Health

Childhood obesity is one of the leading and steadily increasing health concerns, experts said on Sunday.  With a large segment of the population falling in the younger age group, childhood obesity is a growing concern that could lead to significant health problems in adulthood. Addressing the rising issue of childhood obesity in India, experts emphasise the long-term health risks associated with it and the need for early intervention. Initiatives like school-based education and healthy meal programs are crucial in managing and preventing obesity. Lifestyle changes remain the primary tool so that adulthood risks can be managed, with bariatric surgery remaining an option for more serious/specific cases. "Childhood obesity is a significant problem in our country, given our large young popu...

Losing just an hour of sleep at night may be harmful to health and lead to problems with memory and focus, according to an expert. The human body requires an optimum sleep duration of 7-8 hours per night. But when people do not get adequate sleep, “it results in various problems, such as poor attention, focus, concentration and memory,” said Dr Sudhir Kumar from Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad, in a post on X. “Losing just one hour of sleep could take up to four days of time to recover,” he added. He noted that poor sleep also increases the risk of headaches, anxiety and stress. People deprived of sleep are more likely to make “poor decisions, and have driving errors, leading to more vehicle crashes”. In addition, “sleep deprivation is associated with higher risk of diabetes...

Sleeping habits play a key role in physical and mental health. In addition to a compromise in recommended rest levels, insufficient sleep and unmanaged sleep schedules can cause or exacerbate other health issues. Sleep is a critical component of maintaining overall health, particularly for people managing diabetes or at risk of it. In a conversation with mid-day.com, Dr. David Chandy, Consultant and Section Co-ordinator - Endocrinology, Sir HN Reliance Hospital, Mumbai, explains how sleep affects blood sugar and why maintaining good sleep hygiene is essential. Link between sleep and blood sugar Sleep and blood sugar levels are closely interconnected. During sleep, your body undergoes various processes, including the regulation of hormones that affect blood sugar. For instance, insulin, ...

US researchers have found how obesity impacts muscle structure in patients with a form of heart failure called "heart failure with a preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF)".  HFpEF is responsible for more than half of all heart failure worldwide. It also has quite high hospitalisation and death rates (30-40 per cent over 5 years). While it used to be generally associated with having high blood pressure and excess muscle growth (hypertrophy), in the last 20 years, HFpEF has been occurring more often in patients with severe obesity and diabetes. Even as both obesity and diabetes are rising globally, understanding the underlying causes of the diseases is critical, said researchers from Johns Hopkins University. For the study, published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research, the team ...

If you are looking to limit your calorie intake, skipping the dip with salty snacks may help, suggests a study.  The latest study conducted at the Penn State Sensory Evaluation Center in the US investigated how eating behaviour changes when consumers are served a dip with a salty snack. The findings showed that people who ate chips and dip together had a 77 per cent greater caloric intake and a faster total eating rate compared to those who just had chips. However, there was no difference in chip intake, revealed the study, forthcoming in the journal Food Quality and Preference. John Hayes, professor of food science and director of the Center said that "people didn`t eat fewer chips when dip was available -- they ate the same amount of chips, plus the dip". This means that "adding dip...

Amid heavy rains and traffic snarls, a green corridor from Delhi`s IGI Airport successfully transported a heart to a hospital in Gurugram, covering a distance of 18 km in just 13 minutes. Dr. Udgeath Dhir, cardiothoracic vascular surgery, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram on Friday said that a 34-year-old man was brought to them in a critical state, with only 10-15 per cent of his heart functioning. "He was in dire need of a transplant. We got a call in the night and then, with the help of hospital staff, and traffic police, we were able to create a green corridor and could get the heart for transplant," Dr. Dhir said. The man from Haryana`s Rohtak was suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy -- a condition in which the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood effectively. ...

In a rare case, a baby born with a condition where the intestines were protruding outside the body, was given a new lease of life by doctors here.  The baby girl born to Punjab-based Sakshi Shukla had an uncommon congenital condition, called gastroschisis. Gastroschisis is a rare birth defect where the baby`s intestines exit the body from a hole beside the umbilical cord during fetal development. This can be life-threatening if not corrected surgically immediately after birth, said doctors at Medanta Hospital Gurugram. Shukla was alerted of the congenital defect in the foetus during the Level-2 scan, done at 18-20 weeks of pregnancy, following which she came to the hospital. “When the patient came to us at 26 weeks, we first ruled out any associated developmental problems as associate...

A team of doctors at a city hospital saved the life of a 11-year-old girl using the cutting edge e-CPR (extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation) method.  The girl arrived at the hospital with severe chest pain that was misdiagnosed with a stomach issue at two different emergency rooms. Each visit resulted in medication for a presumed digestive problem, but her condition continued to worsen. After admission to the hospital her condition seemed stable initially, but further examination with an echocardiogram — a heart ultrasound — revealed that her heart was functioning at just 25 per cent of its normal capacity. Her condition deteriorated with severe heart rhythm problems. Her blood pressure began to drop and the heart was at risk of failure. A critical decision was made to use Ext...

Lung cancer is the most common cancer that can spread to the brain and create secondary cancer, said experts on Thursday, on World Lung Cancer Day. World Lung Cancer Day is observed every year on August 1 to raise awareness around lung cancer -- a leading cause of mortality worldwide. In India, lung cancer accounts for an annual incidence of 72,510 cases, making up 5.8 per cent of all cancer cases and ranking as the third most commonly diagnosed cancer, according to a recent study published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health. The health experts noted that a significant challenge arises when lung cancer metastasizes to critical parts of the body, such as the brain. "Brain metastases are a prevalent complication across various cancer types, particularly among lung cancer patients,...

In a major advancement for tackling antibiotic resistance, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a promising new antibiotic using artificial intelligence. The research, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, marks a significant step forward in creating safer and more effective treatments. The research team employed a large language model (LLM), similar to the technology behind ChatGPT, to re-engineer Protegrin-1. This potent antibiotic, naturally produced by pigs, was effective in killing bacteria but was previously too toxic for human use. By modifying Protegrin-1, the researchers aimed to preserve its antibacterial properties while eliminating its harmful effects on human cells. To achieve this, the team generated over 7,000 variations of Protegrin-1 th...