A new form of hot yoga called the Bikram yoga has soared in popularity as people look for new ways to stay fit. The new yoga is a selected series of 26 hatha yoga postures designed by Yogi Bikram Choudhury. The asanas are performed in a room with temperature of 40 degrees. Bikram yoga is based on a combination of balance and resistance.
The heat will clean out all toxins from the system and purify the blood, it has been claimed. “40 degrees is a safe temperature to stretch and work out in as the muscles stretch more easily in the heat and the joints work better, allowing you to push deeper into the stretch,” said a Bikram yoga teacher from London.
Nevertheless, consumers must be aware that they must practice yoga with a qualified teacher to avoid injuries.
Source-Medindia
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Abused Women Get Assistance Through Web-based Program
Abused women can get assistance through individualized safety plans and be able to evaluate their situation through a Web-based program developed at the University of Missouri.
Unlike current Internet resources, the decision-aid program provides women with personalized assessments of the danger of their situations.
The program generates a series of initial questions and follow-up questions for each woman, and then creates individualized safety plans based on their responses.
A safety plan may include talking with children about what to do if violence suddenly occurs, establishing a safe place to go at a moment's notice, or hiding money and a change of clothes somewhere in or outside the home. Women also receive information about legal processes and community resources.
"The decision-aid provides anonymity and guidance to women who aren't comfortable talking about their situations," said Tina Bloom of Sinclair School of Nursing.
"It helps women think through their decisions, make more informed decisions and decrease decisional conflict - that sort of feeling like they don't know what to do, what their options are or where to look for help," she said.
In the pilot study of the program, the researchers found that women's decisional conflicts were reduced after one use of the decision-aid.
The program is designed to help women who don't have access to traditional resources, including shelters and doctors. The decision-aid will be available to women anywhere they have safe access to the Internet.
Unlike current Internet resources, the decision-aid program provides women with personalized assessments of the danger of their situations.
The program generates a series of initial questions and follow-up questions for each woman, and then creates individualized safety plans based on their responses.
A safety plan may include talking with children about what to do if violence suddenly occurs, establishing a safe place to go at a moment's notice, or hiding money and a change of clothes somewhere in or outside the home. Women also receive information about legal processes and community resources.
"The decision-aid provides anonymity and guidance to women who aren't comfortable talking about their situations," said Tina Bloom of Sinclair School of Nursing.
"It helps women think through their decisions, make more informed decisions and decrease decisional conflict - that sort of feeling like they don't know what to do, what their options are or where to look for help," she said.
In the pilot study of the program, the researchers found that women's decisional conflicts were reduced after one use of the decision-aid.
The program is designed to help women who don't have access to traditional resources, including shelters and doctors. The decision-aid will be available to women anywhere they have safe access to the Internet.
Do Not Consume Sleeping Pills During Long-distance Flights
It is not advisable to consume sleeping pills during long-distance flights, a warning has been issued by Oz experts following the death of a woman from blood clots.
According to New England Journal of Medicine, the 36-year-old woman, who was not identified due to patient confidentiality laws, had taken a single sleeping tablet and spent most of the flight asleep in one position.
The woman, an officer worker, woke up seven hours into the flight and collapsed in the aisle.
A doctor on board attempted to resuscitate her and the plane made an emergency landing two hours late
A week later, tests confirmed that she died from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) - blood clots formed in her legs had travelled through her body and lodged in her heart and lungs, causing brain damage.
"Sleeping tablets are not recommended on aircraft, since they tend to immobilise you and increase your risk of thrombosis," News.com.au quoted Deborah Mills of The Travel Doctor in Australia as saying.
Sadly, on an aircraft it's good for you to be uncomfortable. It's not healthy to sleep in the sitting position.
"DVT is a very rare cause of death in travellers; however, even small clots can damage the lungs permanently and mean you have to take long term anti-clotting drugs, which disrupts your lifestyle and exercise tolerance, Mills said.
Richard Dawood, a member of the International Society of Travel Medicine said that air travellers should be more aware of the risks of taking these pills.
According to New England Journal of Medicine, the 36-year-old woman, who was not identified due to patient confidentiality laws, had taken a single sleeping tablet and spent most of the flight asleep in one position.
The woman, an officer worker, woke up seven hours into the flight and collapsed in the aisle.
A doctor on board attempted to resuscitate her and the plane made an emergency landing two hours late
A week later, tests confirmed that she died from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) - blood clots formed in her legs had travelled through her body and lodged in her heart and lungs, causing brain damage.
"Sleeping tablets are not recommended on aircraft, since they tend to immobilise you and increase your risk of thrombosis," News.com.au quoted Deborah Mills of The Travel Doctor in Australia as saying.
Sadly, on an aircraft it's good for you to be uncomfortable. It's not healthy to sleep in the sitting position.
"DVT is a very rare cause of death in travellers; however, even small clots can damage the lungs permanently and mean you have to take long term anti-clotting drugs, which disrupts your lifestyle and exercise tolerance, Mills said.
Richard Dawood, a member of the International Society of Travel Medicine said that air travellers should be more aware of the risks of taking these pills.
Dementia and Death Risk Rises When Elderly Patients Experience Delirium
Review and analysis of previous research has associated an increased risk of death, dementia, and institutionalisation to delirium in elderly patients .
Delirium is a syndrome of acutely altered mental status characterized by inattention and a fluctuating course. With occurrence rates of up to half of older patients postoperatively, and even higher in elderly patients admitted to intensive care units, delirium is the most common complication in hospitalized older people," the authors write.
"Evidence suggests that delirium is associated with long-term poor outcome but delirium often occurs in individuals with more severe underlying disease."
Joost Witlox, M.Sc., of the Medical Center Alkmaar, the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted an analysis of previous studies to assess the association between delirium and long-term poor outcomes in elderly patients while controlling for important confounders (other factors that can influence outcomes).
The researchers identified 51 relevant articles. The primary analyses included only high-quality studies with statistical control for age, sex, comorbid (co-existing) illness or illness severity, and baseline dementi
The primary analysis showed that delirium was associated with an increased risk of death compared with controls after an average follow-up of 22.7 months.
"The results of this meta-analysis provide evidence that delirium in elderly patients is associated with an increased risk, of death, institutionalization, and dementia, independent of age, sex, comorbid illness or illness severity, and presence of dementia at baseline. Moreover, our stratified models confirm that this association persists when excluding studies that included in-hospital deaths and patients residing in an institution at baseline," the researchers write.
The study has been published in the July 28 issue of JAMA.
Source-ANI
Delirium is a syndrome of acutely altered mental status characterized by inattention and a fluctuating course. With occurrence rates of up to half of older patients postoperatively, and even higher in elderly patients admitted to intensive care units, delirium is the most common complication in hospitalized older people," the authors write.
"Evidence suggests that delirium is associated with long-term poor outcome but delirium often occurs in individuals with more severe underlying disease."
Joost Witlox, M.Sc., of the Medical Center Alkmaar, the Netherlands, and colleagues conducted an analysis of previous studies to assess the association between delirium and long-term poor outcomes in elderly patients while controlling for important confounders (other factors that can influence outcomes).
The researchers identified 51 relevant articles. The primary analyses included only high-quality studies with statistical control for age, sex, comorbid (co-existing) illness or illness severity, and baseline dementi
The primary analysis showed that delirium was associated with an increased risk of death compared with controls after an average follow-up of 22.7 months.
"The results of this meta-analysis provide evidence that delirium in elderly patients is associated with an increased risk, of death, institutionalization, and dementia, independent of age, sex, comorbid illness or illness severity, and presence of dementia at baseline. Moreover, our stratified models confirm that this association persists when excluding studies that included in-hospital deaths and patients residing in an institution at baseline," the researchers write.
The study has been published in the July 28 issue of JAMA.
Source-ANI
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Monday, 26 July 2010
Karachi Baby Boy Born With Six Legs
A Karachi woman has given birth to a baby boy with six legs. The boy was born at a maternity home near Star Gate and is admitted to the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) for a surgery to be performed on his intestines, which were hanging out of his abdomen, reports the Daily Star. NICH Deputy Director Arshad Ali Domki said the child was being provided medical treatment while his surgery would be conducted after consultation with specialist doctors. Doctors have also said that such cases were rare in the country. Source-ANI
New Fear: Ban on Tobacco Ads in UK Could Fund Al Qaeda, Taliban
fear that Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists will profit from the growth in cigarette smuggling into the UK if a ban on tobacco advertising is implemented. One defence source said: "The Taliban will take full advantage of methods to secure money to fund their insurgency against our troops. "If an opportunity arises, such as an increase in demand for smuggled illicit cigarettes into the UK, their networks will find a way of filling that void," the Daily Express quoted a defence source, as saying. The ban comes into force for supermarkets in 2011 and for corner shops in 2013. The law was passed in the last few months of the previous administration, but has been challenged by retailers who say evidence from other countries that a ban stops youngsters smoking is flimsy. It is feared the ban could even increase youth smoking from illegal sources. The Sunday Express has launched the "Don't Shutters Down" campaign against the display ban on the grounds that it could lead to the closure of hundreds of community shops. Cigarette smuggling and the import of contraband tobacco are already becoming more prevalent in the UK. At Easter, customs and excise seized seven million cigarettes at Newhaven. Fears that the Taliban could benefit from the impending ban are supported by an influential report from the US Center for Public Integrity on the link between Islamic Jihad and cigarette smuggling. Source-ANI
No Going Back on Health Care - Obama
US President Barack Obama, while enforcing the health care bill through the new measures he revealed on Tuesday, stated, "We're not going back," to his opponents. Three months after the enactment of the law that aims to extend medical coverage to 32 million Americans, Obama announced the new rules which he said would "put an end to some of the worst practices in the insurance industry." Obama said that the measures, part of the phasing in of the law over several years, would offer greater consumer protection to people who might otherwise be denied or lose health coverage. "Starting in September, some of the worst abuses will be banned forever," he said. "No more discriminating against children with preexisting conditions. No more retroactively dropping somebody's policy when they get sick if they made an unintentional mistake on an application. No more lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on coverage. Those days are over." The president told his political adversaries, including Republicans seeking to reverse the law and make health care an issue in upcoming congressional elections, that he would fight such efforts. "We're in Washington, so obviously there's politics involved," he said. "And I've got some folks on the other side of the aisle that still think none of this should happen and, in fact, have said they're going to run on a platform of repeal. They want to go back to the system we had before."
Air Pollution in Traffic Leads to Sudden Cardiac Death
Patients with cardiovascular diseases who are exposed to air pollution in traffic have a greater risk of suffering from stroke or cardiac arrest, a new study conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health reveals. The researchers observed 30 residents living in Atlanta who were suffering from either a lung disease or a heart disease and found that high levels of pollutants like carbon monoxide led to a decrease heart rate variability (HRV) and thereby increasing the risk of heart attack. But the researchers did not find any link between reduced heart rate variability and ambient levels of air pollutants in the area where the subjects resided. However personal exposure to traffic-related air pollutants such as elemental carbon and nitrogen dioxide led to variability in HRV as determined by the 24-hour monitors worn by the patients. These findings may help explain why some people suffer heart attacks on days they are struck in traffic.
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