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 …
mobile friendly: Researchers have found no link between mobile phone use and cancer. They used mobile-phone companies' records to gauge phone usage. They tracked subjects for an average of 8.5 years, and some followed up to 21 years. Joachim Schuz of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Copenhagen, looked at more …
humans are more prone to cancer because of their body mass. However, nature has protected us somewhat from this risk by disallowing the secretion of an enzyme that rapidly heals damaged cells but promotes cancer. Telomerase, the enzyme which is not normally found in humans, is found in abundance in …
curry leaves do not just satiate taste buds. Scientists have discovered a new aspect to the leaves; the possibility of curing prostate cancer. Researchers from Santiniketan-based Visva-Bharati University, Kolkata's Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, us, have isolated mahanine
Pesticides, common environmental exposures, have been examined in relation to breast cancer primarily in occupational studies or exposure biomarker studies. No known studies have focused on self-reported residential pesticide use. The authors investigated the association between reported lifetime residential pesticide use and breast cancer risk among women living on Long …
there may now be a non-toxic cancer remedy in place. It is the only one, claim scientists of the Kolkata-based Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. According to them, methylglyoxal in combination with ascorbic acid has been found to have significant curative effects on cancer patients. The study published …
another attempt to bring chrysotile, the most common form of asbestos, under the prior informed consent list (pic) of the Rotterdam Convention has failed. Parties to this international treaty governing trade in toxic substances met in Geneva between October 10 and 13, 2006. But they couldn't agree on adding chrysotile …
In its June 2006 conference in Geneva, the International Labour Organization adopted a resolution: "Considering that all forms of asbestos including chrysotile...are classified as known human carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer
Shrimp trade marred: Shrimp, the second largest export commodity from Bangladesh to the European Union (EU), might lose its huge market, as the group is considering blacklisting a good number of Bangladeshi shrimp exporters. The commission has detected the presence of nitrofurazone, a chemical used to store shrimp in the …
The war over Glivec, a cancer treatment drug, is expected to intensify as two writ petitions filed by Novartis AG, the Swiss pharmaceutical group, come up for hearing on September 26, 2006, in the Madras High Court. Petition 24754 was filed against the January 25, 2006, order of the assistant …
Scientists have found a way to trick cancer cells into committing suicide. The technique potentially offers the means to personalised anti-cancer therapy. Most living cells contain a protein called procaspase-3, which, when activated, changes into executioner enzyme caspase-3 and initiates programmed cell death, called apoptosis. In cancer cells, however, the …
a compound extracted from red algae (Kappaphycus alvarezii), which is grown widely in coastal Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, can cure cervical cancer, claims a study by a team of German and us oncologists. Cervical cancer accounts for almost a quarter of all cancer incidents among Indian women. Lab studies showed …
High levels of stress are known to cause diseases like hypertension, peptic ulcer and insomnia. But a group of scientists at the University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center, Houston (in the US) now claims that chronic stress can even encourage the growth of cancerous tumours. The team of …
leukaemia breakthrough: A study by a team of scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital in Boston, USA, shows that cancer stem cells are different from normal blood stem cells. Led by Scott Armstrong, the team suggests that targeting these cells would be an effective way to treat …
sterilising produce: A new method to sterilise fruits and vegetables has been developed, which literally sucks life out of germs. It could replace ozone-depleting chemicals, like methyl bromide, which are currently used to sterilise fresh produce. Called metabolic stress disinfection, the technique was developed by Manuel Lagunas-Solar and his team …
the air around us is toxic, full of toxins that cause cancers, along with other serious ailments. The magnitude of air toxics is alarming, especially those emitted by vehicles. These are greater cause for concern because they are inadequately monitored. A recent study, Smoke Screen: Ambient Air Quality in India …
As many as 500,000 women and children die in India each year due to indoor air pollution caused by use of solid biomass as cooking fuel, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The poor in India, who form the majority of the population and live in congested, slum-like conditions, …
a team of scientists at the National Chemical Laboratory (ncl), Pune, has succeeded in propagating the medicinally important tree Calophyllum inophyllum (common names: sultan champa /laurel tree) by tissue culture. Different parts of the tree have been used in traditional medicine to treat ailments like rheumatism, haemorrhage and skin diseases. …
a team of scientists headed by Sangeeta N Bhatia of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, usa, has found an easy way to detect cancer using magnetic resonance imaging (mri). The technique is based on iron oxide nanoparticles which show up on mri scans (because iron has magnetic properties). It does …
3d mouse: Scientists in the US have developed a fast, high-resolution, 3D mouse embryo visualisation technique that may revolutionise the way birth defects and cancer genes are studied in animal models. The new tool, called Virtual Histology, has already boosted the researchers' ability to study the mouse embryo and more …
