Month: August 2008

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Ailmemts & Remedies

Night Leg Cramps

Definition:A muscle cramp is a sudden, uncontrolled contraction of a muscle. This type of pain is most commonly experienced in the legs, and therefore often called a leg cramp or a “charley horse.”

Leg cramps occur when the muscle suddenly and forcefully contracts. The most common muscles to contract in this manner are muscles that cross two joints. These muscles include the calf (crossing the ankle and knee), the hamstring (crossing the knee and hip), and the quadriceps (also crossing the knee and hip).

Leg cramps usually last less than one minute, but may last several minutes before the contraction subsides. In some patients, the leg cramps occur primarily at night, and can awaken the patient from sleep.

A muscle cramp is an involuntary, sustained tightening (contraction) of one or more of your muscles. It can result in intense pain and an inability to use the affected muscles. Night leg cramps are contractions of the leg muscles, usually in the back of the lower leg (calf). They often occur just as you’re falling asleep or just as you’re waking up.

click to see the pictures

Causes:
The exact cause of night leg cramps isn’t known. Some experts believe they may be due to abnormal processing of electrolytes — essential elements and chemical substances your body needs for basic functions — by muscles. Almost everyone has occasional leg cramps. But they occur most often in older adults. Common causes of night leg cramps include:

Muscle overexertion
Prolonged sitting
Dehydration
Pregnancy
Diabetes
Decreased potassium levels
Neuromuscular disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease
Certain medications, such as albuterol, niacin, diuretics, and some calcium channel blockers and antipsychotic medications
Alcohol use

If you do get a leg cramp, you may be able to make it go away by:
1.Walking on the affected leg
2.Massaging the affected muscle
3.Straightening your leg and flexing your foot toward your knee until you feel the calf muscles stretch
4.Applying a cold pack to the affected muscle
5.Taking a hot bath

6.When your calf muscles cramp Flex your foot up (toes to ceiling) and hold until the cramping stops.

7.Apply heat to cramping muscles
8. Massage the cramped muscles
9. Make sure you eat plenty of potassium rich foods – (bananas,
tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, cantaloupe, oranges, grapefruit)

To help prevent night leg cramps:
Drink plenty of fluids during the day.
Stretch your leg muscles before bedtime.
Get adequate potassium in your diet.
If you have frequent and severe leg cramps at night, talk to your doctor. Treatment results vary. But the most effective treatments based on current research are:

Vitamin B-12
Gabapentin
Night leg cramps should be distinguished from another common cause of night leg discomfort called restless legs syndrome, a condition in which your legs have a creepy, crawly or fidgety sensation unless you move them. The sensation often worsens as night approaches. Restless legs syndrome is a neurologic condition that requires different treatment from that of night leg cramps.


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Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.

Resources:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/night-leg-cramps/AN00499
http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sprainsstrains/a/legcramp.htm

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Ailmemts & Remedies

Stomach Bug Treatment for Cancer

Endoscopic image of deep gastric ulcer in the ...Image via Wikipedia

Eradicating a common bug in people with stomach cancer can prevent the disease from recurring, research suggests.

H. pylori is commonly known as the main cause of stomach ulcers

Helicobacter pylori, proved to be the cause of most stomach ulcers, has also been linked with stomach cancer

In a study of 550 people who had stomach cancer surgery, antibiotics which killed the bug cut the risk of a second cancer developing by two-thirds.
” Preventing gastric cancer by eradicating H. pylori in high-risk regions should be a priority” Says Dr Nicholas Talley
There will now be a trial of 56,000 British people to see if killing the bacterium stops the cancer developing.

H. pylori lives in the stomach, and accounts for up to 90% of duodenal ulcers and up to 80% of gastric ulcers.

It was famously linked with stomach ulcers by two Australian researchers – one of whom deliberately infected himself to prove the theory – who were awarded the Nobel prize for their discovery in 2005.

The World Health Organisation also classes the bacterium as a leading cause of stomach cancer.

Prevention :
Previous trials on eradicating H. pylori as a method of preventing further stomach cancers in patients who have undergone surgery have been conflicting.

But the latest study, done in Japan, found that the strategy could be very useful.

Patients with early stomach cancer underwent a procedure to remove the cancerous cells and surrounding tissue.

Half of them were then treated with a course of drugs designed to eradicate H. pylori – lansoprazole, amoxicillin and clarithromycin – and half received dummy pills and were then examined at six, 12, 24 and 36 months to see if the cancer had reappeared in a different site.

After three years, a second stomach cancer had developed in nine patients in the eradication group compared with 24 in the control group.

Overall, the risk of developing cancer was reduced by 65% with H. pylori treatment.

Study leader Dr Mototsugu Kato, from Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine said: “We believe that our data add to those from previous studies showing a causal relationship between H. pylori infection and gastric cancer, and also support the use of H. pylori eradication to prevent the development of gastric cancer.”

Writing in the same issue of The Lancet, Dr Nicholas Talley, of Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Florida, US said: “Preventing gastric cancer by eradicating H. pylori in high-risk regions should be a priority.”

Henry Scowcroft, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “This result adds to our understanding of the relationship between H pylori and stomach cancer, and to the debate on how we should treat people with this infection.

He added the charity was helping to fund a study to assess whether elimination of the bacteria could prevent cancer developing.

“The trial aims to recruit 56,000 people across the UK, treat any who show signs of H pylori infection, and follow them over 15 to 20 years to see if this treatment is effective.”

Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.

Sources: BBC NEWS:31st.July.’08

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Frankincense ‘Can Ease Arthritis’

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A herb known as “Indian Frankincense” can reduce the symptoms of arthritis, US researchers have suggested.

Frankincense is used in aromatherapy and religious ceremonies

Extracts from Boswellia serrata, a similar species to the variety famous for its role in the Christian nativity, were tested on dozens of patients.

Those who received it reported better movement and less pain and stiffness.

The herb has been used for thousands of years in Indian Ayurvedic medicine, reports the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of the condition, and normally affects the weight bearing joints such as hands, wrists, feet and spine.

Current treatments carry a great many adverse effects, and scientists have been hunting for an alternative.

The investigation into the properties of Boswellia serrata was led by Dr Siba Raychaudhuri at the University of California, Davis.


“Certainly osteoarthritis is in need of new safe analgesics, although many effective therapies that reduce pain such as muscle strengthening exercises, shock-absorbing footwear and weight loss have very few bad side effects: Says Professor Philip Monaghan, Arthritis Research Campaign

Eventually they tested an extract of the plant enriched with the chemical – AKBA – thought to be its active ingredient.

Some of the 70 patients with severe arthritis in their knees recruited into the trial were given a low-dose capsule, some a higher dose capsule, and the remainder were given a dummy pill with no active ingredients.

In as little as seven days, patients taking the frankincense drug reported improvements in their pain and stiffness levels compared with the placebo group, and these continued until the 90-day mark, when the study ended.

Alternative therapies

Tests of the fluid within affected joints also revealed falls in levels of enzymes linked to the condition.

Dr Raychaudhuri said: “We have shown that B. serrata enriched with AKBA can be an effective treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee.”

However, UK experts urged caution. Professor Philip Conaghan, from Leeds University, and a spokesman for the Arthritis Research Campaign, said: “Certainly osteoarthritis is in need of new safe analgesics, although many effective therapies that reduce pain such as muscle strengthening exercises, shock-absorbing footwear and weight loss have very few bad side-effects.

“This report on treating knee pain with a chemical derivative of B. serrata is interesting but the patient numbers are small, there were some problems with the reported trial design and we need more information on its medium to long-term safety.”

Sources: BBC NEWS:1st.Aug.’08

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Shoes that Warn You About a Fall

Scientists working to help astronauts regain balance after extended flights in zero gravity say they’ve found a way to use the research to help elderly people avoid catastrophic falls.

..

An “iShoe”insole contains sensors that read how well a person is balancing. The point is to gather information for doctors and to get people to a specialist – before they fall.

Erez Lieberman, a graduate student who developed the technology while working as an intern at Nasa, says a damaging fall is preceded

by numerous warnings, similar to how high cholesterol and elevated blood pressure point to a coming heart attack. “You gradually get worse and worse at balancing,”said Lieberman, who studies in a joint Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology health science and technology program. “If you know the problem is there, you can start addressing the problem.”

The National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates 300,000 people annually suffer hip fractures, which are often caused by falls. An average of 24% of hip fracture patients age 50 and over die within a year of the fracture.

Many fall victims who don’t die within a year end up being disabled the rest of their lives.
“It’s a huge issue,”said Elinor Ginzler of the AARP. “It significantly impairs your ability to stay independent, which is what people want.”

The idea for the iShoe came to Lieberman while he was working on a project to help astronauts regain balance after months in zero gravity. The work is part of preparations for long space missions, such as trips to Mars, that require astronauts to perform complicated tasks on the terrain soon after landing.

He and Katharine Forth, a visiting scientist at Nasa who also works on the iShoe, had been touched personally by the issue of elderly falls, with each seeing a grandmother’s health rapidly deteriorate after such an accident. “It was something that has kind of been on my mind in general, and once I started looking at balance it became very clear it would have applications in that direction,”Lieberman said.

Nasa tests balance with an expensive device about the size of a phone booth. Lieberman and Forth say the iShoe insole, slipped inside any shoe, solves the problem of portability and affordability, since the device would cost about $100.

Lieberman estimates $1 million is needed for a broad clinical trial, and $3 million to $4 million to bring the insole to market. The company has applied for a patent and as well as federal funding. Once funding is obtained, the iShoe could be for sale in 18 months, Lieberman said.

Sources: The Times Of India

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Are Nano-Foods the Next Scary Items?

Those consumers already worried about genetically engineered or cloned food reaching their tables may soon find something else in their grocery carts to furrow their brows over – nano-foods.

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Consumer advocates taking part in a food safety conference in Orlando, Florida, this week said food produced by using nanotechnology is quietly coming onto the market, and they want US authorities to force manufacturers to identify them.

Nanotechnology involves the design and manipulation of materials on molecular scales, smaller than the width of a human hair and invisible to the naked eye. Companies using nanotechnology say it can enhance the flavor or nutritional effectiveness of food.
US health officials generally prefer not to place warning labels on products unless there are clear reasons for caution or concern. But consumer advocates say uncertainty over health consequences alone is sufficient cause to justify identifying nano-foods.

“I think nanotechnology is the new genetic engineering. People just don’t know what’s going on, and it’s moving so fast,”Jane Kolodinsky, a consumer economist at the University of Vermont, said at the conference.

American consumers are generally more complacent about genetically modified or cloned foods than their counterparts in Europe. But Michael Hansen, a senior scientist with the Consumers Union, said polls show that 69% of Americans are concerned about eating cloned meat.

He said that in focus groups run by the US Food and Drug Administration, no parents were willing to feed their children meat from cloned animals or their offspring.

New consumer products created through nanotechnology are coming on the market at the rate of 3 to 4 per week, according to an advocacy group, The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), based on an inventory it has drawn up of 609 known or claimed nano-products.

Nano-products in common use today include lightweight tennis rackets and bicycles, and sunscreens containing clear, nonwhite versions of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. On PEN’s list are three foods – a brand of canola cooking oil called Canola Active Oil, a tea called Nanotea and a chocolate diet shake called Nanoceuticals Slim Shake Chocolate.

Sources: The Times Of India

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