Health

In one of the most recent medical miracles around Mumbai, doctors in Thane have successfully treated a 13-year-old girl diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma, the most common type of thyroid cancer in adolescents. It is definitely an inspiration for many who are sick or suffering from life-threatening diseases and their families, as they deal with it every day looking for hope in their lives to deal with it. The young patient presented with a growing swelling on the left side of her neck, which had persisted for three months. Recognising the seriousness, the oncology team at KIMS hospital in Thane immediately conducted a high-resolution ultrasound, followed by Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC). The results confirmed papillary carcinoma of the thyroid — a diagnosis that required ...

US researchers have found that the glucose-fructose mix found in sugary drinks directly fuels the spread in cases of advanced colorectal cancer.  To meet nutritional needs, many patients with cancer are encouraged to have nutritional supplement drinks and concentrated juices that contain high glucose and fructose content. A team from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center studied how sugary drinks may affect late-stage colorectal cancer. "Our findings highlight that daily diet matters not only for cancer risk but also for how the disease progresses once it has developed," said Jihye Yun, Assistant Professor of Genetics, at the varsity. Using laboratory cancer models, they compared the effects of the glucose-fructose mix found in most sugary drinks with those of glucose or fr...

Engineers discovered how to make atomic nuclei "talk" inside silicon chips, opening the door to scalable quantum computers. Researchers at the University of South Wales (UNSW) have found a way to make atomic nuclei communicate through electrons, allowing them to achieve entanglement at scales used in today`s computer chips. This breakthrough brings scalable, silicon-based quantum computing much closer to reality. UNSW engineers have made a significant advance in quantum computing: they created `quantum entangled states` - where two separate particles become so deeply linked they no longer behave independently - using the spins of two atomic nuclei. Such states of entanglement are the key resource that gives quantum computers their edge over conventional ones. The research was published...

With proper awareness and technology, nearly 85 per cent of oral problems are preventable, said health experts on Saturday, September 20.  Speaking at the three-day 35th Annual Conference of the Indian Society for Dental Research (ISDR) held here, over 30 national and international keynote speakers emphasised the need for research-driven collaboration across oral and craniofacial sciences. "Oral diseases may not always be life-threatening, but they silently erode the quality of life. Nearly 85 per cent of oral problems are preventable if addressed through awareness, preventive research, and the use of affordable technologies," Prof. (Dr.) Mahesh Verma, Vice Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU), said. "Our challenge is big. Millions across rural and urban India ...

Vascular dementia -- cognitive impairment caused by disease in the brain`s small blood vessels -- is a widespread problem, but it has not been as thoroughly studied as Alzheimer`s disease, in which abnormal plaques and protein tangles are deposited in neural tissue, according to researchers.  The team at the University of New Mexico developed a new model for characterising and categorising different forms of vascular dementia to better understand the various forms of the disease and find effective treatments. Conditions like hypertension, atherosclerosis, and diabetes have been linked to vascular dementia, but other contributing causes, including the recent discovery of significant quantities of nano -- and microplastics in human brains, remain poorly understood, said Elaine Bearer, Prof...

A sudden outbreak of diarrhoea in Mohanpur village under Sadar block has left two dead and over 75 residents hospitalised, most of them children, during the ongoing monsoon season.  The deceased have been identified as Deeplal Yadav and Laxmi Devi, both residents of Mohanpur. Infected villagers have been admitted to Darbhanga Sadar Hospital and Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) for treatment. Ranjana Devi, whose son is undergoing treatment at DMCH, described how the illness spread rapidly in her household. “First, one of my children showed symptoms of diarrhoea, and later the entire family, including me, developed the same symptoms. We first went to the primary health centre, but doctors referred us to DMCH for treatment,” she said. Darbhanga Civil Surgeon Dr. Arun Kumar c...

Women with excessive nausea and vomiting (hyperemesis gravidarum) during pregnancy may be at a 50 per cent high risk of mental health conditions such as post-partum psychosis, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study.  Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) affects up to 3.6 per cent of all pregnancies. HG is the most common cause of hospitalisation in the first trimester of pregnancy, and the majority of HG cases (but not all) resolve in the second trimester. Women with HG experience prolonged and severe nausea and vomiting, leading to dehydration and weight loss. In the study, published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health, UK researchers examined 24 neuropsychiatric and mental health-related outcomes reported within a year of diagnosis in 4...

Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, have successfully performed a life-saving keyhole lung surgery on a 50-day-old baby weighing just 2.5 kilograms. The infant, referred from Bihar, was suffering from a rare and serious condition known as congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) - an abnormal development of a part of the lung that prevents normal breathing, according to an official release. In this case, the malformation was unusually large and located on the right side of the chest. It compressed the left lung, leaving the baby gasping for breath. By the time he arrived at AIIMS, his condition was critical, and the child was placed on ventilator support. Given the severity of the condition, the child was admitted, stabilised, and prepared f...

Renowned Mumbai pathologist Dr Anita Borges has passed away, Tata Memorial Hospital confirmed through a social media post on Friday, September 19. The medical expert was closely associated with the city-based cancer hospital. The city-based pathologist, who was the daughter of renowned Indian oncologist and cancer surgeon Dr Ernest Borges, was a pioneer of oncopathology and held several prominent positions in the medical field in Mumbai and India.In a career spanning over four decades, she was the head of Surgical Pathology of Tata Memorial Hospital. While she has been the director of the Centre for Oncopathology at Wadala, she was also a consultant histopathologist and the head of Department of Histopathology at S.L. Raheja Hospital in Mumbai, and the Dean of the Indian College of Patholo...

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension and cancers, as well as mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, are a silent killer, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday.  He urged countries to strengthen cost-effective solutions to tackle the rising burden of NCDs and mental health. "Noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions are silent killers, robbing us of lives and innovation," said Ghebreyesus. In a new report titled “Saving lives, spending less”, the WHO revealed that an additional investment of just $3 per person annually in tackling NCDs could yield economic benefits of up to $1 trillion by 2030. Interestingly, the report showed 82 per cent of countries achieved reductions in N...