Life | Page 114 of 133 | SpiritIndia.com

Hypertension :: Positive emotions linked to lower blood pressure

Having a positive outlook makes life more enjoyable, and it may also lower blood pressure in older adults. Among more than 2,500 people aged 65 or older, the higher a person scored on a questionnaire measuring positive emotions, the lower was his or her blood pressure. “Our thoughts and emotions do affect our physical processes,” Dr. Glenn V. Ostir of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, the study’s lead author, told. “The nice thing is that we have some control over that.”

Stroke :: Surgery Better Than Stents

Surgery outperformed the use of stents in a French trial of patients who had warning symptoms of stroke because of blockage of the carotid arteries, the main blood vessels to the brain. Indeed, the trial was cut short “for reasons of both safety and futility,” said a report in the Oct. 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The incidence of stroke or death in the 30 days and six months after a procedure was about twice as high for patients given a stent, a tube-like device to keep an artery open, than for those who had the surgery called endarterectomy.

Aging :: DHEA not an anti-aging compound for elderly adults

Taking supplements of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone, better known as DHEA, does not improve body composition, physical performance, insulin sensitivity, or quality of life in elderly adults, according to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine. The new findings strongly contradict advertisements promoting these supplements as anti-aging compounds, lead author Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues conclude.

Renal Failure :: Homeopathy in Chronic Renal or Kidney failure (CRF)

Chronic Renal (Kidney) Failure is a fatal disease where bodily waste products (in the form of urine) collected in the body which leads to multiorgan failure. There are three procedures in modern medicine for such condition –

Success :: Blueprint for Success – Defining Your Goals

Goal means what your aim to reach in the future. In your life establishing goals has a positive impact. A goal is a specific, assessable result that you want to generate at a determinable time in the future. But if what you hope to achieve in life is based on your expectations, rather than on working to reach established goals. Your goals are the stepping-stones toward the understanding of your dreams, the second key element in the blueprint of your life.

Breast Cancer :: Mammograms reduce breast cancer deaths, but increase overdiagnosis

A new review of studies offers good news and bad news for women faced with the decision about whether to get regular mammograms. The good news is that screening mammography does reduce breast cancer mortality. The review found that women offered screening mammograms are 15 percent less likely to die of breast cancer than women who are not offered mammograms.

Flu :: GlaxoSmithKline?s new generation flu vaccine shows a significant seroprotection

New data released today demonstrate significantly better immune responses in the age range 65 and above when vaccinated with GSK?s new generation (adjuvanted) seasonal flu vaccine compared to a traditional seasonal flu vaccine. These new data are highly important, since the disease burden and death toll is highest among the elderly in each flu season. The data, presented at the Influenza Vaccines for the World (IVW) 2006 Congress, showed the seroprotection rate (90.5%) achieved by the new adjuvanted vaccine in the elderly to be more than 25% higher than that reported in the age matched comparator group.

Influenza :: Switzerland to purchase GSK?s H5N1 influenza vaccine for pre-pandemic use

GlaxoSmithKline (plc) today announced that a supply contract has been signed by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and GlaxoSmithKline for 8 million doses of GSK?s H5N1 antigen influenza vaccine and its proprietary adjuvant for pre-pandemic use. The order provides enough doses, one per head of the entire Swiss population, to help prepare the immune system against the threat of a human influenza pandemic and is the first national programme to do so. Supply and stockpiling of the pre-pandemic vaccine is expected in early 2007 once the Swiss regulatory agency, Swissmedic, has reviewed and approved GSK?s regulatory file.

Eyes :: Bayer & Regeneron’s VEGF Trap for the treatment of eye diseases, AMD

Bayer HealthCare (NYSE: BAY) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: REGN) today announced that the companies have entered into a collaboration agreement for the global development, and commercialization outside the U.S., of the VEGF Trap for the treatment of eye disease by local administration (VEGF Trap-Eye). The VEGF Trap-Eye, currently in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, is a protein that binds to or ?traps? vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and blocks its activity. VEGF is thought to play a critical role in certain eye diseases.

Health :: Key mechanism by which lethal viruses ebola and marburg cause disease

Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Caribbean Primate Research Center have discovered a key mechanism by which the Filoviruses, Ebola and Marburg, cause disease. The identification of an amino acid sequence in Filoviruses that results in the rapid depression of immunological response is described in the December 2006 issue of The FASEB Journal. Using this information, researchers can begin to develop new drugs to stop these devastating diseases.