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 …
Nanotechnology can be risky, but no one is regulating its use Thanks to nanotechnology, that allows grinding particles to atomic levels, you now have face creams that spread so smoothly on your skin that only a transparent sheen is visible, no layers. While that seamless make-up is desirable, cosmetics using …
Rice is the staff of life for 3 billion people, predominantly in Asia. But does the food that sustains half of humanity also increase the risk of cancer for some? That question arises from three sets of findings-including data now in press-that report elevated arsenic levels in rice and products …
Deepsikha Cancer Care Foundation, an NGO working exclusively for cancer patients, has taken the initiative to make the common masses aware about the abuse of tobacco and its harmful effects. With this aim in view, it has opened its first branch of stop tobacco centre in the Deomornoi community health …
Chicago: Normal cells in the blood that play a role in healing wounds may also be creating the right conditions for cancer cells to spread, US researchers said. They said fibrocytes, blood cells derived from bone marrow, could explain how healthy cells become habitats for cancer. "Cancer cells do not …
Chewing tobacco and snuff are less dangerous than cigarettes but the smokeless products still raise the risk of oral cancer by 80%, the World Health Organisation's cancer agency said. The review of 11 studies worldwide showed people who chewed tobacco and used snuff also had a 60% higher risk of …
GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is unlikely to receive US approval for its key cervical cancer vaccine until 2010 at the earliest, under a new timetable it released on Monday. After requests for fresh information on Cervarix from the Food & Drug Administration in December, GSK said it had decided …
Long-term impacts of drinking chlorinated water on the incidence of cancers and miscarriages were assessed in a population-based cross sectional study conducted in the two campus communities of IIT Kanpur (IITK) and IIT Kharagpur (IITKgp). IITK has been using untreated groundwater since the community was established in 1963, while IITKgp …
We've known for a long time that a high-fat diet, obesity and lack of exercise can increase the risk of developing heart disease and type 2 diabetes, two conditions that affect millions of Americans. What we are finding out now is that those same lifestyle factors also play an important …
Could combating cells with cells be the new direction for cancer treatment? Can the body's own defences be harnessed to outwit tumours - that's the big question driving immunotherapy, an entire front in the war against cancer that just got a big boost in credibility. Cancer is biologically baffling
Jeremy Laurance A 52-year-old man with advanced melanoma, the lethal form of skin cancer, has been successfully treated using just his own blood. The development has been hailed by British experts as an "exciting advance' in the use of cancer immunotherapy, which harnesses the body's immune system to fight the …
faced with increasing scientific evidence of pesticides-induced health disorders, the Punjab government has decided to begin a cancer registry programme. Adding to numerous health studies, two recent reports have revealed the fast-deteriorating public health in the state (See
punjab has finally made cancer-registry compulsory in the state. Despite numerous scientific reports revealing the public health crisis in the state, the government had obstinately resisted any redress mechanism. The recent decision comes in the wake of two new scientific reports. One shows that pesticides are damaging genes of farmers …
Smoking cigarettes has the same effect as cutting the life span by close to five years, according to a mortality risk chart released Tuesday in the US Journal of the National Cancer Institute. "The effect of smoking on the chance of dying is similar to the effect of adding five …
Beasts in my belfry: Maneka Gandhi At least 90 per cent of Indian chickens are fed arsenic compounds; they are, therefore, the carriers of diseases Do not believe for a moment that chicken is good for you and that if you have a cholesterol or heart problem and do not …
What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don't? Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. "I think the safe practice,' said Dr Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center …
Donald G. Mcneil Jr. As the world's population ages, gets richer, smokes more, eats more and drives more, non-communicable diseases will become bigger killers than infectious ones over the next 20 years, the World Health Organisation is reporting. The report, World Health Statistics 2008, shows that AIDS, tuberculosis, neonatal tetanus …
Surprising research suggests that childhood cancer is most common in the Northeast, results that even caught experts off guard. But some specialists say it could just reflect differences in reporting. The large government study is the first to find notable regional differences in pediatric cancer. Experts say it also provides …
Experts at a discussion yesterday said there are around 12 lakh cancer patients in the country and two lakh new patients are added annually of which 1.5 lakh patients die due to the disease. If detected earlier, 90 percent cancer is curable especially in the case of cervical and breast …
India's rural activists for years have blamed the overuse and misuse of pesticides for a pervasive health crisis that afflicts villages like Jhajjal across the cotton belt of Punjab. Evidence continues to mount that the problems are severe. Last month, a government-funded study revealed that chemical fertilizers and pesticides have …
Two studies pointing to the link between heavy pesticide use and several illnesses, including cancer, in Punjab have prompted the state government to set up a cancer registry programme. The Punjab government has decided to begin a cancer registry programme. The move is believed to be in response to mounting …
