Pharmas Health And Medical Blog » Health News

China Lifts ban barring entry to Foreigners with HIV and AIDS

Shue — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:49:45 +0000

China, which has had a strict regulation for the past 20 years of not allowing foreigners with either HIV, AIDS sexually transmitted diseases and leprosy has changed it. The regulation has been relaxed recently after the government felt that this regulation is not helping in any way to control the rise and spread of these illnesses within the country. They are of the opinion that with this strict regulation, they will be putting an impedement on the entry of foreigners when the country is hosting international events.

This regulation has been effected directly due to the starting of the huge Shanghai World Expo which is a 6 month event. This event will surely attract a lot of foreign exhange for the country and with such strict regulations, it will be very difficult to get more people into the country. It had temporarily lifted the ban for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Read on.

Dangers Of Asbestos Exposure And soldiers in Iraq

Shue — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:47:57 +0000

Soldiers returning from the war in Iraq are showing signs of asbestos poisoning. This is due to the increased use of asbestos used in building the units for housing and also in military vehicles which use asbestos in brake pads. The use of asbestos is banned in many countries but there seems to be no sort of regulation or control on the import and use of asbestos in the war stiken country. This has brought about a lot of problems for the soldiers who have been diagnosed with lung cancer, respiratory disorders and so on.

Iraq imports almost 25,000 tonnes of asbestos every year which is extremely unhealthy. Asbestos is a known carcinogen- cancer causing agent.When it is used in the buliding material, the individuals living in it, will inhale microscopic asbestos fibers which get lodged inside the tissues of the lungs and other organs. This can eventually lead to irritation, infections and some times- cancer.

Find out more from source site.

Smell Your way to a Longer Life

Shue — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:21:17 +0000

It has been understood now that the smells that we are used to in our everday life are actually capable of altering the life span of a person. It has been known for a long time as to how the aroma of certain herbs and spices are very good at activating the sense organs and various other receptors in the body. this in itself is called as aroma theraphy. Today after research on nematodes and fruit flies after they were deprived of their ability to smell and taste, they lived much more than normal. this tells us how much the smells and tastes which we come accross all the time.

The research which is going on is still in the nascent stages. it has not become conclusive, but the preliminary results show us that when the olfactory functions are removed the lab animals have been able to live considerably longer than normal.

One can always find out more from the main article.

Polio May Be On Its Way Back

Shue — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:06:16 +0000

Decades have gone in attempting to eradicate polio from the world, but it looks like it may be re-emerging in the world. Recent outbreak of paralysis may be a strong indicator of its return.

The World Health Organization says Tajikistan, a Central Asian nation which shares its southern border with Afghanistan, has reported 120 cases of acute flaccid paralysis, most of which occurred within the past two weeks.
Although, paralysis may be caused by a number of factors, but in this case, poliovirus has been confirmed in some of these cases. The WHO says the Tajik outbreak represents a reintroduction of polio to the group’s European region. Tajikistan hadn’t recorded a polio case for the past 19 years.

That in itself isn’t necessarily ominous, says Sona Bari of the WHO’s Polio Eradication Program. Just because polio has been reintroduced to a country doesn’t mean it will get reestablished there, she says.
“People working on polio eradication don’t see this as a derailing,” Bari says. “It’s more of a wakeup call.”
This week, Bari says, the polio eradication program will finalize a new strategy that acknowledges vaccination won’t be enough to get the job done.

Read on.

Grapes Reduce Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Shue — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:04:03 +0000

In positive news for those suffering from type 2 diabetes and those prone to developing it, scientists at the University of Michigan health system have come across useful results from the daily use of grapes. One of the precursors to type 2 diabetes seems to be controlled well through a diet which contains a high amount of grapes. It has been understood that the main ingredient for this is phytochemicals. These are found in abundance on green red and black grapes. Extensive research has been conducted in lab rats.

Two groups of rats where chosen for the project. Each was fed with two different types of diets. One contained high amounts of grapes blended in with a normal American diet. The other one did not contain any grapes. To offset the high amount of calories got through the grapes, additional sugar was added. After 3 months on this diet it was seen that the rats with grape diet had lower blood pressure better heart functioning and improved glucose tolerance. All this leads us to understand that grapes are good for the heart and a check on diabetes. For more information visit this link:

Check out the source article.

Makeup Testers Tainted With Staph, Herpes, E. Coli

Shue — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:59:55 +0000

A recent study has found that makeup testers found in malls and beauty stores are regularly tainted with a variety of illnesses including staph, herpes and E. Coli. Published in L.A. Times, a study conducted by Dr. Elizabeth Brooks, a biological sciences professor at

Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia has found that the percentage of tainted tester makeup–when analyzed on Saturdays, the business shopping day of the week–was a shocking 100%.
“We went to department stores, specialty stores, drugstores–everywhere. Wherever you see E. coli, you should just think ‘E. coli equals feces.’ That means someone went to the bathroom, didn’t wash their hands and then stuck their fingers in that moisturizer,” Brooks said.
Dr. Zein Obagi, a Beverly Hills-based dermatologist, explains to the paper, “If a woman has a cut on her lip and borrows lipstick from someone who has a cold sore, she’ll get a cold sore. You can pass herpes [the cold sore virus], conjunctivitis [pink eye] and all sorts of things through sharing makeup.”
When trying on makeup testers, Brooks insists, “clean the surface of the makeup tester with a tissue or a tissue dipped in alcohol before applying makeup.” While these solutions may reduce the chance of infection, the safest way to stay healthy is to avoid communal testers completely.

Volcanic Ash Could Pose Major Health Risks, Say Experts

Shue — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:08:57 +0000

Just as small amounts of volcanic ash began to settle in Iceland, Scotland and Norway on Friday, officials from World Health Organization have warned that Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash from Iceland’s volcano starts settling.
WHO spokesman Daniel Epstein said the microscopic ash is potentially dangerous for people when it starts to reach the Earth because inhaled particles can enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems.
“We’re very concerned about it,” Epstein said. “These particles when inhaled can reach the peripheral regions of … the lungs and can cause problems — especially for people with asthma or respiratory problems.” He also said Europeans who go outside might want to consider wearing a mask.
On the other hand, Ken Donaldson, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of Edinburgh said, “Not all particles are created equal.” He has studied the impact of volcanic ash in people. “In the great scheme of things, volcanic ash is not all that harmful.”

Find more.

Job Stress Leads To Higher Weight

Shue — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:29:12 +0000

A study was conducted with employees at a downsized company in upstate New York and researchers found that a stressful job is usually associated with a bigger waistline.
It is found that employees with less stressful jobs were thinner than those whose jobs involved higher levels of stress. The stressed employees had a body mass index (BMI) that was about one unit heavier on average than that of their relaxed co-workers.
The findings are important in a time of widespread lay-offs, said Isabel Diana Fernandez, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and lead author of the study. In the study, workers left behind at the downsized company often complained of more stress and more responsibilities.
“I think the message is that we have to take care of the employees who’ve remained,” Fernandez said.
These findings hardly come as a surprise considering that work stress has long since been considered the culprit in causing cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression, among other chronic health conditions.
Although the findings represent a moment in time and can’t show causation, they suggest that stress at work makes people likely to fall back on unhealthy behaviors at home, Fernandez said.
“They go back home, and they only want to veg out,” she said.

One can always find more from the source article.

Hand Gel Are a Waste of Money, Say Experts

Shue — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:24:19 +0000

With so many health scares around, it is little wonder that people are trying to be as careful as possible and one of their main weapons is the hand gel. There are many hand gels that claim to kill up to 99% bacteria on your hands. What could be better than that to protect yourself from viral and bacterial infections in the air?

A study conducted by Ottawa University in December 2009, found that brands that claimed to kill ‘99 per cent’ of germs did not – at the very best they killed 60 per cent, and at worst just 46 per cent.

Most people don’t realize that their hands first need to be clean for the hand gels to work. ‘Like many cleaning agents, most hand gels will be less effective in the presence of protein matter, such as food, mud, faecal matter or blood,’ says Dr Ron Cutler, a microbiologist from Queen Mary, University of London. ‘You really need to wash off all visible signs of dirt before they will be totally effective.’
Also, gels can only really help kill everyday germs, such as those that cause the common cold. New research suggests that hands gels won’t protect against gastroenteritis or viral stomach bugs such as norovirus.

Obesity Experts Find ‘Last Supper’ Portions have been ‘Super Sized’

Shue — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 06:35:50 +0000

Obesity Experts have pointed out an interesting case of art imitating life. They claim that the portions depicted in the ‘Last Supper’ have been growing in size in keeping with our own super-sizing of meals.

The Cornell University team studied 52 of the most famous paintings of the Biblical scene over the millennium and scrutinized the size of the feast in each one of them. To their surprise, they found that the main courses, bread and plates put before Jesus and his disciples have progressively grown in size, in some cases, by up to two-thirds.

Professor Brian Wansink, who, with his brother Craig, led the research, published in the International Journal of Obesity, said: “The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food.”
“We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history’s most famous dinner.”
Craig Wansink, who is a professor of religious studies, says the changes in portion sizes is probably a reflection of culture rather than theology.
“There is no religious reason why the meals got bigger. It may be that meals really did grow, or that people just became more interested in food.”