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 …
Women who gain weight between the age of 18 years and post-menopausal years may be twice as likely to develop breast cancer as those who do not. Zhiping Huang and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA, say that staying within 2-4 kg of one's weight …
two separate studies reveal that hepatitis virus may lead to liver cancer. Randy Jirtle and his colleagues at the Duke University Medical Centre, Durham, uk , have found that hepatitis b and c viruses damage genes in liver cells, making them susceptible to cancer ( Proceedings of National Academy of …
Habitual tobacco usage and betel quid chewing have led to a mindboggling increase in oral cancer cases in Nepal. Manik R Bajracharya, chairperson of Nepal Oral Health Society, Kathmandu, says that like other developing countries, dental caries and periodontal disease constitute a major oral health problem in Nepal because of …
researchers in the us say that people exposed to second-hand smoke during their daily lives have shown to absorb a chemical that is strongly suspected to cause lung cancer. Stephen Hecht of the University of Minnesota Cancer Center in Minneapolis told last week's meeting of the American Chemical Society in …
Grasim Industries started the plant at Mavoor following an agreement in 1958 between Kerala government and the Birlas. The factory became operational in 1963. Following the expansion of factory with the setting up of the fibre division in 1968, pollution became acute, rendering Chaliyar water into "foul smelling black soupy …
researchers have found a gene that may help combat cancer and degenerative diseases linked to ageing. The gene has been cloned by two teams of researchers separately - one led by Thomas Cech, a biochemist at the University of Colorado and the other by Robert Weinberg, a biochemist at the …
A medical survey conducted by doctors from Kozhikode Medical College in 1981 in Vazhakkad panchayat found that 23 per cent of the men and 21 per cent of the women were suffering from respiratory diseases. The figures for chronic bronchitis were 14 per cent and 8.7 per cent in the …
a settlement in Florida has pressed panic buttons for the tobacco industry worldover. Setting a precedent, the government of Florida signed a us $11.3 billion settlement with us cigarette manufacturers to recover costs of medical treatment for curing ailments caused due to smoking. The cigarette companies, apart from promising to …
Women suffering from severe morning sickness (nausea) may run an increased risk of breast cancer. A study conducted by Leslie Bernstein and her colleagues at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, USA, seems to support this theory. The researchers studied the medical records of nearly 450 women who …
We take life for granted because that is all we see around us, till death steps in to remind us how easy it is to take life away. The tobacco industry is not dying, but those who smoke are. Slowly but surely they are killing themselves to fill the coffers …
doctors often warn women who have breast cancer not to get pregnant. Since estrogen is believed to stimulate tumor growth, nine months of elevated levels of the hormone seem just too big a risk. But a study conducted by scientists in Copenhagen suggests that the risk may be worth taking. …
Consumption of green tea may help prevent cancer, suggest epidemiological studies conducted by researchers at the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA. Green tea contains chemicals called cathechins, including epigallo-cathechin-3 gallate (EGCG). EGCG inhibits urokinase (uPA), an enzyme which promotes cancerous growth. Researchers say that cancers need enzymes like uPA to …
according to a study printed in the British medical journal, The Lancet, industrialisation has brought a host of diseases, from cancer and brain tumours to depression. It says that development also increases people's susceptibility to respiratory diseases and allergies. British and Ethiopian doctors sent questionnaires to some 10,000 households in …
Mother's milk contains carcinogenic toxins. But health authorities still advocate breast feeding as the benefits far outweigh the risks. According to a report of the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food and Consumer Products and the Environment, UK, British infants are consuming large quantities of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and …
exposure to nuclear tests conducted in the early '90s at the Nevada test site near Las Vegas may have caused 10,000 to 75,000 thyroid cancers among Americans, 70 per cent of which have not yet been detected, states a recently released report of the usa -based National Cancer Institute. "There …
betel chewing is a national pastime in Taiwan. But now Taiwanese officials have decided to destroy the plantations that are growing on government-protected land, shut down the roadside stalls and impose a sin tax on betel nut vendors. While the official campaign against the betel nut chewing may be something …
Mice could be used to make a range of human proteins that are useful in fighting cancer and auto-immune diseases and infections (caused by the body's abnormal reaction to some of its own tissues leading to production of antibodies against them). Geneticists at the Kirin Brewery Technology Laboratory, Yokohama, have …
THE latest source that promises new hope for cancer patients is an African tree. A drug derived from the bark of the African bush willow has been found to hamper blood supply to cancer cells. Tests have shown that it can kill up to 95 per cent of solid turnour …
