Good Health Tips

You will be good way of summarizing what I feel are some of the most important health messages.

India's First Double Hand Transplant Successful

India's first double hand transplant successful, doctors say

With the first successful double hand transplant, Indian doctors have registered a rare feat of carrying out the world's first hand transplant of a coloured skin and the first hand transplant in any developing country. So far, only 110 successful hand transplants have been done, since the first one in France 13 years ago, in USA, European countries, China and Australia. The honour for the rare feat goes to a team of surgeons at the Kochi-based Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. The transplant was carried out on January 12 and 13 to a train accident victim – 30-year-old Manu, who received both the hands of a 24-year-old road accident victim.

"The operation lasted for 16 hours with more than 20 surgeons participating in the procedure. Each hand required connecting two bones, two arteries, four veins and about 14 tendons," said Dr. Subramania Iyer, Professor and Head of the Plastic Surgery Department. "The immune suppressant drugs were started before the start of the surgery and continued after it. He was shifted to a transplant ICU. Careful monitoring of the blood supply to the hands was done and all precautions to prevent infections was instituted in the nursing. Another operation to replace an area of bad skin was done for his left hand on the second day," he added.

Dr. Iyer further said, "After 14 days post-surgery, both the hands have been accepted by the recipient's body and he started regaining movements. He has been shifted out of the ICU and post-surgical rehabilitation process has started under supervision." "Manu will be able to move his hands since his own muscles of the forearm are working to move the fingers. The sensations will return only slowly and is expected in three to four months. His immunosuppressant drugs (to prevent rejection of the transplanted hands) will have to be continued indefinitely, but at a reduced rate from three months," he added.

Dr. Iyer said, the current transplant is important, since follow up of the transplanted skin is done by the appearance of the skin and skin biopsies every month to see signs of rejection. He said the details of the transplant have been added to the International Registry of Hand Transplants, which maintains stringent standards in the follow-up of these cases. The entire expense for the transplant was borne by Mata Amritanandamayiu Math. "This transplant has put the Indian scientific community among the league of a few developed nations in the field of composite tissue allotransplant," said Dr. Iyer.

Real Sex Guru Their Age

Sex-guide according to your age

Our sexual behaviour varies at different times in our lives. Sex guru Tracey Cox in her bestselling book, 'Sextasy' reveals the sexual urges and traits of lovers according to their age...20-something: Most guys just can't stop dreaming about sex every couple of hours. At this age, girls are usually rebellious in their sexual imaginations. They share same-sex fantasies or want to try out bi-sexuality. A 2006 study of nearly 2000 people discovered that 76 per cent of women who slept with women reached orgasm (for women with men, the figure stands at 50 per cent).

The 20s are the time when young boys and girls are most experimental in their sexual positions. One in 10 people claims Tracey Cox have had a threesome in their early twenties. Also, people in this age group have most likely visited a strip joint or a lapdancing club - with their friends or their better half.

30 something: The 30s are a time to experiment, almost all 30-somethings claim to have had sex outdoors. Unlike the teens when making out was the most common form of sexual experimentation, most 30 somethings prefer having sex somewhere semi-public like the beach, in the garden or on a park bench in the darkness. There's something wildly erotic about these sexapades! Also, high on the 30 something popularity chart are having sex in the shower or in the bath tub. Kinky pleasures also rate high as most 30 plus couples claim to be giving in to their fantasies of bondage, blindfolds and spanking on a weekend of debauchery.

This is also the time when women are most likely to befriend gay male pals. Straight women love gay men; gay men love straight women. Swedish research is confirming just why the two groups get along so famously - they both have symmetrical brains. Straight men and lesbians have asymmetrical brain hemispheres.

The 30s also mark the arrival of children in a married couple's life, so the sex drive naturally dwindles. But, Cox points out that during pregnancy, couples have sex four to five times a month. Most put the brakes on their sex lives for about seven weeks after delivery, but four months later are back to four or five times of sex a month. Cox says six months after delivery, the average couple goes back to having sex three to five times a month. But incase you don't fit the bill, remember getting disheartened ain't gonna help. Remember it's just a temporary period, so continue touching and cuddling and if your baby robs you of chances to have sex, indulge in quickies.

Most women says Cox in her book experience higher orgasm rates. Ninety per cent of women past 30 regularly experience orgasm, compared to just 23 per cent of younger women.

40 something: Men in their 40s are more likely to experience erection problems. Also, this is the age when maximum number of men tend to be unfaithful. Also, men are more compelled in their 40s to watch more porn or indulge in sex chats. Women on the other hand get sexually very demanding, often being attracted to younger men.

If you thought the 40s were about low libido, think again, while 40-somethings maybe having less sex than ever, the thrust has shifted from how many times in a week to an emphasis on better quality. You are more sure of your sexual needs in this age group and thus more likely to insist on passion play as opposed to a mere making out session.
source:toi

Alia Bhatt Suffers calf muscle injury, Walks on crutches

Actress Alia Bhatt is walking on crutches these days due to a calf muscle injury, but that's not stopping her from promoting her forthcoming film "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania".

"For all those asking, thank you my leg is much better!! It's a calf muscle injury... I will be back to normal in no time :D love you all," she tweeted Saturday.

The actress was spotted on crutches when she stepped out to take a metro ride with her "Humpty Sharma..." co-star Varun Dhawan here earlier this week.

Alia reportedly injured herself while shooting a song.

Varun helped her get to the metro, but her photographs ended up leaving her fans worried, leading her to update them about her health.

Yuvraj Singh's Father Yograj Diagnosed With Vocal Chord Cancer

Yuvraj Singh's father Yograj diagnosed with vocal chord cancer, undergoing treatment in US

After India's batting star Yuvraj Singh recuperated from cancer, his father and former Test cricketer Yograj Singh has been reportedly diagnosed with cancer. According to a report in the Indian Express, he is learnt be undergoing treatment in a hospital in New York, after a surgery to remove a tumour in his vocal chords.

It is learnt that Yograj had been diagnosed with the cancer a few months back, but was advised to go to US after his voice choked and he developed breathlessness.

During the 2011 World Cup, Yuvraj had played a pivotal role in India's victorious campaign. His astounding all-round performance during the quadrennial event earned him the 'Player of the Series' award. However, the aggressive southpaw was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his left lung and underwent chemotherapy in US.

Six Kilogramme Tumour Removed From His Face

Slovak surgeons remove a giant six kilogramme tumour that has disfigured the lower face of Stefan Zoleik for the past ten years. Report by Jennifer Cordingley.

Sugary Drinks Damage Semen Quality in Men

Addiction to sugary drinks can leave a negative impact on the semen quality and reduce a man's chances of becoming a father, a new study says. In the study, regular consumption of sugary drinks lowered sperm motility in men. However, the association was found applicable to only healthy and lean men and not those who are obese or overweight, Livescience reported. The study reported in the journal Human Reproduction included 189 men, aged between 18 and 22, hailing from Rochester in New York. As part of the study, the participants underwent physical examination and completed a health and diet questionnaire. Researchers interviewed the participants and noted down the frequency and number of sugar-sweetened drinks they consumed every day.

High consumption of sugar sweetened drinks, i.e. an average of 2.7 per day in healthy, thin men was associated with 6.3 percent lowered sperm motility (ability of sperm to move toward egg) compared to those who reported taking less than a drink daily. Researchers couldn't find such results in obese or overweight men. Additionally, men who reported drinking more sugary drink, both lean and obese men had reduced levels of a reproductive hormone follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH plays a major role in regulation of sperm production.

The growing number of infertile couple across the globe has invited wide attention lately. In 90 percent of the cases, low sperm count and poor sperm quality play major roles. Male fertility is decided by three factors- quantity (15 million sperm millilitre in a single semen ejaculation), quality (more number of sperms with oval heads and long tails) and finally movement of at least 40 percent of the sperm (ability of the sperm to swim through woman's cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes), according to the Mayo Clinic in US.

Pill made from rose-hip extract can cut arthritis pain in sufferers by 90pc

A new pill made from rose-hip extract has been found to reduce the agony of osteoarthritis sufferers by an astonishing 90 percent. Human trials suggest a wonder supplement called Gopo - named after a key ingredient of the plant - could provide a breakthrough for six million Britons whose lives are blighted by joint pain. Pills containing the supplement are now available in the UK for the first time - for just 15 pence each, the Daily Express reported. Scientists said that they have proved the herbal remedy possesses special properties which can alleviate the condition in the hand especially.

Danish researchers found the specially cultivated compound reduced nagging pain in nine out of 10 of the 30 people who took part in clinical trials. Debilitating stiffness in finger and thumb joints - the calling card of osteoarthritis - can make tasks like opening jars, holding cutlery and tying shoelaces near to impossible. The results of investigations carried out at Frederiksberg University in Copenhagen show the natural extract could offer the closest thing to a cure. The pill gave round-the-clock relief, and sufferers were a third less likely to use conventional painkillers after taking the supplement.

Rose-hip, also known as rose haw, is the fruit of the rose plant and is commonly used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, wine and marmalade. It contains high levels of vitamin C and lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that helps lower cholesterol. Gopo was discovered more than 20 years ago in Denmark. The compound is extracted using a special patented process after drying rose-hips. The findings are published in the Open Journal of Rheumatology and Autoimmune Disease.

HCL enters Healthcare Business With Rs 1,000 Crore

Tech giant HCL on Thursday announced its foray into the country's fast-growing wellness and preventive healthcare market with the launch of HCL Healthcare. Promoted by billionaire Shiv Nadar, the company plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years to create India's largest network of outdoor patient clinics.

Think smartphone apps, video consultation and online monitoring of real-time health status of patients that will help them get rid off unwieldy paperwork. "The idea is to capture diseases early and nip problems in the bud," says Harish Natarajan, CEO of HCL Avitas, which is the first subsidiary of the venture rolled out in partnership with Johns Hopkins Medicine, a $6.7-billion US-based integrated global health enterprise.

The company is already running two clinics in the Delhi NCR region. "Eventually, we aim to employ around 1,500 doctors and cater to 50,000 patients daily," says Natarajan

A patient who walks into an HCL clinic will become a registered member. He or she will have access to the company's vast network of clinics and will be charged Rs 400-800 as consultation fees. "In the beginning, we will try to tap the Indian middle class," says Natarajan. Shikhar Malhotra, who is married to Shiv Nadar's daughter Roshni, has been named vice-chairman of HCL Healthcare. 

600 Million People With Disabilities On The Globe

Powering Independent Living

Disability issues represent one of the most urgent human rights concerns of our time. There are currently about 600 million people with disabilities on the globe.

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman Died of Apparent Drug Overdose

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of apparent drug overdose, says NYPD source

Oscar winning actor, 46, found dead in his Manhattan apartment according to law enforcement officials
A drug overdose is believed to be the cause of death. According to law enforcement sources Hoffman was discovered in the bathroom on the 4th floor with a needle sticking out of his arm. Leaves behind his partner of 14 years Mimi, son Cooper, 10 and daughters Tallulah, 7 and Willa, 5

Won the Oscar for 2005 movie, Capote
Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won an Oscar for the film "Capote," was found dead in his New York City apartment on Sunday of an apparent drug overdose, a New York Police Department source said. The source said Hoffman, 46, was found dead after a friend of the actor placed a 911 emergency call. The source gave no further details but the New York Times, citing a law enforcement official, said investigators found a syringe in Hoffman's arm and an envelope containing what was believed to be heroin.

Born in upstate New York, Hoffman won an Academy Award for the 2005 biographical film "Capote," in which he played writer Truman Capote. He also received three Academy Award nominations as best supporting actor, for "The Master" in 2013, "Doubt" in 2009 and "Charlie Wilson's War" in 2008. Hoffman burst onto the film scene after more than a dozen earlier roles, in 1997's "Boogie Nights," in which he played a lovelorn gay man in the movie about the porn industry.

While he appeared in blockbusters such as "Twister" and "The Hunger Games" series, Hoffman was more associated with the independent film world for his intense portrayals of often disturbing and complex characters in such films as "Happiness," in which he played an obscene phone caller, and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." In the latter film he played a son who schemes to rob his parents' jewelry store, resulting in their deaths. But Hoffman could also play nice, as in "Magnolia," in which he played the role of an angelic nurse. Hoffman spoke in the past of struggling with drugs, including a 2006 interview in which he told CBS he had abused "anything I could get my hands on. I liked it all."

@karanjohar hmmmm say no to drugs
— Run Thelma Mathew (@filmingpolitics) February 2, 2014

Doctors say diabetic Arvind Kejriwal more prone to infections

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is on the roads protesting in the winter chill, but his medical condition could worsen as he is a diabetic patient which makes him more prone to cold and chest infections as compared to normal people, doctors said Tuesday. Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the pancreas do not produce enough insulin or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. The chief minister, along with his ministers and volunteers, spent the entire Monday night on the road outside the Rail Bhavan in central Delhi raising slogans. And from all indications so far, he seems set to spend Tue night also in the open. "A person who is diabetic will be more prone to infections with exposure to cold. Infections like pneumonia, cough or any other kind of chest infection are more common among diabetics,"

Anup Mishra, director, Fortis C-DOC hospital for diabetes, told IANS. He said if a diabetic is also suffering from hypertension, then he or she becomes more prone to heart attacks as the blood pressure increases due to exposure to extreme weather putting pressure on the heart. Suronjit Chatterjee, senior consultant, internal medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said: "A diabetic is also an immunocompromised person. That is why they are more prone to infections when their blood sugar is uncontrolled." Immunocompromised individuals are less capable of battling infections because of an immune response that is not properly functioning. "I would say that when such people catch infections, doctors should be more aggressive in treating them," he said. Kejriwal, who spent the night in the open, had to undergo several medical checks-ups by his physician. Randeep Guleria, head of the department of pulmonary medicine, All India Institute of Medical Science said diabetics form a high risk group for any kind of infection. "Diabetics form a high risk group. They should protect themselves from exposure to extreme cold, especially during early morning and late night," he said. Guleria added that vaccination against flu and pneumonia was a good option for patients suffering from diabetes.

Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Union minister Shashi Tharoor, found dead in Delhi hotel

Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of Union minister Shashi Tharoor, was found dead in suite 345 of Leela Hotel on Friday evening. Her death comes within 48 hours of her going public about her husband's alleged affair with a Pakistani journalist, raising suspicions of suicide, although no note has been found. Her body was reportedly found by Tharoor when he returned to the hotel in the evening after Friday's AICC session. The couple are said to have moved out of the minister's official bungalow as it was being painted. The police were informed by Tharoor's PS Abhinav Kumar.

The tragic end came even as Twitter was still buzzing about the public display of anger, betrayal and accusations involving Tharoor, Sunanda and Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar. There were also reports of Sunanda talking of divorce, although she scotched the talk on Thursday. The police initially suggested it was suicide. But late at night, the officers were more guarded. Police sources said it could be a "natural or unnatural death". They said all angles were being probed: suicide, poisoning and death due to a sudden heart attack. A forensic team had come to the hotel and a magistrate was called for the interrogation of Tharoor and his PS.

As the marriage was less than seven years old, section 176 of the CrPC kicked in and the police was conducting investigations to rule out any dowry angle. Delhi police will also ask Twitter to give details of direct messages between Sunanda and Tarar. There were no apparent injuries on the body which was discovered around 8pm when Tharoor opened the room. Police said the 52-year-old woman had been last seen in the hotel lobby around 3.30pm. The Sarojini Nagar SDM will supervise the probe.

Special commissioner of police Deepak Mishra confirmed her death and said suite 345 of Leela and the entire third floor had been sealed. Pushkar had checked into the hotel on Wednesday, police said. Sources said her body was discovered on the bed covered with a duvet. Dr Sudhir Gupta, head of forensic sciences at AIIMS, said the body would be kept at the department and viscera preserved. "Postmortem will be conducted after inquest orders from the magistrate," he said.

Talk of trouble between the high-profile Tharoors had been swirling for months but things were finally made public by Sunanda. 'Sunanda spoke of poor health, depression' Sunanda, who has a 21-year-old son from a previous marriage, put correspondence between Tharoor and Lahore-based Mehr Tarar, 45, on Twitter and spoke about it to the media. Although the couple on Thursday said they were "happily married", parallel reports of her having sought divorce resurfaced in the media.

Although no one who had spoken to her in the past few days sensed any suicidal tendency, one of her last tweets read: "Will try got so many issues diagnosed in KIMS that now who knows when I got 2 go with joy hastay hua jayagay (will go laughing)." Tharoor, who left his job at the UN after unsuccessfully contesting elections for the secretary-general's post, returned to India in 2008. Soon after, he divorced his Canadian diplomat wife. He married Sunanda in 2010 — his third marriage. He has two sons from his first wife, Tillotma.

People who had spoken to Sunanda in the past two days described her as very disturbed and distraught over her husband's relationship with Tarar. TV anchors with whom she had corresponded on Thursday night said she had spoken about her poor health and depression. Sunanda, who was with Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram last week, underwent treatment at a private hospital two days ago. She was unwell and diagnosed with Lupus and stomach tuberculosis, said a hospital source. Lupus is a medical condition arising from deficiency in immunity which damages healthy tissues. It is learnt that she had spent four days in hospital.

"My wife's illness means I need to be with her and will miss all five events of Jaipur litfest in 2014. I promised to atone in 2015," a tweet by Tharoor at 8.01pm read. Journalist Vir Sanghvi said on TV he had met her a few weeks ago and the usually bubbly woman was not herself. "...I feel there is something deeper here," he said. 

Humans Emerged From Male Pig And Female Chimp

Humans emerged from male pig and female chimp, world's top geneticist says. Humans are actually hybrids, who emerged as an offspring of a male pig and a female chimpanzee, according to one of the world's leading geneticist. Turning the theory of human ancestry on its head, Dr Eugene McCarthy — one of the world's leading authorities on hybridization in animals from the University of Georgia has suggested that humans didn't evolve from just apes but was a backcross hybrid of a chimpanzee and pigs. His hypothesis is based on the fact that though humans have many features in common with chimps, there are a lot more that don't correspond to any other primates. He then suggests that there is only one animal in the animal kingdom that has all of the traits which distinguish humans from our primate cousins.

"What is this other animal that has all these traits? The answer is Sus scrofa - the ordinary pig" he says. He explains: "Genetically, we're close to chimpanzees, and yet we have many physical traits that distinguish us from chimpanzees. One fact, however, suggests the need for an open mind: as it turns out, many features that distinguish humans from chimpanzees also distinguish them from all other primates. Features found in human beings, but not in other primates, cannot be accounted for by hybridization of a primate with some other primate. If hybridization is to explain such features, the cross will have to be between a chimpanzee and a non-primate - an unusual, distant cross to create an unusual creature." Dr McCarthy suggests that Charles Darwin told only half the story of human evolution. "We believe that humans are related to chimpanzees because humans share so many traits with chimpanzees. Is it not rational then also, if pigs have all the traits that distinguish humans from other primates, to suppose that humans are also related to pigs? Let us take it as our hypothesis, then, that humans are the product of ancient hybridization between pig and chimpanzee," he said.

According to Dr McCarthy, if we compare humans with non-mammals or invertebrates like the crocodile, bullfrog, octopus, dragonfly and starfish, pigs and chimpanzees suddenly seem quite similar to humans. Pigs and chimpanzees differ in chromosome counts. The opinion is often expressed that when two animals differ in this way, they cannot produce fertile hybrids. This rule is, however, only a generalization. While such differences do tend to have an adverse effect on the fertility of hybrid offspring, it is also true that many different types of crosses in which the parents differ in chromosome counts produce hybrids that capable themselves of producing offspring. There is substantial evidence supporting the idea that very distantly related mammals can mate and produce a hybrid. Another suggestive fact, Dr McCarthy says is the frequent use of pigs in the surgical treatment of human beings. Pig heart valves are used to replace those of human coronary patients. Pig skin is used in the treatment of human burn victims. "Serious efforts are now underway to transplant kidneys and other organs from pigs into human beings. Why are pigs suited for such purposes? Why not goats, dogs, or bears - animals that, in terms of taxonomic classification, are no more distantly related to human beings than pigs?," he said.

"It might seem unlikely that a pig and a chimpanzee would choose to mate, but their behaviour patterns and reproductive anatomy does, in fact, make them compatible. It is, of course, a well-established fact that animals sometimes attempt to mate with individuals that are unlike themselves, even in a natural setting, and that many of these crosses successfully produce hybrid offspring," he adds. Dr Eugene McCarthy says that the fact that even modern-day humans are relatively infertile may be significant in this connection. "If a hybrid population does not die out altogether, it will tend to improve in fertility with each passing generation under the pressure of natural selection. Fossils indicate that we have had at least 200,000 years to recover our fertility since the time that the first modern humans (Homo sapiens) appeared. The earliest creatures generally recognized as human ancestors (Ardipithecus, Orrorin) date to about six million years ago. So our fertility has had a very long time to improve. If we have been recovering for thousands of generations and still show obvious symptoms of sterility, then our earliest human ancestors, if they were hybrids, must have suffered from an infertility that was quite severe. This line of reasoning, too, suggests that the chimpanzee might have produced Homo sapiens by crossing with a genetically incompatible mate, possibly even one outside the primate order," he said.

New Treatment For Heart Attack

Scientists have discovered that inhibition of a heart protein can reduce damage from heart attack and protect the organ from further injury. The stop and start of blood flow to the heart during and after a heart attack causes severe damage to heart cells, reducing their capacity to function and potentially causing their death.

Now, researchers at Temple University School of Medicine suggest that it is possible to limit the extent of that damage using a drug. Researchers created a real-world clinical scenario in mice by mimicking blockage of an artery to induce heart attack and then administering a TNNI3K inhibitor. When cardiac function was subsequently improved in treated mice versus untreated controls, the team realised that a TNNI3K inhibitor could have important clinical benefits for human patients. "TNNI3K is found only in the heart, which makes it interesting biologically and therapeutically. Although its function was not well understood, TNNI3K lent itself to being a potential therapeutic target for heart attack," said Ronald Vagnozzi, lead author on the new study in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The researchers found that TNNI3K expression is elevated in patients who are suffering from heart failure, which can develop in the years following heart attack. To explore the significance of that elevation, they engineered mice to overexpress TNNI3K. They also created a second set of engineered mice, in which the protein was deleted. When overexpressed, Vagnozzi and colleagues found that TNNI3K promoted the injury of heart tissue from ischemia (blockage of blood flow) and reperfusion (restoration of blood flow) during and after a heart attack. TNNI3K overexpression in heart cells encouraged the production of superoxide, a reactive molecule from mitochondria, and activated p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), an enzyme that responds to stress signals in cells.

The combined result of those activities was impaired mitochondrial function and heart cell death, which worsened ischemia/reperfusion injury. The opposite occurred in mice in which TNNI3K had been deleted - superoxide production and p38 activation were reduced, and injury to the heart was limited. Reductions in heart dysfunction and fibrosis (hardening of heart tissue) were also observed. The team then collaborated with the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to identify compounds that were capable of blocking TNNI3K activity. Treatment of wild-type (nonengineered) mice with the compounds following heart attack produced effects that were similar to those observed in mice with TNNI3K deletion.

Don't Eat Sugar Directly

Sugar intake not directly linked with fatty liver disease

A new study has claimed that sugar intake is not directly associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, as it was earlier believed. Rather, high-calorie diets promote the progression of this serious form of liver disease.
Researchers conducted a double-blind study of healthy, but centrally overweight men to compare the effects of high intakes of two types of sugar, glucose and fructose, in two conditions - weight-maintaining (moderate-calorie diet) and weight-gaining ( high-calorie diet). In the weight-maintaining period, men on neither diet developed any significant changes to the liver.

However, in the weight-gaining period, both diets produced equivalent features of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, including steatosis (fatty liver) and elevated serum transaminase and triglycerides. These findings indicate that fructose and glucose have comparable effects on one's liver, and calorie intake is the factor responsible for the progression of liver disease. "Based on the results of our study, recommending a low- fructose or low-glycemic diet to prevent nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is unjustified," Professor Ian A. Macdonald, study author and faculty of medicine and health sciences, University of Nottingham, UK, said.

"The best advice to give a patient is to maintain a healthy lifestyle with diet and exercise. Our study serves as a warning that even short changes in lifestyle can have profound impacts on your liver," he said. The study is published in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.

A journey from i-banking to deworming

The five things that social investor and entrepreneur Narayan Ramachandran has always wanted from life are "curiosity, balance, family, contribution and fun". In his current role as founder of InKlude Labs and a stakeholder in several entities that promote social justice, Ramachandran, former country head of global financial services firm Morgan Stanley, gets a chance to fulfil each of these goals.

Ramachandran and his partner Sriram Raghavan founded InKlude Labs in early 2011 with the aim of using it as a forum to scale up proven interventions in areas such as health and education. Ramachandran calls InKlude an "idea factory", which works as a traditional incubator does for start-ups - it picks up ideas that can be scaled easily and solve key development problems. InkLude's first project came about through a chance meeting between Ramachandran, Raghavan and Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, professors at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founders of the MIT Poverty Action Lab -- a network of professors from around the globe whose mission is to reduce poverty by ensuring policy is based on scientific evidence. Duflo and Banerjee got the InKlude guys interested in the Deworm the World initiative, a global plan to provide schoolchildren with a deworming tablet/solution that would ensure better health, attendance at school, lower dropout rates and, in the long term, a better chance at being productive members of society.

The initiative has been a resounding success in three Indian states. In Bihar alone, where chief minister Nitish Kumar approached Deworm the World and InKlude to rid 21 million school-age children of intestinal worms, 20 million schoolchildren have benefited with one tablet each that will ensure they remain worm-free for the next year. Deworm the World has also been implemented in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh and reached 35 million children in India. The reason it wasn't tried out in southern states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, explains Ramachandran, is because according to WHO protocol, children with a worm-load of more than 20% need deworming medication, and in these states, worm-loads are much lower, both in rural areas and among the urban poor.

Ramachandran says his role in creating InKlude Labs was to "grease the wheels" - his personal financial investment in the organization was "not huge". Borrowing a term from the start-up ecosystem, Ramachandran says he provided "Base 0 funding". The organization and its Section 25 arm, Action Foundation, are supported by several philanthropists and the global non-profit research org, Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). Besides his work with InKlude, Ramachandran also sits on the board of a few social enterprises, such as the Arghyam Trust run by Rohini Nilekani, and has been director of Ratnakar Bank Ltd. since 2010 and Janalakshmi Financial Services Private Limited since March 2010. He is also co-chairman of Unitus Capital, which develops finance structures and raises capital for entrepreneurial businesses benefiting those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. His interest in policy-driven change also led him to be part of the management committee at Takshashila Institution, a Bangalore-based non-partisan think-tank and school of public policy.

Is it easy to do what he did -- give up a bright career with a prestigious global investment bank to worry about the logistics of creating a health programme in one of the most red tape riddled bureaucracies of the world? Ramachandran laughs, "It wasn't a tough decision. It was something I'd wanted to do for a long time, and I've never regretted it." What he brings is a "detached, unemotional" approach to problem-solving, and having spent four years in India with Morgan Stanley, and created some of its verticals from the ground up (fixed income, investment banking and wealth management), he decided to approach India's development problems with the same technocratic efficiency and focus.

PUTTING A SIMPLE PLAN IN ACTION

It's a very simple plan — 1 tablet, 1 child, 1 year. It's easy to execute, despite its large scale, and its effects can be monitored and evaluated. It isn't an idea that will get mired in institutionalized opposition — most people would support it or at worst, be neutral to it. These are the kind of ideas that excite us. Our aim is to focus on ideas that are eminently doable, that solve a real problem in a simple, effective way. The narrower the idea, the easier its implementation. No emotion. No guilt. Just a simple desire to see results and be motivated in the corporate sense. I have no messianic need to help people, just the need to meet these challenges and get the job done.

67 Kids Hospitalized in Bengal after Pulse Polio goof

Sixty-seven children were hospitalized in Arambag, about 80km from Kolkata, after they were mistakenly given hepatitis B vaccine instead of Pulse Polio drops on Sunday. Four health workers have been suspended for the lapse and chief minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered an inquiry.  Pulse Polio drops are given orally while the hepatitis B vaccine is administered through an injection. On Sunday, more than 100 children were given the latter vaccine orally.  Sunday being Pulse Polio Day, health workers had set up booths at two schools in Goghat. One Ganga Ruidas, who had gone to Khatun primary school with his 14-month-old son, noticed that the health workers were taking out the vaccine from vials of hepatitis vaccine. By then, 114 children had been fed drops of the vaccine. Police were informed and angry parents locked up the district officials till policemen reached the school.

Panic spread soon with parents complaining that their children were vomiting and sweating profusely. Of the 67 children admitted to Arambagh sub-divisional hospital, 18 were discharged later and the rest have been kept under observation. Doctors said the children were doing fine. A number of doctors TOI contacted in Kolkata said the hepatitis B vaccine would not cause any harm. But they were concerned the incident would hurt parents' faith in the medical system and have an effect on the Pulse Polio campaign. Director of health services Biswaranjan Satpati said the four health workers had been suspended for negligence. "They should have been more cautious while administering the polio drops," he said. "While this is extremely undesirable, we must be careful that a repeat of this incident must not happen. I can guarantee that oral administration of hepatitis B vaccine will not cause any harm in the children."

Senior paediatrician Dr Apurba Ghosh, who's also the director of the Institute of Child Health, said: "Giving hepatitis B vaccine orally will not cause any health problem in the children. But the fear is that people will lose faith in the medical system and the immunisation programme. We need to be extremely cautious while giving any kind of medicine to children." Paediatrician Dr Chandan Banerjee, vice-president of the Indian Medical Association's Kolkata branch, expressed outrage at the lapse. "How can hepatitis B vaccine be mistaken for polio drops?" he said. "Though it will not cause any major harm to the children, this will only create misunderstanding and misconception about the immunisation programme."  India would have been declared polio-free as early as 2011 had it not been a case reported from Howrah's Panchla in January that year. If no other case is reported, the country will receive a polio-eradication certificate from the World Health Organisation in about five months.

Had the mistake not been pointed out on Sunday, it would have been taken for granted that the children of that area had been covered under the immunization programme. This would have been harmful for the entire campaign.  "This would have given a major blow to polio-eradication effort," said Dr Ghosh. "Thankfully, it was pointed out that the children were given hepatitis vaccine and not polio drops. The Unicef, which is working hard for polio eradication, is taking stock of the situation." 

Garlic To your Diet To Boost Your Immunity

A garlic a day for good health. Add a couple of cloves of garlic to your diet to boost your immunity

Garlic with its antiviral and antibacterial properties helps boost your immunity and keeps you looking fresh and healthy. While in some cases garlic supplements are available and prescribed as a preventive measure for common cold, it's actually very easy to incorporate a few cloves of garlic in our daily meals. Here's how you can consume garlic without having to deal with that awful breadth. Add it to your soup: Soup itself is a very good decongestant and helps warm up the body. Make your own vegetable or chicken broth soup at home and add garlic to it to enhance the flavour as well as get its antibiotic effect. Here's what you can do:

Bring two cups of water to a simmer over medium-high heat in a small saucepan. Add garlic (grated and made into a paste, for better flavouring), some thyme or oregano seasoning, one tablespoon of olive oil and salt to taste to the water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the broth is fragrant. Add green vegetables (fresh peas, diced carrots, beans, spring onions, chopped capsicum, or other vegetables of your choice) to the broth and simmer uncovered for another five to eight minutes until the vegetables are tender. Taste and adjust salt. Beat one egg in a bowl, and add a little freshly ground pepper to it. Remove a small ladleful of the soup, and whisk it into the egg to temper it. Turn the heat off under the soup, and stir in the egg mixture. The egg should cloud the soup but shouldn't scramble. Add some extra pepper on the top, pour out in a bowl and enjoy.

Make your own garlic drink: The smell of garlic makes it difficult to be consumed raw, but when you use other ingredients with an equally powerful taste, it's easier. Here's a drink you can try: Take a large saucepan and add three cups of water. Grate five cloves of garlic and add it to the water. Cover the lid and bring it to boil so that the garlic fumes don't escape. Turn off the heat after its boiled, add 10ml honey and the juice of one lemon to the garlic-water and stir well. Strain it into cups and sip it, while inhaling the garlic fumes. Try garlic vinegar: Desperate times need desperate measure, and if you are dealing with a stubborn cold, you must try this garlic-vinegar recipe which is sure to benefit you instantly.

In a medium sized bowl, add vinegar (at least half the bowl). Mince one large bulb of garlic (at least 10-15 cloves) and add it to the vinegar. Cover it and let it sit for about an hour. The vinegar absorbs all the raw qualities of the garlic, making it a really strong solution. Strain it and drink the solution when you need immediate effects. Otherwise, use it as a salad dressing or in other recipes that use vinegar.

3,000 newborns in Mumbai die before their first birthday

Two out of three infants who die in the city are newborns. An estimated 3,000 babies born in the city each year do not get to celebrate their first birthday, said experts. If they are saved within the crucial 30-day period after birth, then the city's infant mortality rate will improve drastically.

However, the task is easier said than done. Currently, there are only 327 neonatal beds—including the ones in major public and private hospitals—for approximately 1.6 lakh births in the city. Premature deliveries, which account for 13% of all births, coupled with post-birth complications increase manifold the percentage of babies needing care. "Many people prefer to think that they can have another baby by next year rather than spending too much money on saving a newborn with serious problems. There is also a shortage of super-specialty care for newborns in the city. In such circumstances, the infant mortality rate is only bound to rise," said Dr Nandkishor Kabra, neonatologist from Surya Child Care in Santa Cruz, which will open a 25-bed neonatal wing on Thursday.

Mumbai needs at least 1,500 neonatal beds, said experts. "Most deaths of newborns can be attributed to asphyxia, infection and pre-term births. Some deaths could be prevented with timely intervention," said Dr Bhupendra Avasthi, owner of Surya Hospital. "About 10-15% of critical births need ventilators, but the demand is far more than supply as Mumbai caters to all other corporations," said a pediatrician from Sion Hospital.