Doctors may be able to watch for kidney injury and protect patients by looking for protein in urine, researchers reported.Patients with the highest levels of protein, or albuminuria, had an almost five-fold increase in the risk of developing acute kidney injury, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

The cheap and easy test may provide a way to watch for kidney damage and improve upon the current method, called estimated glomerular filtration rate, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said.

Acute kidney injury, common when people are in hospital, is seen in 1.6 per cent of all hospital patients and occurs when kidneys suddenly lose the ability to filter waste products from blood.

Acute kidney injury can be reversible if a patient is otherwise healthy, but often results in chronic kidney disease and kidney failure requiring dialysis or a kidney transplant.

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Men who take steroid tablets or injections for treating severe asthma could face 70 per cent higher risk of prostate cancer. Those who regularly use an inhaler or a bronchodilator to relieve wheezing are 36 per cent more at risk, says a new study.

Even having asthma appears to increase prostate cancer risk by around 25 per cent. But the chances of a tumour are significantly higher if people start medication, says a Daily Mail report.The study was undertaken by a team of scientists in Melbourne, Australia.

They decided to look at the link between asthma and prostate cancer because both arise from inflammation in the body, according to the journal Cancer Epidemiology , Biomarkers and Prevention.

Tag : asthma treatment,asthma symptoms,asthma attack,asthma inhaler,asthma cure

A simple scar-less procedure that requires just an overnight stay at the hospital brings hope to women. According to experts like Dr Muley, Uterine Artery Embolization (UAE), a non-surgical treatment for fibroid is fast becoming popular the world over. Until now, the most common treatment for fibroid removal was hysterectomy.

But the surgery has an irreversible side effect. After the surgery, women had to forget about conception for the rest of their lives.During an UAE, however, the blood supply to the fibroid is reduced gradually until it is completely cut off from nourishment. Even after it has shrunk, the surrounding normal uterine muscles continue to get their requisite blood supply and can survive.


Deprived of blood, nutrition and oxygen, the fibroids shrink during the next three to six months after the embolization treatment."Around 66 per cent of women who have undergone the UAE have conceived," says Dr Muley. What makes it even more popular is that single or multiple fibroid (up to 12-14 cm in size) can be effectively treated. And the chances of recurrence are almost negligible.

The advantages of UAE are several - it is done under local anesthesia, requires only a tiny incision in the skin and the recovery period is shorter than for, say, an open surgery. Besides, all the fibroid can be treated in one sitting with the patient suffering no blood loss. Recovery is quick, but in case there is excessive vaginal bleeding, all it takes is a couple of days of rest to be up on your feet again.

Women who conceive within six months after a miscarriage have a better chance of a healthy pregnancy without complications compared to women who wait longer, according to a study .They are less likely to have another miscarriage, and are also less likely to experience a cesarean section, deliver prematurely or have low-birth weight babies, the study showed.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal , are likely to be controversial.The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that women who experience a miscarriage should wait at least six months before getting pregnant again, and other medical authorities suggest holding off even longer.

To get a clearer picture, researchers led by Sohinee Bhattacharya at the Aberdeen Maternity Hospital in Scotland reviewed the medical histories of more than 30,000 women in Scotland who had a miscarriage in their first pregnancy and then became pregnant again between 1981 and 2000.

"Our research shows that women who conceive within six months of an initial miscarriage have the best reproductive outcomes and the lowest complication rates in a subsequent pregnancy," they concluded.

A new study by Dutch researchers has found that women who have complications in pregnancy or a difficult labor stand a much greater chance of having post-natal depression than those who do not.

Post-natal depression occurs most often in the first three months after delivery and can range from mild symptoms - sometimes called the ‘baby blues’ - to clinically diagnosed post-natal depression.Women who are not diagnosed early enough can end up suffering for many months or even years.

The analysis of data from almost 5,000 women also revealed that one complication raises the chance of depression but this increases even further if more than one thing goes wrong.The researchers found that women admitted to hospital during their pregnancy had more than twice the risk of post-natal depression as those who stayed out of hospital until delivery time.

Meanwhile, women with pre-eclampsia (linked to high blood pressure) were also more than twice as likely to suffer, the researchers found.

If you love cranberry juice, you are in luck – scientists have discovered that it can fight off urinary tract infections in people.The research illuminates the basic mechanics of E. coli infections, possibly leading to new antibiotic drugs and infection-resistant materials for invasive medical devices.

Urinary infections are caused when virulent E. coli adhere to cells.The previous study by Terri Camesano, professor of chemical engineering at WPI, had shown that cranberry juice reduces its ability to attach to urinary tract cells.

The new study explains exactly how this happens."This is not a clinical study—it's a mechanical study that shows us the direct forces that can lead to infection," said Camesano.

The study revealed that more the amount of juice one drinks, the more the attachment force of the virulent E. coli weakened.The urine flow cannot generate enough force without the juice to break this attachment to the human cells.

About 10 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year worldwide, with one-third the cases related to tobacco use, one-third to diet, another large percentage to infection and the remaining to pollution, stress and other factors.

According to Lalit Kumar, professor of medical oncology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), three million cases of cancer globally are due to tobacco use alone, with lung cancer claiming half the victims.

A high fat content diet can lead to breast cancer. Women who do yoga or moderate exercise everyday have lower incidence of cancer as compared to women with sedentary lifestyles and high fat intake, Kumar said at a talk at the India International Centre Wednesday evening.

"A high fat diet also acts as a trigger for prostate cancer. Fried food and spicy food is linked to cancer of the esophagus. Preservatives in food and smoked food, which is eaten in some parts of northeast India, also act as triggers for cancer," he said, adding that high fat intake and low fibre intake can cause colon cancer.

Some fungal infections can lead to liver cancer, while the human papillomavirus has been proven to be the cause of cancer of the cervix. "But the good news is, a vaccine is available and in the next 20 years the incidence of cervical cancer will come down," he said.

If you are thinking of buying food or beverages that claim to boost sexual appetite or slim you down, here’s a reality check—such items could take a toll on your health.

They could cause heart attacks, strokes, brain hemorrhage, increase blood pressure, cause loss of hearing or vision and worse, they could cause permanent erectile dysfunction instead.

“We have found that some products contain active ingredients, such as sildenafil, tadalafil and verdanafil,” the Star Online quoted Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai as saying.“These are used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and can only be supplied to patients by a doctor or a licensed pharmacist upon a prescription issued by a doctor.

“These medicines, if taken without proper management by a doctor, have severe documented adverse effects like heart attack and stroke,” he told reporters after visiting the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division.

Researchers from the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) followed 53,848 participants in the BWHS for 12 years, during which time 789 cases of breast cancer developed on which information on receptor status was obtained.

The incidence of estrogen receptor negative cancer was 65 per cent greater among women who had ever used oral contraceptives than among nonusers.

According to the BUSM researchers, the increase in risk was greatest for women who had used oral contraceptives within the previous five years and whose use had lasted 10 or more years, and the increase was greater for estrogen receptor negative than for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.

Estrogen receptor positive tumors have a better prognosis than estrogen receptor negative breast cancers.

Lead author Lynn Rosenberg, an associate director of the Slone Epidemiology Center and professor of epidemiology at BUSM, pointed out- that oral contraceptive formulations have changed over time, making it relevant to assess the effects of more recent formulations on breast cancer risk.

A new study has found that prolonged wearing of and walking in high heels can contribute to joint degeneration and knee osteoarthritis. An Iowa State University kinesiology master's student Danielle Barkema, recently completed her thesis research studying the effects of high-heeled walking on forces acting on joints of the lower extremities. Kinesiology professor and department chair Phil Martin assisted her in the study.

Barkema selected three different heel heights - flat, two inches, and 3.5 inches - and had each of the 15 women in her study complete walking trials. She measured the forces acting about the knee joint and the heel strike-induced shock wave that travels up the body when walking in heels. Using sensors, accelerometers and lab equipment such as a force platform and markers/cameras, she was able to capture motion and force data and translate them into results that could change the way millions of women select their footwear.

The ISU researchers found that heel height changes walking characteristics such as slower speeds and shorter stride lengths. And as the heels got higher, they also saw an increase in the compression on the inside - or medial side - of the knee. "This means that prolonged wearing and walking in heels could, over time, contribute to joint degeneration and knee osteoarthritis," Barkema said.

"Wearing high heels regularly puts a person at risk and the higher the heel, the greater the risk," Martin added. "The loading that's being produced in the joint with every step that they take is higher - or at least, these data suggest that. These are not direct measures of loading within the joint, but they're an alternative way of looking at that kind of loading.