But, many experts believe that other aspects such as temperature, humidity and even living conditions also play significant role in spread of the condition. Dr Phil Rice, virologist at St George’s, University of London found that the varicella-zoster virus, responsible for chickenpox and shingles is highly contagious.

While the virus can be spread through the coughs and sneezes in the early stages of the infection, the main source is contact with the trademark rash of blisters and spots. The discovery by Dr Rice could help explain why chickenpox is more frequent in colder seasons in countries such as UK, as people have less exposure to sunshine.

For their analysis Dr Rice and team examined data from twenty-five studies on varicella-zoster virus prevalence patterns in temperate and tropical areas across the globe. They plotted the data against a variety of climatic factors to examine what might be the most likely causes of increased prevalence.

When excluding other factors, it was found that UV rays were the only factor  to match the patterns in each country investigated. Dr Rice stated that UV rays were actually much lowering during hottest, driest and sunniest season compared to the rainier seasons.

No one had considered UV as a factor before, but when they examined the epidemiological studies they found a good correlation between global latitude and the presence of the virus, added Dr Rice. The study could help the development of new treatments for chickenpox and shingles, more studies are require to fully examining the effect of UV rays. The study findings were published in Virology Journal and on the virus.

This condition is frequently caused by a sedentary lifestyle and can cause life-threatening complications to, kidneys, eyes, heart and limbs. Regular exercise can help keeping blood sugar levels low. However, as of busy lifestyle more than sixty-five percent of people are not getting the recommended thirty minute of moderate exercise a week.

For study analysis, researchers from the University of Bath asked study participants to perform two, twenty seconds cycle sprints on exercise bikes, three times a week for six weeks. After six weeks, study participants showed improvement in their insulin function by thirty percent, revealed researchers from the university’s Department of Health.

The resistance on the exercise bikes could be increased swiftly so volunteers were able to briefly exercise at much higher intensities than they would otherwise be able to achieve. This type of exercise is not appropriate for weight loss because sprints are too short to burn many calories, but it was shown to improve general fitness. The study was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

According to lead researcher Dr Niels Vollaard, human muscles have sugar stores, called glycogen, for use during exercise. To restock these after exercise, the muscle needs to take up sugar from the blood. But, in inactive people there is less need for the muscles to do this, which can lead to poor sensitivity to insulin, high blood sugar levels and eventually type 2 diabetes.

It is already known that very forceful sprint training can perk up insulin sensitivity but they wanted to search for the exercise sessions that could be made easier and shorter. They found no quicker and easier way of getting the muscles to use glycogen than with the short sprints they used in their study, sated Dr Vollaard.

These sprints break down as much glycogen in just twenty seconds as moderate endurance exercise would do in an hour. This is completely a new concept because no one has ever found a program this easy and short to provide health benefits. In near future it would be easy to create a bike that does this in a gym setting, concluded Dr Vollaard.

Video : Just one minute of exercise a day could prevent diabetes

To analyze the effect of the theory researchers from the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, conducted a two-hour therapy session, in Bavaria known as MAKS, six days a week in nursing homes for the period of one year. Their session started with a ten minute spiritual introduction, in which participants discussed topics related to happiness or sang hymn or songs.

The session also included gentle work out like croquet, solving puzzles in groups and forty minutes of activities such as making snacks, gardening or doing wood work plus uplifting activities. According to study leader Professor Elmar Graessel, the impact of these activities was at least equivalent to treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors, typically prescribed to treat dementia.

It was found that these sessions delayed the decline in cognitive function of dementia patient for as a minimum one year. After completing one year of trail, researchers found that study participants were still at the same point on the Alzheimer’s disease Assessment Scale (ADAS), which is used to check how far the disease has advanced.

They observed a better result in patients suffering mild to moderate dementia and the result of MAKS therapy on ADAS was in any case comparable with treatment done with cholinesterase inhibitors. Moreover the effect on their ability to perform routine tasks, as measured by the Erlanger Test of Daily Living (E-ADL), was twice as high as achieved by medication.

This shows that MAKS therapy is capable to expand the quality of and participation in, life for people suffering dementia within an environment of the nursing home. At present they are in the process of expanding these preliminary results to see if this prevention of dementia decline can be maintained over a longer time period, concluded Prof Graessel.

Video : Brain Activities Delay Onset of Memory Decline

To analyze the hypothesis, a team from the University of Gothenburg inspected nearly forty-two hundred arbitrarily chosen families. They evaluated the diet of each child together with their health by reaching the age of six months, twelve months and four and half years.

When the children were checked finally, researchers found one in five children had suffered at least one episode of childhood wheezing and one in twenty had suffered recurring wheezing and among those children more than half were diagnosed for asthma. But, children those had been fed fish before nine months, were half as likely to report wheezing.

According lead researcher Dr Emma Goksor recurrent wheeze is a very frequent clinical problem in preschool children and there is a need for better medical treatment and improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms. The aim of study was to recognize both important risk aspects and protecting aspects for the disease.

This is the latest piece of research, published in the Acta Paediatrica journal, praising the positive effects of fish for children. Researchers hope the findings will encourage parents to re-evaluate eating habits of their children. According NHS recommendations adults should include at least two portions of fish in their diet a week

Fish is a good source of protein, vitamins and rich in omega-3 fatty acids which are beneficial for the heart. The earlier study by Swedish researchers discovered that babies whose mothers consumed fish oil during pregnancy were sixteen percent less likely to develop eczema and thirteen percent less likely to develop food allergies.

Video : The Health Benefits of Eating Fish

They found that a compound in the herbal drink slowed down weight gain in lab mice. Mice that were also fed Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a compound found in most green teas, gained weight forty-five percent more slowly than the other mice. The mice that fed the green tea supplement showed a nearly thirty percent rise in fecal lipids.

It suggested that the EGCG was limiting absorption of fat. According to lead author Joshua Lambert, the results of the study suggest that if you supplement with EGCG or green tea you gain weight more slowly. There appears to be two prongs to this, first, EGCG diminishes the capability to absorb fat and, second, it enhances the ability to use fat.

The green tea did not seem to suppress appetite. Both groups of mice in the study were fed the same amount of high-fat food and could eat at any time. There was no difference in the amount of food the mice were eating. The mice were essentially eating a milkshake, except one group is eating a milkshake with green tea.

Green tea drinkers who only consume one or more cups a day will see effects on body weight compared to non-consumers, stated Lambert. Additional experiments have shown that lean mice did not gain as much weight when green tea is added to a high fat diet. Recent studies indicate that just drinking a few cups of green tea may help control weight.

source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk

At the same time as, later babies are at higher risk of birth complications. It becomes very difficult for doctors to preserve a pregnancy once membrane of foteus has broken. Earlier efforts to cope with the problem using latex seals or blood platelets have failed.

Now, a team from Reading school of pharmacy has been capable to grow the sac membrane with the help of stem cells from placentas acquired after child birth. The stem cell patch is premeditated to be superimposed the rupture with the help of keyhole surgery. The most common cause for rupturing membranes is infection.

Women who start to bleed in the first half of pregnancy are also more prone to rupturing. Several women because of carrying twins and those whose foetus is surrounded by too much amniotic fluid are also prone to rupturing. Other risk aspects for rupturing include women who have undergone amniocentesis testing.

This test is done to determine whether baby might be born with conditions such as Down’s syndrome. More than fifty thousand infants are born prematurely each year in UK. Pre-term babies are at risk of numerous complications which may result in brain damage or even death. The study finding reported in the journal Tissue Engineering.

According to lead research Dr Che Connon, from just one donation of cells after a birth, will be able to make thousands of patches to help preserve a pregnancy. They were able to manipulate the cells to create a material that is almost similar to woman’s natural membrane. They are confident it would do the job and hold a pregnancy in place.

If these membranes could be used then researchers would be able to preserve pregnancies and save women from losing their babies. This would be particularly beneficial for women whose membranes rupture before twenty-four weeks as the chances of these babies surviving are not very high, explained Dr Anna David, an expert in premature birth from University College of London Hospitals Trust.

source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health

The study showed that Helicobacter pylori infection cared for mice from allergen-induced asthma like tissue inflammation and airway hyper-responsiveness.Another study conducted by researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine in California revealed that the immune molecule gamma-interferon is also associated with to the growth of asthma.

The researchers again made use of mice to observe the effect of asthma-like symptoms. They believe their findings could escort to the development of new drug treatments for the condition. Prof Muller stated that they are working on a vaccine like jab with the aim of aggressively tolerating the host to the bacteria.

She added it would make the immune system tolerant of H pylor0 infections and perhaps cross-tolerant of other antigens, including allergens. This approach would most surely need a first shot followed by multiple boosts using fragments or subunit vaccine, rather than live bacteria.

Her study also suggested that any needless use of antibiotics during childhood should be avoided. To preserve aboriginal micro biota that may churn out to be beneficial not only in the situation of allergies, but also of other chronic inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, added Prof Muller.

Now, HPV is the most widespread sexually transmitted infection and the most frequent cause of cervical cancer. The researchers found that the drug lopinavir eliminates cells infected by the HPV while leaving healthy cells comparatively undamaged. The research team from the University of Manchester in collaboration with Canadian researchers made the invention after conducting laboratory tests on cell cultures.

This is a significant finding because these are not cancer cells but is the contiguous thing to being similar to the cells found in a pre-cancerous HPV infection of the cervix, explained Dr Ian Hampson, from the university’s school of cancer and enabling sciences.

Besides, they were also competent to show that lopinavir annihilates these HPV-infected cells by re-activating an eminent antiviral system that is suppressed by HPV. Being effectual as treatment the drug would have to be administered to HIV patients in doses ten to fifteen times. This would indicate applying it as a cream or rather than swallowing a pill, added Dr Hampson.

Noticeably, lopinavir is safe for patients to take as pill or liquid, however, the latest findings give strong substantiation to support a clinical trial using topical application of this drug to treat HPV infections of the cervix. The HPV vaccines are not effective in women those already infected with the virus and do not protect against all HPV strains.

The cervical cancer related with HPV is one of the most common forms of cancer among women in developing courtiers and claims nearly three lakh lives each year. The researchers believe that a cheap and self-administered treatment that could eradicate early-stage HPV infections would have discrete advantages, reported the study published in the journal Antiviral Therapy.

Blueberries have already been praised as superfood for their extraordinary ability to prevent Type-2 diabetes and heart disease. They contain high levels of polyphenols, which is group of chemicals having potential health benefits. Several studies have revealed that polyphenols can slash the number of fat cells in the body by seventy percent.

To analyze the effects of polyphenol, researchers by using tissue taken from mice, conducted a study. They observed the effect the polyphenols in blueberries might have in combating the growth of fat cells and inducing lipolysis that is the break down fats within the body.

The finding of the study revealed that the highest dose of blueberry polyphenols caused the lipids in the mouse tissue to decrease by almost three quarters and with even the lowest dose cutting the amount of lipids in the tissue by over a quarter, the results were presented at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting for the American Society for Nutrition.

According to Shiwani Moghe, study author, a graduate student from Texas Woman’s University, the findings showed promise. They still need to test this dose in humans, to make certain there are no adverse effects and to see if the doses are effective. The promise is there for blueberries to help diminish fat tissue from forming in the body.

The strength of antioxidant dietary lycopene in tomatoes become large after it is cooked, dissimilar to other fruit and vegetables, which lost their strength after cooking. The team from the National Centre of Food and Safety in Illinois stated that the nutrients contain defensive mechanisms.

These mechanisms help in preventing inflammation and blood clots in the body. A strong association has already been recognized between speculate vegetable and a decreased risk of several diseases like heart disease, osteoporosis and prostate cancer. The leveraging emerging science about tomato and tomato products may be simple and effectual approach to help people increase vegetable intake.

It escorts to improved overall eating pattern and ultimately to better health. The study highlights the association between consuming tomatoes and reduced risk of cancer, heart disease and other conditions, explained Dr Britt Burton-Freeman and Dr Kristin Reimers, who carried out the study analysis.

They added that the evidence proposes that eating of tomatoes should be encouraged due to their nutritional benefits and as it may be a simple and effective approach for increasing the consumption of vegetable as a whole, reported the study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.