caffeine constricts those vessels, relieving pain. Sip a cup of coffee at the first sign of a headache.
Keep in mind: This method is effective only if you typically consume less than 150 milligrams of caffeine a day. (That’s about one cup of coffee.) If you usually drink more, your blood vessels won’t be as responsive.
4. Peppermint Tea
Best for: Those whose headaches are accompanied by an upset stomach.
How it works: “There’s evidence that peppermint may reduce spasms in the gastrointestinal tract, which can relieve headache symptoms,” says Dr. Audrey L. Halpern, the director of the Manhattan Center for Headache and Neurology. What’s more, “neurochemical changes in the brain brought on by headaches can also affect the part of the brain that stimulates nausea,” says Halpern. And peppermint has been shown to ease a queasy stomach.
Keep in mind: If you’re pregnant, talk to your doctor before using any herbal remedy or supplement, including peppermint.
5. Over-the-Counter Medications
Best for: Headaches that do not respond to other remedies.
How they work: Acetaminophen products, like Tylenol, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), like Aleve and aspirin, decrease inflammation and inhibit chemicals in the brain that produce pain. Experiment to figure out which type works better for you, but use these OTCs only one day a week. Taking them more often than that can cause medication-overuse headaches, says Halpern. To minimize stomach discomfort, take with milk or food.
Keep in mind: For stronger relief, consider a brand that combines an NSAID with caffeine, such as Excedrin. According to the National Headache Foundation, caffeine may help the body absorb the medicine better.
6. Acupuncture
Best for: Chronic tension headaches.
How it works: Tiny needles are inserted into specific points of the body; this can reduce muscle tension and encourages the release of painkilling endorphins, says Jill Blakeway, a licensed acupuncturist in New York City. Research suggests that, for some people, acupuncture may reduce tension-headache frequency by 50 percent or more.
Keep in mind: Studies show that you may need 10 treatments before you start experiencing relief.
Source: Foxnews
1. Ischemic heart disease : Approximate annual deaths: 7,208,000
2. Cancers : Approximately 7,121,000 people annually
3. Cerebrovascular disease : Approximate annual deaths: 5,509,000
4. Lower respiratory infections : Approximate annual deaths: 3,884,000
5. HIV/AIDS : Approximate annual deaths: 2,777,000
6. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease : Approximate annual deaths: 2,748,000
7. Perinatal Conditions : Approximate annual deaths: 2,462,000
8. Diarrhoeal diseases : Approximate annual deaths: 1,798,000
9. Tuberculosis : Approximate annual deaths: 1,566,000
10. Malaria : Approximate annual deaths: 1,272,000
Source: World Health Organization Report
