In India, a country with a vast population and a diverse socio-economic fabric, healthcare remains fraught with challenges including disparities in access. These socio-economic disparities are deep, and they influence health outcomes. It is imperative to bridge these gaps amid the ongoing epidemiological, nutritional and demographic transitions that are bringing …
CALCIUM is one of the most important nutrients in our body. There is hardly any organ which is not influenced by it. Calcium has always been considered vital for the formation and maintenance of strong bones and teeth. Now, studies in the US suggest that calcium can play an important …
US regulators have approved thalidomlde, the drug which was banned for causing birth defects. The drug will be tested for cancer treatment. Celgenc, a New Jersey-based company, has been permitted to test Thslomid, the company's version of thabdomide, against multiple myeloma, the most common form of bone marrow cancer. The …
MOTORISED boats are polluting lakes and reservoirs in California, USA, with a cancer causing additive, according to the scientists. The findings coincide with an announcement that the US government is setting up an expert panel to investigate the findings. Researchers at the University of California have just completed the first …
Female flight attendants run a higher risk of getting breast cancer. This could be due to the effects of jet lag on melanin, a hormone, the level of which is up to 10 times higher levels in the blood at night than during the day. Crossing time zones repeatedly may …
A RADICAL form of "face off surgery, being used at Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong, aims to rid patients of recurring nasopharyngeal cancer, a deadly cancerous tumour which forms in the centre of the head behind the nose and found mostly in southern China. To cut out the tumour, …
HOW do you kill cancer? It is a question that researchers the world over have been trying to answer. They have tried everything: conventional chemotherapy to blocking blood flow to cancerous tissues. Nothing, however, deterred the dreaded disease. So the research teams went back to their laboratories and tried again, …
TWO Fox TV reporters in Tampa, Florida, have reported that Monsanto's gene-tically engineered milk hormone, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hor-mone), may promote cancer in humans. The milk is sold to dairy farmers, who inject it into their cows every two weeks to increase milk production. Monsanto and other organisations have …
CANCER chemotherapy is, even at the best of times, a pretty tricky business. Doctors are always walking the razor's edge, since the line between killing the tumour and killing the patient is extremely thin. That is because chemotherapeutic drugs targeted to kill the rogue cells first spread throughout the body, …
SIDE-EFFECTS: The France-based Roche Holding AC, has planned to withdraw its drug for high blood pressure, Posicor, as its interaction with other medicines is poor. Long term clinical trials have shown that Posicor is no more effective in treating congestive heart failure. Last year, company officials had warned that there …
Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes are the major causes of death in China today. According to a report published by the national health economics institute, more than US $12 billion will be spent on the treatment of these diseases. By 2000, the annual expenditure will cross …
THE Union ministry of health and family welfare (MHFW) has finally acknowledged the utility of Ayurvedic metal-based formulations or rasa shastra in the treatment of a type of cancer, namely acute promyelocytic leukaemia (AML-3). The formulations have been developed by the Dehradun-based Vaidya Chandra Prakash Cancer Research Foundation. For Vaidya …
calcutta's air is highly polluted with polyaromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) such as benzene, toluene and xylene (btx), which are carcinogenic. Levels of these pollutants in the ambient air have been assessed for the first time in an urban environment in India. The study was conducted by a team headed by Dipankar …
The European Commission (EC), the Brussels-based executive arm of the European Union (EU), backed away from imposing a Europe-wide ban on phthalates, potentially dangerous chemicals used in children's toys. Environmental groups allege that the EC bowed to pressure from the chemicals industry. In the decision taken on July 1, the …
linzhou , a tiny mountain province in China, has seen a lot of action lately. Here, in a nondescript red-brick health centre, next to a metalworking shop that could be perfectly at home in the Middle Ages, us and Chinese doctors operated recently on Chinese peasants with high-tech medical equipment …
cancer, the universally-dreaded disease, could soon be eradicated. In a recent development, scientists tested two new drugs they claim can cure laboratory mice injected with the disease. And if all goes well, the first cancer patient could be injected with these drugs well within a year. Some cancer experts say …
roentgen would have been proud if he was alive today to see how the x-ray, his invention, has become indispensable to the medical world. For more than half a century now, this invention has been helping medical practitioners administer better healthcare services to millions. And if the most crucial inventions …
though the factors responsible for a woman's risk of breast cancer have been known to the doctors for years, there was little they could possibly do except issue warnings and suggest preventive measures to cut down the chances of aggravating the disease. However, there has been little consensus on what …
vehicular emission can pose some formidable health hazards. Everybody knows that. But only now, are scientists further cautioning that diesel fumes are perhaps more dangerous than what was previously thought. And according to a government draft report released recently by the Environmental Protection Agency ( epa ), usa, these fumes …
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will provide an assistance of US $ 4.4 crore for phasing out the use of 137 tonne of cholorofluorocarbons (CFCs). The ministry of environment and forests and the UNDP have recently signed an agreement in this regard. Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the UNDP …
the crowds thronging Janpath, Delhi's premier shopping mall in Connaught Place, are blissfully unaware of the serious health risk due to the alarming level of cancer-causing benzene in the air. The new indicative data on benzene levels, available from an investigation done by a foreign scientist, is a rebuke to …
