Category: Health

Dr. Vasundhara Kalasapudi’s aging facility, India Home, a non-profit serving the elderly Indian American population in New York has been named as one of Next Avenue’s Influencers In Aging for 2017.

Kalasapudi trained as a physician at first and became an expert on geriatric psychiatry, which allowed her to diagnose her own father with dementia in 2003, something she thought she would never do.

She then travelled to India several times to take care of her father and in the process became very much aware of the lack of culturally appropriate services and care facilities for the elderly in the Indian American community.

Kalasapudi founded India Home, a revolutionary nonprofit that serves the elderly Indian American community in New York City, providing hundreds with food, health care and social support which can be found in strong Indian values.

“I would advocate bettering integrating social and medical services for older adults. Senior centers are integral institutions to help Americans age in place and prevent or delay many health issues, but medical professionals are unaware of such social services,” Kalasapudi said about the one thing she would do to change aging in America.

“More than 100 million Americans are over age 50 now, and as life expectancy increases, it is imperative that policies, housing, science, technology and culture all evolve to better serve our population. These honorees on our list of Influencers in Aging are on the leading edge of this revolution,” said Next Avenue Editorial & Content Director Shayla Stern.

Next Avenue is public media’s first and only digital publication dedicated to covering issues for people 50 and older and this is the third annual list of the top 50 Influencers in Aging, which includes advocates, researchers, thought leaders, innovators, writers and experts at the forefront of changing how we age and think about aging.

Nearly 50 per cent of women in India live with an abnormal cholesterol level, an alarming indicator of the risk of their being prone to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), a survey has showed.
The survey by diagnostic chain SRL Diagnostics revealed that 48 per cent women in the age group of 46-60 years had the highest level of abnormality in the lipid profile tests — the number one cause of death globally and in India.

A lipid profile test measures the amount of cholesterol present in lipid carrier proteins like low density lipoprotein (LDL), high density lipoprotein (HDL) and fats (triglyceride) present in the blood and determines the risk of CVD.

Further, women living in North India (33.11 per cent) and East India (35.67 per cent) had higher abnormal levels of triglycerides while low HDL and high total cholesterol levels were more commonly seen in women living in South India (34.15 per cent) and West India (31.90 per cent).

“In India, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women. It’s an alarming situation as heart attacks appear differently in women than men and it is more fatal in the post-menopausal women than it is in men,” said Avinash Phadke, President Technology and Mentor (Clinical Pathology) from SRL Diagnostics, in a statement, on Thursday.

High saturated fat, sugar and salt intake, very low consumption of vegetables and whole grains leading to obesity, coupled with sedentary lifestyles, rising stress levels and smoking are the major contributory factors for deterioration of heart health in women in India, the survey revealed. The analysis is based on more than 3.3 million lipid profile tests performed at SRL Labs across India during 2014-2016.

Thousands from New York and around the nation came to participate and learn at the Vegetarian Vision during its first International Health and Wellness Exposition on September 9-10 at Penn Pavilion in New York City.  Renowned speakers included dozens of internationally recognized physicians, scientists, authors, and wellness experts, who spoke about the many health and environment benefits of a plant based/vegetarian diet.  Exhibitors and booth demonstrators filled a 40,000 square foot arena at Penn Pavilion’s expo hall, entertaining guests with live food demonstrations, on site yoga exercises, holistic therapies and new age massage techniques, and the very latest in health and wellness products.

Vegetarian Vision founder H.K. Shah, and his wife Malti Shah, expressed their joy at a ribbon cutting ceremony, which marked the inception of the event and the organization’s 25th jubilee anniversary.  President Chandra Mehta led with the lamp lighting ceremony, alongside Bollywood star Mahima Chaudhry.  Attendees included  Dr. Sudhir Parikh, H.R. Shah, meditation guru Patri Ji,  Air India’s Vandana Sharma, David Green, president of Vegan Association, Andrew Zwicker, New Jersey assemblyman, Mr. K. K. Mehta, convention chair, Nitin Vyas convention coordinator, and Flora Parekh, vice president.

Gary Null, host of award winning radio shows, and author of numerous NY Times best sellers, delivered a keynote lecture on reversing heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and mental decline through vegetarianism and veganism.  Harvard trained cardiologist, Dr. Robert Ostfeld spoke further on the many benefits of plant based diet.

Bollywood star Mahima Chaudhry was chair and judge of the Mr. and Miss Vegetarian Beauty Pageant.  The pageant was followed by a special gala event, hosted with honorable Congressman Tom Suozzi and Vegetarian Vision founder H.K. Shah.  The keynote speech was made by Chandra Mehta. The Expo’s grand finale had  a live fashion show, organized by Suhag Mehta, president of Shreenath Enterprise Inc, and MC’d by Flora Parekh.

The exposition was a first for the Vegetarian Vision organization, bringing plant based lifestyle and wellness, to a global stage.  Null, host of award winning radio shows, and author of numerous NY Times best sellers, delivered a keynote lecture on reversing heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and mental decline through vegetarian and veganism.

Harvard trained cardiologist, Dr. Robert Ostfeld spoke further on the many benefits of plant based diet Dr. Brian Clement of Hippocrates Health Institute lectured on advanced healthcare, preventing and reversing disease, premature again, and renewing happiness.  Dr. Joel Fuhrman, New York Times bestselling author of Eat to Live, The End of Diabetes and The End of Heart Disease, further demonstrated the healthiest ways to eat, and scientific principles of superior nutrition. Mark Becker, yoga specialist, who opened the first Non-Hindu yoga center in NYC, Serenity, over 40 years ago, focused on “ahimsa,” nonviolence, as a spiritual cornerstone of vegetarianism.

Pavilion hosts, booth exhibitors, and other speakers displayed unique healing techniques through crystal bowl sounds, infrared light saunas, hydrogen water, and ayurvedic remedies.   Famous vegan chefs, including, Mark Reinfeld, lit up the Expo with live cooking demonstrations featuring their celebrated recipes.  The food hall also showcased a variety of oriental teas, live juice and smoothie samples, and vegan meals by Chickpea.

Vegetarian Vision’s International Health and Wellness Exposition proved to be a success of mega proportion.  Attended by thousands, and hosted by a star-studded list of pioneers and wellness experts, the Expo made for a special, and memorable experience.

A group of specially abled (physically disabled) , blind performers and/or  performers with other physical disabilities entertained the audience at the Gala in an effort to support and promote their exceptional talent. “Our immediate vision to support these specially abled at Gala as well as our ongoing efforts to promote our mission and vision through various programs, will be efficiently possible through your generous donation,” the organizers said.

 “Your generous support and motivation, to help accomplish our goals and grow further will come a long way. Any and every $ is important but we have outlined some nominal numbers in an effort to support our Gala. We aim at helping some after school activities for special children as well as provision some academic scholarships to the deserved,” they added.

The UN Postal Administration (UNPA) is issuing a set of stamps showing 10 yoga asanas (poses) to commemorate the International Day of Yoga on June 21 in New York. The 10 stamps of $1.15 denomination each depict a different yoga pose next to a large ‘Om’ in Devanagri script.

The stamps are on a single sheet with a picture of the UN Secretariat building that has International Day of Yoga projected on it. In 2016, the UNPA issued a stamp in honour of M.S. Subbalakshmi, the classical Carnatic music singer, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her 1966 concert at the UN.

The UN stamps can be used for posting letters and packages internationally from UN facilities in New York, Geneva and Vienna. However, the yoga stamps would be issued only in the US dollar denomination in New York.

“Releasing soon. @unstamps Special Event sheet to commemorate International Day of Yoga,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.

The UN postal agency, UN Postal Administration (UNPA) will issue the new special event sheet to commemorate Yoga Day that has been marked annually since 2015. The special sheet consists of stamps with images of the sacred Indian sound “Om” and various yogic asanas.

The first International Yoga Day was commemorated at the UN in 2015 with aplomb, with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj leading the celebrations along with then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

In December 2014, the UN General Assembly had adopted a resolution with a record number of 177 co-sponsoring member states to commemorate the International Day of Yoga every year on June 21.

United Nations stamps are issued simultaneously at UN offices in New York, Geneva and Vienna. Each issue carries a related design theme, with different denominations for each office. Usually six new commemorative issues are released each year and remain on sale for 12 months only. UN stamps have illustrated the aims and achievements of the United Nations and its family of organisations, the UNPA website said. The United Nations will issue special stamps commemorating the International Yoga Day on June 21 this year.

Anya LeFrancis, an Indian American fourth grade girl from Chester, New Jersey is battling leukemia and looking for a bone marrow donor with similar ancestry: South Asian and European. The little girl’s parents are in search for a donor and asking anyone, regardless of race, to register through DKMS, a bone marrow donation registry. The transplant must take place by May 2017 to save her life.

Out of 25 million registered donors, the bone marrow transplant team at Hackensack University Medical Center did not find one full match, according to an email by her father Robert LeFrancis. Anya’s unique heritage makes it even more difficult to find a perfect match from the donor registries – Anya is part Caucasian/European and part Indian. Only 3 percent of registered donors are of mixed race, and of that 3 percent, finding her mix of heritage in a donor is very challenging, the email said.

“It is unknown at this time if there will be a match at the registry, but we are trying to get as many people to sign up as possible using the link posted on her page,” said Anya’s mother Pratibha LeFrancis, the Patch reported.

The fourth grader is battling leukemia, and doctors believe her best chance at recovery is a bone marrow transplant. She was first diagnosed in kindergarten and went into remission in third grade. During this school year, Anya began complaining of pain again, and on Jan. 11, doctors diagnosed her with relapsed leukemia.

Indian American couple, Kavita and Lalit Bahl had donated two generous gifts totaling $13.75 million, according to the university news release. And now, the Stony Brook University Cancer Center unveiled a transformative cancer research center, a state-of-the-art facility, named the Kavita and Lalit Bahl Center for Metabolomics and Imaging, last month at the Stony Brook University Hospital.

The new facility will enable experts to probe the metabolic dynamics of tumors and pioneer new approaches in cancer research, detection, treatment and prevention, the university said in a statement. Lalit Bahl is an employee of East Setauket, N.Y.-based Renaissance Technologies.

“Through continual research and discovery, Stony Brook is on the leading edge of discovering the next generation in cancer care,” said university president Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr. in a statement. “One of our most ambitious goals is to make significant breakthroughs in cancer research.”

Added Dr. Yusuf A. Hannun, director of the Stony Brook University Cancer Center, “Today is a momentous occasion for the Cancer Center.” Hannun, in expressing his gratitude to the Bahls, said the center is ideal “because it capitalizes on Stony Brook University’s strengths in three major areas: research, treatment and imaging.”

Lalit Bahl explained his family’s personal motivation for propelling cancer research forward in the unveiling, according to the report. “Cancer has claimed a very large number of people in my family,” he said. “It is really what drives us to get us involved in the center. In our lifetime, we have seen a lot of progress in cancer treatment but there is a still long way to go toward the final goal that nobody should die from cancer. It is really toward this goal that we hope and also expect this center to provide new discoveries and new treatments that will get us closer and closer to where we want to be.”

Hannun and Dr. Lina M. Obeid, dean for research at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine, will serve as co-directors of the Bahl Center. “Drs. Hannun and Obeid have a very long record of research in cancer, and we are thrilled to be able to support their work at Stony Brook,” said Kavita Bahl. “Our hope is that metabolomics and imaging research will result in significant progress toward finding new treatments.”

Current Stony Brook University School of Medicine laboratories and other university scientific laboratories will conduct research for the center. Permanent physical space for the center and its laboratories will be located in the Medical and Research Translation building upon opening of the MART in 2018.

Additional initiatives supported by the Bahls’ gift include an Innovation Award for pilot projects that study the role of nutrition in preventing and treating disease, and an Experimental Therapeutics Program that will focus on ways to accelerate the trajectory of research from the bench to the bedside.

Claimed to be “the world’s most exclusive yoga experience”—a 75-minute yoga session on the top of red rocks in the Valley of Fire in Nevada—costs $3,499. It includes roundtrip flying of the yoga enthusiasts from Las Vegas Strip to Valley of Fire, about 55 miles away, in a helicopter; and is said to be adaptable for all skill levels.

A joint venture of award-winning and Las Vegas headquartered Maverick Aviation Group and Silent Savassana, “HeliYoga: Limitless” yoga class is reportedly held on one of the highest peaks of Valley of Fire.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged City of Las Vegas and Clark County to offer free yoga classes, like some cities were undertaking in the country.  Providing an opportunity to avail the multiple benefits yoga offered, it would be a nice welcoming gesture for the tourists and a befitting expression of thanks towards the hard working locals.

Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out.

Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image.  Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.

Maverick claims to serve over 225,000 guests annually; while Silent Savasana states to offer “a distinctive, fun, and inspiring version of yoga” with a tagline “A Work In, Not a Work Out”. The Valley of Fire is said to derive its name “from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs, 150 million years ago”.

Gerald Surya, M.D., pleaded guilty to falsely certifying physical examinations for commercial drivers on October 21. Specifically, Dr. Surya certified that he had examined applicants for commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) and found them physically fit to drive heavy commercial vehicles when in fact he had not performed those examinations. When sentenced, Surya faces up to 15 years in prison.

The guilty plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Douglas Shoemaker, Regional Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Department of Transportation-Office of Inspector General (USDOT-OIG).

As set forth in court filings and facts presented at the guilty plea proceeding, drivers of certain commercial vehicles, such as school buses and heavy transportation trucks, must possess a CDL issued by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) pursuant to regulations set forth by the United States Department of

Transportation (USDOT). Before obtaining a CDL, all applicants must pass written and road tests related to safely driving such large vehicles.

In addition, the applicants must be examined and certified fit to drive those vehicles by a physician or other qualified medical personnel authorized by the USDOT to conduct such examinations. Upon receipt of the certification, the applicant must file a copy with the DMV. Further, on a monthly basis, USDOT-certified medical examiners are required to electronically transmit to USDOT copies of certifications they have executed for CDL applicants.

Dr. Surya was authorized to conduct USDOT mandated medical examinations and certifications for CDL applicants and purportedly performed such examinations at his office located at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. In fact, the applicants were not examined by Dr. Surya, but instead by other office staff

members who had little or no medical training and were not authorized to conduct the mandated medical examinations. The guilty plea took place before United States District Judge LeShann DeArcy Hall. The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Public Integrity Section. Assistant United States Attorney Michael H. Warren is in charge of the prosecution.

Sankara Eye Foundation reached a new milestone on May 21st. It celebrated our 39th Founder’s Day to commemorate the launch of SEF initiative in Coimbatore 39 years ago with a small medical center.  “Today, SEF has grown to eight super specialty eye care hospitals across India performing over 500 eye surgeries a day,” said Murali Krishnamurthy, who has been spearheading Foundation’s the operation across the US. “The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano is a proud sponsor of the Sankara Eye Foundation,” he added.

The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, Joint ownership with physicians, is the only freestanding, full-service hospital in North Texas dedicated solely to heart and vascular health care. The hospital is acknowledged as a regional and national leader in cardiovascular care. Its commitment to providing safe, quality, compassionate care is rooted in medical and service excellence.

The hospital is ranked 5th in the nation in heart valve surgery*, 6th in the country in open heart surgery*, and #1 in the Dallas-Ft. Worth cardiac surgery market**. As a medical destination for heart and vascular care, the hospital offers advanced care in multiple cardiovascular specialties. Additionally, the hospital is actively engaged in more than 80 clinical research trials. Guests are treated to the hospital’s signature Five-Star Service, which has earned Inpatient and Emergency Department satisfaction scores*** that rank among the top hospitals in the country.

Once again, Sankara Eye Foundation has been applauded for its work ethics and transparency by Charity Navigator which examines two broad areas of a charity’s performance: its Financial Health and its Accountability & Transparency.  Even with the new enhanced financial rating methodology used this year, SEF managed to hold onto its 4 star rating.

This spring, SEF undertook the 5-city concert tour with the famous trio  Shankar Ehsaan Loy and the  New Generation. SEF staff and volunteers worked round the clock, and their dedication paid off with the concerts being sold out in almost all cities.

The audience were treated to an eclectic mix of songs both from the bygone era and today’s times, performed by the trio and the New Generation. The crowd found it very hard to stay seated with the high intensity, foot tapping numbers and the atmosphere was magical throughout.

SEF is still mostly volunteer run and is supported by over 50,000 donors all over the USA and the collective efforts are paying off.  SEF received the top 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for sound fiscal management, commitment to accountability and transparency.   We also won the IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Performance Excellence trophy in the health care category.

Even though our uncle literally forced us to start the Sankara Eye Foundation, now we realize that this is the best thing that has happened to us.   We have made so many friends and that has enriched our lives beyond imagination.     Initially I used to think that I was making a difference in the lives of our dear visually handicapped brothers and sisters but now it is dawning on me that I am the biggest beneficiary.  I am so fortunate and grateful for this golden opportunity. Let us, together, eradicate curable blindness – Vision 20/20 by 2020. In order to get more information on how to join us on this noble mission, please visit:http://www.giftofvision.org/

Long Island, NY: The National Indo-American Association for Senior Citizens Inc., (NIAASC) organized its 28th annual conference on Seniors on May 21, 2016 at the Indian American Kerala Cultural and Civic Center in Elmont, New York. The conference, held in collaboration with Kerala Center, Shanti Niketan, and New York Psychiatry and Cognitive Care, was attended by dozens of members of the organization from across the nation.

The theme for the day-long conference was “Future of Aging in a Changing World” with three components that were discussed in smaller groups. Overview of the subject was presented by Dr. Nalini Juthani, Distinguished Life Member of American Psychiatry Association. Sub-topics included: Macro Factors Affecting Indian Seniors; Financial impact of Living Longer; and Social Life and Connection.

Sponsored by two not-for-profit entities – India Home and India Association of Long Island, along with eighteen individuals, the interactive participation of the attendees highlighted various important factors affecting seniors and their families.

The conference was opened by Thimbu Thalappillil, president of the Kerala Center, who welcomed the participants and detailed various programs and services provided by the Center. Rajeshwar Prasad, president of NIAASC, dwelt with the various subjects that have been covered in its previous 27 conferences since its inception in 1998. He emphasized that NIAASC has successfully worked in collaboration with various entities for conducting these full-day conferences.

The discussions on Macro Factors, especially dealing with legal issues, were coordinated by Dr. Bhavani Srinivasan, a pediatrician and former President of Suffolk County Pediatric Society. Bhavani also was responsible for program coordination of all three groups.  A spokesperson from Russo Law firm, Eric J Einhart talked to the group about Elder Law. Drawing up wills, Power of attorney, Living trusts, Medicare, Medicaid, Home health care, Nursing home care, eligibility requirements for the above. Through a power point presentation, audience were educated on advances in Healthcare technology, gene therapy and health care in the near future.

Discussions on Financial Impact, focusing on financial issues, were led by HSBC Ruben Altamirano, and Putnam Investments, David Casey, who gave the attendees information on retirement funds, diversification, and money management, how to bridge the gap, as retirees now, thanks to better healthcare are living longer. e.g. if someone worked from 20 years to 60 years and retired, and then proceeded to live from 60 years to 100 years, managing portfolios or investments needed to be handled appropriately. Kathleen A. Foster, Project Director with the Nassau County Department of Senior Citizen Affairs, led the discussions on the need for fitness, recreation, being in touch with one’s relatives and community, Adult Ed programs, free programs, volunteerism, getting around, and staying optimistic.

New York State Senator, Tod Kaminsky, in his address, spoke about his commitment to issues of seniors, while underscoring the importance of services for seniors in the state and their benefits to seniors and their families.

Prasad who with the help of many NIAASC Board members and others had developed the 10-page program brochure and Spring 2016 newsletter informed that the document has been posted on the NIAASC web site. The brochure covered the first Retirement Complex, SHANTINIKETAN, in Tavares, Florida – a piece written by its founder, Iggy Ignatius. NIAASC honored an ongoing senior program – GOLDEN PARADISE – SOCIAL ADULT DAY CARE in Nassau County and its founder and vice president of operations, Sridhar Shannugam, accepted the plaque.

The conference was coordinated by Sampurna Jain, Avinash Suri, Asha Samant and Satya Malhotra. The program ended with the General Body meeting where in the five retiring Board members were approved to serve on the Board of Directors. The Board also approved Dr. Asha Samant as NIAASC Secretary. Vote of Thanks was proposed by Satpal Malhotra, NIAASC treasurer, who had submitted its annual financial report to the members.

A Catholic elementary school in Alberta (Canada) treated its students with a yoga class on May four as a part of Mental Health Awareness Week initiative. Ecole Our Lady of the Rosary School (EOLRS) in Sylvan Lake, a Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2 publicly funded English-French Catholic school, whose “Motto” is “Learning, Listening and Following Jesus” and which provides “education in a Catholic environment”, has posted four pictures on its Facebook of pupils doing yoga.

Welcoming EOLRS for offering multi-faceted yoga to its students as Mental Health Awareness Week activity, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all Canadian public and private schools to launch yoga programs for various benefits.

Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.

Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.

According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image.  Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.

Local Blyss Yoga; which quoted India’s renowned yoga teacher B.K.S. Iyengar (“It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.”) on its website; reportedly conducted the class.

Mission of EOLRS includes “committed to making Christ known to children” and its website states: “Our Catholic faith is nurtured and experienced in all classes, celebrations, and prayer”. Diane Kulczycki is the EOLRS Principal, Dr. V. Paul Mason is Superintendent of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools and Father Les Drewicki is the Parish Priest.

Cases of patients mistakenly operated on the wrong leg, administered double the permissible dosage of medicines or not given adequate care could be more common — and have far more serious consequences — than one thinks. A new study published in the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) on Wednesday said that if medical error were a disease, it would be the third largest killer in the US.

There hasn’t been an equivalent study for India, but a Harvard University study in 2013 estimated that 52 lakh injuries occur across India each year (out of the 430 lakh globally) due to medical errors and adverse events. The new BMJ study, conducted by a Johns Hopkins University team, for the first time measures the contribution of medical errors (estimated at 2.51 lakh annually as against 6.11 lakh deaths due to heart disease and 5.85 lakh deaths due to cancer) to deaths in the US.

Medical errors are rarely black or white decisions. “A nurse in an ICU would literally have a split second to decide which injection to give a suddenly serious patient. If a patient turns serious at 3am, she is faced with a situation in which she has three similar sounding and similar looking injections to choose from,” said Dr Nikhil Datar, a gynaecologist and health activist, who set up the Patient Safety Alliance in Mumbai five years ago to promote a healthy dialogue between patients and doctors on unintended medical errors.

There are many such interfaces in the medical world daily. Dr Datar quotes World Health Organization’s statistics that estimated one in 10 hospital admissions leads to an adverse event and one in 300 admissions in death. WHO’s European data shows that medical errors and health-care related adverse events occur in 8% to 12% of hospitalizations.

The biggest contributors to medical errors are mishaps from medications, hospital-acquired infections and blood clots that develop in legs from being immobilized in the hospital. “Approximately 3 million years of healthy life are lost in India each year due to these injuries,” said the 2013 Harvard study.

But Dr Datar gives another point of view. “In the last five years, I have realized that people don’t want to talk about medical errors. There hasn’t been any increase in the awareness about patient safety but there has been a manifold increase in blaming doctors and the healthcare system,” he said.

The BMJ study, meanwhile, said death certificates in the US have no facility for acknowledging medical error. “Death certificates could contain an extra field asking whether a preventable complication stemming from the patient’s medical care contributed to the death.”

New York, NY: Enhance Community through Harmonious Outreach, (ECHO), in association with Indian Nurses association and HFCC are partnering with Oncology, Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology and Pulmonary Specialists in the area is organizing a Free Cancer Awareness Camp for our Community on Sunday, May 22nd 2016 from 11 am to 4 pm, Dr. Thomas P. Mathew, Executive Director of ECHO, announced here last week.

“The initiative is a unique campaign to draw attention to the importance of cancer awareness and screening. There are staggering facts with frightening numbers about this disease. The good news is that this fight we absolutely can do something about. ECHO is committed more than ever to help get the word out about this disease, raising awareness. We need your help and humbly requesting for your support.” According to Usha George, President of Indian Nurses Association of NY

“We believe that our organizations can work together in a number of ways to directly address the critical problem and help collectively collaborate in this new initiative by our community based physicians to increase Cancer Awareness and the importance of Screening, Coping with Cancer, and Pranik Healing and Yoga,” says Biju Chacko, Operations Director. “The camp will include Seminars by Oncology, Gastroenterology, Pulmonary and Internal Medicine Physicians.Workshops, one on one talk with experts, Brochures, flyers, preventive screenings,” Sabu Lukose, MBA, Program Director, adds.

Koppara B. Samuel, Communications Director, says, “We are planning to advertise in the local community to approximately reach around 50,000 homes and all Indian Community through leaders like you. We at ECHO look forward to the chance to work with you on this noble cause and awareness initiative.”

Solomon Mathew, Capital Resource Director, says, “At this time we are reaching out to all our media partners through television, newspaper, social media and community organizations to reach out and promote with public service announcements and spread the word to encourage screening.”

Montreal, April 26, 2016 – Smoking addiction in schizophrenia can be explained by significantly increased activation of the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a region involved in the brain reward system. These new data, the result of a study by researchers at the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (CIUSSS EST, Montreal) and the University of Montreal confirms the tendency to smoke and low smoking cessation rates of people with schizophrenia.

“Smoking is a real problem for people with schizophrenia,” said Stéphane Potvin, a researcher at the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal and lead author of the study. “Their health and life expectancy are often undermined by this addiction, whose brain mechanisms were until now largely unknown,” said the associate professor at the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Medicine.

Essentially, the research team observed greater neuronal activation of a specific region of the brain (vmPFC) in schizophrenia smokers compared with healthy subjects when presented with appetitive cigarette images. At the behavioural level, the researchers also found that schizophrenia smokers had more depressive symptoms than did participants in the control group.

“These observations suggest that smoking has a greater rewarding effect in schizophrenia smokers. This corroborates the hypothesis already formulated of their increased vulnerability to this addiction but also demonstrates the great difficulty for them when it comes to quitting smoking,” said Potvin.

The prevalence of smoking in people with schizophrenia is high, and cessation rates are low. Schizophrenia smokers are twelve more times likely to die from heart disease related to smoking than are those who do not smoke. “It is necessary to explore avenues that will help people in their efforts to free themselves from smoking,” said Potvin. “That is why we want to continue our research into whether this activation of the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is caused by the disease itself or by the effects of antipsychotics,” concluded the researcher.
In their study, the researchers used neuroimaging techniques to compare the brain responses of 18 schizophrenia smokers and 24 smokers without psychiatric disorders while viewing appetitive cigarette images. In addition, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to assess their depressive symptoms (Beck II)

Source: S. Potvin, O.Lungu, O. Lipp, P. Lalonde, V. Zaharieva, E. Stip, J-P Melun, A. Mendrek. Increased ventro-medial prefrontal activations in schizophrenia smokers during cigarette cravings. Schizophrenia Research. April 2016.www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27005897

Stéphane Potvian is a researcher at the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal) and holder of the Eli Lilly Canada Chaire in Schizophrenia Research. He is also Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University de Montreal’s Faculty of Medicine.

WASHINGTON — Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.

The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.

The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.

“It’s really stunning to see such a large increase in suicide rates affecting virtually every age group,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior adviser for health care at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who has identified a link between suicides in middle age and rising rates of distress about jobs and personal finances.

Researchers also found an alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate, while still very low, had tripled. The number of girls who killed themselves rose to 150 in 2014 from 50 in 1999. “This one certainly jumped out,” said Sally Curtin, a statistician at the center and an author of the report.

American Indians had the sharpest rise of all racial and ethnic groups, with rates rising by 89 percent for women and 38 percent for men. White middle-aged women had an increase of 80 percent.

The rate declined for just one racial group: black men. And it declined for only one age group: men and women over 75.

The data analysis provided fresh evidence of suffering among white Americans. Recent research has highlighted the plight of less educated whites, showing surges in deaths from drug overdoses, suicides, liver disease and alcohol poisoning, particularly among those with a high school education or less. The new report did not break down suicide rates by education, but researchers who reviewed the analysis said the patterns in age and race were consistent with that recent research and painted a picture of desperation for many in American society.

“This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health,” said Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard and the author of “Our Kids,” an investigation of new class divisions in America.

The rise in suicide rates has happened slowly over many years. Federal health researchers said they chose 1999 as the start of the period they studied because it was a low point in the national suicide rate and they wanted to cover the full period of its recent sustained rise.

The federal health agency’s last major report on suicide, released in 2013, noted a sharp increase in suicide among 35- to 64-year-olds. But the rates have risen even more since then — up by 7 percent for the entire population since 2010, the end of the last study period — and federal researchers said they issued the new report to draw attention to the issue.

Policy makers say efforts to prevent suicide across the country are spotty. While some hospitals and health systems screen for suicidal thinking and operate good treatment programs, many do not.

She noted that while N.I.H. funding for suicide prevention projects had been relatively flat — rising to $25 million in 2016 from $22 million in 2012 — it was a small fraction of funding for research of mental illnesses, including mood disorders like depression.

The new federal analysis noted that the methods of suicide were changing. About one in four suicides in 2014 involved suffocation, which includes hanging and strangulation, compared with fewer than one in five in 1999. Suffocation deaths are harder to prevent because nearly anyone has access to the means, Ms. Hempstead said. And while the share of suicides involving guns declined — guns went from being involved in 37 percent of female suicides to 31 percent, and from 62 percent to 55 percent for men — the total number of gun suicides increased..

The question of what has driven the increases is unresolved, leaving experts to muse on the reasons.

Julie Phillips, a professor of sociology at Rutgers who has studied suicide among middle-aged Americans, said social changes could be raising the risks. Marriage rates have declined, particularly among less educated Americans, while divorce rates have risen, leading to increased social isolation, she said. She calculated that in 2005, unmarried middle-aged men were 3.5 times more likely than married men to die from suicide, and their female counterparts were as much as 2.8 times more likely to kill themselves. The divorce rate has doubled for middle-aged and older adults since the 1990s, she said.

Disappointed expectations of social and economic well-being among less educated white men from the baby-boom generation may also be playing a role, she said. They grew up in an era that valued “masculinity and self-reliance” — characteristics that could get in the way of asking for help.

“It appears this group isn’t seeking help but rather turning to self-destructive means of dealing with their despair,” Professor Phillips said. Another possible explanation: an economy that has eaten away at the prospects of families on the lower rungs of the income ladder.

Dr. Alex Crosby, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he had studied the association between economic downturns and suicide going back to the 1920s and found that suicide was highest when the economy was weak. One of the highest rates in the country’s modern history, he said, was in 1932, during the Great Depression, when the rate was 22.1 per 100,000, about 70 percent higher than in 2014.

“There was a consistent pattern,” he said, which held for all ages between 25 and 64. “When the economy got worse, suicides went up, and when it got better, they went down.” But other experts pointed out that the unemployment rate had been declining in the latter period of the study, and questioned how important the economy was to suicide.

The gap in suicide rates for men and women has narrowed because women’s rates are increasing faster than men’s. But men still kill themselves at a rate 3.6 times that of women. Though suicide rates for older adults fell over the period of the study, men over 75 still have the highest suicide rate of any age group — 38.8 per 100,000 in 2014, compared with just four per 100,000 for their female

SEATTLE AND NEW ORLEANS – Dr. Sunil Hingorani, a member of the Clinical Research and Public Health Sciences divisions at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will present recent groundbreaking developments in treating pancreas cancer with engineered T-cells at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2016 in New Orleans on April 16.

Hingorani, a pancreatic cancer specialist, teamed up with Fred Hutch immunotherapy experts Drs. Phil Greenberg and Ingunn Stromnes in successful efforts to breach the cancer’s physical and immunological walls using immunotherapy, a type of treatment that harnesses or refines the body’s own immune system with T-cells engineered to recognize and destroy cancer cells.

Specifically, Hingorani’s team created T cells with a high affinity to a “relatively” tumor-specific antigen. Why relatively? Notoriously difficult pancreatic tumor cells don’t produce many unique proteins that allow for completely tumor-specific T cells. Instead, the team had to look for proteins that are expressed in unusually large amounts in the tumor cells and minimally expressed elsewhere. The T cells then were engineered to attack those.

But there was a potential problem: That same targeted mesothelial protein also can be found in the linings of the heart and lungs. However, in tests on mice with pancreatic tumors and immune system responses nearly identical to those in humans, the engineered infused T cells parked only briefly in those linings (without harming them) and then moved along to attack the tumor cells. What’s more, they killed those cells over a 10-day period, as did subsequent infusions.

Additionally, Hingorani and his team have worked to develop an enzyme that can help defeat the tumor’s high interstitial pressures and potentially open the door for greater penetration and effectiveness of T cells and other types of agents. By the end of the year, Hingorani hopes to have the human version of the T cell in clinical trials.

This work was supported by a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington Cancer Consortium Cancer Center Support Grant, the Giles W. and Elise Mead Foundation, the Safeway Foundation, a gift from Maryanne Tagney and David Jones, the National Cancer Institute, and grants from the Korean Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Juno Therapeutics, the Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute and the Jack and Sylvia Paul Estate Fund to Support Collaborative Immunotherapy Research.

Editor’s note: For researcher bios, photos and more, please visit fredhutch.org/media.

Higher stress, diminished quality family time linked to worse health for children

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — More than half of adults believe children today are more stressed, experience less quality family time and have worse mental and emotional health than children in past generations, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
“We have seen major advances in medicine and public health over the last century that have greatly reduced children’s illness and death. On the other hand, conditions like childhood obesity, asthma and behavior problems have become more common,” said Matthew M. Davis, M.D., M.A.P.P., director of the poll and professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“We wanted to know how the public perceives these trends, so we conducted this latest national poll to gain insights into adults’ perceptions of children’s health today. We found that adults in the U.S. broadly agree: children’s health today seems worse than for children over the past several decades.”
Among the key results, 55 percent of adults polled believe kids’ mental and emotional health is worse today than when they were children. Coping and personal friendships for children were also widely viewed as worse than for children in the past.
“The dominant view from this poll is that children’s health is worse today than it was for generations past, and we need to more urgently address these challenges,” said Mark Wietecha, CEO and president of Children’s Hospital Association, which collaborated on the poll.
In addition to the perception of diminished emotional and mental health, the poll found adults perceive children as having worse physical health as well. Forty-two percent of adults say kids today are in worse physical health compared to their own childhoods.
The poll also found generational differences in adults’ perceptions of children’s health: Pre-baby boomers ages 70 and older were most likely to perceive that children’s physical health today is better than when they were growing up. Baby boomers (ages 51-69), generation Xers (ages 35-50) and millennials in the 18-34 age group were less likely to perceive that children’s physical health is better now.
The poll of nearly 2,700 adults in a nationally representative sample asked respondents to assess key variables for children growing up today, compared to those in prior decades. The findings linked to behavioral health are consistent with previous Mott polls that cited bullying, stress, suicide, and depression as leading child health concerns identified by adults across the U.S.

April 18, 2016: A new analysis of 204 studies involving more than 1.4 million people suggests that metformin, the most frequently prescribed stand-alone drug for type 2 diabetes, reduces the relative risk of a patient dying from heart disease by about 30 to 40 percent compared to its closest competitor drug, sulfonylurea.

The study, designed to assess the comparative—not absolute or individual—benefits and risks of more than a dozen FDA-approved drugs for lowering blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, is described in the April 19, 2016 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Diabetes now affects almost 10 percent of the U.S. population and poses a growing public health threat, and most people will eventually need drug treatment, the researchers say.

“Metformin looks like a clear winner,” says Nisa Maruthur, M.D., M.H.S., assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “This is likely the biggest bit of evidence to guide treatment of type 2 diabetes for the next two to three years.”

Maruthur, the lead author on the meta-analysis, notes that cardiovascular fatalities—heart attacks and strokes—are major risks for people with uncontrolled blood sugar, but it has never been clear if one diabetes drug is better than another at lowering these fatalities. Other diabetes-related complications include blindness, kidney failure and limb amputations.

This review, Maruthur says, provides a much-needed update to two previous analyses, the last one published in 2011. Since then, researchers have published more than 100 new studies comparing the effectiveness of various blood sugar-lowering drugs, and several new drugs have also come on the market since the last report.

Of the total 204 studies analyzed, 50 spanned several continents, while others were conducted across Europe, Asia and the United States. Most of the studies were short term, with only 22 mostly observational studies lasting more than two years. Participants in the studies were generally overweight with uncontrolled blood sugar levels. Many studies excluded the elderly and those with significant health problems. Just shy of half of the studies made no mention of race or ethnicity. When researchers did report that information, only 10 to 30 percent of participants were nonwhite.

Maruthur says the new analysis not only looked at cardiovascular disease but also other drug effects, including glucose control, and common side effects, such as weight gain, hypoglycemia and gastrointestinal problems. Because the majority of patients with type 2 diabetes end up using multiple blood sugar-lowering drugs, Maruthur and her team also evaluated how the drugs performed when used alone or in combination. While some of the various studies’ participants were on insulin, this injectable drug was only evaluated when used in combination with other drugs.

Among other findings, the new review revealed that DPP-4 inhibitors, a class of anti-diabetic drugs that were very new at the time of the 2011 review, were clearly less effective at lowering blood sugar levels compared to metformin and sulfonylureas.

In terms of side effects, a new class of drugs known as SGLT-2 inhibitors, which work by shuttling excess glucose out of the body through urine, caused yeast infections in 10 percent of users, a side effect unique to this drug, Maruthur says. However, SGLT-2 inhibitors, along with another drug class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, helped patients lose weight. Sulfonylureas, on the other hand, caused weight gain and resulted in the highest rates of hypoglycemia, or too-low blood sugar, among the oral medications.

Cautioning that such meta-analyses can be limited because of differences in research protocols and measurements across studies, Maruthur and her colleagues took steps to ensure that only studies using similar methods were combined. Also, they excluded from their analysis any studies that included patients taking additional, nonstudy diabetes drugs.

Overall, Maruthur says, the results indicate that metformin, which has been around since the late 1990s, works just as well, if not better, than sulfonylureas, which have been on the market since the late 1950s/1960s, and diabetes drugs that have appeared on the market more recently. She says the new findings are in line with the current recommendation that metformin be used as a first-line therapy. The real question arises, Maruthur says, when patients and doctors must choose a second drug to be used in combination with the metformin.

“The medications all have different benefits and side effects, so the choice of second-line medications must be based on an individual patient’s preferences,” Maruthur says.

Maruthur and her team’s work will be published alongside the report they wrote for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the funding agency for the study, detailing the hundreds of studies included in Maruthur’s analysis and an exhaustive summary. Both the American College of Physicians and the Veterans Association plan to use these publications to update their guidelines.

The cost of diabetes drugs is a major consideration when prescribing. While metformin is available as a relatively cheap generic, many newer drugs carry a hefty price tag. In 2014, per-person spending was higher for diabetes drugs for any other class of traditional drugs, in part because over half the prescriptions filled for diabetes were for nongenerics.

April 18, 2016: A new analysis of 204 studies involving more than 1.4 million people suggests that metformin, the most frequently prescribed stand-alone drug for type 2 diabetes, reduces the relative risk of a patient dying from heart disease by about 30 to 40 percent compared to its closest competitor drug, sulfonylurea.

The study, designed to assess the comparative—not absolute or individual—benefits and risks of more than a dozen FDA-approved drugs for lowering blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, is described in the April 19, 2016 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Diabetes now affects almost 10 percent of the U.S. population and poses a growing public health threat, and most people will eventually need drug treatment, the researchers say.

“Metformin looks like a clear winner,” says Nisa Maruthur, M.D., M.H.S., assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “This is likely the biggest bit of evidence to guide treatment of type 2 diabetes for the next two to three years.”

Maruthur, the lead author on the meta-analysis, notes that cardiovascular fatalities—heart attacks and strokes—are major risks for people with uncontrolled blood sugar, but it has never been clear if one diabetes drug is better than another at lowering these fatalities. Other diabetes-related complications include blindness, kidney failure and limb amputations.

This review, Maruthur says, provides a much-needed update to two previous analyses, the last one published in 2011. Since then, researchers have published more than 100 new studies comparing the effectiveness of various blood sugar-lowering drugs, and several new drugs have also come on the market since the last report.

Of the total 204 studies analyzed, 50 spanned several continents, while others were conducted across Europe, Asia and the United States. Most of the studies were short term, with only 22 mostly observational studies lasting more than two years. Participants in the studies were generally overweight with uncontrolled blood sugar levels. Many studies excluded the elderly and those with significant health problems. Just shy of half of the studies made no mention of race or ethnicity. When researchers did report that information, only 10 to 30 percent of participants were nonwhite.

Maruthur says the new analysis not only looked at cardiovascular disease but also other drug effects, including glucose control, and common side effects, such as weight gain, hypoglycemia and gastrointestinal problems. Because the majority of patients with type 2 diabetes end up using multiple blood sugar-lowering drugs, Maruthur and her team also evaluated how the drugs performed when used alone or in combination. While some of the various studies’ participants were on insulin, this injectable drug was only evaluated when used in combination with other drugs.

Among other findings, the new review revealed that DPP-4 inhibitors, a class of anti-diabetic drugs that were very new at the time of the 2011 review, were clearly less effective at lowering blood sugar levels compared to metformin and sulfonylureas.

In terms of side effects, a new class of drugs known as SGLT-2 inhibitors, which work by shuttling excess glucose out of the body through urine, caused yeast infections in 10 percent of users, a side effect unique to this drug, Maruthur says. However, SGLT-2 inhibitors, along with another drug class known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, helped patients lose weight. Sulfonylureas, on the other hand, caused weight gain and resulted in the highest rates of hypoglycemia, or too-low blood sugar, among the oral medications.

Cautioning that such meta-analyses can be limited because of differences in research protocols and measurements across studies, Maruthur and her colleagues took steps to ensure that only studies using similar methods were combined. Also, they excluded from their analysis any studies that included patients taking additional, nonstudy diabetes drugs.

Overall, Maruthur says, the results indicate that metformin, which has been around since the late 1990s, works just as well, if not better, than sulfonylureas, which have been on the market since the late 1950s/1960s, and diabetes drugs that have appeared on the market more recently. She says the new findings are in line with the current recommendation that metformin be used as a first-line therapy. The real question arises, Maruthur says, when patients and doctors must choose a second drug to be used in combination with the metformin.

“The medications all have different benefits and side effects, so the choice of second-line medications must be based on an individual patient’s preferences,” Maruthur says.

Maruthur and her team’s work will be published alongside the report they wrote for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the funding agency for the study, detailing the hundreds of studies included in Maruthur’s analysis and an exhaustive summary. Both the American College of Physicians and the Veterans Association plan to use these publications to update their guidelines.

The cost of diabetes drugs is a major consideration when prescribing. While metformin is available as a relatively cheap generic, many newer drugs carry a hefty price tag. In 2014, per-person spending was higher for diabetes drugs for any other class of traditional drugs, in part because over half the prescriptions filled for diabetes were for nongenerics.

Evangelists of vegetarian and vegan diets are quick to cite growing evidence that reducing meat consumption improves human health in attempt to win over converts. Likewise, climate change activists often cite the strain that animal products place on the environment to advocate for changed practices.

Now, new research published in the journal PNAScombines the two perspectives to show that the widespread adoption of vegetarian and vegan diets could save millions of lives and trillion of dollars. “There is huge potential,” says study author Marco Springmann, a researcher at Oxford University, “from a health perspective, an environmental perspective and an economic perspective, really.”

Researchers assessed four different scenarios with humans consuming varying levels of meat to evaluate the links between diet, health and the environment. The lowest level of meat consumption—widespread adoption of the vegan diet—could help avoid more than 8 million deaths by 2050, according to the study. A vegetarian diet would save 7.3 million lives.

The environmental impacts of a dietary shift could be just as dramatic, according to the researchers. Livestock alone account for more than 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2050 the food sector could account for half if cuts are implemented in other sectors along the lines that countries have committed to doing. A vegan or vegetarian diet could cut those emissions by 70% and 63%, respectively.

Changing dietary patterns could save $1 trillion annually by preventing health care costs and lost productivity. That figure balloons to as much as $30 trillion annually when also considering the economic value of lost life. And that doesn’t even include the economic benefits of avoiding devastating extreme weather events that could result from climate change.

Placing a dollar value on the benefits of the vegetarian diet could play a significant role in public policy on these issues, according Springmann. Policymakers often conduct cost-benefit analyses before implementing new rules and the new research could provide them with a starting point for accounting for the economic benefits of policies to wean the world off meat.

The study also illustrates how the benefits of changing dietary patterns vary from region to region. Some areas—namely, East Asia, Latin America and Western high-income countries—benefited from reduced red meat consumption. Others in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will benefit the most from increased fruit and vegetable intake. Those details could help policymakers create narrowly targeted policies, researchers say.

Washington, DC: March 31, 2016 – Imagine contact lenses that can deliver medicines directly to the eye, slow progression of nearsightedness in children, or monitor glucose levels in patients with diabetes. Those are some of the emerging advances in contact lens technology reported in the April special issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

The special issue on “Revolutionary Future Uses of Contact Lenses” presents original research and reviews on proposed new uses for contact lenses. Taking advantage of new materials and technologies, these ideas go far beyond the traditional use of contact lenses for vision correction, offering potential new treatments for eye diseases, along with new approaches to monitoring of medical conditions.

The special issue was assembled by an international expert panel, led by Lyndon Jones, PhD, FCOptom, of University of Waterloo, Ont., Canada. It features 13 papers on new and emerging applications—some still under development, some already available—for contact lens technology: Slowing progression of myopia. With rising rates of nearsightedness (myopia) in children worldwide, there is growing interest in the use of contact lenses to prevent or slow progression of this vision defect. Two original research studies suggest that lasting reductions in myopia progression may be possible even with some currently available contact lenses. In the future, lens designs developed specifically for this purpose may be even more effective.

Drug and stem cell delivery. New technologies such as “molecular imprinting” have renewed interest in the possibility of using contact lenses to deliver medications directly to the eye over a period of days to weeks. While many challenges remain, this approach could lead to improved treatments for ocular diseases, achieving higher drug levels in the eye itself. Contact lenses are even being evaluated a new approach to stem cell therapy for patients with ocular surface diseases.
Contact lens ‘biosensors.’ New technologies may enable the development of contact lenses containing biosensors to monitor patient health. For example, a device to monitor changes in intraocular pressure in patients with or at risk of glaucoma is commercially available now. The special issue also includes a report on biosensing contact lenses that can measure glucose levels in the tear film of the eye, which may one day provide a new approach to continuous monitoring in patients with diabetes.
New approaches to vision correction. Meanwhile, researchers are still working on new designs to further improve vision correction with contact lenses. Studies in the special issue report promising results with new approaches to extending depth of vision for patients with aging-related vision loss (presbyopia) and benefits of “centrally red-tinted contact lenses” for patients with degenerative retinal diseases or extreme light sensitivity (photophobia).

Other technologies in earlier stages of development include accommodating contact lenses capable of changing change focus, “wearable displays” using contact lenses, and lenses with “photonic modulation” for treatment of seasonal affective disorder. “The advances in contact lens technology, especially imaging and new biocompatible materials, has made such possibilities a reality,” comments Anthony Adams, OD, PhD, Associate Editor of Optometry and Vision Science. “Researchers are already proposing solutions to the clinical and research challenges posed by these revolutionary new uses of contact lenses, going well beyond vision correction.”
Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry, is the most authoritative source for current developments in optometry, physiological optics, and vision science. This frequently cited monthly scientific journal has served primary eye care practitioners for more than 75 years, promoting vital interdisciplinary exchange among optometrists and vision scientists worldwide.

Founded in 1922, the American Academy of Optometry is committed to promoting the art and science of vision care through lifelong learning. All members of the Academy are dedicated to the highest standards of optometric practice through clinical care, education or research.

The formation of tiny bubbles around the head of ultrasonic scalers, used by dentists to remove built-up plaque, is key to the cleaning process, researchers including an Indian-origin scientist have revealed. “Putting the pieces together, we can say that altering the shape and power of these commonly used tools make them more effective, and hopefully, pain-free,” added lead study author Nina Vyas.

The bubble formation, or cavitation of water around the head of the scaler, was observed using high-speed cameras. The findings are the first to prove that cavitation takes place around the free end of ultrasonic scalers.

Removing dental plaque and calculus that is the build-up of what we know as tartar or hard plaque, is a big part of maintaining oral health and a regular occurrence in dental check-ups.

“These findings will help us to understand how to make the tools as effective as possible,” said Damien Walmsley from University of Birmingham in Britain. For the study published in the journal PLOS ONE, scalers of differing power and head shape were used and compared to quantify the patterns of cavitation.

A Satelec ultrasonic scaler was studied at medium and high operating power using high speed imaging at 15,000, 90,000 and 250,000 frames per second, and the tip displacement was recorded using scanning laser vibrometry.

Researchers were not only able to show that cavitation occurred at the free end of the tip, but that it increases with power and the area and width of the cavitation cloud varies for different shaped tips. The methods developed will help test new instrument designs to maximise cavitation, with the aim of designing ultrasonic scalers that operate without touching the tooth surface, the authors noted. With this, the process of teeth cleaning will become both less painful and more effective

Newark, CA: Riti Lomesh, a young Indian American woman began a 21-day hunger strike on Mar. 23 in the lobby of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office in the state of California  to protest the lenient treatment accorded to the driver of a pickup truck which killed her brother last year when it overturned in Niles Canyon, near Fremont, Calif. “The district attorney has been very sympathetic to the driver. There has been a lot of victim-blaming for my brother,” Riti Lomesh told the media on the seventh day of her hunger strike. “I find it very disheartening,” said the 23-year-old native of Newark, Calif.

According to reports, on the evening of Apr. 20, 2015, Karan Lomesh, 19 at the time of his death, and another minor who is not being named, got into the open flatbed of Austin Daniel Strong’s Mazda 1994 pick-up truck. The California Highway Patrol reported that Strong was driving about 50 miles per hour on Palomares Road, which leads up to the canyon. Strong, 19 at the time, was unable to negotiate a curve, according to CHP reports, and his truck flew off the roadway and landed in a trench about 30 feet below.

Karan Lomesh and the other rider were ejected from the flatbed. Riti Lomesh said the truck landed on top of her brother, crushing him to death. Karan Lomesh was pronounced dead at the scene. Two other riders were taken into emergency care; one – the other flatbed rider – was treated for moderate injuries, while the other was treated for minor injuries. Strong declined medical treatment.

Riti Lomesh claimed that Strong ignored speed limit signs of 25 mph and was driving erratically. The CHP reported that drugs or alcohol were not involved in the incident. Teresa Drenick, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney’s office, told the media that Strong pleaded no contest to one felony count of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. He will be sentenced Apr. 12, said Drenick, who declined to comment on the length of sentence Strong will receive.

In California, felony vehicular manslaughter charge carries a sentence of four to six years in state prison, plus a $10,000 fine. Riti Lomesh is reported to have told the media that she was concerned that Strong might receive less than one year for an incident that caused the death of her brother. She expressed concern that Strong’s driver’s license had not been suspended following the deadly accident and alleged that the DA’s office has been treating the case in a “boys will be boys” manner.

In the week that she has been protesting in the lobby, Lomesh said no one from the DA’s office has reached out to her. Riti Lomesh described her brother as “a very kind, compassionate human being,” who was passionate about science, and volunteered with a science-learning program for younger children. “My family and I are utterly dismayed by the lack of justice for my brother,” said Lomesh.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Researchers estimate that each year 1,825 college students ages 18-24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle collisions. About 20 percent of college students meet the criteria for an alcohol use disorder, with one in four college students report adverse academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.

“Alcohol abuse, binge drinking in particular, is thought to be a rite of passage for college students; but in reality it’s a very serious health epidemic in the United States,” said Peter Hendricks, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health Department of Health Behavior. “It is important to understand what alcohol is, why it’s problematic, and what a person can do to minimize the risk should they choose to drink.”

Moderate drinking, as defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men, translating to seven or fewer drinks per week for women and 14 or fewer drinks per week for men. A standard drink is a 12-ounce beer, 8-ounces of malt liquor, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a 1.5-ounce shot of liquor.

Binge drinking, which is especially problematic, is four drinks in two hours for women and five drinks in two hours for men. More than one-third of college students engage in binge drinking monthly.

“Alcohol leads to impulsive decisions and can be addictive,” Hendricks said. “Even though it’s legal for those 21 years of age and older, college students should be aware of the dangers of drinking alcohol.”

Megan McMurray, clinical psychology intern at UAB, notes that drinking alcohol in excess is dangerous and can quite easily lead to death. Overdose of alcohol can occur when a person has blood alcohol content sufficient to produce impairments that increase the risk of harm. Age, drinking experience, gender, the amount of food eaten and even ethnicity can influence BAC. Critical signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning include: Confusion; Vomiting; Seizures; Slow breathing; Irregular breathing; and Hypothermia.

“As BAC increases, so does alcohol’s effects and the risk for harm,” McMurray said. “Even small increases in BAC can decrease coordination, make a person feel sick and impair judgment. This can lead to injury from falls or car crashes, leave one vulnerable to sexual assault or other acts of violence, and increase the risk for unprotected, unintended intercourse.”

McMurray explained further, “When BACs get even higher, amnesia or blackouts occur. If a person has signs of alcohol poisoning, it is very dangerous to assume that an unconscious person will be fine by “sleeping it off.’”

Alcohol acts as a depressant, impairing basic bodily functions, such as the gag reflex, leaving people vulnerable to choking on their own vomit and dying in their sleep. Alcohol can also irritate the stomach, making the suppression of the gag reflex especially problematic.

Furthermore, on a national level, 696,000 students between the ages of 18-24 are assaulted every year by another student who has been drinking and 97,000 students between the ages of 18-24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape each year.

According to an article published in Lancet in 2010, alcohol is rated as the single most harmful of all abused substances, ranking higher than heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine.

“Alcohol is ingrained in our culture, and binge drinking is perceived as a lighthearted, fun and humorous rite of passage among college students,” Hendricks said. “It’s crucial to communicate the dire risks of binge drinking and challenge the notion that alcohol use is a normal and harmless part of the college experience.”

Hendricks recommends that those under the legal drinking age of 21 refrain from drinking alcohol. Moderate drinking (again, no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women) may be considered for those over the age of 21. Hendricks offers suggestions that may help reduce the harm of immoderate alcohol use: Alternate each alcoholic beverage with a glass of water; Eat a full meal before drinking occasions; Sip drinks slowly and avoid taking shots, chugging or using a beer bong, as drinking quickly leads to a steep BAC curve and subsequent impairment; Do not mix alcohol with other drugs as this increases risk of toxicity and harm. Mixing alcohol with benzodiazepines (for example, Xanax and Klonopin) is especially problematic and can lead to death; Have a safe ride home by designating a driver or using public transportation, taxi or safe rides; Never leave your friends; Do not accept drinks from someone you do not know. Never take your eyes off of your drink; Intoxicated individuals cannot provide consent to sexual contact or intercourse; and Sexual contact or intercourse with an inebriated person may be considered rape in most states.

UAB’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science is advancing innovative discoveries for better health as a two-time recipient of the prestigious Center for Translational Science Award. Find more information at www.uab.edu and www.uabmedicine.org

The eyes, heart, pancreas, kidneys, esophagus, liver and bone marrow of a Bengaluru youth have granted a new lease of life to at least eight persons in New York. This followed his family’s decision to donate all his organs after he was declared brain-dead in Brooklyn Hospital Centre on Sunday.

Rajeev Naidu, 24, was admitted to the hospital with lung infection on February 21 and was undergoing treatment under the care of his roommates. Rajeev was pursuing masters in engineering from New York University in Washington Square South. He was a meritorious student and staunch follower of New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum.

“My parents and I haven’t seen Rajeev since he fell ill in February . We never expected this. My husband Jayanth has gone to the US to bring his body home. We are proud of whatever he did while he lived and equally proud of him for promoting a greater cause by donating his organs,” said his elder sister Kruthika Purushottam, a techie with HP. The family is expecting the body to arrive in Bengaluru by Thursday .

His last rites are likely to be performed on Friday . Rajeev, from Vidyanagar in Bommasandra, southeast Benglauru, completed BE in Computer Information Science from PESIT University in 2014. Rajeev worked in Dilip Material Handling Equipment, a local company in Bommasandra, for a year before taking admission for masters in NYU in 2015.

“Rajeev was an amazing person -kindhearted, helpful and always sported a smile. He would approach classmates, juniors and seniors to talk to them and help them. He was a great student and one of the top scorers in our university. Rajeev has made India proud by donating organs to those who needed them in US,” said Tejaswini Reddy, a classmate from PESIT.