Health

Scientists have discovered that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) silently starts years earlier, long before symptoms appear, an advance that may pave the way for earlier treatment and prevention.  RA is a debilitating autoimmune disease that causes painful joint inflammation and damage. The new research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, reveals that during the early phase of RA, the body fights an autoimmune battle invisibly. This wasn`t a localised joint inflammation, but rather a body-wide inflammatory state that resembles what`s seen in people with active RA. "Overall, we hope this study raises awareness that rheumatoid arthritis begins much earlier than previously thought and that it enables researchers to make data-driven decisions on strategies to disrupt disease...

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Jodhpur have leveraged the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to better identify childhood malnutrition.  The new method, published in the open-access journal MICCAI, addresses one of the most pressing global health challenges -- the accurate and scalable assessment of childhood malnutrition. The study introduced DomainAdapt -- a novel multitasks learning framework that dynamically adjusts task weights using domain knowledge and mutual information. This allows the system to more accurately predict key anthropometric measures such as height, weight, and mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), while simultaneously classifying malnutrition-related conditions such as stunting, wasting, ...

Gleneagles Hospital Mumbai, in collaboration with Medtronic, hosted a medical conclave on Sunday, Taj the Trees at Mumbai. The event highlighted the Hub & Spoke model of healthcare delivery and showcased the latest AI-driven advancements in patient care. With more than 100 doctors, neurosurgeons, neurologists, radiologists, physicians and critical care specialists present at the event, the primary objective of this conclave was to showcase the AI-powered Hub & Spoke Model and how it aims to make advanced neurointerventional treatment accessible to patients even in distant suburbs of the city. The model aims to tackle three major challenges in India’s stroke care: Firstly, the delay in diagnosis due to lack of specialists at smaller centers. Next, the limited access to advanced ...

The US government has announced controversial guidance on the prevention and treatment of autism in children.New health recommendations aim to discourage pregnant women from taking the painkiller paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen and by the brand name Tylenol, to prevent autism.The recommendations also include using the drug leucovorin to treat speech-related difficulties that children with autism sometimes experience.So what is leucovorin and what does the science say about its ability to treat autism? What is leucovorin?Leucovorin is a form of folic acid, a B vitamin our bodies usually get from foods such as legumes, citrus fruits and fortified grains.The medication is most often used in cancer treatment. It`s typically used alongside the chemotherapy drug fluorouracil, a cancer ...

US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that the use of acetaminophen (commonly known as Tylenol) during pregnancy could be "associated with a very increased risk of autism," a statement that contradicts decades of medical research and expert consensus supporting the safety of the drug for pregnant women, CNN reported. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump stated that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would soon notify physicians to limit the recommendation of Tylenol during pregnancy unless "medically necessary," such as for the treatment of fever, adding, "if you can`t tough it out." According to CNN, researchers broadly agree that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is caused by a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors, and the data regarding any potential link...

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...