Diagnosing Heartburn -- Gastroenterologists Diagnose Chronic Heartburn More Effectively

 Gastroenterologists are using confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) to more effectively diagnose chronic heartburn. The technology gives doctors an image of the esophagus that is magnified 1,000 times. A tiny microscope at the end of an endoscope provides the magnification, while a blue light provides illumination--sending clear, close-up images to a computer screen. Read more at Science daily

Heartburn is a common condition that affects more than 70 million in US alone and many millions more worldwide. And also it is an early symptom to Gastroesophageal Reflux disease (GERD) .

Many times we feel heartburn after taking meals and we take antacids to suppress these sensations, but in chronic cases they get repeated quite often and are necessarily an early symptom to the GERD.

However there is a difference between the heartburn and acid reflux like GERD.   

Someone having heartburn may not have the acid reflux and one who is having acid reflex ailment may not have heartburn.

Read More 

1. Heartburn Symptoms 

2. Special Risks with Nightime Heartburn 

3. An indepth overview of Heartburn, treatment and prevention

Detecting Asthma -- Radiologists Develop Asthma Imaging Method

Radiologists developed a new method for viewing the lungs of asthma sufferers. The method uses a polarized helium-3 gas--making it visible during an MRI. The patient inhales the helium-3 and undergoes an MRI, where doctors can see how far the atoms in the gas can travel in the lungs. This gives an image of what airways are blocked and what parts of the lungs ventilate. The black areas of the image indicate portions of the lung where air does not reach--areas where the helium-3 atoms could not travel.

Science daily

Here comes a new technique to diagnose Asthma, a disease which affects more than 22 million in US and of them 3 million are children and affects 300 million worldwide.

Asthma, as most of us know is a chronic disease which impairs breathing by inflaming and narrowing of the airways in the lungs, sometimes causing acute breathing problems in patients with severe condition.

In many cases the conditions of asthma happen at irregular intervals and over a longer period of time, the reasons of asthma are still being researched but mostly it is suspected due to the inherent tendency to develop allergies commonly know as atopy beside other reasons.

Read more about Asthma information at U.S Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health website

More Reading:

1. I have asthma. Do I need to know anything special before I get pregnant?


2.A link to a Senior Researcher working with Children in this field.

Breakthrough computer models aiding cocaine addiction research

There has always been a great deal of curiosity at the secrets of addiction. In this case scientists have developed breakthrough computer models to study the brain mechanisms taking place inside a cocaine addict's brain.

University of Missouri researchers at the Department of Electrical and Computational Engineering have done much needed research on the subject. The post doctoral students in their research have utilized computational models to study how the brains chemicals and the synaptic mechanisms or connection between neurons react with cocaine addiction. This study is an important development in the field of research involving cocaine and other related addictions and this is the first time ever that cocaine addiction has been studied using computer models.

“With cocaine addiction, addicts don’t feel an urge to revolt because there is a strong connection in the brain from the decision-making center to the pleasure center, which overwhelms other normal rewards and is why they keep seeking it,” Pendyam, one of the researcher said


Read the full article at Sciencedaily.com.

Gaming addiction poses 'pandemic' threat : Expert

Computer game addiction has truly become a menace for the kids, there seems to be no end to this perennial problem. Parents have much to worry about their kids spending all of the important time playing video games. I too remember the days when I used to spend lot of time at computer games, boy it's real addiction like any other thing. A recent post of mine delved with a topic related to the importance of outdoor lifestyles of children based on a study by
National Wildlife Federation

And now a study by an organization doing research in computer gaming addiction gives a new damning report in a new study indicating the addiction becoming a pandemic and a world wide phenomenon.

"This is a huge hidden problem in a lot of countries and it doesn’t get the same kind of attention because it takes place largely behind closed doors rather than out in public," Sven Rollenhagen of the Youth Care Foundation (Stiftelsen Ungdomsvård. ) told The Local.



The rate at which the new High Definition games hitting the market, there's a kind of huge following among all the younger generation. The important question is How a child is going to cope with the probability of getting addicted to computer machine games ? Guardians have a fair deal of sharing this responsibility I think.

"These are smart guys, highly intelligent, capable of being anything – doctors, engineers, whatever. But they find themselves tempted by computer games and end up just wasting time in front of a screen," said Rollenhagen.

You can read the full article here.

Related Post :
1.Outdoor lifestyles important for a Child's academic performance.

Study :Outdoor lifestyles important for a child's academic performance

A new study by the National Wildlife Federation, a US organization for conservation of Wildlife suggests that indoor lifestyles of child students can have less performance on overall development of a child including a decline in performance at studies.

“Today’s indoor kids are distracted, less fit, more aggressive, and hard to manage in the classroom. Some don’t relate well to other students or adults on a personal level,” said Vice President for Education and Training Kevin Coyle.
“Outdoor time can improve overall healthwhile lengthening attention spans, diminishing aggressiveness, improving test scores and ultimately advancing learning” he added.

It is important that a child needs as much outdoor exposure to balance out the lifestyle which nowadays is increasingly getting indoors. The report also suggests that students who have access to Environmental education(EE) have good statistics of performance

China approves one dose home-grown swine flu vaccine

China on Thursday granted approval to its first home-grown swine flu vaccine, which producer Sinovac says is effective after only one dose, as the country braces for a feared winter outbreak.



European version of vaccine produced by the UK Pharmaceutical companies such as Glaxo, is a two doses based vaccine, and there are special guidelines for children below three years in some countries.

With India too gearing up in the vaccine campaign, initially the Government of India is planning to administer first vaccine shots of about 2 million doses to the doctors and health care workers, and other important service sector employees involved in battling the virus and who are at a higher risk of contracting the virus.

The main concern of the complete vaccination scenario is not enough time has been spent studying the after effects of the vaccine, but recent reports indicated that there have been no complications as of yet. But it is still hard to say about the total effectiveness of the Flu shot, as it is a battle against time with the onset of flu season in most parts of the world.

Other related stories

1. H1N1 battle: No side effects in the flu shot
2. NY times story

Stockholm prepared to enforce smoking ban next year.

Employees of the city of Stockholm are going to face a smoking ban. The capital city of Sweden is going to enforce a smoking ban upon its 45,000 employees.

It is said that the smoking related illness and other sickness holidays are costing the government some $367 million per annum. The law which is not yet introduced, will be formally launched from 1st of May next year in all probability as the ruling government is supportive of the idea and is very much likely to vote for the ban according to the Swedish television channel SVT.

In a survey done by a local organization found out that at least 64 or more municipalities are interested on the ban out of 290 city councils in the state of Sweden.

Now Smokers will be able to enjoy smoking cigarette in the un-paid lunch hour only. Well, it seems quitting smoking is the best option under the circumstances, I don't know what type of fine the government will enforce if someone breaks the ban, that will be interesting to watch.

H1N1 battle: No side effects in the flu shot

H1N1 is mesmerizing around the world, but some reports are encouraging as there are reported to be no side effects as of yet and the immunization program in the US, clinical trials on Adults has begun on Aug 7 and on children on Wednesday. Later on the shots will be tested on pregnant women too, large swathes of population has been effected by the flu, at least 550 deaths in US is reported to be from the Virus, but the real number is definitely higher, the flu is expected to peak when the winter sets in and schools are specially advised to keep the sick children out and make the healthier ones wash their hands regularly.

Though some strains of the flu were found in two Turkey's, doctors said that is not a cause for worry as it is not lethal and there were no adverse effects in the birds, H5N1, bird flu was lethal and made the culling important.

Many countries in southern hemisphere are bracing for the winter season as it results in a normal flu season due to colder and drier temperatures, people are advised to stay clean and eat a healthy diet and there is no need to be worried. Hopefully the new shot will soon provide the desired results and could be efficient as far as the results indicate. But it is too short a period for any clinical trial of a vaccine to be commended secure with no side effects.

NY times story

Research: Vegetarians at low cancer risk !

A new UK research shows vegetarians at lower cancer risk. Watch the video to listen to the spokesperson.

Canada declares bisphenol A as hazardous, thus limiting its further use in baby bottles

Following its announcement of April 18th 2008, Canadian government has declared Bisphenol A (BPA) a hazardous chemical two days back, thus preventing its further use as a plastic bottle container of baby foods halting any further imports of the chemical.

Canada's Health Minister Mr Tony Clement, earlier this year announced Canada was considering banning the chemical BPA from use in baby bottles.

The Health Canada's report should have been published in the Canada Gazette publication.

Bisphenol A is also found in hard plastic sports bottles and in the food can linings, how the authorities are going to limit the use is still not clear yet.

Earlier the Journal of American Medical Association research reported finding
" significant relationship " that mimics estrogen with many diseases including fatal heart and liver disease and also the National Toxicology Program of the US found the chemical to carry some strain.
Related Posts :
Plastics suspected in Brain Disorders
Melamine contaminated food products
Printed T-Shirts causing cancer

Health Map: A Project website to track health alerts

By the time a major disease outbreak is reported and the news would have reached the Internet and by the time it reaches the general public it would have already affected a sizable portion of the population under its influence. Thanks to the information explosion these days, it is simply hard to find what's actually and very important like matters on health. Now in the days of financial crisis we get to see bail-outs, wall-street, recession, debts, mortgage in most of the headlines in the world today.

To overcome this problem researchers have been working on a project since 2006 on a project website called HealthMap, which extracts all the buried information from the web places like Google News, World Health Organization and all the other online discussion groups. The extracted data is then reprocessed and presented to the researchers and the public in a way to track an outbreak of a disease or virus or any other relevant info region by region.
The site also has other features like color coding to distinguish between the severity of an outbreak and other parameters including prevalent weather. This was disclosed by the researchers in the latest edition of PLoS (Public Library of Science) journals on preventive health studies.

The site is sponsored by the Google's Prevent and Predict initiative and could be of much use in the developing world, where the researchers mostly predict most of the outbreaks to the prevalent climatic conditions and other geography related factors.


Related Articles:

1. Printed T-shirts causing Cancers
2. Plastics Involved in brain disorders
3. Snoring dangerous to health

Smoking Cigarette is Injurious to Health

Smokers get wake-up call with new graphic anti-smoking images on cigarette packets.

Printed T-shirts causing Cancers

Is our clothing safe for our daily use, this is what this article reflects on. T-shirts and other printed textiles are found to carry the dangerous chemical which can cause birth defects and even cancer. The chemical in question is nonylphenol ethoxylates, it is widely used in detergents and other laundry materials used in cleaning purposes. In the present case Swedish society for Nature Conservation SSNC found this substance in large ratios which is a cause for concern.

1. Full story here
2.Procter and Gamble (P&G) Nonylphenol and Nonylphenol Ethoxylates
3.Wikipedia on Nonoxynols
4. A World Health Organisation Review on Nonylphenol Ethoxylates


Another Link which is related to legislation is out of service due to maintenance at the site which you can check if it is available now

5.International digest of Health Legislation(idhl) at WHO

No More

Lets talk about flowers !

When we get to hear the news from this part of the world, we are taken aback sometimes. The last time we heard about Colombia was when FARC rebels ended up losing captivity of their celebrated catch in the form of Ingrid Betancourt, but there are other reasons also Colombia is known for, this is what this story tells us and it is quite fun to know that Colombia is the second largest exporter of cut flowers to the world taking its sales to over a $ 1 billion in exports only the last year.

Read the full story here

But this story involves a little bit of twist, the practices involved in the industry in growing these flowers, which are about 62% of all the flowers sold to USA. There are reports of high pesticide usage in the industry. You can read about it here

No more

Snoring dangerous to health: Report

Have you ever felt tired after a sleep ? Do you feel sleepy in the day time at times and often get caught in catnaps ?. Moreover, do you snore at normal levels ?

A new report on snoring concludes that snoring can be dangerous to health even at normal levels and can leave the person sleepy and prone to catnaps, you can read the story here.

There are numerous sleep disorders that affect the sleep in our daily lives, some of the common sleep disorders are

1. Bruxism: Involuntarily grinding or clenching of the teeth while sleeping
2. Delayed sleep phase syndrome DSPS: Inability to fall asleep and get awake at socially acceptable hours, but healthy sleep, advanced sleep phase syndrome ASPS and Non-24 hour sleep syndrome are less common than the DSPS.
3. Sleep walking or somnambulism: Activities performed while one is asleep, they can include eating, dressing and more without the subject being involved in the actual know how etc.,

Further reading:
1. Sleep Disorders an overview.
2. National Institutes of Health on Sleep Disorders.
No More

Plastics suspected in Brain Disorders: NTP report

Bisphenol A (BPA) A chemical used in manufacturing of many types of Polycarbonate plastics used in the human food container cycle, is under spotlight again for its possible side effects on human health, it has been in use since a long time back.

Though there is still no consensus on the issue world wide, with European Union's Food Safety Authority and Japan dismissing the assessments as not a significant threat in the year 2006 and 2007 respectively.

Canada, on April 18th 2008 announced that it is banning the use of polycarbonate in the manufacturing of Baby bottles and other related products, Wal-Mart followed the course of action banning the sale of the polycarbonate plastic off its shelves at the same time.

With the final report released by the National Toxicology Program NTP in the US on September 3 2008. Finally, it appears the chemical has got some strains.

Further reading:
1. Full Story Here
2. Bisphenol A (BPA)
No more

Models going hungry, How ?

Modelling as a career is lucrative, but the practices in the industry are not. On and off we get to hear the news Models getting in trouble with unhealthy dietary plans which lead them to severe health problems and in some cases we came to know about on stage drama's like models falling off the ramp in a dizzy state and in extreme cases some models died. How horrific ? I am talking about Ana Carolina Reston the model from Brazil. If you look at some of the facts, I am simply amazed, How crazy this industry is.


Though there is more awareness, but do you feel the work has been done and all is well and fine, this article discusses the same issue. I personally think Anorexia can be done only with boycotting big pageant shows which put on show, models with such astonishing figures who are actually more closer to death than they appear. Behind the screens there has been lot of research being done on eating disorders, but that is just different from self imposed or a industry stipulated guidelines, where you starve yourself to nightmares.

Further Reading:
1. AnyBody - AnyBody's Vent - - I've fought to stop models starving ...
2. Feed the Model
3. Research on Anorexia