Baby, Obesity is Not your Fault!

If you can't shift those extra pounds, no matter how hard you try, blame your mother. Research suggests we can be programmed to be fat while still in the womb, with a mother-to-be’s lifestyle affecting the health of her baby for years to come.

It is thought that her diet, the amount she exercises, whether she smokes or drinks alcohol and even which pollutants she is exposed to can alter the DNA of her unborn child. The changes are not to the letters of the code of life itself, but to its ‘punctuation’. These chemical marks can activate, silence or crank up genes and their actions.

The latest evidence for the theory, which is known as epigenetics, comes from researchers at Newcastle University who analyzed the genes of children aged between nine and 11.

They specifically looked for genes that had the same letters but behaved differently in children who were overweight and those who were slim. Blood samples stored since the children's births were then analyzed. This step showed that in many cases, youngsters who were overweight had displayed different chemical marks on their DNA at birth.

Dr Caroline Relton, who led the research, said: ‘This suggests that our DNA could be marked before birth and these marks could predict our later body composition.’ Dr Relton, whose findings are detailed in the journal PLoS Medicine, does not know why some DNA is marked in the womb.

But previous research suggests it is largely to do with the mother's lifestyle. However, Dr Relton added: ‘These marks are open to change. I think this puts the onus on the individual to do something about the way their genes work.’

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Pain Visible

Preface: We all know that pain and its causes is difficult to be seen unless there was physical scars, and which has produced considerable difficulties to the diagnosis and treatment of pain patients. Now scientists from Sweden are working on a detection method, which can make pain "visible" for doctors in the absence of traumas.

We all know what pain feels like, but it is not always easy to identify it.

A broken bone and the effects of many diseases on the body can be seen. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to pinpoint the source of pain.

But doctors here at Uppsala University say they have made an important achievement in the battle against pain.

They are using positron emission tomography, or PET, scans which have been used in hospitals for almost a decade. A radioactive tracer is injected into the patient to develop a three-dimensional picture of the body.

Researchers here say they have used it successfully to diagnose the origin of pain.

They have mixed the usual radioactive tracer with a second substance called D-deprenyl, which they say attaches itself to the parts of the body where patients feel pain. Using the PET scans, researchers can develop images of the spots that indicate an uptake of the tracer mix.

Lieuwe Appel specializes in diagnosing PET scans. Seated at his computer, he explains what appears on a screen before him.

"Here we have a positron emission tomography picture. We call it a PET picture. It has been made with D-deprenyl that has been marked with Carbon-11. And here we can see a significant uptake of this tracer in this patient. They are the red marks on the screen, and this uptake corresponded with the area where the patient felt pain."

Another lead researcher on the project is Dr. Torsten Gordh, Professor of Pain Medicine at Uppsala University Hospital.

Gordh says the key to the research was finding the new tracer. He is convinced the researchers have found a substance which attaches itself to the spots where patients feel pain.

Gordh says although some patients are almost disabled by pain, most scans fail to detect it, and that is why PET is vital.

"With this PET method that we have developed we can actually see that there is an irritation where the patient feels pain. This is a very important tool when diagnosing the patient. The patient also gets a confirmation that something is wrong, and we get more basis for our methods when we work with the patient."

Gordh says one of the driving forces behind the research has been the patients he has felt helpless to diagnose and treat.

He says the research is deeply satisfying for him, because he believes he is closer to being able to make pain visible.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Five Health Lessons We shall Learn from Santa

How you been during his Christmas season? Did you receive a gift from Santa Claus yet? This year Santa Claus brought us not only a real gift, but also give us its own experiences on five health lessons! The healthy gift, you have to receive a good strategy!

Lesson 1: Stay up all night

The only way for Santa to get the job done is to stay up all night on December 24 -- and that can lead to some serious health concerns. Sleep loss has a cumulative effect, and Santa has been working hard, likely cutting back on sleep, for the entire month preceding Christmas. As people lose sleep, they have problems responding quickly to specific objects.

Lessons 2: Carring Heavy Sack Of Presents


You should never carry something that weighs more than 10 percent of your body weight, especially when one shoulder is taking on most of the burden. In fact, doing so can cause back strains and sprains, muscle pulls, back spasms, difficulty walking and tingling and numbness down the arms and legs.


Lesson 3: Obesity/Excess Weight

The health risks linked to obesity are well-known, including, among others, Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, certain types of cancer and osteoarthritis. And belly fat, in particular, can cause serious health problems, especially among men. Belly fat can increase risk for insulin resistance, high triglycerides, heart disease and metabolic syndrome, among other problems -- most increased risk happens with a waist size over 40 inches.


Lesson 4: Deficiency of Vitamin D

Living with the short days in the North Pole, not to mention working the night shift in December, can cause a serious deficiency of Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, which has been linked to several health problems. Santa should aim to take a supplement that provides 1,000 IU of the nutrient. In addition, he should consider increasing his consumption of Vitamin D-rich foods, such as salmon or fortified milk.


Lesson 5: Shift Work

Santa's not alone here, more than 8 million Americans perform shift work, which has been linked with serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, ulcers and depression, among others.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

5 Secrets About Our Brains

Secret 1: 60% of the brain are Fat

Yup, our brains are made up of 60 percent fat, says Dr. Michael Green, a research psychologist at Aston University.

To function optimally, our brains need to maintain this level of fat. A lower amount of fat, in fact, can lead to neurological disorders. Dieters beware!

Secret 2: Our brains beed gut bacteria

According to new research, the composition of gut bacteria can affect brain development and adult behavior.

Gut bacteria can affect autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis as well as developmental disorders like autism.

Secret 3: Our brains also have an internal sense of direction

According to new research carried out by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, humans may have an internal compass that allows them to navigate across the earth without an external device.

The study found that monarch butterflies have an internal sense of direction that allowed them to get from one point to another even in the absence of light by sensing the Earth's magnetic field.

Because we share a similar crypotochrome gene with monarch butterflies, it's possible that we have this magnetic sensing ability too.

Secret 4: Children's Brains are more active than Adults’

Three-year-old brains are two-and-a-half times more active than adult brains, says a report by the California Early Childhood mentoring program.

Because children are born with blank brains, each experience is completely new. In the first three years of his or her life, a child builds approximately 1 trillion synapses.


Secret 5: Our conclusion on time perception depending on how far the event is from us

New research found that time perception changes depending on how close or far an event is from us.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

Do you Know Really? Sugar Could be The Key to Lose Weight

Eating fresh fruit and vegetables helps people resist the temptation of waist-expanding treats, scientists have found.

When our supplies of glucose - found in carbohydrates - drop we begin to lose our ability to control desire, while our urge to eat increases.

The lack of glucose – which is used to power the brain – makes us helpless against the urge to reach for high-calorie foods, researchers said.

Obese people are particularly vulnerable, with even the slightest drop in glucose prompting irresistible cravings for carbohydrates, from which we get most of our sugar.

These can be "good" carbs, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, brown rice and pasta and wholemeal bread, or "bad" varieties which include white bread and sugar, fizzy drinks, cakes, crisps and other packet snacks.

Making sure the brain's glucose levels do not drop could be the secret to staying slim, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggested.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis

A New Monitor Chip will Change the Way Diabetics Live

Guide: British researchers now are testing a new type of chip, this tiny device could help doctors to monitor the blood glucose level of diabetes all around the clock. Allegedly, this technology has good prospects, it can also be used as a monitor device for other chronic diseases.

A small, insignificant looking square pad, the size of a finger nail, could change the way diabetics live. Almost invisible, on the surface of the pads are scores of needles.

Each micro-needle, which measures one millimeter long, contains its own sophisticated sensor, or nano wire; completely invisible to the naked eye. Together, the needles are in a constant cycle of collecting and analyzing the blood of the patient it's attached to.

You won't be able to feel it either according to its inventors, who say it's designed to stay permanently and painlessly in contact with a patient's arm.

The technology, being developed at Swansea University, is in its infancy stage. The team is now in the middle of developing a transmitter which will be able to send an SMS message to a hospital, or to relatives as soon as a patient is at risk of a hypoglycemic attack.

The idea is to ensure that there is no delay in providing emergency treatment, even if the diabetic is alone and unconscious. Dr Vincent Teng is Swansea University's nano-technology expert.

"The length of a needle is about 1mm and they have a diameter of about 15 microns. That offers a painless experience to a patient when using it. These needles will be attached to the arm of the patient and blood sample will be drawn using these micro-needles. The sensors, which are developed using nano-wire technology, will be integrated into the micro-needles, and that offers painless detection of blood glucose, and continuous monitoring of blood glucose."

An undetected hypoglycemic attack can prove fatal for people with type 1 diabetes. Sufferers need to take insulin injections, meaning they must test their blood glucose levels up to 10 times every day. Such a device would mean they wouldn't need to carry blood sugar testing equipment around with them at all times.

The micro-needles are just part of the work from the University's Health Informatics Research laboratories, directed by Professor David Ford. He says the device being developed here is aimed at ensuring that diabetics are not at risk of fainting, or going into shock, when they're asleep, or alone.

Ford says the system of continual monitoring is an exciting development.

"If a patient was to wear this 24 hours a day it would be an enormous benefit in terms of understanding the way that their blood glucose responds to what they eat and what they do during the day, and potentially could have a role in perhaps automating the introduction of insulin into the bloodstream, which is the mechanism that is used naturally to moderate blood glucose levels."

This technology for diabetics is still a few years away from being tested. But Teng says that the team hopes the same system can be widened to provide pioneering care applications for people who suffer from heart disease and strokes.

"With the use of the right bio markers on the nano wires we'll be able to use this technology to detect other chronic diseases. Say, for example, heart disease, asthma, and also stroke, which is very common. In fact the number of people who suffer from this chronic disease has increased rapidly in recent times."

The WHO says non-communicable diseases, or NCDs, are the leading cause of death in the world. That's 63 per cent of all deaths each year.

* Originally Posted: Top Diagnosis