Saturday, 25 September 2010
Hindus laud City of Cambridge for yoga pictures on parking tickets envelopes
Hindus have welcomed City of Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA) idea of pictures of yoga moves on parking violation tickets envelopes.
Eminent Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a release in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was wonderful that City of Cambridge was drawing the attention of residents and visitors towards yoga, a mental and physical discipline, which was referred as "a living fossil" and whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that yoga was based on an eightfold path to direct the practitioner from awareness of the external world to a focus on the inner. According to National Institutes of Health, Yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress.
Parking violation fines vary between $20 and $100 in Cambridge. David P. Maher is the Mayor while Susan Clippinger is Parking Department Director of Cambridge, popularly known as "City of Squares" and settled in 1630, which is home to internationally renowned Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Swami Vivekananda reportedly brought yoga to USA in 1893. According to an estimate, about 16 million Americans now do yoga. (ANI)
HP government to consider setting up Ayurveda University : CM
Himachal Pradesh government is considering setting up an Ayurvedic University in the state
to give boost to the country's ancient system of medicine, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal
today said. Making the announcement at the three-day 'Arogya Mela' at Una, Dhumal said
the state government would spend Rs 48 crore on infrastructure upgradation and providing Ayurvedic medicine in 300 ayurvedic health centres in the state. The number of Panchkarma
centres had been increased from six to sixteen and 27 Ayurvedic hospitals in the state
had been brought under National Health Mission during his current stint in power, he said.
PTI
Viagra Ineffective for Men With Low Testosterone Levels
Viagra may not work for men with low testosterone levels, says an expert.
Geoffrey Hackett, a consultant urologist, said men with erectile dysfunction could be "wasting hundreds of pounds on tablets" when their real issue is low testosterone.
He was speaking at the launch of new guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders.
Hackett, of the Good Hope Hospital said the most common sexual problem men see their GP about is erectile dysfunction.
It affects 40 percent of men over 40 years old, and more than one in five men with erectile dysfunction have a testosterone deficiency.
"Low testosterone is linked to increased risk of mortality from diabetes and cardiovascular events so diagnosing it is very important in preventing those diseases," the BBC quoted Hackett as saying.
"Men for whom Viagra isn't working adequately need to have their cases reviewed. If low testosterone is the problem then Viagra won't be the answer on its own," he said.
In the new guidelines, the British Society for Sexual Medicine stresses the importance of doctors asking patients about their sex lives and any concerns they might have about sexual function.
Kevan Wylie, lead author of the guidelines and consultant in sexual medicine at the University of Sheffield, said: "The importance of sex life and sexual function to general health and well being is not often discussed or acknowledged in our society.
Geoffrey Hackett, a consultant urologist, said men with erectile dysfunction could be "wasting hundreds of pounds on tablets" when their real issue is low testosterone.
He was speaking at the launch of new guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders.
Hackett, of the Good Hope Hospital said the most common sexual problem men see their GP about is erectile dysfunction.
It affects 40 percent of men over 40 years old, and more than one in five men with erectile dysfunction have a testosterone deficiency.
"Low testosterone is linked to increased risk of mortality from diabetes and cardiovascular events so diagnosing it is very important in preventing those diseases," the BBC quoted Hackett as saying.
"Men for whom Viagra isn't working adequately need to have their cases reviewed. If low testosterone is the problem then Viagra won't be the answer on its own," he said.
In the new guidelines, the British Society for Sexual Medicine stresses the importance of doctors asking patients about their sex lives and any concerns they might have about sexual function.
Kevan Wylie, lead author of the guidelines and consultant in sexual medicine at the University of Sheffield, said: "The importance of sex life and sexual function to general health and well being is not often discussed or acknowledged in our society.
Friday, 24 September 2010
When Treating Patients With Respiratory Infections, Doctors Misuse Antibiotics
Doctors frequently misuse antibiotics when treating patients hospitalized with respiratory tract infections (RTIs), a recent study has found.
The study, which tracked patients in two Pennsylvania hospitals, found that doctors often use antibiotics to treat patients whose infections are caused by viruses.
The findings are alarming because antibiotics are not effective against viruses, and antibiotic overuse has been linked to the development of resistant bacterial strains.
"[T]hese data demonstrate at least one area where antibiotics are commonly used in hospitalized patients without clear reason," wrote the study's authors, Kevin T. Shiley, Ebbing Lautenbach and Ingi Lee.
"Recognition of this may be helpful in developing interventions to limit inappropriate antibiotic use in the future," they wrote.
The researchers looked at data on RTI patients admitted to two hospitals over a two-year period.
Of 196 patients who were diagnosed with viral infections, 125 remained on antibiotics after their diagnoses.
It would be understandable to keep a patient on antibiotics if an abnormal chest x-ray suggests a concurrent bacterial infection, the researchers said.
However, only 37pc of these patients had abnormal chest x-rays. "It is less clear why the remaining 63pc of patients with normal chest imaging were prescribed antibiotics," Shiley and his colleagues wrote.
Source:Medindia
The study, which tracked patients in two Pennsylvania hospitals, found that doctors often use antibiotics to treat patients whose infections are caused by viruses.
The findings are alarming because antibiotics are not effective against viruses, and antibiotic overuse has been linked to the development of resistant bacterial strains.
"[T]hese data demonstrate at least one area where antibiotics are commonly used in hospitalized patients without clear reason," wrote the study's authors, Kevin T. Shiley, Ebbing Lautenbach and Ingi Lee.
"Recognition of this may be helpful in developing interventions to limit inappropriate antibiotic use in the future," they wrote.
The researchers looked at data on RTI patients admitted to two hospitals over a two-year period.
Of 196 patients who were diagnosed with viral infections, 125 remained on antibiotics after their diagnoses.
It would be understandable to keep a patient on antibiotics if an abnormal chest x-ray suggests a concurrent bacterial infection, the researchers said.
However, only 37pc of these patients had abnormal chest x-rays. "It is less clear why the remaining 63pc of patients with normal chest imaging were prescribed antibiotics," Shiley and his colleagues wrote.
Source:Medindia
'Dry Water' To Fight Global Warming
Dry water, anyone? Well the delightful oxymoron can work in the combat against global warming, scientists believe.
The unusual substance, which resembles powdered sugar, could provide a new way to absorb and store carbondioxide, it was reported at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
The powder shows bright promise for a number of other uses. It may, for instance, be a greener, more energy-efficient way of jumpstarting the chemical reactions used to make hundreds of consumer products. Dry water also could provide a safer way to store and transport potentially harmful industrial materials.
"There’s nothing else quite like it," said Ben Carter, Ph.D., researcher for study leader Professor Andrew Cooper. "Hopefully, we may see ’dry water’ making waves in the future."
Carter explained that the substance became known as "dry water" because it consists of 95 percent water and yet is a dry powder. Each powder particle contains a water droplet surrounded by modified silica, the stuff that makes up ordinary beach sand. The silica coating prevents the water droplets from combining and turning back into a liquid. The result is a fine powder that can slurp up gases, which chemically combine with the water molecules to form what chemists term a hydrate.
Dry water was discovered in 1968 and got attention for its potential use in cosmetics. Scientists at the University of Hull, U.K. rediscovered it in 2006 in order to study its structure, and Cooper’s group at the University of Liverpool has since expanded its range of potential applications.
The unusual substance, which resembles powdered sugar, could provide a new way to absorb and store carbondioxide, it was reported at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society.
The powder shows bright promise for a number of other uses. It may, for instance, be a greener, more energy-efficient way of jumpstarting the chemical reactions used to make hundreds of consumer products. Dry water also could provide a safer way to store and transport potentially harmful industrial materials.
"There’s nothing else quite like it," said Ben Carter, Ph.D., researcher for study leader Professor Andrew Cooper. "Hopefully, we may see ’dry water’ making waves in the future."
Carter explained that the substance became known as "dry water" because it consists of 95 percent water and yet is a dry powder. Each powder particle contains a water droplet surrounded by modified silica, the stuff that makes up ordinary beach sand. The silica coating prevents the water droplets from combining and turning back into a liquid. The result is a fine powder that can slurp up gases, which chemically combine with the water molecules to form what chemists term a hydrate.
Dry water was discovered in 1968 and got attention for its potential use in cosmetics. Scientists at the University of Hull, U.K. rediscovered it in 2006 in order to study its structure, and Cooper’s group at the University of Liverpool has since expanded its range of potential applications.
Study Finds How Diarrhea-causing Bug Fosters Self-growth in Human Gut
Researchers from UC Davis have discovered how the bacteria Salmonella enterica - a common cause of food poisoning - fosters its own growth inside the human intestine
Salmonella is frequently in the news as a source of food poisoning outbreaks, usually from eating poorly cooked or unhygienically prepared eggs or meat. Salmonella infection, known as salmonellosis, causes diarrhea, fever, vomiting and abdominal cramps. Although most people recover after several days, it may be fatal, especially in the elderly, infants, and people with an impaired immune system.
"We have discovered Salmonella's cunning trick that allows it to quickly take over and outgrow the beneficial microbes in our intestine," Nature quoted Andreas Bdumler as saying.
When people ingest Salmonella, it invades the surface of the intestine. Our immune system responds by producing oxygen radicals to kill the bacteria. Although some Salmonella bacteria are killed by this response, many more benefit: the oxygen radicals create a sulfur compound called tetrathionate, which Salmonella are able to use instead of oxygen forrespiration - which helps it live and reproduce.
Source:Medindia
Salmonella is frequently in the news as a source of food poisoning outbreaks, usually from eating poorly cooked or unhygienically prepared eggs or meat. Salmonella infection, known as salmonellosis, causes diarrhea, fever, vomiting and abdominal cramps. Although most people recover after several days, it may be fatal, especially in the elderly, infants, and people with an impaired immune system.
"We have discovered Salmonella's cunning trick that allows it to quickly take over and outgrow the beneficial microbes in our intestine," Nature quoted Andreas Bdumler as saying.
When people ingest Salmonella, it invades the surface of the intestine. Our immune system responds by producing oxygen radicals to kill the bacteria. Although some Salmonella bacteria are killed by this response, many more benefit: the oxygen radicals create a sulfur compound called tetrathionate, which Salmonella are able to use instead of oxygen forrespiration - which helps it live and reproduce.
Source:Medindia
Electric skin patch to cure acne
Scientists have developed what they claim is a high-tech skin patch which could end the embarrassment of acne, the most common type of skin condition, mainly affecting adolescents.
The patch, which looks like an ordinary plaster, works by producing an electric charge to kill the bacteria linked to the condition ;the overnight treatment has no side-effects , say the scientists at Oplon, an Israel based technology company. In fact, results from a small test show that acne spots almost disappeared within three days, and that spots in the area around the patch also improved.
The patch consists of a mesh-like material impregnated with special molecules; when these come into contact with the moisture on the skin, they create a tiny electrical field in which bacteria cannot survive. The patch appears to have a knock-on effect on the skin around it, helping break down dead skin and bacteria. The mesh also contains salicylic acid, which removes the dead skin blocking the follicles, and azelaic acid, to kill bacteria in the pores, the Daily Mail reported.
A large trial is now on the cards. Around 100 people will wear the patches overnight or for around six hours. The study results are expected by the end of the year, and the patch itself could be available within two years. Although the plaster is designed to treat only one spot, the scientists are also looking at the idea of a larger pad that can be cut to the size the user needs.
Traditional treatments for acne include creams, such as benzoyl peroxide, which work by preventing the dead skin blocking hair follicles and killing bacteria on the skin. Another option is antibiotics to kill off the bacteria . However, many of these treatments can take weeks to be effective and some carry a risk of side-effects.
PTI
The patch, which looks like an ordinary plaster, works by producing an electric charge to kill the bacteria linked to the condition ;the overnight treatment has no side-effects , say the scientists at Oplon, an Israel based technology company. In fact, results from a small test show that acne spots almost disappeared within three days, and that spots in the area around the patch also improved.
The patch consists of a mesh-like material impregnated with special molecules; when these come into contact with the moisture on the skin, they create a tiny electrical field in which bacteria cannot survive. The patch appears to have a knock-on effect on the skin around it, helping break down dead skin and bacteria. The mesh also contains salicylic acid, which removes the dead skin blocking the follicles, and azelaic acid, to kill bacteria in the pores, the Daily Mail reported.
A large trial is now on the cards. Around 100 people will wear the patches overnight or for around six hours. The study results are expected by the end of the year, and the patch itself could be available within two years. Although the plaster is designed to treat only one spot, the scientists are also looking at the idea of a larger pad that can be cut to the size the user needs.
Traditional treatments for acne include creams, such as benzoyl peroxide, which work by preventing the dead skin blocking hair follicles and killing bacteria on the skin. Another option is antibiotics to kill off the bacteria . However, many of these treatments can take weeks to be effective and some carry a risk of side-effects.
PTI
Why girls kiss girls
Britney and Madonna created a roar with their much-publicised on-stage liplock, and so did Scarlett Johansson and Sandra Bullock. But what is it that makes women to indulge in such a sexual act with the same gender.
Sociology professor Verta Taylor, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her colleague, Leila J. Rupp of the school's feminist studies department, examined the trend in a new study.
In one national survey, they report, fewer than 2 percent of women called themselves lesbian or bisexual, but fully 8 percent reported either feeling same-sex desire or engaging in some kind of same-sex act.
The absolute numbers seem low — no surprise in a study that relies on self-reporting about so personal a matter — but what's more important is the 4-to-1 ratio between label and behaviour, and that, the authors say, reveals a lot.
There are four main drivers of the girl-girl trend.
The first is the copycat trendiness that is inevitable when stars on awards shows do something sensational on camera.
But the biggest of the other three reasons is a desire for attention, typically from boys.
This is why parties are so often involved in same-sex kissing — and why the disinhibiting effects of alcohol frequently contribute.
"It's usually brought on by, I don't know, like shots or drinking or people kind of saying something to like cheer it on or whatever. And it's usually done in order to turn guys on or to seek male attention in some way," said one female student the professors interviewed.
That plays into the old feminist notion of the power imbalance involved in the "male gaze," with men as observers and women as the observed, said the researchers.
Genuine experimentation is another motivation for same-sex connecting between females who don't see themselves as lesbians.
"Bi-curious" girls — or, as they're increasingly called when drinking is involved, "bar curious" — are hardly unique in wondering what it would be like to have a same-sex experience. But when the culture becomes more accepting, experimentation is likelier to follow.
One girl who embraces the bi-curious label told the UCLA researchers that the fact that experimentation often takes place when other people are around does not mean showing off is all that's involved.
Some bi-curious girls also call themselves LTGs, for lesbian till graduation, and that captures what same-sex kissing represents for a lot of them: a form of intimacy and diversion, but not something that ultimately feels like a true orientation.
For other girls — those on their way to coming out as lesbians, or just discovering their orientation themselves — girl-girl kissing, particularly in a party setting, provides a safe and comfortable glide path in what can often be a rocky transition.
The researchers pointed out that the same kind of gradual transitioning may explain why so many lesbian girls' first same-sex experience is in a threesome that involves a male.
This, they write, "is an extension of the safe heterosexual space for exploring same-sex desire."
All of this amounts to what students and researchers alike are increasingly calling "heteroflexibility," a sexual elasticity that, on the whole, is a very good thing.
The study is published in the American Anthropological Association magazine Contexts
Source:TOI
Sociology professor Verta Taylor, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her colleague, Leila J. Rupp of the school's feminist studies department, examined the trend in a new study.
In one national survey, they report, fewer than 2 percent of women called themselves lesbian or bisexual, but fully 8 percent reported either feeling same-sex desire or engaging in some kind of same-sex act.
The absolute numbers seem low — no surprise in a study that relies on self-reporting about so personal a matter — but what's more important is the 4-to-1 ratio between label and behaviour, and that, the authors say, reveals a lot.
There are four main drivers of the girl-girl trend.
The first is the copycat trendiness that is inevitable when stars on awards shows do something sensational on camera.
But the biggest of the other three reasons is a desire for attention, typically from boys.
This is why parties are so often involved in same-sex kissing — and why the disinhibiting effects of alcohol frequently contribute.
"It's usually brought on by, I don't know, like shots or drinking or people kind of saying something to like cheer it on or whatever. And it's usually done in order to turn guys on or to seek male attention in some way," said one female student the professors interviewed.
That plays into the old feminist notion of the power imbalance involved in the "male gaze," with men as observers and women as the observed, said the researchers.
Genuine experimentation is another motivation for same-sex connecting between females who don't see themselves as lesbians.
"Bi-curious" girls — or, as they're increasingly called when drinking is involved, "bar curious" — are hardly unique in wondering what it would be like to have a same-sex experience. But when the culture becomes more accepting, experimentation is likelier to follow.
One girl who embraces the bi-curious label told the UCLA researchers that the fact that experimentation often takes place when other people are around does not mean showing off is all that's involved.
Some bi-curious girls also call themselves LTGs, for lesbian till graduation, and that captures what same-sex kissing represents for a lot of them: a form of intimacy and diversion, but not something that ultimately feels like a true orientation.
For other girls — those on their way to coming out as lesbians, or just discovering their orientation themselves — girl-girl kissing, particularly in a party setting, provides a safe and comfortable glide path in what can often be a rocky transition.
The researchers pointed out that the same kind of gradual transitioning may explain why so many lesbian girls' first same-sex experience is in a threesome that involves a male.
This, they write, "is an extension of the safe heterosexual space for exploring same-sex desire."
All of this amounts to what students and researchers alike are increasingly calling "heteroflexibility," a sexual elasticity that, on the whole, is a very good thing.
The study is published in the American Anthropological Association magazine Contexts
Source:TOI
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