Body of Wealth

It is a good idea to increase intake of oily fish if you want to protect yourself from a host of diseases. If you are wondering why it is so, well, it is because the fish oil has immense health benefits, like they help to improve inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.

Oil derived from the tissues of the oily fish is rich in the magic ingredient, the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). It is this Omega-3 fats which can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and reduce levels of triglycerides (the bad fat found in the blood that has been linked to heart disease).

But how does one know how much fish to eat? Now, it is very easy, just take a cod test! Cod test – is a simple test devised by one Glasgow GP, Dr Tom Gilhooly, who also runs the Essential Health Clinic, offers tests to find out the nutritional status of patients’ blood. Gilhooly has teamed up with Dr Gordon Bell, a biochemist based at the University of Stirling, to offer patients a new blood test that can accurately measure levels of omega-3 in the blood. So all you need to do now is to go to your GP and ask him to send your blood sample to the Bell’s clinic to get to know your Omega-3 fats requirement. Though, let me warn you- it costs £99! A small price to pay I would say to keep yourself healthy.

So, if want to reap the benefits of Omega-3 fats, then make it a habit to eat at least two portions of oily fish like sardines, herring, mackerel, trout, salmon, pilchards, kippers, fresh tuna and anchovies every week. Though remember, the fish should be grilled, baked, or broiled — not fried – for fried fish appears to lose all of its benefits.

Via: Independent

Enzymes that could miraculously cure wounded soldiers in war zones and even reverse some incurable diseases like advanced cancer have been created by researchers at the UCLA and University of Washington. This research project which has been funded by DARPA, the research wing of the U.S army and led by professor Kendall Houk and biochemist David Baker has finally tasted success after nearly three years of painstaking research. The researchers have used computational techniques to arrange the elements in proteins to make the proteins react in whatever ways the researchers want it to thus making it a super enzyme which has an enormous range of applications.

With increase in life expectancy incidence of memory impairment with advancement in age is rising rapidly. According to a team of researchers at the RAND Corporation and from prominent US Universities, more than a third of people in USA over 70-years face some form of memory loss. This was the first population based study to determine the extent of cognitive impairment with and without dementia. The researchers found that 3.4 million Americans have dementia and another 5.4 million of the elderly Americans above the age 70 have some form of memory loss without dementia. This study is concentrated only among US residents but with no worldwide figure available it could be safely concluded that the global cognitive impairment scenario especially among the elderly should be rather staggering and more so in the developing countries where such incidents remain undiagnosed or under-diagnosed.

Male infertility might not be after all a lifestyle ailment as a number of researches have pointed out. A University of Edinburgh study has suggested that male fertility problems are determined at the foetal stage or in other words, a male child is born with reproductive deficiencies. The difficulty of studying a human model has restricted the fertility study only to animal models to help unravel the details of the relation between the hormone exposure of the foetal in the womb and the future reproductive health.

According to the study the critical “window” that determines the future reproductive health may, in humans, be 8 to 12 weeks into the pregnancy. Male hormones such as testosterones work during the foetal stage to program the reproductive tract. The anogenital measurement or the distance between the base of the penis and the anus could act as an early warning system of future reproductive problems in boys. The shorter the anogenital measurement the greater is the possibility of developing reproductive problems in future.

This study would help in developing early treatments for male infertility, testicular cancer and other common genital disorders.

Image:advanced fertility

Source:bbc

Pressure of a burgeoning human population adversely affecting the biodiversity of our planet and destruction of wildlife and forests is causing the emergence of new viruses that would become potentially fatal for the human population in the near future. Study of the global databases and analysis of patterns of emerging diseases using the latest computer models has pointed at the tropics as the hotbed of future pandemics. Scientists from the Consortium for the Conservation Medicine at Wildlife Trust, New York, the Institute of Zoology, London, Columbia University, New York and the University of Georgia, Athens for the first time have been able to plot, map and predict the next location for the occurrence of a future pandemic.

The ‘Emerging Disease Hotspots’ map based on analysis of 335 incidents of previous disease emergence spots, global patterns in human density, population changes, latitude, rainfall and wildlife biodiversity changes shows the locations of probable proliferation of future major diseases like HIV and SARS. The Hotspots map shows the tropics as the new important location for emergence of zoonotic diseases.

The body’s own immune mechanism causes inflammation of the infected body part that consequently triggers the death of cells in which harmful virus or toxins have infiltrated. Researchers led by David W Ehlert and Brad Cookson at the University of Washington have been able to detect the pathway that leads to the death of a potentially hazardous cell on its way to save the body against harmful infections, the process known as pyroptosis.

HPV infection alone is not sufficient to cause cervical cancer! May be it’s right. However, in women with stress, it could prove fatal! It has been confirmed by a new study published in ‘Annals of Behavioral Medicine’. It’s worth mentioning that HPV also known as Human papilloma virus, is quite a common virus that can cause warts on many different body parts. However, what’s interesting about HPV is that out of these different types of HPV, around 70 are considered quite harmless.

Before coming up with such assumption, Dr. Fang and her colleagues engaged around 74 women with precancerous cervical lesions to answer questionnaires about their perceived stress-related issues and surprisingly found stress a sort of booster enhancing the vulnerability to cervical cancer. The study also found that Moreover, in women with stronger immune system, HPV infections disappear spontaneously over time, leaving quite rare chances of precancerous cervical lesions or cancer. However, women with weaker immune system are comparatively more vulnerable to cervical cancer. Moreover, experts are of the opinion that stress could lead to alterations in the immune system, thereby making the body less scrupulous. Speaking on the issue Dr. Carolyn Fang of the Fox Chase Cancer Centre in Philadelphia said:

...some women are less able to mount an effective immune response to HPV.

Each new day is likely to enhance the inextricability of flu, as vaccines available to noose the deadly virus are fast loosing their potentials, claims the World Health Organization.

Is it victory of H5N1 virus over medical science or was their lack of determination in our strategy that it couldn’t embank the gushing inundation of this deadly virus. Indeed, the question is as confounding as the disease itself! The global spread of H5N1 in 2006 that splashed on the globe reeling off a woeful series of pandemics, which seems to flow out farther and farther with its end, still, not round the corner. In such a situation, WHO’s remark confirms that in fight between bird-flu and medical science, of course, it’s deadly bird-flu that has been taking the lead since it jumped into the sphere. Notably, WHO’s this statement comes at a time when, according to CDC, forty-four states have reported widespread influenza and around 10 American kids have died of flu so far, in the current season.

According to a recent report published in the Lancet medical journal, obesity can cause the risk of several cancers like those of the bowel, kidney, and breast to almost double up. Risk of numerous blood cancers such as adult leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma also increases with increase in body fat.

Andrew Renehan, a cancer specialist at the University of Manchester led the study. Renehan made his analysis after looking into the results of about 282,000 men and women, of what happened to people whose body mass index (BMI) increased from the normal range (18 to 25) to overweight ( more than 25) or from overweight to obese (above 30).

Viruses are responsible for a large number of diseases many of which are life threatening. In most cases, it is difficult to treat viral infections with common medicines. It is more than often left to the body’s immune system to develop antibodies capable of combating the deathly viruses. Often the repressor genes obstruct the proper functioning of the body’s immune system. Interferon is a protein that enhances the body’s immunity but often its functionality is suppressed by certain genes.

Researchers at I’Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montreal and the Ottawa Health Research Institute have been able to remove 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2, the two repressor genes, in mice and enabling interferon to function smoothly creating an anti-viral state in the cell.