Sweet Tear Sensor Could Ease Pain of Diabetes

People with diabetes may soon benefit from pain-free blood glucose monitoring, thanks to a sensor that measures the sugar in tears.

Current techniques for glucose self-monitoring involve drawing blood onto disposable test strips and analysing the samples with a separate device. This painful, multi-step approach deters some patients receiving insulin therapy from testing their glucose levels as often as is recommended. A team from Arizona State University in the US believes that its non-invasive method would encourage diabetes patients to test their glucose levels regularly.

The concept of using tear glucose levels as an indicator of blood glucose is not new. However, it has been tricky to realise because of the small volumes involved and the potential for inconsistent sampling, which make it hard to reliably correlate the results with blood glucose concentrations. Jeffrey La Belle and his team have tackled this engineering challenge to design a device which combines a quick and simple sampling approach with a detector that is sensitive enough to give accurate measurements in vivo.

The result is a prototype ‘Touch’ sensor, which requires only 5.8μL of tear fluid. A disposable soft foam tip absorbs tears by touching the eye ‘for a fraction of a second’, its creators explain. La Belle is reassuring that the method is easy to use: ‘If the person has worn contacts, they are touching their eye more than they ever would using our device.’

Dresses That Literally Lit Up the 2016 Met Gala

No contest here: Claire Danes was Cinderella at the 2016 Met Gala. And it Zacwas Posen who was responsible for dreaming up her sweeping pale blue masterpiece of a ball gown and bringing it to life. In true fairy tale fashion—that, by the way, was so in line with the theme "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology"—the dress lit up on the red carpet. 

Woven with fiber optics, the custom Zac Posen dove gray organza gown was the result of "technology meets fantasy" sourced from France. It was truly magical at every single turn

Also magical was Karolina Kurkova's Marchesa masterpiece, which was designed by the design duo Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig, but powered by IBM. Yes, the tech company. The two brands joined forces to create a cognitive dress that exemplified wearable tech at its finest. How it worked: For every tweet that hashtagged #CognitiveDress, IBM's cognitive technology dubbed "Watson" analyzed, broke down the emotion or sentiment behind it (which was assigned a color), and lit up the 150 LED lights embedded in the 3-D flowers embroidered throughout the dress. (The following five sentiments were assigned: joy, passion, excitement, encouragement, and curiosity.) In Jeff Arn's words, the marketing manager of IBM's Watson, what we saw is "a dress that's reactive and responsive to what people are saying about it." We like to think of it as a mood dress. 

"Marchesa is an emotional brand and I feel like this dress is reacting to emotion and it’s changing with emotion. At first what seems like a foreign idea actually seems like the perfect marriage now," Chapman tells us. "The normal perception of technology is far from the Marchesa DNA and in fact, creatively, it was an exciting project. We’re a brand of fantasy and what is more fantastical than technology and where it takes us."
Source:http://www.instyle.com/fashion/2016-met-gala-light-up-dresses-technology

Quantum Effects Are Key To DNA Electronics

Could the molecule of life become the molecule of electronics? Scientists have taken another step towards making it a reality. Cathal O'Connell reports.

The patterns of DNA base pairs, which code our genes, can also be used to tune the flow of electricity, American researchers have found.

The work could one day lead to DNA-based electronics, made of components much tinier than those squeezed on to current silicon-based computer chips.

In Nature Chemistry today, a team led by Nongjian Tao at Arizona State University describe how the pattern of bases (A, C, G or T) can make electricity flow as smoothly through DNA as through a metal wire, or in hopping steps more like semiconductors.

The insight relies on exploiting the quantum nature of the electron – hence determining whether electrons act like waves or particles as they move through a DNA strand.

For decades, engineers have been cramming more and more circuit elements on to computer chips by making the individual components, such as the transistor “switches”, smaller.

The problem is, this shrinkage can’t go on forever. Eventually, you reach a limit where neighbouring transistors interfere with one another. To go beyond silicon, scientists are looking towards making electronics from individual molecules.

And DNA is one of the most promising molecules for building electronics, being first discovered by nature 3.8-odd billion years ago.

The key advantages of DNA are its stability and the way it can be programmed to assemble into predesigned structures. In 2009, for example, scientists used DNA as a kind of circuit board for assembling electronic components six nanometres apart – much tinier than current silicon processing allows.

DNA also has interesting electrical conductivity, although its measured properties have varied in a somewhat mystifying way.

In 2014, for example, scientists developed DNA-based wires showing it can conduct electricity a bit like metals.

US teenager arrested on charges of trying to join ISIS

An 18-year-old boy has been arrested by the FBI on charges of attempting to provide material support and join the dreaded Islamic State terror group overseas.

Akram Musleh, was arrested by the FBI agents while attempting to board a bus from Indianapolis to New York, where he was to fly to and transit through Morocco on his way to ISIS-controlled territory, the Department of Justice said.

The criminal complaint alleges that he planned to provide personnel (himself) to ISIS.

“According to the complaint, Musleh attempted to travel overseas to join ISIS and to provide material support to the designated terrorist organisation,” said Assistant Attorney-General John P. Carlin.

“We will continue to work to stem the flow of foreign fighters abroad and bring to justice those who attempt to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organisations,” he said.

“The radicalisation of American citizens by terrorist organisations like ISIS is a threat to our safety here and abroad,” said U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler.

If convicted, Mr. Musleh faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-teenager-akram-musleh-planning-to-join-isis-held/article8759678.ece

North Korea leader says missile gives ability to attack US in Pacific

SEOUL: North Korea leader Kim Jong Un said after supervising the test launch of a "medium long-range strategic ballistic missile" that the country now has the capability to attack U.S. interests in the Pacific, official media reported on Thursday.

South Korean and U.S. military officials have said the North launched what appeared to be two intermediate-range missiles dubbed Musudan on Wednesday. The first of the two was considered a failure.

The second reached a high altitude in the direction of Japan before plunging into the sea about 400 km (250 miles) away, they said.

The test-fire was successful without putting the security of neighbouring countries at risk, the North's KCNA news agency said, referring to the missile as a "Hwasong-10." Hwasong is Korean for Mars.

"We have the sure capability to attack in an overall and practical way the Americans in the Pacific operation theatre," KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

The missile, which is fired from mobile launchers, has a design range of more than 3,000 km (1,860 miles), meaning all of Japan and the U.S. territory of Guam are potentially within reach.

South Korea and the United States condemned the launch as an unacceptable violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Japan's Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said the launch was an indication that North Korea's threat to Japan was intensifying.

Smokers may try to quit 30 times before it sticks

Though conventional wisdom says it takes five to seven attempts for most smokers to quit, those estimates may be very low, a recent study suggests.

Though conventional wisdom says it takes five to seven attempts for most smokers to quit, those estimates may be very low, a recent study suggests.

Based on data for more than 1,200 adult smokers in Canada, the real average number of quit attempts before succeeding may be closer to 30.

“For so long we’ve been talking about five to seven attempts to quit,” said lead author Dr. Michael Chaiton of the school of public health at the University of Toronto in Canada. “For us (the numbers) were a lot higher.”

The lower estimate comes from a few past studies that were based on the lifetime recollections of people who successfully quit, but they didn’t include attempts by people who had not yet succeeded, Chaiton and colleagues note in the journal BMJ Open.

For their study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,277 people in the Ontario Tobacco Survey who were followed for up to three years. When the study began in 2005, participants reported how many times they recalled ever making a serious attempt to quit smoking, and at each six-month follow-up they reported how many serious quit attempts they had made over the past six months.

A quit attempt was deemed a success when a participant went at least one year without a cigarette.

The researchers used these responses and four different statistical models to estimate how many times the average smoker attempts to quit before succeeding. The most unbiased model suggested an average of 30 quit attempts per smoker.

That’s much higher than people tended to report in the previous studies when asked about all their quit attempts since starting smoking, the study team writes.

“People are very bad at remembering over their whole lifetimes,” Chaiton told Reuters Health. “The second problem is we were only asking people who have been successful at quitting.”

The new study may be a better representation of what most smokers go through over time, but it does only describe their situation rather than predict what will happen to an individual smoker who tries to quit, he cautioned.

“This doesn’t mean you hit a magic number and then you can quit,” Chaiton said. “There are many people who are able to and do quit on their first attempt or in the first few.

“There are people who are good at many things, some are good at quitting smoking,” he added.

Quitting smoking is often a long-term process with many attempts, he said.

Use of potassium bromate as food add-on banned

             

EO Pawan Kumar Agarwal. “A notification has been issued in this regard. As far as potassium iodate is concerned, it has been referred to a scientific panel.”

Potassium iodate is also used as a food additive and it too is said to be carcinogenic.

A CSE study had found that 84 per cent of 38 commonly available brands of pre-packaged breads, including pav and buns, tested positive for potassium bromate and potassium iodate. The two food additives are banned in many countries and are listed as “hazardous” to public health. According to the CSE, potassium bromate typically increases dough strength, leads to higher rising and gives uniform finish to baked products. Potassium iodate is a flour treatment agent.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/use-of-potassium-bromate-as-food-additive-banned/article8752665.ece

Bengaluru: 5-year-old goes into coma during surgery, family alleges negligence

5-year-old Lakshay was one those who would always have a smiling face and loved to play. Today, the vegetative state that the child is in has wiped the smile off his parents faces. Lakshay has become a victim of medical negligence. Today he lies in coma in a private hospital battling for his life.

Here is all that we know

Lakshay had an accident in his school where he had severely injured two of his fingers when the desk he was sitting on fell on his hand. He was rushed to Mallya Hospital for treatment.

Lakshay was moved into the operation theatre for a minor operation. What ensued in the operation theatre is not known to the parents. All that Lakshay's father knows is that he had deposited the Rs 25,000 that the hospital asked him for and the next thing that they know is that they have been told that their little son has slipped into coma and they need to shift him to a hospital that has a bigger paediatric ward.

The doctors asked the child to be shifted to Manipal hospital as they did not have the necessary equipment to support the child's critical health status.

"was told that we have to shift the child to another hospital. We were in shock, we thought our child would be safe as it is only a finger injury. Why did they have to bring the child in this state? It's been ten days, my child has been in coma and now they are trying to stabilize him", said Lakshay's father Purushottam.

The doctors treating Lakshay say that his heart and kidneys have stabilised and their major concern is the brain, as it still needs to respond adequately. But Lakshay continues to remain in coma. "Compared to the child's status when he was brought into our hospital, Lakshay has stabilised, we are trying our best to get his brain to respond positively", said Dr Shivakumar, the doctor who has been treating Lakshay.

Each time, Purushottam looks at his child, he is in tears, and hopes that his son bounces back on his feet.

When India Today contacted Mallya hospital, they refused to comment.

The Karnataka health minister UT Khader has sought a report and also issued a notice to Mallya hospital, seeking details on how the child's surgery went awry.

Source:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/bengaluru-child-hurts-fingers-goes-into-coma-during-surgery/1/696132.html

12-Year-Old Ends Up With Severe Burns Across His Body After He Tried YouTube 'Fire Challenge'

A familiar saying about playing with fire is sure to ring true for a severely burned 12-year-old boy living in Queens, NY, following his apparent attempt earlier this May to pull off a reckless social media challenge.

As reported by the New York Post, the unidentified 12-year-old went into his bathroom at 8:30 p.m. on May 24, doused himself with rubbing alcohol while standing in the bathtub and set himself on fire. Though he planned to quickly extinguish himself, he was apparently unable to turn on the shower and ran out into the street with the upper half of his body still aflame. After being put out by neighbors and taken to the Nassau University Medical Center Burn Center, doctors determined he ended up with third degree burns that covered at least 40 percent of his body.

Though the boy is expected to pull though, the type of injuries he suffered are known to be especially devastating.

“The burns penetrate the skin and soft tissue and then involve the muscle,” Dr. Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at Lennox Hill Hospital in nearby Manhattan, told CBS 2. “As they penetrate you lose fluid, causing dehydration and it causes all these inflammatory markers that drop your blood pressure and can put you into shock.”

Source:http://www.medicaldaily.com/ire-challenge-12-year-old-severe-burns-388146

Mobile Health in Asia: Making the Most of Smartphone Technology

The development of low-cost, high-quality smartphones is changing the way that patients and doctors communicate with one another. This new trend is the result of medical device companies teaming up with software developers to harness the innate processing power of smartphones and produce a variety of diagnostic and health monitoring information. Their efforts have led to the creation of mobile health devices that enable the more than 2.5 billion mobile phone users in the Asia Pacific region to communicate with doctors, self-diagnose ailments, and monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate and glucose levels.

Increased access to smartphones and the internet suggest that the mobile health market will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of more than 30% during the next four years. Allied Market Research values the global mobile health market at nearly $11 billion. With the number of mobile phone users in the Asia Pacific expected to grow from 2.5 billion to more than 3 billion in the coming years, mobile health technologies will become even more accessible. By taking advantage of these trends, medical device companies can tap into a growing market that is demanding better, cheaper healthcare services.

Mobile Health Capabilities

Mobile phone apps allow patients to easily track basic health data such as heart rhythms and blood pressure. Patients can buy portable blood pressure-monitors, electrocardiogram (ECG) machines and blood glucose meters, and then use a physical cable or wireless Bluetooth system to send the results to their smartphone. The corresponding app then keeps track of a patient’s daily health data for personal use or can be used to send the results to a local physician for further review.

Can Coffee Cause Cancer? Only if it’s very Hot, says WHO agency

A review of over 1,000 studies concluded that drinking "very hot" beverages was "probably carcinogenic to humans.

Drinking very hot coffee and other drinks “probably” causes cancer of the oesophagus, an agency of the UN’s World Health Organisation said on Wednesday, but lifted suspicion from a cup of joe at “normal serving temperatures”.There were hints that coffee may even lower the risk of liver, breast and uterine cancer, said the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) — but not if consumed hotter than 65 degrees Celsius.A review of over 1,000 studies concluded that drinking “very hot” beverages was “probably carcinogenic to humans,” said the agency. “It doesn’t matter what the liquid is. What matters is the temperature,” said epidemiologist Dana Loomis, who took part in the review of the world’s most popular hot drinks.

The IARC looked at the full complement of published scientific literature considering if there was a cancer link to coffee or mate, a South American herbal infusion that is also popular in the Middle East. Both had been classified as “possibly cancerogenic to humans” since 1991, when the last evaluation was done.But evidence gathered since could link neither drink to an elevated cancer risk, said IARC.Only when drunk hotter than 65 degrees Celsius did any association arise with cancer of the gullet.

“Studies in places such as China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey and South America, where tea or mate is drunk very hot (at about 70 degrees Celsius) found that the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk,” IARC said. In lab studies, very hot water at 65-70 degrees Celsius boosted oesophageal tumours in mice, said the agency.

Some good news

But there was good news for coffee drinkers.

The analysis found that at “normal” temperatures, there was some data pointing to a lower risk of cancer of the uterus, liver and breast.

Studies have also found that coffee had strong antioxidant effects and other possible health benefits.

No Birth Defects Seen In Babies Exposed To Zika Late In Pregnancy: Study

A study of Zika infections in Colombia has found no obvious birth defects among women infected during the third trimester of pregnancy, raising hopes that Zika may not cause serious harm to the fetus when mothers are infected later in pregnancy.

CHICAGO: A study of Zika infections in Colombia has found no obvious birth defects among women infected during the third trimester of pregnancy, raising hopes that Zika may not cause serious harm to the fetus when mothers are infected later in pregnancy.

"It's somewhat reassuring that it looks like third-trimester infections aren't posing a major risk of that very serious outcome," said Dr. Margaret Honein, chief of the birth defects branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who was one of several authors of the study published online on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

She stressed that the findings are preliminary, saying "it is critically important" to continue following these babies to look for other effects from exposure to Zika.Honein said the infants in Colombia need to be watched for other potential effects of Zika infection, such as hearing loss or vision problems, or any other developmental problems.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been shown to attack fetal brain cells and cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size and underdeveloped brains.

Former salt maker eying Muslim cosmetics market

Taipei, June 15 (CNA) "Although many Muslim women cover their faces with the niqab or hijab, striving for beauty is human nature," an executive of Taiyen Biotech Co., Ltd. said Tuesday when speaking of his company's efforts to break into the vast but conservative Muslim world.

Chen Shi-hui (陳世輝), vice president of Tainan-based Taiyen, formerly known as Taiwan Salt Industrial Corp., which was privatized in 2003 and changed its name after diversifying into the cosmetics and beauty care sector, said he is confident that "Taiyen has great potential to explore the market of the 1.6 billion Muslim population."

According to Chen, his company started to set its sights on the Muslim market in 2012.

"All Taiyen cosmetic factories are Halal-certified and we have developed 61 items of products that will be to our great advantage when trying to find business opportunities in the Muslim market," he said.

Halal certification assures Muslim consumers that certified foods and goods are in compliance with their religious traditions and customs.

"Only married Muslim women wear the niqab to cover their faces, showing only their eyes, and there are many unmarried Muslim women who don't do so," according to Chen, who noted that "they constitute a potential market for Taiyen's cosmetics and beauty care products," because "all human beings are keen to become pretty, whatever their religion or race."

Lancome draws outrage in Hong Kong after dropping pro-democracy pop singer

This weekend, the cosmetics brand Lancome faced a dilemma involving two major international markets: It could alienate its customers in mainland China, or alienate its customers in Hong Kong.

Lancome went with alienating Hong Kong.

It all started with a concert. The brand had scheduled a free promotional event in Hong Kong featuring a performance by the Hong Kong-based Cantopop singer Denise Ho, an openly lesbian, outspoken pro-democracy advocate. Then on Saturday, the Beijing-based, Communist party-run newspaper Global Times attacked Ho’s liberal politics — it called her a “Hong Kong and Tibet independence advocate” in a microblog post — causing Chinese Internet users to call for a boycott of its products.

On Sunday night, Lancome canceled the event.

The move comes amid a major push by China’s Communist party to silence its critics abroad. Over the last year, pressure from Beijing has forced a South Korean theater to cancel a show by adherents of Falun Gong, a spiritual group which is banned in China. A crackdown on Hong Kong’s political publishing industry, marked by the apparent extraterritorial abductions of several booksellers, has cast a chill over the city’s once-fiery public sphere.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-lancome-controversy-20160606-snap-story.html

Ramadan Raid On frail Indonesian Food Seller Sparks Anger !

A 53-year-old business owner desperately begging officials not to confiscate her food went viral.

  JAKARTA: Indonesian netizens have reacted with fury and a flurry of donations after footage emerged of a frail food seller breaking down as her cafe was raided for staying open during the daytime in Ramadan.

Video of the 53-year-old business owner desperately begging officials not to confiscate her food went viral at the weekend, and social media users have donated almost US$20,000 to a crowdfunding site to help her and other vendors.

It is common for food outlets in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country that remain open during the daytime in the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast from sunrise to sunset, to be raided.

But the case of food seller Saeni, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, has touched a nerve, with many criticising authorities for being heavy-handed during the raid in Serang, west of the capital Jakarta.

"You should be tolerant towards those who are not fasting, cruel authorities," wrote Facebook user Elisabeth Oktofani.

The food seller was deeply in debt and so had decided to keep the cafe open during daylight hours to make extra cash, she was quoted by local media as saying.

Chemicals In Food And Cosmetics Linked To Preterm Births And Low Birth Weight

A study of pregnant Brooklyn women led by the SUNY Downstate Medical Center links triclosan, an antibacterial agent common in personal care products, with preterm births and smaller newborns.

The SUNY study also linked those medical problems to long-chain parabens, which are chemicals often used as preservatives in food, cosmetics and  personal care products.

This research expands upon the growing body of scientific evidence that supports the view that triclosan and long-chain parabens disrupt the endocrine system and harm the reproductive system and infant development.

“While small-scale changes in birth size may not be of clinical relevance or cause for concern in individual cases, subtle shifts in birth size or timing at the population-level would have major impacts on the risk for adverse birth outcomes,” said lead study author Laura Geer, associate professor at SUNY’s School of Public Health

Geer and her team tested the urine of 185 mothers in their third trimester and umbilical cord blood of 34 participants for parabens, triclosan and triclocarban. These ingredients are common in antimicrobial soaps, lotions and creams.  

According to EWG’s Skin Deep cosmetics database, propylparaben is used in 7,352 personal care products; butylparaben, in 2,285 products; triclosan, in 147 products; and triclocarban, in 21 products.

ISIS Claims Responsibility For Orlando Nightclub Shooting

On Sunday, hours after the worst mass shooting in American history — with 50 individuals in Orlando's Pulse gay bar killed, and more than 50 more injured — the terrorist group ISIS took responsibility for the Orlando massacre, according to one report. "The armed attack that targeted a gay night club in the city of Orlando in the American state of Florida which left over 100 people dead or injured was carried out by an Islamic State fighter," said the ISIS-associated news service A'maq, RT reported. These reports were later confirmed by outlets including Reuters, the Washington Post, and MSNBC.

The individual suspected of carrying out the attack called 911 before he began firing and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, according to NBC. The Islamic terrorist group has consistently and gleefully encouraged "lone wolf" attacks, e.g. attacks that were not planned by the Islamic State itself but were rather carried out as a means to impress the notorious group.

Before the group publicly claimed responsibility, Donald Trump tweeted, "Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don't want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!"

Even for Trump, the Tweet, which lacked any semblance of empathy and self-congratulated the presidential candidate on being "right" about his own country's most fatal mass shooting, was a low point.

Source: http://www.bustle.com/articles/166384-isis-claims-responsibility-for-orlando-nightclub-shooting-report

Flesh on the hook: The act of body suspension

On the rooftop of an empty building in Zagreb, Dino Helvida carefully pierces his client Kaitlin's torso, legs and face before putting hooks through her skin.

ZAGREB: On the rooftop of an empty building in Zagreb, Dino Helvida carefully pierces his client Kaitlin's torso, legs and face before putting hooks through her skin.

Shortly after, he suspends her from a metallic frame, her heavily tattooed body dangling horizontally in the air.

Helvida, 27, is a professional piercer and body suspension expert from Bosnia Herzegovina, who for the last six years has been hanging up the bodies of those brave enough to partake in what is an extreme form of body piercing, sometimes for hours.

The process is carefully done, and in this case Helvida works with his girlfriend Zorana. It involves first piercing the skin with needles, putting through metallic hooks, which are then attached to a thin rope to lift the suspendee off the ground.

"You can do one hook or you can do 100. You have different hooks for different positions and different hooks for different body parts," Helvida told Reuters.

"So everything is really calculated and it's safe."

The Kylie Cosmetics Majesty Black Metal Matte Lipstick Is Coming Out Sooner Than You Think

You will be able to get your goth on sooner than you think! Ever since Kylie Jenner revealed Majesty, the black lipstick which is part of her Metal Mattes collection, fans and devotees have been wondering when the makeup mogul will release the deep, dark shade. Well, guess what? The official Kylie Cosmetics Instagram posted a photo of its guru rocking the shade yet again and shared when this shade will be available in the caption. When can you buy the Kylie Majesty Metal Matte black lipstick?

According to the Insta post, it's "launching this month." That means June. There is a Kylie Lip Kit restock planned for this Monday, June 6. But the brand has not confirmed whether or not this on-sale will include Majesty. All of the matte Lip Kits are being replenished and those are the only concrete details.In this lighting and with this filter, Majesty, which has now been referred to as "Ky Majesty," looks super metallic and has an almost patent leather finish. The silvery sheen is contrast to her BFF and trusty Kylie Lip Kit tester Jordyn Woods, who wore the shade earlier this week in a way that looked majorly matte.

All it means is that this Kylie Metal Matte is super versatile and can morph into a variety of looks.

Here's the snap confirming that Majesty/Ky Majesty is coming soon. Jenner paired the lipstick with some serious bronzer in this photo. But check out the shimmery and silvery sheen. It's so multi-dimensional.
Source :http://www.bustle.com/

Marriage quality has differing effects on diabetes risks for men and women

Marriage has been linked to health benefits, especially happy marriage, but when it comes to developing or controlling type 2 diabetes, marriage quality seems to have opposite effects on men and women, according to a US study.

(Reuters Health) - Marriage has been linked to health benefits, especially happy marriage, but when it comes to developing or controlling type 2 diabetes, marriage quality seems to have opposite effects on men and women, according to a US study.

For women, a happier marriage meant lower risk of developing diabetes over a five-year period, but for men, declining marriage quality was tied to lower risk of diabetes and better control of the condition for those who had it, researchers found.

“The results for men suggesting that an increase in negative marital quality is related to lower risk of developing diabetes and higher chance of controlling diabetes are surprising,” said lead author Hui Liu of the department of sociology at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

A good marriage may provide a source of emotional and social support and help to reduce stress for women, who are more sensitive to stress than men, Liu told Reuters Health by email.

“Wives are more likely than husbands to regulate the spouses' health behaviors,” reminding their husband to quit smoking, eat healthier and take medication, which may promote the husbands' health but at the same time may also increase marital strain, she said.

The researchers looked at data from two national surveys, in 2005 and 2010, and focused on 1,228 married people aged 57 to 84 years who participated in both waves.

Each time, the men and women answered questions about closeness, happiness and emotional satisfaction in their marriages, how much of their free time they prefer to spend with their spouse and how often their spouse made too many demands on them.

Participants also had lab tests in 2005 and again in 2010. In the first wave, 389 people, or 19 percent of the whole group, had type 2 diabetes based on formal diagnosis or on blood sugar levels at the time. In 2010, 30 percent of participants were diabetic.

For women, an increase in reported marriage quality between 2005 and 2010 was tied to a lower risk of having diabetes in 2010. But for men, an increase in negative marital quality was associated with lower risk of having diabetes in 2010 and a higher chance of controlling diabetes in 2010, according to the results in the Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.

Deoband Fatwa Against Sex-Selective Abortions

LUCKNOW: The largest Islamic seminary in India, the Darul Uloom of Deoband, has issued a fatwa against selective abortion of female foetuses, calling the act unlawful and against Islam.

Deoband spokesperson Maulana Ashraf Usmani said, "It's a first fatwa against sex-selective abortions. The act is against Islam and there is no grace in the eye of Allah for those doing it," said Usmani.

Before issuing the fatwa, the seminary took into account individual queries and media reports on skewed sex ratio among Muslims.

The number of girls up to six years old per 1,000 boys in the same age group among Indian Muslims slipped from 950 in 2001 to 943 in 2011.

"We appeal to Muslims to refrain from any act which discriminates the girl child. Our vicechancellor has termed sex-selective abortions cold-bloodedmurders," Usmani said.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Deoband-fatwa-against-sex-selective-abortions/articleshow/52645888.cms

Thailand First In Asia To Eliminate Mother-To-Baby HIV: WHO

BANGKOK: Thailand has become the first Asian country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday, a milestone in the fight against the disease.

The announcement is a boost for a generation of Thai health workers who have transformed the nation from one of Asia's most HIV-ravaged societies to a pin-up for how to effectively tackle the crisis.

Describing the elimination as a "remarkable achievement", the WHO said Thailand had "demonstrated to the world that HIV can be defeated".

Cuba is the only other country to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission under the WHO's criteria.

The global health body said Thailand's routine screening and universal free medication for pregnant women with HIV was crucial in stopping the virus being passed to new generations.

If left untreated, mothers with HIV have a 15-45 per cent chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, childbirth or while breastfeeding. But taking antiretroviral drugs during pregnancy significantly reduces those chances to just over one per cent.

Fountain Of Youth Pill May Be Just 2 Years Away

Hang on to your hat as a pill that turns back the clock could be available in just two years.

According to a McMaster University study, the 'youth' pill, which is aimed at reversing the damage done by dementia and other age-related diseases, is based on a blend of thirty vitamins and minerals widely available in health food stores and will be taken as a dietary supplement.

The scientists said that early tests of the formula, which contains common ingredients such as vitamins B, C and D, folic acid, green tea extract, cod liver oil, have been "dramatic."

They believe it could someday slow the progress of catastrophic neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

In the latest study, mice, which had widespread loss of more than half their brain cells, severely impacting multiple regions of the brain by one year of age - the human equivalent of severe Alzheimer's disease, were fed with the supplement on small pieces of bagel each day over the course of several months. Their improvement was remarkable.

Muhammad Ali knocked out by Parkinson's, say specialists

PARIS: One of Muhammad Ali's greatest battles was not in the ring but against Parkinson's disease, which severely hampered his speech and motor skills in the last three decades of his life.

For many specialists, the crippling neurological disorder was no accident, but the tragic result of Ali's years as a boxer.

Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1984 at the age of 42, three years after he retired with 61 professional bouts under his belt.

At the time, experts spoke of "dementia pugilistica" or "punch-drunk syndrome" to describe brain damage seen in sportspeople who sustain multiple concussions over the course of their careers.

"We cannot say anything decisively but there are strong suspicions," Andre Monroche, head of the medical commission of the French contact sports federation, told AFP.

"We know now that repeated blows alter the nerve cells, especially in a brain that has not been rested," he said.

Jean-François Chermann, a neurologist at Leopold Bellan Hospital in Paris, is categorical.

Study Finds Smoking Weed Causes Poor Gum Health, But Not Much Else

A new study released this week by the JAMA Psychiatry has shown that long-term cannabis use is associated with few physical health problems in early midlife. The study followed 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 38, tracking participants’ self-reported cannabis use from age 18 and those who participated showed no adverse health effects, but they did suffer from poor gum health.

One of the paper's authors, Madeline Meier, explained that she was surprised she didn’t see the association between cannabis and poorer lung function. The study looked at the relationship between cannabis and tobacco users and found marijuana use was related to few physical health issues while tobacco users were associated with multiple issues including worse lung function and metabolic health.

The study brought a team of researchers who assessed periodontal health through clinical attachment loss, which essentially measures the loss of gum support around a tooth. Poor periodontal health increases the risk for tooth loosening and loss. According to the study, 55.6% of those with more than 15 years of regular cannabis use had periodontal disease, compared with 13.5% of those who never used cannabis.

“What we’re seeing is that cannabis may be harmful in some respects, but possibly not in every way,” study co-author Avshalom Caspi said in a news release. “We need to recognize that heavy recreational cannabis use does have some adverse consequences, but overall damage to physical health is not apparent in this study.”

Source:https://www.merryjane.com/health/study-finds-smoking-weed-causes-poor-gum-health-but-not-much-else

Many Obese Young Adults Unaware Of Kidney Disease Risk !

Obese young adults at risk for developing kidney disease are largely unaware of the looming problem, a U.S. study suggests.

    Researchers examined more than a decade of data on almost 7,000 people aged 20 to 40 years and found more than one-third had what’s known as abdominal obesity, or belly fat.

They also looked at data on lab tests to detect elevated levels of the protein albumin in the urine, which signals that kidneys aren’t functioning properly and indicates a heightened risk for developing chronic kidney disease.Not many people had elevated albumin levels, but less than 5 percent of those who did have this risk factor said they had been told about the problem.

  “The take-home message for young adults is that abdominal obesity, which we know is associated with diabetes and high blood pressure, is also associated with early signs of kidney disease,” said senior study author Dr. Michal Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

  “It is important to note that people with extra body weight overall also tend to have extra weight in the midsection – so achieving a healthy body weight should be a priority,” Rosella said by email.

  To explore the connection between abdominal obesity and kidney disease risk, Melamed and colleagues examined lab tests results for albumin and survey data collected from 1999 to 2010 on race, ethnicity and waist circumference.

  They defined abdominal obesity as a waist circumference of 35 inches (88 centimeters) in women and 40 in (102 cm) in men.

Talc linked to ovarian cancer risk in African-American women

African-American women who reported regular use of body powder were at greater risk for ovarian cancer compared to their peers who didn’t use talc, a new study showsRegular use of powder was associated with ovarian cancer regardless of where the women used it, the researchers report. Users of genital powder had more than a 40 percent increased risk of cancer, while those who used only non-genital powder had an increased risk of more than 30 percent.

“African-American women have been targeted for use of body powder, and they use it more commonly,” principal investigator Joellen Schildkraut told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. “I’ve concluded – why use it?”

Schildkraut, an epidemiologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, had been skeptical of a long-debated connection between genital talc and the deadly gynecologic cancer. But her new study, in concert with other recent research, convinced her to advise women to avoid using talcum powder.

“I was a cynic until these recent studies came out. As you look across all these studies, I would say, why use it? It’s an avoidable risk for ovarian cancer,” she said. Schildkraut’s team interviewed 584 black women with ovarian cancer and 745 black women without the disease from the southern, eastern and midwestern U.S.