Health and Fitness

Rice as edible cholera vaccine

ArtKerala — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:47:07 -0500

Cholera affects lakhs of people in developing countries like India, Africa etc. The microbe (Vibrio Cholerae) that causes it, is carried through water, stool, and food where it can remain live for over a week. Reaching the present cholera vaccine, which is short lived, to remote regions in poor countries presents a huge challenge.
They often need refrigerating, and medical workers need to be on hand to give injections. The work by immunologist Hiroshi Kiyono and his team at Tokyo University addresses these challenges.

They've found away of genetically engineering a strain of rice which contains a vaccine against cholera. The rice can be ground up and made into a pillor capsule, which will remain potent at room temperature forup to two years. This genetically modified 'rice' could provide developing countries with a cheap and effective treatment against cholera. Once the clinical trials are successfully concluded, it could reduce the cost of storing and transporting vaccines by hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

The bacteria that cause cholera infect the gut and bloody the stool of victims. It travels from host to host in water and on washed food, where it can persist for almost a week.

The present cholera vaccines provide short-lived protection.

The Japanese researchers have created a strain of rice that can act as a vaccine and last for more than a year and a half at room temperature. They inserted the genetic material from the microbe responsible for producing cholera toxin into a rice plant, whose genome has recently been sequenced. The plants produced the toxin and when the rice grains were fed to mice fortrials, they provoked immunity from the diarrhea-causing bacterium.

"We are considering rice as a new vaccine production and storage system, and natural vaccine delivery vehicle," Kiyono says.

The vaccine expressed in rice, or rice-based vaccine, will become a new form of vaccine production and delivery to fight cholera. Rice offers several advantages over traditional vaccines: it does not require needles, purification or refrigeration. In fact, the rice remained potent after 18months of storage at room temperature and the vaccine did not dissolve when exposed to powerful acids in the stomach, the researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA .

Dr Kiyono says rice is a good candidate for vaccine delivery. Because rice grains contain varying amounts of the vaccine (roughly30 micrograms per seed) a tablet or capsule has to be created to make sure people get the proper dose. The rice plants would also have to be grown under carefully controlled conditions to ensure appropriate vaccine production.

Such rice-based vaccines need not be limited to fight cholera. The same technique could be used to create rice grains bearing protection against the flu, botulism or anthrax, among other diseases. The day may not be far when a bowl of rice may keep certain diseases away.

Article Courtesy » Executive Knowledge Lines

Kalarippayattu: martial art that also heals

ArtKerala — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:42:14 -0500

Martial art generally evokes images of violence and Kalarippayattu of Kerala is no different. But unknown to many, it also has a softer side - a healing system that is very popular here.

Kalarippayattu masters, known as gurukkal, are not only experts in the martial art but are also highly skilled massage therapists. Though Kalari treatment follows the principles of ayurveda, what makes it different is the masters' knowledge of vital spots (marma) on the human body.

"Ayurveda treatment doesn't involve detailed study of the vital spots on the body. Kalari experts have practical knowledge about these spots. When the massage is given, we know how to apply pressure or avoid these spots," says Saheer Ali of Shafi Dawa Khana near Kozhikode where Kalarippayattu therapies are provided. Ali is also a qualified ayurveda doctor.

"Vital spots are very sensitive. For example, there is a vital spot on the palm. Applying pressure on this spot can even cause death," Ali said.

The Kalari massage is used basically to prepare students by making them physically flexible enough to practise the martial art. But it is also administered as annual seasonal treatment for rejuvenation and therapeutic purposes. No wonder, the massage centres attract tourists in large numbers.

"People from abroad find our massage different from the Thai or other styles of massages."

Though this system is applicable to a host of illnesses, people generally approach the Kalari treatment centres for fractures, dislocations, sprains, joint or back pain, arthritis and rheumatic complaints.

"We also find massage treatment beneficial to diabetes and cholesterol patients. But people with high cholesterol have a wrong presumption that the use of oil for massage will be detrimental to them," says Ali.

As a therapeutic method, the Kalari treatment is very popular among the natives of Kerala. Many centres here have in-patient facilities.

The Kairali Chikitsalayam (Kairali Treatment Centre) at Karanthur has the facility to house 25 patients, says Shibu Lal, proprietor of the centre.

Shibu Lal took over the reins of the centre following the demise of his father Chandran Gurukkal, a renowned practitioner of the Kalari treatment. Kalari is also known for its efficacy in treating sports injuries.

"Famous athletes P.T. Usha and Anju Bobby George and (late) volleyball star Jimmy George used to consult my father for treatment of injuries. Sportsmen usually come with injuries to ligaments or joints," says Shibu Lal.

In Malabar, the northern part of Kerala, it is not uncommon to see people who previously underwent treatment at hospital approaching these experts to correct improperly set limbs.

"These kinds of complications usually arise not because of any fault of the doctors. After putting plaster, patients may not follow what was advised by doctors and bones get fixed wrongly. Sometimes we have to break the bones again to correct the condition," says Shibu Lal.

Most medicines for this treatment are infusions of herbs in oil or water. These are either applied on the body or consumed. Traditionally each practitioner has his own recipes for medicines and keeps it a closely guarded secret.

Obesity can spread in social circles: research

ArtKerala — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:12:30 -0500

If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new study that suggests obesity is socially contagious" and can spread easily from person to person.

The large, US-funded study found that to be true even if your loved ones live far away. Social ties seem to play a surprisingly strong role, even more than genes are known to do. "We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person's weight status as friends who are right next door," said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego. The study found a person's chances of becoming obese went up 57 per cent if a friend did, 40 per cent if a sibling did and 37 per cent if a spouse did. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled. On average, the researchers calculated, when an obese person gained 17 pounds, the corresponding friend put on an extra 5 pounds. Gender also had a strong influence.

In same-sex friendships, a person's obesity risk increased by 71 per cent if a friend gained weight. Between brothers, the risk was up by 44 per cent and 67 per cent between sisters. Researchers think it is more than just people with similar eating and exercise habits hanging out together. Instead, it may be that having relatives and friends who become obese changes one's idea of what is an acceptable weight. Despite their findings, the researchers said people should not sever their relationships.

No evidence of mobile phones causing illness

ArtKerala — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:10:52 -0500

There is no evidence that mobile phone masts cause fatigue, anxiety or headaches, says a study on possible effects of cell phones.

The New Scientist reported on its website that in the study, led by Elaine Fox of the University of Essex in Britain, 44 self-reported EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity) sufferers and 114 volunteers were exposed to the frequencies emitted by the conventional GSM masts and the newer 3G networks.

As a control, sometimes no signal was emitted.

The experiments were designed to see whether humans could detect electromagnetic radiation, and also whether exposure to radiation from mobile phone masts could account for the reported symptoms of EHS, which range from headaches to skin rashes and fatigue.

The experiments revealed that only two of the 44 EHS sufferers could reliably tell whether the signal was switched on or off. A near-identical proportion (4.4 percent) of the volunteers did the same.

There was also no evidence that the electromagnetic signals were responsible for any symptoms, the study showed.

Diabetics may do well on Mediterranean diet

ArtKerala — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:09:39 -0500

Eating a traditional Mediterranean diet - more vegetables, fruits, and fish, and fewer animal products - does seem to ward off heart disease, an Australian study shows, and it may be especially beneficial for people with diabetes.

Mediterranean-born immigrants in Australia have lower death rates from heart disease than native-born Australians, note Dr Linton R. Harriss, from Monash University in Melbourne, and colleagues.

This prompted them to investigate dietary patterns in relation to heart-related mortality "in an ethnically diverse population." The study involved over 40,000 men and women, aged between 40 and 69 years, 24 per cent of whom were native-born Mediterranean while the rest were native-born Australian. They were followed for ten years.

The researchers used food questionnaires to calculate participants' intake of Mediterranean foods, vegetables, fruits, and meats. The results of the study are published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"Those people in our study that were in the highest category of the Mediterranean foods pattern (i.e. most frequently consumed traditional Mediterranean foods) had a 30 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who were in the lowest category," Harriss told Reuters Health.

The investigators found that a Mediterranean-style diet "may be most beneficial for persons with diabetes." Among the study participants with diabetes, Harriss said, "Our results suggest that the Mediterranean diet may lower mortality from ischemic heart disease."

However, because those results are based on a small sub-sample, "more research needs to be performed to investigate these findings better." The protective effect of a Mediterranean diet pattern against heart-related death was strongest in people who were free of heart disease at the outset.

Nonetheless, "the Mediterranean foods pattern showed benefits whether we included or excluded people with a history of cardiovascular disease," Harriss said.

Bowel cancer risk gene pinpointed

ArtKerala — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 01:48:02 -0500

Around 35,000 bowel cancer cases are diagnosed every year in the UK. UK scientists have identified a gene they say increases the risk of bowel cancer by 20%.

Researchers from London and Edinburgh pinpointed the gene after scanning the DNA of over 30,000 people - half of whom had the disease.

Writing in Nature Genetics, they estimate that half the population carry the genetic fault which is associated with one in 10 bowel cancers.

However, the increased risk is too small to warrant a genetic test.

By identifying these genetic variants, we will be in a better position to understand how such changes can lead to cancer - Professor Malcolm Dunlop

In the future, as more genes associated with the condition are identified, it may be possible to design a test for a combination of genes to identify those most at risk, improving prevention and diagnosis, the researchers said.

Several genes are already known to contribute to bowel cancer risk but are extremely rare among the population accounting for less than 5% of bowel cancer cases every year.

But it has been estimated that genetic risk contributes to around a third of cases.

DNA analysis

Professor Malcolm Dunlop, from the University of Edinburgh and the Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit, compared the DNA of around 8,000 bowel cancer patients from North America, France and Scotland, to that of around 8,000 healthy people.

By doing a "whole genome search" the team tracked down the gene which is faulty more often amongst bowel cancer patients than in people without the disease.

A second study carried out by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research and Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute identified the same faulty gene after analysing the DNA of a similar number of patients and healthy people from England.

Scientists recently found that men who have the same genetic variant are at an increased risk of developing prostate cancer.

Professor Dunlop said: "We are now using an even more refined genome-wide scan to discover yet more genes linked to bowel cancer risk.

"By identifying these genetic variants, we will be in a better position to understand how such changes can lead to cancer."

Professor Ian Tomlinson, who led the second study said: "This is an important first step but we still have a long way to go before we have a complete picture of all the genes that are involved in inherited bowel cancer risk.

"Eventually it may be possible for scientists to design treatments to prevent people at increased risk of the disease from developing bowel cancer altogether."

Cancer Research UK is launching similar genome wide studies for lung and ovarian cancer and scientists hope to find out more about the genes linked to these cancers as a result.

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK who are funding further gene studies in ovarian and lung cancer, said: "In the future we hope studies like this across a range of cancers will help people at increased risk of the developing the disease through the development of tailored screening and treatment programmes."

Dr Rob Glynne-Jones, chief medical advisor at Bowel Cancer UK and consultant clinical oncologist at Mount Vernon Hospital said: "This discovery of a common bowel cancer gene is further proof that we are really getting to grips with what causes bowel cancer.

"Patients will be very excited to know that this research helps us to identify why at least 10% of people are at risk from the disease."

Navy Medical teams deployed in Kottayam district

ArtKerala — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:10:18 -0500

Six Naval doctors and an equal number of paramedical staff were deployed in Kottayam district to assist District Health authorities in attending to patients affected by viral fever.

Unlike in the earlier deployment, this team does not include health workers, a Navy press release said here.

Three teams have already been deployed in Pampadi, Erumeli and Mundakayam.

Surgeon Cdr Sajeev heading the team at Mundakayam has attended to about 550 patients. The team at Pampadi, headed by surgeon Cdr Mohapatra has treated about 200 patients while the third team under Surgeon Lieutenant Commander Dange is operating at Erumeli, the release said.

The team is expected to be deployed in these areas for about three to four days.

Your Legal Rights

ArtKerala — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 00:00:59 -0500

Mesothelioma Was Preventable

Scores of corporations that manufactured and profited from the sale of asbestos-containing products knew the health hazards as early as the 1920's. During the same period, there were alternatives to asbestos available. Ignoring the deadly risks and repercussions associated with asbestos, corporations chose to sell and recklessly use it through the 1980's. These manufacturers did not advise workers of the dangers of asbestos and consequently, many Americans who have unnecessarily and tragically contracted Mesothelioma.

Your Rights

If you worked in a high-risk industry and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, or you have lost someone to an asbestos-related illness, it is your right to seek compensation from those responsible for your situation. The time has come to bring those who damaged your life to justice. While monetary compensation will not alleviate your pain, it will ease the burden of concerns such as medical bills, lost income, continued support for loved ones, and may aid in your situation in many other ways.

There are two types of mesothelioma lawsuits, a personal injury claim and a wrongful death lawsuit. In a personal injury claim, the mesothelioma patient files a lawsuit for damages that may include medical expenses, loss of income, and pain and suffering. In a wrongful death suit, the survivor of a mesothelioma fatality files a claim. Laws and procedures are different for each type of claim, and depend upon the jurisdiction where the case is filed.

Your legal right to claim damages depends on many factors including:

* The “statute of limitations” sets a time limit for filing a claim. The clock starts ticking on the date of your diagnosis and the window of opportunity for filing a claim varies from state to state. If you do not file suit within the specified timeframe, you will lose your rights to seek damages.

* While you may have been exposed up to 50 years ago, it is recognized that mesothelioma has a long latency period. The length of time from exposure to diagnosis does not negate your right to seek compensation - however, the statute of limitations will impact your right to file a claim.

* It is important to work with an expert attorney who will establish and prove that you were exposed to asbestos by a specific product at a specific place by a specific manufacturer. Your attorney will work with you to help prepare and present this important cause-effect information.

* The justice system is designed to protect the rights of those wrongly injured. Mesothelioma victims and their families have certainly been wrongly injured. Only a skilled lawyer, who knows mesothelioma, knows victims rights and understands the legal process can prove that a manufacturer’s negligence caused your situation. An experienced lawyer will work with you to send a message that disregard for your life and others will not be tolerated.

Mesothelioma Treatment Options

ArtKerala — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:58:09 -0500

While there is currently no known cure for malignant mesothelioma, treatments are available with the most common being surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Your doctor will recommend one treatment or a combination of therapies that are best for your situation. The course of treatment will depend on a number of factors including the location of the disease, the stage of the disease, your age, overall health and your preferences.

The information provided throughout this website is for your information only, and should NOT take the place of a full medical diagnosis.

Traditional Treatment Options

There are three traditional kinds of treatment for patients with malignant mesothelioma:

* Surgery (physical removal of the cancer)
* Chemotherapy (using drugs to fight the cancer)
* Radiation Therapy (using high-dose x-rays to kill cancer cells)

Doctors will often use two or more of these treatment courses jointly to provide the maximum likelihood of success. This “multi-modal” approach holds the most promise for survival of malignant mesothelioma patients. Trimodality therapy, in which all three of these modalities are used, is considered the most effective, and aggressive, approach.

Surgery
There are several types of surgeries used to treat mesothelioma and the disease type and stage will determine the type of surgery. Mesothelioma tumors are usually large and difficult to completely remove, so surgery is usually combined with other cancer treatments to ensure the best results in destroying the tumor.

There are generally two types of surgical methods for the treatment of mesothelioma: Palliative Procedures and Potentially Curative Procedures.

* Palliative Procedures are those which treat the symptoms of mesothelioma, providing relief for the patient, without aggressively treating the disease itself.

Chest Tube Drainage and Pleurodesis
The goal of chemical pleurodesis is to cause an irritation between the two layers covering the lung. This irritation causes an obliteration of the space between the layers where the fluid accumulated, and prevents further fluid to be able to accumulate there. There are a variety of agents, which can be used including talc and bleomycin. As the pleural space is closed, fluid drains out of the chest cavity using a chest tube.

Pleuroperitoneal Shunt
Pleuroperitoneal shunting has been used in patients who have failed chemical pleurodesis, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. Pleuroperitoneal shunting can provide effective palliation in patients with a trapped lung or others who have failed treatment.

Potentially Curative Options are medical procedures that attempt to remove all gross disease with 'curative intent'. Residual microscopic disease cells are then removed through Adjuvant therapy.

Pleurectomy/Decortication
A Pleurectomy/Decortication is a surgical procedure where the pleura, the membrane lining the lungs and chest cavity, is removed, without removing the entire lung. This treatment option is usually performed on patients in the early staging of mesothelioma.

Extra-Pleural Pneumonectomy (EPP)
EPP is the removal of the pleura, diaphragm, pericardium, and the whole lung involved with the tumor. EPP is considered a radical therapy and is not frequently performed by most surgeons, patients are referred to centers specializing in these treatments.

Both the above 'potentially curative' procedures are typically used in combination with other treatment options (multi-modal therapy).

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells and may be used as the primary treatment to mesothelioma, or it may be used as part of a multi-modal approach. Chemotherapy is referred to as systemic treatment because the drug is introduced into the patient’s bloodstream and travels throughout the body killing cancer cells. The drugs may be in pill form, or injected into the body through a needle.

In addition to killing cancer cells, chemotherapy drugs work to restrict the uncontrolled spread of abnormal cancer cells - preventing them from dividing and multiplying.

Chemotherapy is not considered a 'curative' approach for the treatment of mesothelioma and instead focuses on shrinking existing tumors (usually prior to surgery - neoadjuvant therapy), controlling the spread of the cancerous cells, and removing residual cancer cells following surgery (adjuvant therapy).

To effectively treat mesothelioma, more than one drug may be used in chemotherapy. Depending on the drugs, the amount taken and the treatment period, there may be side effects. Historically, doxorubicin has been the most widely used single chemotherapy drug. Other newer drugs, including gemcitabine, cisplatin, carboplatin, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, vinorelbine, paclitaxel, and methotrexate, now are often preferred and are usually given in different combinations.

Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays help to destroy cancer cells and shrink tumors. The radiation may come from outside the body from a machine (external radiation) or from radioactive materials placed directly in or around cancer cells through thin plastic tubes (internal or implant radiation).

In pleural mesothelioma, it is difficult to irradiate tumor tissue successfully without injuring nearby organs like the lungs, heart, and liver. However, radiation therapy can be very effective in relieving pain in certain situations. Factors which can impact the use of radiation treatment include the volume of the tumor and how near it is to vital organs.

Non-Traditional Treatments

Photodynamic Therapy
Photodynamic therapy destroys cancer cells by using the energy from light and may also be effective when combined with surgery. Although this treatment is in the experimental stage for mesothelioma, it has shown promising results in treating other cancers. In the procedure, the patient receives a photosensitizer (a drug which makes cells sensitive to specific wavelengths of light) which collects in cancerous cells but not in healthy cells. Once the cells have been sensitized, fiber optic cables are placed in the body (usually through open-chest surgery) so that the correct frequency of light can be focused on the tumor. This causes the photosensitizer drug to produce a toxic oxygen molecule which kills the cancer cell.

Gene Therapy
This is a new treatment, currently in clinical trails. This approach allows treatment to target tumors, rather than destroying healthy cells which is the negative of traditional chemotherapy. In gene therapy, cancer is treated by altering genetic defects that allow a tumor to develop. A “suicide gene” is inserted directly into the tumor, making the cells sensitive to a normally ineffectual drug. The drug is then administered to the newly sensitive cancer cells and it destroys those cells while leaving the healthy cells unharmed.

Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy (or biological therapy) treats cancer by using the body’s own immune system fight cancer cells. Another name often applies to this therapy, biological response modifiers (BRMs). Though not yet obtainable, promising clinical studies are underway for immunotherapy.

Mesothelioma Staging

ArtKerala — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 23:52:42 -0500

Staging is a method of evaluating the progress of cancer in a patient. It looks at the mesothelioma and the extent to which it has developed and its possible spread to other parts of the body. Since pleural mesothelioma occurs most frequently and has been studied the most, it is the only mesothelioma for which a staging classification exists.

Several medical approaches are utilized to determine the staging of mesothelioma, including x-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans. The advancement, extent, and spread of the cancer determines the stage of the mesothelioma, and determines the treatment and outlook for the patient.

There are three recognized clinical staging systems for evaluating the spread and extent of pleural mesothelioma: The Butchart System, TNM Staging, and the Brigham System. The Butchart System has been the standard staging method for most cancers, including mesothelioma. The TNM Staging system is beginning to be used by major cancer centers as a more accurate method for specifically evaluating mesothelioma. The Brigham System is one of the latest methods for the staging of mesothelioma.

Butchart Staging System The staging system used in the past for mesothelioma is the Butchart system. This system is based mainly on the extent of the primary tumor mass, and divides mesotheliomas into stages I through IV. Many doctors will still use this system.

* Stage I: Mesothelioma is present within the right or left pleura, and may also involve the lung, pericardium, or diaphragm (the muscle separating the chest from the abdomen) on the same side.

* Stage II: Mesothelioma invades the chest wall or involves the esophagus (food passage connecting the throat to the stomach), heart, or pleura on both sides. The lymph nodes in the chest may also be involved.

* Stage III: Mesothelioma has penetrated through the diaphragm into the peritoneum (lining of the abdominal cavity). Lymph nodes beyond those in the chest may also be involved.

* Stage IV: There is evidence of distant metastases (spread through the bloodstream to other organs).

TNM Staging System
Another staging system has recently been developed by the International Mesothelioma Interest Group and adopted by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC). This is a TNM system, similar to staging systems used for most other cancers. T stands for tumor (its size and how far it has spread to nearby organs), N stands for spread to lymph nodes and M is for metastasis (spread to distant organs). In TNM staging, information about the tumor, lymph nodes, and metastasis is combined in a process called stage grouping to assign a stage described by Roman numerals from I to IV. Major cancer centers are beginning to use this system instead of the Butchart staging because it more accurately depicts the extent of tumor.

* Stage I: Mesothelioma involves either the right or left pleura lining the chest. It has only spread to the outer lining of the lung in, at most, a few small spots. It has not yet spread to the lymph nodes.

* Stage II: Mesothelioma involves either the right or left pleura lining the chest and has spread from the lining of the chest into 1) the outer lining of the lung or 2) the diaphragm or 3) into the lung itself.

* Stage III: Mesothelioma involves either the right or left pleura lining the chest and has spread into 1) the first layer of the chest wall, or 2) the fatty part of the mediastinum, or 3) a single place in the chest wall or 4) the outer covering layer of the heart or 5) lymph nodes anywhere in the same side of the chest.

* Stage IV: Mesothelioma involves either the right or left pleura lining the chest and has spread 1) into the chest wall, either muscle or ribs, or 2) through the diaphragm, or 3) into any organ contained in the mediastinum (esophagus, trachea, thymus, blood vessels), or 4) into the spine, or 5) across to the pleura on the other side of the chest, or 6) through the heart lining or into the heart itself, or 7) into the brachial plexus (nerves leading to the arm), or 8) into lymph nodes outside that side of the chest, or 9) spread to other organs through the bloodstream.

The Brigham System
The Brigham System is the latest system and stages mesothelioma according to resectability (the ability to surgically remove) and lymph node involvement.

* Stage I: surgically removable tumor and no lymph node spread

* Stage II: surgically removable tumor with lymph node disease

* Stage III: not surgically removable because tumor extends into the chest wall, to the heart, or through the diaphragm into the peritoneum (abdominal lining). Lymph nodes outside the chest may or may not have disease in them.

* Stage IV: disease spread to other parts of the body

Your doctors may utilize one or more of the above staging systems to evaluate the extent of the mesothelioma, and identify appropriate treatment options.