Climate hazards, including extreme heat, are associated with increased risks of developing complications that lead to adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes. These may include multiple causes of maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality such as gestational diabetes, hyper tensive disorders of pregnancy, preterm birth, low birth weight and stillbirth. In …
bored with the humdrum life of the office? Time to take some action, but Michael Keaton should not be your rolemodel. In the famous movie, Multiplicity, Keaton made his clone do all the dirty work, while he had the time of his life. However, the fun did not last too …
the much touted gene therapy as a miracle cure for diseases linked to genetic disorders recently suffered a major setback with the discovery that it has caused leukaemia in a child undergoing experimental treatment. The child was being treated at the Paris-based Necker-Enfants Malades clinic for x-severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome, …
long time exposure to benzene has always been considered detrimental to human health, but now researchers from the Kurukshetra University, Haryana, have found that even an occasional exposure to benzene of an hour a day is sufficient to bring about adverse changes in genetic material of humans. Benzene is a …
For those immune to the known dangers of vehicular pollution, a new study comes up with a shocker. The study paints an even more scary picture of the losing battle fought by the lung's defence mechanism against air pollution. Genetic disruption and neurobehavioural problems are also part of the package. …
IN GOD'S OWN COUNTRY Directed by Rajani Mani and Nina Subramani . Produced by Elephant Corridor . English . 28 mins . 2002 Kasaragod, a district in north Kerala, is a breathing example of India's trail of toxins. Surrounded by deceptively beautiful forest, Kasaragod has been crippled by three decades …
a generic drug used for preventing the transmission of the aids virus from an expectant mother to her child may cause genetic mutation in the offspring. These are the findings of researchers from the New York state department of health
there is a series of checkpoints in a cell's life cycle, when it assesses whether everything is proceeding according to nature's plan, shows a new research. The discovery was made in yeast cell division by Jonathan Millar, a geneticist at the National Institute of Medical Research in London, the uk. …
the UK government's indifferent attitude regarding the ongoing controversy about insurance on the basis of genetic testing is creating more confusion, says a report released by the House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee. The government had said that the insurers themselves should be able to use the information available …
Two institutions in the us are working to comprehend how contaminants, toxic chemicals and other environmental factors affect the human genome. The Environment Genome Project (egp), sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (niehs) , based at North Carolina, us, is studying variations of certain types of genes …
Most of them have been putting it down to a supernatural curse. Jatadhari, the guardian spirit (theyyam) of the area, is angry, believe several people of Padre village of Enmakaje Gram Panchayat (village council) in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Family after family has people suffering from diseases that were never …
• On the lines of the Madhya Pradesh government's Gyandoot programme, Himachal Pradesh has launched a similar programme in Hamirpur district of the state. Under the programme, 25 information centres would be set up. • The Gauhati high court has restrained the Assam government from displacing 58 indigenous people from …
In people suffering a common form of leukaemia, certain chromosome abnormalities in cancer cells could help predict how quickly the disease will progress. This is the result of a study conducted in Germany, says a Reuters report dated December 27, 2000. The cancer is known as B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia …
The United Kingdom has decided to allow insurance companies to use genetic test results to decide whether a person be given a life insurance or not. At present, only tests for Huntington's disease, a degenerative brain disease, is being considered. But in the future, tests for six more diseases may …
if you have prostate cancer, could puffing a cigarette or breathing diesel fumes behind a bus make your cancer spread faster? That's a question researchers Paul F Lindholm and Andre Balla of the Medical College of Wisconsin, usa, are trying to answer. Their preliminary research suggests that aggressive prostate cancer …
one disturbing aspect of the Indian population is the lack of reliable data pertaining to major epidemiological aspects of human disease. Information comes from a western population more likely as not. An example of this is the recent report that environmental influences may be far more significant than genetic ones …
no matter how much scientists learn about genes, cancer will continue to snatch away the lives of your near and dear ones. Because it has more to do with the state of your environment than your genetic makeup. That's what a study published this fortnight on cancer says, contradicting what …
We have entered an era of great hope and promise, of advancing human health and well-being and of social and economic progress. The shape of things to come can be visualised with a rough timetable. Will the new order of things reduce and eventually eliminate the inequities and disparities that …
Chromosome 22 is one of the smallest of our 23 pairs of chromosomes. But we still don't know whether it is gene-rich. So far, the chromosome has been linked with schizophrenia, chronic myeloid leukaemia and trisomy 22, the second most common cause of miscarriages. At least 27 diseases involve some …
According to a study by Paris-based scientist Xavier Jouven, sudden cardiac deaths among men can be traced to their family history. While it is well-known that a person's genetic blueprint contributes to his or her risk of a heart attack, this is the first study to identify a genetic risk …
New fertility techniques have enabled men with low sperm counts to father children. But it appears that sons born to some of these men may also be infertile. An estimated 10-15 per cent of all men, who can produce little or no sperm, suffer from a genetic defect in a …
